Millennial Mage

Tala swayed gently, keeping her balance perfectly in control atop the cargo-wagon as it trundled northward across the plains, bound for Arconaven.

It had been a fruitful winter, especially in regards to her siblings. Tala had made great strides in rebuilding the foundations for relationships with each of her brothers and sisters. She was even corresponding with several of the older ones on occasion. Though, given that most of her time was spent between cities, they weren’t quick back-and-forths so much as touch-points between in-person visits.

Even though Nalac and Illie had departed for the Academy two months earlier, Tala was able to exchange notes with them as well, though the twins’ early classes were demanding enough that they had little free time for such things.

Also, if the correspondances they had sent were any indication, their new friends were taking up much of what little time they had outside of training.

I hope their experience is radically different than mine. They should start solidifying their fundamental understanding in the next few months, and get their first inscriptions shortly thereafter.

It was an exciting time for them, and Tala felt a warmth within her at being able to be going through it alongside them, even if from afar.

Now, spring had arrived, and with it had come more rain than usual. Copious amounts of rain that, more than anything, had reminded Tala of swimming through a lake, every time she’d stepped outside.

That near constant deluge, coupled with the melting snow, had led to soggy, treacherous ground and lots of mud.

Much of the lowlands among the rolling hills now resembled marshland more than fertile plains, but that should pass soon enough.

The cloud cover had finally broken around noon and with the near constant, stiff wind, the sky was finally completely clear. Though, they were fast approaching the nightly stop and dinner.

We should reach Arconaven tomorrow. And if it stays clear, the ground should be clean and dry by the end of the day. She hesitated, considering the near two weeks of constant downpour. Drier at least.

-Another new city to explore, finally.- Alat didn’t much care about the mud, and before they departed, she had been grousing more and more about only seeing Bandfast, Marliweather, and the land in between. In truth, Tala had begun to get sick of the repetitive scenery too.

Mistress Odera sat in her customary place near the back of the wagon, eyes closed and magical senses surveying their surroundings. She still hadn’t managed to make an Archon star within her iron monstrosity, but she kept insisting that she was close.

Tala didn’t have to turn around to check on the woman.

Instead, one of the small drops of blood that spun around Tala’s head granted her a secondary perspective via aspect mirroring.

She no longer needed to close her eyes to keep from being overwhelmed by two sets of inputs. Nor did the movement of that perspective, as it orbited or as she shifted its focus, make her sick.

Two other drops rotated along with the first, likewise filled with aspect-mirrors of her perception, though Alat was coopting the senses from those other two.

Tala could still perceive through them if she so desired, but she did not desire such. Much of her focused training through the winter had been specifically aimed towards shutting out those perspectives, to allow Alat to be her omni-directional eyes and ears.

And Alat excelled at that. Especially in sparring, Alat warned Tala of anything she might otherwise miss, and their synergy had grown to the point that Tala didn’t have to look for herself to block most attacks that Alat identified.

There was the added blessing that Tala’s specific mage-sight scripts modified Tala’s perspective, directly, rather than providing a new sense that overlapped her sight. Thus, when Tala mirrored her sight onto the three orbiting bloodstars, they benefited from her mage-sight as well.

The whole process was surprisingly effective now that she and Alat had gotten the hang of it.

Her tungsten bar levitated as if nailed in place, just behind her neck, suspended by the two bloodstars inside of it. The sphere floated just in front of her sternum, similarly affixed.

Both showed knicks, dings, and even a couple of deep cuts from where they’d directly parried attacks in sparring and during the occasional aracanous encounter.

Even though the last four months had been incredibly peaceful, all things considered, they hadn’t been free of violence.

Her elk leathers fit better than ever, given that Tala and Alat had continued to investigate how to minutely adjust the garments, precisely as they wished. They’d recently discovered how to change the colors, and after having a bit of fun with some more garish shades, they had settled for a set of earthtones.

Flow and Kit hung in counterbalance to each other, and she’d added a row of small vessels—smaller than the width of her belt—across the back of her belt to house her bloodstars when not in use.

The maximum she’d been able to wield effectively in a combat situation was still only eight, alongside those in her tungsten tools. While that wasn’t an increase in number from earlier in the winter, her utility of and dexterity with them was improving by leaps and bounds. She could do more with all of them at once than she’d been able to manage with a single one at the start.

Maybe tomorrow I’ll add in a ninth. It was about time.

Terry lounged off to one side, sprawled out on his back, legs extended to allow his stomach to absorb as much sun on as possible.

She occasionally flicked a bit of jerky out for him, and while it vanished mid-flight, proving that he’d caught it, he never seemed to move. In return, he would occasionally flicker to one of the weapons laying on the wagon-top and hurtle it at her without warning. That still took him enough time that she was able to notice his absence, however momentary.

As the weapon came her way, it was Tala’s task to deflect it with bloodstar or tungsten tool without turning her head, or stopping whatever she was doing at the time.

It had turned out to be ridiculously excellent practice, if she were being honest. And it was quite a bit of fun, now that she had improved enough that she wasn’t being hit with fast-flying ballistic weapons every couple of minutes.

She still hadn’t implemented the leshkin shields which sat within Kit, nor even attached the mounting plates she’d had made for them. She always found reasons for delay, as they would require a few weeks of dedicated practice to incorporate into her other abilities, whenever she added them. Things were progressing at a good pace, and she really didn’t feel like taking a step back towards incompetence.

Maybe by midsummer.

Alat snorted within Tala’s mind. -More likely, we’ll do it as soon as we come through a battle where they would have been useful.-

That’s…fair. She knew that she should get on with it, but not in the middle of a venture, and certainly on the way to a new city. I’ll have some free-time in Arconaven. I’ll do the prep work and initial testing there.

Tala felt a slight warning as a hatchet sailed from near the rear-right-corner of the wagon at the back of her head. The tungsten bar simply spun, lifting slightly as it took on the appearance of a silvery, semi-translucent disc.

The incoming weapon was deflected back and down, where it struck into the wagon top with a thunk.

It had definitely made things more interesting, when Terry had begun aiming such that the most effective blocking techniques would send the weapons into nearby things or people that Tala didn’t want to harm.

Mistress Odera grunted at the sound but didn’t otherwise react. The head driver, a middle-aged woman named Bilsta, no longer jumped or even twitched at the noise, but Tala did detect a slight tensing of her shoulders.

The tungsten rod stopped without seemingly needing to slow, and drifted back down to its previous resting place.

Tala obligingly tossed a hunk of jerky for Terry before she returned her focus to the present.

It really was a beautiful day.

She took in a deep breath, relishing the wonderfully amazing smells of oncoming spring, even if they were overlaid by those of mud and ox-dung.

Take the bad with the good.

-Then, sift out the bad and throw it away.-

Tala grinned. True enough. She hesitated. Was it my perception or yours that picked up that attack?

-Mine. You responded quite well.- Alat did seem quite pleased by the sound of her voice.

Tala’s grin widened, even as she allowed her perspective to track the Mage Protector who had joined her this leg of her trip. Marnin.

He was passing by the right hand side of their wagon as he made a circuit of the caravan.

Marnin was an enthusiastic Mage, a Material Creator, specializing in air. His attacks and defense were simply that, compressed, or gusts of, air. He’d been surprisingly effective in driving away arcanous threats and not causing any retaliation.

Honestly, after seeing the man work, Tala had been shocked that his skill set wasn’t more widely seen, especially within the ranks of Mage Protectors. The guards even seemed not to mind the lessening of harvests too much. They were, after all, not required to engage with nearly as many threats as standard.

Though, to be fair, I haven’t been exposed to that many, not yet.

This was her first trip after her block of back-and-forth ventures to Marliweather, and it was the first one without Rane since her very first trek to Alefast, Waning.

Rane, unfortunately, still had not broken into Fused, though he continued to insist that he was getting close. He had taken a different route from them, beginning his loop of the cities by heading south to Makinaven. From there, he was going to go west towards Retindel, then through Truhold, Namfast, and Manaven before coming out of the forest cities and meeting up with her and Mistress Odera in Clevenhold.

Tala and Mistress Odera had decided to take the wiser path, at least for Tala, and go north to Arconaven. From there, she’d go to Audel on the coast, then southwest to Surehaven before heading to Clevenhold to meet up with Rane. Their route had two fewer stops, so the two women would have longer hold-overs between trips, but that served Tala’s purposes just fine.

She was ready to see more human cities, to experience their variety, and begin truly considering her place in the world.

After they met up with Rane, they would backtrack through Surehaven to Audel. Then, all together, they’d go to the new Alefast and then visit the two sites of the cities under construction, working one of the caravans going to each from Alefast.

Thankfully, the forest to the north didn’t contain any leshkin, so it wouldn’t be a barrier to Tala’s plans.

Still, this is a half-year total trip with fourteen legs for Mistress Odera and me, seventeen for Rane. They’d even be stopping back through Marliweather as their last city before returning to Bandfast.

The only city that Rane wouldn’t visit on his grand tour would be Alefast, the Waning one. As he’d grown up there, that wasn’t much of a negative, at least that’s what he’d said.

Mistress Odera cocked her head to one side, and the motion brought Tala back to the present, once again.

“What is it?” Tala didn’t turn around, trusting the woman to hear her voice.

“Something…odd. Do you feel that? On the wind? I think it’s been there, building, for a while, but I only just felt it.” Mistress Odera’s magical senses often manifested in the woman as a feeling, so Tala immediately focused on her own mage-sight.

The wagons were entering a small stand of trees, likely coming up on their stopping place for the night. An ambush now would be rather unideal.

Alat? Anything?

-Maybe.- The alternate interface drew Tala’s attention to what could have been threads of power in the air-currents.

“I think so? It seems like a relaxing effect. Something to lull us off our guard?”

“It could be. Could be.” The older Mage seemed troubled, as was quite reasonable, if Tala was being honest.

“There’s a bit of serenity, too. A desire for…isolation?”

“That is what I am feeling.”

Tala flicked through her memory quickly, finding a few arcanous creatures that fit. One jumped to the forefront, however. “Bog hag? Maybe more than one?”

Mistress Odera grunted in acknowledgement but didn’t reply. Tala bit her lip, considering.

“I really hope it’s not bog hags. I didn’t think they left the swamps, northeast of Arconaven. Do you think this weather is enough to have drawn them this far south?” Around their other studies, Tala and Alat had taken a lot of time to thoroughly delve through the bestiaries provided by Grediv that were open to them, along with supplemental works that Alat pulled from the Archive.

They’d researched these beasts, specifically, as they were pernicious, arcanous near-sapients, almost like cyclops, who used magic to strip flesh from their victims, before using the material to patch and cover over their own grotesque forms. They preferred human flesh, but would take what they could get their slick, spiny hands on. To add to the difficulty of dealing with them, the creatures would often, somehow, bend other arcanous creatures to their will.

No one seemed to know where they came from, and after several extensive campaigns had failed to eradicate them, humanity had moved into a mitigation posture towards the creatures.

Avoid, kill on sight, and keep the passengers close.

Tala nodded. “Worth using the standard tactics either way.”

“I think so, yes.” Mistress Odera seemed more withdrawn than usual, though that might have just been Tala’s imagining.

The head driver leaned back, while keeping her eyes forward. “Circling the wagons, Mistresses. It’s time to stop for the night.”

Tala nodded. “Thank you, Bilsta.”

Their two-wagon caravan pulled in a wide circle before stopping in a stand of trees, a clearing already among the tall trunks ready for them to shelter from the wind. This was one of a dozen pre-prepared places that Blista could have chosen, so there wasn’t really a specific danger of ambush at this location.

“I’ll go talk to the guards and connect with the cargo-slot servants.” The passengers had largely kept themselves confined within the dimensional storage spaces set aside for them this trip. So, she had time.

Tala hopped down, her feet sinking slightly into the springy turf, even as the guards were knocking on the cargo-slots to signal that the wagons had stopped for the day.

“On me, when you have a moment.” The guards turned her way, their current task complete.

The doors swung open almost as one, and Tala heard cries of glee from inside.

There was a wave of noise, as dozens of children exclaimed excitedly before practically boiling out through the open doors, the harried cargo-slot servants and other adults close behind.

Tala froze on the spot. Rust. They’ve been staying inside at all the other stops… The rain had stopped.

“Stop!” Tala called, but the noise from all the passengers exiting almost as a unit and scattering in all directions overrode her.

Mistress Odera’s eyes snapped open in alarm, and she turned, calling to a guard that was passing behind their stopped wagon.

What followed was near five minutes of panicked wrangling, resulting in the whole group grumpily crowding back around the cargo-wagon, looking up at Tala, Mistress Odera, and Marnin, who’d joined them after the group was gathered.

Tala cleared her throat. “We’ve felt some odd magics in the air, so I want everyone to stay close.”

There was some groaning at that, but not much, thankfully. Everyone knew that caravan trips were dangerous, and that the Mage Protectors were to be respected.

“We know you want to stretch your legs, especially you little ones.”

There was some laughter at that.

“But we need you to be safe. Please, keep to groups no smaller than three, and there should be at least one adult in any group. That means two children and one adult at the least.”

Murmurs of assent came back to her. They were reasonable restrictions.

Mistress Odera’s head jerked, then, her eyes widening. “Mistress Tala.”

-Tala, the magic is gone.-

Tala looked around unnecessarily, her perspective already sweeping their surroundings. What changed?

She felt a fear begin to rise in her throat. Were they about to be attacked? Were they surrounded?

Marnin, though only a Mage, was battle tested and had clearly noticed their reactions. His mage-sight wasn’t always active, nor was it likely sensitive enough to see the magics that had been there, but that hardly mattered.

The passengers obviously noticed the Mages reactions as well. One called up, even as the group as a whole pressed in closer to the wagon. “Is everything alright?”

Tala looked back down to them. “Please do a quick headcount. We might need to retreat into the wagons, quickly, and I don’t want anyone being left behind.”

Tala watched as the servants for each cargo-slot moved through the passengers, counting their charges.

Several parents called to their children, and that started a cascade of calls back and forth as the smaller passengers moved through the crowds towards their guardians.

There really is a large number of passengers this trip.

Thankfully, the noise started to calm down as parents and children found one another amidst the shuffle.

Then, the reason for the fading magic came, along with a wail from a man near the middle of the crowd. “Jon? Jon!! Where is Jon? Where is my son?!”

Another voice also lifted in response, a woman’s this time. “And my Tam. I don’t see him! Weren’t they together?”

A few moments of frantic information collecting revealed that the two children, neither older than ten, had sprinted out of the cargo-slots to play with their peers as soon as wagons had stopped. The two hadn’t returned to the wagons with the others when they were called back, though no one had specifically seen them either move off or stay behind.

Tala closed her eye taking a fortifying breath. Think, Tala, think.

-Well, we know why the magics have stopped.- This meant it was almost definitely a bog hag.

Hopefully not more.

-They caught their prey.-

Tala shook her head. There’s no way we’re letting this stand.

There would be other creatures in-thrall to the arcanous humanoids. Even when they found the children, it was going to be a tough task to free them.

Her eyes snapped open, the beginnings of a plan coming together within her mind.

“Terry, I need you.” She raised her voice, then. “Alright, quiet!”

When the din of fearful conversation calmed down, Tala continued.

“Here’s what we’re going to do.”

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