The Fire and The Storm - The Nexus of Kellaran #2
Chapter 142

Part 21

"That would mean that we'd either have to join you in some or all of these long-lasting and tiny reverse-stasis fields," Six mused, "Or miss many decades of your lives. Even if it was only six weeks to us, it would bother me to miss that much of your lives. Maybe you'd still seem the same after many decades of raising other children without us. But maybe you'd be different, and it would always be obvious to us how many years you'd lived without us. And that would hurt, a little.

"However, there is another alternative. We have the spell for Multiple Simultaneous Manifestations. We figured it out in the brainstorming session because it's one of The Prerequisites of Divinity. You could each become two people first, one to stay out here in the world with us, and one to go back in the Hiliani time-bubble until it ends, which will be another sixteen years inside. That should be more than long enough to raise our brothers and sisters, since it only took seven years for us. Once inside the bubble, Father would make forty-three more simultaneous manifestations of himself. One of him would live with Mother and Alilia, and the other forty-three would live with each of the girls and their children. I suggest you disperse their homes all over Hiliani as much as possible to minimize having to meet yourself too often, which may be too confusing for young children if they don't turn out like us. And every time you sleep all your selves will exchange your memories of the previous day, so that you'll truly remain one person and not diverge into forty-four distinct people. Then when the time-bubble ends you'll re-integrate yourself, and you'd all re-integrate with the copy of yourselves you left here to be with us." There was another long pause.

"Damn, that's positively mind-boggling." Mark cursed as he considered the outrageous plan.

"It sure sounds a lot better than spending a few centuries in small stasis fields, raising children." Alilia mused. "And we wouldn't have to share you with all those girls. I mean, we'd have to... Well you know wha I mean." She chuckled at her own fluster. "We're going to need some new vocabulary to describe some of the situations this is going to get us into, but I'm for Six's plan.

"You're sure of the spell?" she asked the children.

"Very." Fire assured her.

"If one of Mark is going to stay out here with you, why do we need to... Oh I see." Talia said, thinking out loud.

"Exactly." Six nodded. "You and Alilia could just remain one self out here with us, and let the copies of Father raise his children on Hiliani without you, but then the Father on Hiliani would have to spend up to sixteen years without you, since he can't re-integrate through the time-bubble. I wish we could just join you in the time-bubble. But we three agree that we want to avoid that if we can. We left because it was to constricting, and that won't change if we go back. So the copies of our parents on Hiliani will have to spend sixteen years without us, but at least they'll have forty-four new children to love while they're in there."

There was another long pause, but no one had anything else to add.

Finally Mark stood, and was strengthened by the love and confidence on the faces of his family. "All right. By now the girls of The Volunteers have probably heard that they're pregnant by me without their own consent, since it was announced at the Assembly. And they might have heard what I did here when I was mad. The poor things have to be going out of their minds with worry. Let's go talk to them and let them know what's going to happen."

"While you do that," Povon decided, "Kragorram and I will go back to the assembly and make sure that Hilia and Serminak are well represented in the planning of the joint training exercises. We'll meet you in Laylas Valley for the wedding.

"Karzog, you're with us."

"Thanks." Mark nodded as the dragons of his family vanished.

He sent out a psionic call to all The Hilian Volunteers even as he Translocated all six left at Focus Mountain to Backyard Valley on Hiliani. Over the next three seconds all The Volunteers appeared on the grass around them. Many of them looked scared or worried.

"Thank you for coming so quickly." Mark told them as he surveyed them. "Please, sit down and relax.

"As you may have heard, Yzell has solved the fertility problem. She did so by removing the Contraception from the spell set that she cast on you girls before you made love with me, and observing your conceptions. So all of you girls are pregnant with my child, and Kalem is bearing my twins, without any of us knowing about it until a few minutes ago. She blocked your instinctual awareness that you were pregnant. I know you girls had nothing to do with your becoming pregnant by me, and I want to assure you that we've found a solution to the problem I'm presented with. I'm going to do right by each and every one of you."

He paused to give them a moment to absorb that. Every girl among them placed hands on tummies. All were shocked, some were immediately giddy with happiness, some seemed afraid to believe it was true. Mark continued when most of them were looking to him for more explanation.

"The Governors here have a Multiple Simultaneous Manifestations spell, and I'm going to use it to make forty-three copies of myself. We're going to live in the Hiliani time-bubble for the remainder of its duration, and raise our kids. I'll live with each of you girls and give you each the love you deserve as the mother of my child, and I'll give each of my children the time, attention, and love they deserve. Every night when I sleep, all my memories of my selves will exchange their memories of the previous day, so that I remain one person with one mind.

"But I want you to understand that this is temporary. At the end of the time-bubble I'm going to go back to being one person, and I won't have as much time for you, or for our children. So over the next nine or ten months in the time-bubble during your pregnancies, before I become multiple people, I want each of you girls to try to find another man that you could love for a long time. You can choose from the males here or anyone else on Hiliani, or if you have someone else in mind you can ask them to join us before they seal the time-bubble. Each of you girls should have two men in your lives acting as your husbands and the fathers of your children while those children are raised; me temporarily and whoever else you choose. I want each of these children to grow up with two loving and devoted fathers each, so that when the time-bubble ends and I don't have near as much time for them, they each have another father who's still there for them full-time.

"It's not a perfect solution, but it's the best I can think of to deal with this situation."

Everyone there took a moment to absorb and consider all that, then Balen stood and hesitantly spoke. "Um, can we have a minute to talk about this?"

"What, with me or in private?" Mark asked.

"I think we need a minute to talk about this among ourselves. The Volunteers that is, the males included."

"All right, we'll be at the house." Mark nodded as he hooked a thumb back over his shoulder in the direction of the pass. "Call us when you're ready." With that he Translocated with his wives and children to their Hiliani home. It was still prepared for vacancy and most of their possessions from it had already been moved to Hilia, but the living room furniture was still all there, so they sat as Alilia Summoned them a light meal and beverages from her home in Heartwood.

They ate in silence, then Mark waved them over to the huge sofa he was sitting on. All five piled onto his lap or cuddled up around him and simply hugged each other. Balen called almost an hour after they'd left.

They returned to Backyard Valley, and found the young elves there separated slightly into eleven small groups.

"Prince Mark, we girls are somewhat hesitant to propose this," Balen began, "Because we'd be giving up our chance to have you all to ourselves, but we have to do what's best for you.☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐

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