Chapter 8 – The Sage's Academies
At the dinner table, Queen Angelina displayed even the table manners of a queen. The Zouriinkusu was present and kept to himself near the back of the room. While Wakko was stuffing his face Dot looked around as if she was looking for something. She glanced at the food she gathered on her plate and at everything on the table. "Where did all of this come from? It's not as if she has a royal cook." She asked her brother Yakko. "I cooked all of this myself." Queen Angelina answered from behind the two siblings. "The Zouriinkusu is very wise and taught me a great number of spells that the residents of this planet use to use to prepair for the arrival of guests." "It's all magic food then." Yakko retorted. "Magically cooked." Queen Angelina corrected. "So tell me of what has happened on Earth lately. What sort of adventures have you been on in the past year? Aside from the Blood Star Incident." She then asked the Warners.
Dot began to describe the story of our encounter with Dr. Ragnarok. When she had finished the story, the Zouriinkusu spoke, "It seems like you six have been through quite a bit lately." I was still scared of the elephant sized lynx so I decided to say nothing. "I just wish Mira could have come with us. She'd love to see this place. Except for all of the dead people and the quiet loneliness of not having another humanoid to even talk to..." Yakko stated. Queen Angelina let out a small giggle and continued daintily eating her food. All the while Wakko was well underway of cleaning off the entire table.
"Here is a question that has most likely been bugging all of us since we arrived here. What is this all about anyway? Why did you even need to open a portal and bring us here in the first place?" Dot finally blurted out. Queen Angelina pulled her eating utensils away from herself, chewed the bit of poultry she had in her mouth, and swallowed. Throughout the entire moment, all went so silent you could have heard a pin drop. "It's rather embarrassing." She finally said. "I need the sage to help me recreate the Valkyrian race." The three siblings looked at each other in confusion, as well as Runt, Ace and I. Queen Angelina then closed her eyes, leaned back in her chair and sighed. "A Valkyrian is normally created when an enormous surge of life energy compresses into a single spot. A phenomenon that has yet to be discovered by Earth science or explained by any other science." She said solemnly. "Dot, when you drew in all of your friend's spirits during the Blood Star Incident, you brought together that massive amount of life energy. Creating the phenomenon all on your own, and inadvertently creating me. When you transformed back into your original state after the battle, you set me free and granted me my own life and consciousness, and I found myself here on Valkyria. However, I am now the only Valkyrian left in the entire universe other than the Sage Vuloc, which has now taken the form of the kitten known as Ace." "So, what do you want Ace to do? Stay with you and breed?" I sternly said to her. Yakko, kissed his hand and waved to all that would turn their attention to him and shouted, "Goodnight everybody!" I just gave him an evil stare.
"I don't think that is possible in his current state." Queen Angelina pointed out. "I'm not gonna go into the details, so just trust me on that." "Well then what?" I shouted impatiently. "Please do not be rude to the queen." The Zouriinkusu said as it turned to me slightly baring its teeth. Queen Angelina turned toward the enormous creature and gestured that it was alright for me to ask that question. "There is an ancient spell in one of the Sage's Academies that I have not yet been able to locate yet. That spell is capable of granting one wish of the one who casts it." She finally said to us. "And you want our help finding that spell." Dot responded with slight frustration. "Actually, I was going to propose a game." Queen Angelina stated. The warners gave her their undivided attention at that point. "First, let me explain something to you. Since you all were touched with Ace's magic at one point, you all have within yourselves the potential to cast one single spell. This is due to your bodies collecting and storing that energy it was touched by. However, after you use that potential to cast that one spell, your body then builds an 'immunity' of sorts to that energy and can no longer store that energy." I finally understood how I was able to use the teleportation spell during our encounter with Dr. Ragnarok and why I was never able to recast it afterward. I had already used up my one spell.
"The rules of the game are simple." Queen Angelina continued. "The first to find the 'spell of wishes' can use it for whatever they want." Dot shot her hand up and started grunting, "Ooh, ooh. Pick me, pick me." Looking annoyed and confused, Queen Angelina pointed to Dot and said, "Yes dear, what is it?" "Ace and I are the only ones that can read the Valkyrian language, why is that?" Dot asked like she was four years old once again. "First of all, Ace is the sage, reading and speaking his home language is written in his blood. You however, temporarily became Valkyrian when you transformed into... me. You can read Valkyrian because that part of you never really left." The Queen answered. "Oh. I'm even more confused now." Dot said. "You can read Valkyrian because you just can." Queen Angelina said in frustration. "Oh, well that makes much more sense." Dot said reassuringly. Queen Angelina slapped her forehead and sighed. "We shall begin tomorrow after lunch, to give you all enough time to rest.
After our delicious meal, Queen Angelina and the Zouriinkusu led us to two bed chambers, one for the boys and one for the girls. When we entered our sleeping quarters, it was a sight to behold. The bed was enormous around a jumbo-king size, the bed frames corner posts extended around 10 feet up and still didn't come close to the two story high ceiling of the silvery-white room. The walls were of equal distance apart as the ceiling was from the floor, the far wall with a large arched window located halfway up the wall. Even the door was exquisitely elegant with hand carvings that resembled exotic flowers and plants. The sheets on the bed were pearl white with a silvery hue and the covers were slightly darker in gray tone but still looked silver. The pillows were pearl white with a silvery hue like the sheets. The furniture was carved from a light oak looking wood with another silvery hue. Attached to the room was a porcelain and silver-sand colored tile bathroom complete with luxury bath tub, a separate shower stall, toilet and sink.
Suddenly, our exhaustion caught up with us both, and we were pretty sure that the boys felt the same way. Dot staggered toward the truly inviting bed and plopped down and nearly sunk deep into the cloud-like mattress, scooted underneath the soft pillow covers and sheets, and quickly drifted off into a deep peaceful sleep. I was feeling exhausted as well, so I moved closer to the bed to jump up onto it. When I landed on the covers, it was as if I literally was walking on a cloud. I walked in as far as I could, curled up and fell right to sleep. With that sleep, I dreamed of sunlight and clouds that night. It was the most invigorating sleep I ever had in my life. I found myself nearly wishing I could stay in this world forever.