I have to admit that I’m still upset with Audrey as we walk back around the edge of the shop. All of this is happening so fast, and it feels like she’s only putting more stress on me rather than less. I feel like she should be trying to reassure me that this incursion would be safe, giving me warnings and helping me test my powers in a safe environment. Instead, she’d basically attacked me and called it a lesson.
Audrey pauses as we round the corner of the building, turning to look down at me. Celeste and I look up at her, and I don’t think either of our expressions were particularly friendly.
“You’re mad at me,” she says, glaring right back. “You need to get over it. We only have a limited amount of time to do this before it’s for real.”
Internally, I fume — Celeste’s annoyance and my own compounding until I know I can’t just stay silent. “You didn’t have to do it like that,” I say, reaching up and gingerly touching my throat.
“You needed to understand what you could and couldn’t do,” Audrey says, her tone dismissive. “That was the fastest way to teach you.”
I huff in annoyance, “The fastest way? You attacked me! You didn’t give me any warning. You toyed with me to show me how helpless I am compared to you. That was abuse disguised as a lesson!”
“And you think I should take it easy?!” Audrey demands, her nostrils flaring. “You think that I shouldn’t show you what you’re up against?! There are volcora out there that make me look like a mouse before a tiger. You need to know what you’re getting into! You need to be ready!”
“Be ready for something as strong as you?” I ask, my hurt and anger bleeding into my voice. “Even if I used my powers perfectly, even if I had fought all my life, there was no chance of success. You did that because you wanted me to be afraid!”
“You should be afraid!” Audrey yells, her face twisting into a visage of anger. She taps the dark-speckled soul gem still hanging around her throat. “Jessie would still be alive if she had just understood her limits! If she hadn’t tried to play the damn hero! And you are the exact same way! You’ll throw your life away the first chance you get just to save people who don’t even know your name!”
There are tears in Audrey’s eyes now, making me pause. My anger slowly drains away as I stare at that dark soul gem. For just a moment, I swear I catch a glimmer of… something. But it’s gone before I can focus on it.
I meet Audrey’s tear-streaked eyes, “Sometimes people just need saving. You know that. I don’t know who Jessie was, but I’m sure she made the only choice she felt she had.”
Audrey closes her eyes, “This is why you don’t get close to blue sentinels,” she murmurs.
For a long moment, we just stand in silence before Audrey opens her eyes once more. Reaching forward, she taps me gently on the chest. “You want to know why I did what I did? Because I want you to be ready for what’s to come. Be afraid; make the safe call. Otherwise, you’re going to end up like Jessie.”
“I’ll do what I can, but if there’s something I can do to help, I will,” I say, not wanting to restart the argument but unwilling to let that point go.
Audrey just sighs, defeated. “Come on. Let’s get you some equipment. You’ll need it to stay alive with that damned bleeding heart.”
Scene Break [https://i.imgur.com/ESIIWUW.png]
The inside of the inscriptions shop is much larger than it was on the outside, which I suppose I should have expected. Still, something about the fact that they can spatially expand a space inside an already spatially expanded space feels wrong to me. I wonder if that’s what all of those chaotic inscriptions on the outside of the shop are for.
Looking around, I take in the interior, which is frankly quite impressive. There are two main areas of the shop, and the first is what I might expect from a normal store. If a normal store sold only inscribed items, that is. There are numbered aisles stocked full of what appear to be eclectic items. While things seem to be grouped together in broad categories, the items themselves are as strange as they come. It looks like someone had gotten confused and placed a bunch of modern equipment alongside props for a fantasy movie with a bunch of random junk sprinkled in just for laughs.
The aisle directly before me as I walk in has a handwritten sign hanging above it that says, “Defense.” Some of the items in the aisle even make sense. I see a few large medieval shields and a mannequin wearing what looks like inscribed body armor. Other things, however, look completely out of place. Several umbrellas lean up against a small section of the isle entirely dedicated to what looks like shield-shaped pins.
As I watch, a young man in his twenties moves past the pins hanging on the wall and pauses. He seems to examine a pin for a moment before pulling out his phone and taking a picture of the pin he’d been examining. Then, he plucks the pin off of its display, and it vanishes in a plume of violet fire tinged with black.
The man looks up, catching me watching him and throwing me a dark look. Literally, his irises are completely black, making it impossible to tell where his pupil is. I shudder.
Beside me, Audrey grabs my shoulder and gently pulls me after her. “Come on,” she urges softly. “You do not want to piss off Kayne. He and his brother are from generation three, and both of them are scary as shit. Let’s go say hi to Ratchet.”
Swallowing nervously, I allow Audrey to tow me behind her over to the other main part of the store. I do my best not to glance over my shoulder, still unnerved by Kayne’s ink-black eyes. What kind of person is Audrey scared of? Not anyone I want to be around, that’s for certain.
The area Audrey leads me over to is a massive counter that takes up one entire half of the store. It looks a lot like a gun counter you might see at a sporting goods store… you know, minus the guns, which makes sense. Inscriptions and technology just don’t go together super well. While there are some workarounds, I’ve never heard of someone being able to make a magical gun. Although, inscribing is still a brand-new field, and I’m sure there is a ton we don’t know about it. Still, it’s nice to see that at least some of my knowledge holds true.
Rather than guns, what is behind the counter is the type of thing every kid wishes they could own. Magical weapons. Staffs, swords, axes, and, of course, bows. Pretty much every kind of weapon you can think of that doesn’t involve technology is present.
On the very far side of the counter is what appears to be a small shooting range with positions for multiple people to try out weapons on more inscribed target dummies like we’d found out back.
There’s only one person at the range at the moment, a blonde girl who looks only a few years older than me, admiring a pair of gleaming silver daggers. As I watch, she hurls both daggers at a target dummy down range, and they land into its chest with twin thunks. The girl extends her hands out towards the dummy, and the daggers both shimmer and vanish, reappearing in her hands. She examines the daggers once more, this time with a sort of manic gleam in her eyes.
I press my lips together in a thin line as I watch the display. Crazy people. I am surrounded by crazy people… Also, I wonder how hard it would be to get a dagger or two like that for myself because I can’t help but agree with the mystery sentinel at the range. They are awesome. Maybe I could get a bow with arrows that return?
“Audrey!” bellows a deep, resonant voice as the tallest man I’ve ever seen in my entire life steps out from the door behind the counter.
The man instantly captures my entire attention, forcing me to stop gawking at all the amazing sights around me. He must be at least seven feet tall, with a bald head, dark chocolate skin, and a short beard peppered with gray. The man towers over me, obviously, but also Audrey, which feels kind of wrong to me. While Audrey is only average height, with her power, it feels wrong for someone to be so much bigger than her. I suppose that is the dichotomy of the sentinels. While in our combat states, we can be extremely powerful threats. Outside of them, though, we’re just teenagers and young adults with a few magic tricks up our sleeves.
“Hey, Ratchet,” Audrey says with a smile much more genuine than any I’ve seen on her before.
The man, Ratchet, looks down on us with eyes that seem to gleam with kindness. “It’s good to see you again, girl. Especially after that last incursion, we were all pretty worried.”
Audrey shrugs, “Hardly my first time in intensive care. Doubt it will be my last.”
Ratchet nods solemnly before his kind eyes turn to me, “Who’s your friend? You must be a new sentinel. I have an eye for faces, and I don’t believe we’ve met.”
The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there.
“This is Serena, no alias yet,” Audrey says, gesturing my way. “I’m mentoring her. She’s got her first incursion in just a few hours, and we were hoping you could get us sorted. Just… something to keep her safe.”
Ratchet watches Audrey for a long moment, then smiles. “This is a big step forward for you. I don’t think I’ve seen you getting close to another sentinel since-” Ratchet coughs, cutting himself off. “Uh… you know,” he finishes lamely.
Audrey’s expression turns complicated. “She’s an archer, like me. It was a good fit,” she says, sounding defensive.
I blink, a complicated emotion working its way through me. For so long, Audrey, or Stardust Angel, had been a mythical being to me. A powerful sentinel who was above all of us mere mortals. Even my first time meeting her hadn’t really put me out of that mindset. And yet… she seems just as human as anyone else. In fact, she reminds me of Akari just a little. Lonely and hurt.
I step up to the counter, looking up… and up at Ratchet. “Nice to meet you,” I say, offering my best smile as I hold out my hand to him.
Ratchet grins, “You too, Serena!” he exclaims, reaching down and engulfing my hand in his before giving it a shake. “You’re an archer, you say?” he asks, releasing my hand and turning to his wall of weapons.
I nod, then flush, realizing he can’t see me with his back turned. “Y-Yes. I’m a member of my school’s archery team. I’ve never done anything like shooting at a live target, but I have shot moving targets before.”
Ratchet hums to himself, striding down the wall of weapons until he reaches a section with dozens and dozens of bows. Some of the bows are elaborate-looking things made of metal with blade-like ends. Others just look like standard wooden bows with some embellishments, although all of them are heavily inscribed.
Ratchet studies the wall of bows, stroking his short beard as he seems to consider. Then, he grabs one of the more standard-looking bows, a beautiful piece made out of what looks like dark hickory wood mixed with real silver. It is inlaid with runic inscriptions in swirling blue patterns, most of which I don’t recognize. I see a rune that looks to be about enhancing kinetic force near where the string connects to the bow proper, but it’s combined with a rune that seems like it has something to do with energy. Electricity maybe?
I study the bow carefully for a long moment after Ratchet places it on the table. Trying to piece together its functions with my rudimentary knowledge. I look up at him with confusion, “This is some kind of taser bow, right?” I ask, hoping that I’m not completely off the mark.
Ratchet grins, “You have some knowledge of inscribing! It’s always good to see young sentinels actually taking an interest in how their equipment works,” he says, shooting a wink at Audrey.
For her part, Audrey also leans down to study the bow, seeming to ignore Ratchet’s comment. “This will paralyze anything shot with it, right? Like the one that I used back in the day?”
Ratchet nods, face becoming more serious. “Yes, although this is an improvement on the one you used all those years ago. It works about the same, but at a cheaper price.”
“E-Excuse me,” I start, cutting in, “this looks great and all, but… it won’t work for me. Something this sophisticated would take months or years to attune to me enough for the inscriptions to work.”
“Normally, that would be true,” Ratchet says. “However, we have a better understanding of how inscribed items work here at the GDF. It’s all about claiming ownership over them, and we have some tricks that help.”
I nod, “Prof explained that you have a kind of credit system that can be used to cheat the ownership property of magical items. But even if that works, I don’t have any credits.”
“You do, though,” Ratchet says with a friendly smile. “The credit system is a finely balanced way of determining how much equipment a sentinel can use without it failing on them. Everything is carefully priced, and earnings are perfectly balanced to ensure that any inscribed item you buy with credits will work for you. There are several ways to earn credits, mostly by halting incursions, but there are other ways too. The act of becoming a sentinel in itself grants you enough creditability for a few items to work; as such, you start out with exactly one thousand credits upon becoming a sentinel. This bow is worth six hundred and thirty credits.”
I look back down at the bow on the counter with more than a bit of excitement in my eyes. A real magical bow! A bow that I can use! Still… my eyes drift back to the wall of bows, and I wonder at the properties some of them must have. It’s like there is a wealth of treasure sitting just before me, but I know that I don’t have a hope of getting most of it.
Audrey glares down at the bow, “I was hoping to teach her the blade style with her bow, and this can’t do that. Also, that will leave her with barely enough for a last-resort shield and some basic medical supplies. She’ll need other gear, too, a machete in case of a jungle environment incursion and a standard knife for one. Also, having more medical supplies will never hurt her.”
Ratchet raises a finger, “First, she’s fresh. Getting her a blade-style bow before she even gets a practice session is more likely to have her end up stabbing herself than a volcora. Better for her to practice with a non-inscribed blade-style bow first besides.” He raises a second finger, “Second, the paralysis effect is exactly what you want when fighting your first volcora. Just shoot it and run away. It won’t be able to chase for at least a few seconds. It’s not like she’s ever outrunning most volcora without something like this anyway.”
Audrey opens her mouth to interject, but Ratchet raises a third finger. “Finally, the credit price might be steep today, but she’ll have plenty of time to gain more credits and build up her own stockpile of supplies. Besides, you’ll be going with her, right? It’s not like she’ll be separated from you, and you have the biggest stockpile of esoteric emergency equipment I’ve ever seen. You asked for something that will keep her safe, and I feel like this bow will do the job better and for longer than anything else I could get for her.”
Audrey sighs, “You know I don’t like assuming things will go right. I have to assume Serena will get separated from her team and me. That she’ll need every tool at her disposal to survive. But… I concede that this is a good option.”
From my shoulder, Celeste hops down onto the counter and circles around the bow. Sniffing at it curiously. Then, looking up at me, she bobs her head in a curt nod.
I shrug, “Celeste likes it. Although you didn’t mention arrows. I’ll need to get some of those, too, right? Or will non-inscribed arrows work?”
Ratchet turns to me with an indignant expression. “All of my bows have built-in arrow conjuration functions. Wasting your credits on a constant supply of more arrows is almost worse than running out of arrows in a fight. I won’t have any of you kids dying on me just because your weapon wasn’t up to par.”
I blink; somehow, that sounds more ridiculous than the whole paralyzing thing. “How does that even work?”
To my surprise, it’s Audrey who answers. “Just pull back the string, and an arrow will appear already nocked. Very useful for rapid firing. Some expensive models even allow you to conjure more than just one arrow at a time, which is useful for multi-shots. The arrows only last for about an hour after being conjured before they disperse back into mana.”
My mind drifts back to Audrey’s bow crafted of starlight. Looking at some of the other amazing things just hanging on the walls, I can’t imagine what kind of crazy abilities a bow like that might have.
After a moment of further consideration, I look between Audrey and Ratchet. “You both think this is a good choice for me?” I ask.
Receiving agreeing nods from both of them, I continue, “Well, I guess I’ll take it then. Or… should I try it out first?”
“Normally,” Audrey says, “you should absolutely try it out first. However, I received a notice a bit ago that they found an incursion for us and are pulling together the strike team. We only have around thirty minutes to get the rest of your equipment before we leave.”
I swallow, unable to keep down the fear that threatens to rise within me. Still, I had committed to this. “Okay, let’s get the bow.”
As it turns out, just, “getting the bow,” isn’t quite so easy. As Celeste had mentioned to me a while back, there is indeed a sentinel mobile app used to track credits. Even on a timer, I was required to download it and get authorized by Ratchet. To purchase the item, I had to take a picture of the bow and submit it in the app. This would effectively purchase the bow, automatically deducting my available credits, which were also listed in the app.
This way of buying something felt a bit odd to me, as there was literally no security to stop me from just taking something without taking a picture. However, stealing from a shop like this had little point to it. The item wouldn’t work if you didn’t have enough credits, and by not taking a picture, all you had really done was screw up your credit count in the app. In short, you could cheat the store, but not the magic item.
After purchasing the bow, we bid Ratchet goodbye before heading back towards the entrance. Before we leave, though, Audrey moves down the first aisle I’d seen. Curious, I follow her as she makes her way straight over to the wall of shield-shaped pins that I’d seen the sentinel from earlier buying. Apparently, they are rather popular as a good number of them are missing from the wall. Luckily, there seems to be plenty to go around.
As Audrey looks through the pins, I lean in closer to get a better look. The inscribed item looks like a small scrap of metal, inscribed with runic designs and fashioned into the shape of a shield. On the back of the shield is a small pin that allows easy attachment to clothing. Briefly, I look around for a description of what the item is supposed to do before Audrey appears to find what she had been looking for.
With care, she deftly unpins one of the shields from the wall and holds it out to me. I take it, rolling the item in my hand as I look it over. “What is it?” I ask, wishing Ratchet would put out descriptions on the items he makes.
“A last resort shield,” Audrey responds, her tone serious. “Wear this pin on your clothes, and when your assault state’s barrier fails, this will detect it and project another shield around you that’s a lot stronger. The shield will only last around fifteen minutes or until it breaks, and it won’t work more than once. Ultimately, though, it’s always worth it because when it does activate, it will usually save your life.”
Audrey meets my eyes, her expression seeming almost sad. “Serena, if there’s anything you take away from your time learning from me, let it be this. Always have a last-resort shield on. A lot of sentinels balk because they can be expensive, but they are worth every credit.”
I nod hesitantly. “I will, I promise,” I say, closing my hand around the small shield-shaped pin and holding it to my chest.
Audrey takes a deep breath, then steps forward and puts a hand on my shoulder. I look at her hand, a touch startled. She’d never seemed like the type to enjoy physical contact. “Listen,” Audrey says, her voice quiet. “I know that I’m not the best mentor you could have ended up with. I know I should have explained things better — done things better. But… just know that when we walk into that incursion zone, my only goals are going to be stopping the incursion zone from breaking down and protecting you. I’ll make sure you get through this alive. I promise.”
I find tears welling in my eyes at the sudden softness of my normally harsh mentor. I’d spent so long looking up to Audrey, to Stardust Angel. So long admiring her for the people she’d saved and the good she’d done in the world. I had wanted to be just like her. I still wish I could be like her. She is strong where I am soft. She is confidant where I am scared. She has done more good in the world than I could ever hope to. I just hope that one day, I can accomplish a small fraction of what she had.
Reaching up, I place my hand upon hers. “I trust you.”
Audrey meets my eyes for a long moment before looking away. “You probably shouldn’t,” she says, letting out a long breath. “Come on, we still need to grab you some medical supplies before we head for the hangar. Then, we have a job to do.”