174, 2/2

While being stared at and almost approached by many different people, Erick grabbed pancakes and cactus syrup and a whole bunch of other breakfast foods. It wasn’t long till he was on his way back out of the food court, but he failed to escape fast enough.

One intrepid young man, despite his obvious fear response and his desire to be anywhere other than headed toward Erick, still went toward Erick, to stand in front of Erick and open his mouth to speak. Nothing came out. Erick saw raw need in the boy’s face, though. That’s probably what stopped Erick from simply walking around the boy as fast as he could, to get back to Yggdrasil.

The boy found his words, asking, “Are you going to set up archmage services like you did in NeELLa—” His voice cracked, loud and unkempt. “Ah-hum. Sorry.” The boy continued, “Uh. Like in Nelboor?”

Erick paused, and considered the boy a bit more.

“I wasn’t planning on it.” Erick asked, “Do you have some absolute need?”

With utter conviction, the boy placed his hand on his chest, over a small pink-metal locket on a pink-metal chain around his neck, and said, “I want to find the people who killed my mother and your Imaging— I need your Ima… I want help finding my mother’s killer.”

Erick gave the boy a hard look over. 16, or 17. Incani. Well-to-do, with nice clothes and obviously good upbringing. He had a pair of minders hanging out five meters away, watching his interaction with Erick with interest. Erick decided to go for it.

“Where was your mother last seen?”

The boy’s eyes went wide as his words came easier, “She was killed here in the embassy so an Imaging done from anywhere outside the building should provide a solid clue. I already have so many clues but I just need utter proof to get further.”

The boy had almost everything he needed, then?

Erick said, “Come on then. Let’s do an Imaging.” And then he started walking around the kid, toward the front entrance.

The boy hopped to like a proper soldier and rapidly followed Erick, while his minders followed further behind. A few other nearby people decided to follow, too; they absolutely couldn’t miss whatever was about to happen.

In the main hallway, Erick said to the kid, “I’m not getting involved beyond this. Don’t expect much, either, for this place is likely [Ward]ed out the ass making Imaging tough.”

The boy rapidly nodded, agreeing with everything Erick said, mumbling, “The embassy is well guarded from casual Sight but I hope— I hope…” His voice trailed away.

Soon, they were outside the embassy, standing on the stone square outside. Without preamble, and with guards looking on from all sides, and looking both annoyed and resigned, Erick cast a [Cascade Imaging] into the air.

A fog appeared, five meters across, which would eventually become the 30-kilometer region that was the embassy. A star of light cascaded above, throwing out radio waves far and wide as it also carved into the mist. Soon, the many towers and keeps and courtyards of this land began to take shape out of the map.

Erick asked the boy a question he already knew the answer to, “Got some blood or tissue from your mother?”

The boy snapped out of his stupor and rapidly grabbed the necklace from beneath his embroidered tunic and jacket. He held out the pink-metal locket with its vial of blood inside to Erick, saying, “It’s a blood vial inside a hellite jacket. I’ve used it before to call her demon back to ask questions but she’s… She’s not doing well in Hell. She was murdered and it— It hurt her. A lot.”

Erick took the offered object. “How long ago was she murdered?”

“Seven days ago.”

Erick recast the Imaging with his new target in mind, then he handed back the vial, saying, “It takes a minute to populate, but— Ah. See there. Here we are in the center of the map. That blue dot is the vial in your hands. The rest should populate quickly enough. Don’t get your hopes up. This is the start of a proper investigation. Whatever you see here proves nothing.”

The boy gripped the vial in his hands, only half hearing Erick’s words. That was fine. Erick was mostly speaking toward the audience all around them, anyway.

People had gathered around, but now, as the spell fully got going, there was also a steady stream of onlookers coming out from the embassy, or walking in from outside just a bit faster, to see what was happening with the light hanging in the air of embassy square.

Some guards were already nearby, but none of them made to stop Erick. Soon enough, more wrought guards came by, with a few of them looking more ‘in charge’ than the rest. They didn’t look happy.

In an effort to stop whatever problems they had before they started, Erick gestured to the high ranking guards while they were already walking his way, saying, “Good! You’re here. This boy has apparently been trying to find his mother’s murderers. If this map shows anything at all, then you can help him sort out this mess through the proper channels. This is as far as I go.”

The boy’s minders instinctively stepped in front of the oncoming wrought, trying to block them from interfering, but only briefly, for the wrought were on the warpath and everyone soon recognized that. The boy briefly looked on in horror as the new guards approached, worried that he might not get his wish, that he might not find out what happened to his mother, but there was more than that to his stare at the guards. The head wrought in charge glared at the boy, and neither side seemed to appreciate the other. The boy had obviously tried some underhanded methods to uncover whatever clues he had uncovered; these two had clashed once already.

And then the wrought turned toward Erick, saying, “Thank you for helping him, but officially, please do not put up magics like—”

The crowd gasped.

Tiny blue dots began to appear all over the place as the map of the embassy began to truly appear. Almost all of the blue dots were clustered together, like showing a heat map of where a person usually was, with some places growing bluer by the second, and others staying only a bit blue.

And the boy went wild. Hands raised, he pointed and shouted, “It’s there! Contact in Duke Watahue’s offices!”

Erick saw where the boy pointed; a series of blue dots far away from the boy’s mother’s usual stomping grounds. A ripple of murmurs went through the gathered crowds and people started talking of murder rumors while the guards went on alert and the boy started demanding impossible things, like marching directly on the offender—

Erick spoke above them all, and especially above the boy, saying, “It’s only a map of where people have been, and people get around. This is only a start to any sort of investigation, but the spell will last a hundred minutes and it’s only 50% manifested, so not only will it get better, but it will last for a while. I also have no idea who the boy is, so verification that the blood in the vial is indeed his mother’s is but one thing that needs to be verified, too.” He said to the boy, “Do this correctly. Less vigilantism means you’ll make the guards more likely to work with you.” To the guards, he said, “Sorry to disrupt your days like this.”

The boy looked completely chastised as he nodded and started talking softer, and more coherent. The guards just frowned at everything, as guards usually did, and then they discounted Erick and started talking to the boy. It wasn’t five seconds later that the guards moved to guard the Imaging from onlookers and take the boy back inside, talking about how this was not how things were done. The boy took his chastisement with dignity, for he had already gotten almost all of what he wanted. Now, he just needed to close the trap on his mother’s murderer.

Erick was about 99.9% sure that the kid was on the level, and so, Erick wished him well as he walked away, back toward Yggdrasil, while Ophiels floated behind, carrying breakfast and letters of all kinds.

One good deed, done!

… And because of that one good deed, Erick expected to have at least a hundred more people asking him for something similar by this time tomorrow. That, or else a strongly-worded letter delivered by armored guards, asking him to keep his nose out of the governance of their land. The second was more likely to happen than the first, but that was fine.

– – – –

Erick sat upon conjured furniture on Yggdrasil’s branches, surrounded by a few conjured dividers to keep away the wind. His breakfast, and a few duplicates of the various foods, sat before him. He ate with utensils while he used his lightform to hover the various sealed envelopes in front of him, reading them without opening them, and sorting them into different piles. It was actually quite relaxing.

He had never gotten mail before, but he probably had a lot waiting for him back in Spur. Or maybe not? Spur had mail systems, of course, but the city wasn’t organized by streets with addresses. One was expected to come to the Wayfinder’s Guild and pick up their mail, which was tied to an account you had to open first. If you failed to get your mail it was incinerated after a while, but almost no one actually went and got their mail; Erick never had. If anyone needed to talk to him they showed up in Spur directly, and jumped through the Army and Silverite’s hoops to get to him.

But people down here at the embassy apparently had offices and staff and mail was delivered directly to those offices, or to other appropriate places which had to be set up beforehand. It was a lot more organized than Songli, for sure. In Songli, only the nobility had mailing systems. Down here, every single house had an address.

Erick didn’t have to wonder what his address was, though. It was printed on the front of every letter in a few different ways, for his address wasn’t exactly solid, yet. ‘Archmage Erick Flatt, Yggdrasil’, if the person knew their stuff. ‘Archmage Flatt, World Tree’, if the sender was less sure. ‘Archmage at Tree Lake’, if they were rather unsure and hoped that their mail would reach where it needed to reach. There were a few outliers beyond those, with ‘Savior of Light’ being written in nice calligraphy on a handful of letters, and ‘Gatemaster Flatt’, which he wasn’t sure he liked, but it sounded like a rap singer’s name, so Erick kinda liked it for that reason alone.

All of them had return addresses, too, with practically all of those addresses located within the embassy itself…

But in the envelope of special letters, the return addresses were all inside Stratagold.

Erick rapidly read through each one without opening any of them; a good mana sense and lightform was more than enough to see what they all had to say, and rather quickly, too. Almost entirely, they were requests to meet to talk of business opportunities of various sorts in the Underworld, with most people wishing to take such a meeting upon Yggdrasil’s branches. Only a few were politely-worded demands for lands or property in or around Candlepoint. Some were requests for the same, with enough politeness and brevity that Erick actually considered them, but Candlepoint wasn’t his to divvy up as he saw fit, and so those letters went in the round bin, too.

More than a few letters stood out from the rest. Of the random letters, Erick set a few aside for they were requests to kill some monsters. Almost entirely, they all went into the round bin.

Of the five special letters in the separate packet, all of them were from inside Stratagold, and all five were important. First was a letter from Archmage’s Rest, a consortium of archmages from the world over which traded magics for magics, who wished to induct Erick into their membership; Erick considered it. Then there was the letter from the Bright Palace which instructed Erick to speak with a certain office inside the embassy for transportation to Stratagold, whereupon he would take Bright Tea with the Royal Family and a few important nobles at his earliest convenience; Erick couldn’t ignore that one, so he would likely be getting that out of the way as soon as possible. A letter from Tasar instructed him how to further contact her at her offices in the embassy. A letter from the Holy Church of Rozeta requested his presence at an inquiry of his ordeal in the Core; yet another one he couldn’t ignore.

Then there was a letter from the Gemslicers.

The last one gave Erick pause for the Gemslicers were an old threat, warned about by Silverite. The Gemslicers made the blacklights —the ultraviolet light— that made the wrought fluoresce in purples and other bright neon colors. These lights were supposedly cast inside special places, reserved by royalty, to denote a royal status. Knowing what Erick now knew, Erick guessed that the fluorescence of wrought was probably a religious thing, or maybe a ‘return to how it should be’. Or at least it was that much for adamantium, the ‘royal caste’, for that darkest of metals used to be white.

The Gemslicers did a lot more than just make party lights, though. Erick had picked up that they were primarily healers of some sort, but he wasn’t too sure about that since the Gemslicers were also rather insular and hidden. And now, the Gemslicers wanted to speak to Erick of his light dungeon on the surface. Such a meeting did not bode well.

Erick frowned and set that letter aside. He didn’t want to deal with that today, or ever, really—

… He looked out across Yggdrasil, at the rainbow crown of [Kaleidoscopic Radiance] that ringed the big guy’s green canopy. That light supported the growth of Light Essence monsters. Eventually, because of that light, this large cavern might become a dungeon of a sort with light slimes in the waters, or something like that. This went against Erick’s contract not to make another light dungeon for another ten years…

Well! Whatever! Erick was already propping up Yggdrasils all over the world, and each spot was probably going to turn into a light essence factory eventually.

Erick finished up his breakfast, changed locations, changed into his Other Self to have a ‘second breakfast’ of [Renew] and mana cycling, switched back, and then had a brief swim and a [Cleanse] before getting ready to take some meetings.

He decided that Tasar would be first, then Bright Tea, then the Holy Church of Rozeta stuff. The archmage thing would likely happen with Tasar, while the Gemslicers would happen after all the rest if Erick felt like it.

He looked to the monster hunting letters and decided that he might help these people out with their monster problems after everything else, if only to get a good feeling for the layout of the Underworld. Apparently, the Underworld was broadly set up around the ‘Main Roads’, as they were called, which were well maintained outside of the wrought Geodes and various other large settlements here and there, but once you got away from those main places the Main Roads became more like ‘rarely traveled tunnels’. Monsters prowled everywhere down here, and there were many failed settlements out there in the deeper dark. Apparently, the Underworld shifted sometimes, too, causing roads to break and tunnel systems to alter. Erick still wasn’t quite sure how the Underworld managed to remain open enough for people to live down here without getting crushed, but ‘The Script Does It’ seemed like the most correct answer.

He still wasn’t sure why anyone lived underground, either, as opposed to on the Surface, where there was so much more space and life was quite easier. He’d ask around while he was down here, though, just to see what people said.

Erick thought back to his goals of leaving as soon as possible, and his new goals of helping some of the people in these letters. But… If he met with Tasar first… Meeting with Tasar would likely begin the whirlwind of moving on to Oceanside? So maybe he should meet with her last?

No. He’d just tell Tasar that he would solve some problems down here before moving on; she would understand. After all, his overarching goal was to leave allies in his wake, and he had a grand opportunity to leave behind a lot of allies near Stratagold. Possibly inside Stratagold, too.

Erick went for another swim and another round of [Renew] for his Other Self.

Afterward, he felt good enough to head to the embassy to find Tasar, which is exactly what he did.

– – – –

Sergeant Kapra called out to Erick as he walked past, “Sir!”

Erick stopped and turned to face the woman upon her battlements. “Yes?”

“There’s been a formal request for you not to interfere with the governance of this land. No more [Cascade Imaging], please.” Kapra instantly transitioned to a lighter query, asking, “Is there any other furniture you desire?”

Erick knew the first part was coming so he was glad to get it out of the way already. As for her question, Erick said, “Just some raw materials. No wood is necessary, but cottons and stuffings and spidersilk would be good so I can [Fabricate] some better clothes— Actually.” Erick asked, “Can you just direct me toward a seller? I’ll go buy it myself.”

Kapra pointed toward one of the roads in front of the embassy, and said, “Down Silver Road, you’ll hit the Main Road after about fifteen kilometers. Just before that you’ll find Sewer’s Row; a side road. It’s among the most populous street of them all, until you get into Stratagold itself.” She offered, “Or, we could send a runner down to Sewer’s Row and do this for you.”

Erick didn’t feel like walking that far…

“You’ve convinced me that one of your guys would be better at this than I.” Erick began conjuring items that would break if they were poked too hard, saying, “I want stuff like this, in these quantities.” When he finished there wasn’t much; just a few large rolls of cotton and some hard-packed stuffing and other assorted fabrics, all undyed, or bleached white. Erick looked over everything once more, then looked up to Kapra. “That’s all.”

Kapra said, “Sir, yes, sir. It’ll be done within the day.” She offered, “Do you wish for an escort to keep people away from you? Wherever you go?”

“Nah. Not going into town yet.”

Erick left them to it.

– – – –

Tasar’s office was located up three flights of stairs, down a main hallway, and past some twists and some guard stations that were mostly for show, to deter casual people from walking too far into the protected places of the embassy. The guards let Erick pass, though, without mention. Some people even saluted him with a fist slammed against their own chests, which was kinda odd, since Erick wasn’t in their military. Perhaps their actions were simply them recognizing a fellow soldier against the Dark? Perhaps.

With his mana sense cast wide, Erick got a good look at a lot of offices and otherwise as he walked down those halls, because every single space here was obviously put together to produce certain opinions in any casual mana sensing viewer. Primarily, this was a working area with paper works and the people to match, which reminded Erick of practically any high rise corporate office space back on Earth, but here, everyone knew that everything was visible. There were no hidden compartments in any rooms. There were no paperworks of incriminating nature easily seen in the open. People worked on normal stuff, talking normally with each other, knowing that they were spied on all the time.

Some people, with solid walls between them and Erick, even waved at Erick as he walked past. Erick just nodded at those people.

Because of this openness, some of the office spaces nearer the hallways were opulent things, made to impress, with gold-plated facades and paintings, and rich cushions on nice couches and chairs. Mostly though, there were people working on paperwork, everywhere. Erick was pretty sure that there were spaces for hidden meetings and hidden objects, and perhaps there was magic in every one of these offices that hid objects or people, and even hid itself from his mana sense. But he didn’t see any of that.

All he actually saw were people hard at work, and not just wrought, either. Only half of the people were wrought. The other half were of every other kind of people in the world. From what he saw, every single office here was connected to warehouses in Stratagold, or elsewhere on the Main Roads, or in other towns out there in the Underworld. The embassy was basically a very public, very large connecting place, without much magic to it at all. There was some magic, of course, in the form of a runic web that ran along the edges of every hallway’s ceilings.

The web here in the embassy was rather high magitech, to coin a phrase Jane had said one time. The web seemed to only hold ‘light’ ‘anti-shadow’ and ‘anti-stoneshape’ runes, but it was much more complicated than that, for it had the same swirling, curling pattern to its runes that Erick had seen on the t-station. It was obfuscation runework, for sure.

The web seemed extremely vulnerable, though, being right up there, in the open, inside every hallway. Erick hadn’t noticed a single connecting node like they had in enduring Forge, to break the web into discrete chunks, to make tampering with it much harder. There had to be some sort of defensive system on it, though, right? Right.

Erick reached Tasar’s office, deep inside one of the more opulent parts of the embassy. The door opened at his approach, revealing a human-shaped green wrought on the other side, looking similar to Tasar, but different.

The woman said, “Greetings, Archmage Flatt. We were told to expect you, and so we are glad to receive you.” She stepped back from the door, ever the professional, saying, “Please come in.”

Erick walked inside, while Ophiel and Yggdrasil [Scry] eye followed. “Hello.”

He glanced around the room and saw yet another professional space, but of a nicer make than some of the other rooms, though the differences were personal and therefore superficial. The furniture was of thick, standard white wood with nice cushions, while the walls held maps and paintings of various make, all which served to highlight who this room belonged to, and how the occupant of this room was connected to other people. It was a style Erick had seen repeated here and there inside the rest of the embassy. He thought it was kinda nice for guests to know who they were dealing with, and how they might be connected to other people in the embassy.

Everyone seemed to have accreditations and paintings unique to them in their offices, and Tasar was no different. There was the obvious ‘diploma’ from Archmage’s Rest, full of scrollwork and wax badges and other signifiers of Tasar’s talents. Another diploma of a simpler make came from Oceanside, alongside a painting of Tasar standing with the Headmaster, Kirginatharp. Of the rest of the paintings, Tasar was easy to pick out, for she was usually the only adamantium black wrought in attendance.

There was Tasar standing with various other people who might have been mages, according to the staffs in hands and [Familiar]s on shoulders. One painting had Tasar gathered with other professional mages of all types, ringing a t-station. Had she been on the team to invent that? She probably was, considering her original Class as a Spatial Mage.

One painting held other black wroughts, but also the green woman, who looked exactly like the green woman who had welcomed Erick into this space. The woman stood next to a black human man, while beside them stood black-green Tasar and what looked to be two brothers of the same coloring as Tasar; black-green.

Erick glanced over all of that in a flickering second, then turned to the green woman, asking, “You must be Tasar’s mother?”

The woman bowed with just her head, then said, “I am. Tasar is out at the moment, but I have informed her of your coming as soon as the front desk informed me. Would you care for tea while you wait?”

… The woman seemed rather damned nervous, for whatever reason.

Erick tried to put her at ease, saying, “I would love some tea while I wait. Thank you for the offer, Missus…?”

“Otaliya.” Otaliya stiffly, yet adroitly, gestured to a table near some nice chairs. A steaming tea pot rested there beside cups with sugars and honey. She moved to the table and sat down, saying, “Widow, not missus, but it happened centuries ago, Archmage Flatt.”

Erick joined her at her table, saying, “Just Otaliya, then. Nice to meet you—” Back in the hallway, Ophiel mentally poked at Erick. Erick glanced through Ophiel’s eyes to see Tasar walking this way. “It appears the tea will have to wait. Tasar is on her way.”

“Tasar has always been rather prompt when it comes to certain magics, and [Gate] has fascinated her like no other ever could.” Otaliya had been about to pour Erick tea, but she set the pot back down. “She’ll likely wish to move on directly to various matters of magic, too, unless you have other plans?”

Erick said, “I would prefer to move on quickly from this land. Everyone has been rather nice to me except for when we were outside of everyone else’s sights, or when I was disrupting their authority, and I would like to remove myself from here as soon as possible.”

Otaliya went still, her eyes going wide, and then her mouth broke into a grin. She gave a tiny, rapid-fire chuckle, putting her hand over her mouth as she did so in some sort of polite, instinctual reaction. “You’ve described the lives of many people with that statement, Archmage.”

Erick had to grin at that, saying, “I suppose I have.”

And he supposed that Otaliya would know the feeling, too. Erick’s mana sense went rather far, so he saw Tasar’s rooms beyond this front room. Back in the back of this set of offices there was a living space, but only one. The paintings in that room held images of Tasar and two other green-black children, as well as a nicer painting of Otaliya and her former husband. Those clues, along with the other items in that room, all but confirmed that space as an apartment for Otaliya; she probably lived here, in the same manner that some other people also lived in their embassy rooms. At least there was a good five meters of stone between each floor, so her neighbors weren’t too close; beyond the mana sensing range of most people, anyway.

In a controlled, but excited manner, Tasar burst into the room. She turned her eyes toward Erick, though she had spotted him long before now, for sure, and said, “Welcome, Erick.” She turned to her mother, saying, “Thank you, mother.” She turned back to Erick. “What would you like to do first? Or perhaps a place to see? Anything you want to do, or place you want to go, let’s do it.”

Erick stood and Otaliya stood with him, as Erick said to Tasar, “I would speak of the t-station by Yggdrasil and whatever other [Gate] related materials you might have gathered over the centuries. Afterward, I expect to need to visit the people at Archmage’s Rest since I got a letter from them requesting as much, followed by Bright Tea at the White Palace, and then some Church of Rozeta stuff. From there, I have a few more things I might wish to do, but those can wait.”

Otaliya breathed out a little, the weight of Erick’s itinerary easy to see in her reaction.

Tasar paused, before saying, “We’re moving fast, then.”

“Yes, and preferably before I can get too bogged down with anything too serious down here. I’ll need to see the Gemslicers at some point in time, too.” Erick said, “I know I angered quite a few of your people with my journey to the Core, and probably a lot more besides, but I suspect that the Gemslicers are the only ones I might have truly pissed off.” He shrugged. “But then again, I suspect they’re the ones who stole my [Luminous Beam], so if they’re the least bit mad at me, then we’re going to have problems.”

Both Otaliya and Tasar went still when Erick mentioned ‘Gemslicers’.

Otaliya who spoke first, her voice full of barely hidden interest, “Why are you involved with them?”

Tasar withheld judgment and her voice as she waited for Erick’s answer.

Erick said, “I’ll show you.”

Erick held up a hand and conjured a blacklight; a sphere of wardlight shifted to invisible ultraviolet. The sphere of nothing radiated into the room and struck both Tasar and Otaliya with its unseen power, causing both wrought to light up with a skin-deep brilliance. Tasar’s black-green skin lit up with neon purple and stripes of brilliant yellow, while Otaliya turned fully yellow, her copper green body becoming a facsimile of the sun.

“Ah.” Tasar held up her left arm, judging her new glow as she quickly turned her hand over a few times, saying, “That would do it.”

Otaliya put a hand to her mouth as she started giggling again, before agreeing with her daughter, “That would do it.” She dropped her hand, but watched her bright yellowness for a moment before asking, “Do you know of the Gemslicers, Archmage?”

“Healers of some sort, but not much beyond that. If you know of them then I’d be happy to hear what you have to say.”

Otaliya spoke over her daughter’s barely-there call to desist, saying, “The Gemslicers are an insular family of steels who have done almost all the gem and metalwork and private healing for the Royal Family for the last thousand years. They’re highly placed due to the unique light magics they control, and never show others. Occasionally, they track down unique light magics sprouting up in the mortal world for a variety of reasons. They’ve been trying to solve the Black Curse upon adamantium and the rest of us for longer than most of us have been alive.” She glanced at her bright yellow fingers and hands, then looked to Erick, saying, “This is one of the ways they’ve temporarily and superficially gotten around the Curse, showing the Light inside all of us.” And then she stared at Erick, her gaze holding an uncomfortable weight. “I usually don’t put much stock in fringe prophecies, but I dare say you are the true Savior of Light.”

Erick stood still for a moment, then said, “I’ve heard the term before, but I don’t believe in prophecy.”

“One mustn’t believe everything one hears; this is true. But enough prognosticators over the very many years of Veird’s existence have tried to prophesize the end of the Dark, and the Return of the Light, and they’ve all agreed upon the title of ‘Savior of Light’ as the prophesied one that would come and fix everything. This title has, of course, been attributed to many people before now.” Otaliya said, “You’re the first one for whom I believe that title might be true.”

“I don’t believe in prophecy.” Erick said, “It’s too easy to break.”

Tasar looked at her mother, saying, “And all prognostication fails around Erick.”

“Even more reason that it might be true!” Otaliya said, openly and honestly, almost pleading with her daughter but erring on the side of propriety. She felt a lot more secure around Erick for some reason; possibly for a lot of smaller reasons, all adding up together. She obviously felt strongly about this prophecy, for sure. She seemed to stare into Erick’s very soul, and maybe she was, as she said, “Death happens to those who cannot or have not learned to get out of the way fast enough, and the young rarely get the opportunity to survive their first encounter with True Darkfire, but you, Archmage Flatt, have survived True Darkfire time and time again. My daughter told me how you scared off the Evil One inside the Core Tunnels.” She breathed out, smiling, her expression full of light. She bowed to Erick, saying, “May my daughter serve you true, Savior of Light.”

Erick didn’t know what to say—

Tasar did. “Erick. Can I meet you by the t-station near Yggdrasil in an hour? I will bring some books at that time, but first I need to speak to my mother.”

Erick nodded, saying, “Of course. See you soon.”

And then he left.

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He moved faster than he needed to, but he kinda needed to get out of there, and quickly. He dodged a few more people on his way out of the building, making his way back to Yggdrasil as soon as he could. Sergeant Kapra managed to catch him before he stepped into the tunnel, though. She informed him that his materials would be arriving soon; her people were still out there purchasing them. Erick told her thanks, then went back to Yggdrasil.

– – – –

He decided he needed to do something absolutely different for a little while, so he set out to fully explore Yggdrasil’s cavern. First, though, he set up a [Cascade Imaging] searching for ‘people’.

Thirty eight targets; that’s how many he found, and most of them out there on their own. People hid out in the ceiling, or by the falls, or underwater. None of them were near or on Yggdrasil, though.

A quick sigh and brightly appearing before those [Invisible], or [Privacy Ward]ed, or [Greater Water Body] people was more than enough to scare them off. Every single one spouted apologies the whole time they ran away, too.

– – – –

Erick sat on a conjured chair next to the t-station, studying the gold disk and its obelisk a bit more as he waited for Tasar to show up. He didn’t have to wait long. The black-green wrought appeared on the t-station with a casual blip of green-black light. In one hand she carried her usual staff, while her other remained free. Erick expected her to be carrying books, but apparently she had people for that. Three other people, to be precise.

One was clearly young, but with an orcol shape to his brightly burnished copper body. He held a large box of books which he set on the ground nearby. Another was an old-human-shaped man of iron wearing a robe and looking delighted to see Erick. The third was a brilliantly silver incani man with his metallic flesh in the shape of princely clothes, and with a silver star upon his chest that matched Erick’s for form, but not for function. The silver star was likely a Silver Star, too, for it wasn’t made of the man’s flesh, but was very much a separate object held in place that glowed with the faintest whisper of divine fire.

Erick stood up, saying, “Hello. I expected you to come through the tunnel?”

“Other people rapidly got involved when you showed my mother that glowlight.” Tasar gestured toward the silver man, saying, “Archmage Flatt, meet Awir, and—” indicating the iron guy, “—Riivo. Riivo is from Archmage’s Rest, while Awir is from Gemslicers.”

No one made any indication to shake hands, but while Riivo was obviously happy to be there with bright smiles and a hop in his step, the ‘old man’ rapidly realized that he was the only one. Erick focused on Awir. Awir had a small frown. Erick had a frown, too, and he wasn’t sure when he had gotten that.

Awir asked, “How did you learn of light?”

Erick narrowed his eyes. “How did you manage to steal my [Luminous Beam]?”

Awir strongly said, “I’ve been trying to make that spell for 350 years, in at least 350 different ways, and then you go and make it at Basic Tier! And then you lock it behind Particle Mage.” Most of his apparent anger vanished. “I suppose I was mad at you, but I can’t really be mad at the Savior of Light, even if I don’t exactly believe that yet. I expected one of our people to take that title, eventually.” With heavy sarcasm, he added, “Have you figured out how to reverse the Black Curse, too? Is that on your to-do list of this Worldly Path?”

Old man Riivo had seen that there was some sort of discomfort between Awir and Erick and moved to stand to the side, next to Tasar. This proved to be a good idea, as the anger between Awir and Erick rapidly multiplied after introductions. The copper orcol who had come with them had seen something was going down above his pay grade, and rapidly whispered some questions to Tasar, who nodded at him and gestured for him to go away. One second later the copper orcol had blipped away on the t-station, headed back to wherever it was he had come from.

Erick responded to Awir’s rhetorical question with, “If you have any clues about that then put them forth, and let me add that Quest to my Worldly Path.”

“Hmm.” Awir said, “Tasar tells us that you will be looking for a Wizard eventually. So there you go. That’s how you reverse the Black Curse.”

Erick leveled a dissatisfied glare, saying, “That’s not helpful.”

“Why should I—!” Awir paused. He dropped most of his anger, and then he said, “I wasn’t expecting to have this conversation so soon, and I am still rather furious with you for inventing my spell out from under me. It was a mistake to come along with Tasar at this juncture. I am a Healer, and a Pacifist, and my anger has gotten the better of me. I would speak with you at another time about Wizards and the pursuit of a cure for the Black Curse, if you are willing.”

Erick decided to pack away his anger, too. He said, “Sure. We can talk another time. I am interested in cures to Curses that involve Wizardry, and it sounds like you’ve had some experience with that.”

“Both too much experience, and not enough. I can’t tell much openly, but I can say that dragons are your main competitors for finding and securing Wizards, for as soon as you have heard of some untouched Wizard, know that the Wizard has likely been spotted by dragons long before you came along.” Awir said, “The dragon is waiting for you to weaken the Wizard before they [Blink] in and take your prize from you.”

“I have gotten that impression; yes.” Erick said, “Nice to meet you, Awir.”

“And you as well, Erick.”

Awir bowed his head, then walked away. He touched the obelisk of the t-station and was gone in a blip of colorless light.

Erick turned to Tasar and Riivo, asking, “So the Gemslicers are healers? Not secret assassins?”

“Uh,” Tasar said, frowning a bit. “I did not expect that from Awir, either.”

“I expected something more joyous, too!” Riivo said, “Your Particle Magic allowed Tasar here to invent [Condense Oxygen], which has revolutionized the treatment of Wrought Rot! That single spell is saving hundreds of lives each month, and allowing thousands of long-term sufferers to return to society, to let them lead happy, fulfilling lives. I expected Awir to be overjoyed! But he’s just jealous!” Riivo spoke conspiratorially, “He was the first to switch Class to Particle Mage, and now I know why. You should know that it was him who was able to supply your [Luminous Beam] to the White Guardian Collective. The Gemslicers pulled a great boon for that supplied magic! He should have been happy to meet you. Bah.” He said, “I understand you met the guardians when you broke into the Core?”

Erick looked away from the t-station, to Riivo, saying, “I wondered who gave that spell to the guardians. That explains some of the questions that have been building up since I came down here.”

Happily, Riivo said, “Let me answer more! And then perhaps you can answer some of ours? That’s how we like to do it at Archmage’s Rest.”

“Most of the books we brought are from there,” Tasar said, “They are a lot of my own additions to the collective, though.”

“Oh yes!” Riivo said, “Tasar here is one of our good members. It was through us that she brokered the deals for [Condense Oxygen] to make it to the Gemslicers, to aid in the healing of Wrought Rot. We formed the backdrop upon which the creation of the t-station occurred, so many centuries ago, as well as many other inventions which you might be aware of. Runic webs? We started those. Anything you want to give us will be given back to you in kind. That’s how it works in Archmage’s Rest.” He spoke a bit more seriously, “But, of course, there are some waiting periods and trials of honor and such, but I have no doubt you will clear those trials, for sure.”