Celuria set up a special room just inside the dungeon for their meeting. Olivander had expected to meet her outside the dungeon, as using the dungeon in this manner could cause problems. Dungeons didn't like people entering them just to hang out.

"Celuria, it's lovely to see you again."

Olivander sat in the small room, and Celuria took the chair opposite him.

"Olivander. I'm afraid we'll have to be brief. As you know, the Conclave is coming up, and I have business in the capital this year. I need as much time as I can get."

"Very well then. What do you have to tell me about the connection between the Ghoul domains and the dungeons?"

"First, I do have one piece of news for you. My brother is dead," she slouched slightly in her chair as though just saying the words put a great weight on her.

"Effandrial? Dead? How?"

"We don't know. An unexpected dungeon spawned at a battlefield to the far north. It looks like a battle gone awry. He was dispatched, but it seems the dungeon was on the verge of breach before he arrived. He died during the resulting breach. That's all we know for sure."

"This is very troubling. Do you know where the battlefield is?"

"I do. The dungeon location is shared with all spirits."

"Well then. Perhaps after we are done, I will look into how to reach this battlefield and take a look. A newly breached dungeon could be interesting, after all."

"I could share the location if you intend to do some…sightseeing."

Olivander was here to receive something promised. A small exchange of information was well and good, but asking Olivander to investigate something like the death of Effandrial would violate the dungeon spirit oath. Fortunately, the oath was flexible enough that two people with knowledge of how it worked couldn't still get around it, though doing so too often could weaken it. That was a position no dungeon spirit wanted to be in since a broken oath would be fatal to them. Celuria was usually more rigid, Olivander knew, but she would like to know what happened to her brother.

Celuria straightened. "On to business then. It is troubling that you have found a new domain. They are all old. As old as some of the oldest dungeon spirits. You know the long history of our order, and it was the founding that stopped more domains from forming."

"Really?"

"Really. The relative balance of mana provided by dungeon management prevents random weakening of the dimensional walls of our world. Aside from a few sporadic events, our management continues to work well. There shouldn't be new domain pockets forming. There are old ones that are impossible to fully close, but they are relatively stable, aside from a few mindrot outbreaks or the occasional ghoul escape."

"If the domains are, or were, a product of mana imbalance, where do the ghouls come in? I thought they were the creators."

"Ghouls, mimics, and the rest of their ilk are the spawn of Chaos. They come into our world through the domains."

Chaos. He had heard mentions of the force before. Old, old records and legends speculated that the wider cosmos was influenced by two primary forces, Order and Chaos.

"The spawn of chaos. You mean to imply that the being, or force, Chaos, as some kind of extra-dimensional force, truly exists?"

"Chaos and Order exist. They aren't just forces, either. They have physical forms and travel the Realms, each spreading their ideals. When you mentioned a new domain, I worried that Chaos had finally set his sights on our world."

"How do Gods handle their interference?"

"You'd have to ask one. I've seen it speculated that the Divine Realm is a bastion of pure Order, and the gods are a product of Order's will, whereas the Demonic Realm is a bastion of Chaos, and the demons are born from Chaos' influence."

Olivander considered the idea but dismissed it. The power balance just wasn't there. Gods were far more potent than even the greatest of the demon lords. Though it was true, there were many more demons.

"Curious. What are the consequences if chaos is allowed to fester here?"

Celuria shrugged. "I do not know. The first of our order simply wanted to stop our world's slow, inevitable annihilation."

"A truly commendable goal, and one I am thankful for…but if the halt of the spread of chaos was just a happy accident, how do we stop it now?"

"As with all things, balance is the key. Imbalance has been escalating, and I suspect you know why."

"I believe I do. It's been fifteen years in the making, but things are reaching a head. I hoped I would have more time. My mother didn't see anything."

"The influence of chaos would warp any seer's sight."

Olivander nodded, thinking. The problem was, naturally, the source of his consternation: the Realm of Madness, the god sealed within it, and the hole in the time acceleration ritual. Magic continued to escalate in the Realm, and since there was an open aperture into their world, the levels of madness magic continued to steadily rise. Pulling more mana in from other Realms to compensate would work in the short term and rip their world apart in the long term.

"You have given me much to think about, Celuria."

"As I thought I might. The formation of a dimensional pocket was relatively expected, given what you now understand. The presence of ghouls though, that adds another layer of concern."

"You know, I don't think they came from the space naturally. After we cleared it out, we found a strange tile that allowed a domain heart to grow at an accelerated rate. I don't have it with me because I didn't want to put it into any sort of dimensional container, but I might be able to draw out the symbol."

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He conjured a paper and pencil. Then he shook his head and dismissed them, conjuring a replica of the tile instead.

"There we are. Have you seen anything like it?"

Celuria took the tile and looked at it.

"Is that a planar stone?"

Olivander nodded.

"I don't recognize the symbol," she said simply before handing back the tile.

Olivander could tell she wanted to ask more, but they were reaching the edges of their agreement. She wouldn't follow it further.

"Well, it was worth a try." He let the tile dissipate.

"Now, it's a lovely time of year to visit the northern country. Do you have any recommendations of interesting places to visit?"

Celuria smiled. "I think we can find something. It was a pleasure speaking to you again, Olivander. I am sorry we don't have more time."

With that, Olivander was ejected from the dungeon. He found himself high in the air near the dungeon tower. In his mind, the location of the breached dungeon where Effandial died shone like a beacon. As he fell, he opened a portal to the destination under him.

* * *

Cooper looked out over a stretch of sea marked by swirling clouds, vicious winds, and rough water. The ship had slowed some distance away from the storm, sailing around it. Oddly the storm didn't seem to be moving, so it never came closer.

"There it is. Inside this mess is a temple to the oldest and most powerful storm gods. If you want to gain mastery of true power, that's where you'll find it."

Cooper looked at Harvey and then back to the deathtrap in the middle of the ocean.

"You want me to go in there?"

"I want you to do more than go in there. I want you to live there."

Already wind and rain battered the ship, though they were miles away from the actual edge of the storm.

"We had to get closer. Not everyone can open portals halfway around the globe. I'm terrible at it if I don't have a beacon to focus on. There's an island in the middle of this churning mess. That's where the temple is. I'm going to send you in there, and you'll stay there until you have mastery over the storm."

Cooper had been with Harvey for about a week now. The boat ride had been fun, in his estimation. He had learned a lot of new ritual magic, and Harvey was a patient teacher who explained what he was doing right and wrong and guided him toward better solutions through practice and repetition.

He contrasted that with Olivander, who seemed to have some kind of sadistic need to throw his apprentices into the most dangerous things he could think of. He had been surprised at how differently they seemed to teach. Now Cooper knew the truth. Harvey had just been softening him up, making him comfortable and excited before dropping him into the deep end of the pond. Or, in this case, the ocean.

"I'm not sure this is a good idea."

He knew it was worthless to try to argue with the man. Magi seemed to be a stubborn sort of people.

"Oh, it's a terrible idea, but the whole point is you need to grow quickly, and you won't do that studying books on a ship. You need to fight and be challenged. That said, the island is going to be tough. I'm going to go with you for a few hours. I'll push back anything that might kill you and draw a safe zone for you. You'll be able to retreat into it, but it will only have limited power. After that, you'll be on your own."

With that, Harvey began drawing out a ritual diagram.

"Good luck, Cooper!" Kluug called out to him. Some of the other pirates joined in.

Cam and Garo just gave him nods, which he returned.

He said farewell to the pirates who had said goodbye to him. Harvey finished the ritual, and a portal sprang up from within it. It was smaller than Olivander's typical portal, and it was rough around the edges, but it was stable. Harvey looked down on him.

"Follow after a minute."

The pirate stepped through.

Cooper briefly wondered how the portal stayed in place on the rocking ship. But his minute was up before he came to any firm conclusions. He put on his trickster's mask in case anything was nearby and stepped through the portal.

Immediately, the wind buffeted him from all sides, and the rain pounded into him.

Harvey was ahead, wielding a giant whip made from condensed water. He beat back a serpent of some kind. It was larger than Cooper and could have swallowed him whole. He suddenly wondered what the heck he was doing. He could be sleeping, nice and warm, on someone's porch right now. It was the life he gave up when he decided to join Olivander. He was resolved to push himself as hard as he could, but he'd never really been alone like he was about to be.

Even when he was on his own in the Village, there were always people around, and he knew and recognized them. If things got hard, he could visit the baker for a biscuit or old lady broom's garden for a midnight snack. After that, he had always had Gregory to support him and Olivander to provide a measure of comfort that no matter what ended up happening, the Magus would be able to get him out of trouble.

He remembered then that Olivander had given him a device. Yes, he could get it out of his bag and use it to…summon Olivander? He wasn't sure how it worked, but it would get Olivander's attention somehow, and the man would come to him. The last-ditch emergency measure gave him just enough comfort that he didn't immediately spring back through the portal he had just passed through.

Harvey didn't speak, as nothing could be heard over the wild winds anyway. Cooper asked him what to do a few times since he could speak directly into the man's mind, but Harvey would just point at a spot for him to stand out of the way. Once Harvey had gone around the entire, relatively small, island and cleared it, he finally drew out a ritual on the ground. He drew it with some kind of stone-shaping magic instead of with mana. He recalled someone mentioning that more permanent rituals could be made from solid materials like stone or metal.

Once the ritual was completed, Harvey stepped inside and motioned for Cooper to follow.

As soon as he passed through the boundary, the wind silenced, and the rain stopped. They were still going strong outside, but the boundary seemed to prevent them from coming inside the circle.

"Here we are, pup. This ritual will keep out wind, rain, and monsters. You can come and go as you please; it will power off when you aren't inside. It has about five full days of power, but I expect you'll be out here for at least a few weeks."

Cooper looked around, now that he could see without rain pelting him. They had traversed the island more or less together, and he could see the structure of the temple to the storm god. A loose forest of palm trees stretched out behind that, and a clear shoreline surrounded the island with colossal surf pounding the beach constantly. He had a small amount of rations in his dimensional bag, but it wasn't much.

"What am I supposed to do?"

"Grow stronger. Master the storm. You should head into the storm temple after I leave and see what you can figure out for yourself. Then, let's see…ah, look over there."

He pointed, and Cooper could just make out a small serpent swimming through the wind.

"Those lesser serpents will be good combat experience for you. Don't bother with wind attacks because they'll be better at shaping it than you, but lightning or physical attacks should do the trick. Avoid the big ones. You can flee to this circle if you get into a tight situation. Once you're inside of it, they'll forget they were chasing you and should leave within a few minutes."

That gave Cooper somewhere to start, at least. Master the storm by using the storm god's temple…somehow, and fight the lesser serpents to gain strength. He could probably start on those. He could probably eat the serpents too. Hopefully, they tasted alright. He didn't think fishing was going to be an option. He was a strong swimmer, but the surf was unlike anything he had ever seen. He wouldn't temp the sea like that.

"That's all I have for you, pup. Any questions?"

"When are you coming back for me?"

Harvey laughed. "Oh, I'm not coming back for you. Either you master the storms and get yourself out of this mess, you hope Olivander is paying enough attention to rescue you, or you die."

Cooper had pretty high intelligence, so analytically, he knew that Harvey wouldn't give up the contest by letting him die. As long as he lived, there was a chance to win. The threat was a motivational tactic. Still, Cooper shuddered at the look in Harvey's eyes. He had no doubt the man would leave him if he didn't think it would cost him anything. No, he wouldn't expect a rescue from this man.

Without anything to ask, Harvey stepped out of the ritual and through his portal. It closed behind him, and Cooper was left alone in his small shelter against the storm.