16 - Electric Dreams

Posted on Thu May 16th, 2024 @ 5:51am by Dungeon Master Sue Donym
Edited on on Thu May 16th, 2024 @ 5:57am

1,980 words; about a 10 minute read

Mission: Chapter 5 - Travel
Location: New New York
Timeline: 2090

Moments later, Aurelia and Becca were back upstairs in the living room getting ready to meet their new electronics and physics assistant. They’d been sent a dossier about them and Becca had apparently exchanged some texts, but this would be their first meeting in person.

Becca set a platter of hors 'd'oeuvres on the coffee table before going over a few things. “Our new contract assistant is named Eldrin and his skills and credentials have become quite extensive under his apprenticeship. Apparently, his master sent him to us because his specialty lies more in customer support than his actual duties.”

“That sounds like a kind way of saying they don’t want to deal with us.” Aurelia had finished changing into a semi-formal red shirt and pants in preparation for the meeting and was clipping a simple bracelet to her left wrist. “As long as we can get the help, that’s the important thing.”

As if on cue, the door chime rang, signaling the arrival of their guest. Becca headed to the door and opened it to reveal a shorter young man with ruffled black and brown hair, a bit of an elfin face, and oddly enough, pointed ears.

As the door opened, he smiled brightly and stepped in, one hand extended in greeting. “It’s a pleasure meeting both of you. You must be Becca the android assistant. And you must be Aurelia Luna, the Sorceress Supreme I’ve heard so much about. Well... I’ve heard a lot about the conference table downstairs and if you can do something like that, I look forward to learning more. I’m Eldrin. Eldrin Sunfire.”

Becca guided the young man over towards Aurelia who accepted the offered hand curiously. Was this actually an elf? As far as she knew, there were only humans in this world. “It’s a pleasure meeting you as well. I have to admit, I find myself at a bit of a loss as you’re far from what I expected. This world surprises me yet again, I see.”

Eldrin stared blankly at the taller woman for a moment before realization struck him. “You came from a world with real elves, didn’t you! That is so amazing! If you don’t mind, I’d like to ask you about them later. For now though, we should probably talk about the contract details. My master still expects me to get a lot done for him while working for you so we’re going to have to come to an agreement on several things, unfortunately.”

The red headed sorceress tried to hide her disappointment as she realized that the young man wasn’t actually an elf and was more than likely a human that had invested in body modifications to look that way. “Yes, by all means.” She then motioned towards the couches, indicating that they should sit and talk about it. “Please, help yourself. The main thing is that I have little to no familiarity with science and technology. I’ve learned how to use a lot of it and enchant it, but repairs? That’s unfortunately well beyond my skills. There are also a couple things I’d like to research, if possible.”

“And I am more than happy to help with all of that. I’ve seen a list of the devices you have and I’m familiar with all of them. As for your research, I suspect we might have a common interest or two,” Eldrin began as he sat down and picked up one of the cheese and meat creations that Becca had prepared. “I can start with half days four days a week with an option of two more half days if it’s needed. I can come in after lunch and dedicate my afternoons and possibly my evenings to assisting you in your ventures. Would that be sufficient to start with?”

Aurelia nodded as she picked up a canape. “Yeah, that’s honestly more than I expected you to open with. I expected this to be a lot more of a struggle to get more than a few hours a week out of you.”

“I’ll admit that I have a bit of an obsession with magic and fantasy,” Eldrin admitted a bit sheepishly. “Hence the body mods and dedicating my life to making real magic with science. I can assure you though, I’m one of the most educated apprentices you could have been sent.” With a shrug, he continued. “But I’ve been told I’m one of the most annoying as well.”

“Well, I’ll judge you after I’ve gotten to know you. For now, how about we finish up negotiations, and show you around?” Aurelia smiled brightly. She was really starting to like Eldrin. He seemed to be honest with her and acted like he was going to be interested in the work for the sake of it and to her, that was worth his weight in gold.

“That sounds perfect,” Eldrin said with a bright smile. “I honestly can’t wait to get started. I have some things to wrap up today, but if it’s ok with you, I can start tomorrow. As for pay, the shop unfortunately charges a flat rate for loaning out apprentices so...”

This time it was Becca who spoke up. “Arrangements for your pay have already been made. I will be logging hourly wages and they will be paid out directly from the cartel.”

Eldrin raised his hands in defeat. “Then I suppose that concludes negotiations. Time for the tour?”

“Time for the tour,” Aurelia confirmed, standing and motioning towards the main hall that led towards the numerous workshops. “The one we’ll be concentrating on is towards the end.”

“Excellent. It’ll be good to do something new and creative for once,” Eldrin couldn’t contain his curiosity any longer and decided to ask some of his burning questions as they headed down the hall. “So what’s it like? Magic? Is it different in the world you came from? What kind of spells can you cast?”

Aurelia could only chuckle as he fired off his questions. “Well... I think the best way to put it is that in my old world at least, when I was getting ready to cast a really big spell, building up a ton of mana felt ecstasy. Then when I released it, it was a bit like a mind blowing orgasm, just from the tips of my fingers. Here, it’s a lot different. It’s more like constantly edging. I have to remain focussed and weave circles inside of me and there’s no real payoff. The only magics I’ve gotten to work properly is enchantment and pseudo-enchantment. As for what spells I can cast, Anything I can figure out how to turn into magic circles inside of me and squeeze out through my palms into my target.”

Eldrin paused at the door Aurelia had indicated previously and frowned thoughtfully. “It sounds like programming. Is there a way to write these circles down so I could see them? How many circles did that dragon in the conference room table take?”

The red headed sorceress tapped her chin thoughtfully for a moment before replying. “That was a bit spur of the moment so I kind of threw it together. I think it was around three hundred twenty multilayered circles, but I’d have to check the table to make sure. As for writing them down, I’ve done that with a few already. I assume you have an idea?”

“I want to try and recreate one of your enchantments technologically. If I could see the source I would at least have something to work with. We might have to use a different energy source, but it would be a start.”

“I’ll have Becca get a copy of my apprentice’s lessons for you. I’m sure you’ll enjoy them.” Aurelia chuckled softly as she opened the door to the workshop to reveal a multitude of shelves covered in dead electronics.

The elfin looking young man stepped in and started taking stock of everything. “Oh yeah, you got conned into being a dumping ground. I assume these are going to all have espionage or monitoring spells of some sort in them?”

“Pretty much, yeah. Unfortunately, I don’t even know what most of these are.” As she spoke, she picked up a white cylindrical device with a pineapple logo on it. “This is listed as a computer but the computers I know of all used slide rulers and an abacus.”

“Oh yeah, we use machines for all of that now,” Eldrin commented offhandedly as he looked over a small black box with an interesting N logo on it. “Computation, entertainment, games... pretty much everything. Hey, could you fly in your old world? Or teleport wherever?”

The last two questions took Aurelia aback - She had lived for so long and the thought of either had never actually occurred to her. “I never actually thought to try. I’m not sure how I would go about it, honestly.”

“If you want, I can fill in some details about physics - it might fill in the missing pieces you need.” Eldrin waved a datapad with a broken screen in the air as he offered the lesson. As for most of these electronics, unfortunately a lot of them are going to have to be written off. I don’t know of any miracle fixalls for melted silicon. I think we can fix some of them though.”

“We can get started on that tomorrow then,” Aurelia smiled politely. She’d been given a lot to think about and had some research of her own to do. Plus, she had her own work to get back to. “For now, I need to tend to my apprentice and see how she’s doing.”

“Your apprentice broke the necklace you gave her,” came a voice from the doorway. In the doorway was Ember in her full demonic form wearing one of her black and red business suits that used to fit her but now seemed overly tight at rather suspicious points. In her right hand she was holding up the necklace and pendant Aurelia had given her with the glamor spell but now the crystal in it looked like it had been scorched and the metal woven around it was partially melted. “I’m sorry, I was practicing one of the spells you gave me and there was a pop and I think it broke. I don’t think I should have been wearing it while casting.” She then nodded to Eldrin politely, who had forgotten how to speak and whose jaw had forgotten how to close.

“I was afraid of that,” Aurelia replied, stepping over to her to study the pendant. I thought we’d at least get a bit more use out of it. You’re almost good enough to learn how to glamor yourself so we’ll start those lessons today. We’ll see how well you do and go from there.”

Eldrin finally got out something as he stared wide-eyed. “Y-your apprentice is a succubus?”

The red headed sorceress glanced up from the pendant long enough to see just how pale the elfin man had become. “Technically she’s human, but yes because of extenuating circumstances she’s half succubus now.”

“And yes, I do bite,” Ember added with a wide, toothy grin.

Unfortunately, poor Eldrin had had enough and passed out, hitting the floor hard.

“Becca, could you please take our guest to the spare room so he can rest? Ember, I know you’ve pretty much gotten used to your new form, but please try not to tease the new guy too much. It’s bad for his heart.”

 

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