Tala left the Zuccats to catch up, before Anna had fully grasped her misunderstanding. Thus, Tala hoped to avoid the incoming awkwardness.

She chose to leave during a moment when everyone was otherwise engaged to at least give the illusion of being polite.

She then summoned a door out of Kit and exited into Alefast.

The last few days had been a mess.

And tomorrow, I need to initiate Kedva into arcane style magic…

All this started because she wanted to distract herself from—

Rust…

She’d been doing so well.

Tala turned around and stepped back into Kit, coming back out into the dell she’d used just an hour or so earlier to meditate in.

She sat down on her rock, put her head in her hands and cried.

Mistress Odera was gone, and that fact still hurt.

At least it hurt when she thought of it…

She felt herself moving downward, but something rose up within her.

No.

Tala straightened, not throwing off her emotions, but not letting them physically overcome her.

She called the door out of Kit once again, ignoring the feeling of locational whiplash as she stepped back out onto the Alefast streets.

Tell him I’m coming.

-Already done. He said he’ll be ready for you.-

It was a short walk from where she’d put Kit to her destination.

The entrance wasn’t that ornate, though it was obviously well maintained in order to fit into this nicer part of the city.

Not that any part of Alefast is really run down…

Now that she had arrived, however, she felt a bit of uncertainty.

Was this really what she wanted?

Was this really a wise choice?

Wouldn’t it be better to just be alone?

Before she could talk herself out of it, she saw him coming to greet her at the entrance, clearly having noticed her arrival.

Master Girt opened the front door to his modest home and ushered her inside. “Come, come, Mistress Tala. I have something ready for us.”

He led her through an obviously rarely used sitting room.

While there were a few comfortable looking chairs all but one had the look of disuse, dust having begun to permeate the upholstery.

The books on the shelves were obviously cared for, without any dust on them, but the art on the walls had noticeable accumulation, at least to her eyes.

The floor was what appeared to be either poured stone or, knowing Master Girt, simply stone that he’d reshaped and melded into a uniform floor.

The home was laid out in a segmented style, and they passed through an archway to enter the kitchen, which looked to have been used barely more often than the sitting room

Does he eat out most of the time?

That would make sense for a kitchen to look so rarely used.

Still, despite the disuse, there was a table large enough for them to both comfortably sit at and ready and waiting were two glasses that positively radiated magic.

Well, no, the magic is rather contained.

-So, they are radiant to your magesight, due to their internal magics?-

Yeah, that’s true. Tala hesitated in the archway. “What is that?”

Master Girt didn’t slow as he answered her question, “Magical alcohol. Even those who don’t focus on enhancement with their magics reach a point where the mundane stuff might as well be flavored water. For times like these, the real stuff can help.”

She sat down, feeling rather skeptical. “I haven’t told you why I’m here. What do you mean by ‘For times like these’?”

Master Girt smiled softly. “I think we both know. Take a sip. You don’t need to drink any more if you don’t want to.” He shrugged then. “Or don’t. I’ll happily drink both.”

Tala laughed at that, feeling a bit of her tension bleed away, even if not much. She carefully picked up the glass and clinked it against her unit-mate’s.

The clink resonated powerfully through the entire room—Tala’s three-fold sight even saw some dust vibrate off the art in the sitting room—the magic of the liquid seemingly amplifying everything relating to it.

She took a sip and marveled at the cold heat that slid down her throat.

Everything about the beverage and what it caused seemed a contradiction.

The tiny sip felt like it filled her up, even if just momentarily.

Her stomach didn’t feel overfilled, more akin to having just finished a perfect meal, and the comfortable feeling of satiation was just one of the sensations brought on by the magical concoction.

Her sinuses—which were never really full given her magics keeping her healthy—suddenly felt dry, but not painfully so. It was more akin to breathing in a wonderful breeze off a desert dune.

On the other side, her mouth and throat felt wet in the sense of thirst excellently quenched.

The previously noted cold heat filled her entire being, bringing with it an enhancement of her sense of touch along with a tingling, as if that sense was being suppressed.

Master Girt nodded after taking a sip of his own. “That’s some good stuff.”

Tala nodded as well. “It certainly is something.”

“Now. You reached out for a reason. What can I do for you?” There was tension clear across his whole body, as if he knew what she would ask and was bracing for it, hoping against hope that he was wrong.

She took another sip, gilding herself before failing to meet his eyes as she asked, “Your wife…”

His hand tightened on his glass in a clearly reflexive reaction, his knuckles whitening momentarily. His voice sounded on the verge of cracking as he feigned nonchalance, “Oh?”

Tala swallowed. “How did you cope with her passing? I know the loss I suffered is nothing in comparison—how could the loss of a mentor compare to that of a soul-bound spouse?—but I was hoping to gain some insight… if you are willing.”

Master Girt stared into his glass for a long moment, before throwing his head back and downing the remainder of the contents.

Tala took another careful sip, letting the silence stand.

Finally, he nodded, almost seeming resigned, “I can’t say that I’m surprised. With the loss you suffered, I honestly expected this conversation sooner.” He took in a long breath and sighed. “First, I appreciate you acknowledging that the losses are not the same. Truth be told, no two ever are, but it is kind of you to express it as you did.”

She gave a quick understanding smile and nodded once.

“Now, let me tell you about my rock, my Stonia.”

* * *

Tala had spent a couple of hours with Master Girt, listening to stories about his wife as well as how he had coped with her passing.

Surprisingly, Tala had seen the man advance a couple of percent toward Paragon during the retelling.

When she’d pointed it out, he had nodded sadly, simply saying that he couldn’t get all the way to Paragon that way, but each time he reprocessed the loss, recontextualizing it in his life, he advanced some.

Apparently, it also had to do with helping his soul to heal.

He was honest with her, explaining that it was the only reason he was actually willing to open the still aching wound of her passing to share it with others.

Even so, Tala’s three-fold sight gave her yet another view on the process, and something about Master Girt’s honest vulnerability—likely heightened by the drink—let her see through his aura.

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His gate—which had looked standard to her up to this point when she could see it at all—had seemed to glow from within the structure of the ring, imperceptible cracks throughout its entire makeup seeming to be highlighted by the inner light.

As he talked with her, Tala was able to see the very ends of the seemingly endless maze of fractures slowly knitting back together.

Alat had looked closer and told Tala that she had something to convey when the conversation was done.

Regardless, it was obvious that the talk—the remembrance—had been difficult for the man.

Toward that end, when he was done, Tala shared another glass with him before asking, “What do you need? I can stay if that would help, or I can leave you be?”

The magically enhanced alcohol had somewhat affected her, but even so, her body fought the effects back with relative ease, leaving her with a mild buzz and nothing more.

Master Girt seemed a bit further down the road than that, but he still clearly wasn’t drunk.

He gave a small smile, “That is kind of you to ask. I’ll be fine.”—he stretched back—“I’ll see you on duty this afternoon, right?”

“That’s right. Four until midnight.”

He stood, placing the bottle of glowing, magical liquid into a perfectly sized iron case. “I’ll be there with silver bells.”

“I’ll come find you if you aren’t.”

His smile shifted a bit then, taking on a far more genuine cast. “You know? I believe you would… Thank you.”

Tala nodded and smiled in return. “Thank you. Your experiences not only put my loss in context, it also gave me a picture of what healthy handling of it could look like.”

He snorted. “Sure, sure. This is healthy coping. Regardless, get out of here. I know you had a guest arriving today.”

She sighed. “Yeah…”

They said a few more words as he escorted her to the door, then Tala was back in the street.

She felt better but not better.

Our language is so irritating sometimes.

-Yeah, but now, at least, we can blame a Sovereign for that fact.-

That’s true. Language of the Sovereign or not, it’s still irritating.

-Yeah, yeah. So? Are you ready?-

What? Oh! Right. Sure.

Alat then explained what she had seen when looking closer at Master Girt’s gate.

As Alat had been watching, it had almost appeared that someone was working to knit the cracks back together. Reaching out of the gate and working, despite the power streaming through, around the ‘hands’ of that ‘someone.’

It made no sense, but that was the closest thing to it that Alat could conceive of, and when Tala was shown the memories, she had to agree with Alat’s assessment.

His wife?

-Possibly? Or that’s how he’s conceptualizing his own healing, so that’s how it looks?-

In either case, Tala felt like it was rather sweet.

Either his wife was helping him from the world beyond, or his belief in her desire to do so was strong enough to affect how the healing itself appeared.

Tala just mentally sat in what Master Girt had said and what she’d seen for a while as she walked through Alefast.

Eventually, Alat interrupted her. -The Zuccats would like to sit down with you to discuss how things are going to look going forward.-

That makes sense. I sort of expected it, I suppose.

-Shouldn’t we have an idea what we want, of what we’re going to be doing first?-

That was fair.

In the near future, what would she be doing?

She needed to solidify Kit and the people within her.

Tala needed to continue her training and work as a defender both around Alefast and helping to handle cells.

Rane would be able to start his Refining in just about a month, and if he chose to undergo the process, she wanted to be there to help him through that.

Finally, she needed to decide what to do about the gateless.

She potentially could offer them a means of living a lot longer, and that would actually benefit her, and not just because she would effectively be gaining a group of people bound to her.

They had already discovered that Adrill and Brandon’s use of magic used up power, lowering the density within Kit.

It just made sense, and Tala had fought exasperation at Master Simon’s insistence that they should actually prove that it was true.

It was.

That use of power, in turn, caused Kit to draw more deeply from Tala. After all, Kit was naturally bent toward being as full as possible, and she wasn’t about to drain her own reserves to refill the sanctum if she didn’t have to.

Similarly, she wasn’t about to allow the sanctum’s density to dip below the maximum that she could reasonably maintain, not without good cause.

It wasn’t a lot, but it was effectively like she was powering their inscriptions as well as everything else she was doing, magically.

The increased strain on her throughput helped to increase the base flow rate, which Tala was quite happy to see.

All Mages were constantly increasing their throughput a minute amount, based on their usage of power.

Additionally, all Mages could—and did—do exercises that were effectively the same, but this would be essentially constant while they were within her sanctum, with an extra strain whenever they reentered.

Once again, it wasn’t a lot, but it was more of a pull than it had been without the added drain.

Thus, so long as she increased the number of magically activated gateless at a reasonable rate, they should help her drastically improve that aspect of her magic without causing any issue with her capacities or capabilities in the short run.

True, it didn’t actually give her more power available at the moment—it did the exact opposite, in fact, given that the power was being used, but that was the whole point.

Even so, it would gradually increase her capacity to draw in power, and that was important to her.

-And useful.-

And useful.

So, her list of upcoming ‘to-dos’ was best summarized as: Kit establishing, gateless situating, Rane Refining, and self improving.

That’s quite a nice list, I think.

-Agreed. And being a better friend…?-

That is self-improvement, of course.

-Understood… So, Anna…?-

Tala stopped walking, scrunching her face.

She smoothed out her features and waved at a random passerby who called out her name excitedly.

Thankfully, it didn’t turn into anything more than that passing exchange.

Unfortunately, that let her mind turn back to Anna.

It was awkward looking back on their interactions at the Academy.

Tala had been so young in her thinking, so immature in the way that she viewed the world.

By the time Anna had noticed her and tried to befriend her, Tala had become set in her loneliness.

A popular girl reaching out to her had felt like a setup for mockery. That had actually happened more than once during Tala’s first year at the Academy, even if the teachers had been less than pleased.

Tala hadn’t seen Anna’s actions for the genuine offers that they were in retrospect.

Even though I know she would have felt odd while next to me because of my iron, she kept trying for as long as I didn’t avoid her.

-Yeah, it’s hard to sit next to someone who switches classes before you even know you shared a section.-

Yeah…

Tala decided to give Anna a chance.

-I’ve sent a message to Mistress Vanga.-

Thank you, Alat. Let’s get back to Kit for the conversation.

* * *

Tala arrived in Kit to find Anna alone, sitting and watching the scenery.

In another part of the sanctum, Master Simon and Mistress Petra were discussing animatedly, clearly in an intense discussion, but nothing about it seemed heated.

Tala hesitated, hand on Kit’s door handle.

We need to address this.

-Wise choice, Tala. Go face your fears.-

Tala opened the door, stepping out to Anna’s side, but within her line of sight so as to hopefully startle her less.

“Tala!” She stood up with a smile, then hesitated. After what seemed to be a moment of consideration, Anna bowed, “Mistress Tala. Thank you for welcoming me into this beautiful place. Thank you for the work you have given my parents, and the place to explore and grow that you gave to my siblings.”

She laughed softly to herself.

“I now understand more what Karsa meant. I don’t know why she didn’t speak about you, but I suppose she had no cause to know that I knew you, and she was trying to establish herself with new friends and all.” She looked up, coloring slightly. “But, I’m blathering. What can I do for you, Mistress?”

Tala felt her shoulders sink. “Anna, I…”

She grimaced, then called a chair to her and sat down. Anna followed suit, sinking back onto the stone bench she’d been seated on.

“I did not like the Academy. Because of some personal issues, I felt trapped there, and just wanted to get out and on to a better life.”

Anna nodded, “Well, you did that.”

Tala smiled. “So I did. It’s been… a bit of a rough ride, but I did, yes.” She waved dismissively, then. “Regardless, I projected some of that onto everyone there. I really didn’t want to get to know anyone, or do more than I had to.”

Anna shrugged. “Everyone goes through stuff. It happens.”

“How do you do that?”

“Do what?”

“Just take it in stride?”

“Well, it’s not like we were really close and you pulled away. You weren’t mean to me or anyone really. You were lonely. I wanted to help, but you didn’t want help.” She smiled again. “Seems that you didn’t really need it.”

Tala grunted at that. “I might have been better off if I’d gotten it.”

“If ‘ifs’ were whiffs, we’d all have passed out from the smell long ago.”

She blinked at the younger girl a few times before chuckling. “That is quite the phrase.”

“Isn’t it, though?” Anna smiled widely. “I—”

Terry flickered into place on the bench beside her, regarding her quizzically.

“Oh! Who might you be, handsome little bird?”

Terry chirped at her, and Tala almost said something, but she trusted Terry.

Anna reached out, grabbing either side of Terry, holding his vestigial wings tucked at his sides. “Aren't you just the cutest little predator?”

Then, to Tala’s horror, Anna flipped Terry over, putting him on his back with his legs in the air, and started scratching his neck and belly.

Terry gave some weak trills of alarm, but calmed down as she carefully scratched his feathers, clearly mindful of not bending them or pulling at them painfully.

Tala cleared her throat. “That’s Terry. He’s my friend, my partner.”

Anna turned to regard her with one eyebrow raised. “Your friend, do you say? Then he must be a fierce beast to say the least.”

He squawked his assent, one leg lazily drooping to the side.

Tala smiled. “He is that.” But, she was avoiding what she’d been trying to say. “What I was getting at was: I apologize, Anna. I don’t know how good of friends we would have been, but I wish that I had tried.”

Anna smiled back at her, stopping the scratches for a moment. “There is nothing to apologize for. It wasn’t the right time, then. It might be now.” Her smile grew. “We’ll never know unless we try.”

Terry flickered away, on his feet again, and watching Anna warily.

“Oh! Do you want more scratches, Terry?”

He squawked at her, ruffling his feathers a bit, then flickered away.

“I’m here if you change your mind!”

Tala felt herself smiling.

It seems that Anna’s almost aggressive kindness could even overwhelm Terry.

“Shall I get your parents? We have a lot to discuss.”

“Oh, yes! I have a wonderful idea that I want to propose to you all.”

Why do I feel concerned?

-Because you’re capable of making logical connections.-

That’s what I was afraid of…