Rising Shards

The next exhibit past the big wall of powers was an activity area. It was mostly elementary stuff about Cani, so Zeta was a bit too old for it. After that was a bloodsaber focused area. Bloodsaber veins grew on the walls like grapevines, and desks were set up with seeds on them and the equipment needed to grow them.

“This is a lot like school,” Zeta observed.

“So not a lot new here,” I said. I didn’t want her to think this was a boring trip after one room, before we’d even gotten to any real cool stuff.

“Evy, are you a touch nervous?” Stella teased.

“Dr. Diast does get nervous sometimes,” Zeta said. “I think when she thinks the class won’t care about what she’s teaching, or when her jokes don’t land.”

“Wow, did not expect the analysis.” I said.

I was kind of in that nervous teacher mode. My humor and teaching style either lands or it doesn’t. And while I’m generally pretty confident, there are times when a room of students not finding your jokes funny feels like a gut punch. And even though I didn’t have a full classroom with me, having my partner and her kid sister for some reason gave me that worried headspace. Maybe it was because this museum trip was my idea? I wasn’t sure. I hoped I would get over it soon.

“Well, I always think your jokes are funny,” Stella said.

“I never said I didn’t find Dr. Diast funny!" Zeta said. "Just that I’ve seen her get a bit buggy when she tells a joke that people don’t laugh at. But we’ve all been there, right?”

The back of the bloodsaber area was a lot cooler, given it was less energy charged vein growing and more actual weaponry. Everything was behind glass cases, but the different kinds of Cani tools for battle were a lot more varied than anything Zeta had seen in class.

“I wish I could have brought Minty to see her sisters,” Zeta sighed as she looked at an ancient bloodsaber.

“That one in particular might be more her great great great great grandmother,” I said, gesturing to the worn sword with a carved wooden handle. “These aren’t the oldest bloodsabers ever found, but with void dating it can be tough to say exactly when something was from.”

“How’d they do the blood collecting on these?” Stella asked.

“I think it was like a wood splinter.” Zeta said. “Did they not teach you that in school?”

“With Evy teaching you, you probably know more about Cani than I do at this point.” Stella said.

“I’m sure you know plenty,” I said.

“Well, I have you to fill the gaps that the Staverius educational system failed me on, too,” Stella said. “If you want to teach me, that is.”

“I’d love to,” I said.

We wandered through the rest of the weapon exhibit, seeing all sorts of bloodsabers, from standard single blades to absolutely silly looking four blade deals. There were also a few recreations of attempted blaster equivalents of Cani power channeling devices.

“You won’t see these out much outside of scifi movies,” I explained.

“Why not? They seem to work pretty well in them,” Zeta said.

“I know this one!” Stella said, adorably raising her hand. She waited until I called on her to answer. “They’e incredibly inconvenient. Channeling a big amount of Cani energy into a single blast takes way more blood than the drop or so needed for our standard issue swords.”

“Very good!” I said.

“Couldn’t they just make blaster guns or whatever that only need a drop of blood?” Zeta asked.

“There have been numerous attempts, but nobody’s cracked it. The veins in a bloodsaber work best in any sword or knife-y blade.” I said.

“Huh.”

The Kanibari focused wing had models of various types of Cani with animal features, lined up in a snaking hallway.

“Like with the powers, this is really just a fraction of the possibilities.” I said. “I’m always impressed by this spot, because they always manage to make the models not creepy somehow.”

“I think they’re a bit stylized,” Stella said. “So they don’t have that uncanny effect.”

“Yeah!” They were a bit cartoony; but I’d rather that than look like a museum had somehow had horrifically taxidermy-ified a bunch of people. I had been to Cani museums like that and it’s not a good time for that nightmare factor, and because twerps always hide in the displays and try to scare folks walking by.

“See, this is pretty much what I looked like when I had Feral Flu,” Zeta said, pointing to a catlike Kanibari model. She turned, bumping into someone. “Oh, sorry!”

Two teenagers that were probably close to Zeta’s age were also looking through the exhibit. One was a taller snow leopard looking Kanibari, while the other was a Kanibari that looked closest to a red panda.

“No worries!” the snow leopard girl said.

“Oh, um…” Zeta’s hand shot forward. “My name is Zeta.”

“Uh, hey, I’m Tiafel,” the snow leopard girl said. “And this is Calista.”

“Yo,” the red panda said. “Are you here with your mom, too?”

“Huh?” Zeta asked.

“Or moms?” Calista asked. “I just have one mom here.”

“Er…kinda.” Zeta said. She shrugged at us.

That was the first time in my life I’d ever been called a mom. Kind of made me feel old. I didn’t think I had much mom energy in me. Teacher energy, yeah. And guardian-ing my partner’s little sister energy, most definitely. But mom as a label was weird, and I felt certain Stella was in the same boat, though her reasons were probably much different. 

Calista introduced us to their mom, with the Faleurs offering pleasant handshakes like it was second nature. I wasn’t sure why Stella had trained herself and Zeta to be so vigilant in handshake introductions, but it was pretty cute.

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