Tales of Des-Cyrus
Tale Three
The Really Freaking Long Ceremony
“Wake up!” Rayne and Kyo were rudely awakened.
“Class starts in three hours get ready. I’ll only be waking you up today.. Your on your own for the rest of the year.” Rayne look over; his personal alarm clock was Prof. Fiyr. Rayne groaned as he forced himself out of bed. Kyo on the other hand jumped right up and was already putting on his uniform.

The school uniform had a special enchantment. During school hours it was the uniform, as soon as it hot three pm or you left outside it changed into whatever cloths you equipped that day.The uniform for new students was a simple navy blue outfit. Students got class specific uniforms after the first week.

“Are you a morning person or something?” Rayne yawned.
“Not really I just don’t like wasting time in the morning.” Before he Rayne knew it Kyo was already out the door. About ten minutes later Rayne finally got his cloths on. He head down the stairs and suddenly his nose was blessed with the magnificent smell of breakfast.

There lie the dorm breakfast hall, a display of the magnificent food fit for a king. Waffles, pancakes, French toast, sausage, strudel and all that other good stuff. Rayne had never seen such a grand set of food. He plopped himself down in a seat got as many sinnamon pancakes as he could and drowned it in buttery maple syrup.

“Sinner” Rayne heard some one mumble under their breath.
“Escuse me?” Rayne looked over; the student next to him was a zebra. He wore a white robe uniform with a red cross on the front signifying him as a priest. His eyes were grey and he bore no headfur.
“I said you’re a sinner.” The zebra pointed at Rayne’s plate. “Sinnamon was made as a special technique to weed out the sinful. It’s fantastic flavor attracts sinners. You can even tell how sinful someone is bye how much they desire it.”
“I don’t really understand how that works, but I am not a bad person.” Rayne glared at the priest feeling his very character had been insulted.
“I’m not trying to offend you. If you ever desire help I am available however if your sins cause trouble I will have to strike you down.”
The zebra got up and walked away. Rayne wasn’t sure what to make out of what just happened ,but he was pretty sure he didn’t like that guy. He finished his meal and headed towards home room. Room 216 Prof. Kassy. Rayne found himself nice seat in the center of room.
“Om my goodness we have the same home room!” A familiar voice rung in Rayne’s ears. It turned out that Sianna had this very same class.
“Hey Fabreez.” Rayne chuckled.
“Hey! What’s that supposed to mean?” Sianna was on the verge of bursting into tears.
“I just sorta thought of it. You call your mana Fa and you smell like a spring breeze.” Rayne grinned thinking himself clever.
“Oh in case it sorta sounds nice.” Sianna gave Rayne the hug of a life time. A hug that hurt a lot.

“Uh, hi Rayne. Should I just go somewhere else?” Kyo had this room as well. He was sorta intimidated bye what he was seeing.
“No, no Its fine man. This girl is Fabreez.” Rayne said desperately tried to pry himself free of the hug.
“Actually my name is Sianna Thair, but you can call me Fabreez if you want.”
“Hello I’m Kyo Risaki.” Kyo spoke very quietly.
“Nice to meet you.” Sianna gave Kyo what was possibly the cutest smile he’s ever seen. Kyo blushed and hid himself behind Rayne.
“What your scared of girls Kyo.” Rayne taunted.
“be quite.” Kyo hid his face under the table.

Professor Kassy came in from the other room. He was a mutt mostly hound the other part was anyone’s guess. His fur was all brown and scruffy. His headfur was spiky and completely defied gravity, which isn’t too special. He was fairly younger than most of the other teachers.
“Good morning people. Its good to see you all found the room. I teach general necessities, cooking, symbology, and alchemy.” Rayne frowned at the mention of alchemy. “Now we aren’t going to be having any classes today. The first day is all about assigning you all mana’s. Now we understand some of you may not want a mana but you have to attend anyway. While we’re at it does anyone here have a mana already?” Sianna raised her hand right up.
“Good will you please share your name and mana with us?” Sianna stood up.
“I am Sianna Thair. My mana’s name is Fa’haka I inherited her from my father.” Sianna made a gesture. Suddenly a beam of white and black spiraling light came down. When it dispersed Fa’haka was in its place.
“Hello Professor I am Fa’haka.” She introduced herself with a polite curtsy.
The class was verry impressed with Fa’haka.
“Nice to meet you. Would you please give my class a demonstration of your power?” Fa’haka shook her head.
“Sorry but I do not wish to use my power unnecessarily. Good bye professor.” In a flash of light Fa’haka when disappeared.
“Sorry class I guess that’s all your seeing today. My mana has been very tired lately. Talk amongst yourselves for now. The ceremony is in fifteen minutes.”

Nothing special happened in those fifteen minutes. When time hit all classes went to the cathedral of rites. The room was grand in its size and sophistication. Symbols were on the ground for a number of rituals. Huge stain glass windows portraying powerful mana and demon alike. A whole in the ceiling for the stars to be perfectly in view.

All the students sat in the rows of seats. Rayne, Kyo, and Sianna all sat together. Instead of principle Cecil Tellah Odalas, dean of rituals, held the ceremony. He was an old Dingo, but he was the most knowedgable in the tongue of mana and demon.
“Good day to all students, teachers, and mana alike. Today we once again bestow blessing upon are new youth. Those of you who accept the responsibility of a contract shall be granted the power of a mana.” The crowd roared in applause. “ You shall be called down in alphabetical order by first name.” Rayne quickly became frustrated only now realizing his name was near the back of the alphabet.

About an hour in an interesting thing happened.
“Dionysius Orsidium!” A young ferret boy got up. He had long wavy blond headfur. He wore glasses and had eyes of amber.
“Whoa, he goes here!” Kyo’s eyes widened. Rayne woke up from his bored sleep.
“What’s so special about that guy?” Rayne yawned he didn’t really care what the answer was.
“He’s Dionysius Orsidium. His family is a high ranking member of the *Reanilan aristocracy. All Reanil nobles are really powerful fighters.”
“Dionysius do you vow to the conrtact to the a mana?”
“Yes, sir.” Whit that Tellah began performing the ritual. It was in mana tongue, but it was translatable.
“Dear Mama, creator of mana and granter of the soul, we ask of you to bestow a mana upon this practitioner. A partner in life and in battle. Be he unable to protect his partner his soul is sacrifice. Be the mana unable to protect him may his soul go to the heavens.” It was a lot longer in the mana tongue.

Something different happened this time. No one appeared.
“What the! What just happened?” Dionysius was enraged, shouting at Tellah like he was a simple servant.
“You were denied by the mama, child.” Tellah spoke empathetically, “This happens on occasion you can still be a fine practitioner with ought a mana.”
Dionysius was indignant, he was entitled to a mana. He could not accept this at all.
“Denied? I can’t be denied! I deserve this as much as all the others before me!”
“Dionysius! Don’t make a scene. You are nobility. You should be above acting like this.” Tellah spoke boldly. At his age Dionysius had no real power over anyone. Dionysius stormed off with ought anymore words. The audience quickly began gossiping amongst themselves about what just happened.

“People we are continuing the procedure!” Everyone became quite again. After a some more names another interesting one happened.
“Elia Zeakard!” A female from the front stood up. She was a of crossbreed of cat and some kind of lizard. The only real cat features she had was the ears. Her eyes where blue and she bore no headfur.
“Elia, do you accept the vow of a mana?”
“Gratefully, Dean.” Elia kneeled down. Terra performed the ritual umpteenth time. When the light dispersed there stood giraffe. He was on his knees groaning.
“Ahhh, where the heck did this headache come from.” He looked up, “And, wait! Where the heck am I? Are you guys some sort of cult?” He began to hyperventilate.
“Are you okay mana?” Tellah tried to calm him down.
“What in the world is a mana? My name is Terance Pherimel. Where am I?” He was shouting now.
He was standing up now. He had short black hair parted to the left. He wore a blue jacket with a *yellow emblem on the right.
“Please get a nurse to take Terance and Elia to the counselor.” As requested Nurse Aerith came and put Terance in a wheel chair and took him down the hall. Elia followed.

“*Emphimere Aweyrn”
“I know him!” Sianna just woke up when after the business with Elia.
“Oh who is this guy then?” Rayne asked still as bored as when they started.
“He was I guy I dated in medium school. He’s a manipulative jerk face. Even then he’s still a pretty nice guy.” Sainna’s eyes started to tear, no one noticed though.
“Emphimere, do you accept the vow of a-”
“Ya ya cut to the point. People are asleep ya know.” She forgot to mention he was very cocky.
“Nice guy huh.” Rayne teased.
“Well he is when he wants to be.” Sianna was still hiding her tears.

Tellah grumbled, but he did it anyway. Flames burst from the ground. Once the flames died it reveled a small Kneed high dragon.
“Sup, the name’s *Zyre.” He kept his arms folded. His scales where crimson red. Zyre had a bit of a belly on him. His eyes where emerald. Zyre didn’t have any wings on him.
“You’re a small little thing.” Emphimere said with disdain. He was hoping for something much bigger.
“And you have the figure of a women.” Zyre retorted. Both of them had a smart mouth on them. Emphimere ignored Zyre’s insults and marched back to his seat with Zyre in tow.

“Kyo Kisaragi!”
“Hope you get a cool one.” Rayne jabbed Kyo’s arm. Kyo walked down the hall to the summoning circle.
“Kyo, do you accept the vow of a mana?”
“Y-yes, sir” Kyo was trembling. Being the center of everyone’s attention filled him with anxiety. Cid said the saim word she said a million times by now.

A ball of light appeared. There was a treble clef radiating from the orb.
Kyo touched it. Suddenly it became an ear ring on his right ear. The light burst to reveal a small mana.
“Hiya! My name’s Concerto nice to meetch’ya.” The mana was small and white furred. He had beady little eyes. Floppy little dog ears hung from his head. There was a silver saxophone in his hand. Kyo squatted down so he was about eye level.
“Um, hi I’m Kyo Kisaragi.” Kyo was dumfounded bye how small he was. Concerto was just about the size of a teddy bear.
“cools! Ya like music?” Concerto jumped on top of Kyo’s head.
“Yeah, sure I love music.” Kyo’s face was blank. He stood bacl up and walked back too his seat. Concerto kept on talking the whole way back.

“Rayne Varsanant!”
“Thank god finally.” Rayne got up and stretched.
“Rayne , do you accept the vow of a mana?”
“Definitely” Rayne bowed his head to the dean.
The words of the ritual where starting to get on everyone’s nerves at this point. In just a simple flash of light a girl stood before him. Rayne was afraid something like Elia’s fiasco was happening to him.
“Hello. Are you Kon’s new contractor.” She said. “Kon is glad to be part of a contract again.” She was a dog, a shiba to be exact. Her fur was straight and silky. It’s colour being an almost holy seeming white. Kon’s eyes where a faded blue. She had short headfur down to nose eye height. All she wore was a white gown only a little past her waist.

“Is there any reason your talking in the third person?” Rayne asked, but in reality he found it sort of cute.
“What do you mean. Is there something wrong with the way Kon speaks?”
“Um, never mind. Lets get back to the seats.” Rayne was sorta glad he didn’t get a small mana. He wasn’t expecting a girl though.
The was only one more person Rayne noticed before they all slept again.
“Reanbell Colt!” A little girl got up and skipped down the hall.
“Wait is that a little girl.” Rayne asked
“Yeah I think so. I’ve heard she was some sorta prodigy and got accepted at four. She couldn’t come here till she was seven though.” Kyo responded to Rayne’s question before nodding off with Concerto in his lap.


“Reanbell, do you accept the vow of a mana” Tellah spoke in a much more gentle voice than he did with everyone else.
“Of course mister.” She answered with a smile.
This time Tellah changed the words a little bit.
“Dear Mama, creator of mana and granter of the soul, we ask of you to bestow a mana to protect this young practitioner. A guardian in life and in battle. Be her unable her mana die my soul is sacrifice.” Not many people noticed the difference. Either they were asleep not paying attention, or just plain because they couldn’t speak the language.

A spiral of flame came down from the heavens. A large flaming hound stood before the girl. “I am Cerberus. It is my duty to protect you.” Cerberus let his flames down. The girl climb on his back and rode him back to her seat. Rayne and all his friends slept through the rest of the ceremony. It was about ten pm when it was all over. Once they got back to their dorms they all just slept till the next day.


END TALE THREE.

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*Reanil - a rich country in Bamliar heavily based on its aristocracy.
*yellow emblem - there is a picture in my Gallery of Terance of Elia to get an accurate look at it.
*Emphimere Aweyrn (Em-fi-meer Ah-wern)
*Zyre-(Zire)

I realized afterwords that some sentences are interrupted by page breaks I'm sorry. So first the sinnamon thing is just a flavor I came up with. The thing with the Zebra can make a good plot device for an arc later. SMore importantly though this chapter is to entroduce some characters and there mana's. Don't think that I've shown all the important cast though. There is still more. Infact afterwords I realized I forgot a character. I also forgot to even mention what animal Reanbell is. This will all be handled in the next Tale.

P.S.
heres a drinking game. Take a shot every time you read the word mana