Emily’s eyes widened and she felt the blood in her chest tighten, a crimson light flashing through her pupils.
On the other side of the small table, Ariandel’s eyes burned with a fiery red. Where Emily’s were filled with pure life force, his were like two pools of motel rock.
If he could see her contract, then what else was he capable of? Could he reverse it and kick Emily out of her body?
If so, he needed to die.
“Woah! Relax younglin. I mean you no harm. Whatever that contract is for I have neither the intention nor the ability to break it. Only a sufficiently powerful Law Breaker might be able to help.” Ariandel said raising his arms
The bear-like man had somehow managed to look sheepish as he stared at Emily, but she had to know.
“How did you know I have a contract is it that obvious?”
Ariandel cleared his throat and nodded as though admonishing himself.
“My deepest apologies, I may have started this conversion inappropriately. To make it up to you I’ll answer your question. Once a Red Mage reaches a certain level of skill they can see the energy that makes up this world. This makes them incredibly good at discerning enchantments, and what are contracts if not complex enchantments on the soul.”
Emily’s hands had not released the corners of the chair but she couldn’t help the question that bubbled up out of her.
“And let's just say for a moment one wanted to get out of the contract they were under and keep the rewards for themself. Is that something you can do?”
Both Ariandel and Citta’s eyes widen at the question, but the Master was the first to answer.
“...Breaking a contract is not so hard… but keeping whatever was put up as collateral is a line of study not many have bothered to explore because it's widely seen as impossible. Decades have been dedicated to breaking down each exchange and yet there’s been no success as of yet. You might be looking at another decade or two until we find anything conclusive.”
Emily frowned to herself, it sounded like keeping her body if she tried to break the contract was impossible. If that was the case then she was better off just waiting out the time limit than waiting an unknown amount of time.
Sighing to herself, Emily glanced up at the bear.
“Never mind that it was just a passing fancy. I accept your apology and would love to hear what you have brought me here for.”
One of Ariandel’s ears flicked as a pleased expression appeared on his face.
“Well, I suppose we can get right to it. The reason I called you here was because my most recent project has reached a dead end of sorts, and I truly believe it could be a revolutionary find. It is just that to progress I need the right catalyst. Someone who has the appropriate skills to help me craft my final crowning design.”
Ariandel’s eyes had filled with an intense passion as he spoke and Emily glanced over at Citta who had an equally pleased expression on her face.
“Okay…and what exactly is it that you think I could help you with? It sounds like you are trying to make something but I don’t know the first thing about that stuff.”
Ariandel seemed to come back to himself.
“Ah, well, that's not what I need you for. You remember when I told you that Red Mages are good at enchantments. Well, I’ve dabbled in relic creation all my life, and while I do have some success here and there. This one will change the way we look at source. It's the whole reason we’re even fighting with Sam’eth. Imagine that, we could end this war once and for all with a single invention!”
Emily stared at the Silvaren as he got more animated.
“Look buddy, you are going to start making a little more sense. What is it you want from me.”
Ariandel took a breath and nodded to himself.
“Right, apologies again. What I currently need help with is stabilizing my current relic and I think a Blood Mage would be well suited to figuring this out. As for its function, how familiar are you with source poisoning? ”
Emily hummed and thought back to what Ashe had taught her.
“Souce poisoning comes about when too much is taken in and it begins to erode the natural limits of the body”
Ariandel nodded.
“Indeed, but have you ever wondered why it is that the source ‘poisons’ you? After decades of research, I have narrowed it down to one thing. The gods. We can’t know for sure which came first source or the gods, some even think they are the same thing, but I can tell you that it is their influence that limits our abilities. My relic is intended to filter out that out and allow for an uninterrupted supply of clean source.”
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Emily’s brows rose at this information.
She had felt her limits a couple of times, though from what Ashe said her reserves were significantly larger than the average person's. This meant that for others this restriction was large enough that they needed a way around it. Emily had her blood to fall back one, so if one was able to draw on source infinitely then they could probably become incredibly effective in battle.
Emily's thoughts were bushed aside when Ariandel kept talking.
“I planned to publicly announce this in half a month, but if you decide to help I might even have a prototype.”
Emily frowned at the time scale. Half a month? Alex had said that in his last life, the war had started much later than it had this time round.
The reason was an assassination attempt on some bigwig in Sam’eth, but wouldn’t that have happened either way?
The real question was what had they gone to war for last time?
If this invention went public what would Sam’eths reaction have been?
“Hey Ariandel, I have to ask. Why do you think that this invention would cause peace between the two cities?” Emily asked.
The Silvaren glanced back at Citta and then to Emily.
“Well… we would stop making use of their god's power and that would in turn reduce tensions”
Emily stared at the two mages and neither seemed to see where she was coming from. There was a saying from one of Emily's favorite movies that applied here.
“We were so focused on whether we could, that we didn’t stop to think if we should.”
The thing was that Emily had no love for the gods and they were already at war so there really was no reason to bring it up to them.
“So then what would be my role in all of this and what would I get out of this”
Ariandel looked relieved that she would hear him out and nodded happily.
“Well, the biggest problem I’m having right now is anyone I have tried to place my prototype on has died during the operation. Unfortunately because of the delicate nature of the relic, it cannot be exposed to any source other than what is inside.
The problem I am having is that if I have a White Mage fix the damage incurred in the operation it breaks the relic, but if I let them suffer through the implantation they die from the amount of source coming in.”
Once Emily heard this, she sat back in her chair and pursed her lips, but Ariandel kept talking.
“Now from what I understand Blood Mages can heal themselves without using anything but their own life sources. If that is the case then, your help could be indispensable to figuring out what a successful transplant looks like.”
Emily held up her hand to stop Ariandel in his tracks.
“Listen, from the sounds of things you want me to become your test subject, willingly. And from the outside looking in it does not sound like you have had much success as of yet. So I’ll have to decline that offer, but as it so happens I can fix others up just as easily. So it comes down to what you are willing to offer me.”
Ariandel’s eyes at this and he muttered under his breath.
“I was under the impression you could only heal yourself. There is still so much I don’t understand about that magic.”
Emily didn’t correct him as she stared at Citta’s surprised eyes.
Just as a side note, are we going to get into any trouble for experimenting on humans—or, uh, other sentient races?
Ariandel’s eyes widened and he shook his head.
“Oh, certainly not. My test subjects are all willing candidates.”
Emily glanced at Citta and noticed she looked rather uncomfortable at that statement.
Emily shrugged and continued.
“Right well then let's get down to terms. First off it takes life force to heal people, so you will need to supply that. Don't worry, livestock will work just fine. Secondly, I need a place to stay, and lastly and perhaps the most important. I need help finding someone who may have entered the city a couple of days ago.”
Ariandel grinned.
“I like the way you think. Firstly I require you to help me stabilize the lives of the test subjects and offer up any insight you may have on our progress. During our partnership together I expect you to keep all the things you learn under wraps, and should I call you for an experiment you will drop what you are doing and assist me.”
Emily picked up her teacup and took a sip of the pleasant fruity taste. She could already see a good number of traps in Ariandel’s words so she decided to add another clause.
“I never heard anything about a time limit, so we’ll cap this partnership to a week. If it takes longer than that, we’ll have to relook at our conditions. I also want you to know that my current contract will supersede this one. Should I have to choose between answering its call and yours, I will choose it.”
This caused a twitch in Ariandel’s brow.
“The weekly update I can understand, but I do not know what your contract is, how can I agree to that?”
Emily nodded to herself as she leaned back in the chair.
“I can not tell you the contents as it pertains to my safety, but that clause should not cause you any trouble.”
Ariandel looked worried as he interlaced his hands together.
“Then I will ask that if I do find who you are looking for, you must complete the week we agreed upon provided it does not put you in danger of course.”
Emily placed a hand on her chin as she did the mental gymnastics. She added in a couple more things, like a time limit on how much time he got a day but overall it seemed like a fairly amicable contract.
Emily was kind of excited to play a mad scientist or in this case mad Mage.
“Right, so I’ll draft the contract and we can both sign. Then Citta can take you to a nearby guest lodging.”
Emily nodded as Ariandel took out a piece of thick parchment. As he did so he popped the cap of a vial of mudy ink and began scribbling on the page.
Now Emily could not read all that well, but even she could tell that this was not the written language she was accustomed to.
It was runes being scribbled onto the parchment, linked by a flowing cursive-like penmanship.
“There, is this up to your standards?” he said as he handed it to her to look over.
Emily tried to keep her face as neutral as possible as she looked over the small sheet of paper. The runes were much the same as the ones she had seen in out in the ravine, suffice to say she couldn’t make heads or tails of it.
Luckily, Emily had always been better at reading people's intentions when they were trying to fuck her over. So a glance up at the two Mages told her all she needed to know.
Placing the document down again she smiled and pushed it back to him with a raised eyebrow.
Ariandel’s eyes flickered down to the page and his shoulders slumped slightly. Lowering his eyes he took out a fresh piece of parchment and began writing all over again.
Once this one was completed she gave it a ‘once over’ and then took the offer writing implement and signed her name. As Ariandel added his own signature Emily saw the rune ignite and she felt a strange tightening in her bones.
Blood points: 300