The Fire and the Storm - Metric Pro Edition: Fiction, Dragons, Elves, Unicorns, Magic (43 page)

“Homestead?” Reggie asked.

“We’ve decided that our community needs a name, now that there’s contact between us and the Sylvan.” Mark explained.  “You’ll need to refer to here when you’re talking to them, and it’ll be easier that way.  Sana suggested Homestead, and it was the most popular suggestion, so Homestead it is.”

“And in three months?” Valentia prompted.

“In three months we’ll probably know how to prevent aging in any person of any race who has the potential to use magic.” Mark stated.  “Then we’ll want your help in isolating why some humans can use magic and not others, and to try to find a way to give every human the ability to do it, at least enough to get the health benefits.  Hilsith says the work you’ve done on each other’s brains, and the techniques you’ve developed to do it, are probably the best avenue of research we can take to solve this problem.  And of course, being able to give wizardry to all the humans and selkies and others who lack it will have colossal benefits beyond solving the aging problem.”

“Oh.  Well congratulations to all of you for your progress.” Valentia responded.  “Of course we’ll be glad to help.  We should be done this project by then.”

“Yah, but we’ve got other stuff we’re putting off while we do this.” Reggie mentioned.  “Especially my work with Kragorram on the void warfare project.  So we won’t want to work on the longevity thing for more than about four hours a day, unless we think we can finish it up pretty quickly.”

“We’ll adjust the schedule as we go.” Talia smiled.  “The longevity project is important but not immediately urgent, like most of them I suppose.  Our priorities and schedule tend to shift at least every week, depending on what’s happening in our various projects, and in everyone else’s schedules, of course.”

Conversation faded again for a few minutes.

“You two seem a bit subdued today.” Talia said as she indicated Reggie and Helemia with a look at each of them.  “Is it anything we can help with?”

The twins blushed bright pink, and shook their heads.  “Nah.” Reggie stammered after swallowing heavily.  “It’s just that, ah, you know, as you’re always psionicly aware of us, on a subconscious level, we’re always aware of you too.  Even when we’re sleeping, it seems.  And it seems our awareness of you is increasing, or maybe we were just sensitized to certain things by what all those Sylvan did all night last night.

“Anyway, we had a dream last night, or today actually, when we were sleeping, and when we woke up, we realized that it wasn’t a dream.  We were following you, psionicly, while we were sleeping.  And you went to this pretty grotto on the west side of the island and uh, well, you know.”

There was a long moment of silence as the adults blushed redder than their children had.

“Went to the west side of the island and what?” Valentia asked.  “I’m the only one that doesn’t know!”

“And had lots and lots of rough deviant sex.” Mark bluntly stated.  “I’m sorry you two were aware of that.  You’re getting to be very, very hard to completely block psionicly.  We could probably do it if we weren’t making sure that we’re always aware of you, but it’s hard to keep a Link going in one direction while blocking it completely in the other, and your psionics are very subtle.”

“The blessing we’ve made from a curse has saved our lives on numerous occasions, and given us many other benefits as well.” Talia carefully stated.  “Including Mark’s ability to Resurrect Dalia and Bezedil.  But occasionally, the last aspects of the curse still make their demands on me.  I know Mark would prefer not to, except that the curse is a part of him now, as it’s a part of me, and it’s deeply integrated.”

“If I’d have known what I know now when we first dealt with the curse, I could have fixed this too.” Mark admitted with remorse.  “But it’s too late now.  The blessing is too integrated and too… too broadly dispersed within us and within our power for it to be changed now.”

“We understand all that.” Helemia nodded.  “We know the story of how you met and the curses and all of that.  We tried to not let the dream affect how we were acting, because we know it’s none of our business, but Mother’s pretty perceptive.”

“She is.” Mark nodded.  “I hadn’t noticed you were acting any different, to be honest.”

“There’s just one thing I don’t understand.” Reggie hesitantly revealed.  “I mean, I understand why you do it to Mother; because the curse makes you do it, but Alilia…?”

“I’ve crafted aspects of my Link with Talia, and with Mark,” Alilia told him with an expression of thoughtful self-control, “So that when the curse affects them, it affects me equally.  I endure exactly what Talia endures, I insist on it.  It salves my guilt and remorse for having cast the curse unjustly, and it lets me share fully and equally in our relationship.  And besides, Mark has gotten very good at giving a great deal of extremely pleasurable sensations and emotions in the midst of an experience that might not otherwise be very pleasant.”

“Do ya
like
it?” Valentia asked her with a nasty little smile.

Alilia was surprised at the question, and at her daughter’s tone and expression as it was asked, but she gave a straight answer.  “I’m not sure if it would be true to say that I like it.  Not the way I like our lovemaking when the curse is not upon us, which is absolutely heaven itself.  But the times when the curse comes upon us…  Well, it’s gradual.  We tend to be reluctant to begin it, so we wait until the urge of the curse is insistent and unignorable.  When we do give in to it, we tend to be a bit fierce about it.”

She paused for a few seconds to reflect.  “No, when all the pleasant and unpleasant aspects are weighed, I neither like nor dislike it.  But there’s no doubt that I’m addicted to the intensity of it.  It’s like being in true battle that way.  It’s not a particularly
fun
circumstance to be in, but the intensity is incredible and exhilarating, even when it hurts.  Every part of you is brilliantly alive, and you’re completely in the moment, and you’re not distracted by any thoughts about anything else except what’s happening right then.”

“I absolutely love it.” Talia softly revealed, her gaze unfocused as she re-lived their day in her mind.  “I absolutely, completely, damn well love it, every bit of it.  When the urge comes upon me, I don’t hold off because I’m reluctant, I let it build until I absolutely can’t resist it anymore, just to maximize the intensity of it.”

There was a pause, then she seemed to snap out of it as she considered the effect her words might have had.  “But I want you to keep in mind that I love our normal lovemaking without the curse a lot more.  The experience of sharing the ultimate in physically pleasurable experiences with someone you deeply love while being deeply Linked with them is the best part of being a wizard, in my opinion.  It may be the finest experience possible for any mortal being, without exception.

“Just remember that you won’t have to worry about such things for years, and when you do, it’s best to take it as slowly as possible, and to carefully savor every tiny aspect of your development.”

“We will, Mother.” Helemia assured her as she stood and carried her dishes to the sink.  “But now we have to go reorganize some Sylvan.  We’re not sure when we’ll be back, so don’t wait up.”

“And thanks for having a tasty meal ready for us.  That was great!” Reggie grinned as he rubbed his belly.  “I’m almost too full to move normally!”

“You better cast something on yourself to keep from throwing up, in case we have to take some action.” Valentia giggled.

After exchanging loving goodbyes with their parents, the three children Translocated back their new settlement.

After they were gone, Talia and Alilia moved over and sat on either side of Mark’s lap.

“Those three are pretty easy to raise.” Mark mused.  “But still, sometimes this parenting business isn’t easy.”

“That’s some serious truth.” Alilia agreed.

“Hey Karz, how are things?” Helemia asked as the three appeared beside the young dragon.

“Ah, Fire, you startled me.” Karzog told her after a reflexive inhale.

“Sorry.” Helemia giggled.  “Good to see you’re on your toes, though.  It wouldn’t do for you to flame me in front of the detainees.”

“Thanks.  The constructions are ahead of schedule, and yesterday’s arrivals will be able to sleep indoors tonight.

“I noticed a few more wild ones poking around beyond the Wards of the camp.  I wasn’t sure if there were still any left out there after your work this morning, but apparently there are.  I think I’ve also detected some of the other adult Sylvan that are still out there trying to probe me psionicly without being noticed.  I doubt they got anything from me though.

“We’ll have to start gathering supper for these ones pretty soon, and for the new ones too if you want them to eat with the rest.”

“Well I’d like to go hunting, but I suppose I can gather supper first.” Valentia mused.

“No, go ahead and hunt.” Reggie advised.  “We’ll gather supper.  We’ll wake up the new recruits, and just play them a Revealing of yesterday’s orientation while we’re gathering.”

“If you take Stripe and Scout, do a better job of Shielding them than we did this morning.” Helemia told Valentia with some remorse.  “I almost thought we lost them for a second there.  I doubt you’ll face another attack like we faced this morning, but there are still a lot of adult Sylvan out there, so you never know.  I sure didn’t expect them to attack us all together like that this morning either, and it was a good reminder of how unpredictable they are.”

“Right.” Valentia nodded, and disappeared.

“Actually, we’ll need to cast a few copies of the Revealing for all of these to see it.” Reggie stated as he surveyed the thousands of unconscious Sylvan who were laid out in tight ranks on the beach.

Helemia had been psionicly scanning the working Sylvan in the construction crews as he spoke, found one who had viewed the orientation presentation from an ideal vantage, and had taken a Reading from him.  She and Reggie converted in into a Revealing, cast it above the slumbering prisoners, then cast twenty-four  more copies of it over the many Sylvan on the beach so that they’d all be able to see one of them without having to turn their heads too far.  The twenty-five Revealings floated above the beach showing identical frozen views of Karzog at the beginning of his speech to the Sylvan in Backyard Valley the previous day.

They awoke the sleeping prisoners but left them immobilized, unable to move anything but their eyes and their heads.  After a few seconds to make sure they were all completely awake, Reggie announced; “Watch this Revealing carefully.  It’s the orientation experienced by the Sylvan we captured yesterday.”  Then they started the Revealing playing.

“You have been detained by The Governors of Hiliani…” the recorded Karzog proclaimed, and they turned most of their attention away from it and began casting the automated food-gathering spells.

Over the next hour and a half much was accomplished;  The new Sylvan finished watching the presentation, were organized into teams, and set to building fifteen duplicates of the existing settlement up and down the coast from it.  Reggie and Helemia finished gathering food and helped with the organization, including setting almost five hundred Sylvan to food preparation and cooking duties.  And Valentia returned five times with unconscious prisoners, seventy-eight of them in total.

“They’re getting harder to find, that’s for sure.” she stated as she prepared to go out again.  “There can’t be many more of them left.  Unfortunately it’s almost impossible to know when we’ve got the last one.  Beyond the Stealth they got from their god and their own talent at it, there’s a few who’re really gifted and creative at hiding from us.”

Just then fourteen Sylvan appeared before them.  They were the first Sylvan that the four young governors had seen or even heard of that looked old, with wrinkled faces, gaunt hands, and gray hair mixed in with the black hair that all Sylvan had.

“Greetings.” one old female said in Blezogeth.  “We are the Elders of the Sylvan on these islands that you call Hiliani.  We demand to know what you plan to do with those of our people you’ve captured, and we demand to know what your intentions are regarding the rest of us.”

“They’re not really here.” Karzog stated.

“No, but they’re very well-done Projections.” Helemia said, then addressed the Projected newcomers.

“Appearing here in astral rather than corporal form does protect you from physical attack here.  But you should know that we can follow the psionic trace of your Projection right back to where you are, like this.”

She, Reggie and Valentia Translocated to a clearing in a forest of gigantic old-growth fir trees.  They were only there for a fraction of a second before returning, but that was long enough to see the surprise on the faces of the fourteen old Sylvan they faced in the flesh there, and to register that a few hundred other adult Sylvan were also gathered around, and that all of the trees in sight had well-camouflaged homes built into them, and to cast the same Revealing of the orientation that they’d recently shown their new prisoners.

“That Revealing will answer most of your questions.” Reggie stated.  “Please contact us again after you’ve viewed it.”

With that, the three children psionicly blocked the fourteen old Sylvan from the vicinity, effectively ending the Projections.

“Not that smart of them to send their Projections from what appeared to be the town square of their community.” Valentia giggled.  “Now we know where it is, and they can’t abandon that location without abandoning their homes.  They should’ve gone somewhere remote before they sent that.”

“Damn, you are amazing!” Karzog marveled at the three of them.

“What, and you’re not?” Helemia laughed.  “Right now you’re actively supervising almost thirteen thousand young Sylvan!  I’d say that’s pretty amazing.  That’s already more than we thought there were in total, by a lot.”

“You’re right, I’m amazing too.” Karzog grinned.  “But then I’m a dragon, and it’s expected of us.  On the other hand, you could do what I’m doing, and I couldn’t do what you just did.  That was well done, and the look on their faces was priceless!”