From the desk of Erick Flatt, to whom it may concern:
A single day has passed since that unfortunate interruption of the start of the war, but here we are, back at it again! Many of you might have noticed that I have been all over the place recently, and mostly in the sky. If you looked out there right now you would probably see me in at least 5 places at once.
That is because I am in at least 5 places at once, but I am also here, on Veird.
I’m a fae, now. That means something, I am sure.
What means more, is that Plan Surround and Consume is working. I have been fighting the Primal Lightning out there at every step of the way, and that has probably looked strange to everyone here, with Lightning happening where it ought not to happen and then suddenly not happening at all. In some places, the Red Lightning even flowed backwards.
That’s the nature of a Wizard War.
Nothanganathor’s attempts to disrupt the plan are just that; disruptions. We are winning, and I have spent about 3 weeks doing that sort of winning for us, while less than a day has passed here on Verid.
Soon it will be time for everyone else to step up to the line and take their swing. And it won’t be hopeless! It won’t be a death sentence, as some of you are saying.
We have big plans for those of you that wish to fight. I am writing this letter to tell you that you have the full capability to rise up and fight yourselves… After a little bit of help from the Pantheon and House Benevolence and myself.
We’ve already begun deployments of that power among many people. I am sure many of you receiving this letter have heard of that. We’ll tell you all more in the following week.
As for the current events of the war, all that Lightning you see coming from the Edge of the Scheme of Fenrir are 90% automatic attack magics. Nothanganathor is, of course, actively throwing each bolt and I am directly fighting against him in a contest of wills each time, but the contest of wills is, so far, a routine series of attacks, and I am easily able to counter all of Nothanganathor’s bolts of Primal Lightning.
Is he lulling us into a false sense of security?
Perhaps.
I am not going to take the bait and commit to a larger attack at this moment. Plan Surround and Consume is perhaps a day or five away from completion. It is going slower than it had in the beginning, because the system was getting bigger. A lot bigger. And that necessitates a whole bunch of coordination magics and the complete revamping of the Northern Spellsurge Mountains into a singular focus.
Currently, the planetoids are crashing into sunlights and devouring them, to become sunlights themselves and light up the void for all the people on Fenrir, forming a net of interconnected planetoids that are both generating mana —mostly Benevolence— and actively suppressing Malevolence in the area.
The growth is already spiraling hard. One planet has become two, and those two each made another planet, making 4, which then doubled again, to 8. We slowed down the rampant growth to add more stabilization to the system, to make the planetoids grow into true planets, larger and more solid in their construction.
Soon, they will envelop the whole of Fenrir.
The calculation to that deadline is kinda simple.
The entire outer surface area of Fenrir in square kilometers is calculated by the surface area of a sphere, which is A=4πr^2, at a radius of around 150 million kilometers. Meaning Fenrir is around 3x10^17 million square kilometers. The distance between the surface of Fenrir and the height of the Seeds is mostly negligible, so the space the Seeds have to cover is pretty much 3x10^17 million square kilometers.
Each Seed is spaced out from each other Seed at a distance roughly equal to the distance that used to exist between Veird and its moons, meaning each Seed is covering a sphere of the sky over Fenrir that was more easily calculated based on the simple area of a circle, which is A=πr^2. So at a radius of 380,000 kilometers, that means that one Seed, when fully grown, covers about 4.5x10^11 square kilometers.
We don’t want the Seeds to simply be a single layer deep, though, with no ability to bolster each other. And so, we have plotted for triple coverage; making the necessary area to cover three times as large as the original 3x10^17 number. Or 9x10^17.
Figuring out how many moons we need is a simple calculation of:
9/4.5 and 10^(17-11)
or
2x10^6
Or 2,000,000 planetoids.
Which is about 21 doublings.
Not too much, really! We could have done that in a single day, because each Seed is already repaying back the mana used to cast it in under an hour.
Each planet is easily paying for itself and every other planet down the line. If we were deploying this system on our own, without the threat of Nothanganathor out here, then we could have had some rather exponential growth and land creation.
At 15 hours into Plan Surround and Consume, the [Seeds of Atunir] had reached 10 doublings. Over a thousand Seeds. The next doubling came in at 17 hours, making over 2000 Seeds.
I have been out fighting the Red and securing the Seeds for 3 subjective weeks, but only for a single Veird-day. At 24 hours, when this note was written, we were at 15 doublings, or 33,000-ish planets.
The 2,000,000 mark is not very far at all.
Pray for our success, and know that you are contributing to our success.
If you are a True Believer of Atunir, as is natural, then come to the Spellsurge Mountains and pray for our success yourselves. Leave your uteruses behind if you don’t want to get pregnant, though. Check with the clergy of Atunir if you are safe to approach, or not. Or, if you do wish for pregnancy, then come on up here and achieve a dream.
In a week, after Plan Surround and Consume is finished, there will be Very Big News about empowering people to fight for Veird themselves, and it’s not that update to all the Benevolence Spells out there that some of you have already noticed. It’s so much more than that. You will have the power to affect your world, on your own terms. Soon.
Sincerely,
Erick Flatt
- -
“So how about that letter from my father?” Jane asked, as she lay beside Sitnakov, in her rooms beside the Blue Corps headquarters in Ar’Kendrithyst.
Sitnakov, white as snow, breathed deep, his chest expanding far and then falling down as he breathed out, thinking. Jane lay there with him, his arm around her body, both of them not doing much of anything at all. He was warm and solid as metallic flesh. His solidity usually didn’t faze Jane but she was still feeling a little weak from her Personal Script, inundating her body and transforming how she interacted with the world, so there was a soft comforter between some of where they touched.
Her Personal Status had filled up completely and she had even switched over to it a few times, but mostly not. It was still tender. Still made her body freak out in little ways. Rozeta had prescribed rest for at least a day, and so, Jane was doing that.
Sitnakov had come to her to talk about the letter, but then one thing had led to another and now they were here, in bed together.
“Yeah… That letter. He offered me a Personal Script. Didn’t take. He offered it to a lot of people… He said he’d announce it in a week, but it’s already out there. Talk about lighting a signal fire.”
Jane laughed at that. “He really did light a fire, didn’t he.”
“He did.” A pause. “You got the PS, right?”
“I did. Made me a bit weaker, as you can tell, but it’s already better. Be fully better by tomorrow. Maybe 5 hours.”
Sitnakov let out a sigh of relief, his big chest deflating some. “Good. I like you being sturdy.”
Jane smiled at that. Being called ‘sturdy’ wasn’t every girl’s dream, but she liked it a whole lot when Sitnakov said it.
Silence took over the warm room, and it was nice.
Softly, Sitnakov asked, “Want to go see the Northern Mountains?”
“Kinda, but I’m supposed to stay away from great magical influences.” Jane poked Sitnakov’s chest. It was like poking adamantium that was trying so very hard to be flesh. “You can be an exception.”
Sitnakov chuckled. He craned his neck a little to look at her, asking, “We should probably stay away from the Fertility Goddess’s grand ritual, anyway. Wouldn’t want our handholding to end up with you pregnant.”
“Ha! We can’t have…” Jane had been about to say that they couldn’t have kids anyway, but… “I suppose, me being a dragon would bridge half of the gap, but you being a True Wizard could also… Hmm. Is that enough to bridge a gap? Even with you being wrought? We hadn’t really… ever talked… Hmm.”
As Jane talked, Sitnakov gave a soft chuckle. Jane loved that deep, warm sound.
And then Jane realized.
Her heart beat hard.
Oh.
Shit.
Was this a Big Conversation?
Jane realized this might be a Big Conversation.
Sitnakov had asked about visiting the ritual site, and then kids, and now...
Sitnakov said, “We’ve been doing this for a while now. I think I love you. Would you ever want to have kids?”
Jane had an eternal moment, laying there against Sitnakov. Her heart raced. Her head felt heavy and light at the same time. She had to check herself to make sure she wasn’t having some sort of cascading biological reaction that could end up with her dead, or worse. She even brought up her Personal Script to see if there was a problem.
Jane Flatt, [35] [Current Location: Layer 789; Veird, year 1453]
Mana split; Soul, Body, Mind: 59%, 31%, 9% [Full!]
Reson allocation rate: 1%
Darkness Level: Archmage
Fractal Level: Blind
Benevolence Level: Store Manager
Soul: 114; 721,500 per day / 8.3 per second
Body: 60
Mind: 19
Overall Stability: ↑ [+8.2, -0]
Mp: 114,000/114,000, ↑ [+4.9, -0]
Hp: 60,000/60,000, ↑ [+2.5, -0]
Pp: 19,000/19,000, ↑ [+1.5, -0]
Resons: 100/100, [+.1 = +.01, -0]
There was no problem there.
One thing that Jane really liked about this new Status is that it told her when things were wrong, and what kind of danger she faced. One thing she did not like about it was that she was still figuring the whole thing out. It wasn’t very cooperative—
“Jane?” Sitnakov asked, quietly.
“I know I love you,” Jane said, the words coming easily. “My body was just… acting weird.”
Sitnakov breathed deep, gasping a little— and then he heard the rest of Jane’s words. “Sorry. You said to take it easy—
“No no— You’re fine. Nothing happened… Well. Yeah.” Jane huffed a laugh. “You threw me for a loop. But… Yeah.” Jane looked up at Sitnakov’s face. He looked at her, questioningly. Jane said, “Yeah. I want kids eventually, if that’s actually on the table. I didn’t know that you did, though.”
Sitnakov relaxed and tensed in equal measure as he smiled brightly. “Yeah, I do. And I’d like to have them with you.”
Jane asked, “What would they even be, though? Adamantium wrought? Orcol-sized dragonkin? Human?”
Sitnakov declared, “Adamantium wrought. I think I could swing it. There would be some rituals to get it done. Wrought reproduction is not like fleshy people’s— Well. It is, in some respects. Some.”
Jane snorted a laugh. “It better not exclude all the fun parts.”
“Of course not!”
Sitnakov did not elaborate, though.
“You’re not going to elaborate?”
“Nope. Not until we’re married and praying to Atunir.” Sitnakov waggled his eyebrows. “Unless you want to go visit the northern mountains and give both our dads heart attacks?”
Jane smiled at that. “Come on.” She sat up and got up, saying, “Now you got me wanting to go see it. I’m ditching the uterus though while we’re up there.”
Sitnakov seriously nodded. “That might prevent pregnancy.”
“Ha! ‘Might’?”
“It’s a big fucking ritual, Jane.” Sitnakov stared off at nothing for a moment. “It’s…” He looked to Jane. “I really do want to go see it with you.”
“Big sights get my blood pumping too, big guy.” She added, “And I guess I can just morph into a dude for a whil— mmrph!”
Sitnakov rose from bed and wrapped Jane in a hug, kissing her deeply. Jane did the same for him.
The moment lasted longer than either of them expected it to last, and it was great.
Jane was in love.
Finally, breathlessly, Jane was in love, and the man she loved loved her back. Suddenly she started crying and laughing and Sitnakov asked what was wrong and they ended up back in the bed, talking small words that were so very large.
- - - -
Jane stepped out of a portal alongside a deployment from the Blue Corps and House Benevolence.
Sunny, Kiri’s [Familiar], eyed them all, and then bounced in place. The little girl was shaped like a long dragon these days, Kiri having long abandoned the couatl-disguise that her [Familiar] used to wear all the time, since she herself was a dragon. Sunny shut the big [Gate] that had taken the team here, and then briefly bounced in the air in front of Jane and Sitnakov.
“Thanks for the ride, Kiri. Sunny.”
Sunny twirled and then vanished into a little [Gate] perfectly sized for her, vanishing like an illuminated noodle sucked into a white hole.
Karonditus, the engineer team leader of this excursion, asked them, “So we don’t need to care about having you here, right? You’re not in charge right now?”
“Correct,” Jane said.
The Blue Corps was a conglomeration of various political entities that was less like a real power, and more like an organizational structure, making sure everyone knew what was happening. Karonditus was technically from House Benevolence, and he was here with a bunch of tech to settle some of the overloading problems of this ‘Seed Ritual’ up here at the Spellsurge Mountains.
Such a thing would have taken maybe 5 people, with some cartloads of stuff.
They had 37 people in their entourage. No one had wanted to deny the leave of those who wanted to come up here to see the largest magic on Veird since the creation of Fenrir.
Jane said, “We’re here to see the sight as pilgrims, just like all these extra people in your over-inflated team.”
Karonditus chuckled. “What do you mean, sir— Oh. Uh. Is it ‘ma’am’? Or… What?”
Jane said, “Whatever you want.”
Jane had needed to get rid of her uterus to visit this place safely, so she did that with [Perfect Polymorph], allowing her to assume the guise of a man she referred to as ‘Jake’. Sitnakov was just himself, standing to the side, all white instead of black.
The Northern Spellsurge Mountains loomed a few kilometers ahead, like craggy walls of silvered rock. A pass in the mountains was the road into the various facilities inside, and that’s where thousands of pilgrims walked into the place, under a glittering golden sky.
The ‘natural’ auroras of this northern pole had long since vanished ever since the day of Fenrir, when the Shells of adamantium layered over Veird’s original Surface. They had only been in existence for 10 years before that, though, because they required a magnetosphere and Veird didn’t have one until Jane’s father had drawn up plans for one.
The auroras were back, though, and different. Golden hues filled the world overhead like a dance of sparks and a wash of mist. And down here, the songs of priests echoed in the mountains, like an open-air church.
It was an absolute miracle of an experience.
Jane’s heart was thumping hard at the power in the air, and the people, and the divinity of it all.
Sitnakov was stunned, eyes fixed on the sky.
Almost everyone in the company was similarly stunned, but Jane and Karonditus had needed to keep their heads about them as the ‘leaders’ of this little trip.
“Looks like we have some checkpoints to clear, Karonditus. It’s your show here. Get it moving.”
Karonditus nodded seriously, and then he raised his voice and drew the party’s gaze. “Attention! Everyone with a uterus! If you get closer to the mountains you will likely end up pregnant if you even touch a man. Hand holding counts as touching! All of you women-looking people know what you’re in for, yeah?”
“Yeah yeah!” said Charon. She was a woman from the University of Candlepoint with a Script-given Class of Managineer. She was one of hundreds like that. She started walking forward with one hand on the floating cart she pulled behind her. “I got it clipped before I came here. I’ll get it healed back tomorrow.”
Karonditus hummed, unsure.
Charon rolled her eyes. “The priest I talked to said it was fine!”
A few of the women in the party were already holding hands with men; they were obviously couples seeking blessings.
Jane wished them the best of luck.
And then Jane started walking on the mountain path, up to the mountains, under the golden sky.
Sitnakov stayed with her, looking up as he walked, whispering, “Beautiful.”
Jane smiled as she looked over Sitnakov. The golden glows of the sky were the only light all around. That gold reflected off of the silver-ish mountains, casting everything in brilliance, while Sitnakov stood out like pure gold himself. “You’re beautiful.”
Sitnakov smiled wide and then he picked up Jane and kissed her for a brief moment.
Jane loved that about him. No matter what she appeared as, man or woman of any race or species, he had no problem expressing his love with a simple kiss, or some small, nice words.
They held hands as they walked into the mountain pass, alongside hundreds of other people, most of whom had been dropped outside the mountains through portals just like their team had been dropped.
The songs of singers deepened.
Together, Jane and Sitnakov walked under the monastic song of priests who stood on the sides of the mountain pass and wore woven-wheat hats and robes. The song echoed. The world reverberated. Jane was walking into the world’s largest cathedral—
Something poked out of the ground over there, and Jane recognized it. It was a thread of wheat, too small to be called a stalk, and yet it was growing fast, becoming a stalk of wheat. That was when Jane looked ahead, and saw even more stalks of wheat poking out of the ground.
Ahead, the crowd cleared as the pass ended and space opened up.
They exited the mountain pass into a field of golden wheat, under the bright gold sky, into a vast, vast valley between the mountains that was supposed to be made holey with deployment tubes, but was instead made holy with fields of grain and the song of ten thousand or more singers, gathered here and there, praising Atunir and her bounty. Far, far overhead was the first planetoid that her father had planted in that sky, with the help of the Goddess of Field and Fertility. It was as big as a moon, now, and it shone down brilliant white in a sea of gold.
Jane felt her heart hitch.
The entire party stilled, all of them transfixed in the moment. It was absolutely heavenly.
Some woman broke down crying to the side, thanking Atunir as she held her belly. Jane wasn’t sure, but she thought she heard baby cries among the hymnals. Another couple of Karonditus’s repair mission broke down in shared tears as that woman held her belly. Somehow, some priests came out of the field of wheat and ushered people whatever ways they needed to go.
Somehow, Jane and Sitnakov walked across the golden field.
She found herself holding Sitnakov’s hand, standing in front of an archway that led into the mountain complex itself. Karonditus and his main people were there, 5 of the team pushing floating carts down into the tunnels.
Sitnakov squeezed Jane’s hand a little bit, smiling and gold, as he asked, “A bit of a rush, ain’t it?”
Jane started laughing for joy, and Sitnakov joined her. Their laughter and happiness seemed to be a part of the songs in the air, along with babies crying and the sounds of wheat pushing up through the rocky stone mountains.
- - - -
It took a minute of walking for Jane to regain her composure, though she was still feeling off-kilter —in a fantastic way— by the time they entered the main facilities. Tenebrae’s Rocklings stood in pairs here and there in the wide, wide tunnels, checking everyone out. A few of the older Rocklings were wearing clothes instead of their simple rock bodies, and those ones directed people where they actually needed to go.
Jane walked toward the center.
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All around her, wires from the entire rest of the place journeyed like collections of colored snakes, cordoned off to the sides of walls and out of the main paths. They were doing a lot of sudden reconstruction here, and nothing was getting put away as it should have been put away.
Priests were also putting up altars here and there, with big beeswax candles that dripped white wax and burning sticks of incense that drifted smoke into the air. Paladins in armor prayed with their swords and priests and priestesses prayed with folded hands. Bands of wheat were turned into bracelets and hats and prayer mats everywhere. Choirs of children sang hymns in hallways and old men and women sang songs in grand, newly-carved rooms that echoed.
And then Jane reached the center, and dad was there.
A few big people were here.
Standing right beside the main [Spellsurge Weave] for the entire project was Tenebrae, tall and green. Over there was Archmage Riivo, of Archmage’s Rest, down by Stratagold. He was an iron wrought. And then there was Jane’s father, tall and looking like a kind king, with a crown of black horns to match his black hair. Jane barely saw anything else in the room because now that she saw her father, everything else fell to the sides.
He was a weight upon the world… and yet not at all? Jane couldn’t feel him. Was it just a lightward? Jane and everyone else could usually feel him when he was around, like how you felt when a god was around, but different. Atunir was heavy in the air so maybe that’s why Jane had missed him.
Also, he didn’t show up to Jane’s mana sense at all.
“Dad?” Jane asked.
Dad turned and then, like a light switching from off to on, he smiled wide and he was Present in the moment. Just like that, his usual weight upon the world was back, and then he relaxed and Atunir retook the area. He now showed up to mana senses, though, so that was good.
“Jane! Almost didn’t recognize you. Good show not showing up with a uterus. Everyone who has a uterus is already pregnant, especially if they come this close.”
“Yeah. I heard,” Jane said, as she looked around. “Sitnakov wanted to come, and so did I.”
Sitnakov nodded to Erick. “Sir.”
Archmage Riivo spoke up, “Ah! Sitnakov, my boy! What brings you here?”
“I had to see it in person,” Sitnakov said, and then he went off with the Archmage, to talk of the magic and what was happening and other such stuff. Jane would get back to him later.
Jane asked her father, “How long till full saturation?”
“Politics gummed it up, so it’ll be another full day, at least. Maybe less,” Erick said, as he gestured to the map in front of them.
The [Spellsurge Weave] map of Fenrir and the planetoids hung in the air before them, like a holographic white sphere 5 meters wide with tiny pinpricks of golden dots all around it. It glowed, absolutely beautifully. The entire rest of the room also glowed, but in a different sort of way. The room had been transformed into a temple loaded with monitors and candles and tubes filled with wires and incense burning, smoke wafting and filling the air with the scents of applewood.
A lot of machines were hooked into the Weaver… as much as metal and exterior magic could hook into the Weaver, anyway. What really bridged the gap between the Weaver and tech were the several altars to Atunir, positioned around the map equally. A few different monks and paladins were in attendance around those altars, around the Weaver, heads bowed and lips mumbling in prayer, as they sat upon pillows that were really prayer altars themselves. Litanies of hope and good fortune and desires for good growth spilled from those monks, to flow into the [Spellsurge Weave].
The initial Weave had become a lot more than what it was. It was now an artifact and nexus of power, all on its own, doing tens of thousands of things at once, from negating the prayers of those down on Fenrir that were invariably picked up by the sights of the sun/moons in their sky, to alerting Jane’s father when direct intervention was necessary.
Even now, as Jane stood there, she watched her father watch the map.
The little glowing gold planetoids around the representation of Fenrir would sometimes flicker Red, and then go back to being gold. If Jane didn’t know better, she would have thought it a trick of the light, but there was no trick at all. There had been a problem, and then it had been solved.
Erick was out there, solving those problems right now, even as he was in the command center, watching it all happen.
A few very important numbers floated to the side, giving the overall readout of the machine. One of those numbers was the full coverage readout, saying ‘1.6%’, and ‘Time to next doubling: READY’. So they could double right now? Jane kinda wondered why they weren’t doubling when they could, but her father had already explained ‘politics’, and so it wasn’t her concern anymore. Another readout read ‘Integrity: 94%’ with breakdowns for ‘Spell coherence: 99%’ and ‘Tech resilience: 95%’ and ‘Divine Purpose: 87%’.
That divine purpose was kinda low.
Jane looked further to the sides. [Scry] orbs held in the ceiling, beyond protective glass and spellwork all over the place. They were tiny eyes looking in from all across the world, linking masses and rituals out there on Veird to the Goddess of Field and Fertility and this working right here. Churches all across the entirety of Veird were tuned in, but it wasn’t enough for full integrity.
That’s why Jane hadn’t really felt her father. He wasn’t really here until Jane was here, drawing his full attention. Most of his attention was out there, where he worked.
They needed more true believers here, in this space, but that’s what the massive influx of people outside on the mountain paths were for. The problem was getting solved.
That was probably all the explanation of ‘politics’ had meant.
Erick answered Jane’s questions even though she hadn’t asked any, “Parts are getting replaced, the spell itself is holding, and I’m out there doing what needs to be done. We’ll do the doubling in a few more minutes; 87% is good enough. When we reach 100% coverage we will have the metaphysical advantage in this war, and then we can begin to crack Fenrir’s Scheme and then take that land over. You’ll be involved heavily in that, Jane, along with everyone else who has a Personal Script. I expect godly resistance and the Personal Script should be able to help mitigate much of that threat, but it’s literally too much for me to handle on my own, so you’re gonna have to do that. I’ve already deployed thousands of PS’s to the Valkyries, too. Once we crack Fenrir’s Scheme, we’re also likely going to need to move to save the people there from dying to the vacuum of space. Once we take Fenrir back, then we’ll secure Nothanganathor’s cage, and then Nothanganathor himself. And then we’ll continue until the cage becomes just simple real estate.”
Jane gave no response. She just thought.
Tenebrae harrumphed, then he walked away, back to work.
Erick softly asked Jane, “So you’re shaped like a guy today. That’s new for you?”
Jane laughed at that, though she tried to keep it as respectful as she could. They were standing to the side of a very, very large divine ritual, and a lot of people were all over the place. She whispered, “I actually attended a party at House Benevolence once in a body like this one, just to see if I could pull one over on you. Burhendurur caught me before I could get anywhere near you.” She added, “Also, this isn’t that new. Evan is a guy all the time.”
Erick smiled. “How is your Personal Script coming along?”
“It’s going great… I think.” Jane wasn’t willing to be nearly as open as her father with regard to certain things, so she said, “The thing we talked about. The scenario will be ready soon. Another 5 hours, and then I’ll be ready to tackle it. Candice is feeling a lot better as well. She’ll be there as well.”
Erick breathed deep, then smiled softly and nodded. “I look forward to seeing the experiment.”
Jane chuckled a little at that. “See you later. I’m going to go find Sitnakov.”
Erick nodded.
Jane walked further into the complex, the paladins and priests singing deep and strong, their songs echoing through the tunnels of the Spellsurge Mountains, turning the entire place into a monastery to the Goddess of Field and Fertility. Golden wheat poked out from between especially dense piles of wires, and rocklings poked at the new growth, trying to understand it…
Jane looked at the rocklings.
Rocklings were shaped like child orcols.
And Sitnakov wanted kids.
Jane theoretically wanted kids… ya know, eventually. Not right now. Maybe in a few years, when they were back to fighting monsters instead of existential universal threats? Yeah. That would be a good time for kids.
… Oh holy shit. Was that really ‘a good time for kids’? Did that mean she was really considering this?
She was.
But Jane didn’t know how wrought made kids. She always imagined it was some sort of slime-budding process, but Sitnakov liked sex and everything worked for him as it would on a normal guy, so… Who knew? Maybe dad knew how wrought made babies?
He probably knew how wrought made babies.
She wasn’t going to ask him.
If she asked him, then he would know how serious she was getting with Sitnakov—
“Jane?” asked a curious voice to the side.
A large blackrock woman stood in the hallway, holding hands with two rocklings, one on each side. She was Obsidia, one of Tenebrae’s first generation [Rockys], back when Tenebrae was human. She looked a little different, but yeah, that was Obsidia. The rocklings holding her hands were half the size of an orcol, so they were already almost as tall as human-shaped Obsidia.
“Obsidia!” Jane happily said. “I didn’t recognize you.”
“Ha!” Obsidia laughed. “I didn’t recognize you, either. Looks like we both abandoned our uteruses to see the ritual.”
Usually, one didn’t comment about what they saw with their mana senses, but this was a weird time, with weird specific concerns.
Jane smiled. “Yup! I’m here with Sitnakov checking the place out. What are you doing here?”
A rockling leaned toward Obsidia, whispering, “Who is that man?”
Jane smiled softly at that.
Obsidia said to Jane, “I’m having some time with the cousins, you know.” She said to the rocklings, “So you know Erick Flatt, the Wizard of Benevolence and my boss at House Benevolence, right?”
Both of them had various childlike reactions of ‘Yes we know him!’ and rolling of the eyes.
Obsidia said, “Well this is Erick’s daughter, Jane Flatt, and she’s in a [Perfect Polymorph] disguise right now so that she doesn’t get pregnant just being up here around this ritual.”
One of the rocklings instantly looked appalled and surprised—
The other one told the first one, “It’s [Perfect Polymorph], you rockhead! She didn’t kill anyone to get that form…” And then he paused. He looked at Jane. “… You didn’t, right?”
Jane nodded, smiling the whole time. “Correct. This body is my idea, just based on shape and general ideas; no specific person.”
“TOLD YOU!” said the second rockling to the first.
And then the first scowled and shouted at his brother, “I didn’t say anything to her!”
“You were thinking it!”
The kids almost started fighting, but Obsidia was there to stop that.
Jane found a thought suddenly lodged in her head. ‘I don’t want kids that fight with each other. How do you stop that from happening?’
She had absolutely no idea how to stop kids from fighting.
Dad had only had one kid, and Jane had still fought everyone she could.
Oh. Gods.
Her kids were going to be terrors, weren’t they?
And orcol-shaped, too…
Oh.
Actually, that made it all better. Orcols healed from everythin—
But they would be adamantium wrought. Not really orcols.
Shit.
What did that even mean?!
Well at the very least, it meant her kids would have a good absolute damage reduction. Hard to get hurt if you simply couldn’t be hurt by normal weaponry.
- - - -
Jane laced up her boots in the prep area of the Glittering Depths, Floor Three, as she went over her Personal Script. It was looking okay. She hadn’t had it for more than a day by now, and most of that day had been sleeping or resting, or the trip to the Spellsurge Mountains. There were still so many things to poke around with her Personal Script, but it was time for a basic field test. Dad’s Benevolence spells would be getting the most workout, today, and the Personal Script would do whatever it felt like doing. Hopefully all good things—
“So you two really are getting serious, then?” Candice was on the bench across the room from Jane, putting on her gambeson. “You and Sitnakov. I heard Dad talking about it earlier.”
Jane’s face went a little red. “… I think we are.”
Candice smiled with perhaps too many teeth, her orange eyes glinting brightly. “Jane and Sit~na~kov, sitt~in’ in a tree—”
“Oh shut up with that shit,” Jane said, though she was smiling as she said it. “How is your Personal Script working right now?”
“Yeah yeah. Avoid the emotional shit. Heard and understood, Big Sis.” Candice laced up her upper body armor with a bit of orange/black shadows snapping clasps shut. “I got my Personal Script automatically accreting for me. How about you?”
Jane was in the middle of tying her own breastplate on, but she suddenly stopped. “… Holy shit? You can do that?”
Candice laughed loudly. “I didn’t manage it, but Evan is having luck with that. Have you not poked at it at all!?”
“Oh… Bah! Well… Good for him. I mostly managed to get it set up nicely.” Jane mentally flicked the air. “See?”
Words appeared.
Mp: 114,000/114,000, ↑ [No Ongoing Damage]
Hp: 60,000/60,000, ↑ [No Ongoing Damage]
Pp: 19,000/19,000, ↑ [No Ongoing Damage]
“Battle readout.”
Candice raised eyebrows. “That’s how you set that up? How about this— No. wait. This is what you need to see first. I did manage this much.”
Mana: 112,000/112,000, [Protecting Health + Psyche]
Health: 63,000/63,000, [Protecting Psyche]
Psyche: 17,000/17,000
Candice said, “That’s the full readout, but the actual battle readout is this one:”
192/192 [Clear]
Jane stared at the absolutely tiny Status. It was beautiful. “What the fuck” All those numbers that came before it were indicative of something truly amazing going on, too. Some sort of pool stacking… So that one covered the other? “You can do… any of that? Have one pool protect the others? I didn’t… Hmm.”
Candice smiled wide.
“Are you making one pool protect the— Obviously you’re making one pool protect all the others.”
“Not quite.” Candice said, “I’m making Mana protect everything until I get low, then they share damage equally.”
Jane almost asked how she had done that, but then her thoughts caught up with her. “But then you take a big hit and you lose a massive hunk of mana?”
Candice nodded. “Yeah. I thought of that problem too, so... You know how Dad talked about Benevolence flowing away and then coming back? I’m trying to accrete for that specific ability, to make it easier for me to ignore Wizardry and fight on the front lines...” She paused. “Have you asked your Personal Script to do anything for you yet? Anything big, I mean.”
Jane shook her head. “I’ve been in meetings and with Sitnakov and doing all sorts of Blue Corps stuff, and it’s only been a day.”
Candice smiled wide. “I suppose that’s the benefit of not taking responsibility for others. I got all the time I want to break this Personal Script wide open. Gotta have something to do when I can’t go on the frontlines and there aren’t any dungeons to break..”
“Ehhh… yeah. It’s been kinda not fun, has it?” Jane added, a bit too strongly, a bit too mocking, “But it’s been great for the world!”
Candice was right there with her, “Gods know that the best thing for people to do is paperwork!”
Jane snorted.
“So how big is your Benevolence Mark? I’m labeled as a ‘New Hire’.”
“Store Manager.”
“Ha!”
Still smiling, Jane finished putting on her armor. “Have you had any real luck breaking your Personal Script? I tried asking it to give me a billion mana, and it simply did nothing.”
Candice shrugged. “It’s kinda… weird. Non-helpful? But still helpful, in its own way? I think I need to upgrade my Fractal Mark level up to anything more than ‘Blind’ and it’ll be able to tell me more… or something. Everyone I’ve spoken with has their Fractal Mark as ‘Blind’.” She paused. “I haven’t asked any Mind Mages, though? Have you?”
Jane shook her head. “Haven’t done much of anything with power experimentation.”
It had literally only been 24 hours since this whole Personal Script business started… But Jane supposed they were in a war, and things were moving fast for those of them who had nothing else to do except explore themselves and figure out new ways to kill things. Candice was seriously gifted in that art in a way that Jane had always thought she had been, but Candice took it a step further. Candice was also alone most of the time, though, so there was a trade off.
Jane was happy with her current life… except for all the war, of course.
Jane looked up at a readout hanging beside the door. ‘Dungeon Readiness: 94%’ and ‘ETA: 0h27m’. She said, “Is 27 minutes enough time to check out my Personal Script more?”
“You could spend a century talking to your Personal Script,” Candice said, very strongly. “It’s… It’s so much more than I ever thought it could be. So do some soul searching meditation to reach it, and speak to it. To them. Not accretion meditation, mind you. Soul searching meditation.” And then Candice dropped the seriousness in her voice and flipped a hand, saying, “Just meditate on it and see if you can do anything broken. Like how about making a [Time Stop]? Unless you got Blessed by Phagar when I wasn’t looking, then neither of us should have that one.”
Jane smiled a little. “I’ve always wanted [Haste].”
“Bah! You always go for the chicken shit magic. Go big!”
Jane rolled her eyes.
“Sit down and meditate! I’ll poke you when it’s time to go.”
Candice was acting kinda weird about this because usually she’d be gnawing at the doors wanting to start the dungeon. She seemed more excited about the Personal Script than the dungeon...
So Jane sat down in the prep room and closed her eyes.
- -
Just when Jane was about to give up with soul-searching meditation —seriously, she was never that good at this, and this was the wrong environment for it— Jane felt the world fall away. She almost woke up because she realized she was asleep, and yet she wasn’t asleep at all.
It was that space between being asleep and awake, when you could choose to wake up or to fall back into full slumber. It was there, in the dark world behind Jane’s eyes, that the dark turned into something more.
Blue took hold of Jane’s senses and drew her down a path into herself, into a dark blue room that was lit with light and yet still dim. It was another in-between space. And then, she was there.
Jane stood in a room with a dark-blue hologram of herself.
The hologram spoke, “Greetings, User. I am your Personal Script and this is your first full-contact with me. Future contacts will be easier. Before we begin interfacing, know that the only power that I can grant you is what you make yourself. Make a spell, and I will codify it for you. That is my primary capability. All other capabilities of mine can be explained through conversation. Please ask your questions now.”
Jane had no idea where to really begin. So she began with Candice’s ideas about covering weaknesses and resource pool condensation. “I want to set up my Status so my strengths cover my weaknesses. Can you help me with that?”
“Probably.”
“… Probably?”
“Do you know how to make your strengths cover your weaknesses? You’ve gotten a lot of help from this thing I’m sensing is called the Script, but you’ve picked all the low-hanging fruit from that that you can, and how much of that power is your own, anyway? Do you know how any of this works at all?”
Jane was almost floored, but then she paused, and she laughed in that pause. “Oh shit. This is… Yeah. Okay. Let me try: I want all damage to impact the resource pools I have, which are the largest, so that my smaller resource pools are preserved.”
“Sure, if that’s what you want. How, though?”
Jane blinked. “Aren’t you supposed to be… I’m not sure. Helpful?”
“I am helpful, but you have no idea what you’re doing, so I’m goading information out of you in order to get you to do what you want to do. I can’t actually give you power, or much of anything. The Script does that for you, and even in that case you have to talk to someone to get you started and you still have to get your power yourself. As I explained, I codify what you are already capable of doing. Or what you do. So do something, and I will codify it.”
“Okay okay okay,” Jane said, and then she paused in thought. “Okay… Can you tell me what I can do with a Benevolence Mark?”
“According to what you know, Benevolence makes things work out in your favor.”
“… Does it do that for me? Give me… I don’t know. Luck?”
“Not really, as far as you know.”
“Are you only able to know things that I actually know?”
“I don’t know what you don’t know, yeah.”
Jane paused for a second. Dad had made this Personal Script to give power to the people, and yet… Hmm. This was not helping Jane gain power to overcome Wizardry and other powers. But maybe she was just going at the problem wrong?
She tried, “I have to fight a Wizard for the good of the realm and probably the universe. Does that unlock any more capabilities?”
The hologram paused.
It glitched—
The hologram came back brilliant white and rainbows. Her voice was the sound of the world speaking directly in Jane’s ears, “I hear you want to save everyone. I can help with that. Here are some options for you to pursue:”
Words appeared.
Armor of Protection
Sight Beyond Sight
Fateweavers’s Luck
“They are exactly as you expect them to be, except not that at all, and I cannot simply grant them to you. What I will do is attempt to set things up to allow you to figure them out yourself. The speed at which you can create any of these is measured by your Benevolence Mark level, which currently sits at Store Manager. I cannot give you a time estimate for any of them, but I can tell you that Armor of Protection will be the easiest one for you to realize how to make yourself.”
Oh.
So it was like that, eh?
Jane was beginning to understand this whole thing better. She also guessed that Candice had picked ‘Armor of Protection’.
… Did Candice have a larger list of options, or a smaller list?
Hmm.
Other questions needed to be answered first, though.
Jane asked, “Why did you switch to Benevolence white and start being helpful?”
“You were speaking to your Personal Script before, born of the trio of Dark, Fractal, and Benevolence, and seen through the lens of yourself. They are little more than enablers to what you can already do. The Dark is an insane wash of power untold, so good luck dealing with her. I suggest you visit her eventually, but don’t stick around. Fractal is a little better, but she’s blind. Speak with her and see if you can become something more than blind. I am your Benevolent Reflection, only a third of the power behind your Personal Script. I am in tune with the needs of the world, and through those needs, I can give you strength. Considering what is coming down the line we have a lot of work to do. In less dire situations I will likely be less helpful than the other two, unless you were truly strong in Benevolence.”
There was a lot of fantastic information there.
Jane asked, “What does being strong in Benevolence look like? What would I need to be for you to always be this helpful?”
“The leader of a nation of millions or more, who desires to make that nation stronger through Benevolence, or anyone headed in that direction either through fate or personal choice and desire, will unlock me at my full capability at all points in time. Someone truly versed in the Fractal might have better luck pursuing that sort of power. The Dark is the Dark, and good luck with that, though they do give out the most power, so me saying ‘good luck with that’ is not being dismissive. I really do mean good luck with that, because you will get power, but it might not be what you need or want.” Jane’s Benevolent Mark said, “Anything smaller than national-level only activates me to the level you are experiencing now when the threat is large enough that the whole realm is in danger—” She glanced away, then turned back to Jane. “Pick a desired power and mana-alter your mana to Benevolence as much as you can in the following battles for it will be able shield you from reality-based alterations better than what you are currently capa—”
A soft voice called from outside the room, and something pressed against Jane’s shoulder.
Benevolence rapidly added, “I might be able to help you make a second one later! But pick a starter now!”
Jane already knew which one she was picking. “Armor of Protection. I pick that one.”
And then Jane woke up.
- -
Jane blinked several times as the world came back into focus.
Candice was there, looking at her, grinning. “Did you manage anything?”
Jane glanced at the air, where some letters hung outside of a box that only she could see.
Current Benevolence Focus: [Armor of Protection]
Unlocked! Wizardry Resistance! Utilize Elemental Benevolence in all your workings against ultimate threats and parts of that Benevolence will cling to you, to shield you against reality alterations. Base Benevolence Mark affords full protection against <Store Manager> level Wizardry. Warning! Does not work against basic damage. Only reality altering.
WR: 1%
Jane asked, “What does a Wizardry Resistance of 1% even mean?”
Candice smiled wide. “Fuck if I know! I bet the faux-Wizard might trigger it, though, so let’s go find out.”
- - - -
Jane walked into the command center of the Glittering Depths dungeon of Greensoil.
Her father stood with Quilatalap and a few others, while Fyuri was at the controls. The special deployment of the Third Floor was almost ready, and there were so many things about this that Jane’s father didn’t like, but which he had chosen to accept anyway. It was fine that he was worried, but Jane had been here while he had been gone, and the people who worked here were good people.
Jane knew most of the story of this land through secondary sources, since her father hadn’t spoke of much of it while he had been here, and then he had been gone for two years, before he came back and then it was Margleknot Margleknot Margleknot all until a few days ago, when the War started for real. Jane knew about Dungeon Master Rebecca’s true nature as an original inhabitant of this dungeon, and how her real name was Fyuri. Rebecca was good at her job, and she didn’t need to make a dungeon slime repro to become dungeon master here, since she was born here.
Jane thought her a rather competent dungeon master.
Rebecca caught sight of Jane as she stepped into the command center. She poked at the controls, dictating the scenario, but she looked up long enough to say, “We’re about a minute from start. All systems are blue. That bar over there shows the level of worry we should be having over this false Wizard turning real, and it’s reading 1%—” She glanced at Erick. “It’ll never go below that. It might jump and fall 3 or 4 points at a time. Anything over 50% we stop the scenario. Usually it bounces around, and especially if the false Wizard starts seeing stuff that shouldn’t happen. Simply resisting his attacks does not set him off.”
That was enough to answer Jane’s questions even before she asked them, and a few more besides, but Rebecca was obviously focused on Erick more than her. Jane had a more personable relationship with the people of Glittering Depths, but Erick’s memories of this land and Fyuri’s memories and all that previous-life stuff was…
Was something Jane just didn’t want to think about, so she didn’t.
Jane asked, “How are Atunir’s prayer systems helping with stability?”
Rebecca loved that question, because it allowed her to grin and happily say, “The ritual in the north is doing amazing things for the scenario. The Faux Wizard today will be strong, but the dungeon is even stronger. Easily 10 times as much.”
Erick spoke up, “Good.”
He gripped Quilatalap’s hand a bit tighter, and Quilatalap squeezed back.
Jane ignored that.
Rebecca asked, “Shall we proceed, Wizard Flatt? Delve Master Jane Flatt?”
“I just came in to make sure everything was going well.” Jane said, “I’ll head to start.”
Erick didn’t answer. He just smiled a little, and breathed.
Rebecca said, “I’ll start the countdown when you are in position, when you say ‘ready’.”
The screens flickered a bit as the [Scry] cameras moved around and focused on empty lands all around the unmoving Siphon. In the normal Scenario, the Siphon was a kilometer-tall thing of silver metal and cutting edges, sitting in a wasteland of rock. It was broken, and the people of the other land were trying to fix it, so they could continue Siphoning away the world, stealing it and making it their own.
In this closer-to-real scenario, the Siphon was a 10-kilometer tall construct of twisted silver with a Wizard floating around on top. This version of ‘The Third Floor, The Broken Siphon’ was more like ‘The Third Floor – The very-much-working Siphon’, and this one was actively eating away at the land. That land then turned into power to flow across the void to the imperialist world. In both scenarios, though, the destruction of the Mana Siphon was the main goal of the Third Floor of the Glittering Depths.
This version had a Malevolent Wizard at the top.
It was a little extra addition that made this scenario actually worth running by outsiders training to fight Wizardry and such, like Jane today.
Quilatalap eagerly said, “I haven’t seen anyone make it past the front rotors until True Wizard Sitnakov tried this last month. He stopped before he made it within a kilometer of the false Wizard and they risked another Event.”
“Gods,” Erick muttered, as he squeezed Quilatalap’s hand and held it. “People get up to crazy shit all the time, eh?”
Quilatalap chuckled.
Jane headed to start.