Technomancer: Birth of a Goddess

“You’re dual awakened,” Rotwin says in disbelief, before quickly regaining his composure.

“Does the Captain know?” he continues, suddenly tense, his fur standing on end.

“No.” Emily shakes her head.

“Okay,” the hound lets out a breath and relaxes. “Good.”

“You don’t seem to have a lot of faith in a man you’re following if he was your first concern. That seems to be a recurring sentiment in this crew.”

“Faith among pirate crews is a rare commodity. He’s not a bad Captain, he treats my pack better than any other we’ve served under, but no one who sells other awakened so freely should be trusted wholeheartedly. Besides, if exposed, your nature will be both a huge threat to our safety and a massive possible windfall for our Captain. Not many would be inclined to make a decision that benefits you when put in that position.”

“But you seem to want to, if I’m reading you right,” Emily says with an intrigued smile, dropping down to sit on the floor and let her daughter curl up in her lap, level with Rotwin’s head-height. “Why is that?”

“You’re one of us. What other reason would I need?”

“That courtesy doesn’t seem to extend to Yorn, though, and he’s been one of you for far longer than me.”

“He’s an ally, but he’s not one of us,” Rotwin explains with a shake of his head. “He treats my pack well, yes, but he still views us as different, lesser, as most humanoids do. You, on the other hand, haven’t shown that discernment. You both raised a non-humanoid, and now it’s clear to me you created her that way as well, and trusted us to look after her the moment we offered. You extended faith to us first, so it’s only natural we do the same.”

“Well, thank you. As for my existence bringing risk to this crew, I don’t plan on revealing my nature to the greater universe until I’m strong enough to keep us safe.”

Rotwin looks reassured, considering Emily for a moment: “I assume our Vice knows.”

“She does,” Emily confirms.

“That explains why she’s taken to you so quickly,” he nods in understanding.

“And I’m planning on revealing myself within the crew quite soon: it will be helpful in drawing more to our side in the coming conflict,” Emily continues.

“I take it our Vice plans on making a move soon?”

“She does. You don’t seem surprised.”

“She’s strong, but she’s not exactly subtle. It’s become more obvious since her recent ascension, but she’s never kept her distaste for our Captain particularly well-hidden. I wouldn’t be surprised if even he’s noticed, despite not being one for reading social nuances.”

“I guessed as much.” Emily drums her fingers against her leg in thought. “That may make it harder for us to make a move, but I should be able to tip the scales in our favour if I play my cards right.”

“I don’t doubt that: I’ve heard many stories of the terrifying strength of dual awakened, and I’ve never heard of a mixed mechanic and mage before-”

“Technomancer is the term I prefer to use.”

“Right, I’ve never heard of a technomancer before,” Rotwin continues, “but I still question if revealing yourself is a good idea. Even telling me right now is a risk. There are far too many people well-versed in ripping secrets from others, especially within The Guild.”

“Actually, I told you early because I’d like to ask for your help in testing a method to protect against that. It will help with creating an elixir for you as well, if you’re willing to accept my earlier offer.”

“Oh, I’ll gladly accept your offer. Unrefined low grade essences are still useful to me, but far less so than a potion or pill.”

“Pill?” Emily questions, tilting her head in confusion as she checks through her data repository taken from The Network for the term.

“Pill making is the refining method pursued by martial artist alchemists. It’s similar to potion making, except I believe it’s usually more dependent on the cultivator’s own energy reserves, and the end result is a small, swallowable capsule as opposed to a liquid.”

“Fascinating. Do we have any pill makers within our crew?”

“No. They’re much more common in The Alliance, as are most creative martial vocations, but I’m sure you’ll be able to find some if you look for specialised alchemist groups.”

“Noted. Anyway, back to what I was saying, first I’d like to take a full scan of your body and mind to get a better understanding of what I’m working with,” Emily explains, watching the chimaeric hound nod in understanding. “Then, if you’ll allow us, I’d like my son to attempt to place a Mental Lock on your memories pertaining to my nature. He’s several levels weaker than you, but I think I may have a way to boost his strength enough for it to work. If it does, I should be able to freely reveal myself to any member of the crew without risk of exposure.”

“Has he successfully cast this Mental Lock spell before, and what exactly does it do?”

“Both of my apprentices have had it used on them without harm,” Emily nods towards Pod, sitting quietly beside her, “and it just protects the targeted memories from external intrusion. The moment someone else tries to use mental magic to invade your mind, or any other method to make you speak against your will, they will be erased without harming you. We can use it in front of you first if it would reassure you, since I believe we need to adjust some of what it currently covers for them.”

“That would be appreciated,” Rotwin agrees, standing up and gesturing towards the door with his head. “Shall we go find your son now? I believe it’s sensible to get this done as quickly as possible.”

“Sure, but leaving this room won’t be necessary.” Emily rises and approaches the hound, reaching out towards his back and pausing before making contact. “May I?”

He nods, tilting his head back to look at her curiously. She lays her hand on his back and extends a tether of mana towards Pod and Silica, before pulling them all into her Dimensional Factory.

Space warps around them and, within a blink, they appear beneath Elisime’s belly, surrounded by various metal troops, weapons, and explosives.

“Welcome to my personal pocket dimension,” Emily says with a proud grin, stepping away from the stunned chimaera and spreading her arms wide, highlighting the vibrant, glowing tattoos swirling across her exposed skin. “The Dimensional Factory, as I like to call it.”

“Incredible,” Rotwin mutters, turning his head on a swivel and marvelling at the size of the space and sheer quantity of arms packed into it. “I can see why you’re so confident that you can turn a fight with the Captain in your favour. Just how powerful are those things?”

Emily follows his gaze to a few of her assorted missiles lined up on launch pads.

“There are large differences in strength between the magical and non-magical variants, and those that will cause uncontrolled radioactive fallout, but my strongest currently has around a hundred megaton payload. The magical thermal variants are probably the best for single-target elimination, though, despite their low explosive impact, since they focus most of their power and burn hot enough to instantly vaporise an unawakened human.”

“You could do some serious damage to the Captain if we can get him in an open space, then. Though, you’ll have to catch him by surprise. Unless those things can move faster than light, he’ll cut them down before they can detonate if he sees them coming.”

“I thought as much.” Emily nods, pulling on the mana filling the dimension and blinking their group into one of Elisime’s workshops.

Mensacus is seated in the centre of the room, his surviving tentacles splayed and spread across several workbenches holding his new parts as he pours malice into them. His gaze snaps to the unfamiliar presence the moment Emily arrives with her guest, but he doesn’t move beyond that, continuing his to attune his new pieces to his mana signature.

Rotwin looks around the workshop while Emily approaches one of the disassembled metal tendrils to check on her son’s progress.

“Looks like you’re almost done. The non-metal segments are finished, and the alloy is at about ninety per cent saturation.” She turns her head back to Rotwin. “We’ll be with you in a moment; I just need to get him fixed up first, or these parts will bleed energy while he’s distracted.”

“Take all the time you need,” the chimaeric hound replies, sitting back on his haunches and taking a closer look at the damage Mensacus has sustained. “How did he get hurt? I thought the station was pretty peaceful during our visit.” 𝓯𝓻𝓮𝙚𝙬𝓮𝙗𝒏𝙤𝒗𝙚𝙡.𝒄𝒐𝓶

“We applied as a mercenary group and fought a sixth stage mechanic in our initial evaluation,” Emily explains, positioning herself behind her son and placing her hands on his back.

“Did you not get a piracy mark?”

“I did, but he didn’t.”

Emily floods Mensacus’ body with machina, gently wrapping it around his mana and using it to smooth his aggressive energy flow. She guides the combined energies deeper into his new parts, using the feedback from her machina to target the still-unsaturated areas.

“Ah, right, two energy signatures.” Rotwin nods, quickly understanding what happened.

Even with Emily’s help, it takes nearly half an hour for the new parts to be ready for attachment. The moment everything is prepared, Emily has Mensacus withdraw his mana, holding it inside the four circles surrounding the tooth at his core and giving her free control over the rest of his body. Her machina dances across his metal skin, and the bolts and screws holding his old limbs in place unravel, floating away along with the old parts.

The pieces scattered across the workbenches rise into the air on a wave of her energy, slotting together to form four new, tightly-coiled limbs that drift into the waiting sockets. Her machina converts to mana in a few places, which takes on a blend of fire and metal attributes before fusing several connections together as the fixings screw firmly back into place.

Emily retracts her energy, and Mensacus releases his own again before standing up, flexing his new limbs experimentally.

“How do they feel? Any issues?”

“They’re perfect,” Mensacus replies with a shake of his head and an unsettling, toothy grin. “I feel like I could crush someone’s skull without even needing my mana now.”

“You could do that already,” Pod mutters, getting ignored by everybody.

“So, why did you bring a visitor to me?” Mensacus asks his mother.

“I want see if I can help you apply Mental Lock to his memories of my nature,” Emily explains, gesturing for her apprentice to come closer. “But first, I’d like you to update Pod’s Lock to conceal the same and reassure Rotwin here of the safety of your spell.”

“That’s possible, but it will be a little more complex than placing the initial Lock was.”

“I expected that. He’s known about me being a technomancer for a long while after all.”

“Okay.” Mensacus nods and sits back down, gesturing for Pod to do the same in front of him. “This will be faster if you work with me.”

“Sure,” Pod agrees without hesitation. “What do you need me to do?”

“I know your cortex isn’t as efficient as Mother’s, but how well can you search your memories?”

“Well enough. Any memory formed after my awakening can be grabbed easily, but those from before are a little more muddled.”

“Then I need you to find the first point where mother told you she was dual awakened, and if you can, any other time where she used both paths at once.”

“On it.” Pod shuts his eyes and falls silent for a few minutes, while Mensacus opens his third eye and draws out a complex magic circle using milky-white runes.

The moment Pod opens his eyes again with a focused expression, the spell activates and sends a flood of mental mana into them. Pod doesn’t flinch as the spell works, and only Mensacus’ white eye shifts erratically as he fine-tunes his casting, bending his mana to his will.

When the spell finally fades, Pod turns back towards Rotwin with a beaming grin.

“All done! I barely feel anything when he does that, but there’s now a small trace of mana bound to my cortex.” He turns to face Emily. “I think we’ll need to recast it when I go through another ascension. It’s more noticeable than it was the first time, and I get the feeling I could burn it out if I really tried while my energy’s spiking.”

“We’ll see. We may need to refine the spell a little more before we spread it through the crew, but for now we’ll be using it on those we’re pretty sure we can trust anyway, so they’re unlikely to try to break it themselves,” she replies before turning to the hound. “Was that enough?”

“Yes, he clearly knows what he’s doing.” Rotwin nods.

“Perfect, then let’s start with the scan first.”

Emily approaches the chimaeric hound and places a hand on his back.

“Please don’t resist.”

She pours machina into him, using a drop in comparison to the amount she flooded Mensacus with, and quickly scans his entire body. She confirms his brain is similar enough to an unawakened human’s to not cause issues, far less complex than a mechanic’s cortex, before focusing on his energy pathways: Spirit Veins. They’re far more uniform than her own, but much less so than a standard mage’s, with many times more small pathways to carry qi to his muscles.

His individual cells are all much more active than hers, packed with vitality to the point where it shocks her that he hasn’t mutated dangerously.

With enough data to start on a custom elixir for him, Emily finishes her scan after less than a minute, retracting her energy and moving over to sit behind her son again as Rotwin takes Pod’s place.

“Right, this will be almost exactly the same as we just did for Pod, but I’m going to try using an ability I’ve developed to boost my children at the same time,” she explains, placing her hands on Mensacus’ spine and gathering half of her mana and machina in them. “If you can, please think of our discussion in your room to help the process.”

“Of course.” Rotwin nods and stares into Mensacus’ third eye as the mechanical chimaera begins casting.

Emily activates Mother’s Blessing, pouring her energies into her son and letting him pull both of them towards his active spell as she feels her stamina drop suddenly. She reaches the threshold where her skill would usually end, but the energy drain doesn’t stop, and Mensacus doesn’t stop his casting. Emily’s reserves rapidly tank towards empty, but when they finally hit ten per cent left, Mensacus’ outward flow of mana stops, and she cuts off the skill.

“It worked,” Rotwin says in disbelief, looking between the mother and son, both of whom look drained.

“It took a lot more than I expected, but yes, it looks like it did.” Emily nods with a satisfied smile.

“You just helped him cast a spell that skipped two levels of strength, crossing the mortal boundary in the process! Even though I wasn’t resisting, that’s outrageous. I think your expectations were a little unrealistic.”