And then Mark was in his soul, in the black, churning Sigaldry, in the hexes and the waterwheels, in the Union, Adamantiumkinesis, and Incorruptible Body. His three memories remained at the center of it all. Freyala’s healing center, Dad’s fishing, and Mom’s cleaning.
Mark placed the first stone of his new house in the center of his three memories.
Out of the rainbow dark, a wooden, cozy floor appeared; imaginary, yes, but real in the dream. Four walls appeared, equally ephemeral. The ceiling manifested. Mark opened up a door, making the door appear in that moment, manifesting windows all around.
Mark stepped out into a pure black space, but it was not dark at all. The ground grew grass underfoot, the grass spread under a sourceless sun, and Mark wanted water, because of course he wanted water, so a little pond began to stretch out before him—
Something was stretched.
Mark flinched, eyes tense, the dream fading a little. The green grass looked gold and fragile. The pond evaporated; too much. Mark was going too far. Mark focused, pulling back. He didn’t need a pond right now. He didn’t need grass.
The pond evaporated.
The dream returned.
Mark turned back toward his house.
It was a big box.
It did not need to be that big. Mark made it smaller, adjusting it in ways he didn’t know he could do, but of course he could. This was his dream, and he had done Binding work before, and this was all just a different type of Binding. The dream turned more real as Mark put in effort to make it more real.
Yes.
Okay.
This was making sense, now.
Mark only had so much space to work with, so Mark made his single room smaller, and he made himself a porch to receive guests, which seemed to take up his Binding of Union. Mark made himself a kitchen next, and a little bed, and a bathroom. All of the amenities of a home, as well as a good coat of paint, a nice roof, and clean windows and a door, became Mark’s Incorruptible Body. Mark knew he’d eventually want a pond to fish in, but that would come later, so for now, Mark made himself a fishing spear out of his Adamantiumkinesis, and smiled as he gazed upon it. Such a multipurpose tool!
… Now where was Quark?
Mark looked for a silver glitter in the air, or maybe a silver rock sitting on the floor, and suddenly, there was Quark, right there on the ground like a dull silver cube. Mark picked up Quark’s cube, gazing onto the matte surface. He was sleeping, it seemed. So Mark tapped on the cube. Ripples flexed on the surface, turning it bright and shiny. Suddenly, Mark saw his own reflection in the cube and the cube became a mirror that then fell away leaving behind a silver reflection of Mark, standing tall and sleeping. T-posed.
“Hey, Quark. You okay?”
Quark blinked, and then woke up. He looked around, arms dropping to his sides, mannerisms turning human, as he said, “I think I am okay, sir, though I was… not here for a moment. Is this… This is your Binding, right?”
“I think so, yes. It started off as a golden pebble for the foundation, which I think has caused a perspective shift on the whole thing. Not sure what that pebble was, but I have some orichalcum theories. It is the god metal, after all, and gods have divine realms.”
“A plausible theory, sir…” Quark looked outside. “You look very strange on the outside, sir. Are you going to wake up now?”
“Not quite yet, but if you want to go out there you can.”
“I will stay here for now.”
Mark nodded, and then he stepped outside of his home, and he looked at the black sky.
… This would not do.
How much ‘gold’ did Mark have left? Not much, it felt like. The house was stretched, and Mark knew he was going to kill his range in the real world if he had too much in the dream world, so he didn’t want to stretch himself down here much at all, if he could help it. But he had to fix this last problem.
What was his house missing? A sun in the sky? No. That seemed unnecessary. Everything was illuminated anyway. But… Ah! The whole point of having a house was having friends over, right? And now that Mark was looking, he still had that fragment of a divine mirror. At that thought, the mirror fragment floated into view.
Mark turned the fragment into the windows of the house, and also into a fuzzy mat that he put down in front of the door.
It read ‘WELCOME FRIENDS’.
The endless black outside suddenly flickered, and turned white.
Suddenly, Mark was one house floating in an endless menagerie of houses of all sorts. All of them were mansions in great estates, or floating towers, or deep holes in the ground, or tall trees, or even swirls of colored lights and castles and ponds and mountaintops and riverside beaches. Some houses were obviously amalgamations of all of the above, and many more besides. Some houses looked singular, until you looked closer.
Elves peeked out from the edges of every property.
Eria of the Central Spire sat in a lotus position in the open, white air, 10 meters outside of Mark’s house. Her black staff floated behind her. Her eyes were closed, but then she opened them, and looked at Mark. She frowned a little, her ears twitching.
Mark said, “I was wondering if I would get to see the other side of the elven realm.”
Eria sighed, unfolded her legs, and stood straight, then she said, “I was too harsh with you earlier. I apologize for my deception in whisking you away from your friends. You are still an Inheritor, though, and we still wish you gone. But you are a child, and we care for our children, even if they are destined to bring us ruin. We are conflicted. We have come to two decisions. The first is this: This is all you will ever see of this side of the realm.”
Eria lifted her staff, and then she gonged it softly against the white ground. Black ripples spread outward, flexing the white, turning the white to black, pulling the covers back over the realm of the elves.
Eria and her black staff remained.
Mark narrowed his eyes on the world beyond, and the divine mirror fragment in the windows of his house somehow helped to reveal the white world beyond, and all of the elven housing. The elves, peeking out from behind bushes, trees, and windows of their own, slipped backward, ears folding down, curious eyes barely visible.
“Eh hem!” Eria said, and then she tapped her staff again. The white world mostly vanished. Eria said, “Please respect our decisions.”
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Mark said, “Sorry. Of course. I apologize.”
Eria nodded, and then she continued, “The second decision is this: I will assist you with building your house, so that you can develop good habits and succeed in the rest of your life, far from here. To start with, it appears, at first glance, that you have put it together well and properly, but I already see several areas of improvement.” She continued further, “If you agree to these terms, then you must invite me into your house so that I might help you directly, but before even that, your first lesson is this: Your house is where you are a god. You can do anything to anyone if they are inside of your house. Therefore, I will not be coming into your house directly. But you have built a porch. I can stand there just fine, and not be fully under your control. This is an extension of trust. Perhaps, in a few decades, you can return, though you will be coming in the frontways next time.”
All the while that she spoke, Mark tried to feel her out with Unionsense, but she was blank to him. Perhaps Union didn’t work the same in the dream compared to reality, but back in reality the elves never lied, or dealt in subterfuge. They just didn’t want the humans anywhere near any of them, at all.
Mark asked, “Is there a safe way to invite someone into one’s house? Safe for both of us?”
“No. There is not. The house is inviolable once properly made, and even your shack still qualifies as a house, so to attack you, or for you to attack me, it would be extremely foolish for me to venture into your house at all, and I would be better served attacking you in the real.” Eria added, “However, there are some beings that will try to invade your space and take up residence and make themselves unnoticed. You would be like a god to them, though, and so you can easily clean your house of all pests whenever you wish. But, establishing a good ecology in your house usually yields beneficial fruits eventually. One of the best house invaders is a tree… though that is true for elves. Not for humans. I haven’t dealt with humans in… in a long time. You are still a human… mostly.
“... To be safe, don’t let anything into your house.
“It is very easy for one learned in the ways of houses to see if a thing is an invader, though, and I will show you this when I am inside your house.
“To bring guests inside, to shelter them from other forces or for whatever reasons, you must Speak to them, to draw them forward. NEVER invite someone into your house who is standing before you. ALWAYS Call out to the being you wish to invite inside.”
Eria stood tall, hand to her staff. She waited.
Mark decided… to Call softly, “Eria of the Central Spire, please come into my house and enjoy my hospitality, meager as it might be.”
Eria shuddered a little… and then she walked forward, up the short stairs of Mark’s house, onto the porch, and she looked different, now. The very moment she stepped up those stairs, and now as she stood here on the porch, it was like she was made of colored sand, or fog, and part of her was drifting away. Dust, being blown away from the center of the house, or something of the sort. Kinda ephemeral.
Her black staff was still solid, though; that thing wasn’t ephemeral at all.
Eria said, “Observe my body. This is the body of an invader in your house. Observe my fist, against this post here.” She punched the post, and her dreamself splashed apart, only to come back together when she was done with the punch. “Do you see?”
Mark said, “Yeah, I see. I see your staff is still solid, too.”
“… Adamantium does that… and yes, it is a protection for me. Not much of one, but still enough.” Eria turned toward the house. “It seems you have a knack for this.
“You should turn your Adamantiumkinesis into more tools and armor, or turn it into a floating orb of possibility. The first option makes it easier to conjure those forms and functions, the second makes it more malleable. Do all of those options, and do everything, if you wish.
“Your Incorruptible Body is now… well. I’m sure they have a word for it. The System can categorize it later. I see you have a low sex drive. This is a normal problem for elves. You’ll figure that out, too, and the solution will come from your Body. Adding in some sex toys usually solves that problem. Don’t go overboard.
“Your Union… The porch is fine. You should put a weather vane on the roof and perhaps get yourself a compass to put in your window. It will help with your sensing capabilities.
“Combine the utilities of the house with your Union, with an eventual ecosystem out here. Your house will remain strong, and you will be able to interact with your environment in better ways. If I were you, I would invest most of my future growth into sense-capabilities, and exterior-control. Landscaping, you might call it.
“You have an artifact already. A Shard. It will serve you well as those windows. It is a tool, after all. Not a weapon. Too many people use them as weapons. Those people are foolish indeed. When you acquire more artifacts, you can adjust them into other forms. Perhaps you can even take that Seeker you made and use it as a compass here in your house.
“The biggest problem I see is that you are space-limited. The solution to that is simple. If you wish to grow your house, to have a lawn, a garden, a few more rooms and such, you must find orichalcum. Touch it and absorb it, using an equal amount of your own mana to do so.
“You’ll figure it out.
“Eventually, you can make books for your friends. They are records of their souls and memories in that moment of book-taking. If they should die, if their soul should scatter, they would regather in those books, in your house, and be born again from your house. You’ll figure that out, too. It’s all rather intuitive.
“But you do not have any space to record any of your friends, so don’t try that yet.. Better yet, do not play with death at all, not for many years, if you can help it.
“When you wake up and then when you come back to your house, after having been awake for a while, it will have changed. More stuff will have been added, due to your settling Bindings and your soul and various other things. Look around your house, and make sure it is in order, then go about your life.” Eria turned and walked off of the porch, her tone going from instructor-perfect, to slightly-relaxed, as she left Mark’s realm of influence, as she continued, “And that is enough of that sort of danger for me for one lifetime.” She stood on the black expanse of the dream beyond Mark’s house, and turned to face him. “Please hesitate greatly if you should ever have questions.”
Mark bowed, and said, “Thank you, Eria of the Central Spire.” He rose, adding, “We will leave your airspace as soon as we know how.”
Eria sighed a little bit, as though a great weight had fallen off of her shoulders. “After you wake, in a day, lights will appear to guide you to the path to Earth. Follow the lights, and do not deviate. Farewell, Mark Careed, Inheritor of Xerkona.”
Mark blinked, and then Eria was gone.
Quark poked out from the house, saying, “This is all very strange to me, sir.”
Mark smiled, and said, “It’s so…”
A blink.
Mark was on a bed, in a wooden room, and the sheets were soft, but ripped up, and the walls had big claw scars in them, and the light was dim outside the windows. Everything was so large, and Mark’s eyes hurt to take in the glow from the light overhead and the open door. But he blinked a few more times, and his heart beat strongly, and Mark Unioned with the world for Good and Bad. His range was abysmal. Maybe 10 meters. Maybe less.
He was still so very, very tired.
Isoko was beside him, but it was a hologram. Her vector wasn’t there, but her smile was the same. “Heeyyyy, Mark! You’re awake.”
“… so strange to me, too,” Mark finished, blinking a bit more, thoughts discombobulated. “Looking quite mechanical there, Isoko. Did you get a… a Robot Body?” And then Mark shut his eyes again, and everything was way too heavy again. He mumbled, “Gotta put orichalcum on the shopping list. Wondered what that… that stuff… was good for.”
Mark tumbled back into the dark, to sleep a dreamless sleep.
