The Fire and The Storm - The Nexus of Kellaran #2
Chapter 7

Part 2

Soon the locations and exterior appearances of one hundred and seventy-three buildings had been decided. The homes were scattered throughout the site, with a greater concentration around the community center, and in a strip close to the beach. A mill was planned beside the biggest stream where it emerged from the surrounding rock slope north-west of the village center, a marina of boat sheds was planned next to the docks, and Nek and Reen proposed a pub at the end of a short dead-end canyon near the docks, where the surrounding rock walls would insure that the village was never disturbed by any late- night revelry there. Finally, following Nine Valleys tradition, an area was set aside beside the beach near the docks for an open market, and two small restaurants were planned in a great tree near there; at over nine meters thick it was the stoutest on the island. Sana's Kitchen would be built in the base and specialize in quick and hearty human fare, and Elven Delights would provide fine dining in the tradition of The People of Life, in a five story facility built in the trunk and on the branches between eighteen and thirty-four meters from the ground.

They spent a few minutes gazing with satisfaction at the completed model, then Mark spoke again.

"All right, we might as well go there now. It's early morning at Hiliani right now, seeing as how it's almost directly on the other side of the world from here, so it's a good time to plan interior rooms and get started on building. We'll be bringing food and drink, so don't worry about that. Talia and I will take care of everyone's Translocation.

"Is everyone ready? Yes? Okay, here we go!"

It took Mark and Talia a moment to gather the power and prepare for such a mighty Translocation, then there was a flash and a brief moment of cold, and all five hundred and two of them appeared on the beach beside the settlement site at Hiliani.

It was a bit cooler here, which took a moment to get used to, but the light was about the same; the sun was rising at Hiliani just as it was setting at Hilia.

"This is so beautiful, my love!" Talia enthused as she slowly turned around, enjoying the entire panorama, as did most of the rest.

"It is, isn't it?" Mark chuckled as he caressed her between her shoulder blades.

"That was a remarkable Translocation!" Theramin commented as he realized what they'd done. "That was the most I've seen moved in a single casting, and the distance could not have been farther!" "Thanks." Talia nodded with a smile. "It took both of us to do it, but we'll be ready for work in a couple of minutes."

"Excellent." Theramin nodded in return as he re-cast the model Illusion on the beach beside them. "All right, I'm assigning at least one person who can cast a good Illusion to every planned building. The building's proprietors will work with them to finalize their interior designs, while we of the construction teams will start on the gathering hall. By the time we're done with that, everyone on the construction teams should be steady with the spells, and we can divide into ten building teams to hurry the work along."

With that he set out for the site of the hall, his Illusion moving along the ground beside him. The dragons and many of the elves took to the air while the unicorns ran ahead, and everyone else strolled along in a big loose group.

They gathered around the circle of fourteen great trees that would become the gathering hall.

"All right," Theramin called, "Quewanak has compiled a list of those of you who are qualified to cast this spell, and he will now call you within these trees where we will form a circle."

Mark and Talia 'heard' Quewanak psionicly call their names, and stepped forward with the rest. Only nine humans including Mark were called, but all the elves except twelve stepped up. The unicorns and dragons took part except Karzog, the infant black dragon that Povon and Kragorram had adopted. And interestingly, Quewanak.

"You will not be casting with us, Eldest?" Talia asked as she went past him.

"I think not. You are well capable of doing it without me, so I will observe." he responded, and psionicly added; "Which is the way of the gods, after all."

"Mark, would you cast the Link?" Yazadril asked when the casters stood in a great circle just inside the ring of trees. "And would the rest of you either hold hands, or stand close enough together to touch the person on each side? Thank you."

There was a bit of shuffling and the circle closed up a bit, as Mark cast the Link and drew them all into it.

"Now then, Yazadril has the design of the building, while I will direct the horticultural aspects of the spell." Theramin psionicly instructed. "We will use a song to co-ordinate and unify our efforts in time and frequency. Mark, could you make sure everyone has everything?"

Mark took the song, the spell, and the design, made sure that he was certain of them, and placed them in the minds of those who weren't capable of grasping it themselves so quickly. That took almost three minutes.

"Source above, but it is wondrous how you can do that!" Theramin remarked with a smile and a metal chuckle, and most in the Link added their heartfelt agreement to the sentiment.

Povon and Kragorram were well used to casting with Mark and Talia, as were Silaran and Equemev, who had to 'translate' the elven wizardry spell into the 'language' of unicorn sorcerers for their eight companions.

They all followed Theramin as his awareness encompassed the fourteen huge fir trees they would be working on, and examined them in fine detail down to each individual fiber of root, wood, bark, or leaf. Some in the circle were incapable of holding such a huge mass of information in mind all at once, and were told by Yazadril through the Link; "You'll have to work as assistants for now, I'm afraid." Theramin then superimposed his mental pictures of the trees as they were over Yazadril's finished design, considered the changes they wished to make, and planned the flow of material from it's present shape to it's finished form.

It was actually far more difficult to change the shape of the existing trees than it was to grow new material in a desired shape, so the existing trees would be modified first to form the rooms, windows, and doorways in the trunks. After that the walls and the roof of the structure that would connect the trees would be grown.

Having finalized his procedure, Theramin mentally rehearsed it again as the rest followed his thoughts, then he asked Yazadril; "Is everyone ready?"

Yazadril checked. "They are." he reported.

"Then we begin." Theramin stated with satisfaction. "Four, three, two, one."

They all began to sing as Theramin and Yazadril cast the spell, while the rest observed and supplied power.

Mark had never cast in this traditional elven way before, and it was wondrous to feel how the notes of the wordless song resonated perfectly with the frequencies of the energy of the spell, though the notes of the song were many octaves lower in frequency.

Accompanied by the song, there began a long series of deep and muffled cracking and snapping sounds from deep within the wood of the trees. That diminished as the openings were established and began to enlarge. There was so much power available to the spell that it only took just over four minutes before the rooms in the trees were fully formed. As transparent plant matter began to grow over the windows from the bottom sills upward, and the doors separated themselves from their frames with more loud cracking sounds, the new walls began to grow between the trunks. These were formed as the living palace had been; sprouts appeared in neat straight lines that grew into saplings in only moments, then each young tree grew together with the ones beside it, and they all joined their wood with the trunks of the existing trees at each end of the wall. The leafy branches at the top arched over toward the center of the clearing until they joined in a great domed roof with neat concentric rings of leaves from the center to the rim, only interrupted by six huge round skylights. Finally the many big windows and three huge pairs of doors formed in the new walls, the three entranceways spaced evenly around the perimeter.☐☐☐

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