My luck must be turning sour once again, that’s the only reason why the red torrent of scaly invaders would return to bother me. Okay maybe I'm being a tad harsh on them. They aren’t really bothering me per say, they’re just there in my space and it bothers me a little. I guess social anxiety doesn’t go away even if you are a wholly different species. Maybe if I just keep focused on my work they’ll take the hint that I’m trying to focus and give me just a little more personal space.

I had gotten one of those silver plates from the repair shop and had begun the process of cutting and drilling away all but the rune I wanted to make. This wasn’t so much as a test as it was just practicing my coordination with these handmade tools using my off hand. The reciprocating saw would be my ideal tool to use for this exact job, but while it was being picked apart and studied by this mysterious friend my boss kept mentioning it wasn’t available to me. No matter, I’d already whittled my way down to the point that a file could work well enough, and Vimna was eager to help do some manual labor instead of note taking. She was probably the better choice anyway given her surprising level of strength and endurance, as well as having two uninjured arms.

She and I were working on making our runes when I heard some giggling from behind us followed by the familiar sound of little chitinous feet tip tapping along the stone floor. I looked over my shoulder to see that the siblings were all taking turns scratching and patting his little iron shell, but every time he tried to move away they’d just follow him and keep patting him. He looked like he didn’t mind the interaction, but not being able to get away was starting to stress him out. I allowed my mana to flare along my back, which succeeded in drawing his attention and making him scuttle up to my seat quickly. The reds were disappointed when I scooped him up so he could sit in my lap, but they seemed to understand that he was tired when he carefully tucked himself into his shell for a nap.

The lack of interaction from our little research trio seemed to finally get across the notion that we had work to do, and fortunate for us it seemed that Dobo had similar sentiments. Gyloa suggested that her kids all come home with her to help get some new beds ready, which they all agreed to eagerly. Well, all of them but Vimna. She told her mother and siblings that she wanted to stay and help finish helping me out and that she’d be home with Dobo once his shift was over. I nudged her with a raised eyebrow, but her reassurance that she wanted to stay dissuaded me from trying to convince her to spend more time with her family. Fate seemed to understand my concerns and allowed me to peek at those invisible threads of bonds again but as far as I could tell they were all fine, healthy even.

I hadn’t really considered it before because of how similar in age we were physically, but perhaps she and I were a lot closer to her perceived sibling relationship than I thought. My human mind was already fully developed by my terrible life back on Earth, one that lacked any semblance of friends or family. The distinction I had between the two in this life was blurry at best because she and Raevu allowed me to grow accustomed to their presence as though they were my own kin. Dang it , I didn’t want to get in between her and those siblings of hers, they deserved the chance to get to know each other and form their own bonds without someone like me around.

A hand gently shook at my now idle hands, drawing my eyes to the concerned kobold sitting next to me.

“Roo, are you okay? You looked really mad again. Are you upset or is there something on your mind?”

I dropped my tool and used my elbow to pin my slate down while I wrote with my unpracticed writing hand. It looked like crap, but it was still legible.

“Just thinking, not upset in the slightest. Just wondering why you wanted to stay here and not spend time with your brothers and sisters.”

Vimna turned her eyes to the side while scratching at her neck uncertainly.

“Uh, not really sure how to say it best. Just didn’t wanna ignored. They all get along and have their own way of messing with each other, but I’m not part of that. I feel so small to them in more than just tallness. They came home last night and all slept in the big bed together, but even when dad invited me I was too weird inside to want it. It’s like I was scared, but not because of them or mom but just because of me.”

“That sounds like you were nervous, intimidated, and possibly thinking too hard. I know what that’s like since I have been there before just like you. It’s important that you understand what these feelings mean and how to work through them. My advice would be to get to know them slowly before doing anything you don’t want to do yet. Let them understand you at their own pace while you get to know them better. I know that if you be yourself and show them your kind heart they’ll come to love you just like your parents do.”

Vimna looked up from the slate with an oddly smug grin on her face.

“I just knew you’d say something that would just fit in my head like that. You’re so smart that it’s like you can see something nobody else can. Thanks Roo, your advice is just what I needed.”

Kid, you have no idea how close you came to understanding what my life is like. She went back to whittling the silver shape into the form that was needed while I just idly made notes on new rune arrays I wanted to try. Some minutes passed, but I began to feel the rhythm of Vimna work slow again as the rest of her worries made their way to her lips.

“Kayroo, is it true that you were one of those people from the last moon-rise?”

The image of that mirror dragon flashed behind my eyes forcing my grip on the chalk to tighten.

“Yes. Me and my brothers were part of the last ritual.”

Vimna chewed at her lip as she pondered how best to phrase her next question. It’s okay, I don’t need it sugar coated kid.

“Were you, um, the ones that were… cursed?”

The last word was no more than a whisper but still made me wince as though I had been stung.

“Yes, we are.”

My choice of words seemed to bother her as she processed the implications that this information carried.

“B-but if you were… are cursed, then why are you this way?”

My eyes snapped to look at her. I knew what she meant, but some part of me heard her words in a very twisted context that was not applicable here. I took a deep breath before the sparks of my flaring temper could make me react poorly to her innocent question.

“What do you mean?”

The words seemed to escape her as she looked me over.

“Dad says that there are two curses: moon-fall and mix-blood. Eggs laid on darkest night rarely hatch and die all the time, but you and Zokkos are still here. Mix-blood is impossible because of the rules. But… you and your brothers are mix-blood, and you also cursed. If you are not supposed to be here two times together, then how are you the Kayroo I know?”

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I honestly didn’t know how to respond to that. I knew I was a one in a million double-impossible egg, but I had always just attributed that to something Death had done to ensure that my new life actually got started. Explaining that the literal aspect of the afterlife had rigged the odds for me wasn’t something I could do without sounding absolutely insane. I’m sorry Vimna, but I’m going to keep that a secret from you for your own wellness of mind. Since I don’t have a valid answer, then maybe I can turn this back on itself.

“Who is the Kayrux you know?”

Without even hesitating to phrase it she went off on a stern and quick paced rant about yours truly.

“You’re Kayroo! You’re smart and strong, you know so many things and have these ideas that nobody else has! No matter any problem I have, you can fix just with your writing board and some words! You’re more awesome than anyone else and the nicest person in the world! You taught me to read, made me feel good about me, and now you’re helping me get over my scaredness! You’re impossible the other way!”

I was left slack jawed by her outburst, as it seemed that someone had developed quite the hero complex about me. My own self esteem refused to accept anything she said as fact, but that lingering piece of pride devoured those words hungrily and made my heart swell. My hand went over the place on my chest that was now emitting a warm heat like a gentle flame. My eyes darted to the doorway to ensure that nobody would interrupt our moment this time before I tossed my arms around her. I wound up being the one lifting her from the ground as I rose to my full height to spin her around in a fit of joy, but not before gently sliding Tim onto the tabletop.

Her words were resonating with me on a deeper, spiritual level than any self-help motivational garbage I’d ever heard in my entire life on Earth. My heart felt full once again, and my inspiration had been rekindled. I set her back down before giving the top of her head a small peck with my reptilian snout, the closest thing to a kiss that I could really manage. Golly, was the mana in the room always so bright or was it just me?

Ooh, now that was an idea! I twirled on my heel just slow enough to grab my slate from the table without bumping the dozing isopod or scattering our silver parts onto the floor. I quickly jotted down my newest experiment, and from the look on my assistant's face she was thrilled to be a candidate for my research. This was going to be fun!

I set up a snapshot sensor on my good hand and honed in the timing so that I could just point my hand towards Vimna and get a stable scan a few feet away. The information I gained from each scan was the same, but for now it was just important that I was able to perform ranged scans like this on living beings or moving targets. She especially liked the part where it became a game of tag. Once we were out of breath and ready to calm down it was back to the tables. She continued her work while I set about two simultaneous tasks, one being the processing of her consensual scans.

As when I scanned Mibata, everything was placed in a list in my mind somehow.

Vimna.

Ten of ten mana.

No magic specialty.

All stats pertaining to her rate of mana growth and development were at zero.

What does it mean that her mana is untethered to her?

Hold on, since when was I able to tell what resistances were, and why were all of her resistances at ten?

Drat, it’s all messy again like before. Looks like that’s all the info my scanner can manage right now. Either way it told me what one of the possible reasons behind the ritual was, and that was the tethering of one's mana. Hmm, now that I’ve scanned her, what’s stopping me from scanning myself again? Last time I was just looking at my mana capacity, so maybe if I do a broader scan I might learn my own stats.

Same as usual, it starts by giving me my name: Kayrux.

Mana capacity is just a smear across my brain, so I won’t even try to comprehend what that means.

Magic specialty undefined? I guess runes can do a lot of different elements, so maybe whatever method of narrowing down specialties just doesn’t know where I belong.

Mana resistance said one hundred, but the way the number faded in and out told me that it probably wasn’t accurate.

Spell power zero. Runes aren’t spells, good to know.

Source growth rate was another smear like the mana cap.

Status unknown. Yep, seems about right.

Elemental resistances were the only thing normal here, with my heat and cold being at ten and everything else being a few digits higher than them. Good for me, it looks like my lightning resistance is my highest stat at forty-seven.

As with every other scan, things became impossible to decipher after that and made my head hurt by looking at them. I’ve gotta figure out some new runes and see if another synergy can get this damn magic eyeball upgraded. Hmm, maybe Hitkova knows some runes I could play with. I’ll ask her another time, right now I need to finish what I had in my hands.

The thing held and being twisted was an attempt to make one of the scanner runes out of silver scraps to see if someone else could use it the same way that I could. Vimna just so happened to have 10 mana, and from what I knew it would take about that much to fire a normal rune but only half as much for this one. This thing was ugly as sin, but the shape was close enough that I was sure it would work. I tested in on the unaware Vimna, and as expected it was just telling me how much mana it was there.

I handed the hand sized rune to her and directed her to test it on Tim. I didn’t want to ever use him as a test subject, but there was a non-zero chance that the silver might burn up trying to quantify my mana capacity, or worse give Vimna some kind of brain aneurysm from the data overload. For now we’ll just stick with a small target. Oh, I should probably go first to make sure this little fella isn’t secretly a magic bomb.

Eugh, this iron shell was something difficult to work with. The scan went through just fine, but I could feel the mana being reflected off of him when I scanned him. Alright, let’s review this data quickly before Vimna gets a grip on the scrap rune.

Iron pillbug named Tim by kobold Kayrux. Oddly specific, but perhaps this was just something unique to monsters.

Mana capacity was full at twenty-nine.

Magic speciality was listed as both metallurgy and ferrokinesis, but the two were skewed heavily in favor of metallurgy.

Mana resistance was set at fifty-two, but there was a plus ten off to the side.

There was no listed rate of source growth or spell power, and his status just read “alive”.

Damn, it looks like his resistances are beyond my scanning power. Hmm, perhaps my runes could only pierce a certain depth depending on the target’s mana resistance, and since Tim had much more than Vimna I couldn’t view his elements. How do I fit in with the buggy one hundred resistance then? Maybe because the runes were part of my mana lines they just ignored that detail. These are just theories, I’d need a wider test pool to collect more data.

Vimna had finally managed to get a good grip on the rune and began to funnel a small trickle of mana into it, and slowly but surely the rune began to energize and send out a subtle wave of mana that would bounce back into the retina of the rune to gather data. Vimna looked astonished by whatever the rune was showing her and simultaneously drained as her meager supply of mana was drained. I don’t think swaying like that means that she’s alright.

The makeshift rune hit the floor with a crash as the twisted metal binding it together snapped and scattered across the floor. Vimna looked as though she were about to faint, but my quick reaction time allowed me to skip over the wreckage using my tail like a springboard to land next to her. Easy kiddo, you just used up all your batteries.

Her eyes were tired looking, but at the same time were holding that glorious inspiration and curiosity like a golden torch in her soul.

“Kayroo, that rune was so strange. I could see things about Tim that I didn’t know before, just like you said the rune could do. Oh, my head hurts though and I can’t remember what I saw. I think I’m gonna sit down for a while, okay sister?”

That’s fine, just rest up. Yep, she was probably feeling just what Mibata did when his transmutation had gone off without his intent. Tim, you watch her for a second while I get her some water and a blanket. I felt guilty that I was still so excited about this situation, but I’d just made a working sensor rune out of real metals! This means that real runes could do things that my mental ones could do with the right tweaking. A new door has been opened, and all of the credit is going to my assistants Vimna and Tim!