The Fire and The Storm - The Nexus of Kellaran #2
Chapter 181

Part 25

Mark and his family found themselves in the Hilian throneroom where they'd been when the exercise began, around them were the Hilians they'd been talking to about the state of the nation and the lives of its people, and with them was Pakdag.

The glowering human wargod wasted no time on niceties. "You fought very well. You have shown us what you can truly do. But your casting of the independent attack spells served no part of providing useful training today, beyond your practicing to cast a great many of them while simultaneously fighting one battle and commanding a few more. I suggest you perform that practice on your own time, for if you attempt to use them in the next general exercise, you will find that they do not work."

With that he was gone.

"Huh." Mark went as he shook his head a bit. "Well I don't care if it was only seven seconds in real time, I'm exhausted, mentally if not physically. I'm going to bed."

"We'll see you later." Povon said, and the dragons vanished.

Mark and his family walked up the many stairs to the cottage. They could have taken the Plane Door, but for the first time, none of them felt like doing anything by magic. They bathed and dressed and brushed their hair completely by hand, then went to bed.

The next day Val automated The Skills of Visinniria and cast it on the populations of Kellaran. It gave Visinniria's physical martial arts skills to every humanoid who was less skilled at physical fighting that she was, and it selected the best fighters from each of the non-humanoid races and gave their physical skills to the other adults of their races. But it made less difference than they'd hoped, due to the fact that spellcraft was the dominant form of combat on both sides.

Four days later, the next exercise was held. In that exercise, over what seemed like three days of warfare, the demons won. The worldlets of The Triax were destroyed first and forced down to fall onto the world below, causing apocalyptic damage. That left the demons free to concentrate on attacking what remained of Kellaran amidst the damage they'd caused. All the cities and larger towns of Kellaran were completely destroyed, as was half the wilderness and farmland and all the population within it. The worldlets that fell into the sea ensured that coasts and the civilizations of the aquatic peoples were totally devastated. Every thinking mortal being was killed except the few who could restore or resurrect themselves when most of their bodies had been obliterated. Five Triax gods and two Kellarani gods had been killed by a tear in reality, a Triax god was eaten by a DemonLord, and fifty-three gods from both pantheons were incapacitated by traumatizing psionic attacks.

The organizers admitted afterwards that had it continued, the surviving gods and the few surviving powerful mortals would have eventually triumphed over the remaining demons. But that was considered to be a moot point once virtually all the mortals were dead, so they ended the exercise at that point.

The exercises after that occurred with regularity every two days, and the simulated demons won about half of them.

PART 26

With a day and a half remaining before the time-bubbles were due to be opened, Mark and Talia and Alilia rose suddenly in the middle of the night and rushed into their children's room. They each picked up one of their children, sat on the edge of the bed and held them tightly, and quietly cried.

Six was the first to speak as he was awakened by this. "What? What is it?" he groggily stammered into Mark's shoulder, but Fire was already Reading their parents and sharing the results with him and Val. The Hiliani time-bubble had been opened early, again, with three years of internal time remaining. Their parents' minds had re-melded with the minds of the copies of themselves they'd left in the time-bubble. What they were expressing now was the anguish they'd felt at being separated from their children for thirteen years, and the joy of that separation's end.

The three adults were so distraught that Fire ended her Reading as soon as she knew what was happening and that nothing was wrong, having been made extremely uncomfortable by her parent's uncharacteristic emotional turmoil.

After a few minutes the three adults wordlessly exchanged children, then did it again a few minutes after that, desperately needing to renew their bonds with all three. It mattered not that their copies in the outside world had been with the children during the last few weeks. Even with their re-melding, that fact was irrelevant to the powerful emotions of the copies that had spent thirteen years away in the time- bubble.

The children patiently accepted and returned their parents' embraces, and did their best to project all the re-assuring love they felt.

Finally Mark wiped his tears away and quietly rumbled; "Let's get some tea and cookies, and we'll tell you all about our years in the time-bubble, and all your new brothers and sisters."

Still holding Fire, he stood and led them to the kitchen.

"I'll make the tea." Val volunteered, but she did so by magic without moving from Talia's arms.

Six fetched some snacks the same way.

"We really love you cubs, you know." Mark began. "If we'd have realized how terrible it was going to be to be apart from you for so long, we'd never have done it. I still can't believe how much I missed you. It just felt so wrong to be back on Hiliani, and back in the time-bubble, without you. It really hurt, like part of me had been torn away, and it feels so good to be with you again."

He paused, and gave his head a rueful shake.

"As to the rest of it, things sure didn't go as I expected in the time-bubble.

"The forty-four, that is your brothers and sisters, they didn't turn out like you three. The Volunteers are all well above average for elves in general, but if you want a vivid demonstration of the difference between their quality and Talia and Alilia's, it's pretty plain in the difference between you three and the forty-four.

"They didn't start to use magic until they were between four and five, and I didn't mind that. They all seemed to get that almost at once, and I think they kind of brought it out in each other. They all got both wizards' and warlocks' power, though they use them as if they were one. If they get cut off from the source of either power, they can carry on with the other with reduced power, without having to consciously change how they're casting in any way. Only a few of them can even differentiate the two. None of them are as strong as any of you in elven wizardry, which I fully expected, but on the other hand, none of them are as strong as you in warlock power either, which I didn't expect.

"None of them developed psionics until they were six or seven, not even Kayla's twins, and a few didn't get it until they were nine. I didn't mind that either.

"And while they failed to develop your early psionics and magic, they also failed to develop your early maturity and intelligence and work ethic. That was the part I minded. A lot. "They came out exactly even; twenty-two boys and twenty-two girls.

"At first glance you might think they all take after me more than their mothers, since they all got my black hair and blue eyes, every single one of them. On the other hand they all got completely elven ears and the finer elven facial features, though their faces are all pretty individual for half-siblings. From their growth so far, they'll range in size from as small as the smallest elves to bigger than I am, so they're not very uniform that way.

"Their most human common characteristic is their personalities, and I don't mean that in a good way. They seem to have all the worst aspects of the personalities of human children; they're stubborn, mischievous, secretive, rebellious, obstinate tricksters.

"They prefer the most crude humor, and continue to think the same jokes and pranks are funny long after they've palled for everyone else. For example, one of the first spells any of them learned to cast was one that they devised, that causes whoever the spell is cast upon to pass wind. I'm sure that Fart spell was cast more times in the last ten years than all the rest of the spells combined.0000

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