The Fire and The Storm - The Nexus of Kellaran #2
Chapter 152

PART 23

Mark emerged with his wives in windswept night, about two hundred meters in the air above a mountain valley. He augmented his vision a bit to see better in the darkness, making it seem twilight, so Talia and Alilia did too.

"I really want to spend the night in the master suite of The Living Palace in First Valley." he quietly told them. "I want to make love with both of you there, as Talia and I made love there on our wedding night. I made sure it was unoccupied and warned the manager that we were coming.

"But I wanted to do something else first. I hope it's okay.

"Right now I'm stronger than I've ever been, and filled with the confidence and contentment and love that I get from you. So I wanted to take a few minutes to do something I haven't had the courage to do. "This is Shinosa Valley, where I grew up. Or rather it used to be. The new residents from Whiskers Delta have renamed it Whiskers Valley in honor of their lost home, and I don't blame them for wanting to put what happened here in the past, and out of their minds.

"I haven't been here since all of my family died here." he continued as he slowly flew with them above the valley to the west. "I'm surprised that it looks so much the same, at least from up here. There's a couple of new houses over there, and some new fencing, but hardly anything's changed. For some reason I thought it would have."

They continued slowly moving west, and he spoke occasionally.

"I'm glad it's the middle of the night here now, I got lucky with that. It's about three hours after midnight, and I don't think anyone's about. We'll have to be careful not to wake up the dogs though. "That's Jorman's mill right down there.

"And that house right there, that's where I grew up."

They quietly alighted on the path in front of the house, perhaps sixty meters away. He looked at the house for a minute, remembering, then led them up the path, west and climbing out of the valley.

"I used to know every one of these trees and every animal in this forest as well as a shepherd knows his sheep." he mused, enjoying the familiar scents of the vibrant woodland as they walked. After fourteen minutes of unhurried walking they came to a plateau on the side of the mountain's lower slope, to the left of the path. It was a meadow with deep grass, a nice view of the valley, and perhaps a hundred gravestones, each with the grass for two and a half meters around them neatly trimmed to ankle height.

He cast a quick Knowing spell to find those he sought.

Talia and Alilia walked silently with him among the graves, letting his mood run its course.

He walked a meandering path through the cemetery, stopping here and there to gaze at the stone of someone he knew, silently paying his respects, and remembering.

His composure held until he arrived at the grave of Marja Dobbim, aged thirteen years. He fell to his knees and broke into tears, and Talia and Alilia held him tight as he wept. Finally he rose, tears still streaming from his eyes, and moved to the graves of Markhan Reginus Longstrider the Fourth, his loving wife Helem, their children Steb and Shelvy.

Mark slowly lay down with his face in the grass and wept with great wracking sobs, and his wives lay with him to comfort him.

Finally he rose to his knees, his grief spent, and gazed at the markers for minutes.

"I'm sorry to do this on our wedding night." he quietly rumbled. "I should have done it another time, but I couldn't bring myself to come here before tonight, and I wanted to before we... Before the me that'll be in the time-bubble goes back in for another sixteen years.

"That's okay." Talia assured him as she caressed his face. "You needed to do this before you could truly move past it."

She and Alilia wiped away tears they'd shed in empathy with him, which prompted him to wipe away his own.

"Thank you." he said as he stood. "But now I can move past it.

"And I hope you girls have something in mind to help me think of other things for the rest of the night."

"Oh, we do!" Alilia giggled as she cast a quick spell to clean the tear tracks from their faces.

"Then we're off to the Living Palace." he stated.

But he gazed at the headstones for another long moment, and said; "Goodbye."

Then Translocated himself and his loving wives to a happier place.

Seven hours later The Governors of Hiliani were enjoying a breakfast they'd bought at Sana's Kitchen while perched on the branch of a tree high above Homestead. Karzog was still in the form of an elf. They'd hardly spoken at all, though they occasionally shared a thought.

Karzog suddenly turned to Val and said; "You need to love me, Valentia Longstrider."

"Do I now?" she laughed, surprised enough to find the idea hilarious. "And why is that?"

"It's obvious, isn't it?" Karzog chuckled. "I'll always be with Fire. Fire will always be with Six. Six will always be with you. You and I are bound to them by love, and they're bound by a Link so profound they can't even turn it off. Sometimes I still think they really are only one mind.

"You and I are the weak link in the chain. We're always going to be together because of them, and we're all going to live a very long time. I'm sure that if you don't love me a lot, we're bound to get on each other's nerves eventually."

"True." she agreed with a giggle. "But why's the onus on me? Isn't it just as important that you love me?"

"I do love you Val." he assured her with a warm smile. "Not the same way I love Fire, but you're incredible and beautiful and I really like you a lot because you're so comfortable to be with. I love you for your talent and your ferocity in battle, and your loyalty."

"Silly dragon." Val laughed as she floated over and sat beside him, put an arm around his shoulders and kissed him on the cheek. "Of course I love you. I've known for certain since I was two that the four of us were always going to be an inseparable quartet. Since long before I knew about the prophesies and the destined loves. You're one of us, you're part of us, and you always will be.

"I love you because you're more fun to be around than anyone I know except my father. I love your big heart, and I love how you really don't mind that you have to try so hard to keep up with three humanoid brats who're a lot younger than you, and I love that you do try so hard. You're pretty incredible too, you know, and there's a very good chance that you'll surpass us at everything, eventually. And whether you do or you don't, there's the fact that almost no one else is even in our league. None of us are ever going to want to chum around with average people of any race for more than a few minutes at a time. "Besides, those of us that owe some of our greatness to these two having changed our brains have to stick together."

She gave him another kiss on the cheek, and floated back over beside Six.

"I suppose that's true too." Karz laughed, and popped the last of his tart in his mouth.

"That's a pretty good trick." Fire teased as she hugged him with one arm and swung her feet under the branch. "I didn't think you could eat in a body made of textured Force and Illusions." "Thanks. I'm practicing it so I can do it convincingly enough to fool people, in case I ever have to maintain a disguise as a humanoid."

"What do you do with the food after you swallow it? And can you actually taste it?" Six asked around a mouthful of muffin.

"I can't taste it in this body. For a while I was Sending it to my dragon body's mouth in Serminak. I don't have enough concentration yet to actually have two bodies walking around and talking to people at the same time without using the Multiple Simultaneous Manifestations spell, but I can have that body chew and swallow at least while I'm acting normal in this one.

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