Following the river downwards, Lilith seemed to go faster than she should’ve been able to just by kicking her flippers, so she was probably using her magic. So Silene used her own bio magic to boost her flipper kicks. She was glad she could keep up and didn’t have to be carried here. In fact, she was practically the one carrying Lilith: she knew nature and caves more, and her light motes were the only way they could see down there since Lilith’s electricity wouldn’t work well underwater.
There were a few bends in the river that the wire rubbed against a little, but Lilith had the rolled end, so it didn’t pull them back at all.
Silene looked around after they kicked for a while. The area they were in was still fairly large, and she saw a few flat mirrors at the top of the cave. So, she tapped on Lilith’s shoulder, then pointed at one and swam up.
It turned out the ‘mirrors’ were a small pocket of air, so they surfaced, and Silene took off her regulator, followed by Lilith. They could put their heads above water without touching the cave ceiling, but they couldn’t go any further.
“The river’s still carrying air,” Silene said, smiling. “We might be able to take some breaks if we use these!”
“Mhmm!” Lilith nodded excitedly, then looked down at the water. “I don’t really want to take a break now though. I wanna explore!”
Silene shrugged. “So do I,” she said. “Let’s go then.” She put her regulator back in, then stopped kicking her fins and fell back underwater.
There were several other air pockets above them as they swam downwards, following the river. It was nice to know they could pause any time they wanted, and the smooth rock around them and occasional fish were beautiful.
Then, there was a fork. Ahead, they could continue with the main river, where it started going back up, or go down a large branch that went almost straight down. Silene kept following the main river, but then Lilith tapped her shoulder and pointed at the downwards branch.
Silene squinted at Lilith. Why would she want to go down that underwater abyss? The river was clearly going the other way. So she shook her head and pointed ahead.
Lilith shook her own head in turn, then looked around and pointed, but not to one of the paths.
Silene looked up, and Lilith was already swimming up to one of the pockets of air, so she followed her until they both surfaced. This one was a bit bigger than last time, but they still couldn’t do much more than put their heads over the water.
“I wanna go down there,” Lilith said after removing her regulator.
“Why?” Silene raised an eyebrow. “The river goes that way, and that abyss looks terrifying!”
“I know,” Lilith said. “But if we go deeper, we might find rare minerals.” She clenched her hands into fists, still excited even though she looked a little worried herself. Then, she pulled up her gauge and showed Silene. “And the needle barely moved! If yours is like mine, we could go so much further.”
Silene picked up her own gauge, then showed Lilith. Her needle was identical.
“Huh,” Lilith said. “I would’ve thought bio magic would mean you’d need more air.”
“Why?” Silene tilted her head.
“Speeds up bodily functions,” Lilith said. “All of which need oxygen.”
“That’s not exactly how it works,” Silene said. Lilith was partially correct, but some bio mages could learn to bypass that requirement a little. How that worked, no one knew.
Then, as she thought about the air, she realized the air in this bubble was acrid and chalky. That shouldn’t have been right. Fresh air should’ve been carried by the river, but now that she thought about it, this was matching descriptions some miners would give about dangerous mines.
“Lilith, put your regulator back in,” Silene demanded suddenly. “We’ll go down, but I don’t think we can stay here.”
Lilith nodded and did so.
Silene put her own regulator in, then swam down into the darker path Lilith wanted, lighting up the way with her motes.
After they went down the fork, the current slowed down to a crawl and they had to push themselves more, but it was still a leisurely swim.
There weren’t as many pockets of air down here, but they both admired some of the rarer tiny fishes and different colored rocks as they swam, eventually getting into the rhythm.
Later, Lilith pointed at an outcropping below them by some smooth black rock where some air was leaking out, then surfaced there.
Silene surfaced beside her, her mouth barely above the water before her head touched the ceiling. “Is this air good?”
“I think so,” Lilith said. “Graphite is used to filter stuff, so it should be fine.”
“Huh.” That was news to Silene.
“I want a chunk of this,” Lilith said, her hand on some of the graphite. “Can you get it for me?”
Silene nodded, then reached out and used her earth magic to break off a small piece before handing it to Lilith.
Lilith stored it away in one of her scuba straps, then put her regulator back in.
Silene followed.
They kept swimming nearly straight down into the abyss for a while. Silene had to wonder how this had formed. The water barely flowed here, and it didn’t make sense for that to carve out a straight down path. Maybe some ancient creature burrowed to make this?
Eventually, Silene saw Lilith glance at her regulator and panic. She looked at her own: over a third of the air was used already.
Lilith tapped on Silene’s shoulder and pointed to a cave outcropping below and ahead of them that might’ve had another pocket of air..
Silene followed, hurrying now, then surfaced beside Lilith. This time, when she looked around, there was a whole open cave around them, with chunks of graphite and giant magicite crystals everywhere.
Lilith took off her regulator and took a few breaths. “I think the air’s good here.”
Silene took off her own regulator. “How did we use over a third of our oxygen?” She asked. “The needle barely moved before.”
“I don’t--” Lilith said, then paused and sucked in through her teeth. “Pressure,” she said. “Down here, the water pressure is higher, so the air is more compressed, and it takes more air to fill our lungs.”
Silene glared at her regulator. “So we’ve been wasting air? It didn’t feel like it was super condensed air or anything.”
Lilith nodded. “I don’t think our bodies would use oxygen any faster even if the air’s compressed.”
“Could we have reused that air?” Silene asked. “Or just held our breaths as we went down?”
“Maybe?” Lilith shrugged.
Silene sighed and drifted back. What a waste.
Then, she looked at the cave around them. Now that she really looked, there was life here that she’d never seen before. Small white bugs that looked like tiny crabs, beige slime dripping from the top of the cave, and tiny white specks that crawled along the wall and would hop off randomly.
Silene smiled, pulled herself up onto the cave ground, and stepped out into it, Lilith stepping out beside her. There was so much life around her that she’d never seen or read about before!
Then, they were yanked back.
Lilith looked down. They’d used up all their wire, and her spool was now empty.
Lilith laughed, then walked back near their water entrance, found a stalagmite, and tied the wire around it. After a pause, she pressed her mouth to the spool holder and spoke. “We found another cave!” She said, smiling. “We’re gonna explore!”
They both pressed an ear close to the spool to hear the response.
“What?” They barely heard Malena’s muffled voice.
“Silene, cover your ears,” Lilith said, before screaming. “We reached a cave! We’re gonna explore! Also you might need to yell back!”
Silene removed her hands from her ears, then bent down to hear the next response.
“Be safe!” they could both hear a muffled yell.
They smiled at each other, then walked forward into the cave.
Silene couldn’t help but be elated as she walked. Not only were there those few white bugs, but some larger and smaller ones, and different colors of those molds. She wanted to take some of them back so she’d have time to describe them, or maybe bring paper here, but just shoving unknown lifeforms into scuba straps right next to her skin was probably a really bad idea. So right now, all she could safely do was look. Still, it was exciting seeing so many new things.
She was shining a light mote right behind one of the slime molds, admiring the intricate veins, splotches, and other internal parts it had, when she heard Lilith speak up.
“Uh, I’m feeling tingling in my fingers,” she said. “A lot of it. I don’t think that’s supposed to happen.”
Silene frowned. Now that she concentrated, she could feel a bit of that herself. There might’ve been more life she hadn’t seen further ahead, but that symptom was a very, very important indicator of bad air. Miners said that before they died. “We need to head back,” she sighed, taking one last look at a strange hole in the wall.
A white, scaly, mole-like creature the size of her head stared back, then chittered quietly.
Silene backed away. If this was a nest, then she’d want to appear non-threatening.
The creature chittered some more, then jumped out at her.
“Wah!” Silene swatted the thing away, then grabbed Lilith’s arm and ran back.
About a dozen of those mole creatures poured out of the wall and chased after them. They were able to run back to the water entrance pretty quickly, panting despite the short distance, when Silene turned back and pulled Lilith before she tried to jump in. “They’re probably better swimmers than us.”
Lilith nodded and took a fighting stance, though she was wobbling a lot like she was drunk. The air had already reduced her to that state.
One of the larger moles jumped up to Lilith, but it was caught in rings of electricity before it was electrocuted to death.
Another one jumped at Silene. She used her earth magic when she smacked it away this time, and she could feel its scales and bones crack. Even its skin cracked apart a bit before it fell and twitched on the floor. She felt bad, but if they were going to attack her, she shouldn't hold back.
The other creatures saw this, then ran away back to their holes. Silene watched them leave, making sure nothing else came up. But after that, she noticed she felt even more of the tingling Lilith was talking about.
She put her own regulator in, then looked to Lilith. Her eyes were drooping, and she was leaning against a wall like she was about to fall asleep.
“Put your regulator in!” Silene said.
Lilith tilted her head at her, waking up a bit. “Huh?”
Silene rushed up and put Lilith’s regulator in her mouth. Then, took the wire from the stalagmite and tied it around her, before tying the end with the spool around herself.
She picked up Lilith and put her in the water, before hopping in herself. Then, she flicked the wire twice. That was the right amount of times, right?
But nothing happened. She flicked it two more times again, and then again. Was Malena not listening? Why did that have to happen now?
She heard a small voice from the wire, so she put it to her ear. “I think the wire’s stuck!” Malena was yelling. “Ethen says if we pull it any harder, it will snap!”
Silene clenched her teeth. She was exhausted and starting to shake from whatever was in the bad air, and Lilith was panting through her regulator. They’d be using their air fast.
“Lilith!” She took out her regulator and yelled, grabbed Lilith’s shoulders, and shook her awake. “This is an emergency! We need to head back up as fast as possible. Use your magic.” She wasn’t sure how aware Lilith was right now, so she needed to make sure she understood.
Lilith squeezed her eyes shut a couple times and shook her head, then nodded and took her regulator out, “Yeah, thanks. I feel a bit better already. Scuba air is much better than cave air!” She said that all in one breath, then breathed in from her regulator. “Let’s go!” She said through the regulator and dove.
Silene grabbed Lilith’s arm and dove as well. She pushed her bio magic so she could swim up against the slight current as fast as possible, then took a look at her air gauge. She had still only used a little over a third. Then, she remembered Lilith panting through her own, and pulled out Lilith’s gauge: half left.
Silene glared up, then kicked her fins even harder. They kept on rising, and the air in her lungs expanded in a strange way as they did.
They kept rising like that for a while, until she heard some strange popping noises close to her and felt itching, before she felt a pain in her arm. She gripped it with her other hand, but kept kicking.
But then she felt Lilith grab her arm and pull her down. Wait, why was Lilith using her telekinesis to go back down?
Lilith shook her head, then pointed to a small rash on Silene’s stomach that wasn’t there before, and then pointed to another air pocket.
Silene shook her head. They both should’ve known by now that the air pockets weren’t safe. Even if Lilith made a point about graphite, the cave they just went to had graphite in it, and it wasn’t safe.
Stolen novel; please report.
Lilith glared, then shoved her into the air pocket before she could react, and took out her own regulator, “We don’t have a choice!” She yelled.
Silene blinked, stunned.
“The air under your skin is bubbling out,” Lilith said. “That’s what that rash is! And that pain in your arm is an air bubble! I need to get those out or you might die!”
“Oh.” Silene blinked, then nodded. This must’ve been the ‘bends’ Lilith was talking about earlier.
Lilith pressed her against the edge of the wall. Silene realized it was so her mana sense could see everything, so she just laid back. Then, since they were both kicking their fins to stay up, she pressed one of the buttons on Lilith’s scuba system to let some air into her buoyancy bubble. And after that, she wrapped her arms around Lilith and pulled her up. She had more air to waste after all.
She watched as Lilith’s eyes scanned around, and felt Lilith’s mana sense move around her body. There were different squeezing sensations as she worked.
“So, Dr. Lilith,” Silene asked, smiling, “are we gonna be okay.”
“I think so,” Lilith said. “I’m moving all the air bubbles to your lungs. It should be fine if it escapes there.” Then, she gripped her own shoulder with her hand.
Silene glared. “Hey, heal yourself too. I can’t heal you.”
Lilith looked worried for a moment, then steeled herself and nodded.
“And tell me if you feel any tingling again,” Silene said. “I guess you feel it first.”
Lilith nodded again, but continued their work. They stayed in silence like that for a while.
…
“What’s going on down there!” They both heard Malena’s yelling again, now louder. “You’ve been down there too long and the wire’s still not pulling. Should we send Ethen?”
Silene, who had been starting to fall asleep while hugging Lilith, opened her eyes wide, took the spool, and gave Lilith a second to cover her ears before yelling, “No! Don’t come down yet! We’re dealing with the bends in an air pocket! If Ethen comes down without his own air he’ll suffocate! There’s too much bad air!”
As she gave her quick explanation, she felt a bit of dread. Now that she thought about it enough to explain it, this whole underground river was like a trap: They used more air the deeper they went, going up tore them apart from the inside, half the air pockets had bad air, and the wire they used couldn’t pull them up at all. It was like they’d already been eaten by some great creature and were trying to escape before they were digested.
Silene looked at her own air gauge, wondering how likely their escape was. It was under half. She picked up Lilith’s gauge next: under a third. It was possible they wouldn’t make it to the top.
She picked the spool and yelled into it again. “Keep talking! If we’re underwater, I’ll flick the wire once in response!”
Then, Lilith took the spool. “Keep pulling too! I think the wire’s stuck on something, but once we’re past that it should work!”
Lilith scanned Silene a bit more before nodding. “Let’s go.”
“Okay.” Silene nodded, put her regulator back in, and swam alongside Lilith against the slight current.
They passed by the same colorful rocks and small fishes from before, but now, when Silene looked at it all, it felt much deadlier. This river might have been beautiful, but it meant them harm. If they didn’t fight back and swim as hard as they could, it would use them as food for these tiny fish.
They finally exited the downward fork, coming back into the main river, and could feel the wire pulling them. Silene also felt a pain in her leg, but hid it. The river only went up at a slight angle after this anyway, so it wouldn’t be so bad.
Silene heard bubbles from Lilith breathing out as she felt pulling from the wire, but not Lilith breathing in, so she looked ahead to her. She was swimming as fast as she could and breathing out constantly, and her regulator was dangling beside her.
Silene kicked as hard as she could so she could catch up to Lilith and put her regulator back in, before she saw her gauge. It was at zero. She paused, then kicked more until she caught up, took a deep breath, and put her own regulator in Lilith’s mouth just as she’d finished her long exhale.
She blew her own air out of her lungs continuously as it expanded, like Lilith did, ignoring the growing pain and numbness in her leg, until Lilith handed her the regulator back.
They could see the surface now and the warm light of Malena’s lantern. They just needed to push a bit harder, go a bit faster, and ignore the pain. Silene let the air in her lungs come out of her gritted teeth as they rose.
Finally they breached the surface, and Silene scrambled to the edge. “Lilith, I need your help again!” She held her leg.
Lilith rushed over and held her hands over the spot. Silene felt an enormous relief when she could feel her leg again, and laid back.
“What’s going on?” Malena asked.
“She’s got air… everywhere!” Lilith said, eyes wide. “I’m not even sure I can get it all with my magic.”
Malena froze, then turned to the river, scooped up some magicite, and handed it to Lilith. “Use this!”
“How?” Lilith asked.
Silene squinted at her. “We studied this! Take energy from the magicite and use it for your magic.”
Lilith nodded, and the magicite in her hand slowly started to lose its shine, leaving only salt and sand behind.
Now that Silene wasn’t swimming for her life, she could feel her insides and the bubbles that were trying to pop out of her everywhere, but she could tell Lilith’s healing was working.
“What happened down there?” Malena asked, worried. “You’re both covered in bruises!”
“The bends,” Silene said, thankful for something to distract her from the pain. “I guess the air just gets inside you everywhere and expands as you go up.”
“Are you guys okay?” Ethen asked, also a bit freaked out.
“We-- we will be!” Silene said, ignoring the pain. “Right Lilith?”
Lilith nodded, still concentrating.
Ethen breathed a sigh of relief.
---
Back in Solis, Prince Keith was lying on his bed in the late afternoon, studying a book on the local laws, with another book beside him to help whenever it would inevitably use some words he didn’t know. It was more of the training Malena and Reinhold suggested, and while it was boring, it was better than nearly throwing up or passing out from exercising, or being yelled at all the time.
He paused at the end of one section to think about everything up until now.
Apparently no one liked him. Even his own father probably didn’t. He hardly ever saw his own mother. His teachers had either yelled at him or were afraid and gave into his every command, and the ones here were all the former type. Reinhold clearly didn’t respect him. And when he stole a glance at Malena earlier, he saw that familiar look of disgust on her face.
The only reason anyone listened to him was apparently because his father hadn’t ‘rid himself of him’ yet. If that meant disowning, he’d have nothing. He wasn’t even sure he’d be the same as a commoner if Reinhold wasn’t lying and those exercises were normal for recruits.
There were new faces he caught on a few people too. Not envy or contempt or disgust, but sneers. He saw it on some of the knights when they removed their helmets. It was like he’d been wounded just by being sent to Solis, and they could smell his blood.
He’d paused at the marriage section of the book. This would apply to him soon with Malena. Even if she probably didn’t love him, like no one else did, they would be together. What would that mean? Would it be good? Would it be bad?
He flipped the page and started reading quickly, his eyes glued to the book.
“Two point one,” he eventually read aloud “Upon entering into marriage, both parties agree to share all assets and status equally, unless otherwise specified in a prenuptial agreement.”
He flipped a few more pages to figure out what prenuptial meant here. “May opt to include provisions in a prenuptial agreement that specify the division of assets and status in the event of dissolution. By default, assets and status before marriage are returned to their original owners, and those during marriage may be decided in court.” So, if Malena wanted to leave him, she could take whatever the court decided. He knew courts could be corrupt, so if he wasn’t able to rely on Voldia to help him in court, they could take everything.
He turned a few pages to the section on ‘dissolution’. “In the event that a credible threat to one party’s life has been claimed, or the life of a family member, any party or member may find protective custody as well as present their case and evidence to court.”
He grinned. In order to exit the marriage, she’d need to show that he presented a threat to her life, or the life of a family member. He might’ve been many things, but he wasn’t that kind of monster. And it was really only that, or one of them had to die for the other to become a widow.
He thought about what it all meant. Even if his own father disowned him, he’d still be the prince of Solis by marriage. They’d share control of each other's assets, so he’d get access to whatever Malena had. That meant, as long as she remained princess, he controlled a significant portion of Solis. But what portion exactly?
He flipped to the section on laws around the king and his heirs. “Land, estates, and properties,” he read, smiling, then frowned when he read that the king could just say no to all of that. It seemed he couldn’t have everything.
He continued reading, “The king’s heirs shall always possess the authority to command at least one platoon from the kingdom’s army, as well as hire citizens working as mages, adventurers, or mercenaries.” He had a toothy grin now. Once he was married, no matter what, he would keep access to some military power. He could even choose which mages he wanted by him, so of course he’d choose the best he could find.
He put a bookmark in his book and laid back. “Oh Malena,” he sighed. Then he practiced out loud, holding his arm out, “To unite our kingdoms, a prince and a princess should really be married.” He let his arm fall beside him. “Neither of us want the tension we have between our kingdoms. We should do it as fast as possible, before my father gets the wrong message.” He wouldn’t give her time to think about a prenuptial, and if she did anyway, he could just claim it would be an insult to Voldia.
He smiled up at the ceiling, his muscles still aching as he drifted off to sleep. Maybe when they were married, he could give up all this work too. After all, Malena wouldn’t be able to exit the marriage no matter what.
---
Lilith woke, pulled off her blanket, and smiled up at the cave ceiling. She was in a partially built watermill without a roof, but the cave was above them, so it didn’t matter much. She also just escaped a disappointed wispy, who made her electronics and ball lightning practice a bit extra exciting. She could guess why: he didn’t like it when she almost killed herself.
Apparently neither did Malena, who looked up from a paper on a makeshift table of a plank on some rocks to glare at Lilith. “Still alive?” She asked.
“Yep!” Lilith grinned like she got away with a prank. “Not doing that again!”
“How’s this warning sign?” Malena asked, holding up the paper she was working on. “Did I get it all?”
Lilith read over the sign and thought.
[https://i.imgur.com/w6aThyv.png]
“Looks good,” Lilith said. “Your tank could get punctured too though, but I guess that’s still just ‘asphyxiation’.”
Malena frowned. “I would honestly rather not know any more ways you could’ve died.”
Lilith nodded, then looked around at her watermill. The roof still wasn’t built, Silene was still asleep beside her, and Ethen was gone.
Liltih checked Silene once more with her mana sense before turning back to Malena. “Where’s Ethen? He was supposed to be working on the roof.”
“I told him to lay the wood over all the holes in the cave,” Malena said. “Those are dangerous for everyone, including you flight mages if you don’t react fast enough. And it’s not really a second home here if you have to have a rope attached to you at all times, is it?”
Lilith frowned, but nodded. She almost fell down one of those holes herself earlier. Maybe the roof could wait. Still, it was a little disappointing that it wouldn’t get done today.
As a distraction from her disappointment, she wanted to try some of the new electrical ideas Wispy suggested. There were different ways of making light as an indicator for circuits: mainly gas discharge and blackbody radiation, and both required glass and vacuums. Luckily, her magic was powerful enough now that she could heat up sand into glass, even if it took a while, and the magicite here would help. So, she stepped out of the small building, walked to the river, and scooped up a bit of sand.
Then, she came back, poured the sand on the same ‘table’ Malena was working on--
Malena gave her a strange look.
--then she levitated some of the sand and melted it in the air, forming it into a small tube. It was about as large as she could manage, and slowly turned into a dirty glass test tube.
Then, she let that cool down, and slowly made a disc out of some of the other sand, then moved a ring of sand up on top of that, melted it, and repeated that until she had a beaker.
“Did you run out of metal?” Malena asked.
“No.” Lilith shook her head. “It needs to be glass so I can see through it.”
“Ah,” Malena said.
“So what’cha working on now?” Lilith asked while her glass was cooling. She could see Malena had some more papers in front of her, with a few scribbles on them.
Malena leaned back a bit. “I guess now that Ethen’s working on making the floor safe, and the sign’s done, my mind’s back to Solis.” She sighed. “I’m going to be Princess soon apparently. I wonder if this cave has little meaning. I could probably just give you land wherever you wanted.”
Lilith frowned. That was a tempting offer. She could have a place closer to home, where she wasn’t near so many things that nearly killed her, and could have materials carted from the city. On the other hand, she almost died for this place multiple times, they already set up most of a watermill, and she should be safe now as long as she didn’t go underwater. It’d be sad to let this place go at this point. So, she shook her head. “No thanks. I think the adit is almost set up anyway.”
Malena looked at the top of the wall, where the roof should’ve been. “Well I guess it’s further along than it would’ve been.”
“Mhmm.” Lilith completed her beaker, then rushed outside with it and the test tube, ran back by the river, and scooped up some water in both. Then, she ran back inside, put the test tube in the beaker, and started pouring her electricity magic into the water. It quickly started bubbling, filling up the test tube, before she stopped. “PV equals nRT, so let’s heat this side up.” She heated the end of the test tube glass up until it glowed orange, and the gas inside it expanded until it bubbled out of the open end in the beaker.
Next, Lilith leaned over to where the wire was laying around, cut an end off, then levitated it and poked it into one side of the glass. Then, she bent and closed in the other heated part with her magic, and levitated the whole section before stabbing another piece of wire into the other side.
After it cooled a bit, she poured a tiny amount of her electrical magic in, and the tube glowed bright purple. “Hydrogen.” Lilith grinned. “Oxygen would’ve been white.”
“So now you can do light magic with electricity?” Malena raised an eyebrow.
“Not quite.” Lilith shook her head. “This will only ever glow purple.” Then, she got up and walked over to Silene with her new gift. However, Silene was still asleep in her blankets.
Lilith knelt down and scanned her with mana sense, worried, but everything seemed fine. Then she scanned Silene’s head. Apparently she was awake, just resting her eyes.
“Hey, Silene!” Lilith poked her. “I brought you something!”
Silene opened her eyes and looked up. “What?” She asked groggily.
Lilith wiggled the light she made around, then lit it up with her magic.
“Oh, you made another lamp.” Silene smiled. “Cool.”
“No.” Lilith shook her head again. “This is for you. You helped me find this cave, so I had this cool idea: plants can’t grow in the cave because they need air and light, but we have no light magic plants, and even you can’t keep light up forever without them. But this can!”
Silene sat up. “How?”
“See that motor?” Lilith pointed to a partially put together motor by the giant watermill axle. “Once that’s done, it can make the same electricity I use to light this thing up, and then you could grow plants in here.”
Silene stared at the light. “It’s purple though.”
“Yeah, but plants only need purple light,” Lilith said. She knew about chlorophyll and how it worked.
“What?” Silene gave her a strange look. “Well, even if it did work, I don’t want to disturb the main cave environment too much. We already have two plants growing by the river.” She looked up, past the wall, to the cave ceiling. “I guess if it was in one of the branches, maybe.”
“Yeah!” Lilith fist pumped.
Then, Ethen came back with a few fish skewered onto one of the sticks that was previously covering one of the many pitfalls in the cave. “Hey Lilith, can you heat up breakfast?” He asked, then moved a bunch of the other sticks he was carrying in his magic forward. They’d be more than enough for a fire.
“Sure,” Lilith said.
---
As she ate breakfast with the others around the ‘table’, Lilith decided she’d risk trading some of the secrecy of her adit for more supplies, and wrote a letter to the person she was technically apprenticing to.
“Dear Dr. Crowe,
“I’ve been setting up in an old mine called the ‘Astral Adit’, so I can store and test things there. It’s not too far, especially for flight, and it has running water, which I don’t have to worry too much about polluting. I’ve even renamed it already: Lilith’s Adopted and Loved Astral Adit.
“Recently, I made a tank to store air so we could explore the underwater river in the cave. It was dangerous, but we found graphite, magicite, and some new animals down there. I’m curious what’s inside the caves around us that couldn’t be explored because they had bad air, and I think we can safely find out. At least, it’ll be much safer than exploring underwater like we did. Though we could explore under oil too, because there’s an oil trap in a nearby cave I’m curious about.
“If you can, please ship supplies like brass and copper plates and wooden boards here. In return, I’ve left some dragon scales we can’t use in a pile.
“Thanks,
“Lilith Smit”
“It’s fine if we sell the dragon scales, right,” Lilith asked Silene.
“Yeah,” Silene said, “better than them going to waste.”
Lilith got up and gathered them into a neater pile, careful not to cut herself, and was about to add the blue dragon scale, but decided against it. While the red dragon had strong, light scales, the blue one’s were so light that they drifted to the ground instead of falling. Not even Wispy knew of any material like that, though he said ‘aerogel’ got close.
“Hey, what’s Crowe doing with your inventions?” Malena asked. “Now that I think about it, I never saw anything you made, even in the castle. No loud ice makers, weird windows, or anything else.”
Lilith came back to her paper. “That’s a good question.” She wrote it down. “P.S., Malena wants to know what you’re doing with my inventions, since she doesn’t see any of them used in the castle.”