31 - Lasting Name

Time passed but the number of women here did not reduce, it may have increased instead. We were moving up on the line, but more people were arriving. The line kept on growing, I could not even see the end by now.

We waited for about 3 hours until I could finally see the end of the line. There were 10 small structures, each similar to an altar, marking the division of Nest and the rest. Stationed at each one was a green figure, the Oracles. Naked women were personally organizing the line, guiding each individual to one empty station.

"Pay close attention to me now" Mila reunited us and started explaining things, she was wearing a peaceful but incredibly serious expression instead of her usual carefree one. "Those people leading the naming ritual are called Oracles." Right… I knew, but they didn't.

"They are the highest order here, the only ones above everyone, but still below Mother. They represent Mother's voice and will." She stopped and took a look at the green aliens, respect written on her face.

"They will be the ones to name you, pay close attention to the name, it will be the name carved on your soul, you should NEVER, N E V E R forget it"

She followed with an extensive list of instructions on how to behave ourselves during the name ritual. Greet the Helpers, which were the naked women guiding the people to the altar. Follow them quietly until the altar. Kneel before the Oracle until they give you permission to stand. Accept and execute any and all orders they may give you. Once you receive your name, kneel and thank the Oracle. Follow the next Helper outside the Nest and wait there, I'll find you there.

Our turn came fast with Mila talking so much. She was really worried that one of us may offend one Oracle. Especially because we were not trained in etiquette or previously told about the hierarchy the Oracles represented.

"Hello I'm Herdi, please follow me" Einer was called first, and almost immediately another helper came for Zwei.

"Hello, I'm Zwei.'' Herdi waited patiently for her greetings, nodded her head, turned back and started walking. Zwei followed quietly, as instructed. She led Zwei to the 8th platform, stopped at the bottom of it to wait for the girl on top to finish the ceremony. Only a minute later the girl walked to the opposite side, being guided by another person.

"You can go up now" The instruction came when I could no longer see the previous person.

Zwei's performance was floweless. She got up the platform, kneeled to the Oracle and waited for the command to rise. The Oracle took a second, looking and analysing Zwei, until she ordered her to get up and approach the stone placed on the altar.

The stone was a small one, not visible from down the waiting area or the line.

"Touch and channel your mana in it" Zwei did, the stone glowed, the Oracle waited for no more than 5 seconds and voiced again.

"Your name shall be Lucyra. You may stop." She did, took a step back, kneeled again, thanked the Oracle and turned to follow the already waiting Helper to guide her.

That was SO not cool. What kind of ritual took 5 seconds to complete? Where is the magic in all of this? I was expecting something a bit more special. Really, what a disappointment.

The new Helper did not say a word, neither did Zwei, or better yet, Lucyra. She wordlessly followed, the woman silently led. She was guided to the place where everyone else was, just a road outside the Nest.

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There she looked for a while and found Mila, Einer and Vier. How did Vier get here first?

"Hi! You're late. Now, tell me, what's your name?" Such a weird question coming from someone who we lived with for an entire year. A complete normal question for the situation, but still feels weird to have your year long teacher asking what is your name.

"It's Lucyra!" Ex-Zwei, Lucyra or Lucy, for the closest friends or closest spirit tumor, which would be me, of course.

"Congratulations on your name, it's a beautiful one."

"Yes!" Lucy was happy with the complement and the name.

"You should introduce yourselves too." Mila said to the other two girls.

"I'm Mayara" Ex-Einer stated.

"I'm Briana" Ex-Vier said.

They all got longer names than I expected. Everyone I met had shorter ones… "Mia", "Mila", "Adel", "Ginna", and so on… I wonder how they choose these names.

"Now, lets go to your new house" Your new house? Why is Mila talking like she is not going to come live with us?... Is she really not coming?

We walked for a while. The new district we were is somewhat similar to the Nest, but the houses were bigger. There were sports courts, or something similar every now and then. Frequent enough for you to see at least one court at all times, that's quite a number. Impressive.

I can already tell, whatever training we will receive now will be extremely focused on bodily fitness and strength. Maybe agility or combat too.

"We are here" Mila stopped at a house, same as any other house, similar to our previous one and placed her hand on the stone at the doorstep. A minute later the door opened and a petite figure appeared, shorter than most, if not all, women I met here. Shorter than any of the three girls but with bigger boo… twin-cores.

"Hello, you must be Mila"

"Yes, Senior"

"Ah.. yes yes, I heard about you. Stupidly strong, super polite and a helpless bookworm…" Mila was already blushing at this point, but the small woman continued her tease. "Please, don't use archaic terms near them, the kids will learn and then they will be called weirdos too" Now Mila was red. Well, not really. It's just an expression. But she appeared to be very embarrassed.

"Yes Se… Jade"

"Good good. Now, come on in. All of you."

The inside was as expected. Plain, no useless decorations, walls of Mother's tree, furniture "grown" out of the wood floor… The main difference I noticed was the living room. It was bigger and had a number of places to sit, looks like this place is prepared for lots of people to live in or to receive lots of people.

Occupying some spots were another group of 6 women. One more mature than the others. A copy of our own group, I'm assuming that's exactly what it looks like. A teacher and her students that just got out of the Nest.

"You three." She said looking at us. "I'm your new combat instructor. Jade di Liz, 854. Now, introduce yourselves" she commanded and we obeyed, Mayara (ex-Einer) started as usual. I'm still not used to the new names. I just hope I don't forget them.

"Hello, I'm Mayara di Mila, generation 866"

"H-Hi, I'm Lucyra di Mila, generation 866"

"Hi, I'm Briana di Mila, generation 866"

"I'm their first teacher, Mila di Fermy, 858"

The oversized-twin-core repeated our names to make sure she got it right and ordered the other to introduce themselves.

They were Ardelia, Annalee, Dinorah, Melvin and Penney di Usha from the same generation, 866. The teacher was obviously Usha. Too many names. Hard. to. Remember. Damn, I'm starting to like the numeric naming they used at the Nest. The last one to say the usual introductions was the ex-teacher for the group, Usha.

"Hi, I'm Usha di Leah, 858. I hope you get along well with my kids." She smiled kindly. Is everyone aside from Adel a kind caring teacher?!

Also, that proves it. I'm sure all the people teaching in the Nest are always 8 years older than the newborns. Every single teacher I met there was from the same generation, 858. And I can bet an arm, if I had one, that every one of the 'new instructors' will be from the same year, 854.

"Yes yes, don't worry, I'm sure they will get along just fine. People always get along in times of common hardship"