Chapter: 447 - To Study the Invisible (Patreon)

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Tala set about arranging for her and Rane’s break with zeal, coming out of the fog that had plagued her for the past few weeks.

For it to be truly a break, not just another item on her todo list, they decided to make it of indefinite length. It wasn’t that she actually planned to be gone for even as much as half a year, but the very idea of having a time by which she had to be back, would have been a burden in the back of her mind, at least in her current state.

Alat masterfully arranged things with Irondale, letting them know that Tala would be away from cities for the next few weeks at the very least, with no promised date of return stated.

Because of that, Tala and Rane decided to start their trip after two weeks, to allow the citizens of Irondale to stock up where needed, and otherwise arrange for the absence.

Hey, if nothing else, this will be a good test of if they really want to be attached to me when I’m wandering around.

-Indeed it will. We’ve already had a couple of people notify us of their departure.-

Oh?

-Only two. Not even a percent of our population, which I think is rather promising.-

It became rather obvious that one reason most people had no issue staying was Irondale’s immigration policy, which required a payment in advance of the funds needed to teleport out.

Most people simply assumed that—if they had to—they could cash out that and teleport back to a city of their choosing, only losing the possessions they had with them. It wasn’t a great end result, but it turned it from a gamble for their lives to one for a bit of stuff. The people who had already chosen to live in Irondale were generally of the type to willingly take that risk.

As for their roles as Defenders of Alefast? Master Grediv took their request for a leave of absence in stride. In fact, he went out of his way to thank them for taking the time rather than withdrawing from their positions. They would be welcomed back at any time.

Apparently, it wasn’t unheard of for Defenders to burn out due to one cause or another, even if it was still generally a rare occurrence. It happened more often than Defenders dying on the job, so in the end, there were far more former Defenders than Tala might have assumed for such a dangerous line of work.

Their unit mates were similarly understanding, wishing them the best. Master Limmestare and Mistress Vanga both teased in their own way that they’d be sad to miss a wedding, if one happened, much to Tala’s embarrassment, and Rane’s discomfiture. 

As a final thing, Tala and Alat reached out to her siblings to let them know that it was possible that Tala wouldn’t be in Alefast when the time for their next visit came around. Other than that, she would keep them apprised and make up the visit when she returned.

They were understanding in their response, and that was that.

All loose ends were tied up.

Well, Artia and Adrill were a bit cross as she would have been taking their grandson from them for an indeterminate length of time. In the end, Artia applied for an exception to Irondale’s gateless policy, and she and Adrill moved into Irondale permanently.

She brought the totality of her stock that she couldn’t sell with her, and it was only then that Tala realized a massive benefit to Irondale.

-Yeah, we really should have thought of that previously.-

Indeed. Tala was a bit floored that it hadn’t occurred to her earlier.

They could transport unbound artifacts without restriction, indefinitely. It was, after all, how Master Lisa maintained his own stock in a non-waning city. Tala just hadn’t extrapolated from there.

Should we… tell someone?

-Absolutely not. At least not yet. We should definitely find a way of buying up a bunch of artifacts, though. We could become the primary source of artifacts rather easily in time.-

…work up a contract with Artia. If she hasn’t realized it, she will soon enough.

-I mean, we could keep power away from the artifacts that she brought and keep her from realizing?-

No, that’s just unkind. I won’t take action to purposely spoil someone’s livelihood. Tala sighed. Let her know of the possibility, and find a way of working things out in a good way.

-Will do, me.-

Tala shook her head, smiling. Thank you, me.

-But of course!-

“What?” Rane leaned forward, across the breakfast table, having obviously noticed her action.

“Hmm? Oh! Alat’s just being silly again.”

He gave a hesitant smile. “I will say, sometimes the way you talk about your alternate interface makes me a bit nervous to get my own.”

Tala shrugged. “Honestly, it’s basically exposing me to how I likely seem to those around me. It’s been eye opening in many ways. I think you’ll do just fine.”

“Alright… I’ll trust you on that.” He frowned. “But isn’t it said that we dislike most in others what reminds us most of ourselves?”

Tala considered. “Yeah, I have heard that.”

“Then… shouldn’t a perfect copy of myself be the most irritating person to me who could possibly exist?”

He is so wise.

-Hey!-

Tala grinned. “Somewhat, but honestly, Alat and I have diverged enough that while she is still me she is me with a different set of circumstances. Yours will likely take longer as you are more Advanced than I was when Alat joined me, but as soon as he is in your head, you will start to branch.”

Rane nodded slowly. “Because everything I do will be like a play or a book to him, and his own existence will be utterly alien to my own.”

“Precisely.” Her grin widened further.

He took a sip of his tea and nodded once more, decisively. “Well, I’ll be ready for my alternate interface when we get back, most likely.”

“That’s something to look forward to, then.” She picked up her mug and drank deeply of her coffee.

  *

Tala rolled her shoulders and stretched in anticipation even as she stood at the southeastern gate with Rane and Terry, feeling an odd sense of trepidation.

She wasn’t heading to another gated-human city.

She wasn’t going on some cell-maintenance mission.

She was facing away from every inhabited city in the cycle, and she was ready to just go.

True, she had a preliminary destination—the ruin of the previous Arconaven to the east-southeast—but there shouldn’t be anyone there.

No one was waiting for her. No one was expecting anything from her. The timeline was her own.

She took a moment to look at first Rane then Terry with her mundane eyes. They both returned the look with seemingly utter confidence in her.

“Thank you, both of you.”

Terry trilled happily, and Rane simply smiled.

“Let’s go.”

They stepped outward, the city guards looking on with indifference.

Workers left the city by the southeastern gate on occasion to harvest lumber or to perform other tasks, so their path wasn’t unheard of.

To them it was just another day on duty.

Even so, it was new for Tala. The last time she’d been at this gate was when she’d met Master Grediv, having just arrived back from the arcane lands with a body filled with dasgannach trying to steal her iron, and a heart still filled with fear that she’d never get home again. Only Terry had been with her then.

She scratched his head as he strode beside her, of a height with her.

But that fear, that danger was behind her now. Literally.

-Hah, very funny.-

She had an unbreakable Archive connection and a whole village in her pocket. It was time to see a bit more of the world.

Rane glanced her way. “I can tell you’re having a bit of a moment—and I’m happy to stride off toward the horizon with you—but would you like us to go any faster?”

Tala laughed, realizing that they were, indeed, simply walking at a mundane pace, like some storied heroes, heading for the sunset. “Yeah. Let’s pick up the pace, shall we?”

Terry immediately flickered away, even as Tala crouched low and began reducing her own gravity.

Rane just took off, kinetic energy simply being imparted through his magics to his entire being, sending him on a great, arching path into the distance.

Tala had to actually push off of something, and she did so with gusto.

Her surface area expanding scripts got extra power so that she didn’t harm the ground, and then she pushed.

The moment she left the ground, she dumped the extra power into decreasing her own gravity even faster, quickly reaching the desired level to allow great arcing leaps of her own.

Unlike the trip to Bandfast which wove among mountains, this journey was a straight shot over the plains.

All told, it was going to be a fast trip.

  *

Tala landed beside Rane and Terry on the hill overlooking… nothing.

Well, that wasn’t quite true.

There was no evidence of farmlands, no crumbling city wall, and basically no evidence of buildings within line of sight, but the slight depression below them was precisely the size and shape for a city to be plopped down in the center.

There were even the regularly spaced hills around the outside that had been—and would once again be—the locations for mines.

If she looked closely, she could also make out regularly spaced depressions where the outer defensive towers would have been—and would be—located.

And all that was just addressing the surface level of things.

Below their feet power thrummed.

Where most Mages' magics were a noticeable trickle of power—and many Archons felt like a raging river—the working below felt like a glacier, flowing toward the sea.

It was slow and powerful, drawing in precious metals and arranging them for the mining district of the next cycle. The far-reaching working would capture all the manifesting materials from the Mages' inscriptions that had been used in the area during the term of the city, as well as drawing more metals from deep within Zeme’s crust.

The magics were so powerful that they would actually draw in dasgannach like a siren's call, and Archons would have to swing through every decade or so to pull them out, or all the metal would be gone before the cycle came back around.

That was actually why so many Archons were able to have dasgannach for ready research, but such details and ancillary topics were getting into the weeds of things.

Rane was looking around, clearly feeling the same thing she was, the magic that lay underneath.

-Well, you aren’t actually feeling all that. You are simply applying your knowledge to what you do feel.-

That’s… fair.

She could feel glacially powerful magics working beneath the surface, and she assumed it was the magics that drew in precious metals.

Rane shifted. “This is… odd. I can feel a slight tug on my inscriptions. It isn’t like they are actually being pulled on, but like the magics below are aware of the metal in my skin and ready to take it as soon as it is no longer within my aura.”

“That’s it!” Tala grinned toward Rane. “That was the extra thing I was feeling, which made me sure that I knew what the magics were.”

“Glad I could help?”

Terry looked between them and let out a long squawk.

“Yeah, yeah. Let’s go take a closer look.” Tala grinned before walking forward.

Her threefold sight swept the area and what she found was… odd. She wanted a closer look.

Before that more penetrative perception, there were remnants of civilization everywhere.

Bits of metal from tools, clearly worked wood fragments—even the occasional, cooked bones here and there—all under the already thick turf. She had no idea why, but it was obvious that something was trying to overcome and subvert any evidence of humanity’s presence here.

Reality itself, most likely. That would line up with what we’ve seen.

-Yeah.-

Funnily enough, now that she thought of it, she’d seen similar things below the other cities she’d been to. She’d dismissed it as simple detritus building up and being pushed down, but now she realized that it was likely layers formed by previous cities.

She had been seeing the history of her people and hadn’t even realized it.

Terry let out a low whistling cry that added to the odd feeling.

Rane nodded. “You can say that again, Terry. Something feels odd. It’s been a bit more than thirty years since this city waned, but it might as well have been a century by the looks of things.”

Tala glanced his way. “How do you know that?”

He shrugged. “My time in the wilderness. Humans like forging into the unknown, and Master Grediv took me to various homesteads that either were active or had been abandoned. There are a lot of them scattered about. He made it a sort of test for me to try to guess how long a given one had been abandoned.”

“Oh?”

“Yeah. They degrade far more quickly at first than I expected, but after that initial term of decay, things somehow seem to slow down, and it takes a really long time for some things to fade away entirely.” He gestured around them. “This? I would say most of this looks like it’s been at least a century. The lack of walls, though… if I didn’t know better, I’d say it shouldn’t get to this state in even a thousand years, unless someone actively destroyed evidence that humans were here.”

“Huh.” Tala hadn’t ever looked into such things, but it seemed reasonable as she considered it.

-I just looked it up, and he’s right.-

…Yeah… I was fine just believing him.

-I know, but it’s still nice to check. Trust but verify and all that.-

Fine.

There was a growing feeling of unease as they progressed. It wasn’t anything tangible, but Tala simply felt like she wasn’t wanted.

As they drew closer, Tala began to see something with her threefold sight, like a great scar underlying the whole area… except… it was moving.

“Wait, Rane.”

Rane stopped instantly, hands drifting outward slightly as he readied himself for whatever had put her on edge.

“I think… I think I can see the damage our gates have done to reality, here. It’s not on the superficial, and it’s… it looks almost alive.”

Tala watched for long minutes while Terry and Rane waited, ready but not really on edge.

Finally, she shook her head. “The movement looks natural, or really, non-sapient. I think it’s just doing the equivalent of a tree waving in the breeze.”

Terry straightened fully before squawking and flickering to her shoulder.

Rane let himself relax before shaking his head. “You certainly like opening my eyes to horrors previously unknown, don’t you?”

“It’s a gift.” She said it absently, perception still locked on the odd things she could now see.

That’s it. It looks like ribbons blowing in a breeze, but in this case, they seem to be anchored on the superficial and are ‘blowing’ starward… The departure of the City Stone?

-That’s likely a good guess. When it was moved, there would still be an increased power density that hadn't been able to be absorbed yet, and if it equalized afterward, that would create a current of energy moving in that direction.-

Plus the magics below. I’m sure that’s doing crazy things to the zeme in the area.

-True enough, yeah.-

As to the odd ‘ribbons’? Tala wanted to get a better look. “Let’s get closer.”

The three moved forward across the seemingly undisturbed, unnaturally level plains, drawn toward the center of the area.

Nothing attacked them.

Indeed, they saw no creatures at all, her threefold sight picking up on some insects but no hives or colonies, and no small mammals or reptiles at all.

I’d have thought that thirty-two years was enough time for the ecology to recover.

Rane was looking around. “You know, I’m aware that most birds don’t like the heat of the day, even in early, early spring like this… but shouldn’t there be at least some?” He scanned their surroundings, taking in the few stands of trees in the middle distance. “I don’t even see any among the trees, or flying well away from us.”

Tala gave a slow nod. “You’re right. I’m not seeing any significant insect presence or other small animals either. It’s like nature came back in, but without bringing most of the fauna.”

“Let me check.” His eyes unfocused for a moment as he obviously accessed the Archive. Finally, he grunted. “Yeah, it seems like this is a known phenomenon. Part of it is attributed to the anti-pest magics still echoing in the area after more than three hundred years of continuous use, but that wouldn’t explain the absence of non-pest creatures, nor those that are welcomed within cities like song-birds, and pollinating insects.”

“Any theories?”

“The most prevalent is that Reality is too wounded. It stresses little creatures, and they feel the strain and stay away. There have apparently been experiments where Archons tried to bring small mammals or insects into a recent ruin, and they always fought to get away, scrabbling at their restraints in the direction of the closest edge. Only a few seem unaffected, but it seems more individual than species based, for whatever reason.”

“That’s pretty indicative, yeah. Why haven’t I heard of this before?”

Rane shrugged. “I hadn’t either, but I never asked or investigated. Master Grediv never brought me into a ruin while we were out here, so it didn’t come up. As to the effect itself, it seems to fade quickly, starting as soon as a city is abandoned and seeming utterly gone within sixty years or so.”

She hmmed in acknowledgement. “Well, let’s see what we can see for ourselves.”

As they walked forward, Tala started to notice Terry’s feathers fluffing.

“Terry?”

He squawked, shimmying as he glared toward the center.

“Is it dangerous for you to continue?”

The avian seemed to hesitate for a long moment, but then he shook himself.

“Are you sure?”

He shook himself more decisively the second time.

“Alright, let’s keep at it.”

Tala began quietly explaining what she was seeing with her threefold sight so that Terry and Rane could know, too.

“I initially thought what I’m perceiving was like a bush in the wind, but it’s more connected than even that. It’s like seeing a canvas with tears in it, all moving in the wind. What I’m seeing is the tears, though, rather than the canvas. It’s odd to perceive it in reverse like that, but it’s what makes the most sense. Somehow, the damage is more perceivable than what is damaged.”

“Like with glass?” Rane asked, clearly curious.

Tala stopped mid-stride, turning to regard the big man. “Yeah, exactly that. It’s like I’m seeing a flexible, utterly transparent material rippling before my eyes in the zeme of the region. The only part that is perceivable is the damaged sections.”

She stared at him for a long, long moment, a grin growing across her face.

“Rane, do you know what that means?”

He frowned her way. “No?”

Her grin turned predatory. “I get to study the truly invisible with my own perception.”

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