Chapter 7: Down To Business
Valerian sighed very deeply; he seemed so lost and confused. “Please allow me a moment to collect my thoughts. This is a lot to take in.” “I know I’m very sorry but I did warn you.”
“So how can someone so knowledgeable and so close to Lunaria not know of something like the ascension tournaments? How can someone blessed as you are only have learned basic magic and first circle spells? Your mother and aunt do not seem cking in aptitude nor knowledge regarding advanced magic.”
“My mother and aunt kept me sheltered and were very over protective. Any time I’d show interest in advanced magic or was curious about anything pertaining to politics or entertainment they just would sneer at me and hand me a tome of Lunarias accounts and tell me to gain knowledge before power and not to waste my aptitude on things like tournaments and politics.
Some of their reasoning was also very in line with you shall live part of your life as the daughters of Lunaria did to keep me humble. It’s true what I said about having limited access to all the tomes in our possession. I was only able to have access to certain ones.
We also had to be very careful about bringing about too much attention and if I was casting or performing a more advanced ritual the mana fluxes would be noticeable. We were living a commoners life to protect mother, grandmother and all the aunts.
My grandmother is a very controversial person and has thus far accomplished many things without her true identity and origins coming to light. Also we need to figure out how I also can protect my identity because no one knows I exist and from the sounds of things it’s going to be very hard considering the pesky pendant has chosen me.”
“There is never a dull moment with you is there? There are still too many things unknown and uncertain. Besides being in danger, why would your mother and aunt entrust such a precious treasure to Yuezhi Vilge?” Ren thought for a moment before answering and replied “Honestly I think they predicted something like this would happen and knew I’d be in the right pce at the right time with the right person.”
Ren began pcing her hands together, interlocking her fingers and twiddling her thumbs. Maybe after my coming of age ceremony it wasn’t exactly as I said. You see I knew the tome that mother read from and the music Aunt Saleema pyed. When I said it was private I forgot to add in how private it actually was. Turns out Mother can use spacial magic and Saleema knows lots of advanced barrier spells sooo they decided to create an enclosed space using some sort of fusion magic to block sound and mana so the mana flux and song could not be heard or felt by anyone besides us and Lunaria. I’m guessing between the fusion and the ceremony the whole process pretty much drained them both.
“WHAT?!” “Yes, I was surprised they could do that too. I was also kind of upset too having to find out in that way. And also yes the tome was specifically made for the daughters of Lunarias coming of age ceremonies. The tome allows a spiritual connection to Lunaria so that she can bless her daughters without having to be physically present. I’m assuming early generations did not catch much attention due to low mana fluxes and the music, well I guess they could have used one of Lunarias first circle spells to camoufge or mute the sound.
Through the years Lunaria spiritually attended everyone of her daughters coming of age ceremonies. This has been the first ceremony Lunaria has been able to bestow her full blessing.
Mothers ceremony was simir but it was still the early days of Lunarias freedom and her power hadn’t fully recovered. The thing is I’ve been the first daughter born without any origins of the curse. I’ve gotten all the perks of being part of a direct bloodline and none of the side effects of the curse. Though grandmother was relieved of the curse traces still remain since she spent part of her life carrying it. When she had mother a tiny bit was still left but not enough to pass to me.
Truthfully I don’t know exactly what happened but I’m pretty sure mother and aunt Saleema do. At the conclusion of my ceremony I could feel a very high flux in my core and mana channels. I also ended up with a pretty cool tattoo. I think whatever really happened had something to do with how and why I ended up here.
“My of my! This tattoo is where and what does it look like?” “It is the 8 cycles of the moon and it’s tattooed vertically from my heart to my lower dantian. It even lights up when the cycles change. So what do we do now?”
“I think I need stronger tea first. Honestly I am not sure, did your mother or aunt give you any instructions or a way to contact them?” “No. They told me they loved me and to be patient that it will all work out soon that I should keep my head down and keep practicing my magic and alchemy that I could read and practice as I saw fit as long as I didn’t create to much of a mana flux or bring unnecessary attention and that I should open tome 88 on my 5th year here one day after the first full moon of that year. Which would be today actually as of 3 hours ago.
