The Fire and The Storm - The Nexus of Kellaran #2
Chapter 143

Part 21

"You can give your children enough time and attention with three children in your household, you've proved that. So we of The Volunteers have closely examined our love and affection for each other, and as you can see, we've formed ourselves into eleven households. All eleven will have three children each. Eight households will have three males and one of you, and three will have two males and you because we're short three males to make it divide evenly. All except Kalem's house will have three females, hers will only have two, her and I, since she's having twins. Ours is also one of the ones with only two males plus you.

"We're sure living as a bunch of separate people will be very difficult for you, in its own way. And having to integrate forty-four sets of memories every night would have to be hard on you mentally. This way every one of our children will have two or three fathers plus you, and two or three mothers. Most will have three of each. This should lessen greatly the effect it will have on them when you go back to being one person. And this way you only have to be eleven extra people, instead of forty-three extra. And we keep the whole thing among us; The Hilian Volunteers."

Mark considered it, and smiled. "Thank you. That's all brilliant thinking, and I'll sure take you up on it."

"Thank you." she told him with a huge smile. "And we want you to know, though none of us chose it, that this is the most beautiful thing that could possibly have happened to us, boys and girls both. The chance to love you, to live with you, to bear and raise your children, it's like a gift from the gods. Yzell removed the block from us while we were talking, and now all of us girls can feel that we're pregnant. And it feels indescribably wonderful."

"A gift from the gods! Crap!" Six suddenly exclaimed.

"What?" Balen asked.

"I'm just thinking that we should examine Yzell psionicly, and closely, and find out if anyone else influenced her decision to do this thing." Six declared. "Considering how we three turned out, there's no doubt that The Just Alliance will benefit from having forty-four more young warlocks, which gives someone a motivation to have done this."

"I don't know." Mark said with a frown as he gave his head a slight shake. "Yzell and all of us were still in the time-bubble when she did this. So if she was influenced, it was either done by someone here on Hiliani with us, or someone has a way to influence what's happening in a time bubble without opening it. Either possibility seems pretty unlikely. But you're right, we'll certainly examine Yzell anyway. Not only for the reason you mentioned, but also because this whole thing seems very out of character for Yzell."

He mentally searched for the elven midwife, and found her crying in her home here on Hiliani under the disappointed glare of her husband Theramin. He Summoned them both, and said; "Wait." as they were about to speak.

Mark, Talia, Alilia, and their children Linked deeply and Read Yzell with all of their concentration. They found what they were looking for almost immediately, and examined it for a moment. "I'll be damned." Mark stated. "You were right, Son.

"Yzell, you are without blame. Someone else was forcing your mind from the time when you made the decision to remove the Contraceptions and cause these girls' pregnancies to the moment you finished solving the fertility problem. And they didn't even bother trying to cover up that they'd done it, it's right there as blatant as can be to anyone with the skill to look for it. They were obviously looking out for you, since any trace of the identity of the perpetrator has been completely erased with great and subtle skill, so they could have hidden the evidence of the tampering if they'd chosen to do so. They must have left the trace there on purpose to exonerate you.

"And to be honest, I'm more than a little glad to learn this. I sure didn't like the thought that you'd done this to us."

Yzell rushed to him as she burst into tears, hugging him tightly around his left thigh as she cried uncontrollably with relief and ill-deserved regret. He picked her up and comforted her like a tiny child. "Thank you." Theramin said with great sincerity. Talia gave him a hug for emotional support as the tension drained out of him.

"Well, we should check in on what's happening at the global summit we're still supposed to be attending." Alilia suggested. "And then we need to get ready for a state wedding.

"I suppose we should invite all you girls to be bridesmaids." she teased with a chuckle.

"Then we'd have to invite all these fine gentlemen to be groomsmen!" Mark added with a laugh of his own. "And I'm all for it."

"No." Balen told them with a warm smile. "I mean, thank you ever so much, we cherish your invitations and I know it'll be great fun, but no. This is your wedding, and you don't need all of us there to complicate the emotions of it. And besides, we just formed eleven new group marriages here, and in a hurry at that. So we have a lot of new planning and bonding and relationship-building stuff to do. We might end up trading a few of the men back and forth over the next week or so, until we're sure we have the best matches."

She paused for a giggle, which some of the other girls joined her in.

"After you become eleven more people for us, it'd be nice if we each had a little ceremony to celebrate our commitment. We know you'll only be committing for sixteen years, while we'll be committing for at least as long as most elven children stay in their parents' home, which is about thirty-six years. After that we might choose to stay together longer, since we'll always be united in your service anyway, but we'll have to see when that time comes. So the ceremonies won't quite be weddings, but still, it would be nice to stand together before the community and proudly declare our love and our dedication to each other and to the wonderful responsibility of raising your children."

"I think that would be nice." Mark chuckled. "As Talia said earlier, all of you are going to be very easy to love."

"Father, Mothers, we need to speak privately before we go back to the Hall." Six firmly stated.

"Mark, why don't you take the children and do that." Talia asked him as she floated up to give him a quick kiss. "Alilia and I need to stay here a minute or three and explain to these girls about the curse." "Great Source, I hadn't even thought about that!" Mark cursed.

"Yes, well when the curse strikes me it strikes you, and vice versa. If all the copies of you will be exact manifestations of you, I don't see why it wouldn't strike all of them. All of you. Anyway, these girls will need to be prepared for it, and protected."

"But my love, when the curse strikes me I want you!" Mark protested. "What if every copy of me wants you at the same time?!"

"It's true that you need me when the curse strikes, but it's obvious since Alilia joined us that you like having her then just as much, as long as I'm there and part of it. If necessary, you can Link with all your other selves while you take me, so they can all enjoy me just as fully while they enjoy these girls without all twelve of you needing to have me physically."

"How are you going to prepare these girls for experiences like that?" Mark asked in consternation.

"We'll figure something out." Alilia assured him. "If necessary, I'll cast a mild blessing on them to ensure they'll enjoy it."

"Ah. Okay. We'll see you in a few minutes at the hall." Mark stammered, then Translocated back to the house with his children.

"So, ah, what did you need to talk about?" he asked.¶¶¶¶¶¶¶¶¶¶¶¶¶¶0

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