[Princess Plot] One summer day, crowned with light

Pham Thi Anh Sang

Inside of the otherwise empty art lab, Anh Sang was creating a masterpiece of some sort in pure light. What she wanted was a dignified looking staff, the kind with not too many top heavy decorations, which was fit for a real princess. Because real princesses could get tired of holding things for a long time and since it seemed like they were holding things a lot, it would be really lame if they had to hold really, really heavy things.

So anyways, she was trying to make something pretty and elegant, magic and light sparking around her as she worked. The young girl held what seemed to be a pole of glowing white light in her hands, the top of it a jagged pointed that faded into the air gradually as a haze. It was soft light that she was using, because it was too frustrating to use hard light when she still didn't really have any idea what she was doing. Anh Sang definitely wanted to use the harder stuff for the final project, though. But then she would have to figure out how she made hard light in the first place and that was work!

The ground around her was littered with her failed creations -lengths of soft white light that were all mostly straight with maybe a curve or two. Some had strands or knobs in them, and while some actually looked quite good, others looked like they were melting. A few had already fallen out of shape, even, and were now simply puddles of liquid light. Anh Sang had been trying to experiment with different colors earlier but all that she had to show for that was a bunch of light that was only barely tinted with color.

Well, this one would be better! Anh Sang was sure of it. She wasn't quite sure how long she had been working in the lab but she still felt surprisingly full of energy. It was a really good feeling, the kind that told her something really cool was going to happen. Or, in this case, she was going to make something really cool.

Optimistic, Anh Sang began molding the light and as the thing took shape under her hands, it more and more began to resemble the image she had in her mind.

Adrian Hexe Grimm (with Aurélie Fée Perrault)

Having been giving the task of recruiting for Queen Ania, Adrian thought that it was only reasonable for her to make some flyers in the computer lab. It had nothing to do with the fact that the music lab was right next door and that she, sadly enough, had not so much as touched an instrument in two and a half days. No, no. Nothing at all. But the thought still managed to worm its way into her head after a few minutes of staring blankly at the computer screen.

Half heartedly, she typed something up. It was just a simple background with things like For queen and campus! and Defeat the usurper! Basically, the exact same things she had already seen in circulation. It was lazy work and Adrian knew it. Still, the dark haired young lady entertained the idea of actually printing them for all of maybe three minutes before trashing the project. If she wasn't going to put out her best work, then the aristocrat simply would not put out any at all. She had time, though, and as long as Aurélie was preoccupied with this event as well, there should not be any other matters for her to attend to outside of her academics.

That was what Adrian was thinking, anyways, until her phone began to vibrate. Logging off of the computer, she left the lab to take the call and immediately came face to face with her sister. Aurélie raised her eyebrows, holding her own phone in one hand.

"I need help gathering, ah, weapons," the elder sister said, her tone light.

Adrian hesitated a moment before answering, wondering what was it that Aurélie wanted exactly. "I see."

"Obviously the use of real weapons is out of the question," Aurélie continued on. "So I thought that I would try and find some supplies in the art lab. The others will simply have to craft their own tools from scratch, I am afraid, but I can hardly be expected to create all of it by myself."

"I see," Adrian said with a blink. "And you would like help with this, I assume?"

"Oh yes, please." With some flippancy, Aurélie turned away and automatically, Adrian followed her to the other lab. The dark haired young lady absolutely did not glance longingly at the music lab for even a second. She did not.

As Aurélie pushed open the door to the art lab, however, both aristocrats stopped at the sight of a young child standing amidst a field of light.

Aurélie Fée Perrault (with Adrian Hexe Grimm)

Quickly, Aurélie surveyed the scene before her, sharp eyes going from the bright objects littering the ground to the young child who stood in the middle of the room, what seemed to be a pillar of light. No, shaping, the aristocrat corrected herself. The girl was clearly an Asian, with such a focused expression on her face that Aurélie was quite certain she had not noticed that anybody had entered the room. Even though light manipulating powers were not unheard of, it hard to not marvel at the way that this ability here was now being used.

Aurélie was not always a patient person, though her outward demeanor would show otherwise. This day, however, her attention was fully caught by the slow progression of the young girl's work. It was mesmerizing to watch, even though the material she was molding sometimes was hard to look at directly. The aristocrat's mind, while admiring, was also quietly putting together the beginning stages of a plan. Now how, Aurélie mused to herself, could I go about getting such a power under my command? Judging by the youthful appearance of this other student, she doubted that it would be a very difficult task.

"What do you think of this, Adrian?" Aurélie said very softly under her breath, with a slight nod in the girl's direction.

Her sister seemed to take a moment to assess the situation. "I recognize this one," the dark haired young lady said in a muffled voice, frowning lightly."I believe she was responsible for a nonlethal explosion in the courtyard some time ago, as well as general ruckus around the Academy."

"How interesting. A usual face around here, then." If her interest had not already been held fast already, surely it would have been captured now.

Adrian nodded once, eyes fixed on this girl's face. "More often than not, I have seen her building objects of light. It seems to be a useful power but I have some difficulty in understanding how exactly it works."

The two of them then fell into silence. Still completely unaware of their presence, the girl went on with her project. It was a spear or some kind of staff, that much was obvious. And as the time went on and bits of material melted away or were pulled out, it really did appear to be a sophisticated work, one that would not have been expected of one so long. It was clear when the object was finished, because it was at that time that the child finally stepped away, blinking at her creation with a grin from ear to ear.

Before she could be left too long to wonder at her success, though, Aurélie stepped forward, smiling as her own plan came together. "My, my," she said in a very light and lovely way, "what a beautiful scepter. It must have taken a very long time to design. Or not?" The question was said with a soft laugh, reassuring and curious rather than mocking in any form.

Pham Thi Anh Sang

Anh Sang remained oblivious to everything besides the project in her hands. The rod was at the level of her forehead now, shortened just a few inches so it no longer towered over her head. Though the top of the staff was still a blur of light, she had pulled out strands of material right beneath where that blur began. The strands themselves had been twisted together into a spiraling, egg shaped cage that didn't quite converge at the tip, which was what the girl was going for. She molded the part of the staff underneath the egg so that there was a diagonally fluted neck.

It was kind of a simple design so Anh Sang looked it over once more, wondering what else she could add. Deciding that she didn't like the fluting all that much, she went back and smoothed it out. It was still slightly lumpy in that area, which she really was annoyed about, so she just went ahead and smushed the staff down another inch, pulling out the excess material into six decorative ribbons. The girl flattened them out between her hands, carefully measuring the lengths out to be the same. Thickness was a more difficult thing to regulate but she tried her best, to the point where people probably wouldn't have noticed the slight differences anyways.

Now what do I do with these? She toyed with the idea of tying the ribbons into bows but the problem with that was that she didn't really like big poofy bows. They were kind of silly, actually. But she didn't just want to leave them hanging either so she arranged four them into a spiral whirlpool shape. Straight horizontal was boring, though, so she went ahead and made the arms wavy. With one of the remaining ones, she went ahead and looped over the egg like a vertical halo. The last one, she just wrapped down around the shaft.

The end result was a sort of gaudy thing that directly contradicted Anh Sang's original goal of not too many top heavy decorations. Although, to be honest, the entire staff was made out of light. There wasn't too much weight to it anyways. Maybe it was because of the amount of time she had put into it, or maybe just because the child's mind found it hard to find fault in self proclaimed important projects, but somehow Anh Sang found it perfect.

Before she could have time to really admire her work, however, an unfamiliar person spoke up. Annoyed and still groggy from spending so long working, Anh Sang turned to that person, really wanting to say something kind of rude. But then she actually saw the person and that, that made her do a quick double take.

Woah, she really does look like a princess! Anh Sang thought, staring at the older student with wide eyes. She had the right hair and everything for it! The young girl was rather jealous. Black hair was kind of boring, after all. And even that other lady -she was just noticing her now- who looked kind of old and dreary had really nice hair. It was so long!

"Uh, thanks," Anh Sang said, in a slightly dazed manner. It had honestly caught her off guard to see that anybody had been watching her. It felt kind of weird. "It didn't take too long. I just make whatever seems nice and keep doing it a lot."

Aurélie Fée Perrault (with Adrian Hexe Grimm)

"Well, it is certainly a very well made piece," the golden haired young lady said primly, as she came closer to the child. Aurélie was careful to maintain her distance, however. Crowding was a rather plebeian reaction to something extraordinary. Even if she had been familiar with the girl, Aurélie would have hardly done such an undignified thing. And besides, it was far easier to inspect this crafted work of light in this way.

Oh, my. I suppose this is a person who enjoys having things to do. Looking at the staff, Aurélie could see that it was not the most tastefully decorated object, with the shaft appearing to be too thin to suit the top. She judged that the crafting had gone along decently at first, before the girl had decided to spruce up her design.

With her most brilliant smile, the gilded young lady said, "But do forgive me. I have not introduced myself yet. I am Aurélie Fée Perrault, and this over here is my sister Adrian Hexe Grimm." She neglected to add on the most telling parts of their names, thinking that the child would be too young to have them register. From the girl's voice, too, Aurélie could tell that English was not her first language.

Perhaps we can use that point in common, the aristocrat mused. After all, her own native tongue was French. German was the close second, with English as the third.

"And what is your name, may I ask?"

Pham Thi Anh Sang

Anh Sang had to suppress a squee of happiness as the pretty lady complimented her. Pretty people obviously could recognize other pretty things so she was glad that the pretty lady thought that her light was pretty. If it were any other person, that squee probably would have come out unrestrained but it just wasn't every day that a pretty person who just so happened to look like a princess complimented what she did. So Anh Sang simply basked silently in the praise instead, face lit up brightly by joy.

"Oh, I'm Pham Thi Anh Sang!" If they were going to give her long, nice sounding names then she was going to try and do that, too. "Hi, it's nice to meet you!" And then, before she could help herself, she blurted out, "Are you a princess?" That was aimed at the blonde lady, but since she and the other lady were sisters, Anh Sang supposed that she meant both of them now.

The girl bobbed her head energetically. "You really do look like a princess!" she said. "Everything just looks like it." Well, not the other lady but once again, her hair was pretty. Pretty hair was very important. Even if her face looked kind of grumpy, she could always make it look better with make up things, right?

Aurélie Fée Perrault (with Adrian Hexe Grimm)

It was so much easier for Aurélie to give a free sort smile when somebody paying her a rightfully deserved compliment. Though that still did not mean the smile was an entirely genuine one, it did mean that it acquired a slight tinge of warmth to it. Warmth that also held some smug amusement, just the tiniest of slips that the aristocrat allowed herself. It would probably be lost over this child's head anyways.

"Well, how kind of you to say," the golden haired young lady said with a light hearted laugh. "Maybe a few hundred years ago, I could have been one. In this day and age, however, simple nobility is as high a position as anybody can possibly obtain in Germany or France. Even then, it is only a name now." Which was souring to admit but Aurélie preferred to look at her family's still retained wealth and remember that so few others had managed the same. Such a thing did not occur merely from luck.

"However," Aurélie said in a rather gracious tone, "If you are interested in this sort of subject, there is a mock conflict currently going on. One side is led by a princess while the other is led by a queen. My sister and I are with the latter. Would you like to join us? I think that your abilities would be very welcomed."

Pham Thi Anh Sang

At the mention of princesses and queens, Anh Sang was immediately hooked. The sudden sparkle in her wide eyes was a blatant indication of just deep that had gone. She didn't understand all of what Aurélie was saying but it was impossible for her to not have grasped that particular part.

"Yes!" she all but blurted out, imaging all of the pretty things she could be making for the queen and all of the pretty things that the queen probably already had. Whoever it was just had to be even prettier than Aurélie. Because that was just how things worked! Unless the person was really old or something. Ehhh.

Seeing that her bubbling excitement might seem rude, though, Anh Sang forced herself to outwardly calm down a bit. "I mean, um, yes?" She fidgeted, looking anxiously from side to side. "So, what do we do? Who's the queen? What's happening right now? Can I make things out of light?"

So, she didn't really succeed on the polite part but that was kind of okay, right? She really did want to make things for other people. Sure, she had a bunch of ideas for things to do on her own but it was fun to have other people chime in.

Aurélie Fée Perrault (with Adrian Hexe Grimm)

Aurélie smiled at the child's impatience, even though it was quite improper. Obviously she was not disciplined enough at home, or maybe the standards of commoners had fallen. Aurélie did not pretend to know how people's minds worked; only that she knew how to act conservatively enough to fool them.

"Now, now. One question at a time, please," the aristocrat said pleasantly, covering a very ladylike laugh with her hand. "How about we go elsewhere for the time? Perhaps a more private place? I am very interested in your magic, as well. Maybe we can talk over tea and cakes."

"My sister and I are free now. If this is a good time for you, I do not see why we should not have this conversation right this moment." With a slight tilt of her head, Aurélie indicated towards the open door. "Shall we, then?"

Oh, she did hope that she would not have to tell Alice Mordrake too much about this child. Perhaps she could understate her abilities and have Anh Sang to herself. The girl's roughness would need to be smoothed out but she was still young and such things were not yet an impossibility.

Adrian Hexe Grimm (with Aurélie Fée Perrault)

As Aurélie led Anh Sang away, Adrian followed the two. Outwardly, she was stoic but inwardly, she was worrying. They were already part of something involving a boy not much older than this child. Is this really the best idea? she wondered distantly. No, probably not, but once Aurélie took her mind to something, there was no stopping her. Hopefully there would be nothing especially scarring in the girl's future. Maybe Adrian could try and mitigate some of the damage but she only had a faint clue of what her sister had planned.

I suppose I will have to wait and see. It was what she always did; it was what she was best at. It felt sometimes like that was the only good option open to her.