Millennial Mage

Tala wasn’t late to her breakfast with Mistress Odera, despite her trip to the Constructionist Guild.

I’m being very efficient this morning.

-That we are.-

Mistress Odera was very congratulatory for Tala’s Fusing, as well as for how well the previous day had gone with Tala’s siblings.

The older woman was definitely far more pleased about the latter development than the former, and strangely enough, Tala found herself agreeing. She was always going to Fuse, eventually, but the potential she had to reestablish her relationships with her siblings was truly exciting.

I think I’ve got a fun idea for today, too.

-Oh, I like that. Yes. Let me see what I can do about the specifics.-

Thank you, Alat.

Tala’s second breakfast passed in regular fashion, though Mistress Odera did order a bit more food, even more than usual, in celebration of Tala’s Fusing and the beginnings of reconciliation.

Rane wasn’t around as, apparently, he’d taken a short protection job outside of the city for the day.

Good for him. Tala felt glad for her friend. He was branching out.

-Yup. He really should become his own person before trying to pursue you again.-

Tala felt her eyebrow twitch but didn’t otherwise react or respond.

All told, she arrived back at the park just about three hours before noon, Terry comfortably resting on her shoulder.

She was hardly there for five minutes before her siblings joined her, trudging through the snow.

“Good morning!” She greeted them warmly.

A chorus of “Good morning”s and other greetings came back to her.

Terry trilled a happy little greeting as well.

“Everyone, this is Terry.”

Most stared uncertainly at the bird, even as Nalac grinned. “Good morning, Terry!”

Terry flickered to his shoulder and head-butted him.

Nalac grimaced, then laughed. “Ow, I already said good morning.”

Terry bumped him again, but seemingly much lighter this time, and Nalac scratched his head.

The other siblings crowded around saying hi to Terry.

Caln gave Tala a skeptical look. “Is this your pet? Nalac told us about the bird, but not much.”

Tala shook her head. “He’s a friend. He’s at least as smart as you all are, from what I’ve seen.”

Caln gave a half smile. “You calling us bird-brained?”

She grinned back. “Are you saying that’s an insult?”

Caln opened his mouth to respond, then caught motion out of the corner of his eye.

Terry was staring directly at the young man, eyes narrowed in focus.

Caln cleared his throat. “No. No, not at all.”

Terry let out a happy little trill, then went back to flickering among Tala’s siblings.

Tala cleared her throat, drawing attention back to herself.

Terry helpfully flickered back to her shoulder to assist in the wrangling.

“So, I had an idea for what we could do, around answering any other questions that you may have.”

There was hesitantly intrigued silence in response.

“I’m going to reduce the gravity of any of you who want it, so you can jump and bounce around in the park.”

Confused silence was her only reply.

Oh, right. That’s not really clear, is it. “You all don’t really know what I mean, do you?”

Most shook their heads, but the older ones seemed contemplative.

“Okay. We’ll do a demonstration.” She hesitated. You know, even with caution, this could still be dangerous. “Latna, Caln, are you to willing to help me?”

They looked at each other, then shrugged. “Sure.”

“Can one of you go see if Master Leighis is available, at least for a few minutes until you all get the hang of it. As for the other, I’ll enact the working on them, so this group can see and understand what I mean.”

The two shared a look again, then Latna nodded and headed back to the shop. “Sure. I’ll be right back.”

Caln came forward through his siblings, a look of resignation across his features. “What do you need me to do?”

Tala looked him over. He was wearing a heavy coat, boots, gloves, and a hat. The coat would make him cold to take off, same with the boots. The hat would come off too easily.

That made one of the gloves the best solution.

“So, once I say so, start bouncing in place, so that we can find a good level of reduced gravity. If something goes wrong, take off your right glove, and that will end the effect. All right?”

He frowned, but slowly nodded. “If you say so.”

Tala focused on targeting her brother, specifically emphasizing the fact that he was wearing a glove on his right hand, weaving that into her conception of him, so that the removal of such would break the spell-effect.

It was funny. In a way, this was the opposite of what she usually tried to do, while targeting someone or something. She usually tried to focus on the immutable characteristics, so her lock and working would persist as long as possible. Now, she was purposely choosing something that would be easy to alter.

-Different purposes require different tactics.-

True enough.

Once the lock was in place, she began to ramp down his gravity. Decrease.

“Now.” She let him know it was time.

Caln began to bounce a bit on his feet. “I feel kind of silly doing this. What am I-” His eyes widened as he began to come off the ground a bit more than he’d expected.

Tala let up there, waiting. “How is that?”

Caln took a couple of experimental jumps, going slightly higher than normal and coming down a bit slower. He let out a startled laugh. “This is amazing!”

“Should I aim for a bit lighter? I don’t want you or the others to get too high, as that might be a little scary. This is supposed to be fun, not panic inducing.”

He crouched down and jumped, attempting a flip. He didn’t account for the changes, however, and ended up doing one and a half rotations before landing on the snow with a soft whump.

His eyes went wide again for a moment, but before Tala could ask if he was okay, he started laughing once more. “This is perfect for now.”

The other siblings began clamoring for Tala to do them next.

She grinned, holding up her hands. “One moment! One moment. Caln, can you take off your right glove?”

He was still laying on the ground, grinning. “Sure.”

As he pulled off his glove, Tala felt her working break apart, and Caln immediately sunk deeper into the snow.

“Oof. That’s interesting.”

“Good, it works.”

Caln pulled his glove back on, frowning when nothing changed. “Hey, why’s it not back?”

“You removed the glove, so the working broke. There’s nothing left to come back when you pull the glove back on.”

“Huh…interesting.”

Tala did a quick check and found that everyone was wearing gloves. Good. “All right! Everyone pick a partner to stick with, at least at first. You saw what Caln did. Your right glove will be the key to end the effect if you get scared.”

Latna was already on her way back with Master Leighis in tow. He was bundled up against the cold just like everyone else.

Tala had grown her shoes to cover her feet before coming to the park in consideration of how odd she already looked without winter wear. Though, to be fair, her elk-leathers had thickened against the chill, and so, they were likely easily as warm as her siblings’ coats.

“Master Leighis! Thank you for joining us.”

“Mistress Tala. To what do I owe the pleasure?”

“Well, I’m going to reduce their gravity and let them frolic in the park. I thought having a Healer on hand, until they got the hang of it, would be wise.”

He nodded. “Not sure I understand exactly what you mean, but having a Healer about’s never a bad idea.”

She grinned at him. “Thank you for coming out.” Turning back to her siblings, she continued speaking, “All right! Let’s do this.”

She quickly went through them, ensuring that the wearing of their right glove was integral to her lock on each in turn. She then decreased their gravity to about seventy percent.

Each, in turn, let out startled gasps, followed by giggles of excitement, before they began cavorting around the wide open space.

“Stick with your partners!” Tala reminded them, and they reluctantly came back towards their pairs. The last two she did were Latna and Sella.

The little three-year old had been having quite a bit of trouble walking in the snow, but once the spell was enacted on her, she was able to scamper across the top of it with ease, giggling and chasing after her siblings.

Latna laughed in startled joy as she took off, bounding after the toddler.

Terry was crouched low on Tala’s shoulder, watching all the kids bounding about.

“Are you going to be okay, Terry? Or do you want to go back in Kit?”

He gave her a long look, then trilled mournfully.

“You want to go play?” She had a horrifying reminder of Terry “playing” with the pigs.

He looked their way before bobbing a nod.

She swallowed. “Can you be gentle? I really don’t want them hurt, and they are mundane humans. You already were a bit rough with Nalac when you head-butted him.”

Terry looked after the frolicking children, then nodded.

“All right. I’ll trust you. Remember to stay close enough to keep your collar happy.”

He jabbered back to her.

Of course, he hadn’t forgotten. “Everyone!”

Her siblings came to a stop, turning to look her way.

“Terry wants to play with you all. He has to stay within a couple of hundred feet of me, so if you’re okay playing with him, come back this way.” They’d spread out around the massive park quite far in their pairs.

Some came back, others didn’t. That’s fine.

“Do you want to be lighter?”

Terry gave her an indignant look.

“Fine, fine. I don’t know what I was thinking. You’re perfect as you are.” You know, I wonder if I could get a fundamental enough lock on him that him changing size wouldn’t matter. She’d have to consider it. Not to attack Terry, of course, at least not out of the sparring ring, but it would be a marked step forward for her abilities if she could manage it.

Clearly unaware of the direction of her thoughts, Terry trilled happily once, then flickered away.

He landed on Olen’s shoulder, surprising the young boy. The terror bird then pushed off and immediately flickered off to the side. The powerful push sent Olen to faceplant into the snow.

Tala’s eyes widened. Terry! But before she chastised her friend, Olen pushed himself up, laughing uproariously.

The small boy made a quick snowball and threw it at the bird, but Terry flickered out of the way. When he reappeared, he was dancing from foot to foot, crouched low as if ready for a fight. Thankfully, there was a playful glint in his eyes.

Not the maliciously playful glint he had for the pigs, either.

What followed was a group throwdown of snowballs against the bird.

Terry flickered among those who were participating, tripping them up or unbalancing them and causing them to fall into the snow, while they threw uncounted snowballs after him.

Tala felt herself relax. Good. Good safe fun.

Leighis came to stand beside Tala. “You know, they have no idea how expensive it is to do such workings on them. The gravity working, I mean.”

She glanced his way. “It’s less than you might think. I’ve a really good inscriptionist, and the reduction is an effect of some of my always-active scripts.”

He raised his eyebrows at that, then nodded. “Even so. Nothing is free.”

She felt herself smile, the oft repeated line from her classes coming back with ease. “True enough. ‘Nothing is free, least of all magic.’ ”

They fell into a companionable silence for a couple of moments.

After about a minute, she glanced his way. “Do you want to try?”

He looked genuinely shocked. “I…are you sure?”

She shrugged. “Yeah. You’re out here for us, might as well make it fun for you too.”

He shook his head, smiling. “I will admit; I’m curious.”

“Say no more!” She grinned, targeting him for the working, making sure to include his right glove in the lock.

A moment later, Leighis was bouncing back and forth from foot to foot, testing out the alteration. “What a fascinating sensation.”

Interesting. Does he have combat experience? “Isn’t it? Go, have some fun. It really seems like they’re going to be fine, so don’t feel obligated to stay, but you can stay as long as you wish.”

“Thank you, Mistress Tala. I’ll do just that.” He gave her a boyish grin.

He took a leaping step forward, and Terry was there in an instant, tripping the older Archon and sending him tumbling across the snow.

Tala immediately covered her face. “Oh, Terry.”

But Leighis rolled with the fall and popped back up, a snowball already in hand. He threw with a surprising amount of accuracy at Terry before he even landed back on his feet.

The terror bird flickered away without issue, but still, it was impressive reflexes.

Tala laughed, enjoying watching them play. Yeah, definitely some experience in dangerous situations, or maybe he plays a lot of sports… She shrugged internally. It didn’t really matter.

The day passed in a whirlwind.

Master Leighis only stayed out for a couple of hours before he had to get back to work.

The siblings wore themselves out for another hour after that before they all went to a nearby restaurant to eat. Tala insisted on paying, and then deeply confused them all by how much she ordered for herself. The confusion shifted to awe, then horror as they watched her not only eat it all, but order more.

That spawned some questions, but overall, the questions were nothing groundbreaking.

For Tala’s part, around eating, she tried to ask pointed questions about each of her siblings. It wasn’t easy, because there were so many, but she did start to fill in her knowledge gaps with regard to them.

All told, the lunch cost forty silver, but the vast, vast majority of it was from what Tala ordered and ate. Mistress Holly insists that I continue to eat until I’m topped off.

-Not to mention that the Fused power running through your scripts is already consuming more of your reserves to facilitate the deeper setting of your enhancements.-

That was true enough. No rest for the hungry, I suppose.

After their long lunch, the kids had to head home.

The younger ones had schoolwork that they needed to finish. Caln had to go help in the shop, and Tala and Latna needed to go to the Archive to get the recipe, then to the Constructionist guild for their meeting with Hafest.

Thus, they all walked back to the Alchemy shop in a pack and bid Tala goodbye right outside.

They were about to part ways, when Tala stopped, frowning. “Olen?”

The young boy froze, almost through the Alchemist’s door. “Yes, Tala?”

“Take off your right glove.”

“But…But I…uh… It’s cold. I’ll do that inside.”

She narrowed her gaze at him. “You haven’t taken it off since the park.”

“I have no idea what you are talking about.” His nervousness, coupled with his age caused the words to come out a bit less clearly than his usual speech. He started edging towards the door.

Tala sighed. “I’m not going to punish you, Olen, you aren’t in trouble. I just don’t want you to get hurt by keeping that spell-working active on you.”

The others were all regarding the boy with a mixture of amusement and stern “older-sibling-displeasure.”

“Fine.” He groused, as he pulled off his glove.

“Thank you.” Tala grinned. “If you all liked this, we can do it again when I come back through. I’ll let you know if I can’t get a contracted trip back right away. Otherwise, expect me in just over two weeks. I wish I could be more specific.”

Olen slumped his shoulders. “Sounds good. Thank you, again, Tala!” He then ran inside.

Tala glanced down as Sella latched onto her leg, staring up with a big grin. “EYE!!!!”

Tala grinned back. “Goodbye, little Sella.”

“Eye, eye, Ala.” The little one didn’t let go.

Tala cleared her throat. “Time for you to go inside.”

“Eye! ALA!!!!”

Tala blinked at the sheer volume of the farewell. “Take care?” She bent down, pulling Sella off of her leg and giving the little one a hug.

Sella squeezed her back with surprising force. She then whispered. “Eye, Ala.”

Tala laughed again. “Goodbye.” She then handed Sella to Akli, who had waited to take the child. “See you soon.”

After that, Tala and Latna turned and walked towards the Archon compound, directed by the map that Alat had been able to pull up.

It didn’t take long to certify that Latna was, in fact, a licensed Alchemist, and with that done, she purchased the formula.

Latna seemed to visibly pale as she handed over the golden coins. Likely, she hadn’t ever spent that much at once in her entire life.

Maybe some large ingredient orders? Or if she handled the funds for the purchase of the shops around theirs, or the modifications to them.

Tala leaned over to her sister and whispered. “You’re carrying the money around with you?”

Latna colored slightly. “I didn’t want to forget it, and I figured we’d be safe enough with you around.”

Tala grunted. “Fair enough.”

The front office gave Latna the formula in a small notebook, the actual recipe and procedures only taking up the first couple of pages.

They thanked the attendant and began walking.

“I’ll need to read this before we get there, so I know what I’m talking about. And, if I don’t recognize any ingredients, we’ll have to stop by the market, so I can get an idea of base costs.”

Tala nodded. “Want to stop for tea while you read?”

Latna shook her head, not taking her eyes from the page. “No, so long as we walk slowly, I’ll be fine.”

So, the walk passed in silence.

When Latna finished, she closed the little book and tucked it into an inner pocket of her coat. “Nothing too extreme, though there are a few processes that are somewhat time consuming.” She nodded to herself. “We’ll see what they have to say.”

* * *

“Mistress Tala! Welcome back.” Hafest was walking through the entry hall when they arrived.

“Master Hafest? I hope we didn’t keep you waiting. What are you doing in the entry hall?”

He laughed that off. “I was raiding the waiting room for a few pastries. Who is this? Your Alchemist friend?” He looked Latna over briefly. “Or not a friend. Family? The resemblance is uncanny. She must be your daughter.” Hafest held out his hand towards Latna.

Latna froze on the spot, then burst out laughing, while Tala grimaced, feeling herself slouching ever so slightly.

Even so, Latna took the Archon’s hand and shook it, getting herself under control.

“Did I say something funny?”

“Oh, Master Hafest, it is a pleasure to meet you. I am Tala’s sister.”

“Sister? But you’re no Mage…” He looked to Tala again. “How young…” Then, he shook his head. “Nope, not my concern. Come on. I hear we have things to discuss.”

Latna grinned back at Tala as Hafest led them to a much nicer sitting room than Tala and Hafest had used.

Probably just because there are three of us.

The negotiations weren’t long. The Guild could use ten gallons a month to start for the first six months, as soon as the Alchemists could get them, and they were willing to sign a contract to that effect. If the product didn’t work out, then they wouldn’t be reupping the contract. If it did? They’d likely need more, but they’d cross that bridge when they came to it.

Tala left while Latna and Hafest haggled on the specific price, going to get a pastry for herself.

By the time she got back, the two both looked happy, and they were confirming their deal.

“A pleasure doing business with you both.”

They bowed to the large Archon and departed.

It was still early as they walked back towards the family shop.

As they neared, Tala cleared her throat. “Well, it still isn’t quite dinner. We could…go grab something?”

Latna shook her head. “Thank you for the invitation, but I am needed at home. Dinner is a bit of a madhouse, so we need all hands on deck.”

“Oh…okay then.”

They lapsed back into silence.

A few minutes later, they were at the shop, and Latna turned to her sister. “Thank you.” She patted her coat, where the formula rested. “This will be much more profitable than most of what we can produce. It won’t replace our regular business, but it is an amazing opportunity. Thank you, truly.”

Tala smiled. “I’m glad it’ll work out for you all.”

Latna turned, then paused. “See you in two weeks?”

“A little more probably, but yeah.”

“Bye, Tala.”

“Bye, Latna.”

Without another word, but with a brief smile, Latna entered the family shop and pulled the door closed behind her.

Tala returned to the work-yard in contemplative silence, grabbing a massive dinner to bring with her on the way.

She filled the evening with training and study of the manuals to which she had access.

The following morning she departed the city of her birth, heading home.