There was a knock at the door to the office. “Come in.” Mistress Lyrei announces.

Master Ardreth opens the door and steps in and then performs a standing bow to Mistress Lyrei. “Master Syllen has requested that I attend to your request regarding this merchandise.” He says flatly while ignoring the presence of Alex and Candy who are working at the small table.

Mistress Lyrei looks at Candy. "Talia, prepare my quarters for when I return, ensure that there is wine and food.” Candy bows and swiftly exits the room and then Mistress Lyrei gets up from behind the table walking towards the door while saying. “Eilaes, follow."

Alex keeps his eyes down as he trails Mistress Lyrei while Master Ardreth walks a few paces behind. Master Ardreth dismisses the two guards waiting outside as he passes. As they traverse corridors Alex realizes that the decor is getting better with unusual canvases hanging on the walls, mostly depicting battle scenes and portraits. However, they don’t see anyone else as they move. Eventually, they enter a stairwell and descend before exiting into a long and wide plain hallway with stark utilitarian lights. After a few more minutes they stop in front of a large steel door.

Mistress Lyrei places a hand on a blank plate next to the door and Alex perceives a blue light glow behind her hand and then a red script lights up on the door next to the panel. After a few seconds, there’s a thunk followed by the door opening a crack inward. Mistress Lyrei pushes the door fully open then walks through and Alex follows into a huge room. It's filled with equipment that looks like it has been copied from a movies mad scientist’s laboratory.

In the middle of the room stands four three-meter long, and meter and a half wide metal tables filled with various straps for restraining the body. On the right side is a series of benches on which rest a selection of devices and cores. On the left side are shelves filled with all kinds of bottles, jars, and strange pickled body parts, and other things you just wouldn't even begin to guess the function of. On the far side of the room, there appear to be several computer workstations. He notes that right in front of the tables there is a large red circular design etched into the floor.

Alex hears the door click shut behind him as Mistress Lyrei points to one of the tables. “Stand over there facing away from the door.” She commands.

Alex moves forward and senses the prana in the air. There are so many different flavors present that he can’t even begin to estimate the number. His attention is then caught by a few large colorful diagrams that hang on the wall above the workstation. Alex tries to guess what they show before realizing that they are an abstract view of the body. They look like a depiction of the blood system within the body, but then after a few seconds, he grasps they must be the channels used to cycle prana around the body. He studies the diagram and tries to commit as much as he can to his memory.

“Get on the table and lie on your back, head towards the door.” Mistress Lyrei commands and Alex moves over the table and pauses in trepidation. He turns his head slightly and discerns that they are the only ones in the room, there is no sign of Master Ardreth.

“Hurry up we need to get this completed.” Mistress Lyrei says curtly. Alex tentatively gets onto the table and lies on his back, then looks over as Mistress Lyrei strides past one of the workstations. She begins tapping on the screen and Alex hears a hum above him. He quickly looks up as he sees a forty centimeter flat disk with glowing red runes float up from a shelf above the table and begin to lower towards him.

“Lie still while it scans you.” Mistress Lyrei says calmly.

The small disc stops just above his feet, but he does not feel any air being blown onto him. The hum increases in volume as it begins to slowly glide up his body. It stops when it gets above his chest and he glances over to see Mistress Lyrei tapping away on the workstation. The disc does a small circuit of his chest before resuming its progress towards his head. When it reaches his face, he notices a series of small plaques crowded with glowing runes. The scan takes about ten minutes and once the disc has passed over his head it immediately rises and returns to the shelf.

Mistress Lyrei continues tapping on the workstation for a short time before swiftly moving towards the benches. She stops in front of one containing various strange-looking devices and picks up a large box. Opening it, she takes out a small rod made of some dark metal with runes etched in scarlet on all sides. She picks up another device that has a small screen and turns towards Alex with a smile before striding over and standing in front of him.

"Sit up and take this." Mistress Lyrei says as he hands the rod to Alex.

Alex moves to a sitting position on the table and barely glances at Mistress Lyrei. He’s distracted by the huge amount of prana he can sense floating around her, this causes him to only making a half-hearted attempt at taking the rod, and so he drops it. After it clatters to the ground and slides a meter away Alex jumps off the table and scurries after it, then picking it up kneels and bows.

"My apologies, Mistress." He mutters nervously.

Mistress Lyrei glances at him with a small frown, but it soon disappears as she points at the rod and says "Hold the rod at each end and charge it until all of the runes are activated." Alex leans back and focuses on pushing a strand of prana through his arms and into the rod. It takes him only a few seconds until the first of the runes on the rod shine a light red color.

“Good. Now try to keep the charge constant.” Mistress Lyrei lifts the device with the screen and points the back of it at the rod. After a few seconds, she adjusts some small knobs at the bottom of the device. “Now cycle your prana down one arm, through the rod and into your other arm.”

Alex concentrates and tries to do as requested. At first, there is resistance to pushing his prana along the rod and it takes a few minutes until he feels the prana enter his other arm.

“Excellent. Now keep cycling until I tell you to stop.”

Alex contemplates the prana as it cycles and realizes that the rod is now pulsing and slowly getting brighter. His prana begins to cycle quicker as does the pulsing light until eventually the pulsing stops and the glow becomes constant and continues to brighten.

"Good, now try to reverse the flow," says Mistress Lyrei as she indicates to the rod Alex is holding.

Alex gasps and stops pushing prana through his hand and tries to redirect the flow and the pulsing light returns. After a few minutes of failing to change the direction of the flow he looks up at Mistress Lyrei and says "I don't seem to be able to change the flow direction, Mistress. I’m sorry."

Mistress Lyrei clicks her tongue as she shakes her head slightly and says "I figured as much. I should not expect a lot from you in your current condition." She takes back the rod, and then moves back to the bench placing it back in the box. She then moves to a large metal box and takes a key out of her pocket and unlocking it retrieves a crystal that is the size of a cherry. She gazes at it before touching it to the device she’s holding with the screen.

She returns to Alex carefully carrying the crystal then hands it to him. “Don’t drop it!” Once he has it in his hand, she continues. ”Commence charging the crystal.” Alex looks at the crystal and notices that it has been cut into a regular dodecahedron and fine red runes cover the circumference of each surface. He rotates it in his hand before looking up enquiringly. “It’s a progenitor relic much more sensitive than a standard core. Now, begin charging it.”

Alex looks around then sits on the floor and assumes the pose he uses for charging cores. He looks at the prana around him and tries to avoid breathing any in while he begins to cycle his prana. He wills his prana to be tasteless and after a short while he begins to charge the crystal. Forty-five minutes later his core is empty and the crystal is glowing faintly white. Alex notices that the runes on the crystal are also glowing and he again rotates it in his hands. In the middle of one face is a glowing set of figures that slowly seem to change and he quickly realizes that this must be some form of counter.

Mistress Lyrei leans down and removes the crystal with shaking hands. “Amazing. Your prana is nearly totally nonaligned.”

She walks down the other end of the benches to a large device next to a cupboard. She takes out a key and opens the cupboard, then takes out a blue glowing bottle with runes etched on the side. She turns to Alex and says "Do you know what spirits are, Eilaes?"

Alex looks at her in surprise and shakes his head. "No, Mistress. Where I come from there were only stories." While staring at the glowing bottle she is holding he notices not only are the runes faintly glowing, but also it’s half full of a faintly glowing deep blue liquid.

Mistress Lyrei attaches the bottle to the device via a series of clamps, she then places the crystal into a holder at the top. She steps to the side of the device and turns a series of knobs. “Some believe that spirits are created when someone imprints their id onto a body of prana. Do you know what the id is?”

“No, Mistress.”

“The id is the personality part of an individual and is made up of unconscious prana energy that a person uses to satisfy basic urges, needs, and desires. Many are certain that at the point of your death if you have enough prana within your core and the will to live, your spirit will be imprinted on a nearby body of prana.” She then points at the glowing bottle. “This is such a body of liquid prana.” Alex watches as the crystals glow decreases and at the same time liquid drips into the bottle.

She locks eyes with Alex before continuing. "People believe that spirits can possess the living and they see it as a symbiotic relationship. The person gains increased prana volume and the spirit can provide advice and knowledge. The spirit benefits as it can again experience the joy of life while being able to visit friends and family.

“Liquid prana is also highly prized because of its use to power many of our devices as well as being a key component in potions. The final reason is that if you consume it, it can enhance your core and channels, although there are some risks in doing this if you don’t do it properly.”

Mistress Lyrei says as he points at the circle etched into the floor. “Kneel in the center of the focus array, we need to repair your core.”

“Repair my core, Mistress?”

“When you got hit in the chest by the prana discharge it damaged your core, which is causing the stabbing pains. It usually takes months or even years to fully heal a damaged core unless you give it a little help. So, I’ll be giving you a few drops of liquid prana and then activating the array. The array helps concentrate the healing prana into your core where it’s absorbed and repairs the damage. You will need to cycle it within your body to allow it to work effectively and this will probably take a few hours.”

“Mistress, may I ask a question?”

“Yes, you may.”

“How dangerous is this?”.

“Not very. If we were to use liquid prana from a charged core, then it would be higher. Converting charged cores will dissolve the core into the liquid prana resulting in lower quality. However, I’m giving you the higher grade liquid prana gathered by the relic as we need to fix your core as fast as possible. The use of the array also means that I only need to give you a small dose. Now please kneel in the center of the array.”

Alex steps up to the edge of the etched circle and studies the runes that are too many to count and look exceedingly complicated. With trepidation, he moves to the center of the array and kneels facing Mistress Lyrei. He briefly extends his arms and determines that they don’t reach the runes inscribed on the floor. He looks up to see that Mistress Lyrei is striding toward him holding a small bottle with runes etched into it.

She stops in front of Alex. “Poke out your tongue, so I can give you three drops.”

Alex swallows nervously before extending his tongue. She grips the top of the bottle and extracts something similar to a pipette and slowly applies the drops. After a second his tongue tingles and then it feels like his mouth is full of popping candy. She moves to the edge of the array and begins to place drops of liquid prana into small indentations as she walks around the outside of the circle.

"Can you sense it?" Mistress Lyrei asks as she studies the glowing pools of liquid prana as it powers the circle.

Alex glances at Mistress Lyrei for a second, but then looks at the glowing runes that seem to be getting brighter by the second. Then he senses the prana in the air near him begin to move towards him and after a few seconds, he notices more of the prana in the room being drawn towards him. He tries to calm his breathing as the first of the alien prana enter his lungs, but he soon begins to feel like he is drowning as his lungs flood with prana and enter his body.

He shudders as the prana rushes to his head and he begins to feel strange almost light-headed His eyes begin to itch so he closes them and then absently rubs his eyelids. He does not notice Mistress Lyrei move to the workstation or the disk float off the shelf and assume a position half a meter above his head. He tries to concentrate on cycling his prana and has a sense of heightened alertness and pulsing bursts of energy from his extremities. Then the itching stops and he opens his eyes.

He leisurely gazes around the room watching the pictures on the walls morph and blend into each other. The prana in the air is now encasing his body and he sees a firework display color and an intensity of flavor that he was in total awe of, as his senses become drenched. It became hard to see anything but the colors that were everywhere and the prana that was dancing upon his skin as if they were alive with the vibrancy of something conscious.

Alex unexpectedly finds himself in the memory when the priest was arrested by armed police. He relives the strong emotions of joy at being free and the hope that he has finally escaped the clutches of the cult. Then things begin to change and his mood swings to despair when he finds himself in the memory of arguing with his mother when she refuses to leave the cult and he sees smirking faces in the distance. Then he remembers his friends and all of the good times and he especially remembers Candy. Then he feels a strong euphoria to the point of it is overwhelming.

Mistress Lyrei is tapping at the workstation frantically with a clear look of panic on her face. “How is there so much prana in his body? I didn’t give him anywhere near this amount.” She mutters and stares at the display as his core seems to pulse like a racing heart. The disc had detected hairline fractures in the core when it first scanned Alex. Now, she watches as the core pulses momentarily enlarging the cracks before it shrinks and the cracks diminish. She quickly glances at a number at the bottom of the screen and stops amazed as it gradually increases.

For a second Alex imagines that he hears a howl of agony, but then realizes that it’s him who is screaming. Mistress Lyrei jumps at the sound of someone in extreme pain whirling round to face the circle. She takes a step forward, then slumps against one of the examination tables and looks at Alex in bewilderment as she witnesses his sprawled body entirely covered in small arcs of blue lightning.

A few hours later, Alex begins to stir and emits low groans as he shifts on the floor. After a few minutes, he manages to roll onto his side facing the workstations. His body feels extremely tight like he is bloated and about to explode. As he begins to become more aware everything begins to hurt, especially his throat which feels red-raw.

"Good job!" Mistress Lyrei exclaims encouragingly turning and smiling broadly at Alex. She taps on the workstation screen her gaze alternating between the image of his core and the number flashing at the bottom. She pauses and then taps a few more times on the workstation and the disc rises to the ceiling. She walks over to Alex's side and he looks up at her. "There, all done. Your core has been healed and you can leave the circle."