The rest of the day went by without much trouble, although Lily felt like she had a knot in her stomach for the entirety of it. Camilla must have noticed it and even asked what was wrong eventually during work.

Lily hesitated at first but decided opening up wouldn't do any harm.

"Rose is going to Regarth early… She will be leaving without me," She explained.

Camilla seemed slightly surprised initially but soon recovered as she saw some underlying logic in the decision.

"I guess that makes sense. She will probably need some settling in since she's not the typical kid they bring in..." Camilla paused to sigh. "Is there anything I can do to help?"

Lily was about to shake her head but quickly realized this was a golden opportunity. "I need to buy one more Mana potion within a month. And get as much Fairymoss as you can supply."

"Girl… What are you plotting?" Camilla asked cautiously.

"Nothing bad," Lily replied, quickly adding, "Or dangerous, I promise you. I need to get it done before Rose leaves. Please, Miss Camilla. It's my only chance."

Camilla was reluctant but eventually nodded. "I guess I can get you to start drawing more for me to stock up on. It'll bleed me dry, quite literally, and I'll be taking it out of your future wages!"

Lily nodded happily, ears flopping energetically.

That was one problem potentially solved, and now she just needed to get Rose on board to discuss Arakil's plan.

***

They had gathered in Lily's room as usual. Rose sat on the bed while Lily sat at her small desk, with Arakil's book lying open on it.

Rose looked a little uncomfortable, as it had only been a day since she announced she would leave early. Lily swore she also looked a little guilty. Her eyes were downcast, and her shoulders were slumped, starkly contrasting her usual confident posture.

"I'm really sorry, Lily… Lady Desthu isn't giving me an option here after I punched my teacher. She says it's important to get me through this whole… Dragon thing. Then I'll have more control over my emotions."

"No… I understand," Lily shook her head and floppy ears. "You've been really hot-headed lately… I just wish it wasn't so unexpected and last minute."

"I was lucky to get almost two months… She wanted to leave the next day until I begged!" Rose exclaimed.

Lily gasped. That would have been absurd, basically abduction!

"Well… I'm glad I have you for now… And then I'll join you at Regarth when I'm old enough."

"Lily…" Rose mumbled, then Lily held out her hand to stop her saying more.

"No, listen, Rose. Arakil has a plan; we are going to do a big ritual and form a Mana Core! This Mana Core is a powerful source of magic that will enable me to cast spells and take the test to join you at Regarth. I'll be a year behind you, but that's fine; you're my big sister, after all."

Rose sighed but felt the sides of her mouth crooked up into a smile. "Okay, so what's this crazy plan you've cooked up?"

Lily nodded happily and pulled out some of the pages explaining the initial steps Arakil had produced. Although Rose still couldn't read them, Lily needed to.

"Arakil wants us to find a secluded spot, somewhere safe with very few people. It needs to be at least 30 meters in diameter and smooth. When we locate it, he will first transmute the soil into stone. The next step will be engraving the stone into a ritual site."

"Engraving the stone?" Rose asked. "I know your penmanship is extremely good, but I doubt you're strong enough to use a chisel or whatever. And I doubt I have the dexterity to do it neat enough."

Lily giggled. "No, silly, we will do all of it with magic!"

Rose opened her mouth before snapping it shut. Her teeth clinked together.

Seeing her reaction, Lily giggled again before continuing. "I can't leave the city without supervision, and I don’t think it would be safe to do so… So I was hoping you'd maybe explore around a bit to find our spot?"

Rose nodded. "Sure… I can do that, although I'm guessing you'll have to come eventually."

"Yes… I need to activate the glyphs and inscriptions Arakil will make for us. Then inspect that all of it is connected correctly."

"Isn't this going to cost a lot of Mana? Something neither of you really have in good abundance?" Rose questioned.

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"Yes… Which is why we might need to set it up in stages. I will also be doing lots of glyphs for Camilla, and I asked for another Mana potion and Fairymoss. I'm using all my savings!" Lily said, determination flickering in her eyes.

Rose tapped her finger against her chin. "Why don't you use some of my blood to draw glyphs?" Lily was about to object, as she usually did, but Rose quickly silenced her with a raised finger.

"Think about it, Lily… I understand I can't draw them, but if I only need to activate them, then that should be fine. You can tell me what to do, and I'll do it. I know you're averse to using blood, but you've been using Camilla's! You don't have Mana, and I do, so why not pool our resources?"

Lily nodded slowly, but her ears drooped, indicating she wasn't pleased about it. "But… I can't draw the ritual inscription… It's too much even for me. What do you think, Arakil?"

[I think Rose's suggestion is logical. It would be very useful as we are starved for resources. While I don't think you can currently do the main ritual's inscription, you're more than qualified to copy out the sub-rituals. I can do the first one, and then you can do the rest using Rose's blood ink.]

Lily conveyed the message somewhat reluctantly.

"See! Even the book agrees with me," Rose teased.

"Fine!" Lily agreed grumpily. "I just don't like the idea of using blood... But I guess it would be stupid not to do so in this case. I'd hate for the ritual to fail because we weren't frugal enough..."

"Great!" Rose said. "I'm glad I can finally help out... Besides being your chaperone and occasional herb picker, I've felt a little left out with helping you progress."

"Don't say that, Rose... You've been more than helpful. Plus, you're my emotional support as well!" Lily said cheerfully.

Rose grinned. "I guess I've got to find a perfect spot for us then."

"Just promise me you'll be safe..." Lily murmured.

"Ha!" Rose chuckled smugly. "I think whatever creatures are in or near the forest will have to watch out for me! I'm not the same girl I was back then; I could easily beat a dire hawk with one fiery punch!"

"As long as it's monsters and not teachers this time..." Lily teased.

"Bah. That old man had it coming. I'm obviously going to specialize in fire magic, so why get so butthurt if my other magic is a little less good?"

"Insurance?" Lily suggested. "Like... What if you fight a monster that's immune to fire."

"Then I punch it!" Rose replied proudly.

"What if you can't punch it?" Lily asked.

"Well..." Rose trailed off, then grinned. "I do want a sword as well, or maybe an axe? A giant big axe?"

"Ugh... You know what I mean..." Lily pouted. "But I guess you do have your strength to fall back on."

"Yup!" Rose nodded. "Also, in the worst case, if it's something that can only be beaten magically, and fire is not an option. Can't I rely on you to solve that for me?"

Lily blushed. Then nodded frantically, ears flopping to and fro. "Yes!"

They spent the rest of the evening chatting, and Lily showed off some of her drawings to Rose, who could only admire their artistic look more than their magical composition.

When Rose finally left for her own room, Lily and Arakil continued conversing. Arakil first provided Lily with a blueprint for the sub-ritual, which she would need to practice flawlessly to replicate.

She needed to practice it thoroughly because, unlike with any of her other glyphs, she would not be able to have Arakil inspect the final product this time. Arakil's pages utterly rejected any blood that contained Mana, so Lily would be forced to draw it unsupervised on regular parchment.

It's a good thing I have so much leftover paper from my scribe work! Still... With something as complicated as this, I wish I could have Arakil confirm it for me. I'll just have to get him to judge my normal ink work as much as possible before doing the real thing!

The other thing Arakil did was give her some meditation and breathing exercises. These would be key for her during the ritual as she would need to start guiding the Mana through her and into a Core.

Arakil drew a picture for Lily to focus on during her meditation, which looked like an infinite spiral to her. She would need to be able to visualize the symbol perfectly, and during the ritual, she would mentally manipulate the raw Mana to follow this pattern.

While Lily had tremendous patience, sitting entirely still was quite challenging for her. Her mind kept trying to wander, thinking about all the exciting things she would be able to eventually do or creeping doubts that would worm their way in. Arakil stressed that she would need to practice this as much as possible and lamented not being able to instruct her verbally.

[If you're struggling too greatly after a few days of trial, perhaps I could compose a mantra for Rose to read aloud while your eyes are closed? It is the only further aid I can think of since, at present, I can only converse through text.]

"Maybe..." Lily muttered. "It just feels a bit embarrassing, like I need someone to read me a bedtime story."

[This is crucial, Lily. It might seem silly since you cannot sense any Mana at present, but you need to be ready to seize it the moment you do during the ritual.]

"Don't worry, Arakil. I promise if I get stuck, I'll ask for help."

[Excellent. Once you've made some gains in meditation, I'll provide you with a new crest to learn. Let that serve as further motivation.]

Lily felt her eyes sparkling. It was a little underhanded but very effective motivation. Immediately, her thoughts raced, trying to imagine what sort of crest it would be. Despite Arakil mentioning there were countless crests, he always seemed to only introduce a new one to her at very specific moments, so they always felt like grand moments to her.

Unfortunately, such thoughts completely shattered any hope of her progressing with the meditation that evening. She gave up and made better use of the time trying to trace the sub-ritual.

Just staring at the page made Lily almost gulp; it was one of the most intricate things she had ever seen. She hardly recognized anything on the page, which shocked and surprised her.

I would have thought I'd at least recognize a few shaping or movement sigils, but this looks like an entirely other language!

When she was done with her first and last tracing for the evening, due to how late it was and how long it took, she immediately asked Arakil about it.

[You're partially correct. This is an existing ritual that I'm translating into an inscription. You may as well treat it as a unique language, and without years of study, you'd struggle to make heads or tails with most of this.]

"So I shouldn't be focused too much on learning this?" Lily asked. "If it's another language... I think the rules for glyphs and sigils are quite a lot already..."

[Correct. Rituals are another beast entirely. I'd highly recommend trying to keep them out of your mind until you are further along in your training. I'll gladly teach you once you are older, established in your magic, and we have a better communication method.]

Lily nodded. After thanking Arakil for his lessons and wishing him a goodnight, she slowly climbed into bed.

I can't believe it's finally happening! Thanks to Arakil and Rose, I'll finally be able to become a mage!