Chapter 19: Not Soon Enough

Chapter 19: Not Soon Enough

Tala felt utterly amped, despite her soreness and slowly growing headache. She was sure that a portion of that was lingering adrenaline from the attack, but a large part was also likely from her still glowing spell-lines stirring up the power within her system.

Her stretching done, she pulled on her shirt. Thankfully, it hung down nearly to her knees, so she was reasonably covered when she re-entered the wagon circle, grabbing a new pair of pants, her magic detector, and an iron salve bar.

She went back around the wagon and used the magic detector to quickly scan herself, applying salve to any areas that caused the inscribed device to show even a trace of a glow. No reason to get complacent.

That done, she pulled on her pants, up under her shirt, before fastening the ties. There, dressed for the day. She returned to the other side of the wagon and placed the magic detector and iron salve back in her box. She paused, glancing at her gloves, laying where shed set them in the box. No need for those, and not worth risking them. She picked them up and tucked them into her bag.

Someone had gathered up her bedroll, folding it and placing it to one side. She looked about but couldnt find who to thank.

She opened it up, and found it was blessedly free of ichor, somehow. Miracles never cease. That fear averted, she folded and rolled up the bedding, placing it back in the box. Now, to my job.

With quick efficiency, she empowered the cargo-slots in her wagon.

Soon, thirty symbols glowed happily, and she was done. Not too bad. She, herself, was also still glowing. The circle of activated script on her breast had glowed until after she fell asleep the night before, so she would likely stay alight for at least a couple of hours this morning. Joy.

She still felt the need to run around the wagons a couple of hundred times, but she schooled herself into calm, deciding there were other tasks she should attend to. Tala turned towards the chuckwagon and breakfast.

Several passengers were up and eating, but dawn was just beginning to break, so she suspected most had yet to arise. All that fit in between first light and the first sliver of the sun becoming visible. She shook her head.

The nightshift of guards was eating, many casting furtive looks her way.

She easily heard several snatches of conversation about her, mainly composed of ignorant queries as to whether she was glowing because of the dawns light. Even so, a few of the guards had seen at least a portion of her scuffle, and they were quietly entertaining their tablemates with the tale.

I swear, Ive never seen a Mage so covered in blood.

She was a terror! Id not want to wake her in the morning.

She didnt even use Magic to kill it! It was like she had a personal grudge against the thing.

There was a lot more in that vein, but after understanding the gist of things, Tala chose to ignore the retellings.

As she walked up to the chuckwagon, she saw Brand staring at her. She smiled at the man, and took the bowl of thick, creamed oats. He swallowed unconsciously. Areare you glowing?

She waited a moment to demonstrate her irritation at having to answer such an obvious question. When he didnt say anything further, she sighed. Yes.

Butlast night when I- He glanced around quickly. Hed clearly been about to say when I stabbed you but thought better of it. Last night, only a tiny ring lit up.

Thats right.

His eyes widened further. What happened?

Carnivorous plant with lots of vines and thornsCan I eat my breakfast, now?

Brand nodded, eyes still wide and grabbed something from under the counter.N0v3lRealm was the platform where this chapter was initially revealed on N0v3l.B1n.

Tala almost flinched, but when she looked down, she saw he was pulling out a book and a small medallion.

Here. He passed the two items to her.

She took them, glancing down. The book was a notebook, and a quick glance inside told her it was a hand-copied text. Dont you need this?

Brand shook his head. We each have a copy. That is the one with the most legible handwriting. He glanced away.

She grinned. Yours?

He cleared his throat, then seemed to ignore the question. The medallion will identify you as one who knows.

The iron coin bore the deeply inset relief of a scythe. Oh?

We call ourselves the Order of the Harvest. He blushed slightly at that, and her grin widened. Im sure it sounds silly to you.

Ahh, burn wolvesI can see why they got the name. After a moments consideration she found herself smiling. If we kill any, they would make perfect fuel for my fire-starter. In addition, such obvious uses meant that the parts would be eminently salable.

It was a large pack, not that Tala knew much about the average size of such things, but nearly thirty arcanous canines certainly seemed like a large number.

They padded along silently through the grass, some hundred yards from the caravan.

To the credit of both the drivers and the oxen, the wagons pace never changed, and there were not sounds of panic or fear.

As the wolves began closing the final distance, Atrexia rode out towards them and gestured across herself, pointing at the ground.

Tala saw power flash from the womans keystone, down her left leg, activating a spell-form on that calf, ankle, and foot. The working then flowed out, through Atrexias bare sole, and into the ground.

Immediately a trench, ten feet deep and twice as wide, opened between the wolves and the caravan.

As the ground shifted, compacting outward to create the defensive bulwark, five guards loosed into the pack. Each arrow struck true, and five wolves yelped in pain.

There was no accompanying bloom of power. Mundane arrows? Do they not have any of the fire variety, or was the use of mundane ammunition purposeful?

The pack stopped then, the largest wolf ambling up to the deep trench.

The matriarchal wolf looked down into the pit, then up to Atrexia. After a long moment, in which the two locked gazes, the wolf dipped her head then turned, leading her pack away.

Tala had a moments hope that there would be five bodies to harvest, but as the wolves left, she saw five bolts, coated in smoldering blood, laying in the grass behind the departing canines.

Atrexia motioned again, and the ground seemed to flow like water, rushing to return to its original shape.

Unlike with the thunder cattle the day before, the effort did not seem to strain her.

I suppose creating the spikes so quickly yesterday was much more straining than making a trench and refilling it? She really didnt understand Material magic well enough to fully comprehend why that might be the case, but the evidence was obvious.

No burn wolf parts for me. She then felt a moments guilt that she wished the animals harm. Theyd been about to attack us. If some died as a result of our defense, it makes sense to make their deaths worth something. Even so, she felt conflicted; they were in the wilds, and this was the wolves home, not hers.

An hour after the departure of the wolves, Tala began to notice small animals hiding or scurrying about in the grass as the wagons passed.

None were easily visible to the eye, those further away seeming to go to great effort to hide. While the myriad rabbits and other small creatures fled from the approaching wagons, they didnt usually go far, seeming to simply wish to wait for the humans to pass. A few were of note, because instead of bounding or scampering away, they simply vanished. Some, she assumed, simply became invisible, even to her mage-sight, which was a fascinating possibility as it seemed to closely mirror her own iron skin. Others, however, instantly appeared elsewhere, further away. Dimensional variants. Creatures with teleportation magic, and possibly other dimensional powers, woven into their being.

She contemplated capturing one of the invisible type, then had to laugh at herself. How could I find one to capture? True, if she had hours to hunt, lay traps, or analyze the terrain she could likely begin finding them easily, but by then the caravan would be miles away, and they would not be pleased if she tried to stay behind just to hunt. I do wonder how they do it, though. Do they somehow wrap power back in on themselves to hide any leakage which would give them away? Do they do the same with light? It was worth studying, but she didnt have the time, at least not at the moment.

The dimensional variants were much more tempting. The right parts from them could power a dimensional storage bag with a great deal of efficiency. That, of course, meant that theyd be valuable to sell as power-sources for constructed items. She almost hopped down to try to capture some, but then imagined herself running all around the meadows, trying to catch a creature that could instantly teleport away.

I could kill it? Or ask a guard to shoot one with their crossbow That wouldnt work. Even if the guard could see the animal, and she was sure at least some of the creatures were visible to the guards, there was no way one would stay in place long enough for a bolt to strike home. Trent or Renix could strike one down with lightning? But if that were feasible and profitable, she had no doubt theyd already be doing it

She sighed. No dimensional parts for me Though, with regard to item power sources she, herself, had no real use for them. I can empower such myselfHuh. That sent her flipping through the spell-form book, and in the end, she came to the realization that the power source didnt matter for the form of spells or magic. Any power source of a given type could power any spell of that type. The most the variation would effect was efficiency.

I could buy dimensional storage and power it myself? It was an interesting idea. The only thing she saw pertaining to power sources, or items for that matter, was a brief comment: Spell-forms powered directly by human Mages tend to consume more precious metals during enactment than those empowered by arcanous harvests, or points of natural power in the world. Whether this is due to flawed mental constructs on the part of the Mage, or some other factor, is unknown, but no item has successfully been powered by any portion of a Mages remains. For more details see And there, the author referenced another book, which she had written on the construction and conception of magical items.

All in all, the book was frustratingly vague. Directly powered? How do I indirectly power something?

True, it gave many detailed diagrams and had fascinating discussions on inscription theory, but most of the spell-forms were depicted and described in two dimensions. As the book said, Any discussion of Inscribing is too complicated to fit within this tome, as no part of any human is perfectly flat, and every variance away from perfectly flat alters how the spell-form will function.

In short: humans are irregular in shape, and that must be accounted for. The End.

It didnt mention how to do this.

This really is the most basic book on the subject. She sighed.

Tala had just recently stopped glowing, -That lasted much longer than Id expected- and she was beginning to feel hungry. I wonder exactly how long it is until lunch? She glanced at the sky. Not soon enough.

She climbed down, grabbed some of her trail food, and ate it while walking beside the wagons. As she walked, she noted the huge variety in plants that surrounded them. They each had subtly different magical flavors, and she began to realize that an herbalist could spend a dozen lifetimes experimenting with the properties of all these plants. At first glance, none seemed particularly useful to humans, as most magics she could see were variations of growth, fibrous strength, or photosynthesis enhancing effects.

Even so, as the morning wore on, the wide array of arcanous creatures and plants that they passed began blending together.

If everything is uniquenothing is. She sighed. It was nearly noon before that thought was put to lie.