15 - DARK SIDE OF THE ALLEY

The captain put the strange book on the desk and relaxed his eyes a bit. Apparently that book was enchanted in such a way that hindered his enhanced speed reading spell, and even worse it made him extremely fatigued after barely a page. But the contents were very interesting. An insight on the way people traveled dimensions, narrated by one such otherworlder himself.

He decided to steal the book and store it in his ship’s storage. “[Storage]” He invoked the spell, and watched in amazement as the black mist enveloped the small book before making it disappear. He was amazed not by the special effects, which were rather lacking to be honest, but by the inner workings of that particular spell.

He had developed it with the aid of his AI, or rather she had developed it after he figured out a way to mix quantum mechanics with magic. Basically all the spell had to do was to unravel the wave function of the target object, and then disrupt it so that the object entered a state of fluctuation. The wave was then converted into digital data and stored in a hard drive.

“Are you sure you cannot help me with all these books? It’s a real shame missing out on some free knowledge.” Fenrir said. He was still a bit upset for not being able to just copy the entire content of the library into the mainframe of his ship. Apparently there were ‘issues’ that had to be resolved beforehand.

As I said, that time will come. But first, I need to prepare. Replied the ship. Was that a hint of annoyance in her voice? Perhaps it was because it was the n-th time he asked that question today.

“I don’t get it. You just need to use a spell similar to [storage], without the disappearing part.”

I know that. Tomorrow.

He sighed, defeated. He had never thought to one day argue with a spaceship, but here he was.

The Defiant was obviously doing something. He could see the ship was operating the reactor at capacity, and converting a good portion of that energy into mana to operate its own magic. And he knew this last bit because she was using him to cast magic, since apparently artificial intelligences have no soul capable of manipulating mana directly. Thanks to their link, the ship could ‘borrow’ his soul and cast the magic she required at a distance.

It sounded ominous perhaps, and he was pretty sure divulging this bit of knowledge would not be a good idea. The process, however, was perfectly safe and tested with rigor. Still, he had no idea what the ship was even doing with all that magic power. She said she wanted to repair herself and restore flight capability, although she had no intention of moving if that wasn’t necessary. Moving would only make her a target, she feared.

There was something else she was doing as well, which was beyond experimenting and building new spells for Fenrir. He knew that, but apparently it was a secret, and he didn’t investigate yet. It’s not like his ship would turn on him, right?

Damn, now he was being paranoid. Better not to think about that.

***

While Fenrir was being all preoccupied with what in hell his ship was doing, Lunora was merrily shopping and chatting with the AI.

He’s quite upset, you know? The ship said with an amused voice.

“Don’t tease him too much.” replied the elf. She wanted to be the one doing the teasing.

It’s only fair that I too prepare a gift for him. So, I can’t have him poke his nose in my business before I’m done. She replied. The elf was a bit perplexed at the thought of a starship preparing gifts for its captain, but this was their life now apparently. She was starting to perceive the artificial intelligence as some kind of rival, as strange as that might sound. Barely a month ago she’d have never imagined any of this. But despite everything, she could not prevent the AI from doing anything, since the latter could have just withheld the information about tomorrow and gotten free points with Fenrir.

The ship was playing fair, and had gone as far as helping her choose a suitable gift since she knew the man the longest. While the elf was curious as to the nature of the gift, she decided not to ask and wait for the grand reveal tomorrow. She knew the ship was preparing something big, probably related to magic and to learning, but that was it. Everything else was speculation. Perhaps a way to improve his magic affinity? Why else would the Defiant need so much mana? Or maybe a new super powerful spell! Or more levels. Or precious mana-infused ores to create magical treasures.

There were just too many possibilities, and thinking about them was only a waste of time right now. She could wait a day and see with her own eyes what this whole deal was about. Even worse still, she had not bought anything yet. The ship assured her that money was not an issue, since apparently all those adventurers that even now were challenging her patience were quite loaded on gold coins.

About that, another party came earlier. There were even a couple elves among them. I looked at their maps and it appears they arrived here from quite far away...

It was curious that so many people were throwing themselves against the wreckage of the ship. Almost as if they thought it was a dungeon.

First wreckage, then dungeon… come on, I am just a poor little cute ship. The AI said, in a cute voice. Lunora raised her eyebrows a bit as she imagined a disembodied voice echoing through the empty corridors of the ship trying to sound cute.

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“...no, you are a monster. You defeated tens of adventurers from D to B rank without even putting in some effort.”

It’s not my fault! I’m only using close quarters PDCs, not even those flashy magic cannons I’ve designed!

As she discussed with the digital mind, she wandered the market looking for the right thing to buy. People were not used to seeing other races in this town, so she found herself subjected to the gaze of many. Men, especially. She felt the presence of a group of three following her for quite some time now. Defiant confirmed, although she had no idea how she knew. Perhaps they were still in range of her ‘sensors’ or whatever they are called.

A small grin appeared in her face, for the briefest of moments.

It turned into a frown as she thought about the situation, though. Her main concern was that she probably could not use magic in the city, lest it alert the guards and make an unnecessary fuss. She didn’t want to get the captain involved. But, at the same time, she was really looking forward to this encounter.

She ran out of patience, though. They were not doing anything except following her, and it was boring. It was not what she wanted. The grin she had previously suppressed crawled it way back on her face as she moved on with her plan. She decided to force their hand and make them reveal themselves by entering a dark alley on purpose. And, being as textbook as they could get, the men stepped out of the shadows.

“Hello there, little cutie. Are you lost perhaps?”

She did not reply. The thing is, she did not want Fenrir to think bad of her. So, of course she could not be the one to strike first. But self defense was okay, obviously. Her grin grew wider, revealing a sharp canine.

“Hey! I’m talking to you!” another of the trio yelled. She knew men did not like being ignored, so she ignored him too. She could feel the men were growing restless and impatient, and her wicked grin grew. Her eyes glinted with a sinister light.

“Little brat! Think you can pretend we don’t even exist?” the third said. Were they taking turns to speak? She wondered, while at the same time taking her time to plan their demise down to the last detail.

They were now just a few steps behind her. She could feel the reek of alcohol and the smell of grime and long ignored hygiene. Her face twitched because of the stink. She turned to face the three men, forcing her facial features into an innocent smile.

“Oh, hello gentlemen. I did not realize you were even talking.” She said, exaggerating words and tones as to sound as mocking as possible, but still maintaining the cute and innocent looks. At the same time, she could feel the presence of the artificial intelligence in her head getting all excited.

The man in the middle had run out of patience and was about to grab the elf by the collar. He extended his hand towards her face, yelling and spitting all the while.

“Stupid kid, let me teach you some manners!”

But he stopped moving as he saw the monster that was hiding behind the facade of a little girl. His face full of anger and lust became a face of fear. He whitened and started sweating, losing even the strength to move. The men behind him collapsed on the floor, before the elf even moved a finger.

Then she did move.

In the end, the little elf returned to the inn they were staying in. It was not late night, but it took her a long time to wash her clothes and the sun had now set. There was light coming out of the window of their room, meaning he had come back before her. It made sense, since probably the library had closed down at a certain time.

The inn was a modest building made of wood and stone, which the captain defined as ‘definitely european’, although she did not recall Europe having this kind of buildings in the holos she saw. Perhaps he meant the style or something, but then again, Europe had a lot of different styles to draw from.

Well, he admitted to not having ever seen Europe in person, Earth was inhospitable after all. So he might be wrong in his estimation.

She made her way to the second floor where their room was, chatting with the ship and deciding the menu for dinner. It was an easy life, theirs, as she could just order something to eat and the ship would prepare it and ship it to them with magic. She knocked on the door. She had a key, but didn’t want to use it. Better to be spoiled a bit and have her man come over and open the door for her.

“Hello,” said the captain with his usual sweet smile. Every time he looked at her, his expression softened and became more peaceful, more tranquil. Happier even. Perhaps he didn’t think she’d notice that, but she was well aware of how deeply in love he was. She didn't even need the empathic link to know that. She smiled, feeling the warmth of home enter her heart. This is what made her want to keep living. So she could be forever with him.

She nodded and let herself in. As usual she didn’t talk much. Sometimes she reflected on this behaviour of hers. People used to tell her she had to change this, but she never did. They were people, elves, not worth changing for. And now that she had found a man she would definitely change for, she found out she didn’t need to. The thought never even entered his mind, she was sure of it.

She was not shy, in fact she talked a lot (by her standards), whenever the situation required it. She just happened to like listening better than talking. Either because she didn’t think the other person was worth her words, or because (in this case) she wanted to listen to him more. Too bad he didn’t talk much either. There have been situations in which the two would talk for hours and hours, but still she preferred listening to him. He was so cute, as he always began talking about something only to get lost in the conversation as his thoughts seeped into it. Then he would jump to this and that topic, and talk and talk about everything that he felt like talking about.

And it was this, this very thing, that she loved. How he talked about himself through all this rambling and ranting about the most disparate of topics. Why talk when you can listen?

She liked the silence just as much though. In fact, she even thought it was among the most precious things they shared together. They could just sit there, together, in silence and be perfectly comfortable with just each other. There was no need to fill the void with useless small talk, there was no need to flee any kind of awkwardness because there was none.

She nervously approached the bed, and hid a small wrapped box under it. It was her present, and while she wanted to give it right now, she fought the instinct and decided to wait till tomorrow. It was going to be a special day, after all. The special day. She had no idea how such a coincidence managed to come true, but indeed that day fell exactly as they could finally take a moment for themselves to respite. It was a blessing from the gods, perhaps.

Fenrir was already on the bed, looking at the ceiling with tired eyes. Surely he must have studied a lot in the library today, so he got very tired. She was used to seeing him power through entire days of work and study almost unfazed, so seeing him so tired was something new.

But she knew perfectly well how to fix this.

She jumped into the bed, and stripped him of his clothes.