The Fire and The Storm - The Nexus of Kellaran #2
Chapter 110

Part 17

"But when Father fought Zarkog, he cut Zarkog off completely, blocking his access to both the wizards' power from the stone and the sorcerers' power from the Source. So Father not only found a way to make collection fields for two kinds of power that he doesn't even use, he drastically increased the efficiency and... density, of both fields to the point that no power was getting through. Or so little power was getting through that Zarkog could no longer maintain any spells, which is practically the same thing."

"I did more than that, and I didn't even realize it until now." Mark mused.

"How so?" Talia asked.

Mark shrugged. "It's obvious from the Reading that I not only cast efficient collection fields for wizards' and sorcerers' power, but I could hold and store and use that power as easily as I could my own warlocks' power, or power that I got from you or Equemev. And I can see in the Reading how I did it, but without holding my limit of all three kinds of power like I did then, it's like explaining eighth year mathematics to a second year student. I'm just not getting it, and I can't really remember exactly what I did to do it."

"When we get to Focus Mountain, you should have Somonik set up a big Link with a bunch of magic users of both types to give us all as much of all three kinds of power as we can hold, like you were doing then." Fire suggested. "We all know how to hold and cast each other's power, so we should all hold as much of all three kinds as we can, to increase our chances of success."

"I agree, and I am recruiting volunteers to lend power as we speak." Somonik told them from the far side of the world. "Tithian, Yazadril, and the other researchers think that this may be the most important experiment ever conducted, and they will be passively following the process through Equemev."

"All right, but try to keep it on a need-to-know basis until it's done." Mark requested. "We don't want any curious minds sneaking in and disrupting things. And we don't want the public's attention on it until it's all over, in case it blows up in our faces. If it does they'll need to be told, but they won't need to see it."

"Agreed." The ancient white dragon stated, then psionicly withdrew.

A few minutes passed, as they floated and thought on what they were about to do.

"I think I'm about full." Six announced. "Of wizards' power, that is, or very close to it. I'm starting to sweat."

"Me too, but I think Mother still needs to marinate for a few more minutes." Val agreed. "Let's go down and see the chapel."

"I'm still not done." Fire told them. "We'll let you know when we're ready."

Val and Six nodded and disappeared, appearing a meter above the center of the dais, in the center of the most revered place in Elven culture: The Laylas Valley Site of Joining, or Wedding Chapel. They gently alighted on the broad, tiered marble dais and looked around at the huge dim circular clearing. It was floored with deep, firm moss, and ringed by the tallest trees in the world; the colossal Laylas Redwoods. Over a third of all elven weddings in the entire history of that race had been performed here, and it had become highly charged with the magic of their many loving vows.

Six gave Val a sudden spontaneous hug, and opened a Link with her. "There's something I know about you that you don't know, and that's not fair. I've been waiting for the right time to tell you, and this is it; the right time, in the right place.

"I know that it's not yet the right time for us to act on this, but you should know it."

He gave her his memory of being the first to contact her psionicly, when she was still in Alilia's womb, and when he had subsequently had the prophesy that he and she were destined lovers, and what her name would be.

She gave him no response for what seemed like many long moments.

"Excuse me, I need a little privacy while I think about this." she murmured, and gently but firmly closed the Link. But she kept the hug.

He had to bolster his resolve to remain patient before she spoke again.

"I suppose you predicted Fire and Karz too?!" she quietly asserted with a soft giggle.

"Wow, that was some stealthy Reading!" he marveled. "I thought I could keep that private from anyone. I only hid it because it wasn't my secret to reveal."

"Aha, now you've confirmed it!" she laughed. "Not only that they're a couple, but that you predicted it! I didn't Read it off you, I just guessed. I got the idea that they were sneaking off to be together a while ago, but I never tried to find out for sure."

"Oh." he said, for want of a better response.

Finally she relieved his anxiety.

"As for us being destined lovers... Well, it's a big, big surprise, that's for sure. But it's a nice thought. It feels nice. Except when I think about what everyone else in the world is gonna say about it."

"When the time comes, we'll keep it secret, same as Fire and Karz." he assured her. "Though we should tell them about us; Karz that is, Fire already knows. And now you know about them, and he doesn't know about us, and they don't know you know about them. I don't know if he knows that I know about them. Fire knows I know, of course, but I don't know if she's let him know that I know. And they don't know that you know about us."

"You're right, we obviously have to tell them." she laughed. "The present state can't be allowed to continue! It's too confusing to deal with!"

He grinned. "Our parents know about us, but they don't know about Fire and Karz yet. They know she's destined to love someone, and that she got upset when she learned about it, but that's it. Povon and Kragorram don't know about any of this, as far as I know. And by the way, I'm pretty sure I'm blocking this conversation from everyone."

"Me too." she nodded emphatically. "Let's just... just hug till they call us."

"All right."

High above them, Fire approached her limit in holding wizard's power. Rather than leave or move away from the diffuse focus of the valley, she cast a tiny flame to vent the excess she was gathering. It slowly grew to an intense fireball over two meters wide, then stabilized at that size.

"That's exactly how much energy my wizard's power collecting field gathers here." she stated. "I'm putting everything I'm getting into this, except a little bit for my Levitation and a few maintenance and monitoring things. I'm at my maximum, so I can't absorb any more without sustaining some damage. But wow, does it ever feel great! I can't wait to see what it'll feel like when I'm charged up on warlock's power too!"

Though it was very late at night by the local time, a few curious elven onlookers flew up to within a couple of hundred meters of them to observe, while politely playing a game of mid-air catch to lend some discretion to their observation. No one was fooled into thinking that they just happened to decide to play catch over a kilometer in the air in the middle of the night while coincidentally close to visiting celebrities, but it was a matter of elven decorum for them to behave as though this was so.

Fire cast an air-tight Shield around her Fireball, (it needed no air to burn, since it wasn't really fire) and with the wind thus blocked from it, she took off flying at high speed going straight north and level. She took careful measurements of the diminishing size of the Fireball as she flew. When she passed over the rim of the valley she flew straight up until she was twice as high above the valley floor as she'd been when she started.

"I'm graphing the power availability of the valley in three dimensions." she explained as she flew down and across the valley at forty-five degrees from vertical. She continued criss-crossing the valley at various angles with the blazing Fireball held before her, and a few of the local elves tried to keep up with her, but lacked the speed.

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