PftA Book 2 - Interlude 5

A/N: Normally, interludes are the easiest chapters for me to write. This one was NOT an easy chapter. Regardless, I hope you all like it!

Interlude 5 – A Disappointing Prize

Sir Eri’Non had been sanctioned by the system months earlier after taking a few newly awakened natives after they’d signed system-enforced contracts with the Alliance’s shell company on Earth. He’d tried to argue that his position and authority within the Alliance allowed him to overwrite the agreement on behalf of ‘Atlas,’ but his arguments had been rejected by whatever mana intelligence was in charge of such things.

Immediately following his failed rebuttal, the system expanded its sanction to include unawakened Atlas employees under any ‘beta’ designation.

It was infuriating and completely uncalled for! He was giving these mundanes an opportunity the elites of the Alliance would – and had – kill for! Yet the system had sanctioned him. He wondered if the network of mana-intelligences running the system had somehow malfunctioned.

Perhaps one or more of the entities had gone crazy, as sentient mana constructs were known to do occasionally. It had been several millennia since the system had been created. While that wasn’t all that long to superior beings such as himself – only a couple of generations – lesser beings found it difficult to exist for such lengths of time.

At least, that was the case within mortal realms. It might be different once he ascended, but he doubted it. Lesser beings would remain lesser, regardless of their surroundings.

Nevertheless, the setback had limited him to using subjects who were either unawakened and unaffiliated with the ‘company’ or those rare few who had awakened but hadn’t yet signed another contract. Both had their benefits, but he’d been intermittently stopping by Earth and the other two colonies to run tests on mundane humans for ages already.

He was ready for something new.

The restriction wouldn’t have been an issue if he’d been capable of safely reappropriating participants while they were logged into the simulation. Unfortunately, the chance of causing long-term damage to the subject was too high.

Thankfully, the number of spontaneous, unaffiliated awakenings had begun rising recently, granting him a pool of freshly awakened natives to choose from. Most still occurred while logged into the simulation, but enough occurred outside the controls of the training program that he had a consistent supply of study participants.

Really, those failures sitting planet-side should be thanking him for reducing the threat to their precious secret. At this point, he didn’t know why the humans nominally placed ‘in charge’ of the reintegration were even bothering with subterfuge. They’d given the mundane humans of this backwater planet a chance to learn and train. It was time to throw them into the proverbial lake.

Sink or swim, just like his people did when training younglings. Who knew? Maybe some of them would gain some interesting skills out of it.

Sir Eri’Non chuckled at the thought of throwing a bunch of humans into a lake filled with Rippled Breathstealers. It would certainly be entertaining.

Besides, it was only a matter of time, now, anyway. The number of natives who had awakened had reached the point that the administrators running the reintegration decided to advance the original timeline, moving the official system and Alliance reintegration date from mid-year to the end of the first quarter.

He’d only argued against advancing the reintegration because it would substantially decrease the number of subjects he’d get to study. With few exceptions, studying those who’d had access to the system for over a week was pointless.

Now, if he could get his hands on that tri-affinity native or the Time/Space Mage, he’d make an exception for them. Even if it yielded nothing of value, they were significant enough outliers to make it worthwhile.

An alert went off. The pitch slightly differed from the general alert he had set to notify him of spontaneous awakenings. This one informed him that one of his marked targets had awakened. A glance at the projection showed the target was not within the simulation and, to his immense surprise, also registered as alone. Two others were in moderately close proximity, but his sensors showed both were asleep.

The ancient elf’s lips stretched into a wide smile. “How fortuitous,” he murmured, activating the retrieval protocol and targeting his newest subject’s Fitmon. Having a registered piece of manatech to target made retrieval so much easier than relying solely on manatech sensors.

The subject arrived unconscious, as per Sir Eri’Non’s standard retrieval protocol. There was a rush of motion as the Researcher and his Research Assistant got the subject situated and registered in the secondary study. The elf wanted to ensure the new arrival could not be returned to the blue-green planet below for several months.

Sir Eri’Non’s primary Interface Assistant reminded him that the subject was on the little Quartz Princess’s watch list, though he’d already silenced any connected alerts when he initially marked the man as a potential subject. The princess had been watching him. The elf wanted to know why.

Just in case there was some kind of secondary monitor on the human, Sir Eri’Non immediately transferred him into the containment module. Should a Time Mage get the idea to interfere with his project, their efforts would be wasted. Now, the elf only needed to wait twelve hours until he was certain the threat had passed.

The uppity Patriarch might claim eight hours was his limit, but nobody disclosed their real limits. That would be the height of folly.

Should Kairos or his little disciple try anything, the elf would know. His assistants, both manatech and biological, were already trained to alert him if any temporal disturbances were noted, especially if coupled with the appearance of an undocumented person aboard his ship. There were only so many explanations for such an occurrence.

In twelve hours, he’d perform detailed scans of the subject and dig into what made this particular native worth monitoring for over a year.

With renewed energy, the ancient elf dove into his research. His current subject was unawakened, so Sir Eri’Non documented the changes that took place metaphysically as the enchantments on the bed cycled an increasing amount of mana through the middle-aged woman’s body.

He had changed the proportions since his last test with this subject, and, like many of his former subjects, the results were promising. He’d started the subject with neutral mana to see what affinities naturally manifested before manipulating time with an artifact to redo the test using different proportions of various elements. He was on his final test with this subject, once again using neutral mana to see if there were any changes due to his testing.

Kairos wasn’t the only one who could use Time magic effectively, he thought smugly as he noted a small increase in the woman’s natural affinities. Like many others on Earth, the subject was blessed with two affinities. It was one of the many questions he hoped to address with his research. The process took a while, but he forced himself to finish before redirecting to his newest subject.

= = =

Justin felt groggy as his consciousness slowly returned. His head felt congested, and the pressure behind his eyes made him worry he might be getting sick. He did not need a migraine on a physical day. Running all of those tests with a migraine would be torturous.

He groaned and attempted to rub his forehead, only to realize his arms were bound.

“Subject Fire12Omega has regained consciousness,” an androgynous voice said with no inflection.

“Excellent. Let’s see what’s so interesting about you,” a man cosplaying as an elf from Atlas Online said as he stepped into view. If the man was what he appeared to be – which was hard to believe – he had to be ancient if fantasy tropes were to be believed. He was wrinkled and slightly stooped, though his robes were perfectly tailored and appeared to be of extremely high quality.

Even with his aged appearance, the man still radiated a sense of power and strength. Justin understood instinctually that this individual was not someone to trifle with. Whether he was a human cosplaying an elf or an actual, honest-to-God fantasy elf in the flesh didn’t matter. Justin somehow knew the individual looking at him could kill him with barely a thought.

“Tell me, why was Administrator Rhona monitoring you?” the elf said, activating some sort of compulsion into his command.

Justin didn’t try to resist. He was much too confused and wasn’t entirely certain he wasn’t hallucinating. Nothing made sense.

“I work for her.”

“Yes,” the ancient elf said with the hint of a sneer. “I am aware of your status as a beta tester.” The elf paused and smiled slightly. “Or, should I say your former status as a beta tester? Your contract with Atlas is no longer effective now that you have awakened. But don’t worry; you’ve been granted a rare opportunity that few are offered. All I need is information.”

As his mind cleared, Justin realized that he might be in trouble. “What kind of information?” he asked, followed immediately by, “Where am I? Who are you?”

The elf’s lips pressed into a thin line as he examined the restrained human before touching a circular crystal nearby. “I am the Senior Researcher for the Earth-colony mana study. My name is Sir Eri’Non, and you are on my research ship. Do not address me as Sir, Eri, or any other combination besides Sir Eri’Non. As for what information I desire…”

The elf stepped forward and leaned closer. “I want to know why Administrator Rhona was monitoring someone with a single common affinity that barely rates as ‘standard.’ Why would she, the princess of an affluent kingdom of the Alliance, waste her time monitoring someone who appears by all accounts to be utterly… mediocre.”

During his short monologue, the elf’s disposition had shifted from curiosity to a mix of mild anger and distaste, making the newly awakened Fire Mage wish he could distance himself from the man.

Was he even called a man, or was that a human thing?

Feeling compelled to speak, Justin opened his mouth and word-vomited everything he knew about Rhona, along with his significant interactions with the attractive woman. He explained their working relationship, her overt affection for his daughter, Rhona’s quasi-friendship with his sister (which now struck him as more than a little weird), and just as he was getting ready to bring up the shift in their workplace dynamic since he left Active Duty and began working for Atlas directly, the elf held up a hand to stop him.

“Your sister?” the elf asked, leaving his field of view. “Mercer is your family name…”

Justin didn’t answer. He wanted to speak, but something was holding him back. It was an odd feeling, but the pressure in his head increased whenever he tried to speak without prompting. So, the former beta tester stopped trying.

“The Time/Space Mage is your sister?” Sir Eri’Non asked with an odd fervency that startled and concerned Justin. The elf had emerged from nowhere, suddenly appearing only inches away from him.

Just how did this crazy space elf know Emie’s game affinities? This time, he didn’t want to answer.

Sensing his resistance, the elf said, “Tell me. Is your sister the Time/Space Mage known as Emie Mercer?”

Against his wishes, Justin’s mouth opened. “Yes. My sister’s name is Emie Mercer, and she is a Time/Space Mage in Atlas Online.” Every word felt like a betrayal, though he had no idea why the elf cared about Emie’s game character.

Then again, he’d mentioned Justin’s Fire affinity, though he’d disparaged it and called him mediocre. Justin wasn’t sure how to feel about the elf’s opinion.

“So that’s how you obtained Tier Two foods,” the elf murmured thoughtfully.

Justin knew it had been a statement, not a question, but he felt his mouth open to correct this misconception anyway. His efforts to keep from speaking were futile.

“The melon was my girlfriend’s. She’s pregnant.”

Internally, Justin was screaming at himself. There was no reason to share such information. Not only had he somehow betrayed his sister, but now he was implicating Bell in whatever madness was going on? What was wrong with him?

“Who is your girlfriend? What are her affinities?” Sir Eri’Non asked, making a couple of assumptions.

Justin tried biting his lips to keep from answering, but his traitorous mouth moved again without his permission. “Donna Jessup. She goes by Bell. Her affinities in Atlas Online are Light and Force.” He took a breath and squeezed in another question. “Why do you care about their game affinities?”

A sly smile appeared on the elf’s face. “You still think it is just a game?” Sir Eri’Non asked with an arrogant smirk. “Why don’t you try pulling up your status like you would in the simulation? See what happens.” The elf made a ‘go ahead’ motion with his hand.

The elf chuckled darkly as the screen appeared before the stunned man’s eyes. “Don’t bother looking too closely now. We’ll be covering most of it in exacting detail. Even though you’re one of the least qualified participants I’ve included, we still have a lot of ground to cover before you can move on to the next study. Let’s start by having you make your screen visible…”