Tala was a bit embarrassed. Even though part of it was a misunderstanding, she knew that arguing wouldn’t really change anything. She had been the most advanced Mage involved, after all.

Rane actually had his head hanging in shame, his cheeks a flaming red.

Master Cazor was silently laughing himself hoarse and hiding it badly.

The Refined defender who had been called in response to them blowing through one wall of the combat arena was less than pleased even though most of the issues had been settled.

“Mistress Tala, process indicates that I am to remind you that I am obligated to report this incident to the heads of the Archon Councils both here and in Alefast, waning, where records indicate you are currently based.”

“I don’t really understand why that’s necessary. It was an accident, and I’ve already paid for the repairs and had additional funds set aside to pay for lost revenue. The complex is going to come out ahead financially and have a brand-new combat arena.” She kept her tone from containing notes of irritation or pleading, but barely.

As the combat arena was designed to contain higher level magics, the defenses were all interlinked. That meant that all of them had to be overwhelmed at once if at all, burning out artifacts and inscriptions all together.

Naturally, that meant that the whole construct had to be rebuilt from scratch.

The Refined, a long-suffering, older looking man nodded, “That is the only reason you are not currently under arrest. Damaging property of any kind requires repayment—or arrest is required until reparations can be arranged—but that has nothing to do with what else is required. You should have better control over your own magics and the magics around you when sparring in a space created for those of a lower advancement.”

Tala sighed internally, bowed, and nodded understanding, “As you say, good Master. I will be more careful.”

He sighed, seeming to be utterly baffled by her.

She didn’t recognize him, and he clearly hadn’t had occasion to know who she was. Thus, while she’d had to give him her name, he’d never offered his own, leaving her without that information.

“Very well.” He turned toward Rane and Master Cazor, “As to the two of you, are you sure you do not require healing? Or protection from… anything?” He didn’t glance her way, but Tala felt it was a near thing.

Rane shook his head. “No, I’m fine.”

Master Cazor shook his head, still having trouble containing his mirth. “No permanent harm was done to me, thank you.”

“If you say so, I will take my leave. The Archon Compound is open to you if you wish to alter your reports or make any new ones.” Without anything further to deal with, the Refined departed, likely to go file paperwork.

Maybe that’s why he was grumpy?

-Paperwork is rather awful. Good thing I have an alternate interface to take care of it for me… oh wait, that’s me. I do all your paperwork.-

And I love you for it.

-Which is a bit narcissistic, but I’ll take it.-

As soon as the Refined was out of sight, leaving the three alone, Tala turned on Rane. “I blame you.”

“I said I was sorry…”

Master Cazor just started laughing again, “It was amazing!”

Tala felt her lips quirk up, “It was unexpected.”

The Mage Hunter nodded. “I’ve never used such augmented, sequential fields to perform a linear acceleration in order to launch a monopole.”

Rane put his head in his hands. “I still can’t believe that he thought it was a Refined level attack.”

Tala shrugged, “I’m not sure he cared how advanced the magics were. I, as a Refined, was there, so the responsibility was mine.”

Master Cazor shook his head. “Regardless, I can’t believe that you took the shot straight to the chest without taking any lasting damage, Mistress.”

She chuckled nervously, purposely not remembering the crushing impact that had blasted nearly all the way through her, even as it threw her despite her incredible inertia. “Well… It did cave in my torso for a moment—that was wildly unpleasant—and that was before it sent me through the arena wall… I can’t believe you two didn’t take the credit for this. If I’d been a little less durable, it would have blown entirely through me, and might have leveled a couple of blocks. They don’t build standard buildings like city walls, you know.”

The Mage Hunter shrugged. “The outer defenses on the combat complex would have caught it before it could exit the building. As to taking the credit? The bragging rights would be nice, but I’m not getting banned from using normal training arenas. Do you know how expensive Refined level combat areas are to use?”

Tala didn’t. They were free to her as part of her contract being a Defender in Alefast. They wouldn’t be free in Bandfast, however.

Rane sighed, “I’ll pay you back. It was my idea.”

“Oh no, you don’t. The money isn’t the issue.” Tala stopped, feeling like she’d said something unpleasant. She worked her tongue, scraping it against her teeth as if trying to get off an unpleasant taste. Even so, she realized that she hadn’t been wrong. Huh… money really isn’t any part of my issue… That’s weird.

-I mean, it’s about a month’s income as a Defender, so it’s not trivial.-

But it actually doesn’t matter to me.

He looked up, pulling her from her musings, “Then what is the issue?”

“There’s no issue. This is just on you.” She grinned.

His confusion was evident. “What’s that even mean?”

“Well, I was going to get to spar the two of you, but you asked if you could try something first. Now, we don’t get to spar. I blame you.”

“…Okay?”

Tala nodded once. “Now, who’s hungry?”

Rane shook his head. “I actually already have plans. You can join if you want, but there won’t be food until lunchtime.”

“Oh…” She looked to Master Cazor.

Master Cazor shrugged, “I’m with him. We’re meeting up with some other folks to catch up. I just got back from an assignment, so I’m looking forward to seeing them, too.”

She tilted her head in thought, “Oh, where are you going?”

“A tea house.”

She gave Rane a flat look. “Tea houses have food.”

A small smile pulled at his lips, “Not in the quantities you eat.”

There was a beat of silence while Tala stood with her mouth open, considering. Finally, she shrugged, “That’s fair. Sure, let’s go.”

Tala didn’t know everyone who was at the meetup, and she definitely felt a bit overwhelmed by the large group of twenty some-odd people.

Rane seemed in his element as a participant, clearly knowing everyone in some way or other, though he was definitely not the center of attention by a long shot.

The result was that Tala engaged in some conversations, but mostly kept to herself, happily enjoying just being around people for a bit.

That is an odd feeling. I actually am not hating having all these people nearby.

-So, not bad?-

As a one off? Not bad at all.

Within her iron shell, only broken so that she could speak as necessary, she decided to use some of the time to help the changes to her mental inscriptions progress in their integration with her established magics.

Toward that end, she devoted a substantial amount of her power to flow through them.

Finally, when the meet-up was almost done, she succeeded.

With an internal click, a thousand thoughts began racing through her head in what felt like an instant. The first one was an immediate understanding of why they were suddenly flooding her.

The influx of power through the new inscriptions had caused them to fully set, giving her a temporary burst of cognitive ability that would quickly level out.

Even so, she was going to put the quick burst of cognitive ability to use.

Mistress Holly’s alterations had been just right to pull Tala’s natural magics into the new configuration, building on the current ones rather than having to override them.

And just like the bank of a river sloughing off to alter the geography of a bend, uncounted small twists and turns of the natural magical pathways—responsible for enhancing her mind—rolled over into the new alignment.

This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

She felt like her mind whipped through her entire life, reanalyzing all of her experiences with an improved lens.

She and Alat had already gone back through her childhood and academic life with a fine-toothed comb as she had tried to come to grips with her relationship with her family. So, there wasn’t much more to glean from those hazy memories.

Her time after the Academy was something that she’d deeply contemplated while acting as an Eskau in the arcane lands.

She had hunted for anything that she could have done differently, any way that she could have anticipated or countered Be-thric’s machinations.

She had berated herself for not doing something, anything, differently, even if it might have turned out the same—or possibly even worse—for her.

But that was behind her, and she let those memories pass with barely any examination.

Her time in the arcane lands had been an exercise in deeply overthinking her every action—her every observation—in order to not let herself be discovered.

She had no desire to peruse those times more thoroughly than she’d already examined them.

But, when she got to her flight back to the human lands, she found that she hadn’t really considered that time very deeply.

The wide-open plains beyond the forests surrounding the gated human cities had moving villages hiding and slinking about across them.

It also seemed likely that there were cities which might even be flying overhead as she sat there contemplating, if Master Grediv’s implications were to be believed.

It was also rather obvious in retrospect that the arcanes usually hunted for their vestiges among the humans in those enclaves.

I really want to go explore those pockets of humanity further. We were rather in a rush at the time.

-Yeah, the dasgannach really had us on a short timeline. Going back could be really interesting. We could learn a lot from how they approach the common problems faced by us all.-

Including how they get along with arcanes so well. I know we’re not going to fix the division, the fighting—we’re not some hero of legend—but it would be nice to get some insights. Maybe we can help make things a bit better.

-Yeah, that could be nice.-

There’s also Howlton’s obsession with finding a cell out there…

-Yeah, the clockwork thunder. It might be worth stepping in there and seeing if we can help. We’ve learned so much since then, and I think they might be in danger of it breaking free due to their ignorance. That thumping could be the warning knells of the cell breaking down, and no one out there knows it. Though, I doubt they told us all they know.-

Yeah. If their timeline holds, they believed that they’d find it by now, or in the next few months… That was a terrifying thought. There was a non-zero chance that a colossal threat could spring up any day to their south.

Maybe it will rampage through the arcane cities, and we’ll never know it broke free.

-If only we’re so lucky.-

She turned her mind back to her recollections, using more of her burst of cognition to reframe the less examined—more recent—portion of her life.

When she’d left Howlton, she’d made her way up to the thinnest part of the forest. As she’d traversed that portion, she'd slain dozens of Leshkin that had seemed oriented on something deeper in the forest, northward.

It was obvious now what they had been watching for. The wolves. They were watching for Anatalis and the Pack.

-That tracks with what we now know, yeah.-

She’d had imperfect information at the time. If she had simply gone a few miles north, she would have had basically a safe trek through that portion of forest.

Nevertheless, it had been safe enough for her, as she’d killed her way through juggernauts guarding the border easily enough.

When she’d gotten free of the trees, she’d been waylaid by two Leshkin with obvious sapience, proving that Leshkin weren’t bound to the trees, even if the lesser varieties rarely left except for the cyclical Leshkin wars.

Tala had had a rather… unpleasant conversation with the beings before they’d left her alone, and even that had only been because of their misassumptions.

I wonder if I could take them now?

-You would do much better now, that’s for certain. I think that is rather obvious, but we didn’t actually see them fight.-

Yeah, it would be a clash with unknown opponents still. Even so, she had the sense that she wouldn’t be helpless at the very least.

That was a good feeling.

Her mind returned to the memories, feeling the burst of power racing along her neurons beginning to fade.

After leaving the forest, she’d crossed the sheltered plains that she’d known her whole life as ‘The Wilds,’ and she’d been home.

In Alefast, Master Grediv had helped her to bond the iron dasgannach within her body, saving herself from Be-thric’s last petty act of attempted vengeance.

A broken Pillar’s dying curse—assisted by the kindly helping hand of a Paragon—had given her an ability beyond the reach of what any other Mage or arcane could accomplish. The closest that she knew of was Master Cazor, but he didn’t actually act on iron directly.

The internal threat of the dasgannach dealt with, Tala had nearly broken all over again when she’d reunited with friends.

She’d actually been shattered and rebuilt when she Refined.

And finally, she’d faced her oldest ‘oppressors’ with a new perspective when she’d gone to see her family.

Her father was trying to be better than his past mistakes, and Tala was genuinely glad that he was striving so hard to be a better father to her siblings of late.

She still had no desire for him to be her father, and she couldn’t conceive of that changing, but she was glad that her siblings would have the option of a better man as their father.

After her time in Marliweather, she’d gone to Alefast, waning, and become a Defender.

It was the perfect opportunity for her, and she was going to utilize it to the fullest.

She trained with the best of the best.

She’d fought beasts of legend, and those that really shouldn’t be allowed to become so.

She’d fought in cells and outside the city walls.

She’d taken her random assortment of magical abilities, tools, and talents and begun to hone them into a cohesive whole.

Tala had gained some new, true friends among her unit mates, and she’d spent more time with Rane doing things other than traveling around and fighting.

Though, we’ve gone back to that this last week… I really should have known he was the sculptor of those statues much sooner. I’m not really showing interest in my friend, am I? I’ve just been treating him like a servant or assistant.

-We’ve had that weakness for a long time, Tala. Honestly, I think it’s common to all people, or at least, we all have the potential to fall into that trap. We focus on ourselves first and foremost. You are getting better, though.-

Thank you, Alat.

She didn’t want any of her friendships to be one-sided. That was one reason she’d decided to go with Rane to the meet-ups he’d planned. She wanted to be a part of her friends’ lives, not just have them be a part of hers.

As her mind passed over each event and accomplishment, she felt like she relived it with new eyes. Even if she couldn’t actually see more than she had, her change in perception allowed her to reprocess the experiences, letting her make a few connections that she hadn’t taken the time to make before.

Through most of it, there was a common element.

From her first trip to Alefast, waning, Kit had been there.

Kit and Flow have been with me from the very start, or near enough.

-They were with you before even Terry or I were.-

Well, Terry was about before that.

-But he was still deciding whether or not to eat us.-

Tala disagreed with Alat’s interpretation, which—interestingly—was happening more and more of late. No, I think he’d decided not to. After all, he helped us with those… men … barely after we’d gotten Flow and Kit. And there was that thunderbull he herded near us before we even arrived in Alefast too.

Alat hesitated for only a moment before conceding, -That’s fair.-

So, Terry was around, but not with us until after.

Alat chuckled. -Fine.-

Tala did consider Kit then, turning the last of her extra-enhanced mental energy toward the former artifact pouch.

The storage had begun altering itself to match Tala’s desires from the very beginning, and Tala had always striven to keep the pouch full to bursting with power.

Kit had been an incredibly useful tool all the way up until Tala had been captured, making her not have to worry about carrying her belongings or running out of essentials.

Kit had also offered Tala shelter and a place to sleep whenever she needed one as well.

But, in the arcane lands?

There, Kit had been transformed.

It was not an exaggeration to say that: after that transformation, Kit was Tala’s most useful tool, even though Kit hadn’t directly contributed to Tala’s combat ability.

Master Simon and his family really help make Kit even more functional as well, but that is mostly them bringing out what Kit offers.

-And Adrill and Brandon are assisting Master Simon as he investigates a lot of the things you’ve been putting off.-

That’s for sure. That’s only really possible because I was able to grab all of those sundry items as I went along. Again, because of Kit. Tala still preferred the reading chair that she had taken from the House of the Rising Sun to any other she’d come across.

Kit had eaten man-made constructs, syphon bits, ether-holds, arcane holds, and a lot of cast-off material.

Now, Tala’s sanctum within Kit was her home.

Hah! Home is where you have your Kit.

-Oh, I like that.-

She pulled herself out of her musings, having barely taken a couple of breaths to run through the mountains of recollections and reconsiderations.

The last of the magical burst of enhancement had run its course, fully contained by her iron, and she was satisfied with how she’d used it.

She was overwhelmingly glad to have soulbound Kit, and she felt the absence of the artifact acutely. That was not just because she missed being able to pull food out at will either.

-But that is a major part?-

…yes.

There was something comforting about being close to home, and Kit was unquestionably her home now.

As she turned her focus back outward, she was almost staggered by the information suddenly flooding into her mind.

Information that her mind was now fully able to handle.

Beyond anything, what struck her was that she could see the gates of every human within sixty feet of her, without even trying. Well… she could at least see the gates of those who weren’t Mages of sufficient strength to have auras that prevented her view.

Every human had an aura, but mundanes’ were simply too weak to matter before her enhanced sight.

Huh, the woman over there is pregnant.

-She could have an extra gate implanted in her stomach.- Alat teased.

We can see the fetus, too…

-Yeah… it wasn’t a well thought out joke.-

I can see the knots in that laborer’s muscles, how much strength he’s losing, how much discomfort he’s likely in.

-To be fair, he’s probably used to them. By the looks of it, they’ve been there a long time, being added to day after day.- Alat sent a feeling of bafflement. -I mean, look at those calves! How can he even walk?-

Tala decided to redirect, This is… this is a lot of information, Alat.

-It is indeed.-

Well, I guess we have to get used to knowing far too much about everyone around us.

-…you’ve been overhearing everything around you for a long time now and ignoring most of it. How is this different?-

Hush you, I have to see everything too, now, and there doesn’t exist a cleansing agent powerful enough to erase what I can already see.