The Fire and The Storm - The Nexus of Kellaran #2
Chapter 117

Part 18

"Thank you Zayobod," Val said with a smile, "That was indeed very brave and trusting of you. How do you feel?"

"I'm fine now, but that did actually hurt quite a lot for a moment, and as the sword passed through my spine I got a feeling like lightning was striking in my brain."

"Interesting. Thank you." Val told him with a smile and a nod of dismissal.

He returned the smile, then returned to his place.

Val cast a meter wide Revealing in front of her, knowing that it would be shown in the great Revealing above her.

"Let's look at that again, shall we?" she said as she replayed her view of her strike through Zayobod's neck. "Now let's watch it very slowly, focusing on the area of the spell's effect."

Her Revealing zoomed in until she was showing only the trailing edge of the blade and a few millimeters behind it.

"You can see that the wound is closed a hair's breadth behind the blade, even at the speed I was swinging, and the damage is completely healed three millimeters behind that. If the blade didn't have blood channels, he might not have lost a single drop of blood."

She dismissed her Reading, and paused a moment.

"Now I feel what the gods must have felt, when they decided upon The Withdrawal. I can cast these two spells right now. I can do all of your work for you, and I can save you from most injuries. The Healing spell can't save you if you're torn apart, dispersed in an explosion, burned constantly and completely in a big fire, or struck with any sufficiently powerful magical attack. And if I'd have cut his head off with a big battle axe wider than his neck, completely separating his head from his body with a layer of steel, the spell wouldn't have saved him unless you stuck his head back on within about three seconds. "But still, casting those two spells on everyone right now would have a revolutionary effect on everyone on Kellaran. And we can't predict what the effect would be. Like the gods, we worry that people will stagnate without useful physical work to do, and that they'll lose the habit of being careful if they know they're protected from almost any injury. We worry that everyone will grow too dependent on the spells, and on us.

"So I'm not going to cast those spells today, or most of the other new stuff we came up with either. I'll cast them when we start fighting the demons, but I won't cast them on anyone else before then unless the issue has been discussed and voted on by all the rulers, leaders, and gods of The Assembly of The Just Alliance, and they tell me I should do it."

She paused another moment as she looked around, considering those watching, then she stepped back beside Six.

Fire stepped forward.

She paused, then considered the great Revealing above her, showing the four of them on the dais. She concentrated on it, seeking control of it, felt the extra energy flowing into her brain as she engaged in a contest of wills and skills with the initially-unknown person controlling it. After Locating and Identifying Edsda the Kleti Goddess of Entertainment as her opponent and successfully wresting control of the Revealing from her, Fire gave her a polite psionic; "Excuse me a moment."

This was achieved in a bit more than a tenth of a second, and the Pantheon of Kellaran were aware of it a hundredth of a second later, as were the other three children on the dais. None of them revealed their knowledge of it to the assembled mortals in any way.

She concentrated the Revealing on her own face, slowly shrinking the viewpoint until her seven-year-old half-elven features were revealed to the Hall of The Just Alliance two hundred and fifty meters high, and to the world. She gave them a moment to consider what she was showing; long enough for most to recognize that she was not a human or an elf, she was not like the other rare half-elven children. She was something different, and her expression of grim and mature determination seemed at odds with her young age. Her gaze held a mind of such intense ferocity that it overpowered the emotional reaction to her pretty childish features. Some of those watching were chilled by her unflinching gaze, others were simply struck with wonder.

"Excuse me a moment while I take a quick surface Reading of all of you, if you don't mind." she said, and did so.

She waited a moment to let that sink in as well.

"As I expected. Most of you expected us to be brilliant but cute, to stand up here and bask in the glory of our moment in the public eye.

"We have no time for basking in glory.

"Let me show you something. This is a memory from seven million years ago. It was experienced by Bukpuk of the Tgek, and recorded by Somonik as part of his Chronicle of The Demon War. I'll cast it as a Reading too, so those here in the hall can feel the emotion of it, as well as seeing and hearing it. This was the very first demon attack on Kellaran."

The Revealing began showing a village of gargoyles, built on a steep cliff face, being assaulted by demons. It was twilight on a cloudy day, and it was apparent that the gargoyles had been completely caught by surprise; none of them had been expecting the demons' attack, and none were prepared for it. The demons laid waste to them as they panicked, almost incapacitated with fear and shock.

Bukpuk was a young adult gargoyle, and one of their most promising clerics. He had been eating the evening meal with his family when the attack came. The stone wall of their home was suddenly ripped away with a deafening cracking, crunching roar, and the demons were among them and killing them with shocking suddenness. In a second his father, brother, and his uncles were burned to death, his mother was bitten in half, his younger sister was grabbed and shoved completely into a huge demon's mouth and chewed.

Bukpuk Translocated out in an absolute panic, using a transportation medallion his temple had received from the unicorns, and he emerged in the air outside the village. He could neither force himself to attack them nor allow himself to flee and abandon his people. But in seven seconds there was almost nothing left of the village, and one of the demons noticed him floating in the air behind them. Bukpuk fled before he could be attacked again; Translocating as far south as he could.

The great Revealing reverted to the view of Fire's face, and she looked around for a moment, noting the shock, disgust, fear and nausea on faces all around them.

"Now some of you think that was a bit harsh for this occasion, knowing that your children are watching all over the world. But I am a child, and I've had to live with the horror of what we're going to face since before I was even born. None of us will be able to hide from it if the war we're facing goes bad.

"That's what makes us four what we are, far more than our heritage or our training or the quality of the family and community we grew up in. We were born and raised to face the demons, and defeat them, and that's why we try so hard.

"Besides, that was the very first demon attack. They all got worse from there.

"Now I've instilled a suitably serious mood in you. I hope you carry it with you after tonight. Stay healthy and get ready to fight the demons. Nothing else really matters.

"Hilsith's spell to end aging is incredibly important, but it won't matter to most of you if you get killed by the demons in a few years. At this point, her gift of magic to those who lacked it is far more relevant.

"Today, while Linked with the greatest minds and most powerful mortal spell casters on Kellaran, we solved all the other problems we wanted to solve, then we started working on my father's challenge from the gods; finding out how to make mortals into gods.

"Father and I both had different ideas of how to do it at almost the same time, so he separated half the Link, and he solved the problem.0000

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