Alex heard movement in the distance, he stops his kata frowning in concern and listening. The guards had already left giving him his two bottles of basic and they weren’t due back until the morning. He looks towards the door as footsteps draw near then he lowers himself in the kneeling position.

The door swiftly opens and he let out a gasp when he sees Candy standing in the doorway. She gives him a brief smile before announcing. "Get up and follow me. The Mistress wishes to continue your instruction." She turns and begins walking away.

Alex quickly gets to his feet and moves to the doorway. He inhales deeply sucking in the prana floating in the air and memorising the taste that is Candy. As soon as he exits his cell he notices that she is following a guard while another guard, with his baton ready, waits for Alex. The guard leads both of them back in the direction of the garden used by Mistress Lyrei. However, they soon deviate towards a different area; one Alex has not been in before. They soon leave the harsh prison area as the interior decoration begins to look more corporate and the lighting more passive. Alex notices many different flavors of prana surrounding him as he walks after Candy.

They pass through several corridors with many doors before they eventually stop at a door, which has a sign that Alex is unable to read. The lead guard opens the door and without pausing enters, Candy follows as does Alex trailed by the second guard. They enter a large room with several low tables along one wall and an open area. Opposite is another door in a black glass wall, similar to those used in the cells. Alex detects a familiar prana floating in the room and realizes that it belongs to Mistress Lyrei.

Candy straightaway moves to the open area near the door and kneels bowing towards the door opposite. Alex moves next to her and does the same as Candy looks at him briefly in concern. The lead guard continues to the door and knocks; while the second guard stands in the doorway they have just entered through swinging his baton. Alex can hear the whoosh as the baton passes over his head.

After a few seconds a voice from the other side of the opposite door calls. “Enter.”

The first guard opens the door and takes two steps, then gives a standing bow. “The merchandise you requested, Mistress Lyrei.”

Mistress Lyrei inclined her head as she said "Thank you. Please have them enter.”

The guard bows again. “Yes, Mistress.” He then turns back to the door and commands. “Bring in the merchandise.”

“Girl. Stand and enter.” The second guard growls. Candy instantly stands and bows to the guard before scurrying through the door. A few seconds later the guard growls again, “Now you scum.” Alex promptly stands and bows to the guard as well before following. Candy moves a few meters past the door before kneeling again and bowing, Alex joins her, with the second guard following.

The room they enter is also large with pale lacquered wood panelling on the walls and similar on the floor. There is a large table facing the door about ten meters away with a second smaller table about halfway. Mistress Lyrei is behind the larger table and looking at Candy and Alex. There are piles of paperwork and some form of low computer screen resting in the center of the table.

She glances briefly at the guards and waves a hand in dismissal. “Please wait outside." She then turns her gaze to the screen in front of her.

“I’m sorry Mistress Lyrei, but Master Ardreth has ordered us to protect you, especially since this male merchandise can be violent.” The first guard states.

“Hmm, I need them to charge some cores and then for Talia to begin teaching Eilaes his literacy, while I attend to some other work. Your presence will be distracting.” Mistress Lyrei says with a pout. She then indicates two pebbles on her desk. “I do have their control stones and they are set to voice activation and three-meter proximity, so if they attack they won’t be able to get too close. You do have an override stone don’t you?”

“Yes Mistress, we both do.”

“Then why don’t I make the glass wall more transparent? Not too transparent as that would still be too distracting, but enough so you can still see into the room? One of you could then keep watch while the other relaxes or gets food. I’m expecting this to take quite a few hours. Is that acceptable?”

“I’ll need to check.” The first guard says and then pauses for a couple of minutes before continuing. “Master Ardreth confirms that’s acceptable.” Mistress Lyrei then picks up a black pebble from the desk and uses it to adjust the transparency of the wall. The guard turns and inspects the wall, then bows and exits the office. The second guard also bows before leaving without saying a word. The door closes by itself behind them and Mistress Lyrei waits until they are in position and confirms that they can only be seen as hazy figures.

“Now, both of you move to the table in front of you.”

“Yes. Mistress.” They both say at the same time, then rise and move to the table before kneeling again.

“On the table are the gloves for charging cores with a couple of empty cores. Talia, I want you to start first. Put on the white gloves and charge the smaller core on the table.”

“Yes, Mistress.” Candy replies, picking up a pair of gloves and quickly putting them on. She then picks up the smaller core and settles into meditation and the gloves glow red as she begins to push her prana into the core.

“Eilaes, I want you to do the same with the larger core. Try your best to regulate the prana flow as the faster you charge the core the more inefficient the gloves are.”

“Mistress, may I ask a question?” Alex enquires.

“You may.”

“I don’t understand why the gloves would be more inefficient the faster you push prana through them.”

“The gloves are runic devices that allow your prana to enter the core. To do this the glove converts your aligned prana into nonaligned. The main rune on the glove that does this has a maximum throughput and anything over that is expelled to stop the rune failing.”

“What’s the maximum?”

“Most standard gloves can convert one unit per minute. To put this into context you have a core volume of ninety-two units and a prana generation rate of two hundred and seventy-five per standard day. This means you can fill your core three times in a standard day. Your prana output capacity is six hundred and eighty-seven units per standard hour, so you can empty your cores ninety-two units in less than fifteen standard minutes.”

“But, the glove would put less than fifteen units into the core?”

“That’s correct, which is why I want you to try and control your flow rate. Now, put on the gloves and begin.”

Alex puts the gloves on and flexes his fingers until they feel comfortable. He then settles and picks up the core from the table and looks at it. It’s at least twice the size of the cores he had charged in the past.

“Mistress, can I ask one final question before I start?”

Mistress Lyrei looks up from the screen and frowns. “Be quick.”

“What’s the capacity of this core?”

“Three hundred units. You’re going to be practicing your flow control a lot.” She replies blandly.

Alex winces at the statement and he begins to worry about what will happen if he cannot control the flow sufficiently and it keeps crashing into his core. He didn’t look forward to spending the time in constant pain. He sighs and moves into a sitting position with the core pressed between his hands that were resting on his ankles. He senses the prana floating in the air for a few seconds before he closes his eyes and begins to cycle his prana. He starts by taking deep, slow breaths and using the small amount of prana absorbed into his lungs to help push his own, but not pushing too hard, attempting to keep the flow rate slow.

After a few minutes, he tries to siphon off a small amount of prana into his arms and towards the gloves. It’s initially effective and he manages to push a minor amount of prana in the right direction. But then his prana begins to cascade as more and more seems to be attracted to his arms. He attempts to clamp down on the flow and restrict the channels. He has some success as he feels the channels leading to his arms swell and begin to become uncomfortable. This seems to go on for an eternity as he focuses on the prana leaving his body and his internal struggle to regulate the flow. Then abruptly, it ends.

Alex’s attention returns to the room as he gasps for air and rubs his chest. After a few minutes, Mistress Lyrei finally looks up at Alex with a slight smirk. "Excellent. Please place the core in the bowl at the back of the table."

Alex notices a small white bowl and leans forward to place the core in it. As soon as it hits the bottom, the bowl glows red as the runes on the inside light up. He quickly looks towards Mistress Lyrei and watches her tap numerous times at something on the screen in front of her.

"Interesting," Mistress Lyrei mutters frowning. "That’s not what I expected." Then she leans back with a small smile. “You’re improving. It took you nearly forty minutes to empty your core instead of the fourteen of your previous attempts. The flow rate was also slow enough that you also didn’t cause a flash of discharging prana either. Now, remove your gloves and extract the core from the bowl.” She pauses and gazes off into the distance as Alex takes the gloves off and retrieves the core.

A few minutes later she turns her attention to Alex. “While we wait for Talia to finish, why don’t you tell me how your meditation progressing? Any insights?”

“Insights, Mistress?”

“Your lack of control used to cause your prana to fly around your body before speeding back to your core. While you were charging the core just now I didn’t perceive the same lack of control. It was noticeable as there was no prana discharge from your skin, although the blue arcs are fascinating to watch. What did you change to gain control?”

Alex purses his lips. “It must just be perseverance. I’ve not done anything differently.”

“Are you sure? Did something change after you got hit by the prana discharge when you were attacked?”

Alex looks confused for a few seconds, and then becomes anxious. “No Mistress. After I killed Kracc the only thing that changed was that my chest was injured and I had a lot of nightmares.”

“Did you cycle your prana when you had the injury?”

“Yes, Mistress.”

“Describe how the prana felt in your core when you resumed cycling.”

“It caused a sharp pain as if I was being stabbed.”

“Was it a brief pain? Did it get worse the more you cycled your prana?”

“It was a constant pain and yes, it did get worse if I continued to cycle prana. However, if I didn’t cycle prana then after a while it felt like I was still getting stabbed with a red hot knife.”

“Ah, that sounds like your core was fractured. You seem fine now and it didn’t seem to affect you earlier. It must have just been a minor crack, easily healed. I have been told that if there are multiple cracks, it’s extremely painful and can take a long time to heal. You were fortunate.”

“Yes, Mistress.”

Mistress Lyrei glances at the screen. “Meditate until Talia is ready to start your lesson.”

“Yes, Mistress.”

Alex settles back and perceives the multitude of prana drift from Candy next to him. He feels a sense of comfort when he inhales and his body absorbs the prana. He watches as his own prana beings to slowly mimic the taste of Candy’s. After a while, he accidentally breathes in some of Mistress Lyrei’s prana and it causes a brief flash of pain, so he begins to push his prana back towards being tasteless.

He estimates it takes another forty minutes until Candy finishes charging the core and he hears Mistress Lyrei comment. “Talia, place the core in the bowl on the table.” Alex hears a rattle and opens his eyes in time to see the bowl glow a dull red as the runes light up. He determines it’s not as bright this time and he looks to Mistress Lyrei who taps the screen a few times. “Good Talia. Your core volume has increased it's now ninety. Those enhancers you’ve been receiving have helped greatly. Now begin instructing Eilaes.”

“Of course, Mistress.” Candy replies.

Candy removes her gloves and begins showing Alex the Elven script, which has lots of loops, tails and diacritical marks that take such forms as a straight or curvy line or a dot or a pair of dots. Alex stops counting when they exceed thirty basic characters. He detects that Mistress Lyrei is casting regular glances in their direction and reminds Candy several times to keep to the specified topics. After a couple of hours of study Mistress Lyrei suddenly throws something at Alex.

He almost fumbles the item from the surprise, but manages to grab it from the air on his second attempt as his hand closes around a soft bundle. When he unravels it, he finds a pair of gloves. Alex notices a small hint of concern flash in Candy's eyes as she looks at what he’s holding.

He looks up at Mistress Lyrei and sees an encouraging smile on her face. “I want you to continue charging the core, but using those gloves.”

“Yes, Mistress.” He replies, putting on the gloves and picking up the core.

He moves into the same sitting position that he used last time, with the core pressed between his hands that were again resting on his ankles. He begins to recapture the feeling he had earlier and as he cycles his prana into his arms. He feels the prana build up in his arms and then the rush as it leaves his body and enter the core. As he continues he does not see the side glances of concern Candy keeps shooting at him.

After about ten minutes he abruptly notices that his prana drastically slows down and it has difficulty entering the core. He tries to detect what has caused this, but can’t see what’s changed. He recognizes that his prana has begun to imitate the taste of Candy’s, probably due to their close proximity and the time they have been together. He pushes his prana to become more tasteless and he notices that the prana flows more smoothly into the core and at a much faster rate than before.

He feels a bump on his knee and he snaps his eyes open and realizes that the gloves aren’t glowing. He looks up and locks gazes with Mistress Lyrei who has a shocked look on her face. "I suspected you could directly imbue your prana into cores, but it's difficult to accept.”

“What led you to that conclusion?” Alex asks shocked.

“My suspicions were based on two things I observed. I got an inkling first because of how fast your back has healed. And the second was that you filled the core earlier with more prana than the gloves would be capable of in the time you took.” She asserts as her eyes take on a slightly manic gleam as she focuses on the core in Alex's gloved hands.

Alex swallows nervously. “I don’t understand, Mistress. What does this mean?”

Mistress Lyrei stands with a triumphant look on her face while she points at the glowing core and says "I’ve just witnessed the impossible!" Alex's head dips and he furrows his brow in concern as he looks down at the floor and hopes that they won't dissect him now.

Mistress Lyrei picks up the pebbles and fiddles with them before she saunters around the large table and stops directly in front of Candy and Alex on the other side of the small table. She leans down and places her finger under Alex's chin and tilts it up until she met his eyes.

After a second of silence in which Mistress Lyrei studies Alex's eyes for anything that might explain what has just happened, she opens her mouth and asks "Are you part spirit or part progenitor?"

Alex keeps calm as he answers "Neither, Mistress."

Mistress Lyrei's brows furrowed a little as she says "What are you then?"

Alex shrugs his shoulders a bit as he says "Just a human, no more, no less, Mistress."

Mistress Lyrei's face didn't twitch as she keeps studying Alex's eyes while she asks "How did you manage to imbue the core with your prana without the use of runes?"

Alex hesitates for a split second, but decides to answer. "I’m not sure. All I can think of is that after a couple of days in the pit, I could taste my prana. Then after my star turn at the party, I was given some form of prana to help me heal. When it entered my body I could taste the difference in the prana and I willed my own prana to imitate it, but I don’t know how I do it.

A glimpse of anger flutters deep in Mistress Lyrei's eyes when Alex finishes. "Why would that method work for you when it failed for everyone else in history?"

Alex shrugs his shoulders in helplessness as he answers. "Why would it not, Mistress?"

Mistress Lyrei blinks in surprise, and after a second starts chuckling and quietly repeating "Why not indeed?" A few seconds later she suddenly stops chuckling and stares at Alex intently. “You must not tell anyone what has happened here or what you are capable of.” Her scrutiny snaps to Candy. “And that goes for you as well Talia.” Alex lowers his eyes as he feels his stressed nerves relax a little.

Mistress Lyrei studies Alex then proclaims "We’ll start every morning at dawn until we discover why you can do what others cannot. You must keep focusing on controlling your prana.” She pauses thinking. “I’ll have to see if I can borrow some relics and see what you can do with them."

She stops for a second and stares at Alex waiting until he acknowledges her orders. He looks up when it goes silent before quickly saying. "Yes, Mistress." then she continues "Now remove the gloves and place the core in the bowl."

“Yes, Mistress,” Alex replies and does as requested.

"I am sorry that you have been caused distress, Eilaes," Mistress Lyrei says conversationally as she walks back to the large table. "You‘ve had a particularly difficult tenday and it’s regrettable that you’ve suffered. Doubtless, you still feel you are not a slave and have been treated unfairly. I do try to help you understand your current status. You often forget that you are no longer a male of Earth, but merely a slave."

She pauses but Alex does not respond.

"Incidentally, Eilaes," she continues, "I commend you on your progress in Elven. You have skill with languages."

"Thank you, Mistress.”

"And your body has improved, too, with all the exercise and the basic, it’s shaping up nicely. You’ve gained definition and more muscle while losing the fat."

"Thank you, Mistress."

"You are nearly as large as an Orc, Alex," she chuckles. "Indeed, I suspect you could become more deadly than many elves. It is fortunate for us all you are a slave. Now it’s time for you both to get some rest, we’ll be starting early tomorrow."