Tala and Rane sat back down in their thrones as Tala’s family, Master Leighis, and her siblings’ parents moved back to mingle with the other guests.

Tala was still a bit emotional at both the thoughtfulness and the implication of her siblings' gift.

-I’m making special note to get updated aura records of any future nieces and nephews.-

Thank you, Alat. I know that will mean as much to you as to me, and I appreciate it.

-Of course.-

She willed the depiction to hang on her dining and sitting room wall, and it moved at her desire. It likely wouldn’t stay there forever, but it was a good place for it at the moment. There, at least, she would see it many times each day.

Up next in the ‘big present’ line were Mistress Cerna and Master Clevnis.

Bows and initial greetings were exchanged before Master Clevnis spoke on their behalf. “We considered for a long time as to what to get you, and I think you’ll like what we came up with. This is from our entire Defender Unit.”

Mistress Vanga, Master Girt, and Master Limmestare gave waves from among those watching, smiling excitedly.

Master Clevnis’s grin widened as he pulled out a large crate from his own soulbound storage.

It was about two feet by three feet, with a depth of close to another two feet.

It thumped as he set it on the ground, sending vibrations up through the throne.

Alat was blocking Tala’s threefold perception from telling her what was inside, for which Tala was equally miffed and grateful. She wanted to know what it was, but the surprise would be better this way.

Master Clevnis opened the top with a flourish, revealing six, irregular, rounded cylinders, individually padded within the chest. Each was roughly a foot in diameter and nearly two feet long.

He pulled one out, and Tala instantly noticed the dark gray coating on the outside.

“This,” he paused for dramatic effect, “is a remote flier. Controlled via Archive connection, woven through with magics that allow incredible speed, maneuverability, and even stationary hovering at need. The exterior is coated in pure iron. There is no carbon in the shell, making it a near-perfect magical reflector and insulator. That makes it both more efficient and essentially invisible to magesight and the equivalents while essentially eliminating magical resonance.” He grinned widely. “There is also a small cavity within, large enough to store up to six of your pairs of siege orbs fully insulated within their own pure-iron bay, which allows singular or complete deployment.”

He gestured at the crate.

“These six are our gift to you, but the greater gift is the schematics and research that went into their construction. You can easily commision more at need, iterate on the design, or whatever you desire.”

Rane had an obviously excited gleam in his eyes. “Thank you, Master Clevnis, we will make great use of these, I am sure.”

Mistress Cerna cleared her throat, seemingly feeling the need to clarify something about the gift, “I would like to point out that we did not incorporate any perceptual spellforms, trusting in Tala’s own magics to make that a trivial concern. As those are generally the most difficult magics for this type of project, it did render our efforts easier than expected, hence six fliers instead of just one.”

She winked at the last, though she still seemed a bit embarrassed that they’d used Tala’s own capacities to make their gift to her less expensive. Regardless, Tala laughed. “Thank you, Mistress Cerna, Master Clevnis.” She then met the eyes of the rest of their unit standing nearby. “Thank you, Mistress Vanga, Master Limmestare, and Master Girt.”

Tala and Rane also thanked their unit’s families for the gift, gratitude and hugs being exchanged all around.

After they settled back in their thrones, they returned their attention to the now much shorter line.

Next was a nondescript man who gave a shallow bow.

Tala and Rane returned it, with her addressing the man on their behalf, “Master Lisa, it is a pleasure to have you in attendance.”

The disguised fox-man gave a vulpine grin. “It is my pleasure to be here. I appreciate the invitation.”

“Of course.”

“I present a gift to you on behalf of your… less standard residents of Irondale.”

Tala understood that to mean her non-human residents, and she gave a slight frown as she leaned forward in interest.

“With your permission, I will circulate knowledge of your Irondale among my kin, along with the attestations of three… irregulars. That will likely create a bit of a pilgrimage, and from each arrival, you should be able to extract resources, knowledge, and many other potential boons of various kinds.” When he said the word ‘boon,’ it had a particular emphasis that carried obvious weight.

What they offered was a gift, but it wasn’t a universally positive gift. There would be danger and difficulty, but it should work out for the best in the end.

“Also, if you do not wish for this, I will simply grant you a minor boon, myself, for use when you feel the need.”

Tala gave a bow of thanks. “Truly generous, my good Lisa.”

Lisa wasn’t a Sovereign by any means, but he was old, knowledgeable, skilled, and powerful.

Rane, Tala, and Lyn had a quick—Archive and alternate interface aided—conversation, which really meant that Rane, Enar, Tala, and Alat had a discussion, came to a decision, and ran it by Lyn, who agreed. Tala smiled. “We would be honored for you to inform your kin of Irondale. Would you consent to be the face of Irondale to them, should any come?”

Lisa had a momentary flicker of something across his generic human features. Then, he bowed low. “It would be my pleasure.”

With that, he moved off, back into the crowd, stopping near Master Cazor. Tala briefly made eye contact with the Mage Hunter and smiled. He smiled in return.

He looked a bit out of his element and a bit off kilter, but he seemed happy to be there, and they were definitely glad that he’d come.

Next up was Ron from the Irondale reborn, some of whom were in attendance. He bowed deeply. “Congratulations on your union. For you, Mo—” He hesitated, seemingly remembering her dislike of being referred to as ‘Mother’ and the fact that it was her wedding. “Mistress Tala, Master Rane. We of the Irondale guard,” yet again he spoke as if he’d wanted to call them something else, “present to you this gift.”

He held out a large, flat wooden box. Tala took it and opened it to reveal… seeds. “There are a lot of seeds in here, good Ron.”

“Yes, Mistress Tala. There are a thousand seeds each from as many different flowers as we could source.”

Her eyes widened at that. “That is quite the gift.”

“It will require some nurturing, but we know you to excel in that department.” He straightened, showing a cheeky grin.

Rane smiled in turn. “Thank you, Ron. This is the type of gift that will continue to give for years to come.”

They exchanged a few more words before he stepped back.

And that seemed to be the end of the ‘big’ gift givers, until a small form trotted out from among the legs of the onlookers.

A beautiful, black cat with purple eyes came forward with a dead mouse in its mouth. There were bits of white in the feline’s fur around its eyes and mouth, and it didn’t seem to be moving as spryly as it had last time that Tala had taken note of it. Even so, it seemed healthy and hale.

The cat laid the mouse before Rane and Tala before sitting back on its haunches.

There was a moment of silence before Tala leaned forward and scratched the top of the cat’s head. “Thank you, I suppose.”

If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

The cat meowed in seeming reply and then trotted off without a backward glance.

Rane was giving Tala an odd look. “What was that?”

She shrugged. “Just a cat. She got in here when it was being built, and she wanders about. It’s a bit sad that she’s getting up there in age.”

He gave her a flat look. “Tala, that cat just brought you a wedding present.”

Tala shrugged again. “I don’t know what to tell you. I’ve examined it thoroughly, I can see its entire being right now. Alat and Kit have seen everything it’s ever done in here. It’s just a cat.”

Rane gave her a skeptical look, then shook his head. “If you say so.”

It is just a cat, right?

-Yes. There is absolutely nothing magical about it. You saw it, it’s visibly older than before. It’s just a mundane cat… if a seemingly very intelligent one.-

Good. Tala sighed, glancing around. Why do I get the feeling that no one will believe that…?

-Because you grow in wisdom every day.-

She laughed at that then stood, Rane rising at her side. “Thank you, one and all. I don’t know about you, but I’m ready to eat and get on with the celebration!”

There was a round of cheering at that, and they got down to celebrating.

* * *

Three days later, the last guest had departed the sanctum, and Tala and Rane stood in the Alefast Archon Compound, ready for the promised assessment of their advancements.

Afterward, Master Grediv would present the hold for Kit’s consumption.

All in all, it was going to be a very good day. Tala could feel it.

Mistress Holly was there, of course, as was Master Grediv, but no one else was present to witness Tala and Rane’s assessments.

Mistress Holly had pulled two three-foot diameter rings seemingly from no-where—though that obviously meant it was from her soulbound space—and laid them on the ground.

Tala was currently gawking at the complexity.

Each ring was entirely woven of precious metals, what looked like bone that had somehow been made into thread, and obviously magical strands of hair.

The metals were in intricate spellforms the likes of which Tala had come to expect from Mistress Holly, but the other material was just as clearly arranged to create magical effects.

Tala had no idea how difficult it would be to engineer such interlocking and interlacing spellforms, such that there was no space between them, and they all functioned as desired.

To her, it seemed impossible, but it clearly wasn’t.

Mistress Holly was clearly pleased with Tala’s reaction, and she let the moment linger for a breath before she broke the silence. “You will each stand in a ring, and you will activate the device as I instruct. We will then allow its magics to work, and then we will go over the results. Are we clear?”

Tala and Rane both nodded.

“Good. Mistress Tala, you first, dear.”

Tala smiled, stepping forward, into the ring on the left.

Mistress Holly instructed her on how to situate her aura, and how to direct her power, so as to begin the reaction within.

Tala did so and an instant later, the ring blazed with coruscating, corrugating, cascading waves of light.

It lifted up, clearly flooding the space within it with power of various kinds, as it slowly rose higher and higher, only stopping once it was above her head, then lowered back to the ground.

It did this ten times. All the while, Tala could see the various spellforms burning out, the material of their composition slowly dispersing into power directed by the very shape of the construct.

Finally, the last of the ring broke apart, enacted its magic, and vanished from sight.

Yeah, I can see why that would be expensive.

-No kidding.-

Mistress Holly was clearly examining the results, at least if the far-off look in her eyes, as they flicked back and forth, up and down, was any indication.

Finally, she smiled. “Alright, I have a good understanding of what we saw here.”

Tala nodded along encouragingly, not speaking or doing anything further that might delay the results.

“Mistress Tala, you have gotten most of the ‘big rocks’ out of the way. Now, your advancement will simply come down to gaining a better understanding of who you are—and will be—in the world. You are relatively centered and well established in who you are as a person; it is your relationship with everything else that needs exploration and further understanding.”

Tala shifted back, looking up in contemplation. That did make a sort of sense. She did know who she was, what she wanted, and how she wanted to move forward, but she didn’t often think of who she was in relation to those around her and the world as a whole.

She defended others, and she had considered that as well as her nurturing of others, but it had always been in context of who she was, rather than as a two-way thing to consider.

On the more personal side, relating to others, she was obviously a wife now, and she was both terrified and excited to be a mother, whenever that came about.

-The Irondalians would be offended to be so dismissed.-

No, they wouldn’t. I may have given them rebirth, but that doesn’t actually make me their mother.

-I don’t know, Tala. You shelter them, provide them with magical sustenance, and you’ve made them who they are today.-

…I’m not having this discussion with you again, not right now.

-Fine, fine.-

After a moment of further contemplation, Tala found herself nodding before she spoke to Mistress Holly, “Thank you. That is both far less than I was expecting, and far more detailed than I had thought possible.”

Mistress Holly smiled in return. “It is an odd bit of magic, yes.”

She then turned to Rane and raised an eyebrow. Rane grinned. “My turn, I suppose.”

“Indeed.”

He stepped into the ring, and Mistress Holly meticulously described how to activate the ring once again.

The process that followed mirrored Tala’s experience—though the ring obviously traveled a bit higher before returning down in each cycle—and soon enough Mistress Holly was reviewing the results. Eventually, she gave a small chuckle. “Well, ironically, your results are nearly entirely opposite of Tala’s. You seem to know, and have settled into, your place in this world rather wonderfully. On the other side, you do not have a solid handle on who you are in that place. You are like a tree, connected to all that surrounds you, with no deep knowledge of self, at least none past that which is required in order to Fuse.”

Rane blinked at her before slowly nodding in acceptance.

Tala could actually see the truth of the words, now that she considered them.

Rane was very good at fitting in, being useful, and keeping things progressing no matter where he was, but he wasn’t the most self-actualized, and that seemed to be by choice. He had always come across as content to follow others' leads and be who they needed him to be.

It was interesting that such seemed to be his barrier to advancing to Paragon at the moment.

He gave a bow to Mistress Holly. “Thank you for the wisdom and insight.”

Mistress Holly nodded in reply. She stayed chatting with them for barely another minute before offering her congratulations once again and departing.

She needed to get back to her work, after all.

Tala and Rane both were staring into the middle distance, contemplating what Mistress Holly had revealed to them. It really was an odd thing. They hadn’t really been told anything that they couldn’t have guessed already, but to have it plainly laid out before them, their deficiencies highlighted for future improvement? That was invaluable in a way that was hard to quantify or explain.

Regardless, with Mistress Holly’s departure, Master Grediv was alone with the new couple, and he didn’t seem to have any time to waste. “Well, let’s let you get to it.”

They all smiled as he pulled a large set of double-doors from thin air.

They were bound in iron and shot through with magic of all kinds.

Tala felt something within her twist at the sight. These were hold doors.

She’d been taken behind some against her will. She’d hidden behind others, breached others in violence and vitriol.

And she was going to capture these as well.

Master Grediv gestured. “I have removed all ties to any house or Major House from within or without, to the best of my ability, and it is ready for consumption.”

Tala manifested Kit as a pouch and tossed her at the door, where she stuck in place unnaturally.

The leather of the pouch grew to fully cover the doors before the bag closed again and shrank.

A moment later, that manifestation of Kit winked out of existence.

Master Grediv shook his head. “So efficient. It really is remarkable.” With a sigh he turned to the two. “Now, there is something that I need to convey to you as your Kit processes that… influx. You are now stretched to an extreme with the dimensionality contained within Kit. With the addition of this hold, you will be very nearly at the theoretically safe limit for such, even with a spouse's soul to add stability.” His eyes twinkled. “Though, that is for regular Refined—if there is such a thing. We also essentially never reach that limit, so we are dealing with limited understanding. Additionally, you are a unique case, so ‘common’ wisdom—however rarely applicable—might be inaccurate for you. Regardless, please remember that you cannot expand your Kit without end and expect the same level of control and authority within.”

“So, we can’t just keep gobbling up all the free space we can.”

“Likely no.” He hesitated. “Well, you could, but your control within would be… lessened, at least if we understand correctly. Kit is not a unique creature, but she is of a kind not well understood—though we are seeking others like her.”

-Of course we can’t, not without advancing further. Paragons have a stronger soul—effectively—so you should be able to have more strain on your soulbonds after reaching that level of advancement.-

That’s fair. Finally, a reason to advance. Tala gave a wry, internal grin.

Alat chuckled, but didn’t comment further.

“If we advance to Paragon, I assume that limit would expand?”

Master Grediv nodded. “Of course.”

Rane smiled. “Well, then, I guess we need to buckle down and use what Mistress Holly showed us, eh?”

Tala grinned in return. “Soon. First, I want to spend some time just getting used to being married.”

Rane stepped closer, pulling her into an embrace. “I’d like that.”

Master Grediv slipped quietly from the room as the two came together for a kiss.