{"data":{"items":[{"id":"2e629339-2fe8-40a6-a5b9-98c571768480","excerpt":"Wearing Power Armor to a Magic School (161/?) — [First](https://www.reddit.com/r/HFY/comments/yd3cu3/wearing_power_armor_to_a_magic_school_1/) | [Previous](https://www.reddit.com/r/HFY/comments/1rbwicl/wearing_power_armor_to_a_magic_school_160/) | [Next](https://www.reddit.com/r/HFY/comments/1rodbow/wearing_power_armor","url":"https://www.reddit.com/r/HFY/comments/1ri8d3z/wearing_power_armor_to_a_magic_school_161/","role":"pain","weight":1.4260256,"occurredAt":"2026-03-01T20:38:05.000Z","sourceKey":"reddit","sourceName":"Reddit","credibility":0.62,"venue":"HFY","intent":"feature_request","painScore":0.4477417,"sentiment":-0.2881356,"confidence":0.985,"matchedPatterns":["wish","frustrating","missing_feature"],"statement":"I approve of your current trajectory, and indeed, I wish to officially endorse it.” “Ma’am?” “It’s clear, at least to me, that in the coming months and years, exo-reality foreign policy will be dominated by a shift towards establishing a s…","title":"Wearing Power Armor to a Magic School (161/?)","body":"[First](https://www.reddit.com/r/HFY/comments/yd3cu3/wearing_power_armor_to_a_magic_school_1/) | [Previous](https://www.reddit.com/r/HFY/comments/1rbwicl/wearing_power_armor_to_a_magic_school_160/) | [Next](https://www.reddit.com/r/HFY/comments/1rodbow/wearing_power_armor_to_a_magic_school_162/)\n\n[Patreon](https://www.patreon.com/Jcb112) | [Official Subreddit](https://www.reddit.com/r/JCBWritingCorner/) | [Series Wiki](https://www.reddit.com/r/hfy/wiki/series/wearing_power_armor_to_a_magic_school/) | [Royal Road](https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/70510/wearing-power-armor-to-a-magic-school)\n\n**Kaelthyr**\n\n*Pulse*\n\n*Pulse*\n\n*Pulse*\n\nAnd so the leylines went.\n\nOr so I thought.\n\nFor all of the observations I’ve made, and in all of my attempts to dissect this foreign cipher, I was met with but a logical disunion; a marriage of chaos and reason bound together in an unholy matrimony.\n\nThe ebb and flow of these errant… *pulses* were unlike the simple cries of the young matriarch’s child.\n\nIndeed, they held within them a greater sort of *complexity*, a layered collage of seemingly nonsensical *noises*.\n\nYet I could tell where noises ended and patterns began.\n\nI was not yet too blinded by the truisms of draconic cultural primacy to simply ignore the *potential* of another truly foreign chorus, even *if* that chorus tore at the reaches of my very sanity.\n\nSo it was that I continued *observing*, scrutinizing, and analyzing these errant leylines, trying to formulate some form of connection, some sort of *key* to finally link the spoken word — or the delivery of the abstract concept — to these infernal *noises*.\n\nSo deep was I in my own thoughts, caught in between my critical dissection of the voidlings’ culture and my own attempts at uncovering the secrets to their novel leylines, that I failed to notice a sudden disruption.\n\nIt began softly, too softly to notice amidst the infernal demonic orchestra that was the earthrealmers’ communiques. \n\nYet it was in that unassuming *softness* — that totality of gentleness — that it evaded immediate concern.\n\nIndeed, I’d only noticed it when it was already **suffocating** me, smothering me and my resonant chorus with an invisible cloth that wrapped, cinched, and then eventually **lifted** off of me all within a stray moment.\n\nIt was then, upon feeling my very **soul** blanketed — and then subsequently freed — that I understood this wasn’t a soft nor benign presence.\n\nIt was apathetic.\n\nAnd it wanted to **see** as the blind clockmakers did, and indeed in the only way they **could** — by reaching out blindly in the dark.\n\nThe difference, however, was the sheer **scale** at work.\n\n…\n\nIt couldn’t be.\n\nIt **shouldn’t** be.\n\n…\n\nAnd it probably wasn’t.\n\nBecause it couldn’t—\n\n=====\n\n**Captain Calico Li**\n\nThis wasn’t something that could just be brushed off.\n\nThis couldn’t be written off as some rare case of mass hallucination.\n\nOne could make the argument that this was just some sort of stress-induced group psychogenic reaction spurred on by a litany of acute stressors striking in the midst of first contact, sure.\n\nBut it’d be too convenient of an explanation, too *easy* for what was in effect a moment of unparalleled sensitivity and importance.\n\nYet with all readings marked clear, and with no observable and objective data to work off of, there existed only one avenue to clear the now-stale air.\n\n“Matriarch Kaelthyr, if I may have a word?”\n\n**“You may.”** The dragon responded, her features arguably different — departing from that stalwart fortress of unassailable stoicism towards something far more mortal than she would’ve ever dared to admit… wariness.\n\nIt was as if she *too* had shared in our anomalous encounter.\n\n“Did you experience anything out of the ordinary just now? Any auditory or acoustic anomalies?”\n\n**“No.”**\n\n“Alright… then did—”\n\n**“I observed a presence.”** Kaelthyr stated bluntly and with an audible sense of severity coloring her words.\n\nMy heart sank as I feared the worst. The relevant bits and pieces of intel from Emma’s most recent conversations with Kaelthyr just prior to this exoreality entanglement episode made it clear the sorts of threats posed by our collective adversary. Chief among them — eavesdropping.\n\n“Is it Nexian? Is the line compromised—”\n\n**“No. The presence of Nexian** ***meddling*** **is something I am well-versed with.** ***This*** **is most certainly** ***not*** **one of such instances.”**\n\n“How can you be so sure? Isn’t there a possibility there might be methods not known to yo—”\n\n**“I am a dragon.”** Kaelthyr sharply interjected. **“I know the ebbs and flows of mana far more intrinsically than any measly** ***mortal***\\*\\*. I know its\\*\\* ***taste***\\*\\*, its\\*\\* ***essence***\\*\\*. From the most careful of prods to the most complex of spells, I’ve seen them\\*\\* ***all***\\*\\*. And I can assure you, this was not the doing of Elven or even\\*\\* ***Nexian*** **hands.”** The dragon spoke with a rumbling authority, very nearly causing me to flinch despite the degrees of separation involved in our dialogue. **“This…** ***presence*** **cannot be Nexian, for it originates from the** ***other*** **side of the veil.”**\n\nI could hear the proverbial warp drive careening to an emergency stop as the room once again came to a complete and abrupt halt.\n\nAll eyes now turned to the dragon who’d taken center stage, with Weir in particular moving her eyes towards her own private workspace, one hidden from view by advanced clearances and security protocols.\n\nThe whole room waited with bated breath for Kaelthyr’s clarification, hoping for a definitive answer but just as much dreading the potential for the opposite.\n\n**“Though I know not what it may be. For the art of advanced resonance, on a scale such as this, is an unknown that carries with it the risk of enigmatic uncertainties.”**\n\nI could just about *feel* the silent and exasperated breaths of a hundred unsatisfied minds, the sense of frustration of some of the sharpest amidst the most inquisitive—\n\n“Oh, but *I* potentially do.” A familiar voice suddenly interjected from the back of the room as the red-headed Jovian scientist returned to the forefront, his hands clasping the bridge of his glasses with a confident vigor. “We’ve theorized this a while back. A thought experiment, really, but it’s the closest hypothesis we have for this phenomenon. I posit that this may be some sort of interference, owing to a critical… ‘pressure’ differential of sorts between our two realities. And while Matriarch Kaelthyr’s open channel may indeed be rather resistant to such pressures in its initial stages, over time, there may be disruptions in the integrity and fidelity of such a connection.”\n\n“That’d explain why it might ‘feel’ like the aberrancy came from our end.” I offered, garnering an increasingly frustrated glare from the dragon.\n\n**“Unlikely.”** She replied bluntly. **“But even in the unlikeliest of conditions, there exists a possibility that a fool may spout wisdom. So I** ***will*** **perform my own ruminations.”**\n\n“Acceptable.” Ivo responded with a nod. His features, however, told a wholly different story, as he attempted to bottle the indignancy incurred by Kaelthyr’s jabs for the sake of exo-reality diplomacy. “I’ll have my team working on this matter as well.” The scientist then turned to Weir, nodding silently.\n\n“Thank you, Doctor.” Weir acknowledged with a tired breath before turning to me. \n\nThere was *something* behind the Director’s eyes that carried with it that twinge of knowing uncertainty, an unspoken fear that any Ranger could spot a mile away. It was that familiar look of tepid anxiety, of knowingly leaping for that next jump without proper debris clearance, or knowingly relying on a sensor report riddled with literal and figurative holes.\n\nThis fact was exemplified the next moment she spoke.\n\n“We are still operating under the Cadet’s invocation of General Order 37a, correct?” \n\n“Yes.” I acknowledged firmly, not only answering the Director’s question but also assuaging what was a half-hidden attempt at reaffirming our next tentative steps forward.\n\n“Then let us proceed.” Weir nodded before once again gesturing towards the awaiting wolf prince.\n\n=====\n\n**Thalmin**\n\nSomething had happened.\n\nThough I understood not what it was.\n\nThe voices on the other end were panicking despite their best attempts to maintain a stoic presence of professionalism.\n\nAnd yet… I felt nothing. Despite very well noticing and very much observing the discomfort growing in the dragon herself.\n\nYet the constant reaffirmations from *both* parties, acknowledging and then disparaging the potential for Nexian meddling, were enough to put the worst of my worries to rest. \n\nVoid spirits be damned; so long as the Nexus stayed *out* of this, I was happy to proceed.\n\nBecause if all parties were truly satisfied, if all present — dragon and earthrealmers alike — wished to move forward, then there was no reason not to. *Especially* upon hearing that Earthrealm scholar’s postulations.\n\nFor if this truly *was* as he said, then *time* was now sweeping towards a foregone conclusion. \n\nWe needed to address both of our aims *now*.\n\n“Captain.” I urged, just about the same time the captain did from the other side.\n\n“Prince Havenbrock.”\n\nWe both stuttered as a result, though it was in this mutual desire to accelerate our proceedings that we shared a collective cough of polite reconciliation.\n\n“Were my explanations satisfactory?” I offered, garnering an immediate and hasty response.\n\n“Indeeed they were, Prince Havenbrock.” The captain replied. “So now that we have the *Who* and the *Why* squared away, we now need to dip into the *What* of things.” He began uncharacteristically plainly, very much preparing for another onslaught of military theory. A welcome departure back into *my* neck of the woods.\n\n=====\n\n**Dr. Laura Weir**\n\nThe unexpected bandwidth brought with it an *additional* bonus, aside from a direct channel of communication and the associated data dump.\n\n“Cadet Booker?”\n\nIt brought with it the possibility of *multiple* vectors of communication. \n\n“Yes, Dr. Weir?”\n\nSo whilst the Captain and the Prince could dissect the intricacies of what monstrous fates awaited us at the hands of this ‘Nexus,’ we could simultaneously maintain a separate channel of dialogue. \n\n“I see you’ve taken my recommendations for personal initiative to heart.” I began warmly.\n\n“I-I apologize if I had in any way overstepped my bounds in either a diplomatic or military capa—”\n\n“This isn’t a dressing down, Cadet.” I interjected calmly. “It’s a commendation. Or rather, a compliment. Take it in stride, please.”\n\n“Will do, ma’am.” The Cadet resisted nodding, a fact that would’ve given this *second* concurrent dialogue away.\n\n“I’m impressed to say the least. You’ve managed to push the mission in a completely different direction, one which, I must say, aligns with what I would’ve done in your shoes.” I continued. “You were right, at least as it appears so far, to have rescinded further efforts in pursuing a course of diplomatic engagement with the Nexus. Bad faith actors, especially ones as brazen as these representatives of the Nexian state, cannot be effectively courted or approached. At least not with the limited capacity you find yourself in. The course you charted, this… Adjacent Realm Pivot was the right call, and the *only* call you can feasibly pursue with any hope of productive dialogue.” \n\nThe Cadet’s features remained stoic as she replied with that same respectful bluntness. “Thank you, ma’am.”\n\n“Moreover, your efforts with your ‘peer group’ prove that there exists *hope* in our original charter. Prince Havenbrock is a clear example of this, and the fact that you even have a *Nexian* noble reevaluating his position on their deluded sense of primacy is astounding in and of itself.”\n\n“But if I may, ma’am. I doubt actual meaningful dialogue can be sustained with Lord Rularia. The fact he’s in the immediate Nexian sphere and is directly beh","offTopic":false},{"id":"29faf1ba-70df-402b-bca8-75c5fb2af080","excerpt":"Wearing Power Armor to a Magic School (169/?) — [First](https://www.reddit.com/r/HFY/comments/yd3cu3/wearing_power_armor_to_a_magic_school_1/) | [Previous](https://www.reddit.com/r/HFY/comments/1sq15ow/wearing_power_armor_to_a_magic_school_168/) | [Next](https://www.reddit.com/r/HFY/comments/1t9gy9i/wearing_power_armor","url":"https://www.reddit.com/r/HFY/comments/1swj741/wearing_power_armor_to_a_magic_school_169/","role":"request","weight":1.3334075,"occurredAt":"2026-04-26T20:50:09.000Z","sourceKey":"reddit","sourceName":"Reddit","credibility":0.62,"venue":"HFY","intent":"feature_request","painScore":0.38535848,"sentiment":-0.02,"confidence":0.9625,"matchedPatterns":["wish","frustrating","missing_feature"],"statement":"“An honesty that the Nexus would find impossible to reproduce due to its very nature, because unlike the dizzying schemes within schemes and plans within plans, Earthrealm’s priorities are, by its *childish* nature, straightforward.” “An e…","title":"Wearing Power Armor to a Magic School (169/?)","body":"[First](https://www.reddit.com/r/HFY/comments/yd3cu3/wearing_power_armor_to_a_magic_school_1/) | [Previous](https://www.reddit.com/r/HFY/comments/1sq15ow/wearing_power_armor_to_a_magic_school_168/) | [Next](https://www.reddit.com/r/HFY/comments/1t9gy9i/wearing_power_armor_to_a_magic_school_170/)\n\n[Patreon](https://www.patreon.com/Jcb112) | [Official Subreddit](https://www.reddit.com/r/JCBWritingCorner/) | [Series Wiki](https://www.reddit.com/r/hfy/wiki/series/wearing_power_armor_to_a_magic_school/) | [Royal Road](https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/70510/wearing-power-armor-to-a-magic-school)\n\n**The Transgracian Academy for the Magical Arts. Dragon’s Heart Tower. Level 23. Residence 30. Local Time: 1757 Hours**\n\n**Ilunor**\n\nRidiculous.\n\n*Laughable*.\n\nRelentless in its vain and *cloying* attempts to tug at the heartstrings, all to rationalize what bordered on blatant rebellion.\n\n“Childish.” I mimed the prince’s self-admitted sentiments. “An apt descriptor, and one which you should have heeded.”\n\n“Yet one which you cannot deny.” Thalmin responded bluntly in a manner so devoid of reason and so removed from context that his response made barely a modicum of sense.\n\nWas… was that even a *counterargument?*\n\nHow was that supposed to prove *anything*?\n\n*Especially* when the narrative he was presenting was nothing short of vicious mockery against an institution with more years in proven civility than Earthrealm has had years in recorded history?!\n\nThis was akin to comparing birds to drakes, pollyflowers to rangen moss, or the infamous *kobold* debate of whether moss should be sorted by *color* or *taste*.\n\nIn short, it was insulting by its very nature, reductionist to the point of absurdity, or completely moot from the onset.\n\n“And what is that supposed to prove *exactly*?” I countered, huffing up a storm as I spat out each word with an incredulity unmatched.\n\nThe prince was playing with fire.\n\nHe was truly placing this unproven realm of questionable pedigree and foolish sensibilities on the same mantle as the Nexus; as something worthy of consideration as a peer-in-communicatia.\n\nWhich begged the same question that had begotten this entire conversation.\n\n*What could have possibly gotten you so excited that could supersede the privilege and wonder of being in the Nexus?*\n\n“Earnestness.” The prince answered dutifully, his features and the entire expression he wore telling the story of a man who had neither regrets nor doubt over his conviction. “An honesty that the Nexus would find impossible to reproduce due to its very nature, because unlike the dizzying schemes within schemes and plans within plans, Earthrealm’s priorities are, by its *childish* nature, straightforward.”\n\n“An earnestness born of a lack of self-centered egoist interests.” The prince took a breath, steeling his eyes as he crossed his arms in silent contemplation. “They hurl themselves into the void on nothing but steel and explosions in the hopes of reaching *something*, they pierced the heavens and tore through the tapestries in the hopes of finding someone, *anyone* else amidst dead and lifeless realms. They seek *all* of this out, whilst knowing well the dangers they may face. And when finally faced with the threat of *your* Nexus, when dealt with a slap to the face when their only sin was offering their hand in friendship? They sought not to respond with prejudice, but instead with calm and measured consideration, refusing to concede that *all* were complicit in this web of malicious intentions. They offered me, a complete stranger, a chance to talk as peers. To Nexian eyes and Nexian sensibilities, such a desire to trust would seem childish, would it not? This… inclination for optimism, amidst what you once described as ‘ill-fated idealism?’”\n\nI took in a breath as I closed my eyes to listen and ponder, deliberating on the prince’s words as each and every sentiment bordered on blatant fanaticism. \n\nHad this one conversation truly pushed the prince over the edge?\n\nHad this solitary, transient line of status communicatia acted as the keystone by which all of Emma’s starry-eyed idealistic conversations finally fell into place?\n\nI could scarcely gather my thoughts before Thacea abruptly interjected, her eyes leveling on Thalmin’s as she placed both fork and knife down, refusing to eat until her sentiments were delivered.\n\n“Yes.” She spoke solemnly, much to the surprise of *everyone* present, with Thalmin in particular widening both his eyes in understandable shock. “To all known Nexian sensibilities, what you speak of is indeed… *naive…* but not childish.” Thacea corrected, prompting me to hold fast on my hopes of an abrupt shift in the winds of conversation. “Yet to those ends, I’d argue *both* words are entirely misleading. Because when compared to the ceaseless bickering and two-faced politicking, I’d posit that a dialogue constructed on integrity and a willingness to honor all with respect is far more deserving of the descriptor of *maturity*.”\n\nI narrowed my eyes and steadied a deep and resonant soot-filled breath.\n\nA litany of responses flooded my mind, each and every one more damning than the next.\n\nBut before I could speak and before a single word could emerge, I was hit with *two* interruptions in rapid succession.\n\nThe first, an unwelcome reminder, came about in spite of all my attempts to bury its relevancy.\n\nImages of the black-robed professor immediately flashed into waking memory. His actions, his impacts, not only felt… but were viscerally palpable.\n\n*He* was the reason behind my current… *encumbrance*.\n\n*He* was the reason behind the shortcomings of my ambitions.\n\n…\n\nAnd yet by all measures, he was operating within the very framework both the prince and princess were condemning and one which I was obligated to defend.\n\nThe irony of my circumstances at present was not beyond me. As I realized in short order that my current existence was facilitated by none other than the agent of anathema herself.\n\nIt was the earthrealmer who aided me in… *softening the blow* from Mal’tory’s gambits.\n\nIt was the earthrealmer who, despite my reservations, managed to strike a deal where a compromise was otherwise impossible.\n\n…\n\nYet it was by that very same deal that we were now *bound*, with the earthrealmer ostensibly holding the keys to my fate.\n\nThen came the second interruption.\n\nA darkening realization that aligned *too neatly* with a prophecy I’d only touched upon once before in simple postulation.\n\n*The Final Confrontation*\n\nWas I witnessing the first roots of this unstoppable growth?\n\nWas I now an inexplicable part of its insidious machinations?\n\nMy mind *rushed* with the possibility only to be brought back out of its spiraling confines by none other than the potential harbinger of this apocalypse herself. \n\n“I think it might be best if we continue the clip show.” Emma finally interrupted, bringing my discordant thoughts back to the present. “Moreover, I really appreciate your guys’ enthusiasm about my people, but I think you’re being a bit too kind here… We have our issues, we’re not perfect, but we try our best to put a buffer between those issues and our ability to follow through with our promises and principles.” She turned to the pair with a sheepish and ultimately *modest* response. \n\nOne that I *despised* for its affirmations to both Thacea's and Thalmin’s points.\n\n“Get on with it then.” I urged, neither acknowledging nor disparaging the earthrelamer at present as we pressed into what this entire recount had been leading up to.\n\n*The dragon and this illicit correspondence.*\n\nI watched as the earthrealmer resumed where we left off, as the dragon regarded her with… \n\n…\n\n*Cordiality.*\n\nAn honor that not even the prince was afforded, as it was clear he was an *accessory* to what was in effect *Emma Booker’s* story.\n\nI should have felt nothing.\n\nI should have disregarded this detail, as I should have any other from a creature with such a reprehensible legacy…\n\nBut I couldn’t.\n\nThere *was* still a certain… paradoxical ‘exclusivity’ tied to these beasts, as one would tie a sense of prestige to *other* magically inclined creatures.\n\nOr at least, that’s what it was *supposed* to be.\n\nThat’s where it was supposed to end.\n\nBut not here.\n\nNot when the realization of this beast’s sapiency now recolored its power and, by extension, its good graces.\n\nA twinge of disdain and even *jealousy* creeped up my spine even though I *knew I had* *nothing to be* jealous *of*.\n\nThis was just a dragon, and whilst no longer a beast, it was still a *criminal* — a failed despot that had been firmly defeated *eons* ago.\n\nHer title meant nothing.\n\nHer good graces were not an honor, let alone something to be *jealous* of.\n\nAnd so I turned my nose up at this, figuratively and literally, as I shifted my concentration to the more *pertinent* aspects of the conversation.\n\nEmma’s attempts at maintaining this facade of naive interactions were becoming *grating*, especially as this dragon — this matriarch of nowhere — decided to *humor* her as such.\n\nI tolerated this, maintaining my focus until the sight-seer brought us into the caves and firmly into the realm of an escalation I hadn’t expected.\n\nTheir conversations had shifted in intensity, yes, but the topics were *banal* and esoteric.\n\nThey talked of mathematics, Emma Booker’s strange speaking mannerisms, so on and so forth and on and on until…\n\n*“You cannot be human*.*”* \n\n… the dragon’s tone shifted.\n\nMy attention returned and so did my growing curiosity.\n\n*“You… your kind must be a lost line.”*\n\nWhat.\n\n*“A daughter amidst daughters.”*\n\n**WHAT?**\n\n*“Part of the crystalline legacy… masquerading in flesh.”*\n\n\\*\\*“\\*\\****WHAT?!!!”*** I *screamed*, my internal monologue breaking through my mentalscape and into the realm of the social space.\n\nEveryone stopped and so did the sight-seer as Thalmin turned to shush me with a single finger.\n\n“Stop interrupting, Ilunor. We’re just getting to the good part!” He grinned mischievously, to which I simply responded by gesturing for the earthrealmer to continue with haste.\n\nI leaned in closely, my eyes practically making contact with the manaless looking-glass at this point, prompting the prince to attempt to shoo me away.\n\nBut I cared not for his demands as I remained virtually *glued* to the events of the past set into this manaless crystal.\n\n*“I believe there’s been a misunderstanding.”* \n\n…\n\nI let out a sigh, pulling back and then turning towards the earthrealmer with a disappointed gaze.\n\n“What? I never claimed to be an elven-form dragon, Ilunor.” She teased. “I’ll have you know I *much* prefer the human form.” And *teased* some more, her latter statement eliciting further scrutiny.\n\n“And what *exactly* is the *human* form then, Cadet Emma Book—”\n\n“A topic for another day! Let’s get back to the video!” She interjected with haste, continuing these illicit scenes and forcing my gaze once more to land on the dragon.\n\nThe conversation, surprisingly, shifted into *more* esoteric talk of *crystals*.\n\nI groaned.\n\nI just had about *enough* of this… rambling madness.\n\nYet despite those reservations, I couldn’t deny that the dragon’s own interests were… concerning.\n\nFrom her continuously awestruck responses at Emma’s unseen 'crystals' to her vivid descriptions of how they supposedly worked — *shackled, bound, screaming in forced emergence* — all of it was worthy of concern by its own right.\n\nHowever, the fact that it was accompanied by a growing sense of morbid curiosity, visceral disgust, and indignancy at what I’d hardly even *considered* was worrying.\n\nThis all came to a head as Kaelthyr uttered those telling words.\n\n*“By what right does flesh and blood, without magic, attain the perfection of draconic craft?”*\n\n…\n\nThere it was again.\n\nShe was comparing humans to dragons.\n\nThis time at least not in terms of form or biology or lineage or relation… but its implications were worrying all the same.\n\nShe was readily admitting humanity’s *parity* in craft and p","offTopic":false},{"id":"15076637-0620-4c3a-9b14-41dadaee18e3","excerpt":"Wearing Power Armor to a Magic School (160/?) — [First](https://www.reddit.com/r/HFY/comments/yd3cu3/wearing_power_armor_to_a_magic_school_1/) | [Previous](https://www.reddit.com/r/HFY/comments/1r5l23p/wearing_power_armor_to_a_magic_school_159/) | [Next](https://www.reddit.com/r/HFY/comments/1ri8d3z/wearing_power_armor","url":"https://www.reddit.com/r/HFY/comments/1rbwicl/wearing_power_armor_to_a_magic_school_160/","role":"request","weight":1.3315111,"occurredAt":"2026-02-22T20:24:56.000Z","sourceKey":"reddit","sourceName":"Reddit","credibility":0.62,"venue":"HFY","intent":"feature_request","painScore":0.3517879,"sentiment":-0.020408163,"confidence":0.985,"matchedPatterns":["wish","frustrating","missing_feature"],"statement":"*“I wish to know where you stand when the calls for apocalypse summon the righteous, Prince Thalmin?","title":"Wearing Power Armor to a Magic School (160/?)","body":"[First](https://www.reddit.com/r/HFY/comments/yd3cu3/wearing_power_armor_to_a_magic_school_1/) | [Previous](https://www.reddit.com/r/HFY/comments/1r5l23p/wearing_power_armor_to_a_magic_school_159/) | [Next](https://www.reddit.com/r/HFY/comments/1ri8d3z/wearing_power_armor_to_a_magic_school_161/)\n\n[Patreon](https://www.patreon.com/Jcb112) | [Official Subreddit](https://www.reddit.com/r/JCBWritingCorner/) | [Series Wiki](https://www.reddit.com/r/hfy/wiki/series/wearing_power_armor_to_a_magic_school/) | [Royal Road](https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/70510/wearing-power-armor-to-a-magic-school)\n\n**Thalmin**\n\nI’d already surmised that I was in the presence of a legend being written.\n\nThough whether or not I chose to participate, whether I would choose *this* to be my epic, and not some mere aberrant chapter, would all hinge on my assessment of the earthrealmer and her claims.\n\nThough frankly, this process had begun long, *long* before this point.\n\n*“I wish to know where you stand when the calls for apocalypse summon the righteous, Prince Thalmin? I wish to know, should your assertions bear truth, and should the newrealm move from a position of a mere contemporary to one of an active adversary — where shall your loyalties lie?”*\n\nIlunor’s words have always been vapid.\n\nYet there was one rare instance — one tiny sliver of genuine questioning — that defied this trend, leaving behind a thought so pervasive it remained lodged in my mind ever since.\n\nThis seedling of a question, once planted, took root in the soil of my contempt, watered by the rains of Emma’s revelations, and warmed beneath the sun of every offense committed by the Nexus.\n\nUnder these conditions, it *thrived*.\n\nWith each social slight, it spread wider.\n\nWith every dishonor it flourished and grew, until the soil that bore my contempt was cast beneath its comforting shade.\n\nYet there was something else amidst the growing branches that I dared not yet touch; a fruit born of hate, contempt, vitriol, and the indignancy of a people scorned.\n\nIt beckoned me with its smiles.\n\nIt called with soft and fair-seeming wiles.\n\nIt cooed like a silent siren song, the promise of escape… a temptation I knew could not slake for fear of fate.\n\nYet still my hunger grew, all for that fruit that tempted me with its shimmering hue. \n\n…\n\nIt was with Ilunor’s words still fresh in my mind that I made my choice. A decision that could, and assuredly *would*, come to haunt me for years past my mortal life.\n\nI reached for that apple.\n\nAnd ‘*Nexian Sacrifice*’ I was no longer.\n\nFrom the moment I uttered my litany of titles, I committed myself to the fruit of rebellion.\n\nAnd when I reforged my sacrificial title to my own resolve—\n\n*Royal Emissary for the Havenbrockian Cause*.\n\n—did I taste the *sweetness* of the fruit I’d just bitten.\n\nThat one reimagining, that single rephrasing of a title so confined to its fate, was in equal measures liberating as much as it was terrifying. This was in spite of the lack of witnesses save for allies under oath, which perhaps proved just how pervasive the Nexian dogma was, even in the confines of my own mind.\n\nBut what compelled me, what pushed my otherwise duty-bound self over the edge of indecision, wasn’t *just* the memories of Emma’s bardic regalings or the proof of her capacity to kill.\n\nNo.\n\nIt was something far more innocuous, something that perhaps could both be overlooked and taken for granted in passing conversation.\n\nIt was the candid reactions of her superiors, her betters, and her seniors — those with the authority, the responsibility, and the *knowledge* of her realm’s *true* capabilities. Or more accurately… it was their *restraint* **for** reaction.\n\nThe pointed manner in which this Captain Li had just *casually* listed the Nexus’ threshold of destruction — ‘*city-killers, continent busters*’ — it  beckoned forth the imagery of an officer listing off a weapons manifest for a city garrison… *not* a man coming to terms with a mighty adversary’s realm-shattering capabilities.\n\nIndeed, the analytical nature that followed in the practical consideration of the bag-of-holding ‘bombs’ felt almost *too* cold, too calculated, and too mundane.\n\nIt felt… as if they were considering something that they themselves not only held the capacity for, but had entirely *normalized* within their own manaless arsenals.\n\nMoreover, there was no sense of *ego* mixed in with these discussions. There was no *boasting* or grandstanding, or any internal political plays as far as I could tell. If anything, the restraint at play spoke far louder than any posturing. For it called upon both a seriousness of intent and simply reinforced the relative *normalcy* of such capacities for destruction.\n\nIt was only at the mention of *portals* that the humans found themselves in uncharted waters, as fear — *genuine* fear — started to color their voices.\n\nAnd even then, such a revelation didn’t start from its offensive capabilities, but its *logistical* angle; a fact beckoning the words of my sister.\n\n*There is something your Uncle, your Brothers, and even your own Father won’t ever give enough credit to, Thalmin. Though it is to no fault of their own, but to the reductive image they craft. That something… is the manner in which you keep a war won. Even in the most mage-centric of armies, logistics still win wars. Oh you can have the most boastful of Dukes, Barons, and Lords go on and on about simply circumventing such ‘trifling’ topics by concocting magical solutions… but at the end of the day, when you wish to consolidate your holdings? When you have successfully laid claim to new lands and fiefs? You find that you alone cannot stitch together a civilization. For that, you need logisticians. For that, you need people like me.*\n\nKalim was right, as she often was.\n\nThough I could only *begin* to imagine what she’d make of a realm built *entirely* on the will of logisticians.\n\nThis Captain Li had perfectly embodied the mindset of Earthrealm.\n\nA people so lacking in any capacity to will forth their desires, and thus necessitating complexities to underpin *everything* those desires may need for actualization.\n\nA people who not only *knew* the mechanisms of war, but placed emphasis where those mechanisms truly mattered.\n\nA people… who likewise considered the realm-shattering capacities of the Nexus a point worth *discussing*, and not a point that shattered spirits.\n\n*This* was the proof I needed from Emma.\n\n*These* were the people I could consider a worthy adversary to the Nexus.\n\n*These* were a people deserving of Ilunor’s prophecy, a civilization deserving of the title of the *Adversary*, the Great *Other*.\n\n=====\n\n**Laura Weir**\n\nFirst a dragon, and now an anthropomorphic wolf.\n\nThough I wouldn’t be as reductive as some *others*, just by appearances and sights alone.\n\nConvergent evolution aside, it was his manner of dress that gave me more pause for thought than the nature of his physiology.\n\nWhat’s more, my focus quickly shifted towards a palpable *pause* in the EVI’s translations, a fact reflected in the underlying inflections of the prince’s own native speech.\n\nHis latter title, that *loaded* sentiment, was a calculated maneuver for *this* eventuality.\n\nThis royal wanted to play ball.\n\nAnd judging by *many* of Emma’s reports, it was clear what angle we needed to take.\n\n*The Adjacent Realms… were the only receptive party open to diplomacy, and the only party with the capacity for receptive change*.\n\n*This* was where the conflict was to be waged, in the kingdoms and nations under the jackboot of Nexian imperialism.\n\nAnd it all would start — at least on our end — with a smile the wolf could not see. “It is a great privilege and an incredible honor to hear your voice, Prince Thalmin Havenbrock of Havenbrockrealm. My name is Dr. Laura Weir, Director of the Institute of Anomalous Studies, United Nations Science Advisory. Professor of Theoretical Physics at Luna University, Armstrong Campus. On behalf of the Greater United Nations, and on behalf of the people of Earth, Luna, Venus, Mercury, Mars, Saturn, Jupiter, to the entirety of Sol, and to all the corners of this galaxy that humanity calls home, we receive you with full respect, and acknowledge the sovereignty of the state from which you hail.” I announced with genuine, brimming excitement and a warmness that came naturally at the hope of our first ally.\n\n=====\n\n**Thalmin**\n\nThere it was. The litany of titles bound to Academia, not to blood nor landed holdings.\n\nHowever, that point of cultural contention bothered me no longer.\n\nNo.\n\nIt was instead overshadowed, outshone, and entirely dwarfed by what were ostensibly two passing remarks.\n\nThe first, a statement of power, all wrapped within an unassuming warmth of amicability and diplomacy so genuine it felt paradoxically *bubbly* in its delivery.\n\nThe second was a declaration of intent, an acknowledgement in shocking but refreshing bluntness in reception to vague allusions I’d communicated with my self-appointed title.\n\nThese simple preambles, when taken critically, painted an image of an Earthrealm far more mature than what Emma could have ever conveyed.\n\nFor as much as she was able to deliver, and as much as she was able to spout in her long and informative tirades, *none* of it could have compared to the rawness of action.\n\nIt was one thing to be *told* the greatness and enlightenment of a realm. \n\nIt was another to be interacting with an actor within that state, and a senior one at that.\n\n“The honor is all mine, Director Laura Weir. Though the privilege of this communique is one I must defer to the talents of your envoy, and the mercy of Matriarch Kaelthyr.” I responded instinctively, reflexively, though within that calculated nothingness of diplomatic politeness, a more turbulent storm brewed just beneath the surface.\n\nOne which I knew not how to rectify, *especially* in the midst of an active dialogue for the legends.\n\nThat first statement.\n\nThat statement of calculated *power*.\n\nMy mind had grappled with it well enough, or at least I’d *assumed* it had.\n\nAt first glance, the list seemed to be a regaling of places.\n\nAnd indeed it probably was.\n\nThough the *nature* of those places was what was in question.\n\nFor despite what my mind had immediately assigned them to — towns, cities, regions, perhaps entire continents — I knew that not to be the case the instant I heard *Luna*.\n\n…\n\n*That* was the name Emma had assigned her moon.\n\nThe *realm* that hung above her realm, floating within that sea of void-filled nothingness.\n\nWhat came after, if syntax and logic were to be believed, were the names of not cities nor towns *on* the surface of either Earth or Luna… but categorically equivalent to their significance.\n\nIn short… the director wasn’t listing off fiefs, dukedoms, and kingdoms. \n\nNo.\n\nShe was listing off the names of entire *realms*. Other realms Emma had not yet broached. Realms that perhaps floated just as listlessly within the inky and empty abyss. Realms whose sizes must rival… well… ***REALMS***.\n\nBut what’s more… the director listed them as if they were a mere formality, trailing off not into a finite list but an appended footnote.\n\n*Venus, Mercury, Mars, Saturn, Jupiter*…\n\nThat had already accounted for *five* additional realms.\n\nWhat’s more, this painted an image far removed from what Emma had shown me of Luna.\n\nFor at that point in her illustrative sight-seer’s history lesson, that realm was but a barren and lifeless desert of white sands and rock.\n\nBut what was being implied here was anything but.\n\nWhat was instead being implied were *not* frontiers on the fringe of permanent habitation.\n\nInstead… the manner in which everything was listed was beckoning an established culture and civilization, all distinct from her home realm of Earth.\n\nI did not know how to broach this.\n\nI did not know how to even *begin* filling the rest of the air once Weir replied to my diplomatic response of empty platitudes.\n\nThat was… until I recalled my ","offTopic":false},{"id":"77f94a5f-537e-4097-8e2e-ceca018929e3","excerpt":"Wearing Power Armor to a Magic School (163/?) — [First](https://www.reddit.com/r/HFY/comments/yd3cu3/wearing_power_armor_to_a_magic_school_1/) | [Previous](https://www.reddit.com/r/HFY/comments/1rodbow/wearing_power_armor_to_a_magic_school_162/) | [Next](https://www.reddit.com/r/HFY/comments/1s0vevg/wearing_power_armor","url":"https://www.reddit.com/r/HFY/comments/1ruol2d/wearing_power_armor_to_a_magic_school_163/","role":"pain","weight":1.2524893,"occurredAt":"2026-03-15T20:20:09.000Z","sourceKey":"reddit","sourceName":"Reddit","credibility":0.62,"venue":"HFY","intent":"feature_request","painScore":0.44240612,"sentiment":-0.23809524,"confidence":0.86833334,"matchedPatterns":["wish","frustrating"],"statement":"“What is it, princeling?” “I wish to call upon that favor now, if you’d be so kind.” … Kaelthyr practically glowered down at Thalmin but relented anyway.","title":"Wearing Power Armor to a Magic School (163/?)","body":"[First](https://www.reddit.com/r/HFY/comments/yd3cu3/wearing_power_armor_to_a_magic_school_1/) | [Previous](https://www.reddit.com/r/HFY/comments/1rodbow/wearing_power_armor_to_a_magic_school_162/) | [Next](https://www.reddit.com/r/HFY/comments/1s0vevg/wearing_power_armor_to_a_magic_school_164/)\n\n[Patreon](https://www.patreon.com/Jcb112) | [Official Subreddit](https://www.reddit.com/r/JCBWritingCorner/) | [Series Wiki](https://www.reddit.com/r/hfy/wiki/series/wearing_power_armor_to_a_magic_school/) | [Royal Road](https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/70510/wearing-power-armor-to-a-magic-school)\n\n**Dragon’s Lair. Central Cavern ‘Foyer.’ Local Time: 1000 Hours.**\n\n**Emma**\n\nI took a deep breath.\n\n*In.*\n\n*And out*.\n\nAll the while, my eyes ran up and down the medical reports, at what was ostensibly a generalized seizure with all the trappings associated with it. \n\nThe medical analysis was too esoteric for my taste, but the cliff notes and conclusions painted a clear picture — this was a completely idiopathic event. \n\nThere were no event triggers, no physical trauma, nor acute points of physiological decompensation to point to. In short, there were no abnormal preceding events, aside from what the EVI was ascribing to as a focal awareness seizure or an aura potentially associated with such.\n\n*This* would explain the ‘experiences’ in that void — the hallucinations, the vivid emotional distress, and the mental disconnect.\n\n…\n\nBut it’d have to be a rather *intense* one, far outside of the norm, to have truly done so.\n\nThe medical literature at present *did* cover that eventuality.\n\nBut only *just*.\n\nWhich meant that while slim, there existed *another* explanation, and one that I wished I could have scienced away with irrefutable evidence to the contrary.\n\nYet here we were.\n\nRight on the *precipice* of a rational explanation without an open-and-shut case, which would’ve otherwise left no room for doubt and its ensuing flurry of uncomfortable implications.\n\n…\n\n“EVI.”\n\n**“Yes, Cadet Booker?”**\n\n“Is there… a chance that taint had somehow affected me directly?”\n\n**“Requesting disambiguation—\"**\n\n“*Is there a chance that the 30th manatype was able to affect* **me**, my body, my physiology? Is it possible it’s not just phasing through me and the armor but is actually *interacting* with my body on some fundamental level?”\n\n**\\[...\\]**\n\n**“Insufficient sensor data for inferential analysis. All current observations congruent with pathognomonic signs for a grand mal seizure with preceding focal awareness seizure suspected.”**\n\n“But is it possible that the 30th manatype somehow triggered that? *That’s* what I’m asking!”\n\n**“The current cause of the grand mal seizure is idiopathic in nature. Correlation of 30th manatype spike is currently logged as circumstantial and not causative.”**\n\n“So there’s no bridge? No link whatsoever? Even if I tweak your tolerance for extrapolation for—”\n\n**“Inadvisable. Only one line of data exists to support operator’s hypothesis: chronological incidence. However—”**\n\n“Isn’t *that* alone enough to prove my point?! The medical incident report coincided with the spike of taint, for crying out loud!” \n\n**“The observed correlation** ***supports*** **operator’s hypothesis. It does not definitively provide the quantitative or qualitative data required to either prove or disprove operator’s causal hypothesis.\"**\n\nI took a deep breath, narrowing my eyes at the datasets before urging the EVI to continue on its prior point.\n\n“Continue the prior line of deliberation.”\n\n**“Acknnowledged. Cont… —said incident is not an exclusive event. Noting \\[2\\] prior instances of similar 30th manatype intensity and exposure with no associated adverse reactions.”**\n\n“But 2 isn’t really a sample size, now is it?” I countered. “Moreover, we’re only measuring the *intensity* of taint itself here, not *how* said taint is being used as spells or targeted attacks. Both instances were just Thacea releasing an unstable field of taint as well, which was unlike what the shatorealmer was doing here!”\n\n**“Insufficient sensor data to ascertain amended operator hypothesis.”**\n\n“What about the WAID? Did it manage to catch the shape, or at least the direction of the taint? *That* could be a clue to determine if it was, at the very least, directed towards *me* specifically and not just a field of taint, as was the case with the past 2 recorded instances of Thacea’s 30th manatype outbursts!”\n\n**“WAID sensor data at time of incidence is of inadequate quality due to volatile efflux of 30th manatype.”** The EVI responded succinctly, putting its money where its mouth was and showing me exactly what it meant.\n\nThe whole thing was just static.\n\nThere were no ebbs, flows, or what-have-you, not even a discernible shape or direction, just… overwhelming ‘static’ in the form of the manafields simply collapsing in on themselves from the explosion of taint.\n\n“Right.” I managed out with a defeated sigh.\n\n**“Quantitative medical data in conjunction with operator-reported symptoms supports an idiopathic grand mal episode. Is the mission operator not satisfied with current findings?”**\n\nMy brows perked for a moment before realizing that the EVI was more than likely going through its mental health response checks, given the sudden bout of personable inquiry. “I *want* to be. If anything, I can easily just… *accept* it and move on, write off this entire incident as a weird coincidence, and just… not think too hard about it. But I can’t. It’s just… the hallucinations I experienced were too detailed, too consistent, too… *coherent* to just be simple audio-visual hallucinations tied to seizures. Sure it’s *possible*, but I just… it’s stretching it.”\n\n**“Subjective interpretation can be due to—”**\n\n“Immediately adding more set dressing after the fact, yes. But I *know* what I saw, and I *know* what I felt. This wasn’t me making shit up after the fact. I experienced it. I swear I did…” I managed out, as my breath hitched, my pulse increased, prompting the EVI to respond with a series of manual maneuvers resembling a tight handhold, pulling me back to earth.\n\n**“Operator is advised to maintain steady and deep breaths.”** It spoke while highlighting a visual overlay of a breathing exercise that was then promptly interrupted by the world outside.\n\n“Emma? Are you alright?” Thalmin’s voice came through loud and clear.\n\n“The young matriarch is perhaps *shocked* at the mention of her patron—”\n\n“Right, *that*, that’s…” I managed out, returning back to the conversation I’d tacitly left with my wits still frayed from the events of… well… *everything*. “No, I’m not. This has nothing to do with that… but *everything* to do with it actually.” I articulated *poorly*, as poorly as someone who’d just recovered from *Ranger Hell Week* would. “Before I begin my rebuttal, I’d like to hear your take on this first.” I continued as diplomatically as I could. “Tell me what you mean by 'patron,' and exactly *what* you think is on the other side of the portal?”\n\nThe dragon *grimaced* at this, exposing a gnarled set of fangs. Yet her voice, the ‘voice’ she now took on completely divorced from any worldly body, felt even more eerie than the corpse she started out with.\n\n“Foremothers of my foremothers once made fleeting tell of a being, one of magic antithetic to the Light.” Kaelthyr began, her voice carried by winds that picked up around us, echoing and whistling through the rock spikes and caverns. “None knew of its true domain, yet my elders cited accounts of fools from different realms claiming to witness its listless wandering, who were driven mad by the glimpse of the infinite depths that was its abyss and unraveled soon after. A god they all called it, but no race claimed it their deity. These bare-tales from my grand elders were all but grim fables, I thought. Paltry attempts to snuff out haughty younglings.” Her front claws soon clutched onto the hard stone floor, piercing through and cracking the rock beneath. “But now I’ve felt it firsthand. Its smothering embrace, its overwhelming *power*, and its *tainted presence…*”\n\nHer face betrayed no emotion beyond her rigid expression, but I could feel from the pause how she recalled that… *reaction* that forced her to cut her transdimensional connection. I took a step forward, wanting to assuage her worries before her eyes sharply pointed to me, making me halt.\n\n“Scorned was I, and yet urged were *you,* young matriarch. Urged to witness it, to *treat* with *it.* The tales of my elders were sparse, but I am confident to claim myself as the only dragon in *eons* to ever witness such. Thus I believe… nay, it *proves* that your kind *must* be the prophesized adversary. You are an arrival of a foreign culture, born indeed of foreign constraints. And now, I see evidence of you being fostered under the auspices of this… foreign patron.”\n\nI nodded along slowly, piecing together Kaelthyr’s assertions point by point. “With respect, Matriarch Kaelthyr, I must counter your assertions. We have had no contact, no encounter, not even a *glimpse* of any other living, sapient, intelligent being within our own reality until we encountered the Nexus. Ergo, we do not have a patron, nor do we have any existing relationships — in any capacity — with any polity, group, or entity on our side of the portal.”\n\n“You speak with such worldly attachments, like a scholar to a shaman.” The dragon began with a wistful observation, her echoey voice resonating eerily through the cave, emerging not from her maw nor the vocal cords of a corpse, but the currents of the winds themselves.\n\n“Excuse me?”\n\n“You come to address the metaphysical, the domain of the intangible, using tools reserved for mortal hands and mortal minds. You seek to paint without pigment, bow an instrument without its strings… you are attempting to ascribe physicality to the ether, applying its reason where logic is dethroned.” The dragon paused, as if asking ‘why’ without vocalizing it, giving me the floor without another word spoken.\n\n“To approach this in any other way would have been a disrespect of the highest order, Matriarch Kaelthyr.” I began firmly, all the while placing both my hands behind my back. “It would have been a disrespect to you, by virtue of my insincerity. It would have been a disrespect to my station, by a departure from the tenets of professionalism, which I attempt to maintain to the best of my abilities. And most of all, it would have been a disrespect, of the highest order, to those that have come before me — those whose shoulders I now stand atop of — and through whose sacrifices forged a world previously relegated to the pages of fiction.” I paused once more, taking a step forward to further close the gap between me and the dragon. “The suggestion that our civilization, our kind, our entire *history*, owes *anything* to a higher power, being, or what-have-you, is an insult to the very *notion* of humanity. Sure, there have been men and women of faith who have advanced the sciences, philosophy, technology, and our understanding of the universe at large, but they were human all the same. We march ceaselessly to the tune of our own composition, to a beat of our own making, to a rhythm of our own dictation, all for the sake of our own betterment.”\n\nI turned to Thalmin, as if making eye contact with him to reassert this fact.\n\n“We do not echo the chorus of some *patron* entity. We do not follow the footsteps of some overlord or master. And we most of all do not take *charity*.” I took another breath, ensuring that my voice was heard even through the thickest of draconic skulls. “Everything you see, everything I am, and everything we are, we accomplished *alone*. And for me to have given even the slightest hint to the contrary would be an affront of the highest order to the very spirit of humanity itself, and that’s not to say anything of the disrespect incurred to those that have laid the path for me.”\n\n“I’m no neo-humanist, or a member of any new fait","offTopic":false},{"id":"b6e3df8e-cf91-4dfb-9414-f960c98917ad","excerpt":"Wearing Power Armor to a Magic School (164/?) — [First](https://www.reddit.com/r/HFY/comments/yd3cu3/wearing_power_armor_to_a_magic_school_1/) | [Previous](https://www.reddit.com/r/HFY/comments/1ruol2d/wearing_power_armor_to_a_magic_school_163/) | [Next](https://www.reddit.com/r/HFY/comments/1s73s7q/wearing_power_armor","url":"https://www.reddit.com/r/HFY/comments/1s0vevg/wearing_power_armor_to_a_magic_school_164/","role":"pain","weight":1.2330333,"occurredAt":"2026-03-22T19:52:04.000Z","sourceKey":"reddit","sourceName":"Reddit","credibility":0.62,"venue":"HFY","intent":"feature_request","painScore":0.42,"sentiment":0.13043478,"confidence":0.86833334,"matchedPatterns":["frustrating","missing_feature"],"statement":"It’s just… experience that you lack.","title":"Wearing Power Armor to a Magic School (164/?)","body":"[First](https://www.reddit.com/r/HFY/comments/yd3cu3/wearing_power_armor_to_a_magic_school_1/) | [Previous](https://www.reddit.com/r/HFY/comments/1ruol2d/wearing_power_armor_to_a_magic_school_163/) | [Next](https://www.reddit.com/r/HFY/comments/1s73s7q/wearing_power_armor_to_a_magic_school_165/)\n\n[Patreon](https://www.patreon.com/Jcb112) | [Official Subreddit](https://www.reddit.com/r/JCBWritingCorner/) | [Series Wiki](https://www.reddit.com/r/hfy/wiki/series/wearing_power_armor_to_a_magic_school/) | [Royal Road](https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/70510/wearing-power-armor-to-a-magic-school)\n\n**Cave Entrance - North Rythian Forests - The Kingdom of Trangracia - Nexus. Local Time: 1020 Hours**\n\n**Katiya**\n\n*The dawn will come*.\n\nThat’s what my mother would always say.\n\nIt was a simple ward against nightmares, an assurance against terrors, and a constant reminder that the horrors of the present were *nothing* in comparison to the Eternal Day that was His Eternal Majesty’s decree. \n\nThe dawn *would* come, and with it the horrors of the dark would be kept at bay.\n\nThis had been the case time and time again, all without fail… until now.\n\nFor on this night and this night alone, waking up didn’t mean an end to the nightmares, no. \n\nIt was merely an escape from one infernium to another.\n\nBecause for each hour spent asleep, was another hour spent awake, not out of paranoia or battle strain.\n\n…\n\nIt was spent awake hiding from the forest herself.\n\nNot its predators.\n\nNot her guardians.\n\nBut the very forest that Lord Ignalius had sought to placate with his ill-gotten goods.\n\n…\n\nEvery other hour was a scramble to whatever remained of elven-made heights.\n\nThe ground *itself* opened up without warning, undulating, squirming, twisting, and writhing like the skin of some unimaginable *titan*.\n\nThe vines themselves *pulsed* with the life energies of the forest. Whilst the ground, the roots, the grass, and so on and so forth? *Those* were her muscles, hairs, and… whatever other unspeakable horrors of the flesh that existed beyond my ability to describe.\n\nThis made the trees a fool’s hideaway. For despite my innate desire to scramble up their tentative safety, I *knew* that these were man-traps, snares for the ill-informed and the city-dwelling fools.\n\nThis meant that only rock was safe.\n\nBut that wasn’t even guaranteed when most were covered by moss and dirt of some sort, including the cave’s entrance.\n\nAnd so I sat still, muscles aching and arms and legs *clenched* against the tough fabric of the wagon’s rooftops.\n\nFor *these* were the only truly ‘safe’ places amidst the living infernium that was this juvenile forest.\n\nI clung onto the few wagons remaining for dear life, unable to truly fall asleep, forever trapped in this state between restfulness and restlessness as each and every *CREAK, SHRRRRK,* and *RUSTLE* brought with it the *CLANKING* of armor and the *CLINKING* of metal. \n\nI dared not look.\n\nBut I did so only to see body after body subsumed by the ground with only the occasional armor, coin, and blade left behind.\n\nThe forest was seeking retribution, payment for the offerings now considered inadequate by Lord Ignalius’ hand.\n\n…\n\nOr perhaps… the forest *knew* of the grey lord’s ill-gotten gains and merely refused to accept wares taken in cold blood.\n\nWhatever the case was, I had to keep moving, as each wagon was indeed challenged for their treasures, many *crushed* by the forest’s *curious* vines.\n\nThis meant I could not stay on one roof for long, as I jumped from wagon to wagon, the ground itself a threat if I ever dared touch it.\n\nI continued this… for as long as I could… before exhaustion eventually overtook me.\n\nI knew not *when* I truly fell into a deep and ceaseless slumber.\n\nBut I knew I’d survived when I finally felt that intrusive light of day.\n\nThough that sensation, as annoying and energy-sapping as it was, paled in comparison to the *other* that jolted me awake — a creeping sensation, *slithering*, *climbing*, and then **wrapping** and twirling around my leg.\n\nI attempted to scramble free, and in that panic I screamed.\n\n“*Mrrraaaowwww ow ow ow ow!*”\n\n=====\n\n**Cave Entrance - North Rythian Forests - The Kingdom of Trangracia - Nexus. Local Time: 1020 Hours**\n\n**Thalmin**\n\nMy attention had shifted thrice now.\n\nIt began at the foot of abashment, a shame demanding redress at the behest of the rashly betrothed whose commitment I’d seized without counsel, a decision driven only by the impatience of the foolhardy.\n\nThen it shifted abruptly and without warning into a call to action — a shift back towards a goal so far removed from all my worldly concerns that it might as well have come from a different life entirely. \n\nBut acknowledge it I did, addressing the matter with the repose I’d have given my earlier thought and preparing myself for what was bound to be a surprisingly brief jaunt into this fulfilment of the Academy’s petty games.\n\nYet not soon after, and scarcely after a coherent string of acknowledgements had been uttered from my person, did *another* complication rear its ugly head.\n\n“*Mrrraaaowwww ow ow ow ow!*”\n\nOr more accurately, its ugly *vines*.\n\nMy eyes glanced over to meet a baxi caught in the crossfire of fear and disorientation. Her whole body leaped back from what appeared to be *vines* creeping up against her boot and leggings.\n\nI surged forwards, Emma cocking her head in confusion but soon following suit.\n\nThough that brief sprint and, seemingly, our very presence alone were enough to ward off any unbidden incursions.\n\nAs the vines seemed to withdraw straight back into the sparse canopy from which they came, alongside—\n\n…\n\nNo.\n\nThis couldn’t…\n\nI blinked.\n\nThen, I began scrying the immediate area.\n\nIt was with that second scry that my heart simply dropped, and my eyes finally acknowledged the sights that had seemingly awaited us over the course of our reality-defying epic.\n\n“Thalmin?” Emma’s words came through, carrying with them the cautious wariness that had similarly assaulted my senses. “What… what the hell *is* all of this?”\n\nThe earthrealmer’s curious gaze rapidly evolved into a defensive posture as she held out *both* arms at this point, with both the alicorn-killer and her second still-unused weapon ready and waiting for an excuse to fire.\n\nI couldn’t blame her.\n\nNot when the ground was a writhing, vine-filled mass… a *receding* one but an unnerving sight all the same.\n\n“This… this is more than likely the result of Kaelthyr’s promise, Emma.” I spoke softly, deploying a privacy field and speaking only through her 'earpiece.'\n\nEmma’s arms lowered as she repeated those fateful words spoken following our first interaction with the dragon. “*The bodies will be rent asunder. You will be spared… suspicion. You may take, loot, and plunder at your discretion.*” She paused as if to think those words over. “But… but I thought she meant she’d be burning or eating them or something?” Emma managed out as we both cautiously observed the writhing and tangled mass of receding vines. “Not… casting some spell to turn all of them into—”\n\n“This is not Kaelthyr’s doing. Or at least, not directly.” I interjected. “I know not if she had communed with the forest during our walk back into the cave, or whether she had done so sometime during our interactions. But she may have, in some enigmatic fashion, offered the flesh of all the fallen as recompense for our collective infractions.”\n\nEmma didn’t respond, simply urging me to continue, as it was clear that *this* was yet again another aspect of the *living* world she found to be… *difficult* to take in.\n\nAn expected reaction, from a people who seemed to exclusively dwell in environments of their own creation.\n\n“Though this may simply be the forest’s doing, with Kaelthyr merely anticipating what was to come. However, I find that difficult to believe, especially given the armor, weapons, and coin that clearly remain. But whatever the case may be, it is clear the forest has taken recompense for the damages we all inflicted.”\n\n“The damage *Kaelthyr* inflicted, mostly.” Emma countered with a nervous laugh. “What with her whole firestorm campaign the previous night.”\n\n“Aye.” I nodded, letting out a dark chuckle in the process before finally turning back to a shaking Katiya.\n\n=====\n\n**Katiya**\n\nI knew not what had overtaken me.\n\nPerhaps it was the fear, the wariness, or the distrust that I’d grown of the *ground* itself.\n\nWhatever it was… I soon found myself *leaping* for Dreadwolf’s arms, practically tackling the larger-than-life figure before settling onto his shoulders with a body still refusing to calm its ceaseless trembling.\n\nI dared not put boot to ground… at least not in this forest, not *anymore*.\n\nNot when the ground itself had become—\n\n“Katiya.” A voice emerged beneath my trembling form as two strong, glaived hands attempted to tug me down. “I would prefer it if you *didn’t* block my line of sight.”\n\n“Ah! I… Er, of course, Ser Dreadwolf! But I… I would… I do not… I… I no longer think I *can*. Not without angering the forest, and not without being **eaten!**” \n\nA deep sigh soon followed as the mercenary looked over to his golem as if attempting to find some way to accommodate my foolhardy requests.\n\n“I… I c-can walk as well, of course, Ser Dreadwolf. Y-you have saved me twice now! That’s two whole life debts! This… this certainly isn’t the sort of behavior you’d expect of someone with such debts owed—”\n\n“Katiya.” Dreadwolf interrupted. However, instead of either reassurances to my concerns or even outright rage or apathy to my actions, I instead received… *acknowledgement* of my deepest worries. “Your fears are warranted.” The lupinor spoke plainly. So *bluntly,* in fact, that I felt my gut twisting inside of me. “The forest has clearly marked those belonging to Ignalius’ party, and by extension, *you*.” \n\nI felt my shaking intensify as my grip on the lupinor grew tighter.\n\n“You must leave the forest posthaste. For there is no safety while you still tread upon its domain.” \n\nI tried to speak. I tried to respond. I tried with *everything* in my shivering chest to manage even a *word*.\n\nBut nothing emerged.\n\n“I am afraid I cannot escort you to the edge of the forest. For I have my own… *quests* to fulfill.\" The lupinor added, confirming my worst fears.\n\nHowever, just as I was about to lose hope, just when I thought all was lost…\n\n“I will instead assign you a task and an escort.” He remarked abruptly, causing me to perk both ears back up. “Use any one of the remaining carts, and gather as much in the way of loose belongings as you can. Coins, purses, pouches, the stray dagger, helmet, and what-have-you. Anything that seems *normal* and mostly unenchanted.” \n\nMy eyes narrowed at this, not in any doubt but in confusion as to exactly *what* Dreadwolf was planning.\n\n“I-if I may, Ser Dreadwolf. I am very much capable of completing your looting for you! I can drag heavy armor to the cart without any issu—”\n\n“I would rather we not draw the attention of the authorities, Katiya.” Ser Dreadwolf spoke bluntly. \n\nFollowing which, my fears once more returned in full.\n\nA lifetime of living in the dregs, of being in proximity to the scum of society, made it clear *exactly* what Dreadwolf was referring to.\n\n*When stealin’, don’t go off stealin’ from those that look* ***too*** *well-to-do. And don’t take anythin’ that’d catch the attention of those who’re buyin from ya too. Sometimes, it’s worth more gold for them to snitch, than it is to actually do business with ya.*\n\n“R-right!” I acknowledged with a firm nod.\n\n*Sir Dreadwolf really* ***was*** *a mercenary through and through… not even Lord Ignalius would have considered something so…* ***plebeian***\\*. He… oh, His Majesty’s Grace, he truly\\* ***was*** *the embodiment of chivalry amongst commone—*\n\n“Katiya.” \n\nI felt my whole world collapsing as my thoughts came to a halt.\n\n“You do not have much time. Get started. I’ll assign my steed to the cart of your choosing. It will lead you out of ","offTopic":false},{"id":"2e0bb30b-1a65-4ba9-80d4-b86b73516b77","excerpt":"Wearing Power Armor to a Magic School (156/?) — [First](https://www.reddit.com/r/HFY/comments/yd3cu3/wearing_power_armor_to_a_magic_school_1/) | [Previous](https://www.reddit.com/r/HFY/comments/1qa8zf3/wearing_power_armor_to_a_magic_school_155/) | [Next](https://www.reddit.com/r/HFY/comments/1qmwgtn/wearing_power_armor","url":"https://www.reddit.com/r/HFY/comments/1qgkn3v/wearing_power_armor_to_a_magic_school_156/","role":"pain","weight":1.2296673,"occurredAt":"2026-01-18T21:21:18.000Z","sourceKey":"reddit","sourceName":"Reddit","credibility":0.62,"venue":"HFY","intent":"feature_request","painScore":0.4537938,"sentiment":-0.32307693,"confidence":0.84583336,"matchedPatterns":["wish","missing_feature"],"statement":"“This is most likely due to a lack of clarity on my part, so for that, I must sincerely apologize.” I ran through the rehearsed motions, as diplomatic de-escalation training subsumed the otherwise adrenaline-ridden brain that was still jus…","title":"Wearing Power Armor to a Magic School (156/?)","body":"[First](https://www.reddit.com/r/HFY/comments/yd3cu3/wearing_power_armor_to_a_magic_school_1/) | [Previous](https://www.reddit.com/r/HFY/comments/1qa8zf3/wearing_power_armor_to_a_magic_school_155/) | [Next](https://www.reddit.com/r/HFY/comments/1qmwgtn/wearing_power_armor_to_a_magic_school_157/)\n\n[Patreon](https://www.patreon.com/Jcb112) | [Official Subreddit](https://www.reddit.com/r/JCBWritingCorner/) | [Series Wiki](https://www.reddit.com/r/hfy/wiki/series/wearing_power_armor_to_a_magic_school/) | [Royal Road](https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/70510/wearing-power-armor-to-a-magic-school)\n\n**Dragon’s Lair. Central Cavern. Local Time: 2245 Hours.**\n\n**Emma**\n\nThe cavern echoed with the raspy words of a dead man, his staggered ‘breaths’, and the stillness in his eyes contrasted against the sheer turmoil that had taken hold of his puppeteer’s features.\n\nFundamental systemic incongruency had just gripped the dragon.\n\nAnd it was clear we needed an off-ramp, and *quick*.\n\n“I believe there’s been a misunderstanding.” I spoke with a firmness but respectful clarity, nipping the insidious vine of miscommunication at the bud, before it had a chance to take root. “This is most likely due to a lack of clarity on my part, so for that, I must sincerely apologize.” I ran through the rehearsed motions, as diplomatic de-escalation training subsumed the otherwise adrenaline-ridden brain that was still just grappling with the battle’s… repercussions. “So allow me to set the record straight.” I continued, maintaining eye contact all the while. “My kind are not part of a ‘crystalline legacy.’ We *are* beings of flesh and blood, and while we do not possess magic or draconic heritage, we *do* possess the capacity to breathe life into… *rocks*, so to speak.”\n\n*This* more or less caused Thalmin’s already-worn features to evolve into an all-out look of incredulity, as he seemed completely taken out by the one-two punch that was; A. The dragon’s bold and confident proclamations of humanity’s draconic ancestry, and B. The basic preemptive explanation of electronics. However, only a second later did he seem to ‘get it’, his hand reaching towards his earpiece, and the conversation we had weeks ago on this very topic.\n\nThe dragon, however, wasn’t so receptive, as her pupils narrowed even further into a strained look of distrust.\n\nAt which point, I decided to cut through the song and dance, unlatching my datatab and gesturing towards it in one swift motion.\n\nOnce more she knelt down, her gaze lingering and her expressions now… *unreadable*, as a sort of reptilian poker face took hold. Every ounce of attention was instead diverted to the handheld tablet, her eyes following the small animated login screen composed of a rotating IAS emblem, transitioning in true gov-style to the GUN’s seal.\n\nShe continued, closing her eyes, and once more letting loose a series of mana radiation spikes; all focused towards the tablet if the WAND sensors were to be believed.\n\nA series of wing flutters followed, as Kaelthyr quickly stood up, taking slow and measured paces around me. **“I now see. I now feel. I now… fathom… your impossible claims. So now—”** The dragon came to a halt, settling on her haunches once more. **“—I wish to know** ***how***. **Tell me how this is possible. Show me how you breathed life into ‘rock.’ And explain to me how it is that a race of** ***manaless*** ***beings***, **composed of flesh and blood, was able to animate life through crystal and sand.**”\n\n“It is *precisely* our inability to harness magic, and our inherent lack of inherent advantages in heritage — be that draconic, elemental, or otherwise — that led us down this path.” I began with a confident smile. “While I am not at liberty to divulge the specifics, as there are limits to my diplomatic catalogue of good-will info-packages, I am happy to impart the basics.” My eyes soon shifted to one of the notifications on the EVI’s list of endless updates, towards a report of unauthorized interactions with the missing SUR drone — specifically at the third-party charging events in its logs. “And I believe you may already know *part* of how this works.” I pondered openly, causing the dragon to tilt its head, if just *barely* by a degree.\n\n“It begins with rocks and stone.” I opened with an excitable flourish. “Relatively common minerals, harvested, refined, and then processed until they are pure enough for our purposes. From there, we carve and print what you can call… manaless *runes* — paths so small that you’d be able to put a city map into a space smaller than a speck of dust.”\n\nI maintained eye contact, never once wavering from the dragon’s gaze.\n\n“Then it’s a matter of harnessing lightning. We generate it, leash it, and constrain it, forcing it to choose between paths of our design, again and again, at speeds beyond mortal perception.” \n\nKaelthyr, for her part, never flinched as well. In fact, she did quite the opposite, instead becoming more engrossed the more and more I spoke.\n\n“By observing which paths the lightning is permitted to take, and which are forbidden, we derive patterns and formulate meaning. And from meaning comes decision, memory, and a form of basic ‘thought.’” I soon gestured to my tablet, and the drones docked in my backpack. “In a way, my opening statements were entirely inaccurate, owing to their reductive nature. Because we do not breathe life into stone per se. We instead shape these stones into a maze-like prison, carving rulesets into matter and imposing laws for lightning to obey. So from this labyrinth of impossible complexity, restrained by the logic of our design, a form of *thinking* emerges. We call this… computation.”\n\nKaelthyr’s features never once shifted. \n\nThough her eyes conveyed all I needed to know. \n\nIncredulity hit first. A sort of dismay that shifted naturally into disbelief, and subsequently into an unwilling acceptance that all culminated in a sooty huff and a sharp glance up towards the ceiling of the cave.\n\n**“Yours is a mockery of Resonance.”** The dragon spoke dourly. **“A dark harmony. A twisted symphony of shackled bards forced into an unnatural chorus.”** She raised a clawed finger, pointing at both my docked drones and my tablet. **“Your crystals** ***scream***, ***crying out*** **in forced emergence.”** \n\nKaelthyr halted, causing my breath to hitch and Thalmin’s nervous gaze to darken.\n\n**“A fitting facsimile, and a testament to the darkness from which you hail.”** She finally grinned.\n\nTentative relief washed over the both of us; Thalmin in particular however seemed increasingly unnerved at our back and forths, his eyes glancing towards me with an uncertainty I’d rarely seen from him.\n\n“I would say the sentiment goes both ways… but I have neither the data nor context with which to reach such a conclusion.” I offered with a sly lilt to my otherwise diplomatic front. A fact that Kaelthyr seemed amused with if her dark and bassy warbles were anything to go by.\n\n**“The young matriarch wishes to negotiate so soon?”** \n\n“Reciprocation is the foundation to any healthy bilateral dialogue. Or at least, that is the assumption my people carry in these sorts of dialogues.”\n\n**“Yet you have avoided my second query. You have told me how this is possible. But you have yet to** ***show*** **me.”** Kaelthyr leaned in once again, rising back from her haunches as if to bring her mass to threaten me. **“By what right does flesh and blood, without magic of any kind, attain the perfection of draconic craft?”**\n\n“By right of will.” I shot back without hesitation, standing my ground, not once budging or flinching.\n\nKaelthyr, despite her more forward conversational stance, brought back her ‘lips’ in a toothy smile. \n\n“As for precisely *how*? I refer to my preamble — there are matters that I am not at liberty to discuss. *This* is one such matter.” \n\nThe dragon took a moment to regard that first response. Raising a scaled brow, then once more returning to rest on her haunches, as if treating my retorts as a test of will rather than a true challenge of conditional clauses.\n\n**“Then so be it.”** She responded ominously, though half of that vibe probably came from the nature of her broken and battered mouthpiece. **“We speak without kneeling, avatar of the void.”** \n\nThat latter sentiment, more specifically the conclusion to our back and forth caused *something* to stir within Thalmin’s gaze.\n\nThough that thought would be quickly shelved, as I pushed for *my* end of the dialogue before dead air took hold.\n\n“I’d have it no other way.” I acknowledged. “So tell me about your crystals, about *resonance*. Exactly *what* is it? And precisely how does this all work?”\n\n**“Truth, when spoken without comprehension, is but another form of falsehood.”** The dragon began in earnest. **“It is to explain sight to a molerat, sound to a deafspiral, and taste to a golem.** ***This*** **is why I first doubted the veracity of your claims. As resonance is the realm exclusive to that of crystalline draconic heritage,** ***not*** **mortals of flesh and blood.”**\n\nThe dragon paused, her claws reaching for my backpack. Not to poke, but merely to point.\n\nAnd despite her insistence to the contrary, she started to explain with eager breath.\n\n**“Ours is a pattern, an artform that beckons beauty. It is resonant, structures of grand design in a microverse that coalesces meaning not through structure but wave-like harmony. It is a transient state, a liquid that harbors the potential of structure, but is never** ***ever*** **solid. Our patterns, our design, they do not exist in structured permanence. They instead form when called upon, echoing a distant note as a tuning fork calls upon a chord.”** \n\nMy eyes widened as waves upon waves of realization slammed into me with the force of a dragon-shaped freight train.\n\n**“Whereas you build unyielding prisons — caging lightning and interpreting its suffering as meaning — we nurture worlds, and allow each state to remain at rest until harmony brings forth resonance. We don’t…** ***compute,*** **we** ***cohere.\"***\n\n“You’re talking about the crystal matrices.” I blurted out excitedly, eliciting but a brow quirk from the dragon. “W-we’ve observed this very phenomenon! In the labs! This… this is the very foundation that our understanding of applied exo-reality communications is based upon. B-but sorry, I’m getting ahead of myself here. Ahem, we’ve observed, from what little we’ve been able to discern through our methods, that there exist these… *matrices* of exotic-matter microfilaments that, for lack of a better term… ‘float’ within your crystals. *Float* being a rather reductive descriptor, but I digress. Erm, these microfilaments trend towards three discrete states, repeating a cycle that’s observable without fail and replicable with statistical significance.” I quickly brought up a diagram, complete with annotated exotic-spectrum imaging assays, all highlighting the phenomenon in question.\n\nKaelthyr’s eyes lit up almost immediately. First out of confusion, then, a sense of visceral disgust and recoil; her features darkened to the tune of a steady and unnerving rumble.\n\nHer eyes darted back and forth, starting at the first diagram that showed the interior of a crystal in a region that, unlike most, still held a degree of transparency. Within it, microfillaments were arranged in a tetragonal lattice, structured and in perfect symmetry. Then, she shifted her eyes rightwards, towards the second diagram, complete with annotations of various catalysts and variable initiators all contributing to the staggered, structured, and intentional *shattering* of said structure.\n\nHer tail lowered at this, as that grimace entered into a threatening aura.\n\nFinally, her eyes glanced at the ‘third’ state, as the microfilaments reoriented and regrouped, all without outside intervention, spontaneously on their own accord.\n\nThis diagram would loop, an arrow circling back around from the third state back to the first state, high","offTopic":false},{"id":"f313780f-755f-4de5-9700-3c687f9c691f","excerpt":"Wearing Power Armor to a Magic School (159/?) — [First](https://www.reddit.com/r/HFY/comments/yd3cu3/wearing_power_armor_to_a_magic_school_1/) | [Previous](https://www.reddit.com/r/HFY/comments/1qt8qcq/wearing_power_armor_to_a_magic_school_158/) | [Next](https://www.reddit.com/r/HFY/comments/1rbwicl/wearing_power_armor","url":"https://www.reddit.com/r/HFY/comments/1r5l23p/wearing_power_armor_to_a_magic_school_159/","role":"request","weight":1.2145613,"occurredAt":"2026-02-15T17:52:17.000Z","sourceKey":"reddit","sourceName":"Reddit","credibility":0.62,"venue":"HFY","intent":"feature_request","painScore":0.398727,"sentiment":0.030303031,"confidence":0.86833334,"matchedPatterns":["frustrating","missing_feature"],"statement":"The basic *crux* of their state-enforced dogma, the very thing on which their interpretation of biology is based on, is what we fundamentally lack — mana.","title":"Wearing Power Armor to a Magic School (159/?)","body":"[First](https://www.reddit.com/r/HFY/comments/yd3cu3/wearing_power_armor_to_a_magic_school_1/) | [Previous](https://www.reddit.com/r/HFY/comments/1qt8qcq/wearing_power_armor_to_a_magic_school_158/) | [Next](https://www.reddit.com/r/HFY/comments/1rbwicl/wearing_power_armor_to_a_magic_school_160/)\n\n[Patreon](https://www.patreon.com/Jcb112) | [Official Subreddit](https://www.reddit.com/r/JCBWritingCorner/) | [Series Wiki](https://www.reddit.com/r/hfy/wiki/series/wearing_power_armor_to_a_magic_school/) | [Royal Road](https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/70510/wearing-power-armor-to-a-magic-school)\n\n**Earth - Atlantic Ocean - Special Administrative Zone under requisition by the United Nations Science Advisory - Institute of Anomalous Studies (IAS) Pilot Research Facility Codename: ATLANTIS II. ECS Holding Facility. Local Time: 2357 Hours.**\n\n**Captain Calico Li**\n\n“Is that a fucking dragon?!”\n\nI was unsure who exactly said that.\n\nBut that just about summed up the sentiments of the room in one, admittedly *blunt*, exclamation.\n\nTwo glowing purple eyes regarded the Cadet’s helm from a gnarly, scaled, and leathery snout. Crystals of all types — jagged, irregular, shattered and cracked — jutted from its purple-hued hide in seemingly random clusters, completing that unmistakable visage of a western fantasy dragon; body, wings, four legs, and tail in full.\n\nThere was no point for academic euphemisms here.\n\n‘Dragon’ was just about the most *apt* descriptor, if not the *only* term you could use in describing it.\n\nI looked around the room, caught in the grip of history, at stunned faces and dumbfounded expressions, all having either not yet registered or refusing to acknowledge both the creature and its reality-defining implications.\n\nEverything, every single moment over the past few decades, seemed to have led up to *this* moment.\n\nFirst contact.\n\n*Live* first contact, with a visual feed.\n\nAnd with a fucking *dragon* at that.\n\nThis wasn’t your archetypal spec-evo hexapod or some planetary fungal hivemind. \n\nThis was as far removed from any hard science fiction trope as was humanly possible.\n\nIn fact, we were now so far into the realm of science **fiction** that we circled around and landed firmly into the realm of fantasy.\n\nI didn't want to believe it.\n\n*Nobody* did.\n\nBut it was *there* all the same.\n\n“Sig-Int.” I blurted out, turning and then locking eyes with the on-duty signals intelligence officer. “Confirm visual feed authenticity.” \n\n“Visual feed authenticity confirmed, sir.” The man acknowledged after only a second’s delay, causing the otherwise shocked crowd to begin the expected whispers and murmurs, all of which were soon shot down by a harsh shushing courtesy of Weir.\n\nI turned to Ivo, urging him on, given that this whole development spawned from *his* insistence.\n\n=====\n\n**Dr. Ivo Mekis**\n\nI was never one to mince words.\n\nEver.\n\nBut in this instance… the formulation of even the most basic sentences eluded me.\n\n“I… Cade- mm… tch…” \n\nAll pretenses of *knowing*, and all advancements made in the field of theoretical xenobiology — the speculation, the proposed models, the literal *sea* of hypotheses — immediately *died* at the panning of that camera.\n\nJust one frame from this simple call would come to redefine an entire field — no — several, tens, even *hundreds* more niche disciplines.\n\nBut be that as it may, *now* was not the time for introspection.\n\n*This* was a time for pertinent points of clarification.\n\nI cleared my throat. “Ahem.”\n\nThen, I began my five-point questionnaire. \n\n“This *dragon*—”\n\n“Matriarch Kaelthyr.” The Cadet corrected.\n\n“Amended. Is Matriarch Kaelthyr — by her efforts *alone* — responsible for the successful initiation, discovery, and handshake, predicating a closed single-channel exoreality entanglement episode?” \n\n“Yes.”\n\nMy eyes glanced at the live data feeds, or more specifically, at the pertinent data being fed to me on *this* particular subject matter.\n\n“Using exclusively innate properties?”\n\n“Correct.”\n\n“Understood.” I nodded in acknowledgement. \n\nThere wasn’t more to be said. At least, nothing that wouldn’t be swept away in the rapids of the Cadet’s catastrophic announcements.\n\nI just needed to ensure the waters weren’t being siphoned or poisoned, for our sakes.\n\n“Current data concurs with the Cadet’s qualitative assessments.” I turned to address both the Director and Captain. “Though that is the extent of my objective analysis. There is still the matter of this third party’s motiv—”\n\n“I appreciate your concerns, Dr. Mekis. However, OPSEC is the domain of Command.” The Cadet interjected with a distressing bluntness. “Captain Li, Director Weir. Pilot II Mission Operator formally discloses the emergency use of a third-party agent in the facilitation of this Unscheduled Exoreality Entanglement episode, and all signal transfers henceforth.” \n\n“Acknowledged.” Came both Weir and Li’s synchronized responses, as Emma continued unabated.\n\n“Mission Operator further acknowledges the risks associated with the use of a third-party communications facilitator. Thus, Pilot II formally invokes General Order 37-a. Does Command acknowledge?”\n\nMy eyes narrowed at the automatic prompting of my VI as it pulled up the precise article and its associated jargon. \n\n*GO-37-a: The immediate reporting of any confirmed existential threat to the Greater United Nations, without contextual mediation, where delay — by action or inaction — risks the encroachment of the GUN’s territorial integrity or political sovereignty.*\n\n“Command acknowledges field invocation of GO-37a.” Calico nodded succinctly before the floor seamlessly shifted back to Weir.\n\n“Civil Command acknowledges.” The Director responded succinctly, as the tag-teaming continued through to a visibly impatient Calico.\n\nHis nerves, his concerns, clearly rising the moment his eyes landed on the same milestone event we all observed, as highlighted in the Cadet’s first-week reports; a fact that was becoming increasingly apparent the more time his eyes lingered on the shared virtual workspace.\n\n“Can you confirm that this entanglement episode is stable, Cadet?” He hurriedly asked. \n\nFollowing which, and after a brief vocal interaction between the Cadet and the dragon, did she finally confirm. “Yes. She says we have… at least a few hours.”\n\nA collective sigh of relief echoed amongst not just the eager pair but the entire room, while I stood by patiently, observing the ebb and flow of data transfer while coordinating with the silent heroes of this operation.\n\n“Alright. Then let’s get into this existential threat. Full Action Report. Critical Events, Milestones, Principal Findings. Let’s start with the gross infringement of your diplomatic pouch, and—” \n\nCalico paused uncharacteristically, his eyes growing wide, with Weir’s expression soon coming to match his in incredulity. Their collective gazes were locked on a particular section of the annotated report, one detailing the events of the ECS’ self-destruction… and a laundry list of diplomatic infractions longer than the event timeline itself.\n\n“—detention of a diplomatic envoy, coercive manipulation under duress, abuse of authority, abuse of institutional authority, diplomatic and political overreach, conspiracy and attempt to aims of diplomatic and political subterfuge by forceful conversion of allegiances, physical assault, obstruction of official functions, reckless endangerment, and attempted homicide.”\n\nThe room went silent once more, as all eyes landed on Emma’s growing features of discomfort.\n\n“The offending party in question is a member of faculty, and a self-reported ‘member of the privy council’ — Professor Mal’tory.” \n\n=====\n\n**Thalmin**\n\nThe distances involved and the foreign nature of Emma’s parlay into the sea of taint should’ve meant that my participation in this entire endeavor was a foregone point.\n\nI could not cross into the otherwise miasmic aura that had enveloped the cave’s epicenter.\n\nThe languages involved and the means of communication should have naturally kept my meddling in this rare line of unsanctioned status communicatia to an absolute zero.\n\nHowever… this wasn’t at all the case.\n\nIf anything, Emma had ensured that both Kaelthyr and I were kept *in* this otherwise open loop, courtesy of the booming acoustics of her armor.\n\n…\n\nThough that by no means meant that all was truly transparent, a barrier attributable to no malice of her own, but owing entirely to the fault of her nature.\n\nA nature that I had predicted, but never truly fathomed the implications of.\n\n*“A society of scholars.”*\n\nMy prophetic words from weeks passed rang louder now than ever, the candid observation made in jest and passing observation manifesting in a form I never could have expected.\n\nIt was as if I was hearing a completely different person from the onset. Manifesting into existence a bastardized dialect of High Nexian that felt eerily artificial, entirely rehearsed — and given the nature of that initial back and forth… that assumption probably held more water than not.\n\nEach interaction felt lifted from the pages of a ledger, every challenge and call to action — another test of rote dictation. \n\nAnd yet, throughout it all, one of the voices she held a martial deference to — this ‘Captain Li’ — was undeniably calling upon the same principles of military discipline I was accustomed to.\n\nI could *hear* the underlying discipline of the warrior.\n\nAnd yet… all that was spoken were the words of scholars and bureaucrats.\n\nIt was… bizarre. An entirely foreign experience.\n\nA military, a force as impressive as Earthrealm’s, couldn’t possibly be staffed and filled with bookish men and cerebral scholars, could it?\n\n…\n\nMoreover, now that Emma was starting to recount her trials and tribulations with Mal’tory, the presence of another voice, an older woman, began perplexing me.\n\nHer ranks, indeed the rank of the studiously standoffish man prior, weren’t martial in nature.\n\nThey held the status of scholars.\n\nYet one of them, this older woman, seemed to command the greatest respect.\n\nI could have somewhat understood if this were a monarchy. I could have accepted the logic at play if she had some form of noble blood, but was otherwise spared the life and titles of the blade.\n\nMany adjacent realms had placed mere blood over actual martial experience, allowing paper marshals and parade generals into command. It was common, almost frustratingly so.\n\nBut this wasn’t such a case.\n\nThis woman and the man prior were mere scholars, with no other titles or blood to back their authority. \n\nThey were *civilians*.\n\nAnd yet they held authority over those who swore the oath to the blade?\n\n*Preposterous.*\n\nHowever, as quickly as that thought manifested, it found itself dying at the foot of self-directed shame.\n\nWhy was I reacting so *viscerally*? Had Emma not made this known time and time again? The anomalous and almost fantastical notion of a classless society?\n\nHow was it then that I found myself instinctively *rejecting* that notion at the very first instance it was on display?\n\nPerhaps I was more *Nexian* than I thought.\n\nNo.\n\nThat wasn’t at all the case.\n\nPerhaps… the issue was simply in how *wrong* it **felt**. How jarring it must be for warriors of the blade to pay deference to those outside of its oaths.\n\nScholars as they were, they weren’t beholden to the same expectations, truths, and brotherhood. And while *wisdom* had its place, demanding respect in its own right, such wisdom could not command authority over those in service of a wildly different pursuit.\n\n…\n\nAnd yet here this ‘Weir’ stood. Higher, taller, and ‘directing’ the whims of both martial and civil paths.\n\nAs incredulous as I was, I could not deny the reality of what faced me.\n\nWhat’s more, if I allowed myself a moment of contemplation, I began to *understand* the method amidst the madness.\n\nThese scholars — if I were to press the analogy — were not unlike their military counterparts. If anything, they deserved their authority far more tha","offTopic":false},{"id":"b480d637-9a1c-4ce4-b9c7-db0c28989c3b","excerpt":"Wearing Power Armor to a Magic School (152/?) — [First](https://www.reddit.com/r/HFY/comments/yd3cu3/wearing_power_armor_to_a_magic_school_1/) | [Previous](https://www.reddit.com/r/HFY/comments/1parn5g/wearing_power_armor_to_a_magic_school_151/) | [Next](https://www.reddit.com/r/HFY/comments/1pmkdxg/wearing_power_armor","url":"https://www.reddit.com/r/HFY/comments/1pgszzx/wearing_power_armor_to_a_magic_school_152/","role":"request","weight":1.1803071,"occurredAt":"2025-12-07T20:41:37.000Z","sourceKey":"reddit","sourceName":"Reddit","credibility":0.62,"venue":"HFY","intent":"feature_request","painScore":0.39543697,"sentiment":0.48051947,"confidence":0.84583336,"matchedPatterns":["frustrating","missing_feature"],"statement":"The organization was there, and the weapons were there too; all that was missing was a certain level of *professionalism*, as squads joked and japed in between bites of cheese and crackers.","title":"Wearing Power Armor to a Magic School (152/?)","body":"[First](https://www.reddit.com/r/HFY/comments/yd3cu3/wearing_power_armor_to_a_magic_school_1/) | [Previous](https://www.reddit.com/r/HFY/comments/1parn5g/wearing_power_armor_to_a_magic_school_151/) | [Next](https://www.reddit.com/r/HFY/comments/1pmkdxg/wearing_power_armor_to_a_magic_school_153/)\n\n[Patreon](https://www.patreon.com/Jcb112) | [Official Subreddit](https://www.reddit.com/r/JCBWritingCorner/) | [Series Wiki](https://www.reddit.com/r/hfy/wiki/series/wearing_power_armor_to_a_magic_school/) | [Royal Road](https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/70510/wearing-power-armor-to-a-magic-school)\n\n**The Nexus. Near the Geographic Center of the North Rythian Forests. Just Outside the Dragon’s Lair. Local Time: 2045 Hours.**\n\n**Thalmin**\n\nIt began with a ripple.\n\nThen a gentle but pathetic nudge.\n\nIt was as if my aura was being prodded with a *feather* and tugged at with velvet gloves, all with the strength and ferocity of a malnourished runt.\n\nI’d scarcely even understood *what* the shatorealmer was attempting until he finally started to get ‘serious.’\n\nAt which point I couldn’t help but break out into a grin, standing up to match the shatorealmer’s height… before exceeding it, crossing my arms with a confidence my uncle would’ve disapproved of.\n\nThe would-be mercenary was attempting a *scry*, poking, prodding, and nudging at the local manastreams, all in a vain attempt at assessing exactly who and what it was they were up against.\n\nIt took every ounce of restraint I had *not* to overwhelm this pathetic excuse of a Nexian collaborator. It required a willful attempt at recognizing my uncle’s stern words — *specifically* following the incident at the Portside Tavern — *not* to simply stun, incapacitate, or outright blind the chosen one’s manasense, if only to maintain the *intelligence* advantage. To ensure that we could dictate the narrative of this encounter.\n\nRevealing our hand *would* have locked us into an awkward position, but then again… there *was* a high likelihood these mercenaries would’ve recognized me all the same.\n\nIt all depended on just how well-read they were… which was difficult to say just based on a cursory inspection.\n\nThe adventurers in Elaseer had the benefit of proximity — and, by extension, familiarity — to all things adjacent.\n\nBut I knew not just how familiar this particular mercenary outfit was with said matters.\n\nRegardless, Uncle’s lessons were pertinent all the same.\n\nIt was best to not show one’s hand, at least not in the opening moves of a battle.\n\nMy only wish was for Emma to have been able to witness this futility, to truly bear witness to the non-threats we faced.\n\nOr at least, those *were* my opening thoughts, up until the elf finally entered the fray.\n\n*His* scries… were far more effective.\n\nStill a ways away from our contemporaries back in the Academy, but leagues above the pathetic, half-hearted proddings of the shatorealmer.\n\nI actually had to make an effort to *conceal* my aura this time around. The results of which… proved to be enough to garner a raise of a brow from the otherwise jester-faced captain.\n\n“I will only say this *once* more…” He spoke with a growing suspicion. “Exactly *who* are you, and *why* are you here?”\n\nThere was no more use in delaying the inevitable.\n\nJust as there was no more use in playing *hide the bandana* from the hand fate had dealt us.\n\n“Heh. That first question’s smart, I’ll give ya that.” I responded with a gruffer *twang* in my cadence, taking a step forward to close the distance. “But that second question?” I paused, letting out a series of gravelly ‘tsks’ in the process. “Not so much, friend. Not so much.” \n\nThe tension in the air *spiked* to an unbearable degree, so much so that the shatorealmer’s posture stiffened, their eyes peering nervously towards the Captain’s.\n\n“Oh? Is that so?” The Captain responded in that annoyingly *playful* sing-song cadence, each word bouncing back and forth as if ready to break into song.\n\n“‘Dunno, don’t much care, ‘cause that’s yer problem. Thing is, a man like you is smart enough to figure out the ***why*** of things.” I paused, pointing bluntly towards the dragon’s lair before deftly shifting a thumb towards my armored chest. “So the question now becomes — do you really wanna know the ***who***?”\n\nAnother silence descended on the scene, interrupted only by the whinnying of Aquastride and a solid *gulp* from the shatorealmer.\n\nThe elf, meanwhile — and very much to his credit — remained stone-faced, bearing only the *slightest* of amused expressions as he finally let out a disquieting sigh following a good five seconds of contemplation.\n\n“‘Course I do.” He responded, dropping a word as he flip-flopped between High Nexian and a bastardized ‘merc-speak’ pidgin. “Because either ‘yer a *real* problem, or a bunch’a idiots. Either way, that makes you *my* problem.” The elf reached inside his jacket, producing a crown warrant the likes of which looked far, *far* more serious than the warrants Sym showed us belonging to those dragon-hunting adventurers. “The forest is off limits, if you haven’t heard. So tell me… *who* sent you? Or are you dumb enough to risk crown penalties for your own glory?”\n\n“Who says it can’t be both?” I responded cryptically, putting all cards into the bluff as I channeled in elements of my sister’s… and admittedly, *Ilunor’s* penchant for theatrics.\n\n*This* finally tripped something in the elf’s head, as his eyes narrowed, his face grew stoic, and his stance tightened.\n\nThe shatorealmer’s eyes shot warily back and forth between us, their anxiety reaching a fever pitch, prompting me to ready a battle stance—\n\n“*Ha… BWAhaHAHAHAHAHAH!*”\n\n—but not before the elf could completely defuse the situation with a boisterous, surprisingly *earnest* laugh.\n\n“Oh… oh, I’ve *missed* talking to a fellow raconteur!” He *beamed*, lifting a white-gloved hand to wipe away a single forceful tear. “Quite *daring,* I should say, to pull such a stunt with a clearly powerful stranger at that…” He paused to gesture towards himself and the mercenary party busying about closer to the dragon’s lair. “Which means that regardless of whether you are fools or truly… *problems*, I should be rid of you posthaste.” He grinned toothily before raising a single hand towards us.\n\nI braced for a strike, and so did Emma; however, instead of any fire, lightning, or telekinetics… nothing came.\n\n“And what better way to be rid of potential *competition* than to simply join forces under the same cause?” The elf’s hand straightened out into an open-palmed handshake. “Listen stranger, I am not what most would describe as a… *charitable* man. But what I am is a man who recognizes an opportunity to increase the odds of a job well done. And right now? I’m seeing a path where *all* of us can win. You’re here for the dragon, that much is clear. But what *exactly* are you here for? The gold reward? The title of *dragonslayer*? The dragon itself…?” He paused menacingly at that latter line before quickly moving forward. “Or perhaps something else entirely?”\n\n“Nothing that *you’re* clearly here for, it seems.” I offered bluntly, presenting the self-important Captain with a third option. “To put it simply, we’re here to harvest its crystals. Nothing more, nothing less.”\n\n“Which means that our interests do not conflict.” The Captain remarked thoughtfully, his hand still outstretched. “In fact, it aligns quite well if you ask me… we *both* desire *something* from this unsightly beast. You, a poacher’s trinket. And I, the whole kit and caboodle. So with that being said, why don’t we make a *deal*. Two clearly well-equipped and *talented* hands in temporary service over the duration of this venture. For some trivial amethyst shards.”\n\nI narrowed my eyes, crossing my arms tighter before letting out a disinterested huff. “And if I refuse?”\n\n“You won’t gain access to the dragon.” The Captain replied bluntly but civilly. Though his next few words quickly dipped into that typical Nexian venom. “*And* I will have no qualms with reporting you and your… golem compatriot there to the appropriate authorities.” \n\nThat ultimatum hung in the air for just over a second before I reached a hand out but stopped just short of a shake. “We dictate our own actions, no matter how involved or distant.”\n\n“Yes, yes, yes. Full autonomy.” The Captain acquiesced as we both gripped hands with a respective second’s hesitation. “Moreover, if anyone asks, I will simply mention I met two freelancers on the way to the cave. It will be as if you were never here.” \n\n=====\n\n**Emma**\n\nI didn’t like this guy. Not one bit.\n\nThis was despite him doing everything right.\n\nThe red flags weren’t so red when it came to him, especially as he’d reacted… surprisingly rationally to the back-and-forths with Thalmin.\n\nHe’d confronted us as any merc boss would, escalated the interaction as the situation demanded, and even offered an off-ramp in the form of an acceptable compromise, de-escalating instead of going full murder-hobo as most Castles and Wyverns player parties would have done.\n\nThe only real downside to his actions thus far was his coercion tactics, doubling down on his superior leverage by hammering home how cooperation — under *his* purview — was the only way for us to accomplish our objectives.\n\nThough honestly, that was pretty tame in the grand scheme of Nexian assholery.\n\nEven so, there was something about the guy that just didn’t sit right with me. But maybe that was just my Nexian bias speaking. This whole adventure *did* prove that there were ‘decent’ Nexians out there, Lord L’Sips being one of them. Maybe I just needed to give this guy a chance?\n\nWhatever the case was, it was too late to back out now. \n\nWhat’s more, I trusted Thalmin’s lead on this one. He knew the merc world *way* better than I, so maybe he was seeing something I wasn’t. That, or he understood that this was our best shot at getting to the dragon given the developments. Whether or not he trusted the guy was another matter entirely, though he was certainly trying to peel back the layers. It was clear that the banter was a way for him to poke and prod at the Captain, as much as he was prodding at us.\n\nSpeaking of which…\n\n“I don’t suppose you have a name with which to offer me?” The elf inquired candidly. “Don’t worry, it’s not going in a ledger or what have you. I’d just like to know *what* to call you, is all. Wouldn’t want to be shouting ‘*lupinor mercenary*’ for the upteenth time during a dance with dragons.” He promptly added, though that latter part was mumbled out in mild annoyance. \n\n“My adventuring name is Dreadwolf. Dreadwolf Steelpaw. Though most know me by my full title, Dreadwolf the Dire.” Thalmin responded convincingly.\n\nSo convincingly, in fact, that I couldn’t help but cackle *hard* in my armor, both the EVI and my own irises making certain to have muted all external speakers before then. \n\n*Are you* ***serious*** *right now, Thalmin?* I mouthed out as I tried my best *not* to leak anything through body language.\n\n“And the… gole—”\n\n“A name for a name, good sir.” Thalmin cut the man off, prompting him to clear his throat in response.\n\n“My *apologies*.” He forced out through gritted teeth before composing himself. “My name is Captain Ignalius the Indomitable, Breaker of the Hall of Coin, and Silencer of the Guilds.” \n\n“Well met, Captain Ignalius.” Thalmin dipped his head, bowing in respect, which seemed to perk the man’s spirits up to no end.\n\n*Ah. So he was* ***that*** *sorta guy. Got it*.\n\n“Now then, about that golem of yours.” He spoke curiously, nodding his head in my direction. “Quite a *frivolous* display of wealth, a bit *dangerous* to be having it out and about what with the risk of theft potentially outweighing its usefulness.”\n\n“You’d be surprised to see how well it can hold its own. Not to mention, I don’t take kindly to advances on *my property*.” Thalmin responded with a growl, playing the part a bit *too* well.\n\nThe elf, however, seemed more amused than th","offTopic":false},{"id":"8d6e1aae-b8c9-48ca-869b-37af2530902c","excerpt":"Wearing Power Armor to a Magic School (147/?) — [First](https://www.reddit.com/r/HFY/comments/yd3cu3/wearing_power_armor_to_a_magic_school_1/) | [Previous](https://www.reddit.com/r/HFY/comments/1nyvpgu/wearing_power_armor_to_a_magic_school_146/) | [Next](https://www.reddit.com/r/HFY/comments/1ogrkfv/wearing_power_armor","url":"https://www.reddit.com/r/HFY/comments/1o4xq0d/wearing_power_armor_to_a_magic_school_147/","role":"pain","weight":1.0761514,"occurredAt":"2025-10-12T19:07:57.000Z","sourceKey":"reddit","sourceName":"Reddit","credibility":0.62,"venue":"HFY","intent":"feature_request","painScore":0.40980527,"sentiment":0,"confidence":0.7633333,"matchedPatterns":["frustrating","missing_feature","product:sentry"],"statement":"I just lack the men—” “No.","title":"Wearing Power Armor to a Magic School (147/?)","body":"[First](https://www.reddit.com/r/HFY/comments/yd3cu3/wearing_power_armor_to_a_magic_school_1/) | [Previous](https://www.reddit.com/r/HFY/comments/1nyvpgu/wearing_power_armor_to_a_magic_school_146/) | [Next](https://www.reddit.com/r/HFY/comments/1ogrkfv/wearing_power_armor_to_a_magic_school_148/)\n\n[Patreon](https://www.patreon.com/Jcb112) | [Official Subreddit](https://www.reddit.com/r/JCBWritingCorner/) | [Series Wiki](https://www.reddit.com/r/hfy/wiki/series/wearing_power_armor_to_a_magic_school/) | [Royal Road](https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/70510/wearing-power-armor-to-a-magic-school)\n\n**The Nexus. The Kingdom of Transgracia. Skyward Spire Upon Ethalsyd. Airward Court. Sky Warden’s Office. Local Time: 1900 Hours.** \n\n**Mercenary Captain Ignalius Av-Lisinius**\n\n*Tap. Tap. Tap.* \n\nI sat there alone in a room too ostentatious for its own good.\n\nI craned my head upwards to observe a mural — painted with the brightest of crimsons and the deepest of blues — depicting the scaly beasts which called this forsaken fortress home, set against the very skies which they dominated without contest. \n\nWith a sigh and a stretch, I turned to my left, only to bear witness to articles of furniture I swore I’d once gleaned from Crownland advertisements — delicate, spindly things too frail for a life out here in the crests of the outlands. \n\nFinally — and with little regard to station and etiquette — I tucked my legs up and leaned to my right, observing the night skies beyond the sheltered courtyard below, watching in mild wonder at the beasts that came and went beneath the sentry of this outcropping of an office.\n\n*The only thing left to sell the storybook sensibility of this place would be a large balcony from which to deliver speeches.*\n\nA sigh soon followed, as I reached my hands upwards for a shoulder stretch, my eyes promptly landing on the greatwood desk in front of me, though I found my interests taken not by the crystal balls nor fanciful trinkets atop of it.\n\nA derisive smirk soon found its home on my ugly mug as I glared frustratingly at the two suits of armor flanking the bookcase behind said desk.\n\nOne for war.\n\nAnother for galas.\n\nThe former still had its pristine first coat. Its mirror-perfect sheen and the scent of evershine wax betrayed as much.\n\nWhile the latter? Well… the latter had clearly gone through its second, third, or maybe even its *fourth* everclear coat. \n\nI couldn’t help but let out a fitful chuckle at that ridiculous observation.\n\n*Oh, how far you’ve* ***come***\\*, dear cousin.\\*\n\n*FWOOOSH!*\n\n*Utter the forsaken, and the forsaken shall come.*\n\n“What are you laughing about *this time*?” The would-be Skylord spoke. His frame, and indeed his choice of attire, clashed against the title of his station. \n\n“Oh Captain, my Captain, please forgive this lowlife’s insubordination.” I returned facetiously, placing a twice-healed hand atop an armored chest.\n\nThe *noble* winced at that self-deprecating jab, his right eye twitching whilst both of his gloved hands reached to steady himself against the sturdiness of his leather-topped desk.\n\nHe glared at me with *vitriol*, wishing oh so desperately to spout out inflammatory derogatives amidst calls to reform.\n\nBut he couldn’t.\n\nNot when he had no more familial bearing to do so. \n\nOr at least that’s what I’d *assumed* would be the case.\n\n“You sully our *blood*.” He finally managed out.\n\n“*Oh*…” I responded with a cheshire grin. “Oh, *that’s new*!” My smile grew wider as I couldn’t help but to grab both knees tightly, reeling in a cackle that formed at the edges of my gleeful face. “Oh, I thought I’d escaped it *all*. But *this*? Oh, this is *creative*!” I chortled, eliciting yet another disgusted side-eye from the would-be Skylord. “Alright, alright. Let me play this game. What would this make *you* then, hmm? No longer cousin by law, so perhaps cousin *by blood*? I know they say that blood is thicker than water, but dear cousin… I never took you for someone so *merciful*—”\n\n“*Enough!*” The elf shouted. His voice carried with it a spell powerful enough to counteract my own escalating coyfulness. “This isn’t a family reunion.”\n\n“So what is it then, *m’lord*?” I questioned, placing a chin between two armored hands.\n\n“I’m calling in a *favor*. One backed by gold and *silent* decree.” Rasante spoke firmly, though my attention landed less on the timbre of his mana-backed speech and more on the *jingle* of coins he’d placed on his desk.\n\n“I’m listening.” I responded, shelving everything in exchange for the now.\n\n“The powers that be are… *nervous*, Ignalius. Word from the Crownlands has it that the Academy and Elaseer have become *quite* a hotspot for… let’s just say *unprecedented* activity.” \n\nI raised a brow at that, leaning back against my seat and allowing both of my legs to return to the carpeted floor with a dull *PLOOMPF*. \n\n“Is this about the dragon or the explosion?” I questioned intently. “Because I’m *not* messing with a Goldthorn’s investiga—”\n\n“The *former*, Ignalius. Strained our ties may be, I wouldn’t allow your skills to be lost on some one-way mission. Not that it was necessary to begin with.” He shrugged.\n\n“So the *dragon*, then.” I surmised, crossing my arms as I did so. “As if *that’s* also not a one-way mission, am I right?” I spoke with a sarcastic hiss.\n\n“You’ve dealt with worse.” He countered.\n\n“Oh, *most certainly*, but—”\n\n“But what, Ignalius? Are you getting old? Is a single amethyst dragon too much of a task for the legendary Breaker of Rontalis’ Halls of Coin? The Silencer of the Guilds? Or perhaps the rumors *are* true, and you’ve gotten—”\n\n“Setting me off is *unwise*, **cousin**.” I cautioned, flaring the local manastreams with a purposeful and unsettling *rhythm*. \n\n“Alright then.” The Skylord simply nodded, his features *unbothered*. “Let’s de-escalate, shall we?” \n\nI didn’t respond, merely gesturing for him to continue.\n\n“The *amethyst situation* is escalating. But no one wishes to commit.” He led on, moving towards the windows and leaving his back entirely exposed.\n\n*The temptation was…* ***almost*** *unbearable.*\n\nMy hands moved to tickle the hilt of my blades as I attempted to steady my breath, my core *shivering* at the thought of all the ways this foolish move could so easily go awry.\n\nA leap and a stab.\n\nA swipe and a *crack*.\n\nOr perhaps two *deep*, **long** cuts straight through the sides of the spine.\n\nIt would be ever so *crunchy*.\n\n“—neither the King nor the Privy Council wishes to let this situation escalate.” I heard the tail end of Rasante’s words but only regained composure after he craned his head back to face me. “Were you even *listening*?” \n\n“Oh, sorry.” I responded with a smile. “You know how politics is not my strong suit. Probably why you guys kicked me out, am I right—”\n\n“Let’s not dig up skeletons right now, Ignalius.” \n\n“Alright, alright.” I acquiesced under a frustrated breath. “Run all that by me again, will you?”\n\nThe man would’ve growled if he weren’t so bound by decorum. So he did the next best thing and *ha-rumphed* in response. \n\n“Let me put this in a way more conducive to your bastard sensibilities.” He seethed, eliciting nary a shift nor a yawn from my bored posture. “Nobody is willing to foot the first bill, and nobody wants to be the one to start rocking the boat. At least, not until the *prime agitator* of this incident reemerges as the obvious scapegoat.”\n\nI raised a brow at this but yawned all the same. “So everyone’s waiting on the Goldthorn’s investigations? Big deal. Just wait then. What’s the rush—”\n\n“The *rush* is that there’s an *amethyst dragon on the loose*, you donkey!” Rasante interjected. “If nobody acts, then everyone runs the risk of losing face in the event of a catastrophic attack.”\n\n“Sooooo why not *act*?” I raised up both hands. \n\nThis prompted the noble to let out an even deeper sigh, as he very nearly slammed his head against the window *inches* from his face.\n\n“Because to *act* is to rock the boat. It sends the wrong message. To the Privy Council, it signals some sort of desire to *mop up* and clean up after an associate. And *nobody* on the council wishes to associate themselves with the potential *agitator* of this incident. To His Majesty the King of Transgracia and his lords? Potential losses mean a loss of face in terms of his Kingdom’s strength. Moreover, he *knows* this is ultimately a Crownlands incident. Being *too* proactive — and being *successful* at it — sets the precedence for either decreased Crownlands involvement, and thus greater local burdens, *or* it may incite revisions over the ancient treaties on the engagement of Academy-related *incidents*.”\n\n“Wait. But wouldn’t being *successful* at taking out the dragon make the Kingdom of Transgracia *look* strong? Thus strengthening their position?”\n\n“At the expense of making the Crownlands look weak, yes.” Rosante immediately countered. “They’d be seen by the Crownlands as committing a deadly sin — leveraging personal success at the Crownlands’ expense. While publicly there may be no backlash, at least none that *you* can see.” He derided. “Behind curtains and veils, there would be *infernium* to pay for such a loss of face.”\n\n“Right.” I replied bluntly. “But last I heard, the town criers of Telaseer were talking about patrols being deployed—”\n\n“In a *defensive* capacity, while the Crown *prepares* to deal with the matter directly. Everyone’s ready to react *reflexively*, but no one is willing to do anything *proactively*. At least, not with their own assets.” Rosante reasoned.\n\n*This* finally got my attention.\n\n“So… the *adventuring* solution.” I chuckled out.\n\n“*That*, along with Crown warrants, yes.” Rasante confirmed.\n\n“Done through intermediaries, between intermediaries, to lengthen the road between issuer and quest-taker.” I added.\n\n“Why don’t you just spell out the entire alphabet while you’re at it?” The would-be Skylord shot me down. “The rest is self-explanatory. Success or failure… all of this will be at the gain…  or *expense* of the independent quest-taker.”\n\n“*And* the quest-giver too.” I added dubiously. “You. *You* of all people are going to be taking the risk—”\n\n“Need I remind you, *peasant*, that I am the incumbent Sky Warden of this region.” Rasante *beamed*, as I could practically *hear* the satisfaction emanating between each punctuated word. “It is within my purview of responsibilities to take proactive action to *secure* this patch of fine sky, in any way I see fit. And the way I see it… the amethyst dragon has made itself a *threat* worthy of being dispatched. I just lack the men—”\n\n“No. What you lack is the strength and courage to take losses.” I countered with a sharp snap of my tongue. “Because, *Sky Warden*, any losses will incur reports. And if those reports are on the books, well…”\n\n“Oh dear *cousin*. How I wonder if there is even an *ounce* of our blood running through your veins.” Rasante shook his head. That one action somehow leveraged greater vitriol than any passing word or slight. “Have I not made myself clear? *Of course* everyone wants to *act*! This isn’t *about* acting, but *who* takes the initiative. *I* have all of the cards and none of the potential drawbacks. I am neither a Privy Council member nor a member of the King’s Court.”\n\n“Then why aren’t you sending your own men?” I sniped harshly, my gaze unflinching, drilling into the back of his head.\n\nAnd he *felt* it.\n\n“You’re in the bag as much as any bigwig. Except you don’t have people breathing down your neck… at least, not until they see reason to do so. Reasons such as, *wellll*, perhaps an abnormal peak in casualties and losses. *That’s* why you’re sending *me* and not your own. End of story.” I countered confidently, lifting myself up from that armchair and moving to *gently* grip both of Rasante’s shoulders. “You *need* me, and you’re trying to pull the ol’ ‘*I don’t really need you’* maneuver because yer **cheap**.” I gripped those shoulders tight, sending a shiver down the ","offTopic":false}],"breakdown":[{"sourceKey":"reddit","sourceName":"Reddit","count":9}],"total":9}}