The Fire and the Storm - Metric Pro Edition: Fiction, Dragons, Elves, Unicorns, Magic (52 page)

A minute later a round door on the exterior of the craft opened, and Valentia floated out and Levitated in the vacuum just outside the hull as she closed the door.

A minute later Reggie reported;
“Function and seals integrity of the airlock are confirmed.”

“Void-exposure protective spells are operating as expected.”
Valentia reported.

“Beginning void energy and void-grade sunlight tests.” Kragorram stated, and a maelstrom of light and energy erupted from the inside surface of the Force Shield, blasting onto Valentia and the outside of the craft.

A minute later that was done, Valentia went back into the airlock, and they tested the craft’s resistance to lightning.  Then they tested it’s resistance to puncture and impact by slamming the pointed end of a boulder against it in various places, which left no more than a few minor scuffs in the surface.

Finally the whole thing was flight tested.  Kragorram and all the spectators flew along and kept pace as it rose to an altitude of a hundred and twenty meters, then headed west.  Reggie brought it to a halt over the ocean a hundred and fifty meters from the shore, just outside the reefs, then lowered it into the water until it was submerged.

“Commencing reverse-pressure test.”
he announced as the top of the sphere was covered by the waves.

“Why test it for pressure from outside?” Bezedil asked.

“It’s another good test of structural integrity, and it gives an indication of how well it would withstand Force used against it in an attack.” Kragorram told him absentmindedly, most of his attention on his monitoring spells.

After the craft emerged from the water it underwent high-speed flight tests with complex and sudden maneuvers.

Finally the entire craft was Translocated to the north coast of Hiliani, then to the south coast, then back to its cradle.

All the test results revealed that the craft had performed perfectly.

All-in-all, it was such a magnificent accomplishment that the entire population of Homestead and many of the Sylvan stayed there to celebrate long into the night.  Hundreds of them were given a quick tour of the craft, and crews began training in it first thing the next morning.

A few minor changes were made to the craft, and a few more changes were made to the design that weren’t practical to make in the first craft.

Having finalized the design, they set themselves the goal of building another complete craft in the three months remaining before the call to the gods.  They succeeded, but barely.

Those three months passed amid a building sense of expectation among those who would be leaving, and a building sense of impending loss for the rest of them.

With fifteen days to go, Mark’s family began preparing their possessions for their impending move back to Hilia.  Mark knew something was up that day because Talia and Alilia had been giggling together at every opportunity while blocking him from their minds.

After supper that evening, the children were in the living room using Mark’s crown to project a scale model Illusion of Hilia on the floor so they could familiarize themselves with the place, and Karzog had joined them in his ‘cute and fuzzy’ simulacrum.  Mark, Talia, and Alilia were relaxing with a cup of spiced tea.  Mark endured the occasional smirks of his wives with a patient smile, knowing that they’d enlighten him when they were ready, and not before.

Then Balen arrived.  The elven young woman was dressed quite provocatively, being clad only in a short and supple skirt and sandals, all in red that matched the color of her long flowing hair.  Her shining red tresses were the only thing covering her from the waist up, and as she moved they sometimes failed to do so.  She wore an intoxicating scent and her blue eyes sparkled with mischief, though her manner was that of a penitent.  She accepted a cup of tea and held it in her lap as she sat with a demure posture, gazing at Mark with intensity from beneath lowered lashes.

“Go ahead dear.” Alilia told her with an encouraging smile.

“My Lord, we who voluntarily swore to your service with binding oaths and spells, and who love you very much, have had difficulties in your service.  Frankly, because you ask far too little of us, and because there’s far too many of us.  You can’t spend very much time with each of us as individuals because there’s eighty-four of us.  And ever since we swore to you, we’ve realized that quite often the very best way we could serve you was to leave you alone and let you live your life without being constantly distracted by us.  We fought for you when we could, we’ve watched over you from a distance, we’ve helped you whenever we could do so without being pests, we’ve taken part in building this community and preparing to defend it, and we’ve made good contributions to the projects that we’ve undertaken here.  But mostly, we’ve very carefully left you alone and stayed away from you, and it’s been so hard, so very hard.

“We’re going to stay here when you go.  We’re sure that what we’re doing here serves your aims at least as well as anything we could do for you out there, and the fact still stands that we can accomplish far more in seventeen years here than we could in a month and a half out there.  We’re building your realm and it’s capabilities and it’s population, and that’s important work, and that comforts us.  And without you here, we won’t have to face the constant temptation and need to be with you and serve you directly, or just share your time and your company.

“But we will miss you so terribly while you’re separated from us.  And so we ask a boon of you, My Lord.  We ask that before you go, that you spend one hour with each of us, each of us alone.  That would take you eighty-four hours, and Talia assures us that you can fit that into your schedule in the time remaining to us.

“The forty-one males among us would like to spend their hour with you doing various things; hiking or fishing or playing with magic or whatever, but most of them just want to be able to sit with you for an hour and talk over a mug of mead or a tea.

“But to be honest, being in your service has been far more frustrating for the forty-three females among us.  Along with everything that the males feel for you, all of us desire you very powerfully.  And those of us of The Devoted feel that we’re deeply in love with you.  It frustrates us a great deal that we buried our desire for you so that you could bond with your new wife Talia for a few years, but then Alilia succeeded in becoming part of your relationship.  Every one of us have thought to ourselves at least once; ‘If I’d acted before Alilia, maybe it would be
me
sharing Mark’s bed every night.’

“Anyway, every female among us wants to spend our hour alone with you in your bed.  Most of us want your tender lovemaking, some want to be vigorously ravished by you, but all of us want to be your lover for that hour.  We’ve spoken to Yzell about it, and she said she’ll give us the spells that Talia carries in her engagement ring that make it practical to be with you that way, so you can enjoy us as fully as you wish.  She also gave us a spell to ensure that your performance won’t be degraded by fatigue or diminished physical resources.  I doubt you’d need such a thing under normal circumstances, but there
are
forty-three of us.

“And all of us, male and female, ask that you take a detailed Reading of yourself for the hour that you spend with us, and give it to us.  We recognize that you can take a far better quality Reading of yourself than we could take of you.  We’ll have that to comfort us while you’re gone.  It’ll be seventeen years away from you, but we’ll each have our perfect memory to re-live whenever we want, of the time we had alone with you.”

Mark nodded slowly a few times before he answered.  “I see.”

He turned to his wives.  “And what’s your part in all this?  I assume this is what you’ve been giggling about all day.”

“Only that it gives me the courage to ask you something that I’ve been wanting to ask for a while.” Talia smiled.  “Did you know that the few times Dalia shared her bed with us after you saved her life are the only times that she’s shared herself with a man other than Bezedil since they met?  I found this to be very surprising, even shocking, considering that she was a champion promiscuous flirt before they met, who said on more than one occasion that she dreaded the thought of a sexually monogamous marriage.

“When I asked her why she hadn’t slept with anyone but Bezedil since the times she spent with us, she said; ‘Because Bezedil is just that good.  He keeps me so satisfied that I don’t have any appetite left for anyone else.’

“So of course, I’d like to try that, and she’d like him to have the chance to have both of us together, and of course he’s wanted that since he met us as well.

“If you do this boon for your Volunteers, and you spend twelve hours a day at it, you’ll be done in a week.  I’d like to spend that time with Dalia and Bezedil.  Besides, they’re staying here, so they won’t see me for seventeen years from their perspective.”

“I see.” Mark nodded with a sheepish smile, and looked to Alilia.

“And what would you be doing during that week?”

“Oh, I also want to have Talia and Dalia together.” Alilia told him with a mischievous grin.  “I want them to do their hair and nails and coloring exactly the same, so they’re as identical as possible.  It’ll be like having two Talias!

“And of course, I want to spend the time with my son, since he won’t see me for seventeen years.  And while I have no real sexual interest in Bezedil, not only because he’s my son but more because he reminds me too much that way of my ex-husband Gorsh, I’ll admit that I’m curious to see what it is that he does to keep Dalia that completely satisfied.

“We’ll probably spend some of that time over at Yazadril’s house too.  He and Nemia and Hilsith will miss us fiercely while we’re gone, especially Talia.”

“Then we’ll have another seven days to enjoy our normal life here before the day we leave.” Talia added.

Mark thought about it.  “All right.  But that still leaves twelve hours a day, and no matter how vigorous and entertaining Dalia and Bezedil are, I still expect you two to be waiting for me in my bed every night!”

“Yes, My Lord.” Talia said with a polite curtsy.

“And don’t start with that either!” he laughed.

“Actually, you don’t have anything important planned for the rest of the evening, so you might as well take care of Balen here and three more of her friends tonight.” Alilia laughed as she and Talia stood and put their jackets on.

“Oh?  And where are you going?” Mark inquired with a raised eyebrow.

“Girls’ night out.” she told him with a smile and a quick kiss.  “We’re going to the pub to get drunk and flirt with young men.  Don’t wait up!”

“You kids be good, we’ll be back in four hours.” Talia called into the living room.

“Where are you going?” Valentia yelled.

“To the pub to get drunk and flirt with young men!” she called back, grinning at Mark as he blushed.

“Can we come?” Helemia asked in an exaggerated pleading voice.

““What?!  No!” Talia laughed in shocked surprise.

“Aww, we
never
get to go to the pub to get drunk and flirt with men.” Helemia whined, in the most spoiled, irritating manner she could.  “You’re mean!”

This was so out of character that Talia just stood there for a second in outraged amazement with her mouth hanging open, before she realized that her daughter
had
to be teasing her, and she broke up into hysterical laughter.

“Okay, what ever, take care, love you, bye!” Alilia laughed as she half-dragged Talia’s hysterically laughing form out the door.

“Ah, I’ll be busy for a while kids.” Mark called out as he met Balen’s smoldering stare.  “If some girls come by, have them wait in the kitchen.”

“Sure Father.” Reggie called back.

“My time doesn’t start until we’re both in bed!” Balen told him in an intense whisper, and Translocated both of them into his bedroom.

Five days before the call, as the family was sitting down to the twins’ birthday supper, Reggie announced; “When we leave the time-bubble, I’d prefer that I not be referred to as Reggie anymore.  On formal occasions I’d like to be introduced as Markhan Longstrider The Sixth, and the rest of the time I’d like you and everyone else to call me Six.  Similarly, they’d like to be referred to as Val and Fire.”

Mark smiled as he appraised his children.  The twins were seven, and looking more opposite every day.  Reggie’s…  Six’s, he reminded himself, Six’s blond hair and blue eyes both seemed equally lightened by the sun, and his growth seemed to be ever-accelerating.  He was already a hundred and fifty-three centimeters tall; the size of an average Finitran twelve-year-old.  Fire’s black hair and violet eyes only seemed to get darker and richer, and she was still only ninety-one centimeters tall, the height of a four-year-old.  Val’s white and black locks were thick and grew very quickly; she tended to tie a knot at the base of her pony-tail to keep the ends off the ground, and her violet eyes now seemed a touch lighter than Helemia’s.  She was a hundred and one centimeters tall, just a touch taller than average for human girls her age.

“That’s fine.” he smiled.  “You’re outstanding and accomplished citizens, and I’m sure you already know yourselves well enough to define you own identities.

“Have I told you lately how proud I am of my children, and how much we love you?”

“Yah, but that’s okay.” Val giggled.  “You can tell us again if you want.”

Finally the day came when the call to the gods was scheduled to be made.  Seven years and eight months had passed since the time-bubble was cast.

After considerable discussion, it had been decided that wording of the call would simply be; ‘Open the time-bubble!’, and that it would be done with psionics only.  After a bit of mathematics, they’d realized that unless a person or even a god was relatively very close to Hiliani, that there was almost no chance that anyone would hear any audible sound they made no matter how much power they used, considering that Hiliani was well five thousand kilometers from the nearest land.