Lith spent the next hour explaining Tista about fake magic, true magic, and the Awakening process . She trusted her brother with her life, yet even after meeting Solus, Tista found hard to believe such a massive info dump .
Lith then cast perfectly silent spells of all tiers, from one to five in front of her eyes . Tista gasped for air, the whole Mogar was turning upside down . She kept hyperventilating due to stress until everything turned black .
"Has she fainted?" Lith asked .
"Yes . Too bad we can't waste time being nice . " Solus conjured ice cold water and splashed Tista's face with it .
"Oh, gods! I had the weirdest dream…" When Tista saw Lith and Solus again, she realized it wasn't a dream . Lith sat on the ground beside her, putting his arm around her shoulders to keep her calm .
"Is everything I learned so far a lie, then?" She asked after a while .
"No, it's just part of a much more complex truth . Think about it . We and magical beasts having two different kinds of magic doesn't make sense . We breathe the same air, we eat the same things . Why magic should be any different?" Lith replied .
"What's wrong with me? Am I going to die?" She embraced Lith in search of warmth . Tista was so shocked that she had yet to dry herself from the water .
"There is nothing wrong with you and you are going to be just fine . " Lith made the water disappear and had Solus turn the heat up in the tower .
"Yet to succeed I need your help . There are some unknown factors that I had no opportunity to study, so I need you to be completely honest with me . Don't try to be a hero, if anything feels weird or painful you have to tell me . "
"Weird how?" Tista blushed .
"To keep you alive and healthy I have removed impurities from your body since a tender age . I stopped as soon as I noticed your Awakening process started because I have no idea if it made things easier or harder for you . Also, you have a bright green core . So far my only successful experiments involve cyan cores . " Lith sighed .
"Wait . Didn't you tell me you had a green one too? What's the difference between you and me?"
"The difference is me Awakening early . My body developed like that of a magical beast . I grew slowly in strength, so my body had all the time it needed to adapt . Yours is going straight from a dormant green core to an active cyan one . It could either kill you or turn you into an Abomination . "
Lith hugged her tightly, kissing her forehead . The thought of losing her was unbearable .
'I'll never be able to live with myself if she dies because of me . ' Lith thought .
'She'd be dead without you . ' Solus rebuked . 'Now bring her to the basement, we have no time to lose . '
Lith helped Tista to get up and did as instructed . He explained to her how Awakening usually involved the impurities reaching the mana core, triggering some kind of reaction that made both the core and the body stronger .
"I still have no clue about the details, but I think that expelling the impurities is only part of the process . During the refinement, the body undergoes a transformation that corrects any flaw humans normally develop during their lives .
"If I'm right, the stronger the core the greater the number of flaws the body needs to fix . It's an incredibly delicate process, like using Body Sculpting on a healthy subject . Hence the body undergoes a lot of stress and if it's unable to cope, the final result is death .
"In theory, you grew with very few imperfections . It should make things easier . "
"What if you are wrong?" Tista asked .
"Then by removing your impurities, I've doomed you . " The sibling shivered in fear, but Tista only held Lith's hand tighter .
"What do I have to do?"
Lith brought her in the tower's basement, in the nearest point to the mana geyser . Then, he explained to her both Invigoration and Accumulation while Solus filled the air to the brim with world energy .
"If you learn Accumulation before your Awakening, we can have an idea if your body is ready . If you feel no discomfort it would be a great sign . If you learn Invigoration, instead, it can help you survive in case anything goes wrong . "
Tista sat cross legged on the warm stone floor, taking deep breathes and following Lith's instructions . She was scared but at the same time excited . She had started studying magic to feel closer to her brother, but now it was an important part in her life .
She loved being a mage and the idea of becoming part of something bigger filled her with joy . The high mana density in the room tickled her skin . She could almost feel the energy moving around her, seeping into her body .
'A living tower, true magic, and secrets no one but the beasts know . Mom is right . Since Lith's birth life really turned into a fairy tale . Now I understand why all the secrecy about his abilities and how he managed to cure what even Nana was helpless against .
'Even if I die today, I have no regrets . Without him, I would have spent the few years I had left agonizing in my bed . ' Tista thought, yet tears streamed down her eyes thinking back to her past life .
"Is anything wrong?" Lith asked as soon as he noticed .
"I lied to myself . " Tista said . "I have lots of regrets . I'm scared and I don't want to die . "
The first phrase baffled Lith, the others not so much .
"We are on the same page . Now keep breathing and tell me how do you feel . "
Tista took in a couple of deep breaths from the nose before answering .
"I feel hot and ticklish . Is it normal?"
"Yes . " Lith lied .
'How the heck I'm supposed to know what's normal? It's my first time Awakening a human too! As long as she doesn't feel pain it's a good sign . ' He thought .
The hours passed . Lith could only check on Tista and Solus from time to time . Neither of them could afford losing focus or to get tired . Until Tista's Awakening started, Lith preferred to have them rest, if needed .
"I think I learned Invigoration!" Tista suddenly said . "I can feel a warm flow of mana entering my body . It's this the world energy? It's so different from casting a spell with fake mag…"
"Don't lose the breathing rhythm!" Lith scolded her . "When the process starts, it will be painful . If you lose the rhythm, Invigoration stops working!"
Tista wanted to rebuke, but realizing Lith was just worried about her, she moved to Accumulation instead . Now she could visualize the impurities nearing her core, giving her a pricking sensation whenever they touched .
Tista was about to report it to Lith when a big impurity struck her core merging with it . Pain invaded her body, almost breaking her concentration . Tista had never felt such agony since she was a kid when even breathing was a miracle to her .
Pain was an old friend, so she welcomed it back gritting her teeth and without losing her breathing rhythm .
"It has begun . " Solus said .
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