Millennial Mage

Tala and Rane drifted up through the protected interior of the expansive, incredibly powerful cloaking field, toward the village in the sky.

Specifically, they were headed toward a receiving platform on the near edge of the giant structure, large enough for a couple of caravan wagons to park side by side upon.

Not that they could get up here without insane difficulty.

Tala looked down at the more than a mile of open air below them—following the connection with her soul—to where Terry was seemingly still chasing the Baba Yaga. -He is really irritated that that creature attacked you all then tried to scamper away. He’s been trying to corral her toward the north as it’s the way she seems least interested in going.-

How is he tracking her?

-It’s unclear? He says he knows where he needs to be.-

Tala hesitated internally. Is it just an application of his concept, then? That’s not something that he’s ever been able to direct. It just happens.

-I know. He’s not said more at the moment, but it was the exact wording and sense I got from him when he was talking about his concept.-

She had a momentary thrill. Has he figured out how to actually control it? Or at least direct it a little?

-That might be the case, but at the moment he’s a bit too distracted to say more.-Maybe something that Anatalis taught him?

-Could be, yeah.-

If that was so, it was incredibly exciting… and a bit nerve wracking. His concept had kept him alive and directed him to her several times. What if it no longer was as effective once he was influencing it? What if he pointed it a direction in which he couldn’t come out alive. I guess with our bond he doesn’t need it to be as foolproof as it has been. He has some room to experiment.

-Yeah… it makes me a bit nervous too.-

Indeed… Regardless, Tala needed to focus on the upcoming meeting. She was already coordinating with Lyn, but she felt like popping the other woman out too soon could be detrimental.

There was a large door out onto the receiving platform, and Tala’s threefold sight saw several people heading their way, seemingly hoping to arrive just in time to greet Tala and Rane.

We aren’t in the most presentable of states. A ripple of will went through her elk leathers, straightening them out as well as—probably unnecessarily—weaving some iron through for added defense and readiness.

Still, she and her husband had picked up some water as they passed through the not-quite-clouds on their way up, and Tala took the moment to aspect mirror the correct features to shed that liquid from herself. As the water sluiced off of her, she glanced toward her husband. I shouldn’t leave him wet.

With an instinctive act of will, she mirrored the aspects onto him, and the moisture cascaded off of him as well.

Rane’s eyes widened, and he looked her way in obvious surprise.

Why would he have that reaction… Her eyes widened, and she then barked a laugh before feigning nonchalance. “Well, we are one, my soulbond.”

He grinned back. “I knew you were holding out on me.” With a wink, he kissed the top of her head. “Congratulations, my love. That is a meaningful stride forward.”

She squeezed his hand. “Thank you.”

The air was quite cool up here, though as it was late summer, it wasn’t uncomfortably so—and it wouldn’t have been, even if she had been mundane.

The group that was just now exiting out onto the platform was a man flanked by a woman and a man. The man in front was dressed a bit more nicely, but it wasn’t to the extent of jewels or embroidery. It was more that the material was just slightly nicer and less worn, and the pieces seemed like a bit more effort had been put into their creation and ongoing care.

Huh… I don’t know that I’ve noticed such details before.

-Your perception has improved again, not necessarily in detail—I think you could have noticed these things before—but in the breadth of it. You’re taking in more details across your vision more easily than you did before rather than more detail in a specific area, or smaller details.- Ꞧâ𐌽ȮBƐs

Huh…

-Precisely.-

The second man was fairly obviously meant to look the part of a guard, even though he was only equivalent to Fused in apparent advancement where the man in front was seemingly on a level with Refined.

The woman’s aura—what she allowed to be seen—was orange-yellow as well.

So, two Mature and an Elder. Tala used the arcane ranking in her own mind because these were arcanes.

The woman was a green hue-man, where the men were both bird-kin of various kinds.

The guard evoked the feeling of a falcon and the leader an eagle even if Tala couldn’t pin down why those particular species came to mind.

Both still had human-like faces, with incredibly fine feathers across their features in place of the miniscule hairs that humans had. The leader even had longer, more mature feathers creating a sort of beard.

How would a feather-beard even work? It’s not like them plucking out the feathers would create an un-bearded look, and cutting them would look… odd?

-Probably either a species or an individual difference. But now is hardly the time to consider avian arcane grooming habits.-

That’s… fair.

The woman’s black hair was pulled back into a tight bun, the restrictiveness obviously mandated by the winds at this elevation. In fact, even as Tala watched, a strand was teased free by the tumultuous currents on the platform, and the hairs began whipping about.

Tala’s own hair was maintained in a perfect, thick braid, not a single strand coming loose. Oh, the benefits of having all my hair be exactly the same length.

Rane brought them in for a soft landing before retracting his magics. He didn’t let go of her hand, and she didn’t try to pull it free, enjoying the simple pleasure of the contact.

They both gave shallow bows as even with their veiled power—the veils having been rebuilt after their fight with the Baba Yaga—they were more advanced than those here.

The three bowed in return, matching the depth of Rane and Tala’s, despite their clearly greater power.

Rane took it in stride, and Tala saw it for the declaration of indepence from the couple that the arcane’s likely intended. Sure, Rane and Tala were more advanced, but this wasn’t their city.

A smile quirked at the corner of her mouth even as Rane oriented on her. This was her show, after all. “Greetings, I am Tala, this is my husband Rane. We come in search of information and trade.”

The man bowed. “I am William, and I am Prime Helmsman of the village of Sunnydale. My adjunct here goes by Anne, and my head of security is Liam.”

The other two bowed again as they were introduced.

Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

“Welcome to our home, don’t mind the monsters below.” He gave a roguish smile at the last.

Tala glanced around, taking in the fact that they were above most of the clouds. “Sunnydale? I can see the reason for the name.”

“Indeed.” His smile shifted to one of polite discourse.

“Thank you for the welcome. We offer you our pledge of peace, so long as hospitality is returned for our good faith.”

All three visibly relaxed, William speaking for them once again. “That is good to hear. We have had no ill-will toward nor negative interactions with the cycling cities, but your presence was not expected.” After a moment’s pause he half turned, gesturing back to the door. “Shall we take this meeting to somewhere more comfortable?”

Tala and Rane easily agreed.

They were led down the utilitarian corridor—obviously mainly used for the unloading of whatever vehicles or other means of transport that had come to the platform. Even so, ‘utilitarian’ on a flying village was still something to see.

It was of wooden construction, well worn and well sealed. The fasteners were brass and copper, seemingly artfully interspersed among the light-colored, tight-grained boards.

The construction and material was such that none of them caused even the slightest creak as they proceeded, and Tala’s threefold sight saw a network of structure below and around them which provided support and strength with a minimal amount of material.

-That makes sense. They are keeping this all up in the air, and that can’t be free. Keep weight down where it’s possible just makes sense.-

Indeed.

Once they had walked a bit down the passage, Tala asked a rather important question, “My own adjunct stands ready to join us, at your leisure, and she may be more able to discuss the details of our negotiations than I.”

William gave her a side-long look. “Is she an adjunct in the human sense, or as the Major Houses do?”

Tala grinned in return. “The human, though she is not without power of her own.”

The Helmsman nodded slowly. “Very well. Should we send a craft to retrieve her?”

“That is not necessary.” Tala gave an unneeded gesture and a portal to Kit opened beside her, allowing Lyn to step out. She had been waiting in a room that Kit had kept empty of power so as to obscure the Paragon level power density in Ironhold for this initial interaction.

Lyn gave a bow. “I am Lyn, adjunct of the Ironhold.”

The three arcanes froze, and Liam spoke up for the first time. “Is that a soulbound space?”

Tala frowned, then nodded. “It is.”

The man’s fingers grew talons wreathed in ghostly fire that evoked a feeling of frigidity rather than heat. “Are there more people in there?”

Her frown grew. “Yes?”

He visibly stiffened. “You must leave. Now. We want nothing to do with a succubus cascade, and we will not allow you to seduce any of our population.”

Tala’s eye’s widened, and she shook her head vehemently. “You misunderstand. She is not soulbound to me. My space is based upon a sentient creature, thus it does not suffer from that limitation.”

Liam did not look convinced, but Anne placed a hand on the avian kin’s shoulder. “Peace, my angel.”

In her other hand was a truly wicked looking battle ax that radiated power beyond any weapon Tala had sensed before.

She didn’t know if it represented the green woman’s true, unveiled power or was simply an item of surpassing might, but she didn’t much care. This would not come to violence.

When did she draw that? Where did it come from?

-I… I don’t know? It appears in our memories in the moment we noticed it, but her hand has seemed to be shaped as if holding something since we first saw her.-

Warn the others to be wary.

-Already done.-

Anne spoke again, “Scy is not detecting soulbonds between Greater Tala and Greater Lyn. It is as she says, as improbable as it seems.”

Only then did Liam relax. His talons vanished, and he bowed their way more deeply than before. “My apologies, honored guests. I mistook the situation.”

Lyn was entirely confused, but Tala gave a shallow bow in return. “I understand your concern, and appreciate your restraint in the face of the situation you perceived to be before you.”

Liam nodded his thanks but said no more.

William cleared his throat. “Now, with that misunderstanding settled. Shall we continue?”

Lyn took up the role of spokesperson and accepted gratefully.

She artfully engaged all three members of their welcoming committee, even if Liam didn’t speak as much as the other two.

Anne was slowly revealed to have a bit of snark to her, as well as some… not naivete, but maybe a more direct way of thinking.

It was a funny contrast to what Tala remembered of Thron in the role of adjunct, but he had always been a bit wasted as an adjunct, at least in the arcane sense.

For arcanes, adjuncts were meant to handle anything their head didn’t wish to, that included dealing with those they didn’t wish to fight, or… removing those they didn’t wish to stay around.

Thron had done much of that, but it hadn’t involved much fighting. Tala’s position as Eskau of a Major House meant that nothing of low-level concern reached her at all, and anything of import—especially in the combat sense—needed to be handled by her directly.

But that was a different time, and Tala was no longer in quite the same position, even if politically, she was still technically in the exact same position.

The six people went down a series of increasingly nice corridors, only occasionally passing other people.

Those they passed all had a professional air to them, as if they were actively moving from task to task, though they still made way for the clearly political delegation, giving slight bows of deference as the six passed.

The people themselves were a mix of human and arcane, with almost every human they passed being gated. I suppose that makes sense, as any gated resident they have would be required to remain out in the Zeme side of the village.

She almost scoffed.

Yes, a million square feet is such a small space in which to live. It’s practically a prison.

-Well, first, it’s a lot more than a million, as this is clearly multiple levels.-

That’s true enough.

-But that isn’t what makes a thing a prison. If you can’t leave, even a planet’s worth of space is still a prison.-

Tala hesitated. I mean, we can’t really leave Zeme.

-...true… do we want to? And, I mean we could leave if we wanted to, at least in theory.-

I suppose so. I’m not particularly drawn to leave. That’s right.

-Regardless, that is a good point. If you can’t leave somewhere and you want to leave, then any size can be a prison.-

Tala grunted internally. Fair enough.

Their group ended their journey at a large sitting room, with floors and two walls built to be transparent and give a clear view to the sky below.

Lyn hesitated at the threshold, but as their hosts had already walked out with seeming confidence, Lyn strode forth as well after less than a breath of delay.

The chairs and table were made of the same clear stone, seemingly purposely wrought to be less transparent so that they could be easily found and interacted with.

Even so, they were transparent enough to allow for easy viewing of the land far beneath them.

Lyn muttered under her breath so softly that only Tala who was directly beside her could hear her and then only because of Tala’s Paragon-level enhancements, “This will take some getting used to.”

Tala grinned but didn’t respond otherwise. Tala gave the chairs a skeptical look, carefully examining the structure. Looks solid.

-Agreed. Given the variance in arcane physiology, I believe that you should be fine.-

Soon enough, they were all seated, and William addressed Lyn, having picked up that such was Tala’s preference, “Mistress Lyn. What, may I ask, do you have as trade, and what are you looking to receive in return?”

Lyn nodded, manipulating her archive slate. “I am unsure exactly what you would be interested in, but I have here a manifest of goods and services that we are willing to trade, along with some other options of note. I would be interested in seeing what you have available. In this, consider me a facilitator, as most of the goods are privately owned by merchants who will want to come to their own arrangements with you.”

WIlliam frowned. “So… you represent a consortium of some sort? This is to arrange future trades? I must warn you that we move around enough, and with purposeful irregularity, that scheduled trade with your cycling cities has never been feasible for the type of goods we are actually seeking. They are simply too mundane to be worth the difficulty.”

Lyn shook her head. “No, no. We are all here. That is, in fact, the first item I would like to address with you. We would like the rights for our population to come out and explore your fair town and the attached expanded spaces—within the bounds that you allow of course—and for your people to have time within Ironhold under the same strictures. From there, trade should be able to happen organically.”

There was a moment of silence.

Then two.

Then three.

Finally, Anne cleared her throat, seemingly on understanding in that moment. “Wait… Your population is with you?”

Lyn nodded. “Yes. Most are gateless, unlike myself. Therefore, they should not put added stress on your holds.”

Anne accepted the slate, eyes widening even as her eyebrows climbed.

Tala was excited that the goods available from Ironhold citizens were so interesting to them, but she was proven wrong—or at least premature—a moment later when the woman spoke.

“You can provide Honored level magic density? You have a limited number of hours listed here. It’s large, but is that correct?”

Lyn’s eyes had a predatory gleam, and Tala realized that her adjunct knew what she was about.

She’d put that item right at the top of the list. Right, these are arcanes.

This had been a heavy topic of discussion, especially after Lisa had pointed out the potential war-causing nature of such a resource, if misunderstood.

Alright, Lyn. It’s time to prove I was right in my faith in you once again. I know you can do it.