lisa woke to the familiar sound of Raven getting ready for her morning run. Even though they weren't at the academy anymore, sothing told lisa that habit wasn't dying anyti soon.
[So habits die hard. Though speaking of things that are hard,] lisa thought, watching Raven's muscles flex as she pulled on her training clothes. [Damn.]
"You know," lisa purred, her crimson eyes raking over Raven's body. She stretched like a cat, deliberately letting her nightshirt ride up. "Aaaah, you could skip the run today. I can think of so other ways to get your cardio in~"
Raven just rolled her eyes, though lisa didn't miss the slight flush on her pale cheeks or the way her gaze lingered on lisa's exposed thigh.
"Unlike so people," Raven said, tying her hair back with practiced efficiency, "I actually maintain a training schedule. So of us can't just fuck our way to magical power."
"Hey! I work hard for my Essence!" lisa pouted. "Do you know how much tongue stamina it takes to-"
Raven cut her off by tossing an envelope onto the bed.
"That ca for you. From the Court Sorceress."
"Ooh, Zephyra's writing love letters now?" lisa wiggled her eyebrows, picking up the envelope.
Obviously, lisa could guess this was business, not pleasure, but still, a girl can dream.
"You should get dressed," Raven said flatly, though her lips twitched. "It's too early to start seducing half the manor."
"Hey! I haven't tried to seduce EVERYONE!" lisa protested, sitting up and letting the blankets pool around her waist. "I wasn't hitting on you at all yet. This is just my natural state."
"Gods have rcy." Raven headed for the door.
With that exasperated note, she was gone, leaving lisa alone with Zephyra's letter.
[... You know, maybe it's not about the spell. Maybe it's just more lectures about 'proper magical theory' and 'not breaking the laws of nature,'] lisa thought, breaking the seal.
Her optimism was crushed imdiately as she read:
"Co to my study imdiately. There have been... developnts."
[Well, that's not ominous at all,] lisa thought, scrambling out of bed. [Though maybe next ti she could be more specific. Like, good developnts? Bad developnts? Ahhhh fuck, who knows?]
She threw on clothes haphazardly, managing to put her shirt on backward twice before getting it right. Her hair was probably a ss, but hey, if Zephyra wanted her to look presentable, she should have scheduled her crisis for a more reasonable hour.
And, with a small sense of foreboding, she made her way to the palace.
---
The palace halls were quiet this early, with only a few servants giving her curious looks as she power-walked to Zephyra's study. So of them whispered as she passed - probably gossiping about the nim who could do magic. Or maybe about her bedhead. Either way, she didn't have ti to care.
[Should have taken more ti to look decent,] she thought, catching her reflection in a window. One of her horns was definitely tangled in her hair, and her clothes looked like she'd gotten dressed in the dark. Which, technically, she had. [But sothing about that note...]
lisa knocked on the study door.
Zephyra yanked the door open imdiately like she'd been waiting right behind it.
The Court Sorceress looked... panicked. Hair disheveled, one nipple fully out as her collar fell down to her abdon and the mage didn't seem to care to cover it back up.
"Get in," she hissed, pulling lisa inside before checking the hallway and closing the door with enough force to make the magical instrunts on her shelves rattle.
[Okay, NOW I'm worried,] lisa thought. She'd never seen Zephyra look this frazzled, not even when she'd explained how she'd "improvised" that Blood Magic spell.
"So, uh, what's the ergency?" lisa asked, her tail curling nervously as she took in the chaos of the usually orderly study. Books and papers were strewn everywhere, like Zephyra had been researching frantically all night. "Did you figure sothing out about the spell?"
"You could say that. The lizard is dead."
"What?"
Zephyra gestured to her desk, where a small, still form lay on a cushion of what looked like expensive silk. The lizard lay perfectly still, his scales dull and lifeless.
"He... expired soti during the night," Zephyra explained dutifully. She stared the animal down, like it might co back at any mont.
"But..." lisa approached the desk slowly. "What happened to him?"
"His condition deteriorated rapidly," Zephyra explained, pacing from side to side. lisa would have been entertained in a different context; this was like watching a scientist trying to figure sothing out. "His Essence beca unstable, his body temperature rose beyond sustainable levels, and then..." She ran a hand through her already ssy hair. "It was like watching him burn from the inside out."
She trailed off, and lisa noticed how carefully the lizard had been arranged, almost like Zephyra had tried to make him comfortable even after it died.
The implications of what her spell had done to the thing hit lisa like a bucket of ice water.
[If this is what's happening to the lizard,] she thought, her stomach dropping, [then the king...]
"How long?" she asked quietly, dreading the answer.
"Between resurrection and death? Approximately thirty-six hours." Zephyra's clinical tone couldn't quite hide her distress. "Though the deterioration accelerated significantly in the final six hours."
"Shit."
"Indeed."
They stared at the tiny corpse in silence. lisa noticed the desk was covered in healing runes - evidence of Zephyra's desperate attempts to save him.
"We need to tell Aria," lisa said finally, breaking the heavy silence.
"Do we?" Zephyra's violet eyes fixed on her, sharp despite her exhaustion. "Consider what that information might do. If word gets out that the king is not only ill but potentially dying within days..."
"But if we don't warn them-"
"Then what?" Zephyra challenged, her voice rising slightly. "What can they do that we aren't already trying to do? Besides cause panic and potentially destabilize the entire kingdom? We're barely holding together after losing the queen - if people think the king is next..."
[She's got a point,] lisa admitted, her tail twisting anxiously. [But still...]
"So we just... wait?" The words tasted bitter in her mouth. "Watch him die like..." She gestured to the lizard, unable to finish.
"No," Zephyra's voice hardened with determination. "We work faster. Find a solution before ti runs out." She paused, glancing at her research notes. "And we pray that human biology is more resilient than reptilian."
lisa's tail wrapped tight around her waist as another thought struck her.
"And if it isn't?"
Zephyra didn't answer. She didn't need to. They both knew what would happen - they had the evidence right in front of them, arranged on silk like a tiny preview of coming tragedy.
---
lisa stumbled out of the palace, her mind racing with thoughts of dead lizards and dying kings.
[Focus, focus! Watch where you're going, you purple disaster!] she chided herself after nearly bulldozing a third servant. The poor guy had jumped out of the way just in ti, his arms full of fresh linens that definitely didn't deserve to end up on the floor because lisa couldn't walk straight.
She needed... sothing. Space? Ti? A drink? All of the above?
[Definitely all of the above.]
Her feet carried her to a small café just off the main street, the kind of place nobles probably wouldn't be caught dead in, despite its proximity to the palace. Perfect.
The café slled of fresh bread and sothing spicy. lisa chose a corner table, hoping to blend into the shadows despite being, you know, purple. A server brought her so tea without being asked, probably sensing her need for sothing soothing.
[If only tea could solve everything,] she thought, watching the steam rise. [Like "oh no, the king might die horribly? Here's so chamomile, that'll fix it!"]
But, suddenly...
"Mind if I join you?"
lisa looked up, startled from her thoughts. A woman stood by her table - striking, with pink-purple hair that reminded her of sunset clouds and piercing athyst eyes that were... uncomfortably familiar.
[Those eyes... they're just like Zephyra's. But... Colder.]
"I recognized you," the woman continued, sliding into the seat across from lisa without waiting for permission. "The nim mage everyone's talking about. I simply had to et you."
"Ah," lisa managed, forcing a smile. "Yeah, that's . Local celebrity and professional scandal, at your service."
The woman laughed, but sothing about it felt... off. Like watching soone perform a play they hadn't quite morized yet.
"You're funny," she said, those unsettling eyes never leaving lisa's face. "I can see why Lady Zephyra speaks of you so... frequently."
Sothing in lisa's gut twisted.
"Oh? You know Zephyra?" lisa asked, trying to keep her tone light despite her growing unease.
"In a manner of speaking." The woman's smile didn't quite reach those familiar eyes. "We share certain... interests."
lisa blinked.
[Okay, this is weird.] She blinked a second ti. [I don't want to make a bad first impression on a friend of Zephyra's, but this is the last thing I need right now.]
"How fascinating," lisa said, already planning her escape route. "Well, it's been lovely chatting, but I should really-"
"So soon?" The woman's smile widened fractionally. "And here I was hoping to see more of you. Perhaps... much more."
Any other day, that kind of line would have had lisa's nim instincts purring with interest.
But right now? It just made her want to run faster for so reason.
[Man, I don't know what it is, but this lady just does not pass the vibe test.]
"Another ti, maybe," lisa said, standing perhaps a bit too quickly. "Lots of magical theory to study, spells to practice, you know how it is!"
The woman's eyes followed her movents with an intensity that made lisa's skin crawl.
"Oh, I do know," she said softly. "Better than you might think."
lisa practically power-walked out of the café, her tea forgotten and cooling on the table. She could feel those athyst eyes boring into her back the whole way.
[Well,] she thought, her heart hamring as she rged into the crowded street, [that's going to feature in tonight's nightmares!]
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