Millennial Mage

Chapter 445: Gateless Paragon?

Tala stood in the atrium of yet another cell, Irondale anchored off to one side so it wouldn’t come inside with her.

She hadn’t made a true opening, as the last thing she wanted was gateless wandering out into such a place, but she did specifically place Irondale to one side. If she died, her remnant will should open the door and allow everyone out, at least for a time.

At least, she hoped it would; after all, she couldn’t exactly test the premise.

Regardless, Irondale would be safe, even if the residents had to use the teleporter. After all, one of the things that the administrators had worked out was a ‘residence fee’ for moving in, equivalent to the cost and materials of a teleportation. In that way, by paying to move in, each person was ensuring they could get out in the worst case scenario.

In theory.

I’ll be fine. I’m not going to die.

Even so, she still had an incredibly uneasy feeling. The one trapped within this particular cell was a Paragon in power, but the information that they’d gathered was seemingly conflicted.

Their group was there with their own Paragon, and he insisted that the information was clear. It helped that it was in their own language, so it wasn’t like there could be an issue of translation. Even so, Tala didn’t really understand how what the man said could be true.

Master Clevnis was seemingly equally incredulous. “Please, run that by me again, Master Virbold.”

The tall man took a slow breath before shaking his head. “I can’t be any clearer, nor can I provide information that I wasn’t given. This prisoner is very specifically called a Paragon, and yet it also emphasizes that she has no gate.”

“So, she’s Honored.” The unit leader nodded in satisfaction.

Master Virbold gave Master Clevnis a level look. “We can keep going around in circles, or you can take the information I have to give, and let me get past the first sentence. She is a gateless Paragon.”

Tala’s unit leader was obviously about to argue further, but Mistress Cerna put her hand on her husband’s arm. “Clevnis, leave it. Let’s hear the rest.”

Master Clevnis threw up his hands, “He’s claiming to have discovered dry water. That is a contradiction in terms. How are we supposed to take the rest of the information seriously if it begins with such madness?”

She patted her husband on his shoulder, and he quieted down, even if rather grumpily.

Master Virbold bowed her way. “Thank you, Mistress Cerna. That was no longer productive.”

She gave a slight nod of her head even as Master Clevnis grimaced and turned away, clearly irritated.

Master Virbold cleared his throat. “As I was saying, this prisoner—Mistress Slannir—is a gateless Paragon…” he paused, clearly making sure he wouldn’t be interrupted and the briefing derailed again. When no one spoke, he smiled and continued, “who specialized completely in healing, to the point that she had virtually no offense or even defense. Instead, she would take absolutely any attack, and simply come back, even from total incineration or dissolution.” He consulted his notes, his eyes unfocusing for a moment. “It even states that she somehow reformed herself here after her body was kicked into the Void or Doman-Imithe.”

Tala frowned. “None of that sounds evil or dangerous. Why is she locked up?”

“Because her soul was lost somewhere along the way. Her body, her mind, and her magic come back regardless, but she no longer has a soul. Hence, gateless.”

“And her magics still work?”

“They do. This cell is a bit special as it was created to be utterly safe. Apparently, the prevalent theory was that she could regenerate from even the smallest cell that had ever been a part of her, her natural magics somehow stamping every bit of it with the totality of who she was. So, if she ever dies—or is voided—a different part of her activates and a new body is built.”

Master Girt was frowning. “Alright, so we can’t let any of her get on us. Complete isolation. That shouldn’t be too hard if she has no magical attacks, means of movements, or otherwise.”

“It shouldn’t be, no.”

Tala was shaking her head. “Even without a soul… why is she locked up? We don’t lock up every soulless bit of magic we find, certainly not in a cell.”

The Paragon grimaced but nodded his understanding of the inquiry. “Apparently—even though she was seemingly immune to Reality’s influence due to her ongoing magic—she began to perform various experiments that were… unethical. Even beyond being unethical, they were utterly unacceptable.”

What on zeme could be so— But he addressed her unvoiced confusion before she even completed her thought.

“She believed that children held the key to immortality for the masses, and she saw no reason to safeguard ‘a few children’ when what she could learn could help all children born thereafter.”

Tala swallowed, feeling disgust build within herself. It was Master Limmestare who asked the question that they all both wanted and didn’t want the answer to, “How many?”

“It is estimated that she killed more than a thousand children before she was caught.”

Mistress Vanga gasped but didn’t let it rest like that, “Estimated? How could they not know?”

“She was very good at hiding her… experiments, and the human cities were more dangerous at the time. Even as they tried to execute her, and eventually locked her in here, she insisted that she was close to a breakthrough. She insisted that the Archons of her day were all fools, and that she only needed a few thousand more test subjects to find the answer.”

They all looked as sick as Tala felt.

Master Virbold gave a sympathetic—if still displeased—smile. “There was some theory that, with her gate gone, she was able to develop some conceptual magics, that or she’d soulbound some items without physical form, allowing her to keep access to some magics. Though what they were wasn’t recorded as they ‘never manifested the same way twice.’ So, be aware that things could go sideways.” The man shook his head. “Losing her soul should have lost her any soulbonds, but that was the best guess at the time, and so she might have found some other path.”

Rane shook his head. “That’s always the danger, but we’ll be as ready as we can be.”

Mistress Cerna moved around to each member of their unit, weaving a small spellform into each of their clothing. “This will create a constant repulsive effect, as well as filtering any air you breathe in. It will make breathing harder, but not impossible and will still allow us to speak in order to communicate. It will keep anything from sticking to us. So, we shouldn’t be in danger of carrying a piece of her out. I can create a cordon of similar magics in stages through the tunnel, to prevent exfiltration, but none of that will prevent her from physically leaving.”

Tala huffed a laugh. “So, I’m on physical imposition?”

Master Clevnis stepped in as his wife motioned him forward, “You and Master Rane. I believe that his ability to impart kinetic energy to Mistress Slannir will be critical to mission success if the worst happens.”

She nodded before looking to Rane and sharing a smile with him. “That works for me.”

Master Clevnis smiled in turn. “Even so, I would prefer for that to be our last resort. Master Limmestare and Master Girt, please work with what you can to keep the prisoner back without actually harming her.”

Master Limmestare frowned. “Without harming? I can understand not killing, but no harming?”

Master Virbold interjected here. “I thought I conveyed this to all of you, but I suppose it got lost in some of the other oddities. She has somehow weakened herself so that she dies with relative ease. In that way, she can slip free of restraints and other impediments via self-rebuilding elsewhere.”

“Ahh.” The studious Defender grimaced. “That’s unpleasant.”

“Indeed. Purposely altering yourself to make self-harm more efficacious is…”—the Paragon sighed—“I suppose yet another result of lacking a soul.”

Master Limmestare grunted. “Indeed.”

Master Clevnis took the conversation back over. “The environment will be odd to us, as it was designed to—theoretically—make it impossible for her to kill herself. There aren’t details, but I imagine it will be flat at the very least.”

Master Virbold cleared his throat, and Master Clevnis sighed before gesturing for the man to speak. “Thank you. There are certain techniques available in cell creation that might have been utilized here, despite their difficulty and expense. This might be a self-contained sphere, so as to not have any accessible walls or edges. If so, it would likely be under extreme spatial distortion so that orbital mechanics couldn’t be utilized to gain sufficient leverage to break a neck or the like. If so, it would appear flat, but you would be able to see yourself in every direction. If that is the case, expect it to be incredibly disorienting to start with, and she will have had time to become acclimated to the oddities.”

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Tala found herself nodding. That sounds like a more advanced application of the dimensional anchor prisons we’ve encountered in the past.

-Oh, yeah, I can see that.-

Master Girt seemed to frown as he considered but didn’t ask a question.

So Master Virbold continued, “Another option would be a cell without a floor at all, in which case she would be in a sort of odd freefall. For this case, it would probably have been altered to be a sort of mild gravity-well. In that way, she—or anything else—would always return to the center at a slow, sedate pace. This would honestly be ideal from my understanding of the prisoner, as you all would simply be at the edge of the well, and would simply have to observe her until I have rebuilt the seals.” He considered for a moment before giving a small shrug. “There are a few more esoteric possibilities, but they should be self-evident and won’t be an issue if they have been used.”

Master Clevnis smiled. “As he said, let’s get to it then.”

The Paragon worked his magic and the actual entrance to the cell blossomed before them, revealing the standard tunnel that Tala had come to expect with most—if not all—cell entry ways.

Mistress Cerna worked quickly to create the repulsion field across the entrance before they advanced. As they moved, she continued to work enacting the same magics every few feet. The result was a feeling of pressure, almost like a breeze, pushing at their back as they moved deeper.

Directly behind Mistress Cerna was Tala, with Rane directly behind her. Masters Limmestare and Girt came next. Then Mistress Vanga and Master Clevnis brought up the rear.

They came out the far end of the tunnel to find a small platform waiting for them upon which they could stand and look into the seemingly endless sky beyond.

So, gravity-well, then?

-So it would seem.-

Tala frowned, looking around. She specifically swept her gaze and threefold sight above them and then she lay down to look under the platform at the sky-like emptiness of it all. Her threefold sight had told her nothing was there, but she checked with her mundane eyes, regardless.

The others were similarly scanning their surroundings until, finally, Mistress Cerna let out a quiet curse. “She’s not in here.”

And that was the truth of it. The only contents of the seemingly infinite cell was a small book, floating in the center of the gravity well, lazily spinning, like an item on display for their perusal at a ridiculously fancy shop.

Well, rust.

Master Limmestare sighed. “What do you think the chances are that she’s somehow in that book? Trying to trick her way into an escape?”

Master Girt barked a laugh. “That would be just the thing, wouldn’t it? Leaving an obvious item behind, that is actually her path to truly escaping?”

Mistress Vanga cleared her throat. “The thing is… we have to check the book thoroughly, don’t we?”

Mistress Cerna grimaced. “We do. If it is a trap or means of escape, she would know that we’d have to, and this could be playing into her plans. Even so, I can make it as safe as possible.”

What followed was some of the most beautiful interweaving that Tala had yet seen.

Mistress Cerna created proverbial tapestries of interweaving threads of precious metals before powering them up in a blaze of magically-radiant light.

The results looked simple, but Tala could tell that they were anything but. Every action that was taken was behind at least six varied layers of safeguards, that Tala couldn’t even properly parse, simply because they pulled from too many different types of magic.

In the center of the space, the book stopped spinning before flipping open.

One page after another turned as Mistress Cerna’s eyes glossed over, clearly looking at something that they couldn’t see. Well, she was obviously looking at an analysis of the book, which they could see, but her view of it wasn’t visible to them.

In the end, the woman cursed. “It seems that she’s really not here. Though, she did leave a detailed account of how she got out.”

Rane frowned. “Why would she do that?”

The Refined scoffed. “Because she doesn’t want any of the other things we have locked away to escape and inconvenience her. She actually expresses gratitude for our efforts along with understanding of the reasoning behind her own imprisonment, even if she disagreed. ‘After all, mortals die all the time,’ but they are still important. Moreover, she hopes that her path crosses with ours sometime in the future.”

Tala felt something tickling the back of her mind. Why does that sound familiar…?

Rane asked the obvious question, “How did she escape?”

“Killed herself, apparently. She waited a decade or two after being trapped in here—apparently by slowly counting to three-hundred and twenty million—then she held her breath until she died.”

When Mistress Vanga started to object, Mistress Cerna held up a hand.

“I know, but apparently automatic breathing when unconscious is one of the things she changed about herself… for some reason.”

Master Girt shook his head, “Well, this is the reason, and things like it. So, what? What did she advise for fixing the flaw that let her escape?”

“She said that if the cell had been lined with iron, she wouldn’t have been confident of her own escape. Though, I think that suggestion isn’t actually a serious one and wouldn’t have actually helped. She also advised placing any such as her in a mental stupor, and she gave a long list of different self-propagating bacteria that could be designed or found to be introduced into any biological threat, which would render them insensate, theoretically forever.”

Tala did not like the sound of that.

The unit leader sighed. “Regardless, I think it is mostly egotistical grandstanding, rather than really an attempt to be helpful. We need to ask Master Virbold to verify that Mistress Slannir isn’t using something that I can’t detect to hide herself.”

Master Clevnis nodded. “And if he gives the all-clear, Mistress Tala?”

“Yeah?” She responded distractedly.

“We’ll want to have Kit eat this space so that you can analyze it more fully and verify that there is no lingering presence or the like. Then, you should obliterate the remains as best you see fit.”

“Understood.” She and Alat were pouring through past interactions. The words and sentiment that Mistress Cerna had conveyed sounded like a lot of arcanes who she’d had the misfortune of interacting with. Honestly though, it was a bit less monstrous than would be expected from one of them. So what was pulling at her thoughts and memory?

This was one of the issues with her ‘perfect’ memory. She could remember anything that she tried to remember, but if there wasn’t something specific to focus on, it was a matter of sorting through everything.

And since she doubted the wording was exactly the same, she was trying to find things that were thematically the same.

Master Girt went to get Master Virbold, and the Paragon was not happy with the turn of events. He worked with Mistresses Cerna and Vanga—with Tala using her threefold sight as well—to thoroughly examine the entirety of the cell multiple times.

Once it was verified that there was no consciousness in or tied to anything in the space, they performed other tests, followed by more tests. Finally, the Paragon said that there was nothing more they could look for.

Tala had been sweeping the cell with her threefold sight over and over, trying to cover every aspect of the four-dimensional space she could perceive. Even so, it was only when Mistress Cerna drew the book closer that Tala saw something.

“WAIT!”

Everyone froze. Even so, six differing magical defenses snapped into existence around the book and the Archons within the cell.

Tala’s eyes had snapped to the book and were locked there, even though what she was seeing didn’t require her eyes. “There’s a minuscule reality thread leading from the book off somewhere else.”

Master Limmestare looked excited. “Do you think it’s sufficient to track the woman down?”

Tala shook her head even as Master Virbold did the same. She was the one who answered, though, “Reality threads don’t behave like that. Ironically, they use the void as often as regular dimensionality to ‘connect’ two things—as the connection is not actually physical but representative or metaphorical—and we don’t know enough about void-ial navigation to pull something meaningful.”

Master Virbold smiled at that. “Well reasoned. Even so, given Mistress Slannir’s particular magics…” He shook his head. “Honestly, it’s probably far too much to hope for, but…”

Tala grinned in return. “Exactly. It isn’t likely, but I think I might be able to increase her attraction along this reality thread, yes.”

Master Girt frowned. “Let’s assume that’s true… what would that do?”

She shrugged. “In a perfect world, it might bring her here. In an imperfect world—which I think we can all agree is closer to the truth—it might force her back here the next time she tries to rebuild herself? Honestly, though, even if it works, it probably won’t do anything.”

“So, even in the best case scenario, how does that help us? The cell clearly can’t hold her. If she’s not here, she’ll have spread bits of herself all over the place, unless she’s an utter fool. She’ll escape again as soon as she wishes to.”

It was Mistress Cerna who answered that, “But we’ll get a new image of her. We’ll get to talk with her, test her with words, and see her magics for ourselves. It’s possible that she’s still around nearby, and us pulling her here will reveal her in the outside world. Regardless, we could learn something.”

The unit members all seemed to consider that before nodding one after another and turning toward Tala.

Rane gave Tala’s shoulder a squeeze. “It’s your show, Tala.”

She smiled in return. “Alright, let’s see if this works.” She chuckled and then added, “And if it works, let’s see if it does anything.”

She reached out with her amplification magics, focusing on the reality thread that led to a central part of the book.

She built her mental model to lock onto the other end of the thread, and just as she did for reality nodes, she amplified the connection of that end to this, using her void-channels to dump power into the connection.

Nothing happened for a long few minutes as Tala put more and more power into amplifying the connection.

The reality thread didn’t grow any thicker, but it somehow seemed to become more… present? Something about the thread made it seem more important to Tala’s threefold sight, like even though it was a tenuous connection, it mattered.

Like remembering a random person you talked to once, and suddenly not being able to get them out of my mind.

-Yeah, it’s cognitively similar to that, I think…-

After an hour, Master Virbold sighed. “I think we might want to set a limit. What about a day of amplification?”

They all agreed and settled in for a longer wait.

Two hours later, something descended.

Tala gasped, her active magics stuttering.

The power that suddenly locked down the entire cell reminded her of only a single thing: when the power of Anatalis had disabled her inscriptions for the fight with the sireling.

Master Virbold gasped and fell to his knees, blood trailing from his eyes.

Then, an illusion appeared in the center of the cell. It was clearly an illusion, as if the person responsible for it wanted to ensure there was no doubt, and Tala thought that even mundanes would immediately identify it as such.

The woman’s face looked around in confusion. “I’m sorry—new body—who’s this?”

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