Wearing Power Armor to a Magic School (116/?) WiP 1

Hey everyone! Here is the Work in Progress for Chapter 116 I hope you guys enjoy! :D The revised version for Chapter 115 will be released tomorrow before the full release of Chapter 116! :D 

Dragon’s Heart Tower, Level 23, Residence 30, Thacea and Emma’s Room. Local Time: 0110 Hours.

Thacea

There was a rule — unspoken yet clearly defined — between those of royal blood and those belonging to a more common disposition. 

That rule, hedged upon the principles of expectant decorum, was so universal that it purveyed every waking moment of my sensibilities.

So much so that despite understanding that circumstances now were anything but expectant, I felt somewhat taken aback after having left the earthrealmer to her own devices.

I had instructed her to retire for the night.

And yet, even after a full bath, did I arrive to find her nowhere close to achieving that instruction.

Instead, she was missing, with a trail of unknown manaless trinkets leading the way to the balcony which she currently stood upon, her head firmly craned upwards towards the very impetus which spawned this night’s outing — the ‘starless’ skies.

I approached slowly, somewhat displeased by the lack of the earthrealmer’s adherence to my reasonable request, yet also concerned for the sheer and almost-unnatural posture which she currently assumed.

A posture which never once flinched as far as I’d taken notice.

“Emma?” I asked politely, refraining from taking upon my social role, one which otherwise came naturally to me in practically any other situation.

But not here.

Not with this earthrealmer who managed to have slowly chipped away at that expectant role from that very first night.

Yet despite the… laxness that came with our interactions.

This was an instance in which I had to take charge.

If not for decorum’s sakes, then for the sake of Emma’s own well being.

“Had I not instructed you to retire for the night?” I quickly followed up, backing up my words not only with concern, but with a more authoritative slant, if only to reinforce the urgency of the situation.

=====

Emma

I couldn’t believe what I was seeing.

I had my doubts.

No.

I had more than doubts following Ilunor’s explanations of the Nexus’ own peculiar cosmology.

Yet I never thought to myself that I would be experiencing an ‘Ilunor moment’ — a moment of sheer fundamental systemic incongruency as I stared out at an object, a thing that should not have been there.

Atop my head was a souped-up version of a battlefield recon-optic suite, one first designed for use in both the Forward Expeditionary ranger forces, and the pathfinders within T-SEC.

Except this one was rated for far, far more than typical tactical activities.

This was rated for minor astronomical tomfoolery.

And that tomfoolery was what I had intended to gun for the moment Ilunor’s explanations graced my ears.

Because as soon as Thacea had excused herself for her hour-long spa session did I immediately clamor for that module attachment, fixing it onto my helmet’s module hook, before barreling towards the balcony to stare up into that ominously dark and starless sky. 

I’d expected to see a moon. 

As in spite of Ilunor’s assertions, his explanations… never really landed.

Instead, they merely lodged themselves as a point to disprove, a fact that I now chastised myself for, especially given how I had promised myself to be more open-minded to the possibilities of impossibilities within an entirely different dimension; an entirely different reality.

An impossibility… that had now well and truly come to fruition.

As what I saw was something that even the primary-school astronomy student would find odd.

Because instead of the typical rendered surface one would expect from a zoomed-in view at the moon — a view that even the most amateur of home astronomers would be familiar with — filled with the tell-tale landmarks of another world, I instead saw… a round circular body.

One, which neither I nor the EVI could extract any surface details from, other than the off-white dim light being exuded from it.

It was less an object deep within space, as much as it was just… a hole.

One which even pulsated, its perfectly round shape twitching ever so slightly, even going so far as to narrow and widen, dilating like some oversized eye. 

These latter observations, as subtle as it may be, and perhaps even impossible to notice with the naked eye… completely destroyed me.

As I watched, minute after minute, my eyes no longer focused on its surface but on the occasional movements it did throughout the span of the hour I’d spent watching it.

Part of me was in sheer awe at this, wanting to find ways to now support Ilunor’s assertions over its nature.

Yet another part of me couldn’t help but to feel a growing sense of dread over it, attempting to rationalize it in a way that made sense with my own understanding of what it should have been. Rationalizing it, in an attempt to make it more congruent with what I’d expected.

Both of these conflicting thoughts however, along with the cosmic horror slowly gnawing at me in the back of my mind, was suddenly and thankfully interrupted by the princess. 

I felt myself coming back down to earth.

But instead of finding the typical concerned expression on Thacea’s face, my cameras instead relayed to me an expression that fit more in line with stoic frustration. 

“Had I not instructed you to retire for the night?” She spoke with an audible level of irritation.

One that I could only blame myself for, as I turned around to face her, her expressions changing if ever so slightly as her eyes moved to notice the massive 8-lensed monstrosity of a device sitting ‘precariously’ atop of my forehead.

This definitely wasn’t going to help the arachnid-like claims Ilunor had thrown around following the revelation of my ARMS. 

=====

Thacea

I blinked.

Rapidly.

As the indignant part of me came to a screeching halt at the sight of the… arachnous lenses Emma had chosen to adorn her helmet with.

I couldn’t help but to shudder, this unexpected addition adding an entirely new layer of otherworldly unsightliness onto an already ominous being. 

A being whose people seemed to be alarmingly adept at constructing more and more highly specific, esoteric artifices to enhance whatever form it was that lay beneath the layers of protective steel. 

However, this sense of otherness soon faded upon the voice of its user breaking through these layers of artificiality.

“Oh, erm, sorry Thacea. I… got a bit carried away there, what with Ilunor’s claims and stuff.” She began, as she yet again raised her arm up behind her helmet, going through the motions of a commoner’s awkward banter, completely disrupting any and all of the foreboding the armor and its new addition had just exuded. “I couldn't help myself from investigating it immediately. So I decided to grab some equipment just to give the moon a cursory look. And erm… yeah, it’s definitely not what I was expecting.” 

This… casualness, and the inexplicable friendliness that always seemed to come through the earthrealmer’s voice, had almost completely disarmed the annoyance welling within me.

In fact, the overt familiarness through which Emma carried herself, which was at first off-putting, was now somewhat agreeable.