Tala, unfortunately, couldn’t just go back to her sanctum and relax, despite the day with the City Lord being as trying as she’d expected. The loss of the arm was…new.

-Well, you handled it just fine.-

It recovered quickly enough, I think it helped that the arm wasn’t just laying there on the ground beside me. More than anything it was just a punitive tax on my resources.

In planning out the day with Thron, Tala had elected to breach a renegade hold that evening, and she was to meet the dwarf at the entrance.

Once she was clear of the City Lord’s estate, she found an out of the way wall and placed Kit upon it.

She walked onto her dais and activated the reinscription magics. As she was still mostly painted, she chose to have threads of gold, interlaced with a bit of silver and copper, flow through her mouth and down her throat, as much as that was fundamentally awful.

As it finished, she let herself move once again, spitting out a bit of blood to one side.

It vanished before it hit the dais.

That done, she retracted her clothing, repainted her new arm, and used her mirrored perspective, via her bloodstars, to ensure that there were no other breaches in that defensive layer.

The echoes, even hidden by her through-spike, had faded with such a large breach in her iron paint, as provided by her bare arm.

Now, the power began building once again, quickly beginning her internal resonance.

Fully defended and inscribed once more, she exited Kit, hung the pouch from her belt, and set off towards the meeting spot.

The location was a bit out of the way in the District of Doors.

The district itself abutted the City Lord’s estate, but the holds nearest that private park were much sought after, and the locations changed hands so often the truly established powers didn’t bother.

Thus, that part of the District of Doors was filled with those on a path upward, or those trying to head off a fall from grace.

In either case, her destination was in another part all together, with the holds well established and unlikely to have moved in the last century, and even less likely to move in the next.

When she arrived, she found herself impressed by the surroundings.

There were several lovely parks nearby, and the entrance of the hold in question was one of the more prominent ones in the area. It was beautifully appointed and decorated, lavish almost to the extreme in the owner’s attempt to draw attention to it. They had succeeded splendidly, the effect made more pronounced by the purple, glowing, magical field preventing anyone from accessing it.

To Tala’s surprise and confusion, Be-thric was awaiting her instead of Thron. He was standing only a couple dozen feet from the sealed off entrance of the shielded hold.

“My Eskau!” He held his arms out wide, grinning broadly as she approached.

If it had been anyone else, she would have thought he wanted a hug, but Tali’s memories confirmed that that was decidedly not the case.

“Pillar Be-thric.” Tala didn’t bow, per Be-thric’s request, but she also knew that Tali wouldn’t like that, so to mirror what would be expected, Tala nodded in acknowledgement. “To what do I owe the honor of your presence?”

“One moment.” He waved his hand and an explosion of magical tendrils shot out of him in every direction. They wove through the air and ground around them, locking it off from any outside observer.

When Tala looked outward, everything appeared blurry as well as hazy; it was noticeably darker, and no sound entered from the outside.

“There we are. You see, this has become a rather delicate matter.”

Tala cocked her head to one side, listening.

“This is the main hold for a specialty crafting guild, and they have apparently been very devious crafters.” The hue-folk male’s eyes sparkled. “They’ve been researching and actually building automata.”

She frowned. Neither her own, nor Tali’s, memories providing any clue as to what was going on.

“I see you’re confused. Let me explain. Ever since the Black Legion, automata have been completely outlawed in all forms, great or small.”

“You mean, like moving statues?” Tali’s memory was still drawing a blank.

“No, no. Not like statues at all.”—he waved her off with a long-suffering expression—"They are, effectively, artificial lifeforms with programable consciousnesses. They can draw in magic from the environment and even advance in rank, if designed to do so.”

“So, people, but fabricated?”

“Not really. They have no soul, broken or whole, and so they have no significance, no will.”

“I see.” She was frowning. Again, she checked with Tali’s memories, and she came up with nothing. “What is the Black Legion?” Something about the name tickled her memory, but nothing specific came to mind.

“The Black Legion is an army of self-repairing automata built back in the War of the Broken Soul to bring back certain lost property.”—he waved that off as unimportant— “The issue with them was that they went wild. They had to be so complex that they developed complications, which manifested in a semblance of desires in conflict with their creators’. All in all, it ended badly for everyone, and automata were banned.”

No wonder he came here himself. This seems like something that Tali really should have heard of, and her not knowing could come across as odd to others, and they might not handle it in a way that would be good for her fake memories.

Tala frowned, glanced towards the hold in question. “But these crafters ignored the ban.”

“They did.”

“And their automata went rogue?”

Be-thric hesitated, then shrugged. “They aren’t sure. Mid-afternoon, yesterday, the hold ejected everyone bodily, the automata physically throwing out those who wouldn’t leave by other means. Then, the barrier activated, and the guild called for help.”

“That’s where I come in.”

“Precisely.” His greedy grin was back. “But it gets better than an enjoyable fight.”

Tala found his excitement infectious and checked for mental magics.

-None. He’s just really happy, and something’s telling us that we’re going to like the results as well.-

That’s weird…

“They would face a significant penalty if the nature of their experiments were discovered. They’d lose their hold, their status, and likely much, much more. So, in exchange for our silence, and the utter destruction of automata within, I secured you the right to consume their hold.” He said the last as if he were unveiling a birthday gift.

In truth, Tala was dumbstruck. Her eyes widened in surprise, and she was at a loss for words.

That is rusting amazing.

-Kit gets to eat a large guild’s main hold?- Alat was giving off waves of excitement, too.

A hold of a prominent guild would easily allow Kit to double in internal volume, if not more. Moreover, the authorization to consume the hold meant that nothing within would have to be returned to the owners.

Be-thric’s grin widened ever further. “I can see you are speechless. Good!”

This is ridiculous. Why? Why is he doing this for us?

-You know why. It’s not for us. It’s for him. Us improving is him improving. He sees us as so thoroughly in his pocket and under his thrall that our advancement is only good for him.-

I guess… I guess I still had my doubts. How can he not realize we’re not Tali? I’m sure I make dozens of little mistakes every day.

-No one observes that closely, Tala, and you returned to yourself at a time of transition, when Tali would have made large changes in how she acted, regardless.-

Tala felt a seed of joy and hope truly blossom in her chest as the realization hit home. We’re going to make it, Alat. Unless something catastrophic happens, we’re going to get out of here once his armor is complete. He’s going to take us home himself.

Her hope hardened into expectancy as she imagined him getting the punishment he deserved at the hands of her fellow Archons.

Be-thric continued speaking, pulling her out of her vengeful fantasies. “You have been an excellent…Eskau. You proved my faith in you a dozen times over, and I am more than happy to secure you privilege and gain as a small thank you.”

Tala was still a bit speechless. There was little else that she would seek out more valuable to her at the moment. Save my freedom.

She didn’t let that thought sour her expression.

He really was giving her a mountain of treasure, while supercharging her advancement.

Did that make her feel bad for what she knew would be coming for the arcane?

No. Not one bit.

Take them for all their worth.

-Then lead the lamb to slaughter.-

The narcissistic, kidnap-happy lamb. Tala teased internally.

-The analogy fits.-

She finally was able to respond, pulling heavily on Tali to do so. Honestly, she considered just switching out for Tali, but she couldn’t bring herself to give up control. “Thank you, Pillar Be-thric. This Eskau is honored by your arrangement of this boon.”

He continued to smile happily, clearly having seen at least some of the emotions flickering across her face and wildly misinterpreting them. “Of course, of course.”

He pulled out a keyring and held it out to her.

“These will allow you to unlock each section as you go deeper in. They were paranoid folk and placed the hold’s core at the very back, deep within multiple layers of security.”

Be-thric then handed her a small book, detailing the specifics of what she would find inside.

“Now, I have another appointment to get to. I appreciate your suggestion on where we can get the next protian weapon, and I like it. Our information network is looking into what candidate Eskau might be visiting a lesser hold in the next weeks, so that we can execute a hold-breach and claim the prize.”

He patted her on the shoulder and waved his other hand, dismissing the privacy barrier.

“Good luck, my Eskau. Continue to make me proud and bring honor to the House of Blood.”

“I will, Pillar Be-thric. Thank you.”

Without further comment, Be-thric departed, off to his next task.

Dusk had turned into full night as they spoke, while magical light made the streets bright and safe.

Before her, an arcane barrier barred her entrance, but she could deal with that.

But first, we need to read this.

She whipped through the book detailing the defenses and contents of the hold before her in less than an hour, Alat helping her parse the information more quickly.

After that, she was ready to go.

She had taken out a set of tungsten spheres and spent the last part of her reading first rendering them effectively weightless, then amplifying their attraction towards one another as two separate workings.

Now, she approached the gates.

This should be fairly simple, actually. The book had informed her that it wasn’t a heavy magical defense. It was simply meant as a temporary delaying tactic to allow the hold’s defenses to be readied.

There was also that the true purpose of the barrier was to keep the automata in the hold, to prevent their discovery in case one went rogue. It was a rather prescient feature, though they seemed to have underestimated the scope of the potential issue.

Tala took a deep breath, pulled power from the flesh around her lungs, and with an act of will, inverted it.

Tala exhaled a stream of disintegration at the magical barrier, quickly eroding a breach in the defense.

She hopped through, still holding the spheres in one hand.

The barrier slowly repaired itself behind her, but she didn’t care.

The automata were now locked in there with her.

The next thing to bar her path wasn’t anything special.

This was not a major House’s hold.

It was well defended, but the entrance wasn’t authorized to have the same level of security.

Thus, all that really barred her way after the barrier was a mundane, if heavily reinforced, door.

She lifted one bare foot and, with a powerful kick, shattered the locking bar to throw the entrance wide open.

The first room was a waiting area, a foyer and welcoming space for customers of the guild.

Under normal circumstances, there would be servants, refreshments, and comfortable seating.

Of course, there were no servers at the moment.

Trays of drinks and platters of food lay scattered about, and much of the furniture was overturned.

It hadn’t been so long that the food had spoiled, so the smell in the air was just a bit jumbled from the dropped items.

The room wasn’t otherwise empty, however, as Tala got her first look at the automata.

They were very much like men made of an almost white steel. Unlike the animate statues she’d fought in the ether hold, these had joints, and inner workings that poked out around the strangely liquid looking metal of their main pieces.

The metal men stood haphazardly around the room, seeming to have stopped as soon as the last of the guildmembers were thrown out.

Their faces were utterly emotionless, and a break in the faceplates showed that the mouths were intended to open, just as the book had said.

Their eyes had a subtle purple hue that gleamed in the low, slightly flickering light; several of the magical lights around the room having been cracked or broken.

These automata were all the most basic model. They were designed to fight with whatever they could lay their hands on, or just with their hands directly, and they were strong, but they hadn’t been designed, specifically, for security or combat.

No, these were the servant models.

Even so, the brief overview of their specifications had informed Tala that they would each be about as strong as she had been before Fusing, which was honestly insane.

-Any one of these would tear through a human city like a natural disaster until the defenders arrived.-

Also, true to their label of automata, they were actively drawing in magic from their surroundings.

She couldn’t see what they were doing with it, but she knew it likely wasn’t good.

As they hadn’t moved since the last person had been thrown out, there were two standing right inside the door that Tala had just kicked open.

Every head snapped towards her almost moving as one the instant she breached the entrance, and Tala attacked.

Flow became a sword, and Tala beheaded the first two with a clean sweep, even as they were still coming out of whatever power absorption mode they’d been in.

A thick, vibrant purple liquid sprayed out, almost seeming to glow as it rained down around the two bodies, crashing to the floor.

Two down.

The spheres in her off hand had made the sword swing a bit awkward, as she’d had to do it one handed.

Thus, she wanted them gone. So, she picked two figures at the far end of the room and altered the sphere’s targets to their upper chests, a weak point on these models according to the book and the location of their cores.

The air cracked as the spheres tore through it, raising the temperature of the room a couple of degrees in an instant before the two automata’s upper torsos seemed to vaporize.

The others in the room were fully awake and aware, by then.

Some were already sprinting her way, either unarmed or still carrying that which they’d wielded against the guildmembers.

Others were moving to grab nearby objects to use against her.

This is going to be fun. Tala couldn’t tell if she was being serious or sarcastic.

-A bit of both, I think. It will be a chore, but a fun chore.-

She grinned, reaching out to target the two that were closest, still a dozen yards away at least.

It took all her magical weight to hammer a lock into place.

Crush. They hunkered down, not slowing. Well, that’s unfortunate.

Crush! The stone cracked beneath their thundering feet. Oh, come on.

CRUSH. The two dropped to all fours, using their increased weight to close on her more quickly. Now, that’s just creepy.

CRUSH!!! They slammed to the floor, flattening and sending out a squelch of purple liquid, like a crushed, previously-bloated mosquito.

That was ridiculously inefficient. She’d used eight rings across those two, and she knew there would be hundreds of these things to deal with.

Who builds an army of untested creations? These people were idiots.

She used a quick restrain on the next charging figures, but the one that followed immediately behind that one grabbed it and threw the thing at her.

NO! You cannot utilize my own working against me. She broke the effect, and the thing slammed back to the ground.

The doors closed behind her on their own with a click, and a full ten enemies reached her nearly simultaneously.

Tala spun through the attackers, using the Way of Flowing Blood like never before, her practice both alone and with Thron showing its merit.

Flow moved between its standard forms— knife, sword, and glaive—so fluidly that it was hard to tell which shape it was in at any given instant, and it was always exactly the form that Tala needed it to be as she needed it.

Her bloodstars added to her weapon and martial forms. The three around her head giving her and Alat a view in every direction and allowing her to grow a helmet over her head with her elk-leathers as she fought without losing any awareness.

Tala leveraged the two bloodstars within the tungsten rod to whip the metal in tight, automaton-cracking arcs.

The sphere containing a bloodstar still acted mostly as a spoiler, keeping enemies at bay, or throwing them off by being in just the right place to delay and give Tala an extra instant to exploit for an attack or to shift out of the way.

The three defensive plates were used for just that: defense. They blocked fists, furniture legs, serving trays, and even the occasional cheese knife. Some of those were thrown, but most were wielded by inhumanly strong arms.

To add to the difficulty, any automaton that wasn’t fully dispatched—by either losing its head or having its core disabled—seemed to quickly repair itself, even picking up and reattaching limbs as needed.

Even so, Tala found herself grinning like a madwoman.

It had been so long since she was truly tested.

The ether hold had been a pain, but in its own way, it had been too easy.

Once she found the counter for each type of enemy, they died in droves.

There was some of that, here, but the automata were adapting, learning as they fought her.

Moreover, they seemed to be learning from the others that fought her.

Each new opponent joined the fray, seemingly already aware of the tricks she’d used before, knowledgeable of how she fought.

It was terrifying in a sense.

It was invigorating.

She loved it.

They pressed her from all sides, but they couldn’t touch her.

She was just better than them.

At least, she was better than the first twenty or so.

Even the next twenty weren’t that difficult to overcome.

Then, the forty-second somehow used the others around her to make its way through her guard and lay a hand on her shoulder.

It wasn’t an attack, so it didn’t hurt, and it wasn’t blocked by her elk-leather’s defense.

Instead, the thing jerked her backwards, throwing her off balance, and the world seemed to slow.

A frown began forming across her features in slow motion as her mind raced.

What? The rusting thing got through?

-You saw it coming.-

Yeah, but I tripped the other one in its way.

-You did that before.-

Rust…that’s right. They are adapting faster. I think they’re narrowing in on my fighting style.

-So? What do we do?-

We have to change the game.

Tala’s eyes lit with an idea. Then, they vanished, replaced with empty holes in reality, as Tala activated Flow’s void-knife form.

As she fell backward, she twisted and drove the blade into the automaton’s arm.

Magic began rushing out of the thing and into the knife.

Tala’s void-sight, her altered mage-sight thanks to the power of the void flowing through her, showed her the movement of the power within her enemies, and she noticed when the thing internally severed its own limb.

The arm dropped free, and the void-knife had no more power to pull as it had gobbled up all that remained in the limb in an instant.

Well, that worked pretty well.

-I’ll say.-

Tall took a deep breath and spun back towards those on the other side, which had been seeking to take advantage of her temporary stumble.

With a working of will and a powerful exhale, she blasted them with dissolution magics.

Unfortunately, they didn’t all simply turn to dust.

No, that would have been too easy.

Instead, their magics rose up and fought against the disintegration of the metal bodies, draining a large chunk of power from each automata her breath hit.

That works too. Her grin was back, now so wide it made her cheeks hurt.

-Let’s do this.-

Less than two minutes later, a total of a hundred and twenty of the basic automata lay broken and leaking in the welcome room around her.

She was liberally splattered with the vibrant, glowing, purple liquid. Nothing about it seemed to hurt her.

With a quick bouncing hop in place, most of the stuff fell free to rain on the floor around her. She didn’t aspect mirror the self-cleaning as doing so would break free her iron paint.

Maybe at the end of clearing out this place. Then, I can take a bath.

Tala looked at the large set of doors on the far side of the space from the entrance and the keyhole in them.

That will lead into the next section.

-There will be more than just these basic ones in there. Some preparation would be good.-

Agreed.

So, Tala sat and prepared all ten sets of tungsten spheres Be-thric had given her, having recovered the two she used at the beginning of her rampage through the welcome area.

She couldn’t hold ten sets of spheres in her hands at once and didn’t even want to hold one as it was awkward and threw off her grip for many of her forms.

She settled on putting them back in their pouch on her belt, set on pulling them out at need.

And she had no doubt that she would need them.

For each set, she had amplified their gravity towards one another to a degree that they would easily decommission at least the basic automata.

She wasn’t sure about the more advanced models.

After all, the more advanced automata had armor.