The goal was clear: create a "little skylark."
From the first day of leaving the port, besides fulfilling her basic duties as an attendant to Vice Admiral Tsuru, Seraphilia devoted all her remaining energy and time to this project.
She chose to stay alone in her narrow cabin in the dead of night, conducting countless attempts.
The initial failures were disastrous.
She tried to mold a kitten, but the Cloud of mist just "meowed" in her palm and then "poofed" apart, splashing her face with moisture.
She tried to make a butterfly, but as soon as the wings took shape, they went limp and melted into a puddle of water.
Simply injecting spiritual energy only made the Cloud Mist like a soaked piece of cotton, heavy and dull, collapsing after leaving her for half a meter.
She began to reflect. The key was not to forcibly restrain it with spiritual energy, but to create a precise "cloud core" structure capable of autonomously absorbing trace amounts of water vapor and energy from the environment, and then build the form of the little skylark based on this "cloud core." And the consciousness connection, perhaps, could be achieved by leaving a trace of an extremely subtle "Cloud seed" with her unique spiritual imprint within the "cloud core."
After the shift in thinking, progress remained slow. After days and nights of research, her face was paler than usual, and there were dark circles under her eyes.
One morning, when she went to submit a report with dark circles under her eyes, Vice Admiral Tsuru's eyes, which had seen everything, swept across her face and spoke lightly: "It's good for young people to have drive, but don't waste your energy in the wrong place. Your mission is to become a qualified Marine blade, not to create a pile of... wet garbage in your cabin late at night."
Seraphilia felt a chill in her heart, her spine instantly straightening: "Yes, Vice Admiral!"
Vice Admiral Tsuru did not say anything more, but took the file, and as she turned, left an ambiguous remark: "The ship's fresh water reserves are plentiful, but don't waste them."
Seraphilia stood frozen in place, only realizing a moment later. Vice Admiral Tsuru knew, but she hadn't stopped her. This silent acquiescence sent a wave of warmth through her heart and made her even more determined in her idea.
The breakthrough happened at dawn after a storm.
The storm the previous night had been immense, with the warship tossing like a cradle in the waves.
Seraphilia didn't rest; instead, she felt that this environment, filled with violent water vapor and energy, was the best classroom.
She hid in a sheltered corner, sinking her mind completely into the perception of the churning water vapor around her, feeling their gathering and dispersing under the changes in wind, waves, and air pressure, experiencing the natural rhythm within that violence.
It was no longer "I" want to create, but "the Cloud" wants to form this way.
Sleepless all night. As the storm gradually subsided and the first faint rays of morning light appeared where the sea and sky met in the east, something seemed to be illuminated in Seraphilia's heart as well.
She no longer tried to forcibly "build" a stable structure, but to simulate—simulating the generation and maintenance mechanism of Cloud clusters in nature, making it microscopic and structured.
She guided the Cloud Mist, not by cramming, but like guiding a water flow, letting them naturally circulate and condense in the extremely precise energy "channels" she had preset.
At the same time, she blended a thread of her purest spiritual intent—containing no specific thoughts, only the most essential "intent of protection" and "concern directed at Robin," mixed with memories of the scent of soap in Robin's hair, the cool touch of her fingertips, the sound of her steady breathing while asleep—like the finest spider silk, gently woven into that gradually forming, fingernail-sized, slightly glowing, milky-white "cloud core."
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