Chapter: 310 - Her Choices (Patreon)

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Tala grit her teeth against the churning perspectives that washed through her as she clutched onto the forming fount.

Even so, she knew what she needed to do, and she grew the white-steel across her entire body, carrying with it the void-magics that she was already using in the gloves.

It took a lot of power under the current strain, and she moved through another five cycles before she was fully covered. When it was done, however, she felt instant relief.

As she held on, fighting to do what was supposed to be a simple task, the flickering worlds passed more and more rapidly.

Tala couldn’t tell if she had caused the increase in pace, or if it was just a perception because she was now sheathed in the void, but regardless, it was becoming dizzying.

She was still unsure how she was able to see through her iron, white-steel, and now a void-magic buffer, but she couldn’t deny that the perspective was coming to her somehow.

Finally, the cycle became such an endless, quick stream that the three worlds seemed to meld into one, and Tala was left floating in a void.

She almost had a moment of panic as she seemed to be floating in a void with nothing but the fount in her hands, but her bloodstar perspectives showed that she was still standing in the valley, holding the fount exactly as she had been.

So, more of a spiritual, perceptual, or magical dislocation?

-Maybe? The instruction book must have had a page ripped out or something…-

Alat’s grumblings carried a note of uncertainty that Tala did not particularly like. -I still have our Archive connection, so all this madness will get to someone, no matter what.-

Great vote of confidence, there.

Despite Alat’s only half-joking pessimism, she focused her mind on the present moment.

The fount, in the shape of a sphere, was suddenly mobile, and Tala was able to pull it toward herself, cradling it against the iron plating on her chest.

The iron across her whole body was rusted and pitted, but it remained remarkably unbreeched.

Wait, where’s the white metal? Where’s my void-magic shell?

It was still there, as seen through the bloodstars, but she couldn’t see it with whatever odd perspective was coming straight into her mind.

Even so, that was the least of her concerns.

Before her stood two figures.

One was the grinning creature of nothingness.

The other was the nearly featureless three-dimensional outline of the Mage.

It was odd, seeing them standing side by side. With the proximity, it was incredibly easy to tell how similar they were in form and concept.

Like an ice-sculpture and one made out of clay, each crafted by a different artist but with the same model.

-Huh… I actually think I agree with that analogy.-

Tala didn’t respond to Alat, as she was focused so closely on the two.

Outside of the Doman-Imithe the too wide smile almost looked like the creature was trying to be friendly but had no true foundation on which to base its expression. Or it’s a lure…

The outline forged of magic was composed of power that was so pure it almost burned to see it, but Tala could somehow tell it wasn’t perfect.

It was just a reflection of what it could be.

To behold that perfection would have killed Tala, she somehow knew that for a fact.

Suddenly, Tala felt like she understood.

She had ‘won’ the struggle for the fount.

If she wished, she could take the fount and depart. She could use it as the arcanes did or for some other purpose.

Or she could give it to either of these… beings.

But aren’t the fount and the magical outline the same thing?

Tala felt herself frown.

It would be nice if she could get an explanation, but her mouth was sealed, and she somehow knew that if she broke the seal in an attempt to speak, both of these… things could end her simply by the nature of their existence, whether or not they intended to.

A horrifying thought washed through her. We’re all occupying the same space across the three worlds, and the fount caused a sort of blending for a moment.

-That may or may not be true. Does it matter?-

No. No, I suppose that it doesn’t really matter right now.

Regardless, Tala knew her choices.

The first was the most obvious, but also the only one she wouldn’t seriously contemplate. She would not be claiming the fount for her own use.

Second, she could allow the being from the Doman-Imithe to have it. The fount would solidify in Zeme, and there it would remain until something broke it free.

Finally, she could allow the being from the next world to have it, and the fount would fade away, passing on just as the gate of a mundane would.

No, the outline isn’t from the next world. It is how he will be in the next world. It was a strange thing, that knowledge. It felt like it came from within her, but she definitely didn’t think she’d known it before.

-Innate knowledge? Something your gate knows but your consciousness doesn’t?-

I suppose it could be either? I have no idea. It could even be from the dasgannach, but I highly doubt that.

Similar to the magical outline, the creature from the Doman-Imithe was decidedly like the Mage, but for some reason Tala couldn’t tell if it was the Mage or was somehow drawn or shaped to resemble him.

Oddly, Tala felt like there should have been other options.

For example, she should have been able to cast the fount, the gate, into the Doman-Imithe, but something was stopping her.

Like before the knowledge was just there, within her mind as she contemplated the idea. It is not my role to choose the eternal resting place of a soul.

Alat shivered within Tala’s head. -That was the exact impression I just got, too.-

Founts will always pass on eventually, even if it will only happen when the world ends. So, in the end, they will always go to the same place. We can’t change that. It seems like you’ve just won the right to influence the journey.

Tala shuddered, the many straining forces grinding against her were beginning to be too much. There is absolutely no way this is standard, Alat. What is going on?

-I told you what it said, ‘surround the fount with void.’-

I’m doing that!

-You’re also surrounding yourself with void. Maybe, you’ve somehow brought yourself along for the ride?-

Or somehow gotten a seat at the table…

-Quite the dangerous table.-

Yeah, this is just typical… She grimaced.

There honestly was only one option. She’d been curious what else was available, but it seemed like nothing else would truly present itself as reasonable.

As soon as she’d solidified the choice in her mind, the creature from the Doman-Imithe reacted.

Somehow, it didn’t seem to move or do anything, but Tala felt it raging.

The strange, unnatural stillness accompanied by the feeling of cosmic levels of anger was worse than seeing something storming around or throwing itself in a tantrum.

It’s not doing anything. What is going on?

-I… I don’t know.- Alat shivered again, her confusion and disjointment growing.

As the rage rose to a crescendo, the thing didn’t appear to have moved in the slightest. Even so, she would have sworn it was doing all sorts of things that she didn’t want it to be doing.

Less than a second had passed.

The fount that she had been holding had vanished at the moment of decision as well, and the three-dimensional outline of the Mage was fading away.

Tala couldn’t tell what the fates of any of the three would be.

Honestly, she couldn’t truthfully tell if they were three separate entities or if they were three parts of the same, or three states of the same, or three similar aspects of entirely different entities, or three aspects of the same, or…

Her mind spun through uncountable possibilities as it felt like something was grinding away at her thoughts, the memories of the encounter slipping away.

Tala could hear Alat growling as if she was seemingly fighting something with all that she had.

In a haze, Tala fell into unconsciousness.

*  *  *

Tala, of course, immediately came back awake, catching herself even as she started to fall to her knees in the still-burning valley.

Alat’s original activation scripts verified that she was up and running, and nothing more came of it.

With an act of will, Tala pulled apart her hands and reshaped her gauntlets.

The fount was gone without a trace.

Tala snorted, taking in the fire-ridden valley. Yeah, no trace at all.

There was obviously evidence that fire magics had been in the valley, but nothing remained that would have indicated that a fount ever had been there.

I’m feeling a bit out of it… She frowned. Where did the fount go?

-I’m not sure. We grabbed it and then… it was gone? Wait, there’s something labeled ‘Urgent’ in our Archive repository.- After a momentary shocked silence, Alat continued, -It’s from me? What is… rust me to scrap. Are you ready?-

Tala frowned. Ready for what?

-Ready for the memories of what just happened. It seems like we had a close interaction with something of the nothingness, and something would have removed or corrupted our memories as a byproduct.-

You saved them?

-I am actively archiving our every experience these days. They won’t make us lose anything ever again.-

Sometimes I love you. She felt vaguely uncomfortable at the undeterminable ‘they’ in Alat’s injunction, but it wasn’t important at the moment.

-That’s a bit narcissistic, but I appreciate the gratitude. Ready?-

Yes.

Tala was not ready.

She reeled backwards as she was suddenly able to recall the entirety of the struggle followed by her choice. What the rust?

-Oh! Mistress Ingrit has a lot to say. One moment.-

Right, we were sending her what we were detecting, weren’t we?

-Yeah. It looks like she wanted to interact during, but it happened rather faster than it seemed.-

Faster?

-The whole process took less than half a minute.-

Well… rust. What did Mistress Ingrit have to say?

­-First of all, she wants to know why you didn’t just use Flow.-

Is she serious? The last time that I used Flow, it ate the gate or at least it appeared to. I was not really comfortable attacking the fount when I had other options, not with the potential of destroying someone’s eternal existence.

-Master Xeel assured us that wasn’t the case. The fount wasn’t really ‘eaten,’ not in that sense.-

I know, but…I had another option, and I didn’t want to ‘just hit it with my sword’ if there was another way.

-Well, at least now we have solid confirmation. The true consumption of the fount would violate the sense we got, that we can’t change or violate the eternal destination of a gate.-

Yeah. It just seemed like I should try the other way, since it was available to me.

-That’s fair.-

Next time, I’m using Flow. That was… I’d rather not repeat that.

-Agreed.-

So, what else is she saying?

-Do you want to just talk with her?-

Are you capable of that?

-Yes. Stay fully encased in iron, and I can maintain it for a few minutes. You’ll need a reinscription afterwards, though.-

Alright, get it arranged. One of her mirrored perspective had seen two people coming down the slope, surrounded by cooling magics that seemed to originate from Mistress Petra.

It was, of course, the woman herself along with Master Simon.

Master Simon called out to her when she turned, “Mistress Tala! Are you alright? That seemed to… go oddly.”

Tala tried to speak and encountered the same issue as before, that of having her mouth sealed. She willed the metal away from her lips as she responded, “I’ll be fine. There were some complications.”

The two stopped on the slope still at least a dozen yards from the epicenter, already visibly sweating despite the cool breeze and the magics meant to keep the heat at bay.

That might have been a scathing rebuke of their level of power and resiliency, but given the ground was glowing in quite a wide radius, Tala thought they were doing incredibly well. “Stay back. I’ll get the analysis artifacts, if they survived.”

Mistress Petra shook her head. “Forget the devices. Are you alright? Let’s get you back into the sanctum.”

It was only then that Tala really considered the fact that they’d both come out.

If she had truly been on the edge of death, which she likely appeared to be, then they had risked Kit being whisked away when she passed on, stranding them both in the wilds.

They had come to check on her anyways.

-We lucked into some really caring people, didn’t we.-

So it would seem, yeah.

She retracted the iron and white-steel from around her face, and at the same time extended her aura to give her iron room to reach out and scoop the artifacts out of the insanely hot ground.

The constructs were mostly intact, and Tala drew them to her even as she broke her feet loose of the ground and moved towards the couple.

She held in a groan as her whole body protested the movement.

Oh, that’s uncomfortable. “Something to eat definitely wouldn’t be amiss, now that you mention it.”

Mistress Petra’s face softened. “That sounds wise, Mistress. Let’s get you to a nice comfortable seat. We’ll get some water and food in you.”

As soon as water was mentioned, Tala realized just how thirsty she was. Yes, water.

The three walked out of the valley, though the two others kept a bit away from Tala as she was radiating an uncomfortable amount of heat.

They probably wouldn’t have been burned if they had touched her, but it would have been a near thing.

Tala was actively cooling the white metal that was still surrounding her, and that was helping her internal temperature drop. The whole thing was acting like a magically assisted heat-sink.

As Tala considered her physical state, she directed her thoughts at Alat. Do I want to know?

-I don’t see why not. If you were still Bound, you’d be dead. If you were still Fused, our brain would be cooked, and you’d be unconscious until it cooled enough to be regrown and refilled with our memories.-

Well… Let’s do it the easy way next time. Draw Flow, one quick cut.

-Agreed. Mistress Ingrit is asking if she can bring in an expert? To be clear, his area of study is founts, not void-magics or the Doman-Imithe.-

Sure. That could help us piece this all together.

-Alright, they will be ready in ten minutes. She wants the expert to review the findings first.-

Is there that much?

-Master Simon’s info is a part of it. He didn’t really see more than we did. The specialized artifacts recorded more deeply, but not really anything specific that we didn’t see.-

What does that even mean?

-If we tried every dish, he brought the buffet. Nothing really different, no more dishes than we sampled, but he has more full platters?-

Huh, I suppose I can understand that.

The three got back to where Kit waited at the top of the slope. Blessedly, by that time Tala was a more reasonable temperature.

Tala stopped in confusion when she saw that Kit was in the form of an open door. “What?”

Master Simon and Mistress Petra turned to her. “Mistress Tala?”

“I thought you were looking through a window.”

“We were, but we thought you needed help when the view vanished, and a door appeared next to us.”

Mistress Petra nodded. “We couldn’t leave you out here if you needed help, so we came to see what we could do.”

“Huh.” Tala shook her head and smiled. “Well, thank you.”

“Of course, Mistress.”

The three went inside, the door closed and vanished, and Tala handed Master Simon back his artifacts before settling down in one of her comfortable chairs, looking out on the calming view of her sanctum.

Mistress Petra went and grabbed some food for Tala, presenting her with a tray of snacks and a large flagon of water.

“Thank you, Mistress Petra.”

“Of course. You just went through fire.” She chuckled at her own joke. “Take a minute. I think Simon is going to want to ask you a few thousand questions when you’re free and settled.”

Tala looked around but didn’t see the man. “Where is he?”

“Oh, he grabbed his slate and constructs and went off to his work area. He’ll be trying to figure out how those that broke failed and why.” Mistress Petra smiled fondly as she spoke of her husband. “I’m sure he’ll be back once his mind is settled, but I’ll hold him off until after dinner at the very least. You should have that long to collect yourself and do your own thinking.”

Tala felt herself smiling too. “Well, I hope to have more for him by then. I need to clear my head and get all this straight.”

“As is only wise. Even so, eat up, first.”

-You have time.-

Tala nodded. “I will. Thank you.”

It didn’t take long to eat the bit of food, and she did find herself practically chugging the water. Kit refilled it at need, and Tala ended up draining four massive mugs.

Altogether, the repast was amazingly refreshing in a way that Tala didn’t expect. I can’t believe that I’m still surprised that my scripts don’t heal everything.

-Well, they do, but they don’t always make you feel perfect. They will keep you functional and fit, that was what they were designed to do.-

Tala grunted before standing. “Thank you, Mistress Petra. We’ll likely be on our way in less than an hour.”

“I’ll let Simon know.”

“Thank you.”

Tala left the dining area and went to her room before standing beside the bed. Are they ready?

-They are now, yes.-

She nodded to herself, and once fully encased in iron again, the scripts involved in her mental enhancements—and Alat’s functionality—blazed with power.

Five seconds later, Mistress Ingrit and an older man were seemingly standing in her room, looking around curiously.

Tala bowed to each. “Hello… greetings? I’m sorry, I can’t really say I know how to start such a conversation.”

Mistress Ingrit smiled and gave a small bow in return. “‘Hello’ works well enough.”

The man gave a small bow as well. “Hello, Mistress Tala. Thank you for agreeing to see us.”

“Sure. Unfortunately, I can’t maintain a connection for long. We should address the pertinent things first. I understand that you have questions?”

He hesitated. “Wait… you’re maintaining the connection yourself?”

“With my inscriptions, yes.”

“Remarkable. I would not have thought a Refined—” He shook his head, cutting himself off. “I apologize, I easily get lost on rabbit trails. I am Coinin, and I have so, so many questions. I will attempt to be brief.”

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