“Does Nemendias even have teachers?” I rambled, feeling somewhat annoyed at being bamboozled by the duplicates.

“It does,” Agatha replied. “The duplicates are near-exact copies of people I know personally.”

“Can this Duplication Engine just copy anyone at will?” I asked. “Make a thousand copies of me, for example?”

“No,” Agatha said.

“Are you sure?” I asked. “I could get a lot of things done if there were a thousand of me. I really want to figure out this duplication-magic biz.”

“Absolute duplication is incredibly complex and requires way too much mana for a single person to maintain,” Agatha said. “You wouldn't be able to copy yourself properly - a single mind simply can’t store the amount of necessary information.”

“Not even Intelligence and Magic maxers?” I raised an eyebrow.

“Fine, maybe an archmage that’s an Intelligence and Magic maxer would be able to duplicate themselves,” Agatha mulled. “Do you have a few thousands of points in each or something?”

“Nah. Why would I need to do it myself?” I asked. “Nemendias can do it for me - she clearly has the capacity for it.”

“Nemendias isn’t sentient,” Agatha said. “You can’t just ask a building to do things for you. The Duplication Engine serves a single function - to interview the candidates. It was built by a consortium of Nemendias Archmagi that worked here more than a hundred years ago. They made it to save time on interviews. At the end of each year the Duplication Engine copies the teachers."

"Why even have teachers when duplicates can do everything?" I asked.

"Exactly!" Agatha said. "The magi that built the Duplication Engine didn't want the copies to take jobs away from real teachers. The duplicates exist while the real teachers are on summer vacation - the tower is locked up tight when the real teachers are in Nemendias."

“Well that's dumb," I sighed. "Seems like a massive waste of potential manpower."

Agatha did not look like she agreed with my assessment.

"Anyhow… Nemendias is sentient,” I insisted. “I’m going to find her avatar.”

“How are you so certain?” Agatha squinted at me.

“Eunice taught me that people dying with a single idea over millenia can create a manifestation of belief,” I said. “If Nemendias is thousands of years old, she has to have a manifestation. If her avatar doesn't already exist in the physical, then I’m going to get in touch with her in the Astral and build a physical avatar for her!"

“Why?” Agatha asked exasperatedly.

“Who else could know this place better than Nemendias herself?” I waved my arms at the black-marble hall. “It’s perfect solution to my biggest problem.”

“What problem?” The eldest princess stared at me.

“Unlocking the super-secret secrets of Nemendias,” I said with a big smile.

“Why?” Agatha inquired.

“So I can get way ahead of you, obviously,” I smirked.

“Oh,” She paused. “You want to beat my grades?”

“Nah. I want my new minions to beat your grades. I made a bet with Emmy that I could uplift humans so high that they would outdo your grades!"

Lambert laughed at Agatha’s look of utter bewilderment.

“Thanks for offering to adopt me, by the way,” I turned to him. “I really appreciate it. Don’t actually do it though.”

“Why not?” The Inspector asked.

“I’m working on a story that’s easy to sell,” I said. “You’ll remove an element of drama from it if you adopt me. Plus - when I make enemies they’ll target you. I’d rather you back me up from the shadows. By the way, have you found anything about my mother’s family?”

“No,” Lambert shook his head. “I’ll look into it now that I’m in Nemendias. One of the teachers seems to know something.”

“Yeah,” I nodded. “We’ll have to corner Instructor Rozaline and shake the information out of her. Then, I'm going to find Nemmy and build her a cute avatar. I am going to explore sooooo many spooky tunnels when there are more of me to go around!"

"Nemmy?" Agatha blinked.

"Nemendias," Lambert commented. "She likes to cuteify things."

“Is she always like this?” Agatha asked the Inspector.

“Yep,” Lambert nodded with a soft smile.

"My quirkiness makes me likeable," I stuck my tongue out at the eldest Amadea princess. "Get with the program."

. . .

The two maids were waiting for us at the end of the opulent, statue-decorated hallway. Voltara was hugging the visibly upset Arouetta.

The maids heard our approach. Arouetta turned her tear-streaked eyes to me.

“My angel won’t wake,” she uttered, looking despondent. “He won’t talk to me. He’s not responding to me, not taking charge of me. Did I… blaspheme against Saint Eunisii?”

“No,” I sighed.

“It was those villainous Nemendias arcmagi, then?” Her eyes flashed with anger. “They put my angel to sleep with their vile, dark magics?”

I looked at her, not sure what to say. I had set this situation up to shift the blame off myself and I was now feeling extremely sorry for the poor girl that fell in love with her Vow.

“Who will you serve now that your Vow is asleep?” Agatha asked, pointing her unlocked armacus at the maid.

“M-my lady Emerald, of course!” Arouetta replied in an instant. “Plus you and my Baroness. I’ve served your family since I was a small child. Is this a test of my faith? My heart and soul belong to Amadea Family, I swear! I will not betray, will not abandon you just because some old bastards magicked my guardian angel to sleep!”

“You must not tell the Baroness that your angel is… asleep,” I said. “Angels aren’t supposed to fall asleep. If Amadea finds out, she might get very upset with you and fire you or... worse.”

Arouetta gulped.

“I… I won’t tell the Baroness about it, I swear,” she cried out. “Please don’t cast me away! I don’t want to be fired. I want to stay by Mistress Emerald’s side for as long as I live! I want to serve her in Nemendias and protect her against the bastards who hurt my angel!”

I looked at Agatha. She nodded at me.

It wasn’t a perfect solution, but Arouetta was now Vow-free and more or less on our side. Maybe someday she would learn that Eunisii wasn’t a saint of humanity, but an ancient chimera monster from the depths of the dungeon… But, for now, the maid would have to believe that the evil Nemendias instructors disabled her Vow.

Our group got back to the rooftop.

Since there were only five seats in the glider, I put the bag down on the rooftop patio and the two maids went into Saccy. I climbed into Saccy too and switched bodies to Juni as carrying the Folding bag was far too uncomfortable for Grogtilda’s damaged muscles.

“Juni!” Emerald leapt out of Galissi when we approached the glider.

“How did it go?! Are you in?!” The small chimera-hybrid babbled excitedly.

“I’m in,” I smiled at her, accepting the full-body hug.

We got into the glider and the little skyship took off with a whoosh into the sky. I was far too nervous to pay attention on the way here, but this time I stared at the view of Nemendias as we departed from Illatius.

The Arcanarium was a massive, black rooftop and yellow brick gothic citadel sitting at the edge of the chasm. White waterfalls rushed between various towering, interconnected structures and cascaded into the infinite abyss.

It was a stunning view and I stared at it until the black spires of Nemendias became too small to see, absorbed by the rest of the urban sprawl of Illatius.

“Would you be able to make an artifact that duplicates a person?” I asked Antoine, turning away from the view of the city.

“Hrmmm,” the artificer rubbed his chin. “That was incredibly advanced magic, I must admit. Maybe… if I was permitted to research the magitec hexagrams for a few months inside the Interviewee’s tower, I could figure out exactly how the tower copies people."

Emerald curiously stared at us. She had no idea what we were talking about.

“Do you want to apply to Nemendias as an Artificery Instructor so you can scope out the tower’s magitek?” I batted my crystal-lashes at the artificer.

“Only if I can find someone to run my shop,” he said.

“If I can duplicate myself I’ll totally run your shop,” I offered.

“Sounds like a paradoxical situation,” Antoine laughed.

“Hopefully I can get Nemendias to do it,” I shrugged. “Hey, this could be my first nobless oblige project - bringing Nemmy to life!”

“I don’t know whether you’re some kind of a magical luminary or completely demented,” Agatha shook her head at my words. “Even if you give Nemendias an avatar, it would not be able to go through wards or unlock the Interviewee’s tower for you… no, this is simply too ludicrous to even think about!”

She didn’t believe that I could do it. I would have to prove her wrong.

“So, umm… you want to give Nemendias a voice?” Emerald asked. “Like Dawn?”

I nodded.

“That would be pretty fun, I think,” she mulled. “Count me in.”

“What’s next on the agenda, my Cicesore?” I nudged Agatha after we dropped Lambert and Antoine off in Lomb. The Inspector had to get ready for his relocation to Illatius and Antoine was going to start working on the pattern-shifting Dawn dress.

“Well, we need to buy you and Emmy uniforms, books and bags. Also the maids will have to acquire Nemendias maid uniforms,” Agatha said. “Normally we’d need to wait for my mother to approve the purchase list…”

“I’ll cover it,” I said. “I think we ought to change things up. I’ll give your mother the bill and she can reimburse me later for it.”

“Right,” Agatha said. She looked worried. “And if she doesn’t reimburse you?”

“Then I’ll call her a miser,” I shrugged. “In front of her high-cendai peers. See, I wield the great and diresome power of social shaming!"

I giggled at my own joke.

“Right,” the eldest princess gulped.

She was terrified of Amadea. I wasn’t scared of the Baroness. We were all equal beneath Eunisii according to her.

Amadea feared Eunice, but the old, immortal crone didn't even leave her domain of power. How would Eunice even stop or punish me if I did something wrong, went against her? Why was Amadea so obedient to her? How did Eunice even put the metaphorical collar on Amadea, force her into total obedience? Surely the arch-cendai didn’t leave her Soul-Garden to do it? Eunice didn’t even put any of her soul-branches into me!

“Whatcha thinking about, Juni?” Emerald asked.

“Cendai stuff,” I replied. “I want to figure out how Eunice… manages her other Apostles.”

“Divine magic, maybe?” The little princess suggested. “She is a goddess, no? Maybe she calls them on their armacus and yells at them very sternly, threatening divine retribution?"

I rubbed my chin.

Eunisii calling her Apostles via an armacus seemed simple enough, but a phone call wasn't a display of power.

Did Eunice exert her divine will through the Vow-bound maids across the Astral Ocean, via the angels? Could Amadea’s army turn against her at any moment? It made a twisted sort of sense. If so, then I had to make sure I wasn’t anywhere near the Vow-bound when I committed sinful acts against my Master.

“Juni… do you really know Saint Eunisii in person?” Arouetta suddenly asked from her seat.

“Yeah,” I nodded. “I’m her eighth Apostle.”

The maid glanced at Agatha to confirm my words.

“She is,” Agatha nodded. “You must obey Juni and keep her secrets. She is equal to Baroness Amadea in title.”

“I shall,” the maid nodded.

“I wish we could put another Vow on Arouetta,” Emerald mulled. "It would solve problems. The Vow bound can't be tortured for what they know."

“No,” I shook my head. "No Vows. You promised me, remember?”

“Yeah, I remember. Plus, Mother would notice the second, smaller and younger Vow,” Emerald sighed. “I was just thinking out loud.”

I stared at the two brain-dead Vows floating in the Astral above the maids. Could I deplete Eunice’s power by continuously farming her Vows for experience? Could I make Voltara swear a thousand Vows to Eunice only to kill them one by one?

No, from what I knew, the Vows were also powered by, fed upon human souls. The XP I had gained from killing Voltara’s Vow came from killing a part of her soul which the Vow had sucked out of her over a decade.

If I were to put a thousand Vows on Votara, they would suck her soul dry. If I wanted to kill Eunice’s divinity I’d need to put her Vows onto something that didn’t have a soul… maybe something like… Dawn.

“Dawn?” I asked.

“Yes?” The painting looked at me from Voltara’s chest.

“You told me earlier that you… had a Vow. Who was it made to? The Emperor? Eunisii?”

“Myself,” Dawn said. “My Vow to serve humanity is bound to myself. Part of my magic is sacrificed perpetually in a self-sustaining Astral loop. It’s part of my core design. Ambiss didn’t want me to go astray, to give up on helping people. The more mana I wield, the stronger this loop binds me.”

“Damn,” I said. “You’re a divinity unto yourself… Ambiss Huron sacrificed herself to wake up as a goddess bound to serve mankind.”

“I don’t really see myself as a divinity,” Dawn shrugged. “But, I get what you’re saying. To add to what you were discussing earlier - it might be dangerous to wake up Nemendias if she doesn’t have a binding loop like I do. We do not know whom she might serve.”

“Right,” I mulled. “If I make her an avatar, I’ll have to do it through you. All of our future sentient magitek projects will have to be hosted on you and be based on your architecture so that they can’t backfire and go rogue on us.”

“A sensible idea,” Dawn nodded.

“So, is there a specialized shop that sells the Nemendias uniforms or something?” I turned to Agatha as she directed Galissi back to Illatius.

“Yeah,” Agatha nodded. “The uniform-selling shop is located in the Diamondias Shopping Plaza right next to the Arcanarium.”

I saw that her face soured.

“Not looking forward to shopping there?” I asked.

“Not really,” she exhaled. “Every time I go there... the scriveners find and harass me.”

“Ah,” I declared with a wide grin. “That’s absolutely perfect!”

“What?” Agatha turned to me.

“That’s definitely a planning face,” Emerald commented on my malicious smile. “What’s the plan, boss?”

“We’re going to catch us some scriveners!” I announced, steepling my fingers.