Millennial Mage

Tala moved through the rest of the day in a state of deep contemplation. As a result, she focused her actions entirely on her role as Mage Protector.

Lunch came and went, and she was barely able to summon up enough focus to thank the chef for the triple portion she brought to her. What was her name, again?

The cargo wagon driver chatted with Tala for a bit, and she did her best to at least passingly engage, but nothing that he said sank deeply enough to disrupt her contemplations. His name is Tion, right? At least she’d caught that. It’s always embarrassing to ask people for their names after I should know them…

She did her duty, pointing out no fewer than six more possible threats over the next few hours. Only three of them had to be dealt with in the end.

The afternoon was beginning to move towards the early evening of the season, when she saw a cloud-like shape moving low across the ground, near the edge of the treeline, still more than twenty-five miles distant, seemingly ignoring the wind. Another flock of small birds, moving almost in unison. Not uncommon in flocks, even of mundane birds, but her mage-sight was clear. Arcanous avians.

Each bird was barely bigger than one of her fists, and they flitted about quite rapidly. Like over-large hummingbirds. She hesitated at that. My sight is so much better! She didn’t let that distract her, though.

The birds passed through a column of sunlight, which broke through the otherwise pervasive cloud-cover. Each bird shimmered and glinted in that light.

These beasts had a crystalline aspect to them. Tala called over her shoulder, “Flock! Crystalline birds. Small, but there looks to be hundreds.”

The guards responded, selecting from their more eccentric magical arsenal.

Mistress Odera, for her part, was muttering to herself. “Another? It’s been weeks since a caravan reported encountering crystalline creatures. Was it not a migratory group, then?” She clucked her tongue. “A new fount with such a bent means trouble.” More loudly, she called out. “Don’t let them touch you. Any wound will be devilishly difficult to heal.”

Great… Tala drew Flow but didn’t funnel the power needed for a transformation. Another encounter in which I’ll be mostly useless.

Terry had been laying near Tala, but at Mistress Odera’s words, he looked back and forth between the two Mages.

“Go, Terry. I don’t want you hurt by this, and you won’t be much help against so many, small enemies.”

Terry hesitated for a long moment, then bobbed and vanished. Be safe.

The guards affixed faceplates to their helms and pulled on thick gloves. Both would hamper them in many situations, but the extra protection could be critical in the coming encounter. Those who were mounted swiftly dismounted and hooked their reins onto the chuckwagon beside the spare mounts, hopefully keeping the animals out of any direct danger.

The drivers, for their part, each pulled out a large, heavy blanket, that moved oddly to Tala’s eyes. She looked closer, and her mage-sight detected what looked to be a chain-mail sheet between layers of heavy fabric and leather. Though, that was mainly interpretation off the distortions the steel created to that sight.

When no one moved to do anything for the oxen or horses, directly, Tala asked Mistress Odera.

Mistress Odera grunted. “Unless the beasts are seen as competitors or food, they will generally be left alone. I have my sight on them, however. If I need to, I should be able to keep them from harm.”

Tala nodded. Fair enough.

The flock took another ten minutes to get close enough for everyone to see them easily, and Tala’s mage-sight helped her revise her earlier guess. “I think there’s at least four or five hundred.” Another five minutes before they’re here.

Mistress Odera shifted slightly. “If you see a place where you can help, do so. I know your offensive magics aren’t suited for this.”

My offensive… Right! She hadn’t had a chance to try out Holly’s additions. Minute gravity manipulation might be perfect for this situation. She almost twisted her arms into the right shape for the initial activation, then hesitated. “Mistress Odera?”

“Yes?”

“I have another spell-form available. With it, I can control the gravity around me, to some degree. It might be of help, here.”

“That sounds ideal. Why do you sound hesitant?”

“I’ve never used it before. I haven’t practiced with it. It’s a new spell-form for me, and it’s one that requires practice and precision to use effectively.”

Mistress Odera cursed under her breath. “Then, no. Don’t use it. The last thing we need is for you to accidentally interfere with someone else, or worse, destroy a wagon with chaotically assigned forces.”

Tala opened her mouth to argue but stopped. It shouldn’t work that way, but worse things have happened when testing out new scripts in stressful situations…That’s what I was thinking already. That’s why I didn’t just do it. Why am I going to fight against advice that I know is wise? She pulled herself together and nodded. “As you say. I’ll add it to my regular practice, as I should have as soon as I got the inscriptions.”

Mistress Odera grunted. “You can’t practice everything, Mistress Tala. In hindsight, this might have been better to practice with, but if we’d encountered something else, your chosen regimen might have been better. Do what you can and fill in the gaps with wisdom.”

Tala felt a smile tug at the side of her mouth. “As you say, Mistress.”

Mistress Odera clucked her tongue thoughtfully. “You are protected against having your skin breached, correct?”

Tala nodded. Not only were her inscriptions oriented that way, but she also had a cup of ending-berry juice comfortably processed within her. The power was like the returning of an old friend, and she definitely felt better with its added defense. “I am.”

Mistress Odera took a deep breath, nodded, and seemed to decide something. “Then, I need you to make yourself a beacon. With that many, we need a distraction.”

Tala gave the woman a questioning look.

Helpfully, the other woman explained. “Go off to the right, walk parallel to the caravan, and do everything you can to dump power into the environment. We’ll drive them off from there.”

Tala nodded, jumping from the cargo wagon.

The wagon creaked behind her, rocking slightly from the force of her jump and the sudden loss of weight after her departure. She hit the ground much faster than anyone else would have and drove two circular holes into the soil, some six inches deep. Huh, not enough pressure distribution, then. She’d have to have Holly expand that. If I keep this…

Tala stepped up, out of the shallow holes and moved away from the caravan, and Mistress Odera called out instructions to the guards and Rane. Tala didn’t listen to what was said, except to hear that Rane was ordered inside a wagon. His defenses would do little good against this threat, and he couldn’t be risked in the encounter.

Tala, for her part, invoked six void-channels, directing the least into her body, to keep her scripts and normal functions powered. The other five, she directed outward. She also released her hold on her Archon aura, allowing that to spread out around her, if just barely.

She dumped power into the air.

Mistress Odera called down to her with an amendment to her orders. “Too much, Mistress. We don’t want to draw in additional threats. Keep your aura contained and cut the output by at least half.”

Tala immediately did so, dismissing three of the exterior directed channels and retracting her aura with a minimal tug of her soul. There.

The effect on the swarm was obvious, as they began to fly even more quickly, more frantically, their movement seeming agitated.

Tala took up a parallel path to the wagons, some hundred feet to the west, heading south.

The guards atop the chuckwagon began firing in a steady rhythm, alternating so that one bolt lanced out every second and a half or so.

The munitions cut straight lines through the oncoming flock, now clearly oriented on Tala. Each bolt took out close to a dozen enemies. Every bird struck puffed into sparkling dust, but the mass continued to bear down on her.

Ahh…more like six or seven hundred, then.

She created another void-channel, directing it into Flow’s sword path. It was barely enough power to cause the change of form, when coupled with a healthy dose from her reserves. Flow extended as Tala stepped forward, swinging at the leading edge as the birds came into melee range.

That single swing severed dozens, each puffing to sparkling dust. It was a bare fraction of the leading edge.

Tala was struck an uncounted number of times, each little adversary finding a way to hit her with multiple natural weapons as it passed. Her leathers were sliced and torn, immediately pulling back together in the wake of each passing blow.

There was a problem, however. Each cut began to grow crystal, which the leathers had to force out, before they could close. It was taking monumental power, and the clothing was moving towards total depletion, fast.

Rust that! Tala recreated a fifth void-channel, connecting it to the refill point for the outfit on her right thigh. Her influx was barely enough to keep up with the tremendous drain placed upon their magics.

Her ending-berry power was draining at an almost alarming rate, keeping even the smallest scratch from her, though her hair was shorn and tattered.

She struck again and again, moving Flow in great sweeping cuts, never letting it slow. Her ears were filled with the flapping of wings, the buzzing of quarrels, and the light tinkling of dust falling onto the snow.

The air was so filled with power, both from her and the birds, that her mage-sight had trouble telling her anything useful.

Finally, the flock had passed, and her series of quick blows was done. She took a particularly deep breath, having maintained proper rhythm, and sucked in a lungful of dust.

She immediately felt the magic that was still held within the gritty substance.

The inscriptions she’d had Holly add to her throat and lungs proved their worth as the entirety of the material, along with their invasive magics, was ejected without taking effect as she coughed out an exhale.

Tala found herself on her knees, hacking into ground.

She recoiled as she saw how much dust was mixed with the now crystalline grass and trampled snow. Don’t breathe that in, Tala!

Panicking, Tala vaulted back to her feet, and looked around as she continued to cough. Thankfully, the crystal growth didn’t seem to be spreading beyond the immediate vicinity of where the dust had fallen. Good, we didn’t just doom the whole of the plains… Such shouldn’t be possible, but it would have been beyond foolish not to check.

She spun, reorienting on the flock as it wheeled around for another pass at her.

She maintained all her channels except for the one that led to Flow. It was still a great burden to maintain Flow in sword-form, so she let that lapse.

Two channels. I think I can direct two void-channels into it, and that should allow me to keep the sword out for longer.

The guards were still firing a steady pattern of shots, each flying true and taking out quite a number of avians with each bolt.

We can do this. This isn’t so bad.

Almost as if at that thought, circumstances radically changed.

The swarm suddenly shifted, breaking into two, smaller groups. Both orientated towards the caravan; more specifically: one aimed towards the guard between them and the caravan, and the other towards the chuckwagon and the crossbowmen atop it.

Tala didn’t think; she just took off at a dead sprint for the lone guardsman.

I’m not going to make it. She was sixty feet away. Mistress Odera seemed to be beginning a working. Go faster! Tala couldn’t have said if the thought was directed at herself, or the older Mage.

Tala was fifty feet from the lone guard.

The birds drew closer, and that guard crouched low, dropping to one knee, holding his round shield up to protect most of himself from the brunt of the incoming assault.

Forty feet.

Tala recreated all her void-channels, pulsing the power outward in a desperate attempt to redirect the birds towards herself. It failed.

Thirty feet.

As Tala pounded across the grass, she saw an oblong, bubble-like shield of protection blossom into being around the chuckwagon, those atop it, and the animals tied to it. Tracing the flows of power made the obvious more so: Mistress Odera had finished her working, and she seemed to have started a second. Will she be fast enough?

Twenty feet.

The guard is still exposed. “MISTRESS ODERA!”

Ten feet.

As if in slow motion, Tala saw the leading birds either stretching out comically small talons before themselves, or tucking in wings, orienting their beaks for piercing impacts.

Tala arrived, and another shield, a thing of true beauty, sprang up around her and the guard, along with at least thirty of their enemies.

Not the time to examine her magics.

Flow was back in the form of a sword, fed by two void-channels, and Tala was striking in a furious pattern at the few crystalline enemies that were still alive inside with them.

Most of this segment of the flock was deflected by Mistress Odera’s shield, but Tala was focused on what was inside, with them.

Dozens of impacts had cascaded across the guardsman as he, too, fought to strike down the birds. His skill was far beyond Tala’s, but he was also less well protected, despite his armor.

Crystals already blossomed across much of his armor, and his shield was riddled with holes and sparkling, invasive magic. Good to know, it is a secondary effect. That’s why the iron salve didn’t help.

After a few frantic breaths, the inside of the bubble was silent, save for their panting, blessedly empty of living foes.

Tala looked outward and was able to see enough to determine that the remains of the flock were retreating. With a grateful exhale, she then took a moment to examine the magic around her.

Her mage-sight and normal vision worked together to interpret what she saw.

First, Mistress Odera’s shield: There were no fewer than six alternating layers of air and water. Tala struggled to interpret what she saw. Did she increase the surface tension of the water to such a degree that it pulled itself out of the air and soil to form those layers? The air had been hardened as well, but Tala couldn’t even begin to guess at the method. The result was unquestionable, however.

This would stop any physical attack I’ve ever seen. It was incredible.

Second, she looked at the crystalline remains of their foes, sprinkling the now faceted grass. Good, the power is used up, and it’s not spreading further.

Behind Tala, the guard groaned, a thump reverberating through the small space as he fell fully to his knees.

Mistress Odera’s magical shield popped, and Tala called out. “Healer! Mistress Odera!” Better to be safe.

The guard’s shield arm was dangling uselessly, crystals having grown across the shield and the armor on that arm. Those outward facets seemed to have stopped growing, just like the sparkling grass around them.

As Tala looked closer, she saw a streak of dark red crystal in a line from the man’s arm, running down the back of the limply hanging shield. Blood. Magically affected blood.

Her eyes widened.

She focused, willing her mage-sight to penetrate the magics of the crystal on the outside of the man’s armor, and that’s when she saw it.

His very blood was crystalizing, the process following the power-rich channels, feeding on the man’s internal magic and working its way upward...inward.

It had already passed his elbow and was moving towards the half-way point to his shoulder.

What do I do? “Your arm is infected.”

The guard nodded. “Feels like, yeah.” His voice was strained with obvious pain as he spoke through what must have been incredibly disorienting agony. “Take it off.”

“What?”

“Cut off my arm!” He leaned back, letting the shield that was braced against the ground help him extend the limb-in-question, to give her room to work with.

That should actually work. Yeah. That should work.

She didn’t hesitate, whipping Flow forward in an upward slash, striking well above the spreading, hostile magics. As far above as possible, anyways. She didn’t actually have that much arm to work with.

Tala struck true, and Flow passed through armor, gambeson, flesh, and bone without any resistance, cauterizing the wound in its wake.

The man gasped, falling back, pushing away from the now separated arm with his legs and his one remaining arm.

The infected arm, now bereft of the man’s soul to defend it, crystallized instantly, the hostile spell-working using itself up in the process.

Tala immediately focused her mage-sight on the man once more and verified that all remaining crystals and dust were fully inert. The hostile magic was fully spent.

“Thank you, Mistress. Thank you.”

She smiled and nodded, re-sheathing Flow, once again in knife form. “Let’s get you healed up. Shall we?”

She glanced towards the front wagon and saw Mistress Odera almost at the base of the ladder.

After a moment’s thought, Tala scooped the guard up and ran with him to catch up to the still-moving caravan. His weight was trivial, when added to her own. So, she covered the distance in short order.

Mistress Odera had seen her coming and opened the cargo-slot into the guard’s quarters, climbing in to be ready to receive the man.

Tala hoisted him up, into the waiting arms of several guards who’d been off-duty and who had come to help Mistress Odera when she’d called. Rane was there as well, and he looked almost violently unhappy at having been confined to the wagon.

Mistress Odera nodded in thanks to Tala, then asked a question with the tone of a command. “Is the magic still active?”

“No, Mistress. All the power’s been used. No active workings that I could detect.”

After a moment’s hesitation, Mistress Odera nodded again. “Please, get the arm and shield. I’ll need to examine them, after I help him.” She then turned to Rane. “Get back outside and keep a perimeter clear. We should be safe, but a false sense of safety is one of the great killers in this world.”

“Yes, Mistress.” Rane dropped out and took off at a jog to get in front of the cargo wagon to begin his patrol. He didn’t seem to want to risk his horse, for the moment.

Tala, for her part, turned and ran back for the severed arm. I have to give Mistress Odera a hand.

She chuckled at the dark joke, the thought cracking through her panicked calm. I’m alive... We’re all alive.