The golden thread left Gaelira's fingers and traveled along the wooden sword until it reached the tip. The light did not remain on the surface as it had between her hands. Instead, it slowly sank into the material and began spreading through the grain.
For the first time since the tests began, Gaelira did not have to chase the flow or force it to maintain a shape.
The sword seemed to draw it in by itself, offering the direction her mana had been searching for ever since it appeared.
Bellamie was still holding her hand, but even she stopped smiling as she watched the change.
"I think your magic prefers the sword over me," she commented, although the playful tone did not completely hide her curiosity.
Gaelira moved the weapon slightly and noticed that it felt lighter, as if part of the wood's resistance had disappeared.
Lenora approached the table, picked up her brass rod, and lightly struck the center of the blade.
The resulting sound was sharper than it should have been for a training sword and produced a golden vibration that traveled all the way to the hilt.
"It is not covering the wood," Lenora explained while examining the point she had struck. "It is circulating inside it." The professor slid two glass fingers along the blade, and the glowing currents inside her arm changed direction when they came into contact with Gaelira's mana.
Then she instructed Gaelira to raise the sword, first horizontally and then above her shoulder.
Each movement felt easier than the last. "Your affinity has recognized the structure of the weapon and is reinforcing it from within. The wood keeps its shape, but now distributes weight and force more efficiently."
Gaelira looked at the golden blade with a satisfaction she had not felt when activating the crystal.
This magic was not an incomplete imitation of the elements used by her classmates. Nor was it an accidental reaction that only appeared when Bellamie touched her.
She had found an application capable of joining with something she already understood.
She turned her wrist and performed a slow cut to test the balance, feeling the sword respond with far more precision than she expected from a wooden weapon. This chapter is updated first at novelping.com.
Lenora placed a practice block on the table and pointed toward a mark carved into the center. "Strike it. You do not need to use all your strength." Gaelira adjusted her feet and performed a downward cut.
The sword struck the block with a dry crack and opened a clean groove without suffering any visible damage.
Bellamie leaned closer to examine it before looking at Gaelira with a renewed smile. "It definitely preferred the sword," she concluded, finally releasing her hand. "I suppose I'll have to try harder if I want to get its attention back."
The golden thread trembled when the contact disappeared, but it did not go out.
Gaelira felt the energy trying to return toward her fingers and breathed slowly, remembering the rhythm she had reproduced during the previous test.
Instead of keeping the mana inside her body, she directed it back toward the hilt. The light stabilized again through the grain and remained there even though Bellamie had already stepped several paces away.
Lenora observed the transparent sphere and then her glass arm. "Bellamie's energy is no longer part of the process. What you are maintaining now belongs entirely to you." The statement made Gaelira tighten her grip on the hilt with greater confidence.
The professor removed the damaged block and placed another one in its place, but did not allow her to attack immediately. "Deactivate it and produce it again from the beginning. If you can only repeat it after touching Bellamie, then we would still be observing a learned reaction."
Gaelira stopped feeding mana into the sword and the light disappeared. Its normal weight returned immediately, causing the tip to drop a few centimeters.
She closed her eyes and searched for the current she had learned to recognize. She no longer needed to imagine Bellamie's hands or follow someone else's rhythm.
She thought about the grain of the wood, the direction of the blade, and the sensation of mana finding a path outside her body.
When she opened her eyes, a new golden thread was moving from her palm into the hilt.
The energy entered the sword again, although this time it did so more quickly. Gaelira smiled when she felt the weapon regain that extraordinary lightness and raised the blade to perform another cut.
She wanted to see how much she could improve it by sending in a larger amount of mana, so she allowed the current to continue flowing even after the entire surface began to glow.
The gold intensified until it was almost white, and an uncomfortable vibration traveled through the hilt.
"Gaelira, stop the flow," Lenora ordered.
She tried to obey, but the sword continued absorbing energy for another instant. Find the original chapter at g.com.
A crack appeared near the guard and ran along the center of the blade before splitting into several branches. Gaelira barely managed to move it away before the wood shattered from within.
The two fragments fell onto the table wrapped in small golden sparks that disappeared before touching the floor.
Bellamie looked at the remains and raised an eyebrow. "That was considerably more impressive than lighting a crystal." Gaelira placed the hilt beside the broken blade, caught between the satisfaction of having repeated the phenomenon and the embarrassment of destroying academy property.
Lenora, however, did not seem upset. She picked up one of the fragments and examined the exposed grain, where faint traces of light still remained.
"You did not fail to produce the technique," the professor clarified. "You reinforced it beyond what the structure could withstand. You have found a functional application for your affinity, although you still need to understand how the energy is distributed inside the weapon." Lenora returned to her desk and took out several sheets covered with diagrams of magical circuits.
Some showed wands, shields, and swords crossed by lines of different colors.
She placed the documents in front of Gaelira and pointed toward the places where each current needed to divide. "Study this. I do not want you to memorize the drawings, but to understand why certain structures accept mana and others break."
Gaelira gathered the sheets and carefully put them away. For the first time since arriving at Crownspire, she would not leave a class wondering whether she was capable of learning magic.
She already had an answer. She could produce it, direct it, and use it to improve a sword.
That still did not explain why she had arrived in that world, but it was the first power that truly belonged to her since awakening inside Gaelira Veyr's body.
Lenora gathered the wooden fragments and placed them inside a box before giving her one final look.
"Today you broke a training sword and we only have to replace it. Do not try to repeat this with a real weapon without supervision."
Her glass fingers lightly tapped the broken blade, producing one final golden flash.
"The wood releases the energy when it can no longer withstand it. No one here knows yet what a steel sword might do."