When Irwyn next opened his eyes, they were all standing in the middle of a forest clearing, the sun shining above them. Alice and Waylan seemingly appeared alongside him, side by side, while Elizabeth was likewise nearby, lying on top of a large flat rock… Actually, a large rock that has been cut into a flat surface to be more comfortable.

  “Finally!” the Blackburg heiress immediately exclaimed. At a glance, Irwyn realized she had put on a mask. It was an unassuming black piece without much engraving covering much of her face. “I was starting to get worried she might have transported me somewhere else than the rest of you.”

  “Why the mask?” Waylan asked.

  “Nothing too major,” Elizabeth dismissed quickly… too quickly. “I am more interested in what happened after I was banished.”

  “We…” Irwyn started and paused, frowning. The subsequent bets were on his mind, but he could not voice them. “Strange.”

  “The usual as far as fae are concerned,” Elizabeth nodded while Alice seemed to also struggle to speak while Waylan did not even bother. “You can only speak of events involving the fae in the presence of other fae or the people who witnessed what happened firsthand. Even hinting at it is hard, supposedly - hence Waylan’s awareness but lack of ever bringing anything up. Your first encounter in the forest outside of Ebon Respite is strange in that regard, Irwyn. Almost unique in the seeming lack of restrictions.”

  “What about…” Irwyn opened his mouth and could only pause again. He was about to mention Nilly - as the fae had called herself at the time, his one-time ‘lawyer’ - but realized he could not. That made him frown. Had that not come up in any of his recountings?

  “Sometimes it can be subtle, merely forgetting to mention things,” Elizabeth answered his unsaid question – seemingly guessing it from his expression. Presumably with a grin, but the mask did block the sight of her mouth.

  “But you can somehow tell us all this?” Waylan said with some doubt.

  “As I mentioned at the table: House Blackburg has gathered much information over the centuries. Their way of stopping information from spreading is very potent but hardly insurmountable by competence, time, and chance. Realistically, all that is needed is realizing this kind of information embargo had been placed on someone else and then employing a skillful enough mage who can extract exactly what the magic hides. Difficult but completely feasible for any of the Duke households. The rest is luck, which occurs eventually.”

  “And since your information did not come from an encounter it could not be sealed,” Irwyn presumed.

  “Yes, but that has probably been remedied when it comes to anyone else but us four,” she nodded. “Not a great loss anyhow.”

  “Shouldn’t you be protected against that anyway?” Waylan asked.

  “I am not immune to ancient beings equivalent to Truth mages altering my mind, no,” Elizabeth rolled her eyes. “There is obviously a limit to what a trinket can shield me from. Life in particular is rarely the focus given the general dislike of the element among liches.”

  “Are we not gonna mention the mask then?” Waylan questioned again.

  “You just did,” Irwyn pointed out to his friend.

  “It’s a… small thing,” Elizabeth said after a surprising moment of hesitation.

  “Yep, definitely hiding something,” Alice nodded.

  “Yep,” Waylan concurred. Irwyn remained silent, though could not say he was not curious.

  “Well, we did get what we wanted in the end,” Elizabeth sighed. “A few bits of petty revenge are not unreasonable to weather. I have been waiting here for three days, that's one.”

  “Three?” that gave Irwyn a pause. “We couldn’t have been there more than a few hours.”

  “And we really haven’t won that much,” Waylan nodded. “Not three days’ worth for sure.”

  “I don’t think it’s been three days,” Alice also disagreed, and she was the expert among them. “A day at most, even if my senses were messed with. My honest estimate is eight hours including before you left and we might not have been fully conscious for much of it.”

  “Maybe it wasn’t us but Elizabeth’s perception being off,” Irwyn suggested.

  “Making me believe I have spent three days in boredom waiting… but never really straying far or doing anything major in all that time. I actually don’t even remember sleeping or a night of any kind… Yes, that makes more sense,” she agreed after a moment.

  “So, mask?” Waylan reminded.

  “What else have you actually won?” Elizabeth intently delayed. "I assume that was what went down after my exile."

  “I have a…” Irwyn began, then realized he couldn’t speak. The restriction was stopping them from sharing their later winnings even with Elizabeth.

  “Really? That is just petty,” she grumbled.

  //YES the fae’s booming voice sounded, as if from afar, startling them all.

  “We should get moving,” Elizabeth suggested immediately. There was no disagreement. They could talk about the winnings later, when they were further away. For all the fae had treated them mostly fairly, there was no reason to test her whims by staying.

  “Is there any clue as to where we are?” Irwyn questioned.

  “For now we head North,” Elizabeth shrugged. “We will find a town of some kind eventually and get better directions there. Ideally not too soon though, it would be best if Irwyn and I reached conception before we stride into another nation.”

  “That way,” Alice pointed in a direction. Irwyn tried to form his proven platforms but found them refusing to take shape, leaving him baffled.

  //Walk a bit. It’s healthy. The fae added mockingly, explaining the cause. With no real way to contest the whim of the ancient being, they quickly strode into the forest. The terrain was very much uneven so Irwyn had to dedicate a lot of attention to not tripping with his limited experience but with his body and mind being far beyond normal it was not actually that difficult.

  “Did it work, have you tested it?” Irwyn asked after a few minutes of quiet trekking, eager to experience things himself. The fae had promised to let hem skip two stages of imbuement. Except he also simultaneously had a vision right after or even during that which came with its own rise in power. That would skew those results, so he opted to ask Elizabeth first as they had been at very similar levels before.

  “Yes, 9 intentions, just barely,” Elizabeth grinned wide enough for a slight shift to be visible despite the mask. “My Vessel and efficiency lag behind a bit now since they didn’t progress as much but that is fine. Efficiency will get better with practice and the Vessel is still sufficient. In conception, my reserves will expand exponentially anyway and my Soul has more than kept up.”

  By ‘efficiency’ she meant how well she could imbue additional intentions. At minimum, going from eight intentions to nine would always be at least nine times as difficult and mana intensive, however, the reality was usually far worse. As Irwyn knew firsthand, getting closer to the theoretical minimum came with extensive practice. It would be much worse when jumping two intentions at once since the initial extreme inefficiency would apply twice. By the time she got the hang of it, Elizabeth would likely be able to wield two or even three nine-intention spells.

  “Now I should be able to do seven-intention with the ring,” Alice said proudly. “I never would have thought Conception could be so close this soon. I might get there within the year.”

  “I cannot exactly test if I am harder to do magic on,” Waylan gave his two cents.

  “Well I could,” Alice suggested.

  “Sure go aheAAAD!” Waylan’s answer turned into a squeal as Alice teleported him four meters into the air where he immediately began to plummet towards the ground. Irwyn wondered for a moment whether to help catch him but noticed another spell from Alice already preparing to break his fall.

  “Yep, about three times as hard to teleport,” she nodded sagely with a smirk. “It also works for detecting you. At least while you are not actively hiding, not sure it will make any difference when you are. But it should also apply to any mind magic, right?”

  “When you are cleaning one of your guns and a small piece goes strangely missing, I want you to remember this moment,” Waylan threatened good-naturedly.

  “I have spare parts,” she stuck out her tongue.

  “So, mask,” Waylan suddenly redirected again. “We can do this all day.”

  “Fine, it’s not so bad anyway,” Elizabeth sighed and they all halted. She ripped down the mask revealing the whole of her face. As ever the skin was smooth and features flawless, almost beyond what seemed possible. An engineered yet also natural beauty… and a massively bloated crimson wart marring the tip of her nose. “Happy?”

  “Wow,” Alice paused while Waylan fought hard to not snigger inappropriately. It was quite something… certainly the biggest growth Irwyn had ever seen sprouting on someone’s face, almost comically so.

  “Please, do not be struck mute by it,” Elizabeth sighed and put the mask on again.

  “Have you tried… removing it?” Irwyn suggested carefully. For all she played nonchalant, he could tell Elizabeth was somewhat miffed by it.

  “Grows right back when I directly cut it out,” Elizabeth replied. “Immune to the few beautifications items I had bothered to bring. I can probably only hope that it will lose its magic eventually.”

  “I think we might be far enough away now that we can try flying,” Alice said. The forest foliage was getting progressively thicker as they moved further from the clearing, the trees taller and terrain more difficult to navigate. So far Irwyn had not resorted to just burning a way through but that was only a matter of time if they had to keep walking.

  “Let’s see,” Irwyn nodded, trying to summon his magic. That time it worked, creating a platform beneath each of them. He quickly raised them above the tree-line, giving them a better look at where they were.

  It was a forest as far as the eye could see. Green treetops, some high, some lower, spreading across both even terrain and hills alike from horizon to horizon. In the far, far, distance to the West some mountain tips were visible but that was about it for diversity. The only difference from where they were looking seemed to be the height of the trees.

  “I think we are safely out of the desert,” Waylan commented drily.

  “Let’s keep going until we find another clearing to camp in,” Elizabeth decided. “It looks like dusk is still a few hours away.”

  It took them well over an hour to find another relatively open space to rest - and only because Alice barely spotted it. Rather than a proper clearing it was a half-collapsed hill. Seemingly, a huge chunk of it had sunk into the ground splitting the local landmark in two, then solidified again. One half remained a jagged mass of stone towering over the local area while the other was relatively even and without many trees managing to spread in, given the ground was still more rock than soil.

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  It made for a convenient campsite. Alice had no trouble driving the stakes into even solid stone with her magic so they were set up relatively quickly - the relatively being there for a group of four where only one person actually knew how to properly put up a tent. They were learning though, Irwyn had actually helped rather than made a mess. He was sure he would get the hang of it soon enough even without dedicated practice.

  When they were done, it was not yet quite sundown, so he sat down with Elizabeth. Irwyn had insisted she would remove the mask and was doing a very good job not even glancing at the glaring wart. Elizabeth distracted herself with the entire tea set, produced from her bag. She was brewing with practiced motions as Irwyn made them a blazing furniture set under the gradually darkening skies. Alice was off reading from her prized tome and Waylan was doing who knew what. They certainly couldn’t see him.

  “I had another vision,” Irwyn finally admitted. “Just when we were being sent away by that fae, I think.”

  “What about?” Elizabeth immediately became curious.

  “The death of the very first fae, I believe,” he said, hesitating how much it was even possible to reveal without the full context. “Did you know that there can only ever be 3774 of tem put together?” he asked, surprisingly enough able to speak it. He had only learned the meaning of the number afterward during a conversation he found himself unable to even hint at… did that mean there were loopholes in the restrictions? Or was it merely the visions holding enough weight to bypass them and a few related things?

  “I have never heard of it,” the tea was finally ready and she poured them a cup each. “The closest thing is speculations about dragons possibly following a similar restriction. It sounds like the kind of secret they would keep well hidden.”

  “I wonder…” Irwyn paused, then asked outright. “Is now the time to reveal my big secret?”

  “The fae could still be watching,” Elizabeth shook her head hesitantly, a hint of tension entering her features. “And this was a bit too much excitement for me. I can also better ensure privacy when I finally carve a few Concepts.”

  “So not yet…” Irwyn repeated with both relief and regret.

  “Not yet,” she confirmed, tension likewise leaving her.

  “I don’t think it was warning me about anything that hasn’t happened yet,” Irwyn returned to the vision after, trying to speak in circles. Perhaps Elizabeth would catch the hint of what he actually couldn’t say. Or not.

  “I see, not much point dwelling on it then,” she said. “Have you had the chance to test your magic?”

  “Four nine-intention spells,” he said with a smirk. He just barely had the time when setting up the camp. “I should get much better at it quickly too.”

  “More than enough to carve a concept,” Elizabeth nodded. “The issue now is the how for you. You still cannot access your Soul very well, can you?”

  “Still in a shell I can barely perceive,” Irwyn nodded. He had been practicing but his ability to feel his own Soul was developing painfully slowly. “There might be an alternative. If I properly carve the concepts into my body, my Soul is likely to mirror them onto itself. That way, even if I cannot access the Soul consciously, it should be feasible to advance.

  “First time I am hearing of such a method,” Elizabeth admitted with a frown.

  “I have it on good authority,” Irwyn said vaguely. The restriction imposed was clearly more strict on some things, and less on others. It was possible to voice the suggestions but not actually say it came from the fae they had just met or mention their private chat at all. He was not going to puzzle out exactly how it worked at that moment though.

  “A whimsical but not malicious expert,” Elizabeth nodded in understanding, a gleam passing through her eyes. “But there will have to be a divergence from the usual process.”

  “I have to admit I have limited idea on how to actually take this leap even normally.”

  “You have not read up?” Elizabeth seemed surprise.

  “The exact methodology was in none of the books I had,” Irwyn shrugged. “And I presumed you can explain it better than a written guide would.”

  “Fine, fine. There are three steps in this process,” she smiled and began to elborate. “First, you must realize the composition of the Concept. Which nine intentions do align into something greater? This is not an exact science and the same Concepts can be formed from different intentions. But for this step they still need to make sense. This difference often comes from ‘supporting’ intentions, like amplify or empower. Have you considered which concept you would form first?”

  “Starfire seems like the obvious option,” he nodded.

  “Not unexpected… but we will have to skip ahead in the explanation,” she said. “Just because concepts are formed from nine intentions doesn’t mean they cannot be refined further. Starfire is Light and Flame, and it can be formed directly from nine intentions, though it would make it weaker - too spread out. Instead, you will be much better off forming them separately and then merging them into one. Or go even further.”

  “The downside is that this takes much longer, I assume,” Irwyn guessed. “You need to carve nine concepts to claim a domain, adding another would make it ten.”

  “It does slow you down but not by a whole concept – you can think of it like re-filling a hole instead of needing to also dig it again. And your muscle in this analogy will also get stronger along the way,” Elizabeth elaborated. “A merged concept will be maybe 30ish percent more powerful than a directly formed one. But as you said, there are clear downsides. For one, there must be an obvious way to obtain the desired from several other concepts. The merging process is not easy either. Moreover, each concept merged into the resulting one must be an equal part of that equation.”

  “Can you merge from more than two then?” Irwyn asked. The way she chose her words implied it.

  “Yes, but there must still be a clear way for the parts to be equal. You cannot just shuffle in something supportive and go with that. The other downsides and upsides also apply, so merging more than three is ill-advised even for us, if it’s even possible. I will be doing three exactly twice on my way through conception.”

  “You have it all completely figured out then?” Irwyn said, though he had already expected as much.

  “Down to every merger,” Elizabeth nodded. “And you should also make a clear plan before committing. It will be much easier than usual, given you can grasp intentions at a whim, so you will not be punished for not already planning throughout imbuement but for concepts it is a necessity. Otherwise, you might not be able to claim a domain as easily.”

  “How precise must I be then?” he inquired. “I know that it is nine concepts again that form into a domain, but do those need to be still roughly equal.”

  “No, domain formation is surprisingly ‘loose’, the concepts just need to make sense. For example, you cannot use… let’s say ‘intangible wind’ as a part of a domain of an ‘immovable mountain’. Both of those are Realm in nature but do not fit together. On the other hand, you could use ‘Hardness’, ‘Persistence’, or ‘Reinforcement’ for the latter - all three, probably.”

  “Do the parts matter as far as the final domain is concerned then?” Irwyn asked.

  “Yes, but also not,” she shrugged. “Having stronger or better fitting concepts will make claiming the domain significantly easier. You will also be able to get initial control over it faster - this is especially important for the first domain. However, in theory at least, domains are fixed in power, no matter who or how claims them - the limit is in how much of that power can be accessed. But that is besides the point now. You only need to choose the first one to aim for and can go from there.”

  “Don’t I need to also plan for Truths?” Irwyn questioned. It seemed like a theme.

  “There is no such thing as 'planning' for Truths,” Elizabeth shrugged. “Even I have not gone that far yet.”

  “What do you have in mind for Conception then?” he asked curiously, “You also mentioned two mergers of three concepts.”

  “The first one will happen right away,” she nodded. “I will carve Void then Flame, proceeding to merge them into Temzda. From there, I will carve Void and Flame again and merge all three into Temzdaflame - a synonym to Voidflame as we once discussed but more fitting for me personally.”

  “That is… possible?” Irwyn gaped at her plan. “That feels like cheating. You just use Void and Flame twice? And isn’t Temzda very close to Temzdaflame conceptually?”

  “All that is required is that the concepts play an equal part in the merger,” Elizabeth’s chuckled at his bafflement. “This in particular is an old trick passed to every half-prodigy with some background who walks the joint path of Void and Flame. Given the two separate mergers, the resulting concepts will almost approach two independent concepts in raw power.”

  “Didn’t you say that having more powerful concepts doesn’t make the resulting domain any stronger?” he pondered. “Is it worth the effort? It would be far faster to carve two Concepts instead I assume.”

  “There are two benefits besides the obvious one of being more powerful at an equal number of Concepts,” Elizabeth nodded. “Firstly, as I said, better Concepts will make claiming my first domain much, much smoother. That in itself would be worthwhile. Do not underestimate that boundary - it will be genuinely difficult even for us. But secondly, more refining Concepts like this will make the Soul and body grow faster and more efficiently. That is one of the reasons why I am aiming for this as my first full Concept - it will actually save me time in the long run.”

  “And this presumably also works with Starfire,” Irwyn theorized – it seemed the steps could be basically followed one to one if he just replaced Void with Light.

  “Exactly my thoughts,” she confirmed. “Void and Light surprisingly often mirror each other. I believe it would be the best way to go for both of us.”

  “Then I assume your second triple merger will happen right after that?” he asked, wondering if it would also be suitable to ‘borrow’ that plan as well.

  “Exactly. I will merge Temzda, Perfection, and Flesh into Perfected Temzdaflesh,” she explained. “That is not suitable for you.”

  “How is the ‘perfection’ an equal part?” Irwyn frowned. “It seems supplementary rather than something directly comparable.”

  “It would not be for any other element,” Elizabeth nodded. “However, this stems from some very deep complexities of the Void. Fundamentally, the nature of all Voidborn creatures is to pursue perfection. This in itself comes from Umbra herself. There is a verse in the Book of the Name about it, I am quite sure…”

  “While Lumen in her kindness accepted all who would live beneath her skies…” Irwyn quoted, remembering the passage she likely had in mind. “...Umbra was a harsh mother to those of night and Void. She decreed that only the best were worthy of being her children. That the weak and mediocre shall be all banished from her sight.”

  “Yes, that is the one,” Elizabeth confirmed. “So, all things which dwell in the Void are forced to pursue perfection or perish as the weak are not tolerated - neither by others nor the environment itself. Elves follow and enforce that decree wherever they walk - and they are closely tied to Temzdas. That is why Perfection can be considered equal part specifically to Temzda.”

  “I doubt you have that much insight into what I could do,” Irwyn presumed.

  “Maybe you can figure out something from your old visions?” Elizabeth sighed, trying to at least offer an alternative. “The Duchy of Black is light on Light lore.”

  “Though, the verse speaks about banishment rather than death,” Irwyn pondered.

  “While Umbra yet lived, yes,” Elizabeth nodded. “Many things were twisted after the First Betrayal. With the Aspects dead there was nothing left that would forcefully curb the worst tendencies of people. While Umbra had been a harsh mother, she was still loving, merely banishing those proven unsatisfactory to live beneath Lumen’s skies instead. Without her… well, I have been told there used to be several more intelligent species dwelling in the Void than just Demons and Elves.”

  “That is certainly a grim thought,” Irwyn sighed. The era after the First Betrayal had clearly been even more chaotic than he could imagine. And apparently contained more genocides than just the Great Crusade against all undead.

  “The next issue with carving a Concept is that you must be able to picture it,” she returned to the original topic. “The shape will not be fully physical but will be quite complex with some degree of impossible geometry. For the average mage, this requires extensive effort because they need to invest much research and experimentation into making it so that the carving fits them just right. This is not difficult for us - with our talent we will be able to feel exactly when its form is perfect. Even for the initial shape from which to refine, we can improvise from just the intentions without much need for preparations. I don’t expect this will take us more than a few hours for each Concept.”

  “The last hurdle is the carving itself. You must take your mana and dent your own Soul with exceeding precision. Again, our superb control will make this massively easier. Assuming your alternative is workable, we must also hope this does not count as ‘creation’ for you.”

  “I do not believe it will stop me,” Irwyn shook his head, though feeling a bit of irrational nervousness deep down. He hid it. “The Oath I remembered explicitly excludes magic from being unable to create. I have put a lot of thought into it but I think it will not pose a challenge in this way.

  “Then we just need to figure out how exactly you would carve the concept into flesh in a way that would be reflected by the Soul,” Elizabeth nodded. “Maybe it will come naturally to you? I am really not sure. But one way that I can help is by letting you watch what I am doing when carving my own first Concept. Witnessing the process firsthand is likely to help.”

  “Thank you,” Irwyn gave her a smile. “When do you plan to do it?”

  “Tomorrow evening, not long after dusk,” she grinned back.

  “Already?” he exclaimed with surprise. “Don’t you need to adjust for longer?”

  “I have already made good progress on that today while waiting and will continue to practice morning to dusk tomorrow while you fly us,” Elizabeth smiled. “It is, ultimately, merely Conception - and with extensive preparations at that. I am not stepping into a realm of legends, Irwyn. These are the stairs even the most mediocre mage can expect to one day reach with enough effort.”

  “At least you are confident.”

  “More tea?” she offered. Irwyn agreed.

  In the evening, Irwyn finally went to bed. For a traveler’s setup, it was very comfortable with self-inflating mattresses and stuffed pillows. They had the advantage of their expanded spacial bags after all, so a lot of amenities that would otherwise be unavailable could be brought along. So, as Irwyn lay down on his bed, about ready to go to sleep, his head hit the pillow.

  Thud

  Yes, ‘hit’ was a very accurate term given the concussive forces involved. Action and reaction working as ever. Irwyn sat up summoning a bit of light with a frown. He quickly opened the pillow to find not a single feather but rather a collection of rocks of various sizes. Very local rocks by the color.

  “Waylan,” he muttered, vowing vengeance.

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