It's been almost two years since my tenth birthday, and though I haven’t seen much of my family at all I no longer let it bother me. My enchantment has improved leaps and bounds since then, after all having an expertly made enchantment to study has helped me a ton. Though I may have learned more from it if I didn’t treat it as if I would break it, always being careful not to disrupt the magic as I study it. 

I now have a small arsenal of ready wands and staves, and my crowning achievement! A magic blocking ring! Sure it only works once but hey it’s a start: and yes spell shields are one of the first things people learn when training but I’m trying my best here! One of my main hindrances is my lack of mana crystals, more my lack of high-powered crystals.

I have a mountain of cheap weak ones, but I have only managed to get my hands on a single mana beast crystal that’s even smaller than the one in my bag. That’s the one I used for the spell ring, though Riley nearly had a heart attack when I asked her to help grind it into powder to use in the inscriptions, a process I was… 70% sure would work. 

Now I did lose a ton of power by doing that but that’s why it's called experimentation! And it worked too! Since then, I have made several pieces of jewelry for Riley, nothing fancy just some light up hair clips and a bracelet that glows when powered but eventually I want to make her a spell shield like my ring.

I have also really spruced up the guest house I live in, sure there were already enchantments in the main house to clean water and a hot and cold tap, but the guest house only had basic plumbing. So, I fixed that, I also created a fan; something I was surprised didn’t exist in this world but fuck all dose it gets hot in the summer. Along with a basic cleaning and purifying enchantment in the kitchen to make Riley’s job easier. Though she had insisted I was trying to take her job when I made a laundry basket that spun the clothes around to clean them. 

All of that on top of some more combat focused enchantment, though I haven’t tested them yet since I only have Riley around and it would be far too dangerous to “test” them on her. I did also have to promise not to test them on myself, not that I think the main one would even work on me. 

I discovered it on complete accident while testing out a defensive enchantment. Apparently if you take two mana crystals and you get them to resonate at just the right frequency they… Well, they explode, it’s a sure fire way to get little crystal shards in your hand but it will also disrupt the mana around you in an area about the size of a small bedroom (about 8X8). I only know this because all the lights stopped working and my bag kind of spit all its contents onto the floor. 

We had to pay another mage to come and charge all the crystals, but it was a small price to pay for what I’m calling my last resort! I don’t know how long it will negate magic but I’m sure it will be a nasty surprise for whomever I hit with it. 

“Emilla,” Riley called from behind me as I worked on grinding another mana crystal, just a weak one this time.

“Yea?” I asked not bothering to look up as I checked the powder, “not fine enough yet.” I muttered going back to work.

“Your father has requested your presence in the main house for dinner.”

The mana powder covered the desk as I fell out of my chair, “What?” It’s been over two years, what do they want now?