“Not at all,” Emily replies, internally casting a first circle earth spell to raise a small mound of ro the shape of a chair before sitting bato it. “Would you like a seat?”
Colette barely reacts to Emily’s casual silent casting and calmly nods.
She’s either not surprised, or very good at hiding her reas.
Emily snaps her fingers, f a small brown magic circle above them that melts into the floor, raising a sed earthen throne behind Colette.
“Thank you,” she says, sitting doulling a pen from her skirt. “Right, let’s start by firming the b details. Your current name is Emily Coldstone. Correct?”
“Yes.”
“Have you ever gone by any other names or aliases?”
“No.”
“Perfect,” Colette nods, tearing her eyes away from carefully iing Emily’s fad looking down as she jots something down. “, where were you born?”
“Eimdon City.”
“When?”
“The seventh day of the seventh month of the year four hundred and y-six in the Modo dar.”
“You’re an incredible liar, I’ll give you that,” Colette says without batting an eye. “But I’m going to need you to be ho with me here. If my report isn’t accurate, it will only cause you problems when it’s checked at headquarters.”
“But I am though,” Emily says ily, not a single muscle on her face moving out of pce as she projects an image of clear hoy.
I’m telling the truth here! Besides, even if I wasn’t, it’s been a while sihird circle mage would be able to tell that by looking at me.
“So, you expect me to believe that you’re a third circle mage at seventeen?”
“Yes.”
“Haaa,” Colette lets out a sigh, raising one of her hands to rub her brow as it creases in frustration. “Whatever, this is a problem for whoever has to verify your at, not me. Sure, you’re a seventeen-year-old prodigy.”
She shakes her head and tinues writing in her notes before looking back at Emily again with a resigned expression, the bags beh her eyes seeming to stretch even longer.
“hen. Have you formally studied magid if so, where?”
“I studied in Modo’s ant for a little over a year and a half.”
Colette writes down her answer without any further ent this time, not even b to look up as she tinues.
“Have you ever lived in Denros?”
“No.”
“Have you ever had any tact with anyone from Denros?”
“Still, no.”
The tired soldier slowly nods her head as if the answers were expected, before finally gng up again as she makes a request.
“Okay, you give me a brief expnation for why you’re leaving the Modo Kingdom please?”
“Sure,” Emily says with a nod, taking a moment to sider exactly what to give away before starting. “I was a oner who knew nothing of magic, but I self-awakened owenty-sixth day of the sixth month of the year five hundred and twelve, and the Mandrago family, who trolled Eimdon at the time, fouhey killed my father and attempted to use mental magic to ensve me before sendio train in The ant.”
Colette’s eye twitches as Emily mentions self-awakening, but any of her mistrust is pushed to the back of the mind the momeal magic is mentioned. Her expression crumples in anger, and she voices her distent the moment Emily pauses.
“Scum,” she practically spits before taking a breath and quickly reposing herself. “Sorry about that.”
“It’s fine.” Emily waves off her apology and tinues. “Their mental magic didn’t work properly, but I went along with them and stayed at The ant to train, and I quickly rose to third circle before returning to my home city. However, when I returned, I found out that the Mandrago scum, as you so accurately put it, had already killed my sister. So, I wiped out their family and fled.”
Colette’s expression shifts to one of sympathy as she pces her right palm on her chest and lowers her eyes to the ground.
“I’m sorry for your loss. May her soul return to Ulea’s embrace.”
Emily nods, remaining expressionless ay as she watches the woman dolences.
What religion is that from? The books in the library called this nd faithless. Is that inaccurate?
Colette writes down her at as Emily distracts herself w about New Denntimious standing.
“You said it was the Mandrago family you wiped out, correct?” she says after a few moments, gng up to crify.
“Yes.”
“Are there two Mandrago families?” Colette questions, tilting her head in fusion. “What about Niandrago?”
“I killed him.”
Colette stares at Emily for a few moments, seemingly torween wanting to believe her and doubting every word ing out of her mouth.
“Okay,” she says, shaking her head to clear her doubts as she tinues her questioning. “Moving on now then. Why did you choose to e to New Denntimo?”
“I would have been pursued harder and marked as a worse traitor if I fled to Morzea. Denros is friendly with too many of the Mandragos' old allies for me to go there, and I would be unwele in Lebard as an outsider,” Emily expins.
“Alright. What do you pn on doing here in New Denntimo, and are you ied in helping us in ht against Denros?”
Emily fshes her a cold, battle-thirsty smile that doesn’t quite reach her eyes.
“I pn on building my strength and developing my magid ons in preparation to return home eventually. I’m very ied in helping you fight. What better way to improve myself than through bat?”
Colette takes her response iride, a light nition fshing in her eyes as she observes Emily’s expression.
“As long as you’re fighting on our side, we’ll happily wele another battle-maniac. I assume since you io return to Modo eventually, that that’s an i in helping as a merary, not in joining the Defence Force?”
“Correct.”
“Okay, and I assume then that yic is bat-specialised? You aren’t here to join our utility mages.”
“Actually, I’m a well-rounded mage,” Emily corrects her. “I have a keen i in enting, alchemy, and even meics. I’m very ied in your utility developments.”
“Oh, well that may be a bit of an issue then. If you pn ourning to Modo, there’ll be certain limits pced on what you’re allowed to observe. But you egotiate about that with someone else ter, it’s not my area. I should have everything I need for now.”
Colette finishes scribbling something in her notebook before flipping it shut and tug it bato the folds of her skirt.
“Right, as long as there are no issues with your crew, we’re going to escort your ship to Liberte. Once we arrive there, I’ll take you to the Defence Force’s headquarters, where you’ll be questioned again by someone else with the ability to firm if you’re telling the truth. As long as you haven’t lied to me, you’ll have no issues. Are you alright with that?”
“Of course, I have nothing to hide,” Emily replies.
“Perfect,” Colette says, gng over at Calypso’s crew being questioned one by one by her subordinates before rexing her posture and leaning bafortably io Emily made for her. “It looks like they still have a few minutes left over there, so now that the official stuff is out of the way, do you have any questions for me? Being questioned like this probably doesn’t give the best first impression of our try, so I’d like to help fix that however I .”
Is she letting me ask questions to see if I’ll slip up and reveal that I’ve been lying, or does she genuinely want to help?
Shrugging off the sudden shift in formality, Emily follows Collette’s gaze, catg sight of the soldiers questioning Calypso’s crew, holding small magical tools that are glowing a soft white.
“What are your soldiers holding over there?” she asks, gesturing towards them with her head. “Are they using truth magic?”
“Good eye. They are,” Colette nods without eborating.
“Iing… What religion do you follow?”
“I don’t,” Colette responds without batting aaking the random question in stride. “At least, not properly. It’s pretty hard to keep faith once you gain the ability to casually perform the miracles attributed to gods. If you’re w about my dolehough, it’s a saying we’ve kept from Old Denntimo’s belief in the earth mother. Even if we don’t really believe it, it’s o imagine our loved ones are resting peacefully, right?”
Emily nods silently, notig a flicker of old pain surfag in Colette’s eyes. She gives the woman a quiet moment of refle before speaking again.
“When we were flying over, I spotted a rge whirlpool out in the middle of the o gathering mana. Do you guys know what it is?”
“I’m not sure, to be ho.” Colette shrugs. “It’s been there for a little over a year already and we had some of our more schorly mages look at it, but they weren’t able to us true nature. They che it occasionally, just in case, but we have bigger priorities at the moment so we ’t afford the mao give it more attention until it bees a real issue.”
“That’s uandable. I imagine a war is quite draining.”
“You have no idea.”
A soldier runs over and stops beside Colette’s seat to report.
“All clear Ma’am,” he says, standing to attention with his hand on his heart. “We’re ready to depart on your and.”
“Good,” she responds, dismissively waving the soldier away without looking away from Emily. “It appears your creassed our checks, and we leave now. Would you be willing to join us on our ship for the trip to the capital? I think I should send one of my men to help guide that ship to a shipyard for some repairs while we visit headquarters.”
Emily gnces over her shoulder and realises the sagging, half-melted metal at the rear of the ship is visible from their seats.
“Is the shipyard close to the capital? I promised I’d help with the repairs.”
“Yes,” Colette says with a nod, pushing herself out of her seat. “It’s only a short drive away and we have transports running bad forth daily. You head straight there after we finish if you want.”
“Okay, sure then,” Emily agrees, standing up as well and dismissing both seats, letting them crumble and join the shifting sand underfoot. “Thanks for having me aboard.”
***
After grabbing her bag from her room and making sure Anton, Ange, and Tony handle flying through the night without her, Emily reassures them she will find them in the shipyard ter and leaves to board the other ship.
She climbs the steps following Colette, who has taken it upon herself to guide her. They step into the ship and the entrach behind them slides shut before log into pce without either of them doing anything. Emily pauses and curiously pces her hand against the door, releasing a flood of maa from her palm.
“It’s trolled from the bridge,” Colette expins, notig her i.
Emily nods, iing the intricate meisms hidden in the wall.
This is fasating. They’re using a sedary low-pressure piping system to send ands across their ship… They even have some simple meical logic gates here to trol emergency shutoffs! This is ingenious. If I hijack this system and make some modifications, I set up some det ons fe to trol from the fort of the bridge without neediricity at all.
She removes her hand from the wall and follows Colette deeper into the ship while making notes in her virtual notebook. The corridors they walk through are all lit in a cold white light by a glowing el along the ceiling, simir to the light els outside the ship.
Emily spreads maa through her feet with each step, closely iing the lighting and frowning as she works out what the el is.
It’s a long tube of a noal material with a thread of metal in the tre… Why is that metal glowing though?
Her perception spreads, and as they turn into the corridor taining the crew s, she finally spots the source of the light.
A cluster of mana? I see. They must be spreading the raw light mana from those crystals using that thread, and the material around it is diffusing it into the room. Iing.
“You use this room while you’re aboard,” Colette says, pushing open the door to a small room with a sial-framed bed, a desk, and a chair. “You’re free to move around this ship as you wish, but I ask that you please stay away from the armoury and os for now. There will be food avaible in the mess hall in thirty minutes. Food will be avaible again at oh eight huomorrow m, and we should reach Liberte an hour ter.”
“Thanks,” Emily says, slinging her bag onto the bed and stepping into the room.
“No problem. If you need me, I will be on the bridge or in my quarters, and if you ’t find me just ask any member of the crew.”
Emily nods and shuts the door as Colette heads back the way they came towards the front of the ship. She climbs onto the bed ales down cross-legged, not pnning on sleeping at all.
Time to pare.
She pours maa into the ship, beginning the slow process of pletely mapping it out as she pulls on her system’s description of it.
ˉˉˉˉˉ
[Border Patrol Ship #042]
[Rank:] D
[Description:] A heavily ented, medium-sized patrol airship built to proteew Denntimo’s borders. Designed for stability and durability with a mixture of kiid magical onry.
_____
The end of the description catches her eye, the mention of magical onry sparking her curiosity.
Is that what those white rods were on their hull?
She directs her maa towards the outside of the ship, quickly log the metal rods protruding out in lih the nearby gun barrels. Each rod begins in an accessible room ihe ship and ends in the open air, with a plicated twisting pattern of runes coating their entire length.
“They’re mostly white iron with a touithril and silver. Are they for fog a spell provided by the operator, or does the operator just provide mana?” she mutters, uo read the mana-touched runes with her maa alone. “It doesn’t look like there’s a way to ge the angle of the rod, so probably the former uhey pn on turning the ship to aim. Though I guess that’s possible.”
She turtention away from the ons for now and tinues mapping the entire ship in full detail, trying to copy its blueprint. Unfortunately, even after four hours of close iion, she’s uo make a perfect blueprint.
ˉˉˉˉˉ
Maa s inplete.
Blueprint created: Border Patrol Ship #042
[Border Patrol Ship #042]
[Type:] Steam Airship
[Tier:] 1
[Rank:] D (E)
[Description:] A heavily ented, medium-sized patrol airship built to proteew Denntimo’s borders. Designed for stability and durability with a mixture of kiid magical onry.
_____
“Damn,” she mutters under her breath, looking at the window with a frown. “It’s meant to be D rank, but it dropped because I ’t map the magical enhas with maa alone. I could finish it if I use mana too, but they’ll notice that. I guess I’ll reset tomorrow.”
Her frown only grows as she looks at the tier as well.
It’s still the same tier as Calypso despite being a higher rank and using a lot of magic. Steam power really is low-grade.
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