Tala and Rane arrived outside Artia’s shop just as Master Tai turned the corner on the far end of the street, entering that side of the market.
She was still gratified when her threefold sight made things like picking out a specific person in a crowd so trivial.
Tala waved to make sure he saw them among the other pedestrians in the area. Thankfully, there weren’t so many that he had trouble seeing her when she made such an obvious gesture.
He waved back, seeming uncertain even as he continued forward. Tala saw the Bound’s magesight activate, and remembering how he’d had trouble detecting her before, she allowed her aura to be seen.
She noticed Rane doing the same, even if not quite as necessary, and she took that moment to look for herself.
-Roughly three quarters of the way to Refined. He made it halfway from ‘prepped’ to fully Refined in the first session. That’s both better than I feared, and not as good as we hoped.-
Yeah, if I remember right, session two is usually only about half as effective as session one.
-Without extenuating circumstances, yeah.-
Same for session three when compared to session two. What about session four?
-Again, it varies, but generally, it’s accepted that number four can match three, but doing so is accepted as making the experience and the recovery worse.-
Well… let’s hope he can get it in four sessions then.
-Let’s hope he’s up for four. I’d hoped he could do it in two.-
Yeah, even with as rare as that is… I had hoped for it too.
-Still, we should wait for the official diagnosis. Master Grediv did promise to share it with us, and it usually is given a month after the first session.-
That sounds fair, yeah.
When Master Tai stopped before them, he gave two deep bows. “Mistress Tala, Master, it is a pleasure to greet you.”
Tala nodded, “Master Tai.”
Rane gave a shallow bow. “Master Tai. I am Rane.”
“Master Rane, it is good to meet you.”
“And you.”
With the greetings done, Tala spoke before any silence could begin to stretch. “Rane, here, specializes in kinetic magics, and we were hoping you’d be willing to speak with us both, given our overlapping disciplines.”
Master Tai examined Rane once more before nodding. “It would be my pleasure.”
“Good.” Tala smiled. “Right this way, then.”
She gestured at the blank wall beside the shop’s entrance, and before Master Tai could say anything to match his confused look, Kit manifested a door, having moved the entrance from the alley where it had been before.
-Wise, not asking a new acquaintance to follow you into an alley.-
Yeah, I thought the optics wouldn’t be great.
-We grow in wisdom!-
Every day.
-...-
Most days?
-Many days.-
You’re sort of a jerk sometimes.
-Yes, yes we are.-
Tala shook her head as she led the way through the door and out into her sparring circle.
Rane followed her with Master Tai right behind the much bigger man.
As soon as Master Tai stepped across the threshold, he gasped, eyes widening.
Tala smiled, turning his way. “Yeah, the magic density is a bit higher in here.”
Master Tai gave her an odd look, then shook his head. “Yes, I suppose, but that’s not what startled me.”
“Oh?”
“How did you make the void… more distant?” He frowned, looking around. “No, that’s not right. I’d say ‘smaller’ but the void is infinite wherever it exists, so that’s not right either.” He turned back to regard her. “What did you do?”
Tala frowned for a moment, then it clicked, “Oh! I’ve been grabbing the bits of reality and pulling them against each other more tightly.”
Master Tai seemed to be fighting himself. Finally, he asked, “I don’t think I understand. Would you be willing to explain?”
“Of course.” She dismissed the door out of Kit, moving its exterior location back to the alley wall so the others who wanted to use it would be able to find it where they expected.
With that done, Tala took a moment to explain to Master Tai, describing generally what she’d done, while trying to prevent teleportation.
He grunted, “Well, that wouldn’t work to block teleportation, from what I understand.”
Tala huffed a laugh. “Yeah, it certainly doesn’t really slow Terry down.”
“Terry?”
As if on cue, Terry flickered into being on Tala’s shoulder before headbutting her. “Hey, Terry. Sorry I haven’t been around much.”
He trilled in irritation and headbutted her cheek again.
Rane smiled and waved, “Hey, Terry.”
Terry regarded him before chirping happily and flickering to Rane’s shoulder for a moment.
Rane’s eyes widened. “You’re… you’re on my shoulder?”
Terry tilted his head to one side and trilled.
“Oh, you’re fine, you can stay.” Rane gingerly patted the bird on his head.
Master Tai cleared his throat. “Ahh, I can see the gist of what you were trying to prevent. My bet would be that stopping that would be impossible. You might be able to keep him out of somewhere with the right preparation, but even keeping him in somewhere would be nearly impossible.”
They all regarded Terry as he seemed to practically radiate an aura of smugness.
Tala laughed. “Yes, you are the best bird.”
He trilled, then flickered back to her shoulder and settled down.
The three Mages moved to sit in a circle in the middle of the sparring circle, and Master Tai cleared his throat. “So… what did you want from this?”
Tala shrugged. “I don’t even know myself. I only gained access to void-magic through the merging of an artifact with my bound weapon.”
Master Tai frowned. “Can I see it? The bound weapon I mean.”
She nodded, and Flow dropped into his lap.
“Gah!” Master Tai jumped backward, hardly seeming to flex despite his three-feet of movement.
“Oh, come back here. It’s not going to hurt you.” She tried to will Master Tai back to his previous location, but the Bound seemingly reacted on instinct.
A pulse of void-magic came from his center, radiating all the way out to the borders of his skin and clothing.
And he didn’t move.
It wasn’t that he resisted her will. Instead, it was more like he made himself separate from it in a way that was uncrossable.
He looked at Tala, confused. “What did you just do?”
“Me?” She was very confused as well. “What did you just do?”
“You first?” he gave a hesitant smile.
That broke some of the tension, and she smiled in return. “I tried to move you back to where you had been sitting. This is my sanctum, and I can move anyone and anything around within it at will.”
“Ahh, I have spellforms set up to allow me to void any attempt to move me against my will.”
“That… is another interesting use for void.”
He shrugged. “Not really. Void is simply an absence. More accurately, it is the containment of something within an absence. I’ve always thought of it as borders between things.”
Tala perked up at that. “Exactly! Yes. I’ve only recently realized that.”
Master Tai nodded. “Yeah, that was close to my foundational understanding. ‘Everything is contained by the absence of itself.’”
Tala opened her mouth to comment, but then she hesitated. That was true. It was so obviously true it almost went without saying, but now that Master Tai had said it, it sent her mind spinning down a thousand wild tangents.
Rane was frowning, clearly thinking along the same lines that she was. “That’s… definitionally true, yeah. So, how does that help you with kinetic energy?”
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The two of them began discussing that aspect of their shared magics, while Tala considered.
Master Tai was also probing at Flow with his fingers and a tendril of magic while he and Rane discussed things.
Finally, Rane leaned back, thinking deeply. “Thank you, Master Tai. Your depth of experience really shows.”
The Bound let out a self-deprecating laugh. “There has to be some benefit from being an older Bound. If I’ve read you correctly, I’d say I’m nearly twice the age of you two combined.”
Tala shrugged. “Maybe so, but does it matter?”
Master Tai shrugged. “Not really. I do feel like I’m closing in on the needed insights to Fuse, but that’s not why we’re here.”
“Well, we’re happy to talk through it with you if you’d like. You’ve already given us a lot to think about.”
He smiled. “I might take you up on that, after all, ‘Out of the mouths of babes’ and all that. But let’s talk about this weapon, first.”
“Sure. That makes sense.”
“I also want to talk about what you’ve done to your magic to make it so hard to detect.”
Tala hesitated. “Weapon first?”
He considered, then nodded. “I can sense the smallest bits of voidmagic in it, but it doesn’t seem to be usable like this. Do you have another source? Or am I missing something?”
After a moment’s hesitation, she responded, “So, I do have another source of void-magic, but it is miniscule in comparison. I suppose that I should clarify. What you have there is my weapon in its base form. I can shift it into a void-form, but I’ve actually never had anyone else hold the handle while it’s in that form.”
Master Tai raised an eyebrow, then held Flow out to her. “How about you transform it, and I try putting a finger on the handle first? I’d rather not pay to regrow a hand.”
Ha, no self-healing.
-Rane doesn’t have self-healing, except those required in order to Refine.-
Yeah… well…
-Lyn doesn’t have self-healing.-
Fine. I won’t look down on those who take injury more seriously. She didn’t grumble about it, not even internally.
Instead, she took Flow back and with an act of will—and a trickle of power—pushed the weapon into the void-knife form.
It looked almost like black-fire rolled over the surface, leaving the aesthetic more black and purple than before—when compared to the standard black and blood-red—but otherwise, the knife was unchanged.
Master Tai tentatively touched the handle when she offered it, and he was unhurt.
When that was confirmed, he took the weapon back, examining it again after the change.
“Yeah, this is now almost entirely saturated in void-magic. I can see your interest now.”
Tala nodded. “With my new understanding, I don’t actually think it cuts, not in the traditional sense. Instead, it simply inserts void between what passes on either side of the blade, starting infinitesimally in front of the edge.”
He nodded in response, “Not how I would conceptualize it, but yeah, that sounds about right. That would be as clean a cut as I can imagine.”
She felt a smile pull at her lips. “Even cleaner than this?”
She held out her hands and Sole’s sword appeared resting across her hands.
Master Tai twitched at the suddenly appearing sword but then frowned. “There isn’t any active magic on that, but…” He looked closer, setting Flow beside him on the rough stone. “May I?”
She nodded, and he took the weapon. “The blade is practically invisible.”
He tapped a knuckle on the side, and there was a hauntingly beautiful, resonant note as the length of the blade vibrated from the tap. “How strong is this?”
“In theory, it’s indestructible to anything we’re capable of bringing to bear. I imagine a Sovereign could break it, though.”
Master Tai huffed a laugh. “How filling was the meal? Well, a black hole would be left wanting.”
Rane chuckled. “Yeah, ‘Sovereign’ isn’t the most reasonable comparator.”
Master Tai nodded. “Exactly. So, effectively indestructible.”
“Yes.” Tala nodded in turn. “But it can’t be merged with anything else. The magic functions in a way that I am quite familiar with, and anything that fundamentally altered the weapon—such as trying to combine it with something else—would spoil its unique properties.” She hesitated, thinking for a moment. “Well, then that could break it. Even a Mage attempting to merge it with something else would spoil it, assuming they had the standing to make the attempt.”
Tala frowned, following that line of thought further.
“You know, there might be something to that.”
-Oh! Wow. It can’t be that simple… could it?-
Maybe? It would depend on his conceptualization at the time of enactment, but it’s worth tossing up the chain of command.
-I’ll notify Master Grediv that helping that prisoner enact a soulbond might release his immortality magics, and allow him to pass on, as he wishes.-
I would bet it wouldn’t actually work, but maybe?
-We’ll leave it to others to investigate, but I would assume that he’d have defended himself against soulbonds. Maybe he left the door open to voluntary ones, though? They’d have to be pretty extreme to change him fundamentally enough to let him slip from under the aegis of the magics he’s enacted.-
Tala returned her focus to Rane and Master Tai. “Regardless, this should be an infinite edge, only a single atom thick. I have a unit-mate who is quite adept at cutting edges, and he was practically obsessed over this weapon for a long time. He’d still have it if I hadn’t essentially taken it out of his hands.”
Master Tai looked it over before handing it to Rane to examine. Rane smiled. “I didn't have much of a chance to look this over before. It’s amazing.”
Tala considered for a long moment, then shrugged. “Hold onto it for me?”
He looked up, eyes widening. “What?”
“I’ll take it back if I need it, but you can have some fun for a while. Master Simon and I are working on a use for the needles, but the sword isn’t as useful to me.”
Master Tai cleared his throat. “Which brings us back to this.” He picked up Flow. “I believe this should cut cleaner than even that unusual weapon, or at least be capable of cutting things that that weapon can’t. This blade is basically a magical statement that anything which it severs are now two different items.”
“By introducing the void.”
“Exactly. Honestly, I feel like it would already be hard to resist, but there seems to be something else within the blade that isn’t being utilized.” He held up the knife, looking even closer, his magesight inscriptions blazing even to Tala’s mundane sight. “Forgive the metaphor, but it’s all that comes to mind: This is like a tripod that currently balances on two legs, the other just waiting to be used.”
Tala blinked, leaning forward. “Say that again.”
He looked at her curiously, then repeated his metaphor.
She swallowed. Holding out her hand for the knife.
Master Tai placed it on her palm. “Now, as to your magic.”
Tala nodded absently. “You said it was hard to detect?”
“Yes, it’s almost like you’ve turned down the volume on your power somehow… if that makes sense.”
She chuckled, still considering. “It doesn’t?”
“It’s like a crowded room, where you’ve shut the door. The voices are still there, and if you focus on them, or open the door, there is plenty of volume, but until then? It’s pretty easy to miss.”
“Huh. Now that I consider it, I’ve had some interactions where my magic wasn’t as noticeable as it probably should have been.”
-Like when you had a power measuring contest against a Paragon, and he kindly didn’t break your toys?-
Not how I would have worded it, but yeah.
-A guy pulled a sword an inch from its scabbard, and so you drew two knives and growled at him.-
…is that really how it came across?
-Give or take, but I think he understood what you were getting at, just like you did for him.-
Fine…
This line of thought was distracting her from what she wanted to be thinking about. “Thank you for letting me know. I don’t have an answer for you at the moment, but I’ll let you know if anything comes to mind.”
“Thank you.”
“Can you and Rane go over there to talk while I think about this? You’ve given me a lot of things that I want to consider.”
The two men nodded amiably, already beginning to delve back into the intricacies of kinetic redistribution and manipulation as they moved to the other side of the sparring circle.
They would clearly have a lot to discuss.
-You’re already thinking what I am in regards to Flow.-
Yeah. Void and magic.
-All that is missing is reality.-
It has reality, it exists, but everything also always has void, because it is distinct from that which is around it.
-And everything always has at least a bit of magic, even if it isn’t inherently magical.-
So, we need to bring forth reality more strongly. We need it more strongly than even having it surrounded by and connected to a ridiculous amount of iron.
-It did seem to work against Sole, trapping in the iron I mean. Though, looking back, I feel like we brute forced it a bit by sheer quantity of iron.-
Tala dove into Flow mentally, using her threefold sight to analyze it more deeply than she’d ever truly examined anything.
She parsed it at every layer, from every angle, utterly forgoing any view outward to aim all her perspectives at her soulbound weapon.
There was already a tremendous amount of iron attached to Flow, and that she moved out of the way for ease of examination.
The dasgannach had been merged with her weapon, so it was effectively the source and anchor for all of her iron, but that alone wasn’t imparting ‘Reality’ to a sufficient degree, even if it was there, ready.
It’s like the void-magic when Flow is in one of its standard forms.
As she searched through the magics of Flow’s makeup, she found what Master Tai had been talking about.
Void-magic seemed to be twisting around…nothing.
It was like a three-stranded braid where a gap existed instead of one of the strands.
I’m filling in the gap with void? No, that wasn’t right.
Regardless, it clearly needed reality, somehow.
She tried adding iron into the gap and felt it spark in her hand, singeing her skin as the material was rejected violently by the knife.
It didn’t hurt her too much, nor draw the attention of the two others who were deep in discussion.
It did grab Terry’s attention, however, as he squawked, seemingly having been woken up by her actions.
“Sorry, Terry.”
He chirped, headbutted her that it was alright, then flickered away.
Right now, it is void-magic. Adding in reality as a basic concept doesn’t really make sense. I would need to add in reality-magic, and reality-void?
That isn’t how her existence defense worked through her elk leathers, but that was a flawed working regardless.
Sure, it functioned, there was no doubt of that, but it was also imperfect, like the forces involved were constantly roiling, making it incredibly unstable and unable to resist dedicated, sustained pressure from an aggressive source.
That was likely what left her feeling so isolated within the defense, and that was also what had made the shield able to be pushed back, leading to her current need for recovery.
The existence defense—as she currently used it—was void-magic, magic, and reality in the form of iron.
It’s too magic heavy.
Similarly, when she tried to add iron into Flow’s magics, directly, it was just void-magic and reality in the form of iron. Those two were opposites.
I either need true void with the magic of Flow’s makeup, or reality-magic and reality-void.
Master Grediv would not be pleased if she pursued reality-magic and for good reason.
Yeah, let’s not take that path.
So, Tala did the only thing she could think of.
WIth an act of will, she drew on her authority within Kit, her authority over Flow, and her authority over her own power.
This space was hers, this weapon was hers, and everything within her incredibly focused perception belonged to her and her alone.
She focused her will, preparing to use Flow’s natural spellforms as a guide. She wasn’t trying to change them. Her goal was to augment them, fill in the missing pieces, and let them come to full fruition.
Then, she tried to force the weapon to pull apart in that specific pattern, introducing void along that pattern previously filled with void-magic, her magic ready to weave through it along with iron as soon as she opened the voids.
Flow, obviously, didn’t want to change shape, let alone pull apart.
She felt herself growling, her hair standing on end as her entire being flexed against Flow’s resistance. At some level, she was fighting her own soul’s resistance to change.
You are MINE. Shift at my will or be devoured.
A wave of power washed out from Tala, and Master Tai’s gaze snapped to look her way, even as he cut off Rane.
Rane turned, eyes widening an instant after Master Tai.
Tala felt her very soul resonate at her drive and desire to enact her will upon the world.
She felt the deep dissonance as she tried to force something bound to her very soul to bend and change.
The very metal of Flow’s makeup screamed and cracked.