Once the clasp came undone, Bailu gained both strength and height. Of the two, though, one thing made her far happier: she'd actually grown taller!
It was only ten centimeters, and she still looked like a child. But that was progress, and this was just the start. Bailu was sure there was nothing wrong with being a late bloomer!
From today on, she'd drink more milk and get more sleep. One day, she'd be as tall as Miss Stelle!
"Hehe! I've finally grown taller!"
Bailu danced barefoot on the sofa, waving her arms in glee. She looked like a child who happened to be a few hundred years old. Sylvia let her celebrate, since her height had always been one of her biggest concerns.
That didn't mean Sylvia sat idle. Bailu's power took the form of lightning, quite unlike Imbibitor Lunae's. An Emanator like Sylvia could work with any element, but things weren't so simple for Bailu.
She could still use cloudhymn magic, though it wasn't quite suited to her. Sylvia would have to tweak the spells to let her lightning flow through them. That wouldn't be hard.
The High Elders each wielded different powers, but at their core, those powers all stemmed from Permanence. Their outward forms came down to personal taste. Sylvia just had to follow the example Permanence had set long ago and weave thunder into cloudhymn magic.
She put the idea to the test at once. Raising her hand, she cast a cloudhymn spell, but instead of a water dragon, she called forth a small bank of thick mist.
The mist churned while Sylvia paused to think. Then, with a sharp crackle, arcs of light flashed inside it. Colored rays spilled out through the fog.
Drawing on what happened in nature, Sylvia guided the power of Permanence from cloud and mist into lightning. The mist soon faded, but the sparks in her palm kept dancing. As she fed them more energy, they grew stronger.
Bit by bit, the arcs took the shape of a winged dragon. It trailed sparks as it roared at her.
"Hmm..."
It really wasn't hard. With this as a starting point, working out the other spells would be much easier. Cloudhymn magic already covered every function she needed; all she had to do was turn each spell into its lightning counterpart.
Now that she'd felt how water changed into lightning, the task seemed simple. Sylvia closed her hand, and the bright electric dragon vanished. Then she turned to Bailu, who was staring at her with her mouth agape.
"Did you see that?"
"Uh-huh!"
"That's your next course of study. You've got a natural gift for lightning, so you should learn this faster. As for cloudhymn magic, there are a few special spells you'll still need, but the rest is up to you."
Sylvia didn't see any trouble with changing the element itself. Still, a few spells might work better or worse once she'd made the switch. Lightning should pack more of a punch in combat, for instance, but it might fall short when it came to hiding or masking one's presence.
That came down to the element's own traits. Unless Sylvia designed a whole new set of spells, there wasn't much she could do about it. She could build something similar from an existing model in no time, but making stronger spells from scratch would take work.
Bailu didn't seem to mind the extra lessons at all. In fact, she asked with eager delight, "So what's this new magic called?"
"It's called... Uh, I haven't thought about that yet. What do you want to call it?"
Sylvia rubbed her chin and left the question to Bailu.
"I get to name it? But isn't it your magic, Teacher?"
"It's just a name."
"Hmm... Then how about thunderchant magic?"
Bailu thought back to the little dragon's roar. It'd sounded just like rolling thunder.
"Sure. Thunderchant it is."
Sylvia settled on the name without a second thought, then beckoned to her.
"Come on. Let's head to the Express. I'll teach you a few basic thunderchant spells first."
In that brief span, Sylvia had already converted the basic spells. She could teach them to Bailu and see how they worked, then check how much power they'd gained or lost. As for why they couldn't do it here, she didn't want to blow up the room.
"Yay!"
Bailu hopped off the sofa on bare feet and started to dash away. Sylvia caught her before she got far and scooped her into her arms.
"You're still barefoot. Let's buy you a couple of outfits first."
"Oh... Hehe, I almost forgot."
Bailu didn't resist being carried. If anything, she liked it. By now, Sylvia held something close to an elder's place in her heart.
But they'd first met as equals, which made things a little different. Though Bailu now called Sylvia her teacher and often looked up to her as an elder, she didn't feel the need to stand on ceremony.
Bailu glanced down at her bare feet and scratched her head, sheepish. Then she broke into another happy grin. Even her feet had grown; she could see the change there too.
--+--
The Dreampool was large, and Bailu was still small. Sylvia didn't bother going back to her own room and climbed in with her instead.
The moment they entered the dream, the clatter of tiles reached their ears. Cries of grief and shouts of joy thundered all around them.
"..."
Everywhere Sylvia looked, there were game tables and crowds gathered to watch. Only the roads remained clear. Since everyone was still learning the rules, they were all on much the same level, and even passersby felt free to offer advice.
The debates were in full swing. As for anyone Sylvia knew, she couldn't spot a single familiar face. Who knew where March 7th and the others had gone?
"Wow, it's so lively!"
Bailu had never seen so many game tables in one place. Even back on the Xianzhou, she'd never seen this many people playing at once.
"And there's plenty more of this to come. I doubt the Family's going to find a quiet spot anywhere now."
With hundreds of millions of masks waiting for people to battle over them, Sylvia couldn't guess how many rounds of Celestial Jade they'd have to play. She turned away from the crowds.
"Come on. Clothes first. It should be quieter indoors."
"Okay, okay!"
Buying clothes didn't take much effort. But since Bailu had finally grown a little, choosing a size became quite the ordeal.
"Teacher, do you think I should get one size up... No, two sizes up?"
She turned this way and that before the mirror. The clothes fit her just right, yet she'd put on a strained look of concern.
"After all, I'll probably outgrow these in no time~ Hehe!"
Sylvia couldn't help laughing. Still, she gave her a sensible answer.
"Let's get clothes that fit. We can buy new ones when you grow again. They don't cost that much."
"You're right! I'll do what you say, Teacher."
Bailu hadn't really wanted bigger clothes. She'd just wanted a chance to say those words. Goodness knew she'd barely grown since she was little.
She'd been saving that line for hundreds of years, and today she'd finally had a chance to use it. It felt so good! She tried to hold back her grin, but all she managed was an odd grimace that made Sylvia laugh even more.
--+--
The clothes would take a while to arrive, so Sylvia carried Bailu back to the Express first. She brought her up onto the roof, where they faced the vast, empty stretch of space.
Bailu sat in Sylvia's lap and leaned back against her as the lesson began. Sylvia raised a hand before her.
"I'll start with the basics: giving an element a solid form."
Sylvia explained the chant and the finer points as she showed her how it worked. Sparks danced at her fingertips, then a dragon spread its wings and emerged from the lightning. About two meters long, it danced before Bailu.
Bailu copied her hand signs and muttered the chant. Light crackled over her body, then gathered in front of her. It formed a ball before stretching out, taking on a dragon's shape.
Soon, a smaller dragon, about half the size of Sylvia's, floated before them. Sylvia raised an eyebrow. Bailu had picked that up far faster than she'd learned cloudhymn magic, as though her body had been made to wield lightning.
Sylvia threw herself into the lesson and lost all track of time. Only when Firefly's voice reached her did she look up.
"Sylvia~ What are you doing up there? I could see all those sparks from far away."
Firefly stood below the Express, looking up at Sylvia on the roof. Sylvia told Bailu to keep practicing, then hopped down.
"Firefly? What brings you here?"
"I didn't have much to do, so I thought I'd come see you."
Firefly lifted the paper box in her hand and gave it a little wave. The label bore the name of a cake shop in Penacony.
"Thanks. Come in and sit for a while."
Sylvia stepped aside to let Firefly into the carriage. Then she used Himeko's coffee to brew her a normal cup.
"Isn't Silver Wolf with you?"
She handed Firefly the coffee as she asked. Sylvia hadn't seen Silver Wolf since they'd parted that morning, and she had no clue where she'd gone.
"She went to play Celestial Jade. Said she was going to win the championship."
"...Even Silver Wolf's joining in?"
An odd look crossed Sylvia's face. She felt as though she could already name the players who'd make it to the finals.
"Hehe~"
Firefly held the cup in both hands and took a small sip, then laughed.
"These past couple of days, Silver Wolf's been blushing and getting worked up whenever your name comes up. Did you upset her again?"
"I don't think so. I can't think of anything I did that would've made her mad."
Caught off guard, Sylvia felt her cheeks warm. She ducked her head and looked away from Firefly.
"Well, she said things like, 'I'm going to clear my head,' and, 'Sylvia can drop dead!' Then she ran off to join the Celestial Jade tournament."
"Uh..."
Sylvia froze, lost for words. Even hearing it secondhand, she could almost hear Silver Wolf's voice.
Better to change the subject. Sylvia shook her head and looked back at Firefly.
"By the way, are you feeling okay? Has Elio's script... ended?"
Firefly blinked and met her eyes. Her smile suggested she'd seen right through Sylvia, but she didn't comment on it. She just nodded.
"Yep, it's all over. The next script hasn't come yet, so Silver Wolf and I've stayed in Penacony. You could call it a vacation."
"A vacation for Silver Wolf, maybe... Doesn't entering the dream hurt you?"
Sylvia pursed her lips and gave Firefly a worried look. A planet full of sweet dreams hardly seemed like a place where she could relax.
"Not anymore~"
With rare playfulness, Firefly gave her a wink. Then she raised her left wrist, showing off the silver-white bracelet that gleamed there.
"I can enter dreams just like anyone else now. It doesn't hurt the way it used to."
"Huh?! Really?!"
"Of course. It's all thanks to the bracelet you gave me."
Firefly propped her chin on one hand and gazed at Sylvia. Her eyes shone with warmth.
"My Entropy Loss Syndrome's getting better, and I get to live more like an ordinary person."
She could stand here in the waking world as herself, without fear of her illness or her life slipping away. She could share a quiet afternoon tea with someone she liked. That alone made Firefly happy.
Such simple joys were treasures she'd sought for so long without ever finding them. Now, at last, they were within reach.
"So... thank you, Sylvia. You're the reason I can sit here like this."
The thanks came from the heart, so plain and sincere that Sylvia couldn't quite meet them. Her shyness soon turned to flustered protest, and she shot Firefly a look.
"How many times have you thanked me now? Do it again and I'll have to take action."
"Hehe~"
Firefly laughed, then reached for Sylvia's hand. She cradled it between her own and placed it against her cheek.
"Your hand's so warm... It makes me feel safe. If I ever get the chance, I'd love to travel with you on the Express."
It wasn't that Firefly disliked the Stellaron Hunters. Kafka and Silver Wolf cared a great deal about her. Even Blade, despite being mara-struck, looked after her in his own awkward way.
She didn't mean to leave the Stellaron Hunters behind and run away. But when Kafka had first found her and she'd joined them, Elio had promised her meaning in life. Now Sylvia had already made much of that promise come true.
So she couldn't help wondering how nice it'd be to stay at Sylvia's side. To keep blazing a trail through the galaxy together.
"If you ever get tired of working with the Stellaron Hunters and want a long break, the Express's doors are always open to you."
There were still only four Stellaron Hunters. Sylvia didn't ask Firefly to leave them and join her instead. She knew Firefly wouldn't agree.
"Hehe, can't I come for a short break too?"
"I didn't know you liked picking holes in what people say."
Sylvia tossed out the complaint, but Firefly didn't mind. She smiled and moved on.
"Before that, though, you should find some time to smooth things over with Silver Wolf. She's been sulking for days."
"Ugh..."
Sylvia could only sigh.
--+--
T/N: If you want advance chapters, you can find it at [email protected]/AspenTL