The Fire and The Storm - The Nexus of Kellaran #2
Chapter 125

Part 19

To their surprise, they were joined by Gvetwa, First God of The Sylvan, who joined the conversation as if he'd been part of it from the beginning. "Many of us are concerned about the effect your program will have on my people." he stated. "When the Sylvan first appeared on this world, we were nothing more than hunters, killers, and raiders. We took what we needed, and produced nothing. After the Segregation we were concentrated in Serminak, and after the continent was hunted-out, we were forced to become productive and co-operative to survive. We became farmers, ranchers, fishers, manufacturers, builders, and traders. And everyone including us agrees that this was very good for the Sylvan people.

"Now, thanks to you irritating children, The Sylvan are about to become nothing more than killers again. The Sylvan on Hiliani don't even hunt, fish, or gather anymore, all they do is fight, fornicate, and engage in simulated warfare.

"Now, I will admit that thanks to your efforts, my people will be better prepared to face the demons. But you might want to consider that they will be very difficult to live with after the war, and transitioning them back to a peacetime existence will prove to be very difficult, if not impossible."

"Perhaps." Fire nodded. "But they'll be alive at least. We'll deal with what happens after the war, after the war.

"Personally, I'd be in favor of re-stocking Serminak with prey animals after the war, and limiting the Sylvan population to the number that can sustain themselves there with traditional hunting and gathering methods, like the Sylvan on Hiliani were doing before we set up there. I think it's more natural for Sylvan that way, and that they're happier when they can live like that."

"Ha! The hunter-gatherer lifestyle is the most natural for all of our races!" Gvetwa retorted. "It's how all of our peoples lived before we started using agriculture, which led to civilization as we know it now. But I don't think any of them would be happy about being forced to go back to it! Sure, hunting is fun, but gathering is boring and monotonous, and few will be happy with giving up the luxuries and comforts we've all become accustomed to!"

Fire shrugged and grinned. "Sorry Gvetwa, but that's not really our problem right now. Our self-imposed responsibility only extends as far as beating the demons with as few losses to Kellaran as possible. We'l help clean up the mess afterwards as much as we can, but it's so impossible to predict what conditions will be like then that it's not even worth trying to plan for it. We'll cross that bridge when we get to it." "As I suggested before," Six interjected, "After the war we should have another tournament to decide our peacetime leadership. Whoever wins it can deal with reconstruction and the transition to peacetime life. "But we won't be competing in it, because we'll probably be leaving with the Triax to hunt demons out in the void, and to find the demon homeworld and exterminate them all. I expect a lot of Sylvan will choose to come with us. After that we'll come back and start building new livable worlds around our sun. All that should keep us busy for the foreseeable future."

"If any of that sounds like fun to you, you're welcome to join us, Eldest of The Sylvan Gods."

"Fun?!" Gvetwa scowled. "Mortals were more fun when they were awe-struck and submissive! Your whole cursed family is so damned irritating!"

And he was gone.

After a moment of silence, many on the beach couldn't help but chuckle a bit at his frustration.

Fire turned to her parents. "We realize that supervising our activities is still pretty instinctive for you, considering our ages. And the Sylvan re-structuring will be the biggest thing happening on Kellaran for the next few days. So, would you all like to continue helping us with it? It sure led to a lot of unexpected benefits yesterday!"

"It did, and yes we would." Mark grinned.

"With your permission, I'd like to invite a few volunteers from the other races to join your training program as well." Yazadril mused. "I think it's likely that the younger and more aggressive especially will advance more quickly there. If it shows promise, we may set up modified versions of your program amongst all the other races."

"Certainly, we'd considered that as well." Six nodded around a mouthful of fruit. "We'll get going on it right after breakfast."

Two days later, the residents of Hiliani who planned to return to the time-bubble decided that they would wait until after the next meeting of The Assembly before having the bubble re-cast. Many of them, particularly Yazadril, planned on attending that meeting, and they all wanted to know the results before they withdrew from the world again. Within two more days the new Sylvan training system was completely emplaced, and variations of it were starting up all over Kellaran.

On the day before the next meeting of the Assembly, as Mark and Kragorram's families were enjoying lunch in their backyard vale on Hiliani, Amirgath and Somonik appeared.

Somonik addressed Val. "It's obvious that there is enough demand for the new training programs all over Kellaran that we cannot meet the demand without using your automated Work spells to get everything else done. Though the full Assembly has not met on the issue, we've personally asked all the ruling members and the pantheon, and the result was unanimously favorable. We therefore ask you to use your Work spells to do the work of any who wish to join the new training programs full-time, and that you cast The Healing of Valentia on those people. If you find that it's too big a job to do by yourselves in a reasonable amount of time, we'll be glad to assist you.

"However, we want to stress that this is a wartime measure only. We share your concerns about the long-term effect that perpetually perfect healing and the lack of physical work will have on the character and culture of our peoples, and the issue will be extensively debated again immediately following the war."

"Okay." Val simply responded as she ate.

"Amirgath, could you become a human, or an elf?" Mark suddenly asked.

"Hmph." Amirgath rumbled as he considered the question. "I could certainly take the form of a human or an elf, though I have never contemplated doing so. But nothing of my basic nature would be changed. I would still be a Draconian god, with all that implies."

"Could you become like me?" Fire asked. "A half-elven, half-human warlock who could use the second Source?"

"No. I could not use the second Source, nor have I used the Source or the power of wizard's rock since I became a god. I believe that my power now comes from the Translocation medium, or from the fabric of reality itself, even if I took Elven form. I'm not sure. I've never been very analytical in my use of power. No doubt there are other gods who would give you different answers, but I am what I am." "Ah. Thanks." Fire nodded.

Mark was so deep in thought that he didn't respond.

Amirgath nodded. "If there's nothing else, we'll take our leave, and speak with you again soon." he stated.

He and Somonik disappeared without waiting for an answer.

"Quewanak?" Talia asked the air, and he appeared.

"Yes?"

"The training in the kids' new system is good, but it's not near as good as what we were getting here before the time-bubble opened." Talia thoughtfully stated. "And as far as I can see, the difference is that you and Ria were running our exercises here; you set the scenarios and ran the demons, and the people running the exercises in Serminak just aren't as good at it as you and Ria are.

"I know a lot of the gods are busy maintaining the time-bubbles and training with the Triax gods and whatnot, but still, I think it would help a lot if you and some of the other gods started running as many of the exercises as possible."

"As soon as we've finished setting up the systems, we'll be running a lot more of them ourselves, like we did for the Sylvan here when we first started it." Six mentioned. "But there's so much to do, we won't be able to do that all the time. We still need to get onto building the voidcraft and working them into the training, and we need to train for the tournament."☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐

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