It’s almost noon and I’m on schedule!

I haven’t been outside much lately, but to get to Karine’s workshop, I have to. It’s not like the entire palace district is just one building. It’s a number of buildings, some interconnected with long hallways, some not. Where she’s at isn’t, since they were for the people working under the royals, not for the royals themselves.

Thankfully, I remember where Karine’s place within the palace district is. Or, more correctly, where the place she just claimed as her own is. Thanks to her actions in furthering the cause of the rebellion, the other rebel leaders just let her do as she wanted. No one complained, even though it’s kind of prime real estate. Centrally located, fairly large size. They could’ve used it for a number of other things, but instead it’s hers now.

She really didn’t hide the fact that she wanted it. What was it? That it was used by the court’s own mages or something? That it’d be perfect for her. I bet there’s more to it, but I don’t know enough about these things to say anything about it.

I’m not complaining. The fact that she, too, is kind of bound to the palace district is good for me. It means I won’t have to either go back to the village to her shop right now or find my way to her family’s estate. Why was it that she didn’t want to use either? Oh, right. It was real simple. She’d have to spend way too much time going back and forth every day.

That really wouldn’t be optimal, now would it?

Oh, this is the building. Third floor, right?

My original plan, as it turns out, wouldn’t have been that great. Actually casting illusion spells and then keeping them active wastes quite a bit of magic particles. Just like with all other magic, really. It’s why I decided it’d be great to be able to cast enhancement spells in really short bursts instead of keeping them up. The upfront cost of spell use isn’t that high, it’s the time used to keep them active that hits you hardest. Now, a specialized enchanted item with the same spell is always on average more optimized in its function than casting spells yourself. It uses less mana and draws it from the surroundings, not just from yourself. But then you have to carry the item with you. It could break. It could be stolen. And not all spells can be used to enchant items, too.

Sounds complicated. Thankfully, I won’t have to think about that too much!

I hope Avilia’s fine. She decided to go look around the city on her own a little before I can join her. Something about wanting to check where to go beforehand. It’s sweet of her, but… Part of the fun of exploring is, you know, actually exploring. I couldn’t talk her out of it.

Ah, I’m here!

I knock on the door.

No answer. But someone’s definitely in there. I can hear noises.

Another knock.

“Come in!”

I open the door and walk in. Karine’s still busy working on the limbs, it seems.

“Am I too early?”

“No, I’m a bit late, sorry,” she says without turning, “Please have a seat.” She tilts her head slightly to her left for a moment.

Alright.

I shouldn’t bother her.

I pull the chair on her left side from under the table and take a seat.

“I’m almost done.”

She looks tired, but determined.

The work she’s doing looks similar to what she did when she first worked on my arms, but… Different? Less like carving circuits on them and more like carving magical runes, I think.

It’ll be interesting to see what’ll happen regardless.

“Done!”

She lowers her carving tool and stretches her arms.

“Okay,” she says, turning towards me, “Lets start by having you put on these arms first.”

Just like before, I put my left arm in maintenance mode, pop it out from its socket and replace it with her crafted arm. The system complains about it since it’s been altered and starts diagnosing it. Thankfully, unlike before, it’s very fast this time.

No issues detected. I move the arm around. It feels exactly the same as last time. Thanks to whatever happened during the day of the siege, I can actually feel it.

It’s a dull feeling, but it’s there. I haven’t had time to figure out what was changed. The arm, or something more fundamental? Or both? Analysis by the software was inconclusive. Or, it claimed nothing’s changed.

I can’t accept that. Something changed. It’s obvious. Why wouldn’t the system detect it?

“Okay,” I say, “Left arm works fine.”

Karine smiles. “That’s good. Now, put on the right arm, too,” she says as she slides the arm towards me on the table. “Just the arms should be enough to activate the enchantment.”

I nod, put my right arm into maintenance mode, pop it out and replace it.

Another complaint from the system and another quick diagnosis. The arm functions just fine, but…

“How do I activate it?”

“That’s odd,” she says, looking surprised, ”It should’ve activated on its own. You shouldn’t have this level of control of the mana flowing through them.”

“Is that a good thing or bad?”

“I’m not sure. Could be good, could be bad. Could be neither.”

I look at my right hand. “But, how do I activate the enchantment?”

Karine scratches her head. “Just imagine feeding more mana to the arms?”

She doesn’t sound very sure. Maybe I should…

Yes. Ask the software.

What?

How’s this possible? It looks like my software can decide how much mana is given to my limbs. And whether they should use ambient magic particles or not. Right now, it looks like they’re being given just enough to stay functional.

Normally, that’d be great, but with the new additions, they need more.

Increasing magic particle output…

A tingling sensation. But the enchantment doesn’t seem to want to start functioning. That’s annoying.

More.

The runes on my arms flicker.

I need more.

Oh!

They’ve lit up! But the illusions aren’t activating. What’s going on?

“So,” I say as I turn my gaze towards Karine, “What now?”

“I told you, I don’t know. The runes were supposed to activate on their own with no input from you. I’m starting to think I made a mistake somewhere.”

No, I don’t think you did, Karine. I think you did everything you could.

I turn to look at my right hand again.

New options show in my interface.

Do I want to activate the third party executable? Yes, please.

Suddenly, the armor of the arm is replaced by what looks like skin. It doesn’t look like my clothes are being affected by the enchantment, though. So I’ll have to wear something else, then?

“What’d you do?!”

What?! Don’t yell like that!

“Um, I just did what you told me to? I kept feeding mana into the arms.”

It’s a white lie, but she doesn’t need to know the details. I’m not sure she’d even understand them. I’ll have to tell Avilia about this sometime, though. Somehow my software’s learned how to control the flow of magic particles in my limbs. I didn’t even realize that until now!

Karine pushes her back against her seat’s back, looking relieved. “At least I won’t have to try to figure out what I did wrong.”

“But now that it works, here.” She gives me a mirror. “Is this look fine?”

Huh. Brown hair, much lighter green eyes. And look at those cheekbones. My face’s… Different, but not by much, I guess?

I lower the mirror.

“Yes, it’s fine. You could’ve done much worse.”

“Okay.” She takes the mirror. “Now, there’s one thing I’m not sure how it’ll work while you’re disguised that I’d like you to try.”

“What’s that?”

“I’d like you to cast a spell. Any spell.”

Alright.

Light.

Ball.

Float.

After these three gestures, a ball of light floats above my hand.

And the illusion broke for several seconds.

Karine sighs. “I was afraid that’d happen. It looks like spell-casting interferes with the enchantment.”

Can’t have everything, huh?

“It could be worse.” I shrug. “I’ll just have to try to not cast spells, right? And it’ll stay down just for a few seconds. That doesn’t sound too serious.”

Well, unless more intense spells make the wait longer. That could be a problem!

Karine nods. “True.” She perks up and pushes the set’s legs towards me on the table. “Now, put on the legs, too. I want to enchant all your limbs in one go.”

I put my left leg too in maintenance mode, pop it out and replace it with the one of her making. Then the right. The enchantment envelops them, replacing the metal with “skin.”

Karine picks up my cybernetic limbs and goes to work. “You could go for a walk if you’d like. This’ll take a while, and you know how I get when I’m working.”

“Okay, when should I come back?”

“Three hours should be enough.”

“Just three? Are you sure?”

“Yes, I’m certain.”

“Okay. See you in three hours.”

I stand up and walk out of the door.

I hope Avilia’s back home, I want to surprise her!