258, 2/2

Erick stepped out of a portal onto ground that was not ground. It was crystal that was more air than solid, with motes of light that swirled inside that un-solidity like glittering waves of some unknown lifeform, flashing out signals that Erick did not understand. It was bees flashing other bees, or the flow of sunflowers tracing the sun.

The ground was the extension of the Fae Enclave up ahead, sticking out a hundred kilometers from the main thrust of the central column of Margleknot’s ‘first class citizens’. That central column took up half the horizon and looked exactly like the not-crystal under Erick’s feet, but it was so far away it looked solid.

A path of glitter-crystal lay ahead.

The portal closed behind Blighter and Seabass, both of Erick’s lawyers looking as presentable as possible.

Erick started walking forward—

And he suddenly crossed a thousand kilometers to stand before a large archway gate that was as wide and tall as the sky. The airy crystal of the Fae Enclave continued on beyond the edges of that sky, like a flavoring to the horizon.

Beyond the gate lay a forest of trees, each the size of the smallest of Yggdrasil’s forms back home on Veird. Those trees formed a pathway as wide as a sea, leading to a white tower in the distance. As Erick stood there, ten meters from the gate that led into that land, he recognized houses in the trees, and everywhere else. There were towers and castles and caverns and doors leading downward. Stairways and elevators and sky roads. People were everywhere, some of them looking like tiny pinpricks of light or like nearly-invisible bugs due to the far, far distance between here and there.

Erick took that all in, and then he turned to the purple and yellow person sitting beside an air-crystal desk beside the giant gate. The person seemed female, with standard feminine characteristics, with blond hair and boobs and wearing a dress, but they had multifaceted bug eyes and antennae and dragonfly wings and no actual sex to them at all.

She greeted Erick, saying, “Howdy. You’re expected.” And then she beckoned to the road behind Erick.

“… I’m missing my lawyers.”

Blighter and Seabass had not been there, and then they were.

Blighter and Seabass both bowed instantly.

The fairy said, “Blighter and Seabass. The Fae Enclave appreciates that you finally left that other decision to be done with, and have now brought forth Erick Flatt, Wizard of Benevolence, to the Enclave. You will not be allowed to speak this time, but you are allowed to experience the exchanges of the Enclave between themselves and Wizard Flatt. Do you understand?”

Blighter and Seabass bowed deeper, and both said, “We understand.”

“Rise, then, and be welcomed.”

Blighter and Seabass rose. Both of them then drew lines across their lips and used some sort of blood magic to seal their own mouths shut.

… Well okay then.

The fairy turned to Erick, saying, “Please adopt your truest form and prepare to visit the standing council.”

Erick had almost been about to say that his human form was his truest form—

But then Blighter did some sign language that Erick did not know, but he read as ‘dragon form’.

The fairy casually said to Blighter, “That’s the last time you interfere.”

Blighter bowed.

Nothing happened, though, because that had been a warning from the purple/yellow fairy to Blighter. Warnings came before action.

Erick stepped back and flickered to his dragon form, his clothes of glowing fabrics transforming into thin rings that he controlled to wrap around one of his horns…

And something was different.

Erick was used to being around 50 meters long from head to butt, and then twice that for the tail and around 175 wide for the wings, but he was a lot bigger than that right now. Based on his claws resting near the fairy and his lawyers, Erick was probably… Twice that size. Maybe a bit more. 200 long from nose to tail tip, and 300-ish wide with the wings.

Erick stepped a bit further away from them, so he didn’t crush them. It was honestly difficult to be a dragon sometimes. He only really liked doing this in private, or when relaxing, because people were way too tiny when he was a dragon.

And now he was even bigger.

For a brief moment, Erick was worried something had happened.

He checked on himself, making sure nothing else was untoward…

His Status seemed fine. He had accounted for all of his dragonness when he made his Status, after all, and [Polymorph] spellwork of all kinds, including Perfected Body and True Polymorph, along with how life basically worked, did not care about shape when it came to stuff like mana saturation and accretion. Resons were the same, too.

His reson wallet had adjusted to his new draconic mana channels, because of course it did. Dragons had circulatory systems and brains and organs and all of that, including mana channels, but they were much more ‘I am what I am’ than what biology would make of them, and Erick was no different.

Being in his dragon form gave him a lot more room for improvement, though. Humans could only hold so much mana and —Erick assumed— resons. This fact proved itself because Erick looked inside and saw his core and mana channels flickering with faint lightning, instead of the thick glow of his Reson Wallet of his human form. This was because, Erick saw, most of the resons he was making were actually soaking into his full draconic body instead of going into his Wallet…

Which was different.

Dragons had a lot more room for improvement than humans had, or even proteans, so of course his dragon form could accept more resons. Erick would probably have to open the tap up rather wide to start making resons go into his wallet while as a dragon, instead of having them soak into his scales, flesh, blood, and bone…

Briefly, Erick did exactly that.

White-gold lightning flooded through his body bringing with it a warmth that Erick didn’t know he had been missing…

And he realized he was growing larger.

Nope! Stop that right now.

The growth stopped because Erick willed it, and in that same moment Erick turned the tap back down to 9%, and he also made himself slightly smaller, back to his normal dragon size, through a normal action of crushing himself down to be properly small-ish—

At his normal dragon size, the reson-flow inside of him was back to its normal luminescent white-gold glow in his core, and his mana channels. It wasn’t soaking into his body overmuch. Which was good. Erick stopped concentrating on making his reson wallet make resons instead of supporting his growth… And it stayed exactly as it should.

… So Erick just needed to keep his body this size, and then he wouldn’t get bigger automatically? Well. Sure. Okay. It wasn’t that much of a pain to control himself to stay this size. It was the normal sort of pressure that he always experienced when he was trying to keep his human body human-sized, without the horns.

Erick had never needed to ‘shrink’ his dragon form, like he had needed to shrink his human form, but he supposed… This was now his life.

Making sure his voice was steady and not booming, Erick asked, “This is acceptable?”

The purple/yellow fairy looked at him, her lips in a scrunch. “Yeah sure. If you’re more comfortable larger then you can be larger. Doesn’t matter much.”

“I prefer to engage people at their own physical level, but I can be dragon-shaped if that’s more proper.”

“It is more proper.” The fairy gestured. “They await you at the tower.” She looked at Blighter and Seabass. “You two can go ahead.”

And then Blighter and Seabass vanished.

… Well okay then.

Erick walked into the Fae Enclave—

– – – –

—And stepped onto soft soil, between great trees filled with buildings and people. The gate to the rest of Margleknot was far, far behind him, while the air was an intoxicating blend of springtime, power, fae, and old, good memories. He smelled bread and meats. He saw everything all around for a hundred kilometers, as he felt Life in the air. He had never felt Life before, because there was no such thing as ‘Elemental Life’, but now he was feeling Life, and he knew it for what it was, and for Lionshard’s description of this particular cultivation power.

It was pure, and wonderful.

Erick almost wanted to sit down and enjoy the moment, but he had work to do.

The white tower was still far ahead.

Erick spread his wings and lifted into the air with a great push of power and a little bit of magic. Benevolence flickered upon his black wings and body, zapping the ground and adding some mushrooms and moss and grasses to the soils he had dug up with his claws.

And he soared forward, his wings feeling the wind.

Ahhh~

Erick had missed being himself.

This was nice. He was still stressed as all get-out, but he’d solve the problems ahead, for sure. Erick checked on his Status as he flew to make sure he wasn’t being attacked from any particular angle, and he seemed fine. All of his Mana, Health, and Psyche were ticking up the normal amount of around 200 per second, and ticking down between 7 to 15 points per second. Health drain went from 10 points per second to 25 every time he beat his wings, so that was just the ordeal of being a dragon.

Erick glided on Benevolence toward the white tower in the distance, zooming down the thoroughfare of grasslands between the massive trees, whipping by house after castle after hobbit-hole of dwelling. Trailing jags of Benevolence arced from the curve of his chest or the edges of his folded up arms and legs, jolting to the ground, trailing off of his languid tail, causing spots of bright and dark green to grow over his flight path.

Some fairies watched from balconies as Erick flew, and Erick realized why Purple/Yellow had wanted him in this form. It had been to announce his presence to the masses. Some of the fairies waved. Some of them hollered.

Some of them laughed.

They were nice laughs, mostly.

Some smiled wide, their teeth like knives around jagged holes in the world.

Laughter echoed, and it wasn’t so nice this time.

Erick stopped enjoying himself as he flew across the land, girding his defenses—

The drain on his Status dropped from 25 points per second in every category, back down to 2 points per second. Erick sighed. The ‘good’ flight stopped. The green carpet ended. Erick controlled his Benevolence to a proper solidity, to end whatever ‘attack’ they had been doing, and he simply flew, wings out, under the black hole sun—

Erick jolted a little when he noticed the sky again, firstly because he hadn’t noticed the sky until now. And secondly there was the sky itself. There was only one sun overhead, and it was the largest, blackest one, with the brightest ring of white light surrounding it, like a corona of several tens of suns around a void in the universe.

The distance between himself and the tower also seemed a whole lot shorter. Had he been flying in an eternally expanding stretch of land? Like on a treadmill? Until he had recognized the world around him for the fakery that it was? Maybe. If so, Erick had been on one of the universe’s largest treadmills until now. He would need to watch out for that sort of attack later.

Erick huffed out a puff of Benevolence smoke, discarding his annoyance, and flew the remaining hundred kilometers to the white tower.

The Tower of the Enclave was shaped like a bunch of glitter-wind crystal that was denser than the crystal that was outside, that surrounded this infinite land. The tower hovered above a crater. A cliff of stone jutted out from the edge of that crater to connect to the tower.

The glitter-crystal tower was a rather normal size, actually. Big, yes, but not that big. Erick could easily see ten or twenty ruler-level fae deigning to have their offices gathered here.

This was undoubtedly the center of the Fae Enclave, too, so where was the Quantum Nexus Hub, that silver cylinder that pierced the Enclave right through the middle, making the Enclave have a ‘center’ by that piercing—

Ah?

Was that it?

Down there, in the crater?

A silver thread held at the bottom of the crater below the white spire. That thread extended left and right, coming out of the dirt and going back into the dirt.

There was nothing else down there, in the crater. Just dirt.

Erick half-expected to see water, or something.

Eh.

There was probably something hidden down there.

Anyway.

Erick landed on the cliff that extended toward the tower—

The tower opened a large gate that had not been there before Erick set down.

… Erick walked forward, he supposed—

– – – –

Erick stepped into a judgment chamber.

Every physical thing in the room was made of dense glitter-crystal that reminded Erick of souls, but different. It was more like broken fragments of infinity making an overall shape of crystal, than the amorphous blob that was soulstuff.

The floor was barely-illuminated glitter crystal. The grand arc of benches up ahead were made of the same crystal. The walls got brighter near the ceiling, and the ceiling, way, way up there, was as bright as day. Stands held behind Erick, stacked up way, way into the distance, like he was at the bottom of an amphitheater.

Right beside Erick, down on the ground, were Blighter and Seabass, already with papers out and diagrams floating in the air, like they had been talking. Their mouths had been unsealed. Erick supposed it was what it was, and he would either have some good news about whatever they had been talking about, or he would have another problem to solve.

From the papers and diagrams in the air, they looked to be talking about the Wraithborne Tower, and not about Erick, directly. So that was good.

And then there were the fairies, in every shape and color of person that Erick could imagine. No two were the same, but many of them were similar in that they had two arms, two legs, and two pairs of wings. The ones behind Erick were just as flamboyant as everyone else.

The ones in front of Erick followed that same pattern of being wholly different from each other.

From left to right, there were five.

Erick knew four of them, for they were easy to pick out based on Yggdrasil’s descriptions in his Guidebook.

Lord Eldraki, a mischievous trickster Fae with a penchant for illusion magic, sat on the far left, playing with fakery, making tiny illusions of animals and people and then moving them around like they were dolls.

Lady Aelorika, the wise and just leader of the Fae council, sat to the left-of-center. Her floral crown draped vines and flowers down her back and all over the crystal around her.

Lady Seraphaka, a regal and elegant Fae with control over light and shadow, sat right-of-center. She wore white and gold and black, and she looked slightly annoyed.

Lord Dakka, a fae of war and death always in favor of more war and death, sat at the far right. He wore rusted chains and rusted metals like they were armor. His wings looked made of rust.

And then there was the center chair.

Erick saw the center chair. He truly did see that chair. And he saw the person sitting upon that chair. He knew there was someone there, but he could not perceive them but… perhaps… they were made of… more glitter crystal? Hard to know. Erick felt it would be rude to try to understand whatever they had going on with all of that, so he did not try overmuch.

Lady Aelorika spoke, “And now he is here, and we can begin the real talking.” She intoned, “Erick Flatt. Welcome to the Fae Enclave. We wish to formally announce you as a force of Good in the universe and to bring you into Balance, thus removing your ability to fight Nothanganathor, who is Evil, and to attempt to stop your attempted Benevolence takeover of the Wraithborne Tower. Do you agree to this?”

Erick had a lot of sudden thoughts on that.

One overriding thought came to the forefront.

“No.”

People roared behind Erick, calling him a bastard and other names. Erick angled his head backward and looked at whoever-the-fuck was saying that, and all he saw were a bunch of tricksters and actors. Here and there fae called for Erick’s murder, but there were smiles and jeers and body language that was completely at odds with the words they were actually saying.

What was their problem?

Erick turned his full attention back to the Fae Enclave.

Lady Aelorika simply nodded. “An expected, unfortunate answer. You should look beyond your second-world, Erick. You have a part that is larger to play than the tiny world in which you gained so much. The offer will remain open. Next.”

Erick truly wanted to interrupt, to demand that they tear down whatever power they had granted Nothanganathor, and to tear him from Veird. Alternatively, Erick wanted to ask for quests to eventually achieve that end through making friends here, as Nothanganathor had apparently done.

But he waited for open question time, instead. Hopefully there would be an open question time.

Lord Eldraki, of illusions, spoke without looking at Erick, “Kill every Jane you know and I’ll vote for Nothanganathor’s True Erasure.”

… What?

Erick let that weird threat flow by him because Eldraki hadn’t actually asked anything.

Lord Eldraki had been expecting a roar, though. He looked up from his illusionary toys, raised an eyebrow, and actually Looked at Erick this time. He said, “Give me your heart and I will remove Nothanganathor from Veird.”

Erick said nothing. Like he would ever agree to something as nebulous as that. What the fuck was this guy’s problem?

Eh.

He probably had a lot of problems.

Lord Eldraki frowned, then said, “Pay me a mana.”

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

Erick did nothing.

Lord Eldraki went, “EH!”

Erick had no idea what this fucker’s problem was. Probably a lot of problems. The crowd behind Erick seemed disappointed for some reason. Eldraki was the ‘trickster’ among the fae council, so perhaps he had been trying to pull a true trick of some consequence.

‘Eh!’ right back at him.

Mentally of course. Erick didn’t actually say that.

Lady Seraphaka, of white, gold, and black, cleared her throat, and said, “I would like to speak of the actual case against Nothanganathor. We carry him around because his brand of Evil is disastrously competent at allowing certain actions but there’s a plentiful lot of cromulent circumstantial evidence against him as the ultimate cause of the Sundering of the Painted Cosmology. And what’s more, is that we don’t need him if we have Erick. We’ve been sliding toward Evil for a long while here in Margleknot and I would like to see something of the Better Balance return.”

The crowd called out words of ‘boring’ and ‘we should have more Evil!’

Erick wasn’t sure what to think, himself.

Lady Aelorika spoke, “As I said earlier: If Erick is willing to become Good then we can have both him and Nothanganathor and I would like to have both. Sometimes you can’t save everyone and it would be foolish to try, and therefore Malevolence would be better than Benevolence in those situations.”

Lord Dakka spoke, his voice the sound of soft explosions, “I want to see Erick go to war against an actual worthy enemy.”

Lady Seraphaka and Lady Aelorika said, “Vetoed.”

Lady Seraphaka said, “The risk is too great to lose him.”

Lady Aelorika said to Lady Seraphaka, “I doubt Erick would die. No. The real risk is that he could be corrupted, and therefore an actual danger to us all.”

Lady Seraphaka paused, then nodded, conceding the point.

And then Lord Eldraki smiled, and said, “Tell us of enemies you would target for our amusement, Erick.”

The floor opened up for Erick to actually speak.

Erick almost said something like ‘I could target Nothanganathor for your amusement’, but then he realized he didn’t want anything ‘amusing’ to happen anywhere near Veird at all.

Erick said, “For your amusement? I’m not sure I want to do that. Can you make it worth my while?”

The other fae watched Lord Eldraki for his response. Some of them whispered how Erick had done that well. Others said he was being stupid for ever engaging with Lord Eldraki at all. Erick agreed with that last one, but he certainly didn’t say as much.

Lord Eldraki smirked, saying, “I’ll help you become fae if you can prove that Nothanganathor actually killed your adopted Painted Cosmology. Once you become fae, you will be able to sit on this council yourself, and tear down all that Nothanganathor has gained from us, while putting yourself into power to make this entire universe a better place.”

There hadn’t been any question in that, so Erick said nothing.

Lord Eldraki grinned wider. He sat back in his chair, saying, “Think about it.”

Lady Seraphaka waved her hand, grabbing attention away from Eldraki, before she spoke, “And here’s my offer: Kill or transform some Evil out there in Margleknot into better forms. Bring the Balance back in line. You won’t get anything from me for that, but it’s what you want to do anyway, and you’ll be able to make some good allies between a few different peoples out there, both Good and Evil.”

“I want that, too,” Lord Dakka said, “Go kill a lot of things.”

Lady Seraphaka added, “You’ll know Margleknot is Balanced once again when the Balanced Sun is once again evenly black and white, and not black with a white ring.”

Erick breathed in a bit strongly. Ah. So the big black and white sun was the Good/Evil Sun? That made a certain amount of sense—

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The center person spoke in words of compLETE AND TERRIBLE STRENGTH—

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