Ria knelt in front of Hikari's ritual circle inside her chambers. She was wearing her silky sorcerer robes.
Her eyes were wide open. She stared at Hikari's naked body. It was a hulking yet perfectly balanced body of sheer muscle, covered by her smooth fair skin with a hint of pink. It made Ria feel so insignificant, like an insect at her feet which are by themselves, many times stronger than her.
"Breath"
Ria suddenly took a deep breath, almost choking on her own saliva. It took several minutes for her to recover.
"Are you alright?"
"Yes, of course. Let's begin."
Hikari sat down in the middle of the ritual circle. She was surrounded by a ring of glowing mana crystals slotted into the ritual circle. And another outer ring with swords in their molds and musket balls in shallow containers with dormant runes etched into them.
Beyond that, a metre tall concentric wall of depleted mana crystals, Illenium. Helps to insulate the mana in the ring. Both to
Ria grabbed a flask of herbal mixture, plucked off the chork and gulped down the bitter contents. The raw mana from the mixture quickly spread throughout her body.
Hikari did likewise, with a much larger bottle with a darker and thicker mixture.
Ria crawled towards Hikari. She kept her head down staring into the stone circle. Eventually, she reached a familiar rune. The only rune she had been trained on to date.
Hikari smelled fresh, except for the funny smell of her cheap soap. She had skipped her run and drill session.
Ra placed both hands onto the rune carving. She took deep breaths, trying to clear her mind and focus on the task.
Hikari remained silent, keeping her breathing movements to a minimum.
Then Ria began. She channeled her mana, pushing it into the rune carving. As she poured her mana into it, the Illenium at the bottom of the rune glowed with, somewhat feeble, bright red color.
"Nice"
"Umm.. Really?" Ria blushed at the compliment.
"Take cover now."
Ria got up and made her way out of the ritual circle at jogging pace. Her maid stood just outside the ring with a towel. She grabbed her, helped her over the Illenium wall, wrapped her in the towel and escorted her out of Hikari's chambers.
Standing outside the stone chambers, Ria could feel a surge of mana. It felt as though needles were piercing her skin. Her maid dropped to her knees, shivering.
"Ahaha! Don't worry, she's only using a fraction of her mana, it's quite harmless." Sir Parkel laughed.
A few moments later, the mana presence from within the chamber dissipated.
"Oh, looks like she's done. That was quick."
The Burly Knight walked up to the curtain entrance. "Can we come in now?"
"Sure" The reply came from inside.
"The maiden needs another minute lads. Unless of course you have spare underwear for a boner."
"What shameless brute you are, drill master." The maid scoffed.
"Haha! I take that as a compliment. It does make me feel young. It's not my fault that sorcerer silk costs an arm and a leg. Even then, I don't think we have solved the problem."
"She's probably done now so you can get your steel asses in there and out of my sight. "
"Alright! Alright! Not even the Madam RazenHeir would chew my head out like this."
Ria followed the knights into Hikari's chamber.
"Hello there Hikari! How are you doing!"
Hikari has finished assembling her usual white cotton shirt and pants.
"Good. Drillmaster"
"Haha! Good to hear! Now, let's take a look at your good work!"
The drillmaster rolled his belly over the Illenium wall into the ritual circle. He picked up his enchanted sword.
Three runes. White, Red and Purple. Hikari's own enchantment which hardens the blade and reduces the weight for the wielder. Ria's pure flames. The Madam RazenHeir's rune which causes the flames to persist.
The drillmaster slotted a mana crystal into his gauntlet. The sword burned with Ria's brilliant red flame. "Ah! Excellent. I bet I can cleave those flesh abominations now!"
With a click, the mana flow into the sword was cut. But the flames persist. "Oh darn! I forgot, now I have to hold this for another fifteen minutes."
Hikari bent over, pinching his sword with her fingers, snuffing out the flame.
"Ahaha! I never get tired of seeing that! Sure wish I can do that too."
The drill master walked over to one of the musket ball containers and picked one up.
"Oof. Hot! Hot! Hot!"
He loaded it into his musket through the breach along with a gunpowder cartridge in the back.
"Wish we could load this in one go but the powder needs to be in a separate compartment from the burning musket ball."
A knight pushed a straw dummy into the chambers and leaned it against the wall just beside the entrance.
Bang! The drill master fired. The musket ball went right through the straw dummy and set it on fire.
"Oho! A normal ball wouldn't even pierce the dummy. Excellent work as always Hikari."
The knights gingerly keep their freshly enchanted swords into their scabbards, filling their pouches with their enchant ammunition as well.
More men entered the chambers, bringing more crates containing the next batch of rune etched weapons to be enchanted.
"Well! Rest up now. Your lunches are on the way. There's still the cannon balls and armour plates that need enchanting. The rest of you. Chop! Chop! Back to the training grounds."
Soon, all of the men left the room, leaving Ria and Hikari alone.
"Oh my. This was quite the shipment of enchanted weapons you just finished. Really high quality too. I think it normally takes more than a dozen enchantors a whole day to finish what you just did. "
Ba dum! Ba dum! Hikari could feel Ria's heart pounding.
"It's nothing. I do this every month."
"It's definitely something alright. A heck of a lot of something actually. I almost had a nervous breakdown over how we are going to meet the shipment demands while mother and most of the enchantors are off at the frontlines facing the orcs. You are amazing, Hikari. I could barely do one sword myself."
Hikari scratched her cheeks and rolled her eyes. Ria notices a slight upward curve in her lip movement.
Then she sat down and pulled her short sword to herself, catching it with one hand.
She placed it just in front of her lap and pulled out the scabbard.
"Come here."
Ria walked towards Hikari, kneeling in front of her sword. The sword was almost her height, its broad face wide enough for her to stand on and several times her weight in steel. The runes on the sword were the size of her head.
There were three rows of runes. For the top two rows, she vaguely recognizes some of the runes from when she watched her mother work. The rest seemed to belong to Hikari. In the bottom row, she could recognize every second rune as her own.
"Would you enchant my sword for me, my lady?"
"That would be an honor! I didn't think a basic training rune would be of any actual use."
"it cost very little mana"
"Really? That's good to hear. Oh, this rune is a tad bit too big for me."
"Your mana is stable. I can replicate it."
"Thanks. I'll give it my best shot then."
Ria placed both hands on the rune.
Hikari placed her index finger in front of Ria's slender hands. Taking a deep breath, Ria channeled her mana, the huge rune barely glowed at first. Then, what seemed to Ria to be a torrent of mana from Hikari's finger caused the rune to glow brilliantly.
"Arrggh.." Ria groaned in pain as the intensity of Hikari's mana burned her hand.
"Don't let go"
"Yes.. Hikari… argh..!"
After a few grueling seconds, the rune's power subsided. Ria's hands was numb.
"Hmm.. bad idea. Apologies, I didn't realize my lady's mana was too low."
"It's alright. I'm happy to help. I'm the one who should apologize for my own inadequacy."
Hikari stared at Ria, seeming contemplating over something.
A pause. Ba dum! Ba dum! Ria's heart pounded as she tried to read Hikari's mind.
"Eh. Nope. That won't work now."
"A training method to improve my mana? I see."
"Stick with the physical right now. You need higher defense."
"Got you."