Millennial Mage

Tala was sitting in one of the three chairs in Lyn’s sitting room, reading an illusory book, while Lyn and Kannis each read physical books.

Kannis’ seemed to be a dry text, by her demeanor. She was also taking a lot of notes as she read, which added to the impression that it was a book read out of obligation rather than for enjoyment.

Though, to be fair, I take notes on my favorite books, too…

-Her face says, ‘This is a chore to read.’-

There is that.

Lyn had been alternatively laughing and tilting her head in obvious thought. First, it moved one way, then the other, often accompanied by exhalations of interest or surprise.

She also seemed to be mouthing certain sentences, occasionally.

Truth be told, Tala wasn’t really reading. Instead, she was surreptitiously watching her friend because something fascinating was happening.

Lyn was Fusing.

Upon Tala’s return, Lyn had been barely a few steps above Bound, but it had been progressing rather well. Now, as Tala watched, the woman’s aura color was noticeably sliding from red further and further towards orange, and Lyn didn’t even seem to have noticed.

She was nearly all the way to true orange.

-This is fascinating. It’s sort of like when you confronted your family.-

But she’s just reading a book! This is ridiculous, Alat. How can reading a book be causing her to Fuse? How is that fair? Tala felt a bit petulant, but it did seem rather unequal.

-Well, first of all, you know that some Fuse the moment they become Bound, so this is far slower and less convenient than that. Second, her foundation is ‘words are power.’ Are you really surprised that reading can help her advance?-

But she’s been reading since we both became Bound. Why now?

-When she hits a pause point, or better yet, when she finishes Fusing, why not ask her? Besides, you can see the fluctuations in her magic as easily as I can. She’s doing something more than just reading, and you know it.-

Tala grimaced, then sighed to herself. Fine.

She returned her attention to her book but made sure to focus a mirrored perspective on her friend, so that she could analyze what was happening more, later.

Nearly an hour later, Lyn seemed to reach the end of her book.

The older Archon let out a long breath, speaking to herself, “Well, that was truly amazing. I can’t say that I—”

Lyn gasped, arching backwards as power blossomed out of her.

It was instantly contained, channeled, and redirected back into Lyn’s body, but both the power and Lyn’s sudden movements were obvious.

Kannis yelped, closing her book and notebook and setting them aside, but before the girl could interfere, Tala held up a hand. “Wait. Open your magesight but do nothing else.”

Kannis hesitated, but after that barest of pauses, she nodded and complied.

Tala quirked a smile at her obedience and didn’t comment further.

A moment later, Lyn slumped down, groaning.

Just like the method of Fusing varied from person to person, the manner and experience of it did as well.

I can’t believe that I had to painstakingly crochet my very being together and some people just get to read a book…

Lyn sat up, covered in a cold sweat. “Oh, my. That was… that was intense.”

“Good book?” Tala gave her friend a falsely patronizing smile.

The older woman huffed a laugh. “Quite insightful, yes.”

“Clearly.”

“That’s not what I… Well, I suppose so. It was on the nature of power, non-magical power specifically. It had rather detailed, rational treatises on why certain people lead, why humanity as a whole is drawn towards certain decisions, and things like that.”

“And that helped you Fuse?”

Lyn’s eyes flicked to Kannis, and she frowned. “We can discuss that later, Tala. Kannis, can you tell me what you observed?”

Right… still hiding things from non-Archons… It did make sense, and she’d been foolish to disregard that. Kannis was still of a stage where the wrong information could spoil her potential for advancement, after all.

“Have you seen those mechanical sewing machines?” The girl still seemed a bit shaken by her master’s sudden movement, but she also seemed to be settling into question and answer mode.

“I have.” Lyn nodded.

“Well, it looked like your magic, your power, was working like one of those automated needles but an uncountable number of them, all over your body. I don’t know what it was stitching, but it seems like it did the work quickly and thoroughly.”

Huh, so she did have to do something similar?

-Yes, Tala. She had to Fuse in some manner to become Fused.-

Hush, you.

“Very good, Kannis. I am glad that you had the presence of mind to watch so closely.”

Kannis turned and bowed towards Tala. “Thank you, Mistress Tala, for the suggestion.”

Tala shrugged. “Sure. Some things are really helpful to see for yourself, even if you don’t have the context yet.”

Lyn sighed. “That was… surprisingly exhausting. Even with mental enhancements, splitting my concentration like that was a bit much.” She looked to Tala. “I don’t understand how you do it.”

“Practice? I’m always thinking of a few dozen things.”

-No, you simply don’t force yourself to stay on task. The most you manage, not including what I am working on, is two thoughts at any given time. From there, you simply allow whatever those two thoughts are to bounce around randomly and unhelpfully.-

I… huh. I suppose I didn’t really think about that.

Lyn simply grunted and shook her head. “I need to get some sleep. I’ll see you both tomorrow?”

Kannis bowed to her master. “Yes, Mistress Lyn. I hope you rest well.”

“Thank you, Kannis, you too.”

“Night, Lyn.”

“Goodnight, Tala.”

Lyn went to the back, and Tala stood. “Well, I should get some sleep too. Goodnight, Kannis.”

“Goodnight, Mistress Tala.”

Tala had tried to get the mageling to drop the honorific, but she hadn’t tried that hard. Honestly, Tala didn’t care enough to deal with it.

Thus, without delay, Tala tossed Kit at the nearest wall and stepped inside her sanctum, into her bedroom.

Her bed caught her a moment later as she flopped down, and Alat facilitated an almost instant falling into blissful sleep.

* * *

Tala had about ten seconds of notice as the structure of reality shifted nearby.

It would have been utterly undetectable to her, if Alat hadn’t been practicing with the use of voidsight.

The alternate interface began freaking out, drawing Tala’s attention quite quickly.

She’d slept well and spent the rest of the night productively. At that moment the disturbance began to build, Tala had been in her dining area, eating some well balanced snacks.

Tala lunged to her feet, Flow snicking into her hand even as it extended into the form of a void-sword.

She pointed the tip at the bit of reality that was shifting into being.

To her surprise, when it manifested, it was Kit’s door that appeared in her dining area.

There was an odd shivering through the sanctum, similar to a stubborn dog being forced into obedience.

What is happening?

The door swung open, and Master Xeel stood there, one eyebrow raised. “Did we not have an appointment?”

Tala’s posture was perfect in her fighting stance, and her sword was leveled at the man’s chest.

He didn’t seem to care in the slightest. “I knocked, but I sensed that you hadn’t heard.” The man narrowed his gaze and panned his gaze around the doorway, staring at the only part of Kit that existed in reality proper. “I could also sense that your… sanctum was muffling the sound, so shouting would have done no good.”

Lyn leaned out from behind the man. “I’m sorry, Tala. I’d thought you said you had an appointment with him, so I let him in the house. He did knock on your door, but then magic just started pouring off of him.”

Master Xeel glanced back at the newly Fused. “It’s quite alright, Mistress Lyn. I am sorry for disturbing you. A woman in your condition should get all the rest she can.” He hesitated at that. “Ah, I meant a newly Fused Archon should get all the rest that you can.”

Lyn had colored at the implication, but simply nodded in response to his clarification.

“Mistress Tala and I have many things to discuss, and I will not harm her or her items.” After a momentary pause, he tilted his head to one side, regarding Tala. “May I come in?”

“Of course.” Tala gestured, allowing Flow to return to its knife form even as she sheathed it.

-He’s early. It’s before sunrise, even if it is winter.-

The appointment wasn’t for sunrise.

-No, but it was for the hour, and so, he’s still four minutes early.-

Master Xeel stepped inside and closed the door, giving Lyn a little wave goodbye as it swung shut.

The door vanished with an audible pop, which startled Tala as it was the only time she could ever remember hearing Kit make a change. She didn’t bother searching her memory though so she might be mistaken.

“My apologies, Mistress Tala.” Master Xeel turned back towards her and gave a shallow bow. “I despise being late, and in this case, I did not consider the oddities that I might cause by arriving early.”

“Oh, it’s quite alright, Master Xeel. Please, come in.”

You’re already here, so it doesn’t really matter anyways.

She gestured to one of the two more comfortable chairs. “Can I get you some tea?”

“Thank you for the offer, but I carry my own repast.” He took a seat and with an odd sense of unveiling, a tray appeared in his lap with a scrumptious selection of fruits, vegetables, breads, and even some meat which seemed to still be sizzling. “Can I offer you some breakfast? It isn’t magically attuned to you, of course,”—he gave her a friendly, knowing smile—“but it is exquisite for mundane food.”

“I’d love some, thank you.” She sat and watched a similar unfurling of reality on her own lap, leaving her with a platter of food all her own. It was obviously a larger quantity than Master Xeel had given himself. “Thank you.”

“But of course.”

They spent a few minutes enjoying the food.

From her observations, most—if not all—of the powerful people Tala had met seemed at once both incredibly crunched for time, and utterly unconcerned with moments of quiescence.

It was Tala who broke the silence. “Have you ever seen a Reality beast?”

His eyes flicked to her as he finished his latest bite, pulling a cup from thin air to drink and wash the remainder free before banishing the cup once more. “You do like to get to the meat of things, don’t you?”

“It seems one of the more pressing topics available to us.”

“I’d have thought that the Doman-Imithe would hold that distinction for you, but I can see the overlap. The answer to your question is ‘Yes.’ Do you have any specific questions about them, or were you just curious if I’d had an encounter?” His small smile revealed which he thought it to be.

“Questions, definitely questions.”

“Then, by all means proceed.” He gestured for her to continue.

“What are they? How is ‘reality’ a type of magic? Does it hurt reality when they die?”

Master Xeel nodded. “All excellent questions. We’ll start with the last one. Does it harm ‘fire’ when a burn wolf dies or a hearth is banked?”

Tala frowned. She hadn’t considered it in that light. “No, of course not.”

“Precisely. Magical beasts of reality add more to the world, and their loss isn’t ideal, but it is also unavoidable at times. But to be clear in my answer: When they die, reality is not directly harmed, no.”

“Why isn’t their loss ideal, and how is it unavoidable?”

“Well, they add to reality simply by existing. They stabilize Zeme and help continue the work of stabilizing our existence. When they are lost, we lose another stop-gap which had been ensuring our continued survival. As to why it’s unavoidable? They hate humanity, and all forms of magic other than their own.”

“Because we erode reality, which is what they are oriented around.”

“Precisely.” He popped a slice of strawberry into his mouth and then spoke around it. “But all magic does, erode reality I mean. It’s what magic is, an altering or stretching or bending of reality. Whether we add matter to existence or shift a fundamental law towards our own ends, magic is a breaking of reality, definitionally.”

“That seems… bad?”

He laughed. “Yes and no. Playing at the oceanside and building sandcastles are a fundamental breaking of the beach and the sand. The creatures who live in the sand—and who function within the ecosystems therein—might not like it, but there’s no danger, so long as it isn’t abused.”

“But Zeme is abused.”

“Oh, quite thoroughly, yes.”

There was another pause there as they both ate another few bites.

Tala found herself distracted by just how good the food was, but she drew her mind back to the matters at hand.

“Where do they come from?”

“That is an excellent question.” He once again washed his latest bite with a bit of whatever he had in his fleeting mug. “Reality beasts come into being as something of an immune response. It’s a fascinating process, really. They are birthed into reality, by reality. Like with magical beasts in general, sometimes mundane creatures are uplifted; rarely arcane creatures are well enough aligned with our world to be so changed. Somewhere between those two in rarity, creatures are simply drawn into existence. My own theory is that they are beings of the Doman-Imithe, snatched and brought through, but I’ve never been able to prove it.”

“So, it’s just a guess then?”

“Let’s call it an educated guess, but yes it definitely qualifies as a guess.”

“What even is reality magic?”

He chuckled. “Aside from the obvious anti-magical applications?”

That stunned her for a moment. She hadn’t really considered that aspect of it. “Umm, yes, besides that.”

He gave a half smile, but didn’t comment on her hesitation. “That is another excellent question. It’s also a hard one to answer. In the extreme, some—like god-level reality beasts—can undo what magic has done, which sounds somewhat anticlimactic, until you realize that every bit of Zeme was slapped back together with magic. Thus, they can temporarily make where you’re standing cease to exist, and the fact that you go with it is a funny little perk. Zeme comes back, and you don’t.”

Tala opened her mouth, and it stayed that way for a long moment. “There was… there was a lot in that.”

“I know, right?” He smiled and took another bite.

She scrambled a bit to pick where to start before finally just going for it, “Reality gods?”

He shrugged. “A shorthand, so to speak. Think of those that are Transcendent or Sovereign level, or beyond.”

“Beyond… How are any of us still alive then?”

“Because the creatures are still animals. They have their domains, and they don’t have a drive to conquer or explore. Most hibernate for centuries at a time, and even then, they barely wake to roll over.”

Tala sat back, suddenly feeling the need for more bacon. Thankfully, she’d saved a few pieces, which she began to eat almost nervously.

“There are beasts of that level of all sorts of magic, if that makes you feel better.”

She gave him a level, unamused look. “Really? You think that would make me feel better?”

“No, I suppose not.” He cut off a bit of sausage and took a bite before speaking around the food once again. “But like with the Sovereigns, there is a sort of balance. If the reality gods got uppity, those of other magics would band together to keep them from breaking Zeme too badly. We’d likely not survive the clash, but it’s the potential clash that keeps us relatively safe, not the realization of it.”

When did he get out utensils? It really didn’t matter. “So, now that we have those existential terrors to add to my nightmares. I do actually have a couple of questions about the Doman-Imithe. The first one is rather simple: If the Doman-Imithe only exists behind Zeme, how can Archons come back from within the solar system but not from without? Shouldn’t the distinction be just around our planet?”

“That is actually a fascinating topic of study. We don’t have a definitive answer, but our best understanding is that we are all tied to Zeme, fundamentally. Not quite like a soul or magic bond, but something similar.”

Tala frowned, but didn’t interrupt.

“We don’t know if this is only for gated humans or for all beings who live on Zeme.”

That makes sense. If arcanes didn’t have this connection, their understanding of how it all worked would be vastly different, or it could just be varied experiences…

-Listen to the expert in front of you, Tala.-

Right, right.

“Now, the theory states that if that connection is stretched too far, such as by leaving the star system, it seems to break. If it hasn’t broken, a human returning will actually return to Zeme, rather than to the Doman-Imithe, even if looking back towards our world only shows the Doman-Imithe at any distance.”

“So, when approaching the fractured reality, human Archons are shunted towards the one they are linked to so long as that link isn’t severed?”

“Essentially, yes, that’s the theory. It’s obviously an oversimplification, but it is the prevalent notion.”

“What’s another one?”

He quirked a smile. “There are hundreds. But, the one I think is most likely is this: Reality is actually broken over a far wider volume, thus much further out than we generally realize. Specifically, it is cracked to the outer reaches of our star system, which is far, far further out than most can comprehend.”

Tala nodded, considering that.

“If someone leaves that area, they enter back into truly solid reality. That might kill them because their access to magic is severed, and space is a hostile place to be without magic. Something might be out there that eats them. There might even be some sort of barrier or dividing line that once you pass beyond it, it’s like going over the horizon, and you can no longer see any of this at all.” He gestured around himself with a bit of fruit on a fork. “The fracture, the damage to reality, is contained by reality to prevent the spread, so it is nearly impossible to return once one has gone past this theoretical horizon.”

“Like the mythical edge of the world?”

“In a sense, but on a more cosmic scale.”

“That’s interesting, but obviously hard to prove one way or another.”

“Yeah, who knows exactly what event caused all of this, so it’s hard to extrapolate exactly all the repercussions, even though we’re living among them.”

“It all seems a bit… much. Like, we have enough to deal with here, don’t we?”

“True, but if we could figure it out, we could take all of our people, all those we love, and just leave. As it stands, we don’t know if anyone can survive leaving at all.” He shrugged. “But you are correct, that is a long term issue.”

Tala took another careful bite. There were still so, so many questions to ask. She didn’t bother to hide her almost predatory grin. This is going to be a long morning.