Lana spent the rest of the day either cooking or sitting under the willow in the park reviewing her notes and putting some finishing touches on her first paper. She wanted this handed in on Monday. The good thing was the teacher was going to accept it in place of a couple upcoming assignments as those topics and themes were touched on in this paper. In short, she could test out of Agriculture Club on Monday if she liked. She was leaning that way. She could still use the area to do her work but would no longer need to attend class itself. As it got dark, she returned to her friends. They started cooking without her. Kattie had been helping her for some time. Now Kattie was going to teach Almin and Alto. At breakfast, Lana had grown quite a bit but didn't harvest it all. They decided to harvest as needed. If the team was going to help in the area of food, that would give her more time to work and get these things off her plate as well.
She enjoyed dinner then wrote down a few things she needed to verify in the library in the morning. She was hoping spending the morning in there would perfect this paper. She kicked everyone off the couch at 9 so she could go to bed early. In the morning before everyone woke up, she was already heading to the library. She stopped outside to grow more plants as the ones from the day before were almost picked clean. She grabbed what she needed while pouring though books and was off. She wasn't keeping track of time but she did get the paper done. She then went back, made Logan his sandwich then headed to his room.
Lana walked into Logan's room to deliver the sandwich and he was not there. She went toward his desk to set it down when she heard him enter behind her. Following him were Vorden, Layla and Quinn. Layla's aura now matched Quinn's but was a little different. She noticed Layla's emotions were a tad wilder than normal. Lana described it like a mini emotional tornado. It's something she was quite familiar with because hers were far more wild than what she saw in Layla.
She was getting ready to say something when: "Lana, you brought me a sandwich! Thank you so much. I didn't even realize how much I needed that."
"I have a meeting soon to discuss things with my group so I thought I'd bring it by now. I don't know how long this conversation will take."
"Can you wait a little while? I would like to be there."
Lana nodded. "We'll have lunch first."
Everyone headed toward the desk and Lana decided to be nosy and listen in. Layla was now something called a Hannya. She had emotion-based skills but they had to be negative.
"Layla, I need to share something with you. My ability is a bit emotion-based as well. I think that's why Vorden can't use it."
"Vorden can't use your ability?"
Lana shook her head. "Let me show you something." She pulled out a cactus that was short and round with spikes covering its skin. "To conjure this, I have to remember being 6-years-old hiding in a corner seeing needles sticking out of the five 2-year-olds that lived in the orphanage. I don't know what was in those needles, but I know how they responded to them."
She withered the cactus and brought out poison ivy. "For this one, I have to remember little Joey, a 4-year-old who was killed on a rack, an ancient device that stretches limbs until death happens."
She withered that then brought out a seemingly harmless plant. "Stinging nettle. I won't share this memory," tears were running down her face. "Give me your forearm." Layla rolled up her sleeve and Lana touched the plant to her bare skin. Layla let out a small scream and her knees almost buckled. Lana withered the plant then healed Layla's arm. "Now, imagine that pain in more sensitive areas. The last one I'll show you is this."
As she spoke these words, she was donning level 1 then level 2 armor. "For this one, the three people in your class I saved on that orange-portal planet and I went into the lair of that advanced tier beast. His mate and child were in there. I took on the mate while the others took on the baby. One of those suctions got me and you can guess what was going to happen next. Next thing I knew, these things popped out of my armor. I focused on that to learn to use it. Then Pucket had me in the dungeon. I got him to come close to smell the roses. I pulled his head in so that from the bridge of his nose was towards my throat, his forehead near the side of my neck." She then extended the spikes.
"I show and tell you these things to get you to understand. For me, the emotions to activate the power come from powerful memories that had some sort of impact on me. It may be the same for you if you are emotion-based. Now, it may help if your friends say mean things to you to try to trigger memories. It may not. I don't know you well enough to say. It's something for you to think about."
Layla nodded with a strange look on her face as she looked at Lana. Vorden decided to walk up to Lana and touch her. His watch changed to level 8. He had noticed it ages ago, but he wanted to show the others who the level 8 was he was touching.
Lana noticed this. "I think it goes without saying that you guys didn't see the things I did." She smirked.
Quinn described the feeling he got when using his blood abilities as well to see if that helped. Layla tried his idea first. She cast something called spiritual chain and was happy then could not duplicate it. Layla got angry, saying something about not being allowed to be happy.
The boys then proceeded to say mean things to her to get her to activate something. She was doing fine until Quinn joined in saying this wasn't a good idea, her horns could grow. She said what he said hurt and left the room.
Lana offered lunch to everyone if they had nothing going on. It was a Sunday after all. Not long after all three followed her to the dome in the Agricultural Area, stopping off to get beast food on the way.
Not long after, lunch was being cleared way. Little did Lana know, her team was way ahead of her. They had cooked extra, expecting to put some in the refrigerator but hey, it didn't go to waste.
Quinn then excused himself to go play Power Fighters. He was still reeling from Leo being turned into a vampire on accident and leaving the base as well as Peter being taken from him. Lana felt relieved because it meant she didn't need to do any more assessments with Leo.
Lana pulled everyone into the living space and sat on the couch, some sat with her, others sat on the floor. Logan made a mental note to allow the dining chairs to be moved in the next update.
"I wanted to let everyone know that while at the tournament, I purchased a planet that was under the Earthborn Group. They will attend this planet for the next three years for me. By then, I and whoever wishes to join me should be strong enough to start our own family. I want to have an original family where I teach my ability to those who pledge their loyalty to me or to my descendants. The reason I was able to afford this planet was because it's a red portal planet. This means that number on your watch may be nice but experience will be required. I'm setting the requirement to join me on the new planet to be a Rank C or B traveler unless there is a reason for an exception. I can only think of one at this time. My thoughts for the summer are those that wish to join me, I would like you to find a faction where you will be together and work toward that goal. I'm not mandating this after all. This is your time with your family. It's up to you how you spend your vacation time but experience is the best teacher. Any questions?"
"What are your summer plans?" It was Vorden.
Lana smiled softly. "If the opportunity arises by then, I hope to be on the team that rescues Peter. I made it so the military has to honor having him as a student, now he should be allowed to exercise that right. And before you say anything, I know it will be dangerous. I still want to go. If the opportunity does not arise, I will go with whomever wishes to help me realize this crazy dream of mine to kill beasties for the summer."