“Really? Even oners know about it?” Antoions.

  “Yep,” Emily says with a nod. “Do you want the long expnation, or the short?”

  Anton looks around, getting nods from all members of the crew who are listening to Emily quietly.

  “We’d like to know about where we’re heading. The long.”

  “Okay. So, Old Denntimo followed a simir system to the one Modo does currently, hiding magi oners and taking any they find with talent as vassals. And, simir to Modo, any vassal mage that reached third circle, the level of power I’m currently at, was given a le. This worked fine for a while, but a lot of the oners who rose to power were treated like sves by their old noble family, and a rge divide grew within the nobility as the number of these new houses grew. Eventually, the new houses started a revolt and drove the old royalty from their capital, g half of the ti for themselves and naming it New Denntimo.”

  Emily pauses to take a sip of water, looking around and seeing everyone hanging on her every word.

  “They didn’t appoint a new king,” she tinues, “and instead formed a system where all noble families are given a vote, weighted based on how many mages they have and fav high level bat power. Because of this new system, and a lot of the nobles having once been ohemselves, they started to spread knowledge of magic to the on folk, and use structured education to pick out oners with talent to add to their numbers.”

  “Does that help them grow their hat much?” Tony asks from the er.

  “Yes. Doing proper testing of everyone gives them a much higher number of awakened each year.”

  “How haven’t they won the war yet then?” Sam questions.

  “Because of time,” Emily says, finishing off her bowl. “They have a lot of first and sed, and even a few third circle mages, but the try hasn’t had enough time for fourth circle mages to arise. There’s a reason I said the votes were favoured towards high level bat power. A single fourth circle mage fight against half a dozen third with ease.”

  “That sounds impressive, but how strong is a third circle mage? all of them do things like that rge explosion this m?” Ash asks with a shiver.

  “Kind of but not really,” Emily says, shaking her head. “That was using a rge-scale array carved into the basement of their mansion over a very powerful sourana. That sort of thing requires being very good with arrays, which are difficult for most mages, and a lot of resources. So while a third circle mage set up an array like that, it takes ages to prepare, and it has to be done in specific pces. As for how strong a third circle mage is? It varies wildly, but a standard third circle mage could probably fight an armed force with around fifty people if not more. If you’re looking at a specialist though, it could go up by a lot.”

  Agnes would stomp over a hundred armed mortals with energy to spare.

  “Woah,” Podrick excims. “Wouldn’t that mean fourth circle mages fight three hundred people?”

  “Something like that,” Emily says with a shrug. “I ’t be sure, since I’m not that stro myself, but it seems reasonable if not servative for the one I fought.”

  “You fought one? Didn’t you say you’re third circle?”

  “Yep, but I’m not a standard third circle mage,” Emily responds with a small, prideful grin.

  They tinue questioning Emily as they eat, the fear and tension gripping the hall slowly fading as they chat. Emily asks Anton about their destination as the meal winds down, finding that they are dog the following evening. After they finish, Sam leaves to go crash in his bed, exhausted after having his usual sleep schedule interrupted; Tony leaves to let Ange know Emily’s taking over; and Emily leads Ash, Podrick, and Anton towards the ship’s hatch.

  “Is this reted to how you were trolling the ship before?” Anton asks as they walk through the ship’s fined hallways.

  “Kind of,” Emily responds without looking back. “I’ll be trolling the ship using the same trick I was using then, but this is something slightly different. It’s more about seeing the ship’s surroundings.”

  They stop before the hatch, and Emily reaches into her belt before opening it. Ash notices the strange way Emily’s hand seems to vanish as they watch closely.

  “What’s with your belt?” they question.

  “Space magic. It’s like the bag I gave Anton: it’s bigger on the inside,” Emily replies dismissively, ign them turning to question Anton and pulling out one of her bird scouts. “Anyway, this little guy is my scout.”

  The bird spreads its wings, taking off and flying around the crew’s heads nimbly before ing to a rest on Emily’s shoulder.

  “Using magic, I see through his eyes whenever I want. I’m going to send him out to sit on top of Calypso’s balloon to look around for me,” she expins as she uses a small burst of maa to opech beside her without dropping the eg stairs.

  Her scout leaps off her shoulder, sailing out of the open doorway and spreading its wings under several admiring gazes. Notig the looks of awe on the faces around her, Emily proudly manoeuvres the bird in a series of twisting flips, elegantly perf an aerial dispy for them before moving it into pce to per top of the rge balloon holding the ship up. She locks the small scout’s talons onto the robust spine of the balloon as a sihread to monitor the surroundi through it, watg the clear night sky as two more threads miahe rge vessel’s flight.

  “That’s amazing,” Anton says as the bird vanishes from view. “Magic aside, that bird is a work of art. It’s so much more animated than our dog drones.”

  “Thanks,” Emily replies, pulling out another bird to let them have a closer look. “They were a long-term project I only finished retly. Speaking of though, I would quite like to see your drones. I don’t remember seeing them wheoured the ship.”

  “We tend not to hem much sihe Mandrago family usually anised our routes for us, but I’m sure Ash show you wheop at Ashdon if you want.”

  “I ihey pale in parison to this though, it’s beautiful. Do you have any magicless ones I could buy?” Ash asks, gently pulling open the wing of fial feathers.

  “I don’t have any spares, but I make you one,” Emily responds, the warmth building in her chest geed by their keen i in her creation vanishing pletely as their reas remind her of Juliana receiving Harold as a gift. “It will have far less trol than my magies though.”

  “Really? That’s fihanks,” Ash says, without looking up. “How much will it be?”

  “I won’t charge you. The materials are cheap, and I make them pretty quickly now. Think of it as an apology for making you leave the try.”

  “Thank you!” Ash responds with a smile, looking up and fling slightly as they meet Emily’s cold, expressionless mask.

  Emily nods and shuts the hatch, giving Anton and Podrick a ce to look at the bird before making it slip from their grasp and fly bato hers.

  “Right, you guys should go rest now. I just o keep the ship on its current course, right?”

  “Yep,” Anton firms with a nod, patting Emily on the shoulder, seemingly uurbed by her cold stare, before turning to walk towards his . “Good luck!”

  Ash says goodbye and follows him, leaving Emily and Podrick alohe small boy eagerly looking up at her.

  “Is it time?” he asks with barely taiement.

  “Yes.” Emily nods, striding past auring for him to follow. “Now, I ’t promise this will work since I’ve tempted it before, but I’m eager to try.”

  She gnces back, seeing Podrick following her while nodding seriously.

  “It will also hurt a lot, especially if it’s successful, so be prepared. I give you a potion to help numb the pain, but I’m not sure if that will hurt your future development, so it’s up to you if you want it or not.”

  They reach a mostly empty ste room, and Podrick stops at the entrao sider her warning as Emily quickly pushes the few crates and barrels in the room to the edges to clear space, leaving only one in the tre. She looks up at Podrick after she’s done, watg his expression of flicted excitemeling into one of resolve as he shuts the door properly and walks forward.

  “I’ll do it. And I don’t want the potion.”

  “Oh?” Emily hums with a raised brow, the er of her lips turned up ever so slightly. “Good. Now sit down on that box and take your shirt off.”

  Podrick follows her instrus without missing a beat, sitting down and removing his shirt as Emily pulls out as up the barrier disk.

  “What’s that for?” he asks as she turns to face him again.

  “It soundproofs the room. I ’t have your screams waking the rest of the crew.”

  Podrick shivers and gulps down his fear, chug unfortably as he’s uo tell if she’s joking or not.

  “Stay still, I’m going to run my preliminary sow. You may feel some slight disfort.”

  Emily moves behind him, pg a palm ft against his exposed spine and shutting her eyes as she sends a tiny stream of maa into his body. She starts off with the smallest amount possible, so little it barely everates his skin, being careful not to hurt him as she slowly increases the amount of energy being transferred until it doesn’t just dissipate. He flinches and squirms unfortably the moment the cold energy holds together within him, feeding Emily information about the muscles and nerves down to a few timetres below the surface where her hand makes tact.

  Emily pces another hand on his shoulder, pushing down to remind him to remain still as she maintains the same tration of maa and slowly pours in a rger quantity, guiding the energy to flow out from the boy’s spine. She takes her time carefully mapping his body with ical i, noting the differences ihing from muscle density tan activity and even a between him, Agnes, and herself.

  Is this a male and female thing, or is it reted to our awakenings and assions? I need more live test subjects if I’m going to figure it out. Preferably some pre-awakening women as well to get a better point of parison.

  Adding some less-than-savoury pns to her to-do list, Emily finishes her s, drawing out a detailed map of Podrick’s body to pare with after trying to awaken him, before retrag her energy.

  “Haaa,” Podrick lets out a basp as her maa leaves his body, sweat running down his brow. “What was that? It felt like something was burning my insides, but it wasn’t hot.”

  “That was my preliminary s,” Emily expins, seeing no reason not to inform him properly. “I used the special energy type of meics, maa, to flood your body and give me a detailed view of the insides.”

  “Will I be able to do that?”

  “If you successfully awaken? Maybe. You probably will with a bit of practice. I’m not sure what it’s like for normal meics trolling maa, but if it’s anything like with mana, it may take you a while to get to my level of fine trol.”

  “Cool! What do you o do to awakehen?”

  “Well,” Emily says, running through the information she has on mages’ assisted awakenings in her mind. “For a mage, the process for awakening someone else is pretty simple. You just i raw mana into someone and flood their entire body with it, fog it around their heart. Then, the body will see it as a threat a: either by fighting it, and likely dying or being disfigured in the process, or by adapting to absorb and store it.”

  “Isn’t that what you just did with maa?” Podrick questions.

  “Yes, but I kept the tration as loossible and spread it out, to try not to let your body have a full rea to it. We’re going to try the same thing again, but I’ll increase the tration, and I think it will be more effective if I only send the energy along the pathways that will carry it iure. Unlike mages, who have to form new mana circuits throughout their bodies to aid in the circution of mana, meics use the neural pathways already in p their bodies. Also, I’ll focus it around your brain, that’s what will bee your energy store, not your heart like a mage.”

  “Neural pathways?”

  “The es within your body used to transfer signals around. It’s what lets your brain tell your fio move,” Emily expins. “Now, prepare yourself, this is going to hurt.”

  Podriods, taking a deep breath and g the edge of the crate he’s sitting on until his knuckles turn white.

  “I’m ready,” he says resolutely, screwing his eyes shut.

  “Here goes nothing,” Emily responds, pg her hand oop of his head.

  I’ll start at the same tration as st time and slowly increase it. I always reset if this doesn’t work and I o keep a sistent tration like with mage awakenings, but I won’t gain any information if I instantly fry his brain, so better safe than wasting my time.

  She floods his body in an instant, guiding her maa through his brain and into his nervous system, keeping it tained withihways as she feels him shudder slightly. Slowly, she starts increasing the tration of energy leaving her hand, watg as Podrick’s entire body tenses befrowing hotter and starting to shake. He grits his teeth and hisses, doing a good job of not screaming uhe searing pain, and Emily keeps going until cold lightning is flickering out and across the surface of the boy’s skin, making his hair stand on end.

  Suddenly, as if a switch is flipped, she feels a ge occur and his body goes fr to force the fn energy out to drawing it in hungrily.

  It’s w!

  “AAAHHHH!” Podrick lets out a guttural scream as his body vulses and starts drawing in energy from the air around him.

  Emily lets go of his head and steps back, letting the awakening process tinue on its own as she watches with rapt attention. Podrick curls in on himself, his fingers log out straight and his arms and back flexing uension. He vulses violently as he tio scream with tears rolling down his face, mixing with the stream of blood running from his nose.

  Is he being damaged by the process? I don’t think I was. I’ll have to check his cortex afterwards to make sure there are no abnormalities.

  After a mihe lightning flickering across the suffering boy’s skin slowly dies down as Emily feels the energy drawn around him weakening. His screaming stops, and he goes limp in an instant, like a puppet with its strings cut, falling forward towards the floor.

  Emily g the system notification sitting before her eyes as she catches him before he drop off the crate, lifting him up and l him to the flently.

  ˉˉˉˉˉ

  Hidde pleted: The Spread of Knowledge

  [The Spread of Knowledge]

  [Rank:] D

  [Description:] As the first true meic of your world, you’ve taken it upon yourself to spread the vocation. gratutions on being the mother of Ulean meics.

  Requirements:

  -Awaken 1/1 meipleted)

  Rewards:

  -Skill: Mother’s Blessing

  _____

  Podrick opens his eyes weakly and looks up at Emily, seeing the small, barely noticeable, triumphant grin on her face.

  “gratutions,” she says, meeting his eyes, “on being the sed Ulean meic.”

  KeroKeron