The Fire and the Storm - Metric Pro Edition: Fiction, Dragons, Elves, Unicorns, Magic (69 page)

Bukpuk was a young adult gargoyle, and one of their most promising clerics.  He had been eating the evening meal with his family when the attack came.  The stone wall of their home was suddenly ripped away with a deafening cracking, crunching roar, and the demons were among them and killing them with shocking suddenness.  In a second his father, brother, and his uncles were burned to death, his mother was bitten in half, his younger sister was grabbed and shoved completely into a huge demon’s mouth and chewed.

Bukpuk Translocated out in an absolute panic, using a transportation medallion his temple had received from the unicorns, and he emerging in the air outside the village.  He could neither force himself to attack them nor allow himself to flee and abandon his people.  But in seven seconds there was almost nothing left of the village, and one of the demons noticed him floating in the air behind them.  Bukpuk fled before he could be attacked again; Translocating as far south as he could.

The great Revealing reverted to the view of Fire’s face, and she looked around for a moment, noting the shock, disgust, fear and nausea on faces all around them.

“Now some of you think that was a bit harsh for this occasion, knowing that your children are watching all over the world.  But I
am
a child, and I’ve had to live with the horror of what we’re going to face since before I was even born.  None of us will be able to hide from it if the war we’re facing goes bad.

“That’s what makes us four what we are, far more than our heritage or our training or the quality of the family and community we grew up in.  We were born and raised to face the demons, and defeat them, and that’s why we try so hard.

“Besides, that was the very first demon attack.  They all got worse from there.

“Now I’ve instilled a suitably serious mood in you.  I hope you carry it with you after tonight.  Stay healthy and get ready to fight the demons.  Nothing else really matters.

“Hilsith’s spell to end aging is incredibly important, but it won’t matter to most of you if you get killed by the demons in a few years.  At this point, her gift of magic to those who lacked it is far more relevant.

“Today, while Linked with the greatest minds and most powerful mortal spell casters on Kellaran, we solved all the other problems we wanted to solve, then we started working on my father’s challenge from the gods; finding out how to make mortals into gods.

“Father and I both had different ideas of how to do it at almost the same time, so he separated half the Link, and he solved the problem.

“My approach was different; Earlier today the goddess Neela had given my father the list of abilities known as The Prerequisites for Divinity.  Rather than try to achieve a new state of being that allowed me to do all of those things, we took the list piecemeal; and one by one we figured out how to do everything on the list except one.  And like most of the gods, and my father, we have other abilities that might be considered divine in magnitude that some or all of the gods don’t have, and aren’t on the list of Prerequisites.

“But we’re definitely not gods.  We’re just four young mortals with the same abilities and power as the gods.  Now we of Kellaran are in the same situation as the Triax; some of our most powerful mortals are more powerful and more influential than the weakest of our gods, and so the hierarchy of power and influence isn’t as straightforward as it used to be.

“Now I want to discuss the matter of trust.  Without trust we are nothing, we can’t be friends or even allies if we don’t trust one another.

“You think that all of us who are following this meeting are either sworn to justice on a powerful artifact, or confined like the Sylvan on Hiliani.  And so we can be trusted.  But there’s one who’s watching tonight who’s not sworn, someone who faked having sworn on The Truthstone of Falgaroth at the great gathering to celebrate the end of The War of The Founding.  Someone who’s been manipulating everyone for longer than any of our ancestors have lived, someone who has even changed the development of the characteristics of many of the races alive today.  Someone who is not even fully sane, by his own standards or anyone else’s.

“Of course there’s only one person that could be.  We became suspicious of him from historical facts we learned on Hiliani, and since we’ve been out in the world and had our big breakthrough session today, we were able to confirm most of our suspicions.

“And because we’re warlocks, we can do something about it.

“We Call and Compel Glup of The Zurb to account for his actions.”

The four of them released a mighty set of pre-cast compound spells, and forced the First God of Kellaran to appear in physical form upon The Truthstone of Falgaroth.  His double row of antennae writhed in violent and seemingly random patterns, and the rest of his shiny black carapace was held almost immobile, though he seemed to struggle in futility against magic bonds.

“Don’t fight it, Glup, you know you deserve it.” Fire told him with a snarl of concentration as they held the god.  “And besides, you know that if you fight us about it, there’ll be big consequences for everyone here.

“Thank you.”

The four of them visibly relaxed as Glup ceased resisting them.

“Glup’s intentions are honorable and simple; he seeks the continuation of intelligent life on Kellaran.” Fire continued as she turned to the audience.  “This is understandable, since he spent tens of millions of years as the only thinking being in the world after his people died, and intelligent mortal life was absent from the world.

“But his methods have displayed a complete disregard for the races and individuals that he’s manipulated.

“He gave intelligence and magic to the first nine true dragons who ever existed, and that is how the race of dragons began.

“He did the same for the first generation of unicorns, the gargoyles, and most of the other races whose individuals are all inherently magic, including the trolls, the Swarm, and most of the races of The Hidden Nation.  The races whose members lack magic for the most part developed naturally, including the selkies, the humans, and their descendent races.  Including the elves; though they are a highly magical race, they developed naturally from humans.  And of course the Sylvan were initiated by the demons.

“He affected the gestation of my father and a few others throughout history to make them warlocks, to deal with various crises that came up, but for the most part, he’s kept the secret of the use of the second Source to himself.  But he didn’t count on Father being able to pass on the gift to his offspring.  Glup didn’t count on us three, and he’s never bothered to build very good defenses against warlocks, since he made sure that there were usually none of them around almost all the time, and never more than one.

“He has manipulated the selection of the gods, and he makes sure that any Candidates who aren’t accepted by him don’t achieve true immortality, and that they fade from history, usually in less than a million years.

“And by the way, his biggest lie may have been that only a few gods could understand him, and only then after many years of study, and that he could only make himself understood to them.  He understands every language we have, and can converse physically or psionicly in all of them.

“But worst of all, during long periods of relative peace and tranquility, he has occasionally instigated wars, simply to ‘cull the herd’, so to speak.

“Isn’t that right, Glup?  Of course The Truthstone doesn’t affect you, which is how you faked having been bound by it, so we’re going to Compel you.

“Tell the truth, and answer physically in Trade Common.” she instructed as the four of them cast on him again.

“All right, dammit!” Glup groused in a raspy voice that sounded very strange coming from his crustacean mouth.  His antennae were held absolutely rigid as he spoke.  “It’s all true!  What are you going to do about it?!”

“That’s not for us to decide.” Fire firmly stated.  “Our purpose with you here today is merely to reveal the truth.  I’m sure The Assembly and the rest of The Pantheon will have things to say to you about it after this meeting, though they might want to wait until my father and the other new gods have ascended before they make any decisions.  If they want our help with enforcing their decision on you, they’ll have it.

“Until then, you can go.”

Glup disappeared.

Fire graced the gathering with her intense gaze for a few moments more.  Then she returned the great Revealing to a view of the entire dais again, relinquished control of it, and stepped back.

There was complete silence.  Everyone, gods and mortal both, were thunderstruck by what they’d seen.

Karzog struck a proud pose, and spoke.  “All Kellarani are facing great and rapid changes, and a great challenge ahead.

“Do we have the best possible leadership in place to guide us in these momentous times?  Perhaps we do, but how can we know?

“We can have a great tournament, mediated by the gods!  This we proposed today, and the gods have agreed to organize and operate the tournament.  They said they will call it The Tournament of Governors, since we proposed the event and we’re the only currently serving governors.  We are honored by their choice.

“The tournament will allow the entrants the chance to prove themselves to be the most capable candidate to lead Kellaran in war against the demons.

“Anyone who honestly believes you have the capability to lead us against the demons will have a chance to form a team under your command.  The gods will decide if you and your team really are qualified to take part in the tournament.  You can have anyone you want on your command team to provide you with creativity and advice, and you can delegate command of parts of our forces to them, if they agree to help you.  If you want to lead a team and you’ve also been invited to serve on another’s command team, you can do both.  Before the tournament you can use the training and advice of anyone who will help you, including the gods.”

Karzog settled back on his haunches again, and Six stepped forward once more.

“Quewanak, Draconian God of Dreaming, has generously agreed to give us four the few more hours of training that we think we’ll need.” he stated with supreme confidence.  “And we fully intend to win this tournament, and to lead Kellaran against the demons.  But even if we don’t, we’ll know who deserves to lead us, so we can have our most effective leadership in place when the time comes.  We think even the gods should compete, because for now, beating the demons is all that really matters.

“We thank you for your time and attention.”

With that the four of them bowed deeply to the assembly, and Translocated back to their places.

Mark reappeared on the dais, grinning at them with pride across the thirty-two meters that separated them.

“Our kids.  The Governors of Hiliani.  Aren’t they something?” he casually asked the immense room, and the vast crowd gave a huge cheer.

His demeanor became more serious.  “All right, I’m casting the spell to detect those with divine potential.  Mind you, I don’t know if I’ll find the same people that the gods would call Candidates for Divinity, I’m just finding people who have the potential for my process to work for them.  Okay, here goes.”

He cast with a slight motion of his hand, which was the only detectable sign of it.  Then he took a deep breath, let it out, and gave a rueful smile.  “Thank you.  We…”

He was interrupted by the appearance of Quewanak.

“Mark, please wait here with me until your spell has finished making it’s selections.”

“Ah, all right.” Mark responded in surprise with a raised eyebrow.

Almost immediately a voice cried out from the crowd in Elvish; “I’ve been selected!” and a giant jumped up with his arms raised and declared in Common;  “I was chosen!”

“As I suspected.” Quewanak nodded.  “Your spell propagates outward from you.  You learn of the closest chosen first, and in three minutes you’ll know those on the far side of the world.”

“Two and a half, now.” Mark nodded.

“Yes.  Please inform me when the process is finished.”

Mark nodded, and they waited.  A buzz of conversation arose in the room as people filled the time with talk.

The rest of Mark’s party sensed that Quewanak meant to do something important, and almost all of them knew they’d been chosen by the spell.  They patiently waited in silence.

Then Mark nodded to Quewanak, and told him; “Okay, I know them all, and they know they’ve been selected.”

“Excellent.  Now, if you’d be so kind, please take a quick Reading of them to answer these questions;  How many of them want to wait another seven weeks to achieve divinity?  How many of them want it right now, how many of them want it eagerly, how many of them want it desperately?”

Mark gave a rueful chuckle and a shake of his head before he answered.  “A lot of them are pretty eager to have it done.  As I’m sure you knew.”

“I did.” Quewanak nodded.  “And I want you to know something.

“In my last moments of mortality, after I was fully Healed by Amirgath and just before I became Draconian God of Dreaming and the one hundred sixty-fourth god of my race, I was the most advanced Candidate there had ever been.  I had already lived far longer than most of the gods, and was the eldest mortal who had ever lived, of any race.  My forty million year slumber forced me to concentrate on and develop my mental abilities to a greater extent than any mortal had ever done.  And my newly restored physical health and vitality only increased my abilities.”

A bit of a buzz rose among the gathering as the public at large learned that he was now a god, but he ignored them and continued speaking with Mark with a friendly intensity.

“Yet despite all that, and despite having had more than seven years of subjective time to get used to being a god, I have still only begun to explore my new capabilities.  Most new gods don’t feel fully comfortable with their new state of being and their new abilities for two thousand years or more.

“The Nexus and the war with the demons will be upon us in less than two years.  Every single second that these new gods have to train and learn and explore their new capabilities could be crucial.