Chapter: 361 - Contemplative Silence (Patreon)

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Tala spent the next few minutes conveying what she’d seen to Master Aman, Mistress Spiora, and Rane who had been waiting while she delved stoneward.

Alat reached out to Mistress Ingrit, and the Librarian assured them that the creatures were known, and generally not dangerous.

That information seemed to frustrate Mistress Spiora and Master Aman.

The man shook his head ruefully, “That would have been good to know, but I suppose we’ve not only never inquired about creatures living away from our layer of reality, nothing we’ve done would have been done differently if we did have the knowledge.”

Mistress Spiora sighed. “There is too much information on any subject to garner expertise with it all. Even so, the fault lies with us for not inquiring more broadly. We will remedy that.”

Rane didn’t have much to add, as made sense, and he didn’t seem to feel the need to interject. So, he remained mostly silent as the three Refined discussed various things.

Eventually, Tala decided that she needed more information before she did any further experiments.

-For what it’s worth, Mistress Ingrit expressed her apologies for not mentioning the creatures. They are generally non-hostile, and even when they act aggressively, all that they do is pull off minute amounts of power. Again, across the board they are not considered dangerous or even bothersome, just oddities.-

Because Mages don’t work with iron, they wouldn’t have the same issue we did.

-Precisely. Mistress Ingrit has updated their records with that added information.-

Rane and Tala bid the Refined couple goodbye after thanking them.

While they hadn’t been necessary in order to save her, Tala had felt better for having had them with her, just in case.

-Mistress Ingrit really does seem to feel bad about what happened. She wanted to assure you that the city defenses heavily discourage the creatures from coming through the superficial layer. It doesn’t happen often, and they don’t spend enough time to be harmful to anyone.-

As they came back out into the street in front of the Archon Compound, Rane turned to Tala. “You know, as exciting as that was, it really didn’t take that long.”

Tala glanced up at the sky, where the sun was still quite a bit above the horizon. “Oh, yeah. Huh.”

“Is there anything else that you want or need to do?”

She thought for a long moment. “I had some questions for Master Boma… Let me send him an Archive message.”

-Done.- Alat was only silent for a moment before continuing. -Oh. He’s a bit cross.-

Oh? Tala frowned, and she and Rane stepped to the side of the street to not be in the way.

-Yeah. He says he’s right in the middle of something, and such a question will take at least a day or two of research. He also is frustrated that he hadn’t thought of that idea, himself, though I got that from subtext. He was ranting a bit, likely due to the haste of his reply.-

Did you ask what we talked about?

-Yes, I asked him if soul-binding an entity with a dimensional space characteristic causes the same issues as soul-binding a pure inanimate storage.-

Well, if he doesn’t know the answer, we can do our own research… Tala considered for a moment. Can you ask Mistress Ingrit?

Alat laughed within Tala’s head at the contradiction, but she still did as Tala had requested. -Done.-

Tala turned back to Rane who had been waiting patiently. Though, he had pulled out his Archive slate and was reading through something as she’d been trying to coordinate things. “Well, it seems like I’ve nothing pressing at the moment. It might be nice to swing through and say ‘Hi’ to Mistress Holly, though.”

He looked up and smiled, tucking away his slate. “That could work, sure. It’s a bit anti-climactic. We go into an underground testing room, learn about creatures who live all around us, possibly flitting through us at any given moment to drain bits of power… and now we’re going to go visit a friend.”

Tala chuckled. “Yeah… I was hoping to test a few more things, then pull off a fun combination of what I had learned at the end, but… I don’t really want to go diving in infested waters again so soon. It seems like my iron will be a detriment this time around.”

He nodded, but clearly had a question in his eyes.

“Don’t get me wrong, as soon as I can get my head around it, I’ll sequester my iron and try again but…” Then, she hesitated. “Wait… Rust… That would just be putting it around me in the dimension of magic, which is part of… no, wait. It would be around Flow, and I can just tuck Flow into Kit.”

Rane grinned. “It sounds like you’re still thinking through all that you learned. It also sounds like you’ve learned a few things that I don’t know, yet? Do you want to go find somewhere to sit and think for a bit before we drop through Mistress Holly’s workshop?”

She felt herself relax at the suggestion. “You know, that would be really nice. I think I remember a tea place a few blocks from here in the right direction.”

He raised an eyebrow, giving a small, mischievous smile. “You ‘think’ you remember?”

She waved him off, though she felt a smile tug at her own lips as well. “It’s a turn of phrase. It’s this way.”

They spent about an hour enjoying a couple of pots of tea in companionable silence while Tala and Alat processed through all that they had seen and experienced during their experiment.

Tala did take the time to tell Rane what she’d learned that he hadn’t been aware of before bouncing a few ideas off of him, but whenever she fell back into contemplative silence, he easily left her to it.

As they finished the last of their tea, he looked to her questioningly, and she nodded with a smile. “Thank you. I think I’m ready.”

They thanked their servers and departed, heading toward Mistress Holly’s workshop.

As they entered the incredibly familiar building, Tala felt the expected tickle of magic interfacing with Alat’s inscriptions.

-Oh, that tingles. Huh. I didn’t think it’s been that long since we were here but—-

“Child!” Mistress Holly’s voice resounded from the back.

The receptionist—likely yet another aspiring Inscriptionist who probably wouldn’t be around for very long—sighed and gestured for them to head on back. “She clearly knows you and wishes to see you.”

Tala gave the young seeming woman a sympathetic smile and wave. “Thank you.”

Rane and Tala walked the usual path back to Mistress Holly’s workroom and through the open door.

The woman herself stood in the center of the space, hands on her hips. “Nearly two-hundred and fifty days since you last came back to update my records.”

Tala quirked a smile. “You mean nearly two-hundred fifty days since you got far too much personal information about me?”

The Inscriptionist raised an eyebrow. “You’ve gotten some spine, working as a defender, have you?”

Tala shrugged. “Just putting forward another interpretation.”

The door slammed behind Rane, causing Tala to frown. She hadn’t seen anything coming from Mistress Holly even with her magesight.

“Regardless, I was in the city and thought it would be nice to stop through and see you.”

She looked closer at the woman. It was the first time that Tala had seen Mistress Holly since Tala’s eyes had been fully Refined, enhanced by Refined magics, and allowed to settle.

Mistress Holly’s inscriptions had always appeared extensive, being more visible than most and covering all her visible flesh.

Now, however, Tala saw a detail that she hadn’t, before, aided by her altered magesight. Tala’s magesight seemed to factor in because Mistress Holly had, for some reason, altered her aura to be entirely transparent to Tala’s magical vision.

As to what she saw?

Every single line of inscription that Mistress Holly had was, in fact, a long chain of unbelievably minute inscriptions. That wasn’t all that surprising, though it was far more detailed than Tala had ever realized. After all, inscriptions were Mistress Holly’s central focus. It would have been odd if the woman didn’t have any surprises within her own magics in that regard.

No, what caused Tala’s breath to catch was that the inscriptions extended starward and stoneward as well. Again, though, she shouldn’t have been surprised by that, but the sheer unexpectedness of it caught her off guard.

Mistress Holly’s every inscription was actually a four-dimensional tapestry of precious metal, perfectly aligned with one of the most robust sets of natural magics Tala had ever seen.

Tala’s mouth opened in shock as she stared through the woman’s chest, at Mistress Holly’s gate.

Where most Mages had a keystone inscription surrounding their gate, catching all that came through, Mistress Holly had inscriptions across, around, and through her gate, seemingly passing into the next world even as they glowed with power.

Mistress Holly glanced downward, then looked up with a smile. “So, you have improved your perception, then.”

Tala looked up, meeting the older woman’s eyes. “What am I seeing?”

“My next experiment... well, one of them. Very, very few of my magics function when enacted in there. Evidence suggests that it is only the ones which are in full alignment with existence, rather than just in line with my mental models.”

Tala nodded slowly, even as Rane looked back and forth in obvious confusion.

Still, he held his tongue, seemingly interested in seeing how the conversation played out.

“Well,” Tala swallowed, “that and your fourth-dimensional inscriptions.”

Mistress Holly’s eyes went wide. “So, I was right!” She cackled. “You took a trip toward the Stone.”

Rane gave Mistress Holly an arch look. “Just how much information are you gathering about Tala, Mistress?”

Tala waved that off. “It’s fine, Rane, but thank you for caring. Mistress Holly, what I really want to know is why and how, under the stars, are you shoving inscriptions back through your gate. That should be impossible.”

Mistress Holly laughed. “Oh, is that how it looks to your sight? Fascinating.”

Rane opened his mouth to ask for clarification, seemed to think better of it, sighed, shook his head, and moved to sit on the chair to one side and listen. As he went, he muttered under his breath at a volume that he had to know both women could hear. “She’s as bad as Tala.”

Tala felt herself smile, and Mistress Holly’s lips twitched ever so slightly.

Mistress Holly seemed to decide it was worth responding, “The difference between us, boy, is that I have the theoretical knowledge before I make the leap. Though, she does seem to try to gather that information afterward, these days. Improvement is improvement.”

Tala grimaced but decided not to contest the issue.

“Regardless, no, Mistress, I have not been shoving precious metal into the next world. To be clear, that would be foolish in the extreme for all sorts of reasons that I cannot begin to convey with your level of understanding. What I have been doing is using dimensional magics to bend the usually flat plane of my gate inward, to create a convex space in which I can enact conducting, enhancing, and purification magics in a more concentrated and efficient manner.”

If Tala understood correctly, that meant that what Tala had interpreted was simply a visual artifact by which her mind was trying to interpret what she was seeing. On the other side of the gate, it would still be a flat opening. Not that anyone actually knows or understands exactly what is on the other side…

She nodded in understanding of Mistress Holly’s words, even if not all the implications they hinted at.

Tala kept her tone level as she brought the conversation back to something the Inscriptionist had said, earlier, “I’ll admit, that makes a lot more sense, but what did you mean earlier, then?”

“To what are you referring?” Mistress Holly arched one eyebrow.

“You said that few magics work when enacted in there.”

“Oh, that. The dimensional distortion seems to expose that expanded pocket to the rules of the next world more fully than the rest of Zeme. So, within that pocket, magics have to be more aligned with existence.”

“That is… fascinating. I can’t say that I understand all the implications, but one thing is pretty clear.”

“Oh?”

Tala narrowed her eyes. “You’re a Paragon.”

Mistress Holly gave her a small smile. “You can’t prove that.”

Tala opened her mouth, then closed it and shook her head. “As you wish, then.”

The Inscriptionist turned on Rane. “Now that that’s out of the way: You’re here; let’s check up on you for your readiness to Refine.”

Rane’s eyes widened, and he stood up hurriedly. “Yes please.” He glanced toward Tala. “Do you mind?”

Tala smiled and shook her head. “Of course not! That’s pretty important to get right, and you’ve been more than patient with me today.”

Thus, Tala was the one who ended up sitting in the chair while Rane was tested over the next couple of hours.

When they were done, Mistress Holly shooed them out, simply telling Tala that she’d have a proper analysis of her inscriptions—and how they were meshing with her changing mental models and natural magics—in a few days.

“Oh, you can give me access to that when it’s ready?”

Mistress Holly raised one eyebrow once again and simply waited.

Tala cleared her throat. “I’ll be back in a few days, I suppose.”

“That sounds excellent. Goodbye now.”

Rane and Tala left, exiting onto the lit streets in the dark, early-winter evening.

They headed toward Lyn’s house, and only walked in silence for about a block before Tala spoke up. “So, just about two months before your first session?"

He nodded. "Yeah. Honestly, while I’m excited, I’m also a bit nervous. My magics weren’t very physically oriented, and now I have all these inscriptions slowly changing me, and the actual Refining will do even more, building on the foundation those workings are establishing.”

“What is your concern?”

He shrugged, clearly feeling a little self-conscious.

She lightly bumped him with her shoulder. “What is it, Rane? You can tell me.”

He smiled, glancing her way before returning his eyes to the street ahead.

After a moment’s silence, Tala added, “But you don’t have to say anything if you don’t want to.”

“I know.” He looked up to the sky, then shook his head. “It’s silly.”

“If it’s concerning you, it matters, even if you think it’s silly.”

He huffed a laugh. “That’s kind.”

“That’s true.”

They walked another block or so before he broke the silence, “This is me. This is who I am. There’s good and bad. I have capacities, strengths and weaknesses. I’m not perfect, but I’m me.”

Tala nodded, not interjecting verbally, somehow knowing that that would cause him to close up.

“Refining will change me. I will no longer be me, not as I think of myself.”

She frowned, but he clearly wasn’t done, so she simply waited.

After a long moment, he continued, “I’m not married.” He colored, not looking her way. “Ideally, I will be at some point, but I’m not married now. What if…”

He was quiet for a long time.

They were almost to Lyn’s house before he barely whispered, “What if whoever I marry wouldn’t have married me as I am now? What if they only want to be with me because I’ve changed?”

Tala frowned but didn’t answer immediately.

Rane’s face was a rather noticeably bright red, but he seemed to have said what he was going to say, and that was relieving some of his embarrassment.

As they stopped in the small front yard, Tala turned to him, “Should a child remain a child, for fear that the woman he eventually marries wouldn’t love him as the child he once was?”

“What?” Rane frowned. “Are you saying that the un-Refined are as foolish and naive as a child?”

“What? No.” Tala shook her head. “Not at all. It’s to make a point.”

He scrunched his face, then shrugged. “Well, then… I suppose not? A man must grow up in order for marriage to be appropriate. Therefore, he is leaving that childhood behind. He is no longer a child. So, his future wife’s opinion about his past only matters in that context. He shouldn’t care if she’d love him as he was when he was younger or not, because he will never be like that again.”

Tala smiled. “See? You already took it to the logical conclusion.”

He huffed, grimacing slightly, “I know it doesn’t make sense, but… It still doesn’t feel great.”

“Oh.” She looked down. “I’m sorry. I wasn’t trying to say you were being foolish. I was just trying to help.”

He shrugged one shoulder, not meeting her eyes. “I know. I also know it’s silly, but I still feel it.” He let out a long breath. “It sometimes feels like I feel a lot of silly things.”

As he turned back toward Lyn’s door, he was stopped by Tala placing her hand on his shoulder, “Rane. It isn’t silly to have concerns. No matter how much sense they make to someone else. How you feel matters. Let me know if I can help, otherwise please know that I’ll be here, regardless.”

He smiled tiredly, but her words did seem to help, even if only just a bit. “I know. I really do. Thank you, Tala.”

She let her hand fall back to her side, and they took the last few steps up to Lyn’s door and knocked.

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