Chapter 102. Can’t Touch This

Back in the mansion... I am subjected to more CONCERN. Lily-Anne was not in any way shy about telling the rest of my harem everything that happened... and father did not help matters with his comments either. Really, the only ones who were more or less cool about it were Cy, Moon Unit and twins. Bridgit and Roxy took the opportunity to cluck over me like mother hens, and the less is said about mother's reaction, the better. Then dad pours even more oil into the fire by retelling my short spiel on genetics. Mother cried, clutched at me a lot and made me feel awkward as all hell with her lamentations of how much of a burden I'm willing to place on myself by looking into family "curses". Thankfully, she does relent a bit after I tell her (and Lily-Anne confirms) that sir Pasteur will be brought in on the topic, along with whomever else Abraham deems to be sufficiently discreet for that bit of knowledge.

In the end, I abscond to the back yard, where I conjure a couple of different swords and show to Cy and twins how did I halve the assassin on a couple of sizable logs. Twins take to the story with gusto and before long, I'm roped into giving them a bit of an impromptu lesson on swashbuckling. Apparently, they found it a bit unfair that Cy was able to repeat my performance with an appropriately sized sword and log. On the plus side, now Antoine and Jean-Paul both can do body reinforcement spell with their backup facsimiles. I wanted them to stick with flowers for now, but they made a surprisingly convincing argument that since me and Cy can do it with facsimiles, there is no reason for them not to learn how to do the same. On one hand, the mischief they will get into rises by a lot, now that either of them has the basic training on how to make themselves stronger, faster and tougher essentially on a whim. On the other, the very same also ensures they will be able to fend for themselves better, and with things heating up, this is a welcome bit of security.

What happens next surprises me most of all, however. Apparently, mother was talking to dwarves. She inserts herself into our spontaneous martial lesson a while later. While her interest in swords is nonexistent, she introduces an interesting little wobbly into the things. That wobbly being a pair of flintlock pistols that she confessed to be carrying under her coat at all times. Coupled with a body reinforcement spell, it gives her the ability to snap off a pair of incredibly quick and accurate shots and quickly retreat. I'm impressed and express that much out loud.

"Really, Alyssa?" - she chides - "Impressive was inventing those pistols. Much more convenient than a crossbow."

"You know how to shoot a crossbow?" - and isn't that a surprise. I had no idea mother had any kind of martial training of her own, she was never particularly fond of any violence and made it pretty clear throughout my childhood.

"Not the skill I relish in having, my dear, but yes. A lady of the house might be called to defend it, after all." - she retorts - "Still, a crossbow is very cumbersome, and I do not miss it in the slightest. Those pistols are much better. In fact, I was going to talk to all of you about this."

"Yes? What about it?" - I clarify. She simply smiles at me.

"Give your girls a bit of time to join us." - she says. And that's when my harem troops out, each holding a pair of flintlocks.

"Surprise?" - Bridgit offers uncertainly - "Lady Gillespie brought enough of those, uh... pistols? For all of us."

"So... why the arms race?" - I quip.

"Well, dear, with the way things are going..." - she replies sadly - "I do not like it, but if it comes to such lows, I quite prefer all of you to be the ones left standing in the end. The next assassin just might be less knife-happy, you know. So I took it upon myself to make sure you all have an ace in the sleeve, as it were. Speaking of which, here is your pair. Rory had packed a crate with more of those, uh... firearms, yes. They're in your airship. Not the small ones like these, long ones like spears. I obviously quite prefer you never need them, but better have them and not need them than find yourself in a bind, right?"

"Fair enough, mom. Fair enough." - I answer absentmindedly, as I go about loading the flintlocks. No one seems to bat an eye as I do. Not even twins. I... hm. Hmm. Oh, mother, that's pretty sneaky of you... I check, and certainly enough, twins each carry a pair as well. Goodness gracious, that's... wait, Cy has a pair too? Mooom...

The rest of the day is spent burning gunpowder as a family. And I am mighty thankful I skipped the black powder and went ahead with nitrocellulose. Strictly speaking, we don't have powder at all, I have given dwarves a methodology for pulping and purifying woodchips, which are then subjected to the acid mixture, washed, dried and soaked with grain alcohol. The damp mess is then twisted into little cords, which are kept in a sturdy leather bag. Pull a cord out, slide it into the barrel, tamp it down, drop the bullet in, tamp it in too. Bullets are regular lead balls, I didn't bother with oblong for now, the whole flintlock phase was meant to be just a proof of concept. One major improvement is the etched lily in the handle of each pistol. While in theory, flint is sufficient to ignite the guncotton, pistols work normally by adding a bit of fire magic to it. In fact, the whole flint assembly could be removed, but that would make the gun malfunction if it were used near the dragonscale pendant, so instead, there is a simple enchant etched in that probes the safety and then either kicks off enchantment or failsafes and permits entirely mundane ignition from the flint sparks.

Once everyone had enough fun with pistols, I bring out the crate Rory sent. Muskets, how nice. With socket bayonets. Goodness, that looks menacing. Oh, what... oh. Oh, wow. They actually made a hand bombard, too. This one is magic-dependent, though. I wonder why. Safety's much better, of course, without extra holes and levers to fail... And bombs are each with ignition engravement instead of fuses. Hm. Oh, I can fiddle with it. Normally, it just goes off from impact or when fifteen seconds pass if it didn't strike anything hard enough. I can remotely fiddle with enchantment, though. Airburst? Why not. Hm. I should probably give one of the muskets to Alistair, he did ask for unusual weapons a while back. Later, though. Probably should pass some samples to the king as well. He should know about the stuff... And the fact dwarves are currently working out the details of producing cartridges and rifles. Not quite there, yet, but getting closer.

___

Something had occurred to me just now. Namely, that there will be speeches given very soon. And that I'm probably going to need to say something as well. And public speaking in this age is an exercise for the throat. Why not make it simpler? Really, the basics are already there. Copperphones. Simply shape one end as a microphone, embed the connected quantum pairing bits into membranes, set the whole things into wooden boxes. Voila. Speaker set - get.

"...Alyssa, gods damn it." - my father grouses as he stares at the things - "What would it take to get you to relax?"

"Dad, that's how I'm relaxing, alright!?" - I'm more than a bit exasperated. Somehow, he is under an impression that inventing stuff is a hardship. That I have to wrack my brains for it. Goodness.

"Well, this is going to be tremendously convenient." - mother's take is much better. Not that she began any better, but speakers are currently being given a thorough performance proofing by Moon Unit, who appropriates the microphone part and uses it to sing. Nailed it, by the way. Amplification is good, but not overwhelming. Moon Unit still sounds soft and pretty. Just across the whole district, rather than just the backyard. Testing successful?

___

"Hello, Ed. Hello, Selene." - I proffer - "What can I do for you on this nice day of Reflection?"

"Did you build speakers?" - Selene bites into the issue at hand before she even manages to step out of the carriage.

"Greetings, lady Gillespie." - Ed proffers formally, as he sketches a polite nod and nudges Selene to do the same - "Serenity, I quite understand you are excited, but some decorum, would you kindly?"

She blushes and fluffs the back of her head, proffering contritely - "Sorry. Hello, Alyssa."

He clicks his tongue at the first name address and gives me a long-suffering glance, taking her by the arm and leading her into the door, which I step out of with a welcoming gesture.

"To answer your earlier question, yes. Yes I did." - I agree, as I guide them to the backyard.

Ed coughs. "I believe there is a question long overdue that I really should ask." - he begins seriously - "What is your connection? More than a few times, I have noticed Serenity reacting with familiarity and excitement to the new inventions lady Gillespie produces. How?"

I keep ushering them to the backyard. "Ed, just call me by name. We're not in the court, no need to stand on ceremony." - I admonish - "As for our connection, as you so put it..."

I cast a glance at Selene and quickly project a phrase in english behind Ed's back so that she could see it, but not he. "I'll do the talking, just nod in appropriate moments." it says. Selene, who was sporting a deer in the headlights expression, relaxes slightly and nods to me to signify she got the message.

"Well, here's the rub." - I begin, as we stop in the middle of the yard in front of speakers. The sight makes Selene's eyes go wide with excitement and she strolls over to look over them.

"How much do you know about Selene's seer ability?" - I request.

Ed shrugs. "What Serenity told me, more or less." - he retorts - "She had an extensive vision of future, broken into several dreams, covering the next three years... Well, two and a half now. A lot of her vision is what could have been but actually wasn't, so there is little reason to put much stock into it now."

I nod. "Yes, but did you ask how it looked like to her?" - I inquire. He blinks.

"How did what look?" - he reasks. I quickly project another message to Selene on the back of the speaker she's currently circling. "Tell him your vision was like a theater performance, and that between the acts you were shown, you explored the theater."

"Ah... that." - Selene drawls slowly - "I didn't mention it much. It still sounds outrageous to me."

I "glare" at her. "Selene. Just... tell Ed everything you told me about it, alright?" - I "admonish".

"Fine, fine..." - she grumbles - "It still sounds silly, just so you know..."

She walks back to stand in front of Ed, and begins to speak slowly - "OK, so... You remember what I told you about the vision, right? Well... actual vision was more like a book than a vision. Or a theater performance, really. A lot of things I didn't see as much as I saw people describing what they did and how they ended up doing it. And like in any performance, there were breaks. Sometimes, I would wake up. And sometimes, it was just like, you know... sitting in the theater between the acts. There were all sorts of weird things in the theater. Some of them I later found here. Mostly, in Alyssa's hands. This is how I know. There were other people watching the performance with me, too. Odd people. They had an odd way of dressing, they spoke oddly, they called the performance 'a game'. They argued what the characters should say next. They poked fun, laughed and cried and argued with each other about who is going to end up with whom and why. There were actually several ways in which the future could play out. I could have ended up dating Alistair or prince Hohenzollern instead of catching your eye, for example. The performance repeated several times, actors making different choices each time. Sometimes my actor would end up marrying well. Sometimes, my actor would be sold to slavery, or killed or stuck as an old maid... Anyway, that's where I know about those things. I... sort of lied a little, actually. The performance itself took about a week, but the visions of all the different variations continued for almost a year. I, well.. grew used to just sort of... living in a different world in my dreams. This is why. Funny, though. Not a single variant of performance was even close to what had really happened. Not even slightly. Really, the moment I met Alyssa in the Academy was the moment when it all broke and became unfamiliar... and yet, so reminiscent of things I saw in the theater itself."

Ed nibbles on his lip thoughtfully. Sighs. Steps up and hugs Selene. "You should have told me." - he offers softly - "This was clearly harder on you than you'd like to pretend."

Funny enough, that does not really register as a lie to light magic. Not... completely. The feeling I get from it is less "someone is lying" and more "someone is being vague and unsure". Wonder why. Does it mean our previous lives qualify as visions? Or Selene really is a seer and her transmigration was less of a direct transplant like me and more like memory upload? ...Er, actually, would I even understand the difference between those two? I'm pretty sure I don't have a soul. At least, nothing separate from the rest of me.

She hugs back, but then wiggles out of Ed's grasp and saunters over to me. "So... speakers?" - she begins - "I heard the song all the way from the palace, by the way. What's the plan?"

I blink at Selene. "Well, I was thinking that there will be a lot of speeches on Ignition and Morning Glory." - I proffer - "At least some of which I will probably be roped into. Why not make sure people can hear me properly? I'm going to send off a message to his highness now for permission to mount those in the Market Square. Reasonably sure everyone who has a speaking part in festivities will appreciate the convenience."

"...Why, I do believe I will." - Ed suddenly chuckles - "As well as father and mother and brothers. And your father too, most likely. But how do they work?"

I toss mike to Selene. "Wanna show off? I turned them down, so you won't blast the whole district." - I proffer.

"Uuu can't touch this!" - she belts out gleefully, speakers dutifully amplifying the rapping as Selene launches into a song, much to my bemusement and Ed's stupefaction.