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

Part 8

"Brilliant!" Mark marveled as they passed Dalia and Bezedil's place. "You know, in many ways, you really are the smart one in our marriage."

"I'm pleased you think so!" Talia laughed. "I'm the quick one too! Race you there!" she added as she took off running, with him laughing in pursuit. They soon settled into the new routine, and theirs became a much more closely-scheduled household, as they all arranged and attended appointments to learn, teach, and work with others in the community. Their evenings were usually reserved for family warfare training, which was the emotional highlight of their day. They worked as a team of six against whatever simulated demons Ria conjured for them that day, and they consistently found it to be an incredibly fun and deeply bonding experience. All the magic, light, and sound of their battles were cast as private Illusions which were sometimes augmented with a bit of Force or Heat, so as to not disturb the neighbors. However, they soon realized that they sometimes looked quite silly running and flying around making inexplicable motions, so Ria devised a nice spell that allowed anyone observing them to see and hear their battles if they chose to, complete with hundreds of demon enemies, barrages of spells, full use of weapons, and listening-only access to their family Command Link.

Soon after that, spectating their family warfare training became a common pastime for the rest of the community.

Valentia often made a pest of herself by trying to share in all of the twins' activities, and they responded by spending about four hours every day playing with her. Without specifically saying they were doing so, they spent that time deeply Linked with her, trying to hurry her development as much as they could.

Their efforts, combined with the lessons and training that their parents were giving her, soon began to produce results. Valentia's speech lost most of its childish quality within weeks, and her behavior and abilities improved so rapidly that within a year she seemed as mature as Reggie and Helemia. She still had a fiery temperament, but she was in control of it, and she became as dedicated to self-improvement as her siblings.

PART 9

The day before Valentia's first birthday she initiated conversation as the family was sitting down for supper.

"Tomorrow's my birthday, and there's some presents I want to ask for.

"I think you can trust me not to make silly mistakes anymore. I promise to keep getting lots of exercise, and to not sleep with Levitation.

"I want full control of my magic, and I want The Skills of Visinniria spell done on me. I promise not to hurt anyone, and not to wreck anything.

"But I really want to do what I can do! I want to see how much I can lift, I want to see how big a Fireball I can cast, I want to see how big an explosion I can make! I mean, playing with the Illusions is fun, but I really want to use all my abilities, and I really want to fight! I mean, some really serious sparring at least, both with magic and without! I want to shoot real arrows, and I want to use a real sword, and I want to learn all the forest ranger stuff Father knows!"

"That all seems pretty reasonable." Mark agreed. "And I think we're all ready for some real weapons training."

"There's a small island at the southern edge of the archipelago that we could use for a weapons range." Alilia told them. "It's not much more than a big flat-topped rock at one end of a big sandbar, and there's only about half a dozen trees on it because it gets blasted by the hurricanes every year. It's about the only place in Hiliani where there's not much to destroy, and it's as far as we can get from here, and from the Sylvan."

"All right, we'll all go there after supper and get some real exercise." Talia told Valentia with a big smile and a caress of her head. "We'll start off by lifting sand with Movement. I'm quite curious to see how strong you are, Love."

"And yes, you can have full control of your magic now." Mark told her with a proud grin. "We'll give you The Skills of Visinniria when we get there."

"Ooooh, thank you thank you thank you!" Valentia cried as she clapped and bounced in her seat. "This is gonna be so fun!"

"I'm sure we could fill the whole evening just playing with magic," Reggie mused, "So there's no use bringing our armor. I think I'll bring my war darts though, I could do with more practice with those." "Ya, me too." Helemia nodded around a mouthful of baked fish.

After supper they dressed for a warm spring evening, and loaded their packs with water bottles and war darts.

"I'll Translocate us there." Alilia said as she buttoned her tunic. "You children have never Translocated before, and it's about the most useful spell there is, so you'll want to pay attention. It's a complex multiple spell with a very high power requirement, and lives are on the line every time you cast it on someone or on yourself. You must always work with an experienced caster, first as you observe, then as you cast it under their guidance, until you are absolutely certain of it. Only then can you cast it independently, and only then if you are absolutely sure of every component of the spell at that moment.

"Valentia, though you and I do most magic intuitively, we still need to have a solid intellectual grasp of every step of this spell. Nothing in life is more horrible than a badly bungled Translocation. It can scar your soul just to see it."

She let them consider that as she established a teaching Link among herself and the three children.

"First, take a measurement of the weight of everything you're going to move. You'll eventually get good enough to make an estimate of sufficient accuracy for most people and commonly moved items, but for now you should cast the Measurement discreetly, so that your result is accurate. So, the weight of the six of us and our items is three hundred ninety-nine kilos, seven hundred and ninety-six grams, and that's accurate enough. Keep that number in mind.

"Second, you need a Translocation reference. The easiest way to get one is to physically travel between the two places while carefully measuring your movement. You can get a memory of such travel from another psionicly and use that as your reference. You can project your consciousness along your route and measure the distance and direction as you do so. And, if you have an intellect like Yazadril's, you can use mathematics to extrapolate a reference between two places from two other references that link those places to a third place. And if you're as smart as Somonik or Tithian, you can construct a reference with pure mathematics if you know the exact locations and elevations of both places.

"If the target is more than a couple of kilometers away, you must correct for orientation. Remember that the world is round, and when you're standing your feet always point toward the center of the world. If you Translocate a quarter of the way around the world without correcting your orientation, you'll come out laying on your side, and if you Translocate to the other side of the world without correcting for it you'll come out upside down."

She waited a moment while the children got a giggle at that thought.

"Until you're very experienced with casting Translocations you should always come in high, by casting Levitate upon everything you're Translocating and targeting a destination point that's high above the ground or anything else you could intersect.

"Having established exactly where you're going, you project your consciousness there and check to be sure the space is clear, and that no-one could move into it.

"Then you must prepare for displacement. You will always measure the volumes and shapes of everything you're Translocating. The air occupying the space the Translocated people or items will take up at the destination is Translocated back to fill the space they left at their departure point.☐☐☐☐