Chapter: 164 - By Design (Patreon)

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Tala and Lyn sat in the park nearest to the cheesy little caravan restaurant. Blessedly, that place seemed to keep odd hours.

Lyn had been a bit cold, but Tala had produced a couple of blankets to put down on the bench, and then pulled out the massive bearskin to enshroud them as they ate.

Terry curled up between them, on the blanketed bench, content simply to sleep.

Even so, the night was getting chilly, so Tala had used her hot air incorporator to complete the bastion in the snow.

Lyn had laughed at the lengths Tala had gone to but seemed genuinely grateful for the gesture.

Tala, in a fit of appreciation of her own and generosity, had bought Lyn’s dinner for her, much to the other woman’s thankful surprise.

On the funny side of things, apparently Lyn had left the house without her coin pouch.

They’d been eating for a bit, slowly and contemplatively, when Lyn took a drink to clear her mouth and shifted to look to Tala. “So…” Lyn cleared her throat. “That happened.”

Tala huffed a laugh around her own most recent bite, even as she swallowed. “Yeah, it did, didn’t it?”

Lyn shook her head. “Now that it happened. I’m glad to say I hope to never think of the creature again. Does that work for you?”

Tala thought for a moment, then shrugged. “Yeah, I can work with that.” She rearranged the bear skin a bit. “What do you want to talk about then?”

“Anything else would be fine. I’d just like to turn my thinking towards something else, please.”

Tala’s eyes widened, and she smacked herself on the forehead, once again disturbing their improvised fortification against winter itself. “Right! I was going to go to the Archon Library, and I wanted to know if you’d like to come.”

“This late?”

“I was coming to get you, originally, almost two hours ago…”

“Fair enough, I suppose!” Lyn spoke quickly, likely to keep the topic from returning to the earlier unpleasantness. Even so, the clerk frowned, taking another large bite. She spoke around the food as she considered. “Probably not tonight?”

Tala sighed. “Yeah. I think I could use the sleep, too. What about tomorrow?”

“Yeah, that could work. Morning or evening?”

She fought down a yawn. “Seems like evening would be wiser than waking up even earlier than usual.”

Lyn nodded vigorously. “I second that.” After licking some of the juices from her fingers, Lyn made a noise of surprise. “Oh! Right, I sold the six horns you passed into my keeping. I have thirty-two gold and forty silver for you, back in our house.”

Tala gave a happy laugh. “Thank you! That’s after your cut, right?”

“Naturally.”

She laughed again. “Thank you, truly.”

Lyn only smiled in return.

The conversation fell into a lull, then, the two working at finishing their food more quickly than they’d been doing, before. When they’d swallowed the last bites, they stood and Tala stored the blankets and bearskin back in Kit, topped the pouch off, magically, and smile. “Let’s head home.”

The walk was pleasantly brief and made in companionable silence.

As they passed the park, which once again took up the entire block across the street from their house, there was no evidence of the fight that had taken place there such a short time ago.

“This is impressive clean-up work.”

Lyn nodded her agreement, clearly not wanting the conversation to veer back towards the cause of the earlier chaos. “I’ll say. I suppose it makes sense, though. No need to cause a panic.”

Tala shrugged. “Yeah, that makes sense.” She frowned. “Won’t people be curious where the tavern went, though?”

Lyn’s eye twitched, then she sighed. “Honestly?”

Tala nodded.

“Probably not. I, for one, never thought of it, unless I could actively see it. Probably an effect of its magics. Most people will never even remember it was there.”

She shook her head. “That is terrifying.”

“Just a bit, yeah.” She cleared her throat. “Now, as I said. I’d prefer to never speak of it again?” She made the last a question.

“Right! I’m sorry, Lyn.”

Lyn half-heartedly waved her off. “I understand it’s unreasonable for it to never come up, especially so close in the aftermath, but I appreciate some space from it.”

Tala nodded, and silence covered them again as they arrived home, locked the door behind themselves and parted for the night.

As Tala and Terry were closed into their room, Tala couldn’t help but shudder. “I am so, so glad that thing is gone.”

Terry let out a tired trill before flickering to her bed, already sprawled out in seeming slumber.

“Night, Terry.”

He vaguely waggled one taloned foot her direction and cooed softly.

“Sleep well.”

*      *      *

Tala didn’t dream at all that night.

It felt as if she closed her eyes and immediately opened them again.

Huh, that’s odd. She somehow knew that the night had passed, and that it was time to get up. Even so, she felt well rested, incredibly so in fact.

That’s odd, indeed. She shrugged, stretched, and dove into her morning routine.

That morning, however, she ended the time by mirroring her perspective onto Flow, as it sat off to one side. One more thing to practice.

At first, she cheated, closing her eyes and only perceiving through the weapon, but by the end of that morning’s session, she could have her eyes open, so long as she didn’t move.

Even without vomiting being an option, the disorientation of differently moving perspectives was too much. For now.

That accomplished, she bathed, gathered up Terry, and headed out.

Breakfast time!

Mistress Odera had requested that they meet for lunch instead of breakfast. So, Tala was on her own.

She dropped through her old favorite breakfast place to get a breakfast deal.

The breakfast deal came with six tasty sandwiches and a whole gallon of coffee, all for just a single silver.

Oh…

One gallon of coffee.

Holly asked me to cut back on the coffee…

That wasn’t precisely true.

No, she implied that I should stop, entirely.

Tala groaned.

The poor attendant working behind the counter waited patiently for her to place her order.

“Could I get the breakfast deal, but replace the coffee with more sandwiches?”

The attendant brightened. “Oh! Certainly. That will be one silver for eight sandwiches, please.”

Tala grinned. “That sounds perfect.” She felt an ache of longing for the no-longer-coming coffee, but she pushed it aside. Food will help fill the void.

She paid, found a nearby park bench, swept it free of snow and sat down to enjoy her steaming sandwiches.

She found water lacking as a breakfast beverage. Her head started to hurt in sympathy with her bereft palate and food only helped a little.

Tala grimace. I don’t want to spoil these glorious creations. A thought came to her, and she smiled. “I do need to be reinforcing my magics, after all.” She pulled out her flask of ending-berry juice and took a long drink. It paired perfectly with her meal.

Unfortunately, she was beginning to run low on the magic juice, and that just wouldn’t do. I need to find a closer grove than Alefast…Oh! The library should have that knowledge. I’ll ask when Lyn and I go this evening.

That decided, she dug into her repast with a vengeance. As she ate, she had a thought, glancing to Terry, tucked in on her shoulder. “You have to try this.”

She broke off a bite of the current creation and tossed it for the terror bird. Terry flickered to snatch it from the air. He barely swallowed before letting out a happy trill and shimmying contentedly on her shoulder.

Tala grinned. Thus, she gave Terry a good-sized bite of each of her sandwiches, telling him the name, in case he liked one more than the others.

Overall, it was a very pleasant way to spend the meal.

I should ask Mistress Odera to meet me for lunch every day, instead of breakfast. This is sooooo good.

*      *      *

Since Tala didn’t have to go to the work yard, or to the Caravan Guild’s headquarters, she found her morning freer than her previous two had been.

With that extra time, she decided to see if her jerky was ready yet. If I’m calculating it correctly, between Terry and me, we’re going through just about five pounds of jerky per day. That sounded about right, after all, she’d gotten around twelve hundred pounds from Rane’s hunting trip and Brand’s jerking and she’d guess that she was coming up on having used a third of her stock.

Given the strength enhancing properties of the meat, I think that Terry and I should both up our intake. If she did that, she should really take the time to sit and meditate to ensure the power went to the right places. She tsked. Another task. Still, the power would likely just build up in her system until directed, either subconsciously due to exertion or consciously by her abilities as an Immaterial Guide.

So, she’d be eating thunder cattle jerky and drinking ending-berry juice and taking time each day to ensure that the accumulated power was channeled to the right locations. I suppose I could make gelatin out of their bones to strengthen mine further. She grimaced at that. Yeah, no. I’m ok without that. She hesitated. Wait…are the bones what’s used to make gelatin? In the end, it didn’t really matter; she wasn’t interested.

So, she was going to up her intake and try to get Terry more, as well.

I’m so glad I went hunting. She was going to have to do more hunting, too. I’m glad that thunder cattle are so prolific around here…

As she thought about it, she realized that with Lyn selling the horns, she could make a killing by killing the cattle and bringing back their bodies.

She chuckled to herself at her own joke as she walked towards Brand’s restaurant. She didn’t know where the Culinary Guild offices were in Bandfast, and he would likely be best able to direct her to where Amnin could be found.

There were only two problems with her theoretical gold vein. First, there were only so many buyers for thunder bull horns in the city, and most wouldn’t be willing to pay full price. If I’m willing to flood the market, I’ll probably end up having to take as little as one or two gold per horn, and at some point, people won’t be interested at any price.

The second issue was that thunder cattle really did prefer to travel in big herds. True, there were more little herds than big, by the very nature of numbers that had to be the case, but the vast majority of the area’s thunder cattle would be in one of the three or four massive groups.

There is no way I’m up for taking on anywhere close to that many. She paused, considering. Well, if I perfectly aligned some tungsten spheres, and targeted the far side of the herd…

In the best-case scenario, that would cut lines of death through the animals, but leave most of them intact and vengeful.

How do they respond to predators? Her understanding was the most mundane herd animals would flee before even a single predator, leaving the weakest among them to fall prey to the attacker. Are magical herbivores different? She’d have to ask Ingrit, the Archivist.

Tala already knew, though, that thunder cattle fought viciously to avenge their fallen herd-mates. At least against humans. I suppose they’d treat a pack of wolves differently? She didn’t know. So, she’d definitely need to ask.

Brand’s business was open, but not open for business. From what Tala understood, they would be working to prepare the food for lunch and dinner customers, and had their doors open so that large orders could be placed, but no food was ready for immediate sale at that moment.

She pushed open the door and smiled at the entirely mundane ding that resounded through the space as the door pushed passed the little bell hanging behind it for just such a purpose.

“Mistress Tala! What a pleasant surprise, seeing you here this time of day.”

“Lissa, always a pleasure to see you.” The women exchanged a brief hug. My goodness. I’m very huggy of late.

“What can we do for you?”

“Well, I was hoping that Brand would know where I could find Amnin.”

Brand’s voice came from the back. “Is that Mistress Tala who I hear?”

“It is! Come out, dear. She’s got a quick question.”

He came out, wiping his hands on his apron. “Mistress, good to see you. What can I answer?”

Tala gave a nod of acknowledgment. “I’m looking to find Amnin.”

Brand grinned. “The jerky, right?”

She blinked at him. “How do you know about that?”

He laughed. “She checked with me on the recipe I had used. Here, let me show you were she’s most likely to be found.” He walked over to a decorative map of the city, hanging on one wall. “We’re here.” He pointed to the location of his restaurant before dragging his finger down various streets. “If you follow this way, you’ll find the Guildhall you want here.” He tapped the map twice to emphasize the final location.

“Perfect. Thank you!”

Tala had no issue finding the Culinary Guildhall, and to her surprise, she found that there were nine massive bundles of jerky, each wrapped in treated canvas and bound tightly to last, theoretically, forever. Assuming they don’t get wet, invaded by pests, or exposed to temperature extremes.

So, within Kit? Indefinitely.

Tala grinned, pulling Kit from her belt, opening it wide and dropping each of the bundles inside.

Some day, I’ll have to ask how they lock the magic into the meat like this. Maybe I can use the same technique to improve the shelf-life of ending-berry juice.

Now that the jerky was all stored within, she could sense that Kit was getting on the full side once more.

I really need to expand Kit again… There was a lot that she “needed” to do.

Amnin wasn’t actually working that day, so Tala just interacted with the receptionist who seemed incredibly uncomfortable talking with a Mage.

Tala spared the poor man, taking the jerky and departing as quickly as she was able while remaining polite.

She did pause to leave a grateful message for Amnin. No need to be rude, after all.

With all that complete, the morning was still young, thus she arrived at the training yard only a little later than she had the day before.

*      *      *

Tala spat out sand and groaned, rolling over onto her back.

Two. I held my own against two! It had even been Adam and one of his peers. True, it had only been for a short bout, less than two minutes if her sense of time was accurate, but she’d done it!

She’d incorporated the first of the multi-shape weapon forms incredibly quickly, and it had done something to pull her fighting style together and give her movements a unity of purpose.

She was no longer jumping between unique weapon types.

No.

Now she was using one, highly versatile weapon to best effect.

Adam offered her a hand up. “Well done, Mistress Tala.” He was breathing heavily but had enough control to speak almost normally despite his clear fatigue. “I could not have taken you, alone.”

Tala’s eyes widened at his words.

Of course, they both knew that if they were really fighting, Tala would win handily, but under the current restrictions, Tala felt immense pride at the complement.

“If I may ask, you seemed very surefooted, more so even than you were before your trip to Makinaven.”

She grinned. “That’s not a question, but I think I understand what you’re getting at.” She nodded. “I kept the pressure distribution scripts on my feet. I’ve gotten used to the sure-footedness they grant, not to mention it makes it easier to move quietly and without damaging what I walk on.” She gestured at the sand. “And, they give much better purchase on uncertain terrain.”

Adam nodded, clearly a bit lost in thought. “That should serve you quite well, I’d think.”

“Yeah, Mistress Holly and I discussed it a bit, and it seemed worth keeping for the time being.”

The sun was almost directly overhead, the training time with the Guards at an end.

Rane and Aproa were finishing up their matches as well and Tala could already see that each would end with the Mage’s defeat.

That was by design.

The Mages were here to hone their martial skills, not lord their magic over mundanes.

Because of that, the bouts were always stacked against them, even if never to the extent of a quick loss. The point was to push them, not frustrate their attempts to improve.

When the inevitable ends came, the two thanked their respective sparring partners and walked over, panting.

Aproa was all smiles. “This really is fantastic training. Thank you for allowing me to join you all.”

Tala grinned and Adam bowed responding with grace, “It is a pleasure to have you here, Mistress.”

Aproa glanced to Rane expectantly, and the young man flushed. “Oh, uh… Mistress Tala?”

“Hmm?”

Aproa asked Adam a question and led him off to the side to discuss the answer.

Rane scratched the back of his head. “Would you like to grab lunch with me? I mean, just me and-”

Tala cut him off with a wave of her hand. “I’ve got to meet with Mistress Odera for lunch. Maybe later?”

He hesitated, the words dying on his lips. “Oh. Sure. Yeah. That makes sense.”

Tala smiled. “I’m sure Mistress Aproa is free. And we’ll meet back up in the Mage’s sparring arena?”

He nodded then shrugged. “Sure. Yeah. I’ll see you there, I guess.”

He turned and walked over to where Aproa and Adam were still talking.

Aproa gave him a questioning glance, and he shrugged again. The woman gave Tala a confused frown, then shook her head, and the two Archons left together.

-Tala-

-You are going to have to deal with that boy’s feelings for you, and yours for him, eventually.-

Tala sighed. I know. I’m not an idiot. I just don’t want to think about that type of thing, and- She straightened. Wait! You’re talking with me? Why? I thought all functions were offline?

-Ding-

-Earliest lost or repressed memory, not lost due to the natural processes of time, partially recovered.-

Tala’s eyes widened. One moment.

She bid goodbye to the departing guards and went to one of the private bath rooms, Terry following her in before she locked the door.

Alright. I’m ready. Let me see it.

She sank to the floor in a cross-legged position, eyes closing of their own accord as she was pulled into a memory.

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