Silvia excitedly opened the door for them. Before it was even fully open, Maria rushed inside, jumped onto the couch, and hugged her dolls.
"It felt like an eternity without you guys."
Silvia entered next and held the door open for Lorelei, waiting for her to step inside. But Lorelei stayed still in front of the doorway, her hood still up and her eyes cast down. Silvia turned around to see her standing there, so she approached to check on her.
"Sweetie, is something the matter?"
"I doNt knOw..."
Silvia seemed puzzled. She didn't know how to comfort Lorelei. She's probably hungry, she thought.
"Come inside, you'll have a nice meal."
She started walking back toward the door. Just as she was about to push it open, Lorelei pulled at her sleeve.
"You arEn'T goIng to leave Me eIthEr, arE yOu?"
Her voice was shaky, and her grip on Silvia's shirt was soft and light. Yet Silvia could feel her tiny fingers trembling beneath that glove. Even through the layers of silk, she could feel the fear running through Lorelei's every inch of her skin. She's just a little girl, for god's sake. What could have happened to her? Silvia took Lorelei's hand in both of hers and said,
"I'm not going anywhere, dear. I'm right here. I will always be here whenever you need me — for both of you girls. So have faith in me, Lorelei."
She lowered Lorelei's hood and gently patted her head.
"There, there. Everything will be fine, I promise. Come on, let's go now."
Lorelei nodded and took Silvia's hand, who guided her back into the house.
"You girls should go take a shower while I set the table."
Silvia went to the kitchen, took out plates from the cabinet, and served the food. She kept arranging everything on the table until the two girls came downstairs, fresh out of the shower.
"Come, girls, dinner is ready."
They walked to the table, sat down in their chairs, and began to eat. By now, Lorelei could fully use the utensils she was given — a fork, a spoon, and even a knife. Silvia had taught her how to use them properly. She was proud of Lorelei's progress, and Lorelei was proud of herself too.
"Maria, would you be able to replace the energy stone after eating?"
"Yeah, I can do it."
Just as she said, right after eating, Maria went to the storage room and grabbed the energy stone they had bought from the capital. Maria's walk could be recognized just by the sound of her little playful hops with every step. Silvia always called her a little ball of endless energy. Before heading outside, Maria asked Lorelei if she wanted to come along. Lorelei agreed and followed. They walked a bit until they reached the back of the house. Once there, Maria pulled a lever that revealed a large hatch, which she opened excitedly. Behind it was a dark staircase leading downward — not a thing could be seen on those stairs. Still, Maria jumped in, wrapping her arms around the energy stone, and soon disappeared into the darkness. Lorelei reluctantly walked down the stairs until she saw a glowing blue light and ran toward it. It was Maria, holding out the energy stone as a source of light.
"Oh! There you are! Come on, let's go."
At a steady pace, they sank deeper into the darkness. Every step echoed across the hallway that seemed to never end. Maria stopped and patted the wall until she grabbed something and pulled it down. At that moment, a thin line of light fell upon a large metallic barrel. Maria pressed down hard on the lid. It spun around and came off, revealing the old energy stone inside. Compared to the bright one Maria was holding, this one's glow was dim and almost fading. She removed the old stone from the container. For a second, everything went dark — until she placed the new shining stone in its place. She pressed the lid again, this time with only a light touch. It spun once more and clicked back into place. Maria placed her hand on the lever and turned to Lorelei.
"At the count of three, we run. One... Two... THREE!"
She pulled down the lever, and everything went dark again. Before Lorelei could even understand what was happening, Maria grabbed her hand and ran — until they were finally out of the basement.
"There, we made it! It's fun going down there when there's light. But the run back is always scary to me. Come on, let's head back."
Even Lorelei had gotten scared when the lights went out. The atmosphere in that place wasn't pleasant at all. Together, they walked back inside.
"Mom, we did it!"
"Good job, girls!"
Silvia gently stroked their hair.
"Now you both need to get some sleep. We'll play more tomorrow."
They agreed and went to their respective rooms. Soon after, Silvia turned off the lights and went to sleep too. But Lorelei sat on her bed, seemingly waiting for something. A few minutes later, Maria entered the room, carrying an enormous book. She seemed to be struggling with it, so Lorelei got up to help her bring it to the bed.
"Thank you, Lorelei! This is the book I was telling you about in the capital. It explains everything there is to know about energy."
Lorelei got into bed, and Maria followed. They both leaned back against the headboard and got comfortable. Maria pulled the book toward them and placed it on their laps.
"I will teach you everything. Starting from the basics."
She opened the book to the first page. Half of it was filled with text, and the other half with illustrations of a human body, as well as other creatures Lorelei had never seen before. Maria put on her intellectual airs and pretended to adjust imaginary glasses over her nose.
"First of all, energy is the basis of life. Without energy, there would be no life. Every living being has energy within them. That energy is stored in a core. The location of the core varies for everyone, but most of the time it's situated either in the upper body or the abdomen. When it circulates through the body, we call that energy flow. There isn't a single part of the body that energy doesn't reach. Think of it like a heart pumping blood throughout the body. It's the same with energy."
She wet her finger and flipped through more pages, skipping past a couple.
"WhaT are in those pageS?"
"Oh, those? I'll come back to them later. For now, let's talk about the composition of energy."
She turned more pages before stopping at one. This one had more text and fewer drawings than the previous page.
"So, about how energy enters and exits your body — it's a bit more complicated. Even I don't fully understand the concept, but I'll do my best to explain it. Basically, every living being is born with a small amount of energy, and at that point, they don't even have a core yet. That also varies depending on the person. There's a rare exception — some people are born with a core — but that's really uncommon. I won't get into exceptions now, because there are a lot of them. Our body naturally absorbs energy through the lungs and spreads it around the body. That's also how, from birth all the way to age nine, the body stores energy until it condenses into a core. The natural color of energy is blue, but once it's absorbed into our body, it can change colors. And those colors reflect our personality and the way we live our lives. A darker-toned color would be associated with a sentimental person. A lighter-toned color would be associated with a brave person. So far, do you understand, Lorelei?"
"YeAh, I Do."
"Great! So, energy has different uses, but the two main ones are body strengthening and spells. When you use energy, you exteriorize the energy stored within you. For body strengthening, you forcefully break down the energy particles in your body until they return to their environmental form. Then the simplified energy is moved to the muscles or the skin. It's an easier process than spells. As for spells, I'll just explain the basics, since getting into detail would take way too long. Basically, spells are a manifestation of energy in whatever form we want them to take. You can see the energy from spells because it's condensed, and the particles in those spells are given a nature — whether it's fire, ice, water, or whatever natural element you can imagine. Using energy for a spell is all about imagination. But using energy to strengthen your body is about how long you can handle the tension building up inside you. The size of the core also determines its strength and storage. The bigger your core is, the more energy circulates through your body, and tasks like decomposing or condensing energy become much faster."
Maria flipped back to the pages she had skipped before. Those pages showed illustrations of all kinds of weapons and people in strange stances. Lorelei didn't understand.
"This part talks about the efficient stances to train your energy core, as well as energy weapons to enhance certain energy natures."
She flipped through even more pages.
"This part talks about the different natures energy can take. Each of us has a different affinity toward a certain type of energy. It just means it's easier for us to make spells of that type. I'll talk about those another day. How about we stop here for today?"
"YeaH, I thinK I UnderStanD moSt of iT."
"That's great! Mom always told me I should become a teacher," she said, puffing up with pride.
Maria closed the book, got off the bed, and turned off the lamp next to Lorelei.
"If you ever wondered why we used candles before, it's because Mom said the energy was running out soon, and we should save as much as we could until I went to the capital. But now it's fine. I'll explain another time how energy is used like that. Goodnight, Lorelei."
"Good night, MarIa."
She slowly tiptoed out of the room, holding the enormous book.
A//N: Tik-tok... tik-tok... tik-tok...