Chapter Two

Before Eva could ask the obvious question, Elysia beat her to it. “No, I didn’t discover a way to duplicate myself, though that would be awesome.” She waved her hand toward Sereia. “Meet my twin, Sereia.”

Next, she pointed to the large feline curled up by her feet, who was giving Eva a lazy look while resting her head on her paws. “As you probably guessed, this is Ione. She had a bit of a growth spurt.”

Eva nodded her head dumbly, any previous anger long gone, but her surprise only lasted a few seconds. Her mouth opened with a questioning expression, but yet again, Elysia directed her attention elsewhere by pointing at the navigation screen.

“I’m guessing this was your doing?”

Eva’s chest puffed as her face lit up. “Of course. After you left, I tried to fix the previous system, but it was beyond saving, so I installed my own. I don’t want to sound arrogant, but I think the new system is far superior.” She paused, almost looking like she ate a lemon. “Though without the help of the Chrotile, there was no way I could create such a marvelous set up. If only I had more time with them, I could have improved it further.”

Out of curiosity, Elysia scanned the screen looking for the distinctive scale like construction the Chrotile loved to use. She had to look close, but tiny clear scales polished as smooth as possible coated the screen. Upon running her fingers over the screen, she felt a slight texture, which almost made the screen easier to use somehow. It probably improved its strength, too.

As she played with the screen, her eyes landed on the little boat traversing the map. “How do we have GPS navigation? I assumed the satellite network didn’t survive the merge.”

“It didn’t. That was actually the last nudge forcing me to abandon the previous setup. In order to implement a magic based computer system, I had to start from scratch.” Eva walked up to the screen and slid her finger down from the top, causing a pull-down menu to appear. She pointed at one of the settings, saying magic sensing on or off. “It isn’t really GPS navigation. More like a highly detailed magic radar. Apparently this type of system is pretty common where the Chrotile are from. They don’t use it themselves, but they encountered it enough to help me implement it.”

Worry formed. “Won’t this draw attention?”

Eva shrugged her shoulders. “Maybe, but from what they said, it’s the standard for ships over there. If anything, we’d probably stand out more if we didn’t have a system like this. Plus, if I could implement it, I doubt it would take long for other humans to do the same. It really isn’t that hard. All I had to do was place a dozen sensors and link them with the control screen. Think of it like they are wireless but with magic involved. The only real downside I see is the range. I scanned in as many maps as I could find, but the actual range of real-time scanning is maybe a couple kilometers if there isn’t any obstacles.”

“Any other features?”

At the question, Eva perked up. With practiced finger taps, she flew through the menus, activating several systems so fast Elysia could barely follow. Finally, she opened an app like many and waved her hands at the options.

Many of them were grayed out, including an Internet connection and TV but several more appear to be available. One of which was a sound system causing Elysia’s eyes to scan the room for speakers, but she found none, prompting Eva to smile smugly. “I found a mana radiant sound system. It doesn’t need speakers. Instead, it releases sound magic from the sensor nodes. It sounds marvelous, probably better than anything mundane and to make it better, you can even isolate the sound to specific locations as long as it falls within the network of sensors.”

Elysia frowned as she realized something. “I’m surprised you weren’t using it when we arrived.”

Contrary to what she expected, Eva glared at her. “I couldn’t. Once I connected everything together, the ship locked me out. I tried to disconnect the sound system just to listen to something, but it wouldn’t let me. The Chrotile said the owner of the boat had to give me permission. I’m not sure why the boat let me add it to begin with, to be honest.”

At the mention of permissions, Elysia focused on the bond she had with the boat, curious. Unlike before, several options appeared in her mind. One option was permissions which she focused on. A list displayed permissions for every system on Umbra and the names of every current occupant. An amused smile formed as the list included Ione.

How many permissions should she give Eva? Access to making changes to the sensor network, but did she need access to the engines? As far as she knew, Eva had no knowledge of how the engines worked, though to be fair, neither did she. The ability to start Umbra and control her basic systems was a no-brainer too. What if stayed on Mezo? They would have been stranded in the middle of the ocean.

In her mind, she pictured Eva as the ship’s engineer and backup driver, so she should give her permissions as such. However, she didn’t trust Eva with her money. Best to keep her on a short leash when shopping was involved. Elysia sent a stink eye to her sister, who remained oblivious, though a slight sway worried her.

It might be for the best if they stayed away from civilization for a while. Just the thought of Sereia and Eva shopping together terrified her. Though she could use them to her advantage. If she gave them a set amount of money and clear instructions they had to buy certain things. As an extra incentive, she could allow them to buy anything else as long as they bought the essentials first.

Decision made, Elysia gave Eva permissions to start and control Umbra and work on her electronic and magical systems. Her mind hovered over the permission blocking access to her room, but despite the temptation, she refrained from doing it. What if an emergency happened, and she had to wake her up or something? It wasn’t worth the risk. Besides, she trusted the safe to protect her valuables.

Out of curiosity, she checked the permissions for everyone else starting with Sereia, but paused in both worry and curiosity. Why did she receive automatic administer privileges? She did co-op Ione’s bond, so maybe she shared Umbra, too. Though, like the weaker bond with Ione, it appeared she was still subordinate to Elysia.

Despite her misgivings, she didn’t change anything. Sereia wouldn’t intentionally damage Umbra or abuse her privileges. Deep down, she trusted her sister more than anyone, including Ione. That didn’t mean she wouldn’t hesitate to block her out if her sister’s impulsive habits caused problems. Not that her impulsiveness was much better, though she wouldn’t admit that to anyone.

Next she checked Ione but like Sereia, she left the surprisingly expansive permissions alone, figuring Ione wouldn’t bother taking advantage of them if she even could without hands.

Finally, she reached Joe’s permissions. A flashback to how they lost their previous raft prompting her to give him access to the raft and anything involving the kitchen, as he seemed inclined to be their cook. As an afterthought, she also gave him the ability to control many of Umbra’s basic systems, but no ability to work on them.

When she hit save, Eva jerked, then her eyes went faraway for a moment. With each passing second, Eva seemed to glow brighter.

The moment her eyes snapped back into focus, she practically teleported to the screen then poked at the sound system icon then at a playlist before hitting play.

An ear rattling drumbeat shook the room, causing Ione to shoot to her feet. Her body bumped Eva, causing the girl to stumble before Ione flashed out of the room, leaving a trail of violet lightning.

That wasn’t the most extreme reaction, however. Sereia squeaked and fell sideways, eyes rolling back. Lightning pumped through Elysia as her core pulse shot through the roof. Faster than she ever moved, she caught her sister and frantically scanned her with her eyes, looking for anything wrong. Fortunately, after a groan, Sereia looked up to meet her sister’s eyes, causing a sigh of relief. Though her dazed expression gave Elysia worry.

With her sister appearing okay, just stunned, anger filled violet eyes turned toward Eva, who hit pause on the sound system and averted her eyes, looking apologetic.

Before she could scold the impulsiveness, Umbra suddenly jerked to the side then decelerated, causing several things to crash and some swearing from Joe who appeared to be in the kitchen.

Elysia’s gaze shot to the window to find the previously artificially calm water filled with white cap waves.

Despite the seriousness of the situation, Elysia gently laid down her still dazed sister before grabbing the steering wheel, not trusting Eva to handle it.

As her father taught her, she turned Umbra into the waves instead of letting them hit the sides and risking capsize. She cringed as Umbra slammed into the waves as she kept a white knuckled grip on the steering wheel.

Fortunately, after slamming into a couple of waves, the water calmed. Umbra still rocked in the ocean waters, but they were no longer in danger of capsizing. A sigh of relief escaped her as she loosened her grip on the steering wheel. The sudden rough waters were probably from Sereia’s surprise. From now on, if her sister used her magic to help them move faster, she should probably do it from somewhere with fewer distractions. Sereia didn’t appear to need a line of sight, so maybe in her bedroom would be a good idea.

Elysia froze for a second, then groaned. So much for having a room to herself. She doubted they had enough room to make another bedroom so that left sharing hers. At least they gave her a large bed. Though with Ione, it would be a tight fit. Maybe later they would find a different solution, but for now she didn’t see any other way.

She waved Eva to the steering wheel. “Take over for me. I have to tend to my sister. Maintain course toward the western Washington state shore. If I don’t return by then, head south.”

Extra motivated to make up for her mistake, Eva nodded her head and grabbed the steering wheel, allowing Elysia to return her attention to her sister, who remained staring off into space on the couch.

As gently as she could, she lifted Sereia upright, then guided her to her feet. She stumbled, but with Elysia’s support, she remained on her feet. Thanks to her system boosted strength, Elysia effortlessly took most of Sereia’s weight as they walked to the stairs. However, at the top of the stairs, another problem resented itself. There was no way Sereia could walk down the stairs in her current state. That meant she needed to carry her. Hopefully, her system improved strength was enough.

Her worries proved pointless as her thin arms hoisted Sereia up into a princess carry without too much trouble, though they soon trembled, prompting her to descend the stairs.

At the bottom, she paused, eyes running over the changes. The area they sectioned off as Eva and Joe’s bedroom now had walls, but that wasn’t the only change. The open area between their bedrooms now had a large TV screen as well as a couch and two recliners. Unlike the previous furniture, they appeared to be made of a water resistant scaly dark gray fabric. At least she hoped it was water resistant. Not that it would matter in the end, as she doubted the TV was waterproof.

Her eyes skipped over several end tables and improved lighting fixtures before her straining arms made their presence known.

Afraid to drop her sister, who seemed to have fallen asleep snuggled into her shoulder with a content smile, Elysia scrambled to her bedroom, using her foot to open the door handle. Inside, nothing seemed to have changed, but she didn’t look too closely as she laid her sister on the bed and tucked her in.

Unconsciously, her sister nestled deeper into the covers, tempting Elysia to join her. Her temptation caved as a few seconds later Ione hopped up on the bed and loafed in the center while looking at Elysia expectedly.

She supposed a nap wouldn’t hurt.

A purr sprang to life as Elysia shrugged off her backpack, then nestled under the covers on the opposite side of Ione to her sister, with Ione acting as a divider. Somehow, the bed fit all three of them, though it was a little tight.

Like flipping off a light switch, Elysia fell asleep within a second of nestling herself in. The long ordeal of Mezo finally catching up with her.