209, 1/2

Before Erick knew it there was a single week left till the end of the year, then came Shadow’s Feast, and then the week-long Triumph of Light celebration afterward. He had not actually been planning much for any of that, but now that the hour was near, just like with last year and Last Shadow’s Feast, Erick got a wake-up-call telling him it was time to prepare.

That call had come in the form of a letter from a person Erick hadn’t thought about at all in recent months.

While sitting at his desk, Erick read the letter again.

– –

Dearest Fire of the Age, Erick Flatt, Wizard and Dragon of Benevolence,

GREETINGS!

It has been a whole year since I saw you directly! And yes, that does mean that I have been spying sometimes, as a concerned citizen of the world sometimes does when Wizards start walking around openly and honestly. You should know that I still have your fun little [Blessing of Minor Truth] active. I am looking forward to telling you all about what I’ve been doing this last year when I next see you in person! For we will be meeting again for this year’s Shadow’s Feast, will we not? Surely we will!

Since you are hosting the Feast this time.

I look forward to your opening song to the Dark, for My God has mentioned that once or twice or a hundred times— it is how it is with ancient gods and finding something they truly look forward to, you know.

But after that opening magics, there will have to be planned festivities and honors and such and such! I cannot wait to see what you come up with, for it is your year to plan and produce the whole thing! Goldie and Quilatalap are there to help you if you need help, and surely you will, but I will be showing up a day before the event and I suspect all the rest of us will be showing up a day before, too! They’ve all got triumphs to share with you, themselves, but I’ve kept tabs on them, so I can share a little bit right now.

Lapis, Shade of Enchantment. Ensuring the Quiet War remains as silent as it can be.

Farix, Shade of Education. Ensuring the safety and prosperity of the Brightwater refugees.

Treant, Shade of Forest. Cultivating the wild spaces to reduce danger and increase life.

Queen, Shade of Empire. Bringing Songli back from devastation, and more.

Hollowsaur, Shade of Life. Dismantling and reforming problematic species into beneficial things.

And of course you know of Goldie, Shade of Counter-Assassination.

And then there is me!

I look forward to seeing you again, Erick.

-Love, Fallopolis, Shade of Civilization, Culler of Corruption

– –

Erick looked up from his desk at the person who had given him the letter. “So… Goldie? Got any ideas for the party?”

Goldie stood on the other side of Erick’s desk, wearing her customary black leathers, with her customary black plank of a sword hovering at her back. She was at rest-stance, though that was rather normal. She was always as prim and proper as could be when she was around Erick in any sort of official capacity, and this was one of those times.

Instead of confirming that Erick would, in fact, be accepting the duty of hosting Shadow’s Feast himself, Goldie easily rattled off, “It will take place in the main tower of House Benevolence. You will cast your Time Magic in a large enough way to envelop this entire space, which will require you to make something new. Over the course of 1 night, we should have at least 48 hours of time in which to lay out all the accomplishments of everyone.

“The only people present from your side should be those you deem worthy of telling their exploits to others, and who you trust to hear the exploits of everyone else, and who you do not mind learning certain secrets that you have kept hidden for a long time. I have suggestions on that front, but I would not feel comfortable clouding your judgments with those personnel suggestions, so I will not give those.

“You will supply dishes and drink enough for everyone to consume to their core’s content—”

She stopped.

Because Fairy Moon stepped out of the open air to the side. The not-young-woman-at-all wore her usual pink and green dress, with a white corset. Her heterochromatic pink and green eyes sparkled, as she smiled, asking, “I wish to be welcomed for this feast.”

… It seemed things were moving fast in his life again.

Erick considered Fairy Moon’s request/order, and paused in his response so that Fairy Moon knew that he was truly considering it. The fae gained a small smile.

And then Erick asked, “Can I talk you out of this request?”

Fairy Moon frowned. “You could, but you could also not. Ask instead for agreements of secrecy sealed, and gain gifts of Ar’Cosmos catering and care instead.”

Goldie said nothing. She gave a light look at Fairy Moon, but Erick could tell nothing of how she felt— Ah. Goldie had shifted to shadow a small amount, and was perfectly controlling her countenance…

And with that particular thought, Erick gained some insight into his first of several open-ended requests.

Erick leveled at Fairy Moon, “You and whoever you bring will see things they were never meant to see. Things which could destroy the world if they got out. Therefore, you will remain silent about the secrets you spy— And you will stop infecting everything with your Fae Magic. And! These words are not to be lawyered out of. They are general wishes of goodwill desired from you, about all things. The closer you adhere to the spirit of this sentencing, then the better off I will be, and you will be, and all of everything we are doing here will go better, and what you are doing in Ar’Cosmos, will be better. You will be as a perfect guest. You will not influence anything in any untoward manner, unless that untowardness is required for the good of all of everyone.” He added, “And you’ll bring food and drink of all sorts, and… At most one or three more guests who will agree to the same.”

Fairy Moon listened to all of Erick’s words, and then instantly said, “I agree.”

Erick looked at her.

Fairy Moon smiled a little bit. “I agree! What more do you want?”

Erick said, “There’s going to be a small amount of my great big secrets revealed, even though I don’t want them revealed. The Shades already know them, but as far as I can tell they didn’t tell anyone, so the only real problem here is you and whoever you bring.”

Erick was talking about a lot of secrets, but the major ones were his possession of [Duplicate] and also that his real form looked like a small Melemizargo—

… His real form? What the fuck was that thought?

Erick ignored that thought for now.

“I can cast some compelling curses to keep your secrets as secure as the secrets of Ar’Cosmos, so that you will be able to announce those secrets to your people at the party, and then retract those secrets at the end.” Fairy Moon smiled, saying, “I would maintain those mysteries myself, but I am also great at keeping confidence when charged with that call. It would be as though the party happened in a dream for all other people.”

Goldie spoke up, “There will be none of that at the party. Melemizargo is about open honesty, and that secrets once given cannot be taken. If you cannot trust someone not to spill your secrets, Lord Flatt, then you should forbid them from the festivities.” Goldie winced a bit there at the end, for she was speaking in alliteration. With bright white eyes, she glared at Fairy Moon. “Do not.”

Fairy Moon almost responded—

But Erick made his words final as he spoke, “We will not be doing fae seals on the party. If you cannot trust your plus-1, 2, or 3, then you cannot bring them. If I cannot trust you, then…” Erick simply looked at Fairy Moon. “I want to trust you. Don’t screw this up. Don’t let others screw this up, either. You are an ally to me, so act like it more, please.”

Fairy Moon simply nodded. “I am aware I am in-the-hole with you. I will make it up to you this Shadow’s Feast, and you will know me for who I wish to be. I will ensure Bright Smile is on her best behavior, too, for she will be my plus-1, and there will be no others.”

“… Okay. That’s fine. I look forward to hearing the truth of what is going on in Ar’Cosmos in a friendly manner and from Bright Smile herself. Also, I do not appreciate you listening in to conversations that were clearly not about you. I did not say your name at all. You were not invited into this conversation.”

Fairy Moon smiled a little, and then vanished, her voice trailing away on the air, “See you soon!”

Erick ignored Fairy Moon, who was probably still in the room with them, and turned to Goldie. “As you were saying?”

Goldie turned away from where Fairy Moon was, then said, “Guest list. Guest quarters. Guest food and drink and comfort and security. Slotted time for the Shades to speak— Fairy Moon. Leave please.”

Something ephemeral left the room.

Erick held up a hand and flashed a Privacy through the space, dismissing it as soon as it was cast, using it as a manasphere cleanser. And then he flicked a [Cleanse] through the space to be sure. Thick air spilled away from Goldie and from all the rest of the space, but not that much, really.

Erick asked Goldie. “Do you have an idea of why she was here like that? This usually doesn’t happen.”

Goldie said, “Worried over the end of the year. Everyone is. Everyone has called last year’s festivities ‘Last Shadow’s Feast’ and we allowed it and encouraged it, but it was never going to be the ‘Last Shadow’s Feast’, for ‘Shadow’s Feast’ has happened every single year for a million years. The nature of that party changed in the New Cosmology, but since the Culling of our Clergy, it is Melemizargo’s hope that the Feast is back to being what it used to be… hopefully.”

“Yeah… Figured it was something like that.” Erick said, “So let’s change the name, then. Start something new.”

Goldie paused, her eyes going a little wide. “Uhh.” And then she recovered. “There are metaphysical reasons it is called ‘Shadow’s Feast’, because it is an honoring to the Dark, yet in such a way that existence can survive that honoring. People cannot survive honoring the Dark directly. So we gift a feast and the Dark takes what He desires, as one does for dragons and gods.”

“How about ‘Shadow’s Triumph’? Less of a connotation of devouring the world. More of an idea of spreading and honoring?” Erick said, “It aligns with the same sort of ideas of the Triumph of Light, too, and this way there is parity on both sides. Maybe the Triumph of Light can change into something less ‘anti-Shadow’ and ‘anti-Dark’ as well. But that’s not up to me. That’s an entire world changing their thoughts.”

Goldie went, “Uhh… You could try it— How about Shadow’s Festival? It’s almost the same?”

Erick nodded. He would try that, too. He could workshop a bunch of names, actually.

“Anyway.” Goldie continued, “There should be time for each Shade to speak, to tell you how they have tried to make the world better. Then there’s the public orgy event, which is always popular but we never got to last time. I believe you spoke about missing the last one because the whole event sort of… fell apart there. But you can certainly make that happen this year. Then there are non-Shade talks that should happen. Quilatalap will be expected to speak on something; he can do whatever he wants though, as he usually does— Ah! Exhibits are necessary and good. Since we’ll have at least two days of a party— more are better— then there should be multiple small parties lined up. You need to do the opening ceremony with the song that Melemizargo desires, then I suggest a party in the beginning, a day of exhibits and speeches, another party which is probably the orgy. Sleep. Another party, more speeches. End of day dismissal.” Goldie said, “Those are my suggestions.”

“… No orgy this year, either. Save it for your own time, or for personal inclinations during the event.”

Goldie nodded.

Erick asked, “Any guest list suggestions?”

“Less is more, in this case. You and a date or three. More dates is a good thing. All the Shades get a plus-1… Maybe 25 people, total? 30? None of your overseers… Except maybe Zolan? Mox, too; she’s incredibly good at her job. They’ll be expected to give small exhibits, at least. Probably no speeches.”

Erick had some ideas about all of that. He rapidly decided, “Those two can probably take the night off for a party. Everyone else will be on high alert. Will you be an assistant coordinator for me? Not sure what that will entail, but I’ll figure it out.”

Goldie stood fractionally straighter. “Absolutely.”

“Good. Then…” Erick said, “Then I’ll put everyone on alert and you can tell me when the other Shades all get here. I’ll greet them, and they can shuffle off into their rooms in the Shade tower…” Erick stood up. “I need to make some new magics.”

Goldie bowed, and then she straightened and vanished.

– – – –

Once Erick was back in his warehouse, and probably alone, he sat down on the ground and had a minor panic.

He was going to host the Shades for a Shadows Feast.

This was really happening. Erick had hoped that Melemizargo would have forgotten about the Feast and no one would ever mention it again, but holy shit. Of course that wasn’t going to happen. Like Goldie had said, this party had been happening every year since the dawn of the Old Cosmology.

And now here he was, expected to host Shades…

Okay.

Erick forced himself to stop panicking, and he was mostly successful.

Erick got up and got to work. First thing he needed to do was combine [Hasted Shelter] with [Renew], making an expandable hasted space, like he had with [Fairy Stronghold]. Easy enough. This was actually a spell Erick had been thinking about a lot, since a lot of dragons were way too large to fit inside his single Shelter, but he had never really had a need to make a larger magic, since, as a dragon, Erick’s range and size of every spell had gotten rather large. He could easily fill a 40-by-40-by-40 meter spherical-ish cube with a single [Hasted Shelter], if he wanted. Too bad the House was a lot larger than that.

And there was no way a Feast could ever fit in a single 40-meter-cubed space.

Erick shook himself out a little, shaking his hands and rolling his shoulders. He did a few small pushups to get the blood flowing, and then he stood and centered himself, briefly closing his eyes.

He opened his eyes.

With a few quick commands, Erick had a few Ophiel surround him. He handed out spellwork to all of them, rapidly bringing a new song to a crescendo of [Renew]ed and expandable Time Magic, and then he cast. A very similar Hasted area filled the space around Erick, but it was different in all the ways that mattered.

He dismissed the spell.

A blue box appeared.

Pretty much the same as before, but now it was ‘Expandable’, and Erick had even managed to work in that part about not fully breaking if one section broke.

Which was great!

… But the spell was rather a great deal stronger timewise than it needed to be, if they were only going to do 48 hours of partying in 12 hours of real time. With this, Erick could have 30 days of a party inside a single night.

… Had Tania Webwalker’s ‘hasted shelter’ spell, that covered the entirety of Ar’Kendrithyst, been weaker in strength? No. Obviously not. Obviously it had simply been tuned more for area, and less for density of time. Was Erick’s own spell a problem?

… No. They would have a normal night until midnight, and then Erick could cast [Expandable Hasted Shelter] and seal everyone into the party, rapidly filling the House with this magic. And then, from midnight to 1 am, they could have 60 hours of time to do whatever they wanted. Good. Yes. That… Could work.

He could keep going with this magic, though; add in some Undertow and such—

Oh!

No. He wasn’t going to make this magic drain the people inside in order to keep working longer. That seemed like… A really bad idea. REALLY bad, actually.

But Erick’s stray Undertow thoughts knocked loose some other magic he had been meaning to make for a while. Not a combo of all this other ‘party time enabling magic’, but something far more useful. A generalized Undertow, able to extract mana from donors from one side, and through a [Renew], empower any magics on the other side. He hadn’t actually put that magic together yet, and now was a good time to do so—

This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.

As a few Ophiel came together and started to sing, Erick realized that this spell was likely larger than most of the magics he had ever made. He stopped Ophiel’s song. He restarted.

Had to do this right, remaking all of this particular magic from the very beginning, Basic Tier, and he had to write everything down so that future generations could do this magic right, too. After a few false starts with wording, Erick got some paper and wrote down his thoughts… Mostly.

It starts with a set of magic controlled.

A [Renew] laid down to form the base mold.

Then comes Abyss to pull mana and hold

in a [Ward] made of Drain, the mana will fold

into self-made creations; eternal stronghold.

The base form is set, conditions are laid;

take all you’ve made, and now start to braid.

The Abyss plunges far, drawing mana down deep.

Collapsed shadow to star! Light bleeds, it doth creep

In the form of [Renew] laid down at the first

powering self and others, here now, determinant.

It’ll work well now that you’re magically versed

And capable of making power that’s Permanent.

It wasn’t a poem Erick sang to the mana. It was a primer for people, and therefore it was purposefully cryptic.

It was also rather unnecessary, considering the whole point of [Renew] was that anyone could buy that and use that to directly power any other magics out there; that was how Erick had created that magic, after all. But with this Erick could set out a ‘charging station’ for his eventual city-wide runic web, that would eventually be powering all the city…

Oh. He could go a bit further, couldn’t he?

Erick’s grin went wide as he laughed a little, happily aware of what his next spell would look like; what it could do.

He lined up some Ophiel and they sang with him.

Seconds later, a spellform popped into existence.

The base nature of the magic was a blot of cold shadows in the air, and a tiny pinprick of light in the center. It almost looked like Erick’s [Undertow Star], all made of tendrils of shadow and hovering above the ground, but in a much, much smaller form. It was only about a meter across. This spell was only tier 2, as Erick had started from the base creation of his Undertow effect and added [Renew] right at the beginning. This was because he had needed to start over. All his other Undertow spellworks had been much too specialized already, and this was the spellwork he imagined many, many other people would attempt to replicate in the many, many years to come.

The blue box for the spell was taking a while to come through.

So Erick got to experimenting. He had an Ophiel hover near the shadowy tendrils and, almost lazily, the tendrils began to touch Ophiel. This was a subdued version of this spell; not fast acting at all. At least not right away. As glowing lights flowed from Ophiel into the ball of shadows, the light at the center of those shadows began to glow brighter and brighter—

The tendrils released Ophiel; the spell was fully—