The Fire and The Storm - The Nexus of Kellaran #2
Chapter 131

Part 19

"I agree." Fifth Aquamarine stated with a ripple. "During much of that time, I was attempting to communicate with you as you were attempting to communicate with me. It was extremely disconcerting, and futile. "Step aside brother, you're spent." Fire chuckled as she stood from the sitting log and approached First Mauve. She stopped and gave a quick military bow. "Goddess of Knowledge, let's think together, shall we?"

"Yes." First Mauve simply responded. Half a minute passed before she communicated again. "All right. I can communicate with you in this manner, by imitating your Speaking spell. Or I can communicate with you in this manner, which is the equivalent method used by mortal Triax. But in both cases, we are dependent on the Translation spell devised by the gods of both our peoples, including myself. It translates our primary inherent methods of communication, those being your spoken words, and our modulation of an energy field you would refer to as the lodestone effect that is generated by the bodies of mortal Triax. Therefore, due to the limitations of the Translation, this communication is no more complete than speaking with sound.

"As I observed during your brother's attempt to Link with Fifth Aquamarine, he was attempting to devise a method that translates the thoughts and awareness of mortal Triax who communicate in The Unified Code and mortal humanoid Kellarani who communicate in Trade Common. This is a very complex problem and we cannot solve it yet. I am not surprised at our failure, since the simple Translation of surface thoughts that we are using now required the concentration of many gods of both pantheons for many hours to devise, and it requires our active and ongoing participation to maintain its use among mortals of both worlds. None-the-less, your recent record of achievement is impressive, so this attempt was wisely made. I was prepared to be surprised."

"I have her." Mark suddenly said through gritted teeth from where he still sat on the log. He pointed at First Purple without turning his head or opening his eyes. "With a lot of help, I've truly contacted her mind. I don't know why it's a bit easier with her, but it is. And that bit just barely makes it possible. I haven't sent anything over the Link yet, and I don't understand anything I'm getting from her. Like the kids said, it's just noise in all your senses."

He slowly and carefully turned his head and opened his eyes facing First Purple, Triax Goddess of Flight. "I'd like to try to give you a thought. To set it into your mind. It's a pretty little purple mountain flower that's almost the same color as you, called a givnia. It seems an appropriate choice. You should get my memory of one I picked once; the sight of it, the scent, the feel of it in my hand. May I?" "You may." First Purple replied.

Mark nodded and closed his eyes again.

A moment later First Purple cringed and demanded; "Take it out take it out take it out take it out...!!!" over and over until Mark managed to directly reverse what he'd done.

First Purple promptly disappeared.

"Our apologies for socially inappropriate behavior." First Mauve said with a bow.

"Is she all right?" Mark inquired.

"She is unharmed but upset. Perhaps you should have given her a thought that is less alien to us. The sight of the night sky, perhaps.

"Still, I was observing closely, as were Quewanak, Falgaroth, Visinniria, and Amirgath. Our pantheons will examine what you have done today with concentration. Possibly we can build on what you did." "How do you gods communicate with them?" Mark asked the Kellarani gods who were observing. "With the Triax gods, that is? And have any of you tried to Link with a mortal Triax?"

"I am not capable of explaining to a mortal how we communicate with the gods of The Triax." Amirgath stated. "As you have discovered, one way to reach divinity is with accelerating increases in power and understanding. As a mortal, you lack the understanding. Of course, you can find out at any time, can't you?

"And no, none of us have attempted to Link with any mortal Triax. Considering that almost every mortal Kellarani who has joined with even the smallest part of the mind of any god has been driven irrevocably insane by the experience, we had not considered risking such harm to our new allies.

"You still like to think that becoming a god is merely to become a more powerful spell caster. Your children think that they have gained almost all of the abilities of the gods. When you achieve Ascension, you will find out how wrong you all are about these things. As Visinniria here said to you on the occasion when we met, there is no more similarity between a god and a mortal than there is between you and a pine tree."

The quicksilver dragon god paused, surveyed the party of mortals, and addressed them as a whole. "Your activities here today have been very valuable. The exchange with The Triax of concise visual and audible histories of warfare was a brilliant idea, and has indeed led to a much greater understanding of each other and our manners of warfare. When the Assembly meets tomorrow with the leaders of The Triax, we will indeed be much more prepared to begin integrating our war-fighting capabilities.

"And by the way, one of your assumptions is incorrect. There are only two nations on Kellaran who are making any serious preparations for warfare in the void; being Hilia, which includes the nations of Serminak, and Xervian Draconia. Somonik here and his mate Grakonexikaldoron have learned your void survival spells from Povon, and they and other Draconian researchers have improved them greatly while modifying them to be more specific to the requirements of dragons.

"Xervian Draconia will be fully prepared to live and fight in the void, and they will require no vessels to do so. I suggest you learn what they're doing and teach it to the Serminaki Draconians. Your preparations are very well done, and your vessels will allow most of the other races on Kellaran to fight in the void with great effectiveness. We will indeed defend what is ours.

"As usual, you have exceeded expectations. So I don't mind telling you that I find it very refreshing to see you all bite off far more than you could swallow and then choke on it, in the matter of Linking with the Triax. It is the first time that all of you have publicly failed completely, and I think it will do you all some good. Your children in particularly may become slightly less irritatingly smug about their abilities." "Perhaps we could all stand to be a bit less egotistical, Amirgath, including you." Fire stated with a nasty little laugh. "After all, what were you doing when you were my age? I imagine you were like most dragons at seven years of age; having the intelligence of a lizard, and still incapable of being trained to not crap on your own food."

"First Mauve, and our honored guests of The Triax." Mark hurriedly called, cutting off whatever outraged retort Amirgath had been about to make. "We thank you very much for your attendance and your participation here today. It's been wonderful having you, and I think we were pretty productive. But it's been a long day, and since our attempts at Linking with you didn't work, we have nothing else planned with you for today.

"We look forward to seeing you all again tomorrow at the meeting of The Assembly of The Just Alliance."

"We thank you for having us here, and for sharing your history." First Mauve responded. "We will indeed see you tomorrow at the meeting. It would be helpful if you had another presentation prepared then, detailing as much as possible your present military preparations, including the workings, weaponry, and performance of your void vessels, and the new capabilities of the Xervian Draconians." "We'll have it ready." Mark nodded with a smile.

"Farewell until tomorrow." First Mauve said with an eerily similar nod.

"Farewell until tomorrow." Mark agreed with a grin, and then The Triax were gone.

Kragorram ended the Observation Link.

Mark immediately cast a network of spells that he'd learned from Yazadril over the beach and the area around it, then modified it with psionic techniques he'd learned from Quewanak and his children, absolutely insuring that no mortal could eavesdrop on them in any way. He put so much power into it that he doubted many of the gods could penetrate it either.0000

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