Wearing Power Armor to a Magic School (33/?) (Patreon)

A staredown soon ensued.

One that neither of us seemed to be willing to let up on.

And to say that I was impressed by the shadowy figure’s endurance and commitment to the bit would’ve been a massive understatement. As he looked straight at me with those two, white, and frankly surreal-looking trapezoidal ‘eyes’ with both a ferocity and a determination that didn’t seem at all phased by the unyielding presence of the power armor.

Though that was probably as far as I was willing to go on the list of good things I had to say about the guy, as he continued to maintain that aura of intimidation that really didn’t seem to work as well as he probably thought it did.

I wasn’t so much intimidated by him as I was completely thrown off by how he looked, and it wasn’t because of his outfit. While I would never claim to be a fashion expert by any means, I could at least tell that he looked more or less par for the course of what I’d expect from a fantastical pseudo-medieval society at the very least. His white shirt, green vest, and smokey grey cloak was what I expected from a typical rogue.

It was what I saw, or more specifically what I couldn’t see in the head and face department that was really not doing it for me.

Because instead of just your typical face draped in a bit of a shadow, courtesy of the cloak, it actually looked as if some sort of unnatural darkness had enveloped his entire head and face. It left a blank, dark void where a face should have been. With the only inkling of life being those two, unnaturally white, trapezoidal eyes, that put me in mind of a cartoon or a comic where reality was bent to the whims of character design and artistic expression.

This would prove exceptionally true as he began speaking, those two vague trapezoidal shapes that took the place of his eyes moved, shifted and contorted far beyond what eyes should’ve been capable of. All in an attempt to make up for the loss of any and all discernable facial expressions due to the lack of a visible face beyond that void-like darkness.

A darkness that not even the night-vision mode of my cameras could penetrate.

ALERT: LOCALIZED SURGE OF MANA-RADIATION DETECTED, 140% ABOVE BACKGROUND RADIATION LEVELS

As a quick localized environmental scan made it clear that this was yet another one of the Nexus’ weird mana-fueled acts of tomfoolery.

“What say you, first years? Are you here for healing, or are you here for a visit?”

“We-”

“We’re here to visit someone.” I announced, accidentally cutting off Thacea’s reply.

“Then you must leave. As I have stated, the medical wing is not accepting visits at this point in time. You must leave the way you came, post-haste.” The hooded figure answered with this strange mix between a sing-song voice and an attempt at sounding gruff and gravely.

“We have an unfulfilled point of personal privilege that requires addressment.” Thacea stepped up to the plate, promptly placing herself by my side, then taking several steps forward. “Along with an unresolved conflict which requires immediate resolution by the party with which the aforementioned point of personal privilege was evoked but halted due to unforeseen circumstances.” The princess began flexing her courtly-talk with the hooded figure, which clearly seemed to have some effect as he reached up a single gloved hand up to where his chin should be, only to have his fingers disappear as soon as they entered the dark shadowy effect currently covering up his face.

“And with whom is this unresolved matter incurred?” The figure inquired plainly, though the way he spoke shifted to something a bit more accommodating, perhaps even a little bit more hospitable than the gruffer tone he’d initially directed towards me.

“An apprentice, good sir. Apprentice Larial to be precise.” Thacea clarified politely, using what I could only describe as this flighty, chirpy, almost haughty tone of voice that she’d used during our first interactions together.

“Hmm…” The hooded figure replied with a concerned grumble. “I was going to waive this particular matter, allowing the fair lady…” He paused, before making a point to stare at both me and Thalmin. “And her two knights through under the points of exceptional circumstances.” He continued in a less restrained, more flighty cadence. “However, you must excuse my inability to do so, my lady. My hands are currently tied via the powers that be, and I cannot evoke the point of exceptional circumstances in use to waive you through in order to address your points of personal privilege.” The man continued, giving Thacea a frankly genuine and polite bow in response. “I must apologize for this discrepancy in expectant decorum.”

This didn’t make things any better for our circumstances though.

And it was clear Thacea understood this as she continued pressing forward.

“May I have your name and title, my good sir?” Thacea chirped lightly.

“Appointed-Deputy Magistrate Sir Arlan Ostoy, Senior Apprentice of the Transgracian Academy for the Magical Arts. May I have the honor and the privilege of requesting your name, my fair lady?”

“Princess Thacea Dilani, of the Aetheronrealm, First Year and Scholastic Peer of the Transgracian Academy for the Magical Arts.” Thacea replied with a full bow, and a half-curtsy of her own.

“A pleasure to make your acquaintance.” The shadowy figure bowed yet again.

“The pleasure is all mine, Sir-Magistrate.” Followed by yet another bow by Thacea.

There was some serious song and dance going on here, and one that I was observing with bated breath.

“Might I inquire further as to the particular reasoning behind this unfortunate and unseemly inability to respect the rights of expectant decorum?” Thacea quickly shot back.

“As I have alluded to, your highness, the powers that be prevent me from furthering the natural solution to your particular grievances. If this were any other instance in time, at any other location or place, I am sure this matter would have been resolved in an expedient and timely fashion. This situation, as you have alluded to yourself, results from a very particular set of unforeseen circumstances. Circumstances which currently dictate my actions in a manner which just so happens to be in conflict with your points of personal privilege, your highness.” The man’s posture, the way he stood, even the way he talked seemed very particular when addressing Thacea.

It was at that point that something changed. I didn’t know what, and I wasn’t sure why, but Thacea seemed to be shifting towards a tactical retreat, as she clacked her beak several times before addressing the both of us. “This is absolutely preposterous, I will need a moment to clear my mind but when I do return…” Thacea turned towards the magistrate/guard/apprentice person yet again. “There will be words exchanged.”

At Thacea’s prompting, we all left the room, slamming the door behind us similar to how Ilunor always preferred to do as we kept walking away from the medical wing until of course another privacy screen was brought up.

ALERT: LOCALIZED SURGE OF MANA-RADIATION DETECTED, 275% ABOVE BACKGROUND RADIATION LEVELS

“I have a plan.” Thacea began. “And this is entirely relying on you two having actual military experience.” She continued ominously.

“Oh princess, you sully the Havenbrock name if you believe my mercenary heritage is in any way, shape, or form a mere decorative mantlepiece.” Thalmin responded with a sarcastic, yet excitable tone.

“I assure you, Thacea, I think my training has almost every eventuality accounted for.” I added with an affirmative nod.

“So what’s the plan?” Thalmin quickly barked out excitedly as we stopped at what looked to be an exit towards one of the Academy’s many open-air terraces.

The princess continued walking silently as we reached the edge of the terrace’s balcony, overlooking the sheer cliff face at a height that more or less put me in mind of your typical open-air rooftops on your typical Acela Corridor skyscraper.

“I’ve observed that the medical wing seems to consist of a large tower-atrium, with several more towers connected via additional corridors. Similar to spokes on a wheel. As you can see from this vantage point, it seems as if most rooms have private balconies. If we cannot make our way to the apprentice via normal channels, then I plan to approach this via unconventional means.” Thacea turned towards me with a hardened look in her gaze. “Emma, is your… insect artifice ready for use?”

My eyes widened at that, as I nodded affirmatively. “Just for the record, we call it a drone.” I quickly corrected Thacea. “But, yes, I can designate individuals and targets for it to track down or follow. However, I can’t just have it poking around at every room though, there’s no guarantee that the beds will be facing the right way, and if there isn’t enough of a gap between the windows, there won’t really be a way for it to get in-”

“I don’t want your artifice to observe every window, Emma. That will most certainly take too much time, and as you’ve stated, there’s no guarantee of actually identifying a face considering the multitudes of factors involved.” Thacea interjected. “What I plan to do is to return to the Deputy-Magistrate, and to attempt to reach a compromise that he will abide by. I plan for him to take us, or rather, your drone straight to the apprentice.”

“And how will you accomplish this?” Thalmin whined curiously.

“I will draft a letter, addressed directly to the apprentice, and request that it be taken straight to her room. This way, the Deputy-Magistrate will in a sense be able to accomplish his obligations to the Expectant Decorum, and in doing so he will lead your insect straight to the apprentice’s room.”

I stared at Thacea with wide eyes, as her actions and back and forths with the deputy-magistrate began taking on a completely different meaning in this new light.

“That way, we can find out exactly which room the apprentice is in.” I replied bluntly.

“Correct. However, from there, I cannot say my plans are in any way foolproof.” Thacea replied with a sullen coo.

“Well go on, princess, it sounds pretty good so far!” Thalmin urged.

“Ascertaining the apprentice’s room is only half of the stated objective. Actually getting there is another matter entirely. This is why I inquired as to your respective military backgrounds. Because depending on where the apprentice is located… my idea for the latter half of this quest involves you two scaling your way towards the room.” The princess spoke with a certain level of genuine concern and trepidation about the idea. “On the exterior aspect of the castle, if that needed to be said.”

Though Thalmin’s face seemed to  indicate that he was at the very least, considering it at least somewhat seriously.

“Alright.” I muttered out loud, instinctively trying to place a palm on my forehead, only for the glove to bonk straight off. “I have several ideas. First, we might be able to do this remotely. I’m thinking once we find out which room she’s in, we fly in a larger drone, one carrying with it a deployable holographic projector or some other two-way communications device so that we can talk to her remotely.” As soon as I spoke that idea out loud however, things started to fall apart. “But because of how thick the walls are, and considering the distance between the tower and our dorm, I might have to deploy repeaters in order to daisy-chain the connection all the way back to the dorms. I mean, we can’t just set up shop out here in the open after all. At which point we’d have a continuous chain of signal-repeater drones flying all across the Academy… which wouldn’t be ideal. No, scratch that, that won’t work.”

The pair stared at me with varying degrees of confusion, but seemed to have collectively decided to ignore the idea after I’d scrapped it.

“I say we climb it!” Thalmin yelped out, but not before another idea hit me. One that could work, but that required me consulting Thacea first.

“I mean, we could, but…” I turned to face Thacea. “What’s the Academy’s policy on noise? Or rather, do you think we could get away with something really really loud, buzzing outside of the towers?”

Thacea once more stared at me with a look of just utter confusion, but shrugged it off and went with it anyways. “I would highly recommend against generating too much noise for this particular quest, Emma. It would most certainly garner a lot of unwanted attention.” Thacea spoke plain and simple.

I couldn’t help but to groan internally in frustration at that.

That makes flying over there a no-go… it would’ve made things so much easier though…

“Alright, well, that more or less places us in a very awkward situation with not a lot of options available to us, huh?” I thought to myself outloud again, as I craned my head over to an excitable Thalmin.

“I guess I have to climb on over.” I stated in no uncertain terms.

“Wait, I?!” Thalmin responded with a shocked and incredulous bark. “There’s no way I’m allowing you to climb on over there yourself without assistance or-”

“Thalmin, there’s no need for you to climb on over with me.” I interjected. “This whole mission is hedged on me talking to the apprentice one-on-one. Remember the gardens? The apprentice wouldn’t allow you anywhere near us when we started talking. It’d be a waste of time, energy, and more importantly… a huge risk to your safety if you climb on over without actually needing to do so. I don’t want to risk your life needlessly, Thalmin. Not especially for a fight that isn’t your own.”

“Well you’re part of our peer group, so it’s my fight as well.” Thalmin replied with a dejected growl, but eventually relented. “But you’re right, Emma. I hate to admit it, but you’re right.”

I nodded at Thalmin’s slowly. “Besides, there’s an important job I need you to do.” I began scrounging through one of my pouches, and began palming for my spare in-ear earpieces. “I need you on lookout, to keep me aware of anything fishy developing in case I need to pull-out.”

Thalmin looked over the side of the terrace, towards the raging waters beneath this side of the Academy as he let out a sigh. “That shouldn’t be too hard. Hardly anyone will be arriving at this terrace, and beyond that there’s no way anyone can spot you from below, given there’s nothing but the cascading rapids below us. We’re most certainly on the right side of the Academy for this quest, that’s for certain. There’s no one that can spot you from here, save for perhaps the foxes in the library.” Thalmin pointed at the library in the far distance.

“Oh, I’m not too worried about anyone seeing me. I’m more concerned about someone compromising my extraction point, i.e. this little terrace here.” I acknowledged.

“But…” Thalmin scanned me up and down, as if wanting to comment about my size but- “You’re massive.”

“Okay, first off, rude.” I spoke sarcastically,  and raised both hands up for added effect. “But in all seriousness, I have another device that can mask my visual presence. It isn’t perfect, but from afar it should actually work pretty well.”

Both Thalmin and Thacea stared at each other in confusion yet again at this revelation, but once more decided to just roll with it, at least for now whilst time was of the essence.

“In any case, I will be diverting the Deputy-Magistrate’s attention by preoccupying him with needless and vapid chatter. This should take attention away from the apprentice and your intrusion, Emma.” Thacea quickly added, and promptly tied this whole impromptu operation up nicely.

“Alright, let’s get this show on the road then. We’ll head back to the dorms and get that letter drafted so-”

“Already done.” Thacea interjected, bringing up a parchment that she promptly began sealing into an envelope.

“Wait, when did you-”

“Whilst we were talking. I used an imprint spell on one of the many parchments I have stored in my holding pouch. The letter is written and signed.” Thacea spoke nonchalantly, as she held the neatly sealed envelope in one of her talons.

“Alright then.” I tapped the pouch with the INFIL-DRONE, the small little thing peeking its head out much to the visible disgust of the pair. “So we’re ready for phase one of the operation. Misdirection and information gathering. We’ll go in, drop the letter, and have the drone do its thing. After that, we wait for the drone to return, and we’ll take it from there on whether or not we can continue with Phase Two: penetrating the enemy lines.”

“What would be stopping us from continuing with phase two?” Thalmin quickly asked.

“Well, simple. If the apprentice is still conked out from her injuries, there wouldn’t be any point in attempting to meet her. So hopefully, she’s going to be in a good enough state to talk to. We’ll know when we get the drone footage back.”

“Fair point.” Thalmin nodded.

“So, is everyone ready to begin?” Thacea asked.

A series of affirmative nods later, we began our quick walk back over to the concourse.

=====

The Transgracian Academy for the Magical Arts, Extraction Point Alpha (Open Air Terrace overlooking the medical wing). Local Time: 1420 Hours.

That took way more time than I’d initially thought.

In fact, it took so long that I was beginning to wonder how two people could have an unending conversation where nothing of value was spoken and nothing of value was gained.

It was basically elevator small talk, but written by the same writers who wrote Bridgerwesson Lane, and adapted to a theatrical release with a trilogy that ended with a movie arbitrarily cut up into a two-parter.

I honestly zoned out for a few moments during those hours, as I actually took the time to review the grappling hook and mountaineering gear I’d be using on this little quest.

Eventually however, the Deputy-Magistrate relented, at which point I let loose the INFIL-DRONE to do its thing.

It’d been twenty minutes since we left and made our way back to this open-air terrace, and all of us were waiting with bated breath for the results the drone had in store.

“So, how fast can that insect of yours fly anyways Emma-”

Thalmin was immediately cut off as the drone in question buzzed right by his ears, forcing them to flick this way and that like little satellite dishes trying to locate a target.

“Speak of him and he will come.” I chuckled, as I outstretched a gloved hand over for the little drone to perch atop of.

Once again, the pair stared at it with a look of mild disgust, and then panic as it crawled all the way back into its docking port, and began uploading the data we desperately needed.

“Alright, let’s see what we have here.” I spoke to no one in particular before shifting my attention to the EVI. “EVI, isolate and replay relevant footage, and calculate the target’s location.”

“Acknowledged, parsing…”

“Location Parsing. Footage isolated. Play Footage?”

“Affirmative.”

I immediately pulled out my data-tab for the gang to be able to watch as well, as the footage began just as the Deputy-Magistrate, and by extension the drone, arrived at the apprentice’s room.

The door, and all details posted in the front were all captured, and so too was the state of the apprentice revealed to us in short order as I braced myself for a mangled and bandaged-up mass of broken bones.

What I instead saw, was… still a heavily bandaged up figure. However, the most important thing was that they were awake.

And what was remarkable, was the fact that they were able to move without assistance. As the apprentice reached over to receive the letter wordlessly, shifting a bit in bed as she did so.

“This is a letter addressed from a Princess Thacea Dilani of the Aetheronrealm. I have fulfilled my duties and obligations as per the Expectant Decorum. I will now take my leave, Apprentice Larial.” The deputy-magistrate spoke with the same air of overbearing properness, seriously making me consider whether or not this was how he was all the time.

Whatever the case may be, the apprentice seemed to be healed enough to move her arms at the very least, as she grabbed the letter and spoke hoarsely back in response. “Thank you Senior Apprentice.”

There wasn’t much to the footage beyond those interactions, but it was good enough for the purposes of this mission.

“Alright.” I spoke, as I pocketed the tablet. “We have our answer. The apprentice seems healed up enough to speak to, so phase two of this operation is a-go.”

The pair nodded in response, just in time for the EVI to be done with whatever calculations were needed to determine the apprentice’s precise location.

I turned to the tower, as the room and its balcony was highlighted.

It was just about five stories above where we were.

Meaning it’d be a hell of a climb.

“The room’s about five floors up.” I announced with a sigh.

“Are you sure you can make that journey, Emma?” Thacea responded worryingly. “I… I will be honest, Emma, I am having some second doubts about this whole idea. The concept just came to me as flying between tall structures and towers is just second nature to us Aetheronrealmers. Considering the heights involved, and your inability to fly, I’m genuinely wondering if this whole quest was a folly of my own shortsighted-”

“It’s fine, Thacea.” I cut the avinor off. “I can do this, trust me.” I placed a single hand on the princess’ shoulder, and squeezed it once for effect.

Meanwhile, the EVI began doing what it did best: attempting to minimize the risk associated with my hairbrained schemes, as it deployed the suit’s primary lookout drone in order to start mapping out the best possible route forward.

This spooked the pair yet again, as they both jolted backwards.

Thankfully, the drone was deathly silent, so it shouldn’t bring too much attention to it.

It was at this point that I brought out a pair of earpieces I was scrounging my pouches for earlier, one for Thacea, and another for Thalmin.

“These will help you stay in contact with me throughout the climb.” I stated plainly, as I attempted to latch it onto my own ear for demonstrative purposes, only to realize that I could not, given the suit was in the way.

I sighed, as I turned towards Thalmin. “Do you mind if I put it on for you?” I asked sheepishly.

“Erm, what is it, Emma?”

“It’s…” I paused, as I attempted to find the best way to describe this without taking up too much time. “It’s a communication artifice, Thalmin. On one end, there’s a device that generates vibrations in the air which creates sound, which then allows you to hear. On the other, there’s a device which generates invisible waves in the air which can be received and sent by devices of similar design. This will allow you to communicate with me within a certain distance. A distance which is amplified by the flying artifice that just took flight.”

Thalmin, as expected, looked at me with an expression of partial dumbfoundedness whilst Thacea seemed completely transfixed by the earpieces I held in my hands.

“So it’s like a hearing-sense?” Thalmin responded with a questioning bark.

“Look, I’ll just demonstrate.” I managed out with a sigh as Thalmin reluctantly nodded and allowed me to begin hooking in the earpiece, looping it around his fluffy triangular ears.

This inevitably resulted in my hand brushing over the lupinor’s fluffy head a few times, which seemed to elicit some large tail-wags and a dulcet rumble.

I tried to ignore that, as I pulled back and began demonstrating. “I’ve turned off my speakers, can you still hear me, Thalmin?”

“Yes, I can.” The  lupinor spoke after clearing his throat.

“Alright, I’ll get into the specifics of how it works later, but as for now, just know that I can hear whatever you say.”

“I’m afraid I don’t think that artifice will be compatible with my… morphology, Emma.” Thacea spoke calmly, as she pointed at several aspects of the earpiece that required an actual ear canal to fit into, and an earlobe to loop around.

“This complicates things a bit, but it shouldn’t be too difficult. How long do you think you can keep up the distracting conversation with the deputy-magistrate for, Thacea?”

“We just went through several hours discussing nothing in particular, I can most certainly continue that trend from dusk till dawn.” The avinor spoke confidently, and frankly, rather proudly. “The issue lies not in how long I can manage to maintain the conversation, but in how long it will take you to accomplish this quest, Emma.” Thacea shot back.

“An hour.” I nodded confidently. “Twenty minutes to scoot my way over there, twenty to talk to the apprentice, and twenty to get back.”

“I’ll make that two hours then.” Thacea responded without a second thought. “We need to account for potential complications, and an extra hour of senseless dialogue will most certainly not be an issue for me.”

With an affirmative nod from me, and an approving glance from Thalmin, I now turned towards the exterior of the hundred foot corridor leading to the concourse, and the extra four hundred feet it would take to get from the concourse to the tower in question.

It was at the last minute that the EVI bring out another suggestion, as the FEBNPMS had managed to draft out an idea decidedly better than simply scaling the walls like some sort of an overeager rocklimber.

“Actually… I have a better idea than simply scaling the walls.”

=====

The Transgracian Academy for the Magical Arts, En Route to Medical Wing Tower C, Room 705. Local Time: 1420 Hours.

“Grapple secure.”

I will never forget the feeling of falling.

The very wrong feeling that came with leaping off of solid ground into empty sky, of suddenly seeing and feeling the world whizzing by me.

It was a visceral feeling, a gut-churning sensation, dominated by an overbearing sense of impending doom that takes over your terrestrial brain that wasn’t designed to feel the ‘freeing’ sensation of being unbound to the ground beneath you.

Leaping over from the edge of the terrace was the worst part of it. But after that tentative jump, things started to become just a little bit easier.

The Academy’s proclivity for over-aggrandized architectural design would finally serve a purpose beyond just decorative aesthetics.

Because it was clear that the walls weren’t really designed to ward off anyone daring to scale them. As there existed several, if not hundreds of these little greebles and outcroppings that served no purpose but to act as decorative pieces on the side of the castle. Some held stone flowers, whilst others had lamps or other light pieces of varying designs.

No matter what they were, or what meaning they held, all were perfect targets for my grappling hook to latch onto.

As I dangled there from the first outcropping, held in place by a single high-tensile cable, I looked up to see Thalmin looming over the edge “EMMA?!” I heard him shout in a panic. It was clear that he was unable to see anything, as my light-refraction cloak was currently doing its job well.

“I’m still here, Thalmin. You can’t see me but I’m dangling from this weird outcropping that looks like an overinflated vase.

“Oh good! Just, keep me informed alright?”

“Of course. You’ll know if I’ve fallen if you hear a long scream followed by a large splat.”

“That’s not funny!”

I chuckled nervously in response. “Humor’s my way of dealing with stress.” I nervously turned towards the next seven hundred or so feet I had to cover with a vertigo-ridden anxiety. “And trust me, I have a lot of stress to work through right about now.”