241, 1/2

 

“This is all such a terrible idea and I shouldn’t make a repro, because I’m rather damned sure that I don’t want to be here at all,” Poi exclaimed, “Because Holy Gods Above, this is such a terrible idea.” Poi stared at Erick and Erick 2, and said, “But the world needs me to stand up, and so I will stand up.”

Erick had left the slime dungeon a few hours ago and immediately asked for Poi to join them, to discuss adding his repro to the dungeon, to help combat the possible memetic-angle to the Sundering search. Poi’s initial answer had been a resounding, ‘Yes, but,’ with a lot of rather prudent words about ultimate goals and otherwise, and that he’d need to meet ‘Erick 2’ before he made any real decision.

Then there were a bunch of concerned words about Erick’s mental state. No one should be subject to the sorts of stresses that Erick was now subject to, and the Sundering Search should not happen, but reality was not very kind to Wizards, it seemed.

And now they were here, in the slime dungeon, in the ‘house at Spur’, with Poi, Erick, and Erick 2 sitting in the kitchen. Poi had walked into the house not 2 minutes ago. There had been no ‘hello’s or ‘how are you, Erick 2’s, because Poi was Poi, and Erick was Erick, even though one of the Ericks was actually Erick 2. Almost instantly he had delivered his penultimate decree on the subject of a Poi-repro.

Erick 2 said, “But there’s more to it than that.”

And Poi nodded. “There’s a recent trend among Mind Mage dungeon masters going around Nelboor that I want to try. You put me to sleep, then you apply the slime, then you keep us both asleep until the repro is fully developed, and whoever wakes up as whoever is who they are from then on. Since your [Sleep]-like spell works well enough as [Sleep], we can do it this way; otherwise we’d need another Mind Mage to help with this, but we don’t have one of those.

“This is a way for us to see each other without the other’s thoughts influencing ours before we’re ready.

“But also: Neither me nor ‘Poi 2’ are going to become other people. We’ll go a step beyond the dual-[Sleep] set up, and do a [Hive Mind] meld. Whoever is the original will go back to Spur— Sorry. Candlepoint…” Poi looked at the house again. And then he focused. “The original will go back, and the repro will stay, and we’ll do a little [Hive Mind] magic so that we’re both the same person from now on. But we won’t physically meet each other at all.”

Erick went, “Ah?”

“You can do that?” Erick 2 asked.

“You can’t. I can… Theoretically. I know the magic, but I haven’t actually done this yet. [Hive Mind] is a spell that we use for cooperative casting but it sort of fell out of popularity with the rise of [Renew]. I still learned the proper way to do cooperative casting, because it’s the proper way to do that sort of thing.” Poi added, “[Hive Mind] will also be useful for keeping everyone in House Benevolence apprised of this situation.”

Erick 2 asked, “Well then? Should we do this?”

Erick could tell that Erick 2 was going too fast, and on purpose, but he could hardly blame the guy. He wanted his friend to be here with him in this trying time. That was why Erick wanted Poi here to begin with, but now that Poi was here, Erick saw that Erick 2 needed him a lot more than Erick did.

Poi leveled an easy glare at Erick 2, saying, “You and my repro are going to talk a lot when this is over. And you need a proper name. I suggest something culturally significant, possibly meaning peaceful and good, so that when the Dark tries to twist you to his ways, your very name will remind you of who and what you are, Erick. Not ‘Erick 2’.”

Erick watched as Erick 2’s breath hitched.

Erick 2 wiped away an unruly tear, saying, “I’m glad you’re here, Poi.”

Poi nodded. “I am, too.”

Erick suggested, “Halcyon?”

Poi said nothing.

Erick 2 eventually said. “… That’s too ‘in the past’.”

“Oh!” Erick suggested, “Solomon.”

As soon as Erick said the name, he knew it was going to be the one. There was just too much meaning attached to it to not be perfect. ‘King of Peace and Wisdom’. It even had ‘Sol’ in the name.

“I kinda like that one… I really like that one.” Erick 2 smiled, and said, “Okay. I guess I’ll be ‘Solomon’, then. It even has ‘Sol’ in the name.”

Erick smiled, saying, “Nice to meet you, Solomon.”

Solomon chuckled. “I even look like an aged king now.”

Poi breathed deep, then said, “Glad to solve that problem. Now let’s get me a repro and we can figure out solving all the rest of the problems to come, for both my repro and Solomon won’t be tied too hard to the dungeon as soon as there are 2 masters here.” Poi looked at Solomon, and said, “Because you’re not a hermit, and I don’t want you to become one, either.”

Solomon smiled wide. “Thank you, Poi.”

Poi breathed deep, and then walked off toward Erick’s— Toward Solomon’s mage tower. Erick and Solomon followed. Poi plucked a crystal-sealed dungeon master slime from the asteroid belt, and then walked back down the hall to his room, carrying the softly-developing slime in his blue-scaled hands.

Soon, Solomon laid Poi 2 down on a [Duplicate] of Poi’s bed, inside Poi 2’s room, while Original Poi was already asleep on ‘his’ bed, for he had put himself to [Sleep].

Erick stood back beside Solomon, and asked, “Want to try for a [Hive Mind]? We might be able to swing it with some Wizardry.”

“No,” Solomon said. “I am… Really glad to have Poi here, though.”

“Me, too. He made a lot of things rather clear back there.”

Solomon nodded. “I think my thoughts on the function of this dungeon have matured, too. We can’t make any effective changes to the Rules and thus the space for another week, but when we can, I’m thinking that instead of having Jane explore the Dark by making repros and breaking cores all over the world, we instead make some Well-like [Scry Mirror]s in here, that allow us to [Scry] the entire Dark, and maybe even walk in the Dark.” He added, “It’d probably take some Wizardry to make that happen, but we can figure that out, and maybe, through that, we can figure out exactly why you’re not able to become a Full Wizard.”

Erick smiled as he said, “Sounds like the wisdom of Solomon to me. Are you going to be conjuring demons next?”

Solomon laughed. “I could!” And then he paused. “… No. Not demons. But a…”

Solomon frowned a little, his eyes glancing toward Ophiel, where before he had dutifully not looked at his former [Familiar] at all. Erick wasn’t going to say anything about that, but the only one who hadn’t noticed Solomon’s tension at not looking upon Ophiel was Ophiel, who had been quiet until then.

But now Ophiel asked, “What goes?”

Solomon smiled, and said, “Nothing, Ophiel.”

Ophiel nodded on Erick’s shoulder and returned to just observing the world. Most of his attention was out with the slimes on the dungeon floor, anyway, as he had moved in another of his bodies to take a slime form, and to play with the slimes while his father and Solomon talked about stuff. Ophiel often checked out of these sorts of small talks, so what he was doing now was nothing special. Except Erick could see how Ophiel’s distance was hurting Solomon.

Solomon saw Erick see him. So Solomon shrugged, tried to put on a smile, and said, “Maybe, when he separates… Can you bring him here? Or one of him, maybe—” He shook his head, looking away as he mumbled, “No. Wait. Forget I said that.”

Erick instantly said, “Ophiel. You wanted slime-time, right?”

Solomon’s breath hitched—

As Ophiel focused all of his attention on Erick, asking, “Slime time?!”

Erick said, “Why don’t you play slime time with Solomon here?”

Ophiel flickered, eyes opening all across him, as he took in Solomon and declared, “Slime time!”

“Solomon slime time!” Solomon said, as he turned into a light slime.

Erick’s repro was a slime as brilliant as a minor sun, shimmering with white iridescence, as he activated his Sun Form at minimal power. Solomon bounced away, putting a whole lot of effort into looking like a slime and acting like a slime, except when he turned to light and just flickered through the window.

Ophiel followed instantly, trilling in jubilant violin sounds and then making a whole lot of clatter as he broke the window going through it. He paused to fix the window, and then he kept right on going, bounding after Solomon, up through the dark hole in the ceiling of the cavern, onto the dungeon floor.

Erick watched Ophiel play with Solomon, and felt great about that.

It kinda reminded Erick of how a child would play with a family member that they had forgotten about, all distant and worried, but willing to try. And then Ophiel got into the groove, bouncing after Solomon trying to give chase as a slime, both of them winding up all the slimes all around as they played among the fountains and pools. Something like unfamiliar recognition took hold inside Ophiel after just a minute of play.

They recognized Solomon as Erick, but not as Erick at all, both Ophiel out there squeaking in unsure guitar and agitated flute sounds, before erupting in triumphant violin sounds. And then the chase began for real, as Ophiel tried to understand what he was seeing.

Another Ophiel popped into the room with Erick, having lightstepped here to check on him, before going back out to the dungeon floor to play with the bright light slime that really looked like Erick’s slime form. All three Ophiel seemed to be having a lot of fun with Solomon, even if they knew something was up, and they didn’t quite understand.

As Erick watched them play, he wondered…

If Quilatalap didn’t want to be a secondary father to Ophiel, Solomon was another good choice. He obviously wanted the job of ‘father’… Except.

“Maybe I’d call Solomon an ‘uncle’. I don’t want anyone to get the wrong idea that I’ve married my repro.” Erick shivered as he recalled some stories which had appeared in newspapers and Knowledge Mage briefings across the world. Erick was already the talk of the world over, from what restaurants he ate at, to where he got clothes, and even his pooping habits. That last story was a particularly odd one to read about. Erick did not want to be subject to any sort of incestuous public ridicule. Erick shivered again. After that passed, and as he watched Solomon play with Ophiel, bounding up and down slides and splashing water, and playing with the other slimes who decided to play, Erick decided, “Solomon would be a fantastic uncle, though.”

– – – –

Erick watched over Poi and Poi while the first one slept and the second one was still making himself into a person.

Solomon spent two hours playing with Ophiel and exploring all of the first floor with him in the process. Erick tagged along through Ophiel’s eyes occasionally. There wasn’t a whole lot to explore up there, as the entire floor was basically a kiddie water park, but it was still important to do that exploration.

There was not a single dangerous spot for any slime to be in that entire land, and there weren’t any moving parts anywhere on the entire floor, for all the water features were cleaned and set into motion through basic [Ward]s set here and there in the deeper parts of the water park. There were no underground levels that could trap anyone, and the largest drop from one height to the next was less than a meter. Any drops above a meter always had water pools at the bottom, and the slimes —and Ophiel— loved rolling over those drops and plopping into the water.

The only ominous part of the entire floor was the Dark, located all around.

A tall rink rimmed the dungeon, separating the parts where slimes played freely under prismatic lights, and the desolate black beyond. That black oozed and pulsed here and there, like vertical waters misted over with gloom. It churned occasionally, as though great beasts swam just beyond the veil.

The slimes knew nothing of the danger just beyond the dungeon, for the rink around the land was ten meters tall in most places, and twice that thick. That rink served as a white stone beach, where most of the golems were located, each of them looking like simple egg-shaped stones 2 meters tall.

Erick suspected that those golems would unfurl into threatening things if any unapproved existence came near them at all. He was proven right soon enough. When Ophiel and Solomon went by, the white eggs did unfurl a little bit, but then they went right back to being egg-shaped and Ophiel and Solomon went back down into the dungeon floor. There were a few egg-shaped stones here and there on the dungeon floor, too, but, according to the dungeon status sheet, there were only 500 of them, and from what Erick was seeing that 500 number was likely correct. Over a hundred square kilometers of white stone land, they were few and far between, with most of them on the walls.

Erick tried not to watch Solomon play slime-time with Ophiel too much, for both of them were having a blast, and Erick did not intrude. But he couldn’t help but watch now and then.

When Solomon came back inside the house, smiling and tired and human-shaped, with Ophiel on his shoulder, Erick decided to just tell him.

“I want you to be Ophiel’s uncle,” Erick said.

“Yes,” Solomon replied instantly, a tight, worried, relieved, and joyful expression rapidly passing across his face, and onto the rest of him—

Ophiel chirped and flitted from Solomon’s shoulder to Erick’s asking, “What uncle?”

“Solomon here is like my brother, Ophiel,” Erick said.

“No no! He repro!” Ophiel said, “I know.”

Solomon chuckled.

“Yes, Ophiel; Solomon is my repro, but that means he’s also exactly like me. So he can be like your uncle. You can always come here and look to him for help with anything, okay?”

Ophiel flitted off of Erick’s shoulder and landed on Solomon’s. He looked Solomon in the eyes with all of his own eyes, saying, “You other-father.”

Solomon smiled. “No no. ‘Uncle’. Don’t want people thinking I’m romantically involved with Erick.”

Erick chuckled a little bit in embarrassment.

Ophiel would get it right eventually.

But for now, Erick sat down with Solomon and they spoke of magics to come, of Dark Mirrors to be made at the edge of the dungeon space, and of changes to the dungeon itself in order to solidify it against potential Primal Lightning, or Evil gods, or whatever might appear. While they did that, they watched Poi 2 gradually and inexorably become a copy of Poi 1.

– – – –

Poi and Poi 2 woke up together under Erick and Solomon’s watch.

The original looked to the repro, and the repro looked to the original.

Poi 2 said, “Well shit.”

Poi 1 said, “At least we know this style of waking up together lessens the mental trauma.”

“Of course, we already knew it would work—”

“—but thinking and experiencing are different.” Poi 1 got out of bed, saying to Erick, “Transport back to Candlepoint, please.”

“Is that it?” Erick asked, too many things happening too fast. What about acclimation? What about some time spent together? What about propriety and acknowledging what a big deal this was? “What about [Hive Mind]?”

“Already active,” Poi 2 said, also getting out of bed. “You can stop calling me ‘Poi 2’, by the way.”

Poi 1 and Poi 2 spoke in alternating words.

“We’re—” “—The—” “—Same—” “—Person—” “—In—” “—Most—” “—Ways.” “The—” “—Only—” “—Way—” “—We’re—” “—Different—” “—Is—” “—In—” “—Dungeon—” “—Control.”

“Please call—”

“—Us both Poi.”

One Poi walked out of the room, eager to be separate, while the other remained behind, looking stoic and ready to work.

The departing Poi quietly asked, “Ophiel. Transport to home, please.”

Ophiel rapidly flitted over to the shoulder of the departing Poi, turning them both to Benevolence and flickering away, to exit the dungeon as quickly as possible. Within 10 seconds, Poi was through a [Gate], and back home.

Ophiel came back without Poi and landed back on Erick’s shoulder—

And the Other Poi was also standing before Erick and Solomon, saying, “Don’t call me ‘Other Poi’, please. I’m just ‘Poi’.”

Erick and Solomon both mumbled a ‘Sorry’.

Poi nodded, “Now to get on this memetic and anti-memetic threat that you believe might be happening with the Sundering. It’s quite possible. The Sundering might be memetic, or anti-memetic. We don’t know.” Poi walked out of his bedroom, toward the living rooms, and Erick and Solomon followed. Poi continued, “There are three artifacts that exist on Veird already that you’re going to want to take from their respective guardians. Also: Jane is going to be coming here soon, since it’s been about a day since you came in here. You can’t avoid her at all.” They were at the bottom of the grand staircase in the front room when Poi turned around and told them both, “She’s going to make repros, and you’re going to have to let her, or else she’s going to hate you. Also, don’t take it personally when the repros are inordinately happy about finally having a reason to fully break away from your light, or when Original Jane looks sad that she can’t do that, too.”

Both Erick and Solomon sighed a little.

“… Yeah,” Erick said.

Solomon said, “I figured she might be happy about that.”

Erick demanded of Solomon, “What the fuck did we do wrong?”

“I don’t know why she hates us!” Solomon said, suddenly angry at himself, or at the world; it was hard to say.

Poi rolled his eyes. “She doesn’t hate you. She wants to protect you but you’re impossible to protect, and so she runs away. Please don’t ever tell her I told you that.”

Both Erick and Solomon were quiet as they digested that information. Poi was obviously breaking Mind Mage confidentiality which was a big deal, and yet…

“Well… We already knew that, we suppose?” Solomon guessed.

“Yeah. But… Hearing it from you helps. Thank you, Poi,” Erick said.

Poi smiled a little as he entered the kitchen and went right to the candy cupboard like he was a man on a mission. He opened that cupboard, because apparently he was a man on a mission, and then he pulled out the jar of sprinkle stars. “Ah ha!” Poi laughed as he opened the jar and took out a purple star between two talons. “They don’t make them like they used to!” He popped the chewy candy into his mouth, smiling wider. “Yup. These are the originals! Ha!” He set down the jar.

And then he turned toward Erick and Solomon.

“The place that made these burned down 35 years ago in Kal’Duresh along with the grandma that used to make them. When they remade their business they had to rediscover the recipes, because that grandma didn’t write anything down.” Poi tapped the jar with a talon, saying, “These might look like the ones I used to get and keep in the house at Spur, but these are from the old recipe. These are from that grandma.

“There are many ways this could have happened. I don’t know enough to list all the ways. Paradox Wizardry, Dark shenanigans, maybe that grandmother is a shadeling at Ascendant Mountain, but whatever the case, it’s strange that they would put the original, real candy here, in this house. Were they watching us that closely? Or maybe they heard me talk about how I liked the original candy better than the remake. Or maybe Fallopolis, who built this house, liked the old version of that candy, too, which is really damned weird. I don’t know. I can’t read Shade minds.

“Whatever the case, I believe this candy was plucked out of the Dark, like an old memory brought to life. On its own this doesn’t mean much, and I have no idea why Melemizargo put the original recipe in here, but it does prove my theory that you can find a lot of stuff in the Dark that isn’t that deep at all, which will be good for Veird.

“It’s not the only thing I noticed that was plucked from the Dark in this house, either, like manasphere imprints [Mend]ed into reality.

“The sheets on those beds are the finest cottonfruit sheets that I have ever felt. The clothes in my dressers are from current-day largesse. The soaps are from Oceanside, and are better than anything we used to have in this house.” Poi went over to the cold box and pulled out a steak wrapped in paper, and labeled ‘Oolarito’. “These steaks in the fridge are easy to mistake as from Ooloraptoor, but they’re from a breed of cow that was made extinct by the Shades a thousand years ago, because the original warlord clans wouldn’t sell to them.”

Erick rapidly looked around the house as Poi spoke. “… Err. Perhaps I wasn’t seeing just how nice some of this stuff was.”

“Neither was I,” Solomon admitted. “But what’s your point, Poi?”

“My point is an easy one. There are many possible memetic and anti-memetic threats in the Old Cosmology. Ones we cannot account for, and ones we will have to over prepare for. But you can bring stuff from the history of Veird into the modern day, and we know how to safeguard against those memetic and anti-memetic threats.

“You were talking of bringing back big magics and bigger resources from the Old Cosmology, and we’ll still get that stuff, of course, because we should,” Poi said, “But there’s a lot of stuff on Veird that you can pull out of the Dark that would be a lot better for us than ancient stuff that has no bearing at all on modern day Veird.

“Just think of every single person who ever died, for one.

The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

“You could bring them all back as shadelings, first, and then real people afterward. You could save everyone that the Anarchy and Blue Wizards killed. Reach back far enough and you can undo the Fall of Quintlan, bringing billions of people back to life. Reach back just over a decade and you could undo the Chelation War.”

The air seemed tense and full in that moment, as the entire weight of what Poi was suggesting gradually settled onto Erick’s shoulders—

“You could find my mother in the Dark, and bring her back, too,” Poi said. But before Erick could think about the gravity of all of that, Poi rapidly added, “It’s just a thought, though, and I already know that Rozeta and Phagar don’t like people mucking around with time on Veird, but it’s been done before, and it can be done again, in a much more positive way. We’ve got a lot of work to do here, but since we’re exploring the Ancient Dark for old Truths, it will pay to keep in mind that not-so-ancient Truths also exist.”

Solomon spoke, “Exploring memetic and anti-memetic threats come first. Defending against the unknown is more important than bringing back shadows of people, no matter how personally important they are.”

Erick agreed. “But the lure of just… Bringing people back to life?”

Solomon nodded. “It’s… It’s a thing that we should consider, yes.”

Poi smiled softly, then began, “Before we get into all of that, though, there are three memetic-type artifacts that currently exist on Veird that you should acquire before we go much further with all of this. All three are under the protections of the Mind Mage conclave, and the first is located in Nelboor…”

– – – –

Three artifacts sat before Erick, Solomon, and Poi.

The first was a Crown of Self. It had started existence as an iron band that went around the head like a crown, that people used when hunting unicorns, and other mental monsters. Through an act of supreme self, and a casting of minor Wizardry and great personal trauma, it had become more than that. Outwardly, it had changed from iron to silver, and gained a sheen that marked it as magical. In effect, it had changed a lot more, making one completely mentally separate from the rest of the world, offering complete immunity to memetic magic, and a whole bunch of other magic besides.

At its base effect, it meant no outward magic at all.

“It also means no [Telepathy], no Familiars, no magical communication with anything at all,” Poi said, “It has been tested against… Well. A lot. There’ve been 2 Mind Mage Wizards in the last thousand years, and this thing was born out of the capture and killing of the first one, and then finally taken out of storage and heavy Mind Mage contraband control before finally being used by an assassin to kill the second Wizard. I suggest Solomon take it and use it, but only when necessary, for anyone who wears it will be cut off from me, anyone else trying to contact them, and the dungeon. [Cascade Imaging] will likely find the person wearing this, but not [Scry], or anything like that. This is a Wizard Artifact, so it works here even in the Dark, just like the other two.”

Solomon frowned a little at that.

Erick looked to the next artifact.

The second artifact was the Lidless Eyes. It was a collection of tiny glass eyes, all stuck to each other, and freely floating on a golden chain, like drops of dew, or chains of grapes. They would not fall off of the chain, but they did move around. The eyes tracked Erick as he stepped a fraction to the left, and then the right, as though all of those tiny eyes belonged to an Ophiel-like entity.

Solomon said, “I don’t like how it has 57 eyes one moment, then 59 after I blink, and then 48 when I look again.”

Erick looked to Solomon, then back to the Lidless Eyes. “Without moving or blinking, how many eyes does it look like it has to you, right now, Solomon?”