A monster's core is attuned to the magic Element the monster uses. When the core is applied with the same element, there is no need of any further preparation. Most of the time, it is not the case. Core bleaching is an arduous process where a mage circulates raw, untyped mana through a core until the elemental affintiy of the monster is completely wiped out. The core can then be charged with type-specific mana for any number of applications.
Excerpt from Practical Spellcraft and Enchanting, vol 1
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Dawn woke up feeling cold. It was still night. She tried to get her bearings and remembered what she did earlier that night.
"Lumina's diary. Where it is?" She looked around rolling in the chaise longue. "Oh. It fell from my hand."
She sat up and bent to pick up the book. With the diary in her hand, she flipped a few pages and sighed. Why did reading this book have such an effect on her? Lumina created this character, Dusk, to be the focus of her romantic dreams, of her lust. Even now, just thinking about him, she felt weird. But it makes sense. If Lumina liked men and all the male examples outside her family were such scumbags, she would have to direct her desires elsewhere. And she probably had a habit of re-reading her diary to dive back into that fantasy world of hers. Everything is just theory though.
She was still cold. That's what one gets from sleeping dressed only in a silk nightgown. She infused the air around her with fire mana. Better. Warm clothes would be even better. Standing up she saw stains on the chaise longue. Probably drool, her mouth was dry.
'How unfitting for a princess', she thought. More magic and the stains were gone. She went for the pitcher of water and for a fluffy fur robe. She crossed the bedroom back to Lumina's vanity.
Looking at her reflection in the mirror, she could see very little Lumina in the girl in front of her. She poked her cheek, made funny faces. The serious and haughty Lumina would love seeing her like that.
'Well, here's a tongue for your troubles'. She laughed. Maybe Cythrel was tainting everyone around her. Back to business. Lumina's diary. Besides a girl's romantic fantasies, which she was making sure to avoid so that her mind would not fall into the gutter once more, she needed clues. A spell to talk with Lumina. Something about the assassination. And a little extra.
The more obvious things first. How did Lumina get a storage rune inscribed in her diary? And with a vial of poison inside of all things. Maybe it is a princess thing. A way to die with honor and deny the enemy a valuable asset. Claire carries a dagger under her skirt. Pearl... The Pearl of today doesn't do that, but maybe she did before her life started to go downhill.
'Don't digress, Dawn', she patted her cheeks. Storage runes were a closely guarded secret. Only a few mages can do it, and nobody was able to reproduce them. Worse yet, getting a sample to study is extremely difficult. Until now, that is.
'It is a shame I can't use magic sight with this body', She lamented. It was another mystery. Right now, with Aidan's body asleep, she could not feel Skippy. The probable cause was the taint in that side of her soul if you can call Lumina's soul taint. She looked at the rune, more a very complex magic diagram than a single rune, but she could see that several lines were either erased or invisible. The materials used to draw the rune should be very special. Should she get Aidan here? Sensing through their shared soul, she could feel that he was sleeping so well, so comfortable that it would be a shame to wake him up now.
Next subject. Clues to the assassination attempt. What changed during her academy days? For some reason she stopped seeing Dusk in her dreams, but no! No Dusk. Dawn caught herself already breathing heavily.
'How much pent-up tension a person needs to accumulate to create such a strong fantasy?' She went through classes normally, then she got stuck with her 'Healing Mist' spell and a teacher offered to give her private tutoring. Professor Yoshida, you are getting a visit from your pupil. It could be nothing, but the man had access to Lumina alone. What better time to put a spell on her soul?
Getting Lumina to surface in Aidan's body was easy now. They had the perfect bait. Add some mind magic to entice her memories and lure her to consciousness with them. Dawn took paper and pen and started to doodle some diagrams.
One problem with creating custom magic is that the spell's complexity gets bigger if you add too many specifications to it. A spell to target Lumina would need to identify Lumina out of every single other living being. The amount of information the spell would need to have was astonishing, one would have to codify her whole mana signature in the glyphs. A spell to target only humans or only females, on the other hand, was easier than one that only targeted female humans. Some information could be customized at the time of casting, but that would also increase the complexity. Some tracking spells do that. Supply something of the quarry during the casting and you are good to go.
For this spell, the easier thing would be to lure the dormant portion of the soul using something the soul craves. For Lumina it would be her memories of this character she created, Dusk. Dawn felt some pity for her body's owner. Forced to play the perfect dame, molded in a strict code of conduct, pampered like the pinnacle of existence. No wonder princesses get so stuck up. Take Pearl for example, and compare the Pearl of today with the one they met back in Elmhill.
While Dawn was absorbed in her spellcraft, dawn arrived and shone a ray of sun through the window at Dawn. She looked up, smiled and waved. "Good morning, dawn. Wake up, me."
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"You are a mess. Who had the idea of falling asleep outside her bed?" Aidan complained while brushing Dawn's hair.
"None other than you," She objected.
"Don't blame me. I was asleep." He answered noncommittally.
"Yeah, all warm and cuddly in Sora's arms, while I was freezing here!" Dawn complained.
"Yes. What did she write? 'All lonely in the pinnacle of the world'. That is what I get for being in the princess' skin." He pulled too hard with the brush on a knot and winced as he hurt her.
"Ouch! Let go of that brush." She reached out and he placed the brush in her hand. "Alas, for someone that allegedly is three-fourths girl, you are too callous sometimes."
"Oh, yeah? Maybe if my girl half didn't spend her night awake daydreaming of other men that my other girl half created, I could spare some thought into being sensitive!" He barraged at her in a mix of anger, disgust, and envy.
Dawn pulled the chair to the side, stood up and faced Aidan. "That is exactly true! Yes, I was daydreaming of the ideal man Lumina created. And I'll tell you the truth you don't want to hear." She put her finger right in his nose and spilled it out. "I. Like. Men." She thought a little and completed, "As much as Lumina also likes men. So you are a minority here. We win three to one. Because it was defined I'd count as two votes."
"That is unfair," Aidan took some time to think, "Excuse me, why are we having this argument?"
Dawn sighed, "Because apparently we cannot cope with the truths we came upon during last night and we need to exteriorize our inner conflict into an actual verbal argument like some kind of deranged mind's eye theater."
"My thoughts exactly." Aidan agreed.
"Insane gender-confused person." She teased.
"Look who's talking. The pot calling the kettle back." He smiled.
Dawn laughed. It was a cathartic laugh, one of relief. It was so easier to let emotions flow through her.
"Good. So while our insanity endows us, let's put things straight. I, Dawn, don't dislike the idea of being with men, just as we don't dislike the idea of being with... women. But you are disgusted at the idea of being with men. Interesting dichotomy."
"And just as I won't look for women other than Sora, you won't go looking for men." Dawn glared at him and he completed. "Other than Lumina's fantasy, Dusk."
"Agreed." She smiled. "And since we just realized it, different from you, I am bisexual. I also like girls. In fact, I wanted to go get Sora right now. "
"Wow, it is like you read my mind. Unfortunately, that would leave us late for classes."
"Good point. You go now and give her some hot smooches for us while I look after Cythrel."
They got ready and went to the classes. That afternoon they had physical training and weapons drill.
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Lumina's bathtub was spacious but it was made for one person. You could fit two if they remained more or less still, or if one of them were smaller. Maybe an adult and a child. Right now it had an almost adult girl and a hyperactive elf.
"Can you stop splashing water?" Dawn asked Cythrel. After getting back to the dormitory, Dawn took the elf girl to take a bath. But it was easier to wash a bobcat.
"But it makes foamy bubbles!" She answered, delighted.
"Yes, it does. And soon we will be drowning in bubbles." Cythrel glanced at her helper as if about to ask for something. "And no, I don't know any bubble-breathing spell."
"Okay." She gave up and dove into Dawn's lap, extracting a yelp of pain from the other girl. Dawn quickly wrapped her arms around the elf, to stop her from going away. Cythrel's head rested on her chest, and they relaxed.
"Magic sucks," Complained the elf, breaking the silence. "How many more cores will this old man make me bleach? It is so unfair. You charged half the cores we bleached yesterday while I cleaned one!"
"He told you. You'll have to keep bleaching cores until you can make three during our four-hour sessions." Dawn ran a hand through the elf's silky hair. "I understand you. But there is no shortcut to power. We learned to manipulate our mana since youth. You only have magic for less than a week. Why is an elf, of all people, impatient?"
Cythrel buried her face on Dawn's chest, "I'm not impatient. It is just that bleaching cores is too boring."
Dawn chuckled. "I'll try to figure out another mana manipulation exercise for you."
"Thank you. Not only for helping me out of boring lessons. For everything." She paused and stayed still, feeling the skinship. "Dawn, can I ask you one thing?" Her tone of voice was serious.
"Yes, what is on your mind?" Dawn was still caressing her head.
"How long will my probation last?" She asked without making eye contact.
"I'm sorry? What probation?" It got the boy-in-princess-skin by surprise. The word was not unfamiliar, but he couldn't pinpoint where it came up before.
Cythrel bashed an elbow in Dawn's ribs. It didn't hurt, she had poor leverage. "Meanie! Don't tell me you forgot it already." The elf groaned, "Trust boys to forget their promises."
Dawn did a bit of soul-searching, "You mean when you asked me about the harem route, is that it?"
"Yes. How long until I'm out of probation and promoted to second wife?" She asked, hopeful.
"Wife? Are you already making yourself a wife in your head? Aren't we skipping a few steps?"
"Maybe. Not 'a' wife, 'your' wife. Look, I'll try to be honest. I know you don't have romantic feelings for me. Not yet, at least. What I want to know is, can I have hope? I really love you, Ai-dawn."
That was a bitter pill to swallow. There were too many feelings going on at the same time, just like a girl that mixed all the perfumes in her mother's dresser and created an unbearably stinky concoction. Did they like Cythrel? Yes. Romantically? There was the pity for her fate, the sense of duty for her sacrifice, the admiration for her dedication. Too many things clouding their perceptions.
"I understand very little about love. But for someone willing to wait a hundred years until Sora died of old age, you are rushing things quite a lot, aren't you?"
Dawn got another elbow to the ribs. Again, without leverage. "Don't evade the subject. And the fact I was willing to wait doesn't mean I was enjoying the prospect of waiting."
"Yeah. Back at you. How can you be so sure you love me... us?"
Cythrel cringed. "Well played, well played. How do I know I love you? It is easy. You talk to me and more importantly, you listen to me. I looked into your heart, your values and I was amazed at what I saw. I feel all warm and fuzzy when I am with you. I really hated when you danced with the other girls at the Gala. Especially when you danced with yourself. When Sora told me all ecstatic that you got her tail during the dance I boiled with jealousy and pushed her into that, in your own words, 'silly deal'. The thought of watching Lucien or Kazuya kill you made my blood boil. And one more thing."
She stopped talking. Dawn was feeling so awkward at all that, so bashful after all those compliments. Her cheeks were burning.
She asked fully expecting to regret ever wording the question, "What is this one more thing?"
Cythrel looked up. "Are you sure you want to know? There is no taking back after I say it."
Something in Dawn's mind clicked. She could almost know what Cythrel was about to say.
"Would you be angry if I told I don't want you to say it right now?" She asked carefully, watching the smaller girl's reactions.
"Not at all. Although I think you already suspect what it is." She made her trademark mischievous smile, mixed with something more mature.
Dawn squeezed her. "I like you, but I can't tell if I love you. There's too much going on, too many mixed feelings. Could you wait for my answer a little longer?"
"Only if it will take you less than a hundred years to make up your mind." She joked.
"I'll try."