Chapter: 175 - A Long Night (Patreon)

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Tala woke bright and early the next morning, at least according to her illusory landscape.

Much of the time, magic was just a background part of everyday life, but there were still moments when it really hit her how amazing the power was, such as staring out at a vista that didn’t exist, created simply because she wished to see it.

I really do love waking up to that view. Which was probably exactly why it was there. She grinned. Things were looking up. She had money; she had a place to live; and she was growing in power daily, even if just a bit.

Well, I still need to see how the iron body paint has affected things.

Lyn had gone to bed the night before while Tala had made herself another large portion of the venturing food. Once she’d eaten as much as she could stomach, even with her incredible capacity, Tala had placed Kit’s door in the hallway, per Lyn’s request, and gone to sleep.

Now, as she stretched into wakefulness, she casually checked the time, simply by desiring to know what time it was.

Midnight.

What? She would have sworn she laid down just a couple hours before midnight. How could she feel this well rested with only two hours sleep?

The answer was obvious as she looked down at her hands.

The most prominent spell-lines glowed brightly to her mundane eyes, while being little more than flickers to her mage-sight. There were several oddities, as she looked closer. The lines didn’t actually exactly mirror the golden lines that laced through her flesh. Instead, as she considered and compared, she would guess that the lines of light were the same magically, but with the medium of air and the line composition of magical power, itself.

They were horribly inefficient, hence the glowing, but they were there.

She frowned. No, they weren’t actually there. As she examined more closely, she could see that the spell-manifestations existed within the dimensions of magic, surrounding her and affecting her without regard for the iron.

The light was simply a physical manifestation of their inefficiencies, so it manifested in the physical world in the closest approximation to the magical dimensions in which the spell-forms actually existed.

Tala bent over and rubbed the sides of her head. Extra dimensional thinking was never my strong suit…

All that said, the result was that she basically had a second set of highly wasteful inscriptions perfectly mirroring her first, running purely on the waste energy.

As Holly was good at her job, there wasn’t a lot for the secondary set to work with. Even so, with the iron keeping it all contained, even a small amount built up rapidly.

As she examined herself further, diving inside with her mage-sight, she noticed something that she never really had before: Her flesh wasn’t able to take in all that the spell-workings were trying to do.

It was as if many of these spell-forms had been designed for a body with higher capacities, and while her form was being remade to meet that demand, slowly, it couldn’t yet.

So, as the power washed over a particular part of her, that organ, or system or cell, could only take in so much of it. The rest simply dispersed.

She would bet that it had been doing that since she was first inscribed.

Now, her iron was catching that and perfectly reflecting it back, giving her physiology a second chance to integrate the power. What was missed would disperse and be reflected back, again.

And again.

And again.

All the while, her inscriptions were continuing to add power. This built a resonance within her being, where each aspect of her spell-forms became, essentially, standing waves, steadily growing in amplitude.

Pressure cooking indeed.

She hesitated. I’m mixing metaphors. That didn’t really make much sense…

She pulled back her minute examinations and took in the look as a whole.

Given the glowing magical lines, combined with her near-metallic looking, gray skin, she probably looked like an animated, metal statue.

You know, I’ve only heard of those in stories, but I bet they’re real. Animated metal warriors would be amazing. I should ask about them at some point. It was probably a good question for the Archive.

She continued to examine her own hands. She could see the individual lines, and while they didn’t really cast light, they were clearly alight.

Tala frowned. But I have much better sight than most people. She’d have to ask Lyn’s opinion.

Speaking of my eyesight. She felt like it had heightened yet again, if only just, likely due to the reflection of the magic of the enhancements.

She carefully stood and stretched, her body moving more easily than ever before. A part of that was her reduced weight, due to her lower than ideal reserves, but she was also at least a bit stronger than she had been even the night before.

This could get interesting, given enough time. It was also draining her reserves marginally. If her guestimations were correct, she’d need four times the food of a normal person going forward, just to maintain.

Alright, then doubling the meal budget. Six silver a day, it is! She hadn’t been using even her normal budget, but that had to change. Especially if I’m going back on the road soon.

She needed time to think, so decided to go out to the main room for her stretching and exercises. She didn’t really take into account how different she might look, however.

As she walked out into the main space where Terry was sleeping, the terror bird’s head jerked up, and he immediately vanished.

A pulse of dimensional energy, and a blow across her back told her where he’d gone.

She stumbled from the blow, which had oddly felt more bludgeoning than slashing. He’s probably a bit hesitant of unknown threats, given the Leshkin blood that was just recently so prevalent in our enemies.

She tried to call out to her friend. “Terry! It’s me!”

But Terry had flickered again, nearly the size of a horse and with his talons closed around her neck, already constricting her airways.

Tala tried to gasp, or pull in a breath, but nothing came past the crushing restriction. His grip was so tight, that she thought the blood to her brain might be cut off soon, despite her much more resilient physiology.

She pulled Flow from her belt, shaping it into a sword even as it whipped past the bird’s extended foot, towards her hand.

As expected, Terry flickered away, avoiding the attack, but in that instant, she sucked in a desperate breath, eyes frantically darting around the space until she found Terry, crouched low in one corner, eyes narrowed in hostile scrutiny.

Tala moved away, putting her back to a wall, and holding Flow before her in a warding stance. “Terry.” Her voice was raw, and she hacked out a cough as her trachea reformed, helped by her attempted word, which reinflated the airway as she’d forced it out.

The voice hadn’t sounded like hers, but Terry clearly realized something was not as expected, likely given that she’d used his name.

He lifted his head slightly, tilting it to the side as if puzzled.

His eyes moved to Flow and then widened in recognition.

He trilled questioningly.

Tala nodded vigorously still coughing a little as the regeneration finished its work. “Yeah. It’s me.”

He walked across the intervening space, showing more caution that she’d seen from him before. He trilled again.

“I thought you saw me last night, before we turned in.”

He waggled his head side to side, then half-closed his eyes.

“You were too tired to pay much attention?” Seriously? Her voice was fully recovered by that point, but it had taken some of her stores. Great. Need to eat even more, now.

He bobbed a nod.

She gave a rueful chuckle. “Well. No real harm done, I suppose…”

He let out a bit of a mournful squawk, flickered to her shoulder in his smaller size, and headbutted her cheek.

“Yeah, yeah. I know you didn’t mean to hurt me.”

He bumped her again, then flickered back to curl up in the corner to await her departure.

Hmmm, I guess I look and feel vastly different, with this on. Obviously it is much more extreme than I expected. I might need to get some sort of solution ironed out before something drastic happens. But it was still very late, or early. Standard stuff, first. Then, I’ll deal with what’s new.

As she moved through her normal morning routine, she had time to think and consider. Inevitably, the more she thought, and the more she considered, the more it became clear that she had something that she had to do.

Thus, once she’d recharged her items, stretched, and exercised: physically, mentally, magically, and spiritually, Tala had decided what she needed to do first. Well, next.

She set out for the Archon Compound, Terry on her shoulder for the trip.

It was still in the dead of night when they came out of Kit within Lyn’s house.

There was a creepy stillness to the place in the dark, dead of night.

She glanced to Terry. “Anything off to you, bud?”

He shook himself lightly.

“Fine. It’s just me, then.” That decided, Tala didn’t focus on the odd feeling as she quickly traversed the space and exited the building, carefully locking the door behind herself.

The trip through the city was similarly odd, as there was almost no one around.

She was almost all the way to the Archon compound when she realized what had her so on edge. Her mundane sight had been enhanced to the point that it almost looked bright enough to be day, but there was still no one around. Therefore, it gave the city a decidedly abandoned feel.

If it was dark and empty, that would be explainable, but since it looks bright to me, it feels a bit creepy. Satisfied that she had her reason for the odd feeling, she quick-walked the last bit to the Archon Compound.

When she strode down the last part of the entry tunnel, she felt a scan pass over her, not through her, she sighed. Well, let’s get this over with.

After an instant’s hesitation, things became…chaotic.

The air filled with power as it thickened around her, taking on the consistency of cold molasses in an attempt to restrict her movements.

Terry flickered away to the recesses of the atrium before the working fully settled around her. Good, he’ll stay safe.

Tala was inconvenienced by the thickening of the air, but not that much, as it didn’t really stress her increased strength, at least not at first.

She did not draw Flow. She wasn’t there to fight.

Instead, she raised her hands above her head in the most exposed, unthreatening posture that she could think of.

As if triggered by her continued movement, more power wove through the air around her, and it was suddenly as hard as stone.

Tala thought that she might be able to break free, if she had to, but she was sure that whatever had sensed her movement and increased the power of the restraint would just do so again, and she was having enough trouble breathing as it was.

Behind the counter ahead of her, the assistants had crouched down, and a dome of magical energy too complex for Tala to comprehend easily or quickly flickered into place, clearly projected from an intricate, circle of copper scripts beneath the floor, surrounding the front desk.

I really hope I don’t have to pay for the use of all these defenses…

A moment later she felt a magical probe that bypassed her iron, clearly indicating that an Archon was directly behind it, and a voice filled the space, laced with power. “Stop!”

The air became normal once more, and the magically created shield, whatever it was made of, vanished.

A blue- maybe even slightly indigo -aura filled the space, though it seemed to bend and distort to avoid contacting the people in the room, including Terry, if what Tala saw from the corner of her vision was correct. Into the sudden silence, both auditory and magical, a woman strode from one of the side passages coming to stand in front of Tala, looking her over. “Child, dear child.” There was a mirth-filled smile obvious across her features. “Even with warning, you still managed to cause us quite a bit of shock.”

Tala had the presence of mind to look sheepish, even as she didn’t lower her hands. “That is why I’m here, actually. I wanted to see if anything could be done to mitigate misunderstandings, or if I should just scrub it off.”

“Oh, no! Don’t do that. Your progress will be astronomical in that fascinating…suit. We wouldn’t want to lose that potential. Humanity needs every edge we can get.” She glanced up at Tala’s arms, her smile gaining a bit of a grandmotherly bent. “You can lower those, child. You will not be harmed, unless you act completely out of character.”

Tala did so. “I’m Tala, though you likely know that. What is your name, if I may ask?” She felt it was best to find out sooner, rather than later.

“You are right, I do know who you are, though we’ve not had the pleasure of meeting in person. I am Jenna, wife of the city lord of Bandfast.”

Tala’s eyes widened, and she reflexively asked, before she could stop herself, “If you’re Reforged, how powerful is he?”

Jenna grinned. “Oh, he’s Refined, but he enjoys administration, where I decidedly do not.” She shrugged. “It works on every level, actually. I do love that man.” Her eyes had gotten a far-off look, but she seemed to shake herself, coming back to the moment. “But we’re not here to talk about our relationships.”

“I suppose not.” Tala swallowed, trying to get some moisture back into her dry mouth. “I…Thank you for not being upset that I tripped the alarms.”

Jenna waved that away. “Honestly, ever since Mistress Holly let me know about your plans, I’ve been expecting there to be an incident somewhere.” She glanced at Tala. “For future reference, it would have been better for you to come here, first, before painting yourself. We could have helped you, monitored your internal power, and ensured there weren’t any unexpected side effects. That said, coming here as your first stop after your experiment is certainly an improvement above what I feared. You are maturing nicely.”

Tala blushed, but it was an invisible reaction, only obvious to her because she could feel her own cheeks heat. She immediately tried to distract herself from her own embarrassment. Oh, why aren’t I over heated? This body paint has to trap some, plus I can’t really sweat through it.

The answer was obvious the instant she thought about it: Holly had improved her heat dissipation scripts, after she’d cooked her own muscles by overworking them. I’m glad those are in effect.

“Now, we need to do something about your look, and how you show up to passive scans. Follow me, please? And bring your friend. I’d hate for the city’s defenses to mis-identify him.” Jenna’s eyes had locked onto Terry, where he waited off to one side.

Tala nodded, and followed Jenna from the room, Terry flickering to her shoulder at her second step.

As they walked, Tala examined the woman surreptitiously. But found she was unable to get a read on her power.

Jenna had pulled her aura back in and seemed to be wearing it like a suit. It wasn’t held at her skin, like Tala had seen so many other Archons do. Instead, it was extended roughly three inches in every direction, filling in the gaps that might be expected between her feet, or between her arms and her sides.

The result was a mostly ovaloid bubble, with the occasional protrusion from the extension of hand or foot as they walked.

Tala cleared her throat, partially to get the woman’s attention, and partially to give her an extra moment to think. “So, if I may ask Mistress Jenna, how are we going to do something about my look?” She tried to mirror the woman’s words, so as to not overstep.

Jenna glanced back towards her. “Have you ever seen an Archon who didn’t look precisely human?”

Tala blinked in confusion at the seemingly unconnected question, then she realized what Jenna meant. “You’ve developed items to keep those with less-than-clean soul-mergings to function in society.”

“That’s not an answer to my question, but you did get the point. Several Archons at your raising did petition for you to receive a mitigation, but we thought your changes were not sufficient to warrant it. Besides, at some point, we need to accustomize the mundanes to the realities of magic.” She laughed at her own words. “Though, we’ve been saying that for centuries. We’re too set in our ways, truth be told. Hastel has done a fantastic job in Audel, this iteration. Twenty-seven years in, and no riots. A whole generation has been raised up with a better understanding of how the world really is, though some secrets are still required.”

Tala frowned. “Hastel?”

“That’s Master Hastel to you, child. He’s lord over Audel, a bit younger than the rest of us, a bit less set in his methods.” She smiled. “He’s testing out a new way of doing things, and it seems to be working. I suggest you drop through Audel on one of your routes. It’s a lovely picture of how we could be in another few hundred years.” She shook her head and sighed. “I wish it were easier to change norms in established cities, but the mundanes don’t like it much.” She laughed a little. “And if I’m being honest with myself, I don’t like change that much either, but I will do what is best for us all.”

Tala nodded, though she thought she likely didn’t understand everything implied by the woman’s words.

“But listen to me chattering on. One does seem to talk more as one ages. After you.” Jenna gestured at a blank section of wall that they’d stopped in front of.

“The wall?”

“Yes, child. Walk through.”

Like all the walls in the Archon compound, there was a thin barrier of power, seemingly designed to increase the integrity of the stone, and hold the walls together regardless of the stresses they might be subject to. The fields of power didn’t seem to be meant to block a person passing through, though. An illusion?

No, she should be able to see that.

Mind magic?

No, Alat would have activated in irritation if they were under the influence of mental manipulation, if for no other reason.

I suppose someone could have made the stone permeable.

In any case, the Reforged had given her an instruction, so she should obey.

Tala stepped forward and smacked her face into a hard stone wall, bouncing off.

It didn’t hurt, but it was startling. “What?” She looked over to Jenna, who was hiding a smile behind one hand.

“Oh, that was amazing.”

Tala frowned.

“It’s this way.” Jenna pointed to the door behind them both. “Thank you for the smile, though. It’s been a long night.”

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