The Fire and the Storm - Metric Pro Edition: Fiction, Dragons, Elves, Unicorns, Magic (98 page)

He disappeared, and a second later his place was taken by Heklivmalgiso, first of the two gods of the elves.

Mark unnecessarily announced him as well.

“I speak for those gods of Kellaran who can read the shadows of the future, and we see deeper and with greater detail than the mortal Circle of Seers.  We agree with their assessment, and add this;  If you act against the demons now, there is no doubt that the results for Kellaran will be worse than they would be if you wait.”

“How long should we wait?” Fire demanded.

“At least until after the tournament for the rule of Kellaran.” the elven god decreed.  “We will make another assessment at that time.”

“All right, we’ll wait.” Mark nodded.

“It is understandable and honorable that you should wish to end the threat against Kellaran as soon as possible.” Heklivmalgiso told Mark and his family.  “The innovations you made today in spell-craft and magical attack are magnificent, and completely innovative.  We are all very proud of you, and we regret that you are denied the chance to strike against the demons today.

“Be well, and be patient, young ones.”

With that, the elven god took himself elsewhere.

“Well, I guess it’s settled.” Mark told the Assembly.  “We’re off to talk to some fools about the futility of acting self-destructive in innovative new ways.”

He got a bit of a chuckle from his audience for that.

“If your can recommend a few skilled but discreet news Revealers, we invite them to come along.  We’ll be starting off from the private beach on Hilia in about twenty minutes.

“We’ll all meet here again tomorrow as scheduled, to plan military exercises involving all our nations, in preparation for doing the same with The Triax.

“We thank you all for coming on such short notice, and wish you well.”

With a bow to the Assembly, he Translocated his family to the Royal Beach on Hilia.

Once there he cast Speaking to First Minister Sheramiv.

“I’d like to make a speech in a big and busy public square in each of the continents of Debivin, Felion, and Kletiuk, and one in Oceania, starting in about twenty minutes.  I know it’s short notice, but could you have someone scout out suitable locations and let me know as soon as practical, and arrange for permission from the local authorities?  They should be places where a lot of youth tend to be, or close to them, like senior schools and colleges and military training centers.  And once they’re decided on, please spread the word to all the news Revealers about what I’ll be doing and where and when.”

“Certainly My Prince.  May I ask on what subjects you’ll be speaking?”

“The changes in society on Kellaran in general, and the new and extreme recreational activities that have started since The Healing of Valentia went out in particular.  We’ll be going as a group of seven, plus a few news Revealers who’ll be meeting us here before we leave and traveling with us.”

“Very good, My Prince.  I’ll have the locations for you in a few moments.”

“Thank you Sheramiv.”
Mark acknowledged, and ended the Speaking.

Meanwhile Talia had ordered from a Kleti restaurant in Hilia’s lower levels and Retrieved a table to serve it on.

“We’ll have a quick meal in a minute.” she announced.

“Excellent, I’m starved now that you mention it.” Six announced as he eagerly rubbed his palms together.  “We worked pretty hard today, between the exercise and the spell work in the void.”

“We did, but then we always do.” Val giggled.  “Have I told you all lately how proud I am to be part of this family?  If not, I am.”

“I never thought I would be part of a family of small folk, but it’s a wonderful thing.” Kragorram laughed, and curled his tail around Povon, pulling her close as he reclined on the sand.

“Now, we were tempted away from the wonderful scratch you were giving me by the trip to the void, when I said I wouldn’t be drawn away.  And you’re only half finished.” he reminded her with a grin.

“Good point.” she laughed as she resumed his massage.  “I’ll finish you and then you can give me one.  Then we’ll go investigate the culture of Serminak.”

A young female dwarf appeared on the upper edge of the beach a meter in the air, settled to the sand, and approached the group.  She was blond and rosy-cheeked, wearing her people’s traditional style of sturdy boots, a brown wool ankle-length skirt, a white shawl over a red and white checked shirt, and the red Revealing stone on a chain around her neck that had become the mark of a professional Revealer.

“Good day, I’m Bava Kukur, with the Youth Interest of Kletiuk Daily Revealing.  It sounds better in our language.

“I’m very grateful to be invited today.  I was told you wished me to be discreet, and I shall be as unnoticeable as possible.  However, if it should be convenient, I would very much like to interview any of you, particularly Prince Mark or the Governors of Hiliani.  The Governors have never been interviewed, and everyone wants to know more about you, particularly the world’s youth.”

“You can interview me now.” Mark told her with a smile and a careful handshake.  “That is, if you don’t mind if we have dinner while we talk.  You’re welcome to join us if you’d like, we’re actually having Kleti food sent over from one of the restaurants here.  We have about twenty minutes, or a bit less.

“If they’re amenable, you can interview the Governors while I’m speaking today.  You’ll miss the speeches, but they’ll be well covered by the news Revealers anyway.”

“Thank you.” she told him with a smile and a graceful curtsey, and took a small notebook out of a pocket in her skirt.

“The first thing I’d like to ask concerns the recent military exercises in the void.  Though no Revealings were recorded, Readings from some of the participants are widely available.

“We were all particularly amazed by the performance of yourself and the other Strike Wizards over the forts on Blenda.  The power of huge militaries were channeled through you, and you destroyed millions of enemies, but it’s hard to see how you did it.  You were being attacked by billions of demons, and you were completely hidden by the massive fireball of the billions of detonating spells and Demon Fire they were casting at you.

“How could you withstand such a titanic barrage?

“Also, since you were hidden from view, your enemies must have been hidden from
your
view.  How then did you target them?”

“Ah.” Mark smiled as the food arrived.

By then another six news and current affairs Revealers had arrived.

Surprisingly, one of them was a yellow female Xervian dragon, who politely and psionicly asked Povon, Kragorram, and Karz in Draconian for an interview.  They agreed, and moved down to the end of the beach to conduct it verbally in Draconian, while Povon continued Kragorram’s massage.

The rest of the Revealers, following their mandate to be discreet, merely recorded the interview Bava Kukur was conducting with Mark from different points of view.

Mark spoke as he served himself up.  “I didn’t have anything to do with withstanding the barrage; I was being protected by Shielding that was cast remotely by hundreds of millions of our comrades and coordinated by Alilia and Talia.  The other Strike Wizards were similarly protected.  That’s the whole point of concentrating our attack power through only a few Strike Wizards.  We can also concentrate all our defenses on them, making them almost invulnerable, and if we lose them, we’ve still only lost a few people, and others can step up to take their places immediately.

“And you’re right, there was no way to see through the maelstrom of spells and fire that were impacting against my Shields.  All the targeting was done psionicly.”

“Then that was an amazing demonstration of psionics!” Bava remarked.  “You must have been casting dozens of attack spells every second, all accurately targeted on the densest clusters of demons around you!”

“Again, you have to understand that millions of our best psionicists were helping me with the targeting, by giving me the complete picture of the entire battle zone as the fight went on.” Mark explained as he took a seat on a handy log.

“The only thing I had to do was make the most of our available attack power.  The primary prerequisite of a Strike Wizard in that situation is quick thinking, including threat evaluation, spell selection, and power management.  I’ll admit I’m pretty good at that, but the evaluations afterward showed that there were five others that did it better in our last exercise, including two Xervian Dragons, a Hiliani Sylvan, and a Battle Wizard from The People of Life.  Kragorram, Six, and Fire were just below me in the ranking.”

“Do you think those results will be reflected in the results of the upcoming Tournament of Governors for the rule of Kellaran?” Bava asked.  She was completely nonplussed at having to wait repeatedly while Mark unhurriedly finished chewing and swallowing a bite during the interview, and she displayed an air of pleasant patience.

“Not necessarily.” Mark told her.  “I think almost all the best Strike Wizards are also people who would place well in the tournament, but being a Strike Wizard is a fairly specialized skill set compared to what you have to do to lead Kellaran in war against the demons.  I really can’t guess who’ll win the tournament, or even who’ll place in the top ten contestants.”

“The courage of everyone who took part in the Dehrla exercise was very impressive.” Bava said as he checked her notes.  “Fighting against the demons in those dark tunnels and caverns seemed very scary in the Reading I audited, even for one such as I who is of a race who feel comfortable below ground.  How did you all conquer your fear and remain so professional in your conduct?”

Mark laughed around a bite of fish.  “While it’s true that the warriors I worked with in the exercise have great courage and determination, and are very professional, and the battle that the organizers presented us with was indeed quite a daunting prospect, it was still just an exercise.  All of us have been training hard for months or years, and most of us have taken part in such simulation exercises many times before, if not on such a grand scale or in the void.  We’re pretty used to it by now.  Which is the whole point, really; when we do face the demons we’ll be as accustomed to it as possible.  It’ll be a lot scarier when we know that they’re real demons and that the danger of injury and death are real, but we’ll be fine because our training will serve us in good stead.”

At this point the rest of Mark’s family had concluded that Bava was unlikely to ask anything that they found particularly interesting or profound, though her interview would probably be of great interest to the general public of Kellaran.  They maintained the appearance of following the conversation, but kept little of their attention on it as they began conversing with each other psionicly.

After they ate, Povon and Kragorram stayed to finish their massages, and Karz assumed his elven guise and joined the rest as they went to The Hilian Trades and Crafts School at Juncture, where the borders of the three empires of Debivin met.  Sheramiv had arranged for Mark to speak here first since the campus and a huge tract of land around it were not merely owned by Hilia; the three empires had donated the land as well as its sovereignty.  Such was their esteem of Hilia, its rulers, and the multi-racial experiment that it represented.  Like an Embassy, the campus was legally part of the nation of Hilia, so Sheramiv needed no other’s permission to arrange for Mark’s speech to be delivered there.  That left her more time to make arrangements for the speeches on the other continents, which were not easy undertakings on such short notice.

The huge round area of parkland in the center of the campus was already full of people when they arrived, as were the spokes of parkland that radiated out from the center between the buildings.  All the windows in the buildings facing the park had been thrown wide open and every window was full of spectators, as were the edges of the roofs overlooking the center, with the exception of one area on a flat roof on the west side of the park that had been reserved for the rest of Mark’s party and the Revealers who accompanied them.

Mark took his place in the air ten meters above the center of the park, and considered his audience for a moment before he began.  They took the moment to give him a mighty cheer, and he smiled and bowed proudly in response.  Initially he Levitated, but after a moment’s consideration he made a round flat surface of invisible Force about twelve meters wide to walk around on while he spoke, so the people initially directly below him would have a chance to see more than just a view of the soles of his feet directly above them.  He cast a huge Revealing of himself fifteen meters above him for the benefit of the more distant viewers.  When the roar of the crowd had abated some, he cast augmentations on his voice to be heard by all, and spoke.

“Hello, and good day.  Thanks for coming to hear me today.” he began, and went on to discuss his views on the recent extreme recreations and the steps he felt needed to be taken to minimize the distress they were causing.

He then spoke of the rapid changes that were taking place in every aspect of life, and the need to bravely and patiently persevere until the demons were defeated.

He finished by saying; “I know that right now it seems that the war with the demons and all the preparation for it are going to take a long time, but I’m pretty sure that when it’s over, it won’t seem like it lasted very long at all.  It may seem like the war is sure to be hard on us all, but with every day that passes our ability to defeat our enemies grows more than the day before.

“And when it’s over, life will be a paradise for us all.  War has pushed us to advance far more quickly than we ever have, and to develop wonderful new capabilities, and when the war is over, we’ll be able to enjoy the benefits of all our improvements.  We’ll create new worlds as beautiful as Kellaran on other worlds around our sun, and eventually around other suns.  We’ll achieve great new accomplishments, and we’ll raise beautiful children, and we’ll help The Triax to hunt down all the demons everywhere.