Chapter: 563 – Down Once More

Tala, Rane, Lyn, and Terry didn’t wait for the sun to fully set before they descended the tree once more, though it was a near thing.

Tala was the last to come down, and she lingered, taking in both the place where she’d taken such a leap of understanding toward Fusing, and letting her eyes track back toward Platoiri.

She would return there one day, and it would be on her terms this time.

Still, she didn’t delay too long, following her husband, companion, and friend down once more.

As they were making their way across the walkways and bridges—around the work-in-progress once again—Tala thought she saw someone she recognized.

She narrowed her eyes, easily seeing the man’s features despite the growing darkness. “Ciaran?”

The man turned, a frown on his face, pivoting easily on his peg leg to face them. “Did I hear my name?”

He squinted to try to make her out in the dim light before gesturing, sending a small bit of power out through his stump, into the peg, and down into the tree.

All around them, leaves began to give off a soft glow, not powered by the man directly, but glowing because of his sent command.

A moment later, as the glow grew to full illumination, his eyes widened, as did those of his crew-mates.

They all gave deep bows.

“Mistresses, Master. Good evening.”

“Good evening, Ciaran, gentlemen.”

That got a round of ‘good evenings’ in return. Ciaran, for his part, seemed a bit out of his element. “Is there something that I can do to help you, Mistress? Have I offered offense in some way?”

She frowned. “No, not at all.” She gave a nervous little chuckle, noticing Lyn and Rane regarding her with interested patience. Terry was flickering through the branches, enjoying the evening air. “I imagine you don’t remember me, but we spoke about magical items, merging, and such a bit more than eleven years ago.”

He tilted his head to the side, clearly not really remembering. Even so, he shrugged and smiled. “Ahh, I suppose we did. How are you, Mistress? Did you realize you had more questions?”

She laughed a bit at that. “No, no. I just recognized you in the crew, and thought I would say hello. I apologize, I didn’t intend to interrupt your work. I imagine you all are finishing up for the night, hoping to get home to your families soon?”

There was a round of subtle nods at that. Ciaran, though, shrugged. “That may be so, but we will assist if we can.”

She waved that off. “No, no. Thank you, though. I wish you all a good end to your day, and I am glad to see that you are well, Ciaran.”

“Thank you for the kindness, Mistress. Good night.”

“Good night.”

The others bowed again, echoing the well-wishes back to her, and the groups parted ways. The workmen turned back to their tasks, clearly buttoning up for the night, and the three Archons continued to wind their way through the canopy, making for an entrance back to one of the spiral descents.

As they proceeded, Tala found herself lost in thought.

-What’s wrong, Tala? Are you surprised that you aren’t instantly recognizable by every person you passingly interacted with?-

Tala laughed internally. She knew that her alternate interface was just joking. Oh, yes. I am so devastated. Here I thought I was famous and everyone would instantly recognize me, but no. I am but a lowly nobody.

-Well, that’s sad. Here I thought I was the one with no body here. Regardless, I suppose that we’ll have to come to terms with the fact that you aren’t the most important person in the world.-

Of course, of course. Though, to be fair we already knew that, that would be Terry.

-You know… I know you’re joking, but you might actually be right.-

…I was joking, but I can see it.

-Regardless, that is an interesting thought.- After a moment’s hesitation, Alat clarified. -Not that Terry’s the most important person in the world. I’m talking about your musings about the workers with wooden prosthetics.-

Right? Are all the workers with wooden parts magic-bound to Master Jevin? How would that even work?

-I mean… I think yes? At least as much as anyone is bound to their construct-tools?-

Hmmm… Yeah, it’s not a soulbond by a long stretch, but still seems…

-Yeah, there’s no denying that it’s a bit odd, but not actually obscene or anything like that.-

Oh, yeah, definitely not anything like that.

Rane and Lyn were chatting as they walked, both seemingly having noticed that Tala was contemplating something. They were both quite used to such from her and had easily fallen into distracting themselves until she was available once more.

They’re both so kind. She frowned again as she let her mind delve ever deeper on the topic that Ciaran had brought to mind.

What was the difference between a magic-bond and a soulbond? It seemed obvious on the surface, soulbonds were a binding of something to her soul, magic-bonds just bound it to her magic.

But her magic came through—and was ‘flavored’ by—her soul. So, it was a bit like saying she had trained something to only respond to the taste of her lips, but she never kissed it.

-That was an… intimate analogy?-

Hush, you. I’m trying to understand. Analogies do that for me. I don’t quibble about which ones present themselves to me. It was like raising a plant dependent on her watering it, rather than planting it near the water source.

-That’s… better? It even has a bit of the two-way nature of the soulbond.-

That’s it! Tala grinned. A soulbond is two-way, even if it isn’t a two-way soulbond.

-…What? I mean, I see exactly what you’re thinking, but… what? Walk me through that.-

Imagine if I grab onto a handle. I’m holding on, the handle isn’t holding on to me, but both the item and my hand are exerting force on each other, affecting one another.

-Sure, that makes some sense, and I can see that. So, that is a ‘one-way’ soulbond’, a soulbond with anything that lacks a soul, itself.-

Exactly. Now, instead, if I grab onto someone else’s hand, we are now both holding each other, as well as having our hands exert force and affect one another.

-I see what you’re getting at, yeah. That would be a ‘two-way’ soulbond. The analogy actually goes even farther. People don’t really think that you’re doing something odd if you hold something with a handle. It doesn’t imply a ‘relationship’ or anything like that, unlike if you hold a person’s hand.-

Exactly!

-So, how does this relate to magic-bonds? Which is what we were supposedly trying to consider… right?-

Tala hitched for a moment, though she didn’t let it affect her walking pace. I… Well, huh. I got side-tracked.

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

-Alright. We’re already using hands to analogize so… magic-binding is a glove? Or making a handle so customized to you that it’s uncomfortable or even impossible for anyone else to grip?-

Yeah, I could see that…

-So, it’s settled, Master Jevin has covered himself with handles for other people to grab onto.-

And… you’ve made it awkward… Tala couldn’t help but huff a little laugh, causing Lyn and Rane to glance her way. She waved them off with a smile, and they returned to their own conversation.

-Well, there is a clear division for him. His tree-self is practically merged with the City Stone, and utilizes the power from essentially everyone in the city. Moreover, the magics in the tree respond to anyone who is keyed to the tree through prosthetics…-

Oh! Is that it? The wood acts as a filter, or interface? He’s an island, and he’s not becoming one island with all those around him. He’s just building bridges?

-I think we might be switching analogies too much… but sure? How does any of this matter?-

Well, if we think about it, Flow isn’t fused with us, but the weapon is bound to us. So, our reality nodes—our spirits—are distinct, but it is still connected to my soul.

-Exactly. There are different layers and types of connection. So?-

So… the tree isn’t a part of Master Jevin… but it is?

Alat sent a deep sense of negation along with an inaudible groan. -…No…-

No… what? Tala had the beginnings of an idea, but Alat was clearly seeing further in their line of thinking than she was at the moment.

-No, Tala. You aren’t adding Flow into your Reforging.-

Tala hesitated again. That made sense, actually. But… Flow is a part of me! I’ve had the weapon since my first job as a Mage. Rust, buying the knife is one of the things that let me actually feel like a true Mage. It was my first soulbond too. By Bound standards, it’s more my body than my body is.

-Sure, you could argue that, but you didn’t Fuse with it. Stars be praised that you didn’t. Thus, your body is now, and always shall be, more your body than Flow is.-