Tala blinked a few times as Rane came over, the final servant heading off toward the kitchens.

“Tala? You seem really distracted.”

She grunted, “Alat is using a lot of my brainpower to parse our new, more extreme and extensive perspectives. We’re maintaining sixteen aspect-mirrored perspectives, and it’s really hard to keep everything parsed. I’m used to only having four going at any given time, and the extras are rather draining.”

“Could you… stop mirroring some? Maybe work up to that many?”

Tala stared at Rane for a long moment. “Oh…”

-Oh… that’s… yeah.-

Tala immediately released half the aspect-mirrored perspectives.

She staggered, Rane stepping forward to catch and help balance her as the whole world seemed to shift and sway.

“Tala? Are you alright?”

She grunted. “I am now.”

“So, that helped? You just reduced the number?”

“Yeah.”

He gave her a genuinely puzzled look. “Why didn’t you do that before?”

Tala hesitated, feeling a bit awkward even as Rane stepped back, her feet solid underneath her once again. “Would you believe that I was just too stubborn to reduce the number?”

He gave her an odd look. “Well, with the way you just asked that, I’d say that’s pretty hard to believe.”

“Hmm… would you believe that I was trying to train myself with the extreme?”

A smile spread across his face as he began to chuckle. “Yeah, I don’t know that you’re fully mentally recovered yet, because I still find that hard to believe.”

“So…” She grimaced. “Yeah, I just didn’t think of stopping.”

His smile widened, and he shook his head, “That’s fine. You were under a lot of mental strain. It’s hard to think rationally in situations like that.”

Tala smiled sheepishly. “Thanks, Rane.”

He shrugged. “You would have been fine. Either you’d have figured it out on your own, or endured until you could take it.”

“…Is that what you see in me?”

He frowned. “What do you mean?”

Tala wasn’t certain why, but her voice was incredibly quiet, “Is that how you see me?”

He tilted his head to one side, frowning. “That you either figure your way out of a given predicament, or adapt and grow stronger?”

“Yes. Is that what you meant?”

“Yes.” He shrugged. “I help where I can, but I don’t know that you’ve ever needed me to.”

She opened her mouth, then closed it.

“It’s fine. Right now, I’m less advanced than you are. Your strength is beyond what I can grasp for the moment, but I’m not slowing down. One day, I’ll stand at your side and be able to be there for you when you need me.” He smiled and shrugged again.

“I…” She frowned, digging deeply into how she was feeling, considering it closely. “You have helped me. There are so many times that I would have been alone if not for you. Sure, you haven’t gotten me food when I would have gone hungry. You haven’t often defended me when I would have died, but those extremes aren’t always needed. Help is still help, even when I could have done without. It is possible for people to exist alone, but it’s not a great existence. Eternity alone is nothing more than eternal torture.”

She felt something resonate within herself, and Alat gasped. -You just advanced another tick toward Paragon.-

Really?

-A percent of a percent, but yes. That was apparently in line with an eternal perspective… as makes sense, actually.-

Tala smiled. “At the moment, I don’t ‘need’ you, but you do help me.”

It was Rane’s turn to seem off kilter. Even so, he seemed dissatisfied.

There was a long moment of silence, and right as he looked to be building up to say something in response, the sound of two sets of footfalls came from a hallway off to the side of the large entry hall in which they stood. “Is that my Rane?”

A giant of a woman came around the corner, followed by a rather unassuming man of indeterminate age.

The woman was practically bouncing as she walked, though she was not skipping.

Rane tensed up for a moment, then sighed. “Hello, Chloe, Master Dafnis.”

The man, Master Dafnis, waved Rane off. “We’ve discussed this, Rane. I’m your brother-in-law. ‘Master’ is unnecessary. Besides, you’ve advanced beyond me.”

Both people had the red-orange auras of Bound well on the way to Fusing.

Regardless, Rane appeared ready to argue when the woman, Mistress Chloe apparently, lunged forward, seemingly aiming to tackle him.

Rane’s magics activated, and he had moved perpendicular to the ‘attack’ before she got close enough to grab him, neatly avoiding the aggressive hug.

That’s a better, more nuanced response than his magics have had in the past.

-We don’t really see him in that many combat situations these days—outside directly one-on-one sparring against him-

Mistress Chloe grimaced. “Dafnis, if you please?”

The man sighed dramatically, but a smile was still pulling at his lips. “Yes, dear.”

Tala’s eyes widened as the whole of the air in the area shifted. Their surroundings instantly began to feel just like the man’s aura, even as it pulled inward in carefully constructed bands of hardened, power-filled air. This caused an inrushing breeze that actually felt rather nice.

Rane could likely have broken the bonds, but this wasn’t actually a fight, and his resigned look showed Tala that the events weren’t unexpected by her friend.

Mistress Chloe stepped forward confidently, bonds of air shifting out of her way as she came to within reach of Rane and wrapped him in a crushing embrace, or at least that seemed to have been the intention.

The woman who towered over even Rane set him down with a frown. “You’re much sturdier these days. Advancing has made your hugs less fun.”

Rane glowered. “I wasn’t giving you a hug, Chloe.”

She patted his head, even as Master Dafnis’ magics vanished. “Semantics, little brother.” She suddenly spun to face Tala. “You must be Mistress Tala. I’ve heard a lot about you.”

Tala looked up… and up… at the woman who had nearly two feet of height on her. “Yes, I am.”

Tala extended a hand in greeting, but the larger woman moved to scoop her up in a hug.

With a mild huff, Tala allowed all of her iron to weigh down on herself, and Mistress Chloe grunted, clearly straining but unable to budge Tala in the slightest. She grunted with effort, finally forcing out, “How heavy are you?”

To her credit, Mistress Chloe stepped back almost immediately, finally taking Tala’s proffered hand with a grin.

“He moves away from my hugs, and you simply won’t move.” She barked a laugh, continuing in a slightly-louder-than-necessary voice. “That’s amazing! Like a lock and key. Opposites make the best friends!”

Master Dafnis smiled contentedly, locking eyes with Tala before giving a bow. “A pleasure.”

Tala felt herself smile at the unassuming man. “Likewise.”

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Rane cleared his throat. “So… why are you in town, Chloe?”

“Hmm? Oh, a new Constructionist claimed that he made a coffee incorporator.”

Tala’s eyes widened, causing Mistress Chloe’s smile to widen.

“I know, right? But he just made coffee-scented air.”

Rane sighed. “Isn’t that a good first step?”

“Bite your tongue, boy.” She thrust her finger in his direction, while turning back toward Tala. “If you place cinnamon, vanilla, and water in the oven, it smells like cookies, but there are no cookies in that oven. Only false promises and lies.”

Rane opened his mouth, then closed it again, frowning.

Tala cleared her throat. “So… no coffee incorporator, then?”

“No.” Mistress Chloe hung her head. “This whole trip just to see the unveiling was a waste.”

Master Dafnis cleared his throat once, meaningfully.

She glanced his way then sighed, “Yeah, it was good to see the family.”—she gestured at Tala—“And to meet the one we’re constantly hearing about.”

Tala turned to look at Rane with one arched brow even as Mistress Chloe continued.

“Master Grediv really gets annoying with his ‘golden children…’”

Tala flushed, looking away from Rane, but she still saw the smile of self-vindication pulling at his lips.

But, Mistress Chloe wasn’t done, “Get that smile off of your face, boy. You were that golden child for a while, Rane. You remember that, right?”

Rane grimaced. “Yeah…”

Mistress Chloe leaned in close to Tala and stage-whispered. “I sort of hated him when I got back from the Academy, but we’re doing better now. It has been…ten years?”

“Eleven… give or take.”

“Right, eleven years.”

The woman pulled out a massive mug from… Tala actually had no idea where it came from, which was impressive in its own right.

-Wait… It was just a handle, and the mug constructed itself as she drew it forth.-

Really? That’s a neat trick.

-Oh! Look there, starward.-

Tala focused on what Alat was showing her, and that revealed a large, dimensionally expanded space just barely starward of the mug.

Fascinating. By the magics I can see, the setup somehow works to keep the mug filled to the right level and the liquid at the right temperature.

-And moves the mug itself into the storage dimension when the handle isn’t being held?-

So it seems. Tala resisted asking after the device, given her own propensity to over-indulge on coffee. Yeah, it’s best if I don’t know how it works.

-How very mature of you.- Alat practically beamed with pride from within Tala’s mind.

The vessel in Mistress Chloe’s hand was obviously filled with coffee, and it was steaming as she took a long pull. When she was done, she let out a contented sigh, “That’s the stuff.”

Rane was rubbing his own face. “Why? Why are you acting like this, Chloe?”

She lowered the mug and grinned. “I’ve told you already. I missed out on messing with you at the Academy because you didn’t go. You’ve got at least another few years before that itch is scratched.”

Master Dafnis moved forward. “Dear, I think that he’s actually frustrated by the fact that you are teasing him in front of company.”

The large woman turned to look at Tala and frowned for a moment. Finally, she nodded once. “You’re right. Thank you, my love.” She leaned over and kissed him on the cheek before reorienting on Tala. “I apologize for my juvenile behavior. I let my desire to tease my little brother get ahead of my manners. Will you forgive me?”

Tala almost stepped back in shock at the complete reversal in the woman’s demeanor.

The Bound had gone from seeming to be a mildly immature young woman—taking glee in making her brother’s life difficult—to a solidly professional Mage in just five sentences. It was as impressive as it was startling.

“Oh, um… Sure.”

Mistress Chloe grinned broadly. “Good, good. I wouldn’t want to drive you away from the family.”

Rane visibly colored yet again.

“But, I’m regressing. So, I should progress this digression, and get back to our procession toward our possessions. It was good to meet you, Mistress Tala. I hope our paths cross many, many times in the future.”

Tala blinked a few times before she fully parsed the previous words. “Oh! You’re leaving?”

Master Dafnis nodded. “We are. Master Grediv has kindly arranged for a visiting Paragon to ferry us back to Audel, but she leaves in just under an hour. We don’t want to delay the good Mistress.”

“Oh. Well, it was good to meet you, then, even if only briefly.”

Mistress Chloe hugged Rane again, but this time Rane returned the hug. “Bye, sis. Love you.”

“Goodbye, Rane. I love you too. Don’t be a stranger!”

Master Dafnis and Rane shook hands once, exchanging simple, genuine smiles.

And with that, the whirlwind of their passage was complete.

Tala cleared her throat, “Wow… she’s something. I’m sorry that the timing worked out this way. If I’d known, we could have delayed picking up Lyn and Kannis for a couple of days.”

“It’s fine. We can’t spend too much time near each other yet. We still clash a bit too much.”

“Oh? I guess I can see that. Still, she seemed to have the capacity to be professional.”

Rane shrugged. “Oh, she is. In fact, she’s rather well respected in her field. I actually considered introducing you to her when we went through Audel.”

“When we went through? When were we going to do that?”

He gave her a long, frowning look. But when she didn’t say anything further, he elaborated, “Before you went missing, remember? We were going to go to every city, well I was, and you were going to go to every city outside of the southern forest.”

Right…

-Yeah. You forgot?-

No, I just wasn’t thinking about that.

-Ahh. And I didn’t remind you, because I’m exhausted. Speaking of which: food and rest soon, please?-

I’ll see what I can do.

-Thank you.-

“That’s right. Huh.”

There was a beat of silence before Rane gestured toward one end of the entry hall. “Shall we go see what we can do to prep for dinner with Mistress Lyn and Kannis? They should be done getting cleaned up sometime soon.”

“Yeah, let’s.”

Without needing further discussion, Tala and Rane went to a smaller dining room together, finding one with only a small table for six, offset to one side.

Rane was pleased because that particular room had an Archive display on the far wall. The space would work perfectly for viewing some of the battles from the past if the four decided to do so.

He stepped out to inform a servant where they had gotten to, and then began searching through the records for word-Mage defenders.

As expected from Lyn’s information, there weren’t any recently, but to their surprise, they found a concentration of a few from about one-and-a-half-thousand years earlier.

Apparently, that section of magic was very popular at the time, and Mages often were entertainers, skalds, bards, or even crafters more often than they were frontline fighters or distance casters, hurtling around fire, rocks, lightning, or the like.

But that was beside the point. They had found a good selection for Lyn to look over, so they were ready.

It was only a couple of minutes after they’d found the cache of interesting clashes to watch that Kannis and Lyn arrived, followed shortly after by the first of their food.

A swarm of servants swept through the room, leaving the table properly set and food and drink on easy to reach side-tables that hadn’t been there before.

Kannis gave Rane a critical look. “You’re rich.”

Rane shook his head. “None of this is mine. I have enough, but this all belongs to my family.”

Kannis shook her head. “I figured that the gardens outside were an exception, but the more I see the more it proves true. Even if you deny your own wealth, your family is floating in gold.”

He coughed, glancing away. “What of it?”

Tala shook her head, mostly ignoring them as she started to gather some food for herself. This looks really good.

She even found a wine that looked intriguing, and she took a long pull from her cup, satisfied that it was as tasty as she’d hoped.

Kannis sighed dramatically, “How are you still single?”

Tala almost choked, barely keeping herself from spraying red across one wall.

Rane shook his head. “Yeah… no. Let’s talk about something else.”

The mageling shrugged, clearly unrepentant, and began filling her plate.

Lyn cleared her throat, “Regardless, is that a list of names that I see?”

“Yes,” Rane quickly seized on the lifeline Lyn had offered as an escape from the conversation. “It starts with Cote the Ascriber.”

“Ascriber?” Tala asked in confusion.

“Yes…” Rane pulled up some information, “Apparently, his magic specifically focused around giving things names, and as he gave names to things, it seems that no one much wanted to argue about the name he gave himself. So, he called himself an Ascriber and his contemporaries just went with it.”

“Huh.”

“As I was saying, it goes from Cote the Ascriber to Mistress Zoe, a Librarian.”

Lyn took some time to read through the accompanying information, even as she ate some of the appetizers already arrayed for their consumption.

Finally, she settled on one of the conflicts of Master Foclair. “Here’s a good one. It says he fought a wolf-man. Apparently, a Mage had a…” She glanced to her mageling meaningfully. “...soul-bonding go sideways, and ended up in that form.”

Kannis frowned. “And that… blended them somehow?”

Lyn nodded, carefully addressing the girl, “It’s one reason why familiars are so rare. You are still not at a place to learn the magical process.”

Kannis nodded, smiling. “Oh, I know. I feel like I really want to know how to form such bonds, but I can wait until you believe that I’m ready. They are always really exciting in the stories, and it would be amazing to have a companion or item tied as closely to me as my husband.” She colored slightly. “My eventual husband, and in a different way, of course.” Her color deepened. “I didn’t mean that—”

Lyn cleared her throat. “Let me save you from yourself. No one thought you meant anything odd.”

Kannis looked away, muttering a thank you.

Tala glanced down at Kit. “Speaking of companions.” She opened the pouch and called Terry out, giving him some food and explaining that they were about to watch a recorded conflict. "Would you like to join us?”

Terry looked around at the food and the people, then flickered to Tala’s shoulder with a trill of hearty agreement.

Tala grinned over at her avian friend. “Glad to have you with us, Terry.”

Rane tossed a chuck of meat, and Terry flickered to snatch it from the air, chirping his thanks.

Lyn swallowed her most recent bite. “Alright, then. Let’s see how this Master Foclair handles a wolf-man.”

Tala frowned, reading over the information as presented. “Wait. Is this his last fight on record?”

Lyn sorted through the details before grunting. “It does seem like it.”

Rane shrugged. “Everyone retires or dies in the end. This could be either.”

Still, they all shared a look.

Kannis was the one to break the short silence, chuckling nervously. “Well, I suppose it’ll be an interesting fight, regardless!”