The Fire and the Storm - Metric Pro Edition: Fiction, Dragons, Elves, Unicorns, Magic (28 page)

“Why?” Talia giggled as she floated up to give him a hug around his neck and a kiss.  “Will your manly pride be insulted if you’re bested by your children?”

“Of course!” he laughed.  “I’m only human after all, and while I don’t mind being surpassed by my children when they get to be adults, I don’t want it happening when they’re two!  And besides that, we won’t be able to provide them with very much guidance if they’re better than us at everything and know more about it, now will we?”

“That’s a point.” she nodded with a smile.  “But what will we work on?  It seems of little use to study the same specialties that they are, simply to make sure that we’re better at everything than them, and it would be somewhat petty as well.”

“Would it?  They’re studying things with other people because those others have skills or knowledge that we lack.  Otherwise they could just learn it from us.  It seems to me that their choice of outside studies presents us with a neat list of our own deficiencies, and the reasons they gave for wanting to learn it are all compelling.  A better understanding of the rules of reality, improving our capability to make war in the void, being able to make more precise and efficient use of our power, improving our knowledge of the Healers’ arts, and improving our understanding of the demons.  I think they’ve hit the nail on the head better than anyone else when it comes to seeing what’s gonna be important for the next few years.  And I won’t mind telling them that they inspired us to follow their example.

“On the other hand, all of those are very broad fields of study, and it
would
be petty of us to work on exactly the same material that they’re working on, and a waste of time besides.  We should do the same as they’re doing; all of us should get together at the end of the day and pass each other what we’ve learned that day.”

“All right.” she agreed with a smile, and released him to float down and start putting her shoes on.  “In that case, we should go join Alilia at Yzell and Theramin’s house.  We’ll want to see what she thinks of joining us in this, and besides, Theramin and Yzell are both near six thousand years old, and are extremely knowledgeable.  And since Theramin is one of the world’s premier horticulturists, I think he may be able to help us a great deal in improving our void warfare techniques.”

“Oh?  I don’t follow you.” Mark said as he put his boots on.

“Ah.  Well one of the great problems with the void is that there is no air there, and air is made by plants.”

“I didn’t know that!” Mark responded in surprise.  “You mean if there were no plants, there would be no air?”

“There would be air, but it would be unbreathable.” Talia informed him as they shut the door behind them, and left for the short walk to their destination.  “That’s why Quewanak had those water plants in the cavern in Blenda.  There’s no air on Blenda, so Quewanak must have brought the air there, but without the plants to make the air of life from his stale breath, it would have become unbreathable and he would have suffocated.  Similarly, the plants would not have survived there for all those millions of years if he hadn’t been there, for the plants needed his stale breath, just as he needed the air of life from them.  Plants need animals just as animals need plants, for both food and air.  All must be in balance.

“So, if we will build vessels to fight in the void as Reggie said, and we wish to have them function with the minimum of magic spells, they’ll need plants to purify the air and water, and to provide food for the crew.”

“Brilliant!” Mark marveled as they passed Dalia and Bezedil’s place.  “You know, in many ways, you really are the smart one in our marriage.”

“I’m pleased you think so!” Talia laughed.  “I’m the quick one too!  Race you there!” she added as she took off running, with him laughing in pursuit.

They soon settled into the new routine, and theirs became a much more closely-scheduled household, as they all arranged and attended appointments to learn, teach, and work with others in the community.

Their evenings were usually reserved for family warfare training, which was the emotional highlight of their day.  They worked as a team of six against whatever simulated demons Ria conjured for them that day, and they consistently found it to be an incredibly fun and deeply bonding experience.  All the magic, light, and sound of their battles were cast as private Illusions which were sometimes augmented with a bit of Force or Heat, so as to not disturb the neighbors.  However, they soon realized that they sometimes looked quite silly running and flying around making inexplicable motions, so Ria devised a nice spell that allowed anyone observing them to see and hear their battles if they chose to, complete with hundreds of demon enemies, barrages of spells, full use of weapons, and listening-only access to their family Command Link.

Soon after that, spectating their family warfare training became a common pastime for the rest of the community.

Valentia often made a pest of herself by trying to share in all of the twins’ activities, and they responded by spending about four hours every day playing with her.  Without specifically saying they were doing so, they spent that time deeply Linked with her, trying to hurry her development as much as they could.

Their efforts, combined with the lessons and training that their parents were giving her, soon began to produce results.  Valentia’s speech lost most of it’s childish quality within weeks, and her behavior and abilities improved so rapidly that within a year she seemed as mature as Reggie and Helemia.  She still had a fiery temperament, but she was in control of it, and she became as dedicated to self-improvement as her siblings.

The day before Valentia’s first birthday she initiated conversation as the family was sitting down for supper.

“Tomorrow’s my birthday, and there’s some presents I want to ask for.

“I think you can trust me not to make silly mistakes anymore.  I promise to keep getting lots of exercise, and to not sleep with Levitation.

“I want full control of my magic, and I want The Skills of Visinniria spell done on me.  I promise not to hurt anyone, and not to wreck anything.

“But I really want to do what I can do!  I want to see how much I can lift, I want to see how big a Fireball I can cast, I want to see how big an explosion I can make!  I mean, playing with the Illusions is fun, but I really want to use all my abilities, and I really want to fight!  I mean, some really serious sparring at least, both with magic and without!  I want to shoot real arrows, and I want to use a real sword, and I want to learn all the forest ranger stuff Father knows!”

“That all seems pretty reasonable.” Mark agreed.  “And I think we’re all ready for some real weapons training.”

“There’s a small island at the southern edge of the archipelago that we could use for a weapons range.” Alilia told them.  “It’s not much more than a big flat-topped rock at one end of a big sandbar, and there’s only about half a dozen trees on it because it gets blasted by the hurricanes every year.  It’s about the only place in Hiliani where there’s not much to destroy, and it’s as far as we can get from here, and from the Sylvan.”

“All right, we’ll all go there after supper and get some real exercise.” Talia told Valentia with a big smile and a caress of her head.  “We’ll start off by lifting sand with Movement.  I’m quite curious to see how strong your are, Love.”

“And yes, you can have full control of your magic now.” Mark told her with a proud grin.  “We’ll give you The Skills of Visinniria when we get there.”

“Ooooh, thank you thank you thank you!” Valentia cried as she clapped and bounced in her seat.  “This is gonna be
so fun!
”

“I’m sure we could fill the whole evening just playing with magic,” Reggie mused, “So there’s no use bringing our armor.  I think I’ll bring my war darts though, I could do with more practice with those.”

“Ya, me too.” Helemia nodded around a mouthful of baked fish.

After supper they dressed for a warm spring evening, and loaded their packs with water bottles and war darts.

“I’ll Translocate us there.” Alilia said as she buttoned her tunic.  “You children have never Translocated before, and it’s about the most useful spell there is, so you’ll want to pay attention.  It’s a complex multiple spell with a very high power requirement, and lives are on the line every time you cast it on someone or on yourself.  You must always work with an experienced caster, first as you observe, then as you cast it under their guidance, until you are absolutely certain of it.  Only then can you cast it independently, and only then if you are absolutely sure of every component of the spell at that moment.

“Valentia, though you and I do most magic intuitively, we still need to have a solid intellectual grasp of every step of this spell.  Nothing in life is more horrible than a badly bungled Translocation.  It can scar your soul just to see it.”

She let them consider that as she established a teaching Link among herself and the three children.

“First, take a measurement of the weight of everything you’re going to move.  You’ll eventually get good enough to make an estimate of sufficient accuracy for most people and commonly moved items, but for now you should cast the Measurement discreetly, so that your result is accurate.  So, the weight of the six of us and our items is three hundred ninety-nine kilos, seven hundred and ninety-six grams, and that’s accurate enough.  Keep that number in mind.

“Second, you need a Translocation reference.  The easiest way to get one is to physically travel between the two places while carefully measuring your movement.  You can get a memory of such travel from another psionicly and use that as your reference.  You can project your consciousness along your route and measure the distance and direction as you do so.  And, if you have an intellect like Yazadril’s, you can use mathematics to extrapolate a reference between two places from two other references that link those places to a third place.  And if you’re as smart as Somonik or Tithian, you can construct a reference with pure mathematics if you know the exact locations and elevations of both places.

“If the target is more than a couple of kilometers away, you must correct for orientation.  Remember that the world is round, and when you’re standing your feet always point toward the center of the world.  If you Translocate a quarter of the way around the world without correcting your orientation, you’ll come out laying on your side, and if you Translocate to the other side of the world without correcting for it you’ll come out upside down.”

She waited a moment while the children got a giggle at that thought.

“Until you’re very experienced with casting Translocations you should always come in high, by casting Levitate upon everything you’re Translocating and targeting a destination point that’s high above the ground or anything else you could intersect.

“Having established exactly where you’re going, you project your consciousness there and check to be sure the space is clear, and that no-one could move into it.

“Then you must prepare for displacement.  You will always measure the volumes and shapes of everything you’re Translocating.  The air occupying the space the Translocated people or items will take up at the destination is Translocated back to fill the space they left at their departure point.

“You always make the shapes you’re Translocating a bit big and bring some of the air around you with you when you go, just in case someone moves at the last moment.  The smaller you make the space, the greater the chance that someone you’re Translocating will move at the last moment, and part of them will be outside the Translocation field at the moment of casting.  Anything sticking through the field from inside will be cut clean off.  It’s easier to Translocate something that’s Levitating, because you don’t have to be so careful to make the bottom of the field exactly even between the bottom of their shoes and the floor.  The larger you make the space that you’re Translocating, the greater the chance that something will move into the edge of the destination space, and then whatever is sticking through the edge of the space will get cut clean off as it gets Translocated back to the departure point.  Most casters bring about two centimeters of space around what they’re moving, and we minimize the chances of there being an accident by casting the Translocation as quickly as possible, to minimize the chance that something will move between stages of the spell.

“There are three reasons for casting a displacement Translocation to bring the air from the space you’ll fill at your destination back to where you left from.  First is that if you don’t at least clear the air at your destination, it will become mixed with your body, which is painful and causes millions of incredibly tiny injuries in your body, which can be fatal or difficult to heal from.  Second is that if you leave a void in the air at your departure point, it will cause a sudden implosion that sucks things toward it, and it’s loud, irritating, and rude to anyone in the vicinity.  And third is that if you make a mistake and you target a destination that has solid matter or water in it, and you don’t clear that matter before you go there, those solids or liquids will become mixed with your body, and you will surely die.  If the density of the mixed material is suddenly increased enough, you could explode.  With displacement, even if you Translocate into solid rock, you will at least be in a space in the rock shaped like you, and you’ll have a few moments to Translocate out of there before you suffocate.  It would be difficult in that situation to remain calm and controlled enough to cast another Translocation in time before you suffocated, and do it properly, but it has been done.

“So, I consider my reference and my orientation, I project my consciousness there, in this case a hundred meters above the island we’re going to, and making sure no birds are flying toward that spot.  I consider the distance and the weight, and I allocate sufficient power and a tiny bit more.  If you allocate too much power, everything you’re moving will heat up, which can kill you if you’ve really overdone it.  Not using enough power is a far greater danger though, since it can cause a failed Translocation, which is always a disaster.  Then I take my measurement of shapes and volumes and cast the Translocation as quickly after that as I possibly can, like this.”