When Trader was finished, she had more body weight than what she had started with. That suited her just fine. She could compress her mass to a large extent, but there was no spreading herself thinner in the event of a deficit.

Now properly healed up, she could begin mending Karrel's body. First of all, she absorbed his tail. He had no use for it, and having a new extremity felt very unsettling to him.

Then, the symbiote repurposed the mass to finish growing him a new hand. Many small injuries that their bodies had suffered during the "sparring" were also fixed up.

[What are we going to do about this?] The smith asked, pointing at the hollow metal statue of Isabella.

[Honestly, I think we should just leave it here. People would start asking questions if we took it with us back into the city, and it should hopefully disappear before anyone finds it here.] The alien shrugged.

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

"You fucking imbeciles! Do you have any idea how dangerous was that?!" The demon burst into the workshop, not bothering to hide her shining red eyes, the scleras black as coal.

"Hi Isa!" Trader waved.

"Wild magic is not a toy. It's a desperate measure for those doomed to a fate worse than death. You certainly don't do it during sparring!" The demon continued her ranting.

"I think we all know that stopped being «sparring» and turned into «beating the shit out of eachother» around the time I lost my hand." Karrel pointed out. "We all took it too far."

Isabella sighed, her eyes returning to a more traditional, green hue. "Alright, then. I apologize for burning off your limbs."

"I apologize for turning you into a statue." Trader said.

"I apologize for doing wild magic." Karrel finished.

"Great. Now that that's taken care of, what did you learn from our battles?"

"Don't fuck with light mages." The smith said.

"Teleporters are annoying." The blue symbiote added.

Isa nodded. "Both very good points. Light magic is impossible to dodge, unless you can see into the future or teleport. But there are no perfect strategies, only trade-offs. In this case, it takes a lot of power to make light really dangerous. If I didn't have the mana reserves of a greater demon, I would have quickly exhausted myself and lost by default."

"So if we have to fight another light mage, we have to tire them out?" The smith summarised.

"Yes, that's usually your best bet. To that end, you need to develop some defences. Though you should do that just in general."

She turned to look at Trader. "Now, let's go to the second observation. Fighting teleporters is a pain in the ass. So don't let them."

Trader tilted her head in an inquisitive gesture. "Go on."

"Every fight is, in essence, a puzzle. Nowhere is it more the case than with porters. With magic, there is great many ways to achieve the same thing. You have to figure out how they are teleporting, and disrupt that process. You've seen me jump from place to place. What magic did I use?"

"Some sort of shadow magic?" Karrel hazarded a guess.

"No. Shadows aren't really a thing." His associate disagreed. "What we call shadows is only a lack of light. Shadow magic is therefore a school of abstract magic, and you were the only source of that type of mana there."

He thought back, remembering the sensations he felt through his connection with the symbiote. "She only used light mana… so she had to have done something with the light. But she jumped where the light wasn't."

Then it clicked for both of them. ""The sun!""

Isabella smiled like a teacher watching her students solve a problem. "What about the sun?"

"Your porting is linked to the sun." The body mage started.

"Or any other light source you choose." Karrel clarified.

"You use the shadow as a sort of potential, where the light could be…"

"And jump into a spot in the same state!"

There was an awkward silence when the duo realized they were talking over eachother like two excited children explaining to their mom what they've learnt in the school.

And so they burst into laughter.

"That is all correct." The demon confirmed when they calmed down. "So, how would you stop me?"

"I would make a new source of light, so it interferes with the «blindspots» of your chosen one." The alchemist alien proposed.

"Really? I thought you'd have to make the whole area a shadow. She could only enter on the edge, remember?" The human disagreed.

"Both would work in some capacity. I'll let you experience the pros and cons of both approaches next time." Isabella said.

"Okay, new rule, though: we fight until an injury, and no further. And we don't try to vaporise eachother." Karrel replied.

"Fair enough. Do you have any other questions? I need to return to the forest for my body. My schedule is fucked anyway."

Trader blushed. "Um, what do you need it for? What's wrong with this one?"

"This is a homunculus, for emergencies only. Outwardly, it's extremely similar, but inside it's much more simplistic. The body-soul disparity is pretty high right now, so I'd like to graft new skin on my preferred one, so I can recusitate it and possess it again."

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"Well, the thing is... I sorta… ate it." She explained, mortified.

"You. Ate it. My body. Wow. That's… I'm not often surprised, so, good job on that."

"As funny as seeing Trader make that face is, can someone please explain to this puny mortal why this is a big deal? You said something about disparity?"

"Yes, body-soul parity is extremely important for the long-term health of an individual." Isabella turned to face him. "The easiest way to explain this is the soul and the body fit like to pieces of a puzzle. Or rather, they should. If there is disparity, the mind itself has to plug that hole, sometimes even leaking out. This can result in headaches, memory loss, mental illness, and, if the disparity is especially bad, splitting of the mind. So I need a body that fits my soul. The body which now apparently doesn't exist anymore." She said the last sentence looking pointedly at a certain body mage.

"You were supposed to contact that mind mage anyway, right? Those guys usually also learn about soul. Maybe he can adjust you soul to your body instead?" Trader sheepishly suggested.

Isabella frowned. "I suppose… my shell isn't my whole soul… Alright, but you will have to make it up to me." She decided, and went for the exit, swaying her hips in an exaggerated manner.

"Make it up?" Trader was confused.

"She means fucking. For someone who's so horny all the time, you'd think you could pick up on an obvious cliché." Karrel clarified.

"Today was a day, okay?" She defended herself, before following her lover.

"That it was… now, where was I?" Karrel muttered to himself, turning to his workshop.

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After Isabella had sent the message to her acquaintance, he sent back that he was on a contract, so at the earliest he could arrive in two weeks' time. The trio had decided to use this period to pursue some personal projects.

Since the mind mage would be late, Trader helped adjust Isa's alchemically created body to better fit her soul.

[This is weird.] Trader said when she bonded with the demon. [This thing is more like an organic golem than a proper body. I'm honestly surprised I was able to connect with it at all.]

[I normally change bodies by having a baby and possessing it before it develops a soul. This was always meant to be a temporary backup. Usually when I die like that, I heal the body and jump back in. This is only the fourth time where I couldn't recover it. So congratulations on that, I suppose.]

[Alright, but come on! Your blood vessels are made out of cartilage! The heart is made out of wood!] The symbiote was exasperated.

[Not everyone is a master body mage, Trader.]

[Impregnated wood! How am I supposed to work with this? I have to cut the whole thing out and grow a new one!]

[Why can't you just absorb it? Wood is biomatter. You can eat anything, can't you?]

[If a material has been processed, especially like this, with chemicals, it no longer counts as «biological». It is now the purview of alchemy. My natural abilities also work this way.] Trader took a deep breath. [This is not going to be easy.]

[It's not my fault someone decided she was hungry.] Isa teased her for the twentieth or so time.

All in all, Trader had completely replaced almost half of the artificial body, but at least she learnt a lot about alchemy from studying the homunculus, and Isabella learnt a bit about anatomy. She later incorporated this knowledge when making the next emergency body.

Karrel wasn't idle, either. First, he focused on the divination-blocking bracelet for Lucienne.

The research didn't take much time, he just needed a refresher. The bracelet itself took only slightly longer. Though he was no jeweler, he had been working with metal all his life, and he poured his heart into making sure it looked as pretty as he could manage.

The bulk of the project was layering the different runes and enchantments into the object and making sure they didn't interfere with each other, and that the magic wouldn't interfere with the wearer's own spells.

It all revolved around a part that analyzed the incoming mana structures. It didn't matter which discipline of magic was used; the shape of information gathering spells was always similar. If such a framework was detected, the bracelet would send a pulse of its own data-carrying spell that fed the diviner nonsensical feedback designed to hurt the senses.

"Alright, try scrying me." Karrel said to Isabella, putting on the bracelet made of steel, with accents and runes made from electrum. He experimented with pure gold, but the runework was supposed to function continuously, and the alloy was more robust.

Isabella weaved a strong, ward-piercing spell, expecting to crack the enchantment swiftly.

"Ow! Fuck, that hurt." She exclaimed instead, grasping her head. "You're good. I might have to contract you sometime. Though that must have taken quite a chunk of mana."

"It's not a problem, there's a socket for a mana crystal right here." He pointed out.

Some crystalline structures could be charged with mana to store for later, or to power magic items like this one. The crystals were very expensive, but this wouldn't be an issue considering his client was the daughter of a duchess.

Soon after, Karrel left to deliver the bracelet personally. At the estate, he had to show the letter to the guards to be let in. He has been barred from entering after lady Tiamarr fired him. He was escorted to a meeting room, where Lucienne was already waiting.

Her scales were red as roses, covering her neck, shoulders, most of her arms, and what little of her legs was visible under her black dress. Her face was that of a human, though her golden eyes had the vertical slits of a reptile. She was beautiful in both face and figure; perfect, as far as the smith was concerned.

"Guard, leave us." She said as soon as she saw him.

"Young mistress, I don't know if it's-"

The armored man was interrupted by a bolt of lightning whizzing right next to his head.

"I can handle myself." Lucienne said in a tone suggesting further arguing would end poorly for the guard. He bowed, and left without a word, closing the door behind him.

The dragonborn heiress threw herself at Karrel, wrapping her scaly arms around him.

"I missed you so much." She whispered into his ear.

"I missed you too." He kissed her.

"We only have a few minutes before someone realizes this isn't just a business exchange and snitches on us to mother."

"Then let's make the most of it." He said, shrugging off his clothes, Lucienne following eagerly.

Fortunately, they had practice in wringing as much intimacy as they could from these short moments when they were left unattended.

When the pair was dressed again, Karrel showed Lucienne how to operate and maintain the bracelet.

"Wonderful. Thank you, love." She gave him a peck on the cheek and put the piece of jewelry on. "Now, time for your payment."

She left the room for a minute, returning with a large suitcase.

"There's also a nice bonus there. For your swift work." Lucienne winked at the artificer, handing him the suitcase. She then frowned. "But you should go now, as much as I hate that."

Karrel hugged her with his free hand.

"I'm working on a way for us. I found a friend, and she's helping me with research. I promised you a wedding ring, and I'll keep my word."

"You know mother won't let me marry you."

"No, she won't let you marry a commoner." He corrected her.

She tilted her head in confusion, until her eyes widened in realization.

"Well… if anyone can pull that off, it's you, love. Now, it's time. See you soon."

With a final kiss, he left.

The rest of the two-week period was spent on research for the other order: the self-supplying crossbow.

The unravelling of the Sorceress' book on matter creation was difficult, but Karrel made steady progress. He managed to make a tool to hasten the process: a magic focus in the form of a gauntlet. Like any magic focus, he would feed it unattuned mana, and it would weave it into a specific type - in this case, firmamental mana. It vastly decreased the burden on his mind and allowed him to direct his efforts to shaping the spell.

With his gauntlet on, he downed a vial of mana sight potion Trader had brewed for him.

"Alright, permanent crossbow bolt conjuration, attempt number seventy eight." He proclaimed. Next to him, Trader recorded his words on paper, as she'd been doing for the past three hours.

The artificer carefully copied the spell framework he had earlier wrote down, then pointed with his covered hand at the table before him, unleashing the spell. A small ripple went through reality, and a crossbow bolt appeared a bit above the table, falling down.

"YES! Success! I did it!" Karrel shouted and jumped up from his seat in excitement. He quickly remembered it was the middle of the night, and he had neighbors, so he promptly lowered his voice. "Finally. I'm done."

"We don't know if it's balanced properly." Trader pointed out.

"I don't care, I'm going to sleep, I've earned it."

The symbiote chuckled and followed him to the bed.