Tala stood to one side as Sanguis, Be-thric, and Cuan talked.

The two pillars were acting surprisingly cordial with the former candidate Eskau. They’d even ordered a late morning spread of food to be brought to share.

Pallaun had briefly walked by and told her they needed to talk soon, but he was off to fulfill some city-mandated duty.

I suppose I will probably have those too, soon.

-It would have been nice of Be-thric to tell Tali what those might be…-

That’s the truth.

She did not participate in the discussion between the three, though it was happening close by.

She wasn’t excluded from the conversation, in fact they’d asked her to join, but she’d requested to be allowed to stand watch off to one side.

It’s what Tali would have done. And she didn’t want to be closer to the Pillars than she had to be.

-Yeah fewer chances for you to have violent thoughts about the man who kidnapped you. The one who wiped your mind and forced you to—-

Not helping, Alat.

-Fine, fine. I’ll leave you to it.-

Her request made Sanguis laugh. “Pallaun would have requested the same thing if he hadn’t had the excuse of an assignment. The man hates politicking.”

And so she was allowed to abstain from the final negotiations.

It really was odd, Sanguis and Be-thric were treating Cuan as if he still had the protian weapon to give, even though it never left Be-thric’s hand.

They could just kick him to the curb, right? They have what they want.

-Ahh, but then who would deal with them in the future? An enemy who can be trusted may one day become an ally, but an ally known for deceit and dishonor is destined to become an enemy.-

…You pulled that from Tali.

-Of course. Be-thric tried to instill all his basic beliefs into her, so she is a perfect resource for understanding his actions.-

I suppose. Even so, she had no real interest in listening to the conversation so near at hand. Instead, her focus was on her own power and aura.

The magic within her was continuing to build, somehow.

Her power was, quite literally, ripping her apart.

That same magic was also fueling her healing scripts, so she was coming back together just as quickly, but it was still agonizing.

She’d experienced some of that when the gate-breaking device was first removed, but this was so much worse. It also seemed unending as her power density continued to climb.

-Thron did say your density would rise as a result of the gate-breaking.-

Rust that dwarf. This hurts.

-But it is doing what he said it would, and we agreed. He did literally nothing wrong.-

Fine…

She needed to be reinscribed soon. The strain put on her scripts by the extra power was monumental.

I need to find a way of mitigating that, too.

Eventually, the three finished their discussions, each looking rather pleased in the end.

It was lawful for a candidate to change houses, and the proper procedures would be followed. The House of the Tormented Ocean would be angry, they might even demand compensation, but it would be minor compared to the value of a protian weapon.

If they tried to demand that back, or something of truly equal value, it would start an inter-house war. They all knew that they’d have done the same if they could. They probably had in other cities when their own Pillars were raised up.

It was just the way things were.

A nod from Be-thric was all that Tala needed to consider herself dismissed, and she quickly departed.

She weaved through the hold, not going anywhere in particular, just letting her feet guide her. She was focused inward still. Finally, she found herself in a garden that she didn’t really recognize.

Good enough. It had been requested that she only place her sanctum entrance in one of the gardens, rather than a hallway or random room.

She looked around, and saw an out of the way wall, tucked just behind some ornamental trees. There was still a path back there, but it was out of the way.

There. I shouldn’t be obtrusive, here.

Once there, she tossed Kit against the out-of-the-way wall. As she’d expected, it became a door that seemed to have always been there, blending with the wall and the aesthetic of the place.

Satisfied, she strode through the door, and it swung shut behind her.

-What was all that for?-

All what?

-You just made the entrance to Kit really hard to find.-

Did I? I’m not really paying attention.

Alat sighed. -Fine, fine. Let’s get this sorted.-

Her desire had caused the door to open onto her platform, and the entrance vanished as soon as it closed, the internal end returning to the bunker of an entrance building a short way away.

She stripped, shed her iron paint with a quick aspect-mirror, and the flakes of iron paint vanished before they could hit the ground.

Now free of restriction, her aura blasted outward into the sanctum around her, followed closely by a torrent of her power.

The manifestations of magic around her faded quickly, and she let out a gasp of relief as her power density dropped, she stopped destroying herself with her own overcharged magics, and her body equalized back into perfect health.

She shuddered one last time, having almost gotten used to the odd sensations that were now gone.

As soon as her power filled her aura and began extending beyond, Kit sucked it out of the air.

I need to fill Kit anyways.

-Oh, undoubtedly. This is the perfect place to practice.-

But first, I need to be reinscribed and reinforce them.

-Wise.-

What specific command would be best? She thought back to the small booklet that she’d read, while trying to distract herself, early in the gate-breaking process.

-I think: ‘Rebuild my Inscriptions’ would be best, so long as you focus on their ability to handle high throughput when you give the command.-

“Rebuild my Inscriptions.”

From countless holes around the platform, metal streamed out in fine threads.

Tala quickly retracted magic from her defenses and stood ready.

An agonizing minute later, she was gasping with remembered pain, sheathed in blood, and trembling.

Her inscriptions were refreshed and reinforced.

Handling greater throughput simply meant that more metal had been used, strategically, at junction points and divergences.

The scripts and their purposes hadn’t changed one iota.

This wonder of magical artifice could not create anything new, or alter what she had, not substantively. It could only recreate what she knew had been there and tweak some basic things.

-Very good. It’s not a complete solution, but it will help.-

With a quick aspect mirror of the elk-leather’s magic onto her skin, she shimmied slightly, and a cascade of blood fell free…where it was instantly absorbed by Kit.

Well… that was expected but still quite disturbing.

-What did you want to happen?-

I honestly didn’t think about it beforehand.

Before she could think too deeply on the idea of Kit whisking away her blood to who in zeme knew where, she decided it was time to practice.

So, she reformed her clothing, sat upon her throne, and strove to master her power and her aura once more.

It was nearly six hours before Tala felt the entrance to her sanctum open, and shortly after, Thron came out of the defensive structure it now naturally rested in. He looked… quite irritated.

“Here you are!”

“Of course, I’m here. Where else would I be?”

He shook his head, waving her off. “I knew you were in your sanctum, Tali. Why did you hide the entrance?”

She opened her mouth to deny the accusation, then paused, remembering Alat asking the very same thing. “Oops?”

He growled. “I’ve been looking for you for hours.”

“I apologize.” She stood and gave a slight bow. “I didn’t consider that when I placed the door.”

“You didn’t consider…” He placed his face in his hands and rubbed furiously for a moment. “Tali, it was in a random garden that no one had ever seen you visit before, tucked behind some trees, and blending in perfectly with the surroundings. I only happened on it by chance when I was seeking out a master caretaker to pull plans for the whole hold, so we could find the extra door!”

Tala blanched, grimacing in sympathy. “I apologize, Thorn. It was done thoughtlessly. I had no intention of making things difficult for you.”

He grimaced slightly, then shook his head. “It’s fine, I suppose. Just irritating. I certainly know the main hold a lot better than I have any rights to, now.”

She laughed at that, then frowned again. Tala did genuinely feel bad. “I really am sorry.”

He waved her off. “No matter. Please do try not to do it again?”

“Could we find some way of letting you find my sanctum at need?”

Thron paused at that. “That’s… actually an excellent idea. I’ll see what I can figure out. In the meantime, I’ll go get some food heading our way, now that I know where you are. We missed lunch and dinner should have been eaten nearly an hour ago.”

She sighed, nodding. “That sounds wonderful. I am pretty hungry.”

Thron nodded and turned.

“Here, let me.” With a thought, the exit appeared right next to Thron.

“Thank you. Could you move it to the dining room, after I leave?”

“Consider it done.”

The dwarf departed, and Tala did as he’d asked, then scratched the back of her head. Oops.

-Yeah, that was pretty inconsiderate of us. I did try to warn you. Though, to be fair, I didn’t consider Thron finding us as a problem.-

Yeah. I’m just not used to Kit being public knowledge. I think I just naturally found an out of the way place without considering it beyond that.

Tala looked around herself, at her aura and power kept within arm’s reach.

This, she could maintain.

She was slowly pulling it in, holding it as tightly as she could sustain, and any closer would cause the strain to quickly overwhelm her.

It was progress.

I won’t make a whole room of mundanes uncomfortable anymore.

-You’d knock them out, Tala.-

No, I don’t think it’s that bad.

-I suppose I don’t have hard numbers on what would happen. You might be right, but let’s not test it.-

Fair enough.

She hopped off the north side of the platform and entered the large archway into the common area of her home.

To the right and left of that entrance, on the outside, were her room and the entrance to the guest wing, respectively.

Before her, the kitchen and dining space were on her left and the library and other areas to the right. The door in and out of the sanctum was against the eastern wall of the dining area.

The north and west walls of the space held large windows, giving a pleasant view of the surrounding terrain.

A small river ran between her and the forest in the near distance. From the throne a couple of dozen feet behind her, the edge of the sanctum was only a bit more than seven thousand feet away.

Two-and-three-quarters miles across, or a little more. It was massive, but still felt small.

The false sun, which was moving towards the western horizon, could support and control the weather cycles of a hold up to nearly nine miles across, give or take.

A part of that control was keeping the air balanced as breathable for the animals that now lived within the sanctum, and such that the plants could grow with ease. The previous iteration of this hold had had some scripts which performed that function, but such a critical thing being left to inscriptions was another sign of the cheapness of its original construction.

In fact, if she remembered correctly, the balance of the contained atmosphere was biased a bit towards the plant side of that equation, to help everything get thoroughly established.

The door opened behind her, as she continued to stare out at her lands, and they were hers.

She smiled. So long as Kit and I don’t get into a spat.

Servants moved on nearly silent feet behind Tala, but she knew they were there.

Not only were her bloodstars in their positions, but she could feel them moving around within Kit.

If she focused, she could feel the animals, too, but that was harder. Sapient creatures, truly thinking beings, made more of an impression with Kit, and so were easier to focus on.

She had a thought. Where is that cat?

She wasn’t able to find it quickly, so she gave up, turning to thank the men and women of various races as they departed.

“Thank you for bringing this to me. I regret that you had a farther trip from the central kitchens.”

They stopped as she addressed them, then bowed or curtsied in acknowledgement before departing.

Thron waited until they’d all exited to enter, and as the door closed behind him, it vanished. He was carrying a keg under one arm, and Tala thought she saw wisps of power that didn’t quite look like magic moving from the keg to Thron.

He glanced back over his shoulder and shook his head. “Makes a fellow feel trapped, but I suppose I’ll get used to it, eventually.”

Tala nodded distractedly. The spread of food was even larger than usual. “What’s all this for?”

“Two meals?”

“Oh! Right… I do apologize again.”

Thron waved her away as he tapped a large keg for himself.

“Acid?”

“Yes indeed.”

“And you’re already draining it?”

“Of course! Else it would eat through the container.”

A muffled voice drifted out of one of Thron’s pockets. “You could always drop me in. I’m sure that would suppress it for a time."

Thron looked to the ceiling as he took long breath and let it out slowly. “Rob. I’m not going to destroy you. I just spent a small fortune to make you useful.”

Tala frowned. “A fortune?”

“A small one. Not nearly as much as a new fount would have cost.”

“Is that why the power coming off of him is pure?”

“Pure enough to draw in predators, seeking to devour me. I thank you for your gift.”

Thron shook his head, ignoring Rob. “Yup. It’s a purification cage. His creator, whoever it was, couldn’t be found. Rob was probably an experiment the craftsman unloaded for cheap.”

“Ahhh, yes. Bethany was a horrible owl.”

Tala’s eyebrows went up, but before she could comment, Thron shook his head. “He’s just making things up, or listing people he’s met before. I followed the first two ‘leads.’ One took me to a grocer who caters to the lowest races, and the other to a grave of someone who died sixty years ago.”

“Ahhh, Augustis. You would have made a fine emperor, if only there were an empire for you to rule.”

She gave the dwarf a puzzled look. “Did you break him?”

“No, he’s been…odd all day. Ever since I took him out of the hold for the first time. Remember that?”

“Vaguely. He said something about the main hold still being a limited reality.”

“Yeah, ever since he’s been making asinine observations, as well as requesting self-destruction.”

Tala shrugged. “If he really wanted to end himself, he could.”

“Correction, oh false face for a false face. I am but a veneer over that which does not wish to die.”

She stared at Thron’s pocket mouth open. “What did you say?”

Rob didn’t respond.

Thron shook his head again. “He called me a barely bearded bumbling buffoon earlier. He’s just trying to find reasons for us to break him, but he’s right. He isn’t the fount, though he is part of the magics that regulate it. His desires to end himself are not at all a reflection on what the fount, within, might want.”

“Huh.”

They finally sat then, digging into their food.

About halfway through the meal for Tala, and three mugs of somehow-alcoholic-acid for Thron, after his dinner of course, Thron cleared his throat.

“So, we’ve a lot to work on with your abilities. I have the basic overview, and I’ve reviewed it thoroughly, but I have some questions. Pallaun is coming by in a bit as well. He completed his obligations, and there are some things he wants to discuss with you.”

Tala grunted her assent, and Thron dove into a litany of inquiries about her abilities.

It actually became rather a pain, as Tala had to be careful to answer based on Tali’s memories and knowledge, rather than her own.

Finally, in the end, he asked one simple question that she had never considered. It was a frustrating reminder of how Be-thric had provided a similar insight, but this was too important to focus on that.

“Alright. So, if you can hold off on selecting a target while you ramp up your power—”

“Only for a time. Holding a targetless working gets much harder the longer it is held.”

“Yes, for a time. If you can do that, can you change the target of the attraction, after it is in place?”

She opened her mouth, then paused, her eyes widening.

-Oh. Oh! Oh…-

Yeah… That… that could change everything.

Thron grinned. “I’m really hoping that’s a ‘Yes?’”

Tala, without a word, pulled out two of the balls that Be-thric had given her earlier that day.

She first ramped down their attraction towards the ground until it was effectively zero, then ramped their attraction up towards each other.

Thron drank his acid and didn’t press her for a verbal response. Instead, he watched the two balls sitting on the table, as Tala went back to eating.

A few minutes later, the two balls were pressed against one another, and Tala thought that the power of the attraction was sufficient.

She stood, picking up the balls and walking towards the doorway. “Coming, Thorn?”

He hopped out of his chair, hot on her heels. “I wouldn’t miss it for the world.”

They exited out, back near the central raised platform.

With a thought, Tala called a stone block into existence from somewhere else in the sanctum.

With cautious optimism, she held out her hand, palm up, with the tungsten spheres resting there. She then pulled her hand away, and they remained, floating in place.

They would begin drifting downward soon enough, but it wasn’t noticeable yet.

She reached out mentally and seized the magic with her will.

She could feel the target each ball had for the other, the attraction, the pull.

She didn’t fight against the strength of it. She didn’t reduce it, and she certainly didn’t increase it.

Instead, she grabbed the directing end of each and pushed. She imagined dislodging the targeting.

Instantly, she felt like she had a viper in her hands. Two, in fact.

The targeting was untethered, and trying to latch onto anything around them.

Tala grit her teeth and forced the targeting onto the stone before her. One connected as she wanted, the other slipped free of her mental fingers at the last instant and grabbed onto something closer.

With a double crack through the air, the stone block exploded, destroying the target of that lock, and breaking the working.

The second sphere hit its goal much faster. It seemed that she was envisioning her control too much as a hand, and the targeting aspects locked onto that. Tala screamed as the tungsten blasted through her own right hand.

Punching through her under-powered elk-leather defenses, her enhanced skin and bone, and back out the other side through another set of each.

The ball then slammed into the ground below and behind her, but not hard enough to crack the stone, there. It was still accelerating towards her hand, damaged or not.

It had left a ragged hole through her palm which was already beginning to close as Tala dropped to her knees, seizing the working laid on the tungsten sphere with her aura and treated it like a hostile Mage’s spell. She crushed the power within the tungsten, suppressing the magical marking, and causing the working to lose its hold.

The slightly misshapen orb of metal dropped to the floor with a ping.

Thron had jumped back, and while stone fragments had gone in every direction, those that had come their way had simply vanished under the influence of a working that Thron wrought between them and the previously stationary stone block.

Ow…That really, really hurt.

-Yeah, that really did.-

Thron looked her up and down as she knelt there, staring at her newly repaired hand. “Are you alright?”

“Ow.”

“Did I see one punch through your hand?”

“You did.”

“What happened?”

“Target lock slipped.”

He grunted. “Could have been worse.”

She grunted in return.

They stared at the slowly settling cloud of dust until Kit seemingly sucked it all up, leaving the courtyard and dais completely clean once more.

Target switching was dangerous.

It could easily get someone killed or something destroyed unintentionally if she wasn’t careful.

But, most importantly of all?

It had worked.