Chapter 189: Dissolution
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Chapter 189: Dissolution
Tala and Holly walked down a side hall that Tala had never been through before, though it shared the odd mix of aesthetics from the rest of the building: warehouse meets boutique artisans workshop was an odd combination.
Holly led her through the third door on the left, and they entered a spacious, mostly empty room.
As Tala looked around, she noticed that every surface, including the floor, was covered in iron.
What? How?
Tala frowned, then stepped back into the hallway and looked at the wall beyond which the room lay. There was no evidence of the iron from the outside to her mage-sight and obviously none to her mundane vision.
As she looked closer, willing her mage-sight to pierce deeper and focus more minutely, she saw the tell-tale signs of illusory scripts. Specifically, the magics she saw were almost identical to those which created the false magical sense around her, via her through-spike. She stepped back inside and looked at Holly. A safe room?
The woman shook her head. No, dear. This is a place to experiment without issue. I just didnt want a beacon of reflected magic glaring at me every time I used my mage-sight.
Tala grunted. That makes a surprising amount of sense.
-Besides, her safe room would be much better hidden.- Alat gave a fake gasp within Talas head. -Unless thats what she wants us to think! If we ever need to kill her, were checking here first.-
Tala decided not to address that, and since there were two other people in the room, she had a readily available distraction.
The woman, younger and obviously a bit subservient, bowed to Holly, now that Tala wasnt taking up the Inscriptionists attention. Mistress. I piled some detritus of various kinds to the side, there. She pointed at a surprisingly robust pile of trash and what looked like construction leftovers. There is a sizable renovation going on a block from here, and I was able to get some of their cutoffs and unneeded bits. They were grateful that I was willing to take some for them. She shrugged, a self-satisfied smile plain on her face.
Great work. Thank you. Holly gave a small, affirming smile. You may go.
Mistress. The unnamed woman bowed again and departed without ever having acknowledged Tala directly.
The other person in the room was quite obviously a Healer, and his aura was yellow, marking him as a Refined like Holly. The aura itself was kept well contained below the surface of his skin.
Oh. Hes hiding his rank.
When Tala examined him a bit more closely, she realized that she saw a bit of green in his aura.
Moving towards Paragon? He was someone of power. Not unique, by any means, but of note.
The man glanced after the retreating assistant as she closed the door with a muffled clang, before returning his gaze to Holly. Mistress Holly, may I now know why my presence was requested?
Holly grinned. Mistress Tala, here, is going to perform an experiment, which involves enacting rather dangerous magics within her mouth.
The man cocked his head to one side. What are the natures of these magics?
Only one nature: dissolution.
He grimaced. Mistress Holly, I can repair any physical injury, but if her brain is dissolved, I cannot restore more than the physical structures of her mind. She would be a vegetable.
Holly waved him off. That part is being handled.
He looked deeply skeptical. So long as you understand my limitations.
I do. Holly glanced to Tala. Do you?
I do. As we discussed before, this was expected. She then stepped over to the Healer. I am Tala, by the way. She gave a shallow bow.
I am Shir, Mistress Tala. Are you sure you want to trywhatever this is? It sounds incredibly dangerous. He narrowed his eyes towards Holly. And Mistress Holly can occasionally be a bit more persuasive than is good for those she persuades.
Holly rolled her eyes but didnt comment.
Tala gave a small smile. I am as sure as I can be, Master Shir.
Very well. He didnt seem convinced, but he also didnt seem willing to press the issue. He had glanced at Terry but didnt comment. He seemed a man who tried to be unerringly polite, whenever possible.
Even so, when Terry flickered to one corner to curl up for the duration of the experiments, his eyebrows rose noticeably and his mouth opened to ask a question, before he mastered himself and gave a slight shake of his head.
Holly ignored the man, and Terry, as she went to one corner and dragged out an iron pedestal with relative ease, placing it in the center of one side of the long room. Mistress Tala, if you could face away from us when you attempt?
Tala nodded, walking over and feeling a few pieces before picking up a stone block. Of course.
-Dont you want to try with somethingsmaller?-
Smaller? This isnt that heavy, is it some sort of composite, poured stone?
-Tala, you have new scripts. You havent tested your strength yet.-
That was a fair point. Tala shrugged to herself. This should show the extent of the effects, even if it doesnt get dissolved entirely.
After a moment, Alat conceded the point. -Fair enough.-
Tala placed the stone on the pedestal, stepped about three feet away, and pulled out an ending berry seed.
Hesitantly, she placed the little nugget of power and destruction into her mouth.
It tasted awful.
Gah, the iron-salve is not tasty.
-It is a bit waxy.-
Tala didnt want to lose her nerve, so she bit down.
She immediately felt the building power within the seed, coming to a crescendo over the next few seconds.
As the seed was about to detonate, Tala reflexively spit it out at the stone.
The wet seed slapped against the block, then exploded with a pulse of power.This chapter's initial release occurred on the n0vell--Bjjn site.
The stone turned to a fine powder, flowing off the pedestal.
Well, the seeds definitely have a higher energy density than the branches.
-What was that!?-
I spit out the seed.
-Im well aware of what you did, Tala. Thats not what you were supposed to do.-
I got nervous, okay? She scrunched up her face in irritation.
Mistress Tala. Are you alright?
-Well, we have asked her to do some pretty unusual things. Better a theoretical Yes than an actual No.-
Thats fair
Shir came over and sent another pulse of magic through her, empowering a detailed inspection. You are perfectly healthy. His tone was dry, and he turned to Holly. You and I will speak later.
As you wish, Master Shir.
He nodded once, then smiled at Tala. Good luck to you, Mistress Tala. Im sure well see each other again at some point.
She gave a formal bow. Thank you for being here. I felt much better knowing we had a healer present.
But of course. His smile broadened.
It was a pleasure to meet you.
You as well. With that, he waved goodbye and departed.
Tala turned to Holly. How many times can I do this before the scripts are degraded to the point that it is dangerous?
You mean how many seeds? She tilted her head. How many cuts can you heal from?
Ive no idea.
Precisely, dear. This doesnt put undue stress on the inscriptions. It is exactly what they were made for, and they do it easily and efficiently.
Tala grunted, then nodded. Alright. Thank you. Can I do some more tests?
Absolutely, but I have other things to be about. This room is reserved for your use this evening. You have fun now! Holly waved over her shoulder as she departed, closing the door behind herself.
Well, lets get to work. I assume you have some things to test?
-Absolutely.-
Tala and Alat spent the next couple of hours testing out different mouth shapes on the exhale, different rates of exhale, and a half dozen other factors.
Their only interruption came when Jenna updated the information in their linked Archive space.
-She says that there was no sign of the arcane on your outing. Also, she applauds the lengths that you were willing to go to make evidence of your magical signature widely noticeable in at least a reasonably plausible fashion.-
Sarcasm?
-I dont think so?-
Huh. Fair enough.
-She also said that they will be in touch with regards to any further requests.-
Thats a fancy way of saying theyll reach out.
-It was clear enough.-
Other than that, they were uninterrupted, but it was getting late, and Tala still needed Lyns help to reapply her paint, so she headed home.
Of course, on the way she made a stop to grab four cheesy little caravans, two of which she finished before arriving at her own front door.
Lyn, bless her, didnt ask why Tala needed a reapplication, simply obliging and painting all the parts of Tala that Tala couldnt easily reach.
Tala, for her part, kept one fingertip on the through-spike to keep it from being covered over.
Lyns part done, Tala bid her goodnight and went into Kit. Kannis was apparently working late at the Guildhall on some task or other. She always was a bit of an over achiever
Within Kit, Tala painted the rest of herself and then began to press the berries.
It wasnt a long process, though it should have been physically taxing one. Thankfully, Tala had both more strength and more endurance than most.
It was late in the night when she finally finished processing her four barrels of ending berries down to two barrels of juice. They really are far more juice heavy than they should be, if they were mundane berries.
She ate a good portion of the leftover meat of the berries while she was pressing the others, taking what she could from them both nutritionally and with regard to their magical power.
The rest she ate while moving through her nightly routine and training. Alat insisted that they add at least a couple of exhalation exercises, to cement the mouth shapes that theyd found to have the most useful patterns of distribution.
One more thing.
Finally, sometime after midnight, she flopped into her bed for much needed sleep.
* * *
The next few days passed uneventfully, leading to Talas departure for Marliweather. She trained, both alone and with the guards and Mages. It did take her a few days to return to her previous levels of competence against the guards, as she acclimated to her new physicality. From there, she continued to slowly improve, still losing more often than not, but less often each day.
Terry, as it turned out, did not like holding weapons. He was willing to try to overcome the hang-up, but everyone involved agreed it should be done on his own for the time being.
Because of this, along with the marked change in Talas own fighting abilities, they decided to hold off on adding in weaponry for Terry, or mounted fighting for both of them. Instead, they spent what time they had with her to help her get fully acclimated. Unfortunately, that meant that it would have to wait until they returned from Marliweather.
Tala ate a truly ridiculous amount of food, spending a gold per day, instead of the three silver shed been managing up to that point. And she and Alat worked across the board to refine and improve her progress.
Alat, specifically, took over primary monitoring and enacting of the Fusing process, which Tala had maintained in the back of her mind.
Talas alternate interface spent basically every free moment continuing the Fusing process, which is actually how they both realized that Alat could manipulate magical power, directly.
Alat could only manipulate the power that passed through Talas gate if Tala explicitly allowed it, but it did work.
This made Alat giddy with excitement, but she put aside the discovery to devote herself to Fusing for the time being. When Tala tried to work with Alat to move their Fusing ahead even faster, it didnt seem to work very well, so Tala left it to her alternate interface.
With the new method, they estimated that theyd reach the threshold to Fused within a month or two, instead of the three or four theyd been expecting.
Who knows what that threshold will actually look like.
-Well tackle that when we get there.-
That was true enough.
The last two days, Tala charged her cargo-slots in the mornings, and finally, the day of departure arrived.
Tala awoke as usual, one thought crystal clear in her mind.
Well, rust. Im going to see my family.
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Chapter 189: Dissolution
Tala and Holly walked down a side hall that Tala had never been through before, though it shared the odd mix of aesthetics from the rest of the building: warehouse meets boutique artisans workshop was an odd combination.
Holly led her through the third door on the left, and they entered a spacious, mostly empty room.
As Tala looked around, she noticed that every surface, including the floor, was covered in iron.
What? How?
Tala frowned, then stepped back into the hallway and looked at the wall beyond which the room lay. There was no evidence of the iron from the outside to her mage-sight and obviously none to her mundane vision.
As she looked closer, willing her mage-sight to pierce deeper and focus more minutely, she saw the tell-tale signs of illusory scripts. Specifically, the magics she saw were almost identical to those which created the false magical sense around her, via her through-spike. She stepped back inside and looked at Holly. A safe room?
The woman shook her head. No, dear. This is a place to experiment without issue. I just didnt want a beacon of reflected magic glaring at me every time I used my mage-sight.
Tala grunted. That makes a surprising amount of sense.
-Besides, her safe room would be much better hidden.- Alat gave a fake gasp within Talas head. -Unless thats what she wants us to think! If we ever need to kill her, were checking here first.-
Tala decided not to address that, and since there were two other people in the room, she had a readily available distraction.
The woman, younger and obviously a bit subservient, bowed to Holly, now that Tala wasnt taking up the Inscriptionists attention. Mistress. I piled some detritus of various kinds to the side, there. She pointed at a surprisingly robust pile of trash and what looked like construction leftovers. There is a sizable renovation going on a block from here, and I was able to get some of their cutoffs and unneeded bits. They were grateful that I was willing to take some for them. She shrugged, a self-satisfied smile plain on her face.
Great work. Thank you. Holly gave a small, affirming smile. You may go.
Mistress. The unnamed woman bowed again and departed without ever having acknowledged Tala directly.
The other person in the room was quite obviously a Healer, and his aura was yellow, marking him as a Refined like Holly. The aura itself was kept well contained below the surface of his skin.
Oh. Hes hiding his rank.
When Tala examined him a bit more closely, she realized that she saw a bit of green in his aura.
Moving towards Paragon? He was someone of power. Not unique, by any means, but of note.
The man glanced after the retreating assistant as she closed the door with a muffled clang, before returning his gaze to Holly. Mistress Holly, may I now know why my presence was requested?
Holly grinned. Mistress Tala, here, is going to perform an experiment, which involves enacting rather dangerous magics within her mouth.
The man cocked his head to one side. What are the natures of these magics?
Only one nature: dissolution.
He grimaced. Mistress Holly, I can repair any physical injury, but if her brain is dissolved, I cannot restore more than the physical structures of her mind. She would be a vegetable.
Holly waved him off. That part is being handled.
He looked deeply skeptical. So long as you understand my limitations.
I do. Holly glanced to Tala. Do you?
I do. As we discussed before, this was expected. She then stepped over to the Healer. I am Tala, by the way. She gave a shallow bow.
I am Shir, Mistress Tala. Are you sure you want to trywhatever this is? It sounds incredibly dangerous. He narrowed his eyes towards Holly. And Mistress Holly can occasionally be a bit more persuasive than is good for those she persuades.
Holly rolled her eyes but didnt comment.
Tala gave a small smile. I am as sure as I can be, Master Shir.
Very well. He didnt seem convinced, but he also didnt seem willing to press the issue. He had glanced at Terry but didnt comment. He seemed a man who tried to be unerringly polite, whenever possible.
Even so, when Terry flickered to one corner to curl up for the duration of the experiments, his eyebrows rose noticeably and his mouth opened to ask a question, before he mastered himself and gave a slight shake of his head.
Holly ignored the man, and Terry, as she went to one corner and dragged out an iron pedestal with relative ease, placing it in the center of one side of the long room. Mistress Tala, if you could face away from us when you attempt?
Tala nodded, walking over and feeling a few pieces before picking up a stone block. Of course.
-Dont you want to try with somethingsmaller?-
Smaller? This isnt that heavy, is it some sort of composite, poured stone?
-Tala, you have new scripts. You havent tested your strength yet.-
That was a fair point. Tala shrugged to herself. This should show the extent of the effects, even if it doesnt get dissolved entirely.
After a moment, Alat conceded the point. -Fair enough.-
Tala placed the stone on the pedestal, stepped about three feet away, and pulled out an ending berry seed.
Hesitantly, she placed the little nugget of power and destruction into her mouth.
It tasted awful.
Gah, the iron-salve is not tasty.
-It is a bit waxy.-
Tala didnt want to lose her nerve, so she bit down.
She immediately felt the building power within the seed, coming to a crescendo over the next few seconds.
As the seed was about to detonate, Tala reflexively spit it out at the stone.
The wet seed slapped against the block, then exploded with a pulse of power.This chapter's initial release occurred on the n0vell--Bjjn site.
The stone turned to a fine powder, flowing off the pedestal.
Well, the seeds definitely have a higher energy density than the branches.
-What was that!?-
I spit out the seed.
-Im well aware of what you did, Tala. Thats not what you were supposed to do.-
I got nervous, okay? She scrunched up her face in irritation.
Mistress Tala. Are you alright?
-Well, we have asked her to do some pretty unusual things. Better a theoretical Yes than an actual No.-
Thats fair
Shir came over and sent another pulse of magic through her, empowering a detailed inspection. You are perfectly healthy. His tone was dry, and he turned to Holly. You and I will speak later.
As you wish, Master Shir.
He nodded once, then smiled at Tala. Good luck to you, Mistress Tala. Im sure well see each other again at some point.
She gave a formal bow. Thank you for being here. I felt much better knowing we had a healer present.
But of course. His smile broadened.
It was a pleasure to meet you.
You as well. With that, he waved goodbye and departed.
Tala turned to Holly. How many times can I do this before the scripts are degraded to the point that it is dangerous?
You mean how many seeds? She tilted her head. How many cuts can you heal from?
Ive no idea.
Precisely, dear. This doesnt put undue stress on the inscriptions. It is exactly what they were made for, and they do it easily and efficiently.
Tala grunted, then nodded. Alright. Thank you. Can I do some more tests?
Absolutely, but I have other things to be about. This room is reserved for your use this evening. You have fun now! Holly waved over her shoulder as she departed, closing the door behind herself.
Well, lets get to work. I assume you have some things to test?
-Absolutely.-
Tala and Alat spent the next couple of hours testing out different mouth shapes on the exhale, different rates of exhale, and a half dozen other factors.
Their only interruption came when Jenna updated the information in their linked Archive space.
-She says that there was no sign of the arcane on your outing. Also, she applauds the lengths that you were willing to go to make evidence of your magical signature widely noticeable in at least a reasonably plausible fashion.-
Sarcasm?
-I dont think so?-
Huh. Fair enough.
-She also said that they will be in touch with regards to any further requests.-
Thats a fancy way of saying theyll reach out.
-It was clear enough.-
Other than that, they were uninterrupted, but it was getting late, and Tala still needed Lyns help to reapply her paint, so she headed home.
Of course, on the way she made a stop to grab four cheesy little caravans, two of which she finished before arriving at her own front door.
Lyn, bless her, didnt ask why Tala needed a reapplication, simply obliging and painting all the parts of Tala that Tala couldnt easily reach.
Tala, for her part, kept one fingertip on the through-spike to keep it from being covered over.
Lyns part done, Tala bid her goodnight and went into Kit. Kannis was apparently working late at the Guildhall on some task or other. She always was a bit of an over achiever
Within Kit, Tala painted the rest of herself and then began to press the berries.
It wasnt a long process, though it should have been physically taxing one. Thankfully, Tala had both more strength and more endurance than most.
It was late in the night when she finally finished processing her four barrels of ending berries down to two barrels of juice. They really are far more juice heavy than they should be, if they were mundane berries.
She ate a good portion of the leftover meat of the berries while she was pressing the others, taking what she could from them both nutritionally and with regard to their magical power.
The rest she ate while moving through her nightly routine and training. Alat insisted that they add at least a couple of exhalation exercises, to cement the mouth shapes that theyd found to have the most useful patterns of distribution.
One more thing.
Finally, sometime after midnight, she flopped into her bed for much needed sleep.
* * *
The next few days passed uneventfully, leading to Talas departure for Marliweather. She trained, both alone and with the guards and Mages. It did take her a few days to return to her previous levels of competence against the guards, as she acclimated to her new physicality. From there, she continued to slowly improve, still losing more often than not, but less often each day.
Terry, as it turned out, did not like holding weapons. He was willing to try to overcome the hang-up, but everyone involved agreed it should be done on his own for the time being.
Because of this, along with the marked change in Talas own fighting abilities, they decided to hold off on adding in weaponry for Terry, or mounted fighting for both of them. Instead, they spent what time they had with her to help her get fully acclimated. Unfortunately, that meant that it would have to wait until they returned from Marliweather.
Tala ate a truly ridiculous amount of food, spending a gold per day, instead of the three silver shed been managing up to that point. And she and Alat worked across the board to refine and improve her progress.
Alat, specifically, took over primary monitoring and enacting of the Fusing process, which Tala had maintained in the back of her mind.
Talas alternate interface spent basically every free moment continuing the Fusing process, which is actually how they both realized that Alat could manipulate magical power, directly.
Alat could only manipulate the power that passed through Talas gate if Tala explicitly allowed it, but it did work.
This made Alat giddy with excitement, but she put aside the discovery to devote herself to Fusing for the time being. When Tala tried to work with Alat to move their Fusing ahead even faster, it didnt seem to work very well, so Tala left it to her alternate interface.
With the new method, they estimated that theyd reach the threshold to Fused within a month or two, instead of the three or four theyd been expecting.
Who knows what that threshold will actually look like.
-Well tackle that when we get there.-
That was true enough.
The last two days, Tala charged her cargo-slots in the mornings, and finally, the day of departure arrived.
Tala awoke as usual, one thought crystal clear in her mind.
Well, rust. Im going to see my family.
Chapter 189: DissolutionTala and Holly walked down a side hall that Tala had never been through before, though it shared the odd mix of aesthetics from the rest of the building: warehouse meets boutique artisans workshop was an odd combination.Holly led her through the third door on the left, and they entered a spacious, mostly empty room.As Tala looked around, she noticed that every surface, including the floor, was covered in iron.What? How?Tala frowned, then stepped back into the hallway and looked at the wall beyond which the room lay. There was no evidence of the iron from the outside to her mage-sight and obviously none to her mundane vision.As she looked closer, willing her mage-sight to pierce deeper and focus more minutely, she saw the tell-tale signs of illusory scripts. Specifically, the magics she saw were almost identical to those which created the false magical sense around her, via her through-spike. She stepped back inside and looked at Holly. A safe room?The woman shook her head. No, dear. This is a place to experiment without issue. I just didnt want a beacon of reflected magic glaring at me every time I used my mage-sight.Tala grunted. That makes a surprising amount of sense.-Besides, her safe room would be much better hidden.- Alat gave a fake gasp within Talas head. -Unless thats what she wants us to think! If we ever need to kill her, were checking here first.-Tala decided not to address that, and since there were two other people in the room, she had a readily available distraction.The woman, younger and obviously a bit subservient, bowed to Holly, now that Tala wasnt taking up the Inscriptionists attention. Mistress. I piled some detritus of various kinds to the side, there. She pointed at a surprisingly robust pile of trash and what looked like construction leftovers. There is a sizable renovation going on a block from here, and I was able to get some of their cutoffs and unneeded bits. They were grateful that I was willing to take some for them. She shrugged, a self-satisfied smile plain on her face.Great work. Thank you. Holly gave a small, affirming smile. You may go.Mistress. The unnamed woman bowed again and departed without ever having acknowledged Tala directly.The other person in the room was quite obviously a Healer, and his aura was yellow, marking him as a Refined like Holly. The aura itself was kept well contained below the surface of his skin.Oh. Hes hiding his rank.When Tala examined him a bit more closely, she realized that she saw a bit of green in his aura.Moving towards Paragon? He was someone of power. Not unique, by any means, but of note.The man glanced after the retreating assistant as she closed the door with a muffled clang, before returning his gaze to Holly. Mistress Holly, may I now know why my presence was requested?Holly grinned. Mistress Tala, here, is going to perform an experiment, which involves enacting rather dangerous magics within her mouth.The man cocked his head to one side. What are the natures of these magics?Only one nature: dissolution.He grimaced. Mistress Holly, I can repair any physical injury, but if her brain is dissolved, I cannot restore more than the physical structures of her mind. She would be a vegetable.Holly waved him off. That part is being handled.He looked deeply skeptical. So long as you understand my limitations.I do. Holly glanced to Tala. Do you?I do. As we discussed before, this was expected. She then stepped over to the Healer. I am Tala, by the way. She gave a shallow bow.I am Shir, Mistress Tala. Are you sure you want to trywhatever this is? It sounds incredibly dangerous. He narrowed his eyes towards Holly. And Mistress Holly can occasionally be a bit more persuasive than is good for those she persuades.Holly rolled her eyes but didnt comment.Tala gave a small smile. I am as sure as I can be, Master Shir.Very well. He didnt seem convinced, but he also didnt seem willing to press the issue. He had glanced at Terry but didnt comment. He seemed a man who tried to be unerringly polite, whenever possible.Even so, when Terry flickered to one corner to curl up for the duration of the experiments, his eyebrows rose noticeably and his mouth opened to ask a question, before he mastered himself and gave a slight shake of his head.Holly ignored the man, and Terry, as she went to one corner and dragged out an iron pedestal with relative ease, placing it in the center of one side of the long room. Mistress Tala, if you could face away from us when you attempt?Tala nodded, walking over and feeling a few pieces before picking up a stone block. Of course.-Dont you want to try with somethingsmaller?-Smaller? This isnt that heavy, is it some sort of composite, poured stone?-Tala, you have new scripts. You havent tested your strength yet.-That was a fair point. Tala shrugged to herself. This should show the extent of the effects, even if it doesnt get dissolved entirely.After a moment, Alat conceded the point. -Fair enough.-Tala placed the stone on the pedestal, stepped about three feet away, and pulled out an ending berry seed.Hesitantly, she placed the little nugget of power and destruction into her mouth.It tasted awful.Gah, the iron-salve is not tasty.-It is a bit waxy.-Tala didnt want to lose her nerve, so she bit down.She immediately felt the building power within the seed, coming to a crescendo over the next few seconds.As the seed was about to detonate, Tala reflexively spit it out at the stone.The wet seed slapped against the block, then exploded with a pulse of power.This chapter's initial release occurred on the n0vell--Bjjn site.The stone turned to a fine powder, flowing off the pedestal.Well, the seeds definitely have a higher energy density than the branches.-What was that!?-I spit out the seed.-Im well aware of what you did, Tala. Thats not what you were supposed to do.-I got nervous, okay? She scrunched up her face in irritation.Mistress Tala. Are you alright?-Well, we have asked her to do some pretty unusual things. Better a theoretical Yes than an actual No.-Thats fairShir came over and sent another pulse of magic through her, empowering a detailed inspection. You are perfectly healthy. His tone was dry, and he turned to Holly. You and I will speak later.As you wish, Master Shir.He nodded once, then smiled at Tala. Good luck to you, Mistress Tala. Im sure well see each other again at some point.She gave a formal bow. Thank you for being here. I felt much better knowing we had a healer present.But of course. His smile broadened.It was a pleasure to meet you.You as well. With that, he waved goodbye and departed.Tala turned to Holly. How many times can I do this before the scripts are degraded to the point that it is dangerous?You mean how many seeds? She tilted her head. How many cuts can you heal from?Ive no idea.Precisely, dear. This doesnt put undue stress on the inscriptions. It is exactly what they were made for, and they do it easily and efficiently.Tala grunted, then nodded. Alright. Thank you. Can I do some more tests?Absolutely, but I have other things to be about. This room is reserved for your use this evening. You have fun now! Holly waved over her shoulder as she departed, closing the door behind herself.Well, lets get to work. I assume you have some things to test?-Absolutely.-Tala and Alat spent the next couple of hours testing out different mouth shapes on the exhale, different rates of exhale, and a half dozen other factors.Their only interruption came when Jenna updated the information in their linked Archive space.-She says that there was no sign of the arcane on your outing. Also, she applauds the lengths that you were willing to go to make evidence of your magical signature widely noticeable in at least a reasonably plausible fashion.-Sarcasm?-I dont think so?-Huh. Fair enough.-She also said that they will be in touch with regards to any further requests.-Thats a fancy way of saying theyll reach out.-It was clear enough.-Other than that, they were uninterrupted, but it was getting late, and Tala still needed Lyns help to reapply her paint, so she headed home.Of course, on the way she made a stop to grab four cheesy little caravans, two of which she finished before arriving at her own front door.Lyn, bless her, didnt ask why Tala needed a reapplication, simply obliging and painting all the parts of Tala that Tala couldnt easily reach.Tala, for her part, kept one fingertip on the through-spike to keep it from being covered over.Lyns part done, Tala bid her goodnight and went into Kit. Kannis was apparently working late at the Guildhall on some task or other. She always was a bit of an over achieverWithin Kit, Tala painted the rest of herself and then began to press the berries.It wasnt a long process, though it should have been physically taxing one. Thankfully, Tala had both more strength and more endurance than most.It was late in the night when she finally finished processing her four barrels of ending berries down to two barrels of juice. They really are far more juice heavy than they should be, if they were mundane berries.She ate a good portion of the leftover meat of the berries while she was pressing the others, taking what she could from them both nutritionally and with regard to their magical power.The rest she ate while moving through her nightly routine and training. Alat insisted that they add at least a couple of exhalation exercises, to cement the mouth shapes that theyd found to have the most useful patterns of distribution.One more thing.Finally, sometime after midnight, she flopped into her bed for much needed sleep.* * *The next few days passed uneventfully, leading to Talas departure for Marliweather. She trained, both alone and with the guards and Mages. It did take her a few days to return to her previous levels of competence against the guards, as she acclimated to her new physicality. From there, she continued to slowly improve, still losing more often than not, but less often each day.Terry, as it turned out, did not like holding weapons. He was willing to try to overcome the hang-up, but everyone involved agreed it should be done on his own for the time being.Because of this, along with the marked change in Talas own fighting abilities, they decided to hold off on adding in weaponry for Terry, or mounted fighting for both of them. Instead, they spent what time they had with her to help her get fully acclimated. Unfortunately, that meant that it would have to wait until they returned from Marliweather.Tala ate a truly ridiculous amount of food, spending a gold per day, instead of the three silver shed been managing up to that point. And she and Alat worked across the board to refine and improve her progress.Alat, specifically, took over primary monitoring and enacting of the Fusing process, which Tala had maintained in the back of her mind.Talas alternate interface spent basically every free moment continuing the Fusing process, which is actually how they both realized that Alat could manipulate magical power, directly.Alat could only manipulate the power that passed through Talas gate if Tala explicitly allowed it, but it did work.This made Alat giddy with excitement, but she put aside the discovery to devote herself to Fusing for the time being. When Tala tried to work with Alat to move their Fusing ahead even faster, it didnt seem to work very well, so Tala left it to her alternate interface.With the new method, they estimated that theyd reach the threshold to Fused within a month or two, instead of the three or four theyd been expecting.Who knows what that threshold will actually look like.-Well tackle that when we get there.-That was true enough.The last two days, Tala charged her cargo-slots in the mornings, and finally, the day of departure arrived.Tala awoke as usual, one thought crystal clear in her mind.Well, rust. Im going to see my family.
