Sama and Briggs glanced at one another, and nodded rather helplessly. If they couldn’t trust a Heavenbound who could voice the Words, who could they trust?

“We had some worries about your ambitions,” Sama admitted slowly. “Heavenbound or not, you’re Powered and you have different perspectives and goals than Forsaken, Primos, or even just the no-magic Magi Powered here. I am assuming you have plans, as judged by your actions in Texas, the power you displayed there, and the move with the Lighthouse there.

“Please tell us what your goals are,” she asked with some anticipation.

I nodded once. “To bring about a greater harmony between Humanity and the Beasts upon this world. To diversify the versatility and power of magic here by introducing Wizardry, which will massively benefit the lower orders of people and expand the value of Typeless Mana. To reduce the influence and power of the Dark Realm upon this world. To bring up a positive and united force of Good to push back the forces of the other three Alignments acting up here.

“Eventually, I intend to somehow restore the Heavens, hopefully bring in true gods to restore the balance with the Axiomatic and Evil gods already in play, and perhaps set up a true parlay with the Beast Realm and its Lord as to mutual goals and benefits between us.”

They both stared at me as if I’d grown a second head, slooooowly tracked their eyes to one another, and then back to me.

Sama coughed awkwardly. “Well, I see getting rich and powerful by abusing your Power of Ten magic wasn’t on that list,” she pointed out with only a little embarrassment.

“Fah. Tools.” I waved that away, and their expressions became even more lopsided. “Granted, we need tools to get things done, but the key thing about the Spellhouses to me is getting them established, not profiting from them.” My eyes narrowed as I steepled my fingers, meeting theirs without flinching. “However, I am neither so stupid nor so foolish as to ignore the money that can be made from them, and which will be made by others with considerably less charitable goals if I do not secure them for myself. Using the funds for the betterment of those low on the scale is the most desired outcome, as opposed to taking them just for my own uses.

“If you think about it, I will be transferring wealth from the entitled and wealthy spellcasting people to those without it, if I do as I have stated.

“With that said, I quite literally made millions of dollars yesterday, and I’m making more today. Are you in need of more funds?” I waved my hand at the complex around us. “You’ve done some excellent work here, representing at least five years of devoted labor, if I’ve analyzed it correctly. However, your labor force and productive capability have definitely been limited by something, and I don’t doubt monetary inflows are a part of it.

“I like what you are doing here. The introduction of Artificing, Alchemy, and Technomagic is revolutionary at the foundation level, and the simple existence of the White Zone here making it unfriendly to mages wishing to investigate further shows you know it. I would like to add Wizardry to the mix, and potentially Typeless Mages.

“To that end, my services are completely at your disposal.” I flicked a finger, and displayed my Stats above my head.

They stared at them. Blinked, to make sure they weren’t seeing things for a moment, then glanced at one another again.

“Should’ve known a White Zone at Twenty wouldn’t stop a PoT Caster,” Briggs muttered, in only a little disbelief.

“Trying to stop a Typeless Caster with a White Zone is like trying to stop a pyromancer in a Fire Zone,” I sniffed back, making the Mage Caster Levels wink for attention, and they chuckled despite themselves. “There’s only six, but they stack on my Matrix. Add in Six Stars, Snowcasting, Sanctified Spells, and potential Sublime Chord, and my starting Caster Level is easily at Thirty, nearly Forty, before miscellaneous bonuses.” Noble extended out and flipped into my hand, and I tossed it to Sama, who caught it reflexively.

The mnecromonic replay of the killing I was responsible for played out for her, which she took without batting an eye, running her hands up and down the length of enchanted ivory and staring at the Orb topping it with a grimly appreciative eye. There was silence as she let the killing play out, nodding slowly at the end.

“You haven’t been here that long, but that’s a fair amount of slaughter. Just like a Ten Caster should be putting up,” she said softly, and handed my Staff over to Briggs. He took it, the length of enchanted marrowmelded ivory looking abruptly small in his hand, and also ran his big fingers up and down it as the record of my killing paraded past his mind’s eye.

“You’re at Nine, but your Staff’s Slots are open at Eight, which means a Fifteen. The stacking with Mage?” he asked, extending Noble back to me. I took it back calmly.

“No, actually. Or rather, sort of. My Warlock Casting is effectively at Thirteen Base with Theurgy cheats because of the Magery. Artificer is a plus-two cheat for Crafting eligibility, so that’s eight Slots at a faux fifteen Ranks, actually thirteen, in Spellcraft.”

“Why aren’t you at Ten in Sorcerer?” Sama asked reasonably, flicking a finger at my Holo display.

“Because Ten is where True Titles start actualizing, which reverberate in the Manafield. Also,” I cleared my throat awkwardly, “I’m like almost a year behind in Mastery advances, too.”

“Karmic conservation,” Sama said, as they both nodded understanding. “Ouch. Getting all that at Nine... we can empathize.”

I gave them a lopsided smile. “I haven’t been here long enough to really do the research, although Red from the KIA team is a fountain of trivia... but this world really seems set up to deliver gamer-goodness levels of happy Karma if you’re set up for it?”

Oh. Oh, the smiles that broke out on them. That gluttonous all-you-can-eat appreciation for Karmic Buffets, and the ability to just lose yourself in the violent accumulation of Karma for days and days and days...

“This place...” Briggs said, the smile falling off into a curiously grim and disbelieving expression. “Compared to the game, this place is both murderous and a goddamn godsend. The people here don’t really advance on Karma much; it’s all a training paradigm, or magical cultivation, pulling in power, filling up Stars, building towards the next level and trying to break through. The idea of going out there and somehow getting more powerful just by killing stuff is as alien to them as, oh, making scooping motions into your mouth and feeding yourself.”

“It really is a bunch of nonsense,” I agreed. “Although you can totally justify it with the Magic of Learning and just how non-finite a soul is, from a hands-on perspective it looks like complete nonsense.”

“Yes, and these people don’t really believe in anything they can’t lay their hands on. The idea of abstract gods is not something they put much stock into at all,” Sama agreed. “The faiths that have power are the ones that have powerful churches to back them, which a lot of people consider little different from a powerful guild, Family, or military.”

“What I could find of the Church of Light was that their founder was one of the most powerful Sages who ever lived, the secretive Archangels of the Church are endowed with power inherited from him, and ostensibly wander around in secret protecting the normal people. Real people, real forces, and solid blessings coming from those who reside in the Realm of Light,” I said. “The idea of philosophies having power is simply a non-issue; they are just modes of thought for individuals to consider.”

“Mostly, it is those who have the power make the rules, and they twist those rules to support the status quo. It’s all considered very normal, if undesired. Naturally enough, there are all sorts of rebels to the system, which basically concentrates a lot of power into the hands of a very few; real power is money, political influence, and magical might all combined,” Sama confirmed mirthlessly. “If you have the magic, the other two will come to you, one way or another, even if you have to subordinate yourself to those who have them.”

“I gather you’ve butted heads with this system rather frequently.”

Sama’s eyes were dead calm. “We have a certain red-handed reputation among the magical community. Also a reputation for people who piss us off dying violently in private circumstances, or outright disappearing somehow while under guard. There are some very powerful Families and organizations who would love to see us dead, yes, but after two Sages who crossed us vanished without a trace, and the losses of a rather remarkable number of Archmages and half-Sages who thought they could push us around or act as they liked, there’s sort of a steaming détente out there.”

“Also, they really hate this place,” Briggs smiled grimly. “Three members of the goddamn Synod came here to ‘review’ us for heretical magic. They pissed off some of the crew and were beaten within an inch of their lives... with Blooding instruments. They never did heal right, and they may have just committed suicide because of their injuries, petty vengeful political fucks that they were.” He did not glance at Sama, whose eight canines did not gleam, nopers.

“Are they picking on your people, especially when they leave?” I asked narrowly, my fingers twitching.

“We... made a couple allies at the Sage Level who have managed to actively discourage that kind of behavior,” Sama admitted. “More pointedly, when they discover the activity, they tell us who is responsible.”

“And said people end up taking responsibility, despite themselves,” I nodded my understanding. “Who, if I may ask?”

“Mmm. Well, you’d probably call them Jews back home, but here they are known as the Kabbalist Tradition.” I inclined my head at Briggs’ words. “They are sort of rivals to the Church of Light for the true Orthodox Light Tradition, as the Church’s Tradition is really just a different evolution of the Kabbalists, which they consider having been given away to outsiders without their real permission.” I closed my eyes, sighed, and reopened them. Tribal-centered politics, yay. “Henry Ford was a vicious anti-Kabbalist, very powerful in Detroit in particular and Michigan in general. He definitely didn’t want to see us setting up a production line of new vehicles, even specialized as they are.”

“So I delivered the Synagogue in Detroit his head, burned it to dust in front of the High Priest, and they’ve been good allies watching out for us ever since,” Sama finished grimly. I blinked, impressed at her chutzpah.

“Sama has to occasionally pop down there to off some Inquisition teams, too, and blame it on the Black Curia, who are the world-wide token magical terrorist organization all the bad people look up to,” Briggs went on.

“Henry Ford, huh? Okay, the Ford family was on a list of the powerful Families, right...” I nodded, recalling something Red had brought up for me.

“He was the most powerful Sage in Michigan,” Sama stated firmly. “I spread him all over three rooms of his mansion to express my displeasure of his tactics and the deaths of some of our people at his Family’s direction. Henry Junior is being a lot more careful with his moves now.

“There was a thundering lack of giving a shit from the people, although the Fords did turn things upside down looking for the killer for a while, and as expected, found absolutely nothing. The Black Curia was blamed, and was happy to take the credit,” Briggs continued. “The Fords have been somewhat more low-key ever since, and if they don’t like our custom Hunter vehicles and how damn good they are, the total effect on their bottom line is negligible, in the end.”

I nodded along. “There’s no way you two could be responsible, as you don’t have any real magic, just some cute tricks.” I nodded at the Soul Tats visible on their hands and forearms. “Painted barbarian savagery.”

“There you go!” Sama agreed cheerfully. “Primitive nonsense for non-Casters, that’s us!”

“Are you getting any Kabbal recruits?” I had to ask. With their intense focus on education, ungifted Kabbalist people would be ideal.

“They... have a lot of allegiance to their Tribal culture, which doesn’t permit an Allegiance Oath. We haven’t been offering Artificer or Alchemist training to anyone without that Oath, as might be expected,” Briggs stated firmly. “There’s a few, of course, and they have to endure a tremendous amount of pressure from their families to tell them what they’ve learned. The Kabbalists would really love the secret, of course...”

“Just imagine how much they’ll want to pressure you and don’t dare to when they learn the Lighthouse maker is working with you,” I reminded them.