Gladys sees with tenderness the beautiful face of Aurora who is sucking her breasts for milk, Gladys can avoid but to wonder. Can her daughter comprehend what she says? She shouldn't, she is just a newborn baby, there's no way she can comprehend words.
But what should be doesn't matter, she is her beautiful baby daughter, the most perfect being under the heavens, the gift from the spirits to this filthy world, the apex of humanity and even an angel itself. "I shouldn't judge this perfect being under the standards of normal humans". Gladys got closer to Aurora and kissed her forehead, she couldn't avoid to take a deep breath and smell the sweet and intoxicating scent of her hair, that action gave her goosebumps and got her eyes a little glassy.
"Listen, my love", at that words Aurora turned her mesmerizing eyes to Gladys, staring at her intently like a scientist watching a lab rat. "I may not look like the most dependable mother, but I swear with the Spirits as my witnesses that I will love you and protect you with all my hearth." Gladys makes a pause here, waiting for some kind of response from Aurora. The little baby decides to acknowledge her mother words with the same basic positive reinforcement she used on her pets in the other world, using a little magic to give a fleeting and warm caress to Gladys cheek. This small gesture of endearment moved Gladys to tears, she starts crying while hugging her precious baby girl whispering a few times "I love you".
This was the point when Aurora should have considered that she was overdoing it with the endearment process she was applying to Gladys. For the last six months she had scanned Gladys' brain finding the patterns of cerebral activity associated with Gladys' emotions and state of mind, and finally now after her birth she is starting the full chemical and neurological conduct altering treatment. Aurora has strategically associated the parts of the brain related to joy and fondness to activate and suppress fear and anxiety when Gladys thinks about Aurora. Even more so, Gladys' brain is receiving a heavy dosage of dopamine and serotonin every time she smells or touch Aurora with small controlled dosages of adrenaline and cortisol, all while keeping her levels of oxytocin and vasopressin extremely high at all times for good measures.
Aurora right now needs trustworthy henchmen and has decided that Gladys is good enough for the time being, and most importantly, she already has a good mental mapping of the basic way Gladys' brain operates, which is a process that requires long hours of closely observation of the test-subject in as many different situations as possible. Of course, being the first time Aurora has brainwashed someone, she couldn't have known that she has overdoing it. In Gladys' eyes Aurora was rapidly becoming the reason of her existence, even forgetting for brief moments she also has a son.
After finally taking hold of her emotions, Gladys starts conveying to her daughter an important message about the nature magic and the spirits that rule over it, blessing some humans with the power to control it: "Listen to me my love. This world is ruled by the power of the great Spirits: The four ancient spirits of the four elements that created everything on the world, and the Spirits of Genesis that created the world itself.
"The four ancients Spirits are the Spirit of Fire, Earth, Water and Air. According to legend they rule over the elements that constitutes everything in this world, however scholars teach magic under the assumption that each one of them rule over any kind of substance that happens to match each of the states of matter they represent: solid, liquid and gas, being fire an important exception. These are the spirits that some nobles with the appropriate bloodline can summon with some degree of proficiency.
"You have been born in the House of Lionhearth, a noble household blessed by the Spirit of Fire. While the other three great spirits confer the power to manipulate substances that are already present and in immediate proximity of the magic user, a fire magician has the ability to summon fire on anything flammable at a distance, also can avoid most of the harm caused by a flame touching his skin and bend the flame itself to his will. The founder of this family, Gregory Stormrage, was a military genius that became legendary for using military strategies that involved the use of flammable substances and bombs to complement the power of his army. With his abnormal long-ranged control of fire magic he scorched the land and burned his enemies alive. Never forget that the Lionhearth House was funded by fire and blood."
Aurora knew that the anima of a single individual is not strong enough to be manifested as an earth shattering phenomena, like in the movies where a magician could summon a fire tornado, a flood out of nowhere or create earth spikes in an instant to impale his enemies. Even when a magician should be able to easily kill an enemy in hand to hand combat by directly manipulating the enemy's body, that is a last resource. Even her magic couldn't be directly used effectively in a large scale battlefield without the use of tricks, so she was a little glad that at the very least the ancestor of this House had the minimum amount of neurons required to figure out that the correct use of magic in a large scale battle is to create weapons. Aurora continued to hear Gladys' lecture.
"All living things have some amount of mana for the mere fact of being alive, mana can be consumed as an offering to the spirits for a small degree of control over the substances on the state of matter they command. Mana can be recovered by breathing and meditation techniques, and just resting naturally slowly recovers it. However, using the magic of the four ancient spirits to a useful state is usually a difficult process that require of even the most talented practitioner long hours of practice to comprehend and harmonize with the will of the Spirit."
Aurora thought to herself: "Ok, I should probably start calling the anima as mana. I hope that my use of mana restricted to my dominion is not viewed as a strange, I can only keep slowly increasing my area of influence and mana density, taking care to maintain stability. I can't throw chunks of my mana like everyone else without harming the circuits embedded that will allow me to reincarnate."
Gladys: "Beyond the four great Elemental Spirits are the Spirits of Genesis, there are many legends about their names and powers, however while no one knows exactly how many of this powerful spirits exist, one of them is particularly important and known for giving his blessing to their chosen ones in a whimsical way, a blessing that almost never is passed to a descendant. The Holy Spirit of Light, a spirit of genesis which appears to randomly bless their followers, either they be royalty, nobles or commoners. Because the church pays money to the parents of kids blessed by the Spirit of Light, offer the kids a good life and with the obvious disparity in number between commoners and nobles or royalty, most of the light-magic users become priests of the church of Light to the point of monopoly. Light users the power of healing and exorcism.
"There are other innate abilities given by a Spirit of Genesis, some of them mere legends, however one of them that is appropriately documented but that was lost a thousand years ago is the telekinesis given by the Spirit of Time and Space. And even when is an extremely rare ability, the way you caressed my cheek confirms me without a doubt that you posses it. Even more, my present state of health tells me you have been blessed by the Holy of Spirit of Light and I'm sure another unknown Genesis Spirit is the origin to your power to control heat and coldness. You my child are a special existence loved by the Spirits. That's why I will make everything in my power to protect you and let you grow."
Aurora almost sniggers at the laziness of the inhabitants of this world, just ascribing the random genetic mutations that allowed other natural uses of mana beyond their four elements world-vision to unexplained Spirits of Genesis. But well, at least it was something that should make things more easy to explain, at least everyone of this human-like creatures should comprehend that she is a special existence. Although ... she was not quite sure yet if her being "blessed" or "chosen" by too many of these spirits would not be seen as suspicious at some point. "Mmm ... whatever, I didn't come to this world to stress out but to have a good time, so let's take it slow".