The Fire and The Storm - The Nexus of Kellaran #2
Chapter 24

Part 5

"Oh, I don't know." Talia responded with a mischievous little smile for her father. "Your grandfather is First Wizard and First Battle Wizard among the elves, First Commander of all the militaries of Kellaran, and a veteran of dozens of wars and thousands of battles. Such a mighty elf as he would be hard to scare, I think."

"I bet I could still scare him!" Helemia laughed.

"Well forewarned is forearmed, and I admit I'm curious." Yazadril chuckled. "Give it your best, and we'll see."

Helemia stood and glared at him, and her face took on an expression of incredible viciousness. "You may be mighty, Grandfather, and I am only four and a half months old, but you are already helpless before me. Feel THAT."

Yazadril winced.

"If I wanted to, I could shred your psionic Shields like paper and crush your mind like a bug under my foot, and leave you screaming in agony for thousands of years." Helemia continued as she slowly stepped closer, her psionic voice a menacing growl. Since she didn't have to speak with her mouth, there was no interruption in the ever-increasing malevolence of her facial expression. Suddenly she ran two steps and grasped the edge of the kitchen table, which was as high as she could reach, and swung herself up onto it. She landed in the center of it facing Yazadril in a perfect martial arts low stance, crouched on one knee with her fists cocked. Her baby face seemed a barely-controlled mask of rage, and she almost reeked of danger and menace.

"When I am six years old, I will have the power to destroy cities!" the tiny baby psionicly yelled as she suddenly cupped her hands and a ball of red and orange fire appeared in them with a loud crack of sound like a small explosion.

"When I'm sixteen, the ability to lay waste to entire continents will be within my grasp!" she yelled with increasing volume as she seemed to squeeze the fireball in her hands. As it compressed it brightened and shifted in color to bright yellow, then blue, and its crackle became a roar that grew in volume with her 'voice'.

"You don't know if I will enslave the entire world in my iron fist, because you don't know what I'm thinking, and you lack the power to even scratch my psionic shields, let alone break them!!!" she yelled, and the fireball became a tiny, white-hot inferno between her hands, it's roar a deafening shriek.

"You don't even know if I'm going to tear your throat out with my teeth right NOW!!!"

As she said the last sentence her mouth opened in a snarl that revealed many sharply-pointed and rapidly-growing teeth, and with the last word the fireball exploded with staggering force as she leaped at Yazadril.

"GODS!" he cried as he involuntarily brought his arms up to defend himself, but she was already between them, her hands at his neck.

In that fraction of a moment, it took every last vestige of his self-control to not blast her to dust with all his power.

She hugged him as she kissed him on the cheek, and giggled. "You were easy, Grandfather. Easier than Father even. I got you good and you know it. You can't hide it from me."

Yazadril tried to calm his racing heart and recapture control of his facial expression. It took an act of will to do it, but he gently hugged the child. Reggie and Alilia were laughing openly, while Mark and Talia were at least trying to hide it a bit.

"But how did you do all that?!" he asked in exasperation. "You were obviously trying to Move the pebble when I arrived, the first lesson in elven magic! And unsuccessfully!"

"The fireball wasn't real, Grandfather, it wasn't even magic." Helemia giggled. "It was just psionic. I only made you think you saw and heard it. Same with the teeth, although I do have some now, I have five growing in the front, see?"

"Ah, I see, that's very good!" Yazadril told her, trying to muster some enthusiasm while feeling off-balance at the sudden change of subject.

"Feeling somewhat disconcerted, Yazadril?" Alilia asked with a smile. "They're a disconcerting pair to be sure, though once you get used to them, they're even more adorable!

"Aren't you Reggie, you cuddly little thing!" she added as she scooped the baby up and hugged him.

"We sure are, Auntie Alilia!" Reggie giggled, with no humility at all.

"Anyway, the other kids don't want to play with them, and we're not going to force the issue." Mark stated. "They're not particularly bothered by it, so we're not either."

"Really, other children are incredibly boring, and most adults are too." Reggie opined. "Except Karzog. He's the only other child who's our friend. We play with him all the time when we go visit Kragorram and Povon."

"We scare him sometimes, but he scares us right back, so it's all fun!" Helemia giggled, and climbed down Yazadril to the floor. "It's never boring at all at their house. Their den I mean."

Reggie climbed down from Alilia's lap as well, and the two babies sat at the stool again and resumed staring at the pebble.

"Seriously Yazadril," Mark told him with a grin, "I thank you for your concern, but Yzell and Hilsith both agree with us that our kids' emotional health is just fine."

"Hmm. Disconcerting indeed." Yazadril mused as he considered the motionless babies, still looking a bit worried.

"I think you might have overdone it with your Grandfather, Helemia." Talia chuckled. "You'd better show him your Markings."

Both twins turned to Yazadril and pulled the neck of their shirts down and to the left, showing their Markings on the upper left of their chests, right where a crest would be placed on a suit of armor. Both had the blue and white symbol of The Just Alliance two centimeters wide above the blue mark of the Truthstone and two smaller crowns.

"Uncle Theramin insisted that we take Osbald's Oath on a Truthstone of Falgaroth after Helemia scared him." Reggie told him as they released their shirts and returned their attention to the pebble. "And it felt so neat that Mother and Father let us swear it again on both of their crowns, which felt real good, but not as neat as the Truthstone."

"Ah. Well come give me a hug before I go." Yazadril said as he stood. "And if you'd like, I'll bring my sword by tomorrow. You can get the Marking from Mountainfire as well, if you swear Osbald's Oath on it." "Oh thank you Grandfather, that would be so neat!" Helemia cried, and the two ran over to hug him as he crouched for them.

With their tiny bodies held in his embrace, it was easier for him to remember that they were just babies, and how much he loved them.

"Thanks Father, that's very kind of you. If perhaps a little paranoid." Talia giggled as she hugged him in turn.

"Ah, you noticed that, did you?" he chuckled, a bit abashed.

"Yup. We love you Father."

"Give our love to Nemia too!" Mark called as Yazadril left. "Better yet, bring her with you tomorrow!"

They returned to what they were doing before he'd come; Mark reading a treatise on the War of The Segregation, Talia and Alilia re-charging Flight and Translocation medallions, the twins trying to Move the pebble.

After another twenty minutes Reggie picked up the pebble and pocketed it as he and his sister stood.

"Not feeling anything yet?" Alilia asked.

"No. It's frustrating." Reggie reported. "We know how to do it, we know exactly how it will feel to do it from Mother's memory of her first Movement, which is quite clear. And we know from Father that we have the power to do it. But it seems like the part of our brains that actually does it isn't working yet!"

"I don't think it's worth spending so much time on it." Helemia stated. "I think that when we can do it, we'll do it, and until then all this staring and concentrating isn't going to help. We should just check it for a minute once a day and that's it.

"We're going to play darts."

A half hour later Mark realized that he hadn't heard anything from the living room for a few minutes, and went to check on his children. They'd thrown darts until they were tired, then simply laid down on the sheepskin throw rug right where they stood and fallen asleep together. Helemia still had a dart in her hand.

They looked so adorable that he simply stood there smiling and looking at them.

A few minutes later Talia came in and chuckled at the scene, then they picked up their babies and took them to bed.☐☐☐

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