21 - Seed's Stability

I can no longer hear screams or pain moans. I can only hear silence now. Zwei and all the others passed out.

The ritual for 'watering', whatever that means in this context, was rather long. Even after the children fainted they continued to force mana into the body.

It hurts so much that they fainted, so why am I awake? Good question. I know that I have fainted together with them before, especially during the first Seontto training and all that. But now, not only am I more experienced with this stuff, I only stayed in first person at the very start. Once I noticed that the pain would be too much I immediately switched to third person point of view.

Yes, I have fainted even on third person POV before. I don't really know why. I can only guess. And my best guess then, is the same as now: last time her very soul was being forced into something, her existence was being tested, but now the pain is only on the physical body, meaning that once I'm in third person I'm free from the suffering. Again, it was a guess back then, and is a guess right now. I cannot guarantee any of this is actually what is happening.

I can't feel Zwei's body right now, because, obviously, if I did I would only feel pain. Yet I can clearly tell that all the mana being forced into her body is being directed at the seeds on her chest. The seeds started today's session with a very faint light, and now the light is slightly brighter.

Can't these people think of rituals that do not involve children passing out out of pain? Damn sadistic women.

I think the seed is being purified, or strengthened. It is not growing in size, but feels like the quality is getting better by the minute. I mean… they are obviously doing something that involves the seed, the roots and pain, lots of pain and mana.

If my experiences up until now in this world taught me something is that this is a purification of some sorts. Maybe the seed needs to be acclimated to the body? The ritual is called 'watering', meaning we can infer that this whole thing is dedicated to making this seed grow or become stronger right?

That's how it is supposed to work with seeds. You plant them, you water them, they grow. I think the roots are in the wrong order, but whatever. Assuming my observations are right, this will make the seed stronger and eventually grow.

For a couple more hours the silence and the mana injection continued. Once done the women took the children and left. Mila also carried Zwei into their home, she carried her the entire time in princess style, nothing like Adel caring for children potato sack style. The difference is too big. And here I thought she would just leave Zwei in her room and that's it, but Mila took the time to bath Zwei, care for her and THEN placed her in the bed, where she would stay for another 3 days.

Zwei's sisters woke up from the first watering session in two days, Zwei took three. I have no way to know how many days this would usually take, but I'm sure it would be more. Zwei is just that amazing and resilient. The others are pure monsters, but do nothing to diminish Zwei's achievements. I really wish she would know this too.

Days passed. Normal days passed. Mila would make her children train a little harder than the others I have knowledge of, but she left them with enough time to play outside and socialize with other teams.

"Contact with others is important too. You should always make time to talk to other people and learn from them. Make friends. This is the only time in your life you will have this leisure of a time. Things will change a lot once you leave the Nest" Mila would always say.

It seems like an important advice, one to take seriously. Especially since it is from the most powerful individual of her generation. Zwei's attitude suggests she's taken this advice to the heart. She takes the Seontto sessions very very seriously, and has longer sessions too but always makes sure to go outside and talk to people.

She trains daily to try to improve her mana control, even by herself and without the Seontto. Yet, since the seedling started she is having a harder time. Every session seems to make it a little harder.

It is harder to control her normal mana, but it is also becoming apparent that something is changing within her. She can now feel the seeds, faintly, but she can. After the first watering the feeling became even more apparent, and Zwei can also feel a little mana circulating through the roots, separately from her own inner mana.

It's like she has two mana systems or something like that. I really wish she would ask Mila about this, or that Mila would just explain what is happening. No one bothers to explain anything to the children, they just do whatever they want. I know they mean the best for them, to make them strong and all that, but still. Why not explain?

The daily routine continued for another few days: Wake up. Seontto. Solo inner mana train. Go outside. Talk to different people. Talk to friends. Meet new people. Play chess. Go back home. Bath. Seontto. Training. Sleep. Repeat.

The day for Zwei's next trip to the core finally arrived. Once there another watering session was announced. The pain repeated itself, yet this time Zwei was able to stay conscious a bit longer. Not much, maybe it was an improvement of just a couple of minutes, but it was an improvement. I'm proud of her. And again, she was the last to faint. I'm suuuper proud of her.

She took another 3 days to awake and return to her daily routine. Mana training showed to be even harder. But funny enough the Seontto was not much different. Only the solo mana training was showing change.

The seed is clearly more and more active with each watering. A bit more mana than last time was now circling through the new root system inside her. It feels like she has three mana cores now, one is herself, the other two each seed. And each one of these has its own circling system.

Having this many systems and being aware of each one is a weird feeling, but not a bad one. Zwei tried to actively move mana from the new root-seed-mana system, but failed with flying colors. She is aware of the system, the mana cycling through them, aware of the roots but much like myself she can only observe them. At least for now, I have a feeling this will change in the near future. Zwei feels the same and keeps on with her daily training.

The day for another watering came and went. Then one more, then another… By her 6th session the seed was super strong. Super stable on her body. The mana more prominent than even her own.

Yet still not able to manipulate the extra mana from the root-system.