FICTION: Cyborg Sleeps part 7

The rest of the story

Asira goes out on her deployment in this episode, but I'm deliberately not writing about what happens on the actual assignment - that's not what the story is supposed to be about long-term, ad I see it as a distraction overall. I did come up with a mission that she might be performing, but only enough so that I could work out what sort of magic should be involved.

This episode is really about developing more about magic: the side-effect that Asira experiences could be construed as a variation on the pagan magic idea of receiving back three times what you send out.

Asira "thanking her stars" - that should be read as a reference to a religious affiliation. More detail than that I haven't worked out yet, although Asira is likely to be more a "nominal believer" than any actual religious convictions.

Part 7

Asira woke long before anyone else, needing only a few hours of sleep to be ready for anything. She spent the hours before dawn alone, practising her hand-to-hand combat skills, both armed and unarmed, in the military training centre, then made her way to the mess hall for breakfast.

That was when she discovered why the cryptoscopy spell was rarely used. Everyone, it seemed, had something to hide. Their clothes shone and screamed with secrecy. For a brief moment, Asira wondered if Wainwright had taken her revenge and placed a paranoia curse on her during the session at the altar room. Then she remembered Bena's blushes and the reason why her robe had shone too. She realised that everyone she saw was hiding their own bodies under their clothes, and that intention was reflected in the way the spell was making her see things. Asira thanked her stars that she no longer had the same hang-ups about her body as everyone else had, and that she was comfortable to be seen naked. “What must it be like to be so insecure?” she wondered to herself, forgetting that before her transformation she had been just the same as everyone else, with so many things she felt were wrong about her body, that she did not want anyone else to see.

It didn't help that she was living on a secret military-funded base that was hidden by mountains and magic from prying eyes. Almost by definition, this was a place where the majority of things had the purpose of hiding something or other. By the time she reached the mess she was feeling incredibly jumpy.

After a light breakfast of cereal and milk, Asira requisitioned an extra item from the quartermaster and then went to the pickup point ready for deployment. Her equipment was waiting for her, and she quickly checked that everything that the planning team had requested had been provided and was in proper working order. The early-warning trigger charms were all in place in the mini-bergen. Mini, because the exfil plan required Asira to be able to carry it without attracting attention in a public space. Getting the equipment down to a size that would fit had been the main headache for the team, but they'd done it. Of course, the bergen was alerting Asira's cryptoscopic vision all the time.

At 0630hrs exactly, her ride pulled up. The hiring agent greeted her briefly and she loaded her bergen and climbed in the back. Before the other agent could say anything, Asira tied the blindfold from the quartermaster over her eyes and sat back to relax.

“What's that for?” asked the hiring agent bemusedly.

“I need a break from seeing things,” Asira answered. She had hoped her intention of “resting my eyes” was sufficiently different from “hiding the world” that the sight of the blindfold would not trigger the cryptoscopy spell, and would give her a break from seeing all the hiding that was going on. So far, it seemed to be working. Since the hiring agent didn't know the details of the plan, and wasn't expected to, she instinctively felt uncomfortable telling him about the spell. His sole purpose in being on this ride was to go over once more the plan for exfil, and the plan for if anything went wrong.

He discussed the locations of some safe houses in the vicinity of the operation for in case things went wrong. Then he went over the arrangements for Asira to contact him once the mission was over and how they would pick her up. The blindfolded Asira nodded her understanding, and repeated back each detail to prove she had heard, understood and memorised what she needed to know.

The rest of the journey passed in silence and, for Asira anyway, darkness.

In silence, some hours later, Asira removed her blindfold, shook hands with the hiring agent, and stepped out of the car with her equipment in the bergen over her shoulder. It was time to go to work.