Technomancer: Birth of a Goddess

The captured mage fills Emily in on their instructed patrol path after a dose of Dead Man’s Breath, but she doesn’t provide any other useful information, and Emily dispatches her soon after.

She leads her squad on through the woodlands, searching for other groups from Denros.

It takes longer than she’d like, but within two weeks they’ve filled out their map enough for Emily to highlight the area the groups are circling, as if guarding it without getting too close. As the squad is settling into their camp for the evening, huddled around a bundle of burning logs, with the barrier disc protecting them from prying eyes, Emily projects a glowing image of The East Woods from overhead.

“This is the route we’ve travelled so far,” she explains, twisting a drop of water mana into the illusion of light and drawing a long blue trail across the map. “We engaged hostiles here.”

She snaps her fingers, igniting the blue line at half a dozen different points. The small fires spread, drawing scorching lines of red across the map in an arcing shield.

“And these are their patrol routes.”

Everyone nods, their eyes scanning over the image as they’re drawn towards the obvious bubble of land being protected.

Emily snaps her fingers again, and the map loses light, receding in from the edges until only the area untouched by the patrols, leaning towards Denros’ side of no-mans-land, remains.

“At first light, we’ll head over and narrow our search around this area.”

No one argues with her, so she dismisses the map and pulls out the Spitter, undoing the small screws holding it together to perform some routine maintenance on the worn internals, as she listens to Sandman and Pretty Boy’s whispered chatter.

“-easiest job I’ve ever completed.”

“It’s certainly nice to be so aware of what’s out there. I’m normally jumping at every sound. Though, I’d hate to be her enemy.”

“I get you, man. She’s a little unsettling, but I can live with that. I hope I get assigned to her squad again, my last squad leader was a nightmare. He-“

Emily doesn’t look away from her work, not feeling the need to remind them to be cautious as her birds and spiders comb the underbrush around them for hidden threats.

***

A few days later, as squad Cold is trudging through the woods following Emily’s lead, she holds up a hand to signal for silence.

Emily focuses on the feed from one of her birds as it spots movement in the distance. She deftly manoeuvres the small avian drone closer, slipping between high branches and keeping it hidden among the foliage.

A small group becomes clear through the bird’s eyes moments later, slinking through the brush in the same direction as squad Cold. There are only five members in the group, but they’re all wearing similar black and silver leather armour, three of them accented with fine runework, and the other two bare.

Sitting on all of their chests are matching emblems depicting a jagged, black fang on top of a silver shield.

Black Fang mercenaries? Are they here for the same reason we are?

A quick calculation runs through her mind, and she comes to a decision.

“We’re going to make contact with a squad from Black Fang,” she quietly informs her squad mates, gesturing for them to follow as she heads straight towards the possibly friendly mercenaries. “Follow my lead and treat them with respect.”

Emily glances back over her shoulder with a chilling glint in her eyes, her gaze directed at Ice Petal.

“Don’t trust them.”

Her focus shifts to Pretty Boy.

“And don’t get too attached.”

She turns back to where they’re heading, piloting her bird down from its hiding spot to land in front of the Black Fang mercenaries. The man leading the group raises a hand to halt his squad, mimicking Emily’s actions moments prior, and all of them draw their weapons, unsheathing blades and unholstering guns in a series of smooth, well-practised motions.

They’re more professional than the Denrosi squads we’ve been slaughtering.

She lifts one of the bird’s wings, waving it at the mercenaries before pointing behind them.

The squad’s leader mutters something to the man and woman at his shoulders, and they turn around to watch their back as the leader starts muttering a chant, forming a sparkling green magic circle in the air above his head.

Emily feels a light, mana-charged breeze pass over her skin, and the Black Fang squad leader starts in surprise, keeping his eyes fixed on her bird and informing his squad.

He’s cautious. He’s treating my scout as a possible threat, but they don’t seem to be preparing any spells to hit us with.

With her hand hovering near The Clock, just in case, Emily leads her squad into view of the Black Fang mercenaries. When they don’t attack immediately, she holds up both hands in a friendly gesture and pilots her scout over to land on her shoulder, freeing the opposing squad of a possible threat at their backs.

The squad leader steps through his group towards Emily, nodding in appreciation and holding his hand out in a clear motion that tells his squad to stay their weapons.

“Black Fang squad Vensec,” the man grunts in a low tone, only loud enough to cover the gap between them. “Identify yourselves.”

“Silver Moon squad Cold,” Emily replies, holding her hand out with a thin purple mist crawling up her sleeve to form into her Signature between her outstretched fingers. “Trade?”

The man nods, swinging the pack off his back and reaching into a side pouch, pulling out a small card emanating a weak magic signature.

Emily flicks her wrist, sending her Signature into the man’s chest with a light thump. He catches it and looks down, his eyes widening in shock before he quickly schools his expression.

Nodding, he waves his squad off and steps forward alone, closing the distance between their two groups and handing back her Signature along with his own. Emily taps her fingers against it and injects a small burst of mana, receiving a censored form of his mercenary profile with only his name, rank, and circle.

“Nice to meet you, Force Bearer,” Emily says, retracting her hand without even looking at the face of his Signature. “Do you mind if I set up a small barrier so we can speak comfortably?”

“Not at all,” Force Bearer replies, shaking his head and doing his best to cover up the tension in his shoulders.

Emily nods and snaps her fingers, letting out a flood of mana that forms into a twisting green magic circle surrounding both of their groups. The magic circle pulses, producing a barely visible film that seals them off from the sounds of the woodlands around them.

“There we go,” she says at full volume, lowering her hands. “What are you guys doing this deep into no-mans-land?”

Force Bearer hesitates for a moment, weighing his options before speaking.

“We were on a routine scouting mission when we noticed the spike of Denrosi activity in the area and decided to investigate. What about you?”

Emily narrows her eyes, noticing the man’s face twitching despite his efforts to stop it.

He’s lying.

“What a coincidence, we were sent to investigate that spike of Denrosi activity,” she responds, stepping forward and patting Force Bearer on the shoulder in a faux-comforting gesture. “Why don’t you head back now? I’m sure it’s stressful being this far from friendly territory without a third circle mage to watch your back, and you’ve already gone above and beyond for your company.”

The mercenary shudders slightly under her touch but doesn’t pull away until she removes her hand herself.

“Nonsense,” he says with a forced smile. “How could we let our friends from Silver Moon shoulder this mission alone? I can’t, in good conscience, leave you alone here. Please allow us to come with and support you.”

“Are you sure?” Emily asks, tilting her head and scanning the opposing group, watching all of them resisting the urge to raise their weapons again. “This is a dangerous mission. I can’t guarantee you’ll make it back alive?”

“We accepted that risk when we left New Denntimo territory!” Force Bearer responds proudly, raising his chin and pushing his chest forward.

“Ha,” Emily scoffs, gesturing for her squad to follow as she walks towards the edge of the barrier. “Fan out then. We’ve narrowed our search area a little, but we still have over a week’s worth of ground to cover. Keep up and keep your eyes peeled.”

She shatters the barrier before the Black Fang squad can ask any questions, setting off into the trees as her squad falls in around her in a familiar formation.

Force Breaker silently weaves his hands together in a set of standard hand signals, instructing his team to split in two and sweep the forest on either side of squad Cold. They carefully maintain a gap of a dozen metres, not straying too close to Emily’s team while staying behind them.

The two squads trek through the forest in silence, listening to every rustle of the branches overhead and every snapping twig in the underbrush. They run into a small group of ocelax, but the scattered members of squad Vensec step forward to deal with them before they can even approach the squad between them.

As night falls, they come across a small clearing just large enough to fit in both groups together. Emily pauses, pulling the Whisper from her belt and flicking it to silent as she points it skyward.

With three quick trigger pulls, three sominal bombers fall dead in the clearing.

“We set up here for tonight,” she commands, tossing out the barrier disc under squad Vensec’s curious gazes.

The enchanted silver disc ejects its anchors with a series of pressurised clicks, lodging the small chunks of metal into the tree trunks around them and deploying its barrier.

“Is that for sound?” Force Bearer asks tentatively.

“Yep,” Emily confirms as her group roughly slings down their packs, pulling out bed rolls from their spatial items. “It’s just set to cover sound for now. I’ll adjust it in a bit to conceal light so we can cook some food.”

“Okay, thank you,” the mercenary says with a nod, a little of the tension relaxing from his shoulders as he turns to gather his squad to copy Emily’s.

They then light a fire and eat food in uncomfortable near silence, with only Pretty Boy making an active effort to bridge the two groups. After the meal, everyone begins spreading out in their bed rolls, each squad leaving a few members awake for the first watch.

Emily and Whistler share a glance before slipping away from the group, leaving the two waking mages from squad Vensec alone by the embers of the extinguished fire. They scale a couple of the trees the barrier disc is anchored to, rising above the invisible, sound-proof film to settle in the branches gazing down on the clearing below.

“Can they hear us from in there?” Whistler asks, leaning back against a tree trunk with her cannon resting against her shoulder.

“No,” Emily responds, adjusting the position of one of her spiders to complete a full mental map of their surroundings. “I’ve set the barrier to isolate sound in both directions, and they haven’t questioned it.”

“Ha,” Whistler scoffs, glancing over at Emily. “Why are you letting them tag along? You don’t believe that they aren’t here for the same reason as us, right?”

“Of course I don’t. But we don’t actually know what we’re looking for, and it may be dangerous. There’s no point in causing conflict with them now. They’re technically on our side, and as long as anything valuable we extract comes back with us, there shouldn’t be any problems.”

Whistler nods, falling silent and turning her attention out to watch the brush.

***

The next day, they continue their quiet march through the Woods, culling a few small groups of roaming beasts. They don’t spot any more Denrosi mages, but halfway through the day, Emily freezes, holding up a hand to halt the procession as she kneels down, placing a palm to the ground and shutting her eyes.

She focuses on her magical perception, searching for the odd feeling that caught her attention. At first, there’s nothing, just the calm flow of energy slipping past beneath the ground. Then, a faint shudder passes through her, like a gentle breeze on a summer’s day, so faint she can barely feel it, yet so out of the ordinary that she can’t ignore it.

Emily holds her breath, completely blocking out the sounds of quietly muttered questions around her as she waits for another pulse. It takes a few seconds, but the faint vibration of mana reaches her again, and this time she’s able to work out that it’s passing from north-east to south.

Her eyes snap open, startling her squad mates into raising their weapons.

“I feel something,” she says, rising from the ground. “There’s something ahead disturbing the ambient mana.”

“Our target?” Sandman questions, his grip on his staff tightening.

“Possibly. Everyone gather in and stay alert!” Emily commands in a low hiss, setting off towards the northeast and trying to follow the faintly vibrating mana to its source.

The spread-out members of squad Vensec slowly move closer to squad Cold, following her commands without complaint and closing their wide net as they advance.

Emily notices her squad’s discomfort as the other mercenaries get closer, but she ignores it and focuses on tracking the pulses of mana getting stronger and stronger as they approach the source.

After a few minutes, Sandman, Whistler, and the three second circle mages from Vensec all notice the disturbance as well. It takes a couple more minutes of walking for the first circle mages to feel something, at which point Emily’s spiders detect a dense cluster of mana and movement ahead, too jumbled to decipher any individuals.

Emily holds up a hand the moment a blazing sun of activity enters her range of perception, and casts a sound-proof barrier around their group.

“Wait for a moment. There’s a huge cluster of mana ahead and my spiders are getting nothing. Let me get some eyes in the sky first.”

Seeing that they will be useless, Emily calls back her spiders while directing all three of her released birds towards the anomaly. The mechanical scouts cut through the foliage, aiming for stealth over speed as they weave through the dense branches towards their target.

Emily watches through their eyes as the birds burst from the treeline into a long, treeless clearing. Running along its length the ground is split open, revealing a deep crevasse leaking mana. There are several small camps set up along the crack’s edge and, as one of the birds flies straight over and peers down, Emily sees a dozen mages harvesting crystals from the glistening walls of pale-green light inside.

“It’s a mana crystal vein,” she confirms as a predatory grin creeps onto her face. “And a big one at that.”