The Last Knight (An Awakening the Lightforged Novel)

Chapter 20: Alone with Company

After all the plans I've run through, this is the only way things work.

C. 11 days, 27 hours since the assassination of rebel leadership

Estingai let out a deep, heavy breath as she pushed through the curtain into the small workshop she often used for her georaural projects. To her, the day of meetings and inspections had stretched far longer than the usual forty hours, and she looked forward to unwinding with some quiet time alone with—

Uuchantuu and Naruuna?

Estingai blinked as she noticed the room's two other occupants, and tried to hold back a frown. She wanted to have something to do, and working with georaurals usually calmed her mind, but, more than that, she wanted to be away from people. She needed some way to escape all of this.

Carefully, she took a step backward. The two women hadn't seemed to notice her yet, so maybe...

"Estingai?"

Forcing a smile, she met Uuchantuu's gaze. Naruuna looked up and smiled as well, nodding out of respect.

"I thought you two would relax a bit more after your mission before getting to work," she said, turning to go. "I didn't mean to bother you."

"Wait."

Estingai forced back a frown and took a deep breath. She turned back to Uuchantuu and found a knowing look in her eyes.

"You should stay," the shorter Natari woman said, voice pleasant, but firm.

"We don't mind the company," Naruuna added.

"And we could use your help with the armor.

Estingai nodded. "Of course."

She walked over to a space next to Uuchantuu at the stone workbench that spanned the entirety of the room on one side.

"Where are you at with it so far?"

Before Uuchantuu could say anything, Naruuna moved a bit closer and took one of the torso plates in hand.

"You did most of the hard work for us; replacing the buckles and straps and the wires that ran along them to connect the different plates."

Estingai nodded. That was something she hadn't expected, and something she wished she'd thought of. The straps always seemed too vulnerable to her, but as long as the armor was well-constructed, the biggest danger to them was wear and time.

"I think we'll be able to fix it with little issue," Uuchantuu said. "Only one or two of the biogems were cracked, and thankfully it looks like those fulfilled basic functions, just the gems and wires."

Estingai let out a sigh at that. "And what about the draining devices?"

Uuchantuu frowned at that. "Those will be a bit harder." She took the device Estingai had recovered from the Lightforged and held it up, studying it. "It's intact, and easy enough to figure out, but its main function—"

"Requires materials we don't have," Estingai sighed.

Many georaurals could be constructed with only biogems and metal to direct the device, but those that mimicked Auroramantic abilities required something extra. Something they hadn't had access to since the months following Yrmuunthal's destruction.

"Build a few anyway," Estingai said. "The housing for them at least. Maybe we'll be able to steal some georaurals from the Imaia with sapphires in them and repurpose them."

That had been their saving grace the past few years—the biogems from georaurals were never locked into a device by function and could be switched in and out when needed, either for replenishing Auroralight, or use in another framework.