The sun rose upon two cities located to the north and south sides of an expansive river delta, that was much more ocean than river, for that river served as a spillway for the artificial cycle that was Veird’s water. High above Stratagold, or really, Archmage’s Rest, the Surface’s oceans went down a great hole in the Surface, down, down, down into the Underworld. By contrast, there were a few locations where the water went up. The headwaters of the Curio River, located in the Grand Ridge Mountains just north of the Wasteland Kingdoms, was one of those locations. Millions of traders and monsters and all sorts of brave people rode that upward ocean, up to the Surface, where they then flowed down the Curio River.
The Curios had occasionally and historically been one of the largest trading hubs on the Surface for exactly this reason, but instead of being prosperous and beautiful as it had in ages past, this land was a land of pirates and thieves and Sovereign warlords.
Scattered islands in the Curio River held massive fortifications that served as fisheries and trading hubs, and the lands of the nobility, almost like the Alluvial District in Eralis, over in Songli. Similar to that city on the other side of Veird, the Curios had once been a city split by the actual river delta, though that original location was a pockmarked land of craters filled with almost-saltwater, while all the current governing of both Curios was done about 200 kilometers down-ocean from that delta.
In this present day, the Curios were almost 500 kilometers apart from each other, separated by the brackish waters of the Curio River and Wikwacchi Ocean. Because of this distance, it was easy to see why both Sovereign Cities chose to tell the world that they were entirely different cities, for it was hard for anyone to logically claim two cities 500 kilometers apart were, in fact, the same city.
Both places had populations comparable to any of the other Cities, too, with North Curio having a population of around 125,000 people, and South Curio clocking in at around 150,000. In all normal respects, they were two very different cities.
And yet, they chose to host their peace talks together; they chose to speak as one.
- - - -
The ocean-river was calm around the island that Erick’s allies had fortified out of a cratered, warfront island about an hour ago. It hadn’t taken much to reinforce the place, for Kromolok had a person with [Cityshape], and that worked well enough to turn this no-man’s-land into a workable island. The new ‘peace island’ was about 50 meters on the short side, oval-shaped, and pointed on the ends, so that the river could flow around the island, rather than over it. The island was mostly flat, solid stone, and located about ten meters above sea level.
The island that the Curios had wanted to use for their talk was about five kilometers north-east of this one, so the Curios hadn’t needed to adjust much of their plans/traps. If they managed to adjust all of their traps, whatever those might be, then Erick would be impressed, but he figured he could power through the re-laid trap, anyway. Kromolok and Erick’s people agreed with this assessment.
And so, Erick, Kromolok, and Quilatalap stepped down onto the southwest side of the oval island. Dragons floated through the sky, and under the waves. A [Zone of Peace] held in the air all around, locking down all offensive magic—
A flicker of blue magic resolved itself into a Platform about a kilometer away, carrying four people. That Platform floated forward, approaching from the northeast, to land upon that part of the island. The people stepped off their Platform, and the Platform vanished.
There was a man in blue robes of office, a woman in metal armor with touches of blue, a woman in yellow robes of office, and a man in metal armor with touches of yellow. The people in armor stood back, so they were obviously guards for the man and the woman in robes.
Blue robe was a man named Oron, who spoke for North Curio, who followed the ‘Crushing Depths’ magical tradition of Ocean Magic common to the north. Yellow robe was a woman named Doria, who spoke for South Curio, who followed the ‘Thieving Hand’ magical tradition of Air Magic common to the south.
They were both the second in command of their cities, for King Sook of the North and King Xaro of the south were missing in action.
As the two groups neared each other, Erick opened the talks with, “Your leaders truly will not appear in these talks, eh? The cities are truly under your control?”
The Curios did not expect to get right to it, but they recovered fast enough.
Oron spoke, “Our Kings have left us, taking their fortunes and their most trusted people with them. We know not where they have gone, but in light of their betrayals in both leaving us like this, and in incurring your ire, we are willing to do what must be done to ensure a peaceful transfer of power into your hands.” Oron glanced to his South Curio counterpart.
Doria took a half-step forward, saying, “The Curios stand united in this manner. In return for a peaceful surrender, we ask for some conditionals.”
“Make your demands. Let’s see if what you want is anything near what I want.”
Oron and Doria didn’t like Erick’s second sentence, for in that phrasing he had exposed their true goals. They wanted to control exactly how this transfer went down, all in an effort to mitigate everything that Erick was planning on doing to their societies, and to hopefully recapture their full power over the course of years, or more. They probably hoped to assassinate Erick somewhere along the way, too.
Oron shared a telepathic link with Doria, and with their guards for a brief moment.
Oron said, “We would ask you to ensure the political power of the people you transform for at least a year.”
“Done. There will be no great upheaval of the social order right now, except in the cases where people do not want to continue what they were doing before I arrived. My people will lord over your people, though, in all things.”
Oron relaxed a little.
Doria said, “You will unite the Curios into one city, using Gates to link us.”
“When I can reach this far, I will do this.”
Doria relaxed, too.
Those two requests were their big requests, eh? Erick was a little surprised—
And then Doria said, “We will adjust the penalty for crimes against the state from execution, to Empathying, lining up every single person who breaks the law and handing them over to you, to do with as you see fit.” She waited.
“Acceptable.” And then Erick decided that they had spent enough time dallying with words over what he was going to do to their society, anyway. “I would require your lawmakers to be subject to the same Empathying, and for the first two years of this, I would be randomly patrolling your cities and Empathying those who are guilty of violence-against-people and generalized disruptive hatred. Muggers, thieves, face stealers, rapists, etcetera. Anyone who I see committing a crime might get an Empathying, at my discretion. When applicable, I will also be [Reincarnation]ing those people. Everyone I find will, of course, be given the same sort of Options that I have given Killtree and Charme. And also all of your current nobility and the people I deem as needing these Options will get these Options.”
The Curios tried not to scowl, or show their extreme dislike.
Oron flatly stated, “Then you would do to us what you have done to Killtree and Charme, leaving us with no alternative to allowing ourselves to be turned into caricatures of ourselves.”
“Imagine it as a partial Forgotten Campaign, if you must, for what must be Forgotten is your culture which kills all who Matriculate outside of your control.”
Doria’s eyes went wide as Erick mentioned ‘Forgotten Campaign’, and she was not the only one. But the people on Erick’s side had already had this discussion; they all knew what this action here looked like, committed by Erick and wrought working hand in hand.
Oron’s voice rose against his will, as he exclaimed, “These people we call commoners are animals, Wizard Flatt! We have done the best we can with the resources we have available!” He forced himself to relax a fraction, for he knew he was getting heated. “We do not need our way of life to be Forgotten.”
Erick nodded. “Which is why it is only a partial Forgetting. You’ll live. Your Cities will survive, unharmed by large scale devastation. The only thing that needs to change is the sort of environment where leaders are able to corrupt their entire nation into going to war with all the gods, all the wrought, all the dragons, and all the largest, most stable forces in this world. Because that is what you have done by going to war with me. You have done your people a disservice, Oron, Doria, and so, you will have this correction done to you so that, while your freedom will remain, perhaps such foolish actions will not be repeated in the future.” Erick said, “I do not seek to control you. I only seek to reform you and your people so that the horrors of your societies no longer exist. Afterward, you can do whatever you want with your own lives, under the oversight of my House and my dragons, of course.”
Those words hung heavy in the air for many silent seconds. A minute passed, as telepathic tendrils continued to flicker between the forces of North and South Curio. Doria and Oron glanced at each other, and so did their warrior counterparts. Erick caught almost all of their conversation himself, for he could easily mana sense the small flickers of mouths and throats moving in silent formation of thoughts.
After two silent minutes…
Oron said, “North Curios agrees to your demands.”
And then Doria said, “South Curio agrees to your demands,” and then she added, “But we would ask for South Curio to be the location of a mutually beneficial Gate to this land, so that we might better interact as societies.”
Erick forestalled any argument from Oron, who was gearing up to express his full displeasure at Doria, saying, “Every Sovereign City is likely getting at least one Gate, free of charge, except for the normal, published rates for the moving of goods. I’ll link up your Curios into one city, and give both sides equal access to the Gate Network as though they were different cities.”
As Doria’s expression turned to one of slight displeasure, Oron relaxed. There was a lot to read in those small expressions, but Erick didn’t need to do that right now, for he saw no overt hostility; he only saw compliance.
Erick asked, “Your people understand their Options, yes?”
Oron spoke for his own people, saying, “North Curio has many holdouts who have gone into hiding. You may root them out at your leisure, but most of us are prepared for what comes next. Many have filled out your [Reincarnation] paperwork.”
Doria said, “South Curio is ready to receive you, Wizard Flatt, with many people who expect to be changed awaiting the arrival of Ophiel, or a dragon. We hope that our easy surrender will grant us a measure of your mercy.”
Erick saw many things in that moment. From the small looks between Oron and Doria, Erick saw old, deep hatreds kept at bay by strong wills. He even saw an unexpected hope surge between both of them. The whole conversation had been fraught with nuance and unsaid words and a thousand old wounds reopened and then ignored in favor of unity in the face of ultimate transformation. And the conversation was over.
The two sides (three? The Curios were still technically two different cities right now) departed that central, eye-shaped island.
- - - -
In a matter of minutes, and with a great deal of reluctant local support, Erick had Ophiel begin herding people through [Gate]s, to central squares in both North Curio, and South Curio, where [Undertow Star]s, [Zone of Peace]s, and other such spellwork locked down the population, and made it much easier to transform the governments of the Curios.
Erick still threw out [Undertow Star]s across the skies of both coastal cities, using his magic and his dragons and other allies to root out those who would not come willingly. This effort was greatly aided by Oron and his people at North Curio, and Doria and her people at South Curio, but rather than dutifully report on their own side’s problems, they reported on the gross failures of each others’ cities.
Surprisingly, a lot of the populace of both Curios got the Empathy treatment, far more than those in Killtree and Charme, for both North Curio and South Curio had a slavery-export-to-Nergal problem.
But now, they didn’t have that problem anymore. Or at least it wouldn’t going forward.
- - - -
Over two days (with only 15 more attempted assassinations or overly offensive subterfuge! Amazing!) Erick solidified the transformation of the Curios, and also of Charme and Killtree, utilizing the very effective method of having everyone already involved in the Cities suddenly on the same page about making nice with each other, and with their citizenry. Old rivalries and old hates melted away under [Reincarnation] and [Blessing of Empathy]. Both Curios even spoke of moving back to being one city, while also speaking of changing their names, and giving up that old rivalry over ‘who was the true Curio’. As soon as Erick was able to make good on his promise to provide Gates to link the North with the South, he suspected that the city would truly become one.
The commoners were problems, though, constantly getting into murderous fights with each other, or with the new city guard, but those who got too murdery ended up with the same [Reincarnation] and Empathy treatment as the nobility. There were 2,500 cases of that happening. For those who stuck to simple words… Nothing really happened to them. A lot of people in roughspun cloth had a lot of angry things to say about their nobility being transformed on them, and about Erick himself, but they were all un-Matriculated, unthreatening, and unwilling to change those facts, so Erick ignored them; he had more important things to deal with.
Armies dissolved, as they were suddenly not needed, since there were no other armies to fight. A lot of people were still needed to combat the monsters that poured up from the Underworld, out of the Curio River, so a lot of soldiers transitioned into that sort of life. A few Empathy’d people were able to maintain defensive anti-monster magic formations, but what really kept the monsters away were some [Withering]s in the waters, some Nodes connecting those [Withering]s together, and some [Undertow Star]s providing a lot of continual power to those spells, through Draining power from all the monsters in the water. Erick did help a lot of simply-[Reincarnation]’d people to regain some levels, so they could resume the endless fight for their homeland, but Erick’s spells (and Matriculated nobility providing them with power) pulled most of that duty.
Seven days had passed since the start of this war, and by now the Dicers were getting antsy to participate in a large way. They had repeatedly requested to be allowed to participate in a larger way than following orders on his command, and so, now that four of the five Cities had fallen, Erick allowed the Dicers a mass migration. Many of those Dicers asked to be subjected to the same sort of transformation that Erick was giving the regular nobles of the Cities, so that they, too, might be elevated to power how Erick was elevating others to power, so that they could once again live in their homes, and directly make their homes better. Erick easily granted many of those requests, though he asked those Dicers who could fight monsters to rescind their requests, so they could guard their homes against those always-enemies. [Reincarnation] reset a person’s Status, after all, while [Blessing of Empathy] made it truly difficult for someone to commit harm against another living thing, and monsters counted in that restriction.
- - -
For as many people as existed in the Sovereign Cities during Erick’s war, there were stories unfolding about those people, but Erick had no time to follow any of them with the focus that they deserved. Shadow’s Feast was 3 days away, Pearl remained unconquered, and the royalty of the Cities were nowhere to be found.
- - - -
Inside a [Hasted Shelter] and [Fairy Stronghold], Erick lay in bed next to Quilatalap, thinking. The big green man was still sleeping lightly.
For the rest of the world, this war had been going on for 7 days, but for Erick, this war had been going on for over a month. 36 days so far. It had been 36 days for Quilatalap, too, for Erick’s boyfriend had been beside him this entire time. Figuratively in many cases, but literally, too—
Quilatalap stirred, breathing deep, waking. He blinked a bit. “Ah. Morning?”
Erick smiled a little, then glanced out the window. “Still morning, yup.”
The sky outside was pink and gold with sunrise, and it had been that way for the last several hours.
Quilatalap reached over and wrapped an arm around Erick, dragging him close, then whispering into the back of his head, “Does it have to be morning?”
Erick chuckled, feeling all the wonderful warmth of another person at his back. “We’ve got all the time in the world. Though I am eager to be done with this war.”
“Yup. Me too. It’s been a rather great war according to how these things are usually measured, but it’s still a war.” Quilatalap patted Erick on the chest, and then rolled out of bed, saying, “So let's end it and be done with the Cities.”
Erick rolled out of bed, too…
Over the past month, Erick had danced around Quilatalap about a single topic. At that moment he decided that the dance was over. “So... We’ve been keeping kinda… Quiet about it. But is this what a Forgotten Campaign is like?”
“Absolutely not,” Quilatalap said, suddenly serious as cancer, “Those things are completely without care for the people they affect and done so quickly and deeply that barely anyone has a chance to comprehend that they’re happening at all. Has Kromolok asked you to do one of those?”
Quilatalap and Kromolok did not get along. Sure, they might appear to be friendly enough when Erick was around, but they never spoke to each other, and they never looked at each other. Those two men did not like each other at all, which was why Erick had been avoiding this topic until now.
Erick answered honestly, “Kromolok has said that I might need to assist with a Campaign in the future, in order to repay the help they’re giving me right now… But I know he’s using the idea of an exchange of assistance as a cover for his baser evaluation that I must simply help, as a matter of course, if a Campaign should occur, and especially so if I should end up being the cause of one.”
Quilatalap frowned a little, then his frown relaxed. He began putting on his clothes that he had discarded to the back of a chair several hours ago. “… I suppose a softer Forgotten Campaign is probably the better way to do one of those, if one needs to be done. I just... don’t like how cast-happy the wrought have been with a few magics in the past that could have been monumentally interesting and productive to the world.”
Erick got dressed, too, as he asked, “Like what?”
Quilatalap frowned a little. “Ehh. They’re Silenced now, and I’d need to enact a ritual to tell you about them, but I can say that…” Quilatalap’s voice cut out as his lips flickered, hiding all of his words from Erick. Quilatalap stopped talking and his lips and throat and vocal cords came back into mana sensing. And then he said, “Guess I can’t even say that.”
Erick touched his ears and his fingers came away dry. With a bit of good nature in his voice, Erick said, “At least I can’t be injured by a casual mention of a Silenced topic.”
Quilatalap raised an eyebrow, looking Erick over. “Ah! I suppose not. Also, that reminds me of a warning I should give you: A sufficiently powerful person can use those Silences to injure others. This almost always results in the death of the user when they’re trying to cause injury… But it is a valid way to attack someone. It’s a tactic that will definitely be used against you… You know. Eventually.”
Erick chuckled. “Gods above, Quilatalap. Every time I think you’ve told me something that will make me worry from now until forever, you manage to top it not a day later.”
“… Do you want me to stop?”
“Absolutely not.” Erick walked toward the big man while also discarding his clothes and letting himself grow a fraction taller, to match Quilatalap; ‘letting the Dragon out’ as the saying went. He grabbed Quilatalap in a hug, and then a sudden kiss, saying, “You’re amazing.”
Quilatalap brightened like the sun, kissing Erick back. “If I had known you were going to be frisky I wouldn’t have put my clothes back on.”
“That’s a problem you can fix.”
And so he did.
Some time later, laying in bed, Erick stared at the ceiling for a long moment. Words held in the back of his mind, unsaid…
And then he blurted out, “I don’t like living in [Hasted Shelter]s, but I do like living with you. Want to keep doing this?” He turned and looked at Quilatalap, and he almost spoke—
The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.
But Quilatalap got there first, “Want to move into my house when we get back to Candlepoint?”
Erick’s mind blanked. Words came out, “I was going to ask you that.”
“And I got there first,” Quilatalap said, with a firm nod.
And then, suddenly, the enormity of what Erick had asked suddenly filled his chest with a cold sensation of change. “… I want to introduce you to my family, and then make a decision. Maybe in a few realtime weeks, after things have hopefully settled down.”
With an easy grin, Quilatalap said, “I look forward to all of that.”
- - - -
In a different [Hasted Shelter], Erick met with his forces once more.
Kromolok and the wrought, including archmage Tasar. A few Elites from Oceanside, including Tyli, the bright red incani woman who had always kinda been Kirginatharp’s Elite-level go-between when it came to interacting with Erick. A few other assorted forces, including some people from Treehome and Portal, who were there mostly as observers. Syllea and Nirzir and most of the other powerful people Erick directly knew were not there.
But there were a lot of dragons in mortal form who had decided to stay on for the entirety of the campaign. The dragon Erick knew the most at this point was primarily the ‘orcol’ Baronoli, who had been among the first of the dragons Erick had Benevolence’d. He was part of Emprazala’s group whom Fairy Moon had wanted excised from Ar’Cosmos before they could form a political bloc and crush the Houses. Now, that bloc of dragons had seemed to want to spread their power over here in the Cities, and Erick was content to let them, for Erick did not have nearly enough forces to cause a true occupation of these lands, and the Benevolence dragons needed homes anyway.
Aside from the dragons who would be moving here to oversee the lands, a few Dicers had decided to do the same. Most of those Dicers were now in occupational-force hierarchies scattered across the Cities, but Harridon and Bobbi remained here, at the end. Harridon would be going back to Gambler’s Rest after this to become the elected mayor of that city, but Bobbi would likely be gaining some sort of overseer position here, in their final target, the Sovereign City of Pearl. Just like how Glorida’s hometown had been Killtree and Erick had left her behind in that city, Pearl was Bobbi’s hometown, and he wanted to stay here after this war.
And there would be a war now. A real war. Unlike all the other cities, Pearl was prepared to put up a fight. All of the missing royals were in this City by the ocean, waiting for Erick’s arrival and the arrival of all of his allies. The royals had even sent a letter demanding peace, and Erick’s capitulation, but none of Erick’s forces were going to do that at all.
“For they will not accept the transformations that we have committed against the other four Sovereign Cities,” Kromolok announced to their gathered forces, before going on to explain the rest of the battle plan. “To begin, Baronoli and the dragons will...”
The Head Inquisitor of Rozeta had taken a more active role in this war toward the end, and probably for a hundred different reasons, from him being very good at exactly this sort of thing, to Erick wanting this to be over, and because Kromolok was very good at this. It was only after the Curios, when compared to Charme and Killtree, that Erick realized that he was rather trigger happy with the number of spells he put out across the sky, and that had caused a lot of undue stress in the populations under those spells. This stress had led to some altercations that didn’t need to happen. Of course, the Curios had surrendered with even less of a fight than the other Cities, but only because Erick had followed Kromolok’s advice, and let Charme and Killtree out of their [Slowing Enclosure]s to show the world that Erick had not harmed them unduly.
And so, since Erick wanted this war to be over, he let Kromolok take charge of the battleplans, and he was thankful for that. He hated this shit.
He was much more looking forward to what came next.
After the storm there would be a year of cleanup, at least. Erick was looking forward to that; to helping people and making the world better through that help. Kirginatharp had already volunteered to help with that cleanup, too, along with others, mostly to get into Erick’s good graces. Erick mostly trusted the dragons (which actually included the other Houses of Ar’Cosmos, now, surprisingly) to do what was right. The Dicers were looking forward to the cleanup too, but their help was, well, a dicey proposition, as a lot of the rank and file revolutionaries wanted vengeance as opposed to reform.
The only offer of support that Erick had outright rejected was the offer from the Greensoil Republic.
Even though their offer had come as one of open support, Erick (and a lot of his allies) knew that if the Greensoil Republic was involved with the Cities that they would try to ally with Cities against the incani lands, the Wasteland Kingdoms. That was a recipe for a Quiet War disaster.
There would be a lot of small and large knock-on effects like that in the coming years.
And Erick would navigate all of them as he helped get people into real homes and had Gates connect all these lands together and—
Kromolok stepped back, glancing to Erick.
And Erick stepped forward, saying, “We are not a punitive force, though I know all of you have seen reasons why we should be exactly that. We are a reconstructive force. The Cities that come out of these actions we undertake today, and for some of you, in the coming years, will ensure that all of the people living here and all the rest of Veird is better off for our actions. Everything can always be made better, but it takes people to enact those changes, and so, that is what we will do. It starts with force, but it ends with uplift.”
Strong stares all around. A few smiles. A few hearts lifted upward.
All sights focused on the battle.
Everyone knew their places.
And then came action.
- - - -
The sky was filled with contracted angels as Queen Pearl stood upon the ramparts of her palace.
The ocean boiled with the contained power of the King of North Curio.
The wind cut with the million daggers of the King of South Curio.
The King of Killtree stood in the sky, surrounded by red light; intractable, unstoppable.
Flesh copies of the King of Charme waited in the crossroads of several streets, ready to unleash transformative magics upon the populace.
The ultimatum they had sent to Erick had read like this:
You have done enough destruction to the very souls of our people, Dark Wizard. Give up your conquest of our Cities. Return to your own lands and take your people with you. If you follow this demand, then we will not pursue this conflict any further.
If you do not leave, then we will annihilate all of the Cities to save them from you, and continue on to Candlepoint. A million dead will be your fault.
This was, of course, an unworkable ‘peace offer’. All it did was cause Kromolok to heighten his war plan, changing from ‘we can save most of them’ to ‘it’s time to kill these people’.
And so, a few magics which Erick had long suspected to exist, but which he had not seen yet, were taken out of storage and used on behalf of him and the entire world against these terrorists who called themselves royalty.
Erick’s magic was only the final nail in the coffin; the one they expected to see. The one that they were ready for.
They were not ready for Ascendant Prime, taking control of the Crossroads above and smashing a small portion of that telepathic highway to motes of scattered light. [Telepathy] failed in almost all cases across the entirety of a thousand kilometer radius. [Familiar]s and other inborn telepathic connections remained. The Mind Mages were able to connect to others. But all of Pearl’s defenses fell apart, and all of Pearl’s Mind Mages left in that exact same moment, denying Pearl the ability to regain anything resembling coherence.
In the very same moment as the breaking of the Crossing, Pearl was not ready for Goldie locking down all teleportation magics across all of Pearl, as she assassinated the most dangerous of royalty, the King of South Curio and his million thieving hands. One down, four to go.
They were not ready for Quilatalap’s attack at all. The Archlich of Necromancy Itself raised a hand to the sky and sent a black pulse of power out into the world. It was an attack against all summoned creatures, though it was focused in one direction in particular. Each Ophiel wore a reflective thorn shield, so that qualified as protection, but even still they were half disintegrated by Quilatalap’s magic. The Angels fared much worse as they were the target. Most angels simply popped; their Veirdly forms disintegrating under the Archlich’s power. Quilatalap would later explain that those ones were the angels less strongly bound to this world; that they had opted to leave under their own power once they had taken enough damage. More than a few angels were strongly bonded, though, like the angel that had overseen Executioner’s Hall. Those fleshy angels were half-destroyed, but rather than heal themselves they opted to finish their disintegrations on their own terms. Quilatalap later explained that this, too, was an option that he had given those angels. If they had chosen to stay, then his magic had marked them, and the next spell would absolutely destroy their souls.
And Quilatalap could chain-cast that spell as many times as necessary, but he usually only needed to do it twice, at the most.
Erick went next, filling the sky with Stars upon Stars. [Undertow Star] scraped against all four remaining royals, and all the people in the city, Draining them all and erasing magics everywhere they touched. The only people he could not touch were the royals, under their Domains, but those Stars worked wonders anyway. The boiling ocean turned to a simmer, and then began to falter back down from where it threatened to spill into the city and drown everyone. The copies of the King of Charme began to unravel into tendrils and bone and meaty flesh, as abominations often did; whatever spellwork they had managed to get out of themselves before they fully collapsed into blood oozes was disrupted much more thoroughly.
Dragons attacked King Killtree, up there in the sky, easily ripping through the red-haired man’s ‘invulnerability’ magic. Ripping into King Killtree himself was more difficult, but they managed it.
Goldie delivered King South Curio’s body to Erick in the meantime, where Quilatalap put the body into [Soul Stasis]. And then Goldie went to collect Queen Pearl. The royal woman had been trying to run, disguised as a servant, but Goldie found her and delivered the freshly dead woman to Erick, where she got the same [Soul Stasis] as King South Curio. Later, they would both get a [True Resurrection].
And then King Killtree detonated in the sky, for some bizarre reason. He had still been fighting dragons, but then suddenly, boom; he was dead, and his soul was destroyed in that same instant.
King North Curio’s body also detonated, but Erick didn’t find this out until a minute after the fact since the man was deep under the ocean at the time.
Quilatalap couldn’t save King Killtree for interrogation. He postulated that the explosion had been to prevent the man’s interrogations after death. But when Goldie brought back North Curio’s intact body (but with a detonated soul) Quilatalap proclaimed the same thing was wrong with North Curio. At that moment, King Charme was still out there, still fighting amongst all his look-alike copies, but Erick knew that he probably wouldn’t be able to interrogate King Charme, either.
Sure enough, once Goldie managed to actually find King Charme among all the copies, he detonated, too, filling the area with mutative mist in a final ‘fuck you’. Erick’s [Undertow Star]s destroyed that mutative mist, though, so it only managed to transform a few nearby innocent caravaneers into blood oozes. Erick fixed those blood ooze problems with some [Reincarnation]s, so aside from the trauma of half an hour as a blood ooze, those caravaneers were more or less okay.
But he only had two royals to interrogate.
The true reasons for this war had weighed on Erick’s mind ever since it started, but instead of getting a clear picture from all five royals, he would have to make do with the two that were left, and all the hearsay from all the underlings the royals had left behind.
- - - -
Three hours of battle, and a day of [Reincarnation]s and other such magics later, the war with the Sovereign Cities was over.
Erick and his allies had decisively won.
While his allies mostly moved on, either back to the Geodes in the case of the wrought, or back to Treehome, or Portal, or otherwise, Erick and his dragons and House Benevolence spent a day solving murders and attempted murders in the other Cities. Oceanside stayed to help, for they were here for the long haul; they wanted to see the Cities rise up as prosperous nations even more than Erick did.
Justice moved swift and with Empathy in the aftermath of the war, both for commoners and for nobility alike.
Though some people did get some special treatment.
- - - -
King South Curio Xaro had ‘survived’ the war, because Quilatalap had [True Resurrection]’d him, alongside Queen Pearl. And then Erick had given both of them Option 3, stripping them of all their power and giving them a new perspective on life.
Erick had been keeping the level 0, reincarnated Xaro, inside a [Fairy Stronghold] and a [Slowing Enclosure], and in a location known only to him and a few others.
This was apparently not good enough, because an angel came ripping across the land, holding a spear with a lead blade. That angel had ripped into that protected space with that antirhine blade and then killed Xaro with a specialized soul-killing dagger. Xaro was gone, and he was never coming back.
The angel, having fulfilled her mission, attempted to vacate the space of the murder, to unsummon herself and return to Celes, but Quilatalap got there first and kept her summoned against her will. So she detonated herself and her immortal soul in the process. There was nothing Quilatalap could do to bring the angel back; to ask why she had done this.
But Erick knew why she had done this.
- - - -
Queen Pearl the Fifth was a 45 year old blonde woman with pale skin and an evil smile. Tears rolled down her face, marring her image of an unrepentant mastermind, but she still managed to look the part even with those tears, behind bars in a cell, and inside a [Fairy Stronghold] that had no exit.
Erick accused, “You killed Xaro.”
“They all tried to kill me, too. Charme almost got me; he certainly got Killtree. He almost got everyone.”
A lot of things slotted into place at that moment.
This war was never about him.
It was about all the old rivalries of the Sovereign Cities.
Erick almost wanted to laugh, but all he could do was sigh.
“Is that truly what this was? Some sort of war between all of you, that spilled out into the rest of the world? You attacked me and threatened murder of a million people in order to kill each other?”
“The cities needed a major change and you played your part perfectly.” Pearl grinned like an ancient evil. She reminded Erick a lot of Melemizargo in that moment. “And I won the final battle.”
Erick had expected to walk into this space and interrogate Pearl as much as needed in order to understand the shape of this war; the reasons behind it all, and the purposes of the major players. Why would they attack him? Declare war on him? He was allied with all the people who normally attacked Wizards, and he had even managed an uneasy peace between the Dark and everyone else. Erick was not a boastful man, but he knew what he had done; the shape of his own actions on this alien world of Veird.
And he knew that he had been used by other forces many times. This was not a new situation.
From how Sirocco Zago had used him to learn more of Particle Magic, years ago, to Melemizargo using him to Shape the Shades of Veird into something better, to Fairy Moon using him to make Ar’Cosmos a better land, and then how many disparate people —from gods to dragons to his own Benevolence twisting toward power— had turned Erick into a dragon, in order to elevate other dragons to power. Of course, Erick had gotten a lot out of those exchanges.
But as Erick looked down at Queen Pearl, his worldview was thrown into a little chaos. He did not like being used. And he certainly did not like being used in a war. Which is probably why he spoke how he spoke next.
“Oh? You won?” Erick asked, not innocently at all. “How so? Because you are still alive?”
A crack formed in Pearl’s facade. “… You’ve already [Reincarnation]ed and Empathy’d me, and then left me in this box for two days to stew in my own heinous life. Is there some other form of ultimate torture that you would like to inflict next? Or was soul mutilation not enough for you?”
… Those words caused Erick to pause in his anger.
And Erick found himself at a crossroads.
He was going to release Pearl into the world, no matter what happened here. All he had wanted to know was why the war had happened, and then he would trust in his Empathy to see Pearl through the rest of her transformation into a good person. This was what Erick was doing to everyone else he had Empathy’d, and according to almost all sources except for one (the Shades who empowered the Chelation War) every time a person was Empathy’d, they became a better person. All of the Terror Peaks people who has survived Erick’s purge were now living and working in Songli, doing such normal things such as working as healers, or as farmers, or as rebuilders for the nation they had attacked, trying to make amends for what they had done. According to the previous several days, every single noble of the Sovereign Cities was doing better, and even Kromolok agreed that this was exactly what they did in Forgotten Campaigns sometimes; this sort of soul mutilation worked. As long as Erick could preserve the power structures he had emplaced for a good ten years, what they had done to the Cities would have long term, good consequences.
And so...
A part of him wanted to [Reincarnation] Pearl from a human to an incani. As a practitioner of an ‘Exalted Path of Angels’, Queen Pearl was very in-tune with the human-to-angel extremism pipeline. And yet, if Erick transformed her into an incani, that would automatically make her a demon, no matter her personal beliefs. This might be a catastrophic change of perspective for her, or it might be exactly the thing that Veird and the Angels needed from Queen Pearl; a little bit of ‘walk a mile in their shoes’ thing. This action would be directly stepping into the Quiet War, though, which would be not-so-great.
A different part of Erick wanted Pearl as a subordinate. He would use her as ruler of Pearl to ensure that at least one Sovereign City did not experience a massive change of leadership, and thus be thrown into the chaos that all the other Cities were currently experiencing. There was merit to this option, for, in a practical sense, the best person to lead a Sovereign City was the person who had already claimed that royal spot.
Another part of Erick recognized that Queen Pearl would soon be in a position to rid herself of her [Blessing of Empathy], just by virtue of regaining some of her Exalted/Angelic powers, and access to the soul twisting powers of the angels. Perhaps, if he let her go, she would cause problems for him later. She had already foreseen her ‘victory’ in this war as what was happening right here, with her at Erick’s mercy. She had certainly planned to have some angels enact some ‘final justice’ against any possible living-yet-weakened royals who might have also survived this war. Therefore, Erick should kill Pearl now.
… After thinking through all his options, and thus calming himself a fraction, he decided to simply talk to Pearl about all of that; to see her reaction.
Erick began with, “I could do a lot worse, Pearl, for your personal viewpoint of ‘worse’. I could have made you incani.”
Pearl paled, her words failing her completely.
Erick continued, “I could simply kill you, though you would become an angel so that’s not much of a threat.”
Pearl stilled, gauging Erick’s everything with her own mana senses.
“Or, I could do none of that, and instead reinstate you as the leader of Pearl, and offer you assistance in rebuilding and expanding Pearl in the form of Gates and trade agreements.”
For a long moment, Pearl collected herself. Then she asked, “What do I need to do to get those trade agreements?”
Now that Pearl was suitably motivated, Erick had a much easier time talking to her.
Erick had gone through the same thing with almost every other (minor) leader he reinstated into power in the Sovereign Cities, but this time was different, if only because Pearl had been one of the people who actually started this war. She would also be one of the few people capable of undoing all the shit she had started, though, so…
“Firstly: you’re dropping your royal name; you are no longer synonymous with your city of Pearl. What’s your real name?”
“… Crissi Diver.” And then, like a queen going through some hard times, Crissi spoke with subdued strength, “Though my name on my Status is now Crissi Benev, so I believe that I will be going with that from now on.”
With a cancel command and another cast of [Fairy Stronghold] in the same moment, Erick erased the bars of Crissi’s cell and added some nice chairs around a simple table. With another cast, Erick brought in some nice food from House Benevolence. As he set these things down before the new Queen Crissi of Pearl, along with a nice mug of hot citrus tea, Erick said, “It is nice to meet you, Crissi. If your cupboards in your palace and your staff are to be believed, then you have a few favorite foods, of which I have provided. None of that should have changed due to your [Reincarnation].”
Crissi eyed the food, and then took the tea and sipped it in a queenly manner. In that moment, the woman was suddenly back in her element. She regarded Erick. “I have appreciated the citrus that you have added to my cupboards, Wizard Flatt. The oranges and lemons have added quite welcome flavors.” She set down the cup. “What other sorts of additions would you contribute to Pearl?”
“Gates, at least two. You need not pay for these initial Gates since I have discovered how to make them out of simple iron, but the tolls of 1 gold per ton of goods and 1 gold per person will be enforced, with you able to add whatever fees you want onto those tolls. The Cities will soon have a whole Local Area Gate Network, which will probably become active somewhere around the center of Triumph of Light, in several days,” Erick said, “As for restrictions: every City is getting House Benevolence oversight for at least 5 years, which means dragons and Dicers, but primarily my Overseer of the Exterior, Mox Dawnsider, overseeing your lands on behalf of my House.
“You will also gain Oceanside oversight.
“These people will work to enact a few large changes in your society, primarily in the form of how your law is enacted. From now on, everyone in your lands will be judged the same; No more commoner/noble split for how the law works. The law during this period will be considered deeply harsh by all the world’s standards, but it will be no more than what I have already done to you; everyone who breaks the law in a violent way is getting a [Blessing of Empathy]. I’ve already done this Blessing 1,907 times, outside of the initial war transformation, and I expect to do this Blessing thousands of times more.
“Kirginatharp, the Headmaster, has his own Arcanaeum Consortium-specific rules which he desires to implement. It is my understanding that he desires for Matriculation to be open to everyone; not only those who sign up under noble houses or under City warbanners. I am sure he has teaching-arcanaeum-specific desires, as well.
“You will enact those desires.
“I know this is a large transformation of your society, which is the goal. I want to see you prosperous, and your people educated. I want to see people in stone houses, or at least in nice wooden houses, and to have a literacy rate of 99%, if only due to the literacy-comprehension-boost that one gains when they Matriculate. Stone roads. Cheaper food. Less drugs. More opportunity for advancement and more opportunity to change one’s own fate. Everyone working in a society where the people on top do what they can to ensure a just society for those below them, and to keep everyone at the higher levels from abusing their power.” To end on a high note, Erick added, “And any nobles who manage to make this work well, including you, can have a [Reincarnation] into whatever sort of body you wish, whenever you need such a transformation. Ten years from now, fifty years from now; whatever. There need not be any dying of old age on my watch. And there need not be any sort of uncomfortableness, either. I have transformed a great deal of men into women, and women into men, and made some people into different races altogether, if they wished to leave this land and this life behind.”
Crissi had some deep objections at the beginning of Erick’s speech, but then he kept talking. At the end, when he spoke of [Reincarnation]s for all, she only had one question, “Can you turn an angel into a real person?”
An unexpected question, but one which Erick had already spoken to Quilatalap about. “The short answer is ‘yes, I can, but it probably won’t work out perfectly’. Setting that aside: if I brought an angel back, then I would have to do the same for a demon in order to maintain neutrality in the Quiet War. Doing that would require a lot of knowledge about who I was turning back into a real person, first, which would draw me into that war… And I don’t want to do that. I recognize, though, that I might end up doing this eventually anyway, because I have had a lot of people on both sides asking me for this. Do you want someone in particular brought back? Knowing it might not work, and it might shred their soul?”
“My mother. But… Maybe not today.” Crissi paused. Then she began, “I would speak on specifics regarding this noble/commoner split in the law you dislike…”
Erick listened, and then he spoke of the many, many complaints of the Dicers, and how Bobbi, of the Dicers, would likely be working directly with Crissi and with the remade nobility, alongside House Benevolence. The revolutionaries would likely have a great deal of power going forward in the remaking of the Cities, and so Erick asked how Crissi felt about that.
Crissi pretended to be ambivalent, and that whatever oversight she gained from House Benevolence would be acceptable, of course, since she was the subjugated party. But Erick could tell she was fuming, and relieved, and hopeful, and really quite happy that she was allowed to be in power at all, though picking out those specific emotions from her took about an hour of talking. Crissi felt comfortable in being in power, and she was angry when Erick spoke of how her power was now limited, but Crissi also felt relief when they spoke of the changes in the law, which was a new feeling for her. That was probably her new Empathy working overtime.
And so, they spoke for a few hours about direct matters of state, while the subtext of the conversation pointed in a whole bunch of different directions, and Erick (and Crissi, too, sometimes) got to know who Crissi was as a person.
As they spoke, Erick felt better and better about his decision to keep Crissi in charge of Pearl.
Other people would probably be angry about this, but everything was still up in the air right now. Things could change in a week, or a month, or even in two days. But for now, Crissi would probably return to being Queen Pearl, though she and her power would be lesser; all of Pearl would be beholden to House Benevolence, and to Erick.
For a while, anyway.