The Fire and The Storm - The Nexus of Kellaran #2
Chapter 40

Part 8

This time the applause and amazed cries swept the room without interruption, and the twins bowed in the air with huge grins, then floated over to the badra wall and stopped in mid-air beside their parents. Eventually the applause faded as Nek handed Reggie the paper with the tournament results, which he held up over his head.

"Okay, we have two people who scored fifteen, and they'll play another turn to determine first and second place." he announced. "We have six people who scored fourteen, and they'll each play a turn to determine third, fourth, and fifth. And just so they know what they're playing for, Helemia will now reveal the prizes."

"We're giving away these five diamonds, with the biggest for first place and the smallest for fifth." Helemia announced as she held up the five glittering stones on the palm of her hand. Mark cast a Revealing to focus closely on them and display them to the room, and the crowd murmured in appreciation of the value of the prizes. The largest was almost a centimeter and a half wide, the smallest a third that size. "We've found a place where there's a lot of these, and after we've picked up all the easy ones we'll tell everyone where it is, in case they want to dig a mine or something. We're using some of the small ones to pay for the feast tonight. And we'd like to thank Kragorram for helping us with cutting and polishing these.

"Now, could we have the eight finalists step to the wall please?"

Everyone watched the playoffs, aided by a Revealing of the badra wall that Mark cast at three times life-size above the playing area. The crowd cheered the high rolls and the good shots, groaned at the low rolls and the missed shots, and enjoyed the tension and excitement.

Reggie and Helemia had hugs to give with the prizes, and once all the winners had been congratulated and the losers consoled, they addressed the room one last time.

"We'd like to thank you all for coming today." Reggie began. "It's been a lot of fun, and we hope to do it again next year!"

They paused for a short round of applause.

"We mainly decided to have this party because we know we're strange, weird, and dangerous." Helemia grinned, which brought a few chuckles in response. "We've tried to act more normal lately, but we know it hasn't helped that much. And we're probably gonna seem even more strange, weird, and dangerous after we start our combat training, and when we really get going on magic.

"But there's lots of people that're strange, weird, and dangerous that everyone else still likes because they're nice, and they do a lot to help others. I think our father is a good example. And compared to any humanoid, every dragon and every unicorn is strange, weird, and dangerous, but lots of them are still well-liked and well-respected."

"We hope that will include us." Reggie said as he took over the narrative. "We're already qualified to help other people with their psionics, especially Shielding and Illusions, so if anyone wants some help with that, or with anything else we can do, just say so and we'll be glad to help. And we'll come back here tomorrow to clean everything up.

"We've gotta go get ready for bed now. Goodnight everyone!" he finished with a wave and a grin.

Helemia joined him in waving, grinning, and calling goodnight, then they floated down to Mark and Talia's arms for hugs.

"The pub will be open in about ten minutes, in case anyone still wants to party!" Reen called to the room, and most of the young adults seemed to think that was a good idea. The rest of the adults gathered their children to take them home.

As the twins and their family took their leave, the hall was already emptying quickly.

"I doubt there'll be any work left to do in the hall by the morning." Alilia chuckled as she walked along carrying Valentia.

"I know." Helemia chuckled. "Balen's already organizing a bunch of Father's sworn elves to do it before they go to the pub. They still spend half their time trying to think of ways to serve him without being a bother about it. But it's nice of them to help with the hall; I'm glad we won't have to do it." She tilted her head to the side a bit and considered her psionic awareness. "Besides, they're doing it with full-out magic so it'll only take them a couple of minutes anyway."

"You don't miss much, do you?" Talia chuckled, and gave the girl a kiss on her cheek as she walked.

"Nope. We don't!" Reggie giggled.

"And we are all immensely proud of both of you." Mark smiled as he gave Reggie a cuddle. "Your behavior today was very special. Your maturity and abilities would still be incredible if you were sixteen years old. To be as special as you are at your ages seems nothing less than a miracle."

"Thanks Father. We just seem normal to us though."

"Yup." Helemia giggled. "And most of the time, everyone else seems slow. And most of 'em aren't really trying as hard as they could be. Considering what we're all facing, they could all work on their training more than they do. We did get lucky to have our abilities, but most of our fast improvement is 'cause we work hard on it."

"A lot seem to think that if they work really hard, that life won't be any fun any more." Reggie stated. "And that's just silly. I mean first, it's not true. I love my life, and getting better at doing things all the time is one of the best parts of it. But beyond that, so what if working hard is less fun? If we can't fight good enough to win when the demons get here, it's not gonna matter much whether we had less fun now. And even if the demons weren't coming, everybody's memory shows that there's always gonna be big problems; storms and earthquakes and volcanoes and droughts and floods and wars and new diseases. The longer it's been since the problem happened last, the less ready for it everyone gets. And when it does happen, the best survive, especially the best families; the ones that are smart and strong and work well together. The isolated and the weak and the stupid and the really unlucky die, or lose everything."

"That's a fact, though I'm surprised you realize that already."

"It's probably because we know so many old people, and we get their thoughts a lot." Helemia mused. "Most of the elves and unicorns here are hundreds of years old, Yazadril and Alilia and Kragorram are thousands of years old, Povon is almost thirty thousand, and Quewanak is one hundred and twenty-eight million, which doesn't even seem like it could be real.

"Anyway, old people see the same kind of things happen over and over again, so they notice it a lot more."

"Speaking of which..." Mark chuckled as he opened their front door and ducked through it.

"Surprise!" A roomful of people called, just as the room brightened with light and Talia was fully through the door with Helemia.

All of their close family and friends were there, including Equemev, Silaran, and the four dragons, all of whom were using 'cute and fuzzy' simulacrums. "Happy Birthday!" They all called as the twins broke out in surprised laughter.

"You fooled us!" Helemia laughed. "I can still feel the fake psionic versions of you that you left at your houses!"

"Just a little something Povon and I came up with." Yazadril chuckled as Mark, Talia, and Alilia were seated with their children on the sofas in the places that had been reserved for them.

"It was wise of you to ask not to receive presents at your own party earlier," Yazadril teased, "But those of us who love you certainly aren't going to refrain from giving you birthday presents on your very first birthday! And since it's very seldom that the two of you are surprised by anything, we thought a surprise party was the perfect occasion to do so!"

"For sure!" Reggie laughed. "You couldn't have found a better way for our birthday party to be a surprise than by having it right after our birthday party! I'm sure no one expects that!"

"That's what we thought!" Bezedil chuckled. "Though this second one won't really be long enough to be a party by itself. It's more of a continuation of the first one."☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐

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