Chương 15: Chapter 14: A Useful Kind of Trust

Ruby was already in the third-year alchemy laboratory when Elizabeth arrived. She stood over a ceramic crucible with her sleeves rolled past her elbows and her red hair tied into a loose braid. A dark smear crossed one cheek, and several thin strips of copper lay scattered across the bench.

"You actually came," Ruby said. Elizabeth stopped beside the workstation.

"You told me to be here at six."

"People say many things after being caught trespassing. Most of them are intended to end the conversation."

"I wasn't trying to end it." Ruby looked at her more carefully, as though deciding whether that was a joke. Elizabeth placed her books on the bench.

"I've spent most of today thinking about what I read last night. I tried to focus during lessons, but Professor Aster was discussing the third Aurelian succession dispute, and I couldn't stop thinking about termination structures."

"That sounds unhealthy."

"It was an unusually dull succession dispute." Ruby laughed and pushed a pair of protective spectacles towards her. Elizabeth put them on.

"What happened to your face?" Ruby wiped at the dark mark with one sleeve, only spreading it farther.

"Silver-carbon suspension."

"Is it dangerous?"

"Not in that quantity."

"That wasn't what I asked."

"It's the answer I've been giving the laboratory supervisor." Elizabeth glanced at the open containers. The most volatile materials appeared to be sealed, though she still stepped slightly farther from the crucible. Ruby noticed. Ruby smiled.

"You're less quiet than you were last night."

"I was deciding whether you intended to report me."

"And now?"

"I don't think you do." It was not complete trust. Elizabeth had reviewed every part of their conversation several times and still could not rule out the possibility that Ruby had informed a professor after leaving. But Ruby had arrived alone. No librarian waited outside the laboratory, and no member of staff had questioned Elizabeth that day. For now, Ruby's curiosity appeared stronger than her respect for academy rules. Elizabeth could use that. Ruby reached beneath the bench and produced three books.

"I found these for you. They're not restricted, but first years can't normally borrow them without an upper-year student signing them out." Elizabeth took the first volume. Practical Models of Mana Conversion. The other two covered low-complexity skill structures and failures in magical feedback control. She opened the first book immediately. Ruby placed a hand over the page.

"You could at least pretend to be grateful." Elizabeth looked up.

"I am grateful."

"You looked at the books before you looked at me."

"The books were the part I hadn't seen before." Ruby stared at her, then laughed again.

"That may be the worst thank-you I've ever received." Elizabeth closed the book.

"Thank you," she said, making herself slow down.

"I mean it. Professor Lorne told me to wait, and Instructor Hale gave me a reading list I'd already finished. You're the first person here who's actually helped me find something useful." The humour left Ruby's expression.

"They told you to wait?"

"Yes. They think I lack the necessary foundation."

"They're probably right." Elizabeth's fingers tightened around the book. Ruby raised both hands.

"I said probably."

"I know I don't understand enough yet. That's why I'm trying to learn. They keep acting as if the solution to ignorance is to prevent me from reading anything capable of correcting it."

"That does sound like Professor Lorne."

"My class progresses through research. Waiting doesn't merely irritate me. It prevents me from advancing."

"How much?"

"I don't know." That uncertainty bothered Elizabeth more than she allowed her voice to show.

"My class has no established development route," she continued.

"There are no records telling me what I should study or what will qualify as meaningful progress. The System gave me tools, but the first-year books don't contain enough information to use them properly. I've spent days repeating measurements with a depleted crystal because it's one of the few magical materials I can access without permission." Ruby's gaze moved towards Elizabeth's bag.

"You carry it with you?"

"Not during combat lessons."

"That wasn't a no." Elizabeth smiled slightly. Ruby appeared pleased by the response.

"There's food in the bag," Ruby said, nodding towards the end of the table.

"I assumed you would forget to eat."

"I ate dinner."

"You left early." Elizabeth looked at her.

"I asked a North House student when first-year dinner ended," Ruby said quickly.

"I wasn't following you."

"You asked strangers about my schedule."

"When you say it like that, it sounds worse."

"How else would I say it?" Ruby opened the paper bag and removed a sugared pastry.

"You could say I was being thoughtful." Elizabeth understood what Ruby wanted from the exchange. She selected one of the smaller pastries.

"That was thoughtful." Ruby smiled. The reaction was easy to produce. A minor concession, an expression of gratitude and the suggestion of shared humour were enough to make Ruby visibly more comfortable. Elizabeth did not feel the attachment Ruby appeared to be building. She did, however, feel relief. Ruby possessed advanced knowledge, laboratory access and a willingness to ignore rules when they interfered with research. Losing her cooperation would be inconvenient. Preserving it was worth the effort.

"Did you finish the book?" Ruby asked.

"Not all of it. I reached the author's early reconstruction of Light before you found me." Ruby hesitated.

"I could take you back tonight." Elizabeth looked at her.

"Not through the maintenance channel," Ruby added.

"You can enter beside me using the third-year reading room. The librarian rarely checks who is with an authorised student unless they try to remove a book."

"Why would you do that?" Ruby shrugged, but the movement was too deliberate to be casual.

"Because I know what it's like to be told to wait for information you're capable of understanding. And because watching you argue with the restricted catalogue is more interesting than my current metallurgy project."

"You barely know me." Ruby placed one hand over her chest.

"You really know how to make someone feel valued." Elizabeth considered correcting herself. Instead, she said, "I also thought you would keep your word." Ruby's expression softened. That answer was true. Not because Elizabeth believed Ruby was inherently honest, but because Ruby had attached her own self-image to being the older student who understood Elizabeth's frustration. Reporting her now would contradict the role she had chosen. It was a limited form of trust.

Still, it was more than Elizabeth placed in most people. They returned to the restricted section shortly after eleven. With Ruby beside her, entering was almost disappointingly simple. Ruby pressed her badge to the silver plate, exchanged a few words with the librarian and complained loudly about having to supervise an overenthusiastic first year. The librarian barely looked at Elizabeth. They remained for two hours.

Elizabeth finished On the Artificial Reconstruction of Lesser Skills while Ruby worked through a book on mana-treated alloys at the opposite side of the table. The final chapters described the author's repeated failures in greater detail. His first attempts at Light had produced heat without visible illumination. Later versions created brief flashes but lacked a stable boundary. One experiment had succeeded in generating light while continuing to drain mana after the effect disappeared.

Only after separating activation, conversion, containment and termination into distinct stages had the author produced a reliable result. Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon. The complete reconstruction remained inferior to the System-granted skill. It consumed more mana, required conscious concentration and generated unwanted heat. The author had eventually registered it only after thousands of repetitions. Elizabeth's class might shorten that process.

Mechanistic Replication did not appear capable of providing knowledge from nothing. It needed observations and a workable model. But if she successfully recreated a mechanism, the System could potentially preserve it without requiring years of repetition. By the time they left, Elizabeth had chosen Light as her first target. The following evening, she returned to Ruby's laboratory. Ruby closed the door behind her.

"Before we begin, I need you to tell me what you're planning."

"To observe Light repeatedly under controlled variations."

"And after that?"

"To attempt a partial reconstruction." Ruby's expression tightened.

"You left that part out yesterday."

"I didn't know whether the book would contain enough information."

"And now you think it does?"

"I think it contains enough to begin with."

"That isn't the same thing."

"No." Elizabeth stepped closer to the bench.

"But I can't learn the missing stages by reading forever. The author couldn't either. At some point, I need to compare the model against an actual attempt."

"You're eleven."

"My age doesn't change the mechanism."

"It changes how much damage your body can tolerate." Elizabeth looked down at her hands. Ruby was not wrong. Her Spirit had only recently increased to four. Her mana channels were newly awakened, and even ordinary controlled exercises sometimes left pressure behind her eyes. But waiting would not make the uncertainty disappear.

"I need to know whether this works," Elizabeth said. The words came out more urgently than she intended. Ruby's expression changed. Elizabeth lowered her voice.

"I can't do that. I can't simply accept that something works and stop there. If this class can help me understand it, I need to use it. Even if the first result is weak. Even if it fails. I need information that belongs to me rather than conclusions someone else has decided are safe enough for a child." Ruby remained quiet. Elizabeth met her eyes.

"I'm asking you because I trust you more than I trust the professors who refused to explain anything. I know that isn't the same as knowing you for years, but you understand why I'm doing this. Please help me do it properly instead of forcing me to attempt it alone." Manipulative, but true. Elizabeth would attempt the reconstruction regardless. Ruby's presence reduced the danger, and Ruby was the first person at Crownspire who had treated her curiosity as something other than a problem to restrain.

Ruby exhaled slowly.

"You make it very difficult to say no."

"Is that a yes?"

"It is a heavily supervised yes." Relief moved through Elizabeth with surprising force. She smiled, not because she had calculated that Ruby wanted one, but because the experiment could finally begin. Ruby noticed the difference.

"There," she said.

"You can look like a normal person."

"I usually look normal."

"You usually look as if you're considering dissecting the conversation." Elizabeth did not answer. Ruby's smile faltered.

"That was a joke."

"I know."

"That response did not help." They cleared the central bench. Ruby activated Light twenty times while Elizabeth observed through Mana Sensitivity. The skill appeared as a white sphere above Ruby's palm, surrounded by faint gold mana. Elizabeth changed her position between trials, examining the structure from above, below and from either side. She asked Ruby to vary brightness, distance and duration. When Ruby moved the sphere away from her hand, a narrow strand of mana remained connected to her wrist.

Increased brightness raised the rate of mana flow without changing the outer boundary. Rapid termination caused unused mana to return towards Ruby rather than disperse into the air. Elizabeth explained each observation aloud. Speaking forced her to separate what she had actually seen from what she was assuming, while Ruby challenged conclusions that lacked evidence.

"You keep calling that a boundary," Ruby said after the twenty-first activation.

"How do you know it isn't part of the conversion structure?"

"I don't. I'm naming it by its apparent function. The light destabilises where the outer pattern thins, so either it contains the effect or the conversion requires a complete closed structure."

"Those are different."

"I know. I need to reproduce the outer structure without initiating conversion." Ruby rubbed her forehead.

"That sentence is going to shorten my life." Elizabeth held out her hand.

"Not yet."

"Ruby—""You said you trusted me to help you do this properly." Elizabeth closed her mouth. Ruby was using her own argument against her. Annoying, but effective.

"Explain the termination stage first," Ruby said. Elizabeth did. She described how the reconstructed structure would collapse outward rather than inward, allowing remaining mana to disperse away from her channels. She explained the point at which Ruby should use Clean to disrupt residue and how the prepared interruption crystal could sever an uncontrolled draw. Ruby asked questions until Elizabeth began repeating herself. Finally, she stepped back.

"One attempt." Elizabeth formed the intention. Mana moved from her chest into her shoulder and down her arm. It was far less obedient than Ruby's had appeared. The flow spread through neighbouring channels, creating pressure beneath the skin. Elizabeth narrowed it. A faint distortion formed above her palm, bent out of shape and collapsed. She let out a breath she had not realised she was holding. Ruby leaned closer.

"Are you hurt?"

"No. The structure failed."

"That wasn't what I asked."

"My arm aches. It isn't severe." Ruby took her wrist and examined it. Elizabeth allowed the contact.

"Stop if it becomes worse."

"I will." Elizabeth reviewed the failure through Mechanistic Replication. The boundary had formed too quickly, producing uneven mana density. Her chosen anchor had also shifted as her fingers tensed. She explained both problems to Ruby. The second attempt held for nearly half a second. The third produced a stable distortion without light. Mechanistic Replication responded. Partial external structure reproduced. Mana pathway confirmed. Termination condition confirmed. Elizabeth laughed.

The sound surprised both of them. Ruby stared.

"Was that a good notification?"

"Very." Elizabeth turned the System result towards her own attention, rereading it even though the words had not changed.

"It recognised the structure. The pathway and termination are correct." Ruby smiled despite herself.

"You look happier about a translucent bubble than most people look after gaining a combat skill."

"It means the model works."

"It means part of the model works."

"That's still more than I knew ten seconds ago." Ruby's caution could not suppress Elizabeth's excitement now. She explained the conversion model at length, tracing the expected mana flow with one finger above the bench. The restricted book proposed compressing mana through a repeating internal lattice, but Elizabeth suspected the exact geometry mattered less than producing a stable region in which mana could be converted into visible energy. Ruby listened, asking enough questions to expose several assumptions.

On the sixth attempt, Elizabeth formed the boundary and allowed a small amount of mana into its centre. Nothing happened. On the seventh, the structure heated the air. On the eighth, a blue-white point flashed into existence and vanished so quickly that Ruby questioned whether she had seen it. Elizabeth had. So had the System. The ninth attempt produced light. It was dimmer than a candle and flickered above Elizabeth's palm, surrounded by an uneven shell of pale mana.

Her forearm burned with internal pressure, but the structure remained intact. For one second, Elizabeth could only stare at it. She had taken a System-granted effect, separated it into theoretical stages and rebuilt enough of them to create a working result. Not perfectly. Not efficiently. But deliberately. She terminated the structure. The light vanished, and the remaining mana dispersed without continuing to drain her reserves. Partial replication successful.

Target mechanism: Light Functional stages reproduced: Voluntary activation Mana allocation External structure formation Visible light production Controlled termination Replication qualifies for experimental registration. Elizabeth confirmed before Ruby could ask what she had seen. Cold moved through her arm. Experimental Skill Registered Crude Light — Level 1 Produces weak visible light within a manually established mana structure. Another notification followed. Mechanistic Replication has advanced to Level 2.

Ruby gripped the edge of the bench.

"You did it." Elizabeth activated Crude Light again. The pale point returned more quickly this time. It still flickered, but the System now supported the sequence she had built manually.

"I did."

"How long did the author need before his reconstruction registered?"

"Several thousand repetitions." Ruby looked from the light to Elizabeth.

"And yours needed one success." Elizabeth's excitement faded enough for caution to return.

"My class reduces the registration requirement."

"How much does your class actually do?" Elizabeth hesitated. Ruby had helped her enter the restricted library, provided books, challenged the model and remained beside her during an experiment that could have caused real injury. More importantly, Elizabeth would need her again.

"I haven't told anyone else," Elizabeth said.

"Not my family. Not the academy." Ruby's expression became serious.

"My class isn't merely about recording research. One of its abilities lets me reconstruct a skill if I understand enough of its mechanism. I still need to observe it, model it and reproduce it successfully. It doesn't simply copy the result." Ruby was silent for several seconds.

"Does it take the skill from the other person?"

"It does not."

"Does it copy their class?"

"No. Only the mechanism I understand."

"And your father doesn't know?"

"If he knew, he would either bring me home or attempt to control what I researched. Possibly both."

"I won't tell him."

"Or the academy." Ruby nodded.

"Or the academy." Elizabeth watched her carefully.

"I'm trusting you with this because I need someone who understands the work. I can't hide every experiment and still expect you to keep me alive during them." Ruby smiled faintly.

"That may be the closest thing to friendship you're capable of saying." Elizabeth knew what friendship was supposed to feel like. Attachment, affection, loyalty beyond immediate usefulness. She felt none of those things. She felt intellectual excitement, relief and a growing confidence that Ruby would remain useful if treated properly. She also preferred Ruby's company to that of most students because Ruby asked intelligent questions and did not demand that curiosity remain polite.

Perhaps that was close enough to imitate.

"Friends?" Elizabeth asked. Ruby's smile widened.

"Friends." The System appeared again. Significant experimental milestone completed. First external skill mechanism reconstructed. First experimental skill registered. Experimentalist has advanced to Level 3. Experimentalist has advanced to Level 4. Attribute Points gained: 4 Class Skill selection unlocked: 1 Three options followed. Process Mapping Constructs an organised model of observed stages within a repeatable process. Identifies confirmed relationships, contradictions and unresolved transitions.

Does not provide information the user has neither observed nor inferred. Precision Sampling Improves the collection, separation and preservation of small physical or magical samples while reducing contamination. Parallel Inquiry Allows the user to maintain several active hypotheses and experimental models with reduced interference. Effectiveness limited by Spirit. Precision Sampling would become invaluable once Elizabeth gained access to biological material.

Parallel Inquiry could eventually expand the number of experiments she managed at once. Process Mapping directly strengthened the work she had just begun. She selected it. Class Skill acquired: Process Mapping — Level 1 The observations from Ruby's Light rearranged themselves within Research Log. Activation, allocation, structural formation, conversion and termination separated into a clear sequence. Beside them appeared the differences between Ruby's skill and Crude Light.

Ruby's structure regulated brightness automatically. Elizabeth's did not. Ruby's skill maintained a stable position. Elizabeth's required constant attention. Ruby's generated almost no heat. Elizabeth's wasted part of its mana through thermal output. Each defect became a research direction. Ruby waved a hand in front of Elizabeth's eyes.

"You disappeared again."

"I received a new class skill."

"Useful?" Elizabeth smiled as the incomplete model unfolded before her.

"Extremely." Ruby moved beside her to examine the pale light still hovering above her palm. Ruby understood more than Elizabeth assumed. She knew the secret was also a hook: once Ruby became necessary to the work, walking away would become harder. The knowledge did not make her refuse. She had her own reasons for staying. Crownspire's upper-year Materials and Artifice placement accepted only a handful of students, and Ruby intended to earn one of those places.

She wanted to design mana-stress alloys that did not warp, fracture or turn dangerous when an enchantment failed. Her family expected respectable metalwork and, eventually, a useful marriage. Ruby wanted a workshop bearing her own name. Elizabeth's crude light exposed material stresses no ordinary burner could reproduce. Helping her meant data, difficult questions and a collaborator who took Ruby's judgement seriously. It was not a one-sided favour.

Ruby would protect the secret, but she would also insist on proper controls and the right to challenge any procedure performed beside her. As Ruby argued that the blue tint suggested uneven conversion rather than contamination, Elizabeth listened without impatience. Friendship itself remained difficult to define. A person with an ambition of her own, who understood the question and chose to stay, was harder to dismiss as merely useful.