The Fire and the Storm - Metric Pro Edition: Fiction, Dragons, Elves, Unicorns, Magic (48 page)

“That may be a lot to ask, now that we’re getting our hopes up about leaving.” Reggie answered.  “How about this;  We’ll stay for one more year.  We’ll do as Helemia said and prepare the Sylvan to not need us for their continued militarization as quickly as we can.  After that we’ll spend as much time helping your research as we can possibly spare from our other projects for the rest of the year.  We’ll even cut back on sparring and our own training and devote that time to your projects too.”

“Hopefully we can either have your two major problems solved or have you well on the way to solving them by then.” Helemia added.

“Yes, I think knowing we would be released in a year would give my people the strength to continue here for that time without suffering any appreciable distress.”
Silaran agreed. 
“And we will also contribute all we can of our time and resources to your research for that time.”

“Well I’ll take what I can get, I suppose.” Hilsith smiled.  “My research is important, but certainly not more important than preserving your happiness and mental health.”

“All right, I suppose I’ll let the Homesteaders know that they’ll probably have a chance to leave Hiliani in a year, and take a quick survey of how many would like to go.” Mark decided, and did so psionicly.

“Okay, it seems that the only ones who really want to leave are you four and the unicorns.” he reported.  “A lot of The Hilian volunteers are undecided.  I think they’d really prefer to stay, but their vows to serve me make them also want to go wherever I go, and of course if you four are going, then Talia, Alilia, Povon, Kragorram, and I are going too.”

“I’ll stay, to continue assisting with matters here.” Quewanak stated.

“When we go,” Alilia said to Bezedil with a warm smile, “I would very much appreciate it if you and Dalia came with us.”

“Oh?  For more than the obvious reasons?” Bezedil asked.

“Yes.” Alilia nodded, smiling a bit mischievously now.  “It’s not just because I love you and would like to keep my only son near me.  That wouldn’t be a deciding factor, since I know that Dalia would also like to stay with her parents, who are staying here, since Hilsith is staying.

“I would like you and Dalia to co-rule our people as reigning Prince and Princess of The People of Life.  Once they know how close and devoted my relationship with Mark and Talia has become, they’ll understand that I feel some conflict between my duties to Hilia and my duties to the People of Life, and they deserve dedicated leadership.

“If you agree, I’ll train you both intensively for the duty over the next year, with the assistance of Yazadril, Quewanak, and Mark.  I would abdicate in your favor.  Your ascension would still be subject to the approval of The People of Life and their Senior Council, but I don’t see any chance that they’d disapprove.  I can’t see any other candidates being able to match the ability, character, attractiveness and appeal that the two of you would have as a co-ruling pair.  And since you are my son and Yazadril’s daughter, you’ll appeal to those with dynastic tendencies.”

“Ah, give us a moment?” Bezedil asked as he and Dalia Linked, and Alilia nodded.

They conferred for a moment, then he answered.  “First off Mother, we’re very proud and flattered and grateful that you’ve chosen to offer us this opportunity, and we would be glad to assume the responsibility.  However, we don’t think one year of training would sufficiently prepare us for it, particularly when there’s so much more time available.

“We propose that we do the year of training, and then, assuming that the gods will hear the call and open the time-bubble, and that they’ll be willing and able to re-cast it again, and that they’ll be willing to give us at least a few hours out in the world before they re-cast it, we’ll use that time to get as much more study materials and Readings from other experienced rulers as we can.  Then we’ll stay here in the time-bubble and study all of that for rest of the seventeen years.

“When the bubble ends at its scheduled time in eighteen years, it’ll only be a month and a half later out in the world, and we’ll be far more prepared to become Prince and Princess of The People of Life.”

“Certainly, that seems both wise and practical.” Alilia nodded with a smile.

“Some of us would like to leave Hiliani in a year, if the time-bubble indeed does go down temporarily.” Senior Dolimatbene stated.  “Understanding that we would have to swear the binding vows sworn by other Sylvan in The Just Alliance, would you allow us to go?”

“Sure.” Mark nodded.  “You haven’t sworn allegiance to me or to Hilia, so you’re free to do whatever you want, so long as you keep the peace between us and train as hard as you can to fight the demons.  And if I did have the right to prevent you from leaving, I still wouldn’t.  I don’t see any reason to keep you here if you want to go.  However, If we have to fight the demons, I’d ask you to fight with those you’ve trained with here.  There’s no use training you all together as a unit if you’re not going to fight with the people and procedures you’re familiar with.  That means we’d ask you to come back here to help defend the place if the demons attack here, and that you re-join your platoons if the Hiliani Sylvan are assigned to fight elsewhere.”

“Ah.” Dolimatbene said as she accepted some deserts from a tray that was being passed around.  “Our god brought us here so that we wouldn’t be enslaved by Zarkog, but that’s a moot point now.  And it seems that what our god wants with us will also need to be determined, though that may now be moot as well, as you’ve said.  When the time-bubble goes down, our god will learn of what’s happened here, we’ll learn what he thinks about it, the rest of the gods will learn about him, and we should shortly know where we stand.

“But many of us want to see and experience the great world out there, which is something we could never do before The Just Alliance took over.  And many of us would like to go back to Serminak, for at least a visit.  The younger of us have never seen their ancestral homeland, and of us elders, most have only seen the small part of it that our god kept hidden for our use before Zarkog conquered the continent.

“And beyond all that, so far as I know, I am the eldest living Sylvan, and one of the most powerful and capable.  I may very well be
the
most powerful and capable Sylvan, and I am very much looking forward to testing myself in the great Game of Status.” she finished with a grin that was matched by the other elders.

“So am I.” said a voice behind Mark’s shoulder.  He turned to see that it was Zayobod, informal leader of The Valiant Glory Seekers.

“Oh?” Dolimatbene asked with a chuckle.  “I’d have thought that all elves were temperamentally unsuited to such an endeavor.”

“Evil is stupid.” Zayobod flatly declared.  “It’s the motto of The Just Alliance, and I believe it with all my soul.  Evil is stupid, and me and a few of my friends intend to prove it.  We’ll enter The Game of Status and compete equally against those like yourselves who choose to use underhanded means, without using any unjust methods ourselves.  We’ll defend ourselves against the machinations of the other players of course, but other than that we’ll play without using violence, and without lying or cheating in any way, and we intend to inspire as many others as possible to do the same.  After a sufficient amount of time we should be able to statistically prove that over the long run, unjust methods reduce productivity and advancement compared to just methods.”

“How can you say that?” Dolimatbene laughed.  “I can guarantee that I’ll pay less taxes than you will, I’ll have the advantage over you in every interaction because I’ll withhold every bit of crucial information I can while feeding you disinformation, and if you really get in my way I’ll just do away with you!”

“You’re living in a fantasy world.” Zayobod stated dismissively.  “There
are
conditions under which evil can thrive, but you won’t be facing those conditions!  Under a corrupt or incompetent government, it might be profitable to cheat on your taxes, but in a just society with competent auditors you
will
get caught at it sooner or later, and when you get caught, the fines and penalties for cheating the taxman will cost you more than what you saved by cheating.  Furthermore, evil only works really well in secrecy; when you can act with evil against the unsuspecting while pretending to be good.  But you’ll have to
declare
that you’re in The Game of Status, and everyone will know it.  No good people will do any business with you at all if they can avoid it, and if they have to do so, they won’t trust a word you say.

“The Game of Status had already become a completely separate economy within The Just Alliance for that very reason, and within just three days of it’s inauguration too.  The people in the game don’t have anything to offer that the good people can’t get among themselves, so the good people have no reason to risk dealing with the players, and they have the right to refuse to do business or to associate with anyone for any reason.

“The Game had only been running for a few weeks when we came here, but it was already obvious that it was a far less productive economy than the rest of the Alliance.  The Game is an economy with a few big winners and a lot of losers, and only the division of the game into ten leagues of varying skill levels prevents the top ten or twelve players from controlling everything.  Whereas in the just society, everyone just keeps on winning, because we don’t let anyone lose.

“If a good man gambles his business on a shipload of iron and it’s lost in a storm, we’ll help him get back on his feet again, and he and his family won’t suffer from deprivation.  The poverty rate in The Just Alliance is zero, and since most people who are sensible don’t tend to take big risks, only a very few of them have suffered any setbacks at all.  Almost everyone just keeps getting more successful and more prosperous, steadily gaining in status as they do so.

“The poverty rate among players in The Game of Status is seventy percent, and like I said, it would be a lot worse without the ten leagues.  Many of the players don’t tend to produce anything if they can avoid it; they spend all their time trying to get what others have produced.  Much of the wealth and resources that players do produce is lost to destruction, since players will destroy their rivals’ works and possessions if they can’t steal them.  Everything that gets destroyed is a waste, and when a person is killed, all the time and effort they spent gaining skills and abilities is also wasted.  Destroyers and killers are parasites on the productive, and most of them live in poverty and squalor or get killed because the people they’ve wronged and their friends always try to get revenge.

“And the sheer inefficiency of distrust is staggering!  When you deal with untrustworthy people, or if you’re even just faced with the possibility of untrustworthy behavior, you immediately have to start wasting an incredible amount of time and resources on security and on checking what people say for truth.  You can’t do any transactions without constantly having to check everyone for cheating!  The profit and benefit of everything you do is hugely reduced.

“Take a neighborhood food store for example.  If you own such a store in Serminak you can’t trust anyone, so there’s a list of the store’s products and prices on the front, and a little barred window so customers can tell the clerk what they’re ordering.  They have to write down what they want if it’s more than about four items, or the clerk probably gets the order wrong.  The clerk takes the order, locks a cover over the little barred window, and goes around the store gathering the items.  The customer passes their payment through a two-door pass-through, and the clerk gives them their items the same way, and it takes extra time putting the payment and the items in the pass-through and opening and closing and locking the little doors over and over again.  You can’t offer credit because you can’t trust anyone to pay it back, so if a customer needs a big order suddenly and doesn’t have the money on hand to pay for it, they can’t get the items and you don’t get the sale.

“But if you own such a store in The Just Alliance, the customer can just walk into the store and pick what they want, because you can trust them not to steal the merchandise.  If you have a new item that catches their eye, they may look it over and decide to buy it, even if they hadn’t planned on buying such an item before they went in.  You can offer credit and know it’ll be paid back, so you make more sales.  Most importantly, your clerk doesn’t have to do anything but take  money from customers, answer their questions, and maybe put a few items into bags or baskets to make them easier to carry.  So with only one clerk working in your store, you can serve up to twenty times as many customers per day.

“Like I said, I think I could prove all that already.  But by doing it while playing The Game of Status, my achievements and my status will be judged and scored and directly compared with those of the unjust players of the game, which should make my point hard to ignore.  Eventually I hope to convince as many players as possible to give up the game.  I know there’ll always be some of you Sylvan who still choose to play, but over thousands of years, I expect them to be fewer and fewer.  You’ll all gain far more status if you choose
not
to play The Game of Status.

“And one more thing;  If you really think it would be so easy to do away with me, perhaps you’d care to accept my challenge to combat in the aerial arena.  I may be a thirty-year-old elf and you a three thousand-year-old Sylvan, but I don’t fear you.”

“Hah, you’re a feisty little flower, aren’t you?” Dolimatbene laughed.  “And you obviously don’t have a Sylvan’s eye for status, or you’d realize that your status as a fighter is far less than mine.  Ask your elders here if you don’t believe me.  Since this is a somewhat diplomatic event, and I’d gain no status from crushing one such as you, I’ll refrain from tasting your blood today.  Much as I’m sure I’d like it.  I refuse your challenge.”

“She’s probably right, Zayobod.” Karzog stated.  “She and these other elders are all among the twenty most dangerous Sylvan here, and she’s the best.  Among them I’d rank you seventh.  She wouldn’t have much trouble with you.”