Chapter: 626 – Earning Trust

Tala, Rane, and Lea’s first real break from constant monitoring came a bit after Lea’s second birthday when Fedir came back from the Academy. Unfortunately, there was less of a collective desire to have a true ‘reunion’ since Illie’s passing just more than two years earlier. Even so, Tala and Rane sponsored any who wanted to come, allowing many of the siblings to meet Fedir in Alefast, Waning, where he kindly agreed to visit on the way to his new master.

The fact that Tala and Rane could ‘power through’ the distance and send messages to the siblings at the Academy had increased the ability for the family to communicate, especially since Rane and Tala happily acted as intermediaries, even for her sibling’s father and mother.

In retrospect, Tala realized that such was likely one reason that fewer of the family came to meet up with Fedir. They’d been in regular communication with him, and so felt less of an obligatory pull to see him in person.

Interesting. I wouldn’t have expected increased potential for communication to decrease the desire to see one another when possible.

-It’s in the records. It’s one reason that the Archons don’t allow for free use of the Archive. In centuries past, they found that ‘easy’ communication often reduced connectivity between people, as counter intuitive as that sounds.-

Even so, Tala was nodding. When a thing is too easy, too cheap, it isn’t valued.

-Indeed. Add just a bit of cost, and suddenly everyone strives to be able to use something that they might have ignored if it were offered freely.-

We humans are strange…

-Indeed.-

Regardless, the group that did come had a celebratory meal in the sanctum which allowed Lea to be able to attend. During the meal, Alat and Enar devoted the entirety of their considerable attention to countering any accidental magics from the girl. They only had to prevent seven disasters through the course of the evening, but with their hard work, none of the visiting family was any the wiser.

The next day, the family took some time in the waning city, Lea staying behind. It was an enjoyable time, but after lunch—once more in the sanctum—they departed, each back to their own home, and Fedir to his new master.

When the last had departed, Tala was left standing in contemplation.

Sensing her need to think, Rane took Lea off to train, the girl having found renewed motivation through the meal’s demonstration of the work she still had to do.

In the grand scheme of things—and even in most of the minutiae—nothing had changed, but Tala felt an odd sort of countdown inside her head.

It wasn’t minutes or hours, days or even years. Instead, it was in siblings. She only had two siblings still at the Academy. Even the Zuccats only had two left, and they’d be graduating in the next two years.

One year after that, the last of her siblings would graduate, and then… they’d all be adults.

That seemed insane, but time was just slipping through Tala’s fingers.

In one sense, it didn’t really matter. After all, she and her husband were immortal, and her daughter might be able to become so, if she wasn’t already. Even so, most of the people she had known in her life weren’t.

She blinked a few times, shaking her head and coming back to the moment.

Rane and Lea were off training, and she was… just standing there, staring at the spent teleportation circle.

With another shake of her head, she willed the spellform back to a ready state, pulling from their reserves of silver beneath Ironhold.

A final, brief once-over of the spellform confirmed that it was correct and prepared for use.

She nodded in satisfaction. Then, as she willed herself to one of her favorite meditation spots, she frowned.

Alat?

-Yeah?-

What’s the difference between my movement within Kit, and flickering about within my aura on the outside?

-Well…- Alat sent the impression of a frown. -Huh… Flickering uses dimensional magic, explicitly Terry’s, but…-

Yeah… but it doesn’t. He doesn’t have to flicker within his aura like we do. He just does it. We are using a lesser version, modeled after his.

Alat grunted. -Only in some senses. We couldn’t do it before bonding him, and we are aspect mirroring his magics. Our ‘lesser version’ is likely due to our mindset. It’s not all negative, though. His flickering can be opposed, throwing him off. Yours occurs within your aura, so that has to be overcome before your movement can be interrupted.-

So, mine is more defensible, more… secure?

-That’s likely accurate.-

But why isn’t it the same?

Alat sent a shrug. -Like I said, different understandings create different results, even with the same magic.-

And our movement within Kit?

-That… involves manipulating dimensionality with authority, specifically our authority as one soulbound to Kit.-

So, the action is leaning on the deeper authority that we have in here, Kit’s authority.

-Yes? Tala, you know this. I can tell you do, and you’re not really leading anywhere with this…-

Tala grinned. Oh, but I am.

Alat grunted, then gasped. -OH! Oh, that’s… huh. Do you really think that will be possible? You think that merging with Kit in your Reforging will give you this level of control over everything within your aura?-

Possibly, yes, at least to some degree. It won’t be a segregated space, so I’ll be overlaying my authority overtop Reality’s. Within this separate space, nothing would be here at all without us, so Reality has very little sway, comparatively.

-I see… Still, with your connection to and use of reality iron…?-

I think we’ll be able to get close, yes.

-That’s… terrifying.- Alat grunted. -And I see it now. That’s why it matters. This changes how you need to conceptualize parts of your Reforged nature.-

Exactly.

It would both mean that she had greater authority and control over her body, as something that should almost always be under her aura’s sway…

The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

She frowned. No… while it should almost always be under my aura, why wouldn’t it always be under my authority? Even if someone manages to push back my aura into my flesh, why would that give them any authority over my body?

-So, regardless of who or what else might try to claim some or all of your Reforged self, it doesn’t matter? It’s your body, so your authority remains.-

Tala nodded, smiling. Absolutely.

Alat waited for a long moment, as if expecting Tala to continue. In fact, if Tala had to guess, she was expectant to an insane degree.

When nothing more was forthcoming, Alat let out a long sigh. -Regardless, does this help?-

Absolutely. It means I have to shift a bit, but it should result in an easier Reforging when I do it.

-Glad to hear it.-