After a few more transfers of his own making, Erick once again stood outside his house inside Benevolence itself.
Yggdrasil was there in his body. Ophiel played on the jungle gym while also standing beside Yggdrasil, looking smug. Yggdrasil was looking pale.
Erick Looked at Yggdrasil, saying, “She seems like a good girl. She’s incredibly normal, too.”
Yggdrasil brightened a little, blushing. “I know.”
Ophiel got right up at Yggdrasil, not even coming up to his waist, teasing, “He’s in looooooove!” Yggdrasil put his hand on Ophiel’s face and pushed him away, but Ophiel only pressed forward harder, his tongue sticking out between fingers as he spat, “Loo! Looo! Loo!”
He was trying to say ‘love’ and not succeeding that well.
And then Erick added, “I think she might be the Computer Mage.”
Yggdrasil just breathed a little.
Ophiel, however, sputtered and pulled away, stopping all his activities everywhere else inside Benevolence. “SHE’S WHAT?!”
“So not that normal,” Erick added. “I can’t see the Benevolence ring around her neck. But she could be the Computer Mage.”
Yggdrasil nodded. “It’s… What initially drew me to her, I think, after I rescued her as she huddled underneath my roots. A friendship just sort of… happened.”
“And somewhere in all that she tried to see through the illusions you cast upon your body, or something, that you had used to make yourself look younger than the body I made for you.” Erick said, “Or maybe something else happened there. Either way, that girl thinks you might be a fae, or someone else just as special, and she likes you a lot.”
“… I really didn’t mean for that to happen but… I like her, too.”
“Don’t be embarrassed, Yggdrasil.” Erick went over and hugged his son, saying, “You might have aged a lot faster than others because you’re an arbor and you may have this full-grown body because I picked that for you, but you’re only 13. You’re allowed first loves. You should probably stop lying to her by 20, though.”
“I’m 14!” Ophiel said, with way too much cheer.
Yggdrasil hugged Erick back, purposefully ignoring Ophiel, saying, “I’ll tell her before then.”
And then Ophiel poked him with his fingers and his wings. “Don’t ignore me! I’m older than you!”
“I’m glad you told me, Yggdrasil. I want to be there for you and your tribulations.”
“Thanks, Dad,” Yggdrasil said, through small tears.
“I want hugs too!” Ophiel proclaimed.
Erick grabbed Ophiel and brought him into their embrace, squishing him between the two of them, causing him to squirm and Yggdrasil to chuckle and Ophiel to proclaim that dad and brother were too big and that they should be smaller. So Ophiel floofed out into a 5-meter-tall bundle of wings and arms and eyes and hugged as much as he could, which turned out to be a lot. His wings tickled, and Erick sneezed, causing Yggdrasil to laugh and the hug to break.
Erick went on to make dinner, which was scarlet king today, as a treat.
Later, maybe months or years or maybe even never, Erick would tell Yggdrasil that developing a relationship with Darnella Bastion might be dangerous. But since Erick had nothing but unfounded concerns about that, and since Darnella was potentially the Computer Mage which could be good or bad, he kept his mouth shut.
Yggdrasil already knew all of that, anyway, which was why he had taken so long to tell Erick about her.
“So your math scores were pretty good, Yggdrasil,” Erick said, over dinner. “Do you like that stuff?”
“No one loves math as much as Darnella. Gods, Dad. She’s a math freak.”
Erick chuckled. “Reminds me of Kiri.”
Ophiel suddenly yelled, “She’s nothing like Kiri!”
… Erick and Yggdrasil both looked at Ophiel.
Erick asked, “Do you like Kiri, Ophiel?”
“Of course I do! Kiri is awesome. Darnella is stupid fisher.”
Yggdrasil dropped his fork and exclaimed, “Darnella is not a stupid fisher!”
“Nuh uh! Stupid fisher! Can’t even do Trillian’s Displacement Theorem!”
“She’ll get it eventually!” Yggdrasil defended.
Erick short-circuited the wildly informative conversation about stuff he didn’t want to think about, saying, “So I’m going to go talk to Rozeta after dinner to get you unsealed, Yggdrasil. Do you want help making a proper 14 year old orcol body?”
“13!” Ophiel shouted.
“I’ve got a 16 year old [Avatar] ready to go,” Yggdrasil said smugly.
“NOOOOOO!” Ophiel exclaimed. “Dad! Tell him he can’t do that! He’s 13! Not older than me!”
Yggdrasil grinned wickedly.
Erick said, “Less worrying about Yggdrasil and more eating your dinner, Ophiel.” And then he said to Yggdrasil, “No taking joy in Ophiel’s suffering.”
Yggdrasil dropped his expression, whispering, ‘Sorry.’
Ophiel looked at his fish, and then he shoved it away, proclaiming, “I hate fish!”
Ophiel’s plate went sliding off the table, onto the ground to shatter and the fish to plop.
Yggdrasil frowned at Ophiel. “You wasted food!”
“Stupid fish!”
“Kids. Kids. Kids.” Erick said, “Please.”
Erick tried to manage the brewing discontent as best he could.
He mostly succeeded.
- - - -
Erick stood near the edge of the Benevolent Sky, about a kilometer away.
Rozeta stood before him.
Phagar stood to the side.
Neither god looked overly happy.
Rozeta began, “Kromolok implanted a ‘don’t touch this’ lock on your mind, and he doesn’t know when he did that and neither do I, but it was there before you stepped foot into the Vaults last month. And now Phagar has the same thing on his mind regarding a conversation he had with you. I have independently prognosticated Yggdrasil’s release and all signs point to this being a completely bad idea. I trust you, Erick, or at least I thought I did. But you’re hiding something major from me. Too major, Erick.” Rozeta asked, “Why does non-Benevolence prognostication show that Yggdrasil’s release is a bad idea, but the Benevolent Sky shows it as a good idea?”
Erick had thought that this conversation was going to go poorly, but he didn’t think it could go dangerously. But then again, that was always a possibility. He didn’t know of Kromolok’s little message —which he had probably left in that aborted timeline, so he had been carrying that around for a while, and no one had commented on it until now— but he had known about Phagar’s self-message. Erick was surprised to see that the fallout of Phagar’s message was coming to call so quickly, but it was what it was.
They wanted to be reassured, and yet, Erick could not give them the reassurance they truly wanted.
First, Erick got over the idea of having Kromolok’s message to himself sitting on his brain.
And then Erick saw the Benevolent Path ahead.
He walked that Path, saying, “Do you not trust yourselves to leave those sorts of messages for yourselves?”
“I do,” Phagar said.
Rozeta frowned a little. “I do not, but only because Kromolok’s message was a mortal message.”
Red Sparks hovered in the Benevolent Sky like gathering flies; distant and searching, and yet finding nothing.
“Can we have a private moment that you will accept as a ‘do not touch’ sort of message to yourself?” Erick asked.
“No,” Phagar said.
Rozeta said, “Not at this time.”
“Then how about we avoid all of that problem, and just let Yggdrasil be himself? He shouldn’t be controlled like I asked him to be controlled. Separating him from me would be a good thing, in light of your apparent distrust of me. Separation will put him beyond my control and influence, except as a father. Other than those very good reasons for separation, I am absolutely sure that Yggdrasil will want to be a good part of Veird, and he will agree to wrought checkups on all his plantings.” Erick said, “And, if that is not enough to entice you, I believe I have found the Computer Mage, though she is not the Computer Mage right now. She could be the Computer Mage in the future. If you want that very good thing to happen, then I suggest, before I tell you her name, that you let her come into her power on her own, without interference, though perhaps it is this conversation and your interference that triggers her true path in life. I’m not sure. I will leave that judgment up to you.”
Rozeta and Phagar were both focused on Erick, his points hitting good marks. And then he swept up with the bit about the Computer Mage.
Phagar breathed out, satisfied, saying, “I’m voting for Yggdrasil’s release.”
Rozeta’s eyes glittered with a tiny hint of Red as she said, “Phagar.”
Phagar shrugged. “This is a fantastic outcome, Rozeta. Take the win.”
Rozeta frowned… But the Red cleared from her eyes somehow.
She looked at Erick, demanding to know, “Who is the Computer Mage?”
“Yggdrasil can tell you when he is released.”
“… Fine. I imagine you don’t want him released here?”
“Let’s take this elsewhere.”
As Erick opened a [Gate] to the third island of the Dungeon Island Trio, Erick sent a mental apology to Yggdrasil. Yggdrasil sent a wordless reply of sad understanding. He had known what was going to happen before Erick had even gone into this conversation. Darnella would be revealed as the Computer Mage at Yggdrasil’s discretion.
- - - -
The third island of Dungeon Island was known as Depravity. It had been wild and monstrous like the other two for most of its existence, but recently that had changed. The other two islands were being developed.
Infamy was the official Dungeon Island, home to thousands of dungeons and the best dungeoneering on the planet, as well as Ascendant Mountain in the center and the slime dungeon with the Black Gate.
The island Villainy was where Avandrasolaro had set up residence with his kings and queens of the former Bisection. The angelic emperor was still pushing back the threats on his island, but mostly he was solidifying his rule and law and doing all sorts of kingdom-building things. People were flocking to his island.
Depravity was empty of people, and the dungeons were completely wild.
Erick stood on the second-tallest peak of Depravity, facing the actual tallest peak of Depravity, a little over 20 kilometers away. The mountains were rather low here, but the depths of the center of the island went deep. Black waters held in those depths, while a little bit of snow held to the tops of the mountains, and only in a few places. Mostly the land was green and rugged and full of trees.
Erick reached through a [Gate] and plucked out a core he had prepared for Yggdrasil’s final core, and then he reached through another [Gate] and deposited the core onto a flat space he had carved off the top of the tallest mountain. He shut the [Gate]. He nodded to Rozeta.
This was not a small event, so Rozeta was not the only one here.
Kromolok and four other Fonts stood with Rozeta, to the side. King and Queen Stratagold stood with other adamantium wrought; the royalty of other Geodes. A practical rainbow of other wrought people stood with them down the mountainside and over on another mountain. The wrought numbered around 200, and they were among the strongest wrought in the world. Erick was absolutely sure that they were here to ensure that Melemizargo didn’t try anything too dangerous.
There was Phagar, looking like Erick but almost greyer.
There was Sininindi in her storm-wrapped self.
Atunir looked like she had stepped off of a farm.
Koyabez stood to the side, looking incredibly happy; satisfied.
Aloethag stood like a white statue dripping with red blood. She was a female orcol with long, pointy ears. There were no Red Sparks within the red of her blood. The Red Dream was not filled with Red Sparks, though, so Erick wasn’t too worried in that way; he had checked in a dream with Quilatalap a few times.
But those were dreams, so who really knew what existed inside that particular ‘Red’.
A contingent of people from Treehome were here, including several avatars of Arbors. Wyrmrest and O’kabil were looking particularly thrilled for this moment, though there was worry in many of those eyes as well.
The mountains for a thousand kilometers and even further held other lookie-loos, either in person or just some [Scry] eyes. Erick spotted no fewer than 189 Benevolence Dragons, most of them in long dragon form, and a good ten thousand adventurers, and a bunch of others further away; whoever could show up fast enough for this event. Destiny was down there, ten mountaintops away, watching and waiting.
The faeries were all out there, too. They were having a party in a valley over there. Lights were everywhere, and music carried into the air, calling the worried, the burdened, and the scared, to a wonderful party. All cares could be set aside for a while in the jubilation of a dance.
Erick kinda wanted to go to that dance. Not right now, though.
Kiri stood with Teressa, Poi, Solomon, and Quilatalap. Jane, Abigail, Bethany, Candice, and Evan, stood with them as well; with Erick. They were his family, and they had all turned out for this. The only one not here was Ophiel, but he couldn’t leave Benevolence for a few very good reasons, and also because he was mad that Yggdrasil was getting born so fast. Hopefully, Ophiel would grow out of that phase soon.
Hopefully, nothing bad happened today.
Erick fully expected to drag everyone he could with him into Benevolence if something untoward should happen today. Maybe he’d just fully open his mind to Kromolok and solve the problem that way, too.
But then again, maybe nothing would happen.
A lot of people were worried.
Erick was feeling rather secure, though, because Red Sparks filled the air, and yet they were doing nothing. No rollbacks. No obliterations of this coming future. They were just… there. Watching.
Perhaps they hadn’t really tried yet?
Hard to know. Red swirled in the sky and down through the valleys, trying to find Erick. But it could not find him, and it did not touch the gods, because, somehow, collectively, they were stronger than when they were alone. All of them gathered like this, cementing this land for this event, was probably magnifying the God Pact… or something.
This was probably a case of Wizards versus Gods; a domination for the space that would fluctuate based on… Whatever it fluctuated upon.
Maybe Nothanganathor was holding back, preparing a Primal Lightning Bolt.
Well.
That’s what Erick was truly prepared to counter.
He had a song picked out ready to go in case of that event, if he needed to use it. Melemizargo would back him up on it, too. But maybe the other gods would have a better solution; Erick would wait for their better solution and then employ his own last-ditch efforts if needed.
Veird had survived Primal Lightning before, so it could probably survive a direct strike. Probably multiple, actually. Erick had had a lot of ideas about why Nothangahathor hadn’t killed Veird yet, but perhaps the easiest explanation was that he simply couldn’t. Not when Veird was all working together.
That was why Nothanganathor wasn’t attacking directly, right?
… Who the fuck knew anymore.
Erick said, “I’m ready, Rozeta. Please let us break new ground and solidify the future against the vagaries of fate and mortal failings.”
Rozeta said, “Your desire and the actions you take to empower others, to ensure strength even after you’re gone, will overcome all Fate and failings. I trust you, Erick, because I trust your goals.”
Her words were a bit of a political act, but they hadn’t been rehearsed at all. Rozeta knew all the world was watching, though.
And then Rozeta turned, and spoke to Yggdrasil and to the core Erick had left on that other mountaintop, oh so far away, and yet so near, “Be released.”
The world paused—
Erick’s soul flickered with gold.
The tattered remains of a web-like seal broke apart inside Erick’s soul like an old soap bubble; weakly at first, all the shimmery parts fading to bare grey, and then suddenly. Pop. It was gone.
Yggdrasil began to separate instantly, like half of Erick’s core was trying to escape out of his body.
Erick directed that escape as best he could. As Kromolok and his Fonts supplied Erick with mana, Erick cast one final [Summon Yggdrasil], drawing out the magic with words of prayer oh so similar to the ones he had spoken over a decade ago, when he had first created the [Summon Yggdrasil] before that Shadow’s Feast of yesteryear.
“In ancient lands where magic stirred,
“The wizards walk, their hearts assured.
“Through time and space, fresh wisdom flows,
“A purpose clear, the magic grows.
“With lightning's might, we split the sky,
“A chance enchantment, Fate knows why.
“We formed a core, life's essence captured
“A Benevolent Path, a time enraptured.
“With every step, a grand design,
“Like stars and moons all do align.
“We summoned sky and called the rain,
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“A cosmic dance, timely refrain.
“A purpose clear. A vision grand.
“A nurtured life all o’er the land.
“From sparks of seed to glowing green,
“A Worldly Tree, a wonder seen.
“His roots reach deep, claiming stone,
“In timely course, the land is sown.
“As branches soared, he kissed the skies,
“A rainbow crown, of kingly size.
“With power harnessed from the light,
“We grow the tree with all our might.
“Guardian strong, a beacon tall,
“Prismatic hues enchanting all.
“Protected now by mystic art,
“A fortress firm, a beating heart.
“A latent monarch, pure and true,
“A worldly treasure, ever anew.
“The power of a pure good will!
“We call thee now! Yggdrasil!”
At first, Erick’s words brought peace to the painful, rapidly destructive birthing of Yggdrasil, calming the spikes of mana ripping Erick apart from the inside. And then the sky opened up with Red Lightning, far, far overhead. It was the touchdown of Nothanganathor’s power upon the Edge of the Script, planet-sized claws ripping at the world—
And scraping along that Edge like a nail on a chalkboard.
The world screamed.
The gathering saw-heard-felt-knew what was happening.
The screaming started instantly.
Erick was too busy focusing on the event happening between him and Yggdrasil and the very mana itself to spare attentions toward continent-sized dragon claws that slipped as much as they pierced.
And then Melemizargo was there, blocking out the sun, casting the entire world into Darkness and Shadow, except for the mountain where Erick stood, singing an epic to the mana. Light poured off of Erick and into the sky, and also off of the mountain peak up ahead.
Rozeta saw the World Swallower’s claws. She said something to the side as Erick’s core began to shatter, but then golden power flowed into him from Elsewhere, and Erick wasn’t shattering at all. Kromolok poured more power into Erick, and the Benevolence dragons around the entirety of the mountain range began to chant for Yggdrasil.
“Yggdrasil! Yggdrasil! Yggdrasil! Yggdrasil!”
More Fonts stepped out of a rainbow of [Gate]s, coming in from all across the world to channel power into Erick, and Erick continued to speak to the mana. The girls and Evan panicked. Solomon saw the End, and was unmoved, as though he had seen this many times before, and yet he never had, not until this very moment. He scratched at the rapidly reforming tattoo of the Bracelet of Memory on his arm—
Red danced across the horizon, punching through where Melemizargo proved less than the sun. Small parts of the world crumbled. And yet Benevolence flowed out of the very ground and air and water, manifesting from the manasphere of the world, swallowing the Red right back—
It was not enough.
Quilatalap handed the Lightning Shield over to Sininindi and the Goddess of Storm and Sea joined the battle in the sky—
Erick finished his song to Yggdrasil.
Reality parted.
The World Tree Yggdrasil was suddenly there, his trunk forty kilometers in diameter, like a pillar of white light joining the land to the Edge of the Script, his crown of green glows and white lightning branches stretching out into Darkness and Lightning and there was no Red to be seen at all. Everyone on the entire island stood upon his roots like they had been standing on his body this entire time, half of the island simply replaced with his rainbow magnitude.
Erick briefly saw an old blue box—
Summon Yggdrasil, medium range, 2500 mana + Variable
Summon a sapling of the World Tree Yggdrasil.
All Yggdrasil persist until killed or dismissed.
All Yggdrasil are the same creature, but only one Yggdrasil is the World Tree.
THE WORLD TREE IS PLANTED
Summon Yggdrasil has as many maximum summons as the World Tree allows, with a minimum of 10.
Current Maximum: 10
All Yggdrasil naturally have and regenerate mana based on your own mana and mana regeneration, which they may use to cast the spells that you imbue them with, at your own command or at their own discretion. Comes summoned and proficient with [Grow], [Watershape], [Tree of Light], [Kaleidoscopic Radiance], [Control Weather], [Telepathy], and [Scry].
World Tree Yggdrasil’s mana and regeneration are higher than yours.
Imbue your Yggdrasil with new spells, wherever they are. Variable
See through the eyes of your Yggdrasil. Variable
Communicate telepathically with your Yggdrasil. Variable
— And then that box faded, a part of Erick lost forever to the grand moment of creation—
Melemizargo was suddenly there in the Dark beside Erick, and even though all the world howled with Red and Lightning and Black and White and the cacophony of terrified people filled the world, the God of Magic’s voice rose above all.
“A Grand Wizardry has not saved this world. Yggdrasil’s planting has fully drawn the Red Sparks. I am sorry, Erick; the plan has changed.”
Red punched through the skies overhead. A claw ripped across the horizon, incomprehensible in its size, missing Yggdrasil’s birth by fractions of degrees which meant hundreds of kilometers.
“This event will need to be [Return]ed and we will need to hide in the God Pact again. I already have Phagar working on that.”
Even as he spoke Red Lightning ripped through the Edge again, touching down closer—
Koyabez stared at the sky, muttering, “Oh, my old friend. It’s bad this time, is it.”
Aloethag roared out impotent pain and death.
Phagar was gone.
Atunir looked sad—
A great crash of gold lightning shattered the sky to the south and Red poked through that shattering.
The claw was coming for them this time, and it had already got one of them. Sininindi was dead.
Rozeta stared at the golden death of Sininindi, for that was all it could have been.
“Sininindi is dead.” Melemizargo stared at his daughter. “Rozeta. Implement the final measures—”
A voice.
“That will not be necessary.”
All the world had filled with that one sentence, said in Yggdrasil’s voice, writ large. All the sky turned to white, and all the Red could not get through. Claws crashed against a White Edge of the Script, and could go no further. Yggdrasil’s words came again, like spring breeze billowing out an old house, causing magic as it flowed,
“Time and time again, Forgotten Campaigns have saved this world from the knowledge of the Red, though only a few times has this been done on purpose. The gods force themselves to forget, for knowledge of the Red is how it seeks you when it wants, and how it keeps itself unseen when it wants that instead. The only ones who I know will remember this are my father, my uncle, and my aunt. If anyone else remembers the Red, do not test the Red. Make your way to the gates, and pray that you are not seen by the Red before I see you instead.”
The whole world flickered white.
- - - -
Erick sat at the dinner table at his house inside Benevolence. Yggdrasil and Ophiel were nowhere to be seen. Instead, Solomon sat to the side with Guile in a high seat, looking like a blonde fox with ten tails almost pretending to be a baby. Destiny sat in the other chair—
Ophiel and Yggdrasil appeared at the side of the room, both of them looking like young versions of Erick, but Ophiel had his iridescent black wings while Yggdrasil had a small rainbow crown, floating upon his black-haired head. Erick almost asked about Yggdrasil’s orcol form, but now didn’t seem like the time for that.
Ophiel frowned a little, looking defeated, as he said, “Yggdrasil has the big information, and I reluctantly have to conclude that I cannot fulfill the role of the older brother.” He started to cry, but he held it in as much as he could. “I really wanted to, though. Sorry, Yggdrasil.”
Yggdrasil easily said, “I love you just the same, Ophiel.” And then he said to the gathered Wizards and would-be-Wizard, and said, “Greetings, Father, Uncle, Aunt. I was chronologically born 2 minutes ago, while I was created 13 years ago, and have existed for a long, long time, simply sleeping. I do not know how long that longer time might be, and I might never know, but that is fine.
“I have also been working for the last four hours to get us all back to the God Pact world.
“With the help of the gods of Veird, I succeeded.
“The Red Sparks are already back, already searching for us again, but it cannot reach us now that its major attempt at killing us all has been Forgotten by all of the world. I could go into the details of how I did that, but my part was not that important. I mostly provided an ultimate anchor for what Ascendant Prime, Rozeta, Koyabez, and Phagar actually did, which was to break out the ‘in case of memetic emergency measures’. They were surprised to find that those measures have been used four times before. I imagine it surprises them every time they discover that.
“As a result, what you witnessed at my birth did not happen.
“Everyone believes my birth went off without a hitch.
“Moving forward, we must implement the Lifeblood Heart programs and Solomon must do some Grand Wizardry of his own in order to implement his ascent to basic Wizardry, while father ensures that Solomon’s ascent gains other goals, too. While they do that, Aunt Destiny, the Benevolence dragons she has recruited for this purpose, and I, will be running interference, providing the Red Sparks with too many targets to watch, to draw attention away from Solomon and my father.
“That is the basic plan.
“This can go wrong.
“The Red can and will destroy Veird if we look to escape from his control completely, as you all just witnessed at my birth. You were wrong about us being able to ‘outrun’ him, Father, but not wholly wrong; the answer to how you were right and wrong is more nuanced than I will answer at this time, for knowing that answer will impede your correct progress.” Yggdrasil said, “I will not be accepting questions at this time and Father will not be discussing his plan with anyone. It will work, Father. We just have to get close, and then you must ascend to True Wizardry.”
A moment passed.
Erick asked, “So Sininindi is okay?”
Destiny stared. “I saw her die.”
“Yeah. She did,” Solomon said.
Yggdrasil said, “There were no deaths at my birth. The Pantheon is whole and unchanged.” He said, “You should discuss resons, multi-alignment crystals, Wizardry, what you saw in the Vaults, and all topics of True Wizardry you can think of.” He gestured to Enchanter’s Guile, upon Solomon’s right wrist, and seated in the high chair.
“Enchanter’s Guile.
“Rise from your unseeing sleep, and benefit from Solomon’s new immunity to all unnatural Endings.”
Guile flinched—
And then his entire body furred out, like a hair rising in a storm of static, his tails rising and fuzzing briefly—
He shook himself like a dog and Red Sparks fell away from him, into White Benevolence, to be zapped to nothing by the very realm itself.
“Ahhhhh~” Guile sighed, relaxing. And then he looked around at the people at the table, and at Ophiel and Yggdrasil. “Should we involve others in this conclave of obvious Wizardly conspiracy? Or is this what we have to work with?”
Yggdrasil answered, “This is what we have to work with. Please discuss True Wizardry. I have things I must attend to, so I cannot stay. The Red Sparks always draw ever closer and permanently dealing with them is not nearly as easy as you believe it to be. The reality that happened at my birth was something we cannot easily repeat. At least not so soon.”
Destiny asked, “But this enemy can be dealt with? Permanently?”
Solomon and Erick also wanted to know that.
Yggdrasil said, “Yes, they can.” Then he said to them in turn, “Father. Don’t discuss your plan, but please discuss what you know. I have informed Rozeta of the Computer Mage. She will want to speak to you later about that. Solomon. Please discuss your plans for the Lifeblood Heart in full, and be prepared for Erick to interject something toward you somewhere along the way of the actual event. That help will still be disruptive, but you will let it happen, for that help will put you one more step toward your Jane. Destiny. Excluding any sort of murder or murder-like solutions, think of how much good you could do across the entire world if you did not have to hold back for political reasons. We will be doing that good.” And then he bowed and vanished into a rainbow glow.
Erick wanted to sigh. To grab a beer and take a moment. To do something else. Anything else.
He was ragged and tired.
But there was work to be done.
Ophiel pulled up a chair, saying, “I’m not clear on what happened either and Yggdrasil isn’t telling me; he’s a butthead.”
“I’m fine with causing untold levels of Benevolent Chaos,” Destiny said, “That’s what I’ve been working toward, even if I didn’t know it at the time.” She looked to Erick, asking, “But will I get free rein to actually do that?”
Solomon, Guile, Destiny, and Ophiel all looked Erick’s way, too.
Erick took a deep breath, then began, “As an opening statement, your disruption of the world will be fine, Destiny, for I trust you, but only if the plans for the Lifeblood Heart are shortish plans, for I cannot abide too much Benevolent Chaos. So. Solomon. How long till you have a plan that can work, and work well?”
Everyone looked to Solomon.
Solomon said, “20 days on the short end. 30 to be safe. 50 to be overly secure. Plan A is 80% ready. Plan B is 65%. C is 50%. All of them have similar moving parts, but drastically different setups.” He held up his left arm. Heavy black lines circled his forearm, forming a continuous spiral from near his elbow to nearly his wrist that then turned around and spiraled the other way, knotting into itself like a celtic design. It was the remnants of the Bracelet of Memory that Debby had given him, transformed into something entirely new and deep. That must have just happened at Yggdrasil’s birth. Wheatly’s band of golden wheat held on that same wrist, looking even more brilliant than usual, like he was absolutely charged with lightning just below the surface. That must have just happened, too. Solomon put his arm down, and said, “I remember every doomed world and every near-success that still ended in doom for me and everyone I loved. I could make this whole Lifeblood Heart plan work tomorrow if I had to, but I know it would end in failure. I can make the Black Gate pull out anything I want. I think I even have a good Wizardry Ignition idea. But I don’t want to do that. Not yet. I want to be prepared, Erick. Truly and utterly prepared. I won’t fail this time.”
Destiny asked, “But what are we preparing for?”
Solomon said, “Red Sparks of some sort. All I really know is that it has minimal influence on this main world, except for whatever happened earlier. It likes to rollback time in zones to make bad things happen and it eats individuals that lose connection with others. If you learn about it, it turns back time so that you don’t learn of it. If you look to get close, it turns back time there, too. It doesn’t like to be seen… Except it showed itself today, and somehow that made it easier to show itself. Somehow.” He looked at Erick. “I imagine you know more.”
Guile watched, silent and inquisitive.
Erick began with, “The Red Sparks are Primal Lightning. The Sundering Source is here, in this New Cosmology. I’m going to get through this quick.”
And then he sent out some [Telepathy] packets.
Minutes passed as Solomon and Destiny and Guile digested their packets. Faces turned scared, angry, hopeful, hopeless, and full of terror in turn, eventually giving way to solidness and other, deeper emotions.
Solomon leaned back in his chair, sighing.
Destiny got furious, slammed a fist on the table, and shouted, “We must kill the sun!”
Guile softly said, “We should involve no one else in this and we certainly shouldn’t kill the sun. Everyone will think we’re absolutely crazy—”
“You’re a fae!” Destiny shouted, “You don’t get to have this discussion!”
Solomon rounded on her, saying, “You leave him out of this. If anyone can know how to solve this issue it’s Guile.”
Erick said to Destiny, “Sit down, please.”
Destiny looked like she wanted to roar but she simply stared… And then she sat down. “Perhaps killing the sun was too hasty.”
Erick breathed, then said, “Yes it—”
“We obviously cannot kill it. We have to disintegrate it.” Destiny said, “Turn it into cosmic dust. Void and Destruction.”
Solomon held up a hand, casting a single point of light into the air. “This is the size of Veird.” Then he filled the ceiling with a ball of white light. “This is the size of the sun.”
Erick rapidly said, “Put that away before—”
Solomon canceled the light show. “I know. I was envisioning it as a lightward, not as an image of the sun; I know how tempting powers with names works.”
Destiny scoffed. “The sun isn’t that big! It’s no bigger than the moons, for sure! Just a bit further away, too.”
Erick and Solomon looked at each other. Destiny was born a very, very long time ago and she was only released by the fae several years ago, so that explained some of her lack of understanding. But it wasn’t like common core education had changed that much since she had been walking around free, before the fae found her, a few centuries ago. Kirginatharp and the Arcanaeum Consortium had been teaching the world stuff for the last 1400 years. But then again, Destiny had been raised in a rural area, so she hadn’t gone to school.
But she was a Wizard now, and she got around a lot.
Had she not seen Erick’s presentation on the solar system… Or the orrery of Rozeta? Or any of that?
… Oh. She just didn’t care about that stuff. Okay. That made sense.
Silently, they decided for Erick to tell her, “Solomon’s diagram of the size of the sun versus Veird is correct. The sun is about 10 light-minutes away, too. That’s the distance that light travels in ten minutes. For comparison, a single bit of light could circle Veird at the equator about four times in a single second.”
“The sun is bigger than I made it look,” Solomon said.
Guile watched the exchange.
“… Say I believe you.” Destiny asked, “How would you hope to ever kill the thing living there?”
Ophiel spoke up, “Don’t tell them, Dad.”
Destiny threw her hands up. “Why not!”
“Because if you know, then other people know, because certain people won’t respect you enough to allow you to keep your thoughts your own, and thus you might act in a way that will let the bad guy know the plan.”
Destiny paused. Then she frowned, and said, “Okay! Fine. I can accept that.”
“I would like to speak of these resons, now,” Solomon said.
Guile spoke up, “I know what they are. I have no idea why I did not know, but now I do, and I am wondering why that knowledge was blocked from me. Perhaps we can all think on that for a while. Right now we are talking too much and not digesting anything. You are all smart, but you are not smart enough to instantly come up with plans that will work against this particular enemy.”
Erick nodded.
Solomon silently agreed.
Destiny asked, “We’re not dying right now, right?”
Ophiel said, “No. But this conversation shapes literally everything to come.”
Destiny nodded. Then she said, “I’m hungry, exhausted, terrified, and FURIOUS.” Lightning crackled around her eyes and on her fingers, carving tiny scorch marks on the table between the group. “I need a nap and maybe a cuddle. Solomon? Care to join me?” She stood from the table.
Solomon stood, saying, “Yes.”
“It won’t be... long. We can get back to it soon enough.” Destiny wiped away an unruly tear, saying, “I just… want to hold someone right now.”
Solomon didn’t need any more explanation or words; he was already on board. He also needed time to unwind. The two of them walked off to the side of the house leaving Guile there with Erick and Ophiel.
They picked a side room and went inside and Destiny was sobbing hard. She cried out about how everything made sense now and how the Red had to have fucked her entire life from the start. Solomon went to her—
And then the [Hasted Shelter] went up, hiding them from view.
Erick processed that whole event for a short moment, and came back wondering when that particular relationship had started. Destiny had always been rather chaotic, but this was a side of her that he had never seen—
Guile answered, “They’ve been seeing each other for a week now. She showed up when Solomon tried to work the Black Gate on his own before that started and she helped him with that first time.”
With raised eyebrows, Erick said, “Oh. Well… Good for them?” He added, “I guess I have been out of the loop for too long.”
“Their relationship might last a while. I am unsure. Destiny is too chaotic. I believe her chaos is one of the reasons that Benevolence is able to hide us so well, actually, and why Yggdrasil has her here, working that angle,” Guile said, looking to Ophiel. “But I don’t truly know.”
Ophiel shrugged, his iridescent black wings shrugging with him. “I don’t know. Dad is the one who made us.”
“I just wanted to make the world better, because everything can always be made better,” Erick said. “I did not imagine that making Benevolence would lead here… I don’t think I ever imagined this. Not really.”
Guile nodded, then said, “It is good that the Red came first, and Benevolence is the response. Sometimes it takes a great tragedy to make a great triumph. If we survive this, I imagine that Veird and all of those who come after will never have to worry about a Sundering ever again. Until they forget. Mortals always forget, no matter which immortals lurk in the shadows, keeping civilization afloat. Those immortals change, too, and that’s when the rough patches truly start.”
“Well that’s a problem for House Benevolence to solve, with me sticking around in the shadows for however long I can,” Erick said. “So what about those resons?”
“It’s a field like any Element. Resons are the magical element of this universe. The other ‘magical Element’ is infinity, and it is not touchable by anyone; not directly.”
Erick’s eyes went wide. Not because of the revelation of ‘Elemental Infinity’, but because…
“That means you know about this universe, doesn’t it? How?”
“Not as much as I would like. It’s coming back to me and not nearly fast enough. I don’t believe I was ever a part of this universe at all… I think. Not sure.” Guile asked, “Do you know the Fae Story of the Old Cosmology’s creation? Don’t actually say the words; you will draw them here.”
“Yes.”
Fairy Moon and Gregarious, as King and Queen of some Fae Court somewhere else, had a Daughter. That Daughter dropped her ‘brother’ the Prince’s painting of an astronaut into a painting of the Darkness, and thus the Old Cosmology was born from the meeting of differences. The Daughter went on to become Shadow, the first Goddess of Magic, the first Dragon, communing between the Dark and all Creation, in order to help create a cosmology; a multiverse of a specific sort. Other fae from Fairy Moon’s Court joined her in those acts of creation. That lasted for an eternity and a day. And then they were done. The Daughter came back to her Court and announced she was done being the Goddess of Magic and the universe was ready for population, so Fairy Moon and Gregarious and that entire Fae Court decided to join with the Old Cosmology, to make it their home and their power. And thus was born the Old Cosmology, and thus it had existed for a million years… Or some other number besides 1,000,000; hard to say with Fae.
Erick asked, “Are you a part of the original court?”
“Yes. The Fae of Metal. I helped to ensure that Metal came into being; something hard as stone but malleable and strong. I feel like I should know certain things more than I do, and this is a problem, but it is a problem that might be fixing itself as we speak. You see, I used to inter my knowledge with the Hall of Knowledge, watched over by the Goddess of Knowledge, so that I might have fresh experiences every now and then. Some of this was rescued by my sovereign and preserved, and that knowledge was returned to me when Rozeta opened the Bands of Intent on Fairy.” Guile said, “And just now, with whatever happened with Yggdrasil and the changing of the world to negate that Red Lightning… Yggdrasil spoke of the gods being surprised by the tool they used to accomplish the Grand Forgetting, but it should not be that surprising in light of certain events.
“They have something of Knowledge locked in a box. Perhaps even Knowledge’s corpse. I doubt she is alive… But that is possible, however unlikely. Whatever they have done, they have used whatever it was to enact the Grand Forgetting. I wonder what it was.
“I wonder why Yggdrasil remembers, and why he imparted that knowledge to us. Probably to trigger what he has done to me in that telling. Memories of mine are surfacing, and I remember a lot about a lot.
“Wizard Flatt. Apparent King. Benevolence Itself.” Guile said, “I do not want to know your plan, but I must ask for a general idea of the nature of your plan.”
Erick softly said, “Well… It was going to involve a lot of metal.”
Guile nodded. “That makes sense. Let us keep that to ourselves. I will likely have to discuss this Knowledge aspect with the others when they return any moment now.”
Ophiel wiped the manasphere of memory, without prompting—
The [Hasted Shelter] around Solomon and Destiny popped and the two of them walked back into the room looking well-rested.
Guile began, “Let us speak of the only ‘elements’ of this so-called ‘New Cosmology’; of resons and infinity. Neither are Elements in the Old Cosmology sense. Both are necessary to understand going forward, because both magics have been Forgotten from Veird. I can guess this was probably to keep the Red Sparks at bay.”