Chapter: 260 - Sleep? (Patreon)

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Tala and Terry ran.

Well, that’s not quite accurate.

Terry flickered around, bopping to various hills, occasionally disappearing after some bit of prey or other, but always returning and falling into step beside Tala with ease.

Tala, for her part, loped, bounding more than anything else, springing forward with every step, the expanded surface area of each foot allowing her enhanced strength to really prove its worth.

There wasn’t much snow near Platoiri, but she did find some in the deeper valleys and on the northern sides of the hills as she moved across the land.

It provided a haunting echo of home. The human wilds, for the most part, got a lot of snow in winter, but hundreds of miles south? There was little and that had been just one more reminder that she was in a foreign land.

As the sun moved down towards the horizon from high-noon, Tala began experimenting with magical resonance.

She increased the amount of power that she allowed into her aura and pushed it ahead of herself.

Almost immediately, a resonance began to build, so she feathered the power back, softening the edges of her aura.

When she did that, the resonance faded before it truly began.

She sped up, pushing herself to move faster than she’d ever moved on her own, except maybe when she’d been fighting Io, but that had been in incredibly short bursts.

This was the equivalent of a dead sprint for the long haul, and she knew that she couldn’t maintain it for very long, even with all her magics.

That said, it was actually fairly easy for her to approach magical resonance in the relatively potent zeme with her speed.

The magic in the air would barely have sustained an arcane Child, but it was almost double the density of the human Wilds, so close to an arcane city.

Not too close. I’ve been running for hours. I might have covered close to fifty miles by now.

-A bit more by my estimate, but yeah, pretty close to that.-

She was going nearly twice as fast as she’d averaged before, and her short window of time at this speed was closing, so she did her experimentation quickly.

She pulled her aura and power in tight, playing with the shape of it.

Eventually, she was able to find a shape that was almost aerodynamic, but had odd, irregular ripples across its surface, which seemed to keep the magic from resonating more effectively than a perfectly smooth shape did.

She doubted it was the best shape she could make, but it was good enough for now.

She slowed down, barely breathing hard thanks to her enhancements. Oh, I love being inscribed once again.

Still, she did feel an ache deep within herself from having pushed so hard.

-It was only about a day, right?-

It felt like an eternity. The entire time, I felt like an idiot… a slow, weak idiot.

Alat huffed a laugh within Tala’s head. -Yeah, well. You’re better now.-

That I am.

Terry flickered back into his place, moving alongside her without getting too close.

“Good hunting?”

He trilled happily before flickering to her other side, just because he could.

How does he do that? He should have to go through the intervening space, given he’s using dimensional magics, but he doesn’t actually seem to.

-I think that his magics aren’t like the quickways in Croi, but I’ll grant you that they bear some similarities.-

Tala grunted. Oh! Have you found any solutions for our unwanted passenger?

Tala, herself had been considering the problem of the dasgannach.

She hadn’t come up with even another temporary solution, not yet.

She didn’t really expect either of them to come up with something so quickly, but she was optimistic that they would. Something was tickling at the back of her mind, telling her that there was a solution that should come to mind.

She just hadn’t remembered it, yet.

-No… But could you do me a favor?-

Probably? What’s up?

-Can you run with your voidsight active?-

Tala shrugged, not even bothering to ask why for the moment. Sure.

And so Tala went back to running… loping.

Terry cleared out any wildlife that might have been bothersome.

The miles sped on by.

The sun set.

Darkness fell.

When full night had washed across all that Tala could see, she slowed, allowing her voidsight to drop along with Flow’s return to its resting form.

I have had a long two days, Alat.

-I know. I wish that you could sleep.-

Tala grimaced, turning her focus to the slow burn of the Archon star, building within her left ring finger. I can’t though, not with this in the works. It would seal off, my body would expel it, and I’d be done for.

-You know, I could take over the working. It’s not like I don’t know what I’m doing.-

Tala considered the idea. You haven’t really controlled my magic directly before. Have you?

-Not for anything important. Just little bits here and there. We share a soul, mind, and will. It should respond to me just as well as you.-

Tala grunted. That was sound logic.

Terry flickered to stand a bit away from her as Tala stood atop a snow-covered bluff, beneath a cloudless, starry sky.

“It’s beautiful tonight, isn’t it?” Tala tilted her head back to stare up and take it all in.

It was odd to think that the Doman-Imithe was what anyone up there would see, if they looked in towards Zeme.

What would it look like from the outside?

Terry looked up as well, raising his head in a manner that seemed to evoke a feeling of pride and mastery of all he surveyed. He let out a slow, soft trill, and Tala smiled.

“Yeah. It is good to be free once more.”

What do I know of that place? She considered, just letting her mind turn the problem over like she hadn’t really done in recent memory. All reality is connected by threads. Nodules that are actual places. Manifestations formed around the connection paths, forged of figments of the observing mind and the dust of a previous world.

-Yeah.-

Tala laughed. There aren’t threads, here.

-Not really, no. I think your cross-stitching analogy was spot on. Zeme is the pretty picture the ancient workers of power forged, the Doman-Imithe is the remains.-

But, in cross-stitch, there is vastly more material on the back, than on the front.

-Yeah, I was thinking on that. We don’t really have evidence that Zeme is a full planet. No one has circumnavigated it.-

What then? A disc on the back of four elephants, all balanced on the back of a giant turtle?

-Who knows how they made it? All the mass is still here, somewhere, so it’s not like physics would be that greatly affected, depending on how it all interacts.-

Tala grunted at that. I did notice that everything looks like nodules to my voidsight. All pressed up against one another, contiguous in the tapestry they create.

-Yeah. There are some interesting implications, there, but I don’t have them all fleshed out, yet.-

Take your time. We have our entire lives ahead of us.

Alat huffed an internal laugh. -You’re funny.-

I do try.

There was a moment of silence before Alat continued. -I wish we could see reality out there, beyond our broken and rebuilt world. I think it would be very informative.-

Tala nodded. Well, we seem to have a way back from the Doman-Imithe. Maybe, we should take a trip out and back.

Her recent trip through the Doman-Imithe flashed through her—at times too perfect—memory. But not soon. Maybe in a few years.

-When we make it there.-

When we make it then.

They shared a grin, stretching pleasantly across Tala’s face.

-But to the business of the evening.- Tala’s clothing shifted beneath her vest.

The vest was all that remained of her white scale armor. Right, I used the last scales as a distraction for that Pillar from the House of the Acidic Tide.

It would probably be worth it to remake the armor, but not this instant.

What are you doing? She could feel Alat exerting their will and power on the elk-leathers.

-Proving a point. See? I can manipulate the clothing just as well as you can.-

Of course you can, you’re soul-bound to it, just like I am.

Alat grumbled. -Fine then. What about this?-

Tala’s aura shifted, taking on the exact shape that she’d found most optimal that afternoon.

It was a flawless recreation. -Of course it is, I have your memories, I’m using your power. I am effectively you. I can manage the Archon star.-

Tala hesitated for only a moment. Well, if I die, you die, so you must be pretty confident.

-I am.-

On three?

-Are you crazy?-

Tala felt something shift in her flow of magic, and suddenly, the trickle going to the Archon star was out of her control.

She almost panicked and tried to grab on in desperation. Something deep within her told her that she would easily succeed, all that she needed to do was reach out and grasp it, but the flow continued without fluctuation.

You could have warned me.

-You would have tensed up. You’re exhausted.-

Tala groaned. Alat, you function in the same mind that I do. If I sleep, you sleep. You’ve even told me that dreamless sleep for me is like a blink for you, too.

-I know, I know. I’m not going to let you fall all the way asleep. It won’t be nearly as restful, but I think I can get you to only let half your mind sleep at a time. Your body really won’t be able to move, and I’ll be the only consciousness awake for it, but I think we can make it work. We’ll just need about twice the amount of time to feel fully rested.-

That’s… that’s actually a really good idea if you can make it work.

-I think I can.-

Then, let’s do it.

There were some small crags near the base of the bluff they were standing on, and it didn’t take long for Tala to drop down and put Kit on the rock surface. With the barest ripple of power, Kit made a perfectly camouflaged door, which opened to allow her and Terry to enter.

Terry flickered away instantly, off to be about his business.

Tala stepped into her bedroom within the sanctum and felt herself relax.

Even when she’d been an Eskau, she’d been able to literally let her hair down in this room, as well as metaphorically.

She stripped off the remnants of her armor, and retracted her elk-leathers as much as she could.

Tala couldn’t do anything about the iron on her skin anymore, not now that the dasgannach had a hold of it, but she still mirrored the elk-leather’s self-cleaning onto her own skin and hopped, causing a cascade of dust, dirt, and the remnants of sweat to fall to the floor before Kit made it vanish.

“Thank you, Kit.”

Kit did not respond.

Without anything further that she needed to do, Tala flopped down on her bed, and Alat began the process of putting half her brain to sleep.

Tala’s last thought was of food.

I’ll eat tomorrow.

It felt like the blink of an eye before Tala came back to her senses, sitting up with a smile.

She felt worlds better than she had the night before.

The light of dawn was slowly beginning to build through her bedroom window.

Even as well rested as she felt, she was a little stiff, despite all of her enhancements. I should have stretched.

-Yes, you should have. Good morning, by the way.-

Good morning, Alat. Tala grinned, happy to have her alternate interface back.

She took the time to move through her stretches, really sinking into them to allow her body to unclench from her day of hard travel, not to mention the strain of reacclimating to her internal magics.

She did not have time for a bath. After all, she was heading home.

She couldn’t hide her smile at that fact.

Soon I’ll be home, and I can see everyone again. Lyn and Holly, Rane and Ingrit, not to mention her family.

She grimaced at that. It wasn’t going to be fun explaining where she’d been for the last months, but it would be good to be back.

Sure, the dasgannach was within her, threatening her with imminent demise, but she’d either solve that or she wouldn’t. It wasn’t worth worrying about it.

Thinking about?

Absolutely.

Worrying?

Not in the least.

Not one bit.

Utterly pointless.

She turned her thoughts more firmly onto her family. Nalac and Illie should be at the Academy still. Hopefully, they weren’t told.

But Tala knew there was little chance of that.

Maybe, we could go visit them?

-Inconvenient. We’d have to leave Kit behind and get reinscribed once we returned.-

Of course, because only things that are soul-bound to us—

-Plus a little clothing.-

Right, right, only things soul-bound to us, and some clothing, come along…

Tala felt dawning revelation building in Alat, even as the idea exploded within her own thoughts.

That’s it!!!

-The dasgannach is not bound to us.-

Teleporting should strip it out.

-The question is, would it take the iron?-

Tala shook her head. It shouldn’t matter. Our soul knows we have a functioning body, so we should have iron in place when we arrive. It would be just like my hair when I came from the Academy.

Alat knew that too, but the idea was so fresh to them both that neither had thought all the way through the obvious implications and outcomes. -It might even force the thing out? Cause it to leap out of you at the last moment, so it wasn’t obliterated.-

It might at that, but I doubt it. It has a strong desire to claim everything. Even so, that’s a good point. We’ll have to have whoever is assisting in the teleport be careful and ready.

Just like that, she had a solidly workable solution.

It was simple, elegant, and completely within her means, assuming she could get to a human city before the Archon star fully formed.

She moved into her last stretch. How are we on timing for the Archon star?

-With as slow as we’re funneling power into it? We have at least a week.-

But that’s if nothing happens to throw things off. That’s if things go our way. Tala smirked. How likely is that?

-I wouldn’t bet on it.-

Yeah, me neither. So, somewhere less than a week, the sooner the better.

She shouldn’t need to sleep again, but it would likely be wise to sleep every three days or so. That would slow them, depending on the route they had to take.

Tala stood, left her room, and went to the kitchen, still deep in thought.

It was easy to call up the base ingredients, and she began munching on raw fruits and vegetables.

She had a selection of butchered meats available as well.

That would be a great way to start the day.

She looked around the kitchen, hesitating.

-You’ve never really cooked in here, have you?-

I have not, no. But you already knew that.

She sighed, realizing that she just didn’t have time for a ‘real’ breakfast.

Instead, she grabbed some readily made food. Sadly, what she ended up with was both vastly simpler and far less tasty than she had become accustomed to.

Even so, it filled the small ache of hunger within her well enough.

Terry was nowhere to be found, but he had his own diversions within the sanctum. She’d open Kit for him a little later.

The dasgannach didn’t try to eat any of the knives or other utensils she touched in passing, so she wasn’t quite sure what it would go after.

Maybe, it’s because all of these have a bit of magic to them? The restraining band had been magical, but it had also been deactivated when the slime-monster consumed the iron it had contained.

The magics in the tools, on the other hand, were always active, pulling fractionally from Kit via the schema in the dais outside.

Differences highlight parameters.

Tala didn’t see the cat anywhere, but she still had some more mundane food in Kit that had been used for Thron and kept on hand in case she ever had guests.

She never had.

She laid out a cut of meat for either the cat or Terry.

She wouldn’t be bothered no matter which ate it.

The cat probably has plenty to eat, besides this. The arcanes built an entire ecosystem in here.

She frowned. An ecosystem that wasn’t balanced for the destruction a cat could bring.

Maybe she should find it and kick it out.

After a moment’s thought, she shook her head. That is not really a ‘now’ problem.

-I recommend a reinscription. Nothing is too worn, but you put a lot of odd stresses on yourself that had to be repaired, and I’d prefer we were topped off.-

Sure. It was a quick walk to her dais, and only the thinnest golden wires rose up to plunge down her throat before splitting apart to refresh her spellforms.

With that, her short, morning routine was done.

Tala called up the door out of Kit and stepped out into the early morning light of a mid-winter’s day.

The sky was a lovely shade of blue and practically cloudless.

The air was brisk, but not really overly cold.

Such were winters to the south.

I’ll be home, soon.

Thinking about the weather and the time of year, reminded her of the rough date.

Nalac and Illie’s birthday is only a few days away, and mine less than a week after. I should be home in time at least for mine. It would be a fairly glorious present if she could teleport to the Academy for their birthday, though.

After all, she had to teleport anyway. Why not make use of the trip?

Tala had no idea if it was as easy as asking to go, though. Such a trip likely had to be approved by someone.

-We’ve never checked.-

Yeah, that’s what I remembered.

She took a deep breath and sighed.

And we’re going to be under heavy suspicion when we return. I imagine there will be a minimum of a few days of intensive magical tests of one variety or other, before we’re cleared.

-They’re probably going to want to analyze every inch of Kit, as well.-

She pulled Kit off the rock face and bounded up the slope to have a look around. That’s probably true.

Tala spread her arms wide and basked in the sun. But that’s an ‘I’m home!’ problem. I’ll gladly deal with a few of those.

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