Millennial Mage

Tala was just leaving the teleportation tower, after dropping off Dagan and Alva, and she had set her sights on having a discussion with Terry.

She almost headed back to the alchemy shop to set Kit on the door and speak with Terry in the sanctum.

Instead, she hesitated. If she did that, she knew that it would be noticed and set off a cascade of questions as to how the twins got off, if they were alright, and things of that nature.

It would take quite a long while before she could take time to speak with Terry.

Therefore, she went to her bench in the park near the family house.

It was where she’d met Nalac on his way home from school nearly a year and a half ago.

There wasn’t much snow about; spring had begun to fight back winter, leading to more melting and less snowfall.

The bench was vacant, so she sat down and opened Kit.

“Terry? Can we talk?”

Terry flickered out, standing on the bench, sized to put their eyes at an almost equal level. He had a stern, stiff demeanor about him.

“What can I do for you, Terry?” Tala kept her voice calm and level, while also making sure that the warmth of her affection for the avian came through as well.

He cocked his head to the side, awaiting her explanation.

“Something is wrong, I can tell that much. What do you need? Do you need me to take you beyond the city’s defenses? Do you need something different to eat?”

He seemed to hesitate for a long moment.

Tala felt a building nervousness that she couldn’t explain, like a thousand voices—just outside of her ability to hear—were screaming at her that this was important.

No, not out of hearing range, maybe behind some sort of barrier, blockage, dampening field, or wall.

-Maybe the fourth?-

Yeah, it could be the fourth.

It felt like a thousand voices were trying to emphasize the importance of this talk with Terry from just beyond a metaphysical wall.

“Terry?”

The avian shook himself in the negative, indicating that it wasn’t either of the things she had offered. He then hunkered down, looking up at her questioningly.

“I assume you don’t want to spar again.”

He tilted his head and squawked irritably.

“Right, hard to answer that. Do you want to spar again, now?”

He shook himself.

“Do you want to discuss the bond?”

He hesitated, then let out a tentative trill.

“Yes, but not how I mean it?”

He bobbed to that.

“So, not a soul-bond, but our friendship? Our partnership?”

He bobbed slowly.

“Close…”

Terry started flickering to two spots, just as he had so long ago. He showed two terror birds fighting, growing together in ability. This time he didn’t go for nearly as long, as he was seemingly referencing that earlier time.

“Training together? Growing together.”

He bobbed.

“And that along with the previously indicated partnership… are you talking about us being a group, or… herd?”

He squawked loudly in irritation.

“Right, right. Herds are groups of prey.” She suppressed a smile. “How silly of me. You are thinking about us as a flock?”

He slowly bobbed. The motion conveying importance and seriousness rather than hesitance.

“You are trying to decide if we can grow together or if it is time for us to part.” It wasn’t a question.

He bobbed again.

“So… what are you thinking?”

He gave her an unimpressed look before standing up and sinking back into his previous position.

“You’re saying, ‘I’m here, aren’t I?’”

He trilled, and the tonality and timbre cared a note of ‘obviously.’

“Well, that’s good. So, you’ve decided to stay?”

He hesitated before finally bobbed his assent.

Tala felt a wave of relief as the tension she’d felt building was released. “I’m glad.”

She smiled and scratched the side of Terry’s head.

“So, you wanted to discuss it?”

He bobbed.

“But you’ve decided.”

He bobbed yet again, making sure to keep her hand in scratching range.

“So, you wanted to tell me that you’d decided.” She nodded to herself. “You want me to know that this is important and significant. So, what does that mean?”

Around the scratches, he gave her a flat look.

“Right, right. You can’t easily answer a question like that.” Her smile grew. “So, do you want to bond?”

Terry shook himself.

“That’s alright. Do you think you might ever want to?”

He immediately bobbed, then shook himself again.

“You think that you might, depending on how it goes?”

He nuzzled her hand before flickering to her shoulder.

“You want to test things out, operating under this new framework?”

He headbutted her cheek.

“So, more sparring?”

He chirped happily.

“But not today.”

Terry trilled.

“Right, right. You already said that. Then I’ll look forward to our match tomorrow.”

He hunkered down on her shoulder, clearly content.

-Well, that’s progress.-

Yeah, he’s with us for the time being. I can understand not wanting to soul-bond.

-It did seem like he was interested in the idea, but still wanted to think on it, or try out something or…-

Yeah, didn’t have a definitive answer… She glanced over at Terry.

He cracked open one eye to look back at her.

“So, we’re testing out being a flock, eh?”

He cooed, closing his eye.

“What does that mean?

He opened his eye again and shuffled his feet a half dozen times before letting out a huff.

Tala grinned. “Not now? Let you sleep?”

He headbutted her cheek and hunkered back down.

“Alright, alright.” She scratched his head and neck. “We can talk through the specifics later.”

He pushed into her hand even as she stood up and headed back towards the shop.

The remainder of her time with her siblings passed in a similar fashion to the first weeks, simply with two fewer siblings to spend time with. Well, and Terry was around a lot more, which made everything even better.

Tala intentionally filled her days with as much time with her siblings as possible. She also sparred with Terry when he was amenable, and she had time.

The first time, the day after their discussion, she noticed something important: The effects of her working within the sparring circle had remained.

As soon as she noticed, she honestly wasn’t surprised. Her gravity enhancements were similarly enduring, and the banishing trigger that she’d imbedded in her mindset for the working hadn’t been broken.

Tala called over Master Simon and asked him to analyze the space.

After an initial sweep, he began to frown and proceeded to perform rather intensive scans, refusing to say more than that the results were odd before he finished.

When he did finish, however, he expanded on what he meant by that, “I wouldn’t say that the integrity of reality is greater, here. Whatever you did, it didn’t change the nature of the space, but it is more stable.” He scratched his chin as he went over the results of his scans, displayed on the slate before him. He was still obviously trying to wrap his mind around what he was seeing.

“So… what does that mean?”

“If reality was a cracked plate, you didn’t heal the cracks, but you did dip the whole thing in glue.”

She tilted her head to one side. “So, I’ll ask again. What does that mean?”

He chuckled. “My apologies, yes, yes. Analogy isn’t an explanation. This means that this area mimics unbroken reality in many ways but not nearly all. I think that this section of your sanctum should be more resistant to degradation, but that would take a lot of testing. It is also more dimensionally resistant, so I think it would be harder to expand, or enact other similar magics within.” He shook his head, a frown creasing his brows. “Even though you don’t know exactly what you were amplifying, what level of amplification do you think you reached?”

Tala thought back on the fight, checked with Alat, then shrugged, “Honestly? A couple of trillion times.”

He blinked at her. “Come again?”

“I think that I amplified the metaphysical forces involved by a factor of at least two trillion.”

He rubbed the bridge of his nose with his off hand as he grimaced. “You grabbed onto an unknown… something and amplified it to an insane degree?”

“Yes? Well, that is assuming that I was getting a similar recursion to my gravity amplification.”

His now open eyes allowed her to see one twitch. “You can amplify gravity that much?”

“Well, yeah. That’s how I can make these.” She reached out toward him, one of her siege orbs appearing in her hand.

He took it gingerly, starting to nod. “You mentioned these, but I suppose I didn’t consider exactly what it meant.”

“To be clear, I can’t do this on a wide scale, but for a discrete target-set?” She shrugged. “It’s very possible. So…?”

“We don’t know what you amplified, exactly, nor really to what extent. We have no basis for comparison, so I can’t possibly tell you what you’ve done or the results.”

“Should I… stop?” She was quite hesitant to agree to that. Even though she didn’t exactly understand what she was doing, it did seem to make Terry have to work harder, and Tala felt like she needed every edge she could get, especially now that the sparring was so much more important.

He gave her a flat stare. “The rationalist in me begs you to undo whatever this is…”

“But?” Tala hid a hopeful smile.

“But… I cannot detect any specific danger from this, and with how wide-ranging my information gathering artifacts are, I should be able to detect at least an inkling if there is any. Additionally, I am curious beyond what I would think reasonable, were I in a standard, Constructionist position.”

“So?”

“So, I think that you are somehow affecting my rationality.” He gave her a narrow-eyed inspection.

She huffed a laugh. “I’ll follow your recommendation.”

“I gathered that.” He took a deep breath and let it out slowly. “Let me check on the progress every day, but otherwise, keep on, I suppose. It looks safe from everything I can tell. If I remember correctly, your magics have the ability to be broken by yourself?”

She nodded. “I leave a trigger within my workings that allows me to break them, yes.”

“Alright then.” He looked down at the slate, longing clear in his eyes. “How about I watch from the sidelines whenever you are using the working, and if I tell you to break it, you break it instantly and with no questions asked?”

Tala smiled. “That sounds like a good plan, and I accept the conditions.” She glanced over to where Terry was sunning himself while waiting. “Ready?”

His answer was to flicker into position on one side of the sparring ring.

“Alright, let’s do this.”

So, every day Master Simon monitored the aspects of reality and existence around the sparring ring while Tala and Terry sparred.

Every day, Tala continued to amplify the connection between the pieces of reality, slowly making it harder and harder for Terry to use his movement abilities.

After their matches, Tala would go over the results with Master Simon and discuss the insights and thoughts he had on all aspects of the fight he was able to observe both with and without his artifacts.

Thus, the month was spent, and before she really registered the passing days, it was time for Tala to depart.

While she didn’t make a big deal about it, her siblings all knew she was leaving, and they each said their goodbyes.

Sella, in particular, tried to make demands for Tala’s quick return.

For Tala’s part, she promised to communicate more often, and to return during the following summer—if not before—when Nea would be making her final choice about whether or not to go to the Academy.

The siblings shared a final dinner together, Mistress Petra going above and beyond to make it a special one.

The Zuccat children—Karsa, Segis, and Metti—dropped through to bid goodbye to the Karweils, as well. The children had actually played as a group quite a bit over the previous month, so the goodbye was a bittersweet one.

Karsa was actually planning on leaving for the Academy in just a few months, so she would see Dagan and Alva there, and if Nea joined them, she’d have another friend too.

Terry joined the siblings for the full dinner, and they all enjoyed throwing out bits of food for him to snatch throughout the meal.

The next day Tala was up and ready for departure before daybreak.

Kit had been left on the alchemy shop front door, so when Tala exited, she chose to exit outside, where she found her father sitting, just where he had been when she had arrived.

How long was he out here, to make sure to catch me leaving?

He was in the process of standing as she stepped out, likely having heard the door open, and she didn’t pause, closing the door and pulling Kit to her belt.

He gave a short, respectful bow. “Mistress Tala.”

“Master Alchemist.”

If he was insulted or saddened by her address, he didn’t show it. “Thank you for the kindness you showed to my children. I know you care for them, so I don’t intend to say you would have acted otherwise, but I wanted to specifically express my thanks.”

Tala almost bristled, but in the end, she decided it wasn’t worth the energy. “You are welcome.”

“Thank you, also, for talking with Dagan and Alva about their futures as Mages. From what I was able to gather, they did seem to have more realistic expectations than I’d previously intuited.”

“Oh?” That was news to Tala.

“Yes, it was a small thing. They seemed to be approaching the prospect more like a career path than a storybook to step into. Thank you for that.”

“I’m not sure that was due to me. It could just be that they were faced with the growing, very real truth of their own departure.”

“In either case: Thank you.”

“You are welcome.”

They stood there for a long moment, silence filling the space between them.

It was not the comfortable silence of new-fallen snow, nor the deep inhalation before a storm. It was simply an emptiness.

There was nothing between them at all.

“Was there anything else?” Tala finally asked.

After a brief, final hesitation, he nodded, “Just to say, your mo—” He closed his mouth and eyes, shook his head and restarted, “My wife and I are here if you ever wish anything of us. Even if that is just to yell or rail or… anything. We will be here, until we aren’t.”

Tala had been building toward irritation as he spoke, ready to snap at him that she would never want anything from him, but the final sentiment stopped her in her tracks.

They would be there, until they weren’t.

They’ll be waiting, until they die.

-Which won’t actually be all that long, at least not in the scale of your life now.-

Tala grimaced.

She didn’t want to do this, now.

She didn’t want to do this, ever, but certainly not now.

Still, she couldn’t muster the rage to snap back at him, not anymore.

Thus, she gave a simple response, the depths of her emotional exhaustion leaking through into her tone. “I will keep that in mind. Goodbye, master Karweil.”

Without another word, she turned and strode away.

Her mirrored perspectives saw him watch her go.

By his movements, even though he didn’t reach after her, he seemed to want to.

Finally, he bowed at her back and muttered too low for him to have thought she could hear, “Goodbye, Tala. Goodbye, my daughter. I love you.”

She didn’t change her pace or give any indication that she had heard.

She did flex her will, rolling her iron over her eyes before the building tears could break free.

That rusting man. Why can’t he act like the monster I knew?

-Would you really want him to be that man to your siblings?-

Tala growled internally. How are you so calm?

-While I am you, I am not you. While he is my father on a soul level, that is all the connection I have ever had to him. Everything else has just been through you and your memories. Because of that, I don’t have the emotional weight surrounding him that you do.-

That makes no sense.

-We can debate my nature later. Do you really want him to be who he was?-

Tala made it out through the southern gate of Marliweather before she answered, Alat giving her the long minutes of silence that she needed in order to start to organize her tumbling thoughts and emotions. No. I am glad that he is not that man to them.

-But it’s not enough.- Alat guessed.

Enough? That has nothing to do with it. He was that man to me. He misused our connection to the point of breaking it, and I don’t trust him enough to allow it to be rebuilt.

-There is a difference between rebuilding a father-daughter relationship and having civil interactions.-

I don’t want civil interactions with him.

Alat sighed. -No, you want him to be your dad, but he broke that.-

Rusting right he broke that.

-And you are so broken over that loss that you can’t let anything exist in that space?-

Why should I?

-Isn’t that like having a one of a kind piece of art that gets shredded; then, instead of finding something to fill that space on your wall, you just leave it blank and grumble about the shredding every time you pass by? Maybe even leaving up the irreparably damaged piece in place as a monument to what was lost?-

Tala didn’t seem to have a response to that, and Alat was wise enough to not press the issue further.

Thus, Tala’s mind was unusually quiet, overtop her turbulent and unsettled emotions as she began her run back to Bandfast.