Chapter: 677 – Of Course You Did

Tala stood to the side, gesturing for the small bear-kin to walk through the offered door.

He recovered enough to give her an incredulous look at the off-center placement of the portal—they both knew it had been purposeful. Even so, he shook his head and sighed before stepping through and into a small seating area along one of the lesser paths within the sanctum.

It wasn’t where they would take their tea, but it was a lovely spot nonetheless.

He took in a deep breath, and Tala felt his aura pulse outward, stretching, reaching, grasping for the magic in the air all around him.

It closed on nothing, coming back to him with no harvest at all. The diminutive man stumbled slightly, even though he’d been standing still. “What gated horror is this?”

He turned on her even as she stepped through the portal, closing it behind her. “Whatever do you mean, Eskau De-Arg?”

His eyes narrowed. “The power in the air. Is it fake? Some elaborate illusion?” His face hardened. “Have you been dabbling in mental magics?”

“Not in the least. This space, and everything in it, is mine.” There was a usual little tremble in existence at the sentiment, even if it was weaker while she was within her space.

Eskau De-arg looked around, ears twitching, clearly having felt something. “So, this power is real? It’s not faked?”

“Not faked, entirely real.”

His will flexed again, and again, he came back with nothing. “Then how are you…”

She smiled. “As I said, the power is mine.”

“I see…” He looked around, seeming to actually be looking deeper than the superficial of her sanctum. “Fascinating. You have somehow fully interlaced your authority with the power… without it being aspected to you at all.”

“That’s right.” Tala’s smile grew a bit. “Right this way. I assumed you would enjoy a tour.”

Eskau De-arg’s eye twitched. “You aren’t going to tell me how… are you…” It wasn’t a question. “You brought me here to show me things without explaining anything…”

“I don’t know what you mean? Tea and repast is just a short walk away. It is a lovely walk.” She smiled at the Eskau.

He harumphed, but followed her direction, falling into quick steps to match her slower, longer strides.

She led him around the central rise, sticking to the portions that were cultivated for the purposes of beauty for use as walking trails.

Eskau De-arg was looking around constantly with more than just mundane sight. His aura was sending out little tendrils to test aspects of the space.

Tala didn’t mind. He wasn’t trying to subvert anything. He was simply exploring the oddities, or more likely seeking them. “This place is… normal? It’s like the superficial in every way I can tell, save that the power in the air is utterly inaccessible to me.”

She nodded, then pointed to a particular flower. The petals were an interesting gray with violet stamens, making it look like an amethyst hiding within stone. The unusually dark green stem and leaves began to look like emerald in that context, a bit of translucence and a more geometric shape added to the effect. “This is a flower that my husband has been playing with, altering the cross-breeding. With perfect control of such things, he’s been able to get great results. It helps that we also have precise control of the environment. In that way, I believe he kept the ‘generations’ to only a couple of weeks.”

Eskau De-arg seemed a bit startled to have it pointed out, momentarily confused to have missed it. Then, he understood. “No magic?”

“None, aside from what is naturally surrounding it.”

“Amazing…” He looked up, seemingly investigating around himself with new eyes. Only then did he appear to take in the more nuanced portions of the sanctum.

Tala had become a bit inured to this place after so long, and in Eskau De-arg’s defense, it had been spectacular when she’d first acquired it. He hadn’t seen it then, and she and her family—including those assisting them—had been improving it for years now.

She didn’t spend a lot of time gardening herself, but Alat seemed to enjoy the regular maintenance, and since she was always monitoring everything, it was trivial to do things such as deadhead flowers or control the subtleties of cross-pollination and the like.

Rane occasionally wanted to test the limits of what he could do with this plant or that flower, but more often than not, he set Alat and Enar to the task only checking back in on it on occasion. More often, he simply allowed his own alternate interface to work on such projects at his leisure.

The unusual flower was one such project, about which Enar was incredibly proud.

-And don’t you forget, he’s my husband.-

Alat… You are me, I am you. He is Rane, Rane is him. He is my husband.

-So, Rane is my husband, then?-

Yes. You are me. He is my husband. Therefore, he is your husband.

-Are you sure?–

Tala sent an unamused sensation toward Alat. Whatever you are scheming, no. Just no.

-But, I thought you sai—-

Tala cut her off before she could go further. No, Alat. No word games. Now, leave me to it. I’ve a guest to entertain.

-…Fine.-

She turned her focus outward, taking in what surrounded them for the first time in what felt like years.

They were walking past trees with bone-white bark. Monoliths so large she couldn’t wrap her arms around them, making them seem much like marble columns, despite the obvious canopy of rustling leaves overhead.

The trees were a squatter variety, selected and then bred for short tops and thick canopies with all the branches clustered near the top. The Sappherrous family couldn’t take credit for those, as they’d been brought in fully grown by the arcane artificers when Kit was originally outfitted.

They added to the ambiance of the walking paths without obstructing the view from the top, a delicate balance to walk.

The path of artfully laid stones, though? Rane had slowly replaced those through the years, and recently, Lea had taken to selecting random spots along the various paths to create miniature enclaves of her own personal touch. She usually brought a fountain into being within each, working with Alat to align the piping for the water to be able to flow without active magics in the location.

Occasionally, she would make them look like little villages, adding in miniature houses, so small that Tala’s finger wouldn’t fit through the windows. But more often, she simply made lovely little spaces that rewarded those who were looking for them with their beauty.

There were magical aspects to detect and find in the sanctum as well, spellforms that had been laid down by those original crafters and later added to for various purposes. Some were natural magics, made and maintained by the very power flowing through them, but many more were within the ground or other aspects, underpinning everything.

Stolen novel; please report.

Eskau De-arg seemed to be inspecting everything even closer now, and he was obviously enjoying himself.

The walk wasn’t long, all things considered, and it led down to the circular river and to a newer bridge that arched over it to one of Tala’s more favored tea spots.

Waiting there for them, was a low table that would allow them to sit on the grass while retaining the more stable platform for their cups and plates.

Eskau De-arg paused in the middle of the arch of the bridge, looking down with a frown. “Down… isn’t?”

Tala chuckled. “There is a gradient incorporated around the entirety of the central hill. From an external perspective, the river is perfectly flat. It should be a stagnant moat, but with the gradient?” She shrugged and smiled. “It’s all down hill, all the way around.”

“Fascinating use of dimensionality and malleable perspective.” He was nodding. “You didn’t do this yourself, correct?”

She shook her head. “I did not, though I could now.”

He looked her way, raising one eyebrow. “Oh?”

“Of course. This is my sanctum. I can do almost anything I want within here.”

He grunted at that. “As is true with most soulbound spaces… to an extent. Had I not already known this one was special—specifically that Eskau Meallain had been within along with many others—I would be concerned that this was entrapment.”

“Yet you stepped in? That’s all that is generally needed.”