Shadowcast

A Week Later: Part 2

"Thank you for coming, Mako," Alusius said, holding the door to Room 667 open for his tinkering partner. As she entered, Mako strapped her magic arm onto her shoulder and threw out her self-writing pen.

"New log: twenty-first Vera, 163 P.R.," she said, "This is my first time experimenting with a partner. I'm looking forward to it. My friend seems to know his stuff when it comes to mago-material infusions." The pen scribbled down her words, then went still on the pad of paper. Mako turned to Alusius. "So, where's your cool toy? I have some ideas."

"Right over here." Alusius had cleared off a table and set his crossbow-railgun out on it. It was already partially disassembled, the twin metal prongs laying apart from the wooden stock. Mako brushed past the comfy chairs Alusius had placed on either side of the table and knelt on the floor in front of the coffee table. "I've brought some chairs. I believe they would be more comfortable than the floor."

Mako looked up. "Oh! I didn't see that!" She leapt up into the chair and produced her tools from a number of different pouches on her belt. "When did you build this?" she said, running her hand along the woodwork.

"Only a few months ago, actually," Alusius said, taking his seat opposite Mako, "I had an idea that I wished to test, so I built it."

Mako pushed her goggles down onto her face as she picked up one of the prongs. "That mottled pattern. This is fire giant steel. And these magnesis runes aren't like anything else I've seen. How did you get your hands on these?"

"The runes are actually my own. They are a more advanced form of the basic runes our Miss Hawken relies on. She has... inspired me, in a manner of speaking, to pursue them further. As for the steel, my mother is the Inquisitor of Arcana. I have a lot of connections."

"Inquisitor of Arcana... Nadavka Ruzicka?"

"Indeed."

"My sister did some work with your mom."

"Really? It's a small world."

"Not really. It's massive. You can't get from here to there without buying a boat."

"It's a figure of speech."

Mako pushed up her goggles. "I know. I was trying to do a joke. People tell me that's how you break the ice."

"Ah. You may want to work on your delivery."

"Noted." Mako took out her pen again. "Work... on... joke... delivery. Thanks!"

"My pleasure. You said you had some ideas?"

"I do!" Mako hung on the edge of her seat, holding a piece of the crossbow in each of her three hands. "You already have an impressive invention. The magnesis runes propel the bolts, right?"

"Correct."

"If you extend the runes out into full-scale engravings, you could theoretically turn this into an elemental matrix and use it to cast your spells."

Alusius nodded. "I don't have any crystals on hand, but that is a great idea. I hadn't considered that."

Mako set down the prongs and took a bright orange crystal out of her belt. "I brought some materials of my own. I have a fire crystal, some powdered hematite, and a set of buffer clamps. With some tooling, we could turn your crossbow into an elemental cannon!" She ended her speech mere inches from Alusius's face, gazing into his eyes with the excitement of a mad scientist on the verge of saving the world... or ending it.

Alusius laughed despite himself. Mako's bubbly energy was infectious. He went to fetch his own tools while she spread out blueprints for other elemental matrices on the table. The two flew into an intellect-fueled, hyper-focused fervor. Alusius carved intricate connected symbols into the prongs, following the blueprints as closely as he could. Meanwhile, Mako drilled the clamps into the stock just below the trigger lever.

"Mako, do you have-"

"Barrier resin? I gotcha." Mako's third hand tossed a little glass tub of lard-like grease to Alusius. He spread it across the prongs, making sure to saturate the engraved areas. "Good thinking. We need to insulate this."

"You're brilliant."

"Thank you!" She checked her belt. "I forgot my left-handed socket wrench. Do you have one?"

"You realize you can simply use a right-handed wrench, right?"

"Oh." Mako flipped her wrench over in her hand. "Thanks. You're brilliant."

Alusius finished applying the resin just as Mako put the final screw into the stock.

"Put this back together," Mako said, an unhinged smile on her face, "I wanna test it out!" She took a metal plate out of one of her pouches. "How good of a shot are you?"

Alusius wedged Mako's elemental crystal into the clamps on the underside of the stock. "I've trained a lot. Why do you ask?" He looked up and saw Mako holding the plate in front of her chest. She playfully waggled her eyebrows and put down her goggles for protection. "You can't be serious."

"Everything else in this room is flammable," Mako said, "Hit this steel, and it probably won't ricochet."

"If you say so."

"I do!" Mako bounced on the balls of her feet. "If this works, imagine what we could accomplish!"

"Stand still! I don't want to hit you." Alusius hesitantly pulled the trigger. The next fraction of a second passed at a crawl. A wave of heat spread across the crossbow as the carvings lit up with fiery orange light. A mote of pure elemental energy gathered at the base of the two prongs before flying forward, soaring across the room and splashing against the steel plate at Mako's chest. The force of the bolt slammed her against the wall, leaving a dent in the plaster that immediately healed itself.

"Mako!" Alusius scrambled over to her. He couldn't tell if she was hurt. Her goggles practically covered the entire upper half of her face, so he didn't know if she was still conscious. The steel plate obscured most of her torso, so he couldn't see any injuries. "Are you hurt?" He reached down and grabbed her face. "Are you alright? Did I hurt you? Were you burned?"

"It worked," Mako said. She pushed her goggles up onto her forehead, leaving a clear silhouette on her scorched face. Her hair stuck out in every direction, giving her the appearance of a mad scientist, which may not have been far from the truth. "IT WORKED!" Mako threw her arms around Alusius, smudging his chest with soot and flecks of burnt steel. "We're gonna do great things! Just think of it: a future Inquisitor and a future master artificer! We could create things nobody has ever DREAMED of! We could rule a brave new world together! Ha ha ha!"

Alusisu held Mako at arm's length as she bounced up and down. Her dazzlingly blue eyes were full of wonder and excitement. He couldn't help but reciprocate her joyful giggling.

Mako gradually calmed down and wiped the tears from her face. Her eyes locked with Alusius's. "This means we're friends, right?"

Alusius tried to pry his eyes away from Mako. This kind of connection made his stomach squirm. If his mother ever found out...

"Y-yes. We're friends."