Chương 20: Drones and Diplomacy

The Transgracian Academy for the Magical Arts, Library Entryway. Local Time: 1450 Hours. I always knew Thalmin was a wolf, or at least, eerily reminiscent of one. Though there was little in the way of his actions (aside from the occasional tail-wag) that really, truly, spoke to his lupine heritage. Not in the way he acted, walked, or carried himself. Not even in the way he spoke.

His vocalizations had always been filtered through the translation suite without any issues, though that generally meant that a lot of his voice was more than likely lost in the process. However the software did attempt to account for this, going so far as to punctuate each and every translated word with subdued interpretations of his wolf-like vocalizations, adding a distinct personal flair to the reconstituted speech.

From growls to barks and even the occasional yap, all were integrated into the translated output seamlessly and without any issue. At least, that had been the case, until now.

"Tatcha ti ka. Ultir nes len telrian, Emma?" The Lupinor mercenary prince all but barked out, and unlike before, I could actually feel the hefty bass and underlying rumbling that carried through the entirety of his speech. This was the first time I was hearing him completely unfiltered. However, this also meant that this first time I was hearing him, without actually understanding him. All of this could only mean one thing. The translation suite was borked.

The mercenary prince continued to stare at me, blinking a few times, cocking his head to the side in confusion and awaiting a response that never came. It was at this point that my training kicked in hard, as I reached for my wrist-mounted data-pad, ready to plow through the diagnostics algorithm that had been seared into my head from the countless hours of field maintenance drilling.

My fingers flew across the touchscreen, muscle memory kicking in as the proprietary UI was optimized for this very sort of thing: a quick and dirty debugging session that was designed to be as intuitive and as idiot-proof as possible.

"Latchow kusi! Ha tal, ke ney sa?" The wolf continued, now playfully elbowing my armored shoulder-guards, beaming out a wide smile as if trying to bridge the veritable chasm that had suddenly formed out of this inexplicable language barrier. Whatever Thalmin was trying to convey was lost on me, even though the context and the casualness of the friendly jab should've already clued me in to what was going on.

"Ultir nes len telrian, Emma?" The wolf repeated, chuckling to himself a bit as he moved to stand beside me, proceeding to reach his arm over to drape it across my shoulders.

"Ultir, Emma?" He reiterated, before snapping his head towards Thacea, beaming out an expectant grin as if egging her on to join in on what I was quickly surmising was a joke I wasn't privy to. Thacea's reactions confirmed my suspicions, as she looked on at Thalmin with a face of incredulity, completely unamused at the wolf's antics.

"Now isn't the time for fun and games, Thalmin." She sighed with a tone of resigned disappointment, before turning to face me.

"Thalmin seems to be testing the limits of what he believes to be your… translation artifice, Emma. Evidently, his running theory is that speaking in a language and dialect completely separate from High Nexian would be sufficient in evading your translation artifice's ability to comprehend what is being spoken." The avian explained, causing all of the undue stress and anxiety from the rapidly forming concerns over a faulty translation suite to all but fade away in an instant.

Having a major complication hit us this late into the day, what with the rapidly approaching meeting with the apprentice and the weapons inspection after that, would've been a complete disaster and a half to contend with. Forget dealing with those two sensitive issues, I doubt I could even accomplish ordering breakfast, let alone deftly navigating the unnecessarily complex social norms that were required as a basic prerequisite. Despite all of this, I couldn't help but to break out in a dry chuckle.

A sly smile formed across my face as I realized just what all of this was. It was, admittedly, a sad realization. But I couldn't deny that this was the first true instance of friendly, silly banter between me and anyone else within the hostile world that was the Academy.

"No, no. It's quite alright Thacea" I replied in an uncharacteristically soft tone of voice. One that I wasn't prone to using back at home, let alone here in the Nexus of all places. Thalmin's less than amusing jabs reminded me of my own first attempts at breaking the ice when I first moved to the city. With little in the way of friends or family other than my aunt, my first go-to tactic at bridging the social gap was almost always humor, or at least my own off brand attempt at it.

I'd never claim that I was ever good at it, heck, it was borderline cringe. But that didn't detract from the fact that it sometimes worked, and more importantly, it was being done with genuine intent. It was an honest attempt at breaking through the awkward social barriers that just naturally existed when trying to integrate into anywhere new. This whole exchange was just Thalmin's attempt at that. Which honestly couldn't have come at a better time.

"See, princess. The Earthrealmer here knows how it goes with these sorts of things." The lupinor beamed.

"I would be inclined to agree that should the recipient of a jab, one made in good faith mind you, were to be fine with the whole affair that it would be socially acceptable. However, considering the fact that we are in the midst of several altercations that must be handled with great care and caution, I find this attempt at humor to be wholly inappropriate. There is a time and place for such things, this isn't one of them." Thacea directed her response at Thalmin with an air of unfiltered sincerity.

"There's a time and place for stoicism, princess. But sometimes, especially during the rare moments of quiet between battles, you just have to embrace levity." Thalmin responded in kind, prompting me to honestly reevaluate my whole stance on the Nexus thus far. My personal perceptions and general interpretations of this place had already begun to solidify following the constant stream of crises that had targeted me one after another.

Everything about the Academy, from its general vibes to its legit transgressions, was about enough for me to consider this place a complete and utter write-off; that all there was to this entire place was just one crisis to be overcome after another. And while that was true… this whole exchange showed me that there was more to it than that. It gave me genuine hope that perhaps moving forward, there would be more of this banter to look forward to. More instances of nonsensical interactions amongst friends.

More of just regular day-to-day life, rather than the scheming and machinations that had come to dominate most of my headspace up to this point. It was with that, that I gave the wolf a playful punt on his shoulder, not enough to induce pain or hurt, but just enough to make my point. With a little internal deliberation on whether or not I should try my own hand at his games, I decided to return the favor in my own way.

"Rao hen duai wa, Thalmin." I spoke, saying something that loosely translated to ' I definitely see eye to eye with you there, Thalmin. I intentionally spoke in Thai, a language that wouldn't be picked up by the translation suite, given that it was designed explicitly for English to High Nexian translations. Whilst rusty, having only been taught by my mom's side of the family, I still knew my way around the language enough to hold a decent conversation, at least according to my aunt.

Though admittedly, I didn't really have many places to practice it, given that it wasn't common across North America, and rarer still once you left the boundaries of Earth's orbital rings. Still, it was at least commonly spoken enough amongst the populations of the mainland states of the South East Asian Confederation. So I had that going for me.

However, as it stood, the only real place I got any practice with it nowadays was from a certain terrifying green owl that lived only to taunt me whenever I reached to check my phone notifications. It amazed me to think that the language learning app was founded over a millennium ago, and it terrified me to imagine just how many lives it had tormented over the years. I swore the thing was more aggressive at getting me to practice than my mom ever was.

"Is that how you sound like, underneath the armor, and without the translation artifice?" Thalmin spoke, cocking his head to the side so quickly that those triangle-shaped ears flopped about as he did so.

"Yes, kinda. I mean, sometimes at least. I just chose to speak in a language that my translator couldn't translate to High Nexian as a way of getting back at your antics." I answered, switching back to English and thus allowing my poor confused translation software to function as it was intended to.

"What you're hearing now is me speaking in my native tongue of English, being translated in real time to High Nexian. I could just turn it off and speak in untranslated English but that'd be too much of a hassle."

"So you really can't speak High Nexian?" Thalmin doubled down.

"Nope." I answered succinctly.

"Then that's two more arrows in your quiver with which you can take as a token of my ever growing collection of respect to you and your people, Emma." The wolf responded with a big dumb grin on his face. His teeth were bared in a wide, almost dumb expression, which certainly gave off the intended effect to me and Thacea, but more than likely would've caused any prey species to scurry off and cower in abject terror." Two arrows?" I parroted back, which garnered a reaffirming nod from the lupinor prince.

"Yes. Although if you ask anyone else they would say my second point is borderline heretical. The first arrow's for the obvious. The fact that your people have somehow managed to create something on par, or at least, close enough to the capabilities of a translation stone without any mana. The second? Let's just say I enjoy the fact that any time you speak, whether that be to a Nexian loyalist or an Adjacent Realm knee-bender, that you're speaking in your own tongue. Not the language of an occupying force.

So anytime you speak, you're effectively defying the institutions of the Nexus, without them even knowing it." The wolf chuckled.

"And that's music to my ears, Emma."

"To clarify, Emma, Thalmin is bringing up the overarching unspoken expectations that come with being an adjacent realmer. That being, the expectation that every newrealmer, and the chosen candidate at that, should have spent all the time necessary in studying and becoming natively fluent with High Nexian. This entire gesture is one of the core fundamentals of demonstrating fealty to the Nexus.

The fact that your people have spent just as much if not more time on circumventing the issue altogether, rather than spending the time to study High Nexian, speaks volumes to your dedication in maintaining your independence." Thacea elaborated further, not necessarily outing her own political beliefs as explicitly as Thalmin had, but very much hinting at it.

"Honestly, the fact that your people chose the harder, impossible route of creating a translation stone without mana, just to worm your way out of speaking High Nexian is just beautiful. What this says to me is that your people would rather defy the fundamental laws of magic, than choose to bend the knee." Thalmin beamed out. While the lupinor was certainly projecting, I appreciated the fact that his heart was in the right place.

"You're really giving me too much credit guys." I chuckled back awkwardly, instinctively reaching my arm to scratch behind my back, only to bonk the two armored bits of my body together.

"Trust me, it's not as big of a thing as you think it is. All of this is just done out of practicality. My people needed a reliable way to make sure I was able to communicate, and so, they just did what their job entailed." I replied without any hesitation. Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

"Modesty and humility… will our permanently armored knight ever cease to play her part?" Thalmin replied with a teasing smirk on his face, once more patting me on the shoulder just to hammer the point home.

"You know, princess, if you ever needed a knight in shining armor, this one's definitely not a bad deal." The mercenary prince addressed Thacea with a snicker, eliciting a nervous look of hesitancy from the avian in question.

"I mean, with the room assignments-""That's quite enough Thalmin, thank you." Thacea shot the wolf down before he could continue any further. Though flustered, there clearly wasn't any bad blood present in the air. Everything felt normal, almost too eerily normal given what I'd experienced thus far. And while tonally disconnected from everything else that had happened and that would eventually come, it was a welcome tangent. One that I honestly wish I could put in a bottle.

"So, shall we be on our way then?" I offered, choosing to be the one to end this little round of banter on my own terms. The wolf let out a hint of a whimper at this, but nodded anyway. Thacea, meanwhile, remained as stoic and nonplussed as ever; once more taking the lead as navigator amidst the vast unknown seas that were the Academy's maze-like halls. There was a moment there where it felt like it all clicked.

Where the three of us, just by virtue of us sharing a similar sentiment of underlying non compliance, felt like we stood ready against the world. I know it was silly to say, heck it hadn't even been that long since we met, but I couldn't help but to feel an overwhelming warm fuzziness overcoming me as the fact I had allies backing me up really started to sink in.

"Whatever happens guys, just know I really appreciate that you guys are with me." I managed out softly. The Transgracian Academy for the Magical Arts. Main Garden. Local Time: 1520 Hours. Whilst Thacea was indeed an invaluable insight into both the Nexus and the Academy, it was clear that even she was not immune from the utter insanity that was the Academy's maze-like layout.

Whilst the floorplan did make it seem as if the garden was a brisk ten minute walk from the library, it was clear that we didn't account for the ludicrous obstacles the Academy threw our way, as it radiated a chaotic energy that even I couldn't match.

As we passed through the constantly moving staircases, evaded the untold number of wild antics that flooded some of the halls (sometimes literally) with shenanigans befitting of their own stories, and eventually landed ourselves at a massive archway that gave way to a garden that rivaled the scale and grandeur of Versailles.

"Right, so if memory serves, the Apprentice wanted us to track down a gardener or groundskeeper named Alaton?" I announced, turning to both of my peers who looked drained from the journey it took to get here.

"Yes, and I've checked the faculty roster on the syllabus, individuals who aren't directly involved with teaching don't seem to be mentioned. So we effectively have no leads here." Thacea explained. Thalmin let out a series of annoyed grunts as he pointed towards the massive hedge maze that lay in front of us.

"It seems like the Academy has even more games for us to play."

"I mean, it can't be that hard right?" I shrugged. Spoiler alert, it was hard. Or rather, it would have been hard if it wasn't for a few of my friends that I liberally employed to make my life a whole lot easier.

Similar to the battlefield management systems and active battlemaps synonymous that came as standard with any modern commander's complement of tools, I too was equipped with a means of ensuring I had some level of battlefield awareness even if I was lacking in a lot of the infrastructure that was normally required to set up and maintain something that complex.

My suit's proprietary forward expeditionary battlefield networking and passive monitoring systems, or the FEBNPMS as the eggheads at home preferred to call it, was a scaled down version of a modern battlenet system that'd allow me to observe things from a limited bird's eye view. It involved sending up a single drone, or four drones if I wanted a more complex readout of the topography, terrain, and potential OPFORs.

These drones would then hover overhead, either remaining static or moving parallel to my movements on the ground, granting me a limited 'bubble' of battlefield awareness about 340 feet around me. This could be enhanced, augmented, or modified whichever way I deemed necessary. With more drones adding to the range, detail, or what have you.

As for now, I settled on a single drone, as the disk-like device shot itself from a recessed compartment on my suit's backpack, before settling into a comfortable spot about 700 feet overhead. I wasn't here to play games, and going through a hedge maze was just about the last thing I wanted to do right now.

"Emma, what the hell is that? And what did you just do?" Thalmin asked me with yet another quizzical look in his eyes, the wolf was clearly attempting to refrain from tilting his head to the side as he had done prior.

"It's our way of cheating the hedge maze, and getting what we want without playing their games." I spoke, as a bird's eye map was promptly added into the increasingly crowded group of picture-in-picture displays on my HUD. It only took a few seconds for me to locate our man. Or at least what I assumed was our man. The fact that he was large, burly, and scruffily dressed with dirt all over his overalls was what led me to assume that he was our man at the very least.

We marched through the hedge maze with confidence, the drone above us pointing us in the right position until we ran into the man in question. As soon as we entered his little corner of the hedge maze however, he began to stand up, his height rising to such a ridiculous degree that his head actually poked out through the very tops of the hedges. It was then that I realized the drone probably wasn't necessary…

and that the apprentice more than likely asked us to find this groundskeeper not as a means of toying with us, but because the man was so large that he acted like a landmark you just couldn't miss.

"Alright then, what's all this about?" The lumbering giant bellowed out.

"Hah, I wouldn't have expected to see a knight, a princess, and a mercenary prince all in one place. This most certainly is a story for the bar counter." I decided to just get straight to the point.

"I'm looking for Apprentice-" I stopped in my tracks, realizing that whilst I did know her name, that I learned it from the drone and its secretly captured footage.

"Hah, I actually don't know her name, come to think of it." I explained with a nervous laugh.

"She did say she'd be here sometime during the afternoon? She told me to ask you where she is so-""Ah! Apprentice Larial!" The giant interjected.

"Yes, she's taken over a section of the hedge for herself when she became an apprentice. You know, back in my day I remember her very much having an affinity for the plant-based magical arts. So it makes sense that when she graduated and decided on continuing with her studies that she'd come back here with her newfound rank and station to actually make a part of this little hedge her own!

It's poetic really, and-""Groundskeeper Alaton, I do apologize for our brashness but we really must speak with the Apprentice post-haste. It is a matter of great urgency." Thacea casually shot down the kindly giant's tirade. Which, honestly, I was thankful for. I definitely didn't want to be the one to stop the man's whole nostalgic tangent.

"Ah, of course princess. Just follow me, then." The giant bowed deeply, before gesturing for us to follow. We went deeper into the hedge maze, and into a section that didn't seem to exist on the drone's battlenet readouts. From the drone's perspective, it looked as if we were moving into another part of the maze, only to blink out of existence. Indeed, from the air, it looked like the maze was now empty.

ALERT: LOCALIZED SURGE OF MANA-RADIATION DETECTED, 400% ABOVE BACKGROUND RADIATION LEVELS With a conflicting set of parameters being beamed to it, with it still receiving my signal but unable to confirm my physical presence, the drone went into standby mode. This new section of the maze was more or less identical to the rest, except as we got deeper, the vibrancy of the flora seemed to increase as well.

This all came to a head as we got to a nook in the maze, and arrived at what could only be described as a scene out of Alice in Wonderland. Sitting in a small slice of a Victorian-era gazebo was the apprentice. Her hair frazzled, with both hands currently in the process of ruffling up the rest of it. She definitely looked worse for wear than when we last met.

"Apprentice Larial! I have the students you mentioned earlier!" The giant exclaimed, which garnered the Apprentice's attention almost instantly.

"Ah, thank you Tiven." The exhausted elf spoke with an attempt at a smile.

"You really mustn't overexert yourself, Aev-, er, Apprentice. Seeing you like this worries me greatly." The giant spoke with worry, which only served to boost the Apprentice's attempts at putting up a strong face.

"It's quite alright, Tiven. Now please, I require privacy." The apprentice responded, not so much a command but moreso a request. Everything I was seeing was really starting to make me question whether or not I'd been too quick to judge the apprentice. I couldn't worry about that right now however. There was business to be discussed. Tell your boss I need my bomb back, Larial. Is what I wanted to say. Though at this point, I knew I had to be more diplomatic than that.

"Apprentice, I-""This is a meeting predicated on the rights of personal privilege. The prince and princess cannot be here." The apprentice interjected coldly, prompting both Thacea and Thalmin to leave, and prompting me to ramp up my suit's onboard threat detection systems in response.

"Right, what's all this about then, newrealmer?"

"Apprentice, I'll be very forthright with you. I know for a fact that Professor Mal'tory is in possession of my missing crate, and while that in and of itself is an offense in its own right, that's not what I'm here for." I began.

"If it's not false accusations being thrown around, then what is it then, Earthrealmer?" The apprentice shot back defensively, adjusting her posture on what was a weird combination of a wrought iron seat supported by a slither of vines.

"It's the fact that the crate poses a danger that none of you have the capacity of detecting." I spoke plainly and without a hint of condescension or aggression. This was a matter of fact statement that threw even the apprentice off, which gave me ample time to elaborate further.

"I'm here to warn you of the dangers posed by the tampering of my nation's property, as much as I am about the theft itself. There's a very real possibility someone will get hurt, plain and simple, apprentice."

"If your objective is to undermine, or in this case, cast doubt upon the competence of the faculty then I'm afraid your posturing will not get you far in the Academy, Emma Booker." The apprentice replied as if taking genuine offense.

"Apprentice, please. I'm not here to stir up drama for the sake of it. If lives weren't on the line, then we wouldn't be having this conversation."

"Emma." The apprentice stood from her seat with a look of patronizing worry.

"It's clear to me that you come from a world of constant threats and dangers. You no longer have to worry about that here. I understand the latent anxieties that may still remain, you grew up in a savage land after all. But please, understand that you are safe here. There is no danger within the Academy." The elf couldn't have known that her last few rebuttals would be forever drenched in an irony so intense, that my reports on the day's events were more than sure to be scrutinized for artistic embellishment.

WARNING: [1] UNKNOWN TARGET DETECTED. The automatic IFF systems reported, meaning it picked up on something that most definitely fit the custom parameters of the high-alert threat assessment mode I'd set it to earlier. TARGET REFERENCE: 230 FEET FROM CURRENT LOCATION. HIGHLIGHTING TARGET NOW. The system was designed to extrapolate upon the sensor suites built into my suit even without the aid of the drones flying overhead.

It Interlayed and spliced various imaging systems onto my HUD, giving me a detailed readout of what it was I was facing down should the situation demand it. Theoretically, this meant that the entirety of the hedge garden we currently stood in was for all intents and purposes see-through, to a range of about 230 feet. I colloquially referred to it as x-ray vision. Though that was doing the sensors a disservice given just how much of the electromagnetic spectrum it was scanning through at any given time.

Indeed, I could see the groundskeeper standing about 200 feet away from us at the very edges of the garden, tending to something the suit's data aggregator found too irrelevant to allocate its processing power to. At 50 feet away, in one of the inner rows of the garden were Thacea and Thalmin, currently chatting about something. All of these figures were highlighted with a glowing blue and white outline denoting their friend status on the IFF.

In addition to this, a small information overlay denoted their general body plan. With everyone having been mentioned thus far marked as humanoid, as was to be expected. The new figure in question however, did not conform to this general convention. Unlike the rest of the figures highlighted, or the multitudes of creatures that the threat assessment system was programmed to identify, the unknown interloper was simply marked with a series of N/A where its general descriptor should be.

The thing lingered for a while, standing still, completely unmoving. It made me think I had time to plan.

"EVI, analyze-" ALERT: TARGET TRAJECTORY CONFIRMED. TARGET APPROACHING. It made me miscalculate. 200 FEET.

"Apprentice, we have to go, now." I shouted loudly through my vocoders, my voice shaking as the jumbled mess that was the highlighted figure got closer. The elf, as if on cue, stared at me with a concerned, perturbed expression.

"I'm afraid you're panicking for nothing-" 100 FEET.

"THALMIN, THACEA, GET THE HELL OUT OF HERE, NOW! IT'S HERE!" I yelled out through my vocoder as loud as I could, prompting the pair to scramble in place, knowing full well what the warning entailed. 20 FEET There was no time to think, no time to even react properly as muscle memory and drilling overrode diplomatic concerns right then and there. 10 FEET I reached for my sidearm, just in time to see the Apprentice's small idyllic retreat trampled over with a deafening thud. The null was here.