The Fire and the Storm - Metric Pro Edition: Fiction, Dragons, Elves, Unicorns, Magic (10 page)

“There is no doubt that they will be persons of unique capability.” Quewanak stated.  “If they retain their sanity, that is.  Their minds will never be normal by any standard.  We can only hope that they will at least be functional.”

“They’re an empty vessel, and we’re filling it a little early.” Mark nodded.  “But so long as the thoughts we’re sharing with them are loving and healthy, I can’t see any harm in it.”

“There’s the danger that they will be unable to form their own individuality, Linked so closely with each other as they are.” Quewanak pointed out.  “Being unable to get someone else out of one’s mind has often led to serious mental problems, including insanity.  And there’s the risk that they won’t form their own personalities, they’ll just absorb yours so completely that their minds may become no more than copies of yours.”

“Mm.  That’s truth.” Mark nodded.

“I can’t break contact with them without actually Shielding against them, and I refuse to do that, since I think that being forcibly cut off from me would be more harmful than continuing the contact.  But perhaps it would be best if Mark and Alilia took a break from it once in a while.”

“Ah.  You’re probably right.” Alilia agreed.  “But they’re so beautiful, I dread having to end it.

“Mark, we should withdraw after supper tonight.

“I have something to tell you and Talia.  The pearl in my necklace has a spell I had Yazadril cast to tell me when both of you truly love me, and its new red color tells me that you do.  So, I ask you both now that I be allowed to become pregnant by Mark tonight.  All of these here will want to record my conception for further study, should it prove successful.”

Mark and Talia opened their eyes and grinned at her, then they both softly told her in unison; “I love you Alilia.”

“And I love you.” Alilia giggled as Mark moved his chair back, then reached out and placed Talia, then Alilia, on his lap, and kissed and cuddled with them.

“These last few months have changed you, Alilia.” Yazadril chuckled as he cuddled with Nemia and Hilsith.  “And you’re a better person for it.”

“Thank you.” Alilia smiled.  “I know you’re right.

“When our time here is over, I’m going to give up being Princess of The People of Life.  I’ll nominate Bezedil to take my place.  He has the capability, the power, and the popularity to be confirmed in short order, and to do a fine job of it.  I’ll make Hilian my primary citizenship for the foreseeable future, at least until these two grow tired of having me around.

“Gods, if you’d have told me a year ago that I was to soon become the junior wife of a seventeen-year-old human, I’d have thought you were insane!  I sometimes can’t believe how much has changed for me, and how quickly!”

“Dalia will certainly be glad for Bezedil’s ascension!” Talia giggled.  “She’s hidden it well, but I know she feels a bit jealous of my higher social standing since she was restored to us.  Being both Princess-Daughter of The High People and Princess-Consort of The People of Life will give her a status almost as great as mine, which should make her quite satisfied indeed!  And a bit easier to get along with!”

“And I will be immensely proud of you both!” Nemia laughed, leaning over to kiss her daughter’s cheek.

“Bezedil’s marriage to Dalia will raise his stature in my people’s eyes quite considerably.” Alilia told them.  “Both because of her fine qualities and her stature as Princess-Daughter of The High People, and because their engagement has ended his reputation as a somewhat wild and irresponsible youth.  She’s given him stability in their minds, and without their pending marriage I wouldn’t have considered him for Prince yet.  But with assurance of a succession, we might just form a dynasty.” she proudly concluded.

“Well, I’ll take my leave.” Yzell smiled as she stood.  “I need to store these Readings and prepare for tonight, and besides, Theramin’s been left with the children long enough.  He’ll be starting to run short of patience soon, so it’s best I was back there.”

“We’ll be going as well.” Yazadril told them as they all stood and exchanged hugs.  “Call us when you’re ready for the conception.  Nemia and I will be helping Hilsith and Yzell capture as much of the fine detail of the event as possible at the smallest scales of time and size.  We’ll have the best possible chance of finding the solution to the fertility problem, if it’s there to be found.”

“We’ll call you then.” Talia assured them, and the small gathering broke up as the visitors took their leave.

Alilia did indeed conceive that night.  After all the various recording spells cast of the event were finalized, and their visitors had left with many loving congratulations, the happy trio celebrated long into the night.

Late on a night near the end of Talia’s seventh month of pregnancy, while she was deeply asleep, her unborn children were bored and restless.  For the first time, they projected their psionic awareness outside Talia’s body, and went exploring for something interesting.  The boy sent his mind questing toward the settlement, lightly sampling the sleeping thoughts he encountered, but drawn to the stronger minds on the far side of the flats.  One was too basic to be interesting, and two were so bright they were frightening, so they were avoided.  But one was just right, and the unborn boy was drawn to that mind, to which he felt an affinity.  But he found the mind was hidden behind strong barriers, so he began feeling around, trying to get past to the shining mind that so fascinated him.

His sister had been following along as he did this, her thoughts always deeply entwined with those of her brother.  But then a bright spark of thought seemed to capture her attention, and her awareness went out to find it, behind the house, behind their backyard valley, deep in the mountains near the center of the island.  She found what she was seeking, but the mind detected her, resisted her,
hurt
her.  She reacted instinctively, and made the mind stop hurting her.  Then, with her tiny heart pounding with the excitement, she broke past the mind’s barriers to see what it was like inside.

Her brother observed this and copied what she’d done, and a moment later he was through the barriers around the mind he was considering.

Talia, Mark, and Alilia were blasted awake by Povon’s psionic shriek. 
“MIND YOUR CHILDREN!”
she angrily demanded. 
“They just broke Kragorram’s psionic shields, and they weren’t gentle about it!  He has the god of all headaches, and we cannot bar them from his mind without destroying them!  Which I almost did, before I realized who was doing it!”

“By the source!” Talia gasped as she checked her children.  “He has Kragorram, and she has…  A Sylvan!  Out in the mountains somewhere!  Missing gods, she’s almost killed him!  If he isn’t helped quickly, he’ll spend the rest of his days as a babbling idiot, if he survives at all!

“Mark, help with Reggie, and Alilia help me with Helemia!”

“Let the nice dragon go now Reggie, that’s a good boy, just let the nice dragon go.” Mark gently instructed, but his brow was furrowed with the effort and concentration of what he was doing.  His effort was about half coaxing and half controlling his son as he desperately tried to ease the boy out of Kragorram’s mind as quickly and as gently as possible.  The unborn babe was being stubborn about it.  Mark would have thought Reggie would have fled from Kragorram’s anguish, frustration, and pain, not to mention Povon’s seething hostility, but the baby was uncowed.  He was too ignorant of the meaning of others’ emotions and too fascinated by Kragorram to be intimidated.  Finally, Mark realized that his methods weren’t working, and let some anger show through in the Link.  “NOW, dammit!” he growled, and forcefully pulled his son’s mind from Kragorram’s with an improvised technique that was so intuitive that he had no way to describe it.  For want of another way to hold his son’s attention, Mark began singing to him as loudly as he could, both physically and psionicly.

Alilia and Talia, meanwhile, simply started building Shields around the remainder of the Sylvan’s mind until Helemia was forced out.  Mark was already singing loudly by then, having finished with Reggie, and the three adults cast a psionic shield around the three of them with enough power to contain the two young and inquisitive minds still forming inside Talia.  Then Talia carefully cast Sleep on her children; which didn’t take much.  Though still excited by their adventure, the two unborn babes were also close to exhaustion from their efforts, and were asleep even before the spell had completely taken effect.

Alilia instantly Translocated the Sylvan to a spare bedroom in Yazadril’s house and informed Hilsith of what had happened with a quick burst of thought.  Hilsith was awake instantly, and was already psionicly examining the Sylvan even as she woke Yazadril and Nemia by suddenly jumping out of bed naked and running out of the room.  They quickly followed her, and did what they could to assist her with her patient.

“Quewanak!” Mark yelled, both physically and psionicly.  “Where the hell did that Sylvan come from?!”

“I already know that.” Talia told him, her eyes closed in concentration and both hands on her belly.  “It’s in the Reading I just took of Helemia, which included what she took from the Sylvan’s mind.”

Quewanak appeared as a small Projection only a meter long, crouching on the bed beside them with his eyes tightly closed and his finger held to his lips for silence.

A minute later he looked to Talia with an inquisitively raised eyebrow.

“There are a few thousand of them here.” Talia tensely related.  “Sylvan in Hiliani, that is.  A Sylvan god brought them here a few hundred years ago, when Zarkog started taking over Serminak, and he’s been hiding them here ever since.”

“Huh.  It must be the Sylvan God of Hiding, for him to have hidden them from the other gods’ notice.” Mark commented.

“Not quite their god of hiding, though I wish he were.” Quewanak’s Projection told them, his voice taking a very serious tone indeed.  “Rather, he is the Sylvan God of Stealth.  The difference being that his choice of stealth rather than hiding as his mandate indicates that he is as skilled at avoiding notice for offensive purposes as for defensive.

“How skilled is he, you might ask?  Skilled enough that he became a god a few thousand years ago, chose his mandate, gathered followers, and established his religion among them, all without any of the other gods even noticing his existence.  This is the first time anyone has become aware that there was a Sylvan God of Stealth without his permission.  And still, I only know this because it was known by the injured Sylvan, whose mind and Helemia’s I have Read.  Though I am now a god myself, and my awareness and psionic skills are as good as any other’s, I cannot find a single one of the thousands of Sylvan who are on Hiliani beyond the one that Hilsith is treating, or the slightest trace of their God of Stealth who hides them.  Or even any evidence of their presence or workings here.”

“Dammit,
Helemia
found one, and she’s not even born yet!” Mark growled.  “Are you really saying that the Dragon God of Dreaming can’t match the psionic sensitivity of an unborn child?!”

Quewanak met his eyes for three long seconds before simply replying; “Yes.”

The Projection  disappeared.

The three expectant parents took a moment to consider the implications of that.  Then Mark’s irritation and worry burst out of him.

“Dammit, what the hell are they
doing
here?”

“When Zarkog started taking over Serminak, the God of Stealth gathered his Sylvan followers and their families and brought them here to hide them from Zarkog.” Talia replied.  “They’re here for the same reason we are; because Hiliani is the most isolated place in the world that’s also comfortably livable.”

“Dammit, if they’d have let someone know they were here, we’d have chosen somewhere else and not intruded on them!” Mark grumbled.  “Now I’m not even sure that we’re entitled to our sovereignty of the place!  Were the Sylvan here before or after Hiliani was scouted by The Sea People and sold to Membitra?”

“Before, by almost a century.” Talia told him.

“That is irrelevant,” Alilia calmly informed them, “And your sovereignty of Hiliani is fully legal by every nation’s laws, including by the somewhat informal laws of the Sylvan before they were conquered by Zarkog.  One must at least publicly claim ownership of land before one can own it or justifiably defend it; every thinking race on Kellaran sees the practical necessity of that.  The Sylvan did not do so.  The Sea People registered their claim to Hiliani with their governments on three continents, and publicly proclaimed it, before they sold it to Membitra.  Your claim to it is legally indisputable.”

She paused, and gave them both a warm smile and a caress before she continued.  “Now, having dealt with that, we shall discuss what is truly worrying us, that being;  How has this experience affected your children, and how will their having these absolutely unprecedented psionic abilities affect how they will develop, and how we should raise them?

“I can tell you this; they were far deeper into Kragorram and the Sylvan’s minds than they have ever been in ours, despite the many hours we’ve spent Linked with them.  They gained access to our surface thoughts and emotions with no resistance from us, and so they were well contented with what we gave them.  But they had to break into the minds they shared tonight, and were still pushing hard when they broke past the Shields.  They probably now know a significant portion of everything Kragorram has experienced or learned in some nine thousand years of life.  They certainly know everything that the Sylvan ever thought or experienced.

“Only in war have I ever encountered anyone who was so thoroughly mind-raped by another as that Sylvan was by Helemia.  In the girl’s defense, the Sylvan did attack her when he detected her psionic probe.  She counter-attacked, crushed his psionic Shields like egg shells, and took all that she found within.

“This episode brings back many memories for me.  Not my own memories of course, but memories of what my mother told me of her experiences with me.  I am the only person known to have cast the power before birth, in the form of primitive Force Bolts. I was just doing the magical equivalent of kicking in the womb for exercise, and venting my frustration at my confinement.