“So, verdict? It’s a fine piece of magic, isn’t it?”

Erredis rolled the eye between her fingers, observing every nook and cranny. “It’s definitely something, that’s for sure. Clearly you’ve not been wasting your time in that underwater hole of yours. I’ve no idea how you even ended up there, but still, I can tell it’s rough around the edges.”

“Well, yeah. Prototype.” Richard answered, leaning on one of the machines in Erredis’ workshop. “There’s a reason I need a tester before I try to pawn that off to the Kleptras, if it doesn’t perform exactly as expected I’ll have the fuckers on my tailbone for the next millenia.”

Kleptras again? So elusive. Even with all the books I read lately they were only mentioned once as an insectoid subterranean race…

“It’s for the Kleps? Move things around in the hives faster, huh… I can see it. Well, Sofia, I think it should be mostly safe. You can expect all of the eye’s functions except basic sight and storage to potentially break… Actually, nevermind, basic sight might break too… It should be safe, though. At most, the eye itself will be damaged. There are so many layers of protection on this thing, it’s actually a bit absurd to look at.”

“And all that for a measly twenty mana a second. A masterpiece, if I say so myself.”

“And what if I run out of mana?” Sofia asked from the side.

“Well, no big deal, the eye will just enter maintenance mode, no mana costs for that, as long as you’re alive, the energy from you should be enough. You keep the basic sight, and that’s it. Actually, I can build in a switch for you to activate that whenever, if you want… Might be a good idea.”

“If I do take it then that would be nice… And… What if the basic sight does break? Especially during the trial. Do I finish my trial with a single eye?”

Richard stepped away from the machine he had been leaning on. A crate appeared in his arms. He put the crate on the ground, crouched, and opened it, revealing a pile of eyes just like the prototype in Erredis’ hands. Some of these look a bit… Uneven. Prototype prototypes?

The skeleton rummaged through the eyes, and sighed. “Not this one…”

The crate disappeared and another took its place, similarly full of fake eyes. Finally, he looked like he found a treasure, and grabbed one eye in particular. “Got it! Just the thing you need!”

“Another eye?” Sofia asked, crouching on the other side of the crate.

“Precisely, a simpler one, this. It’s the most basic of basic models I made when I was working on basic vision. Only does that, and does it well. If the prototype breaks so much that vision is out, then there’s no point in continuing the testing, you can take it out and bind with this one instead…”

“That does make things a bit better. Though I have to say the idea of losing my eye for something that might break on me at any time isn’t exactly very exciting.”

They both stood back up, and Richard corrected himself.

“Wait, no, you won’t even be able to unbind from the prototype by yourself… Well, you can slot the replacement in and it’ll work just like that. But if you take it out and heal, the prototype is what is going to grow back. So just be careful with that. I don’t believe the prototype will break in the first place, but at least you have some insurance, and it gets a Dragon off my back. That’s all, really. Now either you take it or you don’t.”

“Then… I have a few more gripes. Kind of… Is it comfortable to wear? The fake eye. Does it look bad? And can I change the color? My eyes are blue but your prototype has a brown iris…”

“Appearance-wise, the basic setting is to automatically copy your other eye, but you can change that whenever you want, actually. As for being comfortable… It will probably be weird for a few days to weeks. But eventually as you adapt to it and it adapts to you, it shouldn’t be any different than how you are right now, especially in maintenance mode.”

This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

“Alright… What about body transformations? Let’s say I have a spell which allows me to temporarily shapeshift into something else, what would happen?”

“Same as what would happen if you didn’t have the thing. If your transformation changes your head and eyes, then you won’t be able to access the prototype’s functions, but since it’s built into your template, it’ll be back when you return to your regular self. You really have to think of it as your new eye rather than as an item inserted into your skull.”

Sofia walked away, stopping in front of the workshop’s door. “I still need to think about it… I’ll keep you updated through the Red Carpet. Thank you for the offer, though, and thank you for the help again, grandma.”

“Happy to help, sweetie, oh, and your staff is almost ready, working adamian steel was easier than I remembered, you can come get it in a day or two,” Erredis answered from the back of the workshop. Then, after Sofia left, she turned to Richard, “Now, now. Let’s have a little talk, skeleton-man. You understand my position here, don’t you?”

“Crystal clear. Didn’t take you for the caring kind, Erredis. You’re planning on being her holder, aren't you?”

“Should she get there, yes. It’s her choice though, of course.”

“You’ve grown soft, plague Dragon.”

“Quite the contrary. I just changed my methods. If things go my way, everybody wins. I’ve grown tired of one-sided victories. But I see what you’re doing too. Give her what she wants and fuck off. I won’t say it twice. Else our next bout won’t end with a tie.”

“Ah ah ah. Think you can take me?”

“I developed a new rot just for you, cockroach.”

“Wasted time, there’s nothing you could do to stop me, lizard. But I’ll bow down, just this once. My intention was strictly to get a tester for the prototype, after all. Be her holder, I couldn’t care less, I’ve got a billion other things on my plate right now.”

“Going down without a fight? Seems I am not the one growing soft.”

“Screw you, rot-brain, I don’t have your free time.”

Erredis leaped at the skeleton and grabbed him by the jaw. A raised bony hand caught her throat in the same instant, erratic magic charging in its palm.

“Always busy, huh, bone lord? But you have time for a drink, don’t you?”

The magic died in Richard's palm, he grabbed Erredis’ hand and pushed it away, shaking his skull. Taking a few steps away, he stretched his arms, the bones separating from each other before snapping back in position. “The old usual spot? ... Let me get my spare.”

“Grab the female one, I like you much better without your balls, Richard.”

“This is why you’re a fucking outcast, Erredis.”

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Sofia flew away from Zephir’s sect, and went north for a while until she landed at the top of another mountain with a view of the sea. Sitting there, legs dangling over a cliff, she watched the waves from above. Pareth came out and sat next to her.

“We just keep going and going. We’ve sure done a lot in a few years…”

Pareth silently listened.

“I’m worried I might be losing track, though. My original goals were just to be free, have fun with magic, and give a proper burial to Saria… Exceeded all my expectations there for sure. I don’t regret it at all. But now that I’ve accomplished all that… I don’t know. I’m still always chasing progress, but for what? Revenge on Scripture? I have to do it but is that really what should be driving me to go forward?”

Sofia threw a rock at the ocean, watching it fall and fall until she lost sight of it.

“I rarely take time to enjoy anything. I think the last few months at the academy highlighted that… For once I took some time for myself. And now that it’s over, I feel a bit… Empty. Going to risk my life out there in a trial again, I like the thrill, but is it really worth living for? Going all out to become stronger, just because I can… I’m always leaving pieces of myself behind. My heart, my blood, my brain. Now an eye… At the end, what am I going to be left with?”

After a short silence, Sofia felt the cold bony hand of Pareth on her shoulder. She turned to look at him. With his other hand, he pointed at himself.

Sofia smiled. “Left with you? Well, I guess that’s not too bad. It’s true, I do have you, and everyone else. Saria, Alith, Bookie, Astelia, Erredis, Mr Scribe, Shaily, … The list is long and ever growing,” she said, slowly standing up.

“Alright. Enough moping. No real objectives? I’m making up problems in my head, aren’t I? Got all I ever wanted and now I feel bad for it? How does that even make sense? Scripture is a looming threat, but so what? I’m not scared. New objective is all planned out, isn’t it? The goal is to crush every trial and become the strongest thing around next to the Lords. Simple. Why? Because I can. It’s already what I’ve been doing.”

Sofia extended a hand to help Pareth get up.

“Come. We have a trial to break.”

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