Power Shard

===Aislinn===

She had seen paintings and drawings of herself when she was younger, as her mother kept them around, and some were rather detailed.

The figure in front of her was identical to when she reached the first half of her first century.

'Can we play now, big sis?'

Aislinn didn't know what to do, as she was unaware of what just happened.

'Don't you have any clothes to put on?'

The girl was naked, and even if it was just the two of them, the fact that she looked like a younger figure of herself made her feel a bit embarrassed.

The young girl smiled at her and nodded as she clapped her hands, and clothes appeared out of nowhere around her body. They were the same clothes that Aislinn's authentic self currently wore, just adjusted to fit the more petite figure.

'Is it better now, big sis?' the little girl said with a wide smile on her face.

'Yes, it is. But what do you mean play? I am here to form the Power Shard, and I don't…. '

'BORING. I want to play hide with big sis,' the girl said to interrupt her.

As she finished her sentence, the little girl stomped her left foot on the ground, and the entire space starting shaking for a moment as a great earthquake happened.

Aislinn fell to the ground, which was weird since she didn't actually have a body in there, but just felt that she had her consciousness moving around the field.

The child was ready to stomp her feet once more, but Aislinn stopped her.

'Ok, ok, we can play. But first, do you mind answering some questions?'

The girl had a big grin on her face as a sign of her winning.

'One question, then the game.'

Aislinn gave it some thought of what to ask, but she couldn't spend too much time thinking as the girl seemed to be impatient.

'What do I need to do to make the Power Shard?'

She didn't know if the girl would know, and she didn't know a way to speak with Lady Pyre, so she hoped that this would work out.

'If you win the game, you get the answer. Hihihi.'

Aislinn sighed as she didn't like the answer, but she could do nothing about it.

'What is the game then?'

The girl put her right hand under her chin as she thought about her answer.

'Let's play hide and seek. I will hide, and you have 10 minutes to find me.'

'But we can't tell how much time has passed here.'

She didn't know how long she was in her inner space or how much time passed. Sometimes time passed quicker her and some slower. It depended on the activity she did while in there.

'This will be our time indicator.'

The child snapped her fingers, and then a giant ball of fire appeared over her head.

'This will last for 10 minutes by itself. Ready?'

Aislinn was ready to say something, but the girl spoke again before she could say anything.

'Let the game begin.'

Then the girl disappeared, leaving behind just the ball of fire that slowly became smaller.

Aislinn didn't know what to do. The first time she had found the girl, she was quiet this time because she giggled.

She focused once more to detect anything new, but she could sense anything. She then turned towards the flower to see if she could do something without the girl, but the flower had disappeared too.

She didn't know what to do but then had an idea.

The ball of fire that the child produced didn't use Aislinn's Element to make it, so it felt different. She didn't know how the figure could do something like that in her inner space, but she could use the energy that kept the ball of fire together to scan for something similar in her surroundings.

And as she focused on everything she had, she got something.

She started moving as fast as she could in that direction, and the empty space started changing.

She was in the middle of a forest, which became thicker the more she moved.

She could feel that she was pretty close, but at a point, she wasn't sure in what direction to go. The girl should be right next to her, but there was nowhere to be seen.

There were quite a few trees around, and since she moved away from the ball of fire, she didn't know how much time she had left.

'This is your inner place. Take control of it.'

Hearing the voice of Lady Pyre after a long time, Aislinn's confidence reached a new height.

She focused on making the trees disappear and, one after the other, started withering and turning into ash that the wind carried away.

Soon, there was just Aislinn left, and in front of her, the small girl, who was inside one tree.

'Oh, not fair big sis. You destroyed my hiding place.'

'We never said I couldn't or that you could make one. This was never there to start with.'

The girl said nothing in return and just kicked the air in front of her.

'Now, how about you give me the answer? How can I get my Power Shard?'

The girl looked at her with a pretty serious face, which was unusual for the little time that Aislinn knew her.

'Ok, big sis. You can have your way, but promise me something first.'

'What is it?'

The girl walked in front of her and raised her right hand with only her pinky finger extended.

Aislinn knew what that was, as she used the pinky finger of her right hand to go around the little girl's finger.

'Promise me we will play again.'

Aislinn smiled at her. She enjoyed that little girl, as it felt like it was a little sister of hers.

'I promise.'

They moved their hand up and down three times, and then a light surrounded the body of the little girl.

When the light was gone, the girl also disappeared, and there was a red gem in her place. It was big enough to cover the palm of Aislinn and some more.

She picked it up to inspect it, and she could feel that this was what she had been looking for all along. This was the seed, but it didn't seem like she expected it to be.

'Congratulations, you are halfway there already.'

She heard Lady Pyre's voice once more, and Aislinn wondered how much she knew what was happening here.

'I can't see everything, but I felt some changes in your body. This is because your seed has reached the former state of Power Shard. Also, I can read some of your thoughts, but I give you some privacy.'

'Do you know who that girl was? Why did she look like me?'

'Just fill the power shard with as much Fire Element you can control for now, and then get out. I will explain everything then.'

Aislinn did as she was told, as the gem in front of her got fed by her Fire Element. It looked like there was no end to how much Element it could get, and even when Aislinn reached her limit, the Power Shard seemed like it could get more.

Its color changed to be darker, but the change was barely noticeable.

So Aislinn left her inner space and was back in control of her actual body.

"You did pretty well over there," the Princess praised her.

Aislinn enjoyed the praise but felt a little more embarrassed after what happened between them just before she started her training.

"How about you try to summon your familiar now? I wonder what you will get this time. You should feel your Power Shard, so try to use its power to summon the Spirit."

Aislinn nodded and closed her eyes as she focused on her new and only Power Shard. She could swear that she heard the giggling of the young girl at some point, but it could be just her imagination.

So she used that energy, combined with her Element, to call a Spirit into this Word and create a body for it.

A ball of fire appeared in front of her. The ball of fire started expanding and taking shape, but not of a bat this time. It initially seemed to be a tiny humanoid, but then it started forming a pair of bat-like wings and a scorpion-like tail. It also had a short couple of horns on its head, but the rest of it looked like a female humanoid.

She even formed some simple clothes to cover her private parts barely, so she wasn't completely naked, but one could still see this tiny creature's curves.

"Oh, already got a flimp. How interesting," the Princess said.

The creature used its wings to keep itself aloft for some time. Then landed in front of Aislinn and kneeled in front of Aislinn. She had her right knee down, and her left hand pressed down to the ground with a fist.

"And a loyal one. How lucky."

Aislinn didn't know what to say, as she didn't know that just happened. She didn't know what other familiars there were, so she waited for the Princess to explain.

Still, she was happy that she had done pretty well and didn't let her down, and she got the feeling of accomplishment inside her to be more potent than ever.