Pruned Trees Re-Sprout!! ~ Ragazza Volpe Magica ~

"WOW!" Nina rushed out of the car and ran towards the PTRS guildhall. The little bird looked up at the former motel with bright eyes. With a beat of her wings, she took to the skies without a care in the world, shimmering rhythm fluttering free in her wake. She was quick in the air and circumnavigated the property in no time flat.

By the time she touched back down next to her Maestro, the other guild members had filed out to see what the commotion was about. Even if Nina found herself slightly winded, she still brimmed with excitement.

"Colette! You have to see this!" the small Resonator chirped.

"Huh? WhaAAAAA--!?"

Poor Colette was pulled into the sky, screaming the entire time as her new Resonator took her around the property by way of flight.

"You can do that?" Taika asked, noting the ease by which the phoenix girl ferried her Maestro around the sky

"Yeah," Albarich said, having joined the commotion outside. "Observe." Just like with Colette and Nina, Albarich grabbed Emily's hand and pulled her into the sky too.

"WAIT WAIT AL!" the princess too, screamed as she was pulled into the sky.

Though amusing, there was a subtle difference between the two Resonator-aided flights. Where Nina took off leaving behind shimmering silver rhythm, Albarich's wings let loose sparkles of red and blue.

"Most Resonators with flight capabilities can carry people with them, but rapidly drain both the flyer and their passenger," Shouri explained.

"Ah," Taika nodded. She vaguely remembered Rynda carrying Makani in the sky during their fight against the big Scherzando all those months ago. Now that she thought about it, it had been a long time already--hadn't it?

"Everyone let's meet in the office, Resonators too!" Shouri called. "I have some announcements," he stated as Colette and Emily returned from their impromptu flights.

"First order of business," Shouri began the meeting. "Do we have the solar ossias?" asked the guildmaster of Vince.

"Yes sir! Zephyr now knows all twelve solar ossias, so we're ready to pass them out," Vince stood at attention. From what Emily told Shouri, their guild's youngest threw himself into the task when it was asked of him and his fairy. He was thankful to have such dedicated friends.

"You're all welcome!" Zephyr chimed in with a pout. The unspoken demand was received by the gathered crowd and a small applause followed. The fairy was placated by the accolades and sat on her Maestro's shoulder with smug satisfaction.

"Good, that leads me to our next item: Me and Colette were attacked by a vampire in Lyreann," Shouri announced. Much muttering followed between the gathered guild members. "I'm gonna be honest--we didn't stand a chance. If it hadn't been for a certain quirk of the vampire anatomy, I don't think we'd be standing here today," Shouri stated.

The room went quiet at that grim declaration.

"While vampires appear to be some kind of weird null element Resonator--they have a major weakness to the sun, and by extension solar magic. Which is why I want all of us to be equipped with whatever solar spells we can get our hands on."

The plan of action earned quiet nods, the atmosphere in the room now tense from the revelation of the attack on their own.

"Third item--Elijah is stepping down from PTRS. This is unrelated to the vampire thing, he was already transitioning away from the guild; I'm sure we've all noticed his absence."

Mila raised her hand. She spoke as soon as Shouri locked eyes with her. "Hey, wasn't he like our money guy or something? What are we gonna do about that?" asked the cat.

"He agreed to train a replacement," Shouri paused, noting uneasy glances exchanged between the guild members, confirming his suspicion that no one else in their roster was up to the task. "I'm not going to ask any of you to fill his shoes. He did a lot of stuff in the background that I won't get into. But I'm going to look outside the guild to find someone that fits with our culture and is willing to do that role," he explained.

That announcement assuaged those fears of the gathered guild members.

Shouri took in a breath and exhaled sharply. He locked eyes with the newest member in their guild, who nodded and stepped forward.

"Finally, I want to invoke a circle of trust here," Shouri said. "What I am about to tell you does NOT leave this room under any circumstances. Am I making myself abundantly clear?" The sternness of Shouri's tone drew immediate attention to the Resonator now by his side.

After everyone voiced their agreements, Shouri continued.

"While we were in Lyreann, Colette picked up a new Resonator." Shouri motioned to the phoenix by his side. The gathered guild had seen her flying around before the meeting, so needless to say, everyone was curious about their new comrade.

"This is Nina," Shouri began. He took in a deep breath before exhaling hard. "Otherwise known as the Blaze Lyre of the Orchestra of Heaven."

Silence.

Cold, dead silence.

Those uninformed looked around wondering if they were alone in their shock. Emily kept her gaze averted from Albarich and Ritika, who both glared at her. Kaira sat in the back corner of the room, trying and failing to hide her fouling expression.

Miro had no frame of reference for the significance of this event and raised his paw in the air. "I am sorry, but I am sensing this is a--" he flipped open his dictionary, "--big deal?"

"Uh, YEAH!" Zephyr screeched.

"That's an ETHEREAL!" Mila shouted, pointing at the bird girl.

"We have an ETHEREAL in our guild?!" Ritika shouted.

Shouri looked to the phoenix who simply smiled with innocence at the chaos she wrought.

In the cacophony, the Blaze Lyre spoke. "Hey!"

The room quieted and turned to the tiny phoenix in their midst. "I just want to be with Colette. You don't have to treat me any differently than any other Resonator. In fact, it's better if you don't."

"Why? Aren't you immortal?" Mila questioned.

Nina deflated at that comment, holding her arm and averting her gaze.

"Nina is immortal yes--Colette is not," Shouri filled in where the phoenix refused.

The implication was clear to the group.

"Okay, forget the last five minutes of conversation. Nina is part of our guild now and we care for our own--treat her well, she's going to be with us for a long time," Shouri addressed the group once more.

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"Right!"

Vince stood in the field a healthy distance away from the PTRS guildhall. Before him were his fellow guild members and leadership. Mila stood by his side and Zephyr fluttered next to him.

He led this exercise, and to say he was nervous was an understatement. His mouth was dry and it was difficult to find the words. He really wished the fluttering in his stomach would stop, but even so, he couldn't back out now--he and Zephyr had spent the past two days in a frenzy trying to gather all of these spells so they could teach the rest of the guild these magics.

After hearing of how his guildmaster, his mentor, almost got killed by their new enemy--running away was not an option.

"We have the most fires here, so we'll start there," Vince decided.

Mila stayed where she was, but Rebecca and Soot stepped forward. Everyone looked to Nina.

"Huh? Oh, I already have all my ossias, please continue though," said the phoenix.

Vince nodded. "Zephyr, you ready?"

"Lets do it!" she cheered.

"First up, Eruzione Solare, Legato!"

Zephyr focused, letting the fire in her heart burn bright, she gathered the solar and wind magic in her tiny body and unleashed a burst of light with a blazing wind that followed.

Rebecca nodded--this was a spell she already had from watching the Resonator Festa a month ago. "A blinding spell and a wide coverage spell, very useful," noted the Renard, as some tuners beeped in the background to claim the spell as their own.

"Next is Fiamme Sacre, Legato!"

Zephyr fluttered to Soot and flicked out a white flame for offer. The golem accepted the flame and it vanished into him with ease. He tapped his chest with his fingers and closed them into fists with a flick of his wrists.

"Oh, right, that one works like Purifica l'anima, it removes ailments and status debuffs," Rebecca recalled.

"The guy who taught us that one said it doesn't work on lunar elements for some reason," Zephyr warned.

"Noted," Shouri said, as he took in the "NEW!" that hung by the new healing spell in Rebecca's repertoire.

"Earth is up next!" Vince called.

The fires returned to their Maestros and the two earth elements took their place. Ritika was pumped up and ready to go. Kaira, on the other hand, looked more like someone had pushed a realistic cardboard cutout of the jackal into the spot which she stood.

While most of the other members of PTRS chatted with excitement about what spells were about to be shown off, only Pacifica paid the downtrodden earth element any mind. "She's getting worse…" whispered the otter.

"Huh?" asked Taika.

"Uh, I was just saying I wonder what the rest of the elements look like when mixed with solar," she lied as naturally as she breathed--she didn't want to put the jackal's business out there.

"Oh! Si! Yours are probably really cool!" Taika thankfully couldn't read her as well as Pacifica could read others.

Pacifica flashed a smile, though her gut protested how fake she was being right now--she was worried; she knew Kaira's secret and that made it all the more painful to see her like this.

"Erodendo Volontà, Legato!" Vince called.

Within Zephyr, she gathered the sturdiness of the Riterran crust within her. She focused hard, lest she be swallowed by the very soil which she lived. With the gentle balance in mind, she unleashed the power brimming within her. At the flick of her wrist, a gale kicked up, carrying shards of sand and rock that ripped through the field. This wasn't just a sandstorm, no, the fairy had turned herself into a sandblaster that could erode away any tough rock that stood in her way.

"And now, Brillantezza Polvere di Stelle, Legato!"

Between the fairy's hands she formed a black gemstone that when released floated behind her. The flat surface of the rock aligned itself with the sun shining above them. After a moment, she placed a hand on the gem and it vanished into sparkles of light.

"This one's a bit hard to tell what's happening, but it's storing sunlight. When you're ready you can either use it as a solar element attack or take in the energy it has gathered to restore your rhythm. It's pretty cool!" Zephyr told the two earth elements.

"I get a laser beam?! That's sick!" Ritika exclaimed, her tail twitching with glee.

Kaira slowly nodded, her reaction the tonal opposite of the cat by her side.

Pacifica eyed the rest of her fellow guild mates who didn't see anything amiss. Kaira was such a subdued presence normally that nobody saw anything wrong with her being quiet.

"Damn it…" cursed the water element.

"Huh?" Once more Taika caught the otter mumbling under her breath.

"I want to gooooo!" Pacifica lied, yet again.

"You are the only water element here, though we do just have you, Taika, and Albarich left," Shouri pointed out.

"Lunars!" Vince called.

Taika and Albarich stepped up next, ready to get their new spells.

"Eclissi Solare, Legato!" Vince called.

Welling up within the tiny fairy body was the gentle darkness of the lunar element. Should balance be lost, Zephyr knew she'd be swallowed up by the never ending void. Light and dark met and from the union of the two opposing elements came their form which manifested in a ray of black light that screamed through the air into the field.

"Woah, that one looked pretty sick," Albarich commented.

Shouri and Emily's tuners beeped in agreement, as Taika and Albarich added those spells to their arsenal.

"Follow up with Eclissi Lunare, Legato!"

Dark and light met again in the pint-sized Resonator as she took on a dark glow reminiscent of the same dark light that Eclissi Solare unleashed on the innocent field.

"This one is kinda hard to show off the practicality of, but while you're glowing like this any rhythm based attacks get pooled into you and get added to the next spell you cast," Zephyr explained.

"Probably more useful for us since we're tankier than the noble attributes," Albarich noted. Taika nodded in agreement. The two lunars exchanged a quick fist bump as they returned to their respective Maestros.

Two down, one to go.

Pacifica was the last one in need of this crash course in solar magic. She looked back at the rest of the guild while she did so. Her attention was fixed to Kaira. Despite standing next to Colette and Nina, she felt like a third wheel. It looked so familiar it reminded her of…

"Rebecca…" whispered the otter. Of course! It was like when they first met Lyle and Liza all those months ago! Maestro and Resonator talked so freely while their third wheel just sat off to the side, not involved, not invited. It was the same thing!

"Alright!"

Pacifica shook her head, she had to focus on the task at hand. But as soon as she was done…

"Zephyr, Uragano, Legato!" Vince cast.

"This is a big one! Watch out!" warned the fairy.

Calm gentle water flowed within Zephyr's core, tranquil waves that could drown her if she lost control. Water and wind swirled together and her hands flew skyward. Above the solar element formed a huge spinning mass of clouds. All present got to appreciate the storm clouds up close and personal, rather than observers at a distance. She launched her cloud-based disk and it sailed into the field, tearing up innocent grass and soaking the field in its wake.

"Apparently, when that one hits its target it traps them inside basically a wind tunnel kind of thing and batters them with rain. Pretty intense," Vince explained.

Pacifica nodded. It'd definitely have its uses alongside Dolina for trapping tricky opponents. Her mind drifted back to Desmond--could he escape that spell? He was slippery enough to evade them for that entire fight.

Once again the distracted otter shook her head. One more spell.

"Ciclo Dell'acqua, Legato!" Vince cast.

Zephyr created a ball of swirling white and blue and threw it into the air like the other weather spells.

Nothing immediately happened, but Pacifica heard the complaints behind her.

"Oh fuck, this spell sucks!" Rebecca groused.

The otter spun around to find the rest of the gathered guild struggling a bit – it seemed like they were having trouble breathing?

"Sotto!" Vince called.

"That one increases the local humidity, which supercharges water spells and makes breathing harder for non-waters. Kind of a way to slow down tricky opponents while getting the jump on them," Zephyr explained.

Pacifica nodded.

With all the new solar magic distributed to the entire guild, hopefully they'd be that much more prepared in case any other vampires decided to attack them in the future. For now, however, Pacifica wanted to sleep on what was presently troubled her.

Kaira.

The signs were there, and Pacifica didn't like it. She just hoped she had time to save this bridge before it burnt away from a phoenix's flame.