Chapter: 259 - Parting (Patreon)

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Tala took a seemingly eternal instant to stare at the hole that still remained into the Doman-Imithe.

The hole that she’d opened for them to escape the approaching nightmare creatures.

The creatures that were still coming with alarming speed, though they were still a good distance away.

Well, that’s probably not good, but we likely have at least a minute or two.

Could the creatures, whatever they were, even come through into Zeme?

She had no idea.

An odd heaviness had begun to build in the air, a feeling that seemed familiar, but she couldn’t place.

She shook off the feeling and reached into Kit, reveling in the fact that she had access to her storage once again, and pulled out the sword and the book, tossing them to Thron.

The dwarf caught them with magically enhanced ease.

“Here, as we agreed. I’d appreciate if you stayed around and helped with this whole mess, but I won’t blame you if you leave.”

Thron looked at the sword in his hand, the black material taking on a green-ish sheen as he channeled his concept through the weapon. “I’ll stay.”

He tucked the book into his pack. Tala nodded, feeling immensely grateful that she didn’t have to face whatever was coming on her own. “I’ll be right back.”

Tala dropped Kit to the ground, willing for it to become a hole opening right above her dais.

She dropped, landing hard.

She gritted her teeth in pain at the hit.

Thankfully, her bones had been reinforced on a material level, not just magically, so she didn’t break anything with her hard landing.

That was pretty foolish, even so.

She reached out to the construct within the platform and commanded it to reinscribe her through her mouth.

She wasn’t going to muck with the iron on her skin, and while through her mouth was more painful, it was also a sure thing, in the end.

Threads of metal blossomed from the ground and shot between her teeth.

She blacked out for an instant, the pain utterly overwhelming without her inscriptions in place to dull it and add to her fortitude.

She came to an instant later, not even having fallen.

Her will shifted just slightly and an extra bit of power slammed into the Archon star forming in her finger. Well, there goes an hour of my count down…

She hadn’t really had another choice, however. She hardened her will and sealed off most of her inscriptions, keeping power from flowing through them by pure force of will. She couldn’t deal with the backlash of adjusting to enhanced senses, reactions, and other functions.

I just need healing, strength, and muscular-skeletal resilience.

-DING-

A sound, almost like a bell, hummed through her thoughts, and she found the note calming, achingly familiar.

Tears filled her eyes instantly, even though she didn’t have time to address them.

Alat?

There was a short instant of horrifying silence.

-Consciousness lost for 0.013 seconds due to extreme pain…WHAT THE RUST!?!?!-

Alat? Tala was smiling uncontrollably.

-Tala? What happened? No, don’t answer that, I can search your memory. Do what you have to, I’ll get up to speed.-

Absolutely. Tala bent and sprang straight upward, exiting Kit less than a minute after she dropped in.

-Good call on holding much of the power out of your inscriptions. I estimate at least a couple of minutes will be required to equalize to your enhanced senses and reaction speed once again. The healing, magesight, and muscular-skeletal enhancements should be plenty.-

Thron was giving her an odd look. “Reinscribed?”

“Yes.” She scooped up Kit and hung the pouch from her belt.

He grunted. “Thought so. That should help, no matter what ends up happening here.”

Through the open hole to the Doman-Imithe, Tala could see the black things drawing ever closer, their shape indistinct but obviously predatory.

Tala called Flow to her hand, preparing to fight the things that were almost upon them.

-Oh! I found why this feeling is familiar!-

A screech cut through the air as a creature forged of reality dropped from the sky, crushing the open hole into the Doman-Imithe and sealing it instantly.

-It feels like the reality drake… well, I was five seconds too slow.-

Thron and Tala both jumped backwards as they beheld the being before them.

It was an eagle, with a wingspan close to thirty feet across.

Its aura was a healthy sapphire blue, and it looked livid.

Like the reality drake, the reality eagle—That is such a stupid name.—had a presence about it that was hard to describe.

Tala activated her voidsight, Flow growing to a void-sword in her hand.

She could see it, the threads of reality woven together in an intricate pattern that didn’t so much make up the eagle as define its existence.

Those threads existed in everything, now that she knew to look, but they were miniscule. The eagle was packed full, metaphysically speaking.

-What does that even mean? You make no sense.-

Oh, I missed you, Alat.

-Focus, girl.-

Tala grinned, ready to fend off the big bird.

White metal flowed over her, and her bloodstars rose from their holsters into her battle positioning.

The eagle, for its part, bent forward and screeched at them, clearly zeroing in on Tala for some reason.

-Likely because you just ripped a hole in reality?-

Yeah, that’s probably a pretty good guess.

Quicker than she could track without her enhanced senses, it launched at her.

Tala cursed, launching backwards to gain space.

As it turned out, that was unneeded.

Thron stepped between them, swinging his blade almost casually.

The tip struck the eagle’s beak, and something radiated through the creature’s entire body.

Like a cool breeze, the reality eagle blew away, dispersing into thin air and leaving nothing behind.

Thron laughed, his tone almost maniacal. “Oh, that was fantastic!!”

Tala landed heavily, staring in disbelief.

She swallowed, eyes widening at the implications of the quick, easy destruction of the reality beast.

Her newly returned magesight tracked the dissipating magics from the blue-auraed creature. “How…?”

Thron turned to her, grinning broadly as he walked her way. “I explained it already, but I’ll do so again. These weapons are designed to deliver their wielder’s concept directly to the target. For magical creatures, most of their defense is in their aura and passively keeping magics from reaching them. If you can breach that, it’s child’s play to exert a strong concept over them, directly.”

She found herself nodding. “I… I can see that.”

Thron looked at the sword in his hand, then at the city in the distance. “This is the real deal. I admit that even with the tests I ran in your sanctum, I had my doubts. No longer.”

Tala gave him a side-eyed look. “That is a bit of a terrifying weapon.”

“Oh decidedly. Houses have risen and fallen at the mere rumors of the disposition of such a weapon. With this in hand? I could walk into Platoiri and challenge the City Lord.” He paled. “I’m not going to, because he probably has one tucked away himself, among other ways that might end badly, but I could… in theory.”

Tala grinned, then chuckled. “Well, I suppose I’m happy for you. I hope you carve a place for yourself, back in your homeland.”

Thron’s smile faltered, then fell. “Yeah… Thank you.”

There was a moment of silence between them.

“Well, I guess this is it, then.”

Tala felt a tightness in her chest. She didn’t know Thron that well, not really, and he certainly didn’t know the real her, but he’d been with her for the last few months, helping her as he was able, listening to her when she had questions, and searching for solutions when she had problems.

She liked him, despite the circumstances of their meeting.

“Yeah… I suppose it is, Thron. Are you sure that you don’t want to come with me?”

He shook his head. “I appreciate the offer. Even if I was sure you’d make it, which I’m not, I’m not curious enough about human cities to risk it. Even with this, I wouldn’t be assured of my safety.” He lifted the sword slightly to unnecessarily indicate what he meant.

She grimaced at that. “That’s fair, I suppose. If I ever make it to the other continent, I’ll try to hunt you down.”

He grinned. “Ominous choice of words, but yeah, do that.”

A voice piped up from Thron’s pocket. “Don’t leave me with him! Destroy me, please?”

Thron’s smile slipped, and he grimaced. “Oh… right. Without Terry around for leverage, this guy might get…annoying.”

Rob gasped. “Really? I certainly hope so. Then you might destroy me with that wonderful sword of yours.”

“Why are you talking again, now? You were blessedly quiet in the Doman-Imithe, can’t you keep that up?”

“That place was horrifying… There is no way I was going to distract you and let a soul-leecher eat us both. I want to be destroyed, not tortured for eternity.”

Tala and Thron blinked, turning to regard the orb as Thron pulled it out. “Come again?”

-What is he talking about— Oh… oh, wow. I missed a terrifying little adventure.-

Yes. Yes, you did.

Rob huffed. “Who would want to be tortured for eternity?”

“No, that’s not what I’m wondering about. Soul-leechers?”

“Yeah, you all acted like you could see them.”

“The black creatures at the end there?”

“No, no, those were just trying to kill us, those would have been fine. I mean the cracks in reality that wanted to use our souls to patch themselves in a frivolous attempt to return to untarnished existence without constant pain. Well, there would still be pain, but it would be ours to bear instead of theirs.”

Thron paled, his skin becoming an almost lime green color for a brief moment.

Tala felt her skin grow cold. That’s what those things were? Cracks in existence, somehow bearing intent?

That would explain why they didn’t move.

She had a terrifyingly stupid idea. I wonder if I could bond one, and draw on their power somehow?

-No, Tala. Bad girl. That is colossally stupid, without extensive research and testing.-

She almost argued, but then Alat pulled up the visceral memory of the things, and for a moment, it felt like she was there once more.

Okay! Okay… you’re right. She shuddered again.

That brought her mind to the last one, the massive one that had been standing just behind their exit point.

She activated her voidsight again and looked around, finding the scraps and damage in the surface of the world that were still evident after their dimensionally compressed travel.

We created that one. But… She frowned. It will heal over time, right?

-Yeah, that’s what we were told. So magic slowly repairs the cracks, at least at a surface level.-

They might remain in the Doman-Imithe? That’s a disturbing thought…

-We just don’t know enough to tell.-

The soul-leechers wanted them to repair themselves, to patch up reality… her body, the lingering connection to her gate, was going to be used to stabilize Platoiri. My body was meant to be eaten by those things…

She hunched in on herself just a bit as she contemplated that horror.

Thron swallowed, shook his head, and sighed, “Well, that certainly renewed and reenforced my desire to never go back into the Doman-Imithe.” He glared at the orb then looked to Tala. “Do you want him? I have no way of keeping him silent, and now that I won’t be in your sanctum, I shouldn’t have an issue with power availability.”

Tala felt conflicted. She had no idea what the soul within Rob would actually want, nor did she know what was the morally right thing to do in this circumstance. Maybe the Archons back home will have a way to connect with the soul?

-Yeah, they were working on that.-

“Alright. I can take him to humanity, and we’ll figure out what to do with him.”

Thron tossed Rob, and Tala caught him.

The orb harumphed. “You could be worse at tossing. There’s some rocks on the ground; I might have shattered.”

Tala lifted Rob up to look at him directly. “Quiet, or I’ll give you to Terry to play with.”

Rob did not respond.

“That’s the spirit.” She tucked him into Kit, willing him to be in her room within her sanctum. She looked up at Thron and frowned. “Hey! You never asked me any questions about humanity or the human cities, or anything, really.”

“The situation was quite a bit more tense than seemed appropriate for questions.”

“Ahh, right. Yeah, that makes sense. Do you want to ask any now?”

He shrugged. “I’ll probably regret it, but I don’t really have any that I’m curious about at the moment.”

“Oh, alright, then.”

Thron scratched the back of his head. “I’d shake your hand or give you a hug or something, but I’m not coming near you.”

“Yeah… that’s probably wise.”

-What? Why would that be a… problem… What. The. Rust. Why is that thing still in you?-

What did you think happened? I’m alive; you came back.

-Exactly! I figured we were dead, but then I came back, so I assumed that you had handled it.-

I did.

-This is not handled, Tala. This is not handled, AT ALL.-

Hey, we’re not dead, are we? We’re even reinscribed!

That reminded her of the pending issue.

She reoriented on Thron and smiled. “Oh! Do you mind watching over me for a few minutes before you go? I need to reacclimate to my enhancements.”

He tilted his head to the side, then shrugged. “Sure. I can do that. I have a long way to travel to the nearest city, so a few minutes delay won’t matter much.”

They’d been standing in a little dell in which Tala had landed after leaping away from the reality eagle.

This is probably a good enough place.

Tala sat down, took a deep breath, and released her hold on her own magics, allowing them to flow naturally through her spell-forms.

She was smacked hard in her everything.

Overwhelming washes of information flooded her mind, even as her mind felt like it sped up and expanded.

Alat groaned in pain from within Tala’s head. -Oh, this is awful. I’ve never been aware when you experienced this much of an enhancement before. It is not the same in retrospect.-

A shiver ran through Tala, and her whole body spasmed and twisted.

She felt the ground around her breaking and exploding away from her as she jerked uncontrollably.

She heard Thron curse as if he’d screamed in her ear.

Alat whimpered.

They’d never come up to a level of enhancement of this magnitude from essentially mundane, before.

Her heart enhancements came online, and her whole body strained outward, her veins and arteries bulging under the pressure.

Blessedly, the enhancement of her circulatory system as a whole came online as well, so she didn’t pop like a balloon.

She felt a field of Thron’s power surround her, but she couldn’t do anything about it.

Is he betraying me? That makes no sense… But it did make sense on a certain visceral level. He had all that he needed, and she was a loose end.

No. She refused to believe it. He has a good reason.

Indeed, his power never moved inward, so it wasn’t harming her at the moment. In either case, she was in no position to do anything about it.

Her spasms slowly passed as her body acclimatized once again, and in the end, she lay panting on the ground, covered in dirt and bits of grass, along with her own sweat.

That was…

-Awful.-

Understatement of the year, but yes.

She opened her eyes, nearly screaming at the incredible deluge of light, but she refused to close them again and her eyes adjusted almost instantly, bringing her relief.

She slowly sat up.

The world spun, and she would have puked, but her anti-vomit inscriptions were back online. Oh, bless you Holly.

Thron was standing outside of a green bubble that encompassed her, scanning the surrounding terrain.

He noticed her movement, and the bubble vanished. “Are you alright?”

She nodded, standing up on shaky legs. “Yeah.”

Her voice sounded raw, but she felt it healing as she stood. Even so, she pulled a cup of water out of Kit and took a long drink. I need to hunt down my incorporators, soon. They should be in here, but I haven’t needed them lately.

“Thank you.”

He shrugged. “As I said, it didn’t cost me much.”

“What was the bubble?”

“You were screaming and getting louder. The bubble broke apart the sound so everyone in Platoiri didn’t know you were here.”

“Oh… Thank you, then.” That’s a clever use of his concept. I wonder if he can use it more locally, and on himself, to be stealthy… That would actually explain a few things.

He smiled. “Well, as far as last experiences before parting go, today has been… a lot.”

“It has, hasn’t it.”

“Quite.”

She grimaced awkwardly. “Take care of yourself, Thron.”

“And you, Tala. I hope our paths cross in years to come.”

“As do I.”

Tala felt a heavy, heavy awkwardness. Why?

She took a long moment, utilizing her newly returned mental enhancements to delve into the reasoning.

Well, first, we may never see each other again.

-Yeah, and if you do, you two might be on opposite sides of things.-

Tala grunted internally. It’s also pretty weird to say goodbye after so long without even a handshake.

-Oh! Me next. You’ve been lying to him since you met. I doubt he blames you, but it’s pretty obvious that he has no idea who you truly are.-

Yeah, and there’s the fact that he was a knowing partner and contributor to the system under which I was taken and had who I was obliterated.

-Which might still happen. That dasgannach isn’t really intent on leaving in a way that you’ll survive.-

He did offer to put me out of my misery, and I just gave him a sword that would make that act relatively trivial…

-Yeah, it’s probably good we’re parting ways.-

She smiled in relief and started to turn, but as Thron also turned to go, he hesitated.

Clear conflict flashed across his features. "How much of the time..."

But then, he just shook his head.

Ahh, yeah. That makes sense that he’d be curious.

"How much of my time as an Eskau was I putting on an act?"

He gave a nod in response, clearly curious.

She shrugged. “Honestly? I was much more myself in private than you might suspect. You were the closest thing to a friend I had through the whole nightmare.”

-Excuse me?-

Hush you.

-I am offended on Terry’s behalf.-

I said hush.

“Plus, your insistence that ‘Tali’ treat other people well, let me stop being rusting terrible to the people around me, just to hide that I had recovered. Thank you for that."

He grinned at that. “You were a bit awful at the start there. I’m glad to know that that wasn’t the real you.”

She shrugged, not really knowing what to say.

He let out a breath he seemed to have been holding. “Fair enough, I suppose. Thank you for that answer. I do hope we cross paths again, and not as enemies.”

He nodded again, more firmly this time, before turning away once more.

Then, he was gone.

And thus, I am alone, again.

-Well, you have me.-

Tala smiled, straightening just a bit. I do, don’t I?

-Now and always.-

Without looking back, Tala began running to the north and east.

She was to the southeast of Platoiri, and the human lands were to the north, so it was the most reasonable path.

Her great loping strides carried her fast across the ground.

Not quite fast enough to create a magical boom, but certainly faster than a caravan usually traveled, and much faster than a human could usually run.

So, what? We’re a few hundred miles from humanity?

-Give or take, but I assume you don’t want to deal with the Leshkin.-

Oh yeah, we’re going around their part of the woods.

-Then we have somewhere less than two thousand miles to travel. Might be closer to one, but I’m not sure. I’m still not exactly certain where we are. As we get closer, I’ll be able to get a better idea, I think.-

Can’t you just compare your connections to the Archive from two different cities?

-Of course, I can, but that doesn’t tell me anything. The connections are instantaneous, so I can’t compare time for interaction, and they don’t exactly have a way of telling me where they are in relationship to me. I think I’ll be able to use them for navigation when we’re within a couple hundred miles, but probably not further out.-

Good to know. General navigation it is, then!

-That’s the plan-

And so, she ran.

After she’d traveled for about an hour, she opened up Kit and called to Terry. “Terry! Do you want to come out for a run?”

Terry flickered into being beside her, standing about her height. He looked around, then looked to her, trilling in question.

“Yeah, we’re out. I don’t know if we’ll be followed, but I’m going to try to go as fast as possible. Want to run with me?”

He examined her for a long while, then leaned in to headbutt her chest.

She jumped back. “Sorry buddy, I might have something in me that could hurt you.”

-Yeah, I’m looking into that. I still can’t believe you brought me back before solving this…-

Yeah, yeah. You keep trying to pick a fight, but I'm still just happy you're alive.

Terry tilted his head to the side, clearly unhappy, but finally bobbed in acknowledgement.

“Ready to run?”

Terry bobbed excitedly, then threw his head back and chirped happily.

“I’ll take that as a yes.” And she was off again, Terry keeping pace beside her with ease.

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