Jett's brows drew together. The corners of her lips dropped, just slightly as something else pulled at her thoughts.

  “But…” she added, voice quieter now. “I’m feeling something strange.”

  Emma’s head tilted, not in confusion, but in quiet curiosity. Her body remained still, but her eyes sharpened subtly. She didn’t speak yet.

  Liz leaned forward, narrowing her gaze on the fish in Jett’s right hand, the one Emma had manifested.

  “It’s like… it’s real. Fully real. As we can see it, hold it. just as Jett's holding it,” Liz said, her tone thoughtful, not skeptical. “But…”

  She stopped.

  Jett turned toward her.

  Both girls stared at the same fish.

  Then at each other.

  And finally, their gazes met Emma’s.

  Then, together they spoke, the words weaving like an echo shaped from intuition.

  “Not only does it feel superior,” Liz and Jett said in synchrony, “It also seems like it was never even created…”

  Emma’s eyes remained on them, her body still, yet something flickered in her gaze, a subtle widening, a reflection of thought churning deeper and deeper beneath.

  Superior… Never even created…

  The words struck something. Not a revelation, but a realization. A piece falling into place in a puzzle far greater than any of them could yet see.

  Her mind turned inward.

  So that’s the difference… she thought slowly. That’s what separates my manifestations from Ash Of Creation. That’s what makes it unique. Emma thought as she finally understood one of her powers....

  Hearing what Liz and Jett said, Dan who laid sprawled across one of the broader icy boulders, arms folded behind his head, his dark blue hair tousled against the cold surface. His deep sea-colored eyes stared upward, following the jagged edges of the ice above, but his thoughts lingered elsewhere, on the girl.

  From what they just said, he thought, shifting slightly as his boots scraped gently against the frost, this strange girl doesn’t just have Ash of Creation. It’s… different.

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  His gaze drifted over to Emma.

  She sat in quiet conversation with Liz and Jett, her silver-white hair glowing faintly in the low light of the created campfire, cascading down her back like flowing threads of moonlight. Her expression was thoughtful, composed, yet beneath it was that same subtle curiosity that always flickered behind her strangely unique white eyes. She moved her hand slowly in the air, tracing something invisible, perhaps trying to explain her theory through gestures. The sleeves of her dark blue and light blue shirt trembled slightly with the motion, the cold drawing faint white mist from her breath.

  Dan turned his eyes back to the ceiling, his brows knitting slightly.

  If she tries to create something that’s already been created… she doesn’t just recreate it identically… His thoughts slowed while he heard what Emma said, She makes something better. Superior. And uncreated. As if it never needed to be born to exist. That’s... strange

  The cold bit into the back of his neck, but he didn’t shift as he also had cold resistance, just like everyone here in the icy cave.

  Ash of Creation can make uncreated too, He continued, narrowing his eyes. But that takes experience. Control. Knowledge. Hers just… does it. On instinct. Which means there’s more to it. A lot more. But she hasn’t realized it yet.

  His thoughts drifted as he muttered, his voice barely a whisper. “Just like my Lime-State…”

  The words froze in the air, unheard, vanishing like snow in flame.

  Nearby, the conversation was winding down.

  Jett sat cross-legged, holding the newly manifested fish in one hand and the other in her lap. She was still trying to understand the essence of what she had felt earlier. Liz stood beside her, arms folded as her emerald eyes flicked between Emma and the creation that had sparked such confusion. Ron sat silently at the edge closer to Jett, his pale gray eyes watchful but calm, offering a few short sentences when asked, though his mind, like the rest, seemed caught on a thread of wonder.

  The idea lingered, settled deep in her chest like a warmth trying to push through the frost and soon after, they all drifted back to their places, quietly, as if the conversation itself had drained something from the air.

  Liz returned to her spot near a jagged wall of icicles, close to Dan, curling herself into the space like a cat folding in for the night. Ron walked calmly back to his stone seat he was earlier, curling his fingers together, lost in whatever quiet thoughts filled his still eyes. Jett walked a little slower, still eyeing the fishes before finally letting it vanish with a flick of her wrist.

  Emma, meanwhile, padded across the slick surface toward the little outcropping she’d claimed before. She moved silently, each step pressing gently into the sheen of frost that coated the icy cave. Her skirt swayed around her knees like a slow whisper. She lowered herself onto the frosty stone, laying back against the wall, pulling her legs up slightly. The ice behind her felt real now, less like a threat, more like a reminder.

  Her unique white eyes remained open, soft, glowing faintly.

  She didn’t speak. Not aloud. But her mind was loud enough.

  When I learn transmutation magic… and Anna finally walks… How will that day turn out? It will be the first time Anna will see herself standing with her own feet...

  A small, almost imperceptible smile crept across her lips, warm against the icy cave. She hadn’t realized her lips had shifted into a smile, she didn't know it was there..

  And slowly, she let exhaustion overtake her. The smile lingered even as her body relaxed, her hands resting gently on her stomach, fingers curling slightly.

  Sleep claimed her, not as an escape, but as a quiet descent for the journey ahead.

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