The bees had settled in the apiary trees well in the first few weeks. Unfortunately Alicia had made them under the assumption of normal sized bees, Great honeybees were anything but normal sized. Their immature drones and workers are still within the realm of the ordinary however as they mature they grow up to more than twice their size, necessitating more housing space or another colony to accommodate accordingly. Although Alicia herself attempted to expand the apiary trees, her creations were subpar compared to Dryssia’s original ones. Apparently they made their hives underground for this reason as digging out and lining the underground burrows with cells was easier than creating huge hives from scratch on the few trees that can support the weight of the entire colony.

With the help from the tree nymph the issue was quickly rectified with the latest apiaries scaled up to the new standards. Although floraekinesis could manipulate any form of flora the tree nymph particularly excelled at handling trees and liana¹A liana is a long-stemmed, woody vine that is rooted in the soil at ground level and uses trees, as well as other means of vertical support, to climb up to the canopy in search of direct sunlight. Forest Lianas often compete with trees for sunlight, water and nutrients. Trees supporting lianas are twice as likely to die. though she held some bitterness pointed towards the latter mentioning something about thieves. The earlier failed attempt made her wonder what exactly she was doing differently as manipulating and boosting the properties of already existing florae were a baseline of ability Floraekinesis thus lack of ranks in the skill wasn’t a contributing factor. And enquiring about the subject from her didn’t quite help Alicia either as her explanations were vague at best.

To quote directly:

• “Master doesn’t talk with the acorns. You have to tell them what to do otherwise they’ll do whatever they want!”

No matter how much she tried to make sense of it the answer just never seemed to come to her. Even though millenniums²Not to be confused with the word millennials. Millennium is a time period relating to a thousand year, not million years. old, Dryssia only recently became a spirit thus she wasn’t the most knowledgeable in regards to magic that being said she does know another spirit who has proven herself to be quite the adept when it comes to matters of magic…

• “I see… rather you don’t.”
• “I beg your pardon?”

Alicia came to the shores of the spirit lake to consult with it’s sole resident.

• “They are in your hair. You can feel the lesser spirits but lack the ability to truly perceive all of them. Most Spirits are able to discern and interact with their lesser as their kin. I may look lonesome but I’m not truly alone.”
• “Uhm yeah, so any idea how I can acquire that ability…?”

>Upranking skill ⟨ Arcane sense ⟩ improves detection of mercurial energy beings.

• “Perhaps exposing yourself to their presence long enough may help… I suppose you wouldn’t want to submerge yourself in my waters?”
• “I’ll have to pass on that…

‘I wouldn’t trust her with that, especially with her repeated threats of drowning others… I could just uprank Arcane sense right here and now but doing that right in front of her is going to be suspicious as hell… I need some excuse…’

But I know something else that might help.”

• “Wait…!”

With a loud and gauche tone, unbecoming of her usual self she called out.

• “What is it?”
• “You will come back… right?”

Despite what she had said earlier Alicia felt her words held a token of forlorn melancholy.

• “Of course, I will.”

‘Well I was not planning on it but there’s nothing on my schedule right now. Anyway I need to find someplace private…’

‘Such an innocuous little skill within presence detection…’

Near the northern mountains atop an exposed cliff jutting out a tor³A high craggy hill. away from possible onlookers.

‘Well here goes…’

Instead the creeping tingle or jolt of tremors that’s usually associated with a skill rankup, at once the world seemed to lose its color, light fading away.

>Readjusting optical feedback… standby…

Before she could start to worry, as if she came out of a world of darkness piercing whiteness stung her eyes, prompting her to instinctively squint. As visual adaptation came through and the blinding sensitivity to light declined her environs near and far were revealed again with one noticeable change.

Far off, within the endless skies, differing flighty currents of barely visible colors and riding their capricious flows, nebulous wisps of luminous orbs were dancing, swimming, gliding through the air in an enthralling display. Restrained by nothing they seemed to engorge themselves in their liberty, wild and free; possibly even gloating it. Yet even so they were at the whims of the currents, carried away in whichever direction the fickle tides chose. Lesser spirits of nature.

While she was enamored with the displays she had overlooked the thronging crowd that surrounded her. Eventually broken out of the enchanting sights she noticed their company. Swarms of butterflies, scattering glowing orange pollen as they fluttered, unassuming pearly white petals of various plants drifted around her face. Swimming in the air, shoals of small fish encircled her and mud balls with beady eyes & little stubby limbs revolved around her legs, in a dance following the rhythm of her beating heart. Initially dumbfounded from the sudden encounter, she quickly understood that these beings were in essence the same as what she saw. Putting two and two together, she held out her left palm and channelled her own magical energy to it, without any particular intent. Like moths to flame, beast to bait the petal like beings rapidly swirled around her hands and bright orange fliers reminiscent of monarchs⁴Danaus plexippus. gathered as if to feed from the nectar of flowers. Followed by the shoals of fish. Trailing every whims of her movements these spirits were admirers of her own. 

>Remapping neural input… Standby…

Brushed legs gently tickling, straw like mouthparts⁵Proboscis. curiously caressing the crevices of her palm. The peculiar sensations felt real, as if they were made of physical materials contrary to what they were, intangible energy based spiritual entities. Lastly the forgotten mudballs lightly clinging onto her legs to reach her hand as they climbed reminded her of their existence. Giving into her instinct she reached to pick it up yet to her surprise it simply passed through her other hand. She could touch and interact with the other spirits on her hand so it was strange to her why she couldn’t do the same with the mudballs. Thinking about what was different, there was no magical energy pooled on her other hand that went through them. Funnelling a small portion of energy to her right hand and picked up a mudball, cupping her hands underneath it. Spirit seemed to be delightedly albeit clumsily dancing on her hands, sometimes jumping up in joy.

‘Fire are those butterflies, air is the petals, water is the flying fish, earth is this… midget thing? Acorn eh…? Probably some sort of nature spirit Dryssia sees.’

Wanting to see how they would react to a real spell she used one of her first spells she discovered with the focal point just a few decimeters away…

⟨ Aerogenesis ⟩

↳ ‹ Acetylene ›

The slow parade of spirits turned into a frantic rush. It was then noticed how the other spirits changed form by blurring out, like an out of focus image and re-emerged as the petals before flying away to the assembly. Originally she could only feel and hope that the gas was present. Now she could see it take form as a bouquet of floral leaves.

⟨ Fire Aspect ⟩

↳ ‹ Ember ›

In the ignition process, from somewhere outside her vision few fiery butterflies flew straight into the mass of petals setting ablaze to the contained ball of gas.

⟨ Aerogenesis ⟩

↳ ‹ Oxygen ›

Introduction of the one of the final elements needed, prompted more of the petals slightly different from the last to rush into the fiery collection. Incorporating the oxygen into the mix, changed to the color of the flames to familiar steel blue⁶RGB 70/130/180 resembling the flames seen on a welding torch.

｢ Pyroblast ｣

But different from the first she used this spell she could clearly see the chaotic collection spirits within the blazing orb. Seeing this she paired each spirit of fire with two spirits of air. One possessing an unproportionate amount of acetylene and the other oxygen. Applying what she saw in the skies to practice, guiding them with her own currents of magical energy to control the spirits’ behaviour. Now with proper cohesion, the spell reached new heights of power as spirits to amalgamate into a single entity. A butterfly with wings of leaves, each with different tints of color was born from their unity. Looking at the orb of fire caused her eyes to re-adjust, the spirits seemed like faint glowing wisps of light. However refocusing on the wisps allowed her to see the spirits clearly again.

‘Hm… I have to actively search for them to see them vividly, otherwise it’s almost like a mirage from a heat haze… It’s not difficult to miss them if you don’t know what you’re looking for but now that I have it should be easier from now on…’

Content with the results, she repeated what she did the first time, by launching it into the air. The ball flame left a trail of alight petals behind its path, visible to few who are attuned to the arcane. Acetylene was an unstable element that when exposed to pressures exceeding standard atmospheric pressure would combust violently. Ball of flame accelerating upwards with speed, emulated such pressure to the unignited fuel. And just like the first time, the pyroblast exploded high up in the air, various spirits of fire and air scattering from its aftermath, with the shockwaves from the explosion shaking the trees and rumbling the ground. Reaching all the way to where she was, with enough strength to be felt. Seeing the display of pyrotechnics she created herself, a satisfied smile sneaked onto her face without her knowing.

‘Directly controlling the spirits is a fool's errand… Micromanaging their every action is simply not possible. So how do you herd a group⁷The name for a group of cats is clowder, sometimes called a glaring. I didn’t use it because it felt as if it was breaking the flow of the sentence. Kittens are called Kindle not a purr basket as I hoped but eh, If I manage to get PhD in English I’ll be sure to advocate for it. of cats? With excessive amounts of cat food. At least in this case these lesser spirits are very… food motivated. Those who don’t have a place of provenance - such as these lesser spirits - exist in uncertainty of when they’ll find any form of sustenance, so they’ll latch onto whatever food source they can find when presented with the option. Once fed they’ll be eager to do whatever you want them to do, so long as they can do it. After that they seem to attach themselves to you in some form waiting for the next time when you’ll give them treats. Kind of like stray dogs or cats in this case huh…

Now that I can see, interact with and direct them… limited as it may be I should be able to much more than before… Reminds me of that saying… ‘You don’t know what was missing from your life until you get it.’’
Stifling her want to cheer out loud into the wilderness she turned back to return to the spirit lake as she mulled over what she had learned.

‘I wonder if I could make something that’ll house these little critters… seems like a good thing to have… I should be able to draft up something in the dirt… but what do they need for housing…? A bird house…? Hm…’

Lost in her own thoughts she failed to notice the natural garden of tress for the spirits that had formed atop of her head long ago, after all they were out of sight…

Meanwhile the deafening blast of pyroblast that shook the ground created another magic beast stampede which headed for the Elven village just like before… However this time they were taken care of by Rufus’ security corps before any meaningful damage could occur.

‘Ah right that girl wanted me to come back, I should head over to meet first before I forget… wonder what was up with her… she seemed out of it lately.’

Ignorant of the unnatural storm clouds brewing above the lake covered by the verdant canopies Alicia set forth towards the eye of the storm…

Auratic

Here's someone being assaulted by 'bees'

By the way would you guys be interested in me making shitty illustrations for this? It'll take a little time but I think it can help form an image. There should be examples of my bad drawings in one of these chapters at the end of it, like this one... Originally this chapter was going to have a much longer title and a longer content but I didn't wanted to delay it for another one or two days so I split it up. Name for WS is coming soon feel free to take a guess.