January 31, 2019, 11:55 pm. Somehow, not February.

Tucking Smoulder into my arms, I look down at the fire-cat. It looks back, rubbing a paw over its ears as though it were any other cat not made of fire. And like it hasn't been trying to explode me all over the place for the last couple minutes.

I narrow my eyes at it, Focusing again. Its description remains unchanged. Not sure if I was expecting it to say it was my pet now, or just to say it was an ally, but for some reason, I did expect it to update.

It didn't. It's still a primal fire-elemental named Ineesis.

A crackling meow as it rubs against my leg draws me out of my analysis. Looking around, I notice that the other primal animals are investigating the rest of my party. The way Kellica and the Earth-boar are staring at each other almost makes me snort. And no one can prove the sound I made when I saw them was any such thing.

When we retreat into the rest area, we get another surprise. The elementals follow us. They don't hang out though, instead moving to the wall. The formerly boring surface shifts as the elementals approach. The walls fill with arrays of runes, simple shapes at the top, working down to more and more complex designs towards the bottom.

"Are these... Spells," Tipan asks, stepping towards the wind-bird's mosaic of runes, pointing to an array about a third of the way down. "I recognize this. This is the Aethirium's mass-flight spell. And this is... There are dozens of spells here I don't recognize."

We spend the next hour looking over the spells, and the entire time, I'm copying them into my notebook. We'd barely have time to test the easy half of these spells, but I suspect we'll be needing them.

The others agree, and we set to deciding who will tackle which portal. There's some discussion about which spells to practice, with each of us starting with the spells directly aligned with our portals. And several spells that might be aligned opposite.

I was going to let the others decide on their portals first, but Smoulder kinda stopped me from doing so. Between the way her and the flame-cat chased each other around the rest area and the fact that Smoulder sat down to learn the basic fire spells with me, I think we might have the most to gain from the fire portal.

Which is fine, since Rufka's got a preference for lightning, Tipan loves her wind and Roberts is still most comfortable with water. The only real contention is who gets earth, since both Josh and Kellica want it. Though for very different reasons.

"Not sure that being able to tear chunks out of the elemental is the best reason to want to go into the earth-portal," I weigh in when they start on their third round of 'discussion'.

Kellica uncrosses her arms, her silent glare at Josh fading into a softer expression as she turns to me. "I... What do you think I should take, tel'thoni?"

Whoops, put myself on the spot. "Well, we still have Stone, Metal and Ice," I say, buying time to Pause. A Pause that should be a little longer than normal, as I invested extra Facet into it. Might as well start testing extending my Pauses while I think about what advice to give to Kellica.

Thinking back, I go over each of her practice sessions. She wasn't bad with Ice or Stone, not like she was with Twilight and lightning. But Metal was the one she seemed to understand the best. Which... Yeah, I didn't really need an extra length pause to think that through.

And it is longer, though only a few extra seconds.

When I return to the normal flow of time, I keep it simple, "You should go with Metal."

Kellica taps her wrist once as she looks off into the distance, whispering, "The strongest arrow bends but doesn't break." Then she turns to me with a nod. "I'll do it."

Well, that was easy. I should've stepped in ten minutes earlier.

"Thanks Lex," Josh says as Kellica walks away, still tapping her wrist as she moves to the mosaic of Metal spells. "I really... These spells call to me, you know?"

"You just wanna plant your seed," Rose says, elbowing Josh now that Kellica has moved away. "You can't see past the fertile valleys."

Josh sputters for a half a second before retorting, but I've already stepped away. I move over to Roberts, who I notice is attempting one of the easier water spells and having some trouble. It's a simple water-jet, one that could cut through stone back on earth.

We spend the next few hours like that. And despite my plan to focus on the fire spells, I instead spend my time moving between the others, helping them as they get stuck. There's less banter than we usually have, everyone focusing on their chosen spell tree. It carries over into the next day, each of them making it further down the mosaic. After a quiet night's sleep, they've each made it to the final spell nearly a day after we started.

And I've picked up most of the spells along the way. There's a lot more utility than I was expecting. We have three different ways to turn invisible now, for one thing. Turns out it's not just the domain of Twilight, but water and wind each have their own versions, with very different spell forms.

Now that they're on their final spells, I spend a couple hours with Smoulder, working our way through the fire spells. It's a lot faster than the others, but it still takes the better part of an hour, despite abusing Pause heavily. By the end of it, Smoulder and I have dozens of new ways to light things on fire, several crafting specific heat-regulation spells and a heat haze camouflage spell.

Which only leaves us with the final spell. If I'm able to interpret it correctly, it's a massive siege level spell that uses ambient mana to literally consume enchantments and matter. However, forming it might take more mana than I have. It's at least an order of magnitude more complex than any of the other spells, taking up almost a quarter of the mosaic all on its own.

After an hour spent studying the siege-inferno, I take a break to talk with Rufka. She practically knocks me over when she thumps her head against me. "Mum woulda got this in less than an hour," Rufka mumbles while glancing back at the lightning spell. It's a sort of area control spell, transforming several hundred square meters of terrain into a lightning field, which the caster can move through at will. Rufka thinks there might even be a component for tagging multiple people to be included in the effect, though as she hasn't mastered the spell yet, she can't be sure.

"You'll figure it out. We still have time," I say, turning her around to massage her shoulders.

"Did you figure yours out?" Rufka asks while glaring at the spell-form as though she can scare it into submission. Which... I'm not entirely sure she can't.

I shake my head. "Nope. Not even sure I can cast it. It takes a lot of mana just to create the framework."

Rufka nods. "First cast is always the hardest. You know, I think-"

Whatever Rufka was saying is lost as a thunderous boom throws us toward the wall. I've paused time and am scanning the room before I've had time to make contact.

My eyes lock on the green form of a K'tharn, her form completely transmuted to wind-aspected energy.

Oh.

Looks like Tipan managed to finish her Embodiment of the Wind spell.

As I drop out of pause, we all watch Tipan wave her hand back and forth. The wind cascades away from her, gentler gusts sweeping my hair back as she experiments. Eventually she looks up. If she was human I'm sure I wouldn't be able to see her blush yet, since she's a K'tharn, it's easy to see her embarrassment in the way she folds her ears back.

"Congrats Tipan," I say as she holds herself still. Even her ears flicking back sent small flurries racing away from her.

"Indeed, congratulations. That appears to be a rather dramatic spell," Roberts notes, looking around the room. "Perhaps we should move our testing outside though. We wouldn't want these spells triggering while we're all in close proximity."

With a murmur of consent, we all start moving outside. My eyes remain fixed on Tipan's form though, looking over the spell-form in my notebook. I knew it had a transformative component, but I didn't expect the final product to be so… drastic. Even as we step outside, Tipan remains a living embodiment of wind. Once outside, her motions are far less disruptive. And most of our personal spell progress is delayed as she experiments and we all ask questions.

Tipan shares several minor insights on how she completed the spell, which will likely be important for when the rest of us make an attempt. But more importantly, she adds, "There seems to be a hidden condition when learning the spells. I received a notification informing me that I'd used up my elemental guidance after I… well…" Tipan trails off as she gestures down at her still wind-augmented body.

After some more comparison of notes, we go back in to inspect the spells again. Knowing that we're receiving guidance, even if it's just gentle nudges, we all reconsider the spells we're learning. However, considering the limited time we have remaining, we're not exactly able to change track.

Except for me. I could learn a different spell than Inferno. And the Ice Castle spell is a little tempting.

But when I glance down at Smoulder, and see her dutifully tracing out the spell lines of the siege-inferno spell-form, I can't help but smile. The fire-cat is sitting nearby, watching us work. When I notice it, I glance over to Tipan. She's had the wind-bird on her shoulder the entire time…

It can't be that simple, can it?

Reaching out towards the fire-cat, it meets me halfway, walking up to rub against my leg. As I consider the siege-inferno spell, I can almost feel it coalescing. The little issues I was having, sorting themselves out for me.

Before it can finish, I send as clear an image over my bond to Smoulder as I can, stressing that the fire-cat can help her burn things better. There's a moment of indignation when I set the fire-cat next to her. But then as it rubs up against her, I feel the indignation turn to… well, not shock, but mild surprise, followed by excitement.

"Not on the island!" I can't stop myself from shouting. And I feel like it's just in time as Smoulder turns away from the island, a tiny dot of fire shooting into the distance. It's nearly out of sight, even with my augmented vision, when it expands. From several kilometers away, I can feel the heat of the expanding spell against my skin. Even with nothing but the air around it for fuel, it burns for over a minute.

Smoulder tilts her head up at me, and I can feel her pride radiating through our bond as I reach down to pick her up. "Good job," I tell her as I give her head-scritches. The fire-cat rubs against my leg, and I add, "Yeah, you too."

Even as the fire-cat continues, I think about the siege-inferno spell again. And as I suspected, the learning boon is gone. Even the connections I had made are harder to understand. Luckily, I'm able to partially bypass that by spending a few points of Facet for perfect recall. I'll still have to piece together the rest of the spell on my own.

But that's fine.

I've never considered myself a princess, but now that I get to create my very own ice castle.

Well, it's time to play.

With Smoulder still playing with Inferno, and a quick discussion where I inform everyone how to access the guidance, I turn to the ice-primal, a frozen wolfadillo like creature. Unlike the fire-cat, there's no friendliness here. Instead, I'm met by cold, empty eyes. Which… ice, so fair.

As I place my hands on its… shoulder? Or upper hip? The part just behind its head, I wait for a second, not opening the spell yet. It doesn't react, other than to tilt its head slightly to look into my eyes. At least, I think that's where it's looking. Its gaze remains just as empty as before.

Doing my best not to get put off by the wolf, I allow myself to think about the spell. And I realize… it's not just an ice-castle. It's a temporary Nexus. Casting the spell will allow me to create a Nexus that lasts for up to… okay, I'm not sure how long it'll last. Not off the runes I can decipher. At least a day, I think. Depends on ambient mana. And if I continue channelling mana into it. And how neatly I do the runes…

There's a lot to consider, honestly.

But I can feel the ice-wolf's help as I start building the spell-form. The process is… different from System imbued knowledge. It's less, download and done, and more, subtle nudging. It feels more natural, like a hand on mine tracing out the patterns with me.

Except, you know, in mana floating invisibly in the air in front of me. Totally natural.

I follow its guidance, but purposely mess up at several points. Just to test what it would do. It doesn't force me back, instead giving me other suggestions on how to complete the spell-form. And as I go, I realize that some components are very customizable. Such as the shape of the castle. Other components have almost no room for change. Such as the Nexus link. Any change to the link causes that part of the spell-form to simply cease functioning. It takes me two hours before I feel ready to cast the spell. But when I do, I feel confident that I understand most of what goes into it.

The others have all managed to cast their chosen spells, Rose having to take Stone since the elemental only granted the Earth guidance to Josh. Rufka sits behind me, Smoulder curled in her lap as they both wait for their mana to recharge. While these spells are impressive, they're not cheap.

The spell-form for the ice-castle is almost a miniature of the same, reflected in front of me. The key difference is the Nexus access point and the interwoven strengthening runes. Unlike a regular ice sculpture, my castle will have a degree of resistance to physical damage. And melting. Which is going to be important if I ever take it somewhere really warm. Like a desert… or anywhere I bring Smoulder.

Completing the spell-form, it takes fifteen minutes of slowly feeding my mana into it as the ice castle takes shape. I could empty my mana to speed up the formation of the castle, but I'm pretty sure it'd only shave off a minute or so. The mana cost is immense, and the spell-form is designed to allow mana to 'settle', so I'm not sure it'd even do much good.

So, I don't force it. I let it go.

The castle starts by forming a bridge, leading off the central island. Thankfully, that's all the anchor it needs to stay floating as I cross into the middle of the emerging castle, guiding the spell-form to completion. For some reason, the spell is designed to be cast in stages, with the final stage being…

As the central podium rises beneath my feet, I admit that, yes, this is worth having a spell that takes fifteen minutes to cast and is cast in phases. I'm standing at the tallest tower in my very own ice castle.

I may not be a princess but that doesn't matter.

I'm the queen of my castle.