Part 30: New Names

I picked up the war-hammer and marveled at it, "It's incredible." It was well designed and exceptionally sturdy as far as I could tell; based on the weight anyway. It has a feather like pattern running down the sides, and the puncturing cone almost made it look like a bird's head if you looked at it from the side.

"Suma asked me to make something special for you, and she paid for it already too, so no need to worry about that." The blacksmith said, pulling me away from the hammer and back to reality."Suma commissioned this?" I asked stunned."She sure did, and she told me why too. I hope you stay safe out their son, even healers have a chance of getting hurt, and their familiars as well." He said softly, with a voice full of concern."Thank you… I'll do my best." I said to him. I looked back to the hammer, and had an idea. "Hey, do you wanna help me try this out?"His head cocked back for a moment, then his feathers raised ever so slightly with excitement, "What did you have in mind?" Within twenty minutes we had gone outside to the back area where he kept extra supplies, and set down some coverings, then the blacksmith flew out of the room for a moment before retuning with a few small seeds in his mouth. He dropped them in the middle of the covering and infused them all with mana. Several large fruits grew up in seconds, and everything was ready. We spent half an hour smashing fruits with the hammer and cone, then another half an hour cleaning up the splatter that wasn't caught by the coverings we'd set down. "That was good fun." The blacksmith said as he floated the last of the destroyed fruit into a barrel we had decided to use as a rubbish bin."It works amazing too; well-balanced and not too unwieldy." I confirmed as I picked bits of pulp off of the hammer's flat."I'm glad to hear that." He responded. "You seem to know your way around it fairly well… after having just gotten your hands on it too.""Oh, well my people actually used to have weapons similar to this one. I've never used one before, but I have seen them used, so I was able to kinda figure it out." I explained."Oh, I see, that's a shame. I was hoping to have been the first person to have created a weapon like this. Oh well…" He sighed a bit disappointed."Well, if it makes you feel better, you're the first person to make this weapon on your world." I pointed out trying to make him feel better; it worked, because he stood a bit taller and realized I was right. I thanked the blacksmith again, collected my things, however, I didn't want to leave him without giving him a gift."You want to give me a name?!" He exclaimed in shock."If you'd like one, yes. You have helped me out a lot, taught me about metalwork so that I could make my own repairs, showed me different uses of magic, and all around been a good friend. So yes, I would like to give you a name." I told him. He was almost jumping up and down for joy."YES… I mean, if you don't mind." The elder nymph said excitedly. I thought for a while, mulled over several names, all the while the blacksmith waited with bated breath. I wanted to pick something that fit him and his personality. He was calm, but passionate. He could get excitable like a kid whenever something fun happened. Eventually, I decided on a name."How about Ceil?" I suggested."Ceil..." He repeated in awe. He started thanking me and singing from joy, it was that song Suma had sung when I named her. "Asumu da jonn nis ah!" After that, he thanked me, I collected my things, including the rest of my armor, and we said our goodbyes. I went home and put everything away until Suma and I could perform a bonding on them so that I could summon them whenever I needed."Jake," Suma said in my mind just as I finished putting the rest of the weapons and armor away."Yes?""I found that Neame, the one who makes runes, her name is Sela- Car, and she works as a Magical Scholar.""Is there any mention of where she works?" I wondered."Unfortunately, no, but this does get us a step closer. There are only so many places in the city were one can work as a scholar. I will ask around those places and see if anyone knows her.""Thanks, Suma, I appreciate it.""By the way, have you had a chance to go collect your…. Um, what did you call it?" She asked."My armor? Yeah, I got it. By the way, thank you. Ceil gave me the weapon you commissioned from him for me." I said gratefully."You are very welcome," she said happily. "But, who is Ceil?""You know, the blacksmith.""Oh, I did not realize he was a named Neame." She said surprised."Well… he wasn't, but I named him." I said hoping it wasn't illegal or something. There was a small pause before she finally asked her question."Um… okay, but why?""Why what?""Why did you name him?" She clarified."Well, why did I name you?" I pointed out with a fair amount of smugness in my voice. This was followed by another pause."I suppose you make a good point." She stated realizing that I had no reason to name her either and it was probably best not to throw stones in a glass house."I named him because he was a friend, and he deserved a name." I told her."Well, it is already done. Once a name is given it cannot be taken away, only given up. So, how are you feeling?" She questioned."I'm fine, why do you ask?""Well, you named someone; are you tired?" She wondered."No…. why would I be tired?""Because naming someone requires mana, it drains a bit of your life force to give another being a name." She explained to my shock and bewilderment."What?! Since when?" I asked stunned."Are you telling me you never noticed?""Should I have?""Well, I guess you would not. But someone with a normal Life Force Density would have felt it." She explained."Hold on, I have like a thousand questions right now… why would naming someone require mana? What happens to the person who receives a name? How didn't I know this… this feels like something I should have known." I asked the questions rapid-fire."Well, when you name someone, you are giving them your mana and it makes them a little stronger, or sometimes much stronger.""Did that happen to you?" I wondered."Yes, when we met, before you named me, I was a lower-class medium level mage, now I am upper class medium level. Well, in power at least. I still have to pass my tests to officially receive my promotion.""So what will happen to Ceil?""He will probably see an increase in power, but he is rather old so I doubt it will be too noticeable." Suma told me."Well, hopefully it will help him." I shrugged. "Anyway, like I said, I picked up my armor and it's already back at my house." Suma and I spent a while figuring out how to make it so that I wouldn't have to name all six pieces of the armor individually, but as a whole. Well, I say "we", but she did all the work really. However, she figured it out. She tried to explain it to me by saying it was like breaking the spell into parts and performing each section of the spell on the accompanying piece of the armor, then uniting them with binding magic. In the end, she seemed confident."Okay excellent, have you thought of a name for it yet?" Suma asked."I have… Jericho."Five days passed, and now I was with Suma walking into a school, in fact, it was the school she received her degree in summoning and healing magic from. We were here because Suma found out from the Grand Duke where Sela-Car was… here. She was a teacher and magical researcher for an on-site rune creation facility that provided much of the school's funding and resources. "Do you want to stop and see any of your old teachers?" I asked Suma."No, they will all be in class for a while, I would not want to disturb them." She replied. "Besides, the only teacher I had a particularly good relationship with retired several weeks ago.""Do you mean the one I met?" I asked."Yes, he was my closest friend while I attended this academy, and my harshest teacher." She let out a small chip, that I believe was a kind of laugh. Suma's people have so many different sounds for different things it's crazy. It makes it rather difficult to keep track of everything. "Here we are," she said and cast a spell that open a hole in a marked off wall. The vines that made up the building untangled and retreated to form a space wide enough for us both to get through easily. "Madam Sela-Car?" Suma called out into the room.A small blue head popped out from around a corner and a female voice asked, "Hello?"