“Recent Traxian aggression likely stems from their success in pushing the forces of the Adornari Elves beyond the Broadleaf Plains. Their quick almost unopposed capture of Felmarch and Tynsford likely also contributed to their desire to expand into the Carradorian basin. Though, whoever would win that conflict still remains to be decided given the strategic advantages offered by the terrain favouring the defenders. As for their attacks against the Sultanate? Even though the Traxian legions penetrated the defensive lines, I suspect that as with most expeditions they have performed in the past, they will be beaten back once the Lucurian’s manage to rally the bulk of their forces against the offending legion. Still, kudos to whoever led the legion that broke through, probably going to get some nasty infighting back on the home front for that move. After all, opening wars on three fronts generally isn't considered good military strategy. Good for gathering glory though. Beyond that, Potomia, of course, remains vigilant for any Traxian build up near our borders. On that topic at least, our naval forces stand ready to repel any amphibious crossings that hopefully never happen.”

- Archon Kaelran Lowin, Strategos of Foot, Royal Army of Potomia, “Analysis of Traxian Aggression During Meeting with Zephyran Counterpart”

“So why couldn’t I find you guys?” Aryana mumbled softly. Her words bringing about a slight lull in the dinner.

It didn’t matter how tasty the roasted meats and herbs were, Sophie had felt the slight underlying tension between everyone ever since they arrived. Sophie could feel that the siblings were worried about the two of them. Conversely, she knew Aryana and to an extent, herself, were a little more than suspicious of the siblings given that the events at the library happened conveniently after they had left. Sophie however, hadn’t intended to broach this topic just yet, Aryana, as it seems like, did.

“What do you mean?” Thalnor carefully asked.

Maylesa continued munching away on her fried potatoes, but Sophie could see the elf’s ears perk up and attune themselves to the conversation. Much like Sophie’s own.

“I mean after the Library incident. It was… I waited for about a week and then tried to find you guys. But the guards wouldn’t let me in.” Aryana muttered dejectedly, “And I couldn’t find either of you anywhere else.”

The mood in the room had plummeted and only the small candle that lit the table offered any semblance of warmth. Still, Sophie too had been curious, and now she held her breath, staying quiet and letting things play out.

“Ahh… the whole district was placed on lockdown.”

“Lockdown?”

“Indeed. After word of an ‘attack’ on the city reached us, the district guards immediately locked down all the gates and streets. We were pretty much confined to the household until someone needed to get supplies.” Thalnor complained, “We couldn’t even do much of anything besides tinker with our things.”

“Not like big brother or sister, they’re considered essential.” Maylesa huffed in annoyance.

“Mmhmm. So I apologize if we couldn’t reach out to you, or you us. Though I suppose in hindsight, perhaps handing letters off to the guards might’ve been a better idea.”

“But I did talk to the guard. He said he’d tell you I was looking for you two.” Aryana bemoaned.

“You did?!” Both siblings exclaimed.

“Y-yeah.” Aryana backed down at the sudden outburst of energy from the siblings.

“Blasted damnation.” Thalnor cursed.

Though his voice was low, the emotion it carried soothed Sophie’s doubts. The genuine anger and frustration in his voice proved to be a welcome sign against her idea that they might’ve set her up.

“Timeline matches too.” Maylesa chimed in, “We got locked down for about a week. At least until the elders and ambassador were sure there would be no direct danger to our people. By then they were already starting to shuffle out the legionaries that once guarded the approaches.”

“It all makes sense.” Thalnor agreed.

Sophie could see the relief that etched itself upon Aryana’s face, not only had the girl learned that her friends hadn’t just been avoiding her, but that they were unlikely to at least be the culprits behind recent events. It lifted her mood however much it could, wiping away some of her doubts and ensuring that at least one problem reached an acceptable solution. Now, she could go back to worrying about mundane things like preparing for the Academy. Or Anna.

Unwilling to dispel the more mellow mood that had settled upon the trio, Sophie banished her thoughts for now and tried her best to pick up on what they were talking about.

“Mmhmm, we made this to apologize when we first heard about everything but…” Thalnor drifted off as he pushed forward a small little trinket on the table. A compass? I mean it'd be useful I guess.

“Seeing how you look right now, no offence Aryana, you look in worse shape than expected.” Maylesa finished.

Aryana shrugged slightly, trying her best to hide the dejected expression at being reminded of her wounds.

“So… is there anything we could do? Or something you might need?” Maylesa continued.

Aryana shook her head, a sad smile on her face, “Nah… I-I’m good.”

The siblings then turned to Sophie, their eyes staring at her expectantly. At first she was tempted to just shrug it off before she paused. They’re tinkers and magitech experts, I wonder…

“You’re asking me?” Sophie quickly stammered out to double check.

The siblings looked at each other while nodding.

“Of course, we realize material goods won’t make up for our absence but we’d like to be helpful nonetheless.” Maylesa reassured her.

“Or at least, however, we can offer assistance.” Thalnor joined in.

Sophie pursed her lips in consideration when she tentatively broached the question mulling around in her mind. “Umm… I… uhhh…” Or at least she attempted to.

The others, Aryana included, now turned to Sophie with more serious expressions. For the first time in a while, Sophie felt much like Aryana when all the eyes were turned onto her. All this was made worse by how even she felt her request would be borderline ridiculous.

“Yes?” Thalnor inquired.

Sophie swallowed her doubts and nodded to her. “Right. Well… would it be possible to make a mana battery? Or uhhh something magitech related that could… well… work as a portable version of that?”

The siblings stared at her incredulously, their silent questioning blinks making Sophie squirm. Aryana meanwhile, just looked at her in utter confusion and Sophie silently scolded herself for being so wrapped up in everything that she had forgotten to tell the girl about Korvin’s discovery.

“Sorry…?”

“... did you say, make a mana battery?”

“A portable one?”

The siblings asked.

“Y-yeah?” Sophie responded, now feeling a little silly at her request.

Maylesa squinted at Sophie and wiggled her nose in displeasure before she let out a soft huff. “Why?” She demanded, not a trace of sarcasm to be found in the stern voice.

“Indeed, why?” Her brother joined in.

“Err… well…” Fuck, should I tell them? Inquisitor Korvin did say this information could be revolutionary, which also means dangerous. What if they let it slip to someone more ambitious? What if they get in trouble? Hells, we don’t even know them that well yet.

“Making a gift for an apology only gets you halfway, this sounds more like a personal request.” Maylesa tutted, "A big one at that."

“It… it is?” Sophie halfheartedly agreed.

“Yes. So why?”

“Err… well, you know how I don’t really have much mana potential, right?”

“Go on.”

“Well I figured out that I… well I manipulate mana pretty well, so I was thinking that a mana battery could well… help out or something.”

The siblings traded glances and furrowed their brows at her.

“That’s a tall order, it’s not like we just have the parts lying around.” Thalnor grunted.

“And it takes a lot of know-how to even make a normal mana battery, much less… changing one to be smaller?” Maylesa still sounded unconvinced, “In theory the normal sized batteries are already quite portable, are they not?”

Sophie bit her lip, Maylesa wasn’t incorrect. But if the battery seen during her stay at Fort Clover was any sign of a regular one, hiding or even carrying it around everyday would be exhausting. She turned up to find everyone staring at her and realized that some habits were really hard to break, even after life threatening situations. Sophie’s shoulders sagged and her barriers broke.

“Truth is, when I was out. They ran some tests-”

“Wait, out? As in knocked out?” Thalnor asked.

Sophie nodded but she could see Aryana wince. Truthfully, Sophie only knew her body was in pain, the one sided duel with the scholar having completely wrecked her perception as she was shattered by the creature. Seeing Aryana’s reaction, Sophie grimaced slightly. Goddess above, I must’ve been a mess.

“Are you alright?” Maylesa asked wide eyed, “You look… like… you don’t even have a scratch on you?”

“I know.” Sophie nodded, “I'm gettin to it.”

“Sorry, do continue.”

“Right, and sorry Ary, I just got so caught up with everything I forgot to tell you earlier.”

Aryana glanced at Sophie with suspicion in her eyes but shrugged nonetheless.

“Anyway, basically the gist of it is, when I got knocked out. You know, from the Library incident. I got taken by the Legion.”

“The Legion? The traitors?” Maylesa asked.

“No,” Sophie shook her head, “the good bunch, at least, I think so.”

“Sorry for interrupting.”

“Heh, it’s fine. But that’s what happened. And so when I woke up, I found out that an Inquisitor from the church had run some tests on me.”

“Tests?”

“Mmhmm. One of which included a mana battery.”

“And?” The siblings asked together, the story already being pieced together in their heads based on what Sophie saw from their eyes.

“They found out I’m what they call a mana sink, I believe is the term he used. It’s when-” Sophie tried to clarify for Aryana but was immediately cut off.

“So you’re like a sponge? Just absorbing all the ambient mana?” Maylesa hummed.

“It would explain why we feel little to no energy from her.” Thalnor said.

“True, she did seem abnormally… errr… mana impoverished? When we first met.”

“I would agree with the sentiment but disagree with your terminology, sister.”

“Mana scarce.”

“That is better.”

“Still an oddity.”

“Indeed, and now I understand her request.”

“A portable battery for personal use, hmmm.”

“It would probably have to be a prototype.”

“We might have to ask for help… from… them.” Maylesa scowled.

“Troubling, but for a friend.”

“For a friend.”

The siblings seemed to agree and looked back at Sophie.

“Fine, we’ll do it. Though it likely won’t be done anytime soon. That is, way after our entrance ceremony and even then.” Thalnor noted.

“Don’t be like that, we’ll get it done in a reasonable time frame. Our family name isn’t the only talent holding us aloft. We have skills ourselves.”

“Though not as much as the others.” Thalnor grumbled.

“Tsk, enough about them. We do have one condition though, friend.” Maylesa said.

“Y-yeah?” Sophie replied, a little confused, a little nervous and a little excited. Didn't expect them to actually agree.

“If it does prove successful. That is the process of making a smaller battery than well… the current battery. Then you must not show off the technology to anyone without our say so.”

“Of course?”

“Good. Because it will be our creation and we will not have that taken from us.”

“Sure, I see no problem with that.”

With her affirmation something seemed to light up within the sibling’s eyes, a wave of eagerness washing over the room.

“Yes, yes. I see it now, this will be something we can get credit for. Err… alongside you two of course.” Maylesa gave the two of them a sheepish grin.

“It would be nice.” Thalnor agreed.

Sophie turned to find Aryana even more bewildered than before and just smiled at her before mouthing a few words silently, ‘I’ll tell you afterwards.’ For now though, with the spirits of the siblings lifted, Sophie felt the whole group seemed to be feeling a bit more cheerful as well. With a little extra prodding, the party began chatting away as the siblings began sprouting technobabble that seemed to make no sense to Aryana or Sophie. But, the two shared their own glances and just went along with the mood. It’s good to revel once in a while.

Sophie worried that she had set off some long standing conflict unintentionally. She had known that her siblings ironically found talking about their elder twin siblings a touchy subject judging by their reactions when they were first mentioned by Tristan’s crew. She had expected they had something to prove, yet, she didn’t expect just how much they wanted to prove. After they had finished dinner, she had seen a fire in their eyes that just wasn’t there before. It was like a blazing flame that only grew the more they discussed the idea of this mini portable mana battery. Sophie and Aryana found themselves almost completely lost by the technical side of things, but the siblings did seem happy. Of course, they had something to prove and if Inquisitor Korvin had been correct, then she had just given them a task that might change one’s understanding of mana just a little bit. It was certainly an accolade to earn though she personally wasn’t too sure they could pull it off. I mean, we are all pretty young still. Korvin might be the one to pull the strings if he finds out. Still, I guess it’s nice seeing them so fired up. Just hope I didn’t steer them towards trouble.

As for Aryana, the girl had somewhat gotten a grasp of the situation, though she had little care for the implications of everything. It was after all, a simple case of; friend alive, good; friend dead, bad. Not that there was anything wrong with that calculus, as Sophie herself could agree with that assessment.

For the two of them, it had almost been a stellar end to the day, having met up with and enjoying their time with the siblings. At least, until Maylesa had casually dropped the, “Don’t you remember the opening ceremony is next week? Be sure to meet at the Academy dockyard.” Aryana and Sophie had been flabbergasted at the sudden revelation, only for the siblings to turn into the horrified ones when the two exclaimed how they didn’t know it was next week.

“They should’ve dropped off letters at your stated place of residence within the city.” Maylesa had said with wideyes.

Sophie and Aryana could only trade looks until Aryana’s eventually fell with a guilty expression. Everyone else had looked intently at her when she finally let out an embarrassed sigh.

“The barkeep gave it to me the other day. I forgot.” Aryana had quietly murmured.

Sophie remembered herself and the siblings being horrified, amused, then jokingly teasing Aryana for forgetting something so important. But, Sophie understood, offering the girl a supportive hand on the shoulder. They had been through a hectic month, forgetting a letter, however important, was still appreciated since Sophie knew it was because Aryana had been too busy caring for her.

After they had all parted ways, Sophie found Aryana sheepishly slinking up to her, an apologetic look on her face. To reassure the poor girl, Sophie just gave her a few embarrassed pats to the head, an act that both confused and flustered Aryana. Still, all’s well that ends well. With a chuckle and a grin, the teasing was brought to an end when the two finally reached the All Hogs Arms.

It was perhaps only then that Sophie had the passing realization of her potential as a mana transference tool. She hadn’t thought much about it now, but as she watched Aryana wince whenever she moved her cast too quickly, Sophie remembered about the distinctive nature of healing magic being able to accelerate recovery. She also recalled that one of the things that Inquisitor Korvin had tested her on was the ability to draw upon foreign mana sources. However, guilty she still felt about having used Aryana as her focus, she wondered if the reverse could be true. Could I push mana back into her? To kick start the recovery process? Or would it have to be divine magicks and not just having excess mana to help one heal?

Sophie grew frustrated at having another worry on her mind. Yet, it mattered little though, as she soon found herself facing the most immediate problem she had alongside Aryana. Of all the things they needed to get ready to do after cults, battles, monsters and traitors; they needed to get ready for school. It felt so absurd that Sophie let out a brief chuckle which alerted the redhead.

“Sophie?”

“Ary.”

That elicited a small flustered giggle from the girl in question who seemed to relax slightly.

“That’s me!” Aryana happily exclaimed.

“It is, in fact, you.” Sophie smiled.

The two shared a quick round of giggles before Aryana straightened herself and cross examined Sophie once more.

“So, what’s on your mind?”

“Mmm. Just going through everything that happened so far.”

“And?” Aryana cocked her head.

“And I think we both could use some rest before the Academy.” Sophie smirked, much to Aryana’s chagrin.

“Yeah right. There’s more to it isn't there?”

“Mmhmm, and that we both could use a bath.”

“Soophieee…” Aryana let out an exasperated sigh only for Sophie to quickly ruffle the girl’s hair.

“Some personal stuff, maybe. Nothing that should worry you. Besides, if we do bath, how are you gonna clean yourself?”

“But I, huh? Wait… I mean I guess I could… geh!” Aryana winced as she tried to rotate her arm, the wound on her shoulder clearly still hurting. The girl fell into a gloomy silence and Sophie felt guilty at having ruined her mood.

The two dropped their things off in their room and began moving towards the other end of the inn when Sophie looked over at Aryana. A complicated mess of emotions swirled around her but ultimately Sophie settled on a hint of care and a desire to protect her. She was still relatively free to live her own life unconnected to the dark affairs of the cult and the Dark Gods, whenever the Imposter may be. It was a status quo that Sophie vowed to maintain. As she watched Aryana move towards the door to the baths, she was struck by how familiar the situation felt. Wasn’t too long ago when Anna steadied me after everything, guess it’s my turn to be the big sister, eh? Just… if you hear me, Anna, come back safe, alright? That’s all I ask. Goddess knows I’ve just been a needy friend and well… there’s a lot I could do better… for you and us all. So come back safe.

Sophie took a deep breath before she wiped the mournful expression from her face, hiding the whole exchange from the redhead. There’ll be time to mope later. For now, I just want to make sure Ary’s feeling alright. She deserves better to be wrapped up in all this. At least, that’s what I wish would happen but here we are again, slogging out against forces we barely understand. Heh, I guess I just gotta make sure I’m the one taking fatal blows and not her. Sophie snickered at her own observations before she entered the baths with Ary. Hopefully the Academy will be a bit of a breather. Goddess protect us. May Stellesia also hear my pleas and grant us a boon of luck. May we be blessed by the Stars.