I did it! I figured out all the runes in Farilight. After figuring it out, I've begun work on a couple of other sigils. I'm proud of myself. I wasn’t much into linguistics in my old life, but my parents forced me to learn a foreign language. Japanese is what I ended up going with. I wasn't sure where I would work then, but I knew that my field would mesh well with that language. I pause what I'm doing and look around my Mind Palace.  

     Something has been bothering me lately. It's been a year since I came here, and I still have no idea why. That tablet and repository sound suspicious. I’m hesitant to go, but I get a vague feeling that I have to. It sounds too much like the plot of a fantasy novel, but I am in a fantasy world. With a sigh, I set back to my work. Tomorrow I’ll look at the spell Tani taught me to block sounds. For now, it's sorting time.

     I woke up a bit later than usual. Tani was already up and talking to Auntie.

     “Morning Flower,” she said, seeing my eyes open up. 

     “Tankiees,” I said to her. Auntie came over to my crib and picked me up. After changing me, she tapped the intercom on her desk and called for my food. “Tani, say this, pwease.” 

     Fal zigh nacht. I write, hoping that this works. 

     “Fal zigh nacht,” she said. An orb of light appeared in front of her. She stared at it in surprise. “That barely took any power. You did it then?” 

     “Did what?” Auntie asked. There was a knock on the door, and Tani quickly hid in my lap. A servant had brought my breakfast. She cast a spell on it before she began to feed me. Recently, she has taken to checking my food.

     “She deciphered the runes that make up the first spell I taught her.”

     “Interesting,” she said, putting her hand on her chin, “what spell?”

     “Fairy light. It's fae magic that can light dark spaces. But it can only be seen by the fae or humans with spirit sight.”

     “Interesting, how much magic does my niece know?”

     “Wots of sells,” I said excitedly.

     “She’s a prodigy, but you already know that. I wouldn’t be here otherwise,” Tani said excitedly as she snuggled my cheek. “I am not entirely sure where she sits now, but I figure she will be the most knowledgeable and strongest caster in existence.” 

     “That gifted?”

     “Yes, if you could see how much energy her body contained, she would be glowing like the sun,” Tani said, surprising me. Is that how she saw me? I never really thought about it. My light has always looked the same as everyone else's just purer. I looked down at my hand, my light swirling within me. There were chaotic patterns, but the more I looked, the more they began to feel familiar.

     “What’s the matter, sweetie?” Auntie asked, tapping me gently on the nose. I giggled and looked up at her.

     “I’m wooking at my wight,” I told her just before she fed me a few more spoonfuls of my food. Whatever it was tasted good. “Where Mommy?”

     “She was called to the castle to discuss business,” she answered. Her light became disturbed slightly. I think she didn’t tell me the truth, but she hadn’t ever done anything bad. So I decided to trust her. Hopefully that wouldn’t come back to bite me. She didn't seem like she was trying to take advantage of me. And having someone who knew about Tani was very handy.

*****

     We got a late start today, Auntie gave me a nice long bath. Mostly she used it as an excuse to question Tani and I. She was probing me again for who I really was. I managed to deflect, but I knew eventually I’d have to tell her. That thought terrified me. What if she handed me off to someone to be researched? I shook my head, there’s no way Auntie would do that to me. 

     “Flower? What's on your mind?”

     I sighed, “I’m afwaid Auntie would send me away if I told her about my memowies.”

     “I know she wouldn’t do that, and I think you should tell her. But I won’t force you to,” she said, hugging my cheek.

     I continued practicing my sigils. Tani ran me through the sigils she already taught me, then taught me a new one. Its purpose was to create sealed spaces, these had a variety of properties. Ranging from preventing anyone outside from coming in, to dilating time inside of it. I decided this spell would be the next I deciphered. It could be immensely helpful to learn it. 

     “Impressive Lilli, you master these so quickly. I’ve never seen anyone with your aptitude,” Tani giggled.

     I felt my cheeks grow warm as I blushed. I wasn't used to receiving this much praise. Despite my education, I was pretty average in my field. 

     “Tankiees,” I said.

     I heard a sound and looked over at its source. Anna dropped her teacup and was in the process of cleaning up the mess. Auntie was watching her with a small smile.

     “Wonder what happened.” I said out loud. 

     “I don’t know,” Tani said as she flew over. Just before she arrived, Auntie said something and laughed. She returned almost immediately and gave me an answer, “Your Auntie asked her a personal question, and she overreacted.”

     I almost asked what question but decided against it. Turning from them, I made sure the concealment spell was active before I cast two sigils, one to create a fire and one to create the space. Creating the space around the fireball. The fire continued to burn, so oxygen could get in, and carbon dioxide was getting out.

     “What are you doing!?” Tani asked urgently

     “Expewamenting,” I replied, letting the space spell fall. I cast it again, this time imagining it airtight. Quickly the fire extinguished, the spell continued to drain my Ether. This verified a number of things for me. First that I could modify the spell somewhat with my intent, and secondly it seems that some of the laws of physics are the same. 

     I would have to run some more experiments, if I could figure out how to make a cloud chamber I could verify the existence of charged particles. There were some other basic things I could do, it would probably have to involve magic.

     “Lilli, hey. Flower”

     “Mmm?” 

     Tani was waxing her hands in front of my face.

     “There she is, what are you thinking?”

     “Sowiees,” I said, then continued in writing. I was thinking about how I could verify some knowledge from my previous life. The fire was one experiment, and there are others I want to perform once I have the necessary supplies. 

     “What were you testing?”

     In my world, we learned a lot about how things work. The air we breathe is made up of these small things called molecules. One of them called oxygen is needed by fires to burn. I verified, well at least showed that something like it, exists here. I created that space and stopped the air from going in.

     “And without this oxygen, the fire couldn't exist?”

     “Pwesisewy!” I giggled. 

     “You know this could change everything?”

     “Mmhmm, it changed my old world too. There were a wot of discovewies made. And wots of advancements,” I had to focus on saying this, “made that impwoved things. We went from taking months to go across a country to the same distance taking only a few days.”

     “I wish I could see your world,” Tani said in wonder. 

     "I wish you could too, but my world doesn’t have magic.” This was the first time I truly felt homesick. Tani would have loved earth. She cuddled me still, gently I cuddled back and giggled. I wouldn’t trade anything for this moment.

*****

     “Auntie, I’m dry,” I giggled excitedly.

     “That's great, sweetie,” she exclaimed and picked me up. “We’ll need to celebrate. You’re a big girl now.”

     “Yay!” I giggled excitedly. The past few months have been busy. Tani left for a couple of weeks. It wasn’t as miserable, but I was still sad. While she’s been gone, I’ve been working on growing up some. Auntie says I’m ahead of the other children already. Well, aside from the magic, that is. But I’ve already grown up once, even if I don't fully remember it. 

     “Theres my baby girl.”

     “Mommy! I’m a big girl now,” I giggle.

     “Yes you are,” she said, happily taking me from Auntie. I hugged her back and her light exploded in happiness. I could tell something was wrong, despite her excitement, Aunties light was disturbed. She probably wanted to talk to mommy, but I knew she wouldn’t do it in front of me anymore.

     “Anna dear,” she said gesturing at the maid, “please take Lilli to the playroom, we’ll be there soon.”

     She took me, setting me on her hip as she wrapped her arm around my waist. We made our way to my playroom, which was only a couple of doors down. She set me down in the corner and grabbed some of my toys. When she went to her seat, I activated the concealment magic. 

     “Droln ilc heidt vor naar,” I say, casting one of my custom magic. My hearing goes quiet for a moment before returning.

     “... I trust his message,” Auntie said. Her voice sounded a little hollow. Forcing me to focus a little more power into my spell.

     “It’s crazy! Why would they declare war like that?” Mom asked.

     “He wasn’t able to verify, but he believes that their main dungeon has dried up.”

     “Is that even possible?” Mom had a note of concern in her voice when she asked that.

     “I don’t know, but I know that your dungeon has started to slow production. It's entirely possible that they can run dry. We don’t really know how they function.”

     “This is worrying, what will happen if all the dungeons stop working? How will we get Etheric crystals? It would spell the end of civilized life as we know it.” Mom despaired. 

     They both fell silent for so long I thought they were done talking. Just as I was about to release the spell, Auntie spoke.

     “I may have a solution, Mirri, but I need to talk to her first.”

     “What solution?”

     There was a swishing sound before she spoke, “I have to talk to her first, everything depends on what she says.”

     “Ok,” Mom hesitated. “Who is she then?”

     “I can’t say, I have to speak to her first.”

     “Ok Jean, I’ll wait. I trust you,” Mom sighed. “Now, however, I want to spend time with my daughter.”

     “Of course. Lets go get her.” auntie replied. Shortly after I heard the door open and close and I let the spell go. War? When auntie told me about the issues with the dungeons, I didn't think it would happen this soon. The door of the playroom opened up, I looked over and saw mom smiling at me, I looked at Auntie, but nothing about her betrayed her intentions. 

     “Lilli do you want to go to the garden?”

     “Garden? We have a garden?” I asked, then remembered I shouldn't know what that is. “What's a garden?”

     “It's where people grow plants. We have a lovely flower garden. I just wish…” she didn't finish her sentence. I knew what she was going to say. As her light became disturbed, I gave her a hug. 

     “I love you Mommy,” I tried to kiss her cheek but ended up kissing her chin.

     She laughed and kisses my forehead. Her light returned to normal, and she carried me out of the playroom. Auntie walked beside her, with Anna following close behind. Auntie kept glancing at me. We stopped off in my room, well old room since I was staying in aunties right now. My clothes were changed, and a hat was put on my head. I was starting to get excited, i couldn’t help myself as I bounced in Mommy’s arms. 

     After a year and a half, I was going to get to go outside.

Crissyfox

Sorry about the delay. Things have been pretty stressful recently and I havent been able to focus on writing. This chapter sat half written for a bit but I just couldn't force myself to finish it. Things are hopefully getting better soon and i was able to find the insperation to finish it. Hopefully you all enjoy the chapter. I'll try and be more regular.