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

Chapter 54

Part 10 This text is property of Nô/velD/rama.Org.

“I’m getting to be a better spell-caster than they are, and they’re getting to be better than me at

everything else. And their determination and drive is just amazing. I only work so hard because they

do, and I don’t want them to think less of me. They don’t need anything to push them to work that hard.

I don’t think anyone could stop them from doing it!”

“Ah, my daughter, I know exactly how you feel. For most of my life I’ve been overshadowed by

Yazadril’s intelligence and experienced wisdom, and lately we’ve all been overshadowed by Mark’s

magical ability, the nobility of his character, and his new wisdom. The day we first met the gods, he

made me feel like a coward by comparison, so incredible was the bravery he displayed.

“And I’ll admit that there’s been times when it bothered me, being overshadowed like that. To almost be

the very, very best, but forever destined to be second, or third, or whatever. But most of the time I’m

just extremely thankful to have them in my life, to have their help and support, and their love.

“Besides, one never knows how life will turn out. Yazadril wasn’t the fastest learner when he was

young, or very powerful, nor was he very notable in any way until he was almost three thousand years

old. Now he’s universally recognized as the mightiest of elves, and the finest military commander in the

world. With the possible exception of your father.

“Eventually you’ll find your own place in life, and then it won’t matter. I’m Princess of The People of Life,

perhaps the mightiest of elven nations, and when I’m with them it doesn’t matter that there are others

who are greater than I am. I’m the leader of my people by their choice, and if I say that they should do

something, they’ll do it, even if everyone else in the world disagreed with me, including Yazadril or your

father. And that’s enough for me.

“And truly, even that doesn’t matter to me very much anymore. I have you and I have our family, and

most days I feel half-drunk on love and happiness!”

“I know Mother. I know I really have nothing to complain about and a lot to be thankful for, and I know

it’s petty of me. But sometimes it still bothers me.”

“Hm. Why don’t we take a few hours and have some fun, just you and me? No learning or combat or

competitiveness, we’ll just have fun. What do you think?”

“That sounds good to me.” Valentia smiled as she sat up, brightening. “We could go flying, and have a

picnic lunch by the ocean.”

“Then we will.” Alilia smiled as she stood with her daughter in her arms, and carried her into the kitchen

to pack their lunch.

PART 11

Eight months later, Valentia was four years and seven months old, a hundred and four centimeters tall,

and weighed eighteen kilos, which made her a bit bigger than average for a human girl her age.

The twins were five years and two months old. Helemia was only eighty-four centimeters tall, and just

less than fourteen kilos in weight, which made her smaller than average for an elven child, or extremely

small for a human.

Reggie was a hundred and twenty-five centimeters tall, weighed twenty eight kilos, and was already the

size of an average nine-year-old human boy.

All three children were developing extremely quickly. The twins had already lost most of their baby

teeth, and Valentia had lost half of hers, leaving them all with gapped and uneven smiles.

Karzog was almost twenty years old, and was almost nine meters long from his nose to the tip of his

tail, but he still had the slim build of a young dragon, and his neck and tail made up most of his length.

Despite that and the light bones of dragons, he already weighed over eighteen hundred kilograms, and

was bigger than any dragon his age had ever been before.

The four of them lay on the grass after sparring, Healing, and Restoring the back yard valley. All of

them were breathing hard, and the children had been so tired and sweaty after fighting that they’d

removed their armor and weapons by Translocating out of them. Karzog lay on his belly fanning himself

with his wings, and occasionally turning his head a bit and burping a bit of smoke and fire out of the

corner of his mouth.

“We’re ready.” Helemia stated.

“Yes.” Reggie agreed. “We’re still improving, but it’s slowed so much that I think we’ve reached the

limits of our present potential. Now we’re only getting better at the same rate that our bodies and brains

are developing and growing.”

“I agree about that.” Karzog nodded. “But what are we ready for?”

“Full warfare training with the grownups.” Valentia stated as she sat up and stretched a moment.

“Without being treated like children, that is.”

“We were probably ready two weeks ago, but now is the right time.” Reggie said as he rolled over and

rested his chin in his hands. “They finished building all the shelters and fortifications yesterday, so

they’ll have more time available, and they’ll be able to stabilize the defense plans a lot more. I’m betting

that… Hold on.

“Sorry to exclude you Quewanak, but you do command the enemy in the community war games. You’ll

have to forgive us for keeping our planning private from you.”

“Quite understandable.” the dragon psionicly replied.

“Okay.” Helemia closed her eyes as she and Reggie psionicly Shielded against their elder. “We’re

confidential now.”

“Wow! You can block Quewanak from our minds?” Karzog marveled.

“Yup. He showed us how.” Reggie stated. “Him and Father figured out a way to block the gods

themselves. Most magic casters don’t have inherent psionics, but a lot of ‘em can do the same things

by casting conventional psionic spells with their magic power. The advantage of that is that you can put

your magic power into your psionics. Normally psionics don’t take very much raw power, because the

only thing you’re changing in reality is other people’s thoughts and perceptions. As powerful as me and

Helemia are psionicly, if we use it all it’s still only equivalent to lifting a kilo or so in raw power, but it

takes a lot of magic talent to put more than that amount of power into an artificial psionic spell. But if

you have the talent, and you have warlock power, you can block anyone.”

“Of course, to block Quewanak, you have to block the sound of us talking from him too.” Helemia

pointed out. “His awareness is so good that he’d know it was there, even if he couldn’t hear it

physically.”

“That’s pretty good, but I’d do it like this.” Valentia told them a trifle smugly as she passed them her

thoughts. “As usual, you save over a third of the power and three-quarters of the attention span doing it

my way. And I’d automate it like this, so you could forget about it.”

“Ah! As usual Val, you are the queen of magic.” Reggie chuckled. “That’s really very good.”

“As usual Six, thank you.” Valentia giggled.

“Six?” Reggie inquired.

“I’ve decided that’s your nickname.” Valentia revealed. “Our names are too long. You guys call me Val

and we call him Karz and we call her Fire, and I like those. You’re Prince Markhan Reginus Longstrider

The Sixth, but we still call you Reggie, and to be honest, I hate the way it sounds. Same with Reg, and

Storm doesn’t feel right either. I do like Mark, but Father’s already using that one, and Reginus sounds

too pompous, besides being too long. I’m not going to call you Prince unless you’re going to call me

Princess. So, Six. I like the sound of it.”

“Six. That’s okay.” Reggie decided.

“Prince and Princess, you say?” Karzog chuckled. “My, aren’t we fine today?”

“Yup, I’m a princess three times over.” Helemia laughed. “I’m a princess of The High People through

Grandfather Yazadril and Mother, I’m a princess of Hilia through Father, and then I’m a princess of Hilia

again through Mother because they co-rule. Same with Reggie, he’s a prince three times. Val’s a

princess of Hilia and a princess of The People of Life. And now that I think about it, make it four times

for me and Six, and three times for Val, ‘cause Father’s also Lord of Serminak, so I’m a princess of

there too.”

“Excuse me for not exalting your greatness, Your Highness!” Karzog laughed.