Tala took a deep breath before looking around to confirm that everyone was ready.

This experiment had been building for a long time, and she’d only get to release this once.

She likely wouldn’t ever devote so much time to building up an attraction again, unless these results were beyond expectation.

The Refined from the Constructionist Guild all had their detecting magics activated at full power.

Brandon and Master Simon had their Archive slates held up, linked to the monitoring magics of the sanctum itself.

Master Grediv had his hands at his sides, a relaxed stance showing how ready he actually was for whatever might be about to come.

“Ready?” Tala found herself feeling a bit nervous, and she did her best to squash those feelings.

She got a round of affirmatives.

She nodded, speaking quietly, “Alright then. Here we go.”

Tala released her working, and for a moment, nothing happened.

Then, the ‘extra’ void that had appeared to be on the outside of the sphere of the working began to flow inward along definitive, curving and jagged lines.

The massive reality node quivered to her threefold sight, and even her mundane vision saw something odd about it.

There was something that almost looked like a heat haze through the space, but that wasn’t quite right.

Terry was watching intently from her shoulder, eyes locked on everything as it was happening.

As the surfaces of void wove and grew inward—acting much like lightning trying to find the best path from ground to sky if at a slower pace and as fields rather than lines—Tala braced herself to contain any fallout.

Finally, the tendrils of void began to touch.

It was odd, because unlike the line-like nature of lightning bolts, the void was scribing the outlines of three-dimensional shapes.

All told, it was less than three seconds from Tala’s releasing of her magics to the point where the three-dimensional tracings were complete.

There was a pulse of void and the massive reality node was gone, broken apart into many smaller nodes.

A ripple passed outward, and Tala saw the stress that ripple put on all the reality nodes around the sparring ring.

Even so, they all held.

After the reverberations calmed down, Tala felt her own eyes widen.

The reality nodes that remained were larger than they had been before she’d started her working so long ago.

They weren’t beyond the range of those she’d encountered before, but they were definitely on the bigger side.

Her working had left a lasting change upon reality.

The group of Archons—along with Brandon—took the following hours to analyze the results and aftermath, but in the end, they simply confirmed what Tala had initially seen.

The reality nodes were divided differently from how they had been, and they were, on average, larger.

The overall stability had gone up within the space from before she began the working, but it wasn’t as high as when her working had been active.

All of that was expected, but it was still good to get the confirmation.

In the end, Tala was left in her sanctum with only Brandon and Master Simon.

The two were huddled off to one side, talking through yet more data that they’d gathered and an analysis thereof.

Tala cleared her throat, drawing their attention, “Do you two need me?”

They paused, exchanging a look before Master Simon motioned for Brandon to speak. The boy nodded his thanks and turned to Tala. “Thank you, but no. Would you be able to get my father in here though? There’s a lot of minutiae here, and I think his perspective could be helpful.”

Tala nodded. “He took today with your mother, right?”

“He did, but he should be available now.”

“Alright, I’ll see if he’s free, then leave you all to it.”

They both bowed, “Thank you, Mistress Tala.”

* * *

It had been nearly two months since she’d released the working on the reality nodes within her sanctum, and Rane was seeming to be more and more comfortable with his position as a simple Fused.

She didn’t know how she, herself, felt about it, and that made her feel like a child.

That seeming contradiction made her even more grumpy, when she took the time to contemplate it.

Honestly, she felt like she was a child who, when told to clean something, declared that it was pointless, because it would just get dirty again.

One afternoon, while Tala was aimlessly walking the wall-top on watch, Alat pressed her a bit.

-And what are you concerned about?- Alat knew. She always knew, but she asked anyway.

Rane is going to die.

-So are you.-

I’m immortal.

-But not eternal or undying.-

Fine, but I’m still immortal. He’s not. He’s going to die.

-So are you.-

I don’t want him to die.

-Your magics suggest that you don’t really want to die either.-

Alat, you know what I’m saying. I don’t think my soul could take it if he died.

Alat did not respond, and Tala dropped back into her brooding for the remainder of her time on watch.

Rane seemed to be making the best of his situation.

He was very nearly ninety percent of the way toward being Refined from a base-line Fused Archon, and that would grant him a vastly extended life, not to mention a great increase in his base magical density and throughput.

Even so, he still wasn’t allowed to be a Defender, and that, more than anything else, seemed to frustrate him.

In fact, that seemed like the only thing about his choice that truly frustrated him at the core of things.

He spent long hours sculpting, training, studying, and generally working to improve himself, but that hard line was there.

An Archon was required to be of at least Refined advancement before they would be considered for the position of Defender.

Tala and Rane still spent time training together as well as doing things for entertainment, but it was obvious that they could both feel her slowly pulling further ahead of him in overall ability.

Master Grediv hadn’t commented on Rane’s stated choice, but he had seemed…more reserved the last few times that Tala had seen him.

Even when he’d come to observe the reality node experiment within her sanctum, he had been less talkative than usual.

But that was to be expected, she supposed. He had just discovered that yet another of his family was confined to mortality.

Others were taking it in stride.

Most who were Refined or above had had at least some friends or family make the same choice in the past, and those below that rank weren't aware that something wasn't as it should be.

But regardless, time continued on.

Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

Days had become weeks, allowing those nearly two months to slide by with barely a concern.

The time of lazy, thoughtless—yet enjoyable—life came to an end rather abruptly one evening.

Tala and Rane were just sitting down to dinner in one of the battle-watch restaurants when Alat made a gasping sound within her head.

-Tala. We need to go.-

Tala frowned. What? What’s going on?

Rane obviously noticed, but he knew by now that she was likely dialoguing with Alat; so he waited.

-One of the other units found a cell containing what appears to be a Reality Mage. Your unit—and you specifically—have been called in to deal with it.-

Her frown became a grimace. Do I have time to eat?

-Your team is coordinating as we speak. The aim is to leave within the hour. Master Xeel will be meeting us at the cell, in case magical weight is what is needed.-

If Master Xeel was coming, then things were serious indeed.

Still, she’d been excited for this meal with Rane. It was something a bit more than their usual meals within her sanctum or at his family’s estate. She’d been looking forward to it.

But, Reality Mage.

She sighed, then considered the facts.

With a nod, she decided. Then I have time to eat, at least if we do so quickly. Please let everyone know what’s going on. Anyone who’s not coming should get out of Kit. I’ll grab her on the way out.

Tala turned to Rane, wiping the concern from her face.

He noticed the change and immediately asked, “Tala? Are you alright?”

She smiled. “I am, Rane, yes. I’m just being called in on a cell-run. Something’s come up that they think I can help with.”

“Oh!” He moved to stand. “We should go then.”

She motioned for him to sit. “No, it’s fine. We can eat, but we don’t have time to linger.”

He gave a rueful smile. “Tala, no meal you eat is quick.”

She huffed a laugh at that. “True, but I was mainly planning on tasting the food and enjoying the company. I can do that for at least half an hour. How does that sound?”

His smile widened. “Excellent.” He lifted a hand, catching the attention of the waiter. “Excuse me, it turns out we have less time than we thought. Would it be possible to put a rush on our food?”

* * *

Tala and her unit flew through the darkening late-summer sky.

She had enjoyed her food, but the fights on display—along with Rane’s and her analysis and debate over them—had just been getting good when Alat had let her know that she had to go.

Rane had understood, but Tala was still irritated.

She sighed, pulling her focus back to the present moment.

A thunderstorm had rolled through from the east that morning, leaving the whole area with a refreshed, lush look.

Even with the lovely surroundings, and the stunning sunset, Tala wasn’t alone in her less-than-good mood.

In fact, no one was in a particularly good mood.

Terry sat on his perch, but he lacked his usual look of quiet contentment. He seemed to have picked up on the tension of everyone else. Also, since she’d explained what they were going to face, he likely had his own concerns about what Tala was going to fight.

A Reality Mage.

It had been more than a century since the last Reality Mage had surfaced, and that had simply been a misguided pre-Bound. Even so, he had almost destabilized a city before he was taken down.

And he had been taken down. His death had been swift and certain. Such powers couldn’t be allowed to grow, and once they got their conceptual claws into a Mage, they were never fully recovered.

But the one they were headed toward wasn’t something so simple.

This one, the one they were going to deal with, had been put into a cell…

Alat was busy combing the Archive for any relevant tidbits, and Tala was fidgeting with her irondust-voids.

The unit that was at the entrance to the cell ahead of them had already sent back the information that the cell antechamber provided.

Still, Tala knew that she’d want to review it herself when they got there.

Based on the information, Re-al had created a reality-gate within herself before shedding her old name. She had done it so completely—or in a manner so beyond their understanding—that it reached the level of conceptual magic and erased all records of her name from reality.

To be clear, because Tala asked, it didn’t actually erase the records from the Archive, but unless an Archon were to somehow go into the Archive to learn her original name, and then be immune to high-level magics upon their return, no one would ever be able to recover it.

But Tala focused on the important part. A reality-gate was a difficult thing to understand.

On a cognitive level, Tala just wasn’t ever going to understand how it worked.

As to what it did? It filled the Reality Mage with a power that made the working of Magic impossible.

It could also then be somehow wielded to extend that effect outward, imposing it upon the world around her and even onto nearby Mages.

Seemingly, it acted as an anchoring of the world in ‘Reality’ as it existed without Magic or the void.

Obviously, such a power wouldn’t work well up in space, but down on Zeme? It was horrifyingly effective.

They were only able to trap the Reality Mage by enclosing her within a cell that was larger than her power’s reach had grown to by that point.

The understanding was that the entirety of the cell would be filled with that power by now. There would be no magic, no zeme at all.

Truthfully, Re-al should be dead.

After all, without magic, humans died on the timescale of decades, and it had been much, much longer than that.

But the Reality Mage had lived longer than a Reality-souled should have before she’d been locked away.

Even if they hadn’t known that for certain, no one wanted to bet the world that the woman had died to old age as she should have.

That’s why they’d called for Tala, the only known Defender to be able to work with iron in a meaningful way, while not being directly tainted by Reality.

So… we have to face what is essentially a Mage’s worst nightmare.

-I thought that was us?-

Tala smiled. I mean besides us, of course.

-Someone who renders them mundane, then.-

Yeah. Tala took a deep breath. How are you feeling about this?

Alat’s tone turned serious. -Well, if your layered defenses don’t work, I’ll be put out of commission, so that’s not great. I don’t like ceasing to exist. Even if I come back, it’s incredibly unpleasant.-

Yeah… Tala knew that it was somehow different for Alat than when a mundane fell into a coma or dreamless sleep. It was a ceasing, and an ending of sorts—rather than a pause—from the alternate interface’s perspective.

Still, the two of them would face the danger, despite the risks.

The flying contraption continued to glide under Mistress Cerna’s direction, moving south east, out into the plains toward the ruins of the previous Arconaven.

It seemed that the cell was just a bit north of where that city had been, about halfway from Alefast.

It was likely the two wanings overlapping the cell that had been the final stressor which had moved it into the maintenance cycle.

Tala could see—far off to their left—the northern forests in which the Anatalins—the giant wolves—resided and ruled.

On their right, much nearer at hand—but still not close by most measures—was the Leshkin forest, the constant threat on gated-humanity’s southern border.

She almost chuckled at that.

She could easily remember learning about the Leshkin.

At the time, she’d seen them as a threat to all of humanity, and she saw them as threatening humanity’s southern border.

After all that she’d seen and experienced, she knew that the cycling cities were just one pocket of humanity.

They were likely one of the most powerful and unified pockets, but just a pocket nonetheless.

Very, very far ahead of them toward the left hand side, she could pick up the haze of distant mountains. Those were on the far side of the great plains upon which the moving villages roamed.

Similarly, by looking to the south and a little behind them as they traveled, she could see hints of the mountains near which Platoiri had been established.

Gated-humanity was surrounded by powers it only barely kept at bay, and now this Reality Mage had come to make their lives even harder.

Tala would have none of it.

These were her people, even if she didn’t always feel like she fit in.

This was her home, and she would protect it.

That resonated with her deeply, and she instinctively knew that she’d moved a tick toward Paragon, but that was less important than what it represented.

She was closing in on her eternal vision, her motivation that would help her endure a potentially eternal existence.

She felt her resolve strengthen further even as she thickened the iron bracketing her inscriptions star- and stoneward.

Terry’s eyes flickered open, and Tala thought she saw consideration in the avian’s eyes.

He would not be coming in with her.

It would not be a contest of violence, at least not most likely.

Either Re-al’s ability would negate what Tala could do—penetrating her defenses and rendering her powerless—or it wouldn’t.

At least, Tala hoped it would be that simple.

* * *

They arrived to find another unit of Defenders along with their Paragon for this mission and Master Xeel waiting for them.

Tala’s threefold sight showed a monstrous amount of power flowing around Master Xeel, completely under the man’s control.

Is… is he trying to deepen his natural magics at a time like this?

He wasn’t inscribed… Her eyes widened.

She couldn’t detect any natural magics around him at all. He was carving new magics.

Is he remaking his magics for this specific encounter?

She simply couldn’t see the magics he was enacting clearly enough—nor did she have a deep enough understanding of natural magics—to interpret the portions she could discern.

Even bare moments after they landed, Mistress Cerna was already talking with the other unit leader, leaving the Reforged man to walk over to Tala. “Mistress Tala.”

“Master Xeel.”

“You seem to be doing well.”

“As do you.”

He grunted, giving a little smile. “Just happy to be able to assist, even if just as backup.”

She smiled in return. “I’d be incredibly happy to let you handle this if you’d like.”

He shook his head. “No. We can’t solve all the problems, or soon we’d find ourselves becoming nothing more than false gods above a weakened and embittered humanity. Solutions must come from the least advanced who can manage them effectively.”

Tala blinked at him a few times. “There is a lot in that, Master Xeel.”

“That was the intention, yes. I’m glad that you’ve advanced enough to understand what I mean, at least a little bit.”

Her smile turned wry. “That’s true enough. A lot’s happened since we last spoke face to face.”

“You do seem to have quite the adventures for one so young.”

She huffed at that.

“Are you ready for this?”

She shrugged. “As ready as I can be.”