Chapter: 624 – Lea’s First Schema

Tala sat in the same inscription room in which she’d received her first set after the Academy. She and Mistress Holly were examining what would be Lea’s inscriptions as illusory lines on an equally illusory image of the girl.

It spun at their gestures, zooming in where they needed before returning to a more high level view.

Taken holistically, the schema was on the sparse side, partially made more so by how fine the inscriptions were overall. But that was to be expected given the magics already in the girl’s body as well as the nature of that body and her inexperience with magic.

The two Archons had taken just shy of an hour to go over the schema again ensuring nothing stood out as flawed. With that complete, Tala contacted Rane, and he appeared beside them.

He frowned, looking around before locking his gaze on Mistress Holly. “I believe that we were anchored too far to reach here from within the sanctum. Was I mistaken?”

Mistress Holly waved her hand dismissively. “Your limitations are hardly my concern, and this will already take more time than I usually give to new customers.”

He shook his head, a small smile tugging at his lips. “Very well. So, it is my turn?”

Mistress Holly nodded. “Indeed.”

She and he went over the whole schema again, Tala keeping her thoughts to herself so as to not influence his assessment. In the end, Rane determined what the two women already had. It was correct.

With that done, Mistress Holly gestured, Archiving the verified pattern. Then, she manipulated the schema subtly reaching in and introducing a number of flaws—all minor and nuanced—scattered throughout.

She raised an eyebrow at the parents and got nods in return.

It was time.

Alat and Enar signalled Lea and the girl arrived an instant later, clearly having been waiting for the summons.

She didn’t notice the oddity of being able to come directly to Mistress Holly’s workshop.

Mistress Holly was to take the lead here, so Tala and Rane didn’t comment as Lea saw the illusion of herself, eyes widening in delight.

“Greetings, child.”

Lea turned, belatedly bowing toward Mistress Holly. “Greetings.”

“You’ve already seen the schema, I believe.”

“Yes, Mistress.”

“Good, good. There are ten flaws in the schema. Your task is to point out the flaws, and be sure. I will not accept less than the full set, all at once. Failure in this task will mean a delay in your inscribing.”

Lea swallowed and nodded. She hadn’t known what form the final test would take, but she had been forewarned that there would be a final verification that she was ready.

Over the next two hours, Lea went over every inch of the schema. After ten minutes, she was frowning. After an hour, Tala would have bet that a more standard child would have been sweating.

Finally, Lea turned to Mistress Holly, defeat in her eyes, shoulders slumping. “I have failed.”

Mistress Holly arched her eyebrow. “Explain. I saw you focusing on a number of flaws. Where is the difficulty?”

Lea grimaced and growled before taking a deep breath and visibly calming herself. “At first, I could only find nine issues. Then, as I went over the schema again, I realized that I hadn’t taken overlay and through-patterns into account. That was wonderful, because I quickly found a tenth flaw…”

“But?” Mistress Holly prompted when the girl seemed to hesitate.

“But before I could tell you I’d found it, I noticed an eleventh.” Lea frowned. “In fact, I found fourteen all told. I’ve rechecked, making sure I wasn’t mistaken, but no matter how I look at it, based on my understanding, they are all flaws. I can’t narrow it down to the ten that are truly flaws.”

Mistress Holly raised an eyebrow. “Oh?” She then looked to Tala and Rane. “I thought you said she was taking lessons from the fox-kin.”

Lea blinked a few times, her eyes widening in realization. A moment later, they narrowed in annoyance. “You never said there were only ten. You just said there were ten.”

Mistress Holly nodded once. “So, do you have a set of flaws ready to turn in?”

Lea groused a bit, then sighed and nodded. “Yes.”

She manipulated the controls of the illusion, highlighting fourteen places within the schema.

As Tala examined the spaces, she agreed with seven instantly. They were obvious to the point of being effectively ‘free’ for Lea to find. Another four were more difficult to notice, even with them highlighted. When looked at locally, they seemed correct in comparison to the schema that had been put together for Lea, and only when examined in context did they become obvious flaws.

Not errors in inscription pattern, but in subtle pattern placement within the whole? To test if she was just checking and comparing to a mental map of the patterns.

-Exactly. It would only stand out if you understood the magics involved and how they were supposed to fit into the whole.-

The final three were… esoteric. Even staring straight at the highlighted flaws, Tala could only tell that they weren’t quite right. They match the schema, but only because the schema shown has her own magics wrong…

-Yeah, there’s an odd flux around them. If this were put in place on her, those points would be areas of magical stress that might cause issues.-

“There, fourteen, Mistress Holly.” Lea bowed to the older woman.

Mistress Holly smiled. “Those are, indeed, all flaws.”

Lea straightened, seeming hopeful. “And… if I may ask, how many flaws were there?”

Mistress Holly looked to Rane and Tala, the illusory Lea vanishing. After a poignant moment, the Inscriptionist allowed her smile to grow. “Fourteen.”

Lea pumped a fist in the air, letting out a little squeal of glee. She reined herself in a moment later before bowing once more. “Thank you, Mistress Holly.” She hesitated for only a moment. “Does that mean that we can proceed?”

Instead of answering verbally, Mistress Holly gestured, and the auto-inscriber moved from where it had been resting in the corner. “There aren’t too many who can use this, but you should definitely be one.”

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Lea nodded excitedly, clearly recognizing the device from her mother’s stories.

Tala and Rane stood, congratulating their daughter with words and hugs before helping her get inside the torture-device-looking auto-inscriber.

They knew far better than Lea how much this was going to hurt, even if they didn’t have experience with her particular physiology.

Mistress Holly wasn’t one to leave that angle unaddressed. “Remember, Lea. You are magic-bound to your body. If you try to shut out the pain, even if it is ‘artificial’ pain created to help you have more standard interactions with the world, you will be harming yourself in the long run.”

The girl nodded sagely before the helmet was fastened around her head.

“Then, let us begin.”

Mistress Holly closed her eyes for but a moment, and the various needles began to move, controlled by magics and guided by the schema logged in the Archive.

Within, Lea began cycling her breathing before simply stopping the unnecessary action.

Her eyes closed, and she seemed to relinquish all hold on her own body, the form not even twitching as it was injected with minute bits of metal dozens of times every second.

Even so, Tala could see the girl’s core, her very soul, and it was reacting strongly to all that was occurring. “She locked herself in.”

Mistress Holly and Rane both glanced toward Tala, the woman nodding in understanding, Rane frowning at the implications.

“I think she’ll be fine, but I think it will be worse for her than it was for us. I slept for hours after my first full inscribing.”

Rane grunted. “Even with such a limited set?” But after a moment, he shook his head. “Of course. You wouldn’t have said something if such an obvious fact would negate what you conveyed.”

Tala smiled, leaning against him. “She will be okay.”

He nodded, despite the concern on his features. “Yes. Yes, she will.”

The next hours were among the longest in Tala’s life, despite her ability to see the entire process in intricate detail.