The Fire and the Storm - Metric Pro Edition: Fiction, Dragons, Elves, Unicorns, Magic (85 page)

She took a deep breath and slowly let it out as the others gave her their attention.  “There.  I finally said it out loud.”  She looked to her parents.  “I finally told you.  It feels good.”

“It’s lucky I had time to ensure our privacy before you blurted that out.” Six teased.

Fire nodded.  “Thanks.  And we intend to continue to ensure our privacy and absolute secrecy on the matter.  I intend to never speak openly of this again.  Ever.  But I wanted you to know.”

Talia gently floated her Fire over into a loving and supportive hug from all three of her parents.  “Congratulations darling.  We’re glad you chose to tell us, and we will always support you and Karzog in every way.

“And now we can confess that we already knew.  Povon figured it out from Karzog’s behavior and by simply checking for who was always unaccounted for when he was.  Hiliani is a pretty small place that way.  Anyway, she felt that she would be breaking Karzog’s confidence somewhat by telling us, but she also felt that we should know about it, so she swore us to secrecy about her telling us about it before she actually told us what she’d just sworn us to secrecy about.”

They all had to chuckle or giggle at that for a moment before Talia continued.

“Kragorram also knows, she told him too.  But she most certainly doesn’t want anyone else to know.

“In order to protect Karzog, Povon checks quite thoroughly to see if anyone else has figured it out, and so far no one has, with the possible exception of Quewanak.  She can’t check him without him knowing it, and knowing what she’s checking for.  It’s quite likely that he’s figured it out, but Povon is pretty sure that it’s not the kind of thing he’d care about, one way or the other.  If anyone else starts to figure it out, Povon will probably tamper with their minds just enough to make them forget about it.

“It’s no one’s business but your own, but Povon felt, and we agree, that we still need to know what’s going on in your lives so that we can do what we can to protect you, since you’re all still our dependent children, and still a long way from adulthood.  We wouldn’t intrude on your privacy, but that doesn’t mean that we’re not going to be observant.”

“I understand.” Fire nodded, as Six and Val joined them on the sofa beside Mark and held hands.

“You all know that Six prophesized that he and I were each other’s destined loves.” Val quietly stated.  “I was the last of us to know.  Six told me the last time we were here, before the big brainstorming session.  We haven’t even spoken of it to each other since then, but the knowledge is always there, coloring my thoughts, always.

“I don’t know if it would be smarter for us to try to defy the prophesy, but we’re not going to.  We don’t want to.  Besides, right now it doesn’t make any real difference anyway, and it won’t until we’re old enough to want to consummate our love.  Without sex, it doesn’t really matter to the rest of the world if I love him as a friend, or as a brother, or as a husband.  Or all three at once.

“But part of me really wishes we didn’t have to keep it secret to avoid problems.  I wish I could do as you will today, and declare our love to the world, but I know we’ll never be able to have a real wedding.”

“Sure you will, same as me and Karz.” Fire assured her with a supportive caress on her shoulder.  “We’ll just have to do it in complete disguise under assumed names in a very small gathering in a very remote and obscure place.  After the war we’ll let ourselves fade from the public eye for a while first, and that’ll help too.”

“Thanks.”  Val smiled.  “But that’s not the same as doing it here in Laylas chapel, and feeling the magic binding and the magic love that this place adds to the marriage.”

She looked to Six and held his eyes with hers.   “So today, at the same time that Mother is saying her vows to Father, in my heart and in my mind, I’ll be saying my vows to you.  We should be close enough to them that the power released by their vows should cover ours, if such silent vows can even trigger the binding.”

“I’ll do the same, as Father says his vows.” Six quietly assured her.

“As will Karz and I.” Fire decided.

“I think that would be beautiful.” Mark told them.  “But please, only do so if you’re absolutely and completely certain that it’s the right thing to do.  All of you.”

“Yes Father.” Six assured him.  “We fully realize the power and importance of such vows.”

He tilted his head to the side a bit and said; “Others are arriving.”

Mark’s grandfather Markham the Third and his grandmother Sana were the first to join them a moment later, emerging from the door to the stairs from the lower floor and looking in their twenties.  Over the next seven minutes they were joined by Caria, Yazadril, Nemia, Hilsith, Dalia, Bezedil, Povon, Kragorram, Karzog, Silaran, Equemev, Somonik, and six cousins and friends of Alilia from Heartwood.

The Dragons assumed smaller Simulacrums, but the room was still pleasantly full for a while.  Then the bridesmaids and groomsmen left to take their places on the dais.

Eventually the chandelier chimed with a shimmering descending arpeggio from the centermost crystal outward to the perimeter, and an orchestra was heard outside beginning a stately piece with haunting harmonies.

“Were should assume our formation.” Somonik declared.  “I believe the correct order is myself as Master of The Ceremony, then the groom’s party in the order of Mark, Markhan the Senior and Sana, then Six as best man.  Then Talia’s party; her, her parents, her maid of honor, then Alilia followed by Caria, then Val.

When they were all lined up Somonik formally declared; “We go forth with dignity.”, and led the way down the wide curving stairway within the red wood of the great tree.  They moved across the great hall on the first floor, following Somonik until he stopped before the open double doors facing the aisle that led to the dais.

They did so just as the last of the bridesmaids and groomsmen were making their way from the aisle to the third-highest tier of the dais.  It was lucky that there was plenty of room on the dais.  Kragorram and Povon assumed smaller Simulacrums to make room, but Karzog, Silaran, and Equemev did not, and they shared the third tier with eight elves.  Karzog did sit up straight and wrap his tail around himself to conserve space.

Once they were in place, Somonik stepped forth into the aisle, then gracefully rose into the air and flew at a slow walking pace above the aisle, his simulacrum's three-meter wingspan slowly beating in time to the music.  Above the center of the top tier of the dais he turned in the air, and alighted on the marble facing back down the aisle.

Mark stepped forth, Markhan and Sana just behind him, Six in the center of the aisle behind them, and made their measured way to the dais and up to it’s second  level, then around it to the left.

Talia and her party followed, stepping gracefully in time to the music, then Alilia and her party.

As Mark and his party waited for his brides to walk the hundred meters or so down the aisle, there was time to look about for a moment and to appreciate the decorations and the guests.

It was perfectly twilight, balanced between light and dark.  Mark wasn’t sure what time it was here, but his suspicions that this was artificial were confirmed over the coming hours, when the twilight failed to darken into night.

All the decorations were a single great Illusion; the markings for the aisle, the trunks of the great redwood trees all around them up to where they were hidden by branches hundreds of meters up, and floating through the air between six and eighteen meters above them.  All were flowering plants that seemed to be made of light itself, glowing and shining in every color of the rainbow, slowly but visibly growing and shrinking and blooming and changing all the time, each incredibly detailed and beautiful.  It was breathtaking.  Mark made a mental note to thank and congratulate Caria about it.

Around the perimeter of the gathering the ninety-nine dragons who ruled Xervian Draconia lounged on the moss with their mates, then inward from them were the unicorns of The Senate of The People of Morning with their mates.  The rulers of all the other nations of The Just Alliance were arranged in groups inward from there, in approximate order of size.  Those who had been invited as personal family and friends of the brides and groom were closest to the dais.  All were arrayed in their finery and formalwear, and they were an impressive group to behold.  Officially, the rulers of The Sylvan Nation and Serminaki Draconia were present on the dais, but it was felt that those peoples shouldn’t be completely unrepresented among the guests, so Zwak Deathbringer, Plozofen Dolimatbene, and Povon and Kragorram’s Serminaki assistants were also present with their escorts.

Those who preferred it were seated in comfortable armchairs.

Also present were the fourteen gods who represented their nations in The Assembly of The Just Alliance, though they were making an effort to not be noticed very much, in order to not distract from the proceedings.  The leaders of The Hidden Nation were also in attendance, but Mark could detect no evidence of their presence.

When all were in place upon the dais Somonik flared his wings for a moment, calling for silence as the orchestra stilled.  He needed no magic enhancement to make his voice heard by all, but it was provided by the event staff anyway.

“Welcome one and all, gracious people of every nation, to an event of great joy and importance.  We are gathered here today in peace and harmony, in this most revered place, to join three lives into one, and to join three hearts into one, with bonds and oaths of love and honor, proudly sworn in assembly to be witnessed by all.

“As these monarchs are united in love, so will their nations be united in peace, harmony, and co-operation.

“Who speaks for the bride Princess Alilia, Monarch of The People of Life?”

Alilia stepped up to the top tier of the dais and nodded to Somonik, turned and regarded the gathering, then spoke.

“I am Princess Alilia.  I speak for myself.

“While we were within the Hiliani time-bubble, I approached Mark to ask to bear his child.  I had only ever had one child in all my long life, my beautiful son Prince Bezedil, and for a while I thought I had lost him.  I yearned most powerfully for another child, but it seemed impossible.  My marriage had failed, and perhaps my fertility as well.

“Yet the Healer Hilsith and the Midwife Yzell were both quite sure that if I were mated by Prince Mark, I would probably bear his child, and likely from our very first mating, so potent was his seed.

“And so I asked Mark to give me his child.”

She paused and took a deep breath, and smiled at Mark, then at Talia.

“I swear all that is true, but I realize now that it was also merely an excuse.  I was, and am, deeply in love with Prince Mark and Princess Talia, and I would have done anything to have their love, and to share their lives.

“They told me that if I could earn their love, I could bear Mark’s child, and I thank all the powers that be that I was able to do so.  For me, it’s been almost eight years since then, and that entire time has been a whirlwind of joy and love.

“I have grown and changed so much since then, when I had thought I was beyond being capable of such fundamental change.  My character has improved as much as my ability, and I can assure you all that I am far more capable as a wizard, a warrior, a strategist, and a monarch than I was when I entered the time-bubble with them.

“The love of our children has been a wonder of happiness that has enriched me beyond my imaginings.

“I have ruled The People of Life for over forty-seven centuries, and for much of that time the administration of my nation has occupied my every waking thought.  Yet I have been so captivated by my loving family that I never even considered what a proud and beneficial political alliance might be made for my people through my marriage to Mark and Talia, until my Regent Smogin spoke to me about it yesterday.

“And then I had to consider; My own feelings aside, will this alliance be good for my people?

“The fact is that Mark and Talia’s character affect everything they do, and everything they control.  They are fair, just, considerate, friendly, realistic, innovative, and brilliant.  There is no doubt that these words also accurately describe Hilia as a nation.  With every passing day, these words also describe Serminak and the nations of it’s people, since Mark came to rule over them.

“Who would have ever thought one year ago that these words could describe Serminak?  But Mark and Talia change everyone and everything they come in contact with, including me, and they change everything for the better.”

She paused for a long moment.

“During my reign my people had almost stagnated.  Like every other nation, we were swept up in the wave of prosperity that has washed over the world in the last sixty years, as we all accepted the use of magic in every aspect of our lives.  But beyond that, life in the lands of The People of Life had changed very little over the last five thousand years.

“I have been shaken from my patterns of behavior and set on a better path since I put my life into Mark’s hands, and the People of Life will be shaken from their patterns of behavior if we integrate our government with that of Hilia and Serminak.  But we will all be better for it.  We must embrace the unstoppable revolution that is sweeping Kellaran, and examine every aspect of our lifestyles.  We must have the intelligence to recognize what is good and beneficial about our culture, and have the courage to cast aside what is outdated, even if it is comforting in its familiarity.

“As yet, Mark and Talia have not given any of their attention to how The People of Life and their lands are governed and administered.  But with this marriage we are joined, and they will be an equal voice with mine in the affairs of The People of Life, as they have made me an equal voice in the affairs of Hilia and Serminak.  They will learn everything of our nation, and they will have suggestions as to how we can improve, and I will almost certainly follow their suggestions.

“I am still the preferred choice of my people to govern them, and I ask them to continue to have faith in me, and in my judgment.  Though we are giving up a measure of our independence, we will benefit.  We will be more innovative, less traditional, faster to respond to problems or opportunities.