It’s finally time, I think to myself, taking a deep breath as Chloe I approach a small plain in the middle of the countryside a few miles outside of the exurbs.  Another day has passed, and it’s finally time to perform the bonding ritual, permanently affixing Filia as the core of my new swordstaff.

I suppress the urge to roll my eyes.  As it turns out, there’s an entire ritual that needs to take place in order to properly form the weapon I’ll be using for the foreseeable future.  One that requires a wide-open space and a lot of glyphs and special incantations to properly perform, for reasons that Filia hasn’t completely explained yet.  I don’t know if I fully trust everything that they’ve said to this point, especially now that they’re leaving me in the dark on this final and most critical step.

But they haven’t led me astray so far.  I’m no expert in social graces, and I lack a [Sense Motive] type Skill, but I don’t think they’re being dishonest with me.  I do think they haven’t revealed their full motivation for wanting to partner with me, and their stated intention to ‘see the cosmos’ alongside us isn’t the full story.  I think they are sincere about that part, but it’s what I don’t know that worries me.  It feels like there’s a missing piece.

“Is there something I can help you with, Sera?” Chloe asks as we touch down in a bed of knee-high grass.  “I can practically taste the waves of anxiety oozing off you right now.

I pull Chloe into a hug, burying her face in my chest as I rest my cheek on the crown of her head.  Always smells so wonderful, and never fails to bring comfort and serenity to my troubled, stormy mind.  For a couple of minutes, we remain like that, lost in each other’s embrace.

“I have you, Chloe.  And the fact that you’re here, that you’ve always been here for me, every day since the System arrived, without exception, is more than I could ever ask for.”

“Just promise me that, whatever happens, you’ll stay safe out there.”

“I will,” I mumble into her hair.

With a flourish of my power, I conjure my [Silver Swordstaff] and focus my will, conjuring the glyphs of [Wind] and [Sharpness] together into a simple [Air Cutter] spell.  And then, upon channeling [Ether] through the weapon and envisioning my will, I launch a weak attack, creating a football-field sized patch of freshly-cut grass in which I can do my work.

I will admit that I don’t fully understand all the intricacies of the spell circle that I’ll be constructing for the ritual.  Enough to realize the basic idea, though.  It’s meant to gather a large quantity of Ether and confine it in a fixed region of space.  That is, it’s meant to empower the swordstaff itself, filling it with overwhelming quantities of Ether to effect the bonding process and allow it to become a weapon worthy to be Filia’s host.

Chloe gives me a nod and steps back, floating a few feet off the ground.  Her eyes occasionally dart around, keeping an eye on any who might try to intrude upon the ritual about to commence.  But most of her focus remains on me as I begin to draw out the inscription.

It’s by far the largest inscription I’ve ever done before, both in terms of size and complexity, dwarfing the combination of glyphs and runes that were used during the construction of my arm.  Tens of thousands of glyphs, all having to be hand-carved into the dirt surrounding me, the overall size and shape of the formation far beyond the ability of my [Intermediate Glyph Manifestation] to create through willpower and [Ether] alone.

Hours pass as I engrave the inscription into the earth, my Skills guiding me through the ambiguities left unstated in Filia’s design notes.  And I think I’m beginning to understand a bit more about the process they’re having me undertake here.  I remember my vision a few weeks back, about Madison and her weapon, [Divine Blade Luminaria].  It was a special class of weapon, one bonded to her.  One for which only she could bring out its full power; were I or anyone else to use it, we would only be able to use a fraction of its true capabilities.

The same must be true here.  And that’s why Filia gave me the full array they wanted me to make.  They supplied only their half of the overall spell that we collectively will be casting.  Enough to form the basic idea, to glean the intent, but leaving me to fill in the details.  In a sense, they’re leaving it up to me, expecting me to determine how best to manifest my own will into the bond that we will be forming.

It’s not just the individual glyphs.  Nor is it the way in which they’re arranged, the linking runes used and how they are all connected to one another, though those both play a role.  It’s also the subtleties, something akin to flourishes or diacritics, tiny changes in the structures away from their ideal state.  Normally, especially when casting magic, this is to be avoided.  Even subtle changes in the accents, so to speak, can have wildly different meanings.  Something that is a most horrid idea when calling upon their power to alter the fabric of the natural world.

If one is lucky, an error while [Glyphcasting] is benign.  The spell is a little weaker.  The [Ether] cost is a little higher.  Maybe there’s a bit of backlash, the aim is off or a portion of the spell is diverted into a form other than that intended by the cast.  If one isn’t so lucky…  I look at my metallic arm, titanium and aluminum glistening in the midday light.  And even that’s luckier than what could happen if things go really awry.  It could have been my head that I’d lost instead.

But here, while building this particular array, these little flourishes, deviations from the clinical definitions prescribed by the laws of the universe and the System, are not just not detrimental, but actively beneficial.  An opportunity to show off who and what I am as a person, not just a collection of powers and glyphs, spells and Skills and levels and stat points.

It gives me pause, thinking about how to answer that.  Not in the impersonal, job seeker’s sense of the nebulous and dreaded ‘Tell me about yourself’ question that starts off every interview.  Because this question that Filia is asking isn’t about what I’ve accomplished or how I can make the boss’s life easier or make the shareholders more money.  It’s cutting to the very heart of who I am as a person.

A woman of two worlds.  Created as a guardian angel for humanity in its most desperate hour.  A broken woman, scarred by an imperfect, scarred and broken society, spending much of her life on the ass end of it, hoping to survive.  A woman who tries to do what she thinks is right.  Who sometimes succeeds and actually does right.  Who sometimes does wrong, thinking she is doing right.

A woman who is hurt and scared and has been given all this power and all this burden.  Who might… Who might not–  Who definitely doesn’t deserve either.  No more or else than any other person, at least.  But who has it nonetheless.  And has to try to figure out what to do with it.

I infuse the circle with all of this emotion.  Fear and uncertainty.  Doubt and guilt, but also opportunity.  A future which seems harrowing, moving toward an annihilation in so many thousand years which is both far off and yet already inevitable.  Except, maybe not.  Because, within the power of ｢The Anomaly｣ , is a sliver of a chance for a future that doesn’t lead to that certain outcome.

And, despite my… tenuous relationship with this world and its people, I know I need to do everything in my power to bring that new future into reality.  Not for my sake, but for Chloe’s.  For that pure, innocent, angelic saintess who is, to be frank, too good for me, and too good for this sinful world.  Who has pledged herself to stay by my side, to love me and hold me, through hell and high water alike, no matter what challenges we face.

We’ll face them together.  Until the final end, for good or for ill.

All of these thoughts and emotions, these hopes and dreams, doubts and worries, I pour them all into the circle.  It’s as much art as it is science at this point, painting a tapestry of intention and will, converting emotion into the language of glyphs.

And it’s… difficult, to say the least.  I don’t have the words I need to properly express my emotions in English.  Add in the language barrier of trying to express it in glyphs alone, with my vocabulary so limited as it is, and it’s an utter nightmare.

I think, though, that this is part of the process that Filia wishes for me to undertake.  Because, just as my will and desires are still rough and unrefined at this relatively early juncture in our adventure, so too is my ability to express them in the tapestry the two of us are weaving.  Perhaps, at some future point, when I have a better sense of myself and how to express these conflicting thoughts and feelings I have, I’ll be able to reforge this bond.

The sun is high overhead, bearing down upon my sweating, pink-tinged face when I am finally done.  I float backward, into the arms of Chloe, who is a little less drenched, owing only to her spending most of the time in the shade of a large tree a few hundred feet away.

“So you’re finally done?” she asks.  “Everything is as it’s meant to be?”

“To the best of my ability,” I respond as I chug the water.  “Including my knowledge of what’s best.”

“That’s all we can do in the end.”  She gives me a hug, not caring in the slightest that I’m sweaty and probably plenty sleepy.  “I’ll be here if you need me.  And, well, I’d say good luck, but I know you don’t need it.”

“Of course I need good luck,” I say.  “But thankfully, I have a wonderful girlfriend who gives me all the luck I need.”

Chloe’s expression curls upward into a sly smile, then a full grin.  “I’ll see you back here when you get finished.”

With that, I float back to the center of the formation, sitting in the center of the formation.  A moment later, after steeling my mind and preparing myself for what’s likely to occur, I reach into my [Inventory].  I pull out both the swordstaff and Filia, the sentient chunk of black philosopher’s ore, setting them down in the center of the formation, just in front of me.

“Ah, very good,” Filia whispers into my mind.  “And much in line with what I’d expected of you.  Rough and unrefined now, but absolutely bursting with potential.  Now then, do you need to take a moment to prepare yourself for what is to come?”

“This is the only way that this is going to work, I take it?”

“So you know.  And yes, a sapient object will never truly accept a master who has not proven themself first, demonstrating the willpower and strength needed to reach both of our goals.  I am no exception in that regard.”

“Yeah, I… I figured as much.  I understand these glyphs well enough to know that your half of the spell is a barrier of sorts…  The rare sort of barrier designed to keep things in rather than out.  It was the logical conclusion.”

“Seraphina, I want you to know that I don’t do this because I hate you, or because I don’t respect you.  I meant every word I said when I said that I wanted to come along and witness the story that you will carve into the world.  It’s because I believe you can overcome my trial that I decided to come along with you.  If you are ready, then we shall begin.”

I take a deep breath, turning my focus inward to my [Ether] core, preparing myself both mentally and physically for the trial to come.  After five seconds, I open my eyes.  “Let’s…  Let’s do this.”