Vitae Memorandum

37-Overloaded Exchange

The four girls woke up to yet another morning, with even more work still left to be completed. All four of them had been keeping busy, between yesterday's intense fitness and the evening's tasks for the workshop.

Thanrie woke up especially tired. She had been practicing late into the night, after working extra late to get work done. After all of her activities yesterday, she had been left heavily distracted and had fallen behind in the work she had been left with. The jet-stream project ended up taking late into the night, even Ehryinae had left long before and she was the one especially interested in the thermal conduction. Eventually, she had been dismissed way later than anyone else, after most people had gone to sleep in fact. So instead, she did some late-night training, to clear her mind.

However, this had just left her with even more worries and even more exhaustion by morning. Everyone else had already gotten up, had breakfast, and was starting on morning tasks. Thanrie blitzed out of bed, a flurry of desperate motion, still a disheveled mess. Mhyl caught her halfway out the door, and dragged her right back inside, seating her into a chair.

"I had a feeling you were pushing yourself too hard. This is why no one can believe you're actually a princess, even your hair is a mess." Mhyl pulled out a brush and started going over Thanrie's hair, despite her protests. "If you're worried about where you left off last night, Ehryinae is already on it, from what I heard. Even last night, pushing yourself in the dark, you were making a bunch of mistakes. Clearly, you have something on your mind, what is it?" Mhyl was honestly using this great opportunity to get some information from Thanrie, at the expense of tending to her hair.

Thanrie gave in, considering hiding things from each other has caused too many issues in the past. "Uh, well, actually, most of it involves you. You wake up from your near death experience, recovering well enough, and suddenly you've got.. everything. I don't even know what happened to you, but you're suddenly like an unstopped whirlpool of talent. The little Mhyl, who we always thought was so meek, was suddenly too good at sparring, too good at sports, too good at dancing, and too good at music.. it's kinda intimidating. I didn't want to be left in the dust, I know I should be capable of more than I have been. I've just been going easy on myself, and I wanted to make up for it." Thanrie sighed, having gotten this news off her chest.

Mhyl was shocked at this insight. She wasn't aware of much of this, she had just felt inspired to make a difference. In that light, it really wasn't that different from what Thanrie herself was doing. Mhyl was impressed at how driven, determined, and almost brave Thanrie was for not only committing to this, but also admitting to it so freely. She finished up on Thanrie's hair, and made sure Thanrie otherwise looked presentable enough, just to complete the original task she had given to herself.

"Okay, then let's get back to it. Just be careful, you might be a human, but your stamina isn't infinite. Don't push yourself too hard." "Sheesh, I know, 'mom'. Can I just go now?" Mhyl and Thanrie momentarily chuckled at that, maybe Mhyl was really trying too hard as well. Thanrie was still expected to have some breakfast before working, to get her energy back, but otherwise Mhyl had gone back to her own tasks. Thanrie kept her breakfast simple, but still had complied.

"This is fun, can I try that again?" "Uh, the room is hot enough as is, can't you wait at all?" "But, but.. fine." Ehryinae sighed in defeat, she knew Lwyn was right. She could almost hear the Arch-Magus in Lwyn's own voice, scolding her for getting too lost in the heat of the moment. It was like when she herself was much younger, learning some of the intricate ways her flame gift could be used. This time, it was complex ways her own flame could be applied, in ways she couldn't even form by herself. Tools that augment and shape her gift to complete things she couldn't shape it to do herself. It was something of pure genius.