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

Chapter 172

Part 24

“Thanks. I doubt it’ll be necessary though.” Val told her as she reached for a glass of juice. “If we’d

have been awake enough to think straight, we could’ve just brought our bed from Hilia, there’s plenty of

room for it in the living room here. But it was really okay. One nice thing about still being small is that

the couches are plenty big enough for us, and they have to be some of the nicest, most comfy couches

in the world.”

“They were wedding presents from the elves, like almost everything else here.” Mark mentioned. “I’m a

bit embarrassed to say that I don’t recall who gave them to us, but we got an enormous number of

presents that night. It’s all the very best elven quality and craftsmanship though, that’s for sure.”

“The nice thing about elves is, they’re patient.” Alilia laughed. “If it took you five hundred years to get

around to sending thank you notes for those couches, those who gave them would appreciate it just as

much, and not consider the timing to be in any way inappropriate. They do expect that you’ll get around

to thanking each of them eventually, but they know you’ve been busy since you were married.”

“We also don’t have to thank them individually if they gifted us as groups, and most of the elves did so.”

Talia pointed out with a giggle. “So we only have about forty thousand thanks to send out or deliver in

person. We’ll get around to it after the war.”

Just then a big group of gods appeared floating in the air outside the balcony, and Neela, First

Goddess of Humans, moved to the edge of the balcony to address them.

“Your education spell is wonderful work, and it is of crucial importance right now.” she stated with a

warm smile, letting her aura and her mood affect them. “While we lacked the creativity to think of doing

such a thing, and we lack your skill with automated spells and so could not have produced a better

spell, nor done it in a shorter time, we do have some abilities that are still beyond any mortal levels of

achievement. Thus we have relieved your translators of their tasks, and have produced some three

thousand, six hundred and fifty-seven translations. They are accurate in magic, language, and dialect.

That is all the languages and major variations spoken on our world now, and every new magic user on

Kellaran can use one.

“So, if you are capable of accepting such a huge transfer of information, we will return the translated

spells to you, so you can make them self-powering and send them out. It would be best if you did this

now. As I’ve said, this is of crucial importance, since almost no-one speaks Trade Common as their

native language as you do.”

Val and her family Linked to ensure they had the capacity to accept the transfer, then she told Neela;

“Thank you, every one of you, for your quick work on this. I’ll take the transfer now.”

Neela gave her the thousands of versions of the huge and complex spell over a one-way Link that

otherwise seemed completely conventional. Val had to use some magic memory enhancements, but it

turned out that she didn’t need her family’s assistance to assimilate it all.

“This is really great work, as far as I can tell.” Val stated. “As one would expect of your work, of course.

We’ll have to wait until the new students start using them before we really know how good all of it is,

but I’m pretty sure there won’t be a problem.”

She made the final modifications to the first translation, then quickly crafted an automated spell to do

the same for the rest. It took almost two minutes, and the gods waited patiently as she did so, while the

rest of her family continued eating.

“All right, that’s it. Here they go.” she announced as she triggered all the spells.

Again, Mark shared his vision of the complex spells’ casting. “I can’t get over how beautiful it looks

when you do that.” he mused with a grin as he did so.

“Beautiful and wondrous indeed.” Neela smiled. “We thank you for finishing the spell’s crafting so

quickly, and for attending to our request so promptly. There are already… over eighty of the finest

students who have proven capable of absorbing the entire Education through direct psionic learning,

and have therefore completed it. Make that one hundred and twelve, and more by the second.”

“It’s doing better than I thought it would.” Val stated as she monitored her spells’ performance. “Either

more students are capable of direct psionic learning than I thought, or the spell is better at teaching that

way.”

“You’re welcome, Sister.” Six teased. “I knew we’d have some improvements to make to your psionics,

and we did. See this part?”

“Yup, that’s doing it alright.” Val grinned. “That should increase the speed of learning for almost all the

students, except the most psionicly deaf. It should bring the average learning time for the whole course

down to less than a year. Good work. And thanks.”

“Nice to know you haven’t completely passed us in everything.” Fire giggled.

“Only magic, and you know it. I’m falling farther behind you in everything else every day.”

“Yes, only magic, the most important skill there is.” Fire teased. “That’s how it is when you choose a

specialty; you fall behind in everything else. That’s why we’re not choosing one. Besides, you’re still This material belongs to NôvelDrama.Org.

advancing in everything else faster than almost anyone.”

“Children, your guests?” Talia prompted.

“Right, sorry.” Val said as she blushed and turned back to Neela. “Thanks again for the help with

translations, I thought I’d have to wait weeks for some of them.”

“We’re glad to help, especially since you didn’t ask.” Neela told her.

“Oh? What difference does that make?” Fire asked.

“If a mortal asks us for help and we give it, some may consider it a religious transaction, and we’re still

concerned about avoiding that. We’ll convince the stealthy Sylvan to see things our way eventually.

Probably after enough evidence accumulates to show that his Sylvan aren’t advancing as fast as the

rest of them. We’re sure that will happen eventually, since we’ve proven rather convincingly that devout

religious devotion reduces the adaptability and effectiveness of mortals.

“We thank you again, we encourage you all to continue to produce such amazing and effective

innovations, and we look forward to seeing you again soon. Farewell.”

“Farewell.” Val returned, and waved to the rest of the gods to show that she included them, and her

family did the same.

The gods departed, leaving a reflective silence in their wake.

“That’s not something that will ever seem like an everyday occurrence.” Mark quietly marveled.

There was another pause, then Karz burst out laughing. “I can’t believe you two kept the gods waiting

while you engaged in a round of kissing each other over how great you are!”

The girls had no ready response to that but to shrug and grin sheepishly and blush, then laugh with the

rest.

They and the world seemed to settle into a new routine; learning, training, and participating in exercises

full time, and having fun or conducting research during their free time.

In addition to eight hours of work per day on their own concerns, Mark and Talia spent two hours per

workday talking to the citizens of Kellaran, and one hour on their beach talking to leaders, gods, and a

few leading researchers. Alilia and their children usually accompanied them, often with Karz and

occasionally with Povon and Kragorram as well.

This made for eleven-hour workdays, but they all enjoyed everything they did together and they wasted

no time on traveling, so they were content.