Waking to the smell of bacon was like falling through several dreams.

The first dream was a displaced time from over two decades ago, when he had a different person in his bed every night. He was almost always the first one to wake in the morning, and he always made breakfast; bacon, eggs, and toast. But no, he was 48 now. His 20s were long gone. The dream was recognized, and then it faded.

And then came an impression of three months ago, when Jane showed him the letter of acceptance for an internship at the CIA. They had gone out for Sunday breakfast like they had done every week, when she was a little girl; a tradition that they hadn’t done for the last three years; she was at college. Jane loved her bacon growing up, and that day was no different. She got three orders of bacon and one order of toast. Erick was trying to cut back, as per doctor’s orders. Erick got a cheese omelet and home fries. A far cry from when he used to match Jane pound for pound with the bacon. That day was full of sobering moments. He had kept himself together in front of her, but after the joyful hugs were done and she went to bed in her old room, Erick went out to the old treehouse and silently cried for an hour.

He opened his eyes to see a stone ceiling and colorful pillows all around. Al was setting down a tray of something on the coffee table in the middle of the room, but most of Erick was still asleep, and looking at Al… Al was a great guy and basically a supermodel.

Erick wasn’t ready for that kind of dream. He turned to face the wall.

Rushing water sounded up far away stairs.

The sounds of voices all around ended a forgotten dream of darkness.

Erick sat up. Al and Jane were still talking about Scions, but this time there was a large tray of empty plates sitting on the coffee table. One plate of food remained; it had been set aside from the rest, but Erick hadn’t the wherewithal quite yet to understand what kind of food it was.

“Good morning, Dad.”

“Welcome back, Erick.”

Erick sighed deeply. “You two still arguing about the best Scion?”

“Oh, I know the best answer,” Al said. “But your daughter likes to fight.”

“Speaking of. Dad? How far did you get before you crashed?”

Erick looked at his Status, rubbing his eyes, glancing through menus until he found what he was looking for. “Uh. [Ward 4], [Meditation 5].”

Jane smiled. “[Ward 6], [Meditation 6]. Base Level 10.”

With that bit of smugness, Erick took the time to study the remaining tray of food. There was fluffy yellow stuff that was probably eggs, thin bread like a crepe, and long strips of red meat. Breakfast Tortillas, probably. He began making himself one. There wasn’t a whole lot left, but it should be enough to make two wraps.

Jane prodded, “What? No response?”

Erick looked up from wrapping his tortilla. “You’re a monster, Jane.”

She cackled as Al laughed.

Erick asked, “Are we going in the sewers today?”

“Not until you get [Ward 6], Dad.”

And for some reason, Erick was feeling a bit more miffed at the whole existence of magic than usual. It might have been the ‘grinding’ as Jane called it, or maybe the fact that, yes, they did already survive a skydive without a parachute. It could have been the mana exhaustion talking. But the cumulative effect was that Erick’s hesitation regarding killing a known threat in the sewers was, for some reason, nonexistent.

Feeling such a weird ‘killing’ feeling caused him to pause in thought. As the strange feeling overtook him, he had almost instantly blurted out about them going to the sewers right this second. Now, he was not quite sure. He was a pacifist, for sure. But did that pacifism include killer monsters? On Veird, ‘pacifist’ meant something vastly different than on Earth, mostly dealing with how an incani or a human viewed the Quiet War.

No one had the hangups regarding killing monsters that Erick seemed to have. Jane was probably right, that shadowolves should be killed, because otherwise they would kill people. There wasn’t anything to ‘talk out’ with monsters that viewed him as their next meal.

—But he was sure that if he found some monsters that talked, his first instinct wouldn’t be ‘KILL IT!’.

Erick wasn’t about to kill some harmless slimes, though.

That thought led to a different question. “Hey, Al? Why aren’t oozes threats as soon as they spawn? What’s with the 10 day timer?”

Al shook his head, saying, “That timer is only an approximation. The ooze will come out of the sewers when it can’t find slimes around every corner. That is the real timer. But you must understand that Spur is an old city, with the same sewer system for the last three hundred years and a strict allowance for new adventurers to hunt slimes. When an ooze appears—” A bell chimed across the hallway. Al stood up, sighing. “Seems I am needed upstairs.”

Erick said to Jane, “Let’s go kill that ooze, Jane. After I finish this breakfast tortilla.” He almost took a bite of his wrap, but added, “And I find a good damage spell to take.”

Jane smirked. “Sure. But that’s not a breakfast tortilla. It’s a 3pm tortilla. You slept almost all day.”

“… Okay then.” Erick ate his afternoon tortilla. It was pretty good.

Jane pointed to a pair of straight staffs propped up in the corner of the room. “I got us some starter weapons, too. 5 silver apiece. You can get a spear for a gold, but I didn’t want to go down to 1 gold. But with a trip through the sewers, we might be okay for a while. One adult slime core contains one rad and they’re 3 gold on average.”

“I don’t want to kill any slimes if we don’t have to.”

“I’m not going to go out of my way to chase them down, especially when there’s something as dangerous as an ooze prowling the darkness. But we need the money.”

“… Fair enough.”

Al walked into view.

Along with Guildmaster Mog.

He said, “There’s been a change of plans.”

“Al and I are headed in to take care of the oozes, but he seems to think that it would be good experience for you two. I think you would get killed. You should stay here, Jane. Erick.”

Erick paled. “Oozes? Plural?”

Al said, “A rookie squad of four level 15s went in this morning with clearance to tackle the ooze kill quest I posted in the Guildhouse. One returned. She reported that there are at least three oozes. She’s coming with us to claim whatever is left of her friends. Do you wish to come as well? I would not hold it against you if you wish to stay behind.” He pointed upward. “Savral and Bacci are staying here and the sewerhouse is going into lockdown until I return.”

“… Maybe three oozes are too much.” Jane said, “I’ll stay here with my father. Thank you for the warning, Guildmaster Mog. Sewermaster Al.”

“Smart girl.” Mog walked back upstairs.

Al nodded to Jane and Erick. “I’d suggest you stay here while we go into lockdown, but I won’t enforce this suggestion. What do you say?”

“We’ll stay here.” Erick asked, “Do you expect something to actually happen while you’re gone?”

Al laughed. “The Sewerhouse’s rules are well known, so there’s a saying about times like these. ‘Don’t ever think you’re safe, because that’s when the monsters get you.’ But Savral and Bacci can handle most threats.” He almost walked back up, but then he paused and asked, “What attack spell were you thinking of buying, if you were going with us?”

Erick looked over the spells he was thinking about. There was his first choice in [Force Shrapnel].

Force Shrapnel 1, instant, short cone, 5 MP

Sharpened forward blast of mana that deals 5 + ½ WIL damage in a cone

Purchase [Force Shrapnel] for 1 point? Yes/No

But that might not have been the best. There was also [Force Wave]

Force Wave 1, instant, pulse, 15 MP

Pulse a wave of damaging mana from yourself, dealing 15 + ½ WIL physical damage.

Purchase [Force Wave] for 1 point? Yes/No

Maybe he should take the safe, single-target spell. Constant collateral damage seemed like a bad idea.

Force Bolt 1, instant, long range, 5 mana

A bolt of hardened mana unerringly strikes a target, dealing 10 + ½ WIL physical damage.

Purchase [Force Bolt] for 1 point? Yes/No

No, no, no.

Three blue windows rapidly vanished.

“Which one should I take?”

Al glanced toward Mog walking upstairs. “Bolt or Beam. Shrapnel is also a great choice, but it’s only useful when Shaped. The AOE ones are important for Aurify, but— I have to go.” Al walked away.

[Force Beam]?

Force Beam 1, instant, medium range, 25 mana

A piercing, slicing beam of hardened mana that deals 25 + ½ WIL damage for 1 second

Purchase [Force Beam] for 1 point? Yes/No

No.

Where are all the fireballs and lighting spells, anyway?

Erick asked, “They’re going to be okay, right?”

“I think I know the rookies Mog mentioned.” Jane was staring off into the distance. “Other people called them ‘slime hunters’, like it was a bad thing. They were the only adventuring party to hunt slimes together, so maybe it was an insult. There were four of them.”

Jane got real quiet. She leaned back on her couch.

Three minutes later Savral and Bacci joined them in the Resting room. Bacci silently cast [Cleanse] and began stacking the cleaned plates off the table, to the side of the room. Erick almost helped her, but she was too fast for him.

“Sewerhouse is in lockdown, so we’re all stuck here for the next few hours.” Savral sat down by Jane, the weight of himself and his armor not even creaking the couch. He set his helmet down on the floor as he set a deck of cards on the cleared coffee table. “Let’s play some cards.”

Bacci sat down by Erick, saying, “No customers all day long, and then this. When it rains it floods.”

Erick asked Bacci, “Are they going to be okay?”

“Those two monsters?” Bacci smiled. Sarcastically, “They’re going to die down there.”

Erick tensed, saying, “Please tell me this is a cultural thing where you say stuff like that to ward it off from actually happening.”

Bacci’s smile faltered. She quickly said, “Yes. Sorry.”

“Entirely my fault.” Erick relaxed. “We have a saying, too. ‘Break a leg’.”

All this time, Savral was handing out cards. They were sized for an orcol’s grip and thickened with some protective coating. Not wax. Savral’s huge claws did not scrape the paper. He finished passing out five cards to each person then separated the remaining cards into three uneven stacks.

Rolling with the circumstances, Jane gathered her cards. “What are we playing?”

“Wizard’s Towers.” Savral said, “Simple rules. I’ll explain.

“We each control five adventurers charged with taking down the towers of the Old Wizards. These are represented by the five cards in our hands. On your turn, you attack one of the towers in front of us by playing one of the cards in your hands. The card you play determines how many floors you can take. You’re always attacking the towers from the top. The game is also known as Wizard’s Dungeons. The goal is not only to tear down the towers, but to attack smartly, because when anyone plays a card another player can match that card exactly to intercept the attack and take not only the attacked floors, but all other cards used in the attack.

“Many cards can take multiple floors at once. For simple rules, these are the cards with numbers 6 or higher. Those cards take two floors at once.

“Whatever floors or other ‘adventurers’ you capture go into your resource pile, including the card you used to attack that floor in the first place. There is no discard pile.

“You can only have 5 cards in your hand at a time, and you can only refill those cards at the end of your turn. You refill from the cards in your resource pile, but only at the end of your own turn. Your resource pile is face down for everyone but you. Your hand is also kept secret at all times. For simple rules, the towers are face down, too.

“You must attack a tower on your turn, if you have any cards in your hand when your turn comes.

“The goal is to get the most resources.

“The game ends when all three towers are destroyed. There are special rules for when the last floor of a tower is taken, but we’re not doing that.

“If your interception takes more than one second, your interception has failed. A proper game of Wizard’s Towers uses a timer, but we’re also not doing that.

“Simple rules,” Erick said, thinking that not much about Wizard’s Towers was at all simple. He picked up his cards. “What’s with the guy in the robe?”

Bacci said, “That’s above 6. The Archetype cards are above 6 in simple rules. Mage, Warrior, Dragon, and Planar.”

Smirking, Savral said, “You can go first, Erick.”

Erick played his 1, taking the single top card from the shortest tower. Jane and Bacci laughed. The tower card was a 9, which Erick put into his hand, the 1 going to his resource pile. Savral grumbled, amused.

Erick said, “You think I’d play that card when you obviously have one?”

“Yeah. It could have happened.”

Savral smiled as Jane played a 7, taking two cards from the tallest tower.

Savral played his Mage. Erick instantly threw down his own Mage, then Bacci played her Mage. Three Mages and two cards from the top of the shortest tower went into Bacci’s resource pile. Savral shrugged.

“All part of the plan,” he said.

- - - -

“How long is an ooze hunt supposed to take?” Erick asked.

They had moved up to the second floor a while ago for Savral to make dinner. The sky shone orange and red to the west. Down south, visible above the far walls of Spur, were the tall brown walls of Ar'Kendrithyst. Stars were appearing in the east, though night was still an hour away. But inside the sewerhouse, bright yellow-white orbs hung in the corners of the room, keeping alive a bright and cheery atmosphere.

Occasionally a flicker of red light appeared in the air outside. Some bug or something had touched Al’s [Ward], but nothing had gotten inside or overly disturbed the protected space. If something had, there would have been a massive burst of red light.

Savral tossed vegetables in the wok, while Jane and Bacci talked about people they had met, in Jane’s case, or people they knew, in Bacci’s case.

Savral said, “Fifteen hours is too long. Five is fast. There’s only so many kilometers of tunnels down there and Dad knows them all.”

“Well here’s another question, then.” Erick asked, “Why are all the damage spells ‘force’ spells? I thought there’d be more...” He flexed his finger in the air, like he was casting magic. “Lightning fingers and flaming fingers. Stuff like that.”

Bacci laughed. “Why would you have expected that?”

“I expected more fireballs and chain lightnings, too,” Jane said.

“What?” Savral added a mostly-liquid sauce to the veggies. Steam billowed from the hot pan. “You expected the Old Wizard spells? For the Script to hand them to you?”

Jane said, “The first magic we saw on Veird was a black and white fireball from the incani registrar from that incani town, Kal’Duresh. I thought he was normal. I realized my mistakes after I spent some time in the guildhouse, reading from the free public library. Dad hasn’t had that opportunity yet.”

Bacci asked, “What did you learn from what you read?”

“To unlock a real damaging spell you need to take the broken down basics that the Script gives you and forge something on your own with relevant skills, like Mana Shaping and Mana Altering.” Jane added, “Apparently it’s very easy to make a bad spell, but if you don’t like what you’ve made you can delete it and try again.”

“Yeah. That’s pretty much the whole story.” Savral pointed to the window. “That lockdown [Ward] is a special spell Dad created. That registrar’s black and white fireball is probably the same.”

Bacci added, “Fireball’s creation is well documented. I don’t know about that black and white one, but ‘Optimal Fireball’ is a high level [Force Bomb] which serves as the base spell, and Mana Altering 5, which transforms force damage into fire damage. A proper Fireball will do something like 150 damage and set fire to everything it touches.”

“Those spells don’t level like the spells you buy with points, either,” Savral said. “You’re stuck with what you’ve made.”

Erick thought out loud, “[Force Bomb] and [Mend]? Mana Shaping to make Mend an AOE spell?”

Bacci and Savral both said, “Uhhh.”

“Nope.”

“Don’t think that works.”

“[Rejuvenation] and [Strike],” said Jane.

Savral asked, “Now what would that accomplish?”

Jane mocked, “You will take your healing and you will like it!”

Savral laughed.

“I don’t think it would work.” Bacci said, “Or it would, and it would be, like, a torture spell. I don’t think you’d like that on the record of your Script.”

“So a non-starter of an idea,” Jane said.

Erick said, “How about—”

The air flashed crimson, a crack tore across Erick’s sight, as Al’s red [Ward] crumbled like the popping of a soap bubble.

Savral leapt into action. “Fuck fuck! Fuck you!” He slammed off the stove and grabbed his helmet, putting it on as he rushed downstairs. As he did that, Bacci yelled, “Everyone downstairs! Right now!” The world flashed yellow. “Secondary ward won’t hold long!”

Jane pulled Erick along. The other three people were already moving before Erick realized he should be moving, but his brain soon caught up. He raced down the stairs, pausing only briefly on the first floor landing to look out across the front room. Blast marks edged the door. Something slammed into the reinforced steel door as glass crashed upstairs and a flash of yellow marked the death of the secondary ward.

They made it to the office and Rest room hallway before Erick asked, “Do we defend here, or—”

Savral kept moving forward, saying, “All this is expendable. We are not. Down the stairs.”

Bacci ran past the open river door, down the stairs to the river room. Erick followed her, Jane followed him, and Savral closed the river door from the river’s side. Down they went, and soon a loud bang reverberated down the stairs. And then another. And another, but the roar of the river was loud down here.

Bacci was at the edge, hugging the railing, pointing down at the dark water. Purple glitter exploded in the air and water crashed against some new obstacle in the torrent. It was a ward. The new obstacle was a ward cast by Bacci. The air exploded in purple glitter again and the river shifted, again, but softer this time.

‘Shh,’ she mimed, with one claw pressed against her lips.

And then she hopped over the railing.