Tala helped Brandon and Adrill to their feet, one with each hand.

It was easy enough to allow her iron to actually settle upon her to give her the inertia to help them stand, and she certainly didn’t lack the strength. It was the least she could do.

Considering—

-Not yet, Tala. They still need our help.-

The two men gratefully accepted the help even as they had their heads practically on a swivel, trying to take in as much as they could.

She was holding herself tightly emotionally controlled—with Alat’s help. If she panicked, they’d be utterly lost, “Slow down, gentlemen. As long as you’re in here, your magesight won’t go away. It should even maintain, if at a lower fidelity, outside, within Alefast and the surrounding region.”

That seemed to allow the two to settle down a bit. Good, they’re doing better.

-Hold it together, Tala. Don’t think too deeply. You got this. We can go off on our own soon.-

Yeah. She encouraged herself, trying to keep a brave face, Yeah…

Brandon held himself still and cleared his throat, seeming a bit more embarrassed than his father at their earlier display.

The older man was still staring around himself in wonder, even if with less of a frantic air.

“Mistress Tala? What about my question? Can you do this for others?” Brandon shifted uncomfortably, “Or… have we just condemned ourselves to outlive those we love?”

Tala swallowed. “Well, for those without a gate, this can be done. It is a nearly flawless process, but the results aren’t perfect nor guaranteed. If it fails, the result is death. I am unsure if even having a healer on hand would prevent that, but we’re definitely going to regardless. Similarly, you are both going to be thoroughly checked out as soon as Master Simon gets back with one.”

“Why?”

“Which part? I said a lot of things in there.”

“Why don’t you think a healer will be much help?”

“Oh. Well, it’s a suspicion more than outright knowledge, but it’s pretty well grounded, as I think you’ll agree. It is because the issue in that circumstance is that the patient’s body is trying to draw in too much magic and is being made toxic because of that.”—she was rambling, but she didn’t think she could stop herself and hold it together—“More magic, even that which they can’t absorb, even that of a ‘helpful’ variety is going to exacerbate the problem. There are likely some magics that could help second-hand, but the sort of immediate treatment that would be required likely wouldn’t be possible.”

Brandon was nodding. He knew the theory well enough by that point to have followed what she was getting at. “And Mom?”

Tala shrugged. “This environment shouldn’t affect her at all. Her body is already magic-bound to her own flavor of power, for lack of a better description. The stuff in the air, here, might hurt her if we doubled the density.”

-More like increased it by a factor of a hundred.-

She shook her head, “No, it would need more than that, probably closer to a hundred times this level before it could start to actively harm her.”

-Smooth.-

Thank you.

Adrill had been drawn in by her words, out of his awed examination of the world around him. Even though he was still clearly euphoric, a spark of concern and doubt was beginning to creep in. “So… my wife?”

Tala grimaced. “The only thing I can think of is to get her a keystone, deepen her connection with magic enough to at least get her inscribed. Every bit of power we can get flowing through her will lengthen her life, but it isn’t an easy process, or everyone would do it.” Tala huffed a forced laugh. “We want more people more than almost anything else. If we could easily extend people’s natural lifespan, we’d be doing it to everyone.”

Don’t talk about Archon stars. Don’t mention them at all. We are absolutely going to keep her well below the threshold to move in that dangerous direction.

-Yeah, we do want people to live longer, but it’s a balancing act to keep from suddenly having millions of founts…-

That would be… less than ideal, yeah. Plus, a large portion of those who are denied Magical training are so rejected because they would succumb to becoming a fount so fast as to make their training detrimental.

-True enough. Hey! Good job changing your focus, by the way.-

…

-Oh, it’s back… sorry about that.-

Adrill nodded slowly. “She did not do well on the Mage aptitude tests when she was younger.”

Tala bobbed her head in understanding. “Those tests are for mindset and mode of thinking. I don’t think that Artia will ever be a Mage, but we should be able to induce enough magic through her that she doesn’t have a significantly lower lifespan than you.” She chuckled. “After all, she’s around artifacts practically all day, every day. She has to have some penchant toward understanding how magic functions.”

She hesitated, frowning for a moment.

“You know, maybe the scripts to allow her to feed power to a magical item would work for her. No magic necessary for herself, only for an item.”

A Mage doesn’t need those—at least most Immaterial Guides don’t— because we can just grab the power directly and give it to the item. No scripts required.

-Yes, you are extra special and awesome.-

Yes, we are. Tala smiled internally just a bit.

Brandon interjected, then, “Why doesn’t everyone do that? Why doesn’t everyone get basic scripts?”

“Well, first of all, it’s expensive.” She quirked a smile. “Beyond that, you still have to have an understanding of magic, generally, and many—if not most—people simply don’t, and can’t, understand it.”

Adrill responded before his son could, “She definitely doesn’t really appreciate the theory behind magic like we do, Son, but she has a solid grasp of the fundamentals.”

“Then, maybe?” Tala shrugged. “I’m sure with such an important goal before her, and you two beside her, we can get it to work for her.”

Brandon frowned. “Does that mean that Kedva would need such an understanding?”

Tala almost opened her mouth to say ‘yes,’ but hesitated. Wait…

-Yeah… arcane babies definitely don’t have an understanding of magic when they are induced upon their birth.-

“Maybe not? I will have to learn a different spellform to use for her than for the two of you. You both have the cognitive grasp of magesight to make it work. It wouldn’t for her without extensive study… but basic enhancement magics? Yeah… that would just be taking the body as the template and allowing it to be more. I obviously already know that one, as that is part of what I gave to you.”

-Enhancement magics were the recommendation given in the primer.-

Though, it was stated that such gave consistent, mediocre results.

-Yeah, consistent.-

… but… mediocre…

-Do you think they will care?-

They might.

-Then, we let them decide.-

Tala nodded to herself, gilding herself and pushing on ahead, “I’ve been wanting the two of you to officially come work for me in here for a while, now. Master Simon has been not-so-subtly asking for it as well. If you agree, I’ll give you this as your first project: You would fully study the arcane advancement manual that I have and break out the steps for use by others, such as Kedva.”

Both men froze.

Did we not tell them?

-No, Tala. No, we did not.-

Oh… Now was probably not the right time to broach the source, was it?

-No, Tala. No, it was not.-

Adrill swallowed visibly, “Arcane advancement? Mistress Tala, are you telling me that—”

The door from the outside burst open at that moment, and Master Simon rushed in with a clearly confused Archon in tow. His inscriptions—and what Tala could see—indicated that he was a healer.

Context makes that pretty obvious too.

The older Fused frowned, looking at the stricken men before him, “Well, you’re up and about. What did I miss?”

You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.

* * *

Once Tala had conveyed what she could of the situation to Master Simon and the healer—and promised Adrill a full discussion later on the origins of what had been done to them—she left the four men to run tests and make sure everything was going to be alright.

She let them know that she needed to deal with something, and with an act of will, she moved herself into a cave with no entrance on the far side of the sanctum.

She immediately dropped to the ground, her suppressed emotions finally breaking free as she began to weep.

-Tala… I’m sorry. This is all my fault. I should have realized sooner that this could have been the result.-

I forced them into this, Alat. They didn’t have a choice. They weren’t even aware of the possibility. I forced them onto the path of magic while gaining something for myself. She felt tears flowing down her face and snot building in her nose. I’m a careless version of my father. At least he sent me off to the Academy intentionally. I just barreled forward, rust the consequences.

-Tala. This is on me, not you, and doing something on accident isn’t worse than doing it on purpose.-

Only if it really is an accident.

-Tala…-

I could have read that manual. You did read it. We are the same person. Your failing is my failing.

She pulled her legs up to her chest, hugging them against herself.

Now, it’s possible that I’ve condemned a man to outlive his wife—his partner, the person he loves most in this world—by decades.

She knew she couldn’t imagine the pain involved in that.

Losing Mistress Odera had hurt her deeply, and she realized that her relationship with the older woman hadn’t been a fraction of Adrill’s care, affection, and love toward Artia.

There was a momentary pause, then Tala felt the part of her mind in which Alat operated begin to strain.

A hand suddenly fell on Tala’s shoulder, and she looked up, startled.

Alat stood beside her, dress fluttering in a breeze that wasn’t actually there. “Tala… I…”

She seemed at a loss as to what to say.

So, instead of saying anything, she sat down beside Tala, wrapping her arms around her, and they wept together.

* * *

Tala and Alat managed to pull themselves together sufficiently to join her unit on wall duty that night, but it was a rough time, at least at the start.

On her way to her duty-station, Tala asked Alat to contact Master Nadro and Master Grediv, letting them both know what had happened for different reasons.

For Master Grediv, Tala and Alat had wanted to ensure that the Paragon knew that some gateless humans were suddenly able to wield magic within his city, even if just barely.

With Master Nadro, they hoped to schedule an additional meeting, aside from their regular meet up, and see if he was free to give any advice or guidance to the two new wielders of arcane-like power.

Master Grediv had been terse in his reply, stating that he would come by to meet with the two men the next day.

Master Nadro was not available any earlier than their already scheduled appointment, but he did say that he would make it an in-person one, so that he could meet with those affected.

When Tala arrived, her unit mates immediately intuited that something was wrong.

They were already on the lookout for such signs, because Tala had been off-kilter due to Mistress Odera’s death.

Rust… I had put that out of my mind…

Regardless, Mistress Vanga sat with her in silence while the others kept a careful eye. Though, each had noticed something was wrong and had made expressions of concern, before letting her know that they were there if she wanted anything from them, trusting her to ask if that was the case, and leaving her to herself.

In truth, Alat was on watch as well, being a bit more removed from the whole situation.

Alat also found it helpful to focus on their three-fold vision. It was soothing for the alternate interface to process so much information constantly.

That became relevant when, just after midnight, Tala stood up, “I really need this. Let me take the leading edge, please?”

Her unit mates had oriented on her when she moved, and they detected the incoming threat just after she had.

“New sight?” Master Clevnis asked, clarifying that she'd seen the incoming enemy first through her three-fold sight.

“New sight.” She appreciated the abbreviated communication. She really wasn’t in the mood to chat.

“Very well, you take point. We’ll have your back and the wall.”

She felt gratitude to the man, and her unit. She really did feel like she needed the fight.

-Need? No, we just want to kill something. Preferably many, many somethings.-

Well… it has helped before.

-Fair enough.-

Tala had no idea what depraved hole of the world reality and magic came together inside of in order to spawn some of the things that threw themselves at Alefast, and at the moment she didn’t really care.

It was a swarm of near identical creatures that she knew wouldn’t be her strong suit, but the others would mop up after her.

With no fear, she dropped over the edge of the wall, leaving the city’s defenses behind.

In all honesty, those would likely have been plenty to handle this foe, but it was better to be safe than sorry with lives on the line.

As she fell, even her mundane eyes easily saw the odd creatures, and Alat was able to find them in their indexes almost immediately.

-Quilled Jerboara. We won’t know what subspecies until—-

The sound like a thousand madmen all trying to talk over one another swelled out of the oncoming creatures as they got within their own poor eyesight’s ability to see the wall.

-Oh, gibbering quilled jerboara…lovely.-

As she landed, Tala had already pulled three sets of siege orbs from her belt—Kit still being back at Artia’s shop—and with an act of will, she sent the six devastating projectiles into front ranks of the nearly one thousand creatures, well-spaced along the front, targeting creatures in the middle to allow for the orbs to rip deep into the charging ranks before she detonated them.

As the six zipped forth, quickly accelerating to the point that they cracked the air with their passage, Tala took a moment to review what she knew of the creatures.

Jerboara were charging creatures that had clawed paws but most closely resembled boars in their nature and behavior.

Wickedly sharp tusks and hardened skulls were complemented by oddly large ears that allowed them to nearly unerringly home in on their prey.

And they did have prey. From all evidence, they were omnivores like swine, but they seemed to prefer meat.

And, of course, killing gated humans.

-There is that lovely feature of virtually every magical creature, yes.-

The quilled portion of their name referenced the near-metal-like quills that armored their sides and back, which they could flex and position for defense and close quarters offense.

The foremost quills could even be pulled forward and positioned like a miniature forest of lances in order to add to the damage potential of a charge.

And the ‘gibbering’ portion of their name?

Aside from the unnerving nature of the sound, it actually represented a birdsong-like form of communication, which allowed whole herds to work together.

The gibbering quilled jerboara was the most intelligent variety of jerboara by far.

Additionally, their magics were almost entirely focused on sonic manipulation of varying kinds.

Ears sealed.

-Ear canals filled. We’re good to go.-

The siege orbs punched through the first rank… and threw them back into the second, disrupting the tightly-packed charge some hundred yards from the walls. Even so, the orbs didn’t come out the backs of the first beasts they entered.

Thankfully, it did cause some of the quills of the creatures to be slammed into those behind them, which caused further damage and confusion.

Well.. they are more durable than we were led to believe.

-Just a bit, yeah. Their hides must be insanely enhanced.-

Without further delay, Tala triggered the orbs, releasing the incredibly compressed air into a concussive explosion.

That worked at least, as the six jerboara almost seemed to swell like balloons before bursting. Their whole bodies swelled and tore with what must have been a rather disgusting sound, even as the ground rumbled at the detonations.

The result slung frozen gore and bits of flesh everywhere, actually sending the quills and bone fragments shooting outward, tearing through the surrounding beasts.

Well, that worked, but not really as I’d hoped…

Flow snicked into Tala’s hand from the sheath at her belt.

It was time to close in for some true stress-relief.

Tala crouched against the base of the wall, making sure to brace against the foundation stones and the ground in equal measure, before launching herself up and outward, removing her downward gravity at the last second in order to soar the intervening distance between herself and the herd that was slowly pulling itself back in order.

The sound of her launch must have been noticeable, and some of the bigger beasts clearly oriented on her as she was flying their direction.

Her entire body began to vibrate, her very bones jiggling and trying to pull free of the surrounding tissue as close to a hundred of the more aware jerboara unleashed their power to send sonic attacks her way.

Her very brain felt like it was trying to enter a liquid state.

Blessedly, she was more durable than that.

Rust my biscuits, I’m glad I’m the one who engaged directly.

-First, that’s Mistress Holly’s phrase.-

Other people have said it.

-...regardless. Second, they wouldn’t have closed at all. Third, eye on the target, it’s time to descend.-

One jerboara in particular seemed to realize that she wasn’t dying as they’d expected, because it quickly gathered its back legs under itself and lunged out and up, aiming perfectly to meet her mid-air.

Its forward quills snapped to the front, even as it lowered its head to bring its tusks to bear.

Lovely, a volunteer.

Thus, as Tala allowed her gravity to return to normal and arced down into the mass of enemies, Flow bisected one of the biggest monsters, allowing the horse-sized magical thing to fall in two pieces behind her.

She didn’t pay attention to the squelch of the two halves landing, as she had other things on her mind. She had come down on top of an unsuspecting member of the assaulting herd, her full weight and surface-area expansion scripts allowing her to drive it into the ground, even if it didn’t kill the thing outright.

These things are tough.

-So it seems.-

Well, then, close quarters killing it is.

-Shall we?-

Quite.

And that is exactly what she did.

Her breath tore at them from the outside.

Flow cut them with every movement.

Her shields, defensive discs, and tungsten balls and rod frustrated their movements.

Tala’s aura supremacy kept them from amplifying each other's magic.

Her body resisted their concentrated sonic attacks.

She didn’t use any more siege orbs, as they didn’t seem to be as effective as she’d like. Thus, she kept the few still on her belt in reserve, just in case they were needed.

They weren’t.

Similarly, she didn’t use her iron spikes, as they were entirely unnecessary, and Tala was trying to unburden her mind, not strain it differently.

Her unit mates joined her in spirit and with their long-range magics, sending their power from the walls, and striking at portions of the massed creatures that she wasn’t currently addressing, keeping them milling and confused barely a hundred yards from the wall.

It was a slaughter.

It was exactly what she needed right then.

Some days, it really paid to be a defender.

And, of course, I am actually going to get paid.

-Ahh, the perks and plus side of doing our job.-