Millennial Mage

Tala held up the soulcore of Veridicus, her very gaze and compressing aura imparting dissolution upon it, digging deeper into the outer spirit layer by layer.

She’d tossed the main body off to the side, and Lea had claimed it for some experimentation, but the girl had seemed disappointed before she’d sent it to their sanctum for study by the research groups.

Now, her daughter was excitedly talking with the Talons, so Tala put her from her mind, focusing on the increasingly tenuous being within her grasp.

Finally, the last bit of the trembling spirit came off like the broken shell of a nut.

The gate within—the soul bound into unwilling service—seemed almost to sigh in relief as Tala held it with her bare hand. “Pass on, little one. Rest and find peace.”

With no more than that, the gate folded in on itself and was gone, moved on to the next world.

Tala had a new view of things.

In one sense, the large clearing surrounding the blackened, glassed stump of the factory-spawning tree was a terrible place to await the oncoming combined threat of the Black Legion, Forest Spirit, Leshkin, and all their attendant forces.

It was in the bowl of a large valley with sight-lines broken up in every direction by massive trees. The tree-that-was-no-longer had been positioned and situated to be unseen from any great distance, and therefore, when standing where it had been, Tala’s mundane sight could see very little.

Even her magical sight was hampered by the nature of the terrain and the Forest Spirit’s domain around them.

It was a terrible place to meet an equal—let alone superior—force in open combat.

On the other side, this was the former site of a Black Legion factory; a place that had been a Leshkin spawning tree for centuries; a location where she had faced and bested a prime commander of the legion; the location that she, herself, had become Ascending.

Moreover, the Leshkin spawning trees had been points of contention for generations. Every powerful Archon knew where they were, knew the source of pain and suffering they were for the humans of the cycling cities, and yet they couldn’t destroy them, couldn’t remove them. The Forest Spirit wouldn’t let them, and his domain had reigned supreme.

Now, that supremacy was broken.

At that very moment, Walden—the castoff offspring of the Forest Spirit—was establishing his domain and pushing out that of his forebearer.

The spawning-tree-turned-factory had been annihilated, and Tala stood among the ashes, triumphant.

She took a deep breath and closed her eyes, focusing her threefold perspective on the seams in reality.

With quick twists of power, she built endingblades and broke open the seams.

Gasps sounded all around her as Zeme experienced dehiscence across the breadth of her influence, multi-hued, effervescent nothing fracturing the superficial clearing.

The dissolution portion of her endingblades stroked along each side of the gaps, trimming back reality and laying claim to the freed material, smoothing and prepping the edges.

The excess, she built into layers both star- and stoneward before she took them and shunted it all toward Walden, the immortal elk’s eyes widening as he struggled to accept that which she handed over for his oversight.

The second—but primary—part of the endingblades blazed into prominence, cohesion helping the settling folds of Zeme to unify with one another whether superficial or those of the dimension of magic that Walden was continuing to build both star- and stoneward using the ‘excess’ that she’d granted to him.

Hmm. We’re out of endingtree saplings… I suppose seeds will have to do for now.

-That should work longterm, yeah.-

Along with the trimmed excess, the matter that had been disconsolately banished to the Doman-Imithe was drawn along, freed and pulled through by the trimming and extraction—like the pulling free of a long-embedded splinter—rendering the backside of reality clean and unable to be traversed.

Tala had enacted her will a half-mile in every direction, making the strategically questionable site into one that was—from all but a mundane perspective—ideal.

She staggered. Rane caught her, bracing her up even as he called a bench into being for them to both settle down on. Behind the bench, Walden had sunk to the ground, striving to fully claim and subsume that which she’d all but handed to him. Still, it took effort for him to truly incorporate the new territory into his domain.

The last of her post-advancement-high passed along with the surplus of power that she’d wielded for this great act.

Tala huffed a laugh. Great act indeed.

The southern forest was hundreds of miles from north to south, and that was the short axis. She’d claimed, cleaned up, and fixed a circle one mile in diameter, and it had been a stretch to do so.

This change wouldn’t even be an ink blot on a reasonably sized map of the Forest Spirit’s domain.

-Hey now. Don’t discount your act. Humanity has been searching for the means to do what you just did for thousands of years.-

And all it took was a vision of reality and using the endingtrees we long ago left to the annals of history.

-Yeah… Humanity sometimes forgets important things from our past.-

Indeed.

-Mistress Holly is rather glad that you came back, by the way.-

Oh? How did she know I died?

-Something about your inscriptions?-

Tala frowned. …I thought we removed all the scripts she was using to keep tabs on us…

-I’m beginning to suspect that it’s the scripts themselves that are her means.-

I think you might be right… That’s not concerning at all…

-Nope, not in the least.- Alat chuckled. -Are you going to be okay?-

I hope so.

Tala opened her eyes when her nose caught the most glorious of scents. Before her, patiently awaiting her attention, hovered a mug of coffee, held aloft by her husband’s steady hand.

“Oh, I love you.”

He grinned. “I know.” He leaned in and kissed her temple. “I love you too. Thank you for coming back to me.”

She took the drink, took a drink, and let out a long sigh, leaning into her husband. “Always.”

He gave her a searching look before grunting in realization. “This time though, you didn’t actually come back for me.”

She chuckled. “No… He was trying to kill our daughter.”

Rane’s eyes hardened. “I noticed that, yeah.”

“I couldn’t allow him to succeed.”

Rane nodded once. “I agree.”

Tala took another long drink. “This is glorious, Rane. Thank you.”

He chuckled, the momentary scowl vanishing as quickly as it had come. “When in doubt? Coffee.”

Alat cackled maniacally within Tala’s head, causing her to scrunch up her face, despite her contented smile.

Terry flickered into being behind them—beside Walden—and thumped down to the forest floor, effectively turning into a large, feathery boulder as he scrunched down, wriggling contentedly.

Tala tilted her head back until she could look up at the underside of his precious-metal-patterned beak. “How are you doing, Terry?”

He squawked contentedly, eyes remaining closed.

“I got you something.” Tala grinned up at the avian mass.

He cracked an eye open, tilting his head to regard her.

Without saying more, she unnecessarily threw her arm up even as she willed the flank of arch-pig from her sanctum and onto the superficial.

This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings.

Terry’s eyes went wide with glee, and he snatched it out of the air, his beak making a sharp report that echoed off the nearby trees.

He only masticated a few times—clearly savoring the taste—before he threw his head back and swallowed, the magically dense flesh sliding down his gullet into what was very likely a bottomless pit within him.

He clacked his beak contentedly—blessedly not as forcefully as the first time—before licking the bits of blood that had gotten on the outside of it. He then tilted his head once more to stare down at her in expectation.

“That’s all I grabbed. You should be able to hunt up some of your own soon enough, though.”

He chirped in a mix of acknowledgement and irritation before settling back down and closing his eyes.

Anatalis wandered over and regarded them for a long moment before he flopped down behind and beside Terry, curling in close.

Terry opened an eye on that side and regarded the god-beast before he bent his head down to briefly nuzzle the lupine form. He then settled back in to rest.

Tala felt the overlapping power, auras, authority, and wills of those gathered so close to her, and rather than it being overwhelming, she felt a peace and contentment at the mix.

This was what she was fighting for. Not uniformity. Not smooth sailing. Complex uniqueness that fit together as they all worked toward a better tomorrow.

That’s a goal worth fighting for.

-And isn’t that all that we ever wanted?-

She chuckled. Maybe…? Maybe.

* * *

Lea finished a conversation with the newly empowered Talons before they returned to the sanctum and Ironhold—so as to not needlessly bleed off power—and headed toward where her parents were resting.

She was irritated that she hadn’t been able to get any new schemata from the discarded body of the prime commander, but what remained was either no better than what she had or scrambled in a manner that made it clear they were preventing just her type of investigation.

No matter. I’ve still yet to fully master what I already have. She decided that would be her view, she would not be irked by the lost opportunity.

She stopped a little ways away from the bench, feeling the overwhelming power of the gathered beings, even if she couldn’t sense it directly.

It was like being blind and feeling an open furnace. She knew it was there, but she couldn’t see any detail.

My parents are something else. She sighed contentedly and shook her head.

It was an interesting tableau, showing her parents’ enduring affection for one another as they sat leaning into one another on a bench that they’d clearly called from the family sanctum.

The coffee in her mother’s hand had the hallmarks of coming from her father—Tala would have gotten a larger vessel despite it being unnecessary—and the fact that Rane had gotten it for her showed his ongoing care for the smaller woman.

Lea did find that fun, that her mother was, by far, the smallest member of their family. If her proportions had been different, she might have even looked like a teenager tucked against Rane as she was. Despite that, she was clearly a woman, and Lea was glad for how much she looked like her mother.

The immortal elk, Walden, off to one side was clearly dealing with some interesting bits of magic and reality, though once again, Lea could only feel the barest edges of what he was striving to wrangle.

She hadn’t spent much time with the elk over the years, but they had chatted on occasion, her mother allowing her to satisfy her curiosity at the source when appropriate rather than simply giving her the answers to her myriad questions.

Uncle Terry was… well, Uncle Terry. He was in the largest form that Lea had seen him in, clearly curled up and content, and his presence was a balm on her soul.

She knew that he was mother’s familiar, and because of that, even death wouldn’t hold him down for long, but knowing and experiencing were entirely different things, and she’d seen him be obliterated by the Forest Spirit just hours earlier.

“Good to have you back, Uncle Terry.” She spoke softly, but even so, the terror bird cracked an eye, fluffed his feathers contentedly and burbled back his acceptance of her well wishes before he closed his eyes once more.

The great wolf was… new. He was curled around Uncle Terry in a manner that spoke of protection and gratitude, which made sense. Uncle Terry’s earlier sacrifice had been explicitly to aid the Pack Alpha in his first clash with the Forest Spirit.

Lea looked down and scuffed her boot on the glass-smooth, black stump upon which all of this was arranged.

There was ash aplenty around the clearing, but here? It had been blasted away.

I wonder how long this will stand, a testament to Mom’s power? She smiled at that.

She’d come into being in a rather special family, and she was living through unprecedented times.

While she occasionally felt like an outsider, like a passenger brought along on her family’s adventures, she was realizing more and more that that was an ironically self-involved perspective.

The events of the world were happening around her, and she could participate in them or let them pass her by.

Her parents had decided to participate, and she was doing her best to join them in that.

“Lea?” Her mother’s voice drew her from her contemplations.

Tala had an arm out, inviting Lea to join them on the bench, on Tala’s other side.

A warm smile painted itself across Lea’s features, and she moved to slot in beside her mom, sandwiching her against Rane and making their family complete.

* * *

“Tala!” Tala’s eyes snapped open, and she jerked upright, pushing free of Lea and Rane who’d boxed her in on the bench. “Tala Sappherous, you let me out, now!”

Lyn was yelling at the ceiling in her office near the center of Irondale, locked away in Ironhold, and the woman was clearly a bit irate.

Tala flickered away from the comforting embrace of her family and opened a portal for Lyn to come out through.

The older woman stormed out, clear dried tear tracks obvious across her features.

She practically tackled Tala in a very uncharacteristic hug. “I thought I’d lost you, you foolish girl.”

Tala reciprocated the hug, making shushing sounds.

“The hold disconnected from your gate, becoming a free-floating expanded space. Notifications began appearing across the city notice boards, advising that evacuation might be wise and starting to outline ‘death’ procedures.”

Tala winced, remembering how they’d put those in place, that way the citizens within Ironhold wouldn’t be ignorant if Tala did, indeed, die and leave the expanded space adrift. “Lyn, I—”

“No!” Lyn pulled back and shook Tala slightly, barely moving the far more advanced woman. “No, you don’t get to say anything yet.” Lyn took a deep breath, her eyes hardening. “Ron was fighting at your side, and with you gone, his strength was going to fade. Knowing that stubborn man, he’d keep fighting anyway, and I was going to lose you both!”

Tala dutifully kept her mouth shut, waiting for her adjunct to continue her rant.

“You can’t do that to me, Tala. I’m too old to take such a stress to the system. Even mostly Refined, it isn’t acceptable. I was set to lose everyone… I would lose everyone, again.” She let out a frustrated huff before glaring at Tala. “Then. Then! Do you know what happened then?”

Tala cleared her throat, only answering with uncertainty. “No?”

“Then! All the warning messages went away and magic started flooding through the entire hold at a density we’ve never had to deal with before. Every system across the entire hold went into overdrive. We have contingencies in place for this, but do you ever do anything within specification?” Lyn gave Tala a manic look, clearly expecting an answer.

“No?”

“No!” Lyn spoke so closely on the heels of Tala’s answer that it practically overrode her. “You decide to exceed our wildest guesses, forcing every Constructionist to go into a frenzy trying to recalibrate every magical system we have before it could pop due to oversaturation.” Lyn let out a forceful exhalation, rage still clearly in her eyes. “And I’m left to clean it all up, unsure of what happened, why, and what it means.”

Tala cleared her throat awkwardly, waiting for Lyn to continue.

The older woman’s left eye twitched. “Well? Do you have anything to say for yourself?”

Tala nodded fervently. “Yes. Yes! I apologize, Lyn. I didn’t consider the repercussions of what happened in the moment, and I’ve just been trying to deal with things out here since.”

Lyn narrowed her eyes. “The repercussions. Of. What.”

Tala glanced away, her eyes finding Rane, who gave her an awkward smile and a thumbs up of vague support. “I… died?”

Lyn twitched. “You died.” Her left eye almost seemed to tremble. “You. Died.”

“Yeah. Someone was trying to kill Lea, and I couldn’t let that happen.” Tala spoke almost in a rush.

Lyn turned to regard Lea where she sat on the bench, the girl looking quite confused at the sudden attention.

Right. She doesn’t know what happened either. Tala grimaced.

“So, you protected your daughter and advanced?”

She nodded, glad to have conveyed the gist of it. “That’s the short of it.”

Lyn took a deep breath and grabbed both of Tala’s hands, closing her eyes for a long moment. When she opened them again, there was something sparkling deep within. “Well, then. Congratulations.”

“Oh, thank you.” Tala smiled, still uncertain of how she should be reacting.

Then, Lyn’s hand came up, and she lightly smacked Tala on the cheek. “Stop dying. I don’t like it.”

“I’ll… do my best?”

Lyn nodded once. “Good. I expect the full story later. Include me when you give Mistress Ingrit the breakdown.”

It was Tala’s turn to twitch. Right… Mistress Ingrit.

-Oh, she’s very happy with you at the moment.-

Really?

-No, Tala. She’s not. You have given an immortal grey hairs due to the stress you subject that woman to.-

Oh… She nodded, giving Lyn a subdued smile. “I will.”

Lyn nodded once, then turned and strode back through the portal. Before it closed, however, she stuck her head back out, locking eyes with Lea. “I’m glad you’re alright, child. Stay safe, okay?”

Lea gave a little wave. “I’ll try, Auntie Lyn. Thank you.”

Lyn gave a final, firm nod, glared suspiciously at Tala, and went back fully back through the portal.

Tala closed it before anyone or anything else could come through.

-That could have gone worse.-

That it could…

-I’ll handle communication with Mistress Ingrit.-

Thank you, Alat. That’s very kind of you.

Alat grunted, clearly turning her focus to the stated task.

Tala took a deep breath, seeking the peace she’d had only minutes before. When it proved illusive, she sighed and regarded Anatalis.

The wolf opened his eyes and met her gaze. She gave him a confident smile before speaking. “You are done? Good. I think it’s time we discussed the hunt for the Forest Spirit.”

He regarded her for a long moment, then nodded. “As you say.”