We sat around the big table together, with everyone assembled. Dinner was coming, and I was stressing about that, but we had a few hours to kill until Lisi and Reir showed up, and that ant that it was ti to debrief. Hopefully, I would get so information out of our elders.
“I have nothing,” said Raven. “I have a lot of guesses, but none of them are good.”
“Let’s hear them,” I said.
“All of them?” asked Raven.
“In descending order of how stupid they are,” I replied.
“Should be ascending order,” said Amaryllis with a frown.
“No?” I asked. “I want the smartest first. So as we go, it would be … wait, shit, I think you’re right.” Amaryllis gave a nod. “Fine, in ascending order of stupidity.”
“First, and just to get it out of the way, it could be an entad,” said Raven. “The powers of entads vary wildly, and they can sotis be used in combination, so whatever it was you saw when the flaming man was invited into your ditation … it’s possible that was accomplished partly or mostly through entads. It’s hard to say how likely that is, but it’s possible.”
“It explains nothing,” said Heshnel, frowning at her.
“Yes,” replied Raven. “Uther always hated entads as an explanation, but it was always one that had to be considered.” Heshnel waved a hand. “It was never entads, incidentally.”
“Never?” I asked.
“Not once,” said Raven. “Unless sothing was kept from .”
“What a fascinating historical detail,” said Pallida with a roll of her eyes.
“It has relevance,” replied Amaryllis. “It changes the probabilities.”
“We must assu it’s not an entad,” said Grak.
“Yes, agreed,” replied Raven. “I just wanted to put that forward first, along with the obvious note about unknown unknowns like an entirely new variety of magic, because every other explanation I can think of has significant problems.” She cleared her throat. “To start with, the Lord of Dreams. He shut down the usual pathways five hundred years ago, and it’s possible that he’s chosen now to open them back up. Obviously ditation is distinct from dreaming, but at least one of his Aspects was able to enter into the twilight realm of daydreaming, and maybe that would be close enough. The second issue is that Juniper’s description of what he saw doesn’t match with the Lord of Dreams, nor any of his Aspects known to , and it really doesn’t seem like their modus operandi either. It’s possible that the Lord of Dreams was usurped, or got new Aspects, in the five hundred years since our misadventure there, but it’s very difficult to say. As a precaution, it would be good for Bethel to watch over us in our sleep.”
“Done,” replied Bethel.
“Does anyone have more to add on that?” I asked. No one said anything. I was pretty sure that Raven was the only one of us with any experience in the realm of dreams.
“Okay,” Raven said, taking a breath. “Well, the third thing I was thinking was expansion of so currently known magic. It would be helpful if that was the case, because it would give us clues as to who or what is behind it, but there aren’t any likely candidates. We also don’t know what specifically caused the aberration, whether it’s constrained to instruction from a practicing cultist, or a tic effect caused by that specific imagery, prompting, or intonation. There might be geographic constraints, a practitioner on the other end … there’s no real place to start research.”
“I could do it again,” I said. “See if I could get another visit.” I got so skeptical looks from around the table. “And yeah, that might be feeding information to the presud enemy. Alternately, we could convince one of the other students to get in a position where I can examine their soul or spirit, which might give us sothing useable.”
Amaryllis gave a polite cough, so perfectly poised and respectful about it that I assud she’d been tutored on it at so point in her life. “I want to state, for the record, that attempting the ditation in class was a bad idea. It ended up helping us, but it was unreasonably dangerous.”
“Is there a record?” asked Pallida, raising an eyebrow.
“I keep transcriptions, yes,” replied Bethel with a serene smile. I was happy that she was sitting at the table with us like a normal person, instead of leaving an empty seat like she sotis did. “Along with so notes on body language.”
“Make sure there are never copies,” said Raven. “I don’t believe the Infinite Library would --”
“Assu that I’m not a moron,” said Bethel, cutting her off (figuratively, not literally).
“Well,” said Raven. “Okay.” She turned to . “Do you want to hear the other theories?”
“There are more?” I asked.
“Eighteen,” replied Raven.
“Jesus,” I said. “Alright, go on.”
This consud almost all of our ti, with a heavy amount of crosstalk. I decided that I was going to have to pull Grak aside later that night and thank him for being circumspect in what he contributed, because there were too many fucking people in our house, and too many of them had disagreents with each other for too many different reasons. Grak spoke up when he had sothing productive to contribute to the conversation, and otherwise kept his own feelings on matters silent, which I wished everyone else would do too.
Raven tried her best to go through the list quickly, and so of them were real dumb, so dumb that I would almost have faulted her for including them, except that we really did have to be looking at outside possibilities, and it helped to learn sothing about the thirty years she’d spent with Uther.
Uther and his Knights once had to deal with a cult whose mbers would ditate in order to devote their brainpower to an eldritch creature, who, in turn, operated primarily by possessing a single cult mber as his avatar. All that would probably have been weird but fine, but this creature, the High Onism, had both a strong desire to subsu the world, and so unsavory appetites of the flesh. The High Onism played Moriarty to Uther’s Sherlock for three years or so until Uthur pinned it down so it couldn’t flee for another host, then fed it a deadly . It had the ditation link, and the puppetry link, but aside from being as confird dead as it could be, all the people that ditated to give it power did so willingly, and there was nothing about a man on fire.
Uther had tangled with the he’lesh, who smoked their emotions. More specifically, the he’lesh kingdom had been overtaken by a novel herb that induced an altered state, one where they would see things that they would later forget. It was a shared delusion, a link between the smokers, which might not have been so bad, except that there were things within that shared delusion that had gone feral and could make so impact on the lives of the smokers. Uther had gone in and killed the hallucinatory beasts, then exterminated trade in the herb with extre prejudice. It was notable in part because the bursar was he’lesh, but other than that, there weren’t many similarities.
Late during Uther’s ti on Aerb, there started to be disappearances. Raven beca one of the missing: she was having a daydream of a shining palace on top of a cliff, and ended up there, leaving the pri material plane behind. As it turned out, one of the other planes, Xoltle, had been brought into collision with the material plane. Anyone who daydread about the place on Xoltle that was co-located with the drear’s physical location on Aerb would wind up on Xoltle, where they would be picked up by the insane hierarch who had set his sights on conquest. Uther had defeated the hierarch (naturally), then untangled the planes with star magic beyond anything anyone had seen before or since.
Raven had eighteen of these. She wasn’t trying to tell us stories, just give us facts, but it was astonishing to , even knowing what I did, that she could be given a prompt like, ‘I saw a guy on fire in the woods while I was ditating’ and she could spit back so many possibilities related to flas, dreams, ditation, altered states, subverted will, mory erasure, and dissonance of effects. There were enemies that might co out of the woodwork, enemies whose defeat had been less than total, and it seed like Raven was slowly coming to grips with the fact that so of these plots could have sequels to them.
(I was thankful that I didn’t get a barrage of quest prompts, though it would have been helpful to be pointed in so particular direction, or get guidance from on high.)
“So of those are real dumb,” said Pallida, once Raven finished.
“I did say that going in,” replied Raven with a frown.
“As much fun as you two are,” interjected Bethel. “Our guests are walking down the street as we speak. I’ve begun preparing a traditional Anglish dinner.”
“And what are you going to tell them?” Raven asked .
“Amaryllis and I were talking on the way back from the athenaeum,” I said. She’d wanted to stop by the lawyers, which gave us more ti to talk. “The plan is to tell them both that Amaryllis is Amaryllis, and then deal with whatever complications co from that. The ga system stuff … it might potentially be helpful to have Reir in the loop, but he doesn’t seem to have much loyalty to , and the truth is, well, absurd. We’ll see how so of the rest of it goes. We’d both rather not have Lisi and Reir have all the sa information, but it’s not clear how avoidable that will be in practice.” I didn’t really want to tell Reir everything, for a whole host of reasons.
“They’re at the door,” said Bethel.
“There’s the matter of who’s going to be present for this dinner,” I said. “ and Amaryllis, naturally, but … well, so of you have physical appearances that raise questions.”
“The young are ever persecuted,” said Solace with a sigh. She was still holding onto her little green girl form, which I still found just a bit irritating, as much as she protested that she was still undergoing developnt and there were so benefits to it.
“How much are we bringing them in?” asked Grak.
“Honestly, I’m partial to just laying it all out at once, for the fun of it,” I began.
“They’re here, ” said Bethel, “And their argunt appears to have reached its conclusion. I’m going to answer the door.” She disappeared with a pop.
“Alright,” I said. “I’m going to go et with them. Executive decision, it’ll be , Amaryllis, Grak, Valencia, and Bethel.”
Bethel had shrunk down to a reasonable size, enough that she could pass for being a person, and when I ca to et them, she was standing next to Lisi and Reir with a smile on her face. Bethel had changed her clothes too, to sothing resembling a serving outfit: it was a far cry from a French maid’s uniform, instead being more about functionality and layers, blues and whites with rolled up sleeves and thick boots on her feet.
“Hey Joon,” said Reir with a wave. He was dressed up a bit, with slacks instead of jeans, and a button-down shirt. He must have gone back to his room to change. I wondered whether the change in clothes was for Amaryllis or Lisi, though it was possible it was for both.
“Juniper,” said Lisi with a nod. She looked around the place. “You asked for no comnts on the house?”
“You did?” asked Bethel with one raised eyebrow. “Why, whatever for?”
“Reir, Lisi, this is Bethel,” I said. “She’s my companion.” I almost said that she was my house and caught myself in mid-stream. There had been a ti when I would have stumbled and flubbed it, but those monts of sheer awkwardness were behind , and whatever idiotic thoughts my brain was churning through, I managed to keep my composure.
“Lisianthus Penndraig,” said Lisi, holding out her hand. “Fourth of my na, Second Under-Princess of Defense.”
“Chard,” said Bethel, taking her hand lightly. “It’s just Bethel, only one na. Always a pleasure to et a Penndraig.” Her smile was feral.
“Arthur Reir,” said Reir. He shook Bethel’s hand too. “Everyone just calls Reir though.”
“Pleasant to et you,” said Bethel. “Now tell , honestly, what do you think of the house?”
I didn’t think that Bethel was going to do anything to either of them. She was just fucking with them, and really, fucking with by proxy. Despite myself, I felt my heart rate rise. There wasn’t a lot that I could do about Bethel going rogue, so I tried my best to keep calm.
“Is it special in so way?” asked Lisi, looking around. “Is there a trick?”
“Yes and yes,” I replied.
“Then what’s the trick?” asked Lisi.
“Here,” said Reir with a smile. He held out his hand. “A glass of water.”
Nothing happened.
“Quite impressive,” said Bethel. “Can you do other drinks as well?”
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“Juniper,” said Reir, as he frowned at . He lowered his hand, then turned to Lisi. “It was working last ti I ca here.” He looked back to . “Did you tell the genie not to give things anymore?”
“No,” I said. “And it’s not a genie, I just said it’s like a genie, in that you shouldn’t use it because maybe you would annoy it and wind up poisoned.”
“So the house is an entad?” asked Lisi. “Or it has an entad inside it?”
“Sothing like that,” said Bethel with a raised eyebrow. “Entads are common among the Penndraigs, aren’t they?”
“I have four,” said Lisi. She turned to . “I’ll have more available to as a combat mage, invested by mbers of the family.”
“What do they do?” asked Reir.
“That’s an impolite question,” said Lisi, folding her arms. She looked at . “I would like to et with Amaryllis now.”
“Sure,” I said. “Last I heard, dinner was being prepared.”
“Still true,” said Bethel with a nod.
We went through the cozy little sitting room and into a dining room that was cramped by Bethel’s standards, not too much larger than it needed to be to hold the table, chairs, and an extra bit of walking space. It was done in the sa style as the sitting room had been, with an overly done, kitschy aesthetic to it, dozens of small paintings on the walls, floral wallpaper, a chandelier of cut glass made to look like diamonds, doilies and flower arrangents, all kinds of visual clutter. It was less charming than the sitting room, but I still kind of liked it. It reminded of my grandparents’ house, but without the sll.
Amaryllis was standing behind one of the chairs with a set look on her face. I went around to stand next to her.
“Reir, this is Amaryllis Penndraig,” I said. “Lisi, I’m given to understand that you two know each other.”
“Yes,” said Lisi. She pursed her lips. “It’s good to see you again, cousin. You’ll have to tell how you survived the trial by adversity.”
“Inconsequential,” said Amaryllis. “I need to say so random words. Give a few minutes.”
“Words of what nature?” asked Lisi.
“To see what you know,” replied Amaryllis. “It’s part of our threat assessnt. Reir, you too.”
“Uh,” he said. “Sure.”
“Alright,” said Amaryllis with a nod. She took a breath. “Mo Rath. The Jub-jub bird. Arthur Isaac Blum. Valencia the Red. Grakhuil Leadbraids. Oorang Solace. Fallatehr Whiteshell. Heshnel Elec. Fenn Greenglass.”
The list went on like that for quite so ti. Lisi sat there, stone-faced, while Reir just looked bewildered. Running alongside the long list Amaryllis was going through, Bethel was thinking into our heads.
she sent via thought-speech, each one a half-step behind Amaryllis.
This particular plan had been my idea, one made long ago. We’d stolen the change-colors-if-you-know ball from Masters, and Bethel’s virtue allowed her to temporarily take on the powers of any entad inside her. In the case of the mory ball, that ant the ability to sense which of the four (now notional) colors would be created when anyone anywhere in the house heard any noun phrase. Bethel opted not to use it most of the ti, because the information it provided was virtually worthless and it was a strain on her sensorium, but for a short test like this, it could help us to magically note a couple of things.
The list had been Amaryllis’ work. It had the nas of almost everyone we’d ever worked with or fought against, plus a handful of decoys. It had the nas of future threats that might be connected to one or both of Lisi and Reir, and a long list of nas from Earth. Because the mory ball was capable of disambiguating between two identical noun phrases that referred to different things (‘Chinatown’ the place and ‘Chinatown’ the movie was the ur-example), there were so repeats.
“Project Garden Stake,” said Amaryllis. “Aubergine Stake, Snow Pea Stake, Cauliflower Stake.”
replied Bethel.
“Alright,” said Amaryllis. “That’s the list.”
“Those weren’t random,” said Reir. “They were nas.”
“Not all of them,” said Lisi, narrowing her eyes. “An entad?”
“Yes,” said Amaryllis. “One that, among other things, confirms that you’re both who you say you are.” As well as confirming that you know what we expect you to know ... “With that, I think we can start.”
Amaryllis was wearing a purple dress, nothing terribly fancy. She was wearing makeup to match, light pink for the lips and a touch of eyeshadow, plus probably a bit more that was too subtle for to notice. On her hand, though, was Sable, the pitch black glove. She tapped a finger against the table, and she must have practiced it, because a stack of papers instantly appeared there.
“This is a contract,” said Amaryllis. “It’s legally binding in Li’o, Anglecynn, and Miunun. It doesn’t have terribly much weight to it insofar as enforcent, but you signing it is a precondition of further conversation. I’ll allow you to read it, but it would suffice to say that there are stiff penalties for disclosing anything that we speak about here today, whether the nature of that disclosure is intentional or otherwise.” She slid the paper across to Lisi, then produced a second copy, and slid it across to Reir.
Lisi began reading it with furrowed eyebrows. “I already know you’re here,” she said. “I know you’re connected to the Republic of Miunun in so capacity, that you’re connected to Juniper, and the location of this house. I could walk out this door and leverage that.”
“Yes,” said Amaryllis.
“What are you offering us?” asked Lisi. She glanced over at Reir, who was already signing. “What are you offering , then?”
“Power,” I said. “Influence, material support, connections, and resources. We have a lot. We’re planning to bring you in.” Part way, anyway. “But to hear the offer, to know more, you have to sign.”
Lisi finished reading through the docunt while Reir sat idly next to her.
“Can I ask a question?” he asked.
“Sure,” I replied.
“What the hells does any of this have to do with ?” he asked.
“I’ll tell you when she’s either signed or left,” I said, nodding at Lisi.
Lisi looked up, glared at , then looked back down and kept reading.
I asked Bethel.
replied Bethel.
I replied.
asked Bethel.
I said.
“Okay,” said Lisi, as she signed the paper with a flourish and slid the papers back across to Amaryllis. “Explain.”
“I did make dinner,” said Bethel.
“And there are others I’d like to introduce you to,” said Amaryllis.
“Fine,” said Lisi.
On what was presumably Bethel’s cue, Valencia and Grak ca in. Grak gave a stiff bow, and Valencia a sweeping curtsey.
“This is Grakhuil Leadbraids and Valencia the Red,” I said. “They’re our warder and combat specialist, respectively.”
“‘The Red’?” asked Reir.
“Yes,” replied Valencia, nodding once. “It’s a na to let my enemies know they should run away.”
“And now, food,” said Bethel.
Plates appeared in front of each of us, a small salad of bright greens with tiny, colorful flowers mixed in, and a miniature cruet on the side.
“I want to know how you escaped trial by adversity,” said Lisi.
Amaryllis took a slow, delicate bite of her salad, then used the cruet to distribute a thin vinaigrette onto the salad. “There was an entad in Silmar City,” said Amaryllis. “Rather than going for the walls, where the Host would be waiting for us, and where I would presumably have an attempt made on my life, we headed toward the center of the exclusion, found the entad, and escaped.”
“Together,” said Lisi, looking at .
“Yes,” I said. “We t when we hit the ground. I’ve been by her side since then.”
“No,” said Reir. “Bullshit.” He was looking back and forth between and Amaryllis. “That’s … that doesn’t parse. You, Juniper Smith, went through a trial by adversity, t the girl you had a crush on for years, sohow got jacked as fuck while also growing a few inches, and now you’re here, at S&S, getting not one but two schools of magic, all without Anglecynn knowing about it? And you’re also part of so fish person island?” He sat back in his chair. “And that’s aside from you paying absurd amounts of money for the rules to a ga system that you designed, and the oh-so-convenient way you claim to have lost your mory. No. Whatever you’re selling, I’m not buying.”
I was eating my salad while he talked, and calmly put down my fork.
“You’re right,” I replied. “I’m not Juniper Smith. Are you familiar with the phenona called the dream-skewered?”
Reir frowned at . “I guess you’re forgetting the group project we worked on?” I nodded once. “Well, that’s what it was, a presentation about the dream-skewered. It was a glorified book report of a not very great book.” He narrowed his eyes. “And that’s what you’re going with? The real Juniper Smith was dream-skewered shortly after or before what usually serves as an execution, and you’re just the poor, deluded fool that lives in his body? Except, sohow, you know enough to talk and act like him.”
“I’m from Earth,” I said. “But there was a Juniper Smith that lived on Earth, who was essentially the sa person as the one you knew, just with all the details changed around.”
Reir stared at .
“Yeah, I know,” I said. “It sounds far-fetched.”
“When presented with extraordinary claims,” said Lisi, “It’s always better to seek mundane explanations. To wit, it’s more likely that you’re lying about who or what you are for so unknown reason. An elaborate, pointless prank, for example.”
“Okay,” I said, spreading my hands. “I’m pretty sure that with so ti together, Reir would see that I was telling the truth about who I am, or at least, he would be able to figure out what I believe to be true. He has the capacity to test . We can even lend so entads that might help with that, though I’ve been living on Aerb for quite so ti now, and I know a lot of things that a native would know.”
“Your claim has no proof but your word,” said Lisi.
“Wait,” said Reir. “Why were you paying so much for the ga system?”
I sighed. “Because it’s real.”
Reir thought about that for a mont. “No?”
“Yes,” I said. “It’s real, and it, or sothing like it, is affecting .”
“Prove it,” said Reir.
“I can’t,” I replied. “All I can do is show you so of my abilities, but they’re nothing that you couldn’t replicate with either sufficient training or entads. You don’t have a trusted warder to make sure that I’m not using any magic anyway.”
“It wouldn’t be proof,” said Lisi. “But it would give so bounds to the problem.” She frowned. “For the record, I don’t think this is a particularly important point.”
“You’re wrong,” said Amaryllis. “It’s the most important part of all of this.”
“How about this,” I said. “I’m a blood mage, bone mage, and skin mage.” I moved my tattoos around to briefly cross my face and hands, then stabbed myself in the wrist with my fork and caused the blood to arc under my concentration, before burning a bone to heal it back up. I wiped the remaining blood away with a napkin.
“You’re a multimage,” said Lisi, staring at . “If you were Juniper Smith, then you would be young enough that you went to Quills and Blood at the sa ti we did.”
“He didn’t have to,” said Amaryllis.
“Wait,” said Reir. “The ga doesn’t actually work, it’s held together with sticky tape and reliant on house rules half the ti, with the other half just being fiat.”
“Yeah,” I said.
“But … who’s the arbiter?” he asked. “Who’s the Dungeon Master?”
“I don’t know,” I replied.
“You don’t know, but one exists?” asked Reir.
“Yeah,” I said. “I t him, actually, he just wasn’t soone that I knew.”
“You’re talking about this warga you played?” Lisi asked Reir. Her face was set in a serious expression that was very close to a scowl.
“If he called it a warga, he didn’t explain it right,” I said.
“It’s descended from a warga,” said Reir, folding his arms. “It’s not not a warga.”
“There’s no war,” I said. “It’s small groups.”
“Fireteams are an elent of war,” said Reir.
“Semantics,” said Amaryllis with a wave of her hand, as though she didn’t love semantic debates.
“Right,” I said. “What I’m saying, essentially, is that I have a large amount of power, and our ultimate goal is to use that power to do the most good.”
“In what sense?” asked Lisi.
“I second that question,” said Reir. “That could an a lot of things, so of them evil.”
“In the short term, we’re solving whatever unambiguous problems we can,” I said. “In the dium term, we’re working on a technological revolution. In the long term …” I paused, because it was audacious. “The plan is to solve problems that exist on the planar scale.”
“How?” asked Lisi. “This power of yours is that good?”
“Wait,” said Reir. “Are you … are you leveling up? You have skills? That’s why you wanted to know all the rules?”
“Yes,” I said.
“But who’s the Dungeon Master then?” he asked.
“I already said,” I replied.
“But that’s -- it all depends on who the Dungeon Master is, that’s what it all hinges on, because the arbiter has all the power, and they can just say no if they don’t like whatever it is you’re doing. You can’t rely on a sensible interpretation of the rules.”
“Is that what you’d call it?” I asked. “Sensible?”
“What’s the chanism this all works by?” asked Lisi. She turned to Grak. “How does it map?”
“It doesn’t,” Grak replied. “It’s invisible to warder’s sight. All his magics appear as they would for anyone else. There’s no trace of his unique ability.”
Lisi raised an eyebrow.
“Wait,” said Reir. “Then why the hells did you co to S&S? Like, let’s say that I believe you beca a skilled multimage in the space of five months courtesy of so magical not-magic bullshit that happened to you, why co here, where you’re going to have to wait two years anyhow? Unless you can learn without getting inducted? But that would raise all kinds of questions.”
“I’m fast-tracked,” I replied. “One week of classes, then I get to go down.”
“Are you fucking kidding ?” asked Lisi, slamming her fist against the table.
“There’s a special procedure in place,” I replied.
“For soone with ga powers?” asked Reir, in his most smartass tone.
“No,” said Lisi. “For special circumstances, rhannu or renacim or sothing like that.” She stared at . “But you’re human.”
“And that’s why the student council is a little displeased with ,” I said.
“You’re going to pick up two magics inside a week,” said Lisi, staring at . “At what proficiency?”
“Probably four to eight years of study,” I replied.
“Intensive study or regular study?” asked Lisi.
“Uh,” I replied. “It varies, I think, but regular study?”
“aning with all of the normal classes that we’re forced to take for no reason other than desire by the athenaeums to make people take their ti learning things?” she asked.
“Yes,” I said.
“Wait,” said Reir. “What level are you? How high are your skills?”
“Level 14,” I said. “Most skills in the 30s.”
“What?” asked Reir. “Hold on a sec.” He held out his hand. “Paper.”
Nothing happened.
“Joon, get it to do the thing,” said Reir.
“Manners might help,” said Bethel with the kind of smile a person usually had before engaging in cannibalism.
“Papers, please,” said Reir with a huff.
“Oh, I ant sincere manners, not the pretense of them,” said Bethel.
“Oh mighty magical thing, could I please have so paper?” asked Reir.
A sheet of paper appeared in front of him, to the side of his neglected salad. He stared at it for a mont. “Pen too.”
A pen fell from the air above him and hit him in the head.
“Be more considerate next ti,” said Bethel. “And eat your salad.”
Reir picked up the pen and rubbed his head, then began scribbling on the paper.
“What are you doing?” asked Lisi.
“Math,” said Reir. “Okay, level 14, per the rules we played under, you should have 31 points. By the discounting rules, that’s 17 total in the abilities, which would an above 50 in all your skills.” He looked up at . “Right?”
“Juniper’s points weren’t all put into a single category,” said Amaryllis.
Reir looked at in disbelief. “But … why?”
I really didn’t want to re-litigate this. “Is that really your question?” I asked. “Of all the things that you could be asking right now, that’s what you want to focus on?”
“I an,” said Reir, looking a little helpless. “Yeah?”
“Multiple ability dependence is bad,” I said. “I’m fully aware of that. But when I ca to Aerb, it was in the Risen Lands, with undead all around , and Physical was the only thing that was going to keep intact. Even after we got our asses out of there, I had to deal with problems that really couldn’t be solved by ntal or Social.” I resisted the urge to glance at Amaryllis, because I knew that point was debatable. “So yes, I changed course, I multiclassed, sue .”
“What does that an, ‘multiclassed’?” asked Reir.
“Nevermind,” I replied. “The build is suboptimal at present, yes, and it’s a generalist build in a system that doesn’t seem to give a lot of preference to those. I’m a multimage, and I’ll probably be one of the best in the world in another month or two, and we’re going to have to hope that’s enough.”
“I’m in,” said Lisi. She was staring at . “Whatever you want from , I’m fully committed.”
“You figured it out,” said Amaryllis.
Lisi nodded.
“Sorry,” said Reir, looking between us. “Figured what out?”
“He’s Uther Penndraig,” said Lisi, gesturing at . “Or sothing similar.”
“What?” asked Reir, looking over. “No, that’s insane.” He looked at Amaryllis, then back at , and I suppose it must have dawned on him that we weren’t denying it. “That’s … of all the fucking people in the world?”
“Yes,” I said. And it’s worse, because I was the one to create a large portion of this world. “Sorry.”
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