Spring’s body shuddered with joy as fresh water coursed through her feet and into her body. My pitcher isn’t big enough to handle everything I need to carry with me. Water, spare blood, skin, teeth…
Spring shook her abdomen, checking the slosh of blood in the separate sack she had formed for the purpose. About two weeks left, six before I start dying. I must gather fresh blood before that happens. My options are limited. I could storm into the kitchen when I know they are butchering something, I could hunt mice and rats, or I could even capture some wild animals while we are outside with the hunter school.
Spring washed her skin and went to the wardrobe, slapping her bare feet against the hardwood floor and leaving wet prints in her wake. She looked at the assortment of clothes and undergarments, feeling a headache.
What would a human want to feel against their skin after a grueling day? After several seconds of deliberation, she decided on loose cashmere underwear, soft and gentle to the touch, yet firm enough to hold everything in place. She then donned a pale-green dress with a faint yellow pattern made of the same plush material and headed to the dining hall.
Maids opened the door for her, their eyes locked onto the marble-tiled floor. The giant banquet table stood empty again, but the kitchen doors opened and a procession of maids wearing plates, silverware and various food rushed in, setting the table for one.
“Alone? Again?” she growled, but nobody dared say a word.
“Bring a table and two chairs to my room. I will eat my meals in my room from now on. I want my food kept warm, and served steaming.”
Spring did not wait for a response. She spun around and stormed off. It’s unfortunate that the household footwear is soft and woolen. The effect would have been better with the clicking of bone or wood against stone.
Still, despite the lacking theatrics of Spring’s performance, the maids were sufficiently terrified and scurried to see what they could do.
Ten minutes later, two of them carried a table into Spring’s room. Two others carried a pair of chairs, and another pushed a cart with food. The cart was laden with covered plates, applants heating them from below.
Success! Twelve heaters, and I can take about ten percent from each with none being the wiser. If I turn them off and keep them in my room for an hour or two, I could drain them dry, snatching ten maroons’ worth per meal. Now, hurry up and leave.
The maids needed no prompting. They did not glance at Spring and moved with professional swiftness. They scurried out the moment they had arranged the table, bowing silently before closing the door.
Spring quickly turned off all the heaters save for one, which she would use as a benchmark before she called the maids back in.
She could have poured all the food down her throat without chewing, but she ate with deliberate slowness instead. Preserving her mask and building habits of human mannerism mattered more than the hour she would have saved by dumping the food straight into her composter. She used the wasted time to draw mana from the mana crystals bit by bit, alternating between them.
She finished two thirds of the meal and threw the rest down the bathroom composter, to keep up appearances, should anyone check the applant’s waste. Spring then melted the strawberry candy on a silver plate and, using a spoon, she coated a tendril to resemble a tongue.
She stood in front of the mirror, examining her handiwork with a frown, her maw grotesquely agape, more open than human mouths were meant to.
The shape and color are passable. I can move it left and right, up and down, but I can’t bend or twist it.
Spring’s face was locked in a grimace as she estimated the quality of her craft, when a clatter of reeds in the wind came from her bedroom.
Voice-linker?
Spring closed her gaping mouth and approached the desk. There, the voice-linker’s conical flower clattered. Spring touched the plant, and the wooden chime stopped.
“Jass, baby, how are you feeling?” a concerned female voice sounded from the applant.
“I’m feeling well. Thank you for asking. Who might you be?” Spring spoke with a polite, confused tone.
The voice on the other end sobbed at the question. “It’s me, baby, your mother. I’m so sorry about what happened this morning. It was a misunderstanding. Had I known, I would have hailed a coach for you. I can’t imagine what it was like, walking while everyone stared at you. I… I’m so sorry.”
“Oh, Mother, it was dreadful,” Spring ranted random pitiful rubbish while draining the voice-linker’s mana crystal. The translucent stone grew dim after five minutes, and a minute later, the applant started faltering.
Spring stopped drawing energy from it and spoke in a concerned tone. “Mother, I can’t hear you well.”
“Yes, your voice is breaking. I’ll send a steward to check the mana crystals around your room. You were away for nearly two months, I don’t know if anyone replaced them recently.”
“Mother, I have to eat. Have them come once I finish my lunch.”
“Oh, Jass, baby, take care of yourself. I’m so sorry I can’t sit with you. Forgive me. Your father doesn’t allow us to see you—”
“Mother,” with that word, Spring emptied the mana crystal. Her concerned, pitiful expression vanished, and she seized her chance, strolling around the room and spending twenty minutes to drain the applants’ power stores.
That’s another five maroons’ worth of mana, plus the heaters should have completely emptied their crystals during my conversation with Jasmine’s mother. So far, I have drained some twenty-two maroons worth of mana. I will lose forty percent of the excess during the night, meaning I will be down to thirteen.
However, I will get five or six of them to heat my dinner. Combined with the forty-two coins I got at school, it should be enough to refine my mana to the next stage.
Half an hour later, Spring called the maids to clean up and take away the table. After the maids cleared her lunch, a pair of stewards replaced all the crystals Spring had drained.
She kept her face flat as they worked, but on the inside she could not wait for them to leave. Then she would pilfer a bit more mana, growing closer to her goal. The men were done in two minutes, which felt like half an hour to Spring, and when they finally left, she went straight for the voice-linker.
Huh? Spring stared dumbly at the rich, coppery orange. They left crystals filled with second level mana here? Did they know I stole from the applants? No, Jasmine’s mother must have threatened them with something should my applants run out of mana.
She sighed. Well, I hope they decide not to waste initial-stage orange mana on keeping my dinner warm. Otherwise, my plan will fail, and in three days, all the excess mana I gathered will dissipate from my core and circuits.
With nothing better to do, Spring went to bed, closed her eyes and hypothesized theoretical grafts, hoping her random guesses would awaken additional memories.
Her attempts failed, and four hours later, a knock came from her door. “Young Miss, your dinner is ready.”
“Come in,” Spring watched the same five maids bring in her dinner in exactly the same manner they did for lunch, including the redundant chair she had asked for.
Spring barely contained her smile when she saw the dark-red glow of maroon crystals sticking out of the heaters’ bases.
“I will call you once I’m done,” Spring said, stretching lazily in her bed as the maids hurried out.
She jumped the moment the door clicked close. She snatched the maroon crystals, undressed, and went to lie on the bed where she arranged the stones and the coins she got at school on her bare skin.
With a slight exertion of her will, the mana circuits running the entire length of her body drew the mana from the crystals. Even in the worst possible scenario, she estimated she had two maroon coins to spare, yet she drew mana from all of them, unwilling to take the risk of wasting sixty-five coins’ worth of mana to skimp on two.
The initial-red, maroon mana was one quarter useful, three-quarters dregs for a mid stage level one floromancer, like Spring, and the wasted, impure portion dissipated into the air through her breathing. The one quarter which entered her mana circuit was lighter and weaker than the surrounding energy, squished and squeezed until it shrank to one quarter of its size as its deep maroon grew carmine, then vermilion and stabilized as mid-stage mana.
The process lasted two minutes before growing from pleasant warmth into an irritating itch. Spring disregarded her mana circuits’ warnings from the doubled amount of mana coursing through them and kept drawing more.
Spring’s body shuddered with joy as fresh water coursed through her feet and into her body. My pitcher isn’t big enough to handle everything I need to carry with me. Water, spare blood, skin, teeth…
Spring shook her abdomen, checking the slosh of blood in the separate sack she had formed for the purpose. About two weeks left, six before I start dying. I must gather fresh blood before that happens. My options are limited. I could storm into the kitchen when I know they are butchering something, I could hunt mice and rats, or I could even capture some wild animals while we are outside with the hunter school.
Spring washed her skin and went to the wardrobe, slapping her bare feet against the hardwood floor and leaving wet prints in her wake. She looked at the assortment of clothes and undergarments, feeling a headache.
What would a human want to feel against their skin after a grueling day? After several seconds of deliberation, she decided on loose cashmere underwear, soft and gentle to the touch, yet firm enough to hold everything in place. She then donned a pale-green dress with a faint yellow pattern made of the same plush material and headed to the dining hall.
Maids opened the door for her, their eyes locked onto the marble-tiled floor. The giant banquet table stood empty again, but the kitchen doors opened and a procession of maids wearing plates, silverware and various food rushed in, setting the table for one.
“Alone? Again?” she growled, but nobody dared say a word.
“Bring a table and two chairs to my room. I will eat my meals in my room from now on. I want my food kept warm, and served steaming.”
Spring did not wait for a response. She spun around and stormed off. It’s unfortunate that the household footwear is soft and woolen. The effect would have been better with the clicking of bone or wood against stone.
Still, despite the lacking theatrics of Spring’s performance, the maids were sufficiently terrified and scurried to see what they could do.
Ten minutes later, two of them carried a table into Spring’s room. Two others carried a pair of chairs, and another pushed a cart with food. The cart was laden with covered plates, applants heating them from below.
Success! Twelve heaters, and I can take about ten percent from each with none being the wiser. If I turn them off and keep them in my room for an hour or two, I could drain them dry, snatching ten maroons’ worth per meal. Now, hurry up and leave.
The maids needed no prompting. They did not glance at Spring and moved with professional swiftness. They scurried out the moment they had arranged the table, bowing silently before closing the door.
Spring quickly turned off all the heaters save for one, which she would use as a benchmark before she called the maids back in.
She could have poured all the food down her throat without chewing, but she ate with deliberate slowness instead. Preserving her mask and building habits of human mannerism mattered more than the hour she would have saved by dumping the food straight into her composter. She used the wasted time to draw mana from the mana crystals bit by bit, alternating between them.
She finished two thirds of the meal and threw the rest down the bathroom composter, to keep up appearances, should anyone check the applant’s waste. Spring then melted the strawberry candy on a silver plate and, using a spoon, she coated a tendril to resemble a tongue.
She stood in front of the mirror, examining her handiwork with a frown, her maw grotesquely agape, more open than human mouths were meant to.
The shape and color are passable. I can move it left and right, up and down, but I can’t bend or twist it.
Spring’s face was locked in a grimace as she estimated the quality of her craft, when a clatter of reeds in the wind came from her bedroom.
Voice-linker?
Spring closed her gaping mouth and approached the desk. There, the voice-linker’s conical flower clattered. Spring touched the plant, and the wooden chime stopped.
“Jass, baby, how are you feeling?” a concerned female voice sounded from the applant.
“I’m feeling well. Thank you for asking. Who might you be?” Spring spoke with a polite, confused tone.
The voice on the other end sobbed at the question. “It’s me, baby, your mother. I’m so sorry about what happened this morning. It was a misunderstanding. Had I known, I would have hailed a coach for you. I can’t imagine what it was like, walking while everyone stared at you. I… I’m so sorry.”
“Oh, Mother, it was dreadful,” Spring ranted random pitiful rubbish while draining the voice-linker’s mana crystal. The translucent stone grew dim after five minutes, and a minute later, the applant started faltering.
Spring stopped drawing energy from it and spoke in a concerned tone. “Mother, I can’t hear you well.”
“Yes, your voice is breaking. I’ll send a steward to check the mana crystals around your room. You were away for nearly two months, I don’t know if anyone replaced them recently.”
“Mother, I have to eat. Have them come once I finish my lunch.”
“Oh, Jass, baby, take care of yourself. I’m so sorry I can’t sit with you. Forgive me. Your father doesn’t allow us to see you—”
“Mother,” with that word, Spring emptied the mana crystal. Her concerned, pitiful expression vanished, and she seized her chance, strolling around the room and spending twenty minutes to drain the applants’ power stores.
That’s another five maroons’ worth of mana, plus the heaters should have completely emptied their crystals during my conversation with Jasmine’s mother. So far, I have drained some twenty-two maroons worth of mana. I will lose forty percent of the excess during the night, meaning I will be down to thirteen.
However, I will get five or six of them to heat my dinner. Combined with the forty-two coins I got at school, it should be enough to refine my mana to the next stage.
Half an hour later, Spring called the maids to clean up and take away the table. After the maids cleared her lunch, a pair of stewards replaced all the crystals Spring had drained.
She kept her face flat as they worked, but on the inside she could not wait for them to leave. Then she would pilfer a bit more mana, growing closer to her goal. The men were done in two minutes, which felt like half an hour to Spring, and when they finally left, she went straight for the voice-linker.
Huh? Spring stared dumbly at the rich, coppery orange. They left crystals filled with second level mana here? Did they know I stole from the applants? No, Jasmine’s mother must have threatened them with something should my applants run out of mana.
She sighed. Well, I hope they decide not to waste initial-stage orange mana on keeping my dinner warm. Otherwise, my plan will fail, and in three days, all the excess mana I gathered will dissipate from my core and circuits.
With nothing better to do, Spring went to bed, closed her eyes and hypothesized theoretical grafts, hoping her random guesses would awaken additional memories.
Her attempts failed, and four hours later, a knock came from her door. “Young Miss, your dinner is ready.”
“Come in,” Spring watched the same five maids bring in her dinner in exactly the same manner they did for lunch, including the redundant chair she had asked for.
Spring barely contained her smile when she saw the dark-red glow of maroon crystals sticking out of the heaters’ bases.
“I will call you once I’m done,” Spring said, stretching lazily in her bed as the maids hurried out.
She jumped the moment the door clicked close. She snatched the maroon crystals, undressed, and went to lie on the bed where she arranged the stones and the coins she got at school on her bare skin.
With a slight exertion of her will, the mana circuits running the entire length of her body drew the mana from the crystals. Even in the worst possible scenario, she estimated she had two maroon coins to spare, yet she drew mana from all of them, unwilling to take the risk of wasting sixty-five coins’ worth of mana to skimp on two.
The initial-red, maroon mana was one quarter useful, three-quarters dregs for a mid stage level one floromancer, like Spring, and the wasted, impure portion dissipated into the air through her breathing. The one quarter which entered her mana circuit was lighter and weaker than the surrounding energy, squished and squeezed until it shrank to one quarter of its size as its deep maroon grew carmine, then vermilion and stabilized as mid-stage mana.
The process lasted two minutes before growing from pleasant warmth into an irritating itch. Spring disregarded her mana circuits’ warnings from the doubled amount of mana coursing through them and kept drawing more.
