Arakil was conflicted as he paced up and down the miniaturized world inside the book. On the one hand, their preparations were making extremely good headway, but he was agitated by the lack of direct impact he could have once the ritual was underway.

  It would be entirely beyond his control once the two girls headed out during the next full moon. Not to mention, he was not looking forward to the consequences of his slight deception against Lily.

  Optimistically, it would not actually be required, but he felt Rose would likely still reveal the truth of the matter. As far as he could tell, those two hid no secrets from each other. He would remain firm in his belief that she would accept his apology eventually, especially with the current goodwill he had fostered and the allure of the future magic and Mana Core growth he had promised her.

  "I could fix the grimoire's arcane eye with some Mana, and then I could observe the ritual…" Arakil shook his head and sighed. "But it would be a fruitless waste of Mana. What good would being able to witness it do at this stage? If something catastrophic were to happen, I would be unable to communicate with anyone until after the fact.

  "If Rose could read the text within my tome, then that would be another story entirely. This present limitation, which means that I can only communicate with Lily directly, is a frustrating inconvenience. She will have to focus her entire attention on meditation and condensing the Mana, so it's not like she can pause to read any messages I've scrawled out."

  He really needed to fix the telepathy spell, but that just wasn't currently feasible. Even if he stripped it to a barebones functionality, it wasn't maintainable at present without a reliable supply of Mana. If a young girl had the patience to ration and conserve their resources, then he had no excuse not to follow suit.

  "If it was only one or the other, I could perhaps argue about the rationality of the expenditure. Unfortunately, without both functions, it would be pointless."

  He glanced around and sighed again.

  "Perhaps I'm just bored?" Arakil asked himself. "Beyond meditating and trying to collect Mana for the primary ritual inscription, there's not much I can do at this stage."

  Tapping a finger against his wrist, he began to tick things off like a mental checklist.

  "I've prepared my message for Rose; I've exhausted possible improvements, even going as far as to align the ritual for a full moon. Teaching Lily any further sigils or crests would be a detriment at this stage… She needs to focus on her meditation."

  He collapsed backward into the illusory chair.

  "I suppose… I'm forced to wait… And hope."

  He shuddered.

  "Me, hoping? How dreadful. What's next, wishing for good luck?"

  ***

  Things outside were proceeding as planned. Lily continued working at the shop, and Camilla happily supplied her with the requested goods. She had questioned once or twice what she was doing with all of this, but Lily could brush it off as glyph practice.

  Rose had even purchased a few bits of Fairymoss from one of the other stores to avoid suspicion. Likewise, she raided the flower hole and harvested it to near extinction. They were putting all their eggs into this basket, and being frugal was not an option.

  Even the herbs with faint traces of natural Mana were ground up. Everything and anything with Mana was subject to becoming powder and was thrown into a pot of boiling water to fuel the ritual.

  Rose had kept up her routine of checking on the site and clearing it of any potential intruders, but the forest had remained relatively calm and quiet ever since she dispatched the wolves. She'd only found a few gremlins and other small creatures, nothing even vaguely threatening.

  At the same time, Lily had reached satisfactory levels with copying out the sub-ritual, and Arakil finally gave her the go-ahead to start drawing them out with Rose's blood ink. Even though they were only for the sub-ritual, it was complex, and Lily could barely finish one in an evening, even if she were to give it 100% focus and precision.

  At the same time, they needed to find out when the next full moon would be, which was crucial for their setup. Thankfully, it wasn't too hard to discover, although it had now added an extra time limit to their endeavor.

  There was only a single full moon between now and Rose's departure. Rose had tried to see if she could budge Lady Desthu's timeline, but the woman once again threatened to hasten it instead, especially with Rose's newly grown-out tail.

  When just over a week remained until the full moon, they needed to start making daily preparations. While they now had three completed glyphs—four if they included Arakil's—they were told to only create one sub-ritual per day. Arakil had mentioned that this allowed the sites to saturate with Mana.

  Getting Lily to the site six times would prove challenging, so the girls had to adjust their schedules.

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  The first time they woke up early and visited it before lessons started. They practically rushed there, and Rose even had to carry Lily at one point to save time. Thankfully, she was light, and they reached it rapidly.

  Examining the diagram Lily had received from Arakil, she plotted out the six sub-ritual sites and the center spot for the primary ritual. The six sub-rituals would work together to form a six-pointed star that Arakil had called a unicursal hexagram. Meanwhile, the primary ritual would be at the crossing intersection right in the center.

  "To think even the shape of the ritual matters this much," Rose commented offhandedly. "I must say I'm really glad I chose to stick to just doing fire magic and some chanting."

  "I still think you should learn a premade glyph or two. Arakil or even I could design one for you, and as long as you practiced it enough, it should be easy enough," Lily replied in a rebuttal.

  "Maybe…" Rose mumbled. "Once we aren't rushing around like headless chickens to meet this deadline. I hope we will have some time after the full moon to just relax?"

  Lily nodded. "No time limits or anything, certainly… Although I will hopefully be starting magic lessons then!"

  "I'd argue you already are having magic lessons, or did you forget who's been drawing all these magical pages?" Rose commented with a snort.

  "Yeah, but even so, magic with my own Mana! Real magic!" Lily said, then slapped her hands against her mouth in a panic. "Don't tell Arakil I said that!"

  Rose chuckled. "He doesn't like you implying the glyph stuff isn't real magic?"

  "No… He got really upset with me for some reason. I mean… It's definitely magic, but it's not casting with my own hands! No, that's not a good comparison… Not casting with my own power!"

  "Sure… Sure… I get it; your little outburst is safe with me," Rose teased.

  Lily sighed and placed the page in the correct location.

  "Okay… Can you activate this, please?" Lily asked.

  Rose nodded and touched the page. It began to glow, and they both retreated to a safe distance. It activated once the timer had been met, and the page burned up.

  A reddish light began forming in the air. It started by tracing a circular perimeter and then began drawing out one of the most complex inscriptions or glyphs Lily had ever seen. While she could've guessed some of the glyphs in the Mana gathering array and even the stone transmutation spell, it was utterly beyond her this time.

  When the reddish light finished its magical floating drawing, it flashed three times before plunging itself downwards into the rock. A sizzling noise could be heard as it melted directly down into the rock, providing a full and near-instant engraving of the sub-ritual.

  Both girls hurried over to look at the result when the red light vanished. Right before they arrived, the Mana gathering array let out a pulse, which seemed to settle over the newly made engraving. Even from this angle, Lily still couldn't understand it, but she looked in awe at the construction.

  "So six of these, and then we fill them with liquid, right?" Rose asked.

  "Yup, that's the plan!" Lily said with a happy, ear-flopping nod.

  "Won't we be in trouble if it rains? Like… Will we need to clean this out of gunk and stuff on the night of the big event?" Rose asked curiously.

  "Arakil said the Mana gathering array would protect anything within it from deteriorating, which is what I think that pulse was right before we arrived," Lily explained.

  "Okay, that's damn convenient! That dusty old book truly is smart to have thought of all of this junk beforehand!" Rose half-heartedly praised.

  "That dusty old book has a name, you know," Lily pointed out.

  "When he gives you your promised Mana Core, then I'll call him by his name," Rose said.

  "I mean, he saved my life… And did all of this…" Lily said, gesturing around to the magical platform they were literally standing on. "Can't you trust him fully already?"

  "Nope!" Rose said and cheekily stuck out her tongue. "I'm a stubborn dragon, and I made up my mind. That book needs to keep his promise, and then I'll respect him."

  Lily sighed and nodded moments before Rose lifted her up.

  "I'm gonna have to run back, or we will be late for breakfast!" Rose exclaimed and, before Lily could protest, broke out into a sprint.

  ***

  They repeated this task five more times. The only change in the procedure happened when they used the original made by Arakil. Instead of the magical floating inscription being drawn in a reddish light, it was drawn in an iridescent gold color. It was remarkable and caused both girls to gasp at the sudden and unexpected surprise.

  The end result was the same, and later, when she prodded Arakil for answers, he merely stated that it was likely a visual byproduct of the type of Mana used. The reddish hue was likely formed from Rose's blood ink rather than personally imbued by Arakil.

  Three days before the full moon, Camilla finally handed Lily her promised Mana potion. It had caused the little bunny quite some distress as it was the last thing they were relying on.

  And just like that, they had nothing left to do but wait. Everything was laid out, planned, and accounted for; the only thing left was enacting the ritual.

  On the night of the full moon, Lily impatiently paced around in her room, waiting for Rose. She nearly bolted out to meet her when the light tapping rasped at her door. Opening the door revealed the shadowy, cloaked form of her big sister.

  "Ready?" Rose whispered.

  "I triple-checked everything," Lily confirmed in a whisper.

  "Great, time to shadow up!" Rose said excitedly before slapping the other talisman on Lily's back.

  Since her initial demonstration, Lily had produced four more and given them all to Rose for safekeeping. When the small piece of paper made contact with Lily, her bunny visage was engulfed in the cloak of shadows, just like Rose's.

  "Operation sneak out is a go!" Rose teased.

  "Shh!" Lily reminded her.

  Rose's shadowy form nodded and made a finger gesture of silence. Lily locked her door, and together, they began sneaking out of the orphanage.

  Lily felt her heart pounding. She was incredibly nervous that they would be caught, but as long as they made no noise, it would be incredibly difficult for anyone to spot them. Escaping the orphanage was relatively easy, as they just needed to hop through an open window on the ground floor.

  When they left the orphanage grounds, Rose couldn't help but let out a small squeal in excitement.

  "We have got to do this more often! My blood is boiling!" Rose exclaimed, barely containing her excitement.

  "We won't be able to if you don't keep your mouth shut! We still have to sneak past the gate!" Lily said angrily.

  "I know, I know…" Rose grumbled. "This is just so exciting, but don't worry, I'll be completely zipped up until we are beyond the city gate."

  Lily's shadowy form nodded, and they continued their journey.

  To the benefit of their efforts, the gate guards put more emphasis on keeping things out than on keeping things in, and the two of them snuck past with almost disappointing ease. The darkness of the night, slow movement, and sticking to the shadows meant they were practically invisible to the tired night watch.

  Rose let out a fist pump in victory, and Lily even let out an excited giggle.

  "Next stop, the ritual site!" Rose cheered.

  Lily nodded excitedly, her shadowy ears flopping energetically. She just prayed that everything would go as planned.

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