"What happened?" Gilbert hurried downstairs as quickly as his old legs allowed him.
lina didn't have to explain much to him. One glance and she already saw understanding in his old eyes.
"Evolution? Why now of all tis?" Gilbert asked, hobbling up to the crystal-encased Sienna.
"She reached Level 50…" lina muttered, helplessly looking at the familiar. Mango miserably pawed at the crystal, her ears pressed to her head.
"Evolution?" Roxie questions, staring at the crystal in a mixture of awe and horror.
"What happened?" Adrien sleepily ca downstairs, likely woken up by the ruckus. The mont he saw the crystal, his eyes shot wide open, all of the sleepiness instantly gone. "Is Sienna evolving?!"
The boy was the only one who looked excited, running up to the crystal and looking at it from all possible angles.
"Yes…" lina replied, unsure of what to do.
"Oh! How exciting. I've always wanted to witness a monster evolving," Adrien said.
Roxie walked up to him and elbowed him lightly. "You're being very insensitive right now," she huffed.
"What? Why? Isn't it a good thing that Sienna is evolving?" Adrien asked.
"Monsters are very dangerous after undergoing evolution. They use up a lot of energy, which drives them to near starvation. Not to ntion that the whole process is very confusing to them since they don't really feel the passage of ti. It's as if they went to sleep looking one way, but the next day they have beco sothing completely else," Gilbert explained.
"I can see how it would set them off…" Roxie muttered.
"Grandfather, what do I do?" lina asked. In the past, there was only one thod she used when coming across evolving monsters, and there was no way she was using it on Sienna.
"I suggest you ask the elves. They are far more familiar with wyrms than I am. I suspect they have co up with a way to deal with their evolution," Gilbert said.
"Can I co along too?" Adrien asked excitedly.
"You're still being insensitive," Roxie chastised again, and the boy tempered his expression a little.
"S-Stay here for now," lina said, still a bit shaken. "I'll go find Elowen or Etrian and ask them what to do."
lina grabbed Mango, and the next mont, teleported herself right in front of the Guild. The abundance of mana in the air made the teleportation much easier to pull off in the Human Realm, although it did startle the two guards by the entrance.
"Miss lina! Where did you suddenly co from?" One of them asked, exhaling a shaky breath.
"My apologies for startling you. I need to speak with Elowen. Is he out on patrol?"
"I believe Sir Elowen, along with Miss Leliana and a few more elves, went to the Monster Realm. They promised to return before night," the other one said.
"I see… Thank you," lina muttered in disappointnt, and teleported away, this ti appearing in front of Etrian's shop.
A few Sunglowers startled from her sudden appearance, gasping in shock. lina didn't mind them, instead striding into Elowen's shop.
"Good morning, Miss lina. Never thought I'd see you as the first custor of the day," Etrian greeted her with a pleasant smile.
"I've co with a request for help," lina said, nervously clutching onto Mango.
Etrian must have sensed her mood, because his expression shifted to that of worry. "Of course. If it is within my power, then I shall help."
"Sienna is undergoing evolution, and I'm sure of what to do…"
"Evolution. That's interesting. I didn't think she would ever evolve, seeing as she has beco a permanent resident at your bakery." Etrian thoughtfully scratched his chin.
"Neither did I, but apparently she had gained experience from baking my pastries. I didn't notice because her level had always been high," lina explained.
"Fascinating. To think that monsters too could experience fulfilling tasks seemingly unrelated to their way of life," the drow humd, then shook his head. "But I digress. Currently, you need to prepare for when she erges from the evolution cocoon. It might be quite a ssy and frankly dangerous process."
"What happens when wyrms normally evolve?" lina asked nervously.
"We drow, and I suspect that elves do it similarly, bringing the evolving monster to a safe, separate location. It can't be an unfamiliar place; the wyrm should have been familiar with the location before evolution. That's why we always brought our wyrms to a special evolution cave even before they evolved—to get them acquainted with the place."
lina thought about it. There weren't many separate locations that were familiar to Sienna. But perhaps her enclosure would do just fine. It was located in the farthest, most remote corner of the garden and was certainly familiar to her.
"You'll have to prepare a lot of food for when she erges. If you manage to sate her hunger as soon as she is out, it will calm her and allow her to regain her senses much more easily."
"How long will it be until she evolves?" lina asked, already planning which pastries to prepare for her wyrm.
"That depends on what she is evolving into. I've seen ember wyrm turn into magma wyrms, in which case they don't change much. They do beco much hotter and harder to be around. She could also turn into an ash wyvern. Not sure how she'd fit into the bakery in that case. Ash wyverns can't change their sizes as wyrms can. There is also a slight possibility that she might beco a fire dragon."
"A fire dragon?" lina exclaid in shock. Dragons in general were fearso creatures. Large, powerful, and extrely resilient. She had faced a few of them in her ti as an Archmage, but never alone. They were far too powerful for any mage to defeat alone.
It was even worse with fire dragons. They were fiercely territorial, aggressive, and very dangerous. What would lina do if Sienna suddenly beca like that?
"My apologies. It seems I have scared you. The wyrms themselves choose what they will evolve into, and these three aren't the only options. I'm sure that whatever Sienna becos, she'll still be herself. What you, as her tar, must do is believe in her and prepare everything for when she erges from the evolution cocoon," Etrian soothed her.
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"You're right," lina nodded. Just because Sienna was evolving, it didn't an that she would suddenly turn into a completely different creature. It would still be Sienna. "I'll go make the preparations."
With that, lina once again teleported, only this ti—ho. Alistair startled the mont lina and Mango appeared in the living room, nearly spilling his morning tea.
"lina? Did sothing happen? Why are you teleporting all of a sudden?" Alistair asked, springing to his feet and running up to hold her hand.
"Sienna is evolving," she explained.
"So suddenly?" Alistair exclaid.
"Yeah. Turns out she was gaining experience by baking my pastries. Currently, she's in her evolution cocoon. Etrian said I should prepare a safe, separate location for her to evolve into, so I was thinking of moving her to her enclosure. And she'll need a lot of food because she'll be hungry…" lina said in a hurry.
"It's okay, it's okay," Alistair soothed, gently patting her shoulders. "We'll get through it. She might be volatile right after the evolution, but I'm sure that once she regains her senses, Sienna will be no different from before."
"Are you sure?" lina asked nervously.
Alistair smiled. "Of course. Now, let finish breakfast, and I'll head over to the bakery to help you get Sienna to the enclosure."
"Oh, no! I left so suddenly, and the bakery is going to open soon. Roxie and Adrien must be panicking without ," lina muttered, realizing how, in her panicked haste, she had abandoned the bakery altogether.
But Alistair held her hand firmly, guiding her to the dining table. "Master Gilbert is there, isn't he? I'm sure that he'll take care of the matters in your absence. Now drink a bit of tea with , and we'll head to the bakery as soon as I'm done. The teleportation must have left you exhausted."
lina realized that she was feeling quite tired, especially as the adrenaline within her settled down. Mango also looked a bit startled. She squird her way out of lina's grip and jumped into Alistair's lap, begging for bits of his breakfast.
Only then did she notice a giant stack of docunts next to him. He had apparently been going through them as he ate breakfast, as there was a smaller stack set aside, where lina saw his signature at the bottom.
"What's all this?"
"All the docuntation that I need to settle. Guildmaster has been trying to take care of these while there was no lord to do these, but since Father has entrusted Sunglow to , I have to look through these and either approve or decline them. He also warned that I should push hard for Sunglow's expansion and attract a new population, not just tourists."
"Can you handle this much work?" lina asked.
Alistair chuckled nervously. "Not like I have much choice. These need to be done. Not to ntion that I need to hire secretaries and scholars to help out in the Town Hall. New servants and guards too, and search for new workforce in Sunglow, so it'd be possible to build new housing," Alistair said, rubbing at his temples.
"Can I help in any way?" lina asked.
Alistair reached out and grabbed her hand. "I really appreciate it, but your plate is already full with the bakery and now Sienna. For the ti being, leave these matters to . Once things with Sienna have settled down, then we can look into these matters together."
lina nodded. It was true that her plate was already full, but if she was to beco Alistair's wife, then helping him manage Sunglow would also be one of her responsibilities. Not to ntion all the noble etiquette she had to learn. Sure, she has learned so of it in her ti as Archmage, but nowhere near enough to match Duke Sinclair's standards.
lina sipped on tea while Alistair finished his breakfast. She managed to calm down a little, although she was very eager to return to Sienna. It was a good thing that Charlotte and the Sinclair servants weren't around this ti to witness lina's nervous blunder.
After Alistair was done, they headed straight to the bakery, where Roxie and Adrien were running the shop by themselves while Gilbert observed them from the kitchen.
"I'm sorry for leaving so suddenly, Grandfather," lina apologized.
"It's fine. Your apprentices are handling it rather well, although there are not as many magical pastries on offer today as in other days," Gilbert noted.
"I'll make sure to make more tomorrow to make—"
"No. Calm down. Nobody will drop dead just because they didn't get their eclair today. You do the normal amount. If you really want to make a difference, you can make one during service. There's still ti for you to make pastries." Gilbert said. Then he motioned to the giant crystal, which held Sienna's evolving form. "What do we do with this?"
lina told him what Etrian had told her. Alistair, anwhile, picked up Sienna, not at all bothered by the heavy weight, and carried her outside to her enclosure. After that, he gave her a quick kiss and hurried away to the Town Hall with so fresh pastries in tow.
While Adrien and Roxie worked hard to sell the pastries, lina hurried to make up for what she wasn't able to make in the morning. The most difficult part was actually cooking them. Sienna, with her , knew perfectly what temperature each pastry needed.
lina had to work together with Gilbert to get the oven going properly. She did assist it a bit with her magic, but didn't dare to cook large batches of pastries with just her magic. While she could control her flas well, the temperature control was much harder. After all, if she made the flas too hot, the pastries would simply burn. If they weren't hot enough, they wouldn't cook properly.
Thankfully, with Gilbert's help, and , she was able to add a fair amount of pastries through the service, surprising the custors with still hot pastries. So even deliberately lingered around the bakery, waiting for a fresh batch to co out.
After the bakery closed, lina would occasionally run out into the garden to check on Sienna. The crystal remained unchanged, but she still felt anxious. She would sweep the bakery, run to check on Sienna. Clean the kitchen, check on Sienna. Prepare dough for tomorrow, check on Sienna.
Mango found the ga very amusing, often running ahead in an attempt to reach Sienna before lina and then running back to the bakery. While lina realized that she was probably being too paranoid, she couldn't help it. There was no way of knowing when Sienna would co out.
Knight didn't find her running around amusing in the slightest, letting out a disapproving snort each ti she ran past him.
"Leave her bed. I was quite antsy when you evolved, too," Gilbert said to his familiar, making lina stop in her tracks.
"He wasn't always a nightmare?" lina asked.
"No, he was always a nightmare. But he's not exactly a regular nightmare. He's a shadow runner nightmare," Gilbert elaborated.
It made sense. Knight could move through shadows, but lina never really stopped to think whether it was an ability each nightmare had. They were usually elusive creatures, feasting on dreams and then disappearing before morning.
"How did evolution go?" lina asked.
"Well, he got encased in black crystal much like Sienna. It was while we were out of town, so I had to load him in the cart and then pull it all the way back to town myself," Gilbert said, throwing a glare in Knight's direction. Nightmare shafully lowered his head and nibbled on a stalk of grass, as if pretending that he didn't understand.
"I hope it happened while you were younger," lina said, imagining how difficult it must have been.
"I was around forty at the ti, so it was fine. The worst part was when he woke up two hours later while I was getting dinner. He put half the town to sleep and ate their nightmares. We had to run off right and never go near that town again. It was horrible."
Knight looked like he was ready to bury his head into the ground out of sha, and lina couldn't help but let out a small giggle.
"Did… he change his personality too?" She asked cautiously.
"No. Knight was always Knight. Evolution didn't change that," Gilbert said.
lina sighed in relief. While Etrian had said as much, it felt much more assuring coming from her grandfather. She would watch Sienna's evolution closely, but there was no need to worry so much.
"Hey, lina!" Leliana called out, coming into the garden while waving her hand. Elowen was with her, looking rather exasperated. "We heard you were looking for Elowen, so we ca by."
"Hello, Leliana, you look quite… happy," lina said, noting how her eyes seed to be sparkling with excitent.
"I saw so many things in the Monster Realm, you won't even believe it. I can't wait to go there again," Leliana said.
"You are not going there again!" Elowen said firmly, then looked at lina. "Could we talk? There are things we need to discuss."
lina nodded. It appeared that sothing had happened in the Monster Realm as well. Her stomach churned a little at the possible problem. What if the Monster Lord's absence had caused problems in the Monster Realm as well?
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