Chapter 18 - Vermilion Flame
Lilly was feeling a bit nervous about the coming conversation. She didn’t have anything to apologize for, but she wasn’t quite sure how to approach it. Gramps had deceived her and pretended to support her decisions, so although it went well in the end, it was hard not to be mad. ‘He’ll have to promise to never lie to me again,’ Lilly thought to herself, making some ground rules before going into it.
She opened the door to their house, half expecting to see Gramps standing behind it. But he had probably settled in the living room, after closing the bakery for the day. Lilly walked through the hallway and approached the door, nervous and curious about what Gramps would say. Would he just apologize, would he try to justify his actions, or would he beg for her forgiveness. Lilly was not prepared for any of those, but she would try to face whatever it would be head on.
Gramps was indeed sitting in the living room, on the couch they had sat in this morning when he had comforted her.
“Hi Gramps.” Lilly said, trying to keep her voice controlled. It worked, maybe a bit too well, making it seem cold.
Gramps turned to her, a bit surprised to see her it seemed. He looked haggard, a far cry from his usual spry self. He looked older now than he had this morning, his face now matching his gray hair.
“Lilly! I didn’t expect to see you again today,” he said while getting up from the couch. “Are you okay?” he asked, seeming worried about her emotions over his own. But that’s how he always was, always putting Lilly's needs before anything else, including his own. He stopped before coming close to Lilly, maybe afraid that she would step away from him if he came closer.
“I’m a lot better now, Gramps,” she told him, waiting for him to approach the subject first.
Gramps seemed happy to know she was fine and took a moment to gather his thoughts before speaking. “Will you forgive me Lilly? I put your safety over your freedom and dreams, deceiving you for my own sake. I… can’t say I regret it exactly, but it was the hardest decision I’ve made since I became your guardian. And one I won’t make again.”
Lilly was surprised he said he didn’t regret it so forward like that, and it made her a bit mad. But she also understood she might have done the same in his shoes. And him saying he would never do something like that again helped her decision a lot.
“I forgive you, Gramps, as long as you never do anything like that again.”
“I promise Lilly, I’ll never deceive you again. If the truth can put you in danger, I’ll tell you that before asking you if you want to know anyways. No more hidden secrets.” He promised readily, clearly understanding the need for honesty going forward.
“I’m not happy about what you did, but I understand it. And the time since then has been one of the greatest times of my life. In the end, I would tell you to do the same thing if I could go back in time,” Lilly said, being as nice as she could manage in this situation.
She did love him dearly, and having him regret his decision would only make things worse in the long run. It was easy for her to say she would do the same now, but no one could have known it would turn out so well back then.
“I’m glad you understand, Lilly. Thank you,” Gramps said, still standing a bit away from her nervously. He would absolutely give her a hug now if the situation was normal, but now he was scared of doing anything wrong. It hurt Lilly to see him like this, so she helped him a bit and put her arms out, clearly indicating it was fine but letting him cross the distance himself.
It was a nice hug. A healing hug.
“Now I guess you should know, I… got a girlfriend.” Lilly told him, more than a bit nervously.
“Are you– huh? A girlfriend?” he said, breaking the hug and holding her at arm's length. The confusion in his face was obvious, but mixed with a bit of happiness and curiosity. “Is it Mia?” He asked, trying to make sense of it.
Lilly just nodded slightly, confirming his question. It took him a while to process his emotions, but he seemed to settle on happiness in the end. “Lilly! That’s wonderful! I always liked that girl, appreciates a good cake. Good head on her shoulders too. And a nice family, the Gortons. Very good, Lilly, very good.”
“Heh, I’m glad you feel that way, Gramps. I was a bit nervous, honestly.”
“Oh sure, it’s not the traditional type of partner I envisioned for you, but other than that she’s great! A shame about my great-grandkids though,” he said, reacting almost exactly as Lilly had anticipated.
“Gramps, we’re quite a way off from thinking about kids. But… Elly told me there seems to be a way.” Lilly was once again blushing, giving her cheeks another round of training today.
That revelation seemed to elate Gramps, removing the last barrier to his complete happiness. “Perfect! Oh, you hold on to her, Lilly. She’s a good one! I’ve actually had the thought of ‘if only that girl was a boy’ before, now I don’t need to worry!” He hugged her again, before dragging her around in a few circles in a joyful dance of sorts.
“Gramps, you’re more happy about this than we are. It’s just barely starting.” Lilly said, hoping to calm him down slightly.
“Oh, not even a kiss yet?” He asked, and of course Lilly didn’t manage to hide it properly. “Hahah! ‘Barely starting’ she said. It took me weeks to get that far with your grandma, Lilly.”
“Okay, it has started then.” She admitted, also feeling happy about it.
“You girls take your time, I’m in no hurry.” He said, smiling. Lilly had a feeling his mood would be rather high in the coming days, but she felt the same way.
“We will, Gramps, don’t worry.”
He looked at her for a while, smiling, before turning a bit serious and asking, “What about the Flame then? Have you made a decision?”
“Not yet, I felt like sleeping on it first. I think I’m leaning towards exploring it, especially since Mom told me to.” Lilly answered, sharing her indecisions.
“Ah, I understand why that would make you want to try it. After thinking about it, I also think it would be fine. You have people around you that can take care of most issues that could come from it, Eolande in particular.”
“Oh, I thought you would still be against it. In that case I don't think I’ll need to sleep on it anymore,” Lilly said, still feeling excited about this power of hers.
Lilly thought about trying to set fire to the amulet right away, but maybe it could be dangerous. The name ‘Vermilion Flame’ didn’t exactly instill a sense of safety, especially in a flammable house. But there weren’t a whole lot of readily available fireproof places in the city.
“I’m thinking of trying it right now, Gramps, but I don't want to accidentally set fire to anything. Do you have any suggestions?” Lilly asked him, hoping he would know of a place. It would need to be private as well considering they want to keep her powers safe.
“Hmmm, I think you might have to go out of the city for that. But we could try using the storage room, it has mostly stone flooring and walls. I could get some jugs of water as well, just to be safe.” Gramps suggested helpfully.
“Going out of the city would be risky I think. We’ll just use the storage room then,” Lilly decided, hoping the reaction wouldn’t be too overwhelming.
They cleared the storage room by carrying out the flour and other wares, making space. Lilly brought a candle while Gramps filled several jugs with water, preparing for the experiment.. After a while they were both ready to get started, and they nervously lit the candle.
“Let’s hope this flame is gentle,” Lilly said, removing the amulet from her neck and preparing the final step.
She put the amulet into the flame of the candle, and nothing happened for a while. But then, it started glowing red, or maybe it was vermilion. The light quickly increased in intensity, until it suddenly released a flash of blinding light through the entire room. Lilly needed some time to let her eyes adjust to the change, but when they did she was shocked by seeing her hand holding the amulet be on fire.
“Aaah!” Lilly yelled as she dropped the amulet and started waving her arm around, panicking. The flames didn’t budge, and just stuck to her arm like glue, so she decided to run for the jugs of water. But before she could, a huge splash of water hit her entire body, drenching her completely. Gramps had acted fast and thrown the contents of one of the jugs at her right away.
But that didn’t help either, the arm was still burning, and now Lilly realized it wasn’t just her arm. All of her was lit up by red flames, burning all of her completely. With that realization came another, and she realized she wasn’t feeling the heat at all. She was a walking torch, but it only felt warm. Gramps on the other hand seemed to feel the heat though, and so did her clothes unfortunately.
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“Lilly! What’s happening?” Gramps yelled at her, clearly very distraught.
“I– I don’t feel the heat.” She hurriedly told him, trying to calm him a bit.
Lilly felt so confused, embarrassed and scared, she didn’t know what to do. Could she control the flames somehow? She tried, but she was distracted by Gramps looking at her. He was just worried of course, but she felt very conscious of being pretty much completely naked.
“C– could you turn around, Gramps? I’m fine I think, but I’m finding it hard to try controlling it with you watching me,” Lilly said in a hurry, clearly in a bit of panic.
“Oh, sorry Lilly,” Gramps said as he turned around, realizing she was embarrassed. “Should I go get you something to cover yourself with?”
“No, just wait there for a bit,” Lilly responded. She wanted him to stay in case something caught fire, as she didn’t trust she could do much about it.
She tried focusing on her flames properly now, hoping to contain them somehow. She felt her mana enveloping her, but that only made the flames stronger instead of weaker. So instead she tried containing her mana within her core, and that seemed to help. It didn’t completely fix it, and she couldn’t control it much more than this, so she sat down to meditate. Active internal meditation should drive her mana to her core, so she could stop the flames completely. She closed her eyes as well, but she could see the room dimming, so it seemed to be working.
Now she understood more what had happened, looking into her core. All of her mana had turned into a Vermilion Flame. None of the normal light blue looking mana remained, only red fire. It danced around so freely, reacting to her every command like it was alive somehow. ‘This seems incredibly powerful. But is this my mana from now on? Can I still use normal magic with my mana like this?’ Lilly worried, hoping she would still be able to enchant at least. She felt that she could level a forest right now, but not like she could carefully examine a pendant.
“I think I have it under control, Gramps, can you go get me something to cover up with?” Lilly asked, feeling a bit cold now that the fire had stopped.
“Of course Lilly, I’ll be right back.” he said as he went to get something.
Lilly was thinking about how she should approach this new power. ‘I’ll need to study this new mana and how it works. It feels like something I command instead of a part of me, but much more powerful and plentiful than my old mana, even with the amulet. I absolutely feel like I could cause some incredible destruction with this flame, so I’ll have to learn to control it well.’
Gramps quickly came back with a robe and blanket for her to put on for now, clumsily handing it to her with his eyes closed. She wrapped the blanket around her like a towel, and the robe around that again. ‘Damn, I liked those clothes,’ she thought, remembering what she was wearing earlier.
“How are you feeling Lilly?” Gramps asked, still looking worried.
“I feel fine, Gramps. This flame is very powerful, but I’ll learn to control it I think.”
“That’s good. I was so scared when you suddenly burst into flames after that flash of light, thank the gods you’re alright.” He said with a relieved expression.
“I was just as shocked as you were, I didn’t even notice it wasn’t hurting me until after you threw the water at me. Nice reaction!” She gave him a thumbs up.
“Oh, it was nothing.”
“I think I might stay here a bit to understand the flame, you can stay if you want,” Lilly said, sort of hoping he would.
“I’ll be right here Lilly, don’t worry,” He said reassuringly, before sitting down on the stone floor.
Lilly took a deep breath to clear her head a bit, before trying to draw out a bit of her mana to her palm. It responded quickly, instantly lighting up the dim room somewhat. Lilly still didn't feel more than a bit of heat, even though the flame seemed hot. ‘Maybe I can manipulate the temperature of it,’ she thought, before trying to intensify it somehow. It only resulted in the flame growing bigger instead of more intense, so she tried a different approach.
This time she just thought ‘be hotter’, and it seemed to do the trick. Perhaps a bit too well even, the flame grew a deep red, and caused Gramps sitting a few meters away to cover his face.
“Damn that’s hot, Lilly. Could you turn it down a bit?” He asked while leaning away from her.
“Oh, sorry!” She hurriedly thought ‘not that hot’, and it quickly seemed to go back to a more normal temperature. Now she noticed the arm of her robe had been badly damaged by the heat, causing her to frown. ‘I might need to spend a lot on clothes in the future.’
Then she tried making it cold, and that also seemed to work. The intensity of the color faded a lot, making it look more approachable.
“Gramps, do you feel any heat from this flame?” She asked, hoping he wouldn’t feel anything either.
He carefully approached it with his hand, and had a surprised expression on his face. “This seems to be at room temperature, Lilly. It’s not hot at all.”
“Great! Then maybe I’ll be able to wear clothes after all.”
“I suggest that you do either way Lilly, people might talk otherwise,” Gramps added with a smile.
Lilly ignored him, now feeling a bit embarrassed about earlier again. “Did you… Did you see anything earlier?” Lilly asked him, hoping he would say no.
“I really didn’t Lilly, the flames were enveloping you completely so I only saw a bright light.” He seemed to be sincere saying that.
‘If that’s a lie it’s good enough that I can believe it,’ Lilly thought, thankful for the bright flames.
Now she tried enveloping her entire hand in that cold flame, hoping nothing would happen to the cloth. And it seemed perfectly fine, not responding at all. ‘Like this it’s pretty much like normal mana,’ she thought gratefully, hoping things hadn’t changed so much after all.
‘I’d like to test the maximum temperature as well, but that’s dangerous inside, and with clothes…’ Lilly thought, wondering about the extent of the flame’s powers. It didn’t seem to drain her at all to use the flame, so she also wondered about the amount of mana she had now. ‘I wish Eldrin was still here,’ She thought, thinking of all the things he could help her test about this new ability.
Eolande might have some insight, she wasn’t completely inexperienced around mana or magic at least. But Lilly might have to figure most things out by herself.
‘... But how come I’m not affected by the heat at all? Is the heat itself a part of my mana, or am I simply immune to heat?’
Lilly looked at the candle still burning in the middle of the room, and decided to try it out. She put her hand high above the flame, and she could feel the heat. But as she lowered it, the heat didn’t increase at all. Even in the middle of the candle flame she felt nothing at all.
“Wow! Gramps, I’m immune to fire now,” Lilly shared excitedly. That was a nice thing to not have to worry about, especially since she was a walking torch and could set fire to things at any time if she wasn’t careful.
“Really? That’s incredible Lilly! How does that work?” Gramps asked, both happy and curious.
“No idea, but it’s incredibly useful.”
‘Hang on, can I manipulate that flame as well?’ Lilly wondered. She tried asking the flame on the candle if it wouldn’t mind putting itself out, and it certainly didn’t. The moment she suggested it, it was gone.
“I… can also manipulate any flame it seems?” Lilly told him in the now dark room, while wondering how that could make sense. ‘Could you… maybe light up again?’ She tried asking the little candle, but this time there was no response. ‘Hmm, there might need to be a flame for me to be able to affect it.’
“This power seems to be very mysterious, Lilly. Make sure you investigate it carefully,” Gramps added, worrying for her safety as usual.
“I’ll be careful Gramps, either way I can’t set fire to myself so I’ll most likely be fine.” Lilly responded, rolling her eyes slightly while Gramps couldn’t see.
Since it was so dark, she came up with a new test. Or old, considering she had used it for similar things before. The good old light spell could let her know how spells would respond to her new mana.
“I’ll try making a light Gramps, but it might go badly. Do you have the water ready?” Lilly made sure he was prepared for anything.
“I’ve got one right here, don’t worry.” He seemed to be holding a jug, judging by the sound of water sloshing around in it.
Lilly said the incantation silently, preparing for the worst.
Nothing happened.
‘Oh no, that might be the worst result.’ She started panicking a little bit now, again worrying about her future as an enchantress.
She tried again, still with no success.
‘Oh no, no no no no no!’
Now there was panic.
“Lilly, what’s wrong?” Gramps seemed to sense something wasn’t right.
“I, I can’t use spells. Gramps, I can’t use spells!” The last part came out as a shout.
“Toasted butter!” Gramps yelled back confidently after a short pause.
‘What?’ Lilly’s mind was rattled by the completely random words. “What toasted butter?”
“It was just to stop you from panicking. Don’t panic.” He seemed confident, like nothing was wrong.
But something very clearly was wrong. Without spells she would lose so much.
Gramps had opened the door now, letting in some light from the hallway. “Calm yourself Lilly, come here.” He walked up to her and hugged her. “Anything a spell can do, you can do on your own as well. You just need a bit of practice, right?” Gramps comforted her.
“But, I don’t even know if this mana can do anything but make flames. How can I use it then?” Lilly was still very nervous she had lost her ability to enchant. She knew the first part of the spell, but the part where the threads were pulled over was so complicated, she had no idea if she could do it even with normal mana.
“Then you just have to try. There’s no use worrying about it before trying.” Gramps said. And he was right, even though it was only said to keep her calm. Nothing would come from worrying about it.
They just stood there for a while, hugging, until eventually Lilly felt she was fine. She gently signaled for him to let go. And so he did.
“Let’s go upstairs Lilly, it’s almost time for bed. And don’t forget your amulet,” Gramps said, reminding her of the amulet lying in the corner of the room.
Lilly walked over to pick it up, slightly curious if it had changed at all after the awakening. It seemed like the same old amulet, but this time nothing happened when she touched it. No increase in power like before, just a nice, warm feeling. She put it back around her neck, where it had been hanging most of her life, and went upstairs.
They both went to bed, both rather exhausted after an incredibly eventful day. Lilly still felt a bit nervous, but she was a lot better now. She thought about the day, and its ups and downs. The relationship with Mia was absolutely the high point of the day, she thought, feeling nice little butterflies in her stomach thinking about it. And she decided to keep thinking about that, their possible futures and dreams, until she fell asleep.
Not long after that, she saw a red-haired figure approach her with the warmest and kindest smile possible.
“Congratulations, my little girl.”
And the little girl started crying right away.