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“Did you just blow up a noble family?” Angela asks in disbelief, turning to Emily with a blend of fear and respect, her previous hostility forgotten.

“I blew up their estate to be exact,” Emily says calmly, the glowing of her eyes gone and replaced by a cold glint. “I’d already killed all of them.”

She turns the ship northbound as everyone stares at her with horrified expressions.

“Why?” Podrick asks nervously.

“They killed my family.”

Everyone nods in understanding, the explanation doing nothing to assuage their fear.

“More importantly, how?” Ash asks. “That explosion was insane.”

“Magic,” Emily says, receiving scoffs from several members of the crew, and dubious nods from Tony, Angela, and Anton.

Seeing they don’t believe her, Emily raises her hand and conjures a crackling lightning bolt in her palm.

“Magic is real. The nobles of this country all know it, and it’s even common knowledge at our destination,” she explains, twisting the electricity into the form of a bird and sending it out to flap around the crew. “I gained the Mandrago family’s attention because of my talent as a mage. And to answer your question specifically, there was a hotspot of natural mana, the fuel for magic, below their estate. I basically lit that hotspot on fire, causing that explosion.”

Seeing the ethereal bird flying around them, everyone’s shock slowly turns to acceptance despite the ridiculous nature of her claims.

“It sounds crazy, but I guess it explains everything,” Angela says, remembering how Emily was able to take control of the ship. She rubs her brow and lets out a tired sigh as she turns her attention to Anton. “Is what she said about you making a deal with her true?”

“Yes,” he admits with a nod before turning to face Emily with a slightly confused expression. “I agreed to help her flee the continent to Dennari. Though, there were no other terms specified to make it a deal.”

“For starters,” Emily says, pulling the spatial pouch off her belt and tossing it to him, “that’s a magical storage bag and there are some guns in there to help you arm yourselves. On top of that, I don’t want to keep Calypso, so from now on she’s yours, and I’ll even give her some upgrades for you. I take it that’s payment enough to make it a proper deal.”

“Plenty,” Anton responds with a satisfied grin, most of his fear evaporating in wonder as he gazes into the storage pouch and considers the lucrative payment.

“So, you made the decision without knowing the terms or talking to us?” Angela grumbles, glaring at Anton.

“Hey, it was better than the alternative,” he says, throwing his hands up and glancing nervously at Emily. “Also, I didn’t expect we’d have to leave half the crew behind.”

Emily shrugs, turning to leave the bridge.

“You knew I was going to cause a commotion, you should have kept them on the ship. I’m going to rest now. I’ll leave plotting a route to you guys,” she says before pausing in the doorway and glancing back at everyone gathered. “No one needs to stay. I only made a deal with Anton. Everyone else is free to leave at the next stop if you don’t want to join us, but I promise as long as you travel with me I’ll do my best to keep you safe.”

She makes eye contact with Anton one last time, and he shivers but nods, understanding it’s on him to convince the others it’s worthwhile if he wants them to stay. Emily walks out into the hallway, falling into her thoughts as she returns to her room.

I could reset and tell him to keep everyone on board, but I refuse to relive today for someone else’s convenience. It’s his own fault he didn’t force them to stay.

The image of Anna’s head on the gate flashes into the front of her mind again, and she frowns as the buzzing in her head grows momentarily stronger, but she quickly pushes the memory back down into the depths of her mind.

It will probably take a few days to stop that.

Her frown deepens as an uncomfortable feeling gnaws at the back of her mind, something about the calm way she suppressed the memory bothering her, but she quickly pushes that feeling away as well, not wanting to think about it now as a dull ache fills her mind, reminiscent of a headache, a foreign feeling to her since awakening. Instead, to distract herself, Emily raises her hand and conjures a bird of lightning again.

“That lightning storm was strange. I know Jenny said mages can cause small magical phenomena when their emotions are strong, but that was on the level of a full third circle spell without a magic circle,” she mutters, playing with the lightning bird as she walks. “Something feels different, I have even more control over my manifestation than before now...”

As Emily is trying to figure out what’s different with her magic, she hears hurried footsteps behind her and feels Podrick approaching.

“Hey, Emily! Wait up!” he calls as he skids to a stop beside her.

Emily looks over at the boy, confusion flickering across her brow.

Isn’t he scared of me?

“What?” she asks, pausing in her stride and violently crushing the crackling bird in her hand as she disperses the manifestation.

“Can you teach me magic?” he asks, looking up at her expectantly with excitement clear in his eyes, completely ignoring her hostile display.

What’s with this kid?

Emily is about to ignore him and continue to her room, but the glowing excitement in his eyes makes her hesitate.

“Why would I teach you?” Emily asks with a cold tone. “I have more important things to do with my time.”

Podrick’s shoulders slump and his face drops like a scolded dog.

“I could help you.”

Emily scoffs and starts walking again, but then gestures for him to follow as something about his determination catches her interest.

“Perhaps you should find out what I’m going to do before you offer to help,” she remarks as they walk, immediately making Podrick’s expression brighten.

“Does this mean-“

“No, I don’t want to teach you magic,” Emily cuts him off with a hint of irritation in her voice that dissipates as her mind drifts back to an idea she had before setting down in Eimdon. “I have no interest in teaching someone else magic from scratch at the moment. However, I may be willing to help you awaken as something else instead.”

They come to a halt outside Emily’s room, and Emily looks down at the small boy before her as she pushes machina from her eyes, letting the energy crackle across her face.

“I’m more than just a mage, I’m a mechanic as well. Give me some time to rest, and after dinner, we can discuss whether I might help you become one too.”

Podrick stares at the cold, flickering lightning travelling across her skin and his eyes practically glow in response.

“That’s so cool,” he cries, before his enthusiasm is quelled by Emily’s cold gaze. He meets her eyes with a new caution: “What would you want in return?”

Good, he learns quickly.

The corner of Emily’s lips curls up, but the small smile feels empty and quickly falls from her face again.

“For one, you are not to say anything about mechanics to anyone else before I give you permission,” she says, watching as he nods his head with a serious expression.

Should I make him sign a magic contract? I’ll see how he is with the crew for now. If he can’t keep a secret, then I will.

“Then I would also need you to let me do full invasive scans of your body before and after. I’ve never tried this before and want to observe the whole process scientifically.”

“Scan me?” Podrick asks in confusion, before shrugging and continuing confidently. “Sure, scan me all you want!”

“We’ll see if you’re still so keen once you understand how it feels,” Emily says cruelly, pushing open the door to her room. “And finally, after I awaken you, you’re on your own. I give no promises to teach you anything else.”

Podrick frowns “Awaken? You mean I’ll just become like you? It’s not something I learn?”

“You’ll have plenty to learn.”

“Can I at least watch you work?”

“Depends what I’m working on. I won’t stop you from watching the modifications I’ll make to the ship though.”

“Thanks,” he exclaims as his expression brightens. “Rest well!”

Emily turns into the room and shuts the door behind her without another word before pulling out the barrier disc, activating it, and dropping it in the middle of the room, plunging the room into silence as she flops face-first into her bed. She shuts her eyes and tries to relax, but despite her emotional exhaustion, she can’t bring herself to sleep, so, after a few minutes, she sits up and gets into a meditative position to pass the day in the Spellweave.

***

Later that afternoon, having spent what was left of the morning working on spells and designing some rough modifications for Calypso, Emily is pulled out of the Spellweave by a system notification.

ˉˉˉˉˉ

Quest generated: Traitor’s Escape

[Traitor’s Escape]

[Rank:] C

[Description:] You ended a noble family alone, now you must survive the consequences.

Requirements:

-Leave the country alive (Not Complete)

-Leave the country without killing any of your pursuers (Not Complete) {Optional}

Rewards:

-Spell: Blink

-Mechanic Knowledge: Basic Computer Systems

-{Quest: Path of the Righteous}

_____

She opens her eyes and stares at the floating window before her eyes.

“Why did this appear now?” she mutters to herself, reading over the quest details. “Has the kingdom realised it was me already and that’s triggered it?”

Emily stands up and begins pacing in the narrow confines of her cabin.

Why is escaping the country a quest, but killing the Mandragos wasn’t? I would have thought destroying a family would have been a better challenge, more worthy of a quest. Also, C rank seems quite high for such a simple thing. Maybe it’s higher because of the optional requirement.

She bites her thumb, as her eyes fall on the rewards.

I wonder what that spell will do. This is the first time I’ve seen one as a quest reward. Is that a knowledge related to maths? Is it related to the system? I’m guessing the follow-up quest is only for if I complete the optional requirement. A path of the righteous sounds like something you’d walk if you spare those attacking you. I guess I can try not to kill anyone else for an extra quest. I should focus the ship’s modifications on defence.

Closing the system window, Emily returns to her bed and pulls up her blueprints and gets back to work.

***

That evening, Emily is torn away from her designs by a presence outside the door. She rises from the bed in one smooth motion and walks to the exit, deactivating and collecting the barrier disc as she passes.

She pulls the door open, surprising Pod with his hand raised to knock.

“Oh, hey. That was weird. Did magic tell you I was coming?” he asks as he lowers his arm.

“I don’t need magic for that. My natural senses make it pretty easy to tell when someone is nearby, even when I’m in a soundproof room,” Emily responds with a dismissive shrug. “Anyway, why are you here?”

“Ah, I was just coming to let you know food is ready, since you didn’t show up for lunch,” he replies, glancing away awkwardly.

“Impatient, are we?” Emily asks as she shuts the door behind her and walks past him. “Come on then.”

Podrick hurries to follow her as she makes her way to the mess hall. They arrive to find everyone else on the ship, other than Angela, already eating, and all eyes are drawn to Emily as she walks in.

Emily nods in greeting, ignoring their mixed reactions as she grabs a bowl of curry from Sam and drops down next to Ash.

“I’ve got a few ideas I’d like to go over with you for some modifications to the ship. Can you spare some time tomorrow morning?” she asks the mechanic, surprising them.

“You’re starting already? Why not wait till we’re out of the country?” they question.

“I’m pretty sure the royal family will send out orders asking for my head for what I’ve done, and I’m guessing they’ll work out what ship I’m on before we leave the continent,” Emily explains, noticing a wave of fear spreading through the room. “So, I want to modify the ship quickly to help us escape easily. I mostly want to improve the engine and add some proper armouring for now. We can look at adding some weapons once we’re sure we’re safe.”

“That sounds great and all,” Ash says, taking the news in their stride, “but how are we going to afford this? I don’t know how you plan on improving the engine, but I doubt it will be free, and we’ll need a lot of materials to armour even just the essentials.”

“I’ll pay for it. I have a few hundred gold so I should easily be able to cover the cost.”

“A few hundred!” Anton exclaims in disbelief on the other side of the table. “Can I borrow some from you to hire new crew at our next stop?”

“I don’t really want to lend people money. And why do you need more crew so soon? You’re probably best waiting till we get to Dennari to find locals.”

“I know that, but we need people to man the ship at night. Currently, me and Angela are gonna have to pull an all-nighter just to get us to dock tomorrow.”

“Oh, don’t worry about that,” Emily reassures him, waving off his concern. “I’ve already told you that you don’t need the rest of the crew. I’ll watch the ship at night. I don’t technically need sleep and I can control the whole thing alone.”

Anton stares at her with a mixture of doubt and disbelief.

“Are you sure? That will be a lot of work.”

“Don’t worry, I won’t even need to sit on the bridge. I’ll show you how after eating.”

Anton gives her a grateful nod, his doubt giving way to curiosity.

“Thanks. I’ll look forward to seeing it.”

“Speaking of changing the crew, is anyone planning on leaving us at the next stop?” Emily asks, glancing around curiously and not missing the way everyone seems to shiver as her gaze passes them.

“No one,” Anton says quickly, a bead of sweat running down his brow. “Everyone agreed to stay after I talked to them.”

Emily nods, calmly raising her spoon to her mouth.

“Glad to hear it. I have to admit, even with me here, it would have been annoying to have less crew. What did you offer to make them stay? I assume some of you are giving up your families for a few years by coming.”

Tony, Podrick, and Sam all nod at her guess.

“Simple, I offered them the same thing you gave me,” Anton says with a proud grin. “The ship.”

“Oh,” Emily raises a brow. “Did you offer to split ownership with everyone?”

“Exactly. I’m going to write up a contract when I have time, tonight now I guess, that gives everyone partial ownership of the ship and any profit it generates as long as they stick with it until I’m set up on Dennari. After that they’re welcome to either stick with the ship for longer or leave to settle down or return to Modo, assuming we don’t individually get marked as criminals.”

“Very smart,” Emily says with a nod. “Also, from what I’ve read and heard about New Denntimo, I doubt most of you will want to come back.”

“We’re planning on joining the rebels?” Sam asks, surprised and slightly horrified. “Aren’t they untrustworthy?”

“Ha,” Emily scoffs derisively. “Don’t believe the stories you hear in Modo about the situation on that continent. Most of it was spread by noble families with ties to Denros, the Old Denntimo nobility. From what I know, New Denntimo is a far nicer place to live than even Modo. And, as I said earlier, magic is public knowledge.”