Chapter 7: TWO TREASURED HEIRLOOMS FROM THE OTHER FATHER
With those words alike to giving away a bride Azaziel flounced into the kitchen as she called out. "I'll make you some goodies for the road! Jared dear come in here and help this overworked mother make some dishes. I'd like to see your skills!" As Azaziel announced her intent the three men who lived in the house froze solid for a second before Robert rushed into the kitchen behind his wife and Jared, who had obediently, albeit reluctantly, let go of the little human that sat so perfectly into his arms no matter how he held him. Then followed Azaziel into the kitchen.
Robert came out a moment later gently and very respectfully guiding Azaziel out of the kitchen with muttered encouragements of not needing to trouble herself, he was more then capable, and didn't you have something to talk about with Azaire honey?
Azaziel who had seemed reluctant to let go at first acquiesced after this last point as in the excitement of their surprise guest she had nearly forgotten the important matter she needed to discuss with her son. After committing herself to pass the task to her amazing doting husband she leaned forward pulling the bulky blacksmith down to her level and whispered in his ear,
"Dear this is important you must judge Jared's cooking skills carefully. A man who is good in the kitchen is a priceless commodity! Much like yourself! If his skills are not at least at the expert level give him as many pointers as you can while preparing their food for the road, and then let him borrow your cooking journal. After all we must make sure this valuable person has the necessary skills for the future."
Azaziel even decided to throw in a compliment for her husband as encouragement to do a thorough job. Although Robert was still clueless about what his beloved wife was up to as the dutiful and doting husband that he was he would absolutely ensure to do his best and thoroughly educate the prince of giants.
Besides if he didn't seem eager enough and his wife stepped into the kitchen wouldn't it be an epic disaster. No matter how much she made for the road she would surely and "thoughtfully" make food for him too and eating that might mean his early grave, but refusing to eat or telling the truth was just as dangerous a path. His wife was lovely and brilliant but the food she made could only be described as poison of the finest grade!
"Don't worry dear," Robert consoled. "I'll be sure he comes out that kitchen as a master chef!" With that ambitious statement thrown out Robert rushed into the kitchen after Jared immediately, shutting the door behind him and even locking it for good measure. Azaire and Roran breathed a sigh of relief that they had held, when their mother abruptly turned around.
"Roran dear could you be a darling and check the computer upstairs for me? The magiweb has been malfunctioning again!" Roran understanding a polite dismissal when he saw one nodded with a grunt and disappeared upstairs to "fix" the MIFI.
After Roran was clear out of sight Azaire turned to his mother curiously. Azaire didn't think his mother was the type to keep secrets from her family for the most part but he did admit she was a careful woman. Azaire waited expectantly as his mother turned to him and her face turned solemn, flashing with a familiar pained expression that, after growing up and learning more about life, Azaire had realized eventually was a look of grief.
This expression told Azaire one thing for certain. Mom was thinking about his father. And not the one cooking away happily in the kitchen but his other father the one who actually shared his blood. Azaire had always known something horrible had happened to his father but his mother would never talk about it or tell him how he died no matter how much Azaire asked her. And seeing how painful it was for his mother every time he was brought up, Azaire had stopped asking.
Azaire also had an idea about what this was about and after looking more carefully he spotted them. Those two items, his greatest treasure's and the only two heirlooms, no the only two remembrances of his blood father left behind for him. His mother had passed them down to him on his tenth birthday because "you look so much like him now" she said.
Right. Azaire had happened to see a picture of him a few times that his mother carried, so he guessed that they weren't the only two remnants of his dad technically, and he had to say although they had similar facial features and height that's where any strong resemblance ended and besides the green eye's and soft lips he'd inherited from his mother everything else was a mixture of both his parents blended into his own unique looks. And his hair color was different from both parents as well. As his father's hair was ashy gray like a worn out funeral pyre, and his mother's was a silky and shinning silver like his sister's. The first item was a pair of perfectly spherical magical stones enclosed into a clear cube clearly made of magic. These stones were as big as watermelons so it's a wonder he hadn't noticed they were downstairs till now.
One was midnight blue sprinkled with silver specs like a starry night sky and in the center around the stone circumference was the different phases of the moon. And the other stone like a counterpart was Azure blue as a clear morning sky with little white wisps here and there, like clouds in the sky, and around it's circumference was the sun in different states as if moving from sunrise to sunset.
Azaire had no clue what the purpose of these stones were are what they did and whenever he asked his mom she'd always say things like "you'll know when the time's right!" but she had taught him how to nurture and care for the stones, and besides the affinity he shared with them being one of the only connections to the father he'd never known, he also had a strong affinity to the stones themselves as they felt like old friends he'd always known.
So he was very happy to receive them and nurture them. In fact he normally tended to them every morning, noon, and night. Only he had forgotten to this morning due to his excitement about his big day today.
Moving to the next item this heirloom, unlike the mysterious stones, was quite worthy of the title heirloom. At least when speaking of monetary value. It was an item that could tempt even the emperor himself to seize it! What is an item that can be coveted by an emperor!?!?
That's because the item in question was a very special item that could not easily be obtained with simple money. This item was a spatial ring which was not very precious on it's own but the type of spatial ring was what made it truly valuable!
This spatial ring was a Life-Aligned Class/Spatial World Classed spatial ring. Life-aligned? Spatial World? Either of these two alone would already be priceless but this combination was just too godly! This was simply a blessed tool that could not be resisted!
The Life-Aligned spatial ring is the only one that allows you to store living and breathing animals, people, etc. This was one of the major weaknesses of other spatial rings but this ring overcame that having it's own air and atmosphere and life energy inside along with the necessary spell script throughout that allowed the wearer to be able to choose the things he wanted in perfect stasis and the things he wanted to regulate manually.
What made these rings so special was that they could only be made by life and nature cultivators who reached the realm where full immortality is finally achieved, a ridiculously high realm that only three of the known human race has reached but not a single person knows where they reside. This is a realm surpassing even the current emperor who is known to be the most prodigious talent the human country has had in millennium.
As for spatial world while it was not as precious as Life aligned rings they were still very sought after with their own major perks. Like it's name, these rings create a world inside that users can astral project themselves into and you did not need to know how to Astral project or even have to be a cultivator as the spell script did the work for you.
Spatial World rings were a very good tool for cultivators who liked total control of their training in a variety of conditions. They would be able to adjust their world inside to their hearts content although they'd be spending a tidy sum of energy to do so each time.
Life-Aligned and Spatial World apart were already terrifying but putting them together was just tyrannical! Wouldn't you then have your own pocket world you could bring others too? Ah. Truly worthy of the title heirloom.
CREATORS' THOUGHTS 
StormGodling
StormGodling I did want to elaborate more on the Life Ring but had to cut the chapter sort cause responsibilities, again I'll make it up to you guys this weekend if any of you decide to stay for the long haul.
Chapter 8: A MOTHER'S TEARS, BROTHER IS SECRETLY A HUGE NERD
Azaire looked at the two heirlooms solemnly for a moment before looking up in askance for a moment as if to say "Are you sure" but his mom just nodded with that same look in her eyes as if her world were shattering around her.
Instead of going straight to the heirlooms Azaire went to his mom and pulled her into his arms silently but tightly and without resistance his mother clamped onto him as if he might fly away if she didn't hold on tight enough. She may have put on a brave front but how could she possibly just be okay with having to let her baby grow up?
How could she be okay with just letting him leave? This world was so cruel. Not that he hadn't experienced plenty of that unpleasantness these past 16 years. But a mother will still worry. She may be the only one to know just how much she was enduring this time and just how much they had gone through. She'd lost so much already.
After partially pulling herself together she made to pull away when she heard her son whisper something in her ear and her carefully put together facade came apart, all the walls she built crumbled, and the strength she had been holding on to for so long finally wavered. "Pella Florum." Just those two words and now she was bawling like a child against her son's chest.
The son who reminded her so much of him more and more each day, the son she both knew and did not know, the son she had to be strong for ever since that day. In sixteen years she had not cried, she hadn't complained, she hadn't let her children see a single sign of the weakness deep in her heart. But just those two words...
Azaire held on tighter to his mother in relief. He had always been a particularly sensitive boy growing up, mostly to animals though, but he had always been able to sense the pain his mother held onto all this time. For the past five years he had been trying to get her to share them with her family, and to lean on them for once. To let her know she didn't always need to be so strong.
The last time he'd peeked at the picture he noticed there were some words handwritten in a fancy script on the back. He had been reluctant to use these words that were obviously some type of personal message from his deceased father, and it would also reveal he'd been spying in on his mother's personal moment, but something told him now had been the perfect time to use it.
After a while her bawling had turned to sobbing and that sobbing had turned to hiccuping before she'd finally calmed down. During that time his his dad had come from the kitchen and come straight to his wife and son holding on to both of them without a word while, for once, Jared did not take the opportunity to cuddle, and instead went back into the kitchen. Even he could tell this was a personal moment for family only. Although he desperately wished Skye was with him right now.
When Azaziel had finally finished crying she wiped her puffy eye's, and taking out a handkerchief, she wiped her ruined makeup away leaving her face bare but still very beautiful. After a moment of comfortable silence Robert spoke up,
"Food's ready." Azaziel nodded for a moment before remembering and asking her husband, "How was he in the kitchen?" Robert's eye twitched a moment before replying, "He's excellent dear. He's already more then a match for me in the kitchen.
'This woman after all that and she's still worried about that?' But Robert was clever enough not to voice this aloud but instead turned to Azaire. "Please go and grab your brother. And we'll let you kids get on your way." Nodding Azaire headed upstairs to grab his brother.
Azaire already knew just where he would find his dear brother. After going upstairs Azaire went straight to his brother's room and opened the door without bothering to knock or call for him. After all he knew Roran wouldn't hear him anyway.
As he walked into the spacious room afforded to the eldest of the siblings, the first thing one would notice was that the room was split in half. One half was like a very miniature gym training room with a weight bench, weights, workout mats, etc. After all his brother was known to the whole village, and many in the kingdom as the best athlete and sportsman of his generation. If there were a sport out there that he could not excel in no one had discovered it yet, and for almost any athletic event he participated in, if he claimed he'd be second, no one would claim to be first.
To everyone around the name Roran Blackhand was synonymous with the term godly jock, and as if he wasn't enough of a package, his main occupation was one of the five major occupations: Blacksmith. The five major occupations in the human country were blacksmith, tailor, scholar, knight/soldier, and beastmaster. Roran actually had a lot of potential suitors and many people had come to his parents seeking to arrange a marriage with him, and even some nobles had inquired as well.
However their mother was very proud and always felt scornful of those people and turned them away, one and all. She turned them down saying Roran would choose his own suitors when he was old enough to do so. Meanwhile she had purposely inflated Roran's standards so that even the daughters of dukes would have to first consider themselves before he might think of them.
All of this amazing publicity but Azaire's brother had a secret no one but his family knew, and it was revealed looking at the other side of the room:
Filled with posters and paraphernalia of anime, games, manga and other such things. While against the wall was a complex custom computer with multiple screens and keyboards and a few different controllers connected on a very sturdy desk with a variety of snacks, emergency empty bottles, and other necessities professional gamers to use when going on one of their sleepless campaigns were they would sit in the screen for insane amounts of time, maybe even days, as they grinded in this game or that one.
His brother just so happened to have one particular avatar build he used in most games, and always went under the same username. No one else but him dared to use this username. Partially because no one could compare to Roran in whatever game he happened to play in, and would only embarrass themselves using his legendary username, and partially because his brother had built a particularly nasty viral scipt to protect his username. Even the powerful wizards who had built up the transcendent scripts that powered the magiweb in the first place couldn't figure out how to completely undo the virus.
"Phantom Gentleman" was his famous moniker, and he was famous world round in all the countries through this name. The Phantom Gentleman was the king of the apex gamers. He was revered by many with multiple fanclubs, endorsements, and all other types of acknowledgement from media.
But what all those adoring fans of his did not realize that Roran was deathly embarrassed of this extreme otaku part of himself and in real life hid it like his darkest and dirtiest secret. So it came to no surprise to Azaire that his "mighty" big brother was sitting in his swivel chair on his computer playing one of his current favorite games, WOWO. World of Warriors Online.
Azaire felt his eye twitch, and he had a sudden urge to punch though the screen and crush the small crystal ball inside the computer that allowed it to function. Just leave his brother staring at an empty wooden box.....but his brother would go berserk on him if he'd done that, besides with as many screens and extra crap his brother had who knew how many crystal balls powered that thing.
'Where did he even get the money to set up so much?' Azaire sighed inwardly as he started towards his brother's chair. Azaire was not a mean spirited person, (No really!) but he also had a lot of irritating memories of being ignored by his big brother in favor of this dumb contraption.
A mischievous smile slid onto Azaire's face as he slid behind his brother and took a deep breath before quickly lifting the ear of one of the ears of the enchanted headphones. Connected to the game most likely, and shouting in his brother's ear, "TIME TO GO BRO!"
Roran immediately shot up in fright letting his ear phones fall to the ground breaking the connection to his game, as he looked around quickly here and there before seeing the culprit and glaring at his brother, who smiled back at him innocently.
Suddenly from the computer a voice of complaint came, "Come on man you let it past you what the hell!" Snorting Roran picked up the head phones and spoke into the mic that was still connected and simply said, "Little Brother." The voice on screen snorted and replied, "Ah so even the great and mighty Phantom Gentleman has a snot-nosed, bratty little nuisance!"
Before Azaire even had the chance to get offended Roran's face contorted and his voice dripped poison as he questioned, "What did you just say?!?!" With a practiced and fluid movement his brother sat for a moment and moved his hands swiftly over the keyboard for a moment, and suddenly on the screen an avatar blew up after a barrage of fierce attacks, and a mournful wail came from the voice,
"My Levels! Noooooo!" A vindictive smile graced Roran's face as he replied smugly, "No one insults my annoying little brother but me!" And with that Roran turned off the computer in disgust as he turned to his little brother.
"Welp let's get going imp, don't worry I'll get you back later when you least expect it." With that final promise Azaire's brother walked steadily out his door. 'Why even as a gamer he's still so scary!' Azaire felt a chill run down his back. He suddenly started to regret a few of his recent life decisions.
CREATORS' THOUGHTS
StormGodling
StormGodling
So it's late......I know this.......Sorry. I tried to get these out as fast as possible but no wants to let me have a peaceful weekend. Hopefully tomorrow will be better but I will be trying to have one or will more chapter's besides these three out tonight. Until then enjoy these.
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