Millennial Mage

Tala set her teacup back on the table between herself and the arcane, Lisa, feeling quite comfortable in the chair sized—and supported—for her in the fox-kin’s home within Irondale. “Thank you for the tea. It is excellent. And thank you, again, for meeting with me.”

Lisa gave a nod. “Of course. You are most welcome.” He hesitated for the briefest moment then continued, “Before anything else, I must congratulate you, Mistress Tala, on advancing to Paragon. To be so Honored is rare for your species and your very existence makes all those you know and love safer. I imagine you are quite excited.” He smiled kindly, still keeping his teeth back. “I must also thank you for the increase in available power. I never imagined that you could put my little aspect-removing trinket to such use as you have, but I, for one, am grateful for your altruistic application of the magics.”

She gave a small smile around her next sip of tea, only answering after setting her cup back down. “Thank you, master Lisa, and you are most welcome. I would say that the advancement was a long time coming…”

As she trailed off, the fox-kin chuckled. “But it really wasn’t. Be careful, young one. Often those with such meteoric rises have similarly spectacular falls.”

He gave a contemplative look, and Tala let him consider for a moment.

“You are… I would definitely say that you are in a unique position out of all those I’ve ever heard of, and I am not referring to your level of advancement or your age. Never before has an Archon of gated-humanity been acknowledged by a Major House as an official member, let alone one with true power.” He gave her a careful look. “I do not know how your story will end, Mistress Tala, but I am eager to see how it progresses. Honestly, this—more than even the safety and potential longevity of your hold here—prompted my decision to accept your invitation. If you do not waste what you have earned—through competence and the twists of fate, both—you could be the herald of a new age on this continent.”

Tala coughed in embarrassment, took another long sip, and then gave a slight nod of acknowledgement before changing the subject with little social grace, “So, how are you settling in? Your home is mostly complete, I trust?”

He waved that off. “The physical rooms are done, of course, but properly aligning the other aspects—and getting them just right—will be the work of decades. Even with that project ahead of me, I am enjoying the greater freedom life here affords me. Thank you for that.”

Tala gave another nod of acknowledgement.

“In that vein, several of my kinsmen have been in contact with me in the last months—many seemingly concerned for my safety and freedom of movement—and I am happy to report that we do not have to be concerned that a motley squad of four-dimensional crafters will be breaking in here to rescue me any time soon.”

She blinked at him a few times. “Was… was that a concern? Wait, any time soon? It’s a concern for later?”

“It was a concern briefly, and my kin tend to be beings of whimsy and impulse. The mood could take them later on and then? Who knows.” He gave a vulpine smile and sipped his tea, prompting her to do likewise.

As she lowered the cup once again, she found her frown melting away. The tea really was fantastic. “I see. Well, thank you for heading that off… even if just for now.”

“Of course. Consequently, however, there are some thirty foxes who have expressed interest in immigrating here, all with various demands and requirements.”

Her eyes widened. “Thirty? That’s… That’s a lot, isn’t it?”

“Oh, absolutely, but there was never really a chance of them all coming.”

“Oh?” Her expression did a reversal, her eyes narrowing in suspicion.

“Of course. One—my seventeenth cousin… I’m not actually sure how far removed—specifically asked that I and all the humans agree to depart, so that she could take up residence.”

That caused one of Tala’s eyebrows to rise. “Seriously?”

“Am I serious? Yes, that was the request. Was she serious? Likely not. I do not recall her being so foolish as to have actually considered that a possibility. More likely than not, she saw it as a test. She put a half-considered attempt in to test if this was a trap, something that would draw in our kind and consume them, putting out any bait necessary.” He sighed. “A clumsy check, but likely a good-hearted one. She is still so young, barely into her majority.”

“Oh? How old is she?” Tala was genuinely curious as she didn’t really know much about the fox-kin.

“I believe that she just turned one-hundred-fifty-three this past summer.”

Tala’s eye twitched. “And that’s barely considered an adult?”

“Of course. For our species, a hundred and fifty years is hardly enough to grant the wisdom needed to have anything meaningful to say. We reach physical maturity in our eighties, but that is hardly a reasonable measure for wise action, nor does the ability to breed mean you have anything meaningful to say or that should be listened to.”

“I see…”

Lisa smiled at her, letting the almost awkwardness hang in the air for a moment before he added, “Of course, we don’t use that same measure for other races.”

Tala grunted once, not really having a meaningful response.

“Regardless, you asked for this meeting. What can I do for you? Or were you simply hoping to meet in order to ask after my situation here?”

She hesitated for a moment, then shook her head. “We can get to the purpose in a moment. I think that it is important to know, will any of your kin be joining us?”

He gave a slow nod. “I am working with Mistress Lyn to accommodate the reasonable requests. I suspect that we will have five of my kind join us within the next two months, likely closer to the end of that time. When they have established themselves… I suspect there will be even greater interest.”

“So soon? Do we need to go anywhere to pick them up? Or…?”

“No, no. I will have an arrival anchor by that time…” When he saw non-comprehension in her eyes he added. “Ahh, yes. That will be a new concept to you. Consider it like your teleportation receiving arrays, but a bit less… physically destructive. We can launch ourselves through four-dimensional space with an incredible degree of precision if we have a proper arrival anchor to shoot for, and in that way our travel can be almost as fast, if quite a bit more dangerous to the unwary.” He took another sip. “Incidentally, we would not allow any child to take such a trip as there is too much that could go wrong and would need correction for a kit’s safety to be assured. Regardless, I am nearly done with my arrival anchor, and I will be facilitating the arrival of my kin in concert with Mistress Lyn.”

Tala frowned slightly. “Lyn approved this?”

“She did, as I’ve said. As a point of note, the anchor will also be my means of emergency egress in the event of disaster.”

“Oh? It can fling you toward another anchor?”

“...Technically no. I would need a launching array for that—which isn’t hard to build, even if I don’t intend to—but as there are currently no other arrival anchors, that is a trivial issue.”

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She frowned further. “Then, I don’t think I understand.”

“In the event of an emergency, I will be flung off into Zeme… somewhere. I will emerge in a somewhat random location and start over.” He shrugged. “It isn’t a good solution, but it is far superior to death… and your human teleportation magics do not play well with our soul-structure.”

“I see.” She felt like they were very far afield, and Lisa seemed to agree.

“So, with that settled, may I ask what brought you to my door today? As pleasant as your company is, I do have much work to be about, eventually.”

“Yes, arrival anchors, finishing your home, continuing to expand your artifact business.”

“Indeed.” He took another sip, waiting.

“Well, I was curious as to why you refused Anatalis’ invitation the other day.”

Lisa cocked his head to the side. “If the House of Blood were to send an official invitation to you, asking for your attendance at a dinner party, would you attend?”

She hesitated. “I… No?” She frowned yet again. “Maybe?”

That caused one of the foxes eyebrows to rise. “I see. You have surprised me.”

“Well, regardless, I don’t see how this answers my question. You were never a member of the Pack… Right?”

Lisa shook his head. “No, no. We are not… predatory enough to have ever received a test, let alone an invitation.”

“I see. So how do the questions relate?”

He sighed. “I admit, I had intended to imply that it was an uncomfortable and personal question, but my attempt failed.” He sighed again. “Very well. I will give a small answer. We beast-kin have a better sense of authority than most humans do—even if most of the less advanced perceive that sense as something else—and it is incredibly uncomfortable being in the presence of one who can so easily tear away everything that I consider to be mine, including my very self. Gated humans are… safe, in a sense, from most like him. You can always flee to the next world if you are determined enough, even in the event of your death. For us? For those of us who are fully here? We are exposed in a way that is hard to describe. Your gateless might feel a bit out of sorts because of that reality, but they lack the sense to truly experience the existential dread of such an encounter. We can be delayed in passing on in ways you never can.”

“I… see.” She felt like the fox wasn’t telling the whole truth—or more likely he was telling the truth in a way that obscured what he wanted hidden—but she decided not to press him on it. “Thank you for explaining that to me.”

“You are welcome. Now, is there anything else? Or shall we finish our tea companionably, and continue with the tasks set before our individual selves?”

She huffed a laugh. “Let’s go with the second option.”

“As you wish.” He topped off her tea, leaned back, and continued to sip at a steady, unhurried pace.

* * *

Tala and Rane were quite busy the following days.

Aside from exercising their souls in the spiritual equivalent of tummy-time and teething—without most of the screaming and crying that that analogy implied—Lerra had one specifically important skill to empart.

“Your most advanced humans will have techniques to accomplish this—and you are welcome to learn them when you return home—but since you advanced while with us, it is incumbent upon us to teach you to veil your strength, doing otherwise is simply inviting trouble on a dozen different levels.”

Rane and Tala shared a look before giving the wolf their full attention.

“Alright, you are aware of controlling your aura so that you do not harm those weaker than you. You have come to the point that you can even have the less advanced within your aura without them experiencing any ill effects. This is almost the same as that.”

Rane held back a smile, and Tala barely held in a laugh. They had found over the past days that Lerra had a very distorted understanding of how humanity viewed or did things. They expected that this would be no different. The concept was likely to be vaguely related, but just as likely not actually be very similar.

“The concept is very simple, but some have difficulty in the execution.” She looked back and forth between the two humans, verifying their attention, her lupine head swiveling with no small amount of menace. “Your aura is yours. You have authority over it. Control the level of power you manifest within your aura.”

Tala blinked. That’s… it?

-I mean… it makes sense.-

Yeah, but we never really considered doing that with our aura, at all. Honestly, it sounded almost exactly like what she’d been doing within Kit when she made the ‘lower magical density’ zones within the Ironhold. Though in that case, the air was filled with power that she was affecting directly, where her aura was simply a detectable zone of potential power.

With a thought, Tala reached out to enact the same working of will upon her aura, and… it slipped through her mental fingers.

Instead of the color of her aura changing, a pulse of Refined-density power rippled outward, reflecting off the edges of her aura and coming back toward her.

Rane jumped slightly at the burst of power, but Lerra simply regarded her silently.

The second time Tala tried, she focused on the idea of only exercising a Refined-level of magic within her aura.

The color seemed to flicker slightly under her mental and willful influence, but it wouldn’t actually switch over, and Tala felt a headache coming on.

-I think that you’re very close. Remember, she said it’s a use of authority. What if you forbid any magics stronger than Refined within your aura?-

Tala blinked a few times. Would that work?

Alat didn’t respond, understanding that the question was intended for the processing rather than a genuine inquiry.

With nothing to lose, Tala enforced her will—her authority—on her aura.

And then, it clicked.

Her restraint was one of the most profound ways to exercise authority.

Being able to do something and choosing not to was far more powerful than simply doing that thing.

Water doesn’t have true authority as it sweeps away buildings in a flood, even though it acts with power. Choice, my soul, my action or volitional inaction is the basis of my authority.

She was not a flood.

She was controlled, and right now, she wanted to be controlled to the level of a Refined.

Her aura was suddenly true, pure yellow, as if it had never been anything more.

And that’s what Anatalis did. He layered his authority over his aura as restraint, adding that in order to reduce his own power. She shuddered. That meant that if anyone broke his authority when he was in such a state, he would actually become more powerful as a result. Such an attack would result in his restraint being thrown off and his true advancement being exposed, unconstrained.

Rane grinned widely, kissing the top of her head and pulling her out of her internal contemplations. “Hey! Wonderfully done.”

Tala smiled, explaining what she’d done and her reasoning behind it.

Lerra grunted. “I suppose that works.”

Rane, with Tala’s more human perspective, was able to duplicate her success after only a couple of attempts of his own.

At that point, Lerra had a few thoughts for them. “Good, now you have done the bare minimum. I suggest that you work toward maintaining that result though myriad situations, both stressful and mundane. Once you have accomplished that, you have two approaches. First, you can learn to be more subtle in your displayed advancement, choosing a midpoint between levels of advancement to display, making it all but impossible to tell that you are even hiding anything. Second, you could leave your apparent advancement as a ‘perfect’ stage—which essentially no one ever actually has—making it obvious to anyone looking that your advancement is not as it appears.”

Tala narrowed her eyes, instantly thinking of Mistress Holly’s perfectly yellow aura. I knew it.

-Yeah, you and everyone else. Based on what Lerra just said, that is sort of the point.-

Yeah, she’s essentially saying, ‘I’m stronger than this. Don’t test me.’

-That does sound like Mistress Holly. It skips all the other, irritating steps of otherwise standard interactions.-

Indeed.

Regardless, it would be a struggle to be able to maintain this control—this level of authority—over their respective auras at all times.

So, they got to practicing.

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