Chapter: 375 Bonus - Adrill and Lisa (Patreon)

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Adrill moved between several of his experiments, trying to ensure that his equipment kept good track of each and every facet of what was going on.

He had arcane harvests carefully pared down and measured. Each in either magical containment with small releases built in, or iron boxes with carefully positioned and variable valves. All that effort to give consistent results.

As consistent as possible at least…

No, he wouldn’t be upset with what he had worked so hard to build.

He had taken his own limitation, his own lack of magic, and used it as a driving force to delve ever deeper in the nature of what he lacked.

From his recent talks with the Constructionist Guild, he had a deeper, fuller understanding of the realities of magic than most full members.

Even so, it was hard not to miss working within Mistress Tala’s sanctum.

It wasn’t just about having the expertise of Master Simon to lean upon and learn from—the man had studied under masters for decades—but the sheer amount of resources that they could bring to bear on every project was staggering.

While here, he was in his basement, with artifacts and harvests that he’d carefully cobbled together and nurtured over those same decades.

He knew that Artia had shifted the shop into one that traded in and sold harvests and artifacts as they grew in prevalence in order to support him and his hobby, and he loved her for that.

He tried to use his knowledge and expertise to give back to her as well, and together they’d grown their business and family’s wealth to the point that they could retire if they wanted to.

Stars above, Brandon need not work a day in his life. Adrill shuddered at that. May he never choose that path.

Neither wanted to stop, though.

He wanted to keep researching and experimenting, and that took resources.

She wanted to interact with people, make deals, and test herself.

It was a wonderful match.

It was a wonderful bond.

He smiled softly at the thought of his wife, the life that they had built together.

He only regretted that they would have relatively so little time together in the scale of history… that, and their son.

He winced slightly there.

He loved Brandon with all of his heart, and the suffering brought about by his birth was no fault of Brandon’s.

Adrill’s son had inherited his deficiency—his flaw that had sundered Adrill from his Mage-filled family—and that had hurt his wife.

They had planned on a big family, as was customary.

More than custom, though, Artia had longed for many children.

He and his brokenness had taken that from her.

Still, she’d been a mother to everyone who she came across, in some senses. She wanted them to succeed, and helped them to the best of her ability.

Still—

No, Adrill. Focus on your tasks.

He shifted harvests, altered iron plates that blocked off or funneled power, and checked readings from his perceptual artifacts.

He had experiments to run, and none of them involved his own sense of self-recrimination.

He smiled at that.

He may be mundane, but the wonders of magic were still there before him, waiting to be explored.

* * *

Lisa folded his hands after handing over the stone, his last creation of any note.

He would not snatch it back. It was no longer useful to him, and so he had no reason to keep it.

None at all.

True, it held sentimental value, but little else. He hadn’t lied to the girl before him—Mistress Tala—it was effectively worthless to him. He was gaining something better in return, “Here you are. I trust the memory will be along—”

He felt a flexing of magic from the girl as something worked with the Archive, somehow treating the distances as if they were inconsequential, even more so than human magic usually did with the Archive.

Something soulbound? That’s likely.

His own rudimentary connection with the Archive notified him that he had access to new information, and he’d seen enough of this Refined to trust that it contained the agreed-upon memories.

Or I’ll find entertainment hunting her down. Now, that would be good for his constitution. Walks were all well and good, but give him a proper hunt any day.

Thus, assuming she’d treated with him in good faith, it was a true win-win.

“—Ah, there it is.”

He began to nod slowly.

She interacted with the Archive incredibly smoothly, unnaturally so.

Definitely a soulbound item. It spoke well of her that she would use one of her limited bonds to ensure access to information.

Still, he couldn’t determine the method of connection, which was another layer of fascination.

How interesting… she's not using a tablet, nor did any part of her face or throat move to hint at subvocalization, indicating purely mental manipulation of the connection. She had an illusion up, but he could see her true visage easily enough. Does she have a separate mind for interacting with the Archive?

Her visage was also frustratingly useless to him. Though, he was only slightly miffed that he couldn’t simply see the answer to that query.

The girl was layered in iron, just as his home was. She had even managed to protect herself along the least understood spatial dimension.

She would be difficult to truly overcome in a direct contest of power.

Truly an intriguing human.

He finished his contemplative nod, “Is there anything further?”

She altered her illusion to smile slightly, and something about the expression spoke to it being an unconscious manipulation.

Impressive to be at that level already. She’s not even half a century old, unless my senses deceive me.

“Not at the moment. Though, I would love to flip through your books, to get an idea of what you have in stock, and better understand what you might want or have in the future.”

She might come back, then? That could prove both interesting and fruitful. Lisa nodded even as he waved his hand.

While he summoned the door out, back to the surface layer of existence behind her, he used the motion and accompanying magics to switch out the tomes on his counter with the true books of record, containing all items he had and was willing to part with.

The standard set that he left out didn’t contain the items that hinted at forbidden or dangerous knowledge.

This Mage was clearly in the know of more than most of humanity. So, he determined she was fine to learn about the more esoteric items. There was no reason to keep any back from her knowledge. Though, she was unlikely to truly notice the implications unless she took much more time to contemplate than one of her age was likely to.

Annoyingly, with the door back in place, he was required to reapply his own illusion, and that flowed into place with barely a thought.

His false shape was intentionally as boring and bland as he could make it.

He had hoped to annoy those who imposed the requirement, but the end result was that most people didn’t notice him as he moved among them.

So, he’d kept the form.

Once the false self was solidified once again, he addressed Mistress Tala, “Do as you wish. I have some memories to savor.”

With a brief twitch, he moved perpendicular to the usual dimensions, slipping out of her line of sight, at least the sight of her eyes.

The girl acted as if she had some magics that seemed to be able to track him reasonably well.

Yet another reason to keep tabs on her.

As he left via another passage, he activated the magics that would notify him if any of his stored items were disturbed.

He did not think she would attempt to steal from him, but he hadn’t survived and amassed his resources by acting the fool.

Additionally, he really would enjoy an unassailable reason to hunt her down.

No, Lisa. The fox who knows his place, survives. The cub is easy prey, but the pack is not.

Lisa stepped through his home, easily navigating the various physical layers.

Often as he moved, he would pass through zeme-locks, sets of two sealed doors of iron—linked so that only one could open at once, thus ensuring that the path was sealed firmly behind him as he continued deeper into his den.

Each sealed off section had its own set of vestiges to ensure it was filled to bursting with power. If he was ever assaulted here, he would have a near infinite supply of power with which to defend himself, all without breaching the dictates of humanity.

As to the twisting layout, he had planned out the passages and storage configurations to act as yet another line of defense, if any of his old enemies came to call. Additionally, it would prevent humans from easily getting very deep inside.

Well, most of them.

That girl was… interesting. He suspected that she could navigate his den, but it wouldn’t be easy.

After all, she had shown definite evidence of being able to see him moving along the magical spatial dimension, but still hadn’t demonstrated an easy way to mimic the feat.

These days, even most human Paragons couldn’t actively see the layers of the physical, though most could sense it rather clearly.

Mistress Tala…He would remember the name.

She’d granted him a vision of Sole, that old fool.

He still needed to sit down and watch it, but he knew himself too well to do so anywhere he could be interrupted.

Thus, he’d monitored the shop and as soon as Mistress Tala had departed, he sealed the front door, even as he continued to make his way deep into his little domain.

Truth be told, ‘little’ wasn’t entirely correct. He had as much space in there as a newly built human city.

Moving the building was always… frustrating, but he always had centuries to build up the required magic between relocations, as his home was doing even now.

Turning an existing space into an movable hold was complex, but doable.

Pulling it back into a surface position was much more difficult.

Plus, there was the added frustration of physically moving the anchor across the world between where his home had been and the new place he was allowed to place it.

Truly, it was his most vulnerable time, given he had to devote most of his allowed power to keeping the totality of what was his from pulling in on itself and drifting away into the ever present in between spaces.

The void was a greedy, capricious neighbor, and one that couldn’t be avoided.

Even his extensive, interlocking iron shrouds didn’t keep out the void. It couldn’t be done, and even attempting to do so would be a fool’s project.

His mind returned to his current task as, finally, he had made his way to his lower study, closing the series of iron doors behind himself to reseal the space.

He knew that the little bit of power that had leaked into the middle space would be funneled into his collection nodes, thus keeping it from being wasted.

Waste not. He smiled.

Economical living was only a part of it. If the city leaders learned just how much power was being generated within his designated space…

Well, it was for the best that they never even thought to ask.

But he had come to this study for a specific reason: it contained one of the zeme-lock doors out of his fortress. It was oriented so that only someone with his vision could see it, even if they stood where he did right then.

Perhaps that girl could…

She really was worth investigating more fully. Mistress Ingrit—the librarian—had implied that Mistress Tala had many, many memories on offer.

Perhaps he should acquire those.

He should know his prey after all.

No. Not prey. Just an interesting human.

But he was getting distracted.

He had chosen a room with an escape hatch because if he saw anything that was concerning in the memories, he would want to act immediately.

He didn’t trust his own patience upon learning something like that, and he didn’t want to have to repair his home when he returned.

Or pay for damages to the city…

WIth a brief scan, he ensured that he was far enough removed from the city to satisfy his oaths.

He was.

His illusory self vanished faster than a quick exhale.

Next, the ridiculous horns that he’d stimulated his body to grow, began to be reabsorbed, as he worked his jaw, reveling in the feeling of wearing the simple form of a bipedal fox once more.

Then, with an act of will, he allowed himself to shrink down to a more reasonable—and his natural—height.

Two feet from paw to the top of his head.

Wonderful. He had heard that Mistress Tala had faced a midnight fox, and he’d hoped to provoke her into more conversation by somewhat mimicking that form. While that bid had failed, he’d gotten what he wanted regardless.

He usually did.

WIth a slow intake of breath, he pulled in the free floating power that surrounded him, sourced from the various vestiges positioned throughout this space and purified for his use.

The zeme of this office stilled, began to fade, then vanished as Lisa swelled with power.

The vestiges were already working to refill the space to the maximum level. They always were.

For him, this power density wasn’t a long missed level of power, as he did this whenever he was sufficiently away from others to make it allowable.

Still, he didn’t draw in as much as he could—he didn’t wish to drain his whole complex after all—but he did raise himself until he was worthy to be Honored.

This will do. I can snatch more on the way out, if Sole is free.

With that prepared, he summoned an old friend, and it came to him from the void, from the only place it was safe to leave the item unattended.

It was two feet of haphazardly carved stone-wood—a long extinct species, sadly. The markings seemed more like frantic claw marks of a prisoner trying to escape their cell than anything else.

Truthfully, that wasn’t far off the mark.

Each was painstakingly engraved by one of uncounted foes, granted a few extra minutes of life so long as they performed the task.

Stone-wood—at least when treated properly—had the unique feature of existing along the spacial axis of magic as well as the physical, thus, allowing multiple layers to be available for carving by various foes.

They were then combined and overlaid through a technique long-lost to all but him.

It was thus trivial for him to bring forth a blank surface for whomever he struck down, next.

Wonderfully, it actually didn’t matter what those so defeated, humiliated, and coerced carved, whether they wished him well—so that they weren’t the only one that he defeated—or if they wished him death—that he would suffer for what he’d done.

The point was that they poured their emotions and final moments into doing the carving.

Lisa ran his hand across the carvings, feeling every layer, every line, at the same time.

“Lamentation, I may have need of you.”

The unnaturally overlaid, fevered scratches and ragged edges seemed to shiver for a moment as the tool responded to its master’s will.

Lisa smiled his predatory smile. “Good.”

He took a moment to shift his tail into a comfortable position.

There.

He connected the Archive artifact to his temple and with an act of will, accessed the girl’s memories, seeing things from her perspective once again.

It was an interesting experience, because he had available to him her myriad perspectives to easily switch between.

WIth a shrug, he accessed all of them at once, and with his own mental capacity, he processed them easily.

More than that, he was also given access to what her aura had sensed—along with her other senses—both her interpretation and the raw information.

This is incredible.

There was so much more information contained within what he had been granted than had been included with the memories of slaying arcanes.

Clearly Mistress Ingrit stripped out much of the detail that would have revealed what Mistress Tala was capable of, and Mistress Tala simply didn’t know to do that, or chose not to.

He frowned.

Nothing in the memory indicated that she could see beyond the surface levels of physicality.

So, either she stripped that out, or didn’t have the capacity when these memories were recorded.

He flexed his mind and will, and found within the thoughts Mistress Tala’s sense of time.

Less than half a year ago? How quickly is she advancing…? He shook his head.

No, she likely stripped that information out, as I could have used it to determine the location of this cell. He nodded at that. Smart.

Her sense of location didn’t help, as she knew she was in a cell, and didn’t consider it truly locationally connected to anything. That also demonstrated that she had a good grasp on what a cell really was.

Now, where is Sole?

He let the memory begin moving forward, and Tala walked down a long tunnel, her aura somehow manipulating what seemed to be iron spikes.

Lisa paused the memory just to analyze that.

There is magic coming from the iron. He looked closer. Her magic?

He rocked backwards at that. That’s impossible.

He frowned, grimacing slightly. Did she manipulate the memories so thoroughly that she could obscure the material of items within?

That seemed highly unlikely.

Regardless, he wouldn’t be able to determine that for the moment, so he returned to his examination of the ‘iron’ spikes. There is void within the spikes as well.

Who the rust was this girl?

He glanced back toward his shop. If he left right now, he could catch her and—

No.

He shook his head once again.

No, he couldn’t study her. That would ruin everything.

Maybe…

But he was getting distracted by the messenger, the message needed his attention.

And so, he watched Sole.

Lisa’s smile grew with every passing interaction, almost locking the vulpine face in a predatory leer.

“She utterly man-handled you, didn’t she, Sole.” He let out a deep, long hissing cackle.

“You are ever the fool, you rusting hypocrite.”

Lisa slowly released the power he’d drawn in, back into his study. The overflow was pulled away to his storage nodes.

He watched the memory a few times, taking less than a minute to fully process each reliving.

“I am sorry, my friend, but we do not have need to venture forth.”

The scratches seemed almost to fade, slightly.

“Don’t be like that. We will be able to act once again in the near future… Less than a thousand years remain on my banishment, and then I will be free to make use of you once again.”

Without any response, Lamentation slipped away into the void.

Lisa knew that it would come when he called.

It always had.

Then, he turned his attention from Sole back to the source of the perspectives.

Mistress Tala… what other secrets do you hold?

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