The two girls remained hard at work for the entire day, even late into dusk. It was not until the next night, after a good rest, were the girls in a position to evaluate the fruits of their efforts.

Rosa woke up and tried to stand, discovering her new knees weren’t working at all. Of course, that’s what she had been told, this sort of stuff doesn’t just work right away, her body has to adjust to it. Meanwhile, she had been provided with some more temporary measures as she waited. Slipping on the metallic pants over her normal clothes, she put on the special glove that functioned exactly like a remote control. In honesty, she felt this was sort of novel too, it was like she held an instrument that controlled her armored legs. Of course, controlling legs with hands was no easy task, that alone looked to need a bit of getting used to as she stumbled around. She still had it way better off, Kori walking in to check up on her, having been awake for an hour already. Her new arm meanwhile was still fully limp at her side, it being meaningless to try and have a remote control glove to make her arm work. Lacking the arm, she had even taken to Rosa’s example of using audio mode with the nanites, just to free up her only remaining hand. Considering that hand was also her frozen one, she really didn’t want to be forced to over depend on it.

“System check, how is our cybernetics doing.” “Cybernetic installation not having any adverse reactions. There remains high probabilities of success in this project.” “Perfect. Please continue monitoring our status. Have there been any important updates regarding our frozen problem?” “Isolation of absolute zero conditions has been successful. However, on that subject, there has been research accomplished regarding the singularity incident from before.” “Wait, I didn’t ask for such a thing.” “As the singularity had been determined to be a potential danger, and similar items had been raised frequently in concern, it was judged that the subject was to be considered with high importance. Readings accomplished during the time of the singularity yielded no results, which would itself be irregular as all things have results. To have no readings would require an environment that could not echo a reply. The closest known similarity to such an event would then include events such as black holes and dark matter. As dark matter is still considered an unproven oddity, black holes may be considered a more accurate comparison.” “Black holes, dark matter… Oh my, could it be any more perfect. Thank you, your input is in fact highly appreciated.” Kori was actually surprised to have missed an idea her nanites had not. Earth’s fairy tales did not just cover fantasies of earth, but also some fictions of space. For example, the belief that worlds might exist on the other side of black holes, that dark matter was simply detecting planets that were beyond the scope of the universe. Actually, this was convincing enough to believe that black holes might actually be the tears failing between worlds. Scientifically sound logic that then claimed, if the veil failed here, Aestus would be consumed in a black hole.

Such however did remind Kori, there were a number of preventative measures she needed to take on that same idea. She needed to figure out how to stabilize the singularity on this side. They needed both sides to stay stable, but someone else would have to figure out the side she was still working on trying to understand. She also needed to figure out how to predict the whole world-switching thing. They had just witnessed a singularity reaction occurring violently via a measure of impact. What she had heard about it from the other world, the worry was simply a matter of touch, but it might be more a matter of pressure, tension and strain. Neuton had a law about it, for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. Smack the veil, the veil smacks you back in kind. However, it isn’t like she’s taken all pressure away from her arm, and that crash would have included an impact that made a simple slap look like a gentle touch. She was still missing something. Maybe it was a matter of the time or the place? While lost in thought, she was thus surprised when a holo showed up before her, revealing an important news bulletin.

“The fire that broke out in the delta seven sector has finally been brought under control after an aerospace bus crashed down earlier midday, although the crash site is still under lockdown by aerospace control for further investigation. Concerns rise as investigations have yielded no information about the incident. While a lack of witnesses during such a blazing inferno have been considered understandable, investigators have also found evidence of tampering in all surveillance equipment in the area. The cause of the crash is still not understood, but such circumstances are leading investigators to assume an intent of sabotage and arsen. A reward is available for anyone who can thus provide any details to further the ongoing investigation. In other news…” The human woman vanished as the recording was stopped abruptly. Rosa was about as stunned as Kori, having wandered over in curiosity early into the broadcast. It was pretty obvious what the nanites had opted to show them there, the accident they had survived had gone public. Sabotage and arsen, that would mean that the singularity they had detected was being considered as a malicious attack. Rosa herself had gone sheet white, stacking this upon the list of her failures.

“Hells, why am I such trash? I keep getting in trouble for stuff I didn’t want to do, I honestly didn’t want any of this to happen.” “Wait, equipment tampering? Shit, the nanites took your instructions about avoiding getting noticed to a whole different level. Sure, they did hide us under a holo that cloaked our passage, but it seems they also scrambled any other nanites in the area. There really is no evidence left, but now it's more than a little suspicious.” “By the divine, why does this keep happening to me? Now I’ve started a big investigation on both worlds.” “Wait, what? What happened in the other world?” Rosa explained the story of her trip to the Obsidian Halls to Kori, covering specifically how it had appeared she wasn’t actually allowed to be there, and that now she was being blamed for the theft of a relic that had actually been what had marked her in this mess in the first place. She didn’t want any of this to happen though, it was all an accident caused by her marking, she was only breaking the law because her mark was forcing her to.

Laws broken by the mark.. the mark was itself a lawbreaker of the laws of reality. Even that was a sort of misunderstanding, the mark didn’t break laws, it was the border between laws, the edge of both sets of laws. The mark wasn’t exactly breaking either set of laws, it just had to balance both, to consider both sides of that one coin. That made everything very complicated, both sides were very different, completely different. The laws of science to the laws of elementals, there just was no common ground. Well, unless one could count that each was the fiction of the other.. and that both had the same language and both had humans and both… Wait, were they really so different? Rosa had just finished actually taking her mechanical genius and succeeded in working with her own nanites to make actual cybernetic parts based upon a set of laws she still didn’t understand. Meanwhile, Kori had gotten a quick review of elementals, practical applications only though, but she herself loved theories. Elements, not the same as the periodic table, but still the composition that makes everything around them. Balance them all, you bring life, like environmental controls that would support biological necessities. Take them all away, you leave the void, like how space or a vacuum works. .. like how a black hole works, or like how atomically stopping energy results in absolute zero. Everything had an equivalent opposite, a parallel version. The mark then considers both sides of the coin at once, and any action would then have both an equal and opposite reaction.

Was that what she was doing wrong, only looking at the situation from one side? Sure, matters of such Newtonian processes seem valid, the laws of equivalent exchange seem to be a serious part of the mark with consideration of how much was mapped out in the process. It would be why she was basically herself but as a human that would have existed in that reality while on the other side, just like how Rosa was also currently a human under the same terms. It was a very foundational law on this side, but she needed to consider the foundation of laws there. The most important thing she knew of was the intervals of elements, how they conflicted or compounded, it came up a lot while she was watching the elemental demonstrations. She simply didn’t have enough information to go by to figure out anything more.

“Ah!” “What’s wrong?” “Sorry, I just stumbled there. It’s rough controlling my legs with my hand, I wish it was as easy as instruments back home.” “Don’t worry, when your cybernetics finally work, you’ll be controlling them with actual nerve signals that come from your mind, the same way your legs normally work.. at least in our world.” “So like, with the gift? Just impress my will and intent for my legs to do what I want them to do, and I’ll move the way I would want. That really would make things much easier.” “Ha, you make it sound like wishing upon a star, when it really is a lot more scientific than that. It makes for a big differ-...” Rosa was visibly worried when Kori cut herself off mid-sentence. Of course, cause and effect was valid for considerations on either side, but she wasn’t putting enough value on potential causes that could cause reactions on the other side, wishes were actually potent things over there, holding strong to a single intent could actually be enough to have things simply happen. Such had been true a couple of times already in weird ways, even while at Aestus. She had managed to escape a landslide under the falls without sufficient observable causes.. except for wishing the rocks would simply stop moving. Rosa had managed to lash out at an attacker with overpowering force, very potentially fueled by matters of hatred and spite. Gift laws did not allow a person to have every wish granted, instead a person was good at a handful of wishes and could will such into simply happening at any time. It might not completely make sense according to the laws of either side, but was simply a compromise of the mark itself connecting both sets of laws.

“So.. be careful what you wish for…” “Huh, what?” “Oh, sorry. I was just considering the kinds of impacts we’ve seen happen from possibly just thinking about it happening, like getting caught wishing on a falling star.” “A what?” “Sorry, local legend.. possibly caused because of your side actually. I think our connection to the veil is giving us a way to have some of our wishes granted, sort of like how your gift thing works.” “Oh, so could we just wish to go back to my world then?” “Technically, didn’t you just do that?” “Good point, nothing happened though.” “The gift has restrictions on who could do something.. were either of us simply wishing to switch worlds then?” “Oh.. actually, honestly.. I may have been wishing for an escape back in the crowds of that terminal. However, I was certainly comfortable at Sophie’s place, really don’t think there were such wishes going on back then. When was.. before that again? Right, that would have been when we were caught in the halls and I was wishing for a way to escape.” Kori was seeing there might be a few holes in her idea, but Rosa was making it clear she was getting a lot closer. Back at Sophie’s place then, that was still unexplained. However, it was nice to hear Rosa had been comfortable, Kori did recall herself being especially stressed about how well Rosa was adjusting. Actually, right, she had personally thus wanted to bring Rosa back to the other world as a result of that. Kori had however spent a lot of time wanting to return to her world, with no effect.. just as Rosa had probably wished for a ticket back home several times too. Wishes to leave however were far more rare.

If you come across this story on Amazon, it's taken without permission from the author. Report it.

As a matter of experiment, she considered the validity of their circumstances. Being at her own office was at least a rationally safe location to experiment with, she had done so countlessly in the past as is. There wasn’t even anything specific going on either, they were mostly just sitting around at this point, reasonably bored. In consideration of such, Kori considered that it might be really nice if they could instead simply move everything back to the other side, maybe so that she could learn a bit more about elemental law. The reaction was immediate, with the room going pale frozen once again, shifting to pure emptiness and then to the ashen pale. They meanwhile appeared in a very different room, but discovered an immediate problem. As normal, their possessions had shifted from what they were carrying on Aestus to what they had most recently been carrying on Ruixse. It appeared that in that light, cybernetics counted as possessions and were not reversible, while the injuries that they sustained were replicated successfully.

Lyun collapsed to the floor instantly in surprise, her legs giving way. Of course, the cybernetic installation had replaced her knees, she no longer had anything there at all. With everything else gone, Lyun was left with an aggravated open wound, her bones popping out slightly from the gap left present, blood pooling on the floor as a result. Axln was in a similar state, her missing arm a fountain of blood as her sleevelet fell to the floor, the lump of flesh twitching by what remained of her muscle tissue. It was a return to a familiar agony, one neither of them were prepared for. Axln felt like an idiot, not having considered this potential problem. Lyun however had not lost all hope, grasping to the fortune of their location, her own personal workshop, they had a large stock of useful supplies as a result. The only problem with that was how little she herself could do while unable to actually stand, and it was in this moment that she regretted having always turned down Yhzia’s insistence of supplying this place with chairs.

“Axln, there is a healing kit in the cabinet around the corner to your right.” “Found it. Wait, so you know where we are then? This looks like a small manufactory.. fitting for a one person shop. This is your’s, isn’t it? An elemental mechanic laboratory.” “It… Hey, where are.. are you going?” “Right, one thing at a time, sorry.” “Don’t forget.. about yourself either. Oh drat, this is.. a bit too much.. for me. Focusing is.. is going.. to be hard, even for an.. elf like me. I won’t have the stamina.. either.” Lyun was already trying to drag herself around, though she was having some serious problems trying to even hold herself up by the time Axln returned. Axln herself wasn’t fairing the best either, she was mostly working on adrenaline. Axln looked at the small cylinder she was carrying, one of many identicals she found in the same cabinet. Her first impression was that it was some kind of spray, but it seems she was wrong. There was a list of things she had suddenly been wrong about, including her random idea, this whole situation was suddenly her fault, she should have thought about everything a lot more before taking action like that. Now she had a lot to make amends for. She passed the cylinder to Lyun, who applied the circular end to the side of her legs as close to where the knees should have been as possible, generally almost dozing off in the process.

Axln emulated the same actions with her shoulder using another cylinder, though nothing happened. Of course, this was an instrument, it didn’t just work so easily. Elements worked as a fuel source, it was generally self contained, but it needed a trigger. Impressing her adrenaline-filled will upon the cylinder, she felt a slight tingle from her shoulder. The thing was working at least, but they would still have problems. Equivalent exchange, if their arms simply healed over by this process, that instead would interfere with the cybernetics they had installed previously, leading to even more problems on their next return. This solution wasn’t even filling in the blanks of their biology, it was hardly more than a first aid kit. The only practical solution at this point was emulation, to match what was done with cybernetics here as well. Axln's theoretical mind even figured out that while a wild principle, it was also a proven one. Lyun had in fact already done the reverse, using her mechanical knowledge to come up with cybernetic parts matching the laws of Aestus. Reverse engineering that logic could then match the results.

Axln went over to the stock of finished parts and opened the first package she found, containing the mechanical actuator. This was actually perfect, even if the crystalline material remained unfamiliar to her. From what she had learned, a lot of crystalline stuff was fairly conductive of raw elements, yet was refined very well so as to be especially durable, she could simply consider it a premium alloy of steel for all equivalence. Cybernetics used a steel skeleton, with conduits that could intercept and control the parts, the crystalline combination could work fair enough because it could act as an instrument, directly interpreting a person’s will to emulate such a process. Part efficiency was still important, considering things such as bulk and weight, as that could affect performance. She had no idea how to replace the role holos played in the entire process, but having a working solution would be the first step, she could always make it look prettier later. The solution already needed to be maintainable, so that parts could be easily repaired or replaced. The most complicated part, as it always was in cybernetics, remained installation. Having such crystalline composites synergize with a person’s body, tuning a person’s biology to a whole different sequence, that would take some complicated.. healing?

A plan started to come together in Lyun’s mind, even if the whole thing was little more than a theory based upon scientific principles that didn’t even apply to science. She was an expert in information, she already spent a ton of time teaching tiny robots how to do something she couldn’t hope to personally understand completely. Attaching the actuator to a couple other suitable looking tensile bars, she started weaving together a crystalline arm. The hand was a bit harder to come up with, but she found a series of complex pieces that hinged together actually very well which emulated the principle very nicely. Durability casing layers with shielding against outside influence, a series of connectors to enhance movement precision and smoothness, and especially the calibrator ring that would act as the central unit’s main controller by attaching directly to her. Nothing simply came together on its own though, this is where she would have to get especially creative.

Returning to the cabinet, she pulled out a new cylinder. She pressed the calibrator ring directly to her shoulder where her arm should have been, then braced that location using the wall, putting immense pressure and pain on her in the process. With that completed, she applied the new cylinder to her shoulder. To trigger a reaction though, she impressed her will in a much more complicated way than just asking for the thing to work. She had grown used to working with things that use scripted actions, with her approach being very unconventional and complicated. Teaching nanites wasn’t easy, and it was that same approach that she applied with her will to teach her implementation of her expectations. Rewriting the design of the instrument’s application with a new impression of the gift, the healing instrument began healing her by fusing herself with the calibrator ring. Excellent, so now this ring was now effectively a part of her arm, healed successfully. In accounts for that, there are other parts that need to be ‘healed’ onto that, so that her arm could be fully ‘restored’.

Lyun finally started to sit up again, feeling a touch of relief with the bleeding finally stopped. Of course, she still had a walking problem. She heard that Axln was occupying herself in the space around the corner, not actually putting much thought into how that might deserve more thought. With Axln not being a problem, Lyun directed her consideration to her mobility. She didn’t have the stamina to do much, but she wasn’t about to simply lay there doing nothing. Accepting the limitations of her arrangements to provide herself with decent seating, she found an adhesive cable nearby along with a windstream lift. Turning the lift up high, she launched the cable to the roof, then moved the cable below her like it was a swing and repeated the same thing with the other side. Much better, she was now actually sitting at her desk, even if this was a bit precarious. Clearly this was an idea to work on later, maybe making a decent thing to ride around on like the fancy legs she had in the other world could be rather useful. She was pretty sure even Yhzia would be thrilled to see that, like a real world shock walker. Certainly though, she still wouldn’t need to use lightning, such was old-fashioned even from modern Terran standards. Caught in thought, not completely aware of anything else, she adjusted herself in her seat and instead fell back to the floor, drawing in an alarmed Axln.

“What happened? Wait, were you trying to work in that condition? Hell, do you even know how to take a break?” “Ah! Oh, Axln.. it’s just you.” “Just you.. nice to see you up too, by the way. I hope you don’t mind me making use of your own equipment, I think I’ve almost got a working prototype.” “Wait, what? What could you possibly be doing.” “Learning, obviously. Hey, you were using my office first, fair is only fair.” “Wait, your arm, by the divine, did you just slap a bunch of random instruments to your arm?” “Hey, they weren’t random, I was very thorough with my evaluation. I actually managed to get the elbow piece to respond too, but the hand is being a bit more difficult to manage. This really is some quality stuff you made, by the way. Anyway, yeah, prototypes for yourself are almost ready, just making a few more touches on your two units.” Lyun was shocked when she got to see Axln’s two knee implants when she returned. They were both very well made, even if Axln was having problems with organic transference in things such as blood. She had even considered how such a piece would have to sustain the life requirements of the legs at the other side. Lyun however knew that such a thing actually existed, she just wasn’t much of an expert in the field. Ersatz construction, they were designed to emulate real people’s regular.. everything. They even had a blood circulation system. Working with Ezhyrae, she’s had to do a few repairs on certain parts, so she did have a couple of the things.. in the far back storage. The only reason she had dabbled into such a thing at all was from Yhzia’s compulsion to reach out into new ways to help more people.

While Axln ran off to further her descent into innovative insanity, Lyun considered just how much Axln was even pushing the same compulsions.. just maybe in an Axln-sort of way. Finding new applications for Lyun’s creations, that’s basically what Axln had just done. However, instead of pushing ideas that could be useful, Axln had just made an immediate use for a bunch of the little parts she had come up with. The biggest question though was.. how? None of that stuff was even made for the purpose she had given it. Most of all, none of it was designed to be simply attached to a living person. While left in fruitless speculation, Axln eventually returned with her finished work and a couple of extra cylinders. Repeating the same process for Lyun at both the top and bottom of both legs, Axln progressively inserted the various parts directly into Lyun’s leg. Lyun watched in absolute shock at this installation, taking great care to not move at all in fear of ruining the work. Axln was using a healing beacon to weld her to instruments.. that didn’t even make sense at all. A healing beacon was designed to mend flesh together, not to fuse it to non-living material. Axln had thus effectively done this world’s equivalent of reprogramming the instrument to have it execute a completely different function, but Lyun didn’t even have the words for such a process. This sort of thing was completely unheard of, never having been done before, changing what an instrument does.. should require it to be completely remade.

Despite all odds, Lyun found herself with legs that could bend properly at her own will, even if she was still having problems actually standing with them. Even just being a basic prototype, this sort of design was clearly going to serve them very well.