Chapter Three Hundred and Forty-Six - Fusion Mode

After saying hello to everyone, sharing a whole heap of hugs, and then trading stories of what we’d all been doing over the past couple of weeks, we decided that we should find a way to get the Redemption onto the Beaver.

That turned out to be a whole lot trickier to do than we initially thought.

It was possible to do it. With a measuring tape and a few trips back and forth, we confirmed that the Redemption was thinner in the middle than the space between the Beaver’s two hulls. The Beaver was also more than long enough to overshadow the Redemption if it came to park in its middle.

The problem was twofold. First, we had to secure the smaller ship, which wouldn’t be easy. The Beaver didn’t have anything in its middle designed to grab onto and hold on to a small boat.

Second, the Redemption’s balloon would rub up against the Beaver’s in a way that would quickly wear a hole in the material. We couldn't deflate the Redemption's balloon, because the Beaver wasn't designed to carry the weight of an entire airboat, even if it was much lighter than the Beaver.

In the end, Awen drew up quick plans to lengthen the Beaver's rigging, which would raise the balloons farther above the hull and essentially give us more headroom to fit in the Redemption. It would alter the Beaver's handling a bit, but she assured us it would be manageable. Additionally, she specified latch points that would be retrofitted to both vessels so they could lock together while docked

Curious sylph from the port noticed our plans, and by mid-afternoon we had a small crew of eager engineers and mechanics swarming over the two ships trying to get everything in place.

I think Caprica showing up during a small break to see what we were up to really encouraged them too. Apparently she’d ridden aboard the Beaver on the way over (she took one of the spare bedrooms and her guards had plenty of space to stay on the other side of the ship, most of them came in a pair of smaller Sylph airforce ships anyway). Her riding on the ship made it a ‘princess’s’ ship in a way, which somehow translated to a bunch of honour for those working on improving the Beaver.

I didn’t pretend to understand all of that, exactly, but I was glad for the help. I’d rarely seen Awen so excited to work on something before, and the idea was really cool.

Unfortunately, I discovered that I was mostly in the way after a while.

What they needed were mechanics and manual workers, not someone who was an expert hugger.

So, instead of being in the way, I returned to the inn and had lunch with Caprica and Bastion, then I convinced Amaryllis to help me train my magic a little bit.

“Huh,” Amaryllis said as I carefully touched her upper arm and turned a simple light spell she was trying to cast into a strange mix of light and cleaning mana that dispersed harmlessly next to me. “That... feels very strange.”

I nodded along. I was practising my Way of the Mystic Bun on her, though only in small amounts and very carefully. The last thing I wanted to do was hurt a friend.

“It feels rather intrusive. I can feel your mana pressing into my arm and fighting for control, then it subjugates my own.” She frowned, then went through the same motions with her hand. “Do it again.”

“Okay!” I said. It cost a few points of mana to do the trick, but only a few. I could do it all day, really.

Amaryllis had me repeat the move three more times. The last time, it failed outright. When I tried to push my own mana into her system through the contact I had on her arm, her magic... slipped by, then she cast her spell without any trouble.

“I see,” she said. “So, it’s resistable. Easily, as well, you just need to actually try and know what to look for.”

“How’d you manage that?” I asked.

“Once I felt the intrusion, I shifted my mana around to avoid it. I’m pretty sure someone could brute force their way past your intrusion too. It’s likely not as strong as you think... except if your opponent doesn’t know what you’re doing.”

“Oh.” I said. That made some sense. “It’s hard to grab a person’s mana, it’s kind of like... shoving your hand in a bowlful of spaghetti and trying to grab one strand in particular.”

“That’s disgusting,” she said. “But yes, I imagine that some well-practised mages will learn to counter the intrusion in no time at all. It might add a hundredth of a second to their casting time, but that’ll be it. Someone who really knows what they’re doing might be able to steal your mana as well. Here, touch my talons again.”

I grabbed her sorta-hand, then pushed mana in when she instructed me to. Amaryllis concentrated for nearly a full minute in silence, then I felt a strange tugging sensation in my arm, as if someone were slurping out the insides.

“Oh, ew!” I said as I pulled my hand back.

Amaryllis grinned. “So, that’s doable as well. Interesting.”

“Did you just copy my skill?” I asked as I shook my hand.

“No, no nothing of the sort. I don’t know how to do the intrusion that you can manage. But since your mana was in my system already, well, it wasn’t too hard to figure out how to steal it. And it seems as if I could keep pulling too. It's all Cleaning aspect though. Or... perhaps more accurately, it’s Broccoli-aspect magic, which is nearly indistinguishable.”

“I guess that makes sense,” I said. “So should I continue to use it in a fight?”

“Of course you should,” she huffed. “I didn’t know how to counter it without thinking about it for a couple of minutes. The average mage who’s never encountered that kind of ability won’t come up with a counter mid-battle. Even if they do, it’s a distraction, and the easier ways to counter the ability still require concentration.”

“Cool!” I said. I mostly liked the ability because it made it harder for people to use offensive magic on me or my friends without harming them much. A fight would end a lot sooner if the person I was fighting ran out of mana early.

“Have you been levelling well?” Amaryllis asked.

I winced. “Ah, well, it’s been a few days since anything’s gone up in level,” I admitted.

Amaryllis gave me a very flat look. “Broccoli, you’re aware that we’re all at very respectable levels for our age, right? It takes most people years to level most of their skills up.”

“Yeah, but I was making such good progress before. Also, I still have a bunch of General Skill slots open.”

“That’s normal, Broccoli,” Amaryllis said. “Unless you’ve been specifically training something new, you shouldn’t unlock a new General skill. Otherwise everyone would fill all of their free slots in a matter of hours just from...breathing and scratching themselves and hugging their family.”

“But I got a hugging skill,” I pointed out.

“Yes, exactly, because you’re bizarre and intentionally put a lot more effort and time into doing that kind of thing than normal people. I suggest you either practise a specific skill a lot more to gain it as a general skill, or that you just leave it be and allow yourself to gain skills as they come. They’ll usually be for things you’re doing already.”

I considered it, then shrugged. That seemed fair enough. I didn’t have many General Skill Points left to spend in any case. A couple of skills were nearing the spot where they were ready to level up, so that would be exciting!

I hummed as I looked over my skills. By the end of our next adventure, I was certain I’d be levelling up a couple of them.

“Right, want to stand over there? I need to practise a few more spells. These are electric spells that track their target. I’ll make sure they’re weak enough that they only sting a little.”

“Wait, what?” I asked.

“Don’t worry, you can use it as dodging practice!”

Caprica walked into the inn’s backyard an hour later while I was panting for all I was worth and Amaryllis was finally starting to run low on mana. It wasn’t fair how quickly her reserves refilled, but I guessed that was only normal since her main class was all about spellcasting.

“Practising hard?” the princess asked.

“Very!” I said. I tugged my shirt forward a bit and blew some air down the front. It was pretty warm out, despite being so far north.

“Good! I got some news, you might want to come inside for this one. Awen just arrived as well, with your new catfolk friend.”

We followed Caprica back inside and into the same dining room we’d been meeting in a lot lately. There were plates out already, so it looked like we were just in time for supper to be served.

“So, how did the ship stuff go?” I asked Awen as I sat next to her.

She grinned. “Well! It’ll take a while to finish everything, but we added fixed docking points to the Beaver and their opposites on the Redemption. It should be possible to undock the two in midair. But I wouldn’t want to try docking in mid-air,” Awen said. “It needs a lot more precision than I think we could manage if we’re fighting the wind and trying to pilot two ships at once.”

“We can always fly the Redemption next to the Beaver until we reach a port if we ever need it.”

Awen shook her head. “I’m working on it. But we don’t have all the facilities to build what I’m thinking of here.”

“That might all come in handy sooner than you think,” Caprica said. She slapped a few pages down onto the table and grinned. “We have official denial to attempt a rescue.”

“Official denial?” Amaryllis asked.

“It means that if we try something, the government will deny it officially. Which is basically approval to actually try,” Caprica explained. “We’ve been looking for volunteers since the order came in. and I think we’ve found a couple of vessels with brave captains that wouldn’t mind acting as troop transports. Finally, we’ve chartered a merchant ship to fly close enough to the suspected pirate lair to entice them. We’ll be loading the ship full of soldiers disguised as sailors, of course.”

“As a distraction?” I asked.

She nodded. “Now, all we need is a flagship to lead this operation.”

“You want to use the Beaver?” I asked.

She nodded.

“You’re aware that it’s not a warship, right?” Amaryllis asked.

“Oh, yes, but if things go well, it should never have to fight at all. I have a whole plan drawn up. I’m certain it will work out just fine!”

She sounded pretty sure of herself. I figured it was worth a shot! There were a whole heap of people that needed saving, so all we had to do was go out, fight off some pirates, and save the heck out of them!

***