"Now Lady, I know it's hard for you but I'm sorry we have to move on to more pressing matters" Mai said after she had given a few moments of silence and solitude to Lady.
Lady glanced at Mai and smiled, she sniffed and nodded her head.
"And what are we going to do now?" Lady asked in soft voice.
"My sister is fast growing, it's only a matter of time before she reincarnates fully to strike back and you should have at least half of your power to fight back should that happen" Mai answered.
"And that is where I come in" Erzhi said from his place earning a confused look from Lady "I'm going to train you to be able to control the elements with Mai"
Lady's face brightened a bit from understanding and asked "So when we do we begin?"
"Thought you'd never ask" Mai winked and waved her hand in the air.
Right after Mai waved her hand, the land quaked and shifted uncontrollably, Lady felt like she was being sucked into an invincible vacuum, uncomfortable but warm.
"Relax and close your eyes" Lady heard a soft whisper from Mai.
She relaxed and she felt the strange uncomfortableness of being sucked into something stopping. She now felt like she was drifting through the skies accompanied by a gentle breeze. She opened her eyes when everything had calmed down and she gasped from what her eyes saw.
Right in front of her was room fairly made from pure gold. It had vast area with a big circular ring in the middle of it. The room was adorned with a long rack that stood from the floor to the ceiling filled with all assortments of weapons, both known and unknown to Lady. It seemed to be sunset at wherever that she was as she saw the last golden rays of the three suns in the space illuminating the room and making it more ethereal.
"Where are we?" Lady asked with astonishment.
"Welcome to my humble abode" Erzhi said with a smile, answering Lady's question "This is where I train my body and my animals"
"This is just.... awesome!" Lady praised, looking around and taking in everything her eyes could lay upon.
"Let's begin" Mai said and smiled.
Next she instructed Lady to sit back in the circular ring. Lady sat down and crossed her legs waiting for further instructions from Mai. Mai then raised her left hand and four small pillars of fire appeared around Lady which she explained to help Lady in strength as her spiritual essence was not fully healed.
"This is the most important part, Dive deep into your self and find what lays behind your closed curtains, find the scariest of yourself and will that power into fire" Mai spoke to Lady.
Lady nodded again in understanding and closed her eyes.
"Now let's get you ready before we begin" Mai said and moved into the circle sitting down "Join me here, Lady"
"Okay" Lady nodded and headed over to the circular ring and sat beside Mai.
"The first element you are going to learn to control is fire, and you must have a good grasp of it before we leave here" Mai spoke out and opened her palms looking at Lady.
Mai closed her eyes and took in a deep breath and then opened her eyes only for a flame to ignite in her palms to Lady's astonishment.
"That was very cool" Lady said.
"Yes, it is." Mai began " Fire is strong, firm and very powerful. It can represent a good omen and a bad omen, it can bring good and also evil in just a blink of an eye. It's the hardest but softest to grasp. Before you apprehend it, you must wake up the beast inside you, the fiery state that resides deep within you, the very thing you fear most about yourself" Mai like looked intently into Lady's eyes that Lady had to take a nervous gulp.
"Are you ready for this?" Mai asked Lady.
Lady swallowed a lump in her throat and answered shakily "I guess I am"
"I don't need you to guess, I need an absolute and confident answer!" Mai bellowed and Lady cringed from the force of Mai's voice "I need to know that you are really ready for this, so I'll ask again" Mai paused and stood up, facing away from Lady "Are you ready?"
Lady contemplated a bit weighing if he was really ready to start training with fire, it was a really scary decision. Would she even be able to bear any consequences that might come should she fail?, a million questions ran through her head and the face of her mother popped into her mind and she immediately knew her answer.
She looked up and breathed a heavy sigh, disrupting the eerily silence that had befell upon the place, "I am ready"
Mai turned and smiled at Lady. She felt content on how Lady's voice was firm and absolute, she was indeed ready.
"Stand up and and face me" Mai instructed Lady.
Lady got up and faced Mai, her nerves all over the place and her heart threatening to rip through her chest and come out. She exhaled and motivated herself to calm down.
"First, I'll help you conjure fire using your magic and essence and then" Mai began and stopped to look at Erzhi " Then Erzhi would continue the rest to train you on how to use it to defend and attack. Do not hesitate to ask any question, Okay?"
"Okay, I understand" Lady replied with a slight bow to Mai.
Next she instructed Lady to sit back in the circle and to close her eyes. Lady complied, sitting in a the circular ring in a meditating pose. She closed her eyes and got ready for whatever Mai had in store for her. She could hear Mai murmuring something and then she felt herself surrounded by heat, it was supposed to burn bit instead it seemed to give her strength.
"They are fragments of my power, to help you as your spiritual essence is not fully healed. Now dive deep into yourself and find what lays behind the closed curtains of your body, the scariest parts of your soul and will it into fire. Fire cleanses and fire purifies. Begin" Lady heard the firm voice of Mai explaining and ordering her into what she was almost certain, she was going to fail.
How do you even confront the scariest parts of your soul and the win over it? she wondered but calmed her self all the same.
She took a deep breath and dived deep down into her soul. Lady saw herself in an empty vast expanse of dry land. The land was parched greatly and it had no sight of life, just dry land and dry land and heat.
"Is this how the scariest parts of me looks like?" Lady wondered out loud.
But right after her last word, the area shifted and she was now in a small dark place and there she saw another version of herself. But this version of hers was having dirty hair and dirty clothes, she seems angry and she had a long blade in her hands, right beside her feet were about four corpses disfigured into gory lumps of flesh. A shiver went up her spine and she broke a sweat and it was in this moment that the alter Lady turned to face Lady. Lady gasped and her eyes widened as she stared into the reddest eyes she had ever seen in the universe.
The other version of her turned fully face to her. It roared and started taking dark heavy steps towards Lady. Lady's heart was now almost out of her chest and her legs started buckling as her other very drew near.
How was she going to overcome something as scary as what she was seeing?, How do you even defeat and will something you fear?.Lady asked herself these questions and suddenly she got her answer,you only will something you have control over and don't fear. This version of hers is something her subconsciousness had created, something almost inanimate, something that was within her so she had control over it and so why was she even afraid?.
Lady smiled and closed her eyes, visioning her other version as an epitome of fire and the. suddenly, her body felt heated and she opened her yes to find herself in the circular ring with ring of fire around her. She looked around her with a satisfied smile,
"I did it!" she exclaimed.
"Yes my child, you did" Mai echoed and smiled.