Silvia excitedly opened the door for them. Maria didn't even wait before the door was fully opened and rushed inside, jumping onto the couch and hugging her dolls.
''It felt like an eternity without you guys.''
Silvia, at her turn, entered and left the door open for Lorelei, waiting for her to step in, but she stayed in front of it, her hood still on, and her eyes down. Silvia turned around to see Lorelei standing still. She approached her to see if she was feeling well.
''Sweetie, is something the matter?''
''I doNt knOw...''
Silvia seemed puzzled; she didn't know what to do to comfort Lorelei. She was probably hungry, she thought.
''Come inside, you will have a nice meal.''
She started walking towards the door again. The moment she was about to push it open, Lorelei pulled her cloth back.
''You arEn'T goIng to leave Me eIthEr, arE yOu?''
Her voice was shaky, and the grip she had on Silvia's shirt was soft and light, yet Silvia could feel her tiny fingers trembling under that glove. Even through the layers of silk, she could feel throughout every inch of her skin the fear Lorelei felt. She's just a little girl, for god's sake, what could have happened to her, she thought to herself. Silvia grabbed Lorelei's hand within both of hers and told her.
''I'm not going anywhere, dear, I'm right here. I will always be here whenever you need me. For both of you girls. So have faith in me, Lorelei.''
She raised Lorelei's hood and gently patted her head.
''Here, here. Everything will be fine, I promise. Come let's go now.''
Lorelei nodded and took Silvia's hand, who brought her back into the house.
''You girls should go take a shower while I set the table.''
Silvia went to the kitchen, brought out the plates from the cabinet, and served the food on the plates. She kept arranging everything on the table until the two girls who had just come out of the shower came downstairs.
''Come, girls, dinner is ready.''
They both walked to the table and sat down in their chairs before starting to eat. At this point, Lorelei was already fully able to use the utensils she was given, such as a fork, a spoon, and even a knife. Silvia taught her how to use them properly. She was very proud of her progress, and Lorelei was as well.
''Maria, would you be able to replace the energy stone after eating?''
''Yeah, I can do it.''
Just like she said, right after eating, she went to the storage room and grabbed the energy stone they had just bought from the capital. Maria's way of walking could be recognized just from the sound of her little playful hops at every step she took. Silvia always called her a little ball of endless energy. Before Maria went outside, she asked Lorelei if she wanted to come with her, to which Lorelei agreed and followed her. They both walked a bit until they got behind the house. Once they arrived, Maria pulled a lever that revealed a big hatch that she opened all excitedly. Behind it, there was a dark staircase that led downwards. Not a thing could be seen on those stairs. Nevertheless, Maria jumped in, wrapping her arms around the energy stone. She too soon disappeared within the darkness. Lorelei reluctantly walked down the stairs until she saw a shining blue light that she ran to. It was Maria, holding the energy stone out as a source of light.
''Oh! There you are! Come on, let's go.''
At a steady pace, they sank deeper into the darkness. Every step they took resonated across the hallway that seemed to never end. Maria stopped and started patting the wall until she grabbed something that she pulled down. At that moment, a little line shone upon a big-looking metallic barrel. Maria forcefully pressed down the lid. It spun on itself and then came out, exposing the energy stone that had been placed there before. Compared to the bright one Maria was holding, this one's light seemed to be dim and almost fading. She took out the energy stone from the container. For a second, everything went dark until she placed the new shining stone. She pressed the lid again, this time with just a light touch. It spun on itself once more and went back in place. Maria placed her hand on the lever and turned towards Lorelei.
''At the count of three, we run. One... Two... THREE!''
She pulled down the lever, and everything went dark once more. Before Lorelei could even understand what was happenning Maria grabbed her hand and ran until they were finally out of the basement.
''There, we made it! It's fun going down there when there's light. But the run-back is always scary to me. Come let's go back.''
Even Lorelei got scared when the light's turned off. The atmosphere in that place wasn't pleasant at all. With Maria, they both walked back inside.
''Mom, we did it!''
''Good job, girls!''
Silvia stroked their hair lightly.
''Now you must both go to sleep. We'll play more tomorrow.''
They both agreed and went back to their respective rooms. Soon after, Silvia also closed all the lights and went to sleep too. Lorelei sat on her bed the whole time, seemingly waiting for something. A few minutes later, Maria entered the room holding with her an enormous book. It seemed like she had a hard time carrying it by herself, so Lorelei got up to help her carry it to the bed.
''Thank you, Lorelei! This is the book I was talking about in the capital. It explains everything there is to know about energy.''
Lorelei got into bed, and Maria followed her. They both leaned their backs against the headboard and got comfortable. Maria pulled the book towards them and placed it on their laps.
''I will teach you everything. Starting from the basics.''
She opened the book to the first page. Half of it was filled with text, and the other half with illustrations of a human body as well as other creatures she had never seen before. Maria took her intellectual airs and made it seem like she was adjusting imaginary glasses over her nose.
''First of all, energy is the basis of life. Without energy, there would be no life. Every living being has energy within them. That energy is stored in a core. The location of the core varies for everyone, but most of the time it's situated either on the upper body or the abdomen. When it circulates in the body, we call that energy flow. There isn't a single part of the body that energy doesn't reach. Think of it like a heart pumping blood throughout the body. It's the same thing with energy.''
She placed her finger on her tongue and flipped through the pages once more. She passed through a couple of pages.
''WhaT are in those pageS?''
''Oh, those ones? I will come back to them later. For now, let's talk about the composition of energy.''
She turned more pages before stopping at one. This one had more text and fewer drawings than the previous page.
''So, for how energy enters and exits your body. It's a bit more complicated; even I don't fully understand the concept, but I will do my best to explain it. Basically, every living being is born with a small amount of energy, and at that point, they do not even have a core yet. That also varies depending on the person. There is a rare exception that some people are born with a core, but that's really rare. I won't get into exceptions now, because there are a lot of them. Energy is also found in the environment, but cannot be seen since it's so thin. Our body naturally absorbs energy through the lungs and spreads it around the body, and that's also how, from birth all the way to the age of nine, the body stores energy, until it is condensed into a core. The natural color of energy is blue, but once it gets absorbed in our body, it may change colors. And those colors reflect on our personality and the way we live our lives. A darker-toned color would be associated with a sentimental person. A lighter-toned color would be associated with a brave person. So far, do you understand Lorelei?''
''YeAh I Do.''
''Great! So now energy has different uses, but the two major uses are through body strengthening and spells. When you use energy, it means you exteriorize the energy stored within you. Body strengthening, you forcefully decompose in your body the particles of energy until they are back to their environmental form. Then the simplified energy is moved to the muscles or the skin. It's an easier process than spells. For spells, I will just explain the basics since getting into it would take way too much time. Basically, spells are just a manifestation of energy through the form we want them to have. You can see the energy from spells because it's condensed energy, and the particles in those spells are given a nature, whether it's fire, ice, water, or whatever natural element you want it to be, as long as you can imagine it. Using energy for a spell is all about imagining, but using energy to strengthen your body is about how long you can handle the tension building up in your body. However, the size of the core also represents its strength and storage. The bigger your core is, the more energy gets circulated through your body, and tasks like decomposing energy or condensing it become way faster.''
Maria flipped back to the pages she skipped before. In those pages, the illustrations represented all types of weapons and images of people in weird stances. Lorelei didn't understand.
''This part talks about the efficient stances to train your energy core, as well as the energy weapons to enhance certain energy natures.''
She turned through even more pages.
''This part talks about the different natures energy can take. Each one of us has a different affinity towards a certain type of energy. It just means that it's easier for us to make spells of that certain type. I will talk about those another day. How about we finish here for today?''
''YeaH, I thinK i UnderStanD moSt of iT.''
''That's great! Mom always told me I should become a teacher.'' , she said, all proudly looking.
Maria closed the book, got off the bed, and turned off the lamp next to Lorelei.
''If you ever wondered why we used candles before, it's because mom said energy was running out soon, and we should save as much of it until I go to the capital, but now it's fine. I will explain another time how energy is used like that. Goodnight, Lorelei.''
''Good night, MarIa.''
She slowly tiptoed out of the room while holding the enormous book.
A//N: Tik-tok... tik-tok... tik-tok...