Tala sat in a little dell beside the deep hole down to the prison cell.

Mistress Cerna sat beside her on the grass, silently watching the light change across the plains as the sun moved toward midday.

A slight breeze was washing over the hills, causing the high stalks to dance and sway in rhythmic waves.

A few nearby bushes added the sound of shivering leaves to that of swishing grass—and the occasional animal call or bird song in the distance—as the two women sat, just absorbing the beauty and peace.

Tala didn’t really know how long they sat there before she finally spoke, “Thank you.”

Mistress Cerna smiled and gave a slight nod but didn’t otherwise respond.

“I think I made the whole thing a lot worse by enacting the separation while in an extreme emotional state.”

“That makes sense. Do you want to talk about it?” The unit leader turned to meet Tala’s gaze, understanding and care evident in her eyes.

“I think so? Though, I’ve talked through most of this with Master Nadro.”

“That man is a blessing to all of humanity.”

“Indeed he is.”

There was another long silence before Mistress Cerna spoke again. “Regardless, I’m here if you want to talk.”

Tala smiled briefly, but didn’t say anything for a long moment. Finally, she nodded to herself. “It felt like I was back at the Academy and not in a good way. I… had issues with my immediate family, so I felt alone to start with. Then, I was messing with iron on my skin, which made other students not really want to be near me. I thought it was them being mean or uncertain. I didn’t realize it was making them actively uncomfortable until after I’d graduated.”

Mistress Cerna made a noise of engaged interest.

Tala felt herself smile, recognizing Master Nadro’s tendencies in the woman. Nonetheless, she continued. “So, the Academy was a time of pretty extreme isolation for me. I buckled down and got through it, having such a clear end-goal was rather more helpful than I realized at the time. But I wasn’t ever scared.” She shrugged. “Lonely? Unquestionably. Uncertain? Often. Afraid? Never. I’m not really sure why.”

Mistress Cerna shrugged. “They do a fairly good job of ensuring that we Mages don’t develop a fear of magic. That was apparently a difficulty early on, and it caused some to actively hurt themselves with their power, simply because they believed that their magic would do so or required that. Our predecessors worked that kink out rather quickly.”

“Yeah, I can see that possibility being an issue. But down in that tunnel?” Tala’s eyes flicked down, then back up to their bright surroundings. “I felt like I was on the edge of disaster. I didn’t realize it at the time, but I knew that you all were down there with me, so even though I felt like I was about to die, a deep part of me was leaning on my connections with you all.”

Mistress Cerna nodded slowly. “From what you’ve described, that would have been building your connections with us. Is that correct?”

“Precisely. So, when I isolated myself…”

“The building of those connections couldn’t happen, so that feeling that was anchoring you…”

“Was stripped away on the instant. I spiraled quickly after that.”

A mundane pair of songbirds flitted about up slope before them, drawing the women’s attention for a long moment.

It was calming to watch their swooping patterns and listen to their melody.

“I didn’t really realize how far I’ve come from my Academy days, but I really have made a lot of connections with people. You all are the most recent—and certainly the quickest—whom I’ve built a rapport with.”

“Working and fighting alongside each other can do that. We have to trust one another explicitly or we’re going to get hurt.”

Tala nodded seriously. She wouldn’t have died in the last weeks without that trust, but she certainly wouldn’t have succeeded on many, if any, of the missions without the others, and she likely would have taken some incredible hits.

“Was that what you experienced down there, then? Terror in isolation?”

She thought about it for a moment before giving a hesitant shrug. “I think it might be more accurate to say ‘terror of isolation,’ alongside everything else. It quickly pivoted as my mind lost coherency, though. Things that I was in full control of were suddenly greater sources of fear than those I couldn’t affect at all.”

“The human mind can be an oddly self-destructive thing at times.”

“Yeah, it’s amazing how often we can make ourselves miserable.”

The other Refined huffed a laugh. “Yeah, I can think of at least forty strategies I already use to make myself miserable, without even really meaning to.”

“That’s… that’s a lot.”

“Isn’t it just?”

They sat in silence for another long while before Tala slowly got to her feet.

She patted her gear, mentally off kilter enough that she wanted to verify Flow and Kit were in place.

Flow on the left, Kit on the right, just as always.

Tala smiled slightly, “Let’s get back down to the others.”

“Are you going to be alright?” Mistress Cerna’s tone carried concern but also a sense that she would trust Tala’s answer.

“Yes. I’m just not going to use that defense.”

“To be fair, you did originally put that together under very particular circumstances. It’s possible that, if varied, it might be an excellent defense in even more cases.”

Tala looked down, then back at her unit leader. “Let’s experiment when we aren’t in the field, shall we?”

Mistress Cerna chuckled. “That is probably the wise course.”

Tala dropped down, slowing herself as she had before.

The sense of creeping unease was noticeable much sooner since she was looking out for it.

Even so, she didn’t let that distract her as she marched down the slope toward the now opened folded-prison entrance.

She twitched, barely keeping herself from jerking around as Mistress Cerna touched down behind her.

It’s just Mistress Cerna. You’re fine, Tala.

-Tala?-

Alat had been strangely quiet since the incident. That in mind, Tala responded to her alternate interface with a carefully inquiring tone. Are you alright, Alat?

-I… I think so. That was… I did not like that.-

What was it like from your side?

-Like we were utterly uncontrollable. I couldn’t even master my own thoughts. I think I was screaming there at the end… I’m glad you couldn’t hear me, or at least couldn’t process what you were hearing. I think I would have just made it worse.-

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Tala projected comfort and understanding within her own head, and Alat reciprocated.

The two Refined stepped through the previously folded entrance into the massive cavern beyond.

It was bright, with no obvious source of light in evidence.

I do wonder how Master Abali would do against Eskau Pallaun.

-Sadly, Tala, I don’t think that we will ever see that fight.-

Why wou— Tala stopped, glaring internally. Was that a joke?

-Of course. They both use darkness. Nothing to see.-

Tala shook her head and huffed a laugh.

It helped that there was a bit less of the pervasive wrongness in the air within this space, when compared to the tunnel outside.

The inward curving walls were decorated in the traditional manner expected of cell antechambers.

They were covered top to bottom with simplistic, but clear, depictions of the prisoner and how his power worked.

Each picture seemed to be in a set of at least two, though more complex concepts used more sequential images to get the point across.

Negation.

This prisoner somehow wielded the concept of negation or at least something very near to that idea.

The most prominent images showed what seemed to be the being negating their own death and injury.

That is so broken. How can someone just say ‘Yeah, I’m not going to die. Thank you, though!’

-It likely took a perfect confluence of events for him to be exposed to his own death in a way that he magically outweighed the particular instance enough to negate the entire concept.-

I… I think that actually made sense.

-Of course it did. You may not have studied all the arcane books we have, yet, but I have much more time than you do. Add to that the fact that I know how to put facts forward in the perfect way for you to understand me, and it’s no wonder that my quick explanation makes sense.-

Fair.

As she walked further into the large space it was blessedly obvious just how much less it was affected by the feeling of fear, or rather the negation of the feeling of safety.

The walls were clearly carved and polished smooth before the painted depictions were added. The floor, on the other hand, had been left a bit rough, likely to allow for easy footing.

At the center of the space was a gazebo like structure made of black stone. That is where the reward or bribe had been waiting for them.

There hadn’t been anything too incredible this time around, but there was a good bit of precious metals, so that was nice.

She felt a tickle run up her spine, like someone was about to tap her to get her attention, but the tap never came.

She knew it would never come, because she could still see in every direction.

This isn’t awful or anything.

-Yeah, it’s totally worth the money.-

Tala hesitated. You know, it actually is worth the money and experience… I should stop complaining, shouldn’t I.

-… we both probably should. I do wish that the Paragon would hurry up.-

Master Abali grunted from the far side of the room, almost as if he’d heard Alat’s mention of him. Even so, he spoke to no one in particular, “It looks like he’s only Honored, and yes, that means he’s on the path of advancement used by the arcanes.”

Tala frowned, walking that direction even as she asked, “Is that meant to imply that he’s not an arcane?”

“From what I can tell, he was born human, but I see no references to gates, so he’s gateless. Even so, there’s reference there”—he pointed off to the left—“indicating that he somehow negated his own humanity. I have no idea what that actually means, though. There’s no real way we could, as it would be based on the caster’s own perception.”

Tala blinked a few times even as she came to a stop, standing beside him. “I think I know, and it’s pretty obvious.”

The Paragon turned to her, then slowly nodded. “Oh, right. Concept magic.”

“Precisely, yeah.”

The man frowned. “But he’d have to have used some form of concept magic to accomplish a removal of his humanity?” He shook his head. “Maybe it was a natural effect from somewhere, or something else not recorded. The nullification of his humanity is seemingly connected to—or it was accomplished around the same time as—he negated his ability to die. That might factor in.”

Tala grunted. While this was interesting, it wasn’t really necessary to know. “Do we know how long you’ll need? I’m not really a fan of this one, and I’d vote for a quicker turnaround if possible.”

The Paragon shrugged. “I mean, we could make the attempt now, but I think we’d be wiser to wait for me to confirm some things… at least one or two.” He pointed to a section off to his right. “The best way to combat him, however, seems to be aura supremacy. That’s one of your areas of expertise, right? I recall that being in the briefing on your magics.”

Tala perked up. “Yes, or at the very least, I’m trying to make it a foundation for my abilities.”

“I think we’ll want you to have your aura on full display before we open the cell then, and you’ll likely want to be braced for a direct assault against it.”

She nodded. “I’ll prepare.”

“Don’t get ahead of us. It’ll still likely be a day…” He hesitated. “You know, I can go faster than that… Maybe, a few hours? Yeah, I can make that work, and…” He trailed off, a frown growing across his features. “Well, rust me. That’s devious.”

Tala was already forming an iron spike to begin working with her aura, but she paused, really paused and considered. “Oh… Rust.”

Master Abali raised his voice—though it wasn’t really necessary—to ensure that everyone was paying attention. “The removal of safety seems to have been dimmed in here to make room for a dampening or removal of patience, or something very similar. I think it is effectively encouraging us to rush or act recklessly. Thus, I will be taking a bit longer than I normally would, just to be sure I haven’t missed anything. My apologies.”

Tala felt herself nod. “I’m still going to start experimenting with my aura and these… removals.”

“Nullifications, I think is the closer term.”

“Nullifications, then. They are established, and I don’t have active magics to oppose, but there might be something I can do.”

The Paragon smiled. “I look forward to your results.”

Master Abali was good to his word, and took a good five days to check, double check, and consult with other experts.

Tala continued her training through that time, going up to the surface more often than was strictly standard, but as they were all doing it to get away from the gnawing sense of impatience and low level buzz of danger, it didn’t cause an issue.

The senses of danger and impatience were useful for honing her mental focus under adverse conditions, though she did that work in the cavern more often than the tunnel. The last thing she wanted was to train herself to ignore her innate sense of danger. After all, in more cases than not, she needed that sense.

Her experiments with her aura ended up being little more than practice for her aura control in general.

As she had no conceptual basis for her power—let alone one that could act on the lingering effects of this nullification magic—her aura was unable to push back the already in place effects of the concept magic.

Truthfully, she hadn’t really expected differently.

She couldn’t push back heat with her aura after it had already come into being from a Mage like Master Doitean.

That said, from what Master Abali and the experts he worked with were able to determine and verify, this prisoner couldn’t indirectly negate things that led to the death of others. Nor could he fully control another indirectly.

Thus, an aura defense was the best way to deal with him.

All of that led to Tala standing beside Master Abali as he prepared to open the cell, the unit behind her, ready to back her up to the best of their ability.

They had all been briefed on the particulars of this inmate, and they were as ready as they could be.

“Establish your aura here.” A line of darkness made a large circle on the ground around an unassuming, seemingly random lump in the uneven ground of cavern off to one side.

Tala nodded, throwing out a series of iron spikes, evenly spaced a foot apart around the whole circumference.

She used a manifestation of Flow’s cutting ability into the iron that was a part of its nature to let the spikes slip easily into the mundane rock.

Some twenty five spikes were used to encircle the four foot radius space, and Tala’s aura radiated strongly from each of them.

It took a bit of adjustment, but she altered the enforcement of her own control to allow Master Abali to work within her area of control without having to take that sovereignty away from her.

It was an odd thing, feeling another Mage’s power working within her aura. It was something that she specifically forbade under most circumstances, but even with the odd feeling, it wasn’t hard to continue to allow it.

The sensation was much like letting another Mage heal her, but she didn’t have as much experience with that as others, so it took a moment.

I suppose the practice with the unit on this front paid off, too. They needed to be able to work around each other at need, and they couldn’t be constantly fighting for aura supremacy of the space.

Tala nodded. “Alright, I think I have it.”

Master Abali checked and nodded in return. “Can you maintain that? If you deny me later, it will break my work and force me to start over.”

“I can maintain this. I have it locked in, now.”

“Alright.”

Master Abali’s power reached out as he activated the cell’s unlocking sequence.

The odd bump on the floor—centered in Tala’s ring of spikes—expanded upward, the rock appeared almost to bend and twist outward—like clay in a sculptor’s hands—until it took on the shape of a rectangular doorframe of seemingly randomly spiraling stone.

Oddly, those uneven waves in the stone gave Tala a unified feeling that the door stood, alone, as the center of the universe.

No… not the center. The feeling that is trying to overcome me is that the doorway is alone in the universe, in all of existence.

Master Abali had told them the name of the prisoner, and Tala was finally beginning to understand what sort of monster would choose the name: Sole.