An Expected Betrayal |TBATE

Chapter 50

MAYLA

"Aguh!" I shook my hand away from the small mana prick. I plucked my finger into my mouth in an attempt to soften the pain. I was already exhausted. It was late, or early depending on your viewpoint. In only a few hours, the sun would rise, removing the need for the blanket hoisted around my shoulders.

Seth was lightly sleeping on the opposite side of the room. Normally, I would sleep with him, but tonight I wanted to finish it. I was working on trying to study a weird material Caera had. She said she obtained it from a zone in the relic tombs. Apparently it's intention was to seal food for later consumption while also protecting it from the elements. And from what I noticed, it did its job very well.

It's made primarily of a super thin metal. I came to the conclusion that its aluminum. And when I say thin, I mean thin. So thin that it can be easily crumbled. It also can't be seen if held at the right angle. It's also been painted with an unknown material. Additionally, the whole thing is covered in strange characters that I'm unable to translate.

It does have a few good qualities. For example, it's super light. But that is overshadowed by its weakness. It's famous for being a useless thin metal. But here it was being used in such a way that it was revolutionary. It's also a super good electrical conductor. Grey said that using electricity is much easier than mana because anyone can use it. But in exchange it needs to be generated. I've been practicing with it, and only thanks to a small battery Grey made for me that turns mana into electricity.

The mana prick was me trying to turn the electricity into mana. But I've been failing. Melting down the 'wrappers' into small wires, I've managed to create a few circuits. It's almost addicting. Of course, most of this was learning from Grey. Which only makes him more suspicious. He knows things that can completely change the world if revealed but doesn't use it.

He said Nico is even better than him, being able to create things that even he couldn't understand. Even Sevren, Caera's brother who helped me when I was still learning the basics, said he learned from Grey. Not even the head instiller, who I learned from in the academy for a while, knew some things Grey did.

I had some emblems for being a Sentry but I preferred being an instiller. Even if I didn't have the runes. I still had that long ranged gun Grey told me about, again. Didn't stop training them though.

Everytime I tried something new, I thought 'who are you really Grey?'"

After another hour of playing around, doing something or another, I heard someone approaching. I couldn't detect any mana, meaning it could only be one person.

"Shouldn't you be sleeping?" Grey said just outside the room, which was muffled by the dorr. We were currently deep in Darv, one of the few places we had control over. The dwarves worked with us, but some didn't like us at all. Some tried to escape, but were quickly thwarted. I barely stopped them from being killed, with the argument that the High sovereign would be mad if he lost any potential loyal subjects.

"I should, yes. But Thanks to a certain someone, I've gotten addicted to artificing." I answered in a joking sort of way. I didn't bother to even look away from my current experiment. "You can come in by the way."

Grey did, closing the door behind him. "What are you doing right now?"

"Messing with electricity. Are you doing any better?" I was truly concerned. Even if he was hiding stuff from us, he was still my friend.

"They were having a funeral. I dropped the blade off to a mutual friend and left. I barely knew her for a year. Directing my hatred towards her is just wrong." he answered. Keeping his voice low and almost unhearable as not to wake Seth. I thought it to be a useless effort since I would wake him anyway.