Lilia's Tale

Chapter 71: Expectations

I went directly to the training area after I was done eating, curious to see how my summons were doing. To my expectations, nothing had happened, as the usual one came to take its place atop my head.

"I'm glad everything went well," I praised them with.

Not wanting to lose any time, I started working on getting a better feel for this elemental duality. I took the whole morning to analyse more closely how the moth felt when connected, as well as trying to create something similar in one go, even if on a smaller scale.

By lunch, Mark came to get me, mentioning that he had sent the letter as priority and would now be waiting for a response either tomorrow or Friday. The rest of the day was similar, with little progress. Thankfully, as nothing had happened, I was allowed to do the same thing again for the night. I was still curious on that weird sleeping pose I took, and decided to sleep with my real wings again.

To my expectation, I woke up being in the same pose, with the same feeling that something was missing. I didn't think much of it, hid my wings, dressed up and went to eat breakfast.

While I was going downstairs, I felt that the moth I stayed connected to was trying to reach me. I asked it what was wrong, and it told me that the fire moth was starting to look sickly. It worried me, but I couldn't do anything at the moment. I had to wait for Mark to wake up.

Breakfast was ready before he did. I went in and made sure to eat quickly so I could be here to ask him to open the door when he wakes up. Unfortunately, I saw him enter the cafeteria while I was eating. I waved at him to come sit and asked him if he opened the dormitory already or not.

He told me he did. I was quite overjoyed, rushed to eat and went straight to the training area, making sure not to forget anything on the way. When I arrived, I could see that the fire moth seemed to lack energy. It worried me, but I didn't know what was happening, I needed to hear from it directly.

I connected myself to it, hoping not to overwhelm myself from being connected to multiple summons at once. Thankfully, it didn't seem to be the case. I asked it what was wrong, and the only answer I got was that it felt cold.

I used fire magic to create a small fire next to it, hoping it would fix things. It seemed to, as it told me it started feeling a little better. I sighed out of relief that everything was fine now, and realised that I could have figured it out myself. It's a fire moth, it would likely need heat.

I gave it some more time in the morning to heat up before going back to training. By evening, I had gotten a better feeling on what that infused summoning magic felt like, ready to start practicing the direct summoning of elemental moths.

During dinner, Mark came to my table. I was hoping it was in regards to Father.

"Hey Lilia."

"Hello there. Any news?"

"Yeah, about that... Your father won't be coming to the festival. He said he has work to do. Though, apparently, he found your money. He sent a bronze coin with the letter, so I'm guessing it's yours."

"That's a shame. Well, it probably is. Could you give me it after dinner, then? I'll be in my room."

"Sure thing. And yeah, it is. I heard that the Great Summoner was always very involved and almost fanatical about work, never stopping or taking breaks, so I was hoping it would be a great change of pace for him."

"Well, if his work is that important to him, we can't really do much of anything, can we?"

"You're right!" he giggled.

We went back to eating and I headed straight for my room. I knew he was going to come, so I didn't take my bath right away. Instead, I thought about how I would start training, sitting at the desk. He eventually arrived, knocking on the door.