Erick checked himself out in the mirror one more time.

Black hair, white eyes save for his black pupils. White robes with black trim. An Ophiel on his left shoulder, Yggdrasil’s eye on his right.

And his horns were not showing.

Good. All the rest of him was acceptable.

The sun was about to set.

The Feast was about to start.

Everyone was already evacuated from the Gate District that needed to be evacuated. Most of the Gates were down; Erick would recast them in the morning. According to Zolan Erick was ‘hemorrhaging gold’ with the Gates down, but Zolan had said that in jest, for it was what it was, and only foolish people shipped on Shadow’s Feast. Too bad there were a lot of foolish people in this world.

A few Gates remained, specifically the ones that linked the House to the kitchens and such which were at another location, in the city of Candlepoint. Erick would be placing the House and the kitchens into an [Expandable Hasted Shelter], separated by Gates, when the time for the actual Feast began at midnight. Hopefully such an ‘air gap’ would allow Erick to evacuate people through those Gates and into a safer location (hopefully the kitchens would be safer) if a fight should break out inside the House itself.

But the House was evacuated of all non-Feast-approved people so any fight that happened here would be contained… Mostly.

Erick mentally went over the list of major guests once more.

The Shades were the big ones.

Lapis, the Shade of Enchantment; dark-skinned human woman, bald, androgynous, muscular, reserved. Soul Mage. Erick wasn’t sure what she had been doing before now, but he suspected it had something to do with the Quiet War. According to Zolan’s research and contacts, Lapis was suspected to have been over in the Wasteland Kingdoms, doing something.

Farix, Shade of Education; blue incani, lithe, perpetually horny. Blood Mage. He was the ‘ruler’ of the refugees of Brightwater over in the former city of Frontier. As of right now, Farix was conducting amicable trade between Spur and New Brightwater due to agreements sorted out before the multi-pronged assault on the Soul Ooze had happened.

Treant, Shade of Forest; orcol man, hates people, wants forgiveness from Treehome for all his crimes against them, unknown Class. Probably a Plant Mage, though. All the ‘Classes’ of every Shade were unknown and nonexistent, technically, but they were all originally people from Veird, and so they did originally have Classes. Even Quilatalap didn’t know Treant’s original Class, for it was possible that Treant became a Shade before he achieved level 50 and got a Class. Of course, the other idea was that he was a Plant Mage, which made a lot of sense.

Queen, Shade of Empire. Incani woman. Pale violet with iridescent highlights. Prismatic Mage, for sure. She had been doing something in Songli, in the aftermath of the Chelation War, to try and make up for her part in expanding the scope of that war to what it had become.

Hollowsaur, Shade of Life. Orcol, male, the original recipient of Erick’s [Blessing of Empathy]. He had been doing something for the last year, somewhere, but Zolan had no idea what, and Erick didn’t know either. Quilatalap had had guesses, but he felt his guesses would have been wrong, so he chose not to voice them.

Goldie, Shade of Counter-Assassination; goldscale dragonkin woman who had been at Erick’s side for the last several months.

And then there was Fallopolis, Shade of Civilization, Culler of Corruption. The only one to not get Empathy’d. Erick had no idea what she had been up to. Hopefully nothing too evil.

And those were all the Shades currently in existence that Erick knew about. Most every Shade in the world had gone to Last Shadow’s Feast, because their god had demanded it, but there were still some holdouts in the world, for sure. Quilatalap just didn’t know of any such holdouts, and neither did anyone else Erick tried asking.

So all the currently known Shades were here, in residence, too, having gotten to the House over the last day and a half, while Erick had been off at war with the Cities. There had been a few incidents in the House since they started showing and moving into the Shade’s Tower, but aside from them poking around at the Gates and Treant trying to talk to Yggdrasil, the only major incident had been when Lapis and Farix appeared to Jane and her team, while they were eating in the atrium...

Erick wished he could have spent more time with Jane, but he had already pulled her into a [Hasted Shelter] and spent several hours decompressing with her, talking about his War with the Cities and her time in the Underworld. Jane had purposefully held back during that conversation, though, because she was more worried about the Feast than about stuff that had already happened, and she wasn’t willing to ‘talk about stuff that didn’t matter right now’. Erick almost chastised her about that, but then Jane turned around and talked to him about how he wasn’t sharing everything that had happened in the Cities, either, and… They’d talk more later. When they could.

… Erick’s thoughts went to the other Feast-goers; the ones from Ar’Cosmos.

Fairy Moon, and Bright Smile.

Erick was worried about those two, but not nearly as worried as he was over his own people joining the Feast.

Volaro, Zolan, and Aisha. All of them were in serious danger from all the powers that would be on display tonight. Erick wasn’t too worried about Aisha, since she was an archmage-level Book Mage, and Volaro was a Carnage Dragon as well as an orcol, but Zolan was just a demi Knowledge Mage.

Mox had originally been tagged to come to the Feast, since she had the most experience of anyone (aside from maybe Aisha) dealing with all the shit that could go down between Shades and others, but Erick needed her outside and in control of the House, alongside Burhendurur. Mox would be dealing with everything out there should something happen inside the Feast barrier, in that hour after midnight when the real Feast would begin. In a similar manner, Burhendurur was out there, along with Poi and Teressa and Jane and Kiri. All of them were outside the Gate District entirely; all of them were ready for anything.

Hopefully nothing too bad would happen.

And if something bad did happen? Well…

Erick turned to the other person in the room with him, currently sitting on the bed. “I’m glad you’re here with me, Quilatalap.”

Quilatalap looked absolutely dashing in his black robes, with sharp white trim. Angular face, bulging muscles, large lower fangs that jutted up from his lower jaw, peaking out of his lips. His black hair looked almost fluffy, but Erick knew from experience it was more stiff than soft. All of Quilatalap was like that, except when he smiled and seemed to both brighten and soften, which he did right now.

“It shouldn’t be as bad as it was last year,” Quilatalap said, turning a bit more serious as he stood up from the bed, to tower over Erick. Both of them looked at the mirror, as the larger man said, “Usually these things are quite tame in the open and since there are no real hiding spots inside the House, then it should remain tame… But then again everything is changing so what do I know?”

Erick smiled softly. “You know a lot, and I’m glad you’re here for this.”

Quilatalap blushed, his green face turning darker. He smiled a little as he said, “Too bad we’re already dressed for the party.”

Erick almost went with the implied suggestion, twisting Time into more time till the party, but the whole night was a cold shower on his emotions. When Erick didn’t instantly go for it, Quilatalap's smile remained, but he did nod, knowingly. Erick turned back to the mirror, looking over himself once more. The mirror was completely superfluous; through Ophiel Erick could already see himself rather well, but old habits made the mirror necessary.

Erick sighed a little bit, allowing himself vulnerability one last time as he glanced up to Quilatalap, saying, “We can have some fun times after the Feast. No time to relax during. Or at least not for me. But you should have fun where you can, for maybe in an attempt to act like this Feast isn’t a big deal, we can make this a ‘non-event’.”

“As one does when around powerful, world changing people and events,” Quilatalap said, nodding. “Do you want me hanging around you like last time? Or closer?”

“Like last time is good. I can’t rely on your power; nor should I. It might be better if we pretend not to be together. Maybe we got in a fight, or something? That way people approach us differently, and we can talk about all the differences afterward.”

Quilatalap smiled. “I can see the merit in that. A small fight? Or a large one?”

“How about we pretend that I needed some space after the war, and that it weighed on me.”

Quilatalap shook his head. “Almost, but saying it that way implies weakness. How about if we pretend that it was too much of a relationship, too fast, and the hatred you got for my presence at your side was more than you expected, and that I’m too politically damaging to be around. You’re now rethinking this thing we have together. Now that’s more true.”

Erick’s stomach fell. He turned and looked up at Quilatalap as the taller man’s words sunk in, and then spread like ice through Erick’s veins. “You’re not too politically dangerous at all.”

“But I am, and you’re too enamored to see that. That whole war wouldn’t have happened if I wasn’t there.”

Was he being serious? They were just planning for subterfuge, right? Or... Had Erick suddenly made a very, very bad mistake in suggesting that they not stand together?

“Wait a moment. This is too much. I was—” Erick waved a hand and enveloped the two of them in a Hasted space. “I’m sorry for suggesting that we pretend not to be together. Let’s forget that whole idea and you and I will walk together the whole Feast.”

Quilatalap chuckled a little. “You’re rather terrible at subterfuge.” And then more seriously, “I’m pretending, Erick, and your idea is a prudent one. Are you really this nervous?”

Okay. Good. Quilatalap was pretending.

Ahh…

Bullet dodged.

Erick breathed out, shuddering as he asked, “Yes. I am this nervous.”

“Then let us stand together, and let the whole world tremble before our union… Though that might be going too far in the other direction.” Quilatalap shrugged. “It’s bad form to lie at our levels of power, anyway, and especially during the Feast.”

Erick stood unsure, saying, “Yes. Bad form to lie during the Feast... or at all, really. Especially at our levels of power.” And then he breathed.

This was whiplash.

Yes. That’s what this feeling was—

“I’ve literally never seen you this unsure, Erick.” Quilatalap asked, “Where’s the guy who walked into Shadow’s Feast last year? Who walked into a war and came out a winner? Who talks to gods like it’s normal?”

Erick chuckled, saying, “Last year I thought I was going to die, and that would be the worst thing to happen. This year… This year the ‘bad end’ is a lot more bad. Existential, bad, and for a lot more people than just me!”

“… Oh.” Quilatalap looked to Erick, really seeing him. “You’re worried about what will happen to everyone else if you fail.”

“Yes! Exactly.”

“If it makes you feel any better…” Quilatalap tried, “You already taught me and many others how [Gate] works, your apprentice knows all of your other magic, you’ve already taught Undertow to that Nirzir girl, and you’ve gotten most of the factions of Veird to play nice for a short while. Even if you die and House Benevolence is torn apart, the ‘Bad End’ of tonight is a merely a delay of several centuries before someone else tries to complete the work you’ve already started. With your creation of Benevolence itself, how many dragons you’ve Benevolenced, with the Benevolence Dungeon, and with all the people you blessed with Benevolence… Someone will rise to try this again, even if you fail. It’s inevitable. If you somehow die —which I won’t let happen, as we’ve discussed. But if the worst should happen then you’ve still shown all the gods new worlds. Now that they know it is possible, and you’ve given them the tools to get it, they’re going to make that happen. All of them.”

Erick’s lips turned up in an unexpected grin. He chuckled once. “Heh… That does make me feel better, somewhat. Thanks, Quilatalap.”

Quilatalap grinned a bit. “Not sure I helped that much at all, but sometimes the perspective of time is useful in its own sort of way.”

“It is.”

For a long moment, Erick stared at his reflection in the mirror.

Quilatalap was right. Even if this whole House Benevolence thing fell apart tonight, Erick had done a lot to ensure that this world would be better tomorrow than it was yesterday. He had spread his knowledge wide. He had put [Renew] and Benevolence into the Script, and into the world. He had gotten many people to sit at the same table, which might prove good for the lessening of future wars, but there was still so much to do—

Suddenly, Erick looked up at Quilatalap in the mirror. “I never told you about my Blood Magic. Do you want to know? Or are you getting places with the microscopes? You said you’re behind on your experiments because of the war, but I could just tell you?”

With a soft, warm smile, Quilatalap said, “I’ll figure it out on my own. Thank you, though.”

“… Okay. Sure.”

Erick breathed.

And then he thought about everything that he had a modicum of control over, before he traced a mental path through the center of it all, starting at now and ending tomorrow morning, crossing through several days of uncertainty in the passing. There was a lot he could prepare for here, at Shadow’s Feast. There was a lot he could do nothing about. There would be a lot of unexpected shit that could and would divert him from making it through the night, but…

Quilatalap was right.

The world of today was fragile, but it was stronger than the world of yesterday.

And tomorrow, even if Erick should vanish, or die, or whatever…

It would be okay, eventually.

And so, Erick stood strong.

- - - -

A few last minute Platforms raced across the land, laden with deliveries that simply had to get through the Gate Network tonight, because the Gates were closing. Burhendurur’s forces watched those Gates for those last minute packages, rapidly checking people through to their destinations. The only thing accomplished in most of those deliveries was a bit of time and money saved, except when it came to the Gates to Stratagold. Those deliveries saved a month of travel, or more. Those deliveries to Stratagold had also been done hours ago, for Stratagold had been the ones to suggest that the Gates close for the Feast, and they had prepared for that ahead of time.

And now, as the sun touched down upon the western horizon, the stars of the New Cosmology began to appear in the distant sky. Closer to Veird, the Nodes and powerlines of the Gate District began to truly glow, looking much like constellations. Those lines of light stood out against the night; a spider’s web too large for any one spider, but smaller than the Wizard in residence was capable of making.

That Wizard hovered in the sky above the Gate District like a second sun, to light the world as the real sun began to dip below, to begin the transition from day to night, on this longest night of the year.

All across the world, in the places that the sun had already set and in the places that were yet to fall to the Dark, people lit bonfires to chase away the night. But the Dark was already present. Melemizargo had always been here. He simply chose to remain in the background, until tonight. This one night a year, Melemizargo, the True God of Magic, unleashed his power across Veird.

The sun did not simply set.

That orb of light and fire was chased away by something much larger and more powerful than a simple sun could ever hope to be.

And then, Darkness.

But the Wizard remained in the sky, a beacon of light above his illuminated House.

The Dark solidified, blotting out the real stars above, turning every source of light upon the land into a distant, weak thing.

Erick gave one last concession to the waning light as he whispered a small happy birthday to a child, still shining brightly to the south like a mountain of green fire; the only other source of light in this land that remained unimpeded. Yggdrasil had turned one year old today, and though Erick had had a small party with the big guy, he couldn’t really focus on that sort of thing right now. Yggdrasil had understood. Erick still promised to make it up to him next year.

Under Dark heavens, Erick moved around the sky of his House like flickering lighting, sweeping counterclockwise in a grand circle, leaving behind rapidly cast wardlights the size of large mansions with each of his eight steps. The first step left behind the world of Yoril, the third rock from the sun, but transformed from barren, airless rock into a land of blue and green, with a massive southern continent and clouds and oceans covering all the rest.

Another lightward appeared in the sky, between lines of Node light, at Erick’s second step. Paal, the fifth planet from the sun, was a rocky thing of a million lakes and one thin ocean, but now, it was not that at all. When the forces of House Benevolence transformed that planet into a living world, it was either a choice between a million lakes, and a waterworld, depending on the level of the ocean decided upon, so Erick went with the version with lakes.

Another step took Erick to another world. This one was completely made of water with barely anything for a rocky core. Erick was almost halfway around the House, now. There were five more steps to go.

And then came another world, and another, and another, and another. And then finally one more, and Erick stood in the sky where he had started.

Erick had filled the sky with hope for new worlds. Real hope. Not the imagined things made by the Shades of last year. There were no worlds where land floated above land, and oceans rolled through skies. These were real worlds; extrapolations of the work of astronomers, made with the best telescopes and the best Sight-based spellworks, and with visions overlaid upon those lands of what could be.

For what would happen.

When Erick was done, eight new worlds hung in the skies over the Gate District, each of them placed equally around the House, each of them slowly spinning in place, showing off what would eventually come to pass.

Erick’s words filled the Gate District,

“There was some confusion over what to call this night; this celebration. For it surely couldn’t be ‘Shadow’s Feast’, for that would imply that the Last Shadow’s Feast was somehow not the last we’ve heard of the destructive Shades, and all the horrors they have caused this world. But ‘Shadow’s Feast’ has a much larger history than the one everyone knows of on Veird, where the God of Magic has been not-himself for a long, hurtful, and terrible time. But still rather short in the grand scheme of things.

“The origins of this festival date back a million years and more, to the time of the Old Cosmology, when the Dark was a force of expansion. Back then, a long line of Gods and Goddesses of Magic, with mantle passed down from worthy to worthy, were the ones who tested those who ventured into the Edge of Existence, to make them stronger or to force them back to the safer spaces, all in an effort to continually expand civilization. This festival is a celebration of that; of achievements won against adversity, and of making civilization a larger, better place.

“This, then, is the true nature of Shadow’s Feast.

“So let us simply name this night in the manner of the older ways, to respect the Dark and the history of a universe gone by. Let us leave last year’s festivities and final naming to the history books, and to something more imaginative than simply affixing ‘Last’ to that particular festival’s name.

“If you can still hear this voice, I hope you are one of the people invited to this party, for if you are not, you should run and hide. Danger abounds in the Dark, and tonight will be the largest test of many of our lives.

“Welcome to Shadow’s Feast.”

- - - -

All of House Benevolence was lit in white light, shining down upon the peaks of the domed cylinders, bringing an almost iridescent quality to the white eternal stonewood of the building. The lands outside of the House had been dimmed, either due to Erick asking the wrought and the Wayfarers and the embassy of Portal to turn down their lights, or due to Darkness coiling around the land, making lightwards fail everywhere. It was hard to tell which event had more of an effect, for there was no one to ask in those darkened places what was going on; they had all been all evacuated.

The only people in this Gate District were those who had invitations, though Erick was sure that some fools were still around here, somewhere. Some eyes still looked into this land from afar, as well, particularly of the [Scry] variety, but most of the security of this land was absent. Even Burhendurur and Enforcement and all the parts of House Benevolence that kept the peace, were gone. Off to protect the Greater Candlepoint Area, and to subtly pressure the party to remain inside the Gate District, even though there was no real ‘pressuring’ capable of being inflicted upon Shades who did not want that pressure. They still tried though, but from afar.

Even the Gates were cold and empty, a chilly desert breeze blowing through empty squares of dull white wood. The only Gate that remained open in this land was one Gate, inside the House, that led to kitchens over in Candlepoint. All of the Cooks Erick had hired for this event, and all of the bare-bones staff, were located at that kitchen space, separated from this festival space. Hopefully that would be enough of a barrier to keep the Cooks and staff somewhat safe.

The only people obviously present in this land were the ones scattered across the first party area, which took place on the House’s southwest roof; upon the flat expanse of white wood that was very slightly angled to allow rain to flow, and which held above office space that Erick had sealed away, since there was no way to utilize that space right now. This party space was an open floor plan, without real walls, but with a few wall-like suggestions Erick had put down, with the bar to one side forming a sort-of edge, and the band forming another, and lines of white and subtly-rainbow light forming the rest of the marked-off area. Tables and chairs and couches and a few other bits of furniture minimally filled the space, while a single table filled with small snacks held to one side, near the drink bar. This was not a place to eat to one’s content; that would come later.

Erick descended to that area now, his sunform roiling around him like a fireball, and a lightning orb, at the same time.

There were guests to greet.

Seven Shades.

Farix stood with Lapis.

Hollowsaur stood with Treant.

Goldie and Queen stood together.

All of them stood beside standing tables with drinks in hand, courtesy of dependable Volaro. The Carnage Dragon Overseer of Law was acting as bartender for this part of the evening, and he seemed to be doing it well, since everyone had drinks and most of those drinks were half-full. Aisha and Zolan stood close to the drink bar, watching everyone else, while a pleasant band played in the background. Quilatalap stood near the food, with one other prominent person who also stood mostly alone. This last person was perhaps the second-most important person for Erick to greet tonight; the seventh Shade.

Fallopolis looked about as pleased to be here as any one person could possibly be about anything. The old woman with frizzy white hair, and black men’s-cut suit, looked supremely enriched by the wild grin on her face and the brightness of her radiant white eyes. She swung her arms wide as Erick floated down from the sky, her shadow-blackened kendrithyst staff floating away, spinning in the air on its own as Fallopolis called out, “HelloOooOOOO, ERICK FLATT! Fire of the Age! Wizard, Dragon, Benevolence King! You’ve been doing so well for yourself! And for the world! Such a good speech, too, but I was expecting a song!”

The shadows of the entire House shifted underfoot, barely, fractionally, but they shifted.

Every single person noticed.

Every single person ignored it.

Erick said, “Good things come to those who wait, Fallopolis. Now is not the time for that, but there will be lots of time at midnight. Besides! All the guests have not yet arrived.” Erick turned his sight to the sky, asking, “Fairy Moon! Where are you—”

Springtime opened to the side of the party like a crashing expansion of pink and green and white and the scents of a thousand flowers in the center of a deep forest. It was a [Gate]. Two women walked out of that [Gate]. With all the powerful people standing around at the party, it was hard to take the addition of two more dangers-to-the-world that seriously, but Erick did.

Fairy Moon looked as ethereal as she had that one time when she had been on Erick’s balcony, and she spoke of the truth of her name; the epitaph of it all, and about all the never-dead fae that were waiting to come back to life as soon as they could. But parts of her were real, and probably just enough to give touchstones to all the rest. An airy green and white dress. Pink flowers all around. Shining white embroidery. Two bright eyes, one of deepest emerald green, and the other of almost neon pink. She had a cascade of flowers in her hair that seemed different every time Erick moved his focus away from her, and then back. Red flowers, and then yellow flowers, and now orange and blue, and then colors that almost didn’t exist except they clearly did, for Erick was looking at them right now. Black flowers, with edges made of rainbows. Deep flowers that held worlds beyond their window-like petals.

Fairy Moon smiled radiantly, like the queen she was, but the woman at her side seemed much more queenly.

Bright Smile looked about as much as Erick remembered; almost like a female version of Redflame. Human, dark skin, ram horns. Tall and strong. Her red dress matched her Carnage-tinged red eyes. Erick had been worrying about her for a long time, ever since he first made Benevolence and he saw Bright Smile with a ring of lightning around her neck that no one else could see. She had been marked by Benevolence somehow, and it wasn’t till a while later that Erick truly understood what that marking had meant. But now that she was here, and that months had passed since that last encounter, and Erick and House Benevolence had changed the trajectory of the world…

Erick was all too relieved to see Bright Smile’s thread of Benevolence lightning was gone. Her neck was cleared of lightning. She was no longer a tangle of Benevolence; a person who would destroy the would, or brighten the world with their power. She was just Bright Smile. And she was who she was.

This could only mean one thing.

Bright Smile had slain or conquered all her enemies. She was now the Dragon Empress of Ar’Cosmos.

Or at least she was way more than halfway there. Erick considered that he would have to offer asylum to Illustrious Moon and House Fae, along with Inferno Maw and House Death, if House Carnage was truly taking over Ar’Cosmos. Which was probably happening. It was inevitable that Bright Smile would truly become empress, so when the ousting of all others happened, Erick would have a place for the ousted dragons here, in the Greater Candlepoint Area.

All that was a concern for the future, though. For now, here at the Feast, there was only Bright Smile and Fairy Moon, which meant that one of them would be taking over their presentations to the group.

Everyone was supposed to have a presentation of the good that they had done this year, but these two were not the only ones lacking in presentations, or personnel for those presentations. Ah. Whatever. That would be a problem for tomorrow, unless someone brought it up sooner.

Erick breathed in a little, then said, “Welcome, Fairy Moon. Bright Smile. Glad of you to join us.” He turned to the people, and asked, “So who got the band? I asked around for one, but I couldn’t find one.”

Farix stepped forward, saying, “I invited them. They’re from New Brightwater, and they wish to make themselves useful for the Feast.”

Erick asked everyone, “So you have brought extra people to give your presentations about expanding civilization? You’re not doing that yourselves?”

Fallopolis said, “Quite a few extras have joined us this year, Erick, both for the presentations and for other reasons. They’re all at the tower you gave us under a few hiding wards, so it’s normal that you have not picked up on those extras yet. But there’s a problem!” With a non-serious tone, she said, “You haven’t assigned us any servants for the Feast!” She smiled, turning to Fairy Moon, adding, “And while your presence was expected, it’s still surprising. Can we trust you not to cause disturbances while under the auspices of the Feast?”

Fairy Moon smirked, saying, “I’ll even limit my speech as much as I am able.”

“… Great!” Fallopolis asked Erick, “Where are the servants? And while we’re at it, a list of grievances: A Privacy for the Feast is necessary right now, a house per Shade is usually how it’s done but since you’re so gold-poor the apartments will have to do, you’ll need to give that song in your dragon form, and this is a very inadequate first party, Erick. Where are the guests wearing nothing but string, or clouds? Where is the drug bar? Where are the rest of the appetizers? One table is not enough! Where is the orgy room, Erick? You might not have gone there last time, but it certainly existed.”

Erick politely asked Fallopolis, “Where is your presentation for the good things you have done this last year?” He asked everyone, “Where are all of your presentations? Some of you have been here for a day or more, and yet you didn’t set up your booth! I know you were given rooms in the atrium to do so. So how about we all get along for the next few hours to ensure that nothing else monumental happens, then I’ll put up the time delay and the Privacy, and then we’ll have days to get to all of those vices and virtues you mention, Fallopolis, though I do hope we skew more toward the good than the bad. Presentations will be set up by tomorrow morning, though.” He looked to everyone. “All of them.”

Fallopolis nodded along, and then she declared, “Quilatalap! Your God calls upon you to provide some servants for the Feast for all of our guests. Lapis! We need some actual Privacy! Queen! Where is decadence? You might not be the Shade of Opulence anymore, but you can still spin gold and marble from nothing at all, so do so! Farix get the drugs. Hollowsaur and Treant and Goldie, look pretty, or help in some other way!” She never lost her smile as spoke, “Our Host has done as much as he can and so it falls to us to get this place ready for the real party in four hours!”

While Fallopolis spoke, Erick had another thought.

He could go against what she was laying down, or he could go with it, and perhaps, in this case, it would be better to go with the flow than to go against the flow. Fallopolis was trying to create a certain narrative, and like with improv comedy, if you contributed to the narrative and tried to shape the entertainment in joyful ways, everything usually worked out. But if you tried to go against the joy of it all, then things tended to fall apart. Erick was already pushing back pretty hard on her...

He could not afford for things to fall apart.

As eyes made of light glanced at Erick, to see his reaction...

Erick had Ophiel take to the sky, following his commands as he said, “I’ll handle the Privacy now, Lapis. You may decorate to your heart’s content, Queen. Non-addictive drugs only, Farix, and go ahead and set up by Volaro, if you please. Goldie is already in charge of helping me ensure the Feast works well, so her duty is spoken for, and she will assist wherever. And Quilatalap, if you wish to make some servants, I would ask that they be ethically sourced.” With a jovial tone, Erick asked, “Hollowsaur, Lapis, and Treant, what would you all like to do to make this party better? And Fallopolis? What are you bringing to the Feast? Also: Hello. Good to see you again. I hope the year treated you well, and you treated the year well in return.”

Fairy Moon stepped forward. “Give me a task too, before the talking begins; I’ll leave Bright Smile behind to listen and learn in my stead.”

“Assist Queen, if she wishes for opulence. Or perhaps Hollowsaur and Treant wish for some nicer wild spaces here at the House?” Erick spoke without missing a beat. “Goldie? Got any areas that need improving?”

Goldie spoke right up, “We here at House Benevolence firmly believe that everything can always be made better, and that includes our parties. I’m sure I can find tasks for everyone.”

Farix set a large glass bowl of joints onto the drink bar’s edge, saying, “I’ll find some more goodies soon enough, but this darkweed should get us started right. Careful! It’s potent, but it won’t kill you and it’s non-habit forming.” As he finished he picked up a joint, lit it, and stuck it in his mouth, saying, “Exactly what the Wizard ordered.”

And then Fairy Moon was beside the bar, also setting down a glass bowl of joints, saying, “Belly shroom! For a good laugh, and not much more!”

Fallopolis asked, “Got any lucent shroom?”

Fairy Moon set down another bowl on the bar but this one was filled with loose, dried mushrooms. “This one is a tad addictive, but we’re all adults here. Have at it!”

And then Quilatalap summoned a ghost in the shape of a butler, asking, “How many people want a [Ghost Servant]? It’s not a real person so it can’t do much, but they can do simple tasks.”

A few people wanted Servants, but most decided to move on quickly to whatever it was they wished to do.

And things moved fast, and mostly pleasantly.

Hollowsaur and Treant spoke some small words about turning the circular gardens in front and behind the House into something nicer. Hollowsaur took the northern, main entrance circle, while Treant took the south entrance gardens. Soon, new trees and life began to grow from both locations, turning rather cultivated green spaces into something more wild.

Queen was quiet as she looked to Erick, to see if he was really okay with her adding things to the House, and when Erick told her that he was fine with some ornamental changes, Queen brightened a little. She was still subdued, though. If the looks shared between Queen and Goldie were anything to go on, Erick would be discussing the Chelation War with Queen and Goldie at the same time, eventually. But not right now. Queen and Goldie went together to start decorating the House for the Feast.

Fairy Moon joined Queen and Goldie, and soon, parts of the House began to transform into gold and silver. Fountains came out of the otherwise flat roof underfoot, while paths and hills and artfully crafted trees popped up here and there.

All the while, Erick had Ophiel surround all of the Gate District with stretched out Privacys that would prevent people from [Scry]ing past those barriers. Instead of doubling up on that duty, Lapis decided to work with Farix to expand the mind altering substances available for use. And so, Lapis and Farix left. After only 20 seconds away, they came back with a second bar and set it beside Volaro’s bar, multiplying the counter space times over with a very full array of everything anyone could ever want to truly fuck themselves up. Fallopolis partook, and tried to get Erick to, but Erick explained how he would not be partaking of any of those items, as he needed to keep his mind clear to host the party, but they should all go ahead if they wished.

Most people were only drinking alcohol. Erick had a lemon-lime soda.

An hour after sunset, with most tasks either handled or being handled, Erick found himself sitting with Fallopolis and Bright Smile at a large table, under the stars, only twenty meters away from the band. The band had somehow expanded twice over when Erick wasn’t looking, but now he was looking, for the band was playing an excited bit of music that was on the verge of being something you would pay money to listen to, and not a simple distraction to fill the silences of awkward conversations.

Erick said, “The Feast is going well, so far. No one dead yet, which is an improvement over last year.”

Bright Smile remained silent, which was apparently her choice tonight. She would not speak unless spoken to directly, and no one had spoken too directly to her in the past hour. She still sat at the table with Erick and Fallopolis, though, silently drinking a fruity alcoholic drink as she listened, and watched. She did a lot of that; listening and watching.

Quilatalap was at the alcohol bar, getting another drink, and speaking to Farix and Zolan.

Aisha was speaking with Lapis at the hard drugs bar; a polite conversation filled with subtext that probably went five layers deep, at least, and which Erick had no basis to understand. Aisha pointed to a drug labeled ‘moonwhisker’ and Lapis spoke of some other drug not listed, called ‘moontwister’, which caused Aisha to narrow her eyes ever so slightly, and for Lapis to almost-grin. Erick had no clue what the fuck was happening there.

Fallopolis, though, had been eager to talk this whole time, since he was overseeing all the transformations of the House, and Fallopolis had opinions about everything. Now, though, the Shades were loose, and the fairy was having her way with the building, and so Erick had sat down, and Fallopolis had sat down with him.

“Remember last year! By this time you were killing Dorofiend!” Fallopolis cackled. “That guy deserved so much worse than you gave him!”

Erick wanted to change the subject away from killing, so he said, “I do try for expediency in action, Fallopolis, but I think someone else did some expedient action on me when I wasn’t looking this year. Where’d the other people in the band come from?”

Fallopolis lost 90% of her mirth as she looked to the band, and then she raised an eyebrow and looked to Erick. “What other band people?”

Erick scrunched his face as he gestured right to—

“… Huh.” Erick said, “There were 12 people playing, but now it’s back to 6.”

Fallopolis looked to Bright Smile. “A fae troupe, perhaps?”

Bright Smile said, “Ar’Cosmos overflows with Fae Magic these months; some of that probably got through.”

All of Fallopolis’s lost mirth returned in an instant as she declared, “A fae troupe! Been a while since I saw one of them!”

“Is that harmful for the band?” Erick asked, looking at the band.

There had been a slight interruption in the music when everyone looked their way, and when the ‘fae troupe’ vanished and the band seemed to come out of a half-daze. But they corrected themselves quickly, and now they were back to playing their cellos and violins and wind instruments like nothing had happened at all.

Bright Smile said, “The troupe might appear again if we pretend they don’t exist.”

“That’s probably going to be impossible for me,” Erick said, now fully on alert and trying to play it off as nothing happening at all. “What’s going on in Ar’Cosmos these days, anyway?”

Fallopolis chuckled a little as she eyed Erick, obviously thinking him too wound up. But she didn’t offer a smoke of her joint; Erick had already declined all of that rather solidly.

“Ar’Cosmos is going well.” Bright Smile casually said, “But apparently, I had a Benevolence marker upon my soul that had been there since you made that Element, and quite a few people tried to kill me because of that. I, of course, did not understand that this is why those assassins had tried what they tried until about two hours ago, right before we were getting ready to come here. Fairy Moon informed me of this circumstance because she was worried I might have made a spectacle of myself if I did not know, and also to inform me that the marker was gone as of 3 weeks ago. So other than that, and with the expansion troubles which you are already aware of and have taken care of, mostly, Ar’Cosmos has been doing rather well since your gift of those runic [Renew] rings.”

Fallopolis’s eyes went wide as she chuckled a little. “Oh! How interesting!”

Erick decided to tell Bright Smile something that would likely transform how she did things in the future. Perhaps it would work out better for everyone involved. So with a casual tone, Erick said, “I’m glad that it all worked out for you, but your marker is still there inside Benevolence itself as of a few hours ago. I’m pretty sure you’re going to be the empress of dragons if you keep it up, but I do hope you’re being noble in the true sense of that word.”

Bright Smile’s eyes went fractionally wider as her pupils dilated. She breathed in a little; too little to call it a ‘gasp’, but it was a definite reaction. And then she controlled everything about herself. “I will endeavor to live up to House Benevolence’s expectations.”

“Great!” Erick said, “I’m really thankful for all the dragons that you sent my way, by the way. They made taking over the Sovereign Cities quite a lot easier, alongside Kromolok and Kirginatharp and Quilatalap, of course.”

Bright Smile easily kept up with the flow of conversation, saying, “All the ones you Blessed were good choices. We look forward to linking up with Emprazala’s group once they establish themselves in the Cities and turn that whole Decaypool of humanity into something less detestable.”

“… I heard they were after your throne in Ar’Cosmos? You don’t hate them for what they tried to do to you?”

“Hate is a strong word. They fought with word and willpower, not claw and fang. I harbor them no ill will, but their removal has made consolidating power less strenuous than it would have been. Though now that you have emplaced them in the Cities, you will have a large problem removing them.” Bright Smile asked, “You are aware that they will attempt to wrest the Cities out of your control entirely, to make a nation under their own power?”

“Yes. I’m aware. It’ll also be a lot better than what came before so I’m not too concerned, and besides; that place needs actual defenders from the monsters now that the nobility is too weak to do the job.” Erick changed the subject. “Did you hear about that slavery trade in the Curios? I’ll probably tackle that next week, gods willing. Maybe do some real work down in Nergal, too, for I’ve barely ever been down there; Hardly know anything about the place.”

Bright Smile had nothing to say to that, so she went silent.

Fallopolis had been slyly grinning this whole time. Erick suspected she was fascinated with somehow becoming less than the center of attention. But at the talk of Nergal, and at changes, Fallopolis spoke, “I would have suspected that you would try something over in Quintlan next, dear Erick. What with the proximity between the Cities and that ooze-covered continent and your burgeoning connection to Frostflower.”

“If you’ve heard of some connection between the Cities and Quintlan, I’d hear what you know, but I did not see such while I was over there.”

“Nothing too current, I fear.” Fallopolis said, “A thousand years ago many people from before the Fall of Quintlan went across that narrow ocean to escape the nobles, and then finally to escape the oozes. They landed in the area that would become the Cities. Perhaps all the old families of the Cities are truly dead and gone and all their connections to their original homes are lost, but if you went looking in Charme, in particular, I’m sure you’d find some deep connections to Quintlan.”

“Maybe those connections are in all the books we plundered from the Blood Mage people.” Erick shrugged. “I haven’t read those books yet; Quilatalap hasn’t had a chance to organize them into the library.”

Fallopolis teased, “Your hoard grows, Dragon King.”

Erick laughed once. “I don’t have a hoard.”

“You do, though!” Fallopolis said, “Or perhaps you’re still trying to understand what your hoard is.”

Offhandedly, Erick said, “If I’m collecting anything its ‘allies’.”

Bright Smile’s eyebrows creased fractionally. Under her breath, Erick heard a ‘tsk’.

Fallopolis’s eyes went full wide, and then she cackled like a madwoman.

Erick understood some of their mirth, but probably not all of it. Still, though, he grinned a little. “It’s a hoard I’m happy with growing and which is hard to strategize around, with the possible bribing of gifts, so I’m rather glad it worked out this way.” He said to Bright Smile, “The books your people gave me about ‘what it means to be a dragon’ only partially went over the ‘call of the hoard’, though, so all of that still feels fake or culturally-born to me, rather than a matter of Dragon Essence itself.”

“The Call of the Hoard doesn’t feel like a real need until someone starts to threaten it,” Bright Smile said.

“… Oh.” Erick said, “That part wasn’t in the books.”

“The Call of the Hoard is an understanding of the self that is supposed to be passed down from parent to child, or as a part of the culture of growing up in Ar’Cosmos. Dragon-Essence-derived dragons usually only know of their Call well after they’ve started to acquire said hoard.” Bright Smile added, “That you are able to casually speak of having allies as your Hoard means that yes, it is rather hard to game around.”

Bright Smile spoke the word ‘Hoard’ with deeper meaning than Erick was willing to give that word, which was… whatever.

“Allies for a hoard bodes well for all the rest of us, for sure!” Smiling brightly and in a way that Bright Smile was unable to do right now, Fallopolis continued, “Theories as to the Dark’s hoard is a fun little question to pose to the young of our Clergy. Care to take a guess, Dragon King Erick?”

Moving right along with the conversation, Erick instantly said, “Either planets, or populations of people.”

“The right direction, but you missed the target!” Fallopolis looked to Bright Smile. “I’ll be floored if you don’t know this one, so don’t disappoint me, ‘Empress of Fairy’.”

The Shade’s tone had taken a hard edge when she named Bright Smile an empress. There was a lot going on there, in that naming. Fallopolis was not careless with her words after all; no matter what persona she might display to the world, all of her words had meaning.

And this was a test.

Erick realized it instantly.

Bright Smile recognized the test half a second after Erick. It was not a test she was fully willing to commit to, though, so she said, “I already know the answer, for the Hoard of the Dark is a story we are told at a young age. I learned that story from Redflame, as did many others, but I imagine you have a better grasp on the true meaning, and I admit I am interested to hear your take on that old tale.”

Fallopolis grinned, inclining her head a fraction as she took in Bright Smile’s non-answer. She found the empress’s response adequate, so she nodded; test over.

The Shade’s voice turned jovial again as she answered her own question, “It’s space itself!” Fallopolis laughed. “Territory of all types! From the worlds inside every Element, like the one inside Benevolence, to the very sky and land of the Surface, to the Underworld down below. To the moons, and to the stars! The Dark expanded, making territory for us all to live within, and we were privileged to do so… or at least that’s how it used to be in the Old Cosmology. But the Old Cosmology is dead and all we have is what we have right now, which is barely anything at all. But soon! Soon, eventually, the Darkness will regain His hoard of stars.”

Fallopolis gave no reverence to the phrase ‘hoard of stars’, so Erick suspected some sort of minor trick.

Or maybe not?

At Last Shadow’s Feast, Erick had cast a minor blessing between the both of them.

Blessing of Minor Truth, 60 seconds, Sound + Understanding + Acceptance, 100 mana per person

Every member of the accepting group can tell when the others purposefully lie or obfuscate the truth.

That blessing was still active right now, and had been active this whole time. As far as that blessing was telling Erick, everything Fallopolis had said was true. As far as he knew, Fallopolis could also tell whenever any of his own words had been untrue, though that had yet to happen. Perhaps he had couched his language some here and there, and Fallopolis had done the same, but an outright lie?

Not yet.

Though the blessing only actually triggered on a lie, while all the rest of the time it was dormant.

So who really knew if it was working? Not Erick.

Instead of being awed at the prospect of a ‘hoard of stars’, though, Erick got right down to brass tacks, asking, “Do you think we could put a mana miner on a star? Envelop a whole system of planets? Have like, a minor mana ocean around every star and planets floating in that ocean? Because from what I know of mana generation such a thing would be doomed to fail for any number of reasons.”

The shadows moved everywhere.

Bright Smile eyed the shadows, her breath hitching.

And Fallopolis grinned like her desirous god, her eyes flickering even brighter white for a bare moment as her teeth seemed to gleam like Melemizargo’s. “I’m sure there are ways to make such an arrangement work, but whatever ‘Star Script’ we create can’t be allowed to control the mana like the current Script controls the mana.”

“Suitably cryptic, and I see where you’re going with that transition in the topic, but we’ll get to that later. For now, your words are not acknowledging the facts that I wish acknowledged with an undertaking as large as a Star Script. The problem all has to do with raw numbers.” Erick explained, “Veird is around 25,000 kilometers in diameter, while the size of the solar system back home was something like 9 billion kilometers diameter. Assuming that this solar system is anywhere close to that, this means that the mana in the Script fills up an area of around 8-to-the-12 cubic kilometers, while the volume of the solar system back home was 4-to-the-29 cubic kilometers. It’s truly difficult for most people to truly visualize such a difference, so I will simply say that the volume of Veird is way, way lower than a trillionth of the size of my home world’s solar system, and since a Script takes a minimum amount of mana to instantiate, we’d need trillions and trillions of worlds all working overtime to support the instantiation of a single Star Script, if we want to call it that… Which I think I do.”

Bright Smile’s eyes went wide as she listened to Erick.

Fallopolis sighed a little, possibly because she had run the calculations herself and had seen the work ahead of her. But she was also relieved to see Erick had seen what she had seen. “I doubt I will ever witness a Star Script myself. But someone will, because the work we do today will eventually lead us down that path; Melemizargo would have it no other way, and I suppose all the false gods out there will have similar ideas.”

“We could always start small with space ships, and then orbital platforms, and then eventually we could get a dyson sphere going,” Erick said, “Such a thing could eventually encircle the entire solar system at a radius of… some distance closer to the sun than Veird. It would be a good middle-step to making a Star Script.”

Bright Smile sipped her drink carefully, eyes still wide—

Quilatalap stepped up to the group, handing Erick a refill of his drink, asking, “So the shadows moved again. The Dark is here. Shall we start the Feast? Or… Ah. Doing something else, then.”

Fallopolis had glared at Quilatalap and the Archlich of Necromancy Itself went quiet.

And then the Shade of Civilization turned back to Erick, casually asking, “What is a dyson sphere? And how could this help with the Star Script feasibility problem?”

Erick sipped the drink Quilatalap had brought him while the large man sat down in the chair next to him. Quilatalap eyed Erick like he was worried something was happening. Erick just grinned a little, to show Quilatalap nothing was wrong, and then Erick lifted a hand and began conjuring a lightshow, illustrating his ideas as he spoke, “A dyson sphere is a theoretical construct of material around a star, at the radius of a planet’s orbit, like a shell. Through advanced control of physics and materials and spin and a whole bunch of stuff that is way, way beyond the scope of a simple explanation, such a shell provides a surface to capture the energy of the sun, as much as possible, while also providing a surface upon which people can live. Usually on the interior of the shell, facing the sun.

“The surface area of Veird is around 2-to-the-9 square kilometers, but the interior surface of a dyson sphere, at the distance my Earth was from my own sun, is about 2.8-to-the-17 square kilometers. More than a billion times the amount of territory, and that’s not including a possible interior of that platform, and the exterior, which, with magic, we can also inhabit.

“But dyson spheres require a lot of stuff that we simply do not have.

“Therefore: The precursor to a dyson shell is a dyson swarm, which is a lot easier to implement… theoretically. A dyson swarm is like taking a billion individual Surfaces-of-Veird, flattening them out, and putting them into a stable configuration around a star. Upon these surfaces we have people living and producing mana. Through that mana, we have [Gate]s connecting them to each other, and stabilizing each other so they don’t fall into the Star. With a whole bunch of other Script-level magics on each one of those surfaces, we would be able to ensure that life survives and thrives, and expands, in a way that is inline with the physics of this New Cosmology.

“It’s all exceedingly complicated, and these dyson swarms were simply ideas in popular culture back home; they were not real.

“In order to achieve any of this we’d need a lot more mana, along with hyper advanced materials that can survive the strain of space, the sizes of these objects, and all that stuff. This would not be easy, but some of the main concerns of feasibility back home are made moot due to mana. The Script has already solved all potential gravity, atmosphere, and habitation problems, so that’s a great deal of problems solved right there. Adamantium is a great metal, but something lighter is necessary, I think.

“But perhaps mana can solve this issue, too, since we’re going to be using mana to solve the issue of gravity anyway, so we can just ignore the weight of adamantium? Perhaps. Either way, [Duplicate] can make more of whatever miracle metal is necessary. [Duplicate] can solve atmosphere-existence problems, and water-existence problems, and all sorts of problems. Mana makes a dyson swarm possible. Mana will eventually make a full-sun-enclosure sphere possible, too, and then we can build more layers upon that surface, and deeper, too. Multiple shells around a single star, and since stars live for billions of years, this is a long term solution, too.

“But we’d still need a lot of innovation in a lot of different fields to make this sort of thing happen. The main problem, as I see it right now, is that if [Duplicate] has some sort of hidden feature which ‘uses up’ mana, but I am unaware if the spell works like that; I don’t think it does.”

Erick lowered his hands, leaving his wardlights hanging in the air for all to see.

There were a few reactions.

Quilatalap eyed it all and near-silently laughed, surprisingly joyful in a way Erick hadn’t ever seen before. He didn’t say anything, otherwise Erick would have asked his thoughts.

Bright Smile silently watched it all, and Erick saw the exact moment when she realized that something like this could actually be possible; it was when Erick switched to the dyson swarm model. A bunch of smaller parts that could all work on their own, allowing for incremental growth, was a lot more feasible than one massive construction that was only usable toward the end. And then she focused on Erick speaking of [Duplicate], and her eyes turned greedy.

Fallopolis grinned, suddenly even more sure of herself as she said, “That’s a fine idea to work toward.” She asked, “But why does the star matter? Why not build it anywhere else? We could have free-floating planes and planets and sunstones and moonstones like they used to have in the Old Cosmology.”

“… Oh? Well.” Erick said, “A sun can produce a lot of heat and light energy which is valuable for plant life and normal maintenance of a world through cycling biological processes, but back on Earth, the other major point of encircling a sun would be to harvest light energy and solar winds and transform all of that into electrical energy. I told you all about electricity before, right? Well this would be one grand way to get that electrical energy.”

Fallopolis said, “We have no way to transform solar energy into mana, but if we did we could make this work quite well.”

Quilatalap smiled. “I’m sure Erick could solve that in a few tens of years.”

“Your faith in me is astounding, Quilatalap,” Erick smiled, saying, “But I’m not even sure where to start. Electricity and physical movement and heat energy are just a portion of the ways energy works here in this universe, but the only way that mana exists is through life, and I am rather sure that… I feel it would be a bad idea to throw some inferno slimes at the sun and watch them multiply. Doubt they could even live in such an environment, anyway.”

“It would take extreme light slimes, not inferno slimes, but those are incredibly rare and you’d need some sort of radiance slime hybrid to even survive on that ball of fire up there.” Quilatalap said. “The Extreme Light alone would kill anything and burn away magic, anyway, and that’s not even discussing the matters of distance and pressure and the manaless nature of the sun.”

“So many problems! Zero solutions.” Erick shrugged. “But we can still inhabit the planets of this solar system, eventually. We can expand. But it will take time. Thousands of years, probably.”

The shadows of the House grumbled in annoyance, though it was more like a flickering than a grumble. Erick saw what he saw, though, and so did everyone else.

And then Bright Smile said, “I have never heard of this term ‘solar winds’, but couldn't [Cleanse] remove the problems of solar winds? [Cleanse] can turn matter into mana.”

Erick’s eyes went wide. He almost laughed in sudden hope—

Fallopolis instantly crushed Erick’s sudden hopes, though, saying, “[Cleanse] cannot do that to matter that is not inundated with mana first. The pure matter coming from the sun cannot be [Cleanse]d and turned into that which it never was. I am sure you have heard the part of the Sundering Story where the sun was briefly the Killing Sun in the beginning. The gods got around that problem through the sacrifice of the Goddess of Knowledge, allowing the Script to buffer away the Killing Winds and Light of the Sun.”

Bright Smile frowned a little, still thinking that her answer had been good.

Erick thought her answer had been fantastic, too, but he didn’t know what he didn’t know—

“We have a Wizard,” Bright Smile suggested. The veritable Dragon Empress of Ar’Cosmos looked to Erick, saying, “We have been meaning to remit her to your custody, if you desire this. We will not be held responsible for her actions, though. Right now she is mentally stable, but she could become anything after our seals are removed. Use her as you wish, and make this reality where sunlight makes mana possible. Make [Cleanse] work on matter coming from the Killing Sun.”

Erick had a lot of mixed feelings about that suggestion.

Absolutely no one was impressed with the idea, either. Even the shadows seemed miffed, again, though Erick was reading into those shadows quite a lot more than those shadows were actually giving him.

Bright Smile just waited.

Erick looked to Fallopolis and Quilatalap, saying, “I know why I don’t like the idea of making a Wizard do something like this, and it has nothing to do with trampling over this person’s inalienable rights as a living person, but why do you two find this idea less than useful?”

Quilatalap went first. “It’s a risk that should not be undertaken— Let me back up a bit. Well. Actually. You go ahead Fallopolis. I’ve got things to say about the dyson swarm, too. I’ll hold these thoughts for now.”

Fallopolis nodded, then began, “Contrary to all historical records, I, the Clergy, and the Dark, would vote against unleashing another Wizard upon Veird. We are in a time of rebuilding and understanding how to cohabit this world with everyone else, in a way that causes growth, but also in a way that doesn’t infringe upon the life that already exists. That is our official stance going forward from this day onward, and to attempt to use a Wizard to shorten the process by which we shall reach the stars is to hearken back to our old ways of destruction, when we attempted to show that this world is false. So, no; we shall not be dealing in Wizards or other possibly-destructive ways.

“Now, to cleave to that thought, it is in my opinion that Ar’Cosmos should still remit the Wizard to Erick, and Erick should [Reincarnation] and Empathy them, and purposefully choose how the Wizard will be going forward. Let him choose how the Wizard will influence our world, if at all.”

“… I accept this decree, but I will say that I am more interested in giving this person their freedom than controlling who they are. I also understand that controlling a Wizard is a priority for a large number of reasons, and that a Wizard cannot be allowed to remain free.” Erick said, “Maybe we’ll actually host a committee this time to determine the best way to make the Wizard do as we need, as I wanted to do for myself with Benevolence. That’s assuming the Wizard will even keep their Wizardness through the transformation, though.”

“They will retain that power through their transformation; this is not a concern,” Fallopolis said, without any further explanation, moving right on to ask, “So? You were saying, Quilatalap?”

Erick eyed Fallopolis. A Wizard would keep their Wizardness through a [Reincarnation]? Well… Sure, Erick supposed. If Erick picked the future that held that ‘Wizardness’ in it. He was pretty sure that he could strip that fundamental part away from a person if he wanted, just as he could strip the innate Mind Magic from those who were Mind Mages if he wanted.

Erick let that point drop, though.

For Quilatalap nodded, and said, “Fallopolis and Erick have said what needed to be said about the Wizard, so I have no more words there. But regarding the illustrations above our heads.” Quilatalap gestured at the lightsculptures above. “There is no need to build a dyson swarm, and possibly not until many thousands of years and normal population growth has happened. There’s not even truly a need to explore new worlds, beyond ensuring that if catastrophe should befall Veird that we have a backup.

“But there’s already lots of world here, on Veird; a hundred Surface’s worth, beneath the Surface. This planet has room for a trillion people. And that’s not even counting possible spaces like inside Fairy, or inside Benevolence, which will also one day encompass all of Veird’s space. All we have to do is increase population, teach real magic, and trim the Script to hinder the outbreak of wars while simultaneously clearing out some long-standing monster infections. There is literally no need to go rushing off into space when we have so many problems we could be solving right here, at home.” He added, “And, if we ever do need more space, because we have the people and mana generation to support that need, then we can make a new layer of the Surface and expand the Script upward and outward. It’s not a ‘billion Surfaces’, but it’ll be more than enough for a long while.” He continued, “And we can do the same for all the other planets of this system, for while [Duplicate] does sequester a tiny bit of mana, as it transforms mana into matter, that sequestering is not a problem when compared to the all the other issues that come with widespread [Duplicate].”

Huh!

Erick almost asked Quilatalap exactly how much mana actually got sequestered for every kind of application of [Duplicate], but that would come later.

For now, Erick grinned wide, saying, “Very good points, Quilatalap.” He chuckled a bit, saying, “All good points, and especially about decreasing the number of wars. I’ve been through at least 2 of them already, and I’ve only been on this planet for 2 years.”

Fallopolis asked everyone there, but mostly Erick, “What would you strip from the Script to prevent wars?” She rapidly added, as though it made perfect sense, “Because it is the unearned power of the Script that causes all these terrible inequalities that give rise to places like the Sovereign Cities, and the slave circles of Nergal, and quite a few other places which I am sure that Erick will be clearing out within a decade, if not sooner.”

Erick had known, going into tonight, that they would be having the Big Conversations. He had prepared for a few of them, but mostly he knew he would be winging it. The explanation of the dyson swarm was one of those semi-prepared things. Asking about how he would change the Script? That was also a prepared thing. But…

Erick decided to deflect that particular conversation again. “That’s a conversation that I’m not willing to speak on right now, for it will be simple, yet involved. Perhaps in a few days we can have a real and informed discussion upon that matter.”

Fallopolis smirked. “I also have quite a few words on this subject, so perhaps a taste of what is to come would be warranted. I will go first: Levels and Stats should not exist. Perhaps quantified Mana can remain, but that will change drastically. No one should have any basic spells at all, and no one will be able to buy a spell ‘point’, but you can still gain a few basic spells through Trials of the Dark. These spells will not be spells like [Mend] or [Cleanse]. They will be things more like the Elemental Body starter skills, or perhaps assistance in developing one’s aura. Everything else must be earned yourself, through aura control and true understanding of Shaping and Altering and using the Elements properly. As for the bans… Perhaps the Propagation Ban can remain, but the Infinitesimal and the Dimensional Ban will be removed, and every single Silenced mana and spell and otherwise will be un-boxed. There will be no condensation of any Element down to a single approved version; all the bands of the Script will be released… And I’ll stop there for now.”

Bright Smile looked to Fallopolis, and Erick could tell that her thoughts had turned to the Elemental Fae Band of Intent, and how Fallopolis wanted to release every single fae back into existence.

“… That’s a lot more comprehensive than what I wanted,” Erick said, “But then again I was going to suggest that there be almost no standardization at all, and that every Script be given to the new god of whatever worlds we make so that they can do with those Script as they desire. There would, of course, be some small standardization, if only to allow [Gate] to work the same between every world and for Benevolence to be able to do what it does, and to ensure a baseline level of niceness that comes from the current Script, like with [Cleanse] and Healing Magic and— Well. That’s a large conversation, so we can leave that be for now.”

Fallopolis smirked, and then she full-on smiled, grinning wide and laughing. “We’ve got soooOOOooO much to talk about, Wizard Flatt! So much different than last year, with all its combat and trials of strength, but who knows! We might get a trial of strength this year, too. Maybe even some combat!”

Erick chose to go with the flow, in an attempt to divert the flow to something calmer. “Perhaps some contained and somewhat safe trials, though I would prefer that we leave the warring to another place and time entirely.”

“Ahhh~! Fallopolis sighed, happy as could be. “I’m sure something can be done in that direction.” She stood up, casually. “And that’s enough talking for now! Let’s go do some hard drugs! Care to join me? Anyone? Have you ever tried darkweed, Erick? You should!”

Erick passed, though he did not give a specific excuse because his excuses would have filled half an hour of talking. Quilatalap, though, went for it, joining Fallopolis at the drug bar, where Farix, still wearing normal clothes, began laying out offerings for anyone to partake. Erick had no idea how he felt about that, so he chose to ignore his mixed feelings, mostly, because after all, Quilatalap had known Fallopolis for at least 400 or some odd years.

He knew what he was doing.

Erick was the youngster, here. Erick was the one that was stepping in the realm of giants, and trying to be a giant himself.

… Huh.

Aisha and Zolan remained by the alcohol bar with Volaro, the three of them in a deep telepathic discussion about something. Erick would have told them to cut that out and to speak openly, because it was highly rude to speak telepathically when at a party like this one. But Quilatalap and Fallopolis soon got to talking with Aisha and Zolan and Volaro anyway, with Farix interjecting as he wished and [Telepathy]s ending as soon as Fallopolis opened her mouth, so Erick didn’t need to get involved there.

Erick’s people knew how to act around Shades, so Erick had no idea why he was even concerned about that at all. He was simply generally worried, he supposed.

He was also sitting right beside Bright Smile, though, so he had a bunch of his own concerns to work through. They had sat in silence for about twenty minutes now, sipping their drinks as they watched Fairy Moon, Lapis, Goldie, and Queen expand the architecture of House Benevolence all in their own distinct ways. To the east, the south garden of the House was now filled with massive trees, courtesy of Treant, and those trees kept growing.

Everything had changed in the last hour of talking.

The base house was like a sheet cake two stories tall, with mountains in the center going up 500 meters, and with four towers on the corners of the sheet cake. It was white, completely. But now, upon the ‘sheet cake area’, where Erick sat with the initial party and all around the mountains in the center, the roof had transformed into a forest full of old-growth trees. Fairy Moon did that. When Fairy Moon first started casting those spells, the resulting trees had started off as person-high things, made of obvious illusions, but somewhere around meter 10 and 25 in some cases, those illusions had solidified into something real. All the new oak-adjacents, pine-likes, and not-exactly-willows, growing outside of the party area and all across the lower roofs of the house, were probably Fae Magic. The entire sheet cake part of House Benevolence held a forest, and the mountains in the center truly stood out by comparison.

Those ‘mountains’ had changed, too.

For Lapis and Queen had done a lot to those tapered, domed cylinder towers. Arches and pillars and balconies everywhere. Gold trim. Brilliant illumination and deep shadows and carvings of Melemizargo here and there, and people praying in giant relief sculptures, reaching toward suns and sources of power. A waterfall, a pond and a cascading draping of water, and then even more waterfalls. The four corner towers of the House had changed, too, with rotating columns of rainbow light that surrounded them, that slowly rotated around those towers, casting rainbow spotlights straight up into the sky, where that rainbow light struck the edge of the Privacy and vanished.

As Erick looked up at that Privacy, he saw nothing.

A void. Blacker than black.

A darkness held around House Benevolence, blocking out all sights beyond this space.

Somehow, the darkness had encroached all of the Gate District, to stop a few meters away from the edge of the House. Erick’s Nodes still held around the central tower of the House like a crown of glowing spiderwebs, to go up and out, but those lines of light reached a ring of Nodes higher up, near the edge of the black barrier, and then stopped. The Node network had been severed. The House was adrift in a sea of black.

The world beyond the House was still there, though.

Erick looked to Yggdrasil’s eye floating to the side, looking hazier than Erick thought it should look. He sent, ‘Are you still there, Yggdrasil?’

Like a distant child, yelling from two mountains over in an attempt to get his father’s attention, Yggdrasil called, ‘I’m here, father. I can’t hear you well. People are asking about you. The cooking people are concerned. Shadows have surrounded the building in Candlepoint.’

‘I see them through the [Gate] I left inside the House. I’ve already sent an Ophiel through the [Gate] to try and assuage them, for we knew something like this might happen—’

“Oh EriIIIiiiiiiIIIIiickK~!” Fallopolis called, her voice fluctuating wildly as she rested backward against the hard drug bar. A smear of blue dust marred her left cheek, as her white eyes glowed brightly. “It’s MIDNIGHT, and the Dark is here!! Exclamation point, exclamation point, exclamation point! Give us some time, my man! Let’s make this Feast Barrier REAL!”

Erick rapidly sent to Yggdrasil, ‘I’ll talk to you soon, okay? You be good now! I’ll be good, too. Love you!’

‘Love you! See you soon, father!’

Erick stood up, Ophiel flying away, getting into formation all around the House.

And then Erick had Ophiel begin casting [Node of the Renewing Undertow] all around the House, next to the black barrier surrounding the land like they were weaving a web of light.

Erick explained, “I’ll first fill this sphere of black with a nice Node Network of tiny stars, and constellations.”

Which is what he then did. Erick summoned full-mana Ophiels when they ran out of mana, and then he sent them flickering around the place, setting tiny shadowed stars into the sky, while Erick willed those stars to attach to their neighbors. Gradually, and then faster than Erick thought it would happen, night retreated, a woven sphere of light formed around the House, right in front of the utter darkness beyond. With a hundred lines of light, Erick attached that sphere of light to the lines coming off of the center of the House, creating a woven crown of brilliance as he temporarily repaired this part of the Node Network.

He also sent Ophiel through the [Gate] in the House, to the cooking building in Candlepoint, where he did the same sort of surrounding web. As soon as he did that the shadows around that cooking building solidified, fully shutting off the world beyond that space, too. With half of his attention, Erick spent a good minute talking to Atalle Slipstream and all the other gathered Cooks to assure them that everything was still going as planned. Everything was on schedule. Those words helped some of the people there, but most of them, like Atalle, were already perfectly fine; they were used to being around powerful people, and while the circumstances of tonight were some of the most dangerous they had ever faced, they had been in this general situation before. And anyway, fighters generally tried to spare the cooks; capturing them was much more likely.

With the Node Network reformed around the House, and the off-site kitchens, Erick began casting [Expandable Hasted Shelter]s along that outermost weave of connected Node spaces—

A few things happened all at once.

Mostly, the magic bucked out of Erick’s control.

A hundred Shelters, a mere fraction of the number needed to actually inundate the House with Hasted Time, began to expand in a way they should not have been able. Thick Time washed into the House’s area, rapidly accomplishing Erick’s goal of filling the space a million manas worth of Time a lot sooner than he had planned.

Erick never got a chance to create the same sort of arrangement around the cooking station down in Candlepoint, and he didn’t need to. He had already placed a [Gate] between that cooking station and inside the House, but somehow, that [Gate] broke, and every single person whom Erick had organized to provide food for the Feast, along with all their assorted food stuffs, were suddenly blipped back into their restaurants inside the House itself.

Atalle Slipstream and her people were back at the Saucery. Donny and his people were back at the M Eatery. Lisa was back at her Dessert Counter, along with all the other Pastry Cooks that Lisa employed.

Erick had no idea what had actually happened, but he had a guess; all the Cooks had all been exposed to some sort of Spatial Magic that had moved them onto a different path in life, one where Erick had decided for them to all remain inside the House, as opposed to setting up a secondary location where they could be kept safe from most of the larger events of the Feast. All of the food was inside cold containers and all the cots and beds of the Cooks and all the special, fancy cutlery for the Feast, had been relocated to the House, as though the House had been the base of cooking operations this whole time.

Erick blamed Melemizargo for that adjustment.

The Dark Dragon of Magic also had something to do with the Darkness around the House and the Node light weave transforming, for sure.

All that space that Darkness had dominated had transformed into a fantasy night, made of blues and purples and nebulae and galaxies. The House looked like it floated among the stars, and all the universe lay outside, within sight, if not also within reach. It was a very good illusion. It had depth. Very artistic, too; all darkly rainbow, and prismatic shadow.

It was beautiful, really. Erick appreciated it, even though he didn’t appreciate how it had happened. But whatever.

Erick was already testing out the Time differential by having an Ophiel cast a simple [Cleanse], and then have him keep trying until he cast the spell again, to test how many seconds transpired here per Script Second out there—

Ah.

Erick looked to Fallopolis, unamused as he said, “20 seconds per Script Second, Fallopolis. This is a real Feast Barrier, exactly like the one at last year’s Feast.”

Fallopolis cheered loudly and happily. “I knew you had it in you! But we’ve only got half a night instead of a full night, like we should. Only 5 days!” And then she used the back of her hand to hide half of her mouth as she spoke in a loud stage whisper, clearly meant for everyone to hear, “It’s okay! You can do better next time and My God won’t have to help so much.”

“I planned for 3 days of food. We might not have enough for 5.”

“Pish posh obl-de-gosh!” Fallopolis said, “I’m sure we can get enough food for all of us! With all your talk of [Duplicate] I’m sure you already have an answer to our problems! Perhaps that wrought over there has [Duplicate]! You know they all have [Duplicate], right?”

Bright Smile, Volaro, and even Zolan whipped toward Aisha, wondering if she truly did have that magic. Quilatalap and Farix looked her way, too, but their looks were subdued. Aisha would have paled if she had blood. As she did not have blood, she just stood there, her iridescent silver body reflecting the myriad stars and lights all around.

Erick said, “Most wrought do not have [Duplicate], as far as I know.”

Fallopolis grinned, adding, “Then I suppose your own [Duplicate] will have to suffice.”

Bright Smile and Volaro whipped toward Erick. But Aisha did not, and neither did Quilatalap. And neither did Zolan, actually! Farix just grinned. Bright Smile and Volaro all saw Quilatalap’s and Aisha’s and Zolan’s reactions, and then they looked closer at Erick. And then it clicked for them.

Not only did Erick have [Duplicate], but Quilatalap and Aisha and all the Shades already knew that Erick had [Duplicate].

For Erick, finding out that Zolan knew that he had [Duplicate] was something of a revelation, too, for apparently someone had told him, or perhaps Erick wasn’t as crafty hiding that spell as he had thought he had been. Maybe Kirginatharp told him.

Whelp!

Secrets spilled out everywhere.

Fun.

Quilatalap spoke up, “I can copy some food, too.”

This third revelation of that spell was too much for one person.

Bright Smile shuddered and then waterfalled the rest of her drink, muttering, “Every person of power has that fucking spell but us.”

Erick said to Bright Smile, “This entire world runs on the controlled use of [Duplicate], so yes, that is true. You’ll probably get the spell eventually, if you prove yourself as a person of power and as capable of wielding that power properly. You don’t see me fucking up the economy through anything but services, right? No. [Duplicate] is for the critical functioning of Veird, only.”

Zolan had some sort of odd, silent approval happening to him as he heard Erick speak, while Volaro contemplated his existence and Aisha looked vindicated.

Bright Smile frowned, and then she gave a curt nod.

Fallopolis moved right along, declaring, “It’s time for the opening song, Erick! You’re up! Dragon form too, yes yes yes.”

The universe outside of the House seemed to shift. Darkness stepped forward from everywhere and nowhere, and the light dimmed, like at the start of a show.

Erick said, “I’m not doing this in dragon form.”

Fallopolis stressed, “Are you suuuuuure? You’re among friends here! What’s the worst that could happen!”

Erick studied the pretending-to-be-inebriated woman for a long moment. She was pushing for Erick to sing in his dragon form, yes, but why? Because she knew what his form looked like, obviously. But she was pushing too much. Erick was willing to go with the flow in order to facilitate an atmosphere of congeniality, but what she was asking for was beyond acceptable.

So Erick said, “Though I feel I might be appreciative of everyone’s contributions to this Feast, I also feel that I have planned this party reasonably well, and that this multi-day event is going to host more than enough intrigue that we don’t need to add that to the list.”

Fallopolis leaned back, grinning. Amused.

She said nothing else.

- - - -

Erick stood surrounded by flickering lightning at the top of House Benevolence. The crown of Node lines rose up, all around the exterior of the House, linking to the nebulae and the starscape overhead. After a moment of thought, and centering, Erick looked down at the glass roof of his throne room, where white and rainbow light played in ways light should not play at all, and shadows danced.

With a small voice, the Wizard asked the Darkness, “In English, or the translated version?”

The Darkness whispered back, “Translated and shifted to relevancy for the public; original English for me only.”

Erick raised his head. He would use his adjusted song, then. It wasn’t much different from the original, but it did have a few parts changed around. ‘Neon light’ had no real equivalent on Veird, what with neon being harsh lines of light inside glass tubes that spoke of dingy bars or high class gambling places and advertisements of all sorts, but people understood ‘wardlight’, and that phrase sort-of had the same connotation. ‘Cobblestone’ didn’t really work on Veird, either, for instead of ‘roads made of difficult-to-walk-upon stone, which constantly rattled everything that went over it’ and ‘old horse roads in old neighborhoods’, Veird simply had plain stone roads made with [Stoneshape]. But those were minor things compared to what it took to make the song sound good in a completely different language.

Erick had needed to take apart the whole thing and put it back together again, but, in the end, Simon and Garfunkel had created something that echoed all the way over here on Veird, in a way that was too relevant to call it anything but an act of Establishment Wizardry. The parts about ‘silence like a cancer grows’ and ‘a stab of light split the night’ and all that stuff about ‘prophets’, all had relevancy here on Veird.

The Silences of the Script.

The opening of Melemizargo’s eyes in the dark.

Wizards, making new magics, only to have them Silenced in Forgotten Campaigns.

And all of that wasn’t even touching upon the deep meaning in the very first line of the song; of what all that meant with Erick bringing [Reincarnation] to Veird, and people calling him Xoat, the First Wizard, and how the First Wizard had been taken apart by the Darkness in order to create the First Cosmology...

Erick had trained for this, working out his voice inside some [Fairy Stronghold]s and underneath some deep Privacys. He was ready. And so, with a thought, Erick stepped past the crown of light, to stand in the air, in the swirling Darkness.

“Hello Darkness my old friend, I’ve come to talk with you again…”

- - - -

Zolan’s entire body went cold as he listened to translated words and watched the nebulae starscape all around the House go completely Dark. The whole space turned black. Zolan was completely alone in the middle of nothing as he listened to a song speak of Silences.

He wished to unhear those words.

- - - -

Quilatalap’s eyes went wide. His breath stilled.

Ah, he thought.

This was bigger than he thought it was going to be.

He had heard all the stories about Xoat, of course. He had even joked once with Erick about those very same stories. But here Erick was, singing a song from his own childhood that had too much relevancy to his own situation.

… But then again…

Any song could be relevant to any situation, if the society creating those songs was advanced enough, and enough songs had been created. Perhaps Erick had simply picked at random this particular song to sing to Melemizargo back when he fell to Veird with his daughter, because it did neatly fit those initial circumstances. But from what Quilatalap had heard back when he was in Ar’Kendrithyst working at the Armory with the Shades, and then afterward…

Erick had only ever sung the first part of the song.

Based on what Quilatalap was seeing with the Darkness all around, that tracked.

For Erick rapidly arrived at new parts of the song, the Darkness focused, and Quilatalap truly began to reconsider all those rumors of Xoat…

- - - -

Aisha felt something shift inside of herself as she listened to her king sing. She was worried, but also frightened, and that was about the extent of her ability to discern her own emotions. Everything was too chaotic. Everything was too weird.

One thought centered Aisha rather well, though.

This was Wizardry of a different sort. Something solid. Something that had already happened, long ago. As Erick sang and Aisha watched all the mana all around, the mana listened, yes, but it did not trigger. It did not cascade into something new.

Nothing was building.

Nothing was growing.

She did not suspect that there would be any magic happening because of this; that had been her major concern when she foresaw Erick singing here, tonight. But now they were here, and the song was happening, and the mana was simply listening.

The Darkness was listening. Listening intently, for sure, but that was it.

Hopefully.

- - - -

Bright Smile watched as Erick hovered in the black sky and sang a well-practiced song of blasphemy, while Ophiel accompanied him with similarly well-practiced sounds of stringed instruments.

Yup, she decided.

She was not going to involve herself with him if she could help it. She was already too close to him, considering she was the head of a House of Ar’Cosmos, and they would absolutely be working together on something or other in the future. Probably a lot of things, actually.

Bright Smile had a lot of sudden thoughts in her head as she watched Erick sing.

Somewhere among the song, she wondered why Erick was so reluctant with his dragon form. It was a mystery that she didn’t care for, though, so she mentally marked it to revisit when new information became available. For now, she ignored that mystery in favor of listening to what was turning out to be a rather uncomfortable song.

Bright Smile would need to ask someone about this song. From looking around at the faces of Fallopolis and Farix, and the faces of all the other Shades, and even Fairy Moon, all of whom had returned to the party area when Erick began…

For them, this was amazing, but for Bright Smile, this song felt like a harbinger of doom.

Why would anyone ever call the Darkness a friend? Who would ever do such an idiotic thing?!

… Erick, apparently.

- - - -

Melemizargo watched.

The Dark listened.

A mess of emotions and memories and power flowed throughout the world, in the shadows below candles, between the light and the wax. On the other side of closed doors. Inside old potions left in the far back of storage rooms, where mana crystallized and creation changed over time. In the depths of caverns not seen by mortal eyes in an age. Upon the air flowing across dark roads, where fountains of light illuminated old pathways where commerce used to flow, but where there was now only shadow, and silence.

An ache born of desire began to grow inside the Darkness. A need for something unknowable, but which had not always been that way.

And then Erick stopped. Ophiels raised their own voices in an ending.

And then the song was over.

And Melemizargo felt…

Bereft.

- - - -

Erick finished. Ophiels sang out the final notes of the song.

And then came silence.

The sky remained dark.

The lights slowly came back on. The nebulae beyond the Feast Barrier returned, like clouds of glitter in the space far, far beyond the boundary of this party. Galaxies swirled into being. Stars glittered upon the deep. There was no clapping. There was no fanfare.

With a lightstep, Erick returned to the initial party area, where Volaro stood behind his alcohol bar and no one stood behind the drug bar. Zolan and Aisha stood together near Volaro. Fairy Moon stood beside Bright Smile, at the table where Erick had cast dyson swarm designs into the air.

Quilatalap grinned, happy as could be.

… All the Shades stood to the side of the gathering. Six of them kneeled to Erick, their eyes closed, though some, like Goldie, only took a single knee. Fallopolis did not kneel or lower her eyes at all. She simply breathed as she took in the sight of Erick, while wet lines of white light, like tears, rolled down from her bright gaze. Where those tears dried, was black soot. Where those tears fell, turned dark.

Fallopolis had too much emotion in her voice to hide it all, but she tried to be professional, saying, “A wonderful performance, Erick, though it might be for the best if that song is never sung again. It has done enough, for remembering is not always a good thing. Still, though… As Queen did last year when she hosted, you have opened the Feast well with your own song. Thank you.”

Erick nodded, then spoke to everyone, “The band will relocate into the atrium and so will the party, for the Cooks of House Benevolence have already prepared a real meal for us to enjoy. The format is food and music and light conversation for an hour or two, and then that is the end of the first day. Presentations start tomorrow.”

- - - -

Bright Smile had a lot of thoughts as she ate quite a fantastic meal inside the House, alongside Shades and a Wizard and a Necromancer.

As the night finished without any dangers of any kind, except for the political, Bright Smile lay in bed, pretending to sleep. Her own thoughts kept her awake more than the worry of Shades, though.

Upon hearing that Erick had had [Duplicate], she had created a few hastily constructed plans to grab that magic for herself, but that was simply her greed roaring at her, telling her to take what she could. But she was more than her instincts. She was a ruler. She would be an empress. Controlling her greed was important, and especially here at the Feast. She had not imagined that the Shades would dangle such a tempting target right in front of her so soon, but that was foolish on her part. Of course the Shades would do something like this.

But Erick had countered them rather well.

Erick had said himself: Bright Smile would gain this power if she proved—

Ugh. She couldn’t even complete that thought without rebelling against herself.

‘Proved herself’ to ‘gain their favor’. Fuck them all. The wrought, the gods, Melemizargo, the Shades, and especially Oceanside. Maybe even Erick, too. Like what the fuck. What had that been! ‘You don’t see me fucking up the economy of Veird’. Cowshit. That’s literally all that that man —that Wizard— had ever done. Fucking up the economy would continue to be a major part of Erick’s actions going forward…

… But he hadn’t fucked up the economy through releasing gold and plunging the markets into turmoil.

Which he could have done.

All Erick actually used [Duplicate] for was to expand the options of the world. This Gate Network was only the largest part of that change…

What would Bright Smile do if she got [Duplicate]?

Technically, Ar’Cosmos already had [Duplicate]. Bright Smile almost wondered if Erick had forgotten that fact, but no. He probably didn’t. How much had he been told? Maybe not much. The problem with Ar’Cosmos’s [Duplicate] was that they had extracted that spell from Kirginatharp’s Book Binders several times over the last thousand years, and only a few extractions had worked, but even so, ‘worked’ was up for debate. One of those successful extractions had gone to Inferno Maw, but that was a national secret, and the head of House Death could only use that magic on one item every month, otherwise that [Duplicate] spellwork would break inside of his soul.

That’s how all the other [Duplicate]s of Ar’Cosmos had broken. Overuse. Stolen spellwork did not work for the secondary user as well as it should, which caused ‘overuse’ to be a problem in the first place. Normally, people could use their Script-given spells once every second, in the case of Instant magic, but stolen magic? Or. Well. Magic stolen through imperfect draconic Wizardry, anyway…

Dragon-stolen magic didn’t work very well.

But if Bright Smile got [Duplicate]… A real working copy, for herself…

Bright Smile had not smiled much since arriving here at the Feast. Not even for days prior, when she truly understood that, yes, she was going to be Fairy Moon’s plus-1. That truth of her failed namesake did not change upon hearing of the closeness of a real [Duplicate], for Bright Smile knew that if she got [Duplicate] she would make a bed of gold for herself and then crash an economy or three, just because she could...

Or, at least, that’s what she wanted to do. Perhaps if she truly got [Duplicate] then she could restrain that part of herself. She knew she could not stop herself from indulging a little… And perhaps that was the problem. Even if she kept her [Duplicate] uses to, as Erick had said, critical structural functioning of Veird, she would still try to indulge a little.

And yet…

Bright Smile thought about the use of platinum in the early Gate designs, and how, with this new information, that was clearly Erick using [Duplicate]… Maybe. Probably. He had gotten that metal from the wrought, though, so at least the wrought had used [Duplicate], which yes, of course they did. Someone had used [Duplicate] somewhere along the line to facilitate the creation of the Gate Network, and yet, Erick had still worked to make iron function as a magical item, eliminating that need for [Duplicate]. He had risen above that spell.

And then he had risen even further. He had originally planned for a runic web to take up the Gate District, to empower all his magics and all his Gates, so that he didn’t need to empower them all individually. He still used runic webs for the Gates themselves, which was probably never going to change. Bright Smile had trouble seeing how he could ever make a physical Gate without making a physical Gate, but he had made his Node Network to eliminate the need for the larger runic web.

And now that larger runic web supported all of the Greater Candlepoint Area.

Maybe he could even eliminate the need for a physical Gate, too?

Bright Smile had done a lot of innovation in her time as head of House Carnage. From revamping the guard system, to clearing out corruption in the Rotunda, to bringing in new book keeping and security measures everywhere. But if she had had [Duplicate], would she have bothered to ensure that money got spent where it should be spent? Would she have bothered with eliminating the excesses and drains of some of her captains?

… No.

Hmm.