Everyone reunited in the cottage after working on their own projects and had dinner together. Afterward, Sophia told them about her cherry blossom forest and how she was planning to alter the terrain to get rid of the default flatness of her domain. Everyone else got really interested in that and also wanted to do the same with their biomes because they didn’t like how flat they were, either.

“Hey~.” On the following day, after having laid the groundwork for her very blossom forest, Sophia went on a little trip.

“Welcome~.” Mira lightly greeted the blonde when she opened the door of her little lakeside hut in the middle of the jungle inside the teal fox’s own domain. “What brings you here?”

“Chloe needed Fey for something or another, and I thought I'd come and get her for our pink girl."

“Really?” Hearing that, the fox in question quickly joined Mira’s side at the door.

“Yup.” She smiled at her. “We also haven’t seen you in a while, either.”

“I see.” The full nodded a few times. “We planned to return later today, anyway, but do you mind if I go ahead?” She then faced the teal fox.

“Don’t let her wait~.” Mira gave her the okay, and Fey immediately left the hut and disappeared into the jungle from where the tiger had come earlier.

“She sure is something else when it comes to her baby, huh?” Sophia watched the fox leave with a warm smile on her face.

"As one should." Mira had the same expression but then faced the blonde. “Did Chloe really need her for something, or did you just try to make her leave, though?"

“Doesn’t Chloe always need her for something?” She dodged the question.

“And?” The overseer just kept staring at her.

“I like how sharp you are~.”

“So, what do you need me for?” She saw through her actions in an instant.

“Just a nice little chat~.”

“What did you do?” Mira didn't like how sweet-sounding her voice was.

“I did some more bonding with our beloved pink and purple sparkly friends, and I have questions!”

“Ahh.” The teal fox paused for a moment before gesturing her inside. “As I have the feeling this will take a while, how about we go and sit down somewhere comfortable?”

----------------

The two went into the hut and got comfortable in the cozy living room of Mira’s lakeside hut.

“How much of my authority do I need to collect and condense for magic to manifest a body?”

“…” The fox went silent for around a minute. “Come again?”

“You know what I mean!” Sophia didn’t believe her act of feigning ignorance.

“Explain how you came to that idea.”

“I started creating my own personal biome in my domain, and I had the most amazing chat with magic while doing so."

“Define chat.”

"I guessed the absolute wildest things, and my particle friends reacted to them accordingly."

“You’re good at that.”

“I sure am!” The blonde sounded proud of herself.

“What did you talk about?”

“I wanted to find how much authority I need to spend to get some terrain changes together with a few specific mutations while also giving the sparkly ones as much freedom as possible. Once I found out a rough number, I spent an entire day pumping raw magic from the outside world into my domain through a portal by constantly converting and resetting my authority to the point I felt sore from it!” She had to add a little complaint to it. “When I finally stopped and returned to the area, I ended up pouring thirty times my authority into a small area.”

“Ah.” Her expression turned awkward.

“You know what happened next, don’t you?”

“Go on.”

“Sure~.” Sophia started to notice that Mira was doing her usual spiel of finding out how much exactly she knew. “Once I was able to see again, by the way, being surrounded by nothing but dense sparkly particles reducing your sight to mere centimeters is quite scary, I started to notice some changes.” She made a slight pause. “Magic somehow had gotten a lot more talkative in a way. Like, they started using sign language! They showed me exact numbers in the air, like the thirty times my power being in the area, or reacted with thumbs up and down symbols while replying to my questions and guesses.”

“Yeah, environmental magic starts to gain that level of ability after around fifteen times your powers.”

“I knew it!” The blonde got loud. “Magic’s a hivemind, isn’t it?! The more of it there is, the higher their intelligence gets, right?! Or rather, the better they’re able to use and convey their intelligence!”

“…” Mira stared at her for a little while before her expression eventually softened up. “Close enough for the time being.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?!” She didn’t like her reply.

“Not important~.” The overseer smiled at her. “Anyway, continue.”

“Grr!” Sophia had to growl at her first before doing so. “I asked them how much of my authority I needed to release to have them talk with me, but the particles just teased me in return! They returned to simply moving up and down as if saying yes to my question, where yes wasn't an option! It's something I introduced to this world!"

“Magic’s naturally playful~.” Mira looked like a proud mother while saying so.

“I noticed!” She nodded a few times. “So, what’s the number? How much do I need to be able to talk with the particles?”

“Yes.” The fox tried her hardest not to burst into laughter.

“I hate you sooo much right now!”

“Come on, you should’ve seen that one coming.” There was just no way Mira could’ve passed on that chance.

“I really should’ve!” She looked a little embarrassed.

“It’s a lot, by the way.” The overseer sounded a little more serious.

“That’s fine!” Sophia immediately sounded motivated again. “You just confirmed that it is indeed possible! That means I just have to keep pumping raw magic into my domain while also using the flora to create even more until something happens!”

“That’s the spirit!” She was glad the tiger took it as a challenge rather than demotivating her.

“So, and with that, we’re back to my question of giving magic a body!” The blonde returned to her previous topic. “If talking is possible at some point, that has to be, too!”

“I don’t think you want to know.” Mira lightly shook her head.

“Why not?!” She disagreed with her assumption. “I absolutely do! Why wouldn’t I?!”

“Because I don’t want to make you feel down after you’re doing so well at the moment.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?!” Sophia got louder again.

“You’re feeling extremely powerful because you, in the regular world, have an incredibly high authority over magic, but in absolute terms, well…” She didn’t finish her sentence.

“You don’t want to give me a reality check?” The blonde tilted her head. “Don’t worry, magic already made me understand that I’m actually quite weak by telling me just how much authority I need for the most basic-looking things in my domain.”

“Yes, you unlocked your domain extremely early, so that’s quite the extra added challenge because you don’t have enough power to adequately populate it with things. Though, you have a rather useful group of friends in that regard.”

"Steph might actually be a little too helpful.” She shuddered for a moment while remembering her sister’s kingdom of coldness that she was creating. “Anyway, I can take it! Hit me with another reality check!”

“If you say so.” Shrugging, Mira then lifted her arm and put up the palm of her hand. A moment later, a roughly five-centimeter-wide dark purple sphere appeared on top of it. “Do you know what this is?”

“Magic?” The tiger stared at it for a while. “I can feel intense power from it, but why does it look like that? It’s not sparkly at all. There are no particles, either.”

“It is magic, yes.” The overseer nodded. "The reason it looks like that is because of how condensed it is." She then lightly threw it towards Sophia. "Here~.”

“It’s warm!” Catching it, the blonde immediately noticed the sphere’s temperature. “Wait, I can touch it?!” She only then noticed that part. “HOW?! I can see the particles of ambient magic, but I’ve never been able to touch them!”

“That’s what happens if you compress enough environmental magic past a certain point.”

“Really? That's amazing! I never thought you could touch magic! So, it getting a body is definitely possible, right?!" Sophia took a better look at the sphere. “How much magic is in that ball?”

“Can you not feel it?” Mira tilted her head.

“I can feel that it is a lot. Like, a LOT a lot, but I can’t put it into words.” She stared at it even harder. “Almost as if it’s telling me yes when I try to figure out how much magic is in there.”

“Yep, sounds about right.”

“YES is not an answer to my question!”

“You’re holding about 4,000 times your authority in the form of compressed ambient magic right now. Give or take a few hundred times.”

“I want to revise my previous statement! Yes is a perfectly adequate response!” Sophia then went silent for a moment. “W-What…?” She looked like she went in shock over it.

“Ahaha~.” After enjoying her reaction for a moment, Mira took back the sphere and held it herself. “It’s quite something, isn’t it?”

“A-Are you serious right now?” The blonde couldn’t believe it.

“I am.” Nodding once, the overseer then put her other hand over the orb to hide it from view. Seemingly concentrating for a moment, she then removed her hand again to reveal a small blue parakeet sitting on top of her palm. It was alive, too, as it curiously looked around while also chirping a few times. “Tada~.”

“Eh?”

Sophia was usually easily able to accept new experiences and situations after coming to her new world and getting used to the changes, but this sight was enough to fully overload her.