Ar'Kendrithyst - Chapter 262, 2/2

Shadow moved back and forth between Erick and the Cavalcade reincarnation island. There wasn’t much to see in the Living Waiting Room, though, so she spent most of her time at the Cavalcade. Cascadio had put up a large island for this purpose, and he had tens of priests and simple clerics organizing everything for Erick whenever he was done with his fishing trip.

A lot of the people he rescued were simple worshipers of Cascadio, who were beyond relieved to see that Erick’s rescue hadn’t been a trick. A lot of the people spoke of the flames around him the entire time he was down there, and how he was a beacon to their senses, but the Dead Waiting Room was full of people doing evil things, and a false call to life was a common trick, a common lure.

The ones who had been on Erick’s list were split in their reactions. Many were subdued, waiting for the hidden sword strike or the big catch. Most disliked their human bodies, but some marveled at their human bodies. A lot of them had never been anything approaching human before, so it was a weird experience for them.

The Cavalcade was right there, too, so a bunch of people went off into the Cavalcade to experience life as a human-shaped person. Most stayed behind for a time to at least read the information about House Benevolence and [Reincarnation] and of Erick’s plans for the future. Those who wanted to know more than the general plan were easily able to ask those questions of priests who had been briefed on those deeper answers, but most of the priests and clerics only knew as much as they were told.

‘That is the limit of my knowledge; you will have to wait for Ascended Flatt to come back to answer more,’ was a common refrain.

‘Please fill out this [Reincarnation] paperwork for a better body,’ was another common saying.

Some people who were not part of the reincarnation project were coming off of the Cavalcade to see what was happening, and a few of them were signing up for [Reincarnation]s. The priests had tried to push back on that at first, but they rapidly decided to let it happen and let Erick figure that out when he got back. Shadow wondered how Erick would handle that. She wondered if Erick would put out an all-call for his House, or if someone else would put out that all-call for him.

And some of the people saw Shadow standing there, looking calm and controlled and unknown. She had answers, and they knew that.

So they came to her with their questions and they learned some deeper answers than the ones held by the priests.

People learned of Nothanganathor and the plight of Veird and of the Painted Cosmology. Of the Fae Enclave’s decisions, and of Erick’s desire to transform Wraithborne itself into something less-Evil. Of the Father of Margleknot, and of Margleknot’s adoption of Erick’s Yggdrasil-shaped-form. A few people truly understood what that meant; how deep this Abyss truly yawned. Most did not, but only because half the people here were Cascadio’s people and they did not understand that deeply. They certainly understood most of it, but that understanding was in the way that a mortal person understands a worldquake; in a ‘yes, that is happening, I suppose’, sort of way.

Their reactions were less than Shadow could have hoped for.

And yet, Shadow was thrilled. This was so much further than she had ever gotten in pulling people together in this awful place. She tried not to show this joy, of course. To show pleasure in the face of actual relief when the problems were this big was to invite danger back around, to tear it all down. They were not out of the Drain yet.

And so Shadow was having a bit of fun. Perhaps a lot of fun, actually. She was also honing her Dark Queen persona. This would be the one she used going forward, she decided. The Dark Queen was always calm, always ready for killing, and always prepared… But the Dark Queen was also more than willing to betray and backstab.

Hmm.

Betraying and backstabbing probably wouldn’t be too useful here, in this place.

… How about a Benevolent Dark Queen persona?

It wasn’t much different than the normal Dark Queen. She had done both before, but that old version had been a ‘benevolent’ Dark Queen. Not a Benevolent Dark Queen.

… Eh! She could do that.

In fact.

She would.

Benevolent Dark Queen, here she was.

Shadow adjusted her hair a bit, putting on a small, black tiara. Black jewelry dripped from her long ears. Her skin turned a shade greyer. Her eyes went Dark and Benevolent iridescent white at the same time. Her clothes turned slightly finer, and her back straightened. Black rings.

And then iridescent white opals adorned her black jewelry.

It was all rather similar to Erick’s colors, wasn’t it?

Shadow allowed herself a small grin as she spoke to someone who had been a Cascadio person, but who was now desirous of House Benevolence. He wanted both, actually. Could he have both? Was that actually possible?

With an easy voice, Shadow assured him, “House Benevolence does not ascribe to any one god, and has no issue with its people worshiping whomever they want.”

The man was not convinced. “You say that, but that’s never the full truth, is it?”

“Believe me or not. Actions speak louder than words, and Erick, while allied with Cascadio for this, has many more gods at his side. He would never pick one over the other, and his House is the same as him. We welcome all faiths, even Evil ones, for all can be reborn in Benevolence.”

“And where are those other gods?” asked the man, frowning and arms crossed.

Holy Mother Caa, who Shadow was rather sure would become a great ally, spoke for Shadow, saying, “They’re on Veird, and we’re going to free them from Fae Enclave control as soon as we can, but that requires proof of power, and so we’re going to go murder and reincarnate Slaver’s Den in several days.”

The man shook his head, saying, “Too powerful for my blood—”

Caa said, “Power is easy to gain when you are a part of a powerful organization, and House Benevolence is on a Layer-breaking rise. This is the ground floor.”

Shadow spoke a soft declaration that everyone could hear, if not directly, then in the background, over the words of everyone else in the area, “Stay or abandon this rising Power and decide your entire destiny in that choice.”

Many conversations quieted. Some resumed fast enough. Some did not resume at all, for people needed to think, and so they thought.

The man in front of Shadow looked cowed, and then he looked ready. He uncrossed his arms. With strength in his shoulders and back and in his deep blue eyes, he said, “Then I should go and fill out that [Reincarnation] paperwork for a proper body.”

Shadow nodded. “Yes you should.”

The guy walked away.

Holy Mother Caa spoke softly to Shadow, “I wish to be your Second.”

“There are many trials approaching.” Shadow said, “I do like what I see, but you have lost a great deal of your previous power.”

“I will regain much of it with time, but with a proper [Reincarnation] I will regain all of it much faster.”

Shadow regarded her. “… I suppose you will.”

Caa grinned, and it was the grin of a drowning maelstrom in human form.

Shadow eventually found a few of the newly-risen whom she believed would be most useful going forward. Lanzoil, Querkooda, and Ta’Kamoil, were supposed to be the ones that Erick wanted for his main House Overseers, but they were off in their own thoughts and plans for now. Erick would have them, if they chose to be had. Others had shown themselves to Shadow and already decided to be a part of all of this.

Holy Mother Caa was chief among them, along with a few former kings and queens and generals and great mages and warriors of various Good lands. Many talents who had taken on all the Contracts of their people in one great act of ritual suicide, to remove those Contracts from circulation, were so very happy to be back, to strike back at Evil. They were perfect. Too perfect, perhaps.

How Erick found that list of his Shadow could only guess, but her best guess was likely the correct one.

Lady Seraphaka or Lady Aelorika were playing cards behind the scenes to bring Good to the land, or to at least erase some Evil. Perhaps that oracle that everyone always talked about in the Celestial Observatory was to blame as well. Or maybe that oracle was just a pawn of Lady Seraphaka and Lady Aelorika. That’s how it usually was.

Shadow was a little miffed at that, but as the Benevolent Dark Queen her anger was a small thing to her plotting. The ‘Good’ Old Fae wanted Good to come back? That was useful for Shadow, for now. Once this was done and Lord Dakka was won over, Shadow would descend upon Nothanganathor with the full weight of this House Benevolence and all the surviving gods of the Old Cosmology, and rip out his heart and eat it

Shadow breathed deep, feeling a thrill as she imagined eating Nothanganathor’s Everything—

Yasmi interrupted Shadow’s thoughts, “Where is Erick? Is he truly still bringing people back? We’re at 350 revives so far.”

Aryear stood with Yasmi, holding her hand, saying, “The more we get, the easier it will be to overthrow Morbion.”

A third Talent that Shadow had picked up, the former Demon Dragon Heliberko, said, “I still cannot believe that you two are an item. Two thousand years ago they were telling stories in the taverns about how you two were mortal enemies, locked in a horrific battle for the final fate of Paradise Rises.”

Yasmi Bloodgood and Aryear Zumgwy tightened their hold on each other’s hand. Yasmi frowned, and said, “Everyone always gets history wrong all the time, and it is infuriating.”

Aryear added, “It’s a common enough failing, and yet it still surprises me, too. No doubt Morbion is to blame.”

“He still has that Office of Propaganda, yes?” Mother Caa asked. “He had it back when I was alive. He should still have it today.”

They looked to Shadow for answers.

And Shadow was their Benevolent Dark Queen, who knew everything, as she said, “After the fall of Paradise Rises, Wraithborne went on to destroy the Prismatic Wilderness, and thus experience a blowback by the Balance. The Reformation period was a time of collapse and regrowth and settlement that took a few centuries to solidify. The state of Wraithborne is today as it has been for 5,500 years, with the Primes and the Officers who control the various branches of the Tower. Specific people have changed, of course. The Office of Propaganda is currently controlled by…”

She spoke for a while, answering questions as she knew them. Luckily, she knew most of the answers. Or at least she did when she was her Benevolent Dark Queen self. Memories were fickle like that. Normal Shadow wouldn’t give a shit about Primes and Officers at all.

Being the Benevolent Dark Queen would be good for the rest of this Margleknot excursion, of course, but when it was time to go back to Veird, Shadow would need to abandon this form…

But did she have to abandon this form? No. Not really.

… Could she be the Queen of House Benevolence? Here in Margleknot? For a time, anyway. She had already been here for so long that another 500 years to cement power in this place wasn’t too long of a commitment to consider. Erick would need someone to be in power here for him, as well…

Did she want that?

… Part of her wanted that?

She did want that. Huh. She had fucked up by not giving the Old Fae the face that they should have been given…

Was that an influence of Benevolence upon her?

… it was?

Hmm.

They built a functioning society that continually expands, so… Yes.

The Benevolent Dark Queen approved. Shadow, as herself, hated them, but the Benevolent Dark Queen approved.

Well that was a fun thing to discover.

– – – –

A day after he began, Erick exited the Dead Waiting room, falling out of his ghost and into his real body, fully opening his eyes and fully waking. Cascadio stood to the side, a towering gold and black man with a radiance to his smile that was literally sun-bright. He smiled and chuckled, and he held down a hand.

“You do great work, Erick.”

“I only do as good of work as my allies allow.”

Erick took the god’s hand, and Cascadio hauled Erick to his feet.

“Ahhh! Modesty. It is fine on you,” Cascadio said, “But regality is better. I’m not sure how many of your new people will want to stay your new people once they have true forms, but I believe it is time to see and find out!”

Erick smiled. “I agree. But before we go, thank you for your help, Cascadio.”

“It is I who thanks you, Erick. You brought back hundreds of my people to me. Far more than I requested. Far more than I ever could have hoped for. I would give you a boon, if you would have it.”

Erick almost said that he was just happy to help, but sometimes doing that was a foolish thing to do, for sometimes when powerful people thanked you, it meant that they owed you, and that they wished to discharge that debt. Erick had thanked Cascadio, but Cascadio had thanked Erick.

As Erick looked at Cascadio, silently questioning.

Cascadio nodded. “A boon, both to commemorate the moment, and cement something for future progress. Think on it, if you wish. I do not need an answer at this moment. Consider this: There are many powers of this land of Margleknot that do not exist at all within Veird, or even within resons and Infinity. My followers span ten thousand worlds, in many universes. I have spread far and wide, Erick Flatt. Further and wider than you could truly know at this moment in time. Further than your own Sun in the sky of Margleknot and your son Yggdrasil has sent your Benevolence into this reality.” He smiled. “But perhaps your own sun will eventually catch up to me.” He said, “Think on a wish, and then make it.”

Erick already had something he could ask for. “I want to be able to cancel the spells I have cast at any point in time.”

“… Ha!” Cascadio smiled, saying, “This is easily doable, though I would have imagined you would have wished for something better, like propagation abilities, or undying life tied to Benevolence without needing to be a fae, or additional innate manas. You have created Benevolence, but perhaps you could create something else that suits your evolving existence.”

“I plan on unleashing untold destruction and ever-expanding change soon enough,” Erick said, “So the ability to easily just say ‘stop’ from layers away is perhaps the most important thing to invest in right now.”

Cascadio said, “I will teach you this, for it is a small thing. My debt remains. You can ask for something larger at a later date— Aup! I will not hear otherwise, Erick. You deserve nice things, and some trinket magic is not a nice enough thing.” He waved a hand, and a portal appeared. “Let us step over here for a while to learn this trick.”

The portal led to a land of dark gold floors and a warm expanse.

Erick smiled, and then he stepped through.

– – – –

The land was a large area of burnished bronze tournament ground or other such type of location, open to the Margleknot sky, with green grass growing in sparse clutches far beyond the edge of the bronze field. A few bronze pillars stood here and there among the bronze land.

Cascadio said, “These are the Training Grounds. Anyone can access one whenever they want. The floor itself is nearly indestructible and if you charge up the floor with power then the people in the area are automatically resurrected at a fraction of the cost of going through the Waiting Room. Every instance of this land is private for every person who comes here, though that sort of security is not that hard to break. There are no real downsides, except that if you’re in this land without exerting power or testing oneself for a while, then it will gradually drive you away. The sky will turn darker, the land will turn colder, or hotter. It might even get brighter. Sounds and then shaking might occur, all in an effort to get you to leave. The final step is a portal simply whisking you away to the Mortal Lands.”

“Huh.” Erick was already inspecting everything. This place looked rather solid. Erick tapped the floor. “What is this?”

“Immortal Bronze. If you can affect it, then you can gain a block of the stuff for your own use. It is a treasure of the land. There are many lands of Margleknot which naturally dispense treasures if you know tricks to them.” Cascadio said, “The real treasures are the people and connections of this land, though. Immortal Bronze is no stronger than the eternal stonewood of your Yggdrasil.”

“Oh! It’s illusion-based, then.”

“Hmm… Correct… ish.”

“Heh.” Erick smiled. And then he poked a pillar nearby with his finger. Nothing happened, of course. And then Erick swiped at it with a dragon claw… And his claw clicked across the surface of the metal, not leaving a single scratch. Next he touched and [Duplicate]d it. And nothing happened. He frowned a little, and then he stuck his aura into the bronze, feeling around for the molecular structure, if it even had one… And yeah, there was copper and tin there, but also an assortment of other metals and something that was not metal at all. A lot of other things. It was also dense as all get out. Erick pulled his aura back, saying, “That’s impressive.”

Cascadio watched, smiling a little, then he said, “There are a few best ways to make magic that you can cancel from a distance. There’s the manual way, the automagic way, and the power-way where the power to do what you ask is grafted onto you by one such as myself. I assume you wish to learn how to do it yourself, though.”

“Yes. I would rather have the power myself.”

Cascadio nodded. “There’s the method of resonating with your spellwork and sending out a destructive pulse along that resonance. That method is wonderful to use in an offensive manner, if you can match harmonies that easily. The boon that I would make for you in this manner would be along the lines of allowing you to erase all of your own spellwork that exists within your direct sight. You might be able to make something similar in that vein.

“Another method involves implanting auto-destructive magic within every spell you cast that can explode Elemental Destruction or other Elements into your cast spell at your command. The final version of such a spell would likely be a thing that you hold that automagically puts kill commands into every spell you cast. The main spell would be, for example, a little sun orb helper that you can crush when you’re done with a specific campaign. This method is difficult for most peoples, because the ways of doing this spell involve either meshing destructive spells into their existing spells which is already difficult enough, or one can make both spells occupy the same sort of space, but have the destructive spell ‘phased out’ until it is time to destroy the main spell. I believe you would call that Paradox Wizardry. I would call it ‘sub-slicing infinity’; putting the destructive stuff on a different… hmm. Wavelength of existence? That works, yes.

“A third method is to simply will your spellwork gone. The ‘just do it’ method. This is perhaps the most reson-intensive option, but it is also the simplest. This involves no mana at all. This is simple action creating simple outcome, because you desire it so.”

… He could ‘just do it’ with resons?

Erick considered…

And then he manually cast a bunch of little lightwards in a wide arc, bringing into existence a thousand little balls of colored light. Some of those balls continued to move away at a fast pace. Some simply remained nearby.

Erick quieted his mana sense, his aura control, and simply stood there, focusing on doing nothing more than measuring his intent against his reson wallet. He wasn’t even sure how to use resons this way.

Empoweringmagic with resons was easy. All that involved was simply flowing resons into Shapings and Alterings and mana and intent and whatnot, and the resons went where they wanted to go inside the magic, soaking into the spells like the resons soaked into his own body and Status. This sort of ‘soaking in’ that resons could do with spellwork was simple.

But ‘just do it’ was pure reson work?

Hmm.

Erick exerted his… intent… against the floating… orbs?

Hmm.

Erick didn’t feel like he was doing anything at all. Even using resons inside the Dead Waiting Room was easier than this, for in the Dead Waiting Room, Erick knew he was more ephemeral and the rules were a bit more lax in there, since it was all about souls and frameshifting…

… Could he frameshift in real life? Outside of his soul?

No no. Obviously not…

… Hmm—

Oh!

Right.

He was missing something obvious.

To start with, the Mark of Darkness that made mana in Erick’s soul was all about spinning personal possibility and effect into functional mana which could then be used to enact change. Or at least that was Erick’s working theory. Perhaps he should ask Shadow about that directly the next time he saw her.

Anyway.

The Mark of Darkness made mana, and that mana made reality. Through Alterings and Shapings, that mana made different sorts of reality, and to do that, the mana required conscious intent and physical movement and action, usually done through the aura.

The Mark of the Fractal Universe was all about communication with oneself and the world around oneself… or at least Melemizargo’s broken version was about communication with others. But it wasn’t really ‘communication’ at all, was it? It was about universal connection, and through connection came communication, but not with words at all, for universes didn’t talk with such imprecise things like words.

Universes spoke through action.

And inside the Dead Waiting Room, Erick had needed to actually move his body to make any sorts of actions at all.

Which.

Yeah.

Duh.

The Painted Cosmology was a land of mana and people moved auras to make stuff happen.

The Fractal Cosmology had ‘auras’, too. It had bodies made of particles, and souls, and minds, all working together to affect change.

The Painted Cosmology did not have bodies. Not really. It had ‘mana persons’ in addition to souls and minds, and those ‘mana persons’ were constructs of mana that could be extended into ‘auras’ to make magic.

To think of it another way, the Fractal Cosmology had particles and physical bodies, whereas the Painted Cosmology had mana and mana bodies.

Did the physical bodies of the Fractal Cosmology have an ‘aura-like’ corollary? Maybe. Probably not, though. If the physical body had an aura Erick would have heard something about that before now. What it did have, though, was physical bodies and resonwork.

Erick understood now.

He clawed his physical hand at the vanishing orbs —most of the orbs still 10 meters away or more— as he tried to fill himself with the intent to end the spells he had cast, as he imbued resons out of storage and into his fingers. He was trying for a claw slash.

And he got that.

Bright white claws ripped across the light orbs, brought forth not by Erick’s aura at all, but through pure reson work, as Erick brought forth a specific desire of ending at the spells he had cast out there.

His claws sliced through the center of the arc of light orbs, missing almost all of them, but he had gotten close enough. Every single orb popped into broken mana, even the ones that were over 10 meters away already.

Erick checked his reson count… and saw the same number as before. That was because the count was currently measured in millions. Duh. Erick willed the count to change from abbreviated-millions to full numbers.

He cast an arc of orbs into the air again, this time making them fly a whole lot further and faster.

He turned his reson production down to 0% for a moment, and then he checked his count, and turned off everything. No mana senses, not aura control, no nothing.

He moved his hand again, making claws with his human fingers, imbuing his physical movement with resons. It was a bit sluggish compared to his ability with auras and mana, with the resons feeling like slow sap inside his body, but it worked well enough.

An ethereal version of his dragon hand swiped through the flying orbs. This action erased the orbs in a ten meters space, but all the ones that had flown further than that continued on their flying paths. Erick hummed. He checked his reson count…

“Only cost 7 resons?” Erick said, “I assume the cost will balloon at a distance…” Erick tested that theory, making a claw with one finger and swiping through the distant orbs. It worked, but… “4 resons that time? For a smaller effect?”

Cascadio watched, but at the mention of numbers he raised an eyebrow. And then he narrowed his eyes, rapidly deciding on a question he wasn’t sure he wanted the answer to, as he asked, “You quantified your resons?”

“Is that a bad thing?”

“A peculiar thing. People who do that often fall into the trap of thinking that every reson is worth the same. Reson costs naturally balloon when you don’t try as hard as you could. Reson costs naturally shrink when you try as hard as you can. Quantifying them always makes costs go up.”

Erick was rather sure that he was going to keep his resons quantified, but still, he asked, “By how much does quantifying resons make costs balloon?”

“20% to 2000%, or more. If you only use resons when you need to then the costs remain low and you won’t burn out from overuse.”

Erick realized something. “You are operating under the assumption that I have a very high reson number. What number does that look like to you?”

Cascadio easily said, “250,000.”

“That’s off by a factor of at least 10.” Erick turned his reson wallet generator back online, and said, “Could be a lot more in the future.”

Cascadio stared for a moment. And then he had a great big belly laugh. “Good! Good!”

Erick smiled—

A thought occurred.

Erick asked, “Is the ‘just do it’ method what a warrior would learn?”

“Quite right. Warriors often have an easier time with this sort of reson work.”

“Is it because bodies moving is like the aura control for other universes? Do other universes use aura a lot? What is going on there?”

Cascadio smiled, and then he said, “Yes. The physical body of the person in this universe is like aura control in a few other universes out there… Somewhat. There are overlaps everywhere. Other universes use aura, or something similar to it. Many universes don’t have anything like aura at all, and instead use formations outside of the body. Most universes have something that is a base person, and then another thing that is for making magic. Not all! But most. Some places like the Painted Cosmology are all magic all the time, with the line between mana and magic very blurred compared to here.

“If you were from a warrior lineage I would have explained this ‘just do it’ option first, and yet, if you were a warrior, to get to where you are right now in life it is doubtful that you would have ever asked for this lesson in the first place, for you would have discovered this ‘just do it – canceling’ ability on your own. If you were a warrior, then you would have only needed a single reson to erase those little light orbs. Mages are almost always more complicated than warriors in the tools they use, opting to go more cerebral than warriors, so they generally seek more complicated, deep answers in order to use effective tools to create effective effects.

“It takes mages longer to learn to use resons properly for that reason.”

Erick nodded at that, as he recalled all the times he had seen Jane wield a sword and do some amazing things, or any time any of the other warriors in his life had done something weirdly powerful. Singularly powerful, of course. Erick had never seen a swordsman split a mountain in half, but a decent archmage could do that all the time, and there were always stories about warriors that could fell mountains. And, Erick supposed, he had seen some warriors fell some mountain-sized monsters before, so that sort of counted.

Archwarriors were a thing on Veird, and they were very much a thing out here on Margleknot.

Just the other month, Erick had seen that warrior battle clash between the inmate forces of Da’luwe, where Totte, that void flier elf on the marauder side, had transformed her flag into a glaive and gone head chopping, all without any expenditure of mana or other visible power. That was sort of like being an archwarrior… But a whole lot less. Hmm.

Aside from that, Erick had just spent some time in the Dead Waiting Room and done some of this very same ‘warrior-like’ reson work, even if he hadn’t realized it at the time. He was so used to using his aura that he mostly neglected his actual, physical body, unless he was out dragoning around and catching a nice, plump fish, or other morsel.

Hmm.

Could he use some of this ‘just do it’ with his other body parts? Perhaps vision would be the best way to cancel a spell. Just look at it and erase it?

Erick looked out across the bronze land, at a distant orb that was about 400 meters away now. He narrowed his eyes at it, flexing his eyes with resons—

Briefly, the world was white.

Erick cut the power.

Erick’s sight came back fast enough. The little orb was still flying away in the distance.

“Hmm.” Erick asked, “What did that look like to you?”

“Like ineffective resonwork. Also like little beams of light that veered off course because you lost sight of the target before the effect connected.” Cascadio said, “Easily fixed in some cases, but not in all. You can use one eye to kill the orb and one to target, or you can use your claws. I suggest you not use your claws, though. Right now you are instinctively learning to use your various body forms, and in doing so, you’re going off of an idea that your claws are your own. This limits you because you will run into a wall of size. At a distance further than your natural body, you would have to stretch your self-image of yours past its natural usage state in order to affect distant spellworks.”

Erick realized something else. “Ah. Not if I’m a very big dragon. No stretching-of-image necessary there.”

Cascadio chuckled. “That is the usual method for dragons and other big creatures to overcome this issue, yes. ‘Just be bigger’ is always valid.” He smiled. “All of these are nuances to the ‘just do it’ method. They are also good limitations to keep in mind, for one must always have limitations when doing magic, elsewise you run into the issue of uncontrolled power.”

“I would imagine it could become quite easy to make one’s own power uncontrollable if you weren’t tying that power to specific physical patterns.”

“Quite easy.” Cascadio said, “To divorce action from power paves the way toward corruption, Erick. I know we did not bargain for that sort of teaching today, but this topic touches upon that one, as all magic touches upon each other. Corruption is how you get endlessly propagating terrors, and one of the easiest ways to get to that sort of corruption is to divorce action from consequence.”

“Well I won’t be doing that. I will, however, like to be able to cancel spells that I have already cast, perhaps even dangerous ones that cannot be approached normally.”

Cascadio grinned. “Shall we move on to the paradox spell solution to canceling one’s own magic, where you hold a canceler and when the battle is over you end all ongoing effects? Or the harmonious version, where you have to target and end your own effects yourself? Or the secret third version?”

Erick laughed, then said, “The harmonious version, for sure. That’s how I started, so that makes the most sense.”

Cascadio smiled. “The third version is easy, but expensive. All that requires is for you to imbue spellwork with resons attuned to a specific desire while you are casting that spell. The spell will automatically cancel itself when it reaches the desire you imbued within it.”

Erick said, “Bah! An enemy could probably frameshift themselves or their environment and overcome that ‘secret third method’ rather easily.”

“Ha! Yes. That would be my warning against that. But it is better said, just for clarity’s sake, because it is such a simple solution to a large problem that it must be remarked upon.” Cascadio said, “Because there are many limitations that one must overcome and account for when it comes to harmoniously ending your own spellwork. The first of these is distance. This is overcome with power and direction. The second problem is gaps in the transmission medium. When you call for a magic of your own to end, you must be able to actually reach it. The third difficulty is interference. On the battlefield, there is no way you can account for all the various powers out there unless you are truly the most powerful one in the field, and in that case: why are you fighting at all?

“We will go over each of these and their various solutions over the next hour.”

Cascadio continued, at length.

And Erick listened to a spell lesson that was larger than canceling one’s own magic. He supposed that was on purpose. Cascadio desired that Erick be prepared, and what Erick had asked for was not nearly enough to prepare him in Cascadio’s eyes.

– – – –

The spell had several moving parts, and Erick had prepared all of them over the course of an hour’s lesson.

Erick stood apart from Cascadio, there on the bronze floor of the Training Grounds. A good hundred light orbs hung in the sky and nearby, each of them subtly different. Some were made with Water mana, splashing in their containers of Force. Some were sparkling orbs of Radiance and Light. Others were dark holes of Shadow and Abyss. Still more were made with other, weirder Elements, like Blood, and Death, and Mercy. One was made with a bit of Destruction. It had been difficult to get that Destruction orb working, but even as Erick looked at it up there in the sky, it broke. The Destruction was too much for the basic structure of the simple orb. Oh well.

And Erick stood ready with a weird sort of intent in his mind.

This was Erick’s first true attempt at a spell made of resons and which would reach through infinity, and though it was complicated, it was quite simple in direction.

All of Erick’s spellwork made a sound when he channeled mana through that spellwork that he had contained in his soul.

All of that spellwork, when cast, put a version of the spell out there which shared a harmony with the spell in Erick’s soul— when he used the spells stored in his soul, anyway. Freeform magic would be harder to cancel using this method, because freeform magic did not have a miniature version of itself inside of Erick’s soul.

Erick just needed to find a connection between the spell in his soul and the one out there in the world, and then bridge that connection, and give that spell out there in the real world a ‘just do it’ canceling command alongside those resonant lines of construction. The bridging, in this case, would also be done with resons touching upon infinity and reaching out through a different slice of infinity, and then back into this slice of infinity, to where Erick had cast the spell he wished to cancel.

It was sort of like using gate magic, except not, because—

“Gate magic can’t be used in Margleknot, so… this really works?” Erick asked.

Cascadio grinned, saying, “Of course it works, and yes, gate magic cannot be used here for Margleknot controls all the gates, but infinity is infinity, Erick. You are not encroaching on the fractions of others when you do this magic, and are in fact specifically being disallowed from encroaching upon anyone else’s infinity while inside Margleknot. And, as long as you stay away from attempting to go through Benevolence as you would with your original Gate magic, then this spellwork won’t be limited by areas where Benevolence exists.” He added, “Of course, going through Benevolence is the cheaper, mana-based way, but the infinite, reson-based way is much more secure.”

“As secure as infinity is, though.”

Cascadio said, “The chances of you being able to use an infinity that is already being used is near-impossible.”

“Well now you’re just asking for Fate Magic to get involved.”

“That nuance is counteracted with your own use of Fate Magic, which is a lesson that you will have to learn on your own.” Cascadio said, “Sometimes infinity contains traps. There are no traps here in Margleknot, though.”

… Erick supposed that was correct.

He held out a hand, releasing mana through his aura above his fingers, concentrating on the flow of power from Force and Water, for he was going to target that Water-carrying Force spell up there, first.

At first, Erick was harmonizing with Force and Water, but then he moved on to using [Force Wall], as well as the very same [Water Splash] spellwork he had put up there. Erick’s little fountain of white and blue began to take on the sound of something solid, and watery.

And suddenly, Erick felt like he was starting out on Veird again, yet completely different.

With a small smile, Erick flowed resons into the harmonious flow of power in his hands, concentrated on zipping power through infinity like a curveball sent through another wavelength of land, to aim at the orb and water floating up there—

He twisted his hand, tiny dragon claws forming white light of his fingers. He crunched those finger claws down on the flow of white Benevolence and golden resons swirling out of his palm.

Far away…

Nothing happened.

Erick thought for a moment…

Cascadio watched.

Erick tried again, and this time he flowed power through his palm and used his aura to shape that flow into the image of the spellwork ahead. He also truly focused on infinity—

Suddenly, Erick saw tiny fractals spill out from the image in his hand. Tiny fractals also spun out of the orb in the sky ahead. That was when Erick knew he was connected. With a flash of resonwork on his fingers, mimicking his real claws, Erick crunched his fist around the flow of mana in his palm—

And spikes of white, claw-like power lanced through the orb in the distance. The orb did not break, as though someone had caused it too much damage. It simply unraveled, as though every bit of intent imbued into the mana had suddenly dried up.

“Excellent!” Cascadio said. “Again! Try the others.”

Erick smiled as he moved through the other orbs, to the ones made with specific spells of Erick’s own creation. All of those popped easily enough, and it only cost Erick a few tens of mana and resons for each canceling. Distance did not seem to matter; only precision of model in his hand and intent.

The freeform-cast orbs were tricky, for Erick did not have the specific power to erase those. He imagined that he would not be able to erase them at all.

But then he tried thinking in more base terms, in Benevolence. In that way, Erick was able to Shape and Alter images of the orbs in his hand to match the orbs out there. With a twist of resons and a crunch of claws in hand, Erick learned to cancel spells that he had no internal magic for; merely Benevolence. It was actually a lot easier to do freeform magic canceling in this way, once he understood what he was doing. Soon, he was canceling spells of all kinds through free-form canceling.

He wondered if the Script would allow him to do this, this way? Maybe not.

Probably not.

Erick took to the sky, and cast a [Vivid Gloom] onto the land, kilometers below.

Black roiled with glinting white light, the spell shifting and billowing and crushing with every passing second. It was hard to model, but Erick held within his hand a harmonious resonance with the spell far below, and that was enough. Fingernail-claws crushed a fractal-wreathed model of black and white, and street-sized claws tore apart the spellwork below.

He did that again, but with three [Vivid Gloom]s, focusing on every single one of the roils with his single grip of spell-in-hand, crushing that model and canceling the whole trio of Glooms. It only took him a few hundred mana and a few tens of resons to do that.

He could practice for a lot longer, and he probably should, but this was good enough for now.

This was all highly reminiscent of doing Wizardry, which Erick already had a bit of experience with, so it was nice to know what he was actually doing when he did that Wizardry, and it was nice to expand his Wizardry options.

“Great,” Erick said, feeling relief. “This works. This was necessary, Cascadio. It is appreciated. Now I can actually go to real war again.”

Cascadio asked, “Then shall we go see your army?”

And so they went.