Dimensional Descent

Lyra Emberheart had been the subject of great discussion these days. After placing third, she secured a great honor for the Spirituals, but while everyone else was celebrating her success, she seemed to be the only one who couldn't.

Sitting by her windowsill, her chin resting on her palm and her gaze looking out into the world, her breath came out in a steady, slow stream. The wind caught her gauze-like curtains and fluttered her pink nightgown as the sun set.

Her victory was a good thing for the Spirituals, but the ultimate result was that it had emboldened a lot of people.

Despite the clear gap that had been displayed, maybe used the excuse of Aerin as a reason. They felt that if she had paired up with a Spiritual instead, maybe instead of third place, she could have secured at least second, or maybe, she would have made it far closer than it seemed.

The funny part was that Lyra didn't believe they were actually wrong; the trouble was that they blamed the wrong things.

In terms of skill and talent in Force Pill Crafting, she didn't believe herself to be inferior to anyone beneath the Gods. She had seen the geniuses of the Demi-Gods now and she wasn't impressed.

The gap between them lay not in their talent, but rather the breadth of their knowledge. If one had all the talent in the world but no method to apply it, then what good was it?

But that was why her rewards were so good. She had received an Eighth and Ninth Order Standard Force Pill Recipe. If she took her time to study them, she could close the gap...

Just a little bit.

She sighed.

How many blueprints could Celestia study whenever she wanted? What about Verma?

There were just some gaps that couldn't be closed so easily.

Her mind flickered toward Aerin, but the image was immediately overlaid by Leonel, and she sighed an even deeper sigh.

even

could she not see that the rules had targeted Leonel? And even then, he would have still come out on top had

to herself. Was it a weakness to not

didn't like the spotlight...

that he definitely had a backbone. If not for Leonel taking most of the heat, the discrimination he would have faced would have been

take calculated risks, while Leonel was wild and moved with naked abandon. He just happened to have so much talent and intelligence that things mostly worked

Until now.

almost being married off to a human, back to being the pawn

way or another, her family was hell-bent

"What is this?"

letter in his hand. It exuded a scent he recognized all too well, after all, he had spent all his days in the Gathering

but he didn't believe

her scent. It had her handwriting. It even somewhat sounded like a series of words she might put in order. But she would never send it, he

Lyra, but he felt like he knew her like the back of

and reserved, bordering on

where no one else dared to do so, made that plainly obvious. She would never

to lure him

His brows furrowed.

Race was also celebrating, and he was at the

that he couldn't fall into such a