217, 1/2

The edges of the [Gate] swirled with black magic, but the interior of the portal was as idyllic a land as any. Grass, trees, mountains and a blue sky. Erick thought it might be a nice place to build a small cottage and an accompanying garden. Course there was no way to know where in the world that land beyond the portal actually lay without going through it and trying to get to a known location, and Erick wouldn’t be doing that. The land beyond could be literally anywhere on Veird, and it might not even be on the Surface, for the Underworld sometimes had places that mimicked the overworld, with artificial suns and all.

And besides that, Erick got the distinct impression that no matter how nice the land beyond looked, that it was full of danger. Menace radiated from the swirling black edge of the [Gate], and especially from the Script-like box that hung in the air, in the center of the portal.

Erick tried to mana sense past the edge of the [Gate], as he could with his own [Gate]s, but his ability to become one with the mana and feel out the reality of that mana ended at that black and white box. Nothing was allowed to interact with the [Gate] at all, except for light, and all of that light could just be an illusion.

Like a screen saver…

Erick hummed, then asked, “Does this scene look like a repeating scene to you, Quilatalap?”

Quilatalap had fallen into a comfortable silence beside Erick, both of them thinking over their conversations of the Theory of Forms and what that meant for the fae, as well as what they were seeing as compared to what they were both effectively [Witness]ing in the mana all around. After taking a moment to come back to the present, Quilatalap focused his eyes again, saying, “Not a repeating scene. It’s a [Gate] to somewhere… Do you think the whole thing might be an illusion?”

“The interior at least.”

Quilatalap hummed in initial disagreement, but then he looked a bit more at the [Gate]. He asked, “Did you [Witness] the conversation between Fallopolis as she introduced the [Gate]?”

“Yes, but I’d take your interpretation over what I actually saw, considering you were in charge of the Armory.”

About five hours ago, according to the manasphere imprint Erick had seen, Fallopolis had gathered the crowds who wished to see her true presentation, the one she had told Erick that she would only show after he had seen all the other presentations. The old kook had stood in the center of the Atrium, declaring how she couldn’t wait any longer to show off what she and the Darkness had been working on, and so she opened this [Gate], loudly proclaiming that All Those Who Aspire should step forth and test themselves to see if they were worthy of the power that the Script gave them.

Three people had gone inside, following Fallopolis like they and she had planned their inclusion beforehand, which was probably what had happened. Fairy Moon followed after a glance from Fallopolis. Hollowsaur had joined them, too, after Fallopolis had wordlessly glared at the man.

Erick imagined he would hear all about all of that later, when they all came back out of the [Gate].

“It’s a test.” Quilatalap said, “I ran the tests of power and capability for All Those Who Aspire for a long time. Apparently, My God has seen fit to give this task to… Someone else? Not Fallopolis, though. She merely declared that the testing would begin.”

“… Hmm?” Erick looked to the black edge of the [Gate] again. “It appeared like she cast this [Gate]?”

“Not at all,” Quilatalap said, looking uncomfortable but reining in that impulse. “The Darkness Himself opened this [Gate].”

“… You seem uncomfortable for a lot of different reasons? Is something wrong?”

“I have a feeling that all the artifacts I reacquired from the sacking of the Armory have somehow left their secured location without triggering any of the traps and defenses I left behind. I feel that they’re in there. Or at least some of them are. And… I was the tester, Erick. So that’s one of the big…” Quilatalap stared into the idyllic portal, then made himself turn softer, attempting to dismiss all of his previous life in that simple act. “Anyway. It’s a test, and tests are not illusion-based unless the aspirant pursues Illusion Magic. There’s nothing about this that is a lie.”

Quilatalap had been blindsided by this ‘testing’, but this was not the first time his life had been thrown into upheaval without him being able to do a single thing to stop that upheaval.

“Do you want to be involved in this?” Erick asked, not knowing which answer he would want from Quilatalap, but needing to ask the question anyway.

And suddenly, Erick was worried about what it would mean if Quilatalap chose to be involved in this ‘testing’ again.

After a long, silent moment, Quilatalap said, “I don’t know.” And then he shrugged, and turned away from the portal and began walking. “I do know that I want lunch! Breakfast is over.”

… And just like that? Quilatalap was over it? Not bloody likely. But whatever. For now, it was fine. Erick walked beside the man, toward the lunch area.

Zolan, Bright Smile, and Farix sat at a table between them and the breakfast station, their meal of fancy quiches and flaky breads and jams and sausage only half touched. They had been talking business for the last several hours, from before the black [Gate] had opened, and to now, when Erick and Quilatalap had reappeared. The three of them slowed down their conversation as Erick and Quilatalap had spoken, but they had gotten right back to it when it appeared nothing was happening with the Wizard and the Archlich except for talking.

Now, though, Zolan excused himself from his conversation and stood up, as Erick made to pass by. Zolan asked, “Are you Melemizargo?”

Everyone froze except for Quilatalap, who smiled wide, and then kept walking, asking Erick, “Do you want breakfast or lunch, Erick?”

“Lunch. Whatever you pick out for me is great,” Erick said, before instantly flowing into conversation with Zolan, “I am not Melemizargo. When Rozeta helped me achieve my [Greater Dragon Body], Melemizargo did some shit, because he is a shithead, as Rozeta herself has stated.”

Zolan was not convinced, but he had pulled back from an unwelcome edge; that much was plain on his face. He was very happy with Erick’s answer. There was a lot more to that expression than happiness, but Zolan would probably share those thoughts in a more private setting.

Bright Smile had no trouble throwing rocks into the pond, to see how big of wave she could cause, “I suppose it would be impossible to be both Xoat and the Darkness.”

“Oh my gods,” Erick mumbled.

Farix flatly stated, “From you, that statement is more like ‘oh my children’. Same sort of exasperation, too.”

Erick glared daggers. “Now that is completely ridiculous.”

Farix grinned wide. “I know. That’s why I said it.”

… He was teasing? What the fuck?

Oh. Bright Smile had been teasing, too. And not just Erick, but Zolan. Both of them had been teasing Zolan and Erick at the same time.

Odd.

Farix dropped his teasing and said to everyone, “He’s not the Darkness —That’s blasphemy and I don’t appreciate it— and he probably isn’t Xoat, either.”

“ ‘Probably’, Farix?” Erick frowned.

Bright Smile said to Farix, “Melemizargo has been insane for the longest time. If he made an avatar of himself then why not make someone like Erick?”

Zolan did not like how much he agreed with Bright Smile; Erick could tell.

Farix said to Bright Smile, “The Darkness does not take a human-shaped avatar outside of extreme cases, and He would never hide Himself. Therefore, based on all known history of The Dark, Erick cannot be Melemizargo. This situation most resembles the Black Blessing of Adamantium, actually, in that My God did not want the color white to be associated with Good, and the color black to be associated with Evil. That’s all this was.”

Bright Smile frowned, saying, “But the horns. Three on both sides, looking like a crown of black. They bear too much resemblance.”

“It’s a foi— a foible!” Farix’s voice faltered, for he was trying to convince himself of his own words this whole time. He recovered fast enough. “…Nothing more.”

Ah.

So not just teasing. More like them trying to convince themselves that their current reality was fine, and that nothing was wrong, and ‘let’s not speak about the Darkness too loud for he might hear’.

Zolan sighed, grabbed a second chair and set it beside his own seat at the large breakfast table, gesturing to it as he looked to Erick. Erick took the offered seat, and Zolan sat back down in his own chair, saying, “Most people would call the color of adamantium the Black Curse, including Melemizargo himself, and on multiple occasions. To be fair, he also calls it a ‘blessing’ half the time, but the full story is not as simple as you make it, Farix. You make everything too simple by far, like how you think it is acceptable for Elemental Fae to be taught in school. That understanding of the fae we heard at the Tellings would destroy many young casters who think that ‘just willing it to happen’ is all that is necessary for all magic.”

“I thought you all were talking about business?” Erick asked. “I was prepared to speak of [Gate]s and organization on that level.”

Zolan was uncomfortable with Erick, but he was getting over it rather fast. “We could go back to that, but we promised each other that we would hold off on the topics of magic until you arrived, so that you could participate, and I am quite angry at the easy teaching of Fae Magic that these two wish to bring to the Greater Candlepoint Area.”

Farix was absolutely delighted to say, “If it were up to Oceanside, no one would learn anything, and isn’t that a tragedy of the highest sort! All you propose are arcanaeums dedicated to teaching wrong.”

Zolan said, “We do not ‘teach wrong’. We weed out those who would do harm from those who show promise as beneficial for the world. You would teach the world everything dangerous and have the world collapse under the weight of a million tyrants.”

“We would have it collapse under its own preponderance of easy magic,” Farix corrected, before adding, “At least that’s how it used to be! Everything is different now, Zolan, and the lines you have historically drawn need to be reconsidered.”

For a moment, during that teasing not two minutes ago, Erick had thought that they were all getting along.

Obviously, that was temporary.

And now they were back to normal, tension-laced interactions.

Bright Smile stuck her fork into a quiche that was hours cold already. She did not take a bite. She laid down the fork, saying, “Fae Magic is too dangerous to teach before the Bands are released; every bit of Fae Magic will cancel out another Fae spell cast in the vicinity of the first. Its uselessness is reason enough to not teach it at all.”

Farix conceded, “Now that is a valid argument.”

Erick changed the subject, “So anyone know what is happening with that black [Gate]?”

“Not at all!” Farix said, delighted.

“Not yet,” Bright Smile muttered.

“Not as such, no,” Zolan said, “Fallopolis opened it up and then she and Fairy Moon and others went through to the other side, locking the space down, ensuring that no one could follow.”

Farix looked up at Quilatalap, who was walking back their way with food, saying, “But our former Caretaker of Artifacts believes it to be a testing grounds of sorts?”

Quilatalap arrived at the table with three burgers and a large basket of fries, as well as two milkshakes. There was plenty of room on Erick’s other side, seating away from Zolan, and so Quilatalap sat down at that chair and handed Erick one burger, while leaving the fries between them. “It’s probably a new testing grounds, yes. I was hoping that you would know more than I, Farix.”

“Why would you think that? I’m more out of the circle than you are, for I’ve been far too busy with New Brightwater to go playing around with some esoteric uses of [Gate] magic.” Farix said, “The only ones who knew of that magic before Erick finished his recent Path were Our God, the false gods, and Ar’Cosmos. You should ask the empress of dragons why there’s someone else casting [Gate] magic before you ask me.”

Bright Smile did not smile nearly as much as she used to, and that didn’t change. With a slight glare in her red eyes, she said, “Ar’Cosmos has experienced some turmoil recently, but even with that turmoil there have been no great breaches of our libraries of True Magic, while thanks to our Apparent King over here the secret of [Gate] has spread far and wide anyway. Someone else might have Walked the Path since Erick finished all those months ago.”

Somehow Erick doubted that there was another [Gate]-capable caster out there aside from him, or the Darkness, or the gods, and since the [Gate] back there was clearly blacker than black, that ruled out a godly, Script-granted [Gate].

And that’s all Erick really knew about that.

Quilatalap said, “That [Gate] is through Darkness, or maybe Shadow, though with the depth of that black coloring it is likely through Darkness, and that has implications. Melemizargo does help his Clergy with large steps through Shadow, but he would not allow someone to use his power in… however it is being used over there. I don’t believe that this [Gate] is anything less than a new testing grounds, created by the Darkness Himself.” Quilatalap shrugged. “Or maybe he has appointed a new Champion. If so, then maybe they are his new caretaker?”

Erick tried not to give Quilatalap too much of a look for his final statement there. Everyone at the table had heard the same thing he had; that Quilatalap was miffed about being ‘fired’ from his job. Erick decided he would talk to the big guy about his feelings over all that later, in a more private setting, because for now there was a much larger problem.

Erick asked, “There could be a new Champion?”

“Ahh…” Quilatalap frowned, and it was mostly at himself. “Probably not, actually. I’m throwing out hypotheses here, as I imagine that is what we are doing, yes?”

Farix said, “The Darkness is a lot less fluid these days, and though He did not promise to hold off on appointing a Champion, He implied it… And considering the current guests at the party I suppose that this assurance is less than solid. A lot of big things are happening right now and I don’t know about any of them, so a Champion could be possible.”

Erick frowned a little.

He did not want to deal with a Champion of the Dark right now… But maybe the Champion was Fallopolis? Could happen.

Bright Smile barely held back the vitriol as she said, “Every single person in Ar’Cosmos knows that you can’t trust a fae to stick to the intention you believe to have made clear. As far as I am aware, the Darkness is the same way, and considering the stories we heard last night this comparison makes a lot of sense.”

Farix frowned, almost speaking—

But it was Quilatalap who spoke, with authority, “The Darkness is not of the fae. He’s also gotten a lot better in the last two years about being so fluid, and oftentimes what looks like fluidity is just someone working at scales you can’t understand. Anyway— I don’t believe this testing area is the result of a Champion.”

Talk quieted.

Erick ate his burger. It was absolutely delicious.

Halfway through his meal, he opened the conversation back up, asking, “So Zolan? You spoke of Fae Magic causing young minds to fail to understand magic. What did you mean by that? In more of an ‘improper practices’ sort of way, or in a ‘cognitohazard’ sort of way?”

Zolan looked to Erick, questioning in his eyes. It was a look he shared with others, also looking at Erick in the same wondering way—

Farix’s eyes suddenly went wide as he grinned. “Ah! ‘Information hazard’? You mean? Like a detrimental meme?”

Zolan tensed. Bright Smile frowned. Quilatalap looked on, the teeth of his soul flickering in preparation to tear apart some possible internal threat.

And Erick said, “Yes,” heightening all emotions at the table.

Farix said, “I could give a whole symposium on the nature of memes as both detrimental and beneficial to magic, but to narrow it down to just Elemental Fae… Actually, you look like you have something to say, Bright Smile?”

Bright Smile shook her head and gestured toward Zolan; she did not want to speak, but Zolan did.

Zolan said, “Most people can only learn one to five ways of doing magic, and to accept more ways of magical creation into their life is to harm their capability to perform correct spellwork. If you learn math, and rad enchanting, and all the variations of Force Magic, then you might have trouble when it comes to stringing magic together through song, or runic enchanting, or other such ways of learning and doing. Everyone has ways of approaching magic that allows them to excel.

“But Elemental Fae is too varied. Too weird. Too point-of-view. That sort of magic exists in the very depths of the mana; so far gone from this reality that to touch it, in true, is to fall apart from everything solid and knowable.” Zolan added, “In other words, to learn Elemental Fae is to learn a thousand ways of doing magic that will all change depending on your emotions, and what you had for breakfast that morning, and if you’re sick, or feeling frisky. Emotional magic has always been the most dangerous sort of magic there is, and so teaching Elemental Fae is best left to professionals and the students who might actually learn this magic without harming themselves.”

Bright Smile added, “Superstitious and culturally-derived magics found in stories are the equivalent of Fae Magic in many ways, which makes Fae Magic a rather bad meme, when looking at it in a certain light.”

Quilatalap nodded, silently eating his own lunch/breakfast.

Erick almost said that what Zolan and especially Bright Smile described was almost the exact reasoning that Jane had been given for why she was not able to do magic so well. But he didn’t want to bring up his daughter in mixed company.

So he nodded, and the conversation moved on.

Farix went on to speak about the problem of memes in depth, and how all that related to making magic better. Bright Smile spoke for a little bit on the specific problems that learning Elemental Fae sometimes caused, but most of those problems stemmed from Fairy Moon eventually interacting with whoever used too much Fae Magic, and that right there was reason enough to nearly abandon that school of magic altogether. Though Bright Smile didn’t say that; Quilatalap had.

“I simply must lower my expectations when dealing with her,” Erick said, resigned.

Quilatalap nodded, knowingly.

Bright Smile agreed. “She is a storm. Best not to treat with her unless you have to, but then again, both you and I have to, and regularly.”

Erick asked, “Should I not have offered her the chance to give the Tellings?”

“If you hadn’t offered her some way to cause a big impact on this Feast then she would have found some way to impact this gathering outside of your control.” Bright Smile said, “But since she got her moment in the light, she will likely behave herself as much as can be expected for the rest of this Feast.”

“A bold assumption,” Quilatalap said. “Considering she went into that black [Gate] over there, and that’s going to end up a really big deal.”

Bright Smile shrugged. “There isn’t much to do against her except appeasement. I would caution against trying any big spellwork, for she has survived everything you could possibly throw at her, and more.”

Quilatalap grunted in annoyance, and probably from his personal failures against Fairy Moon; Erick only guessed at that, though. The two of them had never spoken about their own specific problems with the fairy, but it was easy to tell that they were of similar mind about Fairy Moon, while Fairy Moon apparently hated Quilatalap right back, so that was probably a great big story right there.

The conversation moved back to the business topics that Bright Smile, Zolan, and Farix had been discussing for the better part of the morning, but this time Erick was there to actually make decisions about the various plots and plans the three others had touched upon. They spoke of [Gate]s in the Forest, to support other lands of Ar’Cosmos, and of New Brightwater getting access to the whole Gate Network. Both ideas were contingent on both lands adopting some basic decency practices as outlined by Zolan, which caused Bright Smile and Farix to glare, and the conversation to get heated.

Erick felt that Zolan was pushing Bright Smile and Farix too much, but he wasn’t about to undermine his castellan, for Zolan had a much shrewder mind for business than Erick. He also, quite honestly, had a much better political mind than Erick; Zolan was trying to get New Brightwater and the varied lands of Ar’Cosmos closer in line with all the rest of the world’s economies.

This conversation right here was undoubtedly among the most crucial conversations to happen at the Feast, but it was all about money and that was hard for Erick to care about. So many other things mattered so much more than money, like ensuring that people were protected, laws were upheld, and opportunities were not abused. But money was a good basis for mutual understanding to happen, and for trust to be built, so in that way there was a lot of trust being extended here at this table, and from there, a lot more would follow—

The black [Gate] flickered.

The sign changed, the black box turning fully dark for a moment, before new text began scrolling.

 

 

The black box broke apart into so much fractured black mana, fading into the manasphere as it went, opening the lock on the lands beyond the black [Gate]—

Suddenly, Fairy Moon, Fallopolis, Hollowsaur, and three other people stepped out from beyond the distant treeline, far inside the other space. They moved slowly, as though they were strolling along under the sun without much care in the world, or maybe they were trying to be nonchalant. They were easily a kilometer and a half away, but Erick could see some unguarded hope on Hollowsaur’s face, some satisfaction on Fallopolis, and some calm pleasure radiating off of Fairy Moon. The three mortals were simply tired. Erick didn’t know the mortals, personally, but he had seen them in the Shade tower.

Erick said, “I just now realized I have not asked about the other three people.”

Farix volunteered, “That one woman is from New Brightwater; Moriaga. A ‘team leader’ sort of position. I was unaware that Moriaga was tagged by Fallopolis before the Culler declared this presentation open, and that she was even here at the Feast before then, so I’m as eager to find out about her as you are.”

There was some skepticism around the table, and for a dozen different reasons of which Erick couldn’t really pull apart.

Erick asked, “You didn’t know about this woman’s entry into the Feast, or into the [Gate]?”

The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

“All of the above. I wasn’t aware she was here until she went into the [Gate]. She was supposed to be in New Brightwater, watching the front lines.”

Erick had seen the woman Moriaga around though… Hadn’t he? Yes. She was there from day one of this Feast. Kept hidden from Farix though, obviously.

Bright Smile narrowed her eyes at Farix, not truly believing his non-Sight of Moriaga either… No. Something else was going on there. Erick couldn’t parse it—

She volunteered, “Damo, the incani man in there, was from Ar’Cosmos about 45 years ago. He was in a Team Leader position in my House, until he was killed. As near as I can guess, I assume he was transformed into a shadeling and then resummoned into a new body by Melemizargo before the Feast, and then hidden from me until Fallopolis’s presentation, though that is all unfounded intrigue. He wasn’t able to speak much between his reveal this morning and going into the [Gate]. I had thought him dead until that moment.”

Erick’s eyes went wide. “Oh?”

Zolan said, “The third person is a former student of Oceanside whom I did not know had died. His name is Marico, and according to Bright Smile’s words, I am rather sure that the same thing happened to Marico as what happened to Damo. Marico had been a shadeling, and now, he was not.”

Erick stood from his chair, and turned to face the portal in the middle of the atrium. The people on the other side were getting close. Erick said, “Sounds like a lot of answers are about to be had, so shall we receive them?”

Everyone else was quick to follow Erick’s lead.

And soon, the black [Gate] explorers had walked to the edge of the portal and either flew, or shadowstepped, or hopped through the air, to land back on the flower mosaic that covered the central floor of the atrium. Fairy Moon had a smile plastered on her face, reminiscent of Bright Smile’s namesake, though the empress of Ar’Cosmos was not smiling at all. It was concerning, actually, to look at Bright Smile, and see her own concern when she looked at Fairy Moon, and the fae looked so very greedy.

Hollowsaur seemed rather more secure than he had been the last time Erick had seen the big man. It seemed he thought that all his worries were gone, for all he had to do was walk the path which lay before him. It was a marked improvement from what Erick had seen at the man’s presentation, where he had cobbled together whatever ideas he could possibly find in order to make a plan for taking back Quintlan from the oozes.

The mortals among the party each looked haggard, but calm, as though they had been through hell and back and now they were ready for rest. Farix, Bright Smile, and Zolan were each eager to speak to those three ‘interlopers’ of the Feast, but they held back. A lot of people were eager to find out what had happened; people stepped out of kitchens, and behind counters, or if they were Shades they appeared in quick shadowsteps, placing themselves at railings or on the floor near Erick and Quilatalap. Goldie had stepped close to Erick, but not too close; she was ready to defend him if necessary—

For Fallopolis threw her arms wide, smiling like a happy dragon, laughing as she sent her shadow-soaked kendrithyst staff into the air. It was a rather concerning act, but Erick did not flinch. He remained calm, even as dozens of dark droplets fell upward from Fallopolis’s staff, filling the air overhead, each droplet turning into a repeating light image; a small video of an event from inside the black [Gate], no doubt.

From the mortals of their party walking across ropes strung over canyons of swords, to fighting rock monsters, to braving hallways made of slicing ribbons, to mastering a Shaping magic via condensing flame from ten braziers at once… All as if it was taken from inside the testing grounds. Quilatalap had been right. This was very much a testing grounds. A few images were of puzzle solving. Others were of riddle answering. Most images were of monster fights.

A grand map held in the center of Fallopolis’s presentation, with tiny lines in that map leading off to the moving lightpaintings, indicating where every trial had taken place within the space beyond the black [Gate].

One grand light construct stood above all the rest.

It was lightsculpture of a perfectly spherical grand rad that was larger than most any Erick had ever seen before, high above the [Gate], in what appeared to be a fully life-sized image. The people were normal, 2 meter sized. The spherical crystal orb of iridescent lights, with a hidden stream of power roiling within, was at least 15 meters tall.

According to the lightpaintings beside that largest image, the three mortals had worked together to kill a very large, multi-armed, multi-faced, moon-reacher-like monster. And they had failed twice. The first fight ended with the three of them dying to a few lazy swipes of the monster’s long, long arms, and tiny hands, with the three adventurers completely unable to understand why they were dying, and then dead. The second attempt at the core, at the arm-monster, lasted slightly longer. They knew what they faced now, but still they died, as the ‘moon reacher’ suddenly reached out with a hundred extra arms.