Ar'Kendrithyst

Erick woke in his bed at Devouring Nightmare’s third clan mountain in Holorulo.

Last night had been nice. The funerals and the wake had been what they needed to be, but talking to Xue had been nice. Drinking with a new friend had been great.

Well. Were they friends? Likely not after one night, but whatever. It was the start of something, probably.

Once the day got going, Erick got even more good news from a messenger from Devouring Nightmare, in the form of a question: Since he was going to stay for a while, and his current location was simply not up to his needs since there was not a proper kitchen, what did he want in his new temporary rooms?

Erick happily answered, “About double the space I have now, with a nice kitchen where I can cook myself, but also with the option to get food prepared for me, too. A workspace open to the sky would be good, as there will be some of that, as well as a nice space for enchanting.”

Ten minutes later, Erick and his people were moving to the next clan mountain over, to Devouring Nightmare’s first clan mountain. A three story pagoda had his name on it, with the top floor open to the sky and the bottom two having everything Erick could ever want in a living space. Oh, sure, it was rather devoid of everything that made a house a home, but Erick wasn’t going to make it his home, either. It rather reminded Erick of his Windy Manor, over at Oceanside; nice, but just a vacation home.

The golden pagoda sat upon the northwest edge of the white plateau where it overlooked the vast land north of Holorulo. The rooms came packed with opulent furniture and nice seats and fluffy couches, but also with empty shelves and bare cabinets. The work spaces on the second floor were top notch, with plenty of room for whatever Erick wanted or needed, and of course, there was running hot and cold water all over the place. Nothing looked untoward, anywhere, as Erick and Teressa both scoped out the place and found nothing worrying at all. And! In a few hours more! At least one national treasure was headed his way, for him to study and dissect. The four alchemists Erick had given Intelligence to might be showing up, as well, or maybe not. That was still up in the air.

All of Erick’s needs were seen to by the majordomo of First Clan Mountain, Elder Varo. The short introductions Erick had with that man left Erick feeling like he was welcomed, but also that he wouldn’t be truly welcomed until he assisted Young Master Warzi with his wandering soul problem.

Which Erick was going to get to, as soon as he could!

And that was how Erick found out that Warzi lived here, on First Devouring Nightmare Mountain, as it was sometimes called. So, in front of all the other magical issues Erick could be exploring, Erick was going to solve that kid’s mana sense issues, first.

To that end, and likely many other magical purposes before the day was done, Erick now stood in one of the larger empty rooms on the second floor of his new place. The flooring was that nice white marble-like ‘clan mountain material’, whatever that was, while the walls were three times as thick as normal and the windows could be covered with panels —which they were— in order to prevent easy spying and also to protect from unexpected blowouts, from unexpected explosions. Protective spellworks had already gone up all around the house. A few protective spells had gone up around this room, too, but nothing held inside, for making magic inside of other magics was bad practice.

And now for the magic.

Erick had read the books and understood the many different theories out there when it came to mana sensing. He had listened to the advice of others. He had listened to the sounds of the mana, and he had listened to the sounds of [Sealed Privacy Ward]. And now, in this otherwise normal room he knew that solving Warzi’s issue was as simple as layering Destruction upon the edge of a [Ward].

Well.

It was not ‘simple’.

Many mages acquired a mana sense blocking spell by virtue of piling on enough obfuscation and denial into their privacy spells that denying mana sense naturally followed; it was an emergent outcome. The problem with this approach was manifold. First of all, this technique blocked sight and sound, which was why Warzi didn’t already have a mana sense blocker. No one wanted to live in a world of silent darkness; Warzi already spent eight hours in such a spell every night, so that he could actually fall asleep, but otherwise, no one wanted to live like that. Another problem was that many mages didn’t even have a proper mana sense, so this ‘emergence’ of mana sense was due to people throwing enough resources at the problem in order to solve an edge-case that barely anyone could negate in the first place. But Erick had a rather great mana sense, and he knew the true nature of sight and sound. Those three factors should make this a rather easy spell.

[Conjure Force Elemental] came first even though that spellwork wasn’t necessary for Charm Magic. Erick preferred having [Conjure Force Elemental] as part of the working, though, in order to make the end result more user-friendly. [Ward] came next, as was necessary for Charm Magic, and so that he could work in much Permanency as possible, as he had done with both his [Prismatic Ward] and [Kaleidoscopic Radiance], and to provide the edge of the spellwork. Mana Altering for Destruction came in at that point, targeting the edge of the sphere created by [Ward].

The Permanency might be taking this spellwork too far, as Destruction seemed anathema to Permanency magic, but allowing for natural mana to come in and reinforce what had been lost to degradation should help the spell maintain its integrity. If nothing else, working Permanency aspects into the magic was Erick’s own personal ‘best practices’.

He started channeling mana.

He listened to the sounds of clarity and purpose and the stripping of memory, as Ophiels on perches echoed his music.

And then he cast.

A medium-sized white sphere appeared before him, clipping into the floor and the ceiling, before it rapidly pulled inward like cotton candy draining, coalescing into a tiny sphere. In a single second, the larger orb had become something the size of a fingernail; a glittering white pearl. The charm hovered for the briefest of moments, then plinked out of the air to fall to the ground, tinking off of the stone flooring like some mundane object.

And then the blue box appeared.