Ar'Kendrithyst

Chapter 113, 1/2

The butler guided Erick past the golden gate, into the low gardens beyond where bushes and garden beds held flowers of all kinds, and fruiting trees grew in the bright, ambient light of the Palace District. The fighting Shades were past another wall and to the right side of the Palace, and Erick was worried for a second when the butler guided Erick through another gate, into the proper city of the Palace, edging closer to the fight, but the butler took Erick to the left. Shadowflames and minor comets and ice blooms quickly went out of sight, on the other side of the Palace.

Fallopolis followed for only a short more while, before declaring, “We’ve arrived! Glad I could accompany you here, Erick. See you around!” She headed back the way they had come, toward the sounds of battle.

“See you around,” Erick said, to Fallopolis’s rapidly receding form.

She turned around and waved, and then she took a dark step and was gone.

Erick turned a fraction, and looked up, to face Quilatalap. “So. Uh. What about you? Are you going this way too, or...?”

He smiled. “Yup. I sort of have a room next to yours.”

Well okay then.

Erick turned back to the butler, and resumed his walk.

- - - -

The butler guided Erick over tiny bridges where water flowed freely, and past empty roads full of overlooks and nice little spaces for tea or breakfast. There were few visible shadelings, or anyone, actually, except for the automatons that stood like statues here and there in organized pairs, or quads. There were probably servant’s passages for the people? Erick wasn’t sure. He did look closely at the shadows, though. Usually, he could tell if someone was in them, because Meditation revealed some of the underlying structure of magic. It wasn’t Mana Sight, but it wasn’t nothing, either.

There were no people in those shadows. So either they were hiding rather well, or there were hidden passages in the Palace. Erick bet on hidden passages.

Eventually, the butler’s guidance ended at a small golden gate in the inner curtain wall to the back left of the Palace. Here lay a nice green land with a small pond, a myriad of grey stone walkways, and wild, yet obviously manicured and well-kept grasses and ‘wild’ flowers. Oak-like trees provided shade to a pond and a few other picturesque places, while the sounds of running water revealed the presence of streams before Erick could see them.

And in the center of all that, was a two-story grey stone cottage with a high-peaked roof and a short tower, that also had a peaked roof. It had some nice windows all around and a nice little porch in the front that faced the Palace.

And Quilatalap was right behind Erick.

The butler stepped onto the cottage’s property, then lowered his arm toward the house, saying, “Your bags are already inside, Archmage Flatt. Your personal butler is also inside, waiting to receive you.” He turned to Quilatalap. “I have been informed that you have guests, too.”

“I wonder who they are?” Quilatalap happily said to himself.

Erick looked to the archlich, and was concerned, for a myriad of reasons. Was he really rooming with this guy?

Quilatalap smiled at Erick, saying. “You can pick whatever room you want. I usually take the top floor main bedroom, but there’s another main bedroom on the lower floor. You can have the tower this year.”

This might as well happen! Everything was odd, and this might as well be odd, too.

Erick walked forward, saying to the butler, “Thank you.”

The butler simply bowed as Erick passed by, but Erick noticed that the man paid almost no deference to the archlich; he rose at Erick’s passing, and didn’t bother to say or even look favorably upon Quilatalap. Erick ignored, but cataloged, whatever drama that was, as he turned his attentions to Ophiel. Ophiel fluttered out into the grasses and the waters and began inspecting everything, both for Erick, and for himself.

“Soooo…” Erick said, making some small talk as they walked up to the house. “You stay here every year?”

“This is where I stay when I’m visiting Brightwater for whatever reason there might be for me to be in this District.” Quilatalap said, “But the Feast hasn’t been held in the Palace in twenty years. Not everyone is staying on site, either.” He gazed up at the house, smiling, saying, “I don’t get out here near often enough, so it’s nice to see this place looking well.”

The front door opened before Erick got too close, and a fast, poised pair of human corpses, one man, one woman, stepped out to either side of the entrance. Both of them had glowing blue eyes. Both of them wore dark robes. Both of them regarded Erick, instantly dismissed his presence, then locked onto the man behind Erick. Erick, for his part, sort of just froze. When he realized he stupidly froze, he forced himself to try to relax as he looked for a way to get out of whatever was happening here.

Both animated corpses exclaimed, “Mast—!”

Quilatalap interrupted the two newcomers, sighing out, “What are you two doing here.”

The man exclaimed, “We wish to learn again, Master!”

“We want to do better!” said the woman. “We can do better!”

While Quilatalap just frowned at the pair, Erick kinda, just, stood off to the side, not knowing what all this was about, not wishing to be involved, and yet not seeing an immediate way out of this. He was surrounded on all sides. He’d have to walk across the wild grasses to get away, and that seemed like a bad idea for some reason.

And then a meek-looking incani woman with big black horns and dark skin came out of the house, shoving the other two aside. Okay. Maybe not so meek. The two undead just looked at her, angrily.

This newcomer wore a sleek black business outfit with white accents, while her eyes were red and black. Now that she was known, she only had eyes for Erick, as she said, “Greetings, Archmage Flatt. I am your butler for the duration of your stay, and though I have been charged with keeping you safe and seeing to your needs, the last moment adjustments to the plan, which included a switch of location to Quilatalap’s abode, has allowed others into a space that should have been yours alone. Please excuse my inability to clear out the corpses.” Without acknowledging Quilatalap at all, she said to Erick, “Your bags have been deposited in your bedroom.” She stepped back into the house, offering Erick an out to whatever the corpses wanted, as she asked, “Would you care for a tour of the facilities? Or to see your rooms?”

Erick glanced to the undead, then said to Quilatalap, “I’ll leave you to your students, then,” as he walked forward, toward the door, saying, “I would love to see—”

The undead man said, “You do not deserve to be in his presence—”

Erick got too close to the man. He realized that as it happened, and even though he had a clear way forward.

The man went to shove Erick, to bar his entry, but three things happened very fast. Erick put up a thin shell of sunform, and that should have been enough. But then the incani woman’s dark eyes went wild as she saw the open palm aiming for Erick. She did something too fast to see; the man’s arm separated at the elbow, and the wrist and hand went away. The body part went somewhere, Erick couldn’t tell, because then Quilatalap got involved.

The undead man gained a hole through his center that rapidly expanded. Ribs, bones, spine, robe, and guts, all of that turned to a fine mist that billowed away from Erick, scattering red onto the white flowers near the house. The undead man’s head remained. That part of him bobbed in the air, as the light in his eyes went out.

Erick froze in his tracks.

The man’s head floated to Quilatalap’s hand. He held it up, and frowned, saying, “You and I are going to have a talk.” He looked to the undead woman, and his kind eyes were, for the first time, less than kind. “You, too.” To Erick, he mentioned, “See you at the opening ceremony in a few hours.” And then he walked down a path that led around the house.

The undead woman followed, like a silent mouse, or a very chastised child.

After a few steps, Quilatalap set the head in his hands into the air. A body reformed under the head. The remade man was naked, and skinny, but he didn’t look dead anymore. Color returned to the man’s body, as he fell in line with the woman, as they both followed Quilatalap’s march around the corner, out of sight.

Erick turned to face the incani butler. “That was impressive. You cut right through that guy’s arm.”

The woman stood straighter. “Thank you, sir.” She backed up into the house, again.

Erick allowed himself to be led into her vacancy, to step into the doorway, and into the foyer. His first impression of the place was that it was rather humble. And kinda nice. Nice stone walls and dense wooden floors and comfortable furniture. He turned back to the woman, who was herself comfortable, in an odd sort of way. Maybe it was the fact that she wasn’t a shadeling, and that threw Erick for a loop.

“What’s your name?”

“Violet, sir.”

“Do you work for Queen, or what?”

“I do, sir.”

“How long have you been here at the Palace?”

“Born and raised, sir.”

Erick looked to the incani woman with a whole new appreciation in his eyes, and said, “I think I’m gonna want a lot of information from you about everything that is going on around here, including: How is working for them? Is that normal?”

Violet bowed, then raised, saying, “This is why I was assigned to you, sir. But—” She indicated the grandfather-ish clock to the left, on the other side of a sitting area. “But the Opening Ceremony is scheduled to begin in one hour and thirty four minutes, and Queen has tasked me with getting you ready. I have gone through your clothes and set out the appropriate ones, as well as set out three outfits made for you, by Queen, in the proper style that should fit you well, should you choose to wear them. Your own clothes are only marginally approved.”

Erick smirked. He joked, “I paid almost 95,000 gold for those clothes! And from a world-renowned tailor, too!”

Violet bowed, saying, “Marginal is among the best qualifiers Queen gives.”

“Out of a list how long?”

“It varies, sir.”

“Fair enough.” Erick said, “Show me to my room, please. Mustn't keep royalty waiting!”

“I understand you are joking, sir, but these are true words.”

- - - -

Erick’s room was beyond the foyer, to the right, beside the entrance to the tower. Both his room and the tower had large windows with nice views of the crystal mountains to the south of the Palace, where streams fell from thirty kilometers up and hit a hundred patches of green on their ways down. The room itself was comfortably appointed, with a large bed in the center of the room, an open closet, and its own bathroom, complete with a bathtub and all the proper amenities to make this a high-class place. Erick inundated the room with tendrils of light, checking everything, from every angle. When that search returned nothing, he threw a [Cascade Imaging] into the center of the room, to form an eighth-scale map of the house. He wasn’t searching for anything in particular, for searching for something as nebulous as ‘traps’ would give no results. He was mainly just searching for the layout of the place. In this, he was successful, but the place was pretty darn normal, as far as Erick could tell. Rooms. Bathrooms. Hallways. From all angles, this place was just a house.

But about forty meters down, there was water and crystal under the veneer of the land the Palace, and this house, was built upon. Erick’s mapping showed lots of hidden places down there, in the brightwater.

Violet watched from the entrance, her eyes firmly directed toward the clothes she had set out. Erick would get to those soon enough. He thought the black robes were a bit much, but they were better than the rainbow ones, and certainly better than the all-white ones. Oh, there was no direct problem with them. Erick could even see himself wearing the rainbow ones as a gag, and having fun with it. That wasn’t the problem, at all.

He supposed he was done with his investigations. He turned to the robes, and decided to address the problem. “Are these really the approved options?” Erick had expected a certain amount of pushiness from Queen and all the rest, and he even expected her to go through all of his clothes, but to so blatantly pick out what he wore seemed to cross a line Erick didn’t know he had. And there was another problem. “Where are my own grey robes? I liked those ones. I know I had some of those in my bags, but they are absent from the closet. In fact, all my grey clothes are gone. The only ones I have are the ones I have on myself, right now.”

Violet bowed, then walked away. In four seconds, she entered a room on down the hallway, then came back with the grey robes, saying, “Queen would prefer you pick something more definitive than grey. In her words, grey is a spineless, muddled color.”

Erick frowned as he took his robes, and tossed them on the bed behind him. “Is this Feast going to be a hundred little power plays like this, Violet?”

“Yes, sir.”

“I noticed that this house was grey. Does that mean she thinks Quilatalap is spineless?”

“It is much more complicated than that, but yes, sir.”

“… Why is Quilatalap spineless?”

“Because he refuses to take the final steps and become a Shade.”

“Then I think I will wear nothing but grey this entire time.”

“That is your choice, sir, but I would advise against it.”

Erick frowned. “Why?”

“Queen is not a bad person, but she has certain tics that set her off. The argument of grey is an old one when it comes to her and Quilatalap, but she’s mostly over it. This doesn’t mean that she approves of the color. You wearing grey to the start of this important event would start you and her off on the wrong path. If you capitulate to this desire of hers, going forward will be a lot easier for you and for me.”

“Explain this aversion to grey.” Erick wondered if it had something to do with Queen’s prismatic nature, or perhaps it had something to do with the greys of shadeling eyes. Or maybe something else?

“I cannot, for I do not know.”

“Speculate?”

“I will not, for I do not wish to be removed from employment.”

“Does that mean you will be killed if you displease Queen?”

“No. It means I will likely move to the Temple District, which is where my boyfriend lives.”

“… Fine.” Erick looked to the clothes laid on the bed. “In certain other circumstances, I would love to wear rainbows, but not here, and not now. So… Black. I guess.”

“Do you require assistance putting it on?”

“I do not.” Erick said, “Thank you, Violet. That is all.”

Violet bowed, then walked away. Erick shut the door.

Erick expended an Ophiel, propping up a [Prismatic Ward] into the room, the bedroom, and the closet, sticking the edges of the protected space into the walls, but no further. And then he poked around everything again, checking for holes or empty spaces in the dense air. He even lifted the bed up with his sunform. The thing looked to weigh a literal ton, since it was made of logs and sized to an orcol, but it was no match for Erick’s light. With over 200 Strength, he probably could have lifted it by hand, too, but that would have likely broken something.

There were no empty spaces in the dense air. When a dozen seconds of a [Cleanse Aura] elicited no thick air from anything, Erick dismissed his conjured armor and stripped, taking off his belt, but leaving on his rings.

It was stupid to take off his belt in an environment like this, but if they wanted to kill him, they would have done so already. So Erick decided to enjoy himself.

Standing there, naked, he decided he needed a bath. He’d been up for almost a full 24 hours at this point, and [Cleanse] was just beginning to feel like it wasn’t enough to feel clean. He stepped into the bathroom, and happily allowed three Ophiel into the room with him. They chirped in happy violins to be allowed into such a hallowed space.

Turning on the water, the bathtub filled up rather fast. According to Erick’s previous Imaging, the pipes to this house, and this room, were coming from the Palace. Maybe shadelings used the pipes as hidden passages? Eh. Whatever. The [Prismatic Ward] would block most intruders; it was worth over 100,000 points of defense, too.

But, like, did that much defense even fucking matter, when it came to rooming with an archlich?

Probably not.

Oh well! If they wanted to kill him, they would have!

Erick set his worries aside for a minute, because inside the dense air of his rooms, only the most dangerous could get inside, and what was the point of worrying, then? He still turned off the water and threw another [Cleanse] into the bath before he got in, though. No telling what sort of poisons could be in that water. Everything was getting a [Cleanse] before it went into his body, or touched his flesh, while he was on this trip. The [Cleanse] on the water turned up nothing. Erick felt a bit better about everything.

After a good soak to ease the tension in his shoulders, and a nice scrub with some soaps he had brought with him, that Violet or someone else had put in the bathroom, Erick [Watershape]d himself dry and went out into his room.

He put on the black robes, and then he looked in the convenient mirror next to the door.

He did not like the black robes. Not with his eyes as white as they were, nowadays. He switched to the white robes. With his hair combed and his robes fit, Erick put his belt back on and looked in the mirror. This was better. With some thin, yet strong conjured undergarments, both boxerbriefs and undershirt, Erick finished off his outfit with some conjured boots. None of those conjurings would do much with regard to actual defensive measures versus the big threats he had seen, but they would be fine for other, smaller threats…

“… If there were any smaller threats,” Erick mumbled.

Did those corpses count as smaller threats?

Probably not. Violet was likely a threat, but she seemed more like a spy than an actual, physical danger.

Erick looked to the clock in his room. It was half an hour till the start of Shadow’s Feast. He had been here for almost 24 hours, meaning that 1 hour would have passed outside of Ar’Kendrithyst. The sun had set when he had entered the Dead City, but by now it was truly night out there, for tonight, even the moons were dark.

He briefly tried to telepathically connect to Jane, to Poi, to Kiri, to anyone he knew, but he got nothing; they weren’t out of range, but they were still out of reach. Killzone had told Erick to expect this, but it was still disappointing.

Erick exited his room. Violet waited at the end of the hall, but at Erick’s appearance, she came to attention. After a moment, Quilatalap stepped around the corner.

“Ah!” He said, “We good? We ready?”

Erick said, “Ready as ever. Or… Should I eat something, first?”

Quilatalap said, “The Telling only takes an hour and that’s a serious event, but there’s food and mingling afterward at the First Indulgence, and you might be able to relax a little. Tania will introduce Bulgan to the Clergy at that time, for this is his first year as a Shade, but other than that, the Indulgences are not formal at all, and everyone always brings guests.” He asked, “You’ve been up for a while. Are you good to go another full day?”

“Yes.” With his high Vitality and Immunity to Health Fatigue, Erick could stay awake for three days, no problem, but he didn’t want to. He hoped he wouldn’t have to, either.

“Good.” Quilatalap said, “There’s a rest after the first party. You can sleep on the third day.”

- - - -

Past a twist in the outer roads looping around the Palace, down a dark lane, in a certain place, there is a gate of black stone set into the curtain wall that nominally separates the Palace from the outside world. It is not a tall wall, and they are not tall doors, but they are still imposing. Black fangs extend from that door, and continue left and right along that curtain wall. This is the only place that has such decorations. The rest of the Palace is all about grandeur and brightness and airy beauty. This is a place of hard truths, and gnashing teeth. One might find other such places all throughout Ar’Kendrithyst, but this is the one that was active, on this night.

The door is open; split down the center, the two halves swung inward.

Beyond that door, lies a flooring of dark stone tiles scattered about, that supports dark pillars that reach up to nothing but empty air. This dark space dominates an otherwise pleasant field of wild flowers of every color, and lush green grasses, while the crystal mountain to the south stretches directly up to the sky, so far, far above, and far away. Rivers flow down upon that impressive crystalline height to touch upon more wild green spaces. This is a cultivated, wild space. Or maybe it is one that was broken long ago. Or maybe, this was the finished structure.

The dark flooring of this space does not form an organized square upon which the pillars rise to an organized roof, but the flooring is certainly made of square tiles. None are broken. All are polished to a harsh shine. And while there is a large, central area of black tiles, the edges of this space are not so easily defined by any simple shape. In many places, the tiles go off into the flowering field, and though there is no apparent design, there is the feeling that those spaces are just waiting for the right moment to come alive.

The pillars are not set to support any roof, either. They’re scattered about, like trees in a forest that have been burned black by a fire, and left in the ground. But they are not weak; thinking that a push would topple them would be a foolish thought. Their bottoms are wider than their tops, and though they might actually be obelisks, they are missing the final pyramid-peak common to those items; the tops are flat, as though waiting for something to be placed there. They’re polished to a high-shine, too.

This is not a wild space, though the strange architecture and the wild fields beyond might make it appear that way to some. If one were to look closely, they would see that the wild grasses grow over the edges of the black tiles, but they are trimmed to keep the dark stone flooring empty, and waiting.

It is in this space, where almost fifty Shades, and Quilatalap, have gathered.

And then there’s Erick.

Mercifully, Erick has traversed the Hell that is ‘Panic’.

He is currently in the embrace of ‘Acceptance’, the tendrils of ‘Whimsy’, and with a foot firmly planted in ‘Horny’.

- - - -

Introduction to Shade society had gone as well as Erick could have expected, in that there had been no introduction at all. Erick followed Quilatalap to the odd pavilion-like area, and then they waited, while the Shades talked to each other, and not at all to either Erick, or Quilatalap. Fallopolis winked at him, though, then went right back to talking to some other Shades.

There was no blood, unless you counted the blood dripping off of that guy over there. There was no death, unless you counted the rather tall floating fellow, with every part of him made of either long bones, or floating black cloth. Almost no one cared to look Erick’s way, so he was free to look upon whoever he wished, and oh my, what sights there were! At least ten women had their righteous boobs on display. In dresses, in blouses, in corsets and otherwise. One was even topless, with her prodigious assets buoyed on clouds.

And get a load of that lady, right beside the topless one! Big as cantaloupes! Those tits were overflowing her barely-there black dress that was likely made out of shadows, and nothing else.

And the men! The men, or at least those who cared to put themselves on display, did so with gusto. Erick didn’t really care for the guy, but Hollowsaur was wearing a black satin loincloth that made him look like a porn star waiting to take the stage. Maybe his kilt had been burned or blown up? Whatever the case, he wore more than an incani man who simply wore a sock.

A woman snatched the sock off of the man, and then the man was wearing nothing.

He didn’t seem to mind.

Ah. He could be a pornstar, too. No one needs a dick that big. It’s Blood Magic, right? He had to have had some work done. At that thought, Erick looked to the other people in the crowd. They likely all had work done. Blood Magic could do that, right? Yeah. It could.

And then the skeleton-person was floating to Erick. He? She? They were the first person to do so. Erick had noticed the skeleton when he arrived, but now, he saw the white orb in their empty chest, the way the black cloth held onto flesh that was not there, and the white stars in their empty eye sockets.

“Hello!” Erick happily said to the skeleton, not sure of what else to say.

With a melodious, feminine voice, the skeleton, who definitely seemed like a woman, said, “Hello, Erick. A pleasure to meet you. I’m Priestess. Have you heard of me before?”

Erick wracked his brain for a moment, before saying, “Yes! Killzone mentioned you; yes. You try to convert people, but you never kill, and you rarely show yourself.”

She chimed a pleasant laugh, then said, “Yes; that is me. I am glad that Killzone has given me such a glowing recommendation. I shall have to leave a gift waiting for him at Forward Base.” She added, “I am glad you have chosen to attend the Feast on your first year on Veird. It means much for your future that you have come to us so quickly in your journey.”

“… Uh? Okay?”

“And you’re wearing white! It’s a good color for the Fire of the Age. Your brightness fills the world, and empowers all others to reach a little higher and to cast a little deeper; to truly embrace magic.” Priestess sighed, happy, as she said, “And you even chose the harmonic path! It is a rare one that can make that work, who can call upon ritual and enact their will upon the world. You do this priestess proud.” She added, “Now you just need to free yourself from the constraints of the Script, and choose your true Wizardly Path.”

“What?” Erick found himself walking right into Priestess’s mini-sermon, as he said, “What do you mean? Wizardly Path?”

“The Script is a noose that lifts you up while it chokes you out of true power. Since everyone can do Particle Magic, this is not True Wizardry. True Wizardry breaks the mold and remakes the world. It is unique to the individual. Creation, Destruction, and Paradox, all in one power. You would know your Wizardry if you saw it, and you have not seen it, have you?” Her voice took on a careful edge, as she said, “The first signs of your Wizardry would have appeared as Darkness to everyone else, but to you, it would have appeared as something else.”

Erick stumbled on his words, saying, “I don’t… I don’t think so?”

The skeleton breathed in, then out, seeming to relax, even though she had no visible lungs; the white orb in her chest did briefly glow brighter. “That is good to hear. You have likely used up some of your power to establish Particle Magic, but that is no bother.” She lifted her arms to her sides, just a bit. “I have some ideas for your Wizardry if you wish to speak to me about that. I will be here all week. I would love a private chat.”

Erick looked around. “Here, here?”

“My place is usually in the Temple District.” The Priestess said, “But for the duration of the Feast, I am here, in this humble place of worship, to hear and speak with whoever might wish to converse. I could also give you a personal visit, if that is more of a comfort to you. Aside from the holy duty of guiding people to the Dark, I administer the Tellings.” She glanced behind Erick, adding, “And it seems it is almost time for the First Telling. Hello, Queen.”

Erick turned, and saw a glamazon rainbow bride. Her skin was the palest violet, but her horns, her hair, and her eyes, were white, and glowing. Oh. No. Not white. Iridescent. A constellation of silver sat upon her head, behind her crown-like horns; a tiara made of stars. Her dress was rather ostentatious with all of its white layers, but as she moved, color appeared in that white, too. She was practically a hidden rainbow.

And she was looking at Erick.

Queen smiled, and it only added to her radiance. “Hello, Erick. A pleasure to meet you. I am glad you picked the white.” She turned to the Priestess. “That is everyone.”

The floating skeleton sighed a little, then said, “It’s not everyone, but it is a fair share. And it is time.”

“Better turnout this year than most years.” Queen regarded Quilatalap, losing some of her radiance in the process. “Quilatalap. I trust your home is up to standards?”

Quilatalap took the obvious hostility in stride, saying, “Of course it is. Thank you, Queen.”

She turned to Erick. “If you wish for other protections, I can get them for you. Just say the word.”

“I’m already moved in, but thank you.”

Queen took the rejection in stride, saying, “Very well.” She looked to Priestess.

Priestess’s core glowed bright for a second, pulsing out a brief wave of minuscule power. All talking in the strange pavilion ceased. Priestess slowly turned away from Erick, to regard the crowd, as they regarded her. Someone gave the sock back to the one dude and he stuffed his junk back into it, as he winked at Erick, who was fine with looking if the dude was fine with showing. Behind Erick, Violet and a few other butlers grabbed the dark door and walked out, closing shut the ceremonial space with a whispered ‘click’. Though Erick and the Shades and everywhere here were technically outside, and there were no true walls, the closing of those doors still felt ominous.

Priestess began floating through the gathered congregation. The Shades parted for her walk, as she began speaking, “The time is nigh. The sun has set.”

Every single Shade responded, “The time to break and make is met.”

Erick almost counter-cursed, but he dared not open his mouth.

So instead, he felt the world seeming to shift under his feet. Nothing moved, but everything changed. The brightness of the Brightwater, on the other side of the Palace, dimmed. The crystal mountain in the distance became something darker, and from one moment to the next, the waterfalls began running black as ink. Darkness moved in. And then a bit of light came back, as the flowers all around began to glow; bioluminescent.

Priestess hovered further into the air as she floated past the congregation. She took her spot in the southernmost part of the area. All eyes were on her, and on the air around her. Images appeared in the sky, as she began to narrate a story Erick had never heard before.

Erick was transported, maybe not in body, but in mind, to another world, another time, another place.

“In the beginning, there was Darkness.

“Endless! Boundless! Chaos without measure. Chaos without substance.

“No Light. No Stone. Nor Air, nor Water, nor Fire. No Souls. No Order at all.

“But then! There came another. A brilliance upon the Darkness. A change upon the unchanging. A solidification of Chaos into something else. Something Ordered. Hear his name, and give prayer to the fallen: Xoat! The First Wizard.

“Xoat! Xoat! Xoat!

“The Primal Spark!

“The Fire of the Age!

“The First Wizard God. And yet, he was none of that at all, for he was never given a chance.

“Neither true wizard, nor true god, Xoat lived and died in Darkness.

“And the Darkness bore witness, for when Xoat came into being, everything changed.

“Darkness had never seen anything like Xoat before. Darkness wanted Xoat to happen again.

“And so, Darkness took Xoat’s corpse and made the First Cosmology. Bones became Stone. Breath became Air. Stilled movement was driven to move again, becoming Fire, while blood became Water. A soul was sundered into a million mirrors, creating the first bit of mana in the universe, in an attempt to create another Xoat. And yet, despite the powers of Pure Darkness, it was not enough. Xoat was dead. And there would never be another like him.

“Stone did not move on its own. Air did not move through dead lungs. Fire gave warmth to nothing, while Water sloshed, and stilled once again. He tried combining the Four Elements, but Ooze only wobbled. Plasma and Rain were pretty, but were not much more than that. Sand and Steam were less than useful, while Magma seemed nothing more than a source of deep Fire.

“And so, Darkness tried something else.

“The souls had wandered around, doing nothing, but now, He forced those souls into the pieces of the First Cosmology He had created, and thus, there was sentient movement, for the first time. Mana, given form! Mana, turned to life!

“Darkness had created the first Ancients, and the first elementals. But these were not like Xoat. Though Darkness had spent little time with the First Wizard, He knew what He had created was not like what He had discovered.

“And so, Darkness worked a bit more, not sure what was happening, or where He was going wrong.

“Out of these second ministrations came Gloom, and Swamp, and Abyss, and Ash. Out of this trial, came the Second Cosmology. Primordial Elementals remade existence into their own images, but they cared not for Darkness. They were automatons, and they were boring.

“These things He had made were not clever. They acted on instinct. They were sentient, and they were varied, but they were not sapient. Their souls were dull, and they created nothing but what was already there. And when He tried to create more complicated lives, they perished, for unknown reasons.

“Darkness was missing something essential.

“After thinking for a long time, Darkness realized he was missing something that was not Darkness, for Xoat had stilled when he had appeared out of the Chaos. All complicated life perished in Pure Darkness.

“Darkness had the question, and the answer, and now, He simply searched for the solution.

“He found the answer to His problems at the most obvious of places: Xoat’s corpse.

“But these pieces were already used by the Second Cosmology, and so, He struck down automatons and useless attempts at life. And when He was done, there was not much left of His Second Creation, but He had managed to cobble together Xoat’s eyes, and ears, and brain, and most of his body.

“He took these pieces into himself.

“Thus, Darkness imbued the First Dragon, and the First Dragon was something other than Darkness. And yet, the First Dragon was also complicated life, and also able to survive in the Pure Darkness.

“Success!

“And also, terror.

“Darkness saw himself, from both angles. The Dragon was frightened. The Darkness was intrigued. The Darkness was frightened. The Dragon was intrigued.

“For in looking upon Himself, He saw what Xoat saw, which was nothing. All was destruction. All was Darkness.

“But then, He also saw the Fire upon the remnants of the Second Cosmology. How it lit up the Endless. How it enabled life in the pitiful wreckage of His Second Attempt. This Fire was the solution. But it was not perfect. It was weak. Something was missing.

“Darkness pulled Himself away from the Fire, to better let it grow and move, and in doing so, He birthed the final necessity to life.

“Light!

“Brilliant! Radiant! Incandescent!

“With the final piece of the Puzzle of Life assembled, and the First Dragon to forge the way, to guide the elemental life that would come, and to create more complicated life, life began to spread and flourish and populate the universe. But that story is getting ahead of ourselves.

“It was in this earliest time of the new Third Cosmology that the First Dragon met the Second Dragon, in the depths of Darkness. But that is a story for another day.

“For now, it is enough to know that the Dragons gave birth to the First People with true souls, the first life outside of the elementals, and though they were not dragons themselves, these First People multiplied more than any other. With the Dragons to oversee them, Those Who Aspire began to populate the First Plane. The first world of the Third Cosmology.

“Darkness looked on the First Plane from the depths of the Void, and declared it good.

“These new ‘people’ were not Xoat, but in time, more Wizards would come from those who He begat, from the dragons and the people, to forge more lands, to create more air, to fill more oceans, and to light the skies. They would open the paths through the mana ocean, carving the ways out past that First World, to the Second, and the Third, to spread among the glittering Darkness, to bring forth Order from Chaos, and to cause Chaos all their own. But we are getting ahead of ourselves, again.

“For there was a problem.

“The First World was good, but Darkness wanted to be with us, and He could not. For as how Xoat had died inside the Darkness, Darkness overpowered all that He touched.

“And lo! He already had a solution.

“He was both the Darkness, and the Dragons. It was a simple matter to shift himself toward the flesh and power of His progeny, to become something lesser, in order to gain something more.

“And thus, Shadow was born. A mixing of Pure Light and Pure Darkness. A middle path. A way forward! The Dragon God was born. In His wisdom, He descended to us. He guided. He helped. He showed the way through the mana, and how to control the mana itself. He raised the first Wizards. He showed us the first river running through the Mana Ocean. He gave us the first boats, and showed us how to create new lands out of the mana.

“And thus, was born the Third Cosmology.

“And for a few precious moments, Existence was Balanced, for the first and only time in all of eternity.

“And then it broke into pieces, because the people and Wizards therein desired this, but that was expected. Balance was stagnation, and Darkness had to break the balance of Himself in order to get anywhere with His Creations. It was only right and good that His children would do the same.

“And Darkness was happy, for He could already see new Wizards being born in this Third Cosmology. New voices, to raise to the Darkness, so that He might speak to them, to join in Holy Thought, and Holy Action. To Create! To Destroy! To bring about new worlds, and new civilizations! To twist the Chaos and Elements into Order. To break Elements and Order into Chaos. To create new life! new possibility!

“For He desired it.

“And He would be there to see it all unfold, from behind the eyes of His children, to greet the new Wizards, to teach them magic, and help them forge everything that had yet to exist. And when Wizards did not come, He would still be there to help the nascent mage learn the possibilities of magic, to help them practice their craft, to expand upon what had already been laid down by himself, and by the Wizards of the past. He would even help the apprentice, and the priest. The governor and the governed. Any who touched mana, who reached for Darkness, were welcome to try their hand at the monumental Path of the Creator, the Path of the Destroyer, or the Path of the Paradox.

“And when He could not be there directly, He would still be present behind the eyes of His Shades, to guide, and to take part, in the glory that is life.”

The sermon ended.

The black pavilion was now full of conjured illusions holding in the air above every obelisk; images of the past, to better illustrate the story told by the Priestess. In the beginning of her speech, a few Shades had helped conjure those images. Everything was going exactly as it should.

And then the Priestess spoke of Xoat like he was a planar, just popping into existence where nothing had existed before. Erick stood stunned. A few other Shades showed their disbelief, too.

And then the Priestess spoke the words that struck Erick to his core, like a spear through his heart, he was no longer stunned, but poleaxed. The Priestess had called Xoat the Fire of the Age.

And every single Shade had flinched at that. The Shades who were helping to conjure images even flinched. They had not been let in on her revelations. She was obviously going off script. Some of the Shades turned to Erick at that moment, their eyes wider than normal. Fallopolis, who somehow moved to stand beside Erick, to flank him with Quilatalap, was openly weeping tears of light as the Priestess barreled on.

The Priestess was now conjuring all the images in the sky on her own; her helpers stood back, not knowing what to do, except to glance from her, to Erick, and then back again.

For a long minute, the Priestess conjured the story on her own. And then her helpers regained themselves. They helped create images again. The Shades whispered amongst their small groups. The Priestess continued to talk.

Erick realized something deep in his soul. He found himself whispering, “This is the normal story. The one told every year, except…” He couldn’t say the words.

Quilatalap smiled, wide and happy, his lower fangs showing as he whispered, “Except now everyone knows what a ‘Fire of the Age’ truly is.” He chuckled, low and fulfilled, then added, “This makes you the first True Fire I’ve ever seen.”

The Priestess continued her sermon. Eventually, she finished. The sky brightened as light returned to the dark congregation. The rivers on the mountain flowed water, instead of shadows. The flowers lost their glows. Most people spoke amongst themselves, or stared at Erick. Or maybe they were sizing up Fallopolis on his right, and Quilatalap at his left; it was hard to tell with their eyes so white.

The Priestess spoke, “Some of you might have noticed a change in the sermon.”

Someone commented, “That’s a fucking understatement.”

A lot seemed to agree with that, as murmurs carried on the air.

Priestess continued unabated, “I’m sure you have questions. I will answer none of them at this time. But I will give you some information: I was briefed on this change of the Telling as of ten hours ago by Tania, and then a few hours ago, by Melemizargo Himself, when He came to me after Erick called to Him in the Spire. We thought we knew what Erick’s designation as a Wizard and as the Fire of the Age meant. We were wrong.” With her starbright eye sockets radiating light, she said, “The Fire of the Age is so much more, and I will be doing my part to ensure that whatever may happen, happens as our God demands.”

In the brief lull of the Priestess’s words, Tania Webwalker stepped into the air, demanding attention with her presence alone. She spoke, “Erick. Take a break. We all need to talk. The Feast is delayed.”

Quilatalap said, “Of course.”

“I’m coming, too,” Fallopolis said.

Tania spoke out, “Fine. Both of you, go.”

“I expected this to be over, not to have a meeting.” Queen’s voice rose above the crowd, “I need to check on the party.”

An incani man dressed in black said, “How can you fucking care about the fucking party now? Fuck.”

The Librarian spoke on the other side of the room, “Some of us knew enough to know this was a possibility.” She looked to Tania, saying, “I didn’t think it was quite like that, but it makes sense.”

A goldscale woman shouted, “Some of us have lives outside of the Library, psycho!”

As Shades began arguing and Tania stood in the air over it all, growing obviously angrier by the second, Erick found himself escorted out of the congregation.