Tala walked back up to Artia’s shop as the woman was finishing the closing of her stall.

Artia noticed her, glancing up with a smile, “Mistress Tala, welcome back.”

Tala returned the smile, feeling genuine warmth for the woman who had helped her acquire both Flow and Kit. “Thank you, Artia. Can I help you bring all this in?”

The shopkeeper glanced around, then shrugged and nodded, “Thank you, dear. That’s very kind of you.”

Tala’s smile grew just a bit in return, and she helped the woman break down the stall, moving the pieces back into the shop. Artia had already moved the merchandise inside for the evening.

When they were done, Tala took a moment to look around at what was on display.

As before, a large part of the display room was taken up by tables and displays of arcanous harvests. Their inherent magics were faded to the point of being unusable, but they were still useful as demonstrations of what the shop could acquire upon request.

As she looked around the room, her eye was drawn to a group of items in particular. On one wall, she saw a section of hanging dimensional storages.

She felt a smile tug on her lips, and she patted her hip, glancing down when she didn’t find Kit.

Right.

She stepped back outside and grabbed the edge of Kit’s door, pulling Kit into her hand where she immediately took the form of a pouch.

Tala then came back inside and tossed Kit against a different wall, letting her reform as a door, this one blending with the inner wall as well as the previous door had blended with the outside.

“I’m glad I found you, Kit.” She spoke softly, but she felt like the pouch heard her.

The door shimmered slightly to Tala’s magesight, and it seemed a bit… more pristine? It didn’t blend any better, nor did it stand out more, but something seemed to have shifted just a bit.

Huh…

Tala turned her gaze, then, to the parts of the showroom that held the artifacts that Artia currently had in stock.

She knew that Adrill would have some more within his workshop, but those wouldn’t be available for sale at the moment, regardless.

There were the usual oddities, more curiosities than anything else.

There was a candle with an unusually steady flame that clearly wasn’t burning down the wick or melting the wax. There was a small card next to the candle explaining that the brass ring near the base could be turned to alter the color of the flame and slid up or down the length to alter the brightness.

It was interesting to be sure, but the flame wasn’t hot, and the brightness was generally only good for reading or seeing at night to navigate a darkened house.

Still… might be a fun gift for Sella… Tala noted it to possibly come back to. It was also a rather complex artifact, which intrigued her.

The next item she examined was a simple looking straw hat that would keep the wearer dry in any kind of natural downpour. The item’s card warned that it would not prevent any water directed at the wearer by a sapient mind, be it magical or simply a cup of water upturned atop the hat.

There were a pair of rings that allowed the wearers to know the direction of the other with seemingly no limit.

Another item was a spool of thread that would match its dye to the last thing that it touched. Once the thread was cut, the magic would leave it, allowing the thread to keep that color.

Great for patching mundane clothes.

Beside the thread was a simple rose that never wilted. The magic had been analyzed, and it seemed that if the rose was planted, it would grow into a mundane rosebush.

Simple. Not useful to me, but I’m sure someone will find a purpose for it.

A small stone finch that, when activated, would flit about the user, consuming any insects that tried to get close.

That… that’s actually really sophisticated magics as well. Useful too, if I wasn’t rather immune to bugs.

Still, they were pretty annoying at times…

No. Someone else will get more use out of it.

There were purely decorative items such as baubles that would shine with inner light or change to best complement the other parts of a person’s outfit.

There were a few knives, but not of interest while she had Flow, and she would always have Flow.

There were practical things like the candle, hat, bird, or a cup that would regulate its contents’ temperature.

Artia saw Tala looking at the last one. “That has been an oddly common magic of late, this cycle. There have been dozens of variants, and some restaurants have been buying up all they can find. That one is the most basic form, so I held onto it in the hopes that someone would want it for personal use. The restaurants are insisting on bulk discounts, given how many have been found in the last half year or so.”

Tala tilted her head to the side. “Are there commonalities with the artifacts found?”

“Generally, yes. There tend to be trends that ebb and flow through a waning.”

“Fascinating.” Maybe due to different creatures of the void coming through from different parts? And different parts are closer at given times? If that was what the artifacts were. There were certainly some artifacts that fit that category, Kit being a prime example.

Even so, there was a lot of guesswork in that hypothesis.

But she was getting distracted.

Artia took a step back, acting the consummate shopkeeper, ready to answer questions but not hovering too close.

Tala briefly looked back at the counter and realized something. I want them all, not even because I can use them, I just think they’re neat.

She could easily afford it, but she hesitated, considering.

That is a very short view on things. I could so easily spend all my money to fill Kit with trinkets and baubbles.

It was probably better to not focus on the acquisition of such things. After all, she had enough on her plate to deal with at the moment.

Still, there are some things… “Artia?”

“Yes, Mistress Tala?”

“I recall a coin that could make water colder. Specifically, it would drop the temperature down to just above freezing.”

The shop owner frowned, looking up and to the right. After a long moment, she nodded. “I do think I recall that coin. It also always landed with the same side facing up, right?”

“That’s the one.”

“My apologies, Mistress, but I sold that a while back.”

“Of course. I would have been surprised if you still had it after all this time. Could you keep your eyes out for another such item? I think it could be nice to cool the river within my sanctum, my dimensional storage.”

A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

The woman blinked at her a few times. “The… river?”

“Yes. I’d thought you heard in context that there is quite a bit of space within Kit.”

“I… I guess I didn’t think about the possibility of there being a river.” The woman seemed to be having a small internal crisis, which didn’t have time to resolve before Kit’s door swung open, and the three men came out, looking around with intensity obvious across their features.

They immediately spotted Tala and moved her way.

Master Simon gave a shallow bow, and the two mundanes gave deeper ones as the Mage spoke, “Mistress Tala.”

“Master Simon. You three look like men on a mission.”

The three chuckled a bit self-consciously, but Master Simon continued nonetheless, “I was talking with these two fine gentlemen, and I remembered you showing me a contraption for the manufacturing of ‘magic metal.’”

Tala was curious where this was leading and saw no reason to lie, “That’s right.”

“Would that metal happen to be the white metal that you utilized in your fight with the cyclops?”

Tala thought for a moment. Had she used the white steel in that fight?

-Yes.-

Thank you. That made sense. “Yeah, that’s the material.”

Master Simon’s eye twitched. “We had discussed me digging into your documentation and getting that working, could I… do that?” He gestured to Brandon and Adrill. “These two would have an interest in assisting me, and I believe that we three could get it done in no time.”

Artia cleared her throat. “Now, Adrill…”

Adrill stepped forward. “Let’s close up the shop. I want to show you this place, Artia. Please?” He then seemed to remember Tala, bowing her direction again. “If you’re willing, Mistress.”

Tala chuckled. “That’s fine with me. It’s dinner time so I’m heading in regardless.”

“Thank you, Mistress Tala.” He turned to his wife. “My love, it is amazing in there.”

Master Simon held up the inside-Kit communication stone and smiled toward Artia. “I already asked if Petra, my wife, would make enough for you all to join us for dinner, my family and me I mean.” He then glanced toward Tala. “We can eat on our own or with you at your leisure, Mistress.”

Tala considered a moment then shrugged. “I think sharing a meal would be wonderful.”

Adrill’s grin was positively radiant, as he addressed his wife, “Just wait and see… well, you won’t have to!” He laughed. “Let’s get these doors locked.”

Tala moved to Kit’s door as Adrill, Artia, and Brandon closed up the shop. Tala opened the portal to her central plaza, and everyone followed her through shortly thereafter.

Artia stepped through hesitantly. Once through, she looked around in tentative wonder before pausing, a frown crossing her face. “Why is there a throne?”

* * *

Tala waited as Master Selek reexamined her soul, excited to be allowed back on active duty.

Unfortunately, he seemed to be doing several more magical scans than he had before.

Finally, he sat back, a look of bewilderment on his face. “Mistress Tala. Your magical density has somehow increased measurably in the last two days. I double, triple, and even quadruple checked, using different measuring methodologies. There was some margin for error of course, but I am reasonably certain. I must admit, I am uncertain how the injury you sustained could have resulted in such growth.”

The poor man looked truly baffled.

Tala actually felt a bit bad about being the cause of his confusion.

“Oh. That’s not due to the injury. Master Grediv suggested a method to increase my magical density, and I tried it.”

The man blinked at her a few times, a look of owlish confusion crossing his face. “But your soul was damaged.”

“Well, I wasn’t stressing my soul, was I?”

“I have no idea. I don’t know what convoluted method that man suggested.”

She opened her mouth, then paused to consider for a moment before responding, “Well, it didn’t have to do with my gate, simply expanding my volume for containing magic, then compressing the power that filled that expanded space back into my standard volume.”

“That sounds… painful? Damaging? Ill advised?” Master Selek scratched the side of his chin for a moment before nodding. “Yes.”

Tala tilted her head to one side. “Yes… to which?”

“All three.”

“Ahh.”

“But! I’m not in the business of making my patients feel bad for their obviously questionable choices.”

Tala grimaced but didn’t respond before he continued.

“I’m here to discuss your soul with you, along with exercises to increase its resilience.”

That perked her right up, and she leaned slightly forward in interest.

“The easiest method is to restrict your gate’s flow, closing it off entirely if you can for brief stints.”

Tala colored slightly, remembered how she’d… removed that part of her keystone inscriptions. “I apologize, Master Selek, but I don’t have the inscriptions needed to close my gate.”

He returned a baffled look. “What does that have to do with the price of gold?”

“I mean, I can’t close my gate, or restrict it’s flow, I don’t have the inscriptions.”

“Yes, I heard you, but that doesn’t make sense?” His words were a question as he was obviously not understanding what she was saying.

Tala frowned, equally confused. “What?”

“You’re telling me the equivalent of: ‘I can’t close my mouth because I don’t own a gag.’”

She opened her mouth, then closed it, then opened it again, but couldn’t think of a response, so she closed it.

He chuckled. “I’m glad that we’ve established that you can close your mouth without a gag.”

She colored a bit at that, laughing somewhat as well. “I suppose so, yeah. So, you’re telling me that I can close my gate without inscriptions to do so?”

“Of course you can close off your gate.” Again, he looked at her with obvious confusion. “You are an Immaterial Guide, this should be incredibly obvious. More than that, as a mageling, your master should have taught you quite a few techniques for manipulating your own magic. You couldn’t possibly have gotten to this level of advancement without the ability to do so.”

Tala was about to rue the lack of a master yet again, but then she remembered that others, Mistress Odera and Master Jevin included, had done exactly that: given her exercises to increase her precision and ability in controlling the movements and flow of her own magics. “Well, yes. Of course, I can control my own magics.”

“Then, there isn’t an issue.”

“I don’t follow.”

Master Selek sighed, scratching between his eyes for a moment. “Can you control the power right as it exits your gate?”

“Of course.” Her void-channels required that, and they were critical for increasing her flowrate at key times.

“So… stop the flow of power.”

Tala gave him a withering glare. “That’s not closing my gate.”

“Isn’t it, though?”

“That’s blocking my gate, an entirely different thing.”

“Correct. It is closing it off, which is what I said. The two are quite similar, however, and it will become closing if you believe it is, but that’s step two. Get the result you want, then shift the methodology. I promise you; you can close your gate once you learn how.”

“I feel like you could have led with that.”

“I feel like you could have understood the principle, but here we are.”

Tala huffed a laugh at that, and Master Selek cracked a smile.

“Regardless, that is a good starting point, but it won’t do you much good on its own, long term.”

She opened her mouth to protest, but he held up his hand.

“Once you can feel what it is like to flex your gate, you will have something to focus on. You can meditate upon your soul, and how it feels. What is your soul’s desire? What gives you joy? What hurts you soul-deep? Sussing out those feelings will allow your soul to strengthen, become more robustly present within you.”

“So, the same thing as advancing to Paragon?”

He gave her a shrugging nod. “Give or take, yes. They are parallel skills. Paragons, by our very nature, have incredibly resilient souls.” He hesitated. “I suppose, then, given your stage of advancement, I should be a bit more specific. Your soul isn’t actually resilient or not. The soul cannot be destroyed, not really. When we speak of soul resilience, we mean its presence within your body and how robust that presence is.”

Tala nodded in response. “That makes a lot of sense.”

She had rather poignant, firsthand experience with the eternal, immutable nature of the soul.

“So, I’m trying to strengthen my bond to my soul.”

Master Selek shook his head. “No. Not at all. In gated humans, our gate is the manifest presence of our soul within our body. It’s there in mundane, Mage, and Bound alike. This is about strengthening that presence, not the things that tie its presence in place.”

She tilted her head to the side, frowning in confusion.

“Let me try an analogy. If I take a bucket of water out of the lake, I have manifested a part of the lake within the bucket. ‘Binding’ would be strapping the bucket down so that it won’t tip over. We can increase the strength of the straps, and that is increasing the strength of the Bond. Now, what I am talking about is increasing the size of the bucket and the quantity of water within. That is an entirely different thing.”

“Oh. I think I understand.” She hesitated, then almost sheepishly added, “At least. I think that I understood your analogy.”

He chuckled. “That’s good. Matters of the soul are always a bit esoteric. It’s good to be a bit unsure. You will learn in time.”

“So, work on feeling my soul—my gate—directly, and then I feel how my soul reacts to things?”

“Those are good beginning steps, yes.”

She nodded her thanks, standing to go. She even bowed and turned toward the door, but then, she hesitated, turning back, “In your bucket analogy… what would ascension to Paragon be?”

Master Selek grinned, not even hesitating before he answered, “Shifting your mindset so that you perceive the lake as your bucket.”