Millennial Mage

Tala stood before the Bandfast Banking Guild for the second time in her life.

I’d say it would be the last, but I bet I’ll have more business with them in the future at some point.

-Agreed. Having access to greater capital could help down the line… or not? None of our current projects or potential projects should need it.-

Tala shrugged. Never say never. Half of what we want to do, now, wouldn’t have crossed our mind even a year ago.

-That’s the truth, and maybe that should say something about the wisdom of the ideas.-

Tala huffed a laugh, grateful for the momentary distraction.

She felt an odd sort of nervous tension. She felt like something would stop her before she could do this.

The prominent building jutted up before her: A beautiful, stone building, eye-catching without being ostentatious.

Massively tall windows let light into the single-story structure, and that single story was nearly twenty-five feet high on the inside. Its large entrance opened onto a small park-space in which Tala now stood.

The green area had clearly been designed more for looks, and to walk through, rather than for families or children to play in, and that was evident even in the wintery weather, the beauty shining through. Some of the statues looked even more stunning with a light sprinkling of snow. I wonder if the sculptor did that on purpose? Regardless, this park really is a lovely touch. Calming clients and potential clients and putting them in a happier mood before they entered in.

She walked through the bank’s large double doors, closing them softly behind herself. Even as she did so, she noticed flickers of magic that would have accomplished the same thing on their own. They have artifact doors, hooked to the city’s system?

-One-time expense? They probably move them along with the guild when a city is abandoned, so why not?-

That was a really good point, actually, and it suddenly made so many things click into place. How many of the little services in the cities were handled by artifacts that had been made once, thousands of years ago, and then moved from city to city?

She knew that many businesses used inscribed items, but that just made sense. Why invest in something that’s going to last ten thousand years, with proper maintenance, if an inscribed item costs a tenth of the amount and lasts a full city cycle?

It’s a bit short sighted, but both last longer than a single lifetime for mundanes, so I can see the reason for each.

She turned away from the doors and was greeted by an environment that was somehow more archival than that of the Library she’d just left. The rugs were thick, acting as sound dampeners in the vast space rather than as walking or standing comforts. I suppose the library uses architecture and magic to dampen the sound. This is probably cheaper.

Large, unicolor hangings periodically decorated the walls. They weren’t tapestries, simply being lengths of cloth, no artistry, no embellishments at all. Those are different colors than last time I was in here.

So were the rugs, now that she thought about it.

Before, she’d come in the fall, and the hangings and rugs had been fall colors, bold and beautiful, dark and earthy. Now, they were winter colors, cool and crisp jewel-tones. That’s a nice touch.

As she stepped a bit further in, she felt a small magical probe slide across her through-spike illusion and heard a distinctive ding echo through the far part of the room.

Almost immediately, a grey-haired woman bustled out. She was straight-backed, and she held a slate of deep green stone. It was a familiar sight, even if only from Tala’s last visit.

The banker stopped before Tala and gave a deep bow. “Mistress Archon. Welcome to our humble Guildhall.”

Tala smiled, giving a shallow bow in return. “Good evening. I am Tala.”

“Greetings, Mistress Tala. I am Sangfraw, one of the senior bursars of this branch of the Banker’s Guild. How may I assist you, this day?”

“A pleasure to meet you, mistress Sangfraw.” The woman wasn’t a Mage or inscribed at all, that Tala could detect. “I need to make a payment on my debts.”

Sangfraw looked a bit surprised, but immediately hid it. “Certainly, Mistress. If you would?” She held out the slate, and a small, gold-outlined square grew into existence, centered near the edge that was extended toward Tala.

Tala smiled. “Thank you.” She reached out, placing her thumb within the square and willing her power out, into the slate for verification.

The entire tablet shifted to blood red, as Tala had expected, and she tried not to grimace at the reminder. My power is steeped in blood, and I was built up for use by the House of Blood.

-That was their aim. They failed, and you succeeded. You are your own.-

That was true enough.

Only then did Tala notice infinitesimally thin, black lines in the slate that looked more like cracks than coloration. What? Did I break it?

She’d been very careful to not send too much power into the verification magics. Her enhanced vision could discern that they weren’t actual cracks, but it still made Tala nervous. She looked up at the banker hesitantly.

Sangfraw simply smiled, seemingly unable to see the not-cracks. “Thank you, Mistress.”

Do you think it’s from the void magics we carry?

-We don’t have any in our body or gate, but that is the only explanation that makes sense to me. We are connected to quite a bit of void magic, after all.-

The banker led her to a couple of very comfortable-looking chairs and gestured to one.

Tala slowly sank into the seat and while it groaned under her, it held.

Based on her somewhat limited practice, she could tell that she was subconsciously holding most of the weight of her iron up and away from the furnishings.

Sangfraw settled at the front edge of her own chair, sitting as primly and straight-backed as any Mage.

Tala was only slightly less prim, but only because she had situated herself all the way in the seat. Her posture was no less impeccable.

The banker examined the slate for a moment before looking up. “Mistress Tala, it seems that you have automatic payments set up with us and that you are current on your debts. The next automatic payment will be made in just under two weeks’ time. How can I assist you, today?”

Tala smiled. “I would like to make a payment and cancel my automatic withdrawals.”

“Certainly.” The woman was the picture of politeness, manipulating her slate for a moment. “I have that noted in the system, and we will confirm shortly, along with your payment. For that transaction, would you like to pay the minimum, or some other amount?”

“I would like to pay the balance, please.”

The woman rocked back slightly, obviously surprised. “Mistress, please pardon if I overstep, but you realize that this debt does not accrue interest, correct?

“I am aware, yes.”

“If it is not overbold of me, this seems fiscally unwise. You could take that same amount and invest it in any number of ventures. Are you sure? We are happy to advise you, or even offer you a basic account with minimal restrictions that would give you a quite fair rate of return.”

Tala nodded firmly. “I am sure, though I appreciate you voicing your thoughts. What is the exact balance of my debts, at this time?”

“Three-hundred-eighty-one gold and twenty silver, Mistress.”

She nodded again. Rust, that’s so much.We have enough, right? Her nervousness was threatening to boil over.

-In our account, after Mistress Ingrit’s transfer, we have five-hundred-nineteen gold, ninety-three silver, and one-hundred-fifty-two copper.-

Tala felt her eye twitch, even as the nervousness faded. A ‘Yes’ would have sufficed.

-We like precision.-

Tala suppressed a smile. “Thank you. Yes, I would like to pay it off in full.”

“May I ask why?” The woman looked genuinely baffled, though she maintained a professional tone.

Tala shrugged. “I don’t mind telling you. This debt has emotional weight for me, and I wish to lighten that load.”

The banker smiled warmly. “Ahh, of course. Say no more, Mistress. Thank you for entertaining an old woman’s questions.”

“Of course. It is kind of you to ensure that I am making a cognizant decision.”

It’s happening. It’s happening!!!

Alat simply sent back her own bubbling excitement.

Sangfraw nodded to herself as she manipulated the red slate, setting up the last details then turned the tablet back around for Tala’s confirmation. “Well, then, Mistress Tala, congratulations on paying off your debt in full.”

Tala read over the short bits of silvery text and confirmed.

The construct shifted back to green, and Sangfraw bowed over it. “Is there anything further that I can assist you with, today?”

“No, thank you. I appreciate your kindness, professionalism, and the time that you took to assist me.”

Sangfraw smiled genuinely in response as they stood together from the seats. “It was my pleasure, Mistress. I hope that we see you again, if ever the Banking Guild can be of service to you.”

They each gave a half bow and parted ways.

Tala got all the way outside before her glee bubbled up from deep within her, and she started giggling.

She made it halfway through the small park before the giggling grew to outright laughter.

Thankfully, at the somewhat late hour there weren’t many people about. Even so, those that were passing nearby gave her odd glances and hurried on their way.

Tala flopped down on a bench, sending up a puff of loose snow, and her laughter shifted again, morphing into mad cackling.

-Tala?-

She didn’t answer, instead wrapping her arms around herself, hugging tightly

-Tala, I can read your thoughts, and I’m still… uncertain. Tala?-

Tears had started to stream down her face, and her cackling shifted into sobs as her whole body shook.

-Oh, Tala…-

“That’s it? In an instant, it’s gone?” A huge, shuddering sob burst from her before she could continue, “Years of stress and torture, strain and division, gone in a single moment?”

She bent forward, placing her head in her hands and bawling.

Her tears weren’t for any one thing, not really.

She cried over her capture and her escape.

She wept over the injustice of her debt and the triviality of finally paying it off.

She sobbed at what she had been forced to do to survive and in fear that this was somehow a lie, that she was still back in Platoiri and that she would never be free.

There, in the small park beside the Banking Guild, Tala’s emotions, long bottled up and neglected, finally broke free.

Alone in a city of her own people, she let herself truly feel for the first time in a long while, and now that the tears had started, it took a long time for them to subside.

* * *

The next week passed in a blur. Given her required week of rest, Tala scheduled time to meet up with Mistress Odera the following week. Master Xeel had similarly asked for time to talk with her and been scheduled for that week.

Master Grediv had returned to Alefast, Waning, but before he left, he went out of his way to ensure that Tala knew that she could call on him if she needed.

Tala took as much time to enjoy her freedom as she could, eating most meals with Lyn, Rane, or both.

She read extensively, both from Alat’s summaries and from the original texts when she wanted to compare to the primary source. It was an odd experience, somewhat like reading a book on something that she had been taught, orally, while growing up.

It wasn’t new, but it was usually enlightening.

That made sense as Alat’s goal hadn’t been to give her a perfect recreation of the information. Instead, Alat tried to structure the summaries for Tala to understand the general concepts faster, and build a stronger foundation in whatever the specific subject was.

Tala exercised around her reading, finding that she could work different muscles and add to the effectiveness of the sets by altering how her iron weighed on her. After all, doing pushups worked far more muscles when her center of mass was constantly shifting.

It was through those exercises that she realized that she could also work in the opposite direction, purposely shifting her center of mass to give her balance and stability in stances and extensions that would be otherwise impossible simply because of the leverage involved.

To relax, she took long walks through the city, simply soaking in the feel of humanity. She sat in parks, watching families or neighborhoods of kids build in the snow, fight with snowballs, and otherwise enjoy the winter weather.

She avoided the guards, even though she knew they wouldn’t pressure her to train with them. She just wasn’t ready for yet another reunion.

She did send a slightly more detailed note to her family through Master Leighis, however. She knew that Nalac and Illie would likely communicate with her family from the Academy, and she wanted more details of her return to come from her, not from those younger siblings.

The only thing of true note that she did around her reading, exercising, and relaxing was to give the Leshkin Juggernaut weaponry to Rane, and he merged them with Force.

Previously, he’d merged Force with a few of the swords that they’d taken during their Makinaven caravan run. Now, he was adding all of the weaponry, regardless of type.

The very nature of the Leshkin weaponry, like their armor, was to form available material into various forms for battle. The obvious result of the merging with so many such weapons was that Force was now able to alter its shape, though the method and results would be different from either Flow or most morphic weapons that Tala had encountered.

Sadly, she’d have to wait until her body was fixed before she could spar with the man and truly see what his weapon was capable of.

They’d had Flow analyzed before Rane’s merging, and while the weapons could have been merged with Tala’s weapon, it wouldn’t have granted any improvement. Even the weapons that were different from one of Flow’s three forms wouldn’t have expanded its capabilities.

In Master Boma’s words, “It’s too weighty of a magical item, bound to you, and settled into its form. You’d need something of at least equal power to expand it, now.”

From Tala’s perspective, it was pretty obvious that the void-sword had been a major contributor in this regard. That was even more obvious when she looked back.

Flow had been merged with multiple Juggernaut weapons in the past, and the voidsword had been so potent in the merging that its power had spilled over into Tala’s elk leathers.

At Master Boma’s words, she had immediately thought of the god orbs that were supposedly hidden from human and Leshkin alike.

Alat had immediately created the feeling of a slap to the back of Tala’s head. -How about we look into the general weapons, or maybe those from the royals. Or we could even branch out away from Leshkin items altogether.-

We’ll have to wait for the Leshkin wars for general or royal weapons.

-Oh no! A hundred years? How will we survive.- The last had not been a question, and Alat made sure to project her feelings quite loudly.

Fine… spoilsport.

Now, after a week, Tala was due at Mistress Holly’s in about an hour, and she was doing the last of her newest type of exercise.

Iron arched through the air, forming the vague shape of a fist as it slammed into the ground in front of Tala, barely connected to her by a thin tendril.

She was in a training room within the Archon Compound, and the walls and floor flickered with magic that barely had to activate to contain the rather weak hit.

She was moving through her forms, Flow shifting in her hands as she followed the Way of Flowing Blood.

Her bloodstar-core items moved in their prescribed patterns along with her, covering her weaknesses and making her incredibly difficult to hit.

On top of those manipulations, she had added sweeping strikes of iron.

Tala didn’t have the control to form anything close to a blade, so more than anything, her efforts created what was effectively an iron club or other vague shapes.

Because of that, Tala mainly made them act as a shadow behind Flow’s movements, but she was trying to alter the movements to be more effective than simply a trailing, secondary strike.

The iron ‘punch’ to the floor, paired with a knife parry, had been one such attempt.

She grimaced at the results. No, a vertical strike at their feet doesn’t make sense with this parry.

-What about a grab and pull down towards us?-

That was an interesting idea. It would be more like an iron club striking down towards her own feet and rolling back and out. It did fit much better with the knife parry than the ‘punch’ had.

Alright. Let’s try it.

Tala moved back to the beginning of the form, and moved through each movement with a liquid grace that was easily utterly beyond anything a mundane human could accomplish.

Through every stance and strike, she felt the phantom touch of that annoying bear, who would have knocked her flat for any instability.

I hate that rusting cuddly bit of slag.

-He was an effective teacher though.-

Oh, no doubt. I hope he’s doing alright.

She got back to the knife parry, and her iron moved in the newly prescribed pattern.

It felt better, adding weight to the block in a way that might even cripple the theoretical attacker in addition to keeping her own flesh from damage.

There we go.

She continued on, finishing out this particular form. She was only altering one movement at a time to prevent from fracturing her fighting ability by having too many things in flux at once.

Not that I should be fighting for a while.

After she came back into her starting fighting stance and held it for a moment, she dropped her hands and groaned, looking towards the ceiling in purely mental exhaustion.

“Ow…”

Manipulating the iron felt like using an unfamiliar muscle, but not a weak one that had never been used. No, that would be relatively easy for her to deal with.

Instead, it was an incredibly powerful, involuntary muscle that she suddenly had exclusively voluntary control over.

It was like she suddenly had to control her own heartbeat, perfectly regulating each chamber, synchronizing the valves, and not being either too powerful or too weak on any beat.

It was exhausting trying to regulate and manipulate every aspect simultaneously, seemingly without end.

-Like trying to control every muscle fiber individually and consciously as you reach to pick up a glass of water?-

Exactly… And that analogy reminded her that she was thirsty. She pulled out her cold-water incorporator and took a deep drink.

The arcanes saw no use for incorporators, and so even if the items had been seen, they would have been taken. Even so, using one as Tali would have been incredibly out of character.

As such, she’d utterly fallen out of the practice.

Like with so many other things, she was purposely overcorrecting, now that she was back with the bulk of humanity.

-We need to get over to Mistress Holly’s.-

Tala nodded, tucking away the incorporator. She mirrored self-cleaning onto herself and hopped up and down, freeing herself of the grime of her workout.

She then undid her hair, ran her comb through it, and quickly re-braided it with nimble fingers.

Let’s go.