Millennial Mage

Tala had to begin her “cooking” by dumping an obscene amount of power into Kit.

The dimensional storage had taken quite a bit of damage from the griffon’s lightning, and only its increased internal and external manipulation abilities kept it from being outright destroyed.

And I didn’t even notice.

-Well, you were eating yourself at the time.-

That made Tala feel a bit better, actually.

Kit was hardly the only part of her gear that had gone through the wringer, however. The through-spike had simply continued to drink deeply of her power and hadn’t been permanently harmed in the least. I wonder if its draw negatively affected my defenses?

-Probably not? It shouldn’t have taken a lot of power to maintain the physical form, and the spell-form wouldn’t have been affected, directly.-

That was good, at least.

Her elk-leathers had only survived because they could draw power directly from her gate, and their regenerative abilities had a much easier job when compared to her own, since they were repairing non-living matter. Their armor effect had broken so quickly that Tala hadn’t even noticed it at the time of the strike and was still recovering. Tala had never taken a hit so powerful that it outright broke the magical armored defense, so she was glad that it was recovering at all. And, even though it hadn’t seemed to do much at the time, both she and Alat agreed that its presence had likely dulled the front edge of the hit, significantly.

Imagine if I hadn’t had that defense, or the ending-berry power.

-That would likely have been the start of the endgame for us. We’d have been reduced to little more than dust. Our magic would have tried to rebuild our body, but I don’t know that it would have really done anything significant with nothing physical to build off of or draw from.-

Tala grunted in agreement, choosing not to focus on that unpleasant possibility.

As soon as Kit was recovered enough for Tala to draw out her cooking supplies, she began the culinary process, continuing the infusion of power into the power-hungry item all the while.

-In case you’re curious, Kit takes more power per day than the average un-Bound Mage can pull through their gate.-

So, even if it could be made en masse in this form, most Mages couldn’t use it?

-Precisely.-

That was interesting, but not very pertinent.

-Also, Terry just ate the griffon wing.-

Tala jerked, almost spilling the pot she was working over. I forgot to grab that! She looked around, seeing Terry happily dancing between his feet as the last feathers slid down his throat.

The terror bird paused, regarding her, then swallowed and flickered to her shoulder before headbutting her cheek.

“I could have sold that, Terry.”

He trilled contentedly to himself.

“Well, I’m glad you liked it. We could have bought so much food with that money.”

Terry hesitated briefly, then trilled happily again.

“Still worth it, eh?”

He bobbed a nod, then curled up against her neck.

She let out a defeated grunt. “Well, it’s done, now. Please leave some harvest for me next time?”

He shifted slightly in a motion that might have been a nod.

Good enough, I suppose.

Cazor’s glowing balls distorted and shrieked on occasion, demonstrating that the silmuk within them was still alive, if not well. Even so, the Archon dealt with each irregularity with quick efficiency, never taking his attention from the task for too long.

Tala had noticed that only the outside layers of iron were confined to a glowing red. The light occasionally flickering through showed ranges through yellow all the way up into white.

I feel like there’s an obvious reason for that. Alat?

-Yes, you learned about the magnetic point of iron. The glowing red portion is just below that point, and it seems to be containing the iron that is hotter, past the point of being able to be directly manipulated by magnetic fields.-

That has to take quite a lot of finesse. He can’t let the heat transfer outward, or he’ll lose containment.

-And it is likely only the extreme heat further in that is truly damaging the silmuk.-

Complicated indeed.

Cooking didn’t take a lot of thought, especially when following the incredibly easy and detailed instructions from the Culinary guild.

So, what was this experiment you wanted us to perform with the ending-berry seeds.

-I think that the scripts that you had Holly put in place for the containment of scripts created in your lungs would contain the ending-seed’s destructive power and allow you to exhale it as a breath-weapon of sorts.-

Tala froze, cooking implement halfway through stirring a portion of her food. You want me to detonate an ending-seed…in my mouth…for a test…because you think it should work.

-Not out here in the wilderness, but after Holly has considered and approved of the merits of the idea? With a healer present, just in case? Yes.-

And stuffed to the brim with ending berry power.

-That too.-

The idea had merit. Could this have helped with the griffon?

-Are you asking if it would have been a good idea to test out an unproven, dangerous idea against a magical creature?-

No. I’m asking if it could have helped.

-In theory.-

Tala grunted. Next time, then. Next time, we’ll have another thing in our back pocket.

-If it works.-

If it works. Tala considered. Worst possible outcome?

-Your head pops, your scripts rebuild it, and I refill your mind with who you are.-

Tala shuddered. That’s…unsettling.

-Why? You are a soul, manifesting in a body, tempered by a certain set of experiences. Your soul wouldn’t be touched, your body would be repaired and your experiences would be restored exactly as they had been.-

Tala grimaced. I still don’t like the idea.

-That makes sense. I wouldn’t like the idea of you running my scripts all the way down before getting them reinscribed.-

I hadn’t considered that as equivalent, but I can see that it would be.

-I’ll help you keep your head, then.- Alat had a bit of a humorous bent to her tone.

Tala grinned in return. And I’ll do my utmost to keep your scripts in top form.

She’d finished preparing her massive, one-woman feast as well as consuming it by the time Cazor was wrapping up. He’d declined her offers of food.

She’d made a lot, and she hadn’t really savored it so much as ate as quickly as she could. Though, she did pay enough attention to write down her impressions of the dishes in the little book provided by the Guild.

For the most part, she’d made a meat-veggie medley, taking dehydrated vegetables and preserved meats and cooking them in water with premade spice mixes poured in.

She also broke out some hard-tack, which she lathered in a cheese that was somehow made to be long-lasting without any external method of preservation.

While she’d been eating, all of the spheres had been steadily shrinking, and one by one, their collapse had accelerated until they fully crumpled in on themselves, before the iron cooled enough to be moved over to join a different ball.

At long last, there was only one sphere left, and it was shrinking rapidly.

Less than an hour before, Tala could have stood inside it without issue, but now it was barely bigger than her torso.

Over the next minute, it looked almost like it ate itself. It was an uncomfortable reminder of how half of her scripts had worked on her so recently.

Finally, Cazor collapsed to a seat on the turf, all his iron streaming back to his pouches. Some was still dust, but much of it was irregular chunks of slag. He’d probably have some way of breaking them up at a later time.

One of those has to be a dimensional storage to contain all that iron. Maybe more than one, honestly.

The iron itself was interfering with her mage-sight however, so she couldn’t easily tell which.

Cazor walked over, seeming quite satisfied with himself. “Hey, you’re not magnetic anymore.” He hesitated. “Wow, the griffon really fried you, didn’t it.”

Tala grimaced. “Yeah, it wasn’t great.” And now I need to re-apply the iron paint. The two gallons that she had would only allow her to do one more full re-application. She needed to get more before she left on her next assignment. No delaying. I need to get more, today.

“Do you need a healer?” He looked a bit concerned, likely thinking that he would have been the delay in getting her needed healing.

“No, but Terry does.”

Terry lifted his slightly scorched wing for Cazor’s inspection.

The Archon nodded. “We can get it seen to. I apologize for making you wait.”

Terry fluffed his feathers, favoring the injured wing, then squawked once in a sound that conveyed indifference.

Cazor cracked a smile. “Ready to head back?”

“Are you up for that?”

“Yeah. That wasn’t particularly taxing, though it wasn’t that much fun. I hard-countered the silmuk, so it was an ideal situation for my advancement, but it made the whole thing a bit anticlimactic.”

“I can probably find the griffon, if you’d like.” She smiled sweetly.

He held up his hands. “No, thank you. One magical beast is enough for one day.”

“Then, let’s head back, yeah.”

They took longer getting back to Bandfast than they had on their trip out, completely avoiding creating any motive aura reverberations.

I still feel like this is faster than a caravan, but I suppose that’s because there’s fewer people and less stuff being transported.

-That’s the theory, yeah.-

As they approached the northern gate once more, the light of the setting sun cast the snow in a ruddy hue.

Looks like blood has painted the world.

-The arcane never showed.-

Any idea why?

-He probably isn’t just waiting around for you. It seems like we’ll have to try again at some point.-

Tala grunted. Great.

-Let’s handle the payment for Cazor.-

She glanced over towards the other Archon. “I really don’t know what your inscriptions cost. How’s…three gold?”

He laughed. “You really don’t want to offend, do you?” But he waved her off before she could respond. “Let’s do one ounce this time, but I’ll ask for three if we ever do this again. I got a lot from this trip that I can’t count on happening again, next time.”

Tala grinned back. “That sounds quite reasonable. Thank you for the assistance. This trip would have been worse in basically every way without you along.”

-Ask for his hand. I need a better look at his magical signature to do the transfer.-

Tala flushed. I’m not asking to hold his hand.

-Fine, spoilsport. You think of some other way.- Tala got the impression that Alat knew of several, but didn’t deign to share.

That was fine; Tala had an idea that should work just fine. “Master Cazor, can you extend your aura my way, so I can get a look at it?”

He did so. “Why? What’s up?”

-And…done.-

“Thank you. The gold should be in your account, now.”

He gave her a skeptical look, then pulled out his Archive tablet. A moment later, he was blinking down at it. “Well…I’ll be…” He glanced back to her. “You’re just full of surprises, aren’t you.”

Could we take funds that way, too?

-Tala, I’m surprised at you! But no. I tried. It takes willful consent from the giver. We can give to anyone we want, though.-

You…you tried to steal from Cazor?

-Hmmm? No. I had this idea ages ago. I tried to steal from Jenna.-

Tala felt her eye twitch.

-Don’t worry, there’s no record of it.-

Tala was very concerned, despite the somewhat flippant reassurance. If you get me thrown in jail, you’ll be imprisoned too.

-Oh, I’m aware.-

Cazor brought them in over the city wall without issue. “Where do you want me to drop you off?”

“I need to see an Alchemist and then see my inscriptionist.” She glanced to Terry. “But I think a Healer first, if you’re willing?”

“Any preference?”

Alat brought up the memory of having seen a Healer’s shop very near the Alchemist’s. That in mind, Tala directed Cazor there, and he set her down at the front door less than five minutes later.

Some of the passersby gave her odd looks, staring in awe up at Cazor. Everyone gave her a wide berth as she stepped off the iron platform.

“Thank you for an interesting day, Mistress.” Cazor bowed from where he stood, elevated a half-dozen feet above her.

She bowed in return. “Thank you for all the assistance, Master Cazor.”

“Any time.” He waved goodbye and went on his way, speeding just high enough to clear the surrounding roofs.

Getting Terry healed was a simple thing as Healers often worked on pets, companions, and work animals. He made similar comments to the one in Makinaven with regards to Terry’s dimensionally sequestered body, but otherwise didn’t question them.

Ten silver saw Terry restored to peak health.

After that, a quick walk got Tala and Terry to the Alchemists, where she bought three-and-a-quarter gallons of the body paint. With that, she would have five full applications in reserve, after the one she’d do that night.

That cost her one gold, sixty-two silver, and fifty copper. She didn’t have the silver on her, and the alchemist preferred dealing in hard coin. Thus, she had to use two gold and accept the change back. It was a bit of a pain but not overly so.

-You know, if you become a certified Alchemist, you could buy the recipe for just five gold. It in the list of available recipes for purchase and sale by such people.-

Tala grimaced. Not worth the extra time…right?

-Oh, no, not at all. Becoming a certified Alchemist somehow takes more time than becoming a Mage.-

Huh. I never really knew that.

-Ooooo. Alchemist fire is available too.- There was a moment’s pause. -A hundred ounces gold?!?! What madness is this?-

They probably don’t want random Alchemists to buy it.

-That is a ludicrous sum, even so.-

Tala shrugged, then scratched the back of her head as she walked through the wintery streets. It didn’t really matter in the end; she wasn’t going to become an official Alchemist. To Holly’s!

It was a short, rather familiar trek to Holly’s through what seemed to be a growing snowstorm.

Tala stepped through the front door and paused, looking over towards the assistant sitting behind a desk.

She waved, gaining the middle-aged man’s attention. “Hello. I know Mistress Holly asked me to just drop through, but-”

An exclamation of surprise echoed through the warehouse before Holly’s voice boomed out, “NO! GET BACK HERE, GIRL!” Holly’s voice carried through the building like a war-horn.

The assistant leaned back and shrank a little in his seat. After a moment, he waved Tala towards the back of the warehouse without a word.

Tala gave him an apologetic smile as she rushed past and back to Holly’s work area.

As Tala stepped into the familiar room, Holly pointed to a stool. “Sit. Explain everything.”

And so, Tala did just that, doing her best to leave nothing out as she recounted her trip to the ending grove with Cazor and the battle afterwards.

Throughout, Holly made the occasional note, but she didn’t ask any questions, seeming content to wait until the end.

Tala even included Alat’s idea for the ending-berry seeds and Tala’s own failure with the griffon.

-Failure’s a little harsh. We did deal with it.-

True enough.

Even so, she felt it was a failure, so she cast it in that light in her retelling.

Holly sat in silence for a long, long time.

Well, it was probably just a couple of minutes, but it felt like a long time as she stared critically at Tala the entire time.

“Well, your breath delivery of magic should work, and testing it here, with a Healer present is a wise move.” She called out to a passing apprentice and had the woman send for a Healer. “No time like the present.” She flagged down another woman and had them source some trash.

“Right now?” Tala was a bit surprised.

“Before you leave? Of course. If I let you leave, you’ll find a reason to test it yourself. I applaud your restraint in not trying something foolish with the griffon, but one does not bet on a miracle happening twice in one day.”

“Hey!” Tala frowned at the rather pointed insult.

“Hush. While they are arranging those things, we need to get you in the auto-inscriber.”

“What? Why?”

“You’ve rebuilt most of yourself again, already… for some reason."

Tala scratched the side of her head. “It wasn’t intentional.”

“Regardless, you need the next iteration of scripts and then, after our test, you need to EAT. When I say eat, you need to eat more than you did last week, but tonight. Then do that for every meal for a week.”

Tala blinked at the Inscriptionist. “What? Why?” She thought that she’d been doing a good job of eating what she needed as well as building her reserves.

“Because these scripts are going to rebuild you again, and they are going to need a good chunk of that energy and nutrition, and you will need the rest to be safe on your next venture.” She patted Tala on the cheek. “I’m not about to let you die on me. You are giving such amazing data.”

“Thank you?” Tala wasn’t sure if she should be insulted.

“You’re welcome, dear.” Holly’s words seemed genuine.

So… a compliment?

-She does give them on occasion.-

Holly pulled out a few little booklets, then hesitated. “Alat, was it?”

-Yes.-

“Yes.” Tala answered for her alternate interface.

“Good, look up the next set of manuals for these series of scripts.” She held up the three small booklets, which Tala read, but didn’t bother to process.

-Got it.- There was a moment’s pause. -Oh, interesting. Okay. Let me rearrange this for you…and…Here you go.-

A book appeared, hovering in front of Tala, and she took it, not bothering to consider its unreality.

She also did her best to not notice Holly reacting with interest to her movements.

It was a simple read, and she finished quickly. Huh, so it really is just a next step.

-It seems so. Metaphorically, we are building a house. The first set we got was the foundation, then the set we currently have, and which we’ve been soaking in power, until we forced them to rebuild us, were the supports and the roof. Now, this next set is the walls and the real meat of the structure.-

How many more small modifications are there in the sequence?

-After the one we’re about to get? Just one more.-

What then?

-I don’t know. We don’t have access to whatever that is.-

So, these improve base muscle power, bone density, and strength, natural healing, and biological system efficiency overall?

-That’s correct. There are two parts to each change. The first is the forced physical change within your body, and the second is the imposition of magic that augments the physical. The idea is to force that into your natural magical pathways as well, for increased augmentation as well as maintaining augmentation even without scripts to that end.-

Yeah, this can’t be unrelated to Refining. She knew from experience that Holly wouldn’t tell her, though. “Alright. I think I understand the difference.”

Holly leaned closer. “Fascinating. You didn’t imbibe the information any faster, I’m monitoring your inscriptions as we speak. The information was simply shuffled around, and only the parts you needed were presented to your conscious mind. Increasing efficiency rather than raw throughput.”

“Yes?”

“Wonderful. Now, inscribing time! We’re refreshing everything while you’re here. No reason to have some of yours run down.”

Holly pulled out the auto-inscriber and helped Tala get inside it before it tightened.

“You are clear of all iron, so that griffon did you a favor of sorts.” She cackled a laugh. “Without its work, you wouldn’t have been ready for the next modification for months, so it did you all sorts of favors.”

Tala grimace. “I suppose so, yeah.”

“I assume you prefer unconsciousness?”

“That would be preferred, yes.”

“Are you sure? I really do recommend that you stay awake.”

“Why?”

Holly grimaced fractionally, then shook her head. “No reason.”

“Unconscious, please.”

Holly obliged.

* * *

-Ding-

-Conscious disabled for reinscribing.-

-Reinscribing complete, consciousness restored.-

Tala returned to consciousness like the snap of her fingers.

She had a lingering soreness across her body, but it seemed more mental than physical. Or, magical? In addition, she felt a building hunger. Oh, yeah. Food soon.

She waited. Alat? Are you there?

-Yes, Tala.-

Why the “ding” again?

-We’ve been over this, at least in passing. When you lose consciousness, my base nature takes over until consciousness is restored and normal brain function is reported.-

Right. That makes sense.

“How are you feeling?” Holly was sitting off to one side, the auto-inscriber already put away.

“Fine? I think.”

“Good. I left you unconscious for a bit longer this time, to let the inscriptions set a bit longer. I think it was the right call. They seem to be incorporating nicely.”

-Correct. The extra time without power flowing through them increased their acceptance by at least 10%-

“Seems to have worked.”

“Good, because the Healer just arrived, and I had them set up a side room for the test.”

Tala blinked at her, processing the flow of words as her mind continued to attempt to wake up.

Holly just smiled back. “Shall we?”

“One moment.” Tala tossed Kit against the wall and walked through almost before the door could fully manifest. She found what she needed right inside, opening one of her cast-iron barrels and eating great handfuls of halved ending-berries as quickly as she could.

After less than a minute of what was, admittedly, gorging, Alat interrupted Tala’s one-food feast.

-That’s about enough. We’re actually approaching our capacity with this power and I don’t want to see what happens if we pass that.-

Tala licked off the bits of juice that were on her hands before wiping her mouth with those hands and repeating the process.

Waste not.

That done, she exited Kit and grinned towards Holly. “Let’s do this.”