"My husband is currently at work, however, he will come for lunch. Is that okay?" Mrs. Scarlet asked.

"Yes, that's fine," my mother reassured. "We're making a lot of food today, your whole family better be starving."

Mrs. Scarlet laughed and gave her thanks. Both of them really know how to lose themselves in conversation. That being said, me and Yllsse have never spoken to each other before. So this may be difficult.

"You're the man here, it is your responsibility to break the ice," Ethos advised proudly.

"A man? I'm a two-year-old baby," I rebutted. "Besides, gender roles are stupid and outdated, get with the times old man."

Without warning, Yllsse rested her cold but soft hands against my trembling flesh. "Are you scared of me, Mister?" Her timid, feminine voice put my thoughts in disarray. How should I respond to her? Why did she touch me? But there was one question that stood out the most.

"Hey, are you a mage?" I asked nervously. 

Yllsse sat still but did not break eye contact. But then her mouth perked up into a grand smile. "Yes, I am!" she announced triumphantly. "Do you want to learn how to be a mage?"

"Umm, y-yes!" I replied hesitantly. Her eyes lit up in excitement. It seems we have found something we can build our friendship upon.

"My mom told me everything I know!" She said with childish excitement. "She's the most awesomest mage ever!"

She ran towards her mom who was in the middle of a conversation with mine. "Mom, my friend wants to learn how to be a mage!"

She looked at me curiously, "oh really? Do you want to learn how to be a mage? It's very difficult you know," Mrs. Scarlet said. I simply nodded my head. I admit that I am quite curious about this whole magic system of theirs. Seeing that nod as my response, she smiled. "Yllsse, why don't you teach your friend how to meditate?"

"Okay, mom!" Yllsse said back. "Come with me!" She said to me, "I will teach you something very important!" 

She stood in an area with plenty of space as she squatted down with her legs bent at a 105-degree angle. Afterwards, she clasped both her hands together forming the familiar praying gesture. Then to top it all off, she closed her eyes. As she did, the pores in my body started to feel tingly like a feather is tickling me all over my body. Then, a black mist seeped out from the gap in between her hands. My mom looked at her in shock. 

"No way. Your daughter. At that age... she's a single core Mage?" My mom said awestruck. 

"That's right!" Mrs. Scarlet gloated. "Our daughter is a prodigy!"

Yllsse slowly opened her eyes and motioned for me to follow in her footsteps. It doesn't look too difficult, it looked similar to the pose I practice in order to enter the Virtual State. I stood up straight and clasped my hands. Then slowly... 

Yllsse looked at my posture disapprovingly. "Bend your legs!" Yllsse ordered. "Mom said it's very important!" She stood near me and pushed down my knees until I entered a squatting position. Yllsse looked at me and smiled, "Look, that's better."

With my form corrected, I closed my eyes and then realized I have no idea what I'm supposed to do now. Fortunately, Yllsse picked up on my puzzlement and gave me instructions to follow.

"Try shifting all your weight into your hands so your legs don't feel as heavy anymore," Yllsse instructed. Wait, how am I supposed to do that? Judging by how gravity works, it just doesn't work that way unless I was standing upside-down. Regardless, I simply tried to trick myself into thinking I'm placing my weight onto my hands. But it doesn't do anything. Suddenly, it felt like a weight has been removed from my legs. Did I succeed? But then, I felt a cold, hard surface press against my bum. It seemed that I lowered my butt onto the floor unbeknownst to myself. A wave of embarrassment coloured my cheeks pink. 

Yllsse simply sighed and offered me her hand. I graciously accepted defeat and took her hand. 

"Don't feel down," Mrs. Scarlet consoled as Yllsse helped me up from the floor. "No one gets it the first time, just keep practicing."

"Hey, would you like to read with me?" Yllsse asked. She scoured through her mom's bag until she found a large picture book. "I always bring my book with me everywhere I go!" She hugged it tightly. 

"Ok," I answered.

It was a book about the mystical concept called the Aurasphere. A manifestation of one's life energy present in every individual. The book showcased the several layers of aura found surrounding the circumference of the Aurasphere. 

The Auraspheric core is made up of three stages:

The first stage is the Single-core. Once a mage can manifest their core, they can use it to access basic core-level magic. Like lightly pushing a ball with air, or lighting a candle with a snap. 

The second stage is the Second-core. The core grows in size and is usually big enough to engulf both of your hands inside. Unlocking this level gives them increased capacity in the utilization of core-level magic. 

The third stage is also called the Mega core. The core becomes considerably bigger than both your hands and the mage would be capable of unleashing mega-level magic.

After the core, the difficulty spike and the power spike drastically increase as the aura begins to create atmospheric layers to surround the core.  

Only mages of the third layer and below have been confirmed to exist. The rest are theoretical but are plausible based on spherology experts who found several observations interesting. Everyone without exception will have a black core. The colour of the auraspheric layers varies from person to person but the colours of the proceeding layer is always a few shades lighter than the former. Thus, the spherologists deduced that it would take at least six layers in order for the layer to become white. However, most of spherology is not based on logic and is mostly philosophical ramblings, divination and semantics. 

I read all of this from the book. None of this was my own knowledge just for your own information.

"Thomas, stop addressing the readers. You're going to piss me off," Ethos said sternly. I shrugged and thought nothing of it. 

"Isn't being a mage so cool?" Yllsse said excitedly.

"Yeah, it is," I told her but failing to be on her level of enthusiasm. 

"You two are really getting along well!" My mother said. "Would you like to play outside together?"

Yllsse and I faced each other and nodded.

"Ok!" We both said in unison.