Millennial Mage

Tala was not interested in thinking about her upcoming visit with her family. She knew it wasn’t healthy to avoid the topic, and she was leaving that day to go to the city where they lived, but she still just couldn’t seem to force herself to give it more than passing reflection.

-We really should consider it.-

So, Tala went through her routine, just as she did every morning and evening, not considering the upcoming encounter.

Physical exercise and stretching, with and without her own gravity enhanced.

Martial form work with her various weapons and tools.

Soul exercises, which included everything from working on increasing the distance that she could pull her bound items to her, to improving her subtle control - needed for having her blood-stars orbit her, to aspect mirroring.

Reading the morning selection of materials from her various books, compiled and reorganized by Alat. One of the fascinating things about Alat’s manifestation of the books was that Tala had complete control to freely prop them around herself while she did other things, making them easy to read no matter the environment.

Breathing exercises to facilitate her use of ending-seed destruction, as well as to improve her physical capacities.

Enacting her magic through the series of iron spheres that Jevin had given her, honing her ability to work around iron.

Breaking her bones in a few strategic places that hadn’t been broken before to allow them to rebuild under the influence of the modified scripts.

Finally, she drank her daily portion of ending-berry juice and ate a large hunk of jerky. As that all processed, she meditated and focused her mage-sight inward, working to shift the magic around to the appropriate scripts within herself, overlaying the power atop her own magics that had the same function.

-We still need to talk about your family.-

Tala growled. No, we need to go eat breakfast with Odera.

-I am in your head, Tala. Not only is it blazingly obvious when you’re making excuses, but it couldn’t possibly be easier to converse while we walk.- After a moment, Alat added one final point. -And, we would be vastly too early if we left now.-

Tala ignored Alat and checked the time simply by wishing to know what time it was.

Alat was right, she still had two hours before it was time to meet with Odera.

“I should cook something.” She really didn’t want to, but just as Holly had indicated, Tala had been hungry. She’d been hungrier than she’d ever been for basically a week, and she was getting sick of eating.

There was a special type of frustration that came from having her stomach full, while still feeling desperately hungry.

With a sigh, Tala approached the task of cooking up some food in the same way that she’d perform any other required task. Though, she did take the time to choose something that appealed to her tastes at the moment.

-You know, for all your many flaws, you have a ridiculously high level of dedication, follow-through, and personal responsibility. You don’t always see how what you’re doing affects others, but with regard to your own duties? You are great at keeping your end of things progressing and on track.-

Thank you? Tala felt herself relax a bit. That’s really kind of you to say.

-So, what do you think your parents did right, to instill such things into you?-

Tala jerked, sloshing the sausage and eggs she was frying in her cauldron. Thankfully, the shape of the cookware made spilling more difficult than that.

She didn’t respond to Alat, instead pulling out a large loaf of heavy, multi-grain bread and a large jar of butter.

She allowed herself to contemplate how much she was going to miss having fresh eggs, bread, and butter on the caravan trip.

-You are well aware both that the cooks will have excellent food for you, and that you are continuing to ignore me.-

You’re right. I am ignoring you.

She missed coffee, though she didn’t need it to wake up. She missed the flavor. The way her body had responded to the warmth and caffeine.

It was glorious.

It was gone.

Focus, Tala. Eat. She ate mechanically. Everything was good, but she didn’t pull as much joy from the taste as she would have a week earlier.

I hope this doesn’t last forever. I need to slow down my eating soon, or I’ll lose the last bits of enjoyment I can pull from it, and it will become only a chore.

-Do you want an answer to that?-

Tala grimaced. Yes, of course, though it wasn’t a question.

-So, no more ignoring me?-

Either answer or don’t. Tala took an irritated bite of buttered bread.

-The scripts, inside your iron paint and with the regular work we’ve put in, are almost finished with the modifications that they’ll do to you, physically. In addition, your stores are nearing their max capacity.-

I was feeling a bit heavier today. She’d been growing steadily heavier for nearly a week, now that she thought about it.

-As I was saying, you could drop down to normal consumption today, and you’d be fine… Well, normal for you, anyway.-

Yeah, but then I’d be going into a trip with lower reserves than I could or should have.

-That’s true, but only if you stop right now.-

So…? How long do I need to keep this up to top off?

-Another week, if you don’t sustain any major, unexpected injuries.-

So, just in time to arrive in Marliweather.

-Yes. Speaking of which…-

Tala groaned, doing her best to ignore Alat once again as she ate.

After Alat finally accepted that Tala was fully and truly ignoring her on the topic of her family, she changed the subject, thus bringing Tala’s attention back. -There has to be some sort of drink that we could find that would have all the nutrients we need.- Then, of all things Alat somehow shuddered. -I don’t mean that lard-based monstrosity that Jevin tried to make us consider.-

Tala shuddered as well at the memory. One sip was all it took. Never again.

-He might have had the right idea, though.-

Bite your tongue.

-Do you mean bite your tongue?-

That sounds needlessly…odd.

Alat sighed. -Fine. But we could look into something like that. The drink I mean.-

Tala grunted. I’m not really sure what the market for it would be, aside from us. We certainly don’t have the money to pay to develop something like that just for our own use.

-True enough. We could at least ask the Culinary guild at some point.-

Yeah, that couldn’t hurt. Wait… Don’t you have full access to their Archival records?

-Yes, but that only contains the overarching information. From what I can tell local prices and availability aren’t recorded in the Archive.-

Ah, fair enough.

Tala packed everything back away–unnecessarily, given that Kit would have done it–and did a twisting stretch, relishing in how far her joints moved and with how much ease.

“Terry. Ready to go?”

Terry lifted his head from the corner where he slept. He let out a grunting squawk and lowered it back down once again. Then, he flickered to Tala’s shoulder, maintaining his body positioning.

“All right. Let’s go.”

Tala came out into Lyn’s house, leaving the bright, spring-sunlit home behind and stepping into the dark of winter morning.

She heard Kannis moving slowly about within Tala’s old room, and Tala quickly grabbed Kit from the wall and fled.

She and the mageling had crossed paths quite a few times, but they’d still never acknowledged their previous relationship at the Academy. Or lack thereof.

Tala was becoming increasingly certain that Kannis remembered her, too, and had just chosen not to say anything either. She’d probably taken a cue from Tala’s own actions.

Lyn had been extra busy over the last week, so Tala had barely seen the woman. Even so, they’d said their good-byes the night before.

Tala managed to get all the way out of the house and close the door, locking it behind her, before Kannis came out of her room, if the sound was any indication.

Tala let out a long relieved breath. Good, I escaped!

-Yes, you have successfully escaped from someone who happens to have known you for longer than a couple of months and bears you no ill will. How did you manage it? How would you have coped with failure?-

You know, sometimes I don’t like you.

-I am you.-

Oh, I am well aware of that.

Tala took her ease, walking through Bandfast’s snowy streets. She’d be gone for about three weeks, if all went well, and she was enjoying the last look for the time being.

She stepped through Holly’s workshop door, stood there for a moment, waved to the assistant, and then immediately departed. Tala had made it a habit to drop through each morning, to give her inscriber one last set of information to add to her records until Tala’s return.

Her feet led her to the work yard, where Mistress Odera was already awaiting her atop their cargo-wagon, and if the spread before her was any indication, food was ready and waiting.

Tala climbed up, greeting her overseer. “Mistress Odera, good morning!”

“Good morning, Mistress Tala. Good morning, Alat.”

-Good morning.- As usual, Alat could only speak into Tala’s head, so Tala conveyed the sentiment. “She says good morning.”

Alat always conveyed a mix of emotions at the greeting. Mistress Odera greeted her as a separate person, which seemed to fascinate Alat. -I am not a separate person, but still I enjoy the greeting.-

And yet, Mistress Odera never gave Alat the moniker of “Mistress.”

-I know I don’t have a keystone, nor a gate of my own…but I am you, and you are me. So, shouldn’t I be thought of as a Mage as well?-

Tala shook her head, leaving her alternate interface to her musings as she finished the very short climb and stood up on the roof.

Mistress Odera gestured to the trays laid out before her. There were so many that Tala knew that the woman had to have transported them in her own, small, dimensional storage.

Around each tray, Tala could see a bit of Mistress Odera’s magic, keeping the dishes warm and the air perfectly conditioned to maintain the exact perfect texture for each given dish.

“Chicken-fried steak with sausage gravy.” The older woman was pointing to the far-right covered tray, then moved her finger over to indicate each in turn. “Then, we have a selection of seed, nut, and dried-fruit breads with ample butter. A selection of fruits, fresh from the growing chambers. A dozen pastries of various kinds, and finally, a thick slab of honey-roasted ham.”

Tala bowed before sitting. “Thank you, Mistress. This is a fantastic spread. Thank you for transporting it down here for us. Well, for me.”

Mistress Odera simply smiled in return. The older Mage had taken Holly’s recommendation to heart and had significantly increased the amount of food that she facilitated during their breakfasts.

As Tala devoured and Mistress Odera nibbled, they chatted about the previous day’s and that morning’s training and reading.

People were moving around, below them in the work yard, adding last minute items to the two wagons that would soon depart.

The oxen shifted in their harnesses, causing the leather and wood to creak.

Passengers were loading up as well, and soon enough, the whole caravan would be ready to depart.

The time for their meeting with the heads of the caravan guards and the drivers was drawing near, and Tala moved around to charge the cargo-slots for the morning. While she worked, she glanced at Mistress Odera and asked a very impertinent question. “How is the iron Archon star coming?”

Mistress Odera hesitated before smiling slightly. “I have not succeeded, but I did not imagine that this would be an easy task. I did discover something fascinating, however.”

Tala didn’t interrupt.

“I cannot enact magics on the iron. No one can. But, I can get power to move through the iron.”

Tala hesitated, before moving her hand to the last charging point. “Magic can’t pass through iron either.”

“No, child, not through the iron. Through the iron.”

She grunted, charging the last cargo-slot before she turned and sat. “You aren’t making any sense.”

“If you walk through a crowd, are you actually going through any of the people that make up the crowd?”

“No.” She instantly understood. “So, you are moving magic around the iron, within the iron object.”

Mistress Odera cackled slightly before tapping her own nose. “Precisely. I was almost a void Mage, but the teachers at the Academy advised against it.” She sighed wistfully. “ ‘We are but empty space, thinking itself full.’ ”

Tala swallowed, paling slightly beneath her iron and under her illusion. That sort of fundamental understanding could have terrifying results.

-I wish we could see it at work.-

I know, right? “So, what happened?”

Mistress Odera shrugged. “It was deemed too reckless a foundation, and I was encouraged towards building another. I like mine well enough, now. ‘That which flows can never be broken.’ ”

How have we never asked about her foundational understanding? Why do her understandings sound so much…better than ours?

-Never came up? We also were much more focused on the foundation itself than on a cool wording for it. We could fix that?-

No… it’s not important.

“But that is beside the point, Mistress Tala. I can move power through, or rather around, the iron. The medium isn’t air, there isn’t air for the power to move through, not throughout most of the iron. Thus, I haven’t determined how to adjust the working, but I will soon enough.”

Tala was considering the implications, when Alat voiced them aloud, well within Tala’s head. -That really puts the iron sphere trials into perspective.-

Yeah, and renders them as little more than pale imitations. Can you imagine the delicacy required? She’s not even Bound!

Rane called up to them, interrupting Tala’s thoughts, and they knew that their time that morning had passed.

Mistress Odera had put the dishes away in her dimensional storage as Tala had cleared them of food, so there was nothing left atop the wagon but the two women.

They climbed down, greeted Rane, and went to have a final conference with the heads of this caravan venture.

Thus began what was an entirely ordinary, boring trek across the winter plains.

Few things of note stood out during the outbound leg of the venture.

First, Rane and Tala discussed their progress in Fusing, in-depth.

It was the first night, and Tala and Rane sat across a table from each other, out under the clear, starry sky.

Most everyone else was huddled inside, either asleep or finding some means of entertainment. The guards were, of course, on guard, but only a few were out and about.

Rane was grumpily drinking from a steaming tankard. “I can feel it. Almost like a counter in my head, though not so concrete. The closer I get to truly being Fused, the more power it takes to move ahead. I feel like I’m trying to push a boulder up an increasingly steep road, and ahead, it looks more like a vertical cliff-face.”

Tala grunted her condolences. “Master Jevin did warn that there would be some price to pay for your easier early advancement.”

Rane grimaced, taking another long pull. “Still, it’s frustrating. I feel like I’m so close, but I can also feel that unless my power density is higher, I’ll never be able to force it that last little bit.”

“So, magical weight training?”

He snorted a laugh. “That sounds like I’m using my power to move around heavy objects.”

She grinned in return. “True enough. I mean, you are doing what you can to up your magical weight.”

“Yeah. I spend hours every day, filled to the brim and drawing in more, forcibly keeping the power away from my scripts and forcing it to stay within me. I’m not good at guiding my power. It’s definitely cross-quadrant work, and I hate it.” He growled. “It’s like knowing a bear will eat my left hand if it moves even slightly, and a swarm of wasps will enshroud my right with stingers if it ever stops moving. The feeling is awful.”

“Any good progress?”

“Progress? Yes. Good progress?” He scowled. “ ‘These things take time, Rane.’ Master Grediv thinks this path is working. I should be able to Fuse within a year if I’m consistent in my training. Two on the outside.”

Tala gave a soft whistle. “I’m sorry, Rane. That sounds… unpleasant.”

“Let me guess. You’re done? If I switch on my mage-sight, will I be seeing yellow?”

“Hardly.” She let out her own long breath, pulling her mug of hot buttered rum towards herself. It was delicious, but it was also her fifth such drink. The richness of the beverage was starting to get to her, so she only took a single, slow sip. “There’s something wrong, honestly. The process is slowing for me, too, and it wasn’t precisely quick and easy to begin with.”

Rane cocked his head to one side, listening.

“Don’t get me wrong, Alat is still making it go way faster than it would be moving if I was just Fusing as a subconscious process, but things are slowing down noticeably.”

“Has anyone given you any advice or thoughts about why that might be?”

Tala hunched in on herself, taking a longer pull from the alcoholic drink. Not that it will do anything to me… “Apparently, my soul is in turmoil about something, and my spirit is deeply unsettled. That’s making the act of fusing them to my body…difficult.”

-Hence, why I want to talk through your upcoming encounter.-

Rane nodded sagely, foam on his upper lip. “Your family.”

Tala groaned. “You too?”

He frowned. “Could it be anything else?”

“Arcane.”

Rane paused at that, then shrugged. “Why not both?”

Tala snorted a derisive laugh. “Oh, yes. I’m visiting my estranged family, and there’s some arcane messing with my head, but wait, there’s more!” She rubbed at her temples in irritation. “There aren’t high level Archons free to ‘babysit’ me over what amounts to a low chance of an encounter.”

Jenna had been clear on that: Tala should not expect any back-up near at hand if the arcane showed up. Tala hoped that it was a lie, meant to help lure the creature out in case it had some way of reading her mind from afar, but she didn’t have any evidence to back up that hope. It wouldn’t work if there were any…

Rane patted her wrist. “That’s rough, buddy.”

Tala snorted another laugh, but this one left her smiling. “Buddy?”

He shrugged. “I’m not really good at this sort of thing. I’m offering comfort?”

Tala grinned. “Fair enough. Comfort received. Thank you.”

He lifted his mug and tilted it her way before taking a drink. “Any time, Tala. Anytime.”