Chapter 328: Settling In

Chapter 328: Settling In

Tala waited with bated breath for Master Grediv to tell them what their mission would be.

-You know, he didnt actually say he had a mission for you.-

He implied it, though, and I dont see a reason hed imply without anything to back it up.

-Thats fair, I suppose.-

The Paragon straightened slightly, clearly playing it up a bit. Finally, he shrugged and smiled, You all need to get to know one another, and Mistress Tala needs to settle in, but our detection grids have indicated that well have a precise location for a new cell nailed down somewhere between one and two weeks from now.

Tala slumped in disappointment. Not going out right away?

Mistress Cerna grimaced. So soon? Well only have one rotation off before then.

Tala frowned, tilting her head in confusion. Rotation off?

Oh! There are always eight units oneach in charge of the defense of an eighth of the wall at a given timewith seven additional units in reserveon standbyand one unit with eight hours completely free.

But most people arent needed at any one time. Right?

Master Clevnis smiled ruefully, laying his hand on his wifes shoulder. She can feel the stress of possibly being called to action. It interferes with her mindset for tasks that cant easily be paused.

The woman was hunched forward just a bit, hands up as if ready to fight. Must be ready. Always ready.

Tala decided not to comment on that. Instead, she asked about what seemed to be an obvious flaw in the system, What about when a unit leaves the city, like ours will in the next couple of weeks?

Master Grediv was the one who answered. In situations where we need one or more units outside the city, we have six units in reserve, or fewer as the situation demands.

It seemed like overkill to Tala, but she supposed it made sense to have some order of operations for calling on reinforcements. They shouldnt need the process in the near future, but having the plan well ingrained and established would make it work better when it was needed.

That brought a thought to mind. If they plan for six or seven units in reserve the final part of the wanings must be insane.

-Seemingly, yeah.-

What in zeme could possibly require such levels of defense?

The Paragon smiled. Its quite rare, but when it happens, it is generally the result of several egg-laying, hive collective magical beasts getting established and coordinating for a unified assault. There was one waning where we were swarmed by bombardier chicks on the ground, acid spewing tunnellers from beneath, and an odd, hive variation of blade-wing falcons from above. Things were tight for a time, but we were able to eliminate the queens in the end before riding out the remainders. We have better detection arrays for such things these days, and more robust protocols.

Tala grunted, nodding. Such a thing could have happened a thousand years ago for all she knew; they were just being vigilant. Probably reasonably so.

Mistress Cerna pulled the groups focus back to the matter at hand. Do we know anything about the nature of the cell?

Master Grediv nodded. In fact, we do. It is definitely conceptual based power that has been contained within. Beyond that, its too early to determine.

Very well. We shall be as ready as we can be.

Master Grediv gave a shallow bow. With that, I will leave you. He turned to Tala. Mistress Tala, if you desire a wall for your use, you are welcome to any within the Gredial compound. The guards will let you through the gate if you prefer to be within the complex itself.

Tala gave a moderate bow. Thank you, Master Grediv. I think I would like that. Rane owes me a few games of tafl, after all.

Im sure hed like that. With another nod of acknowledgement, Master Grediv departed.

Mistress Cerna sidled up to Tala. So the Gredial boy?

Tala frowned, looking up at the tall, lithe woman. Rane? What of him?

Are you officially courting? Waiting for him to Refine? What? Whats the connection there?

Tala looked around and found all of the other Refined had drawn closer, clearly interested in her answers.

Do we really want to be talking about this?

Terry chirped, bobbing happily.

Traitor She glared at Terry, but he blithely ignored her.

Mistress Vanga shrugged. Its something we dont know about you, and I imagine it will come up.

Tala grimaced slightly, feeling uncomfortably on the spot. I dont know about your spouses or families. It hardly seems... She had been about to say fair, but she realized how childish that sounded. I mean, theres only one of me, and five of you. Cant I learn something of you all, first?

Mistress Vanga smiled. Oh, my husband is up north, running the healing center in the city under construction. Ill see him a couple of times before the waning is over, but I know hes safe. She placed her hand over her sternum, where her gate was. Hes doing what he loves, and Im doing what I love. Though, I do miss having him around. Master Grediv asked me to come here earlier than usual, so Im missing five or ten years that I should have had with him, but well manage. Four of our children are with him, though they didnt go the route of healing. They like working with their hands, so the Builders Guild was just perfect for them. The grandkids are with them, too, though most of them are out of the Academy, as well.

Tala blinked in surprise at the sheer volume of information contained in the short spout of information.

Master Clevnis smiled, speaking next into the short silence, You already know that Cerna and I are married. Our kids are scattered to the four winds, and we do our best to not have any under our wing around wanings. Weve even managed to encourage the younger generations away from having babies around wanings. It keeps conflicts from arising.

Master Limmestare gave a wan smile. My wife is in the city, but shes not quite Refined. Her sessions are rather rough. Shell get there eventually, but not before the waning concludes, in all likelihood. We havent had children yet because Rabetha wants our children to have as good a start as possible. I can hardly fault the choice, and were hoping for a few after she Refines.

All eyes turned to Master Girt, all but Talas filled with ready empathy. He shrugged and gave a sad smile. I lost my beloved during the final days of the last Marliweathers waning. Our kids are grown, as are the grandkids. Never managed a good connection with the greats or great-greats. He shrugged again. This work keeps others from going through what I did, so its good work.

Tala found herself at a loss. I thank you for being so open. I am truly sorry for your loss.

He clapped her on the shoulder briefly. It was more than half a century ago. The hurt will never go away, but you learn to work around it.

She found herself nodding in the lengthening silence.

-So, are you going to answer their questions?-

Tala felt a bit silly about being reticent in opening up to these people after their easy sharing of such information, Well She shrugged. Rane is a good friend. I enjoy training and sparring with him, and we share many interests. Hes said he wants more than friendship, but hasnt been pushy.

Mistress Cerna nodded. And how do you feel?

Honestly? I have no idea. Everythings been a whirlwind since I left the Academy two years ago, and I dont feel like Ive had any time to really process what I want. I was hoping that taking it slow through the waning would help me figure it out.

Mistress Vanga cleared her throat. Very well, then. We wont pressure you, dear.

Master Clevnis nodded. Our unit is on standby at the moment, but were on wall-watch in about an hour. Do you want this cycle to get settled in the city, or would you like to take the threat, if one comes, during this shift?

Tala gave it some thought, then shrugged. I think Id like to get my hands a bit dirty. I can settle in after.

Alright, then. If there isnt a threat on the walls, we can do a sweep outward to get you a settling in fight, eh?This chapter was first shared on the Ñøv€lß1n platform.

She found herself smiling. I think Id like that. Thank you.

* * *

Tala slammed backward into the outside of Alefasts wall, cracks spiderwebbing away from her even as she was embedded slightly into the hard surface.

Ow

Around her, the lingering echoes of magical resonance faded from the regional zeme.

Well, rustI didnt think it could hit me that hardwell, that fast. I need to end this quickly.

Immediately, she bent all her power and will to reducing her own gravity. This is going to be a long jump.

She slowly peeled herself out of the wall, being careful to not drop to the ground just yet.

Consider my options, be quick about it, Tala.

No sympathy for the enemy, Alat.

She managed to launch herself to the side just before the club came down.

Even without a killing blow, Tala had clearly rattled the monster, as it was moving much slower now.

She thought through a half-dozen ways of whittling the beast down or killing it outright before she went with the simplest that came to mind.

She pulled Flow from its sheath and threw it with all the force and accuracy that she could, straight at the creature, using her connection to Flow to push the weapon into the form of a void-sword.

The blade struck straight through the colossal sternum, passing through the magically reinforced bone with relative ease, barely slowing before it stopped, sunk up to the hilt.

The cyclops immediately seemed to hunch in on himself, mangled shoulders bowing forward and curling in around the embedded weapon, even as he crouched downward, bringing his legs closer to Flow as well.

Huh, the void aspect might have been overkill.

-Yeah, I think you actually skewered his brain. That was a beautiful throw.-

Thank you. Im quite proud of that.

-You know swords arent for throwing, right?-

They are when I can magically call them back to my hand, and they never dull.

-I suppose I still feel like they arent a good fit for that purpose.-

Fine Ill practice more with throwing the glaive.

The void crawled outward from the blade, turning the beast a purplish black to Talas voidsight, before slowly dragging more of the cyclops inward.

Fascinating. Have we ever stuck the void-blade into something large and then just left it there?

-I dont believe we have, no.-

Seems pretty effective.

-Hes resisting, so it might not have worked as well if it were our opening move, but hes disoriented and hurt enough that I think it will end him.-

And you know, I think hes probably braindead. What were seeing is purely passive resistance.

-Hmmm. Yeah, that probably factors too.-

The bladeaside from piercing the cyclopss brainwas at least very near his heart, causing the iron in the monsters blood to be claimed by Tala, and she could feel it being pulled out of the beasts body and funneled into the dimensions of magic for her use, later.

Fascinating.

-It truly is.-

The cyclops dropped to his knees, his clubforgottentumbling to make a crater in the ground beside him.

A moment later, the tall humanoid had curled fully in on himself, and Tala could hear the sound of breaking bones as the no-longer-discernable-as-humanoid mass shrunk down, sucked inexorably into the void.

Its almost too bad that cyclops are noted to have weaker magical defenses than average for their advancement.

-Yeah, this would be really useful on more powerful opponents, but I doubt it would work nearly this well on them.-

Yeah

With what could almost have been thought to be a whimperand a final crackle of splintering bonethe cyclops vanished, leaving Flow to fall the last few feet to the ground unencumbered.

Tala allowed the weapon to return to its knife form even as she walked forward to pick it up.

Well done, Flow. You definitely made that easier.

Tala took a look at the massive club. What even is that made of?

-No idea, but it could be valuable.-

Tala grunted. Yeah, Ill take it.

She opened Kit and maneuvered the massive club inside.

It wasnt precisely heavy for her, though it certainly wasnt light.

More than anything, it was cumbersome and awkward to handle just because of how big it was.

She wouldnt be pulling it out as some surprise weapon anytime soon.

Unless

-Yeah, we could find a way of anchoring you down, then it would just be about muscling the weight around.-

That could work, or we could massively amplify the gravity on it, then unleash it as a missile toward some evil griffon or some other creature.

Alat chuckled. -Ahh, the one that got away.-

Id kill it now.

-Sure you would, Tala. Youve grown very strong.-

Spoils retrieved, Tala began her trek back toward the wall.

She had gotten about halfway back, when she began to detect fluctuations in the zeme around her.

Oh rust. I made too much noise, magically speaking, didnt I?

-Id hoped the short magic-boom wasnt sufficient, but yeah, it seems so.-

She turned around, seeing what appeared to be a small tide of arcanous and weakly magical creatures coming her way.

She opened her pouch and called inside. Terry? Want to kill some things with me?

A moment later, the avian flickered to beside her, sized so that his head was just above hers.

He seemed to take in the scene in an instant before giving her what was obviously an accusatory glance.

Yeah, this is my fault. I wasnt careful with my magical resonance.

He let out a chuffing squawk, showing his amusement.

Yeah, yeah. Lets just mop up my mess and get back into the city. I want a bath, tonight.

He gave her a long look, and she found herself grinning even as she pulled out a huge hunk of jerky.

Thanks for having my back.

He snapped the tossed piece out of the air before trilling and charging the incoming foes.

Yeah, why wait? She took off after him without a second thought.