Tala stood, silently amazed at Mistress Cerna’s verbal maneuverings.

Khesed, the prisoner of this cell, was doing all he could to lay out hooks, laden with questionable information, everything from implying that she should ask him if he had a title that she should be using, to straight up telling her that he was around to interact with Sovereigns before they rose to that level of advancement.

True or not, they all sound like fascinating stories.

-When your life and power depends on something, you get good at it.-

I suppose that makes good sense.

Khesed was clearly frustrated, but he was just as clearly holding himself back from losing his temper.

The tiny owl on his shoulder had its gaze locked onto Tala.

Why is it focused on me? Why did Khesed focus on me, earlier?

-It sounded like he could have been highlighting you as the youngest, emphasizing that even so, you still have so many stories to tell? An extreme for comparison?-

Could be… She was loath to activate any magics while within the cell, just incase there was some odd reaction. She would at need, such as if her role in the unit dictated it, but not without such.

Even so, aspect mirroring was simply using already active magics, elsewhere.

That settled, she aspect-mirrored the void in her elk-leathers into her natural magesight spellforms, creating her easiest form of voidsight.

She flexed her will and the world changed to her perspective—mirrored onto all her bloodstars, held close and stationary to not draw attention.

For an instant, she was confused; then she realized what she was seeing.

Tala fought to keep her expression neutral, and the lack of reaction from the prisoner let her know she must have more or less succeeded.

She could easily see each of her unit’s reality nodes in a way she hadn’t been able to, because they weren’t pressed up against anything that she could perceive with her voidsight. Instead, they were all floating within one much, much larger nodule, isolated and not subsumed, but clearly within its sway.

That node was clearly centered on, and most strongly manifested within, the prisoner’s physical body.

Funnily enough, with such clear demarcations, and no pressure pushing on them, she was able to see the true shape of the nodules like never before.

Hers was… heavier than everyone else’s by a good measure, and something deep within her knew that was what Khesed had seen and reacted to when singling her out.

My iron. Reality. That was what the nodes were, after all. There had to be a connection, even if she didn’t know for sure.

Beyond that, she got a true sense of the node that was her like never before.

-Umm… Tala? Maybe we should investigate this later, because it’s interesting, and we’ve been meaning to, not… you know, because of this experience?-

Tala internally shook her head, dismissing Alat even as she focused her voidsight, entering an almost meditative focus as the prisoner and unit leader continued to verbally dance around each other.

There.

She saw it, then. Heavy threads of reality binding the unit together with multiplicative, overlapping and interweaving ties.

Tala had mixed feelings when she saw that she, also, was included in that web, though to a much lesser extent.

Obviously, Mistress Cerna and Master Clevnis were bound more closely than any other two, and it was interesting to see the parity between their nodes. They were still clearly separate, but they resembled nothing so much as two halves of a whole, even though neither seemed incomplete or broken on its own.

There were also incredibly thin—clearly fleeting—ties between each of them and the prisoner.

We’re succeeding. Tala kept the smile from her face. They were doing it.

As she was having all these realizations, she felt something through her voidsight.

A tendril of connection as thick as her arm was building on Khesed, clearly oriented on her.

He seemed to have noticed, too, though the only evidence was a slight up-turning of the side of his mouth.

Oh… rust.

The reality connection lanced out, and Tala acted on instinct.

She had drilled into herself that she needed to keep her reactions contained in this cell, and that her role here was to take hits for the unit, absorbing and rendering them useless.

So, she didn’t try to dodge. She knew that the incoming connection wasn’t something that could be dodged regardless. That’s not how it worked.

Instead, she armored herself in the only way she could think to do so.

Voidsight was what had shown this to her, so void was the first thing she went to.

Void rolled through the magical defenses that her elk-leathers projected. Normally, they were barely strong enough to factor into her fighting on their own, but this was an entirely different field of battle, and she was Refined now. That advancement had been strengthening her soulbound items, including her elk leathers.

This was their first real test.

The hawser of a connection slammed into her thin field of void and stopped cold, not forming a link with her in the slightest.

Interestingly, the void-field didn’t seem to interact with the connections that were already in place.

Khesed’s head jerked backward as if he’d been slapped in the face, and he turned a flash of a glare at Tala.

As her focus returned to him, she saw that there were several other large ties leading from him down the tunnel and out into the world.

He’s still connected to people on the outside. If we kill him, he’ll be free, even if he had no connection to us at all. She also instantly knew that she couldn’t let him know about the connections, assuming that he wasn’t already aware.

The massive connection was still pressing against her defense, and her void-field was starting to bow inward dangerously.

“Tala!” Mistress Vanga’s harsh whisper in her ear jerked Tala’s attention back to her mundane perspective.

The healer was standing beside her, completely focused on Tala, concern in her eyes. She wasn’t touching Tala, as Tala was wreathed in void, but she was very close.

Tellingly, the void was visibly indented where the connection was trying to attach. That, if nothing else of the struggle, would be visible to everyone in the unit.

“A connection is trying to form.” To Tala’s surprise, her whispered response came out between clenched teeth. She placed her hand on Flow, pushing the weapon into void-form even as she mirrored that void into the defenses of her elk-leathers as well, taking some of the strain away.

Mistress Vanga looked toward Khesed, fire flaring in the woman’s eyes.

“No, I’ve got this. This is my role.” Tala forced a small smile. “Let him focus this avenue of attack on me.”

Mistress Cerna had clearly noticed something as well, but Khesed was continuing the conversation, and the Refined was continuing to engage him on that front, even as various symbols on his hands flickered and spat sparks.

Tala saw a bad end to the encounter if she didn’t change anything. She needed to gain some more weight behind her defense.

Weight. My node. Iron. She allowed her through-spike to snap back on, covering her in an illusion of herself, even as iron rolled across her entire body, instantly infusing with void and defensive magics already within the elk-leathers.

The iron was hers more fully than any mere possession ever could be, the magic was hers—the product of her very soul—, it was laughable to consider the two wouldn’t be able to mix.

Suddenly, a stability and strength that she’d never felt before snapped into place within her defense.

To her voidsight, her entire node seemed to shimmer, becoming more existent.

Reality, void, magic. The tripod of existence. She had just successfully built a defense seemingly modeled after existence itself.

It wasn’t particularly strong, per se, but it was of a type that could not be ignored.

The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

Everyone must have felt something, because the precise back-and-forth of words cut off, and Mistress Cerna carefully called back toward Tala. “Is there anything I need to know?”

Tala couldn’t help but grin. “My apologies for the interruption; it has nothing to do with him. Please carry on.”

There was a resonance in her defense, and the massive, attempted-connection of pure reality began to fray, unraveling back to Khesed. As it fully dispersed, he grimaced but otherwise kept himself under control.

Is existence magic taboo too? I certainly hope not…

-Isn’t that like saying ‘cake flour?’ Flour is part of cake… oh, cake flour is a thing. ‘Existence magic’ is fine. Carry on, don’t let me distract you.-

Khesed seemed to have decided that Mistress Cerna wasn’t going to take any of his bait, so he turned fully toward Tala. “You clearly have had some sort of epiphany. I am so glad that your meeting me was so influential in your road.”

A small thread tried to connect them once again, but it practically pinged off of her defense, causing the prisoner’s right eyebrow to twitch and the little owl to chirp, its first sound since arriving.

Don’t forget about the little bird…

Khesed continued, undeterred, “I would be happy to help you. It is the least I can do, even if you won’t free me.”

Tala waved off the offer. “Thank you for the offer, but I decline. Existence is there to be explored, its secrets open to any who look.”

In truth, as she moved her void-encased hand in the small wave, she tried to interact with the paltry thread that already connected her to the prisoner. As thin as it was, she wanted to remove it if possible, but her void-shrouded hand passed right through, despite her desperately willing the thread to be gone, or for her to be able to grab it, or anything.

Well, no easy solution in that regard, then.

Khesed seemed to have taken the break in the silence of the other unit members as an invitation. Since Tala wasn’t yielding a connection, he changed his focus to Mistress Vanga. “You. Your magics are healing focused, correct?”

Mistress Vanga smiled briefly, politely. “My apologies, Khesed, but protocol dictates that I not speak with prisoners.”

Mistress Cerna stepped between the two of them. “That is my role at this time.”

Tala watched in fascination as cords of connection were forged between the two women as well as between each of them leading back through the tunnel, presumably to Mistress Kep.

They’re acting this way due to the Paragon’s instructions, not due to the prisoner, himself. She insulated us against his magics by insisting we make all of these choices at her direction, and establishing the protocol before coming inside.

It was a fascinating approach to the whole thing.

It didn’t protect them from actions that were weighty regardless, such as those that resulted in death or similarly permanent changes, but it was an incredible protection for glancing interactions.

They were here—and doing what they were doing—because of Mistress Kep, not Khesed.

They’d be following the same instruction set—though a different branch of the set—even if the cell had seemed empty.

Khesed briefly tried to engage each of the others but got variations on the same response in return.

Finally, the prisoner seemed to have had enough. “Well, as… informative as this conversation has been, I think it is time that I leave.”

Mistress Cerna shook her head. “As I said, we cannot permit that.”

“While you are correct, and I did ask for your allowance, I never needed it.”

Without another word, he simply disappeared.

There was a moment of stunned, frozen silence before everyone erupted into motion.

Tala was able to see the threads of reality linked to the giant of a humanoid, even if not the man himself, and he was seemingly sprinting toward the tunnel.

She immediately pointed, tracking him with her finger. “There!”

Spikes of rock blossomed well ahead of where she was pointing, Master Girt clearly reacting quickly.

Khesed was seemingly invisible to mundane vision, and even magesight, so Master Clevnis seemed unwilling to attempt to waylay the prisoner for fear of doing real damage.

He wouldn’t be stopping the prisoner.

Tala knew her role.

Get in the way; keep him from freedom and the others.

She crouched and exhaled, enacting one of her new mental models with a burst of power through her gravitational modification scripts.

As her effective gravity plummeted, she thrust her legs down, adding power to her surface-area enhancement scripts as she launched forward and up into the air like an arrow from the string.

She timed a quick breaking of the working on her effective gravity, letting her arc exactly as she wished down toward the tunnel entrance.

It had been sealed, but she watched with fascination as tree roots burst from the ground to tear apart the barriers before the invisibly charging prisoner. The process wasn’t quick or easy, even though it only took seconds. The roots clearly struggled to break through the glass fiber and magically reinforced rock.

Alright. I need to land, dig in my feet, enhance my gravity, and entrench myself. This was a chance to put a large set of her newly unified skills to use.

She hit the ground at the newly exposed entrance a good ten feet in front of the tangle of reality threads that she believed was the prisoner.

She landed with her toes pointed downward, gravity enhanced and the full weight of her iron allowed to bear down on her. This combination drove her feet into the stone nearly halfway up their length.

Tala instantly enhanced her gravity further and did two other things.

First, sharpened iron rods as big around as her arm sprouted from a thick plate forming across her entire back, the rods angling outward to drive deeply into the tunnel behind her, walls, floor, and ceiling. Additionally, a net of heavy iron wire grew between the rods almost immediately afterwards. What white steel she had coated the out-of-ground iron with was in a troublingly thin layer, but it would have to suffice.

The barrels of iron I absorbed while practicing with Master Cazor are showing their worth. I need to allow the elk leathers to subsume more white steel though.

-No kidding on both counts.-

The rods weren’t quite as sturdy as forged or cast iron of the same thickness would be, but they would get the job done as conduits for what came second.

Second, she aspect-mirrored Flow’s resilience into her elk leathers, and reinforced it specifically within her iron.

An instant later, a force like a charging thunderbull slammed into her, causing Khesed to instantly drop back into visibility, his shoulder dropped in a tackle, driving into her soft stomach.

The wind was driven out of her—and so much more—, and she found herself grinding back down the tunnel, much to her shock.

She only moved a couple of yards, but she left utterly shattered walls, ceiling, and floor, along with two partial circles carved where her surface area enhanced feet had been forced back through the stone.

Tala felt like her insides had been pulped by the epic blow.

-Really? He can enhance his attacks through literary comparison?-

Tala forced her mind into focus in order to respond. That’s a bit of a stretch, Alat.

-Maybe…-

The massive man pulled back, grimacing and gripping his clearly deformed shoulder. He was slightly winded as he asked, “What are you made of, girl?”

There was a bit of awe in his voice, even as his eyes flicked past her to take in the bracing that was behind her, helping to hold her in place.

It was then that Tala noticed the heat radiating from her iron.

Flow’s reinforcement magic had worked to distribute the potentially damaging impact throughout, causing the internal temperature to skyrocket.

Even as her magics struggled to rebuild most of her insides, she forced herself to willfully negate heat from the white steel, thereby cooling the iron as well.

She didn’t need to deal with the weakness her iron would experience at higher heats on top of everything else.

Deal with potential problems early, before they have a chance to become problems.

There was a hooting cry of irritation as Khesed’s little owl tried to find a way through the net Tala had woven.

I’m so glad I thought to create the net… stupid bird. That made her think of Terry, and not only about how much better of an avian companion he was. Would a mesh of iron block his teleportation?

-Maybe? Might be interesting to experiment with.-

Not now.

-Oh, obviously not now.-

Khesed shook his head, a small smile passing over his lips. “Regardless, not many could take such a hit. That must be one of the strongest hits you’ve ever taken, if not the strongest, from a purely physical perspective.”

As her lungs reconstituted, swelling anew with air, she couldn’t help it, she started to laugh. It was a ragged, breathy thing, but it was fully of unrestrained mirth.

That seemed to take the large prisoner aback, and he actually took a half step backward, blinking and frowning in confusion. “What is so funny?”

She smiled with bloody teeth. “You think that’s the hardest hit I’ve taken? You know nothing about me.”

She almost pulled one of her pairs of siege orbs from her belt—stored there because she had left Kit outside—but she internally shook herself. No, Tala. That isn’t your role, here. You are ‘bodily intervention.’ Trust your unit.

As if on cue, circles of stone almost lovingly wrapped around Khesed’s forearms, lower legs, and neck, threads of glass weaving throughout to strengthen the stone. They were immediately followed by a network of precious metals, floating just away from the restraints, which flared to life almost instantly, reinforcing and locking the stone even more firmly into place.

The prisoner was lifted off of the ground by the restraints and floated backward, well away from the tunnel, the ground, and any trees.

Even so, Tala didn’t move. Her place was here.

Bodily intervention.

The damage was mostly healed, but she hurt.

It was all she could do not to groan in relief as the man was pulled away.

Mistress Vanga walked over to the floating arcane. “Will you withdraw your aura so that you may be healed? If you do not, the injury will only remain because of your own stubbornness. I will do you no harm save that which is required to heal you.”

He grimaced in response, then nodded.

“My apologies, I don’t like working under these conditions. I will have to create miniature expanding supports within your shoulder to reform it before I can heal you. They will dissipate and be absorbed by your body in about a week, but until then your shoulder will be all but useless.”

Without another word, large sections of her inscriptions lit up. Khesed’s grimace deepened, and he groaned through clenched teeth.

“Again, I must apologize. I would have given you something for the pain, but I don’t know your particular biology, and there is more danger of me doing harm than chance it would do any good.”

He shook his head against the pain but didn’t otherwise react or respond.

It was odd, watching someone else’s body seem to reinflate, even if just a bit of it. As the shoulder shifted back into position, the discoloration of blood pooling beneath the skin no longer seemed to be growing worse.

“There.” Mistress Vanga bowed, stepping back.

Mistress Cerna nodded once. “Now, protocol dictates that we keep you restrained until we depart. We must do so as you have attempted to escape via physically assaulting one of us. It is nothing personal.”

Her eyes glimmered at the last, and Tala would have sworn that she saw Khesed’s teeth grind just slightly.

“GOT YOU!” Master Limmestare shouted in triumph as he pulled the little owl from the air with a net of glass fibers.

He set the little avian on the forest floor, well contained.

“That should be easy for your big friend to free you from, once we leave. We cannot allow either of you to get out. Protocol, you understand.”

Tala remained in place, but the rest of the unit found comfortable positions in which to settle in and wait.

Khesed half-heartedly tried to engage them in conversation once more, but not even Mistress Cerna responded any longer. Protocol forbade doing so.

Thus, the remaining time passed rather uneventfully.