Tessa didn’t really know how to describe the situation she currently found herself in.

She was sitting in the backseat next to Mr. Titanos, Dr. Jensen driving, and her wife in the passenger seat.

If finding out magic was real had been overwhelming, then she didn’t have the words for finding out your doctor and her wife were both mind-reading vampires.

“Sentires.” Dr. Jensen corrected softly.

“I can’t believe you don’t know how to drive. You have a driver’s license for gods’ sake!” Dr. Jensen continued in an admonishing tone, obviously directed at Mr. Titanos.

“I can’t believe I convinced you to actually drive us.” He replied.

“Neither can I.” Natasha agreed, earning herself a harsh look from Dr. Jensen.

“I’m not gonna leave a vulnerable patient with someone who is in greater need of psychiatric aid than she is.” Dr. Jensen spoke.

“I’m perfectly sane. It’s everybody else who’s crazy.” Mr. Titanos stated, looking very proud of himself.

“Yes, he’s a little self absorbed like that.” Natasha added in response to Tessa’s thoughts.

“Are you guys talking… Thinking about me behind my back?” He said, looking aggrieved.

“Technically, we’re doing it in front of you.” Sophia shot back.

“Wait, Mr. Titanos, you can’t read minds?” Tessa asked, feeling a little confused.

“No, he cannot.” Sophia stated smugly.

“Yet.” He added with a taunting smirk.

“But didn’t you say all sentires could read minds?” Tessa asked, ignoring their banter.

“I’m not a Sentire.” He replied loftily.

“Then what are you?” Tessa asked curiously.

“A Titan.” He replied.

“Wait… Titanos, Isn’t that a little on the nose?” Tessa questioned, followed by laughter from the front of the car.

“Okay, first rule of this apprenticeship, no making jokes at the expense of your teacher!” Mr. Titanos proclaimed.

“What are you talking about? She hasn’t even accepted yet.” Natasha argued.

“Just a matter of time. I’ll show her the way.” Mr. Titanos replied confidently. “But first we’ll need to get her some supplies.” He added.

***

Tessa and I were walking through the shopping district of the central valley, although she kept behind me, looking around curiously.

“Are all these people Sentires?” She whispered.

“Not all of them. A lot of them are heirs.” I answered.

“That’s the humans, right? Why are they all staring at you like that?” Tessa asked, looking over my shoulder at a Custodes looking wide eyed at our approach.

“Because even hundreds of years of practice can’t correct bad manners.” I said, giving the Custodes a hard look, to which he responded by clearing his throat and quickly looking away.

“Huh, so you’re kind of a big deal?” Tessa said, her tone sounding a little more chipper than during the car ride.

“Not really, I just make cool stuff for them and they give me most of what I ask for.” I said, downplaying my role a bit.

“Huh, and that’s what you wanna teach me?” Tessa asked.

“Yeah, although it’ll take some time before we get to that. First, we’ll need you to learn how to control your powers, but even before that, we need to get you some proper clothes.” I said, finally spotting what looked like a clothing store.

It still felt a little weird that even with a girl wearing hospital scrubs walking next to me, I was still the center of attention for every Sentire in the vicinity.

We walked inside the fancy looking store and were greeted immediately by the staff, one of which was a Sentire, although not very old.

“Good Evening, what might I help you with?” The young Sentire asked, never taking her eyes off of me.

“I was wondering whether you might be able to help this one find a new wardrobe?” I said, gesturing to Tessa behind me, looking around doe-eyed.

The young Sentire’s expression broke into a blinding sales smile. “It would be my pleasure. What is your budget?”

I pulled out the credit card the clan had given me months ago and handed it over while saying, “Until this is maxed out, after that you can send the bill to Katya Romanov Nikoleve.”

“Certainly, sir.” The young Sentire responded, her expression neutral after the casual mention of her matriarch.

***

Two hours and four stores later and we’d gathered a veritable hoard of shopping bags, I’d deliberately tried to max out the card at one point, but to no avail as the limit was beyond what we could spend in that short a period of time.

Tessa had freaked out slightly the first time I’d piled everything she’d bought together and let the black flame like smoking swallow it all. But after explaining to her that it wasn’t destroyed but simply stored in a space similar to what she’d experienced herself, she calmed down and happily stated how convenient she thought it was, before doing another circuit of the stores we’d visited earlier, along with a few more.

I didn’t mind as her expression gradually shifted to a more and more joyful one.

Although the two Sentires discreetly stalking us at a distance outside of human perception were starting to get on my nerves.

***

“You can’t just buy someone mental stability or happiness.” Sophia fumed as she and Natasha sat at a small rooftop café overlooking the shopping district.

“I mean she looks pretty happy.” Natasha argued gently before taking a sip of the sugary sweet drink in front of her.

“It’s just a momentary relief. It’ll pass and she’ll be right back where she started, if not worse off.” Sophia said, her eyes still locked on the two shopaholics down below.

“Come on Soph, how can this be a bad thing?” Natasha asked.

“Whose side are you on?” Sophia turned around with a scowl.

“Yours, of course.” Natasha shamelessly replied.

“Hmph, you’ll see. This won’t last. She’ll have to face what happened to her, eventually. It’s not like he can buy her a new arm.” Sophia harrumphed triumphantly. Natasha made a mental note to forget everything about the conversation regarding prosthetics she’d overheard earlier.

***

“So which room will be mine?” Tessa asked, looking up at the huge luxurious cabin.

“Any of them, all of them. Honestly, I don’t expect I’ll ever really spend much time here. I only really built it to show off and to have something for you to eventually live in.” I replied.

“This… Is all just for me?” Tessa turned around, her expression turning a little worried.

“Well, considering it would appear we’ll be having guests staying over… I’m sure it won’t be too lonely, also the city isn’t far from here. Or so I’ve been told.” I said as I looked over my shoulder suspiciously at Sophia and Natasha, each holding a duffel bag, although Natasha was looking less than thrilled about the whole situation as opposed to the gloating Sophia.

“Ah, good, I was worried it’d be a little too big and empty for me.” Tessa answered, smiling warmly at the pair behind us.

“You hear that Aleks? She’s glad she won’t have to be staying here all alone with you off in your caves working on god knows what.” Sophia crowed behind me. I turned around and gave her my best Keep laughing Blondie smirk as I let some of my plans for Tessa’s arm slip out, and her expression fell.

“Let me show you around,” I said, feeling very upbeat all of a sudden.

***

Tessa was unpacking and de-tagging the mountain of clothes, perfumes, shoes and everything in between.

She’d worked up enough courage to audaciously declare two rooms hers, making the room adjacent to her bedroom into a walk-in closet.

Mr. Titanos had responded by asking if she’d like a door connecting the two rooms, causing a couple dozen of those funny looking spiderbots to perk up and look at her excitedly.

Her introduction to them had been quite funny as they all gathered in front of her and raised a pair of their middle legs above their bodies and did a little dance. Mr. Titanos had seemed extremely surprised by the sudden display as well.

Natasha and Sophia, it still felt weird to call Dr. Jensen by her first name, but she’d insisted repeatedly, they had moved in to the cabin as well, at first bringing only a duffle bag, but almost as if to bother Mr. Titanos, Sophia had returned with several boxes and a couple more bags.

The situation was a little weird, but honestly, Tessa didn’t mind it too much. They were nice people and had been very friendly towards her, although Mr. Titanos did look at her weirdly every time she made progress with her abilities.

Now that she thought about it, it was kinda similar to how he’d looked at that shipment of metal that had been delivered earlier.

Her scars still ached every now and then, and she still had the occasional nightmare, although they’d quickly disappear as the big hound-like shadow creature called Garmr would crawl into her bed.

Thankfully, the bed was large enough to accommodate its immense bulk.

Her so-called training had involved a lot of meditation and a few challenges Mr. Titanos would set up for her, like making a light change color or quelling a candle without touching it.

It was maddening the first couple of days, but after she got the hang of it, she started being able to solve most of the challenges within a day.

There was rarely a dull moment, although they all made sure to give her space when she needed it, although with Mr. Titanos it would often be more of a case of him working in the caves and not leaving anyway.

The Clan Matriarch, Katya, Had also dropped by a couple of times, she’d made it very clear that as soon as Tessa felt ready, the clan would like to hire her full-time to work under Mr. Titanos making some sort of rings and other trinkets.

When she saw the zeros on the offer, she had almost fainted.

***

“So, everything going well with your new apprentice?” Katya asked happily.

“Yes, the kid has potential. She’s picking up things faster than I can teach them lately. It won’t be long before we can attempt a mass casting.” I replied, leaning against the railing on the deck outside the cabin.

“So our plans for the auction might be possible, after all?” Katya asked from a nearby wicker-chair, a glass of iced tea in her hand courtesy of a Spiderbot scurrying away with a mental tray held above its body.

“Maybe, we’ll see after we try it. The low levels of ambient energy should make it easier, but she’s still too inexperienced for me to be certain it’ll work.”

“Aleks?!” Natasha called from inside the cabin, before spotting us through the large glass doors leading onto the deck.

“Hey, would it be possible to build a pool?” She asked eagerly as she leaned her head out the sliding door.

“I don’t see why not. How big were you thinking?” I replied.

“Olympic sized, maybe with a diving section?” She said, a little bashful at making the request.

Katya muffled a laugh, her expression mirthful as she said, “I wouldn’t have expected that kind of request from you even before your rebirth, my dear little successor.”

“What? They can build a cabin like this in two weeks, but they can’t dig a pool?” Natasha said stubbornly.

“Technically, the cabin only took three days.” I corrected.

***

Tessa walked through the long halls carved into the cliffs next to the house, one of the small spiderbots had come to fetch her and was currently leading her through the labyrinthian halls, the slow rhythmic sounds of metal striking metal echoed past her and grew closer.

Eventually the small spiderbot led her into a large and scorching room where Mr. Titanos was hammering a bar of black metal with evenly spaced leaf shaped cracks running through it.

As she got closer, he picked it up with a pair of tongs and inspected int closely before dropping it into a large vat of water, as soon as it hit the water it shattered into thousands of small scales smaller than the nail on her pinky, and Mr. Titanos looked on with a satisfied expression.

He turned towards her as she approached.

“Good, you’re here!” He exclaimed as his expression brightened even further. “How would you like a new arm?”

***

Tessa seemed unsure at first, but as I explained what I had in mind she grew more confident and excited at the prospect, although her greatest reason was that she wanted to wear a tank-top again, and that had apparently been risky in her current state.

I’ll be honest, that threw me off a little, as it wasn’t exactly the first thing that came to mind when I thought about the difficulties of an amputee. But hey, whatever floats your boat.

I sat her down on a chair designed for her to sit in a forward leaning decline and guided her to rest her shoulder against a brace as I carefully lined the black scales specifically designed for the connection against the stump of her shoulder.

The small scales latched on to her skin without any issue, although this was the easy part.

I fetched something for her to bite down on after her shoulder, and part of her side was covered in them, as the binding and fusing process would be quite painful.

Unfortunately, it was a necessary step in connecting nerves for the sensation of touch.

She took it like a champ, though. Her tolerance for pain was alarmingly high for a human, a thought which made my chest burn as I had to hold back several entities that had become quite fond of her as of late.

During my talks with Sophia, she’d mentioned it would affect Tessa negatively if her abuser was to suffer… An accidental mauling.

We’d buried the hatchet once she found out what I was planning with Tessas missing arm, and I had even consulted her on how not to worsen her Trauma, even the recently made pool was taken into account, although I think that was more for Natasha than anyone else, nevertheless the arm would be just as buoyant as her flesh and blood one was.

Tessas ragged breaths evened out, and she inspected the now fused artificial black-scale skin before turning to me with fire in her eyes.

“What’s next?” She asked determinedly.

I lifted a bucket mixed with sterile water and the scales I’d made.

“The scales will attach by themselves upon contact. The configuration has already been pre-programmed, although there will be a calibration period, so it might not be perfect right away.” I explained, Tessa giving me a nodding along.

The scales hung lifelessly from her stump like metal shavings hanging off a magnet. I noticed some slight worry and disappointment before the necessary amount for an initial configuration was attached. Then her expression quickly become one of amazement, as her new artificial arm started taking shape.

She still couldn’t move it, but as she dipped the newly formed limb into the bucket the remaining scales needed attached themselves and a slow ripple of light ran through the cracks in the limb making it shrink slightly and expel any moisture trapped between the scales settled as they settled into a size equal to her other limb.

Then suddenly her hand spasmed, and she gasped, staring wide-eyed at the limb in wonder.

“I… I can feel it. Am I supposed to be able to feel it?” she asked worriedly, like it was somehow a bad thing.

“Of course, wouldn’t be useful otherwise.” I said gently, smiling and gesturing for her to try out a few motions.

She squeezed her hand and waved her arm. Even trying out reaction times and speed, I’d even catch her running her artificial fingers across her remaining arm, marveling at the sensations.