“Actually… I’ve been thinking about subspells for a while, and I think I’ve got… Well, five ideas, actually, but only three I’m ready to go with.”

“Already?” Professor Devulchas asked, arching an eyebrow. “I would have thought it would take you longer to commit - especially knowing you’re so limited.”

“I mean, yeah, there’s something to be said for taking my time,” I admitted, “but I think if I do that I’ll just get lost in my own head again and struggle to make any decisions. Heck, I’m pretty sure that’s still going to happen with the fourth slot, but at least I can get the first three done while I’m still feeling certain about it.”

“Very well,” the professor replied. “Then show us what you’ve got - preferably on your core projection, rather than your actual core, this time.”

“Right…” I took a deep breath, steadying myself before studying the core projection. “First off, I need a way to… wait a second. Uh. How do I carve on this thing again?”

The professor rolled her eyes, clearly ready to lambaste me, but Pauline spoke up before she could.

“You just need to draw magic into your fingertip - then just sort of trace what you want onto the model.”

“Right,” I murmured, reaching for the magic that now dwelled inside me - not the stuff in my core, but rather the loose magic that had begun to accumulate within the rest of my body. Drawing a bit of it towards my fingertip, I pressed my finger against the core - and instantly made a mistake, drawing way too big a line. “Shit…”

“It’s alright,” Pauline said. “It can take a while to get used to it.”

“It was a lot easier when I was just drawing in my own mind,” I muttered. Fine motor control had never been my specialty - one of the reasons I’d never gotten into drawing. My handwriting had always been a mess back home, too, resulting in me usually preferring to work with computers over actual pen and paper - though I’d noticed that I had no trouble imitating Amelia’s fancy handwriting, in this body. Apparently the muscle memory didn’t transfer over to core carving, though.

“Wait… Maybe…” I frowned, a moment, before reaching for my magic again - this time, though, I went for the magic in my core, drawing it out through the tentacle glyph I’d created and forming a singular shadowy tentacle, the very tip of which I pressed against the core, drawing with it a new line - a much smaller, smoother one. “There we go…”

“How can that possibly be better?” the professor demanded. “You can’t have had those limbs for more than a day or two, unless I miss my guess!”

I shrugged. “It just is? They’re like… an extension of my mind, almost…” 

“As long as it works, right?” Pauline said, even as Professor Devulchas eyed me critically. After a moment, though, the professor shrugged, and gestured for me to get on with it. 

“Alright,” I murmured, going to work with my tentacle. “The first subspell I want to do is a sponge - it’ll let my tentacles absorb mana from the atmosphere, which should make it easier to keep up. Plus, if I pour extra mana into them, my tentacles will swell up and get all squishy like a sponge!”

“I suppose that would make it a feasible defense option,” Professor Devulchas remarked, eyeing the slightly squiggly rectangle I’d drawn. “Though that’s a rather odd shape for a sponge, isn’t it?”

“I mean… wait. You guys have sponges?”

“Of course,” Professor Devulchas replied, eyeing me like I was an imbecil. “They’re a bit hard to get your hands on, this far from port, but one does what they must for hygienes sake.”

“Right… sea sponges,” I muttered. “Well, uh… this is kind of a synthetic one? Something from where I come from.”

“You seem to come from a rather strange place,” Professor Devulchas remarked, eyeing me. “Exactly what country was it again?”

“America,” I replied, rubbing the back of my head. “I uh… doubt you’ve heard of it. But anyway, it should work, right?”

“I imagine so,” the professor agreed, frowning. She didn’t press on the question, though, which was good enough for me.

“Great! Then the next thing I need is to give my tentacles a bit more substance. The sponginess will let them take a hit, but it’s not great for fighting back… For that, I need something with weight - something heavy, and strong, but still flexible. I was thinking about some sort of plastic, at first, but I wasn’t sure how to represent that… until it hit me, all of a sudden - lead!”

“Lead?” Pauline asked, tilting her head. “I guess it is pretty easy to mold…”

“Yup! Perfect for something flexible like my tentacles,” I declared, puffing up my chest with pride. “Though… uh… more specifically I’m thinking a lead core. Wouldn’t want any of it leaking out and poisoning people, or whatever…”

“Poisoning people?” Pauline asked, her face paling.

“Yeah, lead’s like… really poisonous. Probably won’t affect me, since it’s like shadow tentacles and not actual flesh I’m sticking it in, but better to keep it sealed within the sponge, you know?” To that end, I first wrote ‘Pb,’ before surrounding it with a box, which in turn had tentacles branching off of it. “Lead core… except I remembered something about lead having a low melting point? Which is why I had another idea, to combat fire magic - liquid nitrogen!”

“Liquid… nitrogen?” Pauline asked, clearly confused.

I nodded. “I thought of ice, first, but that’s kinda brittle? Or maybe a thermometer, so I could go with heat and cold, but… I don’t know, it just didn’t feel right? Tentacles of shadow shouldn’t be getting hot in the first place… So, then I started thinking about stuff that’s cold but not solid!”

“Which is how you arrived at this ‘liquid nitrogen’ of yours?” Professor Devulchas asked.

I nodded, already hard at work drawing my next symbol - this time just an ‘N’ in a box, with wavy lines to represent the fact that it wasn’t a solid. “Thankfully I still remember most of the periodic table - they made us learn it in school. There was a whole song - with a video. Honestly, I remember just being glad they didn’t include a dance, because I’m pretty sure I would have screamed if they made me do that.”

“Right…” Professor Devulchas said. “Well, there’s nothing wrong with your ideas, as far as I can tell. Usually I’d suggest trying to trim them down to basic concepts, removing any lines you can in order to save space… but since you’re apparently limited to four subspells per spell regardless of size, I don’t think there’s much harm in going for it. Still, try to keep your marks as small as you can, hmm? Smaller cracks leads to less of a leak and higher pressure when the spells come out.”

“Right!” I confirmed, closing my eyes, and beginning to focus.

“Just don’t mess up again.”

I did not mess up in the end - something that had me wanting to stick my tongue out at the professor, to be honest, as immature as the idea might have been… alas, she had moved on already by the time I had finished, apparently more interested in helping Pauline plan out her core. Not something I intended to interrupt, so I instead focused on experimenting with my subspells as best I could during the remaining class time.

The sponge was easy to figure out - it was meant to be a passive, more or less, and I could tell immediately that it was helping to sustain my tentacles. No longer did they drain me merely by existing - I was pretty sure I could keep them out indefinitely, now.

Though that was only in their default state I soon realized. Pumping mana into the tentacles resulted in them swelling slightly, and turning spongy to the touch, but the effect ran out quickly once I stopped supplying mana and there was no way I could keep it up for long periods without completely running out.

Similarly, focusing on the lead subspell added significant weight to the tentacles in return for a heightened mana cost - more than they could passively absorb through my sponge spell. Cold was more or less the same, the tips of my tentacles turning so chilly that I could even see faint traces of mist around them, in return for a rather rapid drain on my mana. I wondered if it would be possible to reduce the level of cold for a lower cost, but… my mental image of liquid nitrogen didn’t really allow that, did it?

Ah well. At least they worked… though, in truth, I knew that the minor amount of testing I’d done wasn’t enough to prove anything. I needed to actually see what my tentacles could do in battle - preferably against a nonliving target.

To that end, I had plans. Plans that had me itching to leave my seat and rush out of the room. Especially since the professor had seemingly lost interest in me for the moment… Still, I tried to keep myself entertained. Mostly by watching Pauline work - the way she stuck her tongue out and pinched it between her teeth as she adjusted minute lines on her core was rather adorable, really…

…Though… come to think of… “You’re letting me see your core?”

Pauline blinked, looking up at me. As did Professor Devulchas, though her reaction to the interruption was a much harsher look. “I mean… you showed me yours, right? Isn’t it only fair I do the same?”

“Perhaps,” I conceded, “but… I mean… aren’t you afraid I’ll use it against you in some way?”

“Would you?” Pauline asked. “Because honestly, I can’t really see it.”

“Well… No. I wouldn’t. But how do you know that? Aren’t you still concerned I might be Amelia?”

“Not really,” Pauline told me, shaking her head. “I mean, I kinda doubted it from the first time we met… but the more I’ve gotten to know you, the less likely it’s felt… and you wouldn’t be here if the king hadn’t confirmed your identity, right?”

“Well… yes, that’s true,” I admitted, “but… are you really willing to just trust me like that? Even if I’m not the real Amelia, you still don’t know me all that well…”

“Maybe not,” she admitted, “but I think I’d like to? And again, you showed me, so… I guess returning the trust is me making my first step towards that?”

“You… you actually want to get to know me?” I asked, flabbergasted. “You… do realize that’s likely to cause problems between you and Prince Jethroo, don’t you? I don’t think he’ll ever believe I’m not the real Amelia in disguise, at this rate…”

“Maybe,” Pauline replied, sighing. “It’s… he’s pretty traumatized when it comes to her, I think… but Prince Jethroo doesn’t get to decide who I make friends with. And if he doesn’t like it, he can stop being friends with me at any time…”

“You almost make it sound like you’d rather be rid of him,” I said, chuckling faintly.

Pauline didn’t reply.

“You… can’t actually want to be rid of him, can you?”

“I mean… he’s nice to me?” Pauline said. “And he obviously cares a lot… He seems like he has a good heart under it all, too, maybe? Or at least I’d like to think so… but honestly, sometimes I think school would be easier for me without his royal backing… even if it does keep most of the bullies off my back.”

“Except for Amelia, you mean?” I asked, only to immediately regret it as Pauline’s face darkened. “Sorry… didn’t mean to bring up bad memories…”

“No, it’s fine,” Pauline said, giving me what looked to be a slightly strained smile. “It’s just… I sometimes wonder if Amelia would have even bothered with me if it wasn’t for Jethroo…”

“Well… I’m not so sure about that,” I admitted, not quite able to meet her eyes. “I think she had her own reasons for going after you…” Like visions of Pauline bringing about her doom.

“Really?” Pauline asked. “…Is this something from that story you wrote?”

“More or less,” I confirmed. “Which means it might not be that accurate…”

“I’ll say,” Pauline agreed. “I mean, you said it was about romance right? Between me and Prince Jethroo? But-”

It was at that moment that the bell rang, and I all but leapt out of my chair. “Well, great to see you Pauline, but we’ll have to continue this conversation tomorrow!”

“Huh? But I was about to tell you - about me and Prince Jethroo-”

“You can tell me tomorrow!” I said, perhaps a little too hurried. In truth, I didn’t really want to hear about her love life with someone who hated my guts. Besides, the less involved I was in their romance, the less likely I was to be pulled into the mess Amelia had left behind… “Right now, I’m off to The Guild!”

~~~

Author's Notes

I wonder what Pauline wanted to say...? Oh well, I'm sure it'll be revealed eventually! (Seriously, though - those who have been following me for a while know I don't like to do big arcs based on miscommunications. It's just not quite the right time yet.)

I'm going through a Depression Period right now - possibly related to me not being able to take my thyroid meds in a couple days. (I'll be on it tomorrow.) ...Could also legitimately just be unrelated depression, though, I do go through that a lot.

Either way, I'd expect more MOV sooner than later - especially since I'm really eager to release chapter 22 - but I'm also gonna try and aim for some Double Trouble as the next not-MOV thing for anyone keeping track of that.

If you're eager for either, do know that you can join my Patreon and read five chapters ahead on MOV (and two on DT) for as little as $1~!)