Ar'Kendrithyst

Erick opened the front door to the house. “Hello, Krigea. We just got through packing the books away.” He stepped to the side, toward the crates of books ready to be taken back to the Headmaster. “Come on in.”

Krigea, the seafoam green short orcol liaison between Erick and the Headmaster, paused. She stared at Erick. She asked, “You uh. You are?—” She stepped past the dense air over the door and said, “You are you. Sorry. I heard but I did not expect the change to be so drastic.”

Erick smiled, saying, “Neither did I. Apparently Fatigue Immunity is rather rare.”

Krigea stepped toward two of the crates, saying, “Rather rare, yes. Only 2 or 3 people out of a thousand are Scions of Vitality, when you take into account the number of people who never reach 50 in a single Stat, and even then you’re only looking at 3 out of a hundred.” She gestured to the crates. “Did you discover how to [Scan] through [Polymorph]?”

“No, but if [Eyes of the Goddess] still manages to narrow down the range to 500 kilometers, then I think I might be able to pull off the search the rest of the way. Still not sure, though.” Erick said, “If I can find her killers then I will do that. Hopefully she’ll go away after she’s had her revenge.”

Krigea hummed a little, then said, “Hopefully.” She perked her head up. She paused. She looked to Erick, and said, “The Headmaster would like to speak to you before you go.”

“Sure. I already have a pot of coftea prepared. I’m just waiting for him to show.”

“Then I will say goodbye, Archmage Flatt. The Headmaster will be right along as soon as he finishes a prior engagement.” Krigea put her hands on the crates. “Until we meet again.”

She blipped away in bright green light, taking the crates with her. Erick stared at the spot she vanished from for a moment. And then he went to the kitchen and conjured a [Heat Ward] to get the coftea brewing. After a moment, he decided to do a few more things upstairs in one of the empty rooms.

It wasn’t too long before a bright gold light blipped on the other side of the open door to Windy Manor. The Headmaster stood outside the dense air that protected the house, waiting. Erick, who was sitting on the couch reading, promptly dismissed Krigea from [Prismatic Ward]’s permissions and included the Headmaster.

He stood up and greeted the Headmaster, “Welcome, Headmaster.”

“Good afternoon, Erick.”

“Come on in. Come on in, the coftea is ready. How do you like yours?”

The Headmaster stepped into the house, saying, “With a dot of cream and a spoonful of sugar.”

Soon, the two of them were sitting around the coftea table, while a large pot of the hot brew sat on the table, next to extra cream and sugar. Erick had poured drinks for both of them then handed the Headmaster his mug. Both of them sipped their drinks.

The Headmaster said, “I hope you and your people have found your time at Oceanside to be time well spent.”

“We have.” Erick said, “Rats is only 30 people away from completing his [Greater Treat Wounds] quest, and he’s gained quite a lot of knowledge about many different diseases and parasites. Teressa is going strong with her Mana Sense. She’s out to 20 meters, and seeing an hour into the past. She’s almost qualified for [Witness] but I understand she needs to get to a full day in the past. Kiri has managed to make a [Familiar] with her own mana pool, just like Ophiel, as well as gained part of an education that I think was wrongfully denied to her before now. Poi is… Well I think he’s happier now that I’ve learned to defend myself a little bit better.” Erick smirked, adding, “Though the target on my back seems to be getting bigger by the day.”

The Headmaster smiled. “That it is.” He added, “It is a shame that Kiri did not try to come to Oceanside before she went to the Tower. If you feel it prudent, you may tell her that I am aware of the situation around her unfortunate dealings with the nobility and the professors at the Tower. There is already a slight shakeup happening over there, but I cannot deal with that situation myself; I have merely sent a fixer in that direction. What happened to her will likely happen again, but hopefully not with the Tower’s sanction.”

Erick almost asked after what exactly happened to Kiri, but that seemed a violation, so he did not.

The Headmaster must have understood Erick’s facial expression, because after he sipped his coftea, he said, “As far as I am aware, it was nothing overtly horrible. Just people in charge abusing their authority, as some people are wont to do. It is a problem I find quite a lot, now and then, and that I am usually able to pinch before it becomes a real problem.” He repeated, “Usually.”

Erick relaxed. He said, “Besides all that, I learned a great deal more than I thought I would.”

“As have I.” The Headmaster said, “I will not be asking after your methodology on light, though. Not right now, and likely not ever.”

“No?” Erick was taken aback. He said, “I actually have some of the experiments set up in the rooms up there, waiting for us.” He thumbed toward the second floor of the house, to his work room. “I even asked everyone to go and do whatever they wanted for an hour or two, while we talked in private. I’d much prefer to teach someone like you all of this, so that you know what to look for when someone invariably turns this into a weapon.”

The Headmaster hummed, small and concerned, glancing toward the second floor.

Erick waited.

The Headmaster refilled his coftea, as he said, “There is a fact about magic that is seldom taught in arcanaeum, because it is a life lesson best learned outside of academia. That fact is this: Everyone’s magic is different. If you know what you’re about, then you can do great things with your own personal foundation holding you high, and strong.” He sipped from his mug, then said, “My light magic might not fit in as nicely as it could in this world, into this New Cosmology, but I have developed it with a great deal of my self invested into the magic. To cut a tangent short: I know what I’m about.”

Erick smiled. “Poi says the same thing.”

The Headmaster spoke without sarcasm, “He is a wise man.” He paused, as he turned serious, saying, “Going back to that tangent, for I feel you might actually need to hear this… There is another meaning to that notion. When you stretch it out, and apply it to every single archmage you will ever see, you will find that they all have one thing in common. You have it. Poi has it, though he is not one to actually reach for tier 8 spells, but all of the spells he does have are well made and low cost. Hocnihai had it. Kiri, if she manages to find herself, she will likely gain it later in life, though this business with her using [Lightshape] in her [Familiar] does muddy the waters. I am sure she will eventually find her Truth again. Your daughter is actually a lot more lost than you might suspect. She wants to be everything, and [Polymage] can do that, but it is a dearth of vision that will limit her [Polymage] to name-only. But she is young. Kiri is young, too. Some never find their Truth, but I suspect those two will eventually find their way.

“I say all this to tell you, and warn you, that Truth is a big deal in magic. The Script limits this to a major extent, because of what we suspect malformed Truth did to us.

“The Old Wizards had Truth in abundance, you see. Too much, is the theory. None of us know the whole story, but enough of us know enough to understand the most likely culprits for what actually ripped apart the Old Cosmology. Insanity. Sociopathy. Narcissism and megalomania. Any of these taken to the extreme and nurtured in a climate of hatred and vengeance would create an alchemist’s cache, waiting for a spark to blow the whole thing.

“It is not a mistake that Ar’Kendrithyst is full of evil personified, or that Melemizargo enacted the Cursed Blood against his fellow dragons.

"Then there are the Ancients that live around the world; old and new monsters that constantly work for the Darkness to ensure the destruction of people like you and I. The Quiet War is yet another facet of Melemizargo’s master plan to rip apart the Script and Veird, for you see it was he that showed the Old Demons how to manipulate the Script to destroy the alvani people, and to create the incani.”

Deep worry pulsed through Erick’s mind and body as the Headmaster spoke of Jane, but that emotion was almost overshadowed by the cold that came over him when the Headmaster spoke of Ar’Kendrithyst. Numbness came after that, as Erick listened.

“Fighting those Shades will be a large undertaking, not only for the fight itself, but that they might use such a fight to precipitate a truly disastrous event.” The Headmaster said, “Melemizargo doesn’t lose, you see. He is insane in the way that all gods are insane; they are Truths that exist beyond the knowing of mortal and immortal alike. The gods anchor themselves to the people of this world and our shared needs in order to keep their minds in tune with our own. Melemizargo usually doesn’t anchor himself in this way. But recently, he has.

“This sort of anchoring is always followed by some awful event. Speculating on the nature of such an event is best left to other gods, but it is up to you and I to do our part to not be swayed by the Darkness.” He added, “And I got a little away from myself, with all of that.”

The both of them sipped coftea for a minute.

Eventually, Erick said, “I thought you wanted to talk about monster hunting and the light slime dungeon payments and the nature of light— Or... Not that last one, at least.”

The Headmaster said, “Sometimes tangents are important.”

Erick breathed out, thinking.

The Headmaster sat straight, saying, “Monsters come and go, but they hardly ever ‘go’ without the assistance of people like you and I. I would be happy to arrange for a similar situation as you have with your Adventurer Guildmaster Mog, though our timelines would be much more reasonable than needing you to defend from an attack on Oceanside, which is something I would never ask of you.” He said, “I have arrangements like this with many archmages the world over, to solve various problems like an Ancient Unicorn that might pop up from time to time. Your ability to multiply your mana through Ophiel’s own pool is a rare ability indeed, and would put you at the top of such a list, if you wish, since this ability makes you able to be the first sword in many confrontations, without risking the rest of my people. I would see you paid accordingly for your troubles.

He continued, “As for the dungeon. I have spent over three million gold getting that place up and running, and though I will be charging a hundred thousand gold per [Lightwalk], of which I expect two per month, I would appreciate it if you would not take advantage of your option to utilize the space until I have gotten some of my investment back. You will, of course, be getting 25 thousand per [Lightwalk] produced.” He looked around at the Manor, saying “This location is 5000 gold per month of maintenance, paid mainly to the groundskeepers for all the work they do and the protection they provide, though a thousand does go to taxes. Do you wish to keep Vinsez and Powell in employment? Or should I instruct them to look elsewhere, or to rejoin the pool of adventuring Elites?”

Erick smiled. He was much more comfortable talking about money and fiscal responsibility than about evil Truths that plagued the world that suddenly seemed more dangerous than ever before. He said, “Vinsez and Powell have been wonderful, and I would see them continue to keep the grounds of Windy Manor in top shape. I would pay them for their time guarding the residence out of the money coming to me from the dungeon.” He added, “But how about that lightmask I put in there? That’s the real money maker.”

The Headmaster set down his mostly empty coftea cup on the table, and began, “25 percent.”

Erick countered, “A hundred percent.”

“What?” The Headmaster balked. “Impossible! No way.”

“A hundred percent of sales, and any enchantments have to be made by the person questing for [Lightwalk]. No exceptions.”

“That is so arbitrary.” The Headmaster put on a professional, disapproving frown. “35 percent, and I will still use it to make equipment for my own people.”

“Nope.” Erick said, “Come on now!” He explained, “It’s a reward for finishing the purpose of the dungeon. It’s gotta be special. Either you let people quest for it or it just needs to get erased.”

The Headmaster quickly said, "50 percent and I will be using that ‘lightmask’ to make equipment for my own people.”

“I can go in there and erase it, you know.” Erick joked, “I could erase it right now from right here.”

“Do you think I would be irresponsible with such a capability? Is that what you’re trying to prevent?”

“Are you dodging the purpose of a quest item at the bottom of a dungeon?”

“This is not some adventure you have created using my resources. It is a farm, with products growing for eventual sale. Surely you see the benefits of allowing this new magic into the world under the control of someone who would do right by it?”

“What I see is people having higher Stats than what you’ve seen for the vast majority of your time on Veird.”

“Now you’re just being contrary. By your own volition you have spread Stat items near and far—”

“Oh. That’s right. You can’t do the diamond growing anyway. I mean. I guess you can just pluck them from the walls of the dungeon, but that seems rather short sighted. But you can’t do the silver coating, either.” Erick said. “I guess I’ll take 75 percent, and let you have at it.”

“… 50 percent.”

“Fine fine.” Erick said, “75 percent, and I want you to at least respect the fact that someone should quest for [Lightwalk] before they go make themselves an item.” He added, “You were just talking of Truths. This could be one of them. That was certainly the intention I put into that lightmask, anyway.”

“… I will let those who quest for [Lightwalk] make themselves an item, if they wish, for free.” The Headmaster said, “But I am going to be experimenting with that lightmask myself, and equipping my people with items that will ensure they can overcome the monsters of this world. I stay out of most politics, and most personal problems, but people come to me expecting me to kill their local terrors without issue or complication. Artifact Stat items will ensure that my people don’t die on those frontlines, Erick.”

Erick offered, “Want me to enchant a mobile purple lightmask on a diamond for you, or something? You can leave the one down there for questers.”

The Headmaster paused. He said, "Okay.” He added, “Done. 75 percent.”

Erick smiled. That was a better rate than Erick had expected, for something anyone could do once they understood the trick. He poured out the last of the coftea from the stone pot, into his cup, and into the Headmaster’s. With a thought, he [Cleanse]d the pot, spilling a tiny stream of thick air into the room. With another thought, he cast a permanent, two meter wide purple lightmask onto the coftea pot. Everything turned purple, because he was in the lightmask effect. He set the pot on the table in front of the Headmaster.

The old dragon looked down at the purple pot and chuckled. He picked up his full mug saying, “Cheers,” then took a swig.

“Cheers,” Erick said, then sipped from his mug. “Who are you going to sell to, anyway? Don’t give me a line about 'only your Elites', please.”

The Headmaster laughed once. “That was not a lie! I will only sell to them, and only to those who prove themselves capable of the responsibility of having an artifact.” He said, “I outfit my Elites well, but they still have to pay for the best equipment. They get money for this by questing the world over, to rid us of the more dangerous monsters and reap the rewards of those endeavors, or by working their way through monsters on the Lesser Quest board to acquire the grand rads necessary to buy that gear.” The Headmaster said, “The All-Stat items I make from this purple pot will join those already for sale to those who qualify. I will likely charge 10,000 per ring, or considerably less if I cannot figure a way to duplicate your coating and thus make them artifacts.”

Erick offered, “Do you want to buy diamonds from me?”

“No. Thank you.” He said, “I prefer pearls, and I have my own resources for that. I will not be taking the diamonds from the dungeon, either. Those little slimes truly do like all the sparkly lights.” He chuckled. “I feel almost a kinship, there.”

“The option for me to sell you diamonds is open, but that spell should also be in the Script in 6 months, anyway, or something like that.” Erick asked, “Unless you can bypass that restriction as the Second?”

“I cannot. When the time comes, I will have to spend a point, just like everyone else. The Script of the Registrar is a lot more open than most, but that comes with just as many restrictions. I will likely go the harder route, though, and try to recreate the spell myself, to save that point.” The Headmaster set down his empty mug and picked up the purple pot. He stood, and said, “It has been a pleasure, Erick Flatt. You are welcome back at Oceanside at any time.”

“Thanks for having me.” Erick stood, saying, “I might be back, soon enough. I still haven’t solved the [Polymorph] problem, but I might not need to if the [Eyes of the Goddess] says all of my targets are in the same location. Maybe all I need is some normal sleuthing to find them. Or maybe someone else has done all of that sleuthing for me, and I just have to ask a spell a question based on physical form.”

“It is possible. You should know that we never got a lead on the people who attacked Messalina. If we had, I would have sent you off with some mementos from those hunters. If you do feel the need to communicate with that woman, don’t let her get into your head more than she already has.” The Headmaster warned, “She is more than capable of ruining your life.”

“She’s already put a fair dint into my plans by making me respond to her presence at all, but I understand what you’re saying.”

The Headmaster looked into Erick’s eyes for a short moment. He said, “You did not ask, but I feel you should know that the unknown pixie was not a spy for Messalina. He was a distant family member that was visiting without checking in first. Thanks to him, we did discover that the colonies in Nergal’s jungles are in complete disarray, but the pixie teenager knew nothing beyond that. We let him go, with our apologies for his rough treatment and an offer of assistance to those still living in Nergal.”

“Thanks for telling me.”

The Headmaster nodded, then blipped away in a shattering of purple light, taking the purple coftea pot with him. Normal light returned. Gold shimmers hung in the air for a brief moment, before that too, vanished.

Erick sagged back down onto the couch, giving a heavy sigh as he tilted his head back and stared at the high ceiling. Whatever complicated emotion was passing through his head, relief was a major part of it.

Relief from securing funding for further enchanting work, to securing the release of his All-Stat items into the world in a way that put the Headmaster in the line of fire, instead of just himself, to relief that he hadn’t pointed out that pixie only to have them killed—

Erick almost punched himself. He needed to get over that particular emotion if he was ever to lead a fight against a Shade.

Erick breathed deep. He sat up. He removed the Headmaster from [Prismatic Ward]s permissions as he simultaneously spotted a small spider on the edge of the window, near the ground.

… On a whim, Erick blanked everyone's [Prismatic Ward] permissions, then inundated a purging pulse of magic through the spell in what felt like an appropriate thing to do, if he wanted to get rid of every possible permission he could have ever added. He had been subjected to more than a little bit of mind control over the past few months, and all the spiders around the house warned him that maybe he had accidentally invited other unknown people into his space.

The air around him solidified as the dense air of [Prismatic Ward] held him tight. For a brief moment, he could not breathe. He immediately added himself back to the spell’s permissions, and breathed easy.

The spider by the window didn’t seem to care. It moved a little, as the air around it shook with Erick’s uncommon magical demand, but the spider settled back into his waiting position soon enough. Erick poked it with his Handy Aura, just to be sure that what he was seeing, was what he was seeing. The spider scurried a foot before stopping.

Erick said to no one in particular, “I guess spiders are normal, home-things.” He stared down at the spider, saying, “But [Scry] doesn’t fly through solid spaces like in this [Ward], so whoever would use you to spy must use a complicated spell. It probably kills you when they use it, too. Maybe? I don’t know enough to say that, actually.”

He began methodically adding the people he trusted back into [Prismatic Ward]s permissions. Jane, Poi, Kiri, Sunny, Teressa, Rats, Ophiel—

He called Ophiel in from outside. The winged [Familiar] blipped onto the couch beside him, already singing in violins and harps. Erick patted the little guy. It was time to go back to Spur. He called everyone back to the Manor with a short telepathic message.

- - - -

Bags were packed. Vinsez and Powell were bade farewell on the front lawn of Windy Manor, and the [Prismatic Ward] around the house was taken down. The groundskeepers would keep the place nice and neat while Erick was away, and Erick would pay them out of money that came from the dungeon. They both smiled at that proclamation. They were happy to have the stability Erick’s decision afforded them, and they were happy for the gardens, too. Powell was beginning to really enjoy her lemon bars and cinnamon rolls, and that was fine, because she was eating for two, now. She and Vinsez would be mother and father, sooner than they thought.

Erick stumbled over his words as he congratulated them. He had no idea they were together. They never acted that way at all. Erick quickly rummaged around in his packed bags to find a suitable present. He gave each of them a pair of his old All-Stat rings. They were visibly taken aback at this, but Erick insisted. They accepted the rings with a heartfelt ‘thank you’.

Erick took one last look at Windy Manor, the green forest all around the two meter high walls, his garden of lemon trees and potatoes and cinnamon trees, and at the expansive ocean to the west, past the steep cliff at the edge of the property. The wind blew in from the salty ocean, carrying the mana ocean on the eternal breeze. This place smelled of travel and vacation and magic, but Erick’s time on Oceanside had been work, work, and more work. And now it was time for even more work. He smiled to himself, thinking that retirement was no longer 15 or 20 years away, but maybe 200.

That was a much better thought than thinking of an early end because of a mistake already made, or a misstep in the days or decades to come.

He turned back toward the house. He’d be back here in a week or so to pick up Jane. Hopefully this Messalina mess would be over by then.

Erick, Poi, Kiri, Teressa, and Rats, boarded Erick’s [Teleporting Platform], along with all of their stuff. Books, bags, luggage, equipment made and raw materials never used, all of that formed a pile almost as large as Teressa in the center of the platform, tied down with ropes and wrapped in cloth. Erick cast an Ophiel, which then cast a full strength [Prismatic Ward] onto the platform. Dense air resolved into a nice bubble that would protect them from the wind and anything else that might happen along the short trip.

Erick paused. And then he went.

They, and all of their stuff, vanished from Windy Manor in a white blip. They reappeared over the oceans. A few more blips took them to the mountains. Sunny and Ophiel followed behind, under their own power so the trip did not incur more mana costs than necessary; all of the stuff the group had picked up over their nearly three months in Oceanside already amounted to an extra five people in the [Teleport] cost calculations.

It was 14 blips total to get all the way back to Spur. Erick might have been regenerating 8 mana a second, but that was not enough mana to cover the full distance. They took two fifteen minute breaks on the way home; Erick wanted to be on full mana when he arrived. Soon, the tan and orange sands of the Crystal Forest spread out below them in all directions. It was a nice sight.

Soon, they were home.

- - - -

Home was a pile of debris and dirt half a story tall, cordoned off from the rest of the mostly-empty Human District by small juts of stone, each with a warning against trespassing inscribed at the top of those juts.

Erick set down his [Teleporting Platform] and all of his passengers, a few meters in front of the still-standing front door of his house, and a few meters away from his greeting party. Three people had shown up to welcome him back to Spur. Guardmaster Merit, all orange scaled and dressed in silver armor, Silverite, who wore a nice white dress over her quicksilver body, and brown-haired Ramizi, who stood in attendance as the representative of the Headmaster’s Elites.

“Morning, Erick,” Merit said. “You’re looking rather not like your usual self.”

Ramizi’s eyes went a little wide, as his face briefly turned a shade of pink. He said, “Hel— Hello. Hello again, archmage.”

Erick smiled as he stepped off his his platform, but remained inside the radius of his [Prismatic Ward], for now, saying, “I got a nice bonus for adding to the magical knowledge of Veird, just the other day. I was as surprised as anyone else.”

Silverite said, “We are prepared.”

“Right to it, then,” Erick said.

“I eagerly await your results!” Merit smiled wide, showing sharp fangs; waiting.

Ramizi cleared his throat, then said, “Our people are in position.”

Erick said, “Then let’s find the targets.”

Erick launched [Cascade Imaging] into the sky, just high enough to catch all of Spur in its effect, and eventually give a good, fully realized miniature view of the city. White light began to spill out of a ball in the sky, as a fog appeared on the ground. Erick stepped back from the forming fog, moving the dense air surrounding the platform away, along with all of their stuff, and Erick’s passengers; Kiri, Poi, Rats, and Teressa, had yet to get off the platform. Spur was a lot safer than when they first discovered that dream worms were everywhere, but Poi was the cautious type, and this was the plan they went with, for coming back to Spur.

Merit had approved their caution, when Poi spoke to her and Silverite both, earlier. This caution seemed to have been necessary, considering that tiny blue dots began to appear on the resolving foggy image of Spur.

“Gods to the east and west!” Merit exclaimed, “There are still dream worms in town!”

Ramizi glared at the map. “Those little fuckers.”

Silverite frowned. “I guess there are.” She grumbled, “We must still have a pixie problem, too.”

Lines of telepathic intent radiated from Merit, Silverite, and Ramizi. Erick just watched, as the three of them controlled the situation from here, directing their forces all around the city to capture and contain the exposed threat. Buildings and streets and city walls gradually fully formed out of the fog, as blue dots began to vanish, one after the other.

“Shit.” Ramizi said, “Some of the infected are [Teleport]ing away.”

Erick said, “If you can collect a piece of them then I can track them, as long as they don’t [Polymorph].”

Merit said, “Heard and understood.”

Silverite said, “Search for pixies. Forget the worms, for now.”

Merit glanced at Silverite, but said nothing.

Erick renewed the spell, searching for ‘pixie’. Several blue dots appeared.

Silverite steeled herself as she said, “Ignore the one at the Courthouse. Capture or eliminate the rest. Those are the threat.”

“Understood.” Merit said, “Adjustments of targets disseminated.”

Ramizi said, “Oceanside will follow your lead.”

“They’re running,” Merit said. “They know we see them.”

Erick watched the map as Merit, Silverite, and Ramizi went silent. Blue dots began to disappear. Not one minute passed, before every single blue dot was gone, except for the one at the Courthouse. As soon as the pixies understood they were seen, they vacated the city quick as a blip.

Erick and his people had yet to leave the safety of his [Prismatic Ward].

Silverite said, “Back to searching for worms, please. We will take the targets carefully, this time.” As Erick tuned the map back to ‘dream worms’ and blue dots reappeared, Silverite added, “Sorry that your return wasn’t met with a better outcome. I had hoped… It doesn’t matter what I had hoped.” She gestured at the map, as blue dots began to reappear. “Hopefully this is Caradogh Pogi’s doing. No one has found him, either, but he was already a dangerous man before he began to work with Messalina. Now, he’s a dangerous man with nothing left to lose.”

Erick said, “We can find him, too.” He turned to Ramizi, saying, “I heard the Headmaster’s Elites hit his house but found nothing, but did you find like… a hairbrush, or something?”

“Yes.” Ramizi said, “We’ve found many items to use for a tracking magic. I’ll see to it that you get a few of them. What do you need, exactly?”

“The biological bit at the root of a hair. Blood. Some physical part of Caradogh.”

Ramizi nodded, as he turned back to the map, saying, “We will get you your pieces as soon as possible.”

Erick began moving the platform, with all of his people, closer to the house. “I’m going to remake the house, then.”

Merit did not look up from the map, as she said, “This is a big help, Erick.”

He nodded, and left them to their work.

He turned to the house. It had been destroyed so that it couldn't be used against him; so that Messalina or anyone else couldn't place traps or parasites in the structure, to lie in wait for Erick to walk into their trap. As a pile of rubble and sand it was much easier to prevent those sorts of surprises.

Erick flew Ophiel into the center of the house and cast [Mend] through the [Familiar], linking it with the Mana Shaping option to turn a targeted spell into an area spell, for 500 mana, and Aurify, to hit the whole house. Power poured through Erick, through Ophiel, soaking into the piles of sand below.

[Mend] took hold on the front and rear doors that still stood like monoliths poking up from the debris. Sand flowed upward, turning to walls, to staircases. Erick smiled, as stone turned to home, once again. He smiled wider, as he saw beds and dressers and mirrors and tables, many things that had been broken in the destruction, come back together, back into position, before walls covered them up.

A blue box appeared.

Mending Aura, long range, 572 MP per second

Restore a very large, complicated location to its prime. Time since the structure was destroyed may alter final results. Automatically repair all objects in the area of effect.

Minor ability to affect magical objects.

The house came together in several seconds. Erick’s southern mage tower lifted straight up from the sand. Jane’s northern tower rose into the air like a building collapsing in reverse. Balconies and doors and glass windows reappeared out of the destruction, like they had never been broken or shattered. Al’s somewhat-Victorian architecture solidified out of the [Mend]ing stone, like a resolving image.

When it was done, Erick summoned an Ophiel and used that mana to cast a [Prismatic Ward] around the house. He would personally recast that spell later, and utilize his Clarity bonus to double the effectiveness of that dense air, when his own mana recovered to full. For now, he just walked to the front door, opened it up, and stepped inside.

The ground was flat, the walls were straight, the staircase in the center of the house was wide and beautiful and curved upward just how Erick remembered, and it was all done in wonderful orange stone. Orange was a nice color. The air was dry compared to Oceanside, of course, but even that was a nice return to normalcy.

Erick was home again.

Jane was still at Oceanside and she was technically vulnerable right now, but the Headmaster was watching her, waiting for a reprisal from Caradogh or Messalina. Erick might not have personally discussed that with the dragon in their last talk, but Poi had done a lot of his own organization for leaving Oceanside.

Alibeth wouldn’t be the only highly qualified person watching for some errant Mind Mage to try to make a run at Erick through his daughter. If anyone attacked Jane’s location, they were in for a very big surprise. Jane was safe as could be for being unconscious.

Erick breathed deep the air of Spur. It smelled of clean stone, and hard edges. He turned around and waved his people inward, saying, “Come on in.”

Teressa hopped off the floating platform as Rats began to untie the wrapped luggage.

An hour later, the house was mostly put together right, but there were problems. Scattered jars of coftea and rotten potatoes and other food stuffs littered the kitchen and a few other nearby rooms. Mirrors had [Mend]ed, but needed to be physically placed back on the walls. Beds were out of position. Pipes were clogged with various problems. The whole house was dark; every single wardlight needed to be remade, but temporary ones went up for now. When Erick’s mana reached full, he recast the [Prismatic Ward] around the house, properly, himself.

Erick fixed many of the more pressing issues with a [Cleanse], or a [Scry] down the pipes to see, and fix, the blockages here and there. Kiri, Poi, Teressa, and Rats, each attended to their own places first, then to the rest of the house.

Eventually Erick was in his tower, looking for more problems. Boxes of diamond spheres and their contents laid scattered everywhere; he had actually found some of those orbs downstairs in the kitchen, blocking the water pipes. His lathes were intact, but on the floor. The water system for capturing platinum rain from the outside to funnel it into the tower, into troughs, seemed intact, but he wouldn’t know for sure until he tested that system. Erick smiled. All in all, the tower had fared okay.

He looked up.

The globes of Earth’s Solar System and the Sun, that Erick had made with his first applications of [Stoneshape], that he had hung on the ceiling, were gone. They had not been repaired in the [Mend]ing. They were simply absent.

Erick frowned. He sighed. He began picking up diamond orbs and setting his tower to rights.

Outside, Merit and Silverite and Ramizi continued to ask for further [Scan] targets. They occasionally sent him a telepathic request, and he responded with an Ophiel on site, near the map, recasting [Cascade Imaging] as needed. A few times they asked him to track a specific person using a sample from that person. Erick left his cleaning efforts behind for a moment then went to the front door to retrieve whatever sample they had, and did as they asked. He would experiment with having Ophiel cast his DNA tracking version of [Cascade Imaging] later, so he wouldn't have to personally cast the spell, but for now the city was full of problems that required immediate action.

Erick wasn’t the only one cleaning house today.