Our safe house is the refurbished upper floor of a warehouse. So it actually does feature seven bedrooms and a room with a stone floor. Hence it is Zora who has the dubious honour of reacting to the door bell at 7:09. The driver of the courir service is prevented from pissing his pants only by the consequences of beginning arteriosclerosis affecting his heart, upon facing a draconian woman in a foul mood. But the joy is spread farther. The four packages require all our signatures. The delivery man is kept in place only by his bad health and a desire to not give up the equipment he used to transport the oversized package among them.

L: Do you have hot coffee in storage?

P: Sure. Sugar, lots of it, no milk?

L: Yes

Recently having learned to use the wickedly sharp blades on my upper rams, which are usually covered by an extra „finger“ branching of my wrist, whose thorns neatly fit into depressions in my arms I am quickest to open my package. I am greeted by a note falling out. In neatly printed letters it states: „Support the best of them. We want them and you to be strong. This equipment will aid you.“

P: Shit.

M: What is it?

I pass the note around.

L: Then we can just as well discuss the implications over breakfast.

M: Does it really matter how they learned of it?

P: At least no longer, it would seem to me.

Z: Let’s look at the equipment they’ve sent.

Acting on this suggestion makes it obvious why the delivery required all our signatures. One does not get two essences, an awakening stone and growth item magical weapon on your doorstep every day.

P: If they want to sacrifice us, they must be incredibly rich.

Z: And if they just want to makes us think that?

P: Then they still must be incredibly rich. You don’t get essences back. Even if you murder and loot the recipient. I’ve tried. You can get them out of monsters, but not people.

That silences them.

M: I don’t want to obey, just because it is the logical and reasonable thing to do.

P: Many Bothans died to bring us this information

M: You rascal bag of …

--

Zora insisted on delaying everything including the rituals to this evening and on splitting up so she and Maria are delivering the last batch of fridges and cylinders, while I do the preparations I am so keen on, as she put it. I do not understand this woman. Who got a spine through her cheek?

I am regretting doing this trip by running to take up the training regime my tricorder has suggested again. People look at me like I am an alien from outer space. I will not do that again. Should we try to form a community of the transformed somewhere? Am I really willing to embrace segregation as the solution to these social ills?

I am arriving at the machine shop we got our fridges from.

#1: Your friends already picked up the rest of the stuff.

P: I know. I have some stuff for you to weld together. As a regular, albeit urgent, job. I’ll pay cash in Euros.

#1: Sure, come in.

I freaked them out again, by taking armoured plates out of thin air and just lifting them, but we got the job done. I wanted to go without conjured parts and fully infused armour. The former I’ve had to postpone, but the latter is achieved and the servant is operational and mobil, even if the conjured parts dissolve.

Let me introduce Dalek-3H

H stands for heavy. And he is sure heavy. His body is made from armoured plates. They are rounded and sloped back, so that his body is basically shaped like a fat traffic cone with a hemispherical cupola of extrathick armoured steel, which holds the crystal that forms his brain – well central processing unit, whatever – embedded in a lot of foam to isolate it from external forces. He features an endoskeleton of iron rods welded together under the the armor plating. The whole thing rests on a plate which holds most of the rituals, especially those who allow him to float around.

On the weapons and manipulator front I have compromised by giving him two conjured arms that hold hands and two assault rifles derived from [This is my Gun]. There are fittinggs for two more arms.

This has blown almost all of my quintessence, but there is no point in dieing in battle with your storage full and unused.

--

Zora has taken me aside, as soon as I had returned.

Z: We need to talk.

Obviously I am terrified.

If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

Z: I figured I need to talk to you. I am overdue.

P: What?

Z: Don’t play oblivious!

I would have noticed. I rechecked.

Z: I wanted to check, but I cannot pee, even if I very badly want to.

P: You are not pregnant.

Z: How would you in your infinite wisdom happen to know?

I am very close to death. I must not tell her to calm down.

P: One of the ladies I cooperated with in the army got pregnant. I knew before her. If you have an aura power you can control your aura to seek finely. You’ll notice the second aura. I’d know.

And now this aura sense is overwhelmed by a mixture of emotions I am sensing.

Z: What is happening? If you make a menopause joke, I will kill you, burn your corpse to cinders and use your ashes as seasoning for tomorrow’s scrambled eggs at breakfast.

P: I suppose one, that is - women, simply stops menstruating at iron rank. I certainly have no experimental data on that and I never talked to a woman about it.

She just leaves the room.

This is of course a lot of trouble avoided.

I sit down on the bed, which we are using sleeping bags on, to avoid hassle.

Am I happy to have given her this answer? Reliefed, yes, happy, no.

This group is headed for trouble.

--

We’ve agreed that I do Lidija first, as this is her first essence.

L: What does a Renewal essence do?

P: My tricorder only gives names

She gets [Regenerate]. Her reaction is oddly subdued.

Z: What’s wrong?

L: When I was a little girl, I wanted to be a doctor. That has changed. I was supposed to go study to be a teacher in the fall.

In Maria’s case probing the essence has been unnecessary. It looks like a raging inferno. And [Fire Bolt] is the result.

Zora is hesitating.

P: We can do this tomorrow. You have to want this. Taking up an essence or awakening stone needs consent.

Z: We are sensing souls when we get an aura power. That seems spooky.

P: You are already sensing auras. An aura power just makes you more versatile at it.

Z: Let’s go this over with

Name:

Zora Vuković

Race:

Fire Draconian

Current Rank: Iron 0 Progresss to bronze rank: 0% Racial Abilities: [Draconic Might] [Draconic Power] [Dragon ancestry] [Magic affinity] [Dragon Scales] [Dragon Breath] Attributes: Power Gun Iron 0 Speed Fire Iron 0 Spirit Magic Iron 0 Recovery Onslaught Iron 0 Gun: [Tools of the Magister] Special Ability Iron 0 (25%) (unused) 0% (unused) 0% (unused) 0% (unused) 0% Fire: [Dry the Tinder] Special Attack/Spell Iron 0 (2%) (unused) 0% (unused) 0% (unused) 0% (unused) 0% Magic: [Dragon Wings] Special Ability Iron 0 (6%) [Eternal Moment] Lightning Special Ability Iron 0 (3%) [Dragon's Treasure Chest] Adventure Special Ability Iron 0 (0%) (unused) 0% (unused) 0% Onslaught: [Dive Bomb] Special Attack Iron 0 (0%) (unused) 0% (unused) 0% (unused) 0% (unused) 0%