Ar'Kendrithyst

Chapter 227, 1/2

Erick stepped back through the [Gate] to Storm’s Edge, into the disused throne room of Regency Castle. Pillars of blue stone formed a spacious hallway through the center of the area, separating the place into three parts. Metal fish and sharks and other sea life swirled up and down those pillars in a frozen ode to the ocean. Blue and gold tapestries held to the sides of the room, while everything else was pure white stone. Pure white light filtered down from massive ceiling windows providing ample illumination for the space, though here and there on the pillars, and on the tapestries, a faint blue light also provided illumination for the room, giving the whole place an almost underwater feel.

But there was no actual throne in the room, and though there wasn’t any dust either, this place hadn’t seen visitors in days, according to the manasphere. Just the cleaning lady two and a half days ago.

“Are you sure you don’t want to become an actual king, Augustive?” Erick asked, as he looked around the architecturally-interesting-but-empty room. “You have the throne room.”

Augustive smiled a little bit, as he adjusted his gold-coin shoulder cape. “We might not be quite a democracy, but we’re close, and after talking with your Overseer Mox I believe I prefer being the custodian of the city instead of an outright ruler. Besides that, I believe a Regency connection to House Benevolence and you taking over the dungeons here will directly solve many of our problems, as it wasn’t until those dungeons a decade ago that we ever had any real problems with our various powers here in Storm’s Edge.” His voice turned a fraction serious, though, as he added, “The Regency will still get the agreed-upon taxes from the delvers, yes?”

“20%, if Gold Taker is up to continuing the task?”

“He should be. I haven’t had a chance to speak with him, but that is likely due to his reluctance to be around you at all.”

“I hope to alleviate whatever terror he might feel about me soon enough. Should I approach him? Or do you have a better idea?”

Augustive was a little bit surprised that Erick was asking for his opinion, but he rapidly found he liked the Wizard asking him for his opinion. “I’ll put in a word for you. Through his work in the dungeons, he knows that he doesn’t know anything when it comes to truly powerful people, and that makes him rather skittish around people like you, and others. He absolutely won’t speak to The Headmaster at all, and we asked if he wanted to see the Arbors of Treehome and he completely refused for various reasons. There aren’t a whole lot of people in the kingdom that know who Gold Taker actually is, and I would prefer to keep it that way, if you please.”

“I can do that, and I’ll wait for him to approach me.” Erick moved on, “So then, will you be going directly into meetings? Would you like my accompaniment for any of the major ones? Get everyone in a room and I’ll [Hasted Shelter] us so we don’t take forever to talk.” He added, “Or, I can give you a [Hasted Shelter] for yourself and your people to use.”

“… The second option, please, though I would appreciate your attendance at a later date, maybe in a few hours? After I get the full news out to my people.”

“Of course. Ophiel? Please help Augustive with whatever he needs.”

Ophiel hopped off of Erick’s shoulder, saying, “I’m here! I help!”

Augustive couldn’t help himself but grin at the little guy. “The Regency thanks you for your service.”

As Ophiel flitted onto a very surprised Augustive’s shoulder, another Ophiel flitted into the room and sat down on Erick’s shoulder, where he usually sat.

Erick said to Ophiel, “Cast whatever normal spells he wants, Ophiel.”

As Augustive reflexively gasped a little bit at the power Erick had granted him, no matter how temporary—

Ophiel happily said, “I can do that!”

Erick nodded, then opened up a [Gate] to his next destination; the Pit. And then he stepped through and closed the [Gate] behind him.

Back in the disused throne room, Augustive quietly tested Ophiel, “Could you give me a [Gate] to my offices? Please?”

“Yes!”

And then Ophiel opened a [Gate] to Augustive’s offices, where a few surprised clerks and one overeager guard went on sudden high alert, only to become very, very confused as Augustive stepped through. The Regent was giggling a little bit, but he stopped that, faking a cough to hide his giggle, as soon as he realized what he was doing. He was not used to this level of power, and it was a quaint thing to have.

Erick pulled his Sight away from Augustive—

- - - -

—to focus on the task at hand.

As the sun began to dip down behind the western mountains that encircled the Pit, casting much of the newly Shaped land into shadows, Erick watched as Archmage Wiloza flew through those shadows, anointing the land with great big transparent balls of radiance. She placed the final wardlight over the last dungeon, providing ample light above all seven black holes in the world. It seemed that Aroido had moved all of them back into position, and then moved back inside those dungeons to hide from the world, or something. Erick could not see any of them out here, and a quick search with Ophiel revealed no Aroido outside the dungeons.

He did see some flying fish made of more spines than anything else, floating through the air, flying down the northern monster road. Monsters once again followed the thick mana in the air, as it led them toward the Pit. It was nice that the system had not been disrupted much. Erick had an Ophiel fly over to the northern entrance to that road, to see if ‘Gold Taker’ was funneling mana through that road once again...

Everbless was not there.

A quick check of everywhere except for Everbless’s harbor revealed that the giant tentacled avatar of the world tree was nowhere to be seen.

And now that he was looking at the monster roads, he saw a problem; he saw the results of Everbless not funneling the mana like he usually did. There were a lot of monsters fighting in the northern, southern, and eastern monster roads. The anemic flows of naturally-drawn mana were still sluicing through the grooves in the ground, pulled along by the dungeons, but the bounty inside the chests of the other monsters was causing a bit of a pileup, as monsters fought to kill each other instead of to follow the flow to the bounty up ahead.

… Rather anemic, really.

Erick frowned at that.

He could fix that himself. Maybe he should. Show Everbless that if he didn’t want to come out, that he would be replaced. It was a bit of a dick move to do to a kid, but Everbless wasn’t a normal ‘kid’.

“Hey Wiloza!” Erick called out to the archmage.

Wiloza was about two kilometers away, but she heard him well enough.

She floated over to him rather fast, and then began to slow down as she approached. “Is something wrong, Wizard Flatt?”

“Not really. We’ve got most of this whole dungeon thing sorted so I’m going to be having some meetings with your people later, under a [Hasted Shelter]. You’re welcome to attend those meetings, but from what Augustive explained to me, you take a rather hands-off approach to the Regency?”

Wiloza set down onto the battlement next to Erick, saying, “I don’t get involved with the daily events or anything like that. I try to stay out of all Storm’s Edge politics, for that’s a mire that one can easily get lost inside.”

Erick nodded. That was much the same as Augustive had already explained. “A lot of the people in power don’t like to be in power around here, do they?”

Wiloza gave a small, easy grin. “That’s been the Regency’s official stance for a long time. There have been a few power-grabs by certain regents in the past, of course, but those times in history have always ended poorly for one reason or another. Shades come calling, sometimes, but often the outcome is a simple exodus of people to other, less authoritarian islands, or an execution of the regent in the worst of cases.”

“I’m kinda surprised about that. There are monsters out there, but I suppose those lands are more inhabitable than they are not?”

“Oh yes. The Archipelago is a vast string of inhabitable lands home to millions of people, and everyone can grab their boat and move to one of the other islands if they wish— Or [Teleport], back when you could do that sort of thing.” She said, “Once you’ve secured some walls, and made a few blind harbors, most of the sea monsters can’t get in and those that do you’re going to be able to kill, or to escape from.” She waved a hand toward the Pit, adding, “Even the flying fish will have trouble with a wall that is curved over toward the waters. The Tidewalkers have always been some of the more reputable, open handed wall builders around, though, so though the Regency might only oversee Storm’s Edge, we have friends in all the islands.”

Erick nodded as he took in the sight of the fortresses Wiloza had built around the Pit, saying, “Excellent Stone Shapers, all around. Have you taken on many apprentices?”

“I have trained hundreds of students on stonework now and again. You can buy [Cityshape], after all, but most people don’t have the engineering knowledge or perspective to not have Shaped-houses crash down on them.”

Erick asked, “Did you train Gold Taker, in order to do the mana flowing, too?”

“Ahh… Yes. Gold Taker isn’t doing his usual job, is he. I did train him, actually. But only a little. He’s rather good at mana flows, and your [Control Weather] does much of the heavy lifting.” Wiloza frowned a little bit toward the Pit, asking, “Are you going to kick him out of a job, too? Like you are with the Aroidos?”

Ah. She was angry that he was taking over here. Well. It was her land, so she had every right to be angry.

Erick spoke as the Apparent King, saying, “This event right here will require everyone on board in order to make it function well, and Gold Taker is one of those requirements to a proper function. I don’t want to replace you, or him, or the Aroidos. So the question then becomes: what sort of job do you want here, Wiloza?”

“On-call backup; emergency response only.” Wiloza said, “But unofficially, I want to be involved with this every step of the way. This is my land, Wizard Flatt; I have overseen the safety of my people here for a very long time, and until I die that will not change.”

“No daily duties?”

“No.” Wiloza said, “I’m pushing 90. I like baking bread, going to plays, and doting on my great grandchildren whenever they should visit. I don’t actually like collapsing oceans onto enemies, or such-and-such.”

The Apparent King nodded. “I will then require you to speak and work with Vanya. Do you wish for an introduction?”

“Not today; a week from now, if you could. I am a bit squeamish around necromancers. Usually we kill those kinds around here.”

“Fair enough, for now.” The Apparent King asked, “Then what are we to do about Gold Taker’s unwillingness to appear before me? Augustive said he would ask Gold Taker to visit me first, but I want those monster roads handling the mana better. If necessary, I will enact some mana-shaping spellwork and a node network of my own, fully pushing out the need for Gold Taker at all.” Erick didn’t actually have such spellwork himself, for ‘moving mana around’ was more of an aura control thing, and not a real spell. But he could make such a spell rather easily. “It wouldn’t work nearly as well as a World Tree moving the mana of the world around, but with a large enough node network it would functionally be the same.”

Wiloza did not like that idea, but she spoke diplomatically as she said, “It’s good for Gold Taker to be involved with the dungeons, for he loves them more than—”

She never got a chance to finish her sentence.

A large tendril, blood red and thick as a dragon’s tail, slapped out of the sky, crushing into the space where Erick had been standing, sending stone flying, as a childish, angry voice screamed,

“MY DUNGEONS!”

But Erick had stopped time before the tentacle had crashed down.

As that tentacle still held in the air above his crown of black horns, Erick had casually moved Wiloza aside through an application of the only spell he could really use at-will, outside of the Script Second; [Gate], and only because of his Class Ability Gatemaster. Rozeta had said many years ago that he should be able to open and move around [Gate]s at will, and he could.

Gatemaster also allowed for something else that normal [Gate]s could not do, and that was to move without breaking.

In a near endless moment, Erick opened a portal of white lightning to Wiloza’s left, and then swept that portal over her, depositing her in a similarly-moving portal on the other side of the Pit, several kilometers away. And then he moved himself in the same way, to a position ten meters away from where Everbless’s tentacle would smash down.

He allowed time to resume.

The tentacle smashed. Stone flew. And then another tentacle smashed down again, right onto where Erick had moved.

Erick didn’t bother with the timeless trick this time. He simply lightstepped to another spot another ten meters down the wall of fortresses.

Everbless screamed, filling the air with red-tinged vibrations as he appeared in the sky in his full octopus-avatar. He was a crash of a thousand kilometer-long tentacles, each of them whipping back and forth, each of them lined with suckers and fangs for gripping and tearing. If he had any eyes in that form they were too small to see. He kinda looked like a tangled hydra, but a lot more menacing.

“MY DUNGEONS! NO STEALING MY DUNGEONS!”

Erick allowed Everbless to attack.

Twice more the child struck with a single tentacle, whip-fast, too fast for a normal person to evade at all. That was why Erick had needed to [Time Stop] the first time, but he honestly could not have said if that spell cast was another of his Class Abilities working, Failsafe: [Time Stop], or if he had been ready and waiting to cast that spell himself. Either way, he was here now, and he was acclimated to the battle.

He lightstepped another ten meters down the edge of the Pit.

Everbless screamed and attacked with multiple tendrils at the same time, sweeping the battlements and smashing down onto Erick five times in quick succession. Each time, Erick moved out of the way. Soon, Erick decided to only move a few meters out of the way, in order to test Everbless. He was here, wasn’t he? Might as well see what the kid can do.

Everbless smashed down once, lightly, and then tried to grip and pull Erick into the sky.

Erick moved—

The air turned solid, Forceful, as Everbless’s Domain spread across the land.

Erick held firm his own sunform against Everbless’s Domain, but he did not push back. He did not want to break the kid, for a broken Domain was a specific kind of hurt that sometimes sent people into comas. What Erick wanted, and the reason for him openly taunting Everbless like he had, was for Everbless to show himself, to see how Everbless handled that situation. Perhaps Erick had handled that poorly, though. There had been no need to truly taunt the kid. But then again, Erick hadn’t thought that Everbless would actually respond as he had.

So Everbless was handling this poorly, too.

Perhaps…

Perhaps, all Everbless had ever learned in the dungeons, from Aroido, from the delvers, from his entire life so far, was force, and so when someone actually threatened him with something as simple as the removal of his toys, this was how he responded. Erick suspected that Everbless saw his removal from the dungeons more as Erick threatening the ‘removal of his entire life’; not just the removal of toys. Everbless was still a kid, and this experience he was having was highly likely the very first time anyone had ever threatened him emotionally at all.

Raising Yggdrasil had been easier, since Erick had been there the whole time.

Erick dodged another seven strikes—

As Everbless screamed, “GO AWAY, SCARY WIZARD!”

Calmly, Erick said, “I will not go away—” Words were interrupted by another dozen tentacle slams, all at once. Everbless continued to attack, but Erick managed to keep his voice calm throughout the whole assault. “Stop this nonsense and let us have a talk, or else I will be forced to put you in a time out, Everbless.”

The assault tripled down. “Why you know me! Intervention no work!?”

“Take your pick of reasons,” Erick said, stepping left across the battlements of the Pit. A trail of tentacle-based destruction followed him. “I’m sort of like your father, for one. Yggdrasil is your brother, and he’s still a part of me. Any of the godly blessings I’ve gotten over the years. Many different reasons all could be valid; I don’t know. If you feel like having more discussions, then you must cease this assault. If you do not stop, then I will be firmly taking these dungeons from you, and you won’t have any say in them at all. All I’ve done is talk about what needs to happen next. All you have done is ensure that you’re seen as not mature enough to handle this sudden responsibility befalling the Archipelago.”

Everbless struck once more, but all the threat of the attack failed halfway through. The tentacle slapped down on the battlement and then flopped away, as the sky turned darker with sudden clouds. In a moment, the tentacle avatar wilted, and then a wailing filled the air as ‘Gold Taker’ vanished completely, disappearing from the sky.

Rain began to fall across the entire island and much of the local ocean, turning visibility down to near-nothing. It was not the storm of a century, or a sky filled with tornadoes or anything like that. It was just a storm of rain. But then again, it had only been ten seconds since it started, and it could get worse. Erick sent his senses outward to see if it was getting worse.

A quick check through Ophiel confirmed that the storm was nothing more than a dense rain, falling everywhere within Everbless’s reach.

Five minutes later, it was still just heavy rain.

It could rain for a while; that was fine.

Okay. So… This wasn’t that bad. Could have gone a lot worse.

Erick had spoken with the Arbors of Treehome about how to properly raise young Arbors many times over the years, even though almost none of their advice would actually apply to Yggdrasil, being as he was divinely sealed to Erick’s soul. Even with that major caveat, Holy O’kabil and Wyrmrest and Nosier and Home had explained a lot of ways of being that should still hold true for Yggdrasil, as they did for all Arbors.

Young living trees weren’t like people, with emotions that ran dry after ten minutes because their brains got tired of having those emotions. Their emotions did eventually run dry, and for much the same reasons, but an emotion due to an exceptional stimulus might last as long as a full day, or maybe a week. Younger Arbors experienced time faster, so a young tree might take a day to return to an even keel.

‘Leave a young arbor alone for a few hours after any sort of traumatic teaching moment, but don’t leave them alone for any longer than that, and especially not if their sadness causes problems for others.’

That had been the Arbors’ general consensus.

… And the rain wasn’t that bad? Yeah. The rain was fine.

Erick would go visit Everbless at sunset and introduce him to the Arbors at that time. They would likely have quite a lot to say about Everbless’s current behavior, and today seemed like the time to force that sort of introduction. The stormy guy was probably going to remember this first real interaction with the ‘scary wizard’ for the rest of his life… Which was kind of a shame, but if Erick had to be the stern uncle, then that was fine. Everbless probably needed a lot more solidity in his life than he was getting…

Erick looked to the raining sky again...

Lightning flashed, and the rain seemed to get heavier.

He needed to speak to the Arbors of Treehome right now, actually, to get their professional opinion.

- - - -

“And so that’s the current situation with Everbless,” Erick finished.

It had taken Erick half an hour to set up this meeting and then ten minutes to explain the situation, here in a meeting room near Arbor Holy O’kabil. The room itself was glass and steel and on the edge of O’kabil’s dominion. The tree herself grew outside in the distance, looking like a kilometer tall silver chalice, holding greenery inside silver wires and surrounded by silver spires. The other Arbors were not visible from this place, but three of their avatars had come in person, and all the rest had shown up as [Scry] eyes. Each of those avatars or eyes sat or floated atop their own large chair.

No one spoke outwardly for a good half a minute, after Erick had fully divulged the situation down in Storm’s Edge. Or as much as he could, anyway. The intervention prevented people from knowing that Gold Taker was Everbless, even up here, a quarter of a world away.

Erick had managed to speak around that intervention, mostly, but all the Arbors were talking amongst themselves while Erick explained everything to them, and—

Arbor Home, who had shown up as a brown and green eye, asked, “Pardon me, Erick. I’m still confused on the part where Everbless is killing people, but the dungeons are reviving them. I thought you had to die in a dungeon to get that resurrection?”

“Dammit. What is…” Nosier, who had shown up to the meeting as a lanky, 4 meter tall orcol who veered more toward the troll side of that heritage, was having a problem. “It’s some sort of mind lock, isn’t it? I feel it slipping away from me— I HAD IT, though. I had it. And then it went… What were we talking about?”

O’kabil, who had shown up as an older orcol lady wearing a silver dress with a white fur coat, said, “Explain it again, Erick. Smaller and less nuanced this time.” She took a drag of her long pipe.

All the Arbors nodded at that.

Erick succinctly said, “I took away Everbless’s toy because he was abusing the toy, and because other people need it more. And then he started crying and now there’s a minor hurricane developing across Storm’s Edge and the nearest islands. I am not going to return his toy; not yet, anyway. Other people need it much, much more than him. But, I think I want him involved with that toy, and in a very large way.” Erick said, “And also, I’ve gotten permission from Sininindi to finally interact with him, and also I want to introduce all of you to Everbless. Apologies that this meeting had to happen like this, and under these circumstances.”

Wyrmrest, who had shown up to the meeting as an elderly orcol man in a suit made of soft starlight, clarified, “And he attacked you when you threatened to keep his toy out of his roots, yes?”

The Arbors all stared at Erick; some disbelieving, others worried beyond simple words.

“Yes,” Erick said, “I didn’t fight him, but I did avoid his attacks. He destroyed a freshly-made fortress trying to get at me.”

Nosier frowned, asking, “And he knew who you were?”

“Yes.”

All the Arbors looked to each other again. Somewhere deep below the ground, their roots all tangled together, and they spoke privately about everything all the time. That conversation was likely going to last a long, long time beyond today—

O’kabil said, “I want to see him.”

The others looked to her.

Firebrand, an eye wreathed in fall-colored leaves that were also on fire, declared, “I want to see the boy as well, but not today. Not in an emergency.”

A few others agreed with that.

Wyrmrest said, “You need to be the sterner parent in this situation, Erick. You should Drain him dry. He’s a real tree, and it would simply put him into a torpor.”

Erick went a little wide-eyed at that. He knew that he might need to do that, but… “I was hoping I wouldn’t have to do that.”

None of the Arbors looked positively upon Erick’s answer.

O’kabil stood, saying, “I would take a [Gate] to him, to see the problem for myself. Perhaps there is no need to crush him under the heel of necessity.”

Wyrmrest stood, saying, “I would go as well.”

Nosier said to the group, “I have no stomach for ill-mannered arbors. I would always say that they should be spared, and that they will grow up differently, but the fact is that what an arbor is when it is young is exactly the kind of arbor they will be when they grow, and once you get to this point where they’re already speaking… You will wish you had never seen them when they were young, and you had said that they were making simple mistakes, for that will always weigh upon you when they start killing others.” He said to O’kabil and Wyrmrest, “You two should go and evaluate, and save the group the strain.”

Erick hastily added, “He’s not a bad kid. He’s just… He has some issues.”

Home said, “This prophecy of this ‘Storm not of Sininindi’s make’ could easily mean Everbless.” She added to the group, “He was ready for an introduction to us years ago, and yet the Church has said no, preventing our meeting! None of them wanted us to see what poor parenting they’re doing!”

“Wait a moment,” Erick asked, “You’ve tried to contact him before?”

Wyrmrest said, “Yes, but not seriously. We have heard that he was cognizant and we have sent representatives down there, but we have been rebuffed from more than a cursory glance at the youngling. I would have that in-depth glance now, Erick, if you would, and I would have you with us and leading the way.” He said to the others in the room, “Perhaps we should all keep our preconceived notions to a minimum, and approach this interaction with the severity and openness that it demands.”

Rapidly, many of the Arbors decided that Wyrmrest had the right of it.

Nosier said, “I don’t like it.”

He was in the minority.

And so, Erick opened a [Gate] in the room, back to Storm’s Edge, to the beach right in front of Everbless—

It was only open for a bare half-second, but that was enough, for the other side of the [Gate] was under the ocean. Saltwater rushed into the room, sweeping across the floor and splashing on everyone—

Erick shut the [Gate], and then he took control of the water that he had allowed in, [Watershape]ing it all up before he threw it through another [Gate], back into a random part of the ocean far away from Storm’s Edge.

“Sorry about that,” Erick said, as he opened up another [Gate], much higher on the beach, and only after confirming the location with Ophiel again. As rain soaked the world on the other side and the ocean crashed far below, lightning flashed across that darkened sky, and Erick said, “It appears Everbless has raised the ocean a few meters.”

Wyrmrest walked right on through. “Looks like he’s having a tantrum.”

“Thanks for coming,” Erick said, walking through, into the storm.

O’kabil followed, frowning.

- - - -

Under a darkened sky, before an ocean crashing most fiercely, Erick stood with two not-Orcols, facing a crying child who was not really a child at all. Everbless was too old to be called a child, even though he had only gained cognizance a few years ago.

Arbors aged much, much faster than people.

Everbless was a tangle of roots, like a mangrove, but also almost like a banyan, with a canopy made of lightning-filled clouds. A ring of lightning surrounded his entire upper body, like a crown buried in clouds. There was a hurricane going on, too, so if one didn’t know where to look, they might not be able to differentiate where Everbless’s canopy ended and where the storm began.

Erick and O’kabil were under their own [Weather Ward] type magics, so the rain didn’t really touch them, but Erick’s shoes were getting soaked, and O’kabil’s mist-rabbit fur coat was not as fluffy as it usually was.

Wyrmrest looked perfectly at ease under the crashing rain. His starlight suit seemed dry, even though none of him was dry at all. He stared out at Everbless, but he spoke to Erick and O’Kabil. “This is worse than I thought it would be. That temple over there— The Blue Temple, if I recall correctly— is completely submerged. I count no less than three crashed boats, and at least two major bloody incidents. Thankfully this occurred at a church, so they were prepared for it with [Water Breathing] it seems.”

Erick had to defend Everbless. “The Blue Temple is made to be flooded with people inside.”

Wyrmrest’s opinion improved, but only a little.

“They are prepared for storms; yes,” O’kabil said, “Since this is a land of storms, this is to be expected, and Everbless is a child of Storms, so this is all partially forgivable, but…” She said to Erick, “This is yet another nuanced case and I am not sure how to handle it exactly, but Everbless isn’t striking with lightning and he’s not purposefully hurting people… But this is all a terrible way for an Arbor to be.”

“This behavior is acceptable in certain ways, yes. But not as a tantrum, over having his toys taken away.” Wyrmrest said, “That is the behavior that is unacceptable. Erick.” The orcol looked down to Erick, but only a little bit, since Erick was currently the Apparent King, with his crown of black horns and body taller than usual. “This is how this should go: I want you to end the rain, and end this tantrum. Fight and win against his control. After that, if he should attack, do not protect us; these are merely conjured flesh vessels. If he should kill us, then you are to explain to him what he has done wrong, and then Drain him to a torpor. He will fight you on this and say he hates you very much, but once he is fully Drained of mana, then he will be quelled. When he wakes, he will feel refreshed. Depending on how he acts after he wakes up, we will go from there.” Wyrmrest said, “If he should talk instead of attack, then I would follow your lead.”

Erick said, “That seems appropriate, but is a Drain truly the most appropriate thing to do?”

“Yes,” Wyrmrest said, unequivocally.

O’kabil agreed, “Everbless is a real, solid tree, so a Drain would simply be putting him to bed, as you would any unruly child. You never had that option with Yggdrasil, and you didn’t need that option, either. Yggdrasil grew up well and Wyrmrest and I look forward to seeing him unsealed in the coming year, but Everbless only ever got a wild sort of upbringing and it has harmed him.”

The news of Erick unsealing Yggdrasil was still something of a worldly secret, and O’kabil erased her words from the manasphere even as she spoke them, but all the Arbors knew. More people besides them knew, as well.

Wyrmrest nodded. “I look forward to the day that Yggdrasil will truly become a member of our community, and I hope that Everbless can do the same.”

O’kabil said, “From what I am seeing Everbless has a ways to go before he could become an upstanding Arbor, so Erick, please end this travesty of a tantrum and let us commence with discipline. I pray to Sininindi that Everbless makes good decisions in the coming minutes.”

Lightning flashed across the near sky and thunder rolled across the world.

The storm surged and then recoiled by the same measure.

If that was supposed to be a sign from the Goddess of Storm and Sea then Erick wasn’t educated enough to read it like a Storm Priest or Sailor of Sininindi could. From their looks, Wyrmrest and O’kabil were similarly uneducated.

So Erick simply said, “I hope that the Arbors of Treehome can become good mentors to Everbless, as they were for Yggdrasil.”

And then he reached into the sky with Ophiels all around, and pulled.

For one terrible moment, the very world seemed too solid, too outside of Erick’s control, as though Erick was fighting a force in the very wind and storm itself. Which was exactly what he was doing. And then he flexed his [Physical Domain] through the magic in the air and he overrode the power in the sky.

With his supreme Particle understanding of the world, Erick sundered threads of golden divinity and broke goddess-empowered lightning upon the anvil of science-backed magic. In a less blasphemous sort of way, Erick merely tore apart Everbless’s [Control Weather] with his own; the original that he had planted inside of both Yggdrasil, and Everbless, back at their twin creation.

The sky cleared. Lightning settled. Rain fell, and then stopped falling.

The seas began to retreat.

To the west, the sun glowed bright red as the golden sky shimmered upon a calm, dark sea, and clouds began to stretch out from the small thunderheads they were, into great big towering stretches of white and pink and shadowed spaces, high, high above. Those clouds were thirty kilometers tall; much larger than any natural cloud could be, so they wouldn’t stay like that for long. They’d naturally turn back into rainclouds if Erick lost control of the weather at all.

[Particle Magic] couldn’t make clouds from nothing, or return them to nothing. That was one thing that divine magic could do that he couldn’t. The rain from [Rain Cloud], which was an Elemental Water and Air spell, worked completely in mana and produced rain that vanished as soon as it fell. Divine magic could do both; it could thread both normal magic and Particle Magic together, to make those clouds overhead that didn’t vanish after they were done.

There had been a few times at the beginning of Erick’s time on Veird that he had thought that gods were just very powerful mages; maybe even Wizards. But that was simply untrue. Wizards operated within their own rules, most of them secular, while gods operated on a level far beyond mortal understanding, and almost entirely within very personal spheres of influence.

Now Erick could probably do a [Duplicate] sort of grand [Create Weather] spell, but there was no need for that. Gods didn’t need to work in subtleties like that, though; not when it came to magic.

Aside from the differences in magic, the main difference between gods and Wizards was in action.

Where a Wizard would directly change the world, a god would hear prayers before bed, and then answer those prayers through subtly guiding people as those people wished, be that guidance through the glint of light from a raindrop to draw attention at the exact right moment, or through placing a rock in the path of a cart, to make an apple fall down and roll to a hungry kid’s waiting hand. Gods were more like a force multiplier on a person’s own actions, when they were able to be that way. The two gods that had bodies (that Erick knew about), Melemizargo and Rozeta, both tended to act more as gods when they could, and less like Wizards, unless they had to.

Erick’s view of gods was not normal at all, though, and he knew that.

The normal people, all across Storm’s edge, viewed the clearing sky and piled clouds as something very, very bad. The people at the submerged Blue Temple breathed easily even underwater, but they did not breathe easier as the rain ended and the water rushed out of the concentric rings of the temple, threatening to pull them out with the outgoing tide. They all knew that the storm had started unnaturally, and that it had ended unnaturally, too. With the Storm Prophecy making the rounds today, they were worried that something big was happening.

… Erick wondered if Everbless had heard that prophecy yet.

He probably had.

Maybe that’s why he had gotten so upset.

Now that Erick had forcefully quieted his sadness, though...

Everbless’s lightning ring crown flickered brighter, as though the 1,500 meter tall tree was unsure what was happening to the world around him; why his magic had been cut off. Then he startled as he realized that yes, his magic had been cut. Questing spellwork flowed out from the stormy tree and struck Erick’s various [Physical Domain]s, centered on every Ophiel all across the sky…

Everbless dimmed—

And then he flickered, furious.

A small, angry tentacled [Familiar] appeared before Erick, Ophiel, O’kabil, and Wyrmrest, there on the hill south of his harbor. ‘Gold Taker’ was a great central eye woven inside a hub of tentacles, with a few smaller eyes here and there inside his nest of a [Scry]-eye or [Avatar].

Everbless glared at Erick from ten meters away. “What you want!” He slipped in closer, stopping three meters away, yelling, “WHY YOU HERE?!”

Erick answered honestly, “I want to help the world and every individual achieve their goals in life, without myself or others harming each other in the process.” Erick asked, “What do you want out of life?”

Everbless was confused for a moment, and then he answered, “I want my dungeons!”

“Why?”

Everbless was confused again. “… Because they’re mine!”

“But there’s a prophecy that all the lives of everyone in the Archipelago will be in danger in several months, and we need those dungeons in order to keep everyone safe. Do you care about keeping people safe?”

“Yes! I care! What stupid question. Make them safe by testing them against ocean! They fail the Rules, they die, but not for real! I did good! I help others learn!” Everbless glared. “You do bad by taking dungeons from me!”

Erick nodded, and then explained, “I’m going to be working with the Regency and otherwise in order to ensure that the dungeons grow large enough to house 22.5 million people, if needed. Vanya Silver and Soltic Cross will be the dungeon masters for the dungeons. Unless something changes, all of the Aroidos will be helping to make Vanya’s vision happen. The dungeons are not your playgrounds anymore, Everbless. They are needed for the good of all.” Erick asked, “Would you like to be a part of that?”

“I am part of it! I control mana flows! I only way they survive!”

Erick nodded. “You have done a good job so far, but—”

“I do good! I know this.” Everbless sneered with all of his eyes, adopting an affectation that was strangely similar to how all nobles looked sometimes when they thought they knew more than you. He wasn’t very good at that expression, though, for he stretched out a tendril with an eye in order to look at himself. He rapidly decided that he had made the ‘face’ correctly, and then added, “I make dungeons successful. Without me, all dungeons fail! Mommy’s priests say this. Regency say this. Aroido say this, too!”

Erick continued, “… You are the only way they have been surviving these years since you’ve awoken, but did you know that in all the rest of the world, a well-maintained dungeon is self-sufficient, and actually produces more mana than it takes in?”

“The bad ones! The ones that make homes for monsters! I make no monster homes! I make monster deaths!”

Very seriously, Erick said, “The world needs that mana, Everbless.”

Everbless faltered a little at Erick’s sudden change. He was terrified of Erick, but he was being as brave as he could be. Quietly, he asked, “World needs mana?”

Pulling back a fraction, Erick said, “This world is only as stable as powerful people like you and I make it stable, and that means making life flourish in all the ways it can flourish, while ensuring that all that life doesn’t harm each other in that flourishing. So when those dungeons break due to any number of factors, monsters pour out of them, looking for better habitats, causing problems to the people outside. If the best habitat is inside the dungeons, under the eyes and power of a mature dungeon master, then there are no breaks, and no one outside needs to get hurt.”

Everbless looked a little lost at that whole idea. Quietly, he asked, “But breaks don’t matter?”

“I heard that the last time the dungeons broke it caused the deaths of 76 people.”

Everbless went still, but not scared. He looked more apprehensive than anything; not personally guilty, but guilty-by-association. “… I’m not supposed to talk about that.”

“I’m going to guess what happened, and you tell me if I’m right at all.” Erick said, “One of the Aroidos thought he was being replaced, and he went crazy, killing people and breaking the dungeon from the inside. The event might have involved multiple Aroido, and then those Aroido went down to Seafoam Manor. Those Aroido were never seen from again.”

Everbless’s eyes went wide. “YOU KNOW?” And then he narrowed his eyes. “How you know so much!?”

“An inborn curiosity about how the world works and a desire to understand others at all times. I figure out the rest along the way, and then use what I learn to try and ensure the best possible outcomes for all.”

Everbless hung in the air, looking at Erick, trying to figure him out.

Since he wasn’t saying anything, Erick gestured to his companions, asking, “Have you ever heard of the Arbors of Treehome, Everbless?”

O’kabil and Wyrmrest had stood listening to the conversation this entire time, both of them giving slight approval for Erick’s words. They were both mildly surprised that this conversation was going as well as it was, too, considering that Everbless already had a track record of killing people and he had already attacked Erick. There was also a bit of confusion for the entire conversation, as this avatar of Everbless’s was intervention’d against people knowing he was Everbless.

Mostly, there was confusion, and O’kabil and Wyrmrest both trying to overcome that confusion as fast as they could.

Everbless looked to the orcols with suddenly narrowed, hateful eyes, his voice turning harsh. “Those are Treehome Arbors!? I hate them. Make them go away.”

Ah.

Someone was badmouthing the Arbors, or something? Not Sininindi, but probably someone else.

Someone was probably badmouthing him, too, but Everbless hadn’t brought that up; he had just acted like Erick was a deathly problem all this time.

“I will not make the Arbors go away,” Erick said, “I need you to remove your intervention from both of them, so that they can fully join this conversation.”

Everbless spat, “I asked talk with them and they said too stupid to talk!”

Erick was going to metaphorically strangle someone in either the Regency, or, more likely, in the Priesthood of Sininindi. Who had done this to Everbless? Who had made him think this way about the other Arbors of the world?

… Actually, Everbless might simply be making exaggerations based on stories he had heard, or which had been told to him. One of the well known stories about the Arbors of Treehome is that they evaluated all other Arbors in the world in a loose sort of way, and if a great tree was found horribly wanting, or outright evil, then the Arbors of Treehome usually sent orcols to kill that tree and figure out what to do with the creator afterward, if the failed arbor hadn’t already killed their creator.

“I’d love to hear more about your experience with the Arbors of Treehome and otherwise. And look, they’re here now, ready and willing to talk.” Erick gestured to his companions again, saying, “This is Holy O’kabil, and Wyrmrest. They are but 2 out of 13, now that my own son Yggdrasil is one of their number. I have known them for a long time, and they helped me connect to Yggdrasil better, helping both of us learn how to be better to each other.”

“… Stupid Yggdrasil won’t answer letters, either.” Everbless exclaimed, “You stopped letters! Why you stop letters! Stupid Evil Wizard!”

… Well. Hmm.

Erick wasn’t about to badmouth the Storm Priestesses, for he was rather sure that they were to blame for this problem. Or maybe Sininindi herself had been blocking those letters from moving on, and then blaming Erick for that. Erick was rather sure that Everbless was exaggerating, too, and there was no way to know, for sure, where the exaggeration started.

“I’m here to talk now, and Yggdrasil is, too.” Erick looked up— “Ah. Here he comes.”

An iridescent white eye descended from the sky, slowly yet surely, looking a little bit embarrassed for whatever reason.

Erick said to Everbless, “Whatever has happened in the past is in the past. We’re here now, Everbless. We’re here, and though I won’t be able to stay, I can leave you connections with all the other great Arbors of the world, if you want to talk to someone your own size.” Erick smiled a little bit, saying, “And Yggdrasil is practically your brother, too, so that’s fun! Right? That’s fun.”

Everbless rolled his eye, but he was incredibly interested in Yggdrasil’s eye as Yggdrasil finally floated down to Erick’s level. Everbless tried not to stare, as he tried to be dismissive, “You’re not brother… Are you?”

“I’m not sure,” Yggdrasil said. “I am rather certain we are twins of a sort.”

“Bah! You talk like them. Fancy. Full words!”

Wyrmrest flicked his eyes toward Erick. He was annoyed, and he was finally able to overcome a little bit of the intervention in order to show his pure annoyance. He couldn’t overcome it all, though; all he could do was look at Erick and then go back to being confused.

Erick chose to speak, “Everbless. You’re going to live forever, and you’re going to share this world with Yggdrasil, and with the Arbors of Treehome. I suggest that you remove your intervention from at least Wyrmrest and O’kabil here, so that they can talk to you. They know everything there is to know about being an Arbor and can answer any question you might have on the matter.”

The sky cracked with a flash of golden lightning stretching from one oversized cloud to the next—

Everbless looked up, saying, “But moooom—”

A smaller flicker of lightning dusted across the nearest cloud.

And Everbless grumbled, before he swung in close to both O’kabil and Wyrmrest and plucked out some golden fizzes from their chests. He moved back away, quick as he could, grumbling, “Mostly broken anyway.”

Wyrmrest breathed deep, and then he declared, “It most certainly was not broken yet, young man!”

“It breaking already. Mom said it break if I broke too much.”

Something in Everbless’s words had pissed Wyrmrest off something fierce.

The starlight-suited orcol spoke with authority, “Young arbor. You are at least 4 years out from gaining cognizance, and that’s the public story. Privately, you have likely been speaking for seven years or more. You can use full sentences, and so you will. This baby-language does you no favors with me.”

“See! See!” Everbless said to Erick. “They call me stupid!”

Erick had to take a metaphorical moment, though. Was Everbless acting with his speech? All this time? He had certainly been acting when he ‘sneered’ with his [Scry] eye at Erick. How strange! How strange that Erick had missed all that, too. He actually felt a bit embarrassed that he had missed the baby-speech thing. Had he ever considered that Everbless might be acting? No, he had not; not really. But…

Without missing a beat, Erick said, “He did not call you stupid, Everbless. He merely thinks you can speak properly, and that you are choosing not to.”

Everbless frowned as much as a ball of tentacles wrapped around an eye could frown.

O’kabil spoke, “The smaller persons might be fooled into thinking you’re somehow still too young to be disciplined and treated like a full person, but Wyrmrest and I and the other Arbors of Treehome are old enough and experienced enough to see your baby talk for what it is; an attempt at shirking responsibilities. That problem leads to this: If shirking responsibilities, then how can anyone trust you with the dungeons at all?”

Everbless recoiled a little, looking actually hurt. “… People like simple talk. Treat better when simple.”

Oh man. That was a problem and a half. Erick didn’t even want to begin with that part of this problem right now, so he focused on the other half.

“I have it on good authority that the person who Sininindi sent to oversee the dungeons is a very accomplished mage, and that you can learn a lot from her,” Erick said, “But a part of learning magic is speaking well and being as precise as you can. Sometimes fewer words are better, but sometimes explanations of even a single complicated spell will take a whole day of back-and-forth lessons. If you aren’t speaking as clearly as you can, then other people might not take you seriously.”

Everbless sunk in the air, softly saying, “Mom says I can talk how I want. No one can tell me different— And the Shades speak funny so everyone knows they aren’t serious!”

O’kabil narrowed her eyes and Wyrmrest frowned. Yggdrasil’s eye went wide in complete disbelief.

Styling one’s speech patterns to those of the Shades was something only done in very specific circumstances, the main circumstance being if one was strong enough to stand up to any Shade at all, and if one had good reason to need a speech pattern to distinguish between ‘serious’ and ‘not-serious-yet’, like Killzone of Spur. But mainly, having a speech pattern that had anything at all to do with the Shades was still rather horrific.

Code switching was a thing that was valid, but to speak of Shades like this was a problem.

Before anyone could say anything against Everbless, Erick said, “I believe you’re only using that excuse because you don’t really know what it means to speak like a Shade. We’re in a ceasefire right now, and with me at the helm I hope that ceasefire turns into true repentance; A reformation of the Shades to what they were before the Sundering. But you talking like that, on purpose, without any regard for what it actually means, is a bad idea, Everbless. Unequivocally.”

Everbless scowled. “You can’t tell me what—”

“I can and I will and you will listen and do as I say when I speak to you as I am speaking now, for this world is not a world made just for you, or for me. It is a world for all of us, Everbless.” Erick said, “I will see this civilization through to the next world and the next and the next, but you are too young to know your place in that future yet, and the more you balk and winge at my simple declarations, here at the beginning, the smaller your part will be in the coming years. It’s really quite simple, Everbless. Do as I say, and you can be a part of the dungeons again. Until then, you’re out.”

The air tensed.

Everbless almost fought Erick on that—

But Everbless faltered fast, because he had some demands of his own. “Fine. I don’t like you. Go away Bad Wizard.” He looked to the orcols beside Erick, and to Yggdrasil, as he said, “I’ll talk to them.” He asked, “Fine?!””

“It’s okay if you don’t like me, but I love you, Everbless, twin to my son Yggdrasil. I’ll go away now, but not before I leave you with a small gift.” Erick reached through the air, into a portal, and he plucked out a small, portable Gate made of platinum. He held it forward, saying, “A [Scry]-Gate. If you trigger the spellwork within it will flicker some protocols at the Gate District, and summon a [Gate]. From there, you can [Scry] through that [Gate] in order to see both Yggdrasil at Candlepoint, and then, through some [Scry]-hopping through the other Gates in the district, you can look upon almost all the rest of the world.”

Everbless’s anger turned to confusion when Erick said he loved him. Confusion became wonder, before Everbless remembered that he was angry. Anger faded again under the presentation of Erick’s gift. Everbless instantly whipped a tendril out and took the little platinum ring, squirreling it away inside of his tentacle-body.

Almost nicely, Everbless said, “Thank you…” And then he narrowed his eye, saying, “I don’t love you.”

Erick chuckled a little. “That’s fine; I’ve got more than enough for both of us. See you later, Everbless.” He said to O’kabil and Wyrmrest, “Tell me when you need a lift back.”

“Won’t be necessary,” Wyrmrest said, “We can dissolve these bodies and leave.”

“I would like a return for my coat, if you could, Erick dear,” O’kabil said.

“I can do that; Father doesn’t have to,” Yggdrasil said, and then he turned to Erick. “Love you, Dad.”

Erick smiled brightly. “Love you too, son.”

Erick gave one final grin, and then he flickered brightly, lightstepping far away from that sunset cove.

He checked back on the sapient trees occasionally, there on that grassy hill above the rocky shore, while he was in meetings with the Regency’s people. The arbors seemed to get along a lot better once Erick was gone, with Everbless seeming to falter from whatever stance he had had before, all in order to pour out questions like a tidal wave. ‘What is an Arbor?’ ‘How old are you?’ ‘How big are you?’ ‘What do with people trying to swim inside roots?’

The other three answered as best they could, with Wyrmrest becoming less and less stern, and more like a grandfatherly figure as Everbless proved both his youth, and his willingness to grow past his youthful indiscretions. O’kabil was pleased as well, Erick could tell, but she was still holding back her final judgments because Everbless was a known liar… Or at least an exaggerator.

Even still, they spoke about this and that long into the night, as the stars took hold of the dark sky above, and giant clouds began to gently pour their rain far out to sea.

Yggdrasil and Everbless eventually discovered that both of them liked fish a lot, which led to a whole new conversation that Wyrmrest and O’kabil had to bow out on; they were both firmly land trees, and they only tolerated fish-talk when they had to.