The Fire and the Storm - Metric Pro Edition: Fiction, Dragons, Elves, Unicorns, Magic (50 page)

“Agreed.” Mark nodded.  “And it’s very mature of you to say so.  But could I get you to end your display?  It’s a bit distracting.”

Helemia let her energy-mind fade, knowing that her father and sister had a firm psionic grasp of the information set that it represented.

“Valentia, are we ready?”

“Yes Father.  On your mark.” Valentia agreed as she sharpened her concentration.

“All right, here we go…  Now.

“Okay, I think that worked.”

“We think so too.” Helemia nodded.  “I’ll wake him up.”

The floating Sylvan spasmed a bit, then waved his feet around in a bit of a panic as he tried to stand.  Helemia lowered him to the sand, and he found his balance.

“Hello, Jo.  How do you feel?” Helemia asked him.

“Hello Helemia.  I feel fine.” he replied with a slight smile, and looked around.

“You understand that you’re a new person, and that you’ve been given the body of Vanakit Lamitkeze, and some of his memories, but you are not him.  You’re your own person; Jo Shanalan, Hilian citizen.”

“Sure, I understand that.”

“And you’re okay with that?”

He shrugged and smiled.  “That’s the way it is, I guess.  I might as well accept it.”

“Good.  How would you like to be my assistant for a while, until you get your orientation at least?”

“Sure.”

“All right.” Helemia nodded.  “You’re off duty right now, Jo.  Have some of the feast if you’re hungry, and join the party.”

“Thanks!  I’m starved, now that I think about it.” he said as he turned away.

“Have fun!” she called after him.  “And go to the commissary for some clothes!  The ones you’re wearing are just an Illusion!”

“But they’re very comfortable!” he tossed over his shoulder with a laugh, then was hidden by the crowd.

“That really was incredible.” Talia marveled.

“I suppose every Sylvan out there will remember having known Jo Shanalan their whole lives.” Dolimatbene stated, sounding a bit bitter.

“Right.  And he’ll never happen to talk about his origins.  They won’t ask because they already know him.” Quewanak stated, his eyes closed in concentration.  “It’s a lot of work getting that many memories straight, even for me.

“I apologize for seeming manipulative, but I deem it necessary.  If I didn’t have the ability to do this, I would have refused to allow him to be re-animated.  The only alternatives were to leave him an empty shell or kill him.”

“Bah, I’m tired of thinking about it, to be honest.” Helemia stated.  “Time for some exercise!”

In a moment the four young governors had Translocated a hundred and fifty meters straight up, donning their armor and weapons in the process, and began blasting away at each other with prodigious energies while swooping around and launching strikes with their weapons.  In a moment it was apparent that the match was Reggie and Valentia versus Helemia and Karzog.

Nek Sibook, who was standing about two meters behind Talia with her head tilted back  watching the fight, commented; “You know, some people’s parents should have more kids.”

“I’m not sure the world is ready for any more of those.” Reen chuckled as he watched, and gave her a one-armed hug.

“I’m quite sure that the world is
not
ready for the four we have now!” Kragorram chuckled with a deep, throbbing rumble.  “They’ll make a stir when they get out in society, that’s certain.”

“I agree.” Talia giggled.  “So far parenting has been pretty easy, but we won’t be having any more until these are grown and stable.  I’ll want to have as much time and resources available for them as I can when they get to be teenagers.  I found it to be a difficult time, and those who are greatly gifted often have problems then.”

“And often get into trouble!” Alilia laughed.  “How I hope that they don’t lose their minds when puberty scrambles their brains, like it did to mine!”

“Why, what did you do?” Nek asked.

“Oh, I just forced an early marriage to my sweetheart on my parents with sheer stubbornness and obstinacy, against their strenuous objections.  If they’d have continued refusing, we’d have just eloped.  Then we ran away and lived like wealthy vagabonds for fifty years or so.  Now I wish I’d listened to my parents.  My husband Gorsh turned out to be exactly the kind of fool that they warned me he was.”

This brought a round of chuckles from everyone in earshot.

“Come, dance with us,” Mark laughed as he stood and pulled Talia and Alilia to their feet, “And we can hope I turn out to be less of a fool than he was.”

They seemed to spark a trend, and soon all the sand and air nearby was full of joyous dancers.

Just as Sana and her team were refreshing the feast for the evening meal, Reggie’s face suddenly lit up and he augmented his voice to be heard by everyone within fifteen meters.  “Zubzubweeeet!  Everyone remember the name Zubzubweeeet!” he yelled, pronouncing the last vowel with a very high note and holding it for an extra beat.

“Why, who is it?” Mark asked.

“I haven’t a clue, but I know that a person named Zubzubweeeet will be the one to open the time-bubble.” Reggie proclaimed.  “It’s the first prophesy I’ve had that can be tested for accuracy, and it’s a good one, because we don’t know who it is!  If I’d prophesized that Falgaroth or Visinniria or one of the other gods we’re familiar with were going to open the bubble, it might just seem like a good guess.  But if someone named Zubzubweeeet really does open the bubble, I’d say that was pretty solid proof.”

“Ah.  So we’ll know in a year.” Mark nodded.

“I sure hope so.” Reggie said, unconsciously nodding with exactly the same motion as his father.  “But it doesn’t say anything about that in the prophesy.  Just that it’ll be Zubzubweeeet, whether that’s in a year or eighteen.”

“Ah.  Well we’ll remember a name like that for sure.  Right now my stomach’s telling me that it’s time for another helping of that whale steak!”

The meal captured the attention of many, and the celebration went on.

Many of the Homesteaders wanted to start going home as early as four hours to midnight, when many of the young Sylvan started openly fornicating.  But Helemia teased many of them into staying by telling them and the adult Sylvan that there would be something funny to see at midnight.  So most of those who didn’t have young children stayed and continued partying after Karzog cleared the center of the beach of fornicators, and they were all there to see the great drenching at midnight.  Which did indeed prove to be quite hilarious.

At an hour after midnight, everything was cleaned up and the platoons were bedded down.  The young governors asked Quewanak to keep an eye on things for them until the morning, then they went home with their parents and got a good night’s rest.

The next day Karzog trained troops, Helemia trained lieutenants, and Reggie and Valentia trained the fourteen Senior Sylvan, after naming them colonels in a quick ceremony.

Only a week later they promoted Dolimatbene to General, and the new Sylvan force took part in their first co-operative military exercise with the Homesteaders, facing a force of demons simulated by Quewanak, Ria, Equemev, and Povon.  Equemev and Povon had been recruited because even Quewanak and Ria needed help simulating enough enemies for almost twenty-one thousand fighters.

Having proved themselves and their Sylvan force in battle with a convincing and very aggressive performance, General Dolimatbene and the colonels were directed to report to Commander Yazadril for further training, and the four young governors relinquished their command and their posts.

This freed them to throw themselves into their other projects, including assisting Hilsith’s research.

Twenty-one days later Hilsith’s research group, which included most of the best magic-users in Homestead, succeeded in giving wizardry to a human who completely lacked the ability.  This was the first time it had ever been accomplished.  Mark’s grandmother Sana was the first, and a moment after the great Linking of wizards was finished with the operation, Mark taught her Movement by setting the spell in her mind.  She lifted the pendant she’d chosen for her first act of magic a moment after that, and everyone cheered their accomplishment for the great victory that it was.

Over the next two days she was thoroughly Healed, which reduced her apparent age to about twenty-three years.  A month later she was learning new spells rapidly, she had exhibited no side effects, and Hilsith’s testing revealed that she was no longer aging.

This prompted another celebration, and that night Valentia redesigned the spells.  The next morning Markhan the Senior started receiving the improved treatments.  He was a wizard by lunchtime, and had regained his youth by suppertime.

By the time the last human in the village had been made a wizard, the senior wizards who were casting the spells were so proficient at it that any six of them could do it.  Mark, Talia, and Alilia could do it with just the three of them, as could Hilsith, Yazadril, and Nemia.  Reggie and Helemia could do it as a pair.  Only Valentia could do it by herself.

At that point Hilsith threw herself into the elven fertility problem with Yzell, while Mark, Talia, Alilia, and their children found themselves in the position of test subjects in that project.

Yazadril started a team that used the techniques they’d developed to make wizards of humans to improve the power of the weakest elves.

Reggie, Helemia, Valentia, and Karzog continued to contribute to both of those projects, but they began putting much of their effort into the void warfare project with Kragorram and Povon.

Over time, the Homesteaders and the Sylvan mixed more and more.  They all fought simulated demons together, some of the senior Sylvan began making contributions to the research projects, and a few of the younger adult Homesteaders took to training, fighting, partying, and living with the platoons of the Sylvan.  Trade was established as they learned what goods and services both groups had to offer.  The most popular trade was Sylvan mead for specialized magic instruction.

With seven months to go before the scheduled call to the gods, at a gathering of everyone held on the Sylvan beach after six strenuous hours of battling simulated demons, Reen augmented his voice, called for attention, and made an announcement that surprised almost everyone.

“There’s a new tradition in The Just Alliance; that you can marry whoever you want.  You can marry outside your race, as Mark and Talia and others here have done.  And if you can attract more than one spouse and keep them happy, you can marry as many as you want to.  So it’s fine that Yazadril is practically married to both Nemia and Hilsith, and Mark is practically married to both Talia and Alilia.

“In the keeping of this new tradition, my wife Nek Sibook and I would like to announce that in fifteen days, in the Homestead Gathering Hall, we will be married to Polan and Mika Longstrider!”

As everyone gasped, cheered, laughed, or exclaimed, those two worthy young men stood with Nek, and the three of them moved to stand behind Reen.

Polan and Mika were brothers, and were Mark’s grandfather’s younger brother’s sons, but they tended to spend most of their time at the pub as either assistants or customers, so Mark and his immediate family didn’t know them very well.  Like all the Longstrider men except Mark, they were about two hundred and thirty centimeters tall, with muscular builds and brown hair, in their case lightened to light brown by the sun.  They grinned as they hugged their new fiancés, whom they towered over.

“While Mark and Yazadril have two wives each, Nek will have three husbands.” Reen continued.  “Now some may wonder why I’d let my wife marry two more husbands, but the truth is that Nek is our shining star.  Her abilities and character are so incredible that in a few years, I intend to make her ruling Empress of the Human Empire of Sming.  I still can’t believe she settled for me when she married me, and Polan and Mika both know that she’s better than what they deserve as well.  But she loves them anyway, and she loves me, and they love her, and the two of them and I have grown to love each other like brothers.  Nek gets three husbands because that’s what she wants, and she deserves it, just for making us as happy as she does.

“And besides all that, she’s sexually insatiable, and no one man could keep her satisfied!  Oww!”

That last was in response to the short punch she gave to his shoulder, but then she was hugging him and grinning as the four embraced, and everyone gave them a laugh and a cheer.

The party that night was a particularly good one, and the one after their wedding fifteen nights later was just as fine.

Just more than a month after Nek’s second wedding, while Mark was putting away his dishes after breakfast, he noticed something in his yard.

“Hey, there’s a big dead deer on the lawn.” he remarked, but it vanished as he finished speaking.

“That’s mine!” Helemia snapped, seeming more than a little defensive.  “I’ll finish dealing with it after breakfast.” she added in a calmer tone, aware of how strident she had seemed.

“Why would you leave a dead deer on the lawn?  And when?” Alilia asked in a puzzled tone.

“What’s the difference?!” Helemia yelled.  “It’s mine and I’ll deal with it!”

With that she disappeared in a sudden Translocation.

Her family were stunned with surprise for a moment, then Talia asked Reggie; “Is she all right?”

“She’s fine.” he nodded reassuringly.  “Really, don’t worry about it, it’s not a problem.”

He obviously wasn’t going to say any more about it, and they didn’t want to check on Helemia in case she felt they were prying, so they had to take his word for it.

In a cave on the south-east coast of Hiliani, Helemia spent a few long moments calming herself, preparing herself, and staring at her dead deer.  Then she spoke.

“Karzog?”

The young black dragon appeared in the cave with her, looking a bit flustered.

“Thank you for the gift, Karzog.” she told him in a friendly tone with a warm smile.

“Ah, you’re welcome.” he stammered.  “I’m not sure why I did it.  I had a dream last night where I hunted for you and brought you prey, and it felt so nice that I woke up and did it.  I’m, ah, I’m a bit confused about it, really.  I know I should have had it butchered and wrapped for you, since you’re a humanoid, but that just didn’t seem right.”