Wearing Power Armor to a Magic School

[MOTHERSHIP STANDING BY… REQUESTING PILOT INPUT]

I stood there, in silence, my glazed-over eyes locking with that of the Vunerian who stood defiantly at my shins.

[MOTHERSHIP STANDING BY… REQUESTING PILOT INPUT]

The incessant reminders from the flight-warning systems blared at me to refocus my attention back to the task at hand.

And yet… I found myself incapable of doing so, as the Vunerian had transitioned from simply gesturing at my gun with his eyeballs, to outright pointing at it with an index finger, dropping all pretenses at subtlety.

I was at a loss for words.

“Initiate automatic flightpath mode, Cadet Booker?” The EVI finally chimed in, pulling me out of my reverie of disbelief as I finally found it in me to respond.

“No, no. Just keep it where it is. Hold position until I get this situation sorted.” I ordered.

“Acknowledged. Holding position.”

With that out of the way, I now placed my attention squarely on the Vunerian, pinning my armored fists against my armored hips. There was no other way of addressing this. For one word was enough to sum up my confusions up to this point. “Why?”

“I thought you’d never ask, earthrealmer.” Ilunor replied with a huff, though not an indignant one, for whatever that was worth. “I am at a loss for my current situation.” He admitted reluctantly, practically forcing those words through his teeth. “I will be forthright in addressing what needs to be addressed, as you will require every detail necessary in order to aid me in our urgent quest.”

“Alright Ilunor, stop beating around the bush and let’s get to the point.” I practically growled out.

“I require your assistance in the interception of a courier, Emma Booker. A courier who currently holds the keys to my future. A future with which I had hastily decided to surrender, under former pretenses that have since fundamentally changed, all thanks to your merciful and resourceful nature.” The Vunerian spoke with a poetic, almost sing-song cadence, finding it in him to draft a whole poem before addressing anything tangible. “This courier has, in his hands, the echoes of my own short-sightedness that once more threaten to doom me.” That was, until he finally seemed to get to the point. “Do you recall the letter you… took from my possession a few days prior?” He inquired with a clear hint of frustration. It wasn’t clear however whether those frustrations were born from this situation, or whether he was still holding a grudge over my snooping of his letter a few days prior.

“Yeah, I do. Your renunciation of your noble titles, right?” I replied, before letting out a sigh, lifting my hand up to my forehead. “Did it somehow get through the mail? Did you forget to cancel it or put it on pause or something-?”

“Do you consider me so absent-minded that I would commit such a blunder?” Ilunor interjected, for a moment dropping his courteous act and returning to that scathing tone of indignancy, capped off with a kobold hiss.

“Judging by how you’ve self-admitted to ‘foolish’ and ‘short-sighted’ actions twice now? I’m leaning towards yes rather than no, just going off of objective data trends.” I replied bluntly, prompting the Vunerian to let out an even louder, more aggressive hiss.

That little outburst didn’t last for long however, as either the truth finally began sinking in, or the time crunch he was under finally started pushing him past the outburst phase with a weak slump.

“Your observations, whilst tantamount to judging a person by the sum of a week’s worth of correspondences… are understandable to me. For if I were in your position, I would more than likely have responded in a similar manner.” The Vunerian acknowledged through a strained breath. My eyes widened in reaction to this rare act of empathy. “But to get to the point; no, I did not simply forget. What’s more, that was my first order of business following the conclusion of our library misadventures. No, what seems to have transpired is a form of… miscommunication. A fault that had manifested somewhere along the line. Either through deliberate sabotage or an inability to act within the strict timeline of the bowmen, it would seem as if my actions have not had their intended effect… and the letter is now somewhere within the wider system of shadow couriers; fast approaching its trailless trek.”

I shot out my hand, signaling for the Vunerian to pause following that unexpected dump of words that didn’t necessarily add up due to a single, yet key missing context.

“EVI, did you translate that right? Bowmen? I need a disambiguation parse.”

“Parsing complete. Translation is accurate, Cadet Booker. Consider inquiring [Ilunor] for further disambiguation.”

“Let’s back up a bit.” I began. “First off, bowmen?” I scoffed. “I’m sure you didn’t hand off your letter to a bunch of archers, right?”

Ilunor sighed, moving both hands up towards his temples. “It’s a wordplay upon an acronym, Emma Booker. The Whisperwind Society's Whispermen. Hence, bowman.” Ilunor replied succinctly, prompting the EVI to chime in just as quickly before confusion could take hold.

“Point of conflict detected. The High Nexian acronym for the Whisperwind Society’s Whispermen, appears to phonetically match the colloquial pronunciation of the High Nexian term for [Bowman/Archer/Hunter]. New esoteric colloquialism added to the [Working Language Database].”

“Oh.” I replied promptly, my response directed towards the EVI and Ilunor in equal measure. “Understood.” I continued, before moving off from that point just as quickly.

“I assume you do not need me to explain the concept of shadow couriers next, earthrealmer?”

“Yeah, no, shadow couriers are pretty self explanatory.” I acknowledged. “Language localisms aside, let me ask you this, Ilunor. Why do you need my drone?” I paused, before gesturing towards the gun. “And my gun as well for that matter?”

“The two are necessary for my plan to dispatch with this troublesome situation once and for all. Only through the use of your drone, and a weapon such as your gun, can we hope to stop this letter.”

I paused for a moment, putting two and two together as a flipbook-style animation began manifesting in my head… of Ilunor arming himself with a pistol, before catching a flight down into town to deal with one of these shadow couriers personally.

“So you want to hitch a ride on the drone into town, with the intent of shooting one of these bowmen before they can-?”

“What? No! By His Eternal Majesty’s grace, no!!” Ilunor shot back in disbelief, before slowly, but surely, shifting to a thoughtful, pondering look. “Perhaps in any other circumstance, I might have considered it… but no, not now. Not at this particular junction.” He promptly ‘corrected’ himself; causing me to shoot him an unamused look of frustration.

“So what do you need them for?”

“For a fight that only your drone can perform.” He answered cryptically. “By means of attaching that manaless ranged weapon, onto your manaless flying artifice.”

I couldn’t believe what I was hearing right now… as I took a moment to regard the Vunerian’s words with genuine disbelief.

“My drone has weapons, Ilunor.” I replied plainly.

Ilunor’s eyes blinked rapidly at that response, as he turned his eyes from my holster, towards the drone, then back towards my holster in rapid succession.

He opened his mouth, as if poised to make an argument, before second-guessing himself with a sullen sigh. “My apologies for being proactive with my imagination and what limited information I had to work with, Emma Booker. For I saw no talons, no obvious weapons of the sort, and thus logically assumed it was defenseless; thus necessitating the addition of your ranged weapon.” He pointed to my gun once more, illustrating his point. “Either way, my urging stems from a lack of transparency on your end, Emma Booker.” The Vunerian quickly broke into an inward sigh. “But no matter. I must ask then: what manner of weapons do you have within that drone?”

“That depends, Ilunor.” I spoke firmly, crossing my arms as I did so. “What kind of fight are we looking at?”

“One of the aerial variety, Emma Booker.”

I narrowed my eyes at that answer. “So… airmail. Your letter is being shipped out via airmail.”

“That is correct.”

I sighed once more, reaching to clasp my forehead with a firm metallic slap. “Alright, what are we facing up against? A wyvern? A dragon? A gryphon? A dragon-wyvern-gryphon hybrid?” I rattled on, eliciting a sharp quirk of the Vunerian’s brow as he shook his head slowly.

“None of the above, but I’m surprised you know of a dragon-wyvern-gryphon hybrid given your status as a newrealmer, Emma Booker.'' He reasoned.

“Wait, what-”

“But that is beside the point.” He cut me off before we could dive into another tangent. “Our target isn’t any of the above… it is simply a messenger bird.”

I blinked rapidly at that answer.

My whole mind practically stopped as I heard what we were up against.

And not because of fear.

But a huge sense of relief. Because despite the armaments present on the mothership, it was nowhere near capable of taking down a dragon; something I feared would’ve been what we were up against.

“That’s it?” I finally managed out with a massive sigh of relief.

“Do not be fooled by the innocuous nature of this target, Emma Booker.” Ilunor warned darkly. “For what it lacks in conspicuous strength, it makes up for in inconspicuous camouflage.”

“Good point.” I acknowledged, actually agreeing with Ilunor as it felt like we were about to enter an actual productive conversation for once. “So any pointers on how we can spot this thing?”

“Our target will be a bird of the feral and typical variety. Anything from a sparrow to a phoenix.” He paused, before correcting his course. “Though I doubt you’d find much of the latter given its rarity in this part of the Nexus.” The Vunerian shrugged. “As for any distinguishing features? Manafields, Emma Booker. This particular bird will have a slightly above average ebb within the flow of mana than most. Like a rock parting the streams of water in a creek.” He explained.

“So any above average surge in mana then?”

“Yes.”

“Right then, I can do that.” I acknowledged, shifting myself and my gaze back to the mothership, before realizing something else. “And exactly how many birds in the Nexus typically generate an above average surge in mana radiation on a typical day-to-day basis?”

“I am not a bird scholar, Emma Booker. But from what I understand, it is a somewhat typical occurrence, yes.”

“So… how do we pick out yours from the crowd?”

“Does your drone carry limited ammunition?” He answered with an innocent cock of his head.

“Yes.” I answered flatly, and with an unamused look underneath the helmet. “Are you insinuating that we shoot down literally every bird that happens to have even an above average surge in mana radiation?”

“That is correct, Emma Booker.” Ilunor replied, unbothered and completely nonplussed. “If ammunition is a concern, this may prove-”

“No, that’s not my main concern! I’m more worried about A. Blowing our cover, and B. Collateral damage in the form of a lot of unnecessary dead animals.”

Ilunor paused, actually considering those points. “You raise valid concerns… if these manaless weapons are anywhere near as loud as your gun, then this may raise more suspicions in the town below than would be preferable.” The Vunerian began stroking the undersuit of his chin, pondering the situation at hand, despite not even addressing the collateral damage issue… “You claimed your drone was: ‘faster than the fastest bird’?”

“Yeah.”

“Then I must ask, does your drone have some sort of manual manipulator?”

“Like a claw or an extendable hand?”

“Correct.”

“I can do you one better.” I smiled. “It has nets, ones that can be deployed and reeled back mid-air. Meant for drone retrieval and enemy drone capture but… I guess it could double as a bird-capture tool. The holes are small enough that a sparrow wouldn’t be able to escape through it after all.”

The Vunerian responded to this revelation with a hopeful nod, as it seemed as if our minds were clicking on exactly what needed to be done next. “And I assume these nets are silent, reusable and plentiful?”

“Correct on all accounts, Ilunor.”

“Then I suggest we begin post-haste.” He couldn’t help but let off a slight twitch of his lips for a miniscule smile, before shrinking it just as quickly as it seemed like another thought entered his mind. “I assume you have confidence in your drone’s ability to see in the darkness of the night?”

“Hmm… You know what? Why don’t I address those concerns by just letting you see for yourself, Ilunor?” I offered vaguely, prompting the Vunerian to raise his brow ridge curiously.

“How?”

“By seeing the world through the eyes of a manaless artifice.”

…

Ilunor now had front row seats to the bird’s eye… or more accurately, the virtual-cockpit’s view of the drone as I continued maneuvering it carefully into town. The active-camo surfaces and the distance from the town itself provided a safe screen by which to operate with a level of discretion. Funnily enough, Ilunor had done the same for our end of the operation: casting a cone of silence and some magical camo around the balcony which hid us from any unsuspecting eyes and ears.

We had full visibility over the entire town from the drone’s vantage point, save for a single district that seemed to be covered in an unnaturally forming fog that started and ended along strangely artificial lines—demarcated by the abrupt cessation of an opaque gray mist along streetlines and rooftops instead of naturally thinning out over a large distance.

Aside from that… anomaly… the whole town was right there for us to see. I didn’t even need to turn on night-vision mode given how bright everything was even this late into the night. Despite that, the drone’s automatic functions — aided by the EVI — was parsing through every available spectral range within the cameras and sensors’ capabilities, creating this almost otherworldly composite layering effect upon the live feed that was as chaotic as it was oddly mesmerizing.

A sentiment that seemed to be shared by the Vunerian whose eyes were practically glued to the screen right now, his expression shifting constantly between confusion, concern, anxiety, and a level of worry probably stemming from what was on the line rather than the view itself.

“And is this… the world as is seen through your eyes, earthrealmer?” He asked slowly.

“No, I mean… it can with the aid of my armor and its sensors. What I usually see is what you saw in my sight-seer though; so, no. However, this is typically what my drones can see. As it allows it to better accomplish its various missions, such as the one I originally set it out to do.” I answered curtly, just as several things began happening on my end of the live feed.

Namely, the rescue operation of the survey drones that survived the blast.

Of which only one managed to dock with the mothership successfully so far.

For the most part though, this segment of the operation was done in silence.

Despite that, I still had one eye open towards the skies, for the sake of Ilunor’s added side quest.

Though it was clear from the tap-tap-tapping of his feet that Ilunor wasn’t the type to be composed in these calm before the storm situations. However, just as he was about to address his anxieties, opening his mouth to question it—

[ALERT: TARGET PARAMETERS MET. TARGET GROUP BEARING GRID 107, 395, 225. TRAJECTORY CALCULATED. INTERCEPT? Y/N]

All hell quickly broke loose.

Several things started happening all at once now.

And Ilunor was for the first time, getting to see first-hand the hectic realities of modern combat… or at the very least a toned down version of it.

My entire focus now shifted to my HUD, the flock of birds that had originated from the outskirts of town becoming almost like a flight of enemy drones in my mind. Training and reflexes kicked in, augmented by the EVI’s micro-corrections to the mothership’s course, as we caught up to the speedy group of avians whose velocities would’ve been impressive to an ornithologist… but failed to impress the drone-operator within me.

This made my hyperfocus less necessary, as by the point I’d arrived above the flock, the whole battle was already decided.

It was now like shooting fish in a barrel.

The whole thing was over with a push of a button, the flock of birds didn’t even know what hit them as the drone deployed a massive high-tensile e-warfare rated netting. One that would’ve otherwise absolutely fried or disabled non-hardened electronics on-contact, and rendered all radio communications from within and without inert. But on this occasion, merely acted as an overengineered animal capture tool, which - to its credit - was a role it slipped into seamlessly.

This was true even as the whole flight of birds began absolutely panicking mid-air, their wings flapping about in sheer distress, their collective weight and absolute terror causing the inexperienced Ilunor to become visibly worried for the flight stability of the mothership.

However, given the fact that it was rated for enemy drone capture and retrieval… no amount of flapping from even a hundred birds would’ve made much of a dent on the sturdily engineered machine.

“Batch one captured!” I announced with an ecstatic cheer. “Now, do any of these look like what we’re looking for, Ilunor?” I asked, before pointing all cameras at the panicked net of birds, some of which occasionally glanced towards one of the mothership’s many unfeeling camera lenses with unadulterated terror.

The Vunerian began combing through the footage, his face clearly frustrated by the lack of a manastream no doubt, but trying to make do as he seemed hyper fixated on their talons.

“Shake them.” He ordered unenthusiastically.

“What?”

“I know what I’m doing. Shake them vigorously, earthrealmer. There’s an art to this process.” He reasoned, prompting me to genuinely question his sanity, before going through with it anyways.

The whole net-full of birds let out a cacophony of terrified squawks and traumatized cries at that, as the Vunerian began tilting his head to and fro, before sighing.

“Use your manual manipulator to go through each one, bring it up to your drone’s eyes, and allow me to inspect them closely.”

I complied, not because of any sense of faith in the Vunerian’s plans, but because he was nominally in charge of determining exactly whether or not we’d caught our target.

A proportionally sized mechanical arm emerged from the underside of the drone, one that was three-clawed as opposed to my five-fingered backpack-mounted ARMS, which seemed to repulse the Vunerian even more so.

With a small calibration of its servos, it immediately jammed itself into the net, prompting even more panicked squawks to erupt before it managed to pull out what looked to be a cross between a seagull and a puffin. Its chest heaving as its little head cocked back and forth in every direction.

“No.” Ilunor announced after a cursory look, prompting the drone to release it, where it quickly flew off into the night. “Next.”

The whole process was repeated, to the tune of panicked squawks and cold unfeeling whirrs.

Ending with another resounding “No.” from the Vunerian, prompting the whole process to be repeated yet again.

This continued for some time; ultimately leaving us with nothing but an empty bag and a frightened flock.

The Vunerian sighed, crossing his arms. “We still have the whole night, but I have a sinking suspicion we will soon be onto our target rather than later.”

“And you know this… how?”

“I’ve worked with the bowmen before, Emma.” Ilunor admitted through a despondent breath. “More than I would’ve liked, but the fact remains… I know with relative precision the sorts of timeframes they operate on. So do not fret, we will sooner have our target secured than suffer from the dullness of a wild grouse chase. I can guarantee that much.”

That guarantee however, turned out to be as empty as Vanavan’s half-hearted promises.

As flock-

[ALERT: TARGET PARAMETERS MET. TARGET GROUP BEARING GRID 209, 539 723. TRAJECTORY CALCULATED. INTERCEPT? Y/N]

-after flock-

[ALERT: TARGET PARAMETERS MET. TARGET GROUP BEARING GRID 752, 375, 295. TRAJECTORY CALCULATED. INTERCEPT? Y/N]

-after terrified-

SQUAWK!

-shocked-

CHIRP CHIRP CHIRP!

-panicked-

COO COO! RRREEEE!

-and dazed flocks…

[ALERT: TARGET PARAMETERS MET. TARGET GROUP BEARING GRID 498, 1095, 925. TRAJECTORY CALCULATED. INTERCEPT? Y/N]

… turned out to be duds.

And after an entire hour of exhaustive flying, of grabbing more birds than an ornithologist would in their entire doctorate program, we ended up with nothing but even more frustration and wasted power.

It was around the same time that we encountered a relatively bizarre series of birds that flew individually, yet maintained a higher than average level of background mana radiation.

Tracking down these birds was a bit more difficult, requiring more aerial acrobatics than I would’ve been comfortable with in the mothership, yet upon grabbing them… they seemed no less innocuous than any other bird-hybrid we’d captured so far.

The night had become quieter after that. As Ilunor had promptly grabbed a chair from the living room to plop himself atop of.

“I trust that you are still… comfortable standing up, Earthrealmer?” Ilunor asked through a strangely empathetic breath.

“I’m fine.” I shot back frustratingly.

“That’s good.” He nodded. “I genuinely hope you still have faith in my assertions. For I know for a fact we are getting closer to-”

[ALERT: TARGET PARAMETERS MET. TARGET GROUP BEARING GRID 32, 172, 98. TRAJECTORY CALCULATED. INTERCEPT? Y/N]

A flock of birds… a massive flock of them in fact, emerged from that shadowy part of town my sensors had had a difficult time penetrating.

Ilunor’s eyes widened at the sheer breadth of them this time around, as it looked like one of those migrating flocks capable of outright blotting out the sun, rather than any old group of random birds.

“This is it.” Ilunor announced. “I’m sure of it.”

“You don’t say…” I uttered out with tired contempt, revving up the mothership’s engines as I repeated the motions of the chase that had quickly become muscle memory by this point.

However, unlike the rest of the engagements thus far, this flock was proving to be more difficult to deal with.

Simply put, there were way too many of them.

What’s more, mana radiation signals were everywhere within and around the flock.

“Ilunor, I can’t cast a net that’s going to get us all of them all at once. You’re going to have to give me some pointers in order to—”

“I know what this is.” He interrupted abruptly, his eyes widening in worrisome shock. “At least three quarters of this flock are an illusion, a projection. Tell me, does your drone detect mana surges homogeneously throughout the flock?”

“My sensors aren’t that sensitive… but if I were to eyeball it, then yeah. That seems to be the case.”

“Then this is a trick out of my book.” He narrowed his eyes, as he traced his finger across the tablet. “There! Emma Booker, target your net trailing ahead of the flock. From there, allow it to drag through the flock. Like a skytrawler casting a net ahead of a school of flightfish, except you will find that a good portion of these ‘birds’ are merely illusions that will dissipate upon contact with a physical barrier!”

With the flock of birds moving at an even greater speed than any other flock thus far, and the signal risking cutting out if even a second was spent improperly, I took Ilunor’s advice and ran with it.

The maneuvers were simple enough; the massive flock reacted, but not quick enough for the fishing trawler trick to begin in earnest. I quickly parked the thing in front of the flock, and deployed the net.

Sure enough, an entire section of the flock dematerialized, prompting me to take immediate action of my own volition.

“Emma, you should-”

Training and gut instinct overrode Ilunor’s advice now, as I made a hasty call to bank left, catching the flock as it attempted to veer off, but was stopped by the superior speed and maneuverability of the drone.

Row after row of birds dematerialized in seconds the instant they made contact with the net, as I found that almost all of the flock were complete and utter phantoms despite every single ‘bird’ registering as solid pings on almost all of the drone’s sensors; similar to Ilunor’s null trick in the workshop.

No sooner did I realize that however, did we net something.

A single, solitary solid bird.

The lone ‘survivor’ out of a flock of fakes.

A hawk-like pigeon of all things. That sat there lazily in the net. Stretching its talons to and fro without a care in the world.

“Alright. We caught it.” I announced.

But no sooner did I manage to say that did Ilunor’s eyes grow wide.

“That’s not right. That behavior- Emma, release it now!”

“What? What are you-”

“If you value your drone and this quest, release it and kill it, now!”

I barely had time to react as several sensors began going wild.

Most notably, several overheat and mana radiation sensors.

The net soon went up in flames.

And following that, a burst of fire slammed against the underside of the drone, disorienting the more sensitive sensor suites for a few seconds, but otherwise leaving the drone relatively unscathed.

The optical sensors however, reported on everything as it transpired, as the innocuous bird seemed to erupt into a burst of flames; its feathers, its body, its wings— indeed its whole form seemingly self-igniting.

But instead of succumbing to the flames… it simply flew off.

Leaving a trail of fire behind it, prompting Ilunor to point at the screen incessantly, screaming at the top of his lungs. “FIREBIRD! Emma Booker, we haven’t the time! Shoot it! You must shoot it!”

My whole world once more slowed to a crawl as I flicked down the tactical drawer on my controller, giving me access to the drone’s weapons suite. A lock-on reticle landed squarely on the bird. Half a second later, the reticles lined up, glowing green and beeping incessantly. A second after that came a single, thunderous, earth-shattering-

-BANG!

It took seconds for that sound to reach us in person, or at least it would have if it wasn’t for Ilunor’s cone of silence. However even if it did, all that could be heard from this distance would be more akin to a weak and distant ka-crrack of stray thunder.

The firebird’s flight stopped almost immediately after. Its ducking and weaving reminiscent of a 20th century dogfighting ace halted abruptly and unceremoniously upon that round being discharged.

From there, it fell seven thousand or so feet from the sky, leaving a trail of fire behind that was extinguished about halfway down as it began trailing smoke, and then finally, soot.

The drone followed it quickly, managing to find nothing but a charred pile of grossly overcooked turkey, and what appeared to be a neatly packaged letter alongside it.

Using its manipulator to grab it, Ilunor positively ID’d it. “That’s it.”

But not a second later, before the drone was even able to unfurl its arm, the small patch of grasslands we found ourselves in suddenly erupted into flames.

As the firebird’s carcass began to cremate itself with a small tornado of iridescent flames, ash and embers of this charring corpse suddenly reformed into its former state.

“That wasn’t a firebird.” Ilunor announced through a hushed breath. “That was a minor phoenix.” He practically whispered out, as the bird reached for the letter once more, glaring the drone right through its optics and threatening it with a mighty screech—

Only to have another thunderous - BOOM! - ring out not a second after, punching a hole straight through it.

Following that, I wasted no time in grabbing the letter, before packaging it deep within the drone’s cargo bay.

No sooner was that accomplished did the phoenix begin reforming once again, which prompted Ilunor to answer a question that was rapidly forming in my head.

“It will follow us until its mission is done.” He spoke firmly. “There is only one way to be rid of it.”

“Dunk its ashes in a river?” I shot back sarcastically.

“Yes.” Ilunor acknowledged with a nod. “How did you know-”

“Forget about it, let’s just do it.” I sighed frustratingly, as I began revving the drone back up to altitude and speed, prompting a chase with the offending bird.

What happened next was a scene pulled straight from a video game.

As I weaved, ducked, and maneuvered this way and that, avoiding fireballs, flames, and even the errant attempt at melee from the bird.

It was a straight thirty seconds of nonstop aerial acrobatics before we found ourselves above a stream that flowed right from Lake Telliad.

From there, I bided my time, ducking this way and that before the time was right for the perfect shot.

“Gotcha.” I spoke under a sweat-laden grin.

BANG!

Causing the bird to die for the third time, its body plunging straight into the rapids below, as it began disintegrating into dust within the water itself.

Steam bubbled and billowed from beneath the water… but after a few solid minutes of waiting, nothing reemerged.

We eventually met each other’s gaze moments after the bubbles had been carried down the stream and out of visual range.

“We were lucky it was a minor phoenix.” Ilunor sighed with relief. “Otherwise, a typical, or Gods forbid… a great phoenix would be impervious to this trick.”

I slid back against the armor immediately after Ilunor’s little confirmation, turning on the in-armor postural readjustment mode, as I sat there for a few solid seconds, but not before ordering the EVI to RTB the thing back to the balcony.

The next few moments were spent in silence, as I simply sat there monitoring the mothership’s flightpath back to the balcony.

Ilunor seemed to mirror that sentiment too as he basically sank into his chair, sighs of relief escaping his maw every so often until eventually, the drone returned.

The blue thing yanked the letter from its three-clawed appendage aggressively, checked it meticulously, scanning it with a surge of mana radiation, before lighting it up with a flame of his own which reduced it to ash. All the while, the EVI’s mana notification warnings began disappearing one by one, probably marking the dissolution of both the invisibility and privacy barriers by this point.

From there, Ilunor turned to face me, with a look of relief colored with a sense of genuine appreciation. “Thank you once again, earthrealmer.” He spoke, this time, even more earnestly than before. “I… have never met someone with such a capacity for charity and compassion.” He lowered his head, not so much in a bow, as it was just a deep nod of gratitude.

“It’s alright, Ilunor.” I replied, before quickly correcting myself. “You owe me one though.” I stated bluntly, making sure to balance my modest earth sensibilities with Nexian ‘social decorum’.

“That much I understand, Emma Booker.” Ilunor nodded in acknowledgement.

“Well in any case, I think we should-”

KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK!

A series of knocks stopped me in my tracks, prompting both of our gazes to face the source of that interruption.

The front door.