After a while of looking through different maps, Silene pointed at a blue marking on a map of the nearby mountains. It was by a river and a few other blue marks. “I think you’ll like this one,” Silene said. “The Astral Adit, now abandoned. It was a magicite mine, so you can use the leftover magicite as fuel for whatever you want to do. It’s right by a river like most magicite mines too, which you wanted. And if any of your experiments light on fire, the smoke should go up and out the adit, and there’s not much wood around for the fire to spread to outside.”

Lilith nodded. “Abandoned Astral Adit. And it’s still really close.” She smiled. “I think it’s perfect!”

“There’s also an old oil trap nearby,” Silene moved her finger over the map. “And the river doesn’t drain into farmland.”

“Yep.” Lilith nodded again. “That’s where it’s gotta be. Lilith’s Astral Adit,no longer abandoned.” She thought for a bit. “Lilith’s Adopted Astral Adit. L-A-A-A.” She thought a bit more. “Lilith’s Adopted and Loved Astral Adit. L-A-a-L-A-A.”

“So you’re going off to lala land then.” Silene smirked.

Lilith paused, thinking about names a bit more, then shrugged. Astral Adit was good by itself, but the acronym had its charm. But more importantly, she wanted to check it out. “I could head there now. Want to check it out with me?”

Silene shook her head. “It looks like the shortest path would be about three hours by horse, and that’ll be over some rocky ground by the river. You said you could fly to it, but I can't fly. You should go with someone in your flight class instead.” She looked sad.

“I could carry you!” Lilith said. “Maybe.”

“Really?” Silene asked. “Well if you can do that, then I’d love to go!” She beamed.

“Uh wait, maybe I can’t.” Lilith frowned, realizing she might’ve been a bit over eager. “I can still just barely get myself off the ground.” Her shoulders sagged.

“It’ll have to be someone from flight class then.” Silene sat back.

Lilith shook her head. “No, you found it, so I feel like you should see it first. Besides, I’ve been working on some wings. Maybe they’ll help me carry you!”

“I don’t have to see it first,” Silene said. “But if that’s what you want, then sure.” She smiled.

Lilith balled her fist and nodded. “Yeah, I just gotta finish those wings!” She waved and ran out. “I’ve got some work to do!”

---

It’d been a few weeks, and Malena still stared at the grain of sand in her hand. Nothing was happening, and there was no indication that anything would happen. Her time magic worked though. She was able to tell that it worked because when she dropped something into a beaker of water whenever Lilith was away, she could tell that the splash was regularly higher or lower depending on how she applied her magic. But even though she applied the same feeling to the grain of sand and tried to match what was in Lilith’s books, nothing at all happened. It was incredibly frustrating.

And only adding to that frustration was the cluttered room and Lilith’s constant scraping noises as she worked on her giant wing.

“Gah! Can you stop already!?” Malena almost shouted.

Lilith jumped back. “Sorry. There’s not much room in here.”

Malena frowned. “More like that wing is obviously way too big. Can’t you work on it somewhere else?”

Lilith frowned and shook her head. “No. The last place was flight class, but Cyla doesn’t want me bringing wings there anymore.”

“Why not?” Malena asked.

“She says they’re too dangerous,” Lilith said.

“Well they’re even more dangerous here,” Malena said, “with all those boxes and sponges everywhere.” She frowned at a tall stack of boxes. “You didn’t even manage to get rid of anything when you tried to sell them, did you?”

Lilith teared up a little. “This stuff is important to me. I need it for my work, and it’s only because of you and my parents that I can afford any of it in the first place.”

Seeing Lilith’s face, Malena sighed. “I’m sorry,” she said. “I mean, it’s a little annoying, but you’re working on finding a place. I shouldn’t have taken my frustration out on you.”

“Why are you so frustrated anyway? Are the boxes really that annoying?” Lilith asked.

Malena paused. She’d been trying to hide her practice of magic from Lilith since Solis apparently hadn’t trusted her with it, but was that actually a good idea? After all, Lilith had trusted her with the fact that she knew dark magic, even if she didn’t know it was prohibited at the time. And Lilith knew a wide range of magic and practiced it constantly, so she’d probably be helpful. The only problem would be if she couldn’t keep a secret. Lilith seemed a bit like the type that couldn’t keep a secret, but no one knew she was capable of dark magic, so she actually could in fact keep a secret.

After her moment of contemplation, Malena turned back to Lilith. “I want you to keep this a secret, but I’ve been practicing magic.”

Lilith tilted her head. “Like your time magic? I mean I told you to do that.”

Malena shook her head. “No. I’m trying to figure out teleportation magic. You know a lot of magic. Do you think you could help me?”

Lilith shrugged. “I don’t know teleportation, so I don’t know how helpful I’d be. What are you trying?”

“I’m imagining the grain of sand I’m holding in another location, and I’m applying the same feeling from when I use time magic, but nothing’s happening,” Malena said.

“Maybe try something smaller than a grain of sand?” Lilith shrugged. “I was able to lift smaller things before I could lift myself, so maybe if it was a piece of dust or… oh, maybe if you crushed the grain of sand into smaller pieces.”

Malena paused. “That might not be a bad idea.” She put the grain of sand on a piece of metal on her nightstand, then used the beaker to crush it into smaller pieces. Now when she concentrated… there was still nothing.

“Good luck!” Lilith went back to blunting the edges of the metal on her wing as the sun went down.

…

After sunset, the wing was finally finished. With a bit of effort, Lilith could pick the whole thing up, and it seemed about as sturdy as the last one. It just used small t-beams welded together into squares instead of large flat sheets of metal. Now, she just needed to repeat the entire process with another wing.

At the thought of that, Lilith felt nearly all the energy drain out of her, so she closed the wing and collapsed on her bed. She still didn’t feel quite like falling asleep though, so she pulled some papers she’d been working on out from her nightstand.

On the papers were various graphs with titles like “Carnot Cycle”, “Sound Engine”, “Steam Engine”, “Wind/Steam Turbine”, and “Oil Engine”. The axes were always pressure and volume, and some of the curves she calculated were fairly complicated. She had an equation “W=∫PdV” and a lot of work under them, but she found out she could just bend some ribbons of metal to match the curve, cover both sides, and measure the volume of water it would fill with.

Unfortunately, while the engines all promised to bring faster carts and let her travel around more, and maybe even fly faster—which was her main goal since she knew she’d hit a limit eventually—they all had their problems. The carnot engine didn’t exist, it was just the best possible theoretical engine. The sound engine was mostly useful as a refrigerator, and even if she somehow converted the sound it generated into force, it would be so inefficient it wouldn’t do much. The steam engine would work, but it was almost as inefficient as the sound engine, so whatever she made with it would have to be mostly engine. The turbine was way more efficient, but after making her wings, the thought of actually making all the spinning blades for it filled Lilith with dread. That just left the oil engine, which was simple and could be made relatively efficient, but required something that could make sparks without her.

So, as she fell asleep next to her giant wing, she resolved to ask Wispy how she could make the sparks needed for the oil engine.

Meanwhile, Malena had pulled out one of Lilith’s books from her nightstand. Lilith seemed to not notice or care about its absence, so Malena could at least use it to take a break. She read over the time magic section and frowned at a few sentences: ‘practitioners of time magic often have shorter lifespans. This isn’t the case for all people with high time affinity, only those that constantly use time magic. The common belief is that one's lifespan adheres to their perceived time, not real time.’ She grimaced at that. Yet another reason to avoid using time magic if possible. In fact, she’d tell Lilith not to use it if she could help it.

---

Lilith walked up to Wispy after another dream of fighting to find a spool of copper and a stack of zinc and copper plates in a glass tube, both waiting at the shore.

"What are these?" She asked.

"You want to know how to make sparks without your magic," Wispy said. "The pile is a voltaic pile, a battery that produces electricity by galvanic corrosion, using the salt water to carry the ions between the metals. The coil of copper wire is the wire you will need to complete circuits."

Lilit bent down to pick up the battery, grabbing it by the two wires sticking out of the top. However, once she grabbed the wires, there was a blinding white flash of light.

“AAH!” She yelped and covered her eyes.

“You might’ve died right then if that was a real high voltage battery,” Wispy said. “Even you shouldn’t be touching electricity.”

Lilith frowned and carefully tried picking up the battery in her magic, only for electricity from the wires on the side of the battery to arc electricity into her electrostatic rings and throw them off. The battery flipped over rapidly, slammed against the ground, and several of the plates fell out.

That battery faded away, and another one drifted in from the lake, along with a few pieces of leather.

Lilith took a deep breath in, blew it out, and then picked up the battery with the pieces of leather. She was able to move it safely now, so she moved it further away from the shore to get some more space. It was strange how it was like picking up a light ball of fur even though it looked normal, but that was just Wispy's magic. Next, she went to pick up the wire with the leather.

"You don't need to be as careful with the wire," Wispy said, "as long as it's not attached to the battery."

Lilith squinted at him and continued holding the wire with the leather. She delicately pulled out a length of wire, heated the copper in one spot with her magic, and pulled it off. Then, she used her magic to weld one end of the wire to one of the battery's wires, then tapped the other end against the other wire. Once she removed it, it made a small spark.

She looked up at Wispy for approval.

"We're getting there," Wispy said. "But there are two problems. The first is that the spark is too small. Second, put your hand against the glass while you hold the wire against the battery terminal."

Lilith guessed the wires sticking out of the top of the battery were the terminals, and pressed the wires together, this time using her telekinesis while she held her hand against the glass. It started heating up. It was slightly cold, then warm, then hot enough that she had to remove her hand. And then, it started boiling.

She pulled the wires away, making another small spark.

"The problem is the resistance in the circuit: the battery has its own internal resistance," Wispy said. "This resistance is much greater than the resistance of the wires, but it is still small. Because it's small, the circuit heats up a lot, and the resistance of the whole system it's mostly in the battery, the battery is what heats up the most."

Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

A small chunk of wood floated in from the shore.

Lilith walked over and picked it up.

"You can make a resistor by pushing your electricity through one side of the wood and gathering it from the other," Wispy said.

"That'll just burn it," Lilith said.

"Exactly," Wispy said.

Shrugging, Lilith poured in her electricity, which created a lightning pattern in the wood until it reached the other side.

"Now, plug both terminals of the battery into both ends of the lightning pattern using the wire and check how hot it gets."

---

A few weeks later, Lilith had a stronger understanding of electronics and her wings were finished. It was almost the end of summer, but they had a bit of time left, so she headed over to Silene’s room with a backpack and a couple giant wings folded on her back, held up by her magic.

“I got the wings!” Lilith said once Silene opened the door.

“Oh, so we can go!?” Silene smiled.

Lilith nodded. “Yeah, let’s go!” She ran out, unable to contain her excitement.

Silene followed.

…

Once they were out of the building and into the courtyard, Lilith tried flapping the wings. This time, they were driven by large coils around each other that matched her voltage, so they were easier to get up into the air just by flapping.

“Huh, your wings really work.” Silene stared as Lilith unsteadily took to the air. “Can you carry me with them?”

“Let’s find out.” Lilith stopped flapping her wings and stabilized her descent with her usual electrostatic rings, then grabbed onto Silene and tried flapping a few more times.

They no longer managed to get off the ground, though Silene felt a bit lighter.

“Huh.” Lilith tried flapping even harder as well as using her rings of electricity, and then just barely managed to get off the ground as wind shot down around them and onlookers rubbernecked.

“What if we both jump?” Silene suggested. “Three, two, one!”

They both jumped at the same time, then wobbled in the air as Lilith strained her magic. Then, the both drifted down as Lilith got exhausted.

“Let me help.” Silene pushed her bio magic into Lilith.

Suddenly, Lilith was able to push her magic a bit further, and managed to lift them both up into the air, accelerating until she was above the rooftop of the school. Then, she landed on the rooftop and let Silene go, so they both stood by the edge.

“Are you sure this is going to work?” Silene asked.

Lilith held her hands on her knees and panted, but nodded. “Once I get us up, I think we can just glide. Cyla has wings, and they’re super useful for going around fast.” She twisted so she could get to her backpack, then pulled out some rope.

“Also what if you drop me?” Silene asked.

“That’s what the rope’s for,” Lilith said. “Though maybe we should’ve put that on before we flew up here.”

Silene stepped near the edge of the roof and looked down. “Eh, I think I’d be fine from a fall this high.”

“Really?” Lilith turned her head to her.

“Earth magic,” Silene said. “I just apply it to my body so nothing breaks.”

“Huh.” Now that Lilith had the rope out, she walked over to Silene and handed her one end. ”Well, pass this to my other side so we can stick together. I don’t wanna test that.”

“Me neither,” Silene said.

It took a while, but soon they were tied together tightly and looking down from the school building. Most of the buildings around them were smaller, so they wouldn’t have to worry, and there was also a road nearby, then a park.

“Ready?” Lilith asked.

Silene took a moment to respond, then nodded. “Ready.”

Lilith unfurled the wings and fell forward.

They didn’t fall straight down, but at this rate, they were about to crash into a nearby roof, so Lilith poured a lot of her magic into making rings of electricity that would pull them away as well as tilt them up a bit. They managed to change from falling to going horizontal right before they smacked into a roof, then skimmed another building before Lilith’s rings of magic carried them up above the houses.

“Th— that was way too close.” Silene shuddered.

“Sorry!” Lilith said, then tried flapping the wings. She managed to gain a little bit more height.

Now they were a bit above the buildings, but they had to curve around the church, and the trees were coming up after that. Lilith had to struggle and use all her magic to get enough height in time. She was barely able to do it with Silene helping her with bio magic.

Then, they were over the trees. It was hard, but Lilith was able to keep her height over the treetops and glide. She could now follow the river until they reached the mountains.

…

About ten minutes later, Lilith was panting and sweating. “We have to stop.”

“Okay,” Silene said. “How do we stop?”

Lilith tilted her wings up, then poured even more magic into her rings to stabilize her descent and not crash into trees. She slowed over the river, since there was a gap in the trees there, then slowly descended over the river and wobbled back so they wouldn’t fall in and be carried away by the current. Lilith managed to only get scratched by a few tree branches and somehow not break anything when she hit the ground, which was a bunch of rock.

“You’re welcome,” Silene said, panting a little. “I’d prefer not to have to use my Earth magic on you though.” She frowned back at Lilith.

Lilith collapsed backwards, but her wings and her magic ensured her head didn’t hit the ground hard, and there was grass nearby. “Thanks…” She panted.

“Break time,” Silene said, then untied the ropes and sat down next to Lilith. “I think we’re about a third of the way there.”

Lilith panted a few times, then asked, smiling, “can you carry me the rest of the way?”

Silene laughed. Then she looked up. Would Lilith be able to take off again with this tree cover? She might actually need to carry them both for a bit. “Thoughts for after we rest.” She laid back.

…

A few minutes later, Silene stretched and sat back up. “Alright, I think we’ve rested enough.”

“I’m still not ready to fly…” Lilith said with her eyes half open.

“Hop on my back,” Silene said. “I need to give you a piggy back ride to a clearing you can take off from anyway.” She knelt down.

“Can you really move with me and my wings?” Lilith asked, but got onto Silene and held on.

Silene stood up, then started walking forward. “Oh yeah, looks like I can.”

Lilith stared down in disbelief. “How strong are you!?”

“I’m a bio mage.” Lilith could feel Silene shrug. “So I’m about as strong as humanly possible.”

“Wow.” Lilith looked down. It didn’t seem like Silene was struggling, and the trees were passing by smoothly. It felt like a normal walking pace. “I guess you ended up carrying me to the Adit.”

Silene shook her head. “It’s going to take a lot longer to get there if we walk, and I’d rather we borrow a horse if we’re just going to do that. No, once you’re rested enough, tell me and I’ll look for a clearing.”

“Okay,” Lilith said, then checked over herself. Was she well rested enough? Not quite yet… so she leaned forward and tried to rest some more.

…

A few minutes later, Lilith felt rested enough, and they found themselves in a clearing by the river

They redid the ropes, and Lilith flapped her wings, struggling until they were over the treetops again. Then, they glided, rings of magic keeping them up as they fell forward.

“Hey look, a dragon!” Silene pointed.

Lilith looked. Off in the distance, there was a dragon perched on a few trees looking down into the forest, probably waiting until some animal wandered close enough to it. “Oh. Good thing we didn’t go that way.”

Silene nodded. “It’s probably best to stick by the river.”

“Yeah, away from that thing,” Lilith said. “I couldn’t defend if I’m this exhausted. It might be able to swallow us in one bite!”

Silene shook her head. “They’re not that big. It could maybe get a chunk of your arm if you let it, and I think I could use my earth magic to defend you.”

“Are you sure you’re not a bit overconfident?” Lilith asked.

“Says the one who tried to fly me all the way to the mountains and had to be carried.” Silene smirked.

“Hah.” Lilith laughed and flapped the wings to maintain altitude. “Got me there.”

…

Eventually, they made it to the adit. It was a large cave opening in a rock wall with a powerful river forking off into it. When Lilith finally touched down, she fell forward against the stone ground, and Silene had to hold both hands out to catch them both.

Silene untied the ropes around her, then stood up, being careful not to knock Lilith into the river. Then she looked back down at Lilith, who was still face down on the ground, panting heavily. “Are you okay?” She asked.

Lilith panted a few more times. “Half my vision is colorful triangles…” she said, “maybe I should check.” She panted a few more times. “I think I’m too hot, and my brain is swelling against my skull.”

Silene grimaced. "I think you’re close to having a heat stroke," she said. "A few of the more stubborn farmers got it working in the middle of summer. And you were definitely overheating. I could feel it." She looked at the river. "I think you should be fine if I get you in some cold water."

Silene looked around, but the water around here was too fast. However, the water going into the cave sounded less chaotic than the water outside, so she decided she would take Lilith there. She knelt down, pulled Lilith’s arms out of the backpack, pushed the wings off, and dragged her out before switching to a bridal carry.

Then, she used her light magic to make several motes of light surround her as she ran into the cave. The water was still a bit too rapid in most places, but after listening to Lilith pant harder than herself as she ran, she found a calmer pool.

Once there, she quickly stripped Lilith down to her underwear, then gently placed her into the pool.

“Oh, that’s nice…” Lilith smiled.

“Think you’re going to be okay now?” Silene asked.

Lilith held out a thumbs up. “Probably!” She let her arm drop back down. “Maybe I should use some cold magic on my brain next time… but that’s dangerous.”

“It might be worth a shot, but yeah, using magic on yourself is dangerous. Don’t turn yourself into an ice cube,” Silene said. “Are you feeling better?”

“I think I’m starting to,” Lilith said. “I can see more. I think if I just rest for a bit it should be fine.” She closed her eyes and laid her head against the edge of the pool.

Silene sat down beside her, then shuddered and looked around to see if some animal was watching them.

“Oh, sorry.” Lilith smiled up at her. “I’m using my sense magic to see you since you’re on my blind side.”

Silene felt the weird sensation go away. “Oh, weird. It felt like someone was watching me. If it’s just you I guess it’s fine though.”

“Wanna hop in?” Lilith asked, splashing some water towards her.

“I’m good.” Silene lied down by the pool

…

A few minutes later, Lilith crawled out of the water, stood up, and used her magic to heat some air and dry herself with it, then put the rest of her clothes back on. “Alright, I can see now, my headache’s gone, and I feel good! let’s explore this place a bit!”

Silene stood up, her motes of light following her. “Alright!”

---

Back in Solis, Reinhold was looking over a few documents in a small library by himself.

The door opened and another Voldian knight walked in holding a paper. “Another complaint, sir.”

Reinhold took it and glanced at it, then saluted the knight so they could leave before reading it fully.

“Dear Knight Commander,

“I'm not sure why there seem to be more and more of you guys around, but if you're going to come in here, take over adventuring, then leave, then you're not our allies. You're just taking the cowardly way of fighting us, and for some reason our king is too stupid to kick you guys out.

“If you really are our allies, and you're so scared of our magic, why don't you give us more materials for these runes you're so proud of, so you aren't the only ones with runic armor?”

Reinhold smiled at first as he read it. After all, less adventurers and mages meant less accidents, so their complaints were a good thing. He thought back to a report he got of some adventurer teacher putting Alec’s student in the hospital after a PTSD attack, and how she almost accidentally killed someone with magic herself later. The admiral was right: uncontrolled magic and mercenaries were both dangerous.

However, this adventurer had a point: Voldia had access to much more of the magicite needed for runes than Solis. He didn’t see any problem with shipping some of it over if it meant more Solis adventurers could use a safer form of magic. They were allies after all. This operation wasn’t meant to declaw, just remove magic that could easily be used for terrorist attacks. Heck, the runes were great enough that they could detect someone’s state of mind! If that adventurer that attacked Alec’s student had runes on them, he wouldn’t have been able to carry out the attack in the first place!

Reinhold pulled over a piece of paper.

“Dear Admiral,

“Requesting: one ton of magicite and ink.

“Reason: Solis doesn’t have enough magicite at this point to replace their magic with runes. Magicite mines have been shut down. This shipment will fix that issue temporarily before they open up new mines. It will ensure we can replace dangerous magic with safer magic, pacify the populous more, and Solis will be able to stand on its own if we need to leave.

“-Commander Reinhold”

He folded the letter, found an envelope, and stood up. He sealed the envelope as he walked out the room to find a messenger.