Millennial Mage

Tala spent the remainder of the day working on her bloodstar orbits. She had a breakthrough when she realized that, like she’d learned with Flow, she could have the bloodstars pull themselves towards her, instead of the other way around.

It was still a drain on her soul, meaning that she couldn’t do other soul exercises to the extent that she normally could, but it didn’t take any active thought, and the strain was small enough that she thought she could probably do it nearly constantly.

Now, enforcing a mirroring of her magical resistance and inertia onto the bloodstars was still a great strain, so she focused on that aspect. There was the additional issue that when she was mirroring her inertia, the difficulty of maintaining the orbit increased exponentially, but that was to be expected.

By the time they stopped to camp for the night, the two drops of blood were spinning around her in tight, oscillating circles, almost exactly as they had under the influence of Master Jevin’s spell-form.

The forest seemed to be more favorably disposed to them on this outward journey, as they didn’t have to navigate around nearly as many blockages of any kind, and they had yet to see a single Leshkin.

However, there had been a few arcanous encounters that the Guards had dispersed with ease.

Nothing had required Rane’s intervention, let alone hers or Mistress Odera’s.

Almost as if summoned by that thought, Tala felt the approach of something large and obviously magical.

She turned, looking through the surrounding forest.

A large, jaguar-like creature that was armored with chitin, rather than having fur, was charging their way. Its motions were more like a bull than the great cat it closely resembled. It clearly weighed an immense amount.

In truth, large didn’t begin to accurately describe the size. It was easily as massive as two of the caravan’s oxen, combined.

Rane had noticed as well, and he, flanked by two guards, ran to intercept the incoming threat.

Tala considered adding a gravity manipulation to the creature to assist, but she decided that was unnecessary. Rane’s got this.

A screeching, hissing roar of challenge echoed off the trees as the cat’s head dropped lower, its pace increasing as it sprinted all out across the last hundred yards.

In the very last stretch, it leapt, seeming to be attempting to drop on Rane like a rockslide.

Force split the creature from its snout to its back right hip in a single blow.

Tala had barely tracked Rane’s movements, as he stepped with the strike, spinning under the attack to stand beside the beast as it splashed to the ground, blood, guts, and viscera falling through the new divide in its body.

His strike, diverting to the right, had ensured that the body didn’t impact either of the guards who had come forward to back him up.

Tala pulled out Ingrit’s list and found what she’d remembered: The chitin was prized for certain types of armor. The guards said something to Rane, and he laughed, clapping the closest on one shoulder. He gestured, and Tala was able to interpret what was being said. Rane had given the carcass to the two guards.

She sighed, watching the guards drag the corpse back to be properly stored, even as the drivers were unhooking the oxen. Those are on Ingrit’s list. So, they’ll be valuable. Still, she knew that Rane had done the right and generous thing. Those guards could have left him to it, but they’d put themselves in danger, to be ready if he needed them.

Tala dismissed her mild disappointment. It wasn’t like she had a right to the harvest. Zakrias is right, my main magical attacks aren’t exactly conducive to harvesting. And Mistress Odera was right to keep her back from the fray.

I want to fight… But she was unarguably the most critical individual in the caravan. Without her, their dimensional storage would cease to function, and the caravan would be lost.

I’m just glad I get to fight at all. She was colossally torn. On one side, being a dimensional Mage for the caravan was the cushiest job she could hope for. If she wanted, she could sit in her room all day, training. She’d make good money, and have her needs seen to, but that would be so boring.

Not to mention that she’d have to sit on the side and let others defend her. And without combat, I’d stagnate.

Being a Mage protector as well mitigated much of that. The second position earned her higher pay and let her engage threats. I just still have to be wise in what engagements I participate in.

In truth, she should be following wisdom’s path, regardless of what position she held, but she wanted to dive in and fight every battle.

As a Harvester, that would put me on the path to an early grave. She wasn’t a Harvester and might never be, but the sentiment was still true enough.

Tala nodded. This is good for me. I should be learning discretion, and this forces that.

One thing at a time, Tala. Well, she was fusing in the background through her every waking moment, so that was a given. Two things at a time, Tala. She cracked a smile at the thought.

The bloodstars held the potential for so much utility that she needed to put them first, since fusing was a given. Get the orbits stable, and second-nature, while mirroring my magical resistance and inertia. That was the first step.

It was still exhausting to mirror those aspects, but even with her work through the day, added to what she’d been doing the last few days, had caused great improvement.

She was getting some interesting looks on occasion from the guards, but not every one of them noticed. The bloodstars were still just single drops of blood after all. If they weren’t moving, it would be very possible that they would be all but invisible.

While she was strengthening her soul towards the task of constant aspect mirroring, she needed to figure out how to split one of her Archon stars. If it’s even possible.

But that was a task for tomorrow. Now? Now was time for dinner.

* * *

As it turned out, Amnin was head chef for the return trip as well, and she really came through. Over the next three days, Tala ate like a city lord’s entire family, and she had no expectation that that would reduce as the trip continued.

Apparently, all the support staff had been asked to delay their departure for this oh so important cargo-load. They’d wanted no chance of having the caravan short-staffed, so all the workers, guards, and drivers were the same as those who had come with them from Bandfast. The only exceptions were new additions to fill the slots of those who had died on the trip out.

Not for the first time, Tala considered only eating while on assignment. That way she’d never have to pay for her own food. She could, in theory, survive on her reserves while between journeys, but that would mean that she would be starting each voyage with her reserves depleted.

Too dangerous. Even with Ending Berry power flowing through her, and iron salve on her skin, it was her finally nearly entirely full reserves that really gave her a sense of security.

That, and she’d have to be hungry for days at a time. Not a good choice in any respect.

They weren’t heading straight north, and not just because the forest made straight-line travel functionally impossible. No, apparently some Archon had an area of research set up to the northwest of Makinaven, and a part of their journey to Bandfast was a supply drop to the reclusive woman.

As they traveled, Tala had spent her time working on her ability to hold aspect mirroring, as well as attempting to figure out how to split a combined Archon star.

The results of her labor were two magically and inertially mirrored bloodstars moving in quick orbits up and down around her as she stared at a third Archon star.

This third one was a combination of two others, which had each been as weak as she could get the spell-form to stabilize.

It wouldn’t separate.

Her manipulation of magic couldn’t guide the two apart.

It wouldn’t obey a will-infused command to separate.

Massive gravitational pull in opposing directions on each half hadn’t split it.

It wouldn’t be pulled apart by her aura, wrapping around two parts of the spell-form and pulling.

Flow couldn’t cut it in half.

It simply wouldn’t split.

Today, as lunch was laid before her on a massive tray, Tala decided to dive into the spell-form to see what was actually causing the binding. If I can’t find any distinction between the drops within the star, then I might have to approach this entirely differently.

“Thank you.” She smiled at the assistant cook who had brought the food to her on top of the moving wagon, even as he climbed out of sight.

“You are most welcome, Mistress!” He called back up the ladder.

She began to absentmindedly eat the roasted sausages, salad, and bowl of sliced fruit.

She directed her mage-sight to dive into the Archon star within the blood hovering before her, locked in place by her aura.

Just as she’d expected the spell-form was a self-contained, infinitely looping knot that resembled a monkey’s fist knot, if the loops interwove and braided together at irregular intervals.

The power was evenly distributed, flowing round and round, while going nowhere.

Exactly as it should. She grimaced but continued to probe.

After a little longer, she still hadn’t discovered anything of consequence. I have nothing to compare it to.

She pulled back her mage-sight and called one of her bloodstars to her, immediately diving in with her sight.

This one, she’d made stronger at the time of its creation before leaving it to self-sustain.

A powerful cord of power, looping in the exact same pattern. Tala blinked, then leaned closer. One cord.

She pulled over the newest, combined star.

Sure enough, her memory was correct. Two cords.

The knot was built as if someone had made it with two cords at once, weaving them through the pattern identically, side by side.

“One for each star, combined now.” That had to mean something. “It’s not one cord; it’s two.” She wished she’d tested this with Master Jevin around, or at least his soul-scanning, empowered plates.

With incredible delicacy, she tried to grab onto one of the two strands with her aura.

She didn’t have the nimbleness with her aura to accomplish the feat.

Alright then. She pulled out Soul Work and flipped through, searching for one of the exercises that she’d read over but put aside for the time being.

There you are: Aura Scripting. She’d initially been incredibly excited because she’d thought it was a way to create spell-forms using her aura as either the medium or spell-lines.

It wasn’t. That has to be explained elsewhere…

It was a series of exercises meant to build up her aura control to the point that she could form scripted words with her aura. Others with mage-sight would be able to read it, if their mage-sight was active, so it had some base utility, but in general, it was just a series of dexterity drills.

Perfect.

It was time to expand her exercise routine.

* * *

“Mistress Tala?” Mistress Odera placed her hand on Tala’s shoulder.

Rust. Rust. RUST!!!

“Are you alright?”

Tala let out a disgruntled sigh, opening her eyes to glare at the surrounding forest, slowly rolling by. Two days. I’ve WASTED two days. “No. I’m ticked.”

The corner of Mistress Odera’s mouth lifted. “I gathered.”

Tala frowned. “What? How?” She was being very emotionally contained, and hadn’t done anything in anger, keeping her features calm and placid.

“Mistress, your aura is violently flashing ‘Rust’ over and over again.”

Tala blinked at the woman, then felt herself coloring. “Oh…” Once she’d managed to form letters, then words with her aura, she’d taken to forming her aura into as many words as she could, striving for fine control over it. Rather than coming up with random words, she’d begun simply writing out her thoughts. “Wait… If you can read that…”

“Yes, Mistress. You might want to find another way to practice.”

Tala’s color deepened. “You could have told me days ago.” Her voice was quiet.

Mistress Odera seemed a little taken aback. “You really didn’t know?” She patted her shoulder. “I thought you were being intentional about it. I’ve gathered such great insight into how you think, and I’d thought that was your intention, even if you were being circumspect about it. Why else would you always refer to me as ‘Mistress Odera’ in your thoughts, while almost every other Mage you think of lacks the moniker.”

Tala frowned. “What now?”

“You think of me as Mistress Odera, while Master Rane or Master Grediv are just ‘Rane’ and ‘Grediv’ in your thinking.”

She blinked at that. “I…huh…I guess I hadn’t noticed that.” Tala frowned. “I wonder why.”

“I’m no mental Mage, dear. There are precious few human ones, but if you find one, ask them.” She cleared her throat. “But this is all beside the point. What’s wrong?”

“I’ve been refining my aura control for dexterity, in an attempt to…” She glanced to her combined star. “Do something I’m not sure is possible.”

“Mistress Tala.” Mistress Odera gave her a level look. “Your aura is writing out: ‘Archon star separation.’ Being vague won’t work if you continue…that.” She waved her hand, indicating the words that were continuing to flicker. “And I am not being nosey. I’m monitoring the entire caravan with my mage-sight. Your aura-writing is like a beacon right beside my head. I couldn’t ignore it without retracting my mage-sight entirely.”

Tala grimaced. Purposely pulling her aura back to her skin. As she’d done more and more aura and soul exercises, they’d become second nature with increasing ease.

“So, dear child. What happened?”

Tala decided not to deflect again, despite the clearly offered option to do so, with that last inquiry. Child indeed. “My aura can’t grab onto the distinct threads within my Archon star.”

“Oh? Why do you think that is?”

Because it want’s to rusting stay useless slag. Tala growled internally.

“Is the cursing really necessary, dear?”

Tala blinked at her, then noticed that her aura had started to extend and write out her thoughts again. She clamped down once more, holding it firmly contained. “Sorry about that…”

“My question?”

She sighed. “The power isn’t really a thread, it’s a current. It’s like trying to grab a river. Even if you have a big enough tool, the best you’ll do is grab some water, not pick up the river and redirect its flow. It also doesn’t grab the current down river and drag the water back, and to the new path.”

“But, in this case, the river is flowing in a circuit, right?”

“That’s correct.”

“So, why not divert the river directly? The current will loop back around and follow the new path. Right?”

Tala opened her mouth to answer but stopped. Why not? “One moment.”

How should I approach this. She returned her focused mage-sight to the Archon star.

She picked out the pattern in the flowing magical spell-form, the two rivers of power, streaming side by side.

I can’t just grab the flow, that is useless. I can’t even grab the magic and redirect it. It’s too stable for magical manipulation to be useful. I might be able to strong-arm it, but that would be an effectively useless solution for me.

Blocking a river would create a lake, or just cause the water to flow around the blockage. I need a new path for it.

She hesitated.

No, it should flow into the form of an Archon star on its own, once separated. What I need is a redirection.

It wasn’t exactly like a river. The power was flowing according to its own nature, rather than in physically restricting banks. So, if she shunted the power away, it should reform as she desired.

Alright, then. Let’s do this.

With her newly trained dexterity, she stabbed her aura into one of the two streams, angling it against the current to create a sloped shunt. More than that, she pulled on her bond with that one stream, while holding the other in place with a similar pull.

Power shot up the aura ramp, prevented from flowing as it wanted to, but acting by its nature, nonetheless.

Even as it was distorted away from its natural path, the magic was still bent and aspected to form the pattern for an Archon star, thus, it almost immediately began flowing through the loops and twirls of the Archon-star spell-form once more.

In less than a second, the entirety of that stream had been shunted off to the side, reconnected, and was now floating, self-contained beside the star that it had just been interwoven with.

Tala’s aura flexed, pulled in opposite directions on the two drops of blood. They moved apart with ease, leaving them hovering, distinct and perfect before her.

Mistress Odera and Tala stared at them together.

“That worked.”

“So it would seem.”

Tala looked to her superior. “You didn’t know it would work?”

“I’m not an Archon, dear.”

Tala grunted.

Mistress Odera cleared her throat. “As someone who isn’t an Archon, this might be an ignorant question.”

Tala turned to regard the woman curiously. “Yes?”

“Shouldn’t they be identical?”

“Of course. They are-” Tala looked back to the two drops of blood, and instantly saw what Mistress Odera was talking about, now that she was looking for it.

The second star was a perfect inversion of the first, from which it had been pulled.

“Oh. That seems… bad.” She looked to the older Mage. “What happens when you invert a spell-form?”

“Depends on the form? For some it doesn’t matter. For others, it reverses the effect generated.”

They regarded the two hovering bloodstars.

After a long minute, Tala swallowed and cleared her own throat.

“The question is, then, what’s the opposite of a soul-bound.”