Hana ran out of the courtroom into the castle’s courtyard, then out past the gate. There were a couple knights guarding that gate, but they clutched their heads and knelt in agony as she approached. So Hana and Lilith ran past without issue.
Lilith should’ve had an easy time keeping up with her. She was faster and her magic would boost her further, but her head felt like it was splitting, and her vision was blurring and filling with colorful fractals.
“Don’t follow me!” Hana yelled back as she ran past a few houses. “Doesn’t it hurt!?”
“It does!” Lilith grit her teeth as she followed Hana down an alley. “Can you stop?”
Hana kept running down the alley.
“Why are you even running?” Lilith asked as they exited into another street. “It’s not like you killed someone.”
Hana ran past a few houses towards some trees. “I almost did.”
“I saw, their blades were at their own throats. But that’s just normal training,” Lilith said. “You stop before you injure your opponent.”
Hana panted as she ran into the forest, then slowed down.
Lilith ran faster now that her headache was subsiding.
Hana walked over and held herself up with a hand against a tree, panting. “I’m… not going to outrun you, am I?”
“Not unless you can fly with telepathy.” Lilith shook her head.
“Hah.” Hana smiled.
“But why did you even run though?” Lilith tilted her head.
“Why did you follow me?” Hana asked.
“I’m surprised you don’t already know, but I guess it’s because I was worried since you were panicking.” Lilith shrugged.
“Oh,” Hana said. “I wasn’t listening to your thoughts. Thanks? I guess?”
“Are you okay?” Lilith asked, now leaning against another tree.
“You do realize I’m dangerous though, right?” Hana asked, staring right up into Lilith’s eyes.
Lilith squinted. “Uh, the case was about me. I just killed someone. You might’ve just saved some lives.”
“But I’m clearly a threat.” Hana shook her head, paleing. “I ran right past all those guards. I could’ve done a lot worse. If they care about their safety they’re going to come after me.”
“I’m pretty sure I could’ve jumped over those guards,” Lilith said. “And Jatte and Ethen could just fly over. I don’t even know what Alec could do.”
“I could’ve killed them all, you know,” Hana said, looking away as her voice shook. “I could’ve killed them all with just a thought.”
“Yeah, that’s magic.” Lilith tilted her head. “I don’t get where you’re going with this. You didn’t kill them. You probably stopped them from killing each other.”
Hana looked at the ground.
“Just come back to school.” Lilith held out a hand. “If you’re worried about anyone coming after you, I’ll defend you next time.”
Hana hesitantly took the hand. “I— I could hurt you too, you know? I was holding back.”
Lilith smiled Wryly as she pulled her back towards Solis. “You already said it when we first met: we could all hurt each other, but we’d never do that, right?”
Hana hesitantly nodded and walked with Lilith. They walked back to the marble houses, near the castle, and towards Lagora.
After a while, Hana spoke up, smiling slightly, “Sorry. Sometimes I forget mages are treated differently here.”
Lilith turned. “How are they treated elsewhere?” She paused. “I guess if it’s like my home, probably not very well…”
Hana walked along for a while, shuddering a few times and gripping tightly onto Lilith’s hand. Every time someone passed by, she’d shy away, even if they were inside a building behind a wall.
Eventually, Hana spoke again, “Yeah. I… don’t want to go back there.”
“Back home?” Lilith asked.
Hana nodded.
“I guess that makes sense.” Lilith shrugged. “I like this place more than my old home too.”
Hana frowned and shook her head. “You don’t understand.” She stared into Lilith’s eyes for a moment, then shook her head. “Well, maybe it’s better if you don’t.”
Lilith stared back at Hana. “...okay.” She looked around once more for Lagora and headed towards it. Hana was right that Lilith didn’t understand. She wasn’t acting like anyone she knew of. However, something about it made Lilith want to redouble her recent promise about defending her.
---
Jatte opened the door to her dorm when she heard knocking. “Oh hey Lilith. Why are you two back so late?”
“I got arrested for murder,” Lilith said, then stepped back and lightly pushed Hana forward.
“What—” Jatte gaped, before Hana hugged her. “—huh?”
“She was kind of panicking,” Lilith said, turning to walk away. “You can calm her down, right?”
“What? No! Wait!” Jatte flew up, Hana still hugging her, but now for dear life, though it wasn’t necessary in Jatte’s gravity. “What the heck happened?”
“Eh, Hana can tell you all about it,” Lilith said, now jogging away. “I still have a bit of a headache…” She pulled out a key and opened the door to her dorm.
Jatte touched down as Lilith opened her door, but she didn’t follow her inside. Sighing, she flew back with Hana.
And Lilith walked into her room. She was used to seeing Malena doing her homework, but Malena was still stuck behind at court, so Priscilla was reading through Malena’s books while hugging one of Lilith’s sponges.
“Oh yeah, you’re still here.” Lilith blinked.
“Oh hey Lilith!” Priscilla looked up. “These stories are pretty fun. I don’t see how they count as schoolwork though.”
Lilith glanced at her mostly untouched side of the room. “What about my books?”
“Your books are boring. Definitely schoolwork.”
Lilith frowned. “Well, I think the whole Taro thing is over, so you don’t have to stay here anymore.”
Priscilla frowned. “You don’t have to kick me out just because I like your roommates books over yours.”
“Huh? No.” Lilith shook her head. “I mean the court case happened and it’s over.”
“It’s over?” Priscilla raised an eyebrow. “What about the… whole village?”
Lilith cringed. “A few of them tried to attack the guards and got killed, but Hana stopped that before it got worse.”
“Oh…” Priscilla looked away for a moment. “Are my parents okay?”
Lilith thought back and remembered someone else with red fox ears in the crowd. “Yeah.” She nodded. “I think so.”
“Oh, good.” Priscilla smiled and breathed out a sigh of relief. “Wait, what are we gonna do though?”
“What do you mean?” Lilith asked.
“There’s no more town.” Priscilla’s smile faded. “We all left because the mayor said we ran out of money because of your parents. He obviously lied, but now he’s off in some other town, we’re stuck here, and the village is empty. I’m not sure everyone even packed enough for the way back.”
“Are they stupid?” Lilith asked. “Why wouldn’t they pack enough for the way back.”
“They might be stupid.” Priscilla nodded. “But they’re the people we grew up with.” She laid back and stared up at the ceiling. “We’re homeless now.”
Suddenly, a key jammed into the door, it opened, and Malena walked in. “Oh yeah, you’re still here.”
“Yep,” Priscilla said. “I was just telling Lilith about how we’re all homeless now.”
“Can’t you just go back to your village?” Malena asked.
“Some of us might not have packed enough food,” Priscilla said. “A lot of our hunters might’ve died now that I think about it, since they’re the type that would get their heads chopped by the guards here like that one guy.” She grimaced. “And so even if we did go back, we might starve. The reason we came here in the first place was because we might starve.”
Malena frowned. That was a serious situation. “I see.” She paused to think. “But if you all stay here, there’s a chance you could just be homeless, beggars maybe, or arrested and used for labor.”
Priscilla’s eyes widened. “I don’t wanna be homeless or a slave…”
“Yeah, that sucks.” Malena nodded, looked at Lilith, then looked away and thought a bit. “Okay, I’ll ask my parents and teachers if they can do anything tomorrow. Lilith, you ask your teachers.”
“Okay!” Lilith raised her fist. “We’re gonna save them!”
“Yeah. We’ll save your entire hometown,” Malena said, “from themselves…”
---
The next day, Lilith stayed behind in her magic class and walked up to her teacher. “Hey Rosina.”
“Hey Lilith,” Rosina sat back on her broom. “What’s up?”
“You heard about that court case, right?”
“Yeah? All the beastmen that were hanging around the last few days were there. I saw you coming from that too.” She raised an eyebrow.
“Oh good. Well, they’re kind of stuck here. If they go back, they might starve, and they’re…” She looked around. “Oh forget it.” She pulled back her hat. “They’re from my hometown. I don’t want them to starve. Is there anything you can do to help?”
Rosina’s eyes widened. “Oh. Uh, wow.” She blinked. “Give me a second to process all of this…”
Lilith put her hat back on.
“Are any of them magical like you?” Rosina asked. “If they are, they shouldn’t have any trouble finding work.”
Lilith shook her head. “I was kicked out because I had magic.”
“Ah.” Rosina frowned. “Well that makes things harder. Hmm.” She looked up at the last student leaving. “Are any of them your age or younger? If they’re your age, I could put in a request to have them take an entrance exam. Even if they don’t make it into Lagora, they might make it into another school.”
Lilith smiled. “That’ll help Priscilla.” She paused. “But what about the others?”
Rosina shrugged. “Maybe they can work as apprentice farmhands or fishermen?”
Lilith frowned. “They don’t like farming. They think it’s cruel.”
“Well if they’re going to be like that then they’re probably going to starve.” Rosina glared off at the window before turning back to Lilith. “Sorry, that might be harsh, but I can’t help people that won’t help themselves.” She pulled up her shirt slightly, revealing a massive scar on her belly, with three long jagged lines converging into one point. “This is what happened the last time I tried that.”
“Wha—? How?” Lilith gaped at the scar.
“Adventuring.” Rosina put her shirt back down. “My partner went into a cave and pissed off a small dragon after I warned him I heard something, and then he tried to fight it when he should’ve run away, after I yelled at him to run away. I had to fight to save him, but the stupid thing still ate his stupid head and bit me before I got it.”
Lilith gaped at Rosina, then asked, “Does it hurt?” She slowly reached to poke Rosina on her scar.
“It itches and I have to watch what I eat,” Rosina said. “But we’re getting off topic. I’ll see what I can do for your people. You should hurry to your next class before you’re late.”
---
“Beastfolk, huh?” Ai asked. “Are they good at math?”
Lilith shook her head. “Probably not. Maybe? No, most of them probably aren’t.”
“Well, I guess they can’t work as calculators then.” Ai thought. “I’m really sorry. I don’t know how I could help. I’ll think about it though.”
---
“Those beastfolk were from your village?” Mccoy asked, Looking at Lilith’s ears before she put her hat back on. “That might explain your anti-science… no it doesn’t. Actually it’s even more confusing now.”
“So, can you think of any way to help them?” Lilith asked. “I don’t want them to starve or be homeless.”
Mccoy’s gaze softened. “Well, hmm. Okay.” He nodded. “I can ask and see if any of my colleagues could use some low grade research assistants.”
“Thanks!” Lilith smiled.
---
Priscilla sat with them at lunch next. Technically she wasn’t supposed to, but no one forced her to leave.
“So, I asked around myself after you two left,” Priscilla said, “and that old guy at the front desk seemed nice. He said I should take an assessment test, so I did, and I got an 80 in math!” She held out a paper. “And pretty good in science too.”
Lilith and Malena looked at it while everyone else was wondering who this beastgirl was.
“That’s pretty good,” Malena said.
“It is!?” Lilith exclaimed.
“Yes, 80th percentile is good.” Malena side-eyed Lilith. “And so is over 70th in science. Oh, look at those jobs! ’Research assistant’ Lilith! She could be your assistant!”
“That’s a little weird,” Lilith said.
Priscilla frowned, feeling a bit rejected. “You think it’s weird?”
This narrative has been purloined without the author's approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.
Lilith held her hands up. “Ah, no, I mean, if you want? Maybe? What do you want to do?”
Priscilla frowned and took back her paper. “The other option was nurse, and maybe doctor, but it gives me C for doctor.” She pulled out another paper. “I got tested for magic with a bunch of weird machines too. Apparently I have a little bit of time magic.”
“You got tested for magic?” Malena tilted her head.
“Yeah. Is that not normal?” Priscilla asked.
“What was your science again? 72?” Malena looked over at the paper. “I thought they figured out if it was a waste of time to test someone in magic based on the magic portion of the science test, but your magic score is worse than mine.”
“They don’t test everybody?” Priscilla asked.
“No.” Malena shook her head.
Priscilla looked around, but everyone else shook their heads as well.
Hana had been staring down at her food most of the time, but now she was holding up a finger to her mouth in a shushing gesture.
Malena raised an eyebrow at her, then looked down at the table. “I wonder if I read something about this in my homework,” she thought out loud.
She remembered another story that took her a while to understand. In it, a soldier disagreed with their captain about the best path to get around a large lake, it was a several day journey, and both sides were risky. He disagreed so much that he took some troops and went off on his own at night. The rest of the soldiers took the other path, thinking the others had deserted them. They met up on the other side of the lake a few days later, and the captain publicly whipped the soldier that disagreed and took the others.
She thought the reason for the punishment was just not following orders. But William explained it was more than that: if any of the other soldiers got it in their heads that they could disobey orders like that, especially when it came to life and death, then at best the forces could be split later at critical moments, and William even said it could inspire a mutiny. After that soldier was dishonorably discharged, the commander introduced a new part of bootcamp to test if new recruits would follow orders later, or if they’d become problems. Personally, she thought the commander was way too harsh, but he might’ve had a point even if he overdid things.
Malena narrowed her eyes at Priscilla’s magic test result paper that was still on the table. Had Solis somehow considered Malena to be a ‘problem’? Rather than Malena not being competent with magic, did Solis instead not trust her with it, like how Solis didn’t trust some soldiers in bootcamp? What on earth could she have done wrong?
While she was thinking, the conversation moved on without her.
“I think I’ll try to be a doctor,” Priscilla said. “Maybe a nurse. Sorry Lilith, but I like biology more than I like the idea of being your research assistant.”
Lilith breathed a sigh of relief.
Priscilla glared. “What the heck!?”
“It’s just weird,” Lilith said.
“It’s not weird!” Priscilla bared her teeth, then sighed. “But yeah, I like biology, and that witch teacher said I could learn magic if I practiced every day.”
Malena squinted.
“Your sacrifice will be remembered,” Lilith said.
“What?” Priscilla raised an eyebrow.
Nothing," Lilith said. “Being a doctor is gonna be… amazing.”
“It should be, actually,” Malena said, rejoining the conversation, “if you can get into it, you’ll be paid quite a lot.”
“Oh, I will?” Priscilla leaned in.
“Yep! It’s one of the highest paying jobs in Solis,” Malena said.
Priscilla picked up and held her test results closer to her, like they were made of gold themselves.
“So,” Malena continued, “take that to whatever school you have the money for. Some of them might even give you a scholarship since Solis needs doctors that are… allowed to practice magic.” She looked around to the others. “By the way, what are the magic tests like?”
“It’s just a bunch of machines,” Jatte spoke up. “There’s air, you stick your hand in, see if you can reproduce the air. Stuff like that.”
“Do you want to ask Rosina for a test?” Lilith asked.
“No.” Malena shook her head. “No, I’m fine. I just want to know what the tests are like.” She looked off. If Solis really didn’t trust her and lied to her about her magic, they might just lie again.
---
After Lilith came back from flight class, Malena was gone, so she worked on her homework by herself. But later Malena came back and unzipped her overloaded backpack so a bunch of different items fell out, items that looked similar to certain magical testing equipment.
“There we go.” Malena started organizing the beakers, pieces of iron, and other items on her bed. “Sorry Lilith, but I’ll be asking you for help with the other tests.”
Lilith looked up from her work. “I thought you said you didn’t want to test your magic affinities.”
“I lied,” Malena said. “I think I know why I wasn’t tested, and if my reasoning is true, then… it’s better if I test myself.” She looked up. “So, you’re gonna test me.”
Lilith shrugged. “Okay.” She walked over. “Why would it be better if you tested yourself though?”
“I think they don’t trust me,” Malena said.
“Aren’t you royalty?” Lilith asked.
“No. My dad’s one of the king’s advisors, but that doesn’t make me royalty.”
“Oh, so that’s what he does,” Lilith said. “Wait, how does that not make you royalty?”
“The advisors are chosen,” Malena said. “There’s no guarantee I’d be chosen as the next advisor over any other citizen.”
“Oh,” Lilith said.
“Now, can you help me with some of these?”
“Sure.”
…
After they went through their makeshift tests one by one, Lilith using her floating lamp to for the light and electricity tests, the only magic affinity Malena had was time affinity, at around 60%.
Malena frowned. “I guess I really didn’t have magic.”
Lilith shook her head. “No, I swear some of the other kids in magic class had worse affinities. This is weird.”
“Oh?” Malena looked up.
“Yeah.” Lilith nodded. “For some reason, almost everyone has time affinity, but you’re better at it than most.”
“So I do have magic!” Malena smiled.
“Yep!” Lilith smiled back. “You should practice it! Just use it on yourself whenever you want more time. Like when you’re taking a test.”
“That sounds like cheating.” Malena raised an eyebrow.
“Oh, does it?” Lilith froze.
“You haven’t done that, have you?”
“N— no?” Lilith looked away.
Malena paused. “Actually, maybe I’m wrong. You’re still technically finishing the test within the time limits, right?”
“Oh, yeah, maybe.” Lilith shrugged and calmed down.
Malena started organizing the various items. However, they weren’t things she’d use later, so she was about to start throwing them away.
“I want the beaker,” Lilith said.
“Oh, sure.” Malena handed the beaker she was about to throw away to Lilith. Then she went to the iron coin and moved it to the trash can.
“Wait! If you’re just gonna throw it out, can I have it?” Lilith asked.
“Okay, sure.” Malena tossed the coin to Lilith. Then she moved to a bowl with water and a floating rock in it, and moved it to the trash.
“Wait!” Lilith said. “That bowl’s metal too! And the rock is a magnet!”
Malena moved the bowl back and handed it to Lilith. “Do you just want all the equipment?” Malena smirked.
“Can I?” Lilith's eyes sparkled.
Malena smiled and shook her head. “As long as I can still make it to the shower without tripping over something.”
But as Lilith picked up all the items, Malena frowned. These tests showed her that she did have magic, but for some reason, whoever was in charge of her entrance exam didn’t trust her with it. If that someone was the test proctor, they answered only to the king and his advisors, and she was given the same test as everyone else.
So, was she not trustworthy? Why? Was there something about her that couldn’t be trusted with magic?
She looked to Lilith, who was going back to her homework, happily surrounded by sponges, beakers, bowls and other random items. Without her, Lilith would’ve admitted to using dark magic and would’ve been sent to jail or executed. Yet the king approved of a test that found her lacking.
The king also approved of a law that would’ve executed her friend for trying to capture someone instead of killing them.
Maybe Lilith was right about kings. Maybe they could do evil.
What would it mean, if kings could do evil?
Malena pulled out the book to her strategy class and flipped through the pages with vigor. Everything looked different now.
---
Alec walked into a marble room in the castle carrying two leather mugs. The room was filled with shelves like a small library with a few tables at the center. At one table was the knight from before, his helmet off as he looked over some documents. The knight had stronger facial features typical of Voldians, as well as long blonde hair that must have been hard to fit in his armor.
Alec slid a mug over to the knight. “Here, Reinhold, coffee.” He sat down and pulled over some of the documents.
“Thanks.” The Knight Reinhold picked it up and took a sip, then frowned at the document he was holding. “You know, I don’t get you guys. You didn’t detain that kid when searching for evidence, you just rushed to find it after her roommate reported her, and then you searched for her. She could’ve escaped.”
Alec frowned. “I don’t get you guys either. What she did isn’t a crime, it’s self defense. That, and she was in her room. We have a thing called castle doctrine here: if someone attacks you near your home, it’s legal to defend yourself by any means necessary. The only reason the case wasn’t thrown out of court after the beastfolk explained what happened was because you guys were panicking.”
Reinhold looked up. “Is it not strange for a kid to kill someone her age and then be completely unfazed in court?”
“I don’t know if I’d call her unfazed,” Alec said. “She was a little weird, on edge maybe, but her roommate, the telepath, and the beastfolk all backed her up. Actually, most of the beastfolk cared more about the money.”
Reinhold shook his head. “Caring about money more than life… those are the worst types of people. We lost a kid.”
“We did… but you saw them, didn’t you?” Alec held a palm out. “They were probably going to buy food with it. Money is life for them.”
Reinhold stared at Alec. “Does your kingdom not have any welfare?”
“Not that I know of.” Alec shrugged. “Welfare is a Voldian word.”
“Hmm.” Reinhold frowned. “I’m surprised I don’t see more homeless then.”
“Those are usually taken in by the farmers,” Alec said.
“Ah.” Reinhold grimaced, then clenched his teeth. “And you… Your citizens don’t have to pay for work, so it’s slavery.”
Alec frowned as he took a sip of his coffee. “Hmm. I guess by your standards, it might be.”
Rage flashed in Reinhold's eyes. “So you let slavery run rampant, and you let a child psycho who killed multiple people run around freely with other kids? Aren’t you supposed to be protecting your people?”
“No.” Alec shook his head. “I’m not. I’m supposed to be protecting the freedom of Solis.”
Reinhold glared at him.
“That said, if anything like in your stories happened in front of me, I wouldn’t be able to hold myself back.”
Reinhold calmed down. “Has anything like that happened?”
Alec shook his head. “Not when I was there. The only time I found anything close to that, I only found dead bodies.” He looked away. “But that was just once. I don’t think it happens often.”
---
Several days later after Priscilla got admitted to another school and worked on finding jobs for the beastfolk, she started checking on them every time she could get a break. Unfortunately, she had to call for Lilith’s help a few times.
“Oh, it’s you again,” an old farmer looked up as Priscilla entered his home, followed by Lilith. “And you brought a friend. This isn’t a daycare, you know?”
“Lilith…” Priscilla stepped behind her friend.
“Y— yeah.” Lilith stepped forward. “Are you not paying the beastfolk?”
“I've given them a roof over their heads and cooked meals for them,” the farmer said. “That’s better than them being out on the street.”
“If you don’t pay them, they won’t be able to do anything but eat your food and stay in your house,” Lilith said. “You should pay them so they can get their own homes.”
“Why would I want them to have their own homes?” The farmer said. “If they did, they’d have to walk all the way over before they could work. Heck, if they don’t want to work here, they can just hunt like they did back home.”
“It’s a different environment,” Lilith said. “Their hunting experience at home doesn’t work here.”
“Well maybe they should’ve thought of that in the first place,” the farmer said, then paused. “Actually, y’know what? I don’t have to explain myself to a couple of kids.” He got up. “Get out of here you.”
Lilith glared, electricity crackling around her. “Pay them, or they’ll be taking over your farm in your absence.”
“Whoa now!” The farmer raised his hands and backed up. “You wouldn’t! Mages have a duty to uphold! And besides, they’re not doing enough work to get paid!”
“I would.” Lilith stepped forward. “I don’t know anything about this duty. I’ve already killed four people.” Her electricity crackled. “So you’ll pay them, right?”
The farmer nodded quickly.
“Good,” Lilith said, then looked back to Priscilla when she remembered the bandits and thought of what they might do. “Don’t come back here without me.”
Priscilla nodded.
---
“We have more reports coming in about your psycho prodigy,” Reinhold handed Alec a paper.
“I’m gonna overlook it,” Alec said, putting the paper aside. “After the investigations on the last two… I might’ve done worse.”
“Good,” Reinhold said.
“Hey, why don’t you check on some of these beastfolk?” Alec asked. “You’re all about protecting the people after all. And our law doesn’t always seem to apply to you guys.”
Reinhold paused. “Maybe I will.” He looked around. “Do you have a list of the beastfolk?”
“We don’t make lists like that.” Alec raised an eyebrow.
“Of course you don’t,” Reinhold deadpanned.
---
Eventually, summer break came, and most of the students went back home, but there were a few that didn’t. The foreign students, most of the more powerful mages, didn’t have homes to go back to, and Malena, for some reason, stayed in her dorm as well, saying, “my home’s empty most of the time anyway, except for a few maids that don’t talk much.” She also gave Lilith an allowance for things like soap since her money was taken by the court.
But that decision only led to headaches once Lilith came back with weird items in addition to the cheapest soap she could buy.
“Malena look! Look! It’s an engine!” Lilith exclaimed, excitedly holding up what was clearly a metal tube.
Malena smiled and looked up from a strategy book. Whenever Lilith came back with some weird item, she seemed even more happy and playful than usual, which was nice after everything crazy that happened so far. “No Lilith, that’s a tube.”
Lilith pouted. “It’s a tube shaped engine…” Then, she heated one of the sides with her magic as she held the thing with a metal gripper… that she held up with her electricity rings. “Watch!”
The tube started emitting an annoying hum that got louder and louder.
Malena cringed. “Now it’s a loud tube. What’s an engine even supposed to be anyway?”
“Oh, you really wanna know?” Lilith’s eyes practically sparkled.
“Well, uh, yes. That’s why I asked.”
“Well, most engines operate by changing pressure and volume, so the equation PV=nRT helps a lot.”
“The… what?”
“Pressure multiplied by volume is equal to the number of individual molecules of the gas multiplied by absolute temperature and some constant!” Lilith smiled and took a breath.
“Individual molecules of gas? Absolute temperature?”
“Oh yeah, air is made up of individual molecules of mostly nitrogen, as well as some other stuff.”
“Nitrogen?” Malena was growing a bit disheartened.
“They didn’t teach you about the twenty elements?” Lilith raised an eyebrow.
“No, they didn’t,” Malena said. “I’m not in the research track.”
“Huh.” Lilith blinked. “Well, uh, atoms. Let’s just stick with atoms for now.” She shrugged. “Now, absolute temperature. Well, let’s just say instead of heat being some mysterious energy like phlebotinum, it’s just how rapidly these atoms are moving and wiggling around.”
“That’s an interesting theory. I haven’t heard of that one.”
“Yep.” Lilith agreed. Of course she hadn’t heard of it. “Anyway.” She took out a paper. “As pressure goes up, according to that equation, temperature will also go up. Now, sound is actually waves of pressure on those atoms. That’s why you see waves when sound hits water or sand.”
“Wait, you do?”
Lilith took a glass of water from her nightstand, poured out a little, then tried demonstrating. However, whistling didn’t work. “Er, hold on.” She went back to her side, found an iron bowl, and heated it up until she could shape it into a passable horn, then cooled it. “Alright… and, there. Let’s test.” She blew into it and it made a powerful noise.
Malena covered her ears.
“Nice! I made a horn!” Lilith said. Then she came back over, blew the horn over the water, and there were waves.
“Huh.” Malena stared down. “Okay, so what does that have to do with the tube?”
“Well, because of its length, this tube will have pressure waves that always hit the end and come back, resonantly. Oh, right!” She took some lace lying around one of her sponges.
Lilith held one end of the lace and started moving the other end up and down, which formed a wave. Eventually the string had two equally large waves moving up and down. “So, because it’s resonant, that is, it bounces back right at the end, you can tell where it’s going to be high pressure and low pressure.” She let go of one end of the lace, but kept it locked in place with her telekinesis, then pointed to the top of the large part of the wave. “High pressure.” Then, she pointed to the bottom. “Low pressure. But the low pressure can’t transfer as much heat because there’s less pressure and so less atoms, I think. So, you can say the cold, low pressure area could be placed in the middle there.” She pointed.
“I… think I get it?” Malena squinted at the lace, water, equation, and tube. She didn’t get it.
“Alright then, let’s try it. I saved some lunch just for this.” Lilith pulled a couple sliced mushrooms out and placed them on Malena’s nightstand next to the water.
“Wait, you just had that on you?”
“Of course!” Lilith then put the tube-engine into the end of the horn she just made and blew for a bit. Then, she took the tube out and pressed it against the mushroom, freezing one side of it in a few seconds. “There! Frozen mushrooms! Wanna try one?”
“I’m good, thanks.”
“How powerful is this thing though?” Lilith asked, then levitated and molded the tube-engine so the cold end was facing out of the horn, before placing it in water. Eventually, after a few obnoxiously long blows, ice started forming around it.
“There.” Lilith painted a few times. “Ice!”
Malena, still covering her ears, was actually fairly surprised. Ice could usually only be produced by nature or by cryo mages.
But then someone pounded at the door. “Hey, can you quiet your horn-playing down please?”
“S— Sorry!” Lilith called back.
“Yeah, maybe put that away,” Malena said. “Still, that’s… actually really something. Have you talked to any of your teachers about this?”
“No, they’re on break.”
“You should tell them. I think you’ve made something really interesting there.”
Lilith sat up. “Wait, Really?”
“Yes really. You just replaced cold magic with… music, I guess?”