Make sure it goes off right. El can send her to work on the modified incantation too, if that'll help.

She does still have a bit of tweaking to do until she's happy with it, honestly. She'd had the idea of doing a two person round for the incantation, a different modified versions of the set yourself right meditation for each of them... 

(Their mom had them singing the simple gifts hymn and doing the meditation every morning and every evening, and a bit extra when needed - which was often. Casting a spell two dozen times or so tends to engrave it pretty firmly into your muscle memory. Casting it thousands of times engraves it into your soul, it feels like.)

Wanna bet Mum never saw this use of it coming?

She at least guessed it'd help them be happy. Just, not what that happiness looks like, Lu'd bet.

Well, fair enough. Kiss!

Kisses!

So just them for tonight, then?

Yeah. Just them - and the next morning, too. 

Sounds perfect.

Absolutely so. 

So El will do her best to get the workshop steps done quickly, then they can retreat to the dorms.

She unfortunately is mostly tied up in keeping mals off El's back - but she helps speed things up as best she can. 

Best sister. Then, to El's room.

Where they can get all the way to 'nearly ready for the final step' - the collar will need to cure overnight, enough time for the lacquered exterior to dry and stabilize, and it'll need to be held close by El. (Embraced like Lu longs to be embraced...)

Tomorrow, it'll be ready for the final incantation.

It is without a doubt the prettiest thing El has made since getting to the Scholomance. Shiny and spiky and very snug around Lu's neck. (She's taken diligent measurements.) And etched twining around it is a line from the incantation that they'll use to seal it, like the writing on the One Ring.

Because El is the best dark sorceress. (Lu insisted on including a small function where those words will glow when the collar is heated up or struck by electricity.)

A worthy sacrifice for aesthetics, and one that wasn't too hard to implement (her affinity did actually cooperate with her there).

That it naturally requires burning or shocking Lu probably helped. 

A rare case where everyone's incentives all aligned.

Hopefully less rare in the future. 

Hopefully.

Unfortunately, they're just about out of time for tonight.

...Yeah. 

She'll leave when El orders her to, though. 

She's to be back first thing tomorrow, though.

She will. As soon as curfew ends. 

There's a good girl. Sweet dreams.