Technomancer: Birth of a Goddess

“Did you guys sleep well?” Emily asks as she and Juliana join their friends at a table in the cafeteria.

“Like a pop frog in the talons of a sominal bomber,” Tom replies with a satisfied smile. “I woke up about ten minutes ago!”

“He wouldn’t have woken up at all if I hadn’t slammed on his door,” Hester grumbles.

“Ha,” Dante laughs, throwing his arm around Enzo. “We’ve been up for hours training already!”

Everyone looks at them with curiosity, confused by their lack of rest. Enzo lets out a tired sigh, rubbing his brow as he explains.

“Oscar asked us to join him in his training room for a catch-up this morning, and this idiot decided that meant we should exhaust ourselves,” he complains before focusing on Emily. “Oh, and I mentioned that you may be interested in selling some materials to him. He was excited by the idea and told me to let him know when to approach you about it.”

“Oh, thanks,” Emily responds. “I’ll go have a little chat with him after lunch. Speaking of, have you guys asked any of your families yet about anything they’d like? I’d like to know what I can actually sell him before we meet.”

“Mine have responded,” Dante says first. “They requested as many mandibles and armour plates from fire-spitting bugs as possible. Oh, also they gave me permission to trade the resources I got for them as well as points. I’m guessing it’d be easier for you if your portion was in the form of crystals and metals, right?”

Emily is momentarily taken aback by his careful consideration, but she quickly recovers and nods with gratitude.

“It would be, thank you. The less obvious it is to The Covenant that I’m hoarding materials, the better. I don’t think it will happen, but I don’t want anyone contacting the Mandragos to ask about it. I’ll come see you after talking to Oscar to discuss it properly.”

“Sure, I’ll be in my room.”

Emily moves her gaze clockwise around the table, focusing on Enzo next.

“My family doesn’t want anything,” he says with a yawn. “Though, my mother asked if she could have a little bit of the archite flesh you kept. She wants to try some, but it’s rare for someone to catch and sell one.”

“Oh, sure,” Emily quickly agrees. “She can have some of the second circle flesh for free, or I can split off a small chunk of third for a crystal or two.”

“She only needs second, but are you sure about not charging me? We gave it a value when you claimed it.”

“Yeah, it’s fine,” Emily shrugs. “A portion for eating won’t be enough to dent my stock. I’ll bring it to you later.”

Besides, I only wanted it because I think I can use it in a brew of imperception to replace shadow boa flesh. I may not actually be able to.

“Thanks,” Enzo says gratefully as his and Dante’s food arrives.

“No problem.”

Next, Emily sweeps her attention past Ivor, who has been sitting still watching since she and Juliana arrived, to the twins.

“What about you guys?” she asks.

“We have a short list actually,” Hester says for the both of them, reaching into the spatial pouch at her waist and pulling out a small sheet of paper. “We also got permission to trade our resources for them. In fact, we were encouraged to since they’d have to send another member of the family with the points to negotiate and they think they’d get a worse deal.”

“Ha,” Emily chuckles, looking over the list. “Well, they don’t want too much anyway, so it won’t take that much from you guys. I’ll come visit you later as well.”

“Sure, I’ll be in my room whenever you’re ready.”

Finally, Emily turns her attention to Juliana beside her.

“What about you, Jules? Your family want anything?”

“They just asked for a few of the herbs we gathered and said thank you for the ring,” she responds with a light blush, running her thumb over the air walker resting on her right forefinger.

“You were the best fit for it anyway,” Emily says as Hester, Tom, and Ivor get their food. “We’ll talk about the herbs they want later.”

“Sure,” Juliana happily agrees, resting her head on Emily’s shoulder as they wait for their food to arrive.

***

After eating, Emily gives the finished Earth Drops to Ivor, Enzo, and Tom before heading to Oscar’s dorm. Their discussion doesn’t take long, as he agrees to buy all of the materials she offers for a bulk sum of points. Emily stays to talk to him for a little bit afterwards, probing him to make sure Enzo and Dante didn’t mention her coming departure and leaving soon after she’s sure.

The rest of her afternoon is spent visiting her friends, giving them their share of the sale to Oscar, and making small deals for their families. In the evening, after having dinner with her friends and making several bulk orders for magical resources at the hub, draining all of her newfound wealth, Emily and Juliana return to her dorm together.

They kick off their shoes and collapse on the bed together, where Emily reaches into her belt to pull out a small, empty leather-bound book. She frowns slightly as her hand vanishes into the ether, noticing a slight delay as she searches for the item within her packed storage pouch.

Well, that’s annoying. I should probably either refine the enchantment on this belt or make another item for longer-term storage. I don’t need this many crystals and monster parts on hand in a fight, and I certainly won’t need my workshop.

“What’s that for?” Juliana asks as she gets comfortable curled up against Emily’s side, pulling her from her thoughts.

“It’s a little gift for Ivor,” Emily explains, pulling out her quill and starting on the first page. “I talked to him earlier about the potions he wanted to try with the resources from the expedition, and he mentioned losing the notes he had on one of the recipes he wanted to try. Apparently, when he went to the library to remake them, he couldn’t find the book with the best version of it, only a few half-completed ones.”

“Wait, why are there half-completed recipes in the library?”

“Quite a lot of alchemists are very prideful,” Emily says with a chuckle, remembering Mrs Myrtle’s speech in her first lesson. “So, they don’t like giving away their full, perfected recipes. They miss out key details like timings and quantities sometimes to force the person following their instructions to work it out themselves. Some are better than others and don’t do this, hence Ivor looking for a specific book, but, if not, you have to work out the recipe either through your own experimentation or by cross-referencing a lot of different books that miss out different details. That’s what I had to do for the Earth Drops. So, I’m writing down all the recipes I’ve taken from the library for him.”

“Aww,” Juliana coos, placing a kiss on Emily’s cheek. “That’s very sweet.”

Emily scoffs, a light blush colouring her cheeks as her hand continues moving quickly across the pages.

“I’m just paying back a favour I owe him.”

It’s the least I can do for the help he gave me on the brew of imperception. It would have taken a few more days of frozen time if he hadn’t been there.

***

The next day, after eating breakfast with her friends, Emily makes her way to the staff dorms. She goes straight to Agnes’ door and knocks three times before stepping back and waiting. Almost a minute goes by without any response, but just as Emily turns to leave, the door vanishes.

“Hey, Emily. I was wondering when you’d visit me.”

She turns back, seeing Agnes standing in the doorway dripping with sweat, her greatsword strapped to her back as usual and an excited grin on her face. Emily looks her over, raising an eyebrow at her exhausted state.

“I had some admin to deal with first after returning,” she says dismissively. “Did I come at a bad time?”

“Not at all. I was just doing a light workout. Did you come to spar?”

“Yep,” Emily says, a matching grin forming on her face. “Now that I’m properly used to my circle, I thought it only fair I come kick your ass.”

“Ha,” Agnes barks, stepping past Emily and gesturing for her to follow. “Let’s use the main training hall then. I’ve been working on something new and don’t want you saying you lost because you didn’t have enough room to move around.”

They quickly reach the teleportation circle, moving through The Dome and heading for the training hall. The large door to the hall is open when they arrive, and they step in to find a group of twenty first and second circle mages sparring in a ten vs ten battle. The moment they enter the room, Agnes stomps on the ground, releasing her mana and letting her heavy aura fill the room.

The fighting mages all instantly halt, their attention snapping to the threatening presence, a few of them letting out quiet, disgruntled complaints as their spells are interrupted.

“Everyone out!” Agnes calls, her voice filling the room as she uses a technique Emily recognises, filling her vocal cords with mana.

“But we booked the ha-“ one of the braver, older-looking mages tries to argue before falling silent under Agnes’ fierce, one-eyed glare.

The group cancel all of their ongoing spells and quietly file out of the room, casting fearful gazes towards Agnes as she doesn’t remove her pressure, and curious gazes to the silent Emily beside her. Once they’re all out, Emily follows her obsolete habit of warming up before a spar, and Agnes shuts the door behind them before drawing her sword and performing a few practice swings herself.

They maintain a tense silence as they prepare, like the calm before a storm. After a few minutes, Emily stands up from stretching her legs and holds her hand out to the side. A faint purple mist flows from the belt at her waist, twisting up and around her arm before solidifying into a long, uniform, wooden staff. She grips the staff lightly, flicking it into a spin and twirling it deftly around her body before halting its momentum with a fierce crack against the ground, bouncing it back into a neutral position.

“Going with a staff today?” Agnes asks. “What’ll you use when I break it?”

Ignoring her taunt, Emily remains silent, calmly raising her free hand and gesturing for Agnes to come at her. Agnes obliges, her manic grin growing with each step forward as she quickly closes the distance.

They meet without a single spell being cast, having reached a silent agreement to follow their usual sparring pattern. Agnes starts with a sudden downward slash the moment she steps into reach, but Emily simply steps back, moving with controlled grace as she sweeps her staff across her body, lightly shifting Agnes’ sword aside, before spinning it around to strike Agnes’ shoulder in the same motion.

Agnes halts in her step, a look of surprise on her face as she watches Emily move back further.

“Damn,” she says with a complex mix of emotions flickering across her face. “You were moving slower than me just then, weren’t you.”

“Yep,” Emily responds proudly. “I can read you now.”

Agnes nods, a look of acceptance mixed with a hint of pride crossing her face before she settles back into a competitive grin.

“I guess I’m going to have to learn from you now,” she says before charging forward again, restarting her offensive.

Emily grins as well, her eyes scanning Agnes’ body to take in every twitch of her muscles and every shift in her balance, her mind running through an instinctual calculation to predict her next move. Slowly, Emily spins her staff around, deflecting each of Agnes’ blows while retreating, constantly moving backwards, side to side, and even slipping past Agnes to switch places after a particularly large opening.

They dance a waltz of wood and steel across the hall, with Emily drawing Agnes into her pace and leading her around by the nose. After a few minutes, Emily decides to push her flow skill further and starts to switch weapons.

First, as Agnes attempts a heavy overhead slash, Emily presses her staff against the flat of Agnes’ blade and slips past it, sliding her hands up her staff at the same time and summoning a pair of daggers from her belt. She slashes towards Agnes’ blind eye, but Agnes reacts just in time, flinching back and letting the blade sail past her cheek, drawing a thin line of blood.

Emily changes the direction of her blades in an instant with a deft flick of her wrists, pressing the attack, but Agnes knocks her back with her shoulder before sweeping her blade horizontally, forcing Emily to pull back.

However, as Emily steps away, she also twists, thrusting her hand forward as a spear appears in her grip. Agnes pauses her sweep and hastily lifts her sword, knocking the spear aside and exposing a gap in her stance. Emily immediately ducks forward, closing the distance before Agnes can recover and delivering a solid blow to her gut with a pair of brass knuckles.

Agnes grunts in pain, leaping back and clasping her stomach. Emily doesn’t pursue her, giving her a moment to recover.

“Does this mean we can use magic now?” Agnes goads, spitting out a mouthful of blood.

“Well, the winner was clear without,” Emily fires back, before slowly raising a single finger with a taunting smile. “For the first minute, I won’t use any offensive spells or speed enhancements. I’ll start counting after you finish your preparations.”

“Confident, are we? I’ll make you regret saying that,” Agnes claims, driving her sword into the ground beside her and cracking her knuckles. “I finished making a new toy with Jenny recently. I’ve been itching to test it on you!”