The Fire and The Storm - The Nexus of Kellaran #2
Chapter 38

Part 8

"He's taught us to hide our psionics a lot better too," Reggie added, "So most people here think this is all being done with physical magic instead of psionics, and none of them know when we're Reading them anymore. I think we could fool everyone here now except you, Quewanak, and Father."

"Yah, thanks again, Quewanak!" Helemia told him with happy sincerity.

"You are most welcome." Quewanak responded in a throbbing snarl as he delicately ripped a clawful of beef from the carcass. "Your psionic ability is unprecedented, especially at your ages, and your training with it may prove crucial to the war effort. And with the exception of your father, you're easier to train in Draconian psionic techniques than any other non-Draconians I've perceived. Likely this is due to your early Linking with Kragorram."

"Probably, that's how we know how to speak Draconian, anyway." Reggie agreed.

"I think the fact that they inherently use two kinds of power probably helps too." Mark opined as he and Talia took their seats. "They and Valentia are the only non-dragons that do that, as far as I know, and we know that psionics uses magic from Yazadril and Alilia's research."

"True, though we now know that psionics is done in a different part of the brain from physical magic." Yazadril contributed. "Tithian's team figured that out. And we correlated her findings with a survey of when psionic development occurs. It's almost always before or after the development of physical magical ability, they're almost never simultaneous, regardless of race."

"That's obvious here." Reggie laughed. "Me and Helemia don't have magic yet, and Valentia doesn't have psionics yet. She's close though, she'll get it pretty soon. I just hope we get magic soon too."

"Ah, the impatience of youth." Povon teased. "You'd best slow down some, or we're likely to run out of things to teach you long before our time here is up!"

"That's a chance we're willing to take." Helemia laughed. "In the meantime, pass that pickle sauce please!" she finished in spoken Trade Common.

They let their meal occupy most of their attention for a while.

When almost everyone was finished eating and the symphony they were listening to had reached its finale, the twins Levitated three meters to address the room again, and Helemia spoke.

"We'll have dancing and music now, and we'll also be having a one-turn badra tournament. Everyone who wants to play gets one turn to score for the tournament. You can keep playing after everyone's played a turn, but only your first turn counts for the tournament, and Nek Sibook, who's our local badra champion, will be our referee. We'll have some nice prizes for the best five scores at the end of the party.

"After the dancing and the tournament, Reggie and I will perform a sequence of Illusions for your entertainment.

"We'll give out the prizes and end the party at four hours to midnight, because by then it'll almost be our bedtime! Have fun!"

The assembly gave them a chuckle and a round of polite applause, and jaunty music was heard by all. Soon couples were moving to the dance floor, and a crowd formed around the badra wall. A casual game of badra was usually eight turns, while a tournament game was sixty-four turns. A single turn of badra was to roll two eight-sided dice, and throw two small balls at the eight graduated holes in a wall in a vertical row that featured the smallest hole at the top worth eight points, and the largest hole at the bottom worth one point. A player had to throw at the holes selected by their dice roll, so to get the maximum score of sixteen required a great deal of both skill and luck. This ensured that almost everyone had a chance to win the tournament, so it was a good choice of format to ensure broad participation. Everyone gathered to watch after Povon, Kragorram, and Karzog surprised all by announcing that they would take a turn for the tournament. Since the dice were too small for them to manipulate with their hands and no magic was allowed, Nek allowed that they could roll the dice by cupping their hand over the dice table and shaking the whole table like a dice cup. When they took their turns, each laid down on their bellies with their chins on the throwing line.

Displaying amazing dexterity, Kragorram took a ball from Nek's hand between the claw-tips of his forefinger and thumb, closed one eye, and made his toss with a short flick of his wrist. Both his throws were very close to their targets, but both missed the hole.

"I am satisfied." he stated with a smile as he accepted congratulations for his effort. "My throws were comparable with most others who are trying the game for the first time. I think with some practice, I could be competitive."

"Considering that your throw was like me trying to throw a grain of fine salt, I think you did pretty good!" Nek laughed.

"Set one on the floor for me please?" Povon asked, then showed that her hands were so much smaller than Kragorram's that she could pick up the five centimeter wide ivory ball between the pads of her fingertip and thumb, and she threw with a motion similar to his. She made both of her throws, but had only rolled a six and a three.

Karzog's hands were small enough that he could throw in an almost-human manner, and he made his throw at the six hole, but narrowly missed the eight.

Then Silaran and three other unicorns queued up for their turns. Silaran delicately shook the dice in a cup with his mouth and tipped it onto the table, showing a one and a seven. He dried his lips on the towel provided for people's hands, picked up the ball in his mouth, sealed his lips around it, and blew it toward the wall with a sudden puff of breath. It popped out of his mouth with significant velocity, and into the one hole, but his shot at the seven missed so high that it went into the six hole.

After taking their turn at the badra wall, the twins spent an hour and a half circulating, saying hello to everyone, accepting their thanks for the party, and offering their own thanks when everyone wished them happy birthday.

Then they spent an hour playing darts, and showed that they were competitive with some of the best players there. Though they didn't run up to the line for their throws, since that officially wasn't allowed in the rules, their full-armed motion like throwing a spear was still very unique and surprising to see, given their sizes and that most humans didn't take up the game until their teens.

Everyone made further inroads in the bounteous feast for their evening meal, then Reggie and Helemia rose to speak again.

"We'd now like to show you an entertainment, by casting an Illusion on that quarter of the wall on that side, so everyone close to there will want to move back a bit so they can see the whole thing." Reggie instructed.

"What we're gonna show you is known among the dragons as The Greatest Challenge Ever Fought. Way, way back about forty-five million years ago, when the only intelligent races were the dragons and the unicorns, the two races fought a war, and after the war, some of the dragons wanted to change the way their government worked, and make a permanent peace treaty with the unicorns. Some of the other dragons didn't want that, and there were a lot of fights about it.

"Even back then Somonik, who is Most Noble, was already twenty-four million years old. He was already one of the most famous dragons, and he was one of the best fighters. He was in favor of the peace treaty, and he let everyone know he was ready to fight about it.

"Kergok was a brown dragon who was the toughest fighter that was against the treaty, and he accepted Somonik's challenge. He was about the same size as Somonik, and was thought to be a little stronger with his fire, but a little weaker with his magic. He was thirty-one million years old, so he had the edge in experience, but he wasn't as aggressive as Somonik was then. They were well-matched, and no one could say who would win.000000

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