Chapter 464: What Do You Seek?

Chapter 464: What Do You Seek?

Tala, Rane, and Terry followed Lisa into Irondale.

As he stepped inside, the impenetrable illusion of a generic human male seemed to roll off of him, like Tala or Rane would shed a coat when coming in out of the weather.

-You don’t wear coats.-

Did it make sense or not?

-...fine...-

Tala hadn’t opened the door to the main gate of the town—through which they enacted trade and tourism when Tala opened the town to the outside world in various cities. Instead, she had chosen a more scenic locale. Thus, they came out of the face of a small cliff roughly a mile from the edge of town.

Lisa looked around, eyes widening immediately. “How do you have such perfect control over power that isn’t yours?”

Tala grinned, the door swinging shut behind them. She didn’t dismiss the portal out quite yet; that would be tantamount to trapping the fox, and he wouldn’t appreciate it. Though, as she considered it, she realized that if anyone could break out of Kit, a powerful arcane who was also a fourth-dimensional construction expert should be able to manage it. Regardless, she needed to answer his question. “That’s the beauty of it. It is mine. It isn’t flavored with my gate, thanks to the artifact you traded to me, but it is within my soulbound storage, and doesn’t have a will of its own. It’s as much mine as my own skin.”

He turned to regard her. “One moment. Are you telling me that the magic in here is untainted because of that?”

“Yes.” She frowned at his surprise. “I thought this is exactly what you said it could do.”

His eye twitched, causing the fur on the side of his face to ripple even as he shook his head. “I told you it could help purify your magic for a dimensional space. In my sales pitch, I was thinking maybe the size of a large estate, though even that would have strained it. It wouldn’t have lasted forever regardless. How under the stars did you hold it together sufficiently to accomplish this?” He gestured around them. “This space is at least as large as one of your gated human cities.”

She shook her head. “We didn’t have to hold it together. The device is gone, now. My dimensional storage subsumed it and replicated the magics involved.”

He narrowed his vulpine eyes at her. “That shouldn’t be possible for you. That is a conceptual working. This space is soulbound to you.”

Tala shrugged. “I’m not enacting it. Kit is. Being bound to a gate doesn’t preclude conceptual magic.”

He opened his mouth to argue, but then seemed to consider. “It is true that arcanes who marry humans don’t lose their magics... I had not considered this workaround. You did mention your voidling bond, and how it gave your expanded space unexpected benefits and features.” He gave her a long look. “You know that it will be the start of the next war if they learn of this place, right?”

“I hear your concern, and we are being careful. Essentially no one with magesight has gained access here. The rare exceptions have been explicitly trusted individuals. Without seeing the magical density first hand, this place would just seem like we are simply attempting to mimic the moving cities.”

Lisa grunted. “But investigation will show that it is without the core issue that those suffer from.”

“Oh?” She was interested. She hadn’t spent enough time in Howlton to learn much about the moving town, let alone the dimensionally expanded districts. She also hadn’t had a chance to see any other moving settlement.

“Yes. They are incredibly magic poor. There are various solutions in place—some work better than others—but none of the pocket-districts are rich in power even to the level of an arcane city, let alone the holds of the Major Houses. This? This is more than even most of the birthing chambers of Major Houses.” He sighed. “Regardless, I still can’t even touch it. The control you have.” He moved his hand in jerky, unpredictable ways. “It always stays perfectly away from me, no matter how I move.”

Tala almost shared the simple trick to that, but held off. Someone as old, powerful, and knowledgeable as Lisa could probably exploit her method if he knew the specifics.

“However you’re doing it, well done.”

She smiled. “Thank you.”

A wry smile pulled at his lips a moment later. “Now that I consider it, if word of you got back to the arcanes, you might be the cause of the next war, even without this place. So, it probably isn’t that big of an issue. Regardless.”

“Ahh, yes. They aren’t fond of people escaping their influence, and in the worst-case scenario, it would be assumed that the House of Blood was making a play for the gated human cities, and the other Houses wouldn’t allow that to stand.”

“Exactly. Let’s avoid such an outcome, shall we?”

“That’s the goal.” She grinned in return, even if she privately finished the thought, At least until I’m strong enough to hold my own.

-Dangerous, Tala.-

Yes. I plan on being extremely dangerous when I face them again. I can't hide forever. It’s best to prepare.

-...fine.-

Rane pointed up at the sun in the sky. “Tala has done a lot of fantastic work in here. That is an artificial sun. It generates both light and heat, without the harmful components of the radiance we deal with on Zeme. For humans, that means that we can still get sunburned, but there isn’t really any danger of mutation due to high-energy emissions.”

Terry trilled in question, and Tala smiled. “Sure, I’m sure Walden would be open to seeing you again.”

After all, Terry wasn’t really doing much by being with them. Without another word, Terry flickered away.

Lisa gave Tala a long look. “Walden? Is he some pillar of the community here?”

Tala shook her head. “No. He is someone you may meet if you choose to immigrate.” She hesitated. “You might be able to meet him regardless, but I think that you’d have to be approved because of your particular set of skills and capacities.”

“Now you have me intrigued.” He regarded her for another long moment as they continued to walk. “Very well. I will bank my curiosity for the moment.” He looked back toward the town which they had almost reached. “With all this citizenry, I still haven’t seen anyone who is interacting directly with the magics in the air.”

“That’s right.”

“How? You shouldn’t be able to exert that level of minute control. Even if you could, I can’t imagine you constantly monitoring every person’s every movement and isolating them from the magic. Such shouldn’t be possible.”

She shrugged. “Consider it a trade secret, then.”

He gave a half-smile. “Very well. Do you intend to let anyone access this power?”

“As a matter of fact, we are in the process of figuring out who should be given a rebirth, and how to facilitate it. We would love to grant it to everyone, but that isn’t feasible for many reasons. Also, the bar for allowing someone to live here is a lot lower than the one that we are using to determine who should have access to Refined level power, even if it is in the arcane style.”

Lisa gave a slightly hissing chuckle, the sound obviously inhuman coming from between his teeth and out of his vulpine nose. “That is a wise approach, truly. Am I right in assuming you had hoped for some assistance from me in this regard?”

“We have considered it. You obviously are an expert in that form of magic, and having you as a teacher-in-residence and consultant for those who are rebirthed would be very valuable.”

“Quite, yes. I assume that you aren’t without any teachers, but I would say you likely understated how much help I could be”—his smile widened—“with the proper compensation.” He seemed to be genuinely considering. “How large do you expect Irondale to become?”

She shrugged. “I don’t have a limit, honestly. If I can stabilize Reality within here, I’d be open to allowing gated in as well.”

He huffed a laugh at that. “Yes, and if gated humanity could stabilize Reality out there, they wouldn’t move their cities. And if the settlements could stabilize Reality within their districts, gated humans would be allowed in, and they wouldn’t have to move.” He shrugged. “You could do a lot if such were possible.”

She responded. “Regardless, if we can do it, such would cause a lot of issues and require a lot of work to filter out applicants. We already have more than ten times the applications from gated than gateless.”

He frowned at that. “You allow gated?”

She chuckled ruefully. “As citizens? No. And we make that very clear.” Tala gave a resigned sigh. “They apply anyway.”

He grinned at that, showing his fangs. “Ahh, to have something in such high demand. That is the dream of any provider of goods.”

“Indeed.” She grimaced slightly regardless. “The most troubling, though, are the applications for children to move here on their own.”

He tilted his head to one side before slowly nodding. “Known gateless children, born to gated families?”

Rane sighed and responded. “Exactly. Tala has asked for my thoughts on a lot of them. From what I can see, some are just horrible people, trying to pawn off their supposedly disabled child, but many are genuinely seeking a better life for their son or daughter.”

Lisa chuckled, instantly understanding the issue. “Ahh, but if you allow any, which do you prioritize? Taking in those from parents who clearly see the child as lesser? Or those who are genuinely acting in love for their children? Seeking a better life for one whom they love?”

Tala sighed, nodding. “Exactly. That is precisely the issue. We don’t want to reward horrible people, but those are also likely the children who need a better place more.” She let out a long sigh.

Rane smiled consolingly, but didn’t interject again. As they’d been walking, his eyes had unfocused every once in a while as he engaged with Enar. That made Tala smile, remembering how often she’d fallen into dialoguing with Alat near the beginning, ignoring those around her.

-Well, it is reasonable to talk to the most intelligent person in the room, so...-

Hush, you. But Tala still projected mirth toward the alternate interface.

Finally, Lisa asked a question that he seemed to care quite a bit about. “Why?”

Tala stopped walking barely a dozen feet from the nearest building and the edge of the town proper. She waited for a moment, but when Lisa didn’t say anything more, she prompted him, “Why what?”

“Why take them in at all?” He gestured around. “Why take in any of these people? Why offer to take me in? What do you seek, Mistress Tala?”