Lilia's Tale

Chapter 40: Mirror

"Y-You're gonna try to capture a vampire?" I said, dumbfounded.

"I don't think we have any other choice," Father confirmed.

"Do you even know how to find a vampire though?"

They both looked at me, then each other.

"W-Well, finding a vampire or any other yokai is hard since they are very good at hiding their demonic appearance, but we will find a way," Father continued.

"Is it really feasible in a month though?" I asked again.

"Hum," Kyo suddenly exclaimed. " We have a time limit?"

"Lilia will have to go see His Majesty in about a month, so yes we do," Father explained.

"Ah, right, I forgot about that. Then finding a vampire isn't exactly worth bothering with. It simply won't work."

"Unless a vampire just happens to find its way to us, it won't"

"So...We're back to square one?"

"We're back to square one," Father confirmed.

Lunch went silent afterwards. I was slightly uncomfortable knowing that nothing went the way we wanted it to. This feeling only got worse as I thought further into the absurdity of having to catch a vampire. I did not know much about those, but the name alone told me nothing good. If this world's vampires are anything like those I read about, searching for one would be similar to suicide.

I sighed as I finished my plate and went to clean it. I could feel their gaze while on the way, but I decided not to let them bother as they went back to talking about yokais. I didn't want to stay in on the conversation so I instead headed back for the laboratory.

I arrived, entered, and instinctively went back next to the artifact. I didn't know what to expect from it this time, so I grabbed it and carried it onto the middle table, where we did the experiments last time.

I looked at it again for a bit before deciding to do as I did before, and pour a tiny bit of water magicules into it. The cup filled very fast, as I stopped the flow right before it hit maximum capacity. I was surprised it felt almost natural rather than painful, yet I didn't put much thought into it. Instead, I simply stared at it for a bit longer until the door opened.

Father came in and noticed me. I simply smiled back and expected him to go back to his table. Instead, he came towards the middle table, saying:

"Why is the Cataract here?"

"Oh, I moved here," I replied. "I also filled it with magicules."

"You filled it? Did it hurt?"

"Not at all, now that I think about it."

"That's a good sign. Maybe we'll be able to start working on your water magic again soon," he said as he went back to his regular seat.

"What did you two talk about while I was up here?" I asked, only mildly curious.

"We talked about different types of yokai and how they did to hide their appearance. Nothing useful came out of it though."

"That's not good. So, we're still blocked because we don't have a way to work things out?"

"Basically, yes," he replied as he went back to brooding over his papers.

I knew keeping on trying wouldn't do us any good, but I didn't dare telling Father to stop. Instead, I went back to the Cataract. I looked into the water, curious on what I could do with it, and decided to try and move it again. As soon as I tried doing anything, a sudden, powerful wave of pain halted any of my movement, and made me fall on my knees.