The Fire and The Storm - The Nexus of Kellaran #2 novel Chapter 183

Part 25

They took a moment to admire the colossal and other-worldly architecture all around them, the magnificence of which was somewhat reduced by the bamboo and wicker walkways that had been installed to allow access to non-flying tourists of the smaller races, as the dragons referred to them.

Then they went to their parents for hugs.

“Life just keeps getting stranger.” Mark commented with a grin as he picked Val up and returned her hug. “I know for a fact that you three are asleep with us back on Hilia.”

“We weren’t sleeping.” Val admitted with a grin. “We took a few minutes to do some thinking first, then we cast our Multiple Simultaneous Manifestations. We designed it, but we’ve never cast it before, and we figured that now would be a good time. And now that these copies are here, the copies of us back there are going to sleep. It’ll be interesting to see how well-rested we are when we reintegrate tomorrow morning, Hilia time that is.”

“Well it’s wonderful to have you with us.” Talia laughed as she picked Fire up and carried her on her right hip.

“You know all the Volunteers of course, but we’d like to introduce you to your bothers and sisters.” Mark said with a grin.

The Volunteers and their children that were with them had informed the rest of the trio’s arrival, and all of them had joined them by Translocation as the three greeted their parents. There was plenty of room for them on the huge expanse of paving they occupied between the Draconian buildings.

As they now knew was his habit, Mark reintegrated his selves, rather than have multiple copies of himself appear within sight of each other. Having more than one of him in sight was somewhat disturbing, both to him and to whoever else saw it.

“We do know all the Volunteers, but we haven’t seen them for a very long time from their point of view.” Fire smiled. “So with all of your permissions, we’d like to take a quick Reading of them to catch up on what we missed. Thank you.”

The Volunteers realized that they’d all been Read in a blink before they could decide whether they were giving their permission for it or not. Whether or not any of them would have protested it, events carried on before they had a chance to do so.

“And we don’t need to be introduced to our brothers and sisters.” Fire continued. “They know who we are, and we already know exactly who they are, and we’re going to take a moment to get to know them. Be right back.”

In the next instant she Translocated all of her brothers and sisters some three kilometers across the city to the interior of the largest building there, she Sent all the tourists who were in it outside, and slammed the giant doors shut with a mighty use of Force. She held them all floating in the air in the center of the massive nine-sided space as the mighty boom reverberated, then the look of the place suddenly changed.

The forty-four looked around and at the three in their midst in confusion.

“Let’s place things how they are.” Fire said with a nasty smile, and Translocated them all again. Now she, Val and Six floated on one side of the center of the space, facing across an open area between them and the forty-four, who all faced in the same direction looking back at them.

“We shouldn’t be in the midst of you, because we’re not part of you yet.” she told them. “Whether we ever will be will be decided here in the next few minutes.”

She paused for a moment, and the two groups took each other’s measure.

The forty-four were as alike as Sylvan in having their father’s black hair and blue eyes and their mothers’ elven features, but they ranged in height from sixty centimeters to two meters. Their subjective age of twelve years was still obvious in all their appearances and their child-like builds, and only a handful were showing the first signs of puberty.

None of them were afraid or angry, some were primarily curious, some were belligerent, some were eager for the obvious challenge that the three they faced were offering.

“We should have changed out of our pajamas, and into our most intimidating armor.” Val privately chuckled to the twins with her. “These clothes are functionally appropriate to this climate, but they’re not helping us make a strong first impression.”

Six silently agreed, and spoke. “We’re in the council chamber of Kraka. This is where The Ninety-Nine, ruling council of the dragons, met to deliberate. This is also where First Burgundy brought our father, Talia, and Holanam at the end of Zarkog’s Chase, when contact was first made between Kellaran and the Triax. This place was chosen then, as we choose it now, because it’s the most psionicly secure location on Kellaran. The Ninety-Nine liked to keep their deliberations private, and it’s doubtful that any gods or mortals outside here can tell what’s happening in here now, especially considering the other spells we’ve cast here. We’ve cast our own proofs against eavesdropping, and we’ve cast the interior of the hall with a Reverse-Stasis field. Those who’ve already been in here will note that the floor and the dome were not mirror-reflective as they are now. That’s the field.

“We’re not sure if it’s safe to touch it, which is why we have us all Levitated up here.

“It basically works the same as a time-bubble, but with far less energy efficiency, and a far greater time-expansion factor. It’s pretty simple compared to a god-spell like a time-bubble, we can spare the power, and we want the time. If it takes us a week to settle things in here, less than a second will pass out there, and no one from out there is going to interfere.

“Now the fact is that you’ve been acting like spoiled brats since you were old enough to understand your origins. You push the limits of your vows of justice as far as you can at every opportunity. As our father told us, your behavior, while selfish and inconsiderate in the extreme, is still within the normal range for children your age.

“But that’s not good enough. It’s not good enough for this family. We bear great responsibilities; to lead and to protect and to provide an example for all who look to us for those things. And it’s not good enough for the situation we find ourselves in; engaging in frantic preparations for war with the demons while everything in every part of every society is in the midst of rapid upheaval.

“Your behavior, and more importantly your thinking, is going to improve. You’re going to take responsibility for the results and consequences of your actions.

“Beyond that, we’re going to administer some punishment for the wrongdoing you’ve done.

“But in order to determine how much punishment you truly deserve, we had to know why you did it in the first place.

“You weren’t born psionic like we were, and your psionic privacy was always respected as it is in elven families. Your parents never once Read you deeply without your permission, and you never gave it to them. Father was forced to interrogate some of you psionicly in order to find out which one of you had done something and what exactly had happened, but he never looked beyond that to find out why you’d done it. You guard your privacy like you were Sylvan, and resist Linking with any outside your group like Sylvan too. They did their best to talk to you about it, and trusted you to be honest about it, but you never were. That was a mistake on their part.

“But we’re not your parents, and we’re not as considerate as they are anyway. We tend to be a bit more practical. So we’ve Read you for everything you’ve ever thought or experienced, and we know you rather well. Absolutely and completely, in fact.

“Your origins were never kept from you. You knew as soon as you could understand language that Quewanak made Yzell remove the contraception components of the spells she cast on your mothers to allow them to comfortably have sex with our father, causing you all to be conceived without our parents’ knowledge or permission. That’s why you were raised in such unusual circumstances, and why our father chose to make as many copies of himself as he needed to to give you all the time and attention you each deserved as his children.