Time passed quickly as preparations were made – luckily, Prelinsa did get her phone battery replaced. In advance of the cruise and their guests arriving, Prelinsa, Camilla, Lana, and Raine were ferried to the Argent Velox by one of the ship’s tenders – a decently sized motorboat with an open view of the sky, and a retractable canvas roof. Conditions were a bit rough and windy, and while the water didn’t look bad, the state of the Cydonian coastline was considered too dangerous for a large vessel like the Velox to directly approach the harbor. That said, things were expected to calm down by the time the North Realm guests arrived, and were expected to stay that way for most of the cruise.
The tender arrived at and docked with the Argent Velox, and a gangway was drawn out from the larger vessel to allow everyone to board the cruise liner. Prelinsa stepped out first, sizing the others up now that they had more space. With the summer weather, it was decently warm, but the clouds kept it from being too bright, despite almost being midday.
Like Prelinsa, Lana was wearing the EGP Silvermoon’s formal black military uniform and eye mask, giving her good ease of movement as needed for a guard. She carried her signature lightning-imbued spear with her, which was currently shrunken down with shifter magic so that it wouldn’t get in the way. In this state, it was imbalanced and difficult to use.
Raine emerged next. As she would provide air support, she wore a lighter version of the uniform with shorts, no sleeves, and no mask. There were enchantments that Prelinsa could feel on the uniform – for mages, applying shifter magic principles to clothes and armor kept them the right size during transformations, though other characteristics were hard to control. She also wore a small backpack – which contained as large of a mana crystal as she could comfortably fly with.
Camilla boarded the cruise liner last. To blend in with the high ranking attendees, she wore a lovely blue Western evening gown, with some ‘burnable’ sections that she could ignite with her magic in a pinch for better mobility. There were some frills on the dress that tastefully hid where her tail emerged from her rear. With just a light touch of makeup, her already naturally pretty face looked stunning. Normally, Prelinsa only ever saw Camilla in more casual clothes, but like this, she could really appreciate that the lycan brunette was a member of Eastern nobility.
“Looking good,” Prelinsa commented casually.
“Hmph. Naturally,” Camilla replied. As a hidden guard, my clothes have to look the part.” It wasn’t noticeable to a typical person, but Prelinsa could tell that Camilla carried a saber in concealed carry beneath her gown.
“No, not your clothes. I mean you look good,” Prelinsa corrected.
Camilla blushed, looking away as she put a hand over her face. “Ugh, don’t say things like that. You’ll give me the wrong idea,” she mumbled, trying but failing to keep her tail from wagging.
“Sorry.”
Lana’s eyes couldn’t be seen clearly beneath her mask, but she seemed a bit giddy to witness Prelinsa and Camilla’s romance life – always the busybody. On the other hand, Raine sighed and rolled her eyes.
“If you’re done flirting, get a room,” she said sarcastically.
“We are not flirting!” Camilla hissed, balling her hands into fists.
“Whatever. We need to stop by on Deck 7 for our briefing – make sure to pay attention, okay?”
----------------------------------------
The four of them arrived at a meeting room. Commander Kiran – a dark-furred lycan male – was acting as head of security, and greeted them as they entered. He was in a more animalistic form than lycans often assumed, with a lupine face, fur covering his entire body, and digitigrade legs. This was unusual since the ancestor of most shifter races was ultimately human – it was more common to be comfortable with a form erring on the human side. The Commander was also a Phoenix Warrior himself, with decades of experience. He was a senior member of House Silvermoon’s army.
Prelinsa could tell that Lana had a thing for the Commander – she could barely take her eyes off of him. But he had a wife that he was devoted to, so that thing would never work out.
“Greetings,” he said, quite tersely. “Now then, I will keep things very short, as you should all know your assigned roles by now. I will quickly go over them again as a reminder. All of you will be assigned to this deck – Deck 7. Dame Camilla will take afternoon shifts, acting as a hidden guard and mingling with the guests. Dame Lana will take morning shifts patrolling the aft section of the deck. Dame Raine will take morning shifts providing aerial support, and Dame Prelinsa will take afternoon and night shifts providing aerial support. Your quarters are all on this deck, and you will be provided with cabin key cards by one of the crew members. A safety drill will take place at sixteen hundred tomorrow, and you are all expected to attend. Does anyone have any questions?”
Everyone shook their heads.
“Good. It seems you’ve all been paying attention. Now then, Dame Camilla and Dame Lana are dismissed. Dame Raine and Dame Prelinsa will stay for additional briefing.”
Camilla and Lana nodded, and exited the room. Shortly thereafter, an older harpy woman in her forties strode into the room. She looked related to Raine, though her hair and feathers were pure white, and her sky blue eyes looked naive and excitable. Her forelimbs were currently in a fully human form, and she carried a complicated looking remote control in her left hand.
“Dame Prelinsa,” the woman said, bowing. “I’m Doctor Cloud Maxim from MRD – the Military Research and Development Department. I’m also Raine’s mother. It’s an honor to meet the Silvermoon’s rising flame in person.”
“At ease,” Prelinsa replied. “It’s nice to meet you, too.”
“Dame Prelinsa. Dame Raine,” Commander Kiran said. “We believe the two of you alone will be sufficient for providing aerial support. However, MRD has taken this opportunity to provide you with additional support that they wish to field test.”
“Additional support? Unless they’re hiding, I don’t sense anyone else here,” Prelinsa said. She did however feel an unusual mana presence beneath the floor, which she had faintly noticed even before boarding the ship.
“That’s right – there’s no one here but us. Raine has seen it before, but your support will be provided by this!” Cloud said.
She pressed a button on the remote control, which caused a panel on the floor to slide open. A strange machine was raised from the floor, which Prelinsa could faintly sense mana from. It was fairly large, about 3 meters wide, loosely resembling a white robotic bird with two rotors on each wing. It also had a sparse protective cage around it that gave it a roughly saucer-shaped appearance.
“Is that… a drone?” Prelinsa asked, regarding the machine with interest. After House Goldensun had used airplanes to gain an early advantage in the war, there was an explosion of research into flying machines for both civil and military uses. Naturally, drones attempted to unite the best of both robots and aircraft.
“Yes,” the Doctor began. “This is Helium One, one of two similar units. It is highly advanced, with a large degree of artificial intelligence. MRD has constructed both Helium One and Helium Two – H1 and H2 for short – as prototypes for field testing. They will act as your aerial support.”
“I can feel a mana crystal and enchantments. Don’t tell me this drone can use magic,” Prelinsa commented, raising an eyebrow.
Cloud looked extremely proud. “It can. It is an artificial mage – the product of our continuous development over the past six years! There were many failures along the way, and we worked very hard to get to this point.”
Prelinsa’s eyes widened. An artificial mage was an unthinkable idea. Mages were in control of politics and the military – they all wanted to consolidate their power. Letting a machine use mana for anything more than an energy source flew in the face of that thinking. It could even allow non-mages to use magic.
“Was this Rensa’s idea?” She asked. It sounded like Grand Princess Rensa to both literally and figuratively fly in the face of tradition by ordering a magic-using drone.
Cloud nodded once more. “Once again, the Grand Princess has shown great foresight,” she said, rather excitedly. “Ever since the Path of the Phoenix stopped being limited by the mana streams, House Silvermoon has found itself in a position of unprecedented superiority. Because of this, the military no longer needs to reserve as much mana for wartime purposes, meaning there is an excess of mana available for other uses.”
Prelinsa nodded in understanding. All of those things made perfect sense to her. “And one of those uses ended up being artificial mages,” she said.
“Correct! It is an exciting new field of study! Now, I would like to ask if you could do some stress tests against H1 and H2. It’ll be helpful for MRD to collect training data, and it’ll be helpful for you to know how they work.”
“Stress tests? You don’t want me to destroy them, do you?”
“Heavens, no! Only destroy them if they’re about to be captured by enemy forces. For these stress tests, I want you to begin slowly, then gradually fight harder and faster. I’ll call out to you over the radio when I want you to stop.”
“Got it.”
----------------------------------------
Onboard one of the tenders, Cloud prepared Helium One and Helium Two for takeoff. With whirring noises, the drones took to the sky. As they did so, some of their surfaces took on a pale blue color, making them harder to see against the backdrop of the sky. Not for Prelinsa, though – her senses were too sharp for that. She leaped off the deck and summoned four jets of phoenixfire from her back like wings, following after the drones. They flew a safe distance from the Argent Velox to begin the testing, trailed by the tender.
Cloud spoke to Prelinsa over the radio. “Give me a bit to get things started, okay?”
Helium One spoke over a loudspeaker, in a very monotone voice that was neither masculine nor feminine sounding. “Echo on. Combat testing sequence start. Target detected. Estimated threat scale of target: Seven point six. Estimated threat scale of self: Zero point four. Estimated likelihood of victory: Zero point zero percent. Overriding self-preservation routines for combat testing. Waiting for target action. Echo off.”
A similar sequence was echoed by Helium Two, though the second drone claimed a slightly higher threat scale for itself – not that it changed the likelihood of victory. Prelinsa could sense that H2 had a somewhat stronger mana crystal.
“So, I can begin whenever?” Prelinsa asked Cloud.
“Right, you can begin now. Focus on defending first, though.”
Prelinsa drew her katana and pointed it, firing a very weak blast of phoenixfire at H2. H2 created a mana barrier and blocked it easily. Both drones split up and began firing upon Prelinsa with bolts of electricity from different angles. Prelinsa avoided most of these by weaving around, and deflected the rest by charging her sword with energy and parrying. The drones moved quickly and efficiently, and their attacks were quite fast – combined with the two versus one scenario, they would be hard for a beginner mage to deal with.
But Prelinsa was not a beginner mage – she’d been learning magic for six years, and the Path of the Phoenix gave her incredibly sharp senses and reflexes. She could also feel mana radiating off the drones as they fired – it was actually simpler and more ‘honest’ than the mana flow of natural mages. These drones were still fairly limited in what they could do.
“Alright, we’re going to test friendly fire next! Prelinsa, fly close to the tender. The drones should stop attacking.”
Prelinsa did so. As Cloud said, the drones refused to fire when there was a risk of hitting the tender. They instead kept their distance.
“Good! You can start attacking back now. Start easy and gradually ramp up. Then stop when I say stop.”
Prelinsa began firing back to force the drones on the defensive. She started slowly, but picked up speed and power as the drones continued to defend properly. As she mounted more and more pressure, H1 was able to keep up, avoiding and blocking Prelinsa’s attacks easily. It actually seemed like the protective cage was holding it back somewhat. However, the stronger H2 began to struggle. Its actions were simpler and more predictable than H1’s, and it was slower to maneuver. Prelinsa could also feel that the stronger mana crystal was starting to act a bit erratically.
“Stop, stop! Something’s wrong!” Cloud called over the radio.
Prelinsa stopped firing, but it was too late – sparks, black smoke, and bursts of mana sputtered from the drone, and it abruptly lost power and plummeted into the ocean. Fortunately, its protective cage held up and kept it buoyant in the waves.
“Echo on. Warning: Combat testing sequence aborted by admin. Ally drone disabled. Gathering diagnostic data,” H1 reported, as it surveyed the fallen H2. Prelinsa floated down to just a meter or two over sea level, checking out what happened to H2. Smoke continued to rise from the stricken drone, but luckily, it looked like it was dissipating instead of getting worse. The body of the drone itself seemed intact.
“Sorry, Dame Prelinsa – can you carry H2 back to the tender?” Cloud asked. “It’s a bit heavy for me to fly it myself.”
“No problem,” Prelinsa said, grabbing the drone by its cage and lifting it out of the water to ferry it over. She was trailed closely by the still-functional H1. Prelinsa deposited H2 carefully onto the tender, before landing herself.
This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
“Oh, I knew this was going to happen!” Cloud exclaimed, as she took some tools to the protective cage to open it and examine the damaged machine. “We told the other team that we needed to prioritize speed and intelligence over raw power! They didn’t listen to us! They said ‘ooooh, it’ll be fine, we can just force the issue with more power.’ But I’m the one dealing with the aftermath, not them! I don’t think I can fix this out here – it needs to go back to the lab.”
“Uh, sorry. I didn’t mean to break it,” Prelinsa said, scratching the back her head sheepishly.
“Don’t worry, it’s not your fault. Seems there were design issues that caused it to fail early,” Cloud observed unhappily. However, she also looked proud. “But H1 exceeded all my expectations! You beautiful machine – I am vindicated!” She looked like she wanted to hug the drone, but it actually preempted her with a warning.
“Please keep clear. Spinning rotor blades may lead to serious harm, injury, or even death.”
Cloud blushed. “Right. I got too ahead of myself.”
Prelinsa snorted. Clearly, people on Cloud’s team had foreseen this situation.
----------------------------------------
The drone testing team headed back to the Argent Velox, Prelinsa waving goodbye to Doctor Cloud and Commander Kiran before splitting up with them. On Deck 4, she met back up with Camilla, Lana, and Raine in a hallway. They were talking about something, so she hid her presence to avoid interrupting them.
Mana was the essence of life, nature, and magic, and it flowed in streams both underground and throughout water. By keeping one’s mana heart ‘quiet,’ and blending in with the mana streams, any mage could achieve quite a high level of passive stealth. Even one as strong as Prelinsa, who was normally extremely conspicuous due to having such a unique and powerful mana heart – the Phoenix Heart. She had learned this stealth tactic from Prince Rupeth, and spent a good while practicing it.
“Don’t worry, Cammy. I know you’re still nervous, but you’ll do great!” Lana said, patting Camilla on the shoulders with both of her hands.
“I’m more worried that I’ll make some stupid mistake.” Camilla fidgeted with her hands.
“We all make stupid mistakes; that’s why you’re not alone,” Raine said.
“Ugh, I know that! But I’m still worried.”
“Oh hey, Prelinsa,” Lana said, waving.
Camilla jumped as she realized that Prelinsa was there. “Don’t do that! You scared me,” she said, balling up her fists again. It was the signature Camilla Thing.
“Sorry,” said Prelinsa.
“Camilla, calm down. You’re way too tense,” Raine advised. “So, how was the drone testing? I know mom was excited to show things off.”
“Uh, one of the drones broke,” Prelinsa replied.
“Well, that sucks,” Raine commented, but she didn’t look overly bothered. “It was H2, wasn’t it?”
Prelinsa nodded. “Yeah.”
“Figures.”
“You don’t seem surprised.”
Raine shrugged. “Mom’s team does better work.” Beneath her stoic expression, she seemed happy about that. For most people this would be hard to tell, but it was not that difficult for Prelinsa.
“Prelinsa, what did you think of the drones themselves?” Lana asked. “They’re a bit spooky, aren’t they?” She seemed a little jumpy at the idea.
Prelinsa shook her head. “I thought they were pretty cool.”
“Hmm. I’m a bit worried about them taking jobs from people. Although I guess unemployment is actually down a little under Grand Princess Rensa,” Lana thought aloud.
“Yeah, I’m sure the Grand Princess will figure out the employment issue,” Raine commented. “So far, she’s been doing a good job managing the EGP.”
As far as Prelinsa was concerned, things were fine as long as people could live happily and comfortably. Artificial mages seemed like they could help with that, so she was open to the idea of them existing in at least some capacity. It was only a problem to her if they caused good people to suffer.
“Well, out of all of us, Prelinsa definitely doesn’t have to worry about losing her job to a drone,” Lana remarked, putting her hands on her hips. “Phoenix Warriors are so unfair.”
Camilla hadn’t said a word since, but she looked awkwardly at the floor. Prelinsa could tell that she was a bit uncomfortable.
“I’m going to go work out in the gym,” Prelinsa said, trying to change the subject. “Anyone want to join me?” The Argent Velox was big enough to have a gym, and anyone was free to use it at any time if they provided their key card.
“Sorry, I have some things to do,” Raine said.
“Sure, I’ll join!” Lana said. “Cammy, you should join us too.”
“Huh? Oh. Uh, sure,” Camilla said.
----------------------------------------
Prelinsa and Lana waited in the gym for Camilla – their military uniforms were already suitable for workouts, but Camilla’s evening gown was not, so she had to change into something else.
Eventually, Camilla showed up at the sliding glass door, which slid open automatically for her. She wore a sports bra and workout leggings, which showed off her well-shaped body with attractive proportions. She wasn’t bulky, but like most Silvermoon knights, she was definitely toned, with good muscle definition.
Lana whistled. “You know, I thought I looked good, but you’re on fire, Cammy!” She exclaimed.
“Of course,” Camilla replied. “As a Leclerc, I always keep on top of my training.”
“Prelinsa, say something,” Lana whispered.
“Yeah, you look good,” Prelinsa said.
Camilla seemed mildly disappointed by the lack of words.
“Is that it?” Lana asked, nudging Prelinsa with her elbow.
“You look very cute,” Prelinsa said. “A-plus muscle mommy. One hundred percent would cuddle.”
Camilla put a hand over her face, blushing as her tail wagged slowly. “Okay, you can stop – I can only take so much,” she muttered. “Let’s just start with the workouts, okay?”
Lana looked like she was about to squeal in delight.
Prelinsa just smirked briefly. “Sure,” she said.
----------------------------------------
The next day came pretty quickly. The weather had calmed down overnight, and the Argent Velox was able to dock at the Cydonian harbor, which allowed the foreign dignitaries from the North Realm to board directly.
As it was morning and not yet Prelinsa’s shift, she wandered Deck 7 in formal clothes – an androgynous looking riding outfit. Despite taking both afternoon and night shifts, she had not needed to rest for very long. The Phoenix Heart within her chest helped absorb fatigue, and over the past six years, the amount of sleep she needed had decreased to only about three hours. The Path of the Phoenix truly could do it all.
A blast from the ship’s horn signaled that the cruise was underway, and the ship pulled out from the harbor and began to move. Prelinsa could feel the faint presences of Raine and Helium One patrolling the skies from behind – they were harder to sense due to being separated from the mana streams. She passed by Lana, nodding to her in acknowledgment. Lana waved back, smiling.
Walking through a hallway and entering the ship’s library, Prelinsa encountered Camilla – the only one of their unit who was also not on duty during the morning. She still wore the same evening gown, however, so that she looked the part for her role. Camilla was sat at a table, reading a book about the politics of the North Realm. She looked up at Prelinsa as she approached.
“Hi,” Prelinsa said, waving.
“Uh, hi,” Camilla said, waving back halfheartedly, then immediately going back to reading her book.
Prelinsa let her focus for now. She looked around the library for something to read on her own, eventually finding something about the history of powerful heroes in legend. She brought it back to the table, where Camilla was still focused heavily on her book.
Quite a bit of time passed by, but for Prelinsa, it was comfortable being next to Camilla, even though both of them were normally somewhat impatient types. Just reading like this was a nice change of pace from the usual sparring and combat training.
Prelinsa finished reading the interesting parts of her book, and looked at Camilla, who was still reading. She admired the lycan’s dedication. Which quickly began to crumble as Camilla started to get bothered by Prelinsa watching her.
“…Can you not?” She asked. “You’re distracting me.”
“Sorry,” Prelinsa said.
“Ugh, whatever. This part isn’t that useful anyway. Just a lot of dumb people repeating dumb mistakes from the past.” Camilla put the book aside for now.
“Studying in your spare time as usual, huh?”
“Yeah,” said Camilla. “I’m stupid and untalented, so I have to work and study hard to keep up with everyone.”
Prelinsa shook her head. “You’re not stupid and untalented, and you know it. Putting yourself down is still a bad habit of yours.”
“But I really don’t feel like I have anything going for me,” Camilla said sullenly. “Lana’s better than me in a fight. Raine always keeps her cool. Mira has both of those things going for her. Arlan is way smarter than me. And you, well… you’re a Silvermoon.”
Mira was Mirabelle Leclerc – Camilla’s cool older sister and the face of the Leclerc Marquisate. Arlan was Mirabelle’s childhood friend, and the heir to the Whitemane Duchy. Both of them were extremely capable individuals in their respective fields. Camilla had grown up in their shadows, and always felt something of an inferiority complex, despite the fact that she was well above average in both brains and brawn.
Prelinsa took a moment to gather the right words for this, scratching the back of her head. “Yeah, but… you’re smarter than me and Mira, and you’re way better at fighting than Arlan. You’re also stronger than Lana, even if you’re less skilled. Just because you’re not the best at any of those things doesn’t mean you don’t have anything going for you,” she commented.
“Ugh. I know you’re trying to be comforting, but…” Camilla paused in frustration, not looking Prelinsa in the eyes. “…Sorry. I know what you’re saying is true. It’s not you, it’s me. I just suck.”
Prelinsa was fairly used to these episodes from Camilla by now. The two had been friends for the better part of six years, after all. Despite her aggressiveness and sharp tongue at times, Camilla was even more prone to wallowing in her own negative feelings. She was harder on herself than anyone else. This made her fairly difficult to deal with at times, but Prelinsa had a uniquely good solution for an upset Camilla.
“Do you want a hug?” Prelinsa asked.
Camilla’s face turned red. “No!” She snapped, standing and doing the Camilla thing. But her tail was slowly wagging, and there was a ticklish feeling from her mana heart. That meant she was actually happy on some level.
Raine had made sarcastic comments about their flirting earlier, and Lana was sort of a romantic busybody about other peoples’ love lives. But Prelinsa knew full well that Camilla really did have a thing for her, and that her face was exactly Camilla’s type. Camilla was just in denial. It was a bit impolite, but right now, Prelinsa was taking full advantage of this to try and make her feel better. Not to mention, Camilla usually took what Prelinsa said with at least some level of seriousness.
“Not even if I do this?” Prelinsa asked, putting both her hands on the table. In only a split second – far faster than the average shifter – her body shrank to forty centimeters long, coated in scarlet fur. Her hands and feet were now little paws with toe beans, and her face had a short snout. She was now a little fox with a comically big, fluffy tail, wearing a tiny riding outfit.
Prelinsa climbed onto the table, approaching Camilla slowly. Camilla did her best to resist the temptation, but she was definitely reacting. She really wanted to let herself go and pet the little fox-Prelinsa. But before Prelinsa could get something completely out of her…
“Argh, shut up! I’m not listening to you right now!” The lycan huffily made her way out of the library, her tail still wagging behind her. Prelinsa decided to let her be for now – in times like this, Camilla was the type who needed to be alone and sort out her feelings.