Cyrus Solaris
The break was done, and I was back in my dorm at Xhatal Academy. Gramps and I didn't speak after Lady Arya brought up Theron, which is fine; I had other things to focus on.
I opened my dimensional storage and took out the scale of the eternal hydra. I applied it to my shoulder, and the relic immediately began to do its work. My sternum healed completely, and all of my limbs felt refreshed.
I'll settle all of our problems myself.
Then my watch beeped; it was a message from Professor Rhondall to everyone in House Malanu. Everyone was to meet in the planetarium.
I made sure my stag horn and the stress ball Gramps made for me were in my dimensional storage before I left my room.
Never know what will attack me these days.
When I walked into the planetarium, I saw weary looks and heard whispers from students as I walked past. I headed to my seat. The professor gave me a slight nod and a smile.
"Alright, class, now that we are done with our midterms and you all have gotten the chance to try and build some chemistry with your cluster. We will be moving on to preparing for the final rift exam for the term." Professor Rhondall said, walking over to a large container that lay on the stage next to him.
He clicked a button on his watch, and the top of the large container slid back, allowing the professor to reach his hand in.
He pulled out an astral globe, a telescope, and a spectrometer.
"All of you know what these are, but now is the time to put into practice what you have studied. So I hope you all are ready for a little field trip for today's lesson."
"Where?" Giovanai asked.
"We are going to the astral realm," the professor said, his face sporting a wide grin.
"So I want you all to head to the teleportation terminal; we have to travel a little."
Everyone rushed out of the planetarium, while Professor Rhondall stretched out his hand, creating a portal to his astral forge. He lifted the large container and placed it inside.
Soon, we were all back on the surface, shaking off the disorientation of the teleporter, and were prompted to enter one of the three transports.
As we pulled away from the teleportation terminal, we drove past the rift I chased the creature to.
The voice I heard from it kept replaying in my head.
Not ripe enough.
What does that even mean?
I was going to figure it out; it was just a matter of when.
We were in the transport for around thirty minutes or so until it stopped in a grassy area that housed these large geodesic tents.
Everyone filled out the transports and awaited Professor Rhondall's instructions.
When I got outside, I saw this swirling lavender portal floating above the tall grass a few hundred feet past the last geodesic tent.
"Alright, students. Today, we'll be safely entering the Astral Realm through this defeated rift portal. We'll also be getting familiar with the equipment you'll be using. Professor Flayne will be accompanying us as our Concordant, just as an added precaution." Professor Rhondall said, gesturing to the professor standing beside him.
"You will all be assigned a tent for your bodies to rest in while you astral project, and don't worry, they will be protected."
Everyone's watches dinged. We received our tent assignments and made our way to camp. I ended up sharing a tent with both professors.
Probably to keep a watchful eye on me while my status at the school is in deliberation. Or maybe Professor Rhondall did this so that no one could frame me again.
Inside the tent, there were comfortable reclining seats for us.
"If we were doing a Rift, we'd be using pods instead. We'd be away from our bodies for much longer periods of time." Professor Rhondall said, giving me a light jab, as we walked into the tent.
He pressed a button that locked the tent and reinforced it with cosmic energy.
"See ya on the other side," he said, lying back in the seat and closing his eyes.
I did the same. I felt the pull of my tether and phased through the tent to see all of the other astral bodies floating toward the Astral realm portal.
I allowed myself to be pulled through, my astral body lurching forward as streams of light zipped past me.
A few short moments later, I was spit back out onto the illuminated grass of the Astral realm. Gramps didn't allow me to go into the astral realm during the break, so this was the first time I had been in the astral realm since entering Gavelon.
All of the housemates were in their separate cliques. But my eyes were plastered on the lavender sky above me.
In the sky above, I saw all the other planets in our solar system hanging in low orbit: Amadioha, Wotanheim, Tiamara, Shamashar, Moanakea, Pelekai, Yomi-Sora, Hekatrona.
Back when my father and I were traveling through the astral realm, I didn't allow myself to really sit and observe the realm for what it was because I was worried I would be killed if my guard was down.
But this place is a masterpiece.
"Alright, everyone, gather here. Today's task is to find a specific set of asterisms in the astral realm. Can anyone explain to me why it's important to locate them inside rifts and in the astral realm?" Professor Rhondall asked, handing out our instruments.
Kuru raised his hand. "Because asterisms can affect many things inside a rift, such as our instruments, astral behemoths, plants, the terrain in specific locations, phantom echoes, or even strengthen or weaken our abilities as starbound."
"Correct, Kuru. Being able to spot and decipher them is crucial as an astronomer. But is that all we pay attention to when we are preparing to enter a rift?" Professor Rhondall continued.
Sanka, whose hand was covered in silver thread, answered next: "We have to figure out what type of star died, along with the type of supernova explosion."
"Correct. Now, Sanka, how do those affect Rifts?"
"There are seven types of stars. These stars affect the temperature of the rift, its lifespan once activated, and the size of the landmass a cluster is transported into. But the type of supernova explosion determines what kind of radiation exists within the rift."
"Very good, now we don't have to worry about star types and radiation in the astral realm, but I will remind you that depending on which planet hangs in low orbit in the astral realm, the terrain and atmosphere will change. But luckily, I planned for our class to take place at a time when they are in transition.
Now that we've gone through our refresher, off you go; you'll have a maximum of one hour to locate the three Asterisms I have sent each of you to find. Don't stray too far."
I went off alone in search of the three Asterisms. The first one on my list was the Wolf's Hunt; a curved arc of stars chasing a single bright star.
The patterns were harder to find in the bright lavender sky; the large planets that took up most of the atmosphere didn't help either. Since they were closer, the light they emitted into the astral realm was brighter, causing the asterisms to be faint.
Before, I thought they would be easy to find because of all the time I spent searching for them with my telescope in the physical realm. But now I understand the importance of this exercise and the need for the practice.
It took twenty minutes to find it, using my astroglobe to determine which quadrant of space I was looking at in relation to my position in the Astral Realm.
Shortly after that, I found the second asterism on my list: The Voyagers Canoe, which had the pattern of a long arc with two intersecting lines. But when I got to the third and last one on my list, my astral body froze.
It was the Solaris Arrow. A pattern that was engraved into the fiber of my being.
It always pointed north.
Currently, I have my telescope set up to point at the Beta Quadrant, but I know the Solaris Arrow is in the Alpha Quadrant. So I packed up my instruments and trekked further north in this large open field.
While I was walking to my next position, the terrain changed from a short grassy plain to a large meadow of tall grass, weeds, and wildflowers. I also felt a subtle distortion in the space around me. I turned toward the distortion, then it stopped.
Maybe it was just a small creature?
Or maybe it's that creature trying to finish off what it started?
I gripped my telescope, preparing to swing it like a club at whatever was stalking me, and walked a few more paces until I was in the area where I was going to set up my telescope.
Like the previous asterisms, finding the Solaris Arrow was difficult in the astral realm sky, despite the pattern being one of the easier ones to find: a long, straight line ending in a sharp triangular point.
I looked at the time hovering above my astral globe; I had five minutes left. So I pulled about the spectrometer, collected the light from the astral realm sky, and allowed it to split and absorb light into separate rays of color.
Stars have different colors based on their type, and since the stars in the Solaris arrow were O-type, I knew to look for blue light.
I traced the blue light to the source with my telescope.
I felt another distortion.
This time, much closer.
I felt no cosmic energy.
"What peculiar sensory abilities you have, not common for a Bennu," a voice said, stepping through the tall brush of grass.
The voice belonged to Giovanni, who stood firm, his astronomical instruments in hand.
"Coming to cheat off me?"
"Oh no, I've already found my patterns; I've come for you."
"Whatever," I say, tracing the blue ray of light again with my telescope.
"See, I had my people back home look into the records of the burning nest. Everyone born of Pyrralis blood, including branch families, has their names recorded there."
"Sounds like a fun research project, but what does that have to do with me?" I said, finally finding the Solaris Arrow.
"Your name wasn't in there."
My heart thundered.
"Are you sure about that?"
"Certainly. I scraped the thing multiple times myself."
"Then you were looking for the wrong name most likely."
Giovanni's face frowned.
"How so?"
"My father and mother were at odds when it came to naming me."
"My father wanted Cyrus. And my mother wanted Anqaris."
Giovanni looked puzzled.
"What does a feud between your parents have to do with my accusation?"
I gritted my teeth.
"I'm saying that my name in the burning nest is Anqaris Bennu instead of Cyrus Bennu," I said, collapsing my telescope.
"Now, if you excuse me. I'm heading back; our time's up"
My heart pounded as I made my way back to Professor Rhondall. I had no clue whether Mom put my name in the burning nest as Anqaris or not; I just knew he wouldn't leave me alone if I didn't do anything to get him off my back.
Looks like I need to study more about Bennu culture and this mystery behemoth.