There’s still plenty of daylight to go as I again take my seat at the table in our room. Avilia’s left to go on a walk or something, so I have the entire space for myself.

As it turns out, Karine’s special limbs aren’t really a panacea for all my problems. While they don’t use power so I can use them without literally risking my life, they use my magic particle reserves on top of ambient magic particles. I thought that wouldn’t be too bad, but… If the ambient magic in a place is depleted and I use all my own magic particles, I’ll be effectively paralyzed. Supposedly ambient magic running out isn’t super common, but protracted battles can cause that.

That’s not great! Whether I use the magical limbs or these cybernetic limbs, time’s going to be my greatest enemy. I just got lucky this time. It was really lucky that the fighting didn’t go on for weeks or something. I need to find a way around that, for sure. Not fighting just isn’t always going to be an option. What if that summoned hero decides to hunt me down for a rematch or something? He still hasn’t been found. There’s a lot of places for someone to disappear into in a country like this.

Ugh. Anyway! This is the perfect time to get back to writing, right?!

After Karine had put the two guards outside the transportation hall to sleep, there was nothing left between us and our objective. It was pretty obvious that this wasn’t something they had even considered, that someone would use rioting during the siege as a way to take over the seemingly inoperable transporter. And why would they? The kingdom was supposed to have a monopoly over them. State actors were supposed to be the only ones to have access to long distance, instantaneous transportation outside of mana intense, short-range spells.

Supposed to.

The rebels’ own transport network was something of a network within a network and had flown completely under the radar. Apparently, it was something they had come up with due to the purges of the summoned hero; they couldn’t just move around in the open after all. When there’s no official documentation of travel and no need to use the official transporters that were under guard, it’s harder to capture suspected rebels.

And so, as they couldn’t find any more of them, they just assumed all the rebels had been dealt with.

Apparently, it hadn’t been very far from the truth. In their desperation, the remnants came up with the ingenious but dangerous idea of tapping into the kingdom’s transport network and creating their own, parallel one. It would’ve never worked if it weren’t for the unprotected nature of the network itself.

Sometimes it’s really useful that your enemy doesn’t think much of you!

“It’ll take me some time to change the connections,” Karine said as she started defacing the carvings on the pedestal of the transporter, “I’ll need you three to keep others away while I work.”

“Okay,” I replied, “But could you be more precise with the time table?”

“Anything from fifteen minutes to an hour.”

“Alright, we’ll leave you to it.”

The wait was the worst. What if they’ll notice the guards at the front were missing? What if the riot gets subdued too fast? What if the summoned hero somehow comes back?

First it was five minutes. Then ten. Karine wasn’t done by fifteen, but no one came. But we couldn’t drop our guard. We had to stay in wait. We only had one try.

After thirty minutes, sounds of the riot started to reach the hall room. It had been eerily quiet up to that point, we hadn’t had any idea what was going on outside.

At least that meant that the rioters hadn’t been stopped yet. We still had time.

Avilia turned towards Karine who was still hard at work. “How much longer will this take?”

“Not much. Just a few more minutes, I promise.”

Avilia nodded. It wouldn’t be much longer now!

Footsteps, quickly coming closer. Two people at most. The three of us take positions around the entrance, with Avilia and Vaqelin on the sides and me in the front. There was absolutely no way that us four wouldn’t have looked suspicious to anyone walking past. No official uniforms and one of us doing something to the transporter itself. No way we could talk our way out of this one!

A voice from the outside. “Where are the guards?”

They were close.

Second passed. It was only a matter of moments when they would turn into the doorway and try to enter the transporter hall.

Then, I saw them. Two guards, looking at me with startled looks on their faces.

“Wait,” one of them shouted, realizing that I was about to attack them, “We aren’t really guards, we’re with the rioters!”

What?

“We got held up,” said the other guard, “We were supposed to wait for you close to the entrance and help you get in. Seems like you didn’t need us, though.”

“Our leader said nothing about that.”

“I’m not surprised, this was decided by the Guilds.”

“But I was under the impression they accepted this plan just shortly before we got here,” I said, giving the two a suspicious look.

Not to mention, had we seen them, we probably would’ve just put them to sleep on the way, too. How bad are people at communicating in this world?

“You’re telling me,” said the first guard with a laugh, “We were originally supposed to just look for guard activity. We got here as fast as we could.”

“What do you two think?”

“Sounds suspicious,” said Vaqelin, “We should just…”

Before Vaqelin could finish, the two fell to the ground.

“If you are going to do something,” Avilia said, looking mighty happy with herself, “You should do it before telling the enemy what you are going to do.”

Vaqelin sighed and shook his head.

A wry smile appeared on my lips. “True. No way we could’ve told if they were telling the truth fast enough. Anything they could’ve given us as proof would’ve been suspect. Good job, Avilia.”

Vaqelin looked incredulous. “You’re actually complimenting her for that?”

“Yes. We didn’t know who they were and everything was going just fine without them. I can think of a bunch of ways they could’ve tried to stop us if we had let them in.”

He sighed. “Okay. What’re we going to do with them now?”

“Same as with the others, what else?”

“Whatever you three are doing,” Karine spoke up all of a sudden, interrupting our bickering, “I’m done. Another part of the plan’s been cleared.”

The inactive transporter lit up.

-*-*-*-*-*-

A knock on the door and then it opening interrupts my writing. There’s only one person who does that. The person I’m sharing the room with.

Avilia.

“Welcome back!”

“Thank you!”

“Writing again?,” she asks as she walks towards me.

“Yes, I was. This isn’t as fast as I thought it’d be!”

She embraces me. “What is wrong?”

“The usual. Just too much stress about this and that.”

“Anything in particular?”

“Right now? Just my cybernetics. You know how it is.”

“Oh,” she says, concerned, “Is something wrong with them?”

“No, nothing like that,” I respond, trying to assuage her concern, “They’re working just fine. It’s just the usual power stuff.”

“I thought we solved those issues?”

“To a point, sure.” A sigh. “But I might run out if we get into more trouble.”

“You did not during the siege, did you?”

“Sure, I didn’t, but… My mana reserves got dangerously low. And without mana, the limbs Karine made…”

“Would not function, and leave you unable to move, correct? Even if your power banks were full.”

“Yes, exactly. No matter what people think about me being a summoned hero, I don’t have the mana pool or the skills of one.”

“I wish I could help you more…”

“You’ve already helped me plenty. I don’t want to put everything on you.”

“But…”

Avilia seems to think for a moment.

“We could try seeking help from others of my kind.”

“Other elves? I thought there weren’t any?”

“In this country. But as far as I am aware, there should be some in the Empire.”

“I wouldn’t want to impose…”

“It is a bit late for that, my love,” she says with a playful tone and giggles, “I have wanted to go see if it is true for myself, anyway. The facility I was at was not connected to any others. As a safety precaution, I was told.”

“Oh, so if one falls, the others won’t? Something like that?”

Avilia nods. “Yes. But it also means that we could not help each other in times of crisis. Either way, the rumors I have heard tell of elves who live in their own village or something or the other.”

“So not in a place like you did?”

“If the rumors are to be believed.”

That sounds like fun! I kind of want to see an “elven village!”