Chapter: 603 – Things Went Sideways

Tala was amazed at how time seemed to almost pass in a blur as she and her family settled into a pattern, and soon enough, they were celebrating Lea’s first birthday, and then even that was past.

The girl’s days had been filled with training, learning, and socialization. She had even begun to go on some patrols around Alefast, Waning, with Defender groups, not participating in combat just yet, but learning from watching them and the creatures they took down.

She was not allowed near any cells, not yet, not even as an observer.

Lea and Talax spent time together nearly every day, and Tala and Rane were set on eating every meal possible as a family, and since they didn’t have any pressing duties, that meant three meals a day, and afternoon tea and coffee most days.

The fox-kin skulk grew once it was ‘widely known’ that some of the more eccentric individuals had come and survived, seemingly demonstrating to the more ‘standard’ members of the race that it was safe. Standard, of course, was a relative term, and for a group of long-lived, word-focused, magical savants? Yeah, every one of them was a bit odd.

Lisa taught Lea as needed, and otherwise filled the role of ‘head fox-kin,’ being the point of contact for them. Around that, he had his own projects, one of which was working with Artia to continue acquiring artifacts as they were found in and around Alefast, Waning.

Lisa’s pockets were deep, and he soon became the bankroll behind the business, allowing them to buy out basically every other artifact merchant in the city. That allowed those merchants to depart years before the Waning finished with reasonable profits, and it ensured that Lisa and Artia would get better rates on every artifact to be found for the remainder of the time.

Their store becoming the defacto supplier also meant that more people—more even than usual—came into Ironhold. These came to sell artifacts and to peruse those that Lisa and Artia had on display. Counter to most artifact shops, the one within Ironhold was able to have all of its wares displayed openly, with no fear of bad interactions or loss of magic over time.

Artia, additionally, was undergoing the process of actually putting her gate to use. She didn’t have a great aptitude for magic, and she’d never have been trained at the Academy as she’d not have made the best Mage, but given her husband, son, daughter-in-law, and now grandchildren could potentially live for a very, very long time, she was unwilling to settle for a mundane lifespan.

It was unclear if she’d ever become an Archon, but she was determined, studying and practicing hard around her work and time with family, and that, alone, would extend her lifespan markedly.

Suffice it to say, the fox and shopkeeper were kept quite busy and content with various things.

Adrill seemed to be happy that his wife was so fully engaged in various projects and tasks. He, himself, had fallen into a partner role with his son, Brandon, as assistants and obvious successors to Master Simon in the post of research and magical lead for the humans within Ironhold and for the sanctum directly.

Where Adrill had a greater depth of knowledge and experience to start, Brandon had a more youthful, flexible mind, able to pick up all the new information more quickly, as well as adapting to their expanded abilities as ‘reborn’ citizens of Ironhold.

They were equalizing slowly after all this time, hence their positions as near equals. Though, Adrill still often deferred to his son out of pride in the young man’s accomplishments, and Brandon often deferred to Adrill out of respect for his father. Overall, it was a good balance, and both men found great benefit training alongside the Talons, even while not, necessarily, being members.

Kedva, similarly, enjoyed training with the Talons along with her son, Talax, the oldest of the citizens actually born within Ironhold and thus inducted into magical suffusion from birth. However, most of her time was spent as the primary assistant—and obviously upcoming successor—for Mistress Petra in her duties as caretaker of the more ‘mundane’ sides of work within the sanctum.

Those ‘mundane’ duties, humorously, included the preparation of magically infused meals. There was now a small group of people training in the preparation of such meals in order to provide the Talons with a similar level of benefit to what Tala and now Rane received.

Lyn and Ron continued to run Ironhold and the Talons respectively, with the former spending quite a bit of time with the Sappherrous family, and the latter beginning to join in such gatherings on occasion.

Ron wasn’t officially courting Lyn, but everyone who knew them expected him to do so sooner rather than later.

Tala and Rane—around spending time with each other and Lea, as well as training the latter—continued to move toward their own Reforgings, making steady, but slow progress.

All the experts they consulted implied that they were sure to reach the goal in the end, and if things continued as they seemed to be going, they should even be at a place where further advancement wouldn’t be barred, but in basically every case, it came across as more of a guess than true knowledge.

They were both pushing up against the edges of human knowledge in regards to advancement, motivating and inspiring each other on a near daily basis.

They additionally trained with the Talons in magical retention and in white steel manipulation, both to get some more time—and maintain more common ground—with their daughter, and because those were useful skills to have.

Tala had many, many conversations with both Lisa and Eskau Meallain, helping to nudge and perfect her understanding of various aspects of Zeme, and thus better informing her own foundation.

Master Nadro had come through to talk with the whole Sappherrous family, and he had been delighted by Lea, enjoying his private conversation with her.

Tala and Alat watched closely enough to make sure nothing went awry, while giving Lea the privacy to actually speak with the man freely.

For her part, Lea came away from the conversation with an air of calm and certainty that had been absent before. Seemingly, he’d helped her talk through some of her lingering concerns, and she was quite content in her own, unique form of humanity afterward.

At the moment, Tala was trying to relax and enjoy some coffee with Rane in one of their few rest times together.

Lea was out on a patrol with Master Clevnis and Mistress Cerna, doing a simple check on a somewhat familiar nearby valley that occasionally spawned cyclops to harass the city and passing caravans.

It was, in fact, the very valley in which Tala had faced a previous incarnation of that cyclops at Master Grediv’s insistence.

But that was more than a decade previous. Upon the last check, there had been the beginnings of a rock outcropping that would eventually form a body if left alone, so they were seeing how far it had progressed.

They could simply break the forming creature, but that tended to have detrimental effects on the local zeme, and often resulted in more powerful creatures coming into being in slightly different areas, more quickly.

No, it was best to patiently observe the known spot and deal with the more predictable creatures as the need arose.

The girl still wasn’t ready to get anything like inscriptions. Though, Mistress Holly was practically beside herself with exuberance at the notion, seemingly poring through all the information Tala had on the construction of Lea’s automaton body.

When Lea was ready to be inscribed, she’d be in exceedingly good, and well-prepared hands.

Tala pulled herself from thoughts of her daughter, and refocused on what Rane was saying.

He’d been training against the Talons again, and he was deep in a story about one particular clash in which he’d been surprised by a new use of white steel.

Despite internal appearances, Tala was listening closely, enjoying the retelling even as she revelled at simply being able to sit with her husband.

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That, of course, was when things went sideways.

-Tala! Get out of the city, now!–

Even as Rane’s eyes widened, likely getting some similar communication from Enar, Tala willed them both out of the sanctum to the far reaches of her ability to do so, in the direction that Alat put in her mind.

In the direction that Lea had gone.

They popped to the superficial still inside the walls of Alefast, Waning, but only just, and the two were quick to leap up and out, their distinct magics acting to enable their departure even as the warning bells began to sound throughout the city.

Behind them, Tala felt Master Grediv step onto the wall, clearly having ‘bobbed’ toward the City Stone and come up at the edge of that stoneward well.

He wouldn’t leave the city in the event of a threat like whatever this was, but he would come to its edge to lend his aid if possible.

What is happening?

-Mistress Cerna called in an automaton sighting. Not Lea, obviously. She is retreating with Lea, and Master Clevnis is engaged with it now, but it seems focused on Lea.-

Tala cursed, and above, Rane suddenly rocketed forward, faster than Tala could quickly go. She was capable of greater speed over long distances, especially with her new technique, but it would take time to get up to that velocity.

Terry was on his way, but he’d been hunting on the far side of Alefast, Waning, and it would take precious moments before he could arrive.

Their destination was too close for that to matter.

His motion did send out ripples, and Tala threw her aura and authority wide, doing her best to quiet the zeme in his wake.