The Fire and the Storm - Metric Pro Edition: Fiction, Dragons, Elves, Unicorns, Magic (71 page)

“Therefore, I ask if The Assembly of The Just Alliance will agree to meet here in closed session in one week, three hours before midnight Standard Time?”

“Let the record show that all have agreed.” Somonik announced, then raised his head high and flared his wings.

“And now, we acknowledge the gift of magic and longevity to those who lacked it!  We acknowledge that soon, we will have many new gods!  We acknowledge our gains in warcraft, magic use, psionics, and social organization!  May all of Kellaran offer our gratitude to those who have given us these gifts with a fitting occasion!  We honor the residents of the Hiliani time-bubble!”

This was met by a huge and cacophonous cheering that seemed to shake the world.

To their surprise, Mark, his family, all the residents of Homestead, and the senior Hiliani Sylvan all appeared standing on a transparent surface thirty meters above the dais, just below the great Revealing, having been Translocated and supported by Amirgath.

“Take a bow, you deserve it!” Amirgath laughed at their surprise, so they did all bow to the assembly and the world in response to their audience’s increasingly manic applause.  Then many of them began spontaneously hugging each other as they appreciated the crowd’s gratitude, while others just grinned and waved, and the unicorns pranced and reared.  When they’d basked in the admiration as long as they wanted to, Amirgath put them back in their places as he declared to all the world;  “And now, let the celebration begin!”

Jaunty music was heard throughout the great hall, and the light dimmed a bit more.  Many began dancing, while the Xervian servers became very busy taking orders for snacks, drinks, alcoholic beverages, and other mild intoxicants.  Unlike other meetings here, no chairs had been provided, which promoted mixing and mingling among all the many and diverse attendees.

“Now this is going to be one momentous party!” Kragorram chuckled.

“I think I’ll change into something more appropriate.” Povon smiled.  In a blink, she Translocated to The Lair of The Lord Regent, then returned in a much smaller Simulacrum of herself about five meters long, which put her at eye level with a tall human.

“Good idea, Mother.” Karzog chuckled, and did the same.

So did Kragorram a moment later, and he gave Povon a cuddle with one arm and his tail, which she returned.

“There.  Now we are of a size to dance with most of the attendees, should we wish to.” she laughed.

“I wonder what song this is?  It’s nice!” Talia smiled as she bounced a bit to the lively tune.  “It sure makes it hard to stand still!”

Visinniria appeared among them.  “It’s a sailor’s song from Felion called ‘Coming Into Port.’” she revealed with a smile.  “Selia, Human Goddess of Music, has chosen a selection of music that should appeal to almost everyone of every nation and race.”

“Giant sailors or gnome sailors?” Val asked with a giggle.

“Giant sailors.” Visinniria laughed.

“Ah.  Well, shall we mingle?” Val suggested with a grin.  “I’d sure like to meet some people from all the races I’ve never met before.  I’m sure our void-survival spells will work in the water section, so we can meet the Mer and some of those others in there.  I guess there must be Hidden races under the sea too, because there must be three or four races of people swimming around in there that I’ve never even heard of before.”

“I wonder if they’ll let us go in the Hidden Nation’s woods over there?” Six pondered as they began strolling through the crowd.  As usual, this was made easier by the fact that most of those within fifteen meters of their party moved with them as best they could, and some of them rose up and flew to escape the congestion.

“I’m sure they will.” Visinniria assured him.  “They’re all just here as Simulacrums anyway, so they have absolutely nothing to fear.  They’re just shy, and feel uncomfortable in such a vast and open room.”

“I notice the Sylvan and Serminaki dragons have settled on the opposite side of the room  from The Hidden Nation,  and to some extent, there’s a spectrum of aggression between them.” Fire pointed out.  “And some of those Sylvan must be ours; those are our challenge circles going up over there.”

“That’s Senior Dolimatbene setting things up over there.” Six noted with a grin.  “It looks like her and the rest of them that came out from Hiliani are doing our work for us, as far as popularizing our system among the rest of the Sylvan.  I bet she’s casting the Moderate Drunkenness too!”

“Good!” Val laughed.  “That frees us up for more fun things!  How can we get into the water section, anyway?”

“Just walk through the portals at floor level.” Visinniria informed her.  “When we get closer, you’ll see Selkies using the portals.”

“I wonder where Kovink Seg Mivtz is?” Povon mused.  “Since he’s now officially Prince of The Sylvan Nation, I’m sure he’s here somewhere.”

“I expect he’s with the rest of the gnomes over there.” Alilia said as she indicated to her left.

“Actually, I’ve been looking forward to meeting you, Lord Regent,” a young gnome grinned as he appeared a meter in the air in front of her, “And I am entirely at your service.”

He gave an ornate bow while floating along in front of her at her walking pace, moving backwards, sweeping his pointed red hat off with a grand gesture.

“And I am equally delighted to meet the rest of this august company.” he continued in a comically squeaky voice as he straightened, replaced his hat, and clasped his hands behind his back, still floating through the air backwards.  He was about forty-six centimeters tall, with the white hair and ruddy complexion shared by all of his race.  He wore a finely-tailored all-black suit in a style favored by the elves of Thon, and sported gold buckles on his shiny black shoes.

“You’ve done well for yourself Kovink, and in a short time.” Povon told him with a nod as they all continued making their way to the water-filled section.  “I congratulate you.”

“Thank you, Lord Regent.” he acknowledged with a nod.

There was a pause.

“Ah, was that all you wished to say to me?” Kovink asked in mild surprise.

“Yes.” she nodded.  “I wanted to meet you.  I’ve taken your measure now.  That is all.”

“I see.  In that case, I’ll take my leave of you, and…”

“I have a matter I wish to discuss with you.” Fire bluntly stated as she floated up to confront him.  “You’ve built the most effective criminal and business empire on Kellaran.  What have you done to prepare them to fight the demons?”

“Why nothing, actually.” Kovink answered, surprised again.  “All of us take part in the civic preparedness training in the communities where we live, many of us are reserve members of various militaries, and a few of us are full-time soldiers.  If war with the demons comes to Kellaran, the members of my ‘empire’, as you put it, will all report to the various defense organizations we belong to.

“The Game of Status is just that, Honored Princess; a game, and we are merely playing.  I win partly because I don’t take it too seriously, unlike most of my opponents.  You might note, for instance, that none of my organization’s members have been apprehended by your spell that catches murderers, because we’ve never found it wise to murder anyone.  We’ve killed in legitimate cases of self-defense when we’ve been attacked, and as you might imagine, we’ve been getting quite a lot of that lately.  But your spell doesn’t consider that to be murder for the purposes of The Game.  And rightly so.  We’re not killers.  I see as little use for my organization in warfare as I do for any other sporting team or gaming league.”

“I disagree.” Fire sternly informed him.  “Almost all of the sneakiest, nastiest, and most cunning gnomes work for you, and you’ve instilled a high social cohesion and morale among them.  When we win the tournament and lead Kellaran in war, there’ll be missions that I’ll assign to your command because your group are well suited to them, and most gnomes aren’t.  You’d best be prepared.”

“Hmm.” Kovink went as he considered it.  “If we were going to war against other people, I might think you’re right.  We’d be good at infiltration and covert penetration for the purposes of spying and sabotage, for instance.

“But I can’t picture anyone being able to sneak into a camp or compound of demons disguised as one of them, or as anything else.  And we couldn’t spy on them because we don’t speak the language of demons.”

“Then I’ll make those your first two assignments.” Fire informed him with a glare.  “Demons come in all sizes, including yours, so disguising yourself as one of them is not impossible.  Though remaining undetectable is probably more practical.  You can get the language of the demons from any of the good chronicles of The Demon War.  I recommend Somonik’s.

“I’ll give you a week to show some good progress on those assignments.”

“Now hold on!” Kovink declared with determination as he came to a sudden stop in mid-air, forcing Fire and Povon to stop as well, or just run into him, which they chose not to do.  “I don’t see how you have any authority to assign me to do anything, or anyone who works for me either!  And just what do you propose to do if I refuse?!”

“If you haven’t done your assignment in a week, I’ll just have to help you with it!” Fire told him with a cruel little laugh.  “Whether you want me to or not.”

“If you intend to force me to do anything, you’re in for a big surprise, and maybe out of your mind besides!” Kovink insisted.  “You’re sworn to justice on The Truthstone, and you have no legal authority over me!  If you think you can act against me effectively despite that, then do your worst, and we’ll see what happens to you!”

Their exchange was drawing attention all over the room, and suddenly the huge Revealing was showing and amplifying their conversation.  They both noticed these things, but ignored them.

“First of all, we
are
going to win the tournament and the Leadership of Kellaran, at which time I’ll legally have the authority to assign you to the crappiest task in the military!” Fire insisted.  “Even if you doubt we’ll win, it would be wise of you to prepare for it, just in case we do!

“Second, being sworn to justice doesn’t stop me from using my power, so long as that use is just.  Like forcing you and yours to do your fair share to prepare to defend Kellaran.

“And third, I’m acting this way toward you because I don’t like you.  You’re a very nasty person, Kovink Seg Mivtz,  and what you do goes against the spirit of The Game of Status, if not the rules.

“In fact, I think I’ll teach you a lesson right now.” She held up her hand and a portable Truthstone appeared in it, and she continued speaking without pause.  “I’m joining The Game of Status for the next thirty-two seconds, and I swear to abide by the rules of it while I’m playing.”

The stone disappeared from her right hand as her left shot out and grabbed the gnome by the hair at the back of his head and knocked his forehead into hers with an impact that must have hurt them both.

“Think with me a moment Kovink, that’s a good lad, thanks.” she growled as she glared into his eyes from so close that their eyelashes almost touched, and she cast a complex Sphere of Protection around the two of them to protect the onlookers from the coming conflict.

Everyone with a journeyman’s level of psionic awareness could see that he was fighting her with everything he had, as easily as everyone could see him struggling against her grasp and casting a variety of magic attacks.  Sometimes the contained conflagration in the Sphere was all that could be seen of them.  She appeared to ignore everything he did, and in a few seconds he stopped struggling.

“I have you.” she growled.  “I win.  I’m now Ruling Princess Fire of The Sylvan Nation, and first in The Game of Status.  Acknowledge it.”

“You are first, Princess.” he answered in a choked voice.

“That’s ‘Mistress’ to you.” she growled.  “That’s what slaves call their female owners.”

“Yes Mistress.” he gasped.

“Excellent.  My time in The Game of Status is now up, and the status of first in the game now returns to you.  Don’t you feel victorious and proud?” she chuckled as she thrust him away from her hard enough to make him stumble in mid-air.

“Uh, not really, Mistress.” he gasped as he tried to regain his composure.

“No you don’t.”  she continued.  “And furthermore, I’m not returning rule of the Sylvan to you.  The position of Prince or Princess of The Sylvan Nation is no longer up for grabs in The Game of Status, and I now legally rule all Sylvan except those on Hiliani.  Who I legally co-rule.

“The position will now be decided by open challenge.  Any who want to challenge me for it can step up and take their best shot, anytime they want.

“Now excuse us, we’re going swimming.”

She brushed past him, Povon gently but firmly pushed him out of her way, and he disappeared as his face went purple in humiliated rage.

“Fire, you’re an incorrigible little scamp!” Alilia laughed as she swept the girl up in her arms.  “Just remember that the Sylvan are a vassal nation under the Lord of Serminak and his Regent.  You’ll need their permission on any matters of policy or major administrative decisions.”

“Oh, I think I can handle the Lord of Serminak and his Dragon Lord Regent!” Fire laughed with glances at Mark and Povon, just as they reached the water wall.

The portals to the water were semi-transparent blue hemispheres on the floor halfway through the wall.  They saw four Selkies swim into the three meter high dome from the water side, the water seemed to drain away inside it, they alighted on the floor, and stood there waiting.

“What are they doing?” Talia asked of no one in particular.

“Adjusting as the pressure changes.” Visinniria informed her.  “The water on the other side of the portal is about two hundred and fifteen meters deep, and the weight of it all causes a lot of pressure this far down.  Their bodies have no trouble dealing with the pressure, but it takes them a minute or so to adjust to the change, so we reduce the pressure gradually.  The pressure is so great that if they suddenly Translocated from there to here, they just might explode.

“Without magic assistance, it would take many hours for a human or an elf’s body to adjust to that much pressure, and even longer to adjust back to normal air pressure.  Hurrying the process causes potentially fatal internal injuries.