Ar'Kendrithyst

Erick stood with Melemizargo at Ascendant Mountain, atop the central pillar and under a swirl of Darkness. The main source of light in the space was the pillar underneath, which glowed like a white-ice ocean under the sun. Everything else was black.

Melemizargo’s eyes were also rather illuminated, though, almost rivaling the light from the floor. He was 3 meters tall at the moment, but he was still a dragon and that was his sitting-down height, so he was still rather wide.

Erick was similarly sized, but he was in his human form.

A chair rose out of the ground for Erick, and Erick took the offered seat, asking, “What’s up, Melemizargo?”

“I’m going to die soon.”

It was a sudden statement, voiced softly, in a way that Erick had only ever heard Melemizargo speak to his daughter. It was not what Erick wanted to hear.

It was a finality.

An End.

Melemizargo did not simply mean ‘die’ when he said ‘die’, and both of them knew that, and both of them knew that Melemizargo did not want to die, but they knew it was going to happen anyway. Or, at least, that’s what both of them believed. Melemizargo was resigned.

Erick still had hope.

Erick breathed deep, then asked, “I can’t change that?”

“No. Nothanganathor won along the avenue of the Godpact world, and though you have split this reality from that reality, the reality we focused on for so long still carries a certain weight. He becomes the God of Magic along that avenue of power. That is set in the Firmament Itself.”

“Why can’t I change that?!”

Melemizargo got a far off look in his eyes, and then he looked at Erick, and said, “Once, long ago, I had a conversation with my own mother that went along these very same lines, when I found out about what Nothanganathor had done to her. I asked her why we couldn’t alter her death. She told me something that was a rumor to me before that moment, even though I had been her Second for a long time. Something I didn’t truly believe, but which has proven true. I can feel it even now.

“My End.

“Erick.

“Understand this: the Darkness always knew that there would always be a Wizard War contest over the Mantle of the God of Magic, and so the Darkness set up some rules. One of those rules is that whoever wins the Mantle will keep the Mantle, and no amount of Paradoxing or Creation or Destruction will change that.

“There are not many hard rules when it comes to True Magic, done true, but this is one of them. When the time comes for a Changeover of Mantle, the Mantle moves on. And so, Nothanganathor will get the Mantle, 38 days from now. No matter what you do, he will get the Mantle. He might not know this, but he likely feels it. I feel it, too, and I recognize the feeling. Rozeta knows what is coming because she is the Goddess of Knowledge, and it is her sacred duty and burden to Know Things. She and I have had a conversation already, but we had to break it off because it was too troubling for her, and for me.

“And now you also know this sacred information.”

Erick breathed.

He accepted what he was told.

And then he tried to find a way around it.

He asked, “If we can’t prevent the date, could we skip over the date?”

“The Changeover is not a solid thing. It can move this way or that, but it will happen. Even if Nothanganathor is dead, he will be revived by the Dark, because he is already the God of Magic in the future. Causality will break and then reform to make this happen. If necessary, the Dark Itself will take action, which means that every single person in the nearest few light years will likely die, including you, if you stay here.”

Erick said, “He told me that he ‘did things’ to ensure that he is the God of Magic. Is this one of those things? Is this a fiction invented by him to make you believe these things?”

Melemizargo smiled a little, though it was a sad sort of thing. “No. He lied to you about that, about ‘him doing something’. He is claiming credit for the work of others. This is how the transfer always works, though the hows-and-whys of it are different every time.”

“… Shit— Wait. What if we change the Mantle itself into something lesser? Make the Goddess of Knowledge the true power of the Dark?”

Melemizargo smiled worriedly. “Then the Dark would strip Rozeta of her life and power and grant all of that to Nothanganathor. As it is, the Dark will likely do that anyway, and if not the Dark, then Nothanganathor once he is able.”

“He doesn’t make any inroads into the Dark after he wins, Melemizargo,” Erick said, as solid as he could. “The universe of the future had Nothanganthor winning, but he was still a while away from actually getting the Dark to accept a new emplacement of life within itself. He might never have reached that goal. Yes, he had won, but he had won a Mantle from an Overdeity that didn’t seem to care for him at all.”

Melemizargo chuckled darkly. “Aye. The Dark would hate him… But the Dark hates me, too. I stripped people of their power before, Erick, which set the stage for the Sundering. I have not been a good steward. When I was young... Nothanagnathor is just the most present of the offended. Even here, on Veird, I couldn’t get anyone to be who they should have been. I am a failure in the eyes of the Dark.”

“Let’s not be defeatist yet.” Erick thought a little bit… “How about we make Nothanganathor ascend to a god of the Fractal Cosmology?”

“And then he gets to be a double god? Ha?”

“No no. Fractal gods can only do what people think they can do, and if everyone believes that Nothanganathor can only ever be… the Hidden Antagonist, or something, then that is what he will become. And then, when he gets the Mantle of Magic he will become a god that is… that is what his worshipers made of him? Someone more in line with the actual purposes of the Dark?” Erick could see that Melemizargo didn’t like any part of this idea, but Erick continued, “Just wait a moment— There are lots of problems to this idea, with the main one being that Nothanganathor is siphoning away his divinity to Margleknot, through ancient pact, so he can’t actually become divine, otherwise he would have done so long ago. Also, his Sign of Power probably siphons away divinity, too. But the point is… Can we turn him into a phantom of himself that would give up his power and undo what he has done, reviving everyone he killed and undoing the Erasures and all that? If we can do that, then that’s pretty much a win, right?”

Melemizargo looked even less happy. “… You want to forgive him?”

Erick kept the anger out of his voice, but it was a near thing. “Do you want to live and turn back into the God of Magic after a while of being dead, or do you want to just plain lose?” Erick added, “I’m spitballing ideas right now, anyway. We might come up with something better with more than a handful of minutes of thought.”

Melemizargo harrumphed. “Honestly. You, calling for forgiveness. This is less of a surprise to me than it should be. You, calling for forgiveness! I’m surprised it took this long. Your fae ascension truly brought you back to your roots.”

“I fully expect to be too furious to be able to think straight now and again, but being able to walk through time has given me some much-needed distance.”

Silence.

Erick’s thoughts turned to the past.

Melemizargo was probably thinking of the past, too.

Anger and frustration bled away from the moment, like pus from a wound.

Melemizargo was resigned, and it had taken Erick some time to get there with him. He still wasn’t there, but… If Melemizargo had said he was going to die, then Erick kinda believed him.

Erick said, “Rozeta might have already told you, but… When I saw Nothanganathor the last time— 30 years ago, to me, not that glimpse through the reflection— when I saw him he told me how I had proclaimed to be the ‘ultimate forgiving sort’ —like that was something awful to be— and that he deserved the same treatment, and then I told him ‘Forgiveness is for those who desire it, or those who I can force into compliance. You are neither, and you will have NOTHING.’. He exploded, or I exploded him. I don’t know if I actually managed that myself, or he allowed it, but it still feels good to have done that to him.”

Melemizargo said, “It was probably an avatar. I did the same thing many, many times. Never with him as a god, though…” Melemizargo nodded proudly. “That’s quite an accomplishment for you. Congratulations.”

Erick laughed. “Thanks for humoring my mortal achievements.”

“Ha! Mortal, he says.” Melemizargo adopted a sarcastically imperious tone, saying, “Now Erick, just because I have seen it all a billion times already does not make this time any less important, and you are no more mortal than Fairy Moon, or Shadow, or any of the others.” A bit softer, he asked, “Have you not experienced a physical death yet?”

Erick shuddered. “I thought I already did?”

“Well yes. Your worldline shattered and then you brought it back together. Seems you made some sort of power that allows you to recollect more than just yourself after death, though. It allows you to not actually spend any mana, if you wish… Hmm. And also allows for magic sampling? Ahh… That’s your Archmage upbringing; Always investigative. But you know why the Dark wants people to actually spend mana, though?”

Huh. So [Wizard’s Clarity] was the first step to becoming Fae? … or at least the version of Fae that Erick became.

“To spend mana is to expand existence, I am sure.”

“Correct.” Melemizargo asked, “Have you experienced death since your initial death?”

“Nope! And I’m fine with that.”

Melemizargo smirked. “It’s actually quite good to know that you have this kind of power. I’m sure exploding Nothanganathor’s avatar was no small feat, either.”

“I’ll count it as an accomplishment if I can do it again, and directly. Maybe if I can kill his real body I can [Reincarnation] him into someone better… Oh. Uh. Would that get rid of his Curse of Obscurity?”

“If you can put him into a position that you actually have enough power to [Reincarnation] him, then I will be able to undo the Curse from here.” Melemizargo said, “With the Curse undone, that would allow you to actually uphold your ideals to protect those who you subjugate, wouldn’t it?”

They had skipped past the part where Erick would have said that he would have taken Nothanganathor under his wing after a [Reincarnation], if he was actually able to do any of that, which meant protecting him from forces that wanted to End him. Erick hadn’t wanted to bring that up… but he kinda did want to talk about it, which is why he mentioned undoing the Curse of Obscurity.

Erick said, “I don’t want to forgive him, for anything—”

“And yet, you would, if you could.”

“If forgiving the Sundering would put all this behind us and sever him from the power to ever Sunder ever again, as well as ensure all good outcomes for all always? Then yes, I would forgive him, and you will, too.”

“But you don’t want to forgive him.”

It was an accusation, a demand of Melemizargo’s own, a plea, and a need, all wrapped up in a small sentence that was almost a question, but not quite.

“Yeah. I don’t…” Erick said, “I don’t know if I could honestly forgive him for anything, Melemizargo.” Erick thought of Debby, and all the pain of the last 1453 years of Veird’s history, and the uncountable trillions of people that the Sundering killed and then ripped apart until nothing was left, not even their souls. “I don’t want to forgive him. He doesn’t even deserve forgiveness as he is… But if he gives up everything? If there is a way to make this work that results in no more war? Then I… I would do what I needed to do.”

Melemizargo snorted; a laugh. And then he said, “If he asks you to ask me to undo his Curse of Obscurity, then know now that the answer is ‘no’, unless you can truly put him in a position where you or I have all the power over him. If you can draw any sort of solid agreement out of him that would be acceptable then I would… allow it.”

That was big.

Erick nodded.

The both of them allowed the moment to settle.

And then Erick asked, “You’re not down there at all, are you? On Fenrir, I mean. I thought you could look through the Dark Mark to see everyone you want to see who has a Mark?”

Melemizargo furrowed his scaled eyebrows. “No. That’s not how that works… Is that how Nothanganathor sought to speak to you after your dismissal?”

“I thought it was, but now I’m realizing that there’s a discrepancy in that thought.”

Melemizargo shook his head a little. “There is little discrepancy. Unless I am truly focusing on a known power, it is hard to see them, and even then it would be impossible to see an average person outside of Veird, outside of a proper manasphere. I have caught glimpses of times and places like that, since the Sundering, but I had always assumed it was a phantom; a trick to get me to release my Mantle. The only way he was likely able to see you after he kicked you away was that you were inside of a manasphere and you were a Wizard of the Dark; two very necessary things in order to draw the attention of Magic Itself and to allow the Dark to see you. The Dark sees its Wizards everywhere they are, all the time.”

“Ahh… Well yeah. I guess so— Can you see me now?”

Melemizargo said, “Yes, but only because you’re a weight upon the world. If you lighten your steps then you will become invisible.”

“… Huh.” Erick said, “One of the things he said was that it was anathema for the God of Magic to take away a Mark, so he had no real leverage except all the leverage he had, which was obviously a threat…” Erick asked, “But I think I transcended my Mark. Is there… something I can do with it, now?”

Melemizargo grinned a little. It was not a wholly happy look, but there was a great deal of joy in there. And then he seemed to relax into a softer stance, as he said, “He won’t be able to find you with it anymore unless he truly focuses, but with the power at his command it would be easier to find you in other ways; through your family, through your history. Once he becomes a God then his options bloom immeasurably. If he strips your Dark Mark from you, then you will have every cosmological right to take your revenge upon him, as he has done to me with the Sundering. As it is now, your Dark Mark is more of a trap for him, should he attempt to influence you through it. Don’t let him bluff you with taking it away, but also don’t ever act like you would want it taken away; that would allow him to take it without repercussion.” Melemizargo said, “And so, you should simply keep it. I’m sure you will find a use for it eventually. But as for now… Let us move past the talk of strategy and outcomes.” Melemizargo said, “We are currently under a [Time Stop], and I would enjoy hearing about your journeys through time, if you would tell them. Rozeta is actually quite reluctant to speak of the secrets she knows, which is how a Goddess of Knowledge should be.

“So Erick?

“What did you learn?

“What did you see, beyond my death, in this universe that is so large and beautiful?”

Erick felt a pang in his chest.

And then he conjured a table and set upon it some foods from Earth that he had taken and saved over the years. “It’s all junk food, comfort food, but I enjoyed all of this from my home. I already ate everything that I saved from my journeys through the Time. But please, take what you want.” Erick grabbed a slice of buffalo chicken pizza, saying, “I missed pizza the most. It was so bad for me, but I loved it while I could eat it without problems.”

Melemizargo eyed the food… reluctantly. He was not impressed, and yet, he floated a slice over to himself and then took a bite. He thought for a second, and then he took another bite. “Not bad?”

Erick laughed. “It’s pure commoner food, but yeah. It’s not bad.”

Melemizargo chuckled.

Erick began, “So when I stepped through time the first time, it did not start off that way at all. I stepped through a Benevolence portal into a void, and created [Wizard’s Clarity], which sort of cleared up everything around me. I wasn’t inside a void at all, but inside Benevolence Itself. Still looked like a void, though, except for the points of light so far away that turned out to be collections of nebulous Benevolence out there in the Fractal Universe.

“The first place I fell was this world of Abarial, over 172 million Layers away. I learned a lot there about corruption, but also about Valkyries. You know I gave up that [Blessing of Empathy] when Koyabez helped make my silver star pin into the Crystal Star? He kept granting that specific spell back over the years, but I was glad to actually be rid of it. It served very well for a time, but it was a lot of strong-armed soul twisting. Necessary soul twisting, but not something I wish to engage in more than necessary.”

Melemizargo nodded as he sipped a 2-liter bottle of high-caffeine soda through a giant swirly straw.

“Anyway. The Valkyries are actually a rather similar application of that [Blessing of Empathy], what with their mind-meld magics. Over the course of the war, which took about half a year, I saw fractious worlds come together under one mind, and when it all ended, and when I ended the Valkyrie spell, I saw worlds that had been too broken to stop the advance of corruption all come together to work together, to truly restart their civilization. Being a part of the Valkyrie magic was as close to enlightenment as most people were ever going to get… or at least that was the sentiment they spoke of.

“As for the actual war: To combat the corruption over a land of a few tens of planets, and three Layers, I took a direct, burning approach to the corruption itself, but I deployed Valkyries extensively in order to rush through the repair of their civilization as fast as I could…”

- - - -

Erick had tried to get back to work after seeing Melemizargo for a talk about everything in the universe and a few other universes besides, but he found himself faced with Jane instead. She had asked him to talk for a little while, alone, before he got to doing anything big. She hadn’t expected him to easily agree, but now she was dealing with that new reality she had created.

Erick was taking it easier than Jane.

In Jane’s house in the cloud castle over Candlepoint, Erick sat down with his daughter while she made tea in the kitchen. Jane almost never used her house, but Erick had kept it neat and tidy for when she did. These days Evan was the one actually living in the place, which was what Jane and Evan had agreed on, so it wasn’t too much of a surprise when Jane rummaged through the cupboards looking for her preferred tea, and she couldn’t find it.

“Fuck it, I guess we’re drinking whatever weird shit Evan bought,” Jane said, grabbing some ‘Mild Greens’. “What even is ‘Mild Greens’ anyway?”

Erick smiled a little. “It’s a tea from Nelboor, by way of House Void Song. Evan is one of the main contacts for them now that he’s here at the House most of the time. I think you liked it when you tried it once, when we were served it at breakfast with the grass travelers.”

Jane was dumping the tea into little metal containers, but she paused. She bent down and smelled it— “Oh my gods. I remember it now! I loved this stuff… Huh.”

She stayed there for a moment, thinking about a lot, and then she got to putting the tea back together. With a flick of her hand she boiled the water in the pot, but she manually put the tea strainers into the water to let them steep. She brought the pot and a plate of cookies over to the kitchen nook table… But with a small uncomfortableness, she looked at the table.

She was probably thinking about how the table was a tall one, with tall chairs. It easily doubled as a standing table sometimes, which is how Evan used it sometimes. It was not the table that Jane had originally had in the house.

Jane set down the tea pot and cookies anyway, saying, “Evan has some weird tastes, but the table is sturdy enough.”

Erick smiled softly at that—

Jane instantly added, “You’ve had this weird, forlorn look in your eyes ever since you… Well since you came back.”

“Yup. No doubt. How old are you now?”

Jane raised an eyebrow. “… How old do you think I am?”

“34 or 36. I’m not sure. I think our birthdays heavily diverged recently—” Erick gave his daughter a Look. “And you made yourself younger.”

Jane smiled. “35, and yeah. I went for 25. 25 was a good age.”

“What was so good about 25?”

“Oh lots of things. I almost got married—”

Erick was floored. He asked, “Where was I when this almost happened?”

“… Which you did not know at all, did you.”

“Where was I?!”

“Up here— Just below here, at the House, being King.” Jane kept dropping bombs, “Anyway. 25 was a great age. I told you about the Unicorn Hunt, yeah? Marric. Orcol mind mage that partied with me? We met later on and sort of… one thing led to another. He knew who I was and I knew him and we almost got married, but then his family turned out to want him to want kids and he couldn’t have kids with me, and then things just sort of fell apart from there. He’s still a great guy, but we lost him in the Red while you were gone at Margleknot.”

Erick breathed deep. “Sorry I wasn’t here.”

Jane winced. “No no— Dad. That’s not why… Sorry. I guess that kinda came out wrong. No. I did not mean to— That’s not… I just wanted to tell you, not hurt you. It didn’t work out anyway. But… I liked being 25. It felt like things finally started to come together for me, there. Even my breakup with Marric was a good thing, for both of us.”

Erick said, “Sorry I wasn’t here for that.”

“Well. Yeah.” Jane said, “I’ve been thinking about… a lot of things. Mainly about organized magic and how you made yourself able to be hurt only through Health and the other two… And I was thinking about all the sideways attacks that Nothanganathor is coming at us with…”

She went silent.

Erick allowed her a moment pouring both of them some tea; it was ready now. “You still like sugar, right?”

“Milk, too, but I can do that myself.”

Erick smiled. “I know you can, but I want to help you.”

Erick saw the pain in Jane’s eyes as she thought.

Jane made an important decision.

And then Jane looked at her father, and spoke some words she had obviously been practicing in a mirror somewhere, “You know, Dad, you talk about a bunch of stuff that’s so far out of the ability for anyone to really reach. Time travel. Layers of the universe. Resurrection and reincarnation. Fate Magic. But at the same time, all of that is because of Wizardry, which is basically you telling the universe that you have the power, so what you say goes. Wizardry is whatever you want, right? Tell me if I have that wrong.”

Erick wasn’t exactly sure where Jane was going with this, so he just answered the question, “There’s nuance, but yes. Just like with normal magic, if you know what you’re doing then it costs less to do it, but at the same time if you simply have enough resources to not care about cost, then you can do anything.”

Jane relaxed a little. “Okay. So…” She paused again. She said, “This war is getting out of hand. None of us can actually contribute anything at all to it— No. I mean it, dad. Don’t interrupt, please. The vast majority of us are worthless. There is power to be had if we can get it, but we’re talking universal, existential threats, and we have no time for all the rest of us to Ignite to Wizardry. There’s not a single person on this world, aside from you, that can turn into a dragon and multiply through time and then shit out all this mana that then comes right back to you as though it was never spent at all.”

The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

Erick almost interrupted there, too, because he had some plans to give some Marks of Benevolence to people to help them cultivate a sort of power that would stay with them… though he wasn’t sure how it would work in the Script. The Houses of Reason on Earth were full of mages that could cast some small spells all day long, for basically forever, as long as they spaced those spells out every several hours. The mana they cast would eventually come back to them. It would come back faster if they mediated on it and actively pulled that mana back to them. But when they spent too much mana over something big, like a [Fireball] or [Lightning Bolt] then that mana tended to stay gone and then the mage would need to wait for their soul to fill with Benevolence again in order to cast anything else. Such waiting might take them anywhere from a day or several days.

Most mages of Earth tended to stick to very small, [Prestidigitation]-type spells.

But could someone with a Dark Mark and a Benevolence Mark spend mana and have that mana come back to them? How would the Script help or harm a person who had multiple mana-generating Marks in their souls? How would that work at all?

Erick had a lot of questions about that, but he wanted Jane to get her words out before he went on that tangent, because what she was saying was important. The war was getting way, way out of hand. Any day now, either Erick or Northanganathor might pull something truly horrendous out of possibility.

Jane seemed like she might have a solution to that.

Jane breathed. She said, “And so… instead of everyone trying to one-up each other, why not work on smaller powers? Ah. No— No. I said that wrong. I mean… If you could make this war work out however you wanted, through Wizardry, do you really need to keep going big? You could go small and make the small battles mean just as much as the big ones. Maybe a simple [Force Bolt] to the head and Nothanganathor’s a goner, because he has no Health. You know how you made yourself only able to be damaged through Health, Mana, and Psyche? Could we do that for everyone, including the Valkyries and all that?

“That sort of thing.

“That’s my idea to win the war, though I don’t know how valid it is. Winning a war by going backwards in overall strength? Sounds crazy but… Wizards are Wizards, right? You can make anything happen. Can you make a normal person able to punch up against a god?

“And. Like. I’m just a normal person. I’m not a Wizard. I just have the power I gained thanks to the Script and… you. There are millions of us, and even the Valkyries share some of my concerns. Shivraa has been great to talk to this last year… Anyway.” Jane’s practiced speech sort of fell apart. “That’s what I’m wondering. Is it possible to bring the concerns of this war back down to something that we can actually participate in, so we can decide our destiny instead of having Wizards battle it all out for us?”

Erick’s mind had hit a speed bump and knocked the whole train off the track.

“… Huh.”

Jane instantly pulled back, saying, “Yeah. It’s a dumb idea. But I had to ask. Nothanganathor wouldn’t respect something like a Polite War at all and—”

“Now that, I am going to interrupt, because yeah, he won’t respect that, but who cares what he respects. I certainly don’t, and so, all we have to do is have the larger power in order to erode his power away from him…” Erick found himself vanishing down a thought tunnel with ten thousand million thoughts at once. He resurfaced without resurfacing, and in the power of the moment, said to Jane, “Benevolence is all about gaining power to help those below you, but helping them against what? That’s right.” A light seemed to flicker on inside Erick, and somewhere far, far away. “Helping them against oppression and tyrants, of course.”

Erick felt a cascading shift in his Status that reverberated outside of his body, echoing far, far away.

Benevolence Itself flexed, and Erick caught sight of a bunch of Spells in his Status as their descriptions began to change.

Benevolence Jolt, instant, long range, 7 mana

An ethereal bolt of benevolence inexorably strikes a target for <5x WIL effect>. <Effect multiplies when acting on behalf of [][][][][][][][][].>

The bottom line shifted to—

Jane grinned a lopsided, unsure sort of grin. “Well yeah. ‘Helping against tyrants’. Was that a surprise?”

“Well... No. Not really.” Erick rapidly said, “But the best realizations are the ones that aren’t a surprise at all. The answer has been there this whole time!” Erick raised his voice, “Hey, Rozeta! Did those black boxes in those Benevolence Spells finally clear up?”

Rozeta stepped into the room, “I cleared up those problems so long ago, and now you bring them back, just to reveal what I had hidden as unknowable— Yes! They cleared up, but you did more than that! What did you do, Erick?”

Jane looked up in the air, reading stuff.

Erick didn’t get a box, but he could see that Rozeta was right here, and she could see that Erick wanted to see, so she waved a hand and a litany of blue boxes appeared. Just like in his own Status, they had that line at the bottom, ‘<Effect multiplies when acting on behalf of [][][][][][][][][].>’ but those words were changing.

The unknowable had become known.