"What just happened?" Lorraine asked in confusion.
"What do you mean?" Princess Marina asked as her voice distorted to sound like Elaria Morando's through the box.
"Don't mock me!" Lorraine exclaimed, glaring Princess Marina with a pout before looking at the box oddly.
"What sort of sorcery is this?" Lorraine asked as she pointed at the box in wonder.
Picking some pieces of metal that she didn't use, Princess Marina drew Lorraine's attention to the metal with holes poked into them.
"Remember when I told you about the room without foundation?" Marina asked and Lorraine nodded her head.
"This" Princess Marina said, lifting the small box in her hands.
"Works based on a similar principle." Princess Marina said with a smile but when Lorraine looked at her in confusion, Princess Marina smiled and elaborated.
"The Colbistarum is a material known to expand with a little bit of energy. With just a little bit of energy it can be used to make rooms without foundations and block sound from leaking outside. To create this device I used the fact that it can stop sounds from leaking outside to trap the voice of the Earl's wife and adjusted it in a way that the voice trapped inside the box can be dispensed using my voice as a medium." said Princess Marina.
"But why use the voice of the Earl's wife?" Lorraine asked in confusion.
"Couldn't the perpetrator also be Maldareth or The Earl?" Lorraine asked Princess Marina.
"After the Perihelion, the Earl's family approached mine to make small talk and during that time, I tried to see who would have the strongest reaction to Aldric or Aleron being mentioned." Princess Marina said and Lorraine nodded.
"I threw a comment about wanting to learn from Aleron and the expressions of Elaria, the Earl's wife and Maldareth, the Earl's son, were especially terrible." said Princess Marina.
"Can that be explained by the fact that Aleron is illegitimate and you practically threw their dirty laundry in their face?" Lorraine asked as she tilted her head.
"While their expressions can be explained by that, the resentment in Elaria's eyes can not be dismissed." Princess Marina said and Lorraine nodded.
"So?" Lorraine said as she dusted her gown and arranged her gloves.
"When are you going to try this new invention?" Lorraine asked Princess Marina.
"Deep in the night when there is barely any movement in the castle." Princess Marina said and Lorraine nodded.
"A few hours after my wepon's training." Princess Marina said and Lorraine nodded.
At the Training ground in the room without foundation.
"You can do it if you try." Pyralex said in a sly tone but Princess Marina ignored him.
Concentrating on the ore in her weapon, Princess Marina conjured a silhouette in the cloud and after several minutes of huffing and puffing she had managed to conjure two more silhouettes behind her.
"Good" Pyralex said with a gentle clap of his hands.
"As you know, the greatest weapon of those blessed by fire is our imagination." Pyralex said, tapping his forehead with his index finger.
"In cases where we have to borrow powers from the other blessings, the only thing that can give us a leg up against them is how we utilize our power." Pyralex said and Princess Marina nodded.
"I assume at your level you only know how to refine an ore." Pyralex stated but Princess Marina interrupted him swiftly.
"I can also build some small creatures and animate small things." Princess Marina said and Pyralex smiled at her.
"Excellent." Pyralex said with a smile and nod of his head.
"Did you refine the ores on your weapons perhaps?" Pyralex asked and Princess Marina nodded then shook her head.
Opening her mouth to elaborate Princess Marina said "The ores were already refined but upon closer inspection I realized that there were some impurities left. I tried to refine them both but an accident occurred in one of the ores refining process."
"An accident?" Pyralex asked curiously and Princess Marina nodded in shame.
"I accidentally melted a core." Princess Marina shamefully admitted and Pyralex stared at her in shock.
"Did you just say melt?" Pyralex asked Princess Marina in confusion and Princess Marina nodded shamefully.
"At this age?" thought Pyralex.
"Well mistakes happen." Pyralex said, trying to play his astonishment off.
"You are still developing and you haven't undergone a proper attunement ritual so mistakes like this are bound to happen." Pyralex said with a shrug before quickly moving to another topic.
At the Palace Dungeons
The wind user looked at the moonless sky through the iron bars of his window. He had been jailed by the time he regained consciousness and the gates of his cell had been reinforced by shields from the ore that contains the blessing of the earth.
Through the tiny gap in the gate, the wind user saw a silhouette and bowed down to his knees.
"I should have known that you would get caught." said the displeased voice of Elaria, the Earl's legitimate wife.