Chapter: 529 – Only One Word

Tala and Rane met with Master Kalfeir and Mistress Cae one last time, the night before they were going to leave Astraya behind, striking out to finally find Howlton.

After the formalities of greetings and bows were exchanged, Mistress Cae gestured for them to sit once more in the seating area, the view out the front being especially wonderous with the sun setting over the trees far to the right.

Once the drink selections were made, Tala spoke first, “Thank you for the hospitality of your fair town.”

Mistress Cae waved that off. “Think nothing of it. We are always happy to host competent Mages.”

Master Kalfeir snorted. “You didn’t seem to have trouble finding sport to fill your time.”

Tala chuckled. “The little scuffle wasn’t a problem, was it?”

He shook his head, then gestured to his wife. She gave a more complete answer. “No, but we have received multiple requests for more information about Irondale, and you in particular, among other things.”

“Oh? The House of the Awakening Woods is that interested? I’d thought I would be a passing curiosity.” Tala tapped her lips a couple of times in thought.

“Well, yes, but it wasn’t just them. There are interested parties of all sorts. Some are simple information brokers, and they are able to tell that you will definitely be a person of interest in the coming years. They are most likely trying to get a jump on the market, as it were.”

She grunted. “That’s… fair.” She glanced Rane’s way. “What about him?”

Mistress Cae shook her head. “He hasn’t actually been seen by anyone but a few functionaries and servants, and we ensure that they don’t spread information without our say so.” She gave a light laugh at that. “He’s essentially unknown.”

Rane shook his head, taking on a mock serious cast. “I’ll just have to suffer in anonymity, the dutiful husband behind his famous wife.”

Master Kalfier barked a laugh at that, causing both women to regard him with raised eyebrows.

He coughed and took another pull from his drink, muttering to himself in a manner that he likely knew everyone would hear. “I thought it was funny.”

Rane grinned but didn’t take the joke further.

With the social ice thoroughly broken, the four of them chatted for the next few hours about little, inconsequential things.

Tala found that she didn’t have a lot that she wanted to ask the two about advancement, given they were of the same rank and each approaching Reforging from different angles. She almost asked them about children, but the lack of any mention of them made the answer seem obvious, and the topic still held a lot of… unhappiness for Tala.

She wasn’t ready to discuss it with strangers, even interesting, friendly strangers that she hoped to stay connected with.

As they were nearing the end of their time together, Tala inquired about Primacy Noc, the fox-kin—though she left off the title. She wasn’t sure if she was disappointed or not when Mistress Cae laughed. “He’s a dear, with his word-games, and he and his seem to mean well. He has an enclave around here somewhere, I imagine that you found it?”

“I did.”

“Well, good. I imagine that he enjoyed the visit. He doesn’t seem like one to get out much, and it’s good for him to have company, but it always seemed like he wasn’t particularly interested in that company being us.” She indicated herself and Master Kalfier.

“Oh?” Tala was genuinely curious for the woman’s take on the situation as well as the fox-kin himself.

“Oh, yes. He seems very… racially focused whenever we talk. I think being exposed to more humans of power will help keep him in a good mindset too.”

She grunted at that. “The place did seem rather insular.” Tala looked toward Rane and Master Kalfier. “I don’t think either of our husbands could have comfortably come along for the exchange. The fox-kin definitely build with their species in mind.”

That actually reminded Tala that she’d never had that issue in Primacy Lisa’s constructions. Did he just take advantage of greater space, or was he being purposely accommodating? She didn’t know but if it was the second, it made her think better of him. It spoke well when a person made life easier for others when they didn’t have to.

Her focus was pulled back as Mistress Cae began to speak again.

“Interesting. I’d assumed it would be thus.” She gestured around them. “But I suppose we do the same, so is it any wonder?” She grinned. “Rather speciesist of us to build on our own scale.”

Tala laughed. “Indeed.”

At one point during the visit, Rane and Master Kalfier got up and moved over next to the forward ‘glass,’ looking out and chatting. They also seemed to be discussing the clear material itself.

Maybe it’s more refined elemental fleece?

-Maybe? If so, it must be from a different breed of cloud elemental, or something else entirely. The magical signature is different.-

I noticed that, yeah. I just figured it was a different herd of the creatures, or that different processing methods were used.

-That could be, I suppose.-

While the husbands were off on their own, Mistress Cae and Tala chatted about various processes for brewing coffee. They didn’t end up agreeing on which one was the best, but they both had fun debating the pros and cons of various methodologies.

One of the main sticking points was that Tala was far more a fan of quantity where Mistress Cae didn’t mind a process ending up with a small amount of a higher quality beverage.

The discussion had been fun, but Tala wasn’t surprised when they ended up disagreeing. Such was almost always the case between two people who didn’t define their terms before starting.

There wasn’t much to the meeting beyond that, and soon enough, Tala and Rane were back in the sanctum with Terry and Lyn, Alat piloting one of the fliers and navigating an efficient path through the center of the wandering plains, toward the south.

Lyn seemed very happy as she finally commanded Tala’s attention. “Are you ready to learn what we were able to secure for Ironhold?”

Tala was surprised at the giddiness of the woman. “Yes. Let’s hear it.”

“Hold Tenders.” Lyn waited expectantly, as if those two words, together, were supposed to mean something incredible.

Instead, the phrase just brought a frown to Tala’s face. “Someone who takes care of a hold?”

“Well, that could be what I’m referring to… sort of? That’s where the magics and technologies originated. Apparently some very old holds—generally not well maintained—start to degrade, and these Hold Tenders were used as platforms to help stitch them back together.”

“What do you mean?”

Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

“Well, the magics, when used to their fullest, allow for a properly keyed vessel to move from a hold to the superficial and back.”

Tala stared at her. “What? Why wouldn’t I have heard about such a thing?”

She was utterly confused. In the cycling cities, anyone who worked with holds had been pinged by Mistress Ingrit for advancements exactly like this, but they’d gotten nothing. As an Eskau of a Major House, she should have at least been aware of the existence of such things if the arcanes of that region knew of them.

It made no sense for such to exist if she hadn’t heard of it… unless it wasn’t wide spread?

Lyn chuckled, unaware of how deep Tala’s confusion ran. “Apparently, the issues it addresses just don’t happen in the House lands. Their holds are cared for, combined, or abandoned to fade away.”

Tala grunted at that. “That’s… fair.”

“Exactly. The hold equivalents in the cycling cities are all bound storage items, gaining stability and longevity from their bound owner. They don’t suffer from these weaknesses either. Here though? In the wandering wilds? Sometimes they can’t maintain them as well as needed, so over generations, they need to be able to service the holds. More than that, though, holds in the moving settlements are more exposed. It’s somewhat rare, but sometimes one of the towns or villages is destroyed and that would have condemned everyone in the holds without mitigations put in place.”

She nodded at that. They had a similar issue, which Lyn was aware of. That was likely the source of her excitement.

“These use a subset of the magic to be ‘buoyant’ toward the superficial, only held in place by a whisper and a wish.”

Tala gave a half smile at the expression, but she didn’t comment.

“So, if the hold needs to be evacuated, they load up these tenders and release them. It’s not a comfortable trip, but in the end, they ‘surface’ on the superficial and they can make their way from there.”

“So, they come out into the remnants of a battlefield on which their town was destroyed?”

Lyn shook her head. “No, they generally wait a few days. In the worst case, this can have allowed the unmoored holds to drift some, but that can be a boon in this case, as they come out farther from the danger that should have passed regardless.”

Tala was about to inquire further, when she finally understood what Lyn had been saying. “Wait… so we got some?”