Chapter: 515 - The Thief of Joy (Patreon)

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Tala and Rane enjoyed some of the sights that Sunnydale had to offer—the vistas were spectacular and the architecture and aesthetics were quite unlike what they were used to. More than that, they took time to watch sunsets and sunrises from viewing decks recommended to them by William, Anne, and Liam.

While they could have pressed for access to one of the village’s holds to explore and learn, doing so—given their gates—would have caused real damage to the infrastructure that these people relied on.

That wasn’t worth it in their minds, so they didn’t press.

Even so, they ended up meeting quite a few more people just by being aboard.

It seemed that there were far more moving settlements than Tala was aware of, ranging in size from single family constructions up to ones like Howlton and Sunnydale, being several thousand souls in size.

In doing the math, Tala realized that all told, the settlements likely had more than half as many people as the cycling cities. That said, if even one percent of that number were gated, Tala would have been shocked.

All this to say, many of the surrounding mobile settlements came to connect to Sunnydale and trade with them and, consequently, with Ironhold. For many, that involved floating platforms moving to and from the surface down below.

One group stood out in particular, as it was the first single family settlement that Tala and Rane encountered in person.

The husband, Charles, with his wife Caroline, and their three daughters apparently had a farm that they tended, including several aracanous creatures that they raised for milk or meat.

Their little house was a hovering one that they kept cloaked and a few feet from the ground. It wasn’t powerful enough to come up to Sunnydale itself, but it was enough for them to call home. The ability to hover allowed them to be circling near their crops and animals while still being safe from predators, and not drawing in more of such by their very presence, or because of permanent structures. Apparently, fields and basic fences weren’t enough to draw hostile attention on their own, at least in moderation.

So, down on the prairie, the family eked out a living, free from any restrictions. They were all gateless and seemed happy in the life they had chosen, hard though it was.

They were apparently indicative of the spirit and mindset of many of those who lived such isolated lives.

Tala had asked William about them later.

“Well, Greater Tala. You see, many people just want to be free to live their lives as they see fit. Sometimes that’s just a single family here and there, but sometimes it's more. Many of those otherwise without a place in society take that outside status and wield it as their own tool, crafting a place to call their own in the wilds, even if it is a place on the move. The more a society is built up, the more it has to get itself involved in the choices people make, and that’s just to keep the society well regulated and running smoothly for as many people as possible. Rare is a society with a governing structure that restricts itself to such, however.” He gave a pained smile. “Unfortunately, even in the best of circumstances, it is impossible to make a functional society that works for everyone. Our structure out in the wandering wilds means that more people can find places to their liking, but even with all the variations to choose from—given all the larger towns moving about—some are still happier on their own.”

“And that doesn’t cause… chaos?” Tala was frowning by that point.

“In a manner of speaking it does.” He smiled. “But that’s on purpose. It isn’t an ordered society. That’s the entire point. Even so, it is a free one. We try to help one another at need.” He barked a laugh at that. “Kaylee of the Serene City—that’s its name, it’s still only a few hundred souls in size—and Montgomery from those enterprising folks seeking to federize a group of settlements to the west have helped us maintain our flight magics numerous times when the damage or wear was beyond our ability to address. We, ourselves, have some of the best farming holds in the region, and we do our best to keep the prices within reach of everyone who is in need. More than that, we won’t let anyone starve if we can help it.” He gave a small smile.

“So, you and other larger villages act as trading hubs and points of contact for help in times of need?”

“Yes to the first, we’re also safe places for people to meet up to exchange goods or make sales. We all have communication constructs, so we aren’t really needed as a middle-man for direct communication.”

Tala nodded slowly. “The large notice board, though? I thought I saw a detailed list of inquiries and things on offer.”

“Ahh, yes. For things that are more ‘to whom it may concern’ or those where people are looking for someone who might have something they need, or want something they have, then yes, we are a good place for that.”

“Fascinating.” Tala shook her head, considering how things were back in the cycling cities. “This is an entirely different way of life.”

“Indeed it is.” He smiled again. “I love the freedom, myself, and I don’t just mean because I’m nominally in charge.” They’d both chuckled at that. “No, even in the arcane lands, I was an official of reasonable note. Even so, I always hated the bureaucracy. I hated that people would demand assistance when they didn’t need it, or that others were too afraid to ask for it when they did have true need. I hated the politics. I hated that I had to agree to seven things I disagreed with just to get what I thought important accomplished. I hated that I couldn’t help those I wanted to help and had to do things that I would never have chosen to do.” He shook his head ruefully. “I know it’s a bit childish, but I wanted to be free to make my own way, make my own mistakes and learn from them. I wanted to be free from fear of being thrown out on my ear for trying and failing at something that others didn’t like.”

Tala… resonated with that quite a bit, if she were being honest. 

-So, are we abandoning the cycling cities and becoming a mobile settlement?-

Tala sent the impression of rolling eyes toward Alat. Hardly. I think if I was born out here, I wouldn’t want to leave it, but I feel… I feel like I have a duty to the cycling cities. They are my home, and the home that I want with Rane is there. They need all the help that they can get.

-Well, honestly your home is in Kit, and so that’s with you wherever you go.-

You know what I mean.

-I do, and I hear you. That many gated couldn’t do this. We couldn’t take our population and just drift about a region, letting the natural rate of healing keep things in good order. With how many of us there are, we have to concentrate the damage and then leave it be for a long stretch in order to let it heal.-

Precisely… Still, this life calls to me in a way that I hadn’t expected, even if I don’t think I’d actually ever want to live my life like this.

-It’s fun to imagine though, right?-

Quite so.

When she brought up her thoughts with Rane over dinner, he agreed with her wholeheartedly, and they spent a bit of time enjoying the notion. Nevertheless, Tala and Rane didn’t spend more than passing moments considering what such a life would be like. Instead, they focused their time and attention elsewhere for the week that they traveled with the flying village.

For one, they strove to enact magics through each other’s touch and authority. Tala had a bit of a headstart with her aspect mirror breakthrough onto Rane. Though, the fact that she’d been touching him at the time made it an easier feat to have accomplished.

Still, it was an important one. Tala and Rane were aware that Tala couldn’t access Rane’s magics directly, nor he hers, but this—obvious in retrospect—application of their soulbond hadn’t come to mind until Tala had unconsciously enacted it.

Though, looking back on some of Master Grediv’s comments, he’d been hinting at it before they left.

Regardless, while in Sunnydale, they also worked to improve their soulsight that Lerra had taught them. It was the perfect time with all the new people around them.

As Paragons they were able to focus the soulsight outward more easily than had been possible as Refined. Even so, it was an odd new thing to add to Tala’s perception.

To Tala’s disappointment, it didn’t reveal advancement. For the most part she was able to simply see whether an individual was gated or not, but otherwise, not much more was obviously apparent.

Even so, that very fact was actually fascinating to her. She couldn’t distinguish between arcane species with her soulsight, despite her assumption that she should be able to. She couldn’t even tell the difference between arcanes and humans—assuming the humans were gateless.

There were differences soul to soul—it wasn’t like it was just a ‘generic soul’ that was revealed to her when she looked—but there weren’t categorical or uniform differences between the different races.

We’re all the same on the inside… I mean, yes? It seems a bit trite to say, but I guess I’m glad to have it confirmed.

-Indeed. It’s not revolutionary, not really, but it would be worth investigation if it were otherwise. To be fair, though, even if there were notable differences between human and arcane souls, that wouldn’t actually have to mean anything other than the fact that there are differences.-

Fair, just because something is perceived as different doesn’t mean that it’s actually of a different kind, quality, or value.

Speaking of individual souls, when watching a specific soul, she was able to see fluctuations and distortions as the person acted, talked, or otherwise interacted with the world around them.

This was—quite obviously—the source of the widely accepted—if not widely understood—Paragon ability to see truth from lies, even if it would take a much more practiced eye than Tala’s to learn to do so.

-I just need another thousand or so hours of memories with our soulsight with which to correlate, and I can be a reasonably accurate lie detector for you. Give me ten times that? I’ll be an expert.-

…Thank you. I may take you up on that, but I want to learn to do it myself, too. It seems an important—and broadly useful—skill to have.

-Oh, of course. That only makes sense.-

Tala frowned. She’d encountered other beings who seemed to have such a sight too, and the very act of delving deeper into her own had brought at least one in particular back to mind. How is Io’s body doing?

-It’s stable, unchanging. It’s been far easier to monitor the thing ever since we bonded with Kit, and there has never been even the slightest hint of movement, life, or animation in the long years since.-

Good, good. She hesitated. Now that she was considering the construct again, the whole difficulty surrounding its fate came to the forefront. Should we… break it down? Sell it to the constructionists? Throw it in a volcano?

-No. I don’t know why, but I feel like we’ll be glad we have it.- Alat had an interesting, contemplative air. -I mean, that’s why we’ve kept it so long, right? We have a dozen things like that, which we’ve held onto in the belief that we might have use for them later.-

Yeah… that’s true enough. Tala gave an internal smile. It’s funny. Io’s body could almost be a Reforged body for me, except that we have absolutely no authority over its origin or creation.

-Yeah, I’d thought of that. We do technically have a lot of authority over it due to claiming and nurturing it—just like you said—but the core of its existence is utterly away from us.-

Precisely. I couldn’t recreate it myself, which is a rather large hurdle. 

-Still, it’s worth keeping. If nothing else, I could use it if I ever needed a physical form outside of Kit.-

That caused Tala to frown. Do you need such?

-No, but I might.- There was humor in Alat’s tone. -See? Thus, we continue to keep it in case we have need.-

Tala chuckled. It might be worth you giving the form a test-drive at some point. But not now.

-Agreed. Not now.-

At that moment, she was working on her self-statue out of iron dust.

That she could recreate just as easily as she was creating it—which was still not very easily, though she improved every time she went through the process—but even when she succeeded, that wouldn’t allow her to Reforge, not completely.

She would have to be able to rebuild a flesh and blood body as well, unless she gave that up fully, which she knew her soul would never accept… or unless she was mistaken as to some nuance of the process.

She huffed a laugh. Regardless, she wouldn’t accept an entirely iron body. It wasn’t who she was. Though, the creation process for such was a solid step in the right direction.

The iron statue before her was an exact replica of her physical self, though—once again—iron at every level. Through her authority over the iron, and the magics within Kit, she forced the iron of various parts of the statue to take on properties of that which it mimicked.

She could touch her iron face and the skin felt like skin, depressing under her light touch and springing back to shape when she withdrew her finger.

The joints should move as those they were modeled after, the internals slide over and around one another in proper manner, and overall, it should function exactly like her biological form.

She was ready. It was time to take a step.

With an iron will—pun very much intended and buoying her spirits—Tala made the statue step forward for the first time.

Everything went haywire, and in that moment of disjointment, the statue dissolved into a deformed lump of dust.

Tala grimaced and sighed.

As it turned out, she understood how all her biological parts were meant to be but didn’t have a good enough understanding of why they needed to be that way, or how they would naturally work once in that configuration.

That made sense. She’d never manually made her muscles contract. In the past, she’d just ensured that her healing put the muscle fibers back as they should be, and then trusted the nature of the tissue to act as it should.

But in this endeavor, she was the source of that nature. She needed to understand her own physicality like never before.

It seemed like she still had a long way to go. Blessedly, she had time. She had an eternity if things went reasonably well, but she hoped it wouldn’t take that long.

With deliberate care, she began the process anew, altering the imposed properties that seemed to have been the source of the failure even as she rebuilt the statue once more.

Test, try, fail, and improve.

That was how she would advance.

Her husband wasn’t idle while she was focusing on herself. Rane was working on his own Reforging, even if just by laying the groundwork.

If he were to eat only Kit-grown food until every cell in his body was replaced, that would be a form of Reforging, even if it wasn’t a very good one.

Instead, he was delving deeper into his boon—mixed curse and blessing that it was—and taking the route that many chose to follow—many, relatively speaking of course.

He would be remaking himself into the ideal of a man, the core concept underlying the notion of their species. If done properly—as proper Reforging required—he would become a true physical manifestation of his own soul, just as the lines of light that appeared around her in Reality were a manifestation of Tala’s power when she allowed it to compress and compound through the proper use of iron.

Once he reached the point of such manifestation, he would probably only need to have a bank of matter from which he could draw in order to form a body.

Simple.

Easy.

Not an issue at all.

It would be a long road nonetheless.

It was ‘simple’ for a mundane to walk—easy even—but to ‘simply’ walk ten thousand miles was neither simple nor easy.

Still a journey of ten thousand miles began with a single step, and he was doing his best to do just that, to take his first steps.

Tala did not understand it well enough, if she were being honest. Even her own internal summary of his path had likely been entirely inaccurate in some crucial way or other.

-Just like you likely misunderstand some crucial step of your own Reforging?-

Tala growled. Exactly, yeah. Master Xeel doesn’t carry around a repository of matter with which to recreate a physical body. He just does it. So, yeah. There has to be something I’m missing.

-Else you’d Reforge and be done with it.-

Exactly. I have to be among the youngest Paragons… right? Rane and me both?

-Among? Yes. The youngest rose up after his city was destroyed. He was Reforged by twenty-five and died turning back—and actually slaying—two Black Legion generals at the same time when he was twenty-seven.-

…Some people just make you feel bad about yourself, no matter how well you’re doing.

-Comparison is the thief of joy.-

No kidding…

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