Kris:

  She moved quickly after her last comment in their conversation. Of course, she relented on Anise healing Mari, since it was hard for Kris to watch her lover in pain.

  The moment the two had gotten to work, Kris had rushed back to her lab.

  Her first objective would be to finish her latest weapon. As soon as the final adjustments were done, she could get her other project into the fabricator.

  Kris lifted a beaded bracelet and began turning the beads until the characters aligned to open a communication channel.

  “Krissy?” A gruff voice echoed out.

  “Yeah, Uncle Wovren. I had a request.”

  The voice grunted in reply.

  “You know that hobby of yours? Any chance you have anything without an engine built yet?” Kris asked hopefully.

  A long silence followed, then something crashed in the background, making her wince. “Aye, just ripped the guts outta a failed project. Want it now?”

  Kris buried her face in her free hand. “Sure, uncle. Thanks.”

  He grunted, then began shouting something as the call disconnected.

  She chuckled to herself as she slid the bracelet off, setting it down nearby to charge. That was the biggest drawback of the small communications devices. They’d solved the overheating problem, but had instead found issues with battery life. A single call for a few minutes was the maximum, so most correspondences were done as brief exchanges that could be sent off very quickly.

  Something better was obviously possible, but with every field needing various innovations, their R&D workers were spread far too thin. As it was, only a small group of people even had the bracelets to begin with. Nobody wanted to copy the Sylphariens’ brain implants, after all.

  She turned her attention back to the long rifle design that was being printed. At least progress was fast there. Everything she designed from the mana-tainted metal was cut from the larger plate and engraved with each rune. All that needed ‘fabricating’ was the grip, housing, and stock. Only the main body and barrel were made from the rare substance itself.

  For the hour it took for the fabrication of her newest design, she buried herself in the construction of her ‘personal project’ that had suddenly become much more important.

  By her own calculations, she could make and power three of them with the material Alynne had let her take.

  Wovren arrived just as her newest weapon, Symphony, was completed.

  The older Anvien man was accompanied by one of his assistants, who was carrying a two-wheeled vehicle missing the main components that filled the central chassis.

  A pair of large plates were strapped to the assistant’s back, too.

  “Got room for her, Krissy?” The fanatical old man inquired.

  Kris nodded, grinning ear to ear and carefully restraining her mad laughter.

  “What’s that?” Anise asked from the kitchen.

  “One of Wovren’s death traps.” Mari grumbled, knowing the visitor was hard of hearing.

  “I heard that!”

  Or… not.

  Kris helped the pair lug the vehicle into the basement after Wovren opened a hatch from inside. Once it was suspended in her workshop, she set to work on her designs, with Anise taking a renewed interest while Mari finished cooking.

  “A motorcycle? Sans engine, though.” Anise muttered.

  The girl was mostly correct. Wovren had an unusual love for vehicles that could travel quickly. He’d put a decade into different watercraft after he’d helped kick off the hang gliding craze that so many in the city loved. His most recent inclination had been sleek vehicles on two wheels. The issue was, of course, the safety concerns. Hence the protective shell of the vehicle.

  Wovren’s assistant was working on attaching the side plates that folded in as armored shields while Anise hovered around with thoughtful comments flying left and right.

  Kris ignored the heated discussion those comments started with their guests, instead finalizing her design with the measurements of the actual vehicle before her.

  Because her own design would fly.

  She couldn’t help the grin that split her face as she took more and more quick measurements with her HUD, then converted several factors. She wanted the side plating to function as wings for gliding if power was lost. She also considered having the wheels remain, giving a land-based travel option. The suspension needed an upgrade. But her design would work off from mana.

  This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

  Once she had a functional prototype, she could fabricate more to mirror the first.

  It took a few more hours when counting the hour-long break to eat a dinner Mari insisted on dragging her upstairs for. Her mind never stopped turning the ideas over. Stars, Kris was certain her own soul was singing with happiness as she designed things, dismantling the details of each component while fretting over how to incorporate all her own ideas.

  It was why she had begun with gravity as the core concept she worked with. She had always wanted to fly.

  And it would allow her to skip over Hallitheen, even if they had Barclay handle recruiting Miranda Clarke. If she could, even if it was petty, Kris would throw the human man to those wolves while also ensuring minimal jealousy over Mari’s and the man’s history of working together. Better still if they could leave Vilke to help him.

  Best part? Anise could already fly. Meaning with three vehicles, Vilke could use one, Barclay another, and Kris would snuggle Mari together with her in the last.

  The moment she finished her latest designs and had double-checked them carefully, she finally scooped up Symphony and headed to the range while the fabricator assembled the parts.

  Wovren and his assistant had departed after dinner, which left Anise and Mari free to join her in the shooting gallery.

  “That’s one complex rifle.” Anise commented, chewing on some kind of dessert she had put together.

  “It’s just an amplifier, actually.” Kris replied, only half paying attention.

  The size of each power core was double the ones she used for Aria and Requiem. Even so, she only got five shots before the core was down to just ten percent.

  [Catalyst Status: Untested, four spare cores]

  [Core Depletion: 0%]

  Performing each safety check one by one, she opted to wear a face covering just as Mari had when testing the firearms.

  The shielding over the octagonal prism catalyst slid into place, and Kris leaned into the stock, using a bipod attachment from one of Mari’s weapons to support the barrel on the table.

  With her left hand, she adjusted the custom scope, sighting the full distance of two hundred meters down range. As she fingered the safety of the weapon, the first enchantment came alive, applying a gentle resistance to her motion, preventing small deviations like breathing affecting her aim.

  Then she changed the scope’s reticle to be more visible against the backdrop.

  Finally, with everything in order, she pulled the trigger.

  The weapon hummed in her hands, warming in a way she hadn’t expected.

  At the same time, there was a sharp cracking noise down range as a chunk of the wall ripped apart, then fell to the ground as a single condensed ball of stone.

  A star-shaped pattern had been carved out of the wall, too. The effect area was a meter in radius.

  And there was no target left, either.

  “Well. That’s effective.” Anise said, as if she were commenting on the weather.

  “And here I thought an M82 was generally overkill.” Mari muttered, depressed.

  Kris felt a twinge of worry, hoping she wasn’t stealing her lover’s thunder too badly. “Don’t worry. I said I would design weapons for you too, Mari. Also, this really isn’t terribly efficient. I’ve only got so many cores, after all. Even if they do recharge over time.”

  She left out the unfortunate cores that had inexplicably drained until they were inert during the insurgency and subsequent battles below the Citadel. Kris had tried to deduce what had happened with them, and the only guess she arrived at was that Anise and Mari’s abilities had drawn out the mana around them and pulled the last dregs of power from the cores in the process.

  “So, what kinds of weapons do you want, Mari?” Kris asked, despite some hesitation.

  Mari leaned back in the chair she’d dragged in from the lab.

  “Railgun.” Anise said simply.

  “I’m sorry?” Kris asked.

  Mari pursed her lips thoughtfully. “The idea is that you use two electric coils to apply magnetic force to a projectile between them. They’re generally too bulky, technology-wise. I guess that with mana in play, maybe you could make a magic catalyst that does the magnetic field work without a heavier power source.”

  Kris shook her head. “Not enough mana-tainted metal for that.”

  Anise stuck a finger in the air. “What if I solved the power source issue? I can draw talismans that create raw lightning. Frankly, painting a script onto the device to draw in and supply energy would be child’s play.”

  “Is that a pun?” Mari asked with a smirk.

  “I won’t heal you next time you do something stupid.” Anise smirked right back, though her eyes were glaring daggers.

  Kris stepped in. “Okay, okay. Let’s stay on task, kids.”

  Both of them glared at her. She smiled like an angel back at them.

  “Well, I can make a design for the actual device easily enough. We already use similar ideas for Magball. I’m more than familiar with the concept, and the chemical treatments we use on our metals to make them more durable already can help with the materials being subjected to the force. The issue is how to manage the heat generation.” Kris said.

  Anise raised the same finger she did when she first interjected. “I can work the script so it turns the heat into the energy it uses to fire. Liquid mana is really good for efficient energy conversion. Although, you won’t get a good cycle going if you try firing in like… arctic temps, I guess? But anything even moderately warm will be enough to fuel the first shot, then the whole weapon goes energy neutral.”

  That sounded good enough.

  As a trio, they got to work on the design for the fabricator.

  The end result was a weapon with three joints for compact travel.

  There was a lightweight tactical foregrip, a counterbalanced stock where all the power conversion happened, and a two piece barrel that folded in the center, allowing the entire weapon to collapse into a triangular shape. One flick, and the railgun could deploy and begin firing.

  The scope was one of Mari’s custom creations, with an adjustable zoom.

  The final list of weapons they’d made for their trip was complete.

  Mari had her sword, Remera, and the new Stinger.

  Kris had Requiem, Aria, and Symphony.

  Vilke was a gun nut with his own collection.

  Barclay would be able to use any of the weapons Mari had made in the interim, and could therefore cry about not having anything as powerful as Mari or Kris.

  Anise would… be Anise.

  All that remained was finishing the vehicles and gathering supplies for the duration of their trip.

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