Bab 99: 98: Star Child: A Keepers Ascension II
"Why am I in so much pain!" I grumbled as I stretched my arms to the sky then let out a satisfied groan when my back popped.
After the Waloiki ended and the tribe gave me my ancestral name the night turned into a huge celebration. There was plenty of singing, dancing, a few dozen displays of magic, and a massive get-to-know you session. I was introduced to distant cousins, friends of my grandmother from when she was a child, and random people in the village that thought it was a matter of life and death that I knew them.
Admittedly I was a little put off by suddenly having a lot of people that genuinely wanted to talk to me and be around me but it was a nice feeling, actually being wanted. The party went on well into dawn when the last of the party animals; Iris; finally admitted that they were exhausted. Now back in Elder Luna's home getting ready to head back to Andromeda College I realized I was going to miss her and the village.
"The Waloiki creates channels for mana to flow through your body, like burrowing tiny tunnels under your flesh and through your muscles, you are going to be sore for a few days while that heals." Elder Luna explained while she packed a small rucksack on the couch. I stopped my packing and walked over to her to examine what she was packing.
"What's that?" I asked. Elder Luna smiled softly then looked up at me.
"More of your Grandmother's things. Her old tools." She replied then pulled a leather bundle out of the sack and unwrapped it on the couch for me to see. "Lulu'nala made all of her enchanted items with these tools. I figured that they would be of better use to you than on some shelf here collecting dust."
I knelt down and looked at the assortment of tools. I recognized most of them, chisels, engravers, carving knives, whetstone, measures. All tools Grandma Lulu taught me to use since I was a young. Almost all the tools looked handmade and all of them showed signs of wear and heavy use but despite this looked in great condition considering thier age.
"I can have these?" I asked.
"Of course! She'd want you to have them." Elder Luna replied enthusiastically. I could only smile as I looked over the tools again then frowned when I saw a small vial of a reddish black liquid among the tools. I pulled it off the wrap and held it up to Elder Luna.
"What's this?" I asked.
"Rhank, your grandmother's special blend. It was from the last batch she made before she left all those years ago."
"Is it still good?" I asked, mostly since I now knew that blood was the main ingredient in making rhank.
"Oh yes, rhank never goes bad though your grandmother's is special. It can age and become more potent. This is probably the most potent batch of rhank in the world."
I clutched the bottle tightly in my hands then smiled softly at Elder Luna.
"Thank you, I'll use it when I make a master piece worthy of her." I said.
"I'm sure anything you make will be worthy of her. You are her grandson after all." Elder Luna said with a smile then point back to the rucksack. "I added a few materials in the sack to help you get started. Leathers, some wooden blocks and rods, a couple of metal cubes."
"A enchanter's starter kit!" I exclaimed happily.
"Yes. But be sure to experiment in a safe location. You are just staring out and there could be accidents…" Elder Luna glanced away and shook her head as if recalling a bad memory.
"Well good thing I have a laboratory back at the college. It'll actually come in real handy when I start learning how to splice." I said with a broad smile. Elder Luna looked at me with a slightly concerned look on her face.
"If I remember correctly you never learned any spells before you learned mana-nana manipulation, right?" She asked. I nodded. "That includes the Splicing spells: Join, aspect, and mature?"
"Wait there are three spells for splicing?" I exclaimed. Elder Luna looked at me with the same worried expression that Grandma Lulu did whenever I said something worrisome.
"Chase…you won't be able to splice…ever." She said in a stoic mater of fact tone. I blinked a few times expecting her to say that she was joking or something but she never did.
"Wait what do you mean I'll never be able to splice? Even if I don't learn spells I can still write them down and cast them from paper." I exclaimed. Elder Luna shook her said slowly.
"No one knows why this happens but when someone who knows mana-nana manipulation tries to use any splicing spells, unless they learned then before they learned mana-nana manipulation they always backfire. Like enchantment and utility spells backfire when used on us." She explained. "I'm sorry…"
"I'll never splice…" I said softly to myself a few times. The phrase hurt deeply for some reason. I never knew how to splice and honestly never thought I'd ever have a chance to but hearing that I couldn't made me mad and determined. "...no…there is always a work around. I found the one about spells, I can find the one for splicing!"
Elder Luna looked at me with a sad look and placed her hand in my shoulder to try and console me but I shook my head and looked at her confidently.
"Grandma Lulu never gave up, I'm not going to dishonor her by giving up myself. There is always a workaround or short cut that will yield the same result. I just have to find it." I said. Elder Luna looked surprised for a moment then smiled softly at me and pulled me in for a tight hug.
"If anyone can do it Chase, it's you." She said softly. She let go if me then rushed over to her bookshelf and pulled a tome off of it and then rushed back over and placed it in the rucksack. "That tome belong to my grandfather. He was a brilliant splicer, and it contains a lot of his notes and research on splicing. I'm sure you'll find much better use for it than me. Splicing was never my forte."
"You keep imparting all this ancestral knowledge on me and Jane, Iris, and Astrid are going to have heart attack." I said joking.
"When I saw your early memories I thought that I must have been the first person you could call family since Lulu'nala died…but I watched those girls, Jane and Iris. Anytime you were treated poorly or inhumanely they seethed. I'm not sure go on they've been in your life but…they already see you as family."
"I know…Iris is like the annoying little sister I never wanted but love regardless and Jane's…the older siblings I always wished Logan was." I said softly.
"Don't forget your evos…" Elder Luna said happily. I looked down at my crystal and smiled as I felt both Bone-lasher and Alpa'nagia's presence in my mind.
"Of course! They're a valuable part of my family too." I exclaimed.
[Sssssstar Ssssssshaper….!] Alpa'nagia said sounding near tears though I wasn't sure he could cry.
[Protect!] Bone-lasher growled then purred loudly in my head.
"Well that's enough sentiment for now! It's going to be dark soon and we still have get you and your classmates and Baset to your transport safe! You have a college to get back to and a promise to keep with my sister…"
Elder Luna said patting me on the back then turning to grav some more supplies.
"Yeah…" I said softly.
***
"Oh thank the Gods! This nightmare is almost over!" Damon exclaimed as we reached the airfield. The class had to rides back to the airfield on steeds while accompanied by a detachment of warriors lead by Geryo and Elder Luna.
"I don't want to see another sonic viper again!" Alberto exclaimed.
"You two were unconscious for like ninety percent of what happened this past week!" Astrid exclaimed.
"But we almost died!" Damon exclaimed, dramatically placing his hand on his chest.
"Oh cry me a river! Jane, Iris and I almost died half a dozen times just by being around this idiot!" Astrid exclaimed pointing at me.
"Hey!" I exclaimed indignantly.
"I feel like we need a week's worth of a vacation just to recover from being around Chase…" Iris said with a smirk.
"Oh don't you start Tri-clops!"
Baset dismounted the steed she road and chuckled as she shook her head.
"As much as I would like to give all of you a week off there is still the matter of you assignment…due now by the end of next week." She said.
"We still have to do that!" Damon groaned. "Haven't we earned a good grade by not dying?!"
"No." Baset said plainly earning another groan from Damon.
"Well this will be easy!" I exclaimed then chuckled deviously.
"That's only because you can literally look at any spell and change it how you want!" Astrid growled. I snickered and stuck my tongue out at her then dismounted my steed along with Jane and Iris. Alberto, Damon and Astrid all dismounted and stood beside Baset.
"Looks like your ride is back." Geryo said with a sad smile as he looked up at the night sky and saw the golden shimmering of our terraback's wings in the moonlight as it flew towards the airfield ready to land.
"Don't be a stranger Chase. Don't forget your tribe while you're at college." Elder Luna said.
"I'll be back. If need be I can fly here on Alpa'nagia." I said. That response seemed to perk up Elder Luna and a few of the soldiers.
Everyone watched as the terraback landed silently on the large dusty air field, signaling the end of our time with the village and the tribe. I felt apprehensive about leaving but looked to Jane and Iris and couldn't help but smile.
I walked over to Elder Luna and gave her a tight hug while she was on steed-back, neither of saying anything but knowing what the other wanted to say. When we finally stepped away I turned to the class who was all watching and waiting patiently for us to have our little moment then headed towards the terraback.
As we boarded the passenger compartment I stopped and looked at Elder Luna one last time and waved to her goodbye then headed inside and found a seat. Captain Armin went through his spiel about safety and all that and then we were off.
From my window I watched Elder Luna, Geryo and the warriors shrink slowly into the distance as we climbed in the sky until it was impossible to tell them from the grains of sand in the desert. I looked around the compartment and saw everyone else was asleep or just about asleep in their seats.
I pulled open my rucksack that Elder Luna gave me and pulled out Grandma Lulu's journal and started thumbing through the pages.
'I'm not going to let you down Grandma…not again…' I thought as I poured myself into her research.
PERTIMBANGAN PENCIPTA 
Hutexa_The_Djinn
Hutexa_The_Djinn World Fact: There are no copyright laws regarding spell craft or evo creation. As such the world of splicing and techno-splicing is a very secretive and cutthroat one. Plenty of splicer will do anything to keep how they splice certain evos a secret.
[HUTEXA_THE_DJINN HERE! You have no idea how happy I am to say goodbye to that goddam desert! As much as I love exploring Chase's ancestory, this is a school life web novel and 90% of it has been spent in the desert. Going to change that real soon]
Status Power Mingguan
-- Peringkat
Power 
-- Power
stone