Ning smiled and happily entered the house with Helena now even more curiously looking at him.
"Are you going to be my teacher now?" she asked.
"Yes, it seems so," Ning said with a smile.
Helena's eyes widened. "Then I will be able to fight as good as you?" she asked.
"Uh, not yet. After a few years when you've become strong then you will be able to fight as I can."
"Besides, you don't train in Aether arts to fight. You train to be able to protect yourselves, your friends and families, and the other folks who need your help," Ning taught her.
The girl looked with an amazing look and wondered if she should be writing it all down somewhere.
Ning chuckled. "Wait until I formally start teaching you in a few weeks. For now, I will have to learn about potions myself," Ning said.
Ning entered the soot-stained kitchen once more and nearly coughed when the spicy vapors entered his body.
He was able to enforce his body enough so that he didn't need to violently cough it out and instead just created enough air in his lungs to displace the vapor out of his nose.
"Right, right. Sit around for a few minutes. I'm concentrating on the potion," the old woman said.
Ning sat on a chair by the table and next to him sat Helena. While the old woman was checking the cauldron while preparing the next batch of ingredients, Ning decided to talk with Helena a bit.
"How long do you have until your classes start again?" he asked.
"Hmm… I think 3 weeks," the little girl said.
"Are you looking forward to your classes, or do you like spending time with grandma?" Ning asked.
"I like helping grandma," the girl said. "I don't like reading books."
Ning chuckled. "I remember I didn't like books very well either. And I struggled so much because of that. You should study your books even if you hate them," Ning said.
"I will try," the girl gave an impassive response.
"What about your parents? Where are they?" Ning asked.
"I don't know," Helena said. "Never met them."
"Oh," Ning said sympathetically. "Have you stayed with grandma forever?"
"As long as I can remember," she said.
"My son and his wife passed away in a landslide to the west. This child was only 4 years old at the time, so she doesn't remember much," Gaani said.
"I see," Ning said.
Ning asked a few more questions Helena to learn a bit more about her. If he was going to teach her, he needed to know her.
As he talked, a question came to his mind and he turned around to ask the old woman.
"Mrs. Gaani, why do you stay in such an old house?" he asked. He had more adjectives to call the house with, but he kept himself from saying anything more just in case.
"This is my house. Where else am I supposed to stay?" the old woman asked.
"I'm sure the tower will help you move to a different, better-looking house than this," Ning said. "I will be honest, this house looks like it will come crashing down any second now."
The old woman stopped what she was doing and sighed. "I know, I know. It's not very good-looking and stands out in the neighborhood because of how bad it looks too," she said.
"But I have a special attachment to this house," she said. "This was the house my son bought with his own money and used to live with his wife. He asked me to leave Ember and come live with him here when this little girl was born."
"I was so proud of my son. After he passed away, I thought many times of leaving this place, but I just can't bring myself to do so. There are too many memories I have made in this place to just leave it," she said.
"I see," Ning said. "Then what about renovations? You can make sure it's not dangerous for you or Helena around here."
"I don't have the money for something like that," the old woman said. "What I earn is barely enough to survive already."
"Oh," Ning looked confused. "Does the tower not pay you?"
"They do, but not enough for me to do what you tell me to do. They pay me to make the potions, but since they are not confident I won't make a mistake, they pay me what they think is enough."
"And they're not wrong," the old woman said. "But it's also not easy to survive in the capital of the biggest empire in the entire world, is it?"
"I'm sure once my potions become eligible for commercial sale, I will start earning money. I just wish to earn enough so that this little girl won't have to live through her childhood in poverty."
The old woman was starting to tear up at this point, thinking about Helena's future. The little girl was looking down at her shirt, playing with it, not sure what else she was to do here.
"Don't worry, Mrs. Gaani. Now that I am going to be her teacher, she won't have any problems in the future," Ning said. He wouldn't even have to do that if he was to be honest.
All he needed to do was go tell the tower that he found a Dual Awakener and they would shower her with gifts so expensive that each one would cost more than this house alone.
"Enough nonsense from you young man. Leave the future for the future," the old woman said, but she couldn't help but hope that he was telling the truth.
She couldn't wait to see her granddaughter grow up to be a strong, confident lady.
The old woman checked back at the cauldron. "It's ready," she said and poured the finished potion into a jar before separating it into various vials.
"Alright, come. I will teach you how potions are made."
