Technomancer: Birth of a Goddess

The rest of the flight across the ocean is uneventful, without a single attack from any of the dangerous sea creatures known to inhabit the waters below. After a couple of hours, Emily opens her eyes in the engine room to a welcome message.

¯¯¯¯¯

Quest Completed: Traitor’s Escape

[Traitor’s Escape]

[Rank:] C

[Description:] You ended a noble family alone, now you must survive the consequences.

Requirements:

-Leave the country alive (Complete)

-Leave the country without killing any of your pursuers (Complete) {Optional}

Rewards:

-Spell: Blink

-Mechanic Knowledge: Basic Computer Systems

-{Quest: Path of the Righteous}

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

[Path of the Righteous]

[Rank:] B

[Description:] Crimes were committed against you, and you retaliated only to end up forced to flee your birth country. Were you wronged? Were you in the right? Who cares! The strong decide the truth!

Requirements:

-Return to the Modo Kingdom after reaching the fourth circle (Not Complete)

-Get publicly pardoned of your crimes (Not Complete)

-Publicly expose the Mandrago family for their crimes (Not Complete)

Rewards:

-Low Grade Lightning Essence

_____

The familiar cold flood of information from a new knowledge enters her cortex, and Emily barely even processes the words floating on the screen before her eyes as the knowledge completely shatters her perspective of mechanics.

I’ve barely even scratched the surface. I’m so behind for a third circle mechanic! 𝚏𝕣𝐞𝗲𝐰𝕖𝐛𝐧𝕠𝕧𝚎𝚕.𝐜𝚘𝗺

The knowledge doesn’t give her any concrete blueprints to work with, however, it holds vital information on everything from transistors and logic gates to the basics of binary logic and digital information processing, giving Emily a solid base to work from.

“No wonder the universal transmitter seems like a half-completed blueprint,” she mutters to herself, raising a hand to rub her brow. “I’ll need to create a powerful linked computer system to control it.”

Emily goes to dismiss the quest notifications and pull up her blueprints to get to work processing and utilising her profound new knowledge, but she pauses and reigns in her excitement before dismissing the screen.

Integrating this new knowledge is going to take me a long time. Even creating the most basic chip systems will take a lot of material experimentation and new machinery. I should process my gains and new goals properly first.

She takes a deep breath and narrows her focus on the new quest she earned, scanning through it.

“B grade?” she mutters, biting her thumb and narrowing her eyes at the requirements. “Wait till I’m fourth circle then expose the Mandragos? This quest puts a lot of importance on my public image, but does that really matter?”

The reward offered below sparks her curiosity, quickly drawing her attention away from the requirements.

Lightning essence? What’s that? Is it an item? I don’t think the system has ever given me a physical reward before so maybe not.

Emily dismisses the quest window with more questions than before. She opens her Spellbook next, quickly locating blink and opening it to read the details, her excitement building again as she already has an inkling of what it will do from the magic circle itself that was carved into her mind along with the new knowledge.

¯¯¯¯¯

[Blink]

[Circle:] Third

[Cost:] 2400 Mana/cast

[Description:] Transports the caster to a random point within ten metres of the cast.

_____

“Yes!” she shouts in momentary glee, her eyes lighting up as she scans the words on the screen. “Full-body teleportation! I finally have some real space magic to sink my teeth into.”

Emily considers testing the spell immediately but quickly dismisses it, choosing to wait till she has an open, stable space to perform her tests, or she understands the spell’s built-in safeguards better. A knock at the door draws her attention, and she looks up to see Podrick peeking into the room.

“Anton has requested your advice on the bridge,” he declares, staring at Emily expectantly.

“Okay,” she agrees with a nod, getting up and stepping past him into the corridor, heading straight to the ship’s command room.

He probably has no clue where to go now that we’re in New Denntimo.

She walks into the bridge and glances out of the window, seeing more rolling desert spreading out before them, the golden sands lit in blazing orange hues by the sun sinking low on the horizon.

“Hey, Emily,” Anton greets cheerfully, turning in his chair to face her. “We’ve successfully crossed the sea, but where should we be heading now? Surely, we’ll need to register the ship or something. Right? It can’t be this easy to cross the border.”

“You will definitely need to register this ship somehow, but I don’t think we’ll need to worry about that for now. So, you can head straight for the capital,” Emily responds. “It’s not that far from us, we should be able to make it there within a day. Hopefully, they’ll have a shipyard we can borrow for a bit.”

“Are you sure? Won’t it be a problem if we arrive unmarked?”

“Yes. There’s no way they don’t have outposts guarding their borders against invading mages, and I’m betting they’ll send a ship to intercept us the second they notice me, so we won’t make it to the capital unnoticed.”

“Okay.” Anton nods. “Do you have a map, or do you already know the correct heading to the capital?”

“I’ll draw you a map quickly.”

Emily pulls some paper from her belt and quickly sketches Dennari from the map in her notes, adding the details of their current position, New Denntimo’s capital, Liberte, and a few outpost cities. She hands the finished map to Anton, leaving it to him, Angela, and Tony to work out their heading as she turns to head back to the engine room.

Podrick tries to follow her, but Emily stops him as they step out into the hallway.

“Wait here,” she instructs him, watching as his back straightens and he stands at attention. “I want you to come get me when another ship approaches us.”

“Got it!” he responds with an eager nod before turning around and stepping back into the bridge.

Emily returns to the engine room alone again and drops down before the ship’s beating heart with her legs crossed and her hands laid gently in her lap. She shuts her eyes and delves into the Spellweave, beginning the process of pulling apart blink’s magic circle to note down all the runes forming it, adding to her collection while trying to further understand the intricacies of the delicately woven spell.

***

Calypso peacefully flies inland and, as the evening light fades and the sun finally dips below the horizon, Podrick comes running through the ship to call on Emily again.

“They’re here!” he shouts, bursting through the door with frantic energy, bouncing in place as he hurries to report. “A ship is heading straight for us and flashing lights!”

Emily’s eyes snap open, and a subdued smile curls the corner of her lips.

“Good job,” she says, rising on the spot as she unfurls her legs.

They head to the bridge, and the moment they enter, Emily pauses as her eyes are drawn to the approaching ship. It’s cutting through the air a few hundred metres ahead of them with its sleek, dark-grey hull illuminated by thin lines of glowing white running along its body, the front section blinking in a slow, downward wave.

Curious. What are those? They don’t seem like enchanted engravings, they’re far too bright for that.

Her gaze traces the well-lit ship, spotting several gun barrels and a few silvery-white metal rods poking out in several places, angled towards the front. She looks above and notes the small difference in the shape of the ship’s balloon from what she’s used to. It’s slightly larger towards the front, with a slick metallic sheen curling around the entire front half and several large, faint runes etched onto its surface, barely visible if it weren’t for Emily’s vastly improved eyesight.

“What should we do?” Angela calls, noticing Emily standing quietly in the doorway.

“It looks like they want us to land, so go ahead,” Emily responds with a shrug. “We’ll go along with whatever they want for now. We’re not criminals here, so there shouldn’t be any problems.”

Her confidence calms the flight crew’s nerves, and Anton sends Podrick out to gather the few scattered members of the crew working elsewhere as Emily leaves the room. She heads for the drone hatch, dropping it open and stepping out in a practised routine, wrapping her legs in air walk and moving to sit above the bridge.

I might as well make sure my capabilities are clear.

She dismisses her spell and settles down as she waits for Calypso to lower to the ground. The other ship arrives directly before them, dropping down in sync with them towards a flat gap between two large dunes. Emily takes the time as they float to the ground to take in the opposing ship’s design with interest, probing it with her magical senses and feeling several enchantments woven into it.

They seem a lot more liberal with their use of enchanted items. I can’t wait to see what they’ve transformed the capital into.

The two ships set down, sending out shuddering vibrations that shake the nearby dunes, and both drop extending sets of stairs so their crews can meet. Emily pushes herself up and weaves a spell inside her circles, conjuring a powerful gust of wind to slowly lower herself to the ground as she steps off the side of the ship.

She lands as Anton and Angela step off the stairs onto the sand. Angela stops at the bottom, and Anton keeps walking alone, catching up to Emily so they can both walk towards the gap between their ships together.

“Just you?” Emily asks.

“I’ll signal Angela to bring them all down if they’re needed,” Anton responds without looking at her, his eyes locked on the four people descending the steps of the other ship.

Emily silently nods, inspecting the people before them as well, feeling four magical signatures of varying strengths from them. All four of them are wearing robust-looking blue uniforms with silver plating over their vitals, similar to Emily’s body armour but less fitted. They have silver runes woven into the blue fabric of their jackets, but there are no visible runes on the silver plates even though Emily can feel the same enchantments spreading to them.

The two following have matching, closely fitted trousers and long-sleeved jackets with an emblem emblazoned on their right biceps showing a blue droplet in the centre with a single white line vertically bisecting it. However, the man and woman leading them have slightly different emblems and uniforms. The man still has the same trousers, but his jacket has short sleeves that show off his densely tattooed arms, and his emblem has a second line horizontally cutting through the droplet. On the other hand, instead of trousers, the woman wears a long, pleated blue skirt down to her ankles, covered in hard-to-see, blue embroidered runes. Her emblem includes a third line going diagonally through the centre.

Emily’s eyes scan the man’s tattoos as she and Anton come to a halt, waiting for the group to approach them. She spots several obvious runes along with several that the tattooist tried to hide within the twisting geometric shapes covering the man’s arms in imposing patterns.

They look like enchanted tattoos, but I think they’ve blended it with normal tattoos to stop people deciphering it easily… clever.

The two people in matching uniforms stop and stand to attention on either side of the stairs as the two with mismatched uniforms continue the last few metres to meet Emily and Anton under the light being projected by their ship.

Looks like they’re soldiers.

The two leading soldiers halt in front of them, standing straight and staring directly into their eyes. The woman, who has long, frizzy hazel hair and deep, sunken bags beneath her eyes, stands opposite Emily, while the man, who has short-cropped black fluff covering his head along with soft blue eyes in contrast to his imposing tattoos, faces Anton.

“I’m third circle, Colette Blanchet, captain of the NDDF’s eighteenth squadron and this is my vice-captain, second circle, Louis Monet,” Colette greets, placing her open hand against her heart and bowing her head lightly before standing back at attention with her tired eyes fixed on Emily. “I assume you are the captain of this vessel?”

“No, that would be him,” Emily says, gesturing towards Anton with her thumb before crossing her right hand across her chest in a fist and her left behind her back, dipping her head in a small bow. “I’m Emily Coldstone, third circle, and a travelling mage.”

“I’m Anton Wright, captain of Calypso,” Anton says, glancing uncomfortably between the different greetings unsure of what to do.

“I see,” Colette says, narrowing her eyes for a moment. “Can I assume this means your purpose for entering our country is different from that of this ship then?”

“Yes.” Emily nods calmly. “They’re here looking to trade, and I’m here to escape Modo while I develop my magic.”

Colette nods in understanding. A cautious glint flashes through her eyes at the mention of Emily fleeing the country, but she masks her reaction and turns to Anton with a small, polite smile.

“We welcome friendly traders, especially those bringing their own ships. Please gather your crew and follow the instructions of my vice-captain here,” she says, glancing at Louis and giving him a silent set of instructions with a few subtle hand gestures that Anton doesn’t even notice, though Emily watches her hands with intrigue. “After a brief questioning about the circumstances of your trip here, he’ll get you registered and direct you towards the Merchant’s Association so you can inform yourself about the trading rules here.”

Anton glances at Emily for confirmation, then follows Colette’s instructions and signals for Angela to bring the crew over. Louis turns to give a set of instructions to the soldiers waiting by their ship with more hand gestures before guiding Anton off to the side, leaving Emily and Colette alone.

Colette reaches into the folds of her skirt, her hand seeming to vanish into the fabric before she draws it back out with a notepad in hand.

Her skirt’s a spatial item? Why are the runes blue? Is it somehow a spatial item using a water-based enchantment? Or have they found a way to dye embroidered runes? It would explain the silver runes on their uniforms too. I doubt they are using metal-based enchantments on all of them, and they’re definitely active right now.

“Right, Miss Coldstone,” Colette says, snapping Emily out of her thoughts. “I don’t have the power to make any decisions here myself, but I can assure you that as long as you’re not working for Denros, you’ll be welcomed here with open arms. So, do you mind if I ask you some questions?”