Ar'Kendrithyst

Chapter 89, 1/2

Chapter 89, 1/2

Back in the third floor classroom, where dense air was absent and morning light streamed in from the eastern windows, Erick prepared to make magic. The first, and possibly the most important spell that needed creating, was taking [Pure Reflection Ward], and slapping it onto a [Force Wall], like Opal had suggested.

Pure Reflection Ward, instant, Personal Ward, 10 mana per second

Reflect spells cast upon you.

“But how to strip the [Personal Ward] designation away?” Erick asked, “Ideas?”

Kiri, standing to the side, said, “Maybe… Get a feel for [Force Wall], first? That’s what you’re combining it with, right?” She added, “[Force Wall] is necessary for those rifts, too.”

Erick nodded. “I could try for a rift, first. I haven’t actually used [Force Wall] since I leveled it.”

Force Wall X, instant, medium range, 50 MP

Create a stable, stationary wall of hardened mana. Absorbs 500 damage before breaking. Lasts 10 minutes per level.

He asked, “Have you tried making a rift, yet?”

“A few times.” Kiri lifted her hand, bringing a blue box into the air. “I think I did alright.”

Firelight Rift, instant, medium range, 190 MP

Conjure a stabilized rift of firelight to inundate a large area, empowering fire and light while diminishing water and shadow. Lasts 10 minutes.

She added, “But it is so very, very bright. It’s gonna be hard to use in most normal ways.”

Erick smirked. “When did you make that? What combination?”

“With Sunny, last night before bed. And the day before, but that combination didn’t work out that well.” She patted Sunny, hanging around her neck, causing the green, feathered snake to flicker five different shades of emerald. “Even made the spell through her, too. I first tried removing the blinding aspects of it, how you showed me, but that just ended up with a dull spell that barely worked. That was the failed version I mentioned.” She said, “[Force Wall], [Force Wave], Mana Altering for Fire, and Light, focusing on intent only. Practically a 5 part spell, which is not recommended, but it worked.”

Erick smiled. “Excellent!” He asked, “Did you test it out, yet? In a monster kill, I mean?”

“Yeah. Twice, but neither time worked out so well.” Kiri said, “The first time was against a fire-eyebeam wyrm that Guildmaster Mog asked me to kill, and that was okay. The wyrm was distracted by the effect, and the rift made the wyrm a lot more durable, but all in all, it was a pretty easy kill. The second time, I took Sunny to the Hole. That’s where I encountered some inkers and was promptly shown why a strong, single directional light just makes the shadows stronger.”

Erick frowned. He asked, “What’s an inker?”

“Oh?... Uh. Inkers are rare, tiny crab-like monsters that have a symbiotic relationship with a lot of shadow-aspect monsters, but they’re very weak on their own, and a lot of shadow monsters would just eat them, so you hardly ever see them. They’re always the first to run from a fight, unless there’s a strong singular lightsource, and [Firelight Rift] certainly qualifies as a strong, singular light source.” Kiri explained, “So, there I was, fighting a trio of primal shadowolves —big shadowolves, the size of two orcols— and I was holding my own, dodging what I could and seeing how much damage [Firelight Beam]s and [Firelight Bolt]s were doing, which was a decent amount. And then, all of a sudden, the rifts turn half-dark. Inkers had sprayed their goo across them.

“Inkers have this magical goo, you see. It’s where they get their name. Half spell, half innate ability. It sticks to light sources. Transforms them into shadow sources.

“The primal shadowolves tore Sunny apart, moving in ways I’ve never seen before.” Kiri said, “I’ve never seen inkers before then, either, so I didn’t think to prepare.”

Erick said, “Huh.” He asked, “Are they in Ar’Kendrithyst, too?”

Kiri shrugged. “I never saw one when I was in there for a month.” She said, “I was warned about using light sources in the Dead City, though. Even shadow magic was more accepted in the ranks than light magic.”

Erick looked to his hand, frowning, “Shadows do like a strong light.”

“A strong singular light.” Kiri said, “[Shattering Light] is a hundred thousand smaller light sources. So stuff like that works well.” She added, “When I went back to kill the primal shadowolves, I used a few rifts and canceled them as soon as the inker acted. The inker fled before I could kill the wolves.”

“You didn’t kill the inker, too?”

“Well… No? I didn’t get a chance.”

Erick kept his voice even, but inside he was raging. “You should have killed it. You should have focused on the larger, longer lasting threat, especially since you were using Sunny to fight for you.” He said, “Inkers sound like monsters that instantly change an entire fight. Who knows how many people those things will go on to kill.”

Erick’s words seemed to hang in the air between him and Kiri.

“… I have literally never seen one before last night.” Kiri frowned, then she stood a bit straighter, and asked, “You okay?”

“… not really.” Erick went silent.

Kiri waited.

Erick focused inward, organizing his thoughts. He hated everything about what was happening to him, to Spur, to his goals in life. But events were proceeding as they were wont, and Erick needed to face the facts of it all. And he shouldn’t have gotten mad at Kiri like that.

He said, “I don’t want to be the person who calls for war. It’s never the right answer, until it is. Until they’re changing the system so that they’re the ones in charge, and everyone else is either dead or under their thumb, and all avenues of honest communication are gone. When that happens, war is the only Good response.” He asked Kiri, “That’s what the Shades want, right? To kill us all? Or am I misreading that?”

Kiri calmly said, “They kill unknown wrought on sight. But for the rest of us, genocide is not their goal.” She added, “They want to toy with us. To show us that they are in charge and the rest of us only exist at their sufferance. Only the weakest Shades will kill others without attempting to play games.”

“How do you know when the game ends?”

After a moment, Kiri said, “During my shift in the Dead City, I once saw a human woman Shade, floating beside a human man, as the man walked down a kendrithyst skyroad. The two of them were talking as though one of them was not a monster. They were discussing a book and character motivations. I was later informed that the Shade was the Librarian, and if you sent her a new, popular novel, at least a month ahead of your visit, and she approved, that she would allow you free rein to explore a vast majority of the Dead City. You just had to hold her interest while you were there.

“From what I heard, it wasn’t hard to hold her interest. You just needed a vast knowledge of contemporary and classical literature, an in-depth knowledge of the novel you sent her, and she had to like the book. The third requirement was always fulfilled on her end; if you went in there after she sent you a denial of the book, then she’d kill you instantly. But if she liked it, she would give you clear guidelines to follow, and if you followed them, your stay in Ar’Kendrithyst would be as safe as possible from other Shades. She didn’t even care if you disagreed with her, or if you were boring about your book ideas; at least the first time, and maybe even second time. She would rescind your invitation if you continued to be boring, though.

“Back to the man on the skyroad: He was part of a ‘book club’ that visited the Dead City once a year. There should have been five of them, but he was the only survivor. From his side of the story: one of their usual members said something mildly disparaging about some facet of their chosen novel of the year, in what was a completely normal fashion for all involved, and that set the Librarian off.

“Apparently, she did not mean to kill the whole book club, and was truly remorseful, and had just finished apologizing to him before we saw him on the skyroad. She sent him away with a million gold worth of magical gear, the bodies of his friends turned to ash and bound into books, and a promise that next year would be better. He told us he was never coming back, that he was going to change everything about his life, so that the Librarian could hopefully never find him.”

Erick frowned, as Kiri’s words confirming everything he already knew to be true about the Shades. They were capricious, evil beings, that saw nothing wrong with what they did.

“The only thing that I was ever told to watch out for in the Dead City, is change.” Kiri said, “And right now, there are no monsters at the gates besides the normal ones, all our archmages are alive, and everyone is ready to defend each other when the time comes.”

After a long moment, Erick said, “Not quite ready enough. But thank you, Kiri.”

Kiri put a smile on, as she stood back. “Time for more magic?”

“Time for more magic.” Erick held out his hand and channeled mana through [Force Wall], saying, “[Pure Reflection Ward] can stay. I can make a different tier 2 version with [Force Wall].”

The sound of [Force Wall] was similar to its glow: an even static that vibrated from a solid white sphere. Erick activated [Detect Intent Aura]. He separated the intent of the spell away from the Force how he had done before, with his other Force spells. In moments, [Force Wall] became an ethereal impression of solid intent. The true meaning of the spell was a simple, yet solid, demarcation in reality, upon which nothing was allowed to pass.

Erick cast that pure version of [Force Wall] into the air.

Immediately, a clear pane of solid Force, tainted white at the edge, sprang into being; a one meter by one meter window made of clear ice. It hung in the air like it was supposed to be there. Erick had made plenty of them before, but he never really poked around with the spell before now.

He stepped to the window, and touched it. It felt like solid glass, but a little slippery. It was not cold, nor hot; it just was. It was also about five inches thick. Erick glanced toward the spell.

Force Wall X, instant, medium range, 50 MP

Create a stable, stationary wall of hardened mana. Absorbs 500 damage before breaking. Lasts 10 minutes per level.

He was almost tempted to leave it up to see how it would naturally decay, but he doubted that would have told him anything interesting or necessary. He dismissed the spell, then moved onto the next one.

Rebound X, Variable MP

A spell bounces.

Channeling mana through [Rebound], produced a flexing, almost gooey light, and an echoing sound. Seeing the spell with [Detect Intent Aura] revealed the exact same display of intent as the bouncy light. [Rebound] was not a complex spell, because it was not truly a spell, at all.

From his reading at Oceanside, Erick knew that [Rebound] actually used to be a part of Mana Altering in the beginning of the Script, but a Champion of Rozeta plucked it out of that skill and set it on its own. It was from that act, that [Scan] spells began to spread more easily across Veird, and monsters that hid in towns were found via their rads, and thus killed before they could act. Mostly. In the usual evolutionary games of cat versus mouse, both sides developed different measures. These days, rads were actually a lot more solid than they used to be.

Erick returned his attention back to his magic. He channeled the sound of an echo and combined it with the sound of a barrier, and as an experiment, cast the spell without any deeper thoughts attached.

A pane of opaque white force appeared in the air, along with a blue box.

Bouncing Wall, instant, close range, 75 MP

Conjure a stationary barrier of mana that might bounce away a spell. Lasts 10 minutes.

Erick pressed a hand against the white square. It felt like touching solid gelatin, or the surface of a trampoline; bouncy, yet stable.

He stepped back, and shot a [Force Beam] at the wall. The lancing, bright white line of Force, crashed into the barrier and flashed wildly across the room, carving across Erick and the walls, and causing Kiri to yelp ‘eep!’ and jump out of the way. Erick did not move. His [Personal Ward] flashed bright as it soaked stray damage.

He turned to Kiri when it was over, asking, “You jumped out of the way?”

Kiri said, “I’m just gonna… Go. Don’t blow yourself up!” She added, “I’ll be right down the hallway, if you need me.”

Erick smiled, saying, “Sure, sure,” as Kiri scooted out of the room.

He turned back to the [Bouncing Wall]. He hadn’t put much thought into the magic, and it showed. The white wall was partially ripped up. His little [Force Beam] did do 300 damage per second, per touch, after all. Erick entertained the thought of hitting himself with his magic. Even if a stray beam had caught him in the head for a critical hit, it would have only done 3000 damage, but with a 24,000 point [Personal Ward], a simple [Force Beam] to the head would have been unimpressive.

It wouldn’t have done anything to Kiri, either. She probably had, what? A 10,000 point… Er… No. She probably did not have that much of a [Personal Ward] at all. No Class yet meant she had maybe half of Erick's mana, and no -10% spell costs meant...

Did she have [Ward] Favored? Maybe not...

Uh.

Uh-oh.

Erick felt his blood turn cold, for the briefest moment. He went over and stuck his head into the hallway, forcing calm into his voice as he asked, “How large is your [Personal Ward], Kiri? I think I should apologize.”

Kiri, already in her room down the hall, was silent for a long moment. Then she blurted, “It’s only 2800 points.”

Erick rushed out of his testing room and ran down the hallway. He got to Kiri’s room, and said, “I’m so sorry. I did not consider—”

“It’s fine. It’s fine. I have Health, too, so...” Kiri was currently doing her best to appear calm, but hyperventilating flames flickered out of her mouth as she spoke. “I should have Favored [Ward] a long time ago, but I need to go to the Registrar and get a few things switched around to be able to do that. Your… [Force Beam]… that was a wake-up call.” She said, “You’re experimenting with reflective magic. Of course I should not have been there. Sorry. I have made you worry, and that is my fault.”

“… I’m so sorry,” Erick said. “Take some of the grand rads downstairs— Or. You’ve been killing monsters for Mog. You probably—” He pitched up his voice, trying for levity, “You’re rich, right?”

“Yeah. I am.” Kiri put on a smile. “Thank you for the offer, but it is not necessary. See you, later.” She vanished in a blip of green.

Sunny remained in the air where Kiri’s shoulder’s had been. After a rapid shift of colors from blue to red, the winged snake vanished in a blip of green, following Kiri.

Erick stared at the space for a long moment.

“Fuck,” Erick whispered. “Shit. That was my fault.” He went back to the classroom, saying to himself, “Get it together, Erick. We’re not even on the battlefield and you’re already making stupid decisions.” He smiled to himself, thinking of Rats, spilling food at every loud noise.

… Hopefully Rats— Ah. No. Hopefully Xendross was doing okay, wherever he was.

Hopefully Kiri would forgive him, when she got back.

Erick walked back inside his classroom, trying to forget the mistake he had almost made. Worry over magic was not conducive to making magic, as Erick well knew.

He breathed a bit and centered himself, and when he was ready to continue, he did so.

He had already done well with [Ward] and [Rebound] to make [Pure Reflection Ward], months ago, but he was going to either have to attempt for a tier 3 version, using that and [Force Wall], and likely fuck it up and have to try again 10 days later, or recreate that entire spell from the beginning, starting with [Force Wall]. With the second, more complicated option, he could just try again tomorrow.

The second option was obviously the better choice for a longer term solution, but there was nothing preventing him from trying both ways, if the first option didn’t work.

Channeling mana through [Ward] produced a spherical ball, and a muted sound, like hearing a party down the street, or in another room. Erick brought the ball of light to his head, and once he got past the tingling sensation of having raw mana essentially billowing against his face, he heard [Ward]; it was everything, and nothing, all at once. It was the full breadth of magic, and also the dearth of interactions beyond a certain point. It was contained, variable intent and power, solidly placed.

[Ward], [Force Wall], and [Rebound], all held a common thread that might not have been fully obvious, but it was there. [Rebound] was all about joining to other magic to make that magic bounce and change direction. [Force Wall] was about rigidity, and unmoving protection. [Ward] was the bridging concept. Together, the three spells would bring about a wall with the ability to transform any magic that touched it into reflected magic.

Add in a few ideas of what ‘reflect’ actually meant, with intent and magic becoming as light rays, returning harm back to where it came from, and—

[Rebound], [Ward], [Force Wall].

A brilliant sheen of reflected reality popped into existence in front of Erick. Success! Or…

Erick frowned.

For a long moment, while a blue box hovered just outside of his vision, he looked at himself in the floating pane of reflective Force. It was like looking through a dark mirror. He was physically younger, but looking at himself, he saw his worries manifested in his reflection. He looked aged, with wine dark eyes and slumped shoulders. His hair was growing in darker brown again, but the ends were still salt and pepper. He badly needed a shave and a haircut. He was unkempt; wild and half crazed.

The man in the mirror was a wreck. He was ready to go to war, to take on the burden of bloodshed and death, and yet, he was not ready at all, for that was not who he was, who he was capable of being, or who he wanted to be.

Erick sighed and saw how truly tired he was. The man in the dark mirror sighed with him, while Ophiel held on for the ride, silently clinging to his shoulder.

And then Erick looked past himself, directly at the shadows of the room that clung under the windowsill, and in the space between the open door and the wall.

Without turning from the mirror, he asked the shadows, “Why does your clergy have to be like they are?”

The shadow’s gentle movements froze at Erick’s words. Erick waited. After a moment, the darkness, or maybe the Darkness, began to swirl again, like nothing had happened, like he or they or it hadn’t heard his question.

Erick asked, “Why did you make monsters to kill everyone? Or tell the Old Demons how to kill all the halves? Or curse the dragons? Or raise up Ancient monsters? The Script is smaller than what you had, but it cannot be that bad.”

The shadows stirred again, as though they were listening.

Erick waited.

And waited.

And nothing happened.

He ignored the darkness, and turned his attention from the mirror in front of him, to his recent notifications.

Ah. His new spell had a pretty large mana cost. That would explain the drain he felt, and the activation of Meditation’s active effect, along with the subsequent un-reality he saw whenever Meditation was on. He wasn’t inside the dense, Restful air of his house, inside this classroom, after all.

Pure Reflection Wall, instant, close range, 1920 MP

Hang a wall of spell reflection in the air. Lasts 1 hour.

“Pretty good.” Erick conjured an Ophiel and sent him blipping out into an unimportant part of the Crystal Forest. “Now let’s see how this works...”

- - - -

Where the wind blew from the north and tiny bits of sand hung in the air, another experiment began. Ophiel conjured a pane of reflection, and then, floating at an angle to the left of the solid surface, and making sure there was nothing else down below —there were only mimics and dunes and streamers of sand coming off of those dunes as far as his many eyes could see— Ophiel targeted the pane.

A single wing pointed forward, coalescing a pearl of power; a speck of white that seemed to dim the rest of the sky to twilight. Radiance shot forward, the brightest thing in the world, to strike the mirrored spell, and bounce, scattering to the right, flashing across dunes and sky like a laser pointer flashing through foggy room.

[Luminous Beam] lasted for mere seconds, but the effect was devastating where it had caught the ground. A trench began where it had touched down, but stretched out for kilometers into the distance.

The [Pure Reflection Wall] was fine, though. Erick shot the pane of Force again, producing much the same result as his the first time, but now there were two molten trenches trailing off into the distance.

Looking all around him, at the mostly empty land, Erick decided he really needed to level [Luminous Beam] and [Vivid Gloom] to 10. Just in case they were needed.

Ophiel conjured a personal [Lightmask] first, for he had taken a little bit of damage from the light of the beams, but not a whole lot. Then he conjured a floating platform and set down in the center, before surrounding himself with a medium strength [Prismatic Ward]. It wasn’t totally necessary, since Erick would have to cast his magic himself to level the spells, but it was necessary to protect Ophiel from the backlash.

And then he cast a [Cascade Imaging] in the sky far above, set to check for ‘people’, to make sure that no one was around.

Erick really should have checked for people every time he experimented. He would have…

… He didn’t know what he would have done, if he had accidentally killed someone watching him.

Logically, he knew that the chances for such an event were very, very small. Anyone who was 700-ish kilometers out from Spur like he was, certainly had [Teleport], or some other way to get away from danger. But, still, he didn’t know what he would have done if his experiments had actually hurt someone.

- - - -

Erick came back to himself, alone in the third-floor classroom, looking at his reflection.

He half-expected Melemizargo to be there when he returned his senses to his body, standing behind him or having taken over his image in the mirror, but that did not happen.

So he dismissed the floating [Pure Reflection Wall], and turned his attention to the side of the room. He conjured a blackboard and began writing down some goals.

Combat experience.

Support Jane.

Monster knowledge.

Finding allies.

-Odaali (And Greensoil Republic?)

-Archmages (Syllea, in particular)

-Oceanside

-Wasteland

-Gods? What can gods even do? Probably have to go with champions.

Uncovering the purpose of Candlepoint.

[Teleport Spell]

[Gate], via Fork and Wayfinders (Archmage Tenebrae, too)

Another [Familiar]

Create Stat fruits.

Support Guard and Army and Guilds with rings

Erick stepped back from the board—

“Oh!” He conjured another Ophiel and set him blipping out to the Lake.

A quick once-over revealed a stable land, filled with green grasses, wildflowers, and thick clover, yet the cattle pond was dry and the exposed edges of the Lake were drying and cracking under the harsh glare of the sun. Erick immediately began a platinum rain, targeting trees for his selective [Grow]. When no trees poked up from the ground, Erick switched over to ‘all plant life’, and the vibrancy of the Lake and the Ranch doubled. Grasses grew tall. Wildflowers blossomed like a rainbow splashed across the land. Clover sprouted strong.

Erick switched over to a double cast of shaped [Call Lightning], making sure the rain only fell over the Lake and the Ranch. Platinum rain turned mundane.

Erick came back to himself, and started a new list.

Support the Lake and Ranch

Keep Spur safe (could go on both boards, for sure)

Community Garden Council, and necessary rains (make staff of rain?)

Enchant staffs of my other spells; [Exalted Storm Aura]

[Renew]; still haven’t figured that out.

Support Spur’s Care Service, donate money on behalf of Delia

Find Delia. Hire someone? Talk to friends? But that would be an invasion, and drive her away?

Support Delia’s friends, on behalf of Spur’s Care Servi

Erick stopped writing. He frowned. He said, “But if I help her, then she’ll be seen as a weakness, and used to get to me.” His frown deepened. “Gods dammit.” He erased Delia’s entries from the boards, but he kept the part about helping Spur’s Care Service. And then he saw what he had written, and added another entry: ‘Find a way to Super Long Range collect rads, for enchanting’.

He stood back, and said, “I’ll have to do it with some form of Particle spell… but what even is a rad? Crystallized mana, sure, but… what is crystallized mana?” He hummed. He said, “Someone must have figured out this problem long before I ever got here.”

Erick went to his library, and tried to find an answer to any of his problems. While he read, and since the [Cascade Imaging] Ophiel had put up in the Crystal Forest showed no people for a hundred kilometers around, he began leveling [Vivid Gloom] and [Luminous Beam] to 10.

The sky cracked in a dozen locations as radiance poured down, transforming into darkness and hidden light as it spread across the dunes and the monsters, killing everything it touched.

Pearls of power shot white beams of gamma radiation and light across the sky and into the clouds below.

It didn’t take long before Erick discovered an interesting functionality of his two new spells. While [Vivid Gloom] blanketed the land in billowing clouds of pure, sucking darkness, when he struck the cloud with his gamma laser and particle beam spell, the dark cloud doubled in size. The beam vanished into the expanse, of course; darkness absorbed light. But what was surprising, was that cloud’s increase in size was so dramatic and sudden, that Ophiel almost got caught by the engulfing cloud. A quick blip higher put him well out of range of the spell below, but it had been close.

When Erick had finished leveling his magic, the two spells looked slightly different.

Luminous Beam X, instant, super long range, 500 mana

Conjure a coruscating, tightly controlled plume of severing light that deals and lasts for .

Particle Mage Only.

Vivid Gloom X, instant + 1 minute, super long range, 500 MP

Chaotic radiance expands to fill a super large area, dealing every second to all inside. Spell lasts after conjuring is complete. Effects last longer.

Particle Mage Only.

And the land where Erick had experimented, looked vastly different.

Puddles of molten glass glowed under the sun, where there had been dips in the sand, and shimmered in thin, broken veneers of glass where dunes had poked high. He heard glass break as it cooled unevenly, like a mockery of ice breaking on a lake in winter—

Poi asked, ‘Sir?’

Erick came back to himself. He looked up from his book. “Uh? What’s up, Poi?” He looked to the left, and saw Teressa standing beside Poi, wearing bright silver armor, like a guard. “Er? Teressa?”

Teressa seemed to reluctantly say, “I have been asked to formally request your assistance in locating some missing people.”

Erick put his book aside, and said, “Sure.” He stood up. “Absolutely. Let’s go.”

Teressa smiled a little, showing her lower fangs. “Thanks, Boss.”

- - - -

The Guardhouse was an edifice of strength. Where the Courthouse was a centrally located white stone building with pillars and a dome and huge stairs leading up to the main floor, the Guardhouse was simple. It was big, grey, and one of the most southern buildings in the city.

Erick had been here before, but he did not like cops, so he had always glossed over Merit’s enthusiasm for his capabilities.

But on the other hand: Veird was not Earth.

And so, Erick shoved down his worry at systemic abuses of power on otherwise peaceful people, and walked down the road beside a sandy training yard full of guards in and out of silver armor, beating on each other in sparring rings. He soon neared the absolutely mammoth sized grey structure known as the Guardhouse. It was big. It loomed. Crenelations and smaller guard towers rose up from the corners of the central block, while the sounds of people grunting and shouting and slamming others, carried on the air.

The guards in the yard had noticed him. Some of them stopped sparring with each other. One young woman waved. Erick waved back to be polite, then continued on his way, into the building.

Teressa led the way, Erick following her into the domineering building. The air turning chilly as he passed by the large, open doors.

The front room was much like the Quartermaster’s offices in the Courthouse, with people in normal clothes holding papers, sitting in a large area but behind a main desk, while a man behind the main desk called out names. In other respects, the Guardhouse was very much an active police station. People were in cuffs, guards were hauling them around, people shouted they were innocent, and others, looking like they had been brought in with the same people proclaiming their innocence, shouted that ‘he started it!’, while officers in silver said variations of ‘you’re both guilty, now shut up’.

Erick’s skin crawled. The last time he had been here was to ask Merit how Spur had protected him while he had been oblivious to the dangers of Veird. She gave him a whole list of his personal defensive failures, along with a detailed idea of how he had been threatened without him ever knowing.

And that was good. He had needed to know how he had failed to take the danger of Veird seriously.

But now, months later and with Spur’s much larger population, the Guardhouse was simply chock full of ‘officers’, and that made Erick feel weird.

And then they were in a different, calmer part of the Guardhouse. Nice big offices lined a quiet hallway, where few people walked, and those that were here, wore office clothes, instead of the silver armor of the guard.

Erick pushed his unfair judgments out of his mind, and prepared to help Merit with whatever she needed. Teressa had said something about finding some missing people, right? That was a good use of Erick’s time.

“Just down here.” Teressa led the way through a tall archway, into a nice courtyard. “Here we are.”

The outdoor couryard was a large, austere space of stone and open air and shadows cast sideways by the afternoon sun. Flat walls rose up from the four sides that held windows to offices above. A few tables were scattered in the courtyard, but most were pushed to the side. Merit, the orangescale, silver-armored Guardmaster, waited for Erick alongside an incani man that Erick almost remembered, but not quite. The two of them stood by a table that held several items on metal plates.

Merit smiled, revealing sharp teeth. “Erick! Glad to see you again.”

Erick smiled back, as he walked closer. “Hello, Merit. I hear you need some help finding some missing people?” He had already summoned his full squadron of Ophiel and sent them blipping out to other locations, well before he arrived, so he said, “I’m already set up to search almost anywhere you want, except Kal’Duresh.”

Merit frowned, as the incani man spat curses in inferni, which Erick barely understood; he needed to read more of those beginner inferni books.

Merit asked, “Why not?”

The man’s voice pitched up in intensity as he took a step forward, and said, “She’s either at Kal’Duresh, or at Candlepoint, and if she’s not there, then she’s probably—”

“MisterSaker.” Merit’s orange fire glare and voice cut the man’s emotions short. She calmly stepped forward, ready to keep Saker from Erick, saying, “Erick, meet Kirzal Saker. Mister Saker, Archmage Flatt.” She turned to Erick. “Why not?”

Erick looked to the man; same dark purple skin, same shape to the horns. Saker was Zimmy’s last name, right? She was the girl who had introduced herself with a [Force Shrapnel] to Erick’s face, when Jane and he were hunting for houses in the destroyed Human District. Then, Zimmy took part in Mog’s remedial adventuring class, alongside Erick, where she apologized, and Erick forgave her. Was the ‘she’, the guy was searching for, Zimmy? This guy was her father, right?

Erick asked, “Did something happen to Zimmy? Your daughter, right?”

“She gone!” said the man, desperate. “I had to pull every string I had to get this meeting. And now you tell me you can’t search one of the main places she could be!” His voice devolved into curses and quiet hatred, and then he went silent and turned away.

Erick brushed over the ‘pull every string’; he would get back to that later. He said to Merit, “The Baroness explicitly forbid me from using that spell on her land. Said something about suing me, or something. ‘Pressing charges’. I’m not sure what she’d actually do, though.”

Merit frowned. “Fines, mostly. We three cities near Ar’Kendrithyst interact a lot, but not so much Frontier and Kal’Duresh, so we have a few legal ways to interact with each other, too.” She said, “This is troubling. We need to be able to scan both Kal’Duresh and Frontier… Every city, actually. I was not aware this was a problem.” She said, “But I can fix it. You could probably fix this, too. Just talk to Sirocco.” She asked, “What were her complaints? The blood magic thing, right? Is [Cascade Imaging] blood magic?”

Erick said, “Technically? Maybe? I don’t know. Everyone seems to think it is, and I guess I can see that, but that wasn’t the idea behind the spell.”

Merit said, “Xelxex has this thing against blood magic. Someone used it to great effect to control her parents when she was younger.”

Kirzal turned back to Erick, calmly asking, “Please help me find my daughter.”

Merit said, “Kal’Duresh can stay unobserved for now. I’ll solve that problem on my end, Erick.”

“Sure.” Erick cast a [Cascade Imaging] into the courtyard, to the side, with the orb high enough in the sky to catch all of Spur and a little bit more besides, but close enough to the ground to provide fidelity. White mist began to resolve into a floating image of Spur, as Erick turned to Kirzal and Merit, and said, “I’m going to need something that Zimmy bled on, or a hairbrush, or—”

Kirzal immediately pulled a plate from the table, containing a braid of hair. “I found her hair in a pile next to a note telling me she was leaving. You can use this, right?”

Erick frowned, and Kirzal’s hopeful facade crumbled. Merit simply gazed at Kirzal like she had likely already told him what Erick would say.

“I need hair with the bit at the end. The root.” Erick said, “I’ve tried with hair that wasn’t rooted, and that sent people on wild chases, finding a mother and a grandmother, but not the target.” He attempted to cheerfully add, “I could also use a horn clipping? Did you keep her baby horns? I understand that’s a thing, right?”

Kirzal’s fingers turned rigid with frustration, gripping the plate of his daughter’s hair. He said, “You’ve seen her and sparred with her. I heard you could search that way, too? Couldn’t you just… try?”

“Of course, Mister Saker.” Erick’s mind turned inward. He had personally sparred and spoken with and been attacked by Zimmy. She was a hotheaded girl who hurt herself rather severely when she struck Sizzi’s summon, Zog, and been subjected to Sizzi’s [Melee Reflection]. She had large horns and a blueish purple skin, and she liked to use daggers. With those thoughts in mind, he recast [Cascade Imaging] several times, in several different parts of the Crystal Forest, including right there in the courtyard. With half his attention on the map in front of him, and half of his attention spread out rather far, he said, “It might not work.”

Merit looked to Kirzal, saying, “We are aware, but thank you anyway, archmage.”

Erick asked, “What happened, anyway?”

Kirzal said, “She heard about Candlepoint and I told her not to go, and it drove a wedge between us.” His eyes were fixed upon the resolving image of Spur, hovering in the air of the courtyard, but his gaze was distant. “Maybe I should have let her go. At least then, she wouldn’t have cut off all [Telepathy].”

“How long has she been missing?” Erick asked.

“Two days.” Kirzal said, “She Matriculated almost a year ago, but she hit a wall, and I wouldn’t let her apply for a permit to Ar’Kendrithyst. She wanted her Class… I don’t even have a Class. What does she need a Class for?” Kirzal calmed, muttering, “Sorry.”

Merit said, “A lot of people are attempting to gain whatever advantages they can, while they can. There’s no telling when the Shades will turn active.”

Kirzal threw his hands out, saying, “But to go to the Shades, to get advantages over them?! That’s crazy! It’s a trap!”

Merit said, “Mister Saker. Please. Erick is trying.”

“I know. I know.” Kirzal muttered, “I know.”

The man was not holding up well. Erick checked the Ophiel nearest to Candle—

“Uh.” Erick’s eyes went wide, as he said, “I need to take care of this. Good news: we got a ping in Candlepoint. Zimmy is there.”

Erick nodded to Poi, and the man nodded back, his blue scales a little paler than before; he knew what had happened, what Erick had seen. Erick shifted his senses to the Ophiel near Candlepoint, while Kirzal collapsed to his knees, tears flowing, curses streaming from his mouth.