Tala watched as three groups of Refined and one lone man walked forward out of the milling group of their peers.

Their sandaled feet didn’t make much noise at all on the odd material of the training arena below the Alefast Archon Compound.

One group was Master Clevnis and the woman with him. They were both clad in traditional Mage’s robes in complementing colors, him in solid black with silver highlights, her in deep, sapphire blue with similar, seemingly decorative metal threading.

It was ‘seemingly’ because while Tala couldn’t determine any spellforms in the metallic patterns, she wasn’t familiar enough with cloth as a medium to know for sure. Some mediums required inscriptions of entirely alien construction, after all.

They smiled toward Tala and gave a polite bow as befitting toward an equal. “As was said before, I am Clevnis.”

“And I am Cerna.”

“Good to meet you two.” She smiled as she bowed in return.

The next to come forward was the lone man. He was shorter than her and had an odd weapon strapped to his back. It looked like a fusion between a double-bladed axe head and a large round shield.

He gave a similar bow. “I am Akra. Master Jevin has spoken highly of you, Mistress Tala.”

Tala blinked in surprise as she gave a mirrored bow. “You know Master Jevin?”

Master Akra chuckled. “Well, to be fair most do at our advancement, but he was my master, way back when, and we’ve kept in touch.”

Mistress Cerna sighed before giving Master Akra a side-eyed glance. “Already trying to sway her decision?”

He shrugged in return. “Speak the truth, and the best outcomes possible will come your way.”

She huffed a laugh but didn’t reply.

Tala simply smiled. “Well, good to meet you, Master Akra.”

The third group to approach was a group composed of two women, walking side by side, identical in appearance and clearly twins. They leaned into that fact, wearing clothing bifurcated in the middle, each half a different color, each mirroring the other in Mage’s robes of red and green.

They bowed as one, speaking together until they reached their names, “We are”

“Cupla.”

“Caraid.”

Tala bowed in return. “Well met.”

Mistress Caraid spoke alone after that, “Are we remembering correctly, that you are the Archon to trigger our internal defenses by bringing an arcane into our city?”

Tala blinked a few times, thinking back. “Oh! The bull man?”

“Indeed.”

She grinned sheepishly. “Well… yeah, but that was an accident.”

A voice sounded from somewhere in the crowd of watching Refined. “She’s the bull wrangler? I thought she was supposed to be Fused.”

Tala shrugged. “I advanced?”

That seemed to satisfy them for the moment.

Bull wrangler? She didn’t know how she felt about that.

-It is a surprisingly apt title for you.-

Don’t you dare do anything to make it stick.

Finally, a woman came forward, a man walking just behind her on her left. They also wore more traditional Mage’s robes, hers of deep purple, his of green and orange.

“I am Deigh.” She gave a cursory bow and motioned to the man. “This is my husband Doitean.”

And that was it. It seemed that there were four defensive units in the position of needing another Refined.

The man who had asked if she’d come alone hadn’t stepped forward, so Tala thought that these might only be those who were also interested in possibly adding her to their number, specifically.

Master Grediv smiled and took over for a moment. “Well, at this point I had intended there to be some dialogue and discussion. What I hadn’t planned on”—he gave a mild glare to the assembled Refined—“was an audience to the process.”

Tala cleared her throat. “Well, since we are having a party, I do need to bring my partner out to say hi.”

He frowned her way, but she didn’t pay him any mind.

She pulled open Kit and called down into it, “Terry! Friends—not food—out here to meet you.”

With a flicker, Terry appeared on her shoulder, carefully looking around at the room full of powerful humans. His eyes widened slightly, and he hunkered down with a soft squawk.

Another ripple of mutters went through the gathered Refined.

Master Akra frowned, clearing his throat. “You’ve tamed a dimensional terror bird?”

How did he identify his magic type? Oh… right, he just flickered out. That makes it rather obvious. “Not tamed, we’re partners, flock-mates.”

She looked over to Terry and smiled.

“If I’m on a team, so is he.”

Master Grediv cleared his throat. “As Terry is not of a Refined level, he will be considered as an accessory member of any defensive unit that Tala joins.”

When she gave him a questioning glance, he leaned slightly closer and explained. “Such as a less advanced spouse, mageling, or other person of note who could participate, but who was not Refined.”

“Ahh.” She nodded and glanced at Terry. “Does that work for you, Terry?”

He tilted his head to one side and cheeped before ruffling his feathers briefly.

“Right, why would you care what they classify you as?” She chuckled and scratched the back of his head and neck.

Mistresses Cupla and Caraid glanced at one another before bowing toward Tala. Cupla spoke for them both. “While we have nothing against arcanous or magical creatures not hostile to us, our unit would not work well with one among us. We did not realize that the terror bird in the bullman story was a partner, or we would have already withdrawn. Best of luck to you.”

Tala gave a nod back. “Thank you for the honesty. Best of luck to you as well.”

They turned and rejoined the others who were still watching.

“So…” She glanced to Master Grediv. “How do I choose? Or do they choose? Or you?”

He grinned. “Oh, Mistress Tala, they’re going to want to see you fight. Then, we’ll all discuss together and try to put you in a team where your style and capabilities fit.”

Tala frowned as she looked around. “In front of all these people?”

Master Grediv shrugged. “We can kick them out if you wish, but you’ll likely fight near or even beside many of these Archons in the coming years. Unless something goes very sideways, you shouldn’t need to fight against any of them, however, so secrets in ability aren’t really necessary.”

That did make sense. Thinking back on it, she’d never really encountered an Archon who hid their magics, and she didn’t usually do so either. She’d just never been so overt with it. Many hid other aspects, such as exactly what their bonds were, or things like that, but not their magics.

Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.

Eskau, though? They hid almost everything about what they could do as a matter of course, only pulling out tricks and secrets when required.

“Alright.”

Mistress Deigh smiled before she spoke. “What areas do you wish to demonstrate your ability to your potential future teams?”

Tala thought for a moment. “Martial combat, using no external magics save weaponry; dissolution; healing might be better to just describe to save on resources and time; wide areas of effect; and precision strikes at range would probably be useful.”

The listening Refined seemed to take her at her word. Someone near the middle called out, “Master Cruinneas would be a good person to test her martial prowess.”

There were mutterings of approval.

A man off to the side, currently standing at one of the food tables let out a muffled response, clearly around a mouthful of food.

As all eyes turned to him, he took a drink from his cup and tried again, “Fine. Girl, what weapons do you use?”

“Knife, sword, and glaive.”

“Individual or morphic?”

“Morphic.”

“Any hand-to-hand?”

“Yes.”

“Next time, list that among your weapons.”

“You plan to ask me again?”

He stopped at that, mouth open. Then, the corners of his mouth pulled up, and he stuffed another cookie in his mouth before speaking around it, “Fair enough.” He quickly swallowed the newest treat. “Sure, we can put you through the paces. I’d prefer it be near the end of your testing, though.”

Master Grediv spoke up next. “Agreed. For dissolution, I can set up a series of materials. She’ll describe her own healing. We have a target range over there.” He waved to the far side of the space. “And we can have her set off her area abilities in the open over there, as well.”

Tala was nodding, “That should be safe enough. Well…”—she glanced around and frowned—“How are the pressure waves in here? If there’s an explosion, should I treat this like the indoors it is or…”

Mistress Cerna was the one to answer. “Wise to ask, but no. The mitigations in place on this arena prevent reflection and resonance with explosive and explosive-like effects.”

“Excellent.” After a moment, Tala shrugged. “Well, healing wise, I can regrow limbs and heal virtually any injury, so long as I have sufficient stores to draw from. I am able to eat and process the calories and nutrients into highly efficient storage within my own body and draw upon that to heal or sustain myself at need.”

“What about headshots!” A voice called from the crowd.

“My mind is fully copied and maintained as an up-to-date record in the Archive, and should I need to regrow my head, my mind would be repopulated with my memories and everything else.” She hesitated. “That said, that is theoretical, and I’m not eager to prove it either way.”

“Understandable.” The voice called again, and Tala grinned at the comradery and sympathy in the tone.

“Do you need any special circumstances for your dissolution?” Master Grediv queried her.

“No, just proximity. Consider it a breath attack.”

That got some interested mutterings as well.

Master Grediv smiled and nodded. “Very well.”

He walked to the side and began pulling things out of the air, only small amounts of dimensional magic revealing the use of his bound storage.

In less than a minute, he had a series of materials set up on blocks ranging from rocks, metals, and even a living plant in a ceramic pot to cloth, leather, and bone.

The Paragon stepped back and gestured. “Let’s see what you can do.”

Tala smiled and stepped forward. Then, she paused. “Oh! If I go a bit overboard it’s actually combustive. I assume that isn’t the preference?”

“Show us the extreme of what you are comfortable doing, but do it facing the wall there.” He pointed toward the nearest wall, some twenty feet from where he’d set up the various items on stands.

“As you wish.” She stretched slightly and straightened her back before glancing at her passenger, “Terry, you want to stay there, or go back in?”

He tilted his head as he examined her, then wiggled as he settled more firmly on her shoulder.

“Very well. I hope you enjoy the show. I don’t think you have ever seen me do this, actually.” She let herself grin despite her mild nervousness.

Alright, Tala. No issues here. Ignore the large group of insanely powerful people watching you.

She took in a long, slow, deep breath even as she pulled power from her defensive scripts into her lungs. Next, with a now practiced application of will, she grabbed the spell-form and flipped it, using a practiced twist.

She suffused her lungs with power, ensuring the containment scripts were sufficiently reinforced, before leaning slightly forward and exhaling.

She saw the results as if in slow motion.

Her breath rippled out across everything provided, more power than a dozen endingberry seeds carried with the exhale, directed and funneled by her slightly extended aura. While doing that wasn’t necessary, it would make for a cleaner working.

Everything before her began to turn to a fine powder, misting up into the air as it was so fine as to float with relative ease.

The power still actively surrounded it, preventing it from recombining in any way.

Then, she saw the dissolution magics take hold on the air itself, breaking the bonds therein.

On the fringes, starting quite near to her open mouth, the magic fully spent itself, leaving the unbound elements behind, free-floating and unrestrained by magic.

They wanted to be bound.

In the fraction of a second after her magic left the closest edges of dissolute matter, the free-floating elements met in innumerable exothermic reactions, Tala’s increased perception and knowledge making it obvious what was happening.

That reaction—happening all across the outside edges of her breath—provided heat, heat that ignited the slower-to-react results within.

Thus, even as she continued to exhale, starting at the fringes of her breath’s dissipating cone, fire roared inward and forward.

That heat and reactive power forced the magic in her breath forward more quickly, carrying it further and faster than it otherwise would have gone to slam into the wall. There, with nowhere to go, hemmed in by flash-burning flames, the magics finished spending themselves, fully dissolving everything within the defined cone, adding fuel to the blaze.

At a more normal speed of perception, it would appear that Tala breathed out and a cone of fire roared away from her with almost white-hot intensity, burning itself out as fast as a quick exhale. In its wake was only a triangle of burned flooring and a circle of blackened wall.

There were no remnants of the items that Master Grediv had set out at all, though the portions of the stands which had been outside of the effect remained, smoldering and smoking slightly.

On Tala’s shoulder, Terry’s feathers were still rustling and rippling in the backwash of hot air, even as the avian held on tightly, eyes sparkling with obvious glee.

After the shocking roar of the short burst of flame, the room was almost deathly quiet.

Master Doitean stepped forward and spoke for the first time. “Fascinating. The fire was purely a byproduct, though it seems to have enhanced the reach and coverage of the dissolution. If I hadn’t been looking for it, I would have said it was simply mundane fire, because it was mundane fire.” He glanced toward Tala. “That is an impressive mid-range ability.”

Tala shrugged, feeling a bit self-conscious. “Only if you don’t need anything around the target to remain intact.”

The man nodded solemnly. “That is one of the dangers of fire, yes, but it can also be its gift. Did I see you focusing the magics with your aura?”

“A bit, yeah. It helps keep it moving in the right direction, rather than simply blowing up in my face.”

He grinned widely. “Now that is wisdom born from experience. I’d love to chat at some point about how you’ve used that in the past. You didn’t seem to use your tongue at all or lips very much. Have you studied breath weapons?”

“There haven’t been many times yet, but sure. I’m happy to discuss it. As to breath weapons, no, I haven’t studied them specifically.”

“I would be happy to teach you what I know. There won’t be direct crossover, as I use a form of magical fire, but there should be some that I can teach.”

Tala gave a nod of her head. “Thank you. I would like to learn as much as I can.”

As Tala turned back to her handiwork, she found herself blinking in surprise when she took in the fact that nearly a dozen Refined were now examining the area her attack had landed, along with Master Grediv.

I didn’t see them move. Did they just go behind me while I was distracted?

-These likely have something to directly enhance their movement speed, at least over a short distance.-

I suppose that could be. Her mirrored perspectives hadn’t noted their movement, either, which lent credence to Alat’s theory.

Master Grediv turned her way with a smile. “Very impressively demonstrated, Mistress Tala. You can modulate the power of that breath, correct?”

She nodded. “I think I could probably go more powerful, but that is about as much power as I’ve used for this working before, when I was Fused. I thought it wisest to keep the magics to known levels in a contained environment like this.”

That set off a few more mutters, though Tala was unsure if they were due to her saying she could have done this while Fused, or for her reasoning for holding back. She could have listened closely enough to hear, but Master Grediv was talking again so she focused on him.

“Well, I think I speak for all of us when I say: It will be interesting to see you unleash that more fully.”

Tala smiled and glanced down. With that, she took a moment to look a bit closer at the flooring. “What is this stuff, by the way? It didn’t seem to be too harmed by my attack.”

“It is an iron-carbon composite.”

“So… steel?”

He chuckled. “At its most basic level it is similar to steel, I suppose. That said, the material is much more precisely structured. There are other compounds in there as well. The result is brittle, a bit like sand—if not as coarse and irritating—, and incredibly resilient to magical damage. It is actually used as part of the wall construction for the innermost walls of our cities as well.”

“Huh.” She nodded, not asking further. She wasn’t well versed in material science or its magic, so the particulars were likely beyond her at the moment. Iron…eh?

It wasn’t hers, nor could she claim any right to it, so thankfully there wasn’t any sort of temptation or pull from the material. She was a bit surprised that no one seemed bothered by all the iron.

While it was possible that they didn’t know, Tala found that highly unlikely.

Well, merging chambers in the Constructionist guildhalls are iron clad. It seems like the dislike of iron is mostly a superstition that is dealt with as Mages advance? Well, not a superstition. It’s genuinely an issue for Mages, but not as much for Archons, and even less so as they advance.

-It still has to be worked around, no matter the power level. It does seem to be tied to reality, which doesn’t seem to like Magic much, regardless of advancement.-

That’s true enough, but it’s less detrimental even so.

“So,”—Master Grediv drew her attention back—“shall we move on to the other tests?”