In the next class, for some reason McCoy was hanging up a large glass triangular prism by a window before things started. It was an indoor class this time, for some reason. On the desk up front, there was a beaker of water and two empty flasks.
“Oh, Lilith.” Takumi poked her. “I tried that experiment while you were, uh, out.”
“Oh, how’d it go?”
“Well, some of the air had the opposite spectral lines as the wood before it burned, and the fire went out quickly.”
“Oh, so no phlogiston then?”
“Uhh.” Takumi blushed slightly. “Phlogiston doesn’t have spectral lines.”
“Oh. What does it have then?” Lilith asked.
“Well, fire. Actually, I’m having trouble coming up with a test that could prove or disprove phlogiston.”
Now that the triangular prism was apparently hung up right, McCoy walked to the desk in front of the class. “Alright you four, I know you know the twenty elements, but do you know the experiments that found them?”
Lilith and Takumi both raised their hands.
“Takumi?” McCoy pointed.
“The experiments are all about breaking down other materials and proving that they aren’t themselves elements. The experiments tend to be heating to decompose the matter, but can also involve dissolving in water or acid.”
“Correct,” McCoy said. “But there are other ways to reduce materials to their base elements, such as channeling electrical magic into them. Lilith—” He grimaced as he looked over at her. “—would you mind coming over here?”
“Uh, sure.” She hopped out of her seat and ran over.
McCoy quickly put the two flasks upside down into the beaker of water. “There we are… now, you have an affinity for electrical magic, right?”
“Mhmm.”
“Try to pull the electricity from the water inside one flask, and push it into the water inside the other. But be careful not to pour too much in,” His voice lowered a bit with the last sentence.
“Okay, I think I got it.” Lilith concentrated on her magic. Bubbles started forming in both flasks and rose to the top.
“Good. Now, keep going until I say stop.”
She poured a bit more magic in, and the bubbles increased in size. She kept at it for a bit as the flasks filled with gas.
“Oh, could you hold the flasks in the water while still pouring your magic in?”
Lilith nodded, then grabbed both flasks. Eventually, they were both almost completely full of gas.
“Alright, stop, just hold the flasks right there.” He pulled out a couple corks from the desk and moved his hands around until he could put them in the flasks that Lilith was still holding in the water. Then, he grabbed the flasks. “Wonderful. Uh, thank you Lilith.”
He walked over to the prism, and lifted one flask into it. “Please direct your attention to the opposite wall.” He pointed, and there was a long rainbow along the wall. “Those lines you can see are the colors of light that this gas is absorbing. Apparently, this one’s oxygen.” He pulled the flask down and pushed up the other one. “So this one is, yep, hydrogen.”
He walked over to the desk and set the flasks down, then picked up the beaker of water and put it by the glass prism. There were some vague bands, but also wider dark areas. “Water’s a lot more complicated, but you can kind of see the hydrogen and oxygen in it.”
Lilith walked back to her seat and took a few notes.
Mccoy seemed to relax a bit now that she was further away.
“Now, wanna see something even more interesting?” He closed the window by the prism. “Silene, would you come over here?”
Silene got up and walked over.
“Please hold up your light magic around… here.” Mccoy pointed.
Lilith gasped when she saw a mote of light drift up from Silene’s hands. It was just like the light all around Wispy’s lake!
McCoy held up the flask with oxygen in it. “Now would you look at that. Those bands are much clearer, aren’t they? And there are fewer of them, right? It’s almost like there’s hydrogen around the sun, absorbing the light before it gets to us. Thank you Silene.”
Silene smiled and walked back to her seat.
“How’d you do that!?” Lilith excitedly whispered to Silene right after she sat down. “Was that light magic!?”
“Uh, yeah?” Silene whispered back. “Have you never seen light magic before?”
“Well, uh. Not in real life.” Lilith shook her head.
“What?”
---
McCoy was packing the experimental materials as the students left, but Lilith stayed a bit.
“Uh, do you, er, not like me or something?” She asked.
He stopped what he was doing and stared at her for a second, before taking a breath. “Since you’re asking, somehow you’re already almost as insufferable as the worst scientists I’ve worked with. You certainly write ‘that’s dumb’ or ‘that’s stupid’ just as often. I can still read the fine print you put on your homework you know, even if you scribble it.”
“Er, uh, o— oh… You can?” Lilith smiled apologetically.
“I can. And you say it to such basic stuff that I’m surprised you’re not failing your homework.”
“But, well, it’s just…” Lilith cringed, then paused for a bit, unable to come up with anything that didn’t sound bad.
“Do you really think Solis’s science is so ‘dumb’?” Mccoy asked.
“Uh… y— yes.” Lilith shrank back.
“Why!?” Mccoy threw his palms out. “Did some great scientist grace you with the truth? Do you know something all of Solis does not?”
“Uhh…” Lilith looked around.
“Well?” Mccoy raised an eyebrow.
“Maybe a little?” Lilith shrugged.
Mccoy shook his head. “Arrogance. So much arrogance.” Then he massaged his temple. “Whatever, I’ve had arrogant students and colleagues before. As long as you can actually prove your work and not just claim you’re right, I guess you should be fine. But personally? I think you should work on your attitude.”
“O— okay.” Lilith quickly nodded, then hurriedly walked out of the room.
---
For some reason, Ai took her math class of four to the docks by the ocean and grabbed a few papers from the workers there. Then, she had the four follow to a pergola at a rocky beach with a few benches under it, and handed the papers out.
“I’ve never seen the ocean before…” Lilith stared.
“Well, you’ll have plenty of time to look at it after you finish the class assignment.” Ai handed her some papers. “Which is, calculate the Fourier transform of the vector field, and then, if you have the time, calculate the flow and divergence of that Fourier transform and plot it out.”
Lilith opened up her papers and flipped a few pages. There were a lot of equations. “Huh, a calculator would be nice.”
“Actually, you are the calculator.” Ai smiled. “This information will be used to optimize shipping and fishing routes, and maybe even find some underground rivers.”
“Huh,” Lilith said, then got started on the long list of calculations.
…
Time flew by as they did their work, and soon, it was time to walk back and get some lunch.
---
Lunch time was spent brainstorming what to do for their presentation in magic class. Malena couldn’t really help much, since she wasn’t a mage, so she got up and walked over to some of her politician classmates.
“Oh, sorry Malena,” Lilith said.
“No, it’s fine. You’re getting work done. There’s nothing wrong with that. I should do it too.”
“Oh, alright.” Lilith hesitantly waved goodbye.
“So,” Hana said, “with Ethen’s strength, Silene’s light and earth, Lilith’s heat and lightning, Jatte’s gravity, and my telepathy… I think we can make a boat.”
Apparently Chance had switched teams earlier. He hadn’t said there was anything wrong with them, just that he wanted to ‘see everything’.
“How does telepathy help with making a boat?” Lilith asked.
“You don’t have to rub it in.” Hana frowned at her, then paused. “Oh, you’re not. I actually have no idea either. Maybe I could spot fish? Oh, it could be a fishing boat then!”
Lilith nodded. “I could see that. And we could even fish at night with the light magic.”
“Yeah!” Hana smiled now that she was more involved.
---
A little before lunch ended, Lilith ran to Rosina’s office. Next class was flight practice, and she wanted to try something.
“Can I try those wings that one guy had?” Lilith asked once she was let in.
Rosina laughed. “No, those are a national treasure, and they’re pretty rusted now.”
“Aww.” Lilith’s shoulders sagged.
“But I can help you get access to some of the shop class’s materials.” She started writing a note. “Give this to the teacher in room 203 and you should be able to take as much metal and cloth as you want. Oh, wait!” She got up and walked to some papers. “Did you take good notes on what the wings looked like?”
“Maybe not good enough?”
Rosina pulled out the paper and let Lilith copy a few things down.
“Make sure to make it proportional to your body size, not his. Otherwise, his wings went through a few revisions, so it’d be a good idea to copy his design, then see if any modifications help or hurt it.”
Rosina waited for Lilith to copy down the wings and make a bunch of lines and comments in her notes.
Then, Lilith finished, pocketed the notes, and said, “Thanks!” before waving and running off.
Rosina waved back.
---
Lilith struggled to run over to flight class. She hoped it would be in the same target as before, but she wasn’t sure where else it would be, except maybe the adventurer’s guild. She hoped it wasn’t there.
Even reducing her weight a bit with magic, it was hard running with all the metal and cloth she took. She was only panting a little as she passed the adventurer's guild on the way, but she wanted a break, so she decided to peak in. Just a light opening of the door, before anyone would notice… Nope, no sign of Alec or Jatte or anyone.
The fear of being close to a place Blaise used to go gave her a boost, but soon she was panting again when she passed the wooden houses, and then she was sweating when she finally stumbled over to the circles of rocks and let her magic stop.
“Oh, Lilith’s here!” Alec waved. “There you go Cyla.”
Cyla waved, then flew over. “What were you running for? Did something come up?”
Lilith took off her backpack and dropped it onto the ground, making a huge thump.
Cyla hopped back, wide eyed. “Wh— wow, I’m glad you’re so eager to fly you’re practicing with weights already. Just make sure you have enough stamina to get closer to flying when class starts.”
“Hah, hah, haah…” Lilith flopped onto the ground.
“I don’t think you made sure you had enough stamina.” Cyla frowned. “If you’re gonna stuff a bunch of rocks in your backpack, you should do it after class.”
“No.” Lilith turned and pointed at the backpack. “Wings.”
“Wings?” Cyla repeated.
“Wings.” Lilith sat up, then unzipped the backpack and started pulling things out.
Cyla stared. “Those aren’t wings. That’s a bunch of metal and cloth.”
“Yeah, I can make wings out of it.” Lilith started moving the plates around, then pulled out a piece of paper.
Cyla watched as the cloth and metal was slowly laid out into two giant wing shapes. “Ohhh.” She looked at her wings, then at the wings Lilith was making, and smiled at the resemblance.Then, she sat down on a nearby rock and waited for Lilith to finish.
After Lilith laid down the materials, she would pick a piece of metal up, heat it up with magic, thread a metal wire through, then put it back down. And then she would do that again, and again, and again.
Cyla's smile faded, then turned into a frown as Lilith kept working. Eventually, she had enough. “Okay, this is taking too long.” She stood up. “Let’s at least get some normal practice in today.”
“Huh?” Lilith looked at her metal contraption, then at the sun. “Oh, sorry, I was getting into it. Can we just wait a bit longer?”
Cyla shook her head. “Nope.”
Lilith frowned.
“Well, hmm.” Cyla sighed. “How about this: we do regular flight training, and then you can go back to making your wings after. I’ll stay and watch. If you finish them by sundown, we’ll try some more with them. If not, we can cover them with some rocks and cloth and come back to it later.”
Lilith looked at the wings for a bit, then nodded. “Okay.” She got up.
They both walked back to the scale and pile of rocks.
“Same as before,” Cyla said. “Get on the scale, and we’ll see how much weight you can take off.”
Lilith got on the scale, then paused. She was about to try the same telekinesis and air methods as last time, but then she wouldn’t know how her electricity method compared. So, this time, she tried to use her electrical magic like she did in her dream with Wispy and throughout the day.
“Huh?” Cyla stepped back when she heard the buzzing and saw the rings. “That’s new.” Then she looked at the scale. “Oh! That’s good!” She quickly wrote some numbers down. “Keep going!”
Lilith strained her electrical magic, pushing it as much as she could, until the buzzing and crackling noises reached their peak and she couldn’t push any more magic out.
“Alright, thirty five percent weight reduction. Pretty good!” Cyla smiled. “Way better than four percent.”
Lilith smiled involuntarily. “I’ve been levitating things around like that. It’s loud, but it works!”
“I think that loudness is its inefficiency,” Cyla said. “Maybe if you can reduce that, it’ll be even better.”
Lilith nodded, then tried again. She tried to tone down the sparks while still dragging the air down with electricity. Unfortunately, it took too much concentration, and even though her electricity was quieter, she could tell she couldn’t put as much power into it.
“Well I guess that didn’t work,” Cyla said.
“No, I just can’t do it right.” Lilith frowned. “It feels weird.”
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“Oh. In that case, we’re just going to need a lot of practice.” She flew off towards the forest.
Lilith stepped off the scale, wondering if she was supposed to head after her.
Then, Cyla came back with a few small logs of wood and put one on the scale. “Ooh, right on a third. First try.”
“A third?” Lilith tilted her head.
“A third of your weight. We’re gonna play some volleyball!” Cyla grinned, tossing the log of wood into the air a few times with one hand.
“W— with a log!?” Lilith paled.
“Don’t worry,” Cyla said. “The mushrooms got into it, so it’s soft. It still won’t be pleasant if it hits you, but it should be safe.”
“O— okay.” Lilith calmed down a bit.
“Here, catch!” Cyla tossed it over.
Lilith held out her hands and braced herself, then tried to surround the thing with magic before it hit her. A few rings formed around it at the last moment, and it only squished against her a little bit.
“There you go!” Cyla cheered. “Now throw it back!”
Lilith moved it up a bit while balancing it on one hand, then shot it back into the air.
Cyla caught it and threw it back.
…
After about an hour of that, along with a few added rules for fun, Lilith went back to piecing the wings together. However, Cyla eventually had to stop her when the sun set, and told her to finish on the weekend if she wanted.
---
Lilith came back to her and Malena’s dorm room covered in sweat. It was both dried and fresh, since she tried flying back after flight class. It didn’t work, but a lot of people were curious about the rings of sparks around her.
“Shower,” Malena said once Lilith got in. “I can smell you already.”
Lilith paused. “Yeah that makes sense.” She tried to fly to the shower, her electrical rings forming again.
“Whoa! Remember: lightning and water don’t mix!” Malena sat up, alarmed.
…
After her shower, Lilith immediately flopped onto her bed. However, It was still early enough that she had a hard time passing out even though she was tired, so tried using her telekinesis to purr again. Maybe that would help.
“You haven’t done that in a while.” Malena looked up from her book.
“Oh yeah, can you massage my ears again?” Lilith asked.
“W— wait, you want your ears massaged?” Malena’s eyes widened.
“I wanna go to sleep,” Lilith said. “I can’t move or think after everything today, so I’m just lying here…” She continued purring.
Malena looked left and right, but she was in her dorm, and there was no one else. “Well, if it’s what you want, then…” She put a bookmark in her book, then moved over to Lilith’s bed.
---
“Well, these teachers are proving to be some decent competition,” Wispy said, turning away from a few floating statistics with Lilith’s name at the top.
Lilith Smit
Body:
Constitution
Strength
Dexterity
C
F
B
Mind:
Intelligence
Wisdom
Charisma
Willpower
Perception
A (10/100)
F (15/100)
D (30/100)
B
B
Soul:
Devotion
Resilience
Empathy
C
C
F -> D*
*Gaining friends and talking with Mccoy finished her empathy increase and boosted charisma.
HP: 9.6/10
Head
9/10
Minor reduced speech capability. Occasionally requires conscious control.
Torso
9/10
Scarred muscles and lungs. Require breathing exercises if other exercises are insufficient to smooth scars.
Abdomen
10/10
Arms
10/10
Legs
10/10
MP: 1/10
Thoroughly exhausted from flight practice.
Abilities:
Attacks
Perceptions
Guards
Utilities
Taze
B
Mana Sense
C (20/100)
TK*
F
Blacksmith
B
Vessel Break
B
Time Slow
D
Electrostatic levitation / “Flight”
C (35/100)
Nerve Break
D
Todo: lamp
?
*Needs re-evaluation: can TK blocking be replaced with electrostatic blocking?
“Hi wispy,” Lilith said, refreshed, but still somehow a bit tired.
“Hi.” He waved a few of his tendrils, letting the stat boxes fade away. “It’s good to push yourself, but try not to overdo it.”
“Okay,” Lilith said, glancing curiously at the fading stat boxes.
“You and Cyla had a good idea, training even after flight class, but now here you are, still tired.”
“I feel like I could sleep the whole weekend,” Lilith said.
“You’re lucky it’s the weekend, but you won't be happy missing your break.”
Lilith frowned. “Nope.”
“So, how about instead of training all at once, you train your magic throughout the entire day?”
“I tried that,” Lilith said, lifting a nearby rock in her magic. “It was too loud.”
Wispy seemed to nod. “Yes, which is why I’ve designed this training equipment for you.” He opened up a tendril, revealing something that looked like a glass vase with a sphere in the center, an opening on the top and bottom closed off by gratings, and a channel between the gratings. Then, a spherical sponge floated in, was cut nearly in half, had a shape like the vase cut out, and then was closed around the vase and sealed with a few threads.
[https://i.imgur.com/e0Ygrh1.png]
“What am I looking at?” Lilith stared at the… thing.
“A lantern,” Wispy said. “You can push your electrical magic into the air in the center and let it make light without producing as much noise.” The image showed a bright purple light in the center. ”You can also make your rings of electricity in the top and bottom parts of this channel.” He moved his tendrils to poke at the image, until two rings appeared. “That will allow you to move it around with your magic while the gratings and the sponge deal with the noise.”
“Ooh!” She leaned forward. “A flying lantern!”
“Flying by your magic, but yes. Also, how bright it is depends on your choice of sponge material and the strength of your magic.”
“Wait.” Lilith held her hand up. “I still don’t think I can work with glass yet. I can maybe do iron, but that sparks a lot when I get it near melting.”
“Of course,” Wispy said. “Luckily, you’re in a school. You can just visit the shop class to find a glassblower. And since you’re by the ocean, sponges are cheap. You can try out a few different ones if you want.”
---
Lilith woke up and looked over at Malena, who was still in her bed.
She got up, walked over, and sat down beside her. “How do you sleep more than me? No one sleeps more than me.” She raised her tail up, and then, lightly poked Malena’s face with the tip a couple times.
“More minutes… Class…” Malena grumbled, pushed the tail away, and rolled over.
Lilith sighed, wrote a note saying she’d be at the glassblowers and buying sponges for a bit if Malena wanted to hang out, and then left it by the alarm clock.
---
“You want what?” A glass blower student said. He was a larger guy, probably a couple years ahead of Lilith.
“Er, sorry if it’s not possible.”
“No, I just don’t know what you’re talking about. A double vase with a grating? And a sphere in the center?”
“Well, the sphere is surrounded by glass, and spokes are connecting that to the outer glass,” Lilith said, making various hand gestures.
“Hold on, can you draw it?” He pulled out a paper and some pens.
“Oh sure.” Lilith started drawing the contraption.
“Okay, a vase…” The guy commented. “A tube?” He tilted his head. “Glass columns holding the inside and outside… Ohh! That’s a bubble inside, a big one.”
Lilith slid the drawing over to him once she was done.
“Uh huh, now that’s alien,” the student commented. “Hmm… I can make it. It’s not nearly as hard as some chemistry equipment. What in the world is it for though?”
“It’s a flying lamp!” Lilith said excitedly. “And a way for me to train my electricity magic!”
“Really? How does that work?” The kid tilted his head left and right at the paper.
“I make sparks in here”—Lilith pointed at the center—”and that makes light.” She demonstrated, holding her hand out and letting a few purple sparks fly in the air. “And then here and here”—she pointed above and below the sphere, within the channel—”I make rings, pulling the air down with electricity and pushing the lamp up.” She held out the pen and demonstrated with it.
“Ohh.” The guy looked over the paper once more. “Okay… I see! Yeah. Come back on Monday and I’ll have it.”
“Cool! So, how much are you charging?”
“For that thing? Eh, a gold coin should do it.”
“Oh, okay! Thanks!” Lilith pulled out the coin and handed it to him, then ran off to buy sponges.
The guy looked at the coin, then the designs. “Alright, this is gonna be a neat challenge.”
---
Lilith came back with a few sponges to find Malena sitting on her bed doing homework. “Oh, you’re back!” She looked up as soon as Lilith came in.
“Yep!” Lilith carried several sponges in that she cut into spherical shapes. A few extra sponges floated in her magic around her. Not a single one was the same color or texture as another.
“Wow. I’m glad you’re buying hygiene products, but I think you’re overdoing it.” Malena raised an eyebrow. “Where are you even planning on putting all of those?”
Lilith looked around. “Uhh…” She walked around and floated a few of them around the room in a couple loops, before dropping them all on her bed. “There. They’re like extra pillows now.”
Malena frowned. “They’re going to fall off and bounce all over the room next time you go to bed.”
“A problem for future us.” Lilith threw her palms up. “Oh, have you ever been by the ocean? It’s really pretty!”
Malena smiled. “Yes, I have been by the ocean. I've lived here all my life you know.”
“Oh.” Lilith slumped.
“I wouldn’t mind going again though.”
---
Over the weekend, Lilith did her homework, read some extra books, hung out with Malena by the beach, practiced her flying, and built her wings some more. After she got her lantern on Monday after school, she wanted to show it off to Sebastian since he sold them, so she ran back to his apartment. But he wasn’t there.
She ran back to the front desk. “Hey!” She waved, using her electricity to get more attention.
“Huh, yes?” The guy sat up.
“Do you know where Sebastian went? I checked his room and he’s not there.”
The guy pulled over some papers on his desk and flipped through. “Sebastian, sebastian. That room. Ah, yes, I think I remember now.” He pointed a finger at Lilith. “I believe he’s one of the guys that left a few days ago. Merchants tend to leave Solis around then, and he looked like he was doing that.”
Lilith’s shoulders sagged. “Oh.” She walked back out. “Okay then…”
She frowned as she walked back to her dorm. He hadn't said goodbye? Just left without a word? It seemed a bit cold after what they went through to get here. Not even a letter? She paused. Where were her letters actually?
…
Once she walked back into Lagora’s front doors, instead of heading up to her dorm, she walked to that same old guy at the front desk. “Do you know where my mail is?”
The old man looked up at her from some books and nodded. “Yes. First floor, there’s a room with mailboxes. Yours should have the same number as your room, and your room key should work.”
“Oh. Thanks!” She waved and ran off.
“No running in the halls!” The old man called.
As Lilith was running, someone opened and stepped out of a door, and Lilith barely managed to dodge out of the way.
“And that’s why,” the man sighed.
…
It wasn’t hard to find the room filled entirely with a bunch of small wooden boxes, and then the ones with her number on it. There were two boxes with her number: one for her and one for Malena. She opened her own, pulled out exactly one letter, opened it up, sat down on a nearby bench, and read.
“Hey Lilith,
“Sorry I couldn’t say goodbye in person, but it sounds like you had a pretty rough first day, and I can’t stay here. Every day I’m not out there is a few gold coins lost, and I want to do my best with this golden opportunity.
“I want you to do your best too. You managed to get that scholarship, so you kept about as much money as me. If you use that right, you could turn it into a huge fortune. Though, you probably won’t need that as a mage.
“Anyway, good luck.
“—Sebastian Grey
Lilith frowned. It wasn’t a bad letter, but she still would’ve appreciated an in-person goodbye. Stupid Blaise.
But where was the letter from her parents? Her letter should’ve had time to travel all the way down, and someone else should’ve been able to bring their reply back, so it was weird for there to be nothing in the box. She checked Sebastian’s letter to see if there was another stuck to it, then the mailbox to see if there was anything in there, but nope, nothing.
Maybe it just didn’t arrive yet, so she shut her mailbox and walked back to her dorm.
---
A few days after that, she finally managed to finish her wings.
They’d gained a small crowd of onlookers whenever they practiced now, including a few new brass knights with cool flame decorations on their armor, but Alec just said to ignore them, so they did.
Lilith walked over to her new metal wings and pulled the tarp off. Then, she threaded the last threads and wires through the last metal panels, and lifted the pair of wings up. Or she tried to at least. They were heavier than her, so even when she put her weight into it, she couldn’t fully pick them up.
“I’d help you,” Cyla said, watching her. “But I’m worried it might crush you…”
Lilith used her electricity magic to levitate the wings a bit, then finally, barely managed to lift them. The middle section was shaped like a backpack, so she lifted it over her head and put it on, putting her arms through the straps. Next, she concentrated on the copper coils on the back, sending electricity through them, and grinned as she could see the wings moving around in the corner of her vision.
“Oh hey, it actually works!” Cyla raised her eyebrows. “Does it fly?”
“Only one way to find out,” Lilith smirked, then pulled on all the coils at once with her magic.
The wings flapped downwards, making a huge gust of air and making Lilith lose her balance, but she was still firmly on the ground.
Lilith frowned and tried flapping her new wings a few more times, but the lightest she felt was the same weight she felt before putting them on.
“Hey, let’s try the scale,” Cyla said, walking over.
Lilith followed, struggling to keep her balance and lift the massive wings, but after a few stomps, tilts, and tumbles, she managed to make it to the scale.
“You okay?” Cyla asked.
“Yeh… Yeah.” Lilith nodded and stepped onto the scale.
Cyla stared at the number. “That’s two and a half times your normal weight. No wonder you’re having so much trouble.”
“But how much weight is it when I do… this!” Lilith pulled on the coils and flapped the wings again.
Cyla stared at the number. “Ninety percent.”
“Ffffuaaa…” Lilith sighed in frustration, rolled her head back, then tripped and tumbled off the scale.
“Whoa!” Cyla rushed forward and caught Lilith’s head in a wing as she blasted Lilith and her metal art pieces up with air magic.
Lilith blinked as she stared at the sky. “Th— thanks…” She wondered how close she was to getting stuck in that hospital again.
“Anytime.” Cyla smiled. “But let’s get you out of this death trap.” She knelt over Lilith and loosened the shoulder straps on the wings. “Really, how did that Volta even manage that?”
“Rosina said he’s much better at lower voltages, and I’m better at higher voltages,” Lilith said. “My low voltage tends to turn into heat magic, so we changed the coils.”
“Well, your purple rings work much better and aren’t nearly as dangerous, so let’s stick with those. You’re already up to forty percent!”
“Okay…” Lilith turned her head to look at the wings, frowning slightly. “What should I do with these though?”
“Throw them—” Cyla stopped herself. “Uh, hmm. Maybe we can both carry them back to school, and you can turn them in to Rosina for extra credit.”
Lilith stared at the wings for a bit longer, sad that they might be gone after so long… but if some extra credit came out of them, they weren’t a complete loss.
So, after Cyla loosened the other strap, Lilith got up and helped carry them back to school, eventually finding Rosina’s room.
---
Cyla asked for the extra credit for Lilith in exchange for the wings. It took a bit of argument and a few “she’s going to get herself killed!” against Rosina’s “just let her keep her wings” while Lilith stood back and spaced out, but eventually Lilith got her extra credit.
Happy with that, Lilith waved goodbye to her teachers, and ran out of Lagora to where her after school project group was meeting.
With forty percent less weight, she couldn’t fly, but she found she could jump onto rooftops and make her way over to the ocean faster than any human ever could. And when she got there, she spotted Hana, Jatte, Ethen, and Silene by the small wood and metal boat they all made on a small wooden dock. It was a beautiful boat, thanks to Lilith’s smithing knowledge, though it looked like the water was a bit close to the top sides of the boat…
Well, it was probably fine, so she jumped onto it from the rooftop. She wanted to see how it finally was on the water.
“Huh?” Hana looked up. “Wait Lilith no!” She waved her arms.
But Lilith couldn’t stop.
She landed on the boat, there was a huge splash as water went everywhere, and then a weird sinking feeling as water poured over all the sides of the boat, before it was sucked underwater, dragging Lilith with it.
“AAaaaa!” Lilith tried to use her electricity to pull her out of the water, but one ring touched the water and zapped her. “AAAAH!”
Ethen and Jatte jumped after her and used their magic to pull her away.
“Thanks…” Lilith said.
“Our boat…” Jatte stared at the water where the boat had once been.
---
Lilith continued her flight training every day, getting up to 60% over the next few weeks, but, one night, Lilith’s comfortable cycle of learning and training was interrupted.
Lilith paused her homework when she heard a knock on her door, curious which of her friends it would be.
Malena hopped up and opened the door. "Who is it?"
Looking up, Lilith saw a familiar face, with two familiar red fox ears.
“P— Priscilla!?” Lilith asked.