Emory jolted up in her bed, drenched in sweat and breathing heavily. After looking around at her surroundings, she mediated to calm herself down. Yet thirty minutes later, she still didn't feel at ease, so she decided to take a cold shower, hoping that it would relax her. As the water sprayed on her face and she closed her eyes, glimpses of the spider woman would appear in her mind's eye. Unfortunately, her dreams were silent or in hushed voices, like an echo, so she didn't know the name of this spider woman or how important she was. Honestly, Emory didn't even know if she was imagining the whole thing, but it seemed hauntingly real for her. Once she finished her shower and got ready for the day, she quickly left her cabin and headed outside. Like usual, Tethys was waiting for her by the hangar doors.
Tethys smiled, "Good morning, Emory. Did you sleep alright?"
"Morning, Tethys," Emory grimaced, "It was another long night. How are things going here?"
"Construction is slow but steady; we should have the first floor of the FOB and research center finished today. Mags said she's completed all the engravings, so I'll spend today enchanting them. And theoretically Gatrie should check in today, maybe even Tana," Tethys reported cheerfully.
"Good. After we finish the projects we have going on, we should focus on scouting and training," Emory advised, "Nephenee's team found that technology two days ago, and we don't know much about their information speed. Though, if theirs is even remotely as advanced as ours, they already know we've landed on one of their planets."
Tethys nodded, "Of course. Are you heading off early again?"
"Yeah, when we stopped yesterday, I was at ninety-seven percent," Emory explained, "Hopefully, I can push through the last three percent today." Tethys saluted Emory as the red-haired girl took her leave. It was a quick jog to the tablet, the fastest time she made yet, which surprised her since she was mentally exhausted. As she had gotten closer to using entirely internal magik, she had also noticed her physical attributes, such as her natural strength and speed, had improved as well. While it wasn't a drastic improvement daily, the cumulative effect allowed her to turn a twenty-minute jaunt into a fifteen-minute jog in only a few days. Since she arrived before Athos, she began practicing her Arcane Bolt right away. Finally, Athos arrived an hour after Emory had started training.
Athos mused, "You're at it early again today. It's good fortune that you can control and maintain this incredible amount of magik, but you're going to damage yourself if you keep going at this pace."
"I have to move onto the third level today," Emory remarked, "Something is telling me I don't have much time left before someone gets attacked."
"Ah yes, the famous human gut test. Don't panic; though I don't have the gift of foresight, I would guess you still have a couple days," Athos assured her.
"Is that a real thing?" Emory asked curiously, "Or is that just a phrase? Just the limited interaction we've had together has shown me that there's a lot of magik I don't know about."
Athos chuckled, "Well, of course, foresight is real. It is rare, but some Elandrian possess a special type of magik like transmutation or future sight. Though, the 'gifts' as we call them vary from person to person even among those with the same 'gift'. Such as one person may be able to change the composition of any object they touch while another person may be able to change the composition of a small object they can see."
"What about foresight?" Emory pressed, "Can some Elandrian see the future or just a possible future?"
"Hmm, truth be told, I've only met one of my people with the gift of foresight, though it was centuries ago. Sophia explained her foresight like this: if events continued in the order they were heading, it was the real future, but if a power greater than hers chose to intervene, she wouldn't be able to see them in her vision. Why the sudden interest in the future?" Athos prodded.
"Recently, I've been having strange dreams," Emory shyly replied, "But there's a woman in them, a half-woman, half-spider to be precise. The dreams are strange because I've never met this figure before or even seen a creature like her. Every night since I started training with you and a few before, but she's always doing different things. I feel like I'm dreaming her life."
Athos blinked a few times before he said very quietly, "What does this woman look like exactly?"
"She's tall compared to those around her and wears a dark cloak with two vertical red pinstripes that parts in the back around her spider body. Her spider end also has big red stripes, but her defining characteristic is a scarred hand, though she only reveals it when she's alone. Otherwise, she wears black fur gloves," Emory recalled as she shot out an Arcane Bolt into the sky.
"Petrine," Athos mumbled under his breath, "I don't know much about 'gifts' as I don't have one myself, but I do know that they seem to emerge around third level. However, what you're describing does indeed sound like the gift of foresight. Yet I've never heard of a Hexblood developing a 'gift' which clearly means your father was hiding his heritage."
Emory furrowed her brow, "What do you mean? What does my father have to do with this?"
"Humans can't bond fully to magik; they can harness and use it but not contain it long term," Athos explained, "Hexbloods can bond with magik, yet it would be more appropriate to call the bonding forced rather than natural. They get to use the spheres of magik that require internal magik, but not a body fueled by magik. You, however, seem to have a magik body, meaning that you're not a Hexblood but something else entirely. If your mother was a Hexblood and your father was human, how did you get a magik body?"
"A magik body? I've never heard of this before," Emory frowned.
"Of course you haven't! You humans really don't know much about the Fae, do you?" Athos laughed, "Some creatures like Elandrian, Dryads, and Pixies can't be hurt except by magik and Faebane. We Elandrian are especially durable and aren't even hurt by magik lower than fifth level. The Uthid and Laxtros also possess magik bodies, in case you were wondering, which is why I told you about the requirements to hurt them. And I hope I've explained enough already that the Arcane Sphere doesn't follow the same scale as normal spheres; the purity of your Arcane Bolt determines the equivalent level."
With a puzzled look on her face, Emory asked, "How do you know I have a magik body though? I still take damage from attacks when they hit me."
"That may be true, but I still have two reasons to believe otherwise," Athos emphasized as he created a bolt in his hand, "First, you're young, both in age and in magik, and resistance to magik is an adult trait, but the other traits of a magik body, such as increased speed, strength, and stamina, are a consequence of your body maturing. You must have noticed how much these have improved in you in the short time we've been training."
"That's only one reason," Emory accused as she too created a bolt in her hand and looked up at Athos. He smiled before flicking his wrist towards her which caused his bolt to hurdle through the air at her. The bolt flew so fast she didn't even have time to react, so the bolt exploded on the bottom of her foot. Except, instead of feeling pain, she only felt a pressure pushing her foot back. Incredibly, even though the bolt cut through her suit with ease, it just collided and dissipated when it hit her skin.
Athos roared, "Reason two is you're already starting to become resistant to magik! That bolt was thirty percent pure, meaning your body can't be pierced by third or lower level magik when your magik is active. I just have this feeling about you, kid. You're going to be something special once you get to one hundred percent pure."
"You're too kind, Athos," Emory blushed and bowed, "Well, as far as my father goes, I don't really remember him. He worked a lot and had golden eyes; I can't even remember what his voice sounded like."
"Nevertheless, you're almost there, and then we'll see what happens. Let's see how close you are," Athos smiled as he held out his hand to catch a bolt from Emory. She shot one over which pushed back his hand when he caught it. As he crushed the orb in his palm, he grinned, "Ninety-eight percent. You're almost there." Emory continued to practice into the early evening before finally stopping to eat for a few minutes. After eating, Athos tested another strike from her. He yelled in excitement, "Ninety-nine percent. Tomorrow, you'll break through; I'm sure of it. Listen, let's call it an early night, so you can rest up for tomorrow. Then after you break through, I'll show you how to teleport. And get a good breakfast."
Emory smiled and nodded as she stood up and stretched. She thanked him as always before sprinting back to camp. At full speed with her magik cloak, her body became a blur as she raced across the landscape. She checked her watch when she stopped in front of the base; only five minutes had passed since she left the tablet. Immediately, she went to the crafting station to check on Mags and Tethys's progress and found them still hard at work. She peeked through glass to see if the furnace was open and began to push the door open when it wasn't. "Commander, there's a call on the RRS," Wolt called out, "Tana's team is calling in. I was going to get Tethys, but if you're here, I'm sure you would rather go."
Emory nodded, "Thanks, Wolt. Please let her know that I want to talk to her when I get off the call." Wolt nodded and saluted her as she walked off before heading into the crafting station. Mags had a hand on the furnace door but spun around quickly when she heard the door open.
"Wolt, how many times do I have to tell you?" Mags screamed, "Don't open the door when I'm by the furnace!"
Wolt apologized, "I'm sorry. I ran into Emory and got confused. How many do two have left to do?"
"We're going to pull out the last one now," Tethys smirked, "Did she seem different to you, Wolt?"
"Not really, but our interaction was very brief," Wolt shook his head. Mags just shrugged, not particularly interested in their conversation, and opened the furnace door. A rush of hot air filled the room and rustled the three people's hair. Using two large leather gloves each, the two girls pulled a sheet of metal the size of a table top out, walked carefully to a large tub, and dropped the sheet in, causing water steam to erupt from the tub. After a couple minutes, they pulled it back out with some large metal tongs and set it in on the large worktable. A circle made from funny looking symbols wrapped around a five-pointed star was debossed in the middle of the sheet. Then they rubbed a polish of some kind over the surface, giving it a glistening sheen. Just as they finished, Emory walked through the doors with a big smile on her face.