Biomancy

by Desdemona Gunn

  “Good to know hubris exists within artificial beings as well.”

  “A soul rests within each suit, Anixemeter Incubore. Every Construct is a man, like the one before the Chief. Why would a base emotion not exist within the Constructs?” Ani simply stared at him, not sure how to respond. “Tell the Chief, does Anixemeter hold trepidation in hiring him, and if so, what must be proven?”

  “I... Well, combat is proven, as is intelligence and competence. To prove your skill in engineering, I suppose I need... a commission from you...”

  Turn 1567 of the third age

  Mid-Spring, 13 Turns Later

  Chapter 29: The Sheduvians

  The City of Kandra, Octavian Prefecture

  Just as the students settled into their place, Professor Atwood walked into the room with a Sheduvian woman, clothed in a long skirt and no top, though her chest was covered by her brilliant purple and green wings. Tabitha leaned back and kissed her husband who had surprised her in her office with flowers. The gorgeous example of masculinity had only been her husband for a few turns, her significant other for over ten. He kissed her goodbye as she waltzed in, feeling better about this class than any other this past twenty turns. With each passing dess, the effect he left on her never seemed to wane.

  The woman walked into the center of the room as Tabitha took to her podium and pulled out a parchment coated in turquoise runes. Effortlessly, she lifted the arcane energy from the page, sent it to encircle her guest, and as they sank into the circle, a grand illusion appeared above the bird-like woman that precisely mimicked her.

  “Hello, class.” Pause to allow for the dissonant response of bored students. “I have a feeling you can guess what we’re getting into this class. Again, I chose to bring in a friend of mine to show off the species because in my opinion, a picture just doesn’t do their beautiful anatomy justice.”

  “Aw, she said I’m pretty.” The woman turned and smiled back at Tab, who gave no reaction.

  “Go ahead and introduce yourself, Miya.”

  “Hi,” She lifted a talon and waved it jovially. “My name is Miyaoaxochitl. That’s Nahuandor, and it means ‘Field of Flowers.’ Specifically, like a man-made, ploughed and sown field. So, like, I’m something pretty that’s not natural. I guess. I dunno, call me Miya.”

  Tab smiled. “Now how many of you know about the Sheduvians?” Four fifths of her class had raised hands. Good. “How many have ever seen one in person before this moment?” Half the class remained. Very good. “How many know one personally?” Five hands remained, two of which were of Sheduvian origin. Ehh, not so good. “Well then, may I introduce you all to the Sheduvian anatomy.”

  The illusion above the class showed a duplication blown up of the woman before them standing only twelve decimeters tall. Her face would look like any Northman’s if not for the down feathers covering it and the beak jutting out from her face. It looked quite akin to an enlarged parrot’s beak, black and curved, pointing down at the end with two nostrils seemingly carved in. The feathers sloped up the face and slicked back the scalp and down the back, beautifully forming something akin to a hairstyle.

  Below the head, the body continued in its form of being covered in feathers, both down and otherwise. Her neck was thick, but appeared flexible, continuing the white-feathered aesthetic to her back, which was covered in starkly contrasting black feathers. This continued down to her legs, but began to shift color at the shoulders. The feathers connected to her arms were considerably longer than the rest of them, and far more multi-colored. Her head was mostly white, her body black, and the feathers closest to her arms a royal purple while the longer feathers spreading out to make the full wings were a deep forest green.

  Currently, her arms, which were considerably longer than any other sentient known, were folded, her upper arms against her side dropping past her knees, forearms reaching up to her chest, and her hand and following feathers draped across her chest and down almost to her feet.

  “How many of you are familiar with their biology, that is to say, how they work?” A total of four hands rose, neither of which belonged to the Sheduvians in the audience. Tab resisted slamming her palm into her face. “Well then allow me to explain. You see, while most of us are quite heavy, Sheduvians have the benefit of being incredibly lightweight.”

  “Depends on your definition of benefit,” Miya interrupted.

  “Because of their hollow bones and many air sacks throughout their body, Sheduvians are capable of flight, a necessary evolutionary trait for their native home of Hamash Kharhayin, the sky pillar. I assume you all know that one.” The discordant chorus implied that yes, they did. At least they know that. “The flat of Hamash is above the cloud layer, leaving the air density thinner up there, which their air sacks and lungs designed for flight can handle.

  “They’re also fishers, meaning they swoop down the pillar, collect fish, and sometimes fly back up, catching the currents that are abundant around Hamash. However, seeing as twenty-five hundred meters is quite the distance, especially in flight with massive quantities of fish on you, the more commercial fishers will use a winding path up the pillar, many using a portal.

  “Would you mind spreading your wings for me, Miya?” She obliged and unfolded her arms. As they spread, the blown-up illusion almost passed the walls of the room due to sheer scale. With her arms spread, her total wingspan reached nearly seven and a half meters. The insides of the wings were almost entirely dark green, the purple along the top edges and covering her shoulders and arms from the back.

  With her arms spread, the students could also better see her body. Her chest was just as black as her back, nary a breast to be found, much to the chagrin of many members of the class. Her legs were covered by a fine-woven cloth skirt which had a series of rivets along the leg lines and the bottom, the thread sharing colors of her wings in a fine tribal pattern.

  “Would you be okay with removing your skirt?” Tab whispered under her breath.

  “Sure!” She brought her left leg up, twisting it around to bring her foot up to her waist, pulled a drawstring, and when released, the skirt fell, showing off her down feathers reaching down to the pubis, just past into a bit of the thigh before turning to surprisingly skinny pitch-black legs. Her feet, also black, visible before but mostly ignored by students, were formed like an eagle’s, three long toes in front, one in back, each ending in a fine talon. They hadn’t noticed before, but she was resting on a log, feet wrapped around it.

  “The Sheduvian anatomy is designed specifically for flight and perching. While completely capable of sitting, lying down, standing on flat ground, et cetera, the most comfortable position for the majority of them is perched on something or in relaxed flight. Would you agree?”

  “I definitely agree about flying. Though perching is much preferred to standing on flat ground, at least concrete, dirt is fine. If I can hit a current and just glide, I’m more relaxed than anywhere. Although, I’ll disagree with you on one point. Being on my back has enough benefits that I quite enjoy it.” A sudden outbreak of snickers across the class made Miya confused before a shocked expression painted her face. “No, not like that! I didn’t mean— Well, yes, but I didn’t mean— I mean...”

  “What she means to say is that many Sheduvians in the modern era sleep on their backs like most other sentients, though the majority sleep either standing up on a perch, either free-standing or, more commonly, leaning back against a padded wall. If they lie down, it’s common to have a more indented bed they can almost curl into, rather than a flat mattress as most other species prefer.

  “Now before I drop into the Q and A portion of the class, I’m just going to preempt any questions on the subject and just tell you how they mate. It’s quite simple really, same as everyone else. The men and women have genitalia quite similar to Northmen, Milarics, and Nojerna. You might not be able to tell on ou
r guest here due to the covering by feathers, but it works pretty much identically to ours. And yes, sex works just fine between Sheduvians and any of the mammalian sentients, though reproduction will only occur involving a Nojerna, and only male Nojerna to female Sheduvian.

  “The major difference, actually, is in the reproduction. See, as they’re designed to be as weightless as possible, they can’t be flapping around with a growing child in them, so they lay eggs, being the only sentient species to do so. That’s also why female Nojernans can’t birth a half-Sheduvian, as their anatomy doesn’t allow for egg laying. A month after conception or so, the egg, sometimes eggs, are laid and kept incubated. The eggs usually take about seven to eight more months to hatch.

  “Now then, any questions?” A series of hands appeared and she picked one at random.

  “What’s life like in Hamash?”

  “Miya?”

  “It’s like life in any other city. It’s full of people, cramped often, and full of opportunities. Lots of fishermen, lots of tourism, despite being in the middle of nowhere, but plenty of other usual jobs as well. Also, there’s a lot more perches and open buildings, either without roofs, with fold-out roofs, or just no walls. The city is very ‘fly in’ friendly. I speak from limited experience, though. I only lived there a short time.”

  “Oh!” Tab interrupted. “I completely forgot. Miss Miya here is what they call an Andor. She’s from Vol’Tyr. Hamash Sheduvians, Diomed, tend to be stark white, taller, and with tighter muscles. If any of you have met any, though, it would have been an Aetos, those native to the mountains of Antra. Much larger, more musclebound, and generally darker-feathered.

  “Aetos are designed for combat, evolutionarily, and their tribes reflected that. The Diomed are sleeker, more made for diving, fishing, and soaring. Andor are more colorful, made to fit in in the jungle. They’re also smaller, made to dive between trees.”

  “So where in Vol’Tyr are you from?” A Nojernan from the front asked.

  “I’m actually from Terathor,” Miya laughed awkwardly. “My folks were from northern Vol’Tyr, near Tlachichilpa, but they moved before I was born.”

  “Was that weird, growing up in a Northman city?”

  “A little. I felt out of place, that’s for sure. It’s hard to explain living in a city that’s literally not tailored for you to exist. As open to the air as it was, it was claustrophobic, people always looked at me funny, most liveliness happened at street-level, very few buildings had roof-entrances, and flying wasn’t always allowed thanks to the wyverns in the sky. Airspace restrictions, you know? Mostly got bad after Sesirah took over. That, for the record, is why I got into studying Sheduvian history and lore. I felt like my culture was taken away since I grew up in Northman territory.”

  “Is that true?”

  “Well, sort of. Not really. I missed out on a lot of Sheduvian culture, but I think I benefitted from growing up in an open society. Sheduvian tribes and cities are so small-minded, very self-important and separatist. I like Kandra much better than Hamash.”

  “Anyone else?” Tab looked around and spotted a Northman with her hand up.

  “How is it I’ve never seen any Sheduvians before in person?”

  “Most likely,” Tab responded, “simply due to seclusion. They like life in their cities for the most part, and not many leave. Also, like she was just explaining, the world reacts oddly to them often due to their seclusion. If you do see any around here, they’re probably mail carriers, a profession they have a mild monopoly on due to their flight capability.”

  “It’s true,” Miya said flatly. “It’s the only job I could get in my hundreds.”

  “Now then, if the questions are over...” Tab looked around carefully, “then Miss Miya, if you don’t mind, regale us with some Sheduvian mythology.”

  “Gladly,” she said turning back to Tab, smiling in her eyes and tone.

  Chapter 30: The Wild World of Xin

  Northwestern Cape, The Isle of Xin

  A loud gong resounded across the ship, waking him up from his sleep. The ship churned and crashed against the waves, making him ever-so-slightly seasick. Sure, they could have all ported over to Astannerov, taken a wagon to the coast, and sailed for a couple desses to Xin, but no. They had to set sail all the way from Voorhaven.

  Elon was beginning to wonder if this was such a wise endeavor. A few turns now had passed since he had talked to Liz, who told him it was a bad idea. The whole plan sounded sketchy, and she didn’t want him so far away from civilization where anything could happen. He saw her point.

  He also knew, however, that Leana’s so-called biomancy was too curious to ignore. She had successfully taken the arcane arts and fused them with science, working wonders the likes of with neither field had ever seen. The woman had a rabbit that she bought crippled, and successfully not only repaired the legs of, but had turned into a familiar all on her own.

  Not to mention overcoming such a crippling disease. Supposedly, the woman was almost literally falling apart and she had brought herself together with this magic. Life magic can only do so much: speeding up the healing process, forcing bones together, easing pain, etc. It did little more than make a turn’s natural healing happen in ten or twenty minutes.

  This biomancy, though... It impressed Elon. It didn’t just shove bones back into place when they were broken; it took a skeletal system grown incorrectly from the get-go and reforged it into a “normal” skeleton. She apparently took her rabbit, who supposedly was born without functioning rear legs, not only fixed her skeleton to that of a normal rabbit, but increased muscle-mass exactly where necessary to allow for a normal rabbit to function. She didn’t just heal, she fixed.

  So far, Elon had not had a chance to see what the extent of her powers allowed. It seemed she was limited at the moment by strength, and certain formulas were beyond her. She could increase muscle mass, fix skeletal systems, and force growth, but she couldn’t actually create something. The poor soul had two stumps for legs and couldn’t grow them back.

  She could force growth on them, but she’d end up with two leg-length stumps with a really long femur. The natural growth she found couldn’t yet be controlled, but there had to be a way. Unfortunately, her reforging couldn’t make anew or combine from a foreign source. This, Elon supposed, is why she was even on this boat in the first place, to help with conundrums like this. What worried him, however, was that they were isolating themselves so far from any other point of civilization. She needed more space and a staff... for some reason. Hopefully, as this adventure continued on, he would find out exactly what this woman was up to.

  The room around him was small and barren, fitting for a transport ship. It wasn’t meant to be fancy or extravagant; it was designed to let you sleep while you travelled safely from here to there. Still, his bed was easily big enough for two. Elon clutched his head as he remembered leaving for Voorhaven.

  Idrilis had rented out a small house that the two of them lived in for the turns after he was kicked out of the university. Shortly after The Event, they decided that, in spite his potential anger issues, moving in together was the right move. It just felt right to both of them, oddly enough. She refused to let him be homeless, and a week apart brought them both to realize just how close they were. The feeling still haunted Elon, just a week apart brought him into the greatest depression he’d ever felt. He ate twice in the whole week and sulked on a rooftop the entire time. Just six turns with the girl made her potentially the most important person in his life. Funny how love works.

  The house was just about right for the two of them, sharing a bedroom with a kitchen, recreation room, and an office. She had agreed that a couple of friends of hers would take the place after they both moved out when Elon took Leana’s job. One of those friends would room with her to help with the rent for the months he was gone, they decided at the
last minute.

  “No.”

  “Look, Liz, you-”

  “No, Elon. No. You can’t just disappear for turns without me. I won’t stand for it. I refuse to be left behind like some helpless soldier’s wife, not knowing if my beloved will return to me alive or in a casket. No. Fuck you, Elon. I’m coming with you.” She was terrible at cursing, he noticed. The word was unnatural to her tongue, so it always came out emphasized strangely. Be that as it was, the fact that she was using it struck him deep.

  “Liz, you will not. I am taking up space and biding time. My time is wasting in this city, and I need to get the fuck out. You have a degree to get. You have your senior project, your degree, all of that.”

  “Fuck the senior project. What good will a piece of paper do me in the real world? Papers are for city jobs. I’m a druid of the forest, I’ll be doing real work, not pushing quills in some stone prison. I don’t need a damned piece of paper to show off my skill.”

  “And where was that attitude a cent ago? All the work you’ve poured into this, why walk away now? You have turns left. You wanna be known as the woman who stuck to her goals and has something to show for it, or the woman who got near the end and dumped everything for a boat ride?”

  “I won’t be dumping everything, Elon! I still have my skill, my knowledge, I just don’t have some school official to give me a paper with a stamp saying they think so. No one cares what the dean of AIB thinks of my abilities.”

  “Everyone cares what the dean of AIB thinks of your abilities. If you can show off that you were skilled enough to get a degree after spending a hundred turns there, you’ll have that many legs up over the others.”