Binding a slice of life.., p.25
Binding: A Slice of Life Progression Fantasy (Millennial Mage Book 3), page 25
Tala was about to turn away, to walk towards her fellow new Archons, when Elnea raised her right hand as high as she could reach, palm facing forward. Her left was tucked in front of her chest in what Tala recognized as a knife-hand shape, though it wasn’t to attack. Instead, that hand looked as if it was resting on an invisible surface, bisecting the woman.
Magic swirled around the Archon, clearly designed to be showy, both to normal vision and magesight.
The upraised hand glowed for a moment with a deep, red light. It wasn’t Elnea’s aura but light visible to Tala’s normal vision. The woman’s voice lanced out, easily reaching everyone present, and if Tala read the magic correctly, her voice would be carried… somewhere else, as well. To other Archon councils?
“Archons of Humanity, today, Bandfast welcomes its third new Archon, first of her title: Mistress Tala, Blood Archon.” Elnea clenched the upper hand into a fist, and a final burst of magic washed over the room and to the other destinations. Tala received, into her own mind, a picture of herself.
She stood straight despite being below average in height. She was trim and fit, finding a comfortable middle ground between childishly slim and bulky.
Her hair was pulled into an ordered braid, artfully woven from near her left temple, across the back of her head to where it blossomed from the base of her skull, near her right shoulder, hanging in front of that side of her chest. And dark brown. Tala felt immensely proud of retaining her natural hair color, though she couldn’t have said exactly why.
Her eyes were now, by far, her most striking feature. They were as brilliant and pure a red as they could possibly be without actually glowing.
Her face was angular without being sharp, and soft without being round. She’d always thought of herself as pretty, rather than beautiful, and this image bore that out. With the addition of her new eye color, however, she was certainly striking.
She had a decidedly hourglass figure and was curvy without it being inconvenient, but she didn’t focus on that.
She was clad in her perfectly fitted elk leathers, her near-white tunic and thunder-cloud gray pants setting off her skin’s natural tone. Kit and Flow hung from her black belt, one comfortably resting on each hip.
Oh, I could have—and probably should have—worn one of the formal outfits that Merilin made for me. It was too late for that, by far.
Her bare feet were obvious below the cuffs of her pants, but they were just as obviously intentionally bare.
On all her exposed skin—feet, hands, neck, and head—there was a sheen of gold over her natural skin color. The spell-forms were far too delicate to be distinguished. Instead, the appearance was almost like a fine mesh of metal had been pulled tight and flawlessly shaped to her every contour. Even her eyes had veils of gold, highlighting their ruby irises.
The look of delicate, precious-metal work, combined with the positively gem-like nature of her eyes, caused her to almost look like a jeweler’s masterwork.
Throughout the manifestation, power was in evidence. Her aura was distinctly red, and that gave her a thought. Are my eyes red to match my aura, or is it a coincidence? While they were probably red because of the blood medium for the Archon Star, only time would tell.
On a more ephemeral level, the woman that she, and everyone else, beheld had a weight of confidence and action as if she knew where she was going, and may the stars above help any who got in her way.
Tala’s eyes widened at the brief image, her jaw going slack in shock. Is that really how I look to others? I wish I had that much confidence…
She didn’t know how to feel, if she was being honest. The impression passed in a heartbeat, but the memory, crystal clear, lingered in her mind.
Elnea grinned, lowering her arm, her magic worked, her job done. “Welcome, Mistress Tala, one of us in truth.”
Chapter: 21
Plentiful and Free
Tala gave a slight bow, once more, but this time, it was to give her a moment to think. When she straightened, she was still no closer to having a coherent response. She was still feeling quite overwrought by all that had happened.
Elnea’s grin shifted to a more companionable smile. “It can be overwhelming, so many things changing at once, then to see yourself as others do?” She shook her head. “You are holding up surprisingly well.” She leaned closer and spoke in a conspiratorial whisper, “I wept at my raising.”
Terry appeared on Tala’s shoulder, giving Elnea a pointed, hostile look before he settled down and closed his eyes in mock sleep. The Archon pulled back, though seemingly not in fear.
Lyn and Rane were working their way towards her, but Grediv reached Tala and Elnea first. “Mistress Elnea! You cannot dominate the time of this guest of honor as well.”
Elnea gave Grediv a long-suffering look. “I tolerated your intrusions because your… pupil was being evaluated as well, but you did not tell me you had such a strong hand in this one’s advancements.”
Grediv shrugged. “I’ve told all I did. I gave her access to no forbidden knowledge. I didn’t even inform her about the Ways. That would have been a breach for any Archon who wasn’t her master.” He gave Tala a subtle wink. “The only contribution I claim is doing my utmost to prevent her from killing herself or becoming a lich.”
Tala cleared her throat. “Okay. I’m an Archon, now. Explain how I could have become a lich.”
Elnea gave Grediv an irritated look.
“I don’t want to become one; I want to avoid it.”
Grediv grinned. “The biggest danger of that passed with your elevation to Archon. Mages, in general, are in danger of all sorts of horrors, mostly volitional until their body is bound to their soul…” Elnea was giving him a very unkind glare, so he tapered off. “But you can read about those in the library, if you so wish. Or purchase the volumes yourself, but I imagine someone will be kind enough to gift you the basic texts.” He gave her another, less subtle wink.
Tala smiled in return. Grediv had, in fact, given her such a set, though most of the volumes were sealed against her until she was of sufficient stature to warrant the information. I wonder if I’ll be able to read all of them now or just some? She was excited to check, but it was hardly the time.
Elnea cleared her throat. “Certain information remains restricted by level of advancement.”
Tala sighed. “Do I, at least, get to know how I am supposed to advance?”
“Of course.”
Tala blinked at that, surprised. “Really?”
“Absolutely. Moving from being a Bound to a Fused is a simple matter of fusing your body and soul together, inseparably. To be clear, you are not making them one; that is impossible as they are now.”
That’s not foreshadowing or anything. “Okay, that explains the name. How do I do that?”
Elnea smiled broadly. “That you must learn for yourself.”
Tala returned a flat look. Seriously, woman?
Grediv interjected. “You, Mistress Tala, have a leg up on most new Bound. What you’ve accomplished with”—Elnea was glaring at him once more, so he seemed to change what he’d been about to say—“your items, proves you’ve some insight.”
My items, eh? She contemplated that, glancing down at herself. Then, she started to smile. Right! I fused my elk leathers into a single item. It’s probably something like that. “I see. Thank you, Master Grediv.” She hesitated. “Wait… you never told me how one becomes a lich?”
Elnea shook her head. “Too late, it seems; your fellow new Archons are here.”
Rane and Lyn finally got close to her through the now milling and conversing crowd. This seemed to be as much a social event for Archons as for the raising of new members.
Tala glared at Elnea, but then something moving around the perimeter of the room caught her attention.
Are those trays of food? It appeared that servants had come in while Tala was distracted, filling the three large tables with a banquet’s worth of food.
“Tala!” Lyn wrapped Tala in a fierce embrace. “I knew you’d be fine.”
Elnea gave them an odd look, likely from Lyn’s lack of an honorific.
“Lyn. Or should I say Mistress Lyn Clerkson, Diamond Archon?”
Elnea looked back and forth between them, then shook her head in resigned exasperation.
Lyn grinned. “You could but don’t. That’s a mouthful.”
Tala laughed.
Rane hung back, just a bit, until Tala turned towards him. At that point, he smiled, gave a bow, and extended his hand. “Congratulations, Mistress Tala.” Something looks different about him…
Tala reached towards him, taking his offered hand. “Thank you, and congratulations to you, too, Master Rane Gredial, Sapphire Archon.”
He rolled his eyes. “None of that, Mistress.”
It’s his scars. His scars are faded, somehow. She decided not to point it out, for now. It wasn’t a huge change, but it was noticeable. She put on a mock-serious tone. “As you wish, Master.”
Lyn snorted a laugh. “Come on! This banquet is for all of us. Apparently, they didn’t want to bring out all this food for any one of us, alone.”
Tala glanced towards Elnea and Grediv, but they seemed to be having a heated argument, though Tala couldn’t hear even a flicker of sound from it. From the brief glimpses Tala had gotten of the woman’s power and spell-lines, Elnea was a Material Guide, specializing in sound. Rare specialty. That didn’t explain the mental image of Tala, which had been projected, but Tala supposed every Mage did have their secrets.
She shrugged, returning her attention to her companions. “Food sounds great.” She hesitated then, turning back to fully face Lyn. “I am so, so sorry about the finger, Lyn. I was going to explain, but other things kept coming up, then Master Rane said we couldn’t talk about our star formation.” She gave a pained smile. “I had to get it out, and cutting off the fingertip was the only thing I could think to do.”
The woman gave her a long look, then sighed. “That does explain it.” Lyn nodded once. “You’re still buying me a new rug, though.”
“…I suppose that’s fair…” Her nose caught a whiff of the dishes now laid out around the room. “Now, let’s get to the food. I’m starving.”
The other two grinned jovially, clearly not surprised by the revelation.
As they moved towards the food, many gave them hearty congratulations. Though, all tallied, many more intercepted the other two, individually, than Tala, herself.
For Tala, some asked if she’d be interested in collaborations or other opportunities. All of those, she gave noncommittal answers, which amounted to: ‘Too much going on right now. Reach out later, please?’
Everyone seemed to take that well, even seeming to have expected something of the sort.
She didn’t listen closely enough to know exactly what was said to the other two, but from context, and what she did catch, it all seemed to be in the same vein.
When Tala finally broke through the crowd, she gaped at the sheer quantity and variety of food. And everything is finger or bite-sized.
One whole table, the one they’d reached first, was covered in little sandwiches. The type of bread varied, as did the fillings and addenda, which made the permutations staggering. And there seemed to be hundreds of each available.
In contrast to the ocean of food, the plates were barely bigger than her hand, spread wide. What the slag is this? She took a small stack.
As they filled their laughably small plates with food, Rane leaned over. “I can’t believe you were ready to fight off a room full of Archons.”
She quirked a smile his way. “Did you bow to their command?” She was currently balancing one fully mounded plate, while preparing the second for cargo.
“Well, no, but my protests were verbal.”
Lyn leaned around the big man. “He demanded his ‘master’ intervene. He said that he would be a fool to obey such a command.”
Tala hesitated. “Oh… that idea never crossed my mind.”
Rane grinned, and Lyn rolled her eyes before remarking, “Of course, it didn’t, Tala. You are a woman of action—however ill-advised.”
“Yeah, yeah.” They reached the end of the first table, Tala straining her dexterity to the limit with four fully loaded plates in each hand. Then, she beheld the central table.
Instead of sitting on beds of ice, like those used to help keep the little sandwiches cool, these trays were heavy metal, over burners of some kind, clearly meant to keep this food hot. The first item available looked like bacon but much thicker and not fully crisped. The little sign near the sizzling platter said it was pork belly.
Oh, I need some of you. She was frowning down at the food, including the plates in her hands, then smiled. Right! With deft movements, she set her plates down, opened Kit wide, and lowered the full dishes into the pouch, one after another. “There.” Just as quickly, she overfilled another plate with the pork belly and slipped it into Kit as well. She looked up to see Lyn and Rane giving her odd looks. “What?”
Lyn looked at the pouch, then back up at Tala. “Won’t that get everything in there greasy and covered in crumbs and sauce?”
Rane took a more direct approach. “Isn’t it a bit rude to pack out food?”
Tala shook her head. “No, Kit manages the separation of items perfectly, and no, it isn’t rude. This food is for us. I’m not going to say ‘no’ to that. Besides, I’ll still probably eat most of it here. I just don’t want to have to take dozens of trips to the serving table. That would be rude.” She thought for a moment. “Hmm… how long will this go on?”
It was Rane who responded. “You just want to know how long you’ll have access to this food.”
Tala opened her mouth to object, then stopped. “Yeah, that’s true. So?”
Rane sighed. “Likely a couple hours. I think there’s some sort of closing… something to wrap up the event after socializing.”
She nodded, smiling towards the two other new Archons. “Alright then. It would be a shame if we didn’t get all we could out of our banquet.”
Rane and Lyn looked at each other, then shrugged. Lyn gave a little laugh, and Rane snorted a chuckle. “Sounds fair.” Thus, the three began to work over the tables in earnest, piling plates high with food before passing them to Tala and, through her, to Kit.
Every so often, one or more of them had to pause their great work to talk to Archons who approached; they were the guests of honor, after all. Even so, it didn’t really take from their newfound mission.
Lyn grinned with what seemed to be barely contained glee the first time she saw a servant refresh one of the platters of food. The supply might just be functionally infinite.
No one noticed, seemed to mind, or cared enough to say anything.
As it turned out, Rane had been correct, and the festivities lasted for two hours—or as close as Tala could reckon.
Tala was not a social person, and in the end, the food, as plentiful and free as it was, was not worth enduring more socializing.
After only half an hour, Tala had tried to slip out for the first time, but each time she’d tried, there were suddenly a lot more people interested in talking with her, and in truth, she was still not quite desperate enough to be as rude as would have been required to break free.
Thus, she inevitably drifted back to the food. At least there’s coffee.
She’d filled both her coffee jugs, immediately, and was nursing a tankard of the stuff. The tankard had been taken from the side table where kegs of beer and ale were tapped.
The attendant in charge of coffee now visibly twitched whenever Tala walked by, and if Tala was being honest, she moved through that part of the room more often than strictly necessary.
Maturity is a process, not a destination, after all.
Near the beginning of the time, Master Himmal had approached Tala for a quick conversation.
“Congratulations, Mistress Tala. I am so glad that we of the Wainwrights’ Guild get to work so closely with you.”
Tala smiled, bowing to the much older-looking man. And he’s probably much older than he appears, too. “Thank you, Master Himmal, and thank you for your support and encouragement.”
He waved her off with a smile. “Think nothing of it. I did want to let you know that we’ve finished modifying the main wagon for your increased weight, not that I understand the purpose of that. There should be no issue with you riding on the roof or sleeping within your portion of the designated cargo-slot.”
“Thank you, I appreciate that.” She hesitated. “You know, there’s something that I’ve been meaning to ask but keep forgetting.”
“Oh?”
“Why not simply give the wagons a higher power storage capacity so that you only needed Dimensional Mages at the start of each journey?”
He thought for a moment, then nodded. “What do you know of the Arcane Chaos Theory?”
“I would say that I know nothing but the name.”
He smiled at that. “That makes sense. Few outside of the unified Constructionist Guilds need to know of it. The underpinning is this: the more power contained in a reservoir, the less stable it is. This is actually the basis on which we know that a Mage’s power, drawn through their gate, is not finite.”
“Really? Did anyone ever believe that?”
“Oh, yes. It used to be a popular theory that we each only had so much power. So, if you drew more deeply, you were shortening your own life.”
“But that’s nonsense.”
He shrugged. “I’ll make no play at justifying the debunked theories of our ancestors. But it applies here, too. If we were to double the power capacity of the cargo-slots, we would get at most another hour out of the spell-form. Triple? Maybe another half-hour beyond that.”
“So, why aren’t bigger cargo-slots out of power much faster?”
He smiled. “Ahh, that is an excellent question. Simple: magic applied only dissipates as it’s used, and the reservoir’s rate of decay is directly correlated with the spell it is meant to supply.”
She blinked and shook her head, trying to process that. “Wait, so if I’m understanding correctly, then no spell-form could last longer than a day or so.”
