Chapter 1
Night was falling, but I paid it no heed as I worked. This enchantment was more important than sleep. My workbench’s lights flickered, which told me someone else was drawing a lot of juice from the solar-driven batteries I’d set up. It was probably Bridget cooking. I’d seen her and Sakura come back recently after a successful hunt. My stomach growled, and I really should have stopped hours ago—but this was too important. I was busy putting my Master Artificer job to the test with my latest creation. At first glance, this weapon appeared to be a humble sword. Well, it was a sword, but it was anything but humble. Enchanted for sharpness, penetration, magical effects, damage resistance, and a half-a-dozen other useful things, this sword would be the Swiss army knife in my force’s arsenal. It wasn’t specialized for any one particular task. It would ensure that my people were never caught in a situation like the Samhain Clan had found themselves in. They’d faced specters that could only be destroyed with magic damage, while they’d only been able to deal physical damage. The lack of magical weapons had crippled their offensive capabilities. This weakness made the Shadefall rebellion possible—until I arrived and with my Artificer creations had tilted the odds back in Myrina’s family’s favor. If I could get Gobgob and her tribe or the workers in Shadefall to mass-produce these swords, I would feel more confident about handling whatever the System threw at us next. I wanted us to be as prepared as possible. Considering how difficult the first four races had been to defeat, I expected the next four to be even harder. We’d survived this first round of shard on shard by the skin of our teeth. Much of that was because of infighting between me and Craig, and later between Crownhill Station and Crownhill County Prison. Thankfully, I’d resolved those issues in our favor, and all the humans on this shard were ready to present a united front. I just hoped it would be enough. It was my responsibility to lead everyone to victory. That’s why I’d been enchanting almost nonstop since Lisette’s death over a week ago. Since then, I’d been working on strengthening my people however I could. After cutting out what I wanted from a sheet of vinyl, wrapping the sword in it, and then dumping the whole thing in a vat of acid, all I’d need to do was hook it up to some electricity and— “Watcha doing?” Myrina asked, swinging her legs over my workbench. She’d shrunk herself down again, so she was back to being a head shorter than me. Last week, her legs would easily have touched the ground. Her people had the unique racial gift of compressing their mass—repeatedly. This allowed them to increase their density to supernatural degrees, which allowed them to make better use of their superhuman strength and rapidly heal from wounds that would kill most other races. “I’m etching this sword to prepare it for enchantment,” I explained. “Doesn’t look like you’re doing much etching. Every time I’ve seen enchanters at work, they’re always sweaty and grunting as they struggled to carve clean lines into a metal bar.” Myrina made a few huffing and grunting noises as she pretended to draw on the desk with extreme effort. “Well, back on Earth, we’re a bit more sophisticated. I made a vinyl mask and will be etching the pattern into the sword with acid. Making clean lines is a bit easier this way. And it will also be easier for Gobgob and her workers to mass produce them.” I explained all this as I filled a tube with rust remover I’d stocked up on in my barn. It had paid dividends, having a bit of everything tucked away for the apocalypse. This probably wasn’t the best thing to use, but I’d tested it. It worked well enough for enchanting purposes. Myrina hovered over my shoulder while I worked. I got the sense that she was immensely bored. That wasn’t unexpected, though. She was a city girl, and this was a rural farmhouse. She’d probably wandered in, hoping to spar with me—either that, or sex. Sadly, I had time for neither until this very important work was finished. It wasn’t the best way to spend our honeymoon, but that kind of relaxation would have to wait until the next phase of the integration was over. Myrina wandered out of my barn with a sigh, and I made a bit more progress before Sakura wandered in. “Carter,” my former boss and current Oni lover said, “I’ve been looking through the business documents for the workshops on Themyscira. You’ve got a lot of tasks that deserve their own dedicated role. Given how well our stuff with the Dragon Lodge is selling, I think we’d be wise to invest in hiring more staff for the workshops. I would like to move away from selling raw goods and towards producing more value-added products. That’s more sustainable long term.” I waved Sakura off. “You’re the former businesswoman, Sakura. I trust you to handle that side of things. I’m just an artificer—one currently engaged in some very delicate work.” “Alright, okay, I’ll take care of it...” Sakura’s voice trailed off as she scribbled something down on a piece of paper before darting in to place a kiss on my forehead. My hands were full as I dipped the sword in acid, so I couldn’t return the favor. Not long after Sakura had vanished, Bridget appeared. “Dinner’s ready, Carter!” Bridget waved from the door. “I’ll be inside in a moment, Bridget!” I replied. “I’m almost done!” While I loved all my companions dearly, I couldn’t help but notice that between the three of them the last time I’d had some quiet time by myself to focus had been... well, I couldn’t remember the last time. It had probably been back before the integration. Myrina had once mentioned spatially compressed time dilation chambers. If I ever wanted a moment to myself, I needed to figure out how to build one. I left the sword to soak in the acid bath overnight. Tomorrow, I would test it for enchantment integrity. For now, it seemed like everyone wanted to see me. “There you are!” Bridget was all smiles as she grabbed me by the wrist and led me from the living room to the dinner table. It looked like Sakura and Myrina had been not too patiently waiting for me. “Sorry,” I said as I sat down, “you all should have started without me.”
