Ar'Kendrithyst

Chapter 185, 1/2

Chapter 185, 1/2

“There are two parts to every person. The body, and the spirit.” Illustrious Moon said, “But improving those parts requires an understanding deeper than that surface.”

Erick had woken with the sun. Another swim in the bath had put him in a better mood than yesterday, and both Ophiel and Yggdrasil also seemed calmer that next morning, too. Ophiel even started off the day with a solo song of joy as the sun rose outside the windows. An invitation to breakfast ended in a nice meal that was quite a lot better than the luncheon he had had yesterday under duress. Or at least Erick had been capable of tasting it this time. Maid Maria was a good cook; he had just not been able to taste it before now. He still dined with Fairy Moon, though, and so the mood was a bit hampered by that, but their words had been simple, and Erick pressed no issues. Afterward, Fairy Moon declared that Erick would be learning proper cycling. In doing so, he would regain some of his previous magical capability through the natural growth of his core. Depending on how quickly he progressed after that, and his subsequent creation of Elemental Benevolence, he might be released in a week, or maybe a month. She wasn’t going to let him go until he could actually defend himself from the rest of the world, though.

Her words had been nice, but she made herself sound like a threat, so it was somewhat difficult to see the good in her ‘proclamation’.

And so, Erick found himself in a plain stone room, sitting upon a dense, large pillow across from Illustrious Moon. The large violet-colored lady sat on her own pillow. Her initial words of greeting had been contrite and apologetic, but only by way of her tone and body language. Her actual words had been a bit more acerbic than that, for Erick could tell she was nervous in a way she did not appreciate, and so Erick ignored her acidity as much as he was able.

The lesson began.

“The body is most commonly broken down between the body or physique, and the mind. The spirit is usually broken down between the spirit or aura, and the soul. By properly cycling your mana, you will naturally fortify every part of you, in effect, manually accomplishing what monsters do all the time, which is to grow their Strength, Vitality, Willpower, and Focus, naturally, and without spending any Points granted by the Script.

“It is more complicated than that, though, because every person is different, with different aptitudes and body/spirit types.

“But it’s also simpler, for the prevalence of the Script has created a lot of uniformity in what was usually a unique situation for every person.

“For instance: There is no ‘Mind’ Stat, for when they were building the Script they laid down rules against that sort of mental growth. But lately, Melemizargo has invented ‘Intelligence’, which might grow the ‘Mind’ of anyone who has Intelligence, but our small tests with people who have gained that New Stat haven’t shown any natural cycling-induced growth of Intelligence.

“The only way we have found that the mind naturally grows is in those lucky young dragons who usually go on to become Mind Mages. Our spying has shown you have no actual Mind Mage capability, so I do not know what will happen there. Probably just a growth of Intelligence Stat up to a certain point, and nothing else.

“There will be many things about your future growth that will not cleave with normal convention, for you are a Wizard, and you already know your Truth, and you were pointed in a specific direction by Rozeta. But you are to be an unbound Wizard, so I will not be directing your growth at all with my own unseen aura.” Illustrious Moon said, “Fairy Moon was quite clear on that.”

Erick frowned a little. Had she just made a threat? Or was she simply informing him of the truth of the matter? Erick leaned toward the second option. But also, by mentioning her assistance with core growth, Illustrious was informing Erick of how she usually ‘helped’ other Wizards come into their power.

Was that little bit of information there, then, the explanation of how they ‘Broke’ a Wizard down certain elemental lines? To produce a Wizard that could Paradox away the Dragon Curse for a few people?

Erick tested what she meant by all that, saying, “Your unseen aura, huh.”

Illustrious sat tall upon her pillow, and everything about her shifted. Violet glows flowed away from pale violet skin, and while she had no tail in her humanoid form, she had ten tails in her aura. Those ten long, almost fluffy tails, waved behind her like a sea anemone, each one five meters tall and much taller than her. Erick was briefly taken aback, for an aura that size meant a lot of power, but then he realized that he shouldn’t have been surprised. She was the head of House Fae, and she had been in her current position of power for 1100 years, according to Redflame.

Her tails vanished.

“My unseen aura, yes.” Illustrious continued, “The method I will teach you is simple but effective for generalized growth of your core, and your form, all of which is known as the art of accretion. I have no doubt you can master accretion quickly, but now I must give my first warning:

“Accretion can have some bad side effects. If you fail to grow your core properly, you might need to tear down everything in order to fix the base problem. In the worst case scenario, this fix involves ripping your core out of your chest and not dying in the process. Such a fix is a delicate operation. Core ripping requires complete trust in another and we do not have that yet. Core ripping also requires perfect self-control and you do not have that, no matter your successes with magic.”

Erick just nodded.

“In order to show that this method works, though, I will be using this method to repair a minor spell in my core that—” Illustrious asked, “You know of how the Script implants spells in the soul, yes? How that all works? The differences between magic cast through the soul and magic manipulated into being through shaping and all that?”

Erick said, “A person makes a magic through the shaping and control of their aura, and the Script recognizes that and then implants that magic in the soul. From there, one can combine these small parts into something larger, which is how we combine magic and go up the tiers; to take [Force Bolt] and combine it with Mana Altering for Light, to get [Light Bolt]. This does not use up the base spell. Once the combined spell is inside the soul it can be cast at-will, as long as you have the mana to spend on the casting. This means no need to shape the mana all the time in order to make a spell.”

A moment passed.

“… Is that everything?”

“… Well I know I left a lot out, but is that not everything? At its most basic?”

Illustrious said, “That has left out quite a few details. The major one is the initial implanting of magic into the soul, which we will go over in addition to this lesson on cycling mana and growing your core.

“First, you must understand that the soul is mostly obscured to us, even all the way here in Ar’Cosmos. That cloudy thing you can view with [Soul Sight] or with mana sense is barely a tenth of the truth, for it takes true skill to be able to see the soul for what it is, and that truth is this: The soul is a collection of parts and connections that is too complicated to ever fully pierce. Even the best necromancers and soul summoners can only touch upon 85% of the soul.

“Looking at a soul is like being in a library, but all you can see of the books is the size, shape, and color. No titles, and you certainly cannot read any of them.

“But here is the trick to true understanding: Beyond the books, there are the library shelves and floors and walls and ceiling. The library itself is the person. The books are just the spells and experiences that belong to the person. And if you know how to look, you will see that some books are actually spellbooks.

“For our purposes, we are interested in the spell books. They are readily identifiable if you know what you’re looking for.

“In the soul of a person who has made a lot of magic, you can see that some spell books connect to larger books, like they are part of a series. To use your [Light Bolt] example, you would find that particular spell book on the shelves, but if you looked closer, you would see that [Light Bolt] was composed of two different books, [Force Bolt] and Mana Altering. Those original books also exist on the shelves somewhere nearby.

“So, in this way, spells are like books, but they are also not like books at all.

“By making a spell in your soul, what we call soulbonding a spell, one makes a book inside oneself. This is usually a very difficult process, but the Script makes this process easy; if you demonstrate capability, it will help you to automate this process in the future. It will make a book for you.

“Here in Ar’Cosmos, though, making a book and then using it in a different combination is exceedingly difficult. I won’t go into specifics yet, but it is important to understand this difficulty going forward, and what it means when you remove a spell from your core, and try to make a new book with those parts. What is simply a 10 day or however-long wait to the coreless can be a catastrophic event to people like you or I.” Illustrious Moon touched her chest, just off-center to her right, saying, “Attend this Sight, Erick.”

Erick was already looking at her with his mana sense, and he had wondered about that chip on Illustrious’s core. It seemed that it was a part of the lesson. “The small break? Looks like a flake was broken off of an otherwise-perfect pearl.” Erick had experienced worse degradation of his own core through just doing nothing for a full day. If one simple chip was all that happened when you broke a spell then he did not see the problem.

“Yes.” Illustrious said, “This is what happens to a core when a person tears apart a spell they have made; they rip apart a piece of their soul, separating books back into separate systems in order to try again another day. The place where the damage occurs is always different, for souls are always in motion and not actually where they appear to be at all, so pay no attention to the actual location of the break, for that means nothing; pay attention to the break itself, and the damage caused. This was a simple tier three spell. According to the Script, it would take a week to recover from this damage, for the Script automates this repair for all peoples without cores.

“But since we are in Ar’Cosmos and I am very good at repairing this sort of damage, I will be able to repair this damage in as little as ten minutes. I will be able to retry for this spell tomorrow, at the latest.”

Erick gave an involuntary laugh. “Oh! Dragons just cheat, then?”

Illustrious smirked. “I would say that Wizards cheat more, and I feel I would be more right than you.”

Erick didn’t know what to say about that.

Illustrious Moon nodded, then strongly added, “If you want to break any spells past tier 4, or anything that requires more than 500 mana to cast, I would suggest you ignore this method and go back to Veird and let the Script assist you with that spell breaking. If you attempt such a breaking here in Ar’Cosmos, you might crack your foundation, and that might be catastrophic. Magic, and especially magic that you put into your soul, is especially dangerous. I won’t be assisting with any of that, though.

“It is advised that you refrain from attempting to create any new magic in your soul until you return to Veird and regain Script assistance. However, simple magic through the shaping of mana is something anyone can do, and you will surely be able to do a lot of that once you learn this cycling method. Indeed, most people like myself find it easier to manually cast their magic.

“Now watch; In the repairing of my small break, I will make visible the whole process.”

Illustrious sat tall, and closed her eyes. Violet glows began to seep from her pale violet skin as she released her aura, releasing ten violet tails into the air. After a moment her tails wrapped around her body, and then her core began to release mana. That mana soaked into her aura, surrounding her with a thick and heavy layer of power, like she was wrapping herself in a cloud of her own mana. The air turned visibly thick, as it would from the results of a [Cleanse], except this thick air was tainted violet.

And then a curious thing happened.

That thick mana began to flow inward, condensing down into a second set of veins that simply appeared inside Illustrious’s body, with her core at the center, like they had been there and yet invisible all this time. That mana eventually flowed into her core. Those veins passed through every part of her body, too, leaving behind little tracers of power that were doing something, but Erick could not tell what. The most visible thing happened when her mana got all the way back to her core; that tiny chip began to fill in, like Illustrious was regrowing a break in a crystal. There was no abnormal growth here, though. Her soul had been exposed in that crack, and now her soul filled out the space it had once occupied, and then the whole thing began to fill in with crystalline core.

The repair turned out perfect.

Erick wondered if the perfect repair was due to some part of Illustrious’s control, or if it was a ‘return to normalcy’ sort of repair that was already in line with the soul’s directives, for Illustrious’s soul was perfectly contained to that pearl in her chest… Which might have been Illustrious’s control showing, too.

Those veins were a mirror for Erick’s own vein-like structures that fed into his own core, so he could probably do this exact same thing. His own core perfectly contained his own soul, though, which was currently shaped like a cut gem about four centimeters across and half that thick, nestled in shadowy veins beside his heart. There was something else he would need to do to get a spherical core like Illustrious… For that was the goal, right? All the powerful people had spherical cores, for whatever reason, and that reason was likely because it was the best form for a soul to take.

Erick watched Illustrious ‘cycle’ her mana for a little over nine minutes. He had a few questions by the end of it.

Illustrious opened her eyes and gave a small, beatific smile. And then she saw Erick, and most of her smile remained, but she regained her poise. “Did you understand what happened?”

“I did, for the most part.” Erick said, “You flooded your aura with your mana and then you soaked in that mana through your channels, effecting a regrowth of the damaged part of your core.”

Illustrious nodded. “Mostly true. Ask your questions then I will explain what I did, for what I did was much more than that.”

“The veins. You didn’t have them till I watched them appear when you flowed mana through them. What is up with that?”

Illustrious looked happy to hear that question, and also about being able to answer it, as she said, “Those mana channels are a manifestation of the soul, and proof of your Wizardry. If you were to disconnect from the Script, you would find your mana flooding out of those channels, constantly spilling mana all over the place, until you learned how to control your aura and lessen that flow; to contain and grow your own power instead of leaving it all over the place for anyone else to pick up.

“Dragons have lesser channels than Wizards, and ours are normally dormant, unless we want them to be otherwise, or unless they are in use. Wizards cannot hide their nature, though, once they throw off the yoke of the Script.

“Normal people can learn how to unlock their mana channels, or create mana channels in the most extreme cases of mana-affinity deficit. Thusly, they might eventually become like you or I, but while the end-goal is the same for all —perfect control over oneself and one’s environs— only dragons or Wizards or other immortal species usually have enough power, or live long enough, in order to accomplish this goal on their own.” Illustrious said, “And so here is the second warning:

“If you’re okay with being a monster, you can take in ambient mana and achieve sort of the same success. If you’re able to get a sponsorship from someone high-powered, who is willing to donate to you their mana, and if you’re okay with accepting their Truth into yourself, then you can get mana donations from them and shortcut much of the same process. There are multiple roads toward the same end goal; all are viable, but for most people, ‘viable’ is not good enough. I suggest you never settle for what is ‘viable’, and always strive for what is best.”

Erick mulled that over, while Illustrious waited.

“Okay.” Erick said, “So the healing on your core. Did your mana fall into that chip and automatically repair with that sort of spherical perfection by following the lines of your soul? Or did you direct that regrowth? Would someone with a malformed soul have problems making a perfect core? And why are cores all spherical? Is that just the best form for them to take?” He rapidly added, “And what about grand rads? And such? Where do those fit into this picture? And what about healing one’s core with rads? I’ve literally never seen a spherical core for sale in any market, or watched anyone trade one in at the local mage’s guild; why not?”

Illustrious breathed deep as she listened to Erick’s litany of questions. “I will answer the easiest ones first: About the buying and selling of spherical cores, and grand rads.”

“Rads are mutated, out-of-control cores.

“The two words are not equal at all, but language drifts and such is life.

“Grand rads form in the bodies of large monsters who can support those rads.

“Now… This part is a bit complicated: All rads are adequate for taking into oneself as a way to heal your own core, in cases of degradation, for the monster that made such a core already filtered all the impurities of ambient mana into itself and created a rad that was mostly good. While a rad is made of about 250 mana, or even thousands of mana in the case of a grand rad, the usable amount of mana inside of them is only about 10 mana in a normal rad, or a thousand in a grand rad. This is due to the impurities.

“Those impurities are what caused the monster to be a monster. The inability for a monster to cross the line between ‘full of impurities’ or ‘able to ascend to a grand rad’ causes many rads to remain small. But those who manage to cross this line are able to do so because they have figured out some part of their own truth. In this manner, grand rads even continue to pull in ambient mana after they are removed due to the incorrect, ‘viable but crazy’ way in which the monster made them.

“You can use grand rads to heal your core, but this is an advanced technique due to you needing to remove a great lot of impurities inside such a core, and thus this should not be attempted until you know what you’re doing. Smaller rads are okay.

“You likely won’t need to do this at all, since you have [Renew]. But even if you didn’t have that, you are a Wizard, with certain advantages in this area which I will go into later.

“You will never see a spherical core for use out there because when a person with a spherical core dies, the core dissolves unless special treatments are made prior to death. All spherical cores have come from a person, though, so keep that in mind when you see that out there in the world.” Illustrious paused, then said, “I’m surprised that you haven’t seen any spherical cores out there. Aside from inside a person, I assume? Not even inside Ar’Kendrithyst? In statues?”

Erick’s eyes went wide as he remembered. “Ah. I did see a few locked inside statues… But they were the size of heads. I thought they were just grand rads? Shaved to be spherical?” He frowned. “Oh. I might have seen one at Songli during a soul sundering… But that thing was just mostly spherical, and also the size of a person’s head.”

“How about inside a Shade, then.”

“OH. Oh. Well. Yes. I guess I have, then?” Erick said, “Yes. I have.”

Illustrious nodded, satisfied, then said, “All true cores are about the same size as my own, or maybe as large as a human heart, but no larger than that. Even we who live as our full-size selves do not have cores larger than this. Size does not matter for a soul. Indeed, the smaller the core, the easier it is to protect, for they are vulnerabilities. They’re also the most protected objects in a person’s body. The brain, the actual heart… These do not matter for ones with a core. We can regrow those body parts and we lose nothing for their temporary absence.

“To answer your question about the shapes of souls:

“Souls naturally form spheres around mana cores, and mana cores naturally turn into spheres because of the soul inside. Most people out there who have malformed souls, and thus malformed bodies, would find that if they used proper accretion techniques and had proper initial assistance, then they would solve their malformation issues.” Illustrious said, “Someone with a withered arm due to a malformed soul would find that after they formed a proper core, that once Healing Magic was administered and their body was fixed, that they could forgo monthly healing treatments to keep their body in the proper shape it should be. With continued proper cycling, their soul would eventually forget that it was ever malformed at all. The healed soul would heal the body properly.

“This is not a way to immortality, though. The body still affects the soul and the soul the body. Immortality is another topic entirely.

“Healing the crack in my core just required proper cycling, and some directed healing toward the affected area.” Illustrious said, “The only true ‘skill’ I employed was using some of my own mana reserve to directly heal myself; I took out what I was able to take out from the whole of my soul, to reinforce and heal what was missing… I also followed all the other rules I will tell you about, but they’re normal rules; nothing special.” Illustrious finished, and then waited for a little while, before asking, “Any other questions?”

Erick said, “Not right now.”

Illustrious said, “Then here now is the proper accretion methodology for core growth and natural body fortification:

“Let your aura seep out, and fill it with your mana. If you were back on Veird, and if you were a normal person, you could even use the mana gifted to you by the Script for this. But for a normal person, they could only gain about 10 or 20 mana-worth of growth per day using this method and they will need to go slow, for they will build up impurities if they go too fast. They will need pills and special techniques to get rid of those impurities. For a dragon, we can gain 500 to 5000 per day, depending on personal ability. For a Wizard, your growth is unparalleled.

“This is because the Script lines up your own mana for you to use every day, when you most need it, and accretion is one of those times. Spell creation is another.

“Anyway:

“Draw in your mana saturated aura, through your mana channels. Be sure that you do NOT take in any ambient mana. If you take in ambient mana you will eventually go insane. Use your mana-filled aura to block out all other mana. Only take in your own mana.

“At this point in time, your mana will be flowing from your core into your aura, then inward through your body, into your channels, then into your core, and then out through your aura, to then trace back into your body, into your channels, into your core. In this way, you will be steadily accruing power inside of yourself. This is just the start, though.” Illustrious asked, “Do you understand?”

“Yes,” Erick said. “Continue, please.”

Illustrious nodded. “Once you figure out the nuances of your own accretion, you will find you have choices:

“To fortify your physique, or your spirit, or to do both.

“Most people eventually direct their growth one way or another, but everyone starts off doing the same thing, unless they wish to purposefully direct their future self in a specific way. This is only for advanced students, though, and very much not for everyone. In the same way that Rozeta’s Registrars recommend that people pick a generic Class, instead of a special-sounding one, generalization is usually better in the long run for almost every person out there.

“I will explain the intricacies of accretion that are common to everyone:

“Continued cycling will naturally fortify your body, first. This is what the Script does for you when you put a point into Strength or Vitality. This is what monsters do all the time, to become physically stronger than a comparative non-monster. This fortification will continue until you reach a saturation point, which is different for everyone. This ‘maximum body limit’ can be raised based on the physical prowess of your physical form.

“If you make yourself stronger through exercise and such, your body-accretion limit will rise. A stick-thin man will not raise his body high at all, but a muscular, strong man will have to go a long, long distance with body-accretion to reach his particular zenith. By this same distance, though, the muscular man will find himself many, many times stronger than the stick-thin man.

“In either case, once you reach the body-accretion zenith, and often long before that, you will have noticed a change.

“During the fortification of your body, you will notice your core gradually begin to gain new facets, increasing the strength of your spirit. After your body reaches its first accretion-point, all this growth will then go into your spirit.

“What this does, is the same thing that happens when you raise your Willpower and Focus, at the same time. The accretion-point for the spirit is when your core becomes a perfect sphere.

“Full Accretion can take a normal person nearly forever to accomplish, and can only truly happen with dragons who can grow themselves, or with groups of people who live in communes and who make the ambient mana their own. Monsters become monsters by taking in whatever mana is around them, and you should not do this. As a Wizard, and once you get the charge rolling, it might take you a week to go from fortification to Full Accretion in both body and spirit, for every mana you manage to fit into your core will mean more ‘Focus’ and more ‘Willpower’.

“We are mostly disconnected from the Script here in Ar’Cosmos, but certain things remain, like the fact that our natural mana is still stolen by the Script. Through proper accretion, though, we can work for and regain much of what the Script hands out for free. There’s a lot of nuance to those two small comments, with a lot of impact on how mana and spellcasting works here in Ar’Cosmos, but I will not get into that tangent; not today.

“So as I was saying:

“Accretion will also reveal any underlying abilities that are not present until after one forms a core. A dragon’s ability to polymorph is one such ability, as well as one or two various personal aspects that vary between individual, or family, such as a Domain of small strength which can grow with time and further fortification, or natural flight, or ability to control illusions— Or anything, really.

“I suspect that since Rozeta helped you to make your body that she has already solidified all of these possible options for you, and you already know what you have gotten. If not, then I wish you luck with uncovering something nice.

“If you were a normal person, and if you were fully saturated, your Status, when you went back to Veird, would show you to have something like 20 to 75 in each of your four main Stats. Since your body and your spirit has already experienced having very high Stats for a long while due to your success with mana-light Stat enhancements, I expect you to be closer to 75 in all your Stats, than 25, so you will likely take a while to reach Full Accretion. With the New Stats, too? It might take you a truly long time.

“But on the light side: The stronger you are at this stage the easier all the rest will become.

“Reaching this point is commonly referred to as ‘Second Foundation’. First Foundation is attaining a stable core at all and creating or unblocking your mana channels, and you have already cleared that requirement in full.

“We will continue these lessons after you reach Second Foundation.” Illustrious asked, “Questions?”

Erick had understood everything she had said, but while he wanted to get back to the ‘differences in spellcasting in Ar’Cosmos’ he stayed on topic, too, laying out there, “You say this is supposed to be instinctual, and therefore the process, if you keep ambient mana outside of yourself, is completely safe. Why do you say that? This whole process seems deadly if done wrong. This seems like Soul Magic.”

Illustrious nodded, then said, “I will answer the later part first: This is not truly Soul Magic. It is Accretion Magic; the magic from which all others arise. It is also called Foundational Magic

“The name ‘Foundational Magic’, is used in other places, most prominently in the Foundational Bans of the Script. Those Foundational Bans were seeds planted in triplicate at the creation of the Script, from which all other magic is now controlled. You have seen the Core of Veird, yes? The Core was founded with this magic in its center, in order to direct all further growth going forward. This is what allows Rozeta to enact further Bans and such, because she was the one who placed those Foundational Bans upon the Core in the first place. It is important to know this, because this is how Rozeta, and how other dragons, myself included, have placed seeds into others which will then germinate into cores, allowing us control over all which comes next.

“If you hadn’t already formed your core, we would have tried to Break you along certain lines, and then introduce a seed to sprout into a core of our choosing; Fae, Death, or Carnage.

“But we didn’t do that. Rozeta already got there, it seems.”

Erick had a sudden bout of disbelief about everything Illustrious was saying; about this whole lesson. But she seemed honest. She did not seem like she was lying. But could he truly trust his senses in this land of the fae? No, he could not.

Illustrious was waiting for him to comment, though.

Erick said, “Heard and disbelieved. And even so, Rozeta has a proven track record of helping people, and me.”

Illustrious took a moment to nod, but she did, and then she continued, “At your stage, with your core already made, and because you are a Wizard who will continually generate new, personal mana depending on the size and clarity of your core, there will be no issues with the growth of your core… Unless you were to do something truly odd with yourself. Practically any cycling method which empowered your whole body would have the same outcome: growth to Second Foundation.” Illustrious said, “You could even do this back on Veird, using the hundreds of thousands of mana provided to you by the Script each day, but… Every Wizard is cut off of the Script at some point when they gain enough power, and this can happen truly fast for them. Even a dragon can be cut off if they gain too high of a reserve. I don’t want you to get the wrong idea about my next words, though, which is why I say this now.

“Pursuing this path is the only way you can grow as a Wizard, for you need to reach Second Foundation to reach all the rest. I don’t know where your limit is, but your limit could be the very moment you succeed in properly cycling. That has happened before to some of our other Wizards over the last thousand years I have been in charge of House Handinoi.” Illustrious said, “The good news is that we would know right away if that happens: You would begin to erupt with mana like a raging river, and you would not be able to stop the flow. The bad news is that… Well. You would be outed as a Wizard. We could remove your core at that point and hope that you can go back to Script-assistance, but I don’t think that would work, either. It rarely has before.”

Erick saw her concerns, and did not feel them himself. He said, “I already had some of this talk with Rozeta and I know my limits are much further than that.”

His limits were when he began to turn his entire body into a core, well after he passed the ‘grand rad’ stage—

Oh yeah. Jane had called this ‘cultivation’ before, hadn’t she? Jane had said something to the tune of ‘oh, so all monsters cultivate, huh?’ Erick wondered if she would be happy or sad to learn that it was called ‘accretion’ here on Veird.

… Erick hoped Jane was doing okay. She probably was. Everyone out there was likely doing just fine.

Illustrious sat a bit straighter, and smiled slightly. “Ah! Good. Then… As soon as you reach Second Foundation, not only will you regain much of your previous casting capability, I can begin to assist you with reacquiring all of the various Script enhancements like Discipline to triple your Mana and Concentration to triple your Mana Regen.” She added, “You will not be able to cast more than 500 mana into a spell, though; that’s how it is for those of us with cores, unless you cast in ritual— That’s a whole other conversation that will take us days to go over.

“If you would prefer to reacquire Discipline and Concentration on your own, then you and I can instead focus on ritual casting... I would be more comfortable if we did the ritual casting lessons much later, preferably right before you leave Ar’Cosmos, and on good terms.” Illustrious turned contrite, “I know you did not come here on the best of terms, and I was atrocious to you when we first met, but I will endeavor to make this up to you if you will allow such an apology.”

Erick narrowed his eyes. He was already suspicious due to this whole scenario, and then again with the comment about Rozeta installing a seed inside his core (which maybe Melemizargo’s comment of a ‘killing spell’ was more appropriate than he had considered?) but now he was truly paranoid. Erick made no attempt to hide his doubt.

Illustrious got a concerned look on her own face.

Erick asked, “What changed?”

“A lot.” Illustrious Moon said, “Your arrival on Veird is very new and disruptive and my people and I had a lot of notions about what a visit from you would look like... It was mainly execution-row humor, considering your alignment with Rozeta and Kirginatharp. Some people dabbled in hope, but I was not one of them. How could I be? I am a leader and I have to safeguard against bad outcomes. And then I was invited here for a surprise meeting with no preparation...

“Fairy Moon gave me a ten-minute talk about what she had done before she brought me into that dining room. It was yet another hour till you showed in person, and I must admit for the first twenty minutes I was in disbelief. Furious, raging… I almost hit her because she would not answer my questions properly. But that is just her; who she is.

“You might not have picked up on this, but she doesn’t like to talk about how she views other people, so I must admit that I was simply terrified out of my skull.” Illustrious said, “And then, you showed and… I saw the truth myself; the truth that Fairy Moon had not actually explained to me in a way that made sense. And I was rude to you, because I thought I knew what was happening; I thought we were being given a Wizard to solve our current problems. I thought there would be some overly-tough times ahead as your achievements demand a certain worldly level of respect that would make your acclimation to Ar’Cosmos a difficult one… But then she spoke of her actual plans. Anti-Sundering Magics. A new House.

“And I was terrible to you.

“When I got back home I spoke to practically every intelligence officer we have and got a great many new opinions on the matter that I did not have before that meeting.” Illustrious said, “But at the time of that luncheon I was simply Blinded by the truth that you were already there, sitting in front of me in Ar’Cosmos, and then again by your honest words of a desire to help, no matter how awful I’m sure Fairy Moon treated you. No matter how much of an established danger we are to Wizards the world over—

“I apologize for my actions, and for the actions of all of Ar’Cosmos.

“I cannot go against Fairy Moon’s wishes, for she truly is the First Foundation of this land and our civilization, but know that in order to bridge the gap between the terribleness of your abduction and where I wish for us to be in the future, one of my first acts as Head of House Handinoi is to open communications between you and anyone you wish out in the world. That much, at least, is under my power. If you wish to pen a letter to anyone, I can send it off, and get a reply. I will even promise not to read it.”

Erick felt a tightening around his heart as his paranoia ramped up, for Illustrious was not lying. Everything about her screamed that she was being completely honest. And right now, Erick didn’t know what to do with that information except to disbelieve it.

And yet...

Erick sat there for a moment longer, then he said, “Okay. Apology accepted.”

Illustrious practically beamed with happiness…

But Erick was not happy, and it showed. The gulf of emotion between Illustrious and him was too large for anyone to not notice. A moment of silence passed, as Illustrious realized this, too. Illustrious’s smile vanished.

“… I’m not forgiven at all, am I?”

“A major part, yes, actually. I planned to come here with the intention of helping, for no one should live like you all have been forced to live.” Erick added, “But no; you’re not fully forgiven. I do believe —now— that you had no direct part in my kidnapping, but you’re complicit. It doesn't matter that there is no way for you not to be complicit; you are, and that’s that.”

With a serious tone, Illustrious asked, “What will I need to do to earn your true forgiveness?”

Erick thought for less than a moment, and answered off the top of his head, “I need to visit the town and ask about accretion from whoever I wish to ask, to ensure you are not lying to me and trying some shit. Especially with that part about the seeds and germination to First Foundation. I want to see people living normal lives. I want to know that this society is worth saving. And I want to know what actually happens to other Wizards you find. And if possible, I want to see if Redflame’s idea of [Renew] would work as he wishes it to work; to make small Wizardry on demand, and thus free every newborn from the Dragon Curse.”

Illustrious breathed deep, taking in all of Erick’s demands. “Okay. The first is doable; accretion is everywhere in the city and the methods I told you are well documented to work. Nothing I said was a lie, or an attempt to lead you down a dreary path.

“I can show you people, too. Markets and streets and such.

“I am also interested in this [Renew] idea that Redflame has been going on about over at the arcanaeum, ever since that information first came to us through our sources out in Veird… Actually. We could solve all of these requirements just by going to the arcanaeum, if you wish…” After a moment, she said, “Redflame has some Wizards working there, I believe. He might be amenable to letting such meetings take place; we shall see.”

Redflame had already approved such meetings yesterday; Erick expected no trouble on that front.

Illustrious continued, “I will deliver unto you paperwork on the three Wizards currently under the care of House Handinoi. Two are fully broken, and therefore are not a threat to anyone. One is a farmer and the other is an architect. Both have been with us for a long time and have found nice lives here in Ar’Cosmos. The third was discovered a mere 3 years ago and is under guard and frozen time, for we are awaiting a confluence of a hundred eggs, and we are only at 56. You will not be able to interact with the third.”

Fair enough. Erick wasn’t happy with whatever they were doing to the Wizard in their custody, but he had no idea of that person’s circumstances… Maybe they were a baby killer, though; that would be easier to swallow—

No. They were probably just a completely normal person, forced into this life because of the circumstances of their birth. Whatever. Erick would deal with that later. He had enough problems on his plate at the moment.

Erick said, “That works for me.” He got up from his cushion. “Let’s go to this arcanaeum. I have more questions, but I won’t ask them of you.”

He would ask them of other people, who might not be able to give canned answers. Of course, it could be possible that everything in this [Gate Space] of Ar’Cosmos was completely fake and produced exactly for Erick whenever he wanted to see it, but he doubted… this was… the case.

Ah.

Well there was some more sympathy for Melemizargo right there. Odd, that.

Illustrious remained seated, looking slightly worried. Fairy Moon had instructed her to teach Erick proper cycling methodology, so her worry was understandable. But then she got over that worry and got up from her own cushion, saying, “I look forward to proving the hospitality and truth of our land to you.”

Fairy Moon stepped out of the wall, saying, “I would rather you return to accretion advancement and the furthering of Erick’s foundation, but a delay of days will not dampen this particular destiny. So. He is under your care, Illustrious. See that he is not harmed, or his harm will fall upon your head.” And then she stepped back into the wall, out of sight.

In her brief moment of appearance, she had seemed like a woman stepping away from an important part of cooking, or something like that, to answer the phone; here and then back to whatever she was doing before.

Erick just stared at the wall for a little while.

Fairy Moon threatened everyone, it seemed, and all the time; not just him.

Illustrious simply nodded, though, unconcerned, as she said, “I hope the audit is going well, Fairy Moon.”

“It is, though I have concerns for when you get back,” came Fairy Moon’s voice, from all around.

Illustrious acknowledged Fairy Moon’s declaration then stepped toward the door, saying to Erick, “It’s an hour walk to get there for us normal people.”

Erick almost wanted to laugh. “There is not a single normal thing about you or I, but I take your meaning.”

Illustrious smirked—

She stopped and turned to Erick. She and her great big amethyst horns did not tower over him, but it was a close thing. With a concerned voice, she said, “I don’t know if anyone has told you this, but Fairy Moon’s warning to me was a reminder: She does that to everyone. Don’t take it personally. She likes people to know exactly where they stand with her, and which lines they should not cross.”

Erick scrunched his eyebrows. “So… Was that not a threat against you? It sounded like a threat.”

“She very much means every warning she ever gives.” Illustrious said, “She gives a lot of warnings, and they’re all real, but as long as you don’t cross her lines, she won’t do anything to you. You could burn down the house and as long as you didn’t harm anyone in the burning, then she would simply remake the house, along with everything else she wished to remake. If she was feeling particularly vengeful —rare, but it happens— then she might rebuild the whole house but leave you with ashes for a bed.

“What I’m saying is: Don’t get too riled up by her warnings. Some new person always does and I always need to clean up the inevitable mess from that person feeling like they were in an antirhine noose, with no options to escape except every horrible thing they can think of, so I usually give this warning a lot earlier in any meeting of new powers. But… Well. Things happened yesterday. That was my fault. Apologies.”

Erick felt a loosening of a knot inside his chest, and this time it felt real. Illustrious’s words and body language and tone all conveyed that she believed the words that she had just said; that Fairy Moon threatened everyone. Erick just hadn’t noticed it until now. But looking back… Every single time he spoke to Fairy Moon, she told him where her lines lay, and then she threatened him in a nebulous way if he ever crossed those lines.

“I didn’t notice her constant warnings every meeting until now. But now that you mention it…” Erick frowned. “That is very unwelcome of her. I get that they’re threats, but… Why does she do that all the time? Isn't her power enough to dissuade most people from trying shit? It’s needlessly antagonistic.”

“Here now is a truth: Everyone is a threat to Fairy Moon. She has died and come back more times than the years she had been alive. Every horrible thing you can possibly imagine has been done to her, and many times over.” Illustrious Moon said, “That doesn’t explain everything about her, but it should help you to see her as less of an enemy and more as a force in the mana; something you just don’t mess around with, like Elemental Destruction, or calling out to Melemizargo in the shadows. As soon as you regain your power through proper cycling and proper aura control, and as long as you don’t cross the lines she lays down, then she shouldn’t even try to control you ever again. The only ones who have to beware of her are those she deems an overt threat.”

Erick had serious doubts about ‘everyone being a threat to Fairy Moon’, because the wrought were unable to invade Ar’Cosmos specifically because of Fairy Moon… But that was just here, inside Ar’Cosmos, wasn’t it. Here, where she was reborn through Redflame’s [Gate Space], every time she died...

Maybe that was the real reason Fairy Moon sent off Erick’s Crystal Star; so he couldn’t add Empathy to her here, at her ‘core’…

Or maybe he was reading too much into it. If Fairy Moon could survive death and probably all the other horrible things people have done to her to try to actually kill her, once and for all, then a bit of soul tampering probably wouldn’t do shit. Someone had to have tried that before now. Probably a lot of someones.

They probably just made her mad, really.

Sure, she might have ‘died’ more years than she has been alive, but she still managed to fight Kydyr and win. She had plucked Erick right off the beach like it was no trouble at all. All the wrought were scared of her, even when she wasn’t on her home turf.

Fairy Moon truly was just a ‘force in the mana’, then, eh?

Erick thought about that for a moment longer, then said to Illustrious, “Your advice is well received.”

Illustrious grinned at that. This time her teeth were perfectly normal; not at all like the vicious cavern of knives he had seen in that first meeting.

“That’s how to handle Fairy Moon, then.” Erick asked, “How do I handle the rest of you?”

Illustrious instantly said, “I plan on handling myself and making this visit of yours easier for you, so if there is some way to make this better, I will do what I can to ensure it is thus. Let me know what I can do.”

“… I have no paper or pens to write a letter. And no books.” Erick decided, “And I want whatever history books you guys publish for yourselves. Let’s go to your arcanaeum and get them.”

Illustrious gestured toward the door, which swung open to reveal the hallway beyond. She stepped forward and out, asking, “What sort of books were you looking for? We might be separated from Veird, but we do have limited access to [Duplicate], so our libraries can get rather large.”

Erick followed, and could not hide his surprise. “You have [Duplicate] here?”

As the two of them walked down the hallway, Illustrious said, “We have a few rescued Book Binders from Oceanside under our aegis, but their identities are well-protected. Even then though, we don’t know how to make that spell and the Script stymies all our attempts to learn it, while everyone Kirginatharp teaches is mind wiped. We have, however, been able to transfer this spell from one person to another, though the transfer of any magic requires Wizardly power and is a dangerous prospect that we do not undertake lightly.”

“Ah…” She had thought he was asking for the spell for himself, but Erick was just surprised they had the ability to [Duplicate] items at all; Erick let that confusion stand. He said, “Well okay then.”

… He almost wanted to ask her of her thoughts on a post-scarcity society fueled by [Duplicate], but he was not ready to have such a conversation with her.

Instead, Erick said, “So you go outside to make the big magics, because the Script soulbinds magic to your core, so that you don’t need to shape that specific spell every single time. What about the Shades? I heard they need to manually cast every spell they make? Do they not also have cores with all their spellwork inside them, too? And cast without Script assistance? Do you know what is going on there?” Erick added, “I was always under the impression that they lost all quick casting with their magic. I know for a fact that shadelings lose [Cleanse] and Healing Magic, for instance.”

Illustrious did not get a chance to answer yet, for they reached their target door. The door glowed green at their approach, while one of Illustrious’s rings glinted a bright green, the same color as the door. And then the door swung open. She stepped through first, and Erick followed.

On the other side was a long, wide bridge under the open sky, like a highway across a low-income area, except this one arced over a vast city of stone towers and scattered forests and large apartment buildings. It was not an expansive place down there, and there were lots of people. The sun shone brightly in the sky while white clouds drifted across the blue heavens. In the far distance, Erick saw other bridges that connected to this one, but also a horizon full of trees. Somewhere far away, the buildings and such were replaced with deep green forest.

The road ahead had a few people on it here and there. All of them wore nice clothes but they also hurried along to stairwells here and there along the skyway. Many of them immediately noticed Illustrious and bowed and stepped aside, though there was ample roadway for everyone else to walk unencumbered. The roadway itself spanned like a sparse spider web across the sides and tops of many buildings in the city, while the city itself sort of reminded Erick of Ar’Kendrithyst, or Stratagold, but made of stone. It was not the same city that he had seen out his windows at Fairy Moon Manor, but it was similar.

Back behind Erick and Illustrious was just more skyway. No door, and no Fairy Moon Manor, or whatever it was she called the place. Far, far in the distance, though, Erick saw Fairy Moon Manor on the horizon; his necklace working to make that particular landmark always visible to him, if he looked for it.

And then two guards in purple livery stepped down onto the road behind Erick and Illustrious. One was a woman in deep purple armor, who looked like a small orcol, or a very, very tall human woman. She was taller than Illustrious, even with Illustrious’s extra horn height. The other was a dragonkin man with no tail or horns, who was a little taller than Erick, and who wore robes and carried a staff.

The two guards fell into place, behind Erick and Illustrious, with no acknowledgment from Illustrious. Ophiel certainly noticed, though. The little guy was sitting on Erick’s shoulder and looking around at absolutely everything, but as the guards stepped behind, Ophiel bleated out a tiny warning that unknown people were getting close. Erick patted the little guy, and he calmed down. Some of their usual telepathic connection was open and active, but it was not nearly as strong as it usually was, or else Erick would have been talking to him. Yggdrasil, upon Erick’s other shoulder, was similarly silent.

Illustrious eventually picked up Erick’s question after a minute of walking tall, without saying a word. Erick got the impression that she was thinking how best to answer him now that they were in public, and about how much she wanted to actually discuss. Gone was the absolute-caring nature of her private persona; here now was one of the three rulers of Ar’Cosmos.

Illustrious began, “You ask after the workings of Shades, their magic and their loss of magic when they become Shades, or even shadelings. You compare us to them for the cores in our chests, but this is only a superficial likeness. For we are dragons, and we have been living with cores for longer than the entire history of the Shades, in any Cosmology. So I will forgive your ignorance, and answer your question:

“The Script empowers many to great heights, for one of its deepest and most powerful functions is to take the magic that one manages to create once, and imbue that magic into one’s soul. This is a difficult art for any person —mortal or immortal— to undertake, and is best left to the true professionals; there are many people on such a list of professionals, and one of them is us, the dragons.

“There is actually no difference between souls kept in a core, or souls kept in a fleshy body, though souls kept in a core are much harder to harm. I will speak with you at length about the differences in the following days, and hopefully years, of our careful cooperation, for it would not do to have one such as yourself gain such a poor understanding of we dragons...

“As for the Shades and their need to manually cast spells all the time: This is a common misconception. It is a misconception that is allowed to spread because Kirginatharp and the powers of Veird detest us here in Ar’Cosmos, for we are a threat to his power, and the power of even the wrought.

“For we know the truths of many things.

“When one follows the Dark God deep enough into his depravity to become a Shade, the Script recognizes this and strips the darkling-soul of its Script-given power. This is a terrible process like unto half of a Soul Sundering. The Dark God then fills this broken soul with a Truth of his own; a kernel of power that the new Shade grows around, like unto a rebirth. In this rebirth, the person will have gained whatever spells Melemizargo decides they need, but past that, they will need to re-imbue themselves with their various soul-bound spells if they wish to recast them how they normally would, but as a Shade.

“This is difficult for non-dragons to re-establish soulbound spellwork in a cost and space-effective manner, for an improperly grown core made of someone else’s mana, like how the Shades are made from Melemizargo’s mana, gets ‘full’ very fast. Monsters, for instance, grow their cores with ambient mana, but they’re only really able to gain a handful of key spells and abilities, because those are the abilities they think they should have.

“The difference between a monster’s accretion and a dragon’s accretion, then, is one of quality, and ability to imbue oneself with unlimited spellwork. Monsters can get maybe 5 or 10 spells, with the possibility for more spells and abilities if they break the safe limits of their power, thus mutating their rad into a grand rad. Most monsters break this naturally-felt limit, if they can.

“I and all other true dragons, however, can place an endless number of spells inside our cores, for even if our cores are only the size of a baby’s fist, we know how to cycle mana and accrete properly. The Script, however, continues to assist us when we cleave to its tenets, for we are not party to the Dark; we are simply on what you would call the ‘Monster Script’, instead of the Open Script to which most people use.” With a political smirk, because some people and also her guards were looking, Illustrious finished with, “But if we want to make a spell, most people just jaunt back to Veird for a spell-making visit.

“For we are not like the Shades. We still have access to the Script, but because of our cores, our bonuses and abilities are more than what you would find in a normal Status. Our Statuses —if we had them here— might measure our mana in the millions, for our mana pool is much different than what the Script normally fortifies and supports. Our Regeneration might be listed as 10,000 Mana Per Day, but our actual regeneration is tied to the strength of our cores.

“There is a downside, though.

“When we abandon our cores, when we are on Veird, we have the same Stats and Statuses that our Stats say we should have, along with the same limits common to anyone on Veird; the Script Second, and so forth.

“When we have cores, though, we are limited by a Script-imposed 500 Mana-throughput limit. There are some nuances, though. Manual aura shaping and spell creation is limited to 500 mana per second, though the number of spells we can cast in any particular second only has to obey that 500 mana per second cap, in total. We can, for instance, manually cast ten 50-mana spells in a single second, without worry. Core-casting, which is to cast from a soulbound spell in the core, can get rather rapid, too, but sticking to one-second-per-cast is usually best practice. Those with a well-formed core would do well to respect this limit, for beyond that limit lies breakage.

“This is where the Script Second originates from, actually. Rozeta took the natural limits of core-created magic and imposed them across all of everyone who would ever Matriculate into her Script. I can respect her for her decision, and I have no qualms with her or the rest of polite society.

“We are not hermits, seeking refuge from the world, Erick. We are a Cursed people, seeking refuge from war. We are not the usual sorts of people-with-cores you have dealt with before; we still practice the precepts of peace and prosperity for all.” Illustrious said, “I look forward to showing you the proof of this in the following days.”

Erick took that all in, filed it away, then said, “I look forward to that journey.” He added, “I didn’t know that about the Script Second’s origins. That’s rather surprising in a way that is not surprising at all.”

“The natural nuances of self-made magic and where that overlaps with what the Script does for all people… This is also a course of deep study at the arcanaeum.” Illustrious said, “I’ve told them we’re coming, so they will undoubtedly make available competent professors able to answer anything you wish to have answered, about cores and true magic or anything, really.”

Erick nodded. Then he decided he wished to see how Illustrious would give her previous lesson about accretion here, in this public forum, where people walked to the sides of the roads, and tried to get out of their way, though there was plenty of space on the bridge for everyone. That people would make way for Illustrious kinda freaked Erick out. Like… What was Illustrious known for, if people got out of her way with as much haste as they could—

Ah. Wait. They were making way for Erick, too. Yeah. Okay. So…

Erick ignored that.

He asked, “What makes your core formation different from a monster's?”

Illustrious gave a small smirk, then she said, “Well. Core germination is undoubtedly the most difficult of the accretion process. The Script makes it so that one doesn’t need to form a core in order to make magic, but back in the Old Cosmology, only those who were able to form a Truth and then plant that seed of Truth inside themselves were able to become proper mages. Maybe one in ten thousand people. Prior to this, one would first need to unlock their aura, and learn how to cast small spells, using the mana they managed to collect inside of themselves, but it was not until they were able to germinate a true core could they go further than that. If you would like, I could explain our accretion process?”

That was exactly what Erick had wanted.

Part of him was glad that Illustrious was picking up what he was putting down, and the other was a bit worried that she was obviously good at subterfuge. He really shouldn’t have been, though, since he was trying to be sneaky in the first place by having her publicly repeat her accretion lesson.

Erick said, “Please do.”

And then Illustrious began repeating their lesson that they had had in private. She changed her language to make it all impersonal, but she kept the lesson pretty much exactly the same, except she didn’t actually need to repair her core at the moment, so that part was cut short. She did open up her aura for all to see, though. Out in the open, on that bridge, her violet tails reached out for ten meters in every direction, gently wafting on the breeze.

Some people to the sides of the road bowed down when that happened.

Erick just kept right on walking beside her, listening, and looking.

Some people stopped and listened, but not a single person gave a weird face, or some other indication that Illustrious was lying. The guards behind Erick never flinched or gave anything away, either. Eventually, the lesson ended, and it was pretty much exactly the same as before.

Erick asked if Illustrious would mind if Ophiel took to the skies, for a better view of everything. Surprisingly, she approved, though she did add that this place was not actually as large as it seemed. The ‘sky’ ended half a kilometer up. The ‘road’ they were on was actually in the middle of the city, though their ‘slice of reality’ was called High Road.

Illustrious pointed to a brazier burning brightly on a column to the side of the road, and then to all the similar braziers far down the way, and back where they had come from. The flame was a gentle white, and small, at the bottom of the fluted-glass-like brazier. She explained, “The height and strength of the flame represents how many people are on the road. We’re not too crowded on High Road, but if we went to Center Road then we’d be hawked at by a thousand different vendors and that flame would be poking up past the edge; people would need to come back to that slice of reality some other hour. Around midday that place gets absolutely packed and House Fizacaw Guards need to keep people from coming in whenever they want. Further down from Center Road is Nightly, which is through the main residential neighborhoods.” She added, “Everything that you see out there is merely the High Road city; you would need to move through the stairwells to visit the other lands.”

“Ah.” Erick said, “Sounds complicated.”

Illustrious said, “Only a few of us truly understand how the city works; Most people simply live here.”

As Ophiel spied around, watching people going about their lives, Erick asked, “Is what I’m seeing out there real?”

“Oh?” Illustrious was a bit surprised. “It’s all real. Everything you see out there, inside the boundaries of the space, is real. All those people are real. But you just can’t see Central City from this High Road.” She waved an arm around, saying, “It’s all still here, though. Just not here.”

Erick said, “Ah. So you mean it like that. I see.”

Illustrious gestured toward a staircase on their right, down a bit of a side skyway. “That stairwell leads down to Center Road.” She gestured to the other side of the street. “That one goes further down to Nightly. Go down either of them and you will have only moved several meters in both situations, but you will have stepped into another facet of Ar’Cosmos. We have an overall number of people we can support in here, but we can add facets as necessary to give everyone more than enough space.” She added, “And we call it ‘going down’ or ‘going up’ but those are just colloquialisms.”

“That’s…” That was many things, and all of them were interesting. Erick settled for saying, “That’s fascinating.”

“We’re mostly through water season, too, so we’ve opened up the Guest Road for this part of the year.”

“Ah yeah. It is that time of year…” Erick almost wanted to ask about all the wyrms that pour out of the Forest of Glaquin at the end of every water season, but he did not. That seemed like a sensitive topic best left for smaller audiences. He was very willing to put in a specific barb, though, as he said, “Is this all a [Fairy House]-equivalent spell but twisted deeper and deeper inside of itself? I must admit that I was going to try that experiment with my own [Fairy House] but then your invitation came, so I did not get the chance.”

Illustrious maintained her cheerful mood, but Erick could tell he had hit her hard by mentioning ‘your invitation’. She said, “That is, unfortunately, a state secret. I am sure that we will eventually be able to share it with you, but not at this time, and not in a public place.”

“… Fair enough.” Erick shifted the conversation, pointing toward a domed building that loomed on the horizon like a minor mountain. “What is that place?”

“That is the grand arena. Warriors and mages alike test their skill against each other, but mostly against monsters called out of the guarding paths by House Welixor; House Death. Testing oneself against summoned monsters is one of the best ways to gauge one’s growth and power, and House Death’s monsters are some of the best around.”

“Those blocky towers over there?”

“City hall.” Illustrious said, “Administrative space for the three Houses, as well as...”

Erick glanced around, picking out obvious landmarks, asking what they were. Illustrious supplied answers. It was… Normal, and therefore nice.

Eventually, they reached a large green archway that was like an open door, set into a much larger arch of grey stone. Beyond that archway was not a view of the city outside of the High Road, but of another land.