200, 1/2

It was still a bit before go-time, and Erick was fretting. He had a simple plan, because anything overly complicated was doomed to fail. That plan went like this:

Get everyone into the same room.

Ensure violence would not happen.

Proceed to lay out some general duties so that everyone understood what they were getting into.

And then they would talk some, and Erick would assign smaller duties as necessary, for he surely hadn’t thought of everything that needed to be assigned. He assumed that this would take the longest amount of time, and most of the actual problems would arise here if not in that initial meeting.

Then he would assign the other 42 new hires to the various departments. He assumed that this section would also have a fair bit of discussion and anger. Hopefully, he could control this anger.

And that was it. His whole plan for this entire day.

Erick doubted that they would be able to get through everything in a single day. If they got through half of his goals he would be thrilled. He was pretty sure that he could keep the peace, though. Either way, he had rooms for the reincarnated back on Yggdrasil, while the wrought and the people of Ar’Cosmos already had their rooms inside the tower. All of those spaces were [Fairy Stronghold]s, too, so they were immune to casual observation.

Everyone would be mostly safe after the meeting, too, because he would be there.

“… Gods above I hope this works,” Erick said, as he paced in his kitchen.

Once again, Erick glanced at the clock on the wall. That clock had been a gift from Stratagold, back when Erick visited their district and he admired the clock tower, which had both the local time on top of the tower, and Stratagold time on a separate dial, just below the local clock. It was a small marvel that they had thought to put up such a tower, and that Erick hadn’t thought of such a thing first. Upon seeing the obvious utility of such a double clock, Erick wanted every district to have a tower like that, but he also wanted clocks on a wall inside House Benevolence that displayed every single time zone from every other Gate-linked land out there.

The clock on his wall right now was the first of many, for sure. It wasn’t the nice, solid green jade magical clock that Erick had had back in Ar’Cosmos, but mechanical clocks were nice, too.

Erick kinda wanted that jade clock back, though. Maybe he could ask Ar’Cosmos to provide a bunch of—

Teressa set a cinnamon roll on the table beside him, saying, “You look like you could use another.”

Erick chuckled a little. “Ahh. I am a bit of a mess right now—” Eyes wide, Erick looked around again. “How are we on supplies? Did we run out of anything important?”

The kitchen was absolutely filled with food of all kinds, but most of it was small cakes and rolls. There were large glass containers for coffee and tea, and that rounded out this morning’s general needs. Erick was all set to host a nice meeting between the overseers. If the day went super well, then Erick was halfway ready to host a get-together between all of his people.

Mephistopheles would be coming to partake of his planned role in an upcoming ‘royal court’. The only other person in that court was Zolan, so it wasn’t much of a court at all, but—

“Fuck,” Erick said, “I need a different name for the governors court— Oh! I can just call it that.”

Erick’s schedule was very full. Today was a massive day.

Teressa was still on Erick’s previous question, though, answering, “We’re low on almost all of the odder stuff, but that’s only because we haven’t been taking care of the garden recently. Stuff like flour and basic vegetables are taken care of, but stuff like beef and chicken are not.”

Erick stood straight. “What? No meat? But I had just looked…” He gazed outward with Ophiel, looking at the lands on Candlepoint’s southern edge. “Ah. Daetroi’s herds are still small— Wait… I don’t see any chickens? Where are the chickens? He had, like, a good four hundred of them with more being hatched and grown every day.” He counted the cows. He scowled. “And surely we didn’t go through a third of the herd in 20 days?”

Poi said, “Someone grabbed all of the chickens two nights ago and the cows have been vanishing, too. Slip has been investigating, but we think they were stolen by external forces. No real way to get them back, either.”

… What?

Erick had a surreal moment of disbelief, and then came the anger.

“What. The. Fuck.” Erick scowled at the world as he looked deeper into the manasphere near the former chicken coops. Two days ago was easy enough to [Witness], but it was still cloudy due to the passage of time. “… What the fuck? They all just… Flew away?” Erick looked more. “They flew away into the desert, and that’s everything. It ends there, some vanishing before the others, but all of them eventually vanish.” He came back to himself and looked around, asking, “They’re usually not that good at flying. Or [Teleport]ing?”

Teressa shrugged. “We think it’s a subtle [Husbandry]-[Teleport] spell, [Call the Flock]. A rare spell, but the Class Herder can get something like that.”

Poi shrugged. “It’s a theory.”

“… [Husbandry Teleport] is an option?” Erick frowned, mostly at himself. “Of course it’s an option.”

“You have to brand them, first.” Teressa said, “That means someone branded all the animals before they stole them but that could have happened weeks ago. Haven’t been able to find anything on that, either, so Slip is chasing down leads.”

Erick sighed. “Okay. So. No chicken for a while. Okay. Okay…” Erick frowned. “That’s just fucking annoying— Nope. Out of my hands. Not my problem right now. It’ll take Daetroi what? Two weeks to get back up and running?”

Teressa frowned a little. “Ehhh. Two months?”

“Months! Why would it take—” Erick shook his head. “Nope. Not a problem right now.” He looked around the room. “This makes all of this food a bit more extravagant than I thought it was, and yet, it’s not that special at all.”

Teressa burst out a laugh. “Sorry if I’m not a Cook, Boss.”

Kiri and Jane both frowned at Erick at the same time. Kiri was mixing up a bowl of cake batter in the kitchen, while Jane was icing more cinnamon rolls fresh out of the oven.

Jane slapped down her knife, and then sarcastically said, “I could throw them out. We could have nothing instead. Nothing will probably taste a lot better than our meager offerings.”

“I don’t even like lemon cake,” Kiri said, setting down her bowl with much to-do.

Erick eyed them all, then said, “That’s not what I mea— Shit.” He caught sight of the clock. “It’s time.”

Jane went back to icing the cinnamon rolls, sighing as she said, “We’ll catch up.”

Erick looked to his daughter, and his apprentice, and his guard, and his prognosticator.

His family.

Was he being too hard on them? Shit. Maybe he was.

“Sorry,” Erick said, “I know this has been rough on all of you, too—”

“Dad. It’s fine.” Jane said, “And no. It’s not been that rough at all. Nothing has happened besides a lot of standing around and watching you work.”

“Yes. But.” Erick looked at Jane, saying, “You don’t want to do that. I know you want to be anywhere else but here.” He looked to Kiri. “You and I haven’t done nearly enough magic.” He looked to Teressa and Poi, saying, “… Actually. Are you two happy?”

Teressa smiled. “Yeah. I am.”

“Me too,” Poi said. “I’m perfectly content.”

“Ah! Good.” Erick said, “Two out of four. Okay.”

Kiri sheepishly said, “I thought we were pretending to be mad.” She furrowed her brow, and said, “If this whole House Benevolence works —And I’m going to work to make sure it does! This whole thing is among the most important events to ever happen to this world… And to me too, too, I suppose. I’m happy, Erick. I am… Just a bit bored, but that’s fine? That’s fine.”

Jane looked to everyone, and then frowned. She actually was a bit mad. Erick couldn’t blame her for that, but she certainly seemed to blame herself. Jane said, “Okay. Well. I guess I’m the odd woman out. Sorry. I should have…” Her voice trailed away. And then she breathed deep, and said, “Kiri is right. I don’t know what came over me. I mean… This is everything I ever wanted, too, right? Like… Making a clear and obvious good difference in the world? Yes. That’s everything I want.”

It was not everything she wanted, at all. She wanted to get out from her father’s shadow, and every single day that desire grew. And yet, she did actually want to make the world a better place. She just wanted to do more violence and less guarding.

… Erick could do nothing about that right now, but he would need to send her and maybe Sitnakov out on assignment, or something. Both of them were struggling—

He realized something.

Erick asked, “You haven’t been able to go out and find your sword, have you?”

Jane frowned, embarrassed. “No. I haven’t. It’s not a big deal, either.”

“It is a big deal.” Erick asked, “Would you be okay with me making that a task for you and some of the other enforcers? I’m going to need some tasks to give out at the meeting. Some assignments that I can set as small, achievable goals, which will make the Overseers all work together. I didn’t really have one for Enforcement yet. And! I need to ask you about that, too. You still want to go hunt monsters, right? I’m hoping to be able to put you into Enforcement for monster hunts.”

Jane’s face flushed a bit red with embarrassment. “I… Yeah. Yeah. I want to do that. That’s great. That’s.. That’s really good, dad.”

Erick felt a thrum of joy in his soul to see his daughter happy again. “Okay! Then here’s the plan: We’ll go to the throne room, and from there I’ll pick up the people from Oceanside. I want you to bring in the breakfast stuff up there, soon. I’ll send a [Gate] for you. Start making the coffee now, please. And then…” Erick breathed in, out, then said, “And everything will come together, or something.”

“On it! Coffee!” Jane said, moving to the machine.

Erick simply nodded. Then he turned to his right, and opened a [Gate].

Without another word, he got on with the day.

– – – –

In Erick’s opinion, the throne room at the top of the tower was the best location for all the major meetings of the House, but that room wasn’t quite finished. Until last night. While laying in bed and unable to sleep, Erick frantically worked through Ophiels to make the room presentable and functional. Shaping tables out of eternal stonewood. Reluctantly making a throne (that he wasn’t going to use in the actual meeting). Making chairs that fit the table. Realizing that the shape of his table would mean a lot going forward, he scrapped all that he had come up with and turned the table into something else. Lighting. Carving the walls. Fixing everything that he had disturbed while he had done all that movement.

Erick stepped out of his living room and into a place that almost looked like a clearing in the woods, but it was not that at all.

Teressa stepped out of the portal behind him, looking around, her eyes going wide.

Poi smirked as he stepped through, saying, “You could have gone more fancy.”

“It’s pretty fancy already,” Teressa said.

“Oh! Let me see!” Kiri said, rushing through the portal— She stopped on the other side. “Ah? Hmm.”

Jane followed through next, her eyebrows rising as she looked around. “It’s rather… Prismatic, dad.”

“It’s not that prismatic… Eh?” Erick asked, “Is it too much?”

The white throne room at the top of House Benevolence was 40 meters across, and had a dome roof made of triangular sections of glass that fit together like hexagons. Pillars in the shape of tree trunks lined the room like reliefs, their branches stretching up into that domed ceiling, holding it aloft, while their roots flowed a good 3 meters out from the wall in gentle tangles. In most places, those roots were simple, and would not hinder people walking out of the hidden doors Erick had installed all around the room, but it was easy to see that the roots meant something, for those roots stopped abruptly as they reached that 3 meter demarcation. Where the roots stopped, they formed a circular lip all around the room. That lip meant something, but it was hard to see from just that clue.

The full breadth of Erick’s Shaping revealed itself in the smooth floor beyond that lip of faux roots, when that smooth floor transitioned into faux tilework.

All around the room, the empty space between the roots and the tile remained unbroken, except in the north. There was an empty space there, where a short dais rested; the circular design was the rune of [Renew], and Erick’s throne would go where the gap lay in the rune. Erick was perhaps most happy about that part of his design.

But the room was very white, as it was made entirely out of eternal stonewood. To counter this, Erick had added color by placing special wardlights onto the ‘leaves’ of every single ‘tree’ that surrounded the room. He had even put up sconces all around, attached to the trees. Rainbow lights, ever shifting in their nuanced colors, glowed upon those sconces.

The throne room was a lot of green, and white, and nuanced rainbow, but it was actually all just plain white light; Erick had gotten the idea for such lighting from Redflame’s castle in Ar’Cosmos. All those lights were Carnage red flames, but they all gave off plain white light.

Erick was less than thrilled about the throne, but it had been necessary to have one, and so he did.

The throne was of similar make to the one at Candlepoint; a simple white throne that was easy to sit upon. This one was slightly different, in that he had thrown a ribbon of rainbow-white light across the back of that one. Other than that it was nothing special.

Erick moved through the room as he pointed and explained, “The echo was pretty bad in here until I added the tree pillars and all the faux foliage; now the sound is somewhat diffuse. There are doors hidden in the forest, mostly where the roots are absent, but all of the setup for this room is kept below. There are stage doors in the floor here; that’s where I put the furniture.” Those furniture pieces began blipping into space in the center of the room. “Ophiel is helping me move them up for today. The only main entrance is through those trees over there, at the southern end of the room; they fold inward. The room beyond that fake forest wall is meant for food delivery. That’s where you’ll come in from.

“I went with a simple round table for the meeting, and all the chairs I made for it are all the same.” Erick began arranging those chairs around the large table. “I won’t actually sit in the throne while we’re having a normal meeting. The throne is for special events… I guess. I also made a whole bunch of other tables that can go all around the entire room, sitting on the [Renew] rune or otherwise, which is where I will put them for the larger gatherings I have here, but the party tonight —if we get that far— will be at the atrium downstairs.

“And this is basically it!” Erick put a hand on the back of the chair he planned to sit on; it was exactly the same as the other chairs around the 4 meter wide circular table. “What do you think?”

Teressa glanced at the table, saying, “That needs to be bigger.”

“… Eh?” Erick asked, “But it’s orcol-sized already?”

Poi said, “You’ve got under two meters of distance between you and your next nearest person, and that won’t [Fly]. Also, the center of the table needs to be empty, so everyone can see each other’s feet and to see if they’re working magic underneath. Also, Sitnakov is coming in right now.”

Right on cue, The Adamantium Wind stepped out of the air and into the room. He happily said, “Morning! It’s time for the great big meeting, right?”

“Yes.” Erick said, “And I hope to the gods above and all others besides that this goes well.”

Poi nodded, adding, “I’m reasonably sure that we’ll have some unexpected guests, so you need to add more space to that table just for that reason.”

Sitnakov looked at the table. “That’s too small.”

“Okay okay.” Erick looked to Jane and Kiri. “Please get things ready; I’m closing the [Gate] after you go back through.” The two girls rapidly complied, returning through the portal to home. Erick closed the [Gate] and began reshaping the table, doing as Poi and Sitnakov suggested. “Six meters across mean around 2.5 meters between everyone. If two more people show up then that’s two meters between each person?”

Poi nodded; acceptable. Then he said, “Oceanside has alerted me that they are ready for pickup. Aisha, Burhendurhur, and Volaro will be ready to join the meeting when you call for them. Within 15 minutes?”

Erick nodded. “Within 15.” He looked across the world to Oceanside, where four people awaited in a courtyard at the hospital; three people Erick expected, and Kirginatharp. He opened a [Gate] from there to here and turned to them, saying, “Hello, everyone.”

Kirginatharp asked, “How is the housing for the others?”

He was nervous.

Erick was nervous.

Both of them tried not to show it.

Erick said, “The housing is ready when the people are ready to come back. Everything is secured behind [Fairy Stronghold]s, runic webs, redundant illusions, and a direct promise from you-know-who to not go into those spaces where she has not been invited. I have explicitly uninvited her, too.”

Kirginatharp breathed deep, then he turned to Zolan, Mox, and Raingorl. “It’s been a pleasure working with you all these years. I look forward to continuing to work with you in your new home, and profession.” He turned to Erick. “Thank you, Erick. Everyone else might be a day or two getting ready. They’ll be waiting.”

Erick nodded, then he turned to his new people. “Welcome to House Benevolence, Zolan Brightborn, Mox Dawnborn, and Raingorl Brightsnapper. I didn’t mean to change your names, but it happened. I hope you’re happy with everything else.”

All three of them wore impeccable clothes—

Fuck. Erick needed a theme for his clothes, didn’t he? Or was that too ‘Star Wars’ trooper armor? Whatever the case, Kirginatharp or someone else had taken notice of how Erick had styled his own [Conjure Armor] these days. They had made similar clothes for his new Overseers; mostly white, but with black accents.

— on their new, younger bodies. Zolan was an absolute hunk of a 20-something demi, with nice violet skin, black hair, and small horns, and Erick was embarrassed for himself that he had an instinctual reaction upon seeing the guy, but there was no other way to say it other than Zolan was fucking hot. Which was fine. Zolan seemed perfectly aware of his body, if his casual expression of solidity was anything to go by, or perhaps he was just ready to start the workday, for real. He was ready to be political.

Mox wore white and black as well, which contrasted nicely with her dark skin. The human woman was also 20-something, and a fire seemed to burn in her dark eyes that was brighter than the sun. She was ready for anything.

Raingorl was your standard stupidly-beautiful 19-ish orcol man, blessed by the Goddess of Beauty and Brutality, Aloethag. That blessing hadn’t been so obvious back when Erick had sent the guy to Oceanside to recover, but now that Raingorl was up and about, that blessing was obviously present. He wore his black hair cropped short, and his clothes a bit loose. His left hand seemed to want to grip something, but he was probably just missing his cane, since he didn’t need it anymore.

The three ‘youngsters’ came through the [Gate] at near the same time, and then each of them took a knee, putting one hand over their chest and the other to the ground.

They lowered their heads and spoke in unison, “We owe you our lives, Apparent King and Wizard of Benevolence, Erick Flatt. We hope to repay your kindness and your trust by supporting the growth of your ideals, and of your House. Thank you for accepting us under your aegis.”

Unexpected, but perhaps Erick should have expected this. He spoke calmly, “Rise, and join me as we discuss our place in the world, and how to make everything better for everyone that we can.”

They rose.

Zolan had a small smirk he couldn’t control. Mox was relaxed, and prepared. Raingorl chuckled a little; he was happy to be of service to a higher ideal again. All three of them had missed this. All three of them had been exactly the kind of people who wanted to make the world a better place in the first place, which is why they went to work with Kirginatharp, the Headmaster. Time had made mockery of their efforts, and so they had to retire.

But now, they were here, out of retirement, and ready to resume with their life’s work, under a different power.

Erick turned and looked to Kirginatharp, standing on the other side of the [Gate]. The sun beat down at an angle over there, casting the gold and white master of Oceanside into tiny shadows. Here, at the Gate District of Candlepoint, the room was awash with white light from a thousand sources, while overhead the sky was golden with dawn.

Erick nodded to Kirginatharp.

Kirginatharp nodded to Erick.

And then Erick closed the [Gate].

He took a moment to breathe, and then he broke the ice, asking, “Any problems you’ve noticed? Everything working out well?”

Zolan said, “Everything is working out very well.”

Erick smiled. “Good.”

“I haven’t needed to clean and heal as usual for the first time in 95 years.” Mox said, “I now have a whole extra hour of every day, and an extra 3500 mana.”

“That’s great!” Erick said.

“Aloethag seems to have taken pleasure in my return to youth.” Raingorl frowned a little, but even that looked hot on him. “She has given me a stronger blessing than usual. It should not affect my work.”

“Okay… That’s different.” Erick asked, “It’s okay?”

Raingorl smiled brightly. “I can live with it.”

“Ah. Good! Great.” Erick looked at the three of them, asking, “Any other changes I should know about?”

Zolan said, “All of our magical signatures are either paler or outright white. Mine is the color of new sand.”

“Mine is full-white,” Mox said.

“New growth green,” Raingorl said.

A bit weird! But fine! Erick was happy, for every one of these people seemed happy, and that’s what mattered. But it was time to switch gears. He was their boss, now. Erick looked at the three of them, and said, “Your counterparts will be joining us shortly.”

Zolan, Mox, and Raingorl each seemed to flick a switch, and turn professional. The time for small talk was not exactly over, but it was also time to work.

Erick had two different Ophiel each open up two different [Gate]s, about ten meters apart from each other. The celesteel human wrought, Aisha, stood on the other side of one portal, while the incani-like Burhendurur and the orcol-like Volaro stood together behind the other [Gate].

Erick said to them, “Please join us in the throne room. We will be discussing the future of our organization now.”

Aisha gave a small bow and strode forward. She wore robes that looked almost exactly like Erick’s, but fit for a woman, and made of her own iridescent silver body.

Burhendurur and Volaro gave small nods and walked into the room. Both of them wore robes like Erick’s, too, which was good. But they had made a mistake and it had nothing to do with what they wore.

Erick told the two dragons, “Eventually, I hope to attain a certain easy familiarity with each of you, and therefore there will be no need for bows or other such acknowledgments of stations. But that time is not right now.” He stared at them. “Everyone else bowed.”

The two dragons startled, and then they bowed. Everyone else gave small expressions of relief, righteousness, and gathered solidity. Burhendurur and Volaro did not seem put off by being put in their place, either, for in each of their minds, Erick could tell that yes, that had been a small test, and that they were both personally miffed at being called out on their antics, and relieved that antics would not be tolerated. Volaro actually seemed pleased with himself, as if he had given Erick a way to rise above the other people in the room at a small cost to Volaro’s own pride. Volaro seemed to have pride to spare, so this much was nothing to him.

Weird, but fine?

Good, actually.

Volaro seemed to have no trouble in being told that he was crossing a line, or perhaps he was fine with Erick telling him off. At least this would make it easier for Erick to tell Volaro that his judgements were unjust, and for the Carnage Dragon to do something else.

“Okay.” Erick turned to everyone, caught a hundred smaller thoughts in the expressions of eyes and shoulders and heartbeats and tensing hands of all his people, and said, “Everyone please have a seat where I placed the wardlight with your name and position.”

Without words, and in a guarded manner, the six of them complied.

Zolan sat to Erick’s immediate left, then there was Mox, then Raingorl, followed by Aisha, Volaro, and Burhendurur. The glowing names and positions faced toward the center of the table, so that everyone could read the others’ more easily.

Erick opened with, “Welcome, everyone. First, thank you all for choosing to be a part of House Benevolence. Together, the seven of us here and whoever comes afterward, will be working to make all the world a better place, a more connected place, a safer place, for all of us and all people, even those who have historically been enemies. Enemies of others, or enemies of ourselves, it does not matter. We work toward a brighter future.

“For our toil, we will be powerful, and able to cause change on a large scale. Mostly, I expect this change to come through proving our economic strength, and the strength of our defense, in order to provide peace and prosperity and to raise the standard of living across the entire world.

“We will even open new worlds, eventually.

“There will be difficulty, of course. I had expected to fight off at least one war by now, but that has not happened, likely due in no small part to the wrought and Oceanside and Ar’Cosmos and others each working in the background, in their own ways, to make this happen. You and your people all came to this table, ready to cooperate, and I thank you for your presence, and your oaths of fealty.

“I will prove myself and my goals worthy of your trust, and I hope you will do the same.

“I have a small measure of tasks to get done today, but after that, I hope that all of you will be able to talk with each other, and to plan whatever you wish to plan, and to work together to make our wishes of a better future come to fruition.” Erick paused, then he said, “Here is what I want to do, today:

The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

“Introductions.

“Delineation of overarching duties and expectations, as understood by me.

“Then there will be a small break for refreshments.

“Then we will come back, and you all will speak of your delineation of duties, as understood by you.