Tala hesitated as the arcane fox-like-man—Lisa—regarded her with greater scrutiny.

After a moment, he grunted, “I suppose I should not be surprised that you are aware of the triune state of existence. I taste iron on the air around you. Because of that, it would be my guess that you have somehow acquired a connection with reality that your fellows find acceptable.” He briefly gave a wide grin, “They are much better at cutting out that rot when it crops up than they used to be. Beyond that, you obviously have magic, and your memories—even the few I saw—contained some of the void. Given all of that, your mentors were wise to help induct you into the reality of existence...”

He paused for a moment at that.

Then, he shrugged and continued, “And the magic of existence…”

His smile returned, full of mischief.

“And the fact that existence is void and empty at its core.”

Tala had never thought of it in those terms, but it fit rather beautifully. As she contemplated how well it fit, she felt her aura strengthen, her magic deepen, and her advancement move marginally toward Paragon.

The side of Lisa’s mouth pulled up slightly, indicating that he’d noticed the change, “Regardless, we are getting off the path, even after finding such a promising one. Let us return to the item I am offering to you: A purifier of magical power. To be clear, a purification of the magic within your sanctum—and an ongoing maintenance of that purity—would not affect the magic of your sanctum, so your dimensional storage would remain bonded to you and intact.”

Tala had been considering, and she nodded, grinning, “I think that would be rather useful, yes.”

He nodded once in response, “Now, what do you have in trade?”

“I do believe that I have some credit with you.”

Lisa waved his hand. “It would be highway robbery if I were to use this to cancel that debt, and such things are hard to fractionalize.”

She frowned, then shrugged. “What do you want? What type of thing are you looking for?”

“Items of magic and power, of course. The stranger—the more unique—the better.”

Tala considered for a moment. Well, I’m not giving him the sword, I barely just got that back from Master Clevnis.

-What about a needle? We have quite a few of those, and we don’t really have much use for them.-

Tala nodded to herself. That was a good idea. “What about an infinitely sharp, unbreakable needle?”

Lisa blinked a few times, before his eyes narrowed, seeming more focused on her than he had been during their entire conversation up until that point. “Let me see it.”

Hesitantly, Tala reached for her waist, only to remember that she didn’t have Kit with her. “Oh, ummm… Would a memory do for demonstration? If it is acceptable, I’d have to go get it.”

He hesitated, then nodded slowly.

Alat?

-Sharing a small part of the encounter in the cell, now.-

Lisa had already pulled his Archive connection artifact back out and placed it on his temple, his each movement crisp, precise, and controlled.

A moment later, he let out a hiss, followed by an incredibly aggressive cackle, “Sole? His cell has resurfaced?” Lisa’s lips pulled back in a horrifying mixture of gleeful grin and murderous snarl. “For memories of your encounter with him, I will give you the item we are discussing. I do not need one of the needles for this transaction.”

Well… Rust. Tala’s eyes widened, and she opened her mouth to refuse. There is no way I can let him know where the prison is.

But, before she could say anything in response, Lisa continued, seemingly interpreting what she was thinking, “I do not want the location of his confinement, just to witness the clash that you obviously had with him. You are here, he is not, so he must have been defeated, and that is something I dearly wish to witness. Depending on what I see, there, I will negotiate with your City Lords…—excuse me, City Heads—for the location. That will not concern you.”

She hesitated, incredibly uncertain.

-I am already asking Mistress Ingrit.-

That is wise. Thank you, Alat.

-Oh, that was fast. She says sharing what he asks is fine.-

Tala was still skeptical, but after a moment’s consideration… maybe two, she shrugged. This decision seems above my advancement, so not my problem. I’m glad that I don’t need to consider all the possible implications.

Master Lisa was waiting expectantly.

She slowly nodded, “It seems that that would be acceptable.”

The vulpine eyes glowed.

“But!”

The predatory gaze narrowed, and Tala felt a chill run through her very bones.

“I think that the memories of the encounter are more valuable than a single item.”

He huffed. “Negotiating, then? Fine. But calling it a single item so dismissively is ridiculous.”

“Is it more than one item?”

“No, but calling it simply ‘a single item’ is like calling the operating fund for the city ‘a bank account.’ The description is technically accurate but insulting in the implication.”

“I suppose I’ll need to take a look, then. Let’s see it.”

“Very well. One moment.”

Without further warning or fanfare, the fox vanished.

Tala caught flashes of his quick actions as he moved stone and starward on the axis of magic as easily as she’d take a step forward or backward.

In less than a minute, he was back, simply appearing before her—behind the counter—once more.

“How did you do that?”

“Do what?” His slight smile made it obvious that he knew what she meant, but still wanted her to say it.

“You moved along the spatial axis of magic.”

He nodded. “I thought you were aware of that. The answer is almost insultingly simple. I have the muscles to move in that direction.” He shrugged. “I have some dimensionality in those directions, so I can exert force to create movement. You exist in those directions as well, but you don’t have any leverage to create movement… well, most humans don’t; I can’t say I’ve actually analyzed your physical or magical makeup.”

Tala grunted, contemplating.

Imagine being able to freely move stoneward or starward.

-Sounds dangerous.-

After a moment, Tala found herself nodding. Yeah, yeah it really does.

“Are you ready to see it? The item?” Lisa arched one of his eyebrows.

Tala shook herself slightly, refocusing. “Yes, please.”

With a flourish, he seemed to stick his arm into his chest, but Tala could tell it was, in fact, reaching starward. When he withdrew his hand, it held… a rock.

Well, her mundane sight saw just a rock.

Her magesight saw another thing altogether.

If the most complex magic Tala had ever seen around a person was a hedge maze, what was revealed before her was a three-dimensional labyrinth that seemed to connect in ways that defied dimensionality.

But that made sense, as the spellform crossed many layers stoneward and starward, the physical dimensions stretching to allow the magics to avoid interacting with the items already stored where the rock’s natural magics wished to be.

Tala couldn’t comprehend it at all, and while it seemed well filled with power, it was just as obviously inactive.

Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road.

“You are welcome to stare at it as long as you like, but without bound power, it won’t do anything.”

She chuckled, then opened the iron on her hand, purposely forcing power out and away, despite her link with Kit wanting to pull the power through their connection and to the sanctum.

As soon as her power left her tightly controlled aura, the rock began to glow, the magic being immediately pulled inside.

Tala couldn’t follow the spellform’s working, but in less than a second an exactly equal amount of power came back out of the rock. Now, however, it was natural magic, not Tala’s own.

A small fraction of power was pulled from that provided by the vestiges in the room into the rock in order to refill its own reserves.

Her eyes widened.

She could see the City Stones.

She could see how they filtered the magic coming from the uncounted human gates in their cities.

She could see that they were not very efficient in that transformation.

This stone seemed to have near perfect efficiency, requiring only a drop of power for the burst that it had cleansed.

She was in awe. “Where did you get this?”

Master Lisa opened his mouth with a wicked grin, then paused. Finally, his face fell, “Well, I was going to charge you double for the story, but the memories of the encounter you offer are worth this and the background behind it.”

He nodded as if to himself.

“So, will you take the trade?”

“The item does what you claim? What it seems to? And my soulbound sanctum can integrate the magics for permanent use?”

“It should be able to integrate them, yes. If it fails, I will restate the same under a truth detection. Otherwise, yes.”

“Then, yes. I agree. The memory for this item and the story and background behind it.”

Master Lisa’s voice didn’t change, but it suddenly seemed to resonate with the entire building, “Bargain struck.”

Tala swayed back briefly, pulling her thoughts back together.

Before she composed herself, master Lisa began to speak, “Now, the background. A Sovereign owed someone he detested a boon. The person in question demanded an item to purify magic of any ownership. The Sovereign agreed to make the item but made the owed aware that he couldn’t make them accept it. The Sovereign further stated that if the item was rejected or abandoned, the owed lost all rights to it and could not ask for another boon.”—Lisa nodded along with his story—“The owed agreed. So, the Sovereign attached the magics to a rock, hid themselves and followed the owed. Then, one random day—about a week later—the Sovereign threw it at the owed’s head. The owed of course deflected the rock, cursing the random passerby who had thrown the rock.”

Tala shook her head, smiling slightly. “That was a rejection.”

“That was a rejection.”

Her eyes widened, looking at the rock again. “Wait… this is the boon of a Sovereign?”

Master Lisa barked a laugh, “No, no, funny human girl. Your memories are not that valuable. That is just why such items are now traditionally made attached to rocks.”

Tala huffed. “So, the background.”

“Precisely.”

“The story, then?”

“This rock was on the road outside the first home I built among humans. I needed a way to ensure that I could sustain myself. At the same time, I was required to divest myself of power. It had to go somewhere.”—he shrugged—“I saw no reason to cause strife by cracking a City Stone with too much power flowing into it at once. So, I used my magic to forge this.”

Tala gaped. “You can make one of these?”

Master Lisa cocked one eyebrow. “No. I did make one of these. This one. I no longer have the power to do so, and it would be both incredibly inconvenient and violating of my word to gather enough magic to do so, now.”

“And you’re willing to trade it away?”

He gestured to the six corners of this room. “As I am sure you have seen, I have found other means to sustain the allowed level of power. This is now merely a further redundancy I have no cause to keep around. I took so long to return because I had to rinse off the dust.”

Tala looked at the rock again and noticed that it did, indeed, seem damp. It was literally collecting dust…

“Here you are. I trust the memory will be along—”

-Done.-

Thank you.

“—Ah, there it is.” He nodded once. “Is there anything further?”

“Not at the moment. Though I would love to flip through your books, to get an idea of what you have.”

Master Lisa nodded distracted, waving his hand. Behind Tala, the door reappeared. At the same time, the illusory version of master Lisa returned. “Do as you wish. I have some memories to savor.”

Without another word, he simply vanished.

Tala went to the books on the long counter and quickly flipped through them, Alat copying out what Tala saw to the Archive for later perusal.

Less than five minutes later, Tala left the shop, the rock tucked in a pocket grown specifically to hold it, the top sealed afterwards so the valuable item couldn’t be lost.

She had much to think about as she rejoined Rane for their next meetup, continuing the whirlwind of sociability that was their time in Bandfast.

* * *

Tala and Rane briefly saw Lyn and Kannis once more that evening, as it would have been odd not to, but Tala didn’t bring up the artifact and arcane goods shop. It would have caused more questions than it was worth.

Finally, Tala and Rane stopped through to see Mistress Odera on their last evening in Bandfast.

That was a shock to say the least, even with Mistress Aproa there to help smooth out the interactions.

Mistress Odera was looking older than ever, and she had lost much of her previously demonstrated gracefulness in age.

She still had her intellect—when she had the energy to use it—but more than anything, Tala was left feeling hollow and torn. It was painful to see such a proud, powerful, wise woman nearing her end.

Still, the very fact that the effects of aging were becoming visible and she still hadn’t succumbed to binding a star was stark testament to her continued resiliency.

They didn’t stay too long, as Mistress Odera was easily made tired.

Even so, while they were there, the Mage condensed an Archon star in ice, formed from moisture in the air.

It was quite obviously an unconscious action, with Mistress Aproa destroying it behind her ancestor’s back by dropping it into what was clearly an artifact made specifically for that purpose.

Even with all that she saw and learned, what stood out most to Tala was what her newly established sight showed her.

The woman’s gate—located just one increment starward as all gates seemed to be—was slowly developing natural magics of its own.

Tala had recognized the spellform immediately, even before Mistress Odera had created a simpler version of it in a different medium.

An Archon star.

The gate itself was becoming a sort of complex, interlinked Archon star.

No wonder everyone succumbs eventually.

-No kidding.-

Though, honestly, Tala didn’t know if Mistress Odera was undergoing something standard, something that only happened to those who resisted for an incredibly long time, or something unique to her.

Regardless, the inevitable result seemed obvious to Tala.

She briefly entertained the idea of using her iron to disrupt, distort, or otherwise mess with the glacially forming natural magics, but it didn’t even take her newly enhanced mind to realize how catastrophically wrong that could go.

Even were she an expert in natural magics—which she decidedly was not—the act of altering a spellform to specifically change its function as it was coming together was colossally foolish.

That was assuming she had something to change it to, which she did not.

Thus, she left well enough alone.

Rane and Tala bid Mistress Odera goodnight and goodbye, with Mistress Aproa seeing them to the door.

As they were leaving, Tala felt like she was fighting within herself, but what she felt was right finally won out, and she pulled Mistress Aproa aside, “I can’t explain to you how I know, but I believe that she only has days left, in the best case.”

The Archon’s eyes had widened in shock, and she’d immediately opened her mouth to ask a question, but the woman paused to consider first. Finally, she nodded, “Thank you, Mistress Tala. I don’t know if you are hedging around strictures by telling me this, or if something else holds your tongue, but regardless, thank you. I will gather what family I can, and we’ll stand vigil for the next week.” She smiled wanly, “If something hasn’t happened by then, I will assume you were mistaken, but knowing you, I don’t expect that to be the case.”

The urge came over her, and Tala stepped forward and embraced the somewhat older woman.

Mistress Aproa was clearly startled but lacked the ability to resist.

“I am so sorry for your loss. She was a woman without peer.”

The Archon sucked in a breath, something about Tala’s words striking to the heart of the circumstances.

Mistress Aproa hugged Tala in return, her whole body shaking as she began to sob uncontrollably.

Rane noticed and quietly moved around them and back toward Mistress Odera, so that the Mage would not be alone while the other two women talked.

Tala ended up staying another hour as Mistress Aproa talked about growing up with Mistress Odera as a role model, sharing some of her favorite stories, laughing, and crying.

Eventually, Mistress Aproa had pulled herself back together enough to hug Tala again and thank her profusely.

Tala hugged her in return, still feeling somewhat startled at the reaction her initial hug and simple words had unleashed. Though, with a moment’s consideration, Tala decided that she couldn’t say that she regretted the outcome.

Mistress Odera was an important person to her, and Tala regretted not getting more time with her. The least she could do is give a little emotional release to the woman who had been there for Mistress Odera.

But her last days should be with family.

-It is important to be with those you love at the end.-

They went and got Rane, where he had been sitting and reading aloud to Mistress Odera as she slept.

Tala and Rane said another round of quiet goodbyes and left.

As Rane and Tala walked back toward the Archon Compound where Kit still rested, Tala found herself drawn inward, some investigations and experimentation being completed while Tala was still in town.

I am going to outlive almost everyone I know. That felt much more real than it ever had before.

Alat tried to help, or at least tried to offer another perspective, -That is the nature of death. Either you outlive and must say goodbye to all those you love, or you die and leave them without you.-

Or you don’t make such connections. Tala felt herself hunch inward. Wouldn’t that be better? Wouldn’t that hurt less?

-That’s no way to live. That’s hardly a life at—-

Rane put a hand on Tala’s shoulder, interrupting her internal back-and-forth, “Tala? Are you alright?”

She turned to him, looking up into his eyes, knowing there were tears in her own. “I… no, I’m not.”

He pulled her into a hug right there on the side of the street.

Traffic moved around them as he held her close, and she wept tears of confusion and frustration.

It was mid-afternoon the next day—when they were almost back to Alefast—when the message came in.

Mistress Odera had somehow slipped out, despite her small home being packed with relatives.

The city’s defenses had noted her leaving toward the south-east, alone.