It was a fairly quick walk back to SEYA’s campus. Along the way, I asked about if there was a gym or something- and there obviously was. It was somewhere off where I hadn't explored and was surprisingly expansive from what Kay told me. In addition to the normal treadmills, weights, and fields, there was also an obstacle course and parkour area that was surprisingly popular. While we weren’t going there now, one of the fields around the building was where I was going to be practicing magic with Potatocannon in a few hours.

As we approached the manufactory, Cleo asked to manifest themself- immediately doing so after I shrugged.

Simply leaving their mouth open as their voice came out, they said {hello, I am Silvia’s Semiseelie, Cleo. Please follow me to where the items are waiting,} and walked away before waiting for a reply.

Not having much better to do, we followed it through the front door- which it just passed through without opening. Like the previous times I had been here, there was a constant undertone of whirring machines- however, there were now a few people milling around. None of them paid us much attention, being too engrossed by their own projects as we made our way over to a set of very large machines.

Each had a ten by ten foot base and was almost 15 tall. From what I could read of the text on their side they were a combination of a seven-axis mill and a 3D printer- presumably letting it manufacture almost anything on its own.

My sentiment was echoed by Cleo explaining to me, {while not as precise or fast as just using nanites, these machines are sufficient to produce almost anything you could want with a quick dip in the aforementioned nanites for the necessary enchants on magical items. You don’t necessarily have to be careful with what I've made, but please don’t break them before they're done. After that, I’d love to see anything try.}

With that, Cleo flicked their tail and the latches on the doors popped open. I shrugged at Kay and actually swung the door open so she could see what I had been already taking a look at. Five of the machines held the same thing: a simple cylindrical canister with a button ringed by a dial and a ton of currently internally-plugged holes patterned on the top. Each one was about two inches in diameter and five inches tall, plus another quarter for the button assembly. They looked to be made of stainless steel or some other shiny, silvery metal. Probably the same stuff that made up the ornamentation on my prosthetics.

The last machine held a segmented plate of the same material with five simple clips to hold the canisters. On the other side was a coating of the same sealant stuff that allowed my mask to secure to my face without straps or the feeling of adhesive. Unlike the canisters that had all sorts of intricate mechanisms within them, the harness lacked any moving parts beyond some clever cutouts on the base of the clips to allow the metal to act as a spring for holding the canisters tight.

A token was required for a quick cleanup and finishing of everything in a nanite bath before I kicked Kay out so I could put it on. Following Cleo’s instruction, I lightly pressed the harness against my back- a slot fitting perfectly around my tail- where it stayed when I removed my hands. I could barely feel it only when I was really focusing on it, and the sections allowed it to bend, twist, and stretch with my skin as I nearly pulled something in my back trying to find any problems with its fit.

After finding it was frustratingly perfect, I slipped each of the five canisters into the clips. Their weight felt negligible, being efficiently spread out over a large portion of my back. When I put my shirt and jacket back on, their natural looseness made it hard to tell there was something there. With [Unremarkable] going, it would probably be nearly impossible for anyone to notice.

For Kay’s sake, I didn’t activate that skill before leaving the small room with the nanite bath, and made a show of pulling my clothes tight to my back- revealing the protrusion created by the assembly. When I turned to face her, I did notice Kay flinch slightly before apologizing, “I’m sorry- I had forgotten your difficulties in the Breach left you like that.” After a quick breath, she continued in a concerned voice, “do the scars not hurt or pull as you talk?”

Love this story? Find the genuine version on the author's preferred platform and support their work!

“It’s fine. I probably should just keep my perk on, I just got a bit excited. And to answer your question, the skin around them used to be very sensitive, but I got cleaned up by the nanites on my first trip here. After that they now feel like the rest of my skin.”

“If you wanted to, it would be trivial for you to restore yourself back to how you were by using a few tokens.”

Slightly confused, I asked “it’s possible to get my eyes back?”

Before Kay could say anything, Cleo manifested themself on top of my head and said, {theoretically. However, that option is much more resource intensive than the array of prosthetics I presented- and would perform worse. To do so would require taking some of your stem cells and messing with them to allow them to grow an entirely new set of eyes. From there the replacement would be both highly intricate and long- taking many more tokens than you had.}

New questions having come to mind, I followed up by asking, “but fixing my genetic issue was no problem. Wouldn’t that have been more difficult?”

{No. Not for our computers. For all their power, they can only alter information. The perk being activated while fixing you acted as the medium it needed to form a connection. From there DNA is just a somewhat eccentric way of storing information- and if considered in abstract can be edited the same as computer code.}

As I was opening my mouth to ask yet another question, Kay preempted me, “before you ask ‘why?’ keep in mind that magic only follows consistent rules on an individual basis. Mine works in a way that makes sense to me- and likely only me- your is much the same way. The Semiseelie likely can configure their computers to use magic however is convenient at the moment, under the aforementioned condition it is manipulating information.”

After taking a few moments to consider this, I gave up and simply said, “sure. Anyways, do you know where I can get these filled with stuff? I did a tiny bit of research into potentially useful chemicals, but I have only the slightest clue how to make them myself.”

“You will need to sign some papers saying you can be trusted with dangerous materials before they will give you anything, but that will only take a few minutes. Afterwards, there are two supply pickup locations for MGs. The first handles everything you could need so long as it is available to civilians or some arbitrary lines drawn in military ranks and specializations- all of which is available without special authorization. In general, if you need something stronger than mining explosives, you should request it at the second location.”

After taking a second to breathe and think, Kay continued, “the second location is much smaller, as it is an office as opposed to a warehouse. With the proper forms and reasons, you can request almost anything to be delivered when it is ready. I’m assuming you will want to get your hands on stronger stuff than pesticides, so we should go there first.”

“Sounds good. My current ideas for what I want are: Silane, 2-chlorobenzalmalononitrile, Ethyl Cyanoacrylate, and Chlorine Trifluoride. Or if you prefer: a pyrophoric gas, tear gas, superglue, and one of the most angry and reactive substances we can make. By the way, how much can my canisters hold?”

Once again appearing on my head, Cleo casually said, {The equivalent of 20,000 liters under standard atmospheric pressure. The volume inside is bigger than it looks- pretty easy to do as space magic is one of my focuses. Also, despite how they will be under very heavy pressure, don't worry about them exploding. I doubt there's anything that would both be able to puncture one of the canisters and be reasonable to consider you might run into.}

Nodding slowly, I asked, “and how do I explain that to whoever is filling these? Also, it’ll probably be ridiculously expensive. I get most of what we do is just waved off by the government, but… ugh.”

Motioning for Cleo to de-manifest, Kay soberly replied, “I expect that whoever fulfills the order will be used to going along with unrealistic claims. As for cost… our expenditures are rolled into the military budget and that has only increased over the years. To be honest, it will probably be just another drop in the ocean.”

Now that I was slightly reassured, Kay took me to the second supply request location where- just as she had said- all I had to do was sign a couple papers before handing over my canisters with labels of intended contents and capacity. It was kinda eerie how no one asked any questions or even really reacted to my request. It made me wonder just what the craziest thing someone had requested was- and if they got that request granted.