220, 1/2, Start of Book 8

Elemental Benevolence is arguably Wizard Flatt’s greatest gift to our universe, but it is not without its flaws. One of the largest flaws of Benevolence has been proven time and time again, and is best understood through two facts:

1) The murder of hundreds of people, or fewer, occurs outside of all but the most Benevolent of Sights.

2) When it comes to the progression of civilization, there is very little which Benevolence itself will not do to ensure the best outcome for all, and every individual. Including blinding itself.

– – – –

“Father?” whispered Yggdrasil, the World Tree, his unsure voice full of quiet concern, “I wish to be my own person.”

Ah, Erick thought, as he sat upon the tallest branches of his largest son, watching the world all around, through the countless senses of 20 different bodies, and across uncountable kilometers.

Through those senses, he killed four hydras that rampaged across the northern coasts of Nergal and an ooze outbreak out of the side of a mountain in Nelboor, both of which were problems too far from civilization to matter, but they would matter, eventually, and his Benevolent Sight had drawn his attention that way. So he fixed those problems while he could. While he was doing that, he also oversaw the repair of several small parts of his Gate Network over in the Greensoil Republic.

And then he turned his attentions back to Yggdrasil, his thoughts tracing down to one large fact.

Back at Yggdrasil’s creation, Erick knew that he was going to be making a great big protective [Familiar], but due to the nature of that creation, the [Familiar] that would become Yggdrasil would grow as fast as an exploding bomb. At the time, Erick didn’t know exactly what the fallout of that explosion would look like, but the gods who had helped make Yggdrasil had known, and Erick had eventually gained that perspective himself.

One day in the future Yggdrasil would open new worlds.

He would seed new planets.

Civilization would take root across the universe, under the ever-expanding branches of the World Tree.

And so, a seal of divine fire had been placed on the largest of Erick’s sons.

A hundred years. That was the timeline for all of Veird to prepare for the opening of new worlds. For Melemizargo to prove to everyone that he wouldn’t destroy everything when another option for living became available. For civilization to adapt to the possibility of life under a different sort of Script. For new Scripts to be proposed, and then either shot down, or elevated.

I suppose it’s 90 years early, but… Here we are again at the turning of another age, unprepared and yet we will plow ahead anyway.

There was no way that Erick would allow his fully sapient son to be crushed by a seal that was little more than slavery at this point. Even though it was early. Even though it was dangerous. Erick had been ready to say ‘yes’ to Yggdrasil asking for the removal of his seal for the last few years.

“Okay, Yggdrasil. I will see about making that happen.” Erick asked, “Do you mind waiting till I can get everything set up properly? It might take months or maybe a year, but I honestly don’t know about that.”

Yggdrasil startled, his flaming green leaves and his white-branched canopy and even his crown of rainbow light overhead, all flickering in complete surprise. And then he swelled with light, and his voice was that of a happy young adult, “Really? You mean it!”

“Of course I mean it. You are your own person, Yggdrasil. I will be sad to see you go, but I know that all children must leave the nest someday.” Erick smiled a little. “I look forward to seeing you grow as big and as strong as you can, but know that I will always be here for you, Yggdrasil. Always. You can always come to me with problems or thoughts, and I will always cherish our talks, and your presence in my life, and I hope you will feel the same about me.”

The sky suddenly rained, warm and bright, as Yggdrasil turned absolutely radiant.

Erick lay down on the soft bed of moss underneath his stretched out body, his tail curling around the branch underneath as he wrapped his dark wings and scaled neck around the branch in front of him. He spoke with Benevolence in his white-fire maw, “I love you, Yggdrasil.”

“I love you too, father.”

Erick pulled back, and tears of white flowed down his draconic face, causing rainbow flowers to bloom wherever they touched his mossy bed here, at the top of Yggdrasil. His voice cracked, “You— You’re going to have to give me some time to make sure this works right, okay? The gods put a seal on you when you were born, and I’m probably going to have to unwind that seal softly, so nothing breaks. I cannot and will not Wizardry it away.”

“Of course! I understand!”

Erick smiled. And then he flickered, transforming from black dragon to human-sized and human-shaped. That same flicker put his clothes back on, and then he just breathed for a little bit, as he looked up and all around. Yggdrasil was growing up strong—

Ophiel alighted on Erick’s shoulder. He was a little white crow these days, with four wings and a bird-appropriate amount of other appendages. Still had more than the normal amount of eyes, though. His voice was considerably more childlike than Yggdrasil’s.

He chirped, “Where go?”

“We’re going to find out how to get your big brother unsealed,” Erick said, as he patted the little guy.

“Can I unseal?!”

Erick chuckled. “When you’re older it’ll happen naturally.”

“Okay!”

Erick grinned, then looked up. “You know, Yggdrasil, a lot of people are going to be asking you a lot of uncomfortable questions about this. They’re all going to be worried about Melemizargo having some sort of influence on you. Has he? Has he talked to you about this, and tried to make you make this decision?”

Yggdrasil softly said, “We’ve spoken, but if he has a plot to make me ask this of you, then it is too deep for me to suss out—” He rapidly added, “I already looked at the Benevolent Sky before I asked this of you. Minutes ago, I did this. It… It looks clear.”

“Okay. That’s good.” Erick asked, “Why do you want this to happen now?”

“… I just… I just do.”

It was a final statement. And yet, it was not good enough.

“I’ll be on your side on this decision, Yggdrasil. I’ll always be on your side, because I am your father. Please tell me why you want this to happen now.”

“… I…” Yggdrasil rapidly said, “I want to make an [Avatar] and not have you there with me all the time.”

Well. That was surprising. Erick had given Yggdrasil all the space he could ever want, but he could understand Yggdrasil’s desire for privacy. The big guy was probably telling a white lie, too, but that was also fine.

Erick said, “Perfectly understandable. I trust you with all the power I have given you, and I trust you to be on your own. I’ll make this happen, but it might take a while. Months. Maybe more.”

“That’s fine!” Yggdrasil calmed, saying, “I can wait… some.” He whispered, “But not 90 more years. Never that. I would like less than a year, please.”

“I’ll try to make that happen.”

– – – –

The sky was blue and endless, its perfection accented by soft white clouds that lingered here and there, some fluffy, some wispy. Erick’s feet barely sank into the cloud underfoot, which was barely big enough for him to stand upon. He could move the cloud around at his whim, but he didn’t need to. The person he was seeking floated ahead, her serpentine white body stretching across the infinite world within the Core of Veird.

Rozeta briefly turned away from the blue screens around her head, her eyes briefly going wide as she took in Erick’s small form. And then she stilled, her entire body freezing briefly. “Ah,” she uttered, her voice endless and solid. “He wants to be free.”

“Yes. Is it too early?”

“It is absolutely too early.” Rozeta frowned. In one flashing instant she was no longer her sky-spanning self. She stepped onto a larger cloud directly in front of Erick, looking much like a white human wrought in a pantsuit. “The unsealing of Yggdrasil will result in several rapid events. The seeding of new worlds, the danger of my father running rampant, Wizardry being unleashed by you and that other Wizard down in Nergal in order to stem the destruction of everything, or to create something new. And that’s not even getting to the confusion of settling a new Script on another world. You’re not ready. I’m not ready. No one is ready for that.”

“I agree.” Erick said, “But I’m not chaining Yggdrasil to myself for the next 90 years. He will grow resentful and hateful of every single one of us who keeps him down, and he will be right to have those feelings. This will cause damage later, and in a much more long term way.”

“Yes, it will. Absolutely. But whenever Yggdrasil is released, he will still seed new worlds even without our assistance. It is okay if it takes him a thousand years to get over the first hundred imprisoned years of his life.”

“Then how about we shift the seal so it prevents seeding?”

Rozeta scoffed. “Any random Wizard of any flavor could undo the seal when the seal is only on Yggdrasil, and only restricting one part of him. Right now, the first main hurdle to undoing the seal involves going through you, and that will not happen unless you allow it to happen.” With perhaps too much anger in her voice, Rozeta asked, “Would you allow that to happen? Even when you shouldn’t?”

“I’m looking for solutions to make everyone happy, that’s why I came here.”

Rozeta frowned a little, her sudden worry and anger not really leaving, but they did take a back seat to all the rest of her thoughts.

Erick added, “And I might be able to become a Full Wizard once Yggdrasil isn’t a part of me.”

Rozeta sighed, exhausted, but she was happy for the change of topic. “There are so many possible reasons why you can’t become a Full Wizard… This could be connected to that. Having an extra soul in your body? Sure. Ophiel isn’t a problem, for [Familiar]s have never been a problem for Wizards ascending to true power, but the divine seal on Yggdrasil could be making that real ascension a problem. Wizards are complicated and, quite frankly, impossible to truly understand. I still think your problem is merely mental, and hinging on anything from your unwillingness to make yourself a true power, to your distaste for truly selecting who you want to be.” She added, “You still have yet to combine your double forms into a singular entity. In my opinion, that is the reason you cannot ascend… But you have tried, and failed… somehow…”

Rozeta, Goddess of the Script, went silent, thinking, her eyes flickering briefly to the left, and then back to Erick, then off into infinity, as she took care of many different things happening outside of sight.

Erick waited.

Rozeta turned back to Erick. “Okay. I can allow this freeing of Yggdrasil to happen. BUT! I have some conditions for you to clear before I condone this action. The largest one is this: The seal will shift onto Yggdrasil, restricting his ability to produce seeds for 90 years. If he wants to simply have an avatar body so he can play around with people-sized friends, then that is one thing, but he won’t be making world tree seeds. When someone tries to break this seal, I need you to be able to [Return] to before the breaking, and to prevent it. This final requirement demands you ascend to Full Wizard… Which means you need to figure out how to do that, Erick. Whatever it takes, except for Big Wizardry. I need you to be a true Paradox Wizard.” Her exhaustion left her as the enormity of the change hit home, and Rozeta simply said, “It’s likely all connected, anyway, so this is probably how this was always going to happen.”

Erick had problems becoming a Full Wizard. Full crystallization wasn’t a problem, but he had done that, and then transformed back into a person, and then the full crystallization was simply gone, like it had never happened at all. Rozeta didn’t know what was going on, and Melemizargo had spoken of some possibilities, but Wizards often encountered this problem, and it was usually up to them to figure it out. Melemizargo blamed the Script interference, of course, and Rozeta had gone silent at that accusation.

Later, she had spoken to Erick about how the Script could, theoretically, be holding him back, and also how he shouldn’t use Big Wizardry to solve that problem. Pull the problem apart piece by piece, as he had when he gave himself some Class Abilities from other Classes, she had said. Erick had tried a few more times to become a Full Wizard and had a few more conversations with Rozeta about the whole ordeal, but he had never actually been able to fully claim his Full Paradox Wizard powers.

No flying through time and space, however far he wished to go, among other things. Not yet.

Erick said, “Thank you, Rozeta. I’ll chip away at that crystallization problem after Yggdrasil is released.”

“It will be easier to do all that when you don’t have an extra, sealed soul inside of you…” Rozeta sighed. “Removing the seal is going to be a lot of work. It was made by four gods and then by you. You will have to get Sininindi, Atunir, Melemizargo, and then myself, to assist you with this undoing of the seal. My part will be easy, but I will be the last one to remove my part of the seal. In order for me to do that, you must promise me that you will ascend to Full Wizard once Yggdrasil has been separated from you. Instantly, if you could, and then I want you to be ready with True Time Magic in case this all goes belly up. Gods are limited in what they can do, but Wizards are not.”

“Easily agreed; I promise. The Time Magic is already mostly done. I’ll even be able to truly use it once I’m fully immune to paradoxes.”

“I also want you to make a dungeon slime copy of yourself, before this all happens, in case I need a backup of you.”

Erick was suddenly less sure of himself and his decisions. “Really?”

“Yes. You are at the center of this world right now, and I need a backup of you in case this unsealing ends with you dead.”

“… That’s a possibility?”

“We’re talking Wizardry here, Erick. Many things are possible. I know you’ve been reluctant to make a copy of yourself, but the simple fact is that you’re too valuable to risk on this endeavor without many different assurances of safety. I would prefer if you stayed in your tower and never left, organizing the world from afar and ensuring your Gate Network remains stable, but we both know Kiri is ascending to that role soon. Now is the time for you to make a backup, if not for the world, then for her, so she has someone who can guide her while you’re off doing these quests.”

“… All fair points. Okay. I’ll… I’ll do that.”

With sudden exasperation hidden behind so much strength, Rozeta said, “Tell me I can trust you to wield this power prudently.”

Erick gave a small smile, then he stood firm. “I always have the interests of every person in mind whenever I do anything.”

“I know. I just needed to hear it again.” The Goddess responsible for holding the world together took a deep breath. “Thank you.”

The Wizard who could break everything waited.

And then, in an easier, friendly tone, Rozeta began, “So! To start with, after you make a repro who can backup all the magic you’ve got strung across the world, even though you’re prepping Kiri for Gatemaster, you’re going to want to go to Sininindi at the Storm Temple down in Archipelago Nergal…”

They spoke for a while, and not that long at all.

By the time they were done, Erick came to a conclusion, “I’m going to need to take a large break from being the Apparent King, aren’t I.”

Rozeta shrugged. “As long as you don’t make it as big of a vacation as your Worldly Path, then everything should go well enough. The problem is going to be getting my father to agree to not do anything untoward in the following years… One of many problems, I suppose. I’ll talk to all of them and make sure they’re on board with this.”

“I’ll start setting things up on my end, then, and await your full response.”

“It shouldn’t take long to gain preliminary assurances one way or the other. Maybe a week. Depending on what they say you’re going to either have to give Yggdrasil the bad news, or prepare for a sabbatical. I’m guessing the latter.”

There was one final question to ask before Erick moved on.

“There isn’t some Wizard out there fucking with Yggdrasil, right? Or some other force?”

“Not to my knowledge.” Rozeta said, “That was one of the first things I checked for, but it appears Yggdrasil simply wants to be released from the seal, himself.”

“… I am suddenly reminded of another concern. How long do I have till Ophiel is matured?”

“He’s about six months to a year away, I would say.”

Erick felt a double pang of loss thrum through his chest. “Ah… They grow up so fast, don’t they.”

Rozeta smiled kindly. “They do.” Then she added, “It might take you around 9 months to get through whatever demands the others place upon you, so the fact that both of your [Familiar]s are on the same timetable makes this whole thing smell of Fate… Or maybe Benevolence. Keep that in mind going forward and be ready with the… Medium Wizardry if needed.”

“… Right.” Erick asked, “How are the reserves? The mana generation? Can Veird survive a catastrophe?”

“A minor catastrophe; yes. The reserves exist, thanks to the dungeons, but the growing population of the world is still several decades away from being able to support the Script on its own. If my father chooses to remove the dungeons on a whim then we could last maybe one year. 14 months. We would have to flood the world with monsters in order to stabilize.” Rozeta shrugged. “My father could always destroy this world, though, so the most we could ever do is prepare for the worst and hope he forgets about all our emergency preparations. With how sane he’s being these days, hoping for him to forget about the backup powers would be wishful thinking, though.”

“But with his sanity… Do you think he would actually try to harm Veird if a new world became available?”

Rozeta had answered that question a hundred thousand times over in the last decade of peace on Veird. She gave the same answer, yet again. “There’s no way to know until it happens.”

– – – –

Erick stepped out of Rozeta’s domain, down onto the branches of Yggdrasil at Candlepoint—

“Is it happening?!” Yggdrasil asked, all excited, hopeful, dreading, and worried at once.

“With caveats and clearances needed to obtain before the actual release, and the seal will transfer to you so that you cannot create any seeds for the next 90 years, and I need to personally ensure that nothing disturbs that timeline through Paradox Time Magic… But yes. It’s likely happening.”

Yggdrasil listened calmly, and then his glow dimmed a little. “That’s…” He went silent, in thought. After a moment, his glow returned. “Okay. That’s… That’s good? Is that good?”

“I think it’s very good, but yes, it’s still an imposition. This is what it means to be powerful; impositions everywhere.”

A fluttering wind flowed through Yggdrasil’s branches; a sigh that trailed off into the wind.

Erick decided to get all the uncomfortable questions out there. “Have you met someone you want to make babies with? Or seeds? Or [Familiar]s?”

Yggdrasil flushed bright as Erick named several methods of reproduction. “What! No! I want to make an [Avatar] spell of my own! I don’t want to make other people yet!”

“So you want to have relations with some person. You want to make an [Avatar] spell that is not made through me, so that I don’t know about what you put into that spellwork.”

“… Yes.”

“You can tell me what spells you want, Yggdrasil, and I will make it for you. No questions asked. No judgment, either.”

“… I want the seal removed.”

“Do I know this person?”

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“No, and please don’t go looking.”

“I will respect this wish. You’ll tell me who it is eventually, though, right?”

“Yes! Eventually. Not right now.” Yggdrasil tensed as muttered curses flowed through the wind, barely audible.

“It’ll probably be 6 to 12 months before I can get the seal removed.”

Yggdrasil turned slightly happy again. “That’s fine!”

“Then here’s the general idea of what is going to happen. I need the four gods who helped me to make you to release their part of the seal. Sininindi, Goddess of Storms and Sea, Atunir, Goddess of Field and Fertility, Melemizargo, God of Magic, and then Rozeta, Goddess of the Script. All of them are probably going to ask something of me. Finally, at the end, Rozeta will then transform the seal inside me into a seal on you, which prevents seeding of new worlds until we’re ready for that. Shortly after, I’ll become a full Paradox Wizard to ensure that the seal remains in place, which means me popping back and forth through time to ensure the next 90 years remain as stable as they are right now… 87 years, actually. Anyway. That’s the tentative plan. Rozeta is working right now to check to see if the plan is viable, and we’ll have confirmation one way or the other within a week.” Erick asked, “Okay?”

“Okay!” Yggdrasil’s enthusiasm returned. “That’s great!”

“Maybe by summer of next year, your whole spell box will change, and that part about how ‘The World Tree has yet to be planted.’ will go away entirely.”

“I hope so.”

Erick smiled softly, then said, “Rozeta suspects that Ophiel will naturally separate by then, as well. So this is probably either a Fateful-thing, or more realistically, a Benevolent-thing, happening to both of us.”

Ophiel chirped on Erick’s shoulder. “I’m here!”

Erick smiled at him. “Yes you are.”

“… Uh.” Yggdrasil asked, “Is that going to be okay?”

Ophiel sang, “Me born first! I go first!”

A silent moment passed.

Because this was a new part of Ophiel that Erick had never seen before. He wanted to be born first?

Yggdrasil was probably having the same sort of odd feeling.

“Maybe you’ll both be born on the same day?” Erick asked, “How would you two like that?”

Yggdrasil gave a rather uncertain, “Uhh.”

Ophiel said, “Me first! I here first!”

“I’m so much older than him, though,” Yggdrasil said, as a big [Scry] eye appeared in front of Erick and Ophiel, looking down on Ophiel. “I’m bigger than you. I’m firstborn.”