Chapter 210, 1/2

Erick and Quilatalap went into the dining room.

The beginning of their date was awkward, as these things often were, but their server sat them down at their reserved table in the back of the restaurant, and things flowed from there. Atalle herself came out and professionally, and happily, spoke of the foods they would be getting. She even served them their first glasses of wine, and assured them that their dinner would be amongst the best they would ever have. It would also be easy.

There would be no ordering except in the broadest of senses. A choice of chicken, beef, or fish. Rice or noodles. They could order something specific, and the Saucery could make that, if they really wanted something specific. Or they could choose Atalle’s recommended selection; a five course meal paired with twenty different sauces, from sweet and savory, to salty and nutty. Atalle recommended the five course event.

Erick picked the Cook’s Choice, and so did Quilatalap.

Atalle wished them a pleasant evening.

In the background, a good five meters away from Erick and Quilatalap’s booth, a quiet band played, as they often did here in the Saucery. The lights above were dim, and romantic. The booths were cushioned well. Other people sat at other booths a few meters away, at the closest, but mostly, Erick and Quilatalap were alone, in public.

The wine was fantastic.

Since Atalle was cooking, a different server brought out the first course.

It was a pair of salads, each perfectly divided into four portions and adorned with four different sauces, along with a dry white wine, or beer, whichever they wanted. Erick switched to beer. Quilatalap went with the wine.

Erick loved the ‘peanut’ sauce on the salad, though it wasn’t called that here on Veird. Quilatalap loved the ‘borgleber’ sauce, though it hadn’t been called that on Veird in a very long time; about 1450 years, to be vaguely exact. This meant that it had been called something else in the transition to Veird, after the Sundering.

They spoke of small things, like the nature of Cooking magic, and of the wines they had had before, and of the foods they had enjoyed in their own respective worlds. Quilatalap confided that he didn’t really remember the foods from all the way back then, but he did know of the broad sensations of ‘what they probably tasted like’, and the stuff that people had managed to recreate seemed pretty darn close to what they used to be.

The next course was rice and different meaty sauces. Erick chuckled as he tasted the sweet and savory pork, saying he had completely forgotten about Chinese food, but then that couldn’t have been right; he was probably just misremembering. Maybe he needed to make some ‘five spice fruit’, or something, to recreate those flavors of that culture. Erick wouldn’t be doing that part of Earth justice at all, but he missed those flavors, now. Quilatalap asked after what were his favorite foods back on Earth, and Erick honestly couldn’t say, but he was partial to fries and burgers and milkshakes; the simple stuff. When Erick asked Quilatalap the same question, Quilatalap spoke of how he really liked food exactly like this here; the fancy stuff that he only ever got to eat every once in a while.

“It’s only special because I only allow myself to eat like this every several years,” Quilatalap said.

And since nothing had exploded yet, Erick said, “We’ll have to come here again, then. Maybe a faster turn-around than several years.”n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

Quilatalap smiled, blushing.

The third course was the main meal. It was perfectly cooked meats of all kinds, and another four different sauces, and a different bottle of dark red wine. The wine was the preferred drink for this course. With that guidance, Erick switched to wine, and Quilatalap switched from the white to the red. The server identified the meats as grade 10 monster beef, specifically some breed from Songli called ‘singing cow’, a grade 10 monster fish, specifically a rainbow king from Treehome, a grade 10 monster bird called an abyss drinker, from Stratagold, and finally a grade 10 monster venison, specifically a lunar stag, caught in Treehome. There were more than enough little slices of perfectly cooked meats to try them in all of the different sauces.

Erick took his first piece of lunar stag, dipped in a pepper oil sauce, brought it to his mouth, and moaned at the flavor. It was the best thing he had ever tasted. Quilatalap smiled. Erick extolled how great it was, and then Quilatalap had him try the abyss drinker in the brown sauce, and Erick had to amend himself. That bird in that sauce was now the best thing he had ever eaten.

Quilatalap smiled brightly.

Erick wanted more of this stuff every single night! How had he not come here before?! A tragedy!

Quilatalap chuckled.

But eventually, the main course was done. Quilatalap and Erick had cleaned it up. Quilatalap, because the guy was an orcol and he could pack away the food if he wanted, and he very much wanted. Erick, because he hadn’t eaten in his dragon form in a while, which he probably should have kept on top of, but he was busy.

Atalle came out then, and asked if they were enjoying themselves.

Erick was, and he said as much. Quilatalap just nodded, opting to remain silent. Erick asked if Atalle was having trouble getting ingredients at all, and if she needed help; Erick wanted to ensure that she got everything she wanted, so she could continue to cook like this for as long as she wished.

With a happy expression, and a slight mist in her eyes, Atalle bowed, saying, “It’s all been rather great, Wizard Flatt. There’s nothing more I could ask for, except to be allowed to continue what I’m already doing. Though, if the Gates opened to Songli, I could get a lot more beef like this, a lot easier.”

Erick smiled, saying, “If you’ve got connections with the Cooking Guild to put pressure on the Highlands to accept the Gate Network, then go ahead and pressure them. I want that part of the Network up and operational, too, but I’m already doing all I can with the High Clans.”

Atalle rose with a happy expression. “I have some strings I can pull. I’ll see what I can do.”

Erick nodded.

Atalle went back to the kitchen, and then the server came out with the fourth course; the other main course. Tempura-like fried vegetables, roasted vegetables, grilled vegetables; alongside a whole platter of all the sauces that the server had seen that Erick and Quilatalap had enjoyed the most, and in large quantities. Erick absolutely demolished the not-peanut sauce, some sort of cheese sauce, and a thick almost-teriyaki sauce. Quilatalap went for his borgleber sauce, the spicy oil sauce, and a pesto-like sauce. They shared the brown sauce and the purple tomato sauce, as they talked of books in Quilatalap’s library, and of some basic technologies that Erick wanted to proliferate on Veird, like electricity.

They laughed at small jokes and talked of small magics. They drank and they smiled. Other people in the restaurant came and went as the two of them probably spent about an hour just talking and eating, because both of them were happy, and neither wanted it to end. There was still another course to go, though.

Eventually, they finished all the sauces and all the vegetables, each of which had been replaced a few times, for both men found themselves wonderfully entertained by each other, and by the food.

Atalle came out, herself, with two cakes, one brown, the other white, and with a bottle of silverberry wine that shimmered inside its green bottle. She explained that the white cake was the normal cake for dessert; a simple butter cake. But the brown cake was chocolate. She was still experimenting with how best to use this flavor, and though it was still in the experimental stage, she wished to know if Erick approved. And then she popped the cork on the silverberry wine and poured a glass for Erick, and a glass for Quilatalap, as another server cut open the cakes and portioned them out. And then Atalle left them to it.

Erick had to try the chocolate cake first, and so he did. It was probably the best chocolate cake Erick had ever eaten. Quilatalap agreed, and then joked that of course it was the best chocolate cake he had ever eaten, because it was the only chocolate cake he had ever eaten. The butter cake was probably still better, though, because that was a recipe that Atalle had perfected 70 years ago. Both cakes went well with the silverberry wine, too, which had an almost magical quality to the taste. A lunar quality, actually, which had been shared with the lunar deer, now that Erick had a moment to recognize that flavor.

“It’s the taste of a certain sort of peace. The peace of the afterlife, of knowing it’ll all turn out fine. Of the moons, and of the Silver Star in particular.” Quilatalap smirked, setting down his glass a little to say, “Koyabez has a special connection with that particular wine. A little bit of divine fire to make it taste that much better. Some would call it the taste of Peace Itself.”

“… Huh.” Erick looked to his half-full glass, saying, “Peace tastes pretty good.”

Quilatalap chuckled. “That it does.”

“How was religion in the Old Cosmology—” Erick amended himself, “How was your religion?”

Quilatalap laughed, smiling brighter. “Now there’s a conversation.”

“Go on then! Teach me,” Erick said, for the third time this evening.

Quilatalap’s soul flexed, his teeth seeming to sharpen on the edges of his body, and then he began, “I was anointed as a Holy Necromancer of Koyabez at the early age of 75, which was very, very old for an orc back then. 60 was old for an orc, back then. I was also quite a lot shorter. Veird was also a lot smaller, but it still had a Script-like thing hanging around it. Rozeta maintained that proto-Script along with a similar protective space around several other worlds, but it was here, on Veird, that she was most active, though she wouldn’t become a goddess for another almost 1,600 years. Melemizargo was the God of Magic back then, and well into his eighth millennia of duty. Phagar was ancient and powerful; far more ancient and more powerful than almost all the other gods. Koyabez was marginally strong, but it was here on Veird that Koyabez was the strongest, for this was Koyabez’s homeworld.

“Koyabez and Melemizargo used to be great friends, though when they met, Melemizargo started off as the new-god on the scene, while Koyabez was rather old-hand at this godly thing.

“Phagar, Melemizargo, and Koyabez, were my gods of choice back then, and they remain my gods of choice.

“They’re all much, much smaller than they used to be, for what they used to be were the maintainers of the Old Cosmology. Wizards went out and did a lot to expand the universe, yes, but it’s hard to say who did more to actually help the common person. In the daily, people talked to gods; prayed and worshiped in houses of the divine, and were similarly answered in those houses. No one ever talked to Wizards directly, except for those who were very special, or who positioned themselves next to Wizards through luck, courage, or stupidity.

“But anyway.

“I was an orc who saw death, and hated it. I was a warrior who saw war, and knew it for evil. I was a caster who saw magic and knew it for a way forward, to power, and to gaining the ability to change my fate… Ahh. But… I think I’d like to have that conversation in private.”

Erick perked up. He looked around—

Oh.

People were listening.

They had been listening anyway, but…

“It’s getting late, I suppose. Let’s go elsewhere?”

Quilatalap smiled and nodded.

Erick signaled to the server.

Soon, Atalle was back, asking how the dinner was. Erick told her the truth; that it was absolutely wonderful, and that he would be back again. To forestall Atalle telling him that the meal was going to be free, because Erick had already mana sensed that conversation happening between her and other servers, Erick told her that he was paying the full price for the meal.

Atalle paled. “Sir. It’s free. I cannot accept your money—”

“I’m still paying. So by my calculations and looking at the menu, the cost is 8,900 gold? How about I make it an even 10,000?”

Atalle’s eyes went wide. “… Uh. If you think that is best, sir.”

“I do. Send the bill to Zolan and we’ll get it sorted. It was a lovely meal, Atalle. Thanks for coming to House Benevolence. I think I have offered this to you already, but if any of your Cooking Guild friends want to come and get a [Reincarnation], you can tell them they’re welcome to partake of that. I’ll probably be doing at least 10 of those per day starting on the Triumph of Light. Probably more like 50, actually. A little celebration for the world. Those people won’t have to work here after that; they can go wherever they want.” Erick smiled. “But I want you to stay here as long as you want. It was truly a great meal, Atalle.”

Atalle’s eyes misted up again. She bowed, then rose and stepped away, her throat too tight for her to do anything more than whisper, “Thank you.”

Erick held a hand out to Quilatalap. “Short cut?”

Quilatalap grabbed the rest of the bottle of silver wine and the two cakes in a telekinetic grip, then he put his hand on Erick’s. “Short cut.”

And then they left.

- - - -

Briefly, they reappeared in front of Quilatalap’s library, but then Quilatalap suggested somewhere else, and Erick, blushing, obliged. They reappeared in the house Erick had made for Quilatalap days ago.

The kitchen was attached to the dining room and next to the living room and the front door to the cottage. A few rooms of various sizes and accommodations were set to the side of all that, down a short hallway. It was a single story [Fairy Stronghold] cottage on Yggdrasil’s boughs, and it was perfectly sized for Quilatalap, and maybe two guests, if he wanted guests.

Quilatalap flickered with magic, rapidly sending the cakes into the cold storage boxes and conjuring some gold-fire flickering spellwork. The gold spell was a [Ward] of some extraordinarily Divine sort, wherein he [Duplicate]d the bottle of silverberry wine. Before Erick could even widen his eyes at that casual display of divine and magical power, and at the reveal of [Duplicate], Quilatalap poured two large glasses for the two of them and then suddenly handed a full glass to Erick. The silver wine glowed with visible golden fire—

Quilatalap was nude. Completely. Erick’s heart thumped hard.

Quilatalap asked, “You want this, right? Because I certainly do.”

With a flicker of power, Erick was nude, too. “I want this. Quite a lot.”

Quilatalap smiled brightly and downed his drink. Erick did the same. The wine tasted divine, which made a whole lot of sense, actually.

Quilatalap asked something about taking their time. Erick agreed.

Strong magic surrounded the entire cottage.

The world slowed down.

- - - -

A long time passed in a single hour.

Most of it was simple talking about nothing that important, and yet oh so wonderful; foods, people, places, history.

Some of it was spent enjoying a meal together that Erick or Quilatalap had cooked.

The rest was a vacation for Erick, in the best possible way, with a person he didn’t know that he liked so much until here, and now.

- - - -

Erick relaxed on his chair, sighing out, “That was a great dinner! You cook so well, Quilatalap.”

Quilatalap smiled, blushing a bit as he sat across from Erick. He still had a bit of bacon left on his plate. “It’s nice to cook for someone. I usually don’t even eat.”

“Ha! What?” Erick asked, “What do you mean— Like. You have an organic body, yeah? That means you need to eat?”

“I do. I also have [Create Food and Water], and [Duplicate], and I’m surprised you haven’t asked me about either yet. I’ve used both of them rather openly in the last day, or whatever—”

“I think it’s been over a day.”

Quilatalap nodded. “But I suppose you must already have both of those?”

Erick smiled brightly. “I don’t have both of them.”

Quilatalap grinned. “Let me guess! [Duplicate]!”

Erick shrugged. “I might have promised never to reveal certain things, and so I will likely not answer that question—”

“Say no more, say no more. You’re a heck of a lot better at that than I am. Look at me! I met a nice guy and I’m already spilling out secrets all over the place.”

Erick grinned. “So what is it? Like an internal blessing that ensures you never run out of food?”

Quilatalap laughed. “Almost! But actually the exact opposite of a blessing. [Curse of Sustenance]. No need to eat at all. Ever.”

Erick’s eyes went wide. “A curse?”

“It was cast on me by a Wizard who had captured me once in the year… 150ish. Something like that. Like really captured me. Couldn’t get away at all except through death, and I was desperately trying to kill myself to make that happen. One of the ways I was trying to escape was through overcharging my metabolism and causing me to starve to death. So he cursed me with a Sustenance effect. It makes maintaining a healthy, physical body truly easy. But death through starvation? Not happening.”

Erick blinked a bit. “… Wow.”

Quilatalap waved a hand. “I’ve modified the curse into more of a blessing since then and kept repeating that magic on myself every time my body is killed. It’s very useful! Easy to switch into an automatic-suicide spell, too— Ah. Hmm. That upsets you.”

“Well... Yes. I’m… I’m sorry that all happened to you, Quilatalap.”

Quilatalap smiled softly. “Don’t worry about it. Feel free to change the subject, too.”

“… Uh. Okay— Oh! 150 years was before the Fall of Quintlan, when [Create Food and Water] was widespread. I know why that was Restricted; because Atunir was about to turn Dark, whatever that means. I can guess why [Duplicate] was restricted, too, but [Duplicate] is still widely used in the world by all the powerhouses, and none of the common people. So why not give [Duplicate] to everyone? Was there a problem with [Duplicate], too?”

Quilatalap nodded, then began, “Let’s start with the root causes of the Fall of Quintlan. Everyone knows about the widespread use of [Create Food and Water] causing nobility to ascend to a higher lifestyle and the common people to subsist on gruel. This caused a widespread inequality which eventually led to widespread war. But! What most people don’t know is that the problem with [Create Food and Water] was a lot more than Atunir turning Dark, to her beginning to believe Melemizargo that this world was a cage that should be destroyed.

“[Create Food and Water] allowed for Sustenance effects, which is what happened to me.

“But the truly insidious thing was when people started blessing monsters with Sustenance. It got real bad when they started doing that to oozes.”

Erick’s eyes went wide. “That sounds bad.”

Quilatalap nodded. “Yup. Now that was bad. Every single Sustenance Ooze was both ravenously hungry, and full; willing to eat everything in sight, but also constantly splitting off smaller oozes that went on to do even more damage. That was what killed Quintlan. And not right away, either. In the beginning of that tactic in like, the year 300, or something like that, a Sustenance Ooze could only go through about 50 splits before the constant splitting caused a degradation of that blessing.

“It was only in the very last decade of Quintlan that someone managed to make a Sustenance Ooze that could last indefinitely; that needed to be killed to end that threat.”

Erick pondered that for a moment. “I suppose you could do the same thing with [Duplicate]?”

“That’s still doable, but it’s a lot harder. That’s not why [Duplicate] is restricted, though. Widespread [Duplicate] is the breakdown of society as a whole, since no one ever needs to interact with anyone else ever again.” Quilatalap said, “And when that happens, we get an ‘all the gods turn Dark’ problem— Well. Most of them. Not all of them. Phagar, Rozeta, Koyabez, Melemizargo… They would all be fine. Atunir would probably turn Dark in a bad way— Colloquially that’s called ‘turning Dark’, because Melemizargo was the Dark and also insane for a long time, but it’s not really ‘turning Dark’ at all; it’s more ‘turning insane’. Though that might be more a question for the philosophers than for me.

“In the advent of widespread [Duplicate], Sininindi would turn Dark, since no one would care about the ocean or storms; they could hunker down on land and never see the ocean at all if they wanted. Same for Fangorl, god of the wilds, and Zephyr, god of travels. Bunch of minor gods, too.” Quilatalap added, “Not sure about Sumtir, the god of righteous war. Could go either way. Maybe the only wars ever fought again would be over ideology and land… or something. Never did agree with Sumtir. There’s no such thing as a righteous war.”

Huh.

Well all that was a lot to think about.

Erick put that train of thought on hold for another day, though.

“Sumtir was the ‘god of war’ before the Sundering, right? Not just ‘righteous war’?” Erick said, “Seems rather diametrically opposed to Koyabez, the god of peace. How did he managed to make it onto Veird after the Sundering?”

“Koyabez banned him from entering Veird during the Sundering, telling Sumtir that he wasn’t welcome. Rozeta popped up and told Koyabez that Sumtir’s power was absolutely necessary for their survival, if Sumtir was willing to give up at least 75% of himself. Koyabez relented, allowing that to happen. And so Sumtir sacrificed a lot of his power, dedicating that power to the manaminer that would become the Script, in an effort to be let inside.” Quilatalap said, “Sumtir went from a major, universe-wide god, to what he is today. Still rather powerful, but… They’re all a lot less than they used to be.”

“… Huh.”

Quilatalap changed the subject, “So you’re hosting the Feast this year, yeah?”

Erick leaned back in his chair, suddenly groaning as the weight of responsibility reasserted itself. And then he turned back to Quilatalap. “Let’s leave that topic for after.” He stood up. He was still nude. “I do want to talk about the Feast with you, at length. But… Later.”

Quilatalap smiled wide as he stood up, also fully nude, knowingly asking, “What else do you want to do then, Erick?”

“I’m sure we can think of something.”

- - - -

Zolan shouted, “Another!” as he cracked open a third bottle of high-alcohol liquor. He took a swig directly from the thing, the harsh liquid burning his throat. And then he passed the bottle along.

Mox took the offered drink. Three glugs later, she passed the bottle along, saying, “Holy fuck I might need something stronger, Zolan.”

Raingorl downed half the bottle in four long gulps, then passed it along, saying, “I can get stronger stuff.”

Volaro shook his head at the offered bottle, saying, “I’ve had enough. I have an important case in the morning.”

Burhendurur took the bottle instead, saying, “Nothing is going to get done tomorrow, Volaro.” He took two long sips, and then passed it to the next person.

Aisha took a sip, and then set the bottle on the table in front of the other overseers of House Benevolence. “I think this romance of Erick’s will be fine.”

Grumbles filled the room. It was just the six of them in this private space.

Discovering that Erick was on a date with Quilatalap had been a disaster of massive proportions, but no one had threatened war yet, so it might be fine. As for the overseers, none of them had known about this until then. Every single one of them only found out how deep Erick’s connection with the ARCHLICH OF NECROMANCY…

Zolan sighed.

Zolan was still having trouble with this. Everyone of them and a few others knew about Quilatalap being here at the House. Neither Erick or Quilatalap had been completely secretive about that fact. Burhendurur even had a guy in custody right now because Quilatalap’s skeleton golem defender had dropped the guy off at Enforcement. But then there was the date. The Wizard Dragon of Benevolence and the Archlich of Necromancy had been at Atalle’s Saucery for the last few hours, publicly enjoying a full 5-course meal, the deep hospitality of Atalle, and the easy company of each other.

Burhendurur started giggling again— He shook his head hard, trying to get rid of that uncouth emotional response. He grabbed the bottle again and drained it, then said to Raingorl, “What else you got?”

Raingorl laughed. “I lied. I got kegs. You want a keg?”

“I want a keg,” Volaro said. “Recovering from a kegger is easy.”

Burhendurur chuckled again.

“But you were done? You have a case in the morning?” Mox asked.

“Changed my mind,” Volaro asked, “Where’s the keg?”

Raingorl got up, saying, “Hold on hold—”

He vanished in a bit of pale light.

Zolan joked, “Wonder if he fell down after leaving.”

Mox said, “If I stood I would fall—”

Raingorl reappeared, holding two great big kegs, one under each arm, looking like a teenager Arcanaeum student at his first real taste of freedom from Treehome, being out on his own. “I got beer— Whoops!”

One of the kegs slipped, but Volaro caught it with magic, and then brought it over to himself. With an expert tapping that would be the envy of any graduate, the orcol-shaped dragon slammed a conjured tap into the top of the barrel and magically lifted it up, conjuring big mugs and then pouring drinks. He handed one to Raingorl who started waterfalling the beer, and then one to Mox and Zolan, and then Burhendurur and Aisha. After refilling Raingorl’s drink again, Volaro sniffed his own mug, and then waterfalled it all down, putting Raingorl to sudden shame.

A sudden bout of orcol competitiveness flashed between Volaro and Raingorl. It was drinking time. Zolan tried to keep up but failed miserably, while Raingorl crashed onto his seat and conceded the win to Volaro.

And Aisha said, “Volaro only won because he’s a cheating dragon who cheats.”

“He didn’t drink nearly enough of the good stuff!” Mox loudly proclaimed.

Burnehdurur brought the conversation back around to the current predicament, saying, “They’ve been at Quilatalap’s house that Erick built for the last 2 hours. The entire place is still under that Time spell. Holy gods. Is everything going to change once they come out of there?”

Aisha [Decay Rain]ed on Burhendurur’s everything, “You still can’t talk to Quilatalap.”

“What! Why not!” Burhendurur demanded.

Volaro laid it out, “If they come out of there dating, then you moving on Quilatalap is a terrible breach of conduct— I amend my statement: You talking to Quilatalap at all will now require oversight by Erick at all times. If they come out of there angry at each other, then Quilatalap is gone. If they come out of there amicably quits, then you might be able to make a move.”

Burhendurur’s face went red. “I don’t want to date Quilatalap!”

Zolan, Mox, Raingorl, and Volaro paused.

Aisha briefly paused, then she rolled her eyes. “You want all his magical knowledge.”

“Yes! And I want to be friends with him!” Burhendurur said, “He INVENTED NECROMANCY. The best school of magic ever!”

“Debatable.” “False.” “What! No.” “Book Magic is better.”

Aisha said, “Rozeta above, if anyone would have ever told me if I would be talking with a friendly Death Dragon coworker about the nature of his infatuation with Quilatalap, The Archlich, who looks to also be a coworker, I would have called them crazy.”

“Oh yes.” Zolan said, “It’s even crazier that this is all actually working, too.”

Mox gasped—

Everyone looked to her.

Suddenly wide eyed and looking around the room, Mox asked, “Is Goldie here?”

“Yeah I’m here,” Goldie said, sipping her beer and sitting on the extra chair around the table, like she had always been there. “Quilatalap is a good guy. Erick is a good guy. They’re good together, right?”

Perhaps it was the alcohol, or perhaps it was the knowledge that Goldie had had ample opportunity to do some bad shit and she had not done any bad shit, or perhaps it was because Zolan saw this as an excellent chance to talk with a Shade (for he would be talking with a lot of them at the Feast)—

Anyway, Zolan, out of everyone else in the room, was the only one to speak next, asking, “Is this going to actually work between them? Or is this doomed to failure?”

Goldie easily said, “They’re magically, physically, and emotionally compatible. They worship— Well. Quilatalap worships Koyabez, Phagar, and My God Melemizargo. Erick is friendly with Koyabez, Phagar, and The False Goddess Rozeta. There’s a lot of… You know. Overlap, or some shit.”

Everyone considered this.

Zolan considered it all a great deal faster, though, and so he could ask, “Got any idea about the Feast?”

“All I really know is that a bunch of plans just changed.” Goldie frowned. “I was going to ask Erick to dance with me.” She waterfalled her beer, then held out the cup to Volaro.

Volaro filled the mug, then handed it back to Goldie.

Goldie vanished.

Raingorl asked, “What are we going to do about the Feast?”

The conversation restarted, and with gusto.

Somewhere in the middle of talk of food service and a concern over Erick’s Time Magic disrupting all the other magic already active inside the House (all duration-effects inside the House would pass on as normal, according to Goldie), a telepathic call came to Zolan.

The Headmaster asked, ‘When were you going to tell me that Erick and Quilatalap were dating?’

‘… The entire House just found out.’ Zolan sent, ‘On the positive side, there’s no need to worry over Erick’s significant other being a physical liability.’

‘… Just an emotional liability, a security threat, and a danger to the world about as large as a rogue Wizard.’

‘Then it’s a good thing he’s paired with a known Wizard, sir.’

‘Let your boss know I will be having some words with him when he deigns to reappear.’

‘I will schedule you for noon tomorrow. We have a slot open then.’ Zolan added, ‘Unless someone declares war on us over this.’

‘… Very well.’

The connection cut.

Zolan went back to drinking but he focused again as the conversation turned to that dragon that Burhendurur had in custody. ‘Crem’; the Benevolence dragon who murdered a guy and then waited for Enforcement to show. Aisha got a painful look as Volaro spoke of law and precedent and what any sort of decision would mean for the future.

The night dragged on, full of worry. Midnight eventually rolled around—

Burhendurur’s face shot up. He spilled beer everywhere. “He’s back.”

[Cleanse] and Healing Magic were wonderful for avoiding all the problems of alcohol poisoning and hangovers. Now House Benevolence simply needed to not get murdered by all of Quilatalap’s enemies.

Mox admonished Zolan, “It’s not as dire as you suggest, Zolan. It’s just… Different.”

Zolan counted out on his fingers as he said, “The Dragon Stalkers hate Erick, and Quilatalap for their parts in making dragons—” Burhendurur and Volaro scoffed. Zolan continued, “—the Sovereign Cities hate Erick for allowing Gambler’s Rest to happen. I have absolutely no idea how this Feast thing is going to work out. And don’t forget that Converter Angel; it’s still out there.”

Mox said, “In this specific case, the Stalkers are all wind and no lightning. The Sovereign Cities might be stupid, but then we have Aisha and Benevolence to help counter those smaller acts of stupidity. The Angels and Demons are staying far away… But the Feast could be a problem.”

Aisha said, “We’re going to end up with all the Shades here. I can already see it happening, and that’s only partially paranoia; the rest is all True Sight.”

- - - -

Erick walked into his house at midnight, smiling brightly, even though Kiri, Poi, and Teressa were all still awake and in the kitchen. He walked right into that dour room, saying, “Hello, everyone!”

Poi announced, “He’s still Erick.”

Kiri sighed in relief.

Teressa said, “I told you nothing bad was going to happen.”

“And I didn’t believe you,” Kiri said, matter-of-factly. Then she got up, walked over to Erick, and gave him a quick hug, saying, “I’m very glad you’re okay.”

Erick smiled wide as he hugged her back, and then let her go. “I had a 2 day vacation in a matter of hours. It was wonderful. Also, Quilatalap and I are dating unless the world lights on fire due to this, which it might.”

“Yeah…” Kiri said, “I have Sunny on lookout. Haven’t seen much of anything dangerous happening and we’re still under a [Zone of Peace], but then again there’s a lot more to look at these days and I’m not nearly as proficient at that as you are. Your overseers are concerned, though. Like… A lot.”

Erick nodded. “I know. I saw them all at a meeting, talking about this latest development. Which was to be expected, I suppose. I’m trying to look on the bright side that they were able to do that all on their own, without me being involved at all, and without their meeting devolving into a shouting match.”

Kiri asked, “They got over that impetus to anger weeks ago, though?”

“Ehhh… Mostly. Yeah,” Erick agreed.

Teressa stood up, happily saying, “Well anyway! Congrats, Boss. We orcols have horror and heroic stories about him aplenty. I could tell you some, sometime.”

“I will absolutely hear those stories. Now? Or tomorrow?”

Teressa smiled a little. “Tomorrow. It’s too late for me to be up any longer. Glad you finally got a vacation, though.”

Erick smiled brightly, again. It was as though he had grabbed onto another anchor in his life, a touchstone. It was a small touchstone right now, for he didn’t really know Quilatalap all that well, but what he did know, he liked. A lot.

“I’m glad I got a vacation, too.”

Kiri said, “Congrats. I’m off to bed.” She walked out of the kitchen, saying, “See you in the morning.”

“Time to sleep,” Teressa said, also heading out.

And then it was Poi and Erick.

Erick sat down at the kitchen table, next to Poi. With a solemn tone, for that’s what this seemed to need, Erick said, “I see your sister is still asleep.”

“… Yeah. She is. It’s…” Poi looked at him. “I wish to request some formal time off. For a few days, and then back to working for the days of the Feast, and if nothing happens then some time off during the Triumph… Or later.”

“Of course, Poi! Anything you need.” Erick said, “Maybe I could even hire Rizala as a personal guard like—”

“No. Don’t do that.” Poi said, “I’m not even sure who she is. Like. Yes. She is my sister, but I don’t actually know her. I haven’t seen her in a… A long time.”

“The best way to get to know someone is to spend some time with them.”

“… I don’t want your safety to be in the hands of an unknown Mind Mage.”

“I take it she wasn’t part of the collective— The Crossing, I mean? That she was truly out on her own?”

“There are certain ways to be magically invisible and the Shades know them all. Your broken fae necklace was one such method.”

Erick went with the change of subject. “Burhendurur and Aisha and I have gone over a lot of them in our Benevolence tests. Apparently Benevolence is very good at circumventing most of those methods because Benevolence doesn’t do direct tracking, but world-change tracking.” And then he got back on topic. “I would have thought that Mind Mages would have had a rather similar way for them to track each other.”

“There’s always a way to hide, and the best way to hide as a Mind Mage is to only do internal magics. Rizala doesn’t know the exact methods they used to hide her because they forced her to purge her own memories, but… She does know all the usual ways. I’m sure the Shades have even better methods.” Poi said, “Some sort of ‘Absolute Unknowability’ is one such theory of the Sundering, because someone should know something about what really happened, but no one does.”

Erick asked, “Do you want a few days with Rizala? Uninterrupted? A few days in a [Hasted Shelter]? I can make that happen right now.”

Poi shook his head. “No. No need for that… Quilatalap is going to be dangerous, but… He’s one of the few people I don’t have to worry about being used against you. I’m not sure if the pros outweigh the cons, but in at least that one way… I’m glad.”

Erick smiled. “I know. It’s pretty great, isn’t it?”

A fraction of Poi’s worries vanished as he sighed a little, and grinned a little. “I’m happy for you.”

“And I’m happy for you, too, Poi!” Erick stood up. “Your sister is alive and well! This is a good thing!”

Poi stood up, chuckling. “I mean… yeah.” He shrugged, standing up. “Yeah. It is a good thing.”

“So many good things are happening for us! And to us!”

Poi smiled softly. “I’m headed back to Rizala’s, to sleep there. See you in the morning, Erick.”

Erick nodded. “Good night, Poi.”

Poi vanished in a flicker of blue light.

And since Erick was fully rested and he wanted to work, he went to his workshop to try his hand at making Gate Version 5.

- - - -

Keeping the Gate Network intact hadn’t been much of a problem, but there had been issues here and there that had required Erick to act fast to repair damage. Three times now, once at Portal, once at Stratagold, and once at Weald, the other side of the Gate had failed because someone had failed to upkeep the mana costs to maintain the Gate. Portal's excuse for one of their Gates flickering and failing was the same as Stratagold’s; two of the Gates were too close together, so the mana they thought they were spending evenly, was in fact being spread unevenly. This was perhaps Erick’s fault, in his opinion.

At Weald, the problem had been one of mismanagement, with the people in charge over there failing to know that they needed to upkeep the Gate. This was a much larger problem of ‘who is in charge’, but Erick and Zolan felt that this issue was rather minor compared to other problems of Weald being basically a refugee camp.

Erick checked on all of his Gates after that minor fiasco. The Gate to the top of the Forest of Glaquin, that the people of ArCosmos had been using to come into the Greater Candlepoint Area, had been running low. The others were rather fine.

It still meant that the Gates needed an upgrade, and so, because of Erick’s new [Node of the Renewing Undertow] and all the smaller problems that had cropped up, that is what Erick was working on right now.

In many ways, Version 5 was a simple upgrade, changing how each individual Gate used two [Gate]s instead of a single [Gate], with the main [Gate] unchanged, but with the second [Gate] being much smaller, and completely internal. Through a [Node of the Renewing Undertow] that would go through that smaller [Gate], and connect both sides of the big Gate, that power would keep both runic webs on both sides fully powered. When the system was connected to a [Node of the Renewing Undertow], that Node could connect to other Nodes, and to other Gates in the Gate Network.

The hardest part of the change was in emplacing a pair of limiters on how much power an individual Gate could suck up, and be drained of. Erick had never worked much with that sort of thing, but limiting the mana a runic web could hold, and ensuring the runic web would always have some mana inside of itself, was a rather normal thing to do, since the more variance of mana there was in an imperfect web, the faster it degraded. It was even worse with iron webs, for if they degraded fully then they would degrade in parts, the anti-rust magics failing and leaving pitted, red metal in their wake.

Erick had simply never made an imperfect web before, because it was easy to make a ‘perfect web’ out of platinum, and if the iron webs were anything less than perfect, then they would rot into rust in a matter of moments. It took a bit of work to adjust his designs. Not too much, though.

As the sun rose on Erick’s part of the world, he had finished the first set of new Gates; 10 of them, for now. It was enough to replace every Gate on the Financial Road, which is what he would be doing later.

Gate Version 5 looked exactly the same as the other Gates; a runic web fully contained inside a square of white Yggdrasil wood. It did not look any more impressive than all the other Gates, but in a lot of other ways, it was much more advanced.

With this, Erick could [Renew] the entire Gate Network from a single Node.

Version 5 was ready for launch.

- - - -

Erick rolled into the House in the morning and had a somewhat tense meeting with Zolan, who confronted Erick about the whole ‘Quilatalap situation’. But after some small words of ‘I know about how much danger this is; keep a watch out for me, will you?’ Zolan seemed to understand that yes, Erick fully understood what he was doing.

Mostly.

Zolan finally said, “Well he’s an enemy of Oceanside, the nations of Nelboor, a good hundred nations that are gone from the world due to transition into other nations or outright death, and then there’s all the churches. Sumtir, Aloethag, and Atunir are the big ones— Ah! The smaller city states of Spur, Kal’Duresh— Most nations of Glaquin, actually. An avowed enemy of Treehome as well. Every single Geode. Every single major Underworld nation attached to any of the Geodes.” He added, “Also, the Headmaster wishes to have words with you at your noon meeting.”

“… That’s a longer list than I had considered... That’s the same list of people who hate Wizards, isn’t it?”

“Well… There’s some overlap, yes, but no. The cultures that hate Quilatalap hate him for reasons adjacent to putting forth magic into the world that could kill everyone, but instead of unbridled and unknowable Wizardry, those hates are focused on known Necromancy— Ah! I forgot the Angels and Demons. Those are Quilatalap’s biggest enemies, perhaps. If any demonic or angelic force tries to touch him, the archlich will rip those angels or demons off their moons and End them.”

“… I’m not hearing a downside with that last part.”

Zolan nodded. “That part is, perhaps, the singular way in which Oceanside does not disapprove of Quilatalap.”

Erick shook his head, then gave his final decision on the matter, “For now, based on a mutual camaraderie, Quilatalap is an ally of House Benevolence.”

“Understood.” Zolan asked, “Will you be upgrading the Network today?”

Erick smiled again. “Yes! All of Financial Road, first. Spur is the only one on that road that I need to actually ask to replace their Gate, so do inform and ask Spur about that first. I should be able to make enough Gates to replace all the other ones in the network in a matter of days. You can take some more time informing Portal, the Wayfarer’s, and Stratagold; Spur comes first.”

Zolan got to it.

- - - -

Erick ended up upsetting a lot of people, but it had nothing to do with the new Gates.

Silverite personally thanked Erick for upgrading their Gate, and all without charging them for the upgrade. That had been a fun little conversation, where Silverite asked after some rumors she had heard about ‘a certain date’, and which Erick deflected, asking if he could talk to her about all that later. Silverite agreed.

She didn’t seem angry, but it was hard to tell, exactly. Either way, Erick had managed to deflect that conversation and Silverite was willing to let it be deflected, which was great.

As the sun rose higher in the sky, there were new lights and lines of light in the airspace of the Gate District. It was as though Erick had drawn the first few threads of a giant spiderweb across the air above the Financial Road, with each Gate getting at least three connections to the Web. Erick was not actually happy with the design at the end of the day, but it was something he could change.

And so, on a whim, he posted an art contest on a pedestal in the food court of the House, along with a dreamcatcher-like arrangement of Nodes in the air above that contest, explaining and showing what his new magic could really look like. Multiple goals coincided in that action. The first was to inform people of what the new magic in the sky was, while the second was to invite artists to come up with a better arrangement. On another whim, the prize was 10,000 gold, or a [Reincarnation] and 10,000 gold; artist’s choice.

He hadn’t done nearly enough [Reincarnation]s in the last few days.

Erick had no doubt that someone would come up with a better style for this Node Network than his own ‘basic utility look’.

Once that was done, and after Erick had gotten several hundred inquiries about what-the-fuck was he doing with Quilatalap, from every single faction which Zolan had already listed and more, Erick decided to sit down with the faction which Erick most felt safe with.

- - - -

In a nice office in House Benevolence, Silverite sat across from Erick. This time Privacys had gone up, and then polite words had been exchanged, as well as the setting out of teas and cakes, and some quicksilver for Silverite, if she wanted any. Silverite stuck to the berry soda, though, commenting on how it was rather delicious, and wondering how it was made.

Erick handed her the spell for [Harmless Frozen Particles], saying, “It’s made with this spell, which takes one carbon and two oxygen and turns that into a frozen solid, using Elemental Mystical to bypass the creation of accidental toxins. Then that ice-like frozen air is put into a keg of berry tea, which is a combination of lemons and various berries. As the solid turns to gas, bypassing the liquid stage entirely, it increases the pressure in the keg, so that carbon dioxide seeps into the drink, creating the fizzy water.”

Silverite looked at her drink again then sipped it again before putting it down. “The same ‘carbon-two-oxygen’ that the daydroppers created? The dead air?”

“Exactly the same as people breathe out whenever they exhale, and the same that the daydroppers did; yes.”

“I do seem to recall you telling me about all that once. I must have forgotten.” Silverite looked to Erick. “Have you forgotten my own words on Quilatalap?”

Erick leaned back in his chair, recalling those words, and then he said most of them, “ ‘Quilatalap is one of the very few good necromancers. After many years of reparations and then settling into Ar’Kendrithyst well before my time, Quilatalap regained his title as the Most Holy Necromancer of Koyabez’s Peacekeepers. That is why I give him the Black Star whenever it comes my way, for that is my duty under Koyabez. But that man has an inevitable desire to teach, and those he teaches are not who anyone should accept as students. That man’s view of life, and thus the perspective of his students, is much too fluid. It is here that he and I have always had our major disagreements.

“ ‘About half the time, Quilatalap’s students always end up viewing life as something less than holy. Almost every dangerous necromancer to ever threaten this city or any other place in this world has had a connection to Quilatalap, and yes, that includes Messalina. I thought she was one of the good ones, too, but almost every single one of those misguided students of his that show up in Spur, causing trouble, I kill, myself. But, as always, it appears that Quilatalap is still useful to My God. Quilatalap helped you learn how to make that Silver Prism, and that means a lot, Erick. It means a lot, but not everything.

“ ‘So I will give you some advice, and I hope you will take it: Do not seek the archlich. Don’t talk about him to whoever might come after today. I could do without that man in my life for a while. We all could.’ ” Erick stopped reciting, then looked to Silverite. “I think that was everything.”

For a few long moments Silverite stared, and then she blinked and said, “It appears you do remember what I said… Rather solidly, as well.”

“I’ve gone over it several times since meeting with Quilatalap again. I even asked him what he had to say about you, and it was all positive words, mostly in the form of ‘I’m glad she’s there; she does a lot of cleanup that I cannot do. I’m not comfortable with killing people at all.’.”

Silverite slowly nodded. “He is comfortable with cursing people with bodies that fall apart, and blowing people up and then putting them back into a body, and eviscerating them over pits of lava, and doing all sorts of horrible things… And then he puts them back together. The trauma remains.” She added, “And there’s the whole ‘teaching other people to bring people back from the dead and thus transforming them into monsters’ thing. His magic has destroyed more souls on this world than any other magic in existence.” Silverite sighed a little. “And yet, how other people use the magic he had put out there is not his fault. And yet! He’s also saved countless lives through the dissemination of those magics.

“I simply wish he would stopteaching… Anyone at all, really. Just stop. And yet he can’t. He sees a lack of knowledge and he must fill that lack.” She asked, “Do you know that most people who went into the Armory, did so specifically to talk to Quilatalap? That he would try not to talk to people; try not to give out magical answers? But yet, the answers would come.

“Here’s one tactic that works way too well on him:

“A pair of adventurers under his purview would begin talking about Soul Magic, and they would get a lot of the initial stuff correct. Maybe they’d talk about the differences between blessings and curses. This would intrigue Quilatalap. But then, over the course of a week-long Armory trial, they’d bring up the topic again, and this time they’d purposefully get it wrong. And since Quilatalap was overhearing them the whole time, he would then correct them on their failings. It didn’t always work, but sometimes it did. And sometimes the trial-taker would forgo their reward and ask to be taught by Quilatalap, and sometimes Quilatalap would agree.

“And then a month later I would be murdering a fledgling necromancer with too much power and not enough self-control.” Silverite said, “Power is a good look on you, Erick. You have done Good with that power. You would have been crowned a Saint, if not for all the controversial things you have done, and if the world hadn’t gotten a lot more crazy since your ascent to power. Provided everything works out how we all hope it will, you will be crowned a Saint by some god or another. Maybe Rozeta, or Koyabez, or Phagar, or… Rozeta’s father, if he should regain his mind.

“Most people are not like you.

“Most people would not forgive their enemies and seek a better way. Most people would have been put down or straightened out by Stratagold or Oceanside for stepping too far out of line.” Silverite ended with, “And that’s really my problem with Quilatalap. He gives power to all who would ask for it, and prove themselves worthy. He is a priest of Melemizargo as much as he is a Holy Necromancer of Koyabez. And that is dangerous.”

Erick said, “I hear what you’re saying, and I thank you for your words, but I don’t have to worry about Quilatalap being used against me and that’s a major draw. Yes, he comes with baggage, but so do I, and I could use the ally, and we’re just dating right now, but I’ll let you know if it progresses further than that.”

Silverite was concerned, and probably for a thousand different reasons. If she wanted to, she could dig up recorded history, and show, with documented examples, exactly how much danger Erick was getting himself into. But she chose not to do any of that. She discarded all the rest of her words. With that simple decision made, she said, “I’m happy if you’re happy, Erick. I hope it works out between you.” She added, “But to speak as nations for a moment: He’s indirectly dangerous in vast, unknowable ways. Be careful.”

Erick smiled a little. “I will. Thank you for your concern. And thanks for the well-wishes.” And then he offered, “If any of the archmages of Spur want a [Reincarnation], or if you need help with anything, let me know and I’ll try to help”

Silverite sat fractionally straighter. “Thank you for the offer. I’ll… Let them know of your offer, and I’ll let you know if I need or desire anything in particular. There is one thing I can think of right now: Do you know when, if at all, you will be getting the Local Area Gate Network up and operational for the Crystal Forest? I understand that’s going to go through the Wayfarer’s?”

“It will probably go through the Wayfarer’s, yes. It’ll probably be active next month, after the Triumph of Light. 15 days? Something like that. There’re only a few places to even connect to in the Crystal Forest, anyway. Vindin. Outpost. Kal’Duresh. Ar’Kendrithyst, when it gets more stable and when Anhelia actually asks for a Gate. None of the other have asked for Gates, either, except in the most roundabout ways that mean they’re just checking, and they’re not actually interested.”

“That may be true for a while, but it will change fast. There’s going to be a surge of new cities out there, popping up and asking for Gates.” Silverite said, “Since you have these Version 5 Gates that don’t need upkeep on the other side, perhaps the Wayfarers could consider opening up Gates to other adventuring locations within the sands? Like the Hole north of Spur, or any number of places on the far eastern edge of the sands, like the Singular Mountain, or the Rocky Crags, or Empire Ruins?”

“… That’s a good idea.” Erick tried, “Would you like Spur to be a part of that collective? I can take Spur’s Gate off of Financial Road and make a nexus area with all of those locations inside that collection. Make all the Crystal Forest reachable from one 500 meter square block?”

Silverite smiled softly. “We’d take a second Gate in that space, actually. Keep the first one for business and make the new one fully for transportation of people and small, personal goods.”

“I can make that happen.” Erick asked, “Oh? Are you able to talk about the Feast?”

Silverite said, “We can talk about that; sure. But I’m not worried, and you’re going to do fine. Are you worried?”

“Yeah I’m worried! Ha! At least a little, anyway.” Erick smiled again. “You’re not worried I’m ‘falling to the Dark’, or something? I’ve gotten about a hundred letters to that effect so far.”

Silverite shook her head, saying, “I’m not worried about you in that way at all. I am absolutely sure that Melemizargo and the Shades and maybe even Quilatalap will try and talk about how ‘fine’ Melemizargo is, and about ‘how it used to be’ and ‘how it will be again’. But I trust you not to fall down that path… Or at least not until Melemizargo proves himself as not-insane, and his clergy as non-genocidal. Maybe after 50 years of good behavior. But am I worried about you actually choosing their side? Or: is this all some sort of elaborate plot by the Dark, and you, a Wizard, have already fallen to the Dark? No. Not worried about that, either.”

With a grin, Erick said, “For someone who is not worried at all, you’ve hit upon all the major complaints people are leveling at me.”

“Only idiots who haven’t been paying attention would be worried about you at this point.” Silverite shrugged. “But there are lots of idiots in the world. So… Good luck with that.”

Erick laughed.

There was more small talk of smaller concerns, but soon enough, Silverite departed back to Spur.