34 - Run Lucy, run

Mother had used up all her energy to birth the new children. She needed nourishment. She needed mana. We offered up our own, but it was not enough.

The energy that was needed to create life was much bigger than what we could safely offer. She needed more. She needed some 'life' back.

Sacrifices had to be made. Thus, some children were chosen to nourish her. That's why they beheaded at least one child per group. To give Mother part of her energy back.

I understood why, but I still don't agree with it. Couldn't she just not use up all of her energy? Was it some limitations she had that I did not know about? Why did she use it all up just to demand some back? Maybe if she created less children, she could save up on that and not need any sacrifices… Was this really necessary?

… What am I saying?

Mother is our benevolent God, she would not do something to harm her own children. I'm sure she had some kind of limitation and this process was needed. I'm sure she was suffering more to sacrifice children than I was to see this happen. I don't know why I'm even questioning her. It is so obvious, she must have a reason.

We kept on slowly channeling our mana to Mother for a little while. She accepted it all. It was only an hour or so later that we stopped. Again, it was like a very strong impulse to stop, we did in sync.

I always wondered how everyone did everything during the rituals in sync, well, that's my incomplete answer: a strong will took over us and we obeyed. How did this irresistible desire install in each of us at the perfect time, I still did not know. I think Mother just sends it to us using the connection we form with her, but who knows?

Walking back to our new living quarters I could admire the barrier we were inside. The wall appeared to be made of smoke, it was in constant movement. Beautiful, Wait… I can see the sky from here, but not the city, how does it work? I kept looking but couldn't identify where the division was. Where did it stop being a barrier of smoke and where it began to show only the sky?

I don't know, the passage from smoke to the night sky was smooth, hard to perceive.

Following the flood of people leaving Eden after the ritual, we passed through the gate, the same feeling of jumping in a pool washed over us for a second. The city could be seen, everything had a small glow in it. It was not like this before.

I remember the first night, when we walked to the Nest, everything seemed to be washed by a wave of weak glitter, but I never again witnessed a night like that, until now. Trees glowed, grass, stairs, floor, houses… everything glowed a bit. It is an aftereffect of the ritual? It would make sense, the amount of mana circulated during the last few hours dwarfed anything that happened during the entire year.

Since the entire city is made from Mother's roots, it would make sense that we witness some effects of this absurd ritual everywhere.

Jade was right. Today really was special. A miracle.

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We slowly and silently walked to our quarters, by the time we got there the sky was a beautiful twilight. Everyone was exhausted, we did not bathe today.

It was the next day's morning when we woke up. Jade said nothing about us sleeping one entire day and one night. It would appear that this is normal… I think.

Lucy woke up, took her Seontto stone and headed to the living room, there 2 others were already waiting. The two being her sisters from the Nest. What were their names again? Einer was May.. may something… Mayo, Maye, Mayta, Maya… Mayara? That sounds right. And Vier… I have no idea. Sorry dear sister, I'll make sure to remember it next time someone calls you! I promise, really.

The other new 5 girls which I had absolutely no records of their names were still sleeping. Jade showed up only a couple of seconds later than Lucy, saw us 3 waiting, Seontto in hand, ready to start the Dedication, and laughed.

"Right right, you are no longer kids. You can do that on your own, no need to wait for me or the others. Feel free to create your own schedule, as long as it does not bother me or disturb training time, you should be fine"

That was a surprise, not once we performed the Dedication by ourselves. This would be a first. I mean, we were perfectly capable of doing this alone, and we have been for quite some time, but Mila always made sure that we performed it together.

Speaking of Mila, weren't we supposed to see her? I'm sure Jade said we would be able to see each other "tomorrow". And I'm positive that she said this two days ago, meaning it would be yesterday! I know we slept the entire day, and it does not seem like a day passed, but it did. And we did not see Mila.

The three sisters performed the morning rituals together, like they used to. The others started to show up when we were in the middle of it, they did not interrupt us or questioned it because Jada was there to explain things.

Dedication today was weird, it was like our connection to Mother was a bit weaker, felt strange. It took us much longer to filter our existing mana and we could barely replenish what we needed.

"Mother will give priority to the newborn for now. The sprout ritual is not an easy task, it usually takes a week for her to be back with full strength and able to replenish all our manas."

That made sense, birth was never easy. Birth of dozens of children should not be an easy feat. I wonder how many children are born each year...

We had to wait for everyone to finish their own Dedication before we could start the real training. And one of the new girls really took her time to wake up, in fact, the other girls were so tired of waiting that they took things on their hands to wake her. Jade did nothing about this, just watched and patiently waited.

Lucy, Mayara and Vier were also observing quietly. None voiced their discontent with such laziness and irresponsibility. One should take care to wake up early every day.

Took a while but eventually everyone was ready to start training.

"Yes yes. Everyone is finally ready! Today, we start your physical training! Lets run!"

She said that, and as if it was an obvious thing what we should do, she dashed out of the house. The girls were a bit lost on what to do. No, not a bit. Completely lost.

Mayara only took a second to register what happened and dashed out as well. In sequence Lucy and Vier followed. The others took a few seconds more, but eventually ran behind the unorganized group.

"GOOD, GOOD. FOLLOW ME!" Jade yelled for the ones that lagged far behind her. She did not slow down or waited for the slower people, she kept on running at her steady fast pace.

She ran and we followed for three long hours. I'm sure she only stopped at that because one of her trainees fainted.

"Well well, only three hours uhm? I guess that's passable for the first day…barely, but enough"

Jade grabbed the fainted girl, Adel style (like a potato sack), threw her on the back and resumed the running. Are we going to keep running until everyone passes out? Is she really going to run carrying an adult size girl on the shoulders? Just how resilient is she?!