Chapter: 262 - Building Some Good Will (Patreon)

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Tala was rather irritated. The blast that had disrupted her connection to her budding Archon star hadn’t really been anti-magical.

In fact, if she had to say it mimicked anything, it reminded her of Master Jevin in Makinaven, where he could grab anyone’s power and move it around with his aura control and the odd strength he had within his city.

Tala found herself glaring at the guards before her.

She’d been merciful, and these men had nearly killed her.

“You.” She locked eyes with the leader, even as he paled.

He could obviously see that she had not been undone by his last-ditch tactic.

-He also likely saw the edges of the void before the through-spike fully reactivated.-

She tried not to growl as she asked, “Who made that… item?”

The leader didn’t answer right away as he looked around, taking in the state of his men.

The two who had tried to sneak up on and catch her between their lightning weapons were the only men who weren’t injured.

Specifically, the dozen others each had a broken left ankle. I should have just caved in their skulls.

-No, don’t let your frustration, fear, and relief combine to make you regret your mercy. You had no need to kill them, so you didn’t.-

That was true enough.

If she had killed them, then she’d still think she was on a time limit for the dasgannach. She also knew that she had a much greater penchant for violence after her time in the arcane lands. Rust, Brand had tried to put a knife in her heart, and they’d become good friends. These people just inconvenienced her a bit, and she wished she’d killed them all?

I need to push back on those instincts more…

-Hey! At least the dasgannach is in a more stable sort of equilibrium.-

Sure, but now, I have a different problem, and I’ll still be dead if my left hand is severed… She frowned at that. Or will the dasgannach just draw everything back into the rest of me?

-It might take the opportunity to leave, taking the star with it, since it would already be outside of you.-

That does seem likely…

She wasn’t keen to test the theory either way.

Finally, the leader gathered himself sufficiently to respond. “We are not here to answer your questions. We are to bring you back to our leader.”

“That was your purpose?”

“Yes, the Head asked to speak with you, to ensure you were not a threat.”

She frowned. “Did he create that item?”

The man hesitated, then seemed to decide that there was no harm in elevating his leader in her eyes. “Yes.”

Are you thinking what I’m thinking?

-Definitionally, yes.-

That’s not what I mean. We have this thing still inside us, and we have no idea what it’s going to do. We could really use an analysis, and someone capable of creating some of these items—

-They’d have the tools to provide that, yeah.-

“Good, then he likely has some good diagnostic equipment. Take me to him.”

“What?”

-Oh, Tala…-

What? It’s a good plan. I need more information, and the magic technology they have seems incredibly advanced.

-Assuming they didn’t just steal all these weapons and devices.-

From who?

-Ruins?-

That… that’s actually a good point, but if they have access to that many ruins, and this much weaponry? It’d be worth getting to know them in either case.

She desperately wanted to get home, but she couldn’t let this chance go to waste, and she really didn’t want to just ‘hope’ that the dasgannach would remain stable until she got back home. Who knows? Maybe they have a teleporter. I could teach them how to build one, actually.

Now that was an idea.

Could we just build one?

-You don’t actually have a complete knowledge of the spell-forms. You have knowledge of the functions, but not exacting details on the construction.-

Rust. Fine.

The leader was standing, stabilized by one of the two uninjured men. “You will need to surrender your weapons.”

Tala cocked an eyebrow. “Did I need weapons to overcome all of you?”

He twitched, seeming to fight an urge to flinch back, and after a moment’s hesitation, the man sighed, shaking his head. “No, but—”

She overrode him. “I could take all your weapons. Should I do that?”

“What? No!”

“Well, then. How about we all keep our own gear, and remember that you’ve already tried most of yours, and I haven’t used any of mine on you.”

The leader grimaced, but before he could respond, the other uninjured man came up to whisper in his ear.

Tala broke her standard respect for privacy, given their earlier hostilities, and listened in.

“Each one of the men has a broken ankle, sir. We’re not getting them back without aid.”

The leader seemed startled. “What? All the same injury?”

“Yes, sir. All the left ankle, too.”

Tala barely contained her smirk.

The leader frowned but nodded. “Alright. We’ll just have to send some people back for them.”

Tala cleared her throat. “If you’d like to begin building some good will, regardless of your ambush of me, I can carry your wounded in my dimensional storage, provided they don’t move around too much.” They had gated, and she wasn’t keen to have Kit’s foundations undermined.

He narrowed his eyes at her. “Why should I trust you?”

She shrugged. “Because if I wanted you dead, you would be. I’m Tala,  by the way.”

-Your real name? Really?-

I’m tired, Alat. I just want to be me. I’d like to be home, too, but that’s not possible at the moment.

-That’s… that’s fair.-

He cleared his throat. “Greater Tala, I am Markl, sergeant of the guard.”

Tala frowned. “’Greater?’ What’s that mean?”

Markl looked a bit uncomfortable. “It is our term of respect for one who uses magics without requiring artifacts.”

“So… a Mage?”

It was his turn to frown. “Like from the folk tales? Mages, wizards, liches, and the horrors below?”

“I… suppose so?” She shrugged. “But I suppose that doesn’t matter much. Should I refer to you as Sergeant Markl?”

“Just Markl will suffice, Greater.”

“Then you must just call me Tala.”

His look of discomfort grew. “Apologies, Greater, but I will have to refuse that request.”

Alright, then… a stronger hierarchy than the human cities up north?

-Or at least a more reinforced one. That likely means there is less of a power difference between ‘mundanes’ and ‘greaters’ than between the average citizen and ‘Mages’ back home. Only those with a tenuous grasp on power are so insistent on such structures.-

“If you insist, Markl.”

She took Kit from her belt and tossed it to one side against a smaller crag, willing a normal door to form, opening into an empty twenty-foot cube below her sanctum.

“Any whom you wish me to transport will be safe in there, and they shouldn’t be able to damage anything important, so we’ll all be happy.”

After a moment’s hesitation he nodded. “Injured inside, exit protocols in place. One hour from the door’s closure.”

“Sir!” The men still on the ground responded as one.

It took them a bit to load up the injured, and during that time Tala received quite a shock.

Of the eight men without gates, four weren’t human. Two were hue-folk, and two were beast-folk, but those specifics had been hidden under their armor and while Tala had been focused elsewhere.

Looking back through her memories, she did see that it was obvious earlier, she just hadn’t focused on it or really cared.

Huh. They’re taking orders from a human? We’ll I guess I had servants hopping at my words, but my position wasn't exactly standard.

Still more confusing was the obvious bird-folk who had a gate.

Tala stared at him, unabashedly.

He gave her uncomfortable glances as he was helped to hobble inside of Kit.

How the rust does an arcane have a gate?

-We could ask?-

Yes, I’ll just say that I was examining his soul, and noticed he had a gate.

-Why not?-

She hesitated, then shrugged. Good point.

Tala pointed at the bird-man. “You.”

He froze up, his voice shaking slightly, “Me, Greater?”

“Yes, you. How do you have a gate?”

His feathers rose, clearly showing emotion, but she didn’t know enough about his physiology to know what emotion it was. “My parents… Greater.”

“Meaning?”

“My mother was a gated human.”

And his father was a bird-man? There can be inter-breeding? There hadn’t been any of that in Platoiri, at least not that she’d been aware of, and she’d never seen an arcane with a gate, before. “Fascinating. Why—”

Markl cleared his throat from nearby. “Apologies, Greater, I don’t wish to presume, but you seem to be… unfamiliar with our customs and ways. You are asking somewhat… intimate questions.”

Tala sighed. I knew it was too much to hope they’d give me straight answers. She grimaced. “Very well. My apologies. I did not mean to offend.”

The loading of the remainder went off without issue and without further discussions. The deep, heavy vibrations of the ground continued at their regular intervals throughout.

After a brief hesitation, the sergeant also stepped through the door. “Banlen will lead you where you need to go.”

Without another word, he pushed the door closed.

Tala shrugged, taking Kit from the rock and hanging the pouch from her belt once more.

Kit’s reserves were still frustratingly low, so Tala once again rested her right hand on the pouch and directed as many void-channels as she could easily maintain into refilling her sanctum.

That underway, she turned to the two men, awkwardly standing nearby.

“So, which of you is Banlen?”

The two men looked at each other and both laughed a bit awkwardly. “Well, Greater, we both are.”

“Twins?” They didn’t really look alike, but stranger things happened. Both were human and neither had a gate. Might be their last name, then?

“No, Greater. Parents just chose the same name.” He shrugged awkwardly.

“Well then, Banlens, lead the way.”

The two men looked at each other and shrugged, the leaner one taking the lead.

They each obviously had one of the paired lightning artifacts, which took the form of a bracelet for each of them.

The one who took the lead had a short-spear that was, handle included, less than four-feet long.  It looked more like a short sword with a really long handle to Tala’s eye, but the intention was fairly obvious.

The other had a round shield on his back and a mace hanging from his belt.

The short-spear and shield were both magical, though she couldn’t easily tell exactly what they did.

Together, the three walked up to the top of a nearby hill.

There, the two men paused.

They’d only walked about a hundred feet.

Is this it? “Why are we stopping?”

One Banlen had pulled out a disc of vaguely magical glass, and the other turned her way. “He’s looking for our destination. We’ll move as soon as he pinpoints it.”

She frowned. She had dozens of questions but decided it was best to just wait and see.

Soon enough, the one looking must have seen what he was looking for. “Ahh, rust. It’s moved faster than usual, they must think they’re close to finding”—his eyes flicked to her, briefly—"it. Come on, we have a couple miles to cover.”

Without another word, he started jogging.

Tala and the other Banlen caught up quickly.

They both glanced her way, then to each other. With a shared shrug, they sped up to a comfortable running speed, and Tala increased her pace to match theirs.

The heavier of the two chuckled, even as he started to breath a little heavier. “I knew you’d be able to keep up. You didn’t have a ‘burst movement’ vibe to you.”

Tala just grinned back. “I could carry the two of you on my back, if you want.”

The other laughed. “Leave us a little pride, Greater. You’ve proven yourself already.” He hesitated for a moment before continuing, “I don’t want any misunderstanding. There will be those more powerful than you where we are going. We are not trying to lead you into a trap; that’s just the truth of it.”

She frowned. Is that based on a guess at my strength or something else?

-I haven’t sensed anything like magesight inspecting us, but with the odd assortment of gear they have, we could be missing something obvious. Or he’s just guessing.-

Well, at least this distance explains why they were willing to let me carry them in Kit.

-Yeah, I thought they’d agreed too easily, but if their city is moving somehow? The wounded would be falling further and further behind, and that would be really difficult to deal with, or at least inconvenient.-

Around a quarter hour later, they seemed to be drawing closer to their destination, and Tala was sensing a far greater concentration of power nearby, even if it wasn’t obvious to her magesight.

Some sort of obfuscation?

The steady, infrequent trembling of the ground had continued and seemed to be all around them now.

“You’ll feel a slight tingle as you pass through the field.”

Tala frowned but nodded. I’m coated in iron and forewarned. Not alerting me beforehand would have had a much greater chance of succeeding, if it was nefarious.

They crossed another dozen yards, and Tala did, indeed, feel a wave of tingling pass over her before it seemed that a veil had been pulled back from her eyes.

Before her, a structure towered into the sky, easily a few hundred feet from its foundations to the tallest tower.

That structure was ambling across the landscape on six long, almost delicate-seeming legs, which stuck out from the foundations of the compound.

Instantly, Tala assumed that the resonant thumping she’d been feeling was from this massive thing walking, but she watched it take a step, and felt nothing.

Then another step.

Then another.

Then, she felt the deep resonant vibration.

Voices called out from the walking structure, and it seemed to turn slightly.

They’re looking for the origin?

Maybe it was coming from underground.

She shivered at the idea.

The Banlen’s both had seemed to relax once they entered the field, and all three of them stopped a hundred yards or so inside it. “There she is. Home.”

There were other groups scattered about, though what they were doing, Tala couldn’t quickly determine.

Even so, she found herself nodding. “I can admit, I was not expecting a walking city.”

“City?” Lean Banlen laughed. “No, no. We’re not nearly so big. We’re barely a village.”

Her head whipped to face him. “What did you say?”

He took a step back, clearly startled by her sudden movement. “We’re not big enough to be a city?”

“After that.”

He swallowed. “We’re barely a village?”

“That. A village. That’s just a small city, right?”

“Yes, Greater, more or less.”

The other Banlen stepped forward. “We need to catch up. You can ask your questions of the Head. I’m sure he’ll be happy to speak with you.”

Tala narrowed her eyes, looking at the village.

She remembered a woman who called herself simply ‘Mistress.’ An insane offer of gold for a soul bond, a healing in the snowy mountains, and then abandonment to find her own way home.

Will I find her here?

-Only one way to find out.-

They took off at a run once again, and she found herself once again impressed at the two men’s endurance, given they were running in rather heavy armor. It wasn’t anything like full plate, but it was far weightier than a scout’s armor tended to be.

She was looking around at the unusual zeme as they ran when the truth of it hit her like a physical blow.

The village has its own aura? It was an insane idea. The sheer volume of power required was staggering. Even the human cities back home didn’t have an actual aura, just overlapping defenses and detection grids.

Though, to be fair, a village having an aura would be a lot more feasible than a city, at least in theory.

-More things to ask this ‘head.’-

So it seems.

It didn’t take long for them to catch up to the backend of the walking village.

There was a spur of rock extending down in back, with a door and a platform hovering just above the ground.

A singular guard stood on the small threshold.

The leaner Banlen ran ahead and hopped up, whispering to the guard.

Tala was amazed at how quiet the village’s steps were. Even right beside the thing she couldn’t hear them at all.

She realized it was magically enforced silence, of course, but it was impressive nonetheless.

The guard at the door didn’t look too pleased, but eventually he nodded and gestured them forward.

“Welcome to Howlton, Greater Tala. Banlen here said that you’ve rendered aid in transporting some of our men, and wish to speak with the Head?”

She blinked a few times at that, glancing to Banlen curiously. He was studiously avoiding making eye contact. With a chuckle and a shake of her head, she smiled. “That pretty much sums it up, yeah. I’ll let the men out of my dimensional storage once we’re inside.”

He gave her a long look, then grunted. “Above my paygrade. Welcome to Howlton.”

Without anything further, he opened the door away from them, and gestured for them to enter.

They entered, one Banlen in front and one behind, immediately climbing a set of stairs, up through the dark interior of the village’s foundation.

The top was awash in light, and as they came out of the dark, sloped passage, Tala was amazed at the life she saw all around them.

It felt like they were exiting an alley into a bustling marketplace.

There were workshops open to the air, though no sound exited the broad spaces.

More noise-canceling?

Food stalls were scattered about, along with sellers of various standard goods: clothing, belts, household tools, and the like.

No one seemed to notice their arrival, as the place was positively filled with people moving about.

True, if everyone had stayed still, they would have barely taken up any of the available space, but since everyone seemed to be off on their own errands, the market atrium felt almost over-full.

To her surprise, almost everyone she saw had a gate. I’ll have to ask about that.

The arched ceiling two dozen feet overhead kept it from feeling stifling, but there was a definite feeling of life to the place.

Tala took a deep breath, reveling in the more familiar spices of human cooking.

Arcanes ate mostly the same food, but they always seasoned it just a bit differently.

This?

This smelled like home, and Tala felt a tightening in her chest at the memories that tried to pour through her mind. She kept them at bay, barely.

“Right this way, Greater.”

The heavier Banlen had leaned closer, so he didn’t have to shout.

She nodded, and followed him through the maelstrom of humans and arcanes, interacting with perfect civility.

Well, I never expected to find something like this in the plains.

-Indeed.-

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