Sixty-Three

Elsa Mont held onto a perfectly spherical orb with both hands and stared curiously at it. . .was this all there was to Rose? This glowing blue thing was her friend? It was a surreal experience. She gingerly held the thing with caution.

"Count yourself lucky to see an actual mage in action," Mare grinned, nudging the girl at her side.

Elsa looked at the sight before her. It was a bright room and she stood by an iron bed where Rose laid. The eyes of the homunculus were kept open by an iron tool. And, sitting there, was Lucy Chaz, a tray on a table by her right littered with tools that seemed sharper than iron.

"With her core removed, there's no blood pumping through her so this won't be as messy as if we were actually operating on a human," The dark elf said as she gripped onto tissue forceps and a surgical scalpel.

Her voice was barely audible as the masked woman named Lucy Chaz moved with an innate, efficient speed. In under two minutes, she had removed Rose's eyes and dropped them onto an unknown sheet on another tray. She left the rectus and oblique tissues where they were.

Elsa almost recoiled at the empty sockets staring back at her and the wet tissue shown beneath. Still, she couldn't tear her eyes away from a mage in action.

"Changing, repairing, or improving a body part is much, much, easier than building an entirely new homunculus from scratch," The dark elf muttered, "If you were at a company, something like this would be left to rookie Homunculi Mages."

She then swerved and held onto eyeballs from a new tray with two, minuscule, length of nerves laid besides them. There was a circular iron thing placed above the place and a film of blue shown.

"These are a sandworm's optical nerves. At least, a part of it. I'll be using it to connect her new eyes through sewing with minuscule mana lines. Now, my eyesight isn't a telescope, and that's what this thing is for."

Elsa peered through the circular film and saw a mana line moving at the cellular level. Amazement ran through her.

"I already drew the mana lines for these eyes and the nerve, so there's no need to repeat that process."

Minutes passed and soon that stage was complete. Lucy swerved back to the unconscious Rose and then began the process of attaching the new eyeballs.

In minutes, she was also done with that.

"Usually you would place her into a life-pod, or place her core back if you really don't care for her experiencing pain, and let her heal to full recovery that way but. . .I'm a healer."

She placed a hand over Rose's face and blue glowed. When that was complete, Elsa found that she wouldn't have known that surgery was just performed.

"Fufufu, amazing, right?" Mare asked.

"Yes. . ."

More than ever, she really respected mages.

The dark elf turned to face them and smiled.

"Since we already changed her ears and reshaped her brows and hair, we're done here. Hand over her core, will you?"

Elsa blinked her eyes and stared at the thing she held. She looked back at the woman.

"Don't worry," Lucy chuckled. "I won't do anything to harm her, I promised Bianca that much."

Yet, seeing the still hesitating girl, she rolled her eyes. "Fine fine, insert it yourself. Let's get moving."

— — —

Rose Ausra blinked her now golden eyes at the mirror. She squinted at the eyebrows that had been cut to size, made bushier, and sharper. And she looked at her more angular, pointed, ears and shorter head of hair. She still spotted a ponytail, but her hair was definitely shorter, with two bangs hanging from either side of her forehead. If it was fully released, she thought it might only reach her back—different from the last which could reach her hips.

"Well. . ." She muttered.

Her facial structure was still the same but, with the changes, she looked different enough from before. At the very least, no one would call her a body double of Idris Hunbrey unless they were to actually undress both of them side by side.

She stared at her golden eyes. If she moved her head slightly, they looked more orange. She supposed, depending on the lighting, it could go either way really.

"Do you like it?" Elsa's voice brought her attention back.

Rose placed the mirror onto the table.

"I love it." She smiled. "At the very least. . .I'm myself."

She had obtained a full name and now she had obtained a face that—although similar to another's—was her own. In the end, there was little else she could ask for.

"Good."

She turned to see Samuel Gardner, seated there. He no longer wore a robe but instead spotted blue jogging pants, a pale-blue shirt, and a jacket that reminded her of Shana's.

No.

It was exactly like Shana's.

She squinted her eyes at its insignia.

"You're a Reaper?"

The male smiled. "I am. I've completed my mission with Walker's death and the wrapping up of this war. From now on, only the 4th and 5th rim of the slums exist. . .for now."

He sighed momentarily and briefly touched the three swords hanging at his waist.

"Well. As per the terms, I'll be escorting you three to Alos."

She turned to her left and saw Mare.

"What about Mare?"

The info broker waved her off. "Oh I still have a thing or two to do here. I'll enter the city soon enough."

Rose nodded. Her eyes rolled over the aloof dragonian that sat near-by.

"How do you feel, Miss Ausra?"

She looked over and saw a grinning boy. Well, the man that looked like a boy, Brian Chaz, seated cross-legged besides a silent, but grumbling, Liz.

"I feel fine."

At her back, Lucy's voice came from the driver's seat.

"Tap your pad and let it scan you and your voice. We're almost at the transporter."

Seated within the bumping vehicle, Rose began configuring her new pad. In her mind, she was already thinking of Alos. It was only a breath away.