“I can start the apprenticing to Strange, I have Vishanti Sorcery Mastery Ranks all the way to /9,” Morgan told us. “It really would be nice if at least one of him could have a happy life, even if, well, being out in The Mess isn’t going to be dull, that is certain.”

She’d be the best choice because she could Level with me, and the Karma would pass on through. If the Dupes were tied to Spellcraft Ranks, they’d become triple 21’s and that was it, so they had to pick what Legendary Stuff they were going to learn carefully.

“Well, you know I’m going to be playing out in the cosmos,” I fluttered my hand to the stars surrounding us. “Yay, Superwoman, that’s me.”

“You’re much too smart to be a Superman expy!” sniffed Dealer.

“He would say unrestrained,” I half-laughed. “You two look like you’ve been talking before we even went anywhere,” I nodded to the new Wizard and Witch. “What’s up?”

Nimue and Circe looked at one another. “I can either take the apprenticeship with Dr. Strange, or start up a school for magic,” Nimue said quietly.

“I aim to wander the world of magic and learn all the Traditions that I can, and bring them back to the rest of us,” Circe declared firmly. “There’s also some magical forces out there I am going to dispose of with some prejudice...”

Fedora had done some major investigating on some players in the magical world, and some of the things she had found were pretty damning. I clenched my teeth despite myself as I considered some of the things people had callously allowed and perpetrated as magical elitists.

The reason Fedora had investigated Agatha Harkness had been because I had memories of her through le Fey, Karnilla, Sersi, and Amora that were not at all complimentary. Perhaps it was because she came from a more brutal time, but she was a cold and dangerous woman, and I was plenty happy DiDi and I had kept her far away from Franklin Richards. New Salem was basically a center of magical racism that needed to go away, and she had founded it and ran it for literally centuries.

I mean, seriously, when you have a son calling himself Nicholas Scratch, just what kind of society do you put together?

I already knew who they would be going after, of course. Fedora had been very thorough about that stuff. Agatha Harkness had body-hopped at least five times over the last two thousand years, and it was probably closer to ten. Non-magical people were unimportant, at least until they were attractive and you wanted to feel young again...

Margali had to go, too. The Sorceress Supreme of the Winding Way was also a bodyhopper, and perfectly willing to kill off innocent people to further her schemes, along with having intimate dealings with demons and servants of Hell. That was nothing new for a witch as powerful as her, but I actually cared less about that than Sama or Briggs did, focusing totally on how she used her magic... and she was happy to be all super-villain when it suited her.

The only reason she wasn’t dead right now was that she had stayed well out of Briggs’ territory, and mostly confined her murderous impulses to other Casters who challenged her standing, being subtle when moving in the mundane world. But Fedora was not limited by mundane constraints in her investigations, and she wasn’t measuring Margali up for a civilian court case. Matters between sorcerers were as they might be, but once they started killing civilians, well, it was time for them to end.

The last person was a special case that had been laying there for some time. Sama and Briggs were actually surprised when I referred Fedora’s findings to them, as it concerned one of their own.

She had hidden herself well, but the things she had done at the turn of the century had still happened. The fact she had been that close to them spoke well of her cunning, if nothing else...

As Sama put it, “Nobody’s going to miss them. Clear them all out.”

“What are the odds the Vishanti just up and move Strange’s Title?” Nimue asked with a frown. “Do we really want THAT responsibility?”

Being the Sorcerer Supreme was normally granted, but it could be won through magical combat, or simply taken away by the Vishanti if they deemed fit.

“Underweb Caster. We don’t satisfy any condition for controlling ambient magical power, nor is our proven level of knowledge of this universe’s magic shown to be greater than anyone else’s. In real terms, we know a lot, sure, but because we don’t interact with any of the various Entities, our local Sorcerous knowledge is flat and only gained through books. Most of what we actively know and can innovate is about the Valence Tradition and Underweb Casting, neither of which is a consideration for the Vishanti.” I inclined my head. “If we were running for a Sorcerer Supreme Title, it would likely be multi-dimensional in keeping with the Underweb. You could even say being an Underweb Caster IS a Sorcerer Supreme, since we’re like the only ones who can do it...”

They all nodded along, until Dealer winced. “That means we’re going to get stuck with cross-dimensional policing, doesn’t it?”

Everyone pursed their lips, including me. “Nope, nope, the Weavers would never do that to us, especially the Widow!” Circe piped up, and we all just groaned.

“Two dozen potentially working and capable Underweb Casters come out of nowhere, where none existed before, and they won’t make use of them?” Nimue said for all of us. “Pass the other one.”

“That... crap!” I slapped my head. “That’s what the Widow was doing all this time! She just thought it would be one Underweb Caster, and tied to Her. She didn’t know her forced Pact would revert to a Warlock Pact under the Power of Ten rules structure, and I could outgrow it...”

“Or that you could Clone and Duplicate out into the rest of us and so be beyond Her Pact...” Dealer filled in, massaging her temples. “So, uh, none of us have talked with Grandfather Anasazi...”

“I know you just made Eternal, but can your Cosmic Awareness touch the Underweb, and can you comprehend anything going on there?” Morgan asked me directly.

I winced, extending my Awareness down that way, to the fundamental structures that underlay all realities and what extended between them. Being out in space helped, as there was a lot less going on, so the webworks were broad and powerful out here, instead of many and complex back on Terra.

“Huh.” I turned around slowly, looking at the general area. “It’s not blowing at my mind like it did. I’m still a bit shaky regarding the absolute amount of energies flowing through the thing, but I can keep looking. I can see the Domains of the Weavers who are at work here and there, but I can’t see them directly without intruding on their Awareness in turn. I can see where the Underweb is extending into other realities, but I can’t see the alternities themselves.”

All their eyes lit up. “Oh, ho!” Nimue smiled. “How’s the math? Can we make a Key to the Multiverse?”

“That...” I couldn’t help but focus on several aspects of reality that cleared right up the instant I looked at them. “Yes. Magical, scientific, and psi, I can use any of them to do the job.” I already had full knowledge of the FF Portal tech, my own on the magic side, and Kwannon naturally had Dimensional as one of her primary fields of psionic interest. I didn’t even have to ask Reed to go all Savant on it. “Just need to define the power source. It isn’t even that hard...”

“Dammit, Dyna, now you just extended our writ of coverage to basically everywhere!” Dealer groused.

I let the Websight fade and gave her a hairy eyeball. “Hey, Cosmicwoman here is protecting THIS reality, huge as the damn thing is. Some ungrateful aspects of her get to concentrate on the magic side of things, and we all know it’s the magic folks who go dimension-hopping for tourism and adventure, right?”

“Totally true. Dealer just organizes parties for the high and mighty now. You’ll just have to extend it to other alternities now!” Circe chirped.

“Ungrateful!” Dealer shook her finger at Beta-Elb with a hmph.

“Key to the Multiverse! Key to the Multiverse!” Nimue, Morgan, and Circe promptly chanted back to her, and her expression crumbled in exaggerated mortal injury.

Anning, hitherto silent as she watched all this in amusement, turned back to me. “You STILL can’t do a full scan of the Underweb?” she asked me directly. “The Eternal upgrade is supposed to be huge, isn’t it?”

“It’s because I’m an Intellect freak,” I replied, putting my fingers to my head. “I can SEE the Web. I can track and chart and identify and see patterns, as it IS a web, after all. But, understanding what the Patterns really mean, and bearing up under the profound weight of them, especially with the level of the energies moving through them... I probably don’t have the Wisdom or Charisma to deal with it.”

“At 47 and 49?” she asked, all of them looking rather amazed. They were at 40ish in those Stats, after all, basically the only thing I had on them was Exemplar vs Exemplar-Lite.

“Still twenty points below Intellect. It’s just... huge. Mindblowingly huge. Being able to go in and see the thing in such detail just puts a lot of stress on trying to actually understand it, and withstand the implications. I imagine it’s not that much different from looking at a Mythos God, or something.”

They all nodded. It made perfect sense on the Law/Chaos balance of things. Perfect universal order vs insane non-universal disorder.

“So... are you getting any racial benefits from Golden Child?” Anning asked critically. “Because seriously, Exemplar is the only difference in mental Stats between us, right?”

“Huh.” She was right. I looked at my golden hands, currently ungloved.

My Golden Child Racial Class had sucked in the benefits of both base Asgardian and Homo Sapiens Eternal. Golden Child and base Homo Eternal were not that different, both powered by Cosmic energy, but Asgardians got their power from Divine energy, so the benefits sort of stacked.

I had definitely received some major physical buffs from the Racial Class, but the majority of it was Might, not Power. The Coord granted still didn’t exceed my Warlock Buffs, and the Constitution didn’t exceed my X Ultra Core’s benefits, currently down a bit, but rising fast as M’Kraan and other energies were flooding into me. My base Might was in the 320 tons range, and that was before adding in my Mimicked Primus and Comet strength... which I was going to have to go Mimic again, since I hadn’t Copied off Callie or Mimi at Renewal.

But she was right, no mental Buffs came with any of that? Seemed... pretty weird.

When in doubt, ask the pro. -Hey, Sama, I’m not getting any mental Stat buffs from Golden Child Levels. It seems kind of weird?-

-Are you paying for them?- was the instant /reply.

I just blinked. -Me dumb. What?- I had to /ask.

-For whatever reason, physical Buffs can accumulate pretty easily here, but after a certain level, everything takes direct Karma to improve. Have you just been going up in Levels without making additional investments in Race?- she /asked archly.

-Pretty much?-

-Briggs and I had to pay for all our Stats as if we were living magic items. Take that as you like.-

-Oh. Thanks.-

Well, hokey shittinski, Batman. “I have to pay Karma to improve any Stats over the default that come by Levels, according to Sama. So, I have to pay for any mental boosts that come from being a Golden Child, just like a magic item.”

“Ewwww!” they all grimaced. Because that was going to get expensive quick!

“WHY do I have the feeling I should have held off on becoming Eternal until after I had all those Stats purchased?” I complained to the void, which snickered back at me.

Dealer was looking off at something, and smiled despite herself. “What now?” I asked, seeing that sly expression.

“Sama also says you have to pay the Eternal cost for breaking through each Tranche!” Dealer grinned.