Standing on the table, I’m preparing to hide myself with magic, with Garen and Talia standing at a safe distance, watching.In order to better focus on a new spell, I first cut the link to my current one.Then, as the shimmer in front of me vanishes, I focus on what I desire, which is to be unseen by anything around.The magic rushes from my wings and floats up from all across my body as usual, yet this time it forms into three separate orbs of various sizes, one each of sunlight, wind, and water.

  Wait!How am I supposed to hold three of them!?While I never physically carry the essence when preparing my magic, it usually stays floating between my hands as long as I wish it to.Yet now with three spheres, I can feel a slight strain in my wings as well as an odd tension that originates from inside of my head and runs down through my body and into my arms and legs.Since the feeling seems to be directly reted to these orbs, it’s almost certainly the magical link that loosely binds them to myself.The essences themselves feel as if they’re vibrating and bouncing in an attempt to get away from each other, and with every movement, I can feel a gentle tug as if they’re lightly pulling on me.However, keeping all three of these still is as difficult as holding onto moss-covered stones; in other words, they constantly attempt to escape my grasp.Desperately, I give it my all to hold the mental reins that apparently stabilize them, but I don’t know what I’m doing!This was never required of me before, and it’s taking all I have to hold the energy in pce!

  No, they’re slipping!I can’t release them yet, the magic isn’t near ready!

  “Aaah!”

  The ball of golden light begins falling, and I desperately attempt to grab it with my right hand, but it simply bounces off of it.This has the further effect of causing the water orb to leap away as well!No!I don’t know what to do, I can’t catch them!Completely at a loss, I can only watch as the golden one sinks into the table below me, which promptly causes the entire surface to begin glowing with light.

  A few moments pass, and when nothing more drastic occurs, I begin to rex.Phew!I was worried for nothing.Then I gnce down at my hands where the cyan sphere is still floating.Oh, right, there should be another orb!Where did the water one go!?

  “Miep. Ak’ri?”

  Looking up, I find Nibi holding the glowing blue essence that I lost.Quickly absorbing the wind sphere that remained, I then proceed to retrieve the watery light from her.

  “Thank you, Nibi. I’m incredibly gd you caught this for me.”

  “Miep!”

  Garen then speaks from the far side of the room.

  “I gather that wasn’t supposed to happen?”

  “No, I intended to become invisible, not make the table glow!”

  I try my best to shout, but I don’t think my tiny voice reached him.

  “Sis, are you okay?”

  “Yes!”

  Talia probably didn’t hear that either, but begins approaching hesitantly.At least the golden light has faded from the table.It now only appears to be incredibly shiny, as if someone applied an expensive polish to its surface.Mum shouldn’t mind that I enhanced its appearance, again, right?Though we may need to think of an excuse for any visitors who ask how we could afford this gleaming piece of furniture.

  “I would say causing yourself and the table to glow is the opposite of being able to vanish.”

  “Yeah, sure, Garen, I realize that! But me glowing simply happens on its own, and when I attempted to disappear…I lost control of the magic. Apparently, that spell requires me to use several different energies at once, and I already have a hard time merely handling one. It would seem that becoming invisible is too difficult for me at the moment, too complex. Without travelling to a more suitable location for practice, I don’t believe I should attempt that again.”

  “Too complex and yet you did it on accident before?”

  “As I’ve been telling you, I don’t actually know how my magic works, and sometimes, it even seems to have a mind of its own. I don’t understand why, or how, but there’s been multiple occasions where I’ve noticed it doing things seemingly by itself. And it’s becoming more frequent!”

  Recently, whenever I try to dodge out of the path of something, I’ve noticed that my wings will emit an extra gust of wind that has nothing to do with me fpping them. This occurs without me even thinking about doing it. Luckily, my magic has never done something entirely against my will. Yet.

  “Have you tried simply saying what you want, Sis?”

  As if that would work.It’s impossible for it to be so easy.Isn’t it?

  “Make me invisible!”

  …

  “Hide me!”

  …

  “Disappear!”

  Did it do anything?

  “Hihihi”

  Judging by my sister’s giggling, it didn’t.

  “Could you please take this seriously, Talia!? Being dependent on magic for nearly everything from now on makes this rather important to me! I have to learn how to use it!”

  While clearly struggling to contain her mirth, she replies.

  “Sorry. But it was worth trying, wasn’t it? You said it yourself that you don’t entirely understand how it works.”

  “…I suppose.”

  Honestly, I shouldn’t have gotten upset at her, but having only one thing my new self is supposed to be good at and then being unable to do even that properly is quite frustrating.At least now when my temper gets the best of me, it may not always be readily apparent to others, as I’m constantly forced to yell anyways.A bit of a silver lining, I suppose.

  Garen breaks the short silence.

  “Ahem. Perhaps you should return to your usual method and attempt something simpler? Can you create any type of weapon?”

  “Yeah, sure, I’m able to make and propel a sharp icicle if absolutely necessary. There are certainly other forms I could try, but copying Nibi’s idea seemed to be the obvious first choice to begin with, as I can see how it should look.”

  “An icicle? That doesn’t sound very imposing to me. May I see?”

  “Um, I know that I said you could watch me use magic, but do you mind if Nibi shows you? Since we’re inside the house, I’m afraid I’ll damage something I don’t intend to, and I, sadly, trust the fairy child to be able to control her magic better than I can.”

  Considering I’ve only created ice once, and I missed!

  “I doubt a little ice will do much harm, but if that’s what you want, then I don’t mind. What should be the target? The iron pot over your firepce?”

  “No! We’re not using magic on Mum’s only iron pot! She’d kill me if it broke!”

  “An icicle would do little more than scratch it, but it is your pot. What would you suggest then?”

  Talia comes up with an answer first.

  “We could bring in a log from our woodpile if you’ll help me. We have one that hasn’t been split yet, and it won’t be a problem if it’s damaged.”

  Since the woodpile is directly beside the house, it isn’t long till they set a rge piece of wood on the floor near where they were standing previously, on the far side of the room.This was cut from a tree trunk and, typically, would need to be split several times before being burnt in our firepce.It should do nicely for a target.Once Garen and Talia move beside the table where I’m still standing, it’s time to see if Nibi will cooperate.

  “Nibi, could you use your ice and attempt to put a hole in that log? I want to see how strong your icicles are.”

  “Yes!”

  “But don’t hit anything else! Especially, not either of them!”

  “Yah, sur.”

  So I take a few steps back and wait for her to be ready.Then I hear Garen mutter.

  “Did she just say..?”

  *Sigh*I was hoping he wouldn’t notice.

  “Yes, Garen, she did.”

  Also, no, I don’t intend to talk about it.

  “Awww. How cute!”

  And I’m simply going to keep my mouth shut and not fall for Talia’s bait.Thankfully, Nibi draws their attention away from me.

  Instead of forming her ice near instantly, she instead opted to use a simir method as to what I’ve been doing.Currently, she’s holding a rge, blue sphere of light and appears to be making many slight adjustments to it.A short time passes before she seems to finally be content and gently releases it.

  The ball of light begins fading, but as it does, water collects in its pce, once again seeming to partly flow directly out of its surroundings in some unknown way rather than all of it forming from the essence itself.After a moment, the water shapes into a pointed spear roughly three times rger around than I am, which then immediately freezes solid, forming a shiny icicle with several knife-like fins running along its length.As it begins to spin, Nibi turns around, looks at me, and raises her hand near her head.*Snap*

  With a snap of her fingers, the icicle shoots towards the log.In an instant, the ice strikes it, causing a loud cracking sound, and a rge hole appears where the ice pierced into it.No, where it pierced through it!On the far side of the wood, the spear halts directly before the wall, spins around, and again speeds towards the now wobbling log.With the sound of splintering wood, another hole bursts open, scattering slivers all over the floor, and what’s left of the icicle soars towards Nibi.Although its sharp fins are now missing, the core of the ice is still intact, yet once the ice comes near to her, it instantly melts, and I feel her pull in the remaining essence.Behind her, the wood falls to either side of where it stood, now split into two sections with rge gaps where the ice cut through.And as it falls, Nibi slowly flutters upward on her deep blue wings with one of her fists held up, doing a victory pose.

  “Miep!”

  Unfortunately for her, I’m too stunned to appuse.While I knew that her magic might be able to accomplish something of this degree, it was entirely different seeing it actually occur.Yeah, sure, when I was human, I could have eventually split that log, but it would have taken me quite a few blows with an axe.Honestly, I was expecting the ice to sink into the log and wedge itself in pce or create a hole and then shatter.Not effortlessly plunge entirely through it!Twice!The icicle was even still intact enough to return! Just what else could she drive that spear through!?Wait…How simir to this one was the ice she flung at Garen?Um, on second thought, perhaps it’s best if I don’t dwell on that.

  After closing my mouth that had opened at some point, I turn around to find Talia and Garen also staring openmouthed at the split log.Maybe this will dissuade Garen from doing anything stupid to fairies in the near future.

  “That was a single use of magic from a lone, young fairy. Would you still like to antagonize hundreds of them, Garen?”

  “Uh, um, no, probably not. But wouldn’t it be dangerous for you to go back there as well? What if they use magic against you?”

  “After I became as I am now, the fairies didn’t seem to want to cause me harm. They loved ughing at me at my expense, but didn’t attack me. Besides, even if they do use magic on me, it won’t hurt me, at least I don’t think it will. Becoming a fairy does come with at least one perk. I’ve already been struck with a few icicles, and each time, they simply turn to harmless water. Speaking of which, I need to test the extent of that ability, so if you wish to continue watching, you could simply see for yourself.”

  “Very well, I think I will.”