Tala had a hard time breathing at the sheer magical weight of the mere projection that was before them.

The woman had caramel colored skin and vibrant violet eyes, with an iridescence to them that seemed to make the other colors throughout the cell pop in an unnatural way.

Her hair was a silver that somehow spoke of youth rather than age, which made no sense to Tala.

The projection of the woman seemed to not know where she was looking for a moment, but then she blinked a few times, and her soft voice vibrated the entire cell once again, “Oh! This is a Cell, isn’t it? Is this Zeme?” She gasped. “I haven’t thought about Zeme in ages.”

Tala shuddered before the purr in the woman’s voice.

“Now, how did you get my attention?” Her eyes flicked to Master Virbold. “Huh, a Paragon? No, you couldn’t have done this.” She looked at each of the unit members in turn, pausing on Rane. “Oh! You’re a young one… a big one too.” Then, she sighed, shaking her head—well, she shook all of herself which was only a head—and her gaze fell on Tala. “Oh! It’s you. You’re the one who tugged on my connection to this place.”

Tala felt herself rise from the ground, even though she couldn’t feel or sense any magic acting upon her.

“You are fascinating. Magics focused on staying alive—I approve of course—and those for amplifying the link between objects, with a foundation in gravity, but you’re reaching beyond that, aren’t you. Hmm, yes. You are going to reach beyond Zeme, or die on the path, aren’t you.” It was not a question.

Tala shivered again.

“How is this place doing, eh? I see that the arcanes haven’t wiped out the gated, or even their ability to advance… you aren’t all arcane slaves are you?”

Tala saw everyone shake their heads as one, seemingly unable to resist giving an answer.

“Good, that’s good. Humanity has some ridiculous scruples, but it would reflect rather badly on me if those I rose from were taken out while I wasn’t paying attention.”

There was an odd flexing around Mistress Cerna, and suddenly she spoke up, “No. The arcanes and gated human cities have an unstable peace after the Black Legion disaster and unified response.”

“Black Legion? Why does that sound familiar…” The head grunted. “Oh, well. I’ve forgotten some of the more useless things, it seems. Does humanity still prize the individual over society?”

This time it was around Master Virbold that the distortion was enacted. The Paragon was clearly straining, but he answered all the same, “We have never prized the individual over society, but if you mean do we still prize individual choice and free will then yes. We do not make slaves or test subjects of those whom we choose to protect.”

“Yes, yes. How noble. So nothing has changed.” She sighed. Then, her gaze flicked back toward Tala. “But you. You look like a go-getter. Your magics show a wise order of priorities. Do you let others just walk around with something that you need?”

There was an odd pressure around Tala, then. It wasn’t invading her mind; it was more like the pressure stripped away her reasons to keep silent, as if reality or existence itself no longer saw a need for her to do anything but answer, “From those who wrong me I will take without issue, but I will not harm the innocent, no matter what I might gain.”

The woman clucked her tongue. “That's unfortunate. You aren’t letting your true feelings surface. The very fact that you’re lying to yourself and are hiding behind niceties and platitudes, makes me a bit sad. Though, I suppose that’s the influence of your gate… tainting your view with a useless viewpoint of the other world.” She hummed to herself. “You know… I haven’t thought of Zeme in so long… It would be nice to get an update. I could take some time to uplift you, and remove your blinders, if—”

A rumbling growl resonated through the cell, and while the power of the arriving head had possessed a similar level of power to Anatalis’ working, the growl was so undoubtedly him that Tala had no doubt that he’d somehow woven that knowledge into the sound in order to leave no room for mistakes.

The face grimaced, “Down boy. I know the rules. I’m not taking her. I’m just making an offer that—”

The growl deepened, this time it was joined by a sound like wind through the trees, and Tala got the unmistakable feeling akin to when she had stood in the Leshkin forest.

“Fine, fine. And people wonder why I never come home.”

The growl turned into a low yip that Tala was sure conveyed the equivalent of ‘No one wonders that.’

The sound of a single leaf falling somehow evoked agreement.

“Well, it’s been fun thinking back on old times. I hope you all rot in that broken world, especially you, pup. As for you, silly tree, grow some eyes and take in more of existence. You’re stagnating, dear.”

The shiver of leaves and low growl built, and Tala saw the entire cell fill with seemingly spontaneously generating spellforms, magical manifestations similar to those Tala generated when fully iron-clad, but on a significantly higher level.

“Fine! I’ll go. I don’t stay where I’m not wanted.” Her gaze locked onto Tala’s for a moment and clear interest blazed in her eyes. “Immortality leads to a long life, girl. When you put this broken mud-ball behind you—along with your silly concern with mortals—look for me. We’ll talk, and I’ll show you around, eh?”

The magics in the air fully manifested, and the illusion was eviscerated. That included the disintegration of the very reality thread that Tala had used to draw the woman’s attention.

Everyone felt the pressure on them vanish, and they all gasped in great, sucking breaths.

Then, Tala heard a voice within her head, and a similar flexing of reality, this time removing her barriers to hearing the truth in what followed, however much or little there may be, “You remind me a bit of myself. Don’t be a stranger, Mistress Tala.”

Tala’s eyes widened, and as she looked back at the book, she saw an illusory eye appear just long enough to give what was undoubtedly a wink before it vanished once again.

There was a long, long moment of silence.

Finally, Master Girt barked a nervous laugh. “So, this prisoner is no longer a threat to Zeme?”

Master Virbold sighed. “Yes. I will testify to that.”

No one seemed interested in disputing the statement.

With that verified, the unit left the cell in subdued silence.

Tala set Kit to the task of devouring the meal, ensuring that a small bit of the dimensional expansion was left. In that way, they could delve for a cell anchor in case one had been used.

The dimensionality that Kit took in was added to Tala’s sanctum for the time being.

While Master Virbold worked on searching for an anchor—and retrieving it if so—Tala and Alat sorted through the dimensionality that had been granted, along with the air and other aspects of the cell.

They did find some remnant biological matter that had been so thoroughly degraded as to distribute through the whole cell just like the air itself.

Tala couldn’t perceive any remaining reality threads—though whether they’d never been there or Anatalis’ and the Forest Spirit’s working had broken them, they had no idea—but they wanted to be as safe as possible even so.

Tala built up a large amount of dissolution magics and set it loose on the remnants, turning them to even finer dust. Then, she gathered it all together in a vacuum before dropping the temperature of her sanctum by a uniform one degree before focusing all the extracted thermal energy on the remaining particles.

They blazed white hot before atomizing entirely and combining with oxygen in the air—that she added in for the sake of combustion—in completely different configurations, which should break any connections that might have lingered, even if those connections had been outside of their scope of detection.

Tala then opened a portal and dumped the remnant matter onto the ground before analyzing it. “There are no reality threads connecting to the remnants. If she still has a connection to any of it, it is beyond me to sense.”

The others used their various methods to verify the same. That done, Tala let Kit truly eat the remnants, forever removing them from existence.

This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.

Mistress Cerna was looking through the book to see if her mundane eyes noticed anything that the magical analysis had missed. “Should we… obliterate this too?”

Master Virbold sighed. “I’m communicating with some others. I should have an answer soon.”

Rane cleared his throat. “Are we just not going to talk about two Sovereign level beings seemingly acting in there?”

Master Limmestare patted the big man on the shoulder. “We are all still trying to process it, Master Rane.”

He nodded. “Yeah… I suppose… Yeah…”

Tala was feeling incredibly conflicted.

Yet another monster had latched onto her as being of use to them in some way, or like them enough to garner attention and interest.

Mistress, Be-thric, the Leshkin, the dasgannach, and now Mistress Slannir.

Am I so twisted inside? Am I so messed up?

-Or so full of potential that they want to twist.-

Tala wanted to believe that, but she couldn’t help but remember the truth of her own actions.

She had obliterated arcanes who weren’t responsible for her circumstances by any stretch of the imagination.

Rust, she remembered dueling with gardeners, killing them simply to get past them, to get what she wanted.

-You’ve never killed a human.- Alat hesitated. -Reiki doesn’t count. Reality killed her, you just let it happen.-

Tala huffed a laugh at that, but didn’t really feel better. So, she’d yet to kill a human. Is that what it took to be safe from her? One had to be of the same race?

There was a certain type of evil in that. Her own race was safe, but everyone else was fair game… she did not like the sound of that.

-But you have friends who are arcanes… well, they were Tali’s friends, but they’d probably have liked you. Thron did!- A moment later, Alat added, -Master Lisa, too. You like him well enough, and you went out of your way to not extort him.-

Tala huffed internally. I also know that I’ll get more from him in the long run if I show him a modicum of decency, and I’d get nothing more if I had pushed things.

It didn’t help that she saw a lot of parallels between her own magics and that of the former prisoner.

They both had focused on their own survival above almost everything else, even when a slightly greater split in their focus might have been able to help others more. Mistress Slannir had even commented on that, commending her for her choice.

Tala grimaced at the memory.

-Tala, that is ridiculous. You seek to preserve your soul, she sought to preserve even a rusted shell, a mockery of her self, regardless of her own soul.-

Do we know that? What if she strove just as I do, but when it failed and her soul moved on, she shifted her magics to take best advantage of her new reality? Isn’t that exactly what I would do?

-That…- Alat sighed. -That actually does make sense.- Then, Alat seemed to have a realization. -But, she would have had to be binding her ‘soulbonds’ to her body instead of her soul from the beginning to achieve this.-

Or, once again, she simply found new things to bind after she lost her soul. That was another thing that was bothering Tala. Even without a soul, the woman had seemed so… human. The interactions had mirrored many of her talks with more advanced people. What did that mean?

Alat clearly didn’t like where Tala’s head was at but didn’t seem to have anything else to add.

Tala ran her hands through her hair until they caught on her braid, and she wiggled her fingers and pulled them free.

Rane sat down next to her. “Are you okay?”

“No, I don’t think that I am.”

She opened a small portal into Kit and Terry flickered out, appearing on her shoulder and immediately nuzzling into her cheek upon seeing her.

“Thank you, both of you. I… I think I have a lot to think through.”

* * *

Three weeks had passed since their encounter with Mistress Slannir.

Suffice it to say, Tala’s mind was still spinning on the topic.

She’d even talked with Master Nadro, but his method of reflecting and asking probing questions hadn’t been what she needed… somehow.

She really wasn’t sure what had affected her so deeply about the woman’s words, actions, and history.

Or I know exactly what, and I don’t like it.

-You were a prisoner, surrounded by those who would take your freedom or your life if they knew the real you.-

Tala raised a mental eyebrow at Alat.

-Wow… I really walked into that one. But no! It’s not the same. Mistress Slannir killed children, explicitly and specifically. She experimented on them. You would never do that.-

We believe she did simply because those who imprisoned her said so. She shook her head before Alat could respond, countermanding her own thoughts. No, I don’t doubt that she did, though. Her own words make it rather clear that she would have had no issue experimenting on children. It just fits too well with her whole philosophy.

The thing was, Tala could still intimately remember her time in the arcane lands. Her perfect memory allowed her to put herself back in the exact mindset she had held back then, and she simply couldn’t lie to herself.

She could see herself falling that low, becoming that monster.

If experimenting on arcane children could have led to her escape, Tala believed that she might have done it… eventually.

Even the very thought repulsed her.

Nevertheless, she knew that, near the end, she had been becoming more desperate, and while she didn’t know how long it would have taken, it was within the realm of possibility that she would have been willing to cross that line.

Mistress Slannir had at least had the noble goal of improving humanity as a whole. Tala had only been focused on herself.

Rane placed his hand on her shoulder, pulling her into a side hug.

Tala jerked slightly, having somehow forgotten he was there. She looked around, blinking, taking in the base of the teleportation tower.

Why—? Oh. Right. It was time for her siblings to visit again, and she, Rane, and Terry were waiting for the appointed hour of their arrival.

There were fewer this time as those who were at the Academy weren’t going to be coming, but that still meant that nine of her siblings were going to spend the day in Alefast with her.

Alat… I can’t deal with this. I… I’m not in a good place.

-When we are in a bad place, that’s when we need friends and family the most, Tala. See if this helps. If it doesn’t—or if it doesn’t help enough—we’ll find something else to do.-

…Okay.

The siblings arrived in a tide, only taking two cycles of the available teleportation circles to get them all together and ready for another fun day with their sister, Tala.

Tala put on a brave face and did her best to be a good hostess, but in the end, after the sun had set, and all the others had been teleported back home, Latna stayed behind, taking Tala off to one side, “Hey, what’s going on with you?”

Tala frowned. “What do you mean?”

“You’ve seemed distracted all day, like something’s bothering you, or you’re afraid of something.”

She grimaced at that. “I had a run-in with someone… unpleasant.”

“Oh? I’d thought that you’ve faced evil things before.” Latna seemed genuinely concerned.

“I have, but this time… she commented on how alike she and I were, and she had some good points.”

That took Latna by surprise. “Oh?”

“Yeah… It wasn’t that we are the same, more that she highlighted how I could be like her with ease.”

“Why did you believe her?”

Tala shook her head. “It would be too convenient to just dismiss the idea. I think that I believe her because there is overlap.”

-You believe her because you fear that it’s true.-

Hush.

-I will not hush. That’s why you’re acting like you believe her, despite her obviously being wrong. You aren’t going to become like her. You’re giving what little evidence there is behind her words more weight out of fear. Some evidence does not prove truth when other evidence exists that countermands it.-

Latna frowned. “What’s the core of the issue? What are you really concerned might be true?”

“That I have the potential to step on anyone I need to, in order to get what I need or want.”

She grunted. “That’s a very human trait, yeah. I think we all have that capacity, that temptation. I don’t agree with the assessment that you will though. Sadly, I would assume that my opinion doesn’t mean all that much to you, especially in this moment.”

Tala tsked a laugh, feeling a small smile pull at her lips.

“I will say this, the very fact that it bothers you should tell you something. You know, now, that you don’t want that path. So? Don’t walk any further in that direction.” Latna shrugged.

“What if that feeling is just my soul?”

-That’s a stupid question, Tala. You are your soul. We are your soul. Remove your soul and what’s left would be an entirely different entity than you.-

Latna blinked a few times. “Just your… I… I think I am quite out of my depth.” She patted Tala on her shoulder. “You are in waters which would drown me, Tala, but we are here, if there is anything that we can do.”

Tala gave her a half hug, not really thinking much of the offer, but not wanting to be rude. “Alright. Thank you.”

With a simple goodbye, Latna moved to the teleportation circle and left in a pulse of power.

Rane walked up beside Tala. “You know, I don’t know if seeing your family helped much.”

Tala gave him a narrow-eyed look. “What do you mean?”

He returned a half-smile. “You’re clearly still stewing. If people don’t help, what if we got away from people for a while? You wanted to see the ruins of a city, and there are some we can reach in less than a day. Let’s take a bit of time and let you have space to clear your head.”

She frowned. “Like a holiday?”

“I suppose. I was thinking more of a break but holiday works too.”

“That… that might be nice.” She felt herself smile at the idea. “Thank you.”