Binding a slice of life.., p.29
Binding: A Slice of Life Progression Fantasy (Millennial Mage Book 3), page 29
Ingrit gave Tala a searching look. “You know something?”
“I think so.”
Ingrit shook her head, a half-grimace curling one side of her lips. “I wish I could ask, but as I am a node of the Archive, it would be a violation for me to allow you to tell me, even unprompted.” She sighed. “Such follies are sometimes the bedrock of civilization… unfortunately.”
Indenture’s rusting terrible, alright. “Well, then. Techniques for the fusing of body and soul?”
“That is forbidden material for one of your rank, though I can give you one hint to add to the other you’ve received.”
“Oh?”
“First, new Archons should develop their internal magesight, in order to facilitate progression. Be aware that that is incredibly difficult, given external distractions.”
Tala kept her expression neutral. My iron salve has already helped me there then.
“Beyond that, the advice Master Grediv gave you should be enough for you to go on.”
Tala stopped walking. “How do you know what advice I got?”
Ingrit gave her a puzzled smile, then nodded in understanding. “You weren’t aware; all official events that take place within the Archon compound are recorded and filed for transparency and as a record for future generations.”
Tala gave her a deeply skeptical look. “You cannot possibly watch everything, and how do you know specifically?”
Ingrit gave a wide smile, that same gleeful sparkle back in her almost emerald eyes. “I am not a combatant. My inscriptions bring to my mind any potentially relevant information if that information is present in the Archive and not restricted based on my rank. The massive caloric intake of a new Archon could inform future Mages’ inscriptions, depending on how you turn out.”
Tala cleared her throat, looking away. “And there’s a permanent record of that?”
Ingrit nodded, still smiling.
“That’s a bit embarrassing.” Then, Tala frowned. “Wait. Does that mean I could learn what was discussed in each conversation in that room?”
“The intention and use of such recordings are not permitted to violate personal privacy.” Ingrit cocked an eyebrow, disapprovingly.
Tala shrugged. “Ah… okay. I suppose I appreciate use restrictions, but that still seems pretty creepy.”
Ingrit sighed. “You don’t have to be here, nor do you have to attend official events. You are welcome to leave and never return, and nothing further will be recorded of your actions.”
Tala grunted. “I suppose.” She frowned. “So… if you were watching. How would I have done, had the Archons attacked me in earnest?”
Ingrit gave her a long look. Finally, she clicked her tongue. “Nothing I have observed about you implies that you are an idiot.”
“Is that supposed to be an answer?”
“If a gathering of Archons had attempted to kill you, how long do you imagine you would have survived?” Her eyes flicked to Terry, then back. “Even with help?”
“Not long?”
“And your powers of deduction are verified. There was absolutely no desire to harm you or your companion, or to have either of you harm others. That, and that alone, allowed the outcome as it stands.”
Not really an overt answer, but I suppose it was a bit of a silly question…
The two began walking again. “Now, aside from books, research materials, and research assistance, we offer many other services, including magically sealed rooms for experimentation. We can adjust the magical density in the air, even change out a portion of the air for other materials, as requested.”
Tala grinned. “Oh, that’s fantastic.” How much do they spend to keep the inscriptions for all this intact? She had a sudden thought, remembering an oft-asked question, and her smile widened. “Do you happen to know if an incorporator for coffee exists?”
“I’m afraid that what incorporators have or have not been perfected would be proprietary knowledge for the Constructionist’s Guild. I can contact a representative if you so desire?” Her inflection on the last framed it as a genuine offer.
Tala sighed. That would have been too easy. “No… It’s fine.” She did a quick check and was happy to note that her aura was still restrained. The trick is making it reflexive. Right now, I’m still thinking about it. She smiled. “Well, if you’ve no objections, I have a few more questions.”
“Of course. I will answer if I can.”
“Why did the strength of my Archon Star matter? Aren’t they just a touch point for my soul?”
Ingrit sighed. “If you wish to tie down a bull, as compared to a dog, do you need a hitch of the same strength?”
“No?”
“Precisely. A weak Archon Star is more like a tether—your soul is connected but not inseparably.” She gave Tala a long look. “Yours was at full strength. So, your body and soul are now fully, almost irrevocably bound.”
“So… why couldn’t I make it stronger?”
“Two reasons: First, the spell-form cannot sustain more power. A free-form, inscription-less working, like an Archon Star, utilizes the inherent properties of magic to remain stable, and too much power would have overcome the other features that allowed for permanency. As to others, whose stars were weaker than yours”—she smiled—“their first task as Archons will be to strengthen the bond, strengthen their soul’s attachment to their body so that the two can then be fused. You just have to fuse.”
“Which you won’t tell me how to do.”
“Which I can’t tell you how to do.”
Tala grunted. “Fair, I suppose.” She looked up, considering. “Is an unused Archon Star a weakness?” She was thinking of the two she had within Kit.
“I would say more a temptation than a weakness. If you have one, which you have yet to use, it is easy to bond something frivolously, without thought. Whereas, if you forge a star for a specific bond, that takes preparation, intent, and time to enact, allowing you to fully consider the act.”
“But they can’t be used to harm my soul?”
“No.”
Simple enough, I suppose. “Well… can they be unmade?”
Ingrit thought for a moment, seemingly accessing something within the archives. “There is debate on that. The stars, themselves, can be destroyed. Nothing is invincible, but quite a few scholars postulate that the part of your soul, which you extended and attached to the star, remains extended and is simply utilized for the next one you create, making that process easier. If you never make another?” She shrugged. “I have no record of such an occurrence.”
“Is there any benefit?”
“To unmaking a star? No. You don’t get the power back, and you can’t bend that power to anything…” She thought for a long moment. “No, that isn’t true. If you unmake a star, the energy is released but not attuned to you. It is not dangerous or damaging, but it will elevate the ambient magic in the area for a time.” She quirked a smile. “It is noted that I advise any asking this type of question to not unmake an Archon Star within a city. Such would be inconvenient for power balances within our local spell-forms.”
“Noted. Thank you.” Speaking of spell-forms. “A broader question, how has humanity not run out of metals for inscriptions?”
“I have two questions for you, first.”
“Alright.” Tala felt a bit taken aback.
“First, do you have any idea how much gold there is in this world, in Zeme?”
Tala shook her head.
“There is a lot. Some…” Her eyes unfocused for a moment, then her gaze returned to Tala. “Some thirty thousand years ago, something destabilized our local system’s closest asteroid belt and showered this world with meteors. Those in power at the time were able to mitigate the fall-out, as well as the initial damage, but the result was an incredible increase to the precious metal content of Zeme’s surface.”
There was a lot there that was beyond Tala’s knowledge.
“Please understand that I am summarizing and simplifying. No part of what I said is actually, explicitly, exactly true, but it is close enough to answer your question.”
“So… we haven’t run out because there’s just so much?” That doesn’t seem right.
“Ahh, now for my second question. What happens to the metal in inscriptions when it is used?”
Tala opened her mouth to say, ‘It’s gone.’ But then, she remembered. “‘Matter cannot be created or destroyed…’” That was a fundamental tenet of understanding before magic was involved. Right?
Ingrit grimaced. “Well, it can, but you’re heading towards the correct answer.”
Well, obviously Material Mages can create and destroy… “It’s… gone?”
“It’s temporarily shifted, dimensionally, towards magical power.” Ingrit paused for a moment, then tsked. “I cannot give you a sufficient grounding in the theory needed to properly answer this part of the question… You’ve encountered incorporators, correct?”
“Of course.”
“What do they do?”
“They bend power into creating matter, temporarily.”
“Exactly!” She hesitated. “Well, not exactly, but close enough. The use of inscriptions does the opposite to precious metals.”
“It bends them into”—Tala’s eyes widened—“temporary power.”
“More or less, yes. Then, they return to their base state.”
“So… after I cast, sometime later, a bit of gold just seems to appear where I was standing?”
Ingrit shrugged. “If it wasn’t interfered with? Yes. Such is minuscule, only a few atoms at a time, under usual circumstances, but it adds up.” She smiled widely. “One of the great innovations were the gathering scripts. Decades before the renewed founding of each city, and as a final script laid at the end of each waning, the Builders layout and activate a network of Material Guiding spell-forms, which draw that metal, while it is in flux, into the ground around cities. Specifically, into where the mining districts will be. It has the added benefit of drawing in surrounding precious metal as well, even drawing it up from the core over time. Thus, we lose very little metal, in the end; we actually gain over each cycle. This city’s gathering scripts are only now, finally, nearing the end of their current cycle. They will be refreshed in just less than two centuries when Bandfast’s waning is at an end.”
“And we empower such scripts around waning cities in preparation for the next time we use that location for a city?”
“Precisely. The ambient magic at the end of a waning is perfect for empowering a surge of effort to draw materials up from lower in the world’s structure and to lay the groundwork for a future city.” She nodded. “All that is required, then, is to wait for the ambient magic of the area to return to normal, and it is ready for a new city’s foundations.”
Tala felt like she was a bit inundated with all the information that Ingrit had given her. So much for a simple question… She had a thousand more questions, based on what the woman had told her, but she couldn’t process it all, not yet. Simpler questions. “So… is there a list somewhere of all the metals and alloys, which can be used for inscriptions and spell-forms?”
“Unfortunately, that is proprietary information, locked to the Constructionist and Inscribers Guilds.” She gave a small, sad smile.
“Alright, then. I think I have a few simpler questions.”
***
An hour later, she decided to let Ingrit free. Even though the older Archon had shown nothing but kindness and patience, Tala was beginning to feel bad about dominating her time. I’ll be back, though. After I’ve had time to collect my thoughts and gather better questions.
Tala now knew the rates for using the various experimentation rooms: expensive; how many of her current inquiries were beyond her current rank for easy answer: most; and which of her remaining inquires she should bring to the Constructionists: the rest.
It was a bit disappointing, if she was honest, but she knew it wasn’t really Ingrit’s fault.
She’d also gotten a brief tour of the library, which was vastly more extensive than she’d expected. As it turned out, there were nearly thirty million books, two-thirds of those being duplicates, so that the library was never without any given title, even discounting those held magically in the Archive.
It was a staggering number. Ingrit had explained that the works contained were of all sorts, including personal journals dating back to the first city, scholarly works delving into various subjects, and a few fictions, which were determined to contain enough fact or cultural relevance to be meticulously maintained.
To contain all those volumes, the library was an astonishing fifteen stories, each one larger than the one above as they descended into the ground. The lowest level was mostly the experimentation chambers and other similarly dangerous or critical rooms.
In addition to the physical copies of each book, every work was available through the Archive, and as an Archon, Tala could now purchase a slate that would grant access to many of the works. It would be restricted, of course, by her rank and guild affiliation—or lack thereof.
They were too expensive for Tala to contemplate at the moment.
She was too fiscally wise to waste her precious coin on such luxuries at this time.
She didn’t give the acquisition of such a second thought.
Nope.
Not at all.
I can’t afford it anyway…
On the positive side, there were publicly available slates, which could be rented for a small fee: one ounce silver, per hour. Small fee. Ha! That’s my budget for a meal.
Tala bid the librarian good day and smiled at the woman’s well-wishes in return. She lingered in her walk back down the passage, towards the front hall. She did her best not to gawk, but the creatures depicted were just so fascinating.
As such, it was almost sunset when she finally emerged from the Archon’s facility once more. She basked in the cool, autumn breeze and reveled in the sight of the pastel sky.
You did it. You’re an Archon. Tala grinned.
Terry stirred in his place on her shoulder, looking up at the sky as well. Tala glanced his way, noticing that he had a bit of a forlorn look. “Missing the Wilds, the open space?”
He gave her a long look, then a small bob of his head.
“Just a bit, eh?”
He bobbed more firmly.
“I can understand that. We’ll get back on the road, soon. Lyn’s supposed to get us an out-and-back contract in about a week, so we’ll be able to stretch our legs.”
He bumped her with his head.
Tala grinned back at Terry. “Thank you for backing me up in there.” She pulled out a big hunk of pork belly. “I know it’s not jerky, but do you want some?”
Terry quickly, and precisely, snatched the meat from her fingers, not even brushing her skin.
“I’d hoped you’d like that. You tried some during the banquet, right?”
He gave her a searching look, then bobbed a nod.
“Good. Want some jerky, too?”
He shifted happily, and she tossed out a chunk. She barely registered the flicker of him claiming it.
“You really are something.” And I really should ask Brand what spice mix he used for this jerky. Terry has a favorite it seems.
The last couple of days since she woke up had been crazy, and even before she’d worked herself into unconsciousness, she’d barely had a moment’s rest. I’ve not seen Gretel since I regained consciousness. Her meat pies would be perfect for dinner. I should get Rane and Lyn, first. It would be rude to go without them.
That decided, Tala walked towards Lyn’s house, eating what would be a healthy dinner for anyone else from her banquet loot on the way.
Things are looking up. I should be able to pay my debt off without issue and much faster than I’d hoped.
Her debt.
Her first payment.
Her eyes went wide. Oh, rust!
Chapter: 25
To End a Very Long Day
Tala turned and walked as quickly as she was able, which was surprisingly fast given her increased gravity.
Terry sunk his talons into her shoulder, the points failing to pierce her skin but holding him securely, nonetheless.
I know I saw a Banker’s Guild office around here, somewhere…
And there it was: a beautiful, stone building. It was eye-catching without being ostentatious.
If she understood the windows on the outside correctly, it was a single-story structure, but that single story seemed to be nearly twenty-five feet high. Its large entrance opened onto a small park-space. The green area had clearly been designed more for looks and to walk through than for families or children to play in, but that was fine. I like having greenery around as much as the next person. It doesn’t all have to be family focused.
She walked through the bank’s large double doors, closing them softly behind her.
Inside, she was greeted by an environment that struck her as more archival than that of the library she’d just left. The rugs were thicker, seemingly more for sound dampening in the vast space than to make walking or standing comfortable.
Large, unicolor hangings periodically decorated the walls. She hesitated to call them tapestries because they literally were simple lengths of cloth, with no artistry, no embellishments at all.
As she stepped farther in, she felt a small magical probe and heard a distinctive ding echo through the far part of the room.
Almost immediately, a gray-haired man bustled out. He was straight-backed, and he held a slate of deep green stone. That’s odd. Aren’t most such devices made of as light gray stone as possible?
He stopped before her and gave a deep bow. “Mistress Archon. Welcome to our humble Guildhall.” As he straightened, he glanced at Terry, sitting on her shoulder. “Would you like your companion to await you in a side room?”
“No, thank you. I am Tala.”
“Greetings, Mistress Tala. I am Nattinel, one of the senior bursars of this branch of the Banker’s Guild. How may I assist you this day?”
“A pleasure to meet you, master Nattinel.” He wasn’t a Mage or inscribed at all, that she could detect. “I need to make a payment on my debts.”
“I think so.”
Ingrit shook her head, a half-grimace curling one side of her lips. “I wish I could ask, but as I am a node of the Archive, it would be a violation for me to allow you to tell me, even unprompted.” She sighed. “Such follies are sometimes the bedrock of civilization… unfortunately.”
Indenture’s rusting terrible, alright. “Well, then. Techniques for the fusing of body and soul?”
“That is forbidden material for one of your rank, though I can give you one hint to add to the other you’ve received.”
“Oh?”
“First, new Archons should develop their internal magesight, in order to facilitate progression. Be aware that that is incredibly difficult, given external distractions.”
Tala kept her expression neutral. My iron salve has already helped me there then.
“Beyond that, the advice Master Grediv gave you should be enough for you to go on.”
Tala stopped walking. “How do you know what advice I got?”
Ingrit gave her a puzzled smile, then nodded in understanding. “You weren’t aware; all official events that take place within the Archon compound are recorded and filed for transparency and as a record for future generations.”
Tala gave her a deeply skeptical look. “You cannot possibly watch everything, and how do you know specifically?”
Ingrit gave a wide smile, that same gleeful sparkle back in her almost emerald eyes. “I am not a combatant. My inscriptions bring to my mind any potentially relevant information if that information is present in the Archive and not restricted based on my rank. The massive caloric intake of a new Archon could inform future Mages’ inscriptions, depending on how you turn out.”
Tala cleared her throat, looking away. “And there’s a permanent record of that?”
Ingrit nodded, still smiling.
“That’s a bit embarrassing.” Then, Tala frowned. “Wait. Does that mean I could learn what was discussed in each conversation in that room?”
“The intention and use of such recordings are not permitted to violate personal privacy.” Ingrit cocked an eyebrow, disapprovingly.
Tala shrugged. “Ah… okay. I suppose I appreciate use restrictions, but that still seems pretty creepy.”
Ingrit sighed. “You don’t have to be here, nor do you have to attend official events. You are welcome to leave and never return, and nothing further will be recorded of your actions.”
Tala grunted. “I suppose.” She frowned. “So… if you were watching. How would I have done, had the Archons attacked me in earnest?”
Ingrit gave her a long look. Finally, she clicked her tongue. “Nothing I have observed about you implies that you are an idiot.”
“Is that supposed to be an answer?”
“If a gathering of Archons had attempted to kill you, how long do you imagine you would have survived?” Her eyes flicked to Terry, then back. “Even with help?”
“Not long?”
“And your powers of deduction are verified. There was absolutely no desire to harm you or your companion, or to have either of you harm others. That, and that alone, allowed the outcome as it stands.”
Not really an overt answer, but I suppose it was a bit of a silly question…
The two began walking again. “Now, aside from books, research materials, and research assistance, we offer many other services, including magically sealed rooms for experimentation. We can adjust the magical density in the air, even change out a portion of the air for other materials, as requested.”
Tala grinned. “Oh, that’s fantastic.” How much do they spend to keep the inscriptions for all this intact? She had a sudden thought, remembering an oft-asked question, and her smile widened. “Do you happen to know if an incorporator for coffee exists?”
“I’m afraid that what incorporators have or have not been perfected would be proprietary knowledge for the Constructionist’s Guild. I can contact a representative if you so desire?” Her inflection on the last framed it as a genuine offer.
Tala sighed. That would have been too easy. “No… It’s fine.” She did a quick check and was happy to note that her aura was still restrained. The trick is making it reflexive. Right now, I’m still thinking about it. She smiled. “Well, if you’ve no objections, I have a few more questions.”
“Of course. I will answer if I can.”
“Why did the strength of my Archon Star matter? Aren’t they just a touch point for my soul?”
Ingrit sighed. “If you wish to tie down a bull, as compared to a dog, do you need a hitch of the same strength?”
“No?”
“Precisely. A weak Archon Star is more like a tether—your soul is connected but not inseparably.” She gave Tala a long look. “Yours was at full strength. So, your body and soul are now fully, almost irrevocably bound.”
“So… why couldn’t I make it stronger?”
“Two reasons: First, the spell-form cannot sustain more power. A free-form, inscription-less working, like an Archon Star, utilizes the inherent properties of magic to remain stable, and too much power would have overcome the other features that allowed for permanency. As to others, whose stars were weaker than yours”—she smiled—“their first task as Archons will be to strengthen the bond, strengthen their soul’s attachment to their body so that the two can then be fused. You just have to fuse.”
“Which you won’t tell me how to do.”
“Which I can’t tell you how to do.”
Tala grunted. “Fair, I suppose.” She looked up, considering. “Is an unused Archon Star a weakness?” She was thinking of the two she had within Kit.
“I would say more a temptation than a weakness. If you have one, which you have yet to use, it is easy to bond something frivolously, without thought. Whereas, if you forge a star for a specific bond, that takes preparation, intent, and time to enact, allowing you to fully consider the act.”
“But they can’t be used to harm my soul?”
“No.”
Simple enough, I suppose. “Well… can they be unmade?”
Ingrit thought for a moment, seemingly accessing something within the archives. “There is debate on that. The stars, themselves, can be destroyed. Nothing is invincible, but quite a few scholars postulate that the part of your soul, which you extended and attached to the star, remains extended and is simply utilized for the next one you create, making that process easier. If you never make another?” She shrugged. “I have no record of such an occurrence.”
“Is there any benefit?”
“To unmaking a star? No. You don’t get the power back, and you can’t bend that power to anything…” She thought for a long moment. “No, that isn’t true. If you unmake a star, the energy is released but not attuned to you. It is not dangerous or damaging, but it will elevate the ambient magic in the area for a time.” She quirked a smile. “It is noted that I advise any asking this type of question to not unmake an Archon Star within a city. Such would be inconvenient for power balances within our local spell-forms.”
“Noted. Thank you.” Speaking of spell-forms. “A broader question, how has humanity not run out of metals for inscriptions?”
“I have two questions for you, first.”
“Alright.” Tala felt a bit taken aback.
“First, do you have any idea how much gold there is in this world, in Zeme?”
Tala shook her head.
“There is a lot. Some…” Her eyes unfocused for a moment, then her gaze returned to Tala. “Some thirty thousand years ago, something destabilized our local system’s closest asteroid belt and showered this world with meteors. Those in power at the time were able to mitigate the fall-out, as well as the initial damage, but the result was an incredible increase to the precious metal content of Zeme’s surface.”
There was a lot there that was beyond Tala’s knowledge.
“Please understand that I am summarizing and simplifying. No part of what I said is actually, explicitly, exactly true, but it is close enough to answer your question.”
“So… we haven’t run out because there’s just so much?” That doesn’t seem right.
“Ahh, now for my second question. What happens to the metal in inscriptions when it is used?”
Tala opened her mouth to say, ‘It’s gone.’ But then, she remembered. “‘Matter cannot be created or destroyed…’” That was a fundamental tenet of understanding before magic was involved. Right?
Ingrit grimaced. “Well, it can, but you’re heading towards the correct answer.”
Well, obviously Material Mages can create and destroy… “It’s… gone?”
“It’s temporarily shifted, dimensionally, towards magical power.” Ingrit paused for a moment, then tsked. “I cannot give you a sufficient grounding in the theory needed to properly answer this part of the question… You’ve encountered incorporators, correct?”
“Of course.”
“What do they do?”
“They bend power into creating matter, temporarily.”
“Exactly!” She hesitated. “Well, not exactly, but close enough. The use of inscriptions does the opposite to precious metals.”
“It bends them into”—Tala’s eyes widened—“temporary power.”
“More or less, yes. Then, they return to their base state.”
“So… after I cast, sometime later, a bit of gold just seems to appear where I was standing?”
Ingrit shrugged. “If it wasn’t interfered with? Yes. Such is minuscule, only a few atoms at a time, under usual circumstances, but it adds up.” She smiled widely. “One of the great innovations were the gathering scripts. Decades before the renewed founding of each city, and as a final script laid at the end of each waning, the Builders layout and activate a network of Material Guiding spell-forms, which draw that metal, while it is in flux, into the ground around cities. Specifically, into where the mining districts will be. It has the added benefit of drawing in surrounding precious metal as well, even drawing it up from the core over time. Thus, we lose very little metal, in the end; we actually gain over each cycle. This city’s gathering scripts are only now, finally, nearing the end of their current cycle. They will be refreshed in just less than two centuries when Bandfast’s waning is at an end.”
“And we empower such scripts around waning cities in preparation for the next time we use that location for a city?”
“Precisely. The ambient magic at the end of a waning is perfect for empowering a surge of effort to draw materials up from lower in the world’s structure and to lay the groundwork for a future city.” She nodded. “All that is required, then, is to wait for the ambient magic of the area to return to normal, and it is ready for a new city’s foundations.”
Tala felt like she was a bit inundated with all the information that Ingrit had given her. So much for a simple question… She had a thousand more questions, based on what the woman had told her, but she couldn’t process it all, not yet. Simpler questions. “So… is there a list somewhere of all the metals and alloys, which can be used for inscriptions and spell-forms?”
“Unfortunately, that is proprietary information, locked to the Constructionist and Inscribers Guilds.” She gave a small, sad smile.
“Alright, then. I think I have a few simpler questions.”
***
An hour later, she decided to let Ingrit free. Even though the older Archon had shown nothing but kindness and patience, Tala was beginning to feel bad about dominating her time. I’ll be back, though. After I’ve had time to collect my thoughts and gather better questions.
Tala now knew the rates for using the various experimentation rooms: expensive; how many of her current inquiries were beyond her current rank for easy answer: most; and which of her remaining inquires she should bring to the Constructionists: the rest.
It was a bit disappointing, if she was honest, but she knew it wasn’t really Ingrit’s fault.
She’d also gotten a brief tour of the library, which was vastly more extensive than she’d expected. As it turned out, there were nearly thirty million books, two-thirds of those being duplicates, so that the library was never without any given title, even discounting those held magically in the Archive.
It was a staggering number. Ingrit had explained that the works contained were of all sorts, including personal journals dating back to the first city, scholarly works delving into various subjects, and a few fictions, which were determined to contain enough fact or cultural relevance to be meticulously maintained.
To contain all those volumes, the library was an astonishing fifteen stories, each one larger than the one above as they descended into the ground. The lowest level was mostly the experimentation chambers and other similarly dangerous or critical rooms.
In addition to the physical copies of each book, every work was available through the Archive, and as an Archon, Tala could now purchase a slate that would grant access to many of the works. It would be restricted, of course, by her rank and guild affiliation—or lack thereof.
They were too expensive for Tala to contemplate at the moment.
She was too fiscally wise to waste her precious coin on such luxuries at this time.
She didn’t give the acquisition of such a second thought.
Nope.
Not at all.
I can’t afford it anyway…
On the positive side, there were publicly available slates, which could be rented for a small fee: one ounce silver, per hour. Small fee. Ha! That’s my budget for a meal.
Tala bid the librarian good day and smiled at the woman’s well-wishes in return. She lingered in her walk back down the passage, towards the front hall. She did her best not to gawk, but the creatures depicted were just so fascinating.
As such, it was almost sunset when she finally emerged from the Archon’s facility once more. She basked in the cool, autumn breeze and reveled in the sight of the pastel sky.
You did it. You’re an Archon. Tala grinned.
Terry stirred in his place on her shoulder, looking up at the sky as well. Tala glanced his way, noticing that he had a bit of a forlorn look. “Missing the Wilds, the open space?”
He gave her a long look, then a small bob of his head.
“Just a bit, eh?”
He bobbed more firmly.
“I can understand that. We’ll get back on the road, soon. Lyn’s supposed to get us an out-and-back contract in about a week, so we’ll be able to stretch our legs.”
He bumped her with his head.
Tala grinned back at Terry. “Thank you for backing me up in there.” She pulled out a big hunk of pork belly. “I know it’s not jerky, but do you want some?”
Terry quickly, and precisely, snatched the meat from her fingers, not even brushing her skin.
“I’d hoped you’d like that. You tried some during the banquet, right?”
He gave her a searching look, then bobbed a nod.
“Good. Want some jerky, too?”
He shifted happily, and she tossed out a chunk. She barely registered the flicker of him claiming it.
“You really are something.” And I really should ask Brand what spice mix he used for this jerky. Terry has a favorite it seems.
The last couple of days since she woke up had been crazy, and even before she’d worked herself into unconsciousness, she’d barely had a moment’s rest. I’ve not seen Gretel since I regained consciousness. Her meat pies would be perfect for dinner. I should get Rane and Lyn, first. It would be rude to go without them.
That decided, Tala walked towards Lyn’s house, eating what would be a healthy dinner for anyone else from her banquet loot on the way.
Things are looking up. I should be able to pay my debt off without issue and much faster than I’d hoped.
Her debt.
Her first payment.
Her eyes went wide. Oh, rust!
Chapter: 25
To End a Very Long Day
Tala turned and walked as quickly as she was able, which was surprisingly fast given her increased gravity.
Terry sunk his talons into her shoulder, the points failing to pierce her skin but holding him securely, nonetheless.
I know I saw a Banker’s Guild office around here, somewhere…
And there it was: a beautiful, stone building. It was eye-catching without being ostentatious.
If she understood the windows on the outside correctly, it was a single-story structure, but that single story seemed to be nearly twenty-five feet high. Its large entrance opened onto a small park-space. The green area had clearly been designed more for looks and to walk through than for families or children to play in, but that was fine. I like having greenery around as much as the next person. It doesn’t all have to be family focused.
She walked through the bank’s large double doors, closing them softly behind her.
Inside, she was greeted by an environment that struck her as more archival than that of the library she’d just left. The rugs were thicker, seemingly more for sound dampening in the vast space than to make walking or standing comfortable.
Large, unicolor hangings periodically decorated the walls. She hesitated to call them tapestries because they literally were simple lengths of cloth, with no artistry, no embellishments at all.
As she stepped farther in, she felt a small magical probe and heard a distinctive ding echo through the far part of the room.
Almost immediately, a gray-haired man bustled out. He was straight-backed, and he held a slate of deep green stone. That’s odd. Aren’t most such devices made of as light gray stone as possible?
He stopped before her and gave a deep bow. “Mistress Archon. Welcome to our humble Guildhall.” As he straightened, he glanced at Terry, sitting on her shoulder. “Would you like your companion to await you in a side room?”
“No, thank you. I am Tala.”
“Greetings, Mistress Tala. I am Nattinel, one of the senior bursars of this branch of the Banker’s Guild. How may I assist you this day?”
“A pleasure to meet you, master Nattinel.” He wasn’t a Mage or inscribed at all, that she could detect. “I need to make a payment on my debts.”
