A Call to the Ancestors

"How was it making your magic?" Kelly asked as her parents joined them during dinner, "Like, what did it feel like?"

"Do answer," Damia added, "I am curious about how someone goes around magic a new spellbook themselves."

"I have a question first," Both Damia and Benjamin turned their attention to him, "How do regular spellbooks get made?"

"Ah, I can't answer that," Damia shrugged, "I only get the spellbooks and teach that, I don't make them."

"I used to make them," Benjamin began, cutting off his wife's excuse on why she couldn't answer the question, "Well, used to, for the short time my father was still around when I had finished my time here."

"Wait, what?" Kelly seemed very surprised by her father's revelation of what he had done before being the headmaster of Mage Haven academy.

"I wasn't powerful enough to make a singular one myself however, we always worked in threes, performing the same steps you probably performed to make your spellbook and using our three sources of magic to enchant the books," Uri nodded as he began eating, "It is less impressive, I must admit, than what your magic did when you unleashed it to enchant your spellbook."

"You light up with magic?" The headmaster nodded, "But the burden is on all three so that no one loses their magic."

"Precisely, anything else before you get to your story?" Uri shook his head and swallowed the food in his mouth. The young mage was interrupted as an automaton placed a rolled piece of paper on the table for the headmaster.

"Who is this from?"

"An unknown messenger, Headmaster Solven," The two teachers looked at each other, concerned by what could be in the message. He slowly unrolled it and began reading quickly, to himself, hiding the content from the three other members at the table.

"What is it?" Kelly asked as he put the message down.

"Nothing really important, another one of Roger's goofs," He rolled his eyes and let out a sigh of relief, "I can recognize his writing and his mannerisms," He handed the page to Damia and she nodded in agreeal with her husband's comments, "I was worried, anyways, back to your story, Uri."

"Is his message about the change in alterations?"

"Indeed, the magic in the plane has seemed to finally settle down."

"I have felt the difference ever since I made my spellbook," Uri commented, "When I made my magic, I could feel the air around me as if it was thick and pulsing with magic," He moved his fingers through the air, "Nothing I have ever felt before and nothing I can really describe to someone who hasn't felt it," He looked up as if he was there again, "Magic danced in balls of bright but not painful to look light while my body emitted a large amount of magic energy that bent the grass around me and made the tree branches move, it was truly magical."

"And how did you know it was over?"

"It ended," The life mage shrugged, "And my spellbook was complete, the tome of Oik magic."

"I believe it is referenced as tribe magic in those books we began looking at," Damia explained, "They are very interesting to read."

"I am aware, Mrs. Solven, I have read them as well," He smiled before beginning to eat once more and the Solven family began talking about their days. Uri's mind began wandering around and trying to think of what could come of the next spell in the Oik spellbook, Call the Ancestors. Meeting his family once more after having personally killed two of them didn't sit well with the young man.

Late in the night, Uri stood alone in an empty training area that was lit by the academy's very efficient light system, "Call the Ancestors, a gesture only spell," He placed the book down and began performing the casting gestures that this time really resembled a strange dance. With each step, he began thinking back to the way his brother had moved during their battle, with each skip, Uri was back in first year and their blades were colliding once more. The final posture was followed by a very familiar voice but not someone from the academy's voice.

"Uri'ost," He looked up and was met by the ghostly figure of his older brother, Golv'ik, "It has been a while, hasn't it?"

"Yeah, sort of," Uri looked at the ghostly figure and sighed, "Sorry about, about killing you," He looked down and sighed again.

"Hold your head up high, Uri'ost," The friendly tone that came from the dead Oik man's voice surprised Uri, "You are my little brother and you bested me in combat and stood for your values."

"But I defended magic and," He stopped, the realization that his spell had functioned and that he was now talking with a dead member of his family, "How is this working?"

"How is what working?" The taller Oik man sat down and shrugged, "Your magic? Our tribe's magic? I don't have the slightest clue, I expected you, the Hero of Mage Haven academy to know, Uri'ost," Uri looked at him with a very confused expression.

"First, I am Uri, second, what did you just call me?"

"You will always be Uri'ost to me, little brother," He replied, "Your lady called you that, and so did that old man, I assumed it was your title."

"You were dead," Uri looked at him with a blank and confused expression, "How?"

"Our family has been watching you all this time, apparently," His older brother explained, "We looked over you in your lowest of lows and your highest of highs."

"That is rather creepy."

"We don't watch you all the time," His brother replied with a laugh, "But we do observe you ever now and now."

"We? You mean mother, father, sister and you?" His brother laughed once more, "What is so funny about that?"

"Our family tree spreads further than the remaking event," He explained, "You only summoned my spectral being but I have met our great great grandmother and her stories are truly spectacular, you know, Uri'ost, I am proud of you as your older brother."

"I only murdered you, right?" Golv'ik laughed and stood up once more. Uri didn't know what to say as what he saw as horrible made his older brother laugh and then say that he was proud of the young man.

"Keep practicing your magic, brother, maybe once you can summon another member of our family they can explain to you what your purpose is, they have told me mine and maybe they will give you hints on yours."

"My purpose?"

"We all have a purpose in, we are all simply threads in a large tapestry and each of us has a role and only together can those roles be accomplished."

"What was yours?" The old man stood up and didn't say anything, "Was it to be my opponent on that day?"

"I kept the Oik in you alive, but you have redefined what that meant," Uri's brother explained, "If you are to be the one great great grandmother says you are, keep up your work with magic and keep up your pursuit of knowledge."

"Doesn't that fundamentally go against what the Oik stand for? The mage hunters?" He got a laugh from his brother once more.

"We were given that name once the restructuring of magic had wiped out our magic, or so we thought it had," He pointed at his little brother, the ghostly figure smiling, "Until you came along and unleashed your magic upon this world and dug up the buried secrets of our tribe's past," He placed a hand on Uri's shoulder and nodded, "Glad to call you my brother."

"I guess, despite that time you wanted to kill Kelly."

"Ah, so that is her name, I had forgotten it," Golv'ik shrugged, "I would apologize but it forced you to use what you knew and as it turns out, she was scared, not hurt, you were powerful, not helpless."

"Do you know any of this magic?"

"Not at all, I know Sham'bo and Teltovig, but you already know those ones," Uri nodded, "The rest of your spells are not something I have ever known of."

"Who knows them?"

"Great great grandmother spoke of magic that she used and that led to great great grandfather's death to save her," The sound of sand made both of the brothers turn and face a cloaked figure. Golv'ik snarled as Uri looked confused.