Connor hadn’t finished his meal when he got up and left. He mentioned having lost his appetite as he picked up his pace and rushed out of the cafeteria. Keith’s comment hit him harder than I expected. Lucy hesitated briefly before following him at a more sedate pace.

Jack stood up too, though he simply grabbed a small box from the table and walked to me. “This one is yours,” he said, presenting it to me. He then looked around and added, “And, please, no marriage jokes.”

“Thanks.” I received the gift with both hands and opened it. As expected, another ring rested in the middle.

“It’s pretty,” Allison commented.

I agreed. This one was a dull dark green, as if it were covered with a cooked spinach leaf. Just like Connor’s, however, it was decorated with a single amethyst. It didn’t match with anything, but I really liked it. It looked unique. “Does it have the same enchantment as the other one?” I asked, placing the box on the table and taking a mouthful of mushroom stew.

“It does,” Keith replied. “Are you not going to try it on?”

I shook my head, covering my mouth as I tried to down the food. “There’s no reason to,” I finally answered. “Everyone here knows me, and I like how I look.”

“It doesn’t mean you can’t test it,” Dr. Blake countered. “As things stand, you will have to use it in the future. You should make sure it fits and works properly, at least.”

He had a point. I could remove it right after, anyway. Following that logic, I put the spoon down and opened the box again. Despite its stoney appearance, the ring was actually metallic. I had suspected it was something closer to jade or marble. I fiddled with it briefly before I slipped it through my left ring finger. Surprisingly, it was a perfect fit. I then remembered that they had measured my entire body weeks ago, so it wasn’t as impressive. With the trinket in place, I looked at my hands and tail. Nothing had changed. I poked at the gem with my finger.

“It’s not broken,” Jack commented. “We just told you. Unlike Connor, you know how to manipulate mana, so a Flyttium ring was not necessary.”

“What material is that, then?” Dr. Blake asked, bringing out his tablet to take notes. “Does it also have special properties?”

“Yes,” Keith answered. “It’s called Aernyth, and it has similar properties to those of Flyttium. The only real difference between them is that Flyttium transfers mana on its own, while Aernyth only does it when the mana is supplied into it. It allows for better control of the spell. It also has an additional property that we’ll witness when Nora uses it.”

“How do I use it then?” I asked, tilting my head. “Do I just send mana to it?”

“Yes. Try visualizing your human form as you do.”

I nodded and closed my eyes, letting the mana flow through my arm and into the ring. I heard gasps all around me. The first thing I saw after that was a pair of clawless hands. My nails looked… normal? They were a bit long, sure, but that’s how I usually kept them as a human. I couldn’t help thinking that my hands were naked. Even the ring was gone, probably hidden by the spell. After weeks of having dark blue nails, these pink ones didn’t sit well with me. It felt odd to see them like this again. The feeling intensified when I examined the rest of my body. No tail, no wings or anything of the sort. I knew they were there. I could still feel them attached to me, and yet, it made me uncomfortable.

“How do you feel?” I heard from behind me. Sylvia was staring at me, wide eyed. No, it wasn’t at me, but something above my head.

“Weird,” I replied. “This isn’t me. Not anymore.”

“Really?” She kept staring at that point in space. I knew Allison was sitting there, but she was much taller than whatever had Sylvia’s attention. “What are you looking at?” She asked, searching for something behind her.

“I should be the one asking that.” I replied, mirroring her previous action. Just as expected, Allison was there. Her eyes were focused on something above me, as well.

“That’s a common issue with illusion magic,” Jack said, drawing our attention to him. “You can’t visualize yourself as you were before the transformation. The difference in height between your real self and the fake is causing discrepancies.”

He was right. I failed to see it before. Despite picturing myself as an adult, my size hadn’t changed. I still had to crane my neck to talk to Sylvia, and my illusion was probably imitating my movements by aiming its sight higher than where her eyes were at. The spell vanished as I stopped supplying mana, and the ring appeared once more. Seeing my real body brought a wave of relief to me. Anna seemed to notice this. Although she didn’t say anything about it.

Regardless of how uncomfortable it made me, I needed to test it again with the new information. Because of that, I texted Mom, asking her to get me some pictures of me as a child. I wanted to have a clear image of my human self so my illusion could be as accurate as possible.

“There’s something that keeps bugging me, Keith,” Anna said, turning away from me.

“Yes?”

“If these materials are as rare as you say, how did you get two rings that fit them so well? More importantly, why give them so freely?”

Kieth snorted and smiled at her. “The knowledge for crafting magic alloys may have been lost in time, but we’ve been gathering these items for centuries. We have a decent amount of them in our vaults. Additionally, magic alloys can be fully recycled and reshaped, so even though we didn’t have the rings at first, it was easy to obtain them. Giving them away isn’t a problem either. Excluding Adamantine, we have no actual use for magic alloys. All we can do is give them to survivors as a bribe so they cooperate with us.”

Now that’s a metal I’m familiar with.

“It sounds like you guys are a lot friendlier than what Alex told us,” Anna commented.

Keith shook his head. “We’ve done terrible things in the past, and things aren’t much different now. They’re just better disguised. Take Alex and Reginn, for example. We kidnapped them and robbed their humanity. All that just to keep the truth hidden a bit longer. This is nothing more than an attempt at redemption.”

“Won’t you get in trouble for telling us this?” Dr. Blake asked.

He shrugged. “Maybe, maybe not. Truth is that our order is about to lose its purpose. Unless we can adapt to this new era, we will be disbanded. In other words, my superiors have bigger things to worry over than me revealing something people have been speculating about for years.”

“I believe we’re omitting something very important” Rex interrupted. “Did you actually think you could mention Adamantine so casually in front of me? You’re telling me that such a metal does exist?”

I was equally interested. It was, after all, the strongest material you could get in plenty of fantasy games and stories.

Keith chuckled. “I knew you would say something like that. Would it surprise you to hear mythril, orichalcum and even cold iron are real too?”

“Oh, you’ll need to tell me more than that, man,” Rex said, firmly grabbing both of the knight’s shoulders.

“Sure,” Keith replied, freeing himself. “I’ve already talked about Aernyth and Flyttium, so I will skip those. First, Mythril is a silvery blue metal that happens to be as tough as steel while having a third of its density. Additionally, it conducts magic instead of raw mana, so it can act as an extension of one’s body, effectively increasing the maximum range of the user’s magic. Mages who could afford it would usually buy a staff made of this material.

“Similar to Mythril, Orichalcum also absorbs magic. The difference is that it can retain the spell it absorbed. The magic is slowly released when the material makes contact with a new surface, but it can be instantly triggered by a strong impact. This metal is gold in colour and reflects light in a rainbow pattern. It was commonly used in arrows.”

Dr. Blake added a few more notes to his file. “Interesting. Do all magic alloys interact with mana in some way?”

The knight nodded. “From conduction to insulation. There’s even a magic equivalent for diodes called Sardite. We have no actual evidence to back this up, but we believe that the magical races weren’t too far from making a huge technological jump thanks to these materials. Unfortunately, the gnomes burnt away any proof of this.”

“We can talk about that later. Can you describe Sardite some more?” Rex asked.

“I see you haven't gotten bored of that role playing of yours,” Keith mocked. “Are you still trying to become a blacksmith?”

Rex flashed a toothy grin and shrugged. “Bored? No way. If anything, it’s gotten better. Now tell me about them metals!”

“If only everyone took their transformation the same way you do,” Anna commented.

“I agree.” Keith said, smiling. “To answer your question, Rex, Sardite is a brick-red metal, so it’s easy to mistake it for rusty iron unless polished. It can transfer mana, similar to Aernyth. For unknown reasons, however, it can only happen in one direction. It’s truly a magic diode.

“The only other insulator we know of is Adamantine itself. It completely nullifies mana and magic and is pretty much indestructible when it comes to physical stress, although it compensates by being quite dense, as well. It looks like black steel.”

Whilst they talked, I received a message from Mom. She probably had some pictures in her phone already, given how fast she was at sending them. With my new reference in mind, I looked at the ring and supplied more mana. I also thought about keeping the ring visible, and I immediately noticed something new. The trinket glowed. It was a bright green, like one of those generic glow-in-the-dark toys. It distracted me enough not to notice the changes taking place. Once more, I looked human. The uncomfortable feeling returned, too. Reminding myself that it was only an illusion helped me stay calm.

“Does it feel better now?” Allison asked, this time properly looking at me.

I shook my head. “It’s pretty much the same. I guess this goes to show how much the MAV has changed me. It’s not as bad if I think of it as a very good disguise or virtual reality game.”

“The ring!” Lily shouted suddenly, pointing at it. “Look! It’s shining!”

“Right, I forgot to point out the other property Aernyth had. It glows when mana courses through it,” Keith explained. “It’s not potent enough to use as a light source, but draell were fond of items made out of this alloy because they can be easy to find in the dark.”

“Are there any other metals that do this?” Sylvia asked, poking at it.

“There is one called Kriionix,” Keith replied. “It’s also known as cold iron because of its bluish colouration and unusually low temperature when idle. This metal glows red when mana is supplied to it. You wouldn’t want to put it around your finger, though. Kriionix dissipates mana as heat, and it can leave some nasty burns on whoever touches it at that time. The only object we’ve found with this material are shackles, so it was probably meant to stop criminals from using magic.

“That leaves only one more magic alloy to mention. Vorsel is pretty much a battery. It stores any mana supplied to it, and it will only release it when connected to any conductor. It’s cream coloured.”

___________

After the metallurgy class was over, I went outside for my daily flight training. I did it almost effortlessly now. The only tough parts were both the takeoff and landing. The second only needed more practise, but I still needed to figure out how to start flying on my own. From what Anna told me, demons were capable of jumping high enough to lift off from the ground. She also reminded me I did just that the day Lily woke up from her transformation. The only problem was that I didn’t remember how I did it.

Anna told me not to worry too much about it yet. First, I needed to go through the one test that had been waiting for me all this time. The flight training platform that stood alone and forgotten next to our training area. I never saw anyone climb that thing, so I imagined it was quite dusty up there. Curious about it, I left my usual track around the lake and soared above the trees towards the training grounds. I could hear everyone shouting, although it was impossible to tell what they were saying. I was too high, and the motors were too loud for me to tell. I imagined it had to do with me leaving the lake like that. I would apologise later.

Having arrived at my destination, I landed on the platform at the top of the tower. While it was obvious that no one had done anything for the place after its construction, it wasn’t nearly as dirty as I imagined on the outside. The cabin placed at the centre wasn’t as small as it looked from below either. It was actually big enough to act as a secondary room for me. Considering how no one used it, I was going to claim it as such. I opened the door and walked inside, coughing from the stale air that lingered inside. There was no light switch, so I had to make due with the light that entered through the one small window the place had.

The room only had a small couch, a dresser, and a rectangular table. Everything was covered by a thin layer of dust. It could use some cleaning and some added features, but it wasn’t too bad. It was certainly a place I could use to relax and be alone. At least until Sylvia learned to fly and Lily got over her fear of the outside. Not that I minded their presence in the first place. My thoughts were interrupted when I heard Anna shouting below the structure.

I didn’t expect her to find me this quickly.

It wasn’t like I didn’t want to be found. I no longer had any business inside, so I was about to leave, anyway. I was simply surprised.

Maybe one of the rangers saw me and told her.

I walked out of the room and closed the door before looking down to the source of the noise. I regretted my decision immediately. Somehow, I had been able to ignore my acrophobia up until this point. Flying always seemed to turn it off. Now that I was standing, there was no escape. I sat down with my back to the cabin’s wall and refused to open my eyes again.

“What are you doing, Nora!?” Anna yelled. “You’re not in trouble. I just want to talk to you for a bit.” Her voice was calm this time.

“I can’t!” I shouted back, not daring to peek.

“Is everything okay?” Allison shouted.

I shook my head, even though they couldn’t see me. My arms wrapped around my knees as I got into a fetal position. “It’s too high! I can’t move!”

There was silence for a couple of minutes. I couldn’t tell if there were still around. I couldn’t hold it anymore and started to cry. Suddenly, I heard someone climbing up the ladder. “Seriously, does no one ever clean this thing?” I heard Anna complain. “Don’t worry, Nora. I’ll be there in a moment!”

Soon enough, she reached the top. “Oh wow, it really gets scary here. Give it to Dad to forget that guard railings are important, even if someone knows how to fly. I guess I should be more surprised by how the workers said nothing about this!”

“Hey it’s alright,” she cooed sitting next to me and taking me into her arms. “I’m here now.” In all honesty, it was what I needed to calm down. I still couldn’t open my eyes, though.

She let go and got up again. I heard her move in front of me. “Don’t worry. I’ll carry you back down. Here, get on my ba-AH!”

My eyes shot open, and I saw Anna lose her balance near the edge of the platform. I didn’t waste any time and threw myself after her as she started to fall. Not being able to stop her in time, my arms wrapped around Anna’s chest, and my wings frantically flapped to keep us in the air. Unfortunately, she was too heavy to lift, so I put all of my efforts into slowing down our fall. I could see Allison rushing at an incredible speed to catch us, but I knew she still wasn’t going to make it. A loud crack told me it had failed. Her screams of pain pierced my ears, forcing me away from her. I felt relieved, knowing she survived, but then took a better look. Both of her arms were broken. The right one had an unnatural position, while the left had its bone exposed. The sight of it made me throw up. The rest of her body was in bad shape too, although it was clear she had used her arms in an attempt to protect herself. I was paralyzed. It was my fault she fell.

A rustling noise made me turn my head to the forest, and I saw Allison rush into the woods. She was thinking fast. Viken was a healer, so his magic was the best choice we had. I looked at Anna, who was lying on her back and breathing rapidly. That wasn’t a good sign. Her left arm was bleeding too much, and I knew I needed to stop it.

“Sorry,” I said as I crawled to her and applied pressure around the wound. She winced and screamed again. I wanted to cool her arm to diminish the pain, but I didn’t know if that was the right choice. “I’m really sorry.”

It didn’t take long before Allison came back, carrying Viken on her back. She knelt, panting heavily as the old man stepped down and got closer to us.

“Stay that way more, child,” he said, placing his right hand on her forehead and closing his eyes. “Dæn mar ven bein, Nïry.” He then hummed in that position for a full minute before he hovered his left hand over Anna’s chest and around each of her arms. I could feel the warmth as it went over my own hands, but nothing else. Whatever he did, it caused her breathing to go back to normal, and her face to become relaxed. “You can walk back now, child,” he informed me when the glow stopped.

I nodded and gave them space. Just then, Belaury stepped into the clearing with a small basket and ran to me, kneeling down and placing her hand on my back. “Are you okay, Nora?”

Those words were all I needed for my eyes to start watering again. I buried my face in her shoulder and cried. “It’s my fault! She got hurt because of me!”

“There, there,” She said, rubbing my back. “Accidents happen, dear. It’s not your fault.”

“She climbed up to get me!” I shouted. “All because I was too scared to-!”

“Anna is alive because of you, Nora,” Allison interrupted with a frown on her face. “If you hadn’t jumped after her, she could’ve died. Don’t blame yourself for something like this!”

I remained silent. I knew better than to contradict her when she was like that. Instead, I turned to Viken and asked, “Will Anna be fine, Mr. Deinast?”

Just then, he grabbed her left arm and snapped it back in place. There was no response from Anna. “She will be,” he replied, making his hand glow again as he ran it along the injury. “Bel, give me the nutrient potion.”

My teacher brought out a small bottle out of her basket. It contained a broth-like brown liquid. She took the cork out of the vial and passed it to Viken, who quickly poured a small amount of the contents into Anna’s mouth as he sat her up. He then covered her mouth and nose, forcing her to swallow, and repeated the process until it was gone. After that, he laid her down on the floor again and went back to healing her arms.

“What was that?” I asked Belaury.

“That was a nutrient rich medicine. Enhancement life magic needs resources to work properly, so, for lengthy processes like this, it’s important that the patient doesn’t run out of fuel to withstand the procedure. If we don’t do this, her body could eat itself in order to survive. Don’t worry, I brought enough for her.”

“What are you doing to my daughter!?”