The Fire and the Storm - Metric Pro Edition: Fiction, Dragons, Elves, Unicorns, Magic (47 page)

“In addition to dancing and fighting, we have games and contests set up under the edge of the trees all up and down the beach, including races, skill games, and strategy games.

“Have fun everyone!  And for any non-adult Sylvan, remember that the party ends at midnight, same as every night.  That gives you almost twelve hours of partying tonight, which had better be enough!”

Their platoons gave another great cheer as the formations dissolved.

“We have a place reserved for thirty including ourselves, the head table you might say, and we’d be pleased if you’d join us there.” Reggie said to the rest on the platform, and Translocated them to their reserved area beside the feast, which had just appeared on tables, in barrels and bushel baskets, and on a colossal spit.

“What the hell is
that?!
” one of the Sylvan elders exclaimed as he pointed at the centerpiece of the feast.

“Roast whale.” Mark chuckled.  “The dragons caught it and roasted it.  They thought that the feast might have to do us all for supper as well as lunch, and they didn’t want us running short.  If you need meat for forty thousand meals on short notice, roast whale is the way to go.  They tell me that it tastes a lot like beef.”

“Oh.” the sylvan said, too surprised to make any other response as they watched Kragorram and several of Mark’s male relatives begin carving the whale.  Kragorram carved off a chunk as big as a man with a three meter long knife and laid it on a table with a rim to catch the drippings, where the men reduced it to steaks and served it onto plates as fast as they could.  They had to be very careful as they did so, as the meat had been spelled to remain hot without becoming overcooked.

The ‘head table’ was a large semicircle of crude but comfortable chairs and side tables fashioned from driftwood and palm fronds at the top of the beach.  The thirty seats were taken by the fourteen Sylvan elders, the three half-elven governors, Mark, Talia, Alilia, and a constantly changing array of prominent members of both communities.  The space immediately behind the chairs was constantly filled with those who knew the leaders personally, or who just wanted to overhear their conversation.

Quewanak and Povon ambled over to the open side of the semi-circle of leaders and claimed space on the sand for themselves beside Karzog.  They then Summoned enormous knives and forks and began cutting off bite-size chucks of meat for themselves.  For dragons, they ate in a manner that was so polite and fastidious that it was almost funny.

The Hilian Volunteers chose to serve the leaders’ group, and made sure they were first in line to do so.

“I think it would be just if you four youngsters were able to simply relax and enjoy this fine occasion.” Quewanak said to the young governors between bites.  “So if you’d like, I’d be glad to referee the fights in the arenas for you.”

“Thank you Quewanak.” Karzog said around an enormous bite of meat, then swallowed before he continued.  “I appreciate that.  It
was
using quite a bit of our concentration.”

“As I suspected.” Quewanak chuckled.  “You four do push yourselves to your limits almost all the time, even when you’re supposed to be relaxing and having fun.”

“Usually when we’re pushing ourselves to our limits, that’s when we’re having the
most
fun!” Helemia giggled.

“What is the nature of the spell you’ve cast on our young?” Senior Dolimatbene suddenly asked.  “You obviously cast it slowly so that it’s initiation isn’t obvious, but I can already see that our children aren’t acting normal.”

“It’s called Mandri and Dren’s Moderate Drunkenness.” Reggie explained.  “I think it’s a crucial part of the success of our social program here, and I wish I could say it was brilliant planning, but using it was just a spontaneous idea.  Your young were all so emotionally impaired that they were incapable of enjoying a good party, and half of them were incapable of socializing in any way.  It simulates a moderate level of drunkenness, as one might reach if one drank alcohol until just before it started to have a negative effect on balance and coordination.

“To be honest, I haven’t even tried it on myself yet, none of us four have.  I think I’ll do so though, just to be fair.  Tonight, but not right now.”

“It simulates the enjoyable parts of drunkenness, with none of the bad effects of alcohol.  Which seems to be a fun thing.” Helemia giggled as she watched those cheering on the first fighters on the challenge stage.

“Huh.  I’ll have to get you to teach me that.” Dolimatbene decided.  “I’m sure casting it is a lot less work than brewing mead, which is the only recreational intoxicant my people have had since we got here.  Still, we do make very good mead.  Though as you’ve said, alcohol has its problems.”

“Sure.  Here.” Helemia told her as she psionicly passed the spell.  “You’ll need it soon anyway.  I’m sure you didn’t get to be Most Senior among your people by accident, so I’m sure you’ll soon be one of the senior commanders of your people in our military system on the merit of your abilities.  Then you’ll need to be able to cast it for your troops every night.”

“Uhh, what?” Dolimatbene said as she tried to respond, obviously disoriented.

“Oh, sorry, I thought you’d be able to handle that.” Helemia said as she removed the spell from the woman’s mind.  “It looks like I’ll have to give it to you a lot slower, or just teach it to you the old-fashioned way.  Or ask my father to do it for me.  Father, if you’d be so kind?”

“Sure.” Mark grunted around a mouthful, and set the spell into the woman’s mind.

“No one can give you a spell in immediately usable form like my father.” Helemia proudly explained.  “Even the gods said he’s better at it than they are.  He can even do it with people with almost no psionic or magic talent at all.  Maybe they won’t even be able to use it, but they’d still be able to understand every aspect of it right away.  One of these days I’ll have to study how he does it, so we can do it too.”

“I… see.” Dolimatbene said in wonder as she considered the spell she’d just completely learned.  “That’s amazing.  Almost every aspect of it is completely different from anything I’ve ever done.  And to just learn it in an instant like that is wondrous.  That would normally be three months’ work for me, to learn such an alien-seeming spell.”

“Well it’s a combination of human and elven wizardry techniques, so I’m not surprised that a Sylvan wizard like you would find it a little strange.” Valentia smiled.  “It’s pretty well-made.  I’ve thought of a few improvements to it, but I could only save one-eighteenth of the power requirement and a tenth of the concentration needed, so I haven’t bothered with it yet.”

“You fourteen are likely the oldest and most experienced Sylvan in the world, since your god made you stop killing each other long before Zarkog did the same in Serminak.” Yazadril commented.  “You’re obviously very intelligent and capable individuals, yet you’ve been isolated here for quite some time, and you tend to live quite simple lives.  So I wonder what you do to occupy your time?”

Dolimatbene smiled and considered for a moment as she chewed and swallowed before she answered.  “Like everyone, everyday tasks take up much of our days.  Food needs to gathered and prepared, homes and possessions need to be maintained, children need to be supervised and instructed.

“As you might guess, much of our time is spent in trying to raise our social status; practicing and increasing our abilities, learning new skills, improving our homes and possessions, and maneuvering for advantage and alliances amongst ourselves.  And a few of us spend time on artistic pursuits.

“Before our god left, his Blessings shone upon us all, and it was easier to be content.  Even since he’s been gone, we’ve had a good life here.”

“It’s a beautiful and bounteous place, that’s certain.” Yazadril agreed with a smile.

“It feels confining.” Helemia mused, seeming deep in thought.  “I’m afraid that in a year or two it’ll really start to bother us.  By then there won’t be any real challenge here at all.  Even sparring and the war games are starting to pall a bit.  I so yearn to see the rest of the world, and to take part in it.”

“Huh.  In a year, we’ll be ready to fully test our void craft.” Reggie thoughtfully revealed.  “But we’ll be prevented from doing so by the time-bubble.”

“I bet we could call the gods and get them to let us out early.” Valentia opined.  “If we stored up a lot of power and just called them with sound and psionics as loud as we could, and slowed the message down to one one-hundred-and-forty-fourth speed to match the outside world, I bet they’d hear us.  I’d be surprised to find that the time-bubble absolutely blocked all sound and psionics, especially if we made it really powerful.  Then they’d let us out.”

“I doubt most of us would want them to.” Hilsith stated.  “I want every minute I can get for research before we have to deal with the demons, and we still have so much to do.  We’ve made good progress, but I’d say we’re only a third of the way to solving the human longevity problem, and a quarter of the way to solving the elven fertility problem.  When the time-bubble ends, I intend to ask that it be re-cast for at least another score of years, and I will ask as convincingly and as intensely as I must to see it done.”

“Not to mention that most of us would be unwilling to give up our lives here.” Sana emphatically declared.  “I planned on twenty-four years here, and I’ll be ready to go back to Finitra then, but not before.”

“I’m staying until Hilsith solves the longevity problem.” Markhan the Senior chuckled.  “I’ve gotten quite hopeful about regaining my youth in the last few years.  I’m still pretty fit, but the nagging problems of getting old are already making themselves felt.  Or at least, they were.  To be honest, Hilsith’s treatments have eliminated most of that over the last few months.  But it’s still a long way from having my youth back, and Sana’s.”

“I see no reason why those who want to stay couldn’t stay, while those of us who want out get released.” Reggie proposed.  “The gods could just re-cast the time-bubble right after we left if you want.

“I mean, no offence, but we didn’t choose to be stuck in here, unlike the rest of you.  It’s been wonderful, but I’m sure that if we have to stay in here for another eighteen years without even word of what’s happening out there, I’m sure I’m going to lose my mental stability.”

“Well you’re not missing much, you’ve only missed two weeks out in the real world so far!” Wittan pointed out.

“True, but still, not knowing is really bothersome.” Helemia declared.  “To us at least.  I had a nightmare once where the demons came early while we were still stuck in here, and when the time-bubble finally ended there was nothing left alive outside it but billions and billions of demons.  Unlikely I admit, but we don’t know.  That could’ve really happened already, and we’d never know.

“And as far as our military ability goes, we’ve gotten about as good as we can get with the techniques we have here, and our improvement is really slowing.  We’re not inventing as many new techniques as we were before either.  We’re stagnating.  I want to go out and learn from new people, and learn new spells and techniques.”

“And improve them.” Valentia giggled.  “Quewanak, do you think my plan would work?  Could we get the gods’ attention and get them to let us out?”

“I think we could, though I’m not positive, and there’s no way of knowing without trying it.” the green dragon opined.

“Well.  I didn’t know this was bothering you kids this much.” Mark said with a bit of surprise in his tone.

“It wasn’t really, until Nek asked us yesterday what we were going to do to top this.” Reggie said as he indicated the Sylvan settlement around them with a wave.  “This has all gone so much easier than we thought.  Everything here is too easy.”

“Wanting out of the time-bubble didn’t get to be a strong feeling until just now, actually.” Helemia revealed.  “It came with realizing that this is pretty much finished already.  If we had to, we could have these fourteen ready to assume command here in a week, then we could take a Reading of all the spells and military lore we want to teach them and put it in a diamond and give it to them.  They’d be able to teach it as fast as they and the rest here could absorb it.  And that’s it, done, we could just walk away and it wouldn’t really matter.  With another eighteen years to get ready for the demons, they won’t need us.”

“Now that the subject has been raised,”
Equemev interjected from a three hundred meters down the beach, where she and her family were running through the surf,
“I would like to say that we, the unicorns of Homestead, share the children’s feelings.  We find that being confined to an area the size of Hiliani feels very restricting, far more than we expected it to.  Unicorns are a nomadic and migratory race, and it seems that traveling is a greater part of our inherent needs than we anticipated.  I myself have run the beaches all the way around the perimeter of Hiliani over six hundred times, until I am bored of it, and I’ve run the interior routes almost as much.  All of us have.  We yearn for the great plains of Xervia, and for the company of our kin.

“Which is another issue.  If I had it all to do again, I would make sure that we either brought far more of my people here, or none.  Even with our new children, the fourteen of us are not near enough to fully fulfill our herd instinct.  We increasingly feel our isolation and separation from our people.”

“I see.” Mark nodded, seemingly mildly troubled.  “Then it seems we should follow the kids advice, and try to get the gods to temporarily open the time-bubble so that those who want to leave can do so.  And if any out in the world would like to come here to replace those who leave, we can do that too.”

“If you who want to leave can bear it, I would appreciate it immensely if you delayed your departure for at least two or three years.” Hilsith requested.  “The assistance of the unicorns has been very valuable in my research, and I had expected that the assistance of you children would soon be quite central to my work as well.”

The three children and Karzog considered the question over their Link for a moment.