Under Oath | Ladynoir ✓

10 | apprendre

"YOU CAN DO THIS, MARINETTE," Tikki said. "I believe in you."

Marinette was sweating, and it wasn't even warm. The back of her hand came away sheening after she ran it across her forehead. She knelt atop the duvets on her bed, sitting on her haunches and leaning back against the pink wallpaper.

"Tell me again how to do it."

"I don't know exactly," Tikki answered. Kwamis couldn't read the encrypted codes of the grimoire—which was back in the Guardian's rightful possession—but after knowing hundreds of wielders, Tikki had a trove of wisdom about the fully matured powers of the Ladybug Miraculous.

"Your adult powers will let you use your Lucky Charm as many times as you like, without de-transforming in between. When you feel that pull back into your civilian self, try to ground yourself."

Past wielders had told Tikki that it was like discovering a muscle that they had never used before—and flexing it the first few times was painful and exhausting, until they built strength and control became second nature. Since kwamis had no control over the transformation process, if Marinette wanted to master her full powers, she would have to find that technique herself.

Tikki placed a comforting hand on Marinette's knee. "It's all about self-control and inner strength, Marinette. Remember, there are no limits to the Miraculous other than what you place on it."

Marinette nodded but said nothing, panting throughher mouth. She had so many commitments vying for her time—overseeing the team of Miraculous investigators, running the student body council and juggling shifts at her parents' bakery. Still, for the last week, they'd set aside small chunks of time to practice.

Tikki was equally proud of her strength and worried about her well-being.

At length, Marinette picked herself up from the wall and whispered, "Tikki, spots on."

An invisible current of magic swept Tikki into the ruby earrings, the familiar shadowy, comfortable realm of her Miraculous welcoming her with open arms. Ladybug called her Lucky Charm. She had nothing to do but wait out the five minutes. And the first thought that came was the usual one this week: curse Plagg.

Curse him all the way to the home dimension.

She hadn't wanted to watch Marinette—one of the kindest and most innovative wielders she ever had—grow up so soon. Even when her wielder was carrying the weight of the city, there was ample room in her heart for laughter and love and fantasies. Tikki had seen previous wielders become neurotic and inconsolable and isolated under the pressure of the Ladybug Miraculous. She never planned to teach Marinette new abilities, never planned to load another burden—the heaviest of them all—onto her wielder's shoulders. It wasn't the right time.

Then Plagg happened.

There she had been, sharing her kwami powers with Ladybug on a moonlit rooftop, when she saw a new wielder of the Black Cat's Miraculous. And then he spoke. And then he spun his staff with that practised familiarity. And then Ladybug had made a terrible pun and there had been an imperceptible twitch at the corner of his lips.

Tikki saw all these things through a blended consciousness with Marinette. Because she was a kwami, and one of the most powerful, the Miraculous quantum masking worked less on her experienced eyes. The absurd conclusion: Cat Walker was really Adrien Agreste.

Considering Tikki had known that living embodiment of a stinky sock for as long as she'd known herself, Plagg had gone and pulled the dumbest Miraculous stunt since his disaster with the dinosaurs. (Maybe that was an exaggeration. She didn't know how to gauge the stupidity of Plagg's actions. She had been too upset.)