Tala regarded Fannas curiously, uncertain as to how Master Grediv would proceed.

There was a beat of silence as Rane, Artia, and Tala stood back, watching the scene unfold almost as if it were a play.

Kannis stood nearly directly beside the counter upon which Fannas stood, Lyn behind her to the right, and Master Grediv across from her.

All eyes were focused on the little, dwarfishly-proportioned, silver man.

The Paragon sighed. “With the magic that creates connections removed, it shouldn’t be any more of a threat than any arcanous companion.” He met Kannis’s eyes. “Any harm, destruction, or death caused by the artifact will be your responsibility and that of your master.”

The mageling took a half step forward. “We will work with the Constructionists in Bandfast to keep tabs on his development.”

Master Grediv nodded. “That is acceptable. I will inform the lord of that city as well as the head of the local Archon Council of this.”

“Understood. Thank you, Master Grediv.”

Tala released her existence defenses, reveling as the growing sense of isolation vanished, and she once more felt embraced by the world.

The Paragon’s eyes flicked to Tala, and he winked before vanishing without a trace.

-Oh! He gave us access to a section of information… oh… sapient artifacts are almost always immediately hostile, so while they are vastly more common than we thought, they are almost universally destroyed… hmmmm… Syphons are considered in the same overarching grouping, as are many other not-quite-creatures. Though, they also aren’t actually artifacts either. Basically, if a thing is a spontaneous manifestation of power—rather than propagating through biological means—and it shows even a hint of decision making, it falls into this camp.-

Dasgannach?

-Precisely. Though, I will state again that in almost all cases, the sapience is arguable.-

Fascinating.

Fannas still had his eyes locked on Kannis.

The little figure now looked like nothing so much as a squat mannequin of silver, with barely more features than a dressing dummy. Though he deviated from such in that he lacked the obvious joints, having retained the flesh-like movements of his seemingly solid form.

Good, actually. Otherwise, he might have looked like an automaton.

Kannis regarded Fannas before smiling, “I am not sure exactly what will come of this, but thank you for your willingness to try to work with me.”

“Of course, bonded. Existence is preferable to non-existence, and I exist now, where I did not before. But you have not answered. Am I acceptable in this form?”

She nodded. “You are. Thank you.”

Fannas actually glowed, a deep purple light shining forth in a clear manifestation of the natural magics showing a mimicry of inscriptions.

Purple in the visible spectrum, not the magical indication of advancement? That’s just… frustrating.

Tala and Alat watched carefully, and still didn’t detect anything even slightly resembling reality threads coming from the figure, nor anything that seemed to act on the reality threads already in place.

As the light faded, Fannas was a few inches taller than before, now standing at around eight inches from foot to head. He also had a bit more detail, but still relatively little.

Kannis held out a hand, but the little man took that for an invitation and jumped straight to her shoulder, dexterously spinning and sitting, looking for all the world like an expensive doll placed there on display.

Though, he ruined the effect by kicking his feet like a bored child. “Let’s go learn!”

Tala cleared her throat. “Before that, I feel that we’ve missed something important.”

Everyone turned to regard her.

“Fannas, why do you want to bring your kin here?”

He tilted his head to one side. “Is it nice here?”

“Generally, yes.”

“The void is… not very nice. Here is better. I want to bring others like me to a better place.”

“That… makes sense, actually. Is there any urgency?”

Fannas seemed to consider, looking up. Finally, he pointed at an upward angle toward the east, “There is a ball of finite burning power up there, correct? I am not sensing a falsehood?”

Kannis glanced toward the being on her shoulder. “Yes, the sun.”

Shouldn’t his communication magic have provided the name?

-If he referred to it, it likely would have for our understanding, but that wouldn’t have told him what it was called.-

That’s… confusing, but it also makes sense?

-I hate concept magic…-

Yeah…

Fannas nodded. “Before that stops burning should be soon enough to prevent non-existence for my kin.”

That caused everyone to shift in a moment of hesitation.

Lyn cleared her throat, asking the question likely on everyone’s mind, “You mean… you need to rescue them before the sun goes out?”

“Yes. That should be soon enough.”

Kannis shrugged, causing Fannas to bob. “Well, that sounds like something we can discuss later then.”

“That is acceptable, bonded.”

Artia stepped forward once again. “Well, I am glad that you are satisfied with your purchases.”

Tala gave a small bow toward the shopkeeper. “Thank you, again, Artia.”

“Of course, Mistress. Is there anything else I can assist you with?”

“No, thank you. I will be back later for my storage. I will let your husband and son know before I move it.”

“Thank you.” Artia smiled. “They might not notice the passage of time, even with your false sun.”

Fannas watched the interaction with interest but didn’t comment.

The four friends walked back outside after the rest bid Artia goodbye and thanked her.

It was still a beautifully crisp morning, and Tala took a moment to revel in the feeling.

She was rudely jerked from her revelry by Fannas, “Devourling! And so strong? We are undone… Bonded, run! I will delay it.”

The little man-shaped being lunged from Kannis’s shoulder, charging… at the door that was Kit.

What?

To Tala’s surprise, the door opened on its own, revealing a tall stone that tipped and fell out, smacking Fannas even as he tried to jump to the side.

The stone shattered, leaving the little figure sprawled on the ground, seemingly dazed.

“It’s… too… strong… I have failed before I’ve even begun.”

Kit’s door had already closed, but now opened again, a larger stone beginning to tip out.

Tala stepped forward. “Kit! Stop that.”

The stone paused, seemingly precariously balancing even though it looked to be far past the tipping point.

“I’ll not have you punching down.”

The stone slowly swayed before being drawn backward before the door closed.

Tala felt surprised. She generally communicated her desires mentally, rather than verbally, but she supposed that this wasn’t really any greater obedience than Kit had demonstrated before. I move around within all the time, and that takes just a thought.

Fannas’s head moved so that he was regarding Tala, “You command the devourling? Impossible! They eat all that they can.”

Tala shrugged. “I don’t know about a devourling, but Kit is mine, yes. She is magic-bound to me as you are to Kannis. We get along quite well.”

The little silver creature slowly stood, a large dent obvious in its head and shoulder.

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

“Will you tell me what a devourling actually is?”

“No, not right now…”

Kannis stepped forward, and seemingly on instinct trickled power into Fannas.

-Be kind. That’s most of her throughput.-

Oh… right.

Kannis dumped power into Fannas, and the metal slowly moved back into shape.

Fannas gave a little bow toward Kannis, then addressed Tala once again, “I will tell you what I can, later, when I feel it is time. Please don’t ask until then.”

Tala hesitated for a moment, then shrugged. “Alright. I can wait.”

Thankfully, there wasn’t any traffic in the little sideroad beside Artia’s shop at the moment, so they hadn’t had an audience.

“Well,”—Tala cleared her throat—“with that out of the way, shall we begin our tour of the wall and the rest of the city? There really is so much time and so little to see.” She hesitated. “Strike that, reverse it."

Kannis was regarding her little artifact somewhat distractedly. “You know? I think I want to get you some clothes.”

Tala thought for a moment, then smiled, an idea blossoming within her. “May I try something?”

Kannis regarded her for a moment, before nodding and taking a small step backward.

“Fannas, may I touch your shoulder?”

The little metal figure regarded her for a moment before standing taller, as if stretching up to make the requested act easier. “My bonded has agreed. I shall not contest her on this.”

Tala stepped toward him, bent over and extended her aura outward to wrap around the two, extending as a full circle.

Even as she surrounded the girl, Tala held back at Kannis’s skin, feeling a slight resistance, similar to touching a knife to flesh. Don’t push, no need to break through.

At the surface of Fannas’s metal… Huh.

There was an unbreachable wall, as if her aura couldn’t exist past that point.

It wasn’t a question of strength, nor of resistance. It was as if there simply wasn’t anything at the surface level or below to claim, even though Tala could see the magics within, which should mean there was no resistance to her aura.

That’s odd.

-Yeah… study later?-

Maybe. But investigating the artifact’s oddities wasn’t the point of what she was doing.

Her elk leathers grew down over the top of her hand, extending tendrils until they grew down her finger and to the silver man.

It was actually fairly easy for Tala to picture the little figure in clothing, so the elk leathers were able to respond to that prompting with equal ease.

Soon, the little silver man was dressed in well fitting—not tight—black leather pants and a flowing sapphire blue set of Mage’s robes.

She left his feet bare.

With a thought, she severed the extended part of her elk leathers from the rest, retracting the tendrils back into her own clothing.

Everyone stared at the now somewhat well-dressed, stocky little man, even as Fannas looked down at himself. Truthfully, Fannas was more square than rectangular as a human would be, reminding Tala of Thron for the first time in a while.

I hope that the dwarf is doing well.

-I’m sure he’s fine. He has a legendary blade, and a powerful concept. Assuming he avoided the gaze of any City Lord and escaped to the continent, he’s likely corroding through… whatever he has to do there.-

True enough. She returned her focus to what she had just accomplished.

The clothes were… serviceable.

Tala grinned, happy with the general results of her attempt. “Do you like it, Fannas?”

Fannas shifted about on the street, seemingly testing the limits of his movement in the clothing before he looked up at Tala. “Though they do restrict a bit, I think that I do. Thank you.”

He gave a little bow.

It was still odd to hear his voice without his silver mouth moving, but Tala had gotten used to odder things. The addition of clothing definitely made him seem more like a small person, instead of an oddly animate statue.

Rane cleared his throat. “Tala?”

“Hmm?” She turned to regard him.

“Since when can you make clothes for other people?”

She thought for a moment before shrugging. “Now? I’ve not done it before, except on myself, but I’ve been able to make things and sever them from my bound item for a while now. So, I guess the actual answer is: for a while now? I’m sorry that they aren’t that well-tailored. I can probably get better at it with some practice.”

Lyn cleared her own throat, in a humorous mirroring of Rane, before licking her lips. “With some training and practice, you could make a lot with that one ability.”

Tala shrugged. “The results are just mundane material, so it’s not really a way to make much money. Plus, it’s not like I want to sit in a shop all day.”

The woman looked a bit exasperated, “You know, you could just be available at need, and I would bet you’d have people who need last minute outfits paying you insanely well for the time. Well, at least if you perfected the process.”

Tala frowned, considering. Finally, she shrugged. “Maybe when I get older? I really don’t want to be bothered about it at the moment. It’s not like I know much about fashion. I just thought the gem-tone blue and black would look good with his silver.”

“They do.” Her friend considered her for a long moment before sighing. “It is up to you, but think on it. Okay?”

“Sure.”

Lyn smiled. “Now, with that out of the way. Shall we see the rest of the city?”

It ended up taking the rest of the day—and two further—for Tala and Rane to take the two—now three—around the city, showing them the sights and the setup for the waning.

They walked the walls, careful not to get in the way of the guards who were on patrol.

They ate in each of the eight battle-view restaurants, which was a new experience for Tala and Rane as well.

Each establishment was geared toward a different type of food. For entertainment when there weren’t active defensive engagements underway, the restaurants always had some fun or silly things to bet on, even if not for large amounts of money.

Rane won a silver by correctly guessing the number of steps Master Akra took between beheading two horned bears in a recording of a fight that had taken place a few days previously.

Kannis claimed fifty copper when she chose the right number of smaller versions that a toxic rabbit would split into when a defender slew the larger form, as well as how many would immediately attack the defender.

Lyn even won a half-dozen silver when she was the closest guess to the number of arrows in a volley used to soften a swarm of rodents of unusual size before the unit on duty crushed the mini-horde.

None of the fights were new, but the addition of small-to-medium bets on such random parts of the conflicts made them just as fascinating to watch.

Fannas rode on Kannis’s shoulder throughout, seemingly absorbing everything that he saw.

Terry, whenever he was on Tala’s own shoulder, eyed the little figure curiously, but he never did much more than that.

The only tense moment really came that evening after the first day touring, when Kannis and Lyn were entering Kit to sleep for the night.

Fannas was horrified that they were going to enter what he said was a devourling.

I mean, it does sound like Kit, but she’s friendly.

-Yeah… though, if we’d known the name beforehand, I don’t know that we’d have acted the same.-

A devourling by any other name is just as sweet?

-I don’t think that’s really applicable?- Alat sent amusement through Tala’s thoughts before continuing, -Kit likes us now, and I have no fear of her harming us, but ‘devourling’ isn’t a great name with which to inspire confidence. Tala, you jumped inside the pouch within hours of buying her.-

…Fine. You’re right. I probably wouldn’t have done that if I’d thought she was a ‘devourling.’

-Is it wrong that the ‘probably’ bothers me?-

I wasn’t in a great place at that time.

-That’s fair. I’m glad that you’re doing at least a little better now.-

Me too.

Kannis and Lyn had walked into Kit, despite Fannas’s protests, even as the little silver man had stood outside, hopping from foot to foot in agitation.

Thankfully, they’d been in the Gredial estate at the time, so it hadn’t caused too much of a scene.

When Kannis had stepped back out, Fannas had stopped cold, shocked into immobility by her return.

She’d then stepped back and forth across the threshold a few times before Fannas had reluctantly agreed to accompany her.

When Kannis went back inside once more, the door had tried to bite them, reminding Tala of how Kit had eaten the holds that she’d captured in the arcane lands.

Even so, Tala had given Kit a smack and a hushed talking to, that seemed to have worked, because the door hadn’t actually bit down, and Fannas had emerged the next morning, unharmed.

Now, it was the morning of their departure back for Bandfast, and Fannas was entirely of a different mind, seeming almost to be talking to himself whenever he was inside of Kit, though Tala couldn’t understand the words.

Not really another language, just his magics aren’t directed toward me, so I can’t understand him?

-Maybe? I hate concept magic.-

So, he’s talking with Kit?

-Could be.-

Is she responding?

-Probably not…-

Regardless, Kit seemed to have stopped trying to end Fannas, at least so obviously.

-It is rather frustrating… I can see that there is more to Fannas, similar to how there is more to Terry, but it isn’t starward or stoneward.-

Are the magics void related?

-That would explain Terry and Fannas’s reality nodes, though they aren’t identical or even that similar.-

What even is the void? Tala grimaced internally, considering, even as Rane, Lyn, and Kannis chatted about how the trip had gone.

Tala added thoughts and comments here and there, but her mind was elsewhere.

I think we’re wrong.

-Explain. I mean I see what you mean, but articulate it so we can both process it.-

We see stoneward and starward as increments away from superficial, and that seems perfectly accurate.

-It does yes.-

But basically nothing exists as only perfect increments, certainly not a spatial axis.

-Correct.-

Then, that’s the answer. The void is between the increments.

It was incredibly obvious now that she considered it.

It was conceptual, and that made her nervous, but it was more about how she conceived it than about enacting a concept.

She considered, nodding to herself.

It really did make sense.

It didn’t matter what the units were, between the increments was the void.

Alat sent along mental agreement. -Yeah, that’s just like the physical world. If we look down to the molecular level, between the molecules is the void.-

If we examine even closer? To the atomic level? Between atoms is the void.

-At the level of protons, neutrons, electrons and all that?-

Between them is the void.

That’s as minute as she’d learned of, but she felt like it held true further down as well.

So, it should be with the magical axis. Between each increment was the void.

Every whole number is harmonized with, and seeable by, our magesight.

-Every fraction is the void.-

…by that conceptualization, the Doman-Imithe would be… at the half increments? Reality translated a half step?

-The back side of the world.-

Tala decided that she needed to consider and let the idea brew within her mind, so she returned her full attention to her friends as they enjoyed their last meal in Alefast, together.

Together, they ate warm, delicious food, drank hot, steaming drinks, and watched the sun rise over the stunningly frosted landscape.