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

Chapter 25

Part 5

Over the next week; the twins finished their education on general knowledge, then began reviewing it

again from the beginning. They announced that they could detect Alilia’s unborn baby’s mind psionicly,

though no others could yet, and independently confirmed Yzell’s judgment that it would be a girl. And,

throwing darts became their favorite pastime.

They’d started out playing the game conventionally according to Finitran rules; throwing from a

standstill, from behind a line at the standard distance from the standard dartboard, throwing five darts

each per turn, and counting points to 100. On the first day, most of their darts failed to reach the board,

though they played with the lightest darts available.

Their first modification was to run up to the line and throw while running, with a motion like throwing a

light javelin. Then they replaced the board with a target of their own design; a wide plank with a crude

picture of a humanoid on it. They only counted points if they hit it in the throat, groin, or eyes, and by

the fourth day they were doing so consistently. Then they drew a face on a dried pumpkin, tied it on a

rope, and set it to swinging before they threw at it. By the end of the week they had designed an

obstacle course through the small trees at the edge of the little valley behind the house, with faces

painted on the trees for targets, and they ran through the trees while throwing 15 darts each of various

sizes at 30 targets. Then they stopped competing with each other, and ran the course together,

practicing providing covering fire for each other. They played in silence, without a word or a laugh or a

yell until they were finished. To those watching, the activity seemed very little like playing a game, and

very much like dedicated military training.

At dinner on Eighthday of the following week, Mark voiced some concerns. “Listen kids, over the last

few days there’s been a change in you. You seem a little grim much of the time, and you don’t smile as

much. Would you care to tell us what’s bothering you?”

The twins exchanged a glance and a burst of thought before Reggie answered. “We realized a while

ago that everything in life has to do with the demons that are coming here. We’re here so you and the

other adults would have the time to have more children before they get here. No one needs to work

much to get their necessities here, and all the real work that gets done is all getting ready for the

demons. Researching spells to fight the demons, building defenses to fight the demons, everyone

training together to fight the demons.

“And I realized that I used to have a memory about the demons, but I forgot it. I just remembered that I

used to have it. It took me a while to remember where I got it, then I got it again. And of course Helemia

knows everything I know.”

He went back to eating like the matter was settled.

“So you’ve been upset because of this memory of the demons?” Mark pressed.

“Upset isn’t really the right word.” Helemia told him. “It’s just that now we know what we’re truly facing. I

think most people here don’t really understand what it’ll be like.”

Like her brother, she went back to eating, and seemed to assume the subject was dealt with.

“Maybe you’d better give me the memory.” Mark told them.

“I’m sure you don’t want it.” Reggie replied. “It’s not very nice. I wish I hadn’t remembered about it.”

Mark considered them both for a moment, then firmly instructed; “Son, give me the memory.”

Reggie looked at him, and shrugged.

Mark slapped his hands onto his forehead and screamed, which sounded strange in his exceptionally

deep voice.

“Love!” Talia called in worried surprise as she sprang from her chair to go to him.

“It’s okay, I’m all right.” he told her through clenched teeth as she hugged him, and she found to her

surprise that he was blocking her from his mind.

He forced himself to relax and took a deep breath. “I just have to walk this off for a minute. I need some

fresh air.” He stood a bit unsteadily, walked to the door, and left.

Talia watched him go in concerned confusion, then forced calm on herself, and turned to her children.

“What exactly did you give him?”

“Well I got that from Kragorram, who got it from Povon, who got it from Quewanak, who got it from

Somonik, who remembers it from almost seven and a half million years ago. So it might be a little fuzzy,

which is just as well. It would be worse if it was fresh. It’s Somonik’s memory of the last demon war.”

The conversation paused for a moment.

“Go to him.” Alilia told Talia. “I’ll talk to these to rapscallions for a while.”

Talia found Mark sitting beneath a tree, leaning back against the trunk at the edge of the yard.

She curled up in his lap, and he wrapped his arms around her. She waited for him to speak. After a few

moments, he did.

“A few minutes ago, we thought that Reggie and Helemia were acting a little strange, even for them.

Now I’m amazed that they’re still acting as normal as they are.”

He paused again for a deep breath.

“You know, I always thought Somonik was pretty incredible, but I really had no idea. He was maimed by

demon-Fire in the third year of the war. One wing and one arm almost completely burned off, half his

face and half the rest of his body burned very badly. Wounds from demon-Fire don’t heal more than

halfway at best, and the pain never diminishes at all. No one expected him to live through the night,

and if he did, they fully expected that he’d ask to be put out of his misery. And they’d have done it as a

matter of course. Text © 2024 NôvelDrama.Org.

“He had the Healers cut off all the burned flesh, right down to what was still healthy, and Heal him as

best they could. The pain didn’t diminish any; the pain of demon-Fire is a magical property of its own,

probably a sub-spell of the Fire spell.

“He went back to war the next morning! He was thought to be the Eldest Draconian, he was their

mightiest warrior, and he refused to let them down. Everyone else was just amazed that he was alive.

They were amazed again when he chose to continue being active in the war. No one would have

blamed him if he’d have chosen to command from the rear at that point, they’d have considered it a

miracle to have him there. But he was back in the front line of the battle, and the next morning! And it

was a huge and crucial boost to everyone’s morale that he did.

“He fought the rest of that war; fifty-three more years of fighting the demons, and he’s led his people for

seven and a half million years since then, through many more wars and crises, and always, he was the

voice of justice, of peace, of reason. And in all that time, he never let it show that he was in constant

agony, feeling like half his skin and limbs had just been burned off.”

He paused again, and leaned down to kiss her before he continued.

“The kids are right. Except the dragons, no one here has any idea what they’ll be facing. Quewanak’s

been going easy on us in the training exercises. The demons he’s been simulating for us aren’t a tenth

as dangerous and horrible as real demons are. I mean, war is always hell, but war against real demons

is another whole category of hellishness beyond war against anything else. They make unsworn Sylvan

seem noble and nice by comparison. The demons’ favorite game was to see how much of a prisoner’s

body they could eat before the prisoner died. They’d take a little bite, then cauterize the wound with

demon-Fire to stop the bleeding, then keep going. The most skillful among them could regularly eat

over seven-tenths of a prisoner’s body before it died.

“And it’s hard to fight effectively against an enemy when every part of them poisons you. If you cut

them and their blood gets on you, it poisons you. If you step in a pile of their shit or a puddle of their

piss, it poisons you. If they spit on you or blow snot on you, it poisons you. Hell, if you even get too

close and they breathe on you, it poisons you.