Chapter: 123 - Shift (Patreon)

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Tala and Rane were both drenched in sweat, by the time they’d fought a few bouts.

The winner was never in question; Rane still greatly outclassed Tala in terms of both skill and experience, and her strength, speed, and enhanced perception just weren’t enough to close that gap. For now.

When afternoon was nearing its end, Tala called a halt. “I need to drop through the Constructionist Guild for an item melding.”

“Oh? Can I accompany you? I still do have some things I’d like to discuss now that we’ve sparred.”

Tala thought about it for a moment, then shrugged. “Sure, I don’t see why not. I just need to get cleaned up first.” She pulled out Kit and opened it on the floor.

Rane nodded and stretched. “There’s a shower available with the renting of this training arena. I’ll take advantage of that and meet you back here in twenty minutes?”

“That sounds like a plan.” After she climbed down into Kit, she hesitated before speaking to herself, “I’ve got to do this eventually.”

Before she could talk herself out of it, she pulled the pouch closed, with herself inside.

“I don’t want you running out of power, while I’m in here.” She immediately topped Kit off. Somehow, that made her feel a bit less nervous.

For some unknown reason, as Tala was finishing up her cleansing, Kit began using an odd amount of power. Thankfully, Tala noticed so it was trivial to keep the pouch topped off. Maybe my being in here, while it’s closed, takes more energy?

Tala was quick to finish up her ablutions, but Rane was still waiting for her when she opened Kit and climbed back out.

“Were you waiting long?”

“No, just a couple of minutes.” He looked a bit…guilty?

“What happened.” Her inflection removed the question; she knew he’d done something.

Rane grinned self-consciously. “Well, I was curious if I could move your dimensional storage.”

Tala narrowed her eyes. “What would you have done with it, if you could?”

“Nothing!” He held up his hands. “I just thought it would be good to see if it could be moved.”

She drew her lips into a firm line. “Fine. So?”

“Well, it kept slipping from my grip. I couldn’t get ahold on it. Even trying to scoop it up,” he made a bowl with his two large hands, “I couldn’t budge it by more than a couple of inches. It behaved like water.” He shook his head. “No, I’ve scooped up water that was easier to contain. In magical terms, its dimensionality was utterly pliant towards the goal of staying where you set it.”

Tala was nodding. “So, that’s why I kept having to add power to it.”

“You were filling it, while inside it?”

“It was hungry.” She shrugged.

“Master Grediv always…” He trailed off. “You know what, it doesn’t matter. Your way works for you.” He smiled. “So, shall we go?”

“Terry?”

The avian flickered to her shoulder.

She nodded and smiled. “Let’s go.” They’d walked a short way from the training facility when Tala turned to Rane and broke the companionable silence. “So?”

“So, what?”

“What did you want to tell me?”

“Oh!” He grinned. “I maxed out my Archon star and have begun Fusing.” He positively beamed.

She smiled in return, genuinely happy for him. “Hey! That’s great, Master Rane. I’ve begun Fusing as well.”

Rane’s expression hitched. “Oh… you did?” He recovered quickly. “I didn’t think you were working towards that, yet, but that’s great!” Then, a frown stole over his features. “Why didn’t you tell me?”

She smiled and shrugged. “I hadn’t really had a chance, as I figured it out last night.” She couldn’t keep the smile from her face. “I know how to move towards Fused, now. I just need to take the time to do it. It won’t be fast, and I’ll have to devote time to doing it right.”

Rane frowned. “Figured it out? Done… right? All you do is dump power into the Archon star, thickening and strengthen the bond. It was the first thing I tried, and it worked just fine. Once I filled out my Archon star, I bumped over the hurtle, and now, I’m moving towards Fused with every moment, with every extra bit of power I can spare.”

“Um… no? Archon stars can only take so much power. I hit that ceiling before I used it to become Bound.”

He nodded. “Of course. Before it is integrated into you, it can only be sustained with so much magic. But after? It can soak up an ocean of power.”

Tala groaned, scratching furiously at her forehead. “Are you kidding me? I didn’t even think to try that…”

Rane gave her a quizzical look. “What did you do?”

“I’m stitching my physical and spiritual selves together, using the Archon star as a tool and my gate’s power as the thread.”

He simply stared at her, blinking in confusion.

“Master Grediv said I’d already done something relating to fusing with my items.” She gestured to her elk-leathers. “I bound them together spiritually.” She grimaced in frustration. “Then, some of the Constructionist Refined referenced the same spell-form in regard to fusing with a familiar.”

“So, naturally, you thought you should do that.”

“It was worth a try, and it worked!” She grunted in irritation. “I need to think…Let’s just walk quietly for a bit.”

“Sure.”

*   *      *

There were two pleasant dings from the back of the Constructionist Guild when Tala and Rane entered.

Jevin strode out. “Well, I’m glad you got some sleep.” He glanced to Rane. “A new friend? I’m Jevin.”

Rane was standing, mouth open. “Master…Jevin?”

Jevin smiled. “Yes. And you are…?”

Rane was coloring deeply, so Tala came to his rescue. “This is Master Rane.”

“Master Rane?” Jevin frowned for a moment, then broke into a wide smile. “Oh! You’re Master Grediv’s boy, his apprentice. That’s right! I saw the announcement of your elevation. Congratulations.”

Rane swallowed. “Thank you. Thank you, sir.”

Tala frowned at Rane. “What’s wrong with you? You’re acting strange.”

Rane cleared his throat. “Master Jevin is one of the foremost Constructionists on…” He shook his head. “No, he’s one of the foremost Constructionists, full stop.”

Tala looked back and forth between the two men. “That’s great! Now, Master Jevin, are you ready?”

Rane turned towards her, eyes wide. “He’s the one assisting with the merging?”

“Yeah.”

Jevin had a half smile. “Master Rane, it seems that your friend does not impress easily.”

“You tried to convince me that I was trapped for centuries.” She gave Jevin a piercing, half-glare.

He scratched the back of his head. “Well, I thought it would be funny…” He shook his head. “But that is beside the point. Shall we go?”

Rane just nodded mutely.

Tala rolled her eyes but didn’t try to hide her smile.

The short trip up to the Constructionist facility on the sixth tier passed in near silence, though Jevin engaged some of those they passed in brief dialogues.

Soon enough, Jevin led them into a chamber, much like the one that Boma had used in assisting her merging of Flow with the midnight ravens’ feathers and talons. The walls were covered in lacquered iron plates, and the door was similarly warded with Iron to prevent magic from leaking out, or penetrating in.

Terry simply flickered to a corner and settled down.

Jevin sighed, sitting cross-legged on the floor. “Before we do the merging, we should briefly have that talk I mentioned, now that you took your first step towards Fused.”

Rane smiled happily towards Tala, nodding again in congratulations, though he was still a bit hesitant, given her earlier unhappiness. “We actually had a question about that.”

“Oh?”

Rane and Tala each briefly described how they were progressing towards Fused. In the end, Tala gestured to Jevin. “So? Who’s right?”

Jevin shrugged. “You each are correct, for yourself.”

Both Rane and Tala glared at the Paragon, speaking over each other.

“Master Jevin, that is entirely unhelpful.”

“Rust you, that’s useless.”

They looked at each other and both huffed a laugh.

Master Jevin shook his head. “You two are a strange set, you know that?”

“What is that supposed to mean?”

“Just that I’d have not pegged you as friends. You are both too alike and too different.” He shrugged.

“So, care to explain?” Tala cocked an eyebrow.

“About the two of you? That’s not for me to address.” By the twinkle in his eye, he knew what she’d meant.

“About Fusing.”

He shrugged. “It’s simple. Everyone fuses differently. There are always commonalities, but it’s based on perception. I cannot impose my perception of fusing onto you and trying could break your gate.”

Tala growled. “Same excuse as always.”

“If I lift up a thousand different items and let them fall. Would you give me a different answer as to why each accelerates downward?”

“Well, no.”

“Precisely. Each thing with the same answer simply expands the universality of that answer.”

“So, why is my method of Fusing so much more convoluted than his?” Tala was quite irritated. “And why did Master Grediv try to give me advice?”

Jevin sighed. “Master Grediv has good insights into people, and how they work. My guess?”

She nodded, sinking to sit on the floor as Jevin had.

“This is just a guess, mind you: He thought that if you believed the answer were near at hand, you would strive for it more diligently. Is the solution actually that close to what he implied?”

“Well…No?”

“There you have it.”

She jerked her head towards Rane. “That still doesn’t explain why I have to crochet, and he gets to just dump in power.” Her eyes narrowed.

“To allay your fears, Master Rane will need to manipulate his ocean of power, to use his language, for the final step of fusing. It will be a colossal effort of will. Yours is more difficult at the start but will likely get easier as you move forward. Your magic is, as a rule, more delicate and precise than Master Rane’s. His is not necessarily more powerful than yours, but it is more focused on power, just as yours isn’t really more precise than his, but it is more focused on precision.” Jevin shrugged. “But that’s mainly a guess. It could also be the case that because you believe it should be hard, it is hard for you, and Master Rane believes it should be easy, so it is.”

Tala sighed. “Fine…” She hesitated, then brought up something that had been bothering her. “After I started my Fusing process, I was…very mentally strained. It was like I hadn’t slept in days, and I think I might have been seeing and hearing things that weren’t real.”

Rane gave her an odd look, but Jevin simply shrugged as he responded, “That can happen, especially if you were trying a bunch of different methods. Working with magic and your own soul is incredibly mentally exhausting. In addition, Fusing opens your physical body, meaning your senses, more fully to the spiritual and the magical. Some Archons see deep truths; others have disturbing hallucinations; and most land somewhere between those extremes.” He smiled, seeing her nodding in understanding. “But we are off in the weeds.”

“She does that to people.” Rane sat down, forming a triangle with the other two. “So, what were you going to talk about?”

Jevin smiled Rane’s way but didn’t address the fact that Rane had tacitly added himself to the lesson. “To become Refined, you must purify your body. This is not a personalized process.” He looked them each in the eyes. “I want to emphasize this again. Do not go your own way. Do not try your own thing. When you are fully Fused, we will simply tell you how to take the next step.” He took a deep breath. “Please, for the love of humanity, don’t try to Refine yourself unguided. Too many Archons used to incinerate themselves with various heat or power sources.”

“That seems… drastic. How many really did something like that?”

“One would be too many for something so foolish, but it was dozens in the early years and a few since.”

That’s not too many.

“It’s completely avoidable. Please just let us help you with that step. Any Archon, Refined or above, will give you the information as soon as you are Fused.”

They both nodded their agreement.

“Alright then. We have a merging to do.”

Tala grinned as they all stood. She absently topped Kit off, just in case. It did accept some power, but not much. She then removed her belt and set it in the corner, taking Flow from its sheath and the massive halberd from Kit.

Jevin had already begun manipulating the scripts in the room, creating the merging spell-forms. He motioned for Tala to move into the center of the building spell-form, and she complied, sitting cross-legged once again, with the two weapons balanced across her lap.

Rane, for his part, stood near Terry, well out of the way.

“One last thing, before we begin.”

Tala met the older Archon’s eyes. “Yes?”

“You are adding in a weapon of the Leshkin. Any…choice that you are presented, which seems to come from a place other than the Leshkin, will be your weapon attempting to assert dominance over you. Some of this can be acceptable, if the gains are appealing, but it will change you, fundamentally.”

Tala frowned. “How is that different?”

“We are breaking down the halberd and allocating where its power goes. Let me give two examples: If say, you choose an option which allows you to harden your skin like bark, this will result in a portion of the halberd’s power settling into your body, instead of all of it joining with your knife. This is not harmful, necessarily, but most recommend against it, as it is a bit sloppy.” He smiled. “Though, you must decide if the results are worth it to you. Now, if instead, you choose an option that allows you to harden your skin like the metal of your knife, that is the result of the knife extending itself to bond with your body. That is bad, almost always. If you allow too much of that, you will become subservient to the impulses of your bound items. For a weapon, that usually means you will grow in bloodlust and violent tendencies.”

Tala found herself nodding. “Understood, don’t let the knife change me, change the knife.”

“Exactly.”

She nodded. “Let’s do this, then.”

Jevin took out a small pouch that Tala recognized. My Mage gold. The Paragon seemed to have reformed the gold into near perfect spheres; their only defects being a single flat spot on one side of each. He placed down the small lumps with what seemed to be careful deliberation, though Tala couldn’t tell why he chose to place each one where he did.

“There.” He contemplated the whole. “In looking at this, now, I believe that all of the Mage gold will be used, but it won’t make the process less costly, it will just catalyze the merging more efficiently, allowing for a better merging. The cost will still be four gold, for which you’ve already paid that Leshkin weaponry. Is that still acceptable?”

Tala hesitated for just an instant, before nodding. “That is acceptable.”

Jevin smiled, moving to sit in the small, connected circle prepared for him. With practiced motions, he reached out, placing his hands on perfectly sized imprints on the floor to either side of him. The threads of power seemed to collect, moving across his skin until they all seemed to originate from his hands, flowing into the stone. His gate opened wide; the power flowing outward became a flood; and Tala’s mage-sight was instantly overwhelmed by a wave of utterly pure magic.

Her vision went white as a torrent of magic slammed into the knife and, through it, into her.

*   *      *

She was outside herself, without form, looking into a white void.

It wasn’t bright; it wasn’t dim; it simply was, and it was white.

An instant, or perhaps a decade, passed without anything violating the purity of the void.

Then, before her bodyless gaze, a scene unfolded.

This was not like the previous two ventures into this void. Instead of simply seeing a version of herself, Tala was presented with a tableau.

A Mage streaked through the air on powerful, black wings, a long halberd held in both hands.

The weapon was near black, and blood flowed along its length.

The Mage pivoted with ease, diving back down upon a sea of enemies, reaping lives by the score.

Don’t let the knife change me. More than that, though, Tala somehow knew that the wings would always be out, and she would never again be truly comfortable on the ground.

This Mage was not her.

The vision shifted.

Vines shot forth from the Archon, as she strode through a pack of wolves.

Each beast was captured and pinned to the ground, then easily dispatched by a flick of her sword.

That’s more like it! If I can get restraining abilities from this merging, I can get rid of those scripts and-

Her thoughts cut off as the Archon turned, giving Tala a look at the other woman’s face.

Her eyes were empty, bottomless pits of hunger and hate. She was little more than a Leshkin.

And…no. Tala sighed. This Archon was not her, either.

The vision shifted.

Feathers, blood, and rage.

Shift.

Inhuman thirst for destruction, and the slow crush of powerful roots.

Shift.

Shift.

Shift.

Tala could not have said how many versions she’d seen and discarded, but she was beginning to despair. Everything she was being shown was so inhuman as to be entirely unacceptable.

“I don’t want to change me.”

She’d spoken mainly from frustration, but the void shuddered.

Shift.

Tala fought through an ever-shifting army, Flow in her hand, its form altering smoothly between knife, sword, and halberd.

The knife and sword forms were almost exactly as she currently knew them. The only difference she could discern was from the hints she got of the handles. Those revealed that the hilts were wooden in texture, now, instead of seeming like stone.

The halberd was, as expected, entirely new.

The half-moon axe blade, reverse spike, and spear point were all wire outlines, just as the blade of Flow’s sword form was. A brilliant haze of heat filled those outlines, and that boiled the insides of her enemies with every strike.

The shaft of the large polearm was a dark wood with flecks of gold and spirals of wire embedded throughout.

The weapon flexed as she wanted, while holding strong at need.

Moreover, just as Jevin had suggested, there was a weight to all forms of the weapon. Those she struck were driven back. The pieces she severed were sent flying, and the occasional opponent that managed to block her was clearly shaken even by the intercepted blow.

She approached the last manifestation and indicated acceptance.

Power shattered through her and the knife; her very-self felt as if it was being scraped raw.

*   *      *

Her vision splintered back into normal sight, and she found herself sitting cross-legged on the smooth floor of the room, knife resting in her open palms.

All traces of the halberd and spell-forms were gone, and Jevin was standing over her. Terry and Rane were still waiting in their corner.

“Success?” Jevin was examining her with his mage-sight, and after a moment, he seemed satisfied.

“I think so. How long does that take, anyways? I’ve never asked.”

“For us, there is a bright flash of light, then it is done. A couple of seconds later, you return to consciousness.”

“That’s all? It feels like a lot longer.”

“That’s all.” He smiled, holding out his hand to help her up. “You are making your choice, and having it enacted upon you, at the speed of the soul.”

Tala took his offered help, coming to her feet, Flow in hand. “Thank you.”

“I am happy to have been able to help.”

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