Stars Of Memory

Chapter 32

"Umm, I'm good with technology."

Iyokú's voice turns demanding. "Show me."

Jīvitaya taps on the master chip for the first time in weeks, and a hologram pops up between them. It shows videos of a variety of animals from Earth, but when she looks at Iyokú, instead of watching the animals, Iyokú is staring intently at the pendant on Jīvitaya's lap. Jīvitaya looks down at it, confused, to see the clear crystal glowing faintly.

The hologram fades away now that Jīvitaya isn't keeping it maintained, and the crystal's glow fades. Iyokú grins at her.

"Well, that was easy. The mystery crystal's power is technology."

Jīvitaya frowns in confusion, "How can technology be a form of magic?"

Iyokú shrugs. "I don't know, but apparently it is. What else can you do with it?"

Jīvitaya smiles and taps again on the master chip, and the tendrils that had been part of her skin for so many weeks release from her wrist and the master chip lifts up from her wrist. She waits for the tendrils to retract into the chip and then sets it in her palm. She taps it again and a new set of golden tendrils emerge. They dance around in the air and dip towards the ground, curling around a few small pebbles.

They bring the pebbles back up and deposit them into Iyokú's hand before retracting. Jīvitaya taps the chip a third time, and the silver-blue tendrils reemerge, wrapping themselves around her wrist and sinking back into the same place as before, setting the chip back into the skin on the inside of her wrist. Iyokú stares, her mouth gaping open.

"Wait, did that just become part of your skin?!"
Jīvitaya nods, grinning, before tilting her head back to look at the sky. "It's getting dark, I'd better head back."

"Will you be back tomorrow?"

"Probably, but I might be learning to use my powers tomorrow."

"I can help, at least with nature and air." Then she muses, "although the Laial has some nature magic as well . . . and everyone has a bit of air magic."

Jīvitaya laughs. "I'll see you tomorrow, Iyokú!"

Jīvitaya runs out of the forest, letting her ebony hair stream out behind her. Laira follows behind her at a lope, since she would be faster than Jīvitaya if she ran at full speed. Jīvitaya runs through the city streets and to the palace, laughing giddily as the wind streams around her. She bounds up the palace steps and stops in the courtyard to see her parents and Kysanden staring at her.

She beams at them. "Hello!"

Her mother looks at her, confused but smiling slightly at Jīvitaya's happiness. "What happened to make you so happy?"

"I made a friend!"

Her mother smiles. "Who?"

"Iyokú."

"The Correll?" Jīvitaya nods. "I was hoping you would meet her, but she wasn't there while we were."

"She said she was out gathering herbs for him."

Her mother nods. "Ah. Why don't you sit down. I have some Osteolu, and dinner will be brought out shortly."

Jīvitaya beams again and sits down at the table, happily accepting the mug of the delicious drink. She sips it quietly, and listens to everyone chatter around her. Then her father turns his attention to her.

"So, what powers do you have?"

"Is it easier to just take out the pendant every time I am asked, or to say it out loud?"

"It depends on how many powers you have. Three or more, I'd say the pendant."

Jīvitaya nods and pulls it out of her pocket. Her father gasps when he sees the spiral. "You have six? And the mystery one too?"

"Yup, but Iyokú helped me figure out what the clear one is."

He frowns. "How?"

"We went over the things I'm really good at, that I've always been good at." She glances at Kysanden to see that his expression shows that he figured it out. "We figured out that it represents technology, which still seems strange to me because technology doesn't really seem like magic to me."

Her mother speaks now. "Could you show us?"

Jīvitaya nods and taps on the chip. The tendrils emerge from her skin and crawl around her wrist once before settling back into their positions. She taps again and the hologram appears, showing a clip of bunnies hopping around. She quickly dismisses the hologram, saddened by the thought of never being able to see her pets again.

Her mother places a hand on her arm, concerned. "What's wrong? Your aura changed so suddenly. Why are you sad?"

Jīvitaya sighs and explains. "I had some pet rabbits on Earth, and because of what happened and Kysanden wanting to get me out of the situation and to safety as quickly as he possibly could, I had to leave them behind. I miss them."

Her mother nods, and opens her mouth to speak again, but is interrupted by the servers bringing out food, so she closes it again.
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Who expected the mystery crystal's power to be technology?

~Goddess of Fate, signing out.