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Post by Riku on Jun 8, 2019 17:50:35 GMT -6
Like A Genie In A Bottle “Riku, honey,” the woman said, turning to her son while she sifted through their mail “this came for you.” She held out her hand, and a deep rose gold chain was hanging from her fingertips. A smooth pale gem was socketed into a base of the same unique metal. “I didn’t order anything like that...” he said, getting up from the table where he was eating breakfast. He moved over to the woman who had raised him since he moved to the labs, gently examining the decorative part of the jewelry in his hands while she still held the chain. “It.....oh.” She trailed off, her eyes buried in the piece of paper on the counter to the side. “It says it came from Aullador.” Her voice was shallow on that last word, knowing the weight it had on him. Riku’s eyes glazed over.....” Aullador...?” He echoed her, trailing off into his stirring mind. His posture grew limp, and he leaned against the counter, his gaze fixed down but in a memory. Riku 1/5
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Post by Riku on Jun 8, 2019 17:52:37 GMT -6
The woman flicked her wrist upward and took the weight of the necklace in her palm, moving it out of sight and into her pocket. “This must be some sort of mistake. We all know.....that place..doesn’t exist anymore.” Her own mind traveled for a brief moment, but she came to and continued. “I’ll take it back to the mailer tomorrow when I go into town.”
Riku tripped over her words, and fell back into their reality. Looking up at her, he said “No.” taking a deep breath. “I want to see it.” His hand moved forward with his palm up, politely gesturing for his mother to show him the letter. She reluctantly handed it to him.
“Thank you.” He said without looking at it.
He held it in his hand, crumpled a bit under the pressure of his tensing thumb, and paused but then turned away, dismissing himself and the necklace to his room.
Riku 2/5
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Post by Riku on Jun 8, 2019 18:35:14 GMT -6
Riku shut the door to his bedroom behind him and began to pace from one side of his room to the other with the letter still in his hand at his side. How could this be?
There was no one who lived there who could have sent the letter. There was no there to live in....Last he had heard, that place was still an unlivable wasteland after the accident. No buildings. No people. No mail in or out.
So who sent the letter?
He took another deep breath and sat down on the edge of his bed. Facing the window, he stared at his hand with the piece of paper in it. Before even turning it over, he could see the return address in the corner indeed mentioned a place in Aullador. After another few moments to question the impossibility of the situation, he flipped over the piece of paper and unfolded it......
Riku 3/5
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Post by Riku on Jun 8, 2019 18:48:49 GMT -6
A soft, blue ribbon fell out of the paper as he unfolded it. He hadn’t felt it in there when it was folded, and there hadn’t been a crease wherever it was. Looking at the inside of the letter, finally, there was no writing. None at all! It was just a blank piece of paper... What was this!? It only gave him more questions, and he was already upset. His lip quivered, slightly, and he turned to the long piece of cloth. It was clearly made of a very expensive material. Something most people wouldn’t have been able to afford. It hummed with a familiar magic essence that Riku had worked with many times before, and he recognized it must have been half of a ribbon of telepathy. There was no sign of the other half, or who or what it belonged to. Even more questions filled his hardened mind, as a tear fled his cheek. Riku 4/5
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Post by Riku on Jun 8, 2019 20:05:57 GMT -6
The drop of water fell onto the paper, and Riku rushed to smudge it away in a panic. It may have been blank, but it was still special because of where it supposedly came from. He didn’t want it water stained...
As he smeared the tear away, it seemed to have a chemical effect on the paper. Wherever it touched turned dark, as if he was rubbing it with ink, and that ink branched out across the page filling it with words that had not been there before.
“Happy Birthday...?” He read the title aloud. It wasn’t his birthday for another month.
The page was decorated festively, with delicate calligraphic handwriting that he still recognized from long ago....could it be? It must be! Only he would know how to use a personalized cloaking enchantment on a piece of paper like that. And to spend such complicated magic on a circumstance as flimsy as a birthday?
The utter lack of adherence to limits or rarity were signature of no other.
Riku 5/5 +1
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Post by Riku on Jun 8, 2019 20:17:59 GMT -6
Riku 1/5
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Post by Riku on Jun 8, 2019 20:31:29 GMT -6
Riku stopped reading to wipe his eyes.
’It was him! Cephalo...!’ he thought to himself. But how could this be...? He had watched his old mentor turn to ash before his very eyes. And that place.....it was long gone. How could Cephalo have sent this letter?
And it wasn’t even his birthday! Surely something was off.....
He looked down at the trinket it had come with, the necklace, and picked it up again by its base. Studying it closely with his eyes, he examined the gem. It was a pinkish color, but seemed like some insignificant quartz. The metal was a pretty color but also didn’t seem special at all. He hadn’t ever seen the piece of jewelry before, and it meant nothing to him that he could think of. Would Cephalo have sent this...?
Could it be the work of an imposter? A sick joke?
He knew that wasn’t the case...he could practically smell the Arch Mage’s particular magic. It was just....almost easier to think that none of this was really happening.
Looking down again, he calmed himself and continued to read.
Riku 2/5
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Post by Riku on Jun 8, 2019 20:41:24 GMT -6
Riku 3/5
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Post by Riku on Jun 8, 2019 20:52:35 GMT -6
How did he always do that? It was like his powers surpassed time and space. How was it possible that touching the page now with questions, would allow the old mage to feel them then? He knew most would take it as a coincidence...but most did not know Cephalo and all of his wonders.
Their kingdom owed a great many of its greatest accomplishments to that man. No one knew how old he was or where he came from. He just appeared one day at the beginning of a smaller country and offered his services. And when Riku was born, he offered to be the Moralle family’s Arch Mage. Even being an extremely noble position, it was very low for such a man as him.
This man....this man could move mountains. Literally.
In time he offered the be the boy’s teacher. Magic. Academics. History. But mostly magic.
Riku looked over at the necklace again, wondering if the biting part was literal. He continued to read...
Riku 4/5
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Post by Riku on Jun 8, 2019 21:13:21 GMT -6
Riku 5/5 +2
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Post by Riku on Jun 8, 2019 21:23:25 GMT -6
Riku dropped his hand with the letter into his lap in amazement. He was twelve years old when Cephalo wrote this letter! Well, almost twelve. Now here he was, reading it, about to turn twenty-four. That was half of his life ago...
He remembered the trip to La’Faare with his parents vaguely.....sometimes he could barely even see their faces in his mind. It was all so long ago, and it was fading. That scared him...it was like they were fading. And in a way, like he was fading with them.
Who was this “Riku” anyway? When be came to the labs, he was terrified that the authorities would recognize him and know what had happened. He changed his name from ‘Rickoli Moralle’ to ‘Riku Letircani’ after the nickname from his teacher and the surname of his lawful uncle who had taken him in.
He sighed, realizing how long ago that was and how scared he used to be, and continued where he left off...
Riku 1/5
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Post by Riku on Jun 8, 2019 21:38:53 GMT -6
Riku 2/5
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Post by Riku on Jun 8, 2019 21:53:37 GMT -6
As he read the last excerpt of the letter from his old mentor, Riku played with the light blue ribbon. It was easily the soften piece of cloth he had ever felt. He touched it against his lips, distracting himself so that he had to re-read that first paragraph, laughing at the bit about the shoes.
It was as if Cephalo were there again with him. It had been so long.......and those deep, sorrowful eyes in the end were the only way he could picture him through all that time. This letter gave his memory a joyful heart again, which made Riku feel a little healed. As if somewhere - somewhen - he was still alive.
He put on the half of the ribbon as he read about it, putting the paper down half way through the paragraph before continuing. He could already feel its magic working. He could only assume its ‘other half’ felt it, too.
Riku 3/5
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Post by Riku on Jun 8, 2019 22:04:49 GMT -6
Reading on, he decided to complete the gift by putting on the Amulet. The gem base was heavy, but satisfying somehow. It felt right. However, that could have easily been due to an obvious bias.
Why did Cephalo repeatedly refer to it as a male...? He had even given it a name. That was cute...but odd. He chalked it off to the old mage being poetic and sentimental. ‘Think of him’ it said....that was just like him. He clutched the Amulet in his right hand that had the scar spiraled in the palm. A very poetic unconscious action. He would wear it every day.
The ribbon, however....that was different. It was very, very nice in itself, and being half of the present, he wouldn’t mind wearing everyday, too...but it was only half of the ribbon. Surely the other half had to exist, but where? Cephalo didn’t typically make mistakes, and this was an enchanted letter. The other half must be somewhere.
Riku 4/5
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Post by Riku on Jun 8, 2019 22:16:56 GMT -6
He scanned over the letter again where it mentioned the Ribbon and the Amulet...
Okay...so he said the Amulet and the Wearer have a relationship. Some sort of bond...which would make sense to have that sort of ribbon, if it were a living creature.
He pulled at the blue fabric on his wrist and then clutched the Amulet in his right hand again. This was metal. What could it possibly be thinking? Perhaps it was only a clue...
The name didn’t sound familiar. Was it a spell? He didn’t recall any word-using spells with that name or word. It didn’t even seem Runic in origin. Still holding the Amulet, he whispered the name curiously under his breath to sound it out.
Suddenly, the Amulet glowed, causing Riku’s eyes to widen. He knew better than to be afraid of a magical happening. It may have been ten years, but he was very versed in this sort of thing - and it was Cephalo who had given it to him. He held it out away from his face as a bright fog spewed from the gem.
Obviously, he had said the magic word....but would this fog show him the next clue?
Riku 5/5 +3
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