Gregory had no idea where he was. Olivander, Fezzic, and Sous came out of the portal and it closed behind them. They were in a forest. It looked somewhat similar to the jungle they had just been exploring, but it wasn't as hot and humid, and the trees looked less tropical. It was just as crowded and noisy with life.

"Uh, Olivander."

"Yes, Gregory?"

"Where are we?"

"Forty miles, give or take, south of Du'la'melio. Time is of the essence."

"Can I go home?" Fezzic asked.

"Nope! I'm going to need your help if we have any hope of winning this wager."

"We?" Fezzic asked. "I don't see how I'm involved in this at all."

"You were there when the wager was struck, clearly you're complicit."

"Olivander," Gregory said in a calm voice, "you seem a little…distraught. Can we take a deep breath?"

Olivander looked like he was going to insult Gregory, but he paused and took a deep breath.

"Good, now what's going on?"

"I'm sorry, Gregory. You're quite right. I was emotional because of Cooper's departure, and Harvey reminds me of my father, and there's more baggage there than we can probably deal with. Then when he brought up his grimoire…well, cooler heads were never going to prevail."

"I don't get it," Fezzic said. "Why'd you push him into a wager like that?"

Olivander sighed. "I knew he had it."

"Your dad's grimoire?"

"Yes, but don't call Vestrius my 'dad,'" Olivander shuddered. "He was my father."

"Sure, whatever. I guess I don't know what the big deal is. You knew he had your father's grimoire and wanted it back. Why not trade regularly? It seemed like you knew each other pretty well."

Olivander sat down next to a tree, and Gregory knew something was wrong. He hadn't conjured a chair. He always conjured a chair. He was just sitting there, on the ground. It made Gregory more uncomfortable than he imagined it could have.

"Harvey is a collector. A true collector. His personal collection would put any museum on this half of the world to shame, probably the other half as well. The grimoire of an Arch-magus? A nice treasure. A grimoire that belonged to Vestruis? A unique treasure unlikely to ever be seen again. He wouldn't agree to part with it unless he was sure he couldn't lose. He might negotiate if the price was high enough, but once we're in that realm of powerful artifacts, it is quite dangerous to move them around, let alone begin trading them freely."

"So you say things to goad him into putting it up as stakes in your wager."

Olivander pointed at Gregory, but it lacked his usual dramatic flair.

"Half of it was making sure he thought he couldn't lose — which is painfully close to the truth, but we'll get to that. The other half was a suitable prize. Come."

Olivander opened his dimensional space and walked inside. Gregory, Fezzic, and Sous followed.

"This is a dimensional space with some unique properties. Dimensional bags simply stretch the reality inside of them, with 'simply' doing a lot of heavy lifting. Storage powers are basically modified soul storage. Those are slightly more complicated, but are supported by skills, which have a way of interacting in the world that is hard to duplicate through study.

"I bring up those because they are ordinary. They are pretty common, especially bags. This, on the other hand, is a wholly separate space that forms a temporary gate with our world. This space never moves, but I can access it anywhere in the world. These are more rare than Magi. Crafting one requires a combination of abilities that are incredibly rare on their own, and virtually impossible to have manifest in one person. Fortunately for the Casumus family, all of the required abilities were shared among three people. My mother, my father, and most importantly, me."

Gregory looked around the space. He had seen a peek into it, but Olivander had never held it open long enough to ask about it. What he was now realizing is that at the back of the room there were stairs.

"How big is this place?"

"Hmm, it's hard to say. It changes sometimes. I'm connected to it though, and it feels roughly as big as the Arch-magus tower in the capital right now. Roughly twelve or so stories high. Maybe as big as eight or nine of your parents' house. Plenty of space for say…a massive collection of some of the world's most valuable items?"

Now Gregory saw why the Pirate Magus wanted the space. It was secure, it was massive, and he could bring it anywhere. If he wanted to show off his collection, or just admire it himself, he would be but a step away.

"What do you keep in here?"

"All kinds of things. This first room is mostly things I might need at any given time. Clothes, specialized lab equipment, reading materials that don't technically count as books. Plus some accommodations and a full kitchen, those are through that door."

Fezzic eyed the lab equipment. "If I come along, can I set up in here? This stuff is way better than what I have at the ranch…"

"I think that's a splendid idea. I would have given you better equipment earlier, but I only recently regained access to this space."

"How did you lose it?" Gregory asked. He was digging through a box with random metal parts, since Olivander didn't seem to mind.

"I forgot my token in the capital! Well, more accurately it was in my desk when Amegnon challenged me, and I didn't have the opportunity to go back for it. I wasn't in a great headspace at the time either, so I didn't think much of it."

At the bottom of the box of random metal parts, he pulled out a shiny metallic disk. A platinum adventurers token.

"Why do you keep this in with all this junk!?"

"It's not junk, Gregory. Besides, that's an extra one. I lose them a lot. The bad part about having a huge storage space is that it becomes incredibly easy to lose things while simultaneously knowing that you must have them with you."

"This is all crazy," Gregory said, dropping the token back into the box. "You'll just give this up if you lose?"

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"I have this space because I had a hand in making them, so it wasn't exactly out of my way, but of all the people they were made for, I needed it the least. Think about it. This is basically just a giant house."

"And? Who doesn't love a giant house?"

"I have a giant house, Gregory. I have several. I can just open a portal to any one of them. There's nothing in them though, because I keep everything in here, but if I didn't have this place, it would be easy enough to put all of my things into one of my very large homes."

"Oh…well that kind of takes the fun out of it."

"Doesn't it? Fezzic, don't touch that."

The goblin froze and set down a glass flask that he had been about to shake to try to identify the contents.

"Very combustible dragonfire serum."

"How did you get dragonfire serum? It bursts into flames while not inside a dragon," the goblin asked, moving farther away from the flask.

"The trick is to bottle it while inside the dragon."

Fezzic opened his mouth to respond, but closed it tilted his head from side to side in consideration for a moment. "I mean, sure. I guess that works."

"Alright, so Harvey definitely wants one of these spaces, and it's not going to hurt you so badly to lose, but why? From all the various references to your past you've made, it seems like you and your da…father didn't get along."

"I want his grimoire for a few reasons, and only one of those is the sentimentality you allude to. I have other possessions that I associate with him far more than his grimoire."

He summoned his wand. "This, for instance, was his wand. It contains a small measure of his power. He gave it to me right before I became Arch-magus…"

Olivander stared at the wand for a moment longer and then put it away. "It's tied to me in a way that his grimoire could never be. I want the grimoire because of what I can do with it, and what would happen if the wrong people got ahold of it. We're all fortunate that Harvey considers it a jewel of his collection, and has never before considered trading it away or storing it anywhere less secure.

"That is one of the reasons I'm being so circumspect about it. If Harvey knew the true value, I suspect he wouldn't hesitate to make a deal with another party who can offer him more."

Gregory absorbed all that, but it still seemed like Olivander was talking in circles a little. Normally he didn't care so much, but there was something here that Olivander didn't want to tell him, so he kept pushing.

"And what can you do with it?"

Olivander studied Gregory. "I need it to fix a mistake. A mistake that can only be repaired by the Magus, or the grimoire, who caused it."

"Olivander, can you please, for the love of all good gods stop talking in riddles? Tell me what's happening. A straight answer."

Instead of replying, Olivander sighed and waved for the group to follow him up the stairs. The second level was an oval room with doors in three directions and another set of stairs up. Olivander used a spell to unlock one of the doors, and turned before leading them inside.

"Touch nothing in this room. I could not be more serious."

He led them inside. The room looked like what Gregory had imagined Harvey's collection to be. Walls lined with display cases and pedestals with various treasures on them. Olivander stopped at a flat display case on the back wall. Inside there was a single ornate key.

"This key is passed down from Arch-magus to Arch-magus. I have mentioned the job, Arch-magus in general terms. The person in the position works with the dungeon spirits and on their own to maintain the balance of mana. An Arch-magus is also partially responsible for maintaining stability in the kingdom. There is one more responsibility that few know about."

Olivander paused, lost in his own thoughts.

"Once every year, the Arch-magus descends once more into the Pits of Madness. I believe I once mentioned that the Realm of Madness has few residents?"

"Yeah, you just said something disturbing about ideas wearing people's skin."

"That's not wrong, but those are weak shadows, hardly worth mentioning. There are two actual residents. One is the Keeper of the Eyes…it is the one who grants Eyes to prospective Magi. There is much to say about the Keeper, but it's not the focus of this key. The second resident is something of an oddity. It's a corrupted god. You could call it a god of madness, but the title lacks nuance."

"A corrupted god??" Gregory asked, eyes wide.

"I do believe that's what I just said, good job keeping up, Gregory. I don't know the original nature of the god, but my mother is an expert on gods, and she thinks it was a god of ambition of some flavor or another — there are a lot of gods. Anyway, we have a theory that the god attempted to create its own Realm, going completely mad during the process. The magic that so suffuses the Realm is shed from the corrupted god itself."

Gregory just stared at Olivander. It was too much. He had been on board with Realms, madness or otherwise. But then the mimics and their domains, that was tough to comprehend. Now this? A god creating another Realm, and the very act caused a problem large enough that an official needed to be elected in order to do something about it every year?

Olivander looked at Gregory like he could read his thoughts. "I know it's a lot to swallow," he said.

"What is it that you have to do?"

Olivander began to pace.

"The god constructed itself a castle of sorts and cast a powerful time magic on itself. It hoped that the madness would fade with time. In exchange for relics of power, he tasked an order of magicians with refreshing the power on the time bound prison. The Magi go in, refresh the power of the array, and then leave. They are only to stop when the madness finally changes to something more palatable."

"Relics…Eyes?"

"A prize to you, Gregory. It's an odd relationship. The Eyes are a product of the Realm itself, but borne of the god's power as it seeps into the Realm. His intent allows us to tap into the Eyes so readily. It's the reason why other Planar stones aren't nearly as useful, even if you technically can use one to craft a grimoire."

"Okay. I think I'm following, but now we need to take a step back. What do we need your father's grimoire for?"

"That is a long story…my father made some poor decisions during his time as Arch-magus. I don't say that just because of my personal feelings. He compromised the safety of the world for quick power to defeat a dangerous foe. It ended up costing him more than he could have ever imagined. And now we're worse for the results. To make a long story short, he basically crafted a hole in the magical array that keeps the god in accelerated time. The god remains in accelerated stasis, but more of his power leaks out than should normally be possible."

Gregory put two and two together. "More power means more Eyes?"

"You're on a roll, Gregory. It makes me feel like I haven't backed the wrong horse."

Gregory rolled his eyes. "What's wrong with more Eyes? Can't you make more Magi?"

"The Eyes of Madness have a tendency to cause problems. They need to be contained. That task falls to the Keeper of the Eyes, but the Keeper is managing far too many Eyes, and even more are being created every year. It's slowly corrupting the Keeper. We can't raise up enough Magi to counteract this problem, not in the long term."

Gregory was still waiting for the last shoe to drop. He knew there had to be something else that was really bad, but he couldn't figure out what it might be.

"If the Keeper loses too much of themselves, then they will leave the Realm of Madness. We do not have enough strength to hold back the creature for much longer. If it gains roughly another ten Eyes? Without any Magi taking one or two, I give us about two years before the Keeper of the Eyes escapes and quite probably destroys our world."

Now Gregory understood. Destruction of the world. Yep, that's bad.

"How is this not an urgent priority?" Gregory said, and Fezzic nodded enthusiastically.

"Because we have a few failsafes that give us more time. I have also been working on a solution without my father's grimoire. Once I found out Harvey had the grimoire, I slowed down that research, but it's possible we might not need the book at all. It's the only reason I was willing to gamble. If we win, great, I can fix things before we're all doomed. If we lose, I can still fix things, it will probably just be much harder."

Gregory relaxed a little. "So basically I'm going to work harder than I ever have before in my entire life to save you some work?"

"If you want to look at it that way, be my guest!"

Gregory heard a popping sound and looked over to where Sous had been floating. The golem had finally lost its battle with curiosity and touched what looked like a glowing fork hanging on the wall. Now instead of a floating golem, there was a cloud of popping bubbles.

"Ah, I should have seen that coming," Olivander said. "Don't worry you two, I can resummon him without any memory of being turned into bubbles."

Gregory carefully retraced his steps out of the room, while Fezzic threw caution to the wind, sprinting for the door.