The room was sparse. A rectangular, wooden table dominated a majority of the room. Its surface was well worn and scratches were numerous on its surface, but it was sound. Around it stood eight chairs: three down either side and one at opposite ends. Most were in useable shape, but the one at the left head promised to collapse if not utilized in the most gentle of nature. Candles were the majority of the decoration and circled the perimeter of the room but thankfully a narrow window added to the dim glow the candles gave. The only things still remaining of the walls were a moth-eaten tapestry so worn and faded that one couldn’t discern what it had originally been and a few dusty shields over the wooden door entrance.
This had been one of the rooms Hy-Brasil had managed to clean up some, but it was far from looking pristine. Sure, it looked better without the layers of dirt and grime caking every surface but it still looked sad and tired. There was a life missing from it, from the entire castle, but the squire was determined to bring it back. It would just take time and lots of work. For now though the room would serve its purpose. At least they could relax here without fear of what may be lurking in the grime.
“So, this upgrade will allow me to be in contact with senshi phones are well?” She asked Scholomance whom she had brought along with her to her Wonder to help with the upgrade. Having time here, alone with him, was nice. They didn’t spend much time together anymore and it was beginning to wear on her. The imagination could be a terrible thing when left to fester about stressful things, but she did her best to not let it show. She’d enjoy this time without ruining it. She hoped he would as well.
In a sense, he was reminded of hours spent with Blaine while pouring over detailed, albeit faulty, blueprints. Scholomance recalled easily all the questions asked, fixes tried, and prototypes built while looking into new and important ways to upgrade the knight signet rings. How pointless it was with such low turnout - and with his own ring now waiting uselessly in the pocket of a general. Scholomance didn't count on his luck to allow Schörl or Cinnabar to drop the ring in the midst of the battle.
But those were thoughts for another time - here, now, he needed to focus on Hy-Brasil's ring. She needed the upgrade if ever she wanted to sync up with any of the senshi phones, and send messages across faction to a wide audience. With the blueprints available, they need only assemble the upgrade and install it on the ancient ring, then test to ensure all improvements were accomplished without error. Scholomance expected that, after completing a number of the upgrades for distribution, there should be no great challenge in their work.
Scholomance leaned forward on his elbow, the rested his chin on the heel of his hand. Lazy fingertips met the side of one stark cheekbone. "Mistral's upgrades connect you with the senshi database, yes. There's some cross-platform functionality that lets you send SOS and receive mass notifications from senshi as well. Both upgrades would be useful; the second is the one that allows access to the database for editing and viewing purposes. We're able to make wiki-esque pages for anyone we meet that way. It hasn't been used much, though - a pity, that." If I still had two hands, maybe it wouldn't be such a pain in the a** for me to use. Nothing can be done about that now. For all the magic in the world, I would think it'd be ******** possible to make a new hand out of it all.
"It's all a matter of assembling the parts. And that should go quickly, though I was working on those things while I still had two hands. Most of it's simple enough, though. Start with wrapping the wire around the setting first."
”Wiki esque pages, hm?” She said as she fussed with her signet ring and the pieces of bits and bobs that would be used for the upgrade. It seemed like a ridiculous thing, upgrading a ring with something so…mechanical. Up until this point, the ring had been nothing more than a magical item in her eyes. Something that wasn’t fully understood but was accepted for what it was and what it did. Now, here she was poking around with it to give it features as if it were some car or cellphone that needed tweaks to its improvement. “I can’t imagine it’s terribly useful if no one bothers with it. The idea of a wiki-like feature could be really handy in keeping up with details on agents though.”
The wire he had mentioned was a small thing. Hy was not at all use to doing something of this nature, but like Scholomance had pointed out, he wasn’t as equipped anymore to deal with such things. With him guiding her, surely she’d be able to manage.
Her fingers slipped and she released the wire causing it to slip from the setting. Well...she’d be able to manage, but not without a bit of bumbling it seemed.
She re-wrapped the wire around the setting with care, in her focus on the small piece of jewelry she unknowingly stuck her tongue out, slightly biting on it. When it seemed she had the wire wrapped around well enough, she held it in place with a finger as she glanced up at Scholomance through a veil of red locks. “Alright, wire is wrapped.” She held it out for him to inspect considering she had no clue what this should all look like through the process. Her DDa and Darren had always been the ones to fuss with things like this. She had never had an interest. “Is that little thingamabob next?” She gestured to a small piece of...well...whatever it was that was sitting on the table. Really, she had no real clue what came next as the blueprints had felt like another language to her.
"Not so far as I've seen." Scholomance parked his elbow on Hy-Brasil's shoulder and leaned in while he watched her work.He rested his chin on the heel of his hand. "Having access to the White Moon database would've been more useful if knights weren't so… Unfortunately uninformed when they awaken. Sure, a cat awakening a senshi can tell them to check their phones on the White Moon Primer, but a knight can't get to that much-needed information until after they find their signet ring and upgrade it twice over. By then, they either know what they're doing or they're dead or corrupted." Quite a lot of good that information did for me.
When she held her ring up for inspection, Isaiah peered at it with a low hum. "Yes, like that. Now you need to solder it together at the joints. That's about the gist of it. Most of the magical chicanery has already occurred, so all you need to do is try out the functions whenever you need them. It's quite straightforward.
"Oh, and if the soldering iron runs out of juice, I brought a second battery pack for it. It's in the rucksack over there," he finished. Pointing seemed a little unnecessary when he loomed behind her.
"Then that's it for the first upgrade. The second Mistral upgrade is that plastic part over there, and that just clicks into place over the top of the wire framework, which you just built. Then, if you want to try out the meter system, peel the backing off that bendable plastic piece there and fit it around the under-gallery there. If you get all that done, you'll have access to the senshi database, you'll be able to call and receive calls from them, and you'll be able to set up meters on your knight magic and biological functions. In short, our rings are basically turning into Apple Watches." He offered Hy-Brasil a shrug.
The weight of Scholomance leaning on her caused a small smile to flit across the squire’s face as she continued to fiddle with her ring, even if the elbow on her shoulder wasn’t the most comfortable thing to be digging in. She didn’t complain though as she continued to follow his directions and tried to take care that she was doing it all correctly. “Perhaps that’s something that needs to be fixed somehow?” She said. “I am not sure how to fix it, but coming up with a way to inform new Knights about what they just got into would definitely be helpful. I had a bit of luck having been awoken with Camelot nearby but even then the information was only so useful.”
Reaching for the soldering unit, Hy looked at it curiously in her hand. “I’ve never used one of these before. I can’t mess it up too badly right?” She questioned, craning her neck up and head to the side to try and look at him as he hovered over her.
As he mentioned the meter system, she looked at her ring more closely to see exactly what he was talking about. Hy found working on such a small piece of jewelry to be a bit daunting. Especially such an important piece. What if she messed it up? Could she ******** up her signet ring in the process? That was a scary thought. The best she could do right now is trust Scholomance to stop her if she made any mistakes.
Taking a deep breath she lowered the soldering device to her ring and began to work on connecting everything together.
"No, you're doing fine." He watched a moment longer, and Hy-Brasil finished up with the construction of both parts. Really nothing about the procedure was meant to be hard, especially when Mistral specifically built the upgrades for ease of use. Even the most technologically illiterate could put these together with seldom an issue. "Yes, that's it. Your ring should perform all the necessary functions now."
Scholomance straightened up from leaning on her shoulder and looked at the unit itself. Surely enough, around the brilliant emeralds and golds indicative of Earth Knights, the upgraded portions sat snug in their respective places. "Looks right. The ring itself is voice activated now. All you need to do is tell it who to call and, provided you're not completely butchering the name, it should patch you through. Similarly, if you're receiving a call, your ring will notify you and you'll just need to tell it to take the call. You can still send and receive messages in the old fashion if you want; your ring will still function as usual when powered down. This just opens up your options, so to speak." He looked to her coolly, his own consternation over his signet ring providing an insurmountable barrier to any genuine encouragement for her.
"I'd try to offer ways to bring the Wiki into the knights' vernacular, but I've got more pressing matters to deal with right now. Like the Negaverse." Scholomance tried to purge the bite from his tone. "Really, you can't stop people from sabotaging themselves. It's the same old 'horse and water' argument. I've just gotten sick to death of hearing it."
He parted from the table entirely, strolling through the dim confines of the room to shift his attention toward the window. Outside, the sun rained down brilliance upon the rolling fields and wetted rocks. Here, they remained trapped in a dank darkness that stank of mold. No matter how much you renovate them, wonders are a shitty place to live. "I hope you're ready for this, Gwen. The stakes are a bit higher than a lost signet ring."
Those small words of approval and encouragement were well received as Gwen gave a small smile at her work. It really was fascinating how such a small adjustment could create such a large change in the function of the ring. Now, what was once a convenient, but limited, tool was extremely use and would be able to reach whomever she wished. That alone was worth the time for the upgrade.
“Voice activated?” She said a bit surprised but pleased. “Even better, cause spelling some of these names of Knights and Senshi would be a headache. Let’s face it, some of the names are just ridiculous.” She commented with a small laugh. “So realistically it’s like a phone, just in a different form. And I can still receive text messages.” She winked at him as he pulled away from her. “Sounds ideal to me.” Really, the ring was opening up doors with the upgrade and Hy was looking forward to taking advantage of the new features. She’d just have to remember they existed now considering she was so use to the basic functions.
With the ring updated and ready to go, Hy-Brasil slipped it back onto her finger. It was an odd sensation when it wasn’t on her fingers anymore as she rarely ever removed it. The piece of jewelry had become an almost permanent fixture upon her body much like a wedding band was to those who were happily married. It just never left her being, or was returned back to her left middle finger as soon as possible.
The lace of bitterness wasn’t lost Hy-Brasil, and she turned her attention to Scholomance as he stared out the window. The glow from outside made him look almost like a shadow against the gloom of the room they inhabited. Unlike the knight though, Hy-Brasil had not found herself resenting the nature of the Wonders and their old, crumbling history. It was still fresh, new and full of potential to her, so the smell of must, mold and the crumbling interior and exterior could be looked past. After all, she had a vision for the place and she was determined to see that happen. “We can’t help everyone, that’s true, but I’d like to help those I can. Those who want it. Maybe it would help alleviate some of the problems we’ve been having with Order.” She shrugged. “Maybe not.” Who knew? No one. But, the Earth Squire was willing to try.
But, Scholomance was right. There were other problems that needed to be taken care of. Ones that were more pressing.
She pushed away from the table and stood up, walking over to him to lay a hand on his shoulder as she turned to look at him, face-to-face. “I am ready.” She said sternly. “I know there’s a lot at stake with this, but we will get through it and make sure the Negaverse doesn’t get what they want.” She gave a small smile. “Even if I have to take them all out myself, and you damn well know I’ll try.”
It was the truth. Gwen was not about to let the Negaverse take their prize.
“Come on. Tell me what you’ve got planned. The sooner I know what’s going to happen the better.”
Strickenized
Fin
