"Lily!" Rose screamed when she saw the tiny girl's body begin to glow and convulse.

Rose rushed over to Lily's collapsing body as fast as possible, completely panic-struck. She cradled Lily's limp body and quickly began to check on her. Her body still pulsed with that glow, almost identically to the rhythm of a beating heart.

"You bloody book! If anything happens to Lily, I'll throw you into the ocean!" Rose snarled.

Rose first checked that Lily was still breathing, then moved on to check that she still had a pulse. With both of those confirmed, Rose let out a somewhat relieved sigh.

"She will likely pass out," Rose muttered angrily, recalling what Arakil had said in his original instructions. "This is far beyond that!"

Rose lifted Lily's unconscious body and held her in a princess carry. She would have opted for a piggyback if she wasn't utterly deadweight, but she wanted to keep her secure. Thankfully, Lily weighed basically nothing, and Rose had no issue carrying her even without her recently increased strength.

Rose began walking and spotted the basket abandoned on the ground. She muttered a curse and tried to think of how to manage this logistically when she spotted her tail angrily swishing back and forth.

"Might as well try…"

Often, it felt like her newly grown tail had a mind of its own, only reacting to her emotions or in the heat of the moment. She had to apply conscious effort if she wanted to use it. She hooked her tail through the basket's handle and then lifted it, causing it to slide down and rest behind her backside.

"I guess that's as good as it's going to get…"

Lily was small enough that if unmoving, she could hold her in one arm, so she carefully adjusted her and then fumbled into the basket sitting against her backside, trying to find the spare shadow cloak spells.

"Found it!" Rose said as she plucked it out between two fingers.

She slapped it on her own stomach, and the shadow erupted and coalesced around them. Since Rose was carrying her, Lily's form was covered in the billowing shadows, and she didn't need to resort to using a second one.

"Gods, I hope you're alright…" Rose muttered worriedly and began briskly heading back home.

The trip out of the forest was relatively uneventful. A few animals and small monsters wandered about, but thanks to the cloak of shadows, they didn't even pay attention to them.

The return to the city gate was even more uneventful, and Rose spent most of the time grumbling complaints about what had transpired.

She will be in a trance; it's not too difficult to get her to drink it. Like hell, that was easy! Lily fought practically tooth and nail to stop me! No way I can just brush that off; it could've only been me trying to force her to drink something. I'm totally going to get blamed as well! Rose grumbled.

Still… I hate to admit it, but that was amazing. I've never seen anything like that before. It was a success, right? The uni…hexa…thing converged on Lily at the end. I guess if things work out in the end, then it's all good? Although, I still want to throw that bloody book against the wall, even if it just makes me feel a little better.

By the time they reached the city gate, Rose was becoming very worried, as Lily hadn't stirred for a single time. Her body was extremely warm and no doubt still pulsing with that soft glow. Rose just hoped this was like her own awakening and that Lily would wake up feeling right as rain.

Seeing Lily devouring a hunk of meat like a starved beast would be quite a sight. That was embarrassing… Rose thought to herself.

The guards looked tired and bored, and the sun had not risen enough to cause any issue with the shadow spell. Once inside the city walls and far enough away from the guards, Rose resumed her brisk pace to get Lily to her bed.

There was a minor logistical mishap in trying to climb through the window while holding Lily and the basket, but Rose managed after some trial and error. Once she had finally reached Lily's door, she let out another relieved sigh.

Taking the key that Lily had attached to a lanyard, she fumbled to unlock the door and entered. She gently lay Lily on the bed before tearing off the talisman to remove any obstruction from her vision.

Lily looked almost entirely unchanged, and if not for the tiny, rhythmic breathing, she would have looked like a corpse. The only notable difference was that the pulsing glow was much more subdued now.

"Will she wake up when the glow stops?" Rose wondered aloud as she began tucking Lily under her blanket.

Rose reached under the mattress and pulled out the book. Lily always left it open because she said Arakil needed his book open to work. She briefly contemplated slamming the book shut and throwing it against the wall but suppressed that urge. If she closed it, no one but Lily could open it again.

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

"We're back… I think it was a success," Rose explained. She knew he could hear her, but without any visual feedback, it felt like she was talking to a brick wall.

"I had to intervene; it was not easy at all. The star thingy converged on Lily, then she started glowing and collapsed. She looked like she wanted to scream… I'm extremely worried, but she's breathing, and other than her being limp, I can't see anything wrong with her."

Rose sighed.

"I don't know what else to say… So goodnight. Hopefully, Lily will explain what happened when she wakes up."

Rose returned the book under the mattress, placed the basket under the bed, and grabbed the spare key from the desk. She locked the door and began wearily returning to her own room. Now that her mind and body were no longer racing, she felt exhausted. She was out like a light when her head collapsed into the pillow.

***

"So it sounds like it was a success…" Arakil murmured to himself. "It's a pity that Lily couldn't complete the ritual in time without Rose's intervention, but that was always a possibility. The fact that she finished it is already worthy of praise.

"I'm glad I had the foresight to include a slumber spell keyed to the final section of the ritual dissipating. No doubt she's having Mana channels carved throughout her body at this very moment, certainly not something you want a child to experience awake… I do wonder how big of a Core she managed to condense?"

He desperately wished he could examine Lily himself, but he found himself pacing up and down. While any size of Mana Core would be good enough to start with, he couldn't help but wonder how his apprentice had fared, especially without having him physically able to guide her through the process.

"I could start designing a repair on the eye… It's probably feasible to start allocating resources to it. Then, I could see her results myself. I'm curious how much cross-contamination there was in her Mana Core from utilizing someone else's Mana? Hopefully, it's not too much, but we can work on shaving away any contaminated parts over time. It's an unpleasant experience, but worth it in the long run."

Arakil willed himself to change location and appeared before the drained and broken design that originally made up the arcane eye on the book's cover. He stared at the decay and frowned deeply before pulling out a stack of paper and sketching out possible solutions.

"We can't repair the entire thing at present, but I can't see myself needing Truesight or half of the other features at present…" Arakil muttered. "At the same time, I don't want to utterly destroy them, as repairing them from a clean slate might be impossible. I need to design a restoration to quarantine the broken fragments till they can be integrated later. Yes… That could work!"

He began eagerly drawing; he had plenty of time to kill until Lily awoke.

***

Rose woke up feeling terrible. Someone was banging on her door. She grumbled and rolled out of bed. Sleepily, she walked over to the door, unfastened the latch, and opened it to see a rather upset-looking Margit.

"Rose!" Margit said, looking rather startled. "You look like you slept in a bush. What the heck have you been up to?"

Rose grumbled a nonresponse, and the woman sighed.

"You and Lily have entirely slept through breakfast and will be late for your first classes!" Margit said angrily.

"Oh… Crap… Sorry…" Rose grumbled tiredly.

Margit sighed. "Well, at least you're answering your door. Lily hasn't responded. Can you check on her? I don't want to use the master key to enter her room."

"I'll go check on her right now! I have her spare key. She looked a little sick last night, so maybe she didn't want to get out of bed," Rose fibbed.

Margit raised a suspicious eye but nodded. "Please do. If she's sick, then let us know so we can inform her teachers and Miss Camilla that she will be absent."

"Of course!" Rose replied with a firm nod.

Margit let her pass, and she rushed to Lily's room. She used the spare key to unlock the door, entered, and closed it behind her. Rushing to the bedside, she noted that it looked like Lily hadn't moved at all.

Rose cursed and clenched her fists tight. She pulled back the bedsheet and noted that the pulsing glow was barely visible. She tried a few times to stir Lily awake, but she refused to budge, and her shallow breaths were the only thing that proved she was still alive.

"It's like a coma…" Rose muttered angrily.

She pulled out the book from beneath the bed and glared at it.

"Lily still hasn't woken up, you stupid book!" She snarled. "If anything happens to her, I will find a way to punish you. I don't care if your stupid book can't be destroyed; I'll throw it in the ocean or a volcano or something! Good luck ever getting out of that!"

It took all her self-control not to hurl it against the wall, but she angrily stuffed it back under the mattress. Before leaving, she gently stroked Lily's head.

"Please be okay…" Rose pleadingly whispered.

Rose informed Margit that Lily was ill and resting. Margit seemed to accept that excuse and requested that she check up on her and deliver some food and water.

"It's clear you two were up late last night together… In the future, I hope you remember that she's got a far more frail constitution than you," Margit reprimanded.

"She's not some delicate porcelain doll that will break if you touch her," Rose countered angrily.

Margit sighed. "You're right… In some ways. Honestly, I'm surprised at all she's done lately; it's very impressive. However, it's clear it's finally caught up on her."

Ha! Just wait and see what Lily has planned. It's going to knock all of your socks off! Rose thought mockingly.

"Well… Let us know if it's anything serious or if her condition gets any worse," Margit requested. "If she's still unwell by tomorrow, we might need to call a doctor. I certainly hope that won't be needed; that poor girl has seen enough doctors for a lifetime."

Rose was taken aback. "Was it that bad? Lily hasn't really mentioned anything about that…"

Margit nodded solemnly. "There were many times we thought the girl wouldn't make it. I can't give you all the details since it's private, but the circumstances around her birth were complicated. There were days when she would keel over, and we thought it was the end. Constant fevers and even the most minor of flus would leave her bedridden. The fact that she's nearly half the size of anyone her age is proof enough."

Rose nodded. Having run out of conversation, they said their farewells, with Margitt muttering complaints about needing to inform Camilla of her absence.

I suppose this is why she's so determined to grab one of the few things somewhat under her control… Rose thought.

The day went by, and Lily still had not stirred. Rose spent almost the entire evening sitting by her bedside, pleading for her to wake up. Before she left to go to sleep, she extinguished the lamp to check the glow.

"It's almost gone… I can barely see it," Rose whispered.

She wasn't sure why, but she felt like once that glow was gone, Lily would finally awaken.

Either that or I throw that stupid book away!