Skill: [Message]

Designation: Telepsychic Type

The most common staple of a [Relay Mage] though some individuals with the aptitude for it do possess it. It is the most mainstream communication spell and despite the level of difficulty encountered when learning it as it requires a great deal of focus, it is still easier than learning [Far Speak]. Another advantage of the spell is the ease with which a [Rune Smith] can attach it to a casting aid for those with the wherewithal to acquire such artifacts one of them being the Dwarven-made armacus that their shipmasters use. Use of [Message] is mostly intercity but long range casting is made possible through the linked cast network of the Mages Guild which commands monopoly of the most [Message] Relay obelisks. Certain variations documented include [Priority Message] and [Urgent Message]. -World Compendium of Skills , The Order of Vesper, Church of Thea

Another two months and a half flew past. On the surveillance front, things seemed to have quietened down; there were no shifty movements from their purported stalkers. But for the Sturmdraches, looking over their shoulders for suspicious characters wasn't on their minds. They had to trust that their would-be spymaster was doing their job just fine. It was not like they could do it any better themselves.

Arthur and his tentatively, adopted daughter exchanged their letters, because that was the only communication they could afford. It was the only thing that could stand up to scrutiny and it very much made for a good cover for their covert communications.

And the ever erratic elder Volemhir occasionally chipped in from time to time, very much vested in what Arthur was doing. Orhill had kept away from the mansion because they couldn't give the council any reason to doubt the Guild's impartiality; overall it was going well.

On the ship-building front, well, despite the council contracts running him ragged, Arthur still kept up. All materials had been accounted for, iron wood and obsiderite mostly bought through the sylvani market. No alarms were tripped there as per the plan. Added to that, iron wood was a majorly a sylvani export.

Loathe as they were to cut down their trees, their druids knew the importance of removing some old growth to promote new growth. The Lalilabs, being an alchemist enterprise already had connections to sylvani trade outposts so it was that easy to source for what Arthur wanted through their networks.

However, the glass was a hard thing to get because obsiderite was the dwarves' creation. It took a lot out of his pockets to have it purchased in a roundabout way from the sylvani to the Lalilabs, instead of buying it directly. Again, the magnanimous Elder was only so glad to use his connections in that endeavor.

Despite his royalties topping up his coffers, he was almost in the red. But looking at the gun-metal gray hull of the Stormbreaker, Arthur had the biggest grin he'd had in days. The golems were truly a save as they'd been working tirelessly to bring the parts together. Somehow they knew which parts went where; Arthur chalked it up to their controller working behind the scenes, a fantastical equivalent of robotics at work. He himself had made various alterations to their nubby digits by adding metallic attachments to help them grasp, lift and maneuver things with as much precious as their giant stature could allow.

While the golems did the crude work, Arthur and Elena did the rune crafting and other endeavors that required precision . Elena had started on her Enchanter's journey and while she was not there yet, she could be counted upon to use her experience from Yondouk's to fix a few things. Like making sure the interior lighting of the aership was working perfectly, or the conduits did not have breaks in them.

And now, the culmination of that was standing on two keel struts and twin outriggers while they tested it. The beautifully aerodynamic bow of the Stormbreaker shone beneath the lab's Lux crystals.

The Mark Three's first tests had gone off without a hitch. In fact, it was done way back before its engine emplacements were ready to receive the engine mounts. Orhill had been there for that one, before he had to keep his distance to avoid further scrutiny from the Council.

Barring the installation of interior insulation, a sail and a paint job the Stormbreaker was almost complete. Like putting up a house, it was the small things that seemed insignificant until you knew how much they cost. And that included hydraulics for the rudder and coolant for the engine.

Arthur had knowledge of hydraulics and cooling systems from mechanics because someone taught him everything he knew. Also, he had a diploma in avionics. He realized that might have been the reason the sky and aerships called to him.

In the same vein however, the memory reveal had been bittersweet. While some gaps remained, like the faces he could not put a name to, it was both a blessing and curse . Arthur now owed it to himself to find out what happened to the rest of the airplane passengers, and presumably someone related to him. It weighed on his conscience like the ethereal chains of a Geas coiled around his spirit, that demanded him to do something about it.

Unfortunately though some oh so omniscient entity had deemed it prudent to take away his access to the Psiphone’s equivalent of a gallery. It ground on him but he didnt let it bog him down; it still unnerved him that every time he tried to grasp his recollection he had a splitting migraine that felt like pine drivers being driven into his skull and a nosebleed. So he put it off despite his stubborn resolve. It was ironic that not so long past he was reluctant to even switch his phone on.

Nonetheless, without his memories, hydraulics, steam power and cooling would have been a messier affair. Rigging the three systems to work together, and incorporating redundancies might have run him bald.

Hydraulics and steam power were already joined at the hip from the get go. Steam power was the fill-in for the hydraulics motor. For heat, it had its own enchantment, copied from the omnicooker's rune craft which was itself an arduous undertaking that took him close to a month to unravel.

Alternatively, the steam could be diverted from the heat exchanger that ran parallel to the cooling enchantments near the engine. An Aertherite and Pyrtherite fusion was bound to have a lot of heat more than a pure Aertherite engine.

In the end, the Stormbreaker had a lot of moving parts and liquids, case in point the hydraulics fluid from lava wurm. The hydraulic fluid was the most thermally stable and had a good compression to pressure ratio that remained constant.

It was its own adaptation against the environment that the creature loved to inhabit and he bought the processed stuff from the Alchemist by the barrels. Hydraulic pipes were well, he asked around for flexible non-metallic tubing and got the vascular system of the same creature; and yes, they were black and could withstand a flame without smelling like burnt rubber.

On the other hand, coolant was just water passed through ice enchantments attached to radiators; more efficient than any air cooled or water cooled systems. Exposing the cooling runes to a direct source of heat meant that they would lose their potency and degrade over time. Therefore, the heat exchanger came from an elaborate marriage of engineering, thermodynamics and runecraft, not a first for magitech but definitely a novelty of its own. He’d inadvertently overshot the creation of a magical air conditioner and he was looking to install some of it inside the ship.

The cooling runes were sandwiched between the plates of the heat exchanger where liquid mana would circulate in a closed conduit. The coolant generator was replaceable frost wyvern cores which bled their ice cold mana into the conduit. Although the way attuned attributes could be transmitted through magical rods did leave him with a lot more questions than answers. Arthur merely accepted that he wouldn't have all the time to get to the bottom of everything on his own.

Another thing that he needed to do was dampen engine vibrations. He might have preferred to use fluid dampeners for the engine mounts, however he had nowhere near the amount of experience to guarantee he'd get them right. Since screws existed, getting springs custom made by throwing money at a smith for a discreet job was no big deal. It was a stretch to slap obfuscation runes on the things because they had no magic to them whatsoever.

“Are we really leaving Aldmoor?” Elena asked as she wiped the sweat on her brow. She chugged a drink of ice-cold water courtesy of a magic cooler box. Like her counterparts she’d worn pants and an overall and there was grease all over it.

“Yes, I guess,” said the other woman looking towards Arthur who was still doing some quality checks. “I think we need to find diamond glass for his next project.”

“That’s all the way down to the coast to find a big city as far as I know. Far and expensive for just glass.” Elena commented off-handedly. “Isn't it already overkill to have obsiderite on, what did he call it? a wind screen”

“I think Arthur knows what he’s doing…so glass mages?” Nors said as she mulled, looking at the curved windscreen attached to the bridge deck. She could barely see inside, yet if she were standing on the bridge, she knew that even low light would not be a detriment to flying.

“Nah, [Glass Enchanter-Smith],” Elena smiled. She’d made good use of Arthur’s books diversifying rather than specializing in one type of enchanting. The sylvani had studied enchanting for cloth, leather and other materials apart from the usual metals that enchanters used. Though enchanting cloth was undoable at that point.

Not unless she had a complimentary class like [Tailor] or [Seamstress] or [Weaver] which would consolidate to a [Fabric Enchanter] class. Until her class reached level twenty, she wouldn’t be picking any other secondary class.

For now, the storm breaker had obsiderite windshields and at the front. The rest of the windows were barred by screwed in louvres like the ones you’d find on a racecar. They were there for the sole purpose of keeping unwanted intruders out and reducing areas of vulnerability.

“How’s Arcis?” Arthur asked, wiping off the grime on his neck with a wet towel. Apart from a few spills, testing the hydraulics and coolant systems had gone off well. The coolant had a biting chill to it like refrigerant when it got onto the skin like freezing water or ice slush.

“She’s fine…” Nora said though her tone was rather wistful. “She’s getting antsy and mentioned that it reminded her of her prison.” Arthur looked towards the tellusphere sitting in its containment, Nora and Elena followed his gaze.

Over two months and a half, the two women had hesitatingly gotten to know the girl anew. Although their relations were shaky because they were just getting used to seeing her as a person, they nonetheless came to care for her. Arcis' demeanor had also undergone a noticeable change. She had become...more human.

On the subject of changes Umbra had also grown a bit and pulled her weight watching the house. And her favorite place in the whole house seemed to be near the tellusphere; understandable perhaps, because the faerie-beast had gotten accustomed to the ambient mana the construct gave off.

In all this time, the feline faerie beast had been an afterthought on everyone’s mind apart from the owners of the mansion. It had been inevitable that as the grimalkin grew larger so would her stealth abilities both innate and borrowed grow stronger. She was a shadow and sometimes even his senses couldn’t catch her presence unless she wanted to be seen.

To other people who did not know the nature of the fae beast, she was elusive. In fact, they didn’t even know that the Sturmdrache estate had another animal apart from Bessie the horse. That was another ace they got going for them; any one dumb enough to sneak into the estate assuming it undefended was bound to get the shock of their life.

The tellusphere itself also had its own compartment in the engine deck of the Stormbreaker. There was no way to harness its power without shorting the runes because only Arcis knew its deeper workings; perhaps moreso than Arthur could glean from its inventor’s notes.

Besides, her holding residence wasn’t exactly a discreet place where they could discuss its workings. As Arthur was thinking about that, the Psiphone chimed. The blue psi symbol was flashing red. It had never done that before.

Arthur scrunched his face in confusion as a rune much like the phone icon suddenly blinked on the screen. It was shaped like the phone icon but it was more of a small letter l in cursive font (l ) with a small addition in the middle which looked like a sprouting branch—The rune for [Farspeak].

“That’s new…” Elena said furrowing her brow.

“What’s it doing?” Nora asked curiously.

Arthur picked up the Psiphone and touched the rune. His old earthling habits automatically kicked in;

“Hello…” After a burst of static, a familiar voice echoed from the Psiphone

“Arthur…Papa? It's me…Arcis.”

“Arcis?!” Both women shrieked and huddled around the artifact.

“Yes, it’s me guys. I’ve been trying out my skills for a while now…thought I could reach you directly . I just got through today.”

“How’d that happen?” Arthur asked curiously. “Wait, is there someone around you that can hear us speak?”

“Nah, don’t worry Pa, I’m speaking to you through my mind. Though I can’t keep it up for long; it burns through a lot of mana…listen something’s changed.”

“And what might that be?”

“I overhead the guards saying that I might be moved. The Mages Guild will be coming to pick me up sometime this week.”

‘Damn! That can’t be good, if they trace the tellusphere through her. No, no…worse what if they poke and prod at her like some science experiment.’ Arthur revised his apprehension, feeling guilty instead.

“Where did you hear that?” Arthur asked indignantly. “That wasn’t part of the deal.”

“I don’t know Papa. I heard it through the Golem’s [Farspeak] network; one of them overheard it. ” Arcis replied in a small voice.

‘That’s strange, it almost feels as if [Host-Mind] has been muted. Over the two months, Arthur had noticed the change; no longer was there any impersonality in the messages they sent. The synth had never been so animated; though if he thought about it, he supposed it was only right that they were learning.

“I’ll think of something,” Arthur said looking at the Stormbreaker. “The ship is almost complete but we were thinking of collapsing the floor beneath it.”

“What?! Why?”

Nora replied, “Arthur believes there’s an underground river below because the lab used to be an old aquifer . Short of earth magic, I don’t know how he’s going to do that.”

“I have an idea,” Arcis said. “But it’s going to need the tellusphere to work. My mana’s low; I’ll hail you later Papa, don't wait up on me.”

“Take care Arcis” “Yeah, don’t worry” “We’ll get you out” the three listeners said before the rune winked out and the connection fell.

Arthur turned around and flared [Appraisal] at the Stormbreaker. The skill’s response was amorphous, indefinable; which meant either the ship was a construction too complex for the skill to canvas in entirety. Nonetheless, its name was right there. He could see it in his mind’s eye as the letters coalesced, almost sluggishly as if unsure.

‘So [Appraisal] has a limit, either that or mine has yet to grow’ Arthur mused

Arthur was no [Shipwright] but his [Aercrafter’s Intuition], a new skill he’d gotten in the course of building the aership told him it would hold…for a while. The other reason he wanted to go to a larger city besides the enchanted glass was to meet someone who’d help him look over the ship and maybe fix it without blubbering to the dwarves.

His knowledge from a diploma in avionics would have made him a technician for small craft but the Stormbreaker was a different kind of bird…or fish.

Arthur scratched at the back of his head wryly, he hoped it wouldn’t crash and burn.

“Miss Sturmdrache?” Nevine snapped his finger in front of the synth. She'd been zoning out a lot over the past few weeks, sometimes in the middle of their conversations. During such times, she had a faraway look in her eyes, as if listening to a conversation somewhere removed from her vicinity.

Awareness came back to her. “ Ah, Hello again, Nevine,” she smiled blinking as she turned her attention to her guest. They were uneasy acquaintances of those two; more interested than appalled by her mien, Nevine did not tell anyone about the synth girl's abilities.

Not after he saw what he could do. Significant time had passed and she hadn't broken out of her apparent prison. Apparent, because Nevine knew she could break out if she needed to; her magic was unconventional.

He remembered the last time the girl leached out the essence from the mana core, he still had them back at home, as useless as glass beads. His earlier apprehension that she was some sort of mana leech monster was unfounded. She'd proved that she could not extract mana from living, breathing things.

Today however things had changed. Over the time his visits have grown frequent, much to the amusement of the girl's wardens, Nevine had learnt to study her tells. He could tell when her personality shifted; it was as stark as night and day. She had a childish and playful side and one that felt one too many years to be in her body.

Of late however her personality had deviated towards a mix of the two. Today in particular, it was even more palpable. She was serious.

“Nevine…" she narrowed her eyes. “It's almost time”

Nevine gulped at the implications of those words. She was going to break out and it seemed to be soon. The Guild liaison shivered at the resolve in her eyes; no young girl was supposed to be that ready to do the impossible.

“What's changed?” Nevine started. He looked at the null-steel door that was as thick as a fist. There was hardly any way for sound to spill outside the room, it was airtight.

“Relax, they're not nearby.” Arcis sighed, kneading her temples. Something she'd found coming to her unconsciously, she supposed the collective known as Arcis was no longer made of disparate entities.

[Host-Mind] had over time faded into her subconscious. Nonetheless, bits and snippets of memories, logic and computational faculties remained in some capacity. Like puzzle pieces or the yin yang symbol, she was now whole in a sense. Everything was now balanced; [Spirit-Body] had finally formed a not so nebulous identity.

“Some gold changed hands two nights ago, the word Galdur mean anything to you?”

Nevine had to stop himself from exclaiming in shock.

“By the Primals,” the boy hissed. ”That's the Magocracy that runs the Mages Guild! What are they doing this far out? ”

Arcis crinkled her nose in a frown; scouring [Host-Mind] 's memory matrix, her memory matrix, turned up nothing. Maybe she could ask the old man.

Though her ruse was not what it was before; she had to give it to the old man for reverse tracing her mana signature. She still got away with the lie that she was someone's daughter though.

“Doesn't matter, we just have to break out before they come”

“We?” Nevine looked over Arcis' shoulder in disbelief “Who is we?”

“You and me of course,” Arcis grinned. “Once they discover that you've been sneaking in mana cores—”

“Wait, wait...hold on,” the freckled teenager blanched.“ Nobody had been proven to be able to subsist on mana cores to replenish their mana, those who do get some kind of mana poisoning”

“Mmh,” Arcis hummed with a hand to her lip,“ Think they'll stop to ask when I finally make my break for it?”

Nevine could not find a retort for that.

“Besides, don't you want to find out what dear father is all about? Hmm?”

Silence—the boy was grappling with indecision, try as he might to hide it; Arcis could read him like a book.

“Fine, but…” he let out a loud exhale , ”give me time to say goodbye to my mum.” Arcis nodded. Then resolved, he added,“ What do we need?”.

A grin split her face from ear to ear. Nevine shivered.

When all was said and done. There was no guarantee that plans would survive contact with the enemy unless of course, something bigger entered the scene. Beneath the sewer system, through the impervious rock supporting the gigantic town walls and then some, something stirred in the darkness and Aldmoor's old dungeon awoke.