Millennial Mage

Tala stood on her dais within Kit, preparing to be reinscribed as Mistress Holly observed.

She was also surrounded by a good handful of observation creations, which would be recording the whole process.

Honestly, Tala didn’t mind the artifacts; Mistress Holly had requested permission earlier, after all.

With nothing else for it, Tala held her arms out to the side and forcibly deactivated her toughening inscriptions. No need to make this thing work harder than it needs to.

She set her mental framework for a through-the-mouth reinscription. She was not interested in getting naked in front of Mistress Holly when there were other options.

The frameworks and preparations in place, she spoke the command, even though she could have simply thought it, “Reinscribe.”

Gold wire streamed out of the ground in a tight, intertwining bundle.

Silver and copper joined the gold, but in far smaller quantities.

As the wires approached her, they tightened in on themselves in order to slip between her teeth and flow down her esophagus before they branched out. At least, most of the metal went that way. Some split off within her mouth to replace the metal she’d used up from the inscriptions within her head.

Each other branch got smaller and smaller as it flowed through her, splitting and dividing to cover every inscription, every offshoot smaller, until each was the size needed. In some cases, that was so thin that she couldn’t have seen the filament even with her enhanced vision.

You know, that might not be true anymore. Her senses were even more enhanced now that she was Refined.

Still, it wasn’t worth interrupting the process to somehow find a way to check.

I still need to get a good handle on my increased perception.

The pain had come the moment the metal had begun to branch out, but it was more than manageable, especially with Alat helping to mask what little her body couldn’t ignore.

Thankfully, this wasn’t an inscription from a blank slate, so there shouldn’t be any agony in her soul or spirit, thus masking what pain there was shouldn’t build up to a backlash.

We hope.

-We’re pretty sure. Even if there is, it won’t be too bad.-

And then we’ll know.

-And then we’ll know.-

All across her body, the metal flowed into place beneath her skin and throughout her body, no part of her spared.

As it worked, Tala could somehow tell that the reinscriber struggled to move the material through her. Even without active power running her inscriptions, her body was enhanced to the point that it took a lot to cause her harm.

Now that she thought about it, reinscription might only be possible at all because Tala truly didn’t see the effect as harming her.

Arcane magics work much more on concept than I usually give them credit for.

-Yeah, I could very much see this not working for someone else of equivalent toughness because they thought it was harmful.-

After a short ten seconds or so, her inscriptions were reinforced, recovering the little metal that she’d used over the past weeks.

Thus, the process was complete.

Mistress Holly called her devices back to her even as she was nodding to herself.

Tala smiled, swallowing a bit of blood that had tried to leave her. “So? What do you think?”

“I think that my invention is not in danger in the least.”

She barked a laugh. “Yeah, I can’t imagine many Archons wanting to reinscribe this way, and fewer would have the healing scripts to allow it.”

“Precisely. Still, thank you for allowing me to observe so thoroughly. I think it will be… insightful to review the process at length.”

“I’m happy that I could help.”

“There is another method, correct?”

“Yes, I could have had the inscriptions come from the outside rather from within, but I thought that unnecessary.”

“Wouldn’t it have been less painful?”

“Absolutely, but I’d have had to strip down, and I’m tougher from the outside.”

“Ahh, yes. I can understand your choice, then.” Mistress Holly was nodding again. “I did notice that it even refreshed your new spell-lines, those that we added just before you Refined.”

“That is correct, yes. From my understanding, it reinscribes based on my knowledge of my inscriptions. It’s not that I have to know the placement of every line, but the process is founded on the concept of my knowledge. Therefore, if I know that there has been a change, the reinscription will reflect that.”

Mistress Holly tilted her head to one side. “That does seem to be the case. The operations manual you shared with me also agreed, as oddly put together as it was. Truly fascinating.”

“Do you need anything else on this front?”

“Oh, no. I have plenty to analyze for now. I’ll let you know when I want to see another demonstration.” There were obvious embers of curiosity and imagination in the inscriptionist’s eyes.

“That should be workable.”

They talked for a bit longer before they bid each other goodnight, exiting Kit side by side.

Within Mistress Holly’s workshop, the older woman turned to Tala. “Take care of yourself, Mistress. I know that I am not of as much use to you, now that you have that interesting bit of arcanum, but I am still invested in your continued success.”

“I will keep that in mind. Thank you.” After a moment’s hesitation, she gave a shallow bow. “And thank you for all of your assistance with my Refinement, and before that with my inscriptions. I wouldn’t be where I am without you.”

Mistress Holly smiled. “It has been my pleasure.”

Without further adieu, the inscriptionist went back to work, and Tala headed back to Lyn’s house to place Kit in the back hall for one more night.

As Tala walked back, she had a thought. You know, incorporated metal could work through the reinscriber.

-That would be insanely inefficient on a level I don’t even want to consider.-

Oh, absolutely, but it might be worth it to get gold, silver, and copper incorporators to have in case of emergency?

-I can’t imagine such inscriptions lasting even ten percent as long… but you’re right, it would be a good emergency stop gap… if it could even work.-

Yeah, I’d definitely understand if those materials didn’t quite work the same.

-Add it to the list?-

Yes please.

* * *

Tala stood at the edge of Bandfast before the dawn of a new day.

It was the true edge, not a place like the city gate.

The city defenses ended barely two strides ahead of where she stood in the growing dawn.

Her fingers were practically tingling with anticipation, as well as no small amount of trepidation.

She hadn’t been out of the city since Master Grediv had brought her to Bandfast nearly three months earlier.

More importantly, she hadn’t been away from other humans since she’d arrived in Alefast, Waning.

It’s okay. I can do this. A quiet part of her kept insisting that if she left, she’d be lost. He’s not waiting out there. He’s dead. I know he’s dead. I killed him.

-Tala? Are you going to be okay?- Alat’s voice was soft, soothing.

Yes. I can do this. I can be on my own. Tala forced herself to smile, feeling a little better even though the emotion started out as fake. This is just a short trip.

-Yeah, just a short trip. Besides, you have Master Simon, Mistress Petra, and their family with you. You aren’t alone.-

Right, right. She took another deep breath, glanced at the nearest guard tower, waved in case someone was somehow watching her, and walked forward.

And just like that, Tala deliberately, voluntarily stepped into the wilds on her own, for the first time.

Wait, this is the first time ever, isn’t it?

-I mean, in Alefast you went out to harvest endingberries.-

Right. That’s how Terry and I really got to know each other… speaking of which. She opened Kit. “Terry?”

Terry flickered forth, trilling at the sky as he stretched his vestigial wings outward and reached his beak toward the sky.

The majestic image was somewhat ruined by him perching on her shoulder and barely stretching up above her head, even while his left wing pushed against her face.

“Get off, you!” She flapped her left hand at him, even while she was laughing.

Terry chirped happily and flickered to stand beside her, now nearly her own height. He gave her an inquisitive look.

“I want to get an hour’s run, or two, from here and then do some experimenting.”

He squawked and took off, straight away from Bandfast.

Tala grinned and jogged after her avian friend, picking up speed as she got used to cross-country running once again.

They ran across the rolling hills, skirting copses of trees and avoiding the arcanous creatures that they could feel around them.

Terry seemed more interested in truly stretching his legs than in hunting for the moment, and Tala didn’t feel like needlessly slaughtering weaker creatures.

Thus, for those first two hours they simply ran, letting the sky lighten just behind them on the right.

She had to move slower than on her run back from the arcane lands despite two counteracting differences. First, the magical density here was generally lower, causing magical resonance to not come into play until a higher speed. Second, and far more important, her own magical weight had increased, reducing the speed required for detectable resonance even in the lower ambient magic.

Even with Master Grediv’s more efficient aura shape, she was still kept to a reasonable mundane running speed.

By the time it was a reasonable hour for breakfast, they’d gotten far enough from the city for Tala to safely test a few things.

She’d thought of doing these tests with Mistress Holly on watch, but her safety wasn’t really in question, here, and so the variability in possible results mostly included things that would be bad for those around her, and that was best done in the wilderness.

Having decided to stop, Tala first found a bald, slightly higher-than-average hill and reached the top without difficulty.

With that vantage, Tala could see the magic of Bandfast’s defenses, even if she couldn’t see the city itself.

It was probably within her ability to leap high enough to see it, but that wasn’t of interest to her at the moment.

She opened Kit, and after a brief exchange with Mistress Petra, Tala was able to pull out her breakfast tray.

She threw Terry a hunk of jerky that he flickered to catch before taking off into the surrounding hills, hunting for his own fare.

And likely continuing to stretch his legs. He’s been really confined with me lately. I’ve got to make sure to allow him the freedom that he needs.

The meal was easily up to Mistress Petra’s excellent standards.

The crowning feature of the breakfast was a laminated pastry with a hole cut down through the top layers. An egg had been baked—over-easy—in the resulting space, seasoned, and sprinkled with shavings of a hard cheese.

The result was stunningly excellent, and there were five of them for her.

By the end, as she finished the last of the side dishes, Tala even found herself pleasantly full.

She knew it wouldn’t last, but it was enjoyable, nonetheless.

Her body was quickly incorporating the calories and nutrients, and her power was siphoning the magics from the food and layering overtop of her inscriptions and natural pathways.

-Alright. Are you ready?-

Tala grinned. I am. I hope that we’re being overly cautious.

-Oh, definitely, but there’s no reason to set off the city’s defenses, or blow ourselves up around mundanes.-

You’re not making me feel confident. She quirked a smile, not about to let some joking pessimism stop her.

-We’ll be fine. Don’t worry about it.-

Tala huffed a laugh, tucking the now-empty tray back into Kit. Well, there’s no way that I’m not going to try this. So, better now than later.

With a flex of her will, she disabled her through-spike and called her iron from where it rested within the dimensions of magic around Flow and into her physical body. It obeyed with alacrity, rolling over her inscriptions and perfectly insulating them from the surrounding dimensions, leaving her body clear and uncontaminated.

There was an instant resonance through her power, as her magics felt almost like they had been folded over on top of themselves, gaining greater depth and stability.

Okay, even this is way better than when I was Fused.

-Agreed. This would build nicely, and I would expect… there.-

Almost immediately, the magical resonance caused inscriptions as fine and intricate as lace to spin into existence, seemingly carved with light into reality itself, surrounding her entirely.

Somehow, they didn’t block her vision, even though she could see the same effect manifesting before her eyes with her mirrored perspectives.

Now, the real test. She’d tried this before when she was already worn thin, and it had… gone poorly.

-Are you sure?-

Now or never.

-That’s not really true.-

Oh, I know, but I still want to do it now. She had a momentary thought of her death and Kit being whisked back to the Bandfast Constructionists. She could practically picture Master Simon’s face as he sighed and said something like, ‘Well, that was a short job.’

-He’d be sad if you died, and not just because he lost the opportunity and the job.-

I know, I know. I was just having some fun with the mental picture.

With another flex of her will, iron flowed over her skin, giving her a perfect covering.

It moved with her easily, though somehow, she knew it would feel hard and unyielding to anyone who touched it.

Her magic responded, her inscriptions yet again echoing and reinforcing themselves.

Tala shivered at the feeling of power.

It almost immediately began to boil over through the dimensions of magic, but she had sufficient iron to closely cover herself across those directions as well.

The wreathing of light vanished, the magics that carved them now contained within another layer of iron.

-Amazing. That feels great. Better than when you tried this as a Fused. Again, I feel more, somehow. Keep it up!-

Tala felt her enhancements ramping up even higher and her efficiency increase, not due to the scripts being more efficient, but because of an additional recursion being added on top of those already flaring through her.

The world became clearer as her perception was enhanced further. Each moment seemed to stretch on forever, not in that it dragged, but in that it felt like she had the ability to fully analyze everything before the next moment came to be.

It was more extreme than when she’d attempted this before. Even so, she felt her physical form rise to the occasion.

Her every cell was bathed in carefully calibrated power to a degree that was hard to describe.

This is going to be amazing.

Tala stood, stretching, and feeling her muscles pull more strongly than ever before.

She felt like she could rip her own body apart if she pulled hard enough, even though she knew that wasn’t true. Her ligaments and connective tissue were as amplified as her musculature, after all.

Her bones would have creaked under the increased pull, but they’d grown in resiliency just as much.

As she was completing her quick stretches, Terry flickered back into view.

The avian jerked backwards upon seeing her, and he squawked inquisitively.

At that, Tala really looked at herself with a mirrored perspective, even as she reassured the terror bird, “It’s me, Terry.”

He squawked again.

Tala’s skin was the dark gray of wrought iron. She looked like a masterpiece of decorative blacksmithing, with even her hair fully contained by iron.

The only breach that she could see was her eyes: blood-red on white, glaring out of a metallic visage.

The slight echoes of Terry’s squawk faded from the surroundings.

“I’m not turning my through-spike back on. I want to see if I still create magical resonance.” It was odd watching herself speak. It looked like a statue moving, but inside the statue’s mouth was human. Her teeth were almost blindingly white, not because they were unusually clean, but because of the contrast with the dark gray of her skin.

Terry let out a long-suffering, descending series of trills.

“It’ll be fine. Ready?” It was then that she really heard herself. The magics on her lungs and throat had been enhanced as well, and while they were in a passive state, they still added a power and endurance to her voice which caused it to carry far further. After all, Terry had appeared at the bottom of the hill, and he’d heard her perfectly, even without her specifically speaking louder or wishing for it to carry. I have to be mindful of that.

He turned and vanished with a flicker of dimensional power.

Tala grinned, crouching low before she pushed off as hard as she could.

The surface area enhancing scripts had been likewise amplified and she effectively pushed on the entire hilltop at once. She wanted to go fast, so she allowed all of her weight—along with that of her iron—to lend inertia so that she could push harder.

The hill exploded under her, a shower of snow, bits of grass, and dirt billowing out behind her.

And she dropped almost straight down into a new depression.

What?

-Huh. That’s odd. There isn’t an underlying, firm foundation to compact the soil down against, like you did to the sand in the arena.-

Yeah, I need more mass behind me, or to come up to speed more slowly.

-Something like that, yeah.-

How could a hilltop survive without bedrock under it? Why is it here?

-I have no idea, but the lack of trees seems to imply that it hasn’t been here that long.-

Could it be the result of some fight?

-That is most likely, yeah. It doesn’t even seem like there was much grass here, under the snow.-

In the end, they’d probably never know, but the loose nature of the soil implied that the hill hadn’t been there for very long and wouldn’t be around for much longer in the grand scheme of things.

-I mean… it’s not really around now, not after what you just did.-

Tala chuckled as she walked to the edge of the now-lower hilltop. Well, you aren’t wrong.