"He fizzled out." Lily rested her chin on the table. Her fluffy ears perked up, then flattened.
"I told you, he was spying," Zoltan pissed him off, "it would've been impossible—"
"Then how do you explain the Captain's absence?!" the boy snapped. "I did it, but it's hard to make something invisible when you stare."
Lily snorted, melting on her seat. "Sorry, it's funny, cuz' everything's invisible if we don't look."
Konrad sighed. He failed like a hundred times by now, seeing stars instead of runes. And why? He succeeded on the first try. Now, with all the time in the world, he kept butchering the spell.
"He channels his mana fine," Lily noted. "But I don't understand your mortal runes and fluff."
Did she make that up? He felt like she grasped the essence of it—
"Okay, here," Zoltan threw a piece of coal, "write the runes on the table."
Konrad scowled, then scribbled down his 'code', line by line. Light variable, a rune to scatter, and bind it to the bowl. Simple, readable, clean. Characters drawn to perfection.
"Well?" Lily watched Zoltan's reaction. His 'master' scratched his jaw.
"I couldn't do it better myself. And you say he channels his mana? If he's not out, then why—"
So mana was something that'd run out? He saw why Zoltan didn't believe him. He rushed into magic headfirst, without learning the basics. It felt unreal that he had done it earlier, too.
What if he were a one-trick pony, and he'll never be able to repeat it?
If the month goes by, and Vargas sends the duke's letter to the king?
When they investigate, they'll find a bastard boy with an ego too big, and they'd cut him down to size. His 'prodigy' status won't save him; math and logistics skills weren't miraculous.
In his dreams, Lu said he was on the right path, but it wouldn't be easy.
Well, he also mumbled about Gabrielle, which made no sense. And the noble blood he promised got him nowhere, except in a guard captain's scheme for retirement.
Now he might've wanted power, but if he didn't realize his ambition, they'd execute him.
This wasn't about showing off his talent anymore, or fishing for compliments; it was to do or die. Anger shimmered in him for being so helpless, like in his past life, and he gritted his teeth.
It should've been simple. He tried it again one more time.
Runes in a command prompt—each character drawn with intent and fear. It had to happen.
He squeezed his eyes shut until his head started thrumming. Heart rate through the roof, as something syphoned all the warmth out of his body, and—
"Meow's gone."
"What?!" Zoltan jumped, and there was a clink. "I couldn't do it for months—"
"And now we won't find it," Welf chuckled.
"Nya, I can still see his mana wrapped around it," the girl claimed as Konrad opened his eyes to the chaos. She held something, though her hand seemed empty. "Good job, Konny."
The illusionist reached out, his hand colliding with the air. "How? What changed?"
Konrad had only a vague idea.
"His intent," Lily answered for him. "Whatever it was, bottle up that feeling and cling onto it."
"He's bottling it too hard, getting all red," Welf noted. "Did he run out again?"
"Yeah, but he'll be fine once he stops," the girl chirped. "So— Make it visible again."
"H-how?" Konrad's world spun so fast he had to grab the table. All he saw was a blur, and with the heat leaving his body, his teeth clattered. Right, he couldn't make it stop earlier, either.
"Whoops, too late, let me—"
The last thing he felt was Lily's warmth enveloping him in the darkness, and he was gone.
***
Konrad spent the rest of the week cramming runes.
He started with the symbols that'd end a spell, because leaving the lights on for too long could put him in a coma. If only he had paid attention to infinite loops in programming class.
Zoltan should've taught the million ways to suspend a spell first, but he was a terrible teacher.
At least when no troops arrived from Aset, he started to trust Konrad more.
And for once, the boy felt good from working himself ragged. He took leaps and bounds towards the control and the power he desired, or, at least, he hoped.
He wasn't sure; now that vague piece of an angel avoided his dreams.
Well, as long as Gabrielle didn't show up and his gamble of trusting Vargas worked—
"But what does," Konrad's lungs screamed, "running around the village have to do with magic?"
"Picture mana like water," Lily chirped, feeling unrelated. "And your body is the shore."
She kept up without breaking a sweat, pouncing, a majestic feline with her red hair fluttering. Her tiny rags, the same thing she wore in their first encounter, left little to the imagination.
And with all his blood concentrated between his legs, it was hard to run or pay attention.
The only thing he could picture was a very different kind of workout with her.
"You dig a hole and pour the water in." Wait, was she talking? "What's inside is yours to use; the rest might overflow or burst out. My hole's so big, you could pour in all the oceans, and still—"
"Fuck," Konrad faceplanted in the dirt. "Please—never make that comparison ever again."
He was too much of a visual type, but pictured a different hole he'd fill—
"Overflow's no big deal. But there was this shaman—ate a crystal, head popped right off." Welf helped him up, offering a waterskin. "And you've seen her eat them like they're sweets."
"Hold on—his head popped off?" He choked on the water. "You mean, like, actually exploded?!"
"And that's why we run," Lily healed his bruises before he realized he had them. "The more you use it, the more mana you'll have, and the stronger container it'll need to hold 'em all."
Container. Yes, a container was safer to picture than holes.
"So I have to steel my body to cope with magic." Okay, that even made sense. He still felt dizzy and ran dry after even the simplest spells he cast; he had to work on that. "What about refills?"
"Well, you either wait until water pours in by itself, or crunch one of these."
The girl threw another magic stone into her gaping maw, and that made Welf mad.
Yeah, no. He said someone's head exploded from doing it, and Konrad was fine without anything like that. But the more he saw, the less Lily's chunibyo crap sounded like, well, crap.
"Mana is everywhere," she claimed, "but it's much more dense in dungeons. You'd refill faster."
"Considering you said you don't know how 'us mortals' cast our spells, you're well informed."
Lily shot him a sharp-fanged grin for copying her.
"Mana is mana," was her eloquent explanation. "I can see how it flows with my demonic sight."
"And I'd have to be an ancient god to enable such a feat," Konrad guessed.
"Meh, some meow-tals are born with mana-sight, too," Lily shrugged.
Well, that still didn't help him, but it was worth asking.
"Can you tell how much mana I have?"
The girl shot him a glance with her eyes glowing, then pinched her fingers way too close.
"Hmm, about this much." It felt like she measured something very different. "Tinier than usual."
"W-what?" his voice pitched up. "H-how do I make it bigger?!"
"I can think of a few ways," the girl grinned, giving him a look.