Mica left the reception behind with a strange taste on her tongue. Given how Mrs Erigi reacted to her decision there have been many lab-bolds who never return from this surgery. The kobold however swallowed these doubts and focused on the task at hand, following the green arrows to the cybernetic bay. Her faith in the goddess of science was strong, that strong even that one of her first actions, after having gotten released out of the Blackstone prison, was to visit the Cathedral of Progress to receive the necessary blessings from the high priest to become a useful asset for Noctec. Mica becoming a Technomancer was the first step on her path to leave her Familia past behind and start anew. At court, she received the necessary blessings from the goddess Justitia as well to allow society to ignore her awful past in favour of the future. And Mica was determined to render said future into a bright and brimming event!

After having followed multiple pure-white corridors past countless doors she finally met the mentioned scientists tasked to lead her to her destination. She was however surprised by their attire, an attire unlike those of the researchers she worked with before. While the Technomancers, who implanted her other body enhancements, never wore any headpiece the six science doctors were covered head to toe in a white and pastel-green uniform, wearing green rubber gloves and most importantly helmets to obscure their faces. Not being able to even see the eyes of the group, she felt a wave of doubt overcoming her as the silent group led her towards the bay. Not one word got exchanged with the kobold making her feel as if she got escorted to a chopping block instead to a room to perform medicine on her. She gulped and looked up to the largest of the group.

"What's with the secrecy? My past doctors all have talked with me, and have let me see their faces."

The tall doctor stopped and sighed, breaking his silence for a few brief words. His strangely sounding voice appeared displeased by her question. He visibly felt annoyed having to deal with a fresh blood lab-'bold on the way to her very first higher risk surgery.

"Protection of individuality."

"Have you tracked down what went wrong this time, doc? This module has to work. Fail me once, shame on me. Fail me twice, still shame on me. I want the control module to be perfect. Especially regarding who we are testing it the next time."

The doctor in white held what remained of the control device in his hand, traces of the unfortunate lab-bold still tainting his suit with red sprinkles. He pointed towards the core and the busted wiring which clearly melted under some kind of unwanted spike of energy. He sighed and ordered the rest of his team to clean up the mess they caused, picking up the remains and placing them in a small casket.

"We found the culprit, milady. The Veil-Converter worked but emitted a way too high dose of Magika into the artificial veins of the proband. He quite literally exploded from the resulting overdose. It is a trivial error in our calculations, however. Luckily we can fix that within the next hour. It is a shame however that it cost us two dedicated lab-bolds alr-"

"Two too many, fool! You guys are lucky I keep all identities of my personal assistants confidential, or you all would have to face serious consequences for such banal oversights ... just ... team Y? I want any of those responsible for making a medium threat surgery 100% deadly to start triple checking everything you even dare to think about! ... Dismissed!"

The doctor bowed down before the massive metal goddess and ushered his men to hurry up. He vowed to himself to stop trusting the work of others. After all, he was also not aware of who he was working with today, given the forced use of voice modulators. He never experienced before such a grave lack of coordination and chemistry in the experimental chambers. Tossing the control unit in the casket with the remaining parts of the kobold he wrote down a few brief notes for the next anonymous group performing on the third kobold of the day. Instructions which contained what they had learned from this failed attempt. Then he hurried up to catch up with the remaining team, only to leave through his very own exit. To retain discretely he was urged to leave the building at a set time to never meet any of the other anonymous engineers and doctors. Leaving the room the last thing he heard was his goddess Notitia cursing as the Eternal tried to catch herself for the next patient.

"(...) has to work. This time. My sister will hold that up against me for a century if I let that kobold die as well."

Mica and the six docs in white entered through the massive sliding door and joined up with the leader of the Technomancer religion. Here the kobold smelled the painfully familiar scent of burned flesh and freshly spilled blood. Her enhanced retinas helped her to quickly track down invisible stains of blood all around the operating table, located in a blast radius of roughly 5 meters. Stains, fresh enough to belong to prior occupants of the table. Cleaned up to serenity, but still leaving behind feint heat signatures her heat vision could notice. She exhaled slowly and looked up to her mechanical goddess, who was currently adjusting the tubes and lights at the ceiling. Burning orange eyes sore through the expected arrivals and a clear lack of patience resonated within the digital voice of Notitia, with her trying to sound neutral regardless, but failing poorly at hiding her frustrations.

"Welcome, proband 17895. Or better known as Mica, the vanquisher of 'Familia'. You are looking tense, little one. Doubts washing over the mind of the saviour of Old-Scamall? No worries, Justitia wouldn't forgive me if I let such a remarkable kobold be the first proband."

"So that is what I am seeing, my goddess? More spilt blood so that I shall survive? I hoped to have left the past behind to not pile up further victims, more guilt sticking to my paws."

The eternal broke out into an oddly emotionless interference akin to laughter and focused on the kobold, her solar panel frills reflecting her pink face. One of her four massive hands held up the papers she signed before, waving them around.

"Do not view it like that, saviour. You just weren't the first to desire a control module and sign the contract. Quite a rare specimen, actually reading the contract, taking her time. The leveller device is doing work in keeping your head clear, marvellous! And yes, sure, a few died. But we have now tracked down the errors in the calculation and are at this very moment in the process of optimizing your enhancements to not explode upon activation. Relax, mortal. I never face terminal endings three times in a row.~"

"And besides, it is not as if I have still a chance to back out. What is signed has to be done."

"And that is precisely why Justitia had such an interest in keeping you around, 17895. You know the rule of law, despite being born lawless. Fascinating. Now if you may?" Justitia pointed to the kobold-sized operating table, asking her to take a seat. "You are here to write history. The first batch of Magitek cybernetics was revolutionary. The second batch however is the important one. Aimed to further integrate the technology into one's system to allow the artificial Veil, Magika, to resonate with the body. The first generation are practitioners of Magika, but your generation will experience rebirth through this novel power!"

Mica didn't hesitate even a second, her mind set on becoming better. She felt a smidge alienated by the fact that Notitia switched ways to address her as she saw fit, seemingly undecided on whether she wanted to view her as a mortal or an experiment. The last time she saw such behaviour it was Father taunting some debtors with played sympathy before forcing them to jump from the reverse mountain into the sky below. Walking towards the surgery chair, she was briefly interrupted by two of the anonymous scientists aiding her in stripping off her bandage-like clothes to be exposed to the many blades that would surely cut her open in a few minutes. Mica saw the scar tissue of a few first-generation Magitek users and was quite clear about what would not get harmed. Nothing. Right before she sat down on the table, Mica turned around to the four-armed Eternal and narrowed her eyes.

"One thing, lady Notitia. I talked with one of the first batch, a Magiflame user named Phlinston. He suggested to me that I should ask regarding something specific. He felt quite a bit of the procedure before the anaesthesia kicked in. Can I trust everyone here that I will be gone before the surgery begins?"

Mica found it fascinating just how long her goodness took before acknowledging her bidding. It appeared to her as if the living robot was sighing before nodding slowly.

"...Fine."