The Fire and the Storm - Metric Pro Edition: Fiction, Dragons, Elves, Unicorns, Magic (87 page)

“The entrepreneurs there have noted that most of the dragons of Xervia and the older ones on Serminak have accumulated vast wealth over their long lives, but they seldom buy anything.  Almost all dragons still build their own dens, hunt their own food, supply their own long-distance travel, don’t use furniture, prefer very durable and long-lasting goods, and tend to keep almost everything they’ve ever owned.

“These Felioni spend great effort developing recipes that make common Felion domestic animals especially palatable to dragons, and they’re succeeding.  They have eleven fast-selling recipes so far, but found that most dragons still frown on the idea of prepared meals in general, and refused to try it.  They would, however, consider a prepared snack, especially at mixed-race events.  This is affecting the social lives of dragons to their benefit, since they can eat with other  races without having to eat fresh prey, which most other races find disgusting.  Those dragon snacks seem like they would be appetizing to any race that eats meat, even though they’re not.”

“And here we are!” Povon chuckled.  “These are absolutely divine!  You must tell me where to get these!”

“Here.” Caria said as she passed the contact information in a quick Speaking.  “They sell the platters for a very reasonable cost, they probably take a loss on them because each is equipped with a small Translocation Plane and spells that sense when the item on it has been taken and triggers the Translocation of the next item from the great automated kitchens in Felion.  When you’re finished you simply turn the platter over.  It self-cleans as soon as it’s lifted, and cancels further incoming items until you turn it upright again.  Then they bill you for the items it’s received, and you can get more items anytime; their kitchens are always running.  That’s where they make their real money, and why they can sell the platters so cheaply, though even the meat is very reasonable because it’s sold in such large lots.

“They’re keeping the recipes secret, and I’ve heard they’re only palatable to dragons.

“To be honest, I used the size and prestige of this wonderful event to negotiate a sizable discount on the regular price of the pork.  From your reactions, I’m sure it will turn out to be wise for them to have given it to me.”

“Hmm.” Somonik mused as he helped himself to another roast boar.  “So often I’m so busy that it’s hard to find time to hunt.  I don’t eat as often or as well as I should, or so Grakonexikaldoron keeps telling me.  These things could save me a lot of time.  And they’ve found a way to make the bones crunch up when you chew them with such a delightfully crispy texture.”

“Why don’t you keep that platter, Somonik?” Talia suggested.  “I’m sure you can arrange with the vendors to have any of their recipes delivered to it.”

“Thank you, I most happily accept!” Somonik laughed.  “But if Grakonexikaldoron starts to complain that I’m getting fat, I’m sending her to you for the blame!”

“We’ll be fat together, old mate.”
Grakonexikaldoron chuckled to him from across the clearing where she was dining with the others of The Ninety-Nine. 
“These things are addictively good!  I’m keeping my platter too!  I’m stealing it if I must!”

“That won’t be necessary, Gran.”
Mark chuckled. 
“It’s yours.  Pass the word that any other Draconians here tonight that want to keep theirs can do so, our gift to you.”

“Thanks, I will!”

“Damn.” Somonik cursed with a contented grin as he leaned back and rubbed his bulging belly.  “Now we’re going to have to find something to sell to Felion, or this will adversely affect our balance of trade.”

“No doubt of it!” Kragorram laughed as he reached for another.  “We don’t want to have young dragons asking us in a millennium where all the Draconian wealth went, and have to tell them; ‘Well see, there were these tasty little pig snacks…’”

That brought a hearty laugh from everyone within earshot.

When Karz was finished eating he stretched luxuriously, then touched Fire on her shoulder.  “Watch this.” he quietly murmured to her, then assumed a Simulacrum.  He appeared as an equatorial elf of about nine years of age, his skin, hair, and eyes were completely black, even the ‘whites’ of his eyes.  The spiky straight black hair of tropical elves was brushed smoothly back and down, and he was wearing the same Battle Wizard’s outfit that she and her family wore.

He Retrieved a chair and placed it beside her before his overturned platter, sat, lifted her hand and kissed it gently.  She just stared at him and grinned, then rubbed his hand against her cheek.  They leaned toward each other until their foreheads were almost touching and had a long, quiet, and private conversation that was punctuated with the occasional laugh or giggle.

Six and Val had been exhibiting this same behavior since the meal started, appearing intimate but not romantic.

As they were lingering over desserts and tea, the rulers and ruling councilors began making their way over to offer their congratulations, sometimes singly but more often in groups of two to four, sometimes accompanied by their spouses or escorts.

Prince Jaromer of Thon And Princess Pimall of The Warm People came by for a few moments, during which Jaromer proposed a toast; “To a long lifetime of love and happiness, and to having the biggest marker on the gameboard!”

This brought a hearty laugh to most at the table, but the children had to access Talia’s memory of her first wedding here before they got the reference.

Osbald, Emeroth, and Senchak came to offer their well-wishes, then they took Yazadril aside for a private ten-minute consultation.

There was music and dancing and displays of artistic magic, but most of the rulers spent their time in conversation, and they began saying their farewells only an hour after dinner.

By the time another ninety minutes had passed, only the closer of the friends and family remained, along with the wedding party, some one hundred in all.  The atmosphere of the gathering relaxed somewhat, and everyone who remained brought their chairs over to the head table, some sitting inside the ring, some outside the original circle of chairs.

“Did you know,” Dilimon asked as he waved a tankard of mead, “I’ve had reports that The Healing of Valentia prevents extreme drunkenness, hangovers, and alcoholism.  But it doesn’t prevent moderate to almost-extreme drunkenness, and I can testify to that right now!”

As a laugh went around at that, Six poked Karzog in the shoulder with a friendly bit of Force and said; “Let’s fight.”

“What, now?” Karz laughed.

“Sure, up above the flowers.” Six grinned.

“Well I’m sure not going to fight you in this elf Simulacrum; I haven’t even practiced in it.” Karz declared with a grin of his own.  His teeth looked startlingly white against the otherwise unrelieved blackness of his confident face.  “But I’ll go for swords and magic if you want.”

“Done!” Six called as he cast a glowing transparent yellow Challenge Sphere from eighteen to two hundred meters above the ground, filling much of the volume of the great clearing in the redwoods.

“Don’t you think that cape will get in the way?” Karz teased as they Translocated to the center of the Sphere, he assumed his true form, and they Retrieved their sheathed swords. 

“Naw.” Six chuckled as he drew both his sabres and swept them about with a few warm-up swings.  “This
is
a Battle Wizard’s outfit, after all.  They must have techniques to deal with it, so I can too.”

“The cape is there to help you blend into dark places!” Alilia called up with a laugh.  “We generally take them off when we’re dueling!”

“Well
I
think it makes me look dashing, so I’m keeping it!” Six laughed as he flew around the sphere a bit, noting it’s angle of trail behind him.

“They’re having an aerial sword fight?  Six against Karzog?” Sana asked with a worried look as she noted Karzog warming up with a four meter short sword.

“Their regular swords, no other weapons, no armor.” Fire explained.  “Unlimited magic and Karz’ fire are in, but no psionics.”

“So we can assume that Six’s magic is good enough to counter Karzog’s physical ability and fire?”
Tithian asked.

“Sort of.” Val laughed.  “Using magic makes the physical battle a lot more even, since they can both use Shielding to block swords as well as spells, and they can use magic to cast as attacks or to augment their sword strikes.  And Karz is no slouch at the magic.  It’s not gonna be even though, it’s gonna be chaotic.  Either one could win or lose in a blink from a lucky or unexpected move.”

“Ready?” Karz asked as he finished his warm-up and brought his sword to bear as he flew slowly around just inside the perimeter of the sphere.

“Go!” Six called, then cast an attack as he Translocated.

There followed a quick chase and counter-chase sequence of short and violent flight maneuvers full of sword-strikes and spell-casting interspersed with many sudden Translocations.

Blazing spells were discharged in every direction, but were contained by the Challenge Sphere, which also contained the combatants on one occasion when they collided with the inside surface at a glancing angle.

The bout came to a sudden end when Karzog cut Six’s leg off at mid-thigh.  He immediately let his sword fall to the bottom of the sphere, snatched Six out of the air with his left hand and the separated leg with his right, and jammed them back together as Six screamed with a blood-curdling shriek.

Mark saw a quick flash of magic around Six’s leg as The Healing of Valentia did its work.

Six caught his breath and rubbed his leg with both hands while Karzog Retrieved his sword and struck a proud pose in the air with it.

“And there is a winner!” the young black dragon happily declared.

“If you used your psionics to detect where I was going to emerge, that’s cheating.” Six grumped as he Retrieved his own swords and stretched.

“That would be no more the use of psionics as an attack or defense than your use of it to cast the Translocation in the first place, and that’s not what I did anyway.” Karz stated with a grin as Six dismissed the Sphere and they flew down to the table.  “Read me if you want.  You let a pattern develop in your jumps.  I anticipated you and momentarily put most of my power into the Cut spell on my sword, and swung at where I thought you were jumping to, and that was all there was to that!”

“Yah, good win.” Six admitted as he gave the dragon a friendly slap on the shoulder.  “I’ll have to watch that in the future.”

“Good fight!” Fire called as she clapped and stood, and many others joined her in applauding.

Talia popped over to Six and hugged him with one arm while rubbing his leg and casting Diagnostics on it with the other.

“I’m fine, Mother.” he assured her with a smile.

“I know, but I wanted to check anyway.”

“Yah, I had to as well.” he admitted.  “I trust Val’s spell, but still, that really hurt a lot.”

“You crazy kid!” she laughed in loving exasperation, and hugged him tight.

“You’re growing like a weed.” she proudly noted as she stepped back with her hands on his shoulders.  “Soon you’ll be taller than I am.”

“I’ll take after Father that way, I think.” Six told her with a grin.  “Going by comparisons to other children my age, I should be pretty tall.  Maybe not as tall as Father, but taller than average for a human.  Maybe as tall as a Sylvan.  I’m glad Fire got the black hair and not me, or I might end up being mistaken for one.”

“No one could ever mistake you for anything but your father’s son.” Yazadril assured him.  “Even with your blond hair it’s unmistakable, you take after him in so many ways, and the girls do almost as much.”

“I’m glad you think so, but I see their mothers in them every minute I’m with them.” Mark laughed.

Val stood and raised her cup of tea.  “Here’s to being astute in our choice of parents!” she called with a laugh.

“I’ll drink to that!” Talia agreed with a warm smile for Yazadril and Nemia as she raised her glass, and everyone else joined them in a drink and a laugh.

“You don’t really have liquor in there, do you?” one of the forest elf girls asked Val as she indicated her cup.

“No, we refrain from drinking as a mercy to our parents.” Val giggled.  “We already do a lot of things that most children don’t, simply because they can’t, like sparring with deadly force and ruling nations.  Our parents are really good about it, but we know it has to be pretty strange for them, and they do worry.  We figure that if we also did the things that children are actually forbidden to do, like drinking, even if we’re sure we’d be fine with it…  Well, we might make them get a little crazy about it.”

“And we most sincerely thank you for your consideration!” Alilia laughed as she swept her daughter up off her chair and into a twirling hug.

“Oh they’re good little cubs now!” Bezedil laughed, lounging with one arm around Dalia as she poured him another drink.  “It’s a good thing they grew out of scaring the crap out of everyone all the time!”

“Hey, I haven’t done that on purpose since I was five months old!” Fire protested.

“Yes, and thank all the gods for that!” Bezedil retorted with another laugh.  “You scared a decade’s life out of me when you did it to me!  “I’ve never been that scared outside of warfare!”

“What, you were afraid of a five-month-old child?!” Gran asked

“Four months when she did it to me, if I remember correctly.” Bezedil said as he walked around and picked Fire up, and hugged her.  “But you have to understand, they were already as bright as ten-year-olds and incredibly powerful psionicists, and when a baby with incredible psionic power and a lot of talent for it wants to scare the crap out of you, she
can
, believe me!”

“And you were one of the
least
scared of all the people she did it to!” Six laughed.  “It was four years before Prince Reen could even look her in the face and smile!”

“So I was precocious as a baby.” Fire laughed, and shrugged as she hugged Bezedil.  “I’m adorable now, and that’s all that matters.”

“Oh, you were adorable then too.” Sana assured her with a suitably adoring smile.  “Scary, but very adorable.”