Even though Cecilia was a very good swimmer, it wouldn't take long for her to be overwhelmed by the whirlpool. She fights and thrashes a little bit before everything goes dark...

That was the last thing Cecilia remembered before waking up in the middle of a strange village still soaking wet and naked. When she finally came to and realized she was naked she'd quickly cover herself up as best she could with her arms.

'This is what I get for not wanting to get my clothes wet I guess... where the hell am I?' She would think to herself, slowly scanning though the surroundings.

The village was completely deserted, and all the houses were damaged, like if they have been submerged by a great flood.
Nothing happened for several minutes, but then one of the doors opened up, and a woman came out from the house.
She was a quite tall and nice lady. And Cecilia's would have surely recognized her, since she was her mother.

The warrior was very confused, how was this suppose to let her use magic? All she could see was a deserted and badly damaged village, could Helena see all of this? Then she would jump and stand up as one of the doors swung open and out stepped Cecilia mother. The girl's eyes widened and she ran over to the figure of her mom.

"M-Mother?! Is that actually you? What are you doing here?"

The woman looked at Cecilia, with a warm smile.
When she opened her mouth, her voice was the sweetest sound one could hear, like the relaxing sound of waves on a beach.
"I am not your mother, child of man." she said, continuing to smile "I have no shape, so your mind gave me and this place shapes that it recognizes as the most familiars. This is the bottom of the pond, and I am the lesser of three spirits that rule the island, the spirit of water. I'm the Lady of the Pond, but you can call me Nimue."

The teen was a little confused at first, this was certainly not what she was expecting to be doing on her first day of training with Helena but then again she wasn't expecting to get spanked either...

"Three spirts that rule this island... Nimue... Wait, I'm still at the bottom of the well? I touched the bottom of the pond with my feet, how is it so deep now and I'm... breathing..."

So many questions were running through the girl's mind.

In seeing the girl's confusion, Nimue stroke her hair, with a maternal smile.
"Three spirits rule the island, yes. The Dancing Fire and the Lord of the Cave are the other two, my older siblings." she explained.
She paused, then continued with the explanation "The bottom of the pond is not at the end of the actual pond. You're now in my realm, away from the mortal world."
She gave Cecilia a gentle kiss on the forehead, adding "Don't be afraid. Every apprentice Helena had came to see me at the beginning of the training."

Cecilia was a little afraid of all of this, she'd never experienced anything related to other realms or magic before but Nimue taking on the form of her mother and acting so kindly did help the girl calm down a bit. Her the Dancing Fire did make her a little unnerved as she remembered the rules, and the lord of the cave made her think of the Cave of Shadows.

"May I ask why exactly I am hear? Ma'am told me that the secret to being able to use magic would be going into the pond."

Nimue nodded, and replied "Your teacher surely told you that magic is in the world and in every living thing. What we need to do is remove the block that separates your inner magic from the worldly one. In this way they could interact, making you able to use spells."
She opened her arms, like if she wanted to hug the entire area, and explained "Spells, that common people wrongly call magic, are nothing more than tools. Tools that create a link between your magic and the world magic."
She smiled again "We three spirits are able to remove the block. The Dancing Fire is too powerful, and could kill you during the process, and the Lord of the Cave simply doesn't care for humans. But I'm able to help you, and happy to do it."

The warrior would nod along with what the being was saying, Nimue did a good job at explaining it but there was one thing that caught the girl off guard.

"Thank you very much for helping me Nimue, but I do have some questions if you don't mind me asking. Why aren't spells magic if I have to use my magic inside me to use them?"

"It's a smart question." Nimue replied, touching her chin and raising her eyes toward the sky "You're only the second apprentice that asks something like this."
She then looked at Cecilia once again, and said "Let's see if I can explain this to you in a simple way. The hilt and the blade are the magic, one for you to wield and the other to strike your opponent. The spells are the techniques used to forge together the hilt and the blade, creating the sword. A hilt with no blade is useless, and a blade with no hilt cannot be wielded. Spells unite the two magic, creating the sword."