Lily began precisely drawing out her designed glyph. Although well-practiced with every component, she hesitated to put it all together. Not to mention, she was doing it for real with genuine glyph ink.

Rather than use her recently bought pen, she continued using her original, as it had already used the glyph ink, and she was perhaps a little paranoid that it would negatively affect it.

Maybe I should buy myself another pen… Lily considered it as she worked.

As her pen glided across the page, she began hitting her stride and feeling more and more confident. Her planned pieces were assembled to form the completed picture.

In what felt like no time, she had completed all the components and now only needed to finalize it. The final circle! Lily held her breath and nodded with confidence. She ensured her pen had enough ink and then made the final singular stroke with a swish of her hand.

"I did it!" She exclaimed happily as she examined her finished work critically.

The circle was likely perfect, which she was very proud of. While she could now pick up some minor imperfections in some of her first lines, they were all minor enough to be considered negligible. She took the errors as objective feedback and areas to work on.

Scared of disturbing the ink or glyph, she used the opposite page to converse with Arakil.

"How does the glyph look? And also the ink?" Lily asked curiously.

[While there is room for tiny improvement, I'm extremely impressed with this completed glyph overall. The final circle, in particular, is outstanding.]

Lily grinned happily, giggling to herself proudly.

[As for the glyph ink. It is both less than I hoped and yet more than I expected. However, it should suit our purposes as long as we set reasonable limitations and don't try to do anything overly grandiose. Unfortunately, I do not see us being able to replicate any inscriptions utilizing it.]

Lily nodded, her ears flopping.

"That's good! I don't mind waiting for inscriptions; I already have so much more to learn and work with on glyphs alone!"

[That's a good attitude to have. Hopefully, I'll find a reasonable solution soon that we can put to use. Also, your glyph is ready, and I suggest pulling the page out. Unlike regular ink, when the final circle is drawn, the entire glyph is finalized instantly.]

"Okay! Thank you, Arakil!" Lily said as she carefully removed the page. As always, once Arakil allowed a page to be removed, it came out easily, like magic.

Lily was ecstatic. She wanted to try it right away, but she still needed to invite Rose over and-

Her stomach growled in protest.

Food first!

***

During dinner, Lily told Rose to visit her room late at night for a surprise. Rose agreed, and so Lily used the time waiting to do some last-minute transcribing.

"I don't even know if I need the money anymore…" Lily muttered to herself as she worked. "The extra ink is good, although I'm not sure what to do with all the extra parchment. I get to keep it since it's part of the waste insurance, but it's really piling up now. I could sell it, or maybe I'll just use it for Camilla's jobs. Even if Arakil has endless pages, I probably shouldn't reveal that to her…"

Once she was done, she carefully stored the completed manuscript away. Then, she took a hot bath and got into her pajamas while she waited for Rose's arrival.

Lily had told Rose to come late so they'd have enough darkness for the presentation. Unlike Arakil's spell, she couldn't blanket the room in darkness, so she needed to compromise.

Rose softly tapped at Lily's door before tiptoeing in as quietly as possible.

"Okay… I'm here." Rose whispered. "What do you want to show me?"

Lily proudly pulled out the page with her completed glyph.

"My second-ever drawn glyph!" Lily announced.

"Shh!" Rose said, gesturing with her finger on her lip. "Not so loud…"

"Right… Sorry…" Lily apologized sheepishly.

Rose softly chuckled as she shook her head, finally examining Lily's drawing. "That looks… Complicated."

"It's actually a really simple one. Mostly, it's just shapes and colors," Lily replied.

"And it works?" Rose asked.

"Arakil checked it himself," Lily answered.

"Okay… So what does it do?"

"Wait and see," Lily whispered.

Support creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions.

Lily gestured for Rose to sit on the bed. After she took her spot, Lily dimmed her lamp until it was barely visible. Finally, she placed the page on the ground in the middle of the room.

"Okay, once I put a drop of ink on it, it will activate," Lily explained.

"I hope this isn't anything dangerous…" Rose said cautiously.

"It's only a Light crest," Lily scoffed dismissively. "At worst, it might blind someone."

"I mean… I don't know about you, but I like my eyes." Rose teased.

"Temporarily blind someone!" Lily corrected, causing Rose to giggle.

Grabbing her pen, she dabbed it into the center of the page. It still had some tiny ink remnants from her final circle, and unlike regular ink, it seemed incapable of drying until the sigil was completed. Lily was relieved at not having to waste or wash away the remainder in her pen.

The glyph began to light up almost immediately with the introduction of additional ink. Lily rushed as fast as her little legs would take her, jumping onto the bed next to Rose to join her in watching the show.

Rose hummed with awe but then was silenced entirely when the soft glow was soon replaced by five brightly colored objects floating above the page in the room.

A silvery sphere floated in the center. A blue polyhedron and yellow diamond slowly spun around the sphere. Finally, two stars appeared, stationary but twinkling. One was slightly larger than the other. The somewhat bigger star was red, while the smaller one was adorably pink.

Rose gasped.

Lily giggled and felt her eyes moistening.

I did magic again! I really did it!

"Lily, this is crazy… What even is this?" Rose asked, flabbergasted.

"This is magic," Lily said happily. "Glyph magic, and my second ever spell of many. The start of my journey to being the first Lagia Mage."

Rose had no idea of the scope of this spell. In reality, it was a mere bit of Light magic, but it had a much greater meaning to the two of them. Seeing Lily with such determined belief made Rose instinctually trust her every word, and she felt like Lily would stop at nothing to accomplish her newfound dream.

"Naturally, of course!" Rose said happily. "I wouldn't expect any less of my beloved little sister."

They giggled happily as they sat on the bed, leaning on each other and watching the glowing lights in the dark room.

Rose pointed to the two stars.

"Is that meant to be us?"

"Yes. I hope you liked the idea," Lily replied.

"I love it," Rose replied instantly.

They continued to watch it silently for a few moments until the glyph had run out of Mana, and the lights winked out of existence.

Lily sighed, wishing it would have lasted a bit longer, and moved to turn up the lamp.

"I feel like I keep getting shocked and surprised… First a talking book, then magic plants, and now this…" Rose said, gesturing to the room.

"Well," Lily said as she jumped off the bed. "I hope I can still give you plenty more surprises, as this is technically only the beginning."

"Oh?"

"Glyphs and ink is the first step," Lily said confidently. "Next, I will work on getting myself Mana, then create a bloodline magic to fool the examiner, and finally, I'll join you in Regarth!"

"If it was anyone else, I would have laughed," Rose admitted. "But now, I think you really can do it. I'm so proud and hopeful for you, Lily."

"Thanks Rose… And thank you too, Arakil," Lily said to the book on the desk. "Without both of you helping me, I would have been stuck doing nothing but writing or bookkeeping."

"Anytime!" Rose said immediately. "Now we just need to get Arakil fat and healthy on Fairymoss so he can get to work."

"Yes!" Lily agreed.

The door banged.

"You girls! If you don't get to bed right this instant, I'll give you both a buttload of extra math homework!" A voice screeched from behind the door.

Both girls shuddered in horror.

Not math!

***

Lily didn't draw another real glyph the next morning despite her enthusiasm. She spent the time instead doing additional practice on the time-limit sigils and how to appropriately apply the settings to the heat sigil. She wanted to be thoroughly prepared to draw Camilla's glyphs.

If I do a good enough job, I might be able to convince her to buy me one of the rarer plants. That way, I can get Arakil the Mana he needs sooner!

She had thought of it while trying to restlessly get back to sleep. Rose's mention of fattening Arakil made her think of some other method to help speed up the process.

Unfortunately, according to Rose, the hidden herb hole was looking rather scarce, and they didn't want to pick it entirely clean. This meant buying it from Camilla now became their only reliable source, especially since she was the cheapest shop.

Lily locked her bottle of glyph ink in her room despite wanting to bring it along. She couldn't see a reason to need it at the shop if Camilla would have her draw in blood ink. She certainly didn't want to waste her precious glyph ink doing Camilla's tasks.

After handing in her completed manuscript to the staff and having a hearty breakfast, she went to Camilla's store with Rose as her escort.

"Lily, good to see you," Camilla greeted her as she entered the shop.

"You better not try any tricks on her old lady, or I'll burn your house down!" Rose threatened at the door.

"It's nice to see you too, Rose," Camilla cackled. She seemed perfectly fine with Rose's threats.

Rose scoffed at Camilla before waving goodbye to Lily. "I'll see you later."

"Thanks, Rose, see you later; good luck with your lessons."

Rose sighed and nodded. She was not looking forward to her next lesson with Lady Desthu after her temper caused a heat flare.

"Hi, Miss Camilla. Thank you for the glyph ink; it worked perfectly," Lily said politely once Rose had left.

"Wow, you really wasted no time digging straight in," Camilla teased. "I'm glad it worked out. Since it seems it's the only thing I'll be able to bribe you with to continue working here…"

"Well… I was thinking I'd save up for a stronger plant, too," Lily admitted. "I know you said they are expensive, but I thought maybe if I saved up enough, I could eventually afford it."

Camilla hummed in thought before responding. "It's certainly possible. Although you'll need to pinch your pennies," she laughed at her joke. "And I presume you are willing to draw glyphs for me?"

"Yes, and I'll accept the book, too. I researched time-limit sigils and how to adjust the temperature," Lily answered.

"Gods' girl, I wish you'd accept being my full-blown apprentice already. You certainly go above and beyond…" Camilla said with a slight sigh.

Lily blushed. "I just… Really want to do magic. I want to join my big sister in Regarth."

"Regarth!?" Camilla blurted out. "Well… They do say, 'Shoot for the moon, and you'll still end up amongst the stars.'"

Lily wanted to protest but instead bottled it up. There was no point, and the woman wasn't entirely negative about it.

"So, what kind of control are we talking about?" Camilla asked curiously.

Wanting to show off a little and perhaps get a tiny bit of revenge, Lily said. "Well. If you tell me the required temperature and the boil time, I can fine-tune it to the second."

Camilla was startled at first, then put on a sly smile. "Girl… You talk a big game. But, if you're telling the truth, then I think this will be very prosperous for both of us."

"I'm not lying," Lily said confidently.

"And after your display yesterday, I don't doubt it. But, as they say, 'the proof is in the pudding.'"

Why would it be in the pudding? Lily wondered with a frown.

Camilla laughed and gestured for Lily to follow her into the atelier. When Lily reached out to flip the shop sign from closed to open, Camilla interrupted her.

"No customers today," Camilla said.

Seeing Lily's confusion, she elaborated. "Today, we're doing some alchemy!"