The Fire and The Storm - The Nexus of Kellaran #2
Chapter 170

Part 24

Mark laughed around a bite of fish. "While it's true that the warriors I worked with in the exercise have great courage and determination, and are very professional, and the battle that the organizers presented us with was indeed quite a daunting prospect, it was still just an exercise. All of us have been training hard for months or years, and most of us have taken part in such simulation exercises many times before, if not on such a grand scale or in the void. We're pretty used to it by now. Which is the whole point, really; when we do face the demons we'll be as accustomed to it as possible. It'll be a lot scarier when we know that they're real demons and that the danger of injury and death are real, but we'll be fine because our training will serve us in good stead."

At this point the rest of Mark's family had concluded that Bava was unlikely to ask anything that they found particularly interesting or profound, though her interview would probably be of great interest to the general public of Kellaran. They maintained the appearance of following the conversation, but kept little of their attention on it as they began conversing with each other psionicly.

After they ate, Povon and Kragorram stayed to finish their massages, and Karz assumed his elven guise and joined the rest as they went to The Hilian Trades and Crafts School at Juncture, where the borders of the three empires of Debivin met. Sheramiv had arranged for Mark to speak here first since the campus and a huge tract of land around it were not merely owned by Hilia; the three empires had donated the land as well as its sovereignty. Such was their esteem of Hilia, its rulers, and the multi-racial experiment that it represented. Like an Embassy, the campus was legally part of the nation of Hilia, so Sheramiv needed no other's permission to arrange for Mark's speech to be delivered there. That left her more time to make arrangements for the speeches on the other continents, which were not easy undertakings on such short notice.

The huge round area of parkland in the center of the campus was already full of people when they arrived, as were the spokes of parkland that radiated out from the center between the buildings. All the windows in the buildings facing the park had been thrown wide open and every window was full of spectators, as were the edges of the roofs overlooking the center, with the exception of one area on a flat roof on the west side of the park that had been reserved for the rest of Mark's party and the Revealers who accompanied them.

Mark took his place in the air ten meters above the center of the park, and considered his audience for a moment before he began. They took the moment to give him a mighty cheer, and he smiled and bowed proudly in response. Initially he Levitated, but after a moment's consideration he made a round flat surface of invisible Force about twelve meters wide to walk around on while he spoke, so the people initially directly below him would have a chance to see more than just a view of the soles of his feet directly above them. He cast a huge Revealing of himself fifteen meters above him for the benefit of the more distant viewers. When the roar of the crowd had abated some, he cast augmentations on his voice to be heard by all, and spoke.

"Hello, and good day. Thanks for coming to hear me today." he began, and went on to discuss his views on the recent extreme recreations and the steps he felt needed to be taken to minimize the distress they were causing.

He then spoke of the rapid changes that were taking place in every aspect of life, and the need to bravely and patiently persevere until the demons were defeated.

He finished by saying; "I know that right now it seems that the war with the demons and all the preparation for it are going to take a long time, but I'm pretty sure that when it's over, it won't seem like it lasted very long at all. It may seem like the war is sure to be hard on us all, but with every day that passes our ability to defeat our enemies grows more than the day before.

"And when it's over, life will be a paradise for us all. War has pushed us to advance far more quickly than we ever have, and to develop wonderful new capabilities, and when the war is over, we'll be able to enjoy the benefits of all our improvements. We'll create new worlds as beautiful as Kellaran on other worlds around our sun, and eventually around other suns. We'll achieve great new accomplishments, and we'll raise beautiful children, and we'll help The Triax to hunt down all the demons everywhere.

"I want you to know that I'm very proud of all of you for how strong your spirit and your resolve has been in the face of all the challenges that we're facing. Kellaran has pulled together in peace and co- operation, more than it ever has before, and the problems we've had to deal with along the way have been far fewer than any of us could have expected.

"Thank you."

While he'd been speaking, Bava Kukur interviewed the Governors. They found her questioning to be rather inane; what their favorite colors, foods, and songs were, who they thought was cute or attractive, whether they got along with other children their ages, did they find it hard to bear such responsibilities and always be at the center of events. They tolerated it and gave her honest answers, since her viewers were the youth of Kletiuk and it was understandable that they would be interested in such things. But when she had asked every question she had for them in her notebook and looked to be ready to continue with more impromptu inquiries, Fire politely thanked her and invited the other Revealers to join the conversation.

Since their audiences were more general, they asked more interesting questions; what were their thoughts on the future of Kellaran, did they really think they could win the Tournament of Governors and what strategies did they plan to employ, what were their thoughts on the mixing of races?

The children politely refused to be specific about their strategies for the tournament, but were very open about the rest of it, and it was an enjoyable half hour. The most interesting question was; "You are all very exceptional, but does it ever bother you to be so... unusual?"

They considered the question and the questioner for a moment, the Revealer in question being a young giant some three and two-thirds meters tall with dark hair, dark eyes, a neat goatee, and white desert robes over all else.

Six answered for them. "We're warlocks. We're unusual, but we're the first of a new breed. Being a warlock is more than merely having access to a different and stronger kind of power. Like our father, we can see the magic shining out of other beings of power as a visible glow, whether they're wizards or sorcerers, and we can see each other's power glow. Being a warlock also changes your perception in many other less-noticeable ways.

"We can also see the power-field of wizardry around us like elves can, and being an elf also changes your perception in many subtle ways. Though we're only half-elven, our purely elven abilities aren't below average. In fact, if we lost all of our warlock abilities completely, we'd still be among the most capable elves alive.

"We're sure that Val will also be as big and at least as strong as an average human girl, and I'll be bigger than average even for humans, if not as big as my father. Even Fire is far stronger than one would expect from a child of her age and size, of either race. Though smaller than average for her age, even among elves, she is physically stronger than average human children of her age who are much bigger than her.

"Being a half-elven, half-human warlock combines the best qualities of elves, humans, and warlocks, and changes our perceptions in ways that our parents don't have. I'm sure we're perfectly normal for half- elven warlocks, and soon there'll be forty-four more of us. That's enough of us to feel normal. Eventually we'll have children, and they'll have children, and eventually there'll be millions of us.

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