Chapter 18: The Wilds Are My Workout

Chapter 18: The Wilds Are My Workout

Tala walked back into the circle of wagons, possibilities whipping through her head.

She passingly noticed Brand re-entering the chuckwagon and quirked a smile. Hes going to have a fun time explaining what just happened.

She returned her mind to the present task.

Do I lie?

No, there wasnt really anything convincing she could say.

Do I tell the whole truth?

That was folly. Besides, there was likely no surer way of preventing herself from learning the secrets that the cooks had uncovered.

Decades She shook her head. That kind of time researching had to have yielded truly fantastic results. Ill have to see if their methods were sound, else it might all be useless to me, anyways.

Focus, Tala. Mages ahead. What are you going to say?

The question was taken from her as she approached the table.

All three of the occupants were staring at her chest.

Tala frowned, shifting a bit uncomfortably. Um Hi? Did I drop something on? She trailed off as she looked downward and saw that soft light was still visible, shining through the small slit in her tunic. You know? I dont know if Brand grabbed his knife

Trent cleared his throat, looking up to meet her gaze. Mistress Tala. Your breast is glowing.

She blushed deeply and couldnt think of a response.

Atrexia, taking Trents comment as having breached the silence, stood, and strode to her. The other woman stuck two fingers forward, towards the slit in Talas shirt.

Tala slapped the encroaching hands away. Hey, now! Hands to yourself, please.

Atrexia stopped, glancing around.

Several guards and passengers had turned, but when they saw the Mages looking back at them, they returned to their own business.

Let me see, girl.

Tala glared. I am your peer, Mistress Atrexia. You will address me as such.

Atrexia straightened. Mistress Tala, please show me that spell-script.

Tala narrowed her eyes, then sighed, pulling the collar of her shirt down to expose the still glowing, golden spell-lines.

Atrexia squinted, and Tala saw power ripple around the womans eyes. So much for asking for permission... It increasessomething. Why does it look like that? The golden color isoff, like Im seeing through tinted glass. Are you using a different metal than gold? An alloy? You know, thats incredibly dangerous.

You can use alloys? What would that even do? Tala had a notebook out and was making notes to herself before she truly realized that she was. Shed stepped back, to give herself room to remove her notebook from her satchel, and absently waved her pencil at Atrexia. Its gold; its just under a different layer of protection. You are correct, though, it enhances the inter-connection between the cells in my skin.

Renix cleared his throat, and Tala saw that he was still staring at the glowing script. Translation?

Trent turned to his student, and physically turned the boys head. It makes her skin tougher. Now, stop staring. He turned back to Tala, not mentioning that she was still taking notes on her thoughts and contemplating the ramifications. What did you have to defend against? Id say that almost anything that hit there, could have killed you.

Tala briefly stopped writing. Ohright. She finished the sentence she was working on, closed her book, and tucked it and the pencil away. Never decided what to say, did I

Atrexia had crossed her arms and was waiting impatiently. Well?

Tala sighed. Please sit down. She sat herself and waved to Atrexia and Trents half-eaten food. Thats not going to hurt you. Tala began monitoring those around them, modulating her volume and tone to a pitch that she believed wouldnt be discernible by even the closest bystander, and the others must have picked up on it, because they shifted their own voices to match.

Trent gave a suspicious glance to the bowl, then looked back to Tala. How do you know?

Well, I suppose I dont know, but youve likely eaten this stuff, or the like, on every trade expedition youve ever gone on, and youre fine.

Trent grimaced. Great

Atrexia sat, again, her mage-sight still active as she prodded her soup.

Tala sighed. How about this: You eat a bite, and Ill watch what happens to the power within your system, ok?

Trent, Renix, and Atrexia all stared, wide-eyed at her, as one.

It was Talas turn to frown. What?

Renix swallowed, then leaned forward. You can see the flows of magic, inside people?

Ohright. She was putting her foot in all sorts of wonderful mistakes, wasnt she.

Atrexia held up a hand, to forestall Renixs continued questions. While that is a good question, mageling, I think the answer is rather obvious. She pondered for a moment. Master Trent, you first. Then, me.

Trent turned to her. Wait, what?

I have inscribings that should reject any foreign power, no matter how it first affects me. I doubt Id be a useful test, but I am willing to be a secondary perspective. She glanced to Tala. Assuming you are willing?

Tala shrugged. Sure.

Trent looked back to the bowl, then sighed.

Tala watched him pick up a piece of meat, and she focused on it. The bite lit up to her mage-sight, highlighting the latent power within.

Trent glanced to her, and she nodded, assuming that he was asking if she was ready.

Without further delay, he ate the bite.

Immediately, power began to be drawn away from meat, even as he chewed. It flowed outward, through his spell-lines and towards his keystone and from there outward into his body.

Fascinating. Tala leaned forward.

Trent stopped chewing. What? The question came out slightly garbled, around the food in his mouth.

Power is leaving the meat, and flowing backwards along your inscribings, to your keystone.

Her eyes shot fully open, and she was suddenly aware of thorny vines constricting down upon her. In that frozen instant, she assessed her situation.

If she had to guess, the softer patch of plant shed taken as a gift had turned out to be some sort of carnivorous plant. It seemed to have wormed vines up, and across her entire body through the night. With the first light of dawn, it had uncovered thorns, spaced every one to two inches, and constricted in an obvious attempt to shred its victim apart and cover itself in her blood.

Her enhancements had objectedstrongly.

Golden light, with a slight grey tint, washed outward from her, even as her clothes were utterly shredded.

The vines began almost slithering across her, and she realized that if they had pierced her, they would now be sawing through her muscle and bone.

By all that shines. She flailed despite her bound limbs. Thankfully, she hadnt been bound to hold her down. No, the plants aim seemed to have been to get its wicked weapons into position over her main arteries and open them to the sun.

She blessed Holly and her inscribings, again.

Talas hand found her belt knife, which shed laid beside her head the night before.

Tala whipped the blade free and began to hack.

In most circumstances, hacking at something so close to her own flesh would have been unwise, but her active enhancements turned aside her own blade as easily as the thorns, though she still felt the impacts.

She tore herself free and rolled out from under her wagon.

Her shirt was simply gone. Another one? Seriously? She stood in just her small clothes which were miraculously mostly intact.

She had apparently been yelling, because several guards were already running towards her, blades drawn, and Den was staring at her in mute horror.

She felt thick, sticky ichor slowly dribbling down her exposed skin. Apparently, the plant had something like blood, and she was coated in it.

Tala looked under the wagon, and saw her bedroll, somehow entirely untouched, writhing atop the floundering plant. It oriented all the spines and thorns towards me. She was not going to pay for a new bedroll.

With a bellow of rage, she dove back under the wagon, grabbing her bedroll, whipping it off the plant creature, and tossing the gear out from under the wagon. She remained, slashing any vine she could hold onto long enough to cut.

She vaguely saw the guards skid to a stop and draw back, as the now fully uncovered plant lashed out with half a hundred more tentacle-like vines.

With so many vines, she couldnt get close, not in the confined, four-foot-high space.

Tala had had enough. Toss me your sword! She glared over her shoulder at one of the guards, and he blanched.

Another tried to shuffle closer, but the vines were moving too quickly.

The vines struck Tala, herself, in a steady rhythm, but they lacked the mass to do any damage without the aid of their thorns.

Dont bring it to me. TOSS IT!

The guard flinched, then pitched his short sword to her, underhanded. Considering he was some ten feet back and aiming to toss it under a wagon and near someone in the middle of a maelstrom: He did a good job.

The tip struck her squarely in the side, causing another section of her inscribings to blaze with light. How that one section had avoided activation up until then, she had no idea.

She picked up the blade from the ground and found herself grinning. Now, you rusting patch of grass, you die.

She drove inward, hunched yet cutting in great sweeping arcs, leaving dozens of tendrils twitching on the surrounding ground. After each swing, she was able to take a shuffling, crouching step forward.

Finally, she got close enough to the center to drive the blade straight down, into the core of the thing, buried in the ground.

The entire mass seemed to freeze on the instant, then fell limp.

Tala whooped in victory, ripped the blade free, and staggered out from under the wagon.

She was glowing like a small fire, and she would have been surprised if any part of her spell-forms hadnt been activated. Im glad they arent one-shots What had Holly said? Each area should be able to activate at least a half-dozen times? It was something like that. Shed have to check her notes. At the moment, she was much too distracted.

Atrexia, Trent, Renix, and a half dozen guards were standing in a ring around the wagon, staring at her in mute horror.

Den was still atop his drivers seat.

Tala looked around at all of them, saw the man whod given her the sword, and tossed it back at his feet. Sorry, Ive nothing to clean it with. Thank you, though.

The man mutely bent down and retrieved it, holding it as if he were unsure if the weapon was safe.

Trent opened his mouth to speak, and by the smile tugging at the edges of his lips, Tala could guess it would be something about her chest glowing again.

She pointed the knife in her off hand at him and glared. Now is not the time, Master Trent.

Trent closed his mouth, but the small smile remained. He seemed to be laughing at his own joke.

She looked down at herself. The glow wasnt strong enough to obscure the details of her figure, though the streaks of black ichor, which speckled her from head to toe, made it so she didnt feel mostly naked. She did feel gross, though. And sticky

Her eyes flicked to Atrexia. The woman wore barely more than Tala currently was. So, why are they staring at me? She grunted. Rightglowing.

Tala sighed and growled. Its done, now. Ive work to do. When no one moved, she raised her voice. Off with you!

The watchers turned reluctantly, slowly scattering back to their morning tasks. Atrexia lingered for a moment to shake her head and mutter under her breath. If we get a salad as part of breakfast, someone dies.

Tala almost laughed, and when she looked after the woman and their gazes met, she saw a twinkle in the other Mages eyes. Ahh, that was meant for me to hear.

Tala walked around the wagon and opened the wash station. She had a building headache, and it was beginning to make her feel grumpy. After she scraped herself mostly clean, she used almost a gallon of water getting off the last bits. When she looked up from dunking her head, again, she saw Dens hand sticking out above her, his head no-where in sight.

Grasped in that hand was her last, undamaged shirt, tightly folded so it wouldnt drop into the water. How long has he been holding that there? From the way he was positioned, he couldnt see any part of her, and it didnt look like hed even tried to spy.

She scraped what water she could, off of herself and took the shirt. Thank you, Den.

His voice came from the drivers seat. I didnt want you to have to come back into the wagon circle just to get that. After a long moment, he added, Are you ok?

Tala thought about that, as she pulled on the shirt. Finally, she sighed. Yeah. I think I might have nightmares about grass, but yeah. She shivered. Ill be sleeping on the roof, from now on As she thought about that, she added. Maybe I can get the guards to lend me one of those shields. Being snatched by some arcanous owl would be an unfortunate way to go

Den chuckled. True enough. Most people sleep inside on these expeditions He didnt say more.

Tala sighed, closing up the wash station and stretching up and back. This was not how she liked to wake up, but she could make the most of it.

She moved through her morning stretches but decided to forgo the workout. She felt a bit sore from her work harvesting arcanous parts the day before, and the mornings scuffle had added new aches. Great. The wilds are my workout