---Lily/Ruby pov---

I was awoken by someone accidentally putting too much weight on their step, I raised my head startled and stared at the face that came to see me sleeping. It was our new sister, the one we saw sleeping on the messy table.

 

She seemed very embarrassed to have awoken me. Feeling a bit of mischief, I started pushing some of my mana and stamina into my bioluminescence at which she backed off startled by the sudden bright light.

I giggled through her mind

‘Sorry, I couldn’t resist a bit of payback, happy to meet you’

Her expression was a surprised one as my voice slowly transmitted to her mind.

‘Okie, that feels so weird, but your combined voices sound so adorable wow, I’m Lestyx but u can call me Lest, nice to meet u, little sis, and sorry about waking u up, but it’s already morning and I asked the others if Mary and I could steal u for the day and they allowed it, u will even stay safe with us while our sisters go on the expedition, and we will teach u how much fun crafting can be, also u cannot refuse sorry, not sorry’

 

Nooooooooooooo my-y Freeeeeeeeeeeeedommmmmmmm not Agaaaaaaain!!! Half joke aside, our eyes sparkled at the mention of crafting stuff, between destruction and creation I take the latter but sometimes the first one is necessary.

‘I want too!!!’ I half screamed in my sis’s mind at which she smiled but I saw her eyes strain from the intensity.

‘sss-sorry, I’m not accustomed to it yet I said sheepishly

She smiled before lifting me from my sand bed.

‘I’m glad you’re so enthusiastic, maybe we will spark the fire of craft inside of you both’

 

She wasn’t wrong, if I ever get my hands back or something similar, experimenting and making stuff that others enjoy and smile at would be amazing. Sadly, my tail could never be compared to a humanoid hand and opposable thumbs be it in dexterity, precision or grip strength.

 

Also, I seemed to have art training or at least knowledge of the craft, maybe I had the same for metal or wood or even rock?

 

Well, we would need to see in the future, cause even if I wished I could right now it was impossible, at best I could visually learn, or Ruby could help them out by using her fiery breath, but it was still early to see if we had the same skill or Swiss-cheesed knowledge.

 

Ruby’s voice giggles in our head, ‘‘we do have the same knowledge in a way I was u like u were me, we’re just separated but I think our love of the craft is similar cause we have the same base or origin.’’

 

‘‘I see’’ I mentally tough giggled with her, was just so comforting.

I was hugged caringly carried toward another set of stairs behind an engraved and designed door, the design was simple, a circle full of lines and symbols, a hammer, and a fire made the middle engraving. On each side I thought was a leaf and a seashell probably representing Mary and Lestyx,

 

After passing a specialty designed staircase that looked more like a long ramp on one side for Lestyx 4-legged anatomy and a normal staircase for Mary 

We entered a massive workshop on each side described by a massive, designed stone pillar of a tree and a coral reef on the other side. The tree seemed to glow with greenish energy from what seemed to be magical crystals that were used as a leaf, while the coral reef glowed like a rainbow by small-sized crystal shard that glowed in a chaotic harmony transmitting the colour of the different energy through the slightly transparent stone or maybe was it a kind of glass…., it was so incredible our mind was burned from the scenery while our body was affected by an invisible mass of particles that warmed us deep within.

 

‘This… this is A… Amazing….’ We said barely able to come up with any word.

 

Our 2 sisters smiled seeing our expression, I guess they expected such a reaction. But I couldn’t blame them everything seemed handmade…

 

‘Water magic can be used to make precision sculpting by eating the material away, and earth magic can mix material property when mastered in a certain direction and give creation to a new one like that coral.’

My watery sibling said smiling. Let's continue Mary’s explanation of the masterwork in front of me.

 

Earth mana can insulate things and Nature mana is a purer form of it that not only affect living plant or the like but also still carry a good amount of earth mana in its root. I’m a blacksmith I heat metal and the heat could affect the harmony of Mary’s or my work that is why this tree absorbs the heat and fiery energy and turns it into Nature-based mana or neutral mana’ as she pointed to some red gems sculpted like fruit in the upper branch and hanging from them some also were mixed with a greenish-white making them look unripe. She continued seeing I would wait before asking any question.

 

We then use that nature mana flowing through the tree into its roots which then ends their travel into our basement and Aquarel’s room.

 This is where she tries to create new plant life or discover the property, she can also make natural remedy's which our mom Anna sells, with the few pet accessories or acre products we often need to make in our free time, mom often comes here to work on some of them’ She smiled at my amazement as I looked at every hook and cranny of the amazing sculpted tree turned into some kind of magical artifact.

 

‘This is....’

‘…...a masterpiece… it’s so gorgeous and pure’

My internal sister and I said in amazement, once again finishing each other sentences.

 

‘Do you both have any questions?’ she looked at us expecting some.

 

We looked at her and nodded.

‘WE. Have. Tons!

But most are related to how…. Both of you were able to make such…. Gorgeous personal magical devices, that is both useful and also serves as a personal space for both of u. if the tree is useful for the forge, we guess Mary’s enchantment and engraving talent needs the other multiple types of energy, so that’s why the coral is a chaotic spectacle of different mana illuminating them?’

 

Mary smiled happily at our observation.

 

‘That is mostly right! I need different mana types to take the energy from, that’s way it facilitates my work and helps me keep my mana more efficiently by using the ones around me. The same goes for Lele, she sometimes needs to smith magical ingots or infused mana as she smiths and hammers a project or request and using fire mana in high concentration helps her maintain the ingots heat up for longer as she works on.

That being said this whole workshop harmoniously combines both our ancestry of our moms and in a way represented us before all of u arrived’

She smiles and continues,

‘Sadly, we will need to add more changes to represent all of u now too, but it shouldn’t be too hard for us as we are nowadays a lot more confident in our ability. That leads us to the reason we wanted you two here today, to help us with the design and give us some ideas!!’

 

Lest or ‘lele’ nodded before scratching her elven ear,

‘We also thought it would probably help you after all being seen as an animal by strangers must hurt to a degree, right? So, we thought to make you feel loved and included, instead of being carried around all day…’

 

I nodded at both and started to purr happily into Lest’s neck while we whispered a mental thank u to the both of them.

 

We then slowly removed ourselves from the hug and started giving ideas,

 

‘To represent us it could be 2 snakes, one red, the other white?’

 

Mary took out a notepad to note my word as Lest marked some potential fitting material or started to draw some designs.

 

When both have a good enough base and finished noting our body features and the thing related to our idea.

 

Mary then asked about Leĩea and Aurora,

‘They elf‘ I said simply,

Aurora smirked at my word, ‘so I am in a way, even if only a tiny fraction off…’

 Mary looked more pensively,

‘Maybe we could sculpt a poem in elven on one side of the wall?

 

I nodded with Lest word,

‘It would definitely make more sense and to a degree would be personal, we will need a translator…... I will send the poem as a request for the city/village of Deranys’

 

That word surprised me so I looked at least and asked for more info,

‘What is Deranys?’

Lest looked at me before starting to giggle to herself, I was confused by such action,

 

Mary smiled warmly, ‘it’s her birthplace, a multicultural city in the elf territory, sadly she and her mom suffered racism because of their morphology, most elves are old-minded or were, nowadays they bettered                                                                                                                                                       themselves and a major part of the village sent an apology letter to us. To apologize for their past action.’

I felt sadness from the story, at least they tried to better themselves.

 

‘Thank u for telling me’ I thanked both.

Lest smiled and gently nudged behind my feather which made me purr.

 

‘Now that the heavy stuff is out of the window, what are we going to do for Marriane, Cyriel and Nare?’ she asked Mary and I

 

‘Well for Cyriel, something representing feather, the sky and freedom?’ Mary proposed

 

‘So, a bird on the tree? ‘I asked gently

Lest nodded at both our ideas and jotted                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      them down then added one of her own, a nest to symbolize it’s her home too.

‘Next is Marriane, she’s fiery and cat-like, no? so it should represent a cat person and be on the side of the forge’ Mary nodded at my proposal, while Lest thought it over.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                   

‘Better idea, we make a cat and fox playing with each other at the base of the tree while the bird prepares itself to fly from its nest for pure freedom, we can make the cat trying to catch fish and the fox relaxing beside it while the bird caught a fish and flies away with its prey?’

 

Me and marry nodded at her proposal…. Those are amazing ideas that in a way work all together into one.

 

We then for a few hours continued to throw ideas for the shape, colour, and other designs.

 

We then finally ended up talking about material which were very different from where I could give input.

 

‘What about the material?’ I asked softly, from my lack of proper knowledge of this world, the material idea was out of my competency

 

Mary and Lest smiled, ‘we might go inside one of the dungeons to get some specific mana gems, we might be crafters but we can both fight somewhat decently and build our equipment!’ Lest said as a matter of fact.

I was worried…. Dungeons sounded ominous in more ways than one….

Our medieval knowledge at least wasn’t affected by the Swiss cheese yet, same for fantasy-related knowledge that could as well be right, then false.

 

Mary felt my distress and finished Lest’s words.

 

‘Don’t worry little sis, we don’t put ourselves in danger, and we rarely go train in a dungeon, but with the war around the corner on the human kingdom…. We need to train to prepare ourselves… to make sure no one we love disappears or dies, and to protect ourselves

I looked dumbfounded and asked an oblivious question.

‘A war is coming?’

 Lest sighed heavily,

 

‘Yes, the attack on the mermaid archipelago means that they are starting, to grow more extreme and a similar attack must have happened elsewhere…. Payback will be done… and a full-on war is storming ahead…’

 

I shivered in fear…. War meant death however people might prepare, it wouldn’t matter a lot…. if suffering and darkness was ahead….

We shook our heads to chase away the dark truth… negativity wouldn’t help anyone.

 

‘Thank u for telling me the truth, but…. ‘

I faked a yawn

‘I’m tired can I go sleep…? We’ve been making ideas for a while now, no’

 

They looked at me not fully certain, but nodded, nonetheless.

I purred to reassure them as they gently brought me back to my bed.

 They gently put me in my enclosure/room, and I slowly hid in my blanket bundles

I had too many ideas and thought some were dark while others are grim.

I needed some time alone.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                             

 

--- Mary Pov----

As soon as I closed the door, I turned toward Lele.

 

‘Sis, I don’t think we should have told all this to them, young’s and with all they went through I’m worried’

 

‘Mary…., I know what u mean, but they needed to know the truth and you also know that or u wouldn’t have followed my opening…

Protecting them by lying wouldn’t help anyone, if anything it helps them prepare for the worse, it’s better than the darkness that hits them like a war hammer when it does happen’

 

I sighed at my gorgeous sister’s words she was right I knew it, and so did she.

‘Let’s inform Moms…. It’s the least we can do’ I said sadly

Lest just nodded with her sad frown as we made our way toward the living room.