Bookbound Bunny

B2 - Chapter 70 - Prizes

"It looks like Lily is summoning her Familiar," Headmaster Fabrelis said, watching the display.

At this point, most of the teachers had departed, especially those who were not yet actively teaching the first-year students. The reason they were here in the first place, other than the snacks, was to see what growing potential they'd see in the future years.

"Why, what possible use could it have?" Instructor Gerrard asked.

"Maybe they are just close?" Professor Melina suggested.

"Even so, there's a time and place..." Gerrard grumbled.

"Maybe she wants advice?" Sylwel suggested.

"Advice from a Familiar?" Gerrard replied, sounding displeased.

Sylwel merely shrugged. "Why not?"

Gerrard opened his mouth to respond when Fabrelis beat him to the punch. "It's a spirit that possesses items if I recall correctly... Perhaps it has some innate understanding of magical objects?"

"Do you have any proof?" Gerrard asked.

"Well, out of everything Lily owns, it chose that book to possess, which happens to be a dungeon artifact," Fabrelis elaborated. "At least that's what the report from Ceedale said. You could probably ask Alice to confirm with the adventurer's guild as well."

"Or you could just watch and see," Sylwel said, as if stating the obvious. "If the book or Lily goes for something rare, that will prove it."

That seemed to settle it, and everyone simply watched curiously. Naturally, the first thing Lily approached was the bags, as anyone in her situation would. This was, after all, the grand prize that was teased to all of them.

"She picked up the bag with the largest space first," Professor Ollie said.

"It could just be luck..." Gerrard refuted, and a few nodded in accord.

Lily inspected the bag and seemed happy with the choice from their perspective. She fastened it to her waist and didn't even give the other bags a glance.

The staff were unsure how to interpret this decision. Either she thought they were all equal and grabbed the first one, which just happened to be the best, or she knew it was and didn't want to waste her time with the others.

"Can the Familiar really identify magical items?" Professor Ollie asked in an almost whisper.

If that was true, then Lily had quite the advantage when she eventually explored the dungeon. She could potentially offer her services to other students, or even professors, as it wasn't exactly a common talent to have or train.

What happened next confused them, as they had expected Lily to leave, but instead she began frantically searching the room. The staff were quite confused by her actions, especially Fabrelis, who noticed she ignored all of the illusory gold and gems in the room.

"What is she doing?" Gerrard asked.

Sylwel snorted. "Searching."

"The rest of the stuff is all junk, though," Professor Elius pointed out. "Unless I'm mistaken?"

Ollie shook his head. "You are correct. The bags are easily the most treasured items in the room. Perhaps she is just curious?"

"Unless you overlooked something," Sylwel replied.

"Unlike a certain mad scientist, I actually do my duties," Ollie said, his face tinged red.

Sylwel shook his head. "But what if it's a hidden function? Maybe the book ghost knows more."

"Now that would be a sight!" Fabrelis exclaimed, trying to bring some positivity and halt the growing negativity.

They continued watching Lily search, even going so far as to use telekinesis to speed up the process. Professor Melina couldn't help but smile as she saw her student truly embracing her art.

Eventually, Lily halted her progress and ran over to the book, which happened to be floating near a vase.

"It looks like the book found something!" Sylwel said excitedly, pointing at the image.

"What does that vase do?" Gerrard asked.

"It can grow flowers in only water," Ollie answered.

"That's rather useful, perhaps Lily wants to grow Fairymoss for more ink..." Sylwel postulated.

"No, it only grows flowers," Ollie replied. "Otherwise it wouldn't have ended up in the pile."

"Well, that's less fun," Sylwel pouted.

They watched Lily stick her hand in the vase and pull out a two-pronged fork. Before anyone could ask what that item was, she threw it away and inserted her hand in the vase again.

Everyone was watching, curious to see what the book had found for her. When she pulled out an unadorned wand, they expected her to throw it away. However, their expectations were dashed as she not only kept it, but returned the bag to the table.

The room almost exploded in disappointment. They couldn't believe what they were seeing and immediately turned to Professor Ollie for an explanation.

With the focus on him, he began to feel pressured as he tried his best to recall what the random item did. "Let's see... Um..."

Ollie was beginning to sweat, as he had recently gone over the donated items to ensure nothing was dangerous, but he could only remember the mildly interesting objects. With his memory failing him, he reached into his pocket and pulled out an itemized list of the items, beginning to try to find the black wand.

Before he got his results, Lily surprised the room by activating it, although it only caused a small pearlescent light at the tip. Seeing that was enough to spark his memory, and he cried out in surprise.

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"Oh, that was a light wand!" he declared.

His answer, however, upset the audience. Why was she taking such a useless item? Nobody had the answer, and then her time was up as she was forced to exit the room.

"I can't believe she's leaving the bag behind for a light wand..." Elius muttered.

"So much for the Familiar knowing items," Fabrelis sighed.

Sylwel scratched his chin in thought. "Or maybe there's more to it?"

It was Gerrard's turn to snort in response. "Give it a rest, Sylwel. Unless Professor Ollie has more to add?"

Ollie slumped, as he had also thought about that, and continued searching for his official evaluation of the wand. The wand was a little better than he initially said, but the results were still not at the level of a storage bag, in his opinion.

"The wand can leave the light it creates behind, and they will linger in the air. You can also change the shape of the lights," Ollie explained.

Even Sylwel sighed in disappointment at that, although he kept a small sliver of hope that the ghost book was right.

***

Lily exited the room holding the wand, and the expression on Alice's face made it look like she was on the verge of exploding.

"Are you sure about that?" Alice asked, her voice a hushed hiss as if she was trying to control herself.

"Yes," Lily said simply, leaving behind the now speechless older rabbit.

A few of the students noticed the strange object in her hand, and it seemed that everyone was wondering why she hadn't taken a storage bag.

"Did they lie to us?" one girl asked in a whisper.

That thought quickly spread to the rest of the students. It sort of made sense; they were expensive, and would they really give them away for free? It sounded like the perfect lie an adult would pull off to give false motivation.

A boy grabbed Lily's arm, forcing her to stop. "Were there no storage bags?" he demanded.

Lily was shocked by the sudden interruption, but she managed to remain calm nonetheless. "There were. I just chose this," she answered.

The boy stared at her in disbelief, his grip loosening and his arm falling slack at his side. Lily's answer seemed to confuse everyone, and some even started to chuckle mockingly.

Lily ignored them. Arakil chose this, and she trusted him. She returned to her friends, who also looked shocked.

"I'll explain later," she said, hoping it would be enough to calm them down.

Plus, I can't explain until Arakil tells me.

"Lotte, you're next!" Alice shouted, her voice piercing through the students' din.

Lotte was about to move when Lily lightly pulled on her sleeve.

"Maroon," Lily whispered.

Lotte looked a little confused, but silently nodded. Lily didn't know if she was breaking the rules or not, but she wanted her friend to get the best prize.

When Lotte entered the room and the door closed behind her, the rest of the group turned on Lily, wanting to get some answers.

"Did you really pick that over a storage bag?" Arthur asked.

Lily nodded. "I wanted a bag, but I felt like I needed this."

Hana adjusted her glasses as she stared at the wand. "Can you tell or show us why?"

"Sorry... I need a bit of practice before I can," Lily replied, half-truthfully.

Perhaps Thomas picked up on her small fib, as his eyes widened. "Were there only a few bags?"

"There were six," Lily answered truthfully.

Thomas frowned, biting his thumb. "Then why...?"

"Did you think she was sacrificing a bag for us?" Arthur asked, perhaps being on a similar wavelength to Thomas.

Thomas nodded.

It was Lily's turn to frown now. "I didn't sacrifice anything. Trust me, when I can, I'll show you that I meant to pick this."

It looked like her friends still didn't believe her, and Lily unfortunately somewhat agreed with them. Even she had to admit that she was hesitant over this choice, but Arakil had never steered her wrong before.

A few moments later, Lotte left the room well before her time was up. In her hands was a bag with a maroon drawstring, causing Lily to reveal a tiny grin.

Lotte, having what appeared to be a storage bag, had the opposite effect of Lily's return, causing excitement to swell among the students who apparently didn't fully believe Lily until they saw the evidence.

Hana was next to almost no one's surprise. In fact, the rest of the class were more confused at how Lotte managed to beat Hana for second as they'd seen how fiercely competitive she was. Unfortunately, Lily didn't have any advice for her as she only knew the best bag.

"Maroon," Lotte said when she reached Lily, lifting the bag a few inches in gesture.

"Maroon," Lily replied, giggling.

Arthur and Thomas looked at the two girls in confusion, but all they got as an answer was the two giggling at their expense.

Hana came back with a bag with a red drawstring that almost matched her pink-rimmed glasses. She also didn't use the full five minutes, although it wasn't as brief as Lotte's.

Arthur was next up and returned with a bag that had a blue drawstring. The group thought Thomas would be next, but to their surprise, another boy was called first. Thomas sighed, muttering to himself about lightning.

Oh no, is this my fault? Lily thought with horror. I forgot to prepare a spell scroll for him!

Another boy was next, causing Lily's guilt to fester. When Alice was about to read the next name, Lily found herself holding her breath in anticipation.

"Thomas, you're next!" Alice yelled.

Lily's growing tension popped, and relief flooded her. Oh, thank goodness!

Thomas nodded and went in, coming out with the last storage bag, although he had a little bit of a scowl on his face when he returned.

"Did you really not sacrifice getting yourself a bag?" Thomas asked Lily, pointing at his bag.

Lily vehemently shook her head. "I didn't. I was going to take one until I found this wand. That's why I took so long!"

"Come on, man, it's just a coincidence," Arthur said, giving a friendly shove on Thomas's shoulder.

"Yeah, unless you're suggesting Lily knew the rankings beforehand?" Lotte asked.

"I had no idea," Lily admitted truthfully. "I'm definitely not a mindreader."

Thomas stared at Lily before ultimately sighing and giving up. "You're right... Sorry for pushing."

"It's okay. I'm still glad you managed to get one," Lily said.

"You're the odd one out now, though," Arthur pointed out.

Lily gave a mischievous smirk in return. "Good thing I got four friends to carry stuff for me then."

The four of them blinked in surprise before bursting out in laughter and agreed to help carry things if she needed it. Lotte and Lily sharing an alchemy class was especially useful, and her having the biggest bag would only add to that benefit.

One by one, the rest of the students had their turn, and now that the bags were gone, the time took much longer. Eventually, Alice offered for the students who'd already received a prize to go grab dinner, since it was getting late.

The majority jumped on that opportunity unless they were waiting for a friend to have their turn. Lily's group went straight to dinner, where they continued chatting and joking about the day they had had.

Finally, when everything was over, Lily was in her room alone with Arakil. She held out the black wand curiously and repeated the process earlier, causing the pearlescent light to form at the tip. Lily swished it, and it left a streak of light behind, much to her surprise.

"Okay, Arakil, I think you owe me an explanation," Lily finally said. "Because frankly I'm dying of jealousy over those bags... Not to mention all that drama with Thomas."

[Don't fret, if we can't find one, then we might be able to gather the materials to craft one ourselves.]

"Really?" Lily replied in disbelief. Arakil had mentioned potentially crafting one some time ago, but she didn't know if it was actually possible. "No, wait, don't try to change the subject. What's the deal with this wand?"

[It's an Aetherborne Glyph Rendering and Channel Regulation Conduit.]

Lily blinked a few times, only catching a few of those words. "A what?"

[Hmm... that was its original name. Perhaps you'd prefer one of the alternatives? Recursive Universal Nomenclature Enactor. RUNE for short.]

Lily continued to stare blankly at Arakil.

[Wand for Aetheric Notation and Diagramming. WAND.]

"Did they really use the word 'wand' just to create an acronym for wand?"

[Unfortunately, yes... Admittedly, I never really understood marketing.]

Lily sighed. "Okay, ignoring all those names. Can you tell me what it does?"

[Ah. That probably would have been the better starting point.]

Lily gave a pained smile. Sometimes Arakil really puts the cart before the horse.

[This wand is a training tool for apprentices learning glyphs.]

Lily stared at the wand, raising an eyebrow. "But I already can draw and use glyphs?"

[Very true. However, can you draw and activate them in the air?]