Tala looked at the new door out of the room. Huh, that’s Kit. The dimensional storage had formed a doorway, hard up against the iron wall, seeming like it belonged there.

She then looked back to Boma, as he held out a slate to her for confirmation of the work done, and her payment therein.

She fuzzily confirmed the transaction, still awed by the nearly entirely ordinary seeming door. “So, this is what it allows?”

Boma froze, tablet halfway withdrawn after she’d touched it. “Excuse me?”

Tala sighed and waved at the door. “This is what the fascia allows, then?”

He slowly finished pulling back the empowered device before tucking it into his own storage space. “Am I to understand, Mistress Tala, that you just paid me to merge an unknown item with your magic-bound dimensional storage?”

“Of course not, both you and the attendant at the Archon’s Compound said that it was a wonderful addition to a dimensional storage.”

Boma rubbed his forehead between his eyebrows furiously. “I meant: Did you really not understand what it would allow for your item?”

Tala shrugged, now that her headache was coming back to the forefront of her thoughts, it hurt, and it was making it difficult for her to think clearly. “It was good, it was valuable, and now it’s done. What does it do?”

He made an oddly inhuman sound, somewhere between a grunt of astonishment, a squeal of surprise, and a whine of indignation. Boma took a deep breath and let it out slowly, eyes closed. When that was complete, he repeated the process. Then again.

Tala looked longingly at the door which ostensibly led into Kit and her bed. It would be so, so nice to sleep.

Finally, Boma opened his eyes. “Mistress Tala. I will not waste both of our time by explaining how much what you have just conveyed smacks of idiocy. I will simply state that my opinion of you has dropped, markedly.”

Tala felt like she’d been slapped in the face, but before she could respond, Boma raised a hand.

“That said, I will still correct your ignorance as much as my already limited time allows.” He took another deep breath and let it out. “At its most basic level, your storage item now has a greater ability to alter itself, both inside and outside, to meet your needs. This will have come with a percentage increase in the overall dimensional capacity that will remain as it expands, meaning that any increase to its capacity will be likewise increased by this percentage. For a Revered fascia, I expect this to be effectively a doubling of storage size.”

Tala’s eyes widened. A doubling of the current size, and a continued doubling of any expansion I do? That was beyond incredible.

“The greater control will allow a fine-tuning of your dimensional space beyond what you’ve experienced, thus far. I would have to know exactly what you’ve experienced to tell you how it would change.” He gave her a critical look. “But I can see you are fading. Sleep, experiment with the capacities of the item, and if you have any questions, come back.” After a moment, he added, “At a reasonable hour, please.”

She nodded. “Come on, Terry.”

Terry flickered to her shoulder as she opened the door to Kit and walked inside.

The last thing she heard as she stepped through, letting the door swing shut, was Boma’s startled exclamation. “No! Not in here, girl!”

But she was too tired to really process what he was trying to say.

* * *

Tala woke bright and early, feeling that she’d gotten exactly as much sleep as she needed.

Her eyes snapped open, and she was fully awake. Bright? I thought I was in Kit.

The light level within the space was, indeed, slowly increasing. Moreover, she was sure she was in Kit based on the underlying feel and magical sense of her surroundings.

The illumination was especially of note, because Kit had never really seemed bright or dark inside. It was always exactly light enough to see clearly, and not a lumen more. Though, she’d always kind of wished the lighting was more varied.

Wish granted; I suppose.

The new ambient light in the space seemed to be increasing from near total darkness, likely so that she could sleep more easily, to the golden light of morning.

It was glorious. Exactly what I want for waking up.

There was no real source for the light, per se, even though it was coming through a “window,” and Tala had an intuitive feeling that plants couldn’t use this light to grow by. Illusion, then? Not real light?

That had some interesting implications. If the light is an illusion, does it light the space as it is, or does the illusion have to include everything within the space? It was an interesting philosophical question, but hardly relevant at the moment.

She looked around and found that she was curled up in her bear fur, which was situated in a bed-sized nook in one wall of a small room, and folded over her to be both top and bottom for her sleeping arrangement.

Across from her bed, the giant window looked out across rolling wooded countryside. If she focused even a little, her mage-sight revealed the view to be purely an illusion, but it was utterly convincing to her mundane sight.

The illusion was a mix of magically generated light, texturing and coloration added to the space beyond the window, and a subtle push on her mind to see it as intended. Her defenses didn’t automatically reject the mental nudges, as it was her own power, wielded through Kit, which was doing the work.

She decided to simply appreciate the end result.

Beautiful. The detail was stunning. She could see a little creek winding its way among the hills, variation in the type and age of the trees, and even the occasional bird flitting between the branches. Her mundane vision was enhanced well beyond what any normal human would have, let alone process effectively, and yet she couldn’t see anything that stood out as out of place.

Is that because the illusion is perfect, or is the illusion altered to perfectly match what I expect to be there to believe what I’m seeing? The second sounded the most likely, especially given the source of this new ability for her storage.

She turned her attention away from the stunning vista and examined the rest of the room.

The walls seemed to be made of well-fit stone, like a shepherd’s cottage in some rocky highland. Not that there are too many of those around. Still, it evoked the idea from some of the old stories.

She looked out at the wide, open space through the window, and even though she knew it wasn’t real, it still seemed to help her relax, loosing tension she hadn’t noticed. It evoked a sense of peace, a sense of freedom.

She stood and stretched, finding the space between the bed and the window perfectly sized for her morning stretches.

Those complete, she looked back towards her sleeping area and noticed her comb beside the bearskin. That is a good idea.

She took a moment and ran the comb through the fur, detangling and debriding it after her night of sleep. The small magics involved were lovely in their simplicity, and now with her increased mage-sight sensitivity, Tala could see it easily.

The comb basically decreased the coefficient of friction to any natural fibers running through the tines, and for a short distance ahead of their movement. That allowed any debris, any water, and any tangles to come out with a single pass.

So simple, yet so useful. It used so little power that even in a city it didn’t need a Mage to refuel it. You know, I’ve never seen one of these for sale before…I wonder if the Constructionists could replicate it?

If so, the market for such a product would be immense. I’ll ask someone.

Afterwards, she replaced the comb on its little shelf and folded the bearskin back into a pleasingly neat state.

There was no sign of Terry, yet.

To the right of the window, perpendicular to that wall, was a plain wall with an inset shelf containing her notebooks and a pencil. On the other side was the door out. It matched the simple, clean, craftsman aesthetic of the rest of the space, the handle seeming of wrought iron and the wood well shaped.

The iron surprised her, but she supposed that it was unlikely to actually be iron, just like the view wasn’t actually a true vista.

All told, this room was a bit smaller than Kit had been when Tala first got it.

Time to see what else is here, I suppose.

She opened the beautiful door and stepped through into a large main room constructed in the same aesthetic.

There were four doors out of this larger space, besides the one she was standing in.

One was clearly the main door to the house, and Tala intuitively knew that it was the exit of the dimensional space as well. That was directly opposite her, across the well sized room, which was roughly thrice the size of the bedroom.

Terry slept in the far-right corner, on her folded bedroll.

To her left, there was a small counter in a kitchen-like area, and her incorporators were arranged on a rack along with her other cooking adjacent items. On either side of the counter, near those two corners of the room, were two more of the doors.

Even somehow intuitively knowing what she’d find, Tala poked her head through each door. The farther door from the entrance held all her food-stuffs, and food related items that didn’t fit neatly in the kitchenette. The other door held everything else, except her books, otherwise unaccounted for.

The books were inset into a wall in the main room, and the same wall as the bedroom door.

I need a comfy reading chair…

There was one final room, and she verified its contents quickly.

It was the bathroom with a glorious tub, ready and waiting.

When she looked, her two water incorporators were there beside the tub, ready to be used, along with the comb that she’d just used to clean the bear hide’s fur. She glanced behind her and saw the two incorporators still on the rack.

She suspected that if she checked the bedroom, the comb would be there as well.

Turning back to the bathroom, she verified that the items were there. Dimensional manipulation indeed. I bet if I had another Mage in here, we couldn’t both use them at the same time, but I’m not absolutely sure.

“Well done, Kit.” She placed her hand on the wall on a perfectly sized, decorative handprint in the stone, and dumped power into the pouch. While it did take almost a minute to refill Kit to full, it was still proportional to the total, increased capacity. So, Tala wasn’t really concerned about the power usage. Though, I need to grow my throughput before Kit gets too much stronger, or I’ll have to spend an unacceptable amount of time recharging it every day.

That complete, she moved through her morning exercises in the larger space of the main room.

As she did so, she found that room was big enough for the task, though she would have sworn it wasn’t before. So, it expands at my need, even while I’m in it.

As she considered, she realized something else, too. I suppose the other rooms don’t need to exist, to take up space, when I’m not in them.

She’d need more capacity for Kit before she had guests. Well, one would probably be fine. This room shouldn’t be using all the space, and the others aren’t so large as to take more than the balance.

Exercises done, she gloried in a nice, relaxing bath.

Finally, ready for the day, she decided she was ready to face the city once more.

Almost immediately upon deciding that, she heard a knock on her front door.

It wasn’t a quick, solid knock, like someone trying to get in, nor was it a tentative knock, like someone hoping not to disturb her.

It was firm, but somehow lazy. Like someone who felt obligated to knock but didn’t care one way or another if there was an answer.

“Terry?”

Terry lifted his head and let out a single, short note of acknowledgement.

“Ready?”

As answer, the terror bird flickered to her shoulder.

Tala strode forward and opened the door. There was no one directly outside.

The first thing she noticed was that she was looking out into the iron-clad room from the merging.

Oh, right. Oops.

Second, she saw a Mage, laying on his back, fingers interlaced on his chest, twiddling his thumbs. He seemed to be making random noises with his lips, but when she opened the door, his eyes widened in shock, and he stood quickly.

“Mistress Tala.” He bowed, flushing brightly.

“Random Mage boy. What can I do for you?”

His flush deepened. “I was set to watch for your exit.”

“Oh?”

“Yes, Mistress. Master Boma was…displeased that you placed the entrance to your dimensional storage within our facilities.” He looked incredibly uncomfortable as he held out a slate. “I was instructed to give you this upon your return.”

She glanced back to Kit’s closed door, and on instinct, reached out and grabbed the frame, pulling on it.

The door fuzzed and vanished, leaving Kit, the pouch, in her hand. Huh, neat. She pressed it to her belt, and the pouch, obligingly, stuck in place. Nice.

She then took the slate and glanced at it. “What is this?”

He cleared his throat. “An hourly rental fee for the room, and a charge of an attendant’s hourly rate to await your return.”

“I’m to be charged two gold per hour for this room.”

“That’s right, Mistress.”

“And you get paid a silver per hour?”

“I am a mid-level attendant. The initiates are not trusted to be in this room.”

“Of course not, they might lie on the inscriptions in the floor.” She looked pointedly at the where the Mage had been lying, which was, indeed, directly across the gold inscriptions. Rusting foolish, that.

He reddened again. “So it seems.”

“Hey! I was only in there for five hours? That’s wonderful. So, a total of ten gold and five silver.”

“That’s right.”

She clucked her tongue, looking over the transaction. “Yeah, I’m not paying this.”

She handed the device back to him with a smile.

“Have a great day!” Without a backward glance, she strode from the room.

She left the gap-mouthed Mage behind as she swept through the halls. Where is that man?

After taking a couple of turns, she sighed and stopped, allowing the quick-walking Mage to catch up to her. “What time is it, again?” Even as she asked, she somehow knew. It’s 2:07 in the morning.

“Just a couple of hours after midnight, Mistress.”

Tala frowned, then sighed. The information must have come from the subconscious bond to the Archive link. Not the time for such contemplations, Tala. “This would be a rusting rude time of night to bug him…” She glanced back at the Mage. “Incidentally, why did you knock, when you did?”

“What do you mean?”

“You knocked. Why did you choose then to knock?”

“I’m so sorry, Mistress, I don’t understand. I’ve been knocking every ten minutes, since Master Boma set me to the task. Is that what you’re asking?”

Huh, Kit didn’t allow the sound to transmit through the door, until I was ready to interact with the outside world. That’s fascinating.

The young man held out the slate once again. “I really must insist that you pay your balance, Mistress.” He looked quite uncomfortable.

Tala cocked an eyebrow at him, when he didn’t budge, she sighed and rubbed the sides of her head. Her headache was coming back to the forefront of her mind. It had been there since she woke up, but she hadn’t paid it any mind, hoping that it would simply go away. It hadn’t. I suppose I have been a little bit rude. “What is your name, good Master?”

He seemed taken aback at that. “Well.” He swallowed. “I am called Simon, Mistress.”

“Good to meet you, Master Simon.” Material Guide, specializing in the alteration and study of empowered materials? That was interesting to say the least. What could he even do with that? Maybe…

Simon seemed a bit confused, the slate dropping slightly as he lost his focus on that matter. “Oh, umm. Thank you?”

Tala stepped forwards and took the slate back. Next to the fee of two gold per hour was listed ‘Rate for active, Magical use.’ Tala frowned. Does using it as an entry point for my dimensional storage really count? “This seems excessive. Are these the true rates?”

He glanced to the side, then shook his head. “Master Boma was less than pleased with you, so he instructed me to use this rate for the room.”

“What about for you?”

He squirmed a bit, clearly uncomfortable. “He wanted me to charge you a gold an hour for my time as well, but that seemed excessive. That portion is the Guild rate for my time.”

Tala found herself touched, and then she felt irritated at herself for how she’d treated the Mage previously. “My apologies, Master Simon. My actions put you in quite the awkward position.”

He glanced down and shrugged.

“What would the proper rate be? If you are allowed to say.”

“Two silver per hour to reserve the room, more to use it for mundane purposes, more still for magical use. What you did would qualify most closely as reserving the room.”

Tala contemplated for a long moment. “Will you get in trouble for charging me the normal rate?”

Simon looked up at her, frowning in confusion. “Most likely not? Master Boma probably wouldn’t check the exact amount of the receipt, and even if he did, once he’s less…displeased, he likely wouldn’t mind, in truth.”

Tala nodded. “If it’s alright with you, let’s do that.”

He hesitated a moment longer, then shrugged and nodded, taking the slate back and manipulating it to make the changes.

Tala verified the new total of fifteen silver and confirmed the transaction.

“Thank you, Mistress Tala.”

“And thank you, Master Simon. I’m sure you had better things to do than wait for me to re-emerge, even if it was just sleeping.”

“True enough.”

“Now, where can I find Master Boma, to wake him up.”

Simon paled, his hand trembling, slightly.

Tala held up her hands in a warding gesture. “I’m kidding!” She chuckled awkwardly. “I’m only kidding. I’ll come back, once the sun is up.”

He visibly relaxed, clearly relieved that she hadn’t been serious. “Oh. Oh, good.”

Tala was about to turn away from Simon, when her thoughts coalesced, despite the headache.

“Master Simon?”

The Mage seemed a bit nervous. “Yes?”

“Would you, or the Archon you work under, have any interest in examining a simple, useful artifact for potential reproduction?”

Simon frowned. “But we cannot make Artifacts, Mistress.”

Oh…right…rust… “Of course, I was meaning to pull the idea, and learn from the spell-forms.”

He gave her a searching look, then shrugged. “Probably. Master Queue would probably love to discuss it with you. He was my master, before I attained Magehood, and he continues to oversee my projects.”

Disaster averted, good. She smiled. “That sounds excellent. I’ll ask for him after I speak to Master Boma, once the sun is up.”

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Chapter: 170 - Black, Please