Evan again passed a hand through his hair, which was now considerably shorter. Where before it was at his shoulders, now it was just a few centimeters long. It still maintained a sense of wildness to it, pointing in every direction.

“Are you sure you cut it the same?” he asked, “It feels too short.”

“I cut it to the exact same length you always have me do it,” Tessa replied.

A small buzzer went off just then.

“Alright, strap in. We’re dropping,” he commented as he jabbed a button to disable the buzzing sound and grasped a lever-like switch.

“I haven’t left the seat at all.”

Evan sighed and pulled the lever-switch from the ‘engaged’ position to the ‘disengaged’ position. Outside the viewport, streaks of light appeared before settling into fixed points, which then were out-shown by the sun of the Pangea System. There was a rattling throughout the Fairydust at the rapid deceleration from hyperlight travel to normal space. It was a familiar sensation at this point, though Evan did note that it was a bit less than normal, undoubtedly due to the tune up Tessa had done before they left.

Hyperlight travel was called many other things, such as warp travel, lightspeed, or phase space to name a few. It was a redefining moment for physics when it was discovered, since travelling faster than light was previously thought impossible, outside of science fiction. It was because the concept had so many other names that it ended up with such a bizarre sounding ‘official’ one so as to avoid provoking legal claims from numerous other parties. Though hyperlight travel could be performed freely between systems, beacons between established systems helped the average traveler avoid stellar obstacles, which formed unofficial ‘routes’ though the stars.

Evan guided the ship away from the Pangea beacon and towards the colony planet. Although terraforming a planet was a capability of most space-faring races, the time and resources to do so was generally seen as cost prohibitive. As such, colonies were generally established on worlds that fit within a races’ habitable zone. Being that Pangea was a human colony, it had numerous similarities to Earth. It was deemed a continental-class world, meaning that a significant portion of its surface was terrestrial.

After getting the proper clearances and being given a local docking bay, the Fairydust descended towards the city of Harmony. On Pangea, colonial development had taken what had been dubbed as the spiderweb approach. What that meant was that there was one major city which served the entirety of the planet with hundreds of small outposts that connected to the city. These outposts consisted of places like mines, timber forests, agriculture plantations, or research nodes that funneled everything back to the city.

Landing the ship in docking bay 92, Evan slipped on his worn trenchcoat and checked his gun. Tessa likewise checked her own, smaller gun that Evan had given her for when she went out, just to make sure it would still function since she had not utilized it in some time. Tapping the pouch on his hip, Evan led the way as the two disembarked.

“Where you from?” the customs officer on duty asked Evan.

“Earth,” he replied, “Heard there was an aurora unlike anything back home, so we came to check it out.”

“Ah! It is a wondrous thing to see. Sometimes loses a bit of the wonder when you see it so often, but you and the lady are sure to enjoy it,” nodded the officer.

“Automa. She’s an automa.”

“Really? She looks so lifelike,” the officer leaned in to get a better look at Tessa.

Automa, the slang for automaton, was the cover that Tessa used when she went out with Evan to hide her homunculus nature. The two were similar concepts, though a homunculus was, as the officer said, still more lifelike than the robotic counterpart. She also had personality, emotions, and will, something that even the best programming could not fully replicate. The homunculus was still perhaps the last secret of magic that still surpassed modern science and technology.

“This one doesn’t like being inspected that closely,” Tessa commented.

The officer pulled back in surprise at her response.

“Programming bug. Can’t find out where it is, but it’s kind of enjoyable,” Evan laughed as he patted her head.

The officer shrugged and laughed with him. He cleared the two through customs, allowing Evan and Tessa to properly enter the city of Harmony. Harmonious was not exactly the term that came to mind though as the pair walked towards a terminal. Advertisements with bright colors and boisterous sounds rained down on the foot traffic, begging those passing to purchase whatever it was that the shopfront had on offer. Passing by a casino that had its front doors open, the cacophony of a jackpot winner hitting it big joined the street’s chorus of noise.

Arriving at the terminal, Evan tapped at the touchscreen to order a pod to pick them up and take them to the motel reservation he had prepared beforehand. The terminal informed him that pod E-13 would take them to the desired destination, and the two quickly got in and activated the noise blocking feature.

“It certainly is a lively place,” Tessa commented.

“It’s like every major city on Earth decided how best to annoy everyone simultaneously.”

Evan rubbed his head in frustration and pain. The gravity on Pangea was just slightly less than that of Earth, but for someone used to the latter it was like experiencing a minor case of decompression sickness. Coupled with the barrage of sound, he had a significant headache already.

“Any new developments on our potential candidate?” he asked.

“Nothing since our last jump,” Tessa answered, “Based on the pattern, she might strike tomorrow night, local time.”

“Once we get to the motel, go scope out the area where the abductions have been occurring. Having the most accurate ground map will help if it devolves into a chase through the streets. Make note of any cameras you can. Don’t need to be slinging spells where we’ll get caught.”

“Got it.”

“And be careful.”

“Are you that concerned?”

“Naturally,” he replied, “You’re my comrade, but also something like a daughter or sister.”

“Given the figure you gave me, that wasn’t your original intention for our relationship.”

Evan turned away, since once again Tessa had indeed spoken true. He had been a teenager when he created Tessa, not that his age at the time excused the matter. She had what was considered an hourglass figure and while her curves left her with generous ‘assets,’ she was comparatively just above average to a true human woman. Tessa believed that she was modeled after a girl from Evan’s past, but he had never revealed even the name of that girl.

“Just be careful, okay?”

“Of course.”

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Wandering the street of an unfamiliar area alone at night carries a certain element of risk, regardless of who such a person may be. Of course, when someone is able to deter any such unpleasant encounters, their risk decreases considerably. Deterrents might come in the form of one’s size, facial expressions, or visible weaponry. Of those three in particular, Tessa had an average size, currently a blank and unassuming expression, and a small caliber weapon. Automa still had somewhat stiff motions to give them away, regardless of their appearance. Given the attractive build that her creator had bestowed on her combined with her fluid motions, it was an unfortunate natural occurrence that she was being followed by several unsavory types.

While she was aware of such presences, she continued on with her task of mapping out the local area. Though satellite imagery could provide a basic understanding of the layout, such things were still infrequently updated and therefore had occasional outdated information.

Marking security cameras and recorders for both private systems and public systems as she meandered, Tessa occupied the other half of her mind on translating an ancient document on El’ne shamanistic magic she had scanned into her memory before leaving Earth.

“What’s a pretty little thing like you doing walking around here?” one of those criminal types called out to her as he tried blocking her path.

Tessa stopped in front of him, murmuring through the translation aloud as she worked. She set aside her simultaneous mapping project to half focus on the thug. Glancing up at the man’s face, she made eye contact.

“Would you translate ernyre-al-tarhac as ‘earth cracking’ or ‘earthquake?’” she asked, ignoring the thug’s question entirely.

“What?” he replied, confused by her unusual question.

“It makes a big difference. The age of the writing would indicate the former interpretation while the latter would be a modern take on the word. The chant likely favors the old style, but the effect could be greater utilizing the modern take. I guess I’ll just record both as a possibility and Evan can test out both when he gets the chance,” Tessa spewed her thoughts aloud so as to confuse him even further.

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“Right, well, you should come with me. There’s a lot of guys around that might try and do something to you.”

“True.”

Without waiting for any further response, Tessa kicked the man squarely in the groin. The unexpected attack left the man unable to try and counter it and he collapsed to the ground in pain. She followed up the move by drawing her gun and firing a blast of energy into his right leg. The wound left a small, singed crater of flesh missing from his calf muscles that overwhelmed the pain from the first blow.

Tessa holstered the weapon, stepping around the screaming man on the ground, and resumed her mapping project.

“In theory the spell causes a localized earthquake. Such a thing exists across most early magics. Moving on…” she stated without giving another thought to what had just occurred.

Needless to say, the remaining unsavory types stopped following what they believed to be a cold, heartless woman after that display. Unfortunately, the warnings did not travel to other areas Tessa visited that night.

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Evan bit into a crisp piece of bacon as he mused over the plan for the day.

“Any trouble last night?”

“Nothing worth noting,” Tessa replied.

Though she sat across from him at the table, Tessa had neither food nor drink in front of her. It seemed to confuse the waiter at first, but when Evan mentioned automa the man grasped the situation.

“So there was,” Evan countered, “How many?”

“Three attempted abductions, two sexual harassments.”

“Injuries?”

“None.”

“You know I meant the others.”

“Four broken arms, seven gunshots, three genital strikes.”

Evan shoved the last bite of pancakes in his mouth as he envisioned the merciless encounters, but shrugged as the fools only had themselves to blame.

“Did you identify any potential children that could be targeted?”

“How do you expect me to have done that? I’m not going to break into people’s houses just to see if they have kids.”

“Fair. Check local parks and schools. Don’t focus on the kids though. Teachers, parents, but mostly random strangers hanging around like you will be,” Evan instructed.

“Where are you going to go?”

“I’m going to check the forest just outside the city. It’s big enough that our therian could hide the kids there. More likely to still be remnants of her activity out there.”

“Tracking magic?” Tessa asked.

“Will only work if I see her.”

“Use enhanced senses instead.”

Evan had not thought about sensory magic. He had considered trying the old fashioned method of searching and hoping to stumble across something, perhaps taking a thermal scanner with him. One detriment of still being an inexperienced magician in this advanced society was that magic still was not the first tool he jumped to. Granted, he still also had a limited number of spells that he felt confident about utilizing. So it made sense that Tessa, his walking library of arcane knowledge, thought up the answer to his conundrum.

“That should work. Can you give me a refresher on it when we get back to the room?”

“Naturally.”

Once breakfast and his half-hour reminder about the enhanced senses spell, Evan set off for the forest outside the city. It was apparently known locally as the Bicaudal Forest, stemming from much of the local wildlife having two tails. Upon reaching the treeline, he opened the small pouch on his hip and pulled out one of the two objects within.

This one object looked like a sealed tube that fit comfortably in the palm of his hand. On one end was a small button which he depressed before tossing the tube up. The tube extended in length as it flew through the air before reaching a length equal to Evan’s own height. Catching the retractable staff, he gave it a quick once over. The outer coating of the entire staff had a handful of arcane runes made of embedded silver on it, which stood out a bit from the steel core. Satisfied that the runes were not too scratched, Evan set off into the forest.

“Augendae sensu,” Evan murmured.

One of the runes on the staff glowed briefly, indicating the spell took effect. Evan winced at the sudden influx of information to his brain as all five of his senses instantly began reporting their respective observations. He almost wanted to retch at the remnant taste in his mouth from the toothpaste he had used just an hour ago. His skin crawled as the clothes he wore started itching rather than leaving him comfortable. His eyes picked up everything in more vibrant color and detail, and he could see almost twice as far as he could before. The smell of rotting flesh, feces, and urine drifted from the forest while the odors of garbage and gases whafted from the city behind him. The gentle breeze now sounded like a violent storm to his ears as he also heard distant shouts and various animalistic noises.

“Inrita!” he shouted.

The sensory overload stopped as everything returned to normal. What Evan experienced was an example of the dangers of any sort of enhancement spell, the magician’s body had to be able to handle the changes the spell provided. When a magician could not handle the changes, it could result in permanent mental or physical damage.

“Damn it Tessa. You forgot to mention overload.”

After taking another minute to think about how to manage the flow of information, Evan decided to adjust the spell.

“Augendae aspectum.”

Now only his sight improved to the same degree as during the full enhanced senses spell. While the amount of information coming through his vision was increased, Evan could handle the load. Thus equipped, he started searching for any sort of signs that a therian might have passed through the area.

Hours passed, yet Evan continued to search. Occasionally, he would switch out his enhanced sight for enhanced hearing, though he did try utilizing smell a couple times as well. It was mid-afternoon when the buzz of his communicator interrupted his search. Seeing it was Tessa, he answered.

“Did you learn anything on your end?” he asked.

“I went to several parks and one school. There was a therian lurking around one of the parks, but other than they had reddish fur, I couldn’t tell you what they looked like.”

“Identify any kids she might target?”

“Maybe, but I’m not sure.”

“Well, you’ve had more luck than I have. I’m maybe three kilometers from the city. Got nothing to show for it. Thanks for the reminder about overload by the way.”

“You forgot? How could you forget?”

“I don’t use enhancement magic often, or ever really. I do shield magic for the most part,” he grumbled in reply.

Shield magic, as the name implied, focused on defense and protection. The most notable spells from this type were Mana Shield, which protected the caster from damage, and Counter, which interrupted other spells. However, Mana Shield had become irrelevant with the introduction of energy weapons like Tessa and Evan’s gun, and Counter had faded from use as magicians stopped fighting each other and magic was dying. Evan had been put on the path of shield magic by his mentor, as it had seemed increasingly apparent that Evan might become the last known magician and he had felt shield spells would be some of the most useful to hold onto.

“Hang on, I’ve got something,” Tessa said.

“What is it?”

“Red-furred therian. Female, right in the age range we were thinking. Feline features, not canine though.”

While therians could take traits of various animals when they transformed, they were still all one species. The traits varied based on genetics, with maternal traits tending to be expressed more than paternal traits.

“Wait, how do you know the cat thing?”

“She’s either shifted now or has more permanent animalistic features.”

As far as Evan knew, that was unheard of. If they managed to bring her in, he might have to look into that.

“Well see if you can bait her with yourself,” Evan said, “If she takes you to her nesting site, we’ll find the kids.”

“Won’t work.”

“Why not?”

“She spotted me and split when she saw I was watching her.”

“You’re terrible at stealth. Send me an image of her so I know who I’m looking for out here. I’ll hopefully put a tag on her and we can track her then. Sending you my coordinates.”

Evan cut the communication line and sent Tessa his location. A moment later, Tessa replied by sending a short clip of their therian target spotting Tessa and fleeing. Interestingly, the therian took to running on all four limbs by default. Though it was not unheard of for a therian to run on all fours, they tended to favor bipedal movement.

Freezing the frame of Tessa’s clip on a clear view of the therian’s face, Evan started focusing on the details to mentally envision her in his mind. He needed to be able to do so in order to cast the tracking spell he wanted to use. Taking a seat under a nearby tree, he spent the entire time ingraining the face until Tessa appeared.

“Enjoying the view?” she asked.

“I’m not going to forget her at this point. Did you bring anything to eat?”

Tessa pulled a small, matchbox sized container out of her pocket. Popping it open, she pulled out a capsule from within and handed it to him. It was a nutrient capsule, which could substitute for a meal in a pinch, even though it did not fill one’s stomach in the slightest.

“I was hoping for something with volume, not just nutrients,” he commented disappointedly as he stared at the capsule.

“Then you should have mentioned it before I left the city.”

“Fine,” he sighed and swallowed the capsule.

“There’s still a couple hours before local sunset. Take a nap.”

“Okay, mom.”

Tessa opened her mouth to retort to the sarcastic comment, but seemed to decide against it and said nothing instead. Satisfied that for the moment he had the last word, Evan leaned back against the tree and tried his best to rest. It was successful, as he quickly drifted off.

“Taking a defensive position,” Tessa murmured silently to herself.

----------------------------------

A sharp pain in his stomach woke Evan up.

“Ouch! What was that for? And let me up already!”

Tessa was reclining against Evan, pinning him between her and the tree. She had jabbed him in the stomach to wake him.

“You’ll have to release me first.”

Evan realized that his arm was wrapped around Tessa’s waist, thus holding her there. He let go, but she continued to sit there.

“Um, Tessa?”

“I’m processing things.”

“Can you process them after I cast the tracking spell? Moon’s starting to rise.”

Evan was relieved to be released, but he was not able to see the dissatisfaction cross Tessa’s face. Rising, he pulled out his magic staff again and expanded it to its full length.

“Semita hominem,” he murmured while channeling magic and envisioning the therian face he had spent a while etching into his mind.

A small tug inside his skull signaled the spell had worked.

“This way,” Evan said.

Together they set off deeper into the forest of Pangea’s night.