The Fire and the Storm - Metric Pro Edition: Fiction, Dragons, Elves, Unicorns, Magic (108 page)

“Appropriate indeed!” Fire laughed.  “Val picked the one that’s just perfect!  She’s too nice to have enjoyed yesterday as much as me, but then she’s always been the charming one.”

“Better make that; ‘almost always’!” Alilia chuckled.

“Anyway, thank you, all of you.” Fire told them as she put her necklace on and heard the message.  “And you’re welcome.” she added with a grin as she started auditing the spells the stone contained.

“We’ll start your new training program as soon as we’re done eating.” Six announced as he buttered a sweet and spicy bread roll.  “As you learned from us yesterday, the big exercises have been pretty horrific lately, and you guys are pretty unprepared for what it’s gonna be like.  You’re twelve, so you have the right to refuse to take part, but you’re not going to.  The exercises are just psionic and they’re over in less than a minute in real time, and you
will
fight.  Besides, we never know when the war is going to be real, and not an exercise.  I can’t picture you choosing to not fight when people are really dying and you have enough power to make a big difference.

“One thing is certain; courage is not your problem, you’re almost foolhardy in your attitude toward the risk of dangerous situations.  You’re just undisciplined, and you haven’t really explored the limits of what you’re capable of, especially as a group.

“Sometimes a number becomes a name, as I well know, and sometimes a number becomes a title that transcends it’s original meaning.

“The Six of Hilia, for example.  Another good one is The Ninety-Nine, rulers of Draconia.

“The Sixty-Six of Hilia, winners of the tournament held here for Father’s seventeenth birthday, are already well-known as one of the best military units of their size on Kellaran.  Their fame and their pride in their name is such that they’ve kept it as the name of their unit, even though they now number one hundred and twenty-eight, having accepted the finest of their applicants into their ranks.  This has led some of the other forces to mistakenly refer to them as The Sixty-Sixth, thinking it’s short for The Sixty-Sixth Hilian Platoon or some such thing, but that’s beside the point.

“The forty-four of you are already a very distinct group due to your cohesiveness and your abilities as warlocks, and it’s our intention to keep you together as a military unit.  Your number will be your collective name and title, as it already informally is.  We further intend that when your training is more complete, The Forty-Four, Warlock Platoon of Princes and Princesses of Hilia, will be widely known as the most formidable unit of its size in all of The Just Alliance!”

This brought a proud cheer from the forty-four and some of The Volunteers as well, and Six let it go on for a few seconds before he finished.  “Now you’d better get your weapons and armor ready and checked.  We’ll be finished eating pretty soon.”

“Yes Sir!” Kimran said as he grinned and gave a snappy salute.  As he Translocated back to his group, the others couldn’t decide whether he was being sarcastic or not.

When they were finished eating, the Governors gathered beside Mark, went to one knee, and bowed their heads in respect.

“Father,” Six stated as they raised their heads and met his eye, “We’ve been assuming a lot.  You still haven’t formally given us permission to take military command of our brothers and sisters, or to name their unit or perform their training as we’ve said.  We do most respectfully ask your and Mother’s response to our request.”

“Oh you just go right ahead!” Mark laughed as he ruffled Six’s hair a bit.  “I’m so pleased with your results with them that I almost don’t care what you did to get them!”

“If it’s something that we wouldn’t approve of, I’ll happily remain ignorant, I think!” Talia laughed.

“We just let them get to know us some, and let them know all their parents as we know our parents.” Six shrugged with a grin.

“And we made them think we hit them in the face a few times, but we didn’t.” Fire giggled.  “Not really.  But it was really funny.”

“Ah.  Well that doesn’t sound too excessive.” Mark chuckled.  “You children run along and play now, be good and stay safe and stay out of trouble.”

“Yes, Father.” The children chorused together, then giggled uncontrollably before Translocating downhill to the lowest lawn.

All of The Forty-Four were ready and waiting, their armor and weapons cleaned, polished, and oiled.

“All right, first things first.” Six announced as the Governors appeared among them.  “This is Karz, and he’s one of us.  I’m sure you’ve heard of him.  Show them what you really look like, Karz.”

Karz assumed his natural dragon form and struck a proud pose on the lawn, and emphasized it with a huge blast of flame.

“Next is the basics, or what are basics for our family, anyway.” Six continued.  “Our parents never gave you The Skills of Visinniria or The Healing of Valentia, because you were too hard to control as you were without them.  We’ll give them to you now, along with the best combat spells we have that you can use.”

The Governors cast, and The Forty-four reeled for a moment as they assimilated the massive influx of spells.  As soon as they’d steadied, Six continued.  “After today’s activities each of you will be evaluated, and will receive individualized training to correct your personal weaknesses and to build on your best talents.

“For now we’re all going to the firing range at Focus Mountain to work with what we’ve just given you.”

With that, all forty-eight of them vanished.

A few seconds passed, then Kalem was heard to comment; “Suddenly this seems like the most peaceful spot in the universe.  This is the first time I’ve felt comfortable with taking my mind off those cubs of ours since they were born.”

“Amen!” Balen laughed as she raised her glass, and they all raised their glasses and drank to it like she’d proposed a toast.

That night, as they were getting ready for bed, Mark asked how things had gone with the training.

“They’re twelve.” Fire firmly stated with a bit of a frown.  “That’s the main thing about The Forty-Four.  They’re very intelligent and capable for twelve, and of course they’re all exceptional magic users for twelve, and they’re doing their best to improve as fast as they can.  But still.  Their personalities and behaviors and attitudes are still typical of twelve-year-olds, whether human or elven.  Somehow, I expected more from them that way.”

“Ah.  Well not everyone can be you, you know.” Talia teased, and they said their good-nights.

The next day all twenty-seven of the time-bubbles on Kellaran reached the end of their planned duration, and were deactivated by the gods.

Mark and his entire family went back to Hiliani to welcome its residents back to the outside world.  They took part in many of the happy reunions and enjoyed a huge cook-out prepared for the occasion by the residents of Homestead, most of whom planned to stay there rather than move back to their homes from before the time-bubble.  One of the most commonly-heard comments was; “My!  You look so young since the Transformation!”

Perhaps the most poignant reunion was that of Hilsith with Yazadril and Nemia.  They had only been separated for three years from Hilsith’s viewpoint, and for a day and a half from Yazadril and Nemia’s, but Hilsith had found their separation to be much more difficult than she had expected.  It was very unlike her, but she cried like a baby with relief and love when she again held them in her arms.

After spending an hour and a half there, they went to the plains of Xervia to re-acquaint with Silaran and Equemev and their extended family, including their son Falaran.  He was now just as big as Silaran, and more than mature enough to associate with dragons without being unduly disturbed by it.

The Six of Hilia were reunited with the greatest of joy, and they embraced and nuzzled one another with smiles and tears of happiness on their faces.  The absence of the unicorns had been sorely felt in the subjective years they’d been separated, and they all promised each other to do what they could to prevent such a lengthy separation from ever being repeated in the future.

Soon after they arrived in Xervia, word came that an important Revealing had just been made available, so Equemev cast it above the grass hundreds of meters high to be seen by all in the area.

It was Hilsith and her international team of Healers and wizards, including representatives of the aquatic races and the gargoyles, posed as a smiling group portrait on the beach in Hiliani.  Hilsith made a happy but brief announcement:  “We are successful!  Variations of the spell set known as Hilsith’s Transformation are now applicable to every race on Kellaran who can benefit from them!  As of now, every member of every race can use magic and avoid death by aging!  Already automated versions of the new spell sets are saving the lives of the elderly of the races represented here with me!  It is our gift to all of Kellaran, and we are honored to give it!”

Her whole team and everyone else on the beach around them gave a huge cheer, then the Revealing ended.

It was great and happy news, if of little personal relevance to the unicorns and their guests.

“It looks like Hilsith wanted to avoid having her news spilled again.” Val teased as she gave Fire a little tickle on her ribs.  “She was more prompt with her announcement this time.”

“Yes, and you’d better get to work!” Fire teased in return.  “Now you need another seventy or so different translations for your Magic Education!”

“Or I could delegate that to my staff!” Val laughed.  “Of course, first I’d have to recruit a staff, but that wouldn’t be too hard.”

“Bah! Our staff is your staff, silly!” Six assured her with a one-armed hug.  “And we have plenty of staff.  Technically, all of The Sylvan Nation are available to Fire.  And besides, with what you’ve done for the world lately, there’s no end of others who’d be glad to do you any favor you could ask.”

“I know, I
was
just being silly.” Val assured him with a giggle.  “I actually anticipated that Hilsith’s team would be successful, and arranged for the rest of the translations to be done as soon as the first set of translated Educations were sent out and working.  The new ones are already starting to work with their new students.”  She tilted her head to the side a bit as she considered her monitoring spells.  “In fact, one of the Kag and two of the Southernmost are already finished.  They have a few good psionic learners among them, that’s for sure.”

“I should’ve known.” Fire chuckled, and considered the herd of young unicorns who were joyously running past.  “Come on, let’s go fly with Falaran and his friends!  No flying higher than a unicorn’s head, and if you get stuck by a horn you’re a loser!”

The Governors with Karz in elf-guise and all of The Forty-Four were soon playing a very fast and wide-ranging game of tag with the young unicorns, and their Flying needed to be skillful indeed to match the supernatural running abilities of their new equine friends.

They were having so much fun that the adults all joined them a few minutes later, and they all played for almost three hours.

They paused for a meal as the sun set, and when they were all finished eating Alilia invited everyone to come flying in the forests of her people.  Over thirty thousand unicorns who were in the area accepted her invitation, so she had to limit their flight to one of the most sparsely-populated areas of her nation, well away from the congestion of Heartwood and the other cities.  The forest she chose was just as beautiful as Heartwood, and the trunks and branches of the gigantic trees there were just as amusing as an obstacle course.  A few of the younger unicorn colts needed their parents’ help with their Flight spells, but they were soon gaily galloping on invisible ground high up in the branches with all the rest, as unicorns do when in flight.

Alilia’s precautions to prevent congestion were partially thwarted, for as soon as word spread that there were unicorns flying with their Princess’s family in their northern forests, a great many of the forest elves of The People of Life joined them.

When there were so many flying madly about that it was looking increasingly dangerous, Alilia cast an automated self-replicating spell that gave every flyer there the deep and soft Shielding that they’d used the last time they flew together, but remained dormant until it detected an imminent collision.

“Hah!” Alilia laughed as she confirmed that the complex spell was working as intended.  “I’ve learned a few things from our children, that’s certain.  I’ll call that Alilia’s Safety Shielding.”

“You’re it!” Fire crowed as she flew past and gave Alilia a sharp slap on her rump, and the chase was on again.

Later on, on a whim, Kragorram and Povon followed Karz’ example and assumed humanoid Simulacrums for the first time.  Kragorram appeared as an elf as tall as Mark, with long and flowing crimson-red hair and a goatee.  Povon appeared as an elf two meters tall with silver hair and blue eyes, with facial features that looked a lot like Alilia’s.

Mark, Talia, and Alilia, amused by the transformation in their dragon friends’ appearances, reciprocated by assuming Simulacrums of dragons for the first time.  They each took the color of their hair; Mark was black, Alilia was silvery-white, and Talia was light blond.  They kept their normal sizes though, so as to not further congest the airspace.

There wasn’t a single flyer enjoying the air there that failed to sleep the satisfying sleep of the happily exhausted when next they retired.

The next day they all returned to training.  The Governors delegated all of their activities and duties in Serminak, and concentrated exclusively on training The Forty-Four.  Three days later they moved to family training that included all forty-nine children including Karz and Falaran, and all ninety-one of their parents.

For a week after the opening of the time-bubbles, there were no large-scale exercises held.  The many advances and breakthroughs discovered by researchers in the time-bubbles were examined by all the others, and the effort to integrate all of the new knowledge was begun.

On the seventh day after the time-bubbles opened a meeting of The Assembly of The Just Alliance was held.  It had been officially announced the day before.