Millennial Mage

Tala and Holly walked down a side hall that Tala had never been through before, though it shared the odd mix of aesthetics from the rest of the building: warehouse meets boutique artisan’s workshop was an odd combination.

Holly led her through the third door on the left, and they entered a spacious, mostly empty room.

As Tala looked around, she noticed that every surface, including the floor, was covered in iron.

What? How?

Tala frowned, then stepped back into the hallway and looked at the wall beyond which the room lay. There was no evidence of the iron from the outside to her mage-sight and obviously none to her mundane vision.

As she looked closer, willing her mage-sight to pierce deeper and focus more minutely, she saw the tell-tale signs of illusory scripts. Specifically, the magics she saw were almost identical to those which created the false magical sense around her, via her through-spike. She stepped back inside and looked at Holly. “A safe room?”

The woman shook her head. “No, dear. This is a place to experiment without issue. I just didn’t want a beacon of reflected magic glaring at me every time I used my mage-sight.”

Tala grunted. That makes a surprising amount of sense.

-Besides, her safe room would be much better hidden.- Alat gave a fake gasp within Tala’s head. -Unless that’s what she wants us to think! If we ever need to kill her, we’re checking here first.-

Tala decided not to address that, and since there were two other people in the room, she had a readily available distraction.

The woman, younger and obviously a bit subservient, bowed to Holly, now that Tala wasn’t taking up the Inscriptionist’s attention. “Mistress. I piled some detritus of various kinds to the side, there.” She pointed at a surprisingly robust pile of trash and what looked like construction leftovers. “There is a sizable renovation going on a block from here, and I was able to get some of their cutoffs and unneeded bits. They were grateful that I was willing to take some for them.” She shrugged, a self-satisfied smile plain on her face.

“Great work. Thank you.” Holly gave a small, affirming smile. “You may go.”

“Mistress.” The unnamed woman bowed again and departed without ever having acknowledged Tala directly.

The other person in the room was quite obviously a Healer, and his aura was yellow, marking him as a Refined like Holly. The aura itself was kept well contained below the surface of his skin.

Oh. He’s hiding his rank.

When Tala examined him a bit more closely, she realized that she saw a bit of green in his aura.

Moving towards Paragon? He was someone of power. Not unique, by any means, but of note.

The man glanced after the retreating assistant as she closed the door with a muffled clang, before returning his gaze to Holly. “Mistress Holly, may I now know why my presence was requested?”

Holly grinned. “Mistress Tala, here, is going to perform an experiment, which involves enacting rather dangerous magics within her mouth.”

The man cocked his head to one side. “What are the natures of these magics?”

“Only one nature: dissolution.”

He grimaced. “Mistress Holly, I can repair any physical injury, but if her brain is dissolved, I cannot restore more than the physical structures of her mind. She would be a vegetable.”

Holly waved him off. “That part is being handled.”

He looked deeply skeptical. “So long as you understand my limitations.”

“I do.” Holly glanced to Tala. “Do you?”

“I do. As we discussed before, this was expected.” She then stepped over to the Healer. “I am Tala, by the way.” She gave a shallow bow.

“I am Shir, Mistress Tala. Are you sure you want to try…whatever this is? It sounds incredibly dangerous.” He narrowed his eyes towards Holly. “And Mistress Holly can occasionally be a bit more persuasive than is good for those she persuades.”

Holly rolled her eyes but didn’t comment.

Tala gave a small smile. “I am as sure as I can be, Master Shir.”

“Very well.” He didn’t seem convinced, but he also didn’t seem willing to press the issue. He had glanced at Terry but didn’t comment. He seemed a man who tried to be unerringly polite, whenever possible.

Even so, when Terry flickered to one corner to curl up for the duration of the experiments, his eyebrows rose noticeably and his mouth opened to ask a question, before he mastered himself and gave a slight shake of his head.

Holly ignored the man, and Terry, as she went to one corner and dragged out an iron pedestal with relative ease, placing it in the center of one side of the long room. “Mistress Tala, if you could face away from us when you attempt?”

Tala nodded, walking over and feeling a few pieces before picking up a stone block. “Of course.”

-Don’t you want to try with something…smaller?-

Smaller? This isn’t that heavy, is it some sort of composite, poured stone?

-Tala, you have new scripts. You haven’t tested your strength yet.-

That was a fair point. Tala shrugged to herself. This should show the extent of the effects, even if it doesn’t get dissolved entirely.

After a moment, Alat conceded the point. -Fair enough.-

Tala placed the stone on the pedestal, stepped about three feet away, and pulled out an ending berry seed.

Hesitantly, she placed the little nugget of power and destruction into her mouth.

It tasted awful.

Gah, the iron-salve is not tasty.

-It is a bit waxy.-

Tala didn’t want to lose her nerve, so she bit down.

She immediately felt the building power within the seed, coming to a crescendo over the next few seconds.

As the seed was about to detonate, Tala reflexively spit it out at the stone.

The wet seed slapped against the block, then exploded with a pulse of power.

The stone turned to a fine powder, flowing off the pedestal.

Well, the seeds definitely have a higher energy density than the branches.

-What was that!?-

I spit out the seed.

-I’m well aware of what you did, Tala. That’s not what you were supposed to do.-

I got nervous, okay? She scrunched up her face in irritation.

“Mistress Tala. Are you alright?”

Tala didn’t turn around. Instead, she simply waved over her own shoulder. “I’m fine, Mistress Holly.” She swallowed to help clear her mouth of the odd taste. “I just thought we should have a basis for comparison.”

-Liar.-

Hush.

“Oh, I see.” Holly didn’t sound either convinced or skeptical. She simply sounded…present. Like she was taking in every detail.

Tala swept the iron free of stone dust and picked up the now magically inert seed. This would still grow a tree, wouldn’t it.

-Well, not still, It wouldn’t have before. It was dormant until it expelled the power.-

Fascinating life cycle. She stuck the seed into Kit absently, before picking up another, similarly sized stone block and setting it in the previous one’s place. It really did feel lighter than she’d have expected, but that wasn’t her focus at the moment.

Okay. I can do this.

Another seed went into her mouth, and she bit down without hesitation.

Tala drew in a deep breath and held it, barely managing to stop her own reflexive desire to spit out the seed as the power finished activating.

Power blossomed across her tongue.

She felt the things in her mouth that were not her break apart. Some remnants of her earlier feast that had stuck between or around her teeth, a bit of plaque, and what little saliva she’d managed to work up. The latter left her mouth a bit dry, but it thankfully didn’t drain the moister from her tissue, and otherwise didn’t harm her. Hey, not a bad solution for oral care.

-I veto that at the highest possible levels.-

Spoilsport.

The power somehow tasted… spicy actually. It was far, far superior to the taste of the iron salve. Interestingly, it had broken down everything from its waxy covering as well, save the iron dust that had been in it. That likely contributed to the dry feeling. Well, this is not something you experience every day.

-Well, most people don’t.-

A portion of the scripts lining the inside of her cheeks and even embedded in the bone of her jaw, her gums, and set within her teeth, flared to life. They did not negate the hostile magic. Instead, her power fought it, preventing it from enacting its purpose upon her.

Tala exhaled a tight stream of air and felt that air become saturated with the foreign power as it left her mouth.

She’d tried to aim at the very center of the rock, but her aim was imperfect, and her breath struck it on the left-hand side of the side facing her.

The front edge of the power splashed against the rock, powdering it on contact. What followed after, as the powder fell away, affected the rock deeper in, as well as a little further out.

The result was that after she’d completed her exhale, and all the ending seed’s power was spent, she’d created a neat hole through the block of stone.

The power had continued out the backside and had settled down on some of the other trash on the floor behind the pedestal, powdering that as well.

There was a bit of odd horror to the sight, in Tala’s eyes. There was no sizzling, as if acid had eaten away at the stone, no smoking, no heat or glowing material. There was no evidence that anything had happened at all, save that the stone was no longer whole.

This is…terrifying, actually.

-They really shouldn’t let you keep this.-

Tala would have glared at Alat, but that was rather useless. There are quite a few things that are just as dangerous.

-Yes, but as Trent said, so long ago, this leaves virtually no trace.-

And that was true. Even to her mage-sight, there weren’t traces of power on the stone. The power even dissolved itself so utterly upon being used that it left no telltales signs.

Tala spit out the broken seed fragments and smacked her lips just a bit. “Well, that worked reasonably well.” After a moment’s consideration, she bent and picked up the fragments, placing them into Kit. I don’t want them to somehow find soil and start growing. That would be embarrassing.

Shir strode forward and reached up to touch Tala’s head. At the last moment, he paused. “May I?”

She nodded, and he placed his hand against her forehead, his eyes falling closed.

They immediately snapped open. “What the rust?” He shook himself. “My apologies, Mistress. You seem to have sustained no damage from your experiment.”

Holly nodded and smiled. “And your inscriptions held up and acted as expected, completely without issue.”

Tala grinned. “They did seem to, yeah.”

Skir cleared his throat. “Mistress Holly, may I ask why this Fusing Bound has such an…” He glanced towards Holly, and Tala thought she saw the Inscriptionist give the barest shake of her head. “Altered and enhanced body?”

Tala shrugged, deciding not to try to parse through whatever he’d been going to say.

-Refined. He was going to ask why you had such a refined body.-

Yeah, that’s probably true. Even so, Tala decided it was best to answer, herself. “Most of my magic is directed internally, towards augmenting my physiology and towards regeneration.”

Skir bit one side of his lip in thought, then shrugged. “I suppose that makes sense. Am I still needed?”

Tala nodded. “I would like to try one more thing before you go. This time I will breathe in, after the power detonates.”

The Healer sighed but nodded and stepped back across the room without verbal protest.

Holly grinned. “That does sound quite interesting. Give it a go.”

Tala did just that.

The third seed activated, filling her mouth once again with the destructive power before Tala took in a long, slow breath.

The power didn’t precisely burn as it went down, but it certainly tingled, and that was not accounting for the wave of scripts activating on the way down into her lungs.

The purging process was similar to that within her mouth. There were small bits of material in her throat and lungs from breathing in less than perfect air, among other things. Regardless of origin, they were reduced to such a fine powder, and in such a manner, that Tala knew they’d be carried back out when she exhaled.

There was a headiness to holding the power within her lungs; it seemed to make her chest buzz with the contained, potential destruction.

Even so, she didn’t hold it in for long.

She exhaled, this time sending it out with a full-mouthed breath, rather than a pursed lipped stream.

The resulting miniature tide of destruction broke across the stone, dissolving it in almost an even wave, which passed through the stone, seemingly unslowed. As the dissolving power passed through the hard, heavy stone, the material was turned entirely into a fine dust.

There were some oddities due to the hole already in the stone, but the process was uniform for the most part.

“Fascinating.” Holly walked up beside Tala. “The scripts ensured that all of the power was carried out, without exception. Even if you were immune to the power, exhaling should have left a remnant behind without that functionality.”

“Isn’t that part of the point of the scripts?” Tala gave the woman a concerned look.

“Of course, but you never really used them in totality before. It is nice to have their design actually used.”

She means actually tested. Tala felt her eye twitch. So…another experiment.

-Well, we have asked her to do some pretty unusual things. Better a theoretical “Yes” than an actual “No.”-

That’s fair…

Shir came over and sent another pulse of magic through her, empowering a detailed inspection. “You are perfectly healthy.” His tone was dry, and he turned to Holly. “You and I will speak later.”

“As you wish, Master Shir.”

He nodded once, then smiled at Tala. “Good luck to you, Mistress Tala. I’m sure we’ll see each other again at some point.”

She gave a formal bow. “Thank you for being here. I felt much better knowing we had a healer present.”

“But of course.” His smile broadened.

“It was a pleasure to meet you.”

“You as well.” With that, he waved goodbye and departed.

Tala turned to Holly. “How many times can I do this before the scripts are degraded to the point that it is dangerous?”

“You mean how many seeds?” She tilted her head. “How many cuts can you heal from?”

“I’ve no idea.”

“Precisely, dear. This doesn’t put undue stress on the inscriptions. It is exactly what they were made for, and they do it easily and efficiently.”

Tala grunted, then nodded. “Alright. Thank you. Can I do some more tests?”

“Absolutely, but I have other things to be about. This room is reserved for your use this evening. You have fun now!” Holly waved over her shoulder as she departed, closing the door behind herself.

Well, let’s get to work. I assume you have some things to test?

-Absolutely.-

Tala and Alat spent the next couple of hours testing out different mouth shapes on the exhale, different rates of exhale, and a half dozen other factors.

Their only interruption came when Jenna updated the information in their linked Archive space.

-She says that there was no sign of the arcane on your outing. Also, she applauds the lengths that you were willing to go to make evidence of your magical signature widely noticeable in at least a reasonably plausible fashion.-

Sarcasm?

-I don’t think so?-

Huh. Fair enough.

-She also said that they will be in touch with regards to any further requests.-

That’s a fancy way of saying they’ll reach out.

-It was clear enough.-

Other than that, they were uninterrupted, but it was getting late, and Tala still needed Lyn’s help to reapply her paint, so she headed home.

Of course, on the way she made a stop to grab four cheesy little caravans, two of which she finished before arriving at her own front door.

Lyn, bless her, didn’t ask why Tala needed a reapplication, simply obliging and painting all the parts of Tala that Tala couldn’t easily reach.

Tala, for her part, kept one fingertip on the through-spike to keep it from being covered over.

Lyn’s part done, Tala bid her goodnight and went into Kit. Kannis was apparently working late at the Guildhall on some task or other. She always was a bit of an over achiever…

Within Kit, Tala painted the rest of herself and then began to press the berries.

It wasn’t a long process, though it should have been physically taxing one. Thankfully, Tala had both more strength and more endurance than most.

It was late in the night when she finally finished processing her four barrels of ending berries down to two barrels of juice. They really are far more juice heavy than they should be, if they were mundane berries.

She ate a good portion of the leftover “meat” of the berries while she was pressing the others, taking what she could from them both nutritionally and with regard to their magical power.

The rest she ate while moving through her nightly routine and training. Alat insisted that they add at least a couple of exhalation exercises, to cement the mouth shapes that they’d found to have the most useful patterns of distribution.

One more thing.

Finally, sometime after midnight, she flopped into her bed for much needed sleep.

* * *

The next few days passed uneventfully, leading to Tala’s departure for Marliweather. She trained, both alone and with the guards and Mages. It did take her a few days to return to her previous levels of competence against the guards, as she acclimated to her new physicality. From there, she continued to slowly improve, still losing more often than not, but less often each day.

Terry, as it turned out, did not like holding weapons. He was willing to try to overcome the hang-up, but everyone involved agreed it should be done on his own for the time being.

Because of this, along with the marked change in Tala’s own fighting abilities, they decided to hold off on adding in weaponry for Terry, or mounted fighting for both of them. Instead, they spent what time they had with her to help her get fully acclimated. Unfortunately, that meant that it would have to wait until they returned from Marliweather.

Tala ate a truly ridiculous amount of food, spending a gold per day, instead of the three silver she’d been managing up to that point. And she and Alat worked across the board to refine and improve her progress.

Alat, specifically, took over primary monitoring and enacting of the Fusing process, which Tala had maintained in the back of her mind.

Tala’s alternate interface spent basically every free moment continuing the Fusing process, which is actually how they both realized that Alat could manipulate magical power, directly.

Alat could only manipulate the power that passed through Tala’s gate if Tala explicitly allowed it, but it did work.

This made Alat giddy with excitement, but she put aside the discovery to devote herself to Fusing for the time being. When Tala tried to work with Alat to move their Fusing ahead even faster, it didn’t seem to work very well, so Tala left it to her alternate interface.

With the new method, they estimated that they’d reach the threshold to Fused within a month or two, instead of the three or four they’d been expecting.

Who knows what that threshold will actually look like.

-We’ll tackle that when we get there.-

That was true enough.

The last two days, Tala charged her cargo-slots in the mornings, and finally, the day of departure arrived.

Tala awoke as usual, one thought crystal clear in her mind.

Well, rust. I’m going to see my family.

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