Chapter: 581 – Excuse Me

Tala, Rane, and Lea spent a good chunk of the morning with Mistress Ingrit, only interrupted when Terry returned from his own hunting expedition.

The four humans were sitting in a circle, in one of the glades around the circular river, when Terry flickered into being, having just willed himself from the superficial to their location.

He seemed a bit less down than he had when he left, and Tala was glad that he’d gotten some time to himself to hunt and work through his own feelings on Illie’s passing.

Even the thought of it caused Tala to flinch slightly, though it didn’t hurt quite as much as the last time.

Terry trilled, looking at Tala for a moment before his head shifted just slightly, and he caught a glimpse of Lea.

He froze, almost like a woodland creature that just noticed that it had landed beside a human without realizing it.

He slowly turned to face Lea, eyes narrowing in confused concentration. He wasn’t aggressive—and he was clearly intrigued—but he was just as clearly uncertain.

Tala cleared her throat, garnering his attention, but not his focus, as his eyes remained locked on the almost face. “Terry, this is Lea. She is Rane’s and my daughter.”

Terry froze again before finally allowing his eyes to come off the girl, slowly turning to look at Rane and Tala, then returning his gaze to Lea.

Lea’s eyes were wide with wonder, and she slowly lifted one hand toward Terry.

The terror bird leaned back slightly at first, then, the girl spoke. “Pretty birdy.”

Tala wasn’t sure what it was about those two words, but Terry’s reticence vanished, and he flickered forward, pressing the side of his head against Lea’s outstretched palm.

The girl gasped, almost jerking her hand back in surprise, but Rane reacted faster, catching her wrist and holding her despite the speed and power of her arm. “It’s okay, Lea. He’s not going to hurt you. This is your Uncle Terry.”

Lea had stiffened, but at his words, she relaxed. “Uncle? Like Auntie Lyn is my auntie?”

He smiled happily. “Exactly like that, yes.”

Tala cleared her throat. “Additionally, he is my soulbound companion.”

Lea was already running her hand over his feathers, and she began scritching at the base of his skull.

Terry closed his eyes and continued to lean into the contact.

When she finally pulled back her hand, he opened his eyes, blinking a few times before he flickered around her in a quick sequence, clearly trying to get a look at her from all sides.

Finally, he settled on her shoulder, much to Lea’s delight.

Thus, Terry joined them for the rest of Mistress Ingrit’s private visit.

The next appointment, which she was staying for, was with a high level constructionist, one that Tala and Rane were quite familiar with, actually.

Master Boma was quite punctual, and he was carrying an Archive slate and diagnostic tool that was absolutely tangled with interweaving magic of various kinds.

Greetings and bows were exchanged all around before he turned to regard Lea. “So, you are the girl in question, then?”

Lea shifted nervously from foot to foot for a moment, before settling herself and nodding. “Yes, sir.”

He smiled. “Well, aren’t you just wonderfully polite.”

She smiled. “Thank you, sir.”

“Well, I’m going to scan you with this.” He lifted the long rod to indicate it. “I’ll have to move it near you from all sides, but it shouldn’t need to touch. If you can sense magic, then it might feel a bit tingly, but it shouldn’t hurt at all. If it does, tell me right away so I can fix it. How does that sound?”

She seemed to waffle for a moment before nodding once. “Okay.”

Master Boma stepped forward, holding out the rod and activating it.

What followed was rather mundane from an outside, unknowing perspective, but Tala could see that literal torrent of power gushing from the construct before flowing back with information via slight alterations to the flow, garnered by what was scanned, mainly Lea.

The magic flowed deeply through Lea, quite possibly scanning every miniscule part of her. The powers that be were quite concerned about the potential for things being hidden within her construction, especially since the body had originally been made by arcanes.

It only took about an hour, during which time Master Boma engaged Lea in near constant chatter, having her move about for scanning, even though Tala noticed that such wasn’t really needed.

Better to have her moving and engaged than forced to simply stand in place for the whole time.

Lea did admirably well, likely in part because of Master Boma’s bedside manner and how he approached the whole situation.

When he was done, he patted the girl on the head, even though they were nearly the same height. “Well done, Lea. That was not fast, but you did excellent. You have an amazing amount of patience for one so young.”

Lea beamed back at him and nodded. “Of course, I am amazing.”

He chuckled. “That you are, in essentially every way.”

Tala and Rane praised the girl as well as she and Master Boma took their seats.

Finally, the constructionist nodded, still consulting his tablet. “There are no area of effect magics oriented outside of her body. There is nothing that could easily cause catastrophic destruction, nor anything that could build to critical failure. The body’s strength and reaction metrics seem to be in line with a Refined that doesn’t have any physical enhancement inscriptions. There are no detectable, magical connections with the mind or soul, meaning there are no exterior influences currently acting upon her. I am concerned about where her soul is housed, and with the fact that the mind and soul seem to be essentially one and the same.”

Tala and Rane both leaned forward, while Mistress Ingrit took out a slate on which to take notes.

Terry was watching Master Boma closely and critically, as if just waiting for him to make a hostile move.

When Tala checked on her daughter again, she found that Lea was suddenly playing with a few little ropes that… Tala had no idea where she’d gotten.

-I willed them over to her. She seemed to want to do something with her hands while you all were talking, so I got these and provided her with some knowledge of knots and braiding.-

Oh… okay. Thank you.

-Of course.-

Master Boma shook his head, drawing Tala’s attention back. “I honestly don’t understand how the soul-medium functions at all. Let me be clear, I understand how it is supposed to work, and how it should work. I have no idea how the stuff that is in that location, performing that function is able to do so. I can see what the intention was, but it is like a child grabbing a stack of loose pages, splashing ink onto them at random, and wrapping it in raw, untanned leather before declaring ‘Behold! My book.’”

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

-Ouch… Wow… We did our best.-

Tala cleared her throat, ignoring Alat. “Is there anything that can be done?”

“Oh, of course. We will need to create a replacement.”

Rane frowned. “Master Boma, I know of Mages who have literal rocks as their bodies, not magical rocks, just a rock. How can this be so much worse.”

The man smiled in return. “That is a fair question. In this case, it is because those are Archons who have soulbound themselves to that vessel, with the express purpose of it being their physical form. Lea here is effectively a mundane human. She has no volitional magic bonds—let alone soulbonds—to facilitate her existence.” He held up a hand, forestalling them. “Before you ask. No, we can’t just have her magic- or soulbond her body to make this issue go away. It could help, but the time it would take to ensure it was done properly would be longer than simply fixing the issue.” He smiled. “Now, I do suggest you pursue that option as well, because the body was never intended to actually house a volitional human soul.”

That got their attention, and Tala frowned. “Can you explain?”