Lilly and Eolande stood there admiring the staff. It was mostly red and gold, with a phoenix-like design at the end.
"Wow, it's perfectly sized for you to use as a walking stick!" Eolande noted, chuckling.
"That's the first thing you say? Look at this thing, it's awesome!" Lilly was studying it intently, admiring the intricate design.
"Watch it so you don't burn your clothes. That thing is still a thousand degrees," Eolande noted.
"Good point, I'll just hold it like this for a while then. Let me check it with my flame as well." Lilly closed her eyes as she started focusing the flame inside the staff. She was surprised as the staff immediately started consuming her flame greedily, making her stop her flame.
But the staff continued draining mana from the environment, greedily sucking in as much as it could
"Oh, Eldrin mentioned this once. Magical items without any mana can be activated again by a small amount, making it drain mana from the atmosphere like usual again. I've never seen anything consume this much before, though."
"Oh, that explains it. But at this rate, people might notice the drain," Eolande noted with a hint of worry.
"True, maybe I should try putting the flame into it after all. It should at least lessen the impact on the surrounding drain." Lilly did as she said and started inserting the flame again, not bothering to limit the power.
The staff was greedy, taking as much as she gave, but it had stopped pulling mana now. '... I hope my flame is strong enough to satisfy it. But it should be. The only time I used it all was during the attack on the fleet. And it's a lot stronger now.'
Only after almost half of her flame was gone did Lilly feel the staff slowing down, eventually coming to a halt. "Hells, that's a lot of power. I didn't even use half of this when I melted the quarry," Lilly noted in surprise.
"That much? Can you tell what it does?" Eolande asked, also looking surprised.
Lilly could now finally put the flame inside the staff to investigate, and so she did. Immediately she could sense an incredibly vast capacity, even larger than Selene's bow. 'This might be as vast as a hundred protective necklaces!' Lilly thought. She noticed a white crystal sitting in the middle of the end of the staff, hidden under the surface.
She moved on to studying the systems that were inserted into it, finding four of them, with incredibly thick strings. They were all inserted separately in different places, with seemingly room for one more. Lilly felt that the capacity gave it room for one more enchantment as well.
'Okay, as usual, I have no idea what those threads mean. But maybe the runes will give me a clue?' Lilly wondered, shifting her focus towards the runes connected to each system.
The first one had the runes for 'move', 'obey', and one Lilly didn't recognize. 'Hmm, does that mean it can move at my will?' Lilly wondered. She tried leaning the staff towards the wall to test it, but was surprised to find that the staff stopped moving completely as soon as she let it go.
"Uhm, the staff is levitating. Is that normal, Elly?"
"I've seen it before, yeah. Is that all the enchantment does?"
"No, it also said something about moving and obeying. Let me see what I can do."
Lilly imagined the staff floating towards her, and it did exactly that, moving silently through the air and into her hand. "That's so cool! But it seems rather useless for such a powerful item…"
"... Could you try lifting yourself up by it?" Eolande suggested, looking curious.
Lilly liked the suggestion and tried telling the staff to stay still after she held it horizontally. It did as asked and stopped following her hand, staying still in the air. Lilly tried pushing it a bit to see if it stayed, and then she leaned over it with all her weight, losing contact with the ground.
"It's working! I can fly a little bit!" Lilly exclaimed, slightly too excited by such an elementary form of magic.
"Okay, now for the real test Lilly. Try making it move while you're floating on it."
Lilly looked at Eolande nervously, hearing the excitement in her voice. But after a slight hesitation, she did as Eolande suggested and imagined the staff moving very gently to the side. It moved without effort, opening up a world of excitement. "I… I can actually fly…"
"Wow, it even has a perfect shape to hold your butt, like a seat," Eolande noted with a grin.
Lilly looked at the wings, which could possibly look a bit like a narrow seat, and shuddered. "Do you see all those pointy bits? That would hurt like hell!"
"Not with your protective talisman," Eolande responded, still grinning.
"... Well, surely that's not the intended use?" Lilly bargained.
"Hey, you're the flying expert here. Whatever position you think is best probably is."
Lilly studied the staff once again, trying to imagine a better solution. But to her dismay, no other plausible improvement was found. Just sitting on the rod would cause her to fall to the side, while hanging by her hands would exhaust her in seconds. With a heavy sigh, she stopped the floating and put the staff between her legs.
"Float," she said monotonously, feeling a bit disappointed in the staff's physical features. Her mood quickly improved as she started floating though, feeling a good support keeping her from falling to either side.
She tried floating a bit back and forth before becoming a bit braver and setting up the speed. 'This is amazing! Flying is fun!' Lilly thought. She felt excited when thinking about using the staff outside instead of this dark basement.
Eolande started laughing for some reason, forcing Lilly to a stop. "What's so funny?"
"Who's the witch now? Flying on your broom, you still wanna make fun of my cauldron?" Eolande wiped a few tears from her eyes as she pointed at Lilly, while still chuckling slightly.
"Shut up," was the only retort Lilly could muster, blushing and trying not to feel embarrassed. She got down from the staff again, thinking it was a good time to check out the other enchantments.
Focusing once again, she read the next runes. 'Attack', 'flame, and 'amplify'. 'Huh, seems pretty straightforward, like a powerful attack. We'll have to go to the quarry to test it, I think. Let's look at the next one.'
'Control', 'flame', and 'obey' were the next runes. 'Hmm, could it be something that improves the control of the flames? Let's see…' Lilly tried conjuring a small flame to see if anything changed, and was surprised to see the tiny spark that appeared in her palm.
'That small? I usually need a lot more to make it appear. Let's try…' She tried manipulating the flame into a sphere, which it did without any issues. "Oh wow, this is making my control so much better! It's like I suddenly know how to do it perfectly, like walking."
"Really? The enchantment must be from some advanced fire-beast then. Possibly a phoenix?" Eolande muttered in thought.
"Aren't those incredibly rare?" Lilly asked, but she had an idea. 'Myndia might have some advantages in finding them, I guess, being the daughter of the divine phoenix and such.'
"I've never seen one, but I know where a few are supposed to live. People tend to stay far away from those areas, though."
Lilly was excited about their trip to the quarry later now, hoping the control would help her improve even faster. She focused on the staff once again, looking at the last set of runes. There were two, but she could only recognize one of them, which was the rune for 'heal'.
"Healing!? The staff can heal wounds?" Lilly exclaimed in excitement. She had never heard of any spells or enchantments with that power before, but if the source of the enchantment was the phoenix, famed for its rebirth, then perhaps there was a possibility. Lilly immediately thought of Selene and her arm, hoping she might be able to heal her early.
"Really?" Eolande asked, almost as excited as Lilly was. "That's quite rare, and I've only heard of weak enchantments like that. This one is powerful, right?"
"Extremely! But I'm nervous to try it, I don't know how it works. I'll just try asking–"
Eolande cut her off with a swift finger to her lips, making Lilly realize what she almost just did. 'Oh gods, I almost just said Myndia's name… But if someone is watching us, they'll realize something is up now, right?'
Thinking quickly, she corrected herself. "I'll just try asking someone at the hospital. They should have some knowledge, right?" Lilly said, hoping she had covered her mistake. Mainly she hoped no one was watching them, but with so much at stake for Grandfather, it was hard to imagine no one would be spying on her.
"Good idea. Do you want to go back to the office so we can send someone?" Eolande asked, acting like nothing had happened just now.
"Yeah, this place is getting a bit cold. Could you… Actually, I think I'll ask some soldiers to close the hole later. You don't need to bother," Lilly said while putting her clothes back on.
"Appreciate it," Eolande responded, smiling slightly.
They both made their way back to the office, where Lilly eagerly walked to the desk to activate the soundproofing. Once that was done, she turned to Eolande. "I'm so stupid! Do you think anyone was watching us?"
Eolande shook her head slightly. "I didn't notice anyone, but Grandfather has means I'm not aware of. I don't think anyone could infer that you were trying to contact Myndia through the amulet, though."
Lilly sat down at her desk, feeling frustrated by herself. "Let's hope not." She used the formation to call for her assistant, Daisy, hoping to get an answer about the healing effect. Now that they had mentioned calling a doctor, she had to go through with it.
"My nerves are going to break sooner or later…" Lilly mumbled while waiting. Shortly after, Daisy came through the door, looking sharp as ever.
"Daisy, could you get a doctor familiar with magical healing to come here?"
Daisy curtsied with a smile and left without a word.
"She seems quite capable," Eolande noted, sounding impressed.
"She seems a bit too perfect to me, honestly. No emotion beyond smiles and servitude, like a machine. But she's great at her job, so I can't really complain," Lilly noted, unable to find any issues with Daisy's work so far.
"Isn't it important to be familiar with a personal assistant? I don't think you can say she's good if she never acts like a normal person," Eolande pointed out.
Lilly considered her words and thought they made sense. "That's true, I guess I'll talk with her about it."
Lilly passed her time practicing the enchanting spell. She was distracted by the staff, though, eager to keep experimenting. Especially the flying had felt really exciting, she thought.
Not long after, her thoughts were interrupted by knocks on the door, likely signaling the doctor's arrival.