I love it when a project comes together.

  The idea of an automaton prosthetic has been rattling around in my head for more than half a year now, so I’ve had plenty of time to let things percolate. While the end result of differs greatly in aesthetics, it’s still satisfying to see all the bits and bobs I put so much effort into take shape in reality. The wooden frame, the bronze internal mechanisms, the carefully laid Etches, the compiled Grimoire Script, assembled Invocations, none of it came easy, but it all coalesces into something greater than the whole that I take great pride in having made.

  Granted, it’s still just a prototype with plenty more work ahead, and still more pieces to test out. Like this leather sleeve which slides over my right forearm and has an endcap to cover the stump. This cozy, padded piece of stitchwork laces up for a snug fit that won’t shift, turn, or slide off all that easily. More to the point, the laces don’t get in the way of the long and thin Aetheric dynamo affixed down the length of the sleeve and no wider than my index finger. When fitted and powered up, the dynamo rests against my inner forearm and pulses with a purple light, one I’ve done everything I can to hide without any real success.

  To be fair, the warm Aetheric glow looks pretty pleasing, but I don’t much like giving away my position in the darkness of night. Even with my duster on, the light still shines out from my cuff, but there ain’t no way to fix it without causing more problems. I need the sides of the dynamo exposed to vent heat, which is why I connected it to a copper lattice wirework stitched onto the surface of the leather sleeve. Looks like a chain link fence wrapped around my forearm, and it serves double duty as tasteful decoration and heatsink. Can’t do without it seeing how I’ll be running the dynamo for long extended periods of time, so short of adding a Freeze array alongside the dynamo and tripling to quintupling the Aether draw of the device, the copper wire latticework is all I got to keep the dynamo from getting hot enough to burn my skin or ignite my sleeve.

  Assuming it works. I did do some extensive testing, meaning I left the hand and sleeve fully powered and unattended for many hours outside, and it never once got hot enough to burn the paper it was sitting on. Then again, I didn’t account for the fact that the dynamo is gonna be worn against my skin and tucked into my duster, which I imagine would get in the way of its ability to dissipate heat. Too late to back down now though. I already done put the sleeve on and tightened the laces, so now it’s time to find out how well this Automaton fits over it.

  The wooden prosthetic is much lighter than it looks, which I suppose is better than the alternative. An extra pound or two don’t seem like much, but when you factor in the 60-kilo kit I trained to march with, that added weight can really bring you down. Still feel like the Automaton is too fragile for what I need it to do though, so I make a note to ask Danny about viable organic alternatives to wood while attaching the Automaton to the wooden plate covering the flat stump of my healed hand. There are holes in the leather bracer that let me fix it onto a pair of metal clips, and the click-clack of them fastening shut is satisfying indeed. There’s a metallic cuff that fits over my forearm too and clips to attach it to the copper lattice heatsink for added stability when shooting guns or slapping fools, but I leave those unfastened in case I need to remove the prosthetic right quick.

  Like if the Automaton heats up enough to explode, which is still a very real possibility. To that end, I Conjure up a pair of Mage Hands too so I have help unfastening them clips in a worse case scenario instead of risking my one remaining flesh-and-blood hand. Wouldn’t that be something? To lose a second hand trying to fix the first, now that’d be irony, and I for one would rather not go down as an object lesson to all future Artificers.

  With that in mind, I use a Mage Hand to connect the wires that run from the Automaton to the bracer dynamo and watch with bated breath as the contraption hums and powers on. The fingers twitch, spasm, then settle into their default orientation, which was supposed to be a handshake, but looks more like a karate chop. I should fix that, because walking around looking like I’m ready to slap ass is hardly reassuring to strangers on the road. Ain’t as simple as wanting it done though, since I can’t Script on the fly, but I make a note so I don’t forget later on down the line.

  Yeah, it’s a complicated thing, this Automaton prosthetic, and not at all intuitive to use, but seeing how this is the inaugural run, I’m sure I’ll get used to it in time.

  To test the hand out, I run a bunch of Invocations, including ‘Fist’, ‘Claw’, ‘Fork’, and ‘Chopsticks’, but those last two don’t work out so well. For ‘Fork’, the Automaton’s got the right finger positions, but lacks the fine control to firmly hold a fork in hand. The grip is too loose to keep a grip on the utensil, and more pressure might well bend the fork in my hand. Luckily, the exceedingly expensive sensors embedded all throughout the Automaton allow me to input a precise, percentage value of how much force my fingers are using in each and every instance. Doesn’t tell me how much force 75% of full strength is, but I can measure that in other ways and work from there.

  The ‘Chopsticks’ Invocation goes terribly too for much the same reason, but my hastily cobbled Invocation also failed to account for the fact that them Qin utensils are finicky to grab, and they keep slipping though my Automaton’s smooth and inept fingers. Said it before and I’ll say it again, but the human hand is a marvel of engineering, one not so easily replicated using technology and magic.

  Rather than focus on my failures though, I continue on with my testing, putting on a brown leather glove that matches my duster and seeing if that interferes with the movements in any way at all. The opposite in fact, because even though my leather gloves are sized for a hand with meat on them bones, and thus about two sizes too big for the Automaton, the extra grip does wonders to helping it work. That’s something I failed to account for, the lack of skin and general texture on my Automaton’s smooth wooden fingers, which is why I had so much trouble with the chopsticks. Now that I think about it, Danny’s skitterbots got these rough nubs fixed to the end of their legs, which is how they got enough grip to walk along walls and ceilings. I should ask him what he uses for that, then add a layer of it to the Automaton’s finger pads.

  Maybe the palm too, for a better grip on my gun, which is the obvious next stage in testing. The glove will have to do for now though, as I run the ‘Pistol Grip Ready’ Invocation to take hold of an unloaded Squire. The poor gun is all scuffed and ragged from being dropped countless times during my shooting practice with the Mage Hands, before I done managed to upcast the Cantrip. Which as I’ve said is wildly inefficient, since it takes 25% of my daily Spellslinging limit to Conjure up two Third Order Mage Hands that last about an hour if I don’t gotta Concentrate on anything else.

  So usually less, and every Third Order Mage Hand I cast is one less Fireball to sling, so you gotta account for the opportunity cost too. No help for it except to get better at Spellslinging and up my capacity so I can sling more Spells per day without rest. Alternatively, I could make more Automatons, ones designed from the ground up for shooting as opposed to general, every day hand stuff. Skitterbots with guns pretty much, or even better, design a skitterbot around an Aetherarm so it’s more of a gun that moves instead of a skitterbot mounted gun. That’d be great, but I’d have to work closely with a gunsmith to get that idea off the ground, as things get mighty complicated when putting separate and distinct Etches together in close proximity. Not to mention how Metamagic Etches are a whole different kettle of fish from regular, everyday circuit Etches, since Metamagic does a whole lot more than just direct the flow of Aether.

  Meaning if I want to design a skitterbot gun, I’ll need help from an expert to figure out all the Etches. Should run the idea by Marijke the next time I’m in town and see what she says, because she’s every bit as smart as Danny and knows more about guns than I know about Abby.

  That’s all for future consideration however, so I get back to the here and now as I wave my beaten Squire around in my Automaton’s grip. The gun rattles and shakes in my hand more than I’d like, so I don’t even bother with test firing the weapon, because there’s still plenty of work to do before we get there. We’ve come a long way, but we ain’t nowhere close to the finish line just yet, so best to pace myself and take it one step at a time. Slow is smooth and smooth is fast, words of wisdom I keep in mind while testing my Automaton in what might well be the happiest moment I’ve had since Josie passed away.

  Not saying I wasn’t happy with Noora, but our time spent together was less about finding happiness and more about combating despair. Together, we were less miserable than we were when apart, which just goes to show she made the right choice in walking away. I wasn’t any good for her, that there is God’s honest truth, and I’m glad she was smart enough to see it and strong enough to do what needed to be done.

  Don’t mean I miss her any less. Fact is, it makes me miss her even more, because I done lost one perfect woman in Josie, then let a second walk away because I was too dumb to treat her right and give her good reason to stay. Still can’t bring myself to see Noora again, or even take the cowards’ way out and write her a letter, so I do something even more cowardly and put her out of mind instead. The work makes it easy, because I’ve always loved tinkering with tech, and while numbers just made sense to me, Invocations have opened up a whole new way for me to look at both. Just last week, I was pleased as peach with my security camera setup, but now all I can think about is how clunky it is. I mean, I gotta go up to a panel, turn the screen on, and wait for the image to boot up before I can see what’s on camera. Instead, I ought to rework the whole system to interface directly with my Grimoire Script.

  It should be possible, seeing how Aunty Ray can read video recorded on a crystal with nothing but touch, so no reason I couldn’t figure out how to do the same with help from an Automaton. It’s all a bunch of 1’s and 0’s anyways, not actual magic since there’s no Spell Core packed behind those crystal monitors, just techno doodads meant to decipher the data embedded in a storage crystal and turning it into a picture on the screen. There are higher quality projectors that make use of a Third Order Major Illusion Spell Core, but that’s something entirely different, so there’s no reason why I shouldn’t be able to rig up an Automaton to do the same thing and send me the recording directly through my Spirit.

  Would have to rig up the cameras to record on two crystals at the same time though. Gotta keep one unaltered and untouched to hand over to Law Enforcement, while the second could be linked directly to my mind via a rudimentary Automaton, one that don’t even need to be mobile. It’s just a matter of reading up on the theory and working up a Script to help my brain do more or less the same thing as a screen. If it works, I’d have a real home ground advantage, being able to look through the security cameras and their footage in real time from wherever I please. Or better yet, I should craft me a skitterbot with a camera and use it as a forward scout when I’m out and about, allowing me to safely see the lay of the land without risking my back bacon. No, not a skitterbot, but a hoverbot, something that flies and can get me a bird’s eye view, now wouldn’t that be something?

  Kinda renders Clairvoyance worthless though, now don’t it? I’d be sad about it if it wasn’t for the fact that it means more Spellslinging capacity dedicated to Third Order Mage Hands and Fireballs, though it’s still a handy, albeit expensive Ritual to keep in my pocket.

  Now, I’m sure there’s some reason I’m not seeing as to why none of my ideas have been done before. Probably something related to limitations in technology, or the dangers of having Skitterbots send information directly to my brain. Familiars can share senses with their bonded caster though, including sight, so the magic is there. I just gotta figure out the tech behind it. The implications of Inscriptions are huge, and the more I think about it, the more applications I can envision. From remote monitoring the temperature of the stove to turning the kettle on from afar so it comes to a boil just as I step through the front doors. Automatic feeders and doors for the barn so I can let the animals in and out from the comfort of bed, to auto-targeting sentry guns set up at the docks. Given enough time, resources, and elbow grease, I could turn Ming’s Quay into a household paradise and invaders’ nightmare both, complete with trap doors and hidden walls shooting up from out of the ground. That’s one way to keep them gorgeous lakeside views while building walls up too, and I gotta say I’m enamoured with the idea as soon as it strikes me.

  Alas, I gotta get this Automaton prosthetic in working order first, and it takes me a couple more days of tinkering and Scripting before it’s ready for the gun range. When I’m finally ready for live fire practices, I take up the Squire once more and find my grip is much tighter and firmer thanks to a combination of better Scripts and a couple strips of dried rawhide wrapped around the Automaton’s palm in the same manner with which a boxer wraps cloth. Adds extra bulk and texture to the smooth wood frame, but it’s only a temporary fix as it’s ugly as all hell and would get in the way of my Wildshaped Hand Ability. Ain’t ideal that, but we’re living in an imperfect world, so good enough will have to do for now.

  Course, that ain’t an excuse to skimp on Aetherarm safety, so I make sure my grip is firm and steady before running my ‘Open Cylinder Ready’ Invocation to do like the name says and load a round into the chamber. Immediately, I notice a problem because while it’s as simple as flicking your thumb to hit the cylinder release, my Automaton’s thumb misses the mark before running the ‘Pistol Grip Ready’ Invocation as Scripted. Running the first Invocation a second time don’t change nothing, as this here is an issue with the Script itself, with me putting in the wrong values for various variables and not accounting for the shape of the Squire. Breaking out my notebook once more, I scribble down some notes so I can change the Script later on, while inwardly grumbling about how unwieldy the whole system is.

  Don’t get it twisted, the Grimoire Script is an amazing mental and magical tool with boundless potential. Just the ability to compose lines of text and store it perfectly in memory is super handy, and that’s just the most basic feature. Far as I can tell, there’s no upper limit to how much text I can store, which in and of itself is an incredible feat. Also a necessity, since setting up the Grimoire Script itself took so long simply because there’s a whole textbook of Script I had to embed in memory in order to get it up and running. That’s all it is, a bunch of words and numbers dictating how the system of notation used in Invocations work, but it’s not an explanation. No, once fully assembled, those words and numbers of the Grimoire Script become akin to a Spell Structure themselves, a functional system capable of taking the Invocations I put in and creating marvels that are distinctly different from Spells or Spell-like Abilities, but no less magical for it.

  Right now though? I’m the weak link, me and my inability to Script proper Invocations. That comes from a lack of understanding with regards to how the Grimoire Script itself actually functions, but with time, practice, and experience, things should get better. For example, at the moment I’m manually inputting every variable for every movement of my Automaton Prosthetic in advance because I haven’t come up with a system of instructions it can use to determine those variables for themselves. To release the cylinder on the Squire, all you gotta do is run your thumb up the side of the weapon and follow the surface up to flick the little tab holding it closed. Problem is, I don’t know how to tell the Automaton to do that in a way it understands, but I know it’s possible to do.

  Except it’ll take longer than a week or two to hammer out, but once I figure out the math and Script the underlying Invocation to handle all the calculations, things will move a lot more smoothly from there on out.

  This is my own fault for setting my sights so high. An Automaton Prosthetic Hand ain’t exactly uncharted territory, but it ain’t something a beginner like me is supposed to tackle right off the bat. Fact is, Danny says that even by old world standards, Automaton Prosthetics are pretty bare bones because the tech ain’t there or refined enough to make use of. If I’d have done like he said and started off with a basic skitterbot capable of moving around and carrying light objects, I’d have multiple textbooks of pre-assembled Invocations to learn from, ready made commands that’ve already proven their worth in real life scenarios with all the variables defined for me and explanations of how to go about Scripting the Skitterbot to determine different values for different variables it might require. Danny’s skitterbots can follow him around a room with no regard for verticality, climbing walls, jumping onto cabinets, scurrying across narrow beams and ceilings even, but he didn’t come up with all those Scripts himself. The base structure of his Scripts come from his textbooks, and while fine tuning those Scripts to suit his needs, he was able to build upon what others have already built to create Automatons capable of not just fetching things he needs, but also laying copper for his Etching Wand, gathering ingredients for his Alchemical concoctions, welding materials together in a neat join, and so much more.

  I ain’t saying this to take away from his accomplishments. Danny’s a much better Scripter than I am, and a ten-minute conversation with him is usually enough to address multiple issues I’ve come up against, as he got a way of thinking and problem solving that I can’t match. That’s why I kept pushing him to sign on for boot camp after all, because once he’s trained up, his out-of-the-box thinking will prove real useful in a pinch. He just needs to know what variables to account for, and put a couple more tools on his belt, figuratively speaking.

  Well, literally too, since he’d never fired a gun until he started Basic a few months back, which is just all sorts of crazy.

  What I’m getting at is that making this Automaton of mine to work as well as a regular hand is a tall ask even for an experienced Scripter like Danny, whereas I’m just starting out and need to learn to crawl before I run. A fact I gotta keep reminding myself of as my frustrations mount, which is doubly detrimental since I can’t Script when frustrated. Doesn’t help when I get annoyed at having to take notes with pen and paper, despite having a whole textbook’s worth of text stuffed inside my head for the sole purpose of memorizing words and numbers.

  That’s the other downside of the Grimoire Script, the lack of easy accessibility. Can’t just call it up as I please to scan through my Invocations, because if it was, I’d store all my Spell Formulas up there and do away with my Spellbook. Don’t work that way though, or rather it does, but it wouldn’t be useful except as a reference so I can write it all out after the fact. Reason being is because in order to access the Grimoire Script so I can read, add notes, change variables, or assemble new Scripts, I first need to get in the right headspace via meditation. It’s not exactly essential to the Scripting process, but you gotta relax enough to ‘trance’, as the textbooks describe it. Can’t just do it on the fly, or at least, I can’t.

  Danny can, which I only recently figured out is why he spaces out so often in his daily life. The man ain’t living in the here and now, but is all up in his head assembling Scripts and what not.

  A bad habit to get into for a gunfighter like me, so I gotta content myself with pen and paper for all my notetaking needs and a Spellbook for when I gotta prep Spell Structures. Once I’ve got the right idea down so I don’t forget it later, I resort to manually releasing the cylinder with my left hand instead, then load up a single bullet into the chamber and make ready to take my first shot. Blowing out a long, deep breath, I point the Squire at the target in a two-handed grip, then run ‘Pistol Grip Aim’ to make my Automaton thumb back the hammer, then slip its index finger into the trigger guard.

  And almost predictably fat finger the trigger in the process to prematurely fire off a Bolt.

  So out comes the notebook again, where I make a note to assemble multiple instances of the same Script with slightly different values for each variable. That way, I can come back and test them all to see which values work best, instead of going back and forth between the impromptu gun range by my ship’s storage area and the Mueller’s living room to update my Scripts. Would mean seeing less of Stella though, who always greets me with a happy chip-chirp when I return, with her big eyes wide and nubby wings outstretched in an adorable request to be picked up. Can’t disappoint her, or the other kiccaws who gather in for their fair share of attention and treats, and I allow myself a much-needed break to get into the right headspace for Scripting.

  If you stumble upon this tale on Amazon, it's taken without the author's consent. Report it.

  That’s why I been giving them free run of the house. Because I need them for Scripting. Not because I’m soft-hearted and can’t stand the thought of them going cold in the unheated barn, even though they got the horses and cattle to keep the temperatures up. Course, the horses don’t much like being cooped up, which is why I leave them to roam free in the massive ranch. The cattle are free to do the same, but they much prefer napping inside, especially since the grass in the fields ain’t tastier than the feed I leave in their food troughs. Cowie’s being extra attentive to his cow gals lately, mostly because Dumpling is getting antsy since it’s been more than a year since her last pregnancy, while Samosa is in the home stretch with only two to three months to go before she gives birth. Momo is still recovering from her last pregnancy, but she still loves Cowie something fierce, so they spend all the livelong day grooming one another as cattle do, so I can’t really blame him for preferring their company to mine.

  …God I miss Josie and Noora. I miss the smooth warmth of their skin, the heady scent of their hair, the loving glimmer in their eyes, and soft texture of their lips. More than anything though, I miss the happiness I used to feel whenever I thought of them, the joy, affection, and love that would spring up at even the mere mention of their names. Don’t got none of that now, just sadness and misery dragging me down every time I’m reminded of their existence, or anger and despair when I think back on what I done. The rest of the time, there’s this vast emptiness inside me, a void left by the love they had for me, a love I fear I’ll never know again.

  Which is how I waste a whole hour laid out on the living room floor snuggling kiccaws instead of doing any actual work, a grave sin considering how much there is to be done. With nothing else for it, I pick myself up off the ground, push the emptiness inside back down to the pit of my stomach, and settle into the recliner to Script. Doesn’t take long to hammer out a dozen separate instances of ‘Pistol Grip Aim’ with multiple values to test out, but then I run into a different issue which I am compelled to solve right quick. See, with so many different Invocations piling up, I’m running into problems keeping them all straight in my head. Can’t remember which iteration of ‘Pistol Grip Aim’ is which. Version 7 sets my finger at a 65-degree angle, and version 8 changes it to 70, but version 9 is also 70 degrees, and I can’t remember what I changed without poring over the Script to see what I did.

  A lack of proper notation is the issue, and the generic Invocation titles aren’t helping either. So I go back into previously assembled Invocations to fix that, only to find other mistakes like instances where I was supposed to change a variable but didn’t, or input the wrong values because I done mixed them up. There’s a tedium to Scripting that I don’t love, because you gotta be exact and precise with your syntax and logic, else a misplaced comma, incorrect value, or misspelled variable can have disastrous consequences. It also means I gotta come up with a better way to organize all my various Invocations so I don’t have to stop and meditate to figure out which one is which. Still an incredible tool, this Grimoire Script, but Lord help me if the process don’t get dull and dreary at times.

  And to make matters worse? All of these Invocations I’m Scripting are tailor made for the Squire, which means I’ll need to go through this whole humdrum process for each and every Aetherarm I wanna use until I get good enough to figure out how to better approach this.

  To keep myself from devolving into a downward spiral, I focus on the upsides while doing my Scripting, because there’s a lot to appreciate here. The ability to store text alone is great, because it means I can theoretically carry a whole library with me wherever I go. Wouldn’t even have to copy them manually; There’s a textbook with a ready-made Script for not only viewing Photos stored in my memory that were taken with the Cantrip, but also sorting and arranging them in whatever order I like with the ability to add notation to pictures as I go. Like date, time, and location stamps, which could come in real useful for stuff like evidence collection or noting where I done seen animals for Chrissy to look at later. Sure, I’d need to meditate to access those records, but so long as I got some time to kill, I can always keep myself entertained or sharpen my skills by reading up on textbooks. From what I’ve read, ain’t no one ever run into any real problems from storing too much text up in their Grimoire Script, nothing besides having to comb through it all to find what they need, and there are Invocations to help with that too. Still, I’m leery of doing too much too quick, because this is all a work of Spirit after all, and over drafting your Spirit can lead to irreparable harm like putting you into a vegetative state.

  All I can say is that if I’m ever left brainless without so much as a thought inside my head and needing help to even eat, then I hope someone has strength to grant me the mercy of a swift death. Better to mourn over my grave once a year than spend every waking moment attending to my needs, as I won’t be nothing but a burden to the people I love.

  But we’re supposed to be focusing on the bright side here, not doing a piss poor job of it, so I think positive thoughts and finish up my Scripting as quick as a blink. When I come out of my trance, Stella is sitting front and centre waiting for me to wake, because she’s a fiend for head pats and belly rubs who will not be denied her due. The other birds line up for their turn too, or at least their head pats, as there’s something about being gently smooshed under my cupped hand that they find so very comforting, and I’m not sure I’ll ever understand it.

  Soon as I’m able to tear myself away, I head back to the gun range to run my tests, where I discover ‘Pistol Grip Aim V.48b’ is the optimal setting for avoiding accidental misfires, so I move on to fine-tuning the ‘Pistol Grip Fire’ Invocation, which as you might guess, makes the Automaton pull the trigger. For now, it only pulls the trigger once before running ‘Pistol Grip Ready’ to reset from the beginning, but it’s good to go through the process as often as possible to catch any low probability mistakes.

  The good news is that I don’t gotta make all that many adjustments to the ‘Pistol Grip Fire’ Invocation, because I put a lot of thought into it unlike with the ‘Ready’ and ‘Aim’ Invocations. The recoil management is decent, with the Automaton absorbing almost all of it so I barely even feel it along my arm, but that’s with the low-powered 22-10 Squire. Not sure how it’ll handle something heftier like the Rattlesnake or Model 10, and I’m scared to even try shooting the Naga or Judge with it. Pretty sure the whole Automaton would crumble apart beneath the force of those last two guns, but that’s why this is just the prototype after all.

  The bad news is that even though the Automaton can shoot the Squire, getting it to aim properly is a whole different kettle of fish. See, it ain’t just my hand being replaced, but my wrist too, so I’m unable to make the many minute adjustments needed when shooting from different stances or at different targets of various sizes and distances. The Invocations I done Scripted are all for shooting with a two-handed pistol grip while my arms are extended. If I bend my arm, my Automaton wrist remains locked in place, which makes shooting from any other stance problematic.

  Could just Script a plethora of Invocations for every possible shooting position, but then I run into book-keeping issues since it’ll be hard to keep track of all those different Invocations and know which to use in what scenario. Just because I can store as many of them as I’d like doesn’t mean more is better. Ideally, I’d only have to run one Invocation to make the most out of my Automaton in daily life, while saving manually run Invocations for highly specific scenarios. It’d have to be one comprehensive Invocation though, one far beyond my meagre abilities to Script, so I once again remind myself that this is a learning process and that I need to take it slow and steady.

  To take the edge off, I power down the dynamo and use my Wildshape Ability to Conjure up a working, flesh and blood Hand. Or rather, Ecto masquerading as flesh and blood, but same difference. Ain’t no words intoned or fingers waggled to activate my Ability, just a focused effort of will fixed on my wooden model Automaton. This activates a Spell Structure contained not within the confines of my mind, but sits far beyond the reach of any mortal within the Immaterium while remaining connected to me at all times. The Ectoplasm converges around the frame of my Automaton and solidifies into a foolproof facsimile of skin, muscle, and tendons to make up the seemingly fleshy appendage I done lost in Pleasant Dunes, one that obeys my every thought both conscious and subconscious, while providing all the sensation I thought I done lost.

  Right down to the crick in my wrist and stiffness in the fingers from not having moved in a good long while. Can even crack my knuckles and get a fair bit of relief from it, despite knowing it ain’t my actual joints and tendons being stretched inside this Conjured Hand.

  It can only be described as a marvel of Magic, with my fingers a wiggling and hand a clenching like I done never lost it to begin with, and it’ll stay there for a full 5 hours to boot. I can bash it, stab it, rake it through burning hot coals or grab a hot tray of cookies out of the stove, and it’ll still be good to go, up to a certain point of course. Still hurts of course, maybe even more than it would with my real hand, and too much damage will cause the Ability to unravel as the Ectoplasm dissipates back into nothingness, but the limits are comparable to what it’d take to disable an actual hand. More to the point, the Wildshaped Hand is strong, with enough grip strength to hold my entire body weight while hanging from a bar for the full duration. Doing pullups with one hand is asking for a bit too much since that requires the rest of my arm to help out, but I can crush rocks and rip apart wooden beams, though it still hurts something fierce.

  And most importantly of all? Control of my Conjured Hand is wholly intuitive, without all the tedious humdrum of Scripting Invocations and testing different values for hours on end with only minor success.

  If only I could apply that level of control to my Automaton, but I’ve no idea how to make it work. No more moping though, as I draw a loaded Naga with a grin and get to shooting one-handed from the hip. Close targets, far targets, high targets, and low, I blast them all with reckless abandon just to hear the sharp, booming retorts and feel the kick of the massive hand cannon. Every time I pull the trigger, it sends a powerful shockwave up my arm that travels all the way to my spine, a damn satisfying weapon to shoot that can be heard from several klicks away.

  Got a new trick too, something I once seen the Marshal use in a real firefight against a group of outlaws looking to make trouble in town. Most of the time, when you want to shoot quick with a revolver, you fan-fire the gun. What that means is that you take your gun in one hand, point at your target, lock your arm and wrist, and hold the trigger down. Then, you use the base of your free hand to work the hammer, pushing it down and back with a repeated slapping motion almost. Since you holding the trigger down, the hammer will cock and immediately release, striking the cartridge in the chamber and unleashing a Bolt, only for your free hand to work the hammer again, which cycles the next cartridge into place. Rinse and repeat, and you end up with a revolver that fires faster than most semi-automatics, though this is mostly for show since accuracy is almost always more important than volume of fire. Don’t matter how fast you shoot if don’t nothing is hit, so slow is smooth and smooth is fast. That’s why most shooters slip hammer instead, holding their gun in both hands and working the trigger with a thumb as it gets you shooting faster than if you were only using one hand, while maintaining the highest level of stability and accuracy.

  With the Wildshaped Hand though, I don’t gotta sacrifice stability or accuracy for speed. My one-handed grip is so strong and stable, I can fan-fire away without moving much off target, and I put that to great use up in Brightpick against the Mafia. That ain’t the fastest way to fire a revolver though, because there’s a way to work the hammer even faster than fan firing, for a few shots at least. The start is the same, where you aim with one hand and hold down the trigger. Then you take your second hand and open it up wide, spreading your fingers out as far as you can and holding it out with palm facing forward over your gun. Using your hand that’s holding the gun, you take your thumb and work the hammer to fire off a shot, then bring your other hand’s thumb down right quick to bring it back a second time. Gotta be fast, as the next step is to flick your second hand with the fingers splayed out so that the pinky works the hammer immediately after, letting you shoot off three shots rapid quick with only one pull of the trigger.

  It's called a triple shot for obvious reasons, and done right, those Bolts will come out of the barrel almost end to end. Only works with a 6 Core revolver, since a single Core revolver like the Squire still needs a second between shots to vent the spent Aether and Prime for the next shot. More to the point though, I can’t do the triple shot with the Ranger Naga, because there’s too much recoil even for my Wildshaped Hand to manage without the barrel climbing straight up into the sky. Ain’t no different for the Model 10, but the Rattlesnake works wonders with the technique, and doing it twice in a row is satisfying as can be as I unload all 6 chambers in a half second flat and hit every shot centre mass on a target 40 metres away.

  The grouping could be better, as my shots are spaced out more than a full hand apart, and I’m still not great at hitting the triple shot on a draw with any sort of accuracy at all. Nor can I aim at different targets with all 3 shots, which is only to be expected considering they all come out in less than a twentieth of a second, but I got an inkling that my Wildshaped Hand can manage it with a whole lot more practice. The downside of course is the wear and tear on my Rattlesnake putting so many Bolts through it so quickly, as well as the fact that the truncated rattle ain’t nearly as satisfying to hear compared to shooting all six shots normally.

  Still, if I come up against an opponent who got Abjuration Spells like Mikey did, shooting them 3 or 6 times right quick with the Rattlesnake might well be enough to punch through those defenses. Plus, I’m pretty sure that if I practice some more, I can fit my index finger in there to work the hammer an extra time after the thumb and before the pinky, giving me 4 rapid fire shots which I can follow up with a quick double.

  What’s more, even though my daddy told me a gun ain’t a toy, there ain’t much to do around these parts to keep myself entertained, so I been learning all the fancy spins and twirls as a lark. It’s not all silly and useful, as there are a fair few moves I’ve been practising to get cross handed draws more smoothly. The way I got my holsters set leaves my Model 10 and both Nagas ready for a right-handed draw. Problem is, what happens if I don’t got my Wildshaped Hand readied or available, and no Mage Hands to boot? Means drawing my Model 10 with my left hand, which is awkward and clunky. With the right grip and spin to it though? Then the draw becomes smooth as silk, while looking and feeling pretty cool to boot.

  Course I practice with both hands, just because I can, while reminding myself not to pick up and stupid habits like twirling my gun every draw. Adds a full half-second before I can shoot every time, and that’s assuming I don’t slip or drop the gun, but sometimes, I just like holding my guns and twirling them gives me something to keep me occupied.

  The days go by quick as I Script Invocations, shoot guns, prep rations, and pet kiccaws to while the time away, and before I know it, the 20th of December rolls around and it’s time to head out. It’s only a Wednesday, and Tina’s still got a half-day of training before she’s off for Christmas break, but I figured we could head out in the afternoon to kick off our trip with a night of camping just outside the town walls. A bit of fun with safety close by, and at the same time, I can get Chrissy and Aunty Ray up to speed on the do’s and don’ts of travel.

  No point camping out the whole day though, since there isn’t much to do outside the walls. Instead, I spend the morning making sure I got everything I need before setting out shortly after lunch. With the freshly modified wagon all loaded for bear, I bring Cowie, the cattle, the horses, and the kiccaws to Carter’s compound, where Elodie greets me with a big old diamondclaw hug. The sweet fluffy girl isn’t just happy to see me, she’s also upset I’m leaving for at least 2 weeks, even though I’ve gone longer without seeing her these last few months. Luckily, her being in diamondclaw form means she don’t got much to say on the subject, just a few sad squeaks as she buries her furry face in my sternum while wrapping her massively clawed arms around my hips.

  “Careful now Ella-dee,” I say, both because of the claws and where she’s putting her face while her parents are standing within arms reach of fragile old me. She don’t pay me no mind though, just lets out her mournful squeaks while rubbing her face against my armoured plate carrier. Gently disentangling myself from her embrace, I squat down to look her in her emerald green eyes while cupping her short fuzzy snout. “I’m happy to see you too, and sad to have to go, but you can’t be so familiar with me like that. You still a girlie, a grown one of almost eighteen years, so it’s high time you started acting like it.”

  I absolutely love how expressive her diamondclaw face gets, especially when she blows out a trill. You know how it is, when you huff through your lips and make them flap in the wind, and it’s doubly cute on a diamondclaw. Makes me want to see what it looks like on a marty, rabbit, sea lion, or horsie, though now that I think about it, it’s been a hot minute since I seen Elodie in person, as in when she is a person that is. Months probably, but seeing how she don’t make no distinction between forms, I doubt it’s on purpose. Problem is, she’s a lot easier to talk to when she’s human because she’s more liable to listen. Being in animal form means she thinks more like one too, so she’s already done forgotten what I just told her and is pushing in for another face rub. That’s what she wants after all, and diamondclaws don’t ever gotta take no for an answer. Cradling her big, furry head, I give her a hug and mourn my dead dreams of riding around the Frontier on the back of a tamed diamondclaw, because it’d be super weird to do that to Elodie or Miss Amelie.

  To distract her from her sad farewell and me from my broken dreams, I grab the package I done brung with me just for her, one wrapped in boring brown parchment paper and a fancy red ribbon because I forgot to buy coloured wrapping paper the last time I was in town. “I don’t know if you and yours celebrate Christmas, but this here present is for you,” I say, handing the package over for her to hold in her teeth. Fangs. Whatever. Before I can say anything about putting it under the tree, Elodie tears the package apart in a frenzy, which puts paid to rest the question of whether she celebrates Christmas.

  “Jumped the gun there by a fair few days, but I’ll allow it,” I say, because it’s all too adorable seeing a diamondclaw open a present. Just to be safe though, I give her a hand, because I wouldn’t want her tearing her gift now. Soon as it’s revealed, I pull it out of the paper scraps and hold it up for her to see. “It’s a pretty headband with a big red bow up top,” I say, feeling a little silly because she can see as much, but ain’t much for conversation seeing how she’s all furry and clawed. “Not only does it look pretty, it’ll keep your hair out of your face when you walking around. The ribbon is glued together too, so you won’t accidentally tug it apart. You like it?”

  Breaks my heart to see Elodie’s crestfallen expression, one that don’t lose nothing from being on a diamondclaw’s face. She do love the ribbon and headband, as evidenced by how she goes to nibble and play with them, but she’s reminded of what happened to Josie since she wore big ribbons too. Only met the other girl a few times, but Elodie made fast friends with Josie who knew just how to talk to her without talking down. “I get it,” I say, and I really do, so I pat Elodie’s head and rub her cheeks to cheer her up a bit. “The ribbon reminds me of Josie too, and that makes me sad, but we can’t let her death also rob us of the things we love. You know she taught me how to tie these bows? Me, I love the way the look, adding a bit of whimsy to life we could all use, so I ain’t gonna stop using what she taught me to inject cheer into the world.”

  Even if it brings me down every time I see it. Took me forever to make this headband, it and four others for Elodie because they’re cheap, easy, and much needed given how she hates brushing her hair.

  After listening to my explanation, Elodie cheers right up and tentatively noses the headband before pushing her furry face into it. Funnily enough, it still sorta fits, though not up top her head. Instead, it sits snugly around her brow and cheeks, and her round, green eyes go big and wide as she bobs her head up and down to watch the big red bow bounce overhead. Got all different colours and patterns on the other headbands, so I pull them out to show here before putting it all aside and collecting the paper packaging before moving on to introduce all the kiccaws. Got gifts for Carter and Miss Amelie too, a set of tools and fur-lined gloves as well as cookies for the rest of the compound to share, so once I’ve passed those along and thanked them for their help, I bid them all farewell and head out. To Elodie’s great distress as she tries to follow alongside, but Carter ain’t having none of it as he lifts her furry bulk into his arms like a big fluffy teddy bear. Those big, sad eyes are heartbreaking to see, so I promise to bring the family over to see her when we come back.

  Thankfully, she don’t Shape back into her human form to ask me to bring her out into the badlands, because looking after Chrissy and Aunty Ray is gonna be stressful enough, and we don’t got room in the wagon for anyone else.

  My next stop is over at Gunnar’s village to pick up my extra order of potions, the one I put in as soon as Aunty Ray laid down the law and insisted on coming out of the mesa. I was content with a single Potion of Gaseous Form a piece to see me and Tina through the trip, but I ordered 6 more just to be extra safe, as well as some other useful goodies to help us along the way. That said, things between me and the grungy alchemist have been a little strained due to how hard I leaned on him before heading up to Brightpick. No two ways about it though, his products were pivotal to my success and safety, and I ain’t been none too shy about singing his praises without giving myself away. That’s why when I pull up into his shop, the 7-fingered man still greets me with a smile, but I can tell he’s nervous all the same, as I done shown him how dark I can be, and ain’t no one comfortable with that.

  Especially not a doting father whose daughter is showing far too much interest in said dark figure. “Heya Howie,” Astrid says, greeting me from behind the counter with a smirk as her glowing golden veins light up against her bright red skin, all too happy for a break in the monotony of helping out at her dad’s store. “How’s tricks?”

  “Same as usual,” I reply, giving her a smile in return, but not too much of a smile. Then I go and ruin it by running an Invocation to wave my prosthetic fingers because I been dying to show them off, and I knew good and well Elodie, Carter, and the rest of them tree-hugging, nature-loving, clam-eating hippies wouldn’t have cared one whit.

  Astrid doesn’t disappoint either, as her golden eyes go wide with amazement when she sees my fingers waggling. “Oh wow!” She exclaims, That’s so fey!” Which I think is slang for cool, but I never been hip, cool, or connected, so I ain’t entirely sure. “Is that an Automaton?”

  “Sure is,” I say, running the ‘thumbs up’ Invocation a beat too late, but it gets the message across all the same. “Been tinkering with it for awhile now, and finally got it working well enough to field test.” Got my non-automaton model in the wagon too, in case this one breaks down or becomes unusable, but no point getting into the weeds with Astrid.

  “Was it hard to get working?” she asks, grabbing my hand and holding it up close to her face so she can give it a thorough inspection before moving on to the leather sleeve and Aetheric dynamo. “I been thinking of making one so I can teach Harald and my parents. Not a full hand, since I heard that’s hexing complicated, but just a regular skitterbot to help out with chores and cooking and stuff.”

  “Can’t go wrong learning new skills,” I say, trying to sound encouraging as can be. “Even if it don’t bear fruit, the lessons stick with you all the same.”

  “That’s so you,” Astrid retorts, rolling her eyes. “All worn saddle and long toothed.”

  Which I suppose is her way of calling me old. Fair enough, but it’s funny how quickly different terms pop up all around the Frontier. Most kids in New Hope speak real proper, because they all done learned from the same teachers who don’t brook no slang, but here, not 3 hours away, Astrid and the other kids her age might soon be speaking a whole different language. “Well, if you want to learn, I can introduce you to Danny,” I say, idly wondering if Astrid could help him get over Tina who’s just all sorts of wrong for him. He needs him a partner, someone who will support and nurture him, because he’s been shouldering the weight of his whole family for years now, and could use someone to help carry the weight. Tina would just be adding to his burdens, and while I doubt he’d complain, he’d be happier with someone like Astrid who’s a real go-getter and businesswoman intent on making her own way here on the Frontier.

  At the mention of an introduction however, Astrid’s face falls as she retreats back into her shell, because this bright and cheery red-skinned girlie is terrified by the thought of going into town. “Or I could teach you myself,” I add, and Lord help me, she brightens to hear it while her daddy Gunnar scowls something fierce. Don’t hold it against him either, because even if I got no designs on little Astrid, I wouldn’t be pleased to have someone like me hanging around my daughter.

  Astrid on the other hand is pleased as peach. “Could you? That’d be great!” Glancing back at her daddy, she adds, “I could even pay you for lessons, as I’ve been making good money with potions. They’re in high demand thanks to some of your feedback, and we been raking it in.”

  “No need,” I say, waving it off. “I can’t teach you all that much anyways, seeing how I’m a beginner myself, but I can lend you my books, point you in the right direction, and pass any questions you got along to someone who knows better.”

  We talk a little more about it, but I don’t make no promises, not before Gunnar feels inclined to step in and get on with our business so I don’t spend any more time with his darling daughter. He don’t got to worry though. I got no designs on Astrid, and not because she got red skin, golden eyes, or big black horns protruding up from her forehead. Truth is, she’s smart as a whip and a pretty little thing, albeit one too skinny for my tastes, but none of that is why Gunnar don’t gotta worry.

  No, the reason is simple really, because just like the song says, I’m , and don’t know how long it’ll be before I’m ready to love again. Not any time soon, I’ll say that much, and that there is a promise you can bank on.