Millennial Mage

Tala walked into Mistress Holly’s back room, and the Inscriptionist didn’t even look up from the slate she was studying.

The woman pointed toward a side table with a mug on it, “Coffee?”

Tala shrugged and walked over. “Thank you, sure.”

She picked up the mug and found it empty.

Frowning, Tala turned towards the woman and found her glaring.

“So, you have fully regressed, have you? Not just a one time thing?”

Tala felt her eye twitch. “I’ve only had a few cups of coffee. That is hardly regressing.”

Mistress Holly set her slate aside and rubbed her own temples with two fingers on each side, closing her eyes in frustration. “Mistress Tala. Your body is being slowly torn apart by your soul, which it is Fused to. It’s a cascading effect. Caffeine is a poison. The fact that it’s too low a dosage to kill you outright is meaningless, it isn’t doing good things to you, and it is pushing you in the wrong direction.”

Tala bristled, and Alat provided her with the exact information, which Tala used to push back. “I’ve had a total of twelve cups in the last week. That is hardly an issue. I’ve had more sugar than caffeine.”

“Ahh, yes. I was going to discuss that with you as well.”

Her eye twitched again. “What?”

“There are a long list of things that people eat that you’re going to need to avoid until you Refine. I hope you’ve enjoyed your little bender this last week.”

“Bender? Are you serious? I’ve been refilling my stores. One of the core parts of that is calories.”

“Yes, you’ve been getting by with whatever calories you can find, but you have multiple, wonderfully balanced sources of calories and nutrients. Your sanctum foods are specifically designed for you, for that exact purpose, and you aren’t utilizing that resource at all. Additionally, you should still have a stock of meals from the Culinary Guild, and even if you didn’t, you could get some without question.”

Tala opened her mouth, then closed it sullenly. She had been indulging a bit in the last week. Arcane food had been good in its own way, but the flavors weren’t quite the same, the ratios of spices balanced differently, and she had been glorying in the tastes of home. But that’s hardly a bender…

-She’s obviously being extreme to get your attention.-

Oh, I know, but it still irritates me…

“But, we can address that as part of the holistic approach. I have your updated scripts. Given your density, and extenuating circumstances, this will be the last set.”

“Do I need to drain those I already have?”

“No, no. I’ll be adding some connections, a few offshoots, and sub-workings. I anticipated something like these in the previous design, I just hadn’t figured out and perfected exactly what they would need to be.”

“Were the consultations helpful?”

“With the other experts?” Mistress Holly gave her an odd look. “Of course, that’s why I sought them out.”

Tala suppressed a smile at the woman’s obvious incredulity at having to answer such a question. “So, how long will I need these updated scripts before we can perform the Refining?”

“Well, with your magical density and other quirks, I suspect we could make the inscriptions set sufficiently to work in a few days, if we pushed it.” Before Tala could get too excited, the Inscriptionist continued, “But that won’t be the deciding factor, timewise. As you well know, your Refining will be trickier. Several of those experts will be coming, and we’re going to have to modify the process for your… unique aspects.”

“Ah. And how long will that take?”

“We believe we’ll have it ready within a month, but we won’t rush. The proper solution is worth whatever amount of time it takes. We could permanently cripple you, or effectively so. If we decide it needs your remaining decade for research, I expect you to accept that verdict and keep yourself safe and undamaged until then.”

Tala grimaced but didn’t argue. “Fine. I will… I will listen to you and the other experts.”

A small smile pulled at Mistress Holly’s lips. “You’ve matured, haven’t you?”

Tala gave her a flat look, not letting herself twitch at the unintentional reference to her advancement in the arcane system.

By their measure, Tala was ‘Mature,’ and that reminder made her want to grit her teeth.

She didn’t.

She didn’t even let herself consider it.

Not one bit. “I just came from a place where being disrespectful or pointlessly obstinate could get me killed.”

“Ahh, yes. That would do it, I suppose. It’s a shame that such training tactics aren’t widely accepted in these parts.”

She gave the older Archon an incredulous look. “Really?”

Mistress Holly shrugged. “Effective is effective, and it’s sad when an effective tool is taken from our collective toolbox.” She hesitated for a moment. “Not the killing, of course, simply the harsh measures to ensure proper decorum and respect.”

That made too much sense to Tala, though she wasn’t sure if that was because it was actually logical, or if her time away had distorted her sense of how things should be and what was reasonable.

That made Tala a bit uncomfortable, so she decided to get back on topic.

“So, get my inscriptions altered here, change my eating until this process is complete, and Refine in a month or so in the best case?”

“Yes, that is the plan as I’ve just outlined it.”

Tala sighed. “Honestly, why bother?”

“Excuse me?”

“Why does it really matter? Sure, if we used the standard process, it would move me away from human, but I’m hardly a standard specimen of humanity anymore.”

Mistress Holly uncharacteristically pulled a stool over and sat down. “We have no idea what it would actually do to you. On the simple side, it could kill you, instantly.”

Tala blinked at that. “I didn’t think that was a possibility.”

“It’s not really likely, but it is possible. Aside from that, it would almost certainly sterilize you, likely irreparably so. It could block you from the higher ranks as well, depending on exactly what happened, even if you didn’t die. More than that, it could alter your mind, your thoughts, your very self to the point that you wouldn’t really be ‘you’ anymore.”

Tala opened her mouth and closed it several times, considering. “That… that is a lot worse than I really considered.”

Mistress Holly huffed a laugh. “Master Jevin wears it well, but he is the best outcome of such an error in Refining. There is a reason why none of us are willing to risk it on your behalf.”

“Alright. Let’s get it done, then.”

“Iron out, please.”

Tala grimaced. “Can’t I just move it into the dimensions of magic?”

Mistress Holly gave her an incredulous look. “Where do you think my needles pass through to bypass your flesh, dear?”

“Ah…” Well, that was good to know, actually. “Wait, doesn’t that mean that I didn’t need to remove iron from my skin for earlier inscriptions?”

“Iron, even in the physical dimensions, interferes with magic in the same area. They probably would have worked, at least much of the time, but they would have worn out faster, and there would always be the chance of simply shattering a needle, sending the shards into your flesh as the needle’s magics broke and the metal fragmented like shatter tipped arrows.”

Tala blanched. “Well,”—she paused to swallow nervously—“I’m very glad we didn’t test that, then.”

“Quite.”

She nodded once more and forcefully moved all her non-biological iron down and out, forming a rough cube on the floor beside her.

I’m not abandoning it. It’s mine still. I’m just using it right there… as a cube… Stay.

Tala was actually pretty proud of that shape as it was something she would have struggled to make even a week earlier.

Rane offered to give me some pointers on sculpting the iron, and Master Cazor likely would have some good insights on iron specifically.

-Those are probably good avenues to pursue to improve our manipulation of the material.-

Over the last week, they’d learned that Alat was able to affect the iron as well, so long as Tala wasn’t doing so already. Additionally, Alat benefited from Tala’s training as if she’d done it herself, so that was incredibly useful.

Once they could spar again, they both thought it could be quite useful to have Alat control the iron more directly and leave Tala free of that detail and distraction.

Mistress Holly brought over the auto-inscriber. It was her current primary project, the culmination of years, if not decades, of research and experimentation. Even so, the Archon seemed less pleased than she usually was when handling her invention.

Tala thought she understood. “The reinscriber is amazing, but it can’t make changes, Mistress Holly. This is a more versatile tool.”

“Of course, dear. I know that.” Even so, Mistress Holly seemed to perk up a bit, a small smile pulling at her lips. “Shall we?”

Tala sighed and nodded, slipping the hedgehog skin like device on before retracting her elk leather, leaving her naked and unprotected under the covering of the magical device.

“Let’s begin.”

* * *

While the inscription process with the auto-inscriber was even less pleasant than Tala remembered, it was much more palatable than using the reinscriber.

-That was a terrible pun.-

Hush you. You don’t have to experience the inscription process if you don’t want to. I’m stuck with living through it.

-And I am grateful that you maintain my inscriptions so diligently.-

Alat had discovered something that should have been obvious to them both. The alternate interface didn’t have to experience or access anything that she didn’t wish to.

They both knew that every memory she didn’t access would move her further from Tala, both in personality and experience wise, but they were already diverging, and neither of them really minded.

They functioned more as a team than as two parts of one individual, and they both enjoyed their role within that team.

The decision to allow Alat’s continued divergence was helped when Alat figured out that every physical sensation she denied herself from feeling tended to push her further from ever wanting a physical form at all. It was like over dramatizing a fear of something. Every over-the-top act caused the underlying fear to grow.

Every time Alat refused to experience something physical, all physical things became less appealing to her.

Tala refocused on the moment and opened her eyes as the device was loosened around her.

With a flex of will, her elk leathers grew outward, forming clothing incredibly quickly. I should reform my scale vest. That’s a good defense to have, especially as vulnerable as I am right now.

-Add it to the list?-

Yes, please.

The auto-inscriber came off just after her elk leathers re-covered her, and she smiled at Mistress Holly. “Thank you.”

The woman grunted back as she moved the device back to its holder.

The difference to Tala’s magic was subtle but noticeable, since she was looking for it.

The closest thing that she could compare the sensation to was from back when she’d just been learning how to do pushups.

She’d thrown herself through the motions, unwittingly only strengthening parts of the muscle with the jerky motions. When a teacher had finally gotten her to listen and Tala had slowed down, she’d discovered that the middle portion of the motion was much harder because she hadn’t been practicing it. Once she got used to doing the exercise properly, the strength had filled in more uniformly.

Her magic felt like that, as if the ‘middle bits’ had finally been filled in, and her power was now acting smoothly through complete actions rather than just pointing in the direction she wanted and shooting power out in the hopes of accomplishing the task.

It wasn’t the greatest analogy, but it made sense to her.

-That’s because you’ve been exercising so much recently. Of course that is the first frame of reference you turn to.-

Yeah, that’s probably fair. Even so, it doesn’t really make sense to draw an analogy to something else esoteric that I’ve been trying to grasp.

-This is like an automata given five fingers rather than two. It’s not able to do more, necessarily, but it is able to do the same things better.-

Tala smirked to herself. It’s like the Doman-Imithe, given centuries without magic eroding Zeme on the other side to recover. It’s not any more coherent, but it still provides a better backing to reality.

-That was a bit of a stretch.-

I did say that it wasn’t a good idea to try to analogize one odd subject with another.

-Fair, fair.-

It’s like learning that the fighting style you’ve been using for years has another form, filled with all sorts of more advanced techniques?

-Yeah, that’s a good comparison.-

Mistress Holly cleared her throat, and Tala blinked, returning her attention to the woman.

The inscriber was standing, one eyebrow raised in obvious impatience. “Are you quite done with your internal conversation?”

“I am,” Tala said sheepishly.

“Incidentally, that is another reason such alternate interfaces are not as common as they might otherwise be. There is an incredible danger of falling into the habit of only talking to yourself, and since the ability and penchant toward working with yourself is required to begin with, the natural safeguards one might assume would be in place in such a situation simply don’t exist.”

“I will keep that in mind, Mistress Holly.”

“If it becomes too much, I can alter the inscriptions to remove the capacity for independent personality.”

-That rusting—-

Tala spoke before Alat could finish the thought, “What would that even do?”

“It would make it so your consciousness, at the moment you wished a secondary task to be accomplished, would duplicate, accomplish that task before remerging with you. There would be no true separation, no divergence of experience or personage.”

Tala shook her head. “I don’t see myself wanting that.”

Mistress Holly shrugged. “It’s your mind, dear.”

Tala frowned at that. “You know, I don’t remember you testing if this was a good idea before doing it.”

“Every note ever made about you screamed that this was possible for you.”

She colored, feeling embarrassment rising within her.

“Additionally, it was one of two paths, due to your pre-existing consciousness restoration scripts. Your own mind chose this path, and I saw no reason to prevent it or revert it once it happened.”

“Oh… I suppose that makes sense.”

“Now, I’ve granted you access to an extensive set of guidelines to curb your more self-destructive tendencies and help you avoid bad influences.”

She frowned remembering the kind assistant who had brought her coffee. “You aren’t going to discipline Mistress Emersen for offering me coffee, are you?”

Mistress Holly huffed. “Of course not, child. I specifically asked her to do so. I needed to get another data point on your mental state, and that was the least intrusive way I could easily come up with.”

Tala really didn’t know how to feel about that.

“We’re done. I’ll let you know when I know more, or if we need anything else.”

She nodded and left without another word.

Ironically, Tala now knew Bandfast much better than she had before being taken, just from a week of long walks. She used that knowledge to take a much more scenic, if slightly longer, path back to Lyn’s house.

When she had almost arrived, Alat grabbed her attention. -Mistress Elnea is ready to come out again.-

Without hesitation, Tala walked to the closest blank wall and placed Kit as a door against it, opening the portal and letting the Archon out.

The woman’s recent, perpetual smile was still in evidence as she came out and thanked Tala. Mistress Elnea didn’t stick around as she’d already given Tala and Alat access to a detailed accounting of what she’d done and learned.

She asks for access nearly every day.

-She keeps getting good information.-

Oh, absolutely.

The older Archon was a fantastic resource that Tala knew wouldn’t be available to her long term.

They’d made progress in modifying teleportation scripts to work with a dimensionally segregated space.

It turned out that it was a line of research that had been explored on occasion. Early caravans had brought an emergency retreat wagon on every venture, and those mobile scripts had been expanded to work with expanded spaces, which were not locationally fixed.

The real issue was power and material costs. Additionally, the variations made them incompatible with the modern teleportation towers. So, they needed to create a single location for Tala’s circles to connect with.

All of this was problematic for a dozen reasons. It looked like it would happen eventually, but likely not for a month or two at the very earliest.

But that was neither here nor there for the moment.

Tala continued on her way, holding Kit in her hands and gently topping off its reserves, as she thought. “I feel I know so little about you, little Kit. We’ve helped each other at every turn, but will it last? Will you decide you’re done with me, and just eat everything?”

She didn’t think so, but there was always that possibility.

Just like a person could always decide they’re done with me and leave.

-That’s why trust is so important. Kit has been trustworthy, and I believe that you’ve treated Kit in the same manner.-

That did help.

She hung Kit back on her belt. Tonight wasn’t for such bleak thoughts, however.

Lyn had apparently learned some new card game, and she wanted to teach it to Tala and Rane.

Tala opened the door to Lyn’s house, able to hear her friends already chatting amicably inside.

Tonight is not about mysteries and concerns for the future.

No. Tonight was a time for friends.