251, 1/2

“There are many ways to instantiate a [Familiar],” Quilatalap said, as he sat on a chair in the kitchen dining room. “We’ve gone over all of them before, but it’s important to go over them with Ophiel, too.”

Ophiel fluttered on Erick’s lap. “I’m here!”

Erick patted the little guy. “Yes, you are.”

Poi merely watched from the side.

It was just Quilatalap, Erick, Poi, and Ophiel right now. The girls and Evan were elsewhere, busying themselves with Solomon, who had been the first to leave once it became apparent what was happening today. Erick wasn’t quite sure what all of them were doing elsewhere, but he was pretty sure they were interacting with the Well in order to figure out the Lifeblood Heart problem. Solomon had said yesterday that they were 60% of the way through a comprehensive plan A, while only 30% and 5% of the way through a plan B and C. Each of those plans would involve actors far, far out of the scope of this operation here in this slime dungeon, so they could only plan for so much. Any of the Heart plans would involve Stratagold and the other Geodes, the Gods, Kirginatharp, and a Relevant Entity full unanimous vote for the project, along with assurances that all of them would be doing their part to ensure the Heart remained on Veird.

All of Solomon’s plans would invariably change when they met Rozeta’s plans and wrought plans and otherwise, and that was fine. Solomon was focused on that, and his Jane, and he did not want to be here for Ophiel’s birth, which was understandable, but still sad. Ophiel had been his son until months ago when he found out he was a repro and not the original. Solomon would be there afterward, though, because Erick had asked him to be there as part of the family. Ophiel would be raised by his uncle as much as he would be raised by his father.

… Hopefully, it worked out like that, but with all these recent happenings, Erick doubted the future would shake out quite so easily.

Erick had a lot of worries as he sat there, holding Ophiel in his lap, as Quilatalap spoke.

“The main way for a [Familiar] to come into being is to wait for them to achieve instantiation on their own, and they’ll naturally take what they want to take from the soul of their parent in order to construct their own soul, while the parent will naturally give up parts of their soul that they wish to give up. It’s all very intuitive but also extremely painful for both parties, for the splitting of a soul is never easy.” Quilatalap said, “If you were to spend 90 days in a [Hasted Shelter], which would be about 36 hours in the real world, then Ophiel would reach a point somewhere in those 90 days where instantiation —or birth— would happen naturally.

“The end result of that varies, but Ophiel should end up as a protean, like you Erick. He could also end up a dragonkin protean, which is something completely new. I’d suspect he’d end up like a 12-year-old boy with some fluffy wings of some sort —perhaps harpy-shaped— but also whatever he felt like being at any given point in time. It will be like raising a dragon in almost all ways, from spontaneous shape-shifting to the sudden destruction of property and the like. However, given your nature and the nature you instilled into Ophiel, all accidental destructions should be accidents.

“Ophiel will be stuck to you for at least a year, Erick; not willing to go anywhere without you, so expect that. But since you want to raise him with Solomon, and since the circumstances around Solomon are very similar to yours, then this expected tendency of Ophiel’s will be lessened.

“I would also suspect that Ophiel will either come out as ten boys, or one boy with the ability to summon a linked copy of himself, or just one boy with the natural ability to summon bird-like selves. I give either option a 33% chance of being the final outcome.” Quilatalap asked, “So do you want to sit in a [Hasted Shelter] for 90 days? I’ll stay with you, and at the end of that, we’ll know a lot more about how Ophiel’s final form and capabilities are going to naturally shape up. I can even help guide his final form into either 10 boys, or one boy with multiple bodies, or one boy with summoned bird-selves, or some other option, should some other option look to be occurring.”

Erick said, “I’m not staying in a [Hasted Shelter] right now, but maybe for a month or two after Ophiel is born. We’ll find out later. I don’t want you controlling the outcome; whatever he is, he will be.”

Quilatalap nodded. “Then let us move on to the second birthing option.

“A forced instantiation.

“Done at the beginning of a [Familiar]s life, this sort of thing will get you hit with the Slave Protocols of the Script almost without a doubt. The creation of such a being would be like tying off a piece of your soul which is forever unable to act on their own, and which will always do as you say. Even when separated from the caster, it takes decades for such a soul to learn how to function on its own. When they remain with the caster, the former [Familiar] will never move on.

“But since we’re doing this when Ophiel has already created most of his own soul, that won’t happen.

“What will happen is that we’re going to need to decide exactly where to cut to remove his soul from your own. There are many ways to do that, and we’ve spoken of most of the good ones, but there are always more.” Quilatalap asked, “Have you decided on the ritual you want to use?”

Erick said, “We’re doing the Mortal Umbilicus.”

Quilatalap’s even lips turned down a fraction. “… Are you sure about that?”

“It’s the most normal instantiation method without needing to go through instantiation. So yes. I pick that one.”

“That one is extremely painful.”

“I can handle it.”

“Okay. Then that is what we’re doing.” Quilatalap said, “We should do this under the Script, too; it’s easier that way. So not here.”

Erick smiled, and said, “Let’s go to Benevolence.”

“Before you leave,” Poi said, “I need updates either here or at the cloud house on the daily. Kromolok is asking nicely for constant updates, too, but he’s not asking any invasive questions anymore. He still thinks about those invasive questions, though.”

“Sure; absolutely. I’ll be recovering for a few hours, and you’re right there at the House anyway, but I’ll be sure to keep the House apprised of what’s happening. Might only stay inside Benevolence for a day.”

Poi nodded; satisfied.

Quilatalap said, “Ophiel is going to want to be in a normal mana environment, and away from people. So staying inside your gate space might be the best location for him, for at least a week or two, until both he and you understand how his new life works.”

That brought Erick up short for a moment. “A week or two? I haven’t… Ever done that, actually.” Erick decided, “I’ll have a Benevolence Gate open here for Solomon and the girls and Evan.”

Yggdrasil’s [Scry] eye appeared in the room, as he said, “I wish to be born as well, father.”

… Ah.

Ophiel got mad, fluffing up, saying, “I’m first! I’m here first!”

“And that’s fine, Ophiel!” Yggdrasil said, sounding exhausted, “But I want to be born, too.”

“Okay okay,” Erick said, just as Ophiel was about to declare his superiority over Yggdrasil by virtue of creation order. Ophiel still looked rather smug, though, so he felt he had won. “I’m going to have to speak to a few other gods, then…” Erick had a thought, and the more he thought that thought, the more it seemed like the proper thing to do. “Yggdrasil? How do you feel about stopping yourself from creating any world seeds for a while, and not letting anyone else use you to create any world seeds, either? All the world will simply have to trust you, and you will have to uphold that trust. How do you feel about no seal at all?”

Yggdrasil’s eye did a little pulse of surprise. “Uhh— Yes! I’ll take a non-magically-enforceable pact to not give rise to any new worlds for 87 more years. I’m sure I can do that.”

He sounded more full of bluster than surety.

It was fine, for now.

“Okay.” Erick said, “Then this is what I am going to do…”

– – – –

“You want Yggdrasil’s seal released now, Erick?” Melemizargo said, as he sat on his white throne at the top of Mount Ascendant. “Are you sure that is wise?”

Yggdrasil’s [Scry] eye held to Erick’s right, watching, while Ophiel gripped Erick’s left shoulder, also watching. They were the only ones here right now, for Quilatalap had chosen to wait at the slime dungeon until Erick got this part of his life settled.

Erick said, “I need to take a break from all the stuff happening right now and I want to be with my kids, to watch them grow a little before the next Storm comes and I am called away to fight once again.” He looked to Yggdrasil, saying, “Yggdrasil wants to show me his girlfriend, too, and it’s time I do that.”

Yggdrasil’s eye went still, and then he resumed bobbing slightly.

Melemizargo frowned from on high, his black-scaled visage showing a hint of glowing white fangs thirty meters above Erick. And then Melemizargo dipped down, his meters-wide maw coming closer, before switching to stare at Yggdrasil. “You are larger than a mortal, Yggdrasil. This behavior of yours at this young age is only acceptable because you are a child and still attached to your father and you have no real idea what is happening right now; how your plans are disrupting my plans. If you were someone else bringing this level of disruption to my plans then I would have much stronger words to say about your desire for freedom, but I will say this; your desire for freedom comes at a cost. I don’t know what that cost is, but it will be extracted from you nonetheless, and—”

“Melemizargo,” Erick said, softly.

Melemizargo narrowed his giant eyes at Erick and then pulled back. “I will say this, and be done with this foolishness: You never should have been sealed so strongly, Yggdrasil. It is only because of the weakness of this world and all the rest of the New Cosmology that you were burdened so strongly to begin with. That never should have happened if we weren’t so vulnerable right now.

“Do not add to the vulnerability of this world or any other.”

Yggdrasil bowed his eye, saying, “Solidity is strength, and I hope to embody the sort of strength that will hold up worlds one day.”

Melemizargo stared at Yggdrasil. And then he flickered with a golden sheen.

Erick felt something unfurl within his core. Golden light shifted within, like a spider’s web that had dried out in the heat of the day, fraying a little more. It was the seal, reorienting, holding on to the final thread cast by Rozeta. Only one more to go.

Erick said, “Thank you, Melemizargo. I hope Rozeta agrees to such a change of plans as well.”

“She won’t agree that easily, especially if you want to completely free Yggdrasil.” Melemizargo glanced at Ophiel, and then back to Yggdrasil, saying, “As soon as you free Yggdrasil, you’re going to want to plant him one final time, to truly plant the World Tree. I suggest the third island of this former Glorious Land, and then we can officially rename all three islands from their broken names into something better. Infamy, Villainy, and Depravity, can become Honor, Virtue, and Nobility.”

Yggdrasil said to Erick, “I would accept this, father.”

Erick had almost said something himself, but his track changed, and now he was speechless. “… Okay. Then that’s the plan there. I’ll probably need a week after getting Ophiel instantiated, though. Assuming Rozeta is okay with this idea.”

– – – –

“Absolutely not, Erick,” Rozeta said, “And I don’t need time to think about it more. The answer is ‘no’.”

They were inside Benevolence right now, and Erick had not yet prepared for Ophiel’s instantiation. He hadn’t done much of anything, actually, except look around the place as he usually did.

It looked normal.

All the ground for a hundred kilometers in every direction was white or barely-grey hexagonal stone, like columnar basalt. It was kinda odd to look at it these days, specifically after that time Erick had spent talking about astronomical engineering with the Stratagolds. They had spoken of making giant, continent-sized plates of hexagonal adamantium lines 100 kilometers long, stacked side by side to make a plate ten thousand kilometers wide and over 200 thick, with a runic web sandwiched between two adamantium plates. Erick’s gate space was already sort of like that, but on a much smaller scale; it even had a double layer of columns, with the center area filled with tiny nooks full of hidden spaces, and lots of water. Erick chalked up the coincidence his Benevolence had to those worldplates more to hexagons being the best possible shape to fully fill in an area, and not to any sort of Establishment, or Wizardry, or stuff like that.

Erick’s Gate Space in Benevolence was more than a simple large plate of land, anyway. Every so often the meter-wide hexagons were pushed down, and wild groups of plants grew in the dirt. A lot of flowers, a lot of vines that sent tendrils across the hexagonal land, searching for other places to grow. There were also trees in some locations, and all of them bore fruit. Erick had a whole orchard of soul balm palm trees growing in here, and they seemed to grow really well by the waterways.

The waterways were perhaps Erick’s favorite thing in this land.

The center of this gate space —and all other Benevolence gate spaces— was special. It was there that this whole gate space reminded Erick of those pins-in-plastic boards that you could use to make an impression of something. The impression left on this land was one of a mountain that was almost like a column. Water crested off the top of that central spire and poured down the column of white stone, cascading down the pillars like an Olympic-sized pool emptying over every edge of that central mountain every second. Green moss, like drapes, hung down that mountain everywhere that the water did not crash too hard.

An eternal flame, a ten-meter wide bonfire, held above that central column, casting warmth everywhere, while the waters themselves fell into a huge lake that Yggdrasil kept stocked with any fish that Erick wanted to eat. Some hidden tunnels in that lake led to the hidden spaces inside the gateplate, where more fish lived and water plants grew in shadowed water.

Yggdrasil, Erick’s largest son, had done most of the directed gardening of this place. He had complete control over the land of this space, but he was not physically connected to this land. Looking off to the south today, for he was not always directly south, there was Yggdrasil, floating in the Benevolent Sky, dwarfing this entire 100 kilometer wide land with his own largeness. He was looking big these days, at well over double the width of this land, and maybe half the height. He was wide.

He was also one of the best trees Erick had ever seen.

Beautiful glowing white bark, a thick trunk, a green canopy that was made of leaves so bright green they looked like they were on green fire, while a rainbow held around his entire crown, and all his serpentine roots held spread out in the air. Only a few of Yggdrasil’s roots reached all the way to this land, floating inside Benevolence. But he didn’t need to actually touch this land at all to control it. The land was already connected to him via the wide river that wandered from the fountain in the center, through a beach-and-hexagonal path, to fall off of the side of the gate space and then flow much more freely right to Yggdrasil himself. A small ocean of water floated all around Yggdrasil’s roots, and that was where he kept his prized fish, or the ones that needed special attention.

Or at least that had been his purpose in bringing fish into this land years ago. Nowadays, scarlet kings and golden slippers and rainbow flits and a whole bunch of others were all over Benevolence.

Whenever Kiri had established a gate space, or whenever Erick had expanded the Gate Network on his own, a new columnar land had been created out there, in the fog of Benevolence, with another water source making another river that flowed off the sides of those spaces, to eventually find their ways to Yggdrasil. Or to each other. Yggdrasil was connected to every Gate Node ever made in this land, and his fish had used that connection to spread far and wide.

There were also stony pathways made of columnar, solid Benevolence, that connected every node together. There was an entire world inside Benevolence. A world that it was easy to fall off of. One could end up anywhere on Veird if you were to fall off the edge of the stone, or dive deep enough into the dark wells in the center to come out the other side, or if you simply fell out of the rivers that wound through the Benevolent Sky, where soft white lightning tangled into black knots here and there.

The Prophesied Storm was still out there, about 4-ish months away, hovering beyond the edge of the gateplate like a black rip in the sky. It was also filled with Red Sparks that only Erick could see.

You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.

Erick gestured to the Benevolent Sky right now, saying to Rozeta, “Humor me, please. There is a reason I asked you to meet me here to have this conversation.”

Rozeta frowned at Erick, her pantsuit-wearing business-woman look doing a good job of conveying exactly how angry, disappointed, and inwardly furious she was that Erick was asking this of her. And then she glared at the sky, and said, “Maybe I’ll release Yggdrasil and simply trust him to not make seeds for 87 more years, with no resealing required at all.”

Nothing happened.

Erick gave Rozeta a Look.

Rozeta frowned right back at him, then breathed deep, and looked at the Sky—

Ah.

That did it.

Now she was actually considering Erick’s idea, instead of dismissing it outright.

The Sky of twisting lightning began to twist in a different way.

The 100-year Wall of Problems, which was only 87-ish years away, began to fragment. Lightning twisted this way and that, and like a great wind blowing through a dense forest, a lot of overgrowth and loose issues and minor things were stripped away, passing far into the distance. The few Red Sparks that existed inside Benevolence, inside of a few of the larger tangles, moved with those tangles, or else were pulled apart by Lightning as the future was once again cast into uncertainty.

Erick watched the reorganization, but he also watched Rozeta.

The Goddess of the Script was concerned, and yet… intrigued.

Rozeta spoke to the very fabric of reality, “Maybe Yggdrasil can be trusted with power, both on his own and on the power he will be able to grant others, just like his father.”

The sky sparked and a hundred tangles vanished, leaving behind one very visible black tangle like a world-swallowing hole, deep in the Benevolent Sky.

Aside from that major black tangle there were a good 24 smaller tangles scattered here and there. Erick recognized most of those smaller tangles. That one, located several years out —and also 40 years out— was the advent of the Computer Mage, as some people in House Benevolence had taken to calling them. That one over there at around 30 years out was the breaking of the Greensoil Republic; a rather new prognostication but one that was already on the way out, as King Darundi Raivo was already taking steps to ensure the peaceful transfer of power to whoever would come next.

With the voiding of tens of threats and the advent of one large one, Erick was actually quite happy with what he was looking at. That big problem was 250 years out. The ‘hundred year wall’ was practically gone.

But there was another hole in the sky, lined with Red, that only Erick could see. That Yawning Void —for that is all it could have been— was a year out, just beyond the edge of the platform.

It was a rising sun of Red, like a giant Red Eye attempting to pierce through a veil of Benevolence, trying and failing to stare into Erick’s soul. But it flickered left and right. It saw nothing. It was blind.

Erick ignored it, putting it out of his mind for a moment, both because it was not a problem for various reasons he would pull apart later, and because Rozeta did not see it.

Rozeta just stared at the Yawning Void in the far Sky. Softly, she said, “On the balance, it’s better. Stronger. But that hole in the world 250-ish years from now looks like a Yawning Void. It is concerning that such a shift would ever exist at all, and since we’re pretty sure this universe is… more basic than the Old Cosmology, then that could only mean the Death of Benevolence Itself.” Rozeta looked to Erick, and said, “Which is concerning for other reasons.”

Erick jolted a little. He looked to the Sky again. “… Ah. Well. I don’t like that. That seems like a future that could slip around, too… Oh. Well look at that.” Erick frowned as the black void 250 years in the future slipped forward in time by 249 years, briefly overlapping the Red for the barest moment. The Death of Benevolence was Right Here for a vague moment—

That’s not what was happening at all, though.