32 - Common Hardship

Mila and the other teacher were shoved off from the house after the introductions. The kids left behind were all a bit melancholic, but no one tried to go against Jade's order.

We did not even have time to say goodbyes. Me and Zw… Lucyra, cannot help but to be sad, we spent our entire lives being taken care of by Mila.

Well, Lucy did, I got Adel for a couple of weeks before meeting Mila. But that's beside the point. Mila was gone, she was no longer our tutor, we would probably no longer be able to see her in the near future. And we had no time to grieve the loss. Well, she was not dead or anything, but still, a sad unforeseen parting.

"Girls girls, I know you were attached to them, but you reaaaally don't have to act like I killed your teachers. You will see them again tomorrow you know." Oh, that's good. I thought… Well, a small drama was always good for life, and the other team was also being dramatic alongside us, it was probably a common reaction.

"Let me give you a quick overview of what you should expect from my training..."

Jade explained things fast, but it was enough for us all to get the idea that we were really going to have a hard time.

Nest period was basically dedicated to teaching the newborns how to control mana, with a few additions on common subjects like reading. We were now in what they denominated 'gym', weird naming sense for what we would be doing, but who am I to say something, right?

The Gym period would be dedicated for combat training, with also a few additions that she did not detailed. Combat would involve not only physical training but also offensive mana casting. That's what she called it.

Jade would be teaching us how to fight and kill. Mock battles were to be expected and…

"Accidents happen, some of you may have an early recycling, but that's normal. Not too honorable when you have so little to add to Mother… but what can we do, we have to train you hard. Mother does not need useless subjects. But it's not THAT hard of a life, usually 80% of all trainees survive the year!" What? Was that supposed to make us feel safer? That means at least one of us will die, but more probable than not, two.

Don't like to see people die, especially not the closest one. I may not know the other 5 girls yet, but we will live together from now on… This roller coaster of emotions, I was happy to leave the Nest and know more about this world. Zwei was happy to receive her new name, Lucyra, which I still have to get used to. We were happy, today was supposed to be a special day. But now this.

"Oh Oh, you don't have to be that excited about it!" No one was. Clearly NO ONE was Jade. "Unfortunately we won't start the training immediately, but we should be able to start in two days" Oh, wow. How comforting.

"Today is a special day after all. We should prepare for it"

Today was the last day of the year. Tomorrow the girls will be a year old. And a new generation will be born into this world. As jade explained, the first day of every year was the most important ritual of all. Mother sprouted and a new cycle began.

Tonight we would be going back to the place where it all started. This time to witness and participate in the Sprout. Who the fuck named this? Could they have a bit more creativity? I know Mother is mainly a tree and all, but does all the names have to do with plants? Really?

Jade called the sanctuary where Mother's main stem was planted "Eden". Not that bad of a name, I would expect it to be "The Garden" or something like that.

"The house has the same layout as you are used to, but with more rooms and more space in each room. You can go now, clean up real good then go ahead and choose a bedroom for yourself." If the outside suggested anything, was that this statement was true. Aside from the sports court all over the place, the rest seemed to be a bigger scale Nest.

"You should also try to sleep a bit, the Sprout is a long ritual, the longest one we have, it will take all night, and I expect everyone to be fully awake and helping from the beginning to end. Understood?"

"YES!" Everyone answered together. All two groups in perfect harmony, they were so in sync that if I didn't know better, I would have said that they were training together just to get this right, when in reality they just met each other's group.

"Good good, go now. I have to talk with the two waiting outside" Were the two outside Mila and… what was her name again? … …. Uhm, who cares, we probably won't see each other much anyways.

Jade excused herself and went straight to the door, sure enough Mila and the Other were waiting there.

"You can come in now." She gestures to them. "And you, why are you still here? I'm sure I told you to go prepare for tonight."

The two teachers came in while all of the trainees vanished to the second floor. Each one chose a room, no fights or discussions broke out. All the rooms were the same and no one really cared where they would sleep. The room served no other purpose anyways.

I wanted to listen to the conversation going on below, but I'm sure Lucyra's head would have rolled up if she did go. This Jade seemed to be a slightly improved version of Adel. She sounds and acts like someone that would recycle us easily without batching an eye.

Once the rooms were divided we all bathed together. It was a good time to get to know each other. They talked about an incredible variety of things, ranging from how good their teachers on the Nest were to how good their teachers were on the Nest. That was it. Really, I'm not even joking. How good were their teachers was all they talked about.

The bath was a rather long one, longer than Zwei-Lucy usually had, but it was a fun one. Once finished with the shower, each one headed to their own rooms and… well, probably rested, I have no real way of knowing what they did there. There is not much to do beside rest or train.

My dear Lucy settled to immediately sleep. It always impresses me how they can just sleep at any time without problem. I had problems sleeping even during the night, insomnia is a terrible thing.

It's been a few days since she learned how to make her vestments, she's been wearing it the entire time during the day, but decided that sleeping naked was more comfortable and relaxing. I totally agree, we sleep much better without the conjured clothes.

"IT'S TIME, GET UP KIDS!" A scream woke Lucyra up, the sun low but it was still day time. I thought the ceremony was at midnight or something…

"YOU HAVE 1 MINUTE TO BE HERE!" A second scream makes her jump out of bed and, for the first time in a week she did not have time to conjure her clothes calmly. At that moment, she exhibited an incredible ability. She initiated the process of summoning her clothes while walking, and even before arriving at the stairs she had a complete vestment on.

All 8 girls met in the corridor, and arrived together at the living room.

"Good, good! You appear to be ready, let's go. Today is the day you witness your first miracle"

We headed together, along with the entire city, to the "Eden".