Accident

Arriving back at her tower, she rushed towards the top, where her research station was located. "Welcome back Milady" she heard a young girl call out. "You look happy, what happened?" she asked with an innocent voice. She was a beautiful girl with red curly hairs. Recently having her adulthood ceremony, she wished to help the witches become stronger. Because of her powers to make magical paper that could not be destroyed, The Quest Society assigned her to Nathalie.

"Great news Emily, The Three Chiefs just announced something major for us researchers. Anyone that could provide The Union with an innovation that will help in the battle against the demons will get a wish they could use on anything." Excitement could be heard in the voice of Nathalie. "This means I can finally become free of these burdens and be accepted by The Union."

"That's exciting news Milady, I hope that your research will indeed help The Union defeat those horrible demons!" Emily's voice turned from excited to resentful when talking about the demons, it was clear that she hated those beasts from deep in her heart.

"Yes, yes indeed, therefore I have to get back to my research as fast as possible." Opening up the bag she brought with her, "I was able to get a few low grade magical stones from the Quest Society in order to research on them. They were rather unwilling to provide it to me, given that my powers only destroy these things and have, till now, no useful results." Nathalie said whispering the second sentence. "Can you put them on the research bench, I will change my cloths to something easier to work in."

…

After 5 minutes, Nathalie walked back into the room having changed her cloths. Now she was wearing a blouse and a skirt, but most importantly, she had her working apron on. In here she could store some vials and her note book, for easy access.

"Let's get starting" walking towards the working bench, Nathalie called out. Standing in front of the working bench, Nathalie first started with what she normally did. She picked up some empty vials and filled them with acid using her powers. Having filled the vials, she said "Now comes the difficult part, and the one that the Quest Society doesn't like." She picked up a magic stone that was put down and brought it over to the vial.

"Well here we go." Nathalie put the magic stone into the vial of magical acid. Normal acid would not damage the magical stones normally, however, her magically created acid had a stronger effect and could actually damage and even melt the magical stones. From previous experiments, she discovered that her acid became stronger after it got infused with the magical stone, however this did not last long, there was a missing component. This component is what she was trying to find.

Having tried dozens of options, Nathalie did not know what he had to do. Because most components change when they are heated up, Nathalie started a fire and put the vial of acid onto it. The acid started to boil. Being enhanced by the magical essence, the acid took a longer time to boil. She did not know how long it took, as her mind started to daze of thinking of what could be the missing component.

"…-dy. …-ful." what was that Nathalie thought? "Mila-… be c-…!" being lost in thoughts Nathalie did not pay much attention to her surroundings. "Milady, be careful!" Nathalie finally woke up by Emily grabbing her and screaming from her lungs. "BANG!" Not realizing what had happened, she heard a loud bang. She flew a few meters back.

…

Not sure what happened, Nathalie found herself on the ground. Something heavy was on top of her. Her vision was all dazed up and she had difficulties focusing. Trying to shake the dizziness off, Nathalie finally discovered what was on her. She saw Emily lying on top of her. She had shielded Nathalie form the explosion, and thereby got the blunt of what happened.

Getting back on her feet, Nathalie saw that the whole laboratory was in a mess. And what's worse, Emily was covered in acid, her skin slowly melting by it.

"Emily! Emily! Wake up!" Nathalie screamed with tiring eyes, not knowing what to do.

…