Mama placed a shimmering bowl of blue liquid in front of me that smelled like a mixture of rain, dirt, and ozone.

“Before I drink this mama, could you tell me what it really is?” I asked expecting her to refuse me an explanation.

She grabbed the bridge of her nose in thought.

“Sorry honey, I'm sure you realized those pills were not really vitamins...” She said with a tinge of guilt.

“I tried to keep the world of magic hidden from you so that you could a normal life with your Earthian friends, but it must have come across as suspicious. Those vitamins were just pure mana pills. You needed to take them to supplement your mana core because as I said earlier, your body is a magical construct, so unlike humans, you need more than just food to be healthy and grow. This liquid is called condensed essence. It's similar to the pills but much more potent. Oh, and it also contains some divine essence as a parting gift from our patron goddess here.” She said, gesturing to the idol of the kami behind her.

“Wait, she’s real?” I looked at the idol sitting behind mama and began bowing my head instinctively.

“Hahaha!” Mama burst out laughing. “Of course she's real. i have been head priestess here for fifteen years, don't tell me you thought I was a fraud."

I shrunk down in an a,wkward show of guilt.

"It's fine dear, I did teach you to be skeptical, but there is no need for you to bow your head to Kumiho-sama. She adoptd us when we came to this world, and probably thinks she is some kind of godmother to you."

I raised my head and looked at the idol.

“How do I thank her for the an I meet her?” I asked, really hoping to see what a nine-tailed fox kami looked like.

“Sorry Lyn, but making that essence consumed most of her power. She will probably be unable to materialize for a hundred years, but when she does, I’m sure she would love for you to visit and tell her about your life. Just make sure to ask Everlyse to teach you how you can communicate with her before you come to visit. Divine beings can’t speak in the way that mortals do.”

“Mama! Everlyse and I will be dead in a hundred years!” I said confused at what mama had just said.

“Oh, honey…” Mama said with a slight amount of feigned condescension. “Your body is made of magic; you don’t need to worry about anything like aging or disease, and when you reunite with Eve, well... You'll probably be immortal like Everlyse.”

It is true that I had never been sick before.

"Wait. WHAAAAAAT? Did you say I'll be immortal?"

"Hehe. You'll see honey."

“Is that why you look so young, mama? Are you made of magic or immortal like Everlyse too?”

“Nope.” She said curtly with a smile on her face.

I raised my brow at her expecting more of a response, but her expression didn’t change. She then pointed at the liquid and gestured for me to take a drink.

"Let's finish this first." She said.

I took a quick sip expecting a taste as strong as it smelled, but it was surprisingly pleasant. The liquid felt light and cool as if it were made of mist and swirled and tingled as it slid down my throat. It tasted like a wheatgrass smoothie made with rainwater. After downing the liquid, I placed the bowl in front of me and braced for a wild burst of energy like I felt after taking one of mama’s pills, but nothing happened, so I looked to mama.

“I think it’s a dud mama.”

“This will be very different from our previous sessions, so I’ll explain as we go. I need to make an adjustment before the magic will take effect, and I promise you honey; this isn’t a dud.”

Tuning was a simple process, mama would measure and check my body, give me a pill, or even perform what she called “an adjustment.” Adjustments were rare and could take anywhere from ten seconds to several hours. Mama would place her hand on my abdomen and sit in partial meditation. Sure, the process was weird, but I took advantage of the time by catching mama up on my friends and my life at school. I treated it as little more than quality time with my mother.

“Lyn, stand up straight and take off your shirt” Mama said as she approached me.

“First, I’m going to activate your mana engine so that it can integrate with the rest of your body.”

“My mana what?!” I interrupted, but she pretended not to hear me.

“This is going to feel really, uh… maybe… just a bit uncomfortable, just a bit. Bear with it for a moment dear.”

She stood before me and let out a breath as a lightning bolt lit up the room from the window. Sparks of electricity shot out of the ground and surrounded her in a halo of blue light. The electricity was then drawn into her left hand, leaving it glowing an intense white. I took a step back in shock.

“Stand still Lyn.” My mother said through gritted teeth.

Before I could react, she had slammed her palm into my stomach, completely knocking me off balance and onto the floor. Using her right arm, she caught me while maintaining her other hand's contact with my abdomen. A cool and intensely sharp sensation entered my belly through her hand, becoming sharper and colder till it felt like wire tendrils connecting between her hand and something heavy inside my belly. She turned her hand and the strange object rotated in tandem. Then she gently set me down on the floor.

“Your body is held together by the pressure in your core but remains separated. Rather than your body being that of a human, it's more like it is loosely orbiting the core in the shape of a human. Your body has had this arrangement till now, so think of that as your phase one. The loose arrangement allowed you to grow up and mature, but now that you've mostly grown up, it's time to directly connect your core to the rest of your body. Normally this should be impossible because unlike in the human body where the core and body are two separate things, you are your core, so your I invented the mana engine."

An eruption of sharp-feeling tendrils shot out from the object in my belly. Like the roots of a tree, they burst from my center. Jagged paths were formed that painfully weaved through muscle, organ, sinew, and bone until they finally reached the boundary of my skin.

“Ahhh! Mama, what’s... Gah! Gooing on?” I cried out in agony as I lost control over my body.

I felt stiff and heavy like my blood had been replaced by iron. My muscles were tensing and spasming as waves of warm energy were circulating around where the tendrils had formed.

“Phase two is happening. It will be over soon.” Mama said in a gentle and reassuring voice.

She placed my head in her lap, and reached her hand out to touch my cheek. I relaxed immediately after the warm gesture and released the tension in my body till I noticed something falling off my head.

“Mma… My hair!”

It fell off my head like it had been directly sheared from my scalp.

“It will grow back. Just be patient dear.” My mother chided.

“What do you mean? Sure, it will grow back, but that was at least a year’s worth of hair mama! I don’t want to be bald!”

My spout of self-pity was interrupted when I felt a burning feeling on my scalp. I sat up as silky blonde hair suddenly sprouted out of my head. After a period of no more than ten seconds, the hair stopped growing till it reached just below my hips and touched the ground.

“Hahahaha! The look on your face was amazing, honey. How do you feel?” Mama asked as I stood up in front of her.

My body felt warm like I had just left a hot bath. A tingly feeling of power was radiating throughout my body, and with every breath, I felt lighter and stronger than I had ever felt before.

“I feel… Warm? It’s… Wait, what was that!?” I said so fervently that I was almost tongue-tied.

What did she do? Was her hand glowing? The lightning!

“I knew it! I was little, yeah, then a lightning bolt. Booom! The roof of the temple! Right!?"

“Yes, that did happen, but sorry honey, we can discuss that later. The next part is *cough* time-sensitive.” She crossed her legs in a meditation pose. “Please sit like this and close your eyes.”

“But... Mama. You said you would explain as you–– “

“We’re almost finished. I promise I will explain afterward. Close your eyes and relax. Make extra sure that you relax your body. Extra, extra sure.”

I furrowed my brow in skepticism but obeyed her nonetheless. My mind wandered giddily to the new feelings in my body, and I relaxed. As I waited, I heard mama shuffle away from me till she reached the edge of the room.

“Mama, is it done yet? Why are you moving away?” I said.

“Just stay still. I will tell you when you can move again.”

She opened a window and the sound of rain and wind burst into the room. For some reason, the violent and chaotic nature of the storm felt much more familiar to me than it had just earlier. As I relaxed my body further, I could see in my mind’s eye the blue glow of lightning and the vortex of wind and water churning in the sky above me. The images felt more and more real, but I dismissed them until suddenly it felt like the storm had stopped and turned its everything to me.

My vision went white, and I felt a rush of electricity and burning fire racing through every cell in my body. There was no pain only power, and when I finally opened my eyes, the storm had disappeared.