Lunadea
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Bookbound Bunny: Chapter 23
🕑 Added 2025-01-17 08:15:01 +0000 UTCChapter 23 - Incident
Time flew by for Lily, a testament to her unwavering dedication to her studies. Her relentless pursuit of knowledge made each day feel like a fleeting moment. She would blink, and suddenly, she'd be forcing herself to reluctantly go to bed, her mind still buzzing with the day's lessons.
After introducing glyphs, her job at the shop became far more enjoyable. While she never hated it, and sometimes the lessons were interesting, now she was actively looking forward to it. Her only regret was that she couldn't activate her work herself and was forced to wait for Camilla to use it.
Imagine a chef never being able to eat their own food!
Instead of teaching new crests, Arakil taught her more sigils for the ones she knew. Most notably the ones that controlled activation. It basically boiled down to storing a tiny amount of extra Mana into a sigil designed to trigger the glyph under a specific condition.
Lily now knew three types of activation: pressure, breaking, and toggle. Pressure was undoubtedly her favorite, as Arakil had alluded to, and Lily absolutely loved the idea of creating the "talisman" spells as he had described them.
After weeks of practice, she even successfully combined pressure and toggle to make herself a tiny lamp spell that she could activate by pressing down on the sigil combination as if it were a button, which would trigger the glyph. The joy of this achievement was palpable, a testament to her growing mastery of the craft.
It was probably her favorite creation. Since she had refined the spell to be extremely efficient, it meant that even the glyph ink, which Camilla deemed inferior, could handle it for extremely long periods.
Some of the limits on a glyph were absolutely fascinating and puzzling as to why they were considered a limit when they provided a beneficial effect. For example, her lamp spell had a limit of only projecting light in one direction rather than the default radial effect.
This was useful as it allowed her to direct the light away from her door and make her nighttime activities more subtle from any staff who might wonder why a light was coming from under her door. And yet, this useful feature saved Mana.
After weeks of seeing the various things Lily threw together with her ink, even Rose started showing some minor interest. Lily was happy to try to teach her big sister something, but to her dismay, the idea was short-lived as Rose claimed it "totally fried her brain" and that trying to remember her current lessons was filling it up too much.
Meanwhile, when Lily finally revealed a glyph with the toggle to Camilla at the shop, the woman nearly broke down into tears of joy; she was so pleased. While the glyphs with strict time limits were near-perfect, this allowed some much-needed leeway with some of the concoctions.
One example was a poison cleansing elixir that completely detoxed almost all harmful substances from a body and was a very expensive concoction. Brewing that potion took Camilla precisely 30 minutes, but there were moments when it needed to be paused to mix in the next batch of ingredients before resuming the boil.
Before introducing the toggle sigil, Camilla brewed it using three individual glyphs on different timers, and while it worked, it was tedious. Now, when she needed to add the next ingredient, she could pause the timer, and when resumed, it would continue as normal and never exceed 30 minutes.
Arakil had even suggested Lily could create a set of toggles and timers for the various steps of the brewing but then realized they both shouldn't reveal that much to Camilla. Lily had agreed, although she had started experimenting with something similar with a light spell that changed color at intervals.
However, the toggle improvement alone was enough for Camilla to reward Lily with what she had requested—a Mana potion.
This potion was a reward and a crucial tool for Lily's journey. It would provide Arakil with the necessary energy to find the solution to granting her Mana!
Lily had even watched Camilla brew it, using the glyphs she had produced. Honestly, she had expected the process to be much harder than it looked after seeing the poison-cleansing elixir, but in this case, the difficulty was the price of the ingredients.
Devil's Bitterweed, the primary ingredient used for the Mana potion, was a rare and potent herb known for its magical properties. According to Camilla, it was easily ten times the potency of Fairymoss, a far more common magical herb. Lily wished she could have asked for it to be made into glyph ink, but completing Arakil's search took priority.
The Mana potion, a glowing purplish-blue concoction, was beautiful. It shimmered with a magical glow that enchanted Lily. She recalled Arakil saying that one method that might have worked was overloading her body with Mana, but she knew the potential dangers of such an approach. The thought of chugging the brew only briefly crossed her mind.
Camilla warned her to be careful with it and keep it well hidden in her basket, as even in a city as safe as Ceedale, someone might be tempted to steal a potion as valuable as that. Luckily, Lily had the strongest draconic bodyguard to accompany her home, but she still kept it wrapped up and deep within the basket.
"Arakil! I finally got the Mana potion." Lily said, her voice filled with relief and joy.
[Excellent. Be very careful and only administer it in small quantities as this is untested for us.]
Lily nodded and pulled out a pipette, which she had purchased at some point to improve the ink delivery to Arakil. No longer would she need to worry about meticulously cleaning one of her pens every time they simply conversed.
When the Mana potion struck the page, Arakil wanted to gasp. He had expected a decent amount, but this was like finding an oasis in a desert. He rapidly stored it away and waited to tell Lily the good news.
[It's outstanding! Assuming I haven't misjudged how much potion you have available, I should be able to finish my investigation!]
Lily silently cheered, joyous tears filling her eyes as she began to pour out more of the Mana potion onto the book.
To anyone else observing, it would have looked like Lily was vandalizing an ancient book and wasting a valuable potion, but the liquid vanished into the pages like a sponge.
"Do we finally have enough?" Lily asked when the last drop had disappeared; she was absolutely brimming with hope.
[Yes! Lily, this is spectacular. I may even have some surplus for whatever ritual or preparations we require.]
"Finally…" Lily mumbled happily. "How long will it take?"
[I'm unsure; while I could likely blow through all of this Mana in a hasty search, that would be shortsighted. I would estimate somewhere around a week if I balance urgency and frugality.]
Lily shook her head, ears flopping from side to side. "Don't waste it. I'm not sure how easily I can get another potion. Camilla made it sound like she did me a big favor when she made it by not taking the full payment."
[Excellent. Then, let me give you some more work to practice. While you can contact me in an emergency, I would like to put all my energy into research. I hope you don't mind doing some self-learning for a week?]
"No, it's fine. I got a lot to do anyway…" Lily mumbled.
[Once again, I'm glad to have such a diligent student. However, some of the sigils I will be teaching you now have dangerous applications, so you must promise me not to use them with glyph ink without my supervision.]
"I promise!" Lily declared without any uncertainty.
[Wonderful. Now let's start with the projectile sigil and how it can be optimized with range limits…]
***
Rose grumbled. She hated her lessons; they were so boring.
I bet if I could talk to the book, he would be able to teach me in a snap. I really hope that the Regarth teachers are better than this.
"Miss Rose, if you are so confident that you can ignore my lessons, then why don't you demonstrate the proper Mana control?" The teacher snapped.
Rose suppressed a growl. She got up and formed a perfect sphere of flame with barely a snap of her fingers; it had been getting easier and easier for her every passing day.
"Happy?" Rose asked, dripping with sarcasm.
"That's remarkably impressive. But I'd like to see you do the same with air," the teacher responded.
Rose felt her eye twitch. She loathed working with anything other than fire. Fire came as naturally as breathing, but everything else required her to follow the proper procedure.
She hated the proper procedure.
Rose sighed before taking a deep breath as she tried to feel the Mana flowing through her veins. This internal self-reflection was basically required for any spellcasting that wasn't handled through innate ability.
As she tried to recall the correct chant, the Mana in her blood stirred as she clarified her intent. She held out her hand.
"Ventus colliget in manu mea," Rose muttered.
A wind stream rushed to gather into her outstretched palm, scattering papers and stationery. Hair and clothes were blowing wildly.
"Happy?" Rose repeated, with a confident smirk before dismissing the ball of wind, causing further scattered items throughout the room when it burst.
"Aeris!" The teacher said with a scowl. "Not Ventus!"
"Who cares? I did it, didn't I?" Rose snapped back. "And Ventus is just the better version of Aeris."
"Who cares?" The teacher looked furious. "The words matter, girl. Right down to even the correct pronunciation. Which you'd know if you paid attention!"
Rose snapped. A feral growl burned in her throat as she slammed a fist into her desk. The wood cracked and splintered from the loud impact.
"Maybe I'd pay attention if your lessons were worth a damn!" She screamed back.
The teacher was clearly fed up, his face red like a tomato. "I'm sorry my lessons aren't up to your standard, you spoiled brat! They are meant to be introductory. You were supposed to have started at Regarth already. You were the one who wanted to stay behind!"
"I'm looking after my sister!" Rose snarled.
"Bah!" The teacher scoffed. "Lily would be better off without such a hotheaded sister. She's well-behaved and has a bright future despite her circumstances. But I suppose that might be ruined if she continues associating with such a hoodlum!"
Red. Rose saw red. How dare he! Before she knew it, she had basically leaped across the classroom. Her tightly clenched fist struck the teacher's face, sending him sprawling backward into his desk.
The other kids gasped in either shock or horror. Some pointed or cheered, while others fled screaming.
While Rose was certainly strong for her age, thanks to her heritage and the encounter, it still wasn't enough to completely overpower the teacher—at least not in a singular blow.
He may not have been the cream of the crop, but he had still graduated from one of the magic schools and even did a short tour of duty before finally deciding his passion lay in teaching the children. The years may have dulled him, but he still had some of those instincts engraved into his bones.
Leaping back up with surprising agility, he performed a shortened chant, creating a protective windscreen surrounding Rose. While he was angry, she was still a kid, and he had a duty to protect the other children in case she got out of control.
Rose snarled as if her instincts demanded she fight back against the teacher's flared Mana. She punched the windy barrier with a fist, but it hurtled ineffectually backward.
She punched again, but her fist was wreathed in flame this time. Again, however, it failed to penetrate the barrier. She began assailing the wall of wind repeatedly, flames licking up from her limbs, but it was a crude and imprecise method of attack where she should have been resorting to finesse and precision.
Capitalizing on her lack of experience, the teacher continued reinforcing the wall with a more thorough chant. Rose had impressive talent but was still unrefined, like throwing around a blunt instrument.
While she was distracted by punching the barrier, he began expelling the air from her prison—not enough to kill her, but enough to cause her to pass out and dampen the magical flames she was creating.
Rose was beginning to feel frantic as the world darkened around her. She tried to flare more flame, but it felt weaker for some reason. For some reason, the wood and paper around her even failed to catch fire. She couldn't understand any of it.
Her vision of red soon became replaced with one of black.
Comments
Gopard
Thanks for the chapter! I guess this incident will soon see Rose semi "forced" into Regarth... Pretty much now the question is will they wait long enough for Arakil to find and enact the method to give Lily Mana so she can join her immediatly? Or will they again need to spend some time apart?
mbncd
Honestly, I think the teacher was right in trying to get her to use the correct word. It sounds like her wind was anything BUT under control as it disturbed things around the room rather than just being in her hand. I don't think he was trying to provoke her as others here have commented. I think he was trying to teach her. At times, one might want a powerful spell, but at other times, one might want something more precise, even if it's weaker. It's the teacher's job to teach her that and it sounds as though she's been ignoring most of his lessons. Did he handle it well? No, he lost his temper. Did it deserve the reaction he got? Also no, not by a long shot. Rose clearly needs more anger control lessons. Unfortunately, anger control lessons will require confronting anger, which means getting angry or being made angry. Of course that's going to be unpleasant. Not knowing anything about her dragia teacher beyond Rose's point of view, I can't say if she's just doing what's necessary or deriving pleasure from suffering as Rose seems to believe. The ice down her back trick for example would be uncomfortable and anger inducing, but not rage inducing and not doing any damage, which should make it easier for Rose to deal with. It really seems that Rose cannot currently deal with any negative emotions with any semblance of control and is a danger to herself and others as she is now. I don't think she should be in regular classes in that sort of condition. She needs to be taught not just suppression but also healthy ways to vent. People talk about suppressing emotions being bad but we need that skill to be able to take a moment and calmly assess a situation before acting. Likewise, we need the ability to vent in the right time and place, which may not always be straight away. Maybe she gets into the arts (doesn't really sound like her to me but we barely know her so far) or maybe she gets a side gig at a quarry breaking rocks while Lily's busy in lessons and work. Whatever works for her. I really don't think she should be taking lessons from non dragia at the moment though.
Engineer4God
Tank oo fur da chap!
Fi
Tftc ❤️
Vik M.
I get that for some lessons she needs provocation in order to improve her control over her temper, but this didn't strike me as one one them. She was in a classroom full of other students, any of whom could've been injured by her outburst. The teacher was going too far, and being the adult in the room should've known better. The worst part is Rose is probably the one who's going to pay the price since he clearly doesn't believe he did anything wrong.
Jeanean
Honestly, I don't think its actually THAT bad. I mean, sure, that lady Desthu might be a bit stuck up, but from the looks of it, her lessons are necessary. Rose CLEARLY has anger management issues, probably from her draconic awakening, and she doesn't even seem to realize it fully. I thin what you are missunderstanding is that normally, anger issues would be worked through with therapy. But therapy is basically mental healing, but Rose isn't mentally hurt. Anger issues are just a part of who and what she is, and she has to learn to overcome them with training. Kind of like you can overcome a gag-reflex with training, but not with therapy. The fact that to teach Rose how to overcome her anger means that her teacher has to make her angry, well, its no surprise that Rose wouldn't like the teacher very much. Doubly so because Rose seems to be still relatively young. As for this magic teacher, I'm willing to give him the benefit of the doubt. Rose seems to be especially uncooperative and confrontational, and the teacher getting fed up and lashing out, well, it happens to everyone. Thing is, we don't know if this was a situation that had built up over weeks, maybe months, and finally exploded, or if this is simply the teachers normal behaviour.
CataFlan
TFTC!
Chrystal 1776
Gods... I felt genuine rage reading about Roses lessons. 😡 I've delt with so many people like that IRL and I loath how they can just get away with it... Anyways excellent writing Lunadea ☺️
JAndy
> as if it were a button Would Lily know what a "button" is in the sense of something that can be pressed to trigger something, rather than just something to help hold clothes closed?
Blanc
TFTC! Instructor is an a-hole for the blatant provocation but at least semi-competent one
Luna
This really feels like the beginning of the end for the orphanage arc. It was really good 🤩 TFTC<3
Daniel Mountain
Mark of a bad instructor. I get Rose's control issues, but that was actual provocation. She needs lessons that keep her engaged, not practice in repression and tedium.
Wensber
Thanks for the chapter!
