Millennial Mage

Chapter 172: Vestiges

Chapter 172: Vestiges

Tala waited just within the Constructionist Guild for one of the two Archons she was seeking a meeting with.

She stood in the entry hall, specifically not looking towards the waiting room, from which she could easily detect the smell of fresh coffee, if only faintly.

Stay strong, Tala. Not drinking coffee is better for you. She grimaced and groaned internally. Shed gone most of her life without coffee, but now it felt like air or water. She needed it, even though she knew that she didnt.

Her eyes flicked to the side, glancing over and taking in the earthenware mugs set out for easy use.

Tala resolutely turned away. Nope.

A change of air currents, likely due to open entryway behind her, brought a particularly strong waft of coffee goodness to her nose.

She spun to face the waiting room. One cup wont hurt. One last cup.

At that moment, she heard the sound of footsteps and turned back in time to see the assistant returning with a man who could only be Master Queue.

The Archon had a very tightly controlled, hardened aura that completely blocked Talas ability to view what type of Mage he was, let alone what he could do, but it did put his aura on easy display. The power encasing him shone forth, a happy yellow-green.

Refined, well on the way to Paragon.

His eyes only flickered to Terry for a moment, showing interest, but not overpowering curiosity as he crossed the floor.

Terry seemingly took no notice of his surroundings.

Queue stopped a few paces from her and bowed, allowing his long white coat to billow around him. Mistress Tala, I presume. How may I be of assistance?

Tala bowed in turn. Master Queue, your Mage assistant, Master Simon, directed me to you. He seems a competent fellow.

Queues eyebrows went up in surprise. Oh? Well, thank you. I quite like his work. I will pass on the compliment.

She nodded in acknowledgement, then pulled out her comb. I wanted to discuss this with you. Somewhere private might be better?

The Archon took the comb, turning it over in his fingers before shrugging. Sure. Im not sure what there is to discuss, but I can give you five minutes.

Tala nodded her thanks, then glanced to the assistant. This in mind; Ill be looking to meet with Master Boma in the next half-hour, if hes available. If Queue only has five minutes for me, that should be enough time so that I don't keep Boma waiting.

The assistant bowed. Ill see what I can do.

"Please don't inconvenience yourself or him. I'm happy to schedule something when I come out, if he isn't free."

The assistant nodded in acknowledgement as Tala departed after Queue.

Tala followed Queue into a side room, where the Archon activated some privacy inscriptions with a gesture. Now, Mistress Tala, what do you have in mind?

Could this artifact be replicated?

He gave her a long look, then examined the comb again. Most likely, yes. Im guessing that you dont know what it takes to do so, just that it can be done?

Thats right, though I might be able to guess. She kept her left hand back, slightly behind her body for now. No need to complicate things.

Queue grunted. So, why would we replicate this? It is a fairly standard artifact. Like most, it is probably unique in some way or other, but still the uses arent overarching enough to justify the expense.

That doesnt need a Mage to power it, even in a city.

He glanced back down. I did notice that it wasnt attuned to you. This is a wonderfully efficient device, then. Even so, such things arent unheard of. Probably one in a hundred artifacts dont need to be magic-bound to survive, but whatsyourpoint He trailed off there, at the end, seeming to consider. This detangles hair at a stroke, yes? Im interpreting the magics correctly?

Detangles, debrides, and dries, without damaging the hair.

His eyebrows rose once more. That makes sense, but Id not have thought of it.

So, you see the utility?

I think I understand what you are getting at. It is quite useful.

Not willing to dance around it anymore, she grinned. And could be used by mundanes.

He was nodding. Yes. Artifacts for mundane use are rare. There would certainly be a market for such a comb. How could we disguise that we can create artifacts, though, if we flood the mundane market with nearly identical items?

Tala shrugged. Claim some new material coating with a natural magical resonance? A proprietary process to capture and lock such into place for use by any, even mundanes?

He snorted. Thats mostly nonsense. No materials natural resonance is anything close to this convoluted. Then, he paused. But, it might just be believed. This certainly isnt the first artifact created for widescale, mundane use, but it might be the mostpersonal so far. Most are embedded in buildings or the like. He tapped the comb against his palm. It would be an undertaking to build the impressor for a new artifact style item, plus wed need to have the combs made in one of the factories. Theyd have to be identical in size and composition. Were talking a few thousand gold to do this right.

Tala balked. That seems extreme. Couldnt we find a comb already on the market and use that?

He shrugged. There are a few mass-produced combs, true, but not many, and I dont think any are made in Bandfast. He clucked his tongue. At best, we could get it up and running for a hundred gold, but then wed be dependent on another city to supply the base item.

Is that bad? Also, I dont have that much.

He waved her off. The moneys not really important. He seemed to be considering.

Tala checked the time and cleared her throat. Im sorry, Master Queue, but weve gone a bit over the five minutes you said you had. I can come back tomorrow?

He gave her a sideways glance. I can make the time for this. This shouldnt take too much longer.

Tala bit the side of her lip. A host of things flitted through her mind, including how poorly shed treated Simon the night before, and how much help Boma had been. With that, and much else, on her mind, she made a decision. While youre considering, I have something to do quickly.

Sure, sure. The bathrooms down the hall and to the right.

Thats not It really didnt matter what he thought she was doing. Thank you.

She quickly walked back out to the entry way and found the assistant waiting in a side room.

Excuse me.

The assistants head snapped up, clearly engrossed in his book. Oh! Mistress! He scrambled to stand up.

Im sorry to bother you.

No, Im hear to help. How can I assist?

It seems that Master Queue and I will take a bit longer than Id expected. Can you convey that to Master Boma, and ask if I can meet him in his office when Im done?

Certainly.

Thank you. Ill let him know.

If he isnt available, or that doesnt work. I understand. Ill check with you when I come out.

As you wish.

Tala quickly returned to Queue and as she walked in, he started talking almost as if she hadnt left.

Buying the combs in bulk shouldnt be an issue. I can put in the order now, after I find a sample in the city that will work, and the shipment could arrive by the time we need it. Well have to advertise it to the masses, somehow, but that wouldnt be hard. He glanced at her. Ill also need to verify it does what you say for myself, I hope you understand.

She shrugged. Certainly. Shed honestly expected no less.

They could sell for two silver? He nodded then clucked his tongue. Most costs are in the start-up, so wed recoup costs in five thousand units or so. He frowned. Thats too optimistic. Double that. Ten thousand units.

For two silver, you would eventually sell one to every woman in the city and many men. Tala grinned, thinking. I imagine the guard might want them as standard for their supplies, given they can be a bit of an effective dry bath, at least for those with hair.

True enough. He seemed to be doing some calculations in his head. If you can leave this with me for a week, I can front the start-up costs and give you he seemed to consider for a moment, five percent of any income after those costs are recouped?

Talas eyes widened. Ten copper a combfor nothing more than lending him mine for a week?

He misinterpreted her reaction. I can probably take what I need from the item in a few days, but a week would be better.

She narrowed her eyes. Not his limit on that, so probably not his limit on the percentage. Five percent is too low. The item is mine, and therefore the spell-form is mine. Talas understanding of law when it came to spell-form ownership was shaky, at best.

He waggled his hand. In a sense, yes, but that wouldnt stop me from reproducing it.

It would if I dont lend you the item.

He held it out to her. That is true enough. Backwards engineering the spell-form wouldnt be worth the effort, even if we sold a comb to every human in every city.

She took the comb. What about a fifty percent split. True, youre doing the work, but Im allowing that work to be profitable.

He gave her a flat look. Fifty.

Seems fair.

He shook his head. Fifteen.

Of gross. I dont want my portion being limited by costs at only fifteen percent.

Again, he shook his head. It will be after expenses, but I can go as high as twenty percent, and not a copper higher.

She thought about it for a moment. I probably would have taken it at five percent, so twenty is amazing. I dont even have to do anything. Another thought occurred to her, though. Can I come use the comb during the week you have it?

After a moment, he shrugged. I dont see why not.

Then, agreed.

Queue pulled out a tablet from seemingly thin air and began working on it, clearly entering the details of their agreement.

Tala held in a sigh at yet another Archon with an untethered, dimensional storage. Though, it makes sense that if anyone were to have them, it would be those who are members of the Constructionists Guild.

Less than five minutes later, Queue handed over the short, simple contract.

She read through it, verifying it matched what theyd agreed to, and confirmed it. A pleasure doing business with you. When do you think we can start selling them?

Queue shrugged. Two or three weeks, I believe, unless the spell form is incredibly stubborn.

She considered for a moment. Can I see the process?

He shook his head. Unfortunately, that is proprietary to the Constructionist Guild and its sub-guilds. Some others do know the method, but I cannot share it.

She nodded. Very well. Without further discussion, she handed the slate and comb back to him, then offered her hand. Thank you.

He took her hand and shook it. I appreciate you coming to me with this. May it profit us both, immensely.

Her magic tingled at the close press of his hardened aura, but she didnt feel any invasiveness, and he kept his aura perfectly aligned with his own skin, so it never even attempted to dip into her hand.

They left the little side room and parted ways, Queue going back into the depths of the facility, and Tala heading back to the entry hall.

Tala checked with the assistant and was directed towards Bomas office. As she turned the corner, she saw the Archon stepping out into the hallway. When he saw her, he stopped and nodded her way.

Just more than half an hour. She hadn't left enough of a buffer, it seemed.

Tala walked up to just out of arms reach. I apologize, Master Boma. She bowed over clasped hands in a formal gesture that she hadnt used since graduating. Both for the delay now, and for my rudeness last night. My exhaustion, while a factor, does not excuse the result.

He seemed genuinely taken aback by her apology, even pausing for a moment to collect himself before he responded.

Tala straightened and smiled.

Well, I suppose that the apology is accepted, Mistress. His face had lost most of the edge of warriness that shed noticed when she first saw him a moment earlier. What can I do for you?

Ive some questions about my dimensional storage. Is now a good time?

He nodded and gestured for her to follow. As good a time as any, and better than most.

They went into what she presumed was his office.

There was a workbench off to one side, but surprisingly, the space was mostly dominated by a large desk, the entire top of which seemed to be a device for integrating with and accessing the Archive.

There were light creation scripts in addition to the normal color changing features standard on an Archive tablet, and Tala was able to see exactly what they allowed.

The image of a bracer revolved, floating above the desk with a veritable cloud of magical notations, which seemed to be scrawled around it.

What is that? She pointed to the bracer.

I assume you arent familiar with vestiges?

She frowned and shook her head. No.

Thats actually a relief. He gave a humorless smile. To come at it from a direction youll catch, this is an artifact found in the prison of a shattered foe from long ago.

Tala walked over and looked more closely. This seems to indicate that it doesnt require bonding or power of any kind, but even what I can see would indicate a massive power usage. How is that possible? Or am I misunderstanding what Im seeing?

Oh, no. You arent misunderstanding, and your assessment is accurate. A vestige is an artifact style item that has a gate within it.

Her head whipped to the side, eyes locking on him.

Yes, I can see you grasp what that means. Someone bound a human soul into that item. If the soul bound itself in there, that would be something entirely different and unrelated. As it is a vestige, weve been trying to make contact with the soul inside. We cant free the soul without destroying it, so its a question of an eternity bound to the bracer, or non-existence. Wed like the souls opinion before the choice is made. He sighed. Or, conversely, all sapience and sentience has left the soul, and it is nothing more than a bound fount, in which case, the item can be put to use, defending humanity and preventing at least a few more people from suffering from this or similar fates.

Thats sounds like a horrible mess of a situation. Reasonable of you to make the attempt to contact it, but horrible all the same.

Indeed. He moved around to sit in the chair behind the large desk and motioned for her to take one closer to the entrance. The image of the bracer drifted to the side, clearing line of sight between them. Now, what can I do for you?

I am interested to know how I can achieve certain things for my dimensional storage, and I want to know if other things are possible.

Go on.

Alright, first should be what I know is possible, else I might just irritate him again. How can I get an artificial sun within the space, so that I can grow plants, if I want? Im also interested in artificial weather, so that I dont have to maintain the biome, specifically.

Boma nodded. Well, first things first. Nothing about such things is artificial. Your dimensional space is effectively its own world, and you are simply hoping to give that world a sun and weather patterns.

Okay. Interesting way of thinking about it, but I can see the logic, I suppose.

Given the syphon fascia we just merged with your item, I imagine that youve already seen an artificial sun and that it didnt satisfy. Yes?

She thought back to the illusory vision of a sunrise. True enough.

So, what is a star? What are weather patterns?

She took the seemingly parallel line of questioning in stride and gave the best answer she could. Well a star, from the perspective of a planet, is a source of heat and light, and an anchor within the cosmos as a whole.

Surprisingly good answer. You dont need your storages star to be an anchor, but the rest is required, if I understand your request properly.

So, I need an item that generates light and heat? I just need a fire artifact?

You will need the right kind of fire artifact and the proper integration spell-forms, but essentially yes. Your storage must be sufficiently large to warrant such, though, and it has to have at least some static features, else the day-night cycle wont function properly, and that will cause all sorts of issues. Moreover, the artifact must be able to be turned off unless your storage gets to the size of truly mimicking a small world and you wish to form a sphere, or at least a cylinder, within the space. Thus, the fire artifact cant be an ever-burning torch, for example. Even better than simply being able to be turned on and off would be if it had the ability for a variable output.

Tala quirked a smile. And I suppose you have such an artifact on hand?

He raised an eyebrow at her smirk. We have several, yes.

Conveniently ready to sell to me, I suppose.

No.

She blinked at him. What?

He took a deep breath and shook his head. You arent listening. Your storage must be large enough, and have static sections, for such a merging to be useful. I could perform it now, but it would be worthless to you until youd at least quadrupled the size of what youre working with. He frowned. No, thats not right. Your storage is what, about fifteen hundred cubic feet? A little less?

She thought about it, then shrugged. Give or take? Ive not measured. Probably a bit more, actually.

Yeah, then we need to increase the capacity by at least ten times that before a magical star would truly useful to you.

Tala grimaced. That would cost a lot of gold. What about weather?

He waved that away. Weather patterns just take standing water, a star, and a desire for such weather. Your storage will take care of the rest.

That made a lot of sense, actually. She was familiar enough with the water cycle in the world that it should translate fairly well into her desires as conveyed to her storage space. How much for the item and integration?

Not a lot. Ten gold, give or take, depending on exactly which item you choose.

And expanding my items capacity by tenfold would take? She knew it would be a lot, but she wanted that confirmed. In truth, she hoped that something would factor in, somehow, to reduce the cost.

Boma turned to his desk, and the image of the bracer was replaced with a depiction of Kit, overlaid with descriptions of what the Constructionists Guild knew of the item. It looks like merging with your storage is quite efficient. The item has an incredibly stable base matrix and takes on additions with ease. So, you probably have closer to two thousand cubic feet to work with, probably a little more. That said, even with the ongoing multiplier from the Revered syphon fascia, wed need to merge in at least twenty of the generic expanded space boxes with your item. At thirty gold a piece, for the item and merging, that comes to six hundred gold. Id recommend a couple more, but thats where it sits, at the moment. We do have larger versions of our storage boxes for merging, and they are a bit more cost effective if you can afford them, but the cheapest I could get it done, all told, would be between four and five hundred gold.

Tala grimaced. Yeah, I dont have that much.

Understandable. Most dont have that much in ready cash. He grinned a bit ruefully. Most immediately spend what they get upgrading their bound items, rather than saving up.

She grunted. Well, thank you for the information. It made a sort of sense. Any upgrade to any item could be what saved a Mages life. Was it worth saving up for an upgrade the Mage might not live to get, when spending a bit more, overall, could keep that Mage as equipped as possible at any given time?

You had another question?

She was drawn out of her contemplations. Oh! Right. Can I create a permanent entrance and exit to my dimensional storage?

I assume you dont mean just leaving your item in the form of a door, attached to a wall permanently.

No, I mean something like a door that always leads to and from my storage space, no matter where I am with the item itself.

He nodded. I assume youd like a few, ideally. One could lead to where you actually are in the wilds. One would lead to a sea-side city, and another to a more upscale place, like Bandfast. And you simply must have four, so the fourth should lead to a plateau, high in the mountains, covered in flowers. Am I guessing correctly?

Tala sighed. Youre making fun of me, again. Theres no reason why it shouldnt be possible.

He grinned. Yes and no. Many have tried to do exactly as you are suggesting. And if youd like to pursue it, Ill gladly help as youre right; there is nothing that prevents it from working, in theory. We just have never figured out a way to do it. If we ever do succeed, then caravans would become a relic of the past, and wed simply create dimensional storage tunnels between the cities.

I knew it should be possible. As you said, it would be rusting useful. It did seem too useful to not be used by everyone.

Boma smiled sadly. Indeed. Now, is there anything else you wish to ask?

I think that is it. She stood and gave a shallow bow. Thank you.

You are most welcome, Mistress. Good day.

Good day.