Chapter: 505 – It Was Time

Tala and Rane were about to go test some of their new theories in regards to shared authority and enacting their magics through them when a wolf appeared beside them.

For a fraction of a second, Tala thought that the wolf was massive, fur black as the endless depths of space, the tips of each piece of hair glowing with light like a star within that infinite night.

But when she focused on the wolf with her threefold sight, the creature was barely bigger than a large dog with fur almost wool-like in nature and cloud gray in color. Sparks of intelligence—and likely lightning—danced in the brilliant yellow eyes.

“Greetings, Mistress Tala, Master Rane. You may call me Lerra. My mother has requested that I discuss the nature of your existence with you both, if you are amenable?” Her voice was precise—almost clipped—as she spoke. Unlike other members of the pack, her mouth didn’t move in the slightest as she spoke. Instead, Tala watched in fascination as the wolf carved spellforms to create each sound from raw power, forging a sequence of tiny workings that would produce each desired syllable before they each burned out.

It was so inefficient that it was almost insulting. Except…

She was carving spellforms at the speed of speech. It would have been so much more efficient to create a single working that would generate any word the wielder desired, otherwise waiting unused but ready. That’s essentially what Tala did when she spoke, while fully encased in armor. It wasn’t even that difficult of a spellform, and the magic-in-air spellform was widely known. It should have been trivial for any of the Pack to do, but this one didn’t.

Rane’s mouth was hanging open, seemingly pondering the actual implications as well.

Tala swallowed. “Are you… Is that an illusion? Or are you actually generating individual spells for each syllabic sound of our speech?”

“I am. It is excellent practice for rapid spell creation, don’t you think? It was tedious for the first hundred years or so, but I find that I am quite good at it these days. I find it much more tenable than sacrificing the biological structure of my face, teeth, throat, and neck in order to mimic bi-pedal speech, and it is much more precise than any of the generic workings I could utilize.” Lerra yipped happily, looking rather pleased with herself.

Tala was slowly nodding. “I see… Yes, I can understand how it would be excellent practice…” She glanced toward Rane. “Eh?”

He sighed, then nodded. “We can find time to practice that too. Though, we’ll have to get much, much better at manipulating magic within our auras.”

Lerra chuffed before her voice sounded forth once more. “If you do it, do it right. Figure out how to do air manipulation magically, then do that to mimic the sounds you wish to create. Don’t try to only memorize a set of spellforms for what you want to say.”

That made good sense to Tala, and Rane seemed to agree, nodding along.

“Now, the lord and lady of the Hunt have determined that the area in which you are most lacking is in your understanding of existence and your place in it. I am the designated instructor of each member of the Pack, after they have reached maturity. You are both much younger than my usual students, but I think we can make it work.” Her eyes sparked again. “I will have to find something other than a good bit of bloody meat or a satisfying hunt to motivate you with, and that will alter the lesson plans marginally.”

The wolf was clearly joking, and Tala found herself grinning at the non-human humor. “That sounds like an amazing idea. When shall we begin?”

“Now.” Lerra’s body pulsed with a blue power, and they were suddenly elsewhere.

The moon overhead was the same, but they were surrounded by aspen trees rather than the cliffs of the arena and the entrance into Ironhold.

The leaves shivered in the wind, filling the air with a soothing rustle. “There, now. Privacy and peace. Shall we begin?”

Tala and Rane were still reeling, however. They hadn’t even felt the movement, let alone had any ability to resist it, even if they’d had any inclination to do so.

Their own authority over their physical position—and ability to change it—had been entirely disregarded or circumvented. They hadn’t even felt that happening, and Tala at least would have fully expected to, even if she hadn’t been powerful enough to prevent it. She hadn’t.

Vidarra probably helped Lerra.

-It was granted authority in the very least, yeah, but I think the power for the action came from the wolf. The more I observe in here, the more I think that Vidarra and Kit have some major differences, even if they are—or even were—the same species.-

Lerra gave them almost precisely as much time as they needed to get their proverbial feet under themselves. She biased a little long, and Tala wasn’t sure if that meant she was being kind—ensuring they had enough time to be ready to proceed—or insulting—implying that they needed longer to come back to themselves.

Regardless, the wolf sat back on her haunches and asked a simple question, “What are you?”

Rane glanced at Tala, and she shrugged. She was more than fine with him responding first. He looked back to their supposed teacher. “Well, we are bipedal, biological beings usually known as humans. We are gated beings, meaning we carry within ourselves a stable, locationally unfixed passage from the next world—the world of magic—and that allows power to flow through into Zeme. We are Mages of the cycling cities. We are Archons, Bound, Fused, and Refined. We are married, bound and one, body and soul. We are guests here, safe and welcomed.” He paused, giving a faux apologetic smile. “I could continue, but I am unsure if I am giving you the answer you are looking for.”

Lerra snorted. “If you didn’t understand the question, you could have asked for clarification.”

Rane raised an eyebrow. “Really? You wouldn’t have responded to such a request with a comment that I could have given some answer before asking for clarity?”

The wolf grinned in return. “Of course not. That would be unnecessarily combative of me.”

Tala found herself grinning along with the other two at the tone of the lupine instructor.

“Now, you did a rather thorough job of covering parts of who you are. Part of me wants to expose you to the fact that you are physically three-dimensional beings in physically four-dimensional space, but I believe you are already at least partially aware of that.”

Tala raised an eyebrow. “Partially? I think we’re fully aware.”

Rane winced, and she instantly realized that she’d been too definitive. She knew that she had a lot to learn and should have been a bit less all encompassing.

Lerra regarded her for a moment. “Your cloud of little eyes is a clever use of the realities of existence, but it hardly makes you fully aware, child.”

“Then, I am eager to learn.” She could have hedged, but it didn’t seem like that would be necessary.

“It seems like that is hardly the case, but regardless, that is not the subject for today.” Still, she hesitated. “I will say this. Be careful if you tread the fourth dimension. Anything you encounter will have effectively infinitely more mass than you, unless you are anchored in a ‘live layer’ such as Zeme, the Lunar Hunt, or even your own bound space. The laws of existence dictate that four-dimensional things cannot exert their essentially infinite mass within a specific three-dimensional slice—at least not fully—else they’d have ripped apart everything long ago. Even so, when you are unmoored, they are able to bring more of themselves to bear. Even we of the Pack only deal with such things with great care and on purpose. We do not allow ourselves to have such encounters by accident.”

Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation.

Tala almost pushed back, but then she remembered all that she had seen stone- and starward of the superficial. The wolf’s advice was sound. “I’ll do my best to remember that.”

“See that you do. Now our actual lesson for today deals with the nature of the soul.” She glanced toward Rane. “Incidentally, that was the answer I was seeking. You are a soul, anchored to and in marginal control over a meat puppet. All else is simple decoration. You are the soul.”

There was a pregnant pause during which Tala and Rane exchanged a look. Tala then cleared her throat. “I mean… yes? That’s not exactly revolutionary. Do most wolves—even those older than us—really need you to tell them this?”

Lerra let out an irritated growl. “No, and most of them are wise enough to realize that I might just be telling them something that they can learn from.”

The two exchanged another look, and Rane shrugged. “I’m game to hear her out.”

Tala huffed a laugh. “Well, of course. I am too.”

“Good. Now, you are both likely thinking that you have souls, and that they are simply one of the most critical parts of you. My understanding is that you have even crossed paths with people who lack a soul. Is that correct?”

Tala nodded. “That’s right.”

“Good. That makes things easier. Such a person is not actually there anymore. Their body is continuing, following the promptings of their biology and neurochemistry. They are incapable of volitional action, outside of that prompted by circumstance, and even that is indistinguishable from complex reaction. But that’s the negative side. As just a soul, what are you really?”

Tala shivered. She’d experienced just that less than two years earlier. “My mental magics are set enough that I have a mind to an extent, though in thinking back on it, I think a large part of that was simply echoing the biology that I was no longer connected to. My mind would have splintered and faded soon enough.”

Lerra regarded her for a long moment. “You had a true out of body experience?”

“I did.”