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

Part 26

"Neither did any of The Forty-Four." Six noted, with a proud grin and a quick fist-clench to the pack of twelve-year-old siblings under his command. "You showed some fine discipline there, brothers and sisters." "Yah, at this rate we'll make diplomats and academics of you yet!" Fire commented with a quiet laugh. "You'll be able to withstand a veritable infinity of boring speeches!"

Meechla, the smallest of The Forty-Four, appeared standing directly in front of Fire, and snapped an exaggerated salute along with a click of her boot-heels before standing rigidly to attention. "Yes Sir Commander Fire Princess Helemia Ma'am!" the tiny warlock yelled in a piping voice that sounded three years old, saluted again with an even-more ostentatious motion, and disappeared back to her seat amidst the laughter of her platoon-mates.

"And don't you forget it!" Fire yelled back with a playful grin.

"You know, I'm almost entirely sure that she was being sarcastic that time." Six stated with a completely straight face, which drew another round of laughs.

"True, but as long as she's disciplined and respectful, I'll let it pass." Fire returned.

"Besides, Meechla is far too cute to get mad at anyway!" Val giggled.

"You take that back!" Meechla yelled in mock-anger from her seat near the back of their section.

"I won't and you can't make me!" Val laughed back.

"No?!" Meechla demanded, appearing before the Governors again with her tiny fists on her hips. "Well if you don't, I'll put a million copies of this all over Kellaran!" she stated as she cast a quick Illusion of a formally executed and framed painting. It showed Val with one finger in her mouth and a bashful, infantile expression on her face, her hair in dozens of braids each secured with a big pink bow of ribbon, wearing a toddler's-style fuzzy pink dress accented with dozens more big pink bows, sitting cross-legged on a huge pile of fluffy pink stuffed animals. It was a parody of the cliché style of formal portraits that many human parents had painted of their babies, and it was the most magnificently tacky and tasteless overdose of cuteness that anyone there had ever seen.

"No! I give up, take it away!" Val laughed as she turned her head and raised her hands in mock-horror. "I take it back, you're not cute at all!!"

"And don't you forget it!" Meechla triumphantly crowed, and went back to her seat as the Illusion vanished.

As the chuckles continued, Talia mused; "You know, there are very few artists who could produce such a detailed and original picture from their own imagination in such a short time. That was actually very impressive."

"Thank you Mother Talia!" Meechla called from her seat.

"And she's quite attentive!" Talia added with a smile as she stood.

"Use the privacies if you have to." she advised the children. "I'll be right back with some snacks and drinks."

"We'll help you carry them Mother Talia!" several of The Forty-Four called out, so she took them with her.

All too soon as far as Mark was concerned, the recess was over and the meeting resumed. As he suspected would be the case, it was the gods rather than Somonik who appeared on the stage to resume the proceedings. Falgaroth, Visinniria, Neela, and Amirgath waited a moment to be sure they had everyone's attention, then Falgaroth Spoke.

"Markhan Reginus Longstrider the Fifth, Prince of Hilia, Lord of Serminak, key to the imminent nexus of Kellaran, Key to The Just Alliance, the time has come for you to take your place among our pantheon.

"It will be the very first time that the timing of the Ascension of any god was known in advance, it will be the first time that an Ascension can be directly witnessed by any other god or living mortal, and we ask that all of the Kellaran-Triax Alliance be allowed to observe and to share in this miraculous process.

"Are you ready?" the big blue unicorn god concluded.

"I'm not and I am." Mark responded with a grin as he stood at his seat.

"I see." Falgaroth commented with a snicker and a playful toss of his voluminous mane. "Would you care to explain that?"

Mark cast Multiple Simultaneous Manifestations, and a copy of himself appeared on stage among the gods.

"I'm not." The copy that was still with his family stated as he resumed his seat.

"And I am." the copy on stage grinned.

He paused, and his grin faded as his mood became more serious. The gods left the stage to him as he spent a moment in gazing at all his friends and everyone in all the generations of his extended family, and basking in their complete confidence in him.

Then he spoke in a quieter tone. “All this time I've been afraid of becoming a god, afraid of losing my mortality, or so I thought. Really, I've been afraid of losing my individuality, afraid of losing my personality and not being me anymore, and being someone completely different.

"So as you can see, I've cast the Multiple Simultaneous Manifestations spell that was invented by The Governors, and this one of me will try to become a god. Hopefully I won't mess it up and kill myself in front of absolutely everyone, or worse.

"If it works I'll evaluate whether I'm still the same person in the fundamental ways that are important to me. If I am, I may try to reintegrate with my still-mortal self over there, if it's still even possible to do so. "If it's not, or if we decide that it's not advisable for some other reason, we'll remain two separate individuals; one mortal and one god, and the god will take a new name and an appearance different enough to prevent confusion as to who's who. Our lives will separate to some extent, and we'd become two different people.

"This will allow me to keep my commitment to the gods, while still keeping my present identity and fulfilling my responsibilities as a parent. I have a lot of children right now, and for various reasons they asked to be released from the time-bubble early, so they're still dependent children to one extent or another. They deserve my parenting for as long as they want it. But the gods have said that they've lost the urge to have and raise children, and I can't risk losing my ability to raise children while I still need it.

"Hence this somewhat unusual solution. If it all works, I'll offer it to every one of my Candidates who have the ability to cast the Multiple Simultaneous Manifestations spell while they're still mortal. But not all of them can do that. Most will have to choose between mortality and divinity.

"To be honest, while I recognize that becoming a god will change my fundamental nature in some way, I don't want it to change my personality in any way, and I don't want to have to become two completely separate people in order to fulfill my obligations. When I designed my Ascension process, I did my best to make sure that I'll still be me when it's finished, and I hope that when I'm done I do find that I'm still me, and that the mortal me and the god me can reintegrate back into one person.

"Right now we're Linked at every level, and he'll record the entire experience. He'll share some of it with all of you, but will probably share all of it with none of you. This is dangerous knowledge whether it works or not, and who gets how much of it will be decided after. All of you will be able to see it, and to experience it with every sense and passive scan you have. But only he will be Linked with me while it happens, and I'll make sure that none of the rest of you can Read me psionicly while it happens. These are also safety precautions in case it all goes wrong somehow. I won't be casting any Shielding around me so as to not impede the observations of the researchers and gods among you, but I ask that both pantheons be prepared to Shield me or Translocate me with the shortest possible notice, in case I explode or something."

He held his hand palm up and the Truthstone containing the God-Spell appeared in it with a blue flash. He looked at it a moment, looked out at his family again for almost ten seconds, then shrugged and said; "Okay; here it goes."☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐