Feather, The Phoenix

In the forest of brambles and dying trees from behind the dorm, Silver created a decent ball of light as Lotus nodded, "Good, now keep this steady."

She took out her stone again and pulled away her glove before touching the warm stone to her ring, "Feather, come out."

It was then a large gold and red swan with talons appeared before them perching itself on her arm. It strained its neck as they realized that the beak was of a raptorial beak and its head was shaped similarly to a peacock.

"I need you to use the light magic to create a fire for smelting. Can you do that?" She asked as she mentally thought out quietly, "If you play along, I'll make you the honeyed fruit and the spicy meat that you've been missing."

Hearing this, the bird huffed an arrogant breath and shot out a large flame of gold from its jaws. Almost instantly, the ball of light was absorbed from Silver as he stepped back in surprise, "This..."

A Phoenix?!

However, Lotus was not interested in this as she consumed a pill to replenish her strength and returned to work putting on the gloves and pulling a large hammer and anvil from her ring with the stone. She took the metal and tossed it into the flames. As that continued to burn in midair, she took out the carving tools and got to work immediately carving the woods while imbuing it with spiritual powers secretly through her fingertips. As she continued to work on it, hours passed as Lilia and Silver grew a little more worried. However, no matter how much they tried to call out to her, the gold bird stopped them with a glance before returning to sleep next to her feet. By the time it became night, she had finally placed her wood down to inspect it. However, she scowled in dismay and tossed it into the flames and began again, this time a little quicker.

It was midnight by the time she was satisfied with her work that she placed it down and heard Lilia call to her, "You're done?"

She shook her head, "The frame is still not smoothed out or polished. The metal is still not warm enough. It'll take at most five days before I can finish it."

"As for the price," Lilia began.

She shook her head, "I don't require monetary price. In truth, that was the idea, at first. Until I learned my dormmates would be staying in Pomefiore over the next few weeks while construction work is being done in Ramshackle dorm. As that is the case, I wanted to request if I could stay the night at Diasomnia in place of monetary price."

"Why not stay the night at Pomefiore?" Lilia questioned him curiously.

She sighed, "The dorm leader of Pomefiore and I do not get along. It wouldn't take long for us to get into a fight if we stay in the same dorm anyway. Not to mention, the gaudiness and sparkles of their dorm will start to wear down on me first before their routine does. I would like to avoid getting headaches and making the prefect angry again if possible. If anything, I'd rather sleep in a tree if I still have to sleep there in the end."

"I see. I had no idea that the two of you didn't get along this badly." Lilia shook his head, "Then, would you mind if it was the same room?"

She shook her head, "That's fine. As long as I have a place to stay for the nights, then it's good enough. I probably won't be able to go to the cafeteria as much at all during these past five days, though nor do I require to have food these five days. I have a pill that can help me keep my body sustained during this time."

"Is the level of concentration really high during this time?"

She nodded, "By tomorrow, the metal will be heated, then I can start the hammering process to refine the metal and purge of all impurities from it. While that happens, you must keep everyone away from here no matter what. I can't have others interrupt the process even while I'm here. Of course, you can stop by if you want, but, if word gets out that I'm working on metal out here, then it would cause unnecessary attention and distractions."

"I see." Lilia nodded before turning to the bird, "This bird..."

"It's a small part of a phoenix." Lotus explained, "It's from the princess's contract familiar. For this project, I am allowed to utilize its help. Of course, it would want honeyed fruits and spiced meat after in return for its involvement. It would seem that food is the sole reason it agreed to form a contract with her."

"My! A gluttonous Phoenix!" Lilia chuckled.

Hearing this, the bird turned its head and blew a puff of smoke to warn him.

"Best to not make those comments." Lotus wore a small smile, "It can understand our language.

"I see. Apologies." Lilia nodded apologetically before turning back to Lotus, "That ring... It can store objects and living beings?"

Lotus nodded, "This ring has the ability to act as a large luggage. To a cultivator, having one is important and they cannot leave without it. However, this one is special. The only reason I can utilize it is because I have a stone that allows me to use mana. Without the stone, I cannot use it."

"Interesting." Lilia looked to it curiously, "May I see?"

Lotus shook her head with a small smile, "Apologies. However, due to conditions, I cannot take it off."

"This one can influence the health?" Lilia pondered curiously.

Lotus nodded, "This is also a heirloom of the princess's biological family. The only one left. She remodeled its structure to help keep my condition from acting up to a certain extent."

"The cold from last time, then." He noted with a frown.

Lotus let out a bitter chuckle, "So, it seems that you've seen through that... Yes. Because I was meant to become sacrificed, they poison the potential sacrifice and keep the antidote on hand to keep them from running away prior to the hunt. Though I say antidote... There is no antidote. It was a ruse the tribe use to give the sacrifice false hope. That if they survived the hunt and avoid getting eaten, they could return alive till the next hunt. However, there is no survivors. Ever."

"So cruel... How do you know so much about this?" Lilia questioned her curiously seemingly unfazed by this information.

"My biological family is well-known in the tribe as being able to produce the best alchemist. All of the best alchemist in the tribe are a member of the family. Well-known and respected. All are said to be prodigies with the best alchemist abilities. All poison and antidotes used by the mayor of the tribe are produced by the family. So, I would hear of their plans for each year's hunt. Though not respected as a wife or favored by my father, my mother was ill, but she was still a magician. Cultivators don't know magic very well, so they don't dare to cross my mother. However, her illness gave the family an excuse to keep her out of the main house with me in tow. She taught me to eavesdrop on conversations and to plan carefully on how to avoid them before. So, when she first heard about the hunt, she told me that, since there actually isn't a cure, to use this chance to run instead. So, after her death and running into the princess, I used the stone to take the library and escaped." Lotus responded, "If they caught me before the hunt, I'd be thrown into the cellar and I can't make any preparations if that happened. Last I heard from them was that the tribe was still trying to find me, but the princess helped keep them away. As for the family, I heard the elders passed away from a chronic heart disease caused by inbreeding and the elder siblings died from the battle for leadership. After that, I haven't seen any escapist, like me, again. It was too dangerous to stay in contact with them all anyway and some didn't want to contact one another."

"To live a few more years is better than to die on the spot, then." Lilia nodded.

Lotus shook her head, "Some may want to live longer, but there are others who have other values and may choose the path for death. I've seen this with a lot of cultivators, but they have a lot of pride. Having the ability to cultivate, being so powerful, being able to create things that normal person can't do. But, that didn't mean that they're not the only ones with this level of pride. Sometimes, those they push around can also have the same level of pride and the cycle continues from there. I've seen it over and over again at my old place so many times that it makes me nauseous."

With that, she gave a small yawn to which Lilia smiled, "Let's put this conversation to another day. You can use the room from last time. But, does this really takes five whole days?"

Lotus nodded, "This is a magical artifact. With the princess's ability, she should have no problems making one, but it take a few days to make it. The only problem is that we often use rings in our culture as luggage and other effects. This was probably why the princess made the mistake. Because rings usually doesn't have the same meanings as those in western culture. They just don't have such a practice back in our birthplace unless the couple wished for it and it would have to be identical or in pairs. However, I remember that she also travels around often, so I don't understand why she would make that mistake."

Well, it was actually because she forgot about the significance of rings in this culture always leads to that.