Chapter 308: Tea at the End of a World
Tala calmly started down the correct side of the hill at a jog, completely sheathed in her metals.
She let her speed increase, vaulting forward into a loping run, bounding from foot to foot with increasing power.
Tala quickly passed the speed at which she would have built up magical resonance without the iron, and she only felt the barest amount of build up around her head and more so her waist.
Eyes? and Kit and Flow?
-And likely your ears, nose, and mouth as well.-
That made sense. As she looked closer, there was also a general resonance around her clothing as well.
The elk-leathers. Her bound items were showing their issue.
Her scripts were incredibly efficient, she had inscriptions specifically designed to help reduce power leakage from her eyes, and she had surrounded every part of her with iron in the dimensions of magic.
All of that combined to a very, very miniscule magical footprint in reality, with which to resonate.
As such, she was able to get up to far greater speeds before she began to feel any echoes in the world around her.
Even as she worked to shape what little of her aura was leaking out, to reduce her magical drag, Tala was considering.
Is this what Master Grediv meant? That if I am able to completely contain my own aura then I can go faster?
-I honestly dont think so. Even if your power was fully contained within your body, without the iron, there would still be the same issue.-
Yeah Well, we can ask him when we see him.
Terry was still faster than she was, of course. Though, he did seem to have to flicker forward in order to keep that advantage.
I want more. I dont need my eyes, do I?
-And you dont honestly need to breathe. It will take a bit more power, but thats not really an issue with the efficiencies were seeing.-
With a thought, Tala closed her eyes, and felt iron seal up the last points of egress.
Her internal, magical resonance took another tick upward.
She almost felt closed in, but her bloodstars were in place, providing her with three-hundred-sixty degrees of perception independent of her eyes.
It felt vaguely uncomfortable to not be breathing, but as it didnt build beyond that ambiguous sense of wrongness, it was easy enough to ignore.
She now looked entirely like an iron statue, eyes closed.
Now, Kit and Flow.
Kit was easy, flattening out against her leg before she willed an iron layer overtop of it, sealing it in place.
For Flow, she pressed the knife against the top of her left forearm, where she coated it and the sheath with iron.
It would be trivial to pull it free with a thought.
The elk-leathers.
She contracted it down to a simple band around her throat and covered it with iron as well. Three pockets in the iron. She felt a smile pull at her lips. An interesting solution, but it seems to work.
There was the issue that she was now quite obviously naked, at least in appearance.
Alright, lets see how we can do this.
Tala opened a small hole near the band at her neck and white metal flowed out, covering her utterly in a thick layer of protection and obscurity.
She then added another layer of iron on the outside.
In the end, she simply looked like a roughly human-shaped figure. I look like a posable doll for figure sketching.
-Oh, yeah, I can see that.- Alat hesitated a moment, then added, -You know, you could just have thickened the iron around the places you wanted to obscure.-
Of course I could have, but I wanted to test this, too. I think it will be a bit more effective in battle.
She felt heavy and defended to an almost ridiculous degree.
-I call this your battle regalia!-
Thats not a bad name I suppose? Ill need to have my scalemail hauberk on to make it complete, but do we need to name it?
Alat shrugged in Talas mind. -Putting a name to it will help you cement the mental model and come back to it more easily.-
Naming an outfit still seems odd, though I dont dislike this particular name.
-Youll get used to it.-
Probably, yeah.
Thus, Tala stood in her battle regalia, the only hints of power around her were from her four bloodstars.
One at the base of her neck and three orbiting her head.
Lets do this.
She came back up to speed once more, her steps barely heavier than before as her will naturally moved the iron along with her.
By shaping the minute parts of her aura that leaked out from the bloodstars while mirroring her perception, she could go as fast as she could propel herself without causing noticeable resonance.
Terry was a bit dubious of her new form but didnt cause an issue over it.
She and Terry chose to swing wide around a couple of founts that they detected, and three creatures of magic.
With where the magical creatures were positioned, Tala understood that they were known threats that had been accounted for already. Her attacking them would simply destabilize the route between Bandfast and Marliweather, maybe even the whole region depending on how things shook out.
All in all, it seemed like shed be able to make it all the way to Marliweather in just a single day, but then, she sensed something odd.
Tala turned her head in confusion to lookeven though that wasnt necessary or usefulas she worked to stop.
She left long furrows in the ground as she slid to a halt.
Terry flickered back to her side, clearly confused, even while he just as clearly sensed what she had.
I The word caught in her sealed mouth causing an odd buzzing within her head, and she twitched away from the unexpected feeling.
Terry flickered a bit away at her sudden jerk, but he came back a moment later as the metal pulled away from Talas mouth and nose.
She cleared her throat, pulling in a deep breath before she spoke, I want to see what that is.
He cooed softly but insistently, seemingly deciding to ignore her odd behavior.
Why would a simple Mage be out here on their own? There might be something wrong.
His second coo was filled with sad insistence.
What do you mean I should leave it be?
This time, he huffed and trilled quietly.
Terry, they might need help. Why else would? She opened her eyes in realization, the metal shifting at her will to allow her to see by that means once again, Oh
Tala felt her shoulders sink as the most obvious reason came to her.
You think that theyre about to become a fount.
Terry bobbed his agreement.
Even so, Tala shook her head. You might be right, but I need to be sure. If someone got lost from their caravan out here, Im not just going to leave them because they might be broken.
Terry huffed again but didnt seem to object further.
Lets see for ourselves.
Even though Tala had decided to investigate the oddity of a mere Mage wandering alone in the wilds, she proceeded with caution, keeping her focus on her and Terrys surroundings.
Additionally, she mirrored her voidsight onto a couple of her bloodstars in order to cover what she could see through that unique vision as well.
What she saw took a bit for her to fully understand, but the implications were immediately apparent once she did.
As Tala neared the person that she and Terry had sensed, magical density and the strength of the zeme was dropping.
It wasnt as if something was consuming the power. Instead, it seemed like this was simply a natural area of lower saturation in the already lower magical density around the human cities.
Additionally, the structure of reality appeared smoother to her voidsight the closer they got.
The fragments of existence seemed to be pressed closer together, looking almost seamless even under close inspection.
You know, I never really thought about why founts were found where they are.
Terry chirped quietly.
I dont know. I suppose I assumed that Mages just wandered a bit before becoming founts, I suppose.
He stopped in place, turning to give her a long look before returning his focus toward their destination.
I never said I was right. Tala hedged, feeling rather judged by the avian. I even stated that Id never really thought about it before.
Terry huffed and didnt react further.
Fine, ignore me. Lets just see whats going on. Just in case this wasnt a Mage on the way to becoming a fount, Tala dismissed the remnants of her battle regalia form, returning her elk-leathers to the form of clothing, pulling the white metal back, and allowing her through-spike to reactivate.
-You could have just made sure your through-spike had a path and allowed it to activate.-
I could have, but this seems better.
-As you say, its up to you.-
As it turned out, the Mage wasnt all that far, and soon enough they were approaching the source of what theyd sensed.
Tala and Terry crested a little rise, looking down on a dell in which an old man knelt.
From what Tala could tell, he was kneeling at the point of lowest magical density and highest stability in reality.
The man was well-enough dressed, though decidedly not in travel clothes, and it looked like he had been out in the elements for a few days at the very least.
His skin had an unhealthy pallor, and it was likewise suffused with an unusual amount of power, as if magic was taking over every part of him and slowly subverting it, somehow.
It honestly reminded Tala somewhat uncomfortably of her own recent, hyper-saturated state. Though her body was able to take the strain, whereas this mans clearly was not.
Also, in her case, the power involved was specifically in line with all of her inscriptions.
For this man, the magic seemed far more crude, and it was woven through with something she couldnt quite detect.
That makes no sense.
-Ill see what I can figure out.-
He really is becoming a fount. She didnt actually know how she knew. After all, shed never seen the process before, but it was the only thing that made sense to her. At some level, deep within her being, she just knew.
She stared down the slope for a long moment, her mind turning to Mistress Odera.
If it was her down there, and I was another Archon
-Tala. We dont know what could happen. We know almost nothing about the process itself.-
I know, but we also dont know that he cant be saved.
-Yes, we do. That is one of the few things that is known with absolute certainty. There have been Archons at every level, with all sorts of magics at their disposal, who have lost family members to this, and they have been trying for centuries to stop or reverse it. It is a fact that once they enter the fugue state, nothing can knock them free. There isnt even certainty that they still exist within the body at all. Their consciousness, their personage, is gone.-
Tala grimaced, wrestling with herself even beyond the discussion with Alat.
Im going to try anyway.
Alat groaned in resignation but didnt argue further.
Terry, wait for me here. I dont know whats going to happen when I go down there.
Terry chirped a couple of times, but it seemed more like a word of caution than trying to convince her not to go. He settled down into a crouch, fluffing his feathers and settling in for a long wait.
Ill be careful, but I need to at least try.
She strode down the southern side of the dell, approaching the kneeling Mage from a direction that should allow him to see her approach.
If he can see anything at this point
Tala stopped a dozen feet from him. Good Master, are you well?
The man didnt react in the slightest.
Looking upon him, Tala was struck by just how human he appeared.
He had thinning hair that drifted around him in the cold breeze.
It was nearly as white as the snow, with a bit of gray and black peppered throughout. A leather tie held it in the last remnants of a tail at the nape of his neck.
He had crows feet beside his eyes, showing that he was a man of many smiles and a quick laugh.
The lines of his face were strong and firm as expected from a Mage. Even so, he looked to have been a kind man.
His eyes were vacant, staring past her and allowing her to see their crystal blue color, like that of a late summer, cloudless sky.
His hands looked strong but only lightly calloused, making Tala believe that he had most likely been a Constructionist or of a similar profession, working with his hands but not to the extent to reshape them with heavy callouses.
His neatly trimmed nails added to this aesthetic and impression.
As she looked at his hands, she noticed that he clutched a piece of paper in one of them, tucked closely against his forearm.
Overcome with curiosity, Tala walked forward and easily took the page from his unresponsive fingers.
It was an incredibly lifelike sketch of a large family with this man centered in the group. There were still traces of power on the paper, indicating that it had been created using magic to render an actual scene into black and white.
His family.
On the back, a simple note was written:
You loved us well in life and are loved so much in return even as you journey onward. Were glad that youll be with Mom again. I love you, Dad.
Tala felt tears trying to fill her eyes as she lowered the page.
Shaky, thoughtless hands moved for the first time that shed seen as the Mage took the page back before returning to his previous state.
That was far more than shed expected. An echo of his consciousness?
-Probably from his soul.-
And hes been reduced to this what have we become? She looked at the man more closely, trying to memorize his features, which was silly given her perfect memory. Shed memorized them the instant she saw them.
She still had her voidsight mirrored to one of her bloodstars, and finally, at this close distance, she recognized what had been tugging at her awareness.
Nothingness.
Throughout the mans magic was woven the nothingness that had formed the visages of horror within the Doman-Imithe.
Her consciousness interpreted the nothingness as if she were in that place, causing her to see flickers of a too-wide, bright-white smile, filled with decidedly inhuman teeth in both kind and number.
Tala shivered and stepped back. What is this? Why is that here?
She forced herself to look more closely and found that a distorted grid of nothingness was permeating every part of the magic that suffused the man.
No, not a grid, a spell-form or something like it. The nothingness was so dark to her voidsight that it lost all dimensionality. It was the complete absence of magic, its direct antithesis, though Tala believed that she could detect some resonance with both void and reality.
Is this what drives us to become founts? Some sort of taint from the Doman-Imithe?
-And arcanes throw the bodies of gated humans into the Doman-Imithe when they die. What if part of the reason is to return the bit of nothingness that suffused them?-
Tala shivered again. We need to watch this. We need to know whats going on, whats going wrong.
She gave a deep bow to the kneeling Mage, already feeling like shed been intruding. My apologies, good Master. I need to witness your change. I dont know when Ill get the opportunity again, and it seems there is much I dont know, much I need to learn.
As expected, the Mage didnt respond.
To say he didnt object would be dishonest as he was clearly not in a state to do so.
If I can, I will carry word of your fate to your family. That is all the recompense I can offer.
-Tala?-
I I am just imagining someone standing and watching Mistress Odera succumb, or Mistress Phoen, and Id want to punch them with everything I have. Even so, we need to watch, and theres nothing that we can do to help.
-We dont even know where he came from. It is likely to be Marliweather, but we dont actually know.-
We will look. I said I would try, but it wont become my life mission if we dont succeed.
-That makes sense. Though there is something else we can do-
Tala felt herself nodding. We can disrupt the fount after its creation and release him fully to the next world.
-Ill check in with Mistress Ingrit and verify that we have the correct procedure.-
Thank you. The last thing she would want was to do it wrong, somehow
Tala pulled back to the top of the hill near Terry, about fifty feet from the Mage, and sat down to watch.
Let Master Simon know whats happening.
-I will.-
Tell him that well notify him when the process comes to a head.
The man didnt move as power swirled through him, seemingly without end.
It was clearly coming from his gate, but Tala couldnt tell where it was going or even if it was going somewhere. She couldnt tell even after she positioned her bloodstars in a circle around him at a similar distance to herself.
She could easily penetrate all the way through him with both her voidsight and magesight, but she couldnt see where the power was going. It seemed to remain, but that shouldnt be possible. There was no way he had sufficient magical density to take all of it in, so she left that issue to the side for a moment.
Worse case scenario, she could review the memories later.
Nodding to herself, she slowly took out her tea-making supplies, brewing chamomile with almost ceremonial slowness.
This wasnt a ritual that she was familiar with, nor was she attempting to make it one.
Even so, she felt the solemnity of the setting and didnt want to disturb it.
As the tea brewed, her thoughts turned to the sketch the man was holding.
He was the head of his family, clearly the anchor of a large group of people.
Sure, the Mage who had created the sketch could have made small alterations in the process of copying it down. They had probably taken some liberties to make everyone look a bit better, a bit happier, and a bit more unified, but there had been a quality of truth evident in the little things within the still family.
The mere fact that there was such a large extended family close together was telling.
The note on the back seemed to imply that one of the children had gone out of the way to somehow get the picture into the fathers hand after he had given in to the pull of his archon star.
There were a large number of little ones in the picture as well.
Tala didnt truly remember her own grandparents, but she remembered how it had felt when they died.
It had felt like the world was ending.
She took up her tea and drank a long, calming sip.
Down there, a world is coming to an end.
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