Millennial Mage

Chapter 456: Growth and Improvement

Tala and Terry faced each other in the white void.

It was no longer featureless, as the magical working of their bond lay all around them, in such intricate detail that no human could easily create it from scratch. That—among other things—confirmed Tala’s suspicion that the soulbond was simply tapping into something deeper, rather than being created, whole cloth, by the Archon star.

It was through those magics—currently focused mainly on him—that she was getting glimpses into the reliving—reframing—of his entire life.

He had just finished that process with the lens of his enhanced cognition, and a choice was before him.

Tala thought she knew what he would choose, but there was still a small part of her that held doubt.

They could both feel the choice that was before the avian.

Terry, in that moment, could bow to Tala’s sovereignty in their bond or seek to claim mastery for himself.

An underlying question was: could he see equality in submission, or would he feel the need to fight for mastery to feel that they would remain partners, remain flockmates.

If he did fight her for control, there would be a mighty clash of wills and power.

Terry had been remade at a fundamental level. While the process hadn’t touched his physicality yet, his magic and will had been remolded with Tala’s very power behind the process, and they hadn’t been weak to begin with.

There was no assurance or certainty as to who would come out the victor in the end if they clashed, but Tala understood—and hoped that Terry did too—that any such clash would leave them both worse off, no matter who ‘won’ in the end.

So, the two regarded one another.

Tala could preempt the decision and move to suppress Terry, forcing him into the subservient role, but she didn’t want to do that. That would be a betrayal of their bond in another way. If she preemptively claimed command through dint of force, such an action would taint everything and weaken them both almost as much as her winning a clash Terry started would.

She wanted to trust her companion, even if there was still a kernel of doubt.

She chose trust, and a smile broke over her manifested face.

After meeting her gaze for a long, long moment, Terry lowered his head and tilted it to the side, closing his eyes and ceding control of their bond to her without contest.

The tendrils of magic that had surrounded them within the void pulsed one last time, ripping inward to sink fully into the two, solidifying their bond irrevocably.

Terry let out a sound that was incredibly like a human gasp, and he was remade.

Tala had not accepted any physical changes from the bond, and with her authority acknowledged, none would occur.

As Terry was Refined, the white void faded, the foundation of the bond complete.

* * *

Tala opened her eyes just in time to see Terry explode.

What shot outward was the black gunk that she had become familiar with due to her own Refining, as well as Rane’s.

By the volume that shot away from Terry, his true size must have been at least ten times the volume of Rane, which was actually larger than Tala had expected.

Terry trilled in distress, and Tala felt him unconsciously mirror her self-healing onto himself, pulling power through her gate.

She felt that she could easily have blocked his usage of her magics, her power, but she saw no need to do so. In fact, she added her own willpower behind the aspect mirroring, and she saw him relaxing, even as the black sludge seemed to mist away.

It’s more concentrated, somehow.

-The taint of Reality within him was far more concentrated, more powerful.-

So it seems. Welcome back, Alat.

-Oh, I was there, I was just trying to give you the space to go through it alone. If you’d needed me, I’d have intervened.-

Well, thank you for that.

-Of course. The focus was you and Terry—as it should be—not me.-

Terry shook himself—aspect mirroring exactly what he needed to in order to self-clean—freeing the last of the gunk from under his feathers.

When he opened his eyes, Tala saw that the orbs were now a ruby red—just like hers—rather than the gold that they’d been previously. Though in his case, his whole eye bore the color—save the pupil—instead of just the iris.

His feathers had darkened too, the colors becoming more vibrant than before even as a void-violet seemed to have been added between the red and blue that had been present before, turning it into a three-banded display and emphasizing the stark contrast.

Other than that, from a visual perspective, it seemed like he’d simply been made a bit more extreme, his darks a bit darker, his lights a bit lighter, and the intelligence behind his eyes was now even more undeniable.

His exhaustion was also obvious as he swayed on his feet.

Tala felt…something.

She wanted to be beside him, and as she extended her aura to encompass the area to his left, she moved.

It wasn’t the same as moving within Kit.

There was far greater effort to it, and it seemed to actually take a moment’s time—rather than the instantaneous transfer within her sanctum—but she still did it, and it was inarguably faster than dropping into a portal then back out somewhere else.

Simply due to her bond with Terry, she had flickered across the intervening space.

Even as she wrapped her arms around him in the real world, she began to chuckle, the laugh building into a full bellied one that rolled from her, uncontrollably.

This was going to be amazing.

Over the next few minutes, Terry would shudder and spew out more black nastiness from his mouth or out from among his feathers, sometimes even sweating it from the exposed skin of his legs.

He would then aspect mirror her magics—augmented by her own will—to heal himself back to full physical health.

Each time, he seemed to become more solid in a sense of seeming to come into greater contrast with the world around them.

It took her nearly five minutes of the process to realize that with each cycle he was feeling, magically, more aligned with her, and more real to her.

He was also slowly drawing on her gate more and more consistently, rather than only when he was aspect mirroring some of her magics.

This was utterly unlike any bond or merging she’d undergone before, but she supposed it made some sense. He was likely re-aspecting the totality of his magics and being to align with what was effectively now his soul.

Throughout, Terry’s eyes showed him slipping in and out of lucidity, but he never looked on her with anything other than gratitude for her presence, at least when he seemed to be focused on her at all.

Finally, nearly ten minutes after the foundation of the bond was complete, Terry seemed to have fully Refined. The last of the black sludge faded away, and the avian opened his eyes and looked around.

He let out a squawk and flickered out of Tala’s arms.

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As he did so, Tala felt the movement. It was more than the vague sense of dimensional magics that she’d felt before—in fact that was utterly gone. Instead, it was more like she was sensing a part of herself, like she vaguely knew where her arms or legs were and how they were moving.

It wasn’t a high-fidelity sense by any means, but it was definitely more than she’d ever been able to track Terry in the past.

More than that, she felt like she could have stopped his flickering had she wished to do so.

She swore to herself in that moment that she would never restrict Terry in that way, unless she had absolutely no other choice.

As he appeared off to the side, he shook himself, the wave of ruffled feathers moving from beak to tail before he stamped his taloned feet many times in quick alternation as if trying to free them of dirt or water.

Tala almost pushed herself up to stand, but then—with an uncontrollable smile—she simply willed herself to be standing.

It was… odd.

Effectively, she altered the dimensionality of all parts of herself, aligning them properly to be standing rather than sitting.

In that moment, she realized how well Terry had to know his biology, as she felt like she would have torn herself apart all too easily if she hadn’t known her own so well.

-Or he does it unconsciously. Simply willing his body to be in a different position, and his own mental model does the rest, because that’s what he means when he wants to be standing, if that makes sense.-

That… yeah, that could be it. It might even be her specific knowledge that made it more difficult for her. But, that considered, she might be able to do more because of that.

-Oh! Yeah, you might be able to simply flicker wounds closed. That’s quite the possibility.-

Definitely worth testing.

Rane and the other Archon had watched the whole process with interest, but had kept themselves in the background out of respect—the fact that they were out of the splash zone was just a plus.

Tala smiled their way. “Thank you.”

Rane returned the smile. “How are you two doing?”

Terry shook himself again and trilled happily.

Rane chuckled. “I’m glad. And you, Tala?”

She nodded. “I’m doing well.”

The Archon cleared his throat. “Can I assist further?”

Tala shook her head, and Rane responded, “No, thank you.”

The man bowed and departed, leaving the door ajar after he left.

Rane watched him go, then turned and moved over toward Tala and Terry. “Terry, I like the new eyes.”

Terry tilted his head to the side and squawked in clear confusion.

Rane hesitated only a moment before realizing his mistake. “Ahh, well, we’ll have to get you a mirror.”

Tala frowned, an idea coming to her. Alat?

-Oh! I can try.-

She cleared her throat. “Terry, we’re going to try to aspect mirror our perspective for you. You should be able to see what I see.”

He narrowed his gaze for a moment before bobbing his agreement.

“Alright.”

-And… there.-

Terry jerked slightly, then shook his head before settling down, his own eyes gaining a far off look.

A moment later, Alat let the aspect mirroring drop, and Terry’s eyes gained their focused intensity once more.

“So?” Rane prompted. “What do you think of the new look?”

Terry fluffed up his chest, his feathers lifting to make him visibly swell in size, even without any dimensional manipulation.

Terry shook himself again, then seemed irritated by something.

He shrunk massively, leaving a familiar leather collar as it had been.

Tala’s eyes widened, and she opened her mouth to object, but Terry flickered away, leaving the collar behind.

She prepared herself to defend against the heavy hand of the city’s defenses, but nothing happened.

Rane seemed to sense her tension, intuiting the reason, and he smiled. “He has your magical signature now, Tala. The city won’t touch him.”

“Oh, right…” She shook her head. “I knew that. I guess I wasn’t really thinking rationally. Thank you.”

He shrugged. “Of course. You’re still a bit strained. It happens.”

Tala shook herself, feeling a wonderful sense of relief as she did so. “Well, yeah. Thank you anyway.” She took in a deep breath, the action turning into an unexpected yawn. “It seems like we should probably get some rest. After that? We have just so many things to test.”

* * *

Despite seeming fully recovered in the moment, Terry had been, in fact, quite weakened by the Refining that took place as a result of the bond.

Tala was able to sense some of his weakness as she got used to their connection, and in that way, she was able to help him. She did that mainly by insisting that he take it easy and providing him with plenty of food and power.

Once well rested and fed, Terry and Tala took the time to explore their newfound capabilities, both feeling excited to get started as soon as possible.

A specifically happy result of their bond was that it had apparently pulled her soul—and thus all her soulbonds—closer to the next world for a brief time, just as bonding with Kit had. Because of that, Kit’s dimensionality was able to re-equalize with Tala’s new, higher power density.

She still maintained the low-magic areas around Irondale so as to not cause magical rebirth in the gateless, but that just meant that she had more magical density to move around, even if Kit couldn’t hold a higher density than Tala, herself, had.

That had resulted in Kit essentially maintaining a bubble of lower density around every citizen, so they didn’t have to bleed off too much power. This turned out to actually be relatively simple, as every person had a natural aura around themselves. Even gateless had them, though they were essentially confined to their bodies.

That was perfect, though, as Kit then simply had to keep Tala’s magic from penetrating through any resistance.

Adrill, Brandon, Kedva, and Talax all matched Tala’s magical flavor, so they gave no more resistance to her magic than her own aura would, meaning none.

On the more direct results-of-the-bonding front, Terry had been introduced to Alat.

He’d not been very pleased by her initial exuberance, but he’d warmed to her when she stopped babbling and began being helpful.

Tala also suspected that Alat’s presence within his head—she was capable of aspect mirroring herself into his mind—had kept him from going a little wild, now that he had true freedom within Alefast.

In that same vein, Master Grediv had congratulated them on their bond and actually had a gift ready for Terry.

Terry had been a bit irritated that it was a magic-bound collar once again, but when the purpose was explained to him, he was incredibly excited.

It had some similarities to the previous collar as it would mark him out as overtly friendly, to remove issues with city guards, Defenders, or others in charge of keeping the populace safe. More than that, though, if he went further from Tala than roughly one hundred yards, he would be cloaked in an illusion of a nondescript man whose movements mirrored Terry’s own intentions.

It wasn’t perfect, but it would limit the panic he might otherwise have caused, being a terror bird around a civilian population without an obvious handler.

Tala was briefly concerned that Terry would be insulted, but on the contrary, the avian had been ecstatic.

Alat’s ever-watchful eye ensured that Terry’s bills were paid when he went on his ventures, whether or not a given shop or restaurant was aware of Terry’s custom.

Since Terry was already wearing a collar once again, Tala made sure to leave a portion of her elk-leathers wrapped around it, ready to armor him or provide other things at need.

It had been a pleasant thing to verify: being with Terry didn’t count as separation for the soulbound item. Thus, it was more like Tala had made a glove for herself, without having it touch the sleeves of her tunic. Separate pieces but still fully unified, despite distance.

The bond did more for them as well. Though, not all of it was that useful.

Tala could see through Terry’s eyes, or from his feathers, or any part of him really, and he could do the same through her eyes as long as she didn’t block the attempt, but neither of them saw this as particularly needed. Moreover, their vision was sufficiently different that it was somewhat uncomfortable for each to try to use the other’s for more than a short time.

What Terry did do as soon as he seemed to think of it, however, was nearly instantly request his own cloud of bloodstars for threefold perception, which Tala readily allowed and facilitated.

She even already had a second cloud of bloodstars ready for the task because of her clash with Mistress Cethira while her primary cloud had been with Rane.

She didn’t have to maintain the threefold perception either as Alat’s mirroring into Terry’s mind sequestered some of Terry’s own mind for her use, even as she expanded his processing power by helping to mirror Tala’s mental enhancements. Her managing and processing the threefold sight for Terry reduced her ability to communicate with him, as it was near her full capacity to manage that on an ongoing basis.

Tala only half-suspected that such was part of the reason Terry was so excited with the results. Since Tala suspected that, she knew that Alat did too—the alternate interface could directly check after all—but neither said anything about it.

Terry’s magical density had been uplifted, and he’d been filled with her power to a degree that, if he didn’t hide himself, he practically blazed to magical senses.

Thankfully, his years of… activities had made him particularly skilled in hiding his magic from human magical sense.

Once he got used to his newfound power, he was able to adjust his techniques to simply resemble Tala in magical quantity, even though his sequestered mass meant that his small body was a window through which a much greater quantity of power should have been able to be seen.

They had obviously tested Terry flickering with the elk leathers. So, it was no surprise that he could do the same with Flow as well. More than that, though, so long as their auras were at least touching, Tala and Terry could easily flicker Flow back and forth between them.

The soulbound weapon didn’t have Tala’s issue—and moved effectively instantly—making so, so many options for combat open up before them, but that would have to be explored later.

As Tala hadn’t quite gotten to the level of solid aura control within disparate sections of her aura, she couldn’t flicker to Terry’s side if their auras weren’t contiguous, at least not yet.

Only time would tell if that restriction would be permanent.

On the less fun side, there had been a scary moment when Terry had seen some iron and decided that he wanted to get it for Tala.

If Alat hadn’t alerted Tala to the issue immediately, there could have been… issues.

That required a conversation in which Terry finally agreed to not attempt to claim iron on her behalf again—except from enemies on the battlefield.

All told, their bond represented a massive potential for growth and improvement in them both.