Rose managed to snap out of her stupor and remember what she needed to do. She already had the page in hand, so she quickly ripped it in half. The page burst into magical flames, and that was when magical writing began appearing in front of her.

[Hello Rose, this is our first time conversing, although it is slightly one-sided. As Lily has introduced, my name is Arakil, and we've found our fates intertwined.]

"Hello? Can you hear me?" Rose asked the text, but it continued writing out its message. The book wasn't here; this was clearly a prewritten message.

[First, I want to thank you for all the help you've provided to Lily. She has confided a lot in me without realizing it, and when you disappeared, she was devastated. Quite frankly, without your aid, I do not think we could have accomplished what we have done.]

She couldn't help but feel guilty. She had no choice in the matter, as she was basically imprisoned. Still… She wished she could have returned sooner.

And now I'm leaving her again…

[Now, with the niceties out of the way, the reason for this unusual method of communication is to dispel any of my remaining concerns. While I have confidence in Lily, I believe you should always prepare backup plans, which is why I am confiding in you.]

"So you're a paranoid book, gotcha…" Rose muttered.

[Before I explain the backup plan, I want you to understand the potential issue. First and foremost, regardless of what happens, Lily will be safe. However, if she should fail with this ritual, condensing a new Mana Core is likely impossible without extremely rare and potentially non-existent resources.]

"Lily would be devastated…" Rose said somberly.

[I do not wish Lily to experience this tragedy, and thus, I am coming to you with my backup plan, one which Lily would no doubt refuse. In normal circumstances, Lily could stay in an endless meditation until she eventually condensed her Mana Core.

Unfortunately, this is not the case at this time with such scarce ambient Mana, so the only potential pitfall for Lily would be if she runs out of resources and fails to meet the deadline. This is where you come in.]

Rose straightened up.

[Your draconic heritage clearly contains powerful amounts of Mana within your blood, and I hope if Lily begins to fail, you'd be willing to donate some to her.]

"What kind of question is that? Of course, I'd give her whatever she wants!" Rose shouted at the floating text as if it had doubted her commitment.

[As evident, I cannot use your blood, but that does not stop Lily. The method would be to have her drink it, which she would adamantly refuse if she knew about it beforehand if I've read her personality correctly. While meditating, she will be somewhat entranced, so you shouldn't have too much difficulty forcing her to drink it using a potion bottle. I wouldn't ask this if there was another option, but with time running short, I do not know where else to turn.

Rose frowned. Lily would absolutely hate this.

[I have no doubt Lily will be upset at my deception in this regard, but in an emergency, I'd rather accept the hate and have her succeed than have her fail and have her heart broken. Besides, perhaps she will soar through, and my needless fretting over a backup plan will have been pointless.]

"Of course, she's going to be upset! Although I hate to admit you're probably right, she would not accept this, even if it's for her own good."

[Anyway, enough rambling and justifications. When Lily succeeds, the unicursal hexagram will begin to shrink and converge on her. Once it is fully gone, the ritual will be complete. That is the state for success.]

Rose nodded, paying extremely close attention.

[You need to look out for the ritual's two outer rings. If those begin to fade away before the unicursal hexagram begins its convergence. That means the Mana is thinning, which might not be enough for Lily to finish condensing her Mana Core.]

"Okay… Fading rings…" Rose muttered as she glanced at the ritual site; everything still glowed brightly.

[Unfortunately, you cannot simply add your blood to the ritual as it is now keyed to Lily, and mixing foreign elements like that into it directly could hamper it. However, if she ingests some of your potent blood, then it will grant her a boost in Mana and potentially buy her enough time to finish her task.]

"Nothing is ever easy…" Rose complained.

[Lily will hate this when she finds out, but this is for her own good, and I trust you will agree. Again, I hope I am wrong and she will succeed alone, but I simply cannot sit by and let a potential disaster ruin a young girl's dreams.]

[Thank you, Rose. Take care of Lily.]

[~Arakil.]

"Of course, I'll take care of her, your dusty old book!" Rose snarled.

Rose then read the floating words over and over. They weren't fading away, and she had ample time to read and digest everything.

"No way Lily would drink blood, that's crazy…" Rose mumbled. "But I admit… It will be for her own good; I don't even want to consider what happens if she fails!"

Rose picked up the potion bottle from the basket and sighed. Using an extended claw, she cut between some scales at the fleshy bits and began crudely trying to get it to flow into the potion bottle.

If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

"I really hope she doesn't need it 'cause otherwise, I'll be joining you in the doghouse. But…" Rose clicked her tongue in annoyance and swapped to her other arm to get a better flow. "We've come too far. Lily will become a mage!"

It was a rather difficult experience as her body kept trying to close up the wounds rapidly. Normally, she'd be grateful for such a convenience, but now it was just frustrating as she was concerned the ritual would begin to fail before she was done. When the bottle was partially filled, she finally stopped and started to watch the outer circle like a hawk.

"Please succeed, Lily!" Rose begged. "I don't really like the idea of forcing you to drink my blood."

The outermost ring began flickering as if fate had decided to spit in her face. Rose cursed and clenched her fist angrily.

"Please don't hate me, Lily! This was all the stupid book's fault! Agh!" Rose whined as she began heading towards the ritual.

This sucks… I just hope she doesn't vomit all over us…

***

Inward spiral, endless flow,

Gather Mana, steady and slow.

Turning, drawing, deep and pour,

Condense to essence, form the Core.

Lily kept chanting the mantra. She had found herself lost in the activity of grabbing the silvery, ethereal substance and drawing it into the slowly growing spiral. Any sense of time had gone out the window. Had she been here for minutes? Hours? Days? It all just blurred together.

At the center of the spiral, a partially glowing sphere was forming. It looked like the most majestic moon she'd ever seen, even if it wasn't complete yet. She just needed to keep spiraling everything until it was perfect!

She continued on and on, never stopping, only breathing and chanting. She mentally reached for the next batch of the silvery vapor and found it somewhat lacking. Was she nearing the end? But her little silver moon didn't look nearly complete enough yet.

Arakil did say it would grow; was this what he meant? Lily wondered.

Inward spiral, endless flow,

Gather Mana, steady and slow.

Turning, drawing, deep and pour,

Condense to essence, form the Core.

She repeated the mantra to refocus herself. She couldn't let herself be distracted until it was over. Back in the zone, she barely felt something gingerly touching the back of her neck. She repeated the mantra again and again.

Then, something touched her lips. She wanted to open her eyes, but she scrunched them shut tightly. She needed to focus! Her little silver moon wasn't complete!

Something warm touched her lips. She wanted to panic but let out a grunt. She kept repeating the mantra; it was her only lifeline at this point to keep her focus. Was someone trying to get her to drink something? It felt like the familiar shape of the potion bottle.

She cracked her eyes open ever so slightly and saw the blurry form of Rose. But she was forced to immediately shut them. That brief little stunt she had pulled had almost caused the spiral within her to dissipate.

She chanted the mantra with renewed determination, terrified that the spiral would break apart before her Mana Core was complete. She had a million questions racing through her head: why was Rose trying to get her to drink something? Did something go wrong? What is in the bottle? She was forced to try to suppress all of them and regain some semblance of control.

Something extremely hot touched her lips. She wanted to scream in protest, but that would not let it enter her mouth. She shut her lips tight. Why was Rose trying to distract her? She couldn't understand. She was desperately trying to keep her thoughts in check.

Then the unthinkable happened. Lily's nose was squeezed shut. Breathing in was an integral part of the meditation, and she swung a blind fist to try to free her nostrils, but her body was far too weak to overpower a Dragia. Before she entirely lost her spiral, she gave in and opened her mouth in a gasp.

Rose must have been waiting for that as the spout was thrust into her mouth directly. Swiftly, the simmering liquid poured into her mouth, and she wanted to vomit. It tasted awful, like the kids were daring each other to lick coins. That, combined with the viscosity and the temperature, was far too much for her.

Why!?

Rose was now ensuring that the liquid was fully entering her mouth. Lily tried to struggle, but she'd never felt so overpowered before. Rose was always absurdly strong, but this situation made her feel like wet paper.

I can't… I have to swallow… Lily thought grimly as she was quite literally forced to chug the vile contents.

She tried her best to ignore the almost burning sensation coating the back of her throat as the fluid went down. She clenched her fists tight and retreated back to chanting the mantra as it was the only remaining control she had left.

She would have gasped if her mouth wasn't shut tight around the spout of the potion bottle. In the void of her spiral was a fresh supply of mist, except it was blood red but far more abundant than the silvery substance she was working with before.

Did Rose give me a potion to help me finish my Mana Core? Lily wondered.

Rather than fighting anymore, she begrudgingly accepted the help. She swallowed the vile concoction as fast as she could so that Rose would hopefully release her nose. When the liquid ran out, the bottle was plucked from her mouth, and her nose was released. She gasped for breath, bit back her desire to scream, and instead focused down.

Inward spiral, endless flow,

Gather Mana, steady and slow.

Turning, drawing, deep and pour,

Condense to essence, form the Core.

She had saved her spiral in time, and it seemed like she could also gather this red mist into it. However, she couldn't shake the feeling that it felt a little wrong. While she was pondering that thought, she noticed that as the red mist traveled toward the center of the spiral, it began losing its crimson sheen, revealing a silvery purity underneath.

I need to purify it enough before it reaches my silver moon!

She wasn't sure where the thought had come from, but her gut told her it was right. She began enlarging her spiral to have a longer path by tightening the rings even further and placing her Mana Core far deeper into the spiral.

She focused harder and harder; it was an infinite spiral, and in theory, she could keep adding to it as much as possible, but she was feeling deep mental pain and fatigue with each additional layer she added.

I just need enough to clean out all the red! Come on! Lily reassured herself.

Again, she lost herself in her trance, and when the newly gathered mist finally touched her partially formed Core, it was pure silver. But Lily was far too much in the trance this time and didn't even celebrate. She just kept focusing and condensing it as much as possible.

She had no idea how long it took, as it didn't matter so long as it was successful. Her throat burned, her stomach churned, and she could feel a bulging pressure on the right side of her chest. She ignored all of it.

She wasn't sure when it happened, but she had reached the end at some point. The outer tail of her spiral began eating itself inwards as it began to retrace over the entire path she had built up. In the center was her Mana Core, which felt relatively tiny but looked like a beautiful and pure, silvery, full moon.

She watched as the spiral continued to eat itself, heading closer and closer to her Core. There was no more Mana; her work was done, and she felt a relief of accomplishment bubbling up inside her. When the outer tail met the center, the entire Core gleamed from metallic silver to pearlescent to iridescent before settling back on the pale, pure silver.

It was done.

Lily exhaled. She opened her eyes. Her vision was blurry, but she could make out the vague sight of what looked like the start of a rising sun. She was about to cheer and celebrate when that pressure in her chest built up.

Her entire body felt like it was on fire! Something hot and piercing flooded through her whole body, originating from her right chest.

Lily opened her mouth to scream, but abruptly, the entire world went dark, and she collapsed into a heap on the stone. The last thing she vaguely heard was someone yelling her name.