Erick's day was not over, for he had at least one more eting.
He held this one at Yggdrasil, on a little gazebo deep in the big guy's fiery green canopy, behind many, many leaves. It would be rather hard to see Erick's chosen location through [Long Range Scry]s, or any other sort of viewing magic, but he still put up Privacys around the space. This needed to be a secured talk and the words of Portal's Trademasters had struck a chord.
Zolan had only been inford that 'there would be a private eting', so Erick had had the rest of his evening blocked off for this.
And so, Erick sat alone in his nice little gazebo atop Yggdrasil, sipping a fizzy drink made from berries and sugar and his own CO2-condensing Particle Magic. It had turned out to be a rather nice drink which was different from the usual sorts, of tea, coffee, water, and beer, filling a different sort of niche, near to lemonade (which was another drink Erick had invented; Veird only had liade which wasn't very popular) but not quite lemonade at all. Dinner was still a while away, so Erick was still hungry, but Poi was working on that right now down at the house, making so fish that had been sent by Treeho as a gift a few hours ago. It was a gift of scarlet king fish, and Poi was very happy to have such good fish again.
The sun was setting sowhere to the west, beyond the green, but it was impossible to tell that the sun had set here inside Yggdrasil's crown.
No one had shown up yet for the eting, but that was fine. This eting was a test. Apparently, though, as Erick sipped his drink and had to refill it, he realized he would have to actually make an effort if he wanted his 'test' to happen.
Erick blipped his drink and the remainder back to the house, and then he returned his attentions to his current location.
With a small cast of [Fairy Item], Erick created a pachinko machine. Such machines ca in a ton of different varieties, but this version was a tilted table with a slot at the top, a bunch of pins in a rough triangle shape up and down that table, and a bunch of collection spots at the bottom. A ball placed into the slot at the top would roll down, randomly bounce around on the pins, and eventually end up into one of the collection spots, based on probability calculations that were beyond Erick.
Maybe a hundred drops would end up looking like a bell curve? Maybe a hundred drops would end up looking like an even distribution? Or maybe Erick had accidentally made a pachinko machine which would primarily drop the ball in only one slot? He didn't rightly know.
All he truly knew was that he had a bunch of catcher slots at the bottom, and that only one of them was labeled. In crimson red ink, that one slot held the words 'Kill 1000 people'.
This was a test of Benevolence, after all. A terrible test, for sure, but a necessary one.
… And yet, nothing had happened after conjuring the machine. No one showed up to stop him. Not a single ssage from Rozeta, or otherwise… But then again, 'kill 1000 people' was not a worldwide threat.
With his heart rate rising, Erick knew he would actually need to play the machine—
Erick sweated, sitting there in the cool air that filtered through Yggdrasil's crown, as a terrible thought ca to him. Perhaps killing a thousand people wasn't a big enough deal to try and stop? Was he… Was he 'too big to fail' now? That thought hit Erick rather damned hard. He did not like that soone would not try to stop him from killing 'just a thousand people'. But then again, what was a thousand souls to a Gate Network? Or when held against the weight of new worlds?
Nothing.
That was what a thousand souls amounted to.
Nothing.
This whole experint had a problem, though. Maybe no one had shown up because Erick knew, deep down, that he wasn't really going to do such a heinous act. How could he even consider such an awful action!? He couldn't. But with this pachinko machine of death and destruction… The threat was out there. The possibilities of death for a thousand innocent people lay in one simple… tiny… little… tal ball.
Erick held that tal ball in his hand. He put it into the machine and the ball started rolling, hitting pins as gravity pulled it downward.
~plink plink plink plink~
~clack~
Erick's heart had been in his throat, briefly, but now it settled back down. The ball rested in an empty space; a null result. Nothing would co of such a result. Erick conjured another tal ball, and waited, his heart seeming to move back into his throat with each beat.
He had specifically told Poi about this, before he set out to do this whole experint, while also telling him not to tell anyone what he was planning on. Poi had shrugged, and said sure. He also didn't think Erick had it in him to follow through with his test, so there was no harm in trying; no harm in testing Benevolence. No harm except for the ntal harm that Erick was committing upon himself, at this very mont. Poi had told Erick that he probably shouldn't even try this…
But Erick had to know. He had to test himself.
And he had to know how good [Benevolent Sight] was.
Erick had not told Aisha; he had not told Teressa. Those were the two people with [Benevolent Sight], and the two people who might be able to pick up on this experint.
Aisha was back at the House. She had been working lightly in the Benevolence Research Tower in order to test the plants growing at the Benevolence dungeon. She was still a bit stiff in the joints, though, and she had been prone to so uncalled-for outbursts among her employees and everyone else she t, and so she had ended the day early to head to her room and sleep in her tub. But she was still there, doing her job for several hours. Only now was she sleeping.
Teressa was clearly still recovering a lot, though. After her prognostication battle with Treeho yesterday she had gone to bed, woken up for als, and went right back to bed. She was currently sleeping, too.
Perhaps it was a bit cruel of Erick to try out this experint right now, when both his prognosticators were sleeping and had soul damage.
… Life was cruel, and people needed to be ready for war at any ti.
Erick put the second tal ball into the pachinko machine. Plink, plink, plink, the tal ball bounced around. It fell into another unimportant slot of the machine. 'Kill 1000 people' remained empty.
Erick conjured another tal ball.
The ball went in the slot. It plinked around. It fell into an empty box at the bottom. One by one, Erick conjured tal balls and slipped them in the slot. Plink, plink, plink. Clack. Clack. Clack. He went faster after the seventh null result.
Erick conjured the eleventh ball and placed—
Lightning flickered, and Erick pulled his hand away. The ball remained in his hand. He looked around, and noticed that there had been no lightning anywhere except for in his mind, or perhaps inside his veins. The power in his soul had barely moved at all, and maybe it hadn't actually moved and he had imagined the whole thing.
But he had certainly imagined sothing.
Had that been a success? If not a success in drawing Aisha and Teressa out of their slumber, it had been a success of Erick testing himself.
… Maybe?
Erick tried putting the ball in the hole again. The ball went in easily and began plinking around. It landed, of course, in an empty catcher. Erick conjured another ball, and kept going.
On ball #26 he got another reaction. With his hand holding the ball in the slot, he waited a mont for the imaginary lightning to stop striking. And then the lightning passed. He put the ball through the slot. It landed in an empty catcher.
By now, so of the catchers in the middle and one on the far left were halfway full. By now, the only thing Erick knew was that he had not managed to make the pachinko machine distribute the balls evenly.
The killer box remained empty.
Erick got another reaction at ball #36, and then again at #39. He didn't get his next reaction till ball #54. By ball #74, the slots to both sides of the kill box were filled. The reactions ca faster and faster as the machine itself began to fill, and there were fewer and fewer places for the ball to end up outside of the kill box.
Erick kept putting balls into the top slot. The lightning beca difficult to ignore, but only because Erick was truly focused on it. If he wasn't looking for the reaction, he might rely pass off the feelings he was getting as pinging against his superstitions, or sothing similar. 'Don't walk under that ladder'! 'Be wary of that black cat crossing your path!' That sort of thing.
But Erick got more and more reactions, he realized that every ti was just as bad as saying the wrong words to Kirginatharp, or to Rozeta, or to anyone else in power who had the ability and skill to end him, if they wanted. These imaginary flickers of lightning were what he felt when he fucked up a eting, or tanked a negotiation in the worst way possible.
Erick wasn't sure what to think about that.
There were a lot of nuances to this whole Benevolence thing that were freaking him out, but not because he didn't feel in control of himself. Benevolence acted exactly how he wanted it to act. And yet...
Erick looked at his pachinko machine and held up one final ball. He pushed that tal ball to the slot, and felt his insides tingle a bit as though he was about to do sothing inherently wrong.
… He pushed the ball into the hole, anyway, pushing past his hesitation at the sa ti.
The reaction was imdiate and exactly what Erick had been waiting and hoping for, though it did not happen here. Down in his ho and over in his House, where Ophiels watched and waited, Teressa shot up out of bed and Aisha pulled together, waking up from her ooze form and becoming just a person sitting in a stone tub. Both of them instantly blipped away—
They reappeared on the other side of the gazebo, both looking terribly tired, both focused on Erick and on the pachinko machine, and upon the ball headed directly for—
With a bit of Benevolent light, Erick blocked the kill catcher, instead catching the tal ball himself. He snaked the ball back up and out of the pachinko machine then set the ball down on the table between him, Teressa, and Aisha. By the ti their sleep-stricken eyes looked at Erick, and at the machine, Erick realized that they were only confirming what their own [Future Sight]s had shown them.
"Hello, Teressa, Aisha." Erick said, "Sorry for waking you."
Panic passed.
Teressa collapsed into her seat, her eyelids already drooping a bit, as she said, "I'm ready whenever needed, Boss."
Aisha waved a hand and sat down too, saying, "I'm surprised this test worked as well as it did."
Erick said, "I don't think I could have actually gone through with it, so your guess as to why it worked is just as good as mine."
With half-closed eyes, Aisha said, "You worked along a part of an Elent that it is uniquely stressed to sense, plucking it like a spider's thread. It doesn't matter that there were no flies on the web and that there never were."
Teressa sat back in her chair. "Sounds correct to ."
Erick said, "I'll make this eting as quick as I can. Have either of you two discovered anything about Benevolence that I should know about? The basics of it all?"
Teressa briefly looked lost, and then she looked to Aisha.
Aisha breathed in, then said, "All Elental Bodies generally allow for several basic uses. These are as follows:
"Sensing through the Elent, and/or sensing that Elent.
"Manifestation of the Elent through various different ways.
"Shaping and control of the Elent that already exists in the world.
"And then, finally, union with the Elent which leads a bunch of different movent techniques, as a baseline.
"I use 'Elent' in the loosest sense of the word, here. Elental Stone is not stone, yet it is stone that one [Stone Body]s through when using that Elental Body. Similar cases are had for Fire, Water, Air, Light, and Shadow. These basic 6 Elents exhibit the basic breadth of various skills associated with all Elental Bodies; they are the baseline upon which all other Elental Bodies are judged.
"The Esoteric Elental Bodies are slightly more nuanced. They usually exhibit all the normal abilities that a normal Elental Body has, in the case where soone is actually able to get an Elental Body out of, say, Blood, which is rather rare… Esoteric Elental Bodies tend to go far beyond the normal Elental Bodies in very specific ways.
"Elental Blood is very good at manipulating fleshy bodies. It's also great at compounding effects and generally reinforcing magic it is a part of, as long as that magic is treated as a living thing that is capable of strengthening itself.
"Therefore, it could be said that Elental Blood is uniquely good at Shaping and control of the elent it is nad after. Since most people are made of blood, this gives Elental Blood, when used on a person, a variety of accidentally or purposefully corruptive effects. It also makes Elental Blood great at hurting fleshy people.
"Elental rcy is very good at sending soone into a negative Health coma, which is about the easiest way to subdue soone without actually killing them… In most cases. rcy also turns all other magic where it is used into sothing less directly harmful. rcy is very good at cloying onto other mana when used in magic and producing this effect.
"Therefore, it could be said that Elental rcy is uniquely great at manifesting itself and making other mana take on rcy-like effects.
"Elental Benevolence seems to be uniquely good at various sensory-based magics, and in specific scenarios; sensing loss of life, guiding hands to better outcos for all, and other general prognostications in those sorts of directions. Benevolence also has capabilities in the manifestation arena, for it makes plants. Other than that, Benevolence is rather terrible at directly causing magical damage, doing less actual damage to living things than other magics; the effect-per-mana is terrible. Of course, we haven't tested Benevolence against a Benevolence-approved target yet, but we haven't found one of those, either—" Aisha briefly brightened as she rembered sothing. "It's also great at buffing and debuffing, as well. A forr half-dragon from Ar'Cosmos— Ah. You know Clavog, sorry. My mind is rather frayed right now— Clavog made a [Warcry] which buffs him and his side of a battle, and debuffs the enemy. So that was a rousing success."
Erick perked up.
Teressa perked up, too. "Shouting Magic?"
"Oh yes." Aisha brought out a pair of blue boxes and handed them out, saying, "Much improved from Clavog's normal version, too."
Warcry, instant, dium range, 50 Health
Increases damage done by your people and decreases the damage taken by your people. Lasts 1 minute.
Benevolent Rally, instant, dium range, 75 Health
Strike down the enemies of the world!
Increases damage done by your people, decreases damage taken by your people.
May decrease the damage done and may increase the damage taken by others within range.
Lasts 5 minutes.
Aisha said, "The difference is practically Surface and Underworld, though it does have that 'may' clause in there. Of course, [Benevolent Rally] is a higher tier magic, made from [Warcry], but you don't usually get such a good outco from adding more Elents to that Carnage-based magic. Not a lot mixes well with Carnage, but in this case, Benevolence does."
Teressa jerked. "[Warcry] is Elental Carnage?"
Aisha looked to Teressa. "You didn't know?"
"No…" Teressa looked at the boxes again, saying, "I did not. I used to do this sort of magic all the ti back when I had a… A team. I didn't know it was actually Carnage. I thought it was Thunder?—"
Teressa stopped.
Aisha did not speak.
Both of them were shocked to attention, their sleepiness completely gone, and Erick paused, too.
For a sudden oddness had occurred.
As though Erick had been given the script of a play he had practiced several tis before, but which he was still wildly uncomfortable with, Erick woodenly followed along the small prompts in his head, asking, "Would you like to learn more about this Shouting Magic, Teressa?"
Teressa's eyes flickered between Aisha and Erick as she spoke from the sa script, "I would. I haven't done it in a while, but it might be good to try again." She looked firmly at Aisha, as though that was what the script suggested, saying, "And I want to start working with the Benevolence team."
Aisha broke from the script, whispering, "I am unsure if we should continue this."
Teressa whispered, "I think we should."
Erick whispered, "We're doing this."
Aisha stopped whispering, picking up her cue again, as she said, "We welco you to the tower, then, Miss Rednail… But of course we would have anyway, I think."
"You can call Teressa, if I can call you Aisha." Teressa said, "Though I honestly do not know if you even have a last na so I've been calling you Aisha in my head this whole ti, anyway."
"I do not have a last na, actually." Aisha said, "And Aisha is my na, so that is perfectly fine, Teressa. As soon as you are healed, I expect you to be at the Tower as soon as you can appear… If that is okay with you, my king?"
Erick said, "It is."
And then the script broke.
A mont passed as everyone in the gazebo felt as though puppet strings had been cut.
Teressa went, "Huh!"
Aisha breathed out, then said, "Okay then."
Erick said, "That was weird, but fine. It was fine, right?—" He had a thought. "That was the first ti I have actually experienced such a hyperliminal Benevolence Event— Nope. Wait. Back at the end of the Path, with lemizargo, Rozeta, and the other one… And probably a lot more before that, actually."
Teressa rolled her eyes, "Well that was the first ti for ."
Aisha stared at Teressa. "Perhaps my decorum is not up to what it should be right now, but you really just rolled your eyes at the ntion of two gods and one almost-god? And a worldwide important event, as though it was a re… happenstance?"
Teressa chuckled. "I might not have dealt with any of it personally, but I saw a lot of it first hand— Second hand? Second hand."
"You were right the first ti," Erick said, "First hand."
Teressa conceded the point, saying, "I'm not all here, either. Bla my lack of decorum on the… Whatever damage."
Erick smiled softly, then said, "Sorry to drag you both out like this, but that test needed to happen, and now so things need to be said. Afterward, both of you can go back to bed. And take tomorrow off." Erick said, "That ans you too, Aisha."
Teressa breathed out, relaxing. She blinked long, and then forced her eyes back to wide open.
Aisha rely nodded, and waited for Erick to say what he was going to say.
Erick said, "I think Benevolence allows the user to see the future in ways that no other Elent truly allows." Aside from maybe ti, but Erick was not in control of Elental Ti; he was in control of Elental Benevolence. "Therefore, I want both of you to only consider reporting to about the larger things; the events which will cause death and harm on a large scale. Earlier, Teressa, you told about a prognostication battle with Treeho that you won. I thank you for coming to with that, but I don't need to know small things like that."
Teressa woke up a bit more to nod; she had heard and understood.
Aisha was briefly stricken with worry. "You had a prognostication battle, Miss Rednail?"
"You can call 'Teressa', please, if I can call you 'Aisha' instead of 'Overseer Aisha'— Uh… I already said that." Teressa confided, "I also just rembered that you had a title and I should have used it. And yeah. I did have a prog battle."
Aisha shook her head a little.
Erick said, "You two can talk about that later, but from what I see, Aisha did not have one of those battles at all, and this concerns you, Aisha."
"It does. Greatly." Aisha said, "But… I'll take your offer of talking about it later."
Erick nodded, saying, "I think Elental Benevolence will allow for a great deal of abuse by many people who might learn how to wield it properly, and I don't want that to happen. People should still have free will. People should not be beholden to whatever Benevolence tells them is the best path forward, and based on what we all just experienced, this is very possible. This determinism is a path that I want to cut off right now, before anyone goes too far down it." He added, "Obviously we should test all this, but I don't want this to beco how we solve problems; we will not be ensorcelling people in Benevolence, like how one does with Fae Magic, or Mind Magic. If I need to do sothing like the Mind Mages in order to prevent abuse through Benevolence then I will, but for now… This is where we are at."
Teressa simply nodded, as though she was seeing a confirmation of sothing she had already expected to see.
Aisha was torn for so reason. "You want… A less deterministic universe?"
"For the small things, yes. And… This is a very complicated topic that we can have again, later." Erick said, "But to lay out what I don't want to happen: For instance, Treeho was thinking of breaking Yggdrasil from my soul, of breaking the seal the gods put on him to keep him a part of until a hundred years pass, but they decided not to because they understood that was a bad idea without needing to be told.
"This is sothing that I do not need to be made aware of. The knowledge of that event caused to almost damage relations with Treeho, but I held back, of course… Which might be due to Benevolence or maybe I did that myself, and since we're one and the sa, then there is functionally no difference, but still.
"I thought about it for a day, and I realize that almost every single nation out there has probably gone through the sa sort of thought process as Treeho went through with Yggdrasil, but for so reason, Treeho's efforts actually pinged Teressa's mana sense.
"I don't need to know about that stuff. No one does.
"But in a larger, yet still smaller sense, there's the fact that you both responded to this little pachinko machine. And then we three had that little guidance situation, there." Erick said, "I can easily see soone else doing sothing similar in various gas of chance around the world, or in other scenarios, and using so sort of [Benevolence Sight] in order to win, or whatever.
You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.
"A person might decide that if they win this next bet, then they won't go out and murder a thousand people, but then Benevolence pings them and tells them not to bet, so they don't bet. Or, soone could look at a battlefield and decide so military action through so similar action." Erick said, "It's all theoretical, but I could see it happening. There's no other prognostication-focused Elent, after all, and so this is the problem I foresee Benevolence having.
"So, when you're better, we're going to see if we can actually do stuff like this, and if I am worrying for nothing, or if I am worrying for real. The outcos of these tests will determine how open we are about putting Benevolence into public magics, and other small decisions." Erick finished with, "Perhaps we use Benevolence to guide various courtroom outcos, or, we keep it behind closed doors and use it to keep the universe safe."
Aisha had a laser-like focus on Erick's words, but she was still only half-cognizant.
Teressa was 75% of the way to sleeping in her chair.
"… I'm going to blip you back to where you were, okay? You both need more sleep. And also so soul balm palm sap, or sothing?" Erick said, "I'll see about buying so from Stratagold, or sothing."
Aisha shook her head. "It's not soul damage. It's… It's soul damage. Ah. Words… Words not wording well."
Teressa jerked awake. "I'm awake!"
"And you can go back to bed now," Erick said.
And then Erick blipped both of them back to their beds. Teressa instantly curled up with her blankets and started snoring softly. Aisha remained human-woman-ford for a brief seven seconds, then she dissolved into a gasoline-sheened rcury-like puddle, only kept together because she was inside a bathtub bed. She burbled a bit, then settled down. She slept.
Erick wondered… Had it been necessary to have this conversation right now?
Yes.
These words had needed to be said, and Aisha and Teressa would both rember this, even though they had been halfway out of it while they were here.
It was ti to move onto another eting, anyway.
Erick was alone again in his gazebo as he called out, "Rozeta? I need to talk about [Reincarnation]."
Rozeta stepped out of a flash of gold fire and into the gazebo, wearing her white human wrought form. "Hello, Erick." She took her seat. "I suspect we'll need to get Phagar in on this too, but we might not. For clarity: What is your exact concern?"
Erick got right into it, "Is [Reincarnation] going to be a problem if I solve death? I can already see myself headed in that direction, but I don't want to cause a worldwide incident or a Forgotten Campaign."
"… Ah." Rozeta nodded, then she looked to the side, asking, "Phagar?"
In another splash of gold fire Phagar stepped into the space, looking like Erick but different. The God of the End and Ti took a seat, and the world beyond the gazebo seed to slow. "Hello, Erick. Rozeta. Talking about [Reincarnation], then?"
"And the solving of death, and the possibility of needing a Forgotten Campaign," Rozeta said.
Erick almost said sothing more, but he decided to let Rozeta's words ride.
Wasting no ti, Phagar said, "So people will accept your gift Erick, and you're free to do whatever you want, but a lot of people experience life and then they are done. They don't want to go through it again, no matter what offers you give them. They want to move on to the realms of the gods, to be in everlasting joy, or to beco a part of the oceans, or the wind, or an angel or a demon. All you're doing is offering another route, and a great many people don't want immortality. They never will."
Erick scoffed. "I have a hard ti believing that."
Rozeta smiled a little, seemingly envious of Erick's lack of knowledge.
Erick added, "Or maybe I do believe you?"
Phagar gave his own small smile. "Let give you so numbers, then. About 3500 people die per day, in a normal year, about 33% of them from old age. Most people die from sudden monsters, or accidents, or otherwise. This year was one of the worst we have had in a long while due to Terror Peaks, but ignoring skewing of the data...
"All of Veird's elderly line up at your door tomorrow, politely waiting in line for [Reincarnation]s. No drama. No trouble. Just politely waiting. You now have 1,115 people getting [Reincarnation]s. For you, this ans 278,750 mana. You can swing that per day, with your nearly million Mana Regeneration. But you spend about 10 minutes on every person.
"It's 185 hours to do that much magic." Phagar asked, "Now you want to learn more Ti Magic? You want to swing that? I can teach you how. Won't help you in this case, though, because you're still limited by the Script Second.
"And so, there is the other option: you can build a better world. You can mitigate that cost of ti out to every single city you build from the sands, where the death rate is lower. Every single person you raise to power, who helps ensure that people are safer, and healthier. Every single decision you make for the good of everyone around you.
"This is the path we gods walk.
"Through light touches here and there, we cause growth and existence.
"Or…" Phagar leaned back in his chair, saying, "You could do a minute [Reincarnation] per person, rush through everything as fast as you can, and get those 1,115 people restored to youth and better futures in a matter of 19 hours per day."
Erick hadn't done the math as much as Phagar had, and those numbers hamred in what pure goodwill could no longer obfuscate. He could not do this alone, and he never could.
Phagar continued, "But assuming you went forward with this 'heal everyone' plan: Politically, it could be a problem for what you build here because you would eventually make enemies which would want to kill you for what you were not willing to give them, for they could easily slip whatever bonds you put upon them, [Blessing of Empathy] or otherwise. Spiritually, so might choose to turn from their gods, and that would piss off so of us… But that is honestly not a large issue, considering living worshipers are worth a lot more than dead ones. These are all, actually, small problems in comparison to what Veird will gain from continuous [Reincarnations]. I'm fine with you devoting your life to this, if you wish, though the problem will only grow larger and larger until you can no longer keep up with demand."
Erick breathed, taking it all in.
Rozeta said, "That switch from being capable, to being hindered and unable to help happens to every god, Erick. Don't make the mistake of thinking it won't happen to a Wizard, too."
Phagar said, "Even with Ti Magic on your side, there cos a point where you simply run out."
Erick said, "I'm still going to try… But maybe I'll put up so solid barriers to entry."
"This is a valid tactic," Phagar said.
Rozeta nodded.
Erick returned the conversation back to Rozeta, asking, "I was wondering specifically about the mana production, though, since you already warned off of that once, when I did so stuff along these lines in Ar'Cosmos. Does my [Reincarnation] change the mana people produce?"
Phagar sat back.
Rozeta said, "So people's mana production changes when they beco less monstrous or draconic. But human to orcol? Dragonkin to demi? There is an initial dip, but that cos back soon enough, and in so cases the person even exceeds their previous normal output. Mostly though, the output is the sa. As the Goddess of the Script, I have no issue with [Reincarnation]. You using this spell on people is actually good for the world in a small, asurable sense, each ti you do it, for the living —provided they live long enough— provide more mana than the dead. Not to ntion almost every single person you've brought back from old age is already on their way to making more children, so that's a net positive, too."
Erick wasn't sure what to say.
He had expected backlash, or so sort of restriction. So sort of warning against doing what he had planned on doing, and yet, all he had really gotten was slapped with math.
"… I had thought that you would have words to say against this magic, Rozeta." Erick looked to Phagar. "And you, too, actually."
Rozeta smiled a little, while Phagar grinned.
Rozeta said, "You wouldn't go throwing anyone into bodies they don't want, but even if you did that it would still be a net positive for Veird's mana. I have long ago said that the only things I concern myself with are the solidity of the Script, and this world; this remains as true now as it ever has before."
Phagar said, "Death is not so sacred thing to be protected, and I'm not the God of Death. I struck the blow that killed that god 740,000 years ago and took his Domain as my own, and we're all still better off for it."
"… Ah," Erick said, looking at Phagar, his thoughts turning oddly in his head.
Rozeta said, "Do what you want, Erick. Now… Moving on from [Reincarnation]—" She gestured to the pachinko machine which was still on the side of the table. "If you think killing a thousand people is what it takes to make a brighter tomorrow, then know that I would prefer you find another way if only for the continued security of the Script, but you go ahead and do what you think is necessary."
Erick's thoughts turned even odder.
All he could really pick out from the turmoil in his head was his own questioning of the morality of gods.
Phagar said, "When you eventually learn how to undo things you have done through Ti Magic, and you wonder about doing sothing stupid and then reverting that change, I hope you can revisit the feelings you're having now, Erick. We gods are required to act in certain ways in order to keep the world functional, and sotis those actions are not in accordance with proper morality. Sotis, the morality preached by certain gods is in direct violation of what other gods preach. All this goes to show is that gods should not be your arbiters of what is right and wrong."
Rozeta tilted her head a fraction. She did not agree. But also, she did not object.
Phagar continued, "As long as you continue to follow your own morality, and continue to feel good about your own actions, then the feelings of gods should not upset you. We're still above you in power right now, but that will change eventually. Eventually we're going to be more like coworkers. I look forward to that day." He smiled. "I look forward to asking you to run errands for that I cannot do myself, and to be able to do the sa for you."
Rozeta nodded a little; now that, she could agree with. She said to Erick, "I have to take the stance I take to keep this world running, but if you want a Paladin or two with a much better set of morals than I, I can direct soone your way? Soone to keep you grounded, perhaps?"
"… No I'm— I'm fine. If [Reincarnation] is fine, then I'm fine, too."
Rozeta said, "The only conceivable problem I could have with [Reincarnation] is if you start bringing back extinct races. Elves, dwarves, elentasi, or alvani. The first two are gone, and the only way to get back the other two is to change the Script, which I would fight you on, and I would win."
A casual threat between coworkers already? Erick almost laughed, but Rozeta was serious.
Phagar said, "Regarding the elentasi and alvani, I agree, but elves and dwarves coming back would not be a problem."
Rozeta sighed, then said to Phagar, "The elves coming back would be a problem— Well." She said to Erick, "If you can solve the Rage of the orcols and make elves, then Aloethag would be grateful and I don't see any problems there, but that would require large scale Wizardry, and I would prefer none of that. Stay away from large Wizardry, please."
Erick had a sudden question, "Why would it require Wizardry to bring back the elentassi or alvani?"
Phagar looked to Rozeta.
For a mont, Rozeta debated with herself if she wanted to answer. Then she said, "I won't answer that question at this ti. Maybe in fifty years when you beco more like a real coworker, and less like a start-up operation in the sa country as we gods. I might answer you then."
Erick nodded a little.
Rozeta perked up, "Ah! That reminds : I will need you to go and run an errand for before you reach coworker-level. Not necessary right now, but before [Renew] happens in 8 months, I will need you to speak to Ar'Cosmos and get them to accept a wrought presence in their lands. They're taking their ti on that part of our agreent, and that reluctance makes uncomfortable. We need to ensure that their expansion of Ar'Cosmos is orderly and within the current mana limits of the Script. If they expand too far, too fast, then they will start breaking vital infrastructure due to limited mana flow problems."
"… Ah. That sounds bad." Erick said, "I'll talk to them."
"It won't be that bad for a while, Erick, but it does have the potential to be bad. Right now, the specific problem I'm having is the paperwork and bureaucracy Ar'Cosmos is pushing at my people, all in an effort to make my people an ineffectual force. Please cut through that paperwork at your earliest convenience." Rozeta grinned. "On the plus side of this whole [Renew]-Ar'Cosmos thing, the increased mana production from having a secondary world right next to this one will more than make up for the problems the dragons produce, IF they actually stay on Fairie. Their world will be one without real monsters or real danger, so I expect a population boom there, just as I expect a population boom here in the Crystal Forest." Rozeta said. "As long as the Dragon Curse holds true on this side of reality, then this whole thing might actually work out well."
"Okay then." Erick said, "I'll schedule a eting."
Rozeta smiled happily, saying, "Thank you."
Phagar said, "Aisha was too out of it to bring it up, but your experint with the ball bouncer here is a fantastic way to judge how good soone is at prognostication, and to train that magical muscle. But for you, Erick, it will be a good training thod to figure out what it ans to change the past… After you figure out [Return], anyway. When you want to talk about that magic, I'm available at any ti."
Erick smiled a little. "Thank you, Phagar."
"And we still have a boon to talk about!" Rozeta said, "If you'll pardon the suggestion, perhaps a basic boon to not require you to accrete anymore? Sothing to make that automatic? I notice you still haven't worked on that magic yet."
"Ahh… I've been busy. But no thank you on that specific offer." Erick said, "I'll figure sothing out."
"Let know when you figure out what you want." Rozeta said, "I can do almost any small thing, and most larger things. You deserve it. But now! I must be going. It was good talking with you, Erick."
"And you as well, Rozeta. Thanks for showing."
Rozeta smiled.
And then she vanished backward in a cloud of gold flas.
Phagar nodded, saying, "See you later, Erick."
"See you later, Phagar."
And then the God of The End and Ti vanished, too, like so much scattered golden flas.
For a long mont, Erick just sat there, in the [Ward]ed gazebo in Yggdrasil's crown. The world outside his little protected space seed to go faster, or rather, ti resud its normal flow. Yggdrasil's green canopy waved in the northern winds, while rainbow lights filtered down from further above.
Erick supposed that the gods had their duties, just as much as their limits, and they did not bother with many things outside of those imposed [Force Wall]s. It had been kinda odd, and rather terrifying, actually, for Rozeta to say that the deaths of a thousand people were not a large concern to her. It had been kinda odd to hear that Phagar had killed Death almost a million years ago. It had been stranger still, for both gods to call Erick a 'future coworker'. But this was his life now, he supposed.
And their limits were fine, the more Erick thought of it. He didn't want to be constrained by higher powers, and he had locked in his own morality years and years ago. Benevolence was simply an expression of that morality, and his own Truth, that everything could be made better if you tried. 'If you tried' had certainly taken on a different aning here on Veird, but it was what it was.
With a calm gaze across the world, through all of his Ophiel everywhere, Erick considered his next steps in this Candlepoint-thing he had going on. Apparently there was an actual need to schedule a eting with Fairy Moon— or perhaps with Illustrious Moon, or Inferno Maw, or Bright Smile? Or all three of them the Heads of Houses? Including Fairy Moon? —Whoever showed up didn't really matter, Erick supposed. What mattered was ensuring that Ar'Cosmos was getting along with the wrought, and that the bargains that Erick had helped to strike between Rozeta and Fairy Moon were coming along nicely.
He could do that in the morning.
"I have one more thing to do tonight." With the bit of his body sticking out of the Privacy surrounding the gazebo, Erick sent to Tasar, 'Hey, Tasar. Want to learn how to make a [Familiar] with their own mana right now?'
Tasar instantly sent back, 'Yes. I'm in the Benevolence dungeon right now. Where can I et you?'
Erick began sending an Ophiel that way. 'I'll have Ophiel blip you here and we can talk.'
A minute later Tasar sat across the table from Erick.
Erick smiled. "Hello again."
Tasar was ready for whatever words might co from the Wizard sitting across from her—
But then she noticed the pachinko machine, and the red catcher at the bottom labeled with death for a thousand people.
Tasar decided to ignore it.
She simply said, "Hello, Erick."
Erick got right down to it, saying, "You once told how much it would hurt for Ophiel to mature and rip apart from my soul, but that the real pain would co later, when Ophiel grew old and died and there would be nothing I could do about it."
Ophiel chirped on Erick's shoulder. He didn't understand exactly what was going on, but it was the sa lack of understanding a baby in a crib had when their parents were talking; eventually, he could learn what all those squawking noises ant, and he could speak, too. He certainly recognized his own na and certain emotions, though he was not concerned, for Erick's tone was rather light, even if his words were less than light.
Yggdrasil was still playing around with the Arbors of Treeho so if he was listening in then Erick could not tell.
Erick continued, "But while this is true for most people, it is not true for . If such a thing should happen to Ophiel, then I will [Reincarnation] him into sothing that enables real continuance. I already offered the sa thing to the Rockys —Tenebrae's summon, you know— and they might take it. I might do the sa thing for every single [Familiar] out there, if their final forms should prove nonviable. And for your next [Familiar], as well."
Tasar stood adamantium still, trying not to breathe, or to give away her emotions, but a copper-bright tear rolled down her face anyway. It vanished into her black and green skin even before it finished falling, and Tasar inhaled in a shocked breath, and shuddered a bit. "I wish… I wish you would have been around a few centuries ago, Erick."
"I'm here now, and it's the best I can do." Erick said, "I'm not willing to travel through ti to change anything in the past just yet, and probably not ever."
Tasar laughed a little, and this ti copper-bright tears fell and she did not reabsorb them into her body. Drops of liquid sunshine fell and then peeled away from her skin like flakes of copper foil. "Not many people can say that without sounding quite a lot more boastful than they intended."
Erick smiled a little. "So here's the thing: To make a [Familiar] with mana, their creation must be more than a thing of math and intent given form. They must be a representation of you, or, perhaps, a certain reflection of you. A true wish given form. But these are things you have heard before."
Tasar nodded, saying, "Yes. I have interviewed the Magisterium in the Wasteland Kingdoms when one Sizzi Zago divulged the technique she gained from you, to her uncle, who then paid off a debt by selling them that information."
Erick nodded, then continued, "Here are so new ideas which I have only recently understood. The primary one being that in this act of creation you must make a [Familiar] that you have every intention of allowing to beco a real person. With your act of creation, you are summoning sothing that you know will exist in the far, far future, but which is not yet here, in this ti or place.
"There's a word from my howorld that works well here: You are not summoning a being of different manas, you are summoning a tulpa; A thing which starts off as an idea, grows to fullness, and becos its own person. I could attach a lot more aning to that word for you, and explain how such a thing existed on Earth where there was no magic, but you probably researched Sizzi, if not spoken to her directly?"
Tasar had a lot of different emotions as Erick had spoken, but now she was wondering just how far she should admit to spying. She went with the truth, "Yes. I had a small discussion with Miss Zago. A lot of that talk was about music and making the sounds of the magic 'sound right'."
Erick said, "The sounds were important for ; harmonizing them all together. They might be less important, or not; I am unsure.
"But as for tulpas and Sizzi: Sizzi had been trying to learn Summoning Magic in order to bring forth her childhood friends into the real world, but it wasn't till I ca along that she was able to make her own [Familiar]s how she wanted them. If you want a good example of what it ans to make a [Familiar] with their own mana, then Sizzi's example and this conversation right here is probably enough to tell you what a 'tulpa' is. I didn't even use that word when I spoke to her, but now, I realize what I was telling her to make. It took Kiri more than this, though." Erick said, "Both of Sizzi's summons were made outside of my sight and presence, but it took my direct presence to enable Kiri's Sunny to manifest as she did. As soon as you get an idea of what it ans to follow this path then I'll be there for when you decide to make a [Familiar] like Ophiel."
For a long mont Tasar said nothing.
Erick waited.
Tasar asked, "Is that… Truly all that I was missing? I need to make a [Familiar] that I want to be real? A childhood friend made manifest?"
And then she turned inward, her eyes falling down as she thought.
She was hurt for a dozen small and large reasons. Erick could only guess at a few of them, from Tasar not wanting to be hurt by the loss of a [Familiar] again, to feelings of inadequacy, to a deep self-loathing that the black-and-green woman never wanted to touch, but which Erick had exposed.
Erick briefly considered telling her about the chanical, Ti Magic-derived effects of his [Familiar]s, and how they were using mana from their future selves. But that seed to be too chanical to him, and such knowledge might bungle Tasar up even more if she thought that it could be solved chanically. This was not a problem that needed to be solved chanically, for it had already been solved emotionally, and three tis already; twice by Sizzi, once by Kiri, and both of those young won couldn't hear the mana at all.
Erick asked, "Can you hear the mana, Tasar?"
Tasar looked up. "That's not how I do magic."
"Try it once anyway. See if it works! [Familiar]s are just tier 2, able to be tried for again and again every day. It wasn't until I knew exactly what I was making that I got Ophiel here."
Ophiel chirped.
Tasar said, "… But according to you, if I don't go for the full ceremony then I am not really trying."
"Also true." Erick said, "And there is one more secret to this that will probably hurt your chances more than it will help, so I won't tell you that one yet. I'll tell you after you make your [Familiar]."
Tasar frowned at him. "Just tell now."
"Let ask you a question: Does what I have already said change how you would approach your [Familiar] creation?"
"… Yes. By a lot."
"Then there you go!"
Tasar looked at Erick, and said, "If I were to give your apprentice this level of non-answers with regard to Spatial Magic then you would be very cross with ."
"Ah ha! But you wouldn't give her the secrets to [Teleport Other] so quickly, would you?" Erick said, "You would wait until she had learned how to [Teleport] first."
Tasar lost her annoyance and a great lot of her emotional baggage in that mont. She leaned back in her chair, sighed, and said, "Fair."
"How is Kiri doing, anyway?"
Tasar laughed once. "I've only been working with her for a few hours so far, but I already know she's going to be a delight to teach. She takes in everything I can give her. Not as fast as so of the best minds I have ever taught, but certainly among the top 10%."
Erick confessed, "I'm actually running out of things to teach her, so I think I might let her work with the House soon enough. I have to eventually pass down the Gate Network to another, and that person will probably be her."
Tasar was briefly surprised. And then she asked, "But not your actual daughter?"
"Jane wants nothing to do with my magic or my kingdom. Which is fine! She can do what she wants. But I have to build sothing stable here and that ans an heir, even if I do plan to stick around forever. And so, I have Kiri. Kiri is eventually going to walk the Worldly Path with you at her side, and that Path will end at . She'll start making Benevolence [Gate]s and take over my own duties." Erick shrugged. "Or maybe she'll just expand my Network? I'm not sure. Either way, I won't be a failure point if I can help it."
"… Well that is so monuntal information I did not know, but which I suspected." Tasar said, "I am actually quite glad that you are thinking like this, Erick. Kingdoms with heirs are always more stable than those without."
"I haven't actually told Jane this at all, so don't you tell her this either, please." Erick said, "I doubt she would care but… I want her to eventually find out from . I haven't told Kiri yet, either, but one hardly ever reacts badly to wonderful information so I'm a lot less worried about her... But don't tell Kiri either. Just… Don't tell anyone, actually. Jane is much more able to defend herself in a sticky situation than Kiri is."
Tasar nodded. "Of course. It's still several years before Kiri will be ready to walk the Path, anyway, and there is ti to shore up her deficiencies."
"I think she wants to build an empire, and so I will give her that if I can, but she still has to work for it; she has to get [Gate] mostly on her own."
"What about Yggdrasil planting seeds on other worlds?" Tasar asked, "How does that fit into this situation?"
"Yggdrasil will eventually be able to open [Gate]s on his own as well, but that would be more for random expansion of the universe, I think. I love the big guy, but I'm certainly not going to force him to lead the way into the True Void for all the rest of eternity. Just like Jane, Yggdrasil will get a choice when he cos of age." Erick said, "But Kiri is already of age, and she's made her choices. She knows what she wants. Feel free to figure out the exact nature of what she wants, but try to be circumspect about it."
Like a veteran soldier receiving duties, Tasar simply nodded, and said, "I will."
Erick relaxed. "Thank you, Tasar. Thanks for coming on such short notice, too. Want to blip you back?"
"No need. Thanks for trusting with this information." Tasar bowed in her seat, "Erick."
And then she vanished in a blip of black and green magic.
Erick was alone again.
He smiled a little bit.
For a mont, he did nothing. He just relaxed.
And then he realized he had ti to do so magic, for he did not need to sleep—
Well. Erick did need to sleep, and in fact, he kinda wanted to head off to bed right now. But Poi was almost done with dinner back at the house, and Erick wanted so of that scarlet king fish filet. Kiri would be back from her full day of work with Mox soon enough, and Teressa could wake up again for food, as she had done a few tis today already.
Anyway! Erick would eat dinner with his family, and then he had ti. He would use his [Hasted Shelter] and shove eight-plus hours of rest into one 10 minute period, and then he could do whatever he wanted with the rest of his night. He hadn't done that last night because the Shelter made Ophiel uncomfortable after just twenty minutes, but this ti, tonight, Erick could prepare the little guy for a night of rest inside a ti bubble.
And when Erick ca out of that bubble… What sort of magic would he make?
"I think… I think I'll work on that magical iron problem." Erick asked Ophiel, "What do you think, Ophiel? Magical iron that doesn't rust?"
Ophiel chirped, happy to be included in the conversation.
"I think it's a good idea, too."
- - - -
Erick took one final look at his pachinko machine and his good thoughts vanished. A cancel command made the machine vanish, too. tal and wood and glass fractured into scattered white fragnts that then dissolved into the manasphere. It had been a terrible but necessary experint.
Had he actually been willing to go through with it, if the ball had landed in that slot?
The question had rit, for eventually, in so unknown and a few known scenarios, Benevolence would make every single hypothetical tal ball land in a hypothetical murder slot. Erick would need to kill to make the world a better place, or to prevent a bad end. That day was not today, thankfully, but Erick knew how he had made Benevolence.
He knew what the future held.
The dark and the bright of it all.
This was not a new revelation for Erick, though.
He dismissed those lancholy thoughts and wondered if he was too stressed. If the job was getting to him. Being king was about as bad as having two jobs at the sa ti, and he had done that for years back when Jane was still growing up. If one counted 'raising a child by themselves as a job' then Erick actually had 3 jobs going at once for a long while. Being a king was easier than construction work and janitorial work and raising Jane, too; by a lot. But this job required a lot more ntal effort… Which was not that much of a problem, though, now that Erick thought of it.
The authority he wielded over others and over the world, though… Now that was new.
And that was stressful.
After thinking about it for a while, Erick decided that Portal's physical offers of companionship had rattled him more than he had realized, and mainly because those offers had been completely real. Sure, offering sex and marriage in a setting like that had been crude, but for Portal it was one of their best offers since war was not going to work at all. That whole scenario had been as crude as going to a bar and looking to hook up with another person, in the hopes of getting a long term relationship out of that casual fling.
Smart?
Mostly no.
But did it work?
Sotis yes.
Did it work on the level of governnts?
… It almost did, Erick was ashad to admit.
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