Tala’s aura was acting as a mold, holding the patterns and forcing the magic to flow at her direction.

Her threefold sight let her know that Kedva’s kidneys were working overtime, along with all her other functions that were designed to clean up unwanted things within her.

In fact, her whole body was rejecting the impurities that it had previously incorporated.

Tala blinked in shock as black sludge was pushed out of Kedva’s every pore, even leaking out of her eyes like black tears.

It was oddly similar to what Tala had experienced while Refining, but much less extreme, and much less foul, as if these were less ingrained impurities, or at least less of them.

Truthfully, they’d discussed, and even expected, something like this happening, because Brandon and Adrill had said that their urinations and defecations had been foul since their rebirth. The healers they’d asked explained that it was the magic now within their body helping them clear up the nastiness built up over a lifetime of mundane living.

Apparently, the magics that Tala was giving Kedva were more efficient at the purification process, or at least helped to augment it to occur more rapidly.

The appearance of the black sludge was a herald of the end, and Kedva’s body stopped its spasmodic attempts at twitching shortly thereafter.

Tala had held the girl still with her will, but she had still felt how Kedva had wanted to flail about.

Tala stepped back, “It’s done.”

To his credit, Brandon rushed forward, grabbing Kedva’s hand, heedless of the tar-like nastiness that covered her delicate fingers.

Not so delicate now.

The young man pulled out a cloth and did his best to wipe his betrothed’s face.

It didn’t do much, but it was a sweet gesture.

Kedva gasped, her lips sticking a bit as she opened her mouth to pull in a deep breath.

Her eyes seemed to be stuck shut, however.

Tala sighed, and with a thought—and a moderate exertion of will—she pulled wooden panels to their location, surrounding Kedva even as the bed vanished, and the girl dropped into a warm bath.

Brandon was moved beyond the wooden barriers, and Artia was moved to be within them. The older woman immediately intuited what was going on, and got to work.

Tala might have been able to pull away the black muck directly, but something told her it would be unwise to attempt to do so.

It didn’t make sense, but she’d learned to trust her instincts.

-At least sometimes.-

Hush you.

As Kedva was splashing and spluttering, Tala pulled her aura back, feeling her pseudo-ownership and authority over the girl fade.

She relinquished her position of sovereignty and hated the feeling of loss that came along with it.

Oh, that’s awful.

It was like the loss of a limb, only she couldn’t grow this one back.

It was like the loss of a friend, and it resonated with the still raw wound of Mistress Odera’s passing.

Even so, it had been right.

That girl was not Tala’s to rule over.

To keep her—to even want to—would be envious or an unfounded jealousy, and that was not who Tala was.

Kedva had been able to open her eyes with the help of the warm water loosening the hold of the black nastiness.

She took a moment, sitting there in the bath, to look up at Tala. “Did it… am I…?”

Tala smiled. “It went perfectly. Even better than we had hoped.”

Kedva beamed up at Tala, revealing black-coated teeth. “Good, because this is disgusting, and I might just hate you if this was all for nothing.”

Tala barked a laugh before smiling at the girl once again. “Get cleaned up. Your betrothed and your parents will be eager to see you up and about.”

Kedva nodded and began wriggling to get out of her sopping, filthy clothing.

Those are a lost cause.

-Yeah… There is an odd film of…- Alat gasped. -Is that…?-

Yeah. Reality, but not iron, not anti-magical, but definitely of Reality.

-...we’re going to have to study that muck, aren’t we.-

She sighed internally. Yeah… probably.

At that moment, Terry flickered into being, standing on the edge of the tub.

Kedva didn’t seem to notice him, but Artia did. She gave a careful, small bow to the avian.

Terry dipped his head back to her, but he was clearly focused on Kedva.

Tala leaned close to the avian. “Let her recover, let me test her, then you can spar with her.”

He examined Kedva and Tala for a long moment before bobbing in agreement and flickering away.

“Could someone help me? I think I’m stuck.” Kedva’s voice came from within the garment. “No… I feel like I could rip my way out, but I don’t want to ruin this dress.”

Artia stepped forward, “Of course, dear. Let me help.”

With that, she began to help Kedva, and Tala took that as her cue to be elsewhere.

She moved herself outside the wooden dividers, arriving directly beside Brandon.

She caught his hand just as he was about to push his way through. “She’s fine, and your mother is helping her undress to get clean.”

The young man colored brightly and stepped back.

She smiled, letting his wrist go as he moved away. “They shouldn’t be too long. Let’s chat with the others while we wait.”

Tala and Brandon moved off to one side to wait for Kedva to get cleaned up.

Master Simon, Adrill, and Rane joined them, and together, the five talked through how the process had gone.

Generally speaking, everything seemed to have gone as well as could have been hoped.

Master Simon provided readings and insights that lined up with what Tala had seen and enacted.

It was good to have a second set of perspectives to verify the information.

If something had gone odd with her own perception, it wouldn’t matter how many different aspect-mirrored points of view she had, they’d all be similarly distorted or inaccurate.

-Yes, our views of the world are inaccurate to the extreme.- Alat expressed with a hint of playful sarcasm.

Yes, in many ways they are. Isn’t that the whole point of advancing toward Paragon? We are correcting our perception of existence?

That quieted the alternate interface for a little while.

Tala explained the alterations she’d implemented to the men.

After a bit of back and forth, it was agreed that the implemented design for magical redistribution and use of power made more sense for non-gated than shackling them to the gated model.

Less than ten minutes after they were put up, the wooden dividers vanished, exposing Kedva, fully dressed in new, Tala-provided clothing.

The tub was gone in the same way as the bed and dividers had been taken away.

Tala had taken the black gunk and the clothing soiled with it and stashed it for later research.

-Without telling anyone.-

We’ll discuss it later.

Kedva looked… radiant.

She had been lovely before, but that naturally solid foundation had been built upon, enhanced, and uplifted.

She did look a little worse for wear in one department, namely she looked just a bit malnourished.

Thankfully, that was being corrected even as she was brought forth. In one hand, Kedva held a wooden tray, loaded down with all manner of food, including endingberries.

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She seemed almost to not be able to eat fast enough, her body still in a hyper-flexible state, taking in the nutrition faster than was usual—though nowhere near the speed Tala had managed even right after her scripts were completed.

“Does this hunger pass?” Kedva asked around bites of food, washed down with endingberry juice from an iron cup.

Tala found herself grinning like a maniac even as Brandon answered. “I’ve definitely found myself hungrier since my rebirth, and I think yours was more extreme than mine.”

Tala was still vaguely uncomfortable with the term ‘rebirth’ for the procedure, but it seemed close enough to the truth, and Brandon and Adrill had adopted it almost exclusively, Kedva following suit.

Still, she didn’t let that suppress her amusement.

Adrill noticed Tala’s expression and leaned toward her, asking quietly, “What is so entertaining?”

Tala glanced his way, “Ask her what she’s drinking.”

He gave her an odd look, “I know it’s magic, that much is obvious.”

She made a ‘get-on-with-it’ gesture, still smiling.

With a shake of his head, he shrugged and did as she asked, “Kedva, dear, what is that you’re drinking?”

Kedva took another gulp. “It tastes like the berries… endingberries. I think it’s their juice.”

Adrill twitched, his entire body jerking slightly.

“Adrill? Is everything alright?” Kedva paused, the cup halfway back to her mouth.

He squeaked slightly. “Nothing, dear. You… you enjoy your food.”

Kedva looked confused, turning to Brandon, who was just slightly pale. “What am I missing? Brandon?”

Brandon swallowed reflexively. “That juice… the berries are roughly equivalent to gold in value by weight.”

Kedva’s eyes widened, but he wasn’t done.

“The juice is processed and refined. If you could find a buyer, it could be worth up to triple its weight in gold.”

Kedva looked down at the cup with widening eyes. She then looked to Tala, “Mistress Tala… I… I can’t repay you for this.”

Tala had had her fun, so she waved dismissively. “It is yours, free and clear. There’s more where that came from, quite literally. I have an endingberry orchard in here. You’ll have your fill if you come and work in here with Brandon and Adrill as discussed.” She hesitated. “Well, you’ll be doing other things, not actually working with them.”

Kedva nodded, “That was made clear, yes.”

“Then, there isn’t any issue. You’ll likely be enlisted to make the juice for your and my use.” She smiled again, “Maybe for others too, if the tests go well, and we find those worthy of receiving the same magics that you did.”

She smiled a bit nervously. “That’s… wonderful.”

Tala laughed. “Go, assure your parents that everything is alright, then come back. We need to test your durability.”

There was a collective hitch from everyone present, as they all turned to regard Tala more fully.

She frowned. “What?”

Rane cleared his throat. “Who will be testing her?”

“I will, of course. Is that a problem?”

There was a collective exchange of glances.

She gave them a flat look, “I’ll be careful.”

Rane coughed implicatively.

-See? He’s a wise boy.-

I can be careful…

-...-

Fine…

Tala sighed, her shoulders slumping slightly. “Master Simon, can you go get Mistress Vanga, while Kedva goes and talks to her parents?”

Master Simon bowed, “It would be my pleasure.”

* * *

Tala looked at her opponent with narrowed eyes.

The girl seemed like she didn’t know how to fight.

Her stance was sloppy, her guard was flawed, and she was visibly containing her nervousness.

Tala was skeptical, so she simply decided to ask, “Are you sure you’re ready?”

Kedva straightened, “Wait, that’s an option? I’m not ready.”

Tala sighed. “Kedva, we need to test these scripts. We have a healer. In fact, we have two.” Tala gestured to Mistress Vanga and Anna who stood off to one side.

Anna raised a hand to beside her head as if she were about to ask a question, even as she leaned forward. “Only one, actually. I’m not officially a healer yet. I’m still in training.”

Mistress Vanga patted her mageling on the shoulder. “And you’re doing very well, Anna.”

Anna gave a happy little shrug, shifting back to stand as she had been.

Tala nodded, “Exactly, we have two people who can heal.”

Anna opened her mouth to protest, then stopped to consider. Finally, she shrugged again and left it alone.

After all, Anna had gone and gotten her inscriptions with Mistress Vanga. She could heal.

-So, you are technically correct.-

That is the best kind of correct.

-...you don’t believe that.-

No, I do not, but I want to, at least in this instance.

-Fine. I’ll leave it be.-

Tala addressed Kedva, “So?”

Kedva sighed, crouching down, back into her mockery of a fighting stance. “Very well. I’m ready.”

She wasn’t.

Tala didn’t bother with a fighting stance.

She simply stepped forward and off to one side.

Surprisingly, the girl lunged forward even as her gaze trailed Tala by a foot or two.

Tala finished her step before poking Kedva in the shoulder.

Kedva was utterly unprepared for the shift in her center of balance, causing her to stumble to the side, away from the poke.

She got her feet underneath her, moving her hand to where she’d been poked. “Ow! Wait… not ow? That felt like it should have hurt, but it didn't?”

“Good.” Tala grinned, holding out her hand. Flow appeared in it, sparring sheath locked in place, already in the form of a sword.

Kedva straightened. “Hey, now. That’s not exactly fair.”

Tala shrugged. “I just tested your fighting ability. Now we test your resilience.”

She stepped forward once again, giving a lazy swing into Kedva’s side.

Tala didn’t want to hurt her, so she swung from low to high.

Kedva didn’t try to move out of the way or block, but she still squealed in surprise as she flew.

She was thrown off the sparring circle to land in the surrounding ring of water, the local part of the infinite river.

A moment after she disappeared, she shot back out of the water, landing on the stone with that single leap, dripping wet and glaring. “Was that really necessary?”

Tala’s smile grew, and she pointed with her off hand at Kedva’s side. “Why don’t you tell me?”

Kedva looked down and saw that her tunic had burst apart where Tala had struck, creating an incredibly rough, two inch oval that revealed skin.

Skin that was perfectly intact and not red at all.

Kedva gaped. “How?”

Tala nodded. That was a good question. “To borrow arcane terminology, you have near Elder levels of power constantly flowing out of you, powering your defensive magics. On a purely physical level, you are almost as durable as I am.”—Tala hesitated—”Well, no, not really, but you are much closer than nearly anyone else.”

Rane was slowly nodding. “She doesn’t have your depth of magic, but she has your magical density, because of the sanctum and how you constructed her magics.”

Tala pointed his way, to where he and the others were sitting on the far side of the ring of water, “Exactly. Within this Sanctum, and likely for…” she considered for a moment, “Two minutes?”

-More like one and a half.-

Thank you.

-Happy to assist.-

“For about a minute and a half after you leave, you will be all but indestructible to any non-magical… anything, really. Any magical effect of”—Tala glanced Anna’s way—”one advancement below mine will still cut through you relatively easily, and you are still laughably exposed to direct magical alteration, but that should be solvable with time and training. After that 90 seconds or so, you’ll still be as tough as a bull for nearly half an hour, more durable toward the beginning than the end.”

“But less time if I actually am resisting damage, right?”

“Yes, but once we get you to the point of resisting direct magical effects, that shouldn’t cause a shortening of the time.”

Kedva seemed to consider. “There was a section in the manual about that… ‘Staking Your Claim’ or something of that nature,” she was nodding to herself, the possibilities seeming to unfold before her mind, “But that aside. It would be better to not have to resist damage. Can you improve my fighting? I don’t want to fight, not really, but the skills should translate into my being safer in all sorts of situations.”

Tala kept from laughing derisively. Kedva was asking for help, after all. “That is quite true, and absolutely, yes.”

A crippled, first-year city guard could improve your fighting.

-Tala… you had to learn too.-

…Fair. She smiled at the younger girl, “Let’s get started.”

That began roughly three hours of training.

Once again, Tala found herself falling back on Eskau De-arg’s methods. Though, she was far, far more forgiving than that little, bear-like arcane had been.

She struck at flaws in Kedva’s form, performing percussive maintenance on the girl’s movements.

Brandon occasionally called out encouragement, and Mistress Vanga and Anna insisted on checking on Kedva’s health every so often, but otherwise they simply kept working.

Rane occasionally assisted, either giving pointers or acting as an opponent for Kedva so Tala could supervise from the outside.

Tala felt a bit awkward about that, given that Rane had a greater depth of experience, martially speaking, but Kedva seemed to take her instruction better, so they let Tala take the lead.

After about an hour, when Kedva was starting to at least keep her feet under her, Terry flickered into the sparring ring.

Terry’s eyes were locked on Tala, and she knew what he wanted. “Fine…”

He trilled happily.

Then, Anna called out from the sideline, waving, “Terry! Good to see you again. Want some more?”

Terry looked her way and flickered a half step away from her.

“Suit yourself.” She leaned back, smiling. Only then did she look around, taking in the looks of absolute awed confusion on Rane’s and Brandon’s faces. “What? Did I miss something?”

Brandon, who was closer, cleared his throat. “What did you do to Terry?”

“Nothing, I just gave him some scratches. He liked it well enough, but I think it put him off his guard, which he didn’t like after the fact.”

Brandon nodded slowly. “Alright then.”

There was a beat of silence before everyone reoriented on the task at hand.

Kedva gave a little wave. “Hi, Terry.”

He trilled in greeting, then flickered, appearing behind her leg and striking it, hard.

Tala would have thought that it would be difficult to judge how hard Terry struck Kedva.

That might be true under normal circumstances, but Terry knew what he was about.

The leg he hit shot out from under the woman, swung upward and threatened to rob her of her footing entirely.

To her credit, she instinctively bore down, crunching forward to attempt to keep herself upright.

Unfortunately, that moved her into the path of her own leg, and she kicked herself in the head.

It took her a minute to rise to her feet again.

When Mistress Vanga asked if she wanted help, Kedva waved her off. “I am just trying to wrap my head around the fact that that little bird just took me down like that.”

Rane barked a laugh, then quickly covered his mouth, looking embarrassed.

Terry flickered to his shoulder, looking him dead in the eye.

Rane muttered under his breath, so only Terry and Tala could hear, “I was laughing at the underestimation, Terry. You are utterly terrifying.”

Terry chirped once, then flickered away, causing Rane to relax.

Kedva hopped back to her feet, “Alright, so that happened. Should we continu—”

Terry flickered into being beside her, delivering a raking slash to her side, spinning her back to the ground.

Kedva squealed as she fell.

Terry let out a series of laugh-like chirps.

Oh, this is going to be an interesting day.

Blessedly, Terry only flickered in to ‘test’ Kedva every so often while Rane and Tala worked with the girl.

At the end of the three hours, Kedva’s stomach was growling almost constantly, and so Tala called a halt.

“Let’s get some food, everybody.”

There was a round of agreement.

Alright then. Let’s go.