A few hours later, Emily and Juliana walk into the cafeteria for dinner. A calm air of resignation hangs over them as they take a seat at the table with Ivor and Hester.

“What’s up with you two?” Hester asks, quickly noticing their mood.

“Nothing,” Emily lies, unwilling to tell her the truth and quickly changing the subject. “Where’s Tom?”

“He was meant to be joining us. I left him in the library like an hour ago poring over a study about the fall of the Rostan Empire.”

“The what?” Juliana asks in confusion.

Hester visibly deflates at the question.

“Some empire that controlled half of the Keban continent before Modo and Morzea formed. Please don’t ask him, I don’t want to hear about it again.”

As if sensing her fear, Tom steps into the table’s barrier the moment she finishes speaking.

“What are you guys talking about?” he asks as he sits down, causing Hester to jump and look at her friends pleadingly.

Emily chuckles silently, choosing to help her out: having been on the receiving end of Tom’s rants enough times to feel pity.

“Nothing much. I was just saying that I’m planning my own expedition soon.”

“Oh cool! Can I come?” Tom asks excitedly, while Hester and Ivor look at Emily questioningly.

“Yeah. I want to go into the depths of The Crystal Waters now that I’m third circle,” she answers with a sly grin.

All three of her friends start in surprise, looking at her in disbelief.

“Already?” Hester asks

“Yep!” she answers proudly. “I would show you, but I’d rather not flex my pressure in here. For certain reasons, I don’t want to announce my ascension, and I’d prefer you don’t tell anyone.”

Tom and Hester look confused, but both agree to silence before shutting their eyes and feeling out the auras near them. Ivor narrows his eyes at her, but nods with a look of understanding.

“Well done,” he signs, without even checking her aura.

What does he know? I’ll ask later.

“Thanks.”

Tom and Hester soon open their eyes again and congratulate her.

“When are you planning your expedition for?” Hester asks, moving back to the original topic after her surprise has passed.

“And who are you inviting!” Tom adds eagerly.

Emily chuckles at his enthusiasm.

“You can join if you want, Tom. I’m looking to set off in a month, and I was planning on inviting you guys, Enzo, and Dante.”

“Wait, is that all?” Hester asks dubiously.

“Yeah,” Emily answers confidently, receiving doubtful looks from three of her friends.

Ivor on the other hand, simply nods along with her. Juliana turns a questioning glare on him.

“Why are you supporting her?”

“She’s a monster. She’d be fine alone,” he signs calmly, drawing a snort from Juliana and a giggle from Emily.

“What did he say?” asks Tom, causing Ivor to shift uncomfortably.

“Learn to sign already,” Hester says, clipping her brother around the back of the head before looking back to Ivor. “What do you mean she’s a monster?”

Ivor seems to freeze up, glancing between the siblings awkwardly. Emily sighs and takes over.

“He means I’m a good fighter and I have enough endurance to survive an expedition alone. I’m mostly inviting you guys so I have someone to carry my bags and for company.”

Ivor nods along, but her friends don’t seem convinced.

“How about this? I’m sparring with Agnes again in two days. Why don’t you guys come watch, and you can judge for yourself if an expedition with just the seven of us is safe?”

They agree to her suggestion and proceed to ask her questions about her ascension over dinner. Afterwards, Tom and Hester separate from them to return to their rooms, but Emily drags Ivor into the B grade dorms with her and Juliana. They quickly return to their rooms where Juliana, who’s helping in the herb gardens early in the morning, says goodnight and leaves so she can sleep.

Emily and Ivor step into her room alone, settling down on the chairs facing each other.

“So, why do you think I’m hiding my ascension?” Emily signs curiously.

“You’re not on good terms with your sponsor, are you?”

Emily silently shakes her head, appreciating him choosing not to call them her family, and waits for him to elaborate.

“Thought so. Your reaction to leaving their allies to die made it pretty obvious. So, if you’re not on good terms with them, then you probably don’t want them knowing you’ve reached the point where you can legally separate from them. Right?”

“Almost. They won’t be worried about me separating. However, they sent me here with the goal of achieving third circle. So, I suspect when they find out that I’ve reached that goal, they’ll either call me back or try to give me orders. I still have some things I want to do here before I leave.”

“I see,” Ivor signs back, nodding thoughtfully. “Why are you on bad terms with them? If you don’t mind me asking.”

A small smile creeps onto Emily’s face at his consideration.

“Sure. So, basically...”

***

The next morning, Emily makes her way to the library after breakfast.

You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

My spar with Agnes tomorrow should give me a good idea on where I stand against third circle mages. I’m ninety per cent sure I’ll win with ease if my strength at second circle is anything to go off of. But, the Mandrago Patriarch is fourth circle. If I want to kill him, I need to get some ideas about the difference between third and fourth circle.

She sits down at a random table, activating it and making a request.

“This probably won’t work. All B grade books on the fourth circle.”

Emily waits for a few moments, but nothing approaches the table.

“Tsk,” she clicks her tongue as she stands up. “Thought so. Any knowledge on the fourth circle will be locked to A grade students. I could ask Oscar to let me piggy back on his access, but where’s the fun in that.”

She walks into the stacks, passing into the empty corridors towering high with books, an excited grin plastered on her face.

Time to put my babies to work!

She reaches into the spatial pouch at her hip, pulling out a black and silver metal egg, two times the size of her fist. Injecting a small spark of machina, she watches as the egg cracks.

A small hiss sounds from the egg as a repetitive ticking starts and the cracks spread. Quickly, the metal butterflies open, revealing a delicate mass of gears and mechanisms within. Plates of metal slide over each other, clicking into place and connecting together to form a mechanical bird sitting on Emily’s finger.

The centre of the bird glows, the magic crystals within shining through the cracks, and a complicated three dimensional magic circle, woven into the mechanisms to give the bird pulsing silver veins, spins to life. Emily connects a small string of mana to the creature, linking it with one of her cores.

The bird spreads its wings, flapping twice and taking off to perch on her head. Emily checks the link, seeing two threads being used up: one for watching the surveillance array showing her the bird’s perspective; and the other for controlling the bird’s movement by converting the end of the mana string into machina and adjusting the controls within.

¯¯¯¯¯

[Bird Scout]

[Rank:] E

[Description:] A small remote-controlled mechanical bird with an integrated surveillance array.

[Effect:] Relays information to the connected mage.

_____

It’s a shame I don’t have the setup to make fine electronics yet. I could have made these fully independent if I did. Ah well, I can look into that after dealing with the Mandragos.

She reaches into her pouch again, pulling out another small mechanical orb. This one sprouts eight long legs, each with a small spiked claw at the end for climbing. The mechanical spider scout drops from her hand, landing with barely a sound and scuttling up a bookcase to her eye level.

Good, the spiders don’t have issues climbing these shelves.

She pulls out three more birds and another spider, activating all of them individually and ensuring their connections are stable. She drops to the floor in a meditative pose for the last two, as she gives up control of her body to her control core, just in case, while focusing on her small minions.

The four birds take flight, rising to the topmost layers of the stacks and shooting off to a different row each. The spiders clamber up the shelves, reaching the top layer on either side of the narrow corridor of books. Emily slowly moves her creations along, reading the spines of the books they pass and ignoring anything that seems unrelated.

After a few hours of searching through thousands of books, one of her birds comes across a book titled: ‘Rising to the top’.

Interesting. It’s in the A grade section, so maybe it’s about ascensions?

Emily opens her eyes, sending the bird’s connection to the control core to manage its motion as she stands up. She follows the string of mana connected to the bird, stepping back into the mage-filled aisle between the stacks and walking down a few rows. She quickly finds the bird flapping its wings in place, hovering in the centre of the row staring at a book. She positions herself below it, as the bird shifts forward, places its claws on the top of the spine, and frantically beats its wide, metal wings.

It takes a few seconds, the bird not having enough power to easily move more mass, but the bird pulls it free, sending the book tumbling into Emily’s waiting hand below.

The bird lowers down to perch on her head as Emily sits down and flips open the book. After skimming through the first few pages, a frown creases her brow.

It’s just some mage’s autobiography.

She flips through to the end of the book, finding it ends with an afternote from the noble’s son about how great his third circle father was.

“Tsk. Useless.”

Emily tosses the book aside and shuts her eyes to focus on her scouts again. Her search continues for most of the day, her mind processing thousands upon thousands of book titles, building an accurate map of the stacks’ upper levels as she goes, since several titles interest her for further research. After twenty long hours of searching, reading every title and checking every book that looks like it could be related to ascensions or the fourth circle, a strange book catches Emily’s eye.

The spine of the book is traced with lines of wear, the leather binding cracking and flaking away. The title is dull and faded, completely unreadable.

None of the other books here show any wear. I assumed there was a spell keeping them safe given how poorly everyone seems to treat them. Why wasn’t this one protected?

Emily opens her eyes, rising to her feet again and slipping through the stacks towards the hum of mechanical wings. Both spider scouts clamber across the ceiling to join her as she arrives in the row with the old book. She moves them to either side of the book and uses them to pull it out carefully, holding it between them as they scramble down to present their prize.

She slips down onto the floor cross-legged and walks the spiders into her lap. Gently, Emily lifts the book off the small spiders’ mechanical arms, absentmindedly petting one as she looks over the tattered leather cover.

The leather is a dull brown, with hints of the rich crimson it once was left in a few patches. The title on the front is barely readable, and it takes Emily a few seconds of close observation to make out two words: ‘Gaius Longaeva’.

Emily slowly opens the cover, finding neat cursive scrawled across the weathered pages within.

Arthur won’t stop talking about the witch in the woods. He claims she uses magic and casts spells. Apparently he saw her lighting a fire with her bare hands!

I don’t believe him. But I want to. He said he’d take me to see her tomorrow to prove it.

A diary? Why is there a simple diary in the A grade section. Who is Gaius Longaeva?

Gripped by curiosity, Emily flips through the pages: taking in the story of two young boys learning magic from the friendly witch in the woods. By the time she flips the cover closed, all three of her birds are perched motionless on her head and shoulders, her full attention having been drawn into the strange tale.

From the young boy’s writing, Emily is able to gather some interesting details. Gaius Longaeva and Arthur both lived before the start of the current calendar in the age of the empire. The diary covers from their awakening with the help of the kind lady in the woods, to their battles as members of the empire’s army, slaughtering beasts and people to further the empire’s glory.

However, throughout the course of their journey, Arthur repeatedly tells Gaius about his desires to tear down the emperor and start a new regime. His wistful dreaming doesn’t lead anywhere in the course of the book’s events, but a few of the things he says throughout catch Emily’s attention.

“Weird. Everything quoted as Arthur’s words just don’t make sense together,” Emily mutters, placing the book down on the inactive spiders in her lap and biting her thumb. “There’s something off about Arthur. He seems to flip-flop between hating the empire and singing its praises, yet somehow manages to convince Gaius to hate the empire by the end of the diary. His words don’t fit the result.”

Emily falls into deep contemplation, her mind full of questions.

Who are Gaius and Arthur. Why are they important enough for a simple diary about them to end up on the A grade shelves? What about Arthur keeps bothering me? He reads like two different people.

Emily’s brows furrow at that thought.

What if he was?

She flips back through the diary, looking at every reference to Arthur with a critical eye. At least half of the sections quoting him, every point where he praises the empire, seem disjointed and separated from the surrounding text. The disjointed sections all seem to be written with slightly neater handwriting, as if someone else is trying to mimic the surrounding writing.

“Some of these were changed. But why?”

Why would someone change the contents of this diary? Was it Gaius, or someone else? Does it serve a purpose?

Emily opens a blank page in her notes and starts writing down every section she thinks may have been changed. After filling the page with quotes, she reads them over together.

“Start running Gaius, we’re nearly to the great capital!”

“Where would you rather be from? You can’t beat the Empire.”

“You surely know the Goddess blesses our great emperor.”

“Found you. How dare you insult the emperor before me!”

“Me? Of course I’d die for the Empire!”

“Follow me! For the Empire!”

“The sun never sets on the golden Empire!”

“Numbers mean nothing against our glorious Empire! Charge!”

Her eyes open wide as she spots the message hidden within the quotes.

‘Start where you found me. Follow the numbers.’