Growing Lilies

"No no no no nooooooo."

Adelina was muttering to herself and staring at Lily. The temperature in the room was dropping dangerously low, and Lily was grateful for the warmth billowing up from under the table. Lily gently reached over and pulled Adelina's finger off her 'button' spell.

"Uh... Is everything... okay?"

"NO! Of course not!"

The girl had been staring and slowly freaking out for over a minute now. Lily was still trying to piece together why. Something to do with her spell generating mana from heat? Some kind of broken law of magical thermodynamics?

"You're going to have to explain this to me. I'm really trying, but I just don't get it. Can I have a hint?"

"Hah! A hint she says. A hint. Okay, sure. About which part? The ramifications of your 'simple' spell on my society, on this world, or just on you and me?"

"Um. I guess you and me?"

Adelina's eye twitched, but she watched the girl visibly try to collect herself.

"If I didn't already know you, I would be thinking about how to kill you off right now."

"Come on, I'm not THAT annoying."

"Not because of-- Lily! Listen to me. Who else knows your magic can do that?"

Lily swallowed thickly. She'd expected Adelina to laugh it off. But the girl reached forward and gripped Lily by the shoulders, hard.

"I-- I guess Sunica? Maybe? I mean, actually, probably not. I don't think anyone does. Sunica's seen my magic, and Avea has a flask I enchanted."

"Enchanted with what?"

"Adelina, what is this about? I--"

"Enchanted with WHAT, Lily?"

"Just a simple water collection spell! It draws water out of the air and into itself, and lights up when its full. That's all, I swear!"

That seemed to give the girl a little relief, but then her grip tightened again.

"And the mana? Where does it get the mana?"

"Just from the ambient mana! I think. I thought about seeing if I could enchant it to create mana from being shaken around too. Since it's gonna be on him when he's walking, it'd be cool if that charged it a little. But I decided not to experiment too much on a gift."

Adelina's face changed expressions again, but confusion was a welcome change from whatever was going on before.

"Shaken?"

"Yeah! Like kinetic energy you know? I thought maybe I could reverse my push spell to have it generate mana from kinetic energy, or failing that from the thermal energy created by the friction of the water splashing around. It wouldn't be much, but I thought I should supplement the low ambient mana around here in some way you know? I just haven't experimented with that very much because before coming here I had a few accidents and also needed it less. And um... You're staring at me like I'm an alien again."

"Okay. No one else knows. I see. We're going to need that flask back, and any materials you have at Sunica's house. We'll destroy anything not irreplacable, and I can probably visit the Nor storehouse to get the rest transported to Avezare by courier quickly. We'll need to move fast too."

It was Lily's turn to shake the other girl for once.

"Hey! Focus up. Tell me what's going on. I'm not an idiot. I can help too if it's really that serious."

"I still don't know where to start! Listen. I knew your magic was different and might be useful. But you're telling me you can create mana from... From all sorts of things! Just throw together artificial leylines as you please. At MINIMUM every magic user in the world is going to want to make you do that for them. Not to mention everyone who's going to want you dead!"

That sobered Lily up quite quickly.

"D-dead? Why dead? I didn't even do anything!"

"Oh, I don't know Lily. If I were the leader of a powerful organization, say one of the [Matriarchs] of one of the Balaur nations who've basically spent hundred or even thousands of years building a nation on top of a natural leyline to empower my magic and have the best birthing spot possible for future generations, why would I care about a human girl who can just make them? Sure! Let's let everyone have one! That won't upturn my entire society at ALL."

"Okay. When you put it like that--"

"Oh no! Oh no. Not when I put it like that, LILY. There's SO MUCH MORE wrong with this. Like hey, you said heat can generate mana by creating cold right?"

"Well, it's more like it removes heat and cold is what's--"

"SHUT. UP."

Adelina was grinding her teeth now. But she continued.

"So, you're telling me that it would be way easier to use in the right circumstances. Like you know, rather than in the heart of a glacier, deep inside a volcano? Like the one the nation of Chenusha is build on?"

Lily was starting to see the broader picture. Her magic didn't just have the power to add some fundamentals to the world like a new invention. It benefited some people more than others. Which meant... She suddenly felt like a target was emblazoned on her back.

"Oh. Well! Wait. That's not the only way to make mana, I just think it's one of the more convenient ones because heat is everywhere. I'm sure there are loads of different ways! Electricity, or... Oh! I'm sure I've seen a spell disintegrate some matter for mana before. And everyone has rocks so..."

Lily stopped as Adelina let out a noise like she had been hit. Okay, Lily could see how that might have been the wrong thing to bring up. She tried a different direction.

"I-I mean I don't know how to do that one so it might as well not exist right? And I don't have to tell anyone about the rest. We can just pretend it never happened. I'll run all my spells by you until I know what's what. I still think I can teach you too, and then we can think of solutions together."

The balaur girl was groaning.

"Stop trying to make it better."

"Right. Sorry."

Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

"Okay. Here's what we're going to do."

Lily nodded.

"I'm listening."

"We're going to get rid of all the evidence around here. Then we're going straight to Avezare, where I will convince Mother to protect you. She'll likely have some demands in return, but I doubt there'll be anything me and you can't do."

"Woah. Wait. Demands? Protection? I thought we were going there to negotiate being friends."

"Yeah, Lily. That was before you told me that every nation in the world is likely going to want you enslaved or dead. How about we try for alive and protected and work from there?"

"You really, honestly think I'm in that much danger? Even if I just stop casting spells?"

To her credit, Adelina stopped and seemed to genuinely give it some consideration before she replied.

"Yes. I do. If we weren't friends... Lily, I'd be making sure that you didn't leave this room alive, or at least in chains."

"... Kinky."

"What?"

Lily shook her head. This wasn't time for nervous jokes.

"Nevermind. Okay, but what if I just stop using magic? I can pretend to be a [Lady] with no spellcasting ability. Easy right?"

"Sure. And then you go do things with that authority. Level up in political situations, until you're powerful enough to decide what to do with your secret."

"Why does it sound like you're being sarcastic?"

"Because I am, you dolt! If you're going to be acting in high society, you're going to be dealing with other political figures. Other political figures with skills Lily. Politics is about charm, information, and power."

Lily frowned.

"What about leadership?"

Adelina rolled her eyes.

"Oh yeah, the people in power are always the most qualified for the job. Definitely."

"... Fair point. But, I still don't see the problem."

"Lily, Mother would have a confession out of you in minutes. She can sense if you have something you're keeping to yourself, or when you lie. And she doesn't just have skills, she's also skilled. Political figures have skills, AND years of experience. Often lifetimes of it. Don't you remember our conversation in the cabin? Even I have some powerful ones, and I'm not high level."

"So what, she can just force me to blurt out secrets?"

Adelina groaned again. She looked close to tearing out her hair.

"Does anyone even have to force you? You keep telling me things like this with no regard at all for the implications!"

"Hey, that's not fair! This stuff is totally normal where... Okay. It's not. But still! I didn't realize it needed to be a secret."

"Fine. How much else do you have in your head that you wouldn't think would need to be a secret, but might be world changing information though? I was dead wrong. You're not just important. And your seal was proof of that."

There was a knock at the door. Both girls went silent for a moment. Adelina rose and started over to it.

"Don't say a word until this door is closed again. And act normal!"

She opened the door. The moment the seal was broken, Lily could hear the world outside again. Once more she wondered if there was a way for her to extrapolate relevant glyphs from examining this world's magic. The man who had led them into the room to begin with pushed in a small cart covered in a number of food items Lily was unfamiliar with. She gave him a little wave and her best smile. He gave no reaction.

In what felt like seconds the food was loaded off the cart and onto the table. It was even arranged in a visually pleasing way. Lily wasn't totally sure how the man had even moved that quickly. Was that some kind of skill? How niche did skills get? Or maybe it could be used for any kind of organization rapidly?

Adelina gave him a quick thanks, and followed him back to the door. Lily got the sense that she was being a little rude. Was it the implication that she wanted to double check the door was properly closed herself? Nevertheless, the man didn't show any signs of offense, and as the sounds of the outside world were shut out again Adelina visibly relaxed.

"So, what kind of food is this?"

"Is that really what you want to talk about, Flamewalker?"

Lily shrugged. It did look interesting. Some kind of paste was spread over really quite fancy looking bread, and the other things looked like some kind of eldritch cross between a popsicle and a cake pop.

"While I'm putting everything on the table, Flamewalker isn't really my name either."

"...What?"

Adelina's voice was annoyed, and she huffily sat down next to Lily again.

"Yeah. Star made it up. He said that if I got to name him, he should be allowed to name me. I just kinda rolled with it."

"Then it sounds like Flamewalker is your name. Do you think it merits less value because it was given to you? What then of marriage names? Those adopted into other families? Do those warrant less value too?"

Lily bit her lip. Oh. She really hadn't thought of it like that. She'd had it in her head on some level that it was just dog silliness. But, when Adelina put it like that... She owed Star an apology.

"Ah. You're right. Thanks. I learned something."

"Well, I suppose that is why we were supposed to be here. And why I ordered this food."

With a deep sigh, Adelina reached forward and grabbed one of the slices of bread. Now that Lily was getting a good look at it, the bread looked fluffy and layered sort of like an open croissant, and spread on it was the layer of *something* topped off with a little bit of green. Some kind of wild chives? But Adelina was explaining.

"This is Sospeske. It's a paste made of fish, salted to help with preservation. Between the salt and the naturally cold conditions here it can keep for quite some time, even in households that don't have access to better preservation. It's somewhat of a local specialty, and the people of Veni don't think much of it. But the further you travel from here the more of a delicacy it becomes. In Avezare where we don't have access to fresh fish as easily, it commands a much higher price. Easily over ten times as much as it's worth here, and more for the quality stuff. It's often served after being mixed with cream and spread on bread. Taste some."

She practically shoved the bread into Lily's mouth. Maybe doing this while Adelina was annoyed was a bad idea. Lily winced, expecting it to be horrible. Fish and cream? But, her mind quickly changed as the flavor filled her mouth. Delicious! It was incredible! It tasted a lot like some salty smoked salmon and cream cheese. The little green onion flavored bits added a lot too. In a moment she was happily chewing away.

"It's good! Really good."

"Don't sound surprised. I'll get offended."

Adelina was almost pouting at her. Lily laughed. Compared to her anger earlier, this was so... cute!

"Sorry, sorry. I didn't mean it like that. I expected it to taste good to the people around here, but sometimes food is a culture shock until you get used to it, you know? Gotta grow the taste for it. But, this is just good."

Adelina nodded along, accepting that answer easily enough.

"Well of course. It's one of the things Veni does best. Avezare in general too, although several other balaur nations have their own local variations."

Lily suspected balaur from elsewhere would swear by their variety of... sospeske as well. What a name. It didn't roll easily off Lily's tongue. She wondered if that was because the translation spell didn't have a way to map the name onto something she would understand.

"What about those?"

She pointed to the pop looking things on the table. Adelina picked one up and bit into it with an ear shattering crunch. Lily's teeth hurt just watching. Was that solid ice?

"These are Fruska. Unlike sospeske, this is something you can generally only get in Avezare. It's made by dipping a stick into various liquids and flash freezing it one layer at a time by the balaur making it. Fruit juices, sugary cream, honey, all sorts of things really. Some psychos even like it with layers that are salty or spicy along with the sweet ones. I prefer mine entirely sweet."

She held it out to Lily to show her. It looked almost like a jawbreaker on the inside. Lily thought it might literally break her jaw if she bit into it like Adelina had.

"Uh... Do I have to bite it?"

The balaur girl rolled her eyes in response.

"Noooo. Some of us like to, others don't. It's up to you. And no balaur is going to expect a human to do it that way. You might break a tooth, and yours don't grow back do they?"

"Yours do?"

Adelina laughed. Lily still wasn't sure if she was joking. But, she reached over for one on the table. Adelina gently nudged her hand to a different one.

"They're made in a variety of hardness levels. Some of us like the crunch, others like them softer. Try this one, it's softer."

Lily did. It was good! It did taste all at once like somewhere in between ice cream and a pure fruit popsicle. The texture on the softer one was also weirdly... A lot like a cake pop. Just cold. Quite cold. Why wasn't it melting? It wasn't freezing in here.

Lily was about to ask, but different words actually came out when she opened her mouth.

"What are we going to do about all this?"

There was another crunch from next to her, before Adelina took a deep breath and laid back, leaving her feet under the table but otherwise laying on the floor.

"We'll cover things up here, and get you to my home as quick as we can. Then I'll use my power to try and protect you until we figure the rest out. That's all we can do."

"What about Flint?"

"The goblin? Are you still on that?"

Lily gritted her teeth.

"Yes. I'm responsible for him."

"We'll return him to his tribe. He's got one around here right?"

"Mm. Okay. If that's what he wants too of course."

There was silence for a few minutes, before Lily asked what was really on her mind.

"Why are you helping me? We haven't known each other that long. You said you'd have tried to kill me before. Why not do that now?"

"Because we're friends, you idiot."

"Huh."

Oh. Was friendship really something so simple? Suddenly her chest felt a bit empty. She missed Sunica.