22 - Mila's guidance

By the time Zwei woke up from her 6th watering session two things happened: first, I finally noticed that I spent more time with Zwei's than with the first Drei. Which is a bit weird to think about, since I learned so much more with Drei, even if it was less time. Everything was new to me, and to her. In comparison my time with Zwei feels almost boring.

Well, yes, we had a lot of pain together on the watering sessions and stuff… And Zwei almost doubled her time in awake suffering before passing out, AND she wakes up a few hours earlier now. But I did not learn much about the world or anything like that. I feel like the children are too sheltered and too much information is hidden from them.

It is the same on Earth, yes. We don't tell children most of what awaits them in the real world, but still… I wish I had access to this information.

The second thing that happened was that Zwei finally lost patience. She got tired of failing.

"Mila, can you help me?"

I counted, it's been 39 days since we began with the 'watering' sessions on the core, once every 7 days. 36 days since she first began to notice the new mana system inside her. 28 days since she first began to try to actively control the new mana on the new system. She has more mental fortitude than I ever had. I would have asked for Mila's help in the first week.

Zwei failed for 28 days but finally decided to ask for Mila's assistance.

"What do you need help with, Zwei?"

"I noticed that the seeds Mother bestowed upon us are like cores to it's own mana system inside me"

"Yes, that's mostly correct. I'm impressed you understood that on your own"

"No…. that's nothing… I'm sure the others were aware of it way before I even noticed some difference in me"

"That might not be the case you know… but it also does not matter. Ask away"

"I have tried to access the new system with the two new cores, but I'm failing. The best I can do is… look. I cannot interact with the systems"

"Yes, that's normal. You won't be able to direct interfere with it for a little while longer"

"Really?" Zwei was both happy and disappointed with the news. She was happy that she was not actually failing, but she was disappointed that she would have to wait longer to interact with it.

"Yes, until we conclude the watering, at the very least"

"Why?"

"That's not something you need to worry about for now. I'll explain everything at the right time."

"Ah… ok" Only frustration could be seen on her face.

"You don't need to be that disappointed you know? It won't take that long"

"But… I want to improve"

"I understand… but it is not the right time."

"Ok..."

"I can help with other things tho..."

"Really?" Such a fast mood switch. Clearly happy Zwei was now smiling hopefully.

"Yea, sure. Let's go to your room. I'll show you there"

"Not the training room?"

"That's still off ground for you kids"

"When can we go train there?"

"When phase 4 begins"

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"When is that?"

"When phase 3 ends" The defeated face Zwei is making right now is priceless! But who can say that she is not in the right to make that face? Mila solved a total of zero questions. Gave us absolutely no new information.

"Let's just go to your room so I can help you"

"Ok"

Mila took the lead and they went upstairs the rooms.

"How do you feel more comfortable to train inner mana? Sitting? Sitting on the floor? On the bed? Laying down? Standing up?"

"On the floor, sitting cross-legged"

"Then go ahead"

"Ok" She sat down and crossed her legs.

"I'll inject a bit, just a tiny tiny bit of my mana into you"

Mila placed one hand right in the middle of Zweis chest. I could feel it heating up a bit. A second later she removed it.

"How was it? Did it hurt?"

"No, it was just a bit hot. It did not hurt at all"

"Ok, good. I'll increase it a bit by bit. I need a minimum of mana outside my own body, and in this case, inside yours, to be able to manipulate it and help you, ok? tell me if it hurts"

"Ok"

Again she placed one hand in the center of Zweis chest and did the same thing. This time she left the heating up for a far longer period of time. She said she would increase her mana input, I did not feel any difference for a while, but then the heat began to increase.

"This is it, does it hurt?" The heat stabilized at a moderate temperature. Completely sustainable.

"No, it is hot but does not hurt"

"Good, I'll maintain this for a while to test if you will handle this ok, just for safety. You go ahead and try to mediate"

"Ok" Took a good few minutes but Zwei did manage to concentrate enough.

"I'll guide you a little, pay attention to where the heat goes"

"Uhm" Zwei did not actually say anything, just produced a faint sound, enough for Mila to understand as an agreement. Then she began to circulate her own mana into Zwei's body. I could tell it was really a small quantity of mana, almost insignificant, but the heat was easy to follow.

She circulated it a bit on the normal "routine" that Zwei did, nothing new. Then she changed and concentrated into certain areas of her system. Then moved again, but from a different direction. Zwei followed and concentrated on the changes.

Mila continued to guide her into different paths within her own body for another hour or two. Hard to tell when you are so concentrated into a single task. We learned of mana paths inside our body that we had no knowledge of before.

You know when you go to the gym for the first time in a while, a day or two later you start to feel pain in some muscles you were not even aware of. The feeling is similar.

Once Mila called for the end of the training, we were tired. Exhausted even. It's been a good while since we last trained so hard to feel this drained. It is not a bad sensation. I was not the one who actually trained, but I feel like we accomplished something important today.

"Try to remember what we did today and repeat until it gets to the point of reflex, it will help you understanding better how the new systems interact with your body"

"YES! I'll! Thank you!"

"Don't need to thank me with such a fever Zwei, it is my responsibility to guide you and teach you. Your responsibility is to do your best, and I can see you are doing it"

"Uhm, thank you!"

"You should rest now. You will probably need lots of sleep. This type of training with someone else's mana being injected into you is not uncommon or harmful, but it does take a lot from the receiver's body. Rest well for a good and complete recovery. DO NOT underestimate the importance of rest ok?"

"Yes, I promise I will"

"Thanks, good. As a warning. You may not be able to do all we did today by yourself, but try it anyways. I'll see your progress next week. I'll also review today's training, so, don't worry if you forget the end of it or something. Just do what you remember, you will have another chance to memorize it all. Now, clean yourself and rest. See you tomorrow."

"Uhm. Bye, see you tomorrow."

Once Mila left the room Zwei just dropped flat on the floor. She was doing her best to appear strong, but she is extremely tired. She stayed there for a good while before getting up and going to bath. After that was almost time to use the Seontto, she decided to wait.

Only after all that she allowed herself to sleep. When she finally got to bed it did not take a single minute until she was in deep sleep. Poor creature, she forces too much on herself.

Zwei was extremely delighted with the new knowledge and new possibilities for her. She wanted to train hard for herself and for Mila. To repay Mila's attention and time with dedication. It was the bare minimum after Mila took so much time to help her.

She spent the entire time training even harder, she remembered almost everything Mila had taught. She did, she really remembered almost everything, but could not actually put it all in action, the training was harder than we gave credit for. It was a lot easier when Mila was present and actively guiding us, now that Zwei is alone things are a bit different and a lot harder.

She did not even go out everyday to socialize and have fun like she used to, in fact she only got out once, and for a brief period, then came back to training. Zwei not only has a good affinity with mana she is extremely dedicated to learning and training. I'm very confident in her abilities, I think she has everything to become extremely powerful.

The 7th watering finally happened, it was a long week for Zwei, and for me watching her training so hard. The very next day that she woke up from the watering Mila was waiting for the review training.