Chapter: 473 Bonus - Alat and Enar (Patreon)

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Alat chuckled as Enar moved his perspective around within Kit.

Specifically, Alat had given Rane’s alternate interface limited authority to perceive in the area around where master Lisa—the fox-man arcane—was building his new home.

Enar was much calmer than he had been on the first day of observing Lisa, but to be fair, there was less to see. When Lisa had first moved in, things had been rather tumultuous.

As Kit had devoured Lisa’s old shop, Alat and Enar had watched it slowly come into Irondale.

It had been like examining a person in two-dimensional slices, except these slices had been of a building—full to bursting of magical knickknacks—and each slice had been three-dimensional.

|Alat, that analogy really doesn’t hold up.|

Alat turned to regard Enar in their cognitive space. Being that she was sharing this portion of her existence with him, this part of her—and of Tala’s—authority, he had some measure of insight into her thoughts. She sighed. -Do you have a better?-

He regarded her, clearly taking in her dress that flowed and moved around her even while she was still. He did so without having to move his eyes, but she knew all the same.

As for his own appearance, he looked very much like Rane, but not quite the same.

He was more compact, barely taller than she was—though some of that was that she, herself, was taller than Tala. While he didn’t have glasses—there could be no need—he had the look of someone whom glasses would suit.

Rather than the muscular warrior physique which Rane worked for and maintained for his daily duties, Enar’s build was leaner still, that of a scholar who liked to get out in the world for long, thoughtful walks, his forearms toned from holding heavy tomes day in and day out.

They both seemed to realize that they were staring at the same time as they each turned away—though that didn’t affect their ranges of perception in the least.

Enar cleared his throat—well, he made a sound within their shared space as if he had cleared his throat… All of this is cognitive and not physical, and it shall not be caveated again. 

|Well, it’s like courses in a meal, one following after the other.|

Alat frowned. -What? What are you talking about?-

Enar gestured back toward where master Lisa was working. |When his house was devoured, each layer was like a course in a meal.|

-Oh! Oh, right.- She considered for a moment before shrugging, sending her dress rippling once again. -I can see that, yes.-

At the moment, however, things were much less exciting. Though, that wasn’t apparent from all the kids watching Lisa work.

Truthfully, what he was doing was still highly magical.

Materials were coming together as he waved his hands, his natural magics allowing him to construct a den, a home, in a manner that Alat hadn’t ever seen before.

Apparently, fox-men had the oddity of all sharing a basic set of natural magics, which each then modified and worked to enhance, improve, and perfect.

They also all shared a base concept, at least that’s what Lisa had hinted at when Tala had inquired. It wasn’t perfectly identical for all of the foxes, but they were each in a similar vein.

Lisa hadn’t been willing to share his own, but he was willing to share what his brother’s had been before that fox had passed: ‘Home is my shelter from all comers.’

Regardless, what the children were watching equated to rooms seemingly being pulled together from raw materials, the mastery of Lisa’s well honed, long perfected magics on full display. Each space would then seem to tilt out of existence.

Lyn had even come by to talk with the fox-man briefly, but she’d not taken much of his time, only staying to watch for a few minutes after their short discussion was concluded.

To Alat and Enar’s perspectives, the rooms were somehow rolled stoneward, slotting into the construction that was still underway.

While Lisa didn’t acknowledge the kids very often, he did seem to be biased toward doing this more showy part of the work while they were around to watch.

When they weren’t around, there was far more being done stoneward of the superficial. 

Rooms and other more esoteric structures were overlaid and interwoven in ways that were incredibly difficult to follow, even for Alat and Enar.

Alat and Enar postulated that he was making literally every portion of his home a part of a gigantic, four-dimensional spell-form, but they didn’t know enough about stone and wood as line material—nor about four-dimensional spellforms of any material—to be sure.

The odd constructions looked almost like three-dimensional versions of one-sided mobius strips which had been given an artistic flair that would make any bureaucratic planning committee weep.

Enar laughed. |You’re full of analogies today.|

-Just today?- She gave him a playful smile.

He tilted his head to the side in thought. |Fair. That said, don’t you just mean a klein bottle?|

-...What do you mean?-

|Well, you likened what we’re seeing to three-dimensional versions of one-sided mobius strips.|

-Ahh, I see the confusion. See, a mobius strip—and a klein bottle for that matter—is one-sided shape in three-dimensional space, right?-

|That’s right.|

-So, they’re the same, even if the klein bottle is more complex.-

|I can see that, yeah.|

-What we’re seeing is like that, but instead of one being mapped onto three-dimensions, it looks like three being mapped onto four dimensions.-

Enar observed for a long moment before slowly nodding. |...you know, that makes absolutely no sense, but I think I get it.|

-I know, right?-

There was a long silence as they continued to watch the fox work. It was late at night within Irondale, so Lisa was doing the less flashy—likely technically far more demanding—parts of his construction. He was also actively cannibalizing his old shop, heavily modifying every part or bit of material he took before slotting it into place in his new home.

They would have to discuss the vestiges in his possession eventually, but it was hardly the time.

There was an extra beauty to the process, a simplicity that left the two alternate interfaces in awe.

And it was all set behind a simple, freestanding door frame.

Lisa had mimicked the ‘fae door’ that Kit and Tala had created for his entrance into Irondale. Either that, or Tala had very nearly hit the nail on the head in her own creation, because the two were uncannily similar.

The main difference, here, was there was a rather blatant depiction of Lisa, himself, on each of the uprights, clearly signaling whose home lay through the seemingly empty archway.

Enar was examining something stoneward of Lisa’s current project, when he brushed against the structure—in a sensory sense.

He was firmly but irresistibly rebuffed, to his clear confusion.

Alat was surprised as well, given that Enar was acting with a sort of deferred or granted authority stemming from Kit and Tala, herself.

The two alternate interfaces dug deeper, in a metaphoric sense, and came to a surprising realization. Master Lisa was forging a sort of domain that—just as Walden had within his forest—gave Lisa unquestionable authority within the space when dealing with anyone and anything save Tala herself—or those she specifically set above him.

Alat, for example, was Tala just as much as Tala was. Thus, she felt no resistance at all when sending her senses more fully through the domain.

In this case—unlike with Walden—Lisa seemed entirely aware of the underlying authority, and he very obviously built his own supremacy to abut against it cleanly, taking up every ounce of authority that was specifically not claimed by—and reserved for—Tala.

Walden, in his forest, had a much more nebulous hold on things, leaving quite a bit of potential sovereignty untapped. At least that’s how it seemed to Alat.

Regardless, Alat and Enar were definitely finding lots to keep themselves entertained and engaged in watching the fox-man work, and from his occasional, very pointed comments, he only occasionally found their attention inconvenient.

  *

Alat and Enar had several tasks together, most of which were not as pleasant as watching over master Lisa’s construction project.

A large one was reviewing the memories granted of the Black Legion.

Three Mages stood facing a single being that was obviously not human, obviously not quite arcane, and yet was clearly humanoid in appearance and general shape.

Its skin was the black of true midnight, seeming to almost suck in the surrounding light, making its contours hard—if not impossible—to perceive. Yet, even so, there were points of light—points of power—that shone from the indistinct blackness of its makeup.

The two brightest points were its eyes, in this case an azure, glowing blue. A voice like carapace over sand rumbled from the being, “I am Feday, lineman of the Black Legion. This city is mine to destroy; step aside, and you will die last.”

The three Mages—two Bound and a Fused—didn’t laugh at his words as Alat thought they should.

-He is one Legionnaire. How can he think to destroy a whole city on his own?-

|The Black Legion is feared for a reason, Alat.|

She grimaced at Enar’s words, but he was right. This was the first memory they were to review, however, so they didn’t really have a good sense of things.

The Fused began building magics, but he also chose to address Feday, possibly to buy time. “I am Ulrich, Fused of Humanity. This is a sovereign human city. We have done you no harm. Leave us be, and we will do the same to you and yours.”

Feday tsked. “Your existence causes harm to everything. Your words are filled with ignorance, folly, or both. Your fate is already sealed. I simply offered you a choice of sequence as a final courtesy.”

“If that is your choice.” Ulrich’s hands twisted into a complex shape as he activated key inscriptions. As he did, oddly yellow lightning lanced up from eight points on the ground around Feday, dancing over his too-black skin and showing his contours somewhat clearly for the first time.

Ulrich acted as if it was an attack, though there was no damage that Alat or Enar could detect.

The Black Legionnaire didn’t seem to mind the lightning in the least.

There was a blur of movement, and Feday’s arm was through the chest of one of the Bound, the woman clearly having been about to enact some sort of magic of her own.

As she died, the Legionaire’s jaw seemed to unhinge—only really visible because of the still dancing yellow sparks.

A clearly non-physical sort of wind was sucked into the gaping maw, and Ulrich watched in apparent horror as—unmistakably—the woman’s gate, her very soul, was ripped from her dying body and pulled into the Legionnaire.

The other Bound brought down a massive pillar of jagged white crystal, but it seemed to be partially absorbed by Feday’s back, the rest splintering and shooting out in all directions.

Ulrich was protected by a web of the same yellow lightning that shattered and dissolved any of the fragments that came his way. Even so, after Ulrich’s vision cleared, Feday was already devouring the gate of the second Bound.

Ulrich held nothing back, sending massive waves, columns, and lancing spears of lighting crashing against Feday.

The automaton staggered under each blow—each landing fractions of a second apart—but he still pressed forward, reaching Ulrich barely a handful of heartbeats later.

The Fused knew he had no chance of survival, the clawed hand of Feday made all too easy to see by the wreathing of lightning Ulrich had provided.

Even so, just as the claws began to sink into his chest—utterly ignoring his shroud of electricity—a power blanketed the area, causing Feday to pull back with a hiss.

The Black Legionnaire lost his black shroud for the first time in the encounter, his smooth, almost shining black exoskeleton fully visible even as a Paragon dropped down beside Ulrich, her power and aura driving the Black Legionnaire back.

The memory ended there.

|Really? That’s it?|

-Well, there’s a note here. Feday was driven off by the Paragon, but the Black Legion returned with five linemen, ten lesser linemen, and a unit commander. Before that time, Ulrich submitted this memory to the Archive. The city was evacuated in a fighting retreat which left a dozen Archons dead, with only two of the Black Legion being confirmed destroyed. The city was lost but most of the populace was saved.-

|By the stars… from sixteen of them?|

-This is noted as one of the first encounters. We learned, but so did they. The battles became more brutal, but fewer died on both sides as weaknesses were discovered and shorn up.-

|Did Feday really eat those gates?|

-It seems like it. Apparently, the Black Legion each have the built-in capacity to create vestiges out of the humans they kill. That’s why he targeted the Bound first.-

|Securing the power sources first, because Fused and the more advanced can’t be made into vestiges.|

-Exactly. That seems to be one of the things humanity quickly realized and reacted to, though they didn’t really understand the reason behind the immediate targeting of any who were Bound or below at the time.-

|Do we want to see another?|

-Well, we have to…-

|But… now?|

-...I think I’m up for it. You?-

|If you are, sure. Let’s see one that’s more upbeat.|

-Agreed.-

The automaton lay strapped to the table, its body splayed open as for an autopsy, but its twitching clearly showed that it was still alive—or at least as alive as these things ever were.

|This is your idea of upbeat? What the rust, Alat?|

-Well, humans aren’t dying in this one…-

|You might need to get out more.|

-Really? That’s a ridiculous thing for either of us to say.-

|Well… I’m still new to this. Pardon my ill-chosen turn of phrase.|

-Consider it pardoned.-

|...How gracious of you.|

-I know, right?-

At the center of the thing’s chest lay a vestige, very clearly mirroring many of those that Tala had seen while in the arcane lands. Though this one was somehow more thoroughly bound than those that Alat had memory of.

The spellforms on its surface were more intricate, and there was a sense of confinement that radiated from it even in the memory.

Rather than a vascular system connected to a heart, there were a series of white-metal pathways that connected to the vestige, clearly carrying power throughout the construct.

There were muscles and bones that were at once very similar to the biology they were mimicking and entirely alien. They had gray or black casts to them, as if they were made of entirely different materials than human muscle and bone—which they likely were.

There were more muscles too, as if someone had thought themselves capable of improving on humanity’s design. That—along with the different joint constructions—made the automaton capable of entirely inhuman movement.

Before humanity had known that, the unexpected ranges of movement had allowed a few previous specimens to escape from restraints that really should have held them.

There was no danger of this one doing so, however. It was splayed down to the point that essentially nothing was properly connected any more.

This particular Legionnaire had blades hidden in several locations around its body. Others had been found to hide what were, essentially, quivers of spikes—which had killed a few researchers before they’d learned to be wary of and watchful for them.

Everything was reinforced, armored to the extreme, and set up to self-destruct if the flow of magical power was ever entirely cut off, hence why the human researchers had massive spellforms in this room to maintain the thing’s semblance of life.

In the memory, Alat and Enar could see the creature’s eyes tracking them, tracking the person who had given this memory to the Archive.

The Legionaire’s eyes were a ruby red, oddly similar to Tala’s if Alat was being honest.

-We’re not telling her that.-

|Oh, stars no.|

-Good.-

Its skull was exposed, the components that had covered it having been expertly flayed away. A section of the not-bone had been cut free to reveal the equivalent of a brain, which was oddly reminiscent of the magical nest that Tala had used to practice her control in the past.

In this case, however, it was obviously interconnected rather than just being one contiguous strand.

It looked like an impossibly complex spiderweb of white metal, glowing in ever-changing, still sequential patterns.

Somehow, layered over the top was an impossible eye, looking out at them.

The researchers had dubbed it the ‘eye of Reality’ because of how it seemed to regard them.

It wasn’t physical, nor magical that they could detect. It simply was, a seeming manifestation of Reality’s hatred, watching them from within one of its newest tools, bent toward the destruction of humanity.

The eye seemed to see even Alat and Enar.

|And I’m done. Nope! No more today, thank you.|

Alat ended the memory, the feeling of the eye watching them lingering even after the rest had faded. -Yeah… that’s quite disconcerting…-

|You think?| Enar shuddered.

-Are you going to be okay?- Alat’s tone held concern for her counterpart. He was still relatively new after all. He was still finding his footing, his identity.

|I… I think that I will be okay.|

-If you’re sure?-

After a moment’s pause, he conveyed his affirmation. |Yes, I’m sure.|

Well, Alat wasn’t. So, she made a suggestion. -I have the memory of a wonderful sunset we can experience. Would you like to join me?-

She trailed off, letting the offer sit. Enar took a moment to gather himself further before replying. |You know, what? I’d like that. Thank you.|

-You are most welcome, Enar.-

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