The Great Extraction

Riana Maren

The Great Extraction, Part One

This particular story begins where many of the stories of the mad scientist of Errings Rising begin, in the dark, dank depths of the makeshift laboratory carved out of the remnants of a torture chamber, provided willingly by the guild ace Sanguine and likely mildly tolerated-- or even more likely completely forgotten about-- by the Queen. Riana considered this all a blessing, for she was therefore able to complete her work in relative peace and quiet, where the constant nattering, trudging and movement of the castle around her while the guild took care of their liberatory operations. Needless to say, the woman much preferred the calm and serenity of the dimly-lit room that she had claimed as her own. A series of hardlight holographic screens projected their low blue glow and illuminated what of the room she needed to see. There was a certain kind of eerie calmness to all of it, when the only noises to be heard in the room were the low whir of fans that evacuated air from the computational devices scattered around the room that managed the insane thought power that gave life to a myriad of devices, operating everything from research and development to live delivery of projection models as Riana created the next great scientific wonder. The only other real sounds in the room were the sounds of rapid hammering of fingers upon keys as Riana stared deeply into the screen that rested before her eyes and the occasional creak of her chair as she adjusted herself, fidgeting absentmindedly as she worked through the next problem that was going to claim her psyche. There was the occasional exhale of air as Riana reminded herself that she did in fact need to breathe like any other mortal person, which was an unfortunate thing for the poor sack of flesh to need to do in order to sustain the brilliant mind that it carried inside the hard bone shell that was her skull. Other than that particular requirement, everything was all but silent, with no distractions, no interruptions, and no other people around. In short, this was absolute heaven. Ri could not have asked for much more in terms of ideal conditions with which to work on her next and possibly greatest project yet, for she was diving into research that she had never had contemplated previously.

This particular day, Riana had made considerable effort to re-arrange the laboratory into something that she’d be able to use; a makeshift medical table had been created in the centre of the room, with sufficient strapping to hold down any patient that decided to become unruly and struggle against the work that was going to be done. In truth, it was mostly an old torture slab that had been retrofitted with enough equipment to hold it perfectly horizontal so that someone could lay on it and Riana could study the subject that was upon the table. She’d outdone herself in that particular regard, considering her usual form of human experimentation was to put the barrel of a weapon to someone’s head and pull the trigger just to see how well the blood and brains splattered on the wall behind them. It absolutely was sick and twisted in her world, but hey, this was the way she liked it.

Instead, she was very focused on the streams of data that were forming in front of her, which she was beginning to read. Across four monitors, she’d accessed data on so many different kinds of power drive and energy shielding that she’d encountered in her time - now, however, this was entirely different for her. She was going to need to kick her research up about one hundred notches to achieve her next goal with correct results, and this was going to be the way she did it. This was going to be the start of something titanic for her, on a scale that she had never actually thought possible. The depths of space were a wonderful place, and Riana was earnestly in preparation for the potential to explore it; first she could consider the solar system in which Earthland resided, and then see about stretching far beyond the solar system in search of something new and great. Part of her honestly considered finding a new world in order to permanently colonise and start a brand new life in some far-away place so that she could start afresh and build an entire planet in her own image. Did she have the power, and potentially resources, to begin doing that? Absolutely yes. However, before she began on that particular adventure, Riana had more she wanted to achieve here in Earthland. First, to rub all of the things she had learned, built and done in the face of others, and exploit them for the resources that they had available. Secondly, it was far easier for her to expand her magical prowess when she was surrounded by others that could also demonstrate magical abilities. Unfortunately, this alone was a viable enough reason in her mind to stay; when she could accelerate her learnings by being in areas permeated with ethernano and speak with those well conversant in its applications, it was far easier for her to understand the depths of the magic that she herself wielded. Despite how much of a bore that seemed to the mechanical scientist, it was such a necessity in her time and her line of work. She could not plumb the depths of the lacrima she had acquired without the assistance of others, which brought nothing but irritation to her psyche. She wanted to be entirely self-sufficient, but even here, she simply could not; her understanding of the manipulation of ley lines and magical energies was as of yet insufficient such that she could validly write a thousand page treatise on it. Even if every bone in her body screamed out that she needed to leave this place and begin somewhere new where she could finally have the peace and quiet that she so desperately craved, the logician in her told her that this place was where she needed to be. For now.

It was to this end that Riana was about to engage in her newest and likely most terrifyingly difficult experiment. Many in Errings Rising knew that Riana was master of a particular lacrima that gifted her with not only an understanding and mastery of machines, but what many did not know about that particular device was that it was not from Earthland. It was, in fact, entirely extra-terrestrial, hailing from an unknown world in an unknown part of space. It was the discovery of this lacrima that not only inspired Riana in the pursuit of further and greater sciences than her career path was already projecting her on, but it had also bestowed unto her the truth of a dark, potentially deadly, and incredibly exciting secret: there were in fact other forms of life out there that were sentient (which, to be fair, many people already knew), but some of them were trained in the projection and manipulation of ethernano, that was present on other worlds. The lacrima that she had obtained was proof of this; it was the remaining power of a long-lost king of another world, the culmination of his spirit, knowledge, essence and being given mechanical form until it came to Earthland years ago. It had imparted unto her the knowledge of manipulation of machines, weaponry and most importantly granted her the ability to seamlessly blend magicks and metals, so that she could create constructs of terrifying proportions. This was something she had kept close to her heart, rather literally, but had never truly plumbed its depths for every tiny piece of knowledge that it contained. As far as she was aware, while she had awakened the vast majority of the lacrima’s secrets, there was yet more that she would be able to discover were she to study the lacrima in greater detail. This was something that she absolutely intended do to, for she was a woman of science and would leave no stone unturned in her great and unyielding pursuit of knowledge.

In fact, she could recall when she had originally discovered this lacrima like it was yesterday…


It was a dark, mid-winter night; the light blossomed as it reflected from the moon, shining amidst a blanket of bright stars. Together, the heavens began to shine down on the snow banks surrounding the not-so-modest home of the Maren dynasty. Four pairs of eyes beheld the firmament above as they settled in around a crackling fire, setting up telescopes and star-gazing equipment between them as they prepared to document the movements of the distant stars above them. This was a routine ritual for the family who prized the sciences above all; Mikhael Maren was a man of repute and erudite lore, who studied in far-away countries - and being Pergrandian himself was beholden to the wisdom of many collective years of intense and high-tier study. His three daughters - the eldest, Alexis, of black hair and intense green eyes whose stare was nothing short of vicious as she quoted ancient knowledge as if it were simply reciting the alphabet; the middle, Allaina, who had already been accepted into the Pergrandian army in order to serve as a junior officer while she commenced her way through officer training school, of fiery red hair and the same bright green eyes as her older sister; and finally, their youngest, Riana, almost identical to her older sister but with far more respect for the sciences than the one she resembled most. Together, the family routinely went out to study the heavens, particularly on cloudless nights such as this - while their mother, who had passed some years prior, had also appreciated this activity, it was one of the incredibly small number of things that they could do as a family.

However, it did not take a genius to appreciate the family dynamics within five minutes of setting up - ser Mikhael was already setting up beside their eldest, with the two red-headed daughters both separately setting up their equipment from the others  - though Riana was by leaps and bounds the furthest away, barely close enough to the fire to receive of its warmth; the girl of barely twenty years of age was not interacting with the others as she finalised the movement of her telescope to position itself around the heavens and prepare for the task that was about to unfold for them all. Her father paid her absolutely no mind as he assisted Alexis with her set-up as she nattered on about what she was studying at the prestigious university she was in the process of studying her doctorate for; meanwhile, the stoic Allaina was close enough to the others to overhear the words that were being said and even to participate in the exchange, but certainly far enough to prove where she stood in her father’s eyes. The man, as cold as ice and respecting only the achievements of his three surviving family members, was proud only when they made achievements. Yet, no matter how hard Riana strove to prove her own success, it was met only with rebuke and scorn as her older sister had typically prepared an achievement to eclipse it within moments. This was the dichotomy of the family Maren - science and knowledge above everything else, and contributions to the world to prove the family name stronger the only currency that could be exchanged for approval and affection of any kind, despite such affection being entirely absent from the vocabulary of every single one of their hearts since the day they lost the fair maiden that was the mother of the three daughters.

So, they began to turn to the skies, one by one. It was simple to track and plot the movements of the stars, and that they did; notes were scrawled and calculations performed to ensure the skill of tracing the movements of heavenly bodies was kept entirely sharp. Riana had already begun to shiver and freeze; being so far away from the warmth of the fire they had set up was both a mistake and a chilling rebuke to the fact that she and her family mixed as well as oil and water. Her father had never shown her any kindness, especially given the fact that she had been indirectly responsible for the death of her mother at such a young age. That retributive scorn had never left his psyche, and yet still he assigned the blame of an accident to a young girl - so much so that she was slowly but surely pushed away inch by bloody inch from what was rightfully hers. Resentment was the only thing on her mind - to her father, to her sisters; her achievements were entirely her own, and she was absolutely not ever going to assign any of her intelligence, learning or academic integrity to any of the things that she had learned growing up in the Maren family.

Instead, she turned to the skies. They did not care for her, and she did not care for them; they simply existed, cold and unfeeling, uncaring for those who observed its patterns and motions. That was the way Riana liked it, now. It was impossible to have your heart broken when there was simply no heart to break in the first place. No emotional attachment. It was the simpler route. This exchange of study and knowledge was little more than a transactional learning experience and Riana was all the happier for it. So, she gazed. She plotted the positions and the movements and speeds of the brightest celestial objects, silent as the skies she watched. She kept her own notes in her own way so that the others could simply not read it - and for all the time that she spent with them, only Allaina had even bothered to spare her a single glance as they began to work - but did not bother to speak. That bridge was already burned to little more than charred embers, which was something of a shame. The divisive rift between the entire family as their father played them off against each other to see which could achieve more and bring his own reputation and glory higher had cost them all incredibly dearly by this point in time.

However, as Riana had set herself up first and been performing the first plots while they spoke, she channelled that efficiency and had already performed past the others. Their banal chatter had proven to allow her to witness something that the others did not see - the first streaks of a heavenly star shower that was beginning to rain down across them. She saw the first moments of the streaks across the skies, the beautiful tails of rocks breaking the atmosphere and burning away brightly in the frictional heat of the outer edges of the aether a beautiful reminder that it was only mother nature itself that provided joy in this world, that the laws of nature were the only cold comfort in the hellish nightmare landscape created by mankind. She cast her view perfectly skyward and, without telling the others, bore witness to the celestial event that was unfolding before her very eyes. It was so mesmerizingly breathtaking that she watched, and watched. No telescope was required to observe this.

However, one thing caught her eye in the star shower; one object seemed to leave a longer trail than the others, before it broke away and plummeted towards the snowy earth nearby; it was likely a five or ten minute trek to get to the location nearby their family home, but there was no mistaking the fact that some object had broken away from the others and made contact with the ground. It was in that instant that the rest of the family began to pay attention to the star shower, and were joyously celebrating the event together as they watched the stars. Without another word, Riana turned on her heel and left; she’d seen the object and, as far as she could tell, the others could not. Fortunately for her, the fact that she’d need to walk through the house gave her a simple, ready-made excuse for the moment one of her sisters noticed her leaving–

Which was right on cue.

“Riana! Where are you going? Watch the star shower!” commanded the powerful baritone voice of her father, whose orders brooked no argument– except her level of spiteful defiance was far greater than many gave her credit for. More than once, she had found out the hard way that this attitude got her into trouble.

”I commenced watching it before you and have taken sufficient notes. I require the restroom,” came her rebuke as cold as the snow around her. Yes - she was going to be pretending to go to use the toilet, while she slunk away with a sample jar and a hope in her heart that she had discovered something else. Perhaps she would be able to discover something that would help her in her quest to outshine her sisters once and for all.

A ten minute trek from the house revealed the landing site of a meteorite; covered in mineral stone and fragmented all across the small crater that had been created through the snow drift that had formed over time, Riana felt her hopes die as she leaned forward to collect a sample of the rock to study it for future knowledge and, perhaps, analyse it to see if it had any traces of any rare minerals laced through its structure. However, as she took a knee to collect such sample with freshly gloved hands, she noticed that there was something buried slightly inside a piece of space rock - it was a triangular object, with one red, one blue, and one green corner, with a black main body and a strange inner light that pulsed every time she observed the item in question. This pulsating piece of arcana was something that Riana absolutely did not recognise and, in a moment of weakness, instinctively reached out to grasp the small object, despite being ignorant of its origins, whether it was radioactive - any thought of caution was thrown out the window as she gave herself over to the chase of a fantastical object that presumably had landed itself here from the depths of space; this was a thing and an opportunity that she could not pass up, particularly if it gave her an edge over the rest of her family. This was a discovery that she absolutely had to keep secret from the others, and as she reached around it with spindly fingers to pull it free of its stony prison, she could feel the warmth of the object against her skin as she clasped it with one hand.

It filled her with confidence to know that her fingers had as of yet not melted away to touch the object. One mighty tug and the item was free from the stone; it was a little bigger than her hand, perhaps the size of a compact disc. Instead of a hard-edged triangle, its surfaces were rounded, and she felt that it lived with the knowledge of something otherworldly, as a voice began to whisper into the back of her mind. It was very faint, almost as if she was hearing the voice of a man across a large, empty field - the most bare tendrils of sound that she did not understand. All she knew about this item was twofold - one, this discovery could absolutely not be shared with the others at any point for any reason; two, whatever knowledge or secrets that this thing held would be absolutely incredible. She knew that this strange object hailing from outside Earthland would contain something that was no less incredible than the star shower that it had rode in upon.

As she eventually returned home, she took a brief moment to visit her bedroom to stash the strange foreign item away for future study, and then carried her sample of space stone with her so that she could provide a ready-made excuse to her family. As she did return, shivering and cold, to the fireside, the broad-shouldered man awaiting her return towered over her and sneered down at his youngest daughter. She could tell that this particular piercing gaze was designed to test her, and to analyse her reaction from how she answered the inevitable query he posed to her. Everything to him was a test. He poked and prodded and chided and goaded every last reaction from them as much as he could with simple reason to do so; this was no exception and he would in fact have the answers he sought by the time he was done with her.

“Where have you been, Riana?” he asked, venom dripping from every word. There was almost an unspoken threat there - and she knew that if there was, from past history, he would absolutely carry it out. She already had received at least one beating from him in the last few months; the wounds from that still smarted and had only barely healed. Any form of perceived insubordination was met with a swift rebuke, often with the back of a hand. Riana had learned this the hard way - all three of them had. He would not suffer such impertinence from them without a reply in kind.

”My apologies, Father. I noticed a meteorite fell near the house, and went to get a sample for future study. I am not hopeful for the outcome of anything new, but it is something worth examining.” She had to bite back a sigh that would give away her irritation at the questioning, but she held it all back and maintained a stony expression. Her sisters watched on with similar expressions on their faces; they too had learned to lock it all away in the presence of their father in order to preserve their dignity. It was not a great situation for any of them, yet they all persevered through the challenge no matter what.

Without hesitation, Mikhael snatched up the sample that Riana held in her hands, raised it to his eye level to take a good look at the contents though thin-framed glasses, and then looked down upon his youngest… as he always did. This was the game he played in order to push them to their limits and then beyond them; he was not a man who played for kindness, nor for love; he played the game of station-climbing and needed his daughters to understand that, especially as women, this could be a cruel world - their own achievements would be as dust without a strong family name to support them and he would not have them fail on his watch.

“Your initiative is to be commended,” was the only remark the stoic man offered her before stomping away back to his station, the sample still in his hands not to be returned to his daughter. Yes, she had completed some form of noteworthy task, but even then it was insufficient for him. Everything she ever did was always insufficient. Even the praise that melted from his mouth always seemed so hollow and fake; she knew it was, and by now along the trajectory of her life she knew that it absolutely was. More than once he had taken credit for the work of his children to the faces of his peers; no matter how hard he pushed them to breaking point, he would always continue to do so. It was the very reason Allaina had decided that academia was not for her and that military life was far more suitable for her needs; it took her away from the clutches of the man they called their sire and allowed her to stand on her own two feet, despite the initial protest that he had given her. Eventually, he used her as a bragging point, that she was serving the Empress well, and that her achievements would only serve to further the family’s name and prestige. It was little more than pointless vainglory.

Riana, however, now had something that might just turn all of that around. Her personal fortune was about to change, and she did not know precisely what it was she had stumbled upon - it was the one thing that was going to change her life, permanently, irrevocably, and forever. It was going to push her past her boundaries - beyond all human boundaries, even - and make her into one of the greatest scientific minds the world had ever seen. First, however, she simply had to unlock the secrets of the device she had claimed as her own. Then, she would achieve greatness. No matter what her sisters did or thought, she would stand on her own two feet without the support of her family’s fame and glory,


The simple recollection of that memory was always enough to simultaneously please her and make her blood boil. It was such a pertinent reminder of why she had cast aside her family, never to speak to them unless absolutely necessary, and also why she had cast aside humanity as a whole - no matter how hard one strove, someone was always going to be present to take credit for someone else’s work and stomp on an actual achievement until it was little more than dust in the wind. This was an abhorrent thought to the scientist, whose work had eventually taken her out of her homeland of Pergrande and out to Fiore; half-Pergrandian herself, born to a Fiorean mother, Riana had eventually come here to be far away from her family, given that the likelihood of two renowned Pergrandian scientists and a Pergrandian military officer would ultimately keep them locked in their homeland for a considerable amount of time to come. Even now, she was simply here to study and further her knowledge of magic. One could not expand magical knowledge in Pergrande after all - it was tantamount to heresy, and absolutely frowned upon by just about everyone present in its society. Even though their Espers existed as masters of psionics, these were different things entirely. Now, however, was the time for her to buckle down, finish the study of the item that she now knew as a lacrima, and unlock the final hidden mysteries of the thing she wished to know the depths of. There was no diffidence, no hesitation; Riana would undoubtedly need to conquer the depths of knowledge that this item brought to her, despite having claimed so much of its hidden secrets for herself. No, there would undoubtedly be more hidden within its shell, designed to be discovered by someone who had already contemplated the depths of knowledge held within this. If it were her, she would never simply just lock away the items in a single repository; she would put the quality content away where someone who had the wherewithal to search for greater knowledge could eventually find it if they used lateral thinking skills. Riana knew that this would be the way a true jealous king thought to himself, for he knew that while the scion of circuitry had done his job and done it incredibly well, there was absolutely no way that he would consider anything less than a true maestro of his craft to be ready for the actual knowledge that he purported to keep. If that was true, then the Pergrandian scientist was going to have to delve deeper into the mysteries of the lacrima in question.

She leaned forward in her seat, brow furrowing as she contemplated the streams of data that slowly scrolled past her eyes. Much of it consisted of the technical readouts of devices that she had compiled, with some highlighted sections of the document that lent itself to the prowess of the Gunfuhrer; while Riana’s knowledge had been almost sufficient before, this secondary repository made her so far advanced that even Pergrande was no longer on her level. However, she was unwilling to share her technology with others - and if even Her Imperial Majesty came knocking and requesting the data that she had, she would unhesitatingly turn her down. No, this was for her, and her alone. This knowledge was to be reserved for her, where only the perfectly curated mind that had so devilishly protected that knowledge could access it. As such, everything that was found here in data form was not connected to any external network. None would be able to access Riana’s stored information without being directly connected to that network as she was; the subcutaneous link she had created with her artificial intelligence had guaranteed that. Jealously, as the King before her, she guarded her secrets so that none else could learn them. It was the cycle of destruction that had led that king himself down this path, yet Riana was intent on not repeating such a critical outcome - truthfully, she would not be able to maintain her silence forever, but there would be nothing to hold her back once she had finally accessed the final drops of knowledge that this little triangular device held. Riana was intent on this. She would not be stopped, no matter the cost. This had been her promise to her younger self when she had acquired this lacrima, for she had sworn on her own life that she would be the greatest scientist this world, or any other, had ever seen - without the help of her family crest to illuminate her path. She had to stand on her own two feet or die in the attempt. There was no other way.

But for there to be no other way, Riana was going to have to take drastic action.

Riana Maren

The Great Extraction, Part Two

Sighing, Riana leaned back in her seat and considered the options she had before her as the information she had gathered flickered past those bright, green eyes. Truthfully, she didn’t have much to go on as far as understanding the lacrima and its true depths honestly went, but she was going to have to make do with whatever it was she could work out by this point. Riana knew full well what she signed up for once she had done sufficient research on this thing; she had kept it hidden and performed enough study on the idea of a lacrima when she had lived in Pergrande that she had come to Fiore some years ago, despite Pergrande frowning upon all study of the occult and all attached knowledge of ethernano, beyond exploitation for the military such that Pergrande could utilise this knowledge to ensure the absolute destruction of those they considered abhuman. As such, Riana had studied so much of this in absolute secrecy that she had sequestered her knowledge from every single person she had known in her life until she had successfully left the country - the country of her mother’s birth, using that as the pretext to leave the nation that would have oppressed her as much as humanly possible had they ever discovered the existence of the item that she had claimed. Unlike her fellow citizens she knew that this knowledge could be turned into something entirely deadly, and she had made it so. She had turned into a death-dealing arms designer, selling her wares to the highest bidder. Now, however, that was no longer enough. The situation across the world, and most certainly in her homeland, was escalating beyond control. War had broken out, and Riana did in fact plan on choosing a side so that she could be on the winning team; in order to be sufficiently prepared for that eventuality, however, she was going to have to prepare herself and deliver the knowledge of the lacrima in its fullest to her systems such that she could develop the greatest pieces of technology that her wandering mind could have ever conceived - and, likely, with sufficient knowledge attained to her, things that her mind simply could not have conceived.

However, the greatest difficulty in this task came with the nature of a lacrima. As many scientists of the occult arts of ethernano manipulation and its wider uses across the world could attest to, a lacrima was a wonderful thing to behold. It was the essence of crystallized ethernano, that thrummed with magic powers, and allowed those who manipulated such to access greater powers. Depending on the nature of the lacrima itself, it had a number of different uses. A lacrima could be used to power a simple device, like the widely-deployed iLac which was now seeing commercial success to the point that almost every single person in Fiore was now equipped with the device that kept them connected to each other in ways that only Pergrandian citizens seemed to enjoy out of every other person in the continent of Ishgar. There were other lacrimae, such as the ones used to power large vehicles - and then there were godly lacrima, those that were the actual crystallized essence of a branch of magic, ones that could actually be used to impart the wielder with a blessed understanding and ultimately manipulation of specific elements tied to a branch of magic - as a perfect example, the lacrima that Riana wielded gave her mastery of electricity, gadgets, constructs and weapons; she could mix and manipulate all of these in such a way that very few people could equal her in this, and could even consume metals and fuel in order to power herself and drive herself to great heights. It had gifted her the knowledge of so many different types of scientific knowledge, which was in turn given to her ability to create and produce more weaponry that others could simply not dream of. In turn, there was a single downside to such lacrima: they needed to be implanted into the wielder’s body to infuse themselves into the ethernano conduits that permeated their spirit. This was the trade-off; once it was in there, it was very difficult for it to come out of its own volition. At this point in time, there was now a small triangular object physically inside Riana’s body, taking up residence inside some free space within her rib cage - what little there was, at the very least. However, she knew full well that this object was in fact there, and she was going to have to do something about it. Extracting it simply was not an option at this point in time; she needed its knowledge in order to continue making use of the magical powers she had access to.

In truth, no, her mind had only come to a single conclusion that seemed logical enough to her - she was going to have to attempt to directly access the physical lacrima itself and connect it to her network directly in order to take, manipulate and access the data that she expected would be there hidden away in the item. It was the only logical conclusion she could see - which meant that at this point Riana was going to need to cut herself open, find the object inside her, and then perform the surgery such that she was going to have to connect the device. Which meant a few different things would have to eventually be true about all of this: first and foremost, Riana was going to need to be the one to perform the operation somehow, meaning she’d have to be conscious. Secondly, as a result of her being conscious, she was going to have to deal with the pain of cutting herself open on the operating table in order to hook the device up to it long enough that she could download all the available data, and then close herself back up. Was it problematic? Yes, most certainly. Would it be a damn difficult task to complete? Absolutely. Was it within the realm of her expertise? Also absolutely yes. She had sufficient knowledge to cut herself open and stitch herself closed.

-- Riana, I urge you to reconsider this course of action, –- the contralto voice of the artificial intelligence purred into her ear. SOFI, the Subcutaneous Operation and Fabrication Intelligence, had been designed not only to assist Riana in the management and creation of weaponry in order to make everything far more manageable in the long run, but the sheer fact was that Riana was going to need all the help that she could actually get in order to complete this particular task. SOFI had been running projections and calculations in order to make this a manageable operation - none of the projections looked particularly good for either of them as a particular matter. The opinion of the AI was generally received well and not handled in the same way her father had ever treated her, thankfully. This shift in paradigm, however, meant that SOFI was willing to extrapolate data and provide sufficient information to Riana such that she was going to have to step in. The artificial intelligence, after all, was no fool. She would provide her master with that which she needed to be steered on the right track.

Conversely, Riana would not be deterred for this; she was going to have to be very particularly careful with this particular task, and at the very least she was going to have to be awake for the data transfer to be completed. The expenditure of magical energy to interface with the lacrima itself was going to be an unfortunate necessity, meaning that she was going to need to be awake, conscious, and prepared to handle whatever came her way in order to successfully complete this task. She was going to need to be ready in case any complications arose from the procedure - not from a medical point of view but with the lacrima itself. Riana could not predict what would be required once she was open and there was going to need to be adjustment as far as she could tell. Unfortunately, she was unprepared to deviate from it; whatever defences the lacrima possessed would likely be used against her and Riana knew full well that she would likely need to be conscious enough to interact with the lacrima herself. This meant being conscious on the table while she was undergoing the procedure. She was going to have morphine in her system in order to work through the pain that she was feeling as best she could, as well as have numbing cream applied to the area; as much as she humanly could work through all of this, she planned on being the one to wield the surgical knife. SOFI knew this, and Riana did too; while they would not come to blows over this, she was set in her ways.

”No, SOFI - I have to do this. I need to be able to handle whatever happens,” the scientist said, only a mild tone of defiance in her voice. ”You shall not deter me, simply because I do not believe that you are able to manipulate my magic in my place.”

If SOFI could sigh, she would have, and audibly so at that. The woman could be incredibly headstrong and stubborn. Too much so for her own good, if the intelligence could have an opinion on the matter; Riana was carved differently from the rest, and very much so was she knowledgeable in that fact. That being said, it took the strength of a hundred men to convert her opinion into something workable; Riana was very difficult to convince once her mind was made up, unless overwhelming empirical evidence was presented before her. --The effects of morphine are well-documented on the human body, Riana. The suggestion that you will be able to completely negate their effects is at best a fallacy. Your physical constitution will be unlikely to be able to handle more than gross motor skills. Fine motor skills will be difficult in that state.  –-

The red-haired scientist paused. This was true - she could not argue with the fact that her body was in fact weaker than most; she had abandoned its upkeep long ago in favour of the pursuit of the mind. That was not to say she did not physically exercise, but at most it was the bare minimum. She had to agree with SOFI’s point; and, to that end, she waved her fingers through the air and called the mechanical form of SOFI-A into existence. It would have to suffice as the physical projection of her will, such that the procedure could be performed with fine motor skills. If it was not going to be her looking through the eyes of the mechanical monster as she had originally planned, then she would still execute the procedure as best she could by her own devices. It was the least she could do, and all things considered, this was likely the best course of action. Riana saw little other way, particularly given that SOFI was absolutely correct and she would be unable to really slice into her skin and organs and not slip. This would result in unacceptable outcomes and as a result Riana could only capitulate to the request.

She spun in her seat to face the mechanical form of her artificial intelligence - though, an actual form was something of a misnomer, as she was simply controlling this from elsewhere - and with her piercing green stare locked firmly on the black, red and gold machine, she stared down the beast as she let out an exhale. Goddess, she did not like being wrong, but she had to admit it. Her fingers steepled under her chin, pondering her next words very carefully; her nostrils flared indicating that she was at least mildly irritated, where she would not normally deign to let such failure of emotion show. This was not who she was, but behind closed doors she could admit it.

“Given that you have a valid point, SOFI, the procedure will be as follows: first, connect a catheter and inject two hundred millilitres of liquid morphine intravenously,” Riana began, quoting through the plan she had devised long ago in order to make this dream become a reality. This was something she had long planned for - this had been so meticulously considered that deviation would be considered a sin. It was, as far as she could see, the only way to do it. “Secondly, you will conduct an ultrasound to precisely locate the lacrima in question and calculate an optimum route to approach it. Once it is located and the ultrasound gel has been cleaned, numbing cream will be applied to the site. You will then surgically open my body until the lacrima is revealed. I will then respond to the lacrima, connect it to the system, and then we will proceed to close me back up, assisted by medical nanites as required.”

This was, at best, vague once the lacrima was exposed; the reality of the situation was that it was entirely reactive once the lacrima appeared. Riana could not attest to how things would end up going, for she was no farseer of the future. However, she was going to do her absolute best in terms of the completion of the experiment. A momentary thought occurred to her, however; there was something that needed to be done such that she could complete this experiment in total peace and quiet. Her hand flickered through the air a second time, and a second summoned battlesuit appeared; this time, with its visor long and wide and the deactivated energy blade hilt in its right hand and large energy-clad tower shield in its left indicated that it was in fact the first M-Doll in her series - Guardian, the melee combatant, was going to be performing a single task. The scientist’s lap dog would simply stand in front of the door on the outside and deter all intruders from entry. It did not need to be a verbal command, for SOFI was already managing the subroutine; the beast passed sideways through the portal, letting it close behind it, and then took its position. From through the door, the distinctive snap-hiss of the energy blade was rather self-evident.

Slowly, Riana leveraged herself from the seat, and nodded to SOFI-A. It was time. ”With that complete, let us begin.”

Without another word, for Riana no longer required verbal speech to complete her wishes, the scientist crossed to the centre of the table as SOFI-A prepared the various pieces of equipment that would be needed. First, the ultrasound machine, complete with gel; a sterile scalpel to make the appropriate incisions when the time came to slice the redhead’s epidermal layers open, and sutures to stitch the wound closed once she had sufficient cause to believe the operation a success. This was where the machine that Riana could allow to think for itself would come in most handy; able to access medical subroutines especially considering she had them pre-programmed, SOFI-A would be able to perform the vast majority of this task most admirably, and then Riana would not need to worry about operating the machinery herself. This, in hindsight, was a good compromise.

Footfalls echoed around the all but silent chamber as Riana contemplated for but a moment as to the enormity of the task before her, but said nothing as she disrobed her upper half in its entirety, then threw one leg over the table to lay down upon it. Cold steel met her now bare spine as she adjusted herself so that her head was square against the headrest, with at least some minimal comfort applied for her. Her arms and legs would be strapped down barring her right arm - she would need that in order to interact with the lacrima, which she, as she recalled, was on the right side of her body anyway, such that it avoided her actual beating heart. This was now going to play to her advantage, particularly if she needed to touch it.

In the next moment, her arm was still against the extension of the cold bed, where SOFI-A was already cleaning up a spot within her elbow to have the cannula inserted into one of her veins so that the morphine could be injected into her system. This was where the fun began, and Riana was already preparing for what was to come; this was going to be so mentally and physically draining that she knew she’d be sleeping this one off for about a week. Unfortunate as that was, the woman really did just need to get this done, and-

There was a sharp sting as the biting steel pierced her flesh accompanied by the feeling of a metallic hand against her skin, and then nothing; the drip bag of morphine was hooked up to the device a moment later and would begin to excrete out the liquid into her body. It took approximately twenty minutes for it to have effect, which time would be consumed by the fact that the pair wanted to confirm the lacrima’s location within her body via ultrasound. That machine was already being wheeled over upon its table to have the equipment close by for the rest of the experiment. Yes. Things were beginning to proceed apace.

She could see SOFI-A fussing with the ultrasound machine, preparing to bring the pen over to her body after the chill of the gel followed upon her chest, spread there by the tip of a robotic hand; it was such an odd feeling, particularly where Riana could not discern whether the gel or the mechanical hand was colder against her skin. It was rather unsettling, and that was a strange thing to be contemplating when the future of her scientific career was on the line. Yet, she couldn’t help but think that such things were important somehow now… These were funny thoughts to be having right before a procedure, weren’t they? Huh. That was almost amusing to think about. Goddess. What even was amusing?

A minute or so later, the ultrasound machine and its attendant hardlight holo-screen were projecting results; the tip of the ultrasound pen was tracing its way over her chest, attempting to locate the lacrima as it had been installed into her body. It made long, deliberate traces; this was nothing more than a cursory check, for the triangular shape of the device was so evidently a foreign body that even the artificial intelligence knew precisely what it was looking for. A single flash of a second would be enough to identify the device within her– and there it was. Just under her right breast, and off to the right - primarily so that it sat forward of the liver and underneath the lung - it was in a reasonably simple spot to access. Was this foresight on her part? She doubted it. Perhaps her original intent had been to avoid the vital organs and ensure that the body was simply functioning the way it should with or without the lacrima, given that she came from a place that naturally mistrusted magic in its entirety. Huh. Maybe some of the Pergrandian blood had actually worn off on her, which was most certainly an interesting thought to be having whilst on an operating table. Yes, this was most definitely disconcerting enough for Riana to be thinking about whilst she was about to have her body opened. What was going on inside her head?

”The morphine appears to be working, SOFI,” Riana mumbled, with just a hint enough of a slur in her voice that it most certainly was having the intended effect, perhaps ten minutes after it had been originally injected into her system.

-- It is good to know that the morphine is having the intended effect, Riana. I will now prepare to apply the numbing cream. -– This time, the voice was disembodied - like it was coming from somewhere very far away, a place that was most certainly not from the mouth of the mech that was operating this theatre at that moment. But SOFI didn’t have a mouth, did she? No, she didn’t give them mouths. Mouths were far too human to be put on a robot. Yes, that was correct.

Slowly, and with dedication, the machine removed the ultrasound gel from her body, and then began to apply the numbing cream that would be used to dull the pain from the blade slicing into the body; a sterile field was then erected using the medical nanites over the site where the incision was to be made. Most medical doctors and surgeons at this point would have begun to mark the skin, but SOFI did not require such reminders of human enfeeblement; her memory and placement of the edge of the scalpel would be so perfect that there would be nary an error. As the cream began to tingle upon Riana’s skin, she showed a hint of a smile across her lips.

”Mm, that feels nice,” she murmured, as if none could hear her. If SOFI could have shook her head and smiled at her mistress, she most certainly would have; this was Riana unchained and, for a moment, the woman who wished she was a mechanical lifeform herself was suddenly very human. It was such a departure from the norm that it was insane to think that  these were the thoughts she consistently and permanently locked away from the rest of the world. How different would Riana have become were she to stop hiding the truth that was buried so deep down?

At that point, it was clearly time - Riana was sufficiently out of it, and with enough time for the numbing cream to take effect, it was time for SOFI-A to take up the scalpel. A fresh sterile covering was placed over the wound site such that it assisted to reduce the chance of infection, and then the black-skinned monster prepared to make the cut. The hyper-honed blade was pressed carefully to Riana’s skin at the exact place that it needed to, and with a measured press of force, the mech sliced into Riana’s flesh. A sharp exhale followed it as Riana felt even through all of the measures that were being taken to reduce the amount of pain she was in; yet, despite the best efforts of the scientist and the mechanical brain that she had created to share the load of high-level thought, this was still going to be an unavoidable result of the operation they began with. Blood oozed from the wound that had been freshly pressed into Riana’s body, but there was no mistaking that this opening was absolutely sufficiently correct to be the thing that revealed the lacrima implanted into her.

In fact, there it was, barely visible through the long incision into flesh; the black, metallic device was now ever so slightly exposed to the world, with a slowly blinking red light visible as well next to it if one went so far as to press the wound open. SOFI-A wasted no time in ensuring that Riana’s right hand passed through the sterile field created by the nanites so that she would be able to perform the task ahead of her.

-- Are you ready to begin, Riana? -– asked SOFI-A carefully.

”Mmhmm. Oh yeah, of course. I’m just gonna lift my arm and-” Riana started, trying to lift her right arm - but it was simply too numb. She could not. ”Oops. Can you help, SOFI?”

The robot dutifully obeyed her master, raising the arm that was not cannulated, and assisted by bending Riana’s elbow just so that she could press inside her own skin and feel the solidness of the lacrima by comparison to the opening in her skin that had been caused. That felt funny. Very funny. But it was a good funny for sure. Who else cut themselves open and poked at a metal thing inside them?

Managing to control her breathing just enough at the realisation that she was actually touching something directly near an organ, Riana began to focus herself just enough to send a spark of her magic directly into the lacrima. Almost immediately, there was a clicking noise that emanated from the device; it seemed that Riana’s theory had been spot on and it needed only the slightest push from someone who could manipulate technology. Truly, this was the mastery sought by the king who had created this device - only one who was brave enough to seek further knowledge after it had been implanted into the body, who was willing to push past the frailties of the body, would ever find its true secrets. Carefully, Riana tried to feel for a port or a connector that would allow her to connect the lacrima to her network; she found that there was in fact a strange hexagonal opening that had just appeared between the three blinking lights that formed a sort of triangle at the centre of the lacrima. She focused her magic again and willed into existence a connection that would interface with her systems; she could modify gadgets and constructs and such things were within her purview. She shifted the lacrima inside her ever so slightly as the connector appeared, so that it could poke out of her skin correctly; a moment later SOFI was already hooking up a long cable to the connector so that it could interface with the main systems that were operating the dungeon base. Riana put her hand down and laid back on the table, the edges of her vision absolutely blurry as she tried to maintain what control on sanity and reality that she could so that she could keep the connection open long enough that the data, whatever it was, could download to the base.

Everything was spinning. Her head hurt. She wanted a drink. This was boring and taking too long. Why was this taking so long?

”Why is this taking so long?” It was as if her thoughts had finally broken through the filter completely.

-- Download progress time at fifteen seconds, Riana, –- the artificial intelligence indicated. That was only fifteen seconds? Man, seconds took forever. That was so unfair.

However, she simply elected to close her eyes, and begin to drift off– this procedure could be maintained by the operating systems of the base, and everything would work while she was asleep, right? That sounded like it would work. Definitely a thing that would work, for sure. She could take a short nap while everything began to finish around her. SOFI was really good at her job, and she’d take care of it all, and…


When Riana finally came to, she awoke still on the bed with an absolutely pounding headache. Her eyes struggled to open, providing sufficient resistance that the scientist knew that she had definitely had a rough experience and would be incredibly groggy for some time to come. This was not a sensation she enjoyed, and especially not one she particularly intended to replicate routinely. The redhead simply could not stand the feeling of weight and pressure against her mind.

She sat up, and began to take stock of the situation; SOFI-A was still present, having found a place against the wall to power down to conserve more magical power so that she could stay present in the world after she had completed the task that was set for her; the wound itself was healing with the sterile covering over it; it had been sufficiently sutured, and there was no sign of anything else that had been there. In time, a scar would be made, and then would heal. This was the natural way of things. Over on the side of the room near the banks of computers, the cable that had been plugged into her - including the hexagonal adapter that she had conjured - was lying on the floor. The screens that had been originally showing the first set of data stolen from the heart of the lacrima were now showing brand new data, and it scrolled past at incredible speed.

Riana could not shake the feeling from her head, and sighed. ”SOFI, status?” she asked, her voice full of the same heaviness she had been feeling.

-- Systems are currently analysing the data we have uncovered from the king’s lacrima at this time. We have extracted some pieces of information that you may find sufficiently illuminating. –-

Now that got Riana’s attention. For anything to be considered illuminating by the artificial intelligence, it had to be damn good. SOFI would not flag anything at all unless it was sufficiently interesting enough to an AI who had encountered so much of the work Riana did by mere extrapolation and nothing more. For this to be the reaction meant that whatever it was had to be absolutely sublime.

”Show me,” Riana prompted, trying her hardest to get her eyes to focus. A screen appeared in front of her so that the strain was considerably less, and the Pergrandian scientist began to read what flickered in front of her

-- We have discovered technical readouts for what appears to be a faster-than-light transportation drive using quantum entanglement of ethernano, as well as a series of star charts linked to a variety of different worlds. In addition, given that a number of these are written in an unknown language, I am to extrapolate that there are a few key phrases that I may be able to unlock over time. Riana, in short, you are now gifted the ability to create a spacefaring vessel. –-

A long pause. Riana Maren finally had what she wanted - not only did she have the magical means at this point in time to create a starship, which was something that she could do before she attempted to open the lacrima, but she now had the additional means to solve propulsion and create a drive that would allow her to operate a vessel at faster than light speeds. It had arrived.

The day that Riana could explore the depths of space was officially here, and Riana could not have been more pleased. A small smile crept over her lips - an actual smile, the first one that she had given for emotive reasons in many years. To say that she was closer to her goal was an understatement - that goal was now within her grasp. All she had to do was reach out and seize it, and the stars themselves would finally be hers. Without question, this was the greatest achievement that she had made. It was all hers. Nobody was here to take it from her. Nobody could. This was unquestionably Riana Maren’s work. The elation in her heart was a worthwhile emotion to finally feel.

Whoever said human experimentation wasn’t a worthy cause was an absolute fool.