“Now, we need three drops of arrowroot elixir over there on the northeast point,” Tahlea indicated, pointing to the spot.
Hibiscus flitted over, then paused, hovering in place. She was a fairy, which meant that while being summoned by magicians was almost an expected occurrence, actually being involved in the process of creating magic was not usual. But “not usual for a fairy” was part and parcel of being Tahlea’s friend. When you chose to spend time with someone who had deliberately allowed their spirit to be extracted from their living body and placed into a homunculus in the name of experimentation and research, “not usual” rapidly became positively predictable.
Given that Tahlea’s alchemical research could be volatile (the fact it was taking place in a large, stone-walled room with glassless windows and no furniture other than the book-stand holding Tahlea’s grimoire was an especially alarming sign), Hibiscus paused and thought things through before she acted.
“Tahlea, when you say ‘on the northeast point,’ do you actually mean right here where the two lines of the star meet, or do you mean in this circle that’s at the end of the point?” Magical symbols definitely weren’t Hibi’s area of expertise, and she knew better than to guess.
“Oh, put it…wait, I’d better check.”
Tahlea turned back to her grimoire and began flipping through the pages. Hibi flew back over, on the assumption that things could be missed, even if she didn’t really have the background to get useful information out of human magic books. There were, she noted, a number of sheets of paper stuffed into the book, extensive annotations in Tahlea’s handwriting kept that way so she didn’t mark up the grimoire itself.
It was a reminder, Hibiscus thought, of how seriously Tahlea worked on her projects. Despite their often unpredictable outcomes, the homunculus’s research experiments often did yield useful alchemical knowledge for herself and her “father,” the leonine Dr. Chartreuse.
Knowing that, though, made some of the words she saw stand out all the more plainly.
“Tahlea, am I crazy, or is that a Necromancy text?”
“Uh-huh.”
The homunculus continued to leaf through the pages, unaware of the irritation her answer had provoked.
“Ahem.”
“What?”
Tahlea turned to see Hibi “tapping” her foot in the air.
“Uh-huh it’s Necromancy, or uh-huh I’m crazy?”
“Oh. It’s Necromancy. Didn’t I tell you?”
“No, you didn’t.”
“Wow, you’ve been helping me all this time without even knowing what I was doing?”
Upon realizing that, Hibi started to think that maybe “yes” had actually been the correct answer to her question all along.
“Well, I’m asking now. I didn’t think that you could do human magic.” Experimental Alchemy could be performed by anyone, whether they had magical ability or not, because it worked by extracting and manipulating the mana and other magical properties naturally present in the reagents. Tahlea couldn’t use Runes to shortcut the process, though, having to carry out each experiment in full.
“I can’t! That’s the entire point.”
“Huh?”
“I’m trying to see if I can use Alchemy to extract mana in specific ways and then use it to fuel ritual Necromancy. I can’t make use of necromantic Runes, of course, since they require a direct connection between the mana transmitted by the caster and the Rune that gives the magician’s soul the ability to command the Rune. But with proper application of the right kind of mana extracted from alchemical reagents in a particular way, I hope to be able to activate the ritual and summon a ghost!”
Something didn’t sound quite right about that to Hibiscus. Of course, she didn’t have Tahlea’s background knowledge of Alchemy and of magic in general, so she might be missing something, but it sounded like the same problem would exist as with the Runes as Tahlea had explained it: if the magician did not personally put mana into the ritual, then where was the tie between the magician and the summoned ghost? Would the spirit simply not be called? Or could it be called, but not bound as a familiar? Or was this all something Tahlea’s theory had accounted for?
And more importantly, what was that crackling noise?
“No, I think I was right,” Tahlea murmured. “It needs to be in the circle itself to complete the seal. Yes, I’m almost convinced of it.”
“Um, Tahlea?”
“Unless…what if there would be a recursive effect? But then…”
“Tahlea!” Hibi yelled next to her friend’s ear, not wanting to do the whole “ask three times” routine.
“Gah! What is it, Hibi?”
“I think you have a problem.”
Tahlea turned around so that her gaze followed Hibiscus’s pointing finger. At three separate places in her ritual circle, sparks of blue and amber lightning were popping and bursting.
“Ah! The ritual circle needed to be properly completed so that the magical energies would be held in balance,” she realized. “We’ve invoked mana, but it’s being held in suspension instead of actually given any channel to act. With the circle unfinished, the entire array is destabilizing!”
“…Meaning we should run?”
The Magic Academy at the Silver Star Tower was, by its nature, used to dramatic and unexpected magical incidents. Whether it was explosive lightning strikes, rampaging chimeras, or a plague of the undead, the (warded to contain the blast damage) walls of its workrooms had seen it all. Therefore, the sight of a homunculus and a fairy pressed up against a closed door while oily green smoke seeped out between the planks did not excite the attention of passerby, particularly since the Glamour apprentices’ shooting stars had been much more dramatic just the day before.
“Tahlea…”
“Yes, Hibi?”
“Your magic’s supposed to summon ghosts, not make us into them!”