Melody of Mana

I managed to get Dras to join us at The Sky, alone, while our soon to be classmates were proving their worth. He complained and whined, and asked what in the world I wanted that was so important, but in the end he did trust me enough to just bloody join us. That was a relief, since I really did want him along.

"Mind if we all head to a back room?" I asked Lucien as we came in.

The old bard quirked an eyebrow at me, but he knew me as well, and knew that I had business to discuss. He led us into his own private office. This room wasn't really built with the idea of having four people filling it up, but it would suffice for the short time we needed it.

"So, mind telling me what this is all about?" The old man asked as I set up sound blockers, and a black out over his window as well.

"I have something for you three. In case things go really, really wrong these will help." With a flourish I put the three carrying cases I'd made for them on the desk.

"And these are?" Dras asked, picking one of the boxes up and opening it carefully.

"I'm not going to tell you exactly, but they're a tool that will help us group up."

"You're not even telling us what they do?" Lucien asked, looking confused.

"Let us simply say that if the wrong person found out about these... well I doubt we'd all be alive for too much longer."

"Alana, please, please don't just carry around weapons like it's nothing." Kala looked nervously at the little carrying cases.

"They're not weapons, and not dangerous to us or anyone else, probably. Here I'll show you what to do."

It took a bit of goading, but I got Kala to help me demonstrate. I slipped the little ball into her ear, working the spiraly bit around to hold it in place. It was ugly, and probably uncomfortable as crap, but these were for emergencies, and I didn't really have the skills to make them too much better than I had already.

Making light was a rather simple and well understood sequence of runes, as were the runes for changing exactly what color that light was. It did have issues when you got into extremely high wavelengths, but that might be a safety measure built into the core, or just the limits of its abilities to form them, I wasn't sure. That didn't matter for me, what mattered was that it didn't have any issue at all making much, much larger wavelengths.

Detecting light was also a simple, and well understood sequence. The thing was that nobody knew what the lower ranges were for. Sure, there was some evidence that if you made a light detector that picked up really big wavelengths it would detect things sometimes, but it was discounted.

Either nobody had found out that those were able to send messages really far, or the people who did had been really, really quiet about it. I suspected that one or more of the other people from Earth had done something similar in the past. The elf king was a shoe in for this, as he'd run an absolutely massive empire.

My only issue had been the sound to light and light to sound conversion. I did not know a ton about how radios were designed, but I did know that they were light. I also knew that they were within a certain period of like 80-110 MHz, because that's what the radio displayed. That was enough to cludge these together.

I'd gone with a design that messed with the amplitude of the wave to communicate the frequency of sound to be played, and put in a controller that kept it at a constant volume. It worked at roughly 100 MHz, and without some of the definitions already provided in the guide there was a zero percent chance I'd have been able to figure out the wavelength for that. For reference, right at three meters.

With all this I'd made these little radios. They had one station, and one volume setting. I'd also set them up to broadcast about as strongly as I reasonably could, starting about two meters away from themselves, and pointed only outwards. I had heard that radio towers were dangerous or something, so that felt prudent.

Those features, along with the rune hiding, had pushed the limits of what I could do with an apprentice level core. I mean it had really pushed it, most apprentice type items were painfully simple, doing only one or two things. These with their complex parameters and far more complex functions had come right up to the limits we were informed of in our classes. Perhaps if I were a bit more elegant with my design I could have added in another feature or two, but I doubted it.

"This is really unpleasant Alana," Kala complained as I showed the others how to wear it.

"Many things are unpleasant, but they are for emergencies only." I turned to the other two. "Okay, so, if things fly head-first into a pile of manure you put these in and pump them full of mana. Um... they probably won't work underground, and maybe don't stand too close to anyone while using them."

"At a full charge how long will they last?" Lucien picked his up and looked at it wearily.

"I'm not completely sure on that, as I've not had a ton of testing time, but less than half a day." They all looked at me tiredly. "Look, I don't know if these will ever see use. They might not even be helpful if they do, but they're the best thing I've come up with so far, and I think they might save our collective bacon later on."

Everyone took their radio and looked at it. Kala took hers out of her ear as soon as I wasn't looking. Lucien seemed to be thinking hard, with a furrowed brow and all.

"Is that all you needed?" Dras asked.

"Yes, just... keep it on you okay?"

"Alright."

Everyone agreed to keep them on hand, though I had to frown and pout at Kala to extract that promise. They also agreed to keep them hidden, particularly after I reinforced that they really, really could cause us far too many problems if known about.

As soon as we were done Kala physically dragged me down the street. I knew the tailor we were going to, as I'd been there a couple of times before. I sincerely hoped that Marcus was doing well.

There was a small ringing bell as we entered the shop, and the assistant came to greet us.

"Can I help you dears?" she looked us over as we walked in. I got the feeling she recognized me slightly.

"Yes, we're here to join our friend Pinea. I understand she's getting a fitting today?" Kala answered for us.

"Ah, one moment please." The woman disappeared into the back for a few moments before returning and waving us along.

I saw Pinea in all her barely dressed glory in the fitting room we were led to. The outfit was mostly done, safe for the flourishes. Kala was stunned, and seemed to be trying to pick up her jaw from the floor. The tailor supreme himself was working on pinning pieces here and there to get the fit exactly as he envisioned it. I briefly wondered if he remembered me.

"Kala, Alana, I'm so glad you came. How do I look?" Pinea was all smiles.

At her words Marcus turned and looked at us briefly. I thought I saw a slight eye twitch as he looked at me. He certainly remembered me, and that I had absolutely destroyed one of his works.

"Um... well... if you wear that you will... certainly get attention." Kala stammered out. "Is that the standard uniform?"

I tried not to laugh at my dear sweet Kala. She'd been told that the standard outfits were not much. I do not think that she'd been expecting what was effectively a bra and small panty decked out with bangles and flowing bits, much of it in nearly sheer silk. What wasn't covered in the decorations really wasn't much, and that for this world was almost impossibly scandalous.

"It is, what do you think Alana?" Pinea beamed at Kala's reaction before turning to me.

"It's lovely. The green tint is perfect on you too. The real question is, where are you ever planning to wear it though?"

"Probably mostly in my own room, and while alone or with others from our class." She frowned as she considered, knowing well that this was not the dress expected of a young noble girl.

"You should get one too," Kala leaned over and whispered in my ear.

"Not going to happen."

"it'll be fun. You know the dances too..."

"I'll happily dance with, or for you any time you want Kala, but I am not getting one of those." I looked at her and the deep, potent pout. "At least not now... Pinea implied that they'll be required in our final year of the course. Also, if you like it so much, why don't you take Atali Dance next year?"

She considered that for a few moments, looking first at Pinea and her clothing, then at me. She kept frowning, tapping her chin.

"I kind of want to now, but... I'm jammed packed lesson wise. You'll have to teach me." She gave me a grin.

"Perhaps, but I'm not the elven professor who's been at this for... who honestly knows, decades, centuries maybe?"

"Well, you're done," Marcus declared as he pulled the last bit in with a small spell.

The clothes were, for all their briefness, a work of art. The fabric hung just so, pulling along the bits of Pinea's curves that it touched, bunching and flowing. The top was perfectly fitting, with several chains and similar bits hanging here and there. The bottom had less of those, but the two panels in front and back that revealed the pale flesh of Pinea's legs hung nearly as perfectly as those on our teacher's clothing.

The girl in question marched over to a mirror and examined herself thoroughly, turning this way and that. She even began a few of the moves we'd been working on in class. That was a bit too much for Marcus, who turned away before speaking.

"Miss Pinea, I agreed to this against my better judgment because of your long term custom. I will ask however that you control yourself in my shop. I do not want anyone to walk in and see this scene."

"Oh, but Marcus, it's magnificent. I'll make sure to tell people where it's from when they ask." She was all smiles as she looked at herself in the mirror, seemingly oblivious to the scandal she would almost certainly cause, or just uncaring.

"Please don't." He did seem exasperated by the way the girl was acting in his presence. "I'm going to return to the front."

Once he'd left she turned to us. "It's so scandalous. I love it!"

"Pinea, please don't do anything dumb and cause a riot."

"I won't cause a riot."

"... you know that your Lover's Mark is showing right?" It peeked out from behind part of the skirt, just barely, but enough to be understood for what it was.

That put a damper on her and quick. Pinea might be a bit of a shit-stirrer. I was convinced that she was more than a bit of a pervert. She wasn't stupid though, and that was something that nobody did, not ever. It was a hard rule that that particular tattoo was only acceptable to show to those men you were actively trying to sleep with. It was so much so that even though I'd worked in a tavern that catered to prostitutes I'd not seen one out in public ever.

There wouldn't be a problem if she wore this in our dorm. Even in class, since we were all girls, there would be no issue. If however she were to take that outfit out in public, she would basically be advertising that she wanted to sleep with everyone present. Even she wasn't that insane.

"I should go get changed," she said, finally realizing what she'd been doing to irritate the long-suffering tailor so much.

"Yeah, I agree," I quipped.

"Erm, could you two help me?" It was nearly impossible to get yourself into and out of the many, many layers that upper nobility wore on your own, which was why...

"What? Where's your maid?" Kala looked about, finally realizing the absence.

"I... left her outside. If she'd seen that outfit she'd have told my father who would..."

"Have lost his mind?" I interjected.

"Yeah..."

Both of us, shaking our heads went to go help her.