Rory felt a bit of trepidation and excitement as he approached his final destination for the day. The store was closer to the center of the district and while large and clean, was also somewhat subdued in comparison to the garish other buildings around it. Cosmica Engineering’s primary focus was on armors but it also offered other Soul Enhancements. Rory had not done much research on the latter, today’s focus being on meeting two goals.
Rory entered into the building and found himself surrounded by glistening M-steel, mirrors, and projections of various armors all over. The projections continued to change their positions, weapons, genders, colors, and body shapes. They had a section in the corner for enhancements and another smaller one in the other corner for normals.
Rory walked toward a wide counter to the left that projected “Custom Orders” above it.
***
Steph was staring down at her tablet, editing some research material on the substructure of engraved underlayers for techarmor. She was pointedly ignoring the annoying young man next to her who would not stop flirting with her. Edwin was good looking, sure. All of the employees at the custom orders desk were. But he just could not accept that she was not the least bit interested in him. He wasn’t her type. Too full of himself. It reminded her of some of the gits her father had tried to set her up with.
When Steph had first decided to work at a small and slow Cosmica branch, she had planned on using all the extra time to study and improve her understanding of techarmor, her favorite past time. Her family hadn’t approved or appreciated her desire to work where she did, but she didn’t care. She had wanted to get away and do what she loved. And the truth was, she was surprised at how much she enjoyed working there. The branch manager was polite and professional, never asking for anything inappropriate. Her co-workers were mostly fine people, with the exception of Edwin and that one bitch, whatever her name was, who covered the custom orders desk opposite her. Even the customers were mostly normal people without too much of a bad attitude. There probably weren’t too many conceded gits on this dump of a planet anyway.
Yes, she believed she had made the right choice this time. Nodding to herself, she made a few small corrections to the research findings when she heard footsteps approach her desk. Finishing her notes, she looked up into the most stunning green eyes she had seen in her twenty years of life. Surrounding them, was a slightly pale pink face with some light freckles on the cheeks and nose. The face was a little gaunt, with no extra fat and perhaps even a bit too thin, but still quite attractive.
However, that wasn’t truly what had caught Steph’s attention and caused her to inhale sharply. Surrounding his face was a head of wavy hair that was nearly the color of dark blood. Steph had never seen hair that color before.
That can’t be the real color. Is that even a natural color?
Steph cleared her throat and smiled up at the young man while giving him a quick up and down. She confirmed he was definitely young. Maybe between sixteen and eighteen. The cheap long-sleeve shirt and pants he wore proved out what his face showed. He was definitely on the thinner side, having no extra fat at all. But at the same time, his muscles were quite a bit smaller than most Soul Warriors of even moderate level. That said, they were still well defined, his shirt showing how attractive he would be. He’d grow.
He removed his gloves, a common enough accessory for Soul Wielders, and when she scanned his hands, Steph was surprised to find a matching pair of exquisite inscriptions. They were large, highly detailed, and not limited to one side of his hands. They fact that there were a pair meant one of two things: either he had paired Soul Constructs, or he had art added to his body to make them matching. Or it could be both so she supposed, given the inscriptions seemed to go up into his wrists, which was impossible naturally.
As Steph was checking this redhead out, she saw his face and neck flush red with embarrassment.
Wow. How cute is that?
She had such a weakness for redheads – especially the shy ones. She hoped it was the real color. Steph wanted to run her hands though it so bad her fingers twitched.
Wait. What would it look like in a tail? Oh yeah…
Maybe he would want to play with her. He was certainly good looking enough. The more she checked him out, the brighter that adorable blush got. Oh, she was going to have some fun. There was no way she could let this scrumptious blushing ginger get away.
“Good evening,” Edwin said politely.
Just as the cute redhead looked over at him, Steph spoke up. “I’ve got him, Edwin.” Then she looked directly into those emerald eyes and said with a wide smile, “Hello. How can I help you?”
Please say you want a measurement.
His answer made her do a little dance in her mind.
This is going to be fun!
***
As Rory stepped towards the Custom Oder desk, he found two actual people there, not just automated machines, which he was expecting. Both were young, probably around his age, and very attractive. The young man was speaking to the young woman who was make an obvious show of ignoring him. She was looking down at a tablet, appearing to mumble to herself slightly. She was a little less than a foot shorter than Rory and was very attractive with wavy brown hair just past her shoulders and tanned unmarred skin showing under her sleeveless white blouse.
Do they always hire such good-looking people to do this job?
When her face lifted, he saw her gray eyes widen at his arrival. Rory winced slightly, hoping he hadn’t surprised her too bad. He was about to apologize when he saw her look him up and down slowly, a bright white smile forming on her red lips. He smiled back but could tell he was blushing from the burn in his face and neck.
He started fidgeting, not sure what to do. Women weren’t something he had any experience with for obvious reasons. Of course, his flustered state must have been obvious, and her smile widened, making her even more attractive.
He did notice the young man next to her had stopped speaking and was looking between Rory and her a few times. His face turned aggressive for a moment but then it went polite.
“Good evening,” the young man said.
But before he could answer, the beautiful woman spoke up, “I’ve got him, Edwin.” Then to Rory she said in a sweet voice, “Hello. How can I help you?”
Trying to get a grip, Rory cleared his throat and followed the instructions on the GalNet site. “I was hoping to find out how much a custom armor set would cost to be made out of a material I provided. I have a sample. I am only looking for a quote right now so I can plan my future investments.”
“I’m supposed to help him,” the young man said to her in a whisper loud enough for Rory to hear.
“No. I’ll take him, Edwin,” she said, not taking her eyes off Rory.
Then the young woman's smile turned a little sly. “You’re legally an adult in the Empire?” she asked, ignoring the other guy. Rory nodded to her. Her smile grew even wider. “Let’s get you measured and then go over the different types of custom armors we can produce for you. Come around and follow me to the assessment rooms.”
Rory could tell his skin was burning with embarrassment. He felt it all the way down to his toes.
As she turned and walked away, Rory saw she was wearing a gray skirt with black stockings and high heels that showed off her shapely legs. He wondered if his face might explode from the amount of blood rushing to it.
Trying to get a grip, Rory rounded the desk, also ignoring the guy, and followed the girl as she guided him deeper into the store. She led him through a door that required her to use eye implant commo for entry and lead him into the back.
“It your hair that color naturally?” she asked in a low voice. Curious if that mattered for the armor, he nodded. “I love it,” she whispered.
He stumbled slightly at that and heard her giggle cutely. Was she flirting with him? Pale, skinny and freckled him?
She pointed to a raised room three feet by three feet and eight feet tall with a partially closed black curtain in front of a barrier, sensor pad of some sort, and some articulating arms.
“I’ll need you to strip and stand on that while the scanners take your measurements,” she directed, grinning the entire time.
Err. That was going to be embarrassing as he was a little… umm… physically excited by her flirting. And it would show. His body was changing and… well… his muscles weren’t the only things growing. It turned out vitality was a wide-ranging attribute.
She giggled again at his obvious discomfort and said, “Go on. Our measurement system is the best in the galaxy, but it won’t work with an outer layer.”
Looking around for anyone else, he jerkily took his shirt off. His hands were shaking so bad.
Gah! This is embarrassing.
But he went into this knowing he had to test something, and that it was really important. It was the first of his two reasons for visiting this store.
Once his shirt was over his head and dangling from his hand, he saw she was clearly enjoying the show. Had she just licked her lips?
Then she spotted his dual inscriptions which went from both sides of his hands, up his arms, and down his chest into his pants in perfect symmetry of each other.
Her voice was an awed whisper as she spoke. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen someone turn their inscriptions into body art quite like that.”
Rory mentally wilted with relief. His research was confirmed and his hopes met. He had known that his inscriptions would cause an issue at some point, so he had done research on if anything could be done to cover them. It had turned out that it was possible he did not actually have to do anything. Some wielders turned their inscriptions into more visually appealing art through various biochemical methods. Most were just local to the hands and arms, but it was plausible to do more. Either way, it was critical that he have an excuse in case his inscriptions got exposed and he see the response. Hers was everything he had hoped for. The other stuff was… not so expected.
“It’s stunning,” she said quietly, while unconsciously reaching out.
A little nervous at the idea of her touching his body, Rory cleared his throat and leaned back slightly. The woman pulled her hand back and blinked, refocusing.
“Right. You mentioned you had a sample. Hand it to me and go on in. I’ll be getting it analyzed and doing some prep work to discuss your results.”
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Rory took it from his ring vault in a few seconds and handed her the two-by-two inch piece of Lucifer’s molted skin that he had prepared per GalNet’s instructions.
She ran her fingers along it and whistled. “It’s almost as gorgeous as your hair,” she said with a grin.
Bloody hell!
Yep. He was going to burn up and die on the spot. Looking back up at him, she bit her lip and sauntered off. Had she been wiggling her rear that much on the way in? He had to admit, it was a nice view.
Rory closed his eyes, took a few deep breaths trying to clear his head, and then took his boots, socks, and pants off, putting everything in the basket provided. He climbed up, closed the shielded curtain behind him, took off his boxers, dropped them in the cubby provided, and stood how the projection that was on the back of the curtain instructed.
The scanning arms started moving up and down his body. It was a slow process and the machines scanned every inch of him. It paid particular attention to his joints, which was the key to the reason they did it this way, at least according to GalNet.
The advertising for Cosmica stated that techarmor was about movement as much as protection and simple external sizing would not effectively address individually unique flexibility, tensile strength, and any movement quirks a body had, such as an injury or prosthetic. Rory watched as the devices invading his personal space scanned below the surface and assessed every bone, muscle, ligament, and blood vessel.
“Every human is biologically unique,” Cosmica claimed. “Everything from myst density to the cellular structure of musculoskeletal fibers makes our customers who they are. Thus, we create armor that is quite literally unique to each Soul Wielder.”
According to general consensus, that level of analysis was the reason Cosmica was the leader in techarmors by far and away. Their competitors tried to do the same, but they couldn’t get the algorithms right or whatever the secret was. So, Cosmica Engineering was widely recognized as the number one armorer in the Empire, and some say the galaxy.
There was another reason though: they were trusted. Cosmica was utterly fanatical about protecting its customers’ information and had legally and financially destroyed people and companies who went after it. In fact, Cosmica bragged about what they’d done and to whom. It turned out, Cosmica was one of the ten largest companies in the galaxy.
The scanning arms withdrew after a few more minutes and a projection told Rory that he was free to go. He leaned over to pick up his underwear when he saw legs under the curtain through the one-way barrier. Blushing again, he pulled his boxers up – thanking himself for splurging on brand new ones – and opened the curtain.
The person there wasn’t the flirting girl though. It was an older slightly overweight graying gentleman in a dark blue suit that probably cost as much as a set of armor.
He was looking up at Rory in surprise.
Rory’s first thought was, Uh oh, as he cautiously asked, “Umm. Hello?”
The guy bowed his head. “I am George Forsythe and the manager of this branch of Cosmica Engineering.” He introduced himself in a professional and polite voice. “Thank you for coming in.”
Blinking, Rory climbed down and put on his pants then socks and shoes and finally his shirt. “It’s good to meet you, Mr. Forsythe. I’m Rory.”
The man bowed his head again. “Master Rory, I wonder if I could ask for a few moments of your time. I promise it will not be long. Was Ms. Encart’s service satisfactory to this point?”
“The young lady who was helping me before? Sure,” Rory answered while nodding.
“Excellent. Then after we speak, I will return you to her and she can assist you with going over your armor assessments. If you would follow me?”
This is a setup, right?
Rory was looking around warily, ready to call his chakram in a blink. Was he being accused of something? Surely they had surveylance or whatever proving he hadn’t done anything.
To Rory’s surprise, the man led him through a nondescript hallway to a door that had only his name on it. Nobody had come out to attack him or arrest him or anything like that. Instead, the office had no one but them. The room reminded him of Chief’s, except there were pictures of a family and young children on top of all the expensive furniture and whatnot. Mr. Forsythe was only in a few, so grandchildren maybe? Rory still occasionally thought of his morai from before everything happened.
Ignoring the memories, Rory nervously sat where indicated, which was at a small round wooden table in the corner. There was a small vase of some kind of white flowers with tall petals that smelled nice.
What in the bloody hell is going on?
“Can I get you tea or water?” Mr. Forsythe asked.
Rory blinked and shook his head. No way was he drinking anything he didn’t either prep or verify himself, especially in a situation he wasn’t sure of. He’d learned that lesson years ago and had been following it since.
The man grabbed something from his desk. He then sat a quarter of the way around the table and placed his hands on it. The thing he was holding was Lucifer’s sample.
“Master Rory, I wonder if you could tell me of this material.”
Was that what this was about? Rory pondered the answer and stated what he felt was obvious.
“It is the molted skin of a very large serpent.”
The old man nodded. “Yes. Do you know the kind?” he asked.
“Why?” Rory asked cautiously.
Mr. Forsyth coughed and adjusted his tie. “Because we can’t figure it out.”
Rory raised his eyebrows at that.
The man somehow sounded both frustrated and awed at the same time when he said, “Materials to make techarmor are something of a specialty for Cosmica Engineering, and making extraordinary armor using those materials is our goal. We have some of, if not the best analysis equipment in the Empire to help us; but our analysis is unable to identify this piece of skin.”
Rory didn’t say anything while the man watched him.
“Master Rory,” the man eventually said. “I am not going to ask where you got it, or how much you have. What I am going to ask is if you would be willing to sell it.”
Rory leaned back in the seat and tapped his fingers on the table like he saw Chief do. Rory remembered that it had made that old man look in control and powerful so he figured he’d give it a try. It may have worked because Mr. Forsythe took a handkerchief out of his expensive suit pocket and patted at his forehead.
Rory had had no intention of selling Lucifer’s skin. It was maybe an emotional connection thing and possibly silly and wasteful, but he just couldn’t do it. It felt wrong. Rory knew he was not a hero, nor a particularly good person – as evidenced by the increasing number of dead bodies in his wake. But he had his own moral code and he tried to follow it. Was he desperate for money? Obviously. More than desperate. But selling Lucifer’s skin after everything the snake had done for him – not to mention Leila was inside his soul – was just not going to happen. He just could not do it.
That said, he had something like nine rolls of the stuff taking up as many of his ring’s cubicles.
Thinking of what to do, Rory wondered to himself, What if I don’t “sell” it?
He knocked the idea around in his head and found it felt okay.
Clearing his throat, Rory said, “Mr. Forsythe, talk to me about value.”
Nodding, as if expecting the question, the old man answered. “We would be willing to pay ten thousand pounds per square yard.”
Rory couldn’t help it. He reacted with a hiss.
The old man visibly winced. “I understand,” he said. “Twelve thousand then. It really is the best I can do.”
It took Rory a few moments to regather himself. After he felt he had his voice under control, he asked, “What can you tell me about the types of armor it is good to make?”
The man’s smile told Rory he was impressed with the question. His answer was, “Ms. Encart will get into the specifics, but I can tell you that its capabilities seem to focus on its ratio of weight to defense to flexibility. It is highly flexible and I believe would become more so when treated with our particular processes. It is also quite effective at resisting piercing and slicing but weaker against bludgeoning. What that translates to requires me to give you a very brief background on our the equipment tier system and our particular measurement process. Is that a good place to start? I apologize of this is repetitive for you.”
“Go ahead,” Rory said, thankful to get a primer from an expert.
“Very well. All myst-based equipment requires the human body to have absorbed a certain amount of myst to function. The more powerful the equipment, the most myst the body has to have absorbed to make use of it. We judge the equipment on a tier system. The tiers range from zero to five and the number of gathered vessel absorbed, or level, is how we judge the tiers. These are rounded numbers because compatibility level can lower the tier requirements due to how a higher compatibility allows for more efficient absorption. Tier zero is level one to fifteen. There is barely any equipment that’s usable at tier zero – mainly a few consumables. The body just has too little power. Tier one is sixteen to forty-five and is the lowest tier of techarmor we offer. Tier two is forty-six through eighty-five. At tier three and above, individual assessments are required to determine suitability. Enhancements for Soul Constructs and techarmor run on the same tier system. Do you have questions about the tiers before I proceed with how we rate materials for armor?”
Rory shook his head. So far it made sense. He was kind of curious how his compatibility would effect the measurements.
“Excellent. Now, we rate our materials as Outstanding, Excellent, Good, and Poor when we compare them to effectiveness. There is far more to it of course, but I am attempting to give you a fast answer.” Rory nodded and he tapped the snake skin. “This material would make an outstanding underlayer and light armor, good medium armor, and poor heavy armor. That said, it rates as outstanding as a thin outer layer on top of or inside medium or heavy armor because of its weight-to-defense ratio.”
Rory nodded again. If that was Lucifer’s dead skin, he could only imagine what the skin was like when it was alive and healthy on the monstrous snake. And now that he thought about it, how hard and sharp must have Bernael’s blade been to slice right through it?
While trying to think about what to do, Rory had a question about the armor itself. “Thank you for that. How much would you charge for a set of light armor made with it? And how long would it take to produce?”
“Without the specific armor identified, it is impossible to say. But I understand the motivation behind your question. The full basic tier one light armor would cost between one hundred fifty and three hundred fifty thousand pounds and likely take between four and six weeks to produce. But as this is a new material, I would ask for understanding that I could be off on the timeline. In case you are curious, the prices go up into the millions for tier three and above.”
Bloody hell!
Trying not to let his surprise show, Rory asked, “How many square yards would it take to make an underlayer and a set of light armor for me?”
Forsythe reached over to his desk and grabbed a tablet. Touching it he said, “Based on your measurements, three for the underlayer and five to seven for the armor depending on which model. I assume we are speaking of tier one here of course.”
Rory thought for a few moments. He was trying to think of anything that he might have missed. Then something occurred to him.
“Mr. Forsythe, I think I only have one last question, although it’s not about the armor per se.”
The man nodded with a broad smile.
“My body will be changing quite a bit over the next weeks and months as I increase in strength. I would hate to have purchased an armor and then it not fit when it was finally finished. Is there something that can be done about that?”
He nodded, still smiling. “Indeed. This is a common challenge, especially early on in a Warrior’s growth. To account for it, part of our custom crafting process involves making the armor able to accommodate changes of up to ten percent in body size and mass.”
Well that could be an issue…
“Umm. What if the change is beyond ten percent? Theoretically, could we enlarge my measurements or something?”
The man blinked at him and asked hesitantly, “Master Rory. That is a rather dramatic change. Are you sure that is realistic? It might not be healthy.”
Rory coughed but nodded.
“We cannot simply enlarge your measurements,” Forsythe explained hesitantly. “Our proprietary algorithms don’t work that way; there are simply too many variables. However, I can offer a potential solution, although it will delay the procurement of your armor set.”
Rory nodded. He could wait. This whole thing was already far beyond his wildest expectations. He went in there just expecting to get a quote and plan for months or even a year or more of saving.
Mr. Forsythe continued, “We could measure you as you change and grow. Let’s say a few times per week for two weeks. Then our algorithms would be able to possibly project your growth and we can go from there.”
Thinking about it, Rory thought that sounded perfect. Trying to think of anything else but failing, Rory said, “Alright. Those are my questions. Now I have a… umm… counterproposal.”
Please don’t be messing this up!
Rory took a breath and firmly stated, “The skin is not for sale.”
The poor man looked like he might die on the spot.
“However!” Rory said quickly. “It is available for trade.”
That intrigued the branch manager based on his change of facial expression from despondent to hopeful.
“I have two rolls of sixteen yards by one yard… give or take,” Rory told him. He had a lot more, but there was no way he would put himself at risk like that.
Sixteen yards was as tight as Rory had been able to roll them so they would fit in the square of his ring. There was also at least one more roll worth down there, possibly two. He had been planning on getting the rest tomorrow before he searched for rainbow snakes.
Proceeding with his proposal, Rory asked, “What if I give you one roll to study or make armor or whatever you want, and you agree to use the other to make me two underlayers and a light armor of my choosing? If there’s anything left of the second roll after making everything, you’re free to keep it. And we do the measurements thing, but let’s leave how many weeks open for now based on the changes. Two probably isn’t enough. Does every third day make sense from your perspective for a schedule?”
Mr. Forsythe looked at Rory with a weird expression. After a few moments of silently staring, he said, “Master Rory, I wish you to know that I am not fooled by your attire or speech. That said, I won’t ask why someone of your obvious breeding and standing is on this planet. I will only thank you for your patronage and generosity. I agree to your proposal and will have a contract drawn up. Was there anything else?”
Rory almost wanted to laugh out loud at the old man’s presumptions.
Then he had an idea and grinned. “One more thing. I’d like Ms. Encart to be my personal helper or whatever the right word is and for her to receive whatever commissions are given or however you do things for the value of this deal.”