194, 1/2 – Start Book 7

Poi approached the open door of Erick’s mage tower—

Erick turned away from his multitude of lists, to take in the sight of the sapphirescale soldier, and Mind Mage. The sun was barely up outside, turning the dark, wardlight-speckled night of Spur back into a land of orange stone and scattered greenery, and three hundred thousand people. Most people were still in bed at this hour, though. Poi, however, was dressed in his finest suit, as though he was ready for a very large day of very big things.

Erick needed to get ready, too, he supposed. He was still wearing a plain tunic and pants and shoes. Did he have time, though? Probably not.

“Is it time?” Erick asked.

He was to meet with Ascendant Prime today. Erick had no idea who Ascendant Prime was, exactly, only that they were high up in the organization of the Mind Mages. The very same Mind Mages who worked with the wrought and Kirginatharp in order to enact the Forgotten Campaigns of Veird’s history, in order to erase horrible magics from the world before those magics destroyed everything. They were also, as their names suggested, Mind Mages, which Erick was, perhaps, overly wary of meeting. It wasn’t too long ago that Fairy Moon had whammied him with mind control magic…

But Poi and the actual Mind Mages had always been honorable about that most horrible of magics. They routinely ensured that anyone caught abusing those magics were made to… Atone, or something. Erick wasn’t quite sure what happened to rogue Mind Mages, but it was probably the same thing that happened to all criminals of the worst sort. In addition to that, though, the Mind Mages saw to it that the mental monsters of the world were put down, ensuring the general safety of the populace in multiple ways, while simultaneously staying as far out of the public eye as possible.

Hopefully this meeting would clear up some lingering doubts Erick had about this whole Mind Magic thing, as well as pave the way to a less stressful future. Erick had plans to do a lot of good, but he was a Wizard, and much of the world would likely fall upon him for the crime of existing, as soon as they heard. Hopefully, the Mind Mages would not be a part of that conglomerate.

Hopefully, he could get them on his side.

Erick was already partnered with the wrought, after all. Or at least, before he had allied with Ar’Cosmos and Fairy Moon, he had partnered with the wrought of Geode Stratagold, and with Rozeta’s Inquisition forces who ran the Forgotten Campaigns. After he came out to them as a Wizard… That relationship was somewhat rocky, but it would likely repair with time and effort.

Poi heard and understood Erick’s concerns, without Erick needing to say a word. That was the power of a good Mind Mage, and Poi was certainly one of the best, as far as Erick knew. That fact didn’t used to worry Erick, but suddenly it did, and all because of fucking Fairy Moon and her disregard of the severity of Mind Magic.

And now, Erick was to meet with the Big Boss of the Mind Mages…

… His thoughts were going in unhelpful circles.

Poi cut through the spiral, saying, “Ascendant Prime will be ready to speak with you when you are ready to speak with him.”

“… I’m ready.” Erick steeled himself. He asked, “Through you?”

Poi nodded again. “He is already here.”

Ah.

Well if that wasn’t suddenly terrifying—

Erick gestured to an empty space on the floor of his mage tower, conjuring a chair with that same motion. “Welcome to my home, then, Ascendant Prime.”

Poi stood a little straighter. His gaze turned a little smoother. His breathing paused, and then restarted, as the irises of his eyes transformed from ocean-blue to iridescent gold that then spilled outward, completely filling his eyes with far-away divine fire. The constant tendrils of thought that always radiated off of Poi turned from several strands to several thousand, all of them laced with small threads of divine gold, spreading all up and down and across Poi’s entire surface, fanning out behind him, transforming his manasphere impression to that of a hedgehog, or a sea anemone. With the stiffness of a person briefly not used to having a body, and then suddenly remembering how everything worked, the person wearing Poi looked to Erick.

Erick got the distinct impression that the entity inside Poi was uncomfortable at being in such a small container, but that he would make do for as long as necessary. Probably not long, though. Erick was rather thankful that this conversation probably wouldn’t last more than half an hour; if that.

Just long enough to settle some nerves (hopefully!), lay some groundwork for future cooperation, and to pitch an idea Erick’s way, to see what he thought. Or at least that was the impression Erick got. It was probably a correct impression.

Not-Poi easily took his chair.

Erick sat down on his own.

Not-Poi said, “We Mind Mages desire freedom from wrongful persecution. To that end, we police our own and keep to strict codes of conduct. The reason for those codes is to prevent people like yourself from experiencing the horrors of Mind Magic, and thus feeling like you need to purge an entire population from the planet. Such an event has happened too many times before, and it is only through allying with the powers of this world that we have been able to step back from that brink of utter annihilation a dozen times over. Our situation is not too different from that of Wizards.”

Right to the heart of the matter, then.

This was good.

Erick nodded, and waited for the man to continue.

Not-Poi continued, “Since you have already allied with powers that we have already allied with —save for a conversation that still needs to happen with Kirginatharp— and since you are stepping out onto the world stage as a known Wizard, and since you have [Gate], we wish to officially offer our services and alliances to you, at this juncture. The unofficial alliances through Poi, and the work we have already done together to help rid some small parts of this world of mental monster threats, also bode well for future cooperation. What we desire is a continuance of non-aggression toward Mind Mages, to strengthen the bonds already formed, and to ameliorate the strife done to you by your recent experience with that fae, in whatever capacity we can, and which you will accept and participate in.”

Erick had a sudden thought. “She’s fucked up the equilibrium of your people several times, hasn’t she.”

“Yes. She has harmed our public image many times before.” Not-Poi was very good at hiding his emotions behind a body that was not his, and with the calmness of his words, but Erick could tell he was completely exasperated with Fairy Moon. He probably had some choice words for Erick’s decision to ally with Ar’Cosmos, but he could work the hand he was dealt— Not-Poi was about to say something, but then he changed his mind. He said, “I have to comment— Poi has made us aware of the phenomenon of your empathy, but experiencing it in person is altogether… different. This sort of experience is unnerving, but also rather novel to me, for I am usually on the other side of this situation. Physical language continues to be barely adequate, though, so some things will never change, it seems.”

Erick allowed himself a small smile. “I imagine you speak quite a bit faster when words are not strictly necessary.”

“A thousand times faster.” Not-Poi said, “Or deeper, depending on your perspective. Language is slow.”

Erick gave a simple nod, then decided that there was only one way for this conversation to have the best possible outcome. Luckily, it was an outcome that Erick already desired. “I accept your request for alliance, but I need to know what I get out of it, and what you want in return.”

Not-Poi nodded. “Our main desires are that you not create or enforce any rules specifically against Mind Magic that place a burden on those with Mind Magic capability. Rules against [Mind Control] and the like are acceptable and encouraged. The small rules you spoke of with the Darkness, That Fae, and Rozeta and her Inquisitor, are acceptable and desirable for us. No one should have to worry about mind control. We feel that your decision to allow that fae to use mind control to bring that Red Dot Dragon to court was a bad decision, but this is not a large issue right now; I only mention it so that it will not become an issue in the future.” Not-Poi said, “As for what you gain: Knowledge Mages are the least of our services. We can answer any historical questions you might have, and keep you up to date on all current events. We also provide anti-[Telepathy] services, of which Poi is already providing, along with coordination services.” He said, “As a note: It is our hope that we will continue to work together to erase many different mental monster threats from Veird.”

Erick almost smiled. This was great.

He had some reservations, of course…

“I need to know,” Erick asked, “If I hadn’t made [Gate], or Elemental Benevolence— If I was just a normal Wizard and was found out by Kirginatharp, or the wrought, or the dragons of Ar’Cosmos… What would have happened?”

For a moment, Not-Poi almost didn’t answer. He almost chose to deflect. Then he decided to tell the uncomfortable truth, “I will answer based on historical precedent, and not based on any personally gained knowledge. In all cases, they might have tried to work with you, first. But as that often fails… If you were a normal Wizard, with your level of power, there is a good chance that Kirginatharp would have sundered your soul and secured ten more easy years of life for Veird, for this planet does not run on wishes and dreams; it runs on mana. If the wrought would have gotten you then they could have attempted any number of controls, though they are more forgiving of foibles than Kirginatharp. I suspect that you could have won them over, completely, but historically, and based on percentages, this has not happened. A middle-road compromise would have likely taken place, and you would have been nullified, but you would have been allowed to live your own life however you wished. The dragons of Ar’Cosmos would have used you to make more of them, and then you would have been discarded or cherished, based on your own proclivities.”

The ‘sunder your soul’ part was unexpected, as well as the reason that Kirginatharp would have done so, but now that Not-Poi had said it, Erick could easily see why Kirginatharp would have sundered his soul. If a normal person’s soul made a small river of mana, a Wizard’s soul likely made a tsunami.

The wrought and Ar’Cosmos’s responses were already known to Erick, so those weren’t surprising at all. It did remind Erick of one more necessity he had to do, going forward, though. Erick got up, went to his chalkboard not a meter away, and added another bullet point to his lists of goals: ‘Get the former Wizards out of Ar’Cosmos.’

Not-Poi watched as Erick wrote, though his golden eyes had already taken in the entirety of Erick’s various lists.

Erick returned to his seat, saying, “Thanks. I had forgotten about that need. They didn’t let me see the Wizards in there, either, so this will be good… Maybe. As you can see, I have a lot of stuff that needs doing. Any idea where your people would like to fit in?”

Not-Poi seemed to relax. He gave a small nod, then said, “I have some people who would like to participate in your House Benevolence as secretaries and other general office work. In addition to those jobs —which we would consider more mundane uses of our people— I have some individuals who are interested in working with you on a more defensive basis, in order to ensure that hostile Mind Magic is never again employed against you. As for what this relationship would look like, you are aware of what we do for Kirginatharp, somewhat. We hope to enjoy the same sort of relationship with you.”

Erick paused in thought.

Then he asked, “Why does everyone say I have no ability with Mind Magic?”

Not-Poi blinked a bit, for he had not anticipated this segue. “Well… You…” And then he caught up to himself. “The term ‘Mind Magic’ is something of a false designation. To understand the truth of Mind Magic is to see the world through a mana sense of a different flavor. Imagine every living brain and soul as having a mental aura that showcases their ideas and thoughts and feelings; thought-slimes of various sizes, with brains at the center of each slime.

“When a person casts a spell, they put their intent into the mana, effectively spilling off a bit of their slime aura into the magical construct. That intent sticks around until the spell runs out… This gets very complicated, very fast, so I will move on.

“A proper Mind Mage instinctively sees these slime auras, and through viewing those auras and understanding them —for they don’t actually look like auras at all— a Mind Mage can understand what the minded-individual wants.

“All Mind Magic begins with the sight and feel of the mind; of the coloring, shaping, threading, murmuring, and other sorts of influencing of the mental space of one’s self, or that of another. The Mind Magic that the Script has structured into expressions of mana and blue boxes is barely a tenth of what Mind Magic actually is.” Not-Poi said, “And since you have zero ‘mind sense’ —which is different from mana sense— this is why you have been told you have no ability with Mind Magic. And this is true. The slime-aura around your brain is like a paralyzed, atrophied limb. It is there; you can use it when you make magic and when you use your own aura. But you can’t actually move your mind-slime.

“Therefore, you have no ability with Mind Magic.

“But with over 10,000 Health and a strong sense of self, even the strongest, most offensive Mind Magics out there will have trouble accomplishing anything at all against your mind that you don’t wish to happen. Unfortunately, That Fae is an uncommon enemy, and when you’re inside Ar’Cosmos you have no Health. To combat this lack, I offer soldiers to keep your mind your own.” Not-Poi said, “I still advise against ever going back into Ar’Cosmos unless absolutely necessary, though.”

Erick sat back, thinking. “… An entire branch of magic forever out of reach, eh?”

“You might eventually awaken your paralyzed mind-slime with enough time and effort, but I’ve seen a million cases like yours and I can confidently say that working on anything else is a more productive measure of your time than working on Mind Magic.” Not-Poi said, “Normal magic is much more versatile and useful. With the Script, you might even be able to create an anti-Mind Magic [Personal Ward]. We can help you to create such a thing, though such a magic has obvious drawbacks of preventing [Telepathy] and other methods of easy battle coordination.”

Erick thought for a moment longer, then said, “We’ll talk about that some other day. For now, I want to reiterate what I hope for, going forward: I hope to make the world a more connected, more peaceful, less warlike land. I hope I am able to achieve this by making a Gate Network that everyone wants to use, and which they are willing to play nice to get. And so, a lot of historically-antagonistic forces are going to be coming together in odd ways. I will attempt to stop all the wars that come my way, but know now that this is the sort of thing you are signing up for, when you ask to be allies.” Erick asked, “Can I count on your support? If not in war, then to at least prevent Mind Magic problems and to help foster understanding and growth in the coming era?”

Not-Poi’s eyes shone with prismatic gold fire. “Absolutely. We are also not opposed to war, but we will not be employing our Mind Magic offensively, at all, or ever.”

Erick breathed out a little, happy that this meeting was going so well. “That is perfectly acceptable. Do you have a name other than ‘Not-Poi’ or ‘Ascendant Prime’?”

“I gave up my name and my individuality long ago, back when I gave up my body. If it helps, you can call me ‘Prime’.”

Erick nodded, and as the sky outside turned gold with the light of dawn, he began, “How do you envision such an alliance looking? What sort of people…”

The conversation went a little longer than Erick had expected, and he thought that perfectly fine.

They spoke until the sun rose all the way, and everyone else in the house woke up and got to doing whatever they felt like doing. Teressa made breakfast, looking half-dead all the while due to lack of sleep. Kiri had much the same weariness and worried look to her as Teressa, as she sat there at the breakfast table, barely touching her pancakes. Jane had no problem eating what Teressa had made, but…

She was worried, too. Jane was just very good at ignoring her worries.

While Erick and Prime spoke of the future, and what cooperation looked like, the people of Spur began to show up outside of Erick’s property, to stand outside the short wall separating Erick’s property from the rest of the Human District. Some of those people were soldiers, keeping the peace, but in the distance, between the mansions of various nobles, Erick saw Silverite and Killzone walking his way.

Erick glanced outward, focusing on Ophiel’s senses for a moment, making sure that what he was seeing was what was actually happening. Then he looked back to Prime, and stood up, saying, “It’s been nice talking to you, and I wish to speak more in the future, but duty calls.”

“It was good to speak with you as well.” Prime stood up, saying, “Duty calls.”

Threads of divine gold fire slipped out of Poi like the unweaving of a basket, or the unwrapping of a thousand folded hands. The gold left his eyes. Sapphire blue irises returned as Poi blinked hard, slumping a fraction before catching himself. Small puffs of fire escaped his mouth as he steadied. And then he stood straight, and breathed deep.

“Welcome back, Poi.” Erick said, “Your boss seems nice.”

“I was still here,” Poi said. “Never left. Just… briefly subsumed.” He shook his head, as though clearing out cobwebs— He paused, then looked around. “Oh. It looks like Kiri is having… a problem. I think Ascendant Prime might have been too much for her.”

Erick scowled a bit. Something was wrong with Kiri—?

Downstairs in the kitchen, Kiri had been sitting next to her half-eaten pancakes, looking pensive and worried. She had likely seen a lot through Sunny’s eyes, or her own developing mana sense. But now, she held onto both sides of her emeraldscale head as though that would be enough to hold herself still in the middle of a massive storm. She groaned.

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A spike of worry struck Erick.

There was nothing wrong? No crisis. Ascendant Prime had moved on? Ophiel was steady on the outside corners of the house, sitting pretty right beside a slightly agitated Sunny, who had been agitated the whole night, so Erick mostly wrote off her continued agitation as nerves.

No dangerous looking people outside, either, aside from the various normal looking commoners and a few people in noble livery who had likely heard that Erick had made [Gate], or had seen that Ophiel was back in residence. Silverite and Killzone reached the gathered people outside of the walls, and began controlling that situation better than the guard were capable of doing.

Teressa moved to stand beside Kiri. She placed her hand on the young girl’s back, but her focus was divided between Kiri’s sudden change from pensive to ‘having an obvious problem’, and also Erick’s current location. Jane seemed to be talking about how it was all over now, and nothing was happening.

Erick took that all in in less than a second, then instantly started walking out of his mage tower, toward the newest development in his life, saying, “Everyone is still alive and a fight doesn’t seem to be happening, so let’s take it all as it comes and work toward the best.”

Poi followed, saying, “Kiri seems to be coming back out of it, too.”

And she was. Kiri dropped her hands away from her head and said some small words of ‘I’m fine’ to Teressa. And she seemed to be fine. Mostly.

Erick smiled, his own sudden worries flushing away like so much [Cleanse]d murk. “Good news all around!”

And then, from downstairs, like a raid siren, Kiri sounded off, “WHAT THE FUCK WAS THAT!”

Poi rapidly said, “Most people don’t know of Ascendant Prime and while that is likely to change in the immediate area—”

“Right right.” Erick understood. “Don’t mention it too much.”

Calming Kiri down didn’t take much. Just the knowledge that Erick was on the case and everything would be fine seemed to be enough. And besides that, Silverite and Killzone were here. Kiri had already righted herself for that very reason; no matter whatever trauma might happen, one needed to be ready to respond to all new changes in any current situation, after all. Erick thought that Kiri was being a bit harsh on herself, but he didn’t have time to address any of that; not right now, anyway.