"Tara, will you please be Akira's advisor?"
Tara looked happy. "Of course, my lord," she responded. Akira looked shocked.
"Will she be okay? Did you not say that our atmosphere will not favor otherworldly beings?"
"Tara will be protected by our mana. The school will need her. Consider this my apology for the hardship you are about to face."
Sorn gave Akira a small glass vial with a single speck of sand.
"This will guide you to Lord Napat when the time is right. Once you meet him, it will break."
Mitra marked her forehead with a dot that burned for a second.
"I have marked you as the friend of all beings wise and faithful to Lords Napat and Hotrā. At any time you feel threatened, one of our beings will come to your rescue. You will be loved and respected until the sign disappears."
Akira asked, out of curiosity, "When will it disappear?"
Mitra smiled, "When you stray from your duty, side with evil, or die."
Akira nodded.
Hotrā gave her a small necklace. It had a single firestone that burned brightly, the sign of Hotrā. "Wear this and protect it with your life. This contains my breath. When you meet Napat, give it to him. I will guide him from within."
"Will you not come?"
Hotrā shook his head. "I will stay out of this fight unless Napat calls for me."
Napat smiled. "Don't worry too much."
Napat then looked at Akira. "For my parting gift, I give you your youth back. You will stay young and spirited and fight for what is right."
Akira felt a tear roll down her cheek. Gods or god-beings, they were as magnanimous as the legends said.
She bowed before them all, her gratitude evident.
Napat turned to Tara. He gave her a vial of water.
"This will give you the form of a human. Every time you exit the mana realm, drink this. The mana realm will deactivate its magic."
She received it with gratitude and bowed humbly.
Hotrā said, "Train him hard, be merciless. As Gayan, he will not be your lord, but your student."
She nodded. Everyone in the room knew she would only pamper him, but they said nothing.
Som looked at Mitra and nodded.
"My lord, we shall be your Summon."
A Summon was a powerful (or not so powerful) artifact that a mage attracted or acquired before starting his magical journey. Imbued with natural magic, it attached itself to a mage that matched its own wavelength. Nobody knew if a Summon was living or nonliving, since some could hear voices; some Summons even took a form, but this depended on the power of the mage.
Napat nodded. "Thank you, Sorn and Mitra. I shall be forever indebted to you."
They smiled as they changed into a small, thick, coiled thread of black and brown.
Napat gently enclosed them in an orb and gave it to Tara.
"Place this orb in the room of summons. They will find me."
Tara nodded as she took the orb from his hand and gently placed it in her pouch.
Hotrā looked at Napat and nodded.
"Okay, it's time for you to leave."
There was a quick flash, and then nothing.