Chapter 40 - Unforeseen effects

I looked at Vi as she was slowly opening her eyes.

Now that the operation was finished, I had unstrapped her from the table, and the young girl was groggily moving her head left and right, Ophelia already at her side.

“Hello Vi. How do you feel?”

I was looking at the scene with a faint self-conceited smile.

This morning, coming here, I had found the vial of pseudo-anaesthetic on the table with the rest of the resources and, from there, I had asked Vi to take me to Ophelia.

After all, I needed one more person to look over us during Vi’s operation, and Ophelia was the less busy of the two people I could call.

In effect, this was also the reason why Cris and Noa were with us in the warehouse as, without Sophia, they couldn’t train in the Echo chamber.

“...Urgh… bad. I want to…” Sophia quickly took the bucket I had asked her to prep, putting it in front of Vi before she started puking, well, bile mostly, since I had ordered her not to eat anything this morning.

Seeing that I made a sign to the two kids to come see their sister, both quickly sprang on their feet, going to Vi’s side with concerned eyes.

Having finished puking, Cris gave Vi water to clear her mouth and, once it was done, Noa tenderly wiped his twin’s mouth with a clean cloth.

I floated toward Vi’s left arm and looked at my work.

The anchor had been properly set in place, using two mana-imbued steel screws that I had driven in her Ulna and Radius bones, taking great care to not damage her bone marrow too much in the process.

That done I had to remodel part of her stump to mix the metal and the flesh in a harmless way, and this really took its toll on me. I loved working with living tissues, but the amount of energy needed to move all those cells around, coupled with the precision and the very notion that if you mess something up it’s gonna be bad, well, it’s exhausting.

“What is that?” Asked Ophelia, looking at the steel anchor.

“You will see~.” Answered Vi, her voice still shaking from the strenuous operation but already full of happiness.

Hidden by a cloth, I finally revealed what was under it: The hand-harness duo.

Vi tried to sit on the edge of the table but, nearly falling, Sophia caught her in extremis and helped her with a worried frown.

I approached the artificial hand and the Shi fighter finally saw it, when she needed to focus less on Vi, her eyebrows shooting upward.

“...What? A hand?”

I nodded while smiling and put the harness down at Vi’s side, then engaged the main servo-motor into the anchor, before locking it down with a sharp turn of the anchoring ring.

“You say when I can start to move around.” Said Vi while looking at me.

Understood.

Without opening its case, I jump-started the steel Mana Reactor, and a soft humming sound filled the air, muffled by the wooden shell containing it.

Try.

The Mana Wire connecting the reactor and the hand was now faintly glowing blue and, with unmistakable excitement, Vi nodded her head.

She extended her left arm, paying attention to the wire and slowly, very slowly, she opened the prosthetic. It was a beautiful sight as, being made with infused spells, all the metallic part were tenderly glowing blue.

“...How? How is this possible?” Asked Ophelia, lost and with her the two other children.

“Ayna built it! It’s an artificial hand that uses mana to move.” She pointed at each tiny blue-blowing steel ball.

“Those things are called servo-motors, they can make other things move when they’re given mana.”

“Mana?” Cris exclaimed.

“It’s the thing going through the metal wire, there, and making the servo-motors shine blue.” She pointed with her normal hand.

“...beautiful…” Whispered Cris, entranced by the glowing hand.

The mix of green and blue may have appeared strange to some but it was, indeed, quite gorgeous.

I think we can be proud.

We must be proud, for Vi’s sake.

Ahahah!

“...So it’s coming from the wooden case?” Noa curiously asked.

“Yes! In there, there’s what Ayna calls a Mana Reactor. That’s the source of the mana going in the wire!” She explained, still extremely excited.

“You want to see?” She asked Noa, before turning her eyes toward me. “We can open it, right?”

I shrugged and opened the case with magic, making it float to show everyone what was inside.

Ophelia finally snapped out of her stupor and, her gaze falling on the reactor, her mouth distorted.

“Fuck. You really made that? The… reactor? And the hand?”

One nod.

“You made an artefact.” Ophelia whispered, her face a bit paler.

What?

“I think Ayna didn’t understand what you meant… Teacher, what is an artefact?” The first half was Vi talking on my behalf, but the second part was clearly emanating from Vi’s natural curiosity.

All along she kept moving her new prosthetic, rubbing her hands against one another to get used to the new feeling.

Sophia looked at us with a helpless gaze then sighed, as if she was tired.

“Artifacts are objects from before the Ashen Night. They’re controlled by the church and distributed to the right wielders to fight demons…” She looked back at me. “...and you just made one. And one very suspicious, to boot, since it’s made from materials we have now, not the same all the other artefacts are made of…”

Oh. Fuck.

Did we make a blunder?

Maybe?

I touched Vi’s mind.

Problem?

“Is this a problem, teacher?” Ask Vi to my behest.

“Only if you want to try and avoid being the centre of attention, which seems more or less the case. I mean, what went on in your mind? Did you think Vi could start walking around with a green wooden hand glowing blue, and nobody would care about it?”

I… nodded once.

“What, for real?”

I nodded once again.

“Fuck me… You’re from before the Ashen Night, right? Artefacts were pretty common back then…”

One nod.

“So you did not think about it as a big deal?”

I shrugged.

Poor.

“She says it’s poor work. She explained to me that she could do better if she had better tools and materials.”

Sophia nodded for herself, understanding it until, suddenly, she raised her head and turned her gaze toward Vi.

“What did you say?”

“That it’s poor work.”

“No, after that? That she explained it to you?”

Vi tilted her head and suddenly realised what she had said.

“Erhm…” She looked at me with her main eyes, her secondary ones still on Ophelia.

Explain.

“Okay. So, first of all, you two, don’t be jealous, understood?” She asked Cris and Noa, a bit unsure.

“Of course sis’!” Noa answered directly while Crisnée was a bit more suspicious, even if she ended up reluctantly nodding.

“Okay. So… Ayna talks in my head?” She said with a shy tone.

“...What?” Sophia seemed a bit lost again.

As they talked, I closed the reactor case and put it back on the table. No reason to use more energy than needed. In fact, following this thought, I flew toward Cris and she took me in her arms, under the envious gaze of Noa who still quickly went back on his sister.

“Ayna can talk in my head. Only one word here and there, but it’s becoming easier every day!”

Sophia slowly turned her gaze toward me and, once again, I shrugged.

“Why not use it directly with us, if you could do it?” The Shi fighter asked in disbelief.

“Because it’s long, hard and painful. It took Ayna two hours to speak the first word in my mind, and I got a headache all day long after that.” Vi answered in my stead.

“And since then she talked to me this way every day, all day long. And she can still only speak four words a minute, top.”

“Oh. Oooh. So it’s very unpracticable.”

I nodded once.

Exhausting.

“And she says it’s exhausting. Soooo…” Vi turned her eyes toward me.

“But you’ll do it with all of us, right?” She asked, looking at Cris and Noa who had mixed feelings of excitement and envy toward their sister.

I nodded once.

“Yey! Thank you!” Exclaimed Noa, and I felt Cris’ grasp grow stronger on me.

Harness.

“Ah, of course!”

Vi put the harness on and used the special straps to tie the wire in place along her arm, so it wouldn’t dangle freely around, then covered herself with her jacket and moved her hands around, both her natural and artificial one.

“It’s so… strange! But it’s so cool too! I like it! I love it!”

I think Vi will be in a good mood for the next few days.

If there are no problems with her new hand being an artefact…

Ah yes, fuck.

I looked at Ophelia and connected to Vi.

Artefact…

Vi immediately stopped moving all over the place and looked at me, waiting.

Problem?

“She’s asking if the artefact will be a problem.” Said Vi.

Ophelia started biting her lips and fiddled with the dagger at her side.

“Well, to be honest, yes. Neither I nor Elody have the legitimacy to sponsor Vi’s sporting one of those. If you want Vi to be able to use it, I’ll need to put a third adult in the confidence of your secret, I am afraid…”

Who?

“Who?” repeated sis’.

“The man in charge of the Goddess Church, here, in Valince.”

“...Is it… a good idea?”

“To be frank, I don’t exactly know how he will react but, seeing that you can create artefact and use the Sacred Tongue, and your actions up till now, I don’t think he will antagonise you. At worst, he will ask you some questions about the Goddess, since you lived at the same time she descended amongst mortals.”

I thought for a bit.

At worst…

…We can kill him. But that would mean going into exile, potentially with the family.

Yeah, I know. However, Ophelia seems pretty sure of herself, like when she was sure that the children could go under Elody’s White Shi.

True. Let’s trust her.

Okay.

I turned my head toward Ophelia and nodded.

Okay.

“She says she’s okay to do it.”

“Good. You four wait here, I’ll go talk to Elody, then to Father Birkard. All good?”

I nodded alongside everyone else.

“Good. I’ll try to be quick.” And she rose on her feet, walking with daring steps full of energy.

She was worried about Vi and me but, in the end, she was happy the kid got a spare hand.

***

During the time when Ophelia wasn’t there, Cris and Noa helped Vi get accustomed to her new hand.

She was still a bit clumsy, which was very kawaii to watch, as Radiance would have said with a large dumb smile, like a baby taking its first step but, all in all, the atmosphere was brimming with joy.

As per her habit, Cris had started touching the prosthetic under Vi’s amused gaze, the silent noble girl making soft “oh!” and “ah!” as she looked at the glowing fingers under every possible angle.

This ended with the two girls holding hands, both of them, gazing happily in each other’s eyes.

Which, in turn, devolved into a group hug when Noa and me jumped on them.

Look Psaï.

Yes. We made her smile.

Let’s keep going. I want those three to smile all the time.

...Okay~.