PftA Book 2 - Chapter 5

Chapter 5 – A Quick Orientation

“Are you crashing at my place tonight?” my brother asked as I followed him to the nursery to pick up Amie.

“If I can’t move in a day early,” I nodded. “I haven’t asked yet, though.”

“Why bother?” he asked curiously. “Just come hang out for the night. I’m sure Amie would like to spend some time with Aunt Emie. There’s a limit on how familiar you can get with a toddler when you only see them through video chat.”

The last part was said with a bit of admonishment, though I knew he didn’t mean it rudely. It was true, after all. That didn’t mean I had to like it.

“That’s not fair. We saw each other last summer and over Christmas,” I protested weakly. “It isn’t like she doesn’t know me.”

He sent me a look before opening the outer door leading to the children’s area. His comment made me a bit nervous to see my niece again, but Amie quickly set my mind at ease when she came running. Her eyes lit up when they landed on me, and I could feel the excitement she practically radiated.

“Ennie’s here! Ennie!” the little one called out as she held up her hands, demanding to be picked up. I grinned at the tot’s pronunciation of my name as I lifted the toddler while her dad signed her out on a nearby clipboard.

“I added you to the pickup list last month, but I still need your address when you get it,” Justin told me as he handed the clipboard to the caregiver. He looked at the much older woman. “This is my sister, Emie. She’s the emergency contact I told you about.”

The woman nodded but said nothing. She didn’t seem unfriendly, just focused on her task. The woman’s attention had already returned to her miniature charges.

I followed my brother as he turned a corner, heading toward the scent of food. “We can wait until you get home if you want, but if you need to wait to talk to Rhona, we might as well take advantage of the Dining Hall. Amie and I come here a few times a week. The food is good, and it is cheaper than eating out.”

“You could cook,” I said as I reviewed the offerings. Three different styles of food were available, but my attention was immediately drawn to the fragrant goat stew. I wondered if they sourced the meat from the nearby rift.

Probably not, since they were serving it to unawakened beta testers.

“I could. But it’s still probably cheaper to just eat here.” Justin followed me to the line offering goat. “The price of food has really gotten out of hand over the last year.”

I agreed. My parents had been complaining about prices increasing for most of my life, but I’d noticed a sharp increase since my return. I didn’t remember it being as prominent of an issue in the other timeline, but that could have easily been due to my lack of care or attention at the time. Sometimes, my former cluelessness really shocked me.

Since I was carrying the toddler, I let Amie pick out her own food and paid for it before Justin caught up with us. He gave a token resistance to the purchase, but it was already done, so there wasn’t much he could do. The kid-portion of chicken tenders and French fries wasn’t all that expensive.

“Do you mind if I join you?”

I looked up to see Rhona standing behind the lone empty seat at our table. I was tempted to use Identify to see what it said but resisted the impulse. If she had an upgraded interface – which her comments implied she did – she would almost certainly be informed of the action.

I always had after getting the upgrade.

There might have been higher-level or more advanced versions of the spell that got around Lisa’s detection capabilities, but those people were likely so far beyond me that it wasn’t worth worrying about.

Amie squealed, “Nona!” as Justin said, “Not at all, Ma’am.”

She sighed lightly as she placed her tray on the table. “Mercer, we’ve been over this. There’s no need to be so formal. I’m not in the military.” Looking at the excited toddler, our boss said, “See? Your daughter gets it. Right, Amie?”

Justin gave her a sheepish grin.

“Nona! Is Ennie!” Amie exclaimed, pointing in my direction with a ketchup-covered finger.

While some might assume the exchange that followed was mostly Rhona replying to semi-coherent babbling based on context and assumptions, I suspected the older woman’s Mind magic was at play. I had little doubt Rhona could understand the general idea of what Amie was trying to express.

The attractive brunette sent me a wink as if drawn by my thoughts. I suppressed the urge to panic. I’d imagined several interactions with the woman and mentally ‘practiced’ keeping my thoughts focused and away from taboo topics.

It would be fine.

“Did Robert leave already?” I asked to guide the conversation to safe(ish) topics. While the conversation could easily veer into uncomfortable, or even embarrassing directions, it would still be safer than allowing my mind to wander.

My boss smirked lightly. “He did. I was able to coordinate an earlier return trip.” The woman sent me a pointed look that I wasn’t sure what to make of. “I’m sure he’ll be in touch soon.”

“Is that the boyfriend Mom mentioned?” Justin asked, causing Rhona’s grin to widen. She seemed to be quite amused by the exchange. “You should have introduced me.”

I groaned. “We’re just friends. I told Mom and Dad that already.”

“Uh huh,” Justin replied skeptically as Rhona chuckled lightly, amused by my discomfort.

I didn’t bother attempting to argue the point, instead focusing on my meal. Too much denial would be as good as an admission in my family.

Sure, Robert was attractive. But I had no desire to get into a relationship. I’d be leaving Earth in three years. It wasn’t like he could come along. He almost certainly had some kind of restrictive contract in place.

Besides, it wasn’t like he’d ever shown any real interest.

“If you have some time when you’re finished eating, I’d like to show you where you’ll be working when you’re at the office. Consider it a quick orientation,” Rhona said before turning to my brother with an apologetic grimace. “Sorry, Mercer. It’s not a Beta Group area. I’m reassigning Emie to one of our special projects in R&D.”

Justin’s brows raised in surprise. “Wow. That’s cool. I guess I’ll see you later, then?”

After agreeing to stay the night and promising to bring a treat for the unhappy toddler who wanted to stay with ‘the girls,’ I followed the Mind Mage to a semi-camouflaged corridor leading to a hidden set of elevators. Rhona waited for the doors to close to speak.

“The third floor is dedicated to developing low-tier manatech that will be viable as soon as the planet reaches Tier One. Most of your world’s leaders insisted we provide magical support during the transition. This was the compromise.” We stepped out of the elevator and into a normal hallway that wouldn’t have been out of place in any mundane office building. “Though their cooperation was not necessarily required, the requests were reasonable enough that we agreed. Most of the work will be automated since we have limited people to dedicate to the task. As you know, that makes mana-effects weaker. But we aren’t going for overpowered. Functional will be good enough.”

She stopped at a door marked ‘R&D’ and pressed on a small rune. The door immediately clicked and swung open, revealing a room that looked more like a small factory than a research or crafting space.

There were several workspaces along the walls, though none were currently manned. In fact, aside from the equipment, the room was empty. There were no prototypes or sketches, no discarded failures or residue from a critical error disintegrating an item. The space looked completely unused. I wondered if they’d just been waiting for someone with a decent enough Enchanting ability to awaken and make use of the area.

“As Artificer Vasilla has undoubtedly told you, the largest hurdle you’ll face is developing working enchantments that function with Tier One and low-Tier Two material. We only have three people working on the task,” she paused before looking at me. “Well, four counting you. The other two are assigned to other facilities. Your direct boss –”

As if on cue, a familiar woman entered the room from one of the side doors, interrupting Rhona’s sentence.

“It’s nice to see you in person, Emie,” Ms. Maker said with a small nod.

I greeted my former teacher and current supervisor/mentor before the two women began outlining my duties and showed me to my private office. The large room we first entered was more of a production room than an area for design. My office was much smaller, only housing enough room for a generous workstation and a chair.

“Feel free to expand the space if you want. This is your personal space,” Rhona said, quoting one of the opening lines in the game's introduction. Ms. Maker groaned lightly, but Rhona ignored her. “If you want to set up a living space here, you are free to do so. Just make sure it is concealed from casual observation should someone enter. If you’d rather be housed on the fifth floor with the rest of the regular Atlas employees, I can also accommodate you there.”

“No,” I shook my head. “I’ve already made plans to live with one of the beta testers in the new student housing. But thank you for the offer.”

Rhona nodded, though my quasi-mentor only shook her head.

“I understand. If hiding your abilities becomes too much, the offer is open. I’d rather you take advantage of it than accidentally violate your NDA,” Rhona said as she stepped back into the larger space. “I know you’ve been living with your family since awakening, but it’ll likely be different now.”

The conversation shifted back to my updated job requirements and away from my living arrangements. Aside from some real-world requirements, my job hadn’t changed much from the assignment Rhona had given me after graduation. The biggest change was in my new categorization. I was no longer considered a beta tester, though I still had access to unreleased expansions if I felt like exploring on my off time.

Instead, I was an ‘Omega Group’ employee of Atlas. When asked, Rhona verified that it was their internal designator for an awakened native.

“I feel like we’re updating your contract all the time,” Rhona exclaimed as she led me to her office a short time later. “Honestly, we could probably do everything through your interface now that it is upgraded, but I like doing some things manually. It keeps me from getting too detached from the world. So many of my counterparts lose their humanity when they remove themselves from the mundane.”

I wasn’t quite sure how to respond to that. Every question I could think of would be rude in almost any culture.

“Go ahead. You can ask,” Rhona said, likely reading my mind.

Focus.

“How old are you? You don’t look very old.”

My boss smiled widely. “Thanks. I’ve paid some very good Time Mages to ensure it stays that way.” She winked at me. “It wasn’t strictly necessary, but vanity is an indulgence I rarely allow myself. To answer your question, I am a bit over three hundred years old. Aging slows as you progress through tiers. As a Tier Seven—”

Holy shit. It was a good thing I didn’t try to Identify her. There’s no way she wouldn’t have noticed.

“—I could probably live another four or five hundred years, easily.” She opened a door, revealing a small alcove with a zero-gravity chair. “No need to get flustered. Tier Seven is only a little over halfway to ascension. People like me are – what is that saying? A dime a dozen?”

I followed my boss around a short wall and was surprised to find we were in her office. It must be the entrance she used when coming from the restricted area of the facility.

“Alright. I know you probably have things to do, but there are some things we need to discuss now that you’re here and you’ve finished with your interface upgrade. But first,” Rhona handed me a tablet. “This is yours. Let’s take care of the paperwork, and you can keep that tablet as a…call it a promotion gift.”