172, 2/2

Back in the little cafe under Koyabez’s name, Erick sat down across from Rozeta.

The Goddess of the Script had been waiting for him the second he crossed into line of sight, but she had not been there before that. She looked as put-together as ever, in her white-wrought human body, with her white pantsuit and hair up in a bun. She looked ready to receive known news, for she was probably looking at him the entire time that he was up there in that mausoleum to the Old Cosmology.

Erick had a few important concerns to get through before he agreed to her plan.

Sitting across from her, Erick asked, “Am I the first to make it to this point?”

“No, but also yes.” Rozeta said, “There have been two Wizards to get here before you. The first was about 50 years after the Sundering, when the first generations of new mortals were learning about the Sundering from their grandparents. We had entered a small period of calm. To make history wildly inaccurate, but also short, this Wizard was of that new generation. They were not trustworthy, but I have worked with such people before, and I will continue to do so in the future, for the stability of the Script, and for the good of us all. I gave this person assistance in becoming a Wizard, and then Phagar and I had to send paladins and Death Priests after them after they started mucking about with Time, under Melemizargo’s guidance. That person was just one of the many reasons that those early years are lost to us.

“I did not trust so easily after that.

“The second person was a human Wizard I identified when she was four years old. Everything about her told me that she would be a monumental force for good. Good family. Good upbringing. Good future prospects. As the years went on, she blossomed into a young woman of good social skills and standing, who did her best to foster good in all parts of her life. She married and had a family, and she raised good kids, all while steadily learning magic, to figure out ways to better find and eliminate mental monster threats. She was a Mind Mage.” Rozeta said, “She was supposed to be a force for true good, and she was, until her Worldly Path finally brought her down here, to me. She managed to get in with the password, given to her by priests in Stratagold for she already had good connections there through their embassy, and she was a true believer.

“And then I told her that she was a Wizard. The embodiment of the thing she hated most, for she had been raised on stories and historical accounts of the horrors of the Old Wizards. This news broke her, and so she spent a year in this land, coming to grips and reading the truth about Wizardry. This power is not just a tool to destroy, but instead, it is a tool of Pure Magic. Of Creation, just as much as any other option.

“She came around to the idea of becoming her own end to her Worldly Path. She saw the future stretch out before her, and she knew that she could continue to be a force for good. She, like you, did not want to be separate from the Script, though.

“I helped her become a Paradox Wizard.

“I sent her on her way, but it wasn’t long til the power went to her head, and it took a lot less time than it should have. But, in retrospect, the signs of her true self were always there. How she relished money over the relationships between business partners. How she was rude to people who couldn’t offer her anything. Shunning responsibility. Controlling. All very minor incidents that certainly wouldn’t mark someone as ‘evil’, even in aggregate.

“But as a Wizard, she had real power.

“The first morals to go were the morals that kept her from reaching for more power, like most Mind Mages. Her ascension to ‘archmage’ took months. From there, she began experimenting on condemned people, moving on to cultists and hunters and the exiled. Her morals further wore away, and she participated in wars based on ideology. She sought to do good, but in her zeal, she lost sight of the small things; she lost sight of limits she should not cross. In a year everything about her had changed. The final step came when Melemizargo tempted her to forgo war and to just Paradox herself into the winner’s seat of her conquest.

“All of her actions up to that point were forgivable, but when she ‘won’ her war, she did it by Paradoxing millions of lives away, and also taking for herself the mana generation of everyone she killed, making that mana generation her own. Even in the Old Cosmology this was taboo, but she did it anyway. We tried talking, but she refused to repent, to undo what she had done, and so we did the only thing we could.

“We gods fought a Wizard, and we gods won, though it eventually required a Forgotten Campaign to End her.” Rozeta paused. She said, “We don’t expect that from you for multiple reasons. So, in this way, you are not the first to get to this point, but you are the first that we expect to actually go the distance.”

Erick took it all in, and decided that, while it was a story of death and loss, it was nothing too unexpected—

Ah? Wait?

Erick connected a few dots, and asked, “Is that Fallopolis’s mother you’re talking about?”

“Yes,” Rozeta said, without reservation. “If you feel like telling that Shade what she has sought to learn all this time, go ahead. I wouldn’t trust her, though, even if you did bless both of you with a minor blessing of truth.”

Erick nodded. He moved on, “Earlier, you said that everyone shares mana under the Script. This allows normal people to have the abilities of mages, to cast thousands of spells per day, or exceedingly large magics with high mana costs.” Erick continued, “But you also said that people can’t share mana until they work to make such a thing possible.”

Rozeta smirked a little, and said, “It’s a Paradox, isn’t it.” She lost her smirk, and explained, “Manaminers were originally made by Wizards, but they’re machines of a million moving parts. What you did with [Renew] was to refine what other Wizards had made long before you came along. It’s a mirror for what my father does sometimes, like with these New Stats. I don’t like those, by the way; Makes everything a lot more complicated than it has to be— We could talk for hours about that, too, but for now:

“So you know: [Renew] looks to be unexpectedly great. I’ve already set up some experimental [Renew] protocols on an Experimental Script, which, if implemented on the wider Script, would eliminate ten-thousand spell creation errors per hour, or, introduce catastrophic vulnerabilities through bouncy-mana primary system attacks.” Rozeta didn’t seem worried about what she was saying, but Erick felt a spike of guilt and it showed. “Don’t worry about it, Erick. With [Renew], you might solve twice as many problems as you’ve created with Particle Magic. I’ll likely have to change some parts of it though, before it makes it to the Open Script.”

Erick did feel better about that. And then he focused on his questions, “So? Then… Are you a Wizard, too?”

“All dragons are minor wizards and I am no different.”

“Okay… What’s the difference, there? Just a matter of self-mana production?”

“Yes… But also no. Mostly ‘yes’. I will focus on the ‘yes’, right now.” Rozeta said, “Here are some numbers: our baseline for mana production is an average female human of no particular lineage or upbringing, age 25 level 15. Over the course of a year, on average, a person will produce 10 mana per day. This is actually ten times higher than it used to be back in the Old Cosmology, and this is entirely due to the Script encouraging people to experiment with magic and increase their familiarity with mana, to decrease their fear and also to increase their capability. Gaining levels also increases mana production, but this is a much smaller increase than actually learning how to make magic oneself.

“Wizards are outliers who produce 5000 to 10,000 mana per day. For comparison, you produce about 100,000-200,000 mana per day.

“Dragons produce 500 mana per day. Fifty times the average, but not too noticeable.

“We can also innately create cores and remain in control, unlike most monsters… Unless we go too far. But that is another discussion entirely, and is completely related to Dragon Essence, so you shouldn’t have to worry about that. I don’t have to worry about that, either, so, yes, I can do some Wizardry by using the mana I produce, but that power pales in comparison to the powers of a god.” Rozeta said, “We’ll leave that conversation there, and move on to your next question.”

Erick nodded, then he asked, “So. Here’s a complicated question about [Renew]. What happens when a person who is a monster uses it on themselves? Or on a rad? Is this a worry I should have? Once I have a core, myself, or if other monsters gain access to this spell?”

“Not a large worry; no.” Rozeta said, “To begin with: Aside from your own predicament, someone using [Renew] on a monster’s rad is much more likely to happen than a monster ever getting [Renew], for the spell will be in the Open Script, and not the Monster Script, and no one will ever be able to Remake this spellwork.

“Even if the spell doesn’t produce unknown security problems, no one is ever Remaking [Renew], just so that I never have to deal with a strangely-made [Renew] that does cause security problems.

“Anyway. Using [Renew], and with Clarity for half costs, two points of Experience are gained for every individual mana channeled, which is in line with current cycling techniques. If someone Favorites [Renew], then they gain 4 Experience per mana spent. For a person with Scion of Focus, and remaining mostly baseline, means that, with all bonuses, and running all day, their 144,000 mana becomes about 570,000 Experience.

“It would take a monstrous person a year to reach level 30, or 15,000 years to reach level 50.

“Shadelings can already reach level 50 through normal mana cycling, in which how they were made by Melemizargo allows them to cycle thousands of mana per second, all while remaining themselves… If they’re allowed to be. Not all shadelings are allowed to be themselves. The ones in Candlepoint are themselves, though my father does have a back door to turning them all back into fake people at any moment he chooses.”

Erick’s stomach dropped. “Oh holy shit.”

Rozeta waved him off. “Don’t worry too much about the smaller acts of power my father could wield, and chooses not to. He could already destroy this world several times over if he wanted.”

Erick breathed out, staring at the floor, his mind whirling.

Rozeta waited.

Eventually, Erick raised his head again. “Okay.”

“Okay.” Rozeta continued, “About [Renew]: All [Renew] will do for a monster that acquires it is allow said monster to not worry about killing other monsters to take those other rads, to restore their own rad.” Rozeta shrugged, seeming a bit happy. “Maybe I should give all the monsters [Renew], just to stop a lot of their natural reasons for aggression against each other. After all, I only have three main goals: Trying to maximize mana production, maintaining the security on the Script, and remaining neutral unless either of the first two goals are threatened.”

“Ah.” And that word meant so much. There seemed to be a lot of that happening right here. Erick moved on, asking, “What about if I use it on myself?”

Rozeta said, “You’re going to need to do this, because as soon as you gain a core of any type, you’re going to need to learn how to feed it to prevent catastrophic soul destruction. It would be best if you fed yourself, instead of eating other cores; that way could lead to insanity.”

Erick felt cold for a moment, and then he resigned himself. Resolute, he said, “This is a big change.”

“It will be; yes. So are you ready to begi—” Rozeta glanced to the right. She frowned.

Erick watched for a moment, then asked, “Another issue to take care of?”

She had gone off and come back several times already, so maybe she had to do something else?

But as one moment turned to two, this time seemed different, though. More worrying.

Rozeta’s frown deepened. She narrowed her suddenly angry eyes at an unseen, far distance, then she came back to the moment. “We should have had 4 days to get this done, but Fate does as Fate does, and my father still controls your Worldly Path. He shouldn’t know about what we’re discussing, but he probably figured out I would try to pull something like this. On the plus side, this event is good news about his sanity being real.” As Erick stared, uncomprehending, Rozeta looked him straight in the eyes, and said, “Melemizargo cleared the mana stream tunnels between the wrought from Stratagold and the guardian gate. The envoy from Stratagold will be here in hours, instead of days. I don’t have time to guide you to becoming a Wizard right now, so you have to choose: I erase these memories and none of this happens, or we change some plans.”

Dread.

First came bargaining. “You can’t delay them?”

“No. My father moved every single monster that was in front of them, to behind them.”

Erick steeled himself, asking, “What are the changes?”

“Archmages often create life. This life can slot into existing systems. All you have to do is make a people and assume its mantle as progenitor. In this way, you will become a monster, first, but with eligibility to gain personhood at my discretion. The minotaurs you rescued from Last Shadow’s Feast are already in the pipeline to become a people, though that would take several more years of good behavior.” Rozeta said, “This was to be the backup plan if you failed at proper Wizardry. It’s the slowest method, but it has very few complications.”

“… I feel like you’re skipping over about a hundred smaller steps.”

“This is correct.”

“… Please give me a few more steps, so I can at least see the staircase you want to push me down.”

Rozeta said, “Your designation as ‘Human-question-mark’ is already like a boulder at the top of a mountain; you’re going to need to pick a direction to roll, and hope you don’t go off course. I will help you fall correctly. In this way, we can lock your Wizardry to a new race that you, alone, are a part of. In this way, I will gain my ‘plug’ to pull if you look to be going evil.”

“… What sort of bad end would that be?”

“I would prefer to keep my threats unknown, Erick. I do apologize for how this looks, but my own track record should speak for me, too. I have never stopped you or anyone else from doing anything they wanted to do, as long as it didn’t endanger Veird itself.”

“… Okay. Okay. Sure… Okay.” Erick blinked several times as his mind went nearly blank, but neurons still fired in the background and ideas still floated to the surface. “Elementassi,” he said, quick as it came to him. “Practically huma—”

“Locked, thanks to what the Old Demons did to create incani.” Rozeta offered, “Minotaur are new, so you could be one of them? Centaur? Fae? Or at least your idea of fae. Doppelganger, perhaps? With innate [Polymorph]? I could make it so you could change faces and go incognito whenever you wished, like the dragons do. Or? How about a werewolf— Ah.” She deadpanned a joke, “WereWizard?”

Erick rapidly said, “This is a bit much. Could we have one of those timeouts?”

“My father compromises those too easily, otherwise this whole conversation would have been inside one of those.” Rozeta asked, “How about vampire? Without the vulnerabilities and propagating species-by-bite, obviously.”

“I don’t want to be a vampire.”

“Dryad? With Yggdrasil as your home-tree?” Rozeta said, “Though I can obviously change that to something less restrictive.”

“… Not that one, either.”

Rozeta boiled it down for him, “Literally any idea you have a connection to, I can make happen, and we can hide your Wizardry in that race, though you will have to be the one to make that whole race not go homicidal when they monsterize, which is what will happen almost instantly, when this is done. But know that what my father did for the shadelings, I can help you do for yourself.” Rozeta looked at him, saying, “But you need to make a choice. I cannot have my father be the one to create your Gate. I will not allow him that much power over the fate of everything.”

“Right. Right. Right.” Erick said, “But as a Wizard I have to deal with all the other dragons of the world, and the people of the world hating Wizards, and my soul being locked away inside a rad while the rest of me goes crazy, and the Script fucks me over instead of helps, and—”

“And about a hundred other problems, most of which you barely understand. But you will.” Rozeta said, “Paradox Wizardry would solve all of your physical problems. I urge you not to solve other-people problems with Wizardry.”

“… You’re sure you can’t order the incoming wrought to stay away for a few months?”

“I’ve known some of these people for 1300 years, Erick. If I told them to wait they would know something is happening and they would come here even faster and investigate you even harder, because despite how much power I have, I will not physically stop anyone from making the decisions they make. I will not harm people over ideology, or anything like that, and this includes you, and them.” Rozeta said, “You have about 54 minutes before they reach the cloudgate. They’re moving faster than I expected.”

Erick mentally ran through a thousand scenarios, sussing out the repercussions of the choices made here, and now. Mostly, he ran right into the first ultimatum Rozeta had given him.

He had two options. He could forget everything he learned here, or he could take the first step forward down an inevitable path with a civic-minded goddess guiding him. He had already been prepared to accept her offer, but now…

“Lightling,” Erick blurted, hoping for success.

Rozeta said, “Already exists. Everything you can think of that is attached to Veird has been done before.”

“… Ah.” Erick verbally thought through some ideas, “Medi… Uh. Mendicant. No. Ascetic— Very no. Uh. Astral— Etheric Human?”

“Less of a chance of working properly than you might think.” Rozeta said, “Variant humans are already accounted for in the monstrous Script, since that is what usually happens when a person turns into a monster. Becoming an actual new species would be best.”

“You’re enjoying this.”

Rozeta lost all mirth. “I apologize. This is difficult for you and I see that, but…” She added, “It would be better if you enjoyed this, too, for magic always works better that way. Or. You could look at it this way: Would you rather my father have a hand in this change? It’s a miracle of Wizardry that you didn’t become a shadeling when you took on the curse inside those New Stats.” Rozeta said, “Just so you know: That was your own Wizardry, already working to keep you safe when you should have died, or had something horrible happen to you.”

“Okay. Okay. Okay— Protean.” Erick spoke the word before his brain caught up to his mouth, but he didn’t take it back. It felt right, almost. He added, “A human, but able to [Polymorph] like dragons do, or however that works.”

Rozeta gave a small, content smile. “We have the word ‘shapeshifter’ but not specifically ‘Protean’. You’re even rather Chaotic, too, so I can see where you got your inspiration. This works well.” Her eyes seemed to grow larger, without changing size at all, and Erick realized there would be no more delay. This was happening right now. Clouds drifted out from the corners of the room to suddenly flow around his feet. Rozeta spoke from on high, “You’re going to have to do the heavy lifting, but I’ll guide your change.”

The Goddess of the Script stared down at Erick, perspective shifting till he was an ant and she was a serpentine white dragon that filled a cloudy sky. In that moment, he felt their entire several hour conversation had not been nearly long enough, and yet, it could have been shortened considerably. Maybe ‘Hi. I’m a Wizard?’ And then she’d say, ‘Yes you are. Let’s make that work.’ And then this would happen.

It was rather infuriating, actually.

– – – –

Erick was mad.

Angry at circumstances and forced actions and what the world demanded of him so that he and his loved ones didn’t die to any of a thousand unknown threats, or several well-known threats. He was angry, and he always had been, though it rarely showed. He saw that part of himself in Jane, for sure; that same bone-deep frustration that forced him to do what needed to be done to ensure good outcomes. Jane was young, though, so her anger was rightfully directed into direct, physical action. Erick’s own anger had transformed long ago into helping people wherever he could, making him into the man he was before he came to Veird.

Coming to Veird had transformed him, calling that deep anger back from the depths of his soul, making him, in his darkest moments, want to eradicate all his enemies from the face of the world. To sweep them away with unbridled power, with light and lightning, with physical destruction and complete obliteration.

And yet, he still believed in the power of talk, and understanding. He had seen compassion work too many times as a social worker to discount the power of empathy. The power of helping others had helped him first, after all, when an agent of the state came to him a year after Jane fell into his lap.

With a crying baby in the crib, twelve dollars in the bank, and a gun in his right hand, Erick had considered robbing a bank, or their neighbors, or dealing drugs. The drug option was the best one, but robbing a convenience store a few states away was faster, and rent was due soon. He had a baby now, and he needed money. He had fallen in with a bad crowd in college, but after Jane he had gotten away from most of that, but now he knew where the money was, and that’s all that mattered. Giving up Jane was never an option; he was going to make this work, even if he had to kill someone to do it.

It was the darkest part of his life.

And yet, in that dark, a social worker had rescued him and Jane with job placements and daycare assistance and too many small acts of mercy to recount. He didn’t have to sell drugs. He didn’t have to rob anyone. He didn’t need to kill. All he had needed was a helping hand to cross a canyon, to get to the other side where stability awaited.

Erick had remained mad at the world, though.

At the rich and the powerful, at the toil of his own life, and at what others had to do to survive. At what he almost had to do. But once he had turned the corner, that anger had transformed into growth, and that growth made all the difference in the lives of so many people; and none more than his own. If that social worker hadn’t helped him… If he had gone to the gangs… He would have been a very different man, today.

If that other man had fallen to Veird with Jane at his side those first days and everything else would have been different. That other man certainly wouldn’t have ever qualified for a Silver Star from Koyabez. Erick hadn’t killed anyone back on Earth, but he was no stranger to blood on his fists.

He probably would have accepted Phagar’s offer a lot more readily.

Kill everyone who slighted him? Murder those fucks who stuck a knife in his back in that alleyway, who then assaulted the sewerhouse trying to kill him and his daughter? Go hunting with his daughter in the Crystal Forest, looking for Levels, and power? Yeah. He would have done that. It would have seemed like the only way to ensure his and Jane’s survival.

But someone had helped him long ago, and changed everything.

Rozeta’s voice called out from the depths of the clouds, “Growth and change. Anger and empathy. Not two sides of the same coin, but instead, a river that shifts on a boulder, finding a new track through the desert. You would have been a different person except for that helping hand given in honest aid, and this different person would have come into his Wizardry on his own long before now.

“This is a new turning point. This is a new helping hand.” Rozeta reached down from the heavens, inviting him forward. “Take my hand, Erick.”

Erick and Rozeta spoke together, “Become the monster, and the man.”

Erick reached forward…

– – – –

Erick stood upon a mirror that stretched out to every horizon. Clouds held in the far distance while a nebulous light glowed all around.

He looked down.

Another Erick looked up. He was the same, and yet different. Same roughness to his face. Same white eyes. But he smirked, while Original Erick did not. He had blood on his hands, and on the hems of his pants and sleeves, while Erick was clean. Erick was just a man, but the other man was the Wizard.

The Wizard leaned down, reaching to the glass floor, toward Erick. With a gentle ripple his hand came out of the ground.

Erick grabbed the Wizard’s hand and helped him out of the ground with a yank, disturbing the mirrored land with a single ripple. Erick set the man down again, causing the Wizard to give a rather undignified yelp, grabbing and cradling his own hand, smiling all the while even though he was obviously in a bit of pain.

“Strong grip there, buddy!”

“Ach. Uh.” Erick said, “I didn’t think you’d be—”

“Nah! It’s fine.” The Wizard shook his hand out, then flexed it a few times as he said, “So you got to keep all the Stats, eh? I’ve glanced through four thousand universes and the only ones that kept their Stats were the ones brainwashed by dragons or the god-touched, and you ain’t neither of them.” With an infectious grin, the Wizard asked, “How the fuck you manage that?”

“Rozeta is helping me to link to you.” Erick said, “The cat is about to escape the bag about my Wizardry.”

The Wizard briefly looked distraught, but then he hummed, saying, “I guess you’re perfect, then.” He frowned a bit more. “But of course you’re the perfect one. That makes me the fake; the lost timeline.”

“Ah. One of those Paradox things, eh?”

The Wizard shrugged, giving a smile. “Yup! This was always the danger of attempting this sort of Wizardry, but I was out of options. They’re beating down the doors right now and I’m practically out of mana. Paladins of Rozeta, actually. Didn’t like me mucking about with bringing… Actually. I probably shouldn’t say. I can already tell how this is going to go. I’ll fail to exist if I leave this space.” The Wizard laughed. “Ah! That whore. I guess she got me in the end! Didn’t even see it coming.”

Erick felt a twist on his insides, like heartburn, but he hadn’t experienced that sensation in nearly a year, so it was obviously a lot more important than that. Mana sense failed him, though; this space was ephemeral, and probably wouldn’t last past this single conversation.

Erick asked, “How was Veird on your Path?”

“Utter shitshow!” The Wizard said, “You probably won’t get any of my memories… Or maybe you will? Rozeta’s a decent sort as long as you don’t go upsetting the applecart.” He winked. “But that’s exactly what I did. All I wanted was to—” He clutched his chest. “Ah. Shouldn’t say that either, eh?” He looked up at the clouds and shouted at the sky, “Fuck you! This is my death and I’m gonna give it some meaning.” He looked back to Erick. “You could tell me how your time went, though. Probably no restrictions there. I’d like to know what version of myself I’ve been saddled with.”

Erick said, “Invented Particle Magic—”

A nod. “Normal.”

“—Killed many Shades—”

A smirk. “Didn’t manage that.”

“—Ar’Kendrithyst is empty of Shades, actually. They’re calling it ‘Last Shadow’s Feast’—”

The Wizard frowned, saying, “Hold on.”

“—Invented a spell that [Renew]s spellwork—”

The Wizard laughed. “OH yeah. You’re a Wizard.”

“—And I’m practically at the end of the Worldly Path.”

The Wizard cackled, throwing his head back and laughing at the world. And then he looked to Erick. “I’m good with this. So? What’s the plan? Do you know how Wizardry works?” He answered his own question, “Short rundown: Wizardry is informing the universe that your dick is the biggest, therefore you make the rules.”

Erick chuckled. “Rozeta didn’t explain quite in that way.”

“Course she didn’t! Firstly: Every Wizard is different. Secondly: I don’t got time to go into all the other shit.” The Wizard said, “You’ll figure it all out.” The Wizard’s joy faded into the background. His face fell. “Say… Did Jane— Uh—” He wiped his difficult emotions away, and spoke with hope in his voice, “What’s up with Jane these days?”

Erick felt a stab in his chest. He grabbed his right side. Pain blossomed beside his heart.

At the same time the Wizard mirrored Erick’s grab, touching his own left side of his chest, grasping the space over his heart.

Wounds appeared under both of their hands, flowing red through both of their fingers as blood soaked through their tunics.

Erick breathed, then looked the Wizard in the eyes. They shared the same white eyes with black pupils, though Erick only now noticed that the Wizard still looked 49, with grey in his hair and in his day-old beard. But Erick, himself, had gained a Blessing from Rozeta nearly a year ago. Erick looked something like 30. Looking in mirrors still freaked him out a bit when a stranger’s face stared back at him.

He hadn’t even noticed till now that the Wizard was truly his old self, but flipped. A true mirror version. Like how he used to be, and was no longer.

The Wizard tilted his head a bit as he stared at Erick, gaining his own sight to see the strangeness likely standing before him. He said, “At least I’ll be hot again. Say. Are—” He stopped.

Seemingly sharing the same thoughts, but in opposite directions, Erick and the Wizard both glanced down at the actual mirror in the room.

All that was down there was Darkness.

“Ah,” the Wizard said.

“Ah,” Erick said.

They looked at each other.

“What about Jane?” The Wizard asked.

Erick said, “Jane is fine as of a few days ago. She’s in Spur dealing with something, though they won’t tell me what.”

The Wizard breathed out, his mouth opening into a wide smile. “Ahhhh.” Tears flowed. “Okay. This is good. I’m happy with this. Even if I won’t be seeing her again… I will.”

Erick asked, “I’ll love her enough for the both of us.”

“I know you will, ‘cause that’s what I’d do if I were the real one.”

“Does this happen often?” Erick asked, “Meeting other selves?”

“In the shallow Paradox? No. Never.” The Wizard said, “But I’ve burned everything to make this work, to drag both of us into this meeting; we’re in the Deep Paradox, Erick. Truly deep, where you never know if you’re in control or not, and, it turns out, I lost the dice roll. You can’t tell, but my heart and my core burst when I came in here. I was real to me, but you’re the Truth in this place.”

Erick’s heart thumped in pain as cold waves of unsettling emotions spread out from his chest. He looked at the Wizard with understanding that likely fell far short of truth. Erick said, “I’m sorry this happened to you.”

The Wizard smiled. His teeth were red; a match for the blood on his hands, and on his hems. Blood dripped as his tears turned crimson. “I know you are.”

Erick stood strong. He nodded.

The Wizard responded in kind, though he was dying with every passing moment.

Resolute, the Wizard and the not-yet Wizard took a step toward the other, each holding out a bloody right hand. They met in the middle, red mixing with red as they spoke in unison,

If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

“I’m ready.”

– – – –

Erick woke to pain, his mana sense and [Greater Lightwalk] flickering on almost instinctively.

He almost passed right back out from weakness, but he held onto consciousness like a man on the edge of a cliff.

A few things stuck out immediately. The bedroom all around him was made of white stone and the bed looked familiar, while a rainbow crystal window above the actual window told him that he was inside the king’s castle, somewhere. Outside the window, Yggdrasil stood like a green and rainbow mountain sitting on a convex ocean that curled up. Beyond Yggdrasil lay the rest of the Outer Core.

Rozeta was in the room with Erick, standing to the side of his bed like a nurse, a queen, and a goddess all rolled into one, which she was.

Ophiels chirped on various perches around the room.

But the most concerning thing was the jagged pearl of a core sitting in his chest, next to his heart, where his heart would have been if it had been mirrored onto his right side. His lungs had been altered to fit the new thing inside of him. Right now, it was the size of a thumbnail and faceted like a broken, minor rad worth only 3 gold at the Mage’s Guild, but scar tissue surrounded it, and ethereal vein-like structures led outward, mirroring Erick’s own vasculature like a shadow of the real thing. The fake veins weren’t even real, except they were, somehow.

As for his soul…

His soul was completely trapped inside of a tiny, new core. His body was soul-dead, like a shadeling’s, or a monster’s, or anything else with a rad—

Rozeta said, “Calm down, Erick. It’s a temporary thing. I wanted to speak to you before I allowed your messages to start rolling in, to let you know that many of them are automated and that you shouldn’t be too concerned. The procedure was a complete success.”

Blue boxes began to roll across his vision.

His Status appeared, dominating his view, and it looked nothing like how it should have. Erick’s stomach dropped. Jane had shown off her Familiar Form boxes often enough for him to recognize the same shape to this new blue box. It was almost like his own Light Slime box, but different.