"I would be honored," Shanna bowed, "May I continue to be of service to Clan Aurelias. Follow me to my private chamber, away from prying eyes."
Shanna stood back up and led Emory into the Romanovs estate which had a much different aesthetic than the outside would lead one to believe. Inside it was bright and opulent with gilded trims, marble floors, and a crystal chandelier. The art reminded Emory of the ones she had seen in Viktor's mansion except for the fancy eggs that sat in glass cases around the foyer. Past there, they went down a long hallway before entering one of the rooms along the side. The room was filled with pedestals, each with small pools of water though the water was a mystical iridescent color. Walking up to an especially intricate stand, Shanna tapped the edge of the dish and caused a highchair to rise from the ground. She gracefully sat down and motioned for Emory to join her.
Emory nervously approached Shanna as she built up magik in her hand. As the magik grew, a chain pattern sprouted from her palm and began climbing up her arm. Stopping a few feet in front of Shanna, Emory slowly put her hand above Shanna's head without touching. She took a deep breath before she rested her hand on Shanna's head. Immediately, the spellwork covering Emory's arm lit up brightly and began moving over Shanna's body, covering her in ethereal chains. After a minute, the chains completely covered her body and pulsed brightly for a few moments before receding into her skin. Gingerly taking a few steps back, Emory carefully examined Shanna.
Emory breathed, "How do you feel?"
"Strong," Shanna grinned, "Not just in terms of magik but my body feels stronger too. I feel young again."
"Then it worked as planned. It'll take a couple days for all the effects to balance out, but when it's done, you'll have a fully formed core, a magik body, and a special gift. Also, you don't need a link stone to talk to me anymore; you can just stand at the edge of your mana pool in your mind's eye and call out to me or Lord Perceval," Emory explained with a sigh of relief.
"I can already feel the power welling up in me," Shanna trembled, "And yet, I can still tell that this is only a fraction of your power. Just how much have you been holding back, Lady Supreme?"
Emory smiled, "Right now, I'm concealing about ninety percent of my strength. Don't try to compare yourself to me; it's the power of my gift which will never stop growing."
"Thank you for this gift," Shanna bowed as tears splashed onto the marble floor, "I thought I had reached the end of my life, but now I see I have many more years to give. You have exceeded all of your ancestors before you, Lady Aurelias, even Merlin himself."
"Thank you for your praise, Lady Romanovs. I try my best to bring honor to my parents and their legacy. I'm sorry, but I have to go back to the outposts. I'll leave you the books on the Laxtros. Reach out to me in a couple days, so we can figure out what your gift is," Emory said as she gave Shanna a big hug. Shanna nodded and waved goodbye while Emory faded away into light particles.
As soon as she appeared in Yuzuno, Jask chimed, "Emory, you've returned. Commander Shepherd is currently two days away. You have messages waiting on your personal terminal."
Emory's shoulders slumped as she realized she had spent two days gathering information even though it only felt like half a day there. Nevertheless, she walked to her cabin to drop off the books she still had about the Transformation spell and core refinement. While she strolled through the base, she had Jask send a message to Tethys to have her meet Emory at her cabin. When Emory arrived, Tethys was there waiting for her, and the pair entered the chaotic mess of Emory's cabin.
"Did you find everything you were looking for? You brought back more than I was expecting," Tethys mentioned as they stepped inside.
"More than I could have imagined," Emory sighed as she set down the bags, "But I found something for you specifically. If you look in the bags, there should be a grimoire for you."
Tethys hastily dug into the bags and pulled out a gilded black tome with the word "Void" embossed along the binding. She gasped, "Is this what I think it is?"
"It is," Emory grinned, "It's yours to keep as long as you need it. I know you've already made it to level three, so it might not be super useful."
"No, no, this is great! I've been fumbling my way through it so far, and this will be a good resource to figure out what I've missed," Tethys gleefully replied as she began looking through the book.
"Anything to report?" Emory asked as she began pulling out books and setting them on her desk, "Specifically in the Greg department?"
Tethys gulped, "He's been extra protective of the room he's been working out of in the Command Center. While he hasn't directly denied Cath or me access, he has been rather hesitant about letting us in."
"I'll go check it out," Emory huffed, "These Collective leaders are real pieces of work. Let me check some messages I have and then I'll go."
"I'm going to check out this book for awhile. Let me know if you need anything," Tethys nodded before turning around and leaving the room.
Emory turned around to her computer and brought up the messages she had missed. It was quite strange for her to get messages like this; in fact, no one had used the system since they arrived at the outposts. One message was from Shepherd, but the other two were from Jask, meaning they were automated alerts of some kind. She opened Shepherd's message first just to see what he said.
"Please arrange for all the leaders from every outpost to meet in person when I arrive on the planet."
Emory scoffed and pushed the message away since she didn't particularly care about what Shepherd wanted. When she opened the automated messages from Jask though, her eyes grew wide immediately. Both messages were Jask alerting Emory that the cameras in the Command Center had been blocked for a period of time, specifically the room that Greg had been working in. Attached to the message were camera stills of Greg using different methods to cover the cameras' views of the room. A surge of magik exploded from Emory's body as her anger took over, knocking over papers throughout the room. Without another word, she snapped her fingers and appeared just outside the Command Center. She went to open the door but found it locked, only escalating her anger. Then she pulled a second time, this time with magik covering her hand, and ripped the door right off the hinges. Inside, Greg spun around quickly from a board he was writing on.
Greg stuttered, "Lady Reiss, I didn't realize you had returned."
"Stop acting," Emory yelled so loud the tinted glass shook, "How dare you obscure the cameras! What could you possibly be doing in here that can't be recorded?"
"As you know, anyone connected to the RRS can access camera footage of the outposts," Greg feebly answered, "There are some items Commander Shepherd asked me to work on in a covert manner. I've reached a point in my research where most of the work is classified, so I didn't want it to be recorded on the cameras."
"And did you ask anyone if that was okay? Did you ask me?" Emory roared.
"No, I didn't," Greg squirmed, "But Commander Shepherd knew it was an eventuality and gave me wide berth to act as I saw fit."
Emory fumed, "Is he here right now? Is he in command or am I?"
"No, ma'am, you are," Greg shivered, "I'm sorry for not looping you, Cath, and Tethys in sooner. But certainly, you must understand why. After all, you've kept the teleportation spell secret from us so far." Instantly, Emory's nostrils flared, and a cloak of magik covered her body. Greg didn't even see her move; he just felt his legs dangling and a crushing force around his throat.
"If you ever hide something from me or my team again, we will have serious issues. Do you understand?" Emory fiercely questioned as she tightened the grip on his neck before she dropped him on the ground.
"Loud and clear," Greg gasped for breath, "Would you like to see what I've been working on?" Without waiting for a response, he began putting papers in front of Emory. She looked over the first few pages as a central theme began to become evident. Greg had been working on technological upgrades to the humans' equipment based on both Apleem and Elandrian concepts. Depending on how these ideas were implemented, they could either be used to propel humanity forward as a civilization or deal significant damage to both groups. On paper, it looked purely theoretical, but every great idea had started out as just an idea. Emory was conflicted because on one hand, she now understood why he had kept this information secret. On the other hand, hiding this information generally meant they planned to use this technology for nefarious or destructive purposes.
Emory handed the papers back to Greg, turned on her heels, and stomped out of the room. Her mind flipped back and forth on whether Greg should have covered up the cameras, but she remained upset that he hadn't consulted with Cath and Tethys. In fairness, they had hidden Tethys's Void sphere development from him; however, Emory felt this was essential since Tethys herself didn't know the full details of how she obtained the sphere. Furthermore, telling the Collective about it could draw the Commission back into the mainstream military, an outcome she desperately wanted to avoid. While these thoughts rattled around in her head, she made her way back to her cabin.
Once she got there, she cleared her mind and began reading through the manuals about developing a magik core. Of course, once her close friends all had fully formed cores, they would be the first group to receive the casting. Still, it would be important to understand the training in case the timeline had to be moved up before they reached level three in the Arcane sphere. Minutes turned to hours as she dived deeper and deeper into the research her father had done. In a way, she felt closer to him as she studied his journals, which was strange because she didn't have much of a relationship with him growing up. Looking at all the work he had done explained a lot about why that was the case though.
Finally, after night had long since arrived, she felt her eyelids getting heavy. She marked her place in the text she was reading before using Jask to send a message to Gatrie, Gwen, Innes, Nephenee, Sam, and Tana that she would be picking them up tomorrow night to prepare for Shepherd's arrival the following day. After that, she pulled herself off the chair and curled up on her bed. It only took a few moments before she was sleeping soundly.