Chapter: 172 - Vestiges (Patreon)

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Tala waited just within the Constructionist Guild for one of the two Archons she was seeking a meeting with.

She stood in the entry hall, specifically not looking towards the waiting room, from which she could easily detect the smell of fresh coffee, if only faintly.

Stay strong, Tala. Not drinking coffee is better for you. She grimaced and groaned internally. She’d gone most of her life without coffee, but now it felt like air or water. She needed it, even though she knew that she didn’t.

Her eyes flicked to the side, glancing over and taking in the earthenware mugs set out for easy use.

Tala resolutely turned away. Nope.

A change of air currents, likely due to open entryway behind her, brought a particularly strong waft of coffee goodness to her nose.

She spun to face the waiting room. One cup won’t hurt. One last cup.

At that moment, she heard the sound of footsteps and turned back in time to see the assistant returning with a man who could only be Master Queue.

The Archon had a very tightly controlled, hardened aura that completely blocked Tala’s ability to view what type of Mage he was, let alone what he could do, but it did put his aura on easy display. The power encasing him shone forth, a happy yellow-green.

Refined, well on the way to Paragon.

His eyes only flickered to Terry for a moment, showing interest, but not overpowering curiosity as he crossed the floor.

Terry seemingly took no notice of his surroundings.

Queue stopped a few paces from her and bowed, allowing his long white coat to billow around him. “Mistress Tala, I presume. How may I be of assistance?”

Tala bowed in turn. “Master Queue, your Mage assistant, Master Simon, directed me to you. He seems a competent fellow.”

Queue’s eyebrows went up in surprise. “Oh? Well, thank you. I quite like his work. I will pass on the complement.”

She nodded in acknowledgement, then pulled out her comb. “I wanted to discuss this with you. Somewhere private might be better?”

The Archon took the comb, turning it over in his fingers before shrugging. “Sure. I’m not sure what there is to discuss, but I can give you five minutes.”

Tala nodded her thanks, then glanced to the assistant. “This in mind; I’ll be looking to meet with Master Boma in the next half-hour, if he’s available. ” If Queue only has five minutes for me, that should give me time so that I’m not keeping him waiting.

The assistant bowed. “I’ll see what I can do.”

Tala followed Queue into a side room, where the Archon activated some privacy inscriptions with a gesture. “Now, Mistress Tala, what do you have in mind?”

“Could this artifact be replicated?”

He gave her a long look, then examined the comb again. “Most likely, yes. I’m guessing that you don’t know what it takes to do so, just that it can be done?”

“That’s right, though I might be able to guess.” She kept her left hand back, slightly behind her body for now. No need to complicate things.

Queue grunted. “So, why would we replicate this? It is a fairly standard artifact. Like most, it is probably unique in some way or other, but still the uses aren’t overarching enough to justify the expense.”

“That doesn’t need a Mage to power it, even in a city.”

He glanced back down. “I did notice that it wasn’t attuned to you. This is a wonderfully efficient device, then. Even so, such things aren’t unheard of. Probably one in a hundred artifacts don’t need to be magic-bound to survive, but what’s…your…point…” He trailed off there, at the end, seeming to consider. “This detangles hair at a stroke, yes? I’m interpreting the magics correctly?”

“Detangles, debrides, and dries, without damaging the hair.”

His eyebrows rose once more. “That makes sense, but I’d not have thought of it.”

“So, you see the utility?”

“I think I understand what you are getting at. It is quite useful.”

Not willing to dance around it anymore, she grinned. “And could be used by mundanes.”

He was nodding. “Yes. Artifacts for mundane use are rare. There would certainly be a market for such a comb. How could we disguise that we can create artifacts, though, if we flood the mundane market with nearly identical items?”

Tala shrugged. “Claim some new material coating with a natural magical resonance? A proprietary process to capture and lock such into place for use by any, even mundanes?”

He snorted. “That’s mostly nonsense. No material’s natural resonance is anything close to this convoluted.” Then, he paused. “But, it might just be believed. This certainly isn’t the first artifact created for widescale, mundane use, but it might be the most…personal so far. Most are embedded in buildings or the like.” He tapped the comb against his palm. “It would be an undertaking to build the impressor for a new artifact style item, plus we’d need to have the combs made in one of the factories. They’d have to be identical in size and composition. We’re talking a few thousand gold to do this right.”

Tala balked. “That seems extreme. Couldn’t we find a comb already on the market and use that?”

He shrugged. “There are a few mass-produced combs, true, but not many, and I don’t think any are made in Bandfast.” He clucked his tongue. “At best, we could get it up and running for a hundred gold, but then we’d be dependent on another city to supply the base item.”

“Is that bad? Also, I don’t have that much.”

He waved her off. “The money’s not really important.” He seemed to be considering.

Tala checked the time and cleared her throat. “I’m sorry, Master Queue, but we’ve gone a bit over the five minutes you said you had. I can come back tomorrow?”

He gave her a sideways glance. “I can make the time for this. This shouldn’t take too much longer.”

Tala bit the side of her lip. A host of things flitted through her mind, including how poorly she’d treated Simon the night before, and how much help Boma had been. With that, and much else, on her mind, she made a decision. “While you’re considering, I have something to do quickly.”

“Sure, sure. The bathroom’s down the hall and to the right.”

“That’s not…” It really didn’t matter what he thought she was doing. “Thank you.”

She quickly walked back out to the entry way and found the assistant waiting in a side room.

“Excuse me.”

The assistant’s head snapped up, clearly engrossed in his book. “Oh! Mistress!” He scrambled to stand up.

“I’m sorry to bother you.”

“No, I’m hear to help. How can I assist?”

“It seems that Master Queue and I will take a bit longer than I’d expected. Can you convey that to Master Boma, and ask if I can meet him in his office when I’m done?”

“Certainly.”

“Thank you. I’ll let him know.”

“If he isn’t available, or that doesn’t work. I understand. I’ll check with you when I come out.”

“As you wish.”

Tala quickly returned to Queue and as she walked in, he started talking almost as if she hadn’t left.

“Buying the combs in bulk shouldn’t be an issue. I can put in the order now, after I find a sample in the city that will work, and the shipment could arrive by the time we need it. We’ll have to advertise it to the masses, somehow, but that wouldn’t be hard.” He glanced at her. “I’ll also need to verify it does what you say for myself, I hope you understand.”

She shrugged. “Certainly.” She’d honestly expected no less.

“They could sell for two silver?” He nodded then clucked his tongue. “Most costs are in the start-up, so we’d recoup costs in five thousand units or so.” He frowned. “That’s too optimistic. Double that. Ten thousand units.”

“For two silver, you would eventually sell one to every woman in the city and many men.” Tala grinned, thinking. “I imagine the guard might want them as standard for their supplies, given they can be a bit of an effective dry bath, at least for those with hair.”

“True enough.” He seemed to be doing some calculations in his head. “If you can leave this with me for a week, I can front the start-up costs and give you…” he seemed to consider for a moment, “five percent of any income after those costs are recouped?”

Tala’s eyes widened. Ten copper a comb…for nothing more than lending him mine for a week?

He misinterpreted her reaction. “I can probably take what I need from the item in a few days, but a week would be better.”

She narrowed her eyes. Not his limit on that, so probably not his limit on the percentage. “Five percent is too low. The item is mine, and therefore the spell-form is mine.” Tala’s understanding of law when it came to spell-form ownership was shaky, at best.

He waggled his hand. “In a sense, yes, but that wouldn’t stop me from reproducing it.”

“It would if I don’t lend you the item.”

He held it out to her. “That is true enough. Backwards engineering the spell-form wouldn’t be worth the effort, even if we sold a comb to every human in every city.”

She took the comb. “What about a fifty percent split. True, you’re doing the work, but I’m allowing that work to be profitable.”

He gave her a flat look. “Fifty.”

“Seems fair.”

He shook his head. “Fifteen.”

“Of gross. I don’t want my portion being limited by costs at only fifteen percent.”

Again, he shook his head. “It will be after expenses, but I can go as high as twenty percent, and not a copper higher.”

She thought about it for a moment. I probably would have taken it at five percent, so twenty is amazing. I don’t even have to do anything. Another thought occurred to her, though. “Can I come use the comb during the week you have it?”

After a moment, he shrugged. “I don’t see why not.”

“Then, agreed.”

Queue pulled out a tablet from seemingly thin air and began working on it, clearly entering the details of their agreement.

Tala held in a sigh at yet another Archon with an untethered, dimensional storage. Though, it makes sense that if anyone were to have them, it would be those who are members of the Constructionists Guild.

Less than five minutes later, Queue handed over the short, simple contract.

She read through it, verifying it matched what they’d agreed to, and confirmed it. “A pleasure doing business with you. When do you think we can start selling them?”

Queue shrugged. “Two or three weeks, I believe, unless the spell form is incredibly stubborn.”

She considered for a moment. “Can I see the process?”

He shook his head. “Unfortunately, that is proprietary to the Constructionist Guild and its sub-guilds. Some others do know the method, but I cannot share it.”

She nodded. “Very well.” Without further discussion, she handed the slate and comb back to him, then offered her hand. “Thank you.”

He took her hand and shook it. “I appreciate you coming to me with this. May it profit us both, immensely.”

Her magic tingled at the close press of his hardened aura, but she didn’t feel any invasiveness, and he kept his aura perfectly aligned with his own skin, so it never even attempted to dip into her hand.

They left the little side room and parted ways, Queue going back into the depths of the facility, and Tala heading back to the entry hall.

Tala checked with the assistant and was directed towards Boma’s office. As she turned the corner, she saw the Archon stepping out into the hallway. When he saw her, he stopped and nodded her way.

Tala walked up to just out of arms’ reach. “I apologize, Master Boma.” She bowed over clasped hands in a formal gesture that she hadn’t used since graduating. “Both for the delay now, and for my rudeness last night.”

He seemed genuinely taken aback by her apology, even pausing for a moment to collect himself before he responded.

Tala straightened and smiled.

“Well, I suppose that the apology is accepted, Mistress.” His face had lost most of the edge of warriness that she’d noticed when she first saw him a moment earlier. “What can I do for you?”

“I’ve some questions about my dimensional storage. Is now a good time?”

He nodded and gestured for her to follow. “As good a time as any, and better than most.”

They went into what she presumed was his office.

There was a workbench off to one side, but surprisingly, the space was mostly dominated by a large desk, the entire top of which seemed to be a device for integrating with and accessing the Archive.

There were light creation scripts in addition to the normal color changing features standard on an Archive tablet, and Tala was able to see exactly what they allowed.

The image of a bracer revolved, floating above the desk with a veritable cloud of magical notations, which seemed to be scrawled around it.

“What is that?” She pointed to the bracer.

“I assume you aren’t familiar with vestiges?”

She frowned and shook her head. “No.”

“That’s actually a relief.” He gave a humorless smile. “To come at it from a direction you’ll catch, this is an artifact found in the prison of a shattered foe from long ago.”

Tala walked over and looked more closely. “This seems to indicate that it doesn’t require bonding or power of any kind, but even what I can see would indicate a massive power usage. How is that possible? Or am I misunderstanding what I’m seeing?”

“Oh, no. You aren’t misunderstanding, and your assessment is accurate. A vestige is an artifact style item that has a gate within it.”

Her head whipped to the side, eyes locking on him.

“Yes, I can see you grasp what that means. Someone bound a human soul into that item. If the soul bound itself in there, that would be something entirely different and unrelated. As it is a vestige, we’ve been trying to make contact with the soul inside. We can’t free the soul without destroying it, so it’s a question of an eternity bound to the bracer, or non-existence. We’d like the soul’s opinion before the choice is made.” He sighed. “Or, conversely, all sapience and sentience has left the soul, and it is nothing more than a bound fount, in which case, the item can be put to use, defending humanity and preventing at least a few more people from suffering from this or similar fates.”

“That’s sounds like a horrible mess of a situation. Reasonable of you to make the attempt to contact it, but horrible all the same.”

“Indeed.” He moved around to sit in the chair behind the large desk and motioned for her to take one closer to the entrance. The image of the bracer drifted to the side, clearing line of sight between them. “Now, what can I do for you?”

“I am interested to know how I can achieve certain things for my dimensional storage, and I want to know if other things are possible.”

“Go on.”

Alright, first should be what I know is possible, else I might just irritate him again. “How can I get an artificial sun within the space, so that I can grow plants, if I want? I’m also interested in artificial weather, so that I don’t have to maintain the biome, specifically.”

Boma nodded. “Well, first things first. Nothing about such things is artificial. Your dimensional space is effectively its own world, and you are simply hoping to give that world a sun and weather patterns.”

“Okay.” Interesting way of thinking about it, but I can see the logic, I suppose.

“Given the syphon fascia we just merged with your item, I imagine that you’ve already seen an artificial sun and that it didn’t satisfy. Yes?”

She thought back to the illusory vision of a sunrise. “True enough.”

“So, what is a star? What are weather patterns?”

She took the seemingly parallel line of questioning in stride and gave the best answer she could. “Well a star, from the perspective of a planet, is a source of heat and light, and an anchor within the cosmos as a whole.”

“Surprisingly good answer. You don’t need your storage’s star to be an anchor, but the rest is required, if I understand your request properly.”

“So, I need an item that generates light and heat? I just need a fire artifact?”

“You will need the right kind of fire artifact and the proper integration spell-forms, but essentially yes. Your storage must be sufficiently large to warrant such, though, and it has to have at least some static features, else the day-night cycle won’t function properly, and that will cause all sorts of issues. Moreover, the artifact must be able to be turned off unless your storage gets to the size of truly mimicking a small world and you wish to form a sphere, or at least a cylinder, within the space. Thus, the fire artifact can’t be an ever-burning torch, for example. Even better than simply being able to be turned on and off would be if it had the ability for a variable output.”

Tala quirked a smile. “And I suppose you have such an artifact on hand?”

He raised an eyebrow at her smirk. “We have several, yes.”

“Conveniently ready to sell to me, I suppose.”

“No.”

She blinked at him. “What?”

He took a deep breath and shook his head. “You aren’t listening. Your storage must be large enough, and have static sections, for such a merging to be useful. I could perform it now, but it would be worthless to you until you’d at least quadrupled the size of what you’re working with.” He frowned. “No, that’s not right. Your storage is what, about fifteen hundred cubic feet? A little less?”

She thought about it, then shrugged. “Give or take? I’ve not measured.” Probably a bit more, actually.

“Yeah, then we need to increase the capacity by at least ten times that before a magical star would truly useful to you.”

Tala grimaced. That would cost a lot of gold. “What about weather?”

He waved that away. “Weather patterns just take standing water, a star, and a desire for such weather. Your storage will take care of the rest.”

That made a lot of sense, actually. She was familiar enough with the water cycle in the world that it should translate fairly well into her desires as conveyed to her storage space. “How much for the item and integration?”

“Not a lot. Ten gold, give or take, depending on exactly which item you choose.”

“And expanding my item’s capacity by tenfold would take…?” She knew it would be a lot, but she wanted that confirmed. In truth, she hoped that something would factor in, somehow, to reduce the cost.

Boma turned to his desk, and the image of the bracer was replaced with a depiction of Kit, overlaid with descriptions of what the Constructionists’ Guild knew of the item. “It looks like merging with your storage is quite efficient. The item has an incredibly stable base matrix and takes on additions with ease. So, you probably have closer to two thousand cubic feet to work with, probably a little more. That said, even with the ongoing multiplier from the Revered syphon fascia, we’d need to merge in at least twenty of the generic expanded space boxes with your item. At thirty gold a piece, for the item and merging, that comes to six hundred gold. I’d recommend a couple more, but that’s where it sits, at the moment. We do have larger versions of our storage boxes for merging, and they are a bit more cost effective if you can afford them, but the cheapest I could get it done, all told, would be between four and five hundred gold.”

Tala grimaced. “Yeah, I don’t have that much.”

“Understandable. Most don’t have that much in ready cash.” He grinned a bit ruefully. “Most immediately spend what they get upgrading their bound items, rather than saving up.”

She grunted. “Well, thank you for the information.” It made a sort of sense. Any upgrade to any item could be what saved a Mage’s life. Was it worth saving up for an upgrade the Mage might not live to get, when spending a bit more, overall, could keep that Mage as equipped as possible at any given time?

“You had another question?”

She was drawn out of her contemplations. “Oh! Right. Can I create a permanent entrance and exit to my dimensional storage?”

“I assume you don’t mean just leaving your item in the form of a door, attached to a wall permanently.”

“No, I mean something like a door that always leads to and from my storage space, no matter where I am with the item itself.”

He nodded. “I assume you’d like a few, ideally. One could lead to where you actually are in the wilds. One would lead to a sea-side city, and another to a more upscale place, like Bandfast. And you simply must have four, so the fourth should lead to a plateau, high in the mountains, covered in flowers. Am I guessing correctly?”

Tala sighed. “You’re making fun of me, again. There’s no reason why it shouldn’t be possible.”

He grinned. “Yes and no. Many have tried to do exactly as you are suggesting. And if you’d like to pursue it, I’ll gladly help as you’re right; there is nothing that prevents it from working, in theory. We just have never figured out a way to do it. If we ever do succeed, then caravans would become a relic of the past, and we’d simply create dimensional storage tunnels between the cities.”

“I knew it should be possible. As you said, it would be rusting useful.” It did seem too useful to not be used by everyone.

Boma smiled sadly. “Indeed. Now, is there anything else you wish to ask?”

“I think that is it.” She stood and gave a shallow bow. “Thank you.”

“You are most welcome, Mistress. Good day.”

“Good day.”

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