Chapter 263, 1/2

Erick stepped out onto a large grassy island. Tens of small structures held all around the entire place. The very center of the island held a small amphitheater, where one could stand on a podium and deliver words to all of the 900-ish people that Erick had rescued. That amphitheater was made of glass, or possibly clear crystal; Erick wasn’t sure. The little temples and offices all around the island were all made of clear crystal, too. The only exceptions to the crystal were various colored adornments here and there to signify what those buildings were for, which mostly came in the shapes of signs or pictographs here and there. There were some apartment buildings on the next island over, providing rest areas for people; those were made of more normal building materials, and were opaque to normal visual senses.

It was all quite nice.

There was one issue.

There were a lot more than 900 people here. There were, in fact… Maybe triple that? Over triple. There were 3,120-ish people on this and the other island, and many more were walking onto Cascadio’s Cavalcade or back, to participate in the pleasures of life over there, or to see what was happening with this land.

What truly stuck out to Erick the most, aside from the number of people, was the white and black temple on the third island. It was pretty big. It was not part of the Cavalcade. It was probably a temple to the Dark.

Shadow was over on that third island, but she was walking this way.n/ô/vel/b//in dot c//om

A lot of people were walking this way, from every direction. The resurrected had noticed Erick’s 3-meter tall self, and maybe they had noticed Cascadio, too, standing next to Erick.

Cascadio said to Erick, “Keep the Translator. You might need it for what is to come.” He put a hand on Erick’s shoulder. “You’re a good man. Stay here and use this land as long as you wish. And now, I must go to my people.”

Erick nodded. “It was great working with you.”

“And you as well.” Cascadio turned to his people, who were rushing toward him. Cascadio raised his arms and the sun beat down brilliantly, flashing gold across the sky, as he called out, “Welcome back to Margleknot, my devout! My wonders! My children! This land grant to Erick is not leaving. You may stay and listen to him, and when you are ready, venture into the Cavalcade, and we will talk at length when you reach the center. I wish to know everything!”

He clapped his hands, turned to a brilliant sun, and then into light that rose into the sky. That light then fell down upon the middle, golden island in the center of the Cavalcade, but Cascadio did not suddenly appear on that island. Cascadio was already there, already speaking to people who had walked the Cavalcade to get to him. The world flashed gold around that island. Cascadio raised a glass in the direction of Erick’s little island, and then he turned back to continue talking with people he was already with.

The crowd in front of Erick had a minor split as some warred with the decision to stay, and others wanted to rush into the Cavalcade. Erick instantly lost about 50 people who all went onto the Cavalcade, but that was fine. They were Cascadio’s people already. Some people in the nearby Cavalcade were rushing this way, because Erick was finally here. Erick expected he would gain many more than the 50 he lost soon enough.

Erick turned to the people in front of him, and said, “Let us reconvene in the amphitheater over there. I will give a little talk, and then we can have questions and answers.”

And then Erick started walking that way. A lot of people tried to ask him questions right away—

And then Shadow was there, saying, “Some people banded together and went to the Celestial Observatory to start killing people and sending them to the Waiting Room for you to bring back.”

Lanzoil, one of the people Erick wanted for an Overseer, said, “And many of us wanted to follow them. I stopped most of that, but people still went.”

Erick took a moment, glanced over to the edge of the island near the Cavalcade, where people had finished rushing this way, then made a decision, “Just a moment.” He lifted his aura and cast a massive [Hasted Shelter] across this island and the connecting apartment building island and Shadow’s Dark temple. Time outside of the space slowed to a crawl, and Erick said, “That’s some Time Magic, for those of you unfamiliar, which is probably not many of you. We’ve got time for a full presentation and some [Reincarnation]s now.” Erick raised his voice a little so that it was heard across the whole trio of islands, “Hello. I am Erick Flatt, and I will be speaking at the amphitheater in a moment. Please let us take our seats.”

It didn’t take much more to get the whole group moving in the right direction. It helped that a lot of them knew of Time Magic, and that to cast Time Magic was a whole lot more difficult and dangerous than most people truly knew. That simple act of spellwork, more than the Soul Magic and the new bodies and the erasing of their Wraithborne Contracts, convinced at least a hundred of the people here that Erick was the real deal.

Soon, Erick stood on the amphitheater podium, and many people were streaming into the stands.

Shadow stood beside and behind Erick.

Erick said to her, “You’re looking a bit different. Trying out a new role?”

“Yes. I am currently torn between wanting to go to Veird to eat Nothanganthor’s heart, or to stay here and control your House while you’re away. A strong House Benevolence here in Margleknot could support Veird and the Dark from now until forever.”

Erick had some obvious worries about that.

Shadow understood those worries without needing them aired out for everyone to see. “Before you get worried about betrayal, know that I have worn this role well before in the creation of the Painted Cosmology, and the enactment of the third version that actually worked. This time I’m a lot more Benevolent in my persona, though.”

Erick could see that, now that she explained it. By the way she stood, to the way people in the audience listened to her, to the way Erick saw his Lightning Path forking between her, and all the rest of the universe, Shadow was not some simply ally-of-convenience right now. She was a lot more than that.

Erick simply said, “We’ll talk more.”

Shadow nodded.

Erick turned back to the crowd which was still gathering. He raised his voice, and softly spoke out across the land, “Lanzoil. Querkooda. Ta’Kamoil. I spoke with you three specifically about roles in the coming House Benevolence. I see Lanzoil and Querkoda… Ah. Ta’Kamoil is on the other island. He’s coming here now. Could you three please come and stand on this side of me?”

The first two men came right over and stood there, while the third was still running, but he got there fast enough and took his place beside the other two.

Erick spoke to the crowd, “I’m the Wizard of Benevolence, Erick Flatt, of Earth and also Veird. I built a House Benevolence down on Veird, and I want to return there to take my home back from the leviathan of Malevolence, Nothanganathor, and to end the quarantine that the Fae Council has placed on that land.” Erick held up a hand and conjured an image of Veird in the sky, and then he pulled that image down and wrapped it in layers of black land before he conjured a massive black sphere around the image of a sun. Soon, a black model of Veird’s current solar system held in the sky. “Thanks to what I and my allies did before I came here to this land, Veird is home to a sphere, like the one that surrounds Margleknot. That’s a lot of land out there for living upon, and for securing it against Nothanganathor.

“It’s not nearly enough, but it will serve for the time being.

“What will actually matter is the help I secure here, in Margleknot. When we finished making the sphere around the sun, I went looking for help, and found out that I’m a Father of Margleknot. Back on Veird, I had created a World Tree son over ten years ago, but I found out that when I came to Margleknot that Yggdrasil, my son, is also Margleknot. So that’s why, when you look in the distance over there—” Erick pointed toward the rainbow-crowned green-fire and white-bark tree that held on the horizon. “Margleknot no longer gold, as he was in most of your eras. He is as I made him. He is Yggdrasil.”

The audience had heard much of this before, and probably from Shadow, but now Erick was here claiming these things and they wanted more than words.

Someone in the audience called out, “Proof!”

Erick didn’t have to ask for Yggdrasil to appear.

Yggdrasil stepped onto the platform next to Erick, but he wasn’t the Yggdrasil that Erick knew him as. He was a golden deer of a hundred legs and ten thousand curling antlers. He spoke with the words of the world, “This is proof.” And then he transformed into the green-skinned son that Erick knew. “And here is more proof.”

“Thank you, Yggdrasil.”

Yggdrasil smiled a little, then said, “Good luck, Father.”

And then he vanished.

The crowd was completely silent.

The mood change was sudden, and not unexpected for some.

For many it was as though they were finally believing.

Erick waited a moment, then began, “And so, the Fae Enclave has given me the tasks of killing a lot of people to prove my power, to prove that Benevolence is worth as much to them as Malevolence already was. I already did that with almost half a million people, but that was a [Grand Reincarnation] event, like what each of you got to experience singularly. That didn’t count, apparently. And so, I’m building an extension of House Benevolence up here in Margleknot, and populating it with formerly-Good people and formerly-Evil people and anyone who wants to find a new purpose in a better tomorrow with less war and less horrors for all.

“Because redemption is for everyone.

“The immediate goal of this extension of House Benevolence is to prove my power in grander ways, which means the eradication of something. Anything, really. I have chosen to raise my claws against Slaver’s Den, because I hate slavery. Simple as. It will be a grand war of extermination and reincarnation.

“It will not be the first war I have waged like this. It will not be the last.

“And when the war is done and the Evils are no longer evil, then House Benevolence will be taking the continent-sized land of Slaver’s Den and making it our place of power. The people who work for me will have access to the resons I generate from the Benevolent Sun in the sky.” Erick pointed. “That one. I made that one. Yggdrasil currently maintains that land and gets half of its reson generation. I get the other half. That number is currently around 1 trillion resons per day.

“House Benevolence will benefit from that. For starters, I plan on setting up some automatic resurrections for all members of the House.”

The crowd was absolutely silent.

“And when House Benevolence is stable, then I’m going back to Veird to do what I came up here to Margleknot to do, which is to save my world.” Erick added, “I’m rather sure that there will be some sort of permanent portal-like structure between here and there when that is done, too. The people who live and work at the House Benevolence on Veird are people I trust with my life, though, so this House Benevolence on Margleknot will be subordinate to that one for a time, even if this House is set up to become radically more powerful.

“Eventually, though, I foresee my House on Veird eclipsing the House here in Margleknot, and fast.” Erick breathed deep, giving the moment weight, as he said, “And that’s the shortest I can make that explanation of direction.

“Moving on.” Erick gestured to his three potential Overseers, saying, “We have our potential Overseers of House Benevolence on Margleknot.

“Lanzoil was a grand administrator for Paradise Rises, and his death and forced Contracts were considered a main reason for the fall of Paradise Rises. He’s back to be the Overseer of Governance for House Benevolence, if he’ll have the job. I will allow challenges to his position in 5 years.

“Querkooda was a warrior king for The Good Lands, and his death and forced Contracts are considered one of the largest contributing factors for the fall of that place. He’ll be the Overseer of Enforcement, if he’ll have the job. I will allow challenges to his position in 5 years.

“Ta’Kamoil was an archmage of light for the Celestial Observatory until he fell the same way that many of you did; by taking the Contracts of your people with you into the Waiting Room so that they would not affect your people anymore. He’ll be the Overseer of Magic, if he’ll have the job. I will allow challenges to his position in 5 years.

“All of these people were considered High Talents. Many of you here are in similar situations. If you have ever touched that sort of power before, then please get in line for more power, if you would have it, and if you would wield it for Benevolence. I am giving out a lot of power here, to a lot of people.” As a final note, Erick added, “And one more thing: We’re not going after Wraithborne Tower. I hope, through proof of power, to knock them out of Evil completely, and thus remove Contract Slavery itself from Margleknot in the future.

“Now.

“Let us move on to the question and answer segment of this whole thing.”

Everyone spoke at once. Many were already complaining about the anti-war sentiments regarding Wraithborne. Some were mad that they were overlooked for high positions. Others were skeptical of this whole thing, and as Erick spoke of not going after Wraithborne they got even more skeptical.

The pair of goblin-centaur girls whom Erick had first rescued, and a few other people here and there, were mesmerized, enthralled, and in love, for a whole bunch of different reasons.

The goblin-centaur girls were both human now, just like everyone else. Of those two, the more violent goblin-centaur girl said to her sister what what on the minds of many, “I have never been able to listen this well to all those wordywordys. Maybe this guy can make me even smarter!”

The other not-goblin girl said to her sister, “He did make us smarter. This… This is true power.”

The first one cackled. “I love it!”

A few people looked at the cackling woman.

Most demanded answers. Some louder than others.

And that was enough time to let his words sink in.

Erick raised his voice over the cacophony, saying, “Everyone please be quiet. I will be picking people to speak through fate-like magic.” The crowd was mostly quiet. Some still yelled. Erick ignored them. Following his Lightning Path, Erick pointed at one guy on the far right. A beam of light illuminated that man from above. “You. Please speak.”

The crowd went silent for Erick quietly shushed them with spellwork. That very same spellwork raised the voice of the one under the light.

The man’s voice spread softly across the entire trio of islands, “I want guaranteed resurrections for me and the people who would become my family, and when I get old I want to be brought back to this age here. Or I want to be an immortal dragon. There’s a rumor that you can do that. Is that true?” The light on the man faded.

Erick said, “Good questions. Yes. I can make anyone I want a dragon. As for resurrections, that will be a part of the incorporation of House Benevolence into an entity recognized by Margleknot. Administration will figure out all of that later. Reincarnations into a younger version of yourself is certainly possible, too. I’ll be working on an auto-Reincarnation magic soon enough so I don’t have to spend all my time on that one.” Erick pointed at a woman. She lit up with light. “Yes, you.”

“Are you saying you can really make us young like this… forever?”

Erick said, “Yes. It’s not that hard. Benevolence is very good at positive-outcome Soul Magic. I plan on enacting all of your reincarnation paperwork later, too. Anyone can watch that whole process, if they wish. I’m sure many of you will want to become Soul Mages yourself. I welcome those of you with the expertise to try to copy what I can do.”

Erick won over 30% of the crowd with that statement alone. Eternal youth and life? Yes please.

Erick pointed to the next person.

“Who is that fae beside you, exactly?”

A lot of people in the audience were worried about the fairy in their midst. That was good of them; it showed they knew what to be worried about.

Erick said, “Shadow here is the constructor of a universe that she and many others call the Painted Cosmology. That universe went through a universal sundering event because of Nothanganathor, of Malevolence, about 1450 years ago, Veird-time. Uncountable millions of billions of people died in that Sundering, because Nothanganathor did something that no one is quite sure of. All we know is that he killed Shadow’s universe, and she and I are here to enact long lasting justice on Nothanganathor. He will not be spared.” Erick gestured to Shadow.

Shadow stepped forward, and said, “When we ensure that the problem of Nothanganathor and the degradation of the Darkness is done, there will be a great expansion. The Dark will flourish. This is the foundation. Erick and House Benevolence will likely be at the center, but I will be ever expanding and creating once again. Stars with worlds will be made habitable. People will flourish. If you want resources, we can make those resources. If you want homes, we will make those homes. The land we make will not be subject to any greater Balance of Good and Evil like it is here in Margleknot, but instead it will be the home of the Darkness, and of Benevolence, the best anti-corruption power ever created, and which can create resons at a 9-to-1 rate.”

Every single person that Erick had not won over, Shadow enthralled.

Erick was a bit hyped up now, too. He had not known that Shadow was going that direction exactly, but he was glad to see it. With a soft smile, Erick nodded, and then said, “There is a great deal of room to expand. I plan on making a multi-world gate network back on Veird, and to our local stars. All of that will come many years from now, though. I’ll answer a few more questions, and then I’ll be reviewing your reincarnation paperwork and doing all that. I expect, in a week or so, that I will be marching on Slaver’s Den. I expect some assassins to arrive shortly if they aren’t already here.” Erick pointed at another person.

Light lit upon a person who almost didn’t speak because they were obviously worried about assassins now, but then they caught up to themselves and asked, “How do you see this fight going? Slaver’s Den is 40 million people and though 80% of them are slaves, they will fight in defense of their land, for that’s what their shackles demand of them. Even if you get around that problem then they’ll have Wraithborne backup, and that means immortal liches who will come at us through uncountable deaths.”

Erick smiled softly, and said, “That’s a good question, too. I plan on evicting a lot of people from Margleknot completely, sending them off to other worlds and lands through a reson-empowered [Grand Reincarnation], turning them all into random people on random other worlds, giving most of them a great chance at a new life free of the problems they fell to here on Margleknot, or the problems they themselves created. Such a magic looks like this:”

Erick cast a lightshow into the sky, placing a good hundred little human-shapes scattered throughout the air above, and then he struck them with another lightshow of lightning that struck one person, split into striking two people, and then continued on like that until every person was touched. Each person the lightshow lightning touched turned to flowers and grasses and mushrooms, but their souls went elsewhere, into fractal splashes that soaked into the roots and branches of Margleknot, to move off to other worlds, to be reborn in Benevolence.

A few people in the audience were in complete disbelief.

But some wanted to believe.

Some people started talking softly. Some started arguing with their neighbors about realistic goals.

Erick spoke above the susurrus, “Right now, I can do that to about a million people at a time. I’ll work on some Propagation Magic and make that spellwork self-sustaining so I don’t have to wait a few days between clearing out a million people at a time, but even if we did take the long way, according to some math, clearing out 40 million people would only take 150 days.”

That got people talking.

Someone shouted, “What are we expected to do if you do it all?!”

Erick did not mind the outburst. Emotions were riding high right now. Erick said, “My magic cannot hit those who are well defended, and so I would need fighters to take over for the smaller problems, and to keep the peace as we advance across Slaver’s Den and take it all from them. Mostly, I need people willing to do paperwork, to organize others, to make Slaver’s Den habitable, etcetera. I’m building a House here that will last for a very, very long time, so all of the normal things are still necessary.”

A big woman stood up and the crowd around her went silent. Erick recognized her as Vieltresia the Demon Summoner, a woman who had been locked down by Wraithborne Contract for 1,700 years, according to Cascadio. She was just one of many people who had tried to circumvent Erick’s [Reincarnation] out of the Waiting Room. She had not succeeded in that circumvention.

Erick nodded her way.

A beam of light came down upon Vieltresia, amplifying her voice. “And what of Wraithborne? Are we truly going to ignore them? To be nominal allies? To forgive what they have done to us?”

The crowd was mad about that, now that Vieltresia had brought it back up.

Erick said, “You don’t have to forgive. You don’t have to forget. But the greater victory would be had by turning Wraithborne to Benevolence. The simple fact is that Morbion wants power and to control all of Margleknot and thus the universe and beyond, but Evil can never get there; Good anchors Evil into an ever-warring Balance. Benevolence is not like that. Benevolence is better. Someone inside House Benevolence is going to achieve that goal of universal power. Evil cannot rule this universe or any other. Neither can Good. Morbion was always destined for failure by choosing Evil. With Malevolence, Nothanganathor got so much further than Morbion, by far, for he took down an entire universe. By that same, opposite turn, Benevolence will build a universe.

“Maybe more than one.”

Erick let those words hang. He had not known he was going to say all that when he had started answering questions, but he knew those words to be true.

Someone was going to rise up through Benevolence to create a universe.

Perhaps Nothanganathor wanted to use Malevolence to do the same.

It was hard to know right now, but the mirror there was impossible to deny.

All the world seemed quiet as they thought about Erick’s words and proclamations, too.

Into that pause, Erick spoke softly, “That’s all the questions for now. I’ll be reviewing your [Reincarnation] paperwork now. I am sure that after I get through the first ten or twenty people that many of you will want to write up new paperwork, and the people who went first will wish to be changed to something else. Perhaps a bit taller, or naturally stronger, or smaller, or maybe a different species or color. All of those are fine changes. I will have to stop everyone from going a third time, though. Let’s be careful with our life-long choices before we make them, please.” And then Erick turned to Lanzoil, Querkooda, and Ta’Kamoil. “With me. Shadow too, please.”

He walked off the stage.

Behind him, people started talking to each other, or they got lost in thought. Some people were beyond happy. Others were worried. Some doubted. Most did not doubt at all.

Mostly, there was hope.

- - - -

Erick sat down in a temporary office made of stone and soft fabrics. The walls were opaque, but there were no privacy magics here. Cascadio didn’t truly believe in real privacy, which is why many of the buildings around here were made of clear glass. The walls of this place were even only half-opaque, with the ‘stone’ actually a bunch of darker white splotches inside the glass. It was almost like glitter-crystal, like the Fae Enclave, but not that at all.

Lanzoil, Querkooda, Ta’Kamoil, and Shadow sat with Erick.

Erick started with, “Are you three comfortable with the general direction of the duties that I would impose upon you? Lanzoil as grand administrator again? Querkooda as warrior general? Ta’Kamoil as prime archmage? Primarily, I expect you three to be able to work together in a council-like shape, with Lanzoil doing most of the administration, Querkooda keeping the peace and the walls, and Ta’Kamoil providing a deciding vote to break up the power of administration and enforcement.”

Erick had spoken to each of them inside the Dead Waiting Room about much of this, and he was pretty sure that at least Lanzoil and Querkooda had met and spoken with each other, but Ta’Kamoil had not been a part of that meeting-of-2. He was here now, though.

All three of them had a pretty basic sort of human body.

All three would be changing, soon.

Lanzoil and Querkooda glanced at each other, and then at Ta’Kamoil.

Ta’Kamoil smiled a little, saying, “I have heard stories of Lanzoil’s prowess with paper and ink and because of that I desire to see what he can do with a new land, and with the Father of Margleknot at his back. I’m very glad I’ll be courted for my vote instead of actually participating in administration. I’m much more of a teacher and explorer-crusader leader than an organizer of civilization.” He said to them all, “I would seek action outside of the lands of Benevolence, ensuring that people know us well and acting as more of an ambassador, while maintaining schools back at home, and for those schools to maintain wards and other magics.”

Querkooda and Lanzoil relaxed a fraction at that. Erick could tell those two were already experiencing friction but of a rivalry-sort, rather than a friction of real dislike.

Querkooda said to Lanzoil, “Then it appears you will not be getting your way with everything, Lanzoil, for I can already see my organization sending off warriors to babysit exploring mages.”

Lanzoil grinned, “And I will be the one ensuring that the schools and army are funded, and that Benevolence flourishes.”

Erick relaxed as he saw a bright future ahead, and as his Lightning Path coalesced around all three of them, each of them gaining a bright ring of Benevolence around their necks that then flowed inward, into their souls and bodies. They would be the instruments of Benevolence upon Margleknot by which Margleknot would truly grow Benevolence, to spread productive power out into the rest of the universe.

Erick asked Shadow, “Do you have anywhere in this organization you would like to be, in particular?”

The group looked to her—

And Erick felt his Lightning Path wrangle into a new, deeper shape.

Shadow became something More in that eternal moment.

Her eyes flashed Dark. Her mien turned regal, and powerful.

And then she began, her voice a sonorous declaration, “There is a collection of stories that I am reminded of, Erick. They appear in your dossier as the Tellings of the Creation of the Painted Cosmology. The one my father Told was perhaps the most correct, from their perspective, but from my perspective, there on the ground, in the Dark, working Creation, the First Telling told by the Shades at your Last Shadow’s Feast was more correct, in parts.

“Insanity and a loss of perspective caused Melemizargo, my distant greatness of a grandson, and his flock, who have also lost themselves, to lose some of the Truth of that Telling. But not all. The story of the First Dragon meeting the rest of Creation begins with a specific meeting which was touched upon in that First Telling.

“Specifically, there is the part when the First Dragon meets the Second Dragon in the Dark.

“I am that Second Dragon.

“I am the one with which the Dark created so very many children, and brought gods into being, and life into living.

“And so, when I say this next part, know that I say it with the full weight of my history and Truth.

“You and I will be married, Erick. We will have a child of my choosing. It will be a marriage in the oldest of senses; of power meeting power and begetting power. It need not be a marriage of love, and it need not be a closed marriage, for neither of us will be bound to each other. What is mine is mine. What is yours is yours. What is ours will be More than the sum of their parts.

“It doesn’t have to happen now.

“We will have eternity, Erick.

“And in that eternity, we will find time to consummate this marriage.

“And yet, even before our marriage happens, I will be the Benevolent Dark Queen of House Benevolence, starting today.

“I will be involved everywhere in this organization. From top to bottom. When you are not here, I will be here, making the big decisions. When you go to fight Nothanganathor, I will be there at your side. When that fight is done and we have won, I will come back here. I plan to spend the next 500 years being the Benevolent Dark Queen and ensuring that this universe never again desires to conspire against my own, and instead supports my own. When that is done, I will give up this power to the worthy and move on through the Dark to remake the Painted Cosmology, if I haven’t already been doing that all this while.

“In this way, House Benevolence will be the link between the Dark and the Fractal.”

Shadow finished.

And Erick felt a weight of pressure upon him.

Of history, and eyes, and Paths and futures.

Erick stood, and regarded Shadow.

She regarded him in turn.

There were only two ways that this could go. Three, if you count ‘putting it off to another day’ as a valid choice. Erick wanted to make that third choice… So he poked holes.

Erick bargained, “You will never turn full Evil.”

“I will never turn full Good, either.”

“You will always deal with House Benevolence’s and my interests with the best of possible intentions and actions.”

“I will never do everything outside of House Benevolence and your interests in ways you would always approve, for we do not control each other, Erick. I am above you in certain ways. You are above me in others. Together we raise each up higher than we could have reached on our own. When we are on our own, we are on our own. When we are together, we will be the best of comrades, or at worst, rivals.”

Erick decided, “I like this side of you, Shadow. I hope you can keep it up when the going gets tough, and you don’t resort to normal fae shenanigans.”

Shadow smiled. “My ‘fae shenanigans’ will win us this war, Erick.”

“I am in a committed relationship already.”

“I have eternity, Erick. I can wait.”

Erick took a moment.

He looked inward for any reason he should not do this. For any trick. For any future issue. Honestly, there were a lot. Even before Erick checked his Lightning Path he knew this was a path that there was no stepping off of once he took that first step…

… There might be a relatively safe way to get out of this.

Erick was pretty sure that he should at least try that way…

Erick looked to his three newest Overseers.

Lanzoil looked as though he were seeing a breaking and remaking of a world; he was horrified in a fascinated sort of way. He knew the dangers of the fae, but he also knew the bounty that came with them if they were on your side. Erick knew of that bounty, too.

Querkooda saw security arrive in the form of a universe-creator asking to marry his new boss. All of this was fine with him, for Erick had asked Shadow all the proper questions and Shadow had responded in all the proper ways. For Querkooda, If Erick did not choose to marry Shadow, then he was a fool.

Ta’Kamoil had a problem with Erick being in two main relationships at once, but only because Erick brought up ‘being in a relationship already’ as a problem at all. Anyone in true power was expected to have multiple consorts at once, after all. The fact that Shadow was a fae was a bit of a tricky thing, but she had answered all questions satisfactorily. For Ta’Kamoil, that Erick was considering turning down this offer at all was a big problem.

Erick found himself agreeing with them. And yet...

Erick spoke to his Overseers, “The consent of the governed is necessary for any real government to function well, and for consent to be true, it has to be informed. I inform you now that all of this happening here with Shadow’s sudden marriage proposal was not my idea, but it appears it is Shadow’s well-formed idea. But her as my queen would mean she would give you orders. Would you consent to taking orders from Shadow?”

Shadow raised an eyebrow at Erick—

Lanzoil instantly said, “She will be the fourth vote on the council. She was already recruiting people out there. Those people can be a part of her ‘Queen’s Guard’, or whatever she wishes to call her people. She will not have automatic power over anyone who is not specifically signed up to have her as their Queen. Signing on to House Benevolence does not make one vulnerable to her whims, and on the contrary, should make anyone signed up under the House, and not her specifically, less vulnerable to her fae desires.”

Erick smiled a little.

“I agree to this amendment,” Shadow said. “Erick will retain supreme power over his House for as long as he wishes to wield that power, he will grant supreme power to whoever he wishes to grant that power, and he will take that power back to himself if he wishes to rescind that granting of power.”

Erick saw the future at that moment.

Of a land of Benevolence with ten billion tendrils crawling out into all the universe, each of those tendrils filled with the Dark, creating positive outcomes all across this universe and many others, and spreading growth wherever it touched. Many of those tendrils reached to Veird, and to the FENRIR system, and to another Dark universe in that section of this Fractal Infinity.

This was the best possible outcome for House Benevolence.

It was a conflicted outcome for Erick.

But he was a King.

He made the best possible decision for all people and every individual, and then he took a moment to convince himself it was the proper decision, and then he truly believed it himself.

Erick said, “I accept your engagement, Shadow.”

Something clicked.

- -

Yggdrasil stepped into the room, and the room was suddenly a lot larger, for the walls expanded far away to reveal the glitter-crystal of the main audience chambers of the Fae Enclave. They were no longer on Cascadio’s islands outside of his Cavalcade. They were here, at Court again, at the very center of Margleknot.

Lord Eldraki, Lord Dakka, Lady Seraphaka, and Lady Aelorika all sat in judgment up there on the arc of the judge’s bench, on that wide curve of densest glitter crystal. The Fractal Fairy sat on their bench in the middle of the arrangement, looking like an eternity contained to a single person.

Lanzoil, Querkooda, Ta’Kamoil, stood to the side.

There were no fae in the audience rows in the back of the chamber, and there were no prosecutor or defendant tables. There was no sound.

There was simply Erick and Shadow, standing side by side. Erick was 3 meters tall and wearing normal, if fine clothes, with his crown of black horns upon his head. Shadow was taller than usual, standing even with Erick, if a little bit shorter. She wore her black and white jewelry and clothes of common, if fine make.

Yggdrasil walked in front of Erick and Shadow, looking at them, as he calmly said, “I refuse to recognize any sort of engagement without a proper courtship.”

Ah, Erick thought, that probably would have been a good way to get out of this, too.

Erick said, “I’ll accept that limitation. Welp! You all heard the man. Courtship first.”

Shadow narrowed her eyes at Erick, then she relaxed, stood straight, and said, “I suppose that is—”

Lord Eldraki, the trickster, gleefully chuckled, interrupting all proceedings. He rapidly said, “I’ll sign off on this anti-Nothanganathor business if Shadow and Erick share assets equally.”

Shadow and Erick both exclaimed, “Never.”

Erick and Shadow glanced at each other.

Ah.

Well duh.

Shadow had assets, too, and they were probably a lot larger than Erick’s.

Lord Eldraki laughed louder.

Lord Dakka, the fae of twisted, rusted metal and war, said, “Then it’s back to war. Go kill some slavers, Erick, and I mean actually kill them. I want blood and death and carnage!” Dakka paused for a brief moment, then he grinned wickedly. “I want Blood and Death and Carnage. You can use those, right?” Dakka looked around. “He can, right? I didn’t misread that, right? Oh well!” He said to Erick, “If it takes you some time to make those spells then that’s fine, too!”

The Fractal Fairy tapped the table in front of them, and the courtroom vanished.

- -

… Erick once again stood in the small office with Shadow at his side and Lanzoil, Querkooda, and Ta’Kamoil, all sitting back down in their chairs. The three mortals looked a little worse for wear, but not too much worse. Mostly, they were in states of shock. The shock was passing fast.

Shadow looked relieved, and yet wary.

Erick spoke first, “I still want you as the Benevolent Dark Queen, Shadow. Things will be going slower than we bargained for, though, and I’m fine with that.”

Shadow eyed Erick, judging his words. She said, “And they’ll go even slower still. You’re not getting your hands on my power, Erick.”

Erick grinned. “And you’re not getting your hands on mine.”

Shadow nodded. “Fair.” She turned to Erick’s people, saying, “These are your people, then. I am merely a vote on the council.” She plucked out a chair from the air and sat down with the three, saying, “Where shall we begin, Apparent King?”

Erick smiled, saying, “The best part about hiring good people is that you simply need to ensure that they work well together, and that you’re all operating under the same vision. I have the good people here, and I can already tell that you three will work well together, so now I just need to set you out into the world with power and purpose in your pockets. So how would you three like to be immortal, shapeshifting dragons?”

Lanzoil, Querkooda, and Ta’Kamoil, each looked both surprised, and then not surprised at all.

Like a man who had seen the future and knew it to be Good, Querkooda easily said, “I accept this power and this duty. I will be your general and we will raise armies to keep all evils at bay, both within the empire and without, to ensure that all are blessed in brightness and Benevolence.”

Erick said, “Your declaration is accepted. Your honor is noted.”

Ta’Kamoil energetically said, “It appears I need to adjust my idea of House Benevolence by a few notches! And so I have.” With solid words, Ta’Kamoil said, “I accept this charge and this demand upon my very soul, and will act accordingly to all of the power granted to me. I wish to learn your reincarnation magic, to ensure that it is not lost, and that House Benevolence can rescue more than it can eradicate.”

Erick said, “Your decision is accepted. Your wishes will be granted.”

Lanzoil took a moment, for the weight of an age was upon him. He spoke, “I will be your regent. I will raise civilization under Benevolence. You and I will work out the laws and the power you wish to enact, and it will be done, and I will push back when I feel you overstep, and you will hear my words and know them draped in the knowledge of a thousand years of rule. What we create mustbe a land of equality and justice, or I will be leaving after my 5 years of first term are up.”

Erick smiled. “I would have it no other way.” He added, “And 5 years of term is more of a suggestion than a reality that must exist, for I fully expect each of you to be more than comfortable in your roles. What I actually expect is that you will each have offices with Seconds and Thirds and all the way to Tens, if need be, that might take over for you when you wish for a break. If you should ever fully retire then one of them would step up into your position, and if they don’t like the job, or if the people don’t like them, then they would be replaced by the next person in line. Otherwise we can work out election processes.”

Lanzoil nodded solidly, happy that Erick was thinking long-term.

Ta’Kamoil looked relieved. He already knew he would be asking for a break in 5 years.

Querkooda said, “I was simply going to apply for a renewal in 5 years. By then, I will have proven myself to my soldiers and the renewal of contract would be a foregone conclusion.”

Erick grinned. “That’s a good way to do it, too.” And then he looked to Shadow.

The other three looked to Shadow, too.

Shadow smirked. She said, “And I will be the hand of House Benevolence that does what needs to be done.” She intoned, “For the good of all, and every individual, we give assistance to those in need and do what we must to prevent apocalypse before it happens, to found and cultivate an evergrowing cycle of less war, less horror, and more hope, for now, and for me, personally, for at least the next 500 years. Renewals might follow.”

That was big.

Erick wasn’t sure exactly how big, but it was big.

Erick smiled. “I accept your declaration, my Benevolent Dark Queen Shadow. Thank you.”

Shadow smiled back. “I accept your thanks, and return them to you in kind, my Apparent King.” She stood, and said, “Now let us dispense with the flirting and get to work. I have 27 people for you to reincarnate for my Queen’s Office. I am taking Holy Mother Caa, Yasmi Bloodgood, Aryear Zumgwy, the Demon Dragon Heliberko, and many others. The four named will be my Second through Fifth.”

Erick said, “I’m fine with that.” He said to all of them, “I expect much of the next month or so to be spent on organization, and then some time spent outside of this [Hasted Shelter] to get people back into the real world to get them more cultivation or accretion, etcetera etcetera. During that outside-time I’ll be going to the Celestial Observatory to go see what’s happening with the newly-reincarnated people killing Observatory people. And so—” He turned to his new Overseers. “Let us get you three into new bodies, and then dragonize you. Who wants to go first?”

Lanzoil said, “I believe that is being a bit hasty, sir, for I need to discuss computational machines and my missing Library Talent, and the replacements you propose in the shape of ‘Book Magic’. I am unaware of Book Magic, as it pertains to Queen Shadow’s Darkness-derived mana creation engine.”

Querkooda spoke up, “I was a Grand Warrior of all weapons and styles with a Talent for mass combat and the sharing of power. I have no idea how to get that back, for I have lost that cultivation. As a general of armies, I want that Talent back, if I can get it back.”

Ta’Kamoil held up his fingertips and Benevolence danced between them. And then he instantly looked tired, but happy. He grinned, saying, “This is all rather intuitive for me, but I am rather far from where I used to be.” He looked to Erick. “You can’t grant me my Shard of Altering, can you? I don’t actually need my old Shard anymore but… I do miss it.”

Lanzoil and Querkooda both nodded at that. All three of them had built their power in their own ways, and now they were worried that Benevolence could not do everything that they used to do. All three of them had been stuck inside the Waiting Room for thousands of years, though, living off of the resons they could create and use to ward off traps and enemies inside that place of Death, so the sting of their loss of power was not as large as it could have been, and they still had resonwork to fall back on.

Erick said, “I cannot grant powers outside of Benevolence and the Mark of the Dark that goes along with that, but Benevolence can do anything you can Alter and Shape it into doing.” Erick held up a hand and conjured an ever-changing orb of a whole bunch of different Elements, all rushing and joining and separating and mutating through a vast swath of the spectrum that Erick knew and used. “Benevolence is incredibly varied. Perhaps Shadow can enlighten us as to what else the Mark of the Dark can do, though?”

Ta’Kamoil was enthralled by Erick’s tiny display. Lanzoil and Querkooda sat calculating.

Shadow shrugged, saying, “The Mark of the Dark simply spins a person’s Everything into reality-changing mana depending on the personal strength of the person wielding that Mark. The stronger you are —which means ‘the better of a future you make for yourself and the people around you’— the more material that the Mark has to work with, and thus you make more mana. Mana is possibility manifested, after all. It is sort of like resons in that way, but different. Better, in a lot of ways. Mana can do a lot more than resons can, so don’t go looking for even more power before you exhaust all the power in the Darkness, which won’t happen until you Ascend yourself. That is what Erick did.

“The Darkness is the best possible universe to belong to for it doesn’t care what you do with the power it grants you as long as you work toward more and more possibilities. If you want other powers then you’ll have to bow to other powers to gain more Marks and Shards and Talents and whatnot.” Shadow glared lightly, heavily, adding, “But you will not be doing that. You will not be diluting the power of the Dark in House Benevolence…” She added, “Resons are okay, though. I suppose.”

Ta’Kamoil instantly said, “I’m ready to become a dragon, my king!”

Erick smiled.

And then he got to work.

- - - -

One real-day and 10 time-dilated days later, Erick had an organization that was not working too well because they were all trapped on a small island without any outside resources available to them. Other than that, though, all 3,097 people of House Benevolence, including the people who had walked in from the Cavalcade, were ready for a new age.

Everyone was in their desired body, and plans were set everywhere, along all levels of Erick’s newest branch of House Benevolence. Erick had even assigned various people percentages of Erick’s reson generation from the Benevolent Sun and done some basic paperwork from Margleknot to make House Benevolence a recognized entity to which people could belong. All of that could be done inside the [Hasted Shelter].

None of the real work could be done inside [Hasted Shelter].

Erick and his Overseers —and Shadow— had good hopes for what came next.

And so Erick broke the [Hasted Shelter] containment.

Over the next complicated hour people got moving through portals. Some of the people from the modern age went out to places they knew of which still existed, while those of older generations went with those younger people out into the world, to learn of the new Margleknot. A whole lot and also nothing had changed in Margleknot in the hundreds or the thousands of years in which some people had once walked this land. For some, their desired plans were rapidly cut short.

Erick witnessed several people call out to Margleknot for transportation to specific places, only to find an error message; ‘that place does not exist’. Lanzoil tried for Paradise Rises, and had to sit down when that error message came, even when he knew it was coming. Holy Mother Caa tried for a place called ‘Water Chime’ and briefly darkened the world with Abyss and blackening Benevolence when that error text flowed across her view. Some people simply cried.

But there was work to do, and the horrors of forgotten lands had been something that many had understood long before they called out to those dead places.

They moved on as fast as they could.

Lanzoil and Querkooda went to get technology for logistical needs from both the Astral Bazaar and the Aetherium Bazaar. Ta’Kamoil went to the Arcane University to tap old contacts there to get magical texts so he could ask Erick questions about Darkness-made mana and magic, to see where they lined up in their thoughts of how spellwork actually worked.

Days ago, Erick had told them all that they needed to learn Book Magic, and he gave all of them some books on that subject, along with some collected notes on Benevolence and its uses and powers. Most of that information was on accreting. They’d be learning that stuff, yes, but they wanted what they already knew worked, too.

Shadow actually led the accretion efforts among House Benevolence, which was both nice and odd to see.

She had a talent for bringing out power in people, just like her father, Fairy Moon. Erick watched her now and then, when she walked among the students attempting to manifest power, as she spoke small words now and again and those small powers turned into manifested Truths. She was remarkably good at that.

Once things seemed to be going well and seemed to be on the right track, Erick decided it was time to solve that problem with those resurrected and reincarnated who went to the Celestial Observatory to kill people.

Holy Mother Caa went with him.

The targets were two former rulers of some smaller crystal spire mountain tops.

They had fallen to their own swords in ritual suicide centuries ago in order to remove Wraithborne Contracts from their people. One of those rulers was a woman named Daria Lys, of the grand city of Lys, and the other was a man named Geraz Hydaki, of the grand city of Hydaki. Their cities were twin cities, known together as Hydaki-Lys-by-the-river.

Both those cities were now Wraithborne-ish lands of the Observatory, where Contractors of Wraithborne worked to spread Wraithborne influence in the Observatory. Their primary tool were Contracts, of course, linking the people that signed to Wraithborne, which allowed those who adventured into the valleys below the clouds to be easily resurrected should they perish in other worlds. Such a Contracted person wouldn’t even need to go through the Waiting Room first.

Those kinds of Contracts were reminiscent of how the incani on Veird made Vile and Demonic Pacts to bring incani to specific houses in Hell when they died, but Wraithborne Contracts were vastly different in many ways.

Erick was once again glad for the decisions that Rozeta and the Relevant Entities of the Script had made regarding allowed manas on Veird.

Contract Magic was an abomination against free will.