Gaia.
Gaia's response wasn't a sound, but a presence—an ancient, gentle awareness blossoming in my consciousness, like the feeling of sunlight on stone after a long night.
'Samuel. Her spirit is troubled. The new light… it is fragile, and sings of deep sorrow,' she replied.
'You feel it?' I thought, my mental voice sharp. 'Jin-Ah. She's awakening. Now. In her sleep. With nightmares as the kindling. Why? There was no gate, no break. Is this normal?'
There was a pause, a sensation of the earth turning, of continents shifting on a scale incomprehensible to humans.
'The barriers between the world-that-is and the world-of-power are not static. They are thin and flex like a breath. A major convergence, such as the one you and the Monarch of Shadows are involved in, causes… ripples. Stress fractures.
Sometimes, latent potential in sensitive individuals can be squeezed through these fractures, triggered not by a nearby tear, but by the general increase in pressure. Her soul was already a vessel shaped by loss. The weakening barrier provided the final push. It is uncommon, but not unnatural.'
I absorbed this, my jaw tightening. So it was the backdrop of my and Jin-Woo's actions that was indirectly causing this. The thought was a bitter pill.
'Is she in danger? From the awakening itself?'
'The danger is not from the awakening, but from the awakener's fear. Mana responds to will. If her will is fractured by terror, the power will fracture with it. It could consume her from within. She needs an anchor. A guide.'
'I will be her anchor,' I thought, the ferocity in my mental voice a shield against my own worry.
'You are a pillar, Samuel,' Gaia's presence responded, gentle but unwavering. 'But a pillar must hold up the sky. Your duty is to the external threats, as Jin-Woo handles those within. You cannot stand guard in one room and defend the entire horizon at the same time.'
My instinct was to argue, but Gaia's logic was as solid as bedrock.
'Let your mother guide her for now,' Gaia continued. 'Esther has done this before. She steadied you during your awakening. She knows the signs, the fear. I will give her the knowledge she needs to help Jin-Ah take the first steps. And while you are still here in this world, you are only a moment away if true danger arises.'
A complex wave of emotion hit me—sharp relief that a plan existed, immediately undercut by a deep, reluctant ache. Trusting Gaia was one thing. But handing Jin-Ah over, even to Esther's capable care, felt strangely like abandonment.
Her own mother was lost to a coma, Jin-Woo was absent, and now I was being told to step back? It twisted something in my chest. She was awake and terrified in a new way, and every part of me screamed to be the one to fix it.
'She's terrified,' I sent to Gaia, the thought stripped bare.
'All the more reason for her to learn in a place of fundamental safety,' Gaia replied, her presence a soothing, constant pressure. 'The earth does not judge her fear or her power. It simply is.
It will hold her steady while she learns what she is becoming. By the time you must leave this world to face your battles, she will have mastered the storm within herself. Trust this process, Samuel. It is how she becomes strong, not just protected.'
I walked out, closing the door softly behind me. Esther was still in the living room, now standing by the window, her arms wrapped around herself.
"She's asleep," I said, my voice low. "The immediate storm has passed. But the sea is still churning."
Esther turned, her eyes searching mine. "She's really awakening, isn't she? It's not just a… a flare-up of trauma?"
"It's awakening," I confirmed, walking to the kitchen and pouring myself a glass of water. I drank it in one long swallow, the coolness doing little to quell the simmering concern.
"The mana signature is pure, if chaotic. It's born from her, not from an external gate. But the timing… the suddenness of it. It shouldn't be this volatile without a proximate catalyst."
I set the glass down with a soft clink. My gaze turned inward. In the quiet of my mind, I reached out.
Esther's hand went to her mouth. "Is that… bad?"
"Not exactly, but until we find the reason for her sudden awakening we need to be vigilant," I said.
Esther's face paled further. "So what do we do?"
"We don't do anything," I said, stepping closer and taking her hands, stopping their nervous motion. My grip was firm, grounding. "We keep her right here. Act like we act around her, not changing anything at all. You'll have to look after her more like Aunty Park would have."
"Me?" Esther's voice was a whisper of sudden shock. "Samuel, I'm not a Hunter. I don't know the first thing about controlling mana or powers! What if she… she ends up hurting herself because of me?"
"She won't," I said, my certainty absolute. "Listen to me. You don't need to be a Hunter. You need to be her anchor, her emotional support. You steadied me through my awakening.
You didn't do it by teaching me combat forms. You did it by being calm when I was frantic. By making me soup when I was too agitated to eat. By sitting in the room and just… breathing steadily until my breathing matched yours."
I looked intently into her eyes. "That's what she needs. Not a drill instructor. A mother. Your job isn't to teach her how to fight. Your job is to make sure she doesn't feel alone while she learns. To calm her emotions when they spike. To look after her like she's your daughter—because she is, in every way that matters. I know you can do it."
Esther searched my face, the overwhelm in her eyes slowly being edged out by a dawning sense of purpose. "But… how? What do I actually do when the light starts again? When she gets scared? You handled most of it on your own during your awakening. What if I don't do a good job? I just fear hurting Jin-Ah in an effort to help her."
"I'll give you the blueprint," I assured her, my voice softening into a plan-making tone. "I'll sit down with both of you. I'll explain to her what's happening in simple terms.
I'll give her the first, most basic exercises: breathing to steady the mana, focusing on a single, simple object to ground herself. I'll write it all down for you. Step-by-step."
I squeezed her hands gently. "Your main task is the environment. Keep the routine normal. Make her favorite meals. Watch silly dramas with her, gossip about stupid and ordinary stuff. When the fear hits, you don't have to fix the power.
You just have to hold her in your embrace and remind her that she's Jin-Ah, she controls the powers and not the other way around. That she's not alone, that she's safe with you. That she's loved. Just like her mother would have.
The rest, the technical control… I will handle that. I will train her, here, in the living room if I have to. But I can't be here every second. You can. And trust me on this—Jin-Ah is a really strong girl. I know she'll handle it flawlessly. I know she just needs emotional support and she'll take care of everything else flawlessly."
The weight of it settled on Esther, but differently now. Not the terrifying weight of technical responsibility, but the familiar, profound weight of care. She was being asked to do what she already knew how to do the best: to nurture, to protect, to love.
"You'll really prepare a plan? For both of us?" she asked, needing the final reassurance.
"I will. Today. Before I leave this apartment," I promised. "It's going to be okay, Mom. Just do what you are best at doing—loving your children with all the love you have, be it me, Jin-Ah or Jinwoo. You have loved all of us indiscriminately. Now just give her all of your undivided attention.
She might not know this or realise it, but since her awakening is sudden she didn't have time to prepare for anything like this, and her foundation needs to be strong and filled with love and care. That way her chances of being unable to control powers will substantially decrease."
"Okay," she said, her voice gaining strength. "Okay. You make the plan. I'll make it home. We'll keep our girl safe."
I leaned into Esther, softly kissing her lips with love and tenderness as I held her close to me, taking away all of the remnant fear she had about messing things up.
"Pack a bag anyway," I said. "We'll take her to our home. There those 5 sluts can help you with things so you don't feel completely burdened, plus the more she's surrounded around people the calmer she'll be. Now, she's asleep, but I want you to be there by her side when she wakes up. Till then I'll prepare a blueprint for you guys. Then we'll start."
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