194, 2/2

In the kitchen, with Poi, Kiri, Teressa, and Jane standing around the table, Erick called a meeting.

“I know I told them that you’d be coming with me,” Erick started, “But I want you to know that this is going to be dangerous. You don’t have to come with me to Candlepoint if you don’t want to, but I do want you to come. This is a big change, though. Like. Really big. People will be coming after me… And I have no idea how dangerous that is going to get.”

Although the fallout of all these changes was yet to happen, or even truly start to happen, Erick was absolutely sure that everyone in that room understood some of the severity of the situation. Erick wasn’t sure if he, himself, understood it all, but he did have a good idea of some of the more immediate, material shifts.

To move to the city of shadelings. To start a new city in the Crystal Forest. To live upon Yggdrasil, high above the waters of the freshwater lake. To work on a Gate Network, and to become a part of whatever organization was to come. To challenge the established powers of the world in strange, and unknowing ways, and to create a new place for… Something new to happen. Erick still wasn’t sure what, exactly, he was going to make, or what the end result would look like, but it was going to be categorically Good; as much Good as he could make it, anyway.

Erick needed help, though.

He hoped his people came with him, but he was prepared for them to say ‘no’, now that they had a night to sleep on it.

This was a big ask.

… Maybe he was asking for commitment too soon.

Kiri, Teressa, and Jane had all found out that Erick was a Wizard, just last night. Jane didn’t seem to care much about the stories she had heard of Wizards, and was more interested in what ‘Wizardry’ meant, exactly. Erick had gone over a lot of those nuances with Jane last night, inside the white lightning domain of his [Gate Space]. The only thing that truly separated a Wizard from a normal person was their personal mana generation, though there were a lot of caveats to what that meant.

In the Old Cosmology, that mana generation meant that Wizards used to be able to create worlds, or destroy them, or travel all through time and space, but mostly it just meant that Wizards had a leg up on spellwork. But with the advent of the Script, that ‘leg up’ was mostly mitigated; the ultimate powers of Wizards had been removed (mostly), and everyone else had been gifted easy magic to match the challenges of this New Cosmology.

And yet the horror stories of the Sundering still lingered in the minds of popular culture. That single greatest abomination of (probable) Wizardry to ever happen, which killed all of the entire Old Cosmology, had forever tainted how magic was taught, and how mana was viewed.

Erick looked to Teressa and practically saw all those horror stories of Wizards rushing through the micro expressions of her face, as Erick laid down the gauntlet of ‘will she, or won’t she, come to Candlepoint’.

Kiri was having less trouble with her decision by far. With bright green eyes and set shoulders, she said, “I admit, I probably came off a bit scared last night, but of course I’m going to come with you. Now… I’m not too comfortable about… Candlepoint. But of course I’m going to come with! I said as much last night and my choice remains the same.”

Erick felt a rush of quiet joy at Kiri’s heartfelt words. He nodded. “Thanks, Kiri. My initial plan is to make a new city north of Candlepoint, or at least that’s where the Gate Network will go. If you want, I want to teach you runework so that you can help with all that, and also the Undertow effect, and how [Renew] works. All of that will be necessary for what is to come.”

Kiri smiled, saying, “Sounds wonderful.”

Jane said, “Well I’m coming, of course. I still want to go explore the world, but—” She smiled as an idea came to her. “You know the angels and demons who cast the [Gate]s that the Headmaster’s Elites use to go around the world, solving problems? I want to do that, dad. I want you to make that sort of system.”

Erick was absolutely thrilled to hear those words. “Yes! I can absolutely do something like that!— Though… People are going to find out that I’m a Wizard, since I’m not hiding that. So it might be dangerous for a while. Eventually, I want to set out my plaque again and take requests for monster kills, but it’ll be a while.”

“I don’t have to do anything like that right now.” Jane waved a hand, saying, “Just thoughts for the future. Anyway. I don’t understand the big deal about Wizards. Sure; Wizards make mana and mana is used to make magic, but anyone could have caused the Sundering, if I understand it right.”

Teressa let out a small sigh of worry.

Kiri questioned, “But only Wizards made mana in appreciable quantity, right? And it’s personal mana that makes it easier to make new magics.” Kiri paused in thought. She looked to Erick. “Did I get that right?”

“Yup.” Erick happily said, “As far as I know, the amount of self-generated mana one has is the only marker of a Wizard. Literally anyone can achieve the same results as a Wizard if they save up enough of their own mana.”

“So I just have to not cast spells for a week, or two, and I can make new magics more easily?” Kiri asked.

Jane nodded along; Erick had explained all of this to her a few times last night, but that was when it was just the two of them inside of Erick’s [Gate Space]. Kiri had only heard all this once, and she had been drinking beer at the time.

“Yup!” Erick said, “Most people make 10 mana per day. So if you don’t spend any mana for two weeks, you could have enough personal mana banked in order to easily create a 200 mana cost spell. As a side note, this is the reason why your first cast of any new spell costs full mana costs, and why Clarity and otherwise only kick in after you make the spell, and the Script solidifies that spell in your soul.”

Kiri’s eyes went a little wide as she connected several separate dots, saying, “There’s always some seemingly illusion-touched mage going on about the benefits of not casting anything for a week before trying a new magic. They keep those stories out of the updated Arcanaeum Consortium Anthology they release every 5 years, but those sorts of stories always make it into the lesser publications. School-publications, especially.”

Teressa frowned. Her voice was a softer thing than usual, “Imagine how many stories out there are complete lies.”

Erick had a lot of thoughts to say on that subject, but he held his tongue—

Because Jane nodded, saying, “A lot of them.”

“Well of course!” Kiri said, “Can’t hand out magical knowledge to just anyone. Like— Back at Tower Academy it was widely known that the common education would get you pretty far, but it was nothing compared to the noble track. Oceanside was a lot better about that sort of separation, but I suspect that was only because I was attached to Erick. And yet! All of it looks like shit education once you really get to know what they’re keeping hidden. I shouldn’t be surprised! But… I am.” Kiri said, “Like take gridwork, for example. I would have expected that to be taught everywhere. There’s absolutely no reason not to teach gridwork in introductory lessons.”

Jane countered, “But you’d need to know about the Remake Quests, and aura control, and how Elemental Bodies can be used in lieu of aura control, and how mana sense is necessary in order to see any of that at all, all before you get to the point where you can even understand what you’re actually doing when you use gridwork to construct a spell. All of those things are outside of the Script.”

Kiri wasn’t convinced. Teressa was half-convinced.

“About all that:” Erick laid out another truth of what was to come, “I’m starting a magical revolution here, but I’m going to do it slowly, and securely. Benevolence seems to allow me to see any Sundering-level problems approach long before they actually get here, so I should be able to navigate any Forgotten Campaign-level issues, but still… I’m going to slowly go about changing the world. Teaching people real magic. Probably through creating magical appliances and small, helpful things that people will want to take apart to try and understand. Record players. Planes, maybe, if that seems like it will be a good idea. Better printing presses. Anti-magical devices that will shut down unauthorized magic in areas, like Songli’s Void Song. And a Gate Network to make it all possible. Teaching some of the stuff I learned on my Worldly Path to others will come in time, too. Of course you all will benefit first, but there’s also going to be a lot of oversight from the wrought and Kirginatharp and all the rest, so I’m going to go slow.”

Kiri smiled wide, almost too excited to contain herself.

Jane said, “You should try reinventing film and movies, too, dad.”

“Oh! That’s a good one!” Erick hadn’t considered that one. He said, “Added to the list. I can start with the lightboxes already out there that help a person use the spell [Painting] to capture images… Ah. Well… The [Painting] spell uses actual paints, so that doesn’t work for film. I’d need to do, like, chemistry, in order to go about affixing… Maybe I can just do black and white?” Erick smiled. “Cellulose stuff and dyes and whatever! I can figure it out. We can make some motion pictures! Records of history being made.”

Teressa’s eyes went wide. She spoke before her mind fully caught up to what she was saying, “I want to come too— I mean. Of course I will be there. Was there ever any doubt? … Sorry about not actually saying that fast enough. Yes. I want to go. Obviously.”

Erick smiled wide. “Glad to know. Glad to have you aboard, Teressa.”

Poi said, “And I’m coming too so let’s get moving before all the world starts showing up at the door.”

“Ah! Right.” Erick glanced outside. “… Ah. There’s a crowd, it seems.”

Luckily, none of the hundreds of people outside the property seemed willing to breach the low stone wall that surrounded the place, either due to etiquette or due to the extra guards out there, courtesy of Silverite. But those breaches would happen soon enough. A lot of those people out there were asking to be let in so they could conduct some ‘very important business with the archmage!’ and other such small demands.

… Erick still needed to actually make a house over at Yggdrasil, tho—

“Where are we living?” Jane asked, “On Yggdrasil? Or in Candlepoint?”

The answer to that question had been up in the air, actually, but Erick was already leaning toward living on Yggdrasil, as he had told Jane last night. Yggdrasil’s [Scry] eye, which had been floating in the room with them, bounced at the mention of his name. With no obvious objections, and Kiri and Jane looking excited at the prospect (Teressa and Poi were ambivalent), that cinched it.

Erick said, “On Yggdrasil’s boughs, of course! There’s no safer place in the world, and for a while, safety is necessary.”

Yggdrasil happily bounced and twirled. Ophiel twittered with violin sounds to see his brother so excited.

Erick added, “Everyone gets to design their own rooms and what they want out of the house, too, and if you want a separate house I can swing that as well. There is a lot of room on Yggdrasil’s branches. It’s at least fifty meters to both sides of the branches before the branch starts to curve down. There is a literal kilometer of distance to build upon, from the trunk to where the branch starts to split.”

At the mention of multiple houses, Poi, Kiri, Teressa, and Jane, all looked at each other. In that moment, Erick got the distinct impression that they had already had a discussion on this topic.

Poi announced, “Same house, if you please. As large as it can be to still fit your [Prismatic Ward].”

Erick said, “Sure. It won’t be much larger than this house, then.”

Poi nodded. “That is expected. This is plenty large enough for the five of us, though some rearrangement of rooms might be nice. I would like an office, for instance.”

“Of course! We’ll figure out all of that.” Erick moved on. “But we also need to discuss compensation. You’re all getting paid through Spur as a part of the Army, but that’s going to change, since we won’t be part of the Army anymore. What sort of compensation do you want? And what sort of work do you want to actually do? If anything? Guards are good, but you can be more than a guard if you want.” Erick stressed, “I’m starting a very large shift in the world right now, and you all are on the ground floor of that. Whatever you want to be, or do, in this new world, I will help make sure it happens.”

Poi and Teressa both frowned a little, and for similar reasons. Poi was unsure what he wanted, or what Erick was actually offering; possibly because Erick wasn’t sure what he was offering, either. Teressa was feeling much the same, but she also had a generalized trepidation over this whole new enterprise.

But Kiri laughed once, then instantly said, “Apprentices get paid in knowledge, and I still want to be an apprentice. No pay; same setup as before.”

With a put-upon expression, Erick instantly retorted, “You need money, though. I’m not sure that I can still get money out of Mage Bank.”

Kiri smiled. “I think my opening pitch to become your apprentice was me asking to be your secretary, and then getting told to go run off and vet myself with the Army, first. If you can’t get money out of Mage Bank, and people start just piling up gold in boxes you put beside the Gates, then I can count that money and set it aside, or something, while taking a cut. But really Erick. I don’t need money. Money will come later. For now, we need security, and money ain’t gonna buy any of that—” She briefly paused as she realized something, then she rapidly said, “Oh! I want my family to move to this new place. Get them out of Greensoil. Odaali has been good to them, but this changes everything.”

Erick nodded, saying, “Of course. We can move them to Candlepoint, too. Or perhaps, the new city to the north?”

“The city-to-be-built north of Candlepoint would be better.” Kiri added, “I don’t actually know if they would move… I haven’t asked them yet and Odaali has been good to them, but I’m going to ask them.”

“Sure,” Erick said, smiling a little.

Teressa finally decided something. “I would like to stay a personal guard until I know nothing bad is going to happen, but eventually I think I’ll join the Guard… or something.”

Erick said, “House Benevolence is going to need a Guard, Teressa, but a much larger need is for a prognostication branch. Almost all of what House Benevolence is going to do is going to be preventing large losses of life the world over, or spotting opportunities. I’d love to have you be a part of that, if you’re willing.”

Teressa perked up. “Yes. I will do that.”

Poi announced, “I’m just a personal guard, if that’s alright.”

“Perfectly fine! Glad to have you aboard.” Erick smiled, saying, “I’ll try not to run you ragged.”

“That would be appreciated, sir.” Poi added, “Though I understand that promise is rather dependent on factors outside of your control.”

Erick smiled brightly. “Yup!”

Jane said, “I’ll work with Teressa but I also… Kinda just want to explore all of the world, dad. Once things calm down here. Maybe I’ll go on missions for you? Kill monsters? You talked of wanting to set out your sign and accept kill missions, and I think I want to do that, for sure. The thing with [Gate]s leading to missions would be good.”

Ah! This was fantastic!

Erick said, “Of course, Jane. I plan on asking the Adventurer’s Guild if they want a [Gate] near their capital, so as soon as that’s done, I should have access to a great deal of the world. Not all of it, not right away, of course. But a great deal of it, soon enough.” He added, “I still need to actually talk to those people about that, but… Eh. They might say no? If that doesn’t work then there’s a Geode nearby that might say yes; Aranite, if I recall correctly.”

Jane perked up. “You need to go and ask them? Plant a Yggdrasil down there? I could go and ask them. It’s supposed to be a month-long journey through some of the most dangerous tunnels on Veird to get to Capital City, and you don’t have time for that.”

“… Uh.” It was actually only the work of a few hours to go through the embassy at Stratagold, take the t-station to Aranite, and then perhaps an hour through a well-maintained Main Road to get to Capital City, the home of the Adventurer’s Guild. Erick saw what Jane wanted, though, and though he knew that he needed to give it to her, he couldn’t. Not right now. He needed to be honest. “It would take a few hours to arrive at Capital City through the current diplomatic channels and already-enabled Teleport Stations.”

“… Oh. Well.” Jane frowned a little in confusion, then dispelled that emotion, saying, “I wasn’t planning on taking a month to do it, anyway. I’ll just stick around here for a while.”

Poi spoke up, “You know, we don’t need to move fast for anything besides setting up defenses in case the worst should happen. Taking a week or three to put out the first Gate is perfectly fine.”

Three weeks for the first Gate? Ha! Erick had a good chuckle at that, but no one else felt the need to laugh at Poi’s humor, since, apparently, it wasn’t an attempt to be humorous at all. Erick digressed, “Heard and understood! I gotta make us a house, anyway!” He clapped his hands. “So let’s get moving.”

Everyone started moving, off to their rooms or to the common rooms, to get ready to shift everything they owned into a new house.

Erick had moved houses before, back on Earth, and had gone through plenty of cardboard boxes in order to do so. They used wooden crates here on Veird, but there weren’t that many of those inside the house, and no one really needed any of that sort of stuff, anyway.

A thousand cheers for the convenience of [Gate]!

Never before had Erick moved houses faster than he moved houses now. It was as easy as picking up all of his room inside his sunform light, and stepping through a portal he had cast onto the wall. Suddenly, he was on Yggdrasil’s boughs, while the sun shone overhead and water stretched out in every direction down below.

And then he went back for more stuff.

Soon, all of his stuff was sitting out on a small section of Yggdrasil’s second-lowest branch; one of the biggest ones available. This particular branch stretched northeast. It was a good position, Erick figured, because Yggdrasil’s glowing green canopy started about a handspan or two above the horizon, allowing for an unobstructed view of sunsets and sunrises, and allowed for Erick to see the coast of the lake in every single direction except for to the southwest.

To the north would be ‘gatelandia’, or whatever Erick eventually ended up calling that place.

To the east, about 25 kilometers away, was Candlepoint, looking like a row of black dots upon the shore.

For a long moment, Erick just stood there on the ‘land’ which would become the foundation of his new house. And then he sent an Ophiel through a [Gate] to Stratagold to gather some supplies. With those supplies now secured, Erick got to work actually making the house.

Everyone else took a bit longer to move, and for a myriad of different reasons. Kiri had a lot of enchanting and other magical stuff scattered across four different rooms of the house, and all of that needed to be organized into boxes before it could be moved, while Teressa was on kitchen duty; clearing out all of the pantries and putting them in boxes, and moving all of the appliances that they had added to the house over their year of living there. Poi and Jane took over all the other assorted necessities, like the bathrooms and the libraries. All the while, Ophiel opened portals whenever anyone asked for one.

As they moved locations, Kiri, Poi, Teressa, and Jane, each had their own moment where they stepped onto the wide, white glowing branches of Erick’s largest [Familiar], and they just stopped, and stared, like they couldn’t believe that this was happening this fast, or that it was even happening at all. And then the moment passed, and they all went back for more stuff.

Halfway through the move, Jane went to her father because she had seen something she didn’t quite understand; something that had broken her brain, just a little bit.

Erick was turning a cubic meter of platinum into wires for his [Fairy Stronghold].

Jane eyed the cubic meter of very shiny silver metal, asking, “Is that… Is that platinum?”

“Technically it’s prismatic platinum, or ‘prismsteel’.” Erick drew out another long wire, laying it down with all the rest, saying, “I’m allied with the wrought, and that alliance comes with some special perks. This is only to be used for Gate Network stuff or personal defenses and I’ll give back what isn’t used, but otherwise… Yeah. It’s pure platinum. About 19 metric tons of it. I’ve got two tons of it stretched out to form the runic base.”

Wide-eyed, Jane stared at the pile of pure wealth. She whispered, “Holy fuck.”

Erick moved the conversation along, asking, “How do you want your rooms to be? I’ll start off with something small, at first, but [Fairy Stronghold] is expandable, so we could…”

Soon, all the contents of their house in Spur had been transferred onto the wide, wide white boughs of Yggdrasil, a kilometer above the lake waters, while Erick put the finishing touches on the preliminary runic web for his new house. After his first cast of [Fairy Stronghold] and a few dozen more casts to fill out the first floor, Erick stepped inside, inviting Kiri, Teressa, Poi, and Jane to join him…

And then he stepped right back out of the invisible, intangible [Fairy Stronghold] and spent an awkward but happy few minutes ensuring that all of them could actually see and approach the entrance, and then follow him inside into the first floor of their new home. It wasn’t long till Poi and Teressa began moving stuff into the actual house, while, after a bit more explaining, Kiri and Jane helped to string metal into new frameworks, which Erick then inscribed with runework and power.

Erick’s adamantium knife flitted through the iridescent metal like a lightning-knife through butter, and that was great. He was very happy to see that the shift in his [Greater Lightwalk] to [Pristine Benevolence] didn’t actually impact his runic capabilities.

Soon, new runework framing plotted out spaces for new expansions, and more floors. Once the whole place had a basic runic structure set, Erick began casting even more [Fairy Stronghold]s to fill it out, and then he went back and forth over the whole place, casting even more [Fairy Stronghold]s to add plumbing and cisterns and the required [Gravity Ward] spaces which would move the water around the house. This wasn’t going to be a Songli-style mansion, no sir! Baths, and showers, and toilets, and kitchen utilities with sinks in all the rooms that should have sinks, and all that. This place was going to have it all.

Erick couldn’t have asked for a better way to spend the rest of the day.

It was just so normal. Nice. Calm. Creative, too, because it wasn’t going to be a house of stone like the Spur house. This new place was going to have wooden floors, and nice carpets, drywall walls, and bay windows with little alcoves in which to read, and relax. The old house was wonderful; no doubt about that. Erick liked his home in Spur. But it was quite a lot of orange stone, and stone was not Erick’s favorite building material. After the Worldly Path, stone buildings reminded him too much of building-for-extreme-security, and not enough of home. This new place was downright homey, with white wood to mimic Yggdrasil’s coloration, and tan accents, and white paint…

It was all made of Fae Magic, of course, but that was fine. Fairy Moon wouldn’t come here without due cause… Probably.

Fae Magic was just too good to not use for both security, and convenience. The appliances and beds and such would be real, but they didn’t strictly have to be; for the first few weeks, there would be quite a lot of fake furniture in the house to fill it all out, but eventually that stuff would get replaced. Fae conjured items were just as strong and durable as the real thing, but they wouldn’t be connected to the runic web inside the house, and thus, if Fairy Moon or some other Fae Magic user came around, then those items would burst. The house would remain intact, though.

By the time the sun colored the western sky like a great big ball of red on the horizon, while the rest of Erick’s world was white and green and rainbow with the colors of Yggdrasil, Erick had finished the first floor along with half of the second. Everyone had moved into their respective rooms. The kitchen and a temporary cold storage room had been set up, and Teressa was just finishing up making a nice dinner of steaks and potatoes and grilled corn. Tomorrow, Erick would work on the rest of the house, but for now he just enjoyed the company of his people.

Conversation was stilted, in small ways. Awkward in many. Teressa spoke of how she was surprised that Yggdrasil was so solid to stand upon, even though he was a tree. Kiri commented the same, and Jane spoke of how he was a tree made of stone and other magics, so of course he was solid to stand upon. And then Poi rescued the conversation by telling the news. Everyone in the world was gradually finding out that Erick had succeeded in making [Gate], and the consequences of that action were spreading fast.

That was a much better, more easily-had ‘conversation’, for Poi spoke, and everyone else listened. Toward the end of dinner, though, Poi dropped a bomb. It was a bomb Erick had been expecting, but it was a bomb he would have rather let lie.

“The Headmaster wishes you well, Erick.” Poi said, “He wants to set up a meeting, in person, for whenever you are able. Sooner is better. He plans to ask to have Yggdrasil planted at Oceanside, among other things.”

Jane sighed, expressing Erick’s own thoughts as she said. “I hope that guy isn’t going to pull any shit. I used to like him.”

Kiri sipped her beer, looking at Erick. Teressa did the same.

Poi said, “If it makes you feel better, Erick, the Mind Mages have already secured a promise from him to ‘not to pull any shit’, though we did not use those words at all.”

Erick blinked a bit, thought a bit more, then said, “In an hour, here at Yggdrasil. I’ll set up a station on one of his roots down below, atop the water. That large root just southwest of here.”

Poi nodded, then said, “He has been informed. Also, we can start going over Mind Mage personnel whenever you wish, too.”

“Another day for all of that, Poi.” Erick said, “I still need to make a ‘clan mountain’ for House Benevolence, anyway— Can you find out where Sitnakov is? He should have been here, like, 12 hours ago.” He looked to everyone. “He’s probably going to be living with us for a while. Or something. Still not sure about that.”

Poi looked away, his tendrils of thought shifting; multiplying.

Teressa’s eyes went wide with excitement. “The Adamantium Wind is coming? Here?”

“Shoulda been!” Erick said, “Hours ago, actually.”

Jane smiled as Teressa’s cheeks turned darker green. She teased, “You’re an admirer, I take it?”

“Who wouldn’t be!” Teressa said, “He’s a 10 star adventurer! A true elite— I know the stories are always exaggerated but—” She paused. She breathed. She looked around, at the new kitchen, at the new tables, out the large kitchen window where Yggdrasil’s bright green leaves waved in the far distance. “Oh. This is really happening, isn’t it.”

Jane chuckled at that. “I know how you feel.”

“Same,” Kiri said.

Erick just smiled.

The thick-air tendrils around Poi’s head retreated, as he came back to himself. “Prince Sitnakov is at Candlepoint, alongside Geode Guardian Tasar and Inquisitor Kromolok. They’re talking to Mephistopheles and Justine.”

Teressa paled, because she knew who all of those people were. Kiri was apprehensive, but only because she didn’t actually know all the stories like Teressa did. All in all, Erick wasn’t that worried about Kiri adjusting well to all this new stuff. Teressa was going to have trouble, though; she was likely the worst off here. Why, though— Ah. Erick’s whole ‘Wizard-thing’ was throwing her for a large loop, not only because of the whole Wizard-thing, but also because it highlighted the vast power difference between her and everyone else here in this room. Teressa simply didn’t have enough power to play in these big leagues.

Which was true, at least currently. Once Erick got his prognostication part of House Benevolence up and running, and once Teressa was a part of that, most of her worries should vanish. She would be able to truly see what the future held, and prepare all of them for what was to come.

Hopefully.

But to ensure that they had time to get all that up and running, Erick had to stay on top of absolutely everything. Not only was Kirginatharp going to show up in an hour, but the wrought had already gotten to Candlepoint, and Erick needed to ensure that nothing bad happened there, too.

So Erick got up from the table. Dinner was mostly done, anyway. “I should go see whatever they’re doing with Mephistopheles before it becomes some other problem.”

Excitedly, Jane also got up from her chair. “Let’s go see some wrought and shadelings!”

The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.

Teressa steeled herself, ready to go out and do more things.

… Maybe this wouldn’t be too bad for Teressa, after all.

Poi, however, nixed those plans, “Inquisitor Kromolok has requested that you not interrupt their meeting. It is simply a meeting; nothing more, nothing less.”

Teressa instantly relaxed. Jane glanced at Erick, then back to Poi, then she sat back down. Kiri was thankful nothing was happening as well, because she was a lot more interested in the Headmaster than in whatever the people of Candlepoint and some wrought from some powerful Geode were up to.

And so, Erick sat back down, saying, “Well… Gotta prepare for Kirginatharp in an hour, anyway.”

Kiri offered, “Need any help with that?”

“Thanks, but no need.” Erick already had Ophiel at the meeting location, and at a few others, too, funneling orange sand though a [Gate] and onto the wide root of Yggdrasil, sticking out of the water. “I’m turning sand into stone and putting it together right now.”

Kiri was slightly disappointed, but she let that go, and said, “I’m ready to help change the world whenever.”

Kiri, unlike Teressa, was chomping at the bit for more responsibility. Erick would need to give Kiri and Jane both as much as they could handle. Poi was already comfortable with his current level of responsibility as Erick’s head guard, though, which was good. At least one person’s desires were being met!

“I want about a ten or fifteen kilometer arc of land to the north cleared and walled off, Kiri.” Erick asked, “You want to do that?”

Kiri smiled. “Absolutely!”

“As for the meeting with Kirginatharp, it’s just going to be me, and maybe…” Erick asked, “Do you want to be there, Poi?”

Poi said, “Yes, sir.”

“Teressa? Keep an eye out for any large events, please. I don’t see any right now, but I could be wrong.”

Teressa nodded, a fraction of her worries returning…