Millennial Mage

Tala stood up as Rane entered their training room. Rane pulled to a stop, seemingly not having expected to find her here.

She grinned. “So…? Can I see Force? Were there any changes?”

After another moment’s hesitation, Rane grinned. “You spoiled the big reveal I was planning.”

She shrugged. “Sorry, but I want to see it.”

He snorted a laugh and pulled out his sword. There were, indeed, changes.

If someone had taken the large weapon, shattered it, and rebuilt it with liquid sapphire to hold the pieces together, Tala would expect a similar result.

The wood of the weapon seemed to have been refined, somehow, and there was a blue tint to that part of the sword as well. The entire weapon almost seemed to glow.

Tala nodded appreciatively. “That is beautiful.”

“Care to test? Force against Flow?” Rane was smiling quite happily.

Tala drew Flow, immediately forming it into a sword.

Rane lifted his hands in mild panic. “Wait! Training scabbard.”

Tala glanced at her weapon and sighed. She’d still had it freed from the fight, earlier. “Right…” Flow returned to the shape of a knife, and she bound the sheath around it. Again, the weapon grew. “Shall we?”

Rane responded by throwing his sword. Tala easily side-stepped the attack, giving Rane a quizzical look.

Realization struck, then, and she spun to deflect Force coming at her from behind…only to see it laying in the corner, having slid across the floor.

Frowning, she turned back, just in time for Rane’s fist to land, high up on her cheek.

She was momentarily dazed as she took a single, staggering step backwards. Rane, for his part shook out his hand, even as he tripped her.

Tala had recovered enough to execute a controlled fall, rolling back to a standing position a few feet away.

Rane was cursing under his breath, before giving her a mild glare. “Ow! What are you made of these days?”

Tala grimaced rubbing her cheek. “Same as before.” She shook her head. “I can’t believe I fell for that. Can you even call your bound weapon to you?”

Rane grinned, holding out his hand.

“I’m not falling for that-” Force slammed into her back, throwing her forward and back to the ground.

Rane laughed as he caught his weapon. “I can’t do it more than a couple times, but Force’s magics make it a pretty useful attack.”

Tala groaned in agreement, pushing herself back to her feet once again. Flow could cut on a return path, maybe burn a little, when not sheathed, but that was pretty much it. The way Force was designed, it would be almost as effective in flight as when wielded by Rane, himself.

She narrowed her eyes. “Force was designed for use as a soul-bound weapon, wasn’t it.” It really wasn’t a question.

“I told you so, didn’t I?”

She tsked. “Yeah, I suppose you did. Any new functionality?”

“Aside from the bond, I can alter the edge and shape of the…force.” He quirked a half-grin. “I have it blunted, now, but I seem to be able to refine it into a true cutting attack.”

Tala nodded. “Impressive.”

“Thank you.”

“Again?”

“Again.”

They sparred uncounted bouts as the afternoon faded towards evening.

Tala picked herself up off the floor, vaulting back to her feet one final time. “I thought I had you there.”

Rane wiped sweat from his forehead, even as he sheathed Force. “You are getting much better. I want to meditate on our matches, then I’ll head to bed.”

Tala glanced to the darkening sky, just visible between the edge of the canopy overhead and the trees surrounding Makinaven. “That’s fair, I suppose.” She replaced Flow onto her belt.

Rane took a deep breath and smiled. “So, what are your plans for tomorrow?”

* * *

Tala rolled her eyes as Rane paced back and forth.

“You have a date, with a Refined!?!”

“You can say that as many times as you want, it doesn’t make it any more true.”

“Coffee,” he ticked items off, on his fingers, “pastries, talking. That’s a date.”

“It’s two people learning from each other.”

He turned towards her, meeting her gaze. “Is that how he sees it?”

“How should I know? Why should I care?” Her eyes narrowed. “Why do you care?”

Rane growled. He opened his mouth, then closed it several times, before he turned and he continued to pace. Finally, he groaned. “It’s taking time from our training…?”

That sounds inaccurate. He doesn’t even believe that himself. “You don’t have to tell me why it bothers you Rane, but I don’t need your permission. Now, aside from that, and my breakfast with Mistress Odera, I’ve got nothing planned. That is what you asked, right?”

Rane had stopped his pacing and turned towards her once more. After a moment, he grimaced, then took a deep breath and let it out slowly. “That is what I asked… yes.”

“Well, alright, then. Why do you ask?” She tried to steer the conversation from the oddly touchy subject.

He seemed to war within himself, before sighing. “It might be a bit silly, but I’ve bound Force, and I wanted to celebrate tomorrow. There’s a series of plays in the tier four park. Tons of food and people. It should be a lot of fun.”

Food and plays sound good. People are inevitable, I suppose… She shrugged. “Sure. When does it start, tomorrow?”

“It starts just after lunch.”

She smiled “Then no conflict.”

Rane hesitated, then sighed. “Fine.” He looked around. “I still need to meditate.”

You are the only reason you haven’t. “Be my guest.”

Tala, for her part, immediately dropped into a cross-legged, seated position and took out two tungsten balls. Both had altered gravity, one with it raised, one lowered.

This one particular variant of her ability’s use was giving her trouble.

She could grab onto two targets, if they had the same starting gravity, and alter them together.

She could now grab onto any two targets and manipulate their gravity independently.

But, she couldn’t grab two differently gravitized items and alter them at the same time, in exactly the same way.

Oh, she could fake it, by altering them separately in the same way, but it didn’t feel the same, and it took more power.

While she struggled with that, she also reviewed her fights with Rane. Every so often, her full attention would come back to the balls before her.

Finally, she thought she had it. Increase.

Their gravity increased…separately.

Why won’t you move together, rust you!

Something clicked into place in her mind, resonating with her power, and something entirely different began coming together.

Together. I should be able to move them together.

Gravity was the interaction of all mass with all other mass, not just mass with the planet below.

They are two points. I’ve been increasing their gravity, as connected to the planet. What if I increase it relative to each other?

Excited beyond belief, she dumped power into that mental construct. Collide.

She wasn’t altering the balls’ gravity with the planet. She wasn’t making them pull inward on themselves, though that thought was tucked away for later study.

No, she was only increasing their attraction to each other.

After just more than two minutes, the spheres began to wobble. In less than three, they suddenly rolled together, hitting with a satisfying click.

Rane’s eyes snapped open. “Mistress Tala?”

Tala was staring at the balls, wide eyed and her mouth open in an ear-to-ear grin. “I did it, Master Rane. I discovered a new use for my ability, all on my own.”

Rane tilted his head. “Oh? Do you want to share?”

Tala narrowed her eyes, pulling out one of the balls that she’d reduced to have near zero gravity. As regards the planet. She amended. She could almost feel her mind radiating through all her preconceptions and mulling over what this could mean.

While she did that, she locked onto Rane and the ball in her hand. Collide.

Rane…shrugged off her lock, likely without him even noticing her attempt. Opposing will? She could probably force it, but she might not need to. The ball didn’t reject her manipulation, and something was growing.

“Mistress Tala?”

“One moment. I suggest you get ready.” There was already a slight pressure, as the ball tried to pull from her hand, towards Rane. It was minute, but it was growing rapidly, now. With the mass so low, I’m having to massively ramp up the effects.

Rane slowly stood, drawing force. “Alright…” He seemed, understandably, hesitant.

Tala just smiled. She had utter confidence in his abilities. His defenses will keep him safe, if it gets past his sword.

After four minutes, Tala was starting to have trouble holding onto the ball. “Head’s up.” And she released the ball.

It zipped across the room, heading straight for the area between Rane’s navel and sternum, his center of mass.

Rane’s eyes widened, and he struck at the ball on reflex. The ball flew away, but rapidly slowed, arching around to come back towards him. It acted similar to a ball in a funnel, where Rane was the spout. Any movement was quickly redirected into an unstable orbit.

An orbit, eh? I wonder if I could actually use that, somehow…Could I place balls or armored plates in stable orbit around myself? Would that even be useful?

Tala found herself laughing, continuing to increase the “Collide” of the ball, towards Rane.

Rane, for his part, was battering the ball around with increasing ferocity, but it kept coming back, faster and faster.

“Mistress Tala.” His breath was coming more rapidly, now. “I actually can’t do this, forever.”

Oh…Oh! Rust! “Ah, right! Sorry.” She immediately went to decrease the pull but found that her mental image of that was… lacking. “Oh…rust. Rust!”

“Tala!”

She thought furiously, finally an odd image came to mind and clicked. It just felt right.

Diminish. She poured power through her void-channels, into the mental construct, and through that into her spell-forms, but she’d been upping the ball’s draw towards Rane for close to five minutes by that point. “It’s reducing, but it’ll take almost as long to come down as it took to ramp up!”

Rane made a small grunt of beleaguered irritation, but nodded, focusing fully on the ball and his repulsion of such.

With a moment of inspiration, she also dumped power into a Collide for the ball to one of the walls. The “Diminish” was already taking all the power it could handle, so it didn’t slow that part. Thus, the ball started moving more towards that wall with each deflection, until, finally, it was drifting as slowly as a leaf across the ground before a slight breeze.

Rane was panting by that point. “That…was… insane.”

Tala grinned, now “Diminish”-ing the ball’s link to both Rane and the wall, allowing the tungsten to drift lazily towards the floor.

“What was that?”

“I increased its gravity towards you.”

He gave her a confused look. “What? How does that apply?”

“Gravity is every mass pulling all other mass.” That was an oversimplification, but she felt that it was accurate enough for a short-hand explanation.

Rane cocked an eyebrow, then jumped, returning the floor. “I came down, I didn’t go to the ceiling.”

Tala smiled, instantly understanding what he meant. “Ahh, but you came down slightly slower than you would have, if you had been outside, without the roof over your head. Gravitational accelerations are really a combination of accelerations towards every mass around you.”

He was clearly still skeptical but seemed to have decided not to argue. “Well, you are the gravity Mage, I suppose…” After a moment, he grinned. “I actually think that was pretty good training for me, but I don’t want to repeat it… not exactly. We can work something out, though, right?”

“Sure.” She glanced to her ball, now sitting on the ground, its gravity returned to normal, except as relating to the planet. That gravitational relationship was still reduced to near non-existence. The ball, itself, was cracked and warped. “Wow, you did a real number on this.”

“Well, I asked politely, but it wouldn’t leave me alone.”

Tala glanced his way and saw him grinning with an obviously self-satisfied smile. “Yeah, yeah.” She couldn’t keep a smile from her face, or a chuckle from her tone.

Rane’s breathing had returned to a more normal pace, and he scratched the side of his head a bit awkwardly. “So… mind if I finish meditating? It’s fully night, and I need to get some sleep, soon.”

Tala waved assent and focused back on the tungsten balls before her. She’d remained sitting throughout the test against Rane. This would be a great distraction for any one-on-one fight. Assuming it didn’t just slam into the enemy, killing them.

She reassured herself. Rane’s defensive inscriptions would have kept him safe. Even so, she’d been a bit hasty on the test.

What else should I test? She thought through the ideas that Jevin had given her.

I can do groups; I can increase one target while decreasing another. She grinned. She could even increase one aspect of an item’s gravity while decreasing another for the same target.

I know that the change is compounding. She hesitated at that, cursing silently. She’d unintentionally latched onto a 10% increase, compounding each second, as how she envisioned it.

Now, I need to break my mental construct of a fixed number. She growled.

Rane shifted but didn’t open his eyes.

I can’t change the direction of the resulting acceleration, but I can change what it is accelerating towards. That said, she was at a massive disadvantage when dealing with gravity not relating to the planet.

All that mass really is useful to me. She grinned at that.

I still need to test if I can target just a part of something, but I should be able to. What else did she need to test?

Affecting an area…I don’t think I can target an area. I just don’t believe that gravity works that way. She had to smile at that. She had seen other gravity Mages at the Academy doing area of effect gravity manipulations, but it had always struck her as wrong, somehow.What else?

Something held by an opponent, and opposed enactment. Rane had shrugged off her lock, just by his nature as a Bound. She hadn’t tried to force the connection, but it was one of the first times she’d ever had an issue locking onto someone.

He must have been working on his power-density. As she thought about it, she realized there was a second, more likely explanation. His fusing is giving him greater magical weight.

Her own fusing immediately took a massive leap up in priority for her.

Finally, the last thing she wanted to test, eventually, was what would happen if she increased an item’s gravitation towards itself. She couldn’t think of a use for it, as it wouldn’t change the mass, nor affect anything else, but it would be interesting to see if she could.

Well, that’s quite the list. What first? There was no question in her mind at all.

She began to crochet.

Rane finished up and bade her goodnight, but she only gave him a cursory good-bye, her focus directed almost entirely inward.

* * *

It was after midnight when Tala flopped backwards with a groan.

“There! Are you happy? I tried.”

Terry gave a sleepy, grumpy squawk from her folded bedroll in the corner of the training room.

“I can’t do areas. It just makes no sense to me.” She groaned again. “I bet all area gravity Mages are Creators, and they just create gravity fields in defiance of ALL LOGIC!” She almost yelled the last two words.

Terry groused some more but didn’t otherwise participate in the conversation.

“Fine. I’m done.”

She’d worked on fusing for a few hours then decided that she should at least try to affect an area, instead of a specific target.

“On the plus side, I know I can affect just one part of something…” She’d been raising and lowering the effective gravity of a section of floor for the last hour. Nothing she could think to try had any affect on the items atop that floor, however.

From her prone position, she kicked up to land on her feet. “I want a bath.”

She topped off Kit with power even as she took it from her belt.

Once she’d drawn the near-scalding bath, Tala let herself soak but didn’t indulge for too long.

Much more relaxed, and fully exhausted, she crashed into her bed, set up in one corner of Kit’s expanded interior. She increased her gravity almost absently, until the bed had a comfortable give for her current position.

She was asleep before another thought could flicker through her mind.

Tala woke some time later, sitting bolt upright and looking around.

Was that just a dream?

She’d felt like something was about to eat her.

She shivered, reflexively refilling Kit’s reserves.

Well, I’m awake… She climbed up the short ladder and looked out into the training room.

The bit of sky she could see was grey but lightening towards dawn.

Tala growled. “Not enough.”

She dropped back down, flopping back onto her mattress and curling up, asleep again, near instantly.

“Mistress Tala?” Mistress Odera’s voice floated down from above. “Mistress Tala!?”

Tala groaned, not fully awake, rolling out of bed and slapping into the ground. “What.”

“Are you down there?”

“Yes.” Tala spoke a bit louder this time.

“I’m not going to even try entering that…item. Please come up. I’d rather get breakfast before lunch time.”

Tala jerked upright. “Oh! What time is it?”

“Half past seven, dear.”

Tala growled. “Too early.”

“Well, I can always eat by myself. I just thought you’d prefer to join me.”

Tala’s stomach let out a gurgling roar that Tala would have sworn echoed throughout Kit’s interior.

After the sound settled down, Tala cleared her throat. “I’ll be right up.”