Chapter: 73 – Flow

Tala sat in the nicely appointed waiting room.

The furniture was comfortable, but not so much so that she wished to stay here for a long time. It appeared robustly made, and didn’t creak or budge even when Tala, herself, shifted. It was mostly a dark wood in construction, though she couldn’t tell if that was the wood itself, or a stain. Heavy canvas, a darker blue in color, covered the cushioned portions, and she had little trouble imagining the pieces lasting for years, or even decades, with moderately heavy use.

She ignored the somewhat bland art of the walls, choosing instead to begin the next topic of review from Holly’s books, a mug of coffee in her hand. If this is available every day, I might need to come by more often… Though, she doubted they would be happy with her dropping in, just to get coffee… I wonder if they have wine available, later in the day?

As she thought about it, the freely available beverage did not make her hopeful for reasonable prices for their services. Ah, well. We’ll have to see.

The coffee was well brewed, as far as she could tell, and filled a little happy void in her chest. She smiled as she drank. This is nice.

There was nothing for Terry.

He was only somewhat mollified by a few chunks of beef jerky, which Tala tossed out randomly. I wonder if he minds? Maybe, I should just give him the pieces… She shrugged to herself. “Terry, do you mind me tossing the jerky?”

He gave her a clearly confused look.

“I mean, do you want me to just hand it to you, instead?”

He seemed to consider, then shook himself, his eyes moving back to her empty hand.

She grinned. “Fair enough.” She pulled out another chunk and tossed it in a random direction. Well, there we have it.

As she waited, she continued to read, and absently charged her magic items. I could forget later; might as well keep them topped off whenever I think of it.

After close to a quarter hour, a short, stocky Mage walked in. “You’re the one Mistress Lyn sent?”

Tala stood, her keystone tingling, indicating magic was directed her way. “I am.” Her magesight showed the man to be an Immaterial Guide, just like her.

Unlike her, he had inscribings that very closely mirrored those she’d seen on Master Himmal and his assistants. Focused on analyzing and working with magical items.

His aura was a deep yellow, just far enough from orange to no longer truly be that color. It was contained, somehow, and seemed to almost be held up for display. How does that make sense?

His magesight was already active, even though the inscribings she could see indicated that it wasn’t always on, like hers was.

“I assume that you are Master Boma?”

He grunted. “I am. Why did the Caravan guild think you need to see me? You clearly aren’t an Archon, and any mortal work can be handled by…” He trailed off as Tala drew and held up her knife. “Girl, what, by the stars, have you done?”

Tala just smiled. “I read that I can merge items of power into soul-bound artifacts to increase their base power. Is that true?”

He gave her a long look, then took the offered knife, examining it critically as he spoke. “Of course, it’s true. That’s the primary way to alter and shape such. Otherwise, you have to use an item in very specific ways for…well it depends, but it’s always a long time. That can cause the power to shift and grow to more suit you.” He shrugged absently, clearly talking from a depth of experience as he examined the weapon. “Some are more fluid than others.” His gaze flicked to her eyes. “Child, this knife is starving, even while bound to you. You don’t have the strength of spirit to support this bond properly.” He gave her a hard look. “I assume you were told not to bond anything else? How did you even bond this so weakly?” He gave her a long look. “You’re not bound to…”

Tala simply waited as he rambled on. After all, the man wasn’t leaving room for her to answer any of his myriad questions.

“Ahh, so you came to the spell-form without proper guidance and didn’t know what to do with it?” He looked back at the knife. “This has to be the weakest Archon star I’ve ever heard of. How is it stable?” He shook his head. “Doesn’t matter, it clearly is. So, you want to increase the power of this item then?” He finally stopped there, awaiting a reply.

“Yes. I’m building the power of the bond daily, and I have a host of harvests that I think will be compatible with the knife.”

Boma grunted. “Well, we’ll see about that.” He sighed. “Come on, then.”

“Umm… I’m sorry, but how much will this cost?”

He gave her a long look, then sighed. “It completely depends on what we’re working with, but the absolute cheapest it would be is one ounce, gold. If you have some insanely complex things to work with, it might be a hundred. I won’t know ‘til we’re in the room.”

Tala frowned.

Master Boma sighed, again, shaking his head. “I won’t do anything that will cost you even a copper, before we discuss and agree to a price. Alright?”

She smiled just slightly. “Thank you. That sounds quite acceptable.”

He gestured back towards the room’s exit. “Let’s go.”

Terry flickered up to her shoulder, and the Archon paused.

“That is an interesting creature. Secondarily bound to you via that collar, yeah?”

Tala nodded. She’d recharged the collar along with her other items every time she topped them off.

“You’re not fooling anyone, birdy.”

Terry cocked his head.

“Well, fine. I’m sure you fool most people, but not those who know what to look at.” He moved his gaze to her. “Your defenses must be insane, child. I’ve never seen a terror bird that old, and they universally grow in power over time…Still, he seems to like you. Don’t loose him on the city, please?”

She smiled a bit guiltily. “It’s a training collar, so he has to stay close to me.”

“Small mercies. I don’t want to have to hunt the two of you down at the end of a trail of blood. That sounds very irritating.” He looked back to Terry. “As for you. I’d have just killed you, had we met in the Wild. You mind your Mage. Understand?”

Terry crouched just slightly, eyes narrowing.

Master Boma squared up with them, relaxed but clearly ready. “This won’t be a test, creature. If you make me, I’ll break you like an egg. The city is no place for a wild animal. Know your limits and mind your betters.”

Terry hissed, but settled down, turning away from the Archon and tucking his head under a tiny wing.

Tala, for her part, felt like Boma wasn’t just posturing, even though she couldn’t discern any explicitly offensive spell-forms from his inscribing. If nothing else, he probably has a host of items to use…somewhere.

Master Boma shook his head but didn’t comment further. He strode from the room, carrying Tala’s knife. She followed without complaint or comment.

They went back through the entry atrium and down a side hall into a large room, closed off by heavy, iron-clad doors. Inside, the stone walls and ceiling were coated with overlapping iron plates, which seemed to be lacquered. To keep them from rusting, or from getting iron dust on anything? Probably both.

Boma closed the heavy doors behind them, dropping a bar across to prevent unwanted entry.

The center of the floor was blank, flat stone, but Tala’s magesight showed her that under the top six inches or so was an incredibly complex interlacing matrix of currently inactive spell-forms. How can I see them so clearly, even while they’re inactive?

It was far more complex than what she could easily understand, even with her magesight providing some insights. Below those appeared to be more iron panels, if she understood the odd reflection effect that she saw correctly. They seemed to be designed to be removed from a room below. What is that for? She decided not to walk on the floor over the dormant magic, just in case.

“Now, girl, I assume that you have the harvests in that dimensional storage?”

Tala nodded.

“Put them over there.” He pointed to the center of the room.

So much for not walking on that portion of the floor… She sighed and did as he asked, taking the pouch off of her belt, opening it, and pulling out the feathers and talons.

Boma followed her and began examining each piece as she pulled them out. When she finally finished, he grunted. “Well, you weren’t wrong, these should be compatible, but they aren’t going to expand the versatility of the knife. They’ll just make its magic more potent, more efficient, more effective.”

Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

“Meaning?”

He gave her a flat look, then sighed. “Meaning, if done correctly, it will be able to cut through harder material, even some magics, and stand up to more abuse. It looks like this weapon can shift shape, that will likely happen more quickly, and with less effort on your part. We can likely use the feathers to help strengthen the blade’s connection with you, as well, so the poor artifact will stop starving from a weak, unsupported soul.” After a moment, he shook his head. “That might be too much to ask. Even so, the melding will allow you to feed it more easily as your soul grows in strength.”

“Fair enough.”

“Do you wish to incorporate all of this, together?”

Tala shrugged. “If you think that’s best? I’m not exactly an expert.”

He gave her a long look, before just shaking his head, again. “This knife is bound to you. Assume that’s forever, as the alternatives are worse than death. Trust me on that. I think it reasonable to put this investment in.”

“Then, I’ll bow to your experience.”

He snorted. “It’ll be two gold for the working, and that’s the guild-to-guild rate. If I treated you as an individual, it would be five.” He gave her a hard look. “You did come because of a guild representative, correct?”

He’s giving me the choice? Maybe, he has to tell someone, somewhere that this is a guild job, or that he reasonably assumed so? She didn’t care, really. “Yes, sir.”

He nodded, a slight smile tugging at his lips. “Good.” He began arranging the feathers in a circle, overlapping them to make a continuous stair-step, the quill angled slightly inward. “Drive the knife into the stone here.” He drew a line on the stone with his finger.

How did he do that? As she did what he asked, the blade easily pushing into the hard stone, she analyzed what she’d seen. He altered the reflectivity of the material, changing its color. It was a clever use of Immaterial Guiding, but it seemed a bit frivolous.

The feathers and knife in place, he placed the talons in a smaller circle, hooked blades pointed outward, within the circle of feathers. That done, Boma stood. “Your bird will need to wait by the door.”