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14 - Commencement

Today is the day that phase 3 starts. Adel woke us up like usual, even if all of us have mastered the use of solo-Seontto Adel still insists that we have the sessions together, both because Mia said so and because she can help if anything unusual happens.

Nothing happened so far, but just in case.

Apparently mana usage is not a joke. After our group session for replenishment and renovation of our inner mana Adel looked serious to us, more serious than normal.

"Today we start a new training. This is going to be hard on all of us, and I mean all. This will require a lot from me too. It is the most important phase. It is now that you will receive a mana seed. It will not hurt. Mostly. But it will be hard and require a lot from you. You will need to take this VERY serious and be SURE to follow each and EVERY instruction that you receive, understand?"

"YES!" Was it really necessary to give so much emphasis on that? It's not like they ever questioned your orders or went against anything…

"Good, it's important that you keep it in mind. The training will not be held home, we will go to the nest's core. The mana there is extremely concentrated, even for the nest's parameters. It's not a place you should go unattended, and newborns cannot enter alone." Ok, Adel is explaining more than usual today, is this training this serious?

"Also, I know we have been training as a group until now, but not anymore. Going to the core requires full time supervision of an adult, meaning that each one of you will go one day with me, in order. And because it is a very intense procedure you will only go once every 7 days. For safety reasons, 7 days is the minimum waiting time between each session."

She continued with the long explanation. We will go in the order of our names, which was pretty predictable. We will receive something called 'seed' in there, and it will take a lot of our energy and require a lot from our physical bodies. Because of it we will probably sleep for a few days after each session. The amount of sleep after each session is not fixed, it is different for each individual, basically it depends on how fast our body will adapt to the seed.

It is also possible, extremely rare, but possible, that the seeding fails, in this case there is absolutely nothing to do, you will be 'recycled'. It is, allegedly, very hard to sustain the normal minimum required social life without this seed, whatever that may be.

"So, because it is hard on me too, after the morning procedure each day I will need to sleep. During the seedling phase I'll sleep a lot too, not as much as you, but because everyone of us will be extremely tired all the time, you should be careful to not make noise inside the house. I'll get mad if you wake me up and it interferes with my work. You are free to do whatever you want during the time you are awake tho. I don't care. Just make sure you are well rested for your turn and we are good"

During the entire time Adel was talking (I have never seen her talk so much) she was constantly summoning a symbol on her hand. I can safely guess what it was. Probably a clock, because we have seen Mia do the same thing before when she was explaining time for us. What appeared in Mia's hand at the occasion was a different symbol, but it is very similar. I'm pretty sure those are the symbols showing the time. Also safe to guess that Adel needs to be on time for the seedling.

At the right time, or the time Adel judged as right, she took Einer and left for the 'nest's core', I don't know where there is, but I'll find out in 2 days, at mines/Drei's turn.

Because the rest of us are now left without any real responsibility we talked a bit and decided to go outside and play a bit with our friends, which will probably be in the same situation as us. With nothing to do and eager to do something to pass the time.

*

We were not home when Adel arrived with Einer the first day, but we were yesterday when she got home carrying an unconscious Zwei. She left the girl in her room, cleaned herself and slept, waking up only today morning.

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Today's Seontto session is missing both Zwei and Einer, who are still sleeping. And finally today is my turn… Drei's turn. Me, Drei, us… I get confused sometimes. I feel like I'm Drei and Drei is me, but at the same time I'm not her, she is not me. And at times we are not two but one individual… It's a very confusing feeling for me too.

More important, today is finally our day! I'm dying from curiosity to know what seedling is, where the nest's core is and what they do there. Adel did not talk details on that and all the ones that already went through the procedure are still unconscious.

We left home, it was a beautiful sunny day… not that I had seen any day not beautiful and sunny, I still haven't seen rain. We did not walk for long, the building we stopped in front of was actually VERY close to our home.

It is the same building that Emma works in. Emma is the nice lady that helped us when we got lost the first time we explored the outside. We haven't visited her after that. Which now that I think about it, was an extreme lack of consideration on our part . She was so nice and saved us back then…

There were lots of people entering, but not nearly as much as I thought would be. Considering that the entire nest is doing the same training in the same place, I thought we would encounter a considerable traffic of people. But there is none of what I imagined. There is, however, a small line of 6 pairs, grown up and child, waiting in front of a door, on the back of the building.

Each one was holding something like a lantern, it was bright but not too much that it would hurt to look directly at. Adel took one from… I don't know where, I looked away for one second, and the next thing I knew Adel had the lantern, glowing in light blue.

We joined the line after greeting Emma. I'm not sure she recognized Drei.. I hope not. I'm feeling ashamed of not visiting to thank her better, but there is nothing I can do, it's not like I can suggest anything to Drei. I'm just an insignificant unvisible bystander.

The line went inside very fast, not even 5 minutes had passed and we were already walking on a very big round set of stairs. The stairs were really big. We could fit at least 3 people with open arms side by side here. And the distance that we are descending is deep. I'm sure we already descended the equivalent of 5 floors, probably. There are no doors or windows or actual floors for comparison, but I'm sure it is DEEP.

Arriving at the bottom, things were a lot different from what I imagined. I can see several other entrances with lots of people coming in. The ceiling it's lit, like someone painted the entire ceiling neon tint. I expected this far underground to be very dark, but thanks to the bright ceiling the entire room is well illuminated.

The floor is flat covered in a moss-like-plant. Nothing too astounding there. The walls on the other hand, were the definition of astounding.

The walls were clearing made of roots, which are probably from Mother. It's very different from our house, where the walls are from Mother's root, but they are smooth and look like a normal modern wood wall, sanded and cleaned. Here however, the roots are clearly in its raw natural state. There are big and small roots, going across the entire facility. More like this place is a void and Mother's roots grew around it.

But the most amazing thing... This place is HUGE. Extremely so. I have no idea how tall and how wide this is, and I have no way to estimate the amount of people that can be fit here. But it is by far the biggest structure that I came across in this world. Excluding Mother.

I feel like I'm in the biggest soccer field I have ever been. Full people on the field, and no grandstand. Only the field itself. Beautifully illuminated by the ceiling, the moss on the floor reflecting a bit of the light. It all creates an… ethereal feeling. I understand why Adel talked so highly of the 'nest's core' now.

While I was lost in my own admiration for the place, Adel and Drei waked more to the middle of the field, sited down on the floor, near the line of people that were already there, and waited. We waited for some time, not too long tho, I still haven got tired of admiring this place. Mother is a true god to create a sanctuary like this, this beauty and perfection cannot be created by the hands of humans…

Once everyone was here. I know that because no one else was coming down the stairs. A voice reverberated. It came from everywhere. I don't know who was talking, but everyone could hear it perfectly.

"We shall start the seedling of Drei"

Oh.. yes, that's true. Every child here is called Drei. That's a lot of 'Drei'.

"Stand up" The voice continued. Adel got up and pulled me together. All the others did the same.

"Prepare the host" Adel let go of my hand, took me by the shoulders and guided me to a specific spot. I could not see anything different on this spot, but she made sure I was on a very specific spot, and whispered for me to stay still. Again, all the other duo did the same.

"We shall begin"