Late Metal Phase: Cycle 3079 AF
Chapter 12: Love and magical devices
Blight. I groaned to myself.
Stop complaining.
I did not bother responding. Hiding my thoughts from the Nalks was now infinitely easier than hiding them from Bella was. Stones, was not even allowed the think of her as my “Child-self” anymore as she insisted on being called Bella.
It started a only a few weeks ago, my soul must have reached an important point in my merge with Bella because she and I each went from having a general idea of what the other was thinking to being able to see inside their mind and send mental pictures to each other. It was unnerving to say the least.
Since then, we had been trying to adapt to the various things that would go through our shared consciousness. For example, she demanded that I call her Bella and I demanded that she stop appraising men as possible mates. So far, despite my infamous past as the Bandit King, I had lost or tied every argument.
Stop dwelling already, you sound like a kid. Besides, I am only arguing the points that make sense so it is natural for you to always lose!
Said the nine cycle old! Besides, I have no intention of staying a woman so why would you resist my request to stop eying men?
What is your point? I might not have the experience you do, but the memories I can see have already made me way more mature than I would normally be. Oh and you already got the whole ‘you are bisexual’ talk, twice, from both Anton and me. Get over it already!
I started grumbling again and received a mental image of a grumpy old man.
The little girl inside my head was trying to convince me to open my mind to the possibility of loving a man and then calling me a grump when I refused. This is so wrong, I thought to myself.
Right now we were resting after finishing up the harvest for the Metal Phase. It would be time for the Lord’s party again soon enough and only my strongest objections, as well as very liberal use of Loco’s standing requests orders to collect supplies, kept me from being obligated to go.
Almost the whole family now relaxed on the newly built front portch of the house Nathan, Hoplis, Hoplis’ now pregnant wife, a slightly vindictive Florence, and Carlatus were all relaxing in one sprawling group. Most were just talking, but Florence was getting ready to attend the Lord’s party by trying to come up with new ways to insult Janeen, who had apparently become something of a rival for her recently. Mother was still undecided on whether or not she should go and wondered in and out of the house to check on Carol. Little Carol and Carlatus would be staying wherever Mother was so they were trying to behave while she decided – having already annoyed her greatly on the subject. Xiphos and his master Jalon were the only ones not present as they had already left for some eastern kingdom that they neglected to tell me the name of. I was left to simply nod and smile at the appropriate times when I was wrapped up into a conversation.
Usually, Bella would be taking care of the familial conversations, however, since our little breakthrough she was having a harder time distinguishing between her natural responses and my, usually more jaded, opinions, so we had decided to avoid talking.
In the meanwhile I wondered if this was what it was like to grow up with a normal family. It felt warm somehow and if I was anyone else I would have let myself get lost in the moment. As it was however, I was still in the middle of collecting my experiment results.
I still cannot believe that you used little Carol for an experiment!
It was fine. We both know the chances of her dying were less than 1 in 10,000 or so attempts.
That is not the point and you know it.
Bah. What is wrong with a little testing? Besides we had to know if the magical device would work and watching her recover from the infection was the best opportunity.
First the cute little bunnies and now cute little Carol. I hope your super apes are ugly, because I am not going to forgive you if you end up hurting another cutie.
Right when you start earning my respect you go back to being 9 again. At least we know it works.
For the past week I had been testing out my new magical device on Carol while she recovered from an infection of some type. Her fever had already broken, but the device was only meant to monitor her anyway so it was fine in my opinion. Honestly, I had wanted to do more than just implant the monitoring device, but Bella actively resisted me and repeatedly disrupted my concentration when I was trying to form my spells.
The original device was an organically based magical relay that I implanted on Carol’s brainstem. I could activate once a day for a brief period before it had to reabsorb mana from its surroundings. During the time it was active I could receive a sort of ghost image in the back of my mind which I could monitor.
Though, since the initial version, I had refined the design to last longer when transmitting and consume much less calories from who I implanted it in. Carol had a big appetite when recovering anyway, but the transition was using more of her energy than it should so I corrected it. Besides that Carol did not seem to notice the device, although the nature of the device itself was somewhat to blame for that so I was careful not to jump to conclusions. Magical devices were odd like that, the most basic ones were simple and easy to make, but this one had taken me over a years to fully design.
Generally speaking, a magical device was anything that held prearranged spells that could be activated at a time different from when they were cast. Usually, people used wood and stone to create magical devices as they could hold spells fairly well and were easy to acquire, but I needed something that would survive in the human body. I had a few prototypes made of bone, but in the end I decided to use a small bundle of nervous tissue that I had embedded spells into instead because of its increased versatility and the fact that it would break down more easily on command. It was also much less likely to damage the test subject.
Now she does not even get a name? Seriously DeMorte!?
Magical devices could be anything from a model bird that would flap its wings to enchanted equipment or rings that could be used to cast spells. That said, all magical devices had to be recharged with magic, meaning that anyone stupid enough to disrespect mages because of a few good pieces of equipment would find themselves in dire straits. Small devices like mine could naturally absorb mana to recharge themselves, but it was like a 1 circle mage trying to cultivate energy, embarrassingly slow.
All ruling families married mages for a reason, even with the best magical devices as equipment, no non-mage could beat a real mage. Adamantine was the only equipment that came close and even that would only help so much. As the old saying went, there were many magic swords and many mage swordsmen, but there were no swordsmen mages. Not that they were impossible, it just made no sense to fight with a sword when you could store a half dozen different death spells in a fairly basic staff.
Which reminded me, I needed to try and manipulate bone that had spells embedded in it to see if it would disrupt the spells. If not, it would make both good weapons and armor. No one tended to turn the human body into a magical device, but it was possible to embed your limbs with small emergency spells if you wanted to. If you could deal with the pain and the fact that your mana channels might be damaged by the process, it was an effective method of creating a hidden weapon. The fact that it could damage mana channels though meant that trying to place it anywhere except your limbs would risk magical paralysis, as all mana channels flowed from the brain.
The poor fools without magic that volunteered to be turned into walking magical devices were too unpleasant to think about…
“Bella.” The voice belonged to Mother so I banished thoughts of future experiments and test subjects to concentrate on her. “Would you and Florence mind helping me with the cooking for a little bit?”
We nodded and followed her to the fire pit at the back of the house. Recently, Nathan decided on a major expansion to the previously small house so soon there would be a fully functional, yet separate, kitchen. However, he still needed their neighbor to return after the man’s own harvest and finish building the stove. Until then, the official cooking location was out the back of the house.
Nathan himself was somewhat embarrassed that the job was not done, but he had been assured that it would be done before winter and that was all that mattered in his eyes. Well, that and the fact that the kitchen extended out over the basement, making retrieving stored food easier in the winter. No one liked retrieving food in the snow.
Walking out to the cooking fire, however, I noticed that almost all the preparations were already done and that the food was already cooking, although I did not pay too much attention to what was cooking as I instinctively started looking for an ambush. Bella, for once did not say anything, although I could tell what she thought the real ambush was a different one from what I had in mind. She was right of course, but paranoia was my oldest friend.
“Now, I want both of you to listen for a bit.” Mother announced, turning to look at us both. “Florence, everyone knows that Robert has been courting you, but you need to remember to take him seriously and be ready for his marriage proposal. You will be 16 soon enough and everyone will be wondering how you and Robert plan to support yourselves.” Florence jerked straight at the mention of her name and paid strict attention to Mother while she was talking. An incredibly serious, if slightly confused, look on her face.
In the meanwhile I looked at Elizabeth with alarm. Florence was confused for a good reason, everyone knew that there was no such thing as ‘casual courtship’ you only courted to marry, period. There were no exceptions in any kingdom I knew of in this world… Although my own Kingdom did have a serious commitment issue.
For this to be brought up meant a trap!
She is our Mother, stop being so paranoid around family. By the way, why were you thinking of fish when you thought that?
Family is the most dangerous bait for a trap. Also, I just remembered that we still need to study fish gills.
Oh, that is right! Anton never told you how they breathe underwater did he? Yet he did let slip that they breathed oxygen… Wait, you do not seriously believe that Mother would ever betray us do you?
You know that I do. Under the right conditions it would not be a verbal flank attack like this one, but with a dagger in the night. I have seen it almost as much as I helped it happen.
…A verbal flank attack? Your dramatic side really comes out when you are nervous
Who is nervous? Besides, it appropriate for the occasion, watch she will use Florence’s relationship to start asking us about-
“Bella, now that Florence and you understand how serious Robert is, maybe you can tell us about you and John? Especially as your relationship will effect hers.”
I sighed, both inside my mind and outside. It had been a long time since I had seen her, but that line of questioning seemed forced even by my lower standards… Then again though, it was exactly how I would have broached the subject if I decided not to ask directly.
“I have told him repeatedly to go away, honestly he is just annoying.” Bella and I did not need to discuss that particular answer as we had already agreed that John’s advances were unwelcome. Dras on the other hand was becoming a problem for us as he keep coming to visit on John’s behalf and letting Bella all, but drool over him when he was not looking, which was uncomfortably rare.
Hey, I did not drool!
Not able to hear the argument in my head, Elizabeth just frowned. “Did you clearly tell him that his advances were unwanted? Or did you just avoid him?”
I threatened to cut off certain parts of his body and reattach them in unpleasant places, but the brat keep trying. “Yes ma’am, I was very clear.” Which I also said with a straight face and without blinking or letting my ears twitch.
She stared at me for a moment before sighing herself and turning back to Florence. “In that case, perhaps Robert would be willing to talk to his younger brother. Either way he should know about Bella’s feelings so that he does not accidentally delay any of his plans for a false reason.”
Florence nodded, understanding, “Yes Mother.”
Elizabeth nodded and then glanced at me before nodding for Florence to go back inside. After Florence left, Elizabeth sighed again and glared at me, turning back into Mother. “You know your sister always takes me more seriously when I talk like that, but you just got defensive, which means several things that I am not sure how to describe.” She paused before grumbling, “And that is far too many sighs that I have made in far too short a time period.” She waved me over to the food and told me to help here with the last bit that needed to be done.
After a few minutes of silent work we were done and Mother looked over at me. I bowed politely and tried to excuse myself before she could speak, but it did not work. “Bella. Come sit over here.”
Mother was patting the ground right beside her as she sat down a few steps away from the food.
I wanted to refuse, but ‘Bella’ would not have a good reason to ignore her own Mother so we ended up sitting down.
Smiling Mother put her arm around me and I flinched at the contact as my mana instinctively ran through her, my talent telling me things I did not want or need to know. For example, I realized that had breast cancer, which promptly made Bella start yelling at me to fix her.
You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.
After a moment of my head spinning we managed to concentrate on Mother’s slightly confused face. “Was that your talent just now?” We nodded, still struggling with what to do. Bella knew that I could not just heal her, especially right before the Lord’s party, as she might let it slip that I was doing magic, but Bella insisted that we should take care of her. “Are you alright Bella?” Mother gently prodded.
“Yes, I am fine, what did you want to talk about?” I took actual control of our body to talk, gently removing Mother’s hand from my shoulder while I was at it.
She frowned and stared at me. “I am worried about you Bella, you have always been unique, but lately it seems like you only care about experiments with Loco. He is a nice man, but Luna told me that you almost never play with any other children.”
Wait a moment, was this supposed to be one of those ‘opera moments’ when I tell her my ‘feelings’ and such? Bella, this conversation is all yours.
Externally we only blinked before Bella was back in control of our body. “Experiments are both more fun and more important. Besides my talent activates whenever I touch someone so it is easier to just ignore them.” Excellent answer Bella, I thought happily.
“Bella, that is not right at all.” We blinked and stared seriously at Mother, who looked back at us with pity. “Interacting with others is how we grow and how you get better at socializing. It is how you learn to make friends.”
We kept staring at her.
Mother is an odd person.
Indeed.
I knew how children were treated in this world and no one would sit down to talk to them like this. It was more of a system of ordering the children around and giving them a good beating if they refused… Maybe it was because I was a mage? That would be much smarter I thought, using logic instead of violence would lessen the likelihood of a magical child lashing out.
“Mother,” we started carefully, “I do not know what you mean. I talk to others all the time, just not kids- other children.” We remembered our current situation and adjusted the tone we used near the end.
“Exactly, are you not even the slightest bit interested in what other kids say and do in their free time?”
Unless we are running an experiment? “No, why would I be?” We really did not understand where this line of questioning was going? Unless she was worried about… “Is this conversation going to be about boys?”
Mother closed her eyes for a moment. “Only partly Bella, I am more worried about how you will get along with others.” She looked us straight in the eye, as if seeking some sort of truth in them. We matched her look and ignored the old superstitions about the eyes being the doorway to a person’s soul. “I know what will happen after the capital finally finishes arguing about the mine Nathan found, some noble faction or factions will try to send someone to recruit you. Maybe they will use a boy, maybe money, or maybe they will try and offer you the chance to experiment to your heart’s content.”
I found myself impressed, offering me a chance to experiment to my heart’s content would be both a dangerous and effective offer. Dangerous to everyone that was, when I finally got around to permanent changes to other people’s DNA the whole world should know to fear what I will unleash. I had even thought about creating weaponized diseases that could cause a mass extermination wherever they were released and selling them to whoever would pay the most.
The best part was that the Guilt would not even react to something like that because I was only effected by people I killed directly. My reasoning for why was simple, if I did not order it and I only supplied the weapon, the people who had it were the ones with the choice of how it was used. As far as the Guilt was concerned, that choice made all the difference in the world.
Well… not that those plans would work out. Nobles and their darn reputations would restrict me to dealing from shadows and being hunted down by whoever was effected by my diseases. Plus, refusing to save someone in front of me when I could have would also trigger the Guilt.
Mother must have seen something my reaction to her words because she nodded and continued speaking. “You might not be interested in boys now, but when you grow older that will be a concern too. Most village girls know that they can pressure a marriage if they get pregnant, but the cities and noble houses are totally different if-”
We held up our hands and interrupted her. “Mother, you do not need to worry about me getting pregnant.”
“Yes, I know that you can probably make a contraceptive potion by now dear, but you have to remember that-”
“I am barren.”
That made her recoil like she had been physically struck “What did you say?” She stared at me briefly before leaning forward and hugging me tightly, despite my flinching away. “Oh no, I am so sorry Bella. Since when? How did that happen? Was it an alchemic accident? I am so sorry.”
We froze and tried to deal with the excess contact as best we could. Once I was older I would have better control over my mana and be able to limit such exposure, but until then Bella and I had to deal with our mana trying to invade and fix whoever we touched.
As Mother tried to comfort us (?) it became too much and I sent a pulse of mana that knocked her out and left me supporting her weight.
Quickly glancing at the house to make sure that no one else was going to wander out, I took stock of Mother’s physical health and came to the conclusion that, despite being in her 40’s she was in relatively good condition. I thought about various spells that would remove the breast cancer, but they would take a while and someone would likely interrupt before I was finished.
Sighing to myself I made sure Bella was in firm control of our body before I used my mana. If I let her die there would be no one to control Nathan and she would die in a few years if left untreated. Until then I would be annoyed by both my talent and by Bella to heal her, so the sooner that I healed her, the better. I would also diffidently be afflicted with the Guilt if she died because of it…
And in the end, she was the only Mother that I had in either of my lives. I was not sure if I could actually learn to love her as her other children would already do, but I still did not want her to die.
Taking a chance, I used formless casting to manipulate my mana directly. If I messed up, it would be bad, but with Bella watching over our main body the chances were minimal. I methodically identified the cancerous cells and mentally separated them from the healthy cells before sending a pulse of mana through the cancerous cells. It worked and I managed to kill off the cancer cells fairly quickly. Fortunately, the body’s natural processes would take care of the dead cells so I did not have to worry about that, Mother’s immune system was already responding to destroy the remains of the dead cells.
It only took about a minute total, but for anyone else that would have been impossible. Free form or otherwise, unless you understood why cancer cells were dangerous and what made them different, no normal spell would help you. Not that spreading a methodically created version of the spell would help either, Healers like Kal’rek would be ignorant, not stupid and start asking questions about how I knew enough to create my spell.
I only messed with priests twice in my previous life for a good reason, they held too much political power to push too far. Killing a few corrupt priests and stealing their money had been pushing it, but after I got my formal recognition as a king from then on I only crossed them when it came to their ‘burn all heretics’ phase.
I love her and all, but Mother is still a bit heavy.
What? It seems like our muscles are handling the strain fine.
Yes, but it is still annoying and I have to stay at this angle in case someone sees us so will you please wake her up?
Fine, get ready.
“Mom!” We shook her as a pulse of mana helped her wake up. Now that our talent was not bothering us, we should be able to calm her down more easily.
“What?” She blinked rapidly and concentrated on our face.
“I am sorry, I never liked boys so I thought that it was not a big deal if my body was not able to have kids.” I lied smoothly enough as it was true that Bella only seemed to eye older boys and young men. It disgusted me, but neither of us thought about children in that way so it was not too much of a lie, if it was one at all. “I did not think that you would faint.” Mother looked alarmed for a moment, but calmed down quickly enough
“So your talent told you that you were…?” She left the question unfinished and I just nodded. “When?”
“I was never going to have children.” I answered honestly, while still dodging the question.
Mother took a deep breath and gave me another hug while I silently checked the real reason I was barren.
Certain female organs were useful for more than just childbirth and I had decided to make use of them for the single most complicated magical device that I had ever heard of, much less created.
My genetic rebuilder, however, was years away from being finished. Decades if I did not get some more genetically complex test subjects.
Hush, I am trying to enjoy the moment
Ah, in that case, do you want me to be the one to remind her about the food? We did not use that many calories, but it may burn at this rate.
”Ah!”
* * *
On a world very different to DeMorte’s:
Abukara Yoshitake was tired of everything.
He had been bullied at school, beaten at home, and attacked by everything in-between. Even the internet anons seemed to hate him.
Despite his life seeming worthless though, Abukara never gave up. He wanted to live and make his own life better, even if only in some small, virtually worthless way.
That was the only reason he was even in the library every day. He only scored slightly above average on his latest tests and he wanted to be better than that. His parents would never pay for a cram school so he taught himself.
Naturally, today was different though. Today, after he left school he had run into the same group that always bullied him. It was annoying and clichéd by now. To the point where he did not feel angry or afraid, just tired. That part was the same as usual: get accosted, get dragged out of sight of other, and let the beating commence.
Then, they stopped. Abukara was unsure about the why at first, but it was painfully obvious when he looked. Literally, his back of his hand was shining so brightly that it hurt his eyes. Then the burning sensation started behind his eyes and traveled around his head before corkscrewing down his spine. It took a moment to rap around his heart and then broke apart to spread in all directions, filling his limbs with pain.
Then the world started to grow bigger and bigger as Abukara shrank and passed out from the pain as his disappeared.
He would never know this, but the amount of painful screaming he did, along with his lightshow, and subsequent disappearance would ensure a radical change in the behavior of his bullies as they ran screaming in fear to the police, who never believed them.
In a secret location under the city of Palos:
Abukara groaned and jerked as he woke up, his body still feeling like it was on fire.
A few lights illuminated the stone room, showing an incredibly complex system of different geometric shapes that had been carved into the stone floor. They also illuminated a series of closely robbed figures that truly scared Abukara, mostly because the feeling of power that they gave off – although he had no idea how or why he felt that they gave off any feeling of power at all.
Looking around rapidly and trying to get his bearings Abukara noticed a small gold chain of some sort chaffing his wrist. When he grabbed at it, however, one of the figures spoke. “The bracelet is a translator, please do not take it off just yet Lord Hero.”
Abukara stopped and looked up at who he thought had spoken. Lord Hero? “What?”
“A translator device that we invented for your use Lord Hero.” The man stepped forward and pulled back his cloak, revealing an bald head, an old and wrinkled, but still hopeful, face and slightly pointed ears. “We summoned you to try and save our people.”
“W-w-wait a second. I do not know anything about fighting demons, making super weapons, or leading others, and I am sure that I do not know magic so, how am I supposed to save anyone?” Abukara stuttered.
“I believe that you fainted from the pain of your mana pathways coming to life just now Lord Hero, but believe me when I say that you can save us.” The old man’s smile widened “I could feel your mana from the next room when you arrived. Still, it must not have been a pleasant experience so please follow this young one-” an attractive, if slightly large, women, with the same slightly pointed ears, stepped from behind the old man and smiled. “-we will get you something to eat and a place to rest.”
Abukara nodded and stood up on shaky legs as best he could before the mysterious man moved aside to let him pass. Abukara also could have sworn he heard a quiet order being given as he was led away. He was not completely sure, but he could have sworn that he heard someone giving orders concerning “pleasurable company.”
Weird. Is this going to be Heaven or Hell? He thought to himself.
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Thank you for reading!