“Draw it again,” Angel said, handing her another piece of scrap metal. “And don’t activate them this time.”

A few minutes later, she handed him another rune circle. Angel made sure it was safe before sending a small amount of his own magic into it. Dim red light illuminated the proper rune. He let the light fade and set it back on the desk with a frown.

"What do you think, Blue?" Angel asked.

"Insufficient data for a conclusion. Further testing is suggested."

"Thought as much," Angel said.

"So, you don't know what's going on?" Alison asked with a disappointed frown.

“I wouldn't say that," Angel replied. "I can confirm that you aren’t doing anything wrong with your actual rune carving. It’s you.”

Alison's face crumpled and she looked down, clenching her hands at her sides. “I understand. I’m sorry for wasting your time, Master Angel.”

“You took that the wrong way,” Angel said, stopping her before she could stand. “This is strange, but it really shouldn’t effect your career as a Tinkerer at all. It’s just a mild annoyance, so I don’t see what the trouble is.”

“What do you mean? If the problem is me, how am I going to ever make anything that works? I can’t test any of my designs!”

Angel took an empty canister out. He filled it with magic and set it down on the table. “With these.”

“A canister?” Alison asked, her frown fading. “How will this help? I can’t afford to buy fully filled canisters just for the purposes of testing my work. I’m not a noble, Master Angel. I can barely afford to live here as it is. Besides, I’d need a way to extract the magic inside the canisters without accidentally releasing it all at once.”

“Filling canisters isn’t hard,” Angel scoffed. “It’s only expensive because a bunch of highbrow assholes are trying to restrict it so they can make money. Vanessa figured out how to do it in a few weeks at most. I can show you. And draining them slowly isn’t that hard either, you just need a specialized tool. You can buy one for a few Vex.”

Alison’s mouth worked, but no words came out. “I – Master Angel–”

“Just Angel,” he corrected, patting her awkwardly on the shoulder. This was getting a little too emotional for him. “I’ll think on why your magic isn’t working properly later. I need to finish some work up tonight. Do you have class tomorrow?”

“Not until the evening.”

“Then come back tomorrow morning, an hour after sunrise,” Angel said. “We’ll see what we can do then.”

“Thank you, Mas – Angel,” Alison corrected herself, shuffling out of the room while repeatedly bowing. “I’ll be on time. I promise.”

She pulled the door shut behind her, leaving Angel alone with Blue. He rubbed the bridge of his nose and picked the melted piece of scrap metal up. “Interesting indeed. But, unfortunately, not a priority right now.”

He set the warped metal aside and got back to modifying his arm. He worked through the rest of the day putting runes onto the stabilizing system for his arm. As it turned out, Liquid Metal didn’t work particularly well on anything that wasn’t already part of his arm. He could make mild changes, but nowhere near the accuracy or detail that he wanted. When he finally grew too tired to continue working, he slumped over the desk. Within minutes, he was asleep.

A ray of sunlight broke through his window the following day, warming the top of his head. Angel blinked awake, wiping away a small puddle of drool and yawning.

“Good morning, Wonderful,” Blue said from above his shoulder. He flinched, nearly smacking the orb out of the sky.

“I didn’t think you’d still be awake,” Angel said, letting out a relieved breath. “I thought someone was attacking me. Don’t you need to rest or something to maintain your energy?”

“No.”

“Oh. Well, that’s convenient. Did anything of interest happen last night?”

“Three Bloodflies flew up to your window, but were unable to gain entrance,” Blue reported. “There was a knock on your door, but the offender did not repeat it when you failed to answer. In addition, I located one rat taking up residence within the vent.”

“Wonderf – ah, damn it. That’s… interesting, I suppose. Did you find out who was knocking?”

“No. I was not under orders to identify intruders.”

“Fair enough.” Angel rose from his chair, stretching to get the kinks out of his back. He picked up the two metal supports on the table and scratched his chin with them. He claimed a Magitech cube the size of a toddler from the right side of the room and pulled it over to his desk.

After scanning the tools on the wall, Angel took down one that resembled a hose with a pointed nozzle. He connected it to the tube, then slotted his canister into an opening in the cube’s side. It snapped shut with a small puff of steam.

The cube rumbled to life, blue energy darting through glass tubes within it. It rattled on the floor and a tiny pillar of smoke started to vent through one of the valves at its side.

Angel set his arm down on the table, using Liquid Metal to create connection points near his forearm. He positioned one of the supports, then put the nozzle of the tube up to it. He pulled the trigger and a concentrated beam of magic shot out, welding the metal to his arm.

Once he finished, he repeated the process on the other side of his forearm using the other support. The cube sputtered out and the opening at the back popped open just seconds after he finished.

A quick mobility test showed that the legs could raise and lower on command. Now that they were attached, Angel used Liquid Metal to properly mesh everything together. He absorbed the seams and created resting places for the supports to slide into within the arm. Once he was done, it was impossible to tell that he’d even made any changes.

Angel flipped the supports out, resting them on the table and aiming as if he were going to shoot the window. He was far from an expert on ranged weaponry, but it felt about right.

“What do you think, Blue?”

“It appears to function,” Blue said. “However, you have only considered one plane of movement. When you fire your empowered spells, there is still a chance for the kickback to injure you.”

“I – huh. Didn’t think of that.” Angel grunted. “What if I start the steam vents early? I could try to offset some of the blast by doing the same thing in the opposite direction.”

Blue hummed its assent and he modified the runes on his back again. It took a little longer than just improving the vents, but luckily Alison had left him her mirror to work with.

Someone knocked on the door. Angel made one last tweak before setting the mirror down. The sun was already rising in the sky, which meant that Alison had probably arrived.

“I should have told her to come a bit later,” Angel muttered, but he headed over to let her in anyways.

She was there, as he’d expected. What he hadn’t expected was to find Tilly standing beside her, looking completely and utterly disinterested. Her long blonde hair hung over her shoulders and she wore normal civilian clothes instead of the Academy colors.

“I’m here to observe on Magistrate Daliah’s orders,” Tilly said.

Alison gave him an apologetic glance. Angel rolled his eyes and stepped out of the doorway, waving for them to enter. Tilly pushed past Alison and strode up to his desk, casting a disinterested look over everything. She pulled a disk from her pocket and pressed a button in the center.

It unfolded into a stool and she sat down, piercing Angel with a gaze that dared him to challenge her. Just what he needed to deal with. Teenage angst.