"Good to see ya again, Helena!" Talia said, waving to me as Luna and I came over.

  I sighed and collapsed into the chair next to Talia and Milana. We had spent the rest of the day shopping and walking up and down the sloped streets of Ironcastle. Building a city into the side of a mountain seems cool on paper but less cool when you're running around town looking for shops to spend money in. All day was a series of walks up and down hills, and my calves were killing me. This was the most sore I've felt since the last time I almost died.

  "Someone's feeling dramatic. Long day?" Milana asked with a grin.

  Luna giggled and sat down next to me. I wasn't sure how she had fared so much better than I had. She had definitely been winded a few times going up and down the hills and stairs, but she didn't look as bothered by it afterward as I was.

  I shook my head. "My legs are killing me. This city has way too many stairs."

  Talia laughed out loud. "You sound just like Milana! She's been complaining non-stop since we got here."

  Milana frowned. "Hey! You didn't need to ruin the image I was going for!"

  "Ignore her. She likes to play up the whole mysterious and unflappable mage thing. She's just as whiny as everyone else. Don't let her fool you," Talia said with a smirk.

  Luna grabbed my hand. ("I'll massage your legs for you when we go back to our room tonight.")

  I kissed her cheek. "Thanks, Luna."

  "Hey! Don't start flirting now. You'll make me jealous," Talia said with a chuckle. "Why are we meeting here anyway, sis?"

  "I wanted their help testing something. I think Luna's input will help a lot. Are you ready to head outside? We should do this in the courtyard where there are fewer people around," Milana said.

  I groaned. "But I just sat down..."

  The two snow leopardkin snickered as Luna helped me to my feet, and the four of us left the bar. Between and behind the inn and the bar was a large empty courtyard filled with stone benches and tables. The area looked like overflow seating for the bar and a place outside for people staying at the inn to hang out. Since it was winter and pretty cold out still, no one was spending any time out here, especially since it was already dusk.

  "Alright, what are we doing?" Talia asked.

  I pulled the copper box with the lightning shard out of my ring's storage and placed it on one of the stone tables. "Experimenting with these, I guess."

  Talia perked up. "The lightning shard thing you were talking about, Milana?"

  Milana nodded. "I think Luna will be able to help us experiment."

  "How much have you already experimented with the one I gave you?" I asked.

  "A bit, we quickly figured out that Talia's mana is indeed compatible with the lightning shard. Talia hasn't manipulated mana before though, so it's been a bit of a challenge doing anything practical with it," Milana replied.

  "The most I've been able to do is send sparks back and forth between my fingers. It's cool, but not much help."

  Luna tilted her head. ("Ask them what they've tried so far.")

  "What kinds of experiments have you already done?" I asked for Luna.

  Talia started rifling through her bag. "Not much. We haven't had any luck since my sister can't use the same kind of mana I can. But I made this!"

  She pulled out some kind of glove with the lightning shard embedded into it. Since she only had one of the beads, it wasn't crackling the same way it did when there were a bunch of them, but it was still faintly glowing with yellow light.

  "What is it?" I asked.

  "I took one of my old leather shooting gloves and embedded the lightning shard in it," Talia said while pointing to the shard.

  "Okay, I can see that, but why?" I asked.

  Talia looked to Milana, who chuckled. "The idea is that Talia could transfer the lightning magic to her arrows before loosing them. It would increase the power of her shots and give her other options for fighting enemies that need to be fought with magic."

  "Like the ghosts in the Ironcastle dungeon," I said.

  "Exactly," Milana said with a nod.

  ("Ask them what they need from us,") Luna said.

  "Luna wants to know what you need from us."

  Talia scratched the back of her head. "Well... I'd like to know if this will even work before I bother learning to manipulate mana. If Luna can charge an arrow using this glove, it would let us know if this is even a viable strategy."

  I turned to Luna. "What do you think?"

  ("I'd like to try. I don't have a bow though,") Luna answered.

  "She said she'll help, but she needs to borrow a bow," I told them.

  "Sure, there's not much to shoot at here though. How about that wooden post?" Talia pointed at a thick wooden fence and slung the bow off her back.

  "The arrow won't go through that, will it?" I asked.

  Talia shook her head, "I have some blunt-tipped arrows we can use. It might leave a mark, but the post should be fine. Will Luna be able to draw my bow?"

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  I turned to Luna and she nodded. ("I should be fine. I did some archery when I was younger.") Luna slipped on the slightly large glove with the lightning shard in it before taking the bow and one of the blunt-tipped arrows. ("I guess I'll push my mana through the shard and into the arrow. I'll focus the mana on the arrowhead. Ready?")

  "Ready?" I asked everyone. Once Luna saw everyone nod, she started.

  Luna pulled back the bow and we watched as the stone began to glow. After a moment, the arrowhead started to crackle with electricity, and she loosed the arrow.

  A loud bang echoed against the walls as the arrow completely blew up the fence. A hole the size of a person was now in the middle of the fence, and the entire thing had caught fire. Luna's mouth was open in shock, and Milana rushed around quickly putting out the spreading fire with her water magic.

  Talia cheered. "Woo! Now that's what I'm talking about! It looks WAY more effective than we thought, sis!"

  The once-empty courtyard was suddenly filled with people as everyone nearby came to see what had happened. Luna quickly pushed the bow back into Talia's hands as others came with buckets to help put out the fire. Once Luna's shock passed, she also began to help douse the fire she started with her water magic.

  Aria came up to us in her casual clothes. They looked hastily thrown on. "Helena? What happened?"

  I decided to explain what happened using the rings, just in case. ("Luna was testing a glove Talia and Milana made to harness the lightning shard I gave her. It blew up that fence.")

  Aria whistled. ("It was that powerful? Woah. I should see if I can use them too.")

  ("It takes direct mana manipulation using the lightning shard. Is that something you can do?") I asked.

  ("I can manipulate mana a little bit. I don't know if I can use lightning affinity magic though,") Aria said.

  I shrugged. ("I'll give you one of the lightning shards if you can use it. It looks like it would be really helpful.")

  ("It might be worth testing me for mana affinity too. I'll get a pretty big boost in power if I can do something like this. I never thought I had the capacity to be a mage, but if it's just increasing the strength of my arrows, being able to do it even a couple of times could help a lot,") Aria said.

  "Hold on, I need to go help Luna out. People are talking to her and I need to speak for her," I said out loud.

  "Knock yourself out. I'm going back to my room," she said after me.

  ("Your room with Maxwell. Have fun tonight!") I whispered to her with the rings.

  "Who's going to pay for my fence!" The angry bar owner yelled while I approached.

  Luna shrunk back, completely unable to defend herself. I stepped between the two and pulled Luna behind me. "Hey, calm down. We can pay for your fence. How much to make this even?"

  The human man visibly cooled down now that I was telling him what he wanted to hear. He looked me up and down before grimacing. "I want a tiger for it. You lit the courtyard on fire and made my bar a spectacle."

  ("A whole tiger! For a fence? That's outrageous!") Luna cried out through through the rings.

  "A tiger? Isn't that a bit much for this?" I tried to reason with him.

  The man scowled. "You blew up my fence! Besides, you look like delvers. Why else would you be wildly shooting magic in the middle of town? You'll pay a tiger, or I'll go ask a soldier what they think about you testing out your weapons behind my bar!"

  Milana worriedly ran over. "I'll pay for it, Helena! It was our idea in the first place, you were just helping us. It'll hurt a little, but we have the money for it. We have plenty of opportunities to make it back in the dungeon."

  The bar owner now seemed positively happy with the turn of events. He smiled wide once the snow leopard-kin placed the gold coin in his hand. "Well... I suppose this will make up for the fence. I don't know what you did to make a hole that large, but no more target practice in the courtyard! I almost died of fright when I heard that thunderclap."

  "Of course, sir! I apologize again. Thank you for not bringing the soldiers into this. We'll refrain from testing out any more magic in the courtyard," Milana said.

  Talia came over looking sheepish. "I didn't think that would work so well. It looks like we'll have to test things out in the dungeon after all..."

  Luna's ears went back. ("Aww, I was hoping to experiment with the lightning shards too... No way we can do that here now...")

  I patted her on the shoulder. "We'll get plenty of opportunity to test things out soon. We're headed into the dungeon tomorrow."

  Milana turned to us when she heard my reply. "You two are headed into the dungeon already? I thought you would take it easy for a while."

  "We probably aren't going very deep. We're going to help Iris with her first few monster kills to help her get stronger," I told them.

  Luna slipped the lightning glove off her hand and handed it back to Talia. ("Tell them there's no hard feelings. I was happy to test out the glove. Things like this have always excited me.")

  I relayed her message and smiled while adding my own comment, "Looks like your glove idea was a success. It'll be worth teaching Talia how to use mana manipulation after all."

  "Thank you for the help. I hadn't expected things to become so exciting, but at least we were able to confirm that the glove works without actually hurting anyone," Milana said.

  ("Tell her I'd like to do something like this again. It was fun!") Luna said while giggling.

  I rolled my eyes. "Luna wants you to know that she'd be excited to help again. I would too for the record. Messing around with magic is super interesting. I'd probably be angrier if I had been on the hook for the fence though..."

  Milana winced. "Yeah, paying that much for a fence hurt, but I do not want to get the town's army involved with our little 'test.' There is no way that would go well."

  I opened the little box of lightning shards and peeked at them. They were still snapping and crackling in the box. It was pretty amazing one of these tiny beads was able to create such a massive disturbance. I locked the lid shut and put it back into my storage ring.

  "I had hoped to talk more about magic tonight, but I think that won't really be possible anymore," Milana said with a sigh.

  ("Tell her that I am planning on experimenting with lightning magic in the dungeon tomorrow. We could spend time together and talk about it in the evening if she's interested.")

  I relayed the message. Milana smiled and looked a little excited. "That sounds great! I'd love to hear all about it. Maybe something will be applicable to my sister as well." She looked around, but it looked like Talia had slipped away. "I think that's my cue to leave as well. Sorry about everything!" Milana waved as she headed back into the bar.

  "I'm tired. Let's go to our room and cuddle," I said with a sigh.

  Luna intertwined her fingers with mine. ("I did promise you a leg rub...")

  I smiled. "I look forward to it. It's been a long day."

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