Chapter: 660 – The Full Message

Tala stood with her hands pressed to the core of the hold that was previously owned by the House of the Frost Lance. Well, they do still technically own it, but not for long.

The House was actively evacuating, but her job wasn’t quite done.

If she simply ripped the vestige out—even if she just sent it on to the next life—the hold could become unrecoverably unstable. The dimensionality could be lost, along with everything else within the space, and that would be unfortunate.

As a Reforged, her authority could easily stretch over far more volume of dimensionality than she was currently in command of within Ironhold, her sanctum, and the other expanded spaces. Moreover, with Kit fully melded into her very being, her capacity was yet larger still.

This hold would be a good first step toward taking advantage of that heightened capacity.

As she focused—tuning out the world around her while leaving her and Lea’s safety to Terry and Alat—she was able to see innumerable reality threads binding the vestige—and the central column—to the entirety of the hold.

There were also paths of magic, linking to the various powered amenities as well as the air itself, which was being kept at a comfortable ‘Mature’ power density.

Even feeling that such had been assisted by the five vestiges, formerly part of the War Regalia, it was an impressive level for such a newly established hold. Though, she supposed that if the House hadn’t been able to make it so dense, they would have hardly been worthy of the designation of a Major House.

There was the fact that the vestiges had been gate-broken up to a Mature—or Fused— level of throughput, but even with that, it was telling that the House had maintained ambient power at that stage, despite obvious, free usage of magic conveniences and frivolities.

It actually spoke very highly of the magical control of the people who had been living within as otherwise, it would have taken many, many more vestiges to maintain that density over such a large and well-populated hold.

But she was allowing herself to get distracted. She silently thanked the House of the Frost Lance for the power density—as it would make bringing it up to her own levels far faster—and moved on.

In the past, she’d have had to physically let Kit consume the hold’s anchor, or something similar. This time, she wasn’t going to leave the space until it was unequivally hers.

She didn’t think the departing House would do anything drastic, but they just might attempt to cut the space free and drop it into the void rather than allow her to seize it.

If she were inside at the time, she’d be fine. If she wasn’t? She’d likely never recover it.

So, what to do?

She hadn’t actually ever consumed dimensionality, herself. She’d always just left that to Kit.

Well, Kit and I are one now. We are the same. I am her, just as she is me.

Kit hadn’t been a true sapient, even if she had been the next best thing. The devourling had simply acted on instinct, and that remembrance brought a smile to Tala’s face.

I can do that.

She took in all the reality threads—ensuring that she could see them all—relaxed, and uttered a singular word, “Mine.”

There was a tremble through Reality, and the hold shivered, sending ice tinkling down all through the space.

The vestige was suddenly simply floating there, unconnected to anything while still being within its cage wrought of power that was flowing through its gate.

Tala felt a growing sense of something akin to panicked isolation from the little vestige, and reached out, helping the soul move on.

As it did so, the outflow of power ceased, the cage collapsed, and the other magical systems began to sputter.

Tala pulled out several pre-prepared constructs—ones of a kind already used all over Ironhold to allow the powering of devices directly by ambient magic—and forged connections to the underlying magical network of the hold.

It was a funny difference, that. Arcane holds tended to have more isolated networks of power conduits for their magical infrastructure despite their ambient power generally being higher than it was in the cycling cities. It made sense, though. Doing things this way, the devices and conveniences could never threaten or reduce the ambient power, upon which arcane advancement relied.

Gated humanity had ambient power to spare—even if it was unequivocally at lower levels—and the use of it was a benefit rather than a detraction. Even in cities where there was a sort of grid, it was wide open, stoneward, made purposely porous to draw in magic from the local City Stone.

But again, she was getting distracted.

Her authority and power flowed outward in a wave, rippling through the reality threads almost instantly.

In that instant, the hold was hers in truth, and Alat went to work secreting treasures, books, and things of note that hadn’t yet been snatched up by the departing hue-folk.

At the same time, Tala came up against the diminishing authority of the House and found it a monumental weight.

To her surprise, she was left with the impression that if it weren’t already withdrawing due to those departing, she would have struggled to shift it on her own.

With Terry, Rane, and the weight of Ironhold behind me, I could have done it, but without that? It was an eye opening revelation.

She still could have claimed the hold, slotting herself in place of the vestige. Her plan would even have worked for keeping the ambient power from the arcanes and systems within, but she wouldn’t have been able to exert any authority over the members of that House within this space.

As it was, the retreating figures were effectively shielded from Alat’s pilfering, much to the alternate interfaces consternation. There were even some items that had enough connection to the House that Alat was unable to affect them before a departing arcane could remove them in their hasty retreat.

Another reason for the holds? Even within a city fully under the thumb of a City Lord, the Houses maintain safety within their holds. It’s a hedge against overstep by that power.

The more that Tala saw the mechanisms underlying existence within the southern cities, the more she came to understand why arcane society was the way it was.

She still disagreed with much of it, but she was starting to actually understand.

Tala frowned as she pulled back from the now useless column of stone. She almost destroyed it on principle, but decided to leave it for the moment, a monument to what this space once was.

On a whim, she specifically marked the feeling of the soul which had been the vestige here, highlighting it within her memories. In that way, Rane could impress the sense of it onto the column. That soul had maintained this place for years—without choice, sure, but it was a fact nevertheless—and that shouldn’t be forgotten.

If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

And… she was done.

Huh… I suppose I thought that would be harder. She had kept the opening to the District of Doors intact. It was still a separate space from Ironhold, so she wasn’t using up her one connection point to that hold at the moment.

As she reopened herself to her outward perceptions, she found herself frowning.

What happened to Lea? Is she crying? Tala felt a bubble of concerned anger. It would have been more concern than anger if she couldn’t easily see that Lea was physically fine. Moreover, she likely would have been instantly cross with Alat, were that not the case.

Alat sighed. -Terry had to save her from a particularly skilled guardsman who joined near the end. She seems to think that was a failure.-

Is the guardsman…?

-Alive? Yes. Terry restrained himself and honored your offered peace.-

Tala relaxed just a bit. She’d have understood the terror bird’s actions if he’d killed the man, but it would have complicated things. Did that man try to break the peace?

-It’s uncertain. His strike might have killed Lea, if it had landed, or he might have pulled it at the last moment. He certainly showed enough skill that such was possible.-

How did Terry interfere?