Ar'Kendrithyst

The Non-Combat Zone was the only place that Erick was willing to meet Nothanganathor, so that was where he was going to suggest they meet, but then Nothanganathor suggested it first.

The room was the same as when he met with Shackle and his Underlings; a basic grey stone box of a room inside a grey void. In theory, violence of any sort was not allowed. If violence was detected through any hundreds of different ways, the location would break and both sides of the meeting would return to their chosen starter locations; wherever they came into the Zone in the first place.

And so, Erick stood with Shadow on one side of the grey room.

And Nothanganathor stood on the other.

To Erick’s right side stood Blighter and Seabass, while Lawyer Prime Hadrago stood to Nothanganathor’s right side; Erick’s left. The lawyers were in the center-ish space in the grey room and they already had papers out, sitting on a relatively small, shared table.

And then there was the unexpected person on Nothanganathor’s side. He was tall, dark haired and with dark eyes. He looked rather human, but slightly more refined, with an air of easy power around him that few could match.

Morbion Blackthorn, Emperor of Wraithborne, spoke first, “Greetings, Erick. It is a shame that we have had to meet like this, for I truly do wish to work with you in the future, in ways that will become apparent once I lay out the universe thusly:

“Nothanganathor is willing to take all of the universes beyond the Fractal, starting with the Dark.

“You can have the Fractal with your Benevolence.

“In the short term, to enforce this sort of shift, and only if necessary, Nothanganathor will declare himself as Evil, and I’ll be ripping the Evil out of Wraithborne and replacing it with Benevolence. This will cause the Balance here in Margleknot to radically shift toward Good and Nothanganathor will be radically empowered to do anything he needs to do to repair the Balance. This ‘anything’ means rolling over Margleknot here, Yggdrasil on Veird, and taking what he wants, before escaping to the New Painted Cosmology and discarding his Evil, to become a God of Magic. I’ll have my hands full and some sort of New Evil will rise to fill the void of power left by Wraithborne, and that new power could be anything. This would be what we here in Margleknot call a ‘Grand Trial’, an Upheaval, or any number of other words for it.

“Or,” Morbion said, “You can accept your place as a large power here in the Fractal, Wraithborne converts to Benevolence slowly and safely, and Nothanganathor gets to make the New Painted Cosmology and eventually take over the Small Universes at his leisure.

“We win either way. The only question is the amount of collateral damage.”

Nothanganathor watched Erick.

Erick watched him right back.

Shadow asked Erick, “Shall we entertain this more? Or are we done here?”

Erick said, “Just a bit more entertainment.” He asked, “Will we keep the battle confined to the Veird System?”

Nothanganathor tiredly said, “Powers and people may enter, but none may take this war outside of the Veird System.”

“I agree,” Erick said.

Nothanganathor said, “I want you to know that when I win, these terms will not change. They’ll work to strip Malevolence from this universe after this war. Therefore, this universe needs something anti-corruptive, and your Benevolence is that measure. I always intended to build a True Opposite who can truly ascend to great heights of power and civilization, and keep out the corruption. I will not be stepping in your way beyond this war, and I will attempt not to harm you overmuch. I will still do everything I need to do to win.”

Erick said, “And for the crime of the Sundering, you will be Sundered in turn, Nothanganathor.”

Nothanganathor’s ever-present exhaustion faded a fraction. “I always wondered if someone like you could come out of my plans for a True Opposite without losing someone dear to them through a Sundering event. You almost made it, but then I took your false daughter of Debby, but only because I had to, and only to hit you obliquely, through that false Erick from the dungeons. I tried to strike as soft as I could. Melemizargo and Shadow did not go soft on me at all, when they took my wife, my Ara.”

“People choose who they are all the time, Nothanganathor.” Erick said, “I chose to accept Debby as my real daughter, because she is. You chose to be like this, instead of giving up on your vendetta.”

Nothanganathor frowned. And then he made a decision. He began, “Just as it’s impossible to forgive them for sundering my wife, it is impossible to forgive them for cursing me to Obscurity. Even now, the only one truly Seeing me is you. I am glad for that, Erick. You can see who I really am. That is such a rare thing. So watch this.” Nothanganathor took a knife out from his robes, and even though he was several meters from the man, he stabbed Blighter through the heart. Nothanganathor had moved without moving, reaching without reaching, and Erick’s lawyer exploded into Red Static that faded into nothing. “Blighter no longer exists. I could have taken him into my Sign of Power, but I have not. He is gone, just like Debby. Just like Ara.” Nothanganathor held up the knife, showing it was plain and boring… Except it had a red glint to the edge that betrayed Red Depths far beyond the simple metal. “If I need to, my opening move will be distributing enchantments like this across all of Veird. Butter knives, forks, paper that has been cut too sharp. Anything with an edge can take this enchantment. And I can do worse.”

Erick was worse than appalled, and in too many ways to count. No one else seemed to notice the absence in the room. No one else seemed to notice how the Red wiped away some of the papers on the small table; the ones that Blighter had brought. Seabass was still there, and his clothes looked finer, which probably meant a change of history… An Establishment? Yes. That’s what had happened.

To be sure, Erick asked, “No one saw him Sunder Blighter, did they?”

Lawyer Hadrago and understudy Seabass both tensed at Erick mentioning someone they didn’t know.

Shadow just watched.

Shadow had noticed Nothanganathor’s knife strike. She didn’t do anything to stop it.

To be fair, Erick didn’t do anything either. He didn’t think…

He didn’t think that Nothanganathor could do that here in the Non-Combat Zone.

He already knew he couldn’t reverse time here… And that wouldn’t bring Blighter back, anyway. When Nothanganathor Sundered people, he truly erased them from existence. Just like he had done to Debby.

Morbion looked only a little perturbed as he said, “Nothanganathor. Please. We’re close to winning this, and you go and Erase one of Seabass’s understudies?”

Nothanganathor huffed out a tiny, hateful laugh, saying, “I actually Erased your top lawyer, Morbion. Seabass was the understudy. He’s gotten a promotion! I am sure he is happy. Aren’t you, Seabass?”

Seabass said, “I live to serve, Nothanganathor.”

“Quite right!” Nothanganathor added, “You didn’t have to add the comma between my name and your actions, though. It’s almost like you don’t serve me. Which is true enough. You’re Erick’s lawyer. Quite a violation of interests, there.”

Nothanganathor whipped the knife into Seabass’s heart, exploding the man into Red Static. Red Sparks touched across the table again, eating away at all the papers that Seabass had set forth. Now, only the papers from Prime Hadrago remained, and his papers took up the entire small table.

It was as though Erick had never had lawyers from Wraithborne at all.

Nothanganathor’s knife retreated to the inside of his robes.

Morbion looked to Erick, and said, “You really should have taken me up on my offers of lawyers. We could have settled this amicably.”

Erick had watched all of that casual display of power, and had a think. Nothanganathor could undermine everything here in Margleknot, couldn’t he. According to Querkooda and other people Erick had spoken with, this Non-Combat Zone was breakable by Ascended, but not by anyone below that. And yet here was Nothanganathor breaking rules like they didn’t matter.

Fair enough.

What was an Ascended, anyway? A person who was unassailable; that was the typical answer. Perhaps Nothanganathor wasn’t technically Ascended, because there were so many ways to attack him, but he had enough individual powers to make himself a Power-in-effect, if not in-truth.

Erick asked Nothanganathor, “Doesn’t Erasing the lawyers I got from Wraithborne ruin your plot to have Wraithborne turn not-Evil, and thus empower yourself to Evil? Now here’s Morbion, thinking that I don’t want to work with him at all.”

Morbion tensed this time, frowning heavily as he looked to Nothanganathor.

“Erick, Erick, Erick,” Nothanganathor said, “I have also Erased all your talking contact with the Enclave. That is worth more than Wraithborne knowing what is going on, because I can fix Wraithborne easily enough. Now watch this:” Nothanganathor turned toward Morbion. “You’ll be turning Wraithborne to Benevolence and helping Erick take over this Fractal Universe with you probably at the head of that power. I will be turning Evil, officially. Figure out the rest.”

Morbion frowned slightly, but he controlled that expression away. “Yes, Nothanganathor.”

Nothanganathor smiled. He didn’t look tired at all. “See, Erick? This is what you have to contend against. I suggest you accept my offers.”

So it was like that, eh?

Erick countered, “The simple fact is that if you do this too much then I have nothing left to lose, Nothanganathor.”

Nothanganathor chuckled once. “Just like me in so many ways! The only difference is that I have everything to gain when I win.” His eyes glinted Red amongst the white, as he said, “I’ve calculated the most damage I can do to you, and it’s that mayor Silverite, that mentor Al, that inquisitor Kromolok, and of course, Poi. If I Erase those pillars, then all of that God Pact world falls around you like a tunnel caving in. You think you’re the first Wizard I’ve had to undermine completely? No, you are not. You’re just the first one to make it up here to Margleknot, to prove that they’re actually capable of following my own plans.”

Erick was practically beside himself, outside looking in, for the threats were too real, the pain was too close, and the war was almost here.

And then he focused.

Erick said, “You’re already turning Evil. On purpose.”

“Ah ha!” Nothanganathor said, “I wondered about that Intelligence Stat; where it would lead. Most of you delved into paranoia, but some turned out like you. Yes. I am already turning Evil right here and now. Understand that I do not want to, but I must come at this from every angle possible, and that includes exploiting the Balance for my purposes.” He asked, with a deadly tone, “Are you turning Good? You should! It might help!”

“It might help you, you mean.”

For when Wraithborne turned not-Evil, it would create a vast Need for the Balance to reassert itself, to fill the hole left by Evil, thus empowering all Evil people and diminishing all Good people until the Balance returned. It was Fate Magic on a grand, horrible scale.

“Ha!” Nothanganathor grinned, and it reminded Erick of Lord Eldraki’s grin, all Cheshire and deep-knowing. “If you turned Good, it would be even easier to fight you. You should turn Good.”

Would Nothanganathor’s plan even work if they kicked him out of Margleknot? Put him ‘Outside of the Balance’?

Surely he would have accounted for that.

He probably accounted for that.

Erick said to Morbion, “You should take your Prime and leave before your malevolent ally decides to Erase you, too. Good luck with your transformation to Benevolence.”

Morbion said nothing. He simply walked backward. Lawyer Prime Hadrago followed rapidly, leaving the papers on the table between Erick and Nothanganathor. They were soon gone.

Shadow spoke for the first time, “The Dark will never accept you.”

“Sure it will.” Nothanganathor said, “It’s mindless until it has a mind and soon it will have my mind guiding it to a new Creation.”

Shadow looked down her nose at Nothanganathor, and then she turned around and left.

When they were alone, Erick asked Nothanganathor, “So what’s the second twist?”

Nothanganathor turned tired again. Was the show over? It probably was. Why was he putting on a show for Shadow? No. Not just Shadow, but also for Erick.

Nothanganathor said, “I’ll give you a week once they throw you back to Veird. See your loved ones. Make your plans. Try to overcome my magics, for you’ll have lots of opportunities to try. And then make the smart decision and help me kill Melemizargo. If, however, you think of taking his Mantle of Magic for yourself, then I will have to do things I do not wish to do. If you make the smart decisions then you get this Fractal Infinity, and I get all the rest.”

Erick stared at Nothanganathor for a long moment.

Nothanganathor breathed in and stood a bit taller, as though waiting for something to happen and preparing to counter it.

Erick said, “There’s no way to get your Ara back, is there? Not even through side realities?”

Nothanganathor sighed out, his eyes clouding. “No. There isn’t. I’ve tried. She’s gone, Erick, completely. When Melemizargo tortured her for information against me… His destruction of her was Complete. All I have of her is a fragmented corpse that is more made of imagery than anything substantive.

“Erick. Please understand this: I was not wrong to kill my mother, or to fight Melemizargo, or to plot to take the Painted Cosmology. Dragons like them are all horrible people. Too proud by half. Too consuming by all. But if I could do it over again, I would not. I lost too much going up against good odds. I would not make such a gamble a second time. Don’t make the same mistakes I made. Take the win, help me get Melemizargo’s Mantle, and live a good life.”

Nothanganathor walked away.

Erick was alone in the Non-Combat Zone.

He took several moments.

And then he left.

- - - -

Erick stepped into his offices again.

Shadow was there. She looked angry. Yggdrasil stood to the side. He also looked quietly furious.

Lady Seraphaka stood to a different side of the room, wearing her usual black and white and gold, but with tiny earrings made of Erick’s black scales he had lost in his first bloody encounter with the Fae Council, with hearing the voice of The Fractal Fairy. She was sad.

Lady Aelorika was closer to the center of the room. She wore flowers and vines and soft green fabrics. She was angry.

Lord Dakka was there, casually rusting on a couch, looking hopeful.

Lord Eldraki stepped away from a white wall, his outfit turning from the white of the wall back to the dark colors of high-court fashion. He happily said, “Nothanganathor has won! Are you going to fight the inevitable?”

Erick scowled. “What do you want, Eldraki?”

Eldraki smirked. “Dropping honorifics?”

“Probably. You’re the cause of this. You, specifically. The rest of you three, in part. I am starting to see less and less worth in courting this Fae Court.” Erick asked them all, “You are aware that Nothanganathor Erased two people in your Non-Combat Zone, yes? My lawyers from Wraithborne, Blighter and Seabass. The ones who spoke to you all in the Council Chambers all those times, and—”

Erick stopped.

Erick had seen a lot of people die over the years. Seeing Blighter and Seabass Erased like that still got to him. Deeply. From the expression of the fae and of Yggdrasil they were all aware of what had happened. The fact that the Non-Combat Zone had been violated was only really bothering Yggdrasil and Seraphaka, though. Aelorika was having some trouble but not a lot. Eldraki looked positively enthusiastic.

Erick said, “I’m sure Blighter and Seabass were not good people. That doesn’t matter. They did not deserve to be Erased. No one does.”

Silence.

Erick began with, “Can we discuss what you said earlier, Yggdrasil?”

Yggdrasil nodded.

Erick tried not to explode as he asked, “So that purge of Nothanganathor from Margleknot needs to happen before the war, so that he cannot get resources from here and be empowered by the Balance.”

Aelorika said, “If we did that he would be outside of our Authority. It would prevent the upcoming Grand Trial of Margleknot, but it would harm everything else to come, no matter the outcome of this war. We’re not banishing him Outside of the Balance.” She said, “Take heart, instead, that Wraithborne is changing to Benevolence, Erick.”

Aelorika tried to contain her joy at the swing toward Good. Seraphaka joined her in that emotion, while Eldraki and Dakka both quietly ignored those positive emotions. Yggdrasil was pensive. All of them were thinking most about Margleknot.

Shadow was judgmental and hateful.

Erick identified most with Shadow right now.

Aelorika asked, “Will you fight?”

“Yes,” Erick said.

“It will be difficult, and mostly impossible if you go up against him in a straight fight,” Aelorika said.

“Yeah. That sounds about as expected.” Erick sarcastically asked, “You want to help against Nothanganathor?”

“Yes,” Aelorika said.

“Yes,” Seraphaka said.

“Yes,” Dakka said.

“Nope!” Eldraki said. “I quite like Nothanganathor’s plan to take the Dark while you get the Fractal. You could do that, too, you know. Take over the universe with Benevolence. Close all holes to corruption. Erase slavery. End the Balance of Good versus Evil and send us all into chaos. Make Benevolence fracture into a trillion variations, and cause untold expansions and destructions into this Infinity. Bring about more suffering, alongside more of everything else.” He smirked as he listed off horrors alongside good things, like all of it was a great enjoyment to him.

Erick looked at Eldraki.

And then he punched him, his fist meeting fae flesh like a column of iron meeting meat jelly.

Eldraki went spinning, flying into the wall of the room whereupon he slapped into the white wall like a sack of meat. Bones snapped. Blood spilled. Eldraki slipped down to the ground, groaning softly.

Dakka laughed loudly and happily while Seraphaka grinned.

Aelorika said, “He deserved that. I hope it made you feel better.”

“It did, actually,” Erick said, feeling calmer. “I still feel terrible about everything, and right now that feeling is focused on Blighter and Seabass because they always dealt fairly with me, as far as I know… Why was an un-Ascended person able to do that?”

With a quiet dread, Yggdrasil said, “He has a lot of different abilities, stolen from a lot of different lands.”

Erick almost asked what kinds of powers Nothanganathor had, but it didn’t really matter. Nothanganathor was a Wizard at the height of his power, and that told everyone more than enough.

And then Eldraki’s right hand moved brokenly, lifting up above the guy and then acting like a puppetmaster’s hand, twitching fingers over the body and then moving upward, picking up Eldraki on invisible strings and setting him back on his broken legs. Eldraki’s right hand twitched, and Eldraki’s body healed fast. When the healing was done, Eldraki’s eyes lit up once again and his mouth smiled as he held his right hand above his head, like a dancer. He took a bow.

Eldraki stood back up, still smiling, saying, “Great punch! Didn’t know you had it in you!” He dropped the pretense of being happy. “Everyone gets one. I will allow you a second one at some undefined point in the future because we are being overly harsh on you— I recognize that— and yet you are rising to the challenges set forth by Nothanganathor and all others.”

Erick said, “Fine. Get on with your proposal, please.”

Eldraki instantly said, “Give your Valkyries to Dakka for use against corruption and we’ll put the full weight of Margleknot against Nothanganathor.”

Erick looked to Dakka. “You want the valkyries?”

“I’ll take a copy, if that’s all you want to give!”

Erick looked at them all, asking, “What kind of ‘full weight of Margleknot’ actually exists?” He added, “Or, more importantly, why are you all still treating this as though it’s not a big deal? That you shouldn’t throw your full weight behind preventing Nothanganathor’s rise to power in the multiverse?”

Eldraki chuckled. “Because there’s nothing wrong with Nothanganathor’s rise to ultimate power!”

Aelorika said, “We cannot condone his actions and yet we cannot go fully against him, for he has threatened us without threatening us regarding corruption events out in the rest of the universe, and ultimately, if he were released from his Curse of Obscurity, he would be a force of stability.” She said, “And so, he remains In the Balance for now. He remains in our power, and in our power, we grant him power in return, just as we would do for you.”

Erick frowned.

“If you want to fight him and absolutely win, Erick, there are other ways to fight,” Eldraki said, grinning. “The best way I can think of is for you to become Evil in Truth, perhaps focusing on civilization expanding as a means for debauchery and pain and hate? Throw some Benevolent Slavery in there, too! It would ruin Nothanganathor’s plan to take advantage of the Evil Swing coming up the line,” Eldraki grinned wider as Erick glared at him. Eldraki added, “Or you could learn Time Magics in ways other than Establishment! Actually visiting times previous! Of course, you would have to learn how to hide your mana and power, which would likely be impossible due to everyone being able to see you, but doing that sort of magic would be a way in which Nothanganathor does not operate. He’s all about Establishment, just like you.”

“He’s such a fucking mirror, isn’t he.” Erick had a thought. “Let me guess. Nothanganathor works with you and Dakka, primarily, but Aelorika is his antagonist here because she’s all about the plants and I love plants, while Seraphaka is mostly ambivalent toward him. He really is some sort of True Opposite shit.”

Eldaraki’s grin went wider, past his face.

Aelorika frowned a little.

Dakka laughed.

Seraphaka raised an eyebrow, asking, “And?”

Erick said, “And that means none of you are taking this seriously.”

Which was apparently the wrong thing to say.

Without anything changing at all, the room suddenly felt like a violent jungle as Aelorika declared, “We are taking this more seriously than you could ever know.”

And then Aelorika pulled herself back.

It took Eldraki a moment to pull his grin back to his face, to stop appearing like a True Monster. Dakka had been scratching at the arm of a lounge chair, causing the chair to bleed, but that stopped, too. Seraphaka pulled away from the desk she was seated against, and the desk, which had been solid gold, turned back into normal wood.

Yggdrasil looked tired.

Shadow looked happy, oddly enough. Why? Oh. The Council had revealed some of themselves. Erick had knocked them off of their pedestal slightly.

Erick reevaluated.

Erick began, “I want to foster a good relationship with Margleknot and the Painted Cosmology…” Erick had so many things he could say, but he chose to cut to the chase. “But you’re making it awfully hard. Nothanganathor unBalanced Margleknot. I brought it back. Nothanganathor has poisoned your systems with Contracts and Slavery, and I’m getting rid of that. Once Nothanganathor is gone, Shadow and I will be bringing the Painted Cosmology back, and we won’t have to do experiments to get it back. Shadow can just do that as soon as she can reconnect with the remnants of the Painted Cosmology and we have some time to set up some magics and a whole bunch of stuff. I plan on expanding out from Veird’s system with great bounty and civilization, making new spheres around new stars and all sorts of stuff like that. And yet you wish to go along with the guy who has Sundered a universe only to bring it back in his image, and then go on and kill and capture other universes.

“Now I’ve heard a lot about you all, all across Margleknot. You’re the enforcers of civilization and everyone is scared of you.

“And yet you’re scared of Nothanganathor.

“Why?” Erick asked, “Is it, perhaps, because he is a boring old man until someone gives him a reason to be cruel, and he relishes inflicting terrible pains on people? The only time I saw him be something other than a ‘tired old man’ today was when he was taking joy in killing Blighter and Seabass, to show me what he could do if he needed.”

Dakka laughed. “He’s a bastard, that one! Doesn’t do proper war; that’s his only failing. He slaughters his enemies dispassionately. You use your enemies to do the slaughter. Much more fun that way.”

… So that was Dakka’s non-answer. Erick wasn’t impressed.

The other three Old Fae of the Fractal Cosmology were similarly non-impressed with Erick’s words, and probably for reasons far beyond what Erick could suss out on his own—

Erick realized something.

They were never going to admit that they were scared. That this whole thing terrified them something deep. Fairy Moon was scared of Soul Magics because they were the one thing that could kill her permanently… or at least change who she was permanently. Sundering probably didn’t work on her.

Would Nothanganathor’s ‘Erasure’ work on her? On any fae?

Maybe not completely, but well enough to scare them?

Yeah.

Duh.

… Okay. That was fine.

Erick could work with that.

He didn’t need to change the universe. He just needed to save Veird and end Nothanganathor’s threat.

Okay!

Focus achieved.

Erick said to Dakka, “I’m not giving anyone a copy of the magic that I am going to be using against Nothanganathor, and especially not a neutral party that is working both of us against each other.”

Dakka smirked. “Give me a copy of the spell and I will ensure the resulting soldiers are only used against corruption events, to organize populations away from problem centers and to strike back at corruption. Those conscripted warriors will always know of Tir Gael and the Apparent King as their creators. You can still use it yourself however you wish.”

Aelorika spoke up, “It would only be used with Council approval.”

Seraphaka said, “We would not use it lightly, but we will use it extensively.”

Eldraki said, “And in return, you’ll get what you came for; assistance against Nothanganathor.”

Aelorikia said, “We’re losing a big weapon against corruption either way this turns out, Erick. We need another one. You get to be that weapon. Your valkyries are just a small part of the weaponry we expect to get from you.”

Erick just stared for a moment.

Shadow and Yggdrasil both watched. Shadow seemed to think it was a good deal. Yggdrasil looked hopeful that Erick would take the win.

Erick decided to take the win.

He briefly dove into his soul, copied the [Blood of the Valkyrie] Benevolence crystal, and then came back to the moment, to hold out his hand and express that copy into the air. The Benevolence crystal was a spherical white gem with inner fire that shimmered red-grey-gold-black.

Dakka breathed deep, the fae of rust and war steadying himself, as he reached forward and held up a hand.

Erick placed the copy of the spell into Dakka’s grip—

- -

Erick stood with the Fractal Fairy in a world of different paths that hung in the air like stained glass.

They were all paths for the Valkyrie. Some paths held valkyries that were scared and alone and lost; those were closed off. Some paths had corrupted valkyries going to war for corruption instead of fighting against it; those paths faded from possibility. Some paths existed where valkyries were born in places that they needed to be, their powers growing in the face of looming corruption threats; those paths solidified. All paths collected and then led to Tir Gael, or to Veird, or directly to Erick, with the person inside the valkyrie war machine being reborn along the way, and making their way toward better lives than those that had come before.

It was a Path being written and enforced, like the Path Erick had taken to make [Gate]. A Fae Path through reality, being written by the greatest fae of this Fractal Universe.

The Fractal Fairy nodded.

- -

Erick let go of the crystal.

Dakka eagerly took the crystal, his eyes glinting with rusted-iron depths. He grinned, and Erick heard war on the wind. And then Dakka breathed out, relaxing, sighing, as he twisted his hand and the crystal vanished. He smiled softly. Dakka said, “Welcome to Margleknot, Erick Flatt. Let us discuss how we can assist each other in our war efforts. For starters, how about we help you learn how to reinforce the Script, to make it so that Erasure cannot happen within that space? That should remove Nothanganathor’s main threat. He could still, of course, simply kill people, but shouldn’t be about tricks.”

“Bah! Tricks are great!” Eldraki said, scoffing.

“It shouldn’t be that hard for you to learn how to prevent Erasure,” Seraphaka said, “It’s basically Establishment to counter Establishment. That Rozeta-person of Veird should be able to put it inside the Script as soon as you learn how to do it. Margleknot has the details.”

Aelorika said, “Erasure has been legal here in Margleknot for a while but only because we can’t really catch it, because we don’t do that sort of grand oversight here like they have on Veird. We will be removing the possibility of it happening here from now on, though.”

Eldraki scoffed. “It’s not true Sundering. It’s a very narrow Sundering. I think it should stay legal—”

Aelorika scowled at the man, almost saying something—

But Eldraki continued, “— and yet, I see that I will be losing this battle, so I digress. Let’s classify Erasure as a Violation of the Sundering Laws here on Layer 0.”

“Done.” “Aye.” “Accepted.”

A Fractal touch passed through the room, and then was gone.

Erick wasn’t sure what that Fractal wave was about—

They all looked to Erick, to see what he had to say.

And Erick suddenly felt as though on solid ground once again.

His search for allies had been a complicated thing, revealing a great many truths and histories and sizes of the universe that Erick had never thought to touch upon. But he had touched upon those truths. And now he was here. Out with Malevolence, in with Benevolence.

Erick said, “I look forward to a prosperous relationship with the people of this land.”

- - - -

Three days later there was an announcement, taking place after a short trial which Erick did not attend, but which he did view in recording. The trial had been a public spectacle, with everyone wearing their absolute best and Nothanganathor looking not-tired at all. All of the participants had spoken a lot nicer than they had during the hearing and inside the Non-Combat Zone. It was most of what had already been said, but in flowery terms and then solid outcomes, as though they had all been following a script. They probably had been. The recording had probably been edited, too.

The announcement was simple.

Erick and Nothanganathor would be locked in combat in the Veird System, with the outcome of that combat determined by the winner in that space. They would retain connections to Margleknot, but it would be a one-way connection for Erick and Nothanganathor. Others could leave, but Erick, Nothanganathor, and Melemizargo would remain.

And that was it.

Erick slept in on the fourth day, waking slowly and then all the way. The light of Margleknot’s Sky illuminated the white eternal stonewood balcony. Jasmine flowed on the air, into the room, smelling great. Erick got up out of bed, stood for a while at that balcony, just looking across the land, and then he began with final preparations.

With a short walk of lightning, Erick stepped down to the white Core underneath House Benevolence of Tir Geal. The manaminer hovered in front of him like a diamond the size of a tournament space, over a hundred meters wide. Its surface whorled with white that sunk inward and then raised outward like the flowing of solar fuel on a sun, but trapped underneath diamond that was not diamond.

Veird’s ‘sun’ was not a manaminer, or at least the one pointed at Veird was not. There probably were some Nothanganathor-manaminers in that space, though. Somewhere.

Erick put his thoughts on what he wanted to do next.

“House Benevolence Miner.” Erick added, “Stackz.”

The air flickered with power. A blue-cube entity pulled itself together from the manaminer, and then appeared outside of the Core. When Erick had installed this thing, and to cement a relationship with Powerminer Incorporated, he had needed a castellan of the House to hold and deal with the miner. He had asked Powerminer’s resident AI, Stackz, if he wanted the job.

Stackz had jumped at the chance.

And now House Benevolence had a separated-fragment of Stackz running this manaminer and pretty strong Reincarnation-tourism sector. It was pretty great.

The blue cube spoke, “Hello, Erick Flatt. Is it time for you to head to Veird?”

“Yes.” Erick said, “I need to give you some more magics, and I want to enable the leveling system we spoke about.”

“Understood. Awaiting input.”

Erick conjured forth several crystals of Benevolence, all tuned toward granting flavors of power to their users. The miner here couldn’t install magics into people’s souls, but it could Awaken those people in specific ways and enhance them in ways that only magic could do. Soon, Erick had conjured crystals for every major Elemental Aura type, of all the ones he approved of. Purity and Destruction and things like that were not present, but Fire, Stone, Air, and the like, were readily able to be imbued into people.

Erick handed those crystals off to Stackz, saying, “Basic enhancements of Mind, Body, and Psyche, accretion help, and still all the Awakening stuff.”

The crystals flowed into the miner and Stackz opened up a blue box in the air, asking, “Like we talked about, like this?”

, age

Inclination:

Progress to next point: < % of overabundance of accretion goes here>

Points:

Mind:

Body:

Soul:

Erick said, “Yup. You can reorganize that to make it all easier to read, but yeah. That’s it.”

Stackz said, “Being able to increase the Darkness in a person is taking up almost all of our capability, and there will be hard limits to that which we cannot increase with a manaminer. Mind and Body are much easier, comparably. There will still be natural limits that people have that they will have to figure out how to break themselves. We might be able to improve our ability to empower people if we get access to the Script, and if we learn about how Rozeta broke those limits. The infinite-depths of your own situation is impossible for us to replicate. Moving along: We might be able to have a collective shared-mana situation like you have on Veird, but this is doubtful. The organization we have now is a sort of power that is transferable everywhere, though. I truly do feel this is the best option.”

Erick nodded. “It’s more than enough.”

“We wish you luck on Veird, sir.”

Erick smiled a little. “Good luck here, too.”

- - - -

Erick’s next stop took him to the staging area, near the Valkyrie Command Center.

A wide white area stood open to the sky. Thousands upon thousands of people milled around, getting things ready. There was Shivraa, Erick’s secretary and head valkyrie heading to Veird with him. She was talking with Reena and Xai, who were staying here as a firm part of Tir Gael’s valkyries, under Querkooda.

The Overseer of Enforcement of Tir Gael, Querkooda, was over there, talking with Shadow about war preparations. Querkooda was not going to Veird. He and the other Overseers were staying here, for this was their home and they wanted to defend it. Erick wished them the best of luck.

Shadow stood with Witch Aragathara. Great Mother Caa stood with them as well, but she was staying. Caa was occupying Shadow’s Queenliness while Shadow was away.

The Overseer of Magic, Ta’Kamoil, and Engineer Tris were over there, talking about some Awakening Machines that Erick was bringing to Veird, along with some undeployed Manaminers, which were currently just 10-meter-sized dull spheres in very special crates meant to protect them from all influences. Erick had 9 manaminers in those special crates. Rozeta should like them.

The Valkyrie Squadron coming with Erick were all around, either helping to move the thousands of boxes into place upon the field, or sitting to the sides and doing what soldiers usually did; hurry up and wait. They were all packed. Some were sharing final words with loved ones standing to the sides, who were not going.

Lanzoil, the Overseer of Governance, was right beside Erick, overlooking the whole thing.

Erick said to the man, “Looks good.”

Lanzoil said, “Hopefully it’s enough. The Valkyrie Squadron you tagged are all ready and have been for 5 hours. Some of them are taking naps, but it looks like they’ve noticed you now, so they’re moving fast now.” Lanzoil turned to Erick. “I know you have to do this. I wish there were other ways. I wish you luck. When you win, you will come back and check on us now and then.”

Erick smiled wide, and then he took the man into a hug, patted him on the back, and let go. Lanzoil was not prepared for that, but he looked happier for the gesture. Erick said, “I’ll be back to help and do everything that is needed to be done, for I’m kinda replacing Nothanganathor some. Shadow will be back too, now and then. She’s arguably more able to move back and forth for a little while, during this war. Afterward? I have no idea.”

Lanzoil smiled a little, looking relaxed. “I was afraid of working with her at first, but she’s… She’s pretty good at this, when she wants to be.”

Erick laughed. “Yeah. She is.”

Shadow stepped to their sides. “You talking about me?”

Erick smiled. “Only good things.”

“Then that’s fine.” Shadow smirked as she turned to the display of wealth and power and people, saying, “It’s finally happening, Erick. I’m finally going to get justice.”

“He probably has specific counters for you,” Erick said, “So be wary of that.”

“Oh yes he does. I’ll tell you about what to watch out for when we’re on Veird and that sort of information isn’t considered disastrous to talk about. Fae don’t like to talk about how to kill fae.”

“Okay.” Another lesson added to the pile, then. Erick looked around. Someone very important was missing. “Yggdrasil?”

Yggdrasil stepped out of the air to stand next to Erick, saying, “I need an estimated time.”

Erick nodded, then he began to project his voice far and wide, casting his sound to every part of Tir Geal, “Attention, everyone. I’m departing for Veird. It was great to meet you all. We’ll meet again.”

As the soft thunder of his voice passed, Erick’s Lightning Path coalesced.

With softer thunder, Erick spoke to everyone on the field, “Three minute warning.”

Soldiers started to move fast, to get into position. People not going to Veird got off the field, some of them racing to leave fast. The valkyries lined up in squads; all 25,000 of them, all of them wearing all that they wanted to take with them. Some had giant backpacks and luggage near them. Others had just small bags on their shoulders. In 2 minutes everything was ready, and Erick had done his final checks on various sealed crates and specialty products.

The Nothor Beast that had come out of Erick’s [Cleanse] was safe and sound in one of those sealed crates. After finding out that it would be the best possible magic focus to enact an Anti-Erasure ritual, Erick knew he hadn’t killed it for some reason; he just didn’t know what that reason was until Aelorika had explained how to do the Anti-Erasure ritual. The Red Lightning Nothor Beast was coming along with Erick, back to Veird.

A lot of fun stuff was coming back to Veird, too, like reson-cultivation manuals and glowthread spiders all packed on hibernation ice — Jane was going to love that— and some ‘How to Make a Computer With Sticks and Stones’ books. Erick wasn’t bringing actual computers to the masses, but he was bringing some computers for personal use and, more importantly, the information on how to make your own.

Erick finished looking at everything, and then said to Yggdrasil, “It was really nice to be here, Yggdrasil, to see your over-self.”

Yggdrasil smiled softly, sadly. “I’m keeping the mask on, Father.”

Erick chuckled. “Your eyes are gold.”

Yggdrasil’s eyes flickered to green… and then he let them relax back to gold. “I’ll see you again. Soon. When you come back here.”

Erick hugged Margleknot once more, and then let go. “I want a stockpile of resons for my own bank account here, but you can have more of the Benevolent Sun. 90%? Make sure House Benevolence gets some, but they have their dungeons.”

Margleknot nodded. “Of course, Father.”

Erick nodded once more, and then he stepped down onto the wide, white field.

Shadow stepped to his side.

The Overseers of House Benevolence and a whole bunch of other people stood on the podium or to the sides with Margleknot, but everyone here on the field was going. There were 26,000 people going. A good 3,300 people stood off of the field, waving, saying their final goodbyes, or their see-you-laters.

Voices rose in farewells and well-wishes and other, more personal words to people on the field. Some people panicked. Some people held in their panic.

“Ready!” Erick said.

And then Erick cast a white sphere into the air that gradually began to turn red, to cycle through the rainbow to blue. Soon, it would hit black, and then it was go-time. The light sphere was the Reincarnation Timer, used for a different purpose.

There was sobbing on and off the field. Fervor, too. Wishes to kill Nothanganathor and return victorious. Wishes for so very many things. Some people in the crowd on both sides raced to the dividing line, to change their mind and hop across, destinies denied or seized in that moment.

And then the timer sphere turned black, and vanished.

Margleknot waved a hand—

- - - -

Everything was green and gold.

And then it was blue skies and soft clouds and a land made of white roots that was mostly flat, and a whole lot of water beyond those roots. Yggdrasil grew over there on a watery, real horizon, instead of the vague sort of horizons that existed in Margleknot. Erick felt his heart beat hard as he knew where he was, once again. That blue sky up above was an illusion, for there was another layer of Veird up there, and this land here was no longer ‘the Surface’, but it was still Veird.

Far, far overhead, Erick looked more, and saw the illusions that had been put up there, at the former Edge of the Script. They were pretty good illusion matrices; dense and variable with the hours of the day. The sun was pretty soft, though; they couldn’t quite replicate the strength of the sun, so they had opted instead to just make the whole sky glow some.

It looked great, really.

Erick looked around himself. This was Candlepoint Lake, and over that way was the north, where the Gate District of Candlepoint glittered with a node network in the air, and those tiny bumps of white were House Benevolence—

Something connected to him, in a way that Erick had dearly missed. He felt out that connection, gauging how it worked and then allowing it to touch him barely. Just enough to work somewhat. Not enough to work for real. Erick might allow the Script to connect more fully at some later date, to be able to see what his Veird-given Status looked like, but not today. People just needed to know he was back.

A blue box appeared.

Erick smiled. Some of the blue box was like the time he had left Ar’Cosmos and reintegrated. The rest was different. Other people all around Erick began getting boxes, too, no doubt, because a lot of them were exclaiming about this or that.

Erick read his blue box, too.

Possible known entity detected!

Initializing mana reintegration…

Partial connection reestablished.

Hello, .

Commencing full reconnection…

True Wizard detected.

Full reconnection disallowed!

Upgrading threat assessment!

Special exceptions found.

Reorienting scan…

Scanning for unapproved influences…

Scan disallowed by integrating entity.

Scan finalized.

Finalizing reintegration ...

Welcome back to Veird, !

Erick chuckled at all that—

And then Rozeta appeared, shifting into the space on Yggdrasil’s roots right ahead of him. She was exactly as Erick remembered; a white human wrought wearing a professional pantsuit and an expression of annoyed awe. That expression rapidly lost all annoyance as she looked around the space, and with the senses of a god, figured out pretty much everything.

Erick had included about a thousand history books and a bunch of other stuff like that in the very first case, right behind him, just for that reason. That was only part of the treasure trove, though.

Also Shadow was here.

Shadow’s presence garnered a weird sort of reaction from Rozeta, like Rozeta was trying to figure out a miracle oddity. Shadow was enjoying the moment. She was also subtly gathering shadows all around herself, as though she was finally home and letting her hair down, which she did, in truth, her black hair cascading down her shoulders she sighed, and seemed to gain a whole new sort of agelessness to her.

Erick was glad to see that the Fae Bands of the Script wouldn’t impede Shadow; he had wondered about that. Shadow had told him not to worry, and she had been right.

Rozeta’s eyes went a little wide as she finally figured out what was going on.

Shadow smiled brighter.

“Hello, Rozeta.” Erick said, “I brought reinforcements and power and a whole lot of explanations.”

“I see that,” Rozeta said, her face turning from Shadow, toward Erick, and then softening. She smiled beautifully. “Welcome back, Erick.”

And then Aloethag, Goddess of Beauty and Brutality appeared, all white and red and happily exclaiming, “You brought elves!”

Fairy Moon appeared next, shouting, “You’re betrothed?!” She looked to Erick, her voice going high, “To Erick?!”

The waters darkened as Melemizargo lifted his head up out of the waters, eyeing everyone. He took one look around, and then ducked back into the waters, saying, “We’ll talk later.”

Erick put on his best kingly impression and began, “Melemizargo! We have information for everyone including you.”

Erick reached for the trunk of books and information and rapidly multiplied them as Melemizargo rose from Candlepoint Lake again. More gods appeared, with Phagar and Koyabez showing up fast, and then came more, including Sumtir, God of Righteous battle, who was very interested in the valkyries. Erick handed out information by the trunk-full.

All while he did that, Erick started opening up [Gate]s to get a lay of the land, feeling wonderful that he could actually [Gate] again. His [Telepathy] wasn’t working very well right now —or at all— and he talked to Rozeta about that as one of a hundred different rapid-fire topics, including the manaminers he had brought to Veird. Erick shuffled his valkyries through a portal to a land he built from scratch out in the former Crystal Forest at a wave of his intent, all the while talking with Rozeta and the other gods and goddesses.

All that took the first 20 minutes.

Once the powers of Veird were vaguely alone, Erick handed them all some copies of the reports on Veird that Nothanganathor had submitted over the years. The Old Fae of Margleknot had required reports, after all, and now those reports were in the hands of the powers of Veird.

“They’re all highly doctored and full of twisted truths, but they’re all there.” Erick said, “Nothanganathor was responsible for Idyrvamikor’s twisting and the Dragon Curse, as well as a thousand smaller injuries. And the Sundering, of course. We’re pretty sure we know how he did that, but we’re only 90% there. I’m pretty sure that Veird survived because of all of you working to make it survive, just as I’m sure that I exist out of my own actions and probably my own Establishment. Nothanganathor is pretty fucking horrible, and he is a grandmaster plotter, but he also takes advantage of other people’s work and claims it as his own.” Erick gestured to Witch Aragathara. “Witch Aragathara is a former companion of his from well over 13,500 years ago, or something like that. She’s Shadow’s Second right now, here in this space. She’s compiled her own reports for you all.”

There were attempts at questions from every single god and power present, with Fairy Moon suddenly gasping at the mention of Idyrvamikor and Rozeta going hard, while Melemizargo hummed.

Erick said, “Okay! A lot of stuff here! More meetings later! It’s going to be a full-world press against his incursions, and I need to do some rituals to ensure that he can’t just Erase us all. Please depart! Rozeta, Melemizargo, Fairy Moon or Shadow or both. Please help.”

Yggdrasil appeared, stepping into the group for the first time. He went to Erick and hugged him first, and Erick smiled wide and hugged his son. Yggdrasil softly said, “It was so much better seeing you from here, father. It was weird seeing you through Margleknot.” He pulled back, “Also, I need to help with that ritual, and we need to do it fast.” He said to everyone, “Me in the south, Melemizargo and Rozeta to the north, Fairy Moon and Shadow to the west, and Erick to the East. We can do it right here, as soon as everything is cleared away.” And then Yggdrasil swallowed everything that Erick had not already portal-ed away with white-rimmed Gates of Benevolence, moving all the stuff to the House, except for the Red Beast’s cage. He said to everyone, “We need to move fast, please!”

Reorganization happened quickly, with Erick telling everyone that he would see them later.

He’d probably be seeing Aloethag first, though, because Erick was pretty sure that she was headed toward the Valkyries. The elf valkyries. The elf valkyries that have a whole lot of experience with blood magic, some of which is innate. That was going to be a whole thing, Erick could tell.

Meanwhile, Yggdrasil handed out slips of paper containing words and the intent of the ritual to everyone.

Erick read the ritual and smiled as he took his spot on the east—

Benevolence mushrooms suddenly sprouted from the white ground. Moss spread. The glowing mushrooms began to glint in every color of the rainbow as they grew most strongly in a wide circle of power, tens of meters away from the Nothor Beast’s cage.

In the east, Erick stood within a ring of mushrooms sized for him, which was only about 4 meters in diameter. The southern and northern circles, of which Yggdrasil grew a good several kilometers away and Melemizargo was still a big black dragon, had their edges go off the edges of the platform. Fairy Moon and Shadow stood hand in hand on the west, in a circle more Erick’s size—

Benevolence lightning glinted from mushroom top to mushroom top, like tesla coils, and soon a sparkle of power raised into the air from the ritual circle, like magic breaking upward, spreading fast. Mushroom spores, perhaps? But also the breaking of a magic. The breaking of Nothanganthor’s magic.

Yggdrasil softly spoke, “This is a Grand Wizardry that will alter the Script. Keep that in mind.”

Melemizargo softly said, “Easily doable. This isn’t even that hard.”

Rozeta nodded, though it appeared she was still wary of her father, standing behind her like a looming Darkness.

Fairy Moon and Shadow held hands.

Erick focused, his gaze upon the Nothor Beast that had come from the [Cleanse] in his own soul.

The air stilled.

And then the air roared as the cage broke, temporarily waking the Nothor Beast—

The gathering intoned,

“A boon granted to Script;

“this indelible marking.

“Malevolence gripped

“to keep it from sparking.”

The Nothor Beast dissolved into pink ribbons that then turned to white lightning and then faded on the breeze, caught upon the rising glitter-sparks lifting off of the entire ritual circle. Yggdrasil in the south began to glitter, too, and power spread, into the wind, rising from every part of Veird.

Erick cast his gaze wide and saw the water effervesce, and the city in the distance, and through tiny portals, all the rest of the world began to shimmer with white. And then the white settled. It vanished. There and gone, the magic had changed the Script.

Nothanganathor’s Erasure Magic should no longer be possible, because everyone here was now Established to Exist.

Rozeta sighed, and then chuckled once in relief. “Oh! That’s good. That’s… That’s useful.” She paused, her relief rapidly turning into concern. “I need to fix some things. It’s all good, but that wave of magic just— I’ll talk to you later! Thanks for the manaminers and all the rest!”

Rozeta vanished.

Yggdrasil was a lot more calm as he said, “We have some time before the war truly starts, but not much. There’s a lot to do. I suggest we fight a defensive war; gird the ways in, and protect what is here. This will not be fast, until it is. Hopefully we can wear him down and strip him of all his power before going in for the kill. He will not do the same. He will come at us at 75% strength and then ramp up to 100% when Erick doesn’t give in. We need to be able to survive that. If we survive, we can fight back.”

Erick said to Melemizargo, “I’ll talk to you later?”

Melemizargo nodded, and then he vanished from sight.

Shadow said, “I’m going to visit Ar’Cosmos with Father. See the family.”

Erick nodded. “See you later.”

Fairy Moon eyed Erick, saying, “We’re going to talk of this betrothal later.”

Erick smiled. “Sure.”

The fae departed.

And then it was just Yggdrasil and Erick.

Erick went over and hugged Yggdrasil again, saying, “You look good with green or gold eyes, but here the gold is in the background instead of the forefront.”

Yggdrasil held his father, saying, “Gods, it’s so much better to be just me. I was honest up there, father; I am Margleknot. But the universe is too big up there. I have too many responsibilities up there. Sorry I couldn’t help more. But here? Here I can do everything I need to do. I can be present.”

Erick let go, still smiling. “We’ll talk about defenses soon.”

Yggdrasil hugged Erick again, then let go. “See you soon.”

Erick opened a lightning-ringed portal, feeling great that he could do that again, and then he stepped through into Benevolence itself.

Ophiel squealed and tackled him, five of him coming in for sudden hugs, a whole bunch of voices happening all at once. In the background, Quilatalap stood, looking tense, yet relieved. Jane, Abigail, Bethany, Candice, and Evan, were there too, looking like warriors or captains or leaders of industry, and like they had all rushed in from elsewhere. Jane still had some blood on her pants. She also seemed to have a few new adamantium swords. Solomon stood to the side with Destiny at his side, holding hands with each other. Now those two were certainly King and Queen of something, but Erick hadn’t gotten the full details on that yet. Poi and Teressa waited to the side, waiting for Erick to show.

A little orcol girl in a basket on Teressa’s back jumped in that basket, holding on to her mother, saying, “He’s here! He’s here!”

Erick was home again.