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Millennial Mage - Chapter 279

Published at 22nd of March 2024 05:23:38 AM


Chapter 279: Dimensional Stability

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Chapter 279: Dimensional Stability

Tala purposely didnt take the most direct route to the Constructionists Guild.

She let her feet lead her wherever they would, and she just enjoyed being out among humanity.

Shed barely taken a few steps before Alat briefly interrupted her.

-Mistress Ingrit has asked that we inform her when were heading to get Kit sorted out.-

Oh, alright. Can you keep her in the loop?

-Sure.-

It shouldnt take too long, right? Its just a little repair work.

Tala felt deep skepticism from Alat. -Every time weve done anything with Kit, it has been beyond our expectations in some way. I think we should be prepared for something, even if we dont know exactly what.-

Thats fair, I suppose.

In a city like Bandfast, there were almost always people aboutat least in the central ringeven in less than ideal weather. This day was actually a rather sunny one, so there were even more people about than usual as average citizens tried to get a bit more sun while they could.

Tala didnt let her mind focus on anything too important, though she did open Kit and call to Terry to see if he wanted to join her.

He trilled back, seemingly grateful for the invitation but didnt flicker out.

That was fine.

She closed Kit once again, patting the pouch and sending a few void-channels to top off the dimensional storage.

Shed gotten in the habit of recharging the artifact periodically throughout the day, and she wasnt in a hurry to break it.

It was midmorning by the time she arrived at her destination, walking through the open entry way.

The scanning magics took a reading of the aura put forward by her through-spike, clearly noting that she was a human Archon.

Having just had the environment starkly pointed out in Mistress Hollys workshop, Tala noticed that flush with the archway was a stark transition of cold to warm air.

The magics keeping the distinction were incredibly subtle and complex, seemingly not keeping the air or anything else from moving freely.

Instead, if Tala had to guessand she rather enjoyed the challengeshe would say that it was stripping outgoing air of warmth, and adding warmth to whatever came through, seemingly based on density.

That meant that she received very little heat, but air coming in would come up to temperature immediately.

Fascinating. Why have I never noticed before?

-You arent very focused on temperature, given that you arent very affected by it.-

Yeah, that tracks. There were obviously other magics involved as well, otherwise there would be a perpetual mist as the warm air exited and cooled, and that was lacking. Still, now was not the time for deep analysis of this bit of magic.

The chime that announced her entrance summoned an assistant almost as if by teleportation.

-Now youre just being regularly dramatic. They walked out, if quite quickly and as soon as the chime sounded.-

Fine, fine.

Mistress? How can I assist you?

Tala smiled. I am here to see Masters Boma and Queue. I believe that they are expecting me, but not necessarily right now. Could you see if now is a good time for them to see me? Im Mistress Tala.

At her name, the assistants eyes widened. Mistress Tala! Welcome, welcome. The young man clapped his hands twice, and Tala saw a script activate across his skin each time, sending a pulse of something somewhere that she couldnt determine.

The archive?The original appearance of this chapter can be found at Ñøv€lß1n.

-Could work, or just somewhere else to signal the arrival of specific people?-

Regardless, a moment later two more assistants came out into the entry way.

The first assistant sent one to each of the Masters before turning back toward Tala. They will be along shortly. The Mage gave a small chuckle. Their instructions were quite clear; they wanted to be informed of your arrival the moment you came in.

Oh, well, thank you. She licked her lips, an enticing scent catching her nostrils. Is that coffee I smell?

It is, Mistress. Can I get you a mug?

Tala nodded. That would be lovely.

-Tala-

Its fine. I was up all night. A little coffee wont hurt me.

-Mistress Emersen gave you some, then you had more at breakfast.-

And it's just one more cup here. See? Just three cups. No issue at all.

The assistant was already back with a mug of coffee.

Thank you. Tala hesitated frowning. I apologize, I didnt catch your name.

Srip, Mistress.

Well, thank you, Master Srip.

It is my pleasure. Is there anything else that I can get you, or any other way in which I can be of assistance?

No, I think this is perfect. She lifted the mug in indication, then took a long pull. Amazing.

Alat sighed with obvious disappointment within Talas head but didnt say anything further.

It was indeed a bare couple of minutes before both Masters Boma and Queue came into the entryway.

Their entrances were almost simultaneous, though they came from different hallways, and that fact seemed to make both men smile.

Master Queue was the first to speak. Mistress Tala, welcome, welcome. Do you have any other business with us, before we address the stability of your dimensional storage?

Well need to empower our Archive connection, but now is hardly the time for that.

-And I suspect it might put a strain on you, spiritually if not physically, and Fused as you are, it could complicate your Refining.-

That was my thought too.

-Should we mention the Leshkin weaponry?-

Tala sighed internally. Not yet. Id love to combine some of it with Flow, if possible, move it closer to a true, morphic weapon, but we still might need to sell some.

-If we are still in need of money at the end of this, Im going to be rusting irritated.-

Mistress Elnea smiled and nodded. Certainly, though I doubt Ill say it better than you could have.

They all oriented on her, listening intently.

As you know, our reality is not, precisely, stable. We dont know how stable it should be, but we measure stability based on how close it is to the theoretical maximum.

Tala nodded. So a percentage scale?

Precisely, yes. We will not found a new city if the integrity is below fifty percent.

Her eyes widened at that. So low?

Mistress Elnea shook her head. That is near the maximum weve recorded. In this room, right now. She pulled out a small disk, glancing at it before nodding. Reality integrity is at forty percent. When this city is abandoned, it will be between twenty and thirty percent. As Archons have ranged far and wide, the highest integrity we have accurately measured on Zeme is sixty percent.

Tala nodded. I wonder what the world-fragment would be measured at.

-The stability we felt It very well might be a hundred percent, or close to it.-

Yeah.

Now,the older woman continueda brand new, manmade, artifact dimensional storage generally is measured at between ten and fifteen percent, and weve never recovered a side dimension measured below five percent.

That makes sense. Tala pondered for a moment. What about ether holds?

Mistress Elnea grinned. That is an astute question. There are two groups in that, in both cases the numbers come back in the twenty to thirty percent range. The odd thing is sometimes that reading is negative.

Tala blinked. What?

Exactly.the Council Head leaned forward, obviously getting excited about the topic"Weve tried quite a few different measurement methodologies, and it just seems that some ether holds have an oddly inverse relationship with reality that returns a negative number. Some have theorized that they are dimensional storages that broke apart and kept breaking, that they descended so far into chaos it began to look like order again, but that isnt something that has ever really made much sense to me.

So, what does Kit read at?

She glanced at the slate in her hand. Twenty-three percent.

That caused the two Constructionists to pause. So the integrity isnt in danger?

Oh it is damaged, at least assuming that this type of storage has much in common with ether holds. They tend to begin to irrevocably break down at a higher percentage.

Master Boma scratched the side of his nose. So, more stable, but also more dependent on that stability.

Master Queue nodded. That would make a lot of sense. I also imagine that a larger dimensional pocket would be similarly more stable, and more dependent on that stability.

Master Boma waved him off with a huff. Dont tell me youre a pocket Zeme believer.

You saw the memories we purchased access to. That very well might be true.

Tala frowned. What?

-Mistress Ingrit has been following your wishes and negotiating for access to your information on your behalf. I have a record of what has been granted and to whom. It appears that these two have access to brief glimpses of the world-fragment, many of the holds you entered, and a very simplified look at the Doman-Imithe.-

Ahh, I was wondering if and when the Doman-Imithe would come up.

-Yes, Mistress Ingrit added a note about that, for us. Apparently, it is heavily need to know. Though, as we came by the information on our own, we are not required to maintain silence. Even so, caution is advised if we wish to share the knowledge with anyone.-

Like so many other things.

-Yeah.-

The two Constructionists were starting to get heated, but they seemed to both realize the fact as they each took a step back, turning half away.

Mistress Elnea politely cleared her throat. So, testing Kit.

Tala nodded, walking forward and placing the pouch on the ground, centered among the crates, before backing up to stand next to the half-wall back near the entrance.

She briefly glanced at the stack of papers and other odds and ends sitting on top of the wall before dismissing them as unimportant.

Masters Boma and Queue took up their positions, their magesights flaring to life.

Then, with a synchronized movement of their hands, the men gestured, and their power opened all the crates simultaneously.

Power radiated from each box, up and out into the room.

For a long moment, nothing happened.

Master Boma slumped slightly, grunting. No obvious resonance.

Tala sighed. Come on, Kit.

Master Queue was less pessimistic. Come on, little storage. These are all here for you. Take your pick.

A breath later, she felt like a deep cord had been struck, thrumming through the room as something shifted.

No one else seemed to noticed, but that seemed impossible.

-Tala. Is that?-

Authority? Ownership? Her bonding of the dasgannach had given her a view into that esoteric side of magic, and that sight was trying to show her something, though she didnt really understand what she was seeing.

Master Queue just gave Kit some authority over the items.

-And over this situation. But that doesnt really make sense. The authority was there, before, or it should have been.-

But maybe not highlighted? Kit is a creature, it seems, but we dont know how intelligent, not really. Maybe, Master Queues words were like telling someone that theyre welcome to a cookie thats been on the plate near them?

-Sure, maybe?-

Then, her thoughts were interrupted as her own magesight showed her something that shed only witnessed a handful of times when Kit devoured another dimension or item.

Power rose up from the pouch reaching out in every direction at once.

At the same time, Tala detected Kit expending massive amounts of power. Without even pausing to consider, she extended her aura toward Kit and funneled as many, large void-channels as she could into the pouch.

Every drop of magic she offered was slurped up with ravenous abandon.

Master Queue shouted, gesturing and causing his magic to slam the crates closed. Master Boma acted at the same time, but silently.

The lids obeyed, but dimensionality distorted, and the lids fell closed, only partially covering the now-much-larger openings.

Void power filled the room, radiating outward, but not actually interacting with most of the space.

Like a smith carrying a glowing bar of metal through the room to cast heat everywhere, even though the metal didnt actually interact with anything, so it was with the void.

The four humans were all misted with void energy as Kit acted.




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