Tala… might have made a mistake.

Flow had just let out a resonant crack, which had vibrated through the very structure of her sanctum.

That made sense. Both were soulbound to her, and so they affected one another on a deep level.

Still, Tala could see precisely what had occurred, and so she wasn’t panicking… yet.

Rane and Master Tai had noticed that something had happened, but that was about all that they were capable of perceiving.

Master Tai had likely felt void being introduced into the weapon… maybe.

Actually, probably not.

She didn’t think he would be able to penetrate her aura around her soulbound weapon when it was in her hand, and she wasn’t trying to let him examine it.

Still, it might have resonated in a way that made the void able to be sensed.

So, focus on what is happening, Tala. You only have a moment to fix things, here.

As a soulbound weapon, Flow was as indestructible as her own soul.

Her iron was basically dust, so it being penetrated wasn’t it being damaged or destroyed.

Huh… I should probably absorb some iron plates… That might make incredibly powerful armor.

But no, her elk leathers could be damaged… sort of. And soulbound armor wasn’t actually invincible, otherwise everyone would just get marginally magical clothing and soulbond it for near invulnerability.

So, Flow’s magic is almost as durable as my soul, but its physical shape is not.

It was also important to note that the effect created by the magic wasn’t as durable as her soul, just the magics themselves.

With regard to analysis, that was a good start, because the physical shape now was full of jagged cracks.

She was not panicking. That would be counterproductive.

She grimaced.

The cracks—the void—had not followed her guidance or desires.

The void had not obeyed her directives.

Because I have no claim on the void. It was like throwing a steak I own before a wild dog then being angry that it didn’t bite the meat how I wanted it to.

That was fine.

Well, no, it wasn’t fine, but it was fixable.

She even had the perfect magic within her bag of tricks.

Her elk leathers had inherent magic for the drawing back together of sundered, dead matter. Which was a long-winded, slightly technical, way of saying that those magics could repair nonliving things such as Flow.

They wouldn’t be a perfect match, but they should be able to help.

Thus, she aspect-mirrored those magics onto and into Flow.

Then, with intense focus, aided by Alat, she forced the knife back into shape, using its own magics to bind it together.

To add to the process, she burned her magics to massively magnify Flow’s gravitational attraction to itself, directly across the largest cracks, splitting her working in more directions than she had ever managed before.

When it was pressed tight, but not quite whole, she forced power through Flow, changing it into the form of a sword.

The morphic qualities of the weapon allowed it to flow almost like a liquid, taking the new shape.

There was no damage to Flow in its sword form..

With a bit of trepidation, she cut off the increased stream of power from Flow, and it returned to the shape of a knife.

She examined Flow from tip to pommel.

It felt like she examined every molecule, looking for inconsistencies or flaws.

Finally, she let out a sigh of relief.

That was a rusting terrible idea, Tala.

-...you’re acting as me again.-

Well, moving the realization of my own stupidity from you to me seems like a step in the right direction.

-I suppose you aren’t wrong? We definitely should have consulted some people before we tried that.-

Noted.

-Also, maybe—and hear me out here—you should probably heal from one slightly crazy experiment before trying another?-

…yeah. I’ll try to keep that in mind.

Still, her weapon was whole once more.

She had a splitting headache from hyper-focusing, the world seemed a little fuzzy, and her gate felt…off, but Flow was back in top form.

At that point, Rane and Master Tai reached her.

“Tala, is everything alright?”

“Mistress Tala?”

Tala forced herself to smile up at them. “I just tried something that I should have researched more thoroughly first.”

Rane huffed a laugh, clearly not surprised. “Well, you seem whole. Will there be any lasting damage?”

“No?” She was able to focus more, and blessedly, her gate’s ‘offness’ was mainly just a nebulous feeling of soreness, as odd as that sensation was, but she couldn’t see anything wrong with it or with Flow. “I don’t think so.”

He nodded once. “Alright then.”

Master Tai gave her a long look, clearly more uncertain than Rane. “Is there anything that we can do to assist?”

“No, thank you, Master Tai. You two can continue your conversation. I apologize for the distraction.”

Rane’s countenance had changed, and he now looked a bit concerned. “Honestly, I’ve got a lot to digest, mentally speaking.”

Master Tai shrugged and sat down along with Rane. “Let’s talk through some of the more esoteric things about void-magic that I’ve come across.”

Tala hesitated, obviously realizing that they’d picked up on something crazy happening, and they didn’t want to leave her to it.

-That actually is a bit kind. They’d leave if you asked, but at least Rane is biasing it toward him being here for you. Master Tai just isn’t interested in wandering away on his own.-

Yeah.

So, the three began to discuss the void.

* * *

Tala did not like times of recovery, even if they mostly consisted of her eating and lightly training rather than being bedridden or anything similar.

This time, however, she had another thing to focus on, and it made the whole process more bearable.

Honestly, it gave her insight into how some people could spend centuries in contemplation.

In her discussions with Master Tai and Rane, something blindingly obvious had come to her mind.

Kit was a voidling.

Kit was now soulbound to her.

Tala was ignoring an incredibly obvious source of knowledge and testing ability.

Thus, for the five days of ‘off-duty’ time after the discussion with Master Tai and Rane, Tala spent a large proportion of her time within Kit, working with her dimensional storage to learn about the void.

At first, Tala simply willed for the air in a specific location near her to pull away from a singular point.

This was well within her ability as master of the sanctum, and it accentuated the infinite, small voids that surrounded every molecule that made up the air.

The process added a larger void—created by her will—to those already present.

From there, she manipulated the shape of the void she cleared, the materials she created it in, and all sorts of other subtle differences, all while observing the process with as many of her perspectives as she could manage, Archiving everything for later review.

She also took time every day to review each experiment meticulously, doing her best to learn as much as she could about void.

As for Kit’s part, Tala used her abilities within Kit extensively, but she also did her best to lean on the instincts and feelings she was getting from the bond with her little voidling, following the promptings to gain understanding far more quickly than Tala herself would otherwise likely have been able to.

She gained a massive depth of insight, while not really getting to a point that she could do much with it, yet.

Still, she was laying the groundwork for her study of that fundamental pillar of existence.

When she felt like her brain was going to melt because she was too focused on the esoteric nature of void, she began experimenting with her iron, and how it interacted with various magics and the void.

I will understand the foundations of existence if it takes me a millennium.

Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

And she knew that it just might.

Even so, this was a start.

During the same span of days, Tala spent a lot of time visiting Rane and drawing him out into the city.

Some of his other acquaintances were doing similar work, and she came along with them for a few meals among other things.

One night they all ended up playing an odd series of betting card games practically until dawn.

The Healers had been a bit cross with all of them, given Rane’s need for as much sleep as he could get.

Even so, he was making marked improvements.

Tala was ever hopeful that he’d be able to fully Refine, but neither of them brought up the subject, not yet.

A fun diversion came right after her time off-duty ended in the form of a visit from Brand, arriving with a caravan from Bandfast.

Apparently, he’d been prevented from making his usual visits to Alefast—and the Feshua family—by his restaurant exploding in popularity.

When Tala had inquired, he’d sheepishly stated that as soon as he’d seen Tala’s name on one of the Defensive fight recordings, he’d known they’d be interesting to watch, and he’d bought the rights to show them all going forward.

He had emphasized that he’d bought the rights to all of them, not just those pertaining to Tala, and that had made her feel a bit less embarrassed.

Brand and his wife had bought the building next to their restaurant, connecting the spaces and turning the whole interior into an entertainment area with tables and various large viewing slates showing fights just like the battle-watch eateries in Alefast.

They’d even had to hire some extra help in the kitchen and to wait tables, which allowed them to expand their hours of operation and their selection of food.

All told, even after the massive increase in expenses, it was a boost to their income, but it came with a lot of extra work to get it going.

Artia and Adrill were understanding—and even celebratory—of their friend’s success, leading to two days of food and companionship that Tala was only marginally involved in around her restarted duties as a Defender.

Her unit did not let her take on anything strenuous, and they encouraged her to eat almost constantly.

Her increased magical density and the efficiency of her scripts led to her being able to pack away a truly frightening amount of food before her stores were full.

Regardless, the duties were light, and in truth, she spent most of her time doing a new exercise for her magic, will, and understanding.

She created a solid shape of her iron, then distorted it to create voids within it of all sorts of convoluted shapes.

Some mimicked the outward form of the iron, but as she worked, she was able to differ the two more and more.

This was an especially difficult process because all of her iron was basically dust, so the only integrity it had in any shape was what she enforced upon it with her will.

The white steel was a much, much better physical defense or barrier, but she wasn’t going for effective defense; she was going for difficult training.

She enjoyed the difficulty, even beginning to incorporate fourth dimensional movements and distortions to grow her intuitive understanding of that as well.

As a fun additional challenge—which Tala added when she was alone and had the spare attention— Alat would attempt to assault Tala’s constructs, using her portion of their will and mental fortitude to disrupt what Tala was doing.

It made the whole thing into more of a game than a rote set of movements.

The result had her constantly devoting most of her focus and brain power to that exercise whenever she could.

Alat also liked to spring surprise attacks on her when Tala was otherwise distracted.

Tala found it incredibly entertaining.

Even so, she knew that the motions and control would become second nature soon enough, and when it did, her plan was to add another lump of iron to work with at the same time, but it wasn’t time for that, not yet.

In that way, Tala spent the next weeks with Rane, her unit-mates, and her other acquaintances.

Until, finally, the day of Rane’s official diagnosis arrived.

* * *

Mistress Vanga stepped in to perform the evaluation as a familiar face for Rane, since he’d been spending more time with Tala’s unit.

There were other Healers observing from another room, but none tried to take primary position from the Defender.

Master Grediv was there with Tala, Rane, and Mistress Vanga, but thankfully, the room was large enough that even with the four of them there, it didn’t feel crowded.

Rane and Master Grediv were back on speaking terms, but Rane was still irritated. Even so, it seemed that he’d come to a similar conclusion to what Tala had in regards to Mistress Holly.

The older, wiser Mages hadn’t withheld information for any reason except in order to help their younger charges.

No one liked it, but it was what it was.

The process of examination was not quick.

All told, Mistress Vanga took an hour with various artifacts—alongside her own magics—to delve through all that she wanted to check about Rane.

She seemed to investigate him on the physical, biological, magical, cognitive, and spiritual levels.

There were probably other aspects that Tala wasn’t aware of, but Mistress Vanga seemed to check them all.

Throughout, Tala had a two-inch sphere’s worth of iron flexing and roiling through her will, perceptual, and control exercises.

The Healer had initially greeted the three of them, but otherwise only broke her contemplative silence to give Rane instructions.

Blessedly, in the end, she was smiling. “You can do another session in just more than two weeks.”

Rane’s cheek twitched at the words ‘another session,’ but he nodded gratefully regardless. “How did I do in my first session?” He chuckled nervously. “I can see my own aura well enough, but… do I have a real chance at Refining, or am I just trying to get as far as I can to extend my life?”

Mistress Vanga smiled warmly in response, “You are fully capable of Refining from a physical and magical perspective. The choice, obviously, is yours, and only you can make it.” She paused for a moment. “I expect it to take four or five sessions total, depending on the intensity and length you choose into for each of those. You could obviously increase that number if you wanted to take it in smaller bites, but I would advise against that.”

“Oh?” He looked curious, but Tala could tell that he was hiding quite a bit of trepidation.

“Generally, those who try to take it slower—to extend the Refining over more, less strenuous sessions—have a much lower success rate.” She held up a hand and clarified before he could respond. “Some do still succeed, but at this point in the process, the things that you control—which have the greatest impact on chances of success—are session intensity and length.”

Master Grediv grimaced slightly, but didn’t comment.

So, that’s a bit more than he’d have shared, but still not out of line?

-That was my impression, yeah.-

There was a momentary pause.

-Oh, we were just granted access to the results of scans.- Alat went silent for a long breath.

Tala felt like she was on the edge of her seat, even though she was standing.

Then, the little iron construct that she had over her left shoulder popped with a sound like a bursting balloon, raining iron dust down over that side of her body.

The others turned and looked her way.

Master Grediv raised an eyebrow, but both Mistress Vanga and Rane were smiling, having gotten used to similar things over the past weeks.

“Sorry about that. I got distracted.” Tala closed her eyes, grimacing. Really, Alat? Now?

-We want to be always vigilant.-

Tala growled internally, but easily willed all the iron back together over her left shoulder. Fine.

She then immediately deflected an attack on the shape above her other shoulder. That started a back and forth clash of Alat’s will against Tala’s. Since they were equal in power, they both had to be clever in their tactics.

They continued their internal dialogue, even as they mentally circled one another. So?

-Well, he’s got a good chance. Mistress Vanga puts the success rate of those in similar situations at a solid fifty-five percent.-

Tala carefully controlled her expression as Rane seemed to be contemplating as well.

-That is really, really good, Tala.-

I know. I know. She knew that she shouldn’t panic; she shouldn’t see this as a bad result.

After all, it was more likely than not that he would succeed, and even if he didn’t, he’d be around for a very long time.

It was even more difficult, though, because her own odds hadn’t been able to be calculated. No one had ever Refined with quite the same set of circumstances as she had.

She had been in a place of trying to Refine and maybe die, or don’t Refine and definitely die sooner than later.

How is the success rate if he goes for the less intense or shorter sessions?

-Let’s see… twenty percent. That’s not great, but he won’t take that path.-

He might. Refining is rusting awful, and it would be nice to lessen the difficulty.

-Lessen the ‘felt’ difficulty, while increasing the actual difficulty and lowering the chance of success.-

Yeah…

Tala’s gaze flicked to Master Grediv, confirming what her threefold vision had shown her.

He was regarding her with calm intensity.

That doesn’t make sense. How can something be calmly intense?

-Is the description wrong?-

No… She sighed internally, still keeping her outward reactions to a minimum.

Though, she did smile at Rane reassuringly when he glanced her way.

Rane nodded once. “Alright. How do I choose the intensity and length?”

Mistress Vanga smiled encouragingly. “That is an excellent question. Intensity is set before each session begins and cannot be changed once it starts.”

“That makes sense.”

“As to length, it’s as long as you can hold onto the Refining device, up to the maximum for that session, when the construct will power down.”

“As long as I can hold on?”

“Yes. The initial session locks you into the process, as otherwise… regardless, the intensity and duration are fixed for the first session, and once begun, they cannot be altered.”

“I noticed that.”

“For all further sessions, you can let go at any time, ending the session.”

“But if I do that, I have to recover before the next session?”

“Exactly, yes. If you stop, that is the end of that session.”

“I think I understand. Can I ask some other questions?”

“Of course.”

Mistress Vanga and Rane continued to discuss the very results that Alat had just analyzed. Master Grediv interjected occasionally, but generally let the other two discuss things uninterrupted.

As Tala thought about it, she had to admit that Master Grediv’s concern made sense.

It was reasonable to be cautious for one very simple—incredibly important—reason.

There was a way of lowering Rane’s chances of success even further. They could very easily make the twenty percent chance of success offered by weak, short sessions look like a good option.

Rane had only a five percent chance of succeeding if he took the more intense set of sessions—for the full length possible—against his will.

There could not be even a hint of belief in the one Refining that this was anything but their own choice.

Tala had absolutely no idea how they’d gotten that information, but she didn’t doubt the estimate. If it weren’t true, then Tala had no doubt that Master Grediv—and others in his position—would simply force those undergoing the Refining process to undergo as intense of Refining sessions as they could survive, locking them into the full lengths regardless of their own desires.

Who cared about free-will if you could force the person through into immortality? After all, they’d have an eternity to come around and forgive you.

That was, of course, utter foolishness—even Tala knew that—but it also wasn’t something they had to truly consider because it wasn’t an option.

Regardless, it was no wonder that Master Grediv had been nearly beside himself with frustration that Rane’s stated reason for Refining so soon was to keep up with Tala.

Blessedly, that was still his own choice, and she had been incredibly careful to in no way nudge him toward doing it or doing it sooner, but it was a delicate line to walk.

Tala refocused on the dialogue between Rane, Master Grediv, and Mistress Vanga as they discussed some of the more nuanced results. Letting herself just absorb what they said without interjecting or commenting.

Finally, Mistress Vanga seemed to have answered all of Rane’s questions, and Master Grediv was obviously satisfied.

Rane smiled gratefully and bowed to the Healer. “Thank you, Mistress Vanga, it seems like I have a lot to think about.”

“That you do. You know how to contact me if you have further questions.”

“I do.” He bowed again, and that was that.

He turned to Tala as Mistress Vanga and Master Grediv departed.

“Shall we go celebrate somewhere?”

She gave him a mischievous smile, more to pull herself out of her deeper, darker thoughts than because she actually felt like being… whatever she was being. “Oh? What do we have to celebrate?”

He snorted a laugh. “I’m going to be immortal, of course. If the spacing continues like this between sessions, I’ll be Refined by early summer.”

She forced a genuine smile, suppressing her concerns and letting her happiness for her friend truly shine through. “Yeah. That’s definitely a cause to celebrate. Do you want to eat in the sanctum? One of the battle-view towers, or…?”

Rane considered as they walked toward the exit of the Archon Compound.

When he remained silent, Tala continued, “If you’re not quite hungry, yet, we could find something else to do first. It isn’t quite lunch time yet. Also, I already finished my shift before we came here this morning. So? What do you want?”

He looked at her for a long moment as they walked, before giving a half smile.

“What?”

His smile grew. “Just thinking about your question.”

As they exited out onto the street, he finally answered. “Food first, I think.”

“Alright. Let’s go.”