235, 2/2

Erick smiled as he watched Quilatalap wear nothing but an apron as he cooked pancakes in the kitchen. The last several hours had been filled with talk, and activities, and all sorts of quiet words shared on pillows, and now they were here.

It felt like home again, even though this home was in a different part of the world, where neither of them could come or go freely, and nothing was the same—

The air flickered gold near the living room.

Erick’s Staff of Divine Absolution popped out of the air, to float exactly where it shouldn’t float.

Ophiel squeaked at the intrusion, saying, “The staff! The staff!”

Erick gestured to the staff, saying, “That’s what I was talking about. It moved with me. It almost greeted me at the door of my house in the Glittering Depths, but I left it behind. And then it was at the cloudcastle, and now it’s here.”

Quilatalap narrowed his eyes at the staff for a long moment, staring at it from several meters away. And then he relaxed, and went back to flipping pancakes, saying, “That’s a divine artifact that is locked to you, Erick. It was half-alive in the memory of the Glittering Depths, and then it became fully alive— Well. Not really ‘alive’ in the classical sense. Sentient, not sapient. Like a very young [Familiar].”

Erick sighed. “Okay. Well… We gotta talk about the memories in the dark again, Quilatalap.”

“It’s something I have tried to keep to a minimum, because that distracts from the learning possibilities of dungeons. People need to learn and grow, not ‘suddenly remember’ stuff that never happened to them.”

“So you don’t think those memories are real?”

“… The memories are real when they are viewed, but when a person recognizes themselves in the past, they seamlessly take in a part of them that is not-them and they grow and change because of that addition. This is something that exists outside of one’s control. The actual mechanism by which this realization is achieved is something like a [Soul Splice], but in a less horrific, souls-fighting-souls-for-dominance sort of way, and more of a ‘waking up’ sort of way.”

“… It seems like you’re fighting the obvious answer that it’s a [Reincarnation] of a more traditional sort; of realizing the memories of a past life.”

Quilatalap sighed a little, and then said, “Yup.”

“… Why?”

“Because you don’t want to talk about being Xoat, and about how in the old stories of the Old Cosmology it was often thought that perhaps Xoat came back now and then to help people in times of great need.” Quilatalap set the done pancakes to the side, and ladled more batter into the pan. “Are you willing to talk about that, now?”

Erick controlled his instinctual response to rebel. He tried a chuckle instead, and to gesture at the floating staff in the living room, as he said, “Hard to argue against that, I suppose—” He rapidly added, “I will argue against being Xoat, though.”

“Why? What’s so bad about it?”

“Because then none of my achievements will have meant anything; it will all have been because of Fate shit.”

Perhaps Erick had said that too strongly.

But Quilatalap rolled with it, saying, “Fate only sets the path; it does not walk that path for you. I am absolutely sure that for every individual great story that could possibly be attributed to Xoat, like this one in the Glittering Depths, that Xoat has also lived thousands of lives in complete obscurity.”

“I’d much prefer if ‘Xoat’ was just an idea and that people got their lives’ works misattributed to him or other godly powers all the time. I do not like the idea that the achievements of mortals are only possible through the interventions of gods or otherwise.”

“Gods are themselves the works of aggregate mortal achievements that eventually gain a spark of sapience and grow to full power, outside of their worshipers. This power then extends itself back to those worshipers in return, beginning a true positive feedback cycle based on those initial parameters.” Quilatalap said, “Gods are just powers of the masses manifest in holy confluence.” And then he asked, “Do you want eggs and bacon, too?”

“Eggs yes, bacon… yes.” Erick took a moment to think about the rest of Quilatalap’s words. “… And what about people misattributing things to this Xoat persona?”

Quilatalap didn’t speak for a moment. And then he went and got some eggs from the bottom shelf of cold storage while Erick watched…

The big green bastard was trying to distract him, wasn’t he.

Well it was working, Erick supposed, as he enjoyed the show.

And then Quilatalap was back to cooking, cracking eggs in bowls. He began, “It’s sort of like the Wizard conundrum. We know that Wizards are people who produce a lot more extra mana than others. This is due to them having more Dark in them than most. But outside of that fact…

“People produce mana based on various factors. Almost all of those factors lean in one direction or another. The first factor is how much of an effect that person has on society. The second factor is how much knowledge of self, of magic, and of power, that person has, outside of any outside influences. The second is an easy one to increase; go to school, play around with mana, etcetera. The first is much harder to increase, because, for example, you can only ever have one head chancellor of an arcanaeum, or one king of a nation, or one owner of a business. If that power is split, then so too is the mana generation that comes with that position of power.

“But that second situation is thrown into chaos when you get someone who has an oversized effect on society that doesn’t rely on known power structures.

“The person who invented the mana miner.

“The person who writes a really good book.

“The person who changes how banking works in a world.

“The person who invents a new magic.

“All of those people have larger-than-average mana productions. This can be a self-reinforcing system, like with the creation of a god, but different. This can be a self-reinforcing system that creates a Wizard.

“Wizards are Creation and Paradox and Destruction all at once, until they choose to focus. But maybe Wizards are just normal people, who have been changed by circumstance and possibility, into being more than they were before.

“Perhaps all Wizards become Wizards based on future actions, which are only possible because they’re already a Wizard to start with. Which is a Paradox, for sure. It’s very hard to tell where the line actually starts with a Wizard, for they are self-creating systems of power unto themselves.

“And once you get into that sort of thing…

“Mana likes mana. It likes to be made. It likes to be used. And it never goes away. It only changes form. It goes from one universe to another, planting seeds of future growth and opportunity and possibility. For mana is possibility, first and foremost. Mana is the infinite quantized into a smaller infinity that shows itself as Fire or Water or Twosday, or Springtime, or Benevolence, or Book, or me, or you, or whoever, but only because it is impossible for us to view the whole at any one time.

“So it is very possible that Xoat-sightings are misattributions only because the people who are Xoat only become Xoat in the creation of themselves, in that image of infinite generation of possibility. For what is the image of Xoat, but as ‘the enabler of More’? Not much more than that, really. This does not mean that you are Xoat, Erick. Not exactly, for it is more complicated than that. But you’re also not, not Xoat, either.”

Erick sat back in his chair, and thought.

And then he decided he didn’t want to think about that right now, because what was the point? He didn’t think he was Xoat, and that’s all that really mattered to him. Other people could think what they wanted.

And then Quilatalap added, “I would like to know why you have a problem with accepting that you are not just your own power, though. Why do you think it is some sort of weakness to have been aided by the realized spirit of Xoat, or however it happened? You have a history of helping others and accepting help in return. If you accept that the mana is Xoat, then what does it matter that Xoat wants to help you? What’s wrong with accepting that the mana itself loves you, and wants to help you along in your quest for more goodness?”

After hearing that viewpoint, Erick knew he would have needed to lie down for a while if he wasn’t already sitting.

As it was, Erick wasn’t able to form a coherent counterargument against Quilatalap. All he could really do was marvel at how much thought Quilatalap had been putting into all those words he had just spilled out here in their living room, while both of them were nude and one of them was making breakfast, and Ophiel played with some building blocks in the living room, which mostly consisted of building small towers and then knocking them over and hopping on top of the destruction, and then remaking the small towers all over again… Erick was distracting himself again.

“… Okay. Well…” Erick said, after a minute of quiet, filled with the small sounds of sizzling bacon and frying eggs and tumbling blocks. “When you put it like that, I suppose I don’t have a problem with it. I just don’t want to be labeled as some savior figure. I was only able to do everything I did because of a modicum of personal power, and a whole lot of cooperation from everyone else… Including the mana.” Erick said, “Thank you, Quilatalap… I missed you. I missed you a lot.”

Quilatalap smiled brightly, his lower fangs showing as his dark eyes glinted. “I missed you, too.” He set bacon onto plates, along with eggs and stacks of pancakes—

And then he got a large pie out of a cupboard and broke the Preservation seal on it, adding the scent of freshly baked purpleberry pie to the air. Ophiel started chirping instantly as the smell filled the room, and then Ophiel hopped up off the ground with the blocks, to hop onto the back of the nearby couch.

His many eyes focused on that pie. “PIE!” Ophiel chirped loudly. “Purple pie!”

Quilatalap said, “I was just waiting for you to show. It’s all yours, Ophiel.”

Quilatalap managed to set the pie onto the far side of the dining room table right before Ophiel dug in, getting just as much purple pie goo all over his feathers as he got everywhere else.

And then Quilatalap brought Erick his plate and set it in front of him and Erick put his hand on Quilatalap’s, and stood up, meeting the big guy halfway for a kiss. He was warm, and he smelled of good food, and he was an excellent kisser.

“I love you, Quilatalap,” Erick said closely. “And Ophiel does, too.”

Quilatalap almost giggled, as he said, “I love you, too.” He set down his plate and happily said, “So what’s going on with those mana crystals! Tell me everything again, from the top. How was it all different from what we already did with mana crystals?”

Erick smiled, and began talking. “For starters, I could actually make a crystal inside the Glittering Depths without all the Domain work that we needed to do on Veird, so that’s a big deal. I think if I dropped down the mana density of the air to 0, to start, I could even make pure crystal, but I haven’t bothered with that in that dungeon because being in a 0 mana environment is not pleasant. But anyway, What you do is you go inside a mana chamber and spill mana into them, whereupon they…”

Breakfast was great. Erick and Quilatalap spoke of crystals, and that was also great.

Being home with Quilatalap was the best of all.

– – – –

Erick stood with Quilatalap upon an open land of bare rock and scattered grasses that extended out for a hundred kilometers in every direction. There was no sky; there was only darkness far, far overhead, that was also somehow light, illuminating the ground everywhere. In six directions, equidistant from each other and on the black horizon, lay colored light. White on one side, grey on the opposite, while the horizons between grey and white held magenta and red to the left, with yellow and cyan to the right; the Six Primary Elements. This land was to become the main floor where the False Society would exist, while those lights were to become the portals to the other elemental dungeons.

It was not the main floor yet.

Erick was still impressed. “This is a heck of a lot of space so far, Quilatalap.”

Quilatalap smiled softly. “It’s not impressive at all, but thank you.”

“It’s only been twenty days since you started. This is plenty impressive!”

“Vanya and I managed to get the monster habitats stabilized and square out the space for the rest of it, but there’ve been complications.”

Erick almost wanted to ask after ‘Vanya’, the dungeon master slime who had become Quilatalap’s copy, who was the actual dungeon master of this place. But just like all the other dungeon master slimes Quilatalap had made, and who all shied away from Erick practically on instinct, Erick did not pursue that line of questioning.

Instead, all he said was, “How can I help?”

“I need you to talk to Everbless and convince him to stop trying to break into the dungeon.”

Erick winced. “Okay. I’ll do that. How bad is it?”

“He regularly gets into the first floor because he has to ‘escort the dangerous monsters down’, according to him, which was tolerable but not ideal, and very much not what he is supposed to be doing, since he’s supposed to be zero-contact with the dungeon right now.” Quilatalap said, “Not ideal, but not what he was told to do. I could deal. But in the past two days he’s been trying to get to the control chamber, to the core.”

Erick frowned. “I’ll talk to him.”

“Tell him that he will be forcefully evicted if he should try anything like that again.”

“I will.”

Quilatalap said, “I’d also like your cooperation to open portals between other nearby dungeons, so that when it comes time to weather the storm people can come in from other dungeons instead of needing to come to Storm’s Edge first. That’s only if the Gate Network goes down, of course, but a secondary way for people to get here is always a good idea.”

“Okay, sure.” Erick thought for a moment. “So that’s how you want to do it, eh? Purposefully open up this place to other dungeon incursions? What do you want, exactly?”

“Just let the nearby nations with dungeons know that I can open safe spaces for them, and leave them with options to connect in an emergency. It’s minimally invasive and easily possible.”

“You know… I never really knew that was a thing that you could do. We barely talked about it when Kiri went through from the Freelands to Grand Benevolence, but the Glittering Depths apparently has people coming in through the golden fields all the time.”

“Dungeon hopping is rare. Doesn’t normally happen at all… Or at least in my dungeons it doesn’t. There’s not even an accepted name for the phenomenon, though the fairies would call it ‘stepping off the path’, I believe.” Quilatalap said, “And Kiri only transposed between dungeons 3 months ago. I’ve been pressed to figure out exactly what happened there, but I only really have a guess, because that sort of movement through the Dark is not normal at all.”

“I guess it has only been 3 months.” Erick asked, “What did you find out about dungeon hopping? How easy is it for people to move between dungeons?”

Quilatalap began, “People don’t move through the Dark because the Dark is death for all living things.

“But since the advent of the dungeons, with all these places now settled and realized in these depths…

“In a very large, relaxed dungeon, it is easier for people to transport between them, especially if there are many, many safe spots inside those dungeons, like with the Freelands and their open lands, and with the Glittering Depths’s golden fields.” Quilatalap said, “None of my dungeons have any safe spots except for the entrance and a few other locations, so by their nature, they’re rather secure. It was weird for me when Kiri popped into Grand Benevolence, but that was more due to the Dark acting on its own, and not due to any leaks in security on my end.” Quilatalap said, “I’m rather sure I can make those inner portals happen on purpose, though… At least for nearby locations, like dungeons on the other islands of Archipelago Nergal.” He gazed out across the empty world. “It might even happen without my input, because a lot of this land will be open, safe space. I doubt I could turn this place into a hub of inter-dungeon transport like the Gate District, for that would be only at the Dark’s pleasure… But I imagine that if the Storm Prophecy should come to pass that places like this one might get flooded with people from other dungeons… Lotta weird things could happen when that happens.” Quilatalap pointed to the side. “Like that.”

Both of them were already looking at the golden staff that suddenly appeared, floating to the side, as though it was there this whole time. Erick had left it at the cottage, but here it was…

Floating.

“Hmmm, yeah,” Erick muttered.

Ophiel fluffed up on Erick’s shoulder, exclaiming, “The staff is back!”

It floated there, just glittering.

And then a few green buds rose from the ground where it almost touched.

Quilatalap easily said, “And that brings up another question. I could try for a portal between here and the Glittering Depths? You could come and go from here to there as you want?”

“… I want to say yes, Quilatalap, because I miss you. But I don’t want Greendale up in here.”

Quilatalap grinned. “I’ll be fine, if you’re worried about that. But I understand. I won’t try for that.”

Erick felt a small melancholy—

And then Erick told the staff, “Please stop spreading wheat right now.”

The green buds had managed to turn into a small patch of golden wheat, growing to a meter and a half tall in moments, before Erick’s request had slowed, and then stopped the spread of grain. The staff just hovered there now, not doing anything at all.

Erick asked Quilatalap, “A portal between these Grand Dungeons would be weird for those other dungeon masters, too, right? I’m still not out as Erick over there… It’s actually been really nice to just be myself, though Kinder already believes that I’m going to cause some huge mess.”

“You probably will, so I can’t blame the guy for feeling that way.”

Erick rolled his eyes.

Quilatalap smiled. “And yes, it would cause Kinder and whoever else to notice this place.”

“Better not do it, then.” Erick added, “I’ll work on getting the other dungeons to… Do what? Weaken their walls against this place? What have you decided to call this place, anyway?”

“All you really have to do is tell them that it might happen, and they won’t have control over it, so they shouldn’t freak out when it happens. They might be able to cause it to happen, though, if they know how to work their dungeon core properly.” Quilatalap said, “And I’ve decided to call this place The Storm Cellar.”

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“Sounds good. Are you going to put in an Endless Delve?”

“Those things are too random by far…” Quilatalap looked out across the world of his dungeon. “… But I could? … They’re good for making resources.”

“Are you going to do any sort of Second Script?”

“Nope. Don’t really like those things anyway. All magic is the same, and the Script already does a pretty decent job of it all. I’m going to let that in here as it already is.”

Erick nodded. And then he stepped forward. “So what sorts of buildings?”

Quilatalap walked with him, saying, “Standard city on the Surface. Grid-based… Also your staff is following us.”

Behind them, the staff floated across the ground, following behind Erick at a normal following distance. Ophiel clutched on Erick’s shoulder, watching the staff as it floated toward them.

The staff left a small trail of lush grass where it passed.

Erick glanced backward. And then he brushed the staff with his aura, raising it up into the air a bit. Instead of floating higher so as not to spread green, the staff hopped to his side and then stopped spreading green where it floated.

Ophiel twittered in very soft, unsure guitar sounds as he stared at the not-gold staff, only a half meter away.

The staff behaved.

Erick turned his attention back to Quilatalap, who walked at his other side. “I guess I have another [Familiar] for now.”

Ophiel perked up. “Another?!”

And then he fluffed up and fluttered into the air, over to the staff. With twenty eyes and one great big eye in the center, Ophiel stared at the staff from all angles. And then he sat on the gem on the top.

The staff glowed brighter, briefly, and then it didn’t care anymore. Ophiel fluffed up, spreading his wings, and the staff briefly bobbed, before it regained equilibrium and control.

And then Ophiel leaned to the side…

The staff leaned with Ophiel’s weight—

The staff rapidly spun, throwing Ophiel into the air, and Ophiel giggled and chirped at the toss before flying back around to land back on the top of the staff, which had righted itself. Ophiel landed once again and held on tight.

… And then Ophiel leaned to the side.

The staff spun, and this time Ophiel clung on for dear life, giggling wildly as though he was on a carnival ride, and then he spread his wings and angled upward, ensuring that wind cut downward like he was a ceiling fan on reverse.

The staff went sailing up into the sky, with Ophiel giggling all the while—

And then the staff vanished from under Ophiel to reappear directly at Erick’s side, leaving Ophiel up there, still spinning for a little bit, until he realized he had lost his fun ride. The staff nestled closer to Erick, seeming in unsure distress, so Erick put his hand on it. The staff calmed right away and stopped floating, falling fully under Erick’s power, as Ophiel came back to ground level, to land on Erick’s other shoulder, for Erick had sent a gentle nudge at Ophiel not to play around with the staff so much.

“I still don’t understand it fully, Ophiel,” Erick said, as Ophiel hopped across Erick’s back, to get closer to the staff. He wasn’t about to hop onto it again because Erick had told him not to, but he was certainly going to investigate, because he could. “Look all you want, but don’t touch it again, unless it wants to.”

Erick wasn’t sure what the staff wanted, though. When it was separated from him Erick couldn’t feel it at all, but now that his hand was wrapped around that not-gold surface, it felt, a little bit, like a natural extension of his aura. Like his aura was active inside the staff, even though Erick wasn’t concentrating any power in the staff at all right now. It was an odd sort of ‘extension’ that was almost like a [Familiar]. But more solid.

Quilatalap said, “You went into a dungeon dedicated to Field and Fertility and you came out with another kid.”

Erick almost wanted to laugh at that, but instead he gripped the staff, trying to feel it out. It felt more like an extension of himself than a [Familiar], now that he was holding it, but then Erick let go, and the staff floated there, feeling like nothing at all. To his mana sense it seemed like some highly magical thing, but not much more than that. It certainly didn’t have a soul. It had a few golden glows, though, like how Erick’s Crystal Star used to have.