Millennial Mage

Tala felt like the next days passed in a blur as she continued with her slowly increasing training, spent time with friends, and allowed the researchers in and out of her sanctum every so often.

The teleporter still didn’t work from within Kit, despite them trying a dozen variations, and they’d recently reached the end of their ideas. It wasn’t impossible, they were sure, but they needed to do more in depth research into the fundamentals of the process. Master Simon’s own work and study was now being fed to them as well, and that was sufficient for them to pair with their tests on the outside.

By the time she returned from Marliweather, they’d have another version or two ready to test.

Overall it barely felt like any time had passed, and yet, she was currently making her way to Mistress Holly’s workshop for her final set of tests.

And hopefully I’ll be cleared for regular activity! She felt whole and unbroken, strong and unmarred by imperfections.

-Ahh, yes. To spar again and taste the gritty wonder that is sand.-

I don’t think any of my previous sparring partners will push me to that.

-Terry.-

Tala hesitated. That will be a much more interesting fight now.

-Yes. Interesting.-

She was actually looking forward to sparring with Terry again. Rane too, and Master Cazor if possible. There’s lots for us to test as well, now that my power isn’t pulling my body apart from within.

Despite those somewhat dark thoughts, Tala smiled contentedly, thinking back over what had occurred over the past nine days.

Master Simon’s research had barely begun, but he’d been able to give a solid recommendation on which grid-node to install within Kit, and they’d accomplished that with little difficulty.

Additionally, Tala had agreed to have the net installed onto the outside of Kit.

It was a fascinating branch of magical construction. It was effectively being magic-bound to Kit, rather than merged with it. As such, it could be reused for a different dimensional storage, in the likely case that Tala didn’t die before soul-bonding Kit.

She was really glad for that, as the magics involved were actually beyond humanity to recreate, and only were actualized through the careful combination of several very elusive harvests. The rarity of the parts, along with the difficulty of proper construction, meant that there was no way Tala would have been able to get such a creation if she’d been forced to pay for it.

Now, however, she wouldn’t have to temper her actions because she had civilians within Kit.

I’d have had to live a pretty boring life, if I took them into full account, and they were counting on me to stay safe.

-Yeah, and I think your story would have been over, if you’d been forced into such a change.-

I probably wouldn’t have died of boredom, but it would have been a near thing.

Aside from her feeling that it relieved her conscience of the weight of three children’s safety, Tala had spoken to Mistress Odera, Lyn, and even Mistress Holly, and all three had recommended she do so.

Since the teleporter wasn’t possible in the short term, it just made sense.

While Master Simon’s family wouldn’t be in as much danger as many in their world when traveling with her, they wouldn’t be ‘safe’ by any means, and this little accommodation cost her literally nothing.

It had been incorporated without a hitch, beyond Tala watching closely and mentally insisting that Kit not eat the artifact as it tightened and sunk into place.

Kit had even seemed… content? That wasn’t right, but the pouch had accepted the mesh integrating with her exterior without a whisper of resistance.

If she’d still been in the arcane lands, Tala might have been concerned about a plot to kill her and take Kit, but honestly, anyone who could arrange for her death could just take her stuff if they wanted. There was also the fact that while Kit would return and be maintained for the short term, it wouldn’t last very long in the grand scheme of things.

Thus, those who might have been most inclined to try to get access to Kit would lose out in the end, as opposed to simply asking to study what she had, which she had allowed Mistress Ingrit to offer.

There had been some cursory inquiries, but nothing truly concrete, yet.

But that was getting off into the weeds.

With those two additions, the modifications of Kit’s magic were completed for the near-term.

Mistress Petra and Master Simon had brought in raw materials, and Tala had taken a couple of hours to help manipulate them into place to fashion the beginnings of a living space for the family.

Kit did all of the work, but Tala still had to give the commands.

Beyond that, the teacher from the Culinary Guild came and went, spending nearly all of four days with the Mage and leaving Mistress Petra much better versed in the preparation of dishes, while maintaining their magical conveyance.

Per their agreement, Mistress Petra had recorded all the specific insights provided toward the creation of food for Tala. That way, when the woman left the position, her replacement would at least have a place to start.

Whether that is in a year or a century, she won’t be my cook forever.

Tala slowly allowed the increase of the proportion of magic in her food until the harvests from her sanctum were the sole source of the ingredients made into food for her.

Kit was rather accommodating, though she didn’t allow Mistress Petra to make requests directly.

-You are anthropomorphizing Kit, again.-

Well, Kit acts like she has a personality.

-All that’s happening is Mistress Petra is sending us a message with the raw ingredients that she needs, and we wish for her to have them. Kit does what she does, and the harvests arrive.-

Kit could move anything within her to anywhere else. She could also exert slight force, such as pulling a berry from a stem, or a leaf from a plant, but she could not process the harvests.

Mistress Petra still had to kill and butcher the animals as needed, processing the meat to lock in the magics imbued within, according to the methods of the Culinary Guild.

Honestly, the results were surprisingly effective.

Tala was able to compare what she saw with some memories, and it seemed like the Culinary method was at least as efficient at trapping the power within the harvests as the arcane methods.

I suppose the cooks have been working at this for a long time and with very few resources. They learned to be efficient.

-And now that they have Mages coming in to build on their theoretical foundations? It’s no wonder that there have been massive leaps in methodology even in just a year.-

It makes Mistress Ingrit’s position on knowledge more understandable.

-Yeah, imagine what we could do as a species if we didn’t hold back any secrets and strove toward a common goal?-

Tala smiled to herself. But then, would we really be humans anymore?

Alat snorted in amusement. -To be human is to strive for self-improvement and advancement.-

But to continue, we need each other, and we must serve one another as if we were one and the same.

Tala gasped, almost missing a step as her soul resonated with the sentiment.

-What?-

I think… did we just take a step towards Paragon? They examined their aura and sure enough, there was the barest hint of green in the otherwise pure yellow.

-I’d estimate… a hundredth of one percent of the way?-

Tala smiled. Still, that’s something. We weren’t even striving. We were… just… Her eyes widened. We were just discussing how our society has been set up to operate and why it makes sense… Do you think?

-It makes sense that a society built and maintained by Paragons—and those even more advanced—would reflect at least some of the insights required to reach that level of advancement.-

When said like that, it was almost insultingly obvious. So… does that mean we need to study civics?

She was not keen on the idea.

Alat didn’t have any more idea than Tala did, whether or not it would be helpful. They’d ask Master Grediv later. Mistress Holly had proven that she’d not say more about advancement than she already had.

With nothing more to consider in that vein for the moment, Tala turned her thoughts to what lay just ahead. I have nothing else keeping me from visiting my family.

-Assuming these tests go well.-

Yes, but they will. Tala could feel it.

She was more connected to her physical body than ever, and it was more in tune with her magics than she’d have thought possible, even just a few months ago.

Her natural magical pathways were perfect reflections of her inscriptions, not being the same but creating identical effects, and her inscriptions seemed to be functioning with an entirely new smoothness.

Honestly, Tala had never noticed any latency or roughness in how her power flowed through her spell-forms, but now? Now, it felt like she’d been running with one leg shorter than the other for years, and they were now the same length.

-That’s… that’s an odd analogy.-

Yeah… not the best… It’s like wearing homespun clothing my whole life, but now, someone has gifted me perfectly fitted silks?

-Yeah, that’s a bit clearer. I feel like I’ve been utterly remade, though I felt some of that immediately. It’s just clearer now.-

It does seem like it. From their investigations into their natural pathways, they both believed that Alat would now continue, even if Tala lost all of her inscriptions. She would be lessened, and it would need to be corrected, but Alat would no longer vanish until the inscriptions were restored.

All of her magics had been ‘set’ deeply in place, seemingly like Tala had been using them for decades or centuries, rather than less than two years.

I still can’t believe I didn’t set a record…

-Well, Betty the Blessed wasn’t named that for nothing.-

Too bad we can’t find out what happened to her.

-We may one day. She did always say she wanted to explore beyond Zeme. She could be out there, now, trying to find a way back.-

Or she could be a Transcendent and have forged a new humanity on some distant world.

Tala actually felt some hope in that. Even if the worst happened, even if Zeme shattered, or humanity fell here, they wouldn’t find their end as a species.

Humanity would live on.

Tala glanced at her own aura out of the corner of her vision.

-No advancement. You’re trying too hard.-

Fine…

Betty wasn’t the only Mage who had beaten Tala in the speed of her advancement, but there weren’t many, only a couple of dozen in recorded history, and none in the last few centuries. Thousands had been just barely slower, but again, most of them were from the centuries just after the advent of gates within humanity.

Those early years must have been truly brutal.

-Yeah, advance fast or die trying.-

In the end, the tests with Mistress Holly went exactly as well and uneventfully as Tala had expected, and the following morning, Tala was cleared to act without restriction.

Mistress Holly did implore her to act with caution, but that was more a general injunction than a statement that Tala needed to take it easy for any reason.

FINALLY! Tala was so exuberant that she had practically exploded out of the warehouse.

Mistress Holly had simply granted Tala and Alat access to the results and bid Tala farewell with a rueful smile.

She’d already secured a promise from Tala to return later for a demonstration of her reinscriber.

-This is impressive, Tala.- The alternate interface was clearly going over the results. -Do you want to know the numbers?-

Tala laughed as she jogged down the mostly cleared roads. The first true thaw of spring was still a little ways away, but the sun was definitely melting more of the snow each day than it had even a week earlier. Not a chance. I’m not falling into that trap. I’ll test myself and learn my new limits by more practical means.

-That sounds wonderful! Rane said he’d reserve a training area for us, he shared the location. Take the next right turn.-

Tala barely kept to a reasonable pace as she followed Alat’s directions to the indicated arena.

She rushed past the attendant, barely acknowledging the young man, thanking him, and conveying who she was.

He didn’t try to stop her or direct her as she clearly knew where she was headed.

She pushed open the doors into the massive, sand-floored space, and they slammed back against the walls despite each of them weighing as much as a few people.

Tala felt a bit abashed at the too-forceful entry. Well, strength test, I guess?

The doors began to swing shut, partially due to rebound and partially because they were balanced to rest closed.

Rane stood in the center of the space, dressed in only his exercise shorts, Force drawn, his stance firm and his features filled with anticipation.

He wasn’t any more muscular than before, but something about his physique seemed more solid, like the muscles he had contained more strength. “No need to wait. Let’s get to it.”

Tala grinned, a surge of jubilation building to a crescendo within her.

Flow snicked into her hand, sparring sheath firmly woven around the sword blade and guard.

She bent low into a runner’s crouch and at the moment the doors crashed shut behind her, she pushed off with all of her new found power.

The sand vanished from beneath where she’d been standing as the immense pressure she’d exerted—along with the surface area increasing scripts on the bottoms of her feet—had temporarily locked a large section of it together, even as the force threw the chunk back against the doors, burying them and sealing the exit.

If she’d remained in place, she’d have fallen a good four feet down into a hole wider than she was tall, but she wasn’t still in the same place.

Rane’s eyes didn’t even have time to widen in surprise before Flow struck Force.

Tala hadn’t aimed for his weapon, but it was there to block her regardless.

She had aimed for the left side of his back with a wrapping strike, and he’d brought Force around to align with his side and parry the blow.

The impact sent out a wave of power that forced ripples into the sand as it resonated through the room.

He must have moved on pure instinct to block that strike.

-Or his perception has increased?-

Maybe, but he’s only now showing cognizant surprise.

Rane’s lips parted, and he pulled in startled breath… as he punched her with his off hand.

The blow hit her shoulder like a charging bull, but Tala’s stance was firm, and she wanted to test her own durability.

It didn’t hurt even a whisper, feeling much like a strong poke would have when she was a student at the Academy.

Even so, there was a lot of strength behind the blow.

The power of the hit was transferred through her body and into the ground by way of her back foot, and there was enough force to drive that planted foot nearly six inches downward, creating a large circular depression because of her inscriptions.

The downward force also compacted the sand around the depression, and that exploded inward when the pressure had passed, still resulting in her leg being showered with chunks of up to her knee, many of which stuck even if only temporarily.

Despite being slightly off balance, she ripped her back foot up and kicked at his legs even as she rolled backward to get her feet back under her.

He jumped over her attack, and an instant later, a series of cracks resounded through the arena.

Many of them seemed to have been from some of the clumps of sand that she’d carried with the kick tearing through the air, but some were from the stone of the wall behind Rane.

The sound was so unexpected that they both paused and turned to look, seeing a series of small craters in the wall behind Rane. They were in a nearly perfect line, along the arc of her kick.

What?

They exchanged a look, and tacitly came to a silent agreement.

They let their weapons fall to hang by their sides, still in hand but not in any sort of fighting placement. Together, they walked over to inspect the wall.

In the center of each little crater were the remnants of a cluster of sand.

Rane looked at her, aghast. “What did you do?”

“Nothing! I just tried to kick you. Some compacted sand must have come along for the ride and been thrown off.”

The little craters weren’t deep, but they were there, surrounded by little cracks.

“Will that… be repaired?” Tala was a bit hesitant. Do I have to pay for that?

Rane shrugged. “I think so? They have a stone Mage who comes through and enacts repairs, but anything substantial is an additional charge.” Seeing Tala’s face, he quickly added. “This shouldn’t be sufficient to necessitate that.”

Tala frowned. “Even so, that’s irritating. Isn’t this room meant for high-level Archons?”

“Well, yes and no? I told them we would be mainly fighting in melee, and that might have influenced the arena they gave me…”

She snorted a laugh. “Well, it seems like we might need somewhere sturdier to fight.”

“So it would seem.”

An hour later, they stood facing each other in a slightly smaller arena. The floor was still sand, but they were completely surrounded by a feeling of power.

They’d had to dig themselves out of the previous room because Tala had buried the door in sand. Then, they’d had to track down an attendant with the authority to grant them access to the higher rated training rooms.

This one seemed like it would do nicely.

The stone of the room was actively reinforced with inset magics, powered by the city grid.

They had been assured that this room was at least as sturdy as the outer city wall.

The two of them could probably break the walls if that was their aim, but they should hold up to glancing strikes, or the spill over from their clashes.

“Ready, Tala?”

“Absolutely.”

He struck first this time.

Force moved almost lazily from her perspective, even as the air distorted around it from being forcibly compressed.

Where did he get this much physical power? She pushed off to shift herself out of the line of attack, even while she thrust forward with Flow, pushing her weapon into the form of a glaive.

Force changed direction mid-swing, knocking Flow aside.

What the rust?

There had been a trickle of power surrounding Rane as the change had occurred.

No, not physical power. He’s augmenting his movements somehow.

They exchanged a startlingly quick series of strikes, and that trickle of power never manifested again.

Tala slowly drove Rane backward, across the arena throughout the clash, and she began to frown in growing frustration.

Tala had always overshadowed Rane in sheer physical might, and even speed, but he had, overall, been her match due to his better foundation in the fighting arts and his magically enforced defenses.

His defenses still stood, but Tala had closed the gap in regard to technique.

More than that, in that area she had surpassed him.

He was still a master with his blade, easily showing as great proficiency as any his age could hope to achieve, but Tala had a second lifetime of experience to draw on, and far far more brutal teachers and experiences to solidify her foundation, even if at least some of them hadn’t actually happened.

When handling Tali’s memories, Tala had discarded everything false, with the sole exception of leaving the foundations for her martial training. In that way, she didn’t have any of the memories, but she still had the mindset that Be-thric had instilled on which to build Tali’s fighting ability.

More importantly, as she’d noticed before, Rane’s style was designed and tested against creatures larger and stronger than himself. He was built and trained to fight arcanous beasts.

Tala was trained to kill men.

Unless something changed, there was no possibility of Rane matching her for longer than a handful of moments.

She couldn’t fully grasp how disappointing that was to her, and she knew that she would not be able to continue if this kept up. Obviously, her disappointment was clear in her expression and her actions.

Still, she saw a smile tug at Rane’s lips as he was backed almost all the way to the far wall.

The next instant, everything changed.

Rane shifted stances from one reminiscent of the city or caravan guards to one that was more… casual? He suddenly seemed like an artist, critically examining a blank canvas.

Force deflected Flow, but as the weapons met, Flow was sent off in a completely nonsensical direction, the forces applied were almost—but not quite—perpendicular to the direction they should have been directed.

The unexpected jerk pulled her off balance for a fraction of a second, and Rane capitalized on it, punching her shoulder again.

She instinctively braced just as she had before, but his punch somehow pulled with as much force as it should have pushed with.

She was jerked forward, right into the path of follow-up swing. Force’s edge sent out ripples through the air as it ripped towards her.

He’s actively manipulating the kinetic energy and momentum of whatever he hits.

-That’s a level of control and a use of his magics that we’ve never seen before.-

It really is. A smile pulled at Tala’s lips.

This, this would be a challenge.

Even as she moved to counter this most recent attack, her smile only grew.