236, 2/2

A woman guarded by two soldiers stood on the other side of the door, with Poi and Burhendurur standing a few meters away, down the hall.

Darundi rose from his couch, saying, “Odaari has finally arrived, so this is where I depart. It was good to see you, Erick.”

Erick rose from his seat, saying, “It was good to see you again, Darundi.”

The door opened.

Darundi departed first.

Denutha Odaari was bowing inside the hallway as the Viridian King Raivo walked past, and then she rose and stepped into the room. She bowed again, saying, “Greetings, Wizard Flatt.”

She rose. She looked like Cyril had described; white hair in a braided bun, older, perhaps 65, and with a soft vivacity to her crystal-green gaze. She was fully present in the moment, for she knew she would be asked to speak her mind.

Odaari had been waiting for some moment like this for over a decade.

Her guards rapidly cleared away the parts of the refreshments that Erick and Darundi had eaten, and reorganized all of it to Erick’s side of the table. Denutha wasn’t to have any of it? Well sure. She was technically a prisoner and wanted for crimes against the world for her part in the creation of the Daydropper, so some denial of luxury was to be expected; or at least that’s the read Erick got off of her, as he watched her stand there.

For a moment, that’s all Erick did. Poi and Burhendurur walked into the room and stood behind Erick’s couch while Erick studied Odaari…

She looked on edge, but also at peace.

Erick gestured to the other couch, and said, “Please have a seat, Miss Odaari.”

Denutha Odaari complied. Her guards took up a position to Odaari’s side of the room, their backs to the wall.

Erick said, “I would like to hear your story, please. All that you feel is relevant.”

Odaari breathed in, something loosening in her shoulders and in her heart, as she began, “I first met with the Halls of the Dead 43 years ago, in my mid 20s, a little over two decades after the civil wars of the Lori Dukedom and Opalice Empire fractured the incani lands into the Wasteland Kingdoms…”

The Viridian King had been right; Odaari’s story was the story of a disenfranchised noble, who went to other powers to get ahead in life. She had started small with the Halls of the Dead, and transitioned to real horrors once it became apparent exactly how beneficial such an arrangement was for her. With the Halls of the Dead, Odaari had killed a cousin who was in the process of ousting her from an inheritance, and then it slowly spiraled from there over the next few decades.

The Daydropper was her lowest point, and something she had been tinkering around with for years, until Particle Magic came along and she finally understood what she hadn’t understood before.

And now, Odaari was honestly sorry for what she had done, and what she had made. She made a few excuses, from how her branch family of the Odaali’s and how the Odaali’s themselves had treated her, disdaining her Plant Magic as useless, but she recognized how the Wasteland and the Halls of the Dead had taken advantage of that weakness of her character.

Erick let her spill her heart out.

And at the end of it, he said, “Thank you for your history, Odaari.” He continued, “Atunir has made it clear to me that if you were to accept a [Reincarnation] and Blessing, that she would consider your crime absolved. She’s fine with you dying, too. She just wants the Kill and Exterminate Quest done.” As Odaari had a tumultuous moment of horror, relief, and acceptance at all of that, Erick continued, “But Odaali wants to hear your full story, as well, and so I have sided with them to allow you to speak your full story to them, unencumbered by the Viridian Throne, or House Benevolence. But what do you want to happen?”

The guards behind Odaari looked a bit harder at Odaari, and at Erick, as he asked that question.

Odaari softly said, “I want justice to be done, however it needs to be done.”

“… Hmm.” Erick sat back on his couch. “What are you up to nowadays, Odaari?”

Odaari took a moment to orient to the new question, then she said, “Teaching theoretical Plant Magic along with possible applications of various medical and alchemical plants to various fields of expertise… Improved gardening techniques and such.”

Erick said, “If you ask for help, I will give it to you. I will take you out of here.”

“… I wish for justice, not for assistance in running from justice.”

“Okay then.” Erick stood. “It was good to finally meet you.”

Odaari rose and then bowed.

Erick left with Poi and Burhendurur through a [Gate].

– – – –

In a private room, Erick asked, “She was holding back a lot.”

“Yes, she was,” said Poi, the Mind Mage with all those rules to follow.

That raised Erick’s eyebrows.

Burhendurur eyed Poi too, then he said, “She had been practicing that story for a decade. Perhaps even she believes it, now.”

“She does not believe her lies,” said Poi. “She has a story, but not one she can share at this time.”

Erick and Burhendurur both raised eyebrows at Poi

Erick asked, “… You’re breaking protocol again.”

“Not fully, but there are a great many things that I feel need to be discussed, because…” Poi’s facade broke and his anger came out of hiding, as he said, “Because that place is a decaypool of… Of a lot.”

Burhendurur chuckled. “They were giving me the evil eye the whole time, too! Ah. It was almost fun, in a certain way.” He pulled out a folder filled with paper from his robes, saying, “I read the report. Have you gotten any more information out of the day? I think Greendale has an extremism problem, and someone tried to solve it with murder and now it’s about to get a whole lot worse.”

Poi sarcastically said, “Historically, if the murder of nobility has not solved your nobility problem, then you aren’t doing enough of it.”

Erick stared at Poi as Burhendurur handed him the report.

Poi shrugged.

Erick chuckled nervously.

Burhendurur smiled wide, saying, “Where is Kiri? She would love to hear this.”

“Let’s not do that,” Erick instantly said. “Kiri is doing really well about not wanting to murder all the humans in charge over there, and I’d like to keep it that way.” He rapidly looked through the report, speed reading as fast as he could. In a short while Erick had caught up to Burhendurur and Poi. “So I’m pretty sure that Greensoil is going to go through a period of extremism, like you say, Burhendurur, but I’m rather sure it’s not going to happen right now. Maybe not for months. This looks like a long-term setup, not a short term gain. Looks like Greensoil knew exactly who the killers would be targeting once the killing started, too, so they posted Inquisitors near those people, but still the killers got through. I’m going to send you a packet of my own information, Poi. Please pull it apart.”

Poi nodded.

Erick sent a packet with all the information of his time spent with Darundi, and a whole bunch of other stuff besides, mostly to do with the dungeon. And then Poi helped Burhendurur pick apart that same packet in a more organized manner.

Burhendurur sighed. “Greensoil has always had an extremism problem, but it’s rare that this problem reaches the higher levels of governance like it has here, in these demonic murders. This whole Riamite problem… That’s new… This is a lot, Erick. We could speak on it for hours, and we should, but the main problem I’m having right now is that you are going back in there, as Ashes. Darundi will therefore know where you are. He might be planning on doing something to you in the Glittering Depths— Yes yes. A [Far Bolt] if there ever was one. But perhaps the real danger is that he knows that whenever Ashes is in existence, that the Crystal Forest is without its Wizard. This is a large security threat.”

Erick said, “Yes. But counterpoint: I’m there, investigating his mess for him, which is wildly out of character for them, which means that they intend to do a run around on Candlepoint, or that they truly do want help, but they don’t want the Wizard to be visibly helping them.”

Poi said, “It’s both.”

Erick suddenly sighed a little, as Burhendurur’s eyebrows went up. Erick said, “Then you both are formally charged with ensuring nothing happens here at home, while I go and stop some Riamites taking over a small part of Greensoil and eventually summoning an Evil God.”

“Holy gods, Erick,” Burhendurur whispered, “Is that really what the Riamites want?”

“The fictional ones. The real ones want other things… And this might not even be them doing this.”

Burhendurur frowned a little as he thought.

Poi had a similar expression.

Erick moved on, “As for where I will start my investigation: The only things that stick out to me are the first death of Lady Waters, and how that one Farfield girl had been spared. I’m going to go check those out with that Wess Clover Inquisitor, and then I’m going back into the Glittering Depths to poke around for answers down there… Or maybe I’ll go the other way around. Not sure right now.”

Poi spoke up, “Before you do that, a few days out here would be prudent. Kiri is backed up rather fiercely and she won’t tell you about it.”

“… Oh. Well yes. Of course I’ll help her.”

Burhendurur added, “There are also a few small things in Enforcement which could use your oversight, and I wish to have a much larger talk with you about these meta-artifacts, and how they can translate into this world.”

Erick smiled at that. “They’re really quite interesting, aren’t they! The ability to continually cast a buffing spell is perhaps their most interesting aspect, and the fact that they don’t seem to wear out through mana expenditure.”

For a moment, Erick flicked on the full extent of his All-Seeing Eye, and witnessed the true forms of his closest friend, and also his Overseer of Enforcement. He had already used the amulet to look at both of them before, but now they were alone.

Poi was a tangle of sky-blue tendrils, wrapped around his brain and all throughout his body, and also extending out of his head like they always did. He was a Mind Mage, through and through.

Burhendurur was a Death Dragon in incani form, looking like a brilliant white skeleton with exposed organs and muscle meat made of blackened and grey scales.

All around Erick, in every shadow, stood the Darkness of Melemizargo, though his white eyes weren’t fully present until Erick looked their way. Erick turned his attentions to other things, though, simply because he wasn’t calling on Melemizargo right now at all, and there were other things to look at anyway, like his throne, sitting over there on that white dais.

That throne was a crown of light in simple white stone, its metaphysical impression much, much larger than it had any right to be, and yet, when Erick looked again, that metaphysical impression was no bigger than the throne itself, which was just a simple stone throne sized for a 2 meter tall person.

The edge of the throne room was a relief of trees layered with colored lights, but metaphysically, it was a forest stretching deep into white mist, into Benevolence itself, and scattered with a thousand holes into other parts of the world. All of that was a magic far beyond what this room actually was, for all the Gate Network was outside, in the Gate District, but this room was probably a good enough symbol of the power of the Gate Network itself that it appeared that way, anyway.

Erick relaxed his control over the All-Seeing Eye and took the trinket off his neck, saying, “Try this out, will you, Poi?”

“Nope,” Poi said, as he looked to Burhendurur. “Give it to him.”

Erick smiled a little, as Burhendurur’s eyes went wide. Erick handed it to him, saying, “Then you try it.”

Burhendurur caught the necklace as it fell into his hand, the dark scaled thing glittering a little white at his touch. For a moment, Burhendurur just looked at it, then he began, “I read about the meta-artifacts in the report. But how do you actually—”

Burhendurur’s eyes went wide as he gasped—

And then he let go of the necklace, stepping away fast.

The necklace just hovered there, surprising everyone, looking like a white light surrounded by eyelids, and a slowly jangling weightless chain.

“That’s it?” Erick asked, “Care to try again, Burhendurur?”

“No thank you. You look too much like Melemizargo when I use that thing… But I can see how it would be useful. I applaud your newfound power, my king.” Burhendurur collected himself, then said, “But to get back to important current events. I really do need you to do a few things for the kingdom…”

Erick put the necklace back on, and listened for a while.

And then he got to work.

– – – –

“Kiri,” Erick said after dinner, after pulling the young woman aside. “You need to hire more people.”

Erick had spent roughly 130 hours in the last three days sorting smaller problems that had backed up here and there, and then he spent the last hour deciding how he actually wanted to help Kiri, going forward. Right now the two of them were in Erick’s office near his throne room, and both of them were sitting beside the window in an informal way. Erick had tried to make this as informal as possible.

But Kiri had gone almost rigid with worry as soon as Erick had asked her to sit down with him. Sunny, her couatl-shaped [Familiar], turned to a darker shade of green and wrapped protectively around Kiri’s neck, all the while glaring at Erick. Kiri had thought that she was going to be demoted, or removed from power, or any number of horrible things, but Erick was never going to do that; he had nixed that possibility rather fast when he planned for this meeting.

Kiri took Erick’s proclamation rather well, all things considered.

“… I will hire more people?” Kiri said, though it was more like a question. Rapidly, she added, “I didn’t think I could?”

“You’re the Gatemaster now, Kiri, and I am not going to take that away from you. I’m sorry I wasn’t clear that you could hire and train as many people as you want.” Erick said, “Pull from the departments you need to pull from. Make the Office of the Overseer of Gate Expansion as big as you need it to be and rely on Burhendurur and Mox more. Enforcement could have cleared up several of the Crystal Forest, new city problems I had to deal with, while the Office of the Exterior could have done more for the social problems I had to clear up, but the simple fact is that this job is untenable for anyone without Time Magic. It is unfair for you, and other people, to have to work this job without that ability. And so, we adjust.”

Kiri went still, taking the reprimand with aplomb. “Heard and Understood.”

Erick smiled. “Good. Here.” Erick handed her the All-Seeing Eye, saying, “I’m going to make another one of these for myself, but you can have this one. It will help you see through every falsehood out there, but be warned; looking too deep can lead to the depths looking back.”

Kiri eyed the black amulet, with its glowing white sphere in the center. And then she took it into her claws, saying, “Well that’s rather ominous—” She stopped suddenly, her eyes going wide, her heart racing hard as her talons gripped the amulet hard. If she would have had skin, perhaps she would have been sweating, but she had emerald scales. A tiny splash of white fire escaped Kiri’s mouth as she stared at Erick, and whispered, “Oh.”

Erick smiled. “I’m proud of you for not throwing it away. It’s an All-Seeing Eye I made in the Glittering Depths. It should let you see through anything and everything, and it should also let you [True Sight] across mana voids, like the one in space. I didn’t see anything out there when I used it… Except for the moons, I suppose. They look a whole lot better with actual buildings on them and people walking around— Angels, demons, and lesser parishioners, anyway. Meditation-based viewing of those lands is less than nothing compared to using this trinket.”

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Kiri’s eyes were wide long before Erick started explaining, as she looked at all of him, seeing whatever the amulet was showing her. From how Burhendurur had reacted, it was probably scary, but Erick hadn’t been able to use it to view himself, so Erick wasn’t exactly sure what she was seeing. As Erick finished his explanation, Kiri’s eyes calmed, and she looked down at the amulet in her hands. “How did you make it? Exactly?”

“I learned a whole lot in that Gem Dungeon, but that thing is basically Wizardry, so it’s hard to explain how I made it. We can talk about all that after we talk about a reorganization of the Office of Gate Expansion.”

Kiri thrust her hand forward, saying, “I can’t take this now. Not until you’ve made a second one.”

Erick raised an eyebrow. He didn’t argue, though. He just took back the amulet, thinking that this was probably easier for him, anyway. He would have needed to evade the Inquisitors and sneak into the dungeon in order to get back to his house down there, to make another one of these, and the Inquisitors were already down there in the dungeon anyway, so that sneaking likely would have been impossible. The All-Seeing Eye had only been in his possession for less than a handful of real-time days, but already it felt like an invaluable tool…

But at the same time, Erick didn’t want to add this functionality to himself, because if he did, then everything would always look like an impressionist painting filled with too much meaning and unreality. Right now, he could moderate his connection to the amulet rather well, but perhaps if he made a Class Ability out of this thing…? Maybe that would work.

He could moderate his Class Abilities rather well, but that was due to the Script helping him.

That was a lot to think about, actually.

So Erick just put on the necklace and tucked the eye back under his robes, saying, “Where would you like to start with the reorganization?”

“Let’s get Zolan.”

Erick smiled. “Great start.”

It took them 3 real hours to come up with a good plan of action that would eventually completely remove the necessity of [Hasted Shelter] from the current Gatemaster. This action would cause a lot more people besides just the Viridian King to find out that Erick wasn’t at the helm of House Benevolence these days, so that was a bit ahead of schedule, but it needed to be done.

Zolan did clarify that, “If anyone asks, this is a trial run for long term solutions to needing less Time Magic in House Benevolence, due to a rise in complaints to meetings going too long. It is not because Erick isn’t here all the time.”

Erick laughed at that. “Are people still complaining about extra-long days?”

“Always and forever.”

– – – –