__________________________________________________________________________________

“Well this seems familiar,” Tom blearily blinked his eyes open. His head hurt like all hell, but it was more of a tired, worn-out pain. As if his head was full of soup and had been battered to hell and back, which he guessed wasn’t too far from the truth. He was still thoroughly secured in Jacky’s arms as she was playing big spoon, her steady breath blowing past his ear. She was not the one doing the snoring though for once, that would be the little bundle of cuteness in front of him, which he concluded must be Kiran, who was sleeping happily curled up on the mattress.

His head hurt, but he could actually put a thought together now. He could think! It was semi-clear at best, but it was better, and as he looked around he could actually see. He could even remember the last time he woke up, at least blurrily. It was still dark, so he guessed it had not been a very long nap. ‘Improvement… Fucking glorious. Maybe it really is real this time…’ he pondered to himself hopefully. As far as he could tell, it sure seemed like it.

He gave the little guy a neck rub as a quick glance around confirmed he was still in the bedroom and they were actually alone at the moment. At least as far as he could see. Judging by the light, it was still bum fuck early in the day. Or late he guessed. He didn’t want to bother thinking about it. He just kept petting Kiran nice and gently, hoping the kid wouldn’t wake up.

He got away with it for a surprising amount of time too, and it really helped to just keep focus on the little guy as he lay there waiting for something strange to happen. A hand reaching out from under the bed, a piece of the roof coming down. He eyed the darkness at the corner of the room suspiciously, but rather than growing it receded ever so slowly as the sun started to rise.

‘Bum fuck early it is then… Marvelous,’ he sighed, tucking the blanket a bit closer to him and moving Kiran in with it. The little guy let out a mighty yawn, all the little chops on full display. Tom stopped the delicate maneuver before the kid stopped moving again then just pulled him in close, wrapping up the blankets as tight as he could get them right now.

Only after he did so did he stop and consider he could move his arm right now. He had been completely stuck before as if in sleep paralysis, but now he could move. He just let out a sigh of relief. As he lay there staring at the wall, he remembered the last thing Jacky had said before he apparently fell back asleep last time. ‘What did she mean puppeted?... What did I do?’

He tried to think back to the adhoc council he had put together after working out he could make memories of people manifest. ‘How did Joelina make it in there and not anyone else? Also how on earth did Abba work?’ He grew a little somber thinking back to his father. He had been dead for years. Hell, he had died even before all of his squad mates. He didn’t know if he was happy he got to see them all one last time, at least in some sense. Could they really have been the real ones? No, he remembered the questioning. They were nothing but memories, sad as that was. But he had still gotten to see both of his parents one last time. And not the stricken, sick versions either. They had been healthy, happy even.

He pulled a slight smile despite the headache as his eyes got a little wet again. But that begged the question. Was the Joelina he talked with real? She did certainly seem like it. ‘I am gonna have to ask her. If she remembers then… ho boi if she does.’

“Jacky… You up yet?” he tried in a low, careful voice. If nothing else, he could really do with a painkiller right now.

There was no immediate reply aside from another slow steady breath rushing forth from her snout.

“Jacky, please… Maybe just a glass of water or something.”

“Don’t wake her. I will fetch it.” The recognizable voice of Shiva came from somewhere behind him. Tom swallowed once as he heard the floor squeak under the weight of someone getting up and starting to move around the room.

He didn’t move a muscle after that as he waited. ‘Is this good?... Is it bad? Is she angry? Why would she be angry? She’s a woman Tom, they don’t need a reason. Fuck, I’m right! Uhm uhm… she didn’t sound mad. Then again, she usually doesn’t unless she’s trying to kill someone. She didn’t sound happy either. Just play it cool, it’s fine. She won’t hurt Jacky, and Jacky ain’t going nowhere. This is fine.’

Tom’s little thinking session came to an end as Shiva walked into view, squatting in front of him as he lay there looking at her, perfectly still.

“Here, you need this,” she went, reaching out a hand holding a small cup of what he presumed to be water, Tom still struggling to read if she seemed happy, mad, or anything really. She just sounded indifferent. He carefully extracted a hand from under the blanket to take the cup and twisted his head to try and drink with some success. At least he didn’t spill any of the cold water on Kiran.

“So then… How are you doing?” Shiva asked plainly, looking at him while still squatted down beside the bed.

“Head hurts like fuck… and I’m rather confused.”

“Hmm… Jacky says you hit her while you were… elsewhere,” Shiva replied, sounding perfectly calm still.

“I what?!” Tom questioned, finding himself cursing his raised voice as his head throbbed.

“You do not remember?”

“I don’t know, I’m sorry,” Tom replied as heartfelt as he could manage for the headache. He still felt like shit too, sore and stiff all over at the same time.

“I understand… She tells me you chose her to be your old leader. Even when not with us, you value my daughter. He was a wise man, no?”

“Morten? Definitely. A bit… calmer,” Tom responded carefully as he saw Shiva’s brow furrow just a smidge. “He was a good man.”

“Very good. You will need this too I believe,” she replied, putting a single recognizable pill on the mattress in front of him before getting back up. Tom snatched it and quickly swallowed it, washing it down with more water. “Rest. We will need your strength,” she continued, seemingly turning to leave.

“Wait,” Tom squeaked out once he had the pill down, Shiva coming to a halt and turning her head to look back at him curiously, raising an eye ridge. “What happened to the inquisitor?”

“You won, she was carried off defeated. Aside from this, we know nothing.”

“What do you mean defeated?” Tom pleaded, starting to feel a knot form in his stomach as he stared at the imposing woman.

“She fainted. Surely this means she was defeated. I have heard of such battles in stories. It is rare for the mindreader to fail. They often face an untrained mind, and she called you weak of will. Well done.” Tom wasn’t entirely sure, but she sounded genuinely impressed right now. He even spied a bit of a grin on her face. “Now I must leave you two. I have heard rumors the artificer wishes to work upon your weapons. I will make sure no harm is done. So sleep, that is an order.”

“Yes, ma’am,” Tom simply replied, not sure what else to say as Shiva turned her head back to the door, walking out and shutting it behind her.

He just felt the knot release as he sagged a little in Jacky’s arms. ‘Holy shit dude… The fuck have you just done?... and what is Edita up to? Oh no, she has Tink as well.’

__________________________________________________________________________________

‘This is gonna be a long day,’ Saph grumbled to herself, still a touch sleepy. She found herself once more in the workshop where the soon to be totally disassembled machine gun was being examined and measured up once more. Shiva was here as well this morning, though she was the opposite of talkative. She had found the original drawings Tom had made of the gun for them though.

Said human was apparently up and kicking, at least in some sense. Dakota had told them all at breakfast that Tom had woken up again last night. After Saph had left, Tom and Joelina had remained unmoving for hours. It had been far from calm though, both of them attempting to talk in their sleep like they were in a trance, which Saph guessed they sort of were. Tom had started to sweat, despite not being warm at all according to Jacky, while he writhed and twisted. More than once he had broken out screaming in pain. Dakota described it almost like a battle of the minds had been taking place, and it would seem Tom had emerged victorious when the inquisitor fainted into a heap, having to be carried off, leaving the human out cold but still breathing.

Paulin had seen to the inquisitor, taking her to one of the provided guest rooms and shutting the doors. They still knew nothing of how she was doing, meaning she was probably not with them yet. Saph had heard the guards chatting on if she might have kicked the bucket burning magic like that, but she had a feeling they would likely be seeing Paulin if that was indeed the case.

She was also confident that if something important was being discussed in that room, they would all know soon enough since she was certain Kokashi wasn’t getting much sleep either as of late. As it stood, there was not a single member of the inquisition at breakfast save Edita. Nearly all of their number were in the cave or with Yldril for the moment. Still, it was an odd sight to see that, for the time being at least, their keep seemed devoid of those scheming arseholes. Of course, they still had trader escorts from Achheon and Galaxer here so the tables were far from empty.

As breakfast had come to an end, she had a brief chat with Dakota. It was clear Saph was to carry on as the impromptu ‘oversight’ for their technically inclined trio for the time being. Apparently knowing how to make the gun keep firing didn’t mean you knew not to stick your finger in a blitz gel container… or eat it, much to her dismay.

Saph had done a good enough job at not blowing anything or anyone up or spontaneously lighting on fire or something and she at least knew most of Tom’s safety warnings and had enough brains to heed them. Hence she was Dakota’s best pick to keep things running safely and smoothly for now. Not like it would be very hard work either. The people involved were more than eager to get something done. She knew that from last night. She just hoped she wouldn’t be held responsible for any fuckups that might occur while she was looking the other way.

Radexi had been delegated to other duties today, which was probably good as the workshop was already getting a little crowded with this many people as well as gun parts strewn all around the place. At least Shiva was here too, so Saph wouldn’t be the only responsible woman present.

Edita was comparing back and forth between the drawings and the real weapon as the solutions for how to keep the weapon cool took shape in front of them. Tink provided the ideas with Junior toning them down to a reasonable level, Shiva the knowledge of what they could make at the keep, and Edita the technical expertise of what systems had already been developed for this purpose. All in all it was running remarkably smoothly.

The results had been several different options, and the more they worked the faster they managed to put together ideas, ranging from the basic, to the outlandish, to the downright strange. Saph had no idea how the water evaporating could run a pump to put more water in the barrel. It sounded like some sort of perpetual motion machine which Tom had made very clear wasn’t possible.

Still, Edita insisted it had already been done and she was not making it up. Saph had lost the plot completely when she started talking about turning the steam back into water by running it through some copper pipes with thin metal sheets on them, but Tink had certainly been all ears. The idea wasn’t shut down until Shiva pointed out that it would not only weigh much more than Tom’s original idea of just using more water, but it would also cost a fortune and be rather fragile.

Tink had reluctantly conceded, but Edita was not slowed in the slightest as she soon cooked up yet another way to solve the problem. Her enthusiasm was somehow still growing, which honestly baffled Saph even more. ‘It’s like a Linkosta, but for machines… and Lin already finds this stuff amazing…ay ay ay.’

“But what if we simply use Tom’s design and make the Jacket thinner?” Junior had finally suggested after yet another idea, this time involving mixing frost powder with the propellant in order to cool down the charge, It was an idea that apparently even Edita had no idea if it was even feasible, though it was also shot down, this time for having too large a risk of something catastrophic destroying the precious weapon.

“Then it would still overheat. But it would take longer,” Shiva conceded. “Doesn’t matter if it keeps seizing.”

“Then we just use a smidge of frost powder to keep the water cool. I can make a clockwork dispenser for it. When the weapon gets too hot, pull a lever and powder is added. Or perhaps a mere button push,” Edita offered with a nod, seeming quite confident, even if Saph doubted how much of it was just enthusiasm.

“But then we still run the risk of it freezing solid, right?” Saph tried, feeling here she could at least partake in the discussion, and maybe try and reign them in a bit.

“Only if added to cold water. We may need circulation though. It would reduce the chances dramatically. It would also help keep the barrel a uniform temperature. It might warp if it gets too hot in one place.”

“Then we are back at the pump again,” Shiva grumbled. “Is there nothing for that?”

“We could drive it magically. Or what about the recoil of the gun? The bolt goes back and forth. That could easily drive a piston.”

“It already struggles when it gets a bad round. We would need better made ammunition,” Shiva countered, shaking her head and crossing her arms.

“Could we increase the recoil somehow? the excess would need to be absorbed to save the receiver though.”

“Or you could just put Balethons lizard in a little wheel and have him run it,” Saph interjected with a bit of a chuckle, doing little squeaky sounds like she would expect a little wheel like that to make.

Shiva clearly got the joke, rolling her eyes and providing no further comment. Tink let out a bit of a huff, seemingly rather amused.

“Would it not just get scared and try to run away?... It seems wrong to use the fact that it is scared of the gun to drive the gun,” Edita then replied, clearly putting serious thought into the idea even if she did not seem happy with it.

“No-... No, it was a joke,” Saph tried to clarify, raising her hands.

“Ooooh… sorry,” Edita responded a little slack-eared and looking a touch nervous. “Yeah, who would even suggest that, hehe. silly me. It would be too light too, I’m sure.”

“Yeaaahhh… Anyway, what about just a little handle you have to turn a few times, then back to shooting? Surely that wouldn’t be to bad. Not like Jarix’s gun has to fire for that long at a time.”

“And the insufficient recoil leading to jamming could just be fixed by putting a proper man behind the gun, or even better a proper woman,” Shiva added with a stern nod. “Radexi is too small and weak, he struggles to pull the handle back.”

“Be nice now, Shiva,” Saph tried, even if she did sorta agree with the smith here. The kid was indeed young. Quite young actually, and he was only supposed to be acting as ground crew for Jarix. “Also not really a fix, just makes it less of a problem.”

“Good enough. I say in future a proper guard or huntress will man the weapon. Else Zarko will do. Get it cool and trust the gunner.”

“What about checking the ammunition?” Junior suggested, looking around at them with a shrug. “Where Tom is from it’s not a problem clearly.”

“How would you check it without firing it? They are sealed,” Shiva questioned, the young inventor shrinking a bit under her gaze.

“You could weigh them?” Edita offered, clearly hoping she was being helpful. “Or perhaps create a better test for the powder. I could test it just by touching it.”

Shiva just grumbled a bit, scratching her cheek, seeming to struggle to find a problem with that. “We do weigh them, but the bullets are not the same either. The copper cladding is… difficult.”

“I have brought some very fine scales, perhaps they will help. I would love to assist in producing this holy round.”

Saph choked just a little at the mention of ‘holy,’ but other than that she couldn’t see a fault in the plan. They had expended quite a lot of ammunition during the last battle, and since the inquisitorial delegation’s arrival they had all the raw materials they could ask for. They needed to get production back underway. And not just on the ammunition she noted, looking to the half-finished shotguns sitting and standing in the corner, having been set aside for now to make room for the machine gun’s disassembly.

“More hands are always needed around here,” Tink added enthusiastically with a huge smile on his face. “Perhaps I should show you how we turn down the items for the shotguns... Once Shiva has made the required forgings,” he hastily amended, throwing a slightly nervous glance at the smith.

“I will resume work today. My forge has been reorganized with the many gifts I have received. Thank you, Artificer,” Shiva replied, actually giving Edita a slight bow, Saph being left grumbling a bit. ‘She never bowed to me before…’

“I want to do all of it. I don’t know how much time I will have though.”

“Wait, are you going with Joelina too?” Saph questioned, looking at the artificer. She hadn’t heard anything about that yet.

“What? No, no. But mastering such a machine must surely take years?”

Tink and junior just coughed a bit, Tink clawing at the floor as the clearly confused Edita turned to look at them. “Tom taught me in a few weeks at most… But there is still much to learn, I’ll grant you that,” Tink replied, still looking at the ground.

“That is… incredible!? Are the machines so well made they can be operated by children even then?”

“Now hold on,” Saph objected, raising a hand. “No talk about child labour… Tom is a bit touchy on that one.”

“But… they help with the ammunition, no?”

“Yeees… but that is mostly just running around with all the little bits we need.”

“But that includes explosives, no?” Edita questioned, seemingly not finding anything overly wrong with having kids perform that kind of work. Saph had to admit that as long as it wasn’t too hard work, she didn’t have that much of a problem either, but Tom sure did.

Tink responded to the artificer’s question by having a further fit of coughing, Edita walking over to him and giving him a few sturdy pats on the back. “Now now, your service is not over yet. Oleg still has need of your work.”

‘Ay ay ay,’ Saph just sighed to herself, throwing a glance at Shiva, who was for once looking a touch uncomfortable as she shrugged.

“What can you do?” the old smith dismissed, looking back to the artificer. “I started learning my craft when I was no more than 6 years old. Even if I did just blow on the fire at times…”

“Ooohhh… You do know that doesn’t help much, right? You need more air than lungs can give… unless you have many I guess.” Edita replied, expression turning to one of pondering as she started thinking on that last conclusion.

“Hey Edita, when did you start becoming an artificer? Were you chosen or something? I never heard of anyone talking about becoming that before? Well, unless you count clockmakers or stuff like that.” Junior then tried in a happy optimistic tone clearly not overly comfortable with the current subject.

The room got very quiet as they all looked at the young man. ‘Couldn’t you just not dig, dude? What if she doesn’t wanna talk about it?’ Saph grumbled to herself, though her fears were seemingly unfounded as the artificer took a second to think before happily answering.

“Oh no, I was born to be one. Uhm… They did give me a bit of a… what did Essy call it?... pep talk. Sure, pep talk on how it is outside. When you were born, right, you had a family? Mum, dad, siblings, maybe friends, all that stuff?”

The young man just stared at the woman for a sec or two, throwing a quick guilty look at Saph, as he seemingly worked out why they had all been staring at him.

“Yeah, something like that…” Junior replied. Saph caught Tink looking away a bit, the smile fading from his face as Junior just scratched the back of his head. “What did you have?”

“Oh, I had classmates and masters. Don’t worry, it was very fun. We got to play with all these toys and things. Getting to learn to read all kinds of strange scripts and runes. And it wasn’t like we had to, those who weren’t so good at it got to go somewhere else.”

“Oh…” was all Junior got out in reply as Saph narrowed her eyes at the artificer.

“Do you know where they went exactly?”

“I mean some of them, sure. I even got to work on a few. Glazz for example She got banged up quite a few years back.”

“But you are not a healer?” Shiva questioned, apparently joining in Saph’s suspicion.

“No no, left arm…” Edita replied with a big smile. “don’t tell me you can’t see it?”

“See what?” Saph had to ask, tilting her head. “I’ve seen her arms; they look quite normal to me.”

“Woooow… Tink?” Edita tried, seemingly baffled by this ‘news,’ looking over to the inventor.

“Don’t look at me, I only got to see her once or twice, and she likes that cloak of hers.”

“Huh,” Edita let out with a bit of a nod like she had just been proven wrong. “Joelina was right. Her arm isn’t hers, it’s just illusion magic. It’s all made out of metal. Very fine work, if you ask me. I still don’t understand why she hides it so much.”

“Wh- what in the devil do you mean!?” Saph broke out, flabbergasted, Edita taking a step back in surprise, clearly not having expected the outburst.

“It’s a metal arm!” the Artificer squeaked out defensively. “Wait, should I not have said that? I don’t think they told me not to say that. I know Glazz doesn't like it that much, but I think it is very pretty. Much stronger too.”

“Her arm was replaced with one of metal? How is this possible?” Shiva questioned as Saph changed tack to try and calm the spooked artificer back down again. Tink and Junior just stared at her then each other.

“It is a relic. It was grafted to her after she lost her original arm years back. I don’t know more than that. I promise I just performed the rituals of maintenance upon it.”

“Fucking hell,” Saph just let out, shaking her head. “I guess Balethon should have gone to work for the Inquisition then.”

__________________________________________________________________________________

Well, Tom considered the world to be on the mend at the moment. The painkillers had helped with his headache, and he had even managed to conscript Ray to get him some more when she came by with breakfast. He had only left the bed for a quick piss before returning to the warm and cozy sheets where he had both Jacky and Kiran for company.

He had decided against any phones or laptops this morning, likely wouldn’t help with his remaining headache. For the most part he had just slept the day away, which had worked until the kid could seemingly sleep no more

He had unfortunately refused to leave though, so Tom and Jacky, well mostly just Jacky had to put up with the energetic kid running around. The two of them had made a rather nice pillow fort Jacky had told some stories and Tom had even joined in with a few of his own before dozing off again.

He was woken up again by his stomach informing him it was time for food of some description. Jacky was laying with him, acting as the big spoon again, though he didn’t honestly believe she was actually sleeping. More likely she was just enjoying the warmth and the fact she didn’t have to do any back breaking work right now. There was no Kiran to be seen though, Tom guessed someone must have come for him during his little midday naptime.

The quiet tranquility in the room was broken by Tom’s rebellious stomach as it rumbled rather loudly. Jacky’s left ear perked up and she let out a slight giggle before she turned it towards the door. “I think your stomach might be psychic too Tom,” she mused, not moving yet as Tom also started hearing footsteps approaching outside.

Tom looked over just as the handle turned and the door slowly opened, the burn-scarred head of Dakota poking its way inside. “Oh good, you are up. I have dinner if you are hungry.”

“Sweet,” Jacky let out as she yawned.

“Definitely,” Tom just replied as he and Jacky moved about a bit on the bed, going to sit up against the wall, Jacky providing a wing to hold him close still.

Dakota did her best to navigate the pillow fort, but some remodeling was still needed to make room as she set down the plates of food on their laps. “Raulf thought maybe you could use a beer, what do you think?”

“Eeeh… Let’s save that for when we’re sure it is actually gone,” he replied in a low, considering tone. He could really do with an ice-cold beer right now, that was for certain but probably best not to.

“But you are feeling better? This does not seem like the last time you woke up following one of her sessions?”

“I have not seen anything yet, I am quite sure… and the pills helped with the headache, but then again those are another reason to hold off on the beer.”

“I see. Paulin has informed me that Joelina has woken up as well. She believes the inquisitor will need some time before she is ready to talk.” Dakota said with a rather strained expression like she didn’t quite know if that was good or bad yet.

“Did she get a taste of her own medicine and go full cuckoo?” questioned Jacky, Tom feeling quite sure she was hoping the answer was ‘yes.’

“I do not know exactly… But what Kokashi heard was certainly disturbing.”

Tom just raised an eyebrow as both he and Jacky looked at the gilded huntress standing by the side of the bed.

“There was some screaming and yammering,” Dakota finally relented. “And a lot of incoherent babbling… some of it not in draconic. Some of it sounded like singing almost. His rendition was quite poor, but Essy claimed it sounded familiar. At least somewhat.”

“... Not Abba, right?” Tom asked despairing, thinking back to his dad’s impromptu torture technique. He still had no idea if who he had talked to was actually Joelina inside his own mind, but if she was trying to replicate a Swedish pop song in her seemingly delusional state, that did at least confirm that part had actually happened.

“I am afraid I do not know, I will ask Esmeralda later.”

“Right… about the whole puppet thing-?” Tom asked cautiously, not quite sure how to approach that subject.

“It was quite disturbing.” Dakota cut him off with an expression belying that yeah, she certainly believed that statement.

“You mean cathartic, right?” Jacky interjected with a rather cruel smile, Dakota staring unamusedly at her for a second before turning back to Tom.

“We still have not worked out how that might have been possible. Linkosta and Apuma know of a spell which should be able to dominate a mind, but that is dark magic, very dark, and not something they know how to do, merely that it exists. Though it is possible to imitate the effect to some extent using magics like what Fengi possesses.”

“You don’t think I can like… what did you call it?”

“Domineer and no, they agree it seems unlikely in the extreme. But there is no denying that something happened, and it was not natural.”

“Maybe Norik decided enough was enough,” Jacky smirked, taking a bite of what looked like chicken wings but was probably some other kind of bird.

“Sadly I doubt we have drawn the attention of the god of justice. Inviting as the thought may be.” Dakota sighed, shaking her head a bit.

“Then what about Tula?”

“Who’s that one again?” Tom had to ask, Dakota biting her lip for a sec before looking at him and answering.

“God of war and retribution… I guess this could be seen as retribution for what she did to you, knowingly or not.”

“Oh she knew. She just didn’t care, that’s why she didn’t want anyone in there when she did it the first time.” Jacky snarled, her snout actually wrinkling as she picked out another chicken wing looking thing.

“We don’t know that, Jacky, and even if she did know, I believe it is safe to say it went further than she had planned, else she would be walking around right as rain giving orders in my keep,” Dakota replied with a hint of reluctance in her voice, clearly not overly pleased with defending the inquisitor.

Jacky just grumped a bit and went back to eating

“What do you think their response will be? Once they get their shit together?” Tom tried hoping Dakota had the situation worked out a bit better than he did.

“Hard to say when we don’t know how she will fair. Paulin didn’t seem worried, but I am starting to believe she might think the inquisitor can actually piss excellence,” the gilded huntress grumbled, all three of them staring a bit. ‘Yeah, she’s had it with these arseholes,’ Tom concluded, taking a bite for himself. ‘Hmm… almost tastes like duck, this one.’

“Do keep me posted… I’m not that out of it.”

“As you wish,” Dakota replied with a nod, turning to leave.

“Oh one sec,” Tom broke out as she was opening the door again. “What’s been going on in the workshop and such?”

Dakota sighed a bit before closing the door, turning back to him. “Sapphire is keeping an eye on them as well as Shiva. I do not believe we need to worry too much. They are working on your machine gun. Something about cooling it and stopping it from jamming.”

“Oh… Well I guess that’s better than making bombs,” Tom said, trying to sound light-hearted.

“Quite,” Dakota agreed with a nod, opening the door once more. “Enjoy your meal, I’m sure Ray will come by to pick up the plates in a bit.”

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