Daniel, Mordak, and I eat a lunch of dried fruits, thinly sliced meats, and cheeses, washed down with some weak wine that Mordak says comes from a type of grape that needs mana to grow. The wine is pretty sweet and goes down easily.
After we finish eating, Mordak leads Daniel and me out of the room and down the hall to another workshop, this one filled with what I imagine are prosthetics. Arms and legs line the wall, some with their flesh and muscle still attached, but most of them are only made of bone with a few metal pieces for reinforcement. I guess I should have expected them to just be limbs from dead people. It makes sense.
“This is where the magic happens, where old bones and flesh are turned into something beautiful, something useful.” Mordak says as he turns around to face us, gesturing around at the room he’s so clearly proud of. “I guarantee I have something here almost as good as your normal hand. At least better than that blob of mana you had yesterday.”
Mordak leads me to a table in the middle of the room and sits down, gesturing for me to do the same. The table is cluttered with tools and books about anatomy and enchantments from a quick glance. Daniel walks over to some of the completed prosthetics and starts examining them.
Mordak looks at me from across the table with a look that I’m beginning to get a lot these days. The look of someone who wants something from me. I’m not too surprised. He’s been very generous, and nothing is ever truly free.
“I was hoping we could come to an agreement about a few things before I get you fitted out for a new arm.” He says with a kind smile. “I’m going to be blunt here, because I think we both know what I’m after.”
I see Daniel shift slightly upon hearing this, just enough to be able to react if Mordak tries something.
“The research crystals are from the lab.” I say, nodding to myself at the decision I’m about to make. I can’t just be a pushover and hand them over. I’m almost certain they are far too valuable for that, but that doesn’t mean I have to keep them hidden away until I find the right buyer. After a moment of thought, three wooden boxes appear on the table, teleported from my storage core. Three dozen crystals, all full of research on necromantic practices thought to have been lost for centuries.
“I’ll loan them to you, for your help with everything, and for the new hand. You can copy down whatever you want from them, but if you or the Necromancers Guild makes any money from it, I want my cut. Deal?”
Mordak looks at the crystals with a hungry gaze, his eyes lingering on the boxes before they meet mine. “How long can I have access to them? And is fifteen percent of any profits acceptable?” He asks.
“Until I leave Barad, which could be anywhere from right after we fix Clark to months from now. And I want thirty percent. Two others and I had to risk our lives for that research.”
A wide grin appears on Mordak's face. “You drive a hard bargain, space mage, but I agree.” He says. “But don’t expect any money for a while. This kind of work always takes a while, especially when it’s done in secret. And I’m sure at least some of it will be useful for our current… project. I assume it’s alright if Duncan and Stella look at them as well?"
“Yeah, that’s fine.” I say. “Just don’t share it with anybody untrustworthy.”
“Oh trust me, I’m going to tell as few people as possible until I get some solid results from it. Wouldn’t want some schmuck from another Guildhall taking our credit. Or money,” he says with a slight sigh. “Anyway, let’s get on to the fun stuff. A left hand was it?”
I take off my coat, revealing my left arm, ending in a stump in the middle of my forearm. The end of my limb is completely healed, as it has been for a while now, and I’m excited to finally get a proper replacement.
“May I?” Mordak asks, reaching towards the limb.
I nod my head, and he takes the stump in both hands, examining it. “A very clean cut. How did you lose it?” He asks.
“It was poisoned during a fight, and I couldn’t stop the spread in time, so I cut it off with a sword.” I respond with as much of a neutral tone as I can, hoping he doesn’t think I’m some kind of maniac.
He just nods with an understanding look and lets go of my limb. “Well, thanks to your clean cut, getting a new limb fitted will be a bit easier, but before that I need to ask you a few questions. Personal ones, about your affinities, stats, and traits. We can move to a private room for that if you wish, but all workshops here are heavily guarded against spying and surveillance.”
This I know is true, as the Necromancers Guildhall here has one of the strongest barriers that I've seen in the city, and even once inside there are a few more barriers that stop my spatial perception from expanding past them.
Support the creativity of authors by visiting NovelBin for this novel and more.
“Nah, we can do it here. Daniel already knows all of that anyway.”
Mordak gives me a nod and starts his questionnaire. “What are your primary and secondary affinities?”
“Space is my only affinity.” I respond.
His eyes reveal a slightly shocked expression but go back to their casual professionalism soon after. “Well, that complicates things slightly. I don’t have any parts of a true space mage, and it’s unlikely I ever will. The damn Spacers Guild won’t sell them no matter how much we offer.” He grumbles. “What about traits? Do you have any traits that would affect your arm or hand? I can try to match with a limb that has something similar, at least.”
“Yeah, it’s a trait called [Mana-Body Synchronization]. I got the trait after I lost the hand, though, if that changes anything.”
“It doesn't." He says as a book appears in front of him and he starts flipping through it. “Ah, here we go, [Mana-Body Synchronization].” He takes a few seconds to read it in what I assume is a book of traits or something. “Oh wow, that’s interesting. Very useful for a close-range fighter, but even better for a mage. I should have something similar to this, but I doubt it will be as good.”
“Anything is better than what I’ve got.” I chuckle.
“Last question, would you prefer more mana focus or body focus for the stats?” He asks.
“Mana for sure. As long as it can withstand swinging a sword, that’s all the strength I need.”
He nods and opens a leather book on the table, a handwritten inventory by the looks of it, and starts flipping through it. After a few minutes of looking, he leaves and comes back with two arms, one flesh and blood and one purely skeletal.
“Okay, so these are the two best options we have in stock right now.” He thumps the flesh and blood arm down on the table. The skin tone is noticeably darker than mine and has a series of lines winding down from the shoulder to each fingertip like a tattoo. “This arm is from someone with a primary fire affinity and a weak secondary space affinity. The tattoos on them are part of a trait, allowing mana to be moved faster and stored inside of them. The notes here say the tattoos glow based on how much mana they are holding. The only issue with this arm is that you will need to keep the flesh on it from rotting, which can be quite a pain if you spend too long away from civilization.”
“What do you mean keep the flesh from rotting? There’s no way to permanently preserve it?” I ask.
“Unfortunately no, not here. A proper and successful transplant would solve that, but I don’t think that’s what you want, since this is only supposed to be a stopgap until you can get your real arm regrown. I much prefer skeletons anyway. Hardly any maintenance is required.” He says as he puts down the other limb, the skeleton of an arm up to the elbow.
“Now this one is a real beauty. It comes from someone without a space affinity, but something adjacent. Gravity. She had two important traits that affected her bones. One is similar to yours but focused solely on the bones, and the other is for increased finger dexterity. I wouldn’t count too much on that last one though, as it also needs flesh to work properly.”
“May I?” I ask as I gesture toward the limb, getting a nod from Mordak.
The bones have some slight engravings on them running down the entire length. Examining them further, I feel traces of mana running through them, acting like small wires that keep all the bones together. It also takes and holds my mana really well, not as good as my real arm, but better than many of the crystals I’ve used.
“So, how would we go about attaching it?” I ask, hoping it can just slide on and off.
“I take it you want this one then?” he says while pointing to the skeletal hand, getting a nod from me. “Most of the work on it is already done. I just need to cut it to length and attach this.” He says as he pulls out what looks like a stainless steel cup big enough to stick my arm in. I can feel some pretty clear signs of it being enchanted despite the outside being completely plain.
He has me lay both of my arms on the table and uses my remaining arm to get the length of the new one right, and then he takes it over to one of the workbenches and starts sawing the bones off at where he marked. He reaches for a few tools after but stops before he grabs them and turns to Daniel. “Want to help me? Your metal skill would make this go by quicker.”
Daniel, one to always want to expand his skillset, readily agrees and walks over to Mordak. After about fifteen minutes of Mordak telling Daniel to tighten the metal here or make a small change there, they finish, and Mordak presents the limb to me, which I immediately [Inspect].
[Osteomantic Left Arm Prosthesis] - A prosthetic made from the bones of the left arm of a gravity mage.
The prosthetic is a pearly bone white, with the stainless steel cup at one end attached to the end of the arm bones. I can tell that it's slightly thinner than my real bones, probably because it came from a woman, but that doesn't really bother me. It's only temporary anyway.
“Well, don’t just stare at it. Try it out!” Daniel says impatiently.
Mordak shifts the limb so I can slide my stump into the cup. “It will take you some time to really learn how to use it, but I’m sure a talented guy like you will have no issues.”
The new arm fits snugly, especially after I feed it some mana and it creates a slight suction on my arm, keeping it securely in place. Inside of the cup there are a few small crystals that are used to control the limb with mana. After about a minute I finally get all the fingers to close in a fist.
I notice that the tips of the finger bones are enchanted as well, something to help with grip, I think. I keep feeding mana into the bones, and they keep greedily drinking it up until I finally hit the mana capacity limit. I think it can hold about two-thirds of the mana my flesh-and-blood arm and hand hold, so it’s not too bad.
“This is nice,” I say. “I can finally dual wield again.” A grin begins tugging at my lips, and I so badly want to test this out in a nearby dungeon. “Daniel, after we finish our work for Clark and Duncan, we need to check out a dungeon with Corvax.”
“Let’s get back to work then, shall we?”