Millennial Mage

Tala, Rane, and Terry set off across the rolling prairie once more a bit after noon.

It was still well before dusk—and they still had miles to go before they slept—when a small cloaking field rolled over them, revealing an even smaller craft with a single woman atop it.

The craft was an interesting one, seeming almost like a single board with a sail atop it, the controls incredibly simple, just a bar which the woman could manipulate to change the path it took.

The magic coming from the lower, sculpted board was almost natural in feel. Tala would have bet gold that it was crafted from floating tree or rock or the bone of a flying beast of some kind, and used essentially in its native state, rather than heavily modified as those that were implanted in larger crafts.

That was utterly unlike Sunnydale, which was kept aloft by clearly artificially induced artifacts. Sunnydale’s way was more powerful, true, but there was something… choppier about the results that Tala hadn’t even realized was present until seeing this new craft.

The sail was just as powerful, seemingly filled with magics of thrust and lift. After a moment, Tala realized that she recognized the material.

That’s cloud elemental fleece.

-Yeah, but it’s been processed into a different form and for an entirely different purpose.-

Tala could perceive a heavily protected, expanded space, anchored to the craft in a way that she didn’t quite understand with only a quick inspection.

She was tall and strong as she stood there on the board. With gray-blue eyes that held a depth of intensity along with a spark of humor, the woman instantly put Tala at ease, as counterintuitive as that seemed. Her dark red hair was shaved on the sides while remaining long and curly on the top and back, held together in a messy braid reaching halfway down her back.

Her clothing was well-kept but not meticulously so, conveying care without obsession or vanity. The style was incredibly minimalistic. On top, she wore a close fitting piece, cinched tight—likely to keep it from flapping in the wind of her flight—covering little more than her chest and leaving her midriff bare. That was above baggy pants that seemed designed to allow easy movement. Her feet were bare and her only jewelry or ornamentation was a dark crystal pendant that looked to have a storm raging inside.

When she spoke, her voice was smooth and strong, the woman clearly used to projecting over the sound of rushing wind, “Greetings travelers. I am Mara. Are you in need of assistance?”

Rane gave a small bow and returned a greeting for them. “Greetings, Mara. I am Rane, and this is my wife Tala. We aren’t in need, but thank you.”

Mara nodded once, then her smile grew. “Well then, with no need, there must be something you want. I’ve a healthy stock, and you’ve the good fortune to have stumbled across me on the way to find the right market.”

Tala smiled in return. “A merchant then?”

“Yes. You’re humans, are you not?”

They both nodded. Terry remained silent, even as he rested on Tala’s shoulder, regarding the merchant. He’d only taken up that place shortly before Mara’s appearance, and he seemed content to remain. Tala could tell that the merchant was gateless. She looked human, but her aura was strong, if inexpertly veiled.

Or maybe expertly?

-Yeah, I can’t tell what her advancement is.-

So, projecting confusing signals rather than a false one. That’s an interesting tactic. Might be worth attempting.

-Later.-

Later.

Regardless, what Tala could detect of her power level indicated arcane or maybe a half-arcane. If so, she was most likely of the hue-man lineages. Not that it mattered much.

Rane spoke into the momentary silence. “I’m not sure we will buy anything that you’re selling, but we’re happy to take a look.” He gave a rueful smile. “I’m always interested in seeing wares, but I don’t wish to waste your time.”

Mara waved that off. “Nonsense. Even if you don’t buy anything, a bit of conversation will be worth the delay.”

She took a single hopping step backward, dropping off her craft, the vessel following her down as she fell the dozen or so feet to the ground, landing lightly.

It was subtle, but Tala was able to pick out magics reaching out of the woman as she fell and when she landed, guiding her fall and cushioning her landing, it had a heaviness and static to the magic, like the air right before a thunderstorm.

A moment later, her craft landed behind her, having folded open, the sail tucking against the outside of one half of the board.

Within the two halves was the portal into an expanded space.

It wasn’t that large, but it was well laid out so that a huge variety of things were easily viewed.

Tala chuckled. “You do this often, then?”

Mara grinned in return. “Of course. I have to make a living.”

Rane gave her a side-eyed look, making a statement more than asking a question. “You didn’t really think we needed help, did you.”

She shrugged. “You were both practically flying. You’re well dressed, clean, and obviously not starving. There was a chance you needed help—and I would have given it if so—but there was a higher chance that you needed goods.”

That made Rane laugh. “Fair enough.”

Tala frowned. “So, you travel around all alone?”

Mara reached up and stroked her necklace. “Not quite alone, but without any other people, yeah.”

“Doesn’t that get lonely?”

“Honestly?” Her gaze went a bit wistful and her smile a bit sad, “I fell in love once, but he would have taken me from the skies…” She shook her head, her smile returning in full force. “I couldn’t have that. This is better.”

Tala felt something stir within the woman’s necklace, and Tala caught the flicker of… not a soul, not quite, but a spirit? There was an intelligence within the necklace. “So, you prefer the open sky to people and company?”

“For the most part, but each have their place.”

“I can see that.” Tala shrugged, then moved on to business. “Well, we actually have a rather large pool of folks who might trade with you, if you’ve any interest.”

“Oh?” Mara arched one eyebrow, her ready smile not leaving her face. “If they aren’t far, I’m game.”

Tala opened the portal into the Ironhold, Lyn already waiting on the other side, Alat having warned her and Tala having moved her into place.

Mara froze for a moment, her smile becoming momentarily wooden for the first time. “Is that… is that a soulbound space?”

“It is.” Tala held up her hands. “But it is special. There is no soulbond required or enforced upon entrance.”

Lyn stepped out smoothly and chuckled. “I should hope not. With thousands of souls within, our beloved Tala’s existence would have been shredded to ribbons ages ago.”

Mara frowned. “That’s good to know, but there is still another problem. I won’t be able to enter such a dominated space.”

Tala frowned. “What?”

The woman shook her head. “Let me just show you.”

Mara walked forward and stepped into the portal.

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Tala instantly felt the oddities. Mara was within Kit, but she remained utterly outside of Tala’s authority. That should be impossible.

Regardless, the merchant was obviously struggling, somehow looking like she was wading through deep water even as Tala’s power and authority flowed around her, unable to get within an inch of her skin.

She’s shedding authority like a duck sheds water. That’s incredible.

-Yeah, it seems like an absolute rejection. We might be able to force it, but our passive aura and authority is never going to reach her.-

A moment later, Mara was ejected from Kit by something that seemed akin to buoyancy.

The woman was clearly ready for it, landing smoothly and taking a few steps backward to shed her momentum. “See.”

Her smile was broad as she met Tala’s befuddled gaze. Tala had never seen anything like it, and her question conveyed that confusion, “What now?”

Mara laughed. “It’s my concept. I am anathema to other’s authority. I am as free as the storm.”

Tala’s eyes widened. “That is… That is ridiculously powerful.”

Mara shrugged in return. “I imagine you weren’t trying to hurt me, nor truly attempting to dominate me, that was just your passive authority?”

Tala gave a slow nod.

“I thought so. It’s more annoying than useful these days.” She laughed. “I don’t make anyone angry enough to need its protection very often. Additionally, you could probably breach it with intent.”

“Well, I imagine that was just your passive defense, too.”

Mara tapped the side of her nose, her smile broadening. “That would be telling now, wouldn’t it?”

Tala found herself, once again, smiling in return.

Lyn cleared her throat. “Well, then. If you can’t go in, I will take a look at your stock out here, shall I?”

“But of course!” The merchant turned, gesturing magnanimously at her still-open expanded space.

Lyn and Mara set to chatting about the various items even as the adjunct picked out quite a few, as possible things of interest, all the while taking notes and communicating through her slate with those inside Ironhold.

After a bit, Lyn glanced pointedly at the merchant’s pendant. “That is quite the interesting necklace. Is that for sale?”

Mara stroked it lovingly even as she shook her head. “No, no. I’ll not sell her.”

Lyn shrugged, turning back to the items, even while inquiring further, “Her? It looks like a storm in there.”

“Oh, it is. A powerful storm, so magical and enduring as to have gained a spirit.” Her smile shifted, gaining a bit of wistfulness once more.

“And you encountered… her in the wild?” Lyn reached out, feeling some cloth that hung for just such perusals.

“Yes, I did. I was trying to follow the coast north.”

Tala’s eyebrows rose in surprise.

Mara shrugged. “The coast is safer, and I was curious what was up there, why some people see mountains and others don’t, whether or not we really are on a massive island, or if it connects northward to something else.” She shrugged again. “It didn’t work out, and I had to turn back, but before I did, I encountered her. It was an experience unlike any other.” Mara’s gaze had become a bit unfocused, as she clearly relived the memory. After a long moment, she shook her head, returning her attention to them even as she stroked the pendant. “Long story short, I soulbound the storm, and she’s been with me ever since.”

Tala blinked at that. What?

-I don’t know that I understand either?-

…do we need to? It clearly works for her, and we’ve just met in passing.

-Yeah. I think unless she elaborates, we don’t need to delve.- Alat was clearly curious, but she was also right. It wasn’t really their business to pry into.

Lyn, for her part, was nodding along even as she finished pursuing Mara’s wares, making a few further selections of note.

In the end, she purchased a variety of clearly arcanous-derived cloths, some arcanous harvests from creatures alien to the wilds around the cycling cities, and a few other bits and bobs.

The most interesting acquisition from Tala’s perspective was a miniature cloaking generator like the one Mara herself used. She apparently carried several to sell to smaller crafts as backups or replacements in the event their main one was giving trouble.

They weren’t designed to last long, but that made them cheaper. They were essentially a spare, just meant to help the purchaser get to a larger market for a true replacement.

As to what they traded? Lyn and Mara haggled for nearly a quarter hour—only taking that long because they were discussing various items and their valuations instead of simply talking about an amount of currency. In the end, Ironhold provided mostly foodstuffs—mainly staples but a few delicacies from the cycling cities—with a few tools of Ironhold creation to fill out their side of the deal.

Lyn then took her selections from Mara, and the merchant closed up her craft, returning it to its flying configuration.

“Thank you all for your custom. I wish you good travels and a safe arrival at your destination.”

They returned the well wishes, and Mara had hopped on her board, when Tala frowned, having a thought. “Mara?”

The merchant paused, glancing back. “Yes?”

“How do you have your expanded space with you?”

She looked genuinely confused. “The same way the villages carry around their holds? Such spaces stay with whatever they’re anchored to. If that moves, they move.”

Tala felt her face go blank. Oh.

Rane noticed and took over smoothly, “Thank you once again, Mara. Take care.”

The merchant shook her head—still smiling—and waved goodbye once more, magic surging around her with the crackle of hidden lightning, and she shot toward the sky, vanishing as soon as she pulled her cloaking field away from them.

Tala was still staring off into the distance.

-Wow… yeah… I really should have thought of that.-

I do feel like a bit of an idiot.

Rane and Lyn both turned to regard her, but it was her husband who spoke first. “So? What did you realize?”

Tala blinked a few times, then focused on him. “Well, I realized that we’ve been going about this the slow way.”

He frowned. “What do you mean? We’re making great time.”

“Yes, but we have a faster means of movement.”

He closed one eye in thought. “The fliers? Sure, they’re faster but—” His eyes both widened in realization. “Oh.”

Lyn’s eyes had widened at nearly the same time, clearly coming to the same conclusion.

Tala grinned. “We can open a little portal to Ironhold inside one of the fliers.”

Rane gently put his palm to his own forehead. “Just like we did on the unit’s flying vehicle, or these settlements do with their own holds.”

“Precisely.”

Lyn frowned. “Will that work? I know that there is less resonance with magic that is within an expanded space, but it's not none. Isn’t there also the issue of causing greater damage to reality from our gates and power? And if this is possible, why wouldn’t we be using that instead of Caravans?”

Tala was nodding along. “First, I think you’re forgetting that a morphic hold, one that can have a truly size changing opening, requires a soulbond, which essentially means no one else can get in it. So, sure, Archons could do that, but they’d have to load and unload everything themselves, and their time is valuable spent elsewhere—don’t forget that the control within Kit isn’t standard for most spaces, even soulbound ones. In that same vein, they couldn’t take any people either. Second, the magical resonance is a question of four main things—with a lot of little ones of course. First, magical density of the object in motion, the stronger the magic the greater the density. Next, density of the area being passed through—that should be relatively obvious. Then, surface area and configuration of that which is passing through, which is why changing our aura shape matters so much. Finally, the speed of the passage.”

Lyn was nodding along, an Archive slate already out from… somewhere. “With a miniscule portal within the pure-iron shell of the flier, the surface area will be as close to zero as we can reasonably get.”

“Right, and the magical density of that small area can’t really be affected as even pulling my power back from an open gate leaves the portal with the weight of my power behind it.”

“That’s true. We obviously aren’t affecting the magic around us, but with the single act of reducing the surface area…” She shook her head. “That is so simple, yet impossible for essentially every Archon just because of the issues with a soulbound space.”

Tala was grinning broadly, then. “The only thing we need to be careful of is our gates. Magic is abrasive, but our gates are far more so.”

Rane had been nodding along and finally interjected, “By being stoneward in an expanded space, any damage we do will be less critical. Reality should have no issue healing before anything else comes along to exacerbate things.”

Tala pointed at him. “Exactly, yes. Kit can even ‘dive’ a bit to ensure that we are stoneward of standard expanded spaces, reducing the risk even further.”

Lyn was clearly excited. “Does that mean that you can go hundreds of miles an hour?”

Tala hesitated. “Technically yes, but I can’t help but assume that doing so would be like ripping a knife across the fabric of Reality.” Even so, she didn’t let that potential dim her enthusiasm. “I’ll come at it slowly, and we’ll watch very carefully with our voidsight to ensure we aren’t unlacing existence behind ourselves.”

-I’ll keep the Reality Review Council in the loop… once we’ve done the first tests.-

Lyn jumped slightly, Alat’s message appearing on her slate.

Rane was nodding, the alternate interface’s message getting to him somehow—though whether directly or through Enar, Tala didn’t know.

You just made that name up, didn’t you.

-So what? It fits.-

Fine…

-Good.-

Tala huffed a laugh, then grinned. “Let’s do this! What’s the worst that could happen?”

Rane groaned. “Don’t say things like that, love…”

Lyn sighed. “Oh, Tala. Come on.”

Even Terry trilled in gentle reprimand.

Tala grumped, feeling a bit hemmed in from all sides. “Fine.”

Even so, she popped back into contentment a moment later, opening a portal to let one of the fliers out before willing the three humans and one terror bird all into the sanctum.

“Let’s carefully test and make wise decisions as to how to proceed.”

The three with her gave her skeptical looks, but those faded as they started to actually process what they were about to test.

Excitement began to build.

It was time to see if this was actually possible.