The Fire and the Storm - Metric Pro Edition: Fiction, Dragons, Elves, Unicorns, Magic (89 page)

“I suppose that’s true too.” Karz laughed, and popped the last of his tart in his mouth.

“That’s a pretty good trick.” Fire teased as she hugged him with one arm and swung her feet under the branch.  “I didn’t think you could eat in a body made of textured Force and Illusions.”

“Thanks.  I’m practicing it so I can do it convincingly enough to fool people, in case I ever have to maintain a disguise as a humanoid.”

“What do you do with the food after you swallow it?  And can you actually taste it?” Six asked around a mouthful of muffin.

“I can’t taste it in this body.  For a while I was Sending it to my dragon body’s mouth in Serminak.  I don’t have enough concentration yet to actually have two bodies walking around and talking to people at the same time without using the Multiple Simultaneous Manifestations spell, but I can have that body chew and swallow at least while I’m acting normal in this one.

“Anyway, I stopped doing that because humanoid food tastes like garbage in my dragon mouth.  I’ve Read Fire about it so I know it’s not supposed to taste like that, but I can’t think of a way to fix it, so I’ve just been Sending it out to sea for the fishes to eat.  I can always Read one of you for it if I really want to know what something’s supposed to taste like.”

“Ingenious.” Six grinned.  “And by the way you crazy dragon, I love you too.  You’re the brother of my heart.”

“Brother of my heart.” Karz agreed with a grin as he reached over, and the two clasped forearms in loving camaraderie.

“Good morning.”
Mark psionicly called. 
“Would you meet us in Backyard Valley please?”

Rather than reply, the children just Translocated there.

“You’re a bit early.” Six commented as they met all five of their parents and exchanged hugs.

“I hope your wedding night went well?” Val giggled as she hugged her mother.

“Very, very well, thank you!” Mark declared, and blushed a bright pink as he remembered, and his wives merely giggled.

“But I wanted to get here early to be sure I had time to get the Manifestations spell down solid before everyone gets here.”

“Oh.  Well here’s the spell, let me run you through the parts.” Val said as she closed her eyes in concentration.

“Wow!” Mark marveled as he received her Link and the spell.  “That’s a lot of spell!”

“You bet.” Fire proudly agreed.  “It’s a god-level spell, and we sure could never have got it without the big brainstorm.”

“Okay, it’s all automatic, you just use this initiator to start it and the rest of it casts itself, but I think it’s better for you to understand everything it does first.”
Val noted as she mentally indicated the components of what she’d given him. 
“This first part takes a complete Reading of you, and I mean
really
complete, it even includes your clothes and any mundane items you’re wearing.  This prompts you to decide where the copy of you is going to appear, and if it’s not in your line of sight then you’ll need a Translocation Reference for the location to be sure you have it exactly.  This checks to make sure the volume where you’ll appear is clear of solid material.  This analyzes the area around there for about a kilometer in every direction, and farther if necessary, to find material to make the new you out of.  This gathers the material out of the air, water and plants in that area.  Remember, this isn’t going to be a Simulacrum made out of energy, this’ll be a flesh-and blood copy of you.  This actually makes the new you.  This copies your mind into it.  This little bit here tells the copy that it’s a copy, it gives your copies a minor Compulsion to rejoin the original whenever it’s practical, and it gives them a bad feeling if they ever think about not re-joining the original eventually.  This sets up a Link between them to share memories when they sleep.  This checks everything to make sure that the copy is exact, and cancels everything if something’s gone wrong.  This is the ending sequence, it does a final exchange of memories with the original and disperses the copy back into a very big volume around it as fine particles of basic material.

“Of course if you want you can just Link with yourself at any time to exchange memories or communicate.” she added out loud.

“Wow.” he marveled again.  “A complex compound automated spell made out of complex compound automated spells.  This is just staggering in its complexity.”

“Thanks.” Fire smugly grinned.

“It won’t matter in the time-bubble,” Mark mused, “But you probably want to remember not to decide to make a copy of yourself out in the void somewhere.  There’d be no materials there to make the copy out of.”

“It would still work eventually, but it might take a few seconds, or even a few minutes if it was a really big, really empty volume of void.” Six told him.  “But the spell would just keep expanding the volume it was examining until it found enough materials.  It’d take a lot of power too, but that doesn’t matter because the spell’s self-powering; it casts it’s own collection fields for the Source and the warlock’s Source.  If the void was a really long way from the sun or you were eclipsed by a big world, that would also add a lot of extra time for power collection.  But the basic materials that we’re made out of are actually pretty common among all the stuff that’s floating around out there.”

“Wow.  That really is just amazing.” Povon marveled as she followed what they were thinking.

“Remember,” Val cautioned, “If you make one copy of yourself I can guarantee that they’ll be exactly identical as far as any examination could tell.  I’m pretty sure the gods couldn’t tell them apart, except for the part that tells the copy that it’s a copy.

“But one of the rules of reality is; nothing is absolutely perfect.  Down in the tiny parts of the tiny parts of the tiniest parts of you, there’s bound to be some tiny flaw.  So if the copy of you made a copy of you who made another copy of you, and they kept going, eventually something will go wrong as the flaws accumulate.  I’m pretty confident that you’d have to copy the copies thousands of times before there was a noticeable difference, but who knows?  It could happen from as few as ten repetitions.  So make as many copies of the original as you want, but not copies of copies.”

“I doubt I can even learn that spell exactly enough to rely on it.” Kragorram commented.  “It may cast itself, but you still need to memorize it.”

“And just as well that it’s so difficult.” Povon declared.  “Several of the components are extremely dangerous.  For instance, the part that disperses the copy is basically a frightening Disintegration spell, and there’s no reason why it couldn’t be used separately by those who are capable of doing so.  Luckily, there’s probably no more than forty spell-casters who could do it.

“And if any of you ever even think about putting
any
spell of that level into an item in castable form, I will personally spank you.”

“Yes Mother.” Karzog replied with just a trace of a bemused smile.

“Okay, I’ll give it a try.” Mark decided as he mentally rehearsed it one more time.  “If everything goes fine, I’ll give it to you girls to try.” he added to his wives.

He concentrated a moment, and then there were two of him.

They both looked at each other and simultaneously stated; “Damn this is just too…” The both paused, chuckled identically, and continued together; “Strange.  I suppose we could both stand here saying; ‘Go ahead, no you go ahead’, but this seems to have worked, and I have to end this before I lose my marbles.”

The copy of him disappeared, and he shook his head.  “Too weird.” he declared.

“Well done, Father.” Val told him.  “I couldn’t have done that any better myself.  And it was brave of you to try such a complex, untested spell.

“Thanks.” he chuckled.

“All right ladies, here you go.” he said as he Set the spell into Talia and Alilia’s minds.

“Well, I shall most definitely decide before casting that my original will speak, and my copy will defer.” Alilia declared with a laugh, and cast.

She stared at herself for a moment, and the original of her declared;  “You are entirely correct.  This is too damn strange indeed.  But it seems to work just fine.”

Her copy disappeared just as Talia’s appeared.

“Yup, strange as a three-headed cat, but working fine.” she reported as she stared at herself, then dismissed her copy.

“Okay.” Mark decided.  “Since the me that’ll be here will be making copies of me and the me that’s outside the time-bubble won’t, I’ll leave my original here when they close the bubble and send a copy of me to Hilia to carry on in the outside world.”

“Then we’ll do the same.” Talia agreed, and told her children; “We’ll meet you at the cottage after the bubble closes.”

“I tell you, I’m never going to make a copy of me in the same place again, it’s just too weird” Mark declared.  “Especially after you re-integrate and you’re left with two memories of what just happened with two slightly different points of view.  From now on I’ll only make copies of me somewhere out of sight of the original.”

“Good thinking.” Alilia agreed.  “I found it rather disconcerting as well.”

No one spoke for a moment, the Val asked her mother; “Are you and father going to have more children in the time-bubble?”

Alilia laughed and glanced and Mark and Talia for confirmation before she answered.  “No.  Mark’s new children have to be raised in the time-bubble, and you three have to remain outside, and there’s nothing we can do about that.  But it’s sad that you’re going to have dozens of new brothers and sisters and you’re not going to be able to be there with them as they grow up.  We didn’t choose to have them and we’re making the best of it, but we’re certainly not going to do that to you again on purpose.”

“Besides, you three have turned out to be a lot more than we expected in almost every way except the number of problems we’ve had with you.” Mark chuckled.  “Even though you’re far more self-sufficient than other kids, there’s still been times when raising you has been all that we could handle.

“I’m sure raising the new forty-four of them is going to be all that we can handle too, even with copies of me and all the Volunteers to help raise them.  But…”

He paused and raised a strong Privacy Shield around them.  “But I think it’s obvious that you kids are a product of three very strong bloodlines, and that’s why you’re so incredibly exceptional.  The Volunteers are all fine young elves, and many of them are exceptional in various ways, but by any objective assessment none of them are in the same league as your mother and Talia.  I therefore don’t expect my children with them to be quite as exceptional as you.  And as a parent I’m glad of that, because with forty-four of them I’m sure there’ll be no shortage of challenges already.

“But to choose to have more like you while raising the forty-four of them inside a time-bubble?  No thanks, that’s more than any sensible man would take on no matter how many copies he made.

“Believe me, your mothers and I definitely will have more children together, but it’ll definitely be after you and the forty-four are all fully grown.”

“Why?” Fire teased.  “We’re fully grown enough to take care of ourselves now, why not have more when you come out of the bubble?”

“Maybe you can take care of yourselves now,” Talia assured her, “But you’re still seven years old, and there’s no doubt that you’ve no more finished maturing and developing and fulfilling your potential than any others your age.  Like most parents, I’m not looking forward to your puberty, and your uniqueness increases the chance that you’ll have unique problems and challenges as you mature and develop.

“After you’re at least thirty or so we might have more, when we’ll have more time and attention available and we’ll have the lessons learned from raising you to go by.

“Now it’s time to go.  Everyone’s meeting on the beach again.”

“Please, allow me.” Karz said as he Resumed his dragon form, and Translocated the entire group to Homestead beach.  He had to bring them in high since the beach was already fairly crowded.

“Good one.” Fire told him with a grin as a space was cleared below them.

“Thanks, that’s the most I’ve ever jumped, by weight anyway.” Karz told her with a grin as they alighted.

All the residents of Hiliani were gathered on the beach, both those who were staying outside and those who were remaining in the time-bubble, along with friends and family who were there to see them off, so to speak.  They were joined by those who would be going into the bubble for the first time, including a team of about a hundred of almost every race who would work with Hilsith on adapting the longevity and magic-use spell to the non-mammalian races.  A few from the aquatic races were swimming around in the air among those on the beach or above the water, and a few were already checking out the neighborhood below the surface.  Also immigrating were a few dozen Sylvan who had been invited to join those on Hiliani for the purpose of bringing new blood to the long-isolated tribe.

“I notice Theramin and Yzell and their children aren’t here.” Mark noted.

“No, they decided to go back to The Nine Valleys.” Talia told him.  “Besides, Yzell will be busy for weeks supervising the casting of her fertility spell on every elven female.  By the time we emerge from the bubble, I estimate some one and a half million elven women will be pregnant.”

“Wow!  That’s almost all of them!” Mark said with raised eyebrows.

“Yes, and many will choose to have twins.” she nodded.  “Too often has our population been decimated by war.  This time, we’re doing what we can beforehand.”

“So are we.” Fire laughed.  “Though not of our choice, there’s now a lot less chance that the population of warlocks will be decimated by war than there was before the Volunteers got pregnant.  Where there was four, there’ll be forty-eight.  That’s assuming they all inherit Father’s power like we did, but I’m pretty sure they will.”

Falgaroth, Visinniria, Amirgath, and an unfamiliar Sylvan god appeared above them.

“Fifteen minutes until we close the time-bubble.” Visinniria announced, as every Hiliani Sylvan went down on their hands and knees.