In the m of the following day, Emily finally leaves her room, leaving her bag behind, and heads towards the bridge in anticipation of their arrival in Liberte. She steps into the room and looks around.

  The bridge is only slightly rger than Calypso’s, with an open window fag the front of the ship. Unlike Calypso’s though, the patrol ship’s window has metal bars running down it every metre or so to help reinforce it.

  There are four chairs in the room, three to trol the ship from, and one behind them from which Colette ands the pilots. Colette’s seat doesn’t have many trols in front of it, with only a few buttons, a glowing green crystal, and a strange-looking open tube that Emily knows spreads through the rest of the ship.

  “Hello, Miss Coldstone,” Colette greets as she enters, pg a hand on her heart and nodding at her. “I take it you’re here to see Liberte from the sky?”

  “I am, and please, just call me Emily,” she replies, waving off the soldier’s formality.

  “Uood,” Colette says, gesturing to the window as she looks ahead again. “You’re in for a treat. The city looks just amazing from the sky.”

  “How far off are we?” Emily asks, looking at the vast expanse of sand stretg out towards the horizon before them.

  “Oh, don’t worry,” Colette says with a chuckle that’s matched by her crewmates. “We’re closer than you think.”

  Emily shrugs and leans back against the wall, staring out of the window and waiting. After a few minutes, Emily pulls out The Clod looks down at it to check the time.

  It’s five past nine now. I thought she said we’d get there at nine, but I still don’t see anythi.

  As she tucks the small pocket watch bato its p her belt, Emily looks back up and immediately questions her eyes. Instead of the ope that was there when she looked away, she sees a sprawling, wall-less city stretg almost as far as the eye see.

  The city is built in trigs of height, starting at the t white behemoth of a pa the tre and spreading out to the squat, sheet-metal homes at the e. It’s overwhelmingly bright, with a majority of the buildings being carved from the same white stone as the pace, and the rest being a mix of well-maintained, polished metals that reflect the m sun like glistening gems.

  There’s no overhead rail system like in i, but the streets are dotted with small, motorised vehicles and rge, multi-segment persoransports.

  “Woah,” she quietly excims, shocked by the sudden sight.

  “Haha, it’s incredible, isn’t it?” Colette asks proudly. “And I take it from your rea that you didn’t know about the oasis barrier?”

  “Oasis barrier?” Emily questions, her eyes roaming the busy streets below, watg pedestrians going about their days. “Is that what kept it from being seen?”

  “Yes. This city was built on a natural oasis where several mana vei, and somehow the cil elders created a spell that lets us use that to hide the city fr eyes. Don’t ask me for the specifics though, because I ’t even begin to uand it.”

  Incredible. They took the cept of an oasis mirage and reversed it. I didn’t even notiything from the outside.

  “That’s amazing,” Emily says, watg the view shift as the ship turns to head towards a massive regur building on the southern edge of the massive, walled-in pound that takes up a sizable k of the west of the city. “The cil elders are your fourth circle mages, right?”

  “Yes, they are,” Colette says before leaning forward and pulling the tube in front of her towards her mouth, pressing a button beside it before speaking into it. “We are approag headquarters now. To nding positions.”

  Her voice echoes through the entire ship, alerting the crew and starting a flurry of hurried movement that Emily hear through the wall she’s leaning against. She doesn’t say anything else, going quiet aing the crew focus on their nding as she tio admire the city from above.

  “This is border patrol ship code zero four troag with friendly unknown,” Collette says with her haing on the crystal in front of her, p a steady stream of mana into it. “Please open bay U zero one.”

  She falls silent but keeps p mana into the crystal, turning her head to look over her shoulder as she does.

  “I’m asking them to open one of our unprotected bays so I take you in safely,” she expins.

  “Unprotected? This is a military pound, right?” Emily questions with a raised brow.

  “Yes, but I was only referring to our defence array. There’s enough artillery mounted around the base to blow most ships from the sky before they’d eve close to the entry bays. The defence array is more for stopping individuals.”

  “I see.”

  “firmed,” says a deep voice emanating from the crystal under Collete’s hand. “Doors opening now, please proceed.”

  Colette takes her hand off the crystal and starts issuing ands to her crew as the ship begins its dest, so Emily returtention to iing the military pound below. The roof of the rge building they are approag is formed from a plethora e, regur metal ptes of varying sizes that she could barely make out the seams of from afar. One of them drops down before sliding to the side to reveal a gap rge enough for the patrol ship to enter, and Emily immediately marks the building as a dock.

  The rest of the buildings ed ihe low metal wall with the de in shapes and sizes from what looks like a small, two-story home to several vast warehouses that cover thousands of square metres. There are soldiers in blue uniforms walking with purpose everywhere, along with several small cars weaving quickly between them.

  Emily firms Colette was serious about the pound’s firepower when she spots several well-hidden seams and lookout windows on several of the building’s top floors, a few of which she’s able to peer through as the ship sinks halfway into the dock. Inside, she sees the intimately familiar sight of mounted anti-aircraft ons.

  Damn! Are they hiding artillery inside false floors on their buildings?

  With an impressed nod, she quickly ss the pound wall before she loses sight of it, seeing dozens of unhidden artillery pts, along with several ons pointed outwards to protect from a siege and a few odd-looking mounted guns that catch Emily’s i.

  What are those? Their barrels are too small for ons, but why would they mount slow-firing normal guns? Have they already created magazines?

  “What’s with those guns mouo the walls?” she asks as they touch down inside a mostly empty nding bay and the roof slides shut above them. “Their barrels look too small to be ons.”

  “Do you mean the guns?” Colette asks, pushing herself out of her seat auring for Emily to follow her. “They’re Earnie’s pride and joy. Unlike our normal der-based guns, their ammo is fasteo these loal s that allow for much longer, tinuous fire. We use them at all of our more perma empts, and they’ve done wonders for our defensive abilities. It’s a shame he hasn’t made a more portable version. Our border would be growing much faster if he had.”

  “That’s ingenious,” Emily says as one of her cores immediately starts designing a simir system to pare tazines. “Who’s Earnie? I’d love to meet him.”

  “He’s one of our unawakened onsmiths and I doubt you’ll enjoy it as much as you seem to think you will. He’s known for being a little… etric.”

  “In what way?”

  “He basically lives in his workshop and talks to his maes more than he does other people. He refuses to let anyone he doesn’t deem worthy in, including whichever squads are positiohere to protect him.”

  “That seems perfectly reasoo me,” Emily says with a shrug. “I wouldn’t like it if people who didn’t appreciate my work wao invade my workshop either.”

  “I may be ined to agree with you there,” Colette says, pausing in front of the exit as it slides open. “If he didn’t blow up or set fire to something every other day. Do you know how hard it is to proteeone from themselves when they won’t let any of the mages that could help them in until after something has gone wrong?”

  The bags beh her eyes seem to deepen as she pins with a tone of tired resignation.

  “Are you in the squad that protects him? It sounds personal.”

  “Not anymore, thank Ulea,” Colette sighs, leading her doweps. “Eary isn’t something most of us have to deal with once we reach third circle. Other than Maria, bless her soul. That poor woman has been stuck there for years now. I’m pretty sure she’ll celebrate if he mao get himself killed.”

  Before Emily ask any more, the rge door at the front of the hangar slides open with a hiss and a first circle soldier runs over to them. He stops in front of them and salutes, pg his open palm on his heart, before holding out a small, regur metal token. It’s around the same size as Emily’s hand and is covered in fine, multicoloured engravings.

  “Here’s the pass you requested Ma’am!” he says.

  “Thank you. At ease,” Colette responds, taking the pass from him and handing it to Emily. “Keep this on you for now. Don’t lose it or put it in a spatial ste unless you want the full force of ical defences ing down on you.”

  “Got it,” Emily says, sliding it betweehigh holster and her leg for safekeeping.

  “Report,” Colette says as she turns back to the still-waiting soldier.

  “The viander has called you to his office to verify your report on the friendly unknown,” the soldier replies, gng at Emily curiously.

  It’s probably not normal for an outsider to be called straight to their viander.

  “Uood, we’ll head there now. Dismissed.”

  The soldier salutes o time before turning around and running out again.

  “He seems busy,” Emily ents with amusement as they follow after him at a leisurely pace.

  “He’s an errand-runner. If he finishes his task quota for the day early, he’ll be allowed extra free time to train.”

  They leave the hangar, stepping through an invisible film of mana that gives Emily an uling feeling of being watched, aer a wide-open corridor. They pass several soldiers who salute them on the ast. Some of them have one or two lihrough their emblems, matg their circle, but the rest of them have none, marking their unawakeatus.

  All the unawakened soldiers carry a gun with them. For most it’s a sleek clockwork rifle, simir to those used in Modo but with a few small differences in the design like the guard that pletely blocks off the front of the hao protect from sshing ons, and the pump slides beh the barrels instead of bolts. However, some of them are carrying heavy pump-a shotguns with backup pistols mou their waists.

  All of the soldiers, both awakened and not, carry a cold on on them as backup. The most on is a small krapped to their belt, but Emily also sees several swords, maces, and even a sed circle mage with a long spear strapped to her back.

  “Does everyone here have close-quarters ons training?” Emily asks as they enter a rge room with a wide-open bay door and several parked cars, a few of them with soldiers hanging arouo them chatting and smoking.

  “Yes. We sider it very important to be able to handle yourself in close quarters, especially for es. You ’t exactly cast a spell with a knife in your throat,” Colette says, gng down at Emily’s exposed body armour and forearm bracers as she leads them towards one of the cars with two smoking soldiers sitting on the hood. “Is that not the same in Modo? You look like you’ve received proper bat training.”

  “Haha,” Emily chuckles lightly, her face barely moving. “It’s not quite the same, and I’m ly normal. What gave me away, the gear?”

  “The walk,” Colette replies, shaking her head and levelling a gre at the two soldiers before them which they quickly notice, jumping off the car and saluting. “I barely hear your footsteps and you’ve beeo me the whole time. Even among our trained bat mages, it’s rare to see someoh that much trol over their body.”

  Emily raises a brow silently and listens carefully, realising she really isn’t making muoise as she walks.

  I didn’t even notice I was doing it…

  “At ease,” Colette says, rexing her gre. “Take us to the viander’s office.”

  “Yes, Ma’am!” both soldiers say in sync.

  One of them moves to the driver’s seat, and the other opens the passenger door for Colette before moving to open a rear door for Emily and himself.

  “Thanks,” Emily says with a nod, slipping into the car as it starts with a quiet hum.

  Curiously, she is a burst of maa into it and quickly discovers the magic crystals p the engine. She g Colette before verting the maa toug the crystals into mana to probe them. Immediately, Colette’s head snaps back to look at her with a dangerous glint in her eyes.

  “What are you doing?” she asks calmly, though Emily feel a minute quiver in the mana around them, suggesting she’s preparing a spell.

  “Nothing,” Emily replies without batting an eye, immediately verting the mana bato maa, already having cimed her answer.

  Fire and water crystals. They’re using the same trick I did in my Steam Source to produce steam. However, it looks like they’ve mao charge the ignition key with mana to activate the system instead of breaking an active array like mine does.

  “Sure,” Colette says, narrowing her eyes. “Please don’t use mana again within the pound unless asked to.”

  The car falls silent as Colette looks fain. Emily g the soldier sitting beside her and sees him practically dripping with sweat while staring down at the back of Colette’s seat. She shrugs and rexes into her seat, reag into her belt and pulling out the loy bullet g with the Crystal Skull’s logo engraved on the side.

  She rolls it between her fingers while the pound pass by around them as they head towards one of the smaller, two-story buildings. The driver of the car skilfully weaves between walking soldiers and a few other cars, quickly bringing them to their destination.

  They step out of the car to approach the building, and Emily immediately feels the pressure of a fourth circle mage wash over her. She takes a deep breath and raises one of her hands to rest on The Clock’s pouch with barely a thought.

  This will be the first fourth circle mage I meet without fighting them… hopefully.

  KeroKeron