Jennifer Jones
Stories
4
Chapters
1,292
Words
687.3 K
Comments
0
Reading
2 d, 9 h
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Tala walked into Mistress Holly’s back room, and the Inscriptionist didn’t even look up from the slate she was studying. The woman pointed toward a side table with a mug on it, “Coffee?” Tala shrugged and walked over. “Thank you, sure.” She picked up the mug and found it empty. Frowning, Tala turned towards the woman and found her glaring. “So, you have fully regressed, have you? Not just a one time thing?” Tala felt her eye twitch. “I’ve only had a few cups of coffee. That is…-
211 •
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Tala stood before the Bandfast Banking Guild for the second time in her life. Tala shrugged. Tala huffed a laugh, grateful for the momentary distraction. She felt an odd sort of nervous tension. She felt like The prominent building jutted up before her: A beautiful, stone building, eye-catching without being ostentatious. Massively tall windows let light into the single-story structure, and that single story was nearly twenty-five feet high on the inside. Its large entrance opened onto a small…
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211 •
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Tala reached the end of her abbreviated tale and took a bite of her soup-soaked bread. Lissa was leaning forward, her attention obviously raptly engaged on Tala. “Mistress Tala.” There was another prolonged silence before the older woman shook her head, leaning back. Tala took that time to eat as much as she could while maintaining a modicum of manners. Finally, the woman gave an overwhelmed smile. “I am so glad that I am not a Mage.” Tala snorted a laugh, then kept laughing, the reaction…
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211 •
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Tala didn’t recognize the Mage who was sitting behind the counter in Mistress Holly’s waiting room, but that wasn’t unexpected. Before Tala could ask his name, he pointed towards the back. “You are expected, Mistress Tala. Please feel free to head on back.” “Thank you. I’ll do just that.” The young man had already looked back down to the book on the counter in front of him. Tala knocked on the door of Mistress Holly’s private workroom. She was invited in and entered. After closing…
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211 •
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Tala watched in fascination as Kit seemed to claim every offered magical item in the room, containment crates and all. If she had to put words to what she was seeing, she would have said that it appeared like limbs of power reached out towards the presented objects. Each limb was an unnatural amalgamation, seeming like fur-covered limbs with Every limb ended in a sort of hand-like paw, and each reached its crate at the same time, latched on in one motion, and With a stretching and distortion of the…
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211 •
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Tala purposely didn’t take the most direct route to the Constructionists’ Guild. She let her feet lead her wherever they would, and she just enjoyed being out among humanity. She’d barely taken a few steps before Alat briefly interrupted her. Tala felt deep skepticism from Alat. In a city like Bandfast, there were almost always people about—at least in the central ring—even in less than ideal weather. This day was actually a rather sunny one, so there were even more people about than usual…
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211 •
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Tala left Mistress Holly’s workroom only to find Mistress Emersen walking down the hallway, a large mug of coffee in each hand. The woman’s blonde hair was now free of her woolen hat, held in a tight weave that seemed to circle the Mage’s head. The older woman smiled. “Mistress Tala, I thought this might benefit you this morning.” Tala took the offered mug, savoring the smell. “This smells amazing. Thank you.” “Of course, Mistress.” Before the Mage could move on, Tala decided to ask a…
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211 •
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Tala led the group back to the center of her sanctum, ending the tour by showing them the ‘standard’ place the door would open, the highly defended, bunker-like setup of magical defenses. She led them through the door and back out into the meeting room. Terry remained on her shoulder, seemingly content to nap on his perch. Mistress Ingrit carefully emphasized to the group that she should be contacted with any questions and information requests. Masters Boma and Queue reminded Tala to drop by the…
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211 •
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Tala chatted with Lyn and Rane, answering their basic questions while Mistress Ingrit handled the questions of all the other Archons. Master Cazor looked to be torn between Mistress Ingrit’s answers and joining Tala, Lyn, and Rane, but he seemed to decide to not intrude on their clearly more private conversation. Tala was grateful for that, and took the opportunity to smile and nod his way in thanks when he glanced toward her. That seemed to solidify something for him, and he visibly relaxed, his…
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211 •
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Tala continued to eat the free food provided by the Archon compound of Bandfast. Mistress Ingrit had just finished the most basic summary of her time away, and Tala was honestly a little surprised at how little of it fell under the ‘anyone can know this’ classification. - As Tala had expected, the questions asked by those present were numerous and varied. Many were answered with either a ‘We will discuss that later.’ Or ‘You are not permitted to know that answer at this time.’ Or ‘Please…
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211 •
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