Chapter: 303 - Counter-Spell (Patreon)

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Tala was utterly at a loss.

Somehow, she’d been immediately recognized when she walked into the Bandfast Culinary Guildhall.

She’d been whisked into a side room, where servant after servant brought her food of unquestionable quality.

It had been less than half an hour, and yet even she was starting to feel full.

-What’s going on?-

I have no idea. Maybe they’re grateful for connecting them with Mistress Ingrit?

-This seems a bit… over the top?-

Tala continued to eat and store food within Kit.

A full hour had passed, and Tala was getting ready to demand answers when an elderly woman bustled in.

Wait. She looks familiar. Oh! The guild-head? Valry, right?

-That’s what your memory shows, yes.-

She bowed deeply. “Mistress Tala. I deeply apologize for the wait. I trust that you have been well taken care of?”

“I… yes? Thank you, Guildmaster Valry. What’s going on?”

“I once again apologize. I was inspecting a farm to the south as a possible new source for some of our ingredients when I got word of your arrival. I got here as soon as I could.”

Tala frowned, then realized what the woman meant. “Oh! No, the wait wasn’t an issue.” She gestured to the empty platters and the well-appointed room in general. “I mean all this. What’s going on?”

The woman tilted her head to the side, a frown. “My apologies, Mistress Tala. I had thought that you came regarding the missive.”

Tala tried to contain her confusion. “What missive?”

“Well, when we heard you’d arrived in Alefast, Waning, we sent a missive with the next caravan heading that way. That was some two months back.”

Tala blinked a few times. Oh… how did they hear that I was in Alefast and not Bandfast?

-No idea. Is that really important?-

I suppose not…

“My apologies. I never received the missive. I’ve been meaning to come by but only now had the chance.”

The woman looked a bit flustered. “Oh… Well, umm… That is unexpected. We really should have used an Archive missive, I suppose, but we’re just not used to doing so… not yet.”

“That’s more than fine. I’m here now. What is this all about?”

“Thank you, Mistress.” Valry seemed to still be gathering her thoughts. “Well, the message basically was an invitation extended to you by myself and this Guildhall.” After a moment’s hesitation she amended, “Well, by the whole guild, really, but we are the presenters.”

After a brief silence, Tala inquired, “An invitation?”

“Yes! Yes. We are incredibly grateful for your help in lifting the veil of self-imposed secrecy on our research. We, as a guild, have been able to broaden our contacts and delve deeper than we ever thought possible with the aid of Mages.” She scoffed at her own words. “Mages. Can you believe it?”

Tala frowned bemusedly, and Valry seemed to recover herself.

“Oh, of course you can.” She shook her head. “Where is my mind these days? In any case, we wanted to thank you for what you did for us.”

“I honestly didn’t do very much. I mainly just opened lines of communication.”

“Even so.” She clapped her hands twice, and two waves of servants swept in through the doors into the room.

The first wave cleared out all the empty serving dishes and set up a couple large tables with startling efficiency.

The second was a bit odd.

There were six servants, five with small parcels and one with a simple pouch that exuded a respectable amount of dimensional energy.

The five lined up behind the tables setting down their parcels and opening them.

Each parcel contained a mix of dried and otherwise preserved foods.

“These are our five newest food sets for quick energy and nutrient recovery for Mages on the go. Perfectly balanced for different types of injury, with your method of healing taken into account. We have a whole line that is varied based on recovering after other types of healing, but those are obviously not needed for you.”

Tala walked over and sampled each offered mix.

They were all mundane foods, but of startling quality and composition. “These are amazing.”

“Indeed.” Valry smiled with obvious pride. “Our new, more open communication with Mages has allowed us to perfect and widely distribute foods of this kind. It should aid our Mages and guards in recovery to an unprecedented degree.”

She motioned the final servant forward.

“This is a dimensional pouch!” She was clearly proud of that fact alone, but she quickly continued regardless. “It is filled with a thousand of each of these food packets, along with a double portion of the long-lived foods that you acquired from our guild in Makinaven. We also increased that portion based on our best guess on the increase to your appetite.”

Tala’s eyes widened. That was amazing. Even with Mistress Petra preparing food for her, this would help supplement her diet until she could eat solely from what her sanctum produced. More importantly, it would be an amazing backup and emergency supply for both her and her sanctum’s incoming residents. “Thank you, truly.”

“It is the least we could do. I know that this is but a pittance, but we hope it conveys our gratitude.”

“It most certainly does.” She’d bought a five-year supply of food in Makinaven, and that was before factoring in her increased appetite. That meant that she now easily had solid food reserves for more than ten years, if it was well stored, which it unquestioningly would be.

Valry smiled. “Now, is there anything else we can do to show our thanks? What brought you here, today?”

-That was a kind, small thing of them to do.-

It was more than they needed to do; I really didn’t do very much…

-Even so.-

Tala smiled, addressing Valry, “I heard that you all were selling access to your research on the preparation of harvests for human consumption? I believe that the notebook I have only covers the basics.”

The guild-mistress’s smile grew in excitement. “Oh! That would be wonderful, and incredibly appropriate. Do you wish access?”

Tala blinked. “Oh… I assumed that such would be of incredible value.”

“In some ways, yes, though it costs us little. Even so, it is an ideal show of our gratitude. I would have already offered, but our understanding is that you did not have an interest or bent towards the culinary arts.”

“I do some, but I also have someone who is helping me in that department.”

Valry nodded, signaling a servant who departed immediately. “I see. So, access for two? We will provide you with the tokens.”

Tala smiled. “Thank you!”

Archive tokens were a means of granting a set of predetermined Archive access, without requiring the grantor and grantee to interact directly. Tala had never had need, so she’d only heard of them in passing.

The servant returned less than a minute later with two gold-inscribed clay disks, roughly the size of her hand.

“I trust that the one to help you is a Mage as well?”

“Yes.”

“Good, good. This little booklet should be sufficient to allow you to activate the scripts. They will each be used up, and the clay disk will crumble after one use.”

Clever. Never seen one of these in person. “Thank you.”

-So, likely only access to read the contents, not make changes or grant others access. That makes sense.-

Valry gave a nod of acknowledgement. “Of course. Now, my understanding is that this will be used to prepare food for you, is that correct?”

“It is.”

Valry smiled. “Would you be interested in one of our experts imparting their knowledge? We have many tasks on our local, collective plate, but I think we can spare someone for a few days?”

Tala’s eyes opened wide. “That could be amazing! When might they be available?”

“I will have to consult my master schedule, but I believe we can have someone free in a few days, and they should be able to give you at least three or four days.”

“That should be wonderful. I’ll make the arrangements. Are they alright working within a dimensional space?”

Valry looked a bit surprised but nodded. “I’ll ensure that the one who gets the assignment agrees to that aspect.”

“Great. I’ll come back in three days to pick them up, then?”

She hesitated. “Make it four? Does that work for you?”

“It should. Thank you.”

They exchanged a few more pleasantries before parting with smiles and bows, both incredibly content with the time spent.

Tala went straight from there to the Constructionist Guild.

Master Simon was summoned as soon as she arrived, and they went back to the workroom that was still his for the next week.

It had been his space for the last several years, while he was working on projects for Master Queue. That time in his career was ending, and he was simply tying up the last loose ends.

He set up tea for them both, and they got to work.

The first thing they did, while their tea steeped, was carry in two artifacts to hook into the network of scripts put in place by the House of Blood.

The design of the sanctum’s scripts was quite modular, and simply allowed for any new artifact to be slotted in.

Not that there’s a literal slot.

-Of course not, that would be too restrictive. The description implied that they often find unique artifacts in ether holds or in the wilds that can enhance sanctums, so they leave the ability to connect in other magical pathways to provide power as needed.-

They really did think of so much…

They began with those two items that they both agreed were required. First and foremost was the Archive interlink. The functionality of the device was apparently incredibly simple because it was her magic powering the sanctum and her soul that was bonded to the link. The rest was just translation.

The second was a communication beacon.

A large stone was placed beside the dais, and anyone could touch the stone and speak with Tala, so long as she was within a hundred feet of Kit.

Similarly, there were smaller items that allowed connection to each other and to Tala through the larger stone, though they only worked within the sanctum.

The communication with her once again utilized the fact that it was Tala’s power within Kit, magically bonding it to her.

The experience was odd from her perspective, because it almost felt like a part of her magic vibrated, near her gate. It took a few minutes before she learned how to understand the words coming through, but as an Immaterial Guide, she had a better grasp on the movements of her power and the meanings therein.

While she could also respond, her ability to do so was atrocious.

In the end, they agreed that she could send back one odd buzzing sound for ‘yes’ and two for ‘no.’ This was under the assumption that the most common question asked of her would be ‘Can you let me out?’ or some derivation therein.

Terry watched the installation and seemed fascinated by the new trinket.

Why do I feel like I’m going to regret some part of this?

-Because you probably are. Regardless, it’ll be nice for him to be able to request an exit rather than you having to remember to ask him.-

That’s true enough.

Tala could also use one of the subsidiary devices while within Kit, so she’d be able to talk to any of those within fairly easily.

That was especially good considering that, before learning of this option, she had just been planning on having Kit move her to their side, and she hadn’t really thought through how that could end badly.

Yes, giving some warning would be good, and no need to pop up beside people randomly.

-Yeah, that could lead to all sorts of awkward situations.-

What followed after, while they enjoyed their tea, was a general look at the items available to enhance or augment dimensional storage spaces. Most were useless for Kit, whether they were too weak to affect the vast space in a meaningful way, or Kit already had the functionality.

Master Simon and Tala did not look at options for merging items with Kit, simply those which could be placed within the sanctum.

While she dismissed most of the options presented, and was undecided on most of the rest, one thing became clear to Tala: she would need to add a grid-node to her sanctum.

A grid-node would effectively allow any magical technology which worked in cities to hook into the power within Kit instead, thus preventing Tala from having to create a hodgepodge lattice of interconnected inefficiency.

-That’s an elegant descriptor.-

It seemed fine to me. The whole thing could be a mess, and it isn’t.

-I suppose that’s fair.-

In the end, they both decided that Master Simon needed to spend a good deal of time within Kit before he could make meaningful recommendations beyond the three items that already made sense.

Even so, exactly which grid-node would work best in Kit was still not apparent. So, all things considered, the two Mages perusing all the options available was not an effective use of their time.

As such, they turned their attention to the other tasks at hand.

Tala presented Master Simon with the list of magical items she still had, but didn’t have a use for, from the arcane lands, and he granted her access to a list of Archive access methods available, which could be used by Mages and mundanes alike.

They each perused their lists, asking the other occasional clarifying questions.

The slates would connect to the grid-node when that was up and running, so they didn’t need to be independently powered, long term. Moreover, since Tala wasn’t leaving Bandfast before all of this was settled, they could simply run on the Bandfast grid, so long as Tala opened Kit for at least an hour every day to allow the power to reach into the space and keep the devices powered.

In the end, the Constructionist Guild was happy to take the items she offered, and Tala selected eight robust Archive slates. As neither Master Simon nor Mistress Petra were Refined, they didn’t have any bound to them, and those that they used within Bandfast were either borrowed or owned by their employers.

Well, that’s not changing, I suppose.

-Yeah, these will work long term for anyone within your sanctum.-

It was that thought which had prompted Tala to select three more than she strictly needed, just to have backups and to have them available at need.

-Probably overkill.-

Yeah, but if I’m wandering the wilds, I would hate to have to head home just because a slate broke, and I want to honor my commitment to keep their Archive access in place.

-That’s fair.-

A key feature that had further influenced her slate choice was the ability for the slates to be used by someone without any Archive access at all. In those cases, the slates would need to be initialized by someone with access, in which case, they could mirror their access in whole or in part.

Basically, Tala would be able to share limited information even with people who didn’t otherwise interface with the Archive.

Could be useful for trading in the towns, when we go back.

-Show them what we have, then find a way to more permanently transfer the information over? Yeah, that could work.-

“Alright, Mistress Tala.” Master Simon looked up from his tallies, where he’d put together a contract of exchange for them. “Right now, there is quite the imbalance. Though these items you’ve presented for trade are rather basic, they more than cover the cost of what you’ve selected. Is there anything else that the Constructionist Guild can do for you, today? Or should we discuss monetary means of balancing the transaction?”

“Well, two things come to mind that I could use from your guild.”

He smiled invitingly. “Certainly, Mistress. What were you thinking?”

“First, when I was working in the caravans, I noticed that the Guards had inscribed weaponry that remained unpowered until it interacted with the targeted magical creature.”

“I’m familiar with that type of spell-form, yes.”

“Can they be inscribed for me?”

“I’m not sure I understand. Can you start by telling me: What beast did you want counter-spells for?”

“Oh, they are specific to the arcanous beast?”

He tilted his head for a moment then nodded hesitantly. “No, but mostly yes. They are tailored to the specific magics. They do work for those magics on different species, but only so long as the magics they wield are similar enough.”

“Oh… how many sets are there?”

He chuckled. “Do you mean how many different types of arcanous magics have we worked up counter-spell inscription sets for?”

“Yes?”

“Three hundred?” He frowned then looked down at his Archive slate before flipping through some information. “There are three hundred twelve standard sets, and an additional thousand that caravan guards carry in case they cross those rarer variations. There seems to be a further seven hundred or so that either haven’t been useful in a century or more, or are not effective enough on the current manifestations of arcanous creatures to be worth creating and having on hand.”

Tala grimaced. “Well, that’s less useful.”

“What were you thinking of doing, if I may ask?”

She pulled her hauberk out of Kit and held it up. The piece of fitted armor was now fully restored with white steel scales, each filled with gravity alteration, ready to assault her enemies.

She briefly explained that each scale could become a projectile, and that she’d hoped to increase their lethality.

He took a long moment to digest the implications of what she’d conveyed. Once he had come to terms with the reality of the armor-turned-weapon, he shrugged. “You could imbed an endingberry in the center?”

She blinked a few times. Genius! But no… that wouldn’t really work… would it?

-No. It would be highly unstable and not very effective without heavy scripting and modifications.-

Master Simon was already shaking his head. “No, that would be a difficult method to implement… I can think on it, but nothing comes readily to mind. The scripts you asked about would be an excellent idea if you were waging a war on a specific kind of creature. Maybe for the next Leshkin war?”

Tala nodded at that. “There’s an idea, yeah.”

-Note that for later?-

Absolutely, yeah.

“The inscriptions are incredibly inexpensive to create. I could balance out the exchange by crafting three arrows for each of the most useful counter-spell inscriptions?”

Tala blinked a few times. “That’s… that’s interesting. How many could I get if I wanted one of every type, and a description of exactly what it’s supposed to counter?”

He looked down at this pad, nodding to himself. “One of each should be doable. It’s a bit of a stretch, but we can make it happen.” He smiled. “I know there are a few who will find greater value in the items you’re providing because they came from arcanes and that should balance out the difference.”

What do you think?

-It could be a good thing to have in our back pocket, just in case. Especially if we are going to be wandering the wilds and beyond.-

One each isn’t really enough…

-Yeah. Ask about five?-

“How much would it cost to increase to five of each?-

“Oh… well… Hmmm… We’d already be setting up for each single inscription, so it wouldn’t be five times the cost to make… I think we could do it for thirty-two gold?”

“Make it thirty and you have a deal.”

He huffed a laugh. “Only if you pay upfront.”

“Done.”

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