The Fire and the Storm - Metric Pro Edition: Fiction, Dragons, Elves, Unicorns, Magic (57 page)

“It is.” Povon smiled.  “We’ll check with your local Justicers, and give them any help they need to recover your property.  Other than that, it seems our work here is done, as you’ve said.

“I do apologize for the loss of your property and for the suffering you’ve endured.  I’ve not yet decided whether I’ll put systems in place to prevent similar things from happening to good people such as yourself, or whether I’ll fulfill your petition’s request and end The Game of Status outside Serminak.  Either way, steps will be taken to ensure that such things will not happen again.”

“Well you know where I stand on that.” Goodwife Goslab insisted, refusing to be intimidated by the silver dragon.  “Thank you and good fortune, Lord Regent.”

“And to you, Goodwife.”

“Having your property back doesn’t compensate you for the suffering you’ve endured.” Mark told her.  “The cube details his crimes in this case, but we’ll also investigate all of his criminal activities and assets.  Everything else he owns will be confiscated and awarded to yourself and other non-players who’ve been affected by his crimes.”

Zone Inspector Rayn had been standing with his hand against the cube while he Read the dwarf within it.  Now he turned and addressed Goodwife Goslab.  “In your case, that should come to the equivalent of about thirty thousand gold OverMarks, to be divided among your family.”

Her eyebrows rose as her face lit up.  “Thank you.  That amount will be more than sufficient to compensate for the suffering we’ve endured from losing our property and being evicted from our home.  Nothing can balance the loss of my husband, but that was his own damn fault, and I get to see his killer punished, which is a fine thing.  I think justice has been satisfied.”

“Good.” Mark nodded with a smile.  “Good day to you and yours, Goodwife Goslab.”

“Good day to you and yours, my beloved Prince.” she returned with a warm smile.  For the first time since they’d arrived, she relaxed from her proud posture as she graced him with a deep and elegant curtsey.

Mark accepted Povon’s Link and her lead as she directed her team to the local Hall of Justice for a quick stop, before dealing with the next case on her list.

It had taken over an hour for The Governors to formulate the automated and self-duplicating spells for detecting, catching, and punishing murderers.  They’d only managed to finish it so fast because they’d asked Sheramiv to arrange a few hundred volunteers from around Hilia who weren’t intellectually busy and were willing to lend a bit of their intellectual capacity for a few minutes.  Each volunteer was left with the memory of a few dozen complex sub-spells that weren’t really of much use on their own.

The four had used every candle’s worth of power they had available to them to cast the spell, including all that was stored in the power-stones they’d been were given, and they’d had to add seven minutes to the process while the last of the required power was collected from Laylas Valley and Focus Mountain.

Finally they unleashed their creation upon the world, and followed its progress until they were certain that it was functioning as designed.  Then they took a moment to bask in the satisfaction of a difficult task done well.

“All right, we got that done pretty fast, and our parents should still be busy for at least a couple of hours.”
Six stated. 
“So this is the time for Karz’s visit.  We follow your lead, Karz.”

“All right, thanks.”
Karz nodded. 
“Much as we may not wish to, it would be smart for us to be diplomatic.  So you should use full simulacrums and translation.  I’ll use a Simulacrum too, I think, just for the psychological advantage, and the safety it provides.  About average size would be best.

“Are we ready?  I’ll bring us in about four hundred meters out.”

In the skies over south-western Serminak, above a forbidding range of volcanic mountains, four dragons emerged near the mightiest peak in the region, the crater of which had been filled in and built up to a point with a flat top only five hundred and fifty meters wide.  A cone of darkness expanded upward from the mountaintop, obscuring what was occurring there and blocking the mid-morning brightness for as high as the eye could see.  But they knew what was within the darkness, since they’d seen it in Readings.

Each of the four were about forty-six meters in length from tail-tip to snout.  Karz looked the same only adult and larger; still uniformly glossy black over every part of him.

Fire had colored herself to match her nickname, being red on her legs and belly, varying in streaky patterns through orange to light yellow along her spine and on the top of her head, with glowing orange eyes.  Though not realistic enough to convince anyone that she was actually on fire, it was done well enough to provide an amusing facsimile of it, particularly when she was moving quickly, while simultaneously accentuating the lines of her muscles and contours.

Val had kept close to her true coloring, being black on her wings and along her sides, silver on her back and belly, and her eyes were still a vivid dark violet.

Six had colored every part of himself that same dark violet, with a reflective metallic sheen to his scales that made him emit cascades of violet sparkles in the sunlight. 
“I just love the color of your eyes.”
he privately mentioned to Val, and she privately giggled back.

It didn’t escape her mind that he had excluded both Karz, and Fire, whose eyes were normally the same color as her own.  It pleased her a little, in an indefinable way, but there was no time to think about that now.  She mentally filed it away for future consideration as Karz psionicly announced their arrival in Grande High Draconian, and with considerable volume.

“I am Karzog.  You are my blood-father.  We would speak with you.”

A moment later the response came in the same language, and just as loud. 
“You may approach.”

They flew forward and entered both the cone of darkness and an Illusion that encompassed the same volume, making everything within seem to glow just enough to be seen, without producing any real light.  The stars and moons overhead glittered and glowed like it was midnight.

Zarkog reclined upon the stone with his eyes pressed to the twin eyepieces of a great device.  They recognized the components of the Psionic Distant Listener, but those components were now only a small part of a greater device.  The immense hundred and eighty meter long bulk of the eldest mortal dragon filled a significant portion of the mountaintop.  His physical, magical, and psionic presence was impressive and intimidating.  He was now completely flat black, having removed the gold and silver accents he’d worn as Dragon Lord of Serminak and the glossy reflectivity that had gone with them.  Even with the Illusory glow, it was difficult to physically see him in the darkness.

In a moment of mild panic, Six checked to see if Zarkog was still sworn to justice, and detected the Marking of The Just Alliance only six millimeters wide located just beneath the base of his tail.  The size and location of the Marking said much about Zarkog’s opinion of his involuntary vow of justice, but the vow was still in effect.

“I have come to ask you what changes you made to me while I was still in the shell.” Karz bluntly stated, snarling and growling even more aggressively than the language required, waving his wings and writhing his tail for emphasis.

“You are me, reborn.” Zarkog returned just as bluntly in his awesomely thunderous voice, without looking away from the eyepieces.  “Not as I was when
I
was born, but as I was when you were conceived, with all of the improvements I have made in myself over the last eighty-seven million years.  You think Tekritimaki is your blood-mother, but she is not, for you did not have one.  She was merely the female whose body created your egg and laid you.  You inherited none of her traits or characteristics in any way.  You are me, younger.”

“I see.” Karzog stated.  “So I ask again, what are the changes you have made in yourself, and in me?”

“My size is obvious, beyond that I will not say specifically.” Zarkog answered, still gazing through the device.  “To do so would reveal the details of too many of my own advantages, which would be tactically and strategically unwise for me.  Suffice to say that you are inherently superior to every other dragon who has ever lived, in every way, with the obvious exception of myself.  Beyond that, you will have to discover your capabilities for yourself.”

“I thank the Source that I did not inherit your personality.” Karz growled.  “I realize that your observations of the demons are important to all of Kellaran.  None-the-less, you are being discourteous.  I think you could spare me a glance as a sign of basic respect.”

Zarkog waited a long and leisurely moment, making an obvious point, before he turned from the device and considered his son.  “What a ridiculous costume.  You earn no respect for trying to appear more impressive than you are in this immature way.  You are a barely-born infant, and you are verging on serious disrespect yourself.  We agree on one thing.  You have not inherited my personality, more’s the pity.”

“The appearance of this Simulacrum is no more mature than my abilities, which are far more advanced that you would expect from me at my age.  My companions chose to wear such things as a courtesy, so that they could converse fluently in this language.  We chose this size so that you wouldn’t have to strain your tired old eyes to see the subtleties of our communications.”

Zarkog stared at him for a moment, then suddenly rocked forward and back with his tail raised a bit a few times; the laughter of dragons.  “My tired old eyes can see you with sufficient acuity still.  But now you have piqued my interest, and I have considered you with almost half of my attention.  You are indeed correct.  You have emerged from the time-bubble early, and you have only experienced twenty-two years.  Your determination and your eloquence are both far beyond your age.  And your mind…” Zarkog trailed off as he Probed the youngster psionicly, and met a blank wall of Shielding.  He pushed harder, then harder still, to no avail.

“Amazing.  You have the finest Psionic Shielding of any being I have encountered beyond the gods.  Now I am truly curious.  I ask you with all due respect and courtesy.  Remove the silly costume and let me see you, and share your surface thoughts.”

“I will let you see what I really look like.” Karz stated as he altered his Simulacrum to have his true appearance.  “But that is all.  When you have given me the specifics of how you have altered me, I will share more with you.”

“Hmm.  You look as I expected you to.” Zarkog stated, and turned his attention to his son’s three companions.  He focused on Fire.

“That is very attractive.  If I were still Lord of Serminak and that was more than a costume, I would rape you quite vigorously.”

“You might have tried.” Fire returned derisively.  “One of us would have died before that happened, and it might not have been me.  And if it was, you would still have to fornicate my corpse.”

“So you think.” Zarkog snorted, with the equivalent of a chuckle.  “Many others thought the same, and were proven wrong.”

“None were me.” Fire shot back, and snorted two rings of fire from her nostrils.

He considered her again.  “You know, I think you are not really a dragon.  And if that is the case, you are more fluent in Draconian than any other small folk I have met.

“Why are you here?  To provide this cub with moral support, or to marvel at my magnificence?  Or perhaps to try to protect him from me, should I overcome the vow of justice?”

“We each have our own reasons for wishing to speak with you.” Fire stated.  “My own personal reason is to marvel, not at your magnificence, but at the most colossal failure in the history of Kellaran.  You could have had it
all
, you could have ruled the world, you could have been the greatest person who ever lived, you could have saved us from the demons.  You could have
ensured
it!

“If you had announced your discovery of the approaching demons and spheres of the Triax to the entire world when you discovered them, and offered your plans and your leadership, I estimate that fifty-six percent of all the intelligent beings on Kellaran would have taken you up on it initially.  With the fear of the demons fresh in their minds, and the capabilities that you could display, they would have been eager for a leader of your stature, particularly one with a good plan.  With the support of those fifty-six percent it would only have taken you three years to pacify Serminak, and once that was done, an overwhelming majority of the rest would have fallen in behind your banner.

“The entire world would have had
two hundred and seventy-three years
to prepare for the demons, not the two years that you left us with your distrusting stupidity!  Your failure lay in your contempt for the smaller races, and your resulting failure to learn to understand them sufficiently!

“The Just Alliance and the enforced vows of justice would both have been unnecessary, curse it all!”

“You are entirely correct.” Zarkog calmly agreed, surprising his young visitors.  “And now it is your party who are being discourteous.  You have admitted that you are disguised, and you have had ample time to introduce yourselves, yet you have failed to do so.  If you wish to continue speaking with me here, you will reveal your identities.  While your use of the Draconian language is impressive and appreciated, it is not necessary.”

“Fine.” Fire said in Trade Common as she altered her Simulacrum to be identical to her real appearance, and her siblings followed suit a second later.  “Know that we are the children of the Key to The Just Alliance.  I am Princess Helemia Longstrider, known as Fire.  He is my twin brother Prince Markhan Reginus Longstrider the Sixth, knows as Six.  Our mother is Princess Talia of The Nine Valleys.  She is Princess Valentia Longstrider, known as Val, daughter of Princess Alilia of The People of Life.  And we are the new warlocks.  With Karzog, we are The Governors of Hiliani.”