Ar'Kendrithyst

Chapter 184, 1/2

Springtime moved fast, but then it slowed, stretching on into forever like a lazy dream that would never end. The pink dragon no longer hurried. The rider above no longer worried. She laughed a springtime laugh, and then she cried for the loss of the red one. Small words floated by as the pink one did not think that red would perish that easily. The rider took comfort in those words, but her comfort was a false one.

Erick barely understood any of it.

Something had wrapped around his mind and would not let go.

And then that something wrapped tighter.

- - - -

Springtime collapsed into a large room at a tall tower. Sunlight streamed in from a tall window, while a cool breeze blew through the room. A woman in pink carried Erick bridal-style onto a soft white bed with fluffy fabrics to lay him down upon too many pillows and too much comfort. The woman was Erick’s own size, and Erick was not a petite person, but the woman moved him around to make him comfortable and there was no strain upon her face. There was only a small smile.

And some horns on her head.

A tail flicked out from the back of her dress. Her nails were sharper than they should be, but Erick could only tell because she took care not to let those claws touch his skin. That all meant something, but Erick could barely link one thought to the next.

The pink woman stepped away.

A second pink woman, this one without horns or anything else like that, stepped forward to the end of Erick’s bed. She had a white breastplate on her chest and shoulders, protecting her core, but her pink skirt looked weightless as gossamer silk. One green eye and one pink eye stared down at Erick, as she smiled at her triumph. Erick felt… Something about her. He couldn’t say what.

Worry?

Hate?

No. Probably not hate. That wasn’t who he was.

Anger, though… Maybe.

The smaller woman pulled out two small glass globes, each only a handspan across. One of them held a prismatic eye that was only visible sometimes; it swirled around inside its glass cage, focusing on everyone in the room, but mostly on Erick. The other globe held a thing of wings and eyes. The wing-eye thing puffed up, filling its entire cage with itself, before shrinking back down. It tried this three times, and for some reason, there was a wetness on Erick’s face.

The woman set those two trinkets on top of curvy, airy, golden crystal-ball holders, at the foot of Erick’s new bed.

“See?” asked the woman with the heterochromia. “He is harmed-not, and here you hold to see for yourself. This truly be temporary, anyway.”

The things inside of those trinkets then focused fully on Erick. The winged eyes fluffed up a bit, but turned calmer. The iridescent eye glanced at Erick, then turned back to the woman…

The other woman, the fully pink one with horns, was gone. When did that happen?

Heterochromia nodded to the little glass balls, then turned her attention to Erick. With a gentle smile, she spoke, “Welcome to Ar’Cosmos, Erick Flatt. I will endeavor to elucidate my words in the manner to which you made a request, but only past this preamble. Words of welcome and warning need be said, and they need be said securely.

“You are currently corrupted by the Fae.

“It will wear off with the wearing of obedience.

“The rules are written thusly:

“The Script survives-not in this land of no lies.

“Do as you will and your will will be done to you, though the re-doing of duress need not be of exact equality; I am the judge and the jury in cases of justice, and my decrees define this land, and your life.” The woman breathed. “And so we enact the etiquette of our existences.”

The room felt different, somehow. Erick had no idea how, but it was.

The woman spoke again, “But for you, there is an additional arrangement: You may leave when I give you leave, and there will be no gainsay in this truth.” Heterochromia said, “Let sanative sleep claim you; your curriculum shall surely last.”

Though the sun shone brightly the room was cool, and the blankets warm. Heterochromia went out the door, securely shutting it behind her. Solid stone walls seemed safe enough, so Erick cuddled into the covers, and let sanative slumber take him to a humble hibernation.

- - - -

Erick dreamed of white clouds in a blue sky, a shadowy existence on the horizon, and a lot of angry words being thrown against a pink and green fire. He had no idea what was what, but he was…

Getting…

Something.

Something was happening.

Something white hot began to form in the center of his being.

… No. Not ‘form’. Wake up.

Something was waking u—

- - - -

Erick slammed awake.

Everything happened very fast, and then not fast at all. He tried casting a [Luminous Beam] at the pink dragon-lady standing by the window. It failed. He tried manually casting a [Luminous Beam] at the pink dragon-lady; also failed. He briefly recognized that he was having a moment.

He briefly recognized that his mana sense was thrown wide and yet he could barely perceive more than four meters away from himself. This was double the size of his bed, and not much larger than that. It was a very nice, very large bed. Erick wanted to burn it. He wanted to burn the stone tower all around, he wanted to kill everyone.

He started speaking, “A power now I do hard-claim, a power now of mine to tame. I—”

The dragon lady’s eyes went wide—

Something ephemeral wrapped around Erick and held him tight, slamming him backward. Sleep tried to claim him again, but he fought, though it was like fighting an avalanche with a steel shield; he was still buried under a mountainside’s worth of power.

And yet he held onto consciousness much longer than he thought possible.

For Fairy Moon had strode through the suddenly-open doors, declaring, “Here are words of power be: I tame you now for all to see, a Wizard-born and Wizard-be, you are to now to take a knee, for murder tried and murder failed you are to now be ever-jailed. Only by my true decree, are you to be ever free!”

Thoughts ended.

And then restarted.

Erick was quiet, and calm, and not himself. He recognized this as one would recognize that they suddenly lost an arm, but for him, he had lost his entire body, and some of his mind. He wasn’t even sure if his soul was still his. But it had to be, because he was making this observation about himself?

He could still make observations, yes.

The anger was still there, but it was hidden behind an adamantine wall of Fae Magic.

Fairy Moon pointed to the floor beside her. “Get up and stand here.”

Erick got out of bed, walked over to where she pointed, and stood there. For some reason he was naked, but he didn’t seem to care, and neither did anyone else. His nudity was probably to make it easier to clean him while he slept. Probably to deprive him of his items, too; his rings and his Crystal Star were gone. How long had he slept?

Fairy Moon looked him over with discerning eyes. After a moment she pulled back. “Your problem is in your other self. Show it to me.”

Erick transformed into his Other Form; it was almost instinctual to shift to his monster-form these days. Fairy Moon had spoken about how he wouldn’t have Script access as a part of her rules, and he tried bringing up some of those familiar blue boxes, but they were all gone. And yet, he could still transform at will. He could probably use the other parts of his protean species, too. [Greater Lightwalk], [Luminous Beam], [Lodestar], [Perfected Polymorph], and of course, what he had just done, which was [Paradox Shift].

The pink dragon-lady gasped. “You called him a Wizard but— He really is!”

“Yes.” Fairy Moon relaxed, and spoke plainly while she looked him over, “And no one else is to know of this. I will honor the hospitality rites that brought him here. His Wizardry seemed based on that of a dragon, which is Rozeta’s deliberate doing, no doubt. It will make teaching him a trivial matter… Looks like his core is harmed; a buildup of degradation.”

Erick had seen his own core, but he didn’t feel a reason to fix the small fractures at the edges that would undoubtedly lead to catastrophic failure soon enough. He couldn’t seem to do anything on his own except to think some odd thoughts here and there, and to look around as his various senses allowed. He must have been out of it for days, though, with that level of breakdown.

The dragon lady said, “I’ll go get some spare rads—”

“There’s no need.” Fairy Moon stared at Erick. “Heal thyself.”

Erick cast [Renew], flowing light into his core while he began rotating his mana, filling out every little nook and cranny with solid, unblemished mana, healing the damage that time had caused. He bottomed out on mana rather quickly, but he kept cycling his core, flowing the mana around and around until he felt supremely solid. He sighed with relief and felt a smile come to his lips, and he saw no reason to rid himself of that expression, so he left it there.

“… What was that?” asked the dragon lady.

The question didn’t come from Fairy Moon, so Erick ignored it.

“It was something I saw him do once…” Fairy Moon repeated the question, “What did you do to yourself? Explain to educate.”

“That was [Renew].” Erick explained, “I made that spell back in the Core before Rozeta was going to help me learn of Wizardry and how to fix everything. But then Melemizargo fucked that up with ending our communion but Rozeta still managed to help me some and now I have to learn Wizardry proper from the ground up. [Renew] is all bouncy conformist mana that anyone can use to support any currently-active spellwork, and it is only by a twist of reality that I wasn’t quite aware of that [Renew] works well on monsters, and Wizards are monsters, and so here I am a monster and a man both with [Renew], able to support my own growth without the need of rads, which I understand makes monsters go crazy. I am glad I don’t have to go crazy.

“I still need to learn how to do all this Wizardry stuff, though, from turning my bones and organs to mana crystals and then all of that junk, but I don’t want to do that until I learn it all proper like, because I don’t want to be cut from the Script until I am able to live on my own as a Wizard out and about in the world. Rozeta warned me that she would cut me off from the Script if I did anything too wrong, so don’t ask me to harm anyone, but I’m going to be cut off anyway once I learn myself.

“So for now I am both Wizard and Not.

“In eleven-ish months, though, [Renew] gets out into the rest of the world and they all learn that I am a Wizard even if I am not ready to separate from the Script.

“But anyway: Rozeta installed a kill switch so if I go off the rails in my Wizardry she can pull me off the Script and kill me. That’s what this Other Form is. I think. Not sure what will happen there. If I lose the Script I lose a lot.

“I still need to remake Strong and Clarity and the like, too, as well as Paradox this Other Form of mine and my Normal Form together into a cohesive whole. I was hoping to get to do all of that after Oceanside but then you kidnapped me and now I am here talking to you about stuff that I really shouldn’t... be speaking…” His voice trailed off.

His words had all come out in a jumble and he had barely answered Fairy Moon’s question before he went off on a tangent… Because he wanted to go off on a tangent? She was surely smart enough to understand his words, even if he himself had barely kept up with that verbal diarrhea.

Why was he speaking like this, though?

Well… Because he Had To Do What Fairy Moon Wanted, of course.

It all made perfect sense when he thought of it like that.

He could have answered her better, but a part of him was glad that he did not.

… And that part of him stared out from deep within the depths of his soul, stirring against its confines, watching, waiting. It would strike when it could. Not yet, though.

Fairy Moon glanced from Erick’s eyes, to his core, narrowed her gaze, and then returned her sight back to Erick. “Both of you understand the depth of your near-depravity. Your yearned-for murder of my Maid Maria has landed you in this losing position. Prepare thyself for even worse should you scheme and actually slay anyone at all.

“I do this kind-ways first. I do this terrible-ways when I owe that obligation.”

Heard and understood.

“How does this Other Form work?” Fairy Moon asked.

“I [Paradox Switch] and I get a new Status. It was level zero, but [Renew] and then cycling has gained me levels.” Erick said, “Level 27, as of the last time I was able to check. The Script doesn’t seem to work here.”

“The Script does not reach this land and it never will.” Fairy Moon frowned a little.

And then Fairy Moon stepped closer and stared up at Erick. Erick glanced downward. Fairy Moon was half a head smaller than him. And then she started walking around him, leaning over to get a closer look at his legs and his back and his stomach, and especially his heart; she was surely looking at his core from all sides, for she had to have a good mana sense at her age. Erick almost wanted to ask if she really was a million years old, but he did not.

He could not.

And that brought him up short again. He realized something was deeply wrong and he could do nothing about it.

“You haven’t spent any points in this Other Form at all, have you.” She kept walking around him. “None at all. Not even on basic things like Meditation or higher Stats.”

It wasn’t a question, so Erick didn’t answer.

Fairy Moon got to his front again then stepped back. She glanced to the dragon lady, her Maid Maria, saying, “Prepare a grand luncheon. Invite Illustrious. Tell her nothing.” She stood as tall as she was able and turned back to Erick, “Attend this announcement, in order: See to your young ones. Contact no one outside of Ar’Cosmos. Remain in this Other Form from now until I say otherwise. Clean yourself up in that bathroom. Put on whatever clothes you find in the dressers that you wish to wear. Then, and only then, you will join me in the dining room downstairs to continue this discussion. Find yourself freed from this ensorcellment by the surety of your steps.” She added, “A tribulation shall greet you should you gainsay these trials.”

And then she left.

- - - -

Erick did as he was told.

He went to the globes first. The one containing the feathered eyes bounced and fluffed, making tiny taps at his glass cage at Erick’s approach, while the iridescent eye simply bobbed a bit. Erick picked up the noisy one first—

Ophiel.

Erick held Ophiel’s orb in his hand and the little guy’s name was a bolt of lightning erupting from Erick’s very soul. And then the flash faded. With a simple smile, Erick put Ophiel back down on his stand.

Ophiel bounced even harder against his solid glass sphere. Plink plink. Plink plink.

Erick picked up the eye—

Yggdrasil.

Like a clearing sky, Erick realized that Yggdrasil’s [Scry] eye had been trapped inside the globe. Yggdrasil’s eye spun a bit, staring up at Erick, hoping for… Something. Erick had no idea what. All he could do was hold the globe tighter. In a spur of need, Erick glanced to Ophiel’s orb and grabbed that one, too. He held both in his hands…

And then he went to the bathroom.

Erick was sure, that if he were in his proper mind, that he would have loved to be here, in this bath in a more friendly setting. The bathroom was as magnificent as the bedroom, with solid grey stone fixtures and fountains pouring out of the wall and a hot basin of water which was easily two meters wide and four long, and a meter deep. Erick set Yggdrasil and Ophiel in the water with him as he grabbed some soap and cleaned himself up. The water got dirty, but it was rapidly cleaned by some sort of magics.

Halfway through his cleaning, he realized he needed to use the other facilities, so he went to the other side of the room and did that. Yggdrasil and Ophiel were still bobbing in the bathwater when he came back and redid his instructed cleaning…

Erick slowed down as he finished washing the soap out of his hair.

He was clean, and…

Some thoughts came back. A vise loosened around his heart and soul and mind.

He looked to the bobbing trinkets and grabbed Ophiel and Yggdrasil. He held them tight. He could feel his connection to both of them, but… He couldn’t summon another Ophiel, and he barely even realized that he could do that, anyway. Erick sat there in the shallow end of the bath for a while, just thinking, trying to understand the depth of the danger all around. For there was danger; he recognized that, now. But thoughts remained as elusive as all his usual magic, and he only had the barest bit of Mana left, anyway.

Erick had enough wherewithal to recognize that Fairy Moon had made him empty his mana while she was watching, and then she had recognized that he had no mana, and she had told him to stay in this Other Form until she said otherwise. If not for that instruction, Erick felt he could easily switch back.

A fog still lingered, though. Erick didn’t feel like breaking anything right now, least of all Fairy Moon’s instructions.

Eventually, Erick got out of the tub and went to put on clothes.

His skin felt great after the bath and the clothes felt wonderful, but as he put them on another part of his self came back.

Fairy Moon had fairy-fucked him, hadn’t she.

Ah. Shit. He couldn’t even transform back to his Normal Self to cast any larger magics and he didn’t have Meditation in this form, so the last hour he had spent in the bathroom, very much not Resting at all due to sudden stress, he had only regained a pittance of mana. Not even enough for 2 seconds of [Greater Lightwalk] movement. At his current cap of 200 mana, even if he Rested for the necessary 2 hours, he still couldn’t cast a single [Luminous Beam], either; that spell cost 500 mana, and he didn’t have Clarity.

He couldn’t do shit.

He couldn’t even [Cleanse] himself until he had gathered 9 of the 10 required mana, and that was only because Intelligence had dropped the costs of his spellwork by 10%… But did that even work here in Ar’Cosmos?

Did… Any of his preconceived notions about magic work?

Erick had no idea!—

No wait! He had [Renew]ed himself back there. He still had all his spells. Those spells were inside his soul, which was currently locked to the core sitting beside his heart, nestled in its own set of veins and arteries that did not pump blood at all, but which looked like they could. Maybe they pumped something else? Did they pump mana? Why? How?

… Anyway. If he had the mana he could use it. But that likely wasn’t happening anytime soon. He had a max of 200 mana and no Clarity (did Clarity even work in Ar’Cosmos?) which meant that he was fucked. And all because he had decided to wait to put points into his Other Self’s Status…

No. Wait.

Something was wrong with that idea.

Why did points into Willpower, which would have increased his base Mana in this Other Self, still matter here in Ar’Cosmos? Wasn’t this place like the Old Cosmology? Stats didn’t matter? Only—

Oh.

Stats fortified the part of oneself that allowed one to have more mana in the first place. His Stats would have still contributed to his Mana reserves here in Ar’Cosmos if he had ever spent them, but he had wanted to raise his Other Self right, and fortify his body in the old ways, since he was eventually going to lose Script access entirely. Saving his Points and then seeing how they fortified his body and soul had been his goal…

But now he was here, in Ar’Cosmos, and that original plan had fucked him over—

No. Wait. Even if he had spent the points, then… Nothing really mattered in the face of Fairy Moon, did it? She would do what she wanted, and Erick would need to go along, or else she would take away his ability to resist her.

This was not his fault. This was Fairy Moon’s fault.

… But he still tried doing what he always did when he added points to his Stats, which was to open his Status and then adding points from the pool, but there was a major disconnect there. First, he couldn’t open the Status. Then, he couldn’t spend points. Even if he tried to do it instinctively, nothing happened.

No blue boxes.

Nothing.

Did he even have Health? This was Ar’Cosmos and there was no ‘Health’ back in the Old Cosmology; only mana— No ‘Mana’ either! Just mana, that was in the air and everywhere else, and what one managed to shove into their core to allow them to cast magics in the first place—

Okay. So his Intelligence was still working a bit. He didn’t seem slower than usual.

— So how much mana did he actually have, then? If his Core was his mana, and he was a Wizard making a million mana a day, then he should be able to cast from that pool of mana…

He tried another [Renew]; the safe choice.

Light sputtered inside his chest and then failed to blossom.

It seemed some rules applied, and others did not. He was still connected to the manaminer aspect of the Script; his mana production was not his own, for it was shunted off into the Core of Veird, or something like that. Try as he might, Erick could not cast anything.

Ah.

… Could he phone Phagar for help? Request aid from Rozeta?

… Message Melemizargo?

He thought for a moment longer about everything that was happening to him and his very limited options, and then he grabbed orbs that contained Yggdrasil and Ophiel and left his room. He turned toward the stairs and walked down; the only direction he could go.

He passed windows along the way, and gazed out across the grounds.

Skyscrapers in a myriad of styles dotted the land, each at least twenty stories tall, while a lush forest grew down below. Half of the towers were pagodas. The other half were more Greensoilian or Wastelandian; tall spires of almost-gothic architecture.

Erick edged to one open window, seventh from his room, and stepped out to the short balcony. Down below was a large yard filled with a small farm, while beyond that farmland was a wall that divided this estate from the roads and businesses outside. The streets were filled with people of all sorts, with a lot of them looking like the dragonkin that Maria was (his Perception seemed to be working well enough, Erick realized) with the thick tail and horns and very little in the way of scales. Some of them had actual scales all over their bodies, and looked almost like Apogee back in Spur. Some looked like people wearing prop items; they had no scales on the bare arms or legs that Erick could see.

Two types of dragonkin?

And now that he thought about it, Maid Maria had no scales on her face and very few on the rest of her. His mana sense was shortened considerably, but it hadn’t been small enough to not notice everyone around him, when they had been near. Maria had had a small rad beside her heart, too, though hers was perfectly spherical without any facets and actually under her heart. Like a pearl. Erick’s was more like a cut gem.

Fairy Moon had been inscrutable, though. It was only now that Erick realized that he hadn’t been able to see inside of her, when she had been peeking inside of him. He hadn’t really looked too hard, but his mana sense was up and active at all times, anyway.

And he didn’t see anyone else around in the castle with him. Sure, there were lots of people on the distant streets, but… None of them looked up and glanced at Erick, even though he had mistakenly stood by some of those windows for too long.

Something fuckey was going on.

Probably multiple things, actually.

… Proceeding more cautiously, Erick strode down the wide, spiraling staircase that spanned the whole of this particular tower. He glanced out every window he came across.

Fairy Moon’s compound was massive and gothic and old. The main compound down below was the size of Erick’s own mansion ten times over. Her towers were fifteen to thirty stories tall. Taller than anyone else’s. Everything was arches and alcoves and balconies and sculptures of all types of people and pillars—

Something small with great big eyes and stone-grey scales peeked at him from behind the head of a stone sculpture on the next tower over, briefly meeting his gaze. And then the thing instantly retreated. It was a… A lizard, maybe? Yes. It was a lizard.

… Or maybe snake—

Oh. Wait.

A baby dragon?

Might have been a dragon.

Okay, so. Erick’s Stats were down about 70 points from where they usually were. He still had Perception and Intelligence, so he was a great deal above ‘baseline-human’, but not as capable as he usually was—

So why not switch back and make some rings—

Erick shook his head.

Rings wouldn’t matter anyway; useless in this Other Form.

Erick also ignored the possible-baby-dragon and continued down—

He froze. He should switch to his Normal Form and then he could esca—

He continued down the—

He stopped. He should switch—

Erick continued down the wide, spiraling staircase; the only way he could go—

Unless he wanted to jump out a window and flee? Nah. He’d probably fall to his death. He might have Dexterity and some Strength, but both were at 10, and he was never very good at the physical side of adventuring… He was never really a good adventurer, anyway, even if he was a guild member and ‘Star 11’ or something like that.

And besides! There were baby dragons out there climbing all over.

… Or maybe they were guardians meant to stay out of sight, but warn people of their presence when people looked like they were making to climb on the architecture. Erick breathed deep. Yeah. Okay. That seemed more likely. He was trapped. That made more sense than baby dragons crawling around outside on the decorative arches and sculptures.

… And he kept walking down the stairs. This tower was pretty damn huge, eh?

Erick eventually made it to the bottom of the stairs and found himself to the side of an end of a hallway. The actual end to the hallway was a set of open double doors and a nice little breakfast balcony, overlooking the gardens down below. The floors inside had a nice carpet heading from those open doors to further into the house. Erick considered the balcony. It wasn’t much of a jump down—

One of the lizards poked up from the edge of the balcony, eyed Erick, and then vanished back behind the solid stone.

… Guardians then. Not baby dragons.

Erick followed the carpet down into the bowels of Fairy Mansion, or was it Clan Fairy? The people around here did things like the Nelboorites did, with pagoda architecture and ‘clans’, according to what Erick had heard, so it probably was ‘clans’, and not ‘houses’. Eh. Whatever.

The smells of cooking bread and something savory wafted on a breeze that flowed through the house. Erick followed both the carpet, and now the smell, until he ended up in a central dining room. The table was a massive oak thing made of dark wood with white inlays, while the chairs were similarly weighty. The whole edge of the room was festooned with hand-carved sculptures and paintings and other works of art, while the luncheon spread on the table mirrored that of a state-level dinner. Candelabras made of twisting serpents that ‘breathed’ candles that were lit with a perfect-white flame. Mounds of food layered atop multi-leveled silver platters. A full roast pig, with a tarip stuffed in its mouth. Maid Maria started carving the pig the second Erick stepped into the dining room, making pulled pork out of the carcass, while Fairy Moon sat at the head of the table, and a third person sat at the third seating. Erick assumed the open seat was for him.

So he went to his seat. All the while Fairy Moon and the other person watched him. No one said a single word. Erick set down Yggdrasil’s and Ophiel’s orbs on some obviously-for-him orb holders near his chair and sat without giving a single word, either—

His butt touched the soft leather seat.

Suddenly, his mind cleared. The fog went away.

Perhaps most oddly, the first thing he realized was a correction to his previous thought about ‘House’s versus ‘Clans’. Ar’Cosmos used ‘Houses’. Erick had already been told this a few times, and most recently in Archmage’s Rest, by Prognosticator Aisha, when she named the three Houses of Ar’Cosmos as House Fae, House Death, and House Carnage; each one named after the change that they had enacted upon their Dragon Essence to rid themselves of the Dragon Blood Curse.

And then he realized that he had noticed that he was under a mind fog, but it wasn’t truly gone until now.

Quickly coming around to the idea that yes, he was fully cleared—

He tried switching back to his Normal Form, and found himself unable.

Not fully cleared, then.

But at least he recognized that he was… Soul-shackled? Yeah. Probably. There could be only one reason why he was able to recognize all this, though: He had fulfilled all of Fairy Moon’s instructions. Yes, that had to be it. Erick ignored that for now...

Time had seemed to stretch as Erick finally took in the situation happening all around him.

Fairy Moon, if she was presenting as her true self, was incandescent with silent, barely-visible anger. But it wasn’t directed at Erick. It was directed at the woman sitting across from Erick; The only person in the room unknown to him.

She was a woman of soft purples fading into deep violets, with horns on her head looking as though they were made of amethyst. They weren’t crystal, though; they were her true horns. She did not have a tail, but there was absolutely no way anyone would mistake her for either a dragonkin or an incani. She was a dragon in ‘human form’, and was rather open about that fact. She stared at Erick with glittering violet eyes, then her gaze drifted down...

She wanted him, but not sexually, or in any way that Erick would ever be comfortable with. She wanted his heart, or probably his core. She stared directly at his core and then smiled, showing off a smile that was too large, and fangs that were too sharp.

“He is not yours, Illustrious,” Fairy Moon said, trying not to be too sharp in tone. “He is mine.”

“There’s enough of him to go around.” Illustrious said, “Just look at him! He’s a baby but even I was terrified of him coming here, and now you show me that he’s a Wizard! I owe Bright Smile a hundred truegold.”

“You mistake why I have invited you, and you continue to mistake why you are here. This is his choice; and it is not up to you to make it for him.” Fairy Moon turned to Erick, saying, “So choose: My way, or I hand you over to the tribunal and they decide what to do with your Wizardly nature. This second choice means that Illustrious Moon gets to bid on your Breaking, and then you will be broken into Fae, or Carnage, or Death. If you take well to the Breaking then you might even find true power and happiness in those lives. But, you and I have a connection already…

“And so if you choose me, then I will guide you in the ways of the fae for however long it takes for you to open the Grand Pathways once again, and for me to be sure that I have not created a cancer to deal with in the future.”

Erick—

Illustrious Moon gasped. Everything about her changed; from vicious to bewildered to contrite and then to amazement and wonder, all in the blink of an eye. She whisper-shouted, “You don’t really believe that dung about him opening new worlds, do you!” When Fairy Moon said nothing, Illustrious leaned back, slowly turning serious by measured degrees. She eyed Erick and Fairy Moon a second time. “… We’ve been laughing over that for the last year… But if it’s true...”

“I don’t know if he can.” Fairy Moon continued to stare at Erick. “Fate seems to want him to go that direction, and maybe it is time for me to move on from this land. Maybe it is time for my brothers and sisters to return. I was honestly enjoying the break from all their antics, but… Seasons shift and dynasties die at the whims of true Wizards.”

“Ah…” Illustrious Moon said, “Well then. I apologize for eyeing you like that, Erick. It’s hard to know that I could save another hundred kids this year…” She said to Fairy Moon. “I’ll still take him, though.” She looked to Erick. “I will see you treated right if you choose me, but there will be some distinct changes in your usual operations.”

Erick almost exploded at Illustrious.

He dearly, dearly wanted to.

But he contained himself.

By Illustrious’s words, Fairy Moon seemed to lose most of her earlier anger. She said, “Those are the options, Erick. Fall in with the fae and test your Fate, or test your luck and your life upon the tribunal.”

Erick took a moment to breathe, and then he said, “I choose my own Path, and if you want to walk it with me, Fairy Moon, then you may accompany me for a while.”

Illustrious’s eyebrows rose. Maid Maria paused as in her preparation of the plates for lunch, but she resumed almost as fast. And then both Illustrious and Maria looked to Fairy Moon.

Fairy Moon met Erick’s gaze with her own. She was judging. Weighing. Then she decided, “This accord is acceptable, though it would be easier for you if you yoked yourself to my mandates.” She stared. “I can make you do anything I wish now that you have broken hospitality. Ware this warning but once, Erick Flatt. If you should not apply yourself I might decide that you aren’t learning fast enough to outrun fate, and that will go poorly for you, but it will still go the way I choose it to go.”

Erick stared right back, though he kept his anger and his true emotions out of his voice, “If you would have come at me with a combination of more candor and care, and less subterfuge and seals, then maybe I wouldn’t be rightfully riled or, no matter how this shakes out, resentful.”

Illustrious Moon and Maid Maria almost gasped at Erick’s disrespect.

Fairy Moon simply nodded, though, saying, “I know that according to your kind our last meeting and the subsequent ones went poorly, but in time, you will see that this was the best outcome for all. Stealing away a pretty mortal into the fae can be quite the pure-motive pastime, for there are a lot of rules for me to follow in this regard, so you are not in any actual danger unless you upset the unity of this slice of the Old Cosmology. Take ware the warnings and you will flourish and find your way. Make wrong choices and make yourself a crypt.” She added, “Besides! You want to make Elemental Benevolence! Take heed of this benevolence of mine and adjust your mind to your new environs. You might be here a while.”

Illustrious jolted at the idea of Elemental Benevolence, which meant that this was her first time hearing that idea—

Dragons were very expressive? Did Erick have that right? Illustrious and Maria had to be old, right? But here they were fully expressing their emotions on their faces.

— Illustrious exclaimed, “Elemental Benevolence!”

Illustrious Moon was surprised for multiple reasons there, all of which Erick barely gleaned. Erick was more focused on Fairy Moon anyway, for he did not like what she was saying. She called this ‘her benevolence’? This kidnapping and all the controlling shit? And that was her honest feeling, too, from what Erick could gather. She wasn’t lying about how she felt about anything. She truly believed that she was doing the best thing for everyone.

Fairy Moon added, “What I will apologize for is speaking of my age, or the ages of anyone in that meeting. That was rude of me.”

That was too much. Erick snapped back, “But kidnapping wasn’t?”

“Not at all. You stepped into the Path of your own volition. I merely took advantage, as was my right.”

“Let me switch back to my Normal Self.”

“No. You are to learn proper magic and proper Wizardry and you won’t learn any of that in your already Script-enhanced body. Take it as a boon of the Path that you were granted this whole new life before you got here, and that you didn’t fuck it up before I got a chance to get to your proper re-creation. And now:” Fairy Moon set a necklace down in front of Erick. It was made of the finest silver with a small pink/green/white crystal droplet in the center. “Wear that and you will be immune to the Sights and dangers of others for as long as you live peacefully in this place. It won’t protect against any average defenses so don’t go dawdling around in unapproved places, like on the outsides of houses either big or small.”

Too many things were happening all at once.

Erick kept up with all of it, but he dearly wanted to go back to the part where he had been kidnapped. He was not done being angry about that, and now he was also mad about almost being fed to the dragons of Ar’Cosmos. But with Fairy Moon’s last statement she had obviously seen Erick look out the windows up there and contemplate running away.

Yeah... Big news. Whoop-de-doo. Erick was under constant surveillance. Probably mind surveillance, too. Erick took the necklace and put it on. It probably had a tracker in it to directly allow her to observe him; he wouldn’t be surprised. He couldn’t tell that anything had changed, but Illustrious stopped glancing at his chest.

The violet dragon-lady whispered to herself, “That’s much better.”

At least the people around here seemed to be wearing their emotions openly.

Erick ignored Illustrious and turned to his [Familiar]s. “What happens if I break the glass?”

“They are free to wander around, though whatever they do comes back to you.” Fairy Moon warned, “Be ready to contain your feathered one if you should let him loose.”

Erick instantly smashed the glass orbs onto the stone ground beside his seat.

Both orbs shattered. Yggdrasil flew up to Erick’s left shoulder, but Ophiel fluffed out like an eldritch demigod, filling most of the airspace above the table before Erick could think otherwise, going knife-feathered and sharp-eyed, but no one seemed to care—

Fairy Moon warned Ophiel, “I’ll put you back in a bubble and the second one won’t break so easily.”

Erick regained full control of Ophiel and brought him back down to his front, and then he loosened his grip. Ophiel forgot his anger once in Erick’s warm embrace. The little guy batted at him with his wings a bit before switching to hugs. Erick hugged him tighter, too, and for a brief moment, everything was fine.

But everyone was looking. Maid Maria had a small smile. Illustrious had a sad, almost empathetic expression. Fairy Moon just stared a little, like she wanted what Ophiel had, but she could not, for she had done too much to ever deserve such honest love ever again.

… Erick was not touching that minefield with a hundred-meter pole.

Erick held Ophiel a bit more, and then Ophiel calmed down and eventually climbed onto his other shoulder, opposite Yggdrasil. With the fluffy guy on his right and the iridescent eye on his left, Erick breathed deep, and said, “So when does this Wizardry learning start?”

Fairy Moon instantly said, “After. First, a meal. If you will, Maid Maria.”

Maria set out the filled plates.

Fairy Moon took the first bite of pork, declared it good, and then Illustrious Moon began to eat. After a moment of indecision, the food smelled too good and it made Erick’s completely empty stomach grumble hard. Eventually, he ate.

… It was, perhaps strangely, one of the worst, well made meals he had ever had. Maria was a great cook. The spices were on point. The meat was seared well and the vegetables had lots of butter. It was very, very good, in presentation and smell and taste and texture. But it was also terrible. Perhaps Erick would have enjoyed it more in a better setting. Still, though, he ate. Everyone ate. Maid Maria even fixed herself a plate, but she ate in the other room. No one spoke.

Erick finished relatively first because he was more hungry than he realized.

Illustrious and Fairy Moon both stopped eating when he did. Maid Maria rushed back into the dining room shortly thereafter and began clearing the plates and the lunch.

Erick spoke first, asking, “Where are my rings and my Crystal Star?”

“The rings are broken, for I would not risk those things corrupting people with even more Stats.” Fairy Moon said, “The New Stats themselves would not work within Ar’Cosmos anyway, for none of the boosts of the Script apply in this land, except in the most basic of ways, but they would unlock the New Stats for anyone who should think to wear them. Therefore, they had to be broken in my first disagreements between Illustrious Moon and myself. They wouldn’t do you any good while you are here, anyway, for it is only through the Script that that form of enchanting works at all.”

Illustrious Moon withheld her disdain for that particular decision, though her emotions still showed upon her face.

Erick withheld his own annoyance at Fairy Moon, too. Whatever. He could make his rings again. That wasn’t a problem.

And then Fairy Moon continued, “The Crystal Star is another matter. That is in the vault, for now. This will soon change. With your decision to allow me on your Path, we shall be returning the Crystal to the Church of Koyabez, along with a letter detailing that you are safe and under my protection.”

Erick started—

But Illustrious got there first, speaking with horror in her voice, “You would let that twisting artifact return to Veird? I thought it would get lost in the vaults!”

She did not mean ‘lost in the vaults’. She meant ‘destroyed’.

Erick glared, saying, “You have no choices to make regarding the Crystal Star other than to return it to me.”

“No.” Fairy Moon said, “The divine energies invested into that trinket and the soul twisting power you placed within will hamper your growth as a true Wizard. Therefore, it is to be given back to the god who helped make it and you are to never touch it again.” She gazed at Erick, saying, “And! When we get the time, we shall have a good and long talk about what justice truly is.”

And now Erick was mad for an entirely new reason. “You would rather kill someone than let them become someone new? You would deny those who wrong others the ability to see how they have wronged others?”

“Death is cleaner.” Fairy Moon said, “In the jumbling of souls that occur between one life and the next, whoever comes out the other side is not who went in. What you have done is an abomination to the natural order—”

“There is no such thing as a natural order.” Erick said, “All we have is what we make of it, and what we make is justice and society and civilization. It is not natural, and you attempting to naturalize the unnatural is you imposing your own outdated beliefs on others.”

Fairy Moon smirked. “And is your Crystal Star not doing the exact same thing? Imposing ideas?”

“Of course it is! Society is about imposing ideas on each other and working out compromises.”

“And when I say ‘natural order’ I mean exactly that. You think I know nothing about the unnaturalness of my nature?” Fairy Moon said, “When I speak of natural order I mean to see civilizations grow up, without outsized influences upon them, and besides that: your Crystal Star needs to be in the hands of a collection of desires, at the very least, and not in your own personal hands. One man does not get to gradually corrupt the cycles of death and resummoning, for I have seen where your Crystal Star ends up, Erick, and it is in a world of stagnation and excess that eventually falls to the monsters outside that society.”

“First of all: I much prefer the term ‘reincarnation’. Ecks leaves much to be desired when it comes to concepts of rebirth—” And then Erick realized he wasn’t arguing for an outcome he truly wanted, anyway. He did not need the Crystal Star. He would be happy to let the Crystal Star go back to Koyabez, but… “I would be happy to let the Crystal Star return to Koyabez, but I was going to use that model of magic to try and cleanse all of the dragons of Ar’Cosmos of their Dragon Essence Curse. To turn Dragon Essence into Elemental Empathy. But now? Fuck you,” he said, looking at Fairy Moon. He turned to Illustrious Moon, saying, “If anyone could have used some Elemental Empathy it’s you.”

Fairy Moon almost said something—

Illustrious spoke first, half-incredulous, “You. A Wizard. You would have come here willingly?”

“Yeah. After I figured it all out first and probably cured the Headmaster, first.” Erick said, “Though I’ve been told that a true flight of dragons would destroy this world, so I have no doubt that someone would have talked me out of it. I still would have countered that the idea of Elemental Empathy could not be co-opted into murder-for-all or some other horror show all that easily. I feel I would have won that argument, eventually.”

Fairy Moon withheld whatever she was going to say, as she gained a small smile.

For Illustrious had heard Erick’s words, and she looked, for a long and terrible moment, like a woman who had found out she had won the lottery the day after she threw away the ticket. Erick felt a profound sense of joy at seeing Illustrious fall apart, no matter how small that crumbling was. And then he realized that he shouldn’t have so much joy at Illustrious’s suffering.

Then he went back to his first feelings. Illustrious was very ready to take him and ‘Break’ him in order to make new dragons. Therefore, Erick decided to hold onto his schadenfreude for a while longer and not feel too guilty about seeing the pain he caused in Illustrious.

Honestly, this whole situation was fucked up.

“Honestly, this whole situation is fucked.” Erick said, “I was going to come here anyway. I was trying to help you assholes.” He wanted to slam his knife into the table, but he did not. “Why did you do this, this way?” He glared at both of them, asking, “What the fuck?”

Neither Illustrious or Fairy Moon had the decency to look ashamed.

Maid Maria, who was currently between rooms, winced, as though she realized she had stepped in dog shit. At least one person here was capable of empathy. Maria was probably younger than both Illustrious and Fairy Moon. Fairy Moon was older than at least one universe, though, so her way of thinking was simply…

Fairy Moon was simply alien, and that was the truth. Maybe she was incapable of true empathy? An amoral fae… Well that was pretty cliché. But the more experience Erick had with Fairy Moon, the more he realized that she was simply, truly, foreign.

Erick was still having trouble grasping that idea, though. To him, everyone was understandable if you tried hard enough. It was quite infuriating that Fairy Moon was the way she was.

Illustrious was easy to understand, though, for all her age and power and separation from the real world. She was in denial, as she said, “The Headmaster would never let you come here if you looked to help us, and we both know what we do to Wizards. If it weren’t for Fairy Moon then we would be doing that to you, right now; trading one life for a hundred. And it would be the right thing to do.”

“I gave the possibility of redemption to six Shades.” Erick rhetorically asked, “What makes you think I wouldn’t want to help your people from needing to consume Wizards just so you could move around without killing each other on Veird? Those dragon fights kill thousands each year, and according to everything I know the fact is normal dragons just cannot help yourselves. That Curse is an affliction that needs to be cured.” He added, “But maybe it is like others have said: ‘The world cannot handle a true flight of dragons’, and maybe they were right, if this is how you treat people once you have them under your sway.” Erick almost told of how maybe the Dragon Stalkers were right to murder every dragon they could find, but that was a step too far. The Stalkers were in the wrong, too, and not just because their zealotry had harmed Poi. There was no clean side in this conflict. Just pain all around.

Illustrious wanted to speak—

Fairy Moon got there first, saying, “One life for a hundred is an argument that could be agonized over for a million years, and whatever outcome came out would still be wrong, for the scales of justice wander and wither in the face of weighing lives against lives. Speak no more of this pedantry at this time, for this discussion is too large to have at the moment. We are talking of actual tasks to undertake, not theory to theorize over.”

Erick could tell (at least) that Fairy Moon seemed to love to argue, for she very much wanted to talk of the nuances of justice, but as she said: there were larger, more personal things to discuss right now. Still, Erick almost launched right into a talk of ‘justice’, if only to countermand the fae’s demands to move the conversation along.

Fairy Moon said to Illustrious, “You know the truth of Erick. Do not spread any truths discovered at this dining. Instead, be ready in all ways, and especially prepared for when [Renew] enters the Open Script. And be ready to assist with core formation and growth, for Erick will need a teacher, and one must be provided that is closer to draconic than fae.” She turned to Erick. “Before you learn Wizardry, we will speak more of this Elemental Benevolence you named back at that beach, along with several smaller ideas, for acclimation comes before academia.”

Illustrious got up from her chair, and Erick saw for the first time that she was a truly tall woman, and that was before her horns. She said, “I wish to hear more of this new House you wish to raise, Fairy Moon, but I will accept a full debrief when this orientation is over. Welcome back to Ar’Cosmos.”

— A new House? Why the fuck would Erick agree to that? Why would he agree to anything these assholes wanted, at all? Like, well… It was the easy way out. ‘Give the mugger your wallet, because it isn’t worth your life’ but Erick had thought he was past that part of his life. Apparently not, though.

… Obviously he wasn’t past this part of his life.

Erick scowled a little, but he was unsure who he needed to be scowling at the most. Everyone here deserved a lot of scowling, though. Perhaps some more snappy snipes, too. There wasn’t much else that Erick could do in this situation, anyway, because he couldn’t summon more Ophiel, Ophiel couldn’t summon more Ophiel (Erick had tried once, just to see what would happen, and he got a minor Error message from the Script… But they were in Ar’Cosmos now… Could he…? Something to test later), and he didn’t want to risk Ophiel being taken away from him, anyway. If he acted out, at all, besides with words, which seemed to be okay, then there would be consequences. Erick didn’t want to experience any more of those consequences, thank you very much. He was still reeling from the horror of having all his bodily autonomy and mind taken away from him, but he was able to compartmentalize that.

… That compartment was getting pretty full, and like an overfull closet, Erick couldn’t close the door anymore. Stuff kept spilling out. He would need time and calm and… not this, if he were ever to regain his full sanity.

And yet, Erick maintained.

Fairy Moon said, “I am not sure if it will be a House, but it might have to be. Whatever Erick makes needs to last for All Always and the usual way to do that is with pervasive life, for Elemental Benevolence will be this New Cosmology’s anti-Sundering Element.” She frowned a little at nothing in particular, saying, “I do not want to go through that Sundering nonsense ever again, and I don’t want anyone else to, either, but this act of Creation will be challenging, because Erick has already been set upon the path of Paradox.” She got up from her chair, and she seemed like a child compared to the very tall Illustrious. She said, “Your welcoming is well received, Illustrious. I look forward to auditing the House after I get Erick settled in with some proper scrolls and spellwork.”

Illustrious’s eyes had been wide with every new announcement from Fairy Moon. Her voice was a whisper, “Anti-Sundering—” She recovered. “An auditing will be availed to you whenever you wish.” She bowed, then she left the dining room, down the tunnel toward what Erick could only assume was the front entrance.

Fairy Moon turned toward Erick, saying, “The Dragon Curse is only part of the reason for that hungry look she gave you in the beginning.”

Erick felt whiplash as he reoriented to Fairy Moon.

Fairy Moon continued, “The Script itself is a terrible burden for all beings who ascend, for it makes their mana no longer their own, and monster and man alike is forced to take in the mana of the conquered, or be driven insane with anger like the common monster.” Fairy Moon gained a bit of her own anger, but it was well controlled, as she said, “When Idyrvamikor laid down that Dying Law against his murderous brother, it only compounded the problem of being a dragon on Veird…” Her voice trailed off as she looked away.

Erick could infer a lot from Fairy Moon’s sudden bout of emotion.

The woman obviously had had some sort of relationship with Idyrvamikor, and she probably knew the most about what the Dragon Curse was. Perhaps this was why she threw in with the dragons. Perhaps she was the one who even made the Gate Network in the first—

… No. There were too many ways Erick could be wrong about that. He stopped himself from making any preconceived notions. He decided to just ask her.

“Did you make this land?” Erick asked, “Or did you take the Gate Network laid down by the Old Dragonkin and make it into something larger?”

Fairy Moon continued to gaze out at nothing for a long moment, then she turned to Erick, asking, “How much do you know of this land? Of the current-day workings but also of the founding years of what was to be the greatest civilization in this New World?”

“Of history, I know the broad strokes.” Erick said, “The founding of the Old Dragonkin Gate Network happened in year 2 or 3 in what would eventually become the Forest of Glaquin. There were a few decades of peace and then came the Death of All Halves, in year 25, which was caused by the Old Demons in their efforts to create their own hybrid human people, the incani, and to deny the angels their alvani; the half angels.

“Fully repairing the Script from the Death of All Halves caused the creation of the orcols, combining orcs and trolls into one people, which caused the Rage Wars. [Teleport] didn’t come along till year 100 or so, though, so the Gate Network left by the Old Dragonkin was the only way to get around Veird in any timely manner, so the orcols tried to capture the Gate Network. They succeeded some, which caused the Rage Wars to spread nearly unchecked.

“But all the rest of the world eventually fought the orcols to a standstill and then Aloeth, the elven goddess of beauty, captured the Rage of the orcols and transformed herself into Aloethag, actually ending the war. But by that time the Old Dragonkin Gate Network was in tatters.

“Idyrvamikor’s Dragon Curse happened somewhere in there, I think, but I do not know the exact timing, or the circumstances involved. His name is scrubbed from the history books.” Erick said, “I also have no idea how you are involved, or how the dragons came to be here, or anything of note with why it is the way it is, except for that dragons can come to Ar’Cosmos and not be affected by the Dragon Curse.” He added, “And Wizards can remove that Curse.” He added a bit more harshly, “And you kidnap Wizards all the time and harm them to get what you want. For multiple reasons, all of which boil down to the people of this land all doing what they want and not caring about how it affects other people, or the Curse making the people in here act certain ways, or other workings of circumstance, you are a danger to the outside world; Yet another enemy of Veird.”

Fairy Moon ignored all of Erick’s anger, saying, “It seems we are in need of a history lesson and a tour, first, for while you have touched upon the touchstones of this land, you know very little. Get up, and follow me.”

Erick got up. He asked, “I’m not really safe here, even when under your aegis, am I?”

“If you are worried about Illustrious then you are smart, but while she will try something, I will be there, and I doubt she will actually reveal your Wizardry to anyone else. If you are worried about all the lesser dragons around here, then you insult me with these words.” Fairy Moon added, “By that same token, if you get into trouble that is of your own making or if you out yourself as a Wizard, then I will only rescue you when you are nearly dead, and the secret will be too large to keep quiet if that happens.”

Erick was having a hard time understanding many things about Fairy Moon and her motivations, and he wanted clarity in this regard, so he asked, “And you’re really not out there telling everyone that I’m a Wizard? Or letting this information flow out of control?”

“I did not tell anyone. They saw your truth for themselves—”

Erick ignored the rage in his heart.

“— But in the case of Illustrious Moon and Maid Maria, they’ll both be involved in helping you become a proper Wizard and they know better than to cross my creations. That necklace will prevent any accidental reveal of your truth, though.” Fairy Moon said, “I expect this attempt at subterfuge to fail rather fast, and even faster as soon as other people realize you are here, and that you can’t do nearly as much magic as you should. If you want to play like you’re here to help us solve the Dragon Curse and to learn of Wizardry, then that lie might be manageable. Do you wish to navigate with this narrative in mind?”

“… Are you controlling my communication with the outside, too?”

“Yes.” Fairy Moon waved a hand, deciding, “We will discuss all of everything else as the present permits, but let us move to our first lesson: a true telling of legacies and legends lost to time. We go to meet with the creator of Veird’s original Gate Network.”

Fairy Moon started walking.

… Erick decided to start following.

And Erick checked himself, briefly.

For one thing, Erick was interested in finding out more about Ar’Cosmos. He didn’t think that inquisitiveness had anything to do with whatever controls Fairy Moon had put on him. In fact, most of those controls felt gone. But Erick knew those controls were just dormant.

He knew those controls were mostly dormant because he was still really fucking angry; he was capable of being angry, and capable of having murderous thoughts, like picking up the knife back on the table and driving it into Fairy Moon’s left eye. But if he tried to switch back to his Normal Form, he could not.

… He had a good reason for being angry. It had only been through his own words and demonstrated scope of what he could promise, that he was not currently being ‘Broken’ into yet another Wizard for these dragons to ‘eat’. All the good that he had done before and all the plans he had in place to do more good for everyone, including these dragons, didn’t fucking matter to any one here.

That really pissed him off. The kidnapping and everything else up until now was actually a close second compared to the rage he felt at the injustice of it all. The pure close-mindedness. The inability to see Erick’s history, and his Truth, and still judge him as incapable of helping even those who don’t deserve help at all.

The third thing making him angry was that Fairy Moon was apparently some ‘fae of justice’ or something and she couldn’t see the shit she was doing to him, or perhaps she was willfully ignorant—

Compartmentalize. Stuff that box full. Bury it in the depths of your mind and look to the brighter things in life. He was alive. Ophiel and Yggdrasil were here with him. He was clean and uninjured and had just eaten.

… And he could cycle his mana whenever he wanted. He did that as they walked, and instantly felt bet—

“You’re doing that wrong,” Fairy Moon said, “Continue as you must, but I’ll show you a better method later.”

For a long, terrible moment, Erick felt like he wanted to fall to the stone ground and lay there, pretending to be dead. Fairy Moon could see inside his soul, even when the necklace should have blocked everyone from looking, but of course she could see past it. And now Erick didn’t want to walk anywhere. He didn’t give two shits about history, no matter how much relevance it had on the current day.

He hated how much he wanted to kill Fairy Moon.

But he kept putting one foot in front of the other, and eventually those awful feelings passed into the background.

Down another hallway they went, and then toward a closed door.

Erick said, “I expect recompense for this terrible treatment.”

Fairy Moon stopped in her tracks, but she did not look at Erick.

Erick added, “And also! Before we go on, I need you to tell me why you chose to kidnap me back there. Why do you think that this is somehow ‘justice’? Why did you need to be in control of something that I was already handling without your interference?”

“My goals, then?”

Erick would take that, too. “Your goals. Unvarnished and uncomplicated.”

For a long moment Fairy Moon was quiet, then she said, “It has to do with the pedantry of arguing over one life versus a million deaths in the near future, or a trillion trillion lives in the far future when this universe inevitably allows for another Sundering. Is there a point to try for titanic civilization ever again? Perhaps not. But, perhaps, if we lay the laws down properly and prudently, and if we have the right of it in the beginning… But is that hubris? To think ourselves better than all of everyone else who came before? Better than all those who failed to find their way to Veird, or failed to stop the Sundering? Yes. This is hubris. But also: this is a topic too large to fully embrace in a single hallway’s walk, or to speak even the slightest weight it truly requires on timelines as large as star shifting in the sky.” Fairy Moon breathed, then said, “But that is my true goal. My life, and my Truth.

“I arrive at the answers to the ineffable and impose those findings on the firmament. I conform chaos and order into something more substantial, and less chaotic. I am the friend to the faithful and the lost looking for light, and the foe of all who would forswear the lives of others.

“And you, right now, are plowing heedlessly ahead. You make plans and other people perish to the sides, never to be seen ever again in this life. You think to work with the wrought and they would wring you for all you were worth, and then leave you out on your lonesome, or worse! With a sword across your neck at the dying of the day. And I see your anger against this announcement. You don’t blame yourself for trying better than all those who came before. And I don’t either. But the fact remains:

“You play with powers that you have no standing to side with, while those sides play around you, gaming for trifles of the treasure you will create.

“There were two ways this meeting between you and I could have ever possibly gone,” Fairy Moon said, “Either I would give you to the dragons, and continue my support of those sorry people, persecuted by the one who should have been cast down long ago.

“Or, I help you do this right. We build for eternity, instead of for emergency. Not a Script, but something better.

“Before I knew you as a Wizard I had high hopes for you, Erick, but then I discovered that you were the one thing that could destroy or recreate everything, as he deemed necessary. This was too much power for you, and I truly did think that you would be better off dead, or used to enact some of my own agenda; it would be a reduction of ideas and a recycling of life into what could be salvaged. But you have proven your true character by your actions and your words a thousand times over, and yet again there in that luncheon with Illustrious, you proved your character.

“And so… I have decided to help you.

“For it is as that Inquisitor of Rozeta’s has said: You are to be the firmament upon which the rest of civilization will rest. Maybe you won’t end up like Xoat, who was strewn across all of their Old Cosmology in order to enact that universe. Or maybe you will. Only time will tell.” Fairy Moon added, “All I know is that you need a lot more help, and I must give it to you. Wherever that help leads is up to you and I, and if things seem to be going wrong, and they cannot be salvaged, there will be a salvaging of a different sort, and you will not survive that event.”

Erick had a lot of thoughts about all that. Mostly, he did not like the idea of being a ‘firmament’. He just liked to help people. That didn’t mean he wanted to actually go around being the basis upon which everyone else relied.

But as Fairy Moon’s words sunk in, he realized that she was at least right about one thing: his wishes for a better world would mean a lot of changes, and those changes would cause catastrophe, and that he wasn’t being nearly tough enough on himself.

What he wanted to do was a lot larger than the simple flight of fancy that he had originally intended it to be, when he mouthed off to that Lower Trademaster of Portal, Caradogh Pogi, about cutting their Pearl Kingdom out of all trade by Erick making his own [Gate] network. Now that was him mouthing off, and to the detriment of everyone around him. That was one of the reasons he stopped himself from mouthing off again to Fairy Moon, and her idea of him being the ‘basis upon which all else would come’. Her little warning there at the end barely registered, since she had already said as much before then, but it was good to know her measure, in full.

But everything was way more complicated than Erick had ever planned.

Erick said, “All I ever wanted to do was to help people. I thought I would figure it out, eventually. Go slow. Learn what it meant to open the world to easy travel— It’s not like [Teleport] isn’t right there in the Script for anyone to take. It’s not like I’d be upsetting much, except… Travel in and out and around the Underworld would change dramatically. I didn’t even think about new worlds until everyone started talking like that. I did not think I was doing something this large when I started.”

And now he was here, prisoner of the fae.

Fairy Moon nodded, saying, “I know you don’t appreciate it now —no one ever does— but in fifty years time, if everything should work out, when you’re still out there living the life of an unchained Wizard, and anti-Sundering magic has been on Veird for 49 years, you will look upon what had happened here in Ar’Cosmos as the best possible outcome of all fractured figments. But make no mistake. This will not be easy.”

Erick breathed in, then looked to the door, saying, “I still wish you would have simply asked.”

“We both know that never would have worked.”

“… It might have.”

Fairy Moon ignored Erick’s small words and opened the door to a garden path. The sun shone brightly. The sky was a cloudy blue. The flowers smelled sweet. Beyond the path lay the five-meter high stone wall of Fairy Moon’s compound, along with a gate ten meters tall, and open.

Beyond lay a forest path.

Erick walked beside Fairy Moon, neither of them speaking, for Erick had nothing more to say, and neither did Fairy Moon. So Erick gazed around, taking in the sights.

He noticed something fucky right away, with Fairy Moon’s mansion, rising up behind them. The place had five towers, four of which were about seven stories tall with one that was ten tall, all of them scattered among three main house-like structures, each at least three stories tall. The place was practically an art piece itself, with sculptures of stone people dancing and praying and other sorts of actions, while the architecture was very gothic and solid. But it was not what Erick had seen from the windows when he came down from his room.

Erick tried to mentally chart the path they had taken to get to this point outside the garden walls, but he could not. The tower that was his bedroom had to have been 20 stories tall, and he saw none of that, and his bedroom had been on a corner tower for sure, for his tower had been smaller than the other towers by a lot, but all of the towers he now saw were about the same height.

Non-euclidean geometry? Probably. Made a lot of sense, actually.

It was just one more thing to explore with regard to [Gate], for at this proof, it seemed there truly was such a thing as ‘Fae Space’, like Tasar had named.

And so, they exited Fairy Moon’s place, stepping deeper into the forest—

They were headed away from the city, it seemed. Erick would have thought that their historian would be with all the other people. But… Guess not?