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# Build variables
BASEBDIR=./build
BDIR=$(BASEBDIR)/`git show --oneline | head -1 | cut -d" " -f1`
SDIR=./src
BNAME=promise-`git show --oneline | head -1 | cut -d" " -f1`
CONF=default.cfg
SOURCE=main.tex
TEMP=templ.tex
# Author and metadata
# THESE FIELDS MAY NOT CONTAIN ANY SEMICOLONS!
TITLE=A Promise
PENNAME=Liette Faerchild
LEGALNAME=Ren Kararou
PRONOUNS=fae/faer
STREETADDR=1010 Fake Blvd
LASTADDR=Denver, CO
EMAIL=ren@kararou.space
PHONE=(303)555-4202
all: pdf epub word cleanbuild timestamp
timestamp: mkbuild
if [ -f $(BDIR)/$(BNAME).epub ]; then mv $(BDIR)/$(BNAME).epub $(BDIR)/$(BNAME)-`date -u +%d%m%y-%H%M`.epub; fi
if [ -f $(BDIR)/$(BNAME).pdf ]; then mv $(BDIR)/$(BNAME).pdf $(BDIR)/$(BNAME)-`date -u +%d%m%y-%H%M`.pdf; fi
if [ -f $(BDIR)/$(BNAME).docx ]; then mv $(BDIR)/$(BNAME).docx $(BDIR)/$(BNAME)-`date -u +%d%m%y-%H%M`.docx; fi
mkbuild:
if [ ! -d $(BDIR) ]; then mkdir -p $(BDIR); fi
mktemp: mkbuild
if [ ! -f $(BDIR)/$(TEMP) ]; then cp $(SDIR)/$(SOURCE) $(BDIR)/$(TEMP); fi
wordcount: mktemp
# This only works when you've got
sed -i "s;WORDCOUNT;`cat $(SDIR)/chapters/*.tex | wc -w`;g" \
$(BDIR)/$(TEMP)
repo: mktemp
sed -i "s;REPO;`git remote get-url origin`;g" $(BDIR)/$(TEMP)
title: mktemp
sed -i "s;PROJECT;$(TITLE);g" $(BDIR)/$(TEMP)
phone: mktemp
sed -i "s;PHONE;$(PHONE);g" $(BDIR)/$(TEMP)
pen: mktemp
sed -i "s;PENNAME;$(PENNAME);g" $(BDIR)/$(TEMP)
# Change the following line's -f# to decide which name to use
# LNAME needs to be the family name.
sed -i "s;SNAME;`echo $(PENNAME) | cut -d" " -f2`;g" $(BDIR)/$(TEMP)
email: mktemp
sed -i "s;EMAIL;$(EMAIL);g" $(BDIR)/$(TEMP)
3ppn: mktemp
sed -i "s;PRONOUNS;$(PRONOUNS);g" $(BDIR)/$(TEMP)
addr: mktemp
sed -i "s;STREETADDR;$(STREETADDR);g" $(BDIR)/$(TEMP)
sed -i "s;LASTADDR;$(LASTADDR);g" $(BDIR)/$(TEMP)
lname: mktemp
sed -i "s;LEGALNAME;$(LEGALNAME);g" $(BDIR)/$(TEMP)
template: mktemp wordcount repo title phone pen email 3ppn addr lname
if [ -f $(BDIR)/$(TEMP) ]; \
then mv $(BDIR)/$(TEMP) $(BDIR)/$(SOURCE); \
else cp $(SDIR)/$(SOURCE) $(BDIR)/$(SOURCE); \
fi
pdf: template
pdflatex -jobname=$(BNAME) -output-directory=$(BDIR) $(BDIR)/$(SOURCE)
epub: template
tex4ebook -f epub -c $(SDIR)/$(CONF) -j $(BNAME) $(BDIR)/$(SOURCE)
mv $(BNAME).epub $(BDIR)
word: template
pandoc $(BDIR)/$(SOURCE) -o $(BDIR)/$(BNAME).docx
spellcheck:
for c in $(SDIR)/chapters/*.tex; do aspell -t -c $${c}; done
cleanbuild:
rm -rf $(BDIR)/*.log $(BDIR)/*.aux $(BDIR)/*.toc $(BDIR)/$(TEMP) \
$(BDIR)/$(SOURCE) ./*.opf ./*.html ./*.aux ./*.css ./*.dvi \
./*-epub/ ./*-mobi/ ./*.idv ./*.lg ./*.log ./*.toc ./*.xref \
./*.4ct ./*.4tc ./*.ncx ./*.tmp $(SDIR)/chapters/*.bak
clean: cleanbuild
rm -rf $(BASEBDIR)

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# A Promise
## Description
In the distant future where corporations rule most of Earth and space, Talon is
a software developer at Eastern Hills Space Company, one of the leading space
travel and defense corporations in the world. Eilidh is a runner, someone who
actively causes mayhem for corporate interests. After being blessed by a
goddess, Talon finds himself in a new role, learning magic and protecting
corporate secrets. Eilidh finds herself being forced into a role alongside
Talon. Romance blossoms. Secrets are revealed. Promises are made.
---
This is the LaTeX formatted source-code for _A Promise_, a trans-lesbian story
set in the space-faring future of 2157. With Magic. Because fuck you why not?
_A Promise_ pulls very loose inspiration from _Ryn of Avonside_ and _Digital
Galaxies_ both by the fantastic transbian fiction author QuietValerie.
## Author
- Kararou Ren
- [github](https://github.com/karaiwulf)
- [git](https://git.kararou.space/karaiwulf)
- [blog](https://lesbianunix.dev/)
- [scribblehub](https://www.scribblehub.com/profile/61134/karaiwulf/)
## Editors
- Kararou Makoto
- [git](https://git.kararou.space/makoto)
- [scribblehub](https://www.scribblehub.com/profile/71436/karakoto/)
## License
This work is licensed under the CreativeCommons Attribution NonCommercial
ShareAlike International License version 4. You can read the full licensing
terms by reading the contents of LICENSE located at the root of this
repository.
## Contributing
If you wish to modify and contribute, you must follow the style guide, found
below. From there, issue a pull request with your changes. All PRs will be
reviewed by the current editor(s) and the author(s).
Modifications to the build system are expected to have been tested, but will be
tested again.
### Style guide
The only real requirements are that you follow the 80 character per line rule.
In vim, this is easy to set. Simply issue a `:set tw=79` and be on your way.
Additionally, issuing vim command `gqG` applies textwidth from current mark to
end of document, while issuing `gq}` will set for current paragraph.
### Git Arch
We are now leveraging the fact that we have a git server. Development and
editing will be done on the same branch, one for each new chapter.
canon should only contain ready to ship chapters.
Edits in clones of the repo can be done however, and pull requests must be to
canon.

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# Eastern Hills Space Company
Manufacturer of spacecraft and spacecraft parts. A megacorporation with
an arcology located where the city of Melbourne, Florida used to stand.
Headquartered in beautiful Denver, Colorado, where it keeps all of its top
secret projects such as flight software and its magically-enhanced Special
Operations Strike Force.
## Datapoints
* HQ: 110 Colfax Ave. Denver, Colorado Free State
* CEO: Baylee MacKinley
* Glb Prft: 13 Trillion Credits (Annaul)
* Industries: Transport, Aviation, Aeronautics, Military Contracting
* Bst Product: EH 794 General Purpose Space Craft
* Stck Tckr: EHSC
* Stck $$: 13000cr/share
* Stck Prj: +14.3%
* Est.: 2025

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# Eastern Hills Special Operations Strike Force
A strike team developed after the EHSC discovered Magic in 2091 with the
express purpose of cutting down existential threats to the company. The team
was quickly placed under the research and development unit in order for the
EHSC to discover more about magic and aid the strike team with combat equipment
developed in house.
It quickly became known that mages were a much more well balanced soldier,
better at more general magic than other magic users, and were awarded officer
positions within the command structure of the strike force.
## Datapoints
* HQ: 1910 Colfax Ave. Building 35 Denver, Colorado Free State
* Parnt Dept: Research and Development
* CO: Ai Tamaki of the Pale Goddess
* Status: Active
* Members: 48
* Missions: 375: 339 success + 36 fail (historical data lost)
## Known Officers
* Commanding Officer Ai Tamaki
* Medical Officer Lucere "Lucy" Manafed
* Surveillance Officer Avalon Davis
* Technology Officer Xela Melrose
* Tactical Officer Vivian Young
* Communications Officer Valentine Sheer
* Engineering Officer Margaret Hamilton

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# Ai Tamaki
A mage in her early twenties. Long slightly wavy white hair. Deep red eyes
filled with a shimmering light.
## Datapoints
```
DOB: 19 March 2135
Age: 23
Prn: she/her
Eye: red
Hair: white
Hgt: 5'
Wgt: 112 lbs
Ntnl: JP
```
## Weapon Choice
She likes the set of true tamahagane swords she inherited from her father. The
hamon on each blade is the clover pattern that's signature of a line of well
respected bladesmiths from the late 20th century.

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# Avalon Davis
A mage in her mid twenties. Long straight black hair. Glowing blue eyes like
sapphires.
## Datapoints
```
DOB: 2 July 2131
Age: 26
Prn: she/her
Eye: blue
Hair: black
Hgt: 6ft 5in
Wgt: 142 lbs
Ntnl: UK
```
## Weapon Choice
She's a feisty bitch on the battlefield. Her main weapon is a short barrel
revolver. She leaves half of the chambers unloaded and simply uses magic for
every other shot.

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# Excalibur Strike Industries
The premier privately contracted military corporation.
## Datapoints
* HQ: 1 XCAL St. New York City, Excalibur Corporate State
* CEO: Inun Petroski
* Glb Prft: 45 Trillion Credits (Annaul)
* Industries: Military Contracting
* Bst Product: Military and Security Services
* Stck Tckr: XCAL
* Stck $$: 45000cr/share
* Stck Prj: +30.4%
* Est.: 2064

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# Magic
Yes that's right! Its *real*. What a concept, I know. Magic is all based
around a few things, but no matter where you are in the universe, a few laws
hold true:
1. Magic is Everywhere
Which means, you always have a supply external to your own magic.
2. Magic is Localized
Which means that the given magic within the universe gets pushed and pulled or
otherwise pools in areas. Just because magic is everywhere doesn't mean that
its distributed evenly.
3. Magic is Wild
Magic, while it can be controlled, cannot be tamed. Fitting too much magic
into a single area can cause spontaneous ignition of the latent energy to
violent effect.
## Magic Users
There are several kinds of magic users within the universe (and many more in
other universes). Each is different, but most share a lot of overlap.
* Mage
Mages are the generalists of the magic users. Each mage has been gifted their
ability to use magic by a deity. These deities have given their blessing with
no contract, bargain, or other pact.
* DemiMage
A demimage is similar to a mage, with two major exceptions: the magic granted
by their deity is much less powerful; and they are only capable of casting
magic from within a subset of types. Each type can very from demimage to
demimage.
* Magicker
Magickers are specialized magic users, only capable of casting a limited range
of spells, most only being able to cast one type of spell. These people have
made deals, signed contracts, or otherwise given something up to acquire the
blessing of their deity.
* Bracer
Bracers are the odd folk out of this bunch. They don't have magic in terms of
being able to use it. When magic is concentrated into an area, but stabilized
to avoid violent explosions, crystaline structures begin to form. These
crystaline structures can then be used and directed by those who posses magical
artefacts.
* Artificer
Artificers are a very special group of magic users. They have been blessed by
no deity. Instead, they've studied how to craft artefacts, objects that can
stabilize, direct, and attune magic.

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The day was as normal as any other. I sat by in the corner of my long dusty
room, tapping away at the keys of the laptop provided by my employer. Writing
one steady line of code after another. Today was the day that the team would
be assigned tasks. I'd been late with my tasks this week, another matter all
on its own.
"Have to check the mutex here," I mumbled to myself, a fresh line of code
spilling onto the screen in step with the little taps on the keyboard. I was
already in the hot pot for a slew of other events. A lack of focus for the
last month had caused my productivity to slip. Just a few more lines and I
could start running tests.
With the tests underway, I got up and walked to the mini-fridge. It wasn't a
far walk, just a few meters away. The whole apartment was rather small,
hosting enough room for my twin bed, a small kitchenette, a rather small
closet, the restroom, and the mini-fridge I was now in front of. I opened the
door of the small box and pulled one of my last sodas, some cherry-vanilla
flavored drink.
"I guess it's time to get dressed for the meeting," I sighed. I hated seeing
myself on camera, but since I stopped coming to the office (a rather short
affair given it was just downstairs), management wanted the cameras on during
meetings. Constant social anxiety caused me to resent all of my peers. My
brain was just messed up like that. At least, it was recently.
Anxiety welled up inside me as I picked out a business casual outfit to put on.
Just a few more meetings until the project was complete, right? I didn't know
anymore. Time was a hard concept to grasp when your circadian rhythm was an
ever-changing beast nobody could tame.
I looked into the remaining shards of mirror hanging above the sink and a sigh
escaped by throat, a much longer, deeper sigh. I should have made sure there
were no shards left the last time I punched the mirror out. A tear rolled down
my cheek. Another crying fit, as if I hadn't had enough in the last two
months.
I looked down at my hands, trying to avoid the specter in the mirror. In a
shout of frustration, I had found more glass in my hands. Damn it. I'd have
to fix my fists before the meeting. Again. I was crying harder now. Not
because I was in pain, but because I couldn't control myself. I had no clue
what was causing this, and I wished it would stop tormenting me.
A quick shower and a decent amount of scrubbing later, my hands were no longer
bleeding. I just couldn't be too rough on them or they'd split open again. In
that moment I wished I could have more control over myself, manage my emotions
better. Instead of letting them overflow into pain, resentment, and...
whatever that feeling I didn't have a name for was.
The rest of my day was nominally uneventful until the meeting. I had pulled an
all-nighter to get the projects assigned to me done, so I was reasonably tired
by the time the meeting came around. I could feel myself dozing off.
"Talon!" a deep voice erupted from my laptop, "wake up you moron!"
My eyes rushed open as fast as they could. I was greeted by many faces, all
with looks of concern save one. The red faced man was the manager of the
project, Kaden. He was also new to the project. The other faces in the call
were concerned, mostly.
"Hey Talon," another man said, cutting off Kaden, "are you doing okay bro?
We've all been worried sick about you, but things have really taken a turn in
the last few weeks..." he trailed off. I felt pangs of worry and hurt as I
properly processed my name being said this time. Who was that? Vance. He
must have been referring to my recent tiredness during the meetings.
Vance was overall a good guy. Just trying to get things together and make sure
the team was good. His heart laid with the project though. At least he was a
bit of a humanist when it came down to making sure the project went smoothly.
Can't let colleagues having a bad month setback our timeline. Now that I
thought about it, I needed to do code review for a few of his revisions.
"I'm fine," I muttered, lying, "Just had to pull an all nighter with this set
of problems. After the meeting I'll take care of whatever revisions I need to
review, then take care of whatever projects I can, then go to bed."
"Don't worry," another developer spoke up, "we'll give you the light load this
week." Brent. Another good guy. Just sometimes really weird. Not like I
could talk.
"Thank you," I said, genuinely, "I appreciate that, though if all aren't in
agreement, I can take one of the other workloads." There were unanimous nods
from all but one. Kaden. He's new. \emph{I should give him the benefit of%
the doubt, shouldn't I?}
"Kaden!" another senior developer exclaimed, "Talon's just been having an off
month. His code is top notch and beyond stellar. We should let him recover."
A pang of pain shot through me. I wasn't sure why. I didn't know this
developer's name, though he's certainly seen my code. He wasn't lying either.
My code was top notch.
"I don't care!" Kaden yelled, still red in the face, "If I don't see your face
in my office this afternoon, Talon, I'll put word in to your manager."
I chuckled slightly at his threat. My manager was already mostly aware of what
was going on, and my job wasn't in jeopardy.
"What's so funny? Do I look funny to you?"
"Just dole out the assignments for the week," I said, plainly. "I'm not coming
down to your office. You've already yelled at me enough in an unprofessional
way. Just because you manage the project \emph{doesn't} mean that you're
somehow in control of my job. That is my manager's decision."
Kaden's face went red as a tomato and I got a few cheers from the other
developers, but others simply responded with worry.
"Talon," one spoke up, a thin figure of a woman, "don't speak of being
unprofessional while you respond in kind. We know there's friction, but at
least respect the appearance of authority." Becky, I think her name was. It
didn't matter.
"Just," I started, then gave up, letting out a big sigh, "let me know what my
assignments are. I'll start working on code review now." I hit the big red
'hang up' button.
Anxiety pushed me over the edge and before I knew it I was crying again. Why
had I done that? What stupid thing possessed me to take a hostile course of
action?
I shoved myself into bed and pulled the covers up over my head. Easy way to
hide from the anxiety. Fuck. Why had I done that? Why had I done that?
I could hear the dings of direct messages coming in. I pulled my head out from
under my covers and checked them. A few asked if I was okay. A few cheered my
actions on. A few told me I should have been a little more tactful. And my
manager, Esmerelda. I opened the DM window.
\textbf{Esmerelda}: Hey. I just heard about what happened. Kaden's really
pissed off and Becky feels awful. Do you need some time off?
\textbf{Talon}: No, I don't need any time off. I just need Kaden to get off
his high horse. He's only been here a week and he's already threatening my
job.
\textbf{Esmerelda}: LOL. -er sorry. Don't worry. He's being corrected. The
whole team have had issues with his... behaviors. Especially the women.
\textbf{Talon}: Ugh. Of course. When it comes time to fire him, let me walk
him out the door. It'll be a big momentous occasion for him to see me afk.
\textbf{Esmerelda}: I understand. I'll see what I can arrange. Don't get your
hopes up. \underline{Here} is this weeks work. The team decided to give you
only one task to work on, on account of your all-nighter. Be careful Talon. I
don't need you working yourself into the ground.
I chuckled to myself slightly and clicked the link. The web browser opened to
our issue tracker with a list of open issues. Only one was assigned to me.
\textbf{[OPEN] [Flight] [Debug] [Regression] Current Version not decoding data%
correctly}
I switched tabs to the version control software and counted the reviews I had
to do. Three. Not bad. I can knock them out in an hour. Probably. If I
don't break down crying or fall asleep.
I began with the first review in the queue. I found it to be passable, and
gave it an approval. The second was less passable, so I rejected it and wrote
a quick note about the test that it failed, and the overall syntax and format
of the code.
The third review was Vance's. It was actually far better than all of his
previous submissions. I gave it an approval and wrote a very good note on it,
complimenting all of the techniques he'd learned since his last code review,
then gave some further advice for more improvement.
I copied the link to the note and sent it to the general chat. Good work
deserved public recognition, after all.
Then I began work on the open issue. It was relatively easy. A parser wasn't
working properly. A quick test to confirm that was actually the case. And it
was, but I was working on a development branch, so my errors were actually a
lot more strange than the examples provided in the ticket.
I quickly did some digging through the version control system, finding every
edit to this particular subroutine since the last version, then went through
them line by line. Nothing that would cause this garbled mess of data stood
out at me. I took note of which functions were being used in the subroutine
and examined each of them for changes.
Two functions had massive changes, and one had several sets of changes since
the last version. I took a look through it first. It was a deserialize
function, so it made the most sense to look at anyway.
Another few hours and I had found the problem. A stray line someone had let
through code review. It wouldn't have caused any other problems because the
other use cases for the deserialize function wouldn't be passing as much data
as this particular user.
The line was easy to fix. All I did was change the way that the data was
processed to ensure there were no overflows during data consumption. Counting
data was easy, but not if you're using a counter that rolls over at 32,767. If
any structures came in longer than that, it would roll over to -32,768, causing
the subroutine to exit early.
I then got to work writing a test that would make sure the function was tested
to its actual expected data size. I crafted an example serialized structure
that was nearly 100,000 bytes longer than any real data would have been, just
in case.
It was now nearly midday, but all my work for the week was done. I let out a
big sigh, and set the code to do a full rebuild. Setting the laptop on my
nightstand and ensuring that it was plugged in, I settled myself into bed.
My mind drifted around, not finding a particular topic to settle on before bed.
This was a fairly frequent occurrence, but today was especially bad. So I
settled on looking around my apartment.
It was a single room, of course, with an attached bathroom. My bed was nestled
into a corner, so I could see the whole room. The brick walls near my head
made sure that there was always a slight chill, so I could sleep easier. Not
that it ever helped.
On the other side of the room from my bed was the kitchen. A simple affair,
really. A small counter for preparing food, a little fridge, a sink, and a
simple range. You could almost be forgiven for not knowing this campus was the
cutting edge of space travel by looking at it. Next to the kitchen was the
door. Then a small closet containing my sparse sets of clothing. Then the
bathroom with the broken mirror.
In the other corner was my workstation, for all the good it did. There was
nothing I did on it anymore. Most days I didn't even get out of bed anymore.
Just booted up my laptop and worked. I let loose another sigh and looked
toward the bedside table.
The laptop's screen was only barely bright, compared to the sunlight that
leaked through the window just beyond it. My last thought before sleep came
was about how I should find a better way to block the light that filtered in
from that single window.
Next thing I knew, I stood before a big brown stone building. If I turned
around I could see the familiar fountain at the center of the campus. The
building in front of me was unmarked. Nobody knew what was inside it, either.
And women were the only people you could see going in or out, if you saw them
at all.
I was dreaming again, that much was obvious, to me at least. I'd seen this
building every time I'd slept since I'd seen it. The last several months it
had gotten far worse. I'd once asked my manager about it.
"What's in that brown stone building at the back of the campus?" I cringed as I
heard the reflection of my own voice in my thoughts.
Of course, she'd not known either. And she was told to ignore it in its
entirety. She'd instructed me to do the same. I figured I should heed that
warning. But my brain always had different plans. I visited the outside of
this building so many times in my dreams, it was getting tiring.
"Hello, Talon," a voice chimed, "We meet again."
"I've never been here," I said, then asked, "so how can we have met the first
time?" I turned to look at her. She was beautiful. Her blonde hair perfectly
accenting her slender face. Her green eyes nearly the same color as
aventurine.
She leaned over in a quick bow, the long sleeves of her dress almost concealing
the errant movement her hand had made. "It won't be long before you meet me,
don't worry."
I blinked. Was this a dream? And why was she so pretty, but so weird?
"Yes and no," she answered, "its more like an alternate space inside your mind.
And I'm not really that weird." I could feel her staring at me as my face
became slightly contorted with confusion and fear.
"But how can you be here, in my dream?" I asked aloud, terrified that she had
read my mind only a moment before. I needed answers, my curiosity wouldn't let
the unanswered questions stand.
"No need to be scared," she said, "but we will meet outside of here soon."
"What's that mean?" I asked. Even more questions were rattling around in the
back of my head now, but she didn't appear ready to answer them. Even now I
could feel the anxiety building up in me.
"Nothing you need to worry about with that anxiety laden heart of yours," she
said gently, reaching out and cupping my face in her hands, "I'll see you
soon." She planted a gentle kiss on my forehead. "Now wake up."
I jolted out of my nap. The full build hadn't even completed yet. Why would
it have? I'd only been asleep an hour. My head clouded, I still tried to
shake the sleep from my eyes. My body was very awake, despite the fog in my
brain.
I felt like I was running a fever, so I went into the bathroom and took another
shower, the water set as hot as it would go. Of course it burned a little, but
that was the point.
Having a hot shower tells your body that your environment is hot, so it's
supposed to self regulate and lower your temperature. At least, in theory.
I went back to bed and fell asleep almost instantly. No dreams this time.
Just deep, deep sleep.
I woke up to my laptop ringing. I rolled out of bed just barely in time to
watch the call end. I missed it. I clicked on the phone application and it
opened up.
I tried checking the call log as another call window popped up on the screen.
It was Esmerelda. I sat up and tried to gather myself for a second, then
answered it.
"Hey Esmie," I said toward the laptop.
"Hey Tal," she replied, "look, I'm sorry, but you have two visitors headed up
to your apartment. I tried to get a hold of you, but it looks like they were
in a hurry."
I sighed. "Alright, thanks for the heads up." She hung up.
The next three minutes were me frantically getting on a set of casual clothes
and packing my kit. A simple set of black cargo pants and a nicely fitting tee
shirt. Unironically these were the best looking clothes I had; I'd nearly \
ruined all the others.
My kit was simple, to be sure. Laptop, phone, compact set of lock picks, and a
small device used for wireless sniffing. Call me crazy if you'd like, but I
had this thing on all the time when I left my apartment.
A knock at the door. I took a breath and moved to open it. My fever was
making things a little harder than I had anticipated.
As the door opened, I saw two beautiful women standing in my entryway. One was
wearing a beautiful flowing blue dress that matched her eyes. I was captivated
by her eyes. They were like glowing sapphires. "Davis," she said, holding out
her hand.
"Young," I replied, "I'd shake your hand but I'm kinda feverish right now."
"We're actually here about that," the other woman said. She was a beautiful
young woman wearing a finely tailored suit. Her eyes were a dark color, but
they shined with a bright light. "I'm Tamaki. We're with Research and
Development. Special intelligence division."
"Okay," I said, "and this has what to do with my fever?"
"We'll explain under more secure circumstances," Tamaki said, "but you really
need to come with us before it gets worse."
"Define secure circumstances," I said.
"We have a secure facility here on campus," Davis said, her eyes captivating me
again. It was like I didn't have a way to really combat her gaze. It was hard
to focus on anything else.
"Okay," I said, "let's go, then."
They walked down the hall a bit, before Tamaki stopped and turned around, then
said, "and whatever's making that horrible noise in your bag needs to be turned
off."
I turned each of my devices off as we walked down the hall. Each of them on
either side of me. During this time I noticed that they were armed. Davis had
a pistol, I couldn't tell what kind. Tamaki had a short sword, it looked
Japanese, but I wasn't sure.
We'd turned the corner toward the stairs, a quick two minute walk, when Kaden
had spotted us. He was at the top of the stairs talking to someone at the
bottom. He gave the women around me a look over and a quick courteous smile.
He gave me a smug look.
"So, Talon," Kaden said, sarcasm dripping from his voice, "what'd you do to get
walked out by sexy security officers?"
"Got a fever," I said, a wry smile on my face. It was there to cover up the
anxiety.
"I called security and told them you're fired," he said, that smug look still
there.
"We're Research and Development," Tamaki said, "and you are?"
"Kaden," he said, extending his hand, "Project Manager for Flight Software."
"Oh," Davis replied, "you manage Young's project. I suppose that makes sense,
this is the flight software building." She merely shrugged.
"We're taking Mr. Young for opportunities you couldn't possibly understand,
Elon," Tamaki said, "it is okay if I call you Elon, right?"
Kaden was caught off guard. He opened and closed his mouth a few times. "I
suppose," he stammered. "How did you know my name?"
"Magic," she replied, pausing for a moment, "or something akin, now, we don't
have much time to loiter, please give us a six foot berth."
"Definitely security," he mumbled as he stepped away from the stairway to the
wall.
We moved as a group again. As we descended the stairs, Tamaki moved in front
of me while Davis smoothly stepped behind me. They easily took position on
either side of me once we'd cleared the stairs. My office was in full view
now.
The looks I'd been given walking out of the building with two extremely
beautiful women gave me an odd sense of terror. Either they'd get the wrong
idea, or they'd get the right idea.
"Don't worry," Tamaki said as we passed through the buildings large glass
doors, "the likelihood of you interacting with these people again is extremely
low."
"Why's that?" I asked, slightly alarmed.
"Those in our department are considered classified," she replied, a smile on
her face, "besides, we aren't very personable people, so it works out fine."
We'd already walked to the water fixture. It was a large pond with a statue of
an airplane in the middle. The Eastern Hills Space Company's first product,
back when the company was named Eastern Hills Aerodynamics. A design
commissioned by the United States Space Force nearly 120 years ago.
It was a space jet. I mean, it was a really cool fighter jet capable of
operation in both low Earth orbit and in atmosphere. But it was also just a
space jet.
Honestly, thinking about it made my head hurt. The company had to build a
whole new engine to get the damn thing to work and I couldn't really imagine
how hard that engineering team worked. They must have put in more overtime
than the company could have afforded.
"Young," Tamaki said, breaking me from my thought, "you okay? We need to keep
moving, we don't have enough time to be admiring the art."
"Sorry," I mumbled, "I guess my brain is just taking vacation on me."
"We need to hurry," Davis said, "you wanna?"
"Yeah, that's probably for the best," Tamaki replied. Then she whispered
something quickly. It sounded almost Gaelic. Before I could contemplate more
on it, my brain went fuzzy.

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I'd been planning this run for a week. I wasn't going to let a small
abnormality stop my attempt on the biggest corp I'd ever taken on alone. It
simply wasn't an option.
"You can't make this run, Eilidh," the middle-aged woman yelled at me from the
other side of the living room, "It is far too dangerous and you've clearly not
prepared enough." She was my hookup, someone who fielded and verified clients,
and also the closest person I've ever had to a mother.
She was irate because I'd decided to infiltrate the Eastern Hills Space Company
at their Denver Headquarters in order to steal as much data as I could walk out
with. I was going to start preparing for the run in just a few hours, and
Berdie just didn't want me to go.
"I know you think it's dangerous," I admitted to her with a sigh. There was no
decent way for me to say this without Berdie feeling bad. "We haven't had a
proper payday in almost a month and you need your medicine."
"We have so many credits saved up still," Berdie protested. She held her frail
lips in such a tight frown. Under the dim lighting in our safehouse, you could
barely tell she was frowning; it was so thin. Her eyes were what really gave
it away.
"I don't care if we have a million credits saved up," I countered, "Your
medicine would wipe it all out in just a few months."
Berdie narrowed her eyes in anger. You could almost feel the daggers she'd
started staring at me. "At least I care enough about you not to lose myself to
something completely insane!" Berdie yelled, throwing a glass across the room
at me. She missed; it burst against the wall behind me.
I sighed. "Would it help ease your worry if I hired an analyst to help me
through this?" I asked, pushing my blue hair out of my eyes.
"Yes, but you're planning for \emph{tonight}," she continued protesting, "You
better not be basing this heist off of a small enough amount of data that an
analyst can analyze it all in twelve hours!"
"Even if I've got an analyst who I've been working with for the whole thing?" I
asked, batting my eyes innocently. After all, I had one friend I trusted
unconditionally with all my data, and he'd been looking at it all along.
Marvin was his name. He was the hacker I sold all of my data to. He'd resell
it on various bulletin board systems, BBSes, or hand it directly to other teams
making runs similar to mine.
Berdie was silent for a while as she mulled through this. "Marvin doesn't
count; Eilidh you know that."
"Yes, Mother," I whined. Why did she always have to ruin my fun? I was trying
to take care of her. The corps that made her medicine were all making back
room deals so they could charge an arm and a leg for it. Even though the
formula for her medicine had been leaked by runners, we still couldn't
manufacture it ourselves. The equipment needed to do so was, similarly to the
medicine itself, far beyond the price range of any makers I knew of. It was
also incredibly hard to steal.
Eastern Hills Space Company was just a single step towards that much larger
goal: I eventually wanted to liberate the machines that PharmaCo used to build
its meds. If we became a burrow in the Colorado Free State with one, we could
produce their drugs at their real cost, and not their capitalist bullshit
price.
That's what this was all about: My burrow needs things, and I need to pay for
Berdie's meds. Two birds with one stone.
I'd started running with easy jobs, fielded by local merchants who just needed
gear or information. Eventually I'd made a run I was utterly unprepared for
trying to grab an industrial kiln for one of the artisans in the burrow.
"Grab", because I had two guys who were supposed to be my muscle. Of course,
they ran at the first sign of trouble. I'd almost been snatched by the
security forces while trying to escape. My panic upon returning home had let
Berdie pry more information out of me than I'd realized.
She'd then declared herself my hookup and started giving me jobs.
I should have realized that I couldn't keep jobs from her, even in her
declining health. "I'm going on this run," I stated, "I've already invested
hundreds of credits into information gathering. Its not going to waste, and
the data I need is going off planet tomorrow at 0800."
"Fine," Berdie said, defeated, "but you better be back before breakfast young
lady." I nodded. What else could I do? If I wasn't back it meant I'd failed.
And I'd be dead, or worse.
I walked to my room. The door slid open as I approached it, the automated
system having recognized my face. An automated greeting sounded on the
speakers I'd rigged the room with. "Play my electro playlist."
The speakers started playing, filling the room with lively music. I assessed
my things. A bed was in the far corner, simple, but the mattress was garbage.
Every time I laid down for rest it was on the bean bag on the opposite wall
anyway.
The room's lighting was provided by many strings of pink, blue, and green
electroluminescent wires, all placed in seemingly random places. Some hung
from the ceiling; others laid across the floor or hung from the walls. My
computer's many monitors lit up, washing out the scene with blue and white
light.
I sat in my computer chair and began carefully formulating my plan. Even a
single unknown variable could cause this run to go up in flames. I'd lose my
life if I wasn't careful.
About an hour into reviewing data and making notes, a video call request popped
up on my main monitor. I jumped at the sudden noise before regaining my
composure and accepting the call.
"Marvin," I said, trying to keep the adrenaline away from my voice.
"Eilidh," Marvin replied. He was grinning a wide grin, making his blue eyes
crinkle. "I just uncovered something in your recon data."
"Tell me about it," I said, going back to drawing my plans. I'd just been
reviewing guard rotations and paths in the research and development building.
"They are guarding something big in the secondary building," he laughed,
pleased with himself, "No guards on the outside of the building, but I
cross-referenced some of your data with that of another band of runners who
tried to get in. Their recording devices were blank when they came back out,
and they couldn't even remember what they saw in there."
"How's that possible?" I asked, looking up at the camera above Marvin's face.
"Are they working on memory alteration?"
"Maybe, but it gets better," he says, his excitement is very visible on him.
He's nearly bouncing out of frame. "Their security team kills people, Eilidh.
These guys walked out of their failed run not remembering it at all. They
don't want people to think there's anything there worth running against."
"I gathered," I sighed, "that doesn't make it any more appetizing of a target,
Marvin. Get to it, what else did you find?"
"Rumors," he replied. His red hair was a mess from the excitement he could
barely contain in his thin frame. "They say there's ghosts there. And magic!
Real magic!"
"Marvin," I snapped, "I know you've been trying to prove magic exists for the
last fifteen years, but you're twenty-seven now. Can we drop all the childish
games?"
"It couldn't hurt to look, Li," he said, using my nickname from when we were
young, "Please, whatever is in that building is really high priority."
Another change to the plan. I didn't like it. I'd spent most of my time
looking into the main R\&D building. It would likely be too risky to run
against the secondary. "Alright," I said giving up, "but you're going to
sweeten the pot for me if I walk out of there with nothing. And you're going
to be on vid with me the whole time."
"What do you want?" Marvin asked. He'd started typing frantically, his already
big smile widening.
"You'll pay for Berdie's meds for the next four months." A run like this could
pay for that much, probably. I wasn't actually getting paid, just hoping I'd
get enough data for a good payday, so this was a baseline of pay at the very
least.
"Fine," he sighed, "but that's a lot of money, so I'll be recording your whole
run. And I'm sending a drone with you: one I'll be piloting."
"More help is more better," I said, "but now that you're in, help me with the
damn plan."
A few hours of planning later, I found myself sighing deeply. "Marv, wanna go
to the club before I get myself killed?"
"Sure," he replied. His face was no longer lit up with excitement. The
planning had taken a lot of effort and I could see that he was frustrated.
"This plan is now solid enough to stand on, but I can't help but feeling like
you're walking into a deliberate trap."
"You wanted me to hit the secondary building," I said, shrugging. "See you at
the club."
"Wait!" he cried before I could hang up. "Which club are we going to?"
I shrugged. "Which one is open at 1500?"
He started typing again, fingers moving fast enough that they were just blurs
in the camera. "Looks like Railgun and TripSmash are open."
"TripSmash," I said. "Railgun was boring as, last time."
"See you there," he said, cutting the connection. With the video call now
disconnected, my music started playing again. The music had resumed in the
middle of a drop, so the sudden noise caused me to jump, knocking my chair
back.
I'd ended up on the floor. I couldn't help laughing. It was kinda funny.
Before I could pull myself off the floor, the door was sliding open. Berdie's
face held a firm expression, but her eyes were red and puffy.
"Marv and I built a plan," I said, finally getting back up on my feet, "We're
gonna go meet up at the club, I wanna dance with some girls before I end up in
a Corp prison."
She exploded in laughter, the somber kind of laughter. When she finally
regained her composure, she was biting her lip in that worried anxious way she
always does. "You kids take care of each other out there."
"We will, Mom," I said. Her worry over me did make me feel good. I knew this
was a risky run, but I had to do it, to prove to myself I could be independent
again.
As she left my doorway, the door slid shut. I breathed slightly. "Time to
pick clothes and hit the shower, I guess. Should I do makeup? Probably. Will
I? Maybe. I \emph{do} want to dance with some pretty women. Maybe I will
doll up just a bit."
I settled on a black crop top and a simple pair of black jeans. I'd be wearing
a brown jacket with a black hood to keep the cold off. And my black combat
boots would tie the outfit all together. I sighed; there was no way I'd pick
anyone up wearing this. At least Berdie never had to worry about me bringing
anybody over.
I laughed my worry away only slightly. I just wanted to dance with someone
cute; was that so much to ask for? Yeah. Probably. I sighed and took my
clothes to the bathroom with me.
My shower was quick and cold, but it got me clean. I had been pretty dirty
after the recon I'd done last night. I'm amazed Berdie was able to argue with
me for so long when I stank that badly.
After getting dressed I decided I would do my makeup. I neglected foundation
and coverup, but focused on my eyes. A little blue eye shadow to pull out the
blues in my eyes and hair. Big wings drawn in eye liner. Mascara to thicken
up my lashes. Sky blue sparkles on my eyes and cheeks to enhance the pale look
of my skin.
Finally I picked some black lipstick and put it on. It was so black in
comparison to my pale skin, chosen intentionally for the contrast.
So I liked the color of my face being washed out. It looked good, okay?
Looking at myself in the mirror, an odd idea crossed my mind. "Any deities
that might smile upon me, I ask for a blessing in my endeavors tonight." I
knew deities weren't real, but on the off-chance that I'd gained the favor of
one, I might as well ask, right?
The club was a short ride from the safehouse on my motorcycle. Ten minutes
after getting on the bike, I was walking into TripSmash. The club wasn't much
to look at from the outside: it was a simple old warehouse covered in graffiti
with a sign out front.
On the inside, TripSmash was a den of cyberdelia love. High-tech lights pulsed
to the music as lasers shone into the smokey dance floor. The bar was on the
wall right as you walked in, and a seating area was across the floor from it.
On the wall directly opposite the door stood the DJ at their perch, looking at
pink-tinted holographic displays. They looked badass.
"When did you get that?" Marvin asked, sliding up next to me and pointing at my
belly button ring.
"Last year, I think," I said, heading to the bar. "After my run on Xycell."
"What can I get you?" the bartender asked, flashing me a smile.
"What ever fruity drink you recommend," I replied, giving the bartender a
courteous smile. He wasn't my type, but he was cute.
"And another Fringe," Marvin said from next to me, then turned to me, "So you
got a belly button ring after Xycell. Why?"
"Saw one on the cute receptionist as I entered the building," I laughed,
"thought, 'I really can't not look that cute,' and now here we are." Marvin
joined in my laughter. The bartender came back to our side of the bar and
handed us our drinks.
"The Fruity Tootie," the bartender said, "but your limit is two, especially
after your friend here nearly brought our network down."
"Marvin!" I exclaimed, turning back toward him, "you nearly brought their
network down and you let me drag you here?"
"Uh, yeah," Marvin replied, sipping on his new drink. It was a pretty blue,
almost two shades lighter than my hair. "I uh, forgot I did it. I was pretty
turned up by this designer amphetamine I'd taken earlier in the night. Wild
party though."
I shrugged. "I'mma go hit the floor, watch my drink?"
"Sure," Marvin replied, "have fun." I walked out there, trying my best to
saunter toward a beautiful woman in a short black dress. She met my eyes and
smiled. Her eyes were a pretty gray.
As I got closer I started dancing, giving her looks that I hoped would invite
her over to come dance with me. She smiled, a pretty smile, almost a
challenge.
Should I move closer to her?
No, I didn't think so. Not yet.
She'll come around, right?
Yes!
She inched closer and closer to me until she was right in front of and dancing
with me. I gave her a sly smile; she gave me a grin. Her eyes were much
prettier up close. They were only gray under the pink the lights had turned,
the pink matching the holoscreens. Now that I was closer, I saw they were
actually a beautiful lavender.
"Nice eyes," I whispered into her ear, the music slipping into a more chill
track. "They're beautiful."
"Thanks," she replied, hesitantly threading her fingers in mine. "Yours are
pretty, too. You did good with your makeup."
I smiled. "Thanks, wanna go grab a drink?"
"Yeah," she replied, "I haven't had anything to drink in a bit. Lose myself to
the beat." She shrugged.
"Makes sense," I laughed, "Come on." I pulled her to the bar next to where
Marvin was sitting on a stool.
"Wow," Marvin said, looking my dance partner over. "She's really cute,
Eilidh."
"Yep," I said, a blush working its way into my voice, "she's really gorgeous."
"Lucere," she said, squeezing on my hand. I took a gulp of my drink and turned
to her.
"Nice to meet you Lucere, I'm Eilidh," I said, squeezing her hand.
"I'm Marvin," Marvin said, obviously trying to trip me up, but I didn't feel
any of the normal anxiety with Lucere. She was easy to look at, her pretty
black dress clinging to her frame, highlighting every curve. Her beautiful
eyes were captivating.
"Did you want a drink, Lucere?" I asked as the bartender came to check up on
us. She looked at me for a moment under diffuse white lighting.
"Yes," she replied, then broke her gaze to tell the bartender, "Gin martini,
stirred, two olives." He nodded and hurried off to prepare it.
"Martini, huh?" I asked, shivering under the weight of her returning gaze. It
felt like she was drinking the look of me up.
"Yeah," she replied, "Martini. A brother-in-arms used to drink them. I try to
have one every once in a while before kissing someone. One of his old
traditions."
"You were in the war?" I asked. A war broke out in the Colorado Free State
last year. It lasted roughly a week, but the battle had scarred the Denver
cityscape permanently. Several corporate towers had been leveled within a
handful of hours.
"Something like that," Lucere laughed. She began pointing up. "Been off world
a few years on assignment. Got back today."
"Woah," Marvin exclaimed. "What's it like up there?"
"I missed the ground," Lucere admitted. The bartender slid her drink up next
to her. Her face lit up before she snatched it off the bar and gulped it down.
I chuckled. She set the empty glass down on the bar before reaching down and
kissing me.
Lucere's kiss felt electric against my lips and her hands like fire against the
skin of my waist. I moaned.
"Oh shit," I laughed, breaking away from the kiss. "That was pretty sudden and
really nice, don't get me wrong, but I wasn't expecting, um, \emph{that}, quite
so soon."
"Sorry," she said, blushing, "I just, its been a while since I've been in the
Free State, a while since I've been anywhere but the medical ward of a
starship."
"Don't be sorry," I said, reaching up to kiss her again. "It was really
endearing. And a lot of fun."
She smiled, broke away from my embrace, then looked at Marvin with a
contemplative face. "You look sufficiently nerdy. Know any runners?"
I coughed, nearly spilling the fresh sip of my drink on my crop top. Marvin
pointed at me. Lucere's eyes lit up as she looked at me. Oh, that was a
feeling I could get used to.
"Why do you need a runner?" I asked, trying to avoid looking outright curious.
I tried for a look of calm and collected.
"I work for Eastern Hills Space Company," she replied. Her eyes looking for
any cracks in my mask. "Looking for someone to break in as a security test. I
want it to be as real as we can manage."
Shit. I was spooked and even Lucere could tell. Did she know I had planned a
run for just a few hours from now? How did she know? What was I doing still
standing here holding her hand?
"So you were going to hit us tonight," Lucere mumbled. "No worries. I can pay
you right now: double whatever you were going to get from it and protection for
you and your crew. But for that I suppose you'll have to become a runner for
us. I understand how that could make you feel."
"How about we drop you right here," Marvin suggested. His eyes fell down to
where I was still holding Lucere's hand. I looked down and saw that she was
still holding my hand, calmly and happily.
"You could \emph{not} hurt her," I offered. Finally, I gave up and relaxed.
"I kinda wanna just keep kissing her, if that's alright with everyone."
She giggled.
Marvin threw his hands in the air, then brought them down hard on the bar.
"Bartender," he yelled, "can I get, well, anything? I need some chemical help
to understand the world I find myself in."
"Yeah," Lucere finally said, cutting off her giggling. "I'll kiss you some
more, but you realize that if you don't take this job, we're gonna walk away
from here enemies."
"Guess I better make the best of the time we're friends then," I replied after
finishing my drink. I ran my free hand along her jaw. I couldn't help myself.
Something about her was electrifying.
"One last question before we kiss, Eilidh," Lucere said.
Oh \emph{wow}. The way my name came off her tongue sounded like honey. I
nodded quickly before I could lose myself in that feeling.
"Do you feel the pull?"
I furrowed my brow in confusion. "What do you mean?"
She merely pulled out a mirror in response and used it to show me the small of
my back. There was an interesting mark, but I couldn't make out what it was.
Regardless of that, it was new. Hadn't been there when I showered an hour or
so before.
"Shit," I exclaimed, "When the fuck did someone have the time to tattoo me in
the last hour?"
"Not a tattoo," Lucere replied. "I have one just like it." She turned. Her
dress' back disappeared. Or was it always like that? In the small of her back
was an almost wireframe representation of a simplistic lotus.
Without thinking I put my finger to the mark and felt its ridges. As I ran my
finger over the mark, it began to glow along the outlines. A faint purple glow
that was reflected in my hands.
"Woah!" Marvin exclaimed. "What the fuck?"
"We leave here as friends," Lucere stated, a smile on her face again. "And
that felt really good. You have to promise to put your hands all over me
sometime soon, okay?"
"Will someone please talk to me?" Marvin asked.
"Magic," I whispered, realizing instantly that I'd been wrong. "Its real.
Look at it. Its beautiful."
"I need you both to come with me," Lucere said urgently, "Eilidh has about a
week of transformation to do, and I suppose Marvin could be a good artificer.
You look nerdy enough for it."

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The world faded into existence very slowly through my blurry eyes. When the
hell had I passed out?
I remembered the R\&D women who came to my room. I remembered Kaden and how
he'd been trying to do something to get, well I'm not really sure what his game
was. The big glass front door.
The space jet, in all of its marvelous absurdity.
But I couldn't remember anything after that. I could feel a disappointed frown
forming on my face. Maybe I'd remember later.
I began looking around. The room I'd found myself in looked like an improvised
medical ward. I gathered this from the cots and a large stash of medical
supplies on the far wall. I could see there were a few cots with people in
them.
"Finally awake," a voice said from my left, "that's good. We've had you in and
out of the ice bath already."
"For my fever," I said, "that makes sense." She moved in front of me. She was
beautiful. Just as beautiful as Tamaki or Davis. Her eyes had an intense
purple glow to them. Her hair was a pretty chocolate color. Her lips were a
pretty cherry color. Her cheeks perfectly carved.
"Medical Officer Manafed," she said, pointing to herself, "and you're new
designation is Tactical Officer Young."
"Please," I said, "call me Talon."
"Then you can call me Lucere or Lucy," she replied, "whichever you prefer."
"You're beautiful, Lucere," I said, still meeting her eyes.
"And you're running a hot enough fever that you're out of your mind," she
replied, giggling. Her smile was infectious.
"That doesn't change facts," I said. Where did that come from? The anxiety
was there, but it was subdued. "Did you drug me?"
"Well, you were tossing and turning in your sleep, so I gave you an
anti-anxiety pill, and a mild sedative so you'd end up in deep sleep." She
explained it like it was so simple and easy. "You should still feel the
effects of the anti-anxiety, but the sedative left your system hours ago."
"So I'd be really forward if it weren't for anxiety?" I asked.
"Well, you are also experiencing a very high fever," she replied, "you probably
didn't notice because we're running a bio-compatible cryofluid through your
veins."
"So you're chilling me using subzero fake blood?" I asked, "What's my
temperature without it?"
"Your temperature without the cryofluid? Oh that's a bit of a hard question,"
she replied, "my best guess would be somewhere around 300, maybe 350."
"Numbers that big, I suppose it doesn't really matter what measurement system
it is," I said.
"Celsius," she said, answering the implicit question.
"Anyway, what's going on?" I asked.
"You met our Pale Goddess," she replied, "meeting her causes certain changes to
happen. Your fever is caused by your body changing."
"And she's what, an actual god?" I asked, scoffing at the thought.
"Yes," she replied, "she grants us certain magics."
"Magics?" my unrelenting stream of questions just getting shorter.
"Yes," she replied again, putting her hand up in front of me. "Like this." Her
hand started glowing a bright purple light. "I can heal almost any wound with
that." I knew I must have been staring because the glow in her eyes
brightened.
"Is that why I can see light in your eyes?" I asked.
She gave me an odd look. "No," she replied, "that's all you. You're able to
see the magic in us. That's new."
"New?" I asked, "As in you haven't seen it before?"
"Yes, new as in we haven't got it in our catalog of magics," she replied,
"that's neat."
"So I'm what then, now?" I asked, "a witch?"
"We're mages," she said, "not witches."
"Is there a difference?" I asked. She squinted at me with a frown on her face.
"No, no, don't look at me like that."
"Mages do magic," she replied, her frown resolving to something decidedly less
pained, "witches are just nurses with a stupid costume."
"Oh," I said, "sorry to have insulted you like that."
"Its fine," she said, "we have to get you into virtual now, so you don't feel a
lot of pain when your body starts changing. We'll also train you as best we
can for your new role as our Tactical Officer."
"And does the Tactical Officer have magic?" I asked, a silly smile on my face.
"Does the Tactical Officer embrace the power of the feminine?" she asked, a
serious look on her face.
"I'm not even sure what that means," I replied, "but we can assume no for the
time being."
"Then no," she giggled, "other gods give based on their domains, but the Pale
Goddess' domains are femininity, motherhood, womanhood, lesbianism, and the
likes."
"You're telling me she's the goddess of lesbians?" I asked, "who is she, Sappho
reincarnated?"
Lucere looked at me funny. "I think I'll assume 'maybe' for the time being."
"Okay," I said, drawing the word out, "what's it gonna take to get me in
virtual?"
"You have two options," she said, jumping right into business, "we can put you
in using the neural crown, which is completely non-invasive, or I can put you
back under and give you a neural implant. What's your pick?"
"Right," I replied, a little overwhelmed. Neural implants are still just
science fiction. "Lets go with the crown for now, and we'll see about the
implant later."
"Are you sure?" she asked, "it comes with a snazzy optical implant for user
interfacing."
"Yeah," I said, "I'm sure."
"Okay then, cutie, lets get you ready for go," Lucere said, smiling, "we'll be
moving you into a permanent ice bath once you're in virtual." Shit. She'd
called me a cutie. I could feel my face getting red.
"Right," I said, "let's get it done."
"I'm going to move closer now," she said, "and fit the crown over your head.
Don't bite."
As she moved closer to me, I started talking, maybe a bit too fast. "So I'm
gonna guess how this thing works. It uses electromagnetic fields to induce
tiny pinpoint electrical signals within certain parts of my brain."
"Sort of," she said, "it doesn't use EMF, but if you want all the details on
that, you should talk to our resident tech mage."
"I may just have to," I replied. She'd been messing with something I couldn't
quite see, just above my head.
"Use your limited ability to move your head and let me slip this over you," she
instructed, holding a stretchy fabric band. As I pushed my head forward and up
slightly, she slipped the band over my head. "Good, now think happy thoughts
while I put you in the environment."
I thought about her, in front of me. Lucere's arms curled around me. Her lips
meeting mine. I couldn't tell you why I thought about her. I'd never really
thought about women like that. Never really wanted to kiss anyone before.
Thinking about it made me feel an odd warmth through my chest.
Maybe it was just the fever. Before I could think on it anymore, the crown got
a little warm around my head. Then the world started dripping away in large
globules of liquid matter. Everything I could see having simply melted away.
I don't know when I began screaming, but it stopped when I felt my body
stretch. It felt roughly like I'd expected being sucked into a black hole
would have. Except far worse, because it was happening.
The feeling got worse and worse, like a pressure building up. It almost became
unbearable. Almost. Then I heard a popping noise and was dropped very lightly
into a grassy environment. At the top of a hill with what looked like an
endless void surrounding it. Damn.
"Your heart rate spiked as you were coming in," Lucere said from beside me. I
jumped, startled. She wasn't there just a second ago. "Are you okay?"
"You didn't warn me that it would do \emph{that}," I said, my voice sounded
hoarse.
"I told you to think about happy thoughts," she stated, as if that was some
excuse. "Happy thoughts prevent the black hole from eating you between
environments."
"Oh, and I suppose that is supposed to mean something to me!" I shouted. I
didn't mean to shout. I hate yelling. She just stared at me.
"Yeah," she said, "its supposed to mean, think about times you were happy."
"Lucy," I heard a familiar voice say, "what the hell are you doing yelling at
officer Young?"
"He's accidentally experienced the black hole, Ai." As Lucere spoke, the
familiar voice came into view. Tamaki. She was wearing a robe now. It was
colorfully decorated. It reminded of the renaissance festival, in how old, but
new it looked.
"Getting ready for a seance?" I asked, completely baffled by the outfit.
"No," she replied, little emotion coming through her voice, "I'm getting ready
for the welcoming ceremony."
"Welcoming what?" I asked, confused.
"You, dummy," Lucere laughed.
"Oh," I laughed.
"I see you two made a bit of a connection," Tamaki said, "Lucy I thought you
only got kicks out of women."
"Commander," Lucere said, feigning shock, "don't you know that love is love?"
"Yeah yeah," Tamaki giggled, "back in line soldier."
Lucere gave an exaggerated solute, bowed deeply, then pranced off to some
unseen spot.
"Forgive our medical officer," Tamaki said, "for her lame jokes and her
impeccably bad timing. And me, for making fun of her at your expense."
"No need for that," I replied, then gave a solute almost as exaggerated as
Lucere's, "Commander."
"We won't have any issues with chain of command from you, will we?" Tamaki
laughed, her question obviously sarcastic. She started walking in a direction,
but stopped when she realized I wasn't following. She beckoned me over. I
sighed and started walking, following behind her while keeping a distance of a
few paces.
After a few minute walk through total nothingness, only seeing Tamaki in front
of me, trees started appearing. We walked through a dense wooded area for
another few minutes before we came to a clearing. When I was in the clearing,
I could clearly see a ring of logs with hooded figures sitting on them.
I counted five hooded figures. With Tamaki and I we would be seven figures in
total.
"Come on," Tamaki laughed, "you don't need to be scared of women in hooded
robes."
"And yet," I said, "I am. Maybe has something to do with the whole magic
thing."
"They won't attack you," she said, "unless, of course, you attack them first."
"I have no ill intentions," I stated, "but I'm still worried."
"Don't be," she laughed.
As we approached, each of the mages stood up, their black robes still reaching
the ground. Their hoods covering their heads were large enough to obscure
their faces. I mean, we're talking about literal mages. Wearing mage robes.
Doing some sort of a mage thing.
Did I get whisked away into a cult? Should I be worried?
"Center of the circle," Tamaki giggled, "facing me. On your knees, but make
yourself comfortable, because you'll be sitting like that for a bit."
I sat myself in the circle, on my knees. In getting comfortable, I rested on
my feet and placed my hands on my thighs.
I heard a few hums of excitement from the mages around me.
"Now," Tamaki said, taking point in front of the group, "for the first time
among us, we have a man. Unprecedented since the discovery of magic nearly
seventy years ago. Mages are a rarity, as we all know, and our goddess has a
penchant for making them."
"May I ask questions?" I asked before she could continue.
"You may," Tamaki replied, "but keep in mind, we are slightly pressed for time.
Our officers are quite busy, especially our medical officer."
"Right," I said, giggling slightly, "when was magic first discovered?"
"When the first mage was born on this campus," she replied, "in our medical
wing, the same one your body is in now, actually. In 2091. August third. The
medical staff had no clue what was wrong with her. When she woke up in a new
body nearly a month later, the medical team having used ice baths to cool her,
she did her best to figure out what happened."
"Of course," Lucere cut in, "she went in much like your body is now."
"A man?" I asked.
"Probably not," Lucere replied, "but she was incorrectly labeled a boy at
birth. We aren't here to judge. That's for the Pale Goddess, and we've all
already been deemed worthy in her eyes."
Fuck, is that what was going to happen to me? They must have seen my anxiety
spike, because they'd all stopped making noise. I was starting to
hyperventilate. I fell backwards and felt my chest heave as my body tried its
hardest to get air in me.
But I'd never wished I were a woman. Its rediculous. Its impossible. Right?
I guess I'd have to think on that later. Focusing on my breathing, I managed
to calm down. Could I even pass out from lack of oxygen in virtual?
"Are you okay?" Tamaki asked, kneeling down in front of me. When did she get
in front of me? I shook my head, not trusting my voice. "Alright ladies," she
said, "group hug time. You can go back to your duties after."
The six mages around me all huddled in, wrapping their arms around me,
squeezing in. I felt like I was being enveloped in a heavy weighted blanket,
something Eastern Hills hadn't let me keep when I moved into the campus. It
was too big a safety risk, they'd said.
After a little bit, each of the mages unwrapped their arms, then disappeared.
Lucere looked me in the eyes, her hood back, and kissed my forehead. "You'll
make it through this," she whispered in my ear before returning to her duties
outside of virtual.
Eventually, Tamaki and I were the only ones left sitting in the clearing.
"Come on," she said, offering her hand, "we've got a lot to talk about."

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Just like that, I had let a corporate entity take me away. Lucere had paid for
our drinks and motioned toward the door.
A flying taxi hovered outside, the driver motioning us to come in.
Once we were safely inside the taxi lifted off. After a few minutes, we were
staring directly at the Eastern Hills Space Company campus, directly into their
headquarters. Spread over a four-block section of the city and comprised of
five buildings, the campus almost didn't fit in with its surroundings. Almost.
The building we were headed directly for was the secondary R\&D building Marvin
and I had planned to infiltrate later tonight. A hatch on the roof began to
open as we approached, large enough to let the taxi land inside.
"That's our facility," Lucere said, moving her arm from around my waist to
point at it, "We do lots of really cool stuff in there, but we're primarily a
strike force."
"Why would Eastern Hills need a strike force?" Marvin asked, finally lifting
his head from the window. He and I had never been in a flying taxi before, so
he was getting as much of the view as he could.
"Likely something to do with discovering magic," I replied, looking into
Lucere's eyes, searching for confirmation.
"Eilidh is right," Lucere said, giving me what I wanted, "but we aren't
technically run by Eastern Hills. We are self-governing: we have power equal
to the CEO and we take profits from the company before the board members get to
siphon off their overly-large portions."
"And what do you do with those profits?" I asked pointedly.
"Well, each member of the strike force is awarded one share of it per quarter,
which is a rather large chunk," she explained, "We also keep a discretionary
budget, equipment budget, upkeep costs, and award shares on a per-operation
basis."
"So this strike force is structured after runner groups," I noted, quickly
adding, "At least financially."
"Yes," Lucere confirmed, "and similar goals as well. As runners, I'm sure you
saw the data leaks from the Kai Heavy Industries dig sites."
"I remember being really impressed by the runners behind the leaks," Marvin
stated, a look of fancy lingering on his face.
"It wasn't runners," Lucere said, a wicked grin spreading across her face.
"This strike force was behind the leaks," I stated as her implication started
to make sense, "But why?"
As the taxi started a descent through the hatch, wind caught its large rotors
and the whole vehicle jostled to the right. I started feeling uneasy.
"Letting Kai's digs continue unchecked would have destroyed something important
to the planet," Lucere answered. She didn't betray any worry at all on her
face, but her voice filled the air with sorrow.
Marvin blinked a few times. "Why would you care about that?"
"It is in the nature of our benefactor to care about this planet," replied
Lucere, "even if we can't do terribly much to reverse the hellscape that it is
now."
"Your benefactor?" I asked.
"Eilidh, \emph{our} benefactor, the Deity responsible for giving us our magic."
"Our benefactor," I repeated slowly, letting it sink in. I was still in
denial; it felt so absurd. Then my brain caught up. "Wait, deities are
real?"
"Yes and no," Lucere explained, "It's rather complicated. Deities aren't the
same as mythology makes them out to be. They aren't all powerful, nor are they
capable of directly affecting the world. They can only interact via pocket
dimensions and the mirror world."
"Mirror world?" Marvin asked, "like, the world behind the glass of the mirror?"
Lucere smiled."Exactly." Her smile was so pretty. The way it lit up
her face made it contagious, until she started focusing on something I couldn't
see and it faded into a scowl.
"What's wrong?" I asked her, lightly touching her face. In that moment, I had
not a single care that the taxi just landed.
"Looks like we have a two for one deal going," she replied, focusing on me
again. Her smile returned, but it looked like a tired smile instead of the
genuine one I'd seen just a moment before. "One of our own was properly
blessed by the Goddess, which means I'm trapped here for a month at least while
they complete their transformation."
"A month?" I asked, "Mine's only a week, right?"
"Yes," she replied, "Theirs is a bit special of a transformation. You asked
the Goddess, even if you didn't realize it. They didn't. They are a full
mage while you're only a demimage. Now based on your purple effects, it's
likely you'll be a little more powerful than the average demimage, as you can
utilize magic even without your body being rebuilt."
"What's a demimage?" Marvin asked, a curious look on his face.
"Well, lets explain mages first," she replied, rubbing her temples, "I'm a
mage; that means I have a full magical circuit embedded in my body, so I may
utilize all of the magical energy around and within me. A demimage has a less
powerful version of that same magical circuit in theirs. It means that
demimages, while much more magically talented than an average human, can't ever
really match up equally against a mage. The process of transformation is what
reconfigures your body to accept a magical circuit. You following me on that?"
Marvin and I nodded.
"So I have to go through this process of transformation to get a magical
circuit embedded into me," I noted, staring off into the distance as we landed
inside the building, "and that magical circuit was given to me by a deity, in
this case a goddess, because I asked for it?"
"That sums it up," Lucere said, kissing my forehead before hopping out of
the taxi. "You coming Eilidh?"
"Yeah," I mumbled and scooted out of the taxi to stand next to Lucere.
"You are adorable, getting caught up in your head like that," she said,
grabbing my hand and leading me into the building. I looked back quickly to
see Marvin following us at a short distance. He smiled at me, showing how
anxious he was about all this.
I found the door into the stairwell a little odd: no visible method to open
it. Instead, it vanished as we approached and reappeared behind us. It was
kind of jarring. Marvin was visibly gawking at it. I wasn't sure I wanted to
try and figure it out.
Once we were down two flights of stairs, Lucere made a sliding motion with her
arm out front. The wall reconfigured itself into an entryway. The
room beyond was a rather rapidly put-together medical ward, cots six feet
apart along each wall and a decent path leading to a large machine with bed-like
chambers along each side of it.
There was a man sealed in one of the chambers, ice and water covering him above
his head. He had an air mask hooked up to him, presumably feeding him fresh
air so he could breathe. Two women stood on either side of the chamber he was
in.
"Welcome back, Manafed," one of them said, turning around to greet her, "Sorry
your leave was cut short by two strays, but we'll get you through it as best we
can, then you can have a month to yourself."
"Thank you Tamaki," Lucere said, giving a tired salute. She walked over to
observe the man in the chamber, "this Young?"
"Yeah, they have been blessed by our Pale Goddess, though," Tamaki replied, "so
we'll see how they come out, as She has never been a particular fan of men."
"Her aspects and domains prevent it," the third woman stated, "We all know
that. We all know how this is going to go. She'll wake up and fight her new
form for a week or so, then realize she's never been happier and everything
will just click."
"They could have a different outcome, Davis," Lucere said, sighing deeply
before turning back to me, "This is Eilidh, and her friend Marvin. Demimage
and possible artificer, respectively. Tamaki, will you help me get our new
demimage into a cryotube?"
"Yeah," Tamaki replied, turning to Davis, "you go get Marvin tested for
artifact fitness and pair him up with a good partner."
Davis gave a salute and began walking toward the entryway. She stopped about
halfway to it and said to Marvin, "You coming? Or am I going to have to pull
all your memories and dump you on the street?"
"I'll come take a test," he replied, following her out of the room and down the
stairwell.
"So what happens to me?" I asked, the room suddenly growing far too warm.
"You get in one of these cryochambers or your fever melts your brain," Tamaki
said in the midst of preparing one. Lucere was sitting down at a desk on the
wall behind the machine, taking notes and filling out paperwork.
"We're going to need to get you into virtual to start training," Lucere stated,
not looking up from her paperwork, "You have the option to choose whether or
not you get a neural implant now or later. If you choose later, I can get you
into virtual using a neural crown now."
I laughed. "Right, as if I'd be the fool to pass up a freaking neural
interface. Give me the implant."
She sighed, pulled out another form, and turned to Tamaki. "Commander, why the
hell are we still doing paperwork when we literally have computers in our
heads?"
"Because if we don't the archival department will kill us," Tamaki replied,
motioning me to come over. Looking at me now, she finally said, "Come on, we
don't have all day."
"Yes ma'am," I said, walking over to the chamber and clambering in. Its 45-
degree angle was awkward to get in, but it was a nice resting position.
"I'm going to hook some IVs up to you," Tamaki said, holding a needle, "is that
alright?"
"No," I said sarcastically, "Please just stop my brain from melting already?"
"Feisty," Tamaki said.
"And a great kiss," Lucere said.
"Oh," Tamaki said, curiosity on her face. She looked at me, "May I?"
"Um, sure I guess," I said.
Tamaki pressed her lips gentlly against mine.
There was that electrifyingly good feeling again.
I leaned into the kiss, a moan escaping from me.
"Okay girls." Lucere's voice shocked me. Did I seriously not notice her walk
from her desk all the way here? "We need to prepare for surgery. Can we
\emph{not} make out until after it's done?"
"Very good kiss," Tamaki said, pulling away from me, a funny look on her face
as she tried to calm down. I was sure I had a similar look on mine.
"You didn't even get the IV in her Tamaki," Lucere said, a tired look spreading
across her face.
"Sorry," I said, reaching out to touch Lucere's jaw. Then I remembered. "Hey,
you said you'd give me more kisses before we left the bar, and then we were
both distracted by, um, magic stuff."
Her eyes lit up as she remembered, "Oh, yeah. I figured you didn't care
anymore."
"Of course I care," I said, a little offended, "I liked kissing you."
Tamaki gave Lucere a look, "Well, looks like the new girl is going to fit in
just fine."
"What's that supposed to mean?" I asked, looking between the two women.
"You'll find out." Lucere leaned in and gave me a kiss. It was a quick kiss,
but it felt just as good as the first time.
As she pulled away I wrapped my arms around her and pulled her into the chamber
on top of me.
"You aren't about to get away with that," I said, panting with want. I pushed
my needy lips against hers, kissing her as deeply as she'd allow.
Lucere pulled away after a second. "Listen: we have a lot to do. We can make
out in virtual. I can even take you to a beach of some alien planet, if you
want, but we \emph{have} to get this done now before your skin becomes hot
enough to burn me though your clothes."
I pouted at her, finally presenting my arm for her to put an IV into. I
noticed Tamaki's face was as red as a cherry tomato, stopped pouting, and
winked at her.
"I'm going to give you something to put you under while I implant you, okay? I
need you to start counting backwards from ten," Lucere instructed.
"Okay, I'm ready," I said, "Ten." Almost immediately I could feel whatever
she'd given me was slowing my brain down.
"Nine." Wow, this felt amazing. I was about to get the best sleep of my life.
"Eight." Tamaki moved closer. I smiled at her. Her lips were so pretty.
"Seven." Oh, I was starting to slur my speech, wasn't I? Lucere was finally
standing over me. Her eyes were twinkling. She was beautiful.
"Six." Tamaki said something I couldn't hear. Lucere nodded.
"Five-"

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The world faded into existence very slowly through my blurry eyes.
Wait.
When the hell had I passed out?
I remembered the R\&D women who came to my room. I remembered Kaden and how
he'd been trying to do something to get... I wasn't really sure what his game
was.
I remembered the big glass front door.
I remembered the space jet, in all of its marvelous absurdity.
But I couldn't remember anything after that. I could feel a disappointed frown
forming on my face.
Maybe I'd remember later.
I began looking around. The room I'd found myself in looked like an improvised
medical ward, looking at the cots and that large stash of medical supplies on
the far wall. I could see people in a few of the cots.
"Finally awake," a voice said from my left, "That's good. We've had you in and
out of the ice bath already."
"For my fever," I said, "That makes sense." She moved in front of me. She was
beautiful. Just as beautiful as Tamaki or Davis. Her eyes had an intense
purple glow to them. Her hair was a pretty chocolate color. Her lips were a
pretty cherry color. Her cheeks were perfectly curved.
"Medical Officer Manafed," she said, pointing to herself, "and your new
designation is Tactical Officer Young."
"Please," I said, "call me Talon."
"Then you can call me Lucere or Lucy," she replied, "whichever you prefer."
"You're beautiful, Lucere," I said, still meeting her eyes.
"And you're running a hot enough fever that you're out of your mind," she
replied, giggling, her smile infectious.
"That doesn't change facts," I said. Where did that come from? The anxiety
was there, but subdued. "Did you drug me?"
"Well, you were tossing and turning in your sleep, so I gave you an
anti-anxiety pill, and a mild sedative so you'd end up in deep sleep." She
explained it like it was so simple and easy. "You should still feel the
effects of the anti-anxiety, but the sedative left your system hours ago."
"So I'd be really forward if it weren't for anxiety?" I asked.
"Well, you are also experiencing a very high fever," she replied, "You probably
didn't notice because we're running a bio-compatible cryofluid through your
veins."
"So you're chilling me using subzero fake blood?" I asked, "What's my
temperature without it?"
"Your temperature without the cryofluid? Oh that's a bit of a hard question,"
she replied, "My best guess would be somewhere around 300, maybe 350."
"Numbers that big, I suppose it doesn't really matter what measurement system
it is," I said, immediately covering my mouth when I remembered Kelvin existed.
"Celsius." She answered the implicit question with a smirk.
"Anyway, what's going on?" I asked.
"You met our Pale Goddess," she replied, "meeting Her causes certain changes to
happen. Your fever is caused by your body changing."
"And she's what, an actual god?" I asked, scoffing at the thought.
"Yes," she replied, "She grants us certain magics."
"Magics?" My questions shrunk in the name of unrelenting bandwidth.
"Yes," she replied again, putting her hand up in front of me, "Like this." Her
hand started glowing a bright purple light. "I can heal almost any wound with
that." I knew I must have been staring because the glow in her eyes
brightened.
"Is that why I can see light in your eyes?" I asked.
She gave me an odd look. "No, that's all you. You're able to see the magic in
us. That's new."
"New?" I asked, "As in you haven't seen it before?"
"Yes, new as in we haven't got it in our catalog of magics," she replied,
"That's neat."
"So I'm what then, now?" I asked, "a witch?"
"We're mages," she said, "not witches."
"Is there a difference?" I asked.
She squinted at me with a frown on her face.
"No, no, don't look at me like that."
"Mages do magic," she replied, her frown resolving to something decidedly less
pained, "Witches are just nurses with a stupid costume."
"Oh," I said, "sorry to have insulted you like that."
"It's fine," she said, "We have to get you into virtual now, so you don't feel
a lot of pain when your body starts changing. We'll also train you as best we
can for your new role as our Tactical Officer."
"And does the Tactical Officer have magic?" I asked, a silly smile on my face.
"Does the Tactical Officer embrace the power of the feminine?" she asked, a
serious look on her face.
"I'm not even sure what that means," I replied, "but we can assume no for the
time being."
"Then no," she giggled, "Other gods give in accordance with their domains, but
the Pale Goddess' domains are femininity, motherhood, womanhood, lesbianism,
and the likes."
"You're telling me she's the goddess of lesbians?" I asked, "Who is she, Sappho
reincarnated?"
Lucere looked at me funny. "I think I'll assume 'maybe' for the time being."
"Okay," I said, drawing the word out, "What's it gonna take to get me in
virtual?"
"You have two options," she said, jumping right into business, "we can put you
in using the neural crown, which is completely non-invasive, or I can put you
back under and give you a neural implant. What's your pick?"
"Right," I replied, a little overwhelmed. Neural implants are still just
science fiction. "Lets go with the crown for now, and we'll see about the
implant later."
"Are you sure?" she asked, "it comes with a snazzy optical implant for user
interfacing."
"Yeah," I said, "I'm sure."
"Okay then, cutie, lets get you ready for go," Lucere said with a smile, "We'll
be moving you into a permanent ice bath once you're in virtual."
Shit. She'd called me a cutie.
I could feel my face getting red.
"Right," I said, "Let's get it done."
"I'm going to move closer now and fit the crown over your head," she said,
"Don't bite."
As she moved closer to me, I started talking, maybe a bit too fast. "So I'm
gonna guess how this thing works. It uses electromagnetic fields to induce
tiny pinpoint electrical signals within certain parts of my brain."
"Sort of," she said, "it doesn't use EMF, but if you want all the details on
that, you should talk to our resident tech mage."
"I may just have to," I replied. She'd been messing with something I couldn't
quite see, just above my head.
"Use your limited ability to move your head and let me slip this over you," she
instructed, holding a stretchy fabric band. As I pushed my head forward and up
slightly, she slipped the band over my head. "Good, now think happy thoughts
while I put you in the environment."
I thought about her, in front of me. Lucere's arms curled around me. Her lips
meeting mine. I couldn't tell you why I thought about her. I'd never really
thought about women like that, never really wanted to kiss anyone before.
Thinking about it made me feel an odd warmth through my chest.
Maybe it was just the fever. Before I could think on it anymore, the crown got
a little warm around my head. Then the world dripped away in large liquidy
globules. Everything I could see simply melted away.
I don't know when I'd begun screaming, but it stopped when I felt my body
stretch. It felt roughly like I'd expected being sucked into a black hole
would have, except far worse: I was actually experiencing it.
The feeling got worse and worse, like a pressure building up. It almost became
unbearable. Almost.
Then I heard a popping noise and dropped very lightly into a grassy environment
at the top of a hill with what looked like an endless void surrounding it.
Damn.
"Your heart rate spiked as you were coming in," Lucere said from beside me.
I jumped, startled. She wasn't there just a second ago.
"Are you okay?" she asked.
"You didn't warn me that it would do \emph{that}," I said. My voice sounded
hoarse.
"I told you to think about happy thoughts," she stated as if that was some
excuse, "Happy thoughts prevent the black hole from eating you between
environments."
"Oh, and I suppose that is supposed to mean something to me!" I shouted. I
didn't mean to shout. I hated yelling. She just stared at me.
"Yeah," she said, "It's supposed to mean, 'think about times you were happy.'"
"Lucy," I heard a familiar voice say, "what the hell are you doing yelling at
officer Young?"
"He accidentally experienced the black hole, Ai." said Lucere, the familiar
voice coming into view. Tamaki. She was wearing a robe now. It was
colorfully decorated and reminded me of the Renaissance festival, in how old,
yet new, it looked.
"Getting ready for a seance?" I asked, completely baffled by the outfit.
"No," she replied, little emotion coming through her voice, "I'm getting ready
for the welcoming ceremony."
"Welcoming what?" I asked, confused.
"You, dummy," Lucere laughed.
"Oh." I laughed.
"I see you two made a bit of a connection," Tamaki said, "Lucy I thought you
only got kicks out of women."
"Commander," Lucere said, feigning shock, "Don't you know that love is love?"
"Yeah yeah," Tamaki giggled, "back in line soldier."
Lucere gave an exaggerated salute, bowed deeply, and pranced off to some unseen
spot.
"Forgive our medical officer," Tamaki said, "for her lame jokes and her
impeccably bad timing. And me, for making fun of her at your expense."
"No need for that," I replied, giving a salute almost as exaggerated as
Lucere's, "Commander."
Tamaki Laughed. "We won't have any issues with chain of command from you, will
we?" Her question rang of obvious sarcasm. She started walking, but stopped
when she noticed I wasn't following. She beckoned me over. I sighed and
started walking, following behind her while keeping a distance of a few paces.
After a few-minute walk through total nothingness, only seeing Tamaki in front
of me, trees started appearing. We walked through a dense wooded area for
another few minutes before we came to a clearing. Once in the clearing, I saw
clearly a ring of logs with hooded figures sitting on them.
I counted five such figures. With Tamaki and I we would be seven in total.
"Come on," Tamaki laughed, "you don't need to be scared of women in hooded
robes."
"And yet," I said, "I am. Maybe something to do with the whole magic thing."
"They won't attack you," she said, "unless of course you attack them first."
"I have no ill intentions," I stated, "but I'm still worried."
"Don't be." She laughed again.
As we approached, each of the mages stood up, their black robes still reaching
the ground, their hoods large enough to obscure their faces.
I mean, we're talking about literal mages wearing mage robes and doing some
sort of mage thing.
Did I get whisked away into a cult?
Should I be worried?
"Center of the circle," Tamaki giggled, "Facing me. On your knees, but make
yourself comfortable, because you'll be sitting like that for a bit."
I sat myself in the circle, on my knees. For comfort, I rested on my feet and
placed my hands on my thighs.
I heard a few hums of excitement from the mages around me.
"Now," Tamaki said, taking point in front of the group, "for the first time
among us, we have a man. Unprecedented since the discovery of magic nearly
seventy years ago. Mages are a rarity, as we all know, and our Goddess has a
penchant for making them."
"May I ask questions?" I asked before she could continue.
"You may," Tamaki replied, "but keep in mind, we are slightly pressed for time.
Our officers are quite busy, especially our medical officer."
"Right," I said, giggling slightly, "when was magic first discovered?"
"When the first mage was born on this campus," she replied, "in our medical
wing, the same one your body is in now, actually. In 2091, August third. The
medical staff had no clue what was wrong with her. When she woke up in a new
body nearly a month later, the medical team having used ice baths to cool her,
she did her best to figure out what happened."
"Of course," Lucere cut in, "she went in much like your body is now."
"A man?" I asked.
"Probably not," Lucere replied, "but she was incorrectly labeled a boy at
birth. We aren't here to judge. That's for the Pale Goddess, and we've all
already been deemed worthy in Her eyes."
Fuck, was that what was going to happen to me? They must have seen my anxiety
spike, because they all stopped making noise. I was starting to
hyperventilate.
I fell backwards and felt my chest heave as my body tried its hardest to get
air in me.
I'd never wished I were a woman. It was ridiculous.
It's impossible.
...Right?
I guess I'd have to think on that later. Focusing on my breathing, I managed
to calm down.
Could I even pass out from lack of oxygen in virtual?
"Are you okay?" Tamaki asked, kneeling down in front of me. When did she get
in front of me? I shook my head, not trusting my voice. "Alright ladies," she
said, "Group hug time. You can go back to your duties after."
The six mages around me all huddled in, wrapping their arms around me,
squeezing in. I felt like I was being enveloped in a heavy weighted blanket,
something Eastern Hills hadn't let me keep when I moved into the campus. It
was too big a safety risk, they'd said.
After a little bit, each of the mages unwrapped their arms and disappeared.
Lucere looked me in the eyes, her hood back, and kissed my forehead. "You'll
make it through this," she whispered in my ear before returning to her duties
outside of virtual.
Eventually, Tamaki and I were the only ones left sitting in the clearing.
"Come on," she said, offering her hand, "we've got a lot to talk about."

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"There's nothing to be ashamed of," Tamaki told me, "Being trans isn't an issue
here, nor will it ever be. Our lineage is that of the first chosen, and we
hold that very proudly."
We were in what she had called her mind space. I figured it was a 'scape she
built to represent her mind. She hadn't mentioned much about it though, so I
wasn't certain.
She'd poured me a drink and sat me down by a window overlooking Earth. Fitting,
considering our employer.
Something told me she just liked looking at Earth, though.
"I understand that." I took a sip; it was fruity, sweet, and delicious. "And
you'll have no quarrel with me over it. People deserve rights and to be treated
fairly. It just feels like there's a lot of pressure to be, um, trans, I
guess."
"We certainly haven't been trying," she replied, "but I'll be extra careful
around the topic. You deserve that at least."
We stared at the beautiful planet in silence, close enough to see cities
lighting up the surface.
After a short while I broke the silence. "I've never really thought about
myself. I wasn't supposed to be around this long. I always thought I'd
have died already, probably doing something really stupid. Somehow I never got
around to doing anything stupid enough to die by misadventure."
"The Pale Goddess always pleases," she said, "Even if you don't know what you
want yet, you'll get whatever it is you're meant to have."
As if that was supposed to soothe me.
She gave me a look and a forced smile.
"I'm not really sure," I admitted, "That's the thing: I never thought about
what I want, what I deserve. None of it. And now, knowing that options I
never saw on the ta... ble..." Nope. Not finishing that.
She cast a genuine look of worry my way. "You're scared?"
I nodded. What else could I do? Of course I was scared. My anxiety was playing
double-time since she showed up on my doorstep. I let out a whisper. "I've just
got so many options now for my future, for everything."
Options for these feelings I'd had for so long. Could I finally fix myself
because of this? Could I reinvent myself as more than a fucking code monkey?
"Hey." She was wiping my face gently with her sleeve. "No need to cry. I'm your
commanding officer now; I'm here to help you through all of this. It's my job as
your leader."
The tears didn't end. I raised my voice, to the obscene volume of... a mumble.
"Then let me cry."
She nodded, moved closer and wrapped her arm around me. "I can do that for
you." She put her glass down on a nearby table to free her hand for me.
I cried; for some untracked amount of time I cried. At some point Tamaki must
have let me go because I found myself in a corner, crying myself to sleep.
I woke up under a warm, heavy blanket. Apparently a pillow snuck under my head
while I was asleep.
I looked to the wall and found Tamaki sleeping in a tiny built-in cot. I
wondered about her past, and where she learned how to sleep in such a tiny hole.
After being entranced from the view of Earth, I turned my attention inside the
'scape. It reminded me of the inside of a small cargo hauler. A wall split the
space in twain, with a single-stair step jutting out into the half I was in. The
space in the wall tapered toward me, hinting at a possible doorway.
The section up the step looked like some kind of workspace. Little components
lay scattered along the floor everywhere. A simple desk spanned the far wall,
covered in shelves, bins, bits, and other things my brain tried to process.
In the center of the main section stood a coffee table made of tinted glass,
surrounded by comfy-looking cushioned chairs. In the corner blinked a little
terminal, what it connected to I couldn't quite be sure.
A smaller table stood before the Earth-facing window, holding Tamaki's drink and
an empty glass. I couldn't see anywhere for her to have prepared the drink or
stored glassware, so I stopped thinking about that and started thinking about
me.
Every time I tried, however, another question crept to the forefront. "Who am
I?" it asked in place of anything about what I wanted.
"Who am I?" I said aloud. I tried thinking of an answer before giving up again
and sitting there in front of her coffee table.
"Who \emph{are} you indeed." Tamaki giggled and slipped out of her cot in the
wall.
"I'm not even sure how to answ-" I stopped talking and averted my eyes to the
ground. She'd been covered in her cot, so I didn't notice now, but Tamaki was
walking around her 'scape in nothing but a pair of panties.
"Oh," she giggled, "don't worry Officer Young; this is something you'll have to
get used to."
I kept my eyes away from her. "Why?"
"This is casual wear for officers of the strike force," she replied, "but I
can put some clothes on just for you."
"Please," I pleaded, "you're the first woman I've even seen naked. Just, put
something on so I can avoid brain melt."
"Brain melt?" she asked, putting on a pajama shirt.
My brain fumbled for words. "You know, when you're, flustered and, uh, this, I
guess." I could feel my face heating up.
"I'm safe for your innocent eyes now," she laughed, putting her finger under my
chin and lifting my eyes up to hers. "Officer Young, am I pretty?"
My face flushed; it was bright red I knew it.
She laughed. "Don't worry." She brought herself to a giggle. "I'm not the only
one that'll tease you. You'll have to take a few weeks to adjust but we're all
a little, um, \emph{friendlier} around here than you're used to for sure."
"Will you all respect my boundaries?" I asked with a serious look on a red face.
"Yes," Tamaki replied, "it should go without saying, but if anyone needs a
reminder, I'll see to it."
"Thank you," I said, my serious look fading, "and for the drink. And the
blanket. And pillow. And letting me cry on you."
"You're welcome," she said, a look of subtle surprise on her face. She sat
down on the chair across from me and looked at the wall her bunk was on. A
holographic screen appeared and began playing the campus' news channel.
I settled into the chair a little deeper and began watching whatever segment
was on. It looked like some report of an HR employee getting fired for
extortion and bribery. I wasn't entirely sure what to make of it: this was my
first time watching the campus news.
Tamaki clicked her tongue. "Of course that bastard got fired: I walked him out
personally."
"So you are actually part of security?" I asked, unable to hide my grin.
"\emph{We} serve many roles," she answered, "and represent whichever department
gets us what we want the fastest."
"I see," I lied, "you'll have to explain in more depth."
"We have a provisional charter that places us under our own authority," she
said, "officially we are under R\&D, but really we are above everyone. Except
the CEO, and the board. Fun fact though, the only way this strike force can be
disbanded is if the company dissolves."
I nodded. "Wow, so we are everything and above."
"Yes." She laughed.
I continued watching the news. The company's latest space fighter was
released. It looked a little odd. It had the first fully electric impulse
drive, though; that was kinda revolutionary, considering the idea of electric
engines was abandoned some time in the last century.
Of course, if the engineering team really got it working, and it looked like
they did, it could be a game changer. Fuel costs would be lower, even if the
range was slightly shorter. What governments were left would buy them in bulk,
and corps would buy production lines full of them.
"You much into politics?" Tamaki asked, breaking my train of thought.
"Not really sure," I replied, "Never been exposed to much, so I have no clue
what I'd agree with."
She giggled "I see. Makes sense: the company does that to reduce the chances of
insider threats."
"Well," I said, "I guess I'm impressionable enough for whatever you have
planned for me."
"You'll be spending the next several months in classes, don't worry," she
replied, giving me a serious look.
"Oh," I coughed, "you're not joking."
"No, I'm not, Young, you will have to be educated on every topic you'll be
overseeing."
"What will I be overseeing?" I asked, not really knowing what to expect.
"You'll be overseeing the tactical operations unit," Tamaki replied, "hence
your designation of Tactical Officer."
"I see," I sighed, "when do classes start?"
"When you're ready." Apparently she read my face plain as day because she went
on to clarify: "Oh, you really thought we were going to put you in a position
you weren't ready for. We ensure that all of our recruits are trained for the
position they are in. How could we run a strike force if our folks couldn't do
their jobs?"
I laughed. "I'm not really sure." It was a silly assumption, really. How could
I have expected them not to send me to classes? I'd never had any form of
military training.
"You will have combat training soon," she giggled, "along with all the other
new recruits. I believe that class starts next week, so you at least have a
break."
I chuckled and went back to watching the news, but it was amazingly boring, so
with nothing else to do, I decided it would be easiest to start messing with the
menu available via the neural crown. I could feel Tamaki's eye on me the whole
time.
Figuring out how to open it was weird. When I'd mentally aligned that I did
want to open the menu, I felt an urge to put my hand over my right eye, and when
I did, it opened.
Options and buttons in cute self contained circles with brief labels exploded
from inside of me, smattering my view with an overlay. There were circles
labeled with normal and expected things, such as avatar, user interface,
and accessability.
There were stranger things, too, but they were all grayed out. Pain Threshold,
Trauma Mitigation, Substance Effectiveness, and more. I played around with the
accessibilities menu for a minute to figure out what kind of options had been
built in.
Apperantly this thing, while it talked directly to the brain, was still all
about helping users acclimatise to having new uses. All of the options were
sliders. I'd taken a particular interest in the visual section of the menu,
which had been preset to align with how my eyes see the world, both in colour
and lense shape.
Humans only have three types of structures in their eyes to detect colour, and
they only detect red, green, and blue. With these options I could enable
dedicated structures for purples, pinks, a whole range of different infrared
and ultraviolet colours, and even change the effectiveness of my low-light
vision.
"You like all the options we've included?" Tamaki asked.
I jumped slightly. "Yeah. Do we have a way to actually enable all these out in
the real?"
"Yes," she replied, a giggle tugging the corners of her lips into a smile.
"Requires two optical implants if you want to do anything fancy like that."
I laughed. "Guess I may want two optics then."
"Is there something wrong with your eyes?" Tamaki asked, alarm in her voice.
"No," I chuckled, "but I figure having the ability to quickly switch between
different wavelengths would be a decently good thing." Tamaki's reaction was
to immediately lose herself in thought.
"Should I instruct our medical officer to begin the procedure while you're
under?" she asked.
"Sure," I nodded, "no reason not to get it done now. Gives me more time to get
used to all the different options."
"Get ready to reappear somewhere totally new," she instructed, "and we'll see
you in a few hours."
"Should I be worried?" I asked, alarm and anxiety filling my voice.
"No, but officer Manafed needs to do work on you, so she's putting you
completely to sleep."
"Alright, let me know when she's sedating me."
"As we speak."
I could feel the drowsiness rolling through my system, then the almost-stoned
feeling of pain killers. I looked up at Tamaki with worry and fatigue. I'd
started to fall, but it didn't matter. I was out before I'd hit the ground.

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I woke up extra groggy to warm, damp air from someplace tropical. So I thought
anyway: I'd never been in any such place. A girl could dream, though.
"I figured you could recover on a beach," Lucere said from behind me. It took
her running her fingers through my hair for me to notice she had them there at
all. I hummed in pleasure and opened my eyes, and sure enough, she was actually
sitting behind me.
I looked out over the beach. The view of the ocean was great. Pink and yellow
moons cast their lights on azure sands. The beach itself was more of an alcove,
framed by three cliffs. I saw a dense line of trees, but not much past
it. Obviously.
If I were being honest, the scene was serene. It jarred me. That medical room
needed a tonne more sanitizing while here was picturesque. My voice continued
to slur. "Yeah, its a damn sight better than the alternative."
"I built this 'scape after visiting the beaches of one of Altair's
planets." Lucere started pulling her hand out of my hair.
"No," I begged, "Please don't stop; it feels so good."
She ignored my pleading, her voice cracking as if nervous. "Well, now that you
are awake, I figured we could go diving."
"How does that work in virtual?" I sat up and dipped my feet in the sand. I
looked up to find her suddenly very close to me, just a few inches from my
face.
She stared into me, peering at my soul. Her lavender eyes sparkled like
polished amethysts. A woman with those eyes could get me to do whatever she
wanted just by asking. "Well, we don't have to breathe, for starters, so we
can go as deep as we want."
"I'd like to go deep in you," I murmered, lost in my fatigue and her eyes.
Shock riddled her face.
My breath stopped; I had just now realized what I'd said. "Oh shit. I'm so
sorry."
She blinked the shock out of her eyes, filling her face with the
scarlet blush of heavy embarrassment.
"Wow," I heard someone say, "She's forward. I bet you like that a lot, Lucy."
The voice was very androgynous and sounded pretty unique.
I whipped my head around in search of the speaker. It didn't take long for me
to realize I'd missed the thirty or forty people enjoying a nice beach day
along with us. My own face started to burn with embarrassment as well. Fuck I
was tired.
Lucere huffed loudly and grabbed my hand before I knew what was happening,
pulling me into a deep kiss. She was so passionate about it. There were real
emotions in it, but I couldn't help feeling a bit hollow at it all. What if I
was just a tool for her to experience her love for someone else?
Lucere released me after a while of being blankly stared at, regret washing
out her flush. "I'm sorry."
"Its fine," I said, shaking my head, "We just met a handful of hours ago, okay?
I barely know you. You barely know me. You're fun to kiss, but I'm so
amazingly out of my element here. I don't want to be a part of your corporate
machine."
Lucere smirked. "And yet you let me implant you with a neural interface. That
comes with a lot of risks, don't you think?"
"Shit," I whispered, barely loud enough to for even me to hear, "and that's how
I'm here at all."
"Come with me," Lucere instructed, offering her hand, "Clearly we need to
talk."
I reluctantly took her hand and followed her into the water. I noted how
perfectly warm it was; it felt wet and real.
Wet, reveal, deadly. I shivered. "Is this going to drown me?"
"I've modified water physics for a bit," Lucere said, "We may not need to
breathe here, but water in the lungs will still hurt like hell."
I nodded and submerged my head. Trusting her, I took in a breath, and the water
stayed out of my lungs. The anxiety melted into bliss.
I looked around and a beautiful underwater landscape graced my eyes. The azure
sand sparkled in beautiful light, filtered through the water. A reef lay in
the distance.
"The sand is only a few shades lighter than your hair," Lucere noted aloud,
"Very pretty. Never seen any hair as pretty as yours, those pretty curls."
"Thank you," I said quietly, and took a moment to think. I didn't want to give
away any info I didn't have to.
Eventually I decided to compliment her in kind. "Your hair is pretty too.
It's slightly wavy and the colour of my favourite chocolate."
"Is your hair naturally blue?"
I gave her an amused look and giggle. "Natural blue hair?"
Laughter was met with laughter. "It can happen."
"Are you using me?" my mouth asked before I could clamp it shut. Fuck. I
hadn't meant to ask that. I hadn't meant to reveal anything so personal. I
really didn't want to scare Lucere off. I supposed it was too late for secrets
moonlighting as questions.
Lucere paused a moment and replied: "I can understand why you'd be uneasy here,
or completely distrust me. Just think about this, right? We're providing you
a job, training, and the most advanced implant available. Once you're done in
the tank, there's a process for leaving, too. We won't keep you here against
your will."
"That wasn't what I asked, Lucy." I took a slow breath between my sentences
to try not to say something stupid again. "It's true I don't trust the strike
team, but I have no clue where you fall. You've not given me any reason to
distrust you specifically."
"What are you asking, Eilidh?" There was that feeling again, my name flowing
like honey from her lips. I had to think carefully about my next words.
I fixed my eyes to hers. "Are \emph{you} using me?"
"Oh," she said, playing with her hair a moment before continuing, "I
don't think so. Why?"
"There were emotions in that kiss." I took some time to carefully phrase what I
wanted to come out of my mouth next. "I'm not particularly good with social
cues, but even with that, this all feels like its moving very quickly."
"I understand," she said, "but no. I'm not sure you have the context here.
We've all vowed to be as open and honest with our feelings as possible. I like
you. Both what I've seen of you, limited as it may be, and the file our
intelligence crew has been able to put together."
"May I see it?" I asked, "My file, I mean."
"Sure," she said, "'Should have already been uploaded to your implant's main
storage. I want you to know that I haven't read most of it. There's some
pretty dark, and likely personal shit in there, and I'd rather hear your
stories from you."
I still wasn't sure if I was being used or not: hard to tell based on those
responses. I decided to ask more about the open and honest feelings she had
mentioned, but if I was going to, I needed to open up a little first.
"Thank you." I took a breath. "I have been used and manipulated in the past."
I thought back for just a moment to my first girlfriend, Inara. She'd used
me, convinced me to run a smash and grab against one of the local branches of a
tech giant. I was able to pull a really fancy computer rig and just shy of
four hundred thousand credits. I'd been shot though. Bullet collapsed a lung
not long after I got away and Inara did her best to patch me up.
She was gone when I woke up, and so were our spoils.
I was sixteen.
Breathing was hard for months after that.
"I'm relatively keen on keeping myself away from further abusive
relationships." I waited for Lucere to say something before realizing she was
waiting for me. "I guess I need to know why you would be feeling such intense
emotions for me after such a short time."
Lucere hummed. "I don't know. You're right that a few hours isn't really
enough time for anything like love, but I promise you that I don't love you.
Not yet, at least. Its very fun to kiss you, though. In front of everyone
isn't really an issue, either."
"Not an issue?" I asked, "I wasn't really worried that you kissed me in front
of everyone. It was the amount of emotion you expressed in that kiss. It was
so intense. The expression of emotion, especially that strong, in front of
everyone, none of whom I know? That was the problem."
Shock riddled her face again. "Oh Goddess Above," she exclaimed, "Yeah I could
see how that would be an issue. Like I said, we are open and honest here, so I
suppose I should tell you now: I'm dating all of the officers, with the
exception of Young, who is in the tube next to you out in the real. They
called me cute earlier though."
"You are poly?" I'd had a few friends that were poly, so I was aware
of what it was. I was always a little jealous of them: to be able to love
more than one person was always just a bit much of an exercise in patience and
communication for my previous partners. I'd tried to approach the topic, but
they were never receptive of the idea.
Was this my chance to explore my sexuality further? A bunch of corporate
lesbians didn't feel like the best place to be doing this, though.
Lucere's voice derailed my worried thoughts. "Yeah; most of us here are."
I figured now was as good of a time as any. "You're all corporate goons,
though. I'm not sure how I feel about that."
Lucere sighed. "We serve the Goddess, and She has some vested interest in
keeping us here, for now at least."
That only raised more questions. A queer goddess who cozies up to corporations?
Corps hated queer folk. We were always questioning the status quo. The status
quo mades corps their money. Another question struck me before I could ask
about that. "Who is the goddess?"
"We call her the Pale Goddess," Lucere said, "Her name is Anna, though. You'll
meet her soon enough; we all have to. She'll answer your questions and give
you some more. She claims to have been omnipotent in some other dimensions,
but apperantly omnipotence isn't something that can happen in this universe."
"Anna," I mused, "Interesting that a goddess with enough power to bestow magic
would have such a normal name."
"Names aren't everything," Lucere said, "but they do carry meaning for some,
though I suppose that's a topic that I can't particularly explain."
"What do you mean by that?"
"Our commander, Tamaki, or maybe Melrose might be better at explaining that,"
she replied, "I've never had to deal with how my name labels me. They have."
I nodded. "Okay." I began to suspect that meant that they were trans, but I
couldn't be certain. There were all sorts of reasons one would have to worry
about their name. Sometimes I thought about changing mine. Not that my name
was hard to write, but I didn't feel like an 'Eilidh' all the time.
"You look like you've got a lot on your mind." Lucere motioned for me to stand
up. "I have to go wake Sleeping Beauty. You can find Officer Melrose up on
the beach. Tell faer that fae's in charge for me, okay? Can't leave this
instance with nobody as admin, though I'm sure fae would have a way in anyway."
I nodded. "Alright." I tried to find words to express my thoughts as more
than single word answers. There were too many questions racing around for my
thoughts to produce meaningful conversation.
One question in particular was ringing through my thoughts like a hammer
shaping hot metal into something beautiful: \emph{How could I have gained the
favour of a goddess that's cozy with a corp?}

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My eyelids fluttered open and the world faded into view. Commotion echoed
through my ears and around me. The lights above shone far too bright.
"Officer Young," a familiar voice called.
My brain was so foggy I couldn't place who it was. I tried to form actual
words, but they didn't vocalize so instead I groaned. It felt like I hadn't
spoken in weeks.
"Don't try to speak, Talon." Lucere stepped into view. "We just had to make
sure you woke up in the real before you go back into virtual." Her face was so
close to mine her brown curls ticked my cheek.
"Get them back into virtual Lucy," said another voice, "They will need their
rest for the coming days. And would you help them setup a home 'scape?"
"Yes Commander," Lucere didn't bother looking at what had to be Tamaki, instead
brushing her fingers against my cheek. They felt amazing against my smooth-
Smooth? I didn't remember having smooth cheeks. Ah well: I figured I wouldn't
get a say in what I looked like coming out anyway.
"Now, Lucy," Tamaki shouted, departure pitching her voice down.
Lucere whispered something into my ear. My brain melting again robbed my
ability to understand what she said, but she probably knew that.
It was hard to describe moving to virtual with the implant and not the crown.
It was a feeling between movement and stillness and yet it was neither; my
senses were utterly confounded.
I still had consciousness, if only for a second, before I was fully in virtual.
The idea of having two bodies wasn't completely foreign to me: I often felt it
would be fun to have two separate bodies, completely different in looks and
configuration, to experiment with.
I shook the errant thoughts out of my head and gathered my bearings. I was
nowhere I recognized, standing on a boundary between forest and clearing. A
house of sorts stood before me, with walls of solid wood and a roof of
branches, woven densely and covered in leaves. Supposedly it didn't rain here,
otherwise she would've done something about that.
"The implant manages your sleep for you." Lucere startled me from out of
nowhere. "And you can be conscious in the real while managing things here in
virtual. It's a bit of a weird feeling, but you get used to it."
I turned by head toward her. "Then how come I can't feel my body now?"
She was looking at me now and \emph{wow}. Her eyes gleamed beautifully and
locked to mine, as if gazing into my thoughts. "I've disabled it. Your implant
is under remote management until you're ready to be completely awake in the
real."
"Fantastic." Each syllable played a note of sarcasm. I figured that meant she
could just scramble my brain if I offended her. She probably wouldn't, but the
option being there is mildly scary.
"No, not really," she admitted, "It's actually super dangerous. We disable
remote controls once you're capable of operating it on your own."
Worry and anxiety taintied my voice and face. "I assume you can kill me if
things are set wrong?" My safety and privacy were things I worried about:
after all, I needed to be alone with my thoughts so I could figure myself out.
"In theory," she said, "but I doubt reality would prove it; human brains are
far more capable of dealing with new circumstances than we ever give them
credit for. The real issue is privacy: I'd have total access to you without
your consent if I wanted it."
A blush crawled up my cheeks. The idea of being completely transparent to
anyone was, a bit hot. "Oh."
She giggled. "Of course as the medical officer, I will always get full body
reports from your implant. Those are kept confidental, and I don't look at
them unless my screening programs determined a problem."
"Like if I'm taking abnormal amounts of pain?" I noticed my entire body was
tingling. In hindsight, maybe getting the implant was a bit bad of an idea.
"Yeah, among a host of other symptoms of disease that can be fixed," Lucere
replied, "and those that can't."
Sudden vulnerability overtook me and my tone dried in short order. "That feels
invasive. Couldn't I have been given a rundown of all this before I decided to
get it?"
She sighed. "Honestly, I'm the one who wants to wait on those things.
Unfortunately it's written into our provisional contract that we have
monitoring in place for all field and administration staff."
"And y'all chose implants?"
"No," she replied, "it was part of the contract. The company chose an implant
they had designed the year magic was discovered. At first they could only
record what the user saw, but as the years progressed we've added all sorts of
features we deemed necessary, like inducing virtual reality and sending us
medical information."
"And connecting to this optical implant." I laughed when I finally noticed
visual data in my peripheral vision. I focused my attention on it. The
display exploded into full view: I saw my heart rate, a damage report on my
body, a navigation map, and a handful of other readings about me.
Oddly enough there was also a messaging system and web browser. I popped open
the messenger and saw a bunch of contacts already logged: tactical operatives,
mostly, but also all the other officers.
I thought about one contact that stuck out: Medical Officer Manafed, Lucere. A
chat window opened immediately. I thought about a message to send, eventually
settling on something simple.
\textbf{Young}: Testing?
I saw her laugh beside me, and she gave me a face.
\textbf{Manafed}: Tested.
"Thanks Lucy." It was just thought that drove it. "That's way easier than I
thought it'd be."
"It's really nice," she replied, "far easier than talking a lot of times."
I laughed. "Hey Doc, why's that massive headache gone?"
She returned a giggle. "Oh. Your implant is helping you manage your pain,
don't worry."
"My headache is still here, but I can't feel it?"
Her giggle grew into laughter. "Yeah, so you're gonna have to realize that lack
of pain no longer means all good. You've got that heads-up display for a
reason. If you start feeling pain that's when you're really in trouble."
It made sense, so I nodded.
"We just gonna stand here talking, or are you going to come into my home?" she
asked me with a smile.
"I suppose, sorry," I mummbled, "I just have a lot of questions and get
distracted easily."
Another laugh. "No problem." She started walking to her house.
The path was short, but each step felt like miles. I could understand what she
meant by lack of pain. It wasn't a pain, but more a feeling of weariness: my
brain functioned perfectly but my body was sluggish. I lost my balance and fell
back.
"Hey hey!" Lucere swooped in and caught me. "Are you okay?"
"I'm not sure." I checked the body readout on my HUD. "It says I'm all
orange. I assume that means good?"
"No." Shock and worry mixed on her face. She set me on my feet. "Orange is
not good. Not as bad as red, but not green."
"Oh," I said, a bit dazed, "So definitely not good." At least it wasn't as bad
as red. \emph{Don't freak out,} I thought, trying to keep calm.
"No, not good, especially since my sensors are not reading anything wrong for
your current situation."
I tapped on my head. "You getting a feed from my implant?"
"Not yet," she replied, "It does need about twelve hours to get a proper
baseline, but even then it shouldn't be reading orange. Your body is in
perfect health according to all my- no wait." A couple seconds passed. "Your
body just entered the next phase of transformation."
I nodded, then a massive headache split my skull, radiating from two points not
far up in my hairline. The pain exploded and I fell over. The reverberations
excruciated.
"Hold on," Lucere's voice echoed through my brain, "I'm moving you back to the
cryochamber."
"Horns!" I screamed, "I've got horns breaking through my skull!"
Lucere stared at me, her eyes wide. "You do."
"What?" I asked, my prior volume not quite gone. I reached up to feel, but
nothing was there.
"Your real body," she said, "I'm looking at you right now. They're pretty, and
blue."
"Pretty?" My voice wavered. The pain nearly incapacitated me.
"Yes, pretty. I'm gonna give you some pain management medication, but you'll
probably get knocked out."
"No," I said. The pain started to level off instead to climbing to yet newer
heights. "I need to remain conscious, as hard as that's going to be with all
this pain."
Lucere grumbled. "Fine. Let me get you inside at least." She lifted me up off
my feet and bridal-carried me to a comfy couch inside. It felt odd, but not in
a bad way: between the pain and confusion it was hard to tell whether the
pulses were excitement or embarrassment.
The inside was quaint, beautiful, and easy to live in. The walls were as plain
as the outside. There was simple wooden furniture, but in the corner, around a
table, I saw comfier furniture too.
Lucere laid me down on the small couch and set herself down on a nearby chair
just as cozy. Mugs of unknown liquid and some small shortbreads appeared on
the table.
I giggled, despite all the pain it caused to radiate through me.
"I can't believe you're remaining conscious through all that," she said
eventually. There was a hollow look in her eyes; the purple glow I was
starting to get used to was alarmingly absent.
"Holy shit Lucy," I exclaimed, "Your eyes are actually a soft purple, like um-"
"Lavender, most of the time, yes." She laughed, but the hollow look persisted.
"You've just been seeing my magic through them."
I coughed, another wave of pain searing my back. "I feel like I'm going to
die." I felt as sombre as my voice, the pain keeping me awake by a margin.
"You won't under my care." I could hear the flex in her voice, and she sounded
genuine in her belief. "But I know it feels that way. Your body is literally
reforming right now, in so many \emph{interesting} ways."
"You ever lose anyone?" I asked hesitantly.
False horror haunted her voice. "No! And how dare you ask!"
I laughed in spite of myself, in spite of agony. How could I not? She was
being far, far too cute in defending herself.
Too cute? I don't recall ever thinking of anyone as cute.
I felt a frown pull at my lips. I didn't actually know what this meant, what
this new range of emotions really meant.
Did this mean I liked Lucere?
Why was this so complicated?
"You're growing wings," she said, a weird look on her face, "Wings, Talon."
I stalled for a few seconds, trying to come up with something to say.
Lucere broke the silence for me. "What is your ideal body?"
"I have no clue," I admitted, "I've never thought about it."
"The Pale Goddess always delivers," she whispered, mirroring Tamaki's earlier
words.
"You sound like Tamaki." I gave those words some thought. "May I feel my real
body, just a little?"
"Yeah, I'll make the adjustment; tell me if it's too much for you." A confused
look appeared on her face. I could immediately tell when she made it: the pain
filtered through much more consistently, the pulses nearly rhythmic.
But I could also feel my body, how it had changed, how it was changing. I
tried moving my hand, my real hand. The movement was there, but it was very
slow, likely from the cryofluid in my veins cooling me down.
Eventually my hand and arm cought up with my brain and I could feel the horns
growing. They were so small they barely poked out from just above my hairline.
"Don't open your eyes," Lucere instructed, "If you do, there may be a very long
period of blindness. Still haven't got the cryofluid completely perfected
yet."
"My eyeballs will freeze, won't they?"
"Instantly."
"Fuck," I said, feeling thoroughly worn out, "Alright, I don't wanna feel my
body anymore." And then I didn't. I was alone with my digital self once more.
I could breathe again without the mortal tension. Breathing felt amazing.
"Anything else I can help you with before we go build your mindscape?" Lucere
asked.
"A kiss," I muttered, nearly inaudibly.
She wore a sly smile. "What was that?"
A blush toned my face pink. "Nothing. Let's go build a 'scape."

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I'd spent roughly an hour trying to figure out my place here. Everyone seemed
easygoing, seemed friendly, \emph{seemed} anticapitalist.
It was scary how easily the corporate machine could \emph{seem} pro-rights. It
was scary how an absolutely beautiful gathering of demimages was okay with all
this. I felt horrid in comparison, but that was to be expected.
"Down with the corps!" I heard behind me.
It was \emph{scary} how they could blend in so easily. Maybe I was paranoid
and they weren't actually goons sent to seduce hacktivists into subversion.
But if I \emph{wasn't}...
I needed a diversion, stat. I could \emph{not} afford to be found out. "Who
is Anna?"
"Our Pale Goddess," said one of the girls around me, "What do you want to
know?"
"If you're all so anti-corp, why is Anna keeping you here, tied to Eastern
Hills?"
"I dunno," she replied, "Since our inception we've only done a handful of jobs
for Eastern Hills. Haven't done any since we've been under Tamaki."
Curiousity snared me in that moment. "How long has she been in command?"
"About five years: she took command when she was seventeen."
I blinked. "That's a little young to be a commander, isn't it?"
"She was definitely a little green around the gills for a minute," an
androgynous voice replied, "Nice to meet you, Eilidh, I'm Tech Officer Xela
Melrose."
Fae extended faer hand with a smile, and both did I return. Fae were tall,
androgynous, blessed of short green hair. It wasn't quite a crew-cut, but it
was still the shortest I'd seen so far.
"So can you answer my previous question?" I asked.
"Anna is a divicive deity," fae replied, "literally just waiting for the right
time to pull it all down. Originally she just needed funding and Eastern Hills
was the only source left: others claimed the rest. She finds the whole
corporate thing to be completely asinine, and she's vowed to punish all the
deities involved."
"How many deities are there?" I realized a little too late that the numerous
questions I'd asked were likely on a FAQ. "Well, I suppose you don't have to
answer that: I'm asking a lot of questions."
"Don't worry about it," fae replied, "You'll be getting a full run-down of the
state of affairs when it's appropriate. Sometime during training, which should
start shortly after you leave the tube."
"So that leaves me to just socialize." Ostensibly, anyway. What \emph{should}
I be doing, anyway, really?
Xela laughed. "I've seen that look before; what trouble are you planning?"
"I hadn't thought of any trouble yet." Faer poke did get me thinking. "Maybe
I could hack the gibson and get the jump on training."
Xela rewarded me with an amazing look on faer face. "Your friend, what was his
name? Brian? Monroe? Oh! Marvin. Marvin already tried; he can't get past
me."
"You?" I immediately cursed my mouth, or, tried to. "Wait, tech officer."
Fae nodded with a grin. "Yeah, and I'm the best living firewall that exists.
Nothing escapes me and nobody gets access unless I grant it."
"So you've traded a technical problem for a social problem." If someone were
able to trick faer into giving access, then fae'd not be the best firewall in
existence.
Faer face boasted triumph still. "Not without a stack of perfectly forged
documents, some of which I have to sign myself."
"That sounds tedious." I thought of some trouble I could make in the time we'd
been talking, though: I'd take admin of this 'scape. For now, though, I'd make
casual conversation and familiarize myself with the implant.
"You look devious." Fae pulled me out of my head. "Not much of a poker face,
huh?"
I gave a shrug and kept at working out the menu system. It was as simple as
focusing on my peripheral vision. When I did, readouts exploded into full
view. They were thought-driven, so I willed them to navigate.
"You found what you're after yet?" Xela asked, proving my train of thought was
vulnerable by as little as six damned \emph{words}, "Must be a hacker at heart
if you're getting lost in the menus that thoroughly."
"Marv's the real hacker," I admitted, "I only know enough to get around."
"That's more than most." Apparently faer hair was long enough to twirl,
because fae're doing that too, somehow. Maybe hacking the gibson let you fuck
physics.
Faer hair looked soft, and my arm had already reached halfway before I caught
it. "Uh, may I?"
Fae nodded slowly. "Yeah, I don't see why not, just don't make it weird,
okay?"
I changed course to faer wrist, pulling faer close so my other hand could run
through \del{my prize} that precious hair.
Did you know my larynx could resonate at the frequency of ecstasy?
I swooped in. Fingers flanked faer hair on all sides, swimming through threaded
clouds. My hum grew louder.
"Here, sit down." Fae pushed me off my feet.
Chills zapped my spine, and my arms flailed frivolously. I screeched, and
plummeted atop something soft. Eyes wide, I looked down to find a couch that
most certainly did not exist two seconds ago.
I couldn't even turn to glare at my assailant before a head entered my lap from
my blind spot. "Now continue," its bearer did bid.
My face heated up again, and my fingers bathed in hair once more.
Fae took notice when my hand swam out of lane, and snatched it with faer own.
"Access denied." Fae gently kissed the back of my hand and placed it back on
the cheek it was about to invade. "Access, granted."
I could get used to this. These were good feelings, warmth and care.
That and Xela and I hadn't drawn a crowd like Lucere and I had. Having the
moment to ourselves really helped.
I continued playing with faer fair hair, and I found an area on faer scalp that
caused a far-too-adorable squeak. My delight skyrocketed, but a notification
in my vision torpedoed it back to ground.
I focused on it for a moment, and a chat window appeared front and centre:
\textbf{Manafed:} Your boss needs some help and this is something I can't
really deal with without some help. If you think about moving towards me
you'll transfer from the instance you're in to the instance I'm in.
I looked toward Xela and whispered, "Okay, who's my boss?"
"Your designation is Tactical Operative." Xela pulled faerself to a seated
position next to me.
I didn't even bother to hide the disappointment in my voice when I followed up.
"So what's that mean?"
"It means Tactical Officer Young is your boss. You need to go?"
"Yeah." I said out to feel faer cheek again. "Probably now, but I wish I
could stay."
"Time to go meet your boss though," fae said, "No need to be sad: we can pick
up where we left off when you see me again."
I smiled. "I look forward to it. Your hair is perfect and I want to get to
know you."
"You will," fae assured me, "I teach the practical hacking class required for
all tactical operatives."
"Isn't that a bit of a conflict of interests if we decide to go much further?"
Thinking about it, I really wasn't sure.
"We work that out on a case by case basis," fae said, "Now go: if Lucy is
interrupting your free time for this, its got to be important."
I nodded and thought about moving toward Lucere, her pretty eyes, how lost I
got in them...
The next thing I knew, I was on a comfy chair around a wooden coffee table.
Lucere was seated in a chair on the other end, and between us lay Talon on a
couch. Or, I assumed: their body was warping and twisting about.
"They set their avatar to sync with their body, but their body is in active
metamorphasis right now," Lucere explained, "They need the help of a hacker. I
would have called Xela, but I figured you'd get more of a kick out of hacking
the implant than fae would."
"Aren't they in pain right now?" I asked, mildly appalled.
She smirked. "I guess you better work fast then."
Shit. I immediately opened a barrage of questions. "How can I connect to the
implant? What protocols does it use? Where can I get access to a terminal?
What tools does my implant have for this kind of operation?"
My questions were answered with a blank stare as Lucere started whispering
words with cadence. I figured she was dedicating her entire focus on some sort
of spell.
Time to explore the menus some more. I quickly found a compiler, but for some
sort of visual language. I opened it, and it blossomed into a full-on IDE. A
small blue orb floated in front of me.
Thinking about wireless connectivity made a new orb appear. \emph{Okay, so I
have two nodes, one that's wireless connectivity, and another that I don't
quite understand yet.} I pulled them together and the program came to life.
I saw my thoughts being encoded into radio waves and beamed out of my head.
Gods, that was a terrifying thought: anybody in wireless range could just hear
my thoughts.
I thought about a selector and another orb appeared. I erased the line between
the central and wireless orbs, and re-connected them to opposite ends of the
new selector orb. A configuration menu opened. I set it to select on incoming
transmissions and waited.
A moment passed and I picked up on Talon's implant. I configured the selector
for bidirectional communications between our two implants. I wasn't sure what
kind of communication this was, but it was incredibly fast. By the time I
registered what was happening data flooded the line. I sifted through it as
quick as I could and found a piece of a configuration file.
I set the selector to find more like that, and data surged in once more. Much
of it was the same, but I got enough of an idea how the file worked. I wished
a new file into existence: one with a modified avatar setting.
I opened the menu again and recalled seeing Talon in the chamber, tweaking the
avatar accordingly. I took the familiar image and dialed it to be far more
effeminate.
Before I knew it, a cute girl appeared in my view.
I hoped they liked it.
Another thought exported the avatar and pushed it into the configuration
payload I'd received. I had willed it forward to Talon's implant, but a loud
buzzer slammed down.
"Configuration file not signed," a voice in my head said, "Please sign the
configuration with an authorized key."
Code signing was one thing, but configuration signing? That was another. I
couldn't possibly reverse the key fast enough to help Talon; not even with all
the compute in existence would I succeed in less than a century.
\emph{So who has the key?} I asked myself. The medical officer would have
installed the implant, but might not have a key to sign new configurations.
The technical officer would have the key, but I already knew faer strictness
would hinder me too long.
\emph{Why not ask Lucere?} asked the back of my mind. After mulling it over I
in. I summoned the messaging window again, and willed a quick message forward.
\textbf{Cantlin:} Do you have signing keys for configuration files?
Her reply took a bit.
\textbf{Manafed:} try yours
\textbf{Cantlin:} Why would my signing keys even work?
Another moment.
\textbf{Manafed:} implant in emergency mode
I could tell she was having a rough time with her magic.
I figured I'd at least try. A mental command signed the update and I focused
another send.
Talon's implant replied: "Configuration accepted. Reloading. Complete."
The girl I created lay on the couch.
Talon looked good like that, I had to admit.
They awoke almost immediately.
Lucere slumped over in the chair across from me.
"What in the fuck did I do that for?" a high melodic voice asked.
I sighed and slumped over, closing all the menus I'd opened.
I'd been in stressful situations, but never had someone else depended on me
quite like that.
Lucere regarded me evenly. "You passed." Not even a hint of emotion.

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I awoke feeling the best rest I ever had. The VR setup here was amazingly
complex to be able to manage user sleep. But that was in addition to full
immersion. It was leaps and bounds ahead of the headsets available via
commercial means.
As I opened my eyes, I saw Ai and Lucere talking. Hushed tones. I couldn't
quite hear what they were saying. Given how they were both looking at a
screen, it was likely about whatever they were looking at.
I got up to move closer. Saw a glimpse of the image. It was a woman in a
tube. Hooked up to a breather and all sorts of other tubes. She was pretty.
Short blonde hair. Little wings growing from the flesh below her shoulder
blades.
The screen disappeared before I could see any more. "Hey," I protested, "who
was that?" They both looked up at me. They weren't responding.
Lucere broke the silence first. "Nobody," she said, "I moved you to a cryo
pod, your body's getting too hot for the ice bath."
"You're lucky," Ai said, "that we got you when we did. You're boiling the
cryogenic fluid. We have to keep a constant fresh supply running in."
"You're so hot you're boiling \emph{near absolute zero} cryo fluid, Tal,"
Lucere said, "what does your ideal body look like?"
"I don't really know," I said. A feeling of anxiety pooled over me as I said
it. Like I had lied. But I wasn't quite sure if I'd lied. I'd just never
allowed myself to think about what I wanted to look like.
"Woah," Ai said, "no need to start breathing like that. Deep breaths in and
out." Had I started breathing erratically? A big breath in. A big sigh out.
"I don't really know," I repeated, more steady and sure of myself, "I've never
thought about it, I just know I hate this one." The women in front of me gave
each other a look.
"Everyone hates their body to some degree," Ai whispered, "we're just the lucky
few."
"Ai," Lucere said, "his mirror was broken to pieces. Multiple times."
"Is that not particularly normal?" I asked. In truth I knew it wasn't.
"No," Ai said, "its not normal."
"We'll see Ai," Lucere interjected, "right now he needs training."
"You're right," Ai muttered, "come on, let's go to the training hall."
I nodded. She began walking off, down into the void. I stood there for a
second. Lucere looked at me. Her purple eyes only glowed with a faint light.
Looking full of sorrow and pain.
"You okay?" I asked, not really sure why I cared.
"Yes," she said, "but worried for you. If your body gets any hotter we won't
have a way to save you."
"I see." I'd be dead if this got any further out of hand. That's comforting.
The anxiety welling up in my chest said it was anything but. I felt tears
sliding down my face. When had I started crying? "Am I going to die?"
"I'm doing my best to keep you alive," Lucere said, "but I don't think The Pale
Goddess wants you dead either. But with the rate she's going, you're heating
up quite a lot."
"Takes a lot to go from near absolute zero to human body temp," I said through
sniffles, "I assume you're just barely keeping up."
"Yeah," she replied, "we had better catch up."
The trip from the grove down through the void was a bit rough. I don't really
remember most of it. I was walking through tears still. I didn't want to die.
I didn't want to live as I was. I was too anxious about everything to do
anything. More tears falling from my face.
"Gods," Lucere cursed, "Why does the training grounds have to be through the
damn void space?"
"What is the void space?" I asked, finally being enveloped by the nothingness.
I could still see her in front of me through my blurry eyes.
"Just a spot of nothing," she replied, "it was originally designed to give the
grove a little more of an aesthetic. But then we needed some more space."
"For things like the training ground," I finished.
"Exactly," she said, "because aesthetic is the first important design
consideration in VR spaces, or at least that's what Ai says."
"Believe me," I said, wiping the last of the tears from my eyes, "aesthetics
are important in the digital world." I had built many virtual spaces before I
became a shut in.
My favorite virtual space was one I'd built to mimic my apartment, but with a
retro wave type feel. The window looked out over a city with lots of neon
signs and holographic adverts for nonexistent brands and services. I used it
as a spot to write code, but if I'm being honest with myself, it was an excuse
to be anywhere, no \emph{anyone}, else. Of course, nobody would really
understand that, I suppose.
"Of course they are," Lucere said, breaking my train of thought, and the
silence, "but in full immersion VR its a pain and kinda disorienting to have a
spot with absolutely nothing in it."
I suppose she had a point. I wasn't really feeling it now, but I'm sure if I
were here under a clear mind, I'd be feeling pretty disoriented, too.
"How much further?" I asked.
"According to my navi," she replied, tapping just above her left eye, "we still
have another thousand feet or so."
"Why so much space?"
"Ai thought that if anyone was able to get into this space aside from us, it'd
disorient them. Of course, that would only be true if they didn't have digital
mapping algorithms. Those are plenty, though."
I knew what she meant. Mapping algorithms were solved nearly a century ago,
and most physical devices contained enough microphones and directional speakers
to map out a single micrometer layer of paint from over a mile away. An
accidental sonar system, really, developed by one of those mass surveillance
companies near the beginning of the last century.
Now, of course, there are the silent cartographers, often called the silcars.
People who, throughout their days, do nothing except carry their phones out and
map everything. They sell their hyper-accurate maps to those who might need
them. I've heard its a lucrative position to be in. The roughly forty billion
credit profits get shared amongst the members based on how much map they'd
contributed, per day.
When I'd done it, it was an easy way to make pocket money during college. On
my bicycle I was able to accrue enough map data to get paid roughly a hundred
credits a day. Enough to live, but not good for steady eating through a week.
"Knock knock," a voice yelled, "gods, is he checked out?" I looked up,
surprised to be in another clearing. Ai was looking at me.
"Sorry," I said, coming back to my surroundings, "I was just thinking about
accidental sonar mapping and the silent cartographers."
Looked like a battlefield, this clearing. Swords, guns, and small obstacles
and cover littered the ground.
"Oh yeah," Lucere said, "that tracks. I'd mentioned mapping algorithms."
"Wait, Lucy," Ai asked, "that tracks to you? Gods, how does that track?"
"Well," Lucere replied, "I'd have thought about how mapping algorithms enabled
lots of new businesses, like the global cartographics guild. Then I'd have
remembered my time as a silent cartographer in my teens."
"Almost," I said, "these things are vaguely related, so its really not that far
of a jump, but my exact path was from the algorithms to the past and how they
were made and sold by companies that did nothing but mine user data. Then
thought about the present, and how the silent cartographers are."
Ai was looking at me with an interesting look on her face.
"What?" I asked, then explained, "I was pulling weekend mapping runs in college
for a little extra money."
"I suppose we don't know everything about you, then," Ai said, sighing. "Your
file is rather light. How did they miss payouts from the silcars over in the
background check's department? Or a college degree?"
"I don't-" I began, but caught myself, "Actually, I do know."
"Care to enlighten us?" Lucere asked, "If not, I can always stop the flow of
new coolant to your body."
"Woah," I said, "no need for threats now. I have no reason not to trust you."
I paused, then began to explain how there had been a lot of mishandling of my
employee on boarding process. They didn't gather proof of identity, nor
anything else. I had learned later that it was someone who'd been failing to
do this for years and was fired. The employees that they'd hired were still
being verified.
I initially reported it to my manager, but nobody put in anything to the
security team. Or any compliance teams. And I fell through the cracks.
Repeatedly.
"Haylee," Ai said, focusing on something I couldn't see, "check into the hiring
manager that brought Talon on." A pause. She nodded a few times. "Yeah, was
she fired for failure to pull identity documents from the new hires?" Another
nod. "Thanks sweetie," she said, finally, then turned to me, "you're story
checks out."
I could see Lucere's entire body relax, as she started explaining. "Our
competitors have run a lot of potential espionage fodder through this company.
Can never be too careful. One of the red flags is missing paperwork."
I nodded. "No worries," I whispered, "I realize it can be a security issue."
"Security issue?" Ai scoffed. "Only security issue here is if you've been
implanted already."
"I've run the body scans, Ai," said Lucere, "there's no sign of implants. And
if there were I doubt they'd be usable at this point, given the drastic
transformation we've already seen from Talon."
"Could you start explaining that?" I asked, "how much have I changed?"
"That doesn't concern you, right now," Ai said, with an almost evil smile on
her face, "all that you need to focus on right now, is me." She began walking
toward me. Slowly at first. Before I knew it I had to jump back and out of
the way.
I stepped behind some cover, a small concrete barricade. There was a knife on
the ground next to my foot. A single edge. Maybe five inches long. Almost
resembled the world's shortest sword, but a little more rounded.
I grabbed it, before I started feeling weird. The world started moving,
blurring. I figured Ai wanted to train me for magic, but looks like its a
trial by fire type of classroom.
Then I felt something crawl up me. Small. Barely anything, even. But then it
got worse. There were more. They felt like mice crawling all over me. When I
looked, there was nothing on me.
She's messing with my mind. Guess I can mess with hers, then?
"Ai," I shouted, "stop with the petty tricks. I want to look at you if you're
going to torture me."
"Why?" Ai asked, seemingly from everywhere.
"Because at least I would have something beautiful to look at."
"Oh," she said, it sounded like she was right behind me, but when I flung
around there was nothing. "You can try all you want, Talon, I don't play your
side of the field. Even if you are cute, for a boy." Still behind me. No
matter how many times I checked.
I sighed. So much for a fair fight. Maybe magic worked like in the games I
played as a kid. So I concentrated on building up a mental shield.
"Not quite," Ai whispered in my ear. She was close enough that I could feel
her breath on my ear. I stabbed back towards her, blade cutting nothing but
air.
Before I could react, there was a fireball flying at me from the far end of the
training grounds. It was fast. The impact alone threw me nearly 40 feet. I
smacked my head against a concrete barricade and passed out.
I awoke a few minutes later, both Lucere and Ai standing over me.
"You can still experience pain in here," Lucere said, "so better not get too
roughed up, or you'll be traumatized."
"Full immersion really means full, huh?" I asked.
"Yeah, it really does," Ai replied, offering a hand to help me up. I took it
and got up.
"Don't worry," Lucere said, "I reduced the pain you could feel. This time,
anyway."
"You have no talent for magic," Ai said, "none at all. Why?"
"I don't know the first thing," I replied, "its never been taught to me."
"Taught, huh? Ai, you think you can give him a hand in that," Lucere asked,
"before you break his mind?"
"Yeah," she said, "I guess we can try."

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"You're still doing it all wrong," Ai said, "you have to feel it. Magic is
just like an extension of you."
"And what happens if I never feel it?" I asked, trying again to feel the magic
around me. In a virtual space I should have been able to do this. But I
couldn't. I couldn't feel much more than the deep anxiety.
"Get out of your head!" she commanded, "quit thinking about it, and start
feeling it."
"This isn't natural to me," I whispered, "like it is to you."
"It wasn't 'natural' to anyone when they first started," she said, "but we all
learned by feeling it. If you couldn't do magic, you wouldn't have been marked
by The Pale Goddess. Lets go again."
"Alright," I said, trying desperately to pull my brain into the here and now,
"lets try."
"Now," she instructed, "you should feel out with your mind."
I pushed away my anxiety, if only briefly, and tried reaching out with my mind.
Eyes closed, trying to push my vision beyond my eyes. I couldn't feel
anything. Couldn't see anything. This went on for minutes.
"Hello again," a familiar voice said, "I didn't expect to have to help you
understand this."
"What?" I asked, "understand what?"
"My magic circuits don't work," the voice said, "in the bodies of men. If you
want to learn, you have to make the change."
"What change?" I asked, slightly confused. She couldn't be suggesting turning
into a woman, right?
"The one you've always wanted," she said.
"I've never wanted that," I said, but it came out sounding more like a
question. Why did it sound like a question?
"My, my," she laughed, "you, my child, are just as dense as I was in my youth."
"Who are you?" I asked.
"Your friends call me," she said, pausing, presumably for tension, "The Pale
Goddess."
"Who am I?" Ai asked. My eyes snapped open. Her finger was pointing at
herself. She was looking at me oddly. "Look, talking to yourself isn't all
that uncommon around here, but it sounded like you were having a real
conversation with someone."
"Didn't you hear her?" I asked.
"Hear who?" Ai asked in response.
"The Pale Goddess," I said, "I heard her."
Ai looked at me, her face completely unreadable. She spoke in quiet tones,
"are you sure it was The Pale Goddess?"
"She told me," I replied, "but that could have been a lie."
"Not likely," Ai said, then explain, "look, in order for that to be the case,
someone would have had to influence, either your mind directly, or the neural
crown."
"So very unlikely," I said, letting that sink in, "does she have a bit of a
flair for the dramatic?"
Ai said nothing for a minute, then suddenly, "What did she say?"
"She said its time for a change of pace," I said, "how do I access an avatar
creator?"
"What," Ai asked, "so you need to be someone else?" I saw a flash of
understanding cross her face. Yeah, she got it. "Hey Lucere, how do you open
the menu from the crown?"
I began playing around with gestures. Eventually she walked up to me and moved
my hand to touch just above my eye. The menu exploded into view. "Woah!"
"Interacting with the menu is," she paused, "like a touchscreen, I guess. My
menu is always displayed, albeit very small, in my optic, so just experiment
around until you get it."
"Thanks," I said, "Once I figure it out I shouldn't be very long."
I lied. This was going to take forever.
The menu lay open before me. There were buttons for just about every setting
you could imagine. Even a little messaging system. Looked like it was capable
of video calls, too. The more I looked around in the menu, the more I found it
was hard to even try to find what I was looking for.
Finally, I clicked on the messaging button. There was a directory listing of
all the mages I'd seen. I pushed the name I thought would have the answers I
needed. Lucere.
Finally, a chat window opened up in front of me. The keyboard was like a
holographic layer that I could type on. It wasn't just a holographic layer
though. As I pushed each button, I could feel it depress under my fingers, as
if it were a real keyboard, almost.
I couldn't help but miss the true tactile feel of the keyboard at my
workstation. Typing on this reminded me of some long-dead mechanical action
switch, but muted.
I realized I was describing this to Lucere a little after I'd already sent a
few messages about it. Heat rushed to my face at the realization.
\textbf{Talon}: \emph{Uh... yeah sorry, anyway how do I find the avatar creator
amongst all these options?}
\textbf{Lucere}: \emph{Wow. You are kinda adorable.}
\textbf{Talon}: \emph{Okay? Um, avatar creator?}
\textbf{Lucere}: \emph{Oh! Yeah, its uh...}
\textbf{Lucere}: \emph{If you go to the menu, touch "customization", then
"body", you'll be taken to the body editor, then touch... hold on, the manual
isn't that helpful here. Let me get Xeli, fae wrote all the software for that
damn crown.}
\textbf{Talon}: \emph{One person wrote all the software that makes this thing
go?}
\textbf{Lucere}: \emph{Oh yeah, fae's literally a tech mage. Its "rebuild"
from the "body" menu.}
\textbf{Talon}: \emph{Thanks, tell faer that the menus could be a little less
confusing for me?}
\textbf{Lucere}: \emph{You'll want to do that yourself, otherwise fae'll be
doing live modification's, and you don't want that.}
\textbf{Talon}: \emph{I'll remember that when I get out.}
I pushed the large 'X' button sitting toward the upper part of the window in my
vision. The window closed with a satisfying popping sound. After that was out
of the way, moved through the menu tree to get me to the avatar creator.
The world went dark and I felt the sensation of moving. Eventually I was
presented with some options.
\textbf{DNA Based}
\emph{DNA based avatars are less likely to produce dysphoria, dysmorphia, or
any other unwanted body/mind miscommunication. New users are recommended to go
with this option.}
Two buttons, a bit glowing "YES" button, and a dimmed "NO" button. I picked
yes. I was already probably going overboard by simply changing gender, no need
to go further into any issues.
\textbf{Gender}
\emph{Included are several genders, along with primary and secondary sexual
characteristics, however, many additional options are available within advanced
menu, which can be accessed in the usual places.}
The options were symbols. I didn't recognize any of the three that were
presented, but each was color-coded. Blue, pink, and yellow. I picked the
pink and hoped it was the option I was after. Otherwise I'd be doing this all
again.
\textbf{Age}
\emph{The age of the avatar you'd like to create.}
A slider menu was available. At one end, the number '18' was displayed, the
other '150'. I was beginning to wonder if this was designed as an actual
product, or if there were concerns I should be voicing to Ai. I picked
twenty-two.
\textbf{Complete}
\emph{As you picked "DNA Based", most of your options have been preconfigured.
Please wait while your new avatar is generated. Thank you for using the
Eastern Hills TruReality Beta.}
Well I guess it is a real product. A progress bar appeared in front of me,
just below the message. It was sitting at fifty-five percent. I went back to
thinking about anything else as the progress bar made its way forward. I was
nervous.
Then, before I knew it, I was back in front of Ai. Only I felt different. I'm
not certain how different exactly, but I felt like I was capable of flying. Or
like I'd been held down with heavy iron shackles before, and now they weren't
there.
For the first time in my life, I felt just perfect. The anxiety wasn't there,
holding me to the ground. But neither was the other feeling. The one that was
always there. The one I didn't have a name for.
I jumped. And jumped again. The subtle movement on my chest every time I
landed made me almost giddy. I didn't initially notice Ai staring at me. But
she wasn't quite staring at me, either. She was looking between me and
something I couldn't see. All with a look on her face that I could only
describe as a wry grin.
"Officer Young," she commanded, "situational report."
"I don't recall giving you my last name," I said, my voice was almost melodic
now. Like a high pitch ringing bell. It was beautiful.
"It was in your file," she stated, "and I figure you wouldn't want me calling
you Talon. You look at ease for the first time since you've been here."
"I am," I said, taking a deep breath, "I didn't know that this would be so,
what's the word?"
"Euphoric?" she offered.
Yes, euphoric. That's what this feeling was. It was euphoria. Everything
felt right, unlike any time I'd ever known before. Then I realized. "Hey, is
there a way to look at myself?"
"Here," Ai said, then made a gesture and a mirror appeared next to her, "should
I give you a minute of privacy to explore your new body?"
I blinked as I stepped in front of the mirror. The image of a familiar woman
looked back at me. "No," I said. Her lips moved. She was the woman I'd seen
in my dream. Her green eyes. Her blonde hair.
No, not hers. Mine. My green eyes. My blonde hair. My perfectly red lips.
I tried to keep all these feelings inside. But they couldn't be kept inside.
I fell to the ground and tried desperately to keep myself together.
I was too late. I'd fallen to the ground in a crumpled defeated mess. Tears
streaming down my face leaving cold wet trails where they'd been. Why was the
sight of me causing such intense feelings?
Before I could think on it anymore, Lucere appeared beside me. She sat down
and pulled me up into her lap and held me. She felt warm and comforting.
For the first time in my life, I felt safe.

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Lucere's arms were still around me when I woke up. I was shorter than her now.
I wiggled a little to see if Lucere was awake. She curled her arms around me a
little tighter and brushed her fingers through my hair.
It felt good, her fingers softly brushing against my scalp as she pulled more
hair to run through. It didn't just feel good though. Her touch was like
electricity running down my spine. I shifted under this new sensation.
"Oh," she whispered, "you like that, do you?" She moved her fingers down my
back. I hummed in delight at the sensation, electricity flowing from the line
she'd drawn down my spine. Before I knew it, another feeling blossomed from
within me. Like a warm bed of coals, radiating from my core down to my toes.
"Yes," I moaned, "I like that a lot."
"Then maybe," she hummed, "you'll like this." She moved my hair, revealing my
neck. The sudden cold air made me shiver. Her lips grazed my neck. I froze.
As she kissed up and down my neck, the warm feeling inside me kept growing.
I turned over to face Lucere. It was like the first time I'd looked at her.
The purple light in her eyes was glowing. Her brown hair was long and wavy.
Her lips were the perfect shape. And they looked so kissable.
She leaned forward ever so slightly. Her lips reaching for mine. She kissed
me. A whole new set of emotions bloomed within me. Her tongue teased at my
lips and beyond, gently offering more.
"Do I need to leave you two alone?" Ai asked. I jumped up as if I were a dog
caught eating from the cookie jar. I felt my face turn bright red.
"Look," Lucere giggled, "you're both as red as a firetruck." I looked over to
Ai, who was as red as I felt.
"Lucere," Ai said, "please go monitor Officer Young's body while we work."
"Yes, ma'am," Lucere said, an air of professionalism around her. Then she
vanished.
"I swear, Lucere," Ai cursed, "poor girl just got here and you're already
trying to..." She trailed off. "I'm sorry about Lucere."
"I uh, quite enjoyed it," I said, still quite warm in my face.
She looked at me, her face having calmed down to a mild blush. "So you did
need a moment to explore your new body, then."
"I don't really know," I admitted, "this is all, um, very new to me."
"Of course being a woman is new to you," she exclaimed.
"No," I replied, "all of it. New feelings. New emotions. I'm... I'm still a
virgin."
"Wait," Ai said, "you are still a virgin? How'd you even manage that?"
"I never really felt any urges," I replied, "and I'd never paid enough
attention to myself to care about dating. Or anything, really."
"For fucks sake," she yelled, "no wonder your magic hasn't been working."
"What, magic needs sex?" I asked.
"No, no," she replied, "The Pale Goddess gives us magic through femininity.
The love of, the being of, the unadulterated power of femininity. It didn't
really matter if you were a man or not, just as long as you were embracing your
femininity. So in your case, magic needs whatever you need to embrace being a
woman. Does that need sex? That's up to you."
"Really no judgments, huh?" I asked, "are you actually sanctioning sex as a
team leader?"
"My team is special," she replied, "and yes, we have whatever we need at our
disposal."
"I see," I said, paused, then asked, "what's my body look like, in the real?"
"It'll be too much of a shock still," she said, "but you look mostly like you
do now."
"Mostly?"
"Yes, mostly. The Goddess saw fit to give you something more."
"Something more?"
"You'll see when you get back into it."
"Fine. Teach me magic."
Under better circumstances, learning would have been a bit easier. But I was
constantly drifting off toward thoughts. Specifically the thought of Lucere's
lips on mine. I couldn't focus on learning quite like this.
But I was able to do quite a lot of magic. I was able to reach out with my
mind. And throw fire from my hands. And fly. I could fly. I'd always wanted
to fly.
Eventually we started playing combat again. Ai would throw a punch, I'd block
then counter with a punch. It was a fun little back and forth we had going.
Until she knocked me on the ground. I got a little flustered as I couldn't
breathe and I'd somehow burned a crater into the ground where I had landed.
That wasn't as fun.
Of course, nothing was quite as fun as what came after training for the day.
Lucere was given leave from watching my body. She'd come back to VR.
"Hey," Lucere said, "I'm sorry about earlier." She was beautiful. Her skin
looked perfectly tanned. That beautiful purple glow in her eyes illuminating
her face in an almost serene picture. Her lips. Her red lips looking so very
kissable.
"Don't," I said, "You were my first kiss. And I think maybe you owe me more."
"Oh," she laughed, "The new girl really is new. And very needy, too." She
wrapped her arms around me and kissed my forehead. "I'll tell you what, you
can have as many kisses as you want, whenever you want."
I stood up on my toes, pulled her face in my hands, and kissed her. And kissed
her. And kissed her. Before I knew it, we were on the ground. My hands had
moved from her face to her back. It was as if my fingers were moving on their
own, up and down her spine slowly.
She giggled. It felt so sudden. "Listen," she said, pulling away from me,
"you're really adorable, but I don't want to take advantage of you. You're
body is producing new hormones at unprecedented rates. You should take this
slowly and really think about it."
I groaned and pulled her. She didn't move. I tried again and ended up pulling
my back off of the ground. "Lucy," I begged, giving her my best pouty face.
She merely kept looking at me, with that intensely serious gaze. I pulled
myself up to her and kissed her. That broke her intense face.
Lucere lit up with that same beautiful, almost shy, light that she'd had
before. She was acting more timid, though. Her lips not moving as fast, nor
were her hands wandering nearly as much as they had before.
"Hey," she whispered into my ear, "you want a real bed tonight?" She kissed my
neck, waiting for my response. I wasn't apposed to the idea, but I didn't want
to move if it meant our bodies would no longer be touching.
"How?" I asked. But why had I asked it, instead of just saying yes? I don't
know why.
"I've built a comfy space," she said, "for times like this."
"So its not just me," I said, a wry smile pulling at the corner of my mouth.
"No, you adorable little girl," she said, smiling at me, "I don't settle down,
so try not to get feelings, okay?"
"I'll do my best," I giggled, "but no promises."
"Okay," she laughed, "but no antics. Hold on to me."
I wrapped my arms around her. She flipped us over. Her eyes were focused
beyond me as she worked on her unseen menu. I kissed her cheek. Her jaw. Her
neck.
"That's distracting," she murmured.
I raised my head up. "Should I stop?"
"Gods no," she replied, "but you should really hold on now."
I grabbed onto her, wrapping my arms tight around her chest. I felt the soft
cushion of her breasts against mine. It was a weird, but good, feeling. It
was a feeling that caused more warmth to radiate from my core out into every
part of me.
She rolled back onto me. The feeling of her pressing against me caused me to
shiver. Her thighs pushing against mine felt like fire. Fire radiating to
everywhere. I closed my eyes and let the feeling wash though me.
"Open your eyes," she whispered. I moaned at the feeling of her breath on my
ear and slowly opened my eyes.
I was in a bed. Or at least it felt like a bed. I tried to look around, but
she was still on top of me, kissing my cheek and grinning. I couldn't really
get a proper look, but it didn't matter. I was needy. There was cushion below
me, and a beautiful woman on top of me.
"Lucy," I whimpered, "please, more."
She raised her head from me a little. I could see a spark of recognition in
her eyes. She nodded. "Slowly," she cooed, running her fingers down my neck,
"but we will get there." She kissed me, her fingers tracing along the collar
of my training tee.
I softly bit her lower lip and sucked on it.
"Am I interrupting?" someone called. Lucere leaned back to sit up, blinked a
few times. My anxiety spiked. "Hey this 'scape is pretty nifty. Lots of fake
wine."
"Sarah," Lucere said, a hint of annoyance in her voice, "to what do I owe the
pleasure?"
"I wanted to meet the new girl," Sarah said, "so maybe you'd like to get off of
her so I can say hi properly?"
I pulled myself up and wrapped my arms around Lucere again. I turned my head
to see if I could have a peak at Sarah, but I couldn't see her, so I pulled
myself tight against her and hid my face in her neck.
"It doesn't look like she's in a 'saying hi' mood, Sarah," Lucere replied. I
could hear the tension in her voice. She wrapped an arm around me.
"Hey Lucere, fucking the new girl isn't really okay, is it?" Sarah spat. It
wasn't just Lucere who was tense. The whole situation was tense. I held on to
her tighter.
"Sarah, go away or I promise you won't survive your next injury." Lucere was
threatening her.
"You threaten that every time I come see you. I get the idea. Later Lucy."

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I opened my eyes. I was in a tube full of liquid. It was cold, but not as
cold as I'd been promised. I could see Lucere and Ai through the liquid. And
a few other mages, too.

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I emerged from the portal. Adrenaline wearing off, I fell to the ground and
cried. I'd lost her. I didn't know where to go. I'd been angry. I tripped,
I didn't mean to shove her through the portal. Tamaki.
Then gone to whatever hell that was.
Would she ever forgive me?
I cried for a while, ignoring the notifications that started trickling in my
vision from the optic feed. Closed eyes won't save you from high priority
messages, I guess.
"What's a beautiful young woman doing crying in a hell hole like-" a masculine
voice started to ask. A light on me and he froze. Adrenaline filled my system
again. I wiped the tears from my eyes while I prepared for a fight. Sometimes
I forget that I look like a monster.
"Hey," another called, "that's Vivian, you leave her alone, or she'll skewer
you on her horns." Oh thank the gods. Fernandez. I'm on Silent Arcade. As
my eyes refocused I could see that many men were sitting glued to a holo-feed,
watching a news program.
"Hey Fernandez, how's it?" I asked, trailing off at the end, not wanting my
voice to give me away.
"Hey," Fernandez replied, "woah, you look like hell. Want a drink?"
"Whiskey?" I asked. My eyes finally focused on the holo-feed just enough to
read what the feed was about. \emph{LOCAL GIRL FOUND DEAD, MURDERER AT LARGE.}
Interesting title.
"Yeah, got some over here," one of them had responded, starting to pour some
into a glass.
"What's with the holo-feed?" I asked as the glass was passed to me.
"We thought we'd lost Trilu's little girl," Fernandez responded, "to the
portal."
"But looks like she'd just been kidnapped," another man said, "murdered. Trilu
is on the surface now, trying to find whoever did it."
"I see," I sighed, "send my condolences."
"Sent," Fernandez said, his eyes closed, "he says thanks. You can help out if
you want, just head to the surface."
"I can't," I said, "I have someone of my own I need to find." A notification
popped up in my optic feed. Of thirty. I pulled up only the most recent.
\textbf{Ai:} \emph{Hey! Are you even alive? Look I get that I was a bit of a
bitch, but could you please respond? I'm freaking out.}
\textbf{Vivian:} \emph{Yes. I'm alive. Sorry. I nearly died trying to follow
you after I tripped. I shoved you through by accident I'm so sorry!}
\textbf{Ai:} \emph{Oh thank the gods! I assume you are on Silent Arcade, given
I can message you without any delay now.}
\textbf{Vivian:} \emph{Yeah. I suppose you want to talk?}
\textbf{Ai:} \emph{Yeah. I'm on the surface. I'll send you location data in a
second. Gotta start generating a map instead of freaking out over you.}
\textbf{Vivian:} \emph{I guess I'll let you get to it, then. Listen, I'm
sorry. I really didn't mean to say that stuff...}
\textbf{Ai:} \emph{Yeah, you did. And I deserved it. I did some kinda bitch
things... we'll talk more when we are together. Now let me focus on mapping,
will you?}
I closed the notification and nodded to the guys. "Thanks for having me, but
this is as much time as I can spare." The location data came in. I opened the
map in my optic and fed it the data. Not far from me, but on the surface.
I walked to the far end of the chamber, lighting a magefire in my hand so I
could see up the incline of the tunnel to the surface. At the top of the
tunnel was a ladder up. It led to a trapdoor in a restroom on the surface.
When I got to the top of the ladder, I tried a sensing spell on the ceiling
above me.

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