Millennial Mage - Chapter 274

Chapter 274: Hit the Highlights




Chapter 274: Hit the Highlights

Tala came to an awkward stop as every eye in the room turned on her, Mistress Hollys question still echoing around them, Well, rust my biscuits, child. What have you done to yourself this time?

Tala cleared her throat and gave a self-conscious smile. Well, I suppose thats what were all here to discuss?

That seemed to break the odd state of the room. Side conversations picked back up, clearly pushing towards quick conclusions now that Tala was here.

Mistress Holly took the return of side-conversations as a cue to come over to Tala. She stopped just out of arms reach. Mistress Tala. She spoke incredibly softly, as was required for even a small amount of privacy in a room with such occupants. You are dangerously broken.

Tala nodded, deflating a little bit. I need to Refine as soon as possible, yeah.

We will have to update your scripts and let them settle into a final configuration, but well get that done after this is over. The inscriptionist gestured to everything around them. I am very curious about what you sent me, but that can wait until you are stabilized, I think.

Tala felt herself smiling. That was incredibly kind of her.

-yeah. Suspiciously so.-

Mistress Holly smiled. After all, I have so many theories riding on your progress. I cant have you dying on me, now.

Tala huffed a laugh. There it is.

Oddly, Mistress Hollys antics felt more relieving and caring than it would have had the woman actually expressed care and concern. Thank you, Mistress Holly. I appreciate your expertise.

The woman smiled in return. Of course, dear. Now, get some food. Its going to be a long day.

The various plates in hands made it obvious that the food was open, Mistress Hollys prodding was all that she needed to make a move, and no one stopped Tala from going and getting an overlarge helping.

Lyn and Rane stuck close to her as Mistress Ingrit seemed to be arranging last minute details.

After a quick glance in their direction, the Archivist had two chairs moved next to what was presumably Talas seat to one side of the front of the room.

A quick five minutes later, during which Tala stuffed a good third of the offered food into Kitshe was trying to be restrainedit was time to begin.The debut release of this chapter happened at Ñøv€l-B1n.

Tala, Lyn, and Rane were motioned to the three chairs in front and off to one side, while Mistress Ingrit took center stage.

Mistress Odera had gone to sit with Mistress Aproa.

Ahh, thats why her granddaughter is here. That makes sense.

Master Cazor and Mistress Jean were sitting with a small group who all had a similar look and feel to them.

Mage Hunters? Well, that makes sense, too. Either Im on humanitys side, and I have a lot of great info for these people, or Im not, and Mage Hunters are the perfect ones to try and stop me.

-With our current state, a dedicated mageling could do the job.-

Thats hardly fair. We could kill a few hundred magelings without much trouble.

-Yes, you are definitely for humanity. Jumping straight to killing magelings on a whim.-

Hey, now. That wasnt fair. You set me up.

Mistress Ingrits voice resonated through the room, stilling the lingering whispers and drawing all attention to her, Thank you all for coming on such short notice. There are many layers to what will be discussed here today, and we will only be going through a broad overview. The information has been ordered and organized so that those with the lowest information clearance can be present at the beginning, and then leave when what they can know has been explored. Very few of you will be here at the end of the day.

The stunningly beautiful woman looked around with utter conviction.

No one will contest me when I say it is time to depart.

There was a murmur of assent through the room.

Now, it is required that a short evaluation be completed upon a Mages return after a long absence. Master Grediv determined it wasnt necessary, but unfortunately, this is not his city, and so procedure will be followed.

Mistress Ingrit wrinkled her nose slightly at her own words before continuing.

My understanding is that there is a mageling present who has a new methodology to test?

Master Grediv stood in obvious protest. Really? Mistress Jenna. This is hardly the time.

Mistress Jenna sighed. The petition to try the methodology on the next returning Mage was submitted and granted three years ago, Master Grediv. It would take more time to alter procedure than to simply go through it.

The Paragon groused, but finally nodded, coming to stand beside Tala. Then, I will stand beside her for the process.

It was an obvious gesture of support for Tala, and she appreciated it.

A grey-haired man stood up from beside the Mage Hunters. Oh, Master Grediv, there is no danger. It is purely a mundane test.

Wait They said mageling. Is that a mageling?

-He, Tala. Is he a mageling? Treating people like objects isnt the best start.-

Are you really lecturing me on grammar right now?

Alat did not respond.

The older man made his way forward and bowed to Tala. Greetings, Mistress Tala. I am mageling Archie. He hummed happily. To put your mind at ease, I am a mageling by choice, yes I am. I enjoy researching the mundane aspects of life more than I like magic. He shrugged. But this isnt about me.

Tala waved, feeling awkward. Good to meet you, mageling Archie.

The older man straightened, and his countenance changed on the instant from one of an affable, if absentminded, researcher, to a questioner who Tala would have expected to see in a play about hardened criminals. Now, answer truthfully. Have you had any urge to harm or kill your fellow man?

Tala felt herself hitch. What?

Have you had any urge to harm or kill your fellow man?

Umm not without cause?

The man nodded sagely, stroking his beard. With a quick motion, he pulled out a card with a splash of yellow paint on it. What color is this card?

Are you serious?

Yes. What color is this card?

Its a white card. The paint on the card is yellow Are we going to do shapes next?

Ill be asking the questions here, young lady. His tone was even more stern than before.

Mistress Ingrit nodded once. Yes, I can share that. The House of Blood.

Only a few Mage Hunters nodded at the name, and the man seemed to decide to test his luck by asking one more question. What rank did she reach? Master Servant of a small division? Foreman in one of their operations?

The Archivist was fighting a smile as she shook her head. Eskau.

The Paragon looked like hed been struck, and indeed, he fell back into his seat, eyes looking dazed as he frowned in obvious confusion.

Most in the room clearly had no idea what that meant, but one other stood from the back of the room. That is preposterous! No human would be allowed such a position, and if it were somehow true, they would never have let her leave.

Tala was somewhat confused as the woman speaking was only Fused, but Mistress Ingrits response clarified some things, Archiveling, please remember your role and that you are here to learn. Would I have spoken it as fact, were I unsure?

The Archon colored bright red and dropped back into her seat, muttering what seemed to be an apology so quietly that even Tala couldnt hear it fully.

Now,Mistress Ingrit didnt look ruffled in the leastwe have much to cover, and were not even through the introduction. I would appreciate it if questions would be held at least until each wave of you is to be dismissed?

There were mutterings of agreement, and the woman nodded in satisfaction.

First, we are going to hit the highlights, and you may all submit requests for further information, if what you are given, here, is insufficient.

There were some grumblings, but theyd bought in by that point, so no one interrupted.

Arcane cities.

She paused for the ripple of noise.

Thats going to get old. Stay silent or depart.

Silence.

Good. Now, the basic ruling structure of the arcane cities on this continent is as follows. A City Lord rules over the city. Within the city are major Houses, which contribute to its day to day operation, as well as defense. Major Houses are structured in sorts of oligarchies. These oligarchies are made up of pairs: the Pillars, who are more administrative though not weak, and the Eskau, who function as the sword or right hand of their Pillar. Each House handles their exact form of self-governance, but it is generally the Pillars who make the decisions and the Eskau who enforce them.

There were some nods from those who already knew some of this. Others seemed to be taking notes.

We must now discuss different forms of advancement, broadly speaking. Humans. You all should know as much as you are allowed on the subject, but to summarize, humans advance through the harmonizing and perfecting of their body and soul. Arcanes advance mainly through the increasing of power-density and the perfecting of their use of that power. One of the key differences between our magics is that arcanes focus on precision and efficiency where humans focus on power and scope. We are our own power sources, so efficiency means less to us.

There were more nods around the room.

Briefly, arcanous creatures are mundane creatures that have acquired power via some means, from an external source, and are at least somewhat independent of any source of power after the magic is acquired. Magical creatures, in contrast, are bound to a source of some type. Yes, this is why familiars, even if they are arcanous in origin, are considered magical creatures, because they are bound to a source, mainly their Mage.

This wasnt that new or revolutionary. Still, many people were taking notes. Tala was simply eating the food that shed taken earlier. This is so much better than me having to try to convey this

-Unquestionably.-

This brings us to differentiation among arcanes. Arcanes divide themselves based on how easily they can maintain their power density in a weaker environment. They designate races as low, mid, and high races based on this one trait. Not every mid-race person will have more power density than every low, and same for high and mid, but it is generally easier for the more advantaged races to advance, and it is unquestionably easier for them to maintain that advancement.

Mistress Ingrit wrinkled her nose slightly.

Humans are worse at this than even the least gifted low-race. We are terrible at holding onto magic that is not inherently our own. This is why, without gates, we are nothing but chaff to them.

That got grumbles of discontent in response, but still, no one truly interrupted.

Now, there are gated humans in the arcane cites, but not many. Additionally, any human who is allowed to advance beyond Mage into the Archon ranks is required to wear a saorsa-collar, which is customized to each wearer.

She then pointed to three individuals in sequence.

To pre-empt your most likely questions: Yes, there are humans in the Archon range in the arcane cities, but they are few and far between. No, we dont have many details on exactly how the collars are constructed, but we have some. Yes, I am going to tell you more about them.

The three people who had opened their mouths each sat back, nearly identical looks of stunned acceptance painting their features as their mouths closed.

The collars contain multiple dasgannach that were altered to make them more of a scourge than the normal specimens. Information on them is not restricted, look them up on your own time. Mistress Ingrit then glanced towards Tala. Ive already gotten a dozen inquires on the dasgannach related information you have. Particularly, Master Jevin and Mistress Noelle said that you sent them a bit of information?

Tala nodded. I did. Im happy to correspond with them.

Very well. Moving on. These soarsa-collars are created and controlled by the City Lord of the given city. If Mistress Tala had left the city without permission, the collar would have injected the dasgannach directly into her, with lethal consequences.

Several people took bites of food, seemingly to keep themselves from commenting.

Master Cazor was regarding Tala critically.

Back to the arcane hierarchy of power retention. Because of this hierarchy of power, and the fact that most dont have access to personal power, Houses, both major and minor, pay their followers with power-density. Meaning, the very ability to live in a higher density environment is a large portion of the payment used to secure loyalty among the largest political powers in arcane cities.

That got some appreciative and comprehending rumbles from the Mage Hunters in the audience.

The way that they manage these places of higher concentration is via massive dimensional storage facilities, which they have expanded and outfitted for habitation. They call them holds, generally, or sanctums when they are primarily for a single individual. Because of this, most factions of any power have a hold, and those holds are accessed via a single point of entry. This results, at least in Platoiri, in their District of Doors, a place where hundreds, if not thousands, of holds are all set up near one another, effectively compressing a truly massive amount of space into a very accessible arrangement.

Mistress Ingrit raised her hand, to keep the quiet.

We are almost to the question-asking portion of this level of information. She gave a single nod before continuing, As you can imagine, having all these powerful, jockeying factions with holds close together means that the holds are points of conflict. This is why most holds have extremely powerful and effective defenses. The strongest of which even Paragons would struggle to breach in any meaningful timeframe.

Master Grediv shifted in his seat, leaning forward.

Tala thought she saw a small smile on his lips, though whether it was at a possible challenge, or some privately held knowledge, she didnt know.

These defenses arent the only result of the factional conflicts. The most common way to build up power is to raid other factions for magical weapons or even to claim entire holds. From what Mistress Tala witnessed, these raids do result in death, but not nearly as much as we would expect. It is most common to have prisoners taken and to ransom them back to their faction. Additionally, there are rather strict dictates about fighting those weaker than yourself, unprovoked. That keeps the upper echelon from simply wiping out entire opposing groups. Though, there do seem to be some exceptions to the rule.

These conflicts have also driven innovation. There are several artifact schema that show great promise, including those of far-seeing, and the Constructionists will be allowed to ask after those, later. Their warriors, specifically their Eskau, seem to have developed highly specialized fighting styles centered around morphic weapons, that is weapons that can change shape nearly instantly.

That got a lot of attention, with many people seemingly jotting down reminders to request more information.

Finally, it seems that even the upper echelons of arcanes do not have a good understanding of human inscriptions. While they seem to use inscriptions themselves, if less frequently than we do, they do not have records or methods of easily determining what our magics do.

The Arcane Hunters grinned broadly at that, as each and every one of them seemed overjoyed at the news.

Specifically, Mistress Talas scripts were never fully understood by those she interacted with, no matter what resources they had to bring to bear on that issue.

Mistress Holly snorted. That tells us less than you imply. My script designs for Mistress Tala are leagues more advanced than most.

Mistress Ingrit frowned at the interruption but nodded. While that may be true, they were not even able to extrapolate past the most basic of guesses. They might be able to understand something as old and little altered as a keystone, but little else. The Archivist nodded to herself. I think that is a good overview of the most basic information. We will now allow questions.

Nearly the whole room stood in a rush, each hoping to ask their question first.

This is going to be a long day