A few days ter, Shawn still hadn’t thought of how to expin Halsey, without Cire thinking he was completely insane.

  This was a rather big problem, considering that Shawn dreaded the notion that someone would notice he was sharpening his skills rather quickly. That, and while working on his efforts to understand the Etteria and everything Telga knew about it.

  The makeshift b in Varrick’s smithy had now been moved to a modest storage room, now that Cire’s expertise was being utilized. Adhesives, various chemicals for helping with Varrick’s work at the forge, and precursors for multiple items were getting put into py–including her now open book of alchemy, dealing with magical substances that had a trace of Etteria in it.

  He watched Cire examine the crystal with interest, and he’d been making his conjectures on it. He was studying magical materials from a notebook Varrick had lying around–most of it, general observations and copied from other sources. What he learned surprised him.

  Etteria didn’t just infuse into the people of the world, but the materials it was made of, too. It was what set these substances aside: it changed them, and transmuted them into something new altogether. The sample in front of him was intriguing. and mildly disturbing. that meant that part of him, too, had changed. And not just adding feathers and wings, either.

  “This is arite. It’s like aluminum, almost, but good for light armor,” he stated with interest. “It’s also susceptible to a few acids, and a few caustics, and is extremely light for its particur yield strength. I see someone has figured out how to standardize testing of these elements using yield, ultimate testing strength, and…something that almost looks like a Brinell hardness test.”

  “Who is Brinell?” Telga echoed, keen on watching the progress.

  “Someone associated with testing material hardness,” he expined. “We had standardized methods not unlike yours, but the precision and repeatability of data was higher. Lots of standardized testing to ensure variability could be attributed to known factors.”

  “Shawn, they’re not going to know what that is,” Cire sighed from her workbench, handling a small piece of Etteria in a case with thick gloves. “Nerd bird here will never stop talking about science if you let him.”

  “Nerd bird? Mood,” Shawn shot back. He examined the arite he’d been examining, wondering what he could do with it. The possibilities with magical materials could be endless. “It says here weapons made of arite are effective against some monsters. It's toxic to them. Though I doubt it would make a good bullet, I mean, how long would it take to kill them with a reaction to a metal?"

  "I've seen it. You smack a monster with certain materials, it hits their bloodstream fast," Regia commented, still busy with Varrick at another bench.

  Cire looked at them, annoyed. “Maybe we should focus on one thing at a time? I know you've been going full tilt on the gestalt use, but you're gonna get burned again. So, don't?” the way she scrunched her face, told him that she was worried about him.

  “It hasn't happened yet. I seem to be able to go longer without breaks,” he stated candidly. He’d even timed it using the weight-driven clock mounted on the wall. He was able to hold his fme going at low power for several more minutes than he used to before he could feel that pang of Etteria burn. “That’s not all. I can now use two powers at once.” Hoar frost climbed his cw tips on his right hand, and a small ball of fme hovered on his left, for a brief moment. “It takes a bit more focus, though.”

  “Fancy.” She looked delighted by this new advancement. “Any idea what you’re going to do?”

  “Yeah. I pn to make castings and forgings out of these powers. I can shape the force barriers with some manipution and I seem to have a delicate precision of holding the shape.” It was still a theory. But it could cut out a lot of steps of manufacturing complicated geometry. It was just going to take a lot of mental focus.

  Hey, where’s my credit? You still gotta tell her, because of all the people on this pnet, she’s likely the one to be trusted to keep this one close to the chest. I mean, it was your idea.

  Yeah. and then I realized the logistics of how weird it’s gonna sound. ‘Hi, I got turned into a bird, I got cool powers for fanning an industrial revolution, oh, and now I have an extra voice in my head. The odds are good she will flip out. He pretended to be busy with his notebook after the quick demonstration, while reying to Halsey how this needed to be treated delicately.

  “Right, but that’s not a pn, Shawn. That’s a step to other things,” Cire pointed out. “We have shy of a thousand people in this town.”

  “I know. Varrick’s shop has some decent stuff, but if we’re up against a Radiant who can turn whole cities to ash? We need more firepower, and we need it, fast. This means, we need to produce at scale, which means I need machines to speed it up. And we need Valtiria’s help,” he added, gncing at Telga.

  “They’re aware. They are also sending token amounts of equipment,” she added with a huff. He gnced at her skeptically. Revarik could possibly end the world, and no one seemed to be terrified of that concept yet.

  “Expin that one to me. You guys are self-professed gods, yet the people don’t seem eager to rally behind a banner to address Revarik.” Shawn had a theory and not a good one. “Let me guess, they don’t want to fight, and will become subservient once the first of those armies get here?”

  “I don’t think anyone grasps what he’s doing, the scale of which he’s doing it. It’s not willingness, so much as disbelief. They don’t think bad things can happen to them. Valtiria has been one of the most stable tectonic masses, along with several others in the outermost orbit. The one closest to us is Sati’fir, which has a massive popution compared to us. Their tech has slowly tricked to us. Everyone thinks they’ll be targeted first, and they’re ready for a fight."

  “So, that makes us a prime target,” Shawn stated with a gritted beak. “How was he allowed to accrue power like this?”

  “Revarik sat down there in the core world for years, after I left over a disagreement. I went down there when he started invading the innermost yers, as part of an ‘annexing’ event.” Telga sounded flustered at that notion. “I thought I could negotiate a ceasefire. Some kind of deal that ended hostilities. I knew my brother. He was always studious. But never ambitious.”

  “You let your family connection get the–”

  “I know.” she gred at him, eyes etched in anger. “I let my family retion to him get in the way. It clouded my perception that he was seeking power, and would never stop. He’s tried to kill me twice now, Shawn, thank you. I, of all people, know what he is capable of, and what we all stand to lose." She rubbed errantly at her neck--the pendant he'd seen before slipped out, and she csped it gently before tucking it back.

  “I can’t believe you two are reted. So, is being a Radiant is genetic?” Shawn pressed.

  “It can be,” she answered. For some reason, he felt that was a bit of a deflection. He decided to let it go, for now. “Being a Radiant comes with immense power. Everything you know about gestalts so far? It’s an exponentially higher power value for Radiants. At my peak, I could bring light to the darkest yers of the world, in pces where those sor crystals don’t have as much reach. I could defeat most monsters with ease. My power lent itself to great utility.”

  “Except you got nerfed. How?”

  “It doesn’t matter,” she stated distantly.

  “It does matter, if you want me to help figure out a way–”

  “Focus on the sample we have,” she stated with a snap of her beak. “That’s how we beat him. It was important enough that he had a lot of men studying it.”

  Halsey, she is being so sus right now. Are we sure we are betting on the right horse–I mean, bird? He thought worriedly as Telga went back to observing Cire’s work.

  She is clearly hiding something. You need to ask yourself the question, why? I think the answer to that one isn't going to come freely from her.

  Well, a few theories come to mind. One, she lost her power in a really stupid way. Two, the memory of the whole ordeal is too traumatic for her to even talk about it. Three…her survival hinged on doing something truly monstrous. He didn’t like any of those outcomes.

  Inconclusive. We don’t have all the facts. Let’s see what Cire has learned so far.

  Shawn cleared his throat before he leaned in. “Alright, Cire, so what do we make of the Etteria, so far?” he asked cautiously. Regia had been sitting idly, looking at the rifles with Varrick. Whenever she wasn’t at the barracks, was hanging out near him, or Telga.

  You know something, Halsey? As weird as it sounds…Regia might be dateable material. She’s hel dangerous, feisty…and fun. He tried to not let a small smile emerge, but Regia caught it.

  “What are you smiling at? Mad science?”

  “Yes. We put the mad, in mad science around here,” he stated passionately. “You know, before I got sling-shotted here to the other end of the universe, I had made some tech for metal sintering printers that would have created an all-in-one fabrication technology to make various components. As long as you could get the right metal and the right setup? You could make simple to moderately complex mechanical parts, anywhere in the world.”

  “I have…no idea what that means,” she sighed. “I know a lot of things, but that isn't my area of experience.”

  “I could use electrical magic to make parts. Armor, weapons, water wheels, whatever you could think of.”

  “Was that all of your work?” she sounded mildly impressed.

  “Partially. I was on a team of five, in a retively small company–guild, if you will,” he corrected when she raised an eyebrow. “I had the concept and the portion of programming the device’s machine path logic. The heat dissipation rate, and the cooling required to make the parts weld together. All that, using complex machines, with detailed instructions, to make that happen.”

  “Any chance you could replicate that, here? I like the idea of having consistent parts on the damn rifles, rather than mixing and matching what may fit,” she muttered.

  “Part standardization? Yeah, one of many things we’d have to consider.” Shawn watched Cire pick up a standard Etteria crystal, gleaming dully, using a pair of tongs to keep it away from her hands. She was also wearing heavy gloves and a protective coat, so she didn’t accidentally put it in contact with her body. She had been running several chemical tests, using what she had on the bench.

  “Shawn, this material is…impossible.”

  “Okay. Tell me what makes it impossible.”

  “Well, for one thing, this thing just gives off energy. It glows when we pull it out of that solution they store it in.” she pointed at it for emphasis. “Is it a possible exposure to oxygen? It’s not an exothermic reaction: no heat.”

  “Okay. So it glows. That means it is constantly emitting energy. Uh…it's not radioactive, is it?”

  “I'd have to build a Geiger counter to verify. But given almost everyone in this world has it inside their body, I’m going to go with a resounding no. This thing pys to a whole different tune of physics. I mean, it has weight, and I don't dare to try a hardness check or other destructive means on our one sample. Or check its reactivity to common chemicals.”

  “Anything passive we can check?”

  Cire then attempted to tap it with a gss stirring rod, and the crystal emitted a ringing note that felt like it resonated through his body. That vibration was strongest in his chest, and he ran his finger against his chest uneasily. Almost everyone in the room did the same, except Cire.

  “Yeah, that’s not creepy at all,” Cire muttered. “Did that hurt?”

  “No, and I don’t think we should py with magic rocks like that again.” He still felt a slight vibration that lingered and sent a tremble down his limbs–likely, his etteria network. “Anything else?”

  “Well, there were a few fragments from the other sample I’m willing to test. It reacts with organic material and seems to dissolve into it. But it doesn’t add mass, if I read the scales right. Which is…strange.” She pushed away from the bench, fatigued. “It doesn’t dissolve in water, it doesn’t react with most acids and bases that we have access to. At least, not at the time scales I’ve exposed it to, but they’re little fragments. Not a lot of mass to go with.”

  “What about normal Etteria?” Shawn inquired.

  “We have some of that. Now, for obvious reasons I can’t touch the stuff, because you know, I don’t want to go through a traumatic transformation,” she added sourly. “It is better documented, at least. It can be combined with various metals in an alloying process, but you also have to heat it for that to happen. It reacts with various chemicals in somewhat predictable ways and has some kind of oxide yer, because I cut a tiny piece, and the texture and coloration changed over time."

  “We need a wizard, not a chemist,” Shawn sighed.

  “Noted. But magical materials? Shawn, it could take me years to study this stuff, assuming I had a proper b.” she gnced at the crystal sitting in the casing, and locked it back up. “Telga, this is a dead end. We have one sample. We need more to test on.”

  “Oh, sure, I’ll just march back to the world core and go on an errand run,” Telga replied sourly. “I don’t think you realize what it took to get there the first time.”

  “Or, what it took to get us back alive,” Regia added grimly.

  “Guys, we can’t work from incomplete information,” Shawn interjected. Meanwhile, he practiced with the rime frost to coat evenly over a small force barrier he held with one cw. He dissipated the barrier, and a small icy sphere remained that eventually cracked as the surface warmed up to the ambient air. Once he made a force barrier and gave it shape, it took minimal mental effort to keep it in shape, much to his satisfaction. “Why’s that Etteria so valuable? If it’s useless to Revarik, if he can’t just absorb more of it, why are you worried?”

  “We don’t know the exact reason, but we do know that Revarik unearthed it from a sealed chamber they were running surveys on, and it was a set of three distinct crystals. One was already gone. We took the other two, on the way out,” Telga answered. “I don’t know what else sets this Etteria aside, other than they revered it as something important. Or dangerous. Revarik’s men tend to be a little zealous, and don’t speak…logically.”

  “That doesn’t sound ominous at all,” Shawn muttered. “That uh, that crystal is now inside me. Let’s hope he never gets wind of where it is, because it probably won’t end well for anyone. Especially me. Cire, keep digging, and see what else you can find about the Etteria that makes it different from the normal stuff. I’m going back to work.”

  “To do what, exactly?” Cire asked, already pulling more chemicals out.

  “We need that mine open for the materials I need." He shifted his gaze to the others. "Telga, I need you to solve the manpower problem. I’m going back to train with Garrett, and we're clearing out the mine, whatever is in there. I need materials to upgrade our current weapons and manufacturing means and ways to chemically process certain ores. You should come, too.”

  “Ah hell no, Shawn, I don’t have a gestalt–” she stopped and sighed. “Crap, that was a little two-faced of me. I’m just scared of it…you know, killing me. The Etteria, I mean.”

  “Not exactly an unfounded fear.” He was worried about that. “Look, at some point or another, we are going to be in a fight with Revarik. His slow roll invasion works to our advantage. If it comes to it, Cire? You should be deadly, rather than at risk of being unable to fight back. Because this guy won’t hesitate to make us ghosts.”

  “I wish I had your confidence we can get through this, Shawn,” she sighed. “On the plus side, I did learn something useful.”

  “Oh?”

  “I know how to upgrade our weapons,” she grinned. “Turns out, that alchemical gel is part of the solution. You had the right idea about it serving as a primer.”

  “What’s the other part?”

  “Gunpowder.” she tapped a small container filled with a fine, grey, granur substance. “We had just enough materials on hand to make a decent sized batch. Either one of the materials, by themselves? They work. Combine them…and we’re gonna make ourselves a den of dead monsters.”

  "I like dead monsters, almost as much as I like dead zealots." He leaned into the idea a little. Let's get prototyping, then."

  AnnouncementThey had gunpower, but they didn't have good gunpowder.

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