The Fire and the Storm - Metric Pro Edition: Fiction, Dragons, Elves, Unicorns, Magic (109 page)

When Mark and his entire immediate family arrived at The Hall, they found that it was bigger than it had ever been, and was already half full.  With his wives, co-husbands, and children, and their beloved dragons and unicorns and their children, they numbered one hundred and forty.  A place had been reserved for them right beside the low central stage, complete with ornate chairs and small side tables.

“You’ll notice that every one of Kellaran’s gods are personally in attendance,” Alilia quietly noted, “As well as a sizable contingent of The Triax’ gods.”

“Yah, well, we know what this is all about, don’t we?” Mark mused.  “So their attendance isn’t all that surprising.”

“Are you ready, my love?” Talia asked him with a look of quiet concern.

“Surprisingly, I am.” Mark nodded with a warm smile.  “Are you?”

“I am.  I lead where you follow.” she confidently assured him.

“As do I.” Alilia added as she caressed his shoulder.

 He picked them both up and placed them in his lap and hugged them, disregarding decorum.

As the gigantic room slowly filled, the rest of their extended family arrived, including Caria and all their kin from Hiliani.  Those hadn’t been seated so close to the center, but they made their way over and exchanged warm and loving greetings.

The parents and siblings of Equemev, Silaran, Povon, and Kragorram all came by to do the same.  None of them except Tithian had ever met any of Mark’s family before, so there were many introductions to be made.

The rulers they knew or were acquaintances of came by, sometimes by themselves, sometimes in groups, sometimes with a few of their staff.  All gave warm and very respectful greetings.

Finally the room was almost completely full, including the window holding back the aquatic section, and everyone quietly took their places in anticipation of the meeting soon being called to order.

“This is strange.” Mark quietly commented.  “It’s almost like I’m at my own funeral or something.”

“Everyone here knows that they probably just had their last chance to speak to us as mortals.” Alilia nodded.  “It’s a strange situation, all right.”

“Maybe it wasn’t.” Mark said with a sly little smile.  “Their last chance to speak to us as mortals, that is.”

“How do you mean?” Povon asked.

“You’ll see soon.” Mark smiled as Somonik appeared on the stage, standing over the Truthstone of Falgaroth.

“Let it be known; the time-bubbles are ended, and all is well on Kellaran!” the ancient white dragon pronounced, and the huge assemblage gave him a good-natured cheer in response.

“Those in the time-bubbles produced and raised almost a million more children than they would have in real time, and they produced many new works of creativity and brilliance.” he continued.

“The application of Hilsith’s Transformation to the rest of the less-magical races, including its use by the Kwetkerthok, has already been announced by Hilsith and her team.  Though the gargoyles were already a highly magical race with several innate magical abilities, they were unable to use spells of any sort and were still vulnerable to aging.  No more.

“Further exciting discoveries were made in every time-bubble that was cast.

“To present the discoveries made in the Seblik time-bubble in Kletiuk, I am proud to introduce Master Spell-Monger Benchakup…”

For more than two hours the researchers of the time-bubbles presented brief summaries of their discoveries, then Somonik called for a twenty-minute recess.

“There were a lot on interesting things in all of that, but nothing that’s really decisive right now.”
Fire mused privately to her family.
  “The findings in basic research will eventually bring big changes and new techniques, but most of them won’t produce any practical applications for years yet.  And the new practical applications they came up with give us many new techniques for doing things we already knew how to do, basically, but I don’t think any of it really gives us any major new advantages over the demons.”

“The time-bubbles were a gamble for Kellaran that cost us little and paid off handsomely.”
Kragorram opined. 
“Each of those things they just announced may not be much on their own, but they add up to a great deal.  When you add in the discoveries that were made by ourselves and others in the Hiliani bubble, it was a decisive and profitable stratagem indeed.

“Not to mention that almost all of the extra children who were raised to adulthood in the bubbles were born to parents who were among the most outstanding members of their races, and so they give us a greater advantage than their numbers alone might suggest.  You and your siblings are prime examples of that.”

“True.”
Val privately giggled. 
“But I can still think of several more amusing uses for the last two hours of my life.”

“You showed admirable patience, my young love.”
Alilia told her with a smile. 
“You didn’t even fidget.”

“Neither did any of The Forty-Four.”
Six noted, with a proud grin and a quick fist-clench to the pack of twelve-year-old siblings under his command. 
“You showed some fine discipline there, brothers and sisters.”

“Yah, at this rate we’ll make diplomats and academics of you yet!”
Fire commented with a quiet laugh. 
“You’ll be able to withstand a veritable infinity of boring speeches!”

Meechla, the smallest of The Forty-Four, appeared standing directly in front of Fire, and snapped an exaggerated salute along with a click of her boot-heels before standing rigidly to attention.  “Yes Sir Commander Fire Princess Helemia Ma’am!” the tiny warlock yelled in a piping voice that sounded three years old, saluted again with an even-more ostentatious motion, and disappeared back to her seat amidst the laughter of her platoon-mates.

“And don’t you forget it!” Fire yelled back with a playful grin.

“You know, I’m almost entirely sure that she was being sarcastic that time.” Six stated with a completely straight face, which drew another round of laughs.

“True, but as long as she’s disciplined and respectful, I’ll let it pass.” Fire returned.

“Besides, Meechla is far too cute to get mad at anyway!” Val giggled.

“You take that back!” Meechla yelled in mock-anger from her seat near the back of their section.

“I won’t and you can’t make me!” Val laughed back.

“No?!” Meechla demanded, appearing before the Governors again with her tiny fists on her hips.  “Well if you don’t, I’ll put a million copies of
this
all over Kellaran!” she stated as she cast a quick Illusion of a formally executed and framed painting.  It showed Val with one finger in her mouth and a bashful, infantile expression on her face, her hair in dozens of braids each secured with a big pink bow of ribbon, wearing a toddler’s-style fuzzy pink dress accented with dozens more big pink bows, sitting cross-legged on a huge pile of fluffy pink stuffed animals.  It was a parody of the cliché style of formal portraits that many human parents had painted of their babies, and it was the most magnificently tacky and tasteless overdose of cuteness that anyone there had ever seen.

“No!  I give up, take it away!” Val laughed as she turned her head and raised her hands in mock-horror.  “I take it back, you’re not cute at all!!”

“And don’t you forget it!” Meechla triumphantly crowed, and went back to her seat as the Illusion vanished.

As the chuckles continued, Talia mused; “You know, there are very few artists who could produce such a detailed and original picture from their own imagination in such a short time.  That was actually very impressive.”

“Thank you Mother Talia!” Meechla called from her seat.

“And she’s quite attentive!” Talia added with a smile as she stood.

“Use the privacies if you have to.” she advised the children.  “I’ll be right back with some snacks and drinks.”

“We’ll help you carry them Mother Talia!” several of The Forty-Four called out, so she took them with her.

All too soon as far as Mark was concerned, the recess was over and the meeting resumed.  As he suspected would be the case, it was the gods rather than Somonik who appeared on the stage to resume the proceedings.  Falgaroth, Visinniria, Neela, and Amirgath waited a moment to be sure they had everyone’s attention, then Falgaroth Spoke.

“Markhan Reginus Longstrider the Fifth, Prince of Hilia, Lord of Serminak, key to the imminent nexus of Kellaran, Key to The Just Alliance, the time has come for you to take your place among our pantheon.

“It will be the very first time that the timing of the Ascension of any god was known in advance, it will be the first time that an Ascension can be directly witnessed by any other god or living mortal, and we ask that all of the Kellaran-Triax Alliance be allowed to observe and to share in this miraculous process.

“Are you ready?”
the big blue unicorn god concluded.

“I’m not and I am.” Mark responded with a grin as he stood at his seat.

“I see.”
Falgaroth commented with a snicker and a playful toss of his voluminous mane.
  “Would you care to explain that?”

Mark cast Multiple Simultaneous Manifestations, and a copy of himself appeared on stage among the gods.

“I’m not.” The copy that was still with his family stated as he resumed his seat.

“And I am.” the copy on stage grinned.

He paused, and his grin faded as his mood became more serious.  The gods left the stage to him as he spent a moment in gazing at all his friends and everyone in all the generations of his extended family, and basking in their complete confidence in him.

Then he spoke in a quieter tone.  “All this time I’ve been afraid of becoming a god, afraid of losing my mortality, or so I thought.  Really, I’ve been afraid of losing my individuality, afraid of losing my personality and not being me anymore, and being someone completely different.

“So as you can see, I’ve cast the Multiple Simultaneous Manifestations spell that was invented by The Governors, and this one of me will try to become a god.  Hopefully I won’t mess it up and kill myself in front of absolutely everyone, or worse.

“If it works I’ll evaluate whether I’m still the same person in the fundamental ways that are important to me.  If I am, I may try to reintegrate with my still-mortal self over there, if it’s still even possible to do so.

“If it’s not, or if we decide that it’s not advisable for some other reason, we’ll remain two separate individuals; one mortal and one god, and the god will take a new name and an appearance different enough to prevent confusion as to who’s who.  Our lives will separate to some extent, and we’d become two different people.

“This will allow me to keep my commitment to the gods, while still keeping my present identity and fulfilling my responsibilities as a parent.  I have a lot of children right now, and for various reasons they asked to be released from the time-bubble early, so they’re still dependent children to one extent or another.  They deserve my parenting for as long as they want it.  But the gods have said that they’ve lost the urge to have and raise children, and I can’t risk losing my ability to raise children while I still need it.

“Hence this somewhat unusual solution.  If it all works, I’ll offer it to every one of my Candidates who have the ability to cast the Multiple Simultaneous Manifestations spell while they’re still mortal.  But not all of them can do that.  Most will have to choose between mortality and divinity.

“To be honest, while I recognize that becoming a god will change my fundamental nature in some way, I
don’t
want it to change my personality in any way, and I don’t want to have to become two completely separate people in order to fulfill my obligations.  When I designed my Ascension process, I did my best to make sure that I’ll still be me when it’s finished, and I hope that when I’m done I
do
find that I’m still me, and that the mortal me and the god me can reintegrate back into one person.

“Right now we’re Linked at every level, and he’ll record the entire experience.  He’ll share some of it with all of you, but will probably share all of it with none of you.  This is dangerous knowledge whether it works or not, and who gets how much of it will be decided after.  All of you will be able to see it, and to experience it with every sense and passive scan you have.  But only he will be Linked with me while it happens, and I’ll make sure that none of the rest of you can Read me psionicly while it happens.  These are also safety precautions in case it all goes wrong somehow.  I won’t be casting any Shielding around me so as to not impede the observations of the researchers and gods among you, but I ask that both pantheons be prepared to Shield me or Translocate me with the shortest possible notice, in case I explode or something.”

He held his hand palm up and the Truthstone containing the God-Spell appeared in it with a blue flash.  He looked at it a moment, looked out at his family again for almost ten seconds, then shrugged and said; “Okay; here it goes.”

He closed his eyes and concentrated, and activated the spell sequence.  First it released a vast amount of raw power he’d stored in the stone.  He held the power without casting it, feeling its improving effect on his intellect.  He began gathering more and more power, and used every technique they’d come up with to prevent it from cooking his brain or otherwise harming him.  As he followed the instructions and automated steps in the stone, every increase in power gave him new understanding and new ideas on how to continue the process.

Then he was done all the steps in the stone and relying on the new ones he was inventing as he went along.  In a moment of sudden inspiration he walked to his left and stood on the top of the great Truthstone of Falgaroth itself that shallowly protruded through the stage, and began to draw power from it, both through his feet and through the small extension stone in his hand.

He cast a vast collection field, nearer the sun than any they’d cast before, and had it send him its power through the Translocation medium in a novel new way, then began expanding the field even as he cast completely new ones with different frequencies that collected new kinds of power.