Tala continued to feel sweat pouring off of her as she strained to keep the iron containment in place around Sole.
Well… that wasn’t quite accurate, but she was sweating much more than she usually did.
Alat had sent a message through the Archive to her unit detailing the situation, and she’d received back instructions to hold, and call for back-up at need.
That made good sense. Fewer variables meant that fewer things could go wrong, assuming she kept things under control.
Master Clevnis was in the process of being healed, Mistress Vanga taking her time to do a detailed rebuild of his legs to reduce any chance of dissonance with the new limbs. She was only taking that level of care because according to the current plan, there should easily be time for such a meticulous healing.
That was alright with Tala. She was fairly certain that she could hold this prisoner, even though it was steadily getting more difficult while she slowly wore down under the effort.
The prisoner had shown his experience after his initial panic wore off, and he was now essentially bouncing his power off of the inside of the iron container, building momentum within the magic, effectively acting like a slowly heating liquid within an enclosed container.
And he saves on magical power, too…
She wasn’t having to hold the iron in place, thankfully, but she was having to fight to keep her aura at least equal with the inner surface of the iron.
As a complicating factor, there was also a further odd resonance that came from the power that was originating from within his body, which she held some sway over.
Basically, it felt just a bit like she was attacking herself, which was quite conceptually unpleasant.
In order to conserve her strength, Tala pulled her spikes out of the stone. She did this for all but a pathway from where the entrance would reappear to where Sole was encased, reabsorbing the iron into herself.
She had never been so active with her aura while changing the amount of iron she had on hand, and doing so caused her to notice a slight easing of her task as the iron entered the dimensions of magic around her body.
Around my soul.
-That would be my guess, too. All tasks with your will or soul originate within your body or gate, so adding ‘real’ weight to them would make those tasks easier.-
At least it seems so.
-Agreed, more testing is in order.-
After we’re done here.
-Oh, obviously.-
Tala slowly lowered herself into a seated position while maintaining the seal on what was increasingly becoming a dangerously overheated pressure cooker of power—though, it resembled that tool in an entirely different manner from her own iron containment.
In my case, I’m continually adding more magic. In his, he’s making his magic move more. She shook her head. Not that that’s very important right now.
-This really makes me wish we could see Mistress Cerna deal with Sole. I think it would be informative.-
Tala had to nod in agreement.
If Tala hadn’t been up for the task, or if she’d failed in her implementation, Mistress Cerna was the Archon who would have stepped in to counter this prisoner.
Apparently, she had a whole slew of scripts that were specifically for aura enhancement. With that, she could effectively fill the role at least as well as Tala had, through an entirely different manner.
It would seemingly be rather expensive, however, as well as a bit less flexible.
And, I don’t know how she’d have handled the almost undetectable attacks. She glanced down at the cuts in the stone ground that the needles had sliced and poked before she had scooped them up.
It will be interesting to see how well those hold up once we’re away from him. I’m not sure in what way he enacted their indestructibility.
-He did seem to have realized that eternal nullifications can come back to bite him…-
Yeah, I definitely don’t think that I would want to make eternal choices.
-Like marriage?-
Precisely. Though, that was an odd thing for Alat to bring up, especially now. Still, the alternate interface probably had her reasons.
-Or soulbonding.-
I already agreed that marriage is too big a thing for me to choose into right now.
-Oh, I was talking about a sword, outfit, informational connection, that sort of thing. We wouldn’t want to rush into such things.-
…I need to focus, Alat.
-Sure, sure. Do what you need to do.-
Tala grimaced internally and returned her focus to the captured, weakened, pressure cooking Honored.
Yeah, this is much less complicated.
How long had she been at this?
How long had she kept Sole contained?
-You’ve been in here, alone for about half an hour, give or take.-
That… wasn’t great. Still, that was a quarter to a sixth of the time required.
Was there a way that she could vent the pressure?
Tala frowned.
If she let his power breach out, that would obviously be a flaw of containment, and it would force a much more direct confrontation. It would also be one that she’d have less bracing for.
She would likely lose that clash.
Tala could vent it downward into the ground, where her aura was thinnest, but if he capitalized on that, who knew what oddities he could work when presented with the situation and a potential to do something.
So, she couldn’t vent it into the surroundings.
She just needed it gone or somewhere it couldn’t do anything.
Huh…
-Tala… if you eject him into the Doman-Imithe that’s a mission failure.-
I know, I know… you know I know it too. That’s not what I want to attempt.
-But it is a possible result of what you want to attempt.-
Unlikely…
-…but still possible. That is, unless he notices; then it’s no longer unlikely. In that case, it is very likely that he would purposefully throw himself into your void-magics.-
Yeah, that might do it. She grimaced.
So, she couldn’t interweave her iron with void to negate his building magical pressure.
Then we need something else.
She frowned.
I shouldn’t be able to magically affect iron, but I can magically affect myself…
-Oh! I like that idea.-
Tala shrugged to herself. It was worth a try.
She focused on her iron, emphasizing that it was the material bound to her soul and an intrinsic part of her. She specified the iron in the area before her, that which was wrapping around the prisoner.
Just as with her siege orbs, she simply aimed the amplified gravity of the targeted material at itself, effectively increasing the inward pressure.
She was both surprised and not surprised when she didn’t feel her magic get rejected.
Let’s do this.
You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.
She poured all her inflowing power into the working, ramping up the gravitational attraction of the iron surrounding Sole toward itself.
As that got to the level that the inward pull was actively noticeable, she stopped ramping it up, taking the inward force as the boon it was without taking it to an extreme that he might find a way to use to his advantage.
I don’t want him to become a cork on the ocean.
-Yeah, too much pressure in this manner might simply eject him from the iron.-
It was sometimes hard to consider the iron for what it was, dust that moved at her will. She could make it act like solid objects, but it wasn’t actually fused together.
It was the same issue that Master Cazor faced, and like him, she could have larger chunks of iron if she established them beforehand, but doing so would remove utility more than add to it.
Also like him, she had no way of fusing the particles together on the fly; she could simply try to force them to stay in a given configuration.
Tala considered for a long moment.
If I add all of my remaining iron, I think that would be enough to keep him from being able to escape as I ramped up the pressure, but…
-Yeah, that’s not worth the risk. Also, the iron aligned with your body and soul feels like it’s all that’s keeping your control in place at the moment.-
That is much more true than I’d prefer, yeah.
Sole seemed to feel that he’d built up something of an advantage, because within a minute or two of Tala’s gravity amplification, he reached his hand out, toward her enclosure of iron.
Tala had only an instant to respond as he pushed back her aura, and her iron began to bulge outward.
In that moment, she did two things largely due to her increasingly exhausted state.
First, she locked the general size and shape of the cocoon, even as she pulled back iron behind Sole to expose needle points.
Second, she let his aura push the cocoon forward.
Without direct resistance, his hand moved with ease, carrying his aura and moving her iron.
As he was focused on trying to move his hand, he wasn’t paying quite as much attention to other parts of his aura.
That was his mistake.
His movement brought a whole host of iron needles into contact with his back, each one claiming another pin-head’s worth of iron.
Sole spasmed, and Tala grew more needles.
Every jerk of the prisoner’s body—rejecting the very idea of another sapient claiming something within him—caused more needles to be slammed against him, one way or other.
She quickly doubled, then quadrupled, the amount of iron that she’d claimed within him.
It wasn’t until she had nearly thirty percent of his blood-iron under her ownership that he was able to master his instinctive, jerking reactions and pull his limbs back in tight.
Only then did Tala really feel the oddity of owning iron within his aura.
The iron, itself, wasn’t directly in his aura, though it was utterly surrounded by it.
Instead, each minute bit of iron carried her aura with it, just projecting large enough to encapsulate it and nothing beyond.
It’s like an army in a foreign land. I am the mother country, and I’ve been subverting his populace into my military.
He couldn’t directly crush her aura in order to nullify her ownership.
He couldn’t throw out the traitorous citizenry or even allow them to be removed.
Instead, they were press-ganged into unending service, continuing to fulfill their role for him despite the obviousness of their altered allegiance.
In real terms, this meant three things that she could perceive.
First, the claimed iron didn’t perform its biological functions as efficiently as it could. It was operating under duress.
This didn’t cripple Sole, nor did it do more than provide a bit of shortness of breath, among other similar inconveniences. It certainly didn’t hurt him.
Second, Tala’s aura sweeping through his body was constantly undermining his magical foundation, making it harder for him to push his power forth to enact changes out in the world.
The fact that he could still so powerfully oppose her was a testament to his advancement, experience, and drive to succeed in winning free of his confinement.
Third, Tala felt a calling from her iron, an almost palpable need to bring it home.
It was exactly like the other times that she’d been granted ownership of iron, up until she could draw it into herself.
She’d never let that feeling last more than a brief moment, though.
In this case, bringing it home wasn’t possible, so she had a building desire that could not be satisfied.
Oh, rust…
It hadn’t been too bad when it was just an immeasurably small fraction of an ounce of iron, but now that it was more than a hundredth of an ounce, it was calling to her like whiskey to an alcoholic.
Her head was pounding. I need coffee…
She didn’t have the brain space to contemplate the irony of that desire, particularly because the lack of some iron was beginning to drive her to distraction.
I need back up. Sooner is better.
-On it.-
Her gamble had backfired.
Her plan had resulted exactly as she had hoped it would but had consequences that she couldn’t have possibly predicted.
Less than ten seconds passed, and a pulse of power announced the tunnel behind her opening once more.
Her mirrored perceptions saw more blood within the tunnel and Mistress Vanga still working on Master Clevnis—though they were both looking her way when the wall opened—muscle and sinew visibly growing across exposed bone to rebuild what had been destroyed.
Two seconds more saw golden balls that were insanely intricate spellforms begin to fly into a pattern around the contained Sole.
Tala felt her aura grip slipping, but suddenly it was as if new strength surged through her.
No, the task just became orders of magnitude easier.
It was as if her fingers had been slipping off of a ledge, and then she found her wrists strapped to a hook, now embedded and holding her up.
The result wasn’t comfortable, but it was almost overwhelmingly easier.
“Mistress Tala, how long did you have him contained so tenuously?” Mistress Cerna’s voice was firm, clear, and precise, utterly professional in an incredibly tense situation.
Tala tried to open her mouth to respond but found it difficult to shift her will-power toward freeing her mouth.
-I got this. Keep on task.-
“More than half an hour of containment, becoming slightly more difficult with time. So, you weren’t struggling this much the whole time, correct?”
-I said no.-
“That’s good at least. So, something changed?”
Tala nodded slightly.
“Then, thank you for calling on us. With such a stationary opponent, I can reinforce another’s aura… That is a lot of pressure, though. Is this enough help?”
Tala hesitated.
Alat didn’t. -I said no. Please help more.-
Mistress Cerna wove another dozen golden spheres over the course of the next minute, fixing them spatially in place around the contained prisoner.
Each one was a soothing balm to Tala’s strained will and mind.
Her magesight showed that the golden balls linked not only Mistress Cerna to the effort. Everyone in the unit was lending their magical weight to back up her aura.
As they’d discussed before coming in, this was only possible because of the static nature of the aura conflict. Their reinforcement would greatly trail behind any action she took with her own aura, and that could actually cause her to be fighting against them if she were forced into a dynamic conflict as she had been in the beginning.
Yeah, I should have called them sooner.
-Maybe, but the plan was for you to hold out if you could, to mitigate risk. We called for help when we needed it, and we have the backup that we need, now.-
Tala felt relief wash through her as she realized the truth of that statement. I’m not alone.
In the corners of her voidsight, she saw the threads of reality between herself and her unit-mates grow just a bit stronger.
As she watched, the one linking her to Mistress Cerna gained another fraction as the woman leaned in, “Thank you for saving my husband. While he might have survived without your intervention, it would have been a whole lot nearer a thing.”
Tala felt her illusion smile with weary warmth in return, reflecting her inner feelings in a way that she’d never been able to master before.
Great, so the key is utter exhaustion. Who would have thought?
-… you know that’s how you usually have your breakthroughs, right?-
Tala chose to ignore her alternate interface, instead leaning into the support coming even from the injured Master Clevnis and Mistress Vanga as she worked.
Her unit had her back, and she felt a growing contentment and certainty that she would have theirs as well.
Time passed in a blur, and it was almost a shock when Master Abali contacted them to indicate that he was done with his setup and ready for their withdrawal.
The golden spellforms had needed to be replaced at least four times, showing just how costly the workings were.
Now, as the unit pulled back, Tala braced herself.
First, she removed the iron spikes around Sole, pulling out and withdrawing all of the iron spikes from the ground back to the exit of the tunnel, even as she retreated to the entrance.
That, alone, put a strain on her iron cocoon once more.
“Ready?” She glanced toward Mistress Cerna, happy that she’d recovered enough to allow her to move her metal for speech once more.
Master Abali nodded from beyond the Refined, “On your mark.”
Mistress Cerna nodded as well, even as the other unit members braced themselves, “Flaring in five, four, three, two, one, GO!”
As the golden spheres blazed with magic, burning themselves out in a final pulse of power, Tala ripped away the iron shell.
The iron flowed like a diving falcon, shooting toward them and down the tunnel, Tala’s spikes pulling free of the walls to join the flood as it passed.
Tala’s aura became more and more leveraged over those short seconds.
Only the flaring power of Mistress Cerna’s spellforms—backed by the power of five more Refined—kept Tala’s aura tightly around Sole.
That didn’t physically restrain him, however.
The man was disoriented for the briefest of moments. Then, his eyes locked onto Tala for the barest instant before he vanished from her perception.
Even so, his reality node was obvious before her voidsight as it rocketed their way, somehow almost matching the speed of her iron.
The last flecks of her iron exited the tunnel on their side just as he entered it from the other.
At that instant, the whole thing twisted to her voidsight, pinching off and wrapping back in on itself in a manner to seal off the cell.
Tala maintained spikes around the twisted doorway even as the stone distorted and shrank back into the ground.
At the last instant, an incredible blow slammed into her aura, barely being kept in place by her layers of reinforcement. Even then, it was only due to the rest her unit had allowed her that she held her aura firm, keeping out whatever working he’d thrown at them in the end.
As reality stretched and twisted, Tala felt an increasing burden, her bound iron getting further and further away.
This was an entirely new thing. She’d never had iron that never entered her aura proper before. Her understanding was that even with Master Akra’s training, she wouldn’t be able to infinitely separate herself from a soulbound item and generate her aura from it.
Her magic was being siphoned off in an increasing torrent, flooding into her connection with the iron, trying to prop it up, and allow it to stretch into the increasing distance.
Then, the cell was closed, Sole was contained, and Tala was entirely cut off from the iron in the prisoner’s blood.
Oh r— In a terrible instant, all of her internal magic was torn from her, though her throughput meant that none of her magics spluttered out. But more than that, she felt something within her crack and her entire self jerked as if she had been struck by Force.