Legend of Ransera

70th of Frost, Year 122 of Steel
Cintamani Pavilion, Kalzasi

It was too cold to bring her work out into the courtyard. Even though the magic of her wings made her somewhat impervious to it, that didn't make it exactly comfortable. And the servants would want to attend to her; she didn't want to make them uncomfortable either. So she sat at a desk in the solarium, her home office pro tempore. Thankfully, Lord Minister Tianoch appreciated the comforts of his own home office, and so she could betimes avoid the curious glances her wings occasioned in public.

Her domain was Karnor, but she had yet to receive any communication from the flying islands of Zaichaer upon receipt of relief supplies. She wanted to tour the Free Cities, but Sahfri was against her putting herself at risk. The Queen-Regent was wise in that. Still, the old Fire chafed within her. Now it was star fire. Her people knew her for a burgeoning goddess now. She could hear them in the back of her mind. Someday, she would be strong enough to do what she must.

"My lady?" There was a timid knock at the door, a moment as her assistant gathered himself, and then he strolled in with some bravado. She saw quite a bit in him, and not all of it his greed. There was potential, and she wanted to bring it into line with the greater good of Kalzasi.

"Thank you, Kanedama," she said, looking up to acknowledge him with a smile.

He nodded as though she were lucky to have him, and gathered up those things that needed to return to the Palace today. She could feel his eyes on her, trying to figure things out on a deeper level than her wings. It was a contest of wills, and she would win with patience and perseverence.

"I will look over your work today. Tomorrow, we will be at the Palace."

"Sure. Oh, the maid said to tell you Master Kilvin and his boy are here to see you."

"Ah, yes, thank you. They will see themselves in. Once you take everything to the Palace, you are free." She smiled again. "Until tomorrow. Good day, Kanedama."

"Yeah. Oh, uh—my lady." He bowed and saw himself out just as Torin and Timon were at the door. The slender elf looked them over almost arrogantly before nodding them toward the door as if giving them permission. He was a strange one.

Kala rose to her unimpressive full height, smiling more widely for the young men who knew her secrets and kept them close.

"Hello, my friends. Welcome. Timon, I believe Kaus is taking a nap. Would you mind waking him up and bringing him here?"

A servant came in with tea and snacks. Timon was a growing boy and Torin often forgot meals. Leukos hospitality was not famous, but it was dependable.

"Timon!" Kaus exclaimed when the lad found him en route from his nap. He swung him up in his arms, glad he was still able to as the lad was growing ever toward manhood. Kala smiled after them as they went to find mischief or food or whatever it was they did when they weren't training.

"Ah," she said, her attention coming back to Torin and his bag. Her eyes lit up with interest that hadn't changed since she had gone through apotheosis in far off Atoria. "Excellent. I am excited to see them finished, and the scrivening has proven most interesting work." In fact, all that work had helped her increase her skill to new heights, so she was pleased to see the project through. "Oh... and don't let me forget to give you that grimoire back for your friend. It was most helpful as an alchemical primer."

Master Len'Myren had been kind enough to lend her—through Torin—a book to help her begin her alchemical studies, the first step in giving wings the the women of her race and perhaps even to bring others into the race. Torin would look excellent with wings, but she would have her work cut out for her granting wings to the women.

"Do you need my help with the finishing touches or are you simply doing me the honor of letting me observe them?"

Her smile was sure; she was content to watch or to help, pleased to see him accomplish things whether in concert or by his own skill. If nothing else, he would relax into his work. She didn't want him to treat her differently than he had. He was respectful enough in that she was nobility, and while someday she might grow accustomed to worship, today was not that day. Mother Naori had opened a door and put her on a path, but she did not yet see herself as a goddess. She would have to earn that.

Here in the safety of Cintamani Pavilion where everyone was aware of her nascent divinity, she didn't feel compelled to entirely hide her divine nimbus, but it was a subtler thing than some might expect. The light favored her, always finding her, and everything seemed to catch the light more enthusiastically, whether the shine on the polished wood or the bead of water condensed on the side of a silver ewer. Behind the wards of her family home, the aether seemed more. How it was more would require long meditation of a Sembler, but it responded to her mere presence.

"I will observe first if you don't mind," she said. "Then I can help with the rest." She might be more skilled at scrivening, but it was Torin's project and he had proven receptive to her constructive criticism in the past and so she wanted to be able to offer that in order to help him become a greater craftsman. That was still what the contract between him and her family meant to her. "And this will prove a wonderful distraction from my work for the ministry. Lord Minister Tianoch has delegated quite a bit to me and while I have always relished a challenge... well, it can get terribly boring."

As he laid things out upon the leather mat that protected the ancient wood of her desk, she stood up to watch what he was doing. But because she rarely had the opportunity to speak with a friend—her twin and the boys notwithstanding—she kept talking, knowing he would hear her and listen, and perhaps later, when his mind had time to process, he might even answer. She also was able to put a conundrum in the back of her head while focusing on a task of minutiae like this work only to find her less conscious mind had solved the problem while she wasn't focused on it.

"The most interesting challenge at the moment is my secretary Kanedama..." she said, fixing tea from the service that had been laid on a cart for them as she watched. "His aura was interesting to say the least. Not only is he marked by Avenna, which will serve him well in the Ministry of Finance, but I have also sussed out that he is possessed by a demon." She said it all so matter-of-factly. "My guess is that he was—is—also a summoner, but ran afoul of his infernal familiar. When we finish with the knobs, I want you to look at my blueprint for a demon-trap. I don't know yet if it will be necessary, but I would like to be prepared." Asallon had offered to initiate her in Summoning, and she was interested, though she would be more circumspect if she ever bonded with an actual familiar. The world could not afford even a half-baked demigod's power under the control of something nefarious. She was interested in every Rune now, wanting power in order to protect her power, which she realized was a slippery slope. But she also realized that she was vulnerable; Talon had proven that.

"And I hope there will be time to discuss your thoughts on the moonshards..." But eventually, she fell silent, attention rapt on Torin's work.

Kala laughed quietly.

"I suppose if Sahfri is grooming me to be the next Minister of Finance to keep me safe in Kalzasi, I can groom Timon to follow me once I cannot hide the other changes in me. He does seem to have a knack for the ebbs and flows of commerce the way you do for aether."

Nodding along with his work when he checked for her opinion, she once or twice drew runes in the air out of pure aether to show him slight alterations that might make the flows more efficient; suggestions only, as he knew his work now.

"Safe enough. He's a prideful creature, but I should be more wary of his avarice than a desire to hurt. 'Tis strange, though... I have spoken to a friend who plans to meet him and make a quiet evaluation, but I would appreciate your friend's expertise as well. He is part Dratori, no? Many of their people grow up with the ability to speak to spirits. I sense elven and infernal spirits within him, but they are not separate. Perhaps a summmoning gone wrong...?"

More time passed in comfortable silence.

"I will send you home with a sample. Starfall isn't the only place it has been discovered, but it can be difficult to come by. The demand is high and the supply limited."

Sensing tension in his back and neck from hunching over, she gently placed her hand there twining Fire into his aura just so, the heat blooming gently outward from his spine to relax his muscles—not so much that he would be startled or slump over and pass out, but for his comfort and so he wouldn't make mistakes for that growing tension.

Eventually, their words ceased and she continued to watch Torin work. She often felt like an audience at the opera, watching feats of artistry that were beyond most people's reach. With her Rune, she could appreciate the intricacies and elegance of his work in a way that few mages could. Sometimes it felt as though they were children sneaking off to unleash their imaginations, only this was real, and she was glad that he was slowly becoming more comfortable with her again. At some point in the distant future, she might be less immediate and human than she was now, but for the time being, she needed that tether to what she had been to keep her from spinning out of control on her path to what she would become.

"Are you sure?" she asked. But, of course, he was. Torin seemed to derive as much pleasure from people appreciating his works as from making use of them himself.

Kala took the knob in hand, admiring how the webwork of aether had crystalized when his enchantment was complete.

She concentrated upon the door to the shop, a simple, short-range traversion, all the while observing how it picked up on her thoughts and began to order the aether to her will. This must be similar to what a person with travel magic felt. It was fascinating.

Placing the tip against the door, she felt its energies expand. When it was ready, she turned the knob. There was a click, or perhaps she imagined it, or that was how her mind translated the snap of the aether as the connection was completed. She pulled and the door opened even though it was only a thread of aether connecting the knob to the door itself.

Through the doorway, Huntress made confused growls at them. She smelled her master, but he had left through the door opposite this one.