Chapter: 554 – A Planned Meeting

Tala and Rane pulled together their extended interests without moving too quickly, taking a bit more than three months to prepare for their trip to Makinaven and then Bandfast.

Rane did two more cell runs, these as an ‘understudy’ Paragon to a more experienced hand at Rane’s specific request. The man seemed to learn best studying under others who knew what he wanted to learn, and Tala was excited that he had the opportunity to grow in this area as well.

She’d never seen two Paragons assigned to a cell maintenance action, but she supposed that the lack made sense as there’d been no other new Paragon in Alefast, Waning, while Tala had been a Defender.

Tala briefly considered doing the same, but she realized that such wouldn’t really benefit her too much. She learned best by striving on her own, failing, and trying again—usually with some begrudgingly sought advice. Thus, if she tried to be an ‘understudy’, it would effectively be her pawning off the need to interact with the Defender team on a ‘senior’ Paragon, and that wouldn’t be a useful trend for her to extend.

Still, she wouldn’t need to do another cell run for at least a year. She could have herself more in order by then, more willing to connect with and foster others… She was sure that she could.

Truthfully, most of the delay before their departure could have been laid at the feet of those within Ironhold. There was simply a lot that needed to be done: restocking, re-gathering, and reconsidering the resources and amenities within the hold after their extended trip ‘out’ of the region of the cycling cities.

Frankly, the experience had been eye-opening for everyone.

Some things that they’d stocked in abundance had been almost useless or unneeded, and some things they’d expected to last for years had been used up in short order.

No one had starved, but there had been the need for a bit of undesirable rationing of some resources, and they all wanted to prevent that from happening again.

Thankfully, the citizens of Ironhold were handling the logistics mostly on their own, under Lyn’s direction and oversight, even if she didn’t control it outright. Some were taking it upon themselves to become repositories for certain things, turning such into a side—or even main—source of income.

This left Lyn and the other administrators mostly free to handle the things that only they could do.

As an example, Lyn was coordinating and reallocating space usage within the limited hold—though not nearly as limited as before—along with interviewing and screening new potential citizens, as news of their trip and its success continued to spread through the gateless communities of the cycling cities.

They would actually be picking up a large number of people from Makinaven and Bandfast, as Tala went through each city. Approved applicants in the cities closer to each of those were seemingly taking caravans to the meeting cities for ease and to facilitate a quicker move-in time table.

As an additional consideration for the timing—and truthfully the central one—Tala’s brother, Osip, was graduating from the Academy at the end of the fall section of lessons, and he’d found a master in Makinaven. Thus, Tala and her siblings would have their ‘larger’ reunion in that tree city as a change of pace this time around. Even those still at the Academy would be coming along with Osip to allow as many as possible to be together.

There were some unfortunate divisions beginning to form in the family between those who had chosen the mundane paths and those who were pursuing magic in various ways.

Anna would be manning the family business along with Tala’s sibling’s parents while Latna and the others came. That master-mageling relationship was seemingly going splendidly, and Anna was fast becoming closely connected with the family as a whole. Even the mundane members seemed to enjoy her company.

As such, Anna had taken it upon herself to keep Tala updated on those who communicated with Tala least. It was a kindness, but Tala honestly felt less and less connected with her family, even as she continued to see them quite often.

Those who’d gone to the Academy had more in common with her, and that helped some, but overall, Tala was becoming more and more embroiled in her own tasks and goals.

Thankfully, the delay of departure gave her time for just those tasks and goals. So, as soon as she was able, Tala did the logical thing, given what she’d learned about her potential Reforging.

She paid for a merging chamber to be installed in her sanctum—ensuring it was completed as soon as possible—not for use of course. That would be relying on others’ magics and assistance. No, she got it so that she could easily examine every aspect of it and the magics involved at her leisure.

If she was going to implement the principles during her Reforging, she had a long way to go and a monumental amount to learn.

In her more honest moments, she admitted to herself that this one aspect of her Reforging would take decades—if not more than a century—to learn to a sufficient degree.

It was daunting, but she’d rather do it right—even if it took multiple centuries—than rush in and regret it for the rest of her extended life. The merging of herself with some of her soulbonds was going to be an incredibly tricky and delicate process, and it deserved proper study and consideration.

Rane, for his part, was actually steadily advancing upward, as indicated by his aura. Steadily, in this case, meant that he’d moved a whole percent toward being Reforged in less than a year of dedicated effort.

Truthfully, that genuinely was amazing progress, and she often went out of her way to express her pride in his advancement, and how excited she was for him.

He, in turn, was a ready ear for her to bounce her ideas off as well as giving his own thoughts and ideas in turn. The result was that he provided an especially valuable counterbalance to Eskau Meallain’s somewhat naive nonchalance.

The elf simply had a great deal of difficulty thinking in the short term… ‘short term’ from a human perspective at least. Everything ‘soon’ to her was within the next hundred years or so.

On the positive side, that did explain why the Eskau didn’t seem in any particular rush to meet with Walden, Lupe, or Lisa.

Even so, Tala did arrange for a meeting between Lisa and Eskau Meallain to happen a couple of days before they departed for Makinaven.

She had a lingering sense that she’d need to have some long discussions with Lisa about four-dimensional construction as pertaining to not only Kit, but her own Reforging. As such, she would want Eskau Meallain involved, and so the sooner they could at least be introduced to one another, the better.

When Tala approached the fox-kin to schedule the introduction, Lisa had requested the meeting be within his home, and Tala had immediately refused.

She had originally thought that she and the other Eskau would do just that—visit the fox-kin in his home—but Lisa’s unsolicited attempt at confirmation of such brought to mind how much he’d been willing to pay for memories of arcanes being slain.

Yeah, we’re not taking Eskau Meallain into his domain, even if it’s just a subdomain of my own.

-It’s hard to see in there, showing just how much his own authority holds sway within.-

Exactly. It’s like trying to watch a camouflaged animal move across the terrain.

Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

As for Eskau Meallain, she had taken the time to regrow her arm once the Talons were well set on the path of training that she’d laid out for them.

The fact that Tala had provided her with a clearly dwarven space in which to heal and recover had earned a flat look of incredulity but nothing more. The elf had been grateful for the time and resources given, which had allowed her to recover the arm, and no more was said about it.

While Eskau Meallain was indisposed, Terry came back into the mix. He didn’t interfere with the white steel or retention training—in fact, he joined in the white steel training himself, much to many people’s befuddlement—but he did impose his own methods around those blocks of training.

As such, Captain Ron quickly requested the implementation of rest days for his people, and both Terry and Eskau Meallain had agreed, once she was back and fully apprised of the situation.

Because of that, the Talons pushed harder than ever before, knowing that they had rest and free time coming in far larger blocks at regular intervals.

Thus, the weeks passed until the day of the meeting arrived—just days before they were to depart for Makinaven—and Lisa, Tala, Rane, Terry, and Eskau Meallain were all to meet for tea in a park down the street from Lisa’s door.

The two guests of honor were obviously each aware—at least vaguely—of the other, but it was still interesting to watch their reactions as Lisa paused at the edge of the park, just within sight, gaze locked with that of the elf.

Tala was paying incredibly close attention. That is likely the only reason she saw Lisa’s reality node briefly crack, seemingly revealing something inexplicable tucked within, physicality both stone- and starward of the fox-kin briefly blooming with tangles of fur, flesh, claw, and fang.

Even so, his voice was level as he grunted and addressed Eskau Meallain. “So, it is you.”