The hours came and went. When the sun rose the following morning, Angel found himself slumped over the rickety metal table, a small puddle of drool at his mouth. He blinked the last vestiges of sleep out of his eyes and sat up with a grimace, wiping his face clean.

Warm red light emitted from the cubical relic in his arm. He’d evidently fallen asleep in the middle of working on it. He couldn’t recall exactly what his last test had been, but he hadn’t made much progress.

Blue rested on the floor beside him. The artifact had returned to its deactivated, spherical form. He scooped it up and put it into his bag. The sun was already rising above the city skyline, so he doubted it would be long before –

There was a knock on the door. Angel chuckled and closed the arm latch, walking over to open it. Alison and Tilly greeted him with tired grins. Tilly carried a plate of soft breads and butter.

“We brought you breakfast,” Alison said. “Because I’m pretty sure you’ve been skipping meals.”

“What are you, my mom?” Angel asked, taking the plate from Tilly with an embarrassed grin. “Thank you, though.”

“Just teach us something useful,” Tilly muttered.

Angel claimed a piece of bread and lathered it with butter. He stuffed it into his mouth and offered the plate to his students. Both shook their heads.

“We already had breakfast,” Alison explained. “So, what are we doing today?”

“Did you figure out those runes I gave you?”

“Mostly,” Alison said, reddening. “I didn’t get a ton of work done last night.”

“I’ll give you a pass this time, but I’m going to need a favor in return.”

“Of course. What is it?”

“I need some of your magic,” Angel said. “Probably just a spark, but we’ll see.”

“What could you possibly need it for?” Alison asked with a frown. “You can do anything I can do with runes but better. I need a bunch of limiters just to keep my stuff from exploding.”

“I didn’t say I needed it for a rune,” Angel replied. “I’m afraid I can’t explain more than that, though.”

Alison shrugged. She summoned a tiny orb of magic into the palm of her hand and held it out to him. “Where do you want me to put this?”

“Just hold it there,” Angel said. He reached out to it and mentally sent an affirmation to the star fragment, affirming that it could eat the energy before it. A tiny arc of purple lightening skipped across his shoulder.

It grew in intensity, wreathing his arm. A tendril reached out, almost tenderly, and brushed across the magic in Alison’s hand. The orb vanished with a pop. Angel stiffened as a sharp, freezing chill shot through the pistons of his arm and into his shoulder. He flipped his eyepiece down.

Name: Angel

Level: 65 [3%]

Status: Mostly Healthy

Information accuracy: 100%

Strength: 12

Intelligence: 25 [+2]

Nimbleness: 26

Toughness: 65

Comparative Rating [Adjusted]: Threat

Weak point(s): Heart, Neck, Arteries… (100/100)

Element(s): Steel, Star Fragment

Magicore: None (87% Attunement)

Features: [1/3]

He clicked his tongue. “Do you think you could do another? I think one more push should do it.”

Alison nodded with wide eyes, brining a new spark of magic to her hands. This time, the Star Fragment didn’t even wait. It leapt forth, snatching the energy and yanking it from her hands.

Once more, jagged ice coursed through his veins. A loud hum emitted from his arm and a series of clicks rang out. He felt tubing in it shift and reroute itself of its own accord. He scanned himself one more time.

Name: Angel

Level: 65 [3%]

Status: Mostly Healthy

Information accuracy: 100%

Strength: 12

Intelligence: 25 [+2]

Nimbleness: 26

Toughness: 65

Comparative Rating [Adjusted]: Threat

Weak point(s): Heart, Neck, Arteries… (100/100)

Element(s): Steel, Star Fragment

Magicore: None (100% Attunement)

Features: [1/3]

Checking new module requirements…

Magicore Attunement: Threshold reached

Power source of sufficient strength: Acquired

Requirements met.

Feature [2/3] Unlocked

Features

Liquid Metal [Repair]: Primary function – host modification and repair. Enables shifting of hardware and improves defensive capabilities of vessel.

Magicore Command: Primary function – mental influence over non-sentient Magitech. Usage drains magic at a rate directly related to the size and strength of the object this feature is used on.

“What did that do?” Tilly asked. “Why can your arm eat magic?”

“It’s just hungry,” Angel replied, raising the eyepiece and doing his best to contain the excitement bubbling in his chest. The feature description was simultaneously incredible and lackluster. It was pretty vague on exactly what he could do with the control, nor did it actually say a basepoint for how much energy it needed. If he had to have as much magic as Alison for the most basic tasks, it wouldn’t do him much good.

Either way, he couldn’t test it quite yet. That would have to come after the girls had left, and he could hardly send them away now.

“Never mind that,” he said. “My arm needs magic to keep running, and I was a bit low on supplies. Alison, since you were busy last night, go ahead and get back to work on those runes until you’ve got a good grasp over them. They’re the most important thing I can teach you right now.”

Alison nodded and sat down in Angel’s chair to get to work on the scrap metal littering the desk. He quickly drew out the runes she was working on and set them down so she could reference them.

“What about me?” Tilly asked. “I already have a decent understanding of them. Probably not a great one, but I can draw them fine enough.”

“Show me,” Angel said, handing her a piece of scrap metal and a scribe from the wall. Tilly shrugged and sat down cross legged on the floor. A minute later, she handed it back. He examined it, then got another piece of metal.

“Make two linked shielding patterns and a power inlet.”

Tilly’s brow furrowed but she followed his instructions. This one took her considerably longer, but she eventually handed him the newly made piece.

“And this is ready to use?” Angel asked. “I can just put power straight into it and it’ll work?”

“Well, I’d test it first,” Tilly hedged. “It’s not safe to use runes without testing them.”

“Your professors are lazy,” Angel said. He pulled Tilly to her feet and led her over to the table beside Alison. “Get your chair artifact and start carving. You’ve got some talent, but you haven’t got a decent understanding of a rune until you can draw it confidently. And trust me, shielding runes are the ones you want to understand the best. If something else goes wrong, these keep your work from frying everything around it.”

Tilly looked like she wanted to argue for a moment, but then she nodded and got to work.

“And for what it’s worth,” Angel added after a moment, “This would have worked. The problem is that you don’t have enough confidence to know it would work, which means you could make a mistake at some point.”

He let the two work for the next few hours. At one point, he discretely popped the hatch on his arm open to examine the relic, hiding the glow against his chest. Several tubes had rerouted to connect directly to the relic instead of its enclosure, but there didn’t seem to be any power running through them.

Angel was tempted to find something and test it out, but it was probably for the best to keep the exact nature of what kept his arm running a mystery. Alison already knew about the Star Fragment, and while he didn’t think she would betray him, it was possible she would let something slip. As for Tilly, while she was warming up a little, he still didn’t trust her nearly enough to share his deepest secrets. Further tests would just have to wait until they left.

He occasionally walked up to the table and examined the plates they’d worked on, replenishing the supply of scrap whenever they were running low or giving them pointers on mistakes that they were making frequently.

The day passed quickly, and a huge pile of used metal had piled up by the table by the time the sun had started its descent in the sky.

“That’s enough for now,” Angel said. “You’ve done good work today. Good job. I know this feels tedious, but I promise it’ll be better for you in the long run.”

“Logically, I know you’re probably right,” Tilly admitted. “But you’re still lame for making us do this.”

“Fair enough.” Angel smirked. “Same time tomorrow, then?”

“We can’t, actually,” Alison said, wringing her hands together. “We’ve got an outdoor exam tomorrow.”

“It’s more like a demonstration,” Tilly elaborated. “The department is showing us off to demonstrate how good we’ve gotten.”

“Huh. Is it open to the public?”

“Kind of. It’s more for people at the Academy or wealthy sponsors. Anyone on Academy grounds can watch, though,” Alison said. “It’s in the main courtyard and starts when the sun is at the top of the sky.”

“Great. I’ll see you there,” Angel said with a grin. “I’m looking forward to seeing what both of you can do. I assume your canister has enough charge, Alison?”

She nodded. “Yeah. Are you sure you’ll have time?”

“Of course I will. I want to watch my pupils stomp on all the other morons,” Angel said.

“You’ve only been teaching us for a few days,” Tilly pointed out.

“We’ll see,” Angel replied. “Now go eat something and get some rest. I expect good results tomorrow.”

They nodded and bid him goodnight. Once they’d left, Angel glanced out the window. It was late evening. More than enough time to get in a few tests before sleep.”