The Fire and The Storm - The Nexus of Kellaran #2
Chapter 158

Part 24

"A week?" Karz asked in surprise. "And your most complex spell? Now you've got me intrigued. I mean, I could find a good magic teacher and take a Reading of his entire course to Journeyman level, then distribute it. It wouldn't take that long and it wouldn't be that complex, except for the sheer volume of the information. So you must really be making something special."

"Thanks, I am." Val smiled, closing her eyes to preserve enough concentration to converse without losing her train of thought on the project. "At the core of it is my magic instruction course, and I think I'm a pretty good teacher, at least when the subject is magic. But it has every method of teaching, including direct psionic placement, and it constantly Reads the student and adapts to their individual traits.

"If a student has the required if latent psionic talent, the magic talent, the intelligence, and the mental capacity, the spell will simply Link with them and shove the entire education into their brains in a chunk. But I did a quick psionic survey among the new wizards, and that level of talent is pretty rare.

"If they have no direct psionic learning capability at all, the spell will provide them with every other form of learning; Readings and Revealings of lectures and demonstrations, Speakings with just the spoken voice so they can just listen while they ride a horse or whatever, parchment scrolls and charts and diagrams. And every part of the education will be available in all those forms. Luckily, a complete lack of direct psionic learning capability is also pretty rare among the new wizards, but even those can take a Speaking or a Reading and review it until they've learned it. And they're susceptible to basic psionics to increase their concentration and their motivation, so that's in there too.

"Most of 'em will get a combination of direct psionic and conventional teaching, and like I say, the spell monitors them and adapts to their needs; it's patient when they need it and hurries them when it's practical, and it focuses on their strengths and directs them into their most productive specialties within general magic use. They'll all learn as fast as it's possible for them to learn, given their individual traits. "With the educational systems that were in place only a year ago in real time, it took an average of twelve years of magic education to produce a Journeyman wizard. I figure this spell will take an average of one year and two months.

"Then, once I've got all that, I've got to make a translated version in every language spoken by all the students. No one really learns well in a second language or through a Translation spell, so they all need it in their native tongue. I'm getting help with the translating; even the best Translation spells aren't as good as an expert translator, and the ones I'm getting are all Journeyman wizards at least, so they know the material as well as the languages. I found that I've been so dependant on Translation spells my whole life that I'm really no good at actually learning other languages, even with magic assistance. "Of course it's all self-powered and self-replicating, and it'll seek out every magic user who isn't as good as a Smingan Journeyman and teach them until they are, unless they blatantly refuse it."

"Damn. That's good." Mark stated, visibly impressed. "You know, after you're done that, you should make another one to teach the first twelve years of the basic schooling in reading, writing, arithmetic, history, and the rules of reality. You could call it Valentia's General Education."

"Sure." Val grinned, eyes still closed. "I'd put another billion or so people out of work, but I've already replaced most people's jobs anyway, so why not? I'm just glad I won't have to be the one who rebuilds the economy after the war."

"The economy after the war will be unrecognizable from the one that existed a year ago." Alilia declared. "Trade will be vastly reduced, as people will no longer need to trade for goods and services that they can provide themselves. Any Journeyman wizard can provide their own food and shelter and other necessities by themselves, from scratch if necessary, and do the same for a hundred others. Trade will be limited to luxuries, entertainments, tourism, and the products of specialized knowledge. I expect the world will be a paradise. Largely thanks to you, my brilliant daughter."

"Not just me!" Val giggled. "Without what I've learned from all of you I couldn't do any of this. I didn't invent more than a tenth of the sub-spells and techniques I use; Fire and Six came up with more than half of them. I just put it all together."

"But your creativity is your own, dear sister." Fire told her with a one-armed hug. "You're the one that thought of making the Work spell and the Healing and the Education, and you invented the Compiler, which makes what you're doing now practical. Paradise won't be entirely due to you, that's true, but Alilia's right in that you will be largely responsible for it."

"Thanks." Val smiled. "Now stop distracting me, I'm trying to work."

Two days later they took part in an exercise hosted by the Xervian Draconians involving all of Xervia's races' forces and all of those under Mark's command.

The command meeting where they received the briefing on the exercise was held in The Valley of The Senate, where the government of the unicorns met, a stunningly beautiful little grassy vale with dozens of burbling clear streams and scattered great trees on the high plains of Xervia that remained in a completely natural state. It was completely free of any construction or artificial artifact, but the millions of meetings held there by the most powerful of unicorns had imbued it with a powerful and stately aura. It was also highly spelled, having enchantments cast upon it to do everything from ensuring the health of the turf despite the traffic it bore, to ensuring the privacy of the meetings held there when that was desired, to Warding the place from attack.

A circle of grass eighteen meters wide was left open in the center of the gathering.

Mark's family stood on one side with their General Staffs of the four nations they led, but without Val, who had begged off to work on her Education spell. Opposite them were gathered the commanders of the Xervian dragons, the unicorns, the gargoyles, and the few Selkies who were rated for void warfare. According to the latest ratings, the entire gathering represented more than two-thirds of the military power of the mortals of Kellaran.

Pakdag appeared in the center of the open circle and posed proudly for a moment, his divinity almost shining around him, somewhat ostentatiously Mark thought. He cast a model of a gray sphere with glowing yellow dots marked on it, and spoke briskly. "Your task is to defend these twelve bases that the Xervian Draconians have built on the moon Blenda against a force of demons for eight hours. You must retain possession of them at the end of that time to be judged minimally successful.

"In the scenario that this exercise is based on, all of the Draconian bases on Blenda would be involved. Strategically, the demons must hold the moons or keep them unoccupied before they can attack Kellaran with impunity. Holding the high ground is still as crucial as it was when we fought over the possession of tiny hills. This exercise is limited to these twelve bases and this volume of void in order to hide it from possible detection by the demons."

He outlined the boundaries on his model in glowing blue and gave them a moment to record it.

"The exercise begins in thirty minutes.

"Good fortune." he wished them, and was gone.

Tithian instantly recreated his map in a Revealing above the clearing, but larger and with more detail.

"Note; there is room inside those twelve bases for one hundred thousand dragons at most." a Xervian copper dragon stated. "That is only a small portion of the forces we bring to bear. Some of us will have to entrench on the surface of Blenda, but there is only time for a minority of us to do so before the demons attack. The rest of us will have to fight exposed in the void.

"What level of concentration of power shall we use?"☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐

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