3 Research Intrusion

Posted on Wed Aug 23rd, 2023 @ 3:59am by Dungeon Master Sue Donym
Edited on on Wed Aug 23rd, 2023 @ 4:26pm

2,091 words; about a 10 minute read

Mission: Chapter 1 - Strange New World
Location: Mars
Timeline: 2090

A day later, the woman now known as Aurelia Luna was once again sitting in front of her personal computer, researching the new world she now found herself in. It had taken some getting used to, but thankfully a lot of muscle memory came to her from the body she now occupied to help with that. Learning to use the thing was a bit of a leap from the libraries full of books and crystals she was used to, but to have it all in one place was certainly convenient.

However, every avenue of research she tried in regards to magic was a dead end - it seemed that it was considered fantasy and a myth in this world. Either that or the purview of fairy tales. She had found some references to prayer and witches, but to her that was like asking insects to wage war on the sun compared to what she was hoping for. In fact, it seemed that because of the lack of magical development, this world had undergone a massive technological revolution, hence how they had been able to spread to other worlds.

And they had done it under the control of corporations and cartels.

What she understood of them from her research was that they owned almost everything. There was indeed a government, but it seemed to have little actual power in the face of these other two groups of entities. While the corporations seemed to deal in mercantile, construction, and open business matters, the various cartels seemed to deal in the more sordid and underhanded dealings here on the red planet.

Overall, it reminded her a lot of one of the kingdoms she had worked with in her past life, but taken to a much further extreme. If she was going to survive in this world, it was likely she would have to deal with all three of them and considering the last memories left before she took over, it might be best she deal with them sooner rather than later.

With a sigh, Aurelia pushed her chair back from the desk and got up to head to the kitchenette for something to assuage her aching belly. There hadn't been much in the cold box, and she had no idea of when she'd be able to replenish it, so she decided she'd have to do her best to ration what little there was. Peering inside, she could see there were still three cans of something proclaiming to be juice and two frozen 'treat' bars, whatever those were, as well as a single sealed cup of something that proclaimed itself intoxicating and jiggly which she found suspicious.

With a twitch of her eye, she finally settled on one of the cans and popped it open to find a purple fizzy liquid inside that tickled her tongue as it went down. With how sickeningly sweet it was, she decided it was decidedly not juice, but it wasn't entirely unpleasant. In a way, it reminded her of a noxious poison that her apprentice had made once that was harmless to humans but lethal to salaurians and most other lizard-kind.

Which brought her thoughts to her back to magical research. Through experimentation, she knew she was unable to cast spells directly, but through her research she had a theory that with her slowly building mana supply, she might be able to use that to replicate similar effects. After all, she was able to heal herself at first. What if she was able to perform ritual or internalized magic? Perhaps even a bit of artificing or enchanting? These were never her strengths before, but if she could pull it off, she could at least know for sure.

And she knew exactly what she could try it out on first. Something simple. Something easy. Something any first year apprentice could manage. And yet, if she could pull it off...

Gathering her mana inside of her, she started forming the basic formulae and circles within her and focused on the drink in her hands. Slowly and carefully, she poured that spell into the 'juice' in that can, careful to maintain its form as she worked. Each step of the process had to be meticulous and performed slowly to make sure she didn't waste any mana and that it was correct.

Several minutes later, with sweat on her brow from concentration, she was finished. Holding up the can, she swirled the now bright yellow contents and beamed in delight before taking a sip. She had done it. She had turned whatever this was into a sunflora potion. It was one of the rare few instances she knew of where you could create a potion that regenerated more mana than it consumed. After she drank this, she should have most, if not all of her mana back after about a day and she could do all the experimentation she desired.

Just as she started chugging the rest of the drink down though, there was an electric crackle from her door and two large gentlemen dressed in dirty red trench coats rushed in, and grabbed her, holding her arms behind her back, the can falling forgotten to the floor. Behind them sauntered in a skeevy looking woman with a large scar across her face dressed all in crimson leather. Behind her were two more meatheads with Ryder between them looking like he'd been on the receiving end of a rather liberal beating.

When the woman spoke, she leaned in and her voice was dripping with murderous intent. "So my sources confirmed that you had found your way off the balcony and to the ground just fine. They even checked your vitals. You were terminal. But now my eyes must be deceiving me because you're up and walking." She then turned to one of her thugs. "A fall from this height should be terminal on this planet, right?"

"Yes, miss," he replied instantly. He looked like he was ready to give a detailed explanation, but with the look on her face, he quickly thought better of it.

"Then how is it you, my dear Miss Luna, don't even look like you fell out of bed? Hmmmm?" the woman asked, getting close enough so that Aurelia could smell the cheap alcohol she'd no doubt had a shot of just before coming here.

"I guess I got lucky," Aurelia replied as she glanced between this woman and Ryder, trying to size her up. She was clearly unhinged and Ryder looked like he was on the verge of passing out. If she said the wrong thing, she'd end up at the bottom of that alleyway again in a state she couldn't come back from. Worse, she'd dragged the one friend she'd made into things unknowingly. She would have to work out a plan to get both of them out of this, and fast.

"Lucky?" With a decidedly psychotic laugh, the woman in red slapped Aurelia across the face as if she were reprimanding one of her thugs. "Lucky! If you were lucky, you would have been able to pay us back what you owe us! No sweetie, you died and now you're one of those robots or something. Admit it - some corp took you and you're not even human, are you?"

While her men looked away sheepishly, Aurelia stared at her with her brow furrowed. In her research there had been mention about robots exploring the unlivable parts of this world, but that was it - no mention of people being replaced. "I have no idea what you're talking about."

"She's a conspiracy theory nutcase. There's no reasoning with her." Ryder mumbled out before one of the thugs holding him seemingly reluctantly punched him in the gut to silence him.

Conspiracy theorist? She knew just how to deal with them. "Oh, you're one of them, are you? Refuses to believe the truth even when it stares you in the face? In that case, you get the truth. I'm actually a ghost from another world. I inhabited this body and brought it back to life. It seems I have you to thank for it." As she was speaking, she was weaving a spell inside of herself and getting ready to channel it into the two men holding her. "And it seems this is a nice body. I think it really suits me and I've grown fond of it since inhabiting it. I can't say I'm fond of this world, however."

With a mental squeeze, she released her sleep spell into her two captors, knocking them out instantly. She relaxed and stretched her neck as the two large men dropped to the floor, seemingly collapsed from nothing. As the woman in red stepped back in shock, Aurelia frowned hard. "While I remember only a few things from this body, your face pops up a surprising number of times. You were not kind to Miss Luna, were you? Miss Red? You beat her often for minor infractions at her job, didn't you?"

"Miss Red?" the woman in red asked, now taken aback and confused.

"I don't know your name - just the beatings and the red outfits," Aurelia replied, taking a half step closer, eliciting a panicked look from the other woman. "Now, since I want to thrive in this world in which I now find myself, and it seems survival itself is difficult enough, and you seem to present yourself before me as a capable, if violent person, I suggest you forget the debt as Miss Luna already died for them and we exchange services in order to survive."

Aurelia then held up one finger. "You let me use your contacts and connections." She held up a finger on her other hand. "In exchange, I allow you the use of my skills with magic. Agree and we all walk out of here alive. Decline and... Well... I can find another body. Can you say the same?"

That last was a bluff, and it all hinged on if this woman even believed the first part about her being a ghost, which while not being a complete lie, wasn't exactly true, either. It was definitely a stretch.

The invading woman's eyes narrowed and she relaxed slightly, considering the proposal. The gears were at least turning in her head and from the way her eyes flitted over Aurelia's body as she thought, not all of those thoughts were wholesome. "The debt is from higher up than me, but I might be able to get it nullified. I'll need some sort of proof of this magic though. Something I can take back with me."

With a nod, Aurelia stepped over one of the sleeping thugs at her feet to a shelf on her wall to pick out a trinket. As she browsed the objects there, she glanced back and wondered just how low on the chain this woman was. "If we do work together, I'll need your name."

"Twelve years together and you still can't..." she started in a flash of anger before cutting herself off, settling herself and adjusting her crimson red leather top. "It's Acosta. Elena Acosta. Do you have something yet?"

"I think I might," Aurelia replied with a grin as she plucked up a lone crystal earring. She then stepped back over to Elena and held it out in one hand. Internally, she had already prepared the spell and it was only a moment before a bright light flared to life inside the tiny crystal, filling the room with scintillating colors. "I would keep it in something so you don't stand out."

Her mouth agape, Elena carefully picked up the tiny earring now doing its best to mimic the sun. "I um... Yeah, I think we'll get in touch with you soon." Still in awe, she slipped the earring into a pocket, the light still leaking out, then nodded to her two awake grunts. The two men, to their credit, were holding it together quite well and as soon as the light was out of their sight, snapped out of their stupor and realized it was time to leave. Thus, they dropped Ryder, picked up their fallen companions, and followed their boss out of the now broken door.

"Ok, now, let's get you healed," Aurelia muttered as she finally relaxed and headed over to Ryder, thankful that she had managed to make that sunflora potion and was able to figure out a little about spell casting in this new world. It was the first step to surviving, then thriving.

 

RSS Feed