Tala and Mistress clashed in a storm.

The grass was torn up, trampled, and obliterated in a wide circle, though not as large an area as might be expected, as both women were working hard either to keep from being moved, or to keep in close.

Blades and walls of air were countered with tornadoes and whirlwinds of iron. The remnants scored scars across Tala’s armor that she was forced to heal.

Inviolable dimensionality was bypassed—not violated—by Tala’s own dimensional variations through her soulbound weapon. The cuts she landed quickly healed through Mistress’s third magical set.

That seemingly depthless, rapid healing was slowed and tested by Tala’s use of void to impart heavy damage from even minor cuts, Flow’s void-edge adding separation where none was intended to be.

Tala reveled in the power that she felt, clashing with an opponent who was effectively three Refined functioning in perfect harmony, all striving to end her.

She wasn’t sure of her victory by any means, even if she was confident in obliterating Mistress with ease if she’d only had any one of the magic sets.

It was odd in a way. Most Refined had delved into multiple magical fields by the time they’d reached that level. Tala was a perfect example, straddling healing, cellular stability, physical enhancement, gravity alteration, surface area expansion, and more besides.

Because of that, it wasn’t like Mistress’s suite of abilities were beyond what Tala expected in a peer.

Instead, it was as if Mistress had hyper-specialized three times over, making each of the ability-sets more than they should have been able to be when used together.

Without her iron, Tala would have been utterly at the mercy of the air blades. Without her shape-changing weapon, she would have had a much harder time passing the dimensional defenses.

No, I could have used void to bypass that… but that would still be relying on Flow.

She could likely use her dissolution breath as well, but that was still an imperfect ability, and she was hesitant to rely on it in such a situation. They were moving so rapidly, it would be almost as likely to harm her as Mistress.

As to the healing—assuming there wasn’t something more to that suite of magics—any means of heavy damage dealing would have been just as good as her void at dealing with that.

…Well, not just as good, but sufficient to press an advantage on that front.

Her passive iron claiming should have been a heavy counter to such healing, but it wasn’t effective while she was opposed by three incredibly powerful souls— Or maybe four stronger than average?

That was an interesting thought but hardly relevant.

So, was Tala somehow perfectly equipped to counter Mistress?

Not at all. If anything, Mistress seemed almost too capable of countering Tala.

That led Tala to an uncomfortable conclusion.

If your enemy seems to have a bag of tricks that perfectly counters yours…

-They either expertly prepared for the fight, or they’re only using the ones that they think they need to use.-

Tala would bet on the second. She would also bet that Mistress wasn’t trying to kill her—despite the hostility that the other Refined had shown—at least not at the moment.

Mistress had to have more that she was capable of, but she wasn’t revealing it for whatever reason, despite seeming to indicate that she wanted the fight to end sooner rather than later.

So, was that a lie to make us think that she was going all out?

-So that she could pull out another card when we’d fallen into a state of confidence? Yeah… that sounds incredibly likely.-

None of the hits either side had landed had actually been life threatening, even if those on Mistress could have become so soon enough, without proper healing.

Well, then. It’s time to change the game.

She almost tried to pull Mistress into her sanctum directly, but given how well the woman had been resisting her claim on the iron within her blood, Tala did not like her chances of overcoming her will to move her through such a method.

That was fine. Tala had other means.

Tala ripped open a portal into her sanctum as large as she could make it, one foot under the ground upon which the two women fought.

In her sanctum, it opened into an underground cavern, sealed from the outside. She wasn’t about to expose her home to this woman directly if she didn’t have to.

The ground below them was simple—if deep—sod, and began to dip in immediately. Tala instantly grabbed whatever passed through the portal and pulled it further in, practically ripping the ground from underneath the combatants.

Mistress didn’t fall an inch, seemingly standing on the air itself.

Yeah… I should have seen that coming. Tala sighed internally. That was the second time she hadn’t properly accounted for Mistress’s air magics.

-It was a bit of an oversight, yeah.-

Mistress did pause, though, looking down. “A soulbound storage? Really?” She grinned at Tala. “You only had to ask, and I would have said yes. You’re a cheeky one with all this aggression.”

Even as she stood on the surface of the portal—pushing her own feet back out whenever any part entered, effectively making it a solid surface for her—Tala frowned in confusion, before Alat reminded her, -Her entering most soulbound storages would cause a soulbond between the two of you.-

Mistress began to drop, clearly allowing herself to fall, but then she froze midair once again. “Wait… something’s off with that storage.”

Enough waiting. The portal ripped upward, carrying Tala with it as it rose to consume Mistress.

The woman’s eyes widened as she seemed to understand the danger at some primal level. Then she was gone, having flickered out of the way of the portal.

And there it is. Tala grimaced. This is going to be like fighting Terry on top of everything else, isn’t it?

-Yes, but we’d be foolish to assume that that was the only hidden ability.-

Oh, certainly.

Tala almost closed the portal below herself, but then she had another idea, allowing herself to fall into it.

As soon as she was through, she opened another portal out, using her threefold sight to perceive where she wanted it to be. She then sent a stream of siege orbs at the woman from different angles, opening the portals all over the ground around the battlefield one after another just large enough—and for just long enough—to let the orbs crack out.

Mistress was able to block and deflect the incoming orbs, even when Tala began causing them to burst at inopportune times, but the woman looked pressed once again, despite her flickering around to add to her ability to avoid the incoming storm.

Finally, Tala opened a her-sized portal above and to the right of Mistress. She had reoriented before launching herself through it with an act of will, moving much faster than should have been possible.

There was a magical resonance boom as Tala crossed the short distance from her portal to Mistress, and the woman didn’t even have a chance to glance her way.

Even so, Mistress had begun to move backward, twisting to face the incoming threat and causing her body to be at an angle when Tala hit.

Tala shoulder-checked the woman, even as void energy was aspect-mirrored across her armor.

The blow absolutely blew Mistress apart.

It hit the woman just below her sternum, driving downward. The impact ripped through her being, severing her spine at her lower back and pulverizing her entire lower body.

Tala, herself, embedded into the earth a bit, but she was able to free herself with ease, despite the organs that seemed intent on entangling her.

She didn’t really expect the hit to end the fight, but it should be seen as a decisive blow, the first that either of them had landed in the exchange.

With her opponent seemingly stunned, Tala called forth her iron and tried to box in Mistress’s remains, but the upper body flickered out of the way of the closing iron, showing Tala the futility of that battle-ending strategy.

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Sure enough, Tala saw Mistress regrow her lower body before pulling a robe out of thin air to cover her nakedness even before Tala, herself, got back up and to her feet barely a dozen feet away—the impact having caused a deep gouge in the ground between the two combatants.

Off to the side, there was an almost perfect square of earth cut out, where the portal had opened into Kit, and the regularity of the shape stood out in stark contrast to all the other chaotic damage done around them.

Throughout, Mistress’s torso had simply hovered in place until the healing was completed—even maintaining the same height off the ground when she flickered away from the iron trap—but despite the seemingly effortless healing, the woman was clearly a bit shaken. That impression was confirmed when she spoke instead of continuing to fight. “You are… something else, Mistress Tala.”

The honorific being used for the first time caused Tala to pause as well. “Thank you, Mistress…?”

The implicit question hung in the air before Mistress slowly shook her head. “Cethira. My name is Cethira.”

“Well, Mistress Cethira, why the rust are you so aggressive?”

Mistress Cethira grimaced. “I am not permitted to allow knowledge of my… abnormality to spread among gated humanity. I was not seeking to kill you, Mistress Tala. I was aiming to incapacitate you before I called your local authorities in order to pass you off to them.”

Tala huffed a laugh. “And I’m supposed to trust that?”

“I couldn’t care less if you believe me or not. Since I cannot restrain you, my obligations will end with notifying the gated-human city leadership that you are aware of me and my oddities. I am already on a tight schedule, so I will be on my way. My deviation to see why there were humans at this ruin already was ill-advised, and our clash has just been icing on that rusting unwise decision.”

Tala laughed fully, then. “What makes you think I will let you leave?”

Mistress Cethira gave a half-smile to that. “Mistress Tala, it has been a long time since I cared what others let me do. I honor my agreements and obligations because I choose to. Don’t mistake our positions. You are powerful, but even your Paragons do not command me. I do hope our paths cross again, when we both have more time.”

Without another word, she flickered and was gone.

Truly, genuinely gone.

Terry always left a blip of dimensional energy when he flickered about, and Tala could trace that to figure out where he had gone or come from, but Mistress Cethira left nothing.

More than that, Tala’s threefold sight detected no trace of the woman, indicating that she had moved a long way. Well… huh. I guess I can’t restrain her.

-Hey! Master Grediv just got back to us… oh.-

Tala sighed. Her story checks out?

-The basics do. He requests that we don’t engage, and suggests that if we notice anything odd, we should ask him about it, rather than mentioning it to her.- A moment later, Alat made an interested sound, likely noticing something else. -Oh, he added an addendum.- After another short pause, the alternate interface started laughing.

What is it?

-He said—- Alat continued to laugh. -He said that since you have probably already tried to kill each other, he requests that you withdraw, if she is still alive. You can let her know that her obligations are fulfilled, and that Master Grediv will take responsibility for whatever caused the clash.-

Tala sighed. Let him know what we discovered and what happened.

-Will do.-

Thank you, Alat.

-He just informed us that she contacted the city rulers, and he is aware of our knowledge. We need to talk with him when we get back. He’ll head off any other issues until then.-

Tala sighed. Great…

-Oh, Rane and Terry are basically at the center. Should I call them back?-

…No. I still want to see what I can learn.

-Alright, let’s get to it.-

Tala shook her head even as she called the iron—that she had tried to use to entrap Mistress Cethira—back to herself, returning to where she’d been sitting before Mistress Cethira had arrived. Thank you for maintaining our aura and the trail of iron spikes.

-Absolutely. I think Rane and Terry would both have been a bit put out if our presence had simply vanished from beside them.-

That they would.

Tala sat cross legged again.

As she sat once more, her through-spike finally overcame the anti-illusion magic that Mistress had hit her with.

That was truly impressive, given that the working had been operating within Tala’s hostile aura for the entire conflict.

True, Tala hadn’t devoted much attention to specifically breaking it, but creating such an enduring bit of spellwork was a feat to be proud of nonetheless.

As her illusion re-covered her, Tala returned her focus to the rents in Reality centered on the ruin of Arconaven.

Rane and Terry were still moving at their slow pace, but as soon as her attention returned, Rane paused. “Hey, you’re back with us.”

Confused, she generated her voice in the air beside them, “What do you mean?”

“The flavor of your aura shifts slightly when Alat is in control. Is everything alright?”

Huh… that’s interesting.

-It is indeed. I didn’t know that.-

Still, she could consider that later. “There was a bit of trouble, but I can fill you in later.”

“Is that the source of magics we sensed and the impacts we heard?”

“Probably. You were aware of all that?”

He gave the air around him an incredulous look. “Of course we were, Tala. We aren’t deaf, nor insensitive to the zeme or directed magics.”

“But… you didn’t come?”

He looked genuinely confused, “Obviously not. Did you need us?”

“No. I was fine.”

His look shifted into a smile. “That’s why. We knew you’d call us if we were needed.”

Terry trilled his affirmation.

Tala blinked a few times at that. That actually made sense. “Oh… well, thank you.”

With that, Tala settled in to analyze the damage done to Reality through her bloodstar cloud, still anchored around Rane.

She delved through the records Alat had taken from her bloodstar cloud while Rane moved toward the center of the city, watching creatures move in seemingly nonsensical patterns star- and stoneward of superficial, consuming the excess power in the area.

Wait… what if there was something else that they were moving around?

-That would track actually. We could focus on reality nodes?-

That’s an excellent idea. Tala shifted her focus, and it was like changing from staring through a dirty window to focusing on the grungy glass itself.

She saw them. Not reality nodes, but void nodes. That makes absolutely no sense. Every division is a void, how are there void nodes? Doesn’t that imply voids around another specific void?

-Well, describe what you’re seeing.-

You can see it too.

-True, but you putting it to words will help us both process what we’re seeing.-

…Fine. It looks like the division between reality nodes is being displaced by something riding along the edges of reality nodes, and the fourth-dimensional things are avoiding them more carefully than even the predatory varieties of their kind.

-But what does it look like?-

It looks like the lines on a pencil sketch are being opened, exposing an eldritch world beyond… wait. The Doman-Imithe? Is that what it is? The Doman-Imithe bleeding through?

-Would that make sense?-

It would… if we go with the cross-stitch example that we’ve used before, and these are rents in that, it would make sense that we might be able to see the backside of the pattern through the tears.

-So, why would the four-dimensional things avoid the Doman-Imithe?-

Because that place is crazy… And then the obvious answer came to her. It has absolutely no magic. None at all. If these things live off of magic, being sucked in there would be assured destruction through slow starvation, even if nothing else ended them first.

-Exactly.-

So, Reality is flapping in the winds of the zeme, exposing the damage we gated have done, and it’s causing an entire ecosystem to spring up as a means of bringing about some form of healing?

-We’d probably need to see an older ruin to tell for sure, but that’s likely a good guess.-

That’s… that’s a really good idea. She considered for a moment. I still want Rane to get to the center, see if anything else is easier to see from there, but I think I’ve gotten all I can for now.

-Alright, I’ll let him know. Take a moment to rest and think?-

She nodded slowly, grateful for the suggestion. Sure. That sounds nice.

But the rest portion didn’t last long.

Tala grimaced within her helmet. I thought I had understood my place, what I believed.

-But she tried to harm you and didn’t lose anything but a bit of time.-

Exactly. She violated my view of the world.

-I know, how dare she not die.-

Tala snorted a laugh at that. Put that way, it does sound a bit silly.

-I’m going to say something that you already know to save us all time.-

Go ahead.

-No one else has to bend to your view of the world. You can either see that as a fatal flaw in your worldview, a condemnation of them for having violated it, or a chance to refine what you believe.-

Tala grunted. So, that which seeks to harm what is mine, should be forfeit and subject to my authority?

Alat sent the impression of a grimace. -That’s so weak, Tala. Come on. We left a gaping hole in our view of the world, and Mistress Cethira was simply well positioned to point it out. Let’s not paper over the flaw.-

Tala knew what the flaw was, they both did, but she expressed it regardless, The fact that there are those whom we cannot assert authority over.

-Exactly. So, to connect it to some of your earlier revelations, is a mother whose child dies through no fault of her own any worse of a mother?-

Of course not.

-So, then does the fact that you couldn’t impose your authority upon Mistress Cethira mean that she didn’t deserve to be subject to it?-

Of course not. Tala straightened.

-If a Sovereign comes and attacks you, will you just roll over?-

No. I will fight back, and even if I lose, I will come out stronger for the clash. Tala realized how arrogant that sounded, but it fit.

-Where does that mesh with your view of things?-

Tala’s armor melted off of her as she looked toward the sky, her very soul thrumming within her as the various pieces came together.

“I will oppose that which seeks to harm anything of mine, and take strength from the encounter.”

Tala felt yet another qualitative change to her aura and gasped as her advancement moved at least five percentage points closer to Paragon.

The zeme around her began to vibrate in a way that created a standing wave to her magesight, even causing the grass to bend and sway in regular patterns as the very air moved under the power of her revelation.

Her statement was true at a fundamental level and didn’t contain any inane—or unsupportable—claims or posturing.

It simply was.

It simply was her.