"Are you sure there wasn't anything else, no other unexpected surges of anger or arrogance?" the Archdruid looked at Kali in befuddlement after she calmed down and explained how she thought the beast's Essence influenced her.

"Your mind is stronger than I thought," the woman smiled at her.

"What is an Awakened beast, anyway?" Her gaze averted, Kali felt her cheeks grow warm.

"Do you know why we Elves have more essence at birth than humans or most Fauns?" Avariel asked, shifting into a teacher while still having an arm wrapped around Kali's back. The Princess, in turn, rested her head on the woman's shoulder.

"I think it has something to do with… superior biology?" Kali frowned as she thought back to those lessons. She might have been a prodigy, but subjects where Zadkiel went into the more esoteric aspects of Magic and Essence often flew over her head.

"In part," the Druid nodded, "but during pregnancy, the mother can infuse the child with her essence, this happens naturally for us elves."

"Oh?" Kali looked up at that, "So my Mother gave me my starting Essence?"

"In part," the druid nodded, "a small part also comes from the father, but in the end, the mother provides the most, which is why higher leveled women are so respected in our culture."

And as breeding horses by humans. Kali's expression soured at the thought.

"So the Awakened beast?" she tried to shift the conversation back onto the topic she was curious about.

"They are Magical Beasts who have awakened to full Sentience and some limited form of Sapience," said Avariel, "evolution is a lengthy road and shortening it in such a way causes some side effects, which usually include the lack of positive emotions in these beasts."

"So monsters?"

"That is why they call them that, yes, they are obsessed with eating anything with a Core, some pack mentality remains and they protect their family members rather fiercely but that's it," she shrugged, "Some of these Magical Beasts have a form of what we, Elves have, sometimes they can infuse a small amount of Essence into their offspring, sometimes the mother shrivels up and dies right after birth from giving up too much or anywhere in between."

"So you think that wolf was like that?"

"Yes," she nodded, "I think that wolf was a newborn pup of an Awakened Frost Wolf who's given up most of her Essence, which is why you jumped so many levels in one go."

"Oh," Kali nodded, which explained why the other Magical Cores gave such little Essence, "Okay."

"Poor thing should have just stayed in its cave for the next fifty years and it would have reached beyond 300 with no effort," the druid sighed, "Oh well, hopefully that Essence will be of more use to you than it."

"Yeah?"

"BUT," Kali stiffened, "you are not going anywhere until I hammer an actual Mana Gathering Technique into your head. I can't believe Zadkiel let you go out on your own without doing so."

"Really?" Kali's eyes glimmered as she stared into the woman's eyes.

"Yes, really," she smiled, "I can't teach you much else about magic. My way of doing it is only possible for Eladrin."

"Aw," Kali deflated slightly, but the prospect of actually having a Cultivation Technique overshadowed that mild disappointment, "Thank You!"

"What do you know about them?" Avariel asked her, "Mana Gathering Techniques, I mean?"

I always liked 'Cultivation Techniques' more as a name for them.

"They help me absorb ambient mana into my Core?" Book knowledge don't fail me again!

"That is the main part of it, yes," Avariel nodded, yessss, "other than that it can be used to filter out contaminated Essence or Purify it, among many other things like regulating the inflow of Mana from crystals."

"You need to do that?" Kali's eyes went wide.

"Did you do that too?" Avariel glared at her.

"No," Not yet.

"Good," she nodded, "I'm going to teach you a safe one you can use as a buffer for both Essence and Mana, it will help you make sure you are not taking anything harmful into your body before helping you absorb it better."

"Will it be faster than the Rune?"

"Yes, it will be faster," Avariel laughed lightly. "Using that Rune for Gathering is like trying to eat soup with a fork, or with a toothpick, to be more accurate."

"Nice," Kali did a fist pump in her head. She understood that the other parts were much more important to her right now. She really did!

At the same time, it was torture, outright psychological torture to know how to cast Fireballs and have the Mana Capacity to cast 11 in a row while being unable to do so!

Why was she unable to do it?

Because it took more than a whole Goddess damned day to regenerate, the Mana needed to cast a single Fireball, and that was just one 11th of her Mana Capacity too.

It was easy to understand why she was so excited.

"Thank you!" Kali hugged the woman, Fireballs.

"Sure," the woman patted her back.

They stayed like that for a minute, Kali basking in the comforting warmth for a while longer and wrestling with her emotions, but the excitement bubbled to the surface.

"So?" she asked as she leaned back and cleaned off some embarrassing tear-marks from her cheeks.

"Ah, to be so young," the woman shook her head lightly, but smiled back at Kali's naked excitement. "I assume you'd like to learn it now, right?"

"Yes, please!" Kali bounced up and down on the couch. A part of her recognized the laziness characteristic of older elves in the druid. To one who lived for thousands of years, there was little difference between doing something tomorrow or in the next year or even a decade. Kali understood, of course it was easy to understand, but at the same time she had Fireballs to cast and magic to learn. She could leave lazing around like the oldies when she became and Archmage.

"Ow," she massaged her forehead as the druid pulled back the finger she used to flick the rude little elf.

"What I'm going to teach you is one of the oldest and most widespread Gathering Techniques called the Vortex Technique. This was one of the original methods thought to the first mages by the 'Goddess'."

"Ohh," Right, but isn't that like? Outdated as hell? "Cool?"

"Cool?" the woman rolled her eyes. "It's written on your face but let me tell you, this is the Technique many of the most powerful Mages today used to rise, it may be simple but as I used it I developed it and made it my own. This is the version I am going to teach you and if it could take me this far it can serve you just as well."

"Okay," Kali chirped. Despite her obsessive reading of anything magical, she couldn't get her hands on anything that talked about the exact techniques. She knew the first ones were gifts from that enigmatic being most called a Goddess for a lack of a better word, but nothing more than that.

"Do you know how Rune-sharing works?"

"I know in theory but I never did it myself," Kali put a finger to her cheek as she thought, that was a weird practice where two Mages somehow meditated together and one shared a Rune structure with the other by impressing it upon their Core and even if the recipient couldn't memorize it instantly or even comprehend it the Core would assist them in it for a while. It'd fade with time, a few months at most, but it was a superb too for teaching other complex Rune-work needed for more complicates Spells based on the books.

"I'll walk you through it then," Avariel said as she stood up. "Come."

Kali nodded and fall into step behind the woman, her gaze crawling across the walls as they walked back into the living room where floorboards disentangled from each-other like vines, revealing a masterfully carved stairway leading down into a larger space below ground.

Kali oohed as she fully stepped into the open circular room, seemingly carved into the inside of a large tree. Vines crawled over the ceiling with dangling luminescent orbs hanging from them, giving the room a warm yellowish light.

"Sit," the woman said as she elegantly sunk down into a lotus position in the middle of the room and Kali mimicked her and did the same. The two sat facing each-other as Kali curiously looked into the woman's eyes. "Give me your hands."

Kali did so, feeling Avariel's hands clasp around her own. Her skin feels like soft leaves.

"Close your eyes and try to clear your mind," the woman followed her own instruction and Kali hastily did the same. No thoughts, head empty.

"I will prod you with some mana, focus on it," the eladrin's soothingly sweet voice swam into Kali's ears.

She twitched as an itch not unlike what she usually felt in her ears when a spell went off near her started coming from her palms as distinctly foreign energy pushed into her body like a gently warmth.

"I feel it," she whispered as she felt the warmth spread up her arms, into her elbows, then up to her shoulder and finally spreading over her chest which prompted a sigh of comfort from the girl.

"Good," the druid said gently, "I will now guide it to you Core, keep calm, this can feel rather … weird for the first time."

"Okay," Kali nodded resolutely, trying to shake off the languidity the comfortable warmth gave rise to.

She took a few controlled breaths as the warmth crawled down towards the core hiding in the center of her mass, around her stomach, growing increasingly drowsy as it went on. I can't fall asleep. Focus.

Her worries were unfounded as the moment the first trickle of mana made contact with her an electric jolt rippled through her body from head to toe, the hair stood up on her neck as her eyes flew wide open.

"Relax," Avariel said with a gentle squeeze of her hands, "you are doing well, breathe and relax."

"Ok- Ogey, " Kali tried to say but her voice quivered as a tremble ran through her body not unlike what she felt when she absorbed her first core.

Breathe. In … and out … good. Focus on the mana.

She scrunched her eyes close and tried to push the sensations coursing through her body to the back of her mind, more or less succeeding. She put her focus on her core, the rest of her body pushed to the sidelines.

Her Core buzzed gently, a vibrant ball of mana and otherworldly energy swirling within her. Slight trickles of mana spread over her entire body, but those were mere streams compared to the veritable ocean of energy that was her Core. It was the Core of her strength, of her magic and of her being if the rumour that it housed her soul was to be believed.

"You are doing well," Avariel said soothingly. "I am going to start now, alright?"

Kali gave a jerky nod, not quite trusting her voice at the moment.

Her entire world expanded rapidly, the core which felt no larger than a fist only a moment ago now felt like an entire galaxy in which she was on a lone star twinkling like a tiny dot. Still, she was the center of it all, like the Core was the center of her before now it was reversed and she glimpsed at beautiful nebula swimming through the void, flickering with a myriad of Arcane symbols which all came together to form the celestial object.

Kali marvelled at the dazzling scenery. All of this was in her body all this time? She was searching for magic outside when a something beyond comprehension was sitting around in her body?

She watched stars go up in a cavalcade of colours as the exploded and morphed into other forms, she watched hundreds of glimmering stars come together in complicated constellations which all resonated with a combined magical aura. Holes of utter darkness collected twinkling lights around them as they ate up the vibrant energy of the galaxy while another just like it exhaled it again.

A pounding headache started to overtake her mind and she shut her eyes in reflex as her hands came up to massage her poor temples.

"Kh — — ria," a muffled voice came from somewhere so damned far away she barely heard it, it was so small and insignificant compared to the endless galaxy around her but with the headache pounding away at her head she latched onto it like a lifeline.

"Focus on my voice girl," a soft voice tinged with a touch of worry echoed in her mind, "you need to push it back, zoom out, let all that you see now collapse into a single orb of energy."

"H-how?" Kali heard another voice, weak, trembling and afraid, but she wasn't sure whose voice it was.

"Imagine that you are staring at a single piece of grass from a centimeter away, all you need to do is pull your head back, want it all to just get smaller."

Small, turn the galaxy into a small ball.

She was dubious, but as she solidified the image of her desires, the myriad of lights turned into burning lines as they dashed across the void and collected into a single orb of swirling colours. Kali could still make out some vague shapes and some of the larger forms if she squinted, but any further than that and her headache came back with a vengeance, bonking her in the head with a club.

"Kha'Lythria are you here with me?" the voice was louder now, and beyond the dark void of space, Kali could make out a blurry figure moving, talking.

"Yeah," another voice resonated in the air just as Kali thought to answer, a familiar voice, her voice. But there was a dissonance, a feeling it wasn't actually her talking, but she just sighed that she somehow managed to answer.

"Good," invisible hands squeezed around her own comfortingly, "You see your Core, right?"

Of course, it's right here. A giant glowing ball is hard to mistake in this darkness.

"I think so? It's so small." Her voice spoke again, and Kali frowned. That wasn't right.

"That is quite fine." After another squeeze of her hands, the voice spoke again, "I will begin sharing the Rune structure of the main Technique first. Focus on it. The more you memorize, the better."

"Okay," her other self sounded uncertain and Kali frowned. She found herself in a weird situation but for now she'd put her entire focus into memorizing that technique, existential crisis could wait for later.

One after the other glimmering runes shifted or flickered into being all around her colourful core, covering it from all sides. They orbited the sphere of energy like moons but they all kept their pace and started making up a intricate tapestry around it.

Next came lines of pure mana, channels that'd connect the many runes and guide energy from one to the other. Kali instantly forgot about her worries about a doppelganger taking over her body as she laid her eyes on the first ever magic circle she'd ever seen, well it wasn't quite a circle as much as it was a sphere but that was what they called Runes connected by mana pathways and logical gates.

These were the foundations for complex spells, a nifty trick some of the first mages came up with based on enchanting languages and their own use of mana pathways.

Runes glimmered in a bluish-purple colour reminiscent of most arcane magic as the many lines of mana interconnected between them, finally after what felt like hours to Kali that last line connected and the whole structure gained a mystical aura, a traction to it that seemingly pulled you into it, threatening to consume you.

Kali blinked, pulling back as she took in the Rune work covering her Core like a protective veil all over it. She could barely see her Core under all of that active mana swimming around.

With but a thought, Kali flew around her Core like a tiny planet orbiting a star. Her gaze focused on every little bend, curve, twist or intersection as she engraved them upon her mind even as her brain protested with a returning headache. Kali ignored it. This much was nothing compared to what she felt when she tried to glimpse into the Rune-work of that nebula. This structure would barely make up a tiny part of a far-off star in her Core.

"How do you feel?"

My head aches but otherwise fine, "I'm alright." Her voice was a bit nervous.

"It's alright if you couldn't remember it all at once," Avariel's soothing voice echoed through the void and Kali felt her nerves relaxing slightly. "Your Core will remember this for a month, you will have time to memorize it."

"Okay."

"Now, let's get to the other segments," she could hear the smile in the woman's voice, "I made these ones myself."

With that Kali spent the next few hours in a trance, memorizing structures as they shimmered into being as more layers around the first but none of them came quite as close to the first. In total there were three, or maybe four if she counted the one that let her extend the range of the Technique at the threat of overloading her Core.

The other three were a Mana Buffer which would create a buffer to store her mana in before loading it into her Core, protecting her from overloading it and fracturing it. Unfortunately sh could only use one of the 'extensions' at once so she couldn't use this in conjunction with the range expansion.

The second was a Mana Drain which would help her safely drain mana from all sorts of magical materials like mana crystals, monster parts or unprotected enchantments.

The final one was the most important, it was an Essence Buffer like they talked about. It'd store any essence she absorbed from Cores and filter out contaminated parts while purifying what it could, keeping Kali as close to herself as she can be.

Kali wore a weak grin on her face as the last structure seeped into her mind, with a last check she nodded to herself in satisfaction. She wasn't 100% sure she could recreate all of this but with one or two revisions in the following days she should be good to go.

"Alright," Avariel spoke and the dread from being split off from herself, from a fake taking over her body, came back with a vengeance as Kali bit her lips. "We are done."

"Owwwwghh," Kali doubled over, falling sideways and clutching her head as ungodly pain wracked her body and nausea threatened to send the tasty meal she ate not too long ago back out.

"Drink," Kali felt her head being lifted and her mouth forced apart, quickly followed by a warm liquid being poured down her throat. It left a trail of comfortable tingle in its wake, which quickly expanded all over her body.

Kali sagged in relief as her skull-splitting headache abated slowly. It was only half a minute later when she opened her eyes again when the pain was only a mild tingle in the back of her skull.

"Foolish girl," the druid sighed as her eyes looked down at Kali. Why is she above me, oooh those are big boobs, why are they in the way to her face?

Exhausted, afraid and high on numbing potion, Kali's head was a bit up in the clouds.

"You tried to memorize all of them at once, didn't you?" Kali blushed at the slight glare coming her way, which wasn't made better by the realization that she was lying right on the curvaceous Eladrin's lap. Lap-pillow. Owieee niceeee~

Kali just blinked at the woman, sheepishly to which the woman just sighed.

"Oh, fine," she shook her head, "you just need to rest. The nausea and headache should go away by tomorrow."

"Right~" Kali hummed happily. She felt like there was something important. Why was she afraid again? Her memories were all jumbled about the past few hours.

"The potion will wear off in ten hours," the woman looked down at her, her hand slowly drifting over to Kali's white locks where she started to caress the girl's head. "The pain should be manageable by then. The first time is always rough so you don't have to worry too much about it."

"Can't I get another potion?" Kali looked up innocently, blinking like a puppy asking for treats.

"No."

"Awww," she deflated, but the woman's dexterous fingers soon had her relaxing and purring like a cat.

Purring was like hissing for the elves, an instinctual response that was a sign of them letting their guard down and acting more on instinct than mind. Though unlike irritation and displeasure, which the hiss represented purring was a sign of comfort, relaxation and pleasure. In short, very embarrassing to do on the lap of a woman you met just that day and something that would haunt a young princess for the foreseeable future.

"What a troublesome child," Avariel murmured as Kali was well on her way into dreamland. Her voice was a touch of exasperation mixed with a motherly care that had a single tear rolling down Kali's face.

Mother, why did you abandon me?