The Fire and The Storm - The Nexus of Kellaran #2
Chapter 115

Part 18

"The part that made me cry was something Mark had said with a hearty laugh. Yazadril had stated how proud he was of Nemia, his beautiful young new wife, who was only two hundred and fifty-eight years old Mark found it funny that Yazadril considered her at her age to be his beautiful young new wife, when the oldest person Mark had ever known up to that day had died of old age at the age of seventy-six."

She paused a moment, and took a deep breath. "Dead from ageing at seventy-six years old, and the eldest person Mark had ever known. The sadness of that struck me so deeply, and I found it amazing that such people still lived most of their lives with great joy, despite knowing that they were cursed to live without the use of magic, and doomed to an early death. Knowing that everyone they cared for were going to sicken and die, and very soon, and there was nothing that they or anyone else could do about it."

She paused, then raised her gaze with fierce determination, and almost shouted her next words, so great was her intensity; "Well that will not happen again! We have beaten death by old age in every thinking mammalian race, and in the process, we've found a way to give the use of magic to all who lack it! Already the worst sufferers of geriatric degradation are being Healed...!"

She stopped and actually flinched a bit as the huge cheer from the many thousands all around her reached her and washed over her with palpable force. She waited for it to quiet before she continued, but it just went on and on, and only seemed to get louder. Almost everyone present from the short-lived races seemed to try to talk to their neighbors at the top of their lungs at once, their joyful yelling interspersed with new cheers.

After a few moments of unending cacophony, she decided that she'd already said everything that needed saying, so she smiled and gave a simple bow before walking back to her party.

This prompted an even louder response as the crowd realized that she was leaving the podium, and they cheered her mightily for her accomplishment.

She was barely off the podium when she was overwhelmed by the crowd. Every human, dwarf, gnome, giant, Selkie, and gargoyle who was near her wanted to thank her, touch her, shake her hand, hug her. As the full significance of what she'd announce set in, almost all of them began either weeping with joy or laughing hysterically as they realized that they were all delivered from early death, and granted the power they'd always envied in those who had it. She began to panic as they all closed in around her, but Yazadril cast a Force Shield tight around her skin, then quickly grew it to a two meter sphere, pushing the people away from her.

"Just smile and wave and walk back to us, Love." Yazadril advised her. "I'll keep the Shield moving with you."

So she did, while Yazadril cleared her way through the crowd as gently as possible.

The frenzy of joy and the incredible din of the crowd went on and on, long after Hilsith had returned to her party and been safely ensconced within Yazadril and Nemia's protective arms. "I... hadn't really considered their reaction." she revealed to her party. "I'm overwhelmed!"

"This is really too much." Mark decided, and cast a spell that blocked most of the incredible noise from his party and those they'd been speaking with before Fire had spilled Hilsith's news. "Well, thank you, that's much better." Osbald said with a smile at conversational volume.

"You know," Emeroth chuckled as she looked around at the scene, "If someone doesn't do something soon, this is going to become nothing but a huge party, and it'll be hard to get anything else constructive done here tonight."

"Well, I suppose I should talk to them." Mark decided. "But first I'd like to talk to the gods."

Visinniria and Falgaroth appeared as he said it, and he continued speaking without pause, like they'd been there all along.

"Did you find any problems in the other time-bubbles when you opened them, and what's the situation with the renegade Sylvan God of Stealth?" he asked.

"No." Visinniria told him with a smile. "We didn't open the other time-bubbles, we just looked inside them. It was less effort than re-casting them all again. None of them contained any hidden Sylvan, and none of their residents wanted to leave early. None of their children have displayed exceptionally fast development, so they're just infants. The only other bubble that had People of Morning was the one they organized on the plains of Xervia. There's over six thousand unicorns in it, as well as a few hundred gargoyles and a few dozen from The Hidden Nation. None of them were uncomfortable with their situation." Falgaroth continued as she finished. "The Sylvan God of Stealth was found and... apprehended by Glup, Keegla the Dwarven God of War, Thless the Human Goddess of Learning, and six Sylvan gods, about fourteen seconds after you told us of him. Most of us were looking for him. Fourteen seconds is a very long time for such a group to take to complete any task. The God of Stealth was not easy to find, or to catch. Since then the other Sylvan gods have kept him secluded, and they've been arguing with him. That's all the rest of us of know about it."

"Okay, thanks." Mark told them with a nod. "Since Amirgath predicted I'd speak next with Talia and Alilia, I'm a little tempted to do it without them, just to see what would happen. But I won't."

He smiled at each of his beloveds and offered them his arms. "Ladies?"

They returned his smile as they rose into the air to take his arms, Talia on his right and Alilia on his left. Rather than walk or Translocate, they floated up and over the heads of the other attendees to the center of the dais and settled down on it. The huge Revealing above them re-activated, and Mark waited for most of a minute for the room to notice them and to give him their attention.

When almost everyone was looking to him, and only the murmur of a few quiet comments amongst the crowd remained of the cacophony of moments before, Mark spoke. Like Hilsith, his tone was casual and intimate.

"I know a lot of you expected us to make brilliant discoveries and do great new things while we were in the time-bubble, and we haven't let you down. A lot of you expected me personally to do great things, but I didn't, not in the time-bubble anyway. I only helped a lot of other brilliant and hard-working people do great things. A few of the goals we set for ourselves haven't been met yet, but I'm sure they will be after the Hiliani time-bubble has resumed and run for it's full duration.

"We made big advances in our ability to wage war against the demons. We helped Hilsith with the research that led to her discovery of longevity and magic for every member of every major race on Kellaran. And we've had a wonderful life for the last seven and a half years, but not an easy one."

He paused for a moment, and smiled at Talia as he continued speaking to the world. She smiled up at him in adoration as he spoke. "When I went into the time-bubble, I thought my life was as full of love and happiness as it could be, and I thought I was as in love as a man could get. I was wrong."

He looked out at the crowd again. "Our main purpose for going in the time-bubble was to have children and raise them before we began a task that the gods wanted us to do. Talia and I knew she was expecting twins before we left Hilia, and having children and raising them with her has made me love her, and fall far more deeply in love with her, than I ever thought possible.

"But my incredible good fortune had more in store for me." he continued as he smiled down at Alilia, who met his smile. "A wonderful love grew between me and Talia and Alilia, and she also bore us a child."

He spontaneously hugged them both, and they returned it as he took a long look around at the crowd, who represented all the people in the world, most of whom were watching and listening via public Revealings all over Kellaran.00000

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