Cythistia's Awakening

"Ah, I suppose I owe you an explanation, don't I?"

'You don't have to if you don't want to.'

"No, no, it's fine, I should give an explanation regardless."

'If you're okay with it.'

She smiled and began her story.

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(Cythistia POV) (Past)

Today was my twentieth birthday, which meant that I would finally get my own personal servant. And I was allowed to pick which one I got, all on my own!

I got out of bed and got put on a pink and green striped dress that had lots of pretty flowers all over it.

*Knock* *Knock*

"Coming!" I shouted as I ran towards the door and opened it.

Opening the door I saw my mother and father waiting for me in a pink dress and red suit.

"How's my precious baby girl?" Mother asked.

"I'm great!"

"Wonderful! Are you ready for your big day?" She asked.

"YES!"

"Well, let's get going then." Father said taking my hand.

Mother took my other hand and we trotted over to the main hall where I would receive my presents.

When we got there the doors opened with a loud boom like sound. And past those doors was most of my family, there was my brother, my aunts and uncles as well as my cousins and grandparents, there was even some nieces and nephews too.

At the end of the room was grandfather sitting in his big chair, and on each side of the carpet leading up to him were the servants that I could choose from.

My parents let go of my hands and told me to go and greet grandpa. I ran over there with a big smile on my face.

"Hello grandfather!" I greeted grandpa with lots of excitement.

"Hello my dear granddaughter. You sure seem excited today." He greeted with a warm smile.

"Mhmm! Today's my twentieth birthday!"

"Hmhmhm, indeed it is, and do you know what that means?" He asked.

"Yup! I get to choose my own personal servant!"

"Hohoho~ Yes you do, but did you know? There's something else that you get, do you want to know what it is?"

"WOAH! Really, I get more stuff?" My eyes were now sparkling.

"Yes, you do. Today's the day that we unlock your magic."

"WHAAAA!!! REALLY?! I get to do magic like mommy and daddy now!?!?"

"Haha, of course, but first, let's get you your servant."

"Okay!"

Grandpa took my hand and showed me all the butlers and maids that we had. He told me to say which ones I definitely didn't want, which was all the butlers, leaving all the maids.

There were ten maids and I was told to whittle that number down until I found which one I wanted.

It took a while but I eventually got it down to three. A snake-kin, a red squirrel-kin and a bat-kin.

"Hmm..." I was now thinking hard about which one I wanted as my personal maid.

I took a good look and the squirrel, then the bat, and lastly the snake. My body felt hot for some reason when I looked at the snake, I don't know why but it did.

I pointed at the green scaled snake-kin maid and said, "That one."

"That one? Very well, come forth and introduce yourself then." Grandpa said to the maid I pointed at.

She came forwards and greeted me, "Greetings mistress, my name is Alisa, and I shall be your personal maid henceforth."

She sounded like a really fancy maid, and a good one too.

"Now that you've chosen your personal servant, let's go and help you unlock your magic potential."

"Okay!"

Grandpa took my hand once again and took me to a hallway that was behind his big chair. It was a very long hallway, with torches along the walls, but when we reached the end there was a wooden door with a metal strip around it.

Grandpa took a key out of one of his pockets and unlocked the door and brought me in.

It was very dark in here and turned completely dark when he closed the door.

"G-Grandpa?" I asked shakily, it was actually really scary here.

"Don't worry, I'm here." He said.

Then a bunch of lamps were suddenly lit, allowing me to see again.

"Sorry for the scare, but I had to close the door before I lit the room." He apologised.

"You could have warned before you did that!" I cried angrily.

"You're right, I should have warned you, I'll make sure not to repeat this mistake in the future." He sighed.

"Ah! Don't be sad grandpa!"

"It's fine, let's get on with the ritual then."

"The what?"

"The ritual, it will help us unlock your potential and even show us what your main element will be."

"Element?"

"I'll explain more when we find out what yours is."

"Okay..."

"Now, see that blue circle in the middle of the room? I need you to stand in the middle of it. Can you do that for me?" Grandpa asked me kindly.

"Kay!" I happily did as he said as I thought that this would be how I unlock my magic.

When I got to the middle of the circle I turned around and saw Grandpa nodding. He then went over to some kind of glass ball on a stone pillar and placed his hands on the ball.

The ball began to light up and so did the scribbles inside the circle. I got nervous when i saw this but trusted my Grandpa wouldn't harm me.

"Don't worry, you won't be harmed, though, you might want to cover your eyes." he told me.

I closed my eyes and I heard some sort of high pitched ringing sound, but it didn't ring and was just one continuous noise. The light of the circle got brighter to the point that I had to cover my eyes with my hands.

And all of a sudden, I felt weightless, and also like I was floating. I also knew in that moment that I was sleeping, yet I was still able to think as if I was awake.

"Child."

Then I heard a loud and ancient voice call out. I opened my eyes and saw that I was in a completely white place.

"W-Who's there?" I asked in fear.

Did the ritual fail? Or did something else happen?

"Over here." The voice called out again.

I turned around and saw something that I'd never forget for the rest of my life.

I saw a really huge silver tree. When I say huge, I mean it was bigger that the city.

"Greetings child."

"W-Who are you?" I asked, still scared.

"I am the spirit of your home, I am the foundation of your city, I am Efyos." He said.

"What?" I asked in confusion.

The tree sighed, "Hahh. I suppose I should explain my origins to you. I am the Great Spirit of this forest, I was once a large tree, like what you are seeing now, and I used to govern this forest under lady Yggdrasil. But one day, during the late recreation era, I was attacked by demons who infected me with their infernal energies, poisoning me, so to prevent them from harming me further, I sacrificed a large part of my life force, causing my body to explode, releasing a purifying wave of an extreme amount of mana, getting rid of those demons once and for all."

Whoa, that's a lot to take in.

"I can see that you need a bit of time to digest this, so take all the time you need."

'How nice of him.' It took me a few minutes to process the information he gave me, but when I was done, I told him to continue.

"When that era ended, I was too badly damaged to fully recover, so I had to work much harder to keep this forest safe. Then the era of new life came, making things a little bit harder but at the same time easier, don't ask how that works it's complicated. And when the age of civilization came, I saw as the forest was being destroyed by the creatures of the old world. I tried to stop them but without my old prowess, I was unable to."

That's so sad, yet, that's something that happened again recently, the humans are trying to invade the forest and take this land for themselves.

"But then, all of the people of the forest whom had made tribes fought back, so I helped them in return by empowering them and helping them grow. Eventually they found my body and had another group of people reform my body into what it is today, and they did a good job, making sure that I would still be able to retain what powers I still have. But still, it couldn't go perfectly, and I can no longer communicate well with the denizens of the forest."

"That's... A lot."

"I know it is, but that is who I am."

"Wait, what does any of this have to do with me?" I asked.

"Because you are one of the few beings I can communicate with, you have an affinity with nature."

What?