Millennial Mage

Tala, Thron, Gallof, and Be-thric reached the edge of the city of Croi after an uneventful trek across the ten miles of plains.

After their magically noticeable method of travel, Tala’s fight with the magical beasts had been a bit lengthier than planned, but not by much.

Besides that fight, they’d only stopped for a moment so that Tala could duck into her sanctum to be reinscribed and repaint her limbs with iron. Tala tried not to think too long on why those limbs needed to be repainted.

As such, it was barely after sunset when their feet found paved streets.

Just like in the human lands, there were no dedicated roads between arcane cities.

This was true, even though magical creatures were far less hostile towards arcanes than they were to humans, and arcanous creatures were much rarer.

The entire set of differences and distinctions was something that Tala still didn’t fully understand, honestly.

There were arcanous creatures that had gone through founts. Those were mundane beasts with a bit of magic added on the top. Sometimes they could become powerful enough to be considered magical beasts, but they were always aspected like the fount from which they’d gained their power.

Tala was unsure how they continued to get power to use, but from what she understood it just became a natural thing for them to generate power as part of their bodily functions. It was an incredibly finite supply, and if they didn’t eat or sleep, they wouldn’t continue to produce it.

-And that doesn’t really make sense from what we know about magic and where it comes from…-

But that was the prevailing theory. From what Tala could tell, arcanous animals didn’t really exist in the arcane lands, as confusing as that was, so she couldn’t see if the arcanes had any better information or theories.

Truly magical magical beasts were common to both the human and arcane areas of the continent, and likely found all over the world.

These beasts got their power from a bond with something. That bond wasn’t unlike a soul-bond, but it wasn’t with a human.

To her knowledge, no one had ever witnessed the birth or creation of a truly magical creature, so a lot was speculation. Humanity wasn’t even sure if magical creatures were altered mundane creatures, jumping straight from mundane to magical, or if they were created as fully magical with or without the necessity of parentage or some form of egg or birth.

Arcanes simply saw truly magical creatures as reality’s response to improper or reckless usage of magic. That predicted the appearance and behavior of the creatures, so most didn’t care further. Tala hadn’t been able to find research materials beyond that.

In either case, truly magical creatures gained power from that which they were bound to. The most common was from the land or reality itself. They were brought into being, or made into what they were, to defend the area or drive out something unnatural.

All this to say, roads were not possible when the land itself might somehow spawn a creature of power to wipe out the constructed, or traveler-worn, thoroughfare and anyone unlucky enough to be upon it at the time.

So, the feel of fitted stone under Tala’s bare feet, and the sound of the boots of the other three on the same, was a welcome statement that they were back in civilization.

True, it was a human enslaving civilization, but Tala would take what she could get at the moment. She was still feeling a bit strained, and her head was still pounding, from the fight with the minor horde of creatures, capped by the ‘reality drake’ or whatever the rust that thing had been.

Arcane city defenses were much more nebulous than human ones, but that made sense given that, in general, arcane cities were left alone, where human cities were forced to move every few centuries or be destroyed.

Overall, the differences were many and compounding.

Croi was a truly ancient city.

Tala had learned a bit about it in preparation for this trip. It had been more than ten thousand years since its founding, and the very feel of the place was heavy with history.

There was a cold nip in the evening air, but that made sense as it was getting close to the shortest day of the year. Even so, as far south as they were, snow had yet to stick on the ground.

That lack alone made Tala rarely really contemplate the fact that it was mid-winter, closing in on the end of the year. It’s right around a month until my twenty-first birthday.

It was an odd, disconnected thought among all the internal observations of the magnificent city, but it sat heavily within her.

This time last year, she was taking trips back and forth between Bandfast and Marliweather, trying to get in as much time with her siblings as possible before Nalac and Illie left for the Academy.

Unless I lost more time than I realized. Be-thric could have been mucking about in my head, trying to create and perfect Tali for decades, for all I know.

-I don’t think so, and you don’t either. Don’t let fear make you jump to conclusions.-

…I suppose so. I hope they are doing well.

-Nalac and Illie? Yeah… I bet they took the disappearance pretty hard.-

If they even know.

-They know, Tala. They would have been told. Most students read the letters they were sent, and your siblings would do the same.-

Yeah… Imagine how surprised everyone will be when I show up. That lifted her spirits a bit, and she smiled.

Gallof sighed. “It is good to be back in a city, is it not? Back here in particular.”

That’s right. Gallof and Thron were based out of Croi until the opening for a new Pillar came available in Platoiri. Tala glanced towards the man. “Has it changed?”

“No, it’s only been a few months. Croi hasn’t really changed in centuries, a few months are meaningless to such a place.” He was clearly enamored with the place, and Tala could somewhat understand.

Even the outer edge was interesting.

They were still coming in from the outskirts. Another difference between human and arcane cities was very obvious as they slowly made their way inward.

Human cities had most of the residences in the center, as they shrank over time. Arcane cities built outward, and most of the time, the outermost structures were homes.

As such, they only started passing other people after they were a few blocks in.

Tala immediately saw the difference in populations between Croi and Platoiri.

In Platoiri, Thron had been an outlier. He wasn’t the only dwarf by a long shot, but his kinsmen were few and far between.

In Croi, it seemed like every other person was a dwarf.

Their skin ranged from Thron’s emerald green through the other jewel tones: ruby red, sapphire blue, even amethyst purple, among others. For those dwarves, their hair was always some sort of metallic color: silver, gold, copper, or some derivation thereof. Then, there seemed to be another set of dwarves with metallic skin and gem-like hair.

Tala had a hard time not gawking when a dark-gray metal skinned dwarf with practically glowing ruby hair and beard walked past.

Wait… his skin looks like mine with the iron paint. She suddenly wanted gem-like hair. That is amazing.

She really wanted to touch their hair, but realized it would be anything but appropriate even to ask.

Ahh, the burdens of being civilized.

-Civilized? You’re the Eskau of the House that practically runs this city. You tell them to come here and let you feel their hair. No one’s going to say anything.-

That is an abuse of power right there.

-Eh, take the perks while you can.-

You’re terrible sometimes, Alat.

The variation in citizenry was more than just due to a larger number of dwarves. There were very few beast-folk of any kind. Hue-folk were slightly less common as well, and in their place, statistically speaking, were other races that Tala hadn’t really seen before.

She almost had a heart attack, and only Alat’s help kept her from showing overt panic, when a humanoid plant passed them by.

Leshkin! But no, somehow Tala could tell that it wasn’t. There was more…intellect behind the movements of the being, and the body seemed much more…functional? Leshkin were effectively animated plants, like a statue forced to move via magic, but made of vegetative matter. The beings that Tala saw were complete creatures, seeming to eat and drink, and have internal organs, simply of a more plant derived form.

Fascinating.

There were also lizard people, which Tala knew enough about to not think of as lizard beast-kin. They did not see themselves as beast-folk. They claimed to be dragonlings. They also claimed that they were the descendants of humans and dragons, while beast-folk were the descendants of experiments gone wrong. So, in general, everyone was offended and angry over the distinctions, and Tala knew to stay clear of the subject with either sub-group of races.

The dragonlings, for their part, looked like oddly proportioned humans with variously colored and textured scales. Well, that and draconic heads, which were just a bit disturbing after Tala’s recent one-sided fight with the drake.

She definitely tried not to stare at those, no matter how lovely and fascinating the patterns of their scales may have been.

Through all of this, Gallof was guiding them through the streets, and Tala was following mainly without thought, simply moving with those that she’d already been traveling with, while she tried to take in all the sights that surrounded her.

Aside from the citizenry, her eyes took in the soaring architecture, and the incredible artistic embellishments on many of the buildings.

There was no District of Doors in Croi, at least not like that in Platoiri.

The House of Blood was nearly without rival within this city. The City Lord was rumored to be a daughter of the House of Blood in ages past, but if so, she’d long ago severed official ties with the House to rise to the position of City Lord.

In considering that rumor, the Platoiri City Lord’s belittling of her abilities might have been another jab at them, like his comments regarding the Mind Flayer.

Who knows with that madman. Tala was not looking forward to returning to Platoiri and resuming her shifts with the City Lord, but that was a problem for another day.

Gallof wasn’t leading them to the center of the city and the House of Blood’s main hold, here. No, that would be a walk of nearly an hour, if there were no delays or detours. Instead, he took them down into an underground passage labeled: ‘Compression Lanes’

Tala had obviously read about these in reading about the city, and she was excited to see them.

They came down a set of stairs into a nexus of sorts, where large hallways led in every direction. Gallof led them unerringly down one of the passages.

Tala felt the magic around them, and it was almost purely dimensional compression.

The air became thicker, but not unbearably so, and they soon exited the hall into another nexus, the air returning to normal.

Each passage was a straight shot to another nexus, and the space between was compressed, a mile down to a hundred feet or so. That level of compression was tolerable even for Child level arcanes, but Tala suspected that it would be painful, if not lethal, for a mundane human to pass through the oddly compressed air.

It was odd, because it wasn’t actually compressed air, instead it was as if each step took her through the space containing vast quantities of air. It was hard to describe, but she could decidedly feel the odd stresses on her body from the magics.

Gallof seemed quite familiar with the system of travel and easily navigated to take the needed passage in each nexus.

Finally, as they came up another set of stairs to street level, close to their destination, Tala was able to see for herself what Croi offered in place of the District of Doors.

Directly across the street from the entrance to the City Lord’s estate a nearly equally magnificent gateway led into the hold of the House of Blood.

Around those paired monoliths of power, other houses and groups vied for prevalence.

To Tala’s fascination, the doors of every other hold in the area seemed to be mounted on a series of locks in the ground. From her understanding, it was trivial to move a hold entrance, and that happened regularly.

In this city, no house or guild could buy, or even rent, a particular space. The location of their hold on any given day was purely at the whim and will of the City Lord and the House of Blood.

Though, in truth, the order and placement didn’t change anywhere near that often.

I cannot fathom trying to find where you needed to go if it did change even every few days.

Tala instinctively stood up straighter as they neared. She forced her will and her magic through her garments, reshaping them into immaculate clothing befitting her station and displaying the emblem of the House of Blood. She’d retracted the white-metal armor before the trek towards the city for two reasons. First, walking in armor was never a fun time. Second, the drake had eaten a lot of her armor, and she’d not taken the time to absorb more metal into her elk-leathers to replenish that finite resource.

I’m going to have to be careful of that, aren’t I?

-Yeah… I foresee it becoming a problem, if we aren’t careful.-

The guild’s notes on how they made the metal should be in the information we acquired somewhere.

-Yeah, we can hope. It seems like useful stuff.-

Be-thric noticed her change and smiled, giving her an approving nod. “Well thought, my Eskau.”

Tala pasted on a smile. “You are too kind, Pillar Be-thric.”

“Nonsense. You are the pivotal reason we are here. It is to acquire more power for you, and through you, me and the House of Blood. The impression you make will mean everything.”

Great… no pressure. This wasn’t new information, of course, but it was still a bit nerve wracking to be reminded. “I will do my utmost to make a good impression, then.”

Another difference between Platoiri and Croi is that here, guards stood outside the House of Blood’s hold, and the doors were flung wide.

That provided an interesting picture, actually, as it was clearly day within the hold, while full night had fallen even as they were just entering the city, and the four of them were at its heart, now.

The guards saw them and were either expecting them or noticed Tala’s livery.

One was a dwarf, and the other stepped forward and addressed them. “Greetings, great ones of the House of Blood.”

The few others who were in the area turned to regard the four.

The guard continued. “Be welcomed, brothers and sisters of the House. Welcome, Pillar who is our strength against the weight of the world. Welcome, Eskau who slays those who would oppose our interest. Be welcomed, one and all!”

His pronouncement echoed through the streets, and several of those near Tala and her group fell to their knees, bowing as they passed.

I suppose that makes sense in a city controlled by the House of Blood.

The guard’s voice had also echoed through the open doorway and some of those inside were looking out.

The most prevalent to Tala’s eye was a shorter woman, about her own height, wearing well-fitted dark platemail. She moved like it weighed nothing and didn’t seem to restrict her in the least.

There was no helmet in evidence, so Tala assumed the armor was magical and would grow the helmet at need. It appeared expertly made with no gaps that Tala could see. Where there would normally be gaps, smaller, more flexible configurations of plates were in evidence.

The only item that seemed odd was the woman’s left gauntlet, which seemed too big to be standard. Her protian weapon? She’s an Eskau?

That would make sense if the protian weapon was overlaying an existing gauntlet.

Tala suspected that this woman was as well guarded in her plate-mail as Tala was inside her white metal armor, while maintaining direct control over it.

The woman almost looked human at first glance, and she had no gate. In fact, she had no color or obvious feature or magical flow about her at all that Tala could see with her mage-sight. Very good aura control.

As Tala looked closer, she almost froze in her steps.

The woman’s skin was as fair as a newborn babe’s. Her hair was as dark as pitch. Around her eyes and across her forehead, inscriptions were evident, composed of some dark metal, only seeming to add to the woman’s beauty.

Tala couldn’t see any power flowing through the spell-form, but she didn’t expect she would, given the other parts of the woman’s aura control.

Even so, the most striking feature, the one that had almost tripped Tala up when it was noticed, was her pointed ears, poking out from among the dark hair.

There are RUSTING ELVES!?! Fair skinned, almost otherworldly beauty, pointy ears. That checked all the boxes Tala knew of. She’s an elf…

-Well, you’ve met dwarves. Why didn’t you expect elves? They are often part of the same tales in mythology.-

The elven woman in question strode towards their group, meeting them just inside the hold.

Her voice was as melodic as it was soothing, yet there was no weakness or frailty to the sound, “Greetings. I am Eskau Meallain, true servant to Pillar Cruas.”

Tala gave a nod of acknowledgment. Ostensibly, she and Meallain were equals, but Cruas was second only to Corinis in the House of Blood as a whole. Tala did not want to be on this woman’s bad side. “Thank you for greeting us personally, Eskau Meallain. I am Tali, Eskau to Pillar Be-thric.”

She gestured to Be-thric, and he nodded in respect to the woman as well.

“Be welcome, Pillar. Be welcome, Eskau.” As Meallain gestured for them to enter, her eyes met Tala’s, and Tala saw the elf’s control loosen just slightly, allowing Tala’s mage-sight a spark of insight.

Blue…The woman is rusting Revered. Tala was more and more glad that she didn’t need to fight her way free of the House of Blood, because every bit of information she learned served to convince her more fully that she would fail.

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