Trapped in Another World With No Magicc
Chapter 166: Conversations of the Nighttime Watch

Daniel sketches a new design for his railgun in the dim glow of a magic lantern while he sits next to Neith on watch. The current design is sturdy, and it should hold up against more abuse than the first one he made. However, something he overlooked with that first prototype and the improved official version is the magic crystals; he is unable to arm anti-magic rounds in the railgun as it stands.

The lead shielding he’ll require around the magic crystal will make the weapon significantly heavier, but it might be worth it to make projectiles that can disable magic defenses and pierce the target.

That also means he’ll need to redesign the rounds, though, to ensure the magic-nullification of barriers and other magic spells doesn’t allow deflection of the piercing part of the bullet.

He might also be able to create especially destructive rounds by figuring out how to make a dual-action round that keeps two fissionable materials apart until impact, during which the massive velocity brings the two parts together upon impact, spiking reactivity. It wouldn’t be a fully atomic explosion, but it would be a rapid discharge of radiation, heat, and vaporized metals that likely will expand thousands of times their own volume in an explosion.

“Daniel, I often wonder what Earth was truly like,” murmurs the grey dragon. “Between the videos, the things you are able to concoct, and how you handle this world… It still remains a mystery to me.”

The mechanic from Earth laughs lightly. “For all the thousands of years of our history, something like ninety percent of the technological advancements of our world were made in only the last hundred years. Implements of war were always being produced to be on the cutting edge, but that doesn’t mean luxuries were neglected. When we can get more magic artisans, I’d love to really branch out and try to make life not only bearable, but enjoyable for as many people as possible. But, as I’ve said many times, there were no great monsters threatening countries requiring a bullet that ignores magic sent forth at lightning speeds. Just humans with improved armor and weapons of their own.”

“Would… you go back?”

The human chuckles again. “I had the opportunity already. But,... For as much as I lost in convenience and luxury, I gained much, much more here. So… No. I don’t think I’d go back.”

The grey dragon studies the human for a moment. He finally teases, “What if the Empresses and Queens went with you?”

Daniel remains quiet for a long time, thinking. He can name several off the top of his head that would beg him to visit, at a minimum, and at least two who have no lingering attachment to Zenkon other than the inner circle.

“I wouldn’t chance it,” replies Daniel. “For every weapon I’ve managed to replicate here, there were ten more on Earth each with ten kinds of devastating ammunition custom tailored to virtually every possible need. And, the means of spreading information are unparalleled. If anyone expressed even a little magic, and it was taken seriously… There would be nowhere we could hide for long. I’m the weakest human in the world here on Zenkon, so there’s no real benefit to studying me, other than curiosity. That would be the exact opposite on Earth. Longevity, magic power, self-healing… There are many groups that would stop at nothing to steal that power.”

“That wouldn’t be possible,” replies Neith confidently. “Not if there truly is no magic on Earth. In fact, there are only a few ways to transfer magic from one user to another on this world, let alone ‘steal’ it.”

Daniel shakes his head. “Something we haven’t talked about that there is no concept here of yet is DNA. I may not know how magic relates to nuclear forces, but if DNA is the key to a person possessing magic, those people would do everything to find it. If it’s something atomic, the same thing. It would be too valuable to ignore, and they would absolutely find where magic comes from or die trying.”

Neith is quiet for a moment. With magic, many things are indeed possible, but it seems counterintuitive for people who don’t have magic to be able to study it with their technology.

But then, Neith had never encountered weapons that could slay dragons with relative ease without using any magic.

His only view into the world of Earth is through one single human so far. And, that human has already rocked Zenkon to its foundation. Now, he hopes to solve the issue of monsters appearing in the wilderness.

It’s hubris to think that Daniel is wrong after everything that has happened from one self-professed normal guy from Earth. Even if they failed, what he is most worried about is that they would try.

Daniel adds softly, “The pursuit of power and control is the root of all cruelty. There is good in people as a whole, but the way I see it, in both this world and Earth, good and evil are in a perpetual dance of changing lead. Or, maybe it’s as simple as saying that there is no good or evil, but Order and Chaos.”

The dragon gives an exasperated chuckle, replying softly. “I suppose so.”

A noise from behind them draws their attention, and they both look over their shoulders.

Treia walks up slowly, trying not to jostle her torso too much.

Daniel asks, “Treia? What are you doing? You should be resting.”

She walks directly up to him and leans on him just before he stands up. She supports her weight on him to plop down onto his cross-legged lap without any grace or restraint. She leans back against him as if to lounge in a recliner, groaning. She finally answers him, “Shut up, Daniel. I’m good enough to walk now.”

“And, I’m telling you I’d like you to rest until you’re good enough to run.”

“Says the one who’s constantly worrying everyone sick…” grumbles the gatonine, and Neith can’t help but laugh a little, earning him a pleased smirk from the former.

“I was thinking while I was in bed,” starts Treia. “I’m afraid to ask Lady Senn, but… What if that spell she demonstrated with Vaergraes could find the mana we’re looking for?” She blushes, confessing, “I admit, I’m just kind of along for the ride. I don’t quite… get everything we’re doing, other than finding a way to stop monsters.”

“What do you think?” asks Daniel as he looks at Neith. “Would that work? Particularly since we’re close now?”

Neith gives it sincere thought, scratching his chin as he deliberates.

“It’s a bit more of a fine spell than I am used to using, since I didn’t want to give Morthybargaron enough time to fight back. What I know of the spell is that it requires line of sight, and as you can see, natural mana is not particularly visible.”

Daniel nods in agreement. “But, now that you mention it, maybe there’s a way we can figure out how to tap the mana.”

“Tap?” repeats Treia. “Like a tree?”

“Exactly,” replies Daniel. “Our goal isn’t just to eliminate the mana. If we can find a way to reduce it while also giving us usable mana, that would be even better.”

“Do you have an idea for that?” asks the gatonine former-soldier as she takes Daniel’s sketchbook.

The mechanic laughs. “Not yet. That’s…”

“Ah… The railgun, huh?”

This impresses both Neith and Daniel, and the dragon says as much. “I’m surprised you could tell so easily.”

Treia grins, teasing, “And, I like it when you’re casual like this, Neith.”

He twitches, realizing he never switched back to his subordinate speech. Treia adds as if reading his mind, “Please, when it’s just us, let’s keep it like this. I may have been promoted to Empress in name to deal with Mattarglos, but I was never a noble before Daniel.”

Neith bows his head respectfully. “Very well. I’m happy to oblige.”

She smiles and relaxes against Daniel. “So?” She cocks her head to look over her shoulder at Daniel.

“I was hoping to express my wishes, and my magic-knowledgeable friends would make the ‘magic tap’ possible.”

She gives a sarcastic straight-lipped pout. “You’ll delegate magic artisan work, but you won’t delegate dangerous expeditions?”

Daniel is quiet, and Neith comes to his rescue. “In fairness, there is an unlimited amount of value in seeing and experiencing the effectiveness of weapons in the field. I learned a great deal of lessons from my attempt to have cannons made.”

“If you’d like leave to try again,...”

Neith goes pale at the brewing suggestion, and Daniel abandons it. “No, nevermind. You-know-who won’t let us live it down.”

“You mean Geira?” asks Treia innocently. Both Daniel and Neith try to hush her with a frantic tandem “Shhh!”

Daniel causes Treia to blush when he holds her close to whisper into her ear, “We have to be careful, or she’ll be summoned and threaten to light me and Neith on fire.”

“Wh-What?” She scoffs and then begins laughing, nearly falling out of Daniel’s lap. He keeps her upright, and she groans even as she laughs uncontrollably, her bruises flaring up. She leans on Daniel’s arm as she gasps and laughs in turns. He can feel her tail flopping around against his shins, and her feline ears shift back and forth with her waves of giddiness and soreness.

Daniel pitches his voice as high as it can go, mocking the gatonine brunette. “‘Wh-What-nya?” (A/N 1)

This immediately causes the feline woman to become feisty, whirling on Daniel to grip his chest. “Oh no you don’t! Don’t you dare! That stupid verbal tick in those… anime! No! I hate it! I’m embarrassed for gatonines everywhere!”

Daniel and Neith both laugh.

“They aren’t gatonines, specifically…” replies Daniel, trying to reassure her.

“Grrrah! I know you’re going to let Aramellianna show them to the world.” She grips Daniel’s collar, pulling her face close. Their noses are touching as she glares at him with her beautiful green eyes. “If I ever hear that stupid ‘nya!’ sound again, Geira won’t get the chance to light you on fire.”

Daniel looks to the side with his eyes, still being held at metaphorical knife-point with Treia’s sharp scowl. In spite of his feigned fear of the petite woman, he remarks, “Hear that, Neith?”

“Sounded like a challenge to use it at every opportunyaty that we get.”

Treia’s eyes widen and her ears fold back in anger as she flicks her fiery gaze to the fearless dragon. She gives a cold, icy tone that could almost freeze magma instantly. “Neith, I will tell her what ‘onii-chan’ really means, I swear to all that is divine.” She then returns her attention to Daniel, adding a little more snappily, “And you! Did you really think she’d never figure it out?”

“Actually, I’m counting on it. Eventually,” jokes Daniel. “When I’m old, lived a long, happy life, and enjoyed…”

“I’ll tell everyone everything. Every one of your little secrets.”

“Calmya self, Treia…” replies Daniel, causing her to narrow her eyes skeptically. He intentionally pronounced the ‘mya’ part dubiously to provoke her.

“I’ll kill you both.”

“I think it’s an endearing little trait,” remarks Neith. “It softens…”

Daniel is signalled more specifically by Treia’s ears perking up and going rigid; something that Hekate often does as well. But, Neith also halted his thought as he cocks his head. Daniel’s hand immediately drops to his waist to grip his revolver while he shifts out from under the gatonine.

“Daniel, give me a weapon,” whispers Treia.

He doesn’t hesitate to hand over the revolver, and she deftly checks the cylinder before closing it again, ensuring she knows how many bullets she has. The mechanic then fishes his assault rifle out of his void bag.

“What is it?” whispers the human as he dims his lantern.

“Humanoid,” replies Neith.

“Mind your targets in case it’s Doephluev sneaking up on us,” whispers Daniel.

The other two nod, though he can barely see them. Neith actually stands out more because of his mana, but his appearance quickly dims as the dragon hides his presence.

“Why would it be me, my Love?”

“JESUS FUH-!” screams Daniel in English as he scrambles away from the voice that just emanated from over his shoulder. “Doephluev! Don’t make me… What are you even doing here!? When did the shuttle arrive!?”

The mechanic whirls on his archoneldwyn mistress, gripping her dress by the collar as she deviously grins at him. He doesn’t forget about the current situation, though, asking, “Neith?”

“Your Greatness, if it’s you, please lower your mana suppression.”

“I didn’t think Hekate could suppress her mana yet,” murmurs Treia as she lowers the revolver from aiming at Doephluev instinctively when she startled Daniel.

For her own part, the archoneldwyn sheepishly moves submissively with the human pulling her close, blushing like a maiden. “Hekate will be along shortly. She’s searching the shells for you.”

Neith darts forward into the darkness, lighting a simple light spell as he closes in on the target of their attention.

There’s a brief scuffle, and Doephluev decides it’s a good time to answer Daniel’s questions. “The shuttle hasn’t arrived yet. Hekate and I raced each other here. Specifically who could find you first. Looks like I win.” She giggles happily, unfazed by Daniel’s irritation. In fact, she holds his forearm affectionately, kissing the top of his fist.

The mechanic sighs and releases her, and Treia grumbles, “So much for even a moment alone…”

“Apologies, Treia. I did delay my immediate announcement of my arrival, but then that thing appeared.”

“Thing?” asks Daniel, while footprints approach dragging a heavy weight.

“Doephluev, watch over the prisoner,” states Neith from the darkness. “I’ll sweep the area to search for more.” Luceniel hovers near Daniel’s face, and he nods at the little pixie elemental, prompting her to cast her night vision spell on him. The elemental’s abilities don’t last forever, so he tries not to overuse them, but if there’s someone worth being captured by Neith, it’s time for him to be able to actually see.

No sooner does she cast her spell does the world seem to brighten for Daniel, as if the lights were turned on. Thankfully, it’s not painful, similar to the lights coming on with a fade-in.

Doephluev retorts a little indignantly, “Who are you to give orders to an Empress, Sir Neith?”

The dragon scoffs. “Oh? It is past clockset.”

“Did you not hear me? I just beat Hekate again.” She snickers. “Her Greatness-GAH!” She is tackled from behind and pinned to the ground by the named feldrok Empress, who hisses as she wrestles the archoneldwyn, “You cheated! You said we were searching the camp for him!”

Doephluev groans as she struggles against Hekate, rolling with the ravenette on the ground in their relatively evenly-matched catfight. “The watch perimeter is part of a camp! It’s not my fault you have no imagination!”

“I’ll chew your face off!” In spite of her words and sudden attack, Hekate is careful and mindful of the archoneldwyn’s midsection, mainly grappling her arms and trying to smack her elder’s face.

Meanwhile, Neith deposits the captive he retrieved in front of Daniel and Treia, revealing the captive to be a dattakorien, given the more full-body coating of fur he possesses compared to the small patches on a gatonine.

He appears to be around ten to twelve years old, and he has a smooth color pattern, as opposed to the tiger-like patterns of the dattakoriens Daniel met initially. That said, the mechanic is quite certain he’s not a Shenwulf, and most of the features match the dattakoriens other than the color pattern.

“He’s just a kid,” remarks Treia.

“Assassins can take all forms. The maid served as a painful reminder for even me.” The dragon becomes a little somber towards the end of the sentence, still feeling guilt about letting Daniel be cursed.

“That was my fault, Neith. But, are you certain this one is an assassin?”

“I am assuming he is until his motives can be established. Until then, allow me to sweep the area. Do not remove any items from his person, my Liege.”

“Leave it to me,” replies Hekate proudly, puffing out her unendowed chest, while her clothes and hair are riddled with dirt and leaves.

“Yes, very reassuring,” replies Doephluev as she brushes herself off, having also climbed to her feet. The archoneldwyn mistress then takes one look at the boy as Neith jogs off, saying confidently, “He’s no assassin. He doesn’t have the muscle for it.”

“Fine!” Hekate bounds over to Daniel first, hugging him. “Daniel! I’ll explain what happened yesterday, but we rushed back here as quickly as we could! And, we find this?” She faces the dattakorien boy, who flinches under her gaze. “So, what tomnanigans are you up to if you aren’t an assassin, hmm?”

The boy finally shakes his head, speaking quickly. Unfortunately, Daniel only barely recognizes it, and given the circumstances, he can only assume it’s the dattakorien language, since he has heard it a few times. Some dattakoriens speak Eastern Trade, so he had an easy time dealing with Baeka and her companions, but in this case, he’ll have to rely on either Hekate or Doephluev understanding.

Hekate bobs her head, nodding. “He must think we’re fools. As if I’d do that.”

“What did he say?” asks Treia just before Daniel does.

The feldrok girl’s ears flatten in embarrassment as she glances at them, and Doephluev snickers. “Quiet you! Sorry, Treia! I forgot. He’s pleading for us to let him go.”

“Can you speak to him?” asks Treia. “Ask him who he is and what he’s doing here.”

The ravenette shrinks a little more, avoiding eye contact. “I… I can understand…”

Daniel plops his hand on her head, explaining to Treia, “Feldroks and dragons can passively understand most languages through their inherent magic, but it doesn’t grant them speech and writing. It will benefit the Empress of the Fievegal to learn more languages, but there are many things we need to deal with.”

Hekate nods sheepishly, ashamed that she can’t be more useful in such a simple situation, though it also reminds both her and Daniel of their own language barrier upon meeting.

Doephluev crouches down and speaks in the same language as the boy. His eyes go wide, and Daniel warns once, “Doephluev, I played this game with Kera’tai once already. If you don’t translate properly…”

“I only told him that the man who captured him is a dragon and you are his Emperor, my Love.” She smiles seductively up at him, saying cutely, “If you wish to punish me for being so reliable all the time, I don’t mind. Oh, how our sweet Hekate distracts me so…”

“What!?” snaps Hekate, and Treia clears her throat, interrupting the brewing bickering match.

The feldrok girl also clears her throat. “She’s telling the truth, unfortunately. Don’t worry, Daniel. I’ll keep my ears on her.”

“Ask him what he’s doing here,” requests Treia. “It’s odd for a dattakorien to be this far east.”

Doephluev nods, relaying the question in the boy’s language.

The boy explains something, but it doesn’t seem to satisfy the archoneldwyn, so she asks a few more questions.

***

“{You know what you are, don’t you?}” asks Doephluev in the dattakorien language. Some tribes have different dialects, and even different languages, but thankfully, the boy speaks a dialect she’s familiar with.

“{I… What do you mean?}” asks the boy innocently. He doesn’t know why he’s ‘so far east’ or even what that means. According to him, he has lived in the area all his life.

“{I mean, do you know that you’re a dattakorien?}” asks the archoneldwyn with a combination of gentleness and seriousness in her tone.

“{Y-Yes. I… I swear, my family has lived in these woods all my life! But, they’re gone! It’s… It’s just…}” Tears find his eyes, and Daniel asks in the Eastern Trade language, “Doephluev…? What did you say to him?”

“I’m just trying to clarify, and…”

Treia steps closer and crouches, taking the boy’s hand. She calmly helps him sit up, hushing him gently. “Shh. Shhh. It’s alright.” She knows the boy doesn’t understand Eastern Trade, but she scolds Daniel more than anyone. “He’s scared, Daniel. Go easy on them.”

“R-Right… Sorry, Doephluev.”

The archoneldwyn smiles softly. “It’s my fault you’re on edge, my Love. I’m sorry for startling you once more. I will do my best to announce my arrival more carefully.”

The human nods, and she continues, “{I’m the only one who speaks this language, so I need you to do your best and explain what you were doing sneaking up on us at night. My Beloved fiance, the Emperor, has been attacked many times already.}”

“{I’m not here to attack!}” cries out the boy, leaning against Treia. His arms are still bound behind him, but she holds him and comforts him. “{I-... I smelled food! That’s all! I just… If I could find… If there were scraps…}” The tears form again, and Doephluev, not one to be shown up twice in demonstrations of kindness and motherly capacity, quickly scoots closer and pets his head. “{I don’t mean to startle you, young man. Please just tell us the truth, and I promise we won’t be angry.}”

“{My sister!}” cries the boy. “{My sister is going to die!}”

This causes both Hekate and Doephluev to flinch. They share a knowing glance, and then look to Daniel and Treia. Hekate is the one to explain to them with a somber tone, “He says he was looking for food for his sister.”

Daniel is quiet for a long time, asking softly, “Parents?”

Doephluev shakes his head. During some of his earlier replies, she is certain that they are out of the picture.

The human mechanic replies quietly, “If it’s a trap, it’s imperative that I not be the one to go.”

“With your permission, my Love, allow me to handle it.”

“Handle how?” asks Daniel, not trying to sound skeptical, but worried she might misunderstand his goal.

“I will go to determine the legitimacy of his claims. I am not as adept at teleportation as our illustrious Imperial Greatness,...” She gestures at Hekate to reinforce her point. “But, among the things Wenlianna brought is the device we worked together to build for you.”

“Shhh! Doephluev! That’s supposed to be a surprise!” exclaims Hekate.

“Now isn’t the time, Hekate. Please forgive me, but our missions should always come first.”

Hekate pouts a little, but she nods in agreement. “Y-You’re right… B-But!” Just before Doephluev could explain more, Hekate insists on being the one to explain it. “I want to tell him.” The feldrok empress faces Daniel, saying, “We’re tired of you being in danger and having no way of getting out of it, so Doephluev, Wenlianna, Reignleif, Geirahoel, Ahok, Kera’tai, and me worked together to make a backpack magic thingie that can teleport you in emergencies.”

The human from Earth cocks his head curiously, surprised by this. “A teleporter? For me?”

Hekate beams, nodding eagerly.

“And, it’s portable?” asks Treia, also surprised.

“Mm-hmm! It uses special magic that we all worked together to create, so it’s still a prototype, and we were supposed to test it on this trip. But, then the slurmon… whatevers attacked us, and we had to run, and I was afraid someone would get hurt, so I used the return spell instead of teleporting, and it’s with Wenlianna, so I don’t have it right now.”

Everyone stares at her for a moment, needing time to absorb her rapid-fire explanation.

“So… you were going to test it on me on this trip?”

“No!” replies Hekate. “We made a test dummy with your same armor to send back to the Citadel. We’d have to go get it to use it for real, but it should have lots of mana to use many times to evacuate you to the Citadel! But, only to the transfer station, in case it’s stolen or someone follows you like Brosjak.”

Doephluev noticeably twitches her face in displeasure at hearing the name, but she adds sincerely, “I put every bit of my love into creating it for you, my Darling. Please allow me to…”

“No,” replies Daniel. “If the maiden voyage is still not even tried yet, I won’t allow anyone to do it themselves. I don’t know much about teleportation, but I know the many ways it was speculated to go wrong in fiction, from turning a person into part insect because it was in the receiving station, to ending up inside of a wall or never returning from oblivion itself. Five test runs, minimum, before I’ll allow it to be used by a person.”

Doephluev wants to object, but he crouches to her level and puts his hand on her shoulder. “Doephluev, it’s no secret that I don’t hate you anymore. Speculate what you want beyond that, since the mystery is the only semblance of control I seem to have over you anymore.”

She blushes, looking to the side. He’s saying that he has affection for her, but won’t admit it so easily because she is unruly if she’s getting on top of everything she wants. And, she knows she can’t deny it. Even the little elemental, Luceniel, is hovering next to Daniel’s sincere face with her hands on her hips, nodding along with his statements.

The mechanic adds sincerely, “You are one of my most reliable investigators, if that’s the right word. You know many things to look for in all kinds of situations. So, I will send you on this mission. However, I do want you to evacuate readily if need be.” He looks at Hekate.

The feldrok girl’s ears perk up, and she straightens her posture in anticipation.

Daniel smiles at her, petting her head. “Hekate, will you help Doephluev investigate? I know you’re the sovereign Empress, so you should be even more restrained in going into a potential trap, but…”

“Ahem!” Doephluev clears her throat to garner attention. “As a prize for my victory, I am currently the Sovereign Empress,” taunts the archoneldwyn mistress a bit arrogantly. Hekate frowns at her with a fiery scowl, but she grumbles in disgust, “I hate to admit it, but I think she keeps cheating…”

“If you’d like, Hekate, I will happily grant you a second chance. On this very mission. If you win, I’ll never, ever take Sovereign Empress from you through gambling again.”

“Deal!” exclaims Hekate, pointing at the pseudo-elf woman. Doephluev gives a quaint smile, but she can tell that Daniel isn’t fooled for a second. Still, he rolls his eyes and allows it, asking Hekate, “So, you understand what to do, right?”

“Mm-hmm. We’ll go with the boy to determine how true his story is about his sister, and if it’s a trap, I’ll escape with both of us.”

“Do you need anyone else?” asks Daniel, looking at Doephluev.

“No. But, if you don’t mind letting me take the radio, I’ll communicate with our lovely Valkyries, and they can relay to you or Sir Neith.”

“Forgive my eavesdropping,” replies the dragon himself, finally stepping closer, indicating that he was waiting for a chance to announce himself and return to the small group. “I accept this plan, though I’ll offer myself as the scout instead of one-... or two of our Empresses.”

“It’s only temporary!” whines Hekate, and Doephluev replies to him, “I shall handle it. You are easy to recognize as a dragon, as our enemies are looking for you. I am young, but I am well-practiced at assass-... ahem, stealth missions.”

“You can decide what to do, Hekate and Doephluev,” adds Daniel. “I won’t criticize or judge you with how you handle it, so please focus on being safe.”

“Leave it to us, my Darling,” “Leave it to me!” reply Doephluev and Hekate in that order, nearly simultaneously, but with the archoneldwyn leading by a brief moment, and hearing it, Hekate flinches, staring blankly at her second rival. Doephluev smiles innocently. While she’s not an inherently good person after the life she has lived, Doephluev knows how to disguise herself to blend into a crowd to prepare to do her original job; assassination.

That said, she finds that behaving well, making efforts to be the kindest, most magnanimous woman present, and overall just being a better person has a sort of fun to it. True, she’s doing it out of a sense of selfishness and greed, but she gains a great deal out of making the effort, and she enjoys life more than ever before.

Even Hekate’s rivalry with her makes her feel far less lonely than the empty life of an assassin. It’s the feldrok girl’s weakness that she’s so earnest, but it is also the main reason Daniel chose her to be the Sovereign Empress of the Fievegal, meaning a slave reached the pinnacle of mortals in less than sixteen years of life.

Daniel smiles and replies, “I leave it in your capable hands.”

Doephluev and Hekate help the boy to his feet, and then Hekate helps Treia up. As she does, the archoneldwyn explains to the boy, “{Myself, Archa and this girl, Fellia are going to take you with some food to your sister. So, what is your name?}”

“{M-My name is Kabaz, P-Plyrma.}” Doephluev twitches slightly in prideful amusement at being called ‘Plyrma’, which is a term of respect for addressing a woman used by the dattakoriens.

The boy glances at Hekate briefly, since she was called Fellia, and the ravennette asks, confused, “Archa?”

“Yes, my dear Fellia. Nobiliary particles have very little impact with contract magic, so it’s wise to use them as our names, just in case.”

Hekate’s ears expressively flop to one side briefly, before they perk right back up. “Ah! Of course! Mm-hmm.”

“We should discuss pseudonyms at another time,” replies Daniel. “That’s a good point I hadn’t really thought of, other than I guess I only ever gave my first name originally.”

“And only I know your middle name,” replies Hekate proudly, putting her hands on her hips in triumph.

“Fascinating…” remarks Doephluev as she seemingly studies Hekate. “Whenever you puff your chest up like that, I’d swear you become two dimensional.”

“Huh?” asks Hekate and Treia in confusion, not getting it right away. However, both Neith and Daniel are as silent as graves. Neither of the men wants to be the one to address it.

Having had a moment to ponder it, Treia quickly flinches, and her face turns expressionless, just like the dragon and the human.

“Wait a minute,...” starts Hekate, suggesting the gears are starting to turn. “You-!”

“We should get going,” states Doephluev as she whirls and departs into the darkness with Kabaz in tow. Hekate gives chase, impotently fuming at the archoneldwyn. “Get back here!”

“I never did find out how and why they arrived before the shuttle,” replies Daniel.

“She mentioned a competition to find you, right?” asks Treia in reply. “It was almost certainly some kind of race. Though, if Hekate used short range teleportation…”

“Doephluev can as well,” remarks Neith quietly. “She doesn’t use the same spell as Hekate, but it is how she appears so suddenly in Daniel’s proximity without warning. I finally detected it when she was in the act, though I was looking for it because of the circumstances.”

“Is it safe to leave her alone with Hekate?” asks Treia in an equally quiet tone. “We still know very little about her or her people.”

“They’re fast becoming best friends,” replies Daniel. Both of his companions turn incredulous looks on him in response. Daniel laughs lightly, adding as he returns to his discarded magic lantern. “Hekate never fails to be careful of Doephluev’s pregnancy, and Doephluev likes her superiority over Hekate in their little games. If they hated each other, they wouldn’t be games anymore.”

Treia and Neith glance at each other for a moment, and Daniel continues his thought. “You don’t have to trust her for certain, but I also think Hekate can handle herself.” His tone goes soft when he adds, “Additionally, as I understand it, Hekate would be difficult to put a contract on… since there already is one.”

This causes an awkward silence that Neith and Treia both opt to respect, since it would already be removed if it were within Daniel’s power.

***

A/N 1: ‘Nya’ is a common onomatopoeia in Japan meant to represent the cute meow of a cat, and is especially commonly used as a verbal-tick for feline characters in fiction when they speak, such as “What nyare you doing-nya?”

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