177, 2/2

Erick and Riivo stepped down through the open air of Vibrant Falls, with the eponymous waterfall bathing the world in glowing light, all the way. Down, down, down, to a level where the mists of the falls spread out in every direction, plunging the world into illuminated fog, and the rushing, raging falls crashed into a lower ocean, and all that water spread out into the vast under oceans of the Underworld.

In those misty depths, down one of the deeper-set daggers of stone carving out into the center of the cavern, there was a house. Theoretically, anyway. Erick had no idea where the house was, for he certainly didn’t see any structures. All he saw was moss-covered stone as far as his eyes could see, which was not very far down here in the fog. Ophiels, moving around like lanterns in the fog, fared little better.

Riivo seemed to know where he was going, though, for the old iron man just walked forward, the carpet of moss under him absorbing all sound. Erick followed—

“Oh. There’s no monsters here.” Erick said, “I just realized. Nothing dangerous at all. No rats or bats or snakes, either, though. But there are slimes.”

One small green slime plopped across the moss in front of them. Slimes were everywhere down here; they were practically ubiquitous monsters in this moisture-rich, plentiful food environment.

“Quite right.” Riivo glanced at the slime as it plopped along, saying, “Unless one is invited here by someone who already knows the way, then the passive enchantments in the area keep all other lifeforms away. Slimes do grow rather well in the lower levels of Vibrant Falls, though, but while they might be born here, if they should happen to fall out of the enchantment zone then they won’t be back.”

“How does an illusion keep people away?” Erick said, “I would have thought that to be Mind Magic.”

Archmage Kydyr’s house was still somewhere up ahead in the deeper fog.

“This particular use of illusion is a secret which you shall learn while you are here, but not from me, and showing is better than telling.” Riivo said, “Watch the path we walk. Orient yourself with your Ophiel in the air.”

Erick took stock of their area. They were upon a flattish jut of stone about twelve kilometers long that stuck out from the side of the cavern of Vibrant Falls. At their current position, they were three kilometers from the tip, which was itself about a kilometer from the falls. The flat area under Erick’s feet was about half a kilometer wide. In the distance, the base of the dagger connected to the cavern wall, were countless juts of stone stuck out from the side, forming a deep shadowed place, while the falls themselves were full of light. Shadowed and glowing fog filled the air. Thick stone formed the ground. And everywhere, there was moss.

They walked from the falls toward the wall while—

Wait.

Somehow, they had gotten turned around? When did that happen?

They were walking toward the falls again.

“We turned around?” Erick frowned a little. “I wouldn’t have noticed without Ophiel.”

Riivo smiled. “Usually it takes the second turn for a new person to understand what happened, but you caught it on the first. Watch what happens when we take the second.”

The two of them fell back to silence, or at least as silent as the rush of the falls…

The falls were quieter. Like they were somehow more distant and yet they were right there; same as they had been.

Riivo turned. Erick followed.

And suddenly, the air changed. Less foggy. More bright—

Riivo’s silent footfalls were suddenly audible as he stepped onto a wide, white tile. The tile was overgrown with too much moss, but it was a tile, for sure. Erick had paused to reorient himself, but he resumed following fast enough—

Another turn; the third. They were headed back toward the cavern wall, now.

And the tiles underfoot became cleaner.

Erick had an uncomfortable realization that he wasn’t sure how to put into a question, so he spoke the unvarnished thought, “This is almost like Ar’Cosmos.”

“Ah. Not quite. Illusions can accomplish much, but this place still exists whether you can see it or not.” Riivo said, “This path we walk is the key to actually gaining access to this place, though.”

Erick had some thoughts about just how wrong Riivo was, but he withheld those thoughts for now because Riivo stepped off to the left and Erick almost missed the turn. He had no idea how he had almost missed the turn, but he had.

Riivo enlightened him, saying, “Glad you kept up there. Most people fall off the first time. We’re close now.”

The tiles went from unkempt to manicured, showing off their white brightness while a short stone wall began on one side, and then a matching stone wall appeared on the other side. They were upon a garden path, and the air fully cleared of fog. Three more steps, and Riivo passed over a white tile with the rune for ‘reveal’ embedded in it in deep, black metal. Erick followed—

He stepped into a land of summer, with a massive apple tree growing on one side of a medium-sized cottage, while a vegetable-filled garden lay on the other side of the property. An ankle-high wall of white stones surrounded the whole place—

An incani man of about 65 appeared at the door of what had to be his house. His white skin and red eyes marked him as an incani from somewhere within Nelboor’s Underworld. His deep frown marked him as deeply unhappy. “What sad slop have you brought me this time, Riivo?”

Riivo strained to put on a happy face, like he was used to this man’s foibles yet those foibles were still tiring. He walked forward saying, “You should read some newspapers instead of books every once in a while, Kydyr! This is Erick Flatt, of Spur— of Earth, technically.”

“If I cared about current events I would allow you to send me that trash, but since I don’t, you don’t!” Kydyr stepped forward, meeting Riivo, and also Erick, on his front lawn, asking, “What’s the deal? If it’s not good enough then I don’t care who this young idiot may be.”

Riivo had briefed Erick a bit about Kydyr. The man was a recluse in the extreme. The only thing he cared about was reading stories about places he had never been. It had to be strictly feel-good fiction, too. Nothing real. Nothing dangerous. Archmage’s Rest sent Kydyr at least two books a week as part of the deals he had made with the Rest. That deal included Kydyr teaching lessons when demanded, though, and right now Riivo was demanding those lessons.

Riivo strongly said, “I want Erick to learn how to make a secure runic web. You can test his Illusion Magic knowledge without me, but you will allow him to prove that he is capable before you call it quits, Kydyr. I will not have you mucking about with this particular joint venture. I want Erick to become a firm part of Archmage’s Rest, and you are but one of the benefits of joining, so you better remain a benefit.” He stared at Kydyr…

And Kydyr scowled, breaking eye contact first. He spat, “Heard and understood.” He inclined his head at Erick. “What do I get out of it?”

Riivo was merely the facilitator so he stood to the side and remained silent.

Erick asked, “What do you want?”

With a happy, devious smile, Kydyr exclaimed, “I want Ripper’s Lot volume 23 and Fowled Egg number 14.”

Erick asked, “Some novels?”

Riivo spoke up, “They’re being edited, Kydyr. They might be ready next month.”

“Then maybe I’ll feel like teaching next month.” Kydyr sneered.

Riivo frowned.

“Maybe there is something physical I can get you?” Erick asked, “Perhaps some new vegetables for your garden? Stuff you’ve never had before? Or maybe I could tell you some stories from where I’m from? You probably don’t have any of those.”

Riivo glanced from Erick to Kydyr, waiting.

“Bah! Stories from— Where’d you say? ‘Arth’? Some new settlement by Spur? Bah.” Kydyr said, “That whole Crystal Forest is a broken civilization, kept that way by Ar’Kendrithyst. Ain’t never produced any good stories in centuries! That Librarian keeps it that way, and I hate that woman. Fucks up all authors everywhere, bending them to her whims! Now there… There’s an evil that needs deading… Heh.” Kydyr got another wicked smile, saying, “I got a bargained task for you: Go kill the Librarian and save all good authors everywhere! I’ll teach you anything you want if you can do that.”

Riivo blinked a bit, unsure how they had gotten here.

Erick had much the same reaction as Riivo, then he said, “Ah. She’s dead. I didn’t kill her myself, but yes. She’s dead.”

Kydyr frowned. He glanced from Erick to Riivo, then back to Erick. “Huh. You truly believe that, eh? You might do well with Illusion Magic. You’re probably not as young as you look, either, and that Silver Star on your chest looks to be real, too.” From one moment to the next, Kydyr changed. He was no longer an aging white-skinned red-eyed incani, but instead, he had shrunk into a floating metallic pixie, a decimeter tall. His body seemed made of rainbows, while wings barely beat and yet he remained aloft. “Or at least you’re good at hiding your hate; both are good for illusionwork.”

Erick studied the ‘pixie’. Kydyr wasn’t celesteel; he was too rainbow for that. Bismuth, maybe?

Which raised a new question.

Pixies were only about 300 or so years old. This fact that Kydyr was a wrought of a relatively ‘new’ species had Erick questioning when a ‘protean’ would pop out of the ‘wrought birthing vats’, or however they did it. Maybe one already had. Wasn’t that an odd thought. While Erick was thinking—

Riivo didn’t miss a beat, saying, “Archmage Kydyr. Normally, I wouldn’t want to intrude upon how you choose to interact with the world but you simply must get out of the apple tree sometime, and soon. Visit some places. Learn of the recent news spiraling the planet. But before you do that, you will teach Archmage Erick about Illusion Magic and primarily how to hide and secure a runic web.”

Kydyr scowled with his tiny face and relatively large eyes, as he looked to Erick, demanding, “Tell me what makes you so great. One sentence. Go.”

There were so many things to say to that.

Erick chose the one he thought would work best.

“I made a World Tree.”

Kydyr froze, then transformed into a human woman of rainbow metal, quickly sputtering, “Like a big tree means shit to me!” She turned straight to Riivo, shouting, “What the fuck, Riivo! You tell people about me, now!” She transformed into a male orcol made of rainbow metal, looking down on both of them, saying, “This is rude, is what it is!”

Erick wondered if any of these forms were real. He had said ‘World Tree’ because of the pixie form… but was that wrong?

Riivo held his tongue.

Erick went for it, assuming that Kydyr’s pixie form was ‘real’, or whatever, and said, “I made a World Tree and his name is Yggdrasil. He’s by Stratagold, as well as by Candlepoint in the Crystal Forest on Glaquin, and also beside Holorolu in Songli in Nelboor. He’s young and hasn’t separated from me, and he won’t for quite a while, but he is a World Tree.”

Riivo added, “Yggdrasil is in a cavern next to the embassy, at t-station ‘ygg’.”

Kydyr stared at both of them. In a flash, the rainbow wrought was once again a white-skinned, red-eyed incani man, but this time he was 24, and looking… Rather uncomfortably handsome. Square chin. Muscles. A nice… All the rest of him. Had he pegged Erick that fast? Maybe he had.

Kydyr said, “I’ll be checking up on this new information. I don’t appreciate lies.”

Erick burst a sudden laugh.

Riivo glanced at Erick.

Kydyr glanced at Erick, too.

Okay. So maybe there wasn’t supposed to be a joke there. Erick deadpanned, “Oh come on. An illusionist who doesn’t like lies?”

Kydyr tilted his head at Riivo. “You brought me a dullard.”

“That’s hardly fair,” Erick complained.

Riivo said, “I’m sure you two will get along, but before I go I will need to make sure that some sort of bargain has actually occurred.”

Kydyr waved the old iron man off, saying, “Yes! Yes! Fine fine. I’ll teach him. Dump off some raw platinum for a web later but go away now.”

“Good.” Riivo turned around and walked away. In seconds the old iron man had stepped down the tiled path, his form beginning to vanish into the swallowing mists that surrounded this land, but which did not pass the short stone wall all around. The old iron man’s words were mostly drowned out by the distant rush of falling water, “Good luck, Erick.”

And then he was gone.

Erick turned back to Kydyr.

The two men stared at each other for a long moment. Erick wasn’t sure he felt safe being around an illusion-focused Archmage, but Riivo seemed to feel the man was fine, if a bit odd.

So Erick went for it, asking, “Where do we start?”

Kydyr demanded, “Do you have [Illusionshape]?”

“[Mysticalshape].”

Kydyr narrowed his eyes. “Have you Remade up to there? Or did you make that from the bought [Lightshape] and [Shadowshape]?”

“The second.”

“… I can already tell you focused heavily on Light due to the auras at your back, but have you done much Shadow work?” Kydyr scowled, as if realizing a whole new problem. “Do you have a problem with Shadow? Being from Spur you probably do.”

“I’ve never gotten Shadow magic to work properly, actually, so you are right in a way, but wrong that I have a ‘problem’ with shadows.” Erick pushed back a bit, saying, “Being so aligned with Illusions, do you forget your own prejudices? Or do you invent new ones depending on who you’re confronting?”

“I make new prejudices all the time!” Kydyr said, “The best ways to make good illusions are to base your various personas on perceived cultural norms; it’s basically exploiting other people to reach a shortcut in the mana.”

“… I don’t know how I feel about that.”

“Yeah. You seem like you’d be a shitty illusionist.”

“We’ll I’m certainly no liar who pretends to not know what’s going on in the world.” Erick said, “I know you know who I am.”

Kydyr frowned a bit, looked like he was about to deny everything, but then he reoriented. He pulled back, saying, “I know I gave no physical clues, so it was something I said. What was it— It was the bit about Spur, wasn’t it? With the Shadow Magics.”

Erick said, “No. The people back home don’t like Shadow Magic; this is true. No. The problem is that your reactions are too perfect and there’s no way that Riivo didn’t tell you we were coming and what to expect.”

“Now that’s a lie.” Kydyr said, “Riivo knows not to tell people what to expect all the way, for part of our agreement is for me to get some fun out of all this, too. So tell me how you knew! I know for a fact that my reactions are not too perfect! I played the part of a hermit archmage just fine! No. What’s more likely is that you’re lying to me about what gave me away. People’s complaints often reveal what they really care about, and you caring about me lying means that you are the liar! Not me.”

Erick frowned at the man.

Kydyr happily said, “Illusionists never lie! We just tell different Truths!”

“Oh.” Erick understood, now. “That’s what you meant when you said you weren’t a liar.”

Kydyr looked at Erick for a moment longer. Then he decided, “I guess if you made a World Tree you probably have some redeeming qualities.”

Erick smirked. “I have many redeeming qualities.”

“… Is the Librarian truly dead?”

Erick paused. “I only know of seven remaining Shades and six of them are Blessed into Empathy. If the Librarian survived then that is out of my purview.” He looked up and down Kydyr, asking, “So how deep does this lie go, and do you have a form that is more… whole?”

“What’s wrong with this one!”

“Okay. So. I’ll tell you what truly gave you away.” Erick said, “Every single one of your forms carried the same wrought arrogance that you’re untouchable, even though you don’t look wrought at all.”

“… Perhaps you’re a Mind Mage in disguise? Those bastards are always ruining my fun.” Kydyr asked, “Are you attempting to ruin my fun, mister Mind Mage?”

“I’m not a Mind Mage; you already know who I am.” Erick said, “The world is changing, Kydyr. I killed Ar’Kendrithyst. I invented new magics. I made a World Tree. I’m near the end of my Worldly Path and I’m going to make [Gate] the normal way, because I want to open up new worlds and expand civilization to other planets. After this Stratagold stuff my next stop is Oceanside because there’s some Quiet War shit going down there. Perhaps the Headmaster will ask me to help him enact his plan to destroy the moons of Hell and Celes, to end the Quiet War once and for all, to help permanently end yet another threat to civilization. Or maybe he’ll simply ask for my help to bring both sides to heel, like I did for all the Shadow Sects of Nelboor just by threatening them from afar. I won’t know until I get there.”

Kydyr’s skin was white but he paled all the same as Erick’s words hammered into his head like revelations from a god. And then some sort of dichotomy happened. Erick wasn’t sure what he was looking at, exactly, as he saw Kydyr’s eyes flicker to rainbow as his heart beat hard. He scowled. His face twitched. He huffed—

And then his incani disguise burst into rainbow motes of light, falling away to reveal rainbow metal in the shape of a human man. But not fully human. His hair was made of feathers and his eyes were twice as large as normal. He was an Owl Shifter. It might be his original form? Maybe another trick, though. Erick was pretty sure the pixie form was his original form, but this one seemed more solid.

And as Kydyr remained silent, lightly staring, thinking, Erick began to imagine that this form was his original. All his other forms had been free of magical signatures, but this one had magics running inside his chest and along the surface of his skin. Could be yet another trick, though.

Illusion magics were not Erick’s forte, at all. He only really knew how to see through most of them, and only thanks to mana sense and [True Sight], but according to those two senses everything he had seen here in Kydyr’s property had been real.

Erick broke the silence, saying, “I gotta say, your illusions are fantastic, but what happened there?”

“You destabilized my Hot Incani.” Kydyr said, “I’ll have to work for months to get that one right again.”

“If it makes you feel any better I thought he was very attractive.”

“… It does.” Kydyr sighed, then he exclaimed, “Ugh! I hate reality. Fuck you— Okay.” He brushed a hand through his feathered hair, then said, “I know who you are, Erick Flatt of Earth. This is as real of ‘me’ as you’re ever going to get to see, so I’d appreciate it if you don’t push too much further, and I won’t be forced to sneak out to Yggdrasil to see what you do under those Privacys.”

“… Fair enough.”

“Good.” With a deeply exhausted tone and fallen shoulders, Kydyr gestured to the left, to a small fire pit and its four surrounding stone chairs. They hadn’t been there till the man pointed them out. “Let’s sit and talk.”

Erick went along with Kydyr to the stone chairs. Kydyr took one, and Erick took the one to his left, two meters away. He wasn’t too worried at that moment, and he hadn’t been since they got here. Kydyr was an archmage, so he surely had more tricks than Illusion Magic, but the Illusion magic wasn’t a problem; Illusion excelled at two things, and neither of those things were outright damage.

… And yet, the Mirage Dragon had certainly turned the top of Devouring Nightmare’s main clan mountain into swiss cheese with her Illusion Magic, but no one had actually died to that attack. Though, apparently, that was ‘Fae Magic’, according to Aisha. Erick wondered where the split was.

Maybe Kydyr had spellwork of that level, too, but Erick wasn’t too scared of physical damage. His paranoia was completely focused on the threat of people discovering his Wizardry. At this juncture, the threat Stratagold represented was only a threat in the grand, fully unveiled sense; not on an individual basis.

And only if he fucked up any of these talks.

Kydyr asked, “What do you know of Illusion?”

“Illusion can do two things well: Hide or obscure, and be versatile. It is not good for damage. Any damage inflicted by an Illusion spell is only an eighth to a half as effective as a true spell.”

“… A measured response, and mostly true. Let me give you a high-level overview, and we can talk about specifics afterward.” Kydyr said, “Once a person begins to interact with an Illusion spell, either passively or because you’ve forced them to, Illusions tend to break down. I have read that Illusions used to be a lot stronger in the Old Cosmology, with some master Illusionists able to trap others behind worlds of fakery, but this is no longer the case, and this is for the best.”

Erick was a little bit surprised at that statement for multiple reasons, but only the first one came out of his mouth. “This is why Melemizargo thinks this world is fake.”

“Yes.” Kydyr said, “The Script stopped this grand use of this type of illusionwork, though, but it didn’t stop the lesser uses. They should have stripped out Elemental Illusion completely. It’s a shit magic, only worked by shit people, for shit uses, like killing people or worse: tricking them to think they’re eating full meals when they’re actually starving and dying of thirst.”

“… It’s kinda odd to hear an Illusion-based Archmage say this.”

“I got into Illusion Magic because I hate this shit. It’s my fool luck that I turned out to be good at this shit, so here I am, a hermit, because living out there is difficult. Illusions masters often find themselves fooling their way through life and leaving heartache and horror wherever they go, and when reality finally catches up to them they fold like castles of sand, or, people think they lie just because of their chosen focus!” Kydyr said, “I’m not a godsdamned liar, Erick. Not about the big stuff, the stuff that actually matters, and don’t you forget it.”

Erick nodded.

Kydyr stared at Erick for a moment, then continued, “Illusion Magics are terrible for defense. Shit for damage. Awful for practically every single scenario where subject A directly confronts subject B.

“But Illusions are very good for when subject A needs to get through a wall between them and subject B, and they don’t want to make a door the violent way. Or when subject A wants to trick subject B to walk off a cliff. Or when A is hiding from B. Illusions are fantastic for indirect confrontation.

“Illusions are the best for hiding objective reality behind a layer of Subjective Reality. You want to protect something? You put down Illusions as your first line of defense. If the enemy can’t see you they can’t hit you. If that defense should fall then everything else can be backed up with the swords or spells of others, but if you can hide the door, then that cuts down 90% of all intruders.

“And that’s the goal; less people attacking you.

“The first level of working in the school of Illusion Magic, therefore, is common misdirection. In the case of runic webs, if you want people to be aware that they are in a runic web area —which is good for letting people know that they are being watched and judged— you inscribe that web with some illusion magic that projects a false web outside, into the open, while you bury the real web into the wall, where it is unreachable. By having your web out in the open, and if you have inscribed it properly with other runic signatures, then you can catch those who try messing with that runic web while simultaneously ensuring that your actual runic web is secure.” Kydyr added, “In the other direction, if you simply want people to leave your runic web alone and not know they’re inside a runic space, then you hide the web itself beyond layers of Illusions, fooling mana senses and [True Sight]s, if you make it well enough.”

Erick sat back in his chair, thinking. In retrospect, what Kydyr was suggesting was obvious. Perhaps beyond obvious, and bordering on making Erick feel a bit of a fool. Obviously Illusion was very good at hiding things, but Erick had simply never gone this deep into that sort of magic. For his [Sealed Privacy Ward] Erick had simply manually hid himself, through the use of anti-[Scry], anti-Sight, and falsified light protections. But that sphere of changed magic still showed up to [True Sight] as an opaque sphere. What Kydyr was suggesting was that the proper use of Illusion would hide even that opaque sphere.

And so, Erick could only honestly say, “I like that a lot, but how do you trick [True Sight]?”

Kydyr smiled a little, a bit of his depression seeming to lighten. “Tricking [True Sight] is perhaps one of the hardest things to do because there’s not a single Open Script spell that gives a good base upon which to enact this different Reality, so we have to use several spells, all together. The good news is that replacing reality with Reality is all magic truly is, so once you know a few tricks, you can get pretty far with that replacement. Not all the way, of course, and the end result is fully dependent on your own skill, and Truth.

“This reliance on Truth is both a problem and a boon for illusionwork.

“A Force Mage can make true barriers that could last long after that Force Mage has left the area. A Water Mage might be able to make real water, instead of having their [Water Bolt]s splash and turn back into motes of mana. But the second a Force Mage or a Water Mage, or any other Mage, steps outside of their own Truth, every Subjective Reality they try to enact upon the world is less True; less real.

“So there is only one true way to turn Reality into reality; you have to have a knack for it. A desire for it. A yearning to be something other than what you are. This is hard for most people to achieve, and for you, it will likely be extremely difficult. Your Truth of Growth is anathema to a Truth of Deception.

“There are workarounds, though.

“What you do, is layer Force, light, shadow, and color, with enough skill that no one is able to tell the difference between Subjective Reality and objective reality. To gain this skill, you must study how the world works through mana sense, and you must mimic that falsity through pure skill, for the Elemental Illusion magic I teach you will only bridge maybe 5% to 25% of the gap between Real and real.” Kydyr said, “Once you get skilled enough, and to overly simplify the end goal: I will have you bury a runic web and then that runic web will copy the stone around itself, onto itself, but without actually hindering its own functions, simultaneously hiding itself from mana sense as well as allowing it to work as intended. This might be difficult for you. We will go over this method of true hiding, and the other way with decoys after we get true hiding down and workable. Obscuration and misdirection; both are needed to make a truly secure runic web, or any good illusionwork at all.”

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Erick took that all in, and asked, “Where do we start?”

“The primary tools in an Illusionist’s arsenal is a damaging spell, and a suite of defensive measures.” Kydyr said, “Since I don’t care to teach for damage and you’re not here for that anyway, we will focus on the small actions of stabilized obscuration and misdirection, meaning illusionwork that doesn’t move. This demands [Invisible], [Conjure Item], [Force Wall], Mana Shaping, and wardlights. Elemental Illusion will be used at the very end; personal skill comes first.” Kydyr added, “I’m imagining we can skip quite a bit of that beginner illusionwork, but I’d like to get a gauge for your skill, anyway. To that end, we start with [Conjure Item]. Please make me a stone sculpture of a bird, a doll of a bird, and an anatomically correct model of a bird, limiting yourself to 250 base mana for each.” He gestured to the side.

Erick glanced to the side at three stone pedestals, each waist-high. They hadn’t been there before. Not too surprising, considering where they were and what Erick was trying to learn. But whatever.

Erick looked up [Conjure Item].

It was one of the Variable Cost Variable Effect spells available in the Open Script. Erick already had a lot of experience with the spell, mostly in the form of conjuring beds or other assorted useful items. Those items gradually took damage as they existed and rarely lasted more than 24 hours, but Erick had gotten pretty good at making items that were more than their appearances. Mattresses with foam cores that held up to the pressure of people sleeping on them. Cloth that felt and moved like real cloth. Pens and paper that worked, though whatever was written would need to be copied down before the conjuring degraded.

A simple stone bird would be easy.

Erick did so, conjuring out of the manasphere a small bird about the size of a raven, with two eyes in the normal locations, and two wings folded up on the body where they should be, while the bird itself stood tall on two legs, with the tail acting as a third leg so it wouldn’t fall over. The bird was white alabaster, and just a bit transparent. Other than that it was solid all the way through.

Ophiel cooed upon seeing the creation and then he transformed to match. His eyes were not contained to the normal locations where eyes should be, though, and he had three sets of wings to act as his tail, his wings, and his legs. And then he decided to hold that form for a while, for whatever reason.

… The stone bird was very much a conjuring. To [Magic Sight], mana sense, and [True Sight], the stone bird was a conjured item. Erick had gone pretty far with his 250 limit, though, so to all normal senses the stone bird seemed real… Except for perhaps one. A real one would have weighed in at 25 kilos or more. This thing only weighed half a kilo, at most.

“I assume adding weight is a part of illusionwork?” Erick added, “Either with Elemental Illusion or with [Gravity Ward]?”

Kydyr seemed to approve of the bird, glancing it over with a critical eye as he answered, “Elemental Illusion will give an item its proper weight, and also its expected warmth, or cold, or any other sense you can think to name. Continue.”

Erick conjured a bird doll on the second pillar. It was a fluffy thing that was the same shape as the stone bird, but made of fluffy white fabrics, bright red thread, and bouncy cotton on the inside. As Erick’s magic finished, the bird plopped onto the pedestal and sat there like a nesting dove. It was pretty cute, with its white cotton exterior and red accents. Ophiel fluffed up and trilled a bit, extending a wing and showing off his feathers. The conjured bird didn’t have feathers, so Ophiel was probably complaining a bit.

And he wasn’t the only one.

Kydyr said, “You didn’t make the feathers.”

“… No? Do you have bird dolls like that? Want me to redo it?”

“Never mind. Continue.”