Tala sat beside Rane in the Bandfast food court that Lyn had brought her to oh so long ago on her first day in the city. Lyn and Kannis were with them as well, and the four were taking up one end of one of the long tables arranged in the center of the space, chatting, eating, and catching up on what had happened during their time apart.

Kannis was apparently progressing incredibly well, to the point that Lyn was beginning to talk of the young woman becoming a Mage in truth. Lyn even wanted to have Kannis take her position, though she would obviously come in at the bottom level of the position, rather than Lyn’s more advanced place in the hierarchy.

Tala thought back and realized that it had been nearly four years since Kannis had become Lyn’s apprentice.

It was strange to think that Kannis had known Lyn for just three months less time than Tala had, herself, and the other young woman had been with the Archon for basically the entire time.

Huh, I was still thinking of Lyn as my friend, and Kannis as an add-in, but that isn’t really true in any regard. They know each other far better than they know me or I know them, and I’m the outsider. She kept her thoughts on that matter to herself, but still inquired further on Kannis’s elevation.

Apparently, Kannis was a bit uncertain and unwilling to end her apprenticeship ‘so soon.’ She felt like she still had so much to learn, and the idea of being on her own was daunting.

Lyn reassured the girl that she wouldn’t kick her out or leave her aimless. Additionally, while there was some mild teasing at that, Tala and Rane each did try to offer a bit of true advice.

There was a bit of a lull in the conversation, but then, Kannis got an odd look on her face, and she looked back and forth between Rane and Tala. Finally, the mageling spoke up. “You two… you’re sitting closer together than usual…”

Lyn perked up at that, examining the two Refined critically. “You’re right, Kannis. Excellent observation and deduction. Something is definitely different.”

“Thank you, Mistress.”

Rane glanced to Tala, shrugging before subtly tilting his head toward the other two.

Tala understood him to be leaving it up to her to decide if they said anything and if so what would be said. That was considerate of him, given she’d known Lyn longer—and Kannis even longer—than he had. Tala shrugged in return, then smiled to the two women. “It’s not exactly a secret. We are courting.”

Lyn and Kannis shared a look. Then, Lyn regarded them for a long moment and asked, “Officially? You’re officially courting then?”

Tala glowered. “Why do people keep asking that?”

Lyn quirked a smile. “Well, dear, that’s probably because you two have been dancing around each other for as long as I’ve known you both. The best romances come from a place of solid friendship and you two have that well enough in hand.”

Kannis shook her head, clearly disagreeing with her master. “No, no. The best romances come from love at first sight.”

Lyn arched her eyebrow at her mageling, “Maybe in the stories.”

Rane gave a self-deprecating smile. “I actually made a really bad first impression.”

Tala huffed a laugh. “I remember that. Yeah, I sort of hated you at first.”

Kannis leaned back and nodded sagely. “Exactly. Love and hate are very close to one another. Love or ‘hate’ at first sight are equally good, even if one takes a bit longer to come around.”

Tala and Rane both gave the girl skeptical looks.

Lyn, however, simply sighed, shaking her head, “From what I’ve seen and researched, such flames—whether hate or love—burn out quickly as often as not. Bless the stars most are not foolish enough to bind their souls to another over such a thing without verifying that the professed and felt ‘love’ at first sight either has—or can have—a foundation.”

Kannis gave a mischievous smile as she teased her master. “Researched, eh? I didn’t think romance books were considered scholarly texts.”

Lyn was unbothered by the subtle jab. “I did actually mean research. The statistics on such things are hard—but not impossible—to find. As I hope is not news to you—my mageling—such a relationship should be approached with at least as much thought and solemnity as any other soulbond.”

Kannis waved that off. “Of course, master, but I do hope that I find love at first sight. That would be so much easier…”

“Indeed.” The older woman smiled, her expression slightly sad, but that seemed to pass in a moment before she regarded the couple once more, “But we have moved into the weeds. Courting? When did that happen? What do you actually mean by ‘courting?’ I want details, and you will be providing them.”

So, Tala humored her friend and—together with Rane—answered all the questions that the two had.

Even with such a task added into the mix, it was an entertaining evening, and each of the four of them thoroughly enjoyed catching up with the others.

* * *

Mistress Holly regarded Tala and Rane with a stoic face. “The two of you have given me and my assistants so much work.”

Rane balked slightly, but Tala knew the woman too well. Instead of being intimidated, Tala grinned in response. “You are most welcome.”

Mistress Holly’s lips twitched before breaking into a smile. “Indeed.”

It was early morning, and the three were in Mistress Holly’s private workshop in the back of her warehouse sized business.

“But regardless, my ability to be solely responsible for your inscriptions has passed. I will introduce each of you to one of my senior assistants, and they will go over what we propose for the update to your inscriptions. From there, we will either iterate as needed, or implement the final result. While I would enjoy handling your inscriptions solely on my own, I am afraid that such simply would not be efficient nor the best use of my time.”

There was a moment of silence before Rane and Tala shared a look and shrugged. Tala smiled and answered for both of them, “Alright.”

Less than ten minutes later, Tala was sipping coffee beside an older looking woman with a pleasant face liberally decorated with smile-lines.

Mistress Hilfren was the woman who attended to Tala, and she wore a greenish-yellow aura about herself with clear pride. Though she was no less helpful despite her obvious pride in that advancement.

Yeah, Mistress Holly is only Refined. Sure. Tala didn’t bother to hide the sarcasm in her mental tone, not that it would have done much good anyways.

-That does seem rather unlikely…- Alat sighed within their mind. -I bet once we surpass her we’ll be able to tell.-

What do you think the odds are that she’s a Sovereign? Her domain could be over inscriptions, and she’s building her power within gated humanity.

-The odds? Well… not zero, but still vanishingly small. But Ascending? I could very much see that, and she’s working on whatever she needs to advance, hiding her rank until she can surge in power and take the last step.-

That would be rather exciting… but I doubt it.

-But maybe?-

Maybe… but no. Tala mentally shook her head and refocused.

The two Refined sat in a rather large room in deeply comfortable chairs that—to Tala’s surprise—supported her with ease.

Before them, in the cleared rest of the room, detailed illusions of various parts of Tala’s inscriptions were manifest as the senior assistant took Tala through the different alterations, reasoning behind such, and the potential other avenues that these specific scripts could be advanced down.

This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings.

Tala had lots of thoughts, but found Mistress Hilfren to be incredibly knowledgeable and helpful. Honestly, it was a bit like talking with Mistress Holly, except without the snark.

Mistress Hilfren also often referenced Mistress Holly as the primary origin for the various versions and proposed alterations, which let Tala know the core reason behind the discussion reminding her of talking with Mistress Holly: The senior assistant was closely following a sort of script provided by the more knowledgeable woman.

So, what Mistress Holly really meant is that she didn’t want to take the time with us to discuss all this, but she’s still going to be the one finalizing the inscriptions.

-It does seem like that, yes.-

In the end, the two of them settled on a schema with only one or two areas remaining that needed to be solidified and tightened by Mistress Holly. The largest change would be the loss of the rings for quick, heavy gravity manipulation. That space was instead being taken up with further augmentations of Tala’s other existing magics.

After thanking the older woman for her time, Tala departed, receiving a promise that the full schema would be ready for inscribing the following morning.

Rane finished talking with his own senior assistant a bit after Tala, coming out to find her in the lobby, sipping at another cup of coffee. He raised an eyebrow at that, but she just smiled in return. “So? How was it?”

He shrugged. “Master Cutnir was pleasant enough to work with. I am to go to the Constructionists as soon as possible, though, so that I can soulbond an Archive connection. Then, based on that, they can finalize my scripts.”

Tala stood with a nod. “Shall we go now?”

He gave her a searching look. “Are you sure you want to? Aren’t there other things you could be doing? I know you try to fill your time with meaningful things that help you keep progressing.”

She shrugged. “I can fiddle and practice while coming with you. Besides, being with you is meaningful.” She smiled and continued before he could really process what she’d said or respond, “Also, afterwards, I want to try to see master Lisa again.”

Rane frowned for a moment. “Oh! The—” He cut himself off, glancing around before continuing, “magic item shopkeeper?”

He’d likely been about to say arcane. Tala smiled, glad that he’d held himself back. “That’s the one, yes.”

She had told Rane about her encounter with the horned fox-man at various points since they began courting, so it was a somewhat familiar topic.

“I still think it would be interesting to pick his brain about the dimension of magic, among other things.”

Rane nodded slowly, clearly considering the idea in a positive light. “That sounds like an excellent plan then. We can get lunch after? Kannis and Lyn should be on break, and we can have the meal with them if they’re up for it. Brand’s shop is even rather close to where we’ll be if that works for everyone.” He gave a mischievous smile. “Maybe they’ll have some Defender fights on that we can see while we eat.”

Tala gave him a knowing smile. The man probably just wanted to see how people in other cities reacted to the fights, especially his and hers, but that was fine. “Sure, I’ll message them to ask.”

-Done.-

Thank you. She stood, coming over to meet Rane at the door. “Shall we?”

* * *

Acquiring Rane’s soulbound Archive connection went seamlessly enough. The only slowdown was when the Constructionist—a woman that Tala hadn’t met before—had Rane make an inside-out Archon star, so that it would bind the connection to his subconscious mind rather than his conscious one.

She explained that Mistress Holly’s assistant had contacted the Guild and requested that Rane bond in such a way to facilitate the type of inscriptions that they’d agreed upon.

It took Rane about half an hour to create the new spellform within a small, drop-sized sapphire.

They embedded that into the ring with a bit of material guide magic, and Rane fully allowed the spellworking to activate.

It was fascinating for Tala to watch, actually, especially with her threefold sight.

The power washed outward and the two-part ring actually seemed to change material to become sapphiric in color and translucence. Though it remained unfaceted, indicating that it wasn’t truly made out of the gemstone.

They wrapped up fairly quickly after that point.

Rane chose not to put on the half of the ring that he would wear until they’d left the Constructionist Guild. In fact, he waited until they swung through the Archon Compound and passed over the other half to Mistress Ingrit to establish the permanent connection.

Apparently, Master Grediv would be footing the bill until Rane could bear the cost himself, which as a Defender wasn’t too far off.

Only when they left the Compound and were back on the street did Rane slip the blue ring onto his right ring finger. With a ripple of magic, the ring faded into his flesh, leaving a faintly blue circle on his skin. It was nothing that would interfere with his inscriptions, thankfully.

Interestingly enough, Tala saw at least a part of how it was accomplished. Rane’s ring shifted one step stoneward, leaving behind a singular layer that easily conformed to his skin, giving the impression of having colored the flesh.

It’s just a minuscule layer of the ring itself, anchoring the item to him on the superficial. There was so much more to it than that, but at a base level that was the core of what had happened.

At that moment, Tala received access to a message within the Archive.

-... the boy has sent us a message…-

Boy?

-Rane. He’s acting juvenile.-

Tala looked up to Rane’s face, seeing a wide, self-satisfied grin on the man’s face. Shouldn’t it be really hard for him to do that given the inside-out Archon star used for the bond?

-It should, and he’s not very good at filtering.-

…what did he say?

-’Tala, Tala! I can see you. You are seen.’ Then there are what seem to be text representations of giggling, followed by. ‘Wait… I don’t know how to filter what’s coming. That’s okay, I just need to not think about…’- Alat then went on to tell Tala a long list of things, despite Tala’s internal protests.

Rane seemed to see something on Tala’s face, and his smile faded slightly. Then, he pulled out an Archive slate, and his face went white as he began manipulating it furiously.

-Oh, he’s deleting most of the stream of consciousness. Now it just says ‘Hi, Tala.’ That’s quite a bit more… contained.-

Tala was torn between embarrassment and wanting to laugh. She settled on clearing her throat, smiling up at the large man, and simply saying, “Shall we go?”

Rane nodded furiously and put his Archive slate away. “Yes please.”

With the Archive link business complete, Tala and Rane headed toward the horned fox’s shop.

When they arrived, they found it closed once again.

That is just a bit irritating.

Tala frowned, looking at the shop with her threefold sight. Yet again, she could see that there was far more to the building than just what existed on the superficial, and it was entirely protected by iron along every avenue of approach.

-Hey, Tala. Is that a door?- Alat brought Tala’s attention to something stoneward of them. Though, it was difficult for Tala to really put its exact location into words or even to conceive of its location properly.

Tala looked, continuing to frown. It was hard to perceive the distortion on the outside of the odd surface, but compiling what she could see together, it just might be a door. Maybe? If so, it isn’t one that I can actually enter through… or at least, I wouldn’t know how to go about orienting my body in four-dimensional space to use it.

-We could still knock?-

Tala nodded. That’s true?

Rane saw the motion and asked, “What do you see?”

She briefly explained.

He considered before agreeing, “That sounds reasonable. I can’t see anyone getting upset at a simple knock.”

With that encouragement, Tala stretched out her aura until it pushed against what was probably a door. It was odd, because she felt the iron at the edge of her reach, but it was an absolutely solid wall against her aura, and she felt like there were no circumstances that she could conceive of which would allow her to claim the iron in any way.

Thankfully, that wasn’t what she was trying to do. Instead, she manifested some of her own iron, and moved it forcefully against the door with her will and aura-manipulation. In that way, she knocked on the arcane door.

She didn’t hear the knock herself, but something seemed to happen.

To her threefold sight, the entire configuration of the four dimensional construct seemed to ripple and roll oddly. Seeming to fold and shift around itself in patterns and motions that were dizzying to watch.

Then, something more minuscule shifted, and Tala realized that it was something like a peephole which had been opened. It hurt her mind to try to comprehend how it had opened, but it definitely had.

A moment later, she realized that a sort of eye was looking out through the opening, which was still impassable to her aura.

Not really knowing what else to do, Tala reshaped her iron into an arrow that pointed back toward the entrance.

A moment later, the peephole closed, and Tala pulled her iron away.

Rane seemed to be able to tell that something had happened. “Tala? Did it work?”

She nodded slowly. “I think so?”

It took another five minutes before the front door of the shop opened, revealing a tall, nondescript man standing just inside. He kept his hand on the door, clearly demonstrating caution.

They all stood in silence for a long moment before the man raised an eyebrow. “Well?”

“Master Lisa?” Tala was pretty sure it was the fox man, but if so, the illusion was much more complete than any previous, even showing the ordinary man—and all his contents—to her threefold sight. He’d had a rather well appointed sandwich for lunch, if what she was seeing was a true indication.

“Yes, Mistress Tala. You knocked?”

“I did. I hope that you are well. May we come in?”

The man looked momentarily irritated, but then shook his head in resignation and motioned them inside. “Very well.”