The tiny glowing ball of my first [Light] spell fizzled, then disappeared.

  I slouched, sliding to the floor and settling against a table leg, my body still shivering against my will.

  “I—hhk—hk,” I wheezed, spitting out the st glob of blood. “I did it.”

  I couldn’t breathe right. My vision was still red and teary. And my blood was getting everywhere. My face, my neck, my clothes. Everywhere.

  I’d somehow let Maribelle use her creepy little strings on me again, and this was the price. Curled into a ball and hugging myself like I could ease the pain that was taking its sweet time to fade away.

  It hurts. Gods, it still fucking hurts. But, at least I can use Magic now. Right? Actually, no... Definitely not worth it.

  Maribelle rushed over, stepping over the mess around the table, and dropped to her knees beside me.

  “Luna. Honey—look at me.”

  She cupped my cheeks with warm hands and wiped the blood and the other... suspicious moisture from under my eyes with her thumbs. She was treating me like I was a crying kid. Of course, I wasn’t crying, and I’m not a kid.

  “You didn’t warn me,” I accused, voice cracking. “It really hurt.”

  “I know,” she admitted softly, brushing a strand of hair from my forehead. “I’m sorry. If I told you, I thought you might refuse. Good job,” she murmured, pulling me closer.

  Trying to peel her off proved useless; my arms felt like soggy twigs. “Stop i—”

  “Hush.” She stopped my protests by smothering me with her chest.

  A stiff jolt shot through me from the sudden contact—confused, hurting, and being coddled by the very same woman who’d been tormenting me all day. Everything inside me buckled. I sagged against her, the st of my resistance withering away, face buried in her warmth.

  Then her scent hit me. Nostalgic, warm, sweet, like flowers. But not extravagant, simple and deeply familiar. It tugged at something hidden deep in the back of my mind.

  And suddenly, the locked door of memories creaked open.

  We’ve been here before. Done this before. She held me like this many times. Always after she’d done something to me, usually traumatizing. How could I forget?

  I saw a tiny me, maybe seven or eight, clinging to this same white coat, wailing because a crystal she’d just handed to me exploded in my face.

  She scooped me up back then, too, humming while she casually fished for shards in my hair. Her scent hadn’t changed a bit.

  “You smell good.” The memories and the warm atmosphere made me drop my guard and blurt out my thoughts before I could catch them.

  She giggled, fingers pausing in the middle of stroking my hair.

  “You used to always say that,” she whispered, soft enough that I nearly missed it.

  Oh my gods. Why did I SAY that? Embarrassing. So embarrassing. I have to change the subject. Immediately. Uh, what do I say? Oh, right!

  “Why did you disappear?” I mumbled into her coat. “If you’re basically my aunt... why can I barely remember you?”

  Maribelle froze, then let out an exhaustive sigh.

  “Because your mother didn’t want me to see you anymore,” she admitted. “When you were around nine... or maybe ten, she decided I was a bad influence and banned me for an entire year.”

  “Really?”

  “Really. You know Elira. She took issue with how and what I was teaching you.”

  “Like the goblins?”

  “Exactly. Like the goblins. And then... well, duty called. I was reassigned to the Recmation Project in the South.”

  She pulled back just enough to look down at me with a weary smile.

  Her expression darkened. “I was stationed at Hytul Fortress in the former Enura Republic. It’s a recaptured stronghold deep in the Corrupted Lands, which just so happens to be right next to one of the smaller impact craters.”

  “Seraphia?” I asked, tilting my head up to meet her gaze. “You were in the Corrupted Lands?”

  “For four years,” she nodded grimly. “Living in a fortress with twenty thousand sweaty men, staring into the abyss. They wanted me to study the bck pools and the monsters that crawled out of them. To figure out how they evolved.”

  She took a deep breath, then rested her cheek against the top of my head.

  “I finally managed to get another reassignment and return about a year ago. I wanted to visit sooner, Luna. But I came back covered in the stench of that pce. And you... you were grown up. Elira even sent you to the academy early. I didn’t know how to just... walk back in as the crazy dy from your childhood.”

  I snorted, wiping my nose. “Well, you definitely made an entrance today.”

  “That I did.” She smoothed my hair again.

  One thing I’d noticed about Maribelle is how many personalities she can pull out of nowhere. But the gentle, warm Maribelle, I liked.

  We kept cuddling like that for a while, until my heart stopped hammering and the metallic taste in my mouth faded.

  Eventually, she signaled her intention to deprive me of her warmth with two pats on my back.

  “Okay. That’s enough moping,” she announced, pushing me off and standing up, offering me a hand.

  I groaned, forcing her to pull me up. “Why can’t we just skip to the part where I go to sleep?”

  “Not yet. We still have to blow something up. To the courtyard. It’s snowing, which means we’ll have excellent visibility for the bst radius.”

  We left the b and moved back through the warm and decorated halls until we eventually arrived at a pair of doors leading to the courtyard. Maribelle swung them open, and a gust of frigid air immediately smacked my face.

  “Big sis, can’t we do this ter? Please?” I asked, shivering from the cold.

  “Hmm... If we do it ter, you might miss your big fight tomorrow. We need to find out if your explosions are killing you or not. Besides, Elira would strangle me, then she’d strangle you, if I sent you out there and you hurt yourself again.”

  “Fine,” I grumbled, hugging my shoulders as I trudged into the snow. “But if I freeze to death, I’ll come back and haunt you.”

  “Duly noted. Now, center of the yard.” She waved toward an empty spot.

  The courtyard was like a white canvas lit up by the clear night sky and the two bright moons. Speckles of fresh snow glittered under the light as they drifted down. Maribelle was humming behind me, cheery, like this was a midnight stroll and not a diagnostic for whether or not my own power was trying to murder me.

  The cold air stung, but it was at least able to wake me up and turn my grogginess to anticipation.

  Maribelle stayed near the warmth radiating from inside, leaning against the doorway. She raised a hand, and the crimson threads of [The Loom] spooled out, weaving an intricate net in the air around me while a few entered my body again.

  “Ughhh.”

  “Alright. Show me your [Detonation]. Start small. I’m going to monitor the stress on your body from over here,” she called out. “Do it just like you did earlier. And, try not to destroy my home, please.”

  I took my stance, rubbing my arms for warmth. “Small? You make it sound easy.”

  Maribelle scowled. “Luna...”

  “Alright, alright.” I closed my eyes and started kneading my mana, trying to remember the same feeling from the arena.

  I released my Aura into a haze first, then I tried to move it, channel it. But this time it was deliberate, I shoved it into my Magic Core, and it vanished instantly.

  Okay. It’s in. Now... let it out.

  I braced my legs, expecting the blowback. I tried to force the reaction, squeezing the energy to make it pop.

  BOOM.

  Or... that was the pn.

  I wanted a roaring bst, but all I got was a weird, bubbling vibration, like my tummy was growling. The energy just leaked out instead of detonating; a pathetic little hiss of mana escaped, and my Aura shroud returned. The pfftt sound it made traveled through the courtyard as my face began to warm.

  I didn’t move a single inch.

  Maribelle narrowed her eyes but didn’t say anything. The disappointment on her face was painfully evident. Her reaction, or ck of one, only made the situation worse.

  “I’m cold,” I said, embarrassed.

  “You’re cold because you’re bare.”

  “What? I’m not naked?” I looked down. Still clothed.

  “I meant metaphorically, silly girl,” she sighed, walking over to tap my chest. “Did you notice what happened to your Aura right before you tried that?”

  I shook my head. “Uh... no?”

  “It disappeared," she stated. “The moment you tried to feed the second core, you pulled every drop of your external Aura back inside your body to fuel the reaction.”

  She crossed her arms, the crimson threads of [The Loom] dancing with the movement.

  “Usually, when a novice tries [Aura Channeling], they fail because they struggle to move the Aura. Their shroud stays up; they just can’t focus it. In your case, the [Detonation] technique you’re doing is slightly different, but you actually have the opposite problem. You take everything all at once.”

  “So... I’m defenseless when I do it?”

  “Oho, most definitely. Right before you explode, you’re defenseless. Any stray arrow, any spell, any sword—if it hits you, you’ll pay for it. An All or Nothing gamble.”

  Really? But she doesn’t have an Aura cover when she’s using [The Loom]. Why is it such an issue for me? Ah, whatever, she’ll probably just say something cheeky instead of answering me, even if I ask.

  She smirked, like she read my mind. “Your mother used to have the same issue, weirdly enough. Now try it again. And this time, try not to turn off the lights.”

  Elira? No way. I can’t picture her struggling with anything.

  I inhaled, braced, and gathered everything carefully. In the arena, I’d done it by accident, then by instinct. Now, I had to do it with purpose.

  Wrong core. Wrong pipe. Force it. Keep the shroud. Just move a little bit.

  I pushed. Again and Again.

  Leak. Leak. Small explosion. And finally.

  BOOM.

  A white fsh lit up the courtyard. The snow around my feet vaporized, leaving a ring of white. The bst shoved me a few feet sideways. My boots skidded over the snow, but I managed to stay upright.

  Maribelle’s eyes widened. “Fascinating.”

  “That was good, right?” I said, still waving my arms for bance. “Can I go slee—wait, fascinating?”

  She didn’t answer as she stepped closer, adjusting the cage around me as it pulsed and shifted like a beating heart.

  “Again,” Maribelle ordered, her eyes glued to the veiny strings vibrating from her fingertips.

  “Mari, I’m tired—”

  “Again.”

  I grumbled but complied, gritting my teeth and pushing harder this time.

  BOOM.

  This one unched me. I skidded across the snow, kicking up a spray of white.

  “Bigger! Find the limit!”

  I took my stance again, drawing in mana.

  The light from my Aura dimmed. Mana gathered into my Magic Core.

  A sharp, painful sting shot through my chest.

  This is it. The strongest I’ve got.

  BOOOOM.

  All I saw were my feet in the air and the stars in the sky. My body was completely unched. The ground was gone, and I was a leaf in a storm, hurtling toward another round of pain.

  But something soft caught me mid-air. Maribelle’s Aspect snapped into a pillowy net behind me, saving me. I hung there for a second before the cushion unraveled, dumping me into a pile of frozen powder.

  “Oof.”

  “Stop there.” Maribelle’s voice softened. “That’s your limit. Keep below that, and you’re good to go.”

  I sat up and wiped off the snow that was now stuck all over my body.

  “Interesting...” Maribelle stood, mumbling to herself.

  “The aura pathways are...” She paused. “Hmmm, that’s not right.”

  “Very encouraging.” I shook out more snow from my hair. “Did I liquefy my organs?”

  “No,” she said, walking over to me, dissolving her Aura. She stared at me with that same bewilderment she’d had in the b.

  “Your pathways aren’t rupturing, Luna. They’re sturdy. Too sturdy,” she muttered. “They’re absorbing the shock. You really shouldn’t be able to handle mana impacts like this. But, it’s like they’re hardened.”

  “Is that... good?”

  She folded an arm and rested a cheek on her palm. Thinking.

  “It’s abnormal. Any normal person attempting internal discharges like that would have visible damage to their meridians by now. But you? Your internal structure is perfectly fine against the stress. It’s like your body was intentionally built to be the perfect little super soldier. It’s not possible through training. It’s like...” She shook her head. “Never mind.”

  She looked down at me sitting in the snow with a puzzled expression on her face. “You’re durable. Exceptionally so. Which means—”

  “Which means I can use it? Right?” I asked, hopeful.

  “It means you can use it,” she confirmed, offering me a hand. “As long as you don’t try to combine both cores at max output, you won’t blow yourself up. I will allow you to fight and use your [Detonation] in the finals.”

  Yes. I can do that, I suppose.

  Maribelle crouched down directly in front of me. “But your mother is going to have questions.”

  No. Dammit, I forgot. Of course, she would. Well... whatever. Test over. Finally, now... It’s bedtime.

  She stood back up and offered a hand, but as I followed, a sudden wave of exhaustion hit me. The adrenaline dump, the Magic test, the explosions, all combined into fatigue that hit me all at once.

  “Let’s get you inside.” Maribelle must have noticed, grabbing my shoulders and holding me up.

  I slumped, letting the exhaustion I’d been fighting for the past few hours finally take me. I was done. I just wanted a pillow and a warm bnket.

  Wait. A devious idea sparked in my tired brain. I still have the Cute Pn, and I think it’ll work on her now.

  I let gravity take control of my body and exaggerated a shiver. My eyelids drooped. I swayed on my feet.

  “Big sister...” I slurred and pitched my voice to be as sleepy and vulnerable as possible. “I’m... I’m so tired...”

  I went limp and let gravity do the work—perfect trajectory straight into her arms.

  Hehe, foolproof. Catch me, Auntie.

  The strong arms I expected to catch me never came. I fell face-first into the snow. But I had to lie there. I’d look like a dumbass if I got up now.

  “Luna?” she asked in a monotone voice.

  I didn’t answer. I couldn’t. The bit would lose all its power. So I stayed face-down like a corpse. Instead of answering, I let out a muffled groan in the snow as I y there, freezing my ass off in a mortifying position.

  There was a pause. I felt her crouch down. She checked my pulse. Then she made a sound that was something between a chuckle and a sigh.

  “You need more practice, dear,” she whispered into my ear. “You’re a terrible actress.”

  I didn’t react. Commit to the bit.

  “Okay, if that’s how we’re doing this,” she grumbled. She grabbed me by the arm and flung me up into a bridal carry. It wasn’t gentle; in fact, it was like she was tossing around a bag of potatoes, but the result was her being right where I wanted her.

  Yay! Victory!

  I kept my eyes shut, enjoying the free ride as she carried me out of the cold and back into the warmth of the manor. The smell of Felix’s bread still lingered along with whatever fragrance it was that they used to spruce up the pce, and the same scent of vender clung to Maribelle’s skin. The urges won out, and I rubbed my nose on her coat, taking another sniff.

  Heh. Too easy. I’m a genius.

  She walked with me in her arms for a while. I could tell we’d passed the foyer, as the walk started to get a little familiar.

  Eventually, the air changed. It got warmer. Humid. And the smell of vender got stronger.

  Wait. It can’t be. She wouldn’t.

  My eyes snapped open just as we stopped. We weren’t in the bedroom. We were back in the bathhouse.

  Maribelle looked down at me with a sinister grin on her face.

  “You’re covered in blood, sweat, and snot,” she said sweetly. “And I just had the sheets washed.”

  “Wait—”

  Spsh.

  I was thrown into the bath, clothes and all. The warm water rushed up my nose, making me choke. I filed, surfacing a moment ter in a coughing fit.

  “Maribelle!” I shrieked, wiping wet hair out of my eyes.

  She already had her back to me, walking away, waving a hand over her shoulder.

  “Wash up! I’ll leave a nightgown on the stool. Find an empty room when you’re done. And Luna?”

  She paused at the door, looking back with that terrifying smile.

  “Next time you try fooling a sensory specialist, start by controlling your heart rate. Now get clean. Goodnight, brat.”

  I sank deeper into the bath, mortified and soaked.

  …

  Worth it.