A/N: Yeesh! Finally! I was hoping to get this finished before the end of September for this fic's first year anniversary, but between my chronic illness, terrible writer's block and then me being sick for the past week, life just did not want to give me a break. XD
But yes, I am finally back with the ending for episode two and oh boy... This one was a doozy. The amount of times I kept rewriting the first half of this goddamn chapter was crazy! Although, I think I finally got there after a lot of internal debates. XD I'll save my breath for the bottom of the chapter if anyone is interested in the decisions I made throughout this chapter and what certain things mean. You've all waited long enough to read this, so I won't keep you.
However, I'd firstly like to give everybody who has been favouriting, following, reviewing and reading this fanfiction for the past year since its publication a sincere and special thank you. When I first started writing this fic, I was not expecting the reception it has been receiving over here and on AO3. It was just a silly little idea that I wanted to get out of my head. So, to see so many people becoming invested in Delila and her journey as they have has been such a delight, and I can only hope it will continue as we move through the first seven episodes of the anime.
Now, with that said, I hope you all enjoy the ending to episode two. I don't know when I'll have the next chapter written, as I am currently playing catch up with some of my other fanfic at the moment. Hopefully, I can keep it under two months, though.
Chapter 11: Leap of Faith
Amidst the trembling earth beneath her feet, Delila charged across the bridge and into the botanical garden as quickly as she could, staggering from left to right with each step. Her thoughts were as scrambled as the eggs she ate this morning, her mind struggling to grapple with the unusual tree roots bursting from underneath the botanical garden and arching over the river surrounding the land the building was on.
However, the full reality of the situation didn't hit her until Delila stumbled inside the building and came to a grinding halt by its entrance, her eyes almost bulging from their sockets upon spying the Jennifer Memorial Tree. Its branches, once barren and wilting, were now proudly raised to the dome's skylight and thriving with lush leaves. The gap once visible in its discoloured and greying trunk now stood firmly compacted together in a distinctive spiral, its bark a healthy shade of brown.
Sadly, its newfound life didn't last.
Down on the ground, surrounding the base of the tree, the strange, dark-green coloured tree roots were running ragged, slithering through punctured holes in the grass like a horde of large snakes, covered in a glowing, mint-green outline. That same glowing outline flashed up around the memorial tree's trunk, washing over the colour of its base and up its spiral to turn its bark a ghostly white; it was like Delila was watching someone sucking milk through a spiral straw.
Delila's eyes remained fixated on the memorial tree until she heard a familiar gasp at the base of its trunk, directing her horrified gaze in the direction of her older sister. Diana was stood frozen in the middle of the snaking roots, her back facing Delila, her legs spread apart in an effort to maintain her balance.
"Diana!" Delila desperately called out to her sister, charging towards her through the slithering roots as the older Cavendish whirled partway round to face her.
The second they locked eyes, Delila saw Diana's pupils shrink, her usual composed mask shattered in the face of the current carnage as the younger Cavendish stumbled to a stop at the edge of the grass. But before Delila could even question her sister's reaction to her presence, something hard collided with her left side, throwing the oxygen out of her lungs and her whole body forward through the air. Over the wind whipping around her ears, Delila thought she heard Akko shouting her name from somewhere behind her. Yet that was long forgotten when she crashed close to the tree on her back, gasping and spluttering for air like a drowning fish on land.
Amidst her attempts to regain her breath against the ground violently quaking underneath her, Delila saw Diana's cold and stoic expression return with a deep frown, her palm held out in the direction of the botanical garden's entrance.
"Stay there!" she sternly ordered; Delila presumed she was addressing the Red Team, whom she guessed had followed her upon getting over their initial shock.
Delila harshly smacked a fist into her chest and forced out a cough once the oxygen flooded back into her lungs, rolling onto her side (the one her elixir and wand weren't tied on) just as Diana staggered over and knelt beside her. In turn, the ground suddenly stopped its shaking, the raised roots falling still. They lost their glows and hardened in place, leaving behind arched roots coloured a dark brown.
"Are you hurt?" Diana asked as she placed her hands on Delila's shoulders, ignoring her sister's persistent twinging while helping her up onto her knees.
"I don't think so…" Delila croaked, gently shoving her older sister's hands off her shoulders and clutching at her side. The younger Cavendish was sure she wasn't hurt, though the stinging pain left behind from the impact did. "Did you cast Louperial Ral on the memorial tree?"
Diana lifted a brow and blinked in surprise at the enquiry. "I did." She squinted suspiciously at seeing Delila's eyes grow wide at the confirmation. "Why do you ask?"
Delila wasn't given the time to formulate an answer; Lotte's shocked shout beat her to it. "Look!"
Both Diana and Delila glanced to where the Red Team were standing on the botanical garden's path, the trio almost back-to-back and surrounded by hardened and arched dark brown roots. Embedded atop some of the roots were round and spiky green glowing chrysalids, the sight causing the twins' jaws to drop. The Cavendish sisters scanned the rest of the roots surrounding them, seeing the same chrysalids scattered about. Up close, Delila noted that the tops of the chrysalids were adorned with a six-pointed star symbol. Why did she feel like she'd seen that symbol before now?
Akko yelped and stumbled backwards into her teammates, hugging the Shiny Rod (which she'd apparently brought with her) to her chest with wide red eyes. "What are these things?!" she shrieked.
Sucy's visible eye narrowed suspiciously at the chrysalid closest to her, arching her body a little to the left to get a closer look. "Pupae," she answered Akko calmly, glancing over at Diana and Delila at the next thing she said. "And they're not ordinary pupae either."
A bead of sweat trickled down Delila's face at the confirmation the lavender-haired witch had given to her earlier suspicions, the younger Cavendish's fists loosely clenching at her sides.
"So, Professor Callistis was correct," Delila stated lowly, her blue eyes jumping between the glowing chrysalids. "These creatures have been draining the Jennifer Memorial Tree of its life."
Delila heard Diana's breath hitch in her throat at this revelation. "That's why the memorial tree got so sick," she quietly affirmed, her gaze falling to her palms for a moment; Delila caught their subtle shaking, alongside the crack developing in her sister's voice. "Meaning the spell I cast just now… fed these vermin…"
The guilt the younger Cavendish heard and saw practically bleeding past her sister's public mask was as plain as day. The longer the younger Cavendish stared at the watery shroud enveloping Diana's eyes, the stronger the familiarity of it became, tugging at faint recollections hiding in the darkest corners of her memory and striking a sharp pang across her chest. This look… How many times had she seen it expressed on her older sister's face when they were girls?
A booming crackle propelled Delila back to the dilemma at hand, returning everyone's attention to the roots. The chrysalids began to expand in size and throb as they absorbed the nutrients from the roots they were settled upon, flushing them all the same ghostly white as the memorial tree's bark. Lotte and Akko both cried out in shock and shuffled backwards to increase their distance from the chrysalids near to them, the latter recoiling her limbs closer to her body.
"What are they doing now?!" Akko screeched in a wobbly and high-pitched tone.
"They're absorbing the remaining nutrients from Diana's spell!" Lotte loudly answered, making Diana glare at the chrysalids in question.
"Then they must be stopped!" the older Cavendish declared, causing Delila's brows to sharply raise.
What did her sister just say?
Before Delila could question what she'd meant, Diana abruptly rose to her feet and reached for her wand tied to her sash, whirling round to face the far side of the botanical garden. Her wand's tip flashed a bright mint green as she aimed it directly at the first chrysalid that fell into her line of sight.
"Murowa!" Diana boldly shouted the spell name as loudly as her lungs allowed; the Heat Blast spell, Delila recognised.
A round wisp of mint green light leapt from the tip of her wand, gracefully spinning and gliding through the air until it closed in on its target. It exploded upon impact and encased the chrysalid in electrical green static. After a few seconds, the static dispersed through a small puff of white smoke, making the chrysalid droop and shrivel, its form physically sagging like a deflating and scorched balloon.
Was her sister planning to exterminate these creatures singlehandedly?
"D-Diana, wait a minute!" Delila objected as she staggered to her feet, but it fell on deaf ears.
Diana swirled round on her heels and pointed her glowing wand at a trio of chrysalids gathered close to the memorial tree's opposite side, once again shouting the spell incantation at the top of her lungs.
"Murowa!"
This time three circular wisps launched themselves into the air, raining down upon their targets like tiny, glowing missiles and attacking them in quick succession. The younger Cavendish stood there, as still as a statue, blue eyes numbly staring at the blackened and steaming carnage left in her sister's wake. She was only snapped back to reality by Diana bellowing the spell's incantation for a third time, her newest target being the chrysalid directly in front of Akko.
"Murowa!"
Delila looked back just as the chrysalid became surrounded by static, followed by the Japanese student squealing and shielding her face with her arms.
"Diana, stop!" Delila pleaded, forcing her sister to look at her as she grabbed her wrist and brought her to a halt. The younger Cavendish ignored the uncomfortable twitching of her fingers at the physical contact. "Don't be reckless!"
"There's no time!" Diana argued. "They need to be stopped before it's too late!"
"Then we need to consult with Professor Callistis in the library!"
"But these parasites are going to kill the tree!"
"And how do you know they're parasites?" Delila disputed. "Have you seen these pupae before now?"
From the corner of her eyes, Delila thought she caught Akko narrowing her eyes at the chrysalid in front of her as if to scrutinise it. But then her concentration swiftly returned to Diana when she released an irritated huff and wrestled free of her younger sister's grip with ease.
"Just stay out of the way, Delila," the older Cavendish strictly instructed, beginning to turn away and ready her wand for her next target.
To the Red Team, what Diana said was unremarkable. To Delila, however, it was like she'd just been hit by a large wave of déjà vu, drowning out her senses and propelling her back to one of many arguments between her and her Aunt Daryl over the financial decisions the latter made for the household.
"Just stay out of the way like you always do," the older witch's dismissive scoff echoed clearly from the crevices of her memory. "Children, sickly or otherwise, have no business involving themselves in adult affairs."
Delila's left eye twitched with annoyance, that all-too familiar tightness springing to her chest. Forgetting where she was for a brief moment, the younger Cavendish glared at her older sister's back as Diana turned around to aim her wand towards a group of chrysalids on her right, a scathing remark tingling on the tip of her tongue. However, before she could speak it, a brown blur suddenly dashed in front of Diana, cutting the former off mid-spell and distracting Delila.
"Muro—"
"Hold it, Diana!" Akko shouted, leaving the older Cavendish halting her movement with a surprised blink and a slight gape. The Japanese girl stood before the chrysalid in a starfish pose, arms and legs outstretched, Shiny Rod in one hand, a frown etched on her brows. "The pupae might not be bad, after all!"
It took a moment for what had just transpired to properly sink in for Delila. Yet upon processing that Akko had just thrown herself in the way when her sister was in the middle of casting a spell, her jaw dropped, her stoic mask shattering like smashed glass. A sly peek over her shoulder revealed Lotte and Sucy still standing amongst the dying roots, the former forcing multiple, bewildered blinks and the latter staring at her missing teammate with a puzzled lift of her brow. Not even they had expected Akko to do what she'd just done.
Unfortunately for Delila, Diana regained her composure faster than her younger sister did, scowling and whipping her wand about in a 'shooing' gesture.
"Move, Miss Kagari!" she ordered. "You're in the way!"
Akko stubbornly shook her head and deepened her frown. "No! I think they belong to the pappiliodya!"
Diana pressed her lips together and furrowed her brows in confusion, the glow of her wand dying out as she lowered it a little. "The… what?"
"Pappiliodya!" Akko repeated with forced emphasis. "You know, the magic butterfly? They're not parasites!"
Delila's eyes flickered to the chrysalids scattered about them like glowing marbles, a quiet gasp escaping her at mentally recalling the image she and Lotte were looking at earlier on one of Akko's cards. Akko was right: they were identical. No wonder Delila thought she'd seen those symbols somewhere before now!
The younger Cavendish heard her older sister growl under her breath, her head snapping towards her again to see Diana gritting her teeth and tightening her grip on her wand, flushing her knuckles as white as the bark of the memorial tree.
"This isn't the time for games! Move!"
"Make me!" Akko defiantly challenged.
Diana's wand visibly shook in her hold, the veins on the side of her neck protruding from her skin. She almost looked like a volcano on the verge of erupting, a very rare sight these days even to her family. But then Delila saw her sister's eyes suddenly dart to her right, where a small gathering of chrysalids lingered close to the base of the memorial tree. Akko immediately noticed the shift in movement as well and followed Diana's gaze, red eyes growing wide at realising where the British witch was looking.
Neither girl had to say a word for Delila to figure out what they were both about to do, the unspoken understanding increasing the tightness in the younger Cavendish's chest.
Oh no.
The second Delila saw Diana sharply turn towards her right, a rapid and electrifying jolt shot through her limbs. The British witch broke out into a sprint alongside Akko (who, even with Delila being guided by the rush of adrenaline, moved much faster and got quite a few steps ahead of her) towards her sister's next target, her hand moving of its own accord to snatch her wand free from her sash. The hammering of her pulse in her ears drowned out any awareness of her own actions, her body moving as though she were possessed.
"Murowa!" Diana bellowed, firing a medium-sized blast of mint green light with the harsh swish of her wand.
It soared at the unsuspecting chrysalid in a straight and vertical line just as Akko became the first to get within its range, prompting the Japanese student to launch her body forward and twist it round while she was airborne, her eyes squeezing shut in preparation for the hit she was expecting her back to take. But as the approaching attack whizzed straight towards the brunette dropping to the ground, Delila flung herself sideways and directly in its path, her wand fully extended and glowing a bright red at its tip.
"MUROWA!" she roared the spell name at the highest volume her voice could muster, sending a large burst of red magic springing from her wand.
Within seconds, the two attacks collided midair and exploded with a resounding bang, zapping thin and electrical streaks of mint green and red in all directions. Any roots in range of the destructive blast were struck, scorching and steaming several chrysalids beyond recognition.
Diana stood in a wide stance, gawking and wide-eyed, as the attacks fizzled out and conjured a mass of grey smoke between her and Delila, the older blonde forcing multiple blinks trying to comprehend what had just happened. But once the thick haze cleared, she was greeted to the sight of a heavily panting Delila collapsed onto one knee, her wand weakly held upright in her right hand, her other hand digging its fingers into her chest. Akko laid flat on her back on the grassy ground behind her, the Shiny Rod clutched loosely in hand just above her head. The Japanese student stared slack-jawed at the British witch's back, red eyes sparkling with awe at the little she'd witnessed the blonde student pull off just now.
Aside from Delila's struggle to regain her breath, the air was silent and heavy, the bulging and shocked blue eyes of the older Cavendish locked with the drooping and weary blue that matched her own. Eventually, Lotte's distressed yell for Akko snapped all three girls out of their reveries.
"Akko!"
Lotte and Sucy weaved around the maze of roots and sprinted over to where Akko lay on the ground, the brunette vigorously shaking her head to return to reality. The Finnish witch was the first to reach her teammate, dropping to her knees beside her and snaking an arm round her shoulders to help her sit up.
"Are you okay?" Lotte asked.
"Yeah, I… I think so," Akko answered slowly, blinking heavily while she heaved the Shiny Rod from the ground and rested it across her lap for now. Sucy, on the other hand, remained standing behind Lotte, her focus switching to Delila when Akko shuffled round to her right side to peer at the British witch's face. "Hey, Delila, what about you—?"
Akko went silent when the younger Cavendish weakly turned her head to her, blue eyes narrowed into slits, her brows knitted close together in a displeased scowl. The tightness in Delila's chest had long since faded, her breathing mellowing out. Yet the exhaustion was currently weighing down heavily on her, keeping her slumped forwards like a rag doll and making each blink of her eyes a struggle.
"Do you have a death wish?" Delila hissed, making the brunette's body stiffen with a startled squeak. Due to her palpable exhaustion, the younger Cavendish figured she didn't look the least bit intimidating; her naturally sharp facial features were likely accomplishing that for Akko instead, she assumed. "Jumping into the path of a heat blast spell? Have you lost your mind?"
The last thing Delila said made Akko pout and scrunch her nose out of anger, her hands clenching into loose fists. "What else was I supposed to do to stop Diana hurting the pupae?!"
Delila's eyes drooped in disbelief (or maybe it was tiredness. She wasn't sure anymore); was Akko being serious right now?
Sucy gladly answered on her behalf. "Show her the trading card," she stated flatly.
An awkward pause followed as Akko shifted her gaze to her teammate, her expression blank for several seconds. When it finally clicked, the Japanese student laughed nervously and closed her eyes, rubbing at the back of her neck with her palm.
"Heh… Whoops. Didn't think of that in the moment."
Of course you didn't, Delila thought, only just about hiding the annoyed twitch the corners of her lips did as she was reminded of her very first interaction with Akko; she was quite the impulsive individual.
Luckily for Delila, a distraction sprung over the horizon: a flash of mint green light entered the left side of Delila's peripheral vision, directing everyone's attention to the Shiny Rod in Akko's lap. Five audible gasps sounded at beholding the seven crystals of the staff glowing in sync, its brightness intensifying the longer they fixated upon it.
Having already been given more information surrounding the Shiny Rod because of Akko, Delila wasn't too shocked at the sight she was currently beholding. Though, actually seeing Akko's explanations come to life right before her eyes for the first time was still enough to get a physical reaction out of her, their truth fully cementing itself into her mind and washing away her exhaustion like a violent wave crashing into rocks. A brief peek over her shoulder at her older sister yielded the same result, Delila noted. Diana had relaxed from her offensive stance and returned her wand to her sash, but her eyes were currently focused intently on the Shiny Rod, a child-like fascination glistening in their corners, her mouth partially dropped open.
Out of the five of them, however, the Red Team were naturally the quickest to get over their shock, with Akko exposing the reason why when she collected the staff between her palms and brought it closer to her face.
"Hey! It's glowing again!" She glanced over to Lotte and Sucy, directing her next enquiry at them. "Any idea why?"
Sucy shook her head and offered an open-armed shrug, whereas Lotte tilted her head to the side and tapped a finger to her chin, turquoise eyes glimpsing the Shiny Rod over from head to base.
"I think it could be connected to the pappiliodya," she guessed. "The last time it glowed, you used it to save us from falling. Maybe you need to use the Shiny Rod to help the pappiliodya hatch."
"Oh, yeah!" Removing one hand from the Shiny Rod, Akko fished through the trading cards she'd tied back to her sash and yanked out the one for the pappiliodya, turning it around to show Lotte its front and accompanying image. "You thought there was a spell written on this card, right? Do you think this is it?"
"It couldn't hurt to try it."
A wide smile spread across Akko's face, bringing the Shiny Rod and trading card close to her person with an enthusiastic nod. "Then let's do it!" But then the Japanese student's face fell as her eyes darted about the area. "What should I cast it on?"
"Hm…" Lotte hummed in thought and allowed her gaze to wander about the scattered roots and chrysalids, eventually settling it upon the ghostly and drooping memorial tree. "How about the memorial tree? The pupae are connected to its roots, so it'll channel the magic to all of them at once."
"Good idea, Lotte!" Akko threw her body back and then jumped onto her feet as lively as a baby bunny, ignoring Lotte's surprised recoil and yelp as she sprinted for the base of the tree without waiting for everyone else. "C'mon! We have a tree to save!"
Upon regaining her composure with a heavy exhale, Lotte stood up and jogged to catch up with Akko, with Sucy slumping her posture and slinking after her two teammates without saying anything. Delila, however, stayed where she was for the time being, switching her attention to her sister at noticing the older Cavendish calmly watching the Red Team pass her by. Her stoic mask was back in place, her posture was as straight as a pin, and her arms were folded tightly across her abdomen, not speaking a word as she let the trio go on their way. Once again, Diana Cavendish looked the very picture of 'composed' and 'elegant'; no one would have guessed that she'd just spent a good minute frying a bunch of chrysalids and then arguing with both Delila and Akko.
It was only once the Red Team gathered around the base of the tree that Diana approached the other blonde, watching her younger sister let her wand roll out of her palm and onto the grassy ground.
"Can you stand?" Diana enquired lowly upon getting close enough, her brows furrowing a little out of concern. Delila nodded her confirmation, prompting the older Cavendish to look her over from head to toe. "And you're not hurt? Any pains or other concerns?" When Delila shook her head, the older Cavendish's brows soon relaxed with a quiet sigh, a nod of her own acknowledging her younger sister's words swiftly following. "Good."
As Diana crouched down to collect Delila's wand from the grass, Delila shot the Red Team a brief look, a curious brow raised at seeing that her sister definitely had no intention of stopping them from executing her plan. By the time Diana was pushing her wand back inside its handle and handing it over for Delila to take, the younger Cavendish couldn't help vocalising her confusion.
"You're going to let them execute their plan?" Diana nodded as Delila slipped her wand into the knot of her sash, prompting the younger Cavendish's brow to arch a little higher. "What happened to 'I know the difference between a real magic staff and a fake one'?"
Diana narrowed her eyes at the second enquiry, almost causing Delila to smile in amusement. Her sister did not appreciate that teasing jab. But Diana breezed passed it with a heavy sigh and shake of the head.
"I am more than capable of acknowledging when I am in the wrong, dear sister. Seeing the magic staff activate before my eyes is enough evidence that this isn't a coincidence. Besides,"—Diana gave Delila a pointed look, her next words laced with a stern tone—"I doubt you would have risked leaping to Miss Kagari's defence like you did if she was incorrect, now would you?"
Diana's disapproval at her earlier actions was as clear as day to the younger Cavendish. Unfortunately for her older sister, it didn't deter the younger of the two from clapping back with a sarcastic comment.
"I would have done it regardless. Could you imagine the reactions if it was discovered a Cavendish accidentally blasted another student?"
Diana inhaled deeply and lightly facepalmed her forehead, one of her eyebrows twitching irritably. "This is hardly the time for jokes, Delila."
"Who said I was joking?"
At concluding Delila wasn't going to drop the act any time soon, Diana rose to her feet and waited for Delila to do the same, the two sisters walking side by side over to where the Red Team were. At least Delila had managed to dissolve the tension between them a little.
Lotte and Sucy currently flanked Akko on either side (the former on Akko's right and the latter on Akko's left) while the Japanese student took on a wide stance between them, gripping the glowing Shiny Rod in both hands and pointing its head at the memorial tree. It wasn't until Delila and Diana (respectively) joined them next to Lotte that the former noticed Akko's eyes were shut tight, her brows furrowed deeply in concentration.
"Okay! Here goes!" she proclaimed, only to crack open an eye and then narrow it slightly. "Uh…"—she slyly sideways glanced Delila—"What was that spell again?"
Look who remembered she was the only one to pronounce the spell correctly, Delila mentally commented.
"Papillio Fillio Nymphodya," Delila emphasised without missing a beat, ignoring the raised eyebrow Diana shot her out of intrigue at their interaction.
"Got it! Thanks a lot!" Tightening her grip on the Shiny Rod and lowering her head, Akko closed her eye again and returned her focus to the memorial tree, reciting her next words loudly and proudly. "The magic butterfly, Pappiliodya—spread your wings and fly! Give us all hope!"
The glowing inside of the seven crystals flashed brighter in sync with the brunette's words, conjuring sparkling balls of mint green magical energy that gathered and danced around the head of the Shiny Rod. With Sucy and Lotte each taking a strong grip on her upper arms and Diana and Delila moving closer together in anticipation for what was about to happen, Akko sucked in a deep breath through her mouth, snapped open her eyes, raised the glowing staff above her head like it was a giant mallet, and correctly bellowed the name of the spell to the botanical garden's skylight, swiping the Shiny Rod downwards.
"Papillio Fillio Nymphodya!"
A giant surge of sparkling magical energy erupted from the head of the staff, spiralling around its top half as a giant tornado. The strength of the magical energy assaulted the five girls standing behind it as a strong and continuous wind, forcing them all to close their eyes and dig their heels into the grass to withstand the whipping gusts attacking their clothes and hair. Lotte and Sucy maintained their strong grips on Akko's shoulders in the meantime, with Diana and Delila shielding their faces from the gusts behind their raised arms.
Eventually, vine-like streaks burst from the middle of the enchanted chaos and rained down on each and every chrysalid in the area, including the ones formerly attacked by Diana (and, unintentionally, Delila). The streaks of magical energy were absorbed through the chrysalids' symbols until they blew up like a balloon and ignited a golden light inside of it, with any damaged chrysalids shedding their charred skin and regaining their healthy green cocoons they expanded.
The Red Team and Cavendish twins relaxed their stances when the raging gusts and bright lights finally disappeared, just in time to witness the shells of the chrysalids crack down the middle and split apart. One by one, large glowing and golden beings emerged in a bundle from the openings, their gigantic and butterfly wings unfurling to reveal the four-armed, two-legged, and double antennaed humanoid creatures Delila recognised from Akko's trading card—the pappiliodya.
All five girls gawped in awe as the pappiliodya simultaneously stretched out their limbs and wings as wide as they could, hovering in place and intently eyeing the botanical garden's skylight. And then, like sparkling golden wisps in a gentle breeze, they gracefully flapped their wings and moved in sync. Golden and glittering lights shed from their fluttering wings and rained down upon the still gawking and wide-eyed students watching the pappiliodya rising to the ceiling, all of them at a complete loss for words.
Delila, in particular, was enamoured with the sight, unable to pull her eyes away from the almost angelic creatures flying above them. Once again, she found herself pondering if she'd become ensnared in the confines of a fanciful dream. After all, hadn't Akko's trading card mentioned something about the pappiliodya hatching once every century? And yet here she stood, beholding a rare event only a lucky few could witness at least once in their lifetime? The odds of that were almost impossible, right? So, the only logical conclusion was that she'd dozed off with the Red Team by the river, yes?
Akko's joyous laughter destroyed that thought of Delila's in an instant.
"Yeah! It worked!" the brunette cheered, sporting a cheery and proud grin upon her face. "We did it!"
Delila watched Akko release another hearty laugh and sling her arms around Lotte's and Sucy's shoulders, bringing the pair into her sides in a tight squeeze. Lotte closed an eye and shyly smiled up at her teammate from where she was being squished, while Sucy squared her shoulders and crinkled her face in disgust at the unwanted physical contact. But when Delila broke her gaze away to look at Diana, the older Cavendish was still fixated on the pappiliodya, that child-like and faraway look streaked across her wide blue eyes, her body as still as a statue's.
It was official. Everything Akko told her earlier was true.
As the late afternoon dawned over Luna Nova, the sky was awash with a fiery orange hue. The pappiliodya, having since escaped the confinement of the botanical garden, majestically soared above the castle-like structure in a long and glowing line, the sparkling shimmers from their wings decorating the air and falling to the ground like glistening, golden rain. Inside and outside of the botanical garden, the roots that once broke free of the earth had returned to their home underground, the pathways and grass restored to their original, pristine state with not a single crack visible, as if they had never emerged from the ground to begin with.
Following the exit of the pappiliodya from the botanical garden, the Red Team had headed off together to watch them fly away from Luna Nova. This left Diana and Delila Cavendish alone for the first time since this morning, the twins stood side by side in silence before the restored Jennifer Memorial Tree. Diana was gazing up at its healthy, brown bark, its compacted trunk, and its proudly raised branches flourishing with lush leaves, her arms limp at her sides. As for Delila, however, she was scrutinising her sister's current stance and expression through a sly sideways glance, her hands clasped behind her back.
Although her sister's worries surrounding the wellbeing of the Jennifer Memorial Tree were finally resolved, Delila could tell by the glassy glint reflecting in Diana's eyes that her older sister was far from relieved by the outcome. Something was bothering Diana, likely connected to her irrational behaviour earlier, Delila suspected. And while she wanted to rip off the plaster and ask Diana directly what was troubling her, her mouth refused to open, the question catching in her throat. When they were girls, a task like that was more than simple for Delila. But now, there was a tense heaviness weighing in the air between them, giving rise to that invisible wall and pushing Diana far away despite the pair literally standing only a couple of inches apart.
Thankfully for the younger Cavendish, Diana soon shattered the terrible illusion and its suffocating silence along with it, the older blonde's head solemnly lowering to her feet.
"Did I upset you?" she questioned, her voice just above a whisper.
Delila blinked once, then twice, and then thrice, a little taken aback by the unexpected enquiry. "Pardon?" was all the younger Cavendish managed to utter amidst her surprise.
"There was too much magical energy in that heat blast spell," Diana clarified, speaking a little louder this time. "That only happens when you're upset or angry."
Diana noticed that? Although now that Delila had the time to think back to her reckless counter, how could her sister not have noticed? The damage she'd caused when their spells clashed was quite devasting, she grimly acknowledged with an inward wince.
When Delila didn't reply to her, Diana released a heavy and weary sigh, squeezing her eyes shut in the process. "I apologise for my behaviour earlier. I was just trying to—"
"I know," Delila calmly interrupted, prompting Diana to open her eyes and raise her gaze to her younger sister. "You wanted to fix everything and got caught up in the moment. I know you didn't mean it."
"That doesn't mean you deserved it," Diana argued. "You were only trying to stop the situation from escalating further. I should have listened to you."
Delila released a bitter snort before she realised it. "I don't blame you for ignoring me. I mean, why would you listen to what I have to say?"
You think I've abandoned you for the last five years, right?
That was the rest of what Delila wanted to say, though she refrained from doing so. Because while the younger Cavendish's initial response left her tongue so casually, like what she'd said was a well-known fact, the way she caught Diana's brows furrow in concern suggested otherwise.
Tense silence enveloped the air between the twins quickly then, prompting Delila to subconsciously rub a palm at her chest; she swore she felt the tightness from earlier creeping up on her. However, it wasn't long before Diana spoke up once more in a quiet voice.
"I never intended to use revitalisation magic on the memorial tree. But when we arrived to check on how it was doing, we discovered the headmistress and Professor Finnelan discussing the matter.—"
The headmistress and Professor Finnelan were here? Delila didn't recall seeing them leaving the botanical garden during the time she was with the Red Team. Perhaps they'd departed before the four of them had gathered close to the field, the younger Cavendish concluded.
"—According to both the professor and the headmistress, the memorial tree's condition had declined considerably since our visit the previous day. Professor Ursula was looking into the cause of its illness and it seemed like she was close to uncovering it, but they both believed the tree wasn't going to last for much longer…"
"So, you cast the spell as a means of extending the tree's life until the answers could be found," Delila solemnly finished after her sister trailed off.
"Yes," Diana sighed despondently, her eyes drooping as she lifted them to the memorial tree's face. "Luna Nova has lost so much because of the magical decline already. I simply wanted to prevent the school from losing such an integral part of its magical history." Diana's head bowed to the ground, her shoulders hunched, and her hands balled into loose fists at her sides, her wand still clutched in her grip beginning to shake. "But all I did was feed the problem. If I'd just spoken to Professor Ursula before I acted…"
Diana left the rest of her sentence incomplete at hearing her tone wobbling, finally forcing the younger Cavendish to return her focus to her older sister. A heart-wrenching mental image of a younger Diana appeared in Delila's mind and overlapped with the current one in the same pose, dressed in a white t-shirt and blue jeans. She held a wooden wand with a white snake designed handle curled round its bottom half, her teary blue eyes boring holes into it out of frustration. Delila's fingers twitched uncomfortably, the urge to reach out and pull Diana into a tight hug like she'd done back then growing stronger the longer she stared.
Surprised gasps from behind her, however, swiftly extinguished that urge.
The two sisters turned around to be met by Professor Finnelan, Headmistress Holbrooke, Hannah and Barbara approaching the memorial tree from one of the botanical garden's many entrances. All four of them were smiling widely up at the memorial tree, with Hannah and Barbara respectively trailing behind the headmistress and Professor Finnelan leading the charge. The former supported herself with her staff in one hand and held her other arm behind her back, while the latter strolled beside her with both hands clasped behind her (Delila couldn't deny that it was strange seeing Professor Finnelan smiling, however. It did not look right against her usually stern facial features, in her opinion).
"The memorial tree…!" Headmistress Holbrooke jollily exclaimed once they'd reached Delila and Diana, her eyes never leaving the memorial tree's trunk. "It's back to its old self again! Oh, how wonderful!"
Hannah leaned down close to the headmistress' level as her smile widened out of pride. "And it's all thanks to the spell Diana used!" she declared.
Delila saw Diana's pupils shrink and her shoulders stiffen as the headmistress blinked in surprise at Hannah, with Delila herself just about suppressing an annoyed eye twitch. Hannah and Barbara obviously weren't here to witness what actually happened, so the younger Cavendish couldn't fault them for pushing the praise onto her sister this time. It didn't mean she still wasn't instinctively irked by it, though…
"Is that so?" the headmistress enquired, prompting Diana to take a step or two forward. "In that case, thank you very much, Miss Cavendish. Your help is greatly appreciated."
"That's very kind of you, Headmistress. But I wasn't the one who did this—" the older Cavendish started to protest, only to be cut off by Professor Finnelan.
"You don't need to be so modest, Miss Cavendish. There's no one else who could have done this but you."
"Well, I—" Diana went to say, but as she took in the beaming faces expectantly looking back at her, the words caught in her throat.
The older Cavendish dropped her gaze and took a step back in defeat, eyes subtly shimmering with shame. But then a forced cough from Delila into her fist drew Diana's attention to her younger sister alongside everyone else.
"What Diana is trying to say is that she does not deserve the full credit for the memorial tree's restoration. Please also extend your gratitude to Atsuko Kagari and Professor Callistis for their contributions."
The pleased smiles fell from the others' faces at the mention of Akko's name, replaced by open mouths and wide eyes between Headmistress Holbrooke and Professor Finnelan. Hannah and Barbara both gawked as if the younger Cavendish had just backhanded them across the face (had it not been for the current situation, Delila would have found their reactions amusing). Meanwhile, Diana stared at Delila like she'd just spoken a forbidden spell, forcing multiple blinks and frozenly gaping at her.
"Atsuko Kagari, you say?" Headmistress Holbrooke repeated.
"That's correct." Delila straightened out the front of her vest and the cuffs of her shirt sleeves. "And on that note, you will have to excuse us. There is an important matter we wish to speak to Professor Lukić about." The younger Cavendish peeked over her shoulder and slyly winked at her sister. "Isn't that right, Diana?"
Obviously, it was a lie. But frankly speaking, it had been an exhausting day for both Diana and Delila following recent events, mentally and physically. Delila didn't fancy sticking around to entertain her teammates nor the school staff about what had transpired here, and she was sure Diana felt the same, proven when Diana's shock evaporated shortly after and her face fell stoic with a stiff nod.
"Ah, yes, of course. We should get going." Diana then turned her attention to the group of four and politely bowed her head, with Delila copying her. "Please excuse us, Headmistress, Professor."
With her farewell said, Diana strolled briskly past the two staff members and her two teammates and towards the nearest entrance of the building, with Delila lagging behind a little. Once the two sisters were outside and safely out of earshot, however, the older of the twins slowed her pacing to allow Delila to align herself with her right side.
"Why did you lie to the headmistress?" Diana queried.
"I didn't," Delila answered matter-of-factly, causing Diana's head to snap towards her sister with the sharp raise of her brows. "You did help. Just indirectly."
"But it was a mistake," she stubbornly refuted, prompting Delila to shake her head in dismissal.
"A mistake that sped up the hatching of a species of magical butterfly who only do so every century. I doubt Miss Kagari could have succeeded without you bringing them to the surface to begin with."
That still didn't seem to be enough to convince Diana otherwise. The older Cavendish looked like she wanted to continue to argue, based off the way the corners of her lips twitched along with her fingers. But in the end, she released a heavy huff and averted her eyes to the late afternoon sky, frowning in thought.
"… Perhaps so," she quietly relented; although Delila sensed her sister just said that to avoid further conflict.
Regardless, Delila was more than happy to copy her and not push the topic anymore, the Cavendish sisters both admiring the glowing golden trail of the pappiliodya streaking across the darkened clouds, creating a sparkling and dotted swirl around the New Moon Tower.
Delila's first official day at Luna Nova certainly hadn't gone as she'd expected it to; however, she couldn't confidently say if that was a good thing or a bad thing at this stage. Between her struggles to adjust to boarding school life and everything she'd stumbled upon courtesy of Akko and her involvement with the Shiny Rod, she'd experienced a rollercoaster of emotions and thoughts she couldn't even begin to pick apart. But all of that paled in comparison to the befuddling behaviour Diana had displayed today, a reminder that prompted Delila to slyly peek at her older sister still fixated on the sky, spying the melancholic glimmer in her eyes.
Delila had known from the start that upholding their childhood promise wasn't going to be easy. But after today, she was only just now realising how difficult the journey was actually going to be for the both of them.
A/N: So... yeah. I had a lot of trouble trying to figure out how to write out the pappiliodya scene and then how exactly I was going to end the second episode. Because as with episode one, the second episode ends rather abruptly and the whole situation with the pappiliodya is very fast-paced. There were many times where I actually considered splitting the whole thing into two chapters instead of one, but I ended up not doing so because of Diana and Delila. A lot of stuff was left unresolved in this chapter, as most of you might be able to tell, and while at first I was not comfortable leaving it in such a state... I realised that it was actually for the best that things were left unresolved. For one thing, a lot is going on with the pappiliodya and Akko with the Shiny Rod, so Diana and Delila do not have the mental capacity to be talking things through when they've just witnessed something not many witches in their lifetime would. And secondly, the sisters have a lot of unresolved tension and their trauma pulling the strings, most of which is causing them to act the way they currently are in this chapter. Their relationship has changed since they were girls, after all, and the pair have gotten used to handling everything independently instead of confiding in each other. It didn't feel right for them to be talking about certain things, especially in the middle of what they believed was a serious situation. Even still, it gave me room to increase the tension between them for later chapters, along with dropping some more hints pertaining to Delila's condition...
Yes, what I had Delila do here was on purpose. Going into episode three, she will be actively attempting to get comfortable spell casting again, so it made sense to me to have her start doing so during the mess with the pappiliodya. As much as I wanted to keep Diana's unintentional attack on Akko in, having Diana actually hit Akko without Delila doing anything didn't sit right with me. While Delila is conflicted when it comes to using her magic, she is not the type to just sit back and let her sister make a potentially fatal mistake. Delila's actions here were instinctual, because like Diana previously said in Chapter 6, Delila is perfectly capable of casting spells. It's just her illness (and her own insecurities) holding her back. And because I was playing around with Diana's own behaviour during the mess with the pappiliodya (which I suspect was heavily down to the guilt of her 'mistake' and wanting to fix it to uphold her reputation), I think it fed in nicely in displaying how Delila's illness works. Including with the colour of her magic; that was intentional, I promise. I'm aware the colour of the magic is related to the sorcerer's stone, for anyone who was considering correcting me. XD But when it comes to Delila's magic, it will make sense much later in the series. I assure you.
As for how I ended this chapter... well, I didn't think there was anything left for me to tie up loose end wise. After all, the situation with the Shiny Rod isn't really focused upon until the latter half of the first season. And episode two didn't give me much to work with when it came down to how to end the episode, so I figured including the scene with Headmistress Holbrooke and Professor Finnelan would have to do. XD The whole thing with the pappiliodya and Akko would have definitely sent Delila and Diana through a loop as well, hence why they didn't really discuss what was going on with Akko or what Delila was up to during her absence from the botanical garden. The sisters both need time to reflect and recuperate (Delila especially, because of her reckless actions), so any other conversations I attempted to include felt a bit forced, in my opinion. Not that the pair of them are the type to be open when it comes to their feelings anyways... XD