Chương 145: 103, 2/2

Ophiel descended onto the blackened Farms, where ash piled deep, and violet eels had been burned alongside all the other greenery. Not much had survived the fiery purge. The rice paddies were completely gone. The wheat fields were laid low. The infestation must have been a lot worse than Erick had seen, for as he flew over the destruction, he saw that a field of potatoes, a plot of corn, and several trees were the only sections that had been saved.

They were sections that had been furthest from the lake, without attachment to the ditches that had been filled with eel water. Erick looked down from above, and saw that three of those rescued trees were children of the Myriad Citrus, and that was nice. They had been planted beside an orchard of apples, and they looked rather good in that location, since these non-myriad citrus only produced blood oranges, with the same red skin to match. They almost looked like apple trees, but not quite.

It was a shame that they were nothing like their multi-fruited progenitor, and might never be anything like the Myriad Citrus. But oranges were still good. Everyone liked oranges. Everyone liked apples, too. Every farmer was partaking of those fruits they had saved, while waiting for Erick to show. Several people were eating those blood oranges. Valok was one of them. Ophiel flew closer.

"Hello, Valok, everyone." Valok tossed the red peel into a stone bucket, then wiped his hands on his rough pants, saying, "Erick. Good timing. We just finished with the fourth burn and till." That's why Erick had come here; he had noticed they had finished. Valok said, "We need a [Cleanse] over the land. It'll take an hour to plant the seeds, and then we'll need some exalted rain." Others noticed Ophiel, and stepped closer, but Valok was the only one who spoke." Of course!"

Erick called in a few more Ophiel from around the city, to fly across the ashy land. They released [Mirage Slime]s to automatically [Cleanse] the fields, to clean away ash and charred eel corpses. Erick asked, "Did you all hear about Ava, yet?" It had only been ten minutes, at the most, but Erick knew that word of these sorts of things spread very fast. Valok frowned. No one said a word to Ophiel, but everyone watched, intently. Daetroi, Apogough's father, stepped forward, asking, "Did she really survive?"" Yes."

Immediately there were cheers, some small, some loud. Erick watched, as cloudy grey eyes turned brighter, whiter, more full of hope. Erick said, "I had to use a rod of [Greater Treat Wounds], but she survived." Every onlooker stared at Ophiel, some with hope in their brighter eyes, others with fear, or trepidation. Erick said, "The transformation is not for everyone. I'm not sure if my own intervention was what saved her, or not." One of the farmers spoke up, "What'd she look like when you saved her?""

Like herself. Injured inside, though." Erick stressed, "Heavily injured, I think. She was spitting up a lot of blood." Erick had dispensed the news; the crowd took it and ran. Another woman said, "The first guy to fail out of the transformation was patty meat. Bones and flesh all mashed together."" I heard he was stupid," an orcol man said. When others gave him weird looks, he added, "What! I mean. Like. Real dumb. Like. Don't let him talk to anyone in charge kinda dumb, because he'll-get-himself-killed dumb."

Three people clicked their tongue, as others nodded knowingly. One said, "That guy. I remember him. He was from the Sovereign Cities. They keep them dumb on purpose, out there." The entire rest of the group, save Erick, said variations of "Ohhh." Another farmer said, "The second one to fail came out looking fine. Perfectly preserved corpse." Erick said, "Phagar was there to oversee the event. Maybe that person chose the End."" I got too much shit to do in this life to choose the End," said a tall incani man.

"If someone survived, I'm going to go next!" He nodded.

"I just decided. I'm done with this. I love you all. You're great. This has been the worst experience of all my lives combined, but I want to vanish into somewhere else. Anywhere else but here. And I want [Cleanse], dammit." A few people nodded in sympathy. One said, "Yeah. I hear that." Valok said, "If you leave this city, you will be tracked down by governmental forces outside of your control. If you mess up once, if they catch you, you're dead." He stepped toward the incani, saying, "Orzo!

Can you honestly tell me that you're capable of evading an army? A guard. Any guard?" Orzo said, "I can live in the middle of nowhere. The Wasteland has a thousand thousand hidden places." A human woman spoke up.

"I just want to see my kids again. It's only been a year since I died the first time. They're probably still in Portal. If I can see them. If I can hug them, I could die." She declared, "I could meet my End." An orcol man said, "Now you're being dumb. If you raised your kids right they ought to kill you on sight." The woman blanked for a moment, her grey eyes going wide as she stared at the orcol. She almost looked ready to beat the man, who was literally twice her height, into the ground, and then further down.

But then she broke. Tears welled. She vanished into shadows. An orcol woman clicked her tongue, then muttered some harsh words in a language Erick did not know. The orcol man paled, then mumbled, "Ah, shit." The orcol woman decked the man, sending him to the ground, declaring, "Stupid!" The man gazed into the dirt, under his face.

"I deserved that."" Yeah, you did." The orcol woman reached down, and helped the man to stand. She asked, "Why did you say that to her? No one wants to hear that shit!" A few people averted their eyes from the scene, but most looked on." I don't know!" He said, trying to defend himself.

"It just came out!"" Nghhhhh." The woman said a spat of words in some other language Erick did not know. The group almost split from there, as people began to speak to each other in smaller groups, but Erick brought them back together, saying, "If you wish to try your luck at transforming back, you should probably speak to Ava to see how she managed her reincarnation. There was a lot there I didn't see."" What's a 'reincartation'?" asked a boy, barely a man.

A lot of people gave Ophiel weird looks, while others gave the kid relieved looks, which was to be expected. Erick had used the English word 'reincarnation' when he spoke, for Ecks had no equivalent. What Eck's had, was a lot of different words that were derived from 'summon'. The idea of '[Resurrection]' was actually a bastardization of the word 'summon'. Most soul magic, as Erick understood it, was hinged on the word 'summon'.

Back when 'reincarnation' was first paraded around in a small dirt room under the prairies of Odaali, when Erick was retaking the city from the Daydropper, they used 'high tier summoning' to speak of the creation of a Breach Demon. That string of words was not adequate for what was happening here, because for Breach Demons, they got to keep their old Stats in addition to restarting from level 0.

Erick didn't know for sure, but he sincerely doubted that Melemizargo, or any other deity interested in participating in this bridging project, would want to start creating what was effectively level 150 people. Ava was probably reincarnated into a new body, without what came before. Probably. Erick said, "Reincarnation is what the idea was called back where I came from; back on Earth.

It's the rebirth of a soul in a new body, but not exactly as who they were before, because of change that has happened from one life to the next. It's not really [Resurrection], because make no mistake, you've all been changed by the horror of your experience." He said, "What you've gone through is not okay, and there is no quick fix to the trauma of Candlepoint, but it will get better, because we'll make it better. One day at a time. No one spoke.

Some looked to Ophiel with questioning gazes, or barely hidden fear. Valok said, "That's enough philosophy for today. The cleaner slimes are done. Back to work." Erick left it at that. As the group left the shade of the trees, and stepped out into the half-light of empty fields, some looked like a weight had fallen from their shoulders. Those people walked tall, their eyes aglow, as they carried bags of seeds into the cleaned fields. Some lingered, moving slow, but still moving.

Ophiel remained under the blood orange trees, as he watched the farmers telekinetically plant seeds into dark soil. On a whim, Erick turned around to the children of the Myriad Citrus and cast [Tree of Light] onto each one. White light soaked into the bark, turning browns to glowing tans. Radiance flowed inside the trees, like ink spreading in water. Leaves became neon green, and red fruits flickered to different colors, and shapes. White, yellow, pale yellow, orange, blue, green, and red.

Thorns briefly appeared, all across every tree at once, but they quickly vanished underneath the bark. Erick laughed, seeing that these three trees were true descendants of the original. They were myriad citrus, too. One tree had been slightly less large than the other two, but with Erick's magic soaking into them, all three were now the same size, and all three glowed with the same light. They stretched upward, into the sky, as their roots sprung from the soil, like twisting bean vines.

Those roots twirled around until they connected to each other. Connected roots became thick, and heavy, solidifying the joining of two trees to each other. Erick didn't see the second and third tree connect, but they must have, because now all three trees grew together, in time to one another's movements, reaching for the sky, their branches laden with a myriad of fruits. In minutes, they dominated their edge of the apple orchard, rising into the air, but they did not push the other fruit trees away.

They just glowed with a gentle light, as their three canopies became one, and spread outward, becoming a roof of green four meters up and twice that wide, supported on pillar-thick trunks. As [Tree of Light] flowed into their bodies, activating the dormant magics therein, it also settled down into their cores. Bright neons became subdued glows in the deep cracks of the bark, and along the veins of the leaves above.

All three trees were already covered by fruits, but now those fruits doubled, filling up the underside of the canopy with ripe produce ready for picking." Awesome," Erick whispered, taking in the moment. He reached Ophiel's wing toward a red orange. The branch lowered, slightly, then released the fruit into Ophiel's waiting grip. Erick held the gently glowing fruit close to Ophiel, as the glow dissipated. He said to the trees, "Thank you." He almost wanted to bring it home. But… not yet.

So he blipped the blood orange to another location. Maybe Ava would like the red fruit when she woke. … It occurred to Erick that he had never used the term 'blood orange' around anyone, and suddenly, that was a good thing. Having the term 'blood' attached to any sort of edible fruit seemed like it was asking for trouble. Erick decided that someone else could come up with a name for the fruit.

- - - - Pulling back to the sky, where platinum rain gathered and fell, Ophiel watched as the people of Candlepoint made their city more of what they wanted it to be. Supplies and necessities had been evacuated and stored in three locations, and guarded by Slip's people. The buildings weren't guarded that well, and certainly not as a measure to hoard wealth and resources. They were guarded merely so that everyone who asked for something got most of what they wanted.

A line of people curled out of each of those warehouses, waiting for their chance to get inside. The lines moved quickly. Erick doubled a few things here and there, inside the building. Some people probably saw this happen, for this was a city where eyes hid in every shadow. But that was okay. There would be enough food, or clothes Erick had [Mend]ed and [Cleanse]d, or blankets and otherwise, with this doubling.

In a few days, Erick would see if he could set up some trade between Spur and Candlepoint, for other necessary things. He'd have to talk to Silverite about that, but she might let it happen. The wall around Candlepoint slowly became more than the hastily erected thing Erick had pulled from the ground, as shadelings slowly, methodically, straightened the structure that separated the city from the mimics, while extending that fortification deeper into the sands.

A walkway flowed up from the top of the wall as people passed; they had a long way to go to fully fix the fortification that ran all the way around the Lake, and Candlepoint. They would not finish today. Several towers, thick and tall things, had already been erected at key points around the lake, and the exterior of the city itself, while the gates that had been to the north and the south of Candlepoint had been closed.

The only official way into Candlepoint, besides [Teleport], was a large, plain gate in the east. The lake seemed to be doing okay. Tiny brown fish swam in the upper waters of the lake, but a few ventured deeper, down into the dark blue, and then further, looking for violet eels to munch upon. Most of the flits managed to find eels, hiding in the sand in the flat parts of the lake.

Erick had dumped a great deal of fish into these waters, but the lake itself was five times the size of the original Candlepoint, which itself was almost the same size as Spur. Ah, well, its was actually a lot larger than '5 times', if Erick wanted to get technical. Floating high in the sky, Erick marveled at the size of the lake, for what was maybe the twentieth time. Spur was mostly 12 kilometers in diameter, or 120 square kilometers large.

Candlepoint had been 10 kilometers across, or around 80 square kilometers big. But the lake was 50 kilometers across. At fifty kilometers across, on average, and maybe a kilometer deep, Erick had a hard time remembering if there was any lake quite like this one back on Earth. It was almost perfectly circular— Lake Okeechobee, in Florida. The thought came to Erick in a flash. Yup. This one was like that one, but… It was probably not an apt comparison, for that Earth lake was rather shallow, wasn't it?

The Great Lakes weren't a good comparison, either, for those ones were much, much larger than this lake, and yet, this lake would certainly be something important, in the coming years. Very important. Candlepoint could fish on this lake. They could survive on this resource, alone, as soon as the eels were dead and Erick stocked it with the first generation of fish... … Erick decided to speed up the process of eel hunting. He cast a [Cascade Imaging] into the waters, while forming the map above the surface.

It was a three meter wide map, that revealed the underwater reality of the 2000 square kilometer surface area lake. And it was deep. 50 kilometers wide. More than a kilometer deep in some areas Erick had not noticed before. The map started off white, but he had searched for 'Violet Eels', and when the spell had a moment to run, it turned blue all at once. Fully blue. Fully infested with violet eels. And yet, deeper blue in two parts of the deeper lake. Erick could have slapped himself!

There were three springs at the bottom. Were those springs always there? Maybe they were? Had Erick just not noticed them? It was entirely possible. The lake was huge. Each of the springs wound down into the Underworld, into parts unknown. Each of them spilled eels into the lake. Erick had only managed to cap off the largest of the springs, and he was mad at himself for missing the smaller ones.

To be fair, they were small springs, barely a few meters across, and there was almost two thousand square kilometers of underwater space to search. But, still. If Erick didn't have magic, he would have thought this an impossible problem for one person to solve. But he did have magic, and the problem was already being solved, naturally. While the mud flits would monsterize with all this space and quickly begin eating all that blue, that would take a while. Erick, and Slip, had guessed it would take a week.

That's what the flit sellers in Oceanside had guessed, too, based on what Erick had Teressa tell them, when she went to purchase the fish. But that was an estimate made without a concern given to a constant reinfection. In both of the new springs, flits and eels waged minor wars, far away from each outflow, while the springs themselves were violet eel strongholds, where eels had become like long, flowing purple hair, their mouths buried into the stone around each outflow.

They had become 'streamers'; they had monsterized, growing to ten times their normal length, to become little more than eel factories. The clear water of the spring had turned cloudy as the streamers' skins parted, a thousand holes opening up on violet skin, expelling juvenile violet eels into the water, looking like wriggling maggots. Erick almost puked as he watched the ten meter lengths of violet eels giving constant birth to more of its kind, from every other centimeter of its flailing body.

Half a kilometer out from the spring, those juveniles began to grow into larger adults, fueled by magical growth as they tried to fill their new dominion. Two kilometers from the springs, those juveniles fought mud flits, who themselves had already begun monsterizing, turning into sleek bronze hunters each the size of a hand, and each able to eat violet eels by the hundreds.

But 'by the hundreds' was still not enough, when there were hundreds of 'eel factories' by the springs, each spilling out thousands of eels every second. And that was enough of that. Fuck these damn eels. Ophiels hovered to the center of the springs, and cast their magics. Halos of light became storms of underwater lightning that ripped and tore and burned and fried, chaining through the cloudy water, touching from streamer to eel, and then to the second and third generations of eels inside the first.

It was a crash of lightning unlike Erick had ever expected, but Ophiel was fine, and the eels were not. [Fumination Aura] also reached half a kilometer underwater, killing everything it touched with a billion lightning feelers. When the main targets were gone, after a full ten seconds of blasting underwater, the halos around each Ophiel returned to calm, solid light, hovering around each Ophiel at a medium distance.

Lightning flickered downward, occasionally, striking something that attempted to come up from below, killing it before it got too far. This was good. Erick had not expected [Fulmination Aura] to be that effective when there were this many small targets, but it was, and it was great. With the main infestations ended Erick cast a few [Mirage Slime]s into the water to clean up some of the mess. Cloudy water turned clear, as Erick plugged the extra springs with more [Prismatic Ward]s. …

The plug over the first spring suddenly popped. No matter! Erick cast another density into the original spring. With all three plugged up, the mud flits still had a job ahead of them, but it wouldn't drag on for too long. The original time frame of a week was probably okay. Erick informed Slip of what had happened. The schedule for more additions to the lake was pushed back a few more days, and Ophiel returned to the sky, to continue watching the city transform in front of his many, many eyes.

There was an argument over wardlights near the courthouse, but people found solutions and compromises with their neighbors. Rainbow wardlights came down from the sky, where they had formerly been attached to buildings that no longer existed. White wardlights went up, onto new buildings. Colored lights were reserved for specialty structures, like Zaraanka's Pink House, or the Courthouse's occasional blue light.

Stone signs went up around the lake, around the ridge of land that had been raised as a barrier to the water, warning of the three springs and the extended violet eel problem. Erick added his own [Stoneshape] signs to the ones Slip posted, near the Courtyard of the Crystal, asking people if they wanted anything specific in the lake. It wasn't long before some people started adding texts to Erick's board.

And speaking of the Courtyard of the Crystal; almost all of the surrounding buildings were taken down in a few hours, as soon as the construction crews of the city got around to it. All except for the Dark Temple, to the north side of the public space. That building would not be touched. But that didn't mean the land around it would remain unchanged. As the construction crews passed, beautification crews came in, planting trees here and there to take the places of the buildings no longer existent.

People wanted something nicer than nothing to look at, after all. Erick smiled to himself, as he saw a few others cast [Tree of Light] among some of the trees, blooming saplings to full, radiant heights rather fast. If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation. With an eye back to the Farms, and the children of the Myriad Citrus, Erick witnessed shadelings sitting down against the tree trunks, eyes closed, enjoying the soft brightness of the gently neon trees.

More than a few were even eating oranges, and blood oranges. Not many people liked the other flavors. Erick left some [Stoneshape]d signs, naming the fruits in the trees based on color, and what they could be used for; lemonade, candied for cakes or treats, marmalade, rinds for teas, or for scenting a room with good smells. Lemons had the most uses, from cleaning to cooking in almost every kind of meal, to making delicious sour cream. He did end up naming the blood oranges, though. He called them 'Scarlet Oranges'.

Maybe the name would stick? Giving the trees a quick once-over, he saw that most of the fruits had been changed back to red or orange fruits. The white, yellow, pale yellow, blue, and green options, were raised high, with only one or two of those colors for every red or orange fruit hanging down, in easy reach of the shadelings resting in the neon grove. … Erick really wanted to make a tree [Familiar], now. Something to ensure a few things were automatically good for Candlepoint.

Like area defenses, or exalted rains, or even just [Cleanse]s whenever they were asked for. Maybe he should work on that a little. But there was just so much else to do, and he still wasn't quite sure on his potential tree [Familiar]. The grove of light-infused myriad citrus had given him some deep inspiration, but the full idea wasn't quite there, yet. Still! There was more to do, and Candlepoint was fine, for now.

Erick left an Ophiel in the gazebo part of the Crystal, to watch over the Dark Temple, to warn Erick if anyone else was going to try their luck today, as well as provide [Mend] and [Cleanse] for whoever asked. He left another Ophiel in the air over the Farms, providing platinum rain for as long as Valok and everyone else required that rain.

They would likely work past dark tonight, for the produce they pulled from the ground was already trailing off into the city, exchanging hands to whoever could cook it fast enough. He left a few other Ophiels hovering around the city, answering calls for [Cleanse] or [Mend] assistance, and blipping fights apart, though that last necessity hadn't happened in half a day.

With eyes floating above it all, Erick marveled at the community that had survived in the wake of Bulgan, and Melemizargo, and all the evil that this world could muster. These people were working together for the common good, and though there were raised emotions here and there, and harsh words happened everywhere, and more than a few people cried in the dark corners of the city, there were just as many people building for their neighbors, or sharing stories of hardships, or offering shoulders to cry upon.

Erick pulled back his sight from the city, and went to the kitchen, to help make dinner. Teressa had picked up a hundred pounds of haarah beef from the market, and while she was cooking it with a ton of bluebell, Erick helped to make the potatoes, the corn, and the salad. Somewhere in the middle of cooking, Justine came out, and asked if she could help. Erick, thrilled, set her on to making more lemon cookies, and showed her how to make coftea.

— Erick added cookies to the list of recipes for citrus, back in Candlepoint. Dinner was great, though Erick had to fill most of the silence. Justine had been deeply affected by her panic attack and Erick would have called her symptoms part of PTSD, if not for the fact that they were still in the thick of the problem. But maybe she wasn't in the deep part of it anymore?

Maybe this, right here, a calm time and a nice meal in a part of the world that wasn't currently at war, but where death and pain loomed everywhere else… Maybe this was as good as it got? Maybe this, right here, was far enough away from the fighting to count as the 'post' in the 'post traumatic stress disorder'?

While Erick was considering that, and considering talking to Poi, to ask the man if Mind Mages could help with these sorts of neurological disorders, Poi informed him that Syllea wanted to come back, and fulfill part of her bargain of trade." Well sure!" Erick said, "Tell her to come on down. We got dessert." Justine's eyes went wide, as she made herself scarce. Seeing Justine run off like that… Maybe Erick should have thought before he answered.

But this was knowledge that he needed, and if Syllea was ready, then now was as good a time as any. - - - - The sun set across from Erick's private garden, outside the window of the sunroom. The bitter, strong scent of coftea filled the air, along with the sweet, light scent of iced, lemon cookies. This was, mostly, a comfortable sort of meeting. Mostly. After pleasantries and refreshments were exchanged, Erick sat on one couch, while Syllea sat on the other.

Poi, Bayth, and Teressa, were in the other room, gently talking to each other. All three of them had easy access to this room, if something went wrong, but Erick didn't think that anything would go wrong. He wasn't going to attack Syllea, and she certainly wasn't going to attack him, so why the extra preparation? Erick just went ahead and asked, "Is Bayth worried that I'm going to do something?" He added, "I'm not even sure why my guys are acting like that." Syllea smiled, as she set down her coftea.

She had had to dilute it with a lot of sugar and milk, turning the normally brown drink into something shy of tanned paper, but she had had half a mug, so far.

"There have been some developments back at Treehome." She asked, "Do you know anything about orcol war parties?" Erick shook his head.

"Nope. I probably heard something about them, but I cannot recall."" Bayth is my oldest friend, but she's also a part of my war party. It's like…" Syllea seemed to struggle to put something into words. She settled on, "It's like a second family. For some, their war party is their adventuring group. That's actually a rather common variation. But in times of war… Treehome doesn't have a standing army. We have war parties, that are called for the common defense.

There's a structure, like you have in Spur's Army, but it's a lot looser in orcol society. The larger orcol cities, anyway." Syllea said, "Think, nobility-backed war groups, in service of a country, but not exactly a king. That's a good way to consider war parties." Specialty tier war parties have been called to war." Syllea said, "I'm in a specialty tier war party. Bayth is a part of that group.

Discipline requires that we never be out of hearing of each other, and only out of sight in certain cases, no matter the situation." She added, "The reason for this call to war, was so that other specialty groups could be tagged to escort a squadron of shadeling orcols from the commune, to Ar'Kendrithyst. They should be arriving tomorrow. I already cleared the way with Silverite an hour ago." Erick said, "I hope they succeed." Syllea lost her smile, as she gained a far off look.

She breathed out, "I hope they do, too."" Have you heard any more about your brother?" With a sad smile, she said, "There has been news." She did not expand on that statement." Apologies. I should not have asked."" Quite alright." Syllea said, "But thank you." Erick changed topics, asking, "So? How do you make light win over shadow? Or dark?" Syllea put on a professional mask, saying, "It is not directly possible for light to win against the deep shadows, but it is possible to win, in a fashion."

She asked, "Are you familiar with the lightwards they use in your Forward Base?"

"… Oh?" Erick was familiar with those lightwards. He couldn't recall the spell at the moment, and he was not about to ask Poi for clarification, but those lightwards made the light bounce in every direction. He said, "There's no escaping the light, for even with your eyes closed, it's still there."" Yes. That is the spell." Syllea smiled.

"Light's greatest strength is that it can be coherent, and directional. It can slice through anything, and punch harder than most other magics. But shadow abuses the directionality that you find in normal light magic. With a break in Light, and with the proper magics, you can create Shadow out of shadows."" Is that all there is to it? Just… Making light, like a liquid?"" No no. That's just the simple overview." Syllea said, "The stronger the Light, the darker the Shadows.

Even if you make Light go everywhere, you're just making the Shadows stronger, too. The true solution, here is to 'grey out' everything. The proper way to have Light win over Shadow, is to be subtle, to be elsewhere, to be everywhere and nowhere." She said, "You lose a lot of Light's directional power. A vast, vast amount. But the best way for Light to fight the Shadows, is to focus on Illusions."" That seems..." Erick wasn't sure how that seemed.

Syllea put words to Erick's unformed thoughts, saying, "It seems pretty damn shitty, doesn't it?"" Yeah." Erick said, "Yeah. It does." Syllea nodded, then said, "You can always overpower the dimmer Shadows with a strong, omnipresent Light. But when you're dealing with the Deep Darkness, Illusions work best. They're the only thing that works— Ah! But you can use Shadow magic against Shadows, no problem. It's like striking stone elementals with Stone, but it works, well enough." Erick had a thought.

"How about [Shadowalk] and [Lightwalk]? Can you use one to empower the other?"" Probably." Syllea said, "But all I know of that is theory. You made a light slime dungeon. Doesn't one of your Army people have both? They could likely help you more with that than I could." She asked, "Do you have [Shadowalk]? I tried to get it, twice now, but I was chased out of both the Fractured Citadels and the Shadow Canyons. I'm not going to attempt Ar'Kendrithyst."" I do not have [Shadowalk]."

Erick frowned, knowing that he could never go to Ar'Kendrithyst to 'farm wolves' like Jane had done. Maybe he should get [Shadowalk], but…

"Silverite mentioned those places to me, once. Said I should go there if I ever wanted to get [Shadowalk], hinting that it would be a good idea. How bad are the Fractured Citadels and the... other place?" Syllea nodded.

"The Shadow Canyons are deep in the frozen south in Nergal, near Veird's Axis. It's the only place on the planet where the Deep Underworld has breached the surface. Shadows and fires thrive in that place, but if you're not in the heat, then you're in the frozen sky, or jungle, and both places are deadly to most people. I lost two members of my group to chance. I decided not to continue." Syllea said, "The Fractured Citadels are barely better.

In that place, untended sewer systems and untended tunnels to the Underworld have carved out dungeons the likes of which exist nowhere else on Veird. Shadow took hold when Quintlan fell, but the ghosts of that destroyed land still fight. Wraiths. Zombies. Undead of all kinds. Sometimes a stronger undead will arise, like a lich, or a corpse knight, and they'll make an organized push against the shadows, to carve out minor undead kingdoms in the graveyards of the past. None of it is real, though.

Undead are barely better than monsters, though they're not monsters; they're just… tortured souls. There's always a necromancer behind every false kingdom." She said, "I was already an archmage when I attempted to get [Shadowalk], but I was targeted rather heavily. When one of my people was exposed to soul magic, I decided [Shadowalk] wasn't worth it." She added, "I haven't been able to craft a full set of shadow armor, either. [Shadowblend] was the best I managed on my own.""

Sounds like gaining those skills is best done when you're too young to be a target, and you can just eat the essences." Syllea smiled softly, her voice filled with a familiar longing for a simpler time, as she said, "The hermit archmages are able to move silently and unencumbered, but that's not for me." Erick returned Syllea's smile, saying, "But it would be nice to move silently, occasionally."" Sometimes… Maybe."

Syllea waved her hand, saying, "There's likely someone else you can talk to about using [Shadowalk] and [Lightwalk] together, that would serve your needs more than I. Anything I told you with regard to that would be based on theory, without any true practice. What I know I can do, is introduce you to using Mana Altering for Light in order to empower Shadow magics." That led to a question that Erick had thought of before now, but was too busy to pursue.

"There's no 'Shadow' in Mana Altering, though. And there's no Decay in the [Element Shape] spells, either?" Mana Altering X Bludgeon, Slash, or Piercing Damage Force to Light, Blinding, Variable Cost Invisible Force, Variable Cost Force to Thunder, Disorient, Variable Cost Force to Fire, Burn, Variable Cost Force to Ice, Slow, Variable Cost Force to Lightning, Paralyze, Variable Cost Force to Decay, organic damage, Variable Cost x1. 5 Chain, Variable Cost x2 Combine Effects, Variable Cost x3 Generate new effects.

Variable Cost Requirements: 10 Willpower Erick asked, "Shadow is a part of the 'New Effects' section, isn't it?" Syllea smiled wide.

"There are so many secrets to that little'Generate new effects' section of Mana Altering, that you could build an entire school around it all." Her voice took on a wondrous quality, as she said, "Mercy. Vile. Exalted. Bounce. Destruction. History. Time. Void." She laughed, "Book! That's a fun one. If people knew more about all the true elements out there, then— It would be amazing. I don't know what would happen, but it would surely be a sight to see."

All of Reality is capable of being expressed in Mana Altering, for mana is undifferentiated possibility, and altering is the process of bringing that possibility to the forefront." She added, "Though some possibilities are easier to work with than others." Hedging her words, she added, "But almost every one I mentioned is among the hardest to use, or even understand. The true, full list of Mana Alter is quite long, but no one cares about Rain or Ash; they're not very impressive. Magma is useful, sometimes.

The Headmaster is pretty famous for his Sun Style, which is a variation of Air and Fire." She said, "More people should be interested in the truths behind Mana Altering, but almost no one is, and it's a damned shame." Erick felt like his eyes had been opened, and yet he was more confused than ever. Syllea noticed. She said, "Mana Altering is very, very deep magic.

Almost no one goes beyond the surface understanding taught in Arcanaeum, and a lot of my ideas are considered radical— But it's hard to argue with results!" And now Erick was lost again.

"So. Uh. Pardon my ignorance, but what results do you mean?" Erick didn't know what he expected from his sudden admission of ignorance, but Syllea didn't seem to mind." Buffing magic, Erick." Syllea smirked.

"You didn't know that?"" I knew you were famous for Mana Altering." He admitted, "But I had no idea what that meant." He asked, "And doesn't buffing magic harm as much as it helps?"" Okay. That's fair. I'm also capable of doing a wide variety of esoteric spells. Maybe you're more familiar with [Starlight Fall], which actually uses— Actually... Have you heard of that one?" When Erick shook his head, Syllea popped out a box.

Starlight Fall, instant, super long range, 29, 900 mana Conjure countless stars down to Veird, each creating a large explosion for 50x WIL per star. [Starlight Fall] looked like a very, very large spell. Erick was impressed. Syllea continued, "[Starlight Fall] covers a good hundred square kilometers, and is not based on any sort of Light or Shadow or Stone or Fire, as you would with one of the many variants of [Comet Swarm]. It's actually based on a ltering for Starlight."

She added, "There's a few more like that that you might have heard? [Void Bomb]; altering for Void. [Crystal Prison]. You saw that one—" She lost a fraction of her mirth, saying, "That's what I used to stop Bayth from killing..." She shook her head.

"Anyway. That one was altered for Crystal, which is an offshoot to Order, of Glass, which is itself a paraelement of Light and Stone— And I see I have confused you. Apologies. We'll get to that in a minute. But." The thing you have to know about alters is first, their existence, so that you can Mana Alter to them, directly. This is one of the harder steps. I can tell you that Starlight exists, but not many people are capable of actually capturing that element in a spell."

Stepping beyond that initial knowledge, then you have to know their relationships to each other, so that you can alter from one element to another, and occasionally, through several elements at once. But we're getting far ahead of ourselves." The purpose of altering for buffing magic, is because you are right. Buffs harm the body. But do you know why they harm?" Erick chuckled, saying, "I hope for you to tell me."

Like revealing a great secret, Syllea said, "Buffs change who you are in the moment, but that changed self is not who you truly are. Normal buffs are like filling your veins with power, instead of blood. It's just not good for the mortal body." She smiled, stressing, "If you do it wrong." She said, "If you do it right, you're just Mana Altering the aura of a target, and therefore the side effect is minimal.

Your body clears out mana all the time, but most people aren't capable of altering on the level that is required for a clean buff, so they go into battle with improper magic, and suffer the next day." A properly Mana Altered aura is like the difference in a hangover from rotgut, versus five-time distilled flarewater." She popped out three blue boxes, handing them to Erick, saying, "These are some of my nicer spells.

Each of them has zero consequences, but it is the last one that you might find the most interesting." Hour of Flame, instant, touch, 16, 000 mana Imbue the aura of a willing participant with Fire. They become a Flaming Existence for one hour. Their temporary nature does no harm versus all they have in their aura at the time of casting, but all other close range existences suffer from 5x WIL damage per second, while Hour of Flame is active. The target is able to suppress Hour of Flame at will.

A suppressed Hour of Flame could last up to 12 hours. Forest Touched, instant, touch, 5900 mana Imbue the aura of a willing participant with the Forest. Forest Touched are able to survive off of water and sunlight for one week, as well as speak to plants, both mundane and magical. Forest Touched are able to move between linked trees, but this lowers the duration of the spell. Shadow Conversion, instant, touch, 9000 mana Imbue the aura of a willing participant with Shadow.

All Light magic cast by the target is transformed into Shadow. Shadow magic cast against the target is less effective in all ways. Erick read the third box for the third time. He looked up to see Syllea's smiling face watching him. He asked, "Okay. So. That looks amazing. Can you do that with all of them? All of the elements?" Syllea almost said something, but she paused.

"How do you mean? The Shape elements? Or? There's actually either 18 or 200 elements, depending on who you talk to." She rapidly added, "But you probably meant the Shape elements." Erick nodded, saying, "Yeah, I did— But 200? 200 elements?" Syllea seemed to tease, "What's this disbelief? If I recall correctly, you stood up there on that podium and said there were actually closer to 250, and that we were using the term 'element' all wrong." Erick conceded, "Okay. True." He added, "But. Yeah.

I meant the 6 [Element Shape] elements. Or— You tell me." Syllea nodded.

"There's a mostly academic debate in some Arcanaeum circles as to the actual number of classical elements, but the ones everyone actually concerns themselves with is likely exactly as you're thinking. Fire, Water, Stone, Air, Light, and Shadow are the main ones. Force is undifferentiated, 'natural' mana; if you want to call it that. Dragon is an element not accessible to most people, but it is technically an element; it's just an element outside of the normal ordering."

She said, "But as for switching one element into the next, in the way [Shadow Conversion] switches light to shadow, every element is able to be switched into something close to what it is, rather easily. You have go to through the list, though, and each step from the original magic is further complication to the spell. [Shadow Conversion] is a two-step conversion." She lifted her hand to the left, to an empty space in the room, and conjured a blackboard.

"This is the normal conversion series." Gloom Air Lightning Rain Abyss Water Healing Mud/Ooze Shadow Swamp Stone Glass Light Magma Ash Fire Radiance Sun Syllea conjured a many-sided polyhedron, with all the words listed on the board, but in handheld form that was almost a ball.

"The main elements listed on this map, along with all of their mixed elements, is the common conversion map, but in handheld form." She set it on the table between them, then summoned another object. This second conjuring was a lot more complicated than the first, for it was like a small, stabilized orrery, with the previous 18 elements on the outermost ring, but a good thirty more on the inside and a few on the outside, on rings of various sizes, and sticking outward on pins.

She set the second ball of elements down beside the first one, saying, "The interior of this map is toward Order, while the exterior is toward Chaos, or Force, which is just undifferentiated mana. It is theorized that Dragon and Order are one in the same, but you can't get to Dragon from any element, so those experiments are dead in the water. And besides, experimenting with Dragon is a good way to get assassinated."

This second map has things like Blood, which is beside Water, toward the center, and Void, on a little pin just outside of the map, next to Shadow. There are three elements that fit this map worse than most. The first is Steam, which is the intersection of Fire and Water. That would go straight through the map, you see, and that would put it at the same spot as the other two of the three elements I mentioned, which is why it doesn't fit this map very well." She added, "According to most people."

She continued, "The second is Sand, which is the intersection of Stone and Air. Same problem." But it's the intersection of Light and Shadow that we're interested in. That one is 'Illusion'." And to answer your question: Yes, you can alter through the list, pretty far. Though every shift past the first is more difficult than the one that came before." Erick stared down at the maps of magic, and felt a little lost, but also highly curious. He had no idea Mana Altering was this complicated. He smiled. He laughed.

He asked, "I feel a lot lost. Was this how you felt when I was up there, talking about my 'elements'?" Syllea smiled.

"Atoms are ridiculous." Erick laughed again.

"But you made a particle spell! [Alter Density], if I recall correctly."" I barely made that spell." Syllea chuckled, saying, "Your particles make no sense at all. That's not how this world works. That's not how magic works." Erick laughed again, pointing to the maps on the coftea table, beside the lemon cookies and the cooling coftea, saying, "That's not how this world works, either." Syllea smiled.

"I want to debate you on this, but we are pressed for time."" I would love to have that conversation. Yes. Let's do that sometime." Erick said, "But you're right. So. How do you make shadows from light?" He thought back to Bulgan, floating in the sky like a black void, surrounded by light.

"It's not really as easy as making a bright light, then stepping in front of it and controlling the mana in the shadows, is it?" Syllea brushed off Erick's postulation with, "That is only the basic overview of the start of the process of transforming light magic into shadow magic." She said, "But I've been talking at a very high level overview for a bit now. Just so we're clear: Where do you want to go with this?

If you manage to make [Shadow Conversion], then you have to learn how to fight with shadow magics, which is fine, but if you don't have [Shadowalk], then it's not optimal." She popped out another blue box, saying, " This is also an option." Illusion Infusion, instant, touch, 5100 mana Imbue the aura of a willing participant with Illusions. All Light magic cast by the target is transformed into Illusions, to act at unknown angles." It's a single step conversion, so it should be a lot easier to for you to achieve."

Erick read, and pondered. He asked, "What does 'Unknown angles' mean?"" You cast a [Force Beam] from your hand at a target, but it strikes the target from the side. It's rather hard to explain more than that." She offered, "Want to try it for yourself? We can play around with [Shadow Conversion], too, to see which you like more?" She added, "Either way, these tests and your own experimentation should give you an adequate understanding of how to fight shadow more effectively."

As twilight faded to dark, and the stars came out to shine in the skies over Spur, Erick said, "Yes. Let's test some spells."