PftA Book 2 - Interlude 1

Interlude 1 – Stealthy Monitoring

“And you are sure she will be safe?” Rhona asked the violet-haired Mage next to her as she watched the budding Space Mage through one of the Alliance’s hidden satellites. Rhona hadn’t been confident in the other woman’s plans, but she’d given her consent when the noble Mage had come to her with the idea. Now, she just had to wait and see if the more aggressive approach worked.

It would be a huge boon for Rhona and the Alliance if it did. Having another strong Space Mage to stabilize portals and transport people would make a noticeable impact during the transition. Space Mages capable – and willing – to assist with those kinds of activities were rare. Most who had the training and affinity to do the tasks well generally felt too (self) important or were too busy pushing toward ascension to bother with a colony world.

Out of the thousands of people they’d brought with them for the project, only sixteen were functional Space Mages. A seventeenth, while not game-changing, would make things that much smoother.

It would also reflect well on her as the girl’s recruiter and sponsor.

“Don’t worry,” Rhona’s former Academy friend said casually. “Even if the child runs out of mana, she has one of those little talismans to keep herself from freezing to death. But I doubt she’ll need it. The ambient mana levels are high enough in that area that her regeneration shouldn’t be restricted much. I believe it’s already reached Tier One saturation levels.”

The violet-haired woman tapped on the screen and zoomed in slightly before tsking at whatever she noticed. Rhona saw nothing of note besides Emie doing short teleports to presumably examine the area. It made sense to check your surroundings when in a new place, and the Tier Seven Mind Mage approved.

“She needs to get over whatever block she’s created in her mind already,” Stella huffed before plopping onto a plush, purple chair that materialized behind her. “It really should not be this difficult for her.”

With a sigh, the Administrator sent a message to her head Artificer letting Vasilla know that Emie wouldn’t be in for the next day or two. Rhona doubted she’d suddenly figure everything out now that she was alone. Even if she did, there were more things the young Mage needed to learn – the sooner, the better.

That’s why she’d asked a favor from her long-time friend. It was a convenient coincidence that Stella was running the project's logistics and was assigned to the North American Headquarters alongside Rhona.

“You know she’s enrolled at the Enchanters’ Academy and the Mages’ Academy in the Junction, right?” Rhona asked the other woman while they watched the teenager look nervously around the icy platform through the screen. “She’s not going to like missing classes.”

“She mentioned the Mages’ Academy, and you already told me that you assigned her to work as an Enchanter, so I figured out the first one. It’s a good thing,” the Space Mage said with a shrug as she removed a tea set from her ring and poured two cups. She passed one of the delicate ceramic teacups to Rhona on a matching saucer. “It’ll add motivation. She’s got potential. I could sense that without you informing me of her affinity score. The child really shouldn’t be having so much trouble with distance. After only a year with magic, any expectations she’s developed shouldn’t be ingrained so deeply to limit her this much.”

“It’s been closer to two years with dilation,” Rhona murmured, taking a sip of the steaming liquid. It was a good blend – likely from Astra, Stella’s home planet.

“Regardless.” The Space Mage waved a hand dismissively. “I can feel her connecting to the mana. I’m sure she can figure it out if she can just get out of her own head. If she can’t even do this, I’m not sure it would be worth my time to tutor her any further. Not that I won’t,” she added. “I just don’t know how useful it would be.”

The Mind Mage only hummed in response. There were a few things that struck her as odd about the Space/Time Mage. Actually, she had that backward. Time was her primary affinity, not Space. Perhaps something was going on with her Time affinity that made it seem like more time had passed?

If worst came to worst and the girl couldn’t overcome her block, it might be worth contacting Anton – the Regional Lead in Europe – to see if Henlen Kairos would be willing to meet with the young native. Unfortunately, good Time Mages were rarer than Space Mages. There were only two on the expedition, and neither was local.

Once Henlen learned of Emie’s affinity score, Rhona had little doubt he would be willing to work with the girl. The largest downside to that approach was that the old Mage would almost certainly want to tie the girl to his family and his sect. Old nobles like him always sought new blood to add to their families. It was part of the reason sects existed in the first place.

Obviously, not everyone in a sect would be related, but concentrating a large portion of people with Time affinities in the same place increased the chances of potential romantic connections.

Finding new talents was likely the only reason the old man was even part of this expedition. He should have been enjoying retirement somewhere or pushing forward toward ascension.

Still, if something was going on with Emie’s Time affinity, Henlen would have the best chance of figuring it out. Aside from that, Rhona could only watch to see if any other weird issues came up with the promising youth and hope she succeeded in her task.

“If she does succeed, you’ll officially take her on and train her?” Rhona asked to verify.

“I said I would,” Stella huffed. “It really would help to have another capable Space Mage on hand. But I’ll need more than just general support in exchange. If I’m going to put in the time to train her, I want her dedicated assistance with the portal project next year – not part-timing it while you have her working on projects with Vasilla. If she’s a good enough Enchanter for Vasilla to work with, she’ll be more than capable of assisting on the project once she gets the portal augmentation packet.”

Rhona’s eyes widened, and she lightly gasped, “You’d give an augmentation packet to a recently awakened native?”

Stella shook her head. “Give, no. Let her purchase, yes. She should have enough contribution points saved up in a year to afford the IA augment if she doesn’t buy anything else.”

Rhona considered her friend’s recommendation. It wasn’t unusual to provide augments to employees as part of a signing bonus when directly involved with their duties, but that didn’t apply to Emie. Granting her access, however, would be easy. As a beta tester, Emie hadn’t been authorized to earn contribution points. However, as a full Atlas Inc. employee, she counted as an Alliance employee and was eligible.

Rhona would need to talk to the girl about contribution points when she returned.

After another hour of fruitless observation, the Space Mage pushed herself out of the chair in annoyance. “I have other stuff to take care of. Message me if something interesting happens.”

At Rhona’s nod, the other woman disappeared, along with her chair and the now-empty tea set. The brunette administrator stared at the empty space her friend had recently filled. After a few moments, she shook her head and started going over the contracts that had been submitted for review.

She kept a portion of her attention on Emie to ensure she was safe, but with little happening, it seemed prudent to multitask. There were no tiered beasts in that area of the continent, and while mundane creatures could still pose a threat, Rhona wasn’t all that concerned with them. Stella had positioned Emie far enough away from any potential threats that it was unlikely any would approach while she meditated.

Even if they did, Emie’s barrier should be enough to keep all but the strongest of mundane creatures away from her.

There were three rifts within a hundred miles of Emie’s location, but all three contained warm climates. Any rift break that occurred would self-correct since the weak creatures escaping would quickly succumb to the sub-zero environment.

It had been an intentional choice to allow the rifts to strengthen without needing to monitor or clear them regularly. With the entire continent largely unpopulated, they’d been able to fully halt all mana siphoning in the area, allowing the ambient mana to begin building more rapidly than it was throughout the rest of the world.

If the calculations of her researchers were accurate, the planet should reach the threshold of Tier One within the next two years, with remote locations like this pushing closer to Tier Two. It was a delicate balancing act, trying to increase the Tier of the planet without causing a mass awakening before they were ready. It helped that they were able to manually block awakenings – to a point. But it was only a matter of time before more natives broke through the limiters and activated their interfaces.

Emie was clearly an oddity. Even nearly a year later, she was still the only Earthborn to naturally awaken.

Rhona suspected that would change soon. Several of the most recent readings indicated a few from various Alpha and Beta Groups were close. Of the three facilities that monitored such things, her office wasn’t even ahead on that metric.

Things would likely grow more interesting in the coming years. As much as she disliked being stuck on the quasi-mundane planet, she couldn’t help but feel invested in its success – and that of her young protégé.