Millennial Mage

Tala looked at the zoomed-in maps of her various inscriptions floating in the air of the room, the other notes and visual aids from their discussion having been shifted to the far-flung corners of the room.

Might as well start at the core of things.

Her keystone was… actually incredibly standard, except that hers was built so that it never closed off her gate for any reason. That was actually the case for most advanced Mages but not all.

“Keystones, while incredibly important, aren’t actually that complex or customizable compared to other bits of magic. There are essentially just the four variations for the different starting quadrants, and some minor tweaks possible beyond that.”

Tala shrugged. “Yeah, that was my understanding.”

Rane pointed to a portion of the script. “This looks rather different than mine, why is that?”

Master Grediv grunted. “That’s because Mistress Tala’s keystone is optimized for near constant medium flows of power, while yours is aimed toward bursts of maximal power.”

She grunted. “Yeah, that’s nothing I want to shift about my keystone… unless I can incorporate my Way?”

Master Grediv seemed to consider. “It’s not out of the question, but you’d have to work with Mistress Holly on the specifics, and she might need to bring in other experts, depending on the Way and how it functioned.”

As they’d discussed before, Ways were effectively just means of improving magic flow, so that should be automatable, even if most saw no need for it.

With the keystone addressed, she moved to the core of her body.

Tala’s bones were inscribed to be stronger, denser, and to allow for the greater production of blood at need. Her organs were likewise enhanced and augmented to be more resilient, more efficient, and to even accomplish more than their mundane versions could.

Rane cleared his throat. “I have a bit of a morbid question?”

The other two turned to look at him, waiting.

“Well, if this is actually an enhancement of the material… could she pull out her own bones and use them as a magical material for the creation of items and the like?”

Tala opened her mouth to respond with incredulity, but then she saw the smile on Master Grediv’s face, so she decided to see what he had to say.

The Paragon shook his head. “Well, yes and no. Mistress Tala’s bones are still human bones—same with her other internals to be clear. They’ve been strongly, magically enhanced, but not very much physically changed. Her muscles and fat stores are a bit different, but still not to the level of being completely different. Additionally, most of what she has done is implemented by—and still requires—her inscriptions. Some of the natural magic would persist, but a chunk of that would be toward making blood and other non-required things, which would actually make the bone weaker than it otherwise could be.”

Rane grunted. “So, no easy source of funds, turning food into gold.”

“No.” Master Grediv shook his head.

Tala shrugged. “Interesting idea, but I’m fine for funds at the moment, and I don’t see that changing with all my various ventures.”

Rane shrugged. “Fair enough. It was just a thought.”

They’d already talked about the augmentation to her lungs and airways in reference to a breath weapon, so they didn’t revisit the topic. Master Grediv did flag the lungs and add some notes on them while they discussed other things, though.

Her muscles packed more power into every fiber as well as more energy for continued functionality over longer spans of time. Both of these things greatly increased their density, which was another boon in its own way.

Her connective tissue was simply enhanced to the extreme to prevent her from ripping her own body apart. Well, simply was a bit misleading as the tissue was so packed with inscriptions of reinforcement that it practically screamed ‘please don’t break, please don’t break.’

There was potential to improve and efficientize those now that the current schema had set fully.

They made notes to that effect and moved on.

Her stores were utterly inhuman in how much nutrition and calories they could take in and hold. Additionally, they were all available for quick access when she needed to heal, which was not standard in the least. This also added to her density, and it was only really possible because her digestive system was augmented to pull more from all she ate and store it away more efficiently. Otherwise even the amount that she had been eating would be dwarfed by what she would have needed.

That doesn’t even mention my newfound consuming ability. I didn’t know that I could just sort of claim a fallen foe.

-Yeah, your devouring of that wolf carcass was quite something to behold.-

It was mine by right…

-Oh, don’t get me wrong, it was a good something.- Alat once again projected her contentment into Tala’s mind.

They didn’t discuss that again, though. Rane had brought it up before and none of them felt the need to rehash the topic.

That did bring her back to her elk leathers though, which were now far more durable due to their consumption and absorption of the wolf-hide, an interesting new ability that actually allowed for the modification of the properties of the leather rather than a simple integration of consumed material until that material ran out. She’d been doing that for ages with the white steel and turning precious metals into thread for Mistress Cerna.

There was nothing new to discuss on those already addressed topics, so she moved on.

She was reminded of her oft-forgotten anti-vomiting scripts that were also still in place and useful on occasion.

Rane smiled her way, and she could tell he was about to try to tease her.

This should be interesting. She gave him a polite smile, waiting for him to speak.

“I’d forgotten about the anti-vomiting inscriptions. I mean, wow, you really don’t let go of anything once it is yours, do you?” He smiled at the end, clearly hoping that he’d not stepped wrong.

Her smile became slightly predatory in return as she met his gaze. “You aren’t wrong.”

Rane blinked back at her a few times before he blushed deeply.

Master Grediv cleared his throat. “So… you two are courting, right?”

Tala oriented on him at the abrupt change of subject. “That came out of nowhere.”

“Not really. You two were playing, but there is the undercurrent of truth, there. Are you planning on the standard one year betrothal or—”

She shook her head, cutting him off. “No, Master Grediv. We are not betrothed. We are courting, and we haven’t set any timelines on that.”

Rane nodded affirmatively, not seeing any need to add to what she’d already said.

The Paragon held up his hands in surrender. “Very well. Shall we continue?”

Tala felt herself smile internally at the man’s tactical retreat. “But of course.”

Her nervous system was well beyond the resilience and signal speed of even most similarly advanced Archons. That, of course, allowed for Alat to function along with the Archive connection she’d soulbound in the form of her split ring.

-Good to be remembered.-

Of course. You are always on my mind.

-Ha, ha. You’re hilarious.-

Thank you.

Master Grediv set down his cup and leaned back. “Speaking of your alternate interface. It seems that Mistress Holly has gathered some rather promising data about her function and how useful she is to you.”

Tala nodded. “That was my understanding, yes.”

“Good, good. The plan is to begin offering the option to some Refined who are temperamentally suited to it.”

“Right. It’s not something that everyone can handle.”

-I’m in a box! I can’t get out! Shall I shred the mind that cages me? OH, SKY, HOW I MISS YOU!-

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You’re hilarious.

-I’m you, Tala. My humor is exactly as good as yours.-

Tala sent the impression of rolling her eyes before continuing her response to Master Grediv, “I would be interested in knowing how that is going. We noted on Rane’s scripts for such to be considered, right?”

Rane was the one to respond. “Right, but after my mental enhancement scripts have been updated and given time to set.”

Right.

Next up—and closely interconnected with her mental enhancement—her magesight was the latest version, always active and constantly feeding her information about the world around her.

In its natural state, it only enhanced her mundane vision, but when she mapped void-magics onto it, that amalgamation was the basis for her threefold sight.

Rane gave her an interested look. “So… why don’t you have your inscriptions altered to include that?”

Oh.

-Oh.-

Tala rubbed her own forehead. “Because I didn’t think to do that.”

Master Grediv smiled as he added his bit. “Truthfully, inscriptions pertaining to void magic are incredibly difficult to pull off. I suspect that you wouldn’t have succeeded if you had tried to make it work before your natural magics were as set as they are. In fact, I would bet that your natural magics have now incorporated void magic, because of how consistently you mirror that aspect of your soulbound items onto your magesight. The trick will now be matching your inscriptions to that working.”

That… made a lot of sense, actually. Void magic was only a bit of a contradiction, but one that could hold up with the right mental models, understandings, and bonds. She had all of that, and so it was time to improve her sight accordingly.

-Oh, this is exciting!-

A bit, yeah. With a smile on her face, she continued.

Her skin was armor in its own right, though she was running into more things that could pierce it once again. The endingberry inspired and aligned inscriptions were potent magic, highly refined, and incredibly effective, but there was still the ability to iterate upon the spellforms. They marked those for improvement of throughput and resonance between sub-parts. Effectively, the choir of her skin’s defense would both be given vocal coaching and have more members added.

-That was… an odd metaphor.-

But it makes sense, right?

-I suppose. You’ll pack more inscriptions in a smaller space, using your natural magics to minimize the spell-lines needed, while maximizing the effect.-

Precisely.

And tying it all together was her vastly augmented healing which leaned on—and interwove through—all the other scripts to facilitate truly monstrous levels and speeds of healing.

Rane’s smile was wide and genuine as he said, “I definitely really am glad that you heal so effectively.”

-Woof?-

No, bad Alat. Tala sent disapproval toward her alternate interface.

Alat sent back whimpering puppy noises.

Seriously?

-You’ve got to stay devoted to the joke.-

Or… don’t make it?

-Yeah, but that’s no fun.-

Tala felt her eye twitch. Still, she decided to ignore Alat. “Well, that’s all there is on the defensive and internal side.”

Master Grediv reached up, grouping all that they’d been talking about surrounding those inscriptions together. “And why do you have all of these?”

“To stay alive?” Tala shrugged. “I prefer not dying.”

He chuckled at that. “Of course, but there are so many ways of doing that. Your inscriptions assume you will be in the thick of things, taking blows, not retreating. Why not have shielding or dodging inscriptions? Why not have means of getting away from danger?”

She thought for a long moment before shrugging again. “If I have to move to survive, what about those behind me? If I don’t take the hit, who will? If I retreat, pull back, or flee, what of those who don’t have the ability to do that?”

He nodded, gesturing for he to continue. “So…?”

“So… so, I have these inscriptions so I can get in the way of danger and not have to move or back down. I want behind me to be the safest place in the world.” She pulled in on herself just a bit, feeling awkward. “I don’t want to ever abandon those I choose to protect.”

She glanced toward Rane sheepishly and found him beaming back at her.

He obviously didn’t see things exactly the same—especially given his very dodge heavy means of survival—but he seemed to appreciate her words and sentiment.

He reached over and squeezed her hand. “I’ve seen you save many people doing just that.”

She squeezed his hand in return, smiling, the embarrassment fading somewhat. “Well, that’s why.”

Master Grediv smiled. “Thank you. I think that is very insightful. What’s next?”

Rane nodded his agreement, clearly ready for her to continue.

“Well… Externally? Offensively? I have my gravity manipulation… and that is it, inscription wise.” Tala felt like it was rather anticlimactic.

True, she had been doing a lot of experimenting with her gravity inscriptions when she had fewer soulbonds and her activities were more restricted—specifically, when she’d been an Eskau of the House of Blood—but she hadn’t done much with them lately.

Back then, she’d tried using her gravity manipulation to fly in various ways, but she’d confirmed that doing so was infeasible with her mental model as it was. She had been able to make herself move through the water more quickly… sort of. It hadn’t worked very well, and it had been rusting finicky.

Honestly, looking back, she suspected that it had been more her burgeoning authority within Kit—even before she soulbound the dimensional storage—that had made it even halfway functional.

Master Grediv nodded. “Self-enabled flight is both incredibly easy and maddeningly difficult, depending on how you approach it. With your scripts and mental model? I do agree it isn’t possible. Though, honestly, you don’t really need it to be. You can jump and remove your own gravity, effectively gliding in a straight line virtually without end. Given the limits imposed by magical resonance, that will be your upper limit on speed, regardless. Still, you might be able to modify your elk leathers for more maneuverability when airborne.”

That was an idea, but she could consider that later. As for her gravity alteration, Tala still used it to allow herself to move more efficiently, jump higher, stay up longer, that sort of thing just as Master Grediv had said, but generally speaking, she didn’t really think about those magics very often. She simply didn’t need them offensively anymore.

Huh… I hadn’t really considered using them in that way in a while.

Rane put in his two coppers. “Yeah, I really haven’t seen you crush anyone, gravitationally speaking, in a really long time. Non-offensively, you use it rather often, but it isn’t an attack ability for you anymore, not really.”

That was… true, yeah.

She also had the rings for quicker enactment of that gravity manipulation, but that was effectively the same thing, just faster and less efficient. Tala considered. “Do I even need the rings for gravity magics anymore?”

That was a really hard question. She simply hadn’t had much use for them in quite a long time.

-Don’t neglect the siege orbs.-

True, but I don’t need to do that quickly.

Master Grediv shrugged. “From my perspective, I don’t think that you do, but what matters more is your perspective.”

Tala nodded at that before leaning back, considering the whole of their conversation.

Floating before them all—filling up much of the open space in the room, in fact—was the interconnected web of things that they’d created detailing Tala’s ongoing projects and current inscriptions. It was all nicely splayed out above Master Grediv’s tea-table.

She took a long drink from her tea cup before sighing, “Well, huh… You might be right. I might have a bit too much going on.”

Rane cleared his throat. “I actually think we forgot two things.”

Tala looked his way. “Oh?”

-I can tell you what it was.-

Shh… let me listen.

He nodded. “Io and the dimensional prison and anchors.” Rane frowned. “You know, now that I think about it, whatever happened to that?”

Tala grimaced. “The House of Blood disposed of the dimensional prison when I was taken. Apparently, it was deemed to be too detrimental to their reputation to have an Eskau candidate using what was effectively a ‘self-prison.’”

Rane grunted. “I see. So, then that’s no longer around. I suppose you could get something like it if you wanted?”

She shrugged and shook her head. “Not really interested in adding to the list at this point.”

“That’s fair. So, what about Io?”

Tala sighed. “I have absolutely no idea. I obviously can’t give it life or even a semblance of life. I could puppet it around, but that gives me nothing that I can’t do without the puppet within Kit. Outside of Kit, it would be the immediate target of hostility from everyone it met, and rightly so.”

Master Grediv swallowed his latest bite of an after-dinner eclair. “So, why have you kept it?”

“It’s fascinating, an artificial lifeform, or at least the body of one. I’ve always intended to study it further to see if I can glean anything from it. It was powerful when we fought, and that was when it was underdeveloped. Now?” She shook her head. “I honestly think that it could overpower me in raw strength and outfight me in terms of reaction and movement speed. It would be a nightmare.”

-It would be fun to pilot it against you.-

Yeah, but you can already fight me within Kit, without Io. We can give you any abilities you could possibly want, and even crank your capacities far beyond what Io’s body is capable of.

-I know, but it is so fun in concept.-

Yeah, but also a dangerous concept.

Master Grediv was contemplating deeply. “We could put together a team to dissect it, plumb it for all its secrets and means of functioning. We’ve dissected and vivisected Black Legion in the past, but there is no telling if Io is built on a similar platform, updated, or even entirely different.”

Tala regarded him for a long moment. “I would love access to that data. The memories too, if they are available.”

The Paragon smiled. “There are few who can record and provide memories as you do, but we might have one or two. I’ll see what I can do. So? Does that mean you want Io to be treated similarly?”

Tala bit the side of her lip in thought. “Let me review the data first and then make a decision.”

He gave her a knowing smile. “A trade?”

“By any other name is still a trade.” She grinned in return. “I know how valuable Io is.”

He bowed his head slightly. “True enough.”

Tala turned back to Rane. “Anything else I missed?”

-I can tell you. No. No, there isn’t anything else.-

He smiled in return, clearly pleased to have been asked. “Not that I can think of, no.”

Tala clapped her hands together. “Well, then. I appreciate the assistance, and I look forward to all that we can get done with this.”

-Notes and memory of this conversation granted to Mistress Holly.-

Thank you, Alat.

Rane and Master Grediv both stood.

Rane bowed to his former master, and Master Grediv gave them each a shallow, appropriate bow. “Thank you for your visit. I will pass these projects on to the requisite people within the Constructionist Guild, and direct them to chat with Master Simon if they need further details.”

Tala smiled brightly. “That would be fantastic. Thank you.”

“It is my pleasure.” He then turned to Rane. “I will forward our notes on your inscriptions to Mistress Holly. She or I will reach out to you with any questions or clarifications.”

Rane gave another bow. “Thank you. I look forward to seeing you again, soon.”

“Indeed.”