It was a wild night, when I woke up I could see Lyria lying in my arms. She had a blissful look on her face while a slight trickle of drool was seeping out of her cute pink lips.

She woke up from my stirring. Opening her beautiful sky blue eyes, I got lost in them for a second.

“Good morning.”

Smiling at her I gave her a gentle kiss.

“Good morning.”

She responded while giggling and positively glowing.

Taking our time getting out of bed I was on cloud nine when we entered the dinning room.

Everyone else was already there.

But what struck me was Inara looking sad and fidgety, she glanced at me when we came in before quickly lowering her head.

‘Shit, I didn’t properly talk to her last night. And it might have been bad for her confidence when I ditched her after that one night...’

It was dumb of me loosing myself to lust and not think about how Inara would react, with me going for Lyria right after her incident.

It hurt my heart seeing her so sad. Cassandra was looking worriedly at her, the same with Nyla. They were both sitting next to her.

Tapping Nyla on her shoulder I asked.

“Can I?”

She looked between me and Inara before nodding and giving me her seat.

I put my arm around her shoulder I felt a slight jolt when I touched her. She was like a scared cat, jumping by the smallest touch.

She looked nervously at me and that nearly broke my heart. She was scared and in pain because of me.

“I’m sorry.”

Giving her a hug I stroked her back while deciding to spend more time with her and be more attentive. I also had to learn the language faster for so many things.

“Tell when ready, I wait you.”

Gently whispering to her that I would wait for when she was ready.

She responded by meekly nodding, I could see that her face went from sad to embarrassed.

Thinking of how I could help her I thought of Nyla as well.

I haven't really done anything special for her, well she always seemed happy and content.

‘Damn it’s not easy being with three women...’

***

The following week I always greeted Inara with a hug, trying to get her more comfortable with me. I was spending almost all of my time on learning to read and studying the language.

I was kinda wrong with what I thought Cassandra said earlier, since she gave them some intricate gems as well as pills and potions. What I thought meant potions was probably resources.

Except for Cassandra they were teaching me in turns while the others were meditating or they left for the guild together for practice.

Cassandra still felt distant with me, but it was understandable with me only knowing them for a month. It was the other girls who were probably overly friendly compared to the clear headed Cassandra.

Lyria also taught me how the kitchen worked so i could make some simple dishes for myself and the girls.

I ended up spending a couple of hours alone at the house everyday.

And It became really boring and lonely the two days they left, I had gotten used to spending a lot of time with them.

Plus the nights with Lyria…

She had become more assertive and frisky with time, as her confidence was built up.

When they came back I greeted them all with a hug, Cassandra looked skeptical when she stepped out of it.

I had gone trough the books religiously while they were away, and I felt like my mastery of their language had risen to new heights.

While I was hanging out with Inara I asked her.

“How I do magic?”

She looked oddly on me.

“Well you use your soul to control your affinity. Affinity is a connection to the worlds mana, and you manipulate it.”

“Soul, affinity?”

I needed more details than what she gave me.

“Didn’t you sense it when you awakened?”

“Awakened?”

Asking inquisitively at the new word she said.

“Wait, can you sense your soul?”

I wasn’t exactly sure of what she meant, but I still answered.

“No.”

“What! Impossible, we found you in a mana dense area. Regular people would be overwhelmed by it’s concentration and become sick after a week or two...”

She was distressed while talking to fast, there was a few new words that went over me.

Inara stood up while pacing around and mumbling.

“It makes so much sense, he was always so amazed by even regular spells...”

I was getting worried with how she reacted, but before I could ask her to clarify she promptly left.

***

Storming into the basement Inara saw Cassandra and Nyla talking together. She didn’t even wait for them to acknowledge her before she hectically started to talk.

“Cassandra, could you help Alex awaken. We haven’t really talked about it, we all expected he already was when we first saw him. But now I’m pretty sure he never did.”

Cocking her eyebrow Cassandra replied.

“Are you sure that he isn’t? The way he looks and where we found him should all but guarantee that he has.”

“He asked about spells again and when I tried to explain it to him he was oblivious about sensing any mana or even his soul.”

Cassandra looked skeptically at Inara.

“Well I guess we can try… You know there is little hope since everyone who has the talent for it does it at a young age. I don’t know of any cases of people who failed their awakening while young managing it later.”

Cassandra carefully said.

“Well I did it later than most, and he might have never actually tried to awaken. He was really amazed every time we cast a spell or technique while we traveled together.”

Inara held some hope when she spoke.

Nyla lowered her head while listening to them. She never even considered that he was a mundane. He would grow old while they still were in their prime if that was true, maybe they weren’t so lucky as they thought.

“How can someone live so long without even trying it ones?”

Cassandra asked incredulously.

“At this point it wouldn’t be the weirdest thing about him.”

Inara refuted, for some reason looking really determined.

“You shouldn’t get your hopes up Inara. At least you can enjoy some time with him now, but we can’t really make a family with him then.

Inara glared at Cassandra when she said that, but she turned her head down without refuting.

“No, I’m sure he can. He has to.”

She quietly muttered.

***

“We got everything ready to do Alexs awakening.”

Lyria jumped out of her seat when she heard what Inara said.

“What?”

She was staring at me while her eyes teared up.

Why was Lyria looking so sad and scared while looking at me?

There was only one word I didn’t understand, but it seemed like the most important one. It was also the one that Inara mentioned before she stormed out.

I went looking for Inara, but instead I bumped into Lyria. I was about to ask her for some clarification, but before I could even mention it Inara stormed in.

“What is awakening?”

I asked hopeful that it wasn’t something bad.

“It’s how we unlock hidden potential a person has. We will check if you can do magic, as you called it. Don't worry it's nothing dangerous.”

Cassandra explained, stepping into the room after Inara.

Some words went over my head, but I understood the gist of it.

They were finally going to teach me magic, but it seemed like it wasn’t a guarantee. Seeing some of their reactions.

I gulped, suddenly getting really nervous. This was the moment I had been dreaming about since I first saw Cassandra cast a spell.

Solemnly nodding I looked seriously at Cassandra.

“Thank you. I’m ready.”

She looked curiously back at me.

“You never tried anything like this before?”

I was confused why she would ask me that.

“No, everything here is new to me.”

I honestly answered.

“Hmmm… Weird, where are you from Alex?”

Cassandra looked inquisitively at me, I wanted to tell them everything.

“Not from here, can’t explain yet. Too hard.”

Cassandra sighed before indicating for me to follow her.

“Well it’s good that it’s your first time at least.”

She said while we were walking.

When I turned around to see the other girls Inara and Lyria were staring hopefully at me now, while Nyla gave me a thumbs up. It was funny since I taught them the meaning of it, her action actually relieved some of the tension I was feeling after the earlier solemn atmosphere.

We went downstairs to Cassandras work space. She took out a silver plate with intricate engraving on it. Placing it in the middle of the floor while inserting a beautiful prismatic gem in the cavity on it. It started floating upwards while making a mesmerizing orb of shimmering runic text with different colors that constantly osculated between each other. It had a two meters radius and was mostly hollow with a lot of empty space in the middle. It was like it projected a hologram of runes in the shape of a globe.

Cassandra pointed me towards the center while saying.

“Sit down right under the array core and focus on drawing in the energies into yourself.”

I needed her to clarify and explain it several times before I felt ready and understood what I was supposed to do.

Swallowing the spit that had built up in my mouth, I took a deep breath and entered the contraption.

Sitting down cross legged I started to meditate like I have been doing daily since I saw Cassandra do it. Trying again to sense the world around me with my eyes closed. I tried to draw in the supposed ambient energies that the ‘array’ as she called it produced.

I sat there for several minutes trying to visualize or feel the motes of energies that were visible to my eyes when I entered inside the orb.

Suddenly I felt a surge of energy, it filled me with vitality and a deep sense of life. Putting my full attention on the feeling I tried to draw it inside me while marveling and analyzing the sensation as much as I could. It flowed through me invigorating all my cells, I was basking in its glow when I could sense a heavy indescribable feeling take its place and wash over me.

It felt like space was warping all around me, I was first floating in it before it started to press down on me from all directions. It felt like I was stretched before promptly squished into a tiny ball. I was completely disoriented as if I was swapping locations while all of this was happening. I was overwhelmed by all the incongruous feelings this new sensation presented. It felt like a was lost in it for an eternity before I blacked out.