El gripped Luna and Theia's hands tightly, blushing as she said, "P-Please visit us again soon. "If you wish, I will provide whatever accommodations you may need, so please do come play again soon."
Luna looked at El and smiled. "That's a given! Hehe."
El blushed and hid behind her mother. Nimloth touched her cheek with her right palm, saying, "Please forgive my child. She is rather shy sometimes."
Mytri, who stood behind, chuckled gently. "There is nothing to be sorry about. Let's let children be children for once, right?"
"Indeed," Nimloth said. "Visit again. I'll provide any accommodation you'll need—It's a pleasure to welcome you."
"If that is what the Queen wishes, I'll happily fulfill it. Let's go, Luna, Theia."
Theia shyly gripped Luna's hand, and Luna waved as all three walked out of the palace gate, into the bustling city filled to the brim with people. Behind them, the gate closed tightly.
And so they walked back home slowly. After a morning of laughter and stressless rest, training came.
***
An hour later, after they came back, Mytri told Luna to go practice with what he showed her yesterday, and so she did.
Luna swung the sword vertically for the entirety of the day, until night. Theia slept on a branch of the tree under which Luna stood.
That evening, Luna sat on the floor as Theia slept soundly. She called out, "Niva, come here!"
Niva appeared, wearing a pumpkin on his head with two holes for eyes and a mouth like a mountain range—up and down lines.
"You called, Lady? Your greatest spirit has answered your calling, so what may you need?"
"I wanted to train your power!"
"Indeed mine, indeed. You have to be grateful, for one of the strongest powers in the world is in your hand—and I chose to grant it to you for the small price of two words!"
"Thank you!" Luna said.
"You actually knew the words? ...Hmph. Anyway, good! But you really don't need to call for me when you want to train your powers. You just need to imagine using them. If you collapse, I'll know it and come rescue you!"
"Then, I think I'll last longer than a week ago. I think." Luna imagined an intricate snowflake in her palm, the size of an apple. As she thought of it, it slowly materialized, and as it did, sweat poured down Luna's face.
"Your potent mana allows you to use it always, but the power has to have a cost… Hmmmm. It resulted in consuming your stamina? Weird—first time seeing it," Niva said, throwing his paws into the air and disappearing into the floor.
"But you saw me using it back then…"
"yes, but you know, words are words hehe?" Niva's voice came from the ground
"Okay…" Luna added
Luna walked to the bed and lay by the wall, careful not to wake Theia. There, she materialized ten more snowflakes, and as she did so, she collapsed.
After a while, Niva's pumpkin head popped out of the floor and stared at Luna. "It should've consumed mana… But it's really greedy to the point of taking your stamina. What a stupid restriction. What are they thinking, changing the restriction? Ha, stupidity," Niva said, before disappearing underground.
***
"And such training continued every day. Luna had swung her sword vertically every single day for the entirety of the month. In truth, Theia wanted to join her too. For the first three days she was unable to ask, but on the fourth day Luna noticed her tries and said, 'Feel free to join me.'
That meant a lot to Theia, despite not being much, and for the rest of the month she trained alongside her.
Each week, three times to be exact, Luna sent letters to her family. She told them what she did and asked Aria to forgive her father. And by the second week, she had sent a letter to Aisha, telling her everything that had happened till that day. With a smile, she had written it.
And so a month passed. On the last day, she demonstrated her actions to her Master, Mytri. He was pleased with the results. Even if the results weren't up to his expectations, he wouldn't be mad at her.
And so another task came: Horizontal slashes!"
"And that's what happened for the past month," Niva said, swimming in the nearby lake. Luna and Theia knelt by the other side.
"It was fun to look at them. I have to present myself to Luna properly… I'd like to do so at least. And she catches up to my play fast, hehe… Thank you, even if you can't hear it. I'm having fun these days…" Niva said, reminiscing about the time he had spent alone. His eyes slowly closed as he drifted away on the waves of the lake.
And in the distance, Theia slipped and fell into the water. Luna burst into laughter, falling onto her back, as Theia—embarrassed—hid her face in her hands.