[Negative.] The Wisp’s fiery core flared. [Forgebuilder Unit 7 is our designation.]

[Yes, you’ve said that.] Hazel’s presence seemed to bounce too and fro, giving the Wisp a minor headache. [But that's a huge mouthful. So I’ll call you Azure. You know, because of your core’s light.]

The Wisp ignored Hazel and kept looking through his menu directory, wondering how it should expand the fortress. Or rather, how it would direct Hazel to expand the fortress, as she apparently held sway over the site’s mana throughput. Without her, accumulating enough mana to build rooms and halls would take months, if not years for the larger spatial constructions, and the Wisp was impatient to begin building.

But somewhat concernedly for the Wisp, not as impatient as it had been before the botched ritual. The Wisp pushed that from its mind, and refocused on the fortress.

The fortress would need an entrance if the Wisp wanted to explore the land around it, it decided. Before they started building anything they would need to know what kind of resources they were dealing with. And the engine was currently close enough to the cliff face outside that one more room would bring them out. The Wisp brought up the menu item and tuned back into Hazel’s musings.

[...and that’s why I feel like we need a few fountains near the core, for you know…] Hazel jabbered. [The aesthetic and such.]

[Unimportant.] The Wisp interrupted. [Current directive is resource scouting and collection for coming projects. Supply mana throughput towards entrance hall, north side.]

[You want to open us up to the outside world already?] Hazel sounded shocked. Typical fracture emotives. [Isn’t there a storm outside? Our core would fry if we got hit by lightning.]

The Wisp spun uncomfortably. She was right. While wisps were stubbornly immune to most types of damage, overwhelming energy was normally enough to fry a core. The Wisp was sure they wouldn’t have to spend too much time outside though… Wait. The Wisp stopped spinning as it processed Hazel’s statement again.

[Demonstrated memory includes events before soul fracture.] The Wisp said. [Does Unit Hazel remember the purpose of primary building objective? Does Hazel remember parent summoners and signallers?]

Hazel went silent for a second before responding.

[I’m sorry, Azure.] She sounded genuinely sorrowful. [I have the same memories you do, no more.]

The Wisp dimmed slightly. [Regrettable.]

[But hey, at least we can figure this out together then!] Hazel cheered up more quickly than the Wisp thought possible. [I seem to remember that having another soul to talk to can reduce sapient mental degradation by over 75%!]

The Wisp didn’t respond, instead floating over to the front entrance to signal her to get a move on.

[Alright, but you gotta be careful. There’s two of us in here.]

As Hazel talked, the Wisp went into a trance again, beams of light shooting out to mould the rock. To the Wisp’s surprise however, they seemed to share control of the core for the construction process, and no sooner had they carved out the dimensions of the room than were they fighting for control of the creation.

[What is up with you and the fortifications?] Hazel tried to tear their focus over to a half carved fountain near the front. [This is an entrance hall, not a gatehouse!]

[Defensive theory advocates bottleneck strategies at point of entry.] The Wisp calmly said. They went back to carving ramparts. [A clear killing field is essential.]

[Well, we aren’t being attacked right now, are we?] They jerked back to the fountain.

[Preparation is the mother of success.] The Wisp flickered dark blue with a twinge of irritation. [Cease core controls.]

After a few more such struggles, they eventually finished the entrance hall, cutting the great gate at the very end. The room was large, but still smaller than the engine, with a narrow structure. The first 10 metres near the gate was level with the ground outside and a pretty, but unnecessary, fountain stood unanimated near the gate. It would need to be attached via mana signalling before it would start working unless they tapped into groundwater. Farther towards the back however, the ground abruptly shifted upwards to form a lifted wall complete with crenulations. Arrow slits overlooked a secondary gate more formidable than the first. Both of the gates stood resolutely locked however, both unable to be raised until they could be supplied with power (or a significant amount of force).

Once he regained complete control of his body, the Wisp opened the ‘Mana Signalling’ menu to do just that.

Mana Signalling Create Relay (1 Mana, Force) Create Signal (1 Mana, Force) Connect Current (1 Mana, Force) Creat3 Convert3r (??? Mana, Force) Cr&@@3 Filt3r (??? Mana, Force) [email protected]$& 6u9r&47 (??? Mana, Force)

The Wisp spun in confusion. Before he could even say anything however, Hazel ran into the same problem.

[Uhhh, my menu’s running into errors with the signalling templates.] Hazel sighed. [It should be able to handle what we want to do now, but I might have to rely on you for the converters and filters once we need varied mana flows.]

[Negative.] The Wisp responded. [My menu is malfunctioning as well.]

[Ah that sucks. Do you think you could make these without the templates?]

[Negative.] The Wisp dimmed sheepishly. [I do not remember the theory of mana conversion. I simply held the templates]

Hazel laughed after a second. [I suppose you wouldn’t know if I didn’t!]

[New Research Directive: Mana Signalling.]

[I hope that supersedes the first one.]

For most objects in the fortress, the force mana continuously created by the engine was good enough, but that didn’t hold for more advanced mechanisms. The Wisp couldn’t remember exactly which used different types, but for those the mana stream would need to be converted to another type, or the machine would malfunction. Sometimes explosively so.

For simple things like connecting mana streams from the engine, the Wisp was pretty sure it could do it by hand, as simply redirecting an outgoing stream was one of the most natural things a magical being could do. To make converters however… well that required specific knowledge on the theory of mana, and that wasn’t something the Wisp was equipped with for whatever reason.

The duo soon began the act of hooking up the mana flows from the engine room, though Hazel let the Wisp take lead in how it was routed. Probably because there wasn’t much room for personal touch, but the Wisp appreciated it all the same.

The actual act was somewhat boring, as it was simply creating small relays in the walls and pulling the stream of energy over to it. The relays normally went into the wall for defensive purposes, but the Wisp made sure to wire the streams through the ceiling. This was partially so that it would be harder for invaders to access and partially because organics walking through open air mana streams was horrifically unhealthy. As the Wisp wired the streams to the gates in the entrance hall, it made sure to test the unpowered physical locks just in case.

[Efficient layout.] Hazel quickly created a connection from the relay in the ceiling to the fountain, causing it to come to life with magicked water. The Wisp made a note to warn visitors not to fly over the fountain. [Though not too pretty to look at.]

The Wisp wasn’t really sure how mana flows could be ‘pretty’, so he ignored the comment and floated down to the door to the outside. As they approached, they could faintly hear the howling of wind over the gentle slapping of the fountain, confirming Hazel’s earlier suspicions.

[Open exterior gate.] The Wisp commanded.

[Coming right up!]

A crack rang out as the gate began to swing open, and the Wisp waited expectantly in front of it.

Immediately the Wisp was blown back, blown into the fountain as a roaring gust of wind howled into the entrance hall, followed by a none too small amount of freezing rain and hail. Outside, the Wisp couldn’t make out anything but dark grey storm clouds and periodic blasts of lightning.

It was much louder outside than the Wisp would’ve guessed.

[Close exterior gate.] The Wisp commanded, its magical fire sputtering in the face of the water and rain around it. [Conditions make scouting unviable.]

Hazel finished laughing. [Right on it!]

The gate began to close, though it seemed the wind was of sufficient strength to make that difficult. Nonetheless, it slowly inched towards closure.

The Wisp fought against the wind and tried to gaze outside, trying to make out anything against the darkness and rain. Eventually it caught sight of a large shadowy shape silhouetted against the sky almost as tall as the gate, running towards the opening. As it started to come closer he noticed it had six thick legs that seemed to come from its back and ended in sharp points, and huge pincers extended from a snout.

[Close exterior gate faster.] The Wisp commanded calmly.

Hazel grunted, seemingly engrossed in messing with the mana signalling to the gate. As the Wisp watched the creature approach, it began to sputter in apprehension. Why was it running straight for them?

The entrance hall, and all of the fortress for that matter, was not lit up due to the Wisp’s low light vision, so the Wisp couldn’t quite understand why or how the creature was approaching. All it was sure of was that the monster was definitely not what his refuge was supposed to hold.

Suddenly the Wisp dimmed as the monster crossed the halfway mark. Could it be tracking them by their mana signatures? Could this land be inhabited by mage hunting monsters?

[We might need to head back to run another line from the engine.] Hazel’s voice shook just a little. [The door could use more power.]

[Negative.] The Wisp stated, not so calmly. [Give me control]

The Wisp suddenly jerked up, surprising Hazel out of the mana flow she was tinkering with, and severed the mana flows to the inner gate and fountain with a pulse of magic each. The door began closing much more quickly as it sucked up the entirety of the stream from the relay.

Then, just as the monster would’ve come into the range of the Wisp’s low light vision, the door slammed close. Hazel breathed a sigh of relief.

[Yeah… let’s just work on the inside for now!] Hazel said. [I’m sure there’s nothing out there we need.]

[Agreed.] The Wisp said. [Unit should remain autonomous from meteorological conditions. And from local fauna.]

ROOOOAR

The Wisp flickered and dimmed as a massive cacophony of visceral scrapping and ancient roars drowned out every other sound. The massive beast began wailing on the closed gate, and as it found it made no progress with its claws, it started to ram the gate, the whole entrance hall shaking with its efforts. Loose dirt and small stones began to trickle from the ceiling.

The Wisp remained dim as it poked its head out of the fountain at the obviously straining door. It looked as if it would buckle and cave any second.

[Direct throughput towards emergency gate obstructions...] The Wisp faltered for the first time in its existence. [And reconnect mana flows to the inner gate.]

[Light and luck.] Hazel muttered.

[Light and luck.] The Wisp agreed.