"What do you mean?" Little Huan asked.
"Huan," Tala's voice pleaded as she saw their mother cry, as if asking him to stop, but he went on.
"Aren't you gonna homeschool us?" Little Huan continued, startling the older ones in the house.
"What?"
"We can't risk being found out if we go out like this and I know that you are as good a teacher as father is, so aren't you going to teach us, Nana?" He asked endearingly. Latini sniffed and put away her look of shock as she broke into a smile and answered.
"Of course. I will teach you everything." Then she looked at the two teenagers. Tala waived her hand in refusal.
"I've already learned the basics. If I need to learn more, I will ask. You can focus on the younger ones, Nana." She said and carefully stood up to leave the room.
"Hey, I'm of age now. Stop treating me like a kid!" Zari, who came out of his room and heard their conversation, complained. Tala just gave him a once-over before she walked away.
"I'm closing up." She said and disappeared.
"Mom!" Zari looked at his mother and complained but Latini just stared back and asked.
"What is it my baby boy?"
"Ugh, I can't do this!" Zari muttered and started to walk away but a shadow flew past him and before he knew it, his body rose and saw himself dumped in a chair. He blinked in shock and gulped down his complaint when he saw his mother's shadow hover over him.
"You still need to train," she smiled and gave him a book.
"Read this through and we'll test how much you learned later." Then turned her gaze to little Huan.
"Alright my darling, what would you like to learn?" Latini gave him a kind smile as she cracked her fingers. Little Huan gulped down and answered swiftly.
"I'd like to read, Nana."
"Brilliant!" She grabbed a small box and put her arm inside.
The box is black and small enough to contain valuable jewelry but when she started taking stacks of books from it, we understand it is not an ordinary box. It seems like a neverending hole which can contain lots of stuff on it. Little Huan widened his eyes in amazement.
"Is that... Is that what I think it is, Nana?" He stammered and walked towards his mother, not bothered by the number of books coming out of it but curiously looking at the small box his mother held.
When he got to his mother's side, he reached out his tiny arms to hold the box. Taking a peak inside, he only saw the black base of the box and when he tried to put his arms inside, he ended up touching the same base he saw. Latini saw his confused face and laughed.
"A space treasure is sentient. It recognizes a master once it is possessed and can only be accessed by its own master." She patiently explained to the little guy.
"How can I get one, Nana?" He asked.
"Well, a space master can create one. Space magisters have their own space from which they are able to make space treasures like this." The more he listened, little Huan felt more disappointed.
"So it means I can't get one," he said dejectedly.
"Why not? As long as resources are available, you can get one." Latini said.
"But there are no space magisters here!" Little Huan took a deep breath and continued.
"The air is not even pure and there is very little energy that lingers in the atmosphere. We can't even make a good recovery at this point."
"That's true." His young mother concurred and little Huan became sadder. So why would you say those if I can't have it, he thought.
"But your father, Eder, is one of the few space magisters in Tora-" she halted in shock before she spoke again. "Where we previously lived."
Little Huan did not notice this small mistake of his mother and instead focused on her first sentence.
"Baba... He is a space magister?" He asked, still shocked. Latini smiled and cradle little Huan in her arms.
"How do you think are we able to survive the torn space tunnel?" Little Huan seemed to fall down memory lane on their trip to this town.
It was not a rainy night like when they arrived here. But he saw lighting across the sky and the army of soldiers approaching the castle. He did not understand what has been happening, he just felt his body lifted in the air and then they were here, in the rainy forest.
They managed to raise a tent before his exhausted older brother and sister slept like logs for a few months. His parents had to leave with their baby sister and he had been tasked to look after them: a sleeping wolf and snake.
However, no matter how much he jogged his memory, he can't recall the journey they took to come here so he gave his mother a puzzled look. Latini smiled and caressed his hair as she explained patiently.
"You're too young to endure the journey so we put to you sleep at that time. It wasn't a very peaceful journey. The space had not been stable and your father maintained the space until we're able to get out of it."
Little Huan is already matured for his young age that Latini can share this with him but she also hopes his young age would help bury this memory as he grows. She answered all his inquiries regarding the journey that he missed.
She told him about the earthquake-like shaking of the tunnel and how Tala almost got dropped on a torn space just by a small misstep. She told him about the long night that they had to keep awake as they walked through the tunnel and out into this place. Even a few glimpses of the places that she saw in those torn space were described in detail that helped little Huan's imagination.
But she'd never tell him how Eder had coughed blood many times just to keep the space steady and make his family safely pass through. She'll never let him know that Tala had emptied her energy just to support their father and how inferior she and Zari felt as they watched their family members suffer while they kept walking down the narrowing space tunnel. She decided he doesn't have to know it and it had been very good that he was put to sleep the entire time.
The horrors of that night when she felt like her family is slowly withering should not be known to this child anymore. They are now together and in good health. In time, they should be able to recover and properly train their children into the kind of beings that they are but for now, they have to rest and recover.
"So why did we have to leave, Nana?" Latini was immediately pulled out from her trance when she heard Huan ask some more.
She stared at the little guy, unsure what to say. When she did not answer him, she tugged at her sleeve and asked again.
"Why did we have to leave Toradashi?"