The Knowledge of Equals
This too shall pass.
Sadie and one of Gulmar's rangers were on watch. Atull was her name, and that was all she knew. When Sadie had walked over, the orc had motioned to a place beside her. Sadie had taken the seat, and neither had said a word since. They stared into the darkness - the orc with unblinking slit-pupilled eyes, and the woman with night vision hardware making a blank mask of her face.
After a while, Sadie pulled a magazine from a pouch on her right and made to slide it into her weapon. The orc's questioning tilt was answered by another, identical magazine.
Sadie hit the bolt release and sighted in, enjoying the feel of the exquisitely-engineered weapon. She pulled the trigger firmly, feeling the recoil and watching a ghostly tracer round fly into the trees. It struck the birch she'd been aiming at and stopped, a soft blue glow marking her shot.
She fired again, the illusory round landing barely an inch from her first, but Atull snorted. Her rifle barked twice, and both her rounds landed on Sadie's.
Oh, it was on.
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Inspired by (sequel to):
Eraeon turned to Tenever as Gulmar launched into another epic tale. Though his face was ever blank a…
The Consumption of Knowledge- Published 9 years ago.
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For those with an interest, this is a quiet adaptation of the spell "Minor Image", an illusion spell that is doing the work of simulating recoil and producing an illusory tracer round. Tenever did a little modification to store it inert in a brass cartridge, to activate it by firing pin, share it to nearby beings, and to produce a glow where it strikes (which is a minor use of the spell "Light").
Tenever's education was expensive, but so, so worth it.