PART 1
Papers? I thought to myself. Was he going to jot down things he observed during our awakening?
Father then dipped his hands into the small chest as he appeared to be searching for one more thing. He then lifted the box, shaking it vigorously. As he was about to put his hands and eyes into the box, he let out a relieved "Ahh, ahh," as he placed his thumb and index finger like a crab, as he planned to pick something up inside the chest. What exactly could it be? A magic tool?
"Oh, it's just a pin?" I thought. "A black one, to be exact. It looks exactly like a push pin from my world that I normally used at my office.
As my father, trying to make my mother feel better, asked her to give us the purification water to drink from each of the two glass bowls, Astraya and I now faced the table. Astraya stood on the left side, of course, occupying the left bowl, and I stood on the right, occupying and standing in front of the right bowl with the purification water inside.
As Mother then urged us to take a sip, "Come on, both of you, drink a bit of it," she said. I had so many questions, but the only way they could be answered was if I just took a sip and saw what would happen for myself. Raising the bowl towards my mouth, I tilted it slightly, allowing gravity to do its work. The silky liquid, as I could best describe it, was surprisingly sweet but burned my throat in a kind of way. It was very similar to alcohol, but definitely not it. I was sure this had a very sweet taste, but suddenly a sharp bitterness hit my taste buds with an extremely sour taste, as if lemons were just a piece of this liquid.
"It's okay, the bittersweet means it's working," Father said, as he wasn't a stranger to the feeling. My body temperature immediately spiked from very warm to hot and then cold. Mother couldn't step in to comfort us as we experienced this sensation. I held Astraya's hands as we both winced, kneeling. Our tongues were blasting with sourness. "It was so sweet, then bitter, then extremely sour," I said, clutching my throat in reaction. And then my heart felt like it was experiencing heartburn; this wasn't something I would wish on my worst enemy.
Why are they feeling the effects longer than normal, honey? Mother looked deeply concerned about why we had such a strong reaction to drinking the purification water. Father, clearing her doubts, said it was mostly because we are way too young to be taking it in the first place, but we can't step in just yet; they need to confirm the sensation.
"Listen to me. Look past the sourness, bitterness, and the rapid shift in your temperature. Try to focus on your chest or lower abdomen. Once you feel it, you'll know what I'm talking about," Father urged, knowing we could do it. It was clear that if we failed to get it, we would have to drink the purification water again, and he was not hiding anything when he said it was worse the more you drank it. I then focused, trying to look past the chaos building in my biological system and feel the sensation he spoke about.
Part 2
"Finally, just as Father had said a few moments ago, and as his book had informed, I could now conceptualize what the sensation was like, as I could feel a burning sensation forming a kind of second heart, but it also felt close to my abdomen.
Astraya then worded out, 'I can feel it now. It feels like a rod, because why would it be close to my heart but also felt in my stomach, Daddy?'
She was right; that's how I felt too. 'Yes, Father, I feel it too.'
Father looked impressed as he signaled to Mother, who then told us to kneel and face him. She was about to heal our bodies.
'You see, kids,' Father said, 'when your core forms, minor tears happen. Hence, why your mother is healing you. It could totally heal later on, but it's better to fix it now than later, right?'
'So, Father,' I asked, 'we have cores now?'
'Yes, Astraga. Now we move on to phase two.' He gestured to the push pin and the slip of papers.
As Mother placed her two hands on our backs, touching our bare skin to heal us;her left hand on Astraya and her right hand on me…the green glow from her palms felt refreshingly like someone placing cold water or ice on my back, relaxing all my muscles and easing all my initial discomfort and irritation. My tongue no longer felt the extreme bitterness and sourness, and the intense heartburn between my heart and lower abdomen was gone.
"You should feel better now... both of you," Mother said, removing her hands from our backs.
Astraya and I both nodded to confirm her expectations.
Father playfully smashed his two hands together.
Clap.
"Now that you've both recovered, come closer," Father urged, as even he could no longer wait. He also needed to know.
"Father," I asked, "what exactly is that pin-looking thing for?" I had no idea why a pin was needed, as my experience with the purification water was traumatic enough.
Father then said we should both bring our thumbs as he grabbed the push pin. Holding our hands one after the other, "This might hurt a bit," he said as he pricked my thumb with the push pin. My face etched in discomfort.
Astraya also felt it. "Ouch... it's very sharp."
Now what could the paper do next? I thought to myself.
Astraya held onto Mother's clothes as Dad pricked her thumb as well.
Now taking our hands, mine was first. He squeezed about five drops of blood into the bowl of purification water. The same went for Astraya. As each drop of blood touched the water, a bright white light appeared.
He then answered our curiosity about the papers. "These strips are how we'll know your mana type and affinity." He said he had forgotten where this paper was gotten from, specifically from a particular tree, as he touched his chin, lost in thought. Mother reminded him, "It's from arcanwood, from the arcantree." She smacked his head, as this was something he shouldn't be forgetting.
PART 3
"Alright, so why exactly the arcantree? I'm sure you're wondering." Father seemed excited to educate us on the subject.
He said the leaves of the arcantree are naturally mana-reactive. When processed into paper and soaked in specific conditions, they change color and intensity in contact with the mana in blood.
"So this was like a litmus test, huh?" I thought.
He further explained that he had eight strips, four for each bowl. There were four prepared strips with small labels: F, W, E, and A (Fire, Water, Earth, and Air) to detect which color dominates the blood sample. He then said each had a thin line separating four zones, as each strip was divided into four clear segments (like quarters of a bar). The strips were especially good at filtering each element out of the blood, as each mana type would be attracted to the specific strips it was designed for. This was quite a meticulous process, as he explained that once a mana core has been activated, it immediately starts absorbing its preferred mana types and flows in your blood.
Mother then added, "Mana may be in your blood now, kids, but to channel that mana into something is another process."
According to Father, the purification water, once it comes into contact with blood, turns into mana liquid.