After their second meeting, Tayo and Lyra began to meet in the grove almost every day. Tayo became very good at finding ways to leave the House of Solaris without his parents or tutors noticing. He told them he wanted to study the rare plants in the old garden, or that he needed quiet time to think about his lessons. They were happy he seemed so dedicated, not knowing the truth.
In the quiet grove, Lyra didn't give Tayo exercises or homework like his tutors. She simply talked to him about the energy. She described how it felt in different places, how it reacted to different feelings. She taught him to sense the tiny changes in the air, the whispers of power that the city people ignored. "Think of the energy not as something you push or pull," she would say. "Think of it as something you dance with. You feel its lead, and you move with it."
Tayo practiced, letting go of the strict methods he had learned. He tried to feel the energy like a partner. It was difficult at first. His body and mind were used to forcing the energy into shapes, making it obey. But slowly, with Lyra's help, he began to understand. He felt the energy respond to his feelings, to his thoughts, not just his will.
His power didn't just get stronger; it changed. The energy around him became more fluid, more natural. He could make the strange, memory-like shapes appear more easily, and they felt more solid, more real. Sometimes, Lyra would gasp when he created a particularly clear image from the old times. "That symbol," she would whisper, pointing. "It's from the stories! It means... 'beginning'."
Lyra's presence was like a key that unlocked something inside Tayo. He was learning the wild way, the way the Primeator and Nuwa must have used the energy. He was becoming stronger than any student in the city, but in a way that was invisible to his family and teachers. Their secret was growing, and with it, the feeling that they were stepping onto a path that led far away from the safe, ordered life of Aethelgard.