Growing Lilies

Star didn’t understand. His Master and charge had descended into the wet death hole for reasons that eluded him. He had carefully paced and guarded the perimeter for hours, and she had yet to return. Surely, she must have a reason to be there?

He was aware of the Master’s great potential, but she was small and weak. Like a newborn pup, she must be protected until she can grow into her power. Heavy though the burden may be, Star was up to the task. Or so he thought.

She had left him here to wander into danger, and he was helpless to come to her aid. He cursed his weakness. On the wind he could smell water and blood. The scent was still fresh, so he knew she must be alive if wounded. Was this a test of his abilities? His willpower? His desire to protect? Or was this a test for his Master?

He didn’t know. But since spending time here, the thoughts had been coming to his mind clearer than they had in their shared den. Maybe that was the purpose of being here?

He let out a howl, hoping she could hear it and know that he was trying to rescue her from her self imposed danger.

If only he was more powerful. If only he could jump high enough to make it up to the top of the building carcass. He would join her in the wet death hole, and they could find a way out together.

But, he could not jump high enough. He could not climb. He would have to find another way up. He would not fail his Master. He would not let one so defenseless succumb to carelessly wandering into danger while in his care!

---

 

Star had been howling for a while. It was cute and heartbreaking at first, but it had long since gotten to the point of becoming an annoyance. He must be circling the outside, because the howls were coming from all different angles.

“Wish I could tell him to just sit tight.”

Lily had been laying next to her fire for about half an hour. It was hard to tell exactly how much time had passed in here without her phone working. It didn’t seem to be smashed, but it definitely wasn’t turning on. She wondered if she could repair it somehow if it had gotten waterlogged. She thought it was supposed to be water resistant, but in fairness that had been a lot of soaking.

In the time she’d been laying here catching her breath, Lily had realized two things. First, in order to get out of here she was probably going to have to modify the spell here rather than wholesale creating her own. She had limited energy after all. Secondly, something weird was happening. Even by the standards of magic.

She could hear things occasionally shifting around beyond the walls. Just slightly. And sometimes, she’d catch something moving a little out of the corner of her eye. It was creepy, and she was trying very hard not to totally freak out.

She wasn’t sure how much of this was just paranoia, but she could swear the room she was in had also changed a little bit while she had been here. She couldn’t quite put her finger on it. Some of the places where there was paint seemed like they might be more vibrant somehow? Some of the rubble might have changed shape a little? It was such a small difference. It could have been a trick of the light.

Nevertheless, if things were shifting she didn’t want to be in here if the ruin collapsed any more than it already had. So, she had to get moving soon. She just wasn’t sure where to begin.

She could draw one, maybe two spell circles of her own in mana if she needed to. It would exhaust her, but she had the ability now. That wasn’t enough energy to experiment, and she didn’t want to use blood again if she could avoid that.

Even if she could find a way out of this hole, it was starting to be a resources game. She had to find a way out in so many moves or less. Not just find a way out. That was why she had taken some time to sit and think and catch her breath.

Which brought her back full circle. She needed to modify the existing spell rather than making a bunch of her own. She even thought she had a pretty good idea of what she wanted to do.

One of these glyphs was taking the water and air and pushing it up into the sky. Another was probably making sure it stayed localized. Yet another was causing the pool to flow in a circle. She had a working theory. The arrows pointing inward were keeping the air and water localized. The one that was shared in both circles was probably causing the water to move at all. And the last one… well, she wasn’t sure what the last glyph did. If her theory held out, it was changing the direction the push glyph was pushing the lazy river in to make it a circle. But she didn’t understand why, or the details of that.

So, in an ideal world she would create a circle that would push the slab in the center of the room up, and ride it to the top. There were just about a million problems with that.

First, if her reading of what the glyphs did was off, then it might not do anything or something unexpected. She didn’t want to be riding a huge piece of concrete when it decided to spin in place, or roll like a ball, or even if she was right, shoot into the sky.

Beyond that, if she did choose that glyph, and she was wrong, the wasted mana might be so much that she collapsed. Even if she wasn’t wrong and it rose, what if creating the circle wiped her out so much she wasn’t able to jump from the floating concrete to safety?

There were so many issues. But it’s not like she had any other plans. Option number two as she saw it was to fill this area with enough liquid for her to swim out. But, while she was generally an okay swimmer she didn’t have any idea what kind of current she’d be dealing with. Not to mention, water is heavy. What if it shifted things in a way that crushed her? It was too dangerous. Even compared to option number one.

No. She had to just do it. Starting with part one. She had to return to the central slab. As she gathered herself to enter the thigh deep cold pond again though, something startled her. A sound. A loud electronic sound!

Her phone! She pulled it out of her pocket. It was… turning on? It had played a loud startup sound, and was now sitting at her lock screen. That was… weird. But, at least it was working. She took a second to unlock it. Yeah, everything was still there.

“Great. Now you’re working. When I don’t really need you anymore. Thanks, technology.”

But it was strange. Had it just dried out on its own? And then she… hit the power button by accident? That would be a big coincidence. But, there was no sense fussing about it now. If any strange alarms came through though, she was going to scream.

Lily lowered herself slowly into the depths. It was so cold! But, that wasn’t the end of the world. She waded over to the central slab, passing by her little created flame that was still sitting on the surface of the water. She had expected the flame to go out at some point, but she guessed the mana here must be strong enough to last it a while.

Pulling herself up onto the slab and out of the pool was actually pretty difficult and took a few tries. She managed with perseverance and finding the right foot holds.

Lily heard another howl outside.

“I’m on it! Just be patient!”

Okay, what now? Well, first things first, she wanted to stop the rain. It wasn’t really doing anything to help her, so she might as well start there. She focused, and found the innermost circle, and thought about breaking it. Making a cut so that it wouldn’t form a full circle anymore. She felt at it, found the exact point she wanted to break, and snapped it.

At first, nothing happened. She could tell that the circle was broken though, so she waited. After about thirty seconds, the rain started to let up and Lily let out a sigh of relief.

“Okay, that helps a lot. Now for the rest of this thing.”

There was still an updraft, but that was good news too. It meant her read of the second circle was probably correct. It was still gathering air and pushing that upward. So, now she needed to disable the glyphs she thought were condensing things, and hopefully the updraft would continue.

She felt out those two glyphs in the circle. It was already getting difficult to focus. This work was so tiring! But just as she was getting ready to erase those nodes, the rain started back up.

“What the hell?”

Star howled from outside. Lily rolled her eyes. Why was the tiny torrent back again? She could swear the spell shouldn’t have any more water to work with. Lily grumbled and found the spot she’d broken before. It was… fixed.

“Huh? Is it self repairing? How’d it do that?”

Frustrated, she did her best to clear her mind and severed the circle again. Then she turned her attention to erasing the two glyphs that she didn’t need. The directionality of the wind changed slightly, but it was still pointed upward. That was more or less confirmation of what she wanted. Plus, the rain was starting to stop again. Lily was sick of getting poured on.

“Better stay gone this time. Now, about this lifty glyph. Can I point that at this rock somehow?”

Lily couldn’t see how to change what that glyph was targeting. But at the same time, there had to be a way? Maybe it was a setting, like the capacitor volume? That seemed likely. Intention seemed to matter a little to these glyphs, so maybe she could make an edit. She was already feeling a little unstabl–

Water started pouring on her.

“GOD DAMN FUCKING FAKE STORM!”

She glared upward, and a drop hit her directly in the eye even around the glasses. She shook her head and made a groan of annoyance. Okay, this was getting annoying as hell. Lily gritted her teeth and found the water collection circle again. Sure enough, it was whole again. Something was repairing it!

“Fine! If you can repair something broken, let’s make it not broken huh? Huh? Is that good enough for you, magic room?”

Rather than severing the circle again, Lily decided to get creative. This time, she removed a segment of the circle, but rather than leaving it broken she drew something new. A small bracket shape on each of the ends, as if it were intended to stop there rather than being cut.

“There. That’s how it’s intended to be. It’s not broken, you hear me? It’s perfect the way it is!”

She waited a moment. The downpour started to diminish again.

“Good! Stay that way!”

Lily caught her breath for a moment. As she did, the girl looked around the room again. She could swear there were differences, but they were subtle. It was really starting to bother her. But she might as well be sure there weren’t any tools she should be using while she was too tired to do more spellwork.

A lot of broken concrete, a thigh deep pool, and some burned out detritus. Although, the burned out garbage was looking… Was it less burned out than before? She could swear that the broken TV had been covered in scorch marks before, and the fridge was more melted than it looked now.

“Am I getting in my head because the circle keeps getting fixed? Although…”

She took out her phone. It was still working. Was there a magical effect repairing items in the room? She couldn’t see anything like that, and if so it was working really slow. Like, glacially slow.

Shrugging, Lily turned on her flashlight and shone it around the room to get a better look. Was any of this trash usable? There was a lot more junk floating around in the pool than she had been able to see with just her two flame workings. A lot of broken trash, mostly. She could see the melted remains of what was probably an entire silverware drawer. A lot more rebar along the bottom than she was comfortable with, having waded through it twice now.

Nothing looked immediately usable though. But just as she was about to give up, something drifted into view. A door. A whole door. It was made of wood and perfectly unburned. That was… weird. But it was one of those thick doors that usually blocked off utility closets and the like.

That could actually be useful! She could ride that to the top instead of something as heavy as the concrete! It’d require a lot less energy to move right? Or would it be less stable? If she had to jump off of her ride as it got to the top, would it having so much less mass matter? Well, she would keep it in mind if she couldn’t find a way to power her concrete elevator.

As it drifted past she wondered how it had survived the fire. Even if it was repaired after by the hypothetical repair spell, some part of it had to have survived right? It had a little metal placard on it. Maybe that was it? Maybe the rest had been repaired from that? That seemed like a stretch, but oh well. The little placard read ‘Basement’. So it had probably been on the ground level. Maybe the magic storm started before the fire was through?

Lily decided she was procrastinating. It was time to see what she could really do. She decided she was going to draw a spell of her own. It’d be no problem. Gather Ambient Mana, and the Push spell pointed upward. She’d draw it around the concrete slab in the middle of the room. A simple two node magic circle. That should be easier than one of her flame spells. She was scared, but putting it off forever wasn’t going to change anything.

She plopped down on the concrete and went to work. The design was easy enough. A circle with a square in the middle of it. On the two opposite sides of the square, two nodes. One with Gather Ambient Mana, the other with Push. While she wrote in the latter, she focused as hard as she could on what she wanted it to do. Push upward. Move up. Float the stone. Make it rise!

The circle completed as Lily felt the mana leaving her body. She was getting used to that sense the more she used it. But that didn’t mean it had any less of a devastating effect. She slumped over on her rock, wheezing. It was like the spell had sucked the life out of her. She could barely move. She struggled, but couldn’t even sit up.

But even worse, nothing was happening. That couldn’t be right, could it? She let herself relax onto the stone, trying to catch her breath, and examined her spell. It was working! Mana was running through it! But nothing was happening. Why was nothing happening? Then she realized. The other spells! They were taking a lot of the mana too! She had to disable them, and just hope that her lift spell would work with more energy!

She was still having trouble moving, but she had to do it. She closed her eyes, laying face down on the rock and felt out the other spells in the room. All she had to do was erase the way they were getting mana, and they’d go right out. Turn those nodes into empty nodes.

One by one the other spells in the room went out. First her two flame spells. She was surprised that the light didn’t completely go away. The moon was overhead, shining down into her hole! She could still see! Just not well. That was a stroke of luck. But she wasn’t out of the woods yet.

Next were the circles that were already here. She knew better than to break them, so she just focused on disabling them. She was past the point of exhaustion and into pain. It felt like she had to tear the mana out of herself to even be making modifications to these circles right now. But if she used up all the magical energy in this area without getting out of here, it’d be over!

She erased the last glyph. The stone she was on lurched. Lily felt a surge of hope! But… it still wasn’t enough! It wasn’t moving! It had just shifted. Lily wanted to scream, and cry.

“Fine! If that’s not enough, don’t think I’ll give up yet. I am not dying in a hole!”

It hurt like hell. She didn’t care. She reached out one more time, and changed her spell around the rock. Gather Ambient Mana, and Infuse Material. She’d use the rock as a battery, and when it had charged up enough she’d swap it back and get out of here!

Mana started flowing into the rock immediately, but as the upward force on it diminished, the rock shifted again. A horrible groaning sound came from under the room Lily was in.

“...uh oh. That didn’t sound good.”

Then it hit her. Basement. There was a basement! There was a floor under this one! How was she always always always one step behind the things she needed to survive? She wanted to scream in frustration and terror, but she forced that emotion down. No. No giving in to panic. Absolutely not.

The rock shifted some more, suddenly sinking by about a foot. But mana was pouring into it. The power was gathering. Lily could feel it. She just had to find the balance. She had to swap it back before she fell through the floor into the basement of certain death, but after it had charged up enough to float. That was easy enough, right? Right?

Lily’s heart was pounding out of her chest. She was finally starting to feel like she could move her body, but she didn’t dare. She couldn’t risk unbalancing her precarious situation.

Finally, she thought it was worth a try. So she reached out to change the spell. Nothing happened. She focused as hard as she could. It wasn’t changing! She reached for mana in herself and… it wasn’t there. She had nothing to pull on. She was depleted. But she had to change the spell!

“No no no no. Not like this. I can’t die in a hole. Please work, please! Please give me anything! Just a little bit! Please!”

But nothing came. There was another groaning sound from beneath her, and she heard the pool around her start to drain into the basement below.

“Phone? Mysterious helper? Entity B? Anyone! Please! Please save me! I can’t do this! I can’t survive on my own! Please! Help me. Help me! Help me!”

Her voice echoed through the room around her, and sounded mocking in her ears. Help me. Help me. Help me. And that same voice that was always with her, from deep down. As if you deserve help. You’re pathetic, and this is just what you deserve. You should have disappeared with everyone else. She felt the tears welling up in her eyes as despair overwhelmed her.

She heard another howl from outside. This one sounded closer somehow.

“No. No! That’s stupid. Shut up, voice! I don’t need you. I don’t need some mysterious helper. I’m going to live through this. I’m not going to die so easily. I might be a cockroach of a person, but cockroaches are hard to kill!”

A manic energy flooded through her. Her fears evaporated. It was either do this or die, right? Then it didn’t really matter how crazy she got, did it? Danger? What’s that?

The concrete under her was starting to vibrate uncomfortably. It was too full of mana. Good. Let it be full. What’s one more bomb in this scenario?

She fumbled with her bandage, trying to get it off, but wasn’t strong enough. Well, whatever. She bit the fleshy part of her thumb as hard as she could. It hurt. It hurt so bad she could hardly think, but she didn’t let up until the taste of blood rushed into her mouth. She spat, and got to drawing.

A simple three node circle. She drew it on the back of her good hand. Gather Ambient Mana, a capacitor turned as low as possible, and infuse mana. She’d done this before, and it had been a huge mistake. But what was a mistake now? All she had to do was use the mana as fast as it poured into her, right? It was like electricity! If she was going to grab a live wire, all she had to do was give it an exit from her body that didn’t burn her up too!

The moment she felt the mana start flooding into her, she pressed her palm down against the concrete under her and shifted concentration to her lift spell. She had plenty of mana now. Too much even! It was time to draw!

Instantly she swapped her spell so that it was drawing the mana from the rock and using that to power the push spell. The concrete lurched upwards. She was almost tossed off of it. Grabbing on for dear life, Lily added a capacitor with a high volume, and got ready to tune that as the stone began to rise. She had to maintain a good speed. Not too fast, not too slow, and without running out of mana. Easy! Sure, why not?

“Wanna add any more complications, huh?”

She was beginning to feel dizzy. Too much mana was still flowing through her. Fine. She’d give it an outlet. She scrambled to form the next circle in her mind before she gave in to her vertigo. A simple two node spell. Flame, and Heat to Mana. She shunted all the mana she could feel pouring into her into her right hand, forcing that spell to activate. Instantly, a huge flame billowed to life in her hand. It was hot. Hotter than her eternal flame, despite what she was trying to do. It burned. Lily felt the scream build up inside her, but refused to give in. If she let herself panic for even a second, she was going to die. So that was off limits. Absolutely not!

The stone was rising. As it cleared the ground below, she heard the entire room she’d been in collapsing down into the basement below. But it didn’t matter now. The platform was going to clear the ceiling any second!

As the clear air came into view, Lily made her move. She jumped from the concrete she had been riding. The nearest place to land was the same piece of concrete that had dumped her into the hole to begin with. As she landed on it, she started to slide back toward the hole, but this time Lily was prepared. She caught herself on the rebar, using it as a foothold. The impact made it start to destabilize, so she climbed as fast as she could. The flame on her hand went out as she lost focus, and the mana began to flow into her in full again. She forced herself forward.

It was tilting too fast! She wasn’t going to make it before it toppled in! Lily let out a desperate scream. Suddenly, Star was there! He bit her shirt at the shoulder and started trying to pull her up. It was helping, but she was starting to lose strength as too much mana filled her up. Lily slammed her good hand into the concrete she was desperately clinging to and started drawing. A new spell. This one gathered air and pushed it upward here. The resulting updraft made the difference with Star’s help. She pulled above the lip of the concrete and fell flat on the next piece. This one was more stable. She tried to get up, but staggered and doubled over.

Star started licking the blood off the back of her hand. Smart dog. She could still hear the crashing from behind her. This area might not last long either. She drew a quick fire spell to get rid of some of her excess. Then Lily rose unsteadily to her feet.

“Run!”

She hoped Star would understand. She started making her way away from the hole as fast as she could. It was frustratingly slow going, even with her manic energy, but she couldn’t risk falling bodily on broken rebar. Then, she got an awful feeling. She didn’t even know she could sense this, but she suddenly knew. Her circle on the concrete lift had broken. She glanced over her shoulder just in time to see it falling.

They could feel the thud it created as it fell back into the hole. The rubble shifted, and more collapsed. Lily frantically found her way to the edge, and climbed down as quickly as she could. Stepping onto solid ground, she could have wept with joy. Lily wasn’t willing to stop anywhere near this rubble though. So she limped weakly over to her car, opened the door and got in. Star jumped over her lap and into the passenger seat.

Lily sat there staring ahead vacantly for a minute. Then she laughed. She laughed, and laughed, and laughed.

---

 

Lily was driving home. She had laughed herself senseless, and maybe fallen asleep for a little while. But, once she had gotten herself together she just wanted to go home. Home to her new home. Her boat. She was talking to Star while she did.

“How did you get up there anyway? I couldn’t have done it without you boy. Thank you. I hope you can understand that. Even if not the words, the feeling. You’re a good boy. I’ll find a good reward for you, okay?”

As she said that, she drove past a large recognizable M. The golden arches. Mcdonalds. Lily had an idea. The power was off, but it was time to pull off a heist.

Thankfully the doors were open. It was a 24 hour location after all.

“Finally, some good luck. Now, we’re headed to the kitchen. You can feel free to eat anything you find that isn’t bad. Do you know what's bad? Oh well, I’ll just find some buns to toss you.”

She did. It was easy, even. She wasn’t about to risk the meats or anything, but she had one thing she was here for above all else.

Fifteen minutes later, Lily pushed a levitating ice cream machine out of the store and into the back of her SUV. The McFlurry machine was tucked under her arm.

Rewards in hand, it was time to go home. Speeding down the road as the sun rose, windows down for Star, Lily couldn’t stop laughing. She hurt all over, she was beyond tired, but she felt alive for the first time in a very long time.