"So Avarice was just a prototype?" Just hearing the news, Shamisha's heart began racing with worry. "That fucking monster, she…she was a prototype?"
"I didn't want to give the most," shaking her head in a moment of bliss, Mono closed her eyes as the duo were waiting for the elevator to come up. "Most beautiful piece of my work to a soulless automaton. That privilege is mine, and well if you want I'll make you one as well."
'This bitch.' Still feeling outshined by her master numerous decades later, Shamisha clicked her tongue in annoyance and just dropped the matter then and there.
"No, thank you," as soon as she said those words, the elevator door opened with the rat-girl anxiously waiting inside.
"Someone called the elevator down! I was waiting but–" Moving inside, Mono pressed her finger against the over-excited girl, and hushed her just like she had before.
"That's fine," pulling her hand away, the sorceress gestured her student to get inside as well.
Once the duo was in, the rat-girl's eyes went wide in shock. She couldn't believe that she was riding the elevator with not just a Mono-doll, but her master Shamisha as well. In her mind, she expected her master to scream at her for even interacting with a mono, but from the looming silence inside the cramped space, those worries were washed away.
"Now, about your question, ask me something, okay? We have to go somewhere, me and your teacher," Mono reminded.
Racking her mind quickly, the only thing she could think of was what Grace had already told her. Thus deciding to get an extension on the same vein of knowledge she asked a question that even had Shamisha grow curious.
"Miss Grace told me that your maker, Miss Mono, had a master who made the blueprints for the first doll, do you know who that was? I've tried looking everywhere, but no books mention Miss Mono having a teacher, they all just read that she never had one!"
Her long-winded question sent even Mono wondering. She knew something was missing from her memory and yet it was present, almost like brushing your teeth in the morning and then forgetting if you did.
"My mast–No I mean, Miss Mono's master," thinking back on it, Mono finally remembered the name. "Oh yeah, I remembered. Miss Mono, told me her master's name was…Aurora? Maybe, yeah, that's it, Aurora was her master's name."
"Aurora?" Feeling as though she'd forgotten someone by that name, searched through her memories, only to realize that she didn't know anyone with that name at all. "Never mind, that's a lovely name. I wonder what happened to her."
"Old age, if I'm not wrong. Although I never–" Stopping herself while looking at the rat girl again, Mono let out a few fake coughs and corrected herself. "I heard Miss Mono never got to attend her master's funeral as she was only informed years later of her by Grace."
"Years later?!" Like anyone else would be, the rat-girl was shocked that it took Mono years to realize that someone so important in her life was dead.
"Yeah, Miss Mono was apparently too busy with research. Besides, Grace was there to take care of her master so it's not like she died alone or anything," after making excuses for herself, Mono fell silent until the elevator brought them down.
Bidding byes to the girl, the duo left for the lab that should've turned to rubble at this point. Making sure to escape the city guard's gaze, Mono led Shamisha under the radar so that they wouldn't be seen together. Especially since the news about the king's murder would likely make it to the city streets by morning.
And before that, she wanted to transfer her ironcore isolator to the vessel that was supposedly being worked on even to this day; by an automaton designed to perpetually find flaws and perfect every aspect of the vessel.
'A century? Maybe more, maybe less? I wonder just how much it has improved on my initial near-perfect design for an undying iron soldier-cum-monarch.' Having gone with a militaristic look, she'd designed the initial vessel like a stern female dictator with a deep love for unnecessarily flashy coats and hats.
"What good is life without a little bit of accessorizing, right Misha?" Having no clue what her master was talking about, Shamisha simply rolled her eyes.
"I wanna lift you in the air with my gravity-bending arm and chuck you to the ocean right now," she complained, the fist on her prosthetic arm clenched tight to activate its ability and chuck Mono to the Infernal Oceans.
"Ehhh, I'll come back just like I did before," it physically hurt Shamisha admitting to herself just how right Mono was all the time.
"If you were a dude I would've punched you in the nuts by now," she kept complaining, but Mono had her retort ready as well.
"Aww~ Get a boyfriend darling, I'm sure some guys must be into it," giggling to herself, Mono managed to get herself lifted in the air by phantom gravitational force, and as she floated in the air and flailed around trying to get down, she looked in Shamisha's eyes and whispered. "Ohhh…shit…"
"I'll catch up with you at the creek!" Throwing Mono from above the entire city, Shamisha gave her a quick flight to the deep creek where her lab once used to be.
"AGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" Hearing Mono's scream echoing through the skies of Elenaris, the demi-girl sorceress finally felt some inner peace.
"That felt right," She muttered with a smile before continuing her path forward.
'Let's just hope nobody realizes who that is though, or else it'll be another mess.' Despite not having discussed the plan, Shamisha already knew that Mono was trying to disassociate from Avarice so she wouldn't be blamed for a crime that she did not commit.
The soon-to-be-held council would be presented with the lifeless body of Avarice, and Mono could be by Shamisha's side in a new body entirely. But there laid a question, would the dead sorceress reveal herself as being alive or keep it a secret, and even if she did, for how long?
'She's not free from blame but just like an offspring can't be punished for the crimes of their parents, and a smith can't be executed for making the tool of murder, she too can't be punished, at least not as severely; for crimes committed by a creation of hers.' Selling herself the case to defend her master in case Mono decided to come clean to the councilmen, Shamisha wanted to be ready to bail her master out of the situation no matter what.
'I might throw her to the goblins later, but in the state that Elenaris is right now, we can't afford to lose one of our brightest minds once more.'