Ar'Kendrithyst

The House of the Wandering Soul was set apart from Alaralti, far to the north of the main city. It was a five story building of three wings, sitting upon a hill, overlooking a sparse land of trees and not much else. A single road led away from the house, but the road connected to a small lake, not to any sort of other main road, for there were no main roads out there. This land was a place of peace and tranquility, set apart from the world, made of thick stone walls and many, many [Ward]s, cast throughout the building and the surrounding lands, but mostly constrained to the insides of walls and doors and trees.

Those [Ward]s were designed to be opaque to a mana sense, making this one of the only places Erick had ever visited that was mostly obscured to him.

He arrived on site on the Teleport Square of white stone, set in front of the building, with Teressa and Poi flanking him. Ophiels blipped in and fluttered around as they were wont, with one of them setting down on Erick’s shoulder. All of them looked up.

The House of the Wandering Soul dominated the surroundings with brutalist architecture composed of flat white walls that reached high, and windows laid in a grid pattern all across the front edifice. It was one of the most Earth-like buildings Erick had seen, with none of the easy adornments that were possible through the use of wardlight sculptures, or [Stoneshape] flourishes.

Erick couldn’t really tell why, though.

Maybe the insides looked better? It was hard to say, though, due to the opaque mana sense magics strung throughout the place. There were likely teams of people who recast those mana sense blocking spells every day, or maybe just one person. Now that Erick was closer, he amended his earlier guess that there were teams of Warders here, for whoever did these obscuring magics was overtaxed in their duty.

Many of the mana sense blocking spells were constrained to the first through third floors, but with a bit stress applied to his sense of the mana, Erick was able to sense that some rooms were fully blocked off from the rest of the world, but the [Ward]s in many of the common areas were open in the corners and edges, allowing a stressed mana sense to see through into some of those spaces.

Or maybe this was by design. If Erick relaxed his mana sense back to normal, then those rooms were obscured to him. It was highly possible that this was a training method for the kids. Learn to relax and the world drops away from you, sort of thing. Maybe.

Whatever the case, his arrival had already been noticed.

The kids who were not behind the impenetrable mana sense blockers were all looking his way. Maybe even the ones that were inside those blockers were looking his way, too, for Erick’s own mana sense only covered 50 meters, max, which was less than his previous max, and much less than Teressa’s 100 meter max. Whatever the case, Erick counted 13 kids. He also counted ten adults of various professions from cooks to cleaners to custodians, but all of them were carers, too, which was perhaps their first concern. Everyone on staff seemed to be a mix of demi, or human, or incani, and that held true for the kids, too.

Within seconds of his arrival, four of the staff instantly blipped from where they had been, to then stand behind the closed doors to the building. Those doors were minimally [Ward]ed against mana sensing, but not that much. They could see him, and he could see them. Erick didn’t doubt that every single one of those people had a much better mana sense than him; possibly even better than Teressa.

Teressa said, “A welcoming committee.” She glanced backward. “And in the forest, too.”

Her range was still much larger than his, so it wasn’t a surprise that she saw the other people behind them before Erick did. It took him but a second to get Ophiel in sight of those new people, but it happened rather fast.

And yup; more carers, coming out to see the archmage.

Erick had called ahead, of course. Or, to be more truthful, Poi had called ahead, through the direction of Elder Varo. Erick hadn’t actually talked to any of these people yet.

As the kids in the building started moving around, some of them rushing into the closed-off [Ward]ed areas and scared out of their minds, others came out to see what was happening. They didn’t do much besides stand in unobscured and minimally [Ward]ed areas, though.

It was kinda odd, and also nice, to have everyone see him, and to see them in return. It was kinda… open and honest, now that he was experiencing it for the first time. He expected everyone here to have a great mana sense, but he had not expected how… freeing it was, to have everyone else be able to see him, just as well as he could see them.

He didn’t like to think of it too often, but having a good mana sense was incredibly easy to abuse for one’s own benefit, and in so many different ways, too.

Most of the people here did not have a mana sense by choice, though.

Erick stepped to the short stairs leading up to the landing, in front of the double door entrance. Those doors opened at his arrival.

A demi woman pushed out the left door, and stood with a straight back. Her counterpart was a male demi who pushed out the right door and mirrored the woman’s stance. Both kept their eyes to themselves.

On the other side of the door stood a human-looking woman with red eyes, and an incani of tanned human-colored skin, with horns the same brown color. All of the adults here seemed in their thirties or early forties, and that included the people before Erick right now. The woman stepped forward.

She said, “I’m Caretaker Shani of the House of the Wandering Soul; an institution of High Clan Severing Crescent. We welcome you to the House of the Wandering Soul, Archmage Flatt.”

She bowed. Her people bowed with her.

It was all very subservient and Erick didn’t appreciate this sort of deference, but he supposed it was his due. He let it happen, though he was absolutely sure that they caught his slight disappointment; they had mana senses, after all, and probably a lot more refined than his.

The four of them raised their heads.

The woman said, “We welcome you into our home. Please come inside.”

Seeing nothing untoward, which was probably both by the specific design of this place, but also in the faces and heartbeats of the people and kids all around, Erick smiled a little, saying, “Thank you for your hospitality.”

Shani led the way inside, with the tan incani walking beside her. Erick and his people followed. The remaining two caretakers closed the doors behind them, and then remained there, their stances solid, and their eyes directed away from Erick’s departing form.

The inside of the place was rather nice; a heavy departure from the brutalist exterior. The walls were painted cream colors, with actual paint. The floor was wooden slats. There were paintings on the walls and carpets running down the centers of the various nearby hallways. Rooms had plush furniture, and lights were ample and warm. It was cozy here. But aside from the niceties of it all, walking through the front hallway, and then passing by the grand staircase and heading left, felt like walking into the mouth of a great beast, in a way that was rather unfamiliar to Erick.

The [Ward]s in the walls blocked his mana sense in a way Erick only experienced when he cast those spells himself. It made him nervous; worried over safety. He tried to shove that emotion away, and mostly succeeded. He could defend himself and Poi and Teressa, after all. The people here probably noticed the tight sunform he kept ready-to-deploy, though; he almost never went anywhere without [Greater Lightwalk] and [Lodestar] active and kept small. [Animadversion] was ready to deploy at a moment’s notice, too, but he didn’t walk around with that one active.

He didn’t want other people to get worried, as they rightfully should when seeing an archmage walking around in full defensive regalia. All his Ophiels were bad enough, but he was not going to put them away, ever.

Ah.

His paranoia was getting to him again.

Erick quieted that part of his brain as much as he could, and followed his guide.

Shani led Erick down a short hallway to a nice, open room, where half of the room was a glass dome and the other half was a library. It was a comfortable setting with plush couches and nice tea tables sitting between them.

Shani led them to the set of couches near the center of the room, saying, “Please have a seat, Archmage Flatt.” She sat down on one couch, while her man stood behind her. “Our kitchen staff will be bringing us tea. Is there any kind you like, specifically?”

Though it was difficult to mana sense for distance in this place, it was still possible to see down hallways and around corners. Erick barely saw as people in a kitchen, down the hallway, were already making tea, waiting for Erick’s announcement of what he preferred.

Erick took a seat on the opposing couch, saying, “I’ve developed a fondness for the citrus blends coming out of some of the specialty growers of Alaralti, at the moment, but I am sure that my tastes will change as new teas come my way. I didn’t really drink tea till I came to Veird, and I was relatively quick to reinvent coffee because that is my preferred drink, so my experiences with tea are still rather limited.”

As he said that, the people in the kitchen started moving.

Shani smiled politely, saying, “We have some nice tea blends that you might enjoy, but we will have to look into acquiring some coffee for your next visit.” Then she turned a bit more professional. “I must say I am very interested in the charms that you’ve made for Young Master Warzi, but before we begin, I must ask you some questions, if you don’t mind.”

Erick nodded.

Shani asked, “Why have you chosen to help with the wandering souls of our children?”

Several of the kids in question were listening in from the upper floors of the building, though many more were still hidden from sight. He wondered, briefly, how many horrible things they had all seen before they were placed here, and then, how many more horrible things they had seen when they got here.

Erick said, “I was introduced to the problem of the wandering soul through Patriarch Hangzi of Devouring Nightmare, or more specifically, in Young Master Warzi, who has the same affliction. Since I already had a Privacy spell with some rather convoluted methodology which allowed outward sight, but blocked mana sense and a whole slew of other senses, it was easy enough to create a different spell that only blocked mana sense. Here.” He handed her a blue box.