The Understudy of an Alchemist

73. A Promise

Eugene's eyes widened with sheer delight, as he reached across and placed his hands upon her shoulders. "Blondie?? Is that you in there??" She laughed at this sentiment and leaned across and kissed him tenderly upon the cheek. "Uh-huh. In entirity." She tried to pinch the corner of her SunDrop formulated armour, but it was welded into her skin. She frowned at this, chewing her lip. "Huh. That's new."

It was at this moment that Ivy moved towards her, head tilted to one side with curiosity. "Rapunzel," She began, at which the princess in her sunstone armour diverted her attention to over to her. "How do you feel?" Rapunzel shrugged, long strands of golden hair moving side to side as she did so. "Not too different, really. I feel a little stronger, I guess. Also....I feel like this almost has a heartbeat." She moved her hand up to the SunDrop as she said this.

Ivy nodded at this revelation. "Hmm. The SunDrop is beginning to weaken. You may indeed be feeling energised for now, but when the eclipse does happen, you will not feel so animated." Rapunzel nodded at this explanation, her hand sub-consciously moving up to touch the glowing orb embedded into her chest.

It was Varian's turn to cautiously move closer to her, holding my hand and gently towing me as he did so. "Fascinating!! It seems that the SunDrop has somehow fused with your-" He began, yet suddenly, a black rock shot up shot up from the floor boards, before multiple others began to erupt from the ground.

"Watch out!!" I cried as I instinctively shoved Varian out of the way and thrust the both of my hands outwards, at which the rocks sunk into the ground, leaving nothing but a few punctured holes in the floor boards. Breathing heavily from the surge of adrenaline that had occurred from this, I warily turned to face Ivy, who was the only one who wasn't looking somewhat spooked. "Was that me??"

She nodded at this question, at which everyone seemingly relaxed their shoulders. I realised with a start that they must have assumed that Cassandra was attacking. That was a relief. "Your powers are reacting to the SunDrop. It's sensing it's weakening state, and is attempting to shield it." Another smaller rock shot up beside my leg, at which I stomped my foot and it vanished back into the ground. "How do I make it stop??" I almost begged, casting away the others that were shooting up from the ground in multitudes.

Varian grabbed my arm and gently pulled me out of range of Rapunzel, at which the rocks sunk back into the ground. As we did this, Ivy elaborated in response to my question. "You can't. Until you gain full control, they'll simply react to the SunDrop's diminished aura without warning. For now, just keep your distance."

As she said this, I took several steps backwards even further out of range, my hearting beating a little more rapidly than it really should be during in situation like this. My gaze flickered over to Varian now, visually confirming that he was okay, the rocks hadn't gotten anywhere near him, which was indeed a relief, yet still, there was another factor that I had to come to terms with.

I looked back up at Rapunzel, who was conversing with Eugene and Ivy, with Petunia hovering awkwardly in the background. If I went near her, the rocks would go all crazy. In normal circumstances, I would just follow Ivy's advice and stay afar. But that simply wasn't plausible in this scenario, I had to protect her. I was the only one who could do so, with my power over the rocks.

But how could I keep her safe if I couldn't regulate and control the one thing that could protect her??? Didn't that defeat the entire purpose??!!

"Okay, we've got to try and find a way to braid this mess." Rapunzel gestured to the tangled hanks of hair. Petunia nodded at this statement eagerly. "I can help." She reached over to attempt to grab one of the chunks of hair, but it tensed like some spring and slapped her across the knuckles. Gasping with pain, she recoiled her hand, yet before anyone could properly react to what had just happened, the hair suddenly began to levitate off the floor once more, before it was fully hovering in the air like a cape trailing behind Rapunzel.