Millennial Mage

Chapter 82: Fleeing the Madness of Reality

Tala moved through the city in a bit of a haze, Terry on her shoulder.

If she was being honest, she didnt really register anything at all, until she was standing in Hollys personal workshop, looking at the auto-inscriber.

She tilted her head to the side, regarding the machine. Is that bigger?

Holly was frowning in her direction. Are you alright, Mistress Tala?

Tala shifted her gaze to the small, older Mage. Yes? Why?

I just told you that Ive been adding to the device, increasing the surface area it can cover.

OhI guess I wasnt listening.

Holly was frowning. But you should have memory of hearing it, regardless. The inscriptions for mage-sight lit up on the inscribers face. Holly blinked in surprise. What have you been doing to yourself? Do you have a constant funnel of power into your soul-bound weapon?

Tala looked down at Flow. Yeah, I had some excess, and it seemed a waste to just dump it into the air. Wait I was directing the power into Flow from my Way. When did I start feeding it at all times? It made sense, given that shed increased her passive power accumulation rate. The excess has to go somewhere, after all. As she examined herself, she realized that shed only directed most of the excess into Flow. She still allowed the incoming power to push at her body, stretching her power density ever so slightly before that miniscule overage seeped out.

What have you been doing to increase your influx so much?

She shrugged. Exercises to move towards creating a full Archon star. She gave a quick description, a bit surprised at her own eloquence.

You are using a technique you came up with yourself. Hollys voice was a monotone.

Well. No? Its just the Way of the Void.

But you arent following the instructions you were given for such.

No? This created better results.

Hollys fingertips massaged her face, as the Mage let out a frustrated growl. Do you grab the heaviest weights available for every exercise?

Wow, shes really confident that she wont accidentally activate her inscriptions with cross-over I do mostly body-weight exercise, but after these enhancements? Tala patted her rather average-looking bicep, through the leather. Yeah, probably.

Holly huffed a breath. Fine, bad example. She seemed to be considering. Now that I think about it, I doubt I can come up with a suitable one. She gave Tala a critical look. Youre a bit insane, when it comes to training. She brightened. Ah! Have you ever juggled?

No?

Then, if you were going to learn, would you simply pick up as many knives as you could hold and start throwing them up?

Well, Ive no idea, but that sounds like a bad idea. After a moments hesitation, she shrugged. I dont suppose I could get hurt by the knives, so maybe?

Hollys lips pressed together in irritation, her eyes widening just slightly. That kind of makes her look a bit manic

Tala held up her hands. But I see your point!

Holly seemed to calm herself. Rusting right, you understand my point. She took another breath, calming further. The different Ways have been developed overwell, Im not sure how long we humans have been working on them. The point is, they are tried and tested, proven to be effective, efficient means of progressing. Making up your own would be like She seemed at a loss for a good comparison, once again.

Like making an Archon star in a new substance?

Exactly! Holly snapped, pointing at Tala, and visibly brightening. Then, she stopped, eyes narrowing and smile fading. No. No, you cant use that fluke to justify your insanity.

Tala was grinning broadly but held up her hands in surrender. Fine, Ill exercise caution.

The inscriber rolled her eyes and sighed exaggeratedly. Which means you wont change anything, but youll consider being less rash. She shook her head.

Anyway. I have a couple things to discuss with you.

Besides burning yourself alive from the inside out with magical power?

Yes, besides that. She smiled again. I want to activate my crush attack, on myself, but I dont want it to scale up.

Holly didnt blink at the idea, just nodding. Thats simple. You know the inscriptions that are responsible for recursion. Keep power out of those to alter the activation as desired.

Yes, I think I do, but I dont want to kill myself through arrogance.

Holly gave her a flat look.

This is totally different. Gravity is serious business. After a pause, Tala giggled. It has gravitas.

Holly cocked her head, frowning. Are you alright?

Yes, yes. Youre just taking this so seriously.

Magic isnt serious?

Tala opened her mouth to respond, but Holly waved her off.

The inscriber sighed. Fine, fine. I am actually glad that you asked. So, here, lets verify.

Youarent going to ask why?

Its obvious. You can take the increased weight, and the benefits in training, alone, would be monumental. I imagine you have other, less reasonable thoughts as to why you should do it, but my sanity begs me not to ask.

Tala wasnt quite sure how to take that.

Well need to use the inscribings I recommended for your feet, earlier.

The ones to distribute my weight more widely?

Yes. I was concerned that, given your increasing mass, that would be needed to prevent you causing damage as you walked. If were going to be amplifying your interactions with gravity, too? I think we should give your feet at least a one-foot radius pressure distribution, each. That should keep you in the range of pressure that a normal person exerts as they walk. Youll still have the weight, but it should keep you from sinking into softer materials.

That should work, yeah. And because its affecting my foot directly, and the ground only indirectly, my iron salve shouldnt interfere.

We should give the same to your palms.

Why?

You do push-ups, and similar exercises, yes?

Oh! Right. That makes sense. She didnt want her hands sinking into the ground, either.

For your reference: once your bones are completely restructured, and your reserves are as full as is reasonable, you should be around two-hundred and eighty pounds. Add in a quadrupling of your gravitational constant, and youll break the scale at well over a thousand pounds. It is going to be inconvenient.

Tala frowned. I supposed I could just set a mental condition to allow the change to be shrugged off, when I needed to.

Holly hesitated. That is possible, but Id recommend against it. You will have to move almost entirely differently. Your body will need to adjust. Your mind more so and switching back and forth will be unneeded, extra strain.

Tala sighed. Fair enough.

Now, lets get your inscriptions finished, and these new ones added.

Dont you need to work up a schema?

Holly gave her a knowing smile. Your inscribing is being used to test my invention, dear girl. Ive worked up a thousand versions of dozens of possibilities for you. Those we are to add just need to be flagged as good to go.

Fair enough. Ive finished my topical review for the remaining inscriptions. Tala had also already read about, and understood, the surface area increasing enhancements, so that shouldnt be a problem.

I assumed so. This will be our last session, for now. Youll get all the remaining scripts. She hesitated. I trust you noticed the section for your eyes?

Tala sighed and nodded. Yes. Having them pop within my head was unpleasant enough that Ill not fight you on it. They are only protective and regenerative, so I wont have to adjust to new stimulus. She shrugged. Should be worth it, especially with the auto-inscriber, in place of her jabbing my eyes with a needle over and over, manually

Good to hear. After this is finished, you and I can ensure you dont turn yourself to jelly as you increase your weight.

Tala nodded. Thats the idea. Her focus had pushed the fuzziness aside for much of the conversation, but she still felt like she was thinking through a cloud. That doesnt really make sense.

As she allowed the auto-inscriber to be positioned on her, this time completely encompassing her torso, neck, and head, Tala allowed her mind to fall back into the comfortable absence of thought.

* * *

Mistress Tala? Motion before her eyes pulled at Talas attention. Tala!

Tala started, looking around.

Hollys hand was dropping away from in front of Talas face.

Hmm? Whats going on? The auto-inscriber was tucked off to the side.

Were done. After a moment, Holly added. Weve been done for nearly five minutes, but youve just been standing there.

Oh, Im sorry. So, shall we do my feet and hands, then?

Holly gave her a concerned look. No. Were done. All inscriptions are complete.

Really? Good. Great. So, lets do the gravity work.

Holly glanced towards the wall in front of Tala, then back to her. Are you sure youre alright?

Tala looked to where Holly had glanced, and saw an expanded version of her crushing script, the portions she needed to keep power from were emphasized. Ah, yes! Thank you. She shook her head. Ive just got a lot on my mind.

So, it seems. Maybe-

Tala brought up her right hand, fingers and thumb pulled in tight. Her index and middle fingers pointed towards the ceiling, and her ring and pinkie fingers were bent down. She focused her mage-sight inward, ensuring that she thought of herself in her entirety. No repeat of the midnight fox incident.

Crush. As power leapt through the activating scripts, she held it back from the recurring functions. She almost staggered as she was suddenly much heavier, but then the power faded from her spell-form, and the danger was past, leaving her with quadruple her previous weight. There.

Holly sighed. Maybe, it would have been wise to wait.

She fought to stay upright. Her heart was laboring against vastly heavier blood. Thats what kills most. Her heart, however, was enhanced, and was able to beat more forcefully than others. Her entire vascular system was reinforced, so it could take the strain of high blood pressure. All of her tissue was, else shed likely pop her own organs. You know. She found the act of talking much more difficult than before, too. Still, she persevered. If I do get cut, Ill be a fountain. She kept herself from giggling.

Holly shook her head. At least that shows some deeper level thinking. But, no, you wont. Remember? Parts of the inscribings on your blood system was to redirect kinetic energy. Unless you will it, youll never bleed more than a trickle. She hesitated.

Right! She shouldnt have forgotten that. Tala frowned, even that felt odd, the world pulling on her face differently than she was used to. I feel a little funny. She took a step, feeling like someone was clutching around her leg. Or that my leg is now much, much heavier.

You dont look so good. Holly was frowning with obvious concern. Why dont you lie down?

Tala shook her head, feeling momentarily dizzy as her inner ears struggled to understand what was going on. She groaned and sat down. Well, she tried to. The chair, which shed used in the past, creaked then splintered, dumping her unceremoniously onto the ground.

Holly was at her side in a moment. Deep breaths, Mistress Tala. Focus on acclimating.

Tala nodded, again feeling like the world was spinning without her. She didnt vomit. Her inscriptions wouldnt allow it.

As she examined herself, with her mage-sight, Tala realized that she was still funneling power into Flow, strengthening the knife, and her bond to it. Interesting. Thats become an unconscious thing.

As she focused on the knife, she got the sudden feeling that it, and their bond, was approaching a threshold of power. Her steady stream was miniscule, but the barrier was close.

I wonder what that is? Her unfocused mind did some rough calculations, and she spoke without thought. Huh, I think my bond with the knife is almost powerful enough to match a true Archon star.

Holly pulled back, eyes wide. Her mouth opened, but Tala never got to hear what she was about to say.

The threshold was reached, the link between herself and the knife pulsed, and the world went white, her mind fleeing the madness of reality into the comfortable nothingness of sleep.

* * *

Tala woke slowly, staring up at the ceiling in her room, in Lyns house. What?

The ceiling seemed too far away. It felt like someone had strapped weights to her body, but she was still able to move. A small fuzzy warmth was tucked against her bare feet.

Strangely, she felt incredible. Her mind was clear, and she didnt feel tired in the slightest.

She lifted her arm to free her eyes from the sleep that had gathered during the night. There was a lot.

I dont remember going to bed With more effort than shed recently required, she sat up and looked around.

She was on the floor, on her bedroll. The bed that she had been using was gone, along with the chair for the desk, leaving the room feeling strangely empty.

Terry was curled up near where her feet had been.

Tala was dressed in her elk-leather clothing, still, but they felt weak, like they were starving.

Oh, no! She reached inside herself for power to dump into the item and found that only about three quarters of her inflow was going to her body and the active inscriptions therein. The rest was going into Flow, just as shed directed so often of late.

Quickly, Tala moved that excess of power into the outfit, funneling it into Kit next, as soon as the elk leather was full. Thankfully, the dimensional bag was still functional.

She noted that each item filled as fast as any time previous, despite the inscriptions that Holly had added in their most recent session. Even when I was using the void. True, she was doing them one at a time, but even so. I guess my gate has expanded? She really didnt want to put numbers to it, but she couldnt help the mathematical portion of her thoughts from spitting out. Id bet my base rate is around 8 mana per second. The finalization of her spell-forms had increased their running magical draw.

As she thought about it: If the void channels still had the same multiplicative effect, shed be able to make a top rate Archon star in just over two hours. Around one, if Im happy with lesser results. True, that was only if she could maintain the void channels for the entire time, and didnt give her active inscriptions anything, but it was still a mind-bending realization.

She reached out and refilled Terrys collar as well, causing the bird to stir. He stood, regarding her quizzically. Does he look stressed?

A smiled tugged at her lips, and she got him some jerky, which he ate slowly, watching her critically the entire time. Whats- She stopped, her voice sounding like a croak.

Water. She got her brass incorporator out and very carefully took a drink. That triggered her thirst, and she spent the next little while drinking as much as she could. Her stomach was utterly empty.

Finally, she felt like shed drunk enough. Whats going on? Her voice was a whisper, but at least it was no longer a rasp.

Terry just looked at her. If hed had eyebrows, she suspected one would have been raised.

Right, too complicated.

Her hair was still braided, but there were a lot of strands that had come loose. I did that at the Guardsmans training yard, right? Even with her mind clear, her memories were fuzzy. That cant be good

Her every movement felt heavy, and it clicked in her mind that shed enacted the weight increase that shed discussed with the class of guards.

Well, I survived that, then. But how had she gotten here?

She stretched, lightly, trying not to move too much. As she did so, she assessed her state. Hungry, but not starving. No brokenanything, no bleeding. No concussion. Blades sharp- She hesitated at that. My blade is sharp? She held out her hand and, with a flicker of movement, Flow was in her grasp. The weapon had come to her more quickly than ever before. No, that isnt right. It moved where I wanted. It was already with me. The blade reshaped into a sword, and back just as quickly, though it still took virtually all of her incoming power to enact the change. Somethings different. She narrowed her eyes, examining the weapon.

She heard footsteps in the hall, and a voice carried through the door. Thank you for dropping by to get me. Just let me check in on her, and we can leave.

Tala sheathed the knife as Lyn pushed the door open and froze. Ill examine it later.

Tala?

Tala cocked her head. Lyn.

A startled exclamation came from outside, and Rane poked his head around the doorframe, looking past Lyn. Mistress Tala. Youre awake!

Tala frowned. Thats what you do after you sleep. She wetted her lips. What happened?

Rane looked lost, but Lyn sighed. You lost consciousness at Mistress Hollys workshop.

And? Thats happened before.

You overtaxed your mind, your will, likely your soul, too. Mistress Holly said that your soul-bond to that knife reached a cusp of true strength, and it became too much for your weary self to take. She shrugged, looking uncertain. Your mind began to fray, and so, it retreated into unconsciousness.

How did you get me back here? Wheres my bed?

Lyn opened her mouth, but Rane cleared his throat, answering the question. When you werent at the training yard, I tracked you down to Mistress Hollys shop. He smiled, holding back a chuckle. They couldnt move you, and Mistress Holly was getting very cross at your presence in her personal workroom. Apparently, the doorways were too small for any heavy lifting machinery, and she wasnt willing to commission something special, just to move you. He cleared his throat. I suspect that she could have solved the problem, but likely, she wanted to keep an eye on you. After there was someone else around to do it, though? He shrugged. She was content to pass off that responsibility. I can impart kinetic energy, and that depends on mass, not weight, so we were able to get you hereif a bit unconventionally. He looked a bit embarrassed by that.

I wont ask. She got a mental image of herself suddenly flying in a chosen direction, flopping through a hallway or down a road.

I think thats for the best. Rane cleared his throat. When we got here, I gave you enough energy to lift up onto the bed. The bed immediately broke under you. The wood of the structure shredded the mattress. After that, we cleared out the broken pieces and got your bedroll set up.

Tala frowned. How did you get my bedroll?

He shrugged. It just sort of flopped out of your pouch. He scratched the back of his head. We took out the chair too, just to be safe.

She looked down. Thanks, Kit. She patted the dimensional storage.

The pouch did not respond.

Tala sighed, returning her attention to the two people in her doorway. Alright, sowhat? I was unconscious for a day? She glanced at the window, her heavy movements still feeling odd. The light is right for afternoon. She turned back. They were sharing a look. What? Losing a day is rusting awful, but if I work hard enough, Ill recover the lost time.

It was Lyns turn to speak, apparently, as she cleared her throat. Its been four days since you fell unconscious, Tala. Youve been here for three.

Talas mouth opened, but she couldnt form a response.

A Healer friend came by and said you were alive, and that your soul was still in your body, but he couldnt tell me when youd wake up.

Four daysThat is so much time Ive missed. Wait Does that mean they had to get me to the privy somehow? No. She shook her head. The digestive inscriptions ensure I use all parts of anything I ingest, even recycling what would normally be expelled. That was a relief. Even trying to imagine them handling that washumiliating.

The Wainwrights were a bit irritated that you couldnt come by to test the cargo-slots that they made for you, but it hasnt become a true problem, yet. The guardsman class has the first version of your fighting style ready, but they were able to shift their schedule around to work with Master Rane, until you recovered.

Rane cleared his throat. Mistress Holly is livid, by the way. She insisted that I tell you that as soon as you woke up. He looked a bit embarrassed as he added. And she wanted me to say: I told you so. From her, of course.

Tala snorted a laugh. Sounds like her.

Also, the bits of gold that came from your keystone? He looked incredibly confused by his own question.

Yeah?

He grunted. Ill ask later, I suppose. Well, she said those were now payment for the inconvenience you caused her.

Tala sighed. I suppose thats better than I deserve Then, the seriousness of the lost time settled back down on her. She took a deep breath and let it out quickly. Well, rust. Thank you, both, for the help, for getting me back here. Seems that you all might have been right: Slow and steady would have been better.

Lyns eyes narrowed. Might? No, Tala. We were right. It is better. I can hold the void for more than five hours, now. Hows your progress?

Tala groaned. Low blow, but fine. I wont push quite so fast.

Lyn opened her mouth, but Rane put a hand on her shoulder. She glanced at him and closed it. Take the win, Mistress Lyn.

Tala looked back and forth. Had they met before? Her mind was still a bit fuzzy. She shrugged. Well. Times wasting. I have four days of meal budgets to spend. She found herself smiling. I can get at least onegood thing out of this debacle. I need to eat.

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