Millennial Mage

Tala walked up the escarpment, the more theoretically minded Talons standing beside Master Simon, Adrill, and Brandon well back from the edge, the latter two chief among the research oriented Talons. She did so in her full armor—hidden, of course, by her through spike. It was just after noon, and Rane walked a little behind her, Terry on his shoulder for the moment.

They both wanted to be close, but not too close given the nature of the magics involved.

Lyn stood back a ways, realizing that she was likely the least resilient magic user present. Still, she had a slate in hand and a gleam of curiosity in her eyes. Aside from being the most in danger, she was also the one with the least reason to actually be there, so she was doing her best to not make waves or really draw any attention to herself.

Even so, Ron stood just behind Lyn’s right shoulder, and Tala thought he looked ready to jump in the way at need. That would probably keep her safe, actually.

-Yeah, their magics are directly counter to the magics we're going to use, here. Theirs will be the most resilient to this attack of any magical defenses, at least in theory.-

While maintaining his perch atop Rane’s shoulder, the terror bird was practically dancing from foot to foot. He knew what this experiment meant to her more viscerally than most. This breath attack would be allowed in any formal clash with The Pack.

And beside that formality, it was something that was wholly hers.

It was power that was fully her own, and power it was… at least she hoped it would be.

With that in mind, she’d had Alat give polite notifications to the various advanced Archons in the area. She didn’t want misunderstandings to occur, nor did she want to accidentally ruin an experiment somewhere, or do something similarly disruptive or destructive.

The message was simple these days, as Tala had run the ideas enfolded into this complicated working by most of them at one time or another over the last years. Even so, most who actually knew what she was doing still didn’t understand why she called it a breath weapon, but that was fine. It was her breath weapon. Not theirs.

It was hers, and it was finally time for her to test the—hopefully—finished product of her years of labor and minute testing.

Toward that end, she opened a long, thin portal running down her back, into that space within Kit. Then, with an act of will, she compressed the air within the artificial lung, causing a torrent of air to be drawn in even as she walked the last few steps.

Rane’s magic reacted instantly, causing him to be unaffected by the sudden torrent of wind. The others present had sufficient enhancement to resist for a time.

Even Lyn was strong enough that it was only a minor inconvenience given her distance, though she braced against Ron who had stepped up beside her.

Long experience had taught Tala to make the intake opening an oddly asymmetric shape, that way it wouldn’t whistle or otherwise intone as the air was pulled in.

-I still say it’s better to have it make a resonant sound. It would really give an amazing ‘I’m powering up’ vibe.-

Yeah, that way our enemies will know to kill me quickly. That seems wise.

-But it would be awesome!-

Death.

-Awesome.-

Tala sighed, but a smile still grew across her face at Alat’s antics. Regardless, she returned her full focus to the task at hand.

As each bit of air was pulled in, Tala’s will affected it as well, compressing it to the far side of the lung and continuing the vacuum-enabled pull.

In the end, even the last bit drawn in came in at the same rate as the first due to the vacuum created right at the entrance, which she specifically maintained, in order for the last bits of air to be swept inside.

She completed breathing in the air as she neared the drop-off—the process having taken less than a half a minute—closing the portal that had been down the back of her armor.

-We could add cool, glowing effects and everything… The through-spike is so wasted on you.-

Tala snorted a laugh in her helmet but didn’t otherwise reply.

She looked out at the plains before her and at the copse of trees in the near distance, that would be her target.

The wilds recovered quickly, so she wasn’t too concerned about doing irreparable damage.

Now in place, she rechecked the iron-channel inscriptions surrounding her lung once more. She still saw no flaw, and Alat couldn’t find anything wrong either.

That assured, she did what she’d done so long ago—and in smaller scale tests since—using her Void Channels to not only bring power to the spellform but overlay them entirely.

Magic roared through the working, and her will flexed, keeping the dissolution power that was building up within the pressurized air of her lung from acting on anything, even the air itself.

To her great relief and excitement, the effort of will was almost negligible. The magic seemed to be struggling to act even without her interference.

Her work with the reality-nodes seemed to have had exactly the desired effect, and existence within her artificial lung was proving incredibly resistant to any form of alteration. Now, it really should work as the test in the sparring ring did, and magics that exit that area act as expected.

She opened her faceplate around her mouth, adding a thick layer of iron—almost like a pipe—on the inside of the opening to prevent the magics from getting under the armor and acting on her face inadvertently.

Tala had all too visceral memory of how that felt.

-That was your own choice, Tala. Don’t blame me.-

I wasn’t… Regardless, here it goes… Then she hesitated. She needed to make sure everyone nearby was prepared too. “Are you all ready?”

Her voice was calm, and their replies came back quickly, all in the affirmative.

Terry’s response resounded longer than the others as he trumpeted to the sky from his perch on Rane’s shoulder.

Tala chuckled. “Yeah. I figured that you would be.”

Rane rested his hand briefly on the shoulder of her armor and squeezed affectionately in support, even though he knew that she wouldn’t feel it physically.

The action warmed her heart, just as he’d likely hoped that it would.

But she needed to focus. She’d pushed the compression of the air within her artificial lung up to the point that it was threatening to become a liquid, and she didn’t want to deal with that, even if she should be able to later on.

The dissolution magic had fully saturated the space to the point that it was a constant struggle to keep it from acting, even with her near total control of her own sanctum.

With everything ready, Tala opened her mouth and positioned the portal between her open jaws allowing the breath out in a rush.

There was an impulse noise, similar to thunder, but far more localized as the supercharged breath punched outward.

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

The air moved faster than it had any right too. That allowed Tala to realize that the leading edge of the thin column of air hadn’t been affected by any of the containment scripts which were flaring to glowing life around her face, neck, and mouth. Because of that it was carrying along already activated dissolution magics that were overcoming the air resistance by simply dissolving the air out of the path of the directed stream.

That leading edge covered more than a thousand feet in the first second before the containment magics—that passing through her mouth had placed on the air—were overwhelmed and the far end of the tight column roared with fire.

The containment magics in her throat and mouth continued to activate and fight to keep the power flowing out in check. Thus the ignition point remained at just past one thousand feet out from the crag.

From there, the dissolution rolled outward in a cone. With her threefold sight, Tala could see the hills in the path of the cone shrinking before the onslaught. To say nothing of the small stand of trees that had been on those same hills.

The dissolution magics broke everything apart, and the fire consumed those remnants in a raging inferno.

The cone of destruction slowly widened and lengthened as each fraction of magic had to go a bit farther than the last to find something to spend itself upon.

Finally, Tala cut off the portal into her artificial lung, purposely leaving a bit of compression in place along with quite a bit of power still in play. Let’s see how well it can be maintained.

The attack would be far more useful if she could keep it charged for use at need.

-I think with some tests, we could feather our containment scripts to choose the point of ignition with a fair degree of accuracy.-

True enough, yeah. She couldn’t fight the grin from absolutely dominating her face.

Interestingly enough, some magic-laden air tried to linger in her mouth, but the scripts that Mistress Holly and she had maintained and enhanced there forced those last dregs out as a lazy puff.

As the last of the compressed air moved outward—the portion that was last before she closed the portal—it was slower than what had come previously, given it wasn’t being pushed along.

As such, the cone seemed to grow back toward Tala at the end in more the shape of a thin column, coming about halfway back as the last of the magics were spent and the fire consumed the remnants of that which had been dissolved. That, along with the tiny puff of fire from the last remnants made it clear where the attack had come from, but that wasn’t too much of an issue.

The glowing magics around her face—showing even through the through-spike as blazing light manifestations—made it even more clear who was responsible. That was a bit more of a problem, but she could work on that part.

As the fire winked out—almost all at once—it revealed the charred soil of a new valley, showing that the cone had gone down as well as up and outward. Though, obviously, it had extended downward far less than out and that far less than up.

Still, she’d created a nice little, conical valley. Once it rained a few times, there’d be a nice little pond at one end, even if it likely wouldn’t last long.

There was a beat of silence before Master Simon sat down and put his head in his hands. Tala just barely caught his muttering, “I’m too old for this…”

Adrill was staring slack-jawed at the results, while Lyn, Brandon, and the other Talons were furiously taking notes and using the instruments and items that they’d brought to continue collecting measurements.

Well, Ron was stoically standing beside Lyn, but there was a sparkle of enjoyment in his eyes.

Rane was simply chuckling, a small, pleased smile on his lips.

Terry was looking between her and the results critically.

She grinned at the avian. “You like it? It’s not quite the fabled dragon’s breath, but it’s not half bad.”

It was probably time to try it against a real opponent. That would be the true test of its worth, but it had to be an enemy—someone she didn’t mind dying—because this was decidedly not a sparring tool.

Yes, she would have to try this against some arcane or magical creature. Magic saturated mundane materials were interesting, but Magic beasts were made of sterner stuff.

She really wanted to try it against Leshkin, but she didn’t want to face those generals again… not yet.

I’ll take them apart when the war comes, but there’s no need to poke the arcane before that.

-Indeed there is not.-

Terry flickered to her shoulder. Then, Tala and Terry stared out at the devastation that she had wrought.

As they did so, Terry let out a long, contented coo.

“How are you feeling?”

He looked her way with one eye, then returned his gaze to the Talons going crazy over the new valley—the academics having jumped down to go investigate in person. With a fluff of his feathers, he let out a little squawk.

“Well, I want to know because I care about you. You are a member of my flock, and I want you to be doing well.”

He let out a long, low trill, acknowledging her point.

“So? How are you?”

Terry turned his head to look fully at her from barely four inches away. Though, the intimidation aspect was somewhat lessened by the armored helm between the two of them.

He seemed to realize that, because he struck out, pecking it with a viciousness that he’d never show to her actual face.

There was a heavy, metallic thunk, and Terry cawed in irritation.

“You want my helmet off?”

He cawed again.

“Fine.” She retracted the armor.

This time, Terry moved his head forward more slowly. When he didn’t encounter any metal, he nuzzled her cheek.

“So, you’re doing well?”

He nuzzled her again.

“I’m glad to hear that.”

Then, the two of them turned back even as Rane stepped up and slipped his arm around her waist.

Tala, at least, was hoping that they’d get their data soon, so that she could fire off another blast before they continued on to the north. Toward that end, she opened a portal on her back—avoiding Rane’s arm—and began breathing in once again, refilling and recompressing her artificial lung.

As she stood there, breathing in as preparation for another blast—with her terror bird on her shoulder and her husband at her side—she had a thought that brought a smile to her lips, It’s the little things in life that make it truly worthwhile.

-Little things… like having a breath-weapon on the scale of the dragons of myth and legend?-

Well, we don’t actually know how effective it will be in combat. It looks really neat though.

-…Sometimes you make it insulting to remember we’re the same person.-

Wha—? Hey. That’s not very nice.

Alat snorted but didn’t say anything further.

Rane was still staring at the results, a distant look in his eyes.

Tala had another few moments before she was recharged—and Alat was busy checking over the iron spellforms within the artificial lung for any issues that might have cropped up—so she leaned a bit closer. “Rane? What’s going on?”

He jumped slightly, then turned to regard her. “That… that was incredible. More than any singular attack I think that I’ve ever seen in person. I’m not sure how well it would deal with powerful entities, but an army? The Leshkin? You’ll be able to hold a position almost by yourself with that.”

She smiled happily at the compliment. “Thank you. That was the hope, yeah. It’s actually why I took so long making sure everything was in line before this test. There is too much destructive potential inherent in the attack to mess around with.”

He was nodding slowly. “It carried your aura with it, too. That means that enemy aura can oppose it, but I’m not sure that would actually be effective? …That will be something to see, regardless.”

She gave him a critical look. “I know that look. What idea do you have boiling behind those eyes?”

He gave a wry smile. “I think… I think I might be able to steal kinetic energy.”

Tala frowned. “I mean… yes? You already do that, right?”

He chuckled. “No, no, not just from attacks coming my way. I think that—with my natural magics—seeing this has given me the mental push to be able to…” He shook his head. “Let me show you.”

Rane’s aura asserted itself within their combined mastery over the rise they stood upon. As it did so, a sphere roiled with obvious magic.

His inscriptions glowed in rippling sequences as he brought his power to bear.

Finally, at the very center of the nearly ten-foot diameter sphere, a small orb of ice formed before simply hovering in place, slowly rotating beneath the summer sun.

Tala stepped forward, finding the air within the larger sphere to be bitterly cold, utterly beyond even what the depths of winter would naturally bring.

Ice formed hoarfrost patterns across her armor, even as the metal squealed in protest at the sudden change in temperature.

A moment later, the little sphere of ice dropped and shattered upon the ground. Rane let out a ragged breath and swayed where he stood. “Well, that was a less impressive demonstration than I was hoping for, but I think it got the idea across.”

Tala was already nodding in understanding. “Temperature is just kinetic energy on a smaller scale.”

“Exactly. What’s more, I think I might be able to manipulate the landscape, ruining footing, and just generally being a nuisance one way or another, but overall? I think setting pockets of super cooled or superheated air will be incredibly useful for battlefield control, and that doesn’t factor in what we’ve been practicing with my utilization of magic through authority.”

Tala’s smile became wry. “Well, that certainly is a useful tool. Will this new application of power always exhaust you this much, though?”

He shook his head vehemently. “Oh no, not at all. I was cycling through my magics, testing them against my mental models and potential uses. I think even right now, I could accomplish the same thing in less than half the time and with a tenth the power. With practice?” He shrugged. “I guess we’ll see.”

Lyn cleared her throat, breaking into their conversation and drawing their attention away from each other. “As interesting as this is—and it is incredibly interesting—I have other things I need to do. I really shouldn’t stay for any further tests. Thank you for letting me see this initial firing, but would you be willing to let me back in Irondale? The others are about ready for your second blast, but I think I’ve seen what I have time for.”

Tala smiled, turning to face her friend. “Of course. Thank you for coming to see.”

Lyn smiled as Tala willed her back into Irondale, the older woman not resisting in the least.