Millennial Mage

Chapter 457: Return to Fully Active Duty

Chapter 457: Return to Fully Active Duty

Tala was in awe of the new level of accuracy Terry had managed to bring to his species’ name.

He was—more than ever—a true terror bird.

She was using a practice sword formed of white steel—still joined to her elk leathers—so that she and Terry wouldn’t be competing for the same blade. Unfortunately, while it worked for sparring, it wasn’t magically sharp or able to cut or pierce. That was perfect for this use, but it did not represent a new weapon at her disposal.

Though, I could probably aspect mirror Flow’s magics onto the white steel…

So, it might be an effective weapon in a pinch, but it wasn’t that great on its own.

Terry was using Flow in its sparring sheath.

As to what they were doing? They were fighting. The two of them flickered around Tala’s training ring within her sanctum.

Both of them specifically didn’t use the Kit-granted ability to move around within the dimensional space. Even without that, Tala theoretically had a decided advantage because the entire sanctum was filled with her aura. But since they were staying within the training ring, and that was smaller than she usually kept her aura in a fight, they’d agreed that such didn’t really factor in.

Terry had—somehow—gotten faster with his flickering movement. He even occasionally had time to throw his head back to swallow another bit of jerky that he’d pulled to himself from elsewhere in the sanctum. His knowledge and control wasn’t as absolute as Tala’s, but he had found the jerky stashes every time she’d tried to hide them. He seemed to enjoy flaunting that too.

With regard to his flickering, though: in the past, at the extreme, he’d been able to appear to be in two places at the same time, or nearly so. When he’d done that in the past, it had produced a flickering afterimage and left him exhausted. But now? Now, he could move fast enough to seemingly be attacking from multiple directions at once, and every line of assault that Tala didn’t counter or avoid hit just as hard as if it were the only one.

Thankfully, Tala wasn’t the same as previously either, else Terry would have been utterly dominant. In this case, incorporating her flickering movements into the Way of Flowing Blood had actually been much easier than she’d feared, at least while fighting Terry.

It effectively changed very little, since they both had the capacity to reposition themselves around the battlefield. Even so, she was looking forward to the challenge that she knew incorporating it against a more traditional opponent would pose.

Beyond that, fighting an aura specialist like Master Akra would be a whole other beast entirely. They would be fighting for supremacy with entirely different stakes.

She’d talked with the Refined already, and he’d asked her to do some work in preparation for their first clash. Mainly, he suggested that she begin to conceptualize her fighting as more akin to group tactics.

She could do a flashy frontal assault while slipping in a tendril of aura, only to expand such to form a full foundation into which she could bring her body for the ‘true’ attack. And that was simply the easiest example to quickly convey, but Tala immediately grasped the implications.

With this new potential, she could treat any part of her aura as if it were her body, because it effectively could be.

She still wasn’t instantaneous in her flickering, but she could change her own location and orientation between the time she started a thrust and when it should land.

Less than a second to move effectively anywhere within her aura might seem fast, but when Terry could now do the same three or four times in an eyeblink, it was painfully slow in comparison.

Tala honestly suspected that the only reason she could hold her own against Terry was that he was still so new to manipulating a weapon.

He’d practiced throwing weapons for years now, and in that he was hard to match. The avian could create a true storm of flying weaponry if he desired, but actually wielding one for any length of time? Not so much.

It seemed like it was actually rarely worth his effort. The benefits that a weapon granted actually seemed somewhat useless to him, especially after the bond.

Increased range? Terry could just flicker closer.

Greater leverage? He essentially never used his full power in his strikes to begin with.

Better damage? He could now aspect mirror Flow’s properties without the weapon itself being necessary.

Even so, he was set on learning, and when Tala finally understood why, she’d burst out laughing.

If an intelligent opponent saw him fighting with a weapon, then he could surprise them by closing the distance and being even deadlier without one.

…And he knew just how terrifying he looked while wielding Flow.

In essence, Terry was training so that he could pull off psychological warfare on sapient foes.

Honestly? Tala approved.

Tala offered Terry his own section of Kit, but the avian declined for the moment, indicating that he liked being within her sanctum. Though, his answer hadn’t seemed entirely definitive. So, Tala left open the possibility within her own mind at least.

Truthfully, she thought it would be perfect for him as an armory from which to draw out weapons to throw, but Terry still declined for the time being.

That was fine. Tala didn’t need Terry to have a section of Kit for himself. She suspected that his reticence had to do with his growing social and emotional intelligence while he got used to the new thoughts and feelings his mental growth and enhancements afforded him. He was doing a fantastic job, but his newly growing emotional maturity was more evident at times.

One thing that hadn’t gone as they had hoped was Terry’s concept. While Terry could aspect mirror basically any part of Tala’s magic—for his specific use and toward his benefit—she was not able to do the same with Terry’s, at least not with his need.

Thankfully, Terry seemed to still have the sense, but when Tala tried to tap into it in any way, it either didn’t work, or seemed to be indicating where Terry needed to be.

Those she consulted postulated various reasons ranging from: she wasn’t able to sustain the conceptual foundation to alter the information provided; all the way to: the magic was specifically directed toward indicating where in the world Terry needed to be. Thus, aspect mirroring the ability simply added to the number of persons receiving the same message.

That was disappointing, but she hadn’t actually held out hope that it would work the same for her as it did for Terry.

-Well, it actually does work exactly the same for you as for him.-

You know what I meant…

* * *

Tala, Terry, and Rane lounged within Tala’s sanctum.

It had been nearly ten months since Terry and Tala had become soulbound, and they had finally fully fleshed out the edges of their new capacities, and Tala’s soul and gate had finally been given a clean bill of health.

There was never any particular danger, but such bonds could introduce instability into an Archon, if care wasn’t taken. Because of that, the three of them had put everything on hold. They hadn’t done any more war games, yet. Rane hadn’t gotten his alternate interface. They had turned their focus entirely on the new bond and the changes to them.

Master Grediv had suggested that it wasn’t necessary, but the very fact that he hadn’t tried very hard to convince them was a tacit agreement that their choice was on the wiser side of things.

Regardless, it had been a good continuation of the break Tala had intended to take away from Alefast.

Nothing had really been discovered after the first few days, but they’d taken a lot of time to refine and practice their usage.

Tala and Terry had each tried out each other's mundane sight—just for fun—and neither had particularly enjoyed it. The means of focusing and processing sight had been just slightly off, making it a bit frustrating to integrate what was being seen.

Terry initially had to deal with it, regardless, because of his use of her threefold perception, but then Alat had made the obvious observation that Terry’s mundane sight could be mirrored as easily as Tala’s. Therefore, Terry’s threefold perception now used his mundane sight as perception, overlaid with Tala’s magics for magesight and voidsight.

They didn’t mesh perfectly, but Terry was still quite happy.

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Tala had reached out to Mistress Holly to see if Terry might be able to get his own, full set of inscriptions, and the Inscriptionist had been… definitive in her response.

No.

While he could be inscribed, technically speaking, every varied part of his anatomy would be a different medium through which to inscribe, and thus require a different base structure to the magics.

She was hardly the first person with a familiar, but humanity had never been able to devise a way to offer full inscription sets to any. Localized? Absolutely, but an entire set was simply infeasible.

One of the core reasons for that was Terry’s body would be different from every other terror bird’s, in terms of use as a magical medium. Thus, the only way they could do the testing would be to do it within Terry. Since the testing involved using magics that could do literally anything, then recording the results to learn, that was not a good thing to do within a living being.

Humanity had done their own experiments on cadavers. Inscriptionists had then adjusted the magics subtly to account for the difference between living and non-living tissue for the final fine-tuning of their knowledge.

Tala and Terry were both a bit disappointed in the answer, but they could understand it. Terry was unique, and very much not keen on being a test subject for years, regardless of the outcome.

But they did a bit more than just explore the bond and the potential possibilities of such over those months. Tala’s siblings had visited three times; Rane’s twenty-seventh birthday had come and gone—along with their second anniversary of courting—and Tala’s birthday was just days away.

They’d even taken a couple of trips to Bandfast to see Lyn, Kannis, and Fannas—while trying to see if there was any way to get Mistress Holly to inscribe Terry.

But all of that wasn’t relevant to the moment. In the moment, they were all relaxing together, celebrating the receipt of some good news.

Rane took a long drink from his tea mug. “So, we’re finally cleared for Cell-work again, eh?”

Tala stretched back and nodded. “That’s right. Master Grediv has signed off on it.”

“And Terry can come in too?”

“Correct. And there’s one our unit is going after tomorrow.”

Terry trilled happily.

“He’s to be afforded the same rights as any Refined and their soulbonds.”

Rane grinned. “That is amazing. I’m glad for it.”

“Me too. I am excited to get back out of the city for more than a quick trip. It’s been… too long.” She looked his way. “I still think that you should have gotten your alternate interface already. You could have spent this time adjusting.”

He shrugged. “I could have, but I wanted to be in top form if you needed me. I’ll get the scripts added when we get back from this cell. There isn’t supposed to be any down time required, after all.” His look turned sad, and he shook his head. “But about your bond… I’m just disappointed that you didn’t get any easy-to-use size-changing magics.”

Tala gave him a fake glare. “I’m not going to get in your pocket, Rane.”

“But think of the convenience!” He grinned in her direction, the false sadness gone.

She willed for a piece of ice to fall down the back of his shirt.

He jerked slightly, but otherwise didn’t react.

A moment later, she moved all the moisture away. “Fine. It would have been funny, but it’s not happening.”

He held up one finger. “Not yet.”

She huffed a laugh and shook her head. “Sure, not yet.”

Rane then shifted, turning to regard Terry. “So, is she ready?”

“Hey! You could ask me,” Tala grumped, then took a long drink from her coffee mug.

“Yes, I could, but he’s the dimensional expert.” He locked gazes with Terry. “Is she truly ready to fight with the flickering as part of her arsenal? Against truly hostile opponents?”

Terry looked between the two people, pausing dramatically for a long moment. Finally, he bobbed once.

Tala grinned. “Thank you, Terry. I knew you would—”

She stopped as he shrunk to the size of a chick.

Tala grimaced, and Rane chuckled. “So, she’s as good as a newly hatched chick?”

Terry bobbed his agreement.

“But that’s still good enough?’

He bobbed again.

“Good enough for me.”

Tala shook her head. “You two…” A smile pulled at her lips. “Why do I put up with you two?”

Rane leaned over and gave her a kiss.

She leaned in for the moment, then moved back when he pulled away. After a moment’s obvious thought, she shook her head. “No, that’s not why.”

He laughed again. “Well then, I’m out of ideas.”

Tala glanced toward Terry, and he simply flickered side to side once. She snorted a laugh. “Well, that’s great too, but no. That’s not why I keep you around.”

Terry lifted his wings in a mimicry of a human shrug.

They devolved into chuckles and laughing squawks then, before returning to their repast.

* * *

Tala’s unit had been training with her and Terry since shortly after the bonding, and they’d stood watch—as was their duty—while Tala and Terry joined them within Alefast.

Regardless, they all greeted Tala and Terry’s return to fully active duty with a celebratory air.

Mistress Vanga even brought along a specialty cake for them all to enjoy together.

To her credit—and demonstrating her wisdom—she immediately bribed Terry with nearly a pound of jerky to leave the cake alone until everyone—including him—could get a piece.

There was a celebratory atmosphere for the whole trip to the cell entrance.

The Paragon who had been sent with them joined in the festive mood, laughing and telling stories of friends returning from sabbaticals of various kinds, but at first, she politely declined the piece of dessert that Mistress Vanga had sliced for her.

The Healer wasn’t put off, though. “Mistress Terra, please join us.”

When the others—including Tala—joined in the sentiment, Mistress Terra relented, taking the offered cake.

Terry consumed his own bit of sugared goodness before flickering to sit before Mistress Vanga expectantly.

The woman chuckled but shook her head. “There isn’t any more, Terry. You shouldn’t have eaten so quickly.”

The terror bird looked at her, aghast. Tala knew exactly what he was thinking, even without Alat telling her: How was he to be denied?

Mistress Terra looked between the two of them, then down to her own piece. “I mean, I could—”

Mistress Vanga held up a hand. “No, thank you, Mistress. This little terror is too ready to take food from others, and he doesn’t even take the time to enjoy the very special treat that he is given.”

Terry squawked mournfully.

“No, I will not relent. I want to give you special treats, but I won’t if you just scarf them down and demand more.”

He then trilled in irritation before flickering over to Tala’s plate, obviously aiming to take her piece.

Even as he appeared, she moved herself out of the way, flickering just a few inches with ease and not pausing her fork’s movement as it brought the first bite to her mouth. “Oh, that is so good.”

Terry looked up at her with narrowed eyes.

Tala smiled, swallowing and addressing her bound companion, “Come on, Terry. You know she’s right. You get your enjoyment from food from the hunt, not the flavor. It makes no sense to give you huge amounts of especially tasty food.”

He tilted his head to the side, then chirped his agreement, implying a simple inquiry.

“So what? Well, the answer is obvious, my friend. Change that, or leave special food to those who will actually enjoy it.” She shrugged.

Rane was, wisely, eating his cake while Terry was otherwise distracted, though he did make sure to take his time and enjoy it. The others were likewise using Terry’s distraction as a window in which to take steady, savoring bites.

Terry danced from foot to foot in rapid succession, clearly a bit irritated.

Tala smiled. Ever since the bond, Terry had had a bit of toddler energy to him, though he was rapidly progressing upward through the emotional maturity progression. At the moment, he reminded her most of her siblings when they were seven or eight. It mainly came out when he encountered human things that he hadn’t bothered to pay attention to in the past.

He was stretching his social and emotional muscles in entirely new ways.

-And part of it is you truly, utterly seeing him as a person now, rather than a really smart animal.-

I never... yeah… you’re probably right. Tala sighed.

Regardless, his continued maturation had actually made her rather grateful that Terry was still refusing his own segment of Kit, as she could very easily see him filling it with knick knacks that he’d picked up along the way.

I am not looking forward to when he’s like a teenager.

-You know, teenagers don’t have to be difficult to deal with.-

It’s just an odd thing to be going through, especially since he sees me as his hatchling, and he’s the older of us…

-You just need to train with him properly, and build a solid relationship with him before he reaches the teenager stage of emotional and social development.-

…I’ve literally bound my soul to him. How can I have a more solid relationship?

-Commitments are nice, Tala, but you also need an emotional relationship with him, one of trust and inter-reliance. It’s important to establish exactly what your relationship means and how it will change and grow as he develops.-

…you’re just quoting some parenting book you found, aren’t you. It wasn’t a question.

Alat answered it anyway. -...yeah.-

Did you even vet it to see if it’s true?

-What? Why? Someone published it. It must be true.-

Tala huffed a laugh, and Terry shook his head in the manner that indicated Alat was talking to him as well, likely more than he preferred at the moment. You know, you can see that he is getting irritated with you.

-Oh of course, but you neglect the fact that I can also see that he enjoys it, deep down.-

Terry turned an irritated eye toward Tala and squawked loudly.

-Really deep down.-

Leave him be, Alat.

-...fine.-

Tala reached out and scooped up Terry, holding him in her arms while everyone else ate.

He struggled slightly, but Tala knew it was for show. He didn’t try to flicker away even once. He stopped even his fake struggles when Rane offered him the last of his own piece.

Terry accepted excitedly, and Rane fed the terror bird, leading to a musical cacophony of happiness.

As everyone else finished as well—everyone profusely thanking Mistress Vanga for the treat—conversation picked back up even while they drew ever nearer the cell.

After a time, as the general, random chatter was beginning to die down, Mistress Cerna shifted and refocused the topic being discussed, “Mistress Terra?”

The Paragon turned toward the control seat in which the unit-leader sat. “Yes, Mistress Cerna?”

“If you don’t mind my inquiry: what magics do you bring to bear?”

The older woman smiled, seeming to straighten even as mirth-filled crow’s feet became evident on her face beside each of her eyes. “I always enjoy that question.”

“Oh?” Mistress Cerna glanced her way, clearly curious.

“Yes. Because I technically don’t bring any magics to bear.”

She’d had everyone’s curiosity… but now she had their attention.

It was Rane who broke the moment of silence. “Oh? That sounds like an interesting thing for a Mage to claim.”

“It is, isn’t it?” Mistress Terra was clearly having fun with the conversation, and the building suspense about her answer.

-Well, she did say that she enjoyed the question.-

Hush, you. I want to listen.