Everybody at the table looked at one another with comical expressions until Rasa said, “Come on! We have more important things to discuss than waste time on watching Mom do dishes. Let’s go to the living room.” She scraped her chair back and stood up.
Her eagerness was infectious and the family followed her orders. Barla removed her apron and left it on the island as they passed by it. She was the last to leave the kitchen and looked ahead of her to see her entire family walking together. She almost had to pinch herself to find out if she were dreaming.
The family began seating themselves in their favorite spots, but Rasa remained standing. She could not sit down until she had said what she had come home to do.
“Aren’t you going to sit down, darling?” Barla asked. She wondered what had Rasa so worked up. She hoped nothing bad had happened, but as she looked closer, she could only see excitement in her daughter’s movements and expression. “What’s going on, Rasa?”
“There are a few things, but only one which I think is the most important.” She did not know any other way to broach the subject so she reached into her pocket and pulled out the birth crystal with the bright blue stones. She came close to her mother and said, “Jehoban has requested I perform the ceremony for you to have this birth crystal. Will you let me do the honors?”
Barla’s eyes widened with a mixture of surprise and fear. This was a dream she had known would never come true. She did not deserve the honor and yet her daughter was telling her it was hers for the taking. There was no way to say no so she simply nodded as tears formed in her eyes and fell down her cheeks.
“Mother, this is amazing!” Gravin jumped up from his chair and fell to his knees in front of his mom’s chair and hugged her tightly. He looked up at his sister and asked, “When can we do the ceremony?”
“As soon as everyone is properly dressed. I brought everything I would need to perform the ceremony.” She could feel tears of her own as she witnessed her mother’s raw emotions of gratitude.
Only twenty minutes had passed since Rasa had requested the ceremony. Each person had gone to their own rooms and changed into their most formal attire for this most auspicious occasion. Nobody seemed to care this event was several declans late, it was happening now and it was all that mattered.
Rasa opened her ceremonial box and gently placed her mother’s necklace inside. She would honor all of the normal traditions in requesting and presenting the crystal even though everyone had already seen it. She closed the box and ran her hand along the top lovingly. The sparkling jewels covering the outside were only a sampling of the beauty which Jehoban created for His people.
She picked up the box and carried it down to the living room where they would meet again to perform the service. She picked the far end to set up the two cups of liquid and the small squares of cloth. She knelt on the floor and made sure all was ready before they began.
Almost as if on cue, Ahn entered the room dressed in his best suit. His manner was somber, but his expression was one of delight. He sat down in the first seat on the right. Next to enter the room was her brother. Gravin was also attired in a nice outfit. He had not known to bring anything formal, so he wore the best he had. He sat down across from his father and turned to watch his mother enter the room.
Barla wore her finest white dress. She had never worn it before and often wondered why she had kept it at all since it was too fancy to wear to any occasion. Now she knew she had been hoping for this very moment even if she had never admitted it to herself before. She walked across the room and knelt on the floor in front of her daughter.
“Family we have gathered together for the important task of giving the protective crystal to Barla. Barla, do you agree to allow me to look into your mind in order for me to assign a unique crystal?” Rasa waited for her mother to reply before continuing.
“Yes, I do.” Barla wondered what Rasa would see of her future.
Rasa dipped her finger into the green liquid in the bowl beside Barla’s knee. She marked a line in green across her mother’s forehead and chanted, “I mark your forehead to be able to divine the thoughts and intents of your being.” She dipped her finger again in the bowl and marked a circle in green on the back of each of her mother’s outstretched hands chanting, “I mark each of your hands to be able to divine the actions for which you will be responsible in your lifetime.”
The room was utterly silent as Rasa held each of Barla’s hands in her own. With her eyes closed, she began to rock back and forth as she spoke, “Allah dari langit, silakan me panduan dalam penyelidikan. Membuat saya benar bacaan dan kristal tugas tepat.”
Barla recognized the same words from her own children’s ceremonies so long ago and easily translated Rasa’s phrase with, “Jehoban of creation, please guide me in the quest. Make my readings true and the crystal assignment precise.”
They all sat in silence as Rasa continued to rock silently. Rasa had never probed an adult mind in this manner. She was finding it both difficult and fascinating as she had to shuffle through her mother’s consciousness while trying to see into her future.
Rasa finally spoke again. “Your life has many challenges to come in the future. Gentleness is apparent in your very nature as well as a strong sense of right from wrong.” Rasa finished and released Barla’s hands. She had seen some wondrous things in her mother’s past and future and she was more than a little alarmed at the visions. To hide her sudden apprehension Rasa opened the hinged lid of the ornate box on the floor.
The lid obscured her view of the contents, yet Barla knew the box contained the protective crystals. Barla had already seen her crystal and wondered if Rasa had taken it from her pocket and put it into the box.
Rasa did not hesitate as she reached into the open box. She brought forth the same pendant she had already shown the family. She purposefully closed the box as she deftly threaded the crystal onto a delicate, but ornate, chain which was procured from an almost hidden pocket in her tunic.
She then handed the necklace to Barla and continued the slightly-altered formal procedure, by saying, “As you place this crystal of protection on yourself, say, Saya memakai ini dengan restu dari Tuhan.”
Barla repeated the phrase as she placed the necklace around her own neck. She silently translated the phrase as ‘I wear this with the blessing of Jehoban.’ Knowing with certainty this was true, she felt a sudden warmth inside her heart and the prickle of tears come to her eyes as she realized she had been accepted by Jehoban.
Rasa took a new warm, wet cloth and wiped the green liquid from Barla’s forehead and hands. She rinsed the cloth in another bowl of clean water. Rasa removed the cloth, picked up the cup and handed it to Barla and announced, “I give you this water to drink. By the drinking of the liquid which contains your essence, you will seal the bond with your new birth crystal.”
Barla brought the cup to her lips and drank down the mint flavored water and then returned the cup to Rasa. To conclude the service, Rasa then spoke to everyone in the room, “With Barla safe and protected from harm because she is united with her birth crystal we can all celebrate.”
Barla stood and turned to face her family. The three most important people in her life came and hugged her from all sides. Never before had she felt so loved. This moment was possibly the best one of her life. Her blessings kept multiplying and she offered a silent prayer of thanks to Jehoban for His mercy.
There was not a single dry eye in the room and they could not have been any happier about it. Finally, they sat down and used tissue to clean themselves up a bit. Barla could not contain the question which had been plaguing her so she asked, “What made Jehoban want to give me a birth crystal at my age?”
Rasa answered, “Amanda met with Jehoban and asked for it be given to you.”
“Amanda? Why would she do it? She doesn’t even know me.” She continued to ponder the many questions in her mind.
Rasa considered her mother’s questions. She knew the truth about Amanda being
related to them, but her mother had no idea. This was not her place to say anything, of that she felt certain. She finally answered what she could by saying, “When you meet her, you can ask her yourself. There are many surprises in all of our futures.”
Barla raised her eyebrow at her daughter’s cryptic remark. Once again, she wondered what Rasa had seen of her past and future. She knew better than to ask, but her imagination could still think about it.
Ahn piped in with his comment, “I’ll be sure to give her a big kiss for asking Jehoban on our behalf.”
Rasa turned to her brother and asked, “How long are you able to stay home?”
“A few weeks. Why?”
“We need to train Mom on how to use her crystal. I’m sure she remembers the lessons from when we were little, but it’s quite a different story when you are the user and not merely the observer!”
“That’s right. Mom, now you won’t have to do everything by hand. Imagine how much more time you’ll have when you’re able to just think everything done.” Gravin was eager to begin the lessons, but he believed Rasa would be the better teacher and he said as much to his sister.
“Oh, Gravin, I have it on good authority that you are an excellent teacher. I wouldn’t be where I am today had it not been for your training. I have a few days off so we can do it together, okay?” Rasa held her brother’s arm in her hand and squeezed it lovingly.
Chapter Nine
RICCAN DECIDED HE would make a family affair of teaching Amanda how to fly the telepod. He planned to instruct her first in his newest telepod and then give her his older one to use for her missions in Tuala. When he got home from work, he was going to tell them all about it.
With Behn having just left the house from his afternoon crystal lesson, the girls seemed to be in good moods. Amanda had spent the day researching different ideas about leads on the ten remaining samaras.
Riccan was glad to be away from the office where he had experienced a particularly bad day with his boss, Ela Nena. She had decided to give Riccan a few extra duties as well as a tighter deadline for several of his projects. He was starting to believe Ela Nena was purposely being harder on him because he had gotten married. There was no other explanation for her sudden change in attitude toward him.
He walked into the kitchen from the garage at his home in Florida. The first people he saw were his two girls getting themselves a snack while they sat at the kitchen island. “Hey, you two. What’s to eat?”
“We were just trying to decide that ourselves. Maybe since it’s getting so late, we should just plan to make dinner,” Jena suggested.
“How about foxl stew? I haven’t had it for ages and it sounds delicious,” Juila exclaimed.
Riccan asked, “Do you want to make it yourselves or would you rather I just put it together?”
The girls both looked at him and batted their eyelashes innocently.
Riccan laughed and said, “Alright, alright, enough of the puppy dog eyes. I’ll make dinner. You’re going to love my grandma’s recipe for it, too.”
The three of them began to laugh just as Amanda appeared in the hallway from the study. She walked forward and smiled at the happy picture her family made as they enjoyed one another’s company in the kitchen. “What’s so funny?” she asked as she reached the island.
“Hi, honey,” Riccan said as he leaned forward and kissed her on the forehead. “The girls were just convincing me to cook dinner for the family. They were practicing their best powers of persuasion by batting their eyelashes at me.”
“It appears to have worked,” Amanda declared. She took a seat at the island and prepared to await what was sure to be a fabulous meal.
“When are you going to learn to create, Mom?” Juila asked in the sudden silence.
“She already has,” Riccan commented even as he began to compile in his head the list of food items he would need to make dinner.
Juila turned her gaze from her father to her mother with eyes wide with amazement. “You have? When? I’ve never seen you do it.”
Amanda rolled her eyes at her husband’s gross overstatement of her abilities. “I’ve created one dish in my lifetime and it was barely edible. Your father is a much better chef than I’m afraid I’ll ever be.”
“And she’s content with letting me do all of the hard work,” Riccan added with a wide grin on his face.
“Hard work! Ha!” Amanda scoffed.
The entire family laughed.
Within a few minutes Riccan had a large pot of stew prepared and placed in a large kettle in the middle of the island. The girls prepared the table by getting out dishes, silverware, and napkins. Naturally they used their talents to do the work.
Amanda sat in awe of her family’s easy use of the elemy when she could barely manage to do anything without great effort. Even then, the results were far from predictable. It was obvious she should spend at least part of each day working on getting better with her crystal skills.
She had been so consumed with finding the samaras that she had neglected to train. Obviously, Jehoban had entrusted her with her own birth crystal for more than just allowing her to fit into the Tualan society. He must have wanted her to use all of her abilities to their fullest. She owed it to Him to be her best.
The family ate dinner without much conversation. As always the food was excellent and everyone praised Riccan for another successful meal. When the pot of stew was empty, the girls took it upon themselves to use their powers to clear the dishes and put everything away.
Riccan sat back on his stool and sighed with contentment. “I was thinking we should all go out in the telepod so Amanda can start to learn how to use it. What do you think?”
Amanda was pleased to hear the suggestion about her learning to fly. However, she was not so certain their daughters should be going with them in case her navigational skills got them lost in between spaces. It would be bad enough knowing she had caused her husband’s demise, but she could not reconcile the idea of taking out her entire family in one flight.
“I don’t know, Riccan. I wouldn’t think it would be such a good idea. What if something went wrong? Maybe the girls should stay home for the first few flights.”
Riccan began to laugh at Amanda’s concern for killing her family. He knew his telepod was built with safeguards against her fear and told her as much.
Amanda was relieved to hear about it, but she still could not fully release her fear for them all being together.
Jena could see her mother’s internal struggle as she watched her expression change. “Juila and I have homework to get done tonight. Maybe we can go another time.” Mom is scared to have us go. She doesn’t need the distraction while she’s trying to learn something so important. Back me up on this, Juila, Jena hurriedly spoke in her mind to Juila.
“Jena’s right, Mom. We can’t go tonight. Sorry, Dad. It’s going to have to be the two of you tonight. I’ll look forward to a future flight, though.”
“Okay. I guess it’s settled,” Amanda said brightly. She pushed herself off of the stool and looked over at her husband. “I’m ready to go whenever you are.”
“I’m ready. Let’s go,” Riccan said even as he leaned over to kiss each of his daughters on her forehead as he moved past them to go out to the garage. “Be good. I’m not sure how late we’ll be.”
“We’ll be fine, Dad,” Jena smiled as she reassured him.
“I know,” Riccan smiled and put his arm around Amanda and turned them both to leave.
“I love you both,” Amanda called over her shoulder as she let herself be led out of the house.
“Love you, too,” the girls replied in unison.
Riccan opened the garage door and they stepped down onto the concrete pad. The telepod was in cloaked mode, as it always was whenever it was on Earth. “I think I’ll guide the ‘pod to Tuala and we can start your lessons where we won’t have to worry about being seen.”
“I love the way you think,” Amanda said. Secretly sh
e was glad to be able to carefully watch the steps he took to get the craft ready for flight before she would be called upon to do the same.
Riccan palmed open the side door and stood to the side while the ramp unfolded for them to enter the craft. He let Amanda enter first and get herself settled in the right-hand seat reserved for the co-pilot. He followed her and took the left seat. At the same time they put their seatbelts on.
Riccan used the remote to shut the side door and waited a second for the door to completely shut, creating an airtight seal. He looked over at Amanda and began teaching her the basics by saying, “The control panel is mostly handled the same way as the conventional telepods, but the displays are all located within the plascreen. On other telepods, each function has its own light on the board. This one integrates them all to one screen so there’s less chance of missing something vital. There’s even a built-in safeguard against pilot error which is almost equivalent to an auto-pilot, to which I was referring in the kitchen.”
“I’m glad to hear you thought about putting it into your telepod,” she said as she nodded understanding of Riccan’s explanation so far.
Riccan touched the plascreen to turn it on and then he activated the telepod’s crystal drive. The vessel rose several inches above the ground soundlessly and hovered in place until Riccan was able to verify each green light on the screen.
He switched screens to be able to enter the course they would be traveling. He typed in the coordinates and pressed enter. Immediately, the course was locked and loaded. With a nod of readiness to Amanda, Riccan pressed the button on the screen to begin the teleportation to Tuala.
Three seconds later they appeared over a flat, grassy field mere inches above the ground. Riccan issued all of the shutdown procedures, turned to Amanda and said, “Are you ready? Press this button right here.” He pointed to a plastic circle on the dash.
Amanda pressed it and saw the panels light up in front of both her and Riccan. “Okay, now what?”
“When the display screens clear of all of their test messages, then you’ll press the activate button on the touchscreen in front of you.” He waited a few seconds and then pointed at the screen, “Right there.”
Levels of Ascension BoxSet Page 35
