Chapter: 173 – Tight Spaces

Tala walked out of the Constructionist Guildhall and into the late morning, winter air. She took a deep breath and let it out, a smile blossoming across her face.

“Well, I might as well go to the Culinary Guild.” She glanced to Terry. “Thoughts?”

He cracked an eye, then opened his mouth.

Tala grinned and tossed him some jerky. “Fair enough. You just want this done with, so you can join in the training.”

He let out a happy, quiet trill around the jerked meat.

That settled, she went to the only Culinary Guild office she was aware of, the one that she’d picked up the most recent batch of jerky from.

Her arrival caused a mild panic.

As Tala walked in, the assistant stood up from behind his desk to greet her, but his words froze in his open mouth as his teeth clicked together in surprise.

First, he seemed to take in that she was a Mage. Then, his eyes flicked to Terry, but didn’t stay long. A small, sleeping bird wasn’t that much of a threat. At that point, his gaze clearly dropped to her left hand.

While Tala had been doing a fairly good job of keeping the newly painted hand, and the glowing spell-forms, out of sight for the most part, at the moment, the painted appendage was just hanging by her side, clearly glowing with seemingly active magic.

Well, I didn’t think of that as that big of an issue.

The assistant’s eyes widened to an almost comical degree, and he opened his mouth to scream.

Tala raised both her hands in what she thought of as a placating motion, but he didn’t seem to take it that way.

He tried to scream in abject terror, if his expression gave any indication, but no noise seemed to come out.

Rather than realizing that his heightened emotions were affecting him, he likely assumed that the raising of her hands had silenced him, somehow.

Thus, he fainted, collapsing to the floor in a crumpled heap, out of sight behind his desk.

“Well, that could have gone better.” She moved her left hand behind her back, pulled her iron, Order of the Harvest token into her right, and then, she raised her voice. “Hello? Can I get some help out here, please?”

She considered going over to help the man but realized that that could easily compound misunderstandings.

Another young man came out and took in her arrival. “Mistress? Is everything alright?”

He looked around more carefully but couldn’t see behind the desk. “Derrn is supposed to be at the desk. My apologies for the wait. What can I do for you?”

She tossed the token to him. “I’d like to speak with the branch manager, if at all possible.”

He caught the iron coin, and his eyes widened. He looked back and forth between her and the coin before swallowing and nodding. “Certainly, Mistress. I will be right back.”

Tala waited for a while, growing a bit more concerned as time went by and Derrn didn’t wake up.

When the other man returned with a woman who was, presumably, the head of the local branch, Tala decided that she needed to do something about the unconscious fellow.

Before either of them could speak, Tala pointed at the desk. “I think there is someone back there, but I didn’t want to startle them.”

The other young man walked over to investigate and exclaimed in alarm, rushing around the desk and lifting his friend. “I’ll get him to the back room to lie down. If he needs it, I’ll get a healer.”

The guild-head nodded. “Thank you.” She watched the two leave, clearly concerned, but schooled herself before turning to Tala and bowing. “Mistress Tala. I apologize for the irregularity. I was told to expect you at some point.”

“I quite understand, and I hope that he is alright.”

The woman bowed her head in acknowledgement but didn’t say anything further.

“Are you aware of why I might be here?”

“Well, you could be here to kill us all, but I think that unlikely.” She frowned, glancing Tala over, head to toe, and seemingly noticing that she had her left hand behind her back, even if just slightly. Even so, the woman didn’t make an issue of it. “I believe it is more likely that you tested out your theory and wish to report the results.”

“I did. Do you wish to talk more privately?”

The woman waved that off. “Here is fine. I’m Valry, if it matters. These things seem much above my level, so I doubt it will.”

Tala immediately felt sympathy for the woman. She’s been thrust into this mess because I happened to choose this Culinary Guild location. “I’ll be brief. There is no injunction against research into the consumption of harvests. If you were to go inquire with the Archive, you would be welcomed, and dealt with fairly.”

“I’m not walking into a Mage stronghold on your word, Mistress.”

This city is a Mage stronghold, you idiot. But she didn’t say that. “Then, would you consent to my sending an Archivist here to talk with you?”

The woman looked incredibly uncomfortable, but after a moment, she stood up straighter, swallowed visibly, and nodded. “Yes. I will meet with an Archivist.”

“Do you want me here for the meeting?”

Valry laughed ruefully. “Oh, I think one Mage at a time in my facility is quite enough. Thank you for the offer, though.”

Tala scratched the side of her face. “Well, when Derrn wakes up, he might be under the impression that I used magic on him. I didn’t, but I think I gave him a good scare.”

Valry stiffened. “Oh? How so?”

“Well, with this.” She hesitated, then added, “This is not active with outwardly directed magics.” She pulled her left hand out from behind her back.

Valry’s eyes widened a bit, but she contained herself. “I see. Thank you for forewarning me. I can see why that might have startled him.”

“I do apologize for that.”

“I’ll pass that along.” She swallowed again. “Now, is there anything else, Mistress?”

“No. I’ll leave you to your day. I’ll go talk with the Archivist shortly, and I believe that she’ll come by when she’s able.”

“Thank you.”

Without another word, Tala turned and left.

Well, that could have gone better, but it definitely could have gone worse, too.

She needed to drop through the library, now, but she was closer to the blacksmith. Probably hasn’t been long enough. I’ll come by later to pick up my order.

So, off to the library she went.

She passed through the Archon compound with ease, entering the library to find Ingrit waiting for her, as was standard and expected. You can get used to anything, I suppose.

“What have you done to your hand, Mistress?” It was not an unexpected first question, all things considered.

Tala lifted up her left hand. “I found a more effective, passive training method?”

Ingrit gave a half smile. “I’ll be interested to see how well it works. Now, as I assume you intend to use it on more than your hand, may I offer a bit of advice?”

“Please.”

“I suggest that you be ready to placate others whenever you enter any of the more defensive facilities, as the automated scripts won’t like you very much. Most will have secondary triggers, which will alert a high-level Archon to scan you, and they will easily detect your gate, but automatic defensive measures won’t necessarily be able to do that.”

Tala scratched the back of her head. “Noted.” She’d have to balance that, and other inconveniences, against the benefits that she could already feel from the paint.

“So, shall we get a booth?” Ingrit smiled as she drew Tala’s attention back to herself.

Tala shrugged and followed the woman into the library proper. They were soon seated in a booth, behind a privacy screen, and Terry was munching on a large section of jerky.

Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

Ingrit again broke the silence. “What can I do for you?”

“I want to grant you full access to the Culinary Guild’s records, temporarily.”

“Why?” Then, she hesitated, her eyes closing in an expression of almost exhausted realization. “Mundane human consumption of harvests. Of course.”

“Do you need anything from me?”

“Just a request to look through those records. If you have access, I will be granted such for the term of our discussion.”

“Then, please, review the Culinary Guild’s records.”

Ingrit’s eyes immediately began flicking back and forth as she clearly read something that Tala couldn’t see. Tala, in turn, pulled out one of her books and began to pass the time productively.

Finally, after what was at least an hour, the Archivist sat back, glowering. “Well, that is quite illuminating. We’ve certainly tied ourselves in knots to please the false king.”

Tala frowned. “What?”

Ingrit waved her off. “It’s an old saying.” She blew out a long breath. “This is a tangle. Your inquiry gave me full access to all records available to you, associated with the Culinary Guild, and there is a lot in here… I can’t take it to anyone, or do anything about it though…” Her eyebrows rose. She was clearly still going through records at an incredible rate, even as she talked, and one had caught her attention. “They tried to kill you?”

Terry lifted his head to look at Tala with sudden interest.

Tala just shrugged. “One of their members panicked and stabbed me. It didn’t even break the skin.”

Terry squawked an irritated exclamation and settled back down.

Ingrit grunted. “So the report states. Apparently, it is incredibly uncommon for a Mage to ask such pointed questions, and they’ve not killed a Mage in living memory…That will make that side of things easier.” She let out a long sigh and shook her head once. “How many things like this do we have hiding throughout humanity? How often are we tearing off our own toes out of fear of stubbing one of them?”

Clearly, with the pursuit of knowledge being so key to who she was, Ingrit hated the complete segregation and isolation of knowledge, no matter how necessary.

She turned, locking gazes with Tala with a ferocity that had the younger woman leaning back involuntarily. “Can I meet with the branch heads, here? We need to clear this up. The sooner the better.”