197, 1/2

 

The morning arrived as it normally did; without explosions of any kind.

It was Erick’s preferred way to start the day.

No explosions, some nice coffee, and a nice danish. Though they weren’t called danishes here on Veird. They were simply called pastries, and the one sitting half-eaten on Erick’s plate had been made by Kiri some time ago, and then kept preserved and cold in the pantry for a while. They were a variation of tarip fruit pastries, and though they were not Erick’s preferred type of fruit, they had to be eaten, since they had been made. ‘Going to the market’ would be a big deal these days so they were living off their stockpile for a while. The tarip fruit in these ones had been cut into centimeter cubes, and then cooked with some other stuff to produce a cherry-like flavor. They were actually pretty good. Erick liked the hard white sugar icing, too.

And so, he sat there, on his little breakfast porch, watching the sunrise over Candlepoint in the distance, while he enjoyed breakfast. He also enjoyed watching the Gate to Stratagold in the north, and the wrought build their base in front of the Gate. It was a temporary, blocky structure for now, acting as little more than barracks and an adjacent office building, along with assorted other spaces, but it would serve. It was probably too big, though.

The building itself was fine, and of rather normal size, if actually a bit small, but Stratagold had thrown up a small wall around their entire compound. That wall stretched for about 500 meters square, taking up a lot of land north west of the first Gate.

That plotting coincided —somewhat— with the direction that Alfonin had gestured toward last night, and the wardlight structures that Erick had put up just before that, but Erick did not expect Stratagold to take four adjacent plots for themselves…

But! Eh. Whatever.

Erick still wasn’t sure how to best plan for a Gate Network, anyway.

Maybe an outlet to a different land every 500 meters? And then that land could have an embassy in the adjacent north-west 500 meter square plot? Like in a line from west to east, and facing north? That was sort of what he had going on right now.

He could do it differently, though.

A few soldiers had gone back and forth through the [Gate] (and looked amazed at everything for a good minute before they got to work) but no one else had transferred through. There were wrought guards positioned on both sides to prevent unauthorized transfers… Erick suspected that those guards were just tax collectors, or something. They had a small station set up near the Gate for just such collection purposes, unless Erick’s Sight was deceiving him, and it probably wasn’t.

Each wrought soldier that passed through put a gold coin in the box, though, so that was nice.

Theoretically, other people could go through if they wanted, too, but no one was. Which was fine.

This meant that Erick had some time to solve some future problems before those problems arrived.

He already saw one issue that he wanted to circumvent. In that moment Erick decided he needed at least 2 Gates, maybe 4, from each land. Arrival, Departure, and perhaps a split between cargo and people transportation. So four Gates. It wouldn’t do to have everyone coming through the same way, after all. Cargo would need to be checked and Scanned for monsters and contraband, not to mention the driver giving a truthstone-verified pledge of how much cargo they were hauling and the taxes they expected to pay (or however it actually ended up working out), which would be a minor hassle. People would require a different sort of Scanning and checking. Perhaps from a Sin Seeker? Truthstones all around, though.

All eminently solvable problems.

Erick smiled.

This was going to be fun.

Erick turned, saying, “Good morning.”

“Good morning.” Poi walked onto the balcony carrying his own pastry and coffee. “Care to Shape up a schedule? For the future?” He sat down. “I’ve been looking up successful rules of rulers, and there is a lot on the subject, but one of the common things is to have a certain kind of schedule.”

Ahhh. It was time for king shit already, was it?

Fair enough.

Erick managed to hold on to his good mood for a moment longer than normal in the face of this particular topic, which helped him to settle back down and secure his thoughts. This was his life, now. He needed to do it right. And since Poi was obviously teasing him, as well as trying to set him on a good path…

Erick breathed deep, glanced outward at the rising sun, and then decided to tease Poi right back.

“You want to be the Evil Adviser Behind The Throne? Second in command?”

Poi smirked. “I can’t. Not allowed. Mind Mage protocols.”

“… That’s awfully convenient for you,” Erick said, scowling.

“I’ll happily be your Perfectly Proper Mind Mage Advisor, though.”

Erick paused for a second. Had Poi just made a joke? He had, hadn’t he. Poi had also accepted the position. Erick laughed, loud and free, then said, “You shouldn’t have to Class Change unless you want to.”

Poi nodded. “So about that daily schedule.”

“Okay. Okay. So… I suppose I would like an overview of what happened while I slept, and what crises I must now solve.”

“Nothing happened while you slept, and there are no crises to be solved.”

Erick gave Poi a Look.

Poi smiled faintly, then said, “All of the initial news of Candlepoint has gone far and wide, and mostly, people are worried. The deeper halls of power are the deeper halls of power, and thus not under my purview, but I can tell you of certain public events that have happened.

“Before that, though, I feel you should consider hiring a proper Knowledge Mage out of whatever Elites the Headmaster sends your way, or however you come across one that you like. You need a proper Knowledge Mage; someone with a memory as good as yours, a deep understanding of the political landscape of the entire world, and who would want to work for a known Wizard. You probably could have gotten a very, very good Knowledge Mage prior to that revelation, but now… I imagine the pickings are either slim, or not people you want to actually deal with.” Poi said, “I’d give you more advice, but I can’t tell you everything that I know, because most of what I know comes from my own Mind Mage Network.” A bit more seriously, “So maybe you should look for a different second-in-command.”

Erick gazed outward.

After a moment, Erick said, “I’ll pick out a Knowledge Mage from Kirginatharp’s Elites… if he has one. And I guess I should actually find a second-in-command then… Eventually.”

Poi nodded, then continued, “Mostly, people are waiting to see what happens next. Those who know of Wizards beyond the horror stories, and who would actually do anything against any apparent Wizard, have already been defanged. The wrought. Oceanside. Rozeta’s paladins. The paladins of all the gods, actually; not a single god has you on their ‘shit list’, as you would put it. And then there’s the dragons, too. Allies instead of enemies. You did that. You disarmed your main opponents before any war could even start.

“So now, as far as I know, the rest of the world is waiting to see what happens next.” With a face purposefully made emotionless, Poi added, “I can tell you that the Dragon Stalkers are gearing up to take the place of those who would usually fight a Wizard, specifically because you have allied with Ar’Cosmos. On that news front, and so it doesn’t become an unexpected problem or surprise later, Melemizargo resurrected my sister, Rizala. She is currently a shadeling working under Farix. She is a Mind Mage as well. We have spoken, and as far as I can tell she is Rizala, but… I do not want to talk about it. I won’t let it affect my work.”

Erick’s heart went out to Poi as Poi stared out at the horizon the whole while, not willing to look Erick’s way. He dearly did want to talk about it, but not right now. Maybe later.

Poi frowned a bit more.

It took Erick a long moment to move on, for a thousand thoughts flitted through his mind. How old was Rizala? They had been twins, but Rizala had been killed when Poi was young, and Erick didn’t know the exact timeline, so if Rizala was young, then that meant that Melemizargo had held on to her soul for a long while. But if she was older, then that meant she had been used and abused as a shadeling in Ar’Kendrithyst for maybe as much as a decade and a half.

Poi sighed.

Erick tried to move on, but he couldn’t. Not that fast. He said, “When you want to solve that problem; to get your sister out, or whatever you want. Let me know.”

Poi didn’t breathe for a moment, but then he relaxed, and continued, “The… The Angels and the Demons haven’t done anything overly large, and there haven’t been any conspicuous summonings anywhere in the Crystal Forest… Though the only verifiable source of information we have on that comes from Spur. Spur is still sharing information with us, which is useful.

“Various archmages are reported to have left their usual haunts, while many sightings confirm the Sight of at least Syllea on Oceanside. Tenebrae has been suspiciously silent, but I know he is still alive; that’s all, though.” Poi said, “Gossip and news like that is better handled by a Knowledge Mage.”

Erick moved the conversation along, asking, “I know there aren’t any newspapers on Veird like how I’m used to seeing them, with like, forty pages of small true stories and the like. But there are some papers out there, aren’t there? Quality ones? With current events, and such?”

Poi nodded. “Oceanside’s weekly paper is popular. That’s mostly about stuff happening around Oceanside, though. Smaller yet popular world events section, but since that part of that paper caused two wars over the course of two decades, a few centuries ago, that part of that paper got gutted. There’s a very popular paper in the Pearl Kingdom, called The Irisheet, though those are more weekly fictions than proper news sources. The kinds of papers that you wish to read would probably best come from Knowledge Mages. They’re a loosely affiliated group that shares stories, and some of them produce weekly reports and person-reports for specific individuals. Highly truthful and knowledgeable Knowledge Mages are as sought after as free grand rads on a market street. That’s how people who want to know current events get their knowledge.”

Erick sighed. “That whole profession has always struck me as odd. Professional gossip mongers. But… Jane’s used them before and they steered her right. I suppose I should look to hiring one or ten.” Erick thought. “Is there in one already in Candlepoint?”

“I do not know.”

Erick didn’t believe that for a second.

Poi elaborated. “And see. This is why you need a Knowledge Mage; someone who can talk about that, because there was no way for me to know these things outside of my Mental Magic.”

“Fine fine fine.” Erick said, “I’ll put it on the to-do list. ‘Get a Knowledge Mage’. How does that Class even work?”

Poi smiled a little, then said, “Their power is mostly in the [Identify] spell, like in an Identinomicon, though they take it to an internalized extreme not seen in any other use of that magic. A good Knowledge Mage functions almost as the Sliding System we saw in Enduring Forge, but they’re deeply reliant on how much they already know. Mostly, though, they just have really, really good ways to organize and call up their own memories.”

“Huh. I would have thought the Mind Mages would have cornered the market on that… But I guess your codes demand you not do this.”

Poi nodded. “We have some Mind Mage Knowledge Mages and they are very good at their chosen profession, but they’re also not in the public Sight at all.”

Erick asked, “Got any news from that O’Lark guy? Or from Mage Bank?”

“I know as much as you; the information has gotten out there but nothing has been done yet.” Poi said, “Usually, the world moves a lot slower than how fast you’ve been moving.”

“Most of the world isn’t expecting the world to come down on them like an avalanche of [Force Bomb]s, either.”

“I agree.” Poi said, “And so, having a schedule would do well in allowing you to see to your lands and people, and to ensure that things are being done properly. I’ve literally never done this before, either, Erick, so I’m lost, too. But we can figure it out.

“I know what Silverite does every morning, though, and her system works out well. She first has a secretary —Hera, you met her— brief her of the larger events of the night, which we have already done, and then she checks in with her various appointed powers, like Mog, Zago, and Killzone. The Wayfarer’s and the sewers and the nobles and merchants are a second class of checks, which are usually in the form of mail she looks at every morning. This leads to mornings of talking and smaller events, as needed. Then she oversees judicial concerns that approach her level of necessary oversight in the afternoon. Pretty simple, really.”

Erick felt a weight drop from his shoulders as he listened.

He had no idea why he thought this would be one crisis after another, but maybe it wouldn’t be so bad? It all sounded pretty simple when Poi put it like that.

“So in the morning… I’ll do magic in the morning, and [Gate] construction, and other physical works. In the afternoon, I’ll deal with letters and such from around the world— Actually. Other way around? Yes. Other way around… But.” He asked, “I’m thinking I need to make a building for House Benevolence. Somewhere for mail to get to, and for people to see me in person. That needs to happen first.”

“And it has to have a proper throne room.” Poi said, “Candlepoint’s throne room was nice, but it could have been better.”

Erick rolled his eyes. “I want to make Candlepoint’s everything nicer, eventually.” He began conjuring lightwards of various buildings, saying, “As for House Benevolence. We’ve seen a lot of different building styles, yet I’m most fond of what we saw in Songli. The large, hollow-mountain style. I even made that one for Clan Red Ledger myself, and so…”

Erick conjured ideas and houses, which were more like mountains. Poi spoke of necessary personnel, and of expansions and security. Erick moved around the lightsculpture, trying to fit everything in, and in a coherent way. They spoke for a while, enjoying reheated pastries and architectural design as the sun fully rose over Candlepoint.

And there were no explosions anywhere that Erick could see.

It was a great way to start the day.

And then the morning got a whole lot better as Jane, Kiri, and Teressa showed up on the porch, bringing with them a full breakfast of pancakes, eggs, and sausage. Erick had a second, much better meal, along with more nice coffee, as he continued to conjure lightsculptures of a theoretical House Benevolence.

Everyone had some suggestions.

It was a lovely conversation, and Erick was glad to have it—

And then Erick saw some wiry, green-metal old-human man wrought rush through the [Gate] from Stratagold, followed by some exasperated possible-assistants. None of them were soldiers. The old guy was the first person to come through the Gate not ‘dressed’ in uniform armor made of their own metal selves; he was dressed in a loose green metal toga that hung off of him like a bedsheet two sizes too large. His apprentices (they had to be apprentices?) were a male incani and a female incani who wore themselves like they were wearing normal clothes; tunics and pants of nice quality.

The old man got twenty meters out of the Gate, stared at everything around him, and then collapsed to his knees. His apprentices rapidly caught up and started fussing over the old guy, while the old man smiled brightly and shoved his hands forward and up, raising his voice to the sky, “Thank Rozeta for this gifted opportunity! I will make this land unforgettable!”

Ah.

Architect O’Lark? Probably.

Poi’s voice brought Erick back to the moment, saying, “Prince Sitnakov wishes to inform you that Architect O’Lark has appeared. He suggests that you appear and do something before the old man starts building castles.”

Erick smiled, then stood up. “Breakfast is over, anyway. Tell him we’ll be there in a minute. Kiri, you’re probably going to help O’Lark build some stuff, if you want.”

Everyone began to move fast, but Kiri was the only one who flickered away in a flash of light to reappear in her room, to frantically get dressed for the day. Erick was only marginally slower at taking a [Gate] to his own room.

– – – –

The Gate District, which is what Erick tentatively decided to call the land upon which the Gate Network was to be built, was bustling with activity. It had only been three minutes since O’Lark landed here on the Surface, but he was already drawing a crowd from all the wrought soldiers at the nearby barracks.

The ancient copper man shook his wiry arms at the Gate he had just left, bringing to mind a sweeping gesture of pain and pleasure, calling out, “Oh! It will be magnificent!” He collapsed to his knees for the second time, overcome with emotions again as he exclaimed, “I will make a monument to the ages! A testament to civil engineering and proper workflow!”

… Which was kinda odd to hear, but it made Erick feel like he had clearly made the right choice in accepting Alfonin’s suggestion of architect.

The wrought soldiers completely ignored the old copper man as they saw Erick, turning all of their attentions to the Wizard in the area. O’Lark’s assistants saw the shift in Sight and then they saw Erick. They both briefly froze. And then they unfroze and tried to get O’Lark to also realize that the client was here, but O’Lark wasn’t having it.

“Let me be, boy!” O’Lark slapped his hands on the strong grip of a bright copper incani man. He didn’t want to be hauled to his feet, but he was, and probably as gently as the assistant could manage. “Let me have my moment! I never get enough of these!”

Sitnakov came out of the bunker—

O’Lark instantly locked eyes on Sitnakov and deflated. “Aw, fucks. He’s here? Of course he is. Alfonin said something like that.” O’Lark’s assistant said some more small words, repeating his message about the presence of the client, and then O’Lark whipped around and eyed Erick. “Ah! You! Wizard!”

Erick had not stopped walking forward this whole time, but at about ten meters away, being loudly called a ‘Wizard’ caused him to pause. And then he resumed walking forward, saying, “Yes. Me Wizard. I assume you’re O’Lark?”

O’Lark stepped forward to get closer to Erick, but his assistant (or keeper?) had a firm grip on O’Lark’s upper arm. O’Lark took offense at this, and slapped the guy’s hand several times rather quickly, causing the assistant to let him go. The assistant was scared, but O’Lark was either fearless, or uncaring. Probably both. O’Lark closed the distance with Erick, pointed an arm at Sitnakov who was still walking this way, and announced, “I will not be held responsible for that mad man destroying these lands, but I can ensure that they have deep mana signatures, which, while it will not mitigate that man’s penchant for destruction, it will allow for an easier repair when all the battles are over.” He stepped back, waving his arms wide, saying, “There’s no real way to prevent crazy warriors from going through walls if they really want to go through walls, but I can ensure that the walls can be put back easily enough!”

Erick already liked the guy, but he approved of O’Lark even more at that statement. Sitnakov aside, Erick expected this place to take a beating at least once or twice, and so having it be easily repairable was a big plus.

“Reasonable all around.” Erick asked, “How do you do that, though? Ensure that the building can come back even though Extreme Light bombardments and other such manasphere destructive magics?”

O’Lark smiled wide, utterly relieved. “Ahhh! This is going to be good. No stupid introductions. No stupid talking. Just real questions! But to answer the question! The answer is quite simple! You make a runic model of the building and you protect that model! The physical building can break and shatter, but as long as you got that model you can [Mend] the real thing back to full with little actual work!”

“… I get the feeling that this sort of magic is a massive security issue.”

“It very much is!” O’Lark said, “You gotta keep the model super safe or else someone can find it and do awful things to the model, which will propagate to the physical building if [Mend]ing magic should be applied. It’s modeling magic! My own invention! It’s derivative of Doll Magic, which itself isn’t a real magic, but Book Magic is useful for many things, and a lot of things can be considered a ‘book’ since the underlying nature of that Element is to instruct. So from that viewpoint you take the Book and you make it into a model and then you got a model which can remake the real thing!”

Erick took a moment to think about all of that new information.

He said, “Nope. Let’s do a normal place, and I can repair it as needed. I can’t have a liability like that around.”

Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

“Sure! That’s fine too.” O’Lark instantly leaned in a little, eyeing Erick as a starving man would look upon a feast. “Where are we going to start? Where shall I [Strike] to lay the first brushstroke upon this masterpiece of the ages?”

“… I will talk with your assistant over pricing and such—” O’Lark almost objected, and had in fact got out a few words into that objection, but Erick barreled on, saying, “—because I am going to pay you. My assistant Kiri, here, will be helping with as much of the actual construction as you deem fit. She’s the one that built this foundation under our feet, and her [Familiar], Sunny, lets her do the work of at least 10 people.”

Kiri came forward a step and bowed, while her little couatl did the same and flickered through several colors as she did.

“You didn’t make the foundation, Wizard?” O’Lark narrowed his eyes at Erick, then looked to Kiri. His appraisal was quick and marginally positive, then he turned back to Erick. “I had heard that you were good with building creation. That clan mountain you made in Songli was nothing special architecturally, but the Shaping was well done. It appears your apprentice is also accomplished, but I had expected to work directly with you.”

“Do you think I want to make this whole place out of eternal stonewood, or something?”

“I had assumed that you had some sort of specialized material that you were going to use that no one else could Shape. Something very robust! Like the Songli clan mountains! Is this not true?”

“Let me ask you a question in turn: Will people feel safer in this land if they know the resident Wizard could Shape it around them, and they could do nothing, or would they feel safer if they could Shape the buildings themselves, as an emergency measure.” When O’Lark had to stop and think, narrowing his eyes at the ground and then turning his eyes left and right, Erick continued, “I was going to put everything made here under Stone Denial spellwork. It’ll be weak to attackers with a Stone-based Domain, but it’ll allow people to Shape their own housing while the Denials are turned off, which can be done without much hassle.”

O’Lark frowned a little, then complained, “I won’t be able to use good materials, then.”

Erick said, “The work I wish from you is for overall planning and future-problem-proofing through the structures laid down today, or soon enough. I do not expect you to Shape all the land here, or much of it at all. I need plans for Gate organization. To that end, I’m probably going to give all the major Gate locations a 500 meter square plot of land, and four Gates. The four Gates will be split between people and product, and coming or going.” Erick said, “As a basic start, I’m envisioning a north-south-east-west gridwork city, with normal, wide roads separating every 500 meter square plot. Smaller roads as needed. The main thing, though, is that there will be several special Gate Roads, much, much wider than the normal roads and mostly going east to west. Those Gate Roads will have the four portals, and those lands where the portals are from will be situated directly next to their Gates, in order to control their own lands to collect taxes and such, of which half will go to me. I will be responsible for the integrity of the Network, and the security of this land, on this side. Partnered lands will be responsible for the land on their side, except for the parts which are homes for Yggdrasil.”

O’Lark studied Erick while his assistants recorded Erick’s wants, and then O’Lark turned his attentions sideways to look at the land all around them.

Erick waited.

Stitnakov and everyone else also waited.

“Utilitarian, eh? I suppose there’s beauty in that.” O’Lark turned back to Erick. “What’s your heraldry? Got any yet?”

“Nope.” Erick said, “We’re going rather fast right now. I’m trying to set up and prove this as a good thing before all the world decides I’m an evil which must be crushed.”

“This world is full of fools.” O’Lark waved a skinny arm, saying, “Eh! You’ll be fine. Maybe an assassin or two but you can handle that, I’m sure. I’ll be back with plans for approval. Tomorrow or whenever—” With sudden intensity, he asked, “Do you have a sewermaster? Which school of dungeoneering are they from?” He twirled around and glanced east. “Shadeling sewermaster over there, right? Or former shadeling?” He turned back, awaiting an answer— And then he demanded to know, “You’re making a Clan Mountain for yourself, too, are you not! Do you have that planned?!”

The man was intense. Erick almost chuckled.

But instead, Erick calmly said, “I plan on making a House Benevolence, yes. That building will be made of eternal stonewood. You and I will likely need to have a much larger conversation about needs when it comes to making that particular building, but I could use your expertise—”