"A Spirit Crystal? Melisa, sweetie, do you have any idea how much those things cost?"
Melisa nodded eagerly, bouncing on the balls of her feet.
"Yeah, the old man at the shop said they were 100 suns each! That's not too bad, right?"
Margaret let out a snort of laughter, shaking her head.
"Oh, honey. That's... 100 suns is a lot. There's no way we can afford something like that, especially not now."
Melisa's face fell, her excitement deflating like a punctured balloon.
"But... but Mom, I really need one! Just one, I promise! It's super important!"
Margaret sighed, kneeling down to look her daughter in the eye.
"Melisa, listen to me. I know you want this crystal, but we simply can't spare the money. Your father is working himself to the bone just to keep a roof over our heads. We can barely afford the essentials, much less magical trinkets."
Melisa could feel tears of frustration pricking at the corners of her eyes.
"But Mom-"
"No buts," Margaret said firmly, standing back up. "I'm sorry, sweetheart, but the answer is no. End of discussion."
Melisa's tiny fists clenched at her sides, her face flushing with anger and disappointment.
"Fine!" she snapped, whirling around and stomping off towards her room. "Ugh, this family sucks!"
She slammed the door behind her, throwing herself onto the bed in a huff.
[Stupid poor family,] she thought bitterly, burying her face in her pillow. [Stupid Spirit Crystals. Stupid everything! Why couldn't this be a little easier???]
For the first time since she reincarnated, she actually felt like a 9-year-old.
---
Hours passed, and Melisa's anger slowly cooled, replaced by a growing sense of desperation.
[Okay, think, Melisa. There's got to be another way to get your hands on one of those crystals.]
She rolled onto her back, staring up at the ceiling as she ran through her options.
[Maybe I could sneak into the old man's shop after dark and steal one. I mean, it's not like he'd suspect a little kid, right?]
But even as the thought crossed her mind, she dismissed it. Getting caught stealing would only make things worse for her already struggling family.
[What about Isabella? I could write to her, beg her to come back to the village before the week is up. She could bring me a crystal, or at least teach me more about magic.]
But she had no idea where Isabella and her family had gone, or how to get a message to them. It was a longshot at best.
Melisa was just about to scream into her pillow again when she heard the front door open, followed by the sound of her father's voice.
Curious, she crept out of her room, tiptoeing down the hall to eavesdrop.
"... and then she threw a tantrum and stormed off," Margaret was saying, her tone exasperated. "One day, that girl is knocking on death's door, the next she's asking all these questions. I swear, I just can't figure this out."
Melistair chuckled, and Melisa could picture him shaking his head.
"A Spirit Crystal, huh? What in the world does she want with one of those?"
"Who knows?" Margaret sighed. "But I had to put my foot down. We can't afford luxuries like that, not with Striker breathing down our necks."
There was a moment of silence, and then Melistair spoke again, his voice hesitant.
"Well... what if I could get her one? From the mines, I mean."
Melisa's heart skipped a beat, her eyes widening.
[The mines? Dad works in the Spirit Crystal mines?]
Margaret's voice was sharp with disbelief.
"Melistair, are you suggesting stealing from your workplace? Are you insane?"
"Not stealing!" Melistair said quickly. "Just... misplacing one. They'd never even know it was gone, with how many we harvest each day."
Margaret was silent for a long moment, and Melisa held her breath, hardly daring to hope.
"I don't know," Margaret said at last, her tone uncertain. "It's a huge risk. If you got caught..."
"I won't get caught," Melistair insisted. "Come on, Maggie. You told me how much this meant to her. And with everything else going on... doesn't our little girl deserve something to smile about?"
Another pause, and then a sigh.
"Alright. But be careful, Melistair. I mean it."
Melisa had to clap a hand over her mouth to keep from squealing with glee.
[Yes! Yes yes yes! Dad, you beautiful bastard, AAAH!]
And with that, she raced back to her room.
---
The next couple of days crawled by at a snail's pace, each minute feeling like an eternity to Melisa.
She did her best to act natural, to pretend like she wasn't constantly on the verge of vibrating out of her skin with anticipation. But it was hard, especially when her mind was consumed with thoughts of Spirit Crystals and the endless magical possibilities they represented.
While she waited, Melisa did more research on this world, and her family's place in it.
They were currently in Lessmark, a village located in the western part of Eldora.
The world of Eldora was divided between three nations, the human-dominated Syux nation, the kitsune forests of Yalmir, and the darian-ruled tribes to the north of Rhaya. This village was in kitsune territory.
The nim themselves had no region or nation to call their own.
Melisa having a kitsune cousin was no coincidence. Due to their inability to use magic, all nim lands and territories had been conquered and annexed over the millennia. In human territories, many nim effectively ended up being slaves.
"Effectively" slaves in that they were treated horribly and paid very, very little.
[At least they're paid, I guess.]
In darian territories, they were... Well, again, effectively slaves, but of a different variety.
[Geez,] Melisa had thought, blushing as she read some of what was described. [I don't know, I'm really starting to think that one wish about being important wasn't granted.]
In between all this reading, though, all Melisa could do was watch the clock tick on.
[Come on, Dad,] she thought, pacing her room for the umpteenth time. [Don't leave me hanging here! I've got a family to save and a magical revolution to start!]
Just when she thought she might actually explode from the waiting, there was a knock at her door.
"Melisa?" Melistair's voice called, slightly muffled. "Can I come in? I have something for you."
Melisa practically teleported to the door, yanking it open with enough force to startle her father.
"Is it the crystal?" she blurted out, bouncing on her toes. "Did you get it? Huh? Huh?"
Melistair blinked, then let out a chuckle, shaking his head.
"You heard that?" He reached into his pocket, pulling out a small, cloth-wrapped bundle. "Well, far be it from me to keep my little girl in suspense."
He held out the bundle, and Melisa snatched it up, her hands shaking as she unwrapped it.
And there, nestled in the folds of the cloth, was a Spirit Crystal.
It was smaller than the ones she had seen in the shop, no bigger than her thumb. But it glowed with a soft, pulsing light, and Melisa could feel the hum of magic emanating from its core.
"Oh my gods," she breathed, cradling the crystal like it was the most precious thing in the world. "Dad, you... you actually did it."
Melistair grinned, looking proud as a hero on a white horse.
"Well, I couldn't let my little girl down, could I? Hope you like it, kiddo."
Melisa looked up at him, her eyes shining with gratitude and love.
"Thank you," she whispered, throwing her arms around his waist in a fierce hug. "Thank you so much."
Melistair hugged her back, chuckling softly.
"You're welcome, sweetheart." He kissed the top of Melisa's head. "I'm just glad I could make you happy."
He pulled back, eyeing the crystal curiously.
"So, uh, what are you going to do with it? Use it as a nightlight or something?"
Melisa grinned.
"Oh, you'll see," she said, tucking the crystal into her pocket. "You and Mom will see soon enough."
"... A bit ominous, but alright. Just don't stay up too late playing with it, okay?"
"I won't," Melisa promised, already edging towards her room. "Thanks again, Dad. You're the best."
She darted inside, closing the door behind her and leaning against it with a sigh of relief.
[Finally,] she thought, pulling the crystal back out and staring at it with a mix of awe and determination. [Let the magical experimentation begin!]
---
Three days.
That was all Melisa had left before that goon came back, expecting a payment that her family simply couldn't make.
They didn't say anything to her. But, they didn't need to. Melisa was basically doing ninja training with how often she listened in on conversations she wasn't supposed to.
Three days to figure out how to turn a single Spirit Crystal into a revolutionary new form of magic that could save their skins and change the world as they knew it.
[No pressure, huh?] Melisa thought wryly, setting the crystal down on her desk and cracking her knuckles. [I really hope I can do this.]
She took a deep breath, squaring her shoulders and staring down at the softly glowing crystal.
Then, she picked up the crystal, turning it over in her hands as she examined it from every angle.
[First things first, I need to figure out how to extract the magical energy from this thing. If I can isolate the Essence, I can start experimenting with ways to channel it into runes.]
She grabbed a notebook and a pencil, flipping to a fresh page and beginning to jot down her thoughts and theories.
[Maybe I could try grinding it down into a powder? Or soaking it in something? Maybe the magic would... slip out or something. I dunno.]
She tapped the pencil against her chin, frowning thoughtfully.
[I'm going to need to run some tests, see what works and what doesn't. And, like that old man said, these things fade. It takes a long, long time, but they do fade. So, their Essence is limited. I'll need to be careful not to use up all the Essence in one go. This crystal is all I've got to work with.]