“Prophetess, could you please-”

“Call me Annaliese and maybe I’ll stop.”

“…Annaliese?”

The Prophetess smiled and leaned forward over the back of the couch so Hargrave could see her face. “Sorry. I lied. I won’t stop.”

Hargrave’s expression twitched as the girl continued to hum, holding a comb in one hand and the pair of scissors in the other. Annaliese would comb his hair and then shorten it, evening up the ends of the thick red mop that was the hair on his head. Some knotted pieces of hair that she had cut off fell onto his neck and he rolled his shoulders in an attempt to get rid of the itchy feeling.

Annaliese whacked the back of his head with the comb. “I said no moving!”

He frowned and tried to shake his head to remove the fallen hair. “It’s uncomfortable.”

“Yes, and I’m uncomfortable too. Uncomfortable with the idea of seeing your atrocious hairstyle for a second longer!” the Prophetess exclaimed, grabbing the sides of his head to keep it in place.

Several snickers sounded on the other side of the room and Hargrave pinched his nose bridge. He raised his eyes to give the three people sitting on the opposite couch a resentful look.

Sedric, Scytale and Raegan had all come to the living room and were treating his haircut as an entertaining show. Scytale grinned and leaned forward. “That’s an awful lot of trust you’re placing in Annaliese and her ability to safely hold those scissors. What made you think she’d be a good hairstylist anyway?”

“Nothing made me think that,” Hargrave muttered. “I had wanted to get away from her and her scissors.”

Raegan nodded sagely. “A wise move, if one that failed.”

“Hey! When have you ever seen me have an accident with scissors?” Annaliese interrupted, pointing the pair at her brother. “The reason why I’m doing this for Hargrave is because I have experience cutting your hair for the last ten years!”

“Yeah, and they were all ugly haircuts,” Raegan snarked.

Annaliese narrowed her eyes at her brother. “Sir Albrecht, do you think I could request permission from the Sages to visit the Kingdom of Shifting Sands? I heard they often have shaved heads if they don’t wear turbans and someone seems to want to go bald for a change.”

Raegan flinched and hastily put his hands up to his hair as Jasten wryly shook his head. “Unlikely, Prophetess Verdon.”

Annaliese clicked her tongue as her comb caught on another knot. “But why is your haircut so terrible, Hargrave?! Anyone with a pair of even the bluntest scissors could cut a straight line in their hair, but all your hair at the back of your head is really short, but near your neck, it’s super long!”

“I didn’t use a pair of scissors. I used my demonic spear-”

“A spear?!” Annaliese leaned her hands on the back of the couch as she stared at him, aghast. “Why would you cut your hair with a spear?!”

Hargrave sighed. “My hair was too long. It was annoying me.”

She jabbed a finger at the side of his head. “But you left your braids uneven when you could’ve fixed them!”

“I… wasn’t in a time or place where I could afford to try to make my hair neater,” he replied. “And I don’t care about my hair anyway.”

“Well I do,” Annaliese announced with her arms crossed. “So you’re going to sit perfectly still for the rest of this haircut and not complain one little bit. Understood?”

Hargrave sighed again and tried to rest his head against the back of the couch in resignation but was then pushed forward by Annaliese who needed to finish off the back of his head.

“I was going to cut it shorter but it feels like every. Little. Bit. I. Cut. Off,” she said through gritted teeth, snipping sections of wayward hair, “Refuses to sit neatly! So I’m only going to cut it to slightly above your shoulders so the weight of your hair makes it lay flatter.” Annaliese hesitated, looking nervous. “I hope it will, at least.” She shook her head. “But never mind! Back to work!”

Hargrave let out a barely suppressed groan as she continued to cut away the uneven sections of his hair, making it look less haphazard and more intentional. Annaliese tried several times to find a way to make his hair neater but had to give up. A haircut can only go so far when it comes to thick hair that doesn’t like to lie flat.

Lucille decided to enter the living room when his haircut was nearly done and leaned against the couch’s armrest, observing the ex-mercenary.

“What an interesting spectacle this is,” she finally commented. “Annaliese’s handy work is certainly an improvement.”

In actual fact… yes, I don’t think he received a haircut in the last timeline until the time I met him and likely afterwards as well. I recall him having the same uneven style when we first met. That’s funny. Lucille Adrienne Goldcroft, the amazing time traveller, whose greatest feat was getting the Prismatic Dragon Ruler to get a haircut in the new timeline.

Hargrave shot Lucy a weary look but Annaliese beamed. “See? You should’ve believed in me from the start, Hargrave.” She walked around the couch to stand in front of him and raised her hands to make one last cut. Part of one of the braids on the side of his head came away in Annaliese’s hand and she held it up with a grin, showing how she had finally straightened up the braids.

Hargrave ran a hand through his freshly cut hair, looking bemused. “I have no way of seeing myself yet though, so how can I know if my hair looks better?”

“I can assure you that you look terrible!” Raegan called out. Scytale leaned close to whisper something in his ear and the three of them, including Sedric, got up from the couch.

Annaliese narrowed her eyes at her brother as Lucille huffed a laugh and walked around to face Hargrave. “Let me help you.”

With a snap of her white-gloved fingers, an orb of indigo mana coalesced. She spread her palms and the orb stretched and flattened, becoming a thin sheet. With a second snap, it turned silver and allowed Hargrave to see his reflection.

He scratched his head as he looked at himself, a strange expression on his face. “I… guess it looks better.”

“Of course it does,” Annaliese replied crossly. “You looked like you had crawled out of the woods!”

Hargrave sighed and shook his head. “Thank you, Lucille. You can put away the mirror now.”

With Lucy’s Essence Transmutation Conduit, the illusion mana scattered as quickly as it had been summoned. Controlling the nearby wind mana, she ignored the way Hargrave flinched and swept up all his fallen hair into a floating ball in the air. Then she incinerated it with fire.

“Are you done with your work yet, Lucy?” Annaliese asked brightly.

Lucy shot her an amused look but shook her head and sat down next to Hargrave. “No, not yet. But I decided to take a break as it is time for our afternoon meal.”

Annaliese blinked. “It is?”

Anything Lucille could’ve said was stopped by the loud sounds of crunching coming from their left. They looked to see one crafter and two young boys walking back into the room from the kitchen, food stuffed in their cheeks and filling their arms.

They paused when they saw Lucy, Annaliese, Hargrave, and Sir Albrecht staring at them. Scytale held up a glowing fruit natural treasure that was releasing tantalising waves of mana. “Want some?” Then he pointed at Raegan. “Although, you’re going to want to act fast, Annaliese. Raegan’s eaten half the kitchen’s chocolate stock already.”

She angrily stood up. “He did what?!”

Lucy rolled her eyes as Jasten Albrecht let out a weary sigh, predicting a loud bout of arguing to soon occur.

…

“Luuuuccccyyyyy….”

Lucille’s expression twitched and she placed her file down to stare at the girl opposite her. “Annaliese, you do realise this was the exact reason why I didn’t want you coming back to the Aurelian Commission? I have a job.”

The blonde-haired Prophetess rolled onto her back and threw her pillow in the air, catching it again every few seconds. She was lying on a couch. “But when I first came here you promised me that you’d show me your magic!”

Lucy suppressed a groan as she pinched her nose bridge. “Let’s say I did ‘promise’ you that and that it wasn’t in the context of ‘eventually I can show you if you ask before you leave’.” She jabbed a finger towards her work. “Why do you think now is a good time to nag me about it?! Just go and find Scytale and your brother to annoy, or Sedric.” Lucy snatched a pen off of the table and went to work on the files. “I’d even suggest Hargrave if not for the fact you’ve already bothered him today.”

“…what…?”

Lucy and Annaliese looked at the open doorway to see a very confused scarlet-haired man eyeing them warily as he stood by the door. It seemed he had been passing by.

Lucy gave him a dismissive wave. “Ignore us. We’re talking about you, not to you.”

Hargrave continued staring at them for a second longer before he slowly backed away and left, likely planning on finding some location in the Commission’s Headquarters as far away from the Prophetess as possible.

Stolen story; please report.

Annaliese clicked her tongue and rolled onto her side. “But you’re the only girl here! I don’t want to hang out with guys all the time. And my brother will be there. I don’t want to be anywhere near him.”

“Oh yeah? Well I don’t want to near you either!”

Raegan walked into the room while shooting his sister a glare. He walked over to the table.

Annaliese narrowed her eyes at him. “Why are you here?”

“Why do you care?” he retorted. He grabbed something off of the table. “I’m just getting my jacket.”

“Raegan, can you convince Lucy to let me see her magic?” the Prophetess complained. “She’s not showing me it.”

He frowned at her. “Why would you ask her that? It’s not like you could see it anyway.”

She blinked. “What?”

“Annaliese can’t see what?” A humanoid snake stuck his head through the kitchen doorway.

Lucy narrowed her eyes, knowing that her bond had taken another door to bypass her living room so he could access the kitchen, but Raegan shrugged.

“Isn’t it obvious? She has no pupils, therefore she can’t see.”

They all turned to stare at the girl, including Jasten Albrecht sitting in a corner. They gained strange expressions. Lucille thought about it.

Is he talking about her eye colour? I suppose without looking closely her eyes look completely gold but…

Scytale burst out laughing as Annaliese put her hands to her face, horrified. “I have pupils!”

“Really? Because I can’t see them.” Raegan pointed to her with a look of disdain. “All I see is that creepy thousand-yard stare of yours.” He pretended to shudder. “I feel like you’re seeing through my soul.”

Annaliese glared at him and then turned to Lucy. “I have pupils, don’t I? Tell him he’s wrong, Lucy!”

“Annaliese has pupils,” Lucille replied calmly. But before the blonde-haired girl’s expression could brighten, Lucy smirked and continued, “However, they’re barely a shade darker than her irises so she does have this look about her that makes her seem either blind or not particularly right in the head.”

The Prophetess pouted and hugged her knees. “You guys are mean.”

Raegan just smirked evilly as Scytale continued to laugh. Lucy sighed wryly and stood up, patting the girl on the head. “Alright. I can’t do more than half an hour, but I’ll show you a little bit of this magic of mine.”

Annaliese’s eyes widened as she gazed at Lucy. “Really?”

“Hurry up and follow me, or else it will only be fifteen minutes.”

The girl hastily got off the couch and walked after Lucille. “I’m coming! Just wait a moment, I’m coming!”

With a slight sigh, Sir Albrecht stood up and followed them out of the room. Raegan and Scytale were left alone together and Scytale rubbed his chin. “Y’know, did Annaliese always have gold eyes? I feel like the Citadel would’ve kidnapped someone with her level of light element affinity way before she turned sixteen.”

Raegan crossed his arms. “She didn’t have gold eyes until a month before her birthday. She had green eyes.”

“Hmm…” Scytale narrowed his eyes at Raegan with suspicion. “Does that mean your eyes will turn red when you get your Origin Skill?”

Raegan gave the snake a weird look. “What? Why would they turn red?”

“Well, obviously only a demon could have such a foul personality,” Scytale said with a thoughtful nod. Then he let out a long hum and eyed the roof in mock thought. “Or maybe you could be a shade or phantom? Will your eyes turn black? They’re pretty deranged too because they don’t really know what it’s like to die…”

Annaliese’s younger brother scoffed, rolled his eyes, and walked off, ignoring the snake.

Scytale blinked and followed after him. “Hey, where are you going? We still haven’t worked this out! What if you’re actually an Abyssal demon in disguise, or an undead-eating ghoul? Eurgh, that would be really creepy. Or maybe a- Raegan? Hey, Raegan, are you listening? Raaaaaeeeegaaaaan…..”

….

“Now, what to show you… hm.” Lucille stood with a gloved hand on her chin and the other on her hip while the others sat on the ground a few metres away. They were in the training room, the only place with enough space for any spell Lucy cast to be easily seen.

The ‘others’ consisted of Annaliese, Sedric, Raegan, and Scytale, while Sir Albrecht watched on from the side. Sedric had been dragged there by both of the younger boys who claimed he needed further education in magic if he wanted to be a better crafter.

Not that either of them had the right to say that with both of their extremely lacking mental resources on magic.

Lucy paused and turned to look at them. “Annaliese, you wanted to know why I chose to… study illusion magic in particular, am I correct?”

The Prophetess nodded. “Yeah! And I also don’t see you using it much.”

“That’s because it’s not particularly needed in my day-to-day life, but…” Lucille hummed and spread her hands, transforming the elemental mana around her to indigo blue mist. It swirled into an orb hovering above her palms. Then she snapped both of her fingers and the mana flowed near the air around her waist, condensing to form something solid.

The others watched as brown bled into the solid shape. Sedric frowned while Annaliese and Raegan stared. “Um… Lucy…” Annaliese began hesitantly, a look of confusion on her face. “Is that… a table?”

Lucille smiled. “Yep.”

“…why are you showing us the illusion of a table?”

“Because this…” Lucy pointed at it. “…is my illusion magic specialty.”

“What, making fake tables?” Sedric said with his arms crossed. “I guess it looks realistic, but all you’d have to do is throw something at the table and it will pass right through.”

Lucille didn’t respond and instead placed two hands on the table to lift herself up to sit on it. She just gazed at them with a smirk on her face.

“What-” Sedric jumped up. “Uh- no, that’s not how illusion magic is supposed to work.” He walked over to the table and crouched, looking under it and scrutinizing its surface as if to look for flaws. He touched it with his fingers and his expression became more flabbergasted as he realised it even had the texture and faint scent of wood.

Annaliese stood up and ran over. “I want to see!” She tried to push herself onto the table and instead hit her nose against the wood. She frowned and pulled away, rubbing her nose. “Ow…”

Raegan rolled his eyes. “I bet she made the illusion mana disappear when she took the table out of her bag.”

Lucy wordlessly snapped her fingers and Sedric stumbled back as the wood became softer and shinier, while the table lengthened. Annaliese tumbled forward and found herself hanging upside down on the front edge of a couch. The Prophetess blinked. “When you said magic, this isn’t what I expected…”

“Oh, this is just a demonstration of the basic functions of my magic,” Lucille said with a smile. “I never used it this way as it was just a waste of mana.”

Jasten Albrecht had his brow furrowed as he gazed at the couch Lucy was now sitting on. “You’re… using elemental manipulation right now, aren’t you? You haven’t used any runes yet.”

“Not yet. But I will now.” Lucille stood up and pointed a finger at the distant wall of the training room. At the same time, the couch disappeared into swirling illusion mana, making Annaliese fall to the ground. The blonde-haired girl shook her hair out of her face and gave Lucy a resentful look.

Indigo runes began to arrange themselves a metre away from her finger in the air, the largest mana-circles structuring themselves first as progressively smaller mana-circles were layered beyond it. A seven-layered illusion spell had appeared by the time Lucille narrowed her eyes and called out, “Monstrous Manifestation: Direwolf.”

Sedric and Annaliese yelped and ran back as a growling black-furred beast leapt out from the centre of the largest mana-circle and prowled around Lucy. Its jaws were twisted into a vicious snarl, the muscles contorted into positions that seemed off in some uncanny way. The bulging tendons on its muscled legs stood out, giving it a ghastly, violent appearance.

Jasten Albrecht marched forward to shield Annaliese with his greatsword, but Sedric stared at the beast with a pale face. “A… a monster?! But-”

Annaliese nervously peeked out from behind the blade to watch the direwolf move around Lucy. “Was it summoned?”

“Summoning rituals require carefully prepared catalysts and specifically attuned locations,” Jasten Albrecht refuted. He narrowed his eyes at the creature. “Something is wrong with its life essence. It’s not cohesive or… real enough somehow. And…” He paused as a thought struck him. “No killing intent?”

“Well, I can’t use killing intent, so obviously neither would my creations,” Lucille replied. She smiled as she gestured to the wolf with a finger and it came up to her, allowing her to raise a hand to stroke its back that was higher than her head.

Sir Albrecht’s eyes flew wide open as he realised what her magic could really do. Annaliese ducked under his arm and he made no move to drag her back. The Prophetess slowly walked closer to the monstrous construct.

“Will it… attack?” she asked hesitantly.

“No. Look.” Lucy walked to the front of the direwolf and gestured to its eyes. Then she slowly moved a finger across its line of sight. It didn’t move a muscle, staying completely still in one spot as it growled and its body moved with its breathing. “It’s not fixing its gaze on anything, and you can see that its eyes don’t show any of the malice a real monster would have. This direwolf-” She smirked and placed a hand on either side of its head. “-is a puppet.”

Any of Annaliese’s wariness evaporated and she dashed up to the beast, walking around it to admire the construct. She put a hand up to its back to pet it and frowned. “Its fur isn’t soft at all. It feels bristly and stiff.”

“A direwolf monster has no need for soft fur. Only domesticated animals have soft fur as they were bred for that characteristic,” Lucy explained. “I wouldn’t bother to assign my constructs that characteristic because they’re not sentient ‘pets’ of any sort. Also, monsters are typically rather repulsive to look at.”

“But does that mean you can make soft and cuddly animals too?” Annaliese asked curiously.

Lucille studied her for a moment and then shook her head as with a snap of her fingers, the direwolf disappeared. “I’m not creating a fluffy monster just to be your stuffed toy.”

The Prophetess glared at her. “That’s not my plan.”

“Wait, wait, wait, Lucille.” Sedric held his hands up. “This goes against all my knowledge of illusion magic. With the table, I thought you might’ve included wood mana, and it felt almost like that… but I’m pretty sure it was still illusion mana at that stage. But you made the couch and… the monster…”

He gave her a slightly exasperated look. “Are you going to explain it or just show off the magic to Annaliese?”

Lucy smirked and held her hands behind her back. “If you want an explanation, I can spare some time to give one. A fair warning, however: it will be a complex discussion. Our Prophetess here might not be up for it.”

“Hey! I’m smart enough. I’ll understand it!” the girl complained.

“Well then, follow me. I’d prefer to sit down for this part. And…” Lucy glanced at her bond. “Are you coming too?”

Scytale considered it with a strange expression and then stood up. “Eh, what the hell. Sure, I’ll come, if only so I get to see their reactions.”

Raegan gave the snake a suspicious look but followed her too. They went back to her living room.

…

“So then… to begin with, I want to ask a question: what is magic?” Lucy asked.

Annaliese narrowed her eyes and Lucy shook her head. “Yes, I’m aware I asked you that the first time you came here, but this time I’m serious. I want to know what is the common definition you understand to be magic.”

Sedric frowned slightly. “If you’re only talking about runic magic… it’s a structure that creates an effect when mana manipulation is used to create runes.”

Lucy nodded. “And that’s true. So then is that all I need to do to cast a spell? Just arrange the runes with the mana?”

Annaliese blinked. “That’s right, isn’t it? I’ve never heard of any other steps when casting magic.”

“Then I’ll ask a second question. How do you cast a rune?”

“Well…” Raegan gestured vaguely. “You, uh, think about the shape of the rune.”

Lucille turned to Sedric. “Do you have another answer?”

Sedric held his chin, then scowled at her. “I bet this is a trick question.”

She smirked. “Not quite. I’ll speed up my explanation if it’s bothering you though.” Lucy pointed her index finger up and a small flame appeared above the tip of her finger. “I’ll really, really simplify this for you. When you’re only using elemental manipulation to do small tasks like this, you ‘envision’ the element. The purpose of the element and its effect. I can’t generate a flame without thinking of fire.”

“What has that got to do with your magic, though?” Sedric asked sceptically.

Lucille spread her hands. “I alter the input for my magic to use all of your ‘envisionment’ instead of mine and directly create a more material effect as the output.”

They all stared blankly at her. “…huh?”

She huffed a laugh and leaned back in her seat. “When you cast any spell, you’re subconsciously using small particles of spiritual energy that is often called ‘will’ to instil your imagined result into the spell.”

“…and skills?” Jasten Albrecht muttered quietly, clearly following along in some way.

She smiled and nodded at him. “While spells use mana as the fuel to power them and runes to shape their effects, skills are already shaped into effects by the Influence’s concepts within them, its ‘envisionment’. Will actives skills and sometimes alternative resources can power skills based on the Influence.”

Lucille turned back to the others. “What I meant to say is that the mind shapes mana and magic. It’s even mentioned in the Fundamental Theorems that the power of the mind grants mana a more ‘material’ effect.”

She smirked and pointed two fingers at the three of them. “In summary, my monsters only exist because your minds think my monsters exist.”

Sedric and Raegan’s faces screwed up while Annaliese groaned and covered her face. “I don’t get it.”

“You’re … what, ‘stealing’ our envisionment?” Sedric asked hesitantly. “But… how can you control what we ‘envision’? I definitely wasn’t thinking of monsters before you magicked that one up.”

Lucille rested her chin on her hand, leaning her elbow against the armrest of the couch. “I told you this would be complicated.”

“Don’t you dare try to stop now,” Raegan said crossly. “We’re not that dumb.”

Lucy eyed the boy but shrugged and then pointed up. “Watch.”

They looked up and blinked as a small white sphere the size of a tennis ball appeared. It had a semi-translucent surface but internally, they could see what appeared to be tiny mechanisms of cogs and gears slowly rotating within. “This is an illusion that depicts what contains my ‘illusionary constructs’,” Lucille began.

She leaned forward and shifted the orb so they could look at it closer. “Normally, this orb is completely invisible, intangible, and only detectable by those who can see the spiritual realm. It resides in the spiritual realm when I create it because it is entirely composed of spiritual energy. This small orb houses every piece of information I have about my direwolf construct. What it looks like, its abilities, and even how it is supposed to act. But right now, it is utterly useless.”

She hummed and placed a hand on her chin as she looked to the side. “You wouldn’t understand a term like ‘broadcast’, would you…” Lucille paused when an idea struck her and she snapped her fingers again. An illusion spread to make the room seem to be filled with waist-high pale white water.

“I see the spiritual realm as an infinite pool of water,” Lucy told them. “This pool of water is never completely still, because it’s filled with souls. Wherever a soul is, they release ripples into this pool that are ‘thoughts’. Some can detect these surface thoughts and ‘read your mind’ so to speak. But souls also detect ripples from other souls.”

She pointed to her illusionary spiritual orb. “This releases spiritual particles that mimic the ripples of souls but instead pretend to be a ‘monster’s soul while also releasing the details to all the souls who can detect it. Your mind subconsciously picks up on the spiritual information in this orb and concludes ‘There’s a monster there’. I can also do this with objects, such as the table and couch, because objects retain some level of spiritual information too.”

Raegan pressed a finger to each temple. “So basically… because you’ve fooled our minds into thinking that a monster is there… it actually becomes a monster?”

“It’s not real, obviously, but yes,” Lucy replied. “And this still consumes my own mana to form the physical body of the monster. It also only works because the illusion element can mimic any element, allowing the monster to conform to the perception of everyone around it. Due to the combined power of multiple people believing in the existence of a monster, it gains a physical, tangible body.”

“That’s crazy,” Sedric said, looking stupefied. “How is that even magic anymore? I-It’s like… some strange ability to make anything you want exist.”

“But Sedric…” Lucille leaned forward with a grin on her face. “All magic works like this.” She smirked and spread her hands before they could argue. “I’ve described the spiritual realm as an infinite pool of liquid, and this liquid needs to have ‘depth’ to it. Where does all the spiritual energy from people’s thoughts go? Into this ‘pool’.”

The spiritual realm and spiritual energy orb illusion disappeared as she conjured an illusion of a simple fireball spell model. “People’s ideologies, thoughts and concepts constantly enter the pool of the spiritual realm. Mana draws upon the spiritual realm as spiritual energy is what controls it, so when enough people have a certain way of thinking… it defines how mana can be used.”

Lucille spread her hands. “I’ve termed this ‘Collective Conceptual Ideology’ after a phrase I’ve found in my studies, but essentially, everyone’s ideas over the years gradually shift the way magic works as society changes, because the most recent layer of the spiritual realm has different ideologies. And so, because everyone has a certain ‘perception’ of how magic works, just like they ‘perceive’ my monster constructs…” She shrugged. “We have the modern magic of today. Normal magic just draws upon the pre-existing pool of common understanding while my constructs stimulate it first to manifest a specific creature.”

“Ha. So you’re telling me that the magic we have now only works because of how we think it works,” Raegan stated mockingly.

“I have proof,” Lucy replied calmly. “I’ve even discussed it with Sedric here before.”

“…me?” Sedric frowned. “Where in the realms would you have discussed this with me…”

Lucille smirked. “Artifacts. The only known way of using ‘ancient magic’ that we have today.”

The three opposite her fell completely silent. Even the steely-eyed Paladin behind Annaliese was holding his chin in deep thought.

“…you have got to be kidding me,” Sedric muttered in disbelief.