242, 2/2

Erick stood with Solomon on the beach-like white cliffs that surrounded the slime dungeon, where the slimes were meters behind and below, and the white stone ahead led straight into shadows, gloom, and the Dark Itself. That Darkness hovered vertically like a mist-covered ocean, the deeper parts of it swirling as things moved in the Dark, just beyond sight.

Solomon spoke, “A Sighting in the Dark.”

His voice rippled out and touched the gloom, rapidly precipitating mist and wavy black into a solid vertical surface that spread outward like the settling of a gong. Vibrations slowed. Possibility condensed. And then like the final step in accretion, when countless facets on a core turned to a smooth infinity, the Darkness rang out with a black pulse, leaving behind an utterly smooth plane at least 20 meters wide that hovered just beyond the white stone ground, revealing the softly-crumbling edge of the dungeon floor.

Erick and Solomon stood 10 meters away from the Black Mirror, and in a rather mundane sort of way, the mirror acted like a normal mirror. There lay Erick and Solomon’s reflections upon the Black, and there was the white stone ground underfoot, and Ophiel fluttering on Erick’s shoulder. Somehow, Erick expected something else.

Erick glanced at Solomon, and Solomon reciprocated the look. Erick nodded.

Solomon picked the chosen target that they had already discussed, and said, “Show me Poi at House Benevolence.”

The mirror flickered and wavered. And then nothing happened. Kinda expected. Poi at House Benevolence wasn’t in the Dark, but also, Poi wasn’t at House Benevolence right now.

Erick tried this time. “Show me Poi at the cloud castle above House Benevolence.”

The mirror rippled and did nothing.

Solomon instantly tried, “Show me Poi at the cloud castle above House Benevolence on the continent of Glaquin.”

Nothing but a ripple.

Erick said, “Show me House Benevolence.”

The mirror rippled.

… Nothing.

Solomon said, “Show me Poi in the slime dungeon.”

The mirror flashed to perfect imagery, the surface of the mirror seeming to vanish completely. Beyond the mirror lay Poi in the kitchen, a few kilometers behind Erick and Solomon, where he was making cinnamon rolls.

Erick said, “So it can only show things in the Dark.”

Solomon nodded. Then he spoke to the mirror, “Show me a person who knows a lot of actual Wizardry.”

Erick raised an eyebrow, surprised that Solomon was going after that target so fast—

And then he looked at the mirror, and laughed.

The mirror laughed with him—

Ha ha!

Ha ha!

Ha ha~

Solomon chuckled, too. And then he ran a hand through his own hair, and the guy in the mirror did the same. “So that was kinda a bust.”

“So that was kinda a bust.”

“So that was kinda a bust.”

“So that was kinda a bust.”

Erick did not like that feedback system.

And if they were going after the big targets, might as well go after the biggest ones.

Erick said, “Show me a True Wizard.”

The mirror expanded.

Eyes opened up in the Dark like ten thousand distant suns.

And then glowing white fangs appeared, each of them larger than a skyscraper. Melemizargo’s voice filled the dungeon like a soft avalanche, “Oh! It pinged on me? Well I guess I am, but we’ve already discussed True Wizardry. What are you searching for now?” Melemizargo stepped through half of the world, shrinking all the while, gloom and Darkness forming into his draconic body as he sat down on the slime dungeon floor. He came to rest with his arms upon the ledge of the edge, like he was sitting in a pool, his serpentine neck angled down toward Erick and Solomon, his tail flicking at one of the deeper water parks of the slimes. Just like how his body had shrunken to something less world-sized, his voice transformed to fit the size of the venue, “Like I said last time, I have given you all the tools to become a True Wizard but I cannot help you take those final steps. I believe Rozeta gave you the same information.”

The slimes shied away from the Dark Dragon.

Erick and Solomon did not.

“We have some specific questions,” Solomon said.

Melemizargo nodded.

Erick asked, “Is there an interaction between particles and mana that make it literally impossible to become a True Wizard in this New Cosmology?”

“Though the particulars have changed, extra influences are poison to a True Wizard. This is a fact that is as true in the Old Cosmology as it is in this New Cosmology. There is a reason that finding out about Particles helped me to come back to myself, for once you know the influences, you can work around them, or with them, as desired.

“That you ask such a question indicates that you have finally come to realize something that I have already told people; Particle Magic has brought me back to my senses. Of course, I don’t exactly blame people for not believing me, but that’s all in the past.”

Erick frowned a little, realizing that his question was a bit redundant now that he was here, and asking it. And yet…

Solomon asked, “It’s always bothered me… Why wasn’t Particle Magic invented before we got here? Even basic people playing around with the physical world would have noticed that Particles exist and could be manipulated in specific ways. Alchemy should have evolved into chemistry, for example.”

Melemizargo smiled a little, then said, “I’m rather sure the Sundering Source is still existent, or perhaps the collective trauma from the Sundering Source is all that remains, and that is what held us back from new magic for so long.

“Perhaps a memetic curse was made long ago in the killing of Knowledge, ensuring that Particles remained undiscovered. I don’t believe this, but I don’t know what caused the Sundering, either, so what I believe hardly matters when compared to the truth.

“But there have been certain advances in Particle-like Magic, once upon a time.

“There was that Atomic Cult that existed for a short while, long ago. They were Forgotten Campaign’d rather thoroughly, and their magic Banned most heavily. Perhaps the wrought have been actively suppressing progress for forever, and they’ve been better at their jobs than anyone realized?

“That is merely postulation, though. You will find out more when you go delving into the Dark, viewing the Source Of All Magic for yourself, searching for the cause of the Sundering.” He added, “But! Perhaps you will not discover anything. This outcome is likely preferable to all parties, for if the Sundering is truly over, then maybe we can begin to move past the Sundering and out into this New Cosmology. I highly doubt that will happen without a few major upsets along the way, but dreams are wonderful sometimes.”

A soft wind blew across the dungeon. Water rushed down small slides, where slimes played in the waves.

“The Old Cosmology and the New Cosmology were linked before the Sundering.” Erick asked, “Are there Wizards from the Old Cosmology which still exist in this New Cosmology? Maybe someone is still alive out there, somewhere?”

“Planars never stopped falling to Veird and the mana of the Old Cosmology is still out there, in a lot of places. I just cannot feel it. There are connections between Here and Other Places that I cannot sense, like holes in the ground that reach into True Voids, where Other Things live. If there are Wizards out there, perhaps they would be a boon to find, but they could also have been heralds of Destruction and death, for maybe the Sundering Source was from this New Cosmology, and not from the Old Cosmology at all.

“My ultimate goal is to expand the universe, so if malevolent entities came to Veird I know not of what I might have done to them while I was crazed.” Melemizargo said, “Perhaps some of them did try coming here… But I have no knowledge of that, either due to self-imposed forgetting, or whatnot. Perhaps you can make such knowledge appear for me, through some Wizardry in the Dark.”

He could make himself forget things?

… Didn’t that change everything about this Sundering search?

Erick wasn’t sure how to think about that right now.

Solomon asked, “What do you wish to come back from the Old Cosmology?”

Melemizargo grinned. “Everything.”

Solomon’s question and Melemizargo’s answer had almost derailed Erick’s current thoughts, because they were almost too big of questions to hold. A lot of little things were adding up for Erick, and yet the direction his thoughts were going was really quite nonsensical.

Erick asked the question anyway.

“Circling way back a moment.

“Mana makes magic when exposed to intent.

“Particles make electricity and chemistry and otherwise when exposed to biological-based entities who know what they’re doing with those particles, but it is strictly a physical process.” Erick asked, “Do these two things seem comparable to each other as different forms of ‘magic’? Or am I way off base here?”

Melemizargo frowned a little in thought.

Solomon was silent as he considered Erick’s words.

“A strange question. Do you have a reasoning for this postulation that Particles are the base ‘mana’ of this New Cosmology?”

“No, not really.” Erick said, “But going back to the idea that people have been transporting from the Old Cosmology to the New Cosmology and other Cosmologies before the Sundering since there have always been planars… did the Goddess of Knowledge go comatose from an ‘inundation of new knowledge’? I have a hard time believing that right now, for if she knew everything about everything, then shouldn’t there have been planars from this New Cosmology inside the Old Cosmology anyway? And shouldn’t the Old Cosmology have known of Particles before I came along?

“Obviously this thought experiment only works if the Goddess of Knowledge truly was knowledgeable about everything.

“But she had to be, right? Everything everyone has ever said has been ‘yes, the Goddess of Knowledge knew everything’. That fact is even provable, if sacrificing her to obtain the Grand Translation is really what happened, which everyone agrees is how the Grand Translation happened.

“So then… Some other sort of divine magic must have been what caused her to go comatose. She did not go comatose from an overload of Knowledge about this universe. She had to have gone comatose from either a loss of Knowledge, or through malevolent entities causing her to go comatose.”

Melemizargo stared. Solomon watched, wide-eyed and curious, trying to line up everything he knew with the words coming out of Erick’s mouth.

Erick was on a roll.

He continued, “And other realities have mana, right? Or is it just the Old Cosmology that makes mana?

“I doubt the Old Cosmology is the only Cosmology that made mana.

“So does this New Cosmology actually have its own form of ‘mana’? Are particles that mana? Or is there something else?” Erick asked, “Is it possible that whatever caused the Sundering was something… That exists here? Eh…” Erick frowned. “Ah. Sorry. Lost my train of thought. Still trying to put it all together right now—” Erick rapidly added, “And then there’s Apogee in Spur! He comes from a world of dragons that oversee everything and everyone; it’s why he hates dragons. Or at least he did the last time I talked to him which was years ago. And then there was that elf who came in from outer space on a ship, and that ship is down inside Stratagold’s vaults. Never got to see that ship, though.

“I’m not sure where I’m going with all of this…

“I just think that the Dark has a lot of boons that we can extract from it, but I am not sure if the Dark actually has the answers to the Sundering, because it is very possible that the Sundering did not originate inside the Old Cosmology. Maybe it came from this New Cosmology.”

Solomon cocked his head a little bit as he listened to Erick, mulling over the facts and postulations stated.

Melemizargo had stopped staring at Erick a while ago, instead opting to narrow his eyes upon the middle distance, his thoughts far from here.

Erick had a lot more he could have said on the subject, but that was more than enough for now. And so, he waited.

“An interesting theory of which we have no way to explore, for now.

“As for ‘mana’, as an overarching designation of ‘ephemeral power’ and not as the mana produced by the souls of living things here on Veird…

“Mana exists out there in the New Cosmology, same as it existed back in the Old Cosmology, and in roughly the same sort of ‘mana is possibility’ way that mana exists here. The possibilities out there, though, are vastly smaller than the possibilities here. It’s like this: Veird is a great big bowl, capable of holding all the different manas in rather equal form, and other places cannot do that. Just like how we didn’t have Particle Magic until you came along and added that to the soup, a lot of places out there are not capable of holding mana at all, or in any great quantity.

“Mana is much more ephemeral than particles.

“The production of mana is something that happens within the Darkness of a person, beside that thing which many would call the ‘soul’.

“Did souls exist where you came from? Sure. Is your soul stronger now, here on Veird? Very yes.

“So whatever mana production is out there, is much less than it is here on Veird, among the Darkness. Perhaps the veils between realities are weaker here on Veird, or they’re stronger out there, or whatnot. Hard to say; I’m stuck here on Veird just like you are.

“On a slight tangent…

“The Old Cosmology was riddled with passageways to new Cosmologies, some large and some small. This New Cosmology is possibly even older than the Old Cosmology, but not by much. The timescales upon which the Killing Sun seems to operate are rather intriguing to think about, especially when distant stars could have existed for much longer, or shorter, and then there’s the whole ‘light travels slow’ thing that seems to be a hard-ish limit in this existence…

“Benevolence didn’t exist until you made it, so it is possible that some other sort of invisible, intangible ‘mana’ exists that caused the Sundering.” Melemizargo shrugged. “I do not know.” He waved a wing toward the dungeon, and fluttered the other in the gloom of the Dark, near the Mirror. “Thus, this search.

“But! One part of what you say does hold a grain of maybe-truth.

“Maybe the answer is not here, in the Dark.

“Perhaps after you grab whatever you wish from the Dark, you can journey to Stratagold and plunder their vaults, too, and grab yourself a spaceship.” Melemizargo smiled. “I had posted a Quest for such a thing on the Quest Board of the Garrison of Candlepoint before you took over that land. Mephistopheles has that Quest Board in storage, gathering dust, but the Quest that is still on that board is still a Quest that I offer. Like the Quests at the Core of Veird, my own Quests to expand into the New Cosmology are evergreen.”

Erick instantly said, “And Yggdrasil will get us there in 90-ish years. You can wait alongside everyone else.”

Melemizargo laughed at Erick’s rapid answer. Then said, “As you desire.” He asked, “Do you desire more True Wizard answers?”

“A few quick questions. First question: Do you believe that mana in the Old Cosmology is more or less complicated than DNA and biological life in this universe?”

“They’re different. Mana is clearly better, but particles function decently enough as a baseline anchor for mana to grow upon.”

“What about from a Healing Magic perspective?” Erick said, “Healing magic is incredibly complicated here on Veird, because biology is very nuanced. Was Healing in the Old Cosmology just as difficult?”

“Healing Magic in the Old Cosmology was about as complicated as it is now, with all aspects except the most basic of supportive healing requiring fantastic amounts of assistance or skill in order to not mangle a body into horror.”

“… I honestly did not expect that sort of answer.” Erick said, “I expected realities made of mana to be easier to influence than ones made of particles.”

Melemizargo grinned. “It’s all easy to influence, Erick, for people like us. Would you like a small demonstration?”

For one incredibly deep moment, Erick paused.

And then he said, “Yes.”

– – – –

Melemizargo was a human angel of ten thousand wings floating atop a white beach.

Erick was a centaur. Solomon was a satyr. Ophiel was a flugehaper, sitting on Erick’s saddle-position.

They watched an ocean filled with fishmen play under the waves, hopping atop corals and swimming between eddies of whitewater. Erick was filled with awe as he watched the water-people play in the water. Just… All that water. All over the place! Water! Amazing. Much better than the Dryness everywhere else. Oases truly are amazing.

Melemizargo said, “In this place, dungeons are oases and you don’t know what a dungeon is, but you do know what a desert is, for the entire world is a desert.”

Melemizargo waved five thousand wings—

– – – –

Melemizargo was a human.

Erick was a Benevolence Fairy. Solomon was a Benevolence sprite, and Ophiel was a wisp.

They watched a forest filled with monkeys climb up ropes and swing down vines, and make little homes under big green ferns. They were all so fragile, those monkeys. A fire could come through any minute now, or a plague, or any sort of cataclysm, and they’d all die. Just like the Old Ones died. The Fae didn’t die; they were above that. But also, there was a beauty in death, in finality, that Erick rarely ever saw.

Melemizargo said, “In this fragment of reality, we’re cultivating semi-sapient people, to try and bring back the Old Ones. We’re having little success.”

Something clicked in Erick’s mind.

Melemizargo waved his ha—

“Wait!” Erick demanded, “Back to normal! Not here! This is wr—”

– – – –

Melemizargo was a tome ten books tall, floating above the Library of the Endless, where corridors of stacks delineated the world.

Erick was a traveler’s book standing in the center of the forbidden floor, where no books should walk, lest they be destroyed by librarians. Solomon was an imperfect copy, laying on the ground, too tired to open his covers and look at the world. Ophiel was a post-it note clinging to Erick’s binding.

They were in the Printing Room, and—

NOTHING WAS RIGHT.

Melemizargo started to say something—

Erick demanded, “Bring us back!”

The edges of Melemizargo’s pages glinted in the light, like fangs, like a smile.

He snapped shut.

– – – –

Erick was Erick, standing tall, a dragon Wizard in a human form. Solomon was Solomon, laying sprawled on the ground.

Ophiel whined a little on Erick’s shoulder, complaining, “I’m tired, dad.”

Erick put a hand on Ophiel, and the little guy slumped down into Erick’s arms, softly snoring in tiny flutes. Solomon was already knocked out and laying on the ground. Erick had no idea how he had remained awake. His eyes were heavy—

Erick endured, remaining upright. He glared at Melemizargo, the big black dragon staring at him from only five meters away. He was grinning. Erick was not grinning.

Erick demanded, “What the FUCK?”

Melemizargo leaned back, smiling wider, looking vindicated as he said, “That’s what I mean when I say that all realities, be they mana or particle, are easy to influence.”

“What was that? Why did you do—”

“You’re a lot further along in your Wizardly journey, so you managed to maintain consciousness. Solomon will take some more time before he can claim the same power. But all reality is easy to change, Erick. The big changes, like what you just experienced, were easy for you to notice. That’s why we went through those few realities. I knew you could maintain yourself in the brush of an infinity.

“And so, with your consent, we went.

“That’s what it really means to be a Wizard; it means you can maintain in the face of everything else that comes your way.” Melemizargo said, “You’re pretty close to getting there.”

Erick had a few rapid thoughts as Ophiel stirred to wakefulness in his arms.

The first thought was that he should never have consented to a ‘small demonstration’.

Like really, Erick, that was almost as bad as thanking Fairy Moon on the beach near Stratagold.

Next came the idea of ‘Oh. That’s what Establishment is; the cementing of other realities here, in this reality.’

And then his thoughts rapidly circled through what ‘different realities’ meant.

Next came ‘Gods make realities all the time; they’re called afterlives’.

Erick thought about the nature of gods. In the Old Cosmology, gods ‘solidified’ the space where their worshipers lived, actively determining things like the flow of time, to the cycle of days, afterlives, and otherwise.

Like a lightbulb going off, Erick said, “Gods determine the overarching setting of the universe.”

“Yes.”

“And Wizards determine their personal settings.”

“Also yes!”

To make sure he was on the same page as Melemizargo, Erick asked, “What does the term ‘multi-verse’ mean to you?”

Melemizargo considered, then he said, “Just another term for ‘Cosmology’.”

“Oh.”

Oh. That was big. Okay. Oh.

Erick had a lot of thoughts forming on that, but Solomon was waking up, and Erick helped him to his feet, as he looked upon Melemizargo again, and asked, “What do you want to come back from the Old Cosmology, specifically?”

And holy shit does the term ‘Old Cosmology’ mean something so much more different to me, now.

As does ‘New Cosmology’.

‘Old Multiverse’. ‘New Multiverse’.

Solomon chuckled in Erick’s arms as he got all the way to his feet. Had he heard the latest series of questions and answers, before he woke up? Or was he reviewing the recent past in the manasphere, to see what he missed out on? Was he going mad? Erick hoped he wasn’t going mad.

Or maybe Solomon was just happy that Erick was backing him up on his question of Melemizargo’s ultimate goals in the Sundering Search. ‘Everything’ was not a productive answer, and Melemizargo definitely wanted something specific out of this Sundering search.

Melemizargo mused, “Conflict is a thing upon which the entire system grows and multiplies, but right now a major conflict would be bad for everyone. So I don’t want to start a conflict. I do truly want everything to come back, though I doubt such an event is truly possible.” He looked down at Erick, saying, “I’m sure whatever you find will be good for us all, but I have other events to attend to today so I cannot remain. Good day, Erick. Good luck with understanding the New Cosmology.”

Without another word, Melemizargo vanished into the Dark surrounding the dungeon, moving like a slippery dragon, but also like tentacles suddenly vanishing below the surface of the vertical ocean.

… He had avoided that last question, hadn’t he.

“Hmm,” Solomon grunted, rubbing his eyes, still a bit out of it.

“Hmm,” Erick agreed.

Ophiel twittered in low drum sounds.

Solomon said, “So I checked the manasphere for what I missed… And I’m not sure what happened. We were… somewhere else? I got that you were a centaur for a moment?”

Erick sent Solomon an information packet—

Solomon froze for a long moment, as the gravity of what had happened unfurled within his mind.

Erick waited.

Solomon whisper-shouted, “ ‘Cosmology’ means ‘multiverse’?!” He instantly added, “No. That can’t be right… It doesn’t jive with everything we’ve learned so far… Well… Maybe it does?” He paused. “Wait. This makes a lot of sense, doesn’t it.”

“Maybe from a certain perspective, it’s true,” Erick said, “We already figured that mana was a multiverse, what with Benevolence and Fae and Dark all existing and reachable from Veird, I just never considered that ‘Cosmologies’ were singular multiverses unto themselves.”

Solomon said, “The Old Cosmology and New Cosmology were not just different dimensions, but they were entirely separate multiverses.”

A moment passed.

Clarity came.

“Gods determine the over-reality,” Solomon said.

“And Wizards determine their own personal-reality,” Erick said, “Extending their Reality onto the over-reality; extending their personal Element and self-created dimensional plane, like Benevolence, into this over-reality.”

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“Wizards are the gods of themselves,” Solomon said, “Crystallized and set in stone, unwavering in the face of the over-reality, ever-producing their own version of reality within themselves.”

The moment of clarity passed by.

“And Wizards can pull from other versions of themselves?” Erick said, suddenly not too sure about his words or where he was going with them. He continued anyway, because talking out problems sometimes helped to solve those problems. “That could explain certain types of Establishment; you’re taking a piece of a different personal Reality and setting it into the shared over-reality?”

Solomon seemed to lose some forward enthusiasm too, as he said, “But are you interacting with your multiversal-self in order to do that? Like, consider that centaur version of yourself. If you were to transform into that person, are you actually instantiating that Reality into this reality, and… leaving the other Reality without that version of yourself?”

Erick thought for a second, but he had nothing positive to say about Solomon’s conjecture.

Solomon changed tactics. “Okay maybe the centaur-thing isn’t a good example. How about [Teleport], then. Taking into account what we know now, we know that [Teleport] worked off of alternate Realities being instantiated into this reality. The whole ‘macro quantum wavelength’ state was just our way of first visualizing what was clearly Establishment magic, as per Phagar; as in ‘Establishing’ your position in reality where you want it to be. Establishment magic is taking things from other realities and making them happen here.” He asked, “So what happens to the realities left behind? Do they just cease to exist, because you ‘killed yourself’ in that previous timeline?”

Erick hummed in thought, then said, “I highly doubt that Wizards are moving through countless realities and leaving behind the old ones to perish. Even in the Deep Paradox that Other Erick complained about how I was the real one and he was the fake. That means that there is one over-reality, and that over-reality is this one. I am willing to bet that the other realities did not exist until looked upon.”

“Maybe so,” Solomon said, “But is this reality the only real one because we have gods here, determining which reality is real? If you did Wizardry outside of their influence, would you go crashing through into Paradox unknown? Phagar once said that Establishment could lead to weird things, like waking up and finding yourself being a woman all your life, or other such oddities.”

Erick found his footing again, saying, “Well then that neatly explains why gods and Wizards always worked together, right? Gods cemented the over-reality, and Wizards pulled in things from side-realities whenever they needed or wanted those things.”

Solomon paused. “Well. That… Yeah. That is a nice framework. Interesting.”

Erick nodded. A moment passed in silent thought.

Solomon turned back to the Dark Mirror, gazing upon his and Erick’s reflections in the black.

Erick got back on track. “The girls will be coming soon.”

“Absolutely,” Solomon said. “You know… All of this recontextualizes this whole Sundering Search. The Relevant Entities all understood what we were doing here before we did; that we’re searching side-realities made possible through our very presences in order to create miracles that are not found on this world anymore, to prepare us all for the coming shifts. That’s why only a few people, like us, or like Jane, could do this.”

Erick nodded. “It certainly simplified everything for me, too.”

“The gods set the over-reality,” Solomon began.

“And we Wizards set the local-reality,” Erick finished.

Ophiel chirped, “And I help!”

Erick smirked at that, and Solomon chuckled. They told him that yes, he did help a lot.

Soon, Erick and Solomon were back to playing around with the Dark Mirrors to better try and understand how they work. They didn’t search for anything dangerous at all, but they did learn how to search for known things in the Dark rather well.

“Ah!” Solomon said, opening his aura and flowing it toward the Dark Mirror. White glows flowed into the black, and Solomon said nothing.

A pink slime with sparkles appeared, playing in the waves of a lazy river with a bunch of other slimes.