Technomancer: Birth of a Goddess

Chapter 3 – The Men in Robes

Emily collapses on her bed, exhausted from her morning.

Well, that was fun. I feel like I could sleep for a week.

She lies still with her eyes shut for a few minutes, thinking about what she could have done differently.

I really should have started looking for cover the second the ship exploded instead of watching till the debris started landing. That was stupid, I’m lucky I wasn’t caught by anything bigger. Anna would be so pissed if I got myself killed.

She chuckles to herself before pulling herself upright with great effort and standing up. She walks over to a set of drawers across her small room. After pulling a clean shirt made by Anna out of the top drawer, she glances in the mirror as she puts it on.

She is a mess. Emily’s tall wiry frame looks built for battle, with compact, well-defined muscles. Her shoulder-length brown hair is matted and full of dirt. Her pale white face is smeared with dirt and grease from the scrap pile. Even her eyes look dirty to her, mismatched blue on the right and green on the left, which used to attract many disgusted looks when she was living in the slums. Her trousers are slightly torn and covered in dirt, which causes her to frown, before pulling a fresh pair from the drawers and changing those too.

Urgh, I probably should have showered before putting on new clothes… Later, I have better things to do now.

Somewhat satisfied with her appearance now, Emily decides to look over her haul. She grabs her bag from the floor where she dumped it, and leaves her room. She walks down the hallway in the opposite direction of the kitchen and shopfront. Passing Herber’s bedroom and the bathroom, before coming to two doors on either side of her. On the left is Herber’s workshop; on the right is the old storage room Herber converted into hers.

She enters her workshop to see a neatly organised mess. The back wall has four large wooden boxes with collections of wood scrap, metal scrap, machined parts, and junk creations. The right wall has a few sets of drawers filled with her more successful inventions. The left wall has a workbench and shelves of tools. On the workbench are a few half-formed mechanisms, centred around a half-finished mechanical bird, and junk that Emily hasn’t bothered sorting yet.

Shutting the door behind her, Emily walks over to the workbench and pulls her chair out. She sweeps the bird she has been working on aside and sets herself down on the chair with her bag in her lap. She opens the buckles and reaches her hand down past the assortment of treasures to her prize at the bottom.

The rock she pulls out is as beautiful as the first time she saw it, its smooth matte-black and slightly jagged stone holding countless azure blue gems, releasing a faint blue glow and mesmerising her anew. She drops her bag onto the floor and slides her chair up to the workbench before opening a drawer and pulling out her loupe, a small magnified looking glass. She raises it to her eye and gazes through the glass at the blue fragments of what she assumes to be gemstones, looking for the lightning she saw earlier.

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At first, she doesn’t see anything within, but after a few seconds, she sees a flicker of movement. Lightning isn’t the right word for it. The lightning Emily knows is powerful, embodying destruction and bringing death from the heavens. However, what she sees in the gems is almost calm, weak even. It flickers in thin threads that break as quickly as they form as if they are looking for a path that isn’t there. Instead of the innate fear that Emily felt as a child when she first saw lightning while cowering from the rain in a cold shelter, gazing into the gem, she feels only wonder, and a desire to help break the “lightning” from its prison.

Emily’s first thought is to break the gems free from the rock holding them. She grabs a hammer and chisel from her tool wall. Placing the rock on a thin sheet of steel to protect her wooden worktop, she lines up the chisel's blade with the centre of a section of stone and gives its handle a firm hit with the hammer.

DING!

The loud sound of metal collision rings out as Emily drops the hammer and chisel before cradling the wrist that was just jarred by the rebound.

Note to self, test what strange materials actually are before hitting them with full force.

With the revelation that the black material between the gems is a metal she doesn’t recognise; Emily realises she doesn’t have a way to break the gems free - yet.

Hmmm, I guess I’ll set this aside for now and make a few new tools, I do need better metal cutting options than just sheet cutters.

Emily stands, picking up the metal chunk before walking over to the drawers behind her. She opens the lower drawer and tucks it into the back corner to hide it from Herber’s prying eyes when he comes to check on her.

I probably need a name for this thing until I work out what it really is… Let’s call you the lightning stone for now, that works.

Heading back to her desk, Emily begins drawing out plans and brainstorming ideas for new metalworking tools as the clock slowly ticks by.

***

A few hours later, with early evening light seeping in through the window half hidden behind wooden storage bins, Emily hears a light knocking on the door.

She caps her pen and drops it on the blueprint for a prototype steam engine she was working on. She stands and walks over to the door, opening it to see Herber grinning at her.

“I’ve finished my commissions for today. That stupid merchant may be unappreciative, but he sure pays well at least.”

“Is he not one of your regulars? I thought all of them were stingy bastards?”

“Nah it’s not Gregory, Smith or Harriot. Some new fellow, came by a few months back when he bought that watch. I can’t even remember his name yet!”

“Humph, some businessman you are.”

“Yeah yeah, they come to me because I’m good, not because I’m likeable. Now enough of this, stop wasting time. Show me what you’ve been working on.” Herber ushers Emily back into her room, closing the door behind him.

Ever since Emily stopped working daily with Herber a year ago, and moved to work on her own projects, Herber has made sure to check in on her current work once a week.

Emily sits back down at her workbench as Herber drags a small chair from the corner, between the wooden storage crates and the workbench. He sets up next to her and eagerly focuses his attention on her half-started blueprint.

“What’s this thing? You weren’t working on anything like this last week, were you?” Herber questions, raising an eyebrow towards Emily.

“Nah I got bored of the bird, couldn’t work out balancing during flight, I really want to know how those airships do it. This is going to be a small steam engine.” Emily grins as she starts her explanation. “I was looking at doing some metal cutting and realised I have no tools that would actually allow me to cut anything thicker than half a centimetre. At first, I thought maybe make a metal-cutting blade for my handsaw, but that would require a large amount of physical effort and wouldn’t be very good for close detail work. So, I thought why not make some powered tools? I have a few ideas for the mechanisms to make those work, but first I need a good source of steam.”

“So, you’re designing the engine first before making the fun bits? Fair enough Emi, I like the practical thinking!” Herber reaches out and ruffles Emily’s hair.

Emily blushes and glances away as she reaches for a drawer and pulls out a different blueprint.

“Actually…. I already did the fun bit designing these.” Emily presents a drawing of two cylinders, each formed of 3 segments ranging in diameter. The outsides of the thickest ends have patterned cutouts that are mirrored inverses of each other. The insides have a series of metal rings and rubber gaskets on the thicker ends, and a barb with an adjustable metal ring around it on the thinner ends.

“These are what I call quick-release connectors!” Emily declares proudly to Herber as her blush fades. “When one connector is attached to a line coming from a steam generator, it seals the exit with an inline valve that is depressed allowing steam flow only when a corresponding connector is attached to it. All you do is attach sets of these connectors to short tubes running to your tools, and you have a quick and easy way to switch out multiple tools from one steam engine. No more wasting time swapping tubes!”

Herber falls silent as he stares at the blueprint presented in front of him.

“I’ve got to say Emi, this is the most practical and useful thing I think you’ve ever created!”

“Hey!” Emily pouts and glares at him for the ill-concealed jab at her creations.

“Haha, it’s a good thing I promise! I bet there are plenty of shipbuilders who would pay a pretty penny if you wanted to sell them,” Herber encourages.

“Nah, it’s way too easy to replicate by others. The second I try to sell them, someone else will open one up and start reproducing them instead of buying again. Not worth the effort.” Emily waves off his compliment as impractical, while grinning happily as she places the quick-release blueprints back into the drawer they came from.

“It could alwa-“ Herber is cut off by the distinctive ringing of the shop door’s bell.

Herber and Emily both look at the clock on the desk. It’s almost 8 pm, far too late for normal business hours. They share a glance before getting up and walking towards the shopfront to find out who’s entered.

When Herber sees them, he freezes, and Emily barely stops herself from walking into his back. Before she can ask what’s wrong, Herber stands straight and walks forward with purpose.

“Good evening fine sirs, is there anything I can help you with?”

This is wrong, who on Ulea are these people for Dad to get so formal?

From the doorway, Emily has a clear view of the four people standing in front of Herber. The man standing in the lead is tall and thin, at least two heads taller than Herber, with thin blonde hair and piercing blue eyes. Of the three behind him, two are stout and chubby, a clear sign of wealth in Eimdon, and the third is the same height as Emily with thick muscles bulging through his robes. The robes that all four of them wear, are black with dark green accents. On their chests are what Emily assumes to be family crests, two intertwined roots, silver for the man in the lead, and bronze for the other three, with dark green leaves sprouting from the top.

Oh…. What are nobles doing here?

“One of our cargo ships was sabotaged and went down outside city limits. We know your daughter left the city to scavenge earlier and expect all cargo that was taken to be turned over immediately. Anything that was on the ship is the property of the Mandrago family. We will graciously overlook your transgression as long as everything stolen is returned immediately!” the tall man spits venomously as he looks down on Herber with a cold gaze.

“Of course, we had no idea it was your ship! I apologise, sir!” Herber bows to his waist before turning to Emily.

“Emily, please go gather everything!”

Emily sees the sweat dripping from Herber’s brow and nods before turning around and running back to her workshop. She burst in through the door, rushing to her desk and digging through the drawers to find a large sack. She takes her bag and pours the contents into the sack before turning back to leave, passing where she hid the lightning stone earlier and choosing to ignore it.

She hurries back to the shopfront and hands Herber the sack.

“Here you go sir, this is everything we gathered earlier.” Herber offers the tall noble the sack, who looks at it in disdain. The muscular man walks past him, takes the sack from Herber and opens it to look in. He nods towards the tall man before throwing the sack over his shoulder and walking out the door, followed by the two short men.

As the tall man follows them, he pauses at the door and turns to make eye contact with Herber.

“I hope, for your sake, that I never have to return!”