As she makes her way through the hallway back to her dorm, Emily is bothered by the nagging feeling that she is wasting her second core.

It seems kind of counterproductive to have an entire second consciousness that I’m just not using most of the time. Do I have any calculations or mental simulations I need to do? Maybe designing some blueprints?

She arrives at her dorm as the ideas spin through her mind, opens the door and collapses onto her bed. Staring at the ceiling, the feeling only grows until she has had enough.

Urgh, maybe I should meditate to clear my head. Wait, that’s it!

The gears fall into place in her mind, and she sits up before sending a command to her second core to activate Technomancer’s Breath. Immediately, her breathing falls into a regular pattern and she feels a slight fluctuation in the atmospheric mana around her as it is drawn into her skin. Looking inward, she sees her energies mixing and converting smoothly, following the usual process of Technomancer’s Breath.

She moves to stand up and walks around her room, feeling the energy-gathering technique continue in the background.

Jackpot! It doesn’t feel as effective as focusing on it completely and falling into a trance, but I’ll still be improving my stats without any visible signs.

She freezes as an idea forms.

Wait, can I send one core to sleep while keeping the other awake to avoid sleeping?

She adds that test to her mental list for later as she hears a familiar three-beat knock. Opening the door with bubbling excitement, she flashes a proud smile at Juliana the second she sees her.

“I did it!” she declares proudly.

Juliana’s face lights up in understanding and she quickly steps forward, wrapping Emily in a tight hug.

“Congratulations!”

The excitement in her voice almost matches Emily’s, and after holding the embrace for a few moments, she pulls back slightly and plants a soft kiss on Emily’s lips.

“I can’t believe you progressed so quickly. Actually, that’s a lie: I totally can!” she says with a light giggle, causing Emily to roll her eyes.

They separate as Emily pulls Juliana into the privacy of her room.

“I guess I’ll just have to try harder to surprise you then,” Emily says with a cheeky grin.

“Oh Goddess, what have you done now?” Juliana asks while settling on Emily’s bed and waiting for her to continue.

“To start, close your eyes and focus on the mana in the room. Tell me if you notice anything strange.”

Juliana follows her instructions, and after a dozen seconds, she lets out a small gasp.

“How are you doing that? You’re moving around while gathering mana.”

“Yep! I’ve managed to work out how to use my internal energy movement technique passively,” Emily beams with pride.

Juliana opens her eyes and looks at Emily with her signature puppy dog eyes.

“Can you teach me?”

“I don’t think it’s possible. Sorry.”

Emily’s heart aches as she watches Juliana’s excitement turn to disappointment.

“It’s using the ability to perfectly multitask that I’ve been practising. I was just learning it for silent casting, but I realised if I split my focus, I could reproduce the internal energy movement needed for my meditation technique while moving. It’s not perfect and not as good as plain meditation though.”

“Wait, does that mean?”

“Yep, I can silent cast now!”

Emily holds out her hand and casts iron blade, a small glistening silver knife silently forms in the centre of a magic circle and falls into her hand. Juliana claps lightly before asking a follow-up question.

“If you learned to multitask through practice, doesn’t that mean I could too?”

“Maybe. I think it may be something that some people just can or can’t do, but we can definitely try.”

***

An hour later, they head to the cafeteria to meet their friends for dinner. They see Tom, Hester, and Ivor, a vassal of Juliana’s family and their senior at The Covenant, sitting at a table waiting for them. Ivor is a second circle mage who has joined them for meals since returning from a trip back to Madonna territory to see his family. He and Emily have become close. He is mute, only communicating through sign-language, having lost his ability to speak following a childhood injury.

The tall, stocky boy immediately focuses on Emily as they approach, raising a silent questioning brow as she sits down. Emily signs to him quickly and he smiles, reaching out and patting her on the shoulder lightly before turning back to the food in front of him.

“What did you say?” Tom asks quickly.

“You should learn to sign,” Emily tells him.

“Easy for you to say. Most of us can’t learn a new language in a night.”

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“You could learn some words in a night.”

“Just tell me what you said,” Tom persists.

“Oh, just that I reached second circle,” Emily responds casually, struggling to suppress a smug grin.

“Huh, I thought it might be something impressive.” Tom sulks as he casually orders his dinner, before doubling over in pain as Hester delivers a swift kick to his shins.

“Congratulations,” she says, not sparing her brother a glance.

Emily and Juliana laugh at Tom as he sits back up and congratulates Emily properly.

“You know, my offer still stands,” Emily comments with a sly grin.

“No!” Tom exclaims. “If you make me shin pads, you’ll make her steel-capped boots and then she’ll go for my knees!”

“I would,” Hester agrees, sending Emily and Juliana into a laughing fit. Even Ivor’s shoulders silently shaking up and down. Their conversation moves on after Emily and Juliana order their food and begin to eat.

“Have you picked up any second circle spells yet?” Hester asks curiously.

“Or made any?” Tom adds quietly.

“No, I’m running low on points and don’t think I will be able to afford any right now. I’m thinking of heading to the hub after this to look at picking up a mission first.”

“Oh! Guard duty on trains is pretty good if you manage to snag it before someone else. It pays relatively well and is apparently very easy,” Juliana jumps in.

“Maybe, I’ll see what’s available.”

Making small talk, their meal passes quickly, and soon Emily is standing up to leave for the hub. After giving Juliana a goodbye hug and agreeing to meet up later, she’s about to walk away when she feels a light tap on her arm. Turning her head, she sees Ivor looking at her, a silent question on his face.

“Sure, come along big guy.”

Waving goodbye to their friends, the two of them enter a transportation room together.

“Why’d you want to come? You looking for a mission too?”

He nods and quickly begins signing.

“Yeah, I need to gather some more alchemical reagents, so I either need to earn points or head into The Glade.”

“Got it. I should be joining you soon in Alchemy by the way. I finished memorising the beast compendiums Mr Eleocharis gave me so I should ace the test next lesson.”

Ivor looks at her aghast while signing a frantic message as they walk towards the mission board.

“Already?! There were like ten books there. Your mind freaks me out.”

“Haha, thanks big guy, I’ll take it as a compliment.”

“I wish you wouldn’t call me that,” he objects.

“Aww but why? You’re so big and cuddly!” she says with a grin, throwing an arm around his shoulder. “If you really don’t like it though, I will stop. I don’t wanna be an ass.”

He shakes his head lightly with a small blush.

The big guy’s too shy to admit he likes it.

As she laughs to herself internally, she hears a familiar voice calling to her from behind.

“Emily!”

She releases Ivor and turns around to face Oscar. He’s surrounded by his group of friends, three boys and two girls with silver crests. Following them meekly are five bronze-crested boys and five girls, all their crests matching one of the members of Oscar’s main group.

“Who’s this?” Oscar asks glancing between her and Ivor with a teasing grin. “A friend? A boyfriend?”

Emily rolls her eyes at his jab.

“If you want me to knee you in the chin, you could just ask. You know I have a girlfriend.”

Oscar chuckles. However, a few members of his group shoot her disgusted sneers. Ignoring them, she asks Oscar a question.

“Why are you with so many people?”

“We’re here to register a small expedition into The Glade. The real question is, why are you here? As far as I’m aware, you haven’t taken a single mission since joining. What changed?”

“I reached second circle, but I’m too broke to buy any spells so I decided it was about time I started earning points.”

Oscar’s face lights up with excitement at her answer and his friends stare at her with shock.

“Well done! I knew you were good but reaching second circle in three months is incredible. Do you want to join us on our expedition? I’ll give you a spell as a sign-up bonus if you do.”

Emily raises a brow cautiously at his overly generous offer.

“Why are you so keen to get me to join? Will I still get a split at the end or is the spell my full payment?”

“Why am I so keen?” Oscar asks with a small grin. “Emily you were my equal in hand-to-hand combat when you got here, and in the last two months, you’ve developed so much that I can’t hope to best you. Also, you’re a magical prodigy, managing eight perfect manifestations on your first try and reaching second circle within three months. If I didn’t show at least this much sincerity when asking for your help, I’d bring shame to my household.”

Emily freezes and blushes slightly at his answer. She glances over at Ivor as he starts signing to her.

“You trust him?”

“Him, kind of,” she signs back, unwilling to admit her distrust of Oscar to his face. “His friends, not at all.”

“I’ll come too. I can get what I want from The Glade anyway.”

Emily nods at him gratefully before returning her focus to Oscar who watches them with intrigue.

“You know sign language?”

“I picked it up to talk to Ivor. It’s good practice for gesture casting too.”

Oscar nods thoughtfully while muttering to himself: “Maybe I should learn.”

“Anyway,” Emily says, pulling the conversation back on track. “I’d be happy to join you if Ivor can come too. He’s also second circle and needs to collect materials from The Glade for his Alchemy studies.”

“Of course, the more the merrier,” Oscar says with a wide smile, presenting his hand.

Emily shakes it before gesturing to the mission board with her head.

“So how do you sign up for an expedition?”

“Actually, you don’t need to use the mission board for it. I only came over here because I noticed you and was curious. Come with me, I’ll show you now.”

He guides Emily and his group over to one of the counters and informs the clerk that he would like to register an expedition into The Glade. The clerk asks him a few cursory questions about how deep they plan on going, their goals for the expedition, and how long they plan on staying, before getting every participant to add their mana signature to the application. With Oscar now registered as the expedition leader, they move to a clear space in the room to continue their discussion.

“The application should be approved within two weeks, and we plan on setting off in two months. In the meantime, I’d advise you to register for magical combat classes. They’ll help you understand how we’ll be doing the majority of our fighting. Then in a month, I’ll arrange some practice combat as a group. Other than that, you don’t have to worry about anything other than your own equipment. I’ll organise the supplies and travel; you just need to show up.”

“Got it, I was going to sign up for magic combat sooner, but some of my friends told me the basic course was just practising casting quickly and under pressure, so I thought it would be obsolete for me.”

“You should never underestimate how important it is to be able to keep your head in a tense situation. Though, from what Jeremy and Kyle have said, it sounds like you’re comfortable with casting spells mid-fight,” he says with a sly grin. “Anyway, what type of spell would you like? Let me know now and I’ll get it to you in a few days.”

Emily considers for a moment.

I’ve already had success with creating a first circle attack spell, and I have plenty of first circle spells I can combine to fight with. Maybe I should get something for defence?

“Can you give me a defence spell?”

“A great choice! Of course I can. What element?”

“Surprise me. You seem to know my affinities well,” Emily says with a smirk.

Oscar coughs and looks away awkwardly.

“It’s only normal to keep track of promising new allies,” he says quickly, only making Emily’s smirk grow. “Oh, also as for profit, all spoils will be collected at the end of the expedition and divided between all surviving members. If you don’t want any of the items we collect, there is also the choice of leaving them with me and I’ll pay you the equivalent in points.”

Emily glances at Ivor: seeing him nod in agreement, she agrees to Oscar’s plan.

“Sure, sounds good to us. See you around.”

Giving Oscar a wave goodbye and ignoring the group of nobles surrounding them, Emily and Ivor leave towards the transportation rooms.

“Thanks for speaking up back there and offering to come with. I know you don’t like signing in front of others,” Emily says, giving Ivor’s shoulder an appreciative squeeze.

“It’s okay, J wouldn’t let me hear the end of it if I let you go alone.”

“Haha, yeah she probably wouldn’t.”