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“What do you say, can you make one just like it?”
I needed this to work and Eddie was my last resort. Potions were more his thing, though everyone knew he was a charmer on the side, if you had the money. Hell, for the right price he’d even dabble in necromancy.
His eyes did not move from my hand, which held a tiny bell. He knew exactly what it was.
“Where did you get it?” he asked, his eyes darting from left to right. I had chosen this café so I could hide in plain sight.
“That doesn’t matter now. Can you replicate it?”
“Of course I can replicate it,” he said. “I can’t promise it will do exactly what that one can though. You’ll need a High Faith for that.”
“I’ve got one lined up, I just need the bell and a basic charm. If you can make one, we need to move now. They are onto me.”
“Give me a day,” he said. “And it’ll cost you, for the rush. Eight grand.”
I whistled but had been prepared to pay ten. I shook his hand and left.
The plan was coming together, but Eddie was only the first domino. The High Faith was not going to be as easy.
It was hard to get a word in with the High Faith. He was always too busy, what with the gods speaking through him, trying to help him fix humanity and usher in Utopia.
Finally I presented the bell Eddie had made.
“I need this blessed,” I said. “with long life.”
“Do you wish for the affected to continue to age, albeit slowly, or for their youth to freeze until their time is up?” he asked. “There are advantages to both.”
“This is for my NURSE,” I replied.
“Highly unusual.”
“I’m willing to try anything at this point.”
Charm blessed, and another $8K paid, the last part of my plan had me going undercover at the Reboot facility. Good thing I had kept my uniform from my contracting days.
I found the Natal Unit Robotic Surgeon Employee who had delivered me in the process room.
I held her hand and slipped her the bell, explaining the magical cypher within.
She tucked it into her mid-torso cavity.
“If anything can keep your consciousness intact, maybe it’s this,” I said.
“But magic?” she beeped.
“What is magic but science unexplained?”
Written daily using the #vss365 word prompts on twitter, compiled weekly into a story of exactly 400 words.
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