Lilicena is a deuteragonist in the The Journey of a Dark Elf with Fading Powers manga series.
Appearance
Lilicena is a tall, horned woman with light skin and long dark blue hair. She has two large curved horns and wears a pair of glasses. She also wears long earrings and a dark choker around her neck.[1][2]
Personality
Lilicena is formal, responsible and usually more composed than Amira. She takes her work as a professor seriously and regularly corrects Amira whenever she behaves rudely or carelessly. However, she can become easily flustered by Amira's behavior and is often pulled into her jokes and competitions.[3][4]
Relationships
Amira
Amira and Lilicena are longtime friends and former magical rivals who have known each other for more than 235 years. Before Amira lost her magic, Lilicena was one of the few sorcerers capable of competing with her. Their friendship remains competitive, and they often challenge, tease and argue with one another.[5][6][7] Lilicena cares deeply for Amira and wants her to find a place in the modern world. She recruits her to the Kisaro Academy, supports her interest in staff crafting and recommends her directly to Chancellor Tierlith. Although she often scolds Amira, she believes in her abilities and becomes visibly worried whenever she is placed in danger.[8][9][10][11] Amira trusts Lilicena in return. During the Bird of Embers incident, she enters the burning land while relying on Lilicena's defensive magic to protect her. After Amira returns safely, she teases Lilicena for worrying so much about her.[12][13]
Plot
After spending an extended period searching for Amira, Lilicena finally located her in the mountains surrounding Miragus, the southern capital. She approached Amira while the latter was preparing to eat and ordered her not to escape again, revealing that Amira had repeatedly avoided their planned meeting. Lilicena had previously sent a letter instructing Amira to meet her at an inn, but Amira had either failed to retrieve it or ignored the arrangement.[14] To ensure that the woman was truly Amira, Lilicena subjected her to an unusually thorough examination. She inspected Amira's appearance, hair, skin and scent and compared them with information she had collected 235 years and ten months earlier. After completing the comparison, Lilicena declared that there was no possibility of mistaken identity. Amira objected to the fact that Lilicena had preserved such personal samples, while Lilicena defended her precautions by referring to her own mastery of sorcery.[15] Lilicena remained surprised by how ordinary Amira's interests had become. Rather than discussing sorcery or her former reputation, Amira was primarily concerned with eating lunch, admiring the scenery and recovering from her travels. When Amira produced a unicorn hare she had hunted that morning, Lilicena initially assumed that preparing it without magic would be impossible. She was astonished when Amira instead used a knife to remove its horn, hide and internal organs by hand.[16] Lilicena regarded the work as highly specialized and questioned why a sorceress would bother learning it. Amira explained that she had intentionally pursued skills that could not simply be completed with sorcery. Lilicena continued observing as Amira prepared the ingredients, made an offering to the mountain gods and cooked cream of unicorn hare stew. Although initially skeptical, Lilicena praised both the meal's presentation and its flavor, considering the dish far better than she had expected.[17] During the meal, Amira noticed the pendant Lilicena wore. Lilicena explained that it marked her as a special-grade mage, a rank created approximately three centuries earlier. She proudly stated that she had remained among the world's foremost sorcerers for more than 1,500 years and had passed the special-grade examination on her first attempt. Her qualifications had also allowed her to become a professor at the Kisaro Academy of Sorcery.[18] Lilicena offered Amira a position working alongside her at the academy, believing that no one would object to employing the legendary "Omnipotent Caster." When Amira immediately refused, Lilicena struggled to understand her reasoning. Amira asked whether Lilicena had seen her use any magic since finding her and invited her to measure her magical force directly.[19] After examining Amira, Lilicena discovered that she possessed no measurable magical force. She initially found the result almost impossible to believe, since Amira had once possessed enough power to rival her. Amira assured her that the measurement was correct and explained that the magical force which had made her the Omnipotent Caster had completely disappeared.[20] Lilicena consequently regarded Amira as a weakened dark elf, but Amira insisted that losing her magic had not made her helpless. She explained that she had strengthened her body and learned martial arts during her disappearance and claimed that she could still hold her own against Lilicena. Although Lilicena remained concerned about her situation, Amira stated that she was more interested in experiencing life than in mourning her lost power.[21] As Amira enthusiastically displayed the jewelry and other objects she had purchased during her travels, Lilicena recognized that her spending habits were unsustainable. After listening to Amira explain how she had learned to enjoy cooking, birdsong, dancing and the wind, Lilicena raised the practical issue of how she intended to support herself. She ordered Amira to report to the academy the following morning, reasoning that even without magic, her centuries of knowledge must still be useful to students. Although Amira feared that the students would ridicule her, Lilicena succeeded in persuading her to accept the position.[22] While accompanying Amira through Miragus, Lilicena attempted to prevent her from purchasing an antique magic-driven lantern. She pointed out that the lantern cost 3.25 million fonce and could only be activated by supplying it with magical force, making it functionally useless to Amira. Amira nevertheless wanted it because she admired its design and considered preserving beautiful objects one of her personal missions.[23] When Amira asked to borrow money for the lantern, Lilicena revealed that she had maintained a record of everything Amira had borrowed from her over the previous seven centuries. The total had reached 1,257,650,000 fonce. Lilicena was angered by how casually Amira laughed about the enormous debt and again emphasized that she needed employment, financial discipline and a stable income.[24] Lilicena escorted Amira to the Kisaro Academy of Sorcery and informed her that future purchases would have to be made using the salary she earned there. She guided Amira through the academy's immense tower and brought her to the Floating Gardens, remembering that the location had once been one of Amira's favorite places.[25] As they looked over Miragus, Lilicena expressed concern about Amira's new attachment to the city. Having lived for many centuries, Lilicena had watched entire towns and communities disappear and hoped that Amira would still feel as positively about Miragus after another thousand years. Amira acknowledged the warning but remained optimistic about the future.[26] When Amira noticed students flying on magic staffs, Lilicena explained that they were participating in windriding practice. Their staffs reminded Amira of the dwarven staffsmith Gen, whom both women had known in the past. Lilicena confirmed that she still owned and used several staffs made by Gen, despite remembering that he had once harshly criticized one of her other staffs as garbage.[27] After learning that Amira had sold many of her old magical implements to finance her travels, Lilicena took her to the academy's Department of Industrial Magic Arts. There, Amira met Ith Lightbell and examined the many staffs produced by academy students. Lilicena initially expected Amira to select a staff that would improve her appearance as a lecturer, even though she could no longer channel magic through one.[28] Lilicena soon realized that Amira was more interested in crafting a staff than buying one. She reminded Amira that the academy's craftsmen spent years training with magic-driven tools and that someone without magical force would face severe disadvantages. However, Amira remained determined to find a method unavailable to ordinary magic users. Lilicena agreed to allow the project but insisted that Amira pay for her own materials, only for Amira to immediately ask her for another loan.[29] Lilicena subsequently observed Amira's repeated attempts to construct a functioning staff. As the prototypes continued to fail, she tried to reassure Amira that failure was part of the process. When Amira produced a testable prototype, Lilicena channeled her own magic through it, but the staff failed to carry the magical force properly. [30] When the prototype failed to carry magical force properly, Lilicena recognized that adjustments were still required. She watched Amira become increasingly frustrated but did not allow her to abandon the project. After Amira cried and declared that she would keep working until the staff was complete, Lilicena prepared tea for her while Amira requested a large amount of sugar.[31] Lilicena continued observing as Amira became inspired by Lightbell's devotion to crafting. She noticed that Amira had begun wearing the same expression of enjoyment and concentration that Lightbell displayed while working. Although the process exhausted Amira and caused her to lose weight, Lilicena witnessed her complete the staff after approximately one week.[32] Because Amira had no magical force with which to test the completed staff, Lilicena agreed to operate it for her. She channeled her magic through the mechanism, which successfully concentrated and released the force as a brilliant projectile resembling a new constellation in the night sky. Lilicena thereby confirmed that Amira's first staff functioned despite having been created by someone incapable of using magic herself.[33] Lilicena later supervised Amira's introduction as a lecturer. When Barbato challenged Amira's qualifications and argued that a sorcerer unable to cast spells had nothing to teach him, Lilicena allowed Amira to respond in her own way. Amira proposed an outdoor extracurricular lesson involving a candle rather than attempting to prove herself through a conventional lecture.[34] During the resulting game of Candle Tipping, Lilicena initially watched as Amira protected a candle from the combined magical attacks of Barbato and the other students. Despite possessing no magical force with which to perceive the flow of their spells, Amira repeatedly evaded their attacks through observation, instinct and physical ability.[35] Amira eventually invited Lilicena to join the students' assault, addressing her as "Lilicena the Draconic" and the "Sorcerer of Time and Space." Lilicena accepted the challenge and declared that their confrontation would become another memorable Candle Tipping record. She then deployed Dreams in White, one of the Seven Great Staffs of the World, which had been crafted for her by Gen.[36] After transforming Dreams in White into its enormous winged form, Lilicena generated a powerful magical field and began manipulating large sections of the surrounding canyon. She launched boulders and repeated magical barrages at Amira, forcing her to dodge, deflect and physically smash through the attacks while continuing to protect the candle.[37] Lilicena was impressed by Amira's greatly improved body and learned that she had spent approximately one hundred years carrying firewood, farming and fighting forest monsters after losing her magic. Lilicena was shocked by how far Amira had pushed her body beyond what should be normal for a dark elf. [38] When Amira briefly gained the advantage, Lilicena responded with a massive spatial or stone-manipulation technique. She moved an enormous rock formation into the battlefield and caused the surrounding canyon to collapse into debris. The two continued fighting through the destruction, appearing to enjoy the opportunity to test one another after their long separation.[39] Despite the scale of Lilicena's attacks, Amira successfully kept the candle upright and declared herself the winner. Lilicena's participation helped the students understand that Amira's lack of magic did not make her weak and that magical force alone was not enough to judge her ability as a teacher.[40] Afterward, Lilicena explained the history of Dreams in White. Gen had crafted the staff approximately four hundred years earlier, and few reliable records about him remained because he had avoided attention and trained no direct successor. Lilicena remembered him as a quiet and steady craftsman who became intensely energetic whenever he began working.[41] A memory then showed Gen speaking with Amira in the past. He warned the Omnipotent Caster that she had not yet drawn out even half of the staff's full power and told her not to simply hang it on a wall. Amira promised that she would not use it against people, calling herself a pacifist dark elf. [42] Lilicena listened as Amira reflected on Gen's skill and admitted that he would probably have considered her handmade staff garbage. Although Lilicena agreed that Gen had been an unusually harsh critic, she supported Amira's realization that crafting had opened an entirely new world to her. Amira consequently decided to spend the next century becoming a better crafter.[43] Recognizing Amira's growing interest in magical implements, Lilicena informed her about the academy's Great Storage Room. The restricted underground collection contained treasured magical books and priceless tools created by historical masters. When Amira immediately asked to enter, Lilicena explained that ordinary staff and students required special authorization from the academy's Chancellor.[44] Lilicena had already recommended Amira to the Chancellor, but her endorsement alone was not enough to secure full approval. The Chancellor remained concerned that Amira's legendary status could negatively influence immature students and questioned whether an exceptional sorcerer would necessarily make an exceptional teacher. She therefore decided to summon Amira and evaluate her personally, setting up the next stage of both Amira and Lilicena's work at the academy.[45]