Chapter: 665 – Fairy Garden?

Tala and Lea stood outside the ether hold that had popped up less than a day after the wedding duel.

Its entrance had the appearance of a garden gate. Interestingly enough, it had come to be anchored on the superficial in a hedge on the edge of one of Platoiri’s parks.

Such entrances usually didn’t so closely fit their place of establishment, so this was most likely a coincidence, but it was still of note.

A few city guards stood nearby, keeping a loose perimeter, but they mainly just had to warn people that an ether hold was being dealt with.

Such things were common enough that the danger was known and actively avoided by the average citizen.

As such, Tala and her daughter wouldn’t have to deal with any of the minutia. In this, Lea would be taking the lead, so that Tala could guide and act as backup to her daughter. In truth, Tala hoped that it would be a bonding experience for them.

Once she’d gotten a good look, herself, she turned to Lea with a smile. “What do you see?”

Lea glanced her way, then returned her gaze to the doorway. “There is a lot of power there… but not?” She looked to Tala again, as if waiting for approval or confirmation, but Tala held back saying anything until her daughter turned back and continued. “It’s odd, like seeing a two dimensional projection of a three dimensional object… but magically?”

Tala finally nodded. “Well seen. Honestly, that’s more than I expected you to be able to perceive and intuit. You are essentially correct. Just like a regular hold, the totality of an ether hold is both hanging away from the superficial, and all right there, before us. It is a bit more… exposed? Evident? It’s easier to discern in an ether hold. Are you ready to go in?”

“What’s inside?”

“No way to know until we enter. Some scholars even theorized that the inside isn’t firmly formed until someone enters.”

Lea nodded slowly, then drew her sword with great care, holding it away from Tala and anything else, the immensely sharp edge monitored closely at all times.

Tala willed for the door to open before them, and it swung away from them, revealing a rectangular view of a fantastical landscape.

There were flowers that seemed to have colors that Tala couldn’t quite see, but they somehow pulled at her eyes and mind, making her feel as if she just had to look a little bit harder and then she’d see what she was missing.

Lea frowned. “Something about that place is dangerous.”

Tala chuckled. “Absolutely. ether holds are incredibly dangerous. We need to be wary of anything and everything in there.”

“Understood.”

She had already extended her aura and authority into the ether hold, but it felt… odd to her. She almost kept Lea back, but the density within was barely at Bound—or Child based on the arcane system—levels of power. They could walk straight into a wall of magical fire at this magical density, and they’d both be fine. Lea wouldn’t be able to stay in such a fire for more than a few minutes, but that was more than enough time for Tala to pull her into the sanctum if worst came to worst.

With that confidence, the two women entered the ether hold, Tala closing the door behind them.

They were in a veritable paradise, fully surrounded by overgrown plants of all kinds, that still managed to seem cultivated.

Tala took a deep breath and smiled at the subtle, yet intoxicating scent in the air.

Little humanoid creatures were flitting about, seemingly tending the various vegetation, their quad wings buzzing.

Ahh, so they are tending this place on a micro scale? That’s why it both seems cultivated and not ‘curated?’

-Could be. If they chose where everything was to be planted, and helped it grow, but never really trimmed it back? Yeah, I could see this being the result.-

Lea was in the lead on this mission, even if Tala would be the one closing the hold down once they found the core. As such, the girl walked toward one of the little creatures, their magic almost perfectly blending with the ambient zeme.

Lea began talking, checking her assessments with her mother. “They aren’t even trying to keep any excess power, let alone compress to a higher level. I don’t know that they are truly sapient.”

Even so, merely sentient creatures could still react to intruders, and many of the little flying humanoids were beginning to look their way.

“They don’t have any hostile magics about them, meaning that even if they attack, they will only have their minor physicality with which to attack us.”

Tala nodded, confirming that her daughter hadn’t missed anything of note. Then, as if to confirm Lea’s words, one of the little things—pixie was as good a name as any—came over and punched Lea in the shoulder… doing absolutely nothing.

Lea huffed a laugh, shook her head, and kept walking, even as more and more of them came around them, pushing, or pulling, or hitting, and even trying to bite. All their actions were quite literally to no effect.

Not wanting to take over already, Tala gently asked. “Do you want us to drive them off?”

Lea shook her head. “No, my body is telling me that there is a low-level suggestion on this place, encouraging anything within to protect what is beautiful or visually appealing, and remove what doesn’t belong. They are likely just following that prompting.”

Tala smiled and waited, happy when Lea continued.

“I’d imagine that means that we are also feeling less like harming the things—”

“‘Pixies’ works for a name.”

Lea nodded. “Very well, pixies. We are feeling less like harming the pixies because of the same influence. I think we could throw it off with ease, but I see no harm in this. They should leave us be when we pass beyond their area of duty.”

Tala shrugged. “Very well. You’re in the lead.”

She was aware of the light tug on her mind, and Alat was analyzing it the best that she could. It was an interesting effect, seeming to stem from reality rather than magic, effectively acting in a similar way to people’s base desire to not harm cute or lovely things.

But she had more pressing items on her mind. Reality within the ether hold felt… odd. The magic showed it a bit, feeling both too dense for the density it was showing, and like it was precariously balanced… somehow.

They continued forward, and sure enough, even though new pixies joined the odd throng, the earliest to arrive slowly fell behind, leaving the two women be as the two left ‘their’ part of the gardens.

And the garden actually seemed rather large, or at least it was laid out to require quite a bit of walking to reach the center, given it was constructed like a hedge maze.

They could have just cut their way through, but neither felt the need, especially given the truly stunning nature of their surroundings.

Lea sighed, smiling. “We could have lunch here first, right? It’s a bit of a shame that incorporating this within Ironhold will most likely remove some of the more esoteric magics. I think it would be nice to soak it in a bit more before it goes away forever.” She looked around. “I don’t know how it’s possible, but I don’t recognize a single one of these plants.”

Tala nodded. “Me neither. We can investigate more once we’ve finished, but I don’t mind taking it slow.”

-You just want to analyze the oddities within reality.-

I do, but I also don’t want to just take over. Tala smiled. Are you noticing anything that I’m not?

Alat sent a negative. They were both feeling what seemed to be two ‘superficials’ within the ether hold, existing at the same level, which shouldn’t have been possible at all.

You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.

They didn’t seem to be on different layers of the stone-starward axis… not really. More than anything, it seemed like networks of reality nodes and threads had collided and become all tangled upon each other, many of the nodes pressing into one another and, at least temporarily, becoming one.

It was as if they were smooshed together, with parts of each manifesting around Tala and Lea. When Tala explained what she was feeling to Lea, the girl nodded. “Is that why it feels like there is more to everything I’m seeing here than I can perceive?”

“That could be, yeah.”

As they were both fascinated by the oddities of the ether hold, they found a somewhat larger area within the maze-like growths and took up seats, pulling out food and enjoying an early lunch together as they continued to investigate around themselves with their various senses. They also took the time to chat.

They really got to ‘just chat’ so rarely. Most of their discussions were toward an end goal in one form or another.

This was… nice.

The only negative was the continued futile violence on the part of the pixies. If she were being honest, Tala would have said she was suffering from the ‘sunk cost fallacy’ in that they’d allowed the pixies to continue for so long, it seemed like failing to change now.

The little things had left their food alone, otherwise Tala had no doubt that she and her daughter would have already slaughtered the lot of them.

In that manner, they passed nearly two hours within the ether hold, before Tala finally found the edges of the tangle of reality threads which made up this space.

Funnily enough, the pixies were actually the key. The two groups of threads and nodes were most evidently compressed within each pixie, while something about their sentient nature kept the nodes from fully meshing.

“Lea?”

“Hmm?”

“I think I can pull the duality of this place apart.”

Lea focused on her more fully than she had in a while. “What will that do?”

Tala hesitated a moment. “Honestly? The most likely outcome is for us to end up standing on a line between two distinct spaces, now joined into one hold.”

“What’s the worst case scenerio?”