The Fire and the Storm - Metric Pro Edition: Fiction, Dragons, Elves, Unicorns, Magic (60 page)

“Zarkog, it’s been most interesting.  While I doubt we will be close friends due to your being responsible for the deaths of our relatives, you are serving your sentence responsibly, so I’ll strive to forgive you and let the past be the past.  You’re a being of incredible capability and you’re obviously Kellaran’s pre-eminent astronomer, and it’s been a pleasure to meet you.  Good luck in the tournament.”

“I agree; it has been most interesting.” Zarkog replied in Draconian.  “You three are the first humanoids I have met who truly intrigue me.  By your fundamental natures, you are as distinct from other humanoids as giants are from gnomes; that is obvious in your auras.  Though it is still a difficult concept for me to accept, I do grant that you may place highly in the tournament, and I wish you good fortune in it.  I offer my sincere thanks for your conception and initiation of The Tournament of Governors, and for your invitation to me to take part.”

He turned to Karzog and considered him for a moment before he spoke.  “I will give you this truth;  You were conceived at the suggestion and under the direction of Kirimgat The Ice, who resides in North Eastern Xervia, and he is a prominent Draconian researcher of Healing and related matters.  He asked to be allowed to initiate the process at my next mating, as an experiment.  I allowed it out of curiosity, since it did not inconvenience me.  Some eight days later he examined Tekritimaki and reported that the procedure had been successful, and he took no further interest beyond that.

“I gave no parental attention or affection to any of my offspring.  I have no emotional inclination to do so, and it would only have made them a target for dominance and manipulation by those who sought influence with me.  I had planned to continue that policy in regards to you, but I was confident that you would quickly rise through the ranks on your own merit.

“I had planned that when you became First Flame; which was second-in-command in my power structure, I would either kill you in order to eliminate the only true contender for my power, or take you under my wing as my protégé, and become your mentor in order to ensure the continuation of my efforts in case I should fall to the demons.  I would have taken a deep Reading of you in order to judge your loyalty, and based my decision on the result.

“Beyond that, I gave the matter no further thought until you arrived here today.  And now my plans are moot.  But I find that meeting you and speaking to you gives me a feeling of… pride, I think.  As well, though it may have been happenstance, your visit here today has led to my meeting and gaining the sponsorship of Holy Amirgath, and that is the finest treasure I have ever received.

“I am not offering to act as your parent, and I am certain that you do not wish it in any case.  But if you wish to meet and speak again, I would welcome that.  I am always here.  Until the tournament, that is.”

“Huh.  Perhaps I will, some time.” Karz allowed.  “After the tournament.”

He paused and puffed a bit of black smoke before he continued.  “It is not flattering to know that I was conceived as a research experiment, but it is better than thinking that I was the result of some nefarious machination of yours.

“Come what may, I am certain we will meet again soon, due to the tournament and the upcoming war.  Fare well until then.”

Zarkog gave him a respectful nod, which was returned.  Val and the twins gave another bow, then the four youngsters ended their Simulacrums.

Falgaroth considered Zarkog. 
“You’re coming along well enough.”
he judged, and disappeared.

“Zarkog.” Quewanak nodded.

“Quewanak.” Zarkog nodded in return.  “I am not surprised to learn that you have Ascended.  You reached the eldest age ever attained by any Draconian mortal, and six of the previous eldest nine became gods.  I expect that I will also Ascend soon, within ten years at most.”

“I agree.  And as Zwak said, your astronomies have shown us that all of Kellaran is playing in a greater game now.  It is a new age.  We will let the past be the past.”

“I agree.” Zarkog nodded, and gave him the bow to a military superior.

Quewanak knew that it was as close to an apology as he was ever going to get from Zarkog. So he returned the bow, and disappeared.

Alone with his new student, Amirgath considered Zarkog for a moment before he spoke.  “We have both changed a great deal since taking the vow of justice on Falgaroth’s stone.  But there is no reason for us to be any less for it.”

“I agree, Lord.  I have been concentrating on astronomy and biding my time since my recent fall, but this tournament presents a most unexpected opportunity.”

“It does.  And though I have offered you my friendship, know that I have offered to help you for the sake of my Draconian pride.  If one mortal is to rule all of Kellaran, I prefer that it be one of us, and you are still the most capable dragon.  If you thought I chose to help you for more personal or sentimental reasons, I am sorry to disappoint you.  My friendship is sincere, but that has nothing to do with making you ruler of Kellaran.” 

“On the contrary, my Lord.  Choosing a potential ruler for Kellaran should never be left to sentiment, and I deeply dislike every instance of the emotion.  To the strong goes the prize, now as always.  Let the sentimental comfort the weak.”

“Excellent.” the eldest of the dragon gods declared with the Draconian equivalent of a grin.  “Then we begin…

The four young Governors emerged from Translocation in the earliest childhood home Karz remembered; The Lair of The Lord Regent.  The actual den they arrived in was Povon and Kragorram’s home in Serminak, but it was only a small part of the complex that was The Lair, which included the smaller complex that was The Lair of The Prince of Serminaki Draconia, where Kragorram and his staff attended to his governmental responsibilities.  The offices of The Prince of The Sylvan Nation were also housed here.

All of it had been excavated and constructed out of the mountain of slag and rubble that had once been Zarkog’s lair, before the recent war.  The entire installation was the product of Kragorram’s engineering, Povon’s décor design, and their combined architecture.  They had insisted it be so, in order to ‘put their mark on things’.

“Wow, nice place!” Fire commented after taking a look around.  Though built to dragons’ huge dimensions, it seemed far more a palace than a den; with huge straight-walled rooms, doors that opened and closed on command, and fine furniture sized and shaped for those of every race scattered about in odd groupings, some of which sat on shelves on the walls that were accessed by stairways and ramps with no handrails.  It was predominantly white marble with red streaks, accented with orange marble with black streaks.  The furniture was mostly Elven Redwood, grown into shape and padded with upholstery cushions adorned with magnificent embroideries and tapestries of scenery and cityscapes from all over Serminak.

They sent their parents a quick psionic note saying where they were, and asking to meet them there when it was convenient.

All five of their parents appeared less than half a minute later.

“Sorry to keep you waiting, my son.” Povon told Karz with a grin and a quick hug, which seemed like a strange mannerism for dragons, but they both obviously enjoyed the embrace.

“Don’t be silly, Mother.” Karz chuckled.  “We know you’re all busy now that you’re out in the world again, and it was only five breaths anyway.  You could have taken hours if you wanted.  We’d have gotten started without you.”

“Oh I’m sure you would have, and while I do trust you, my love, I think I’d like to be able to keep an eye on you while you completely disrupt and rebuild the entire social order of my continent!” Povon pleasantly retorted.

“Fine work on the Punishment Cube spells, by the way.” Mark grinned as he scooped his daughters up in his arms and gave them each a kiss on the cheek.  “I really am incredibly impressed.”

“It must be a very complex spell-set.” Alilia smiled as she gave Six a quick hug.  “How many spells are in it?”

“Two thousand, seven hundred and six.” Val proudly announced.  “In up to six layers.  That is, sub-spells of sub-spells, up to sub-sub-sub-sub-sub-spells.  Plus of course there’s two thousand, seven hundred and six fail-safes, one for each of the functional spells.  If even one sub-spell doesn’t work right, its fail-safe will turn the whole thing off and alert us.  That’s to make it tamper-proof, mostly.  I wouldn’t use that many fail-safes just to be sure of the spells.”

“Is this a secure facility?” Six asked as the group ambled over to the nearest grouping of furniture.  “That is, can anyone overhear us right now?”

“The possibility is extremely remote, though of course it always exists.” Povon conceded.  “And of course, none of us can be sure if we can maintain an effective Privacy Shield against the gods, so they might always be listening.  We can block them from our minds, if we use enough power, thanks to Quewanak’s psionic techniques.  But we’re not sure if we could effectively protect an entire facility like this that way.”

“We can’t even be sure if we can block them from our minds.” Fire insisted.  “For one thing, there’s gods of every race, including most if not all of the hidden races, and we don’t even know what all of those races are yet.  Who knows what their gods can do?  Not to mention that gods are as unique and individual as mortals are, we sure learned that today.  Quewanak and Amirgath are both dragon gods, but they might as well be different races for how different they are, and their capabilities are just as different.  That’s obvious even without Reading them.”

“Well now I’m very curious!” Talia chuckled.  “How is it that you got to know Amirgath?”

“Oh, we were talking about asking him and maybe some of the other gods to do something for us, and he showed up and said they would.” Fire giggled.  “Along with Quewanak, Falgaroth and Visinniria.  I think they’re giving us quite a lot of their attention, though it might have been because we were chatting with Zarkog at the time.”

“And you’re doing a fine job of seeming nonchalant about it, too.” Mark laughed as he set her down.  “Are you going to tell us about it, or just keep us in suspense with cryptic hints?”

“Well I’d sure like to, but it would take a while and we still have things to do before the Assembly meeting tonight.  So here;” Six grinned as the children Linked with their parents and shared the experience, and gave them a moment to consider it.

“I hope you don’t mind that we plan to take over running the world from you after we win the tournament.” Val giggled to Mark as she hugged his thigh.  “But really, you don’t seem that interested in running it anyway.  Will you even enter the tournament?”

“More important than that, will you speak in the Assembly in favor of letting the winner of the tournament assume the leadership of The Just Alliance?” Six insistently inquired.

“Well.” Mark said with a proud smile, and paused before he continued.  “I suppose I’ll have to field a team.  My supporters wouldn’t stand for it if I didn’t.

“And I’m going to suggest that we hold the tournament,
then
ask the Assembly if they’ll approve the winner as Leader, and if they agree, then we’ll ask the people.  All of them.  If there’s strong support for it all the way down the line,
then
I’ll go along with it and give the new Leader my full and honest support.  And that’s all I’m willing to commit to.

“Even with the gods running the tournament, and even with all of them sworn to justice, it’s still too big a risk to guarantee that the winner will get the Leadership.  If Zarkog or Zwak Deathbringer or someone like that wins, and a major part of the Assembly or the population disagree with it, it could throw everything into chaos just when we’re facing the demons.  There’s no use having the most technically qualified Leader if no on wants to follow him.  Then you just have a commander, and maybe a bunch of disobedient or mutinous subordinates.”

“Ah.  Good points there, Father.” Six nodded.  “So really, if we want to lead The Just Alliance, we have to win the tournament, and
before
the tournament is held, we need to win over the Assembly and the populace.”

“That’s about it, Son.” Mark chuckled as he gave the boy a pat on the back and a momentary firm rub.

“We’ll definitely need a planning session on that.” Fire decided, then changed the subject.

“How are your efforts at recovering innocent people’s property coming along?”

“The process is running, the teams are working, and we can take our attention from it for now.” Povon told her.  “Over half the cases have already been dealt with.”

“Which brings us to your plans for the Sylvan, I think.” Alilia interjected with a smile.  “I’m interested in how you think you’ll pull it off.  You managed to control the Sylvan youth on Hiliani by overwhelming them psionicly.  But as formidable as you are that way, I don’t see how you could do it to four billion of them.”

“We won’t have to.” Val chuckled.  “We’re only accepting volunteers this time.  And even if most of them play in The Game of Status, they
are
sworn to justice on the Truthstone, unlike the Hiliani Sylvan.  So all we have to do is get them to promise to follow the rules, and they’ll have to do it because of their vow on the stone.  We’ll hire good psionics to supervise things, plus we’ll have a lot of big automated spells helping to keep things running smoothly. 

“The really hard part will be lining up enough Healers to work the challenge arenas, but I have an idea for that too.  Automated Healing spells.  It’s still too complicated to make a spell-set that can replace a Healer in most situations because diagnosis is so hard, but I think we can make one that observes what happens in the challenge arena and notes exactly what injuries are inflicted.  Then it’ll know exactly what to do at the end of the match, because it’ll know it only has to reverse the injuries that it just saw inflicted.

“Come to think of it, if we can do that, we can cast an automated Healing spell on every soldier that Heals every wound they take in battle as soon as it’s inflicted.  That would work really good.  It’d be like Father’s Resurrection spell, except it wouldn’t wait until you were dead before it saved you.”