Chapter: 490 – Oh…

Tala and Rane had decided to ‘deal’ with all their wedding presents sooner rather than later.

They were nearly done preparing for their honeymoon, but they hadn’t actually picked a departure date as of yet.

That was fine. They would leave soon enough. They were immortal, after all, so why rush?

It was a week after the wedding, all requisite paperwork was filed, and they were standing next to their mini forest.

“I… I don’t know if I can take all that at once.”

Rane grunted. “That is rather large. You’re used to taking smaller, more potent acquisitions.”

“Yeah. Cells, holds, ether holds, and things like that. This?” She gestured to the hundred acres of old-growth forest before her. “This is a lot of wood.”

Rane gave her a look. “A lot of woods.” He emphasized the ‘s’. “It’s a lot of woods.”

“I know what I said; though, that’s true too.” She smiled his way. “Were we to harvest these trees in the traditional way, we would end up with a lot of wood.”

“Ahh, yeah, that’s true.” He still gave her a sidelong glance.

“Well, let’s see what Kit can do with this.” She manifested Kit as a pouch and tossed the devourling at the nearest tree. “Mine.”

And thus, the devouring began.

It was odd as Kit couldn’t just open wide enough to eat the whole forest in one pass. Instead, she started with one tree, tracing it downward and scooping out the dirt, rock, and soil along with the roots, and where the roots entangled with another tree’s, she began devouring that tree too.

It was imperfect, as she had to find ways to keep her portal within her capacity, but it was still workable.

In less than a couple of hours, a large chunk of land had been scooped out, about twenty feet deep.

Kit was content with her acquisition, and Rane and Tala had nothing further to do in the area.

* * *

As for all the little gifts, there were dozens.

Most were minor items of one kind or other, more meant to convey support than be a true ‘gift.’ After all, they were in a position to have more monetary and magical resources than most of those who came to celebrate with them—those who’d given ‘big’ gifts excepted.

A few stood out regardless.

Tala and Rane pulled out the odd set of two buttons and two magical lights.

It was a gift from Rane’s older sister, Chloe.

The note accompanying the clearly magical items simply conveyed that it was so that they would always know when the other was ready to ‘get on with it.’

The ‘signal’ lights were always on, and the buttons did nothing.

They both chuckled, sharing in the humor of the implication.

Half an hour later, they pulled out the next gift. It was a cookbook from Brand—he hadn’t been able to attend, but he’d sent the gift regardless—containing ‘Caravan Favorites’ and other recipes of note. Importantly, all the recipes were scaled for the feeding of a lot of people at once, which made them perfect for Tala’s meals.

Since they’d already opened one book, Alat directed them to Master Cazor’s present next, as he had gotten them a book as well, it seemed.

With Alat continuing to maintain surprises for Tala—keeping her threefold perception from showing her what was inside any of the myriad packages and parcels—Tala was as surprised as Rane when he pulled it out. “What is it?”

Rane was frowning, but he opened it and burst out laughing. “Here, take a look.”

Tala took the book and read the cover, ‘Everything You Know About Marriage and Each Other.’

As she flipped it open, she chuckled as well.

It was essentially blank.

There were places to record ‘firsts’ for their marriage as well as prompts for conversations to get to know one another better, and things of that kind, but over all, there was ‘nothing’ inside.

“Well, that was kind of him.”

Rane nodded. “Indeed it was, yes.”

The rest of the gifts were fairly standard, kind expressions of support.

They received a cast-iron tea set with sapphire blue and blood-red enamel—they’d made their wedding colors known ahead of time.

There was a large smattering of physical books to add to Tala’s library. Including a lovely book of idioms and their origins from Lyn.

A few guests had actually gotten them blank books that were incredibly nicely bound, and a selection of various print-grade inks. Tala wasn’t sure why, until Rane found the note signed by many of the Librarians from Alefast, Waning and Bandfast.

They were for Tala and Alat to fill with whatever ‘book’ they wished. The Librarians knew of Tala, Alat, and Kit’s abilities within Kit, and they were counting on those for the creation of physical copies.

The Librarians had also set up a fund with which Rane and Tala could buy the rights to access a few books that they wished from the titles not freely available. From those, they could either simply access them within the Archive, or ‘copy’ them out at their leisure.

Alat especially loved that set of gifts as it gave her yet another toy to play with.

Some of the restaurants that Tala and Rane had used to make the food and drink for the wedding had sent a selection of casks of alcohol. None were very large, but each beverage selection was intended for Refined or more advanced Archons.

Given that there were nearly a dozen such casks—and none of them were likely to have been cheap—Tala had to ask. Alat? How much did we spend on food?

-…Enough that this is an appropriate congratulatory gift.-

…Alright then.

-Oh, don’t be like that. Even if we’d spent a hundred gold—which we didn’t—we’d still be fine. Each cask likely cost a couple of gold at the high end. Keep in mind that such is ‘market’ price, and restaurants generally get food and drink at wholesale discounts. Thus, while it is still a nice gift, it wasn’t as expensive as it would have been for us to acquire the same.-

Noted.

A few gifts were aimed more toward Rane, mainly a selection of various stones for carving, each with directions to the exact area in which the stone had been found in case he particularly liked any of them. That way, he could acquire more of the material that he preferred the most.

There were also quite a few teas, imported from Makinaven, that had both Rane and Tala excited.

The final standout item was something called a ‘Hero’s Journey’ slate.

For most Mages or mundanes, it would track where they went—seemingly using the person’s mind and memory to mark their path.

When Tala connected with it, it expanded so far out that the detail was lost on the little Archive slate.

So, with only a quick verification with Rane, Tala had Kit devour it and replicate the magics onto a large wall.

Due to her perfect memory—after becoming a Mage—it showed rather detailed movements from her, though it started with her childhood. It began by drawing a blood-red line moving vaguely throughout Marliweather before jumping over to the Academy, and coming back to around Bandfast.

From there, it showed her caravan journeys before jumping down to Platoiri—she didn’t have memory of the trip after all—and then it depicted her return trip and time since.

“That’s… that’s actually really cool. The little slate was useless, but the magics are amazing.”

Rane held up a note, a wry grin across his features. “That’s probably why it explicitly said it was for Kit’s devouring.”

“Oh? Who’s it from?”

“Master Boma.”

-Oh, that was really kind of him! I’ll send him a thank you message.-

Thank you, Alat.

She turned to regard Rane, then. “Your turn.”

Rane shrugged and put his hand on the ‘syncing’ location, and his memory of his travels appeared on the same map, traced out in sapphire blue.

He’d never been to the Academy, and most of his early time was spent in and around Alefast, Waning. But after his and Tala’s paths crossed, he traced out most of the same caravan routes as hers had.

Then, when hers blipped away before reappearing down in Platoiri, Rane’s went to her last location, and proceeded to move all over the surrounding region.

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“Oh, Rane.” Tala gave a sad—yet grateful—smile as she leaned into him. “I knew you looked for me, but that’s a lot more extensive than I had realized.”

When she looked up at him, he was pale, clearly having realized something.

“Rane?”

“Um… can we stop this?”

“No, it already scanned your memories, and it’s just mapping it out for effect. Kit could break it, but the information is already in the Archive, just not displayed. Why?”

He visibly swallowed, but before he answered, Tala perceived his line going into the mountain range, central to the Gated-Human Wilds.

He went up some six peaks before blipping down the base of the last one. Tala chuckled. “Did you fall off?”

He shook his head, his eyes looking up as if expecting lightning from the clear, artificial sky. “I apologize, but… I can’t say.”

She pulled back and gave him a long look. “Really?”

“Really. I am sorry. I would tell you if I could.”

She met his gaze for a while before slowly nodding. “Alright. I trust you.”

And he didn’t want us to go through those peaks for some reason.