Millennial Mage

Tala regarded the elk before giving a friendly smile. “Walden. I am not familiar enough with your path of advancement, nor what you might require to know what to offer you, nor can I properly project what you will be capable of once you ascend to god-beast.”

He gave a slight inclination of his head in acknowledgment of her words.

Rane was keeping his reactions contained, but Tala could sense in pointed interest as he analyzed every word. Based on the tilt of his head, either Enar or Alat were chatting with him as well, possibly both.

Lisa’s face was carefully neutral, and Terry continued to laze beside his large friend, belly being warmed by a shaft of sunlight coming through the elk-provided break in the canopy above.

Tala smiled. “Therefore, I propose this. First, I will do my utmost to transfer portions of your domain to the superficial. This much is required for any of the agreements you’ve made to be honored. I do this freely, outside of any further bargain.”

He returned another slight dip of his head, his eyes flicking around as if searching for threat even as he continued to listen.

“As to our compact: I will strive to keep your domain contiguous and encompassing more than the superficial when I meld it back to Zeme. I will work to seed the connections to the superficial in such a way that you can claim more of the Forest Spirit’s domain more quickly, deeply, and fully. I will seek to ensure you have the power to contest your sire and siblings such that as much of the authority you gain as possible will be yours rather than granted. But in return for as yet unfulfilled promises, I can hardly make concrete demands.”

Walden’s eyes narrowed, but he once more gave a motion of acceptance.

“Therefore, I request only this: You will owe me fealty proportional to what I am able to grant you from the moment of our agreement’s finalization until you ascend to god-beast. May it be proportional to how well I deliver on my promises.”

Walden looked to Lisa, and the fox smiled, beginning the process of clarification and codification.

Tala was open and forthright, as required for any such binding agreement to be possible.

The elk clearly smelled a trap of some kind, but as she had put it forward, it was hardly dangerous.

Fealty was not slavery, nor imprisonment. She couldn’t cause—let alone force—him to break other agreements, nor could she take anything from him.

Tala did clarify one thing of import. “I will, of course, be maintaining my connection to any non-superficial expanded space that I stitch to Zeme for many reasons. Primary among those is the fact that I have to. The expansion and maintenance of this dimensionality is contingent upon it being a part of me, the very magics that allow it to exist are a part of my being, and I could no more separate and have it remain stable than I could cut off an arm and offer it to you for use as a limb. It simply would not work.”

Walden huffed a great billow of air, ruffling Terry’s feathers where he slept and causing the avian to flick one eye open briefly in inquiry. The elk snorted once, and Terry squawked before wiggling back and forth and closing his eye once more. Walden looked up and asked his question, “Would that not bind you to the southern forest?”

Tala shook her head. “No. I can leave portions of my expanded space wherever I like. I simply cannot access them when they are not with me or very nearby.”

The elk had a few more questions, but in the end, he was satisfied.

Lisa once more interjected and guided them through a unification of understanding, purpose, and obligation.

And that was it.

Their agreement was simple at its core. Tala would strive to help the elk from this time until his ascension, and the elk would then be beholden to her based upon how helpful she actually was.

Simple.

They each gave a final confirmation, and Lisa worked his magic.

Once more, Tala watched closely, the far more limited nature of this agreement concentrating what she needed to watch.

In that way, she caught what was at least one level deeper of Lisa’s concept. ‘Words shape reality.’

Beyond that new tidbit, the process was becoming a bit routine for her to witness. Though, she still tried to observe it carefully even so.

When it was done, Walden stood and turned fully toward her once again, bowing lower than before. “Our compact is sealed. I will be ready for the clash with my sire. I am not sure you are aware, but I must be involved in my sire’s fall or, despite my connection, I cannot claim his mantle.”

Tala lifted her hand and waggled it back and forth. “I can fudge that a bit, but I believe you are right, that would make it easier, and help the domain settle into your grasp both more quickly and more fully.” She grinned. “Besides, I promised to help you make the domain as fully yours as possible, which means exactly that. You get to help against the Forest Spirit as much as we can manage.”

Walden shook himself, snorting in acknowledgement. “So, you will be attempting to affix a portion of this expanded space to the forest, forever linking our domains. How likely do you think that is to work?”

Tala gave a predatory grin at the question. “Incredibly likely. I have learned much in repairing the damage done to the arcane cities.”

The elk flicked his muzzle up. “Good, good. I am glad to learn you are confident, even with our arrangement.”

She cocked an eyebrow and tilted her head to the side. “Oh?”

“Yes. To be able to expand my domain in more areas than simply upon the superficial can only be beneficial.” He gave her a self-satisfied look, which was odd, but still rather clear on the cervid’s inhuman face. “I factored that in before I agreed to our compact. I look forward to being tied going forward. I will even admit that being so tied will give me greater protection should any dislike the agreements I’ve made with the other factions.”

Tala laughed then. That was the final piece and they’d both known it. She was the final party that completed his dealings, giving him an undeniable foundation of power and security.

Nature had no way of expanding either stoneward or starward, but she could, and through her, Walden could as well. Through his connection to her, he would be able to make a many layered, interconnected infinity of forest, so long as he had dimensionality and materials to draw from.

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She would hold sway over him, but that would also hold her in check as she wouldn’t want to jeopardize the power coming from that connection. At the same time, she’d want him as powerful as possible, creating another balance of sorts.

Walden gave her careful consideration, eyes flicking only briefly to Lisa. “You have a plan for my domain, don’t you?”

Tala gave a slow nod. She supposed that she could share this portion as well. “You are closely tied to the growth aspects of nature, and for your non-superficial portions to truly match your concept, to be truly reflective of you and nature itself, they will have to grow as well.”

The elk huffed, this was obvious. “It is why I required the ability to continue to grow in all my dealings, yes.”

She smiled. “But how can that which dangles into the void grow? You cannot simply claim ready land.”

He hesitated at that, and Rane grinned broadly, instantly understanding. This, she’d discussed with her husband—in fact, they’d come up with the plan together, even if they hadn’t expected to be able to use Walden as the medium for the implementation—and he’d absolutely loved the idea. As such, she gestured his way.

Rane stood and stepped forward, clasping his hands and rubbing them together almost maniacally. “So, our world is broken, this is known.”

Walden tilted his head to the side in skepticism, almost as if he was checking behind himself with one eye. “Yes, this is known.”

Rane chuckled. “Well, to truly help heal this world, we will need to clean up the mess left by the last people who tried to fix it. We could go along every seam in existence and trim it back, re-fusing it cleanly as we go. There are few capable at the moment, but we could change that in time.” He shrugged. “That would take generations, and it would require a deep level of trust and independence between the various actors involved.”

The elk turned back forward once more. “The herd must be united in purpose or all fall.”

“True, true.” Rane nodded. “And we will likely have to do this for many of the largest issues, but what about all the rest? What do we do with the bits that are trimmed off?”

Walden’s eyes widened. “Dimensionality.”

“Exactly. Dimensionality and matter. If only we had access to magics that could draw matter together…” He was grinning widely.

The Immortal Elk shook himself, sending ripples through his flesh. “But simply pressing matter and dimensionality together doesn’t make it unify, not unless we allow such to build to the point that nature changes, and I cannot bear that in my domain.”

Tala shook her head and took over the telling. “There is a ready-made tool at our disposal.” She paused, waiting for the magical creature to understand, but when he didn’t immediately get it, she realized that he might never have personally encountered an example of the solution. “The endingtree.”

Walden’s eyes narrowed. “I know of this plant, but my sire forbade their existence within his domain.”

She nodded. “I can imagine. They are instruments of change, renewal, and reconstruction. They bear the magics of dissolution and coherence in natural form. For lack of a better description, they emulsify, homogenize, and polish reality near themselves by the mere presence of their natural cycle.”

“How is this a solution?” The immortal elk seemed uncertain.

“We ring the edges of the star- and stoneward layers of your domain with ending trees, pressing outward. They will churn the edges of reality, taking in that which is close and incorporating it, like the fertilizing of the soil around their roots. As they grow, they will expand your domain slowly. You can will them outward, and so long as you do not rush, they can be a source of constant reunification of the Doman-Imithe to Zeme.”

He seemed to finally understand. “And it truly is like the process of fertilization, then. That which is drawn in is processed to its base components and used from there. We won’t be allowing the horrors through.”

“No, and tied directly to you? It will not be limited as it would be, were I the source.”

Walden let out a heavy, fully bodied, huffing snort. “And as I will be tied to you, you will both benefit, and have a hand in ensuring that it is done in such a way that is beneficial to your interests.”

She smiled. “It benefits us all to restore and reinforce Zeme.”

He only paused for a moment before conceding. “This is true. And you know I will seek to prevent variance and other… unnatural aspects from persisting through incorporation.”

Tala gave the smallest of bows, her smile growing. “Just so. It will be a pleasure working with you into the future.”

-I wonder what the woods will look like in a hundred years… a thousand?-

I know, right? Assuming I succeed in my aims, he will be able to interweave the layers in a way that makes the entire woods labyrinthine in the extreme, far, far larger than they have any right to be given the borders, no matter how large he’s able to grow them.

-It is a blessing that the Archons negotiated smooth, clear roads. They likely didn’t realize how easy it would be for him to switch out the bits of reality traversed, even if the road never seems to move at all.-

Tala grinned. Perhaps we should place all of our territory under god-beasts, so long as they are bound to us, of course.

Alat chuckled. -I mean… isn’t that essentially what City Stone Holders are?-

Tala hesitated a moment, then shook her head. No. Their basis is authority… but actually somewhat closer to the Pack.

-Right, that’s a good comparison. City Stone Holders gain power and authority from the people who associate with the city, and the area that they associate with that city.-

Just as Anatalis ‘claims’ any land beneath the paws of the pack.

-And Vidarra is Sovereign over the concept of Pack and wolf-kind through her relationship with the strongest of their kind.-

Tala blinked. Really? I thought she was just god-beast of her own internal world-fragment.

-Oh… that might be. I suppose that is what she said, I just like the other option better.-

She shook her head. I’m not sure if I should chastise your fantasies or laud your out-of-the-box thinking.

Rane cleared his throat. “You’re doing it again.”

Tala blinked a few times, returning her focus to the woods around them and found Terry and Walden regarding her curiously.

-You really should be better at policing your reactions and just sending them directly to me.-

…I dislike you sometimes.

-Love you too.-

Tala gave a small bow toward Walden. “I will call you forth when the time for a final clash is upon us.”

He snorted. “The clash will not be final. Even with the forces you describe, I expect we will need to fight for our initial glade, then drive the forces arrayed against us back step by step.”

Tala slowly shook her head. “That might be the wiser option for us, but it is also one through which we are almost guaranteed to win. I doubt they will be so kind. Expect the fight to be brutal and decisive. They will commit everything to resisting us when they sense what we bring against them. If we win, I expect some remnants to flee, but hunting them down will be simply a matter of time.”

Walden gave a slow tilt of his head, his antlers scribing a massive arc with the motion. “We can hope. I find underestimating my sire leads only to disaster.”

Rane arched an eyebrow. “Oh?”

“Of course. Last time I did, he managed to convince humanity I was a threat, and they sealed me away for centuries.” He settled down a bit more. “He bound the Leshkin to his very concept upon the destruction of the Mezzani, turning the boon they’d earned into fuel for his growth. My siblings are all but beasts of burden, dragging his concept and authority to greater heights.” Walden snorted powerfully. “I could go on, but you understand. Expect at least three inconveniences we don’t expect.”

Tala gave a slow nod. “As you say, so shall it be. We will be ready.”