Chapter: 627 – Celebration: Day One

Tala’s whole family arrived slowly, coming into her sanctum as usual, despite Bandfast’s more-than-functional teleportation tower.

She smiled at that, remembering her own arrival in Bandfast as a new graduate. As she considered that, she recalled how many of her siblings had arrived in her sanctum rather than the Bandfast teleportation tower.

Did I take something from them? Lessening their experience by giving them such a familiar and familial landing?

-Lessen? I think not. Change? Absolutely, but wasn’t that the point? You wanted your siblings to be better connected than you were. You wanted to use your power, prestige, and connections to give them a better start than you had.-

Yeah… Was I right to do so?

Alat huffed a laugh within Tala’s head. -You’re asking that now? When you only have Sella left?-

Tala shrugged, watching the receiving spells move closer to activation. I just never really considered it before. Better to fix it for one than none?

Alat grunted. -I suppose… Honestly? I don’t think it’s an issue. No two people’s experiences will ever be identical, and all we can do is our best.-

Tala drew in a long breath and let it out slowly, smiling as the first people began to appear. Thank you, Alat. Even if you didn’t actually answer my question…

-You are quite welcome. I’m glad you know that you’ve gotten the only answer I’ll give.-

Her family arrived over the next hours, while she greeted them and sent them on to Rane and Lea, where they were acting as host and hostess, talking, playing games, and feeding those who arrived, as they did so.

Interestingly, Lea was engaging mostly with the adults, here at the beginning of the event, and Rane was greeting the kids, tossing them up, or giving them treats, or telling them quiet stories while their parents were diverted toward less kid centered activities.

Kedva and her assistants were practically whirlwinds in the kitchens, having been working for days to prepare for the three days of celebration.

Mistress Petra had taken on an assistant role in her last few days while Kedva was heading up the food. Now, Kedva was truly on her own as head, given that Mistress Petra—and Master Simon—were going to the teleportation tower to greet Metti Zuccat as she returned from the Academy.

They were the primary reason for the superficial change of location. Metti’s soon-to-be master was in Bandfast, and the Zuccats were retiring from life with the Sappherrouses back to their previous home in Bandfast, planning on living out the remainder of their days there, with most of their children and grandchildren.

In one sense, the departure of the Zuccats was monumental. They’d been with Tala, Terry, Rane, and Kit for years. With them leaving, the tenor of the sanctum would change. The lack of their centuries of experience—and their steady hands guiding the ancillary things within the sanctum—would be felt, even though Brandon, Adrill, and Kedva had spent the last years working up to this exact handover.

Because of that, in most other senses, there wouldn’t be much of a change at all, and Tala wasn’t really sure what to feel about that. Shouldn’t she care more about the departure of those she’d known for so long?

She did care, obviously, but it was also just one more thing, just two more people moving on.

Tala had a moment of emotion, remembering the weekly family meals with the Zuccats, how she’d watched Segis and Metti grow and then leave. Rust, she’d spent more time with the Zuccat’s youngest than with her own siblings.

The parents had been stalwart in their support and impactful in their advice for years.

Now they were going to be gone.

Tala… didn’t know what to do with that. It wasn’t a shock. Rust, they’d been planning this for basically as long as they’d worked for Tala, but it was still… so final.

They would never work in the sanctum or Ironhold again…

Gone…

Forever.

She shook herself, smiling at the next arrivals as they materialized to draw her from her reverie, and allowed her mind to move onto the final thing regarding the Zuccats, mainly, their daughter Anna.

Anna was planning on joining her parents in Bandfast—she’d already connected with a local clinic, and had a position reserved for her—once Latna ‘graduated’ from her apprenticeship in Marliweather. That should be soon, now that Tala considered it.

Anna had remained in Marliweather this time to help mind the Karweil’s store. She was planning on coming to greet her sister in the coming days, after Tala’s siblings returned home.

As to Latna in particular? If everything went as the family expected, Latna would be betrothed to Master Leighis as soon as she was a Mage in her own right, and they’d be wed after the traditional year of planning for their life together. During that year, Master Leighis would be retaking his position as ‘the’ Healer, partnered with the Karweil Alchemist Shop, staffing the attached clinic.

As to Latna and Master Leighis, there was still a bit of… gossip wasn’t quite the right word, but it fit well enough, about the pair, given their initial master-apprentice relationship—mainly, it seemed that the twins, just younger than Latna, thought the whole thing was quite scandalous—but the long years of separation and purely social relationship after Anna took over Latna’s training, had removed most, if not all, of the lingering concerns.

In that vein, Tala and Rane had invited Leighis to the celebration as well, both extending the olive branch, and putting their tacit consent behind his inclusion in the family. Nalac was quite excited to have Leighis at the celebration and had asked after the man as soon as he’d arrived, but Tala had had to tell her brother that the Healer would be coming later.

On a personal level, both Tala and Rane were both still a bit… uncertain about the whole thing. Even so, Tala reflected on the fact that she, herself, was thirty-four. With Latna being thirty-two, she was well and truly an adult and capable of making her own choices. That added to the fact that Rane and Tala didn’t feel it was their right to tell anyone whom they should love, and whom they should spend their life with.

As a matter of the soul, it would be hard to say that there was a more personal type of decision.

That was what it boiled down to, so it made their stance easy.

Tala and Rane didn’t differ greatly in their stance than the family at large, but their overt acceptance of Master Leighis had apparently smoothed out some of the remaining uncertainty, since there wasn’t the constant presence or power imbalance involved. As to how Tala had all these details?, Latna had been very, very grateful to both Tala and Rane for inviting him when accepting her own invitation, and she’d gone into great detail as to why she was so grateful.

When Latna arrived, she gave Tala a large hug, thanking her in person. Latna then waited for Master Leighis who arrived shortly after. He gave Latna a quick, chaste kiss, before bowing deeply to Tala and thanking her profusely.

When he stood back up, Tala gave him a more familial bow, going lower than would otherwise be appropriate given their disparate levels of advancement.

“Congratulations on the start of your Refining, Master Leighis.”

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Latna burst into a bright smile off to one side as Master Leighis bowed once again. The two went to join the others together, Nalac quickly coming in to greet the healer warmly and draw him into a group conversation.

The arrival of the rest of the family was largely uneventful.

There were far more children these days, and Tala had honestly lost track. That wasn’t because she couldn’t remember, but it seemed… less important?

Rust, she rarely thought of her siblings, even less frequently about their spouses—though Tala still enjoyed her interactions with Verla, Caln’s wife—and their children almost never came to mind.

There had been some half-hearted inquiries on if she and Rane would take any of the nieces or nephews on as magelings, should they go to the Academy—debt wasn’t an issue as the family was making plenty to pay all the Mage aspirants’ tuition.

Tala had shut that down, maybe a bit too firmly, and it hadn’t come up again. In truth, Tala was afraid she would ruin the little mageling, if she took one on, and Lea and her own Reforging was taking enough of her time, regardless.

None of her siblings had Bound, and from what she could determine, it was somewhat unlikely that they would. She’d come across many of the notes of their masters, and they likely would only even be taught the Archon Star spellforms, explicitly, at the very end. That meant that they’d likely live longer, before ending their extended lives as founts, but it also meant that none would live truly extensive lives.

Latna was the obvious exception to that otherwise universal truth about her siblings. Master Leighis’ belief that she could become an Archon had been joined by Mistress Vanga’s similar assessment—when the older Refined came to assess her former mageling’s apprentice and ensure that everything was proceeding well—and without the bias of attraction being involved, Tala was more inclined to believe Mistress Vanga’s assessment.