"In here." Elder Luna's attendants said as they lead us into a waiting room in the healers 'hut'. The place was built better than most hospitals I've seen. The waiting room we were lead to was small but cozy. There were no windows and little furniture; a coffee larger table in the center of the room with six chairs around it and a couple smaller tables and chairs lining the room.
"We'll be right back Elder." The other attendant said. Elder Luna nodded and her attendants closed the door, we could hear their foot steps walking away.
"What's going on?" I asked. Elder Luna sat down then motioned to the other chairs.
"Have a seat and hold on a moment. I don't want to have to explain all this again…" Elder Luna said. I translated what she said to the girls and the four of us took a our seats across from her. Soon after we sat the door opened. Baset and Astrid were lead into the room by the attendants.
"Elder Luna." Baset said in Torapos giving a slight bow.
"There is no need to be ceremonious Baset." Elder Luna said motioning to the open seats. "I summoned you all here to talk about the current situation in the village away from prying eyes."
"I see." Baset said then took a seat
"What exactly is the situation in the village?" I asked in Torapos. Baset's eyes grew wide and she looked at me in total shock.
"You can speak Torapos!" She shouted in universal standard. I scowled and looked at Jane, Iris, and Astrid.
"You didn't tell her!" I exclaimed switching back to universal standard. Iris smirked.
"We thought it would be a fun surprise for her." She said with a mischievous giggle. I narrowed my eyes at her, promising violent retribution.
"To make a long story short, my grandmother taught me Torapos, turns out my grandmother is Elder Luna's twin sister and she's my great aunt." I quickly explained. Baset looked speechless as she looked to Astrid, Iris, and Jane for conformation. All three of them nodded to confirm.
"I have a lot of questions." Baset said calmly then shook her head. "But they can wait."
"You're not the only one." I said. I glanced over at Elder Luna and saw the confused look on her face.
'Having to constantly translate between two languages is getting to be a pain…' I thought. I looked around the room and saw a notepad and a pen sitting on one of the other coffee tables. I got up and grabbed the pen and paper then sat back down.
"Chase what are you doing?" Iris asked. I held a finger up then started scribing a spell sigil. I felt everyone's eyes on me as I wrote out the runes that I hoped would have the desired effect. When I was finished I ripped the sheet off the pad then channeled some mana into my hand.
The page went up in flames as the axiom sigil activated. It stayed suspended over my hand for several seconds then shattered. I frowned and re-scribed the sigil then tore it off the pad and looked at her.
"Oh! That's where I went wrong!" I exclaimed then balled the paper up and threw it over my shoulder. I started a new sigil and took a little more care as I scribed the new runes.
"Is he writing a new spell using runes?" Baset asked.
"Most likely." Jane said. "He's been studying the Runic language for the past week or so and can understand quite a few runes."
"What?!" Baset exclaimed then watched me in amazement. I finished the spell sigil then started to cast it. The axiom spell sigil hovered a few inches from my hand then six small glowing orbs formed in front of the sigil then floated to the center of the coffee table. Each orb suddenly shot out and struck each of us in the throat. Everyone grabbed their throats and coughed.
"Ow! Chase what the hell!" Iris snapped. Elder Luna gasped and pointed to Iris.
"I can understand you!" She gasped.
"Wait she can speak Arabic?!" Jane gasped.
"No she's speaking English." Astrid said. Iris shook her head.
"No that was Arabic." Iris confirmed. Baset sat in amazement as she rubbed her throat.
"That was a translation spell. Each person that is affected by it will hear the language that they are most familiar with." Baset explained. I smirked and crossed my arms.
"There! Now I won't have to constantly translate everything." I said proudly.
"Thank you Chase, you certainly have your grandmother's knack for spell craft." Elder Luna said. I cocked my head at her.
"Wait what do you mean spell craft? My grandma Lulu was a normal human. She couldn't cast magic." I said. Elder Luna nodded and chuckled.
"She didn't let something as trivial as not having mana stop her. When we were growing up she'd constantly read scrolls and scribble sigils on whatever she could get her hands on and then find someone, usually me, to cast the spells." Elder Luna said with a fond smile.
"I didn't know that…" I said softly.
"I can tell there is a lot you didn't know about my sister. We'll need to have a nice long talk…but that will have to wait until after this threat to the village is taken care of." Elder Luna said.
"Yes. What is it you wanted to see us all about?" Baset asked. Elder Luna looked saddened as she spoke.
"The attack on the village three days was one of the worst attacks in the entire history of the village. It has left us with the ability to do little else but shore up the village's defenses and wait for another attack." Elser Luna said.
"So you believe there will be another attack?" Baset asked. Elder Luna nodded then motioned to Astrid.
"This young lady confirmed that the ascended sonic viper that was leading the attack got away into the well across from the school." Elder Luna said.
"How could it get away by just doing into a well?" Iris asked.
"All the wells in the village are tied to a massive underground river and cave system. We believe it is the same way that the evos all came in. Right under the village's defenses." Elder Luna explained.
"So there is no way to it back to it's nest?" Jane asked.
"Sadly no." Elder Luna confirmed.
"We don't have to track the ascended, we just have to find the splicer that was controlling it." I said.
"That's right!" Jane exclaimed. "Chase tried to take control of the ascended but he said there was someone else already controlling it."
"Really?" Elder Luna asked. I nodded and her expression turned grim. "If what you say is true then the implications could be disastrous for the village."
"What do you mean?" Astrid asked.
"She means that someone in the village was responsible for the attack." Baset clarified. The girls eyes bulged in astonishment. I had already thought of this when I sensed that other presence in the evos mind. The village was well hidden and from what I could gather most people thought the village and the villagers were a myth. The only way anyone could have planned such a attack if they knew the village was there in the first place.
"If such a thing is true…then the council will need to informed." Elder Luna said.
"The Tolapo Elder council?" Baset asked. Elder Luna nodded.
"The attacker being a member of the village is the only way I can explain such a focused and wide spread attack on the village." I said. Elder Luna nodded in agreement.
"As much as I want to disagree with you I can see no other option…however the other elders will refuse to see this…they will argue and throw blame around. By the time they come to see the truth the village could be attacked again." Elder Luna said.
"What did you want us to do?" Baset asked. Elder Luna started to speak when the door to the office was forced open and six Tolapo warrior walked into the room and surrounded us. Geryo walked in after them accompanied by a elderly tribesmen with a disapproving frown on his face. He looked at each of us then scowled.
"What is the meaning of this Dwarm'moo?" Elder Luna demanded as she stood up. The one she called Dwarm'moo glared at her.
"I could ask you the same thing Luna'lana! Associating with the vile outsiders that perpetrated the attack on our village!" Dwarm'moo snapped in Torapos.
"What?!" Baset exclaimed.
"You can't be serious?!" Elder Luna gasped. Iris, Jane and Astrid all looked to me with confused expressions. Since Dwarm'moo wasn't under the effect of my translation spell they couldn't understand him.
"I can and I am!" Dwarm'moo exclaimed then pointed to the lot of us. "Take them!"
The warriors moved to grab everyone. I cycled mana throughout my entire body and turned it into shock attribute mana. The second a warrior touched me he got a small shock. I jumped to my feet and kicked that guard away. Iris flipped the warrior that tried to grab her over her shoulder onto the coffee table then kicked the one that tried to grab Jane away.
Astrid got free of the one that grabbed her and cast a offensive spell sigil and shot a bolt of lightning that knocked him away.
"Enough!" Elder Luna exclaimed as a wall of flames erupted from her body and knocked the warriors that tried to grab her and Baset away. She leveled Dwarm'moo with a commanding glare and the warriors that we knocked down stood slowly but made no further moves against us.. "Dwarm'moo explain yourself!"
"I am apprehending the culprits behind the vile attack on our village Luna'lana." Dwarm'moo said smugly.
"Outrageous!" Elder Luna exclaimed. "They only just arrived in the village the night before when the attack happened."
"And before they arrived we only had to deal with small attacks on our village patrols! Suddenly they get into the village and we have Dr'idi'saiyo flooding our streets and randomly attacking men, women, and children! Coincidence? I think not!" Dwarm'moo exclaimed.
"We had nothing to do with the attack!" I exclaimed in Torapos. Dwarm'moo turned to me, his pigeon like featured twisted in surprise. His eyes grew even larger when he saw my star farm crystal.
"A star keeper?!" He exclaimed.
"Grandson to Lulu'nala." I said. His eyes grew wide and he turned to Elder Luna.
"What?!" He exclaimed. She nodded to confirm which only seemed to anger him more. "I'm disappointed in you Luna'lana! To think you'd get taken in by such a obvious lie."
"Lie!" I snapped.
"Yes! A lie! I don't know who you are stranger but it is obvious that you and your cohorts are here to destroy the village!"
"Never! The only reason we came here was Geryo asking for my help!" Baset exclaimed. She looked to Geryo who just scowled at her.
"I believed that you would come alone Baset. Bringing your students makes it harder for us to monitor your movements." Geryo said.
"I came here to help you! Why would you need to monitor my movements!" Baset yelled.
"After that attack of course we would need to monitor your movements!" Dwarm'moo snapped. "Your movements should have been monitored the moment you entered the village! Geryo should have never contacted a outsider to deal with our problem! It's obvious that you all are the cause!"
"After everything I have done for the village you would still suspect me!?" Baset exclaimed. "What motive would I have for doing this?!"
"We will find that out soon enough!" Dwarm'moo said with a devilish smile. "Take them!"
Splicer fact: While a person's farm crystal plays a huge part in their potential so too does their personality. their likes and dislike can play a important part in deciding what they can or can't do.
[HUTEXA_THE_DJINN here! We're just chugging along with more chapters coming your way! if you like what you're reading then just add to collections and leave a comment.]