The Fire and the Storm - Metric Pro Edition: Fiction, Dragons, Elves, Unicorns, Magic (14 page)

“Oh, you’re a prophet now?” Talia teased.

“Yup.  I guess so anyway.  I just felt like saying that, so I did.  Maybe I’m wrong.”

“No, you’re not wrong!” Mark said in surprised as he considered his son’s aura.  “You’ve got the same thing in your aura that Tithian and the other Seers have!  Helemia doesn’t have that, but both of you have a bunch of other magic qualities that I can’t sort out yet!”

“How about their power?” Alilia asked.  “Can you see the glow of their magic potential, as you can with others?”

“I don’t know.  You’re so bright that way that I keep my Optical Attenuator spell tuned to block that kind of light.”

“I’m curious about that.”
Helemia told them.

“So am I, now that the subject’s come up.  I’ll take you in the bedroom where I can get a good look at you without anyone else’s glow distracting from it.” Mark said as he waited for Povon to move from his lap and stood with his daughter.

As he left the room, Dren asked; “What’s the difference between a seer and a prophet and an oracle and a soothsayer?”

“Not much, except for the precision of their visions.” Yazadril told him.  “Generally, a soothsayer is specific about what will happen and when, but they only perceive quite small pieces of information, and the information is often irrelevant to anything.  A prophet is pretty specific about what’s going to happen, and it’s almost certain to happen, but when it’ll happen isn’t known.  A seer usually has at least some indication of when something will happen, and sometimes they know the time of the event exactly, but they’re usually less precise about the exact nature of the event.  Both of those often foresee important events.  An oracle generally only foresees in response to a question, the answer is seldom time-specific, and is usually quite cryptic; worded so as to be difficult to understand, but obvious in hindsight once the event has happened.

“But we’ve proven with Mark’s aura aspect isolation technique that they all use the same kind of talent and power.

“Mind you, before the gods withdrew, the word prophet was also used for a cleric who received knowledge, instructions, or information about the future from their god.”

While Yazadril had been speaking Mark had returned from the bedroom and exchanged Helemia for Reggie.  Now they were back again, and he took his seat as Yazadril finished.  He had a big proud grin on his face as he turned to Alilia.

“Alilia, you used magic from before you were born.  Do you happen to know how strong you were with it at birth, compared to now?”

“It’s hard to say.  I don’t know that I ever used my full exertion then, and I only have my mother’s account of what I did, which wasn’t precise.  Perhaps I had a hundredth of my present power then.  Certainly no more than a twentieth.”

“So about the same as an average adult elf has?” Mark pressed.

“About that.” she smiled.

“All right.” Mark smiled, with a bit of smug satisfaction.  “When it comes to elven wizard’s power, Reggie’s pretty strong.  He glows about as bright as Yazadril, which is about average for The High People, and better than average for most other elven nations.  But average for The High People is a heck of a lot for a newborn.  Helemia glows about a third as bright as that.  But they also glow in another color that I’ve only seen in one other person, since I don’t see my own glow, and that was Glup of the Zurb.  I’m assuming that means that they can use the power of the second source, and they’re both warlocks like me.  And in that color, Helemia glows about twice as bright as Reggie.  But I have no idea how strong they are as warlocks, because I have no idea how bright I’d have glowed when I was born, if there’d been anyone there who could see it.  And it’s not much use comparing them to Glup.

“Mind you, all of us glow a lot less brightly since about a week after the time-bubble went up, since there’s a lot less power available in here.  Maybe a quarter as much.”

“I agree.” Povon nodded.  “The weaker spell-casters don’t notice any difference, since they still get as much power as they can use.  But I’ve definitely noticed it, especially during our military training exercises.”

“Be thankful for it.” Alilia told Mark with a mischievous  smile.  “It’ll make things a lot easier, and a lot safer, when the time comes to train your children in the use of magic.”

“Good point.” Mark chuckled.  “After what happened to me when I first cast my power, you can bet we’ll be taking every precaution we can think of with the twins.”

Yazadril harrumphed a bit at the memory, then fixed a stern gaze on Reggie and Helemia.  “Can you children remember what happened when your father’s power was first cast?  They were trying to light a candle.”

“Yup.”
Helemia responded. 
“They made a big fire and burned you up and killed themselves, and they were saved by their Blessing.”

“That’s right.” Yazadril nodded.    “Be aware of the danger.  Mark’s power was unprecedented, but there are
two
of you, and both of you have
two
kinds of power, and you don’t have a Blessing to save you if things go wrong!

“I want you both to promise me, right now, that you won’t experiment with your power in the
slightest way
without your parents’ full knowledge and co-operation!  Now swear it with all your sincerity!”

“I promise, Grandfather.”
The twins swore, in almost-perfect unison.

“Good.” Yazadril nodded.  “Thank you.”

“Are we scary, Grandfather?”
Helemia asked.

Yazadril raised an eyebrow, then chuckled.  “Yes, my loves.  You are beautiful and very cute and completely lovable, but your psionic power is unprecedented and astonishing, and with what Mark just revealed of your power, you are quite scary indeed.  Your abilities come with a great responsibility, and you must always be certain to use them with great control and consideration.”

“I know Grandfather.”
Helemia told him. 
“I feel bad about Vanakit Lamitkeze.  I hurt him before I knew what I was doing, and now he hates me a lot.  He hates what I did to him, and he hates that the others had to come and get him, and he hates that he was helpless for a week while he healed up.  And I’m aware of him all the time, and he can feel that, and he hates that most of all.  He thinks about killing me all the time, but he doesn’t even know what I look like, or which one of us I am.  He sure doesn’t think I’m a baby.  So he kind of hates all of us here in the settlement, because he doesn’t know which one of us is me.  He’s too far away for me to know where he is or what he’s thinking exactly, but I can sure feel all of that, all the time.”

That brought an awkward silence for a moment, during which Mark met Talia’s eyes and found them narrowed with the same expression of determined protectiveness that his own face wore.  They exchanged a few private thoughts.

From somewhere outside the house they all heard Stripe’s roar and Scout’s shrill cry, and Mark opened the front door with Movement.  “It’s time for you kids to meet Stripe and Scout.” he announced as he Moved the table out of the way to make room.

Scout swooped down from a treetop, gave two powerful wing beats in the front yard to level out, one more to achieve a fast, shallow arc, and folded his wings completely as he darted through the door.  He immediately spread his wings to their full span of more than three and a half meters and back-winged hard for three beats with enough strength to blow the napkins off the tables and ruffle everyone’s hair, brought himself to a stop in mid-air, and settled straight down a meter to land on Mark’s outstretched wrist.  He waved his wings once to finalize his balance before he gripped Mark’s wrist, fussily folded his wings, and cocked his head to the side as his crest rose.

Though everyone there knew the great Serminaki King Eagle, his entrance was still a startling and intimidating display of expert flying that had everyone ducking, and Mandri squealed a bit in excited startlement.  Now he stood proudly, as if giving them a moment to admire his sleek black feathers and the shimmering silver on his crest and the edges of his wings and tail.

Stripe bounded in the door a moment later, and lay his huge tiger-like head on Talia’s lap.  The thirty-centimeter long white whiskers on his muzzle and eyebrows tickled Helemia, who giggled in adorable delight.  The horizontal stripes of his fur were vibrant and bright, ranging in color from dark red on the top of his head, neck, and back, down to light yellow on his belly and legs.  Every gram of the gigantic six hundred and thirty-five kilogram Kletiukan Sleng Cat was a picture of feline health and vitality.

“Hello boys.” Mark said to their beloved pets as he and Talia gave them scratches and rubs with their free hands.  “I know we haven’t had much time for you lately, but now that our children are born, you have two new friends to play with.  Once they’re old enough that is.  For now, you know your new duties, don’t you?  Sure you do, you’re both such good boys!”

Both animals looked to the twins, and considered them carefully.

“You’ve set them to guarding us?”
Reggie asked.

“All it takes is for them to know you’re our children.” Talia explained.  “Once they learned that, your safety became their highest priority.  Gerticol’s training assures it, and all we had to do was introduce you.”

“We did tell them to watch out for invisible Sylvan anywhere near here.” Mark added.  “With Stripe’s psionic sensitivity and their other incredibly acute senses, I doubt even the Sylvan God of Stealth can hide his people from these two.”

They supported their babies while the twins awkwardly hugged each of the animals, then Stripe bounded back out the door with a low, rumbling growl.  Scout stepped onto the palm of Mark’s hand, Mark drew his arm back, and threw the big bird toward the door with a motion like throwing a spear.  Scout co-coordinated with this perfectly, leaning forward and leaping from Mark’s hand during the most powerful part of the throw.  Once clear of the door he spread and beat his wings, and was gone with a shrill scream of farewell.

“Well that was impressive.” Sana said to herself, to general agreement.

There was a pause in the conversation while Mark shut the door, then Reggie told them;
“The unicorns are coming.  Can we go outside? Silaran says he’ll take us for a ride.”

“All right, but we’ll all need warmer clothes first.” Talia said as she rose with Helemia.

“Let me help.” Alilia said with a smile as she plucked Reggie from Mark’s arms and followed Talia into the nursery.

After their first trip out in the brisk winter air the twins fell asleep, and their visitors took their leave.  Mark went to retrieve his canoe, then spent a few minutes casting Wards around the small valley behind their house.  Their gardens and animal pens were there, the children would probably play there often as they grew, and he wanted it protected as well as the rest of the settlement was.

The babies woke for feeding and changing about every four hours, then went right back to sleep, until morning the next day.

Mark was the last to wake in the morning.  Sensing activity on the bed, he slowly cracked his eyes open, and smiled as he understood what he was seeing.  The girls’ interactions with the babies were calm and loving, and obviously enjoyed by all, but it soon became apparent that it was also serious training.

Talia was massaging Reggie’s right hand, while Reggie watched closely and flexed his fingers.  Mark realized that Talia was helping Reggie learn to localize sensation and control in his hands and fingers.  Alilia held the palm of her hand against the sole of Helemia’s right foot as she helped the girl slowly flex and extend her leg while pushing back at Alilia’s hand.

The girls and the babies gave him smiles and nods of greeting, but none interrupted their concentration on what they were doing.

The babies’ motions were still somewhat erratic, particularly at the beginning of motions, but he watched silently over the next forty or so minutes, and even in that short time the twins’ muscle control noticeably improved.

“That’s enough of that for now.” Talia announced with a smile as she set Reggie down and exchanged good-morning hugs and kisses with Mark.

“It is.  My body is tired.”
Helemia admitted.

“I hope your minds aren’t.” Talia teased as she climbed off the bed, and began choosing their clothes for the day.  “We’ll start your education after breakfast.”

“Our education?  Why do we need education?”
Reggie inquired. 
“We already know all that you know.”

“No, you don’t.” Talia responded.  “You only have
access
to what we know.  To you, our memories are like a big library full of books, and you can instantly read any of the books any time you want.  But you don’t have a catalogue to tell you where all the books are and what’s in them.  And until you
read
the books, or in this case, until you’re prompted to consciously think about specific knowledge, our knowledge isn’t part of your knowledge; it doesn’t form part of what you think about and use as your basis for judging the world.  So we’ll go through the standard education program, including arithmetic, history, geography, current events, and the rules of reality.  The process should proceed very quickly, which is good, because we’ll need to constantly review all that you learn until you’re capable of forming your own permanent memories.

“After lunch we’ll work on psionic techniques, beginning with Shielding, so you can protect yourselves from being overwhelmed in crowds like you were yesterday morning.”

“Thanks Mother.”
Helemia giggled as Mark put her socks on.

The twins progressed incredibly quickly.  They both developed very intense and focused personalities, especially Helemia, and this tendency increased over time.  Within two weeks they were both walking without support, and at a month they were running gracefully, if carefully.  At three months they began asking for a taste of the foods the adults were eating, and had no trouble digesting the small, well-mashed samples they were given.  As they were gradually weaned from the breast, they were also gradually weaned from the adults’ constant psionic contact and guidance, and they began to spend some time away from the adults, outside or in their bedroom.