The Fire and the Storm - Metric Pro Edition: Fiction, Dragons, Elves, Unicorns, Magic (56 page)

“And perhaps most important of all, we’ll announce the techniques that we’ve developed to end aging and needless death from natural causes by those who’re vulnerable to it.

“We might not get every member of the Assembly to attend, since it’ll be on short notice and nothing we have to deal with is of immediately critical importance.  I have no idea how many of the gods will show up, but then, they don’t have to be there to pay attention to the proceedings anyway.  At any rate, if we don’t fill the room with leaders, we’ll invite a few extra sub-leaders.  It wouldn’t do to have the place look half-empty in the Revealings.”

“I doubt very much that you’ll have to worry about that.” Somonik chuckled.  “Shall we say at three hours after midnight, standard time?”

Mark produced his time-sight and considered it.  Val also considered it, and immediately produced a fully functional duplicate.

“That’s about three hours before midnight here.” Mark stated.  “Sure, that sounds good.”

“I’ll announce it.” Somonik stated as he psionicly did so.  “I’m already receiving many confirmations of attendance.  We may have more attendees than we have room for, in which case I’ll ask the dragons and other larger attendees to appear in smaller-sized Simulacrums.”

“Good thinking!” Mark laughed.  “Though if we keep adding to the members of the Assembly, eventually we’ll either have to make a bigger room, or have everyone attending in Simulacrums the size of sprites!”

“That’d be fun!” Fire laughed as she leaned back, closed her eyes, and cast a fifteen centimeter tall Simulacrum of herself on the table-top.  “Wow!  This really looks different!” she exclaimed as she ran through the dishes to the edge of the table and looked down, then jumped off and flew over to Karzog and landed on the tip of his nose.  “Let’s all do it tonight!” she proposed as she danced a bit of a jig.

Karzog went cross-eyed for a moment as he looked at her, then shook his head and shook her off. “Let’s not.” he smiled as he rubbed his nose where she’d danced.  “That tickled you know.” he told her.

“I’ll have to remember that.” Fire laughed as she dismissed the Simulacrum and opened her eyes.  “I’d never have guessed you could tickle dragons, let alone do it by dancing on their noses!”

“You know,” Gran mused, “This is the very first instance I’ve ever seen of the children of dragons being raised with the children of other races.  Never before have I seen our children treat each other with such unthinking trust and camaraderie.  It’s as if the differences in their races don’t even exist.”

“Love and trust and familiarity have much to do with it.” Karzog smiled.  “The rest is due to equality.  These three developed so quickly that they soon were as above me in intellect and psionics and power as I was above them in strength, until they improved me.  I spend my life pushing myself to keep up with them, and I love it.  The other human and elven children of Hiliani weren’t capable of having such a friendship of equals with me, and so I was never really that close with any of them.  And I don’t think any young unicorn will ever be capable of being friends with any dragon until they’re at least forty years old.

“Another important factor was the quality of my parents.  Mother and Father are both young adults with close relationships with smaller folk, and they’re a lot more open-minded than most dragons.  And as first-time parents, they were willing to do things differently and to put in a lot more effort than most draconian parents.  I know most dragons simply don’t let their young meet any small folk that need to remain uneaten, until their young are about eighty years old.  Mother and Father let me get to know these small folk and their young when I was still very young and impressionable, and they were willing to monitor my thoughts and behavior constantly, so that they knew I was never that tempted to eat someone.  When I first met them I was often
mildly
tempted to eat one of them, but I was never really that hungry since it was ensured that I’d always eaten recently, and I knew Mother was always monitoring me anyway.  Being a single child probably helped a great deal as well.  I’m sure things would have been much different if Mother and Father had a brood of thirty young to care for.”

“My son, you don’t realize how exceptional you are.” Kragorram told him.  “Asking that we raise only you was one of the wisest things that the Ninety-Nine ever did.  If you had been hatched and weaned with a clutch of other young dragons, you’d most likely have killed and eaten the rest long before you were even capable of thinking.  That’s what usually happens when one hatchling is much more capable than the rest.”

“He’s right.” Povon smiled.  “Furthermore, while you
have
been improved by these magnificent but impetuous brats, you were already the most exceptional young dragon the world had ever seen.  You didn’t need these three for that, and I don’t think they’ve improved your potential any.  You’d have still developed the same abilities, though I admit that without their interference, you wouldn’t have developed as quickly.  For now, you follow their lead, but most of their development will be finished in half a century, when you’ll still only be halfway through your childhood.”

“Thank you Mother, but your pride in me is making you foolish.” Karz snickered.  “It bothers you that I’m not the leader of my quartette, but it doesn’t bother you at all that you’re not the leader of The Six of Hilia.  Not only do you follow Mark without question, though he’s not even fully mature yet and you are, you generally defer to Father as well, simply because you prefer the comfort of his leadership.”

“Ah.  Well those are two very good points.” Povon smiled as she gave Kragorram a scratch on the inside of his left arm.  “I’ll admit that my maternal pride isn’t always completely rational.  Nor is leadership my strength.

“I’m the commander of all in Serminak, but I’m not their leader, and I very much prefer it that way.  Kragorram is the leader of Serminaki Draconia, and as Mark predicted, they give him their fervent loyalty for the shining nobility of his character alone.  And some of them give their loyalty to Mark directly.

“Sylvan aren’t really capable of giving loyalty to any leader, so they don’t have any leaders, just commanders and senior members of temporary coalitions.

“If you want a commander that can crack the whip and get things done, I’m a good choice.  But if you want a leader to inspire loyalty and greatness in his followers, Mark is unbeatable.  And your Father is coming into his own that way as well.  And I think that
being
your father has helped him grow a great deal as a leader.”

“Since I learn leadership from Mark, I am indeed improving at it.” Kragorram admitted with a proud smile.  “And you’re right about another thing, son.  For there to be a close friendship, it helps if there’s a feeling of equality.  We have very close relationships with small folk, but that’s only possible because they’re so exceptional.  I never once worried that I would accidentally move the wrong way and crush Mark or Talia or Silaran, since they’re more than capable of preventing themselves from being injured that way, unlike most of the small folk.”

“It’s a humbling thought to be reminded that the dragons consider all the rest of us to be ‘the small folk’.” Mark chuckled.  “And it always seemed that your awareness of your own body’s position and of everything else around you prevented those kinds of accidents.”

“Generally yes, but the movements of small folk are quick and sudden, so there’s always a danger of crushing one when they’re around.” Kragorram admitted as he scratched his chin.  “Believe me, before I was a thousand years old, I would never have allowed any humans to be within arm’s length of me, let alone let their children climb on me like I did at Homestead.  I’d have been too terrified of squashing one.  At least with elves you know they’ll probably live as long as you don’t break their heads.”

That got a good laugh from Mark.

“And now, thanks to our work with Hilsith, humans will be just as hard to kill as elves.” Fire laughed.  “Friendly dragons everywhere will be a lot less nervous.”

“That work should apply just as well to dwarves, giants, gnomes, selkies, and some of the hidden races.” Alilia pointed out with a smile.  “Truly, it’s our most magnificent achievement.”

“So far.” Six nodded with a grin.  “And I think giving magic use to every member of all those races counts as much as making them hard to kill.”

“Sweet missing gods!” Sheramiv exclaimed.  “If you’ve accomplished all that, your names will be praised forever!”

“It was mostly Hilsith and Yzell’s work, though we all helped with it.” Talia insisted.  “But yes, they do deserve to have their names praised forever for their achievement.”

“That one’s mostly Hilsith’s actually, I think.” Fire mused.  “Yzell will get more credit if they solve the fertility problem though; that one’s her special project.”

“True.” Talia nodded as she started sending empty dishes away.  “And now that we’re all finished lunch, we might as well start work.”

“We already started.” Val giggled.

“The former members of The Anti-conspiracy Brigade report that most of their number are presently available.” Sheramiv informed Povon.  “They have recommendations for other investigators you may wish to recruit as well, should their muster prove insufficient for the task.”

“Excellent.” Povon nodded as she turned to Somonik and Gran.  “Could you have them report to my Administration Center in Serminak in fifteen minutes?

“Meanwhile let’s all Link, and I’ll show you how I listen for rule breakers.”

They all closed their eyes in concentration, and silence fell among them.

Fifteen minutes later all but the four youngsters Translocated to Serminak.  There they liased with their vast team of investigators, Linked with them, and went over all the reports of the incidents they wished to investigate.  An hour later thousands more psionicists and investigators had been recruited and integrated into the effort, and an hour after that they had all been divided into teams with assigned cases, and sent out to work in a two-pronged attack.  Each team had both investigators and psionicists, all of whom were sworn to justice, and since they were dealing with registered players and had no need to deal with legal procedure beyond satisfying themselves as to the facts of the case and the identities of the guilty, many of the cases were solved within minutes.  Most of the convicted were remanded to Serminak for suitable punishment.

The lead investigative team, composed of Povon and the others who had been at Hilia, along with Zone Inspector Rayn from Belinhome Finitra and several of his subordinates, cast Translation for Kleti in preparation, then arrived in Kletiuk to deal with their first case.  That being the case of Goodwife Nepetin Goslab, who had started the petition against The Game.

They found her, her family, and many of her neighbors in the street in front of her sister’s family’s house, where she presently lived.  She and all the rest of the dwarves present were gathered around a two meter high yellow cube that floated a meter above the street.  Though many of them were struck dumb by the sudden appearance of many of the world’s most elite, bowing and gaping and a few pressing their foreheads to the pavement, Goodwife Goslab stood straight and proud.

“Prince Mark, I want to thank you and your children for your quick response to my complaints.” she stated in Kleti.  “I know you’ve only been out of the time-bubble for less than a hand of hours, so I didn’t even expect my husband’s murder to be confirmed so soon.  For his killer to actually be caught and delivered to me so quickly is a great satisfaction to me.”

“Actually, I’m only here as part of the team helping Lord Regent Povon, here.” Mark told her in the same language with a warm smile.  “We’re here to recover your home, your business, and your possessions for you.  I’m very sorry for your misfortune, and I assure you that I never expected this kind of thing to happen to good people like yourself when I authorized The Game of Status.

“Now, if this cube is indeed the work of my children, it will be the work of Povon and Kragorram’s son Karzog as well, since our kids always work as a team.  Can I ask you all to step back so we can examine it?  Our kids were working on the problem of murderers separately, so I’m not sure what we have here.”

“Oh?!  Be my guest!” the goodwife urged as she stepped back.  “You’ll find that your children have left you little enough work to do here!”

Once within a few meters of the cube it could be seen that there was fine red writing in Trade Common in the center of each yellow face.  Every side said the same thing.  It read: “The inmate of this Punishment Cube; Flebzam Nuj, registered player of the 9th League of The Game of Status, stands convicted of the murder of Belnim Goslab by nefarious spell-mongery, under the authority of Prince Markhan Reginus Longstrider the Fifth, Lord of Serminak, and of Lord Regent Povon; Referee of The Game of Status.  The crimes of Flebzam Nuj have resulted in a reduction in the military capability of The Just Alliance, a decrease in productivity, and dissention among the populace.  Details are As Follows:”

It then gave a complete account of everything that Flebzam Nuj had done to swindle and murder Belnim Goslab, and all the consequences thereof, followed by; “This act of justice was done by The Governors of Hiliani;”

It gave the four youngsters’ complete formal names and titles, and ended with;

“Those who wish to witness the punishment of the prisoner may touch the Punishment Cube.”

Mark touched it and the cube seemed to become invisible, and the cries of it’s occupant became audible to him, though obviously not to those around him who weren’t touching the cube.  A bearded dwarf was writhing and screaming in pain on the bottom of the cube.  It appeared he had soiled himself, and his excrement was gradually escaping from his pantaloons and smearing over the bottom of the cube.

“A neat solution, this.” the Goodwife commented with a nasty smile.  “I get to see the punishment as long as I want, without it bothering the neighbors.”

“How long has it been here?” Povon asked.

“It floated down the street and stopped there almost an hour ago.  A team of Kleti Justicers has already been and gone, and they said that with the information on the cube, their auditors would have no trouble getting my home and business back.  Overlord Senchak himself came by to see it, you know.  Said it was fine work.”