Chapter 44
Part 8
That evening, the whole family worked on aerialbat tactics and strategies, which was even more
fun than groundwork. They were having so much fun that they skipped a formal evening meal and had
sandwiches and juice between bouts.
That evening Valentia insisted on sleeping with the twins, rather than with her parents as she always
insisted on before that. It was a relief for her parents, since they wouldn’t have to monitor her sleep and
cast Silence on themselves in order to make love without disturbing her.
As the adults were tucking the children into bed, Markmented to the twins; “You know, you’re more
than ready to join in themunity military training. You’d already be more effective than about a third
of our adult neighbors.”
“No thank you, Father.” Reggie smiled. “It would be fun, but we’d like to wait until Valentia’s ready too,
and until her psionics are fully running, and our own magic is fully working.”
“But thanks for offering.” Helemia added.
“All, right, I understand that.” Mark chuckled.
“And it’s very generous of you to wait to include Valentia.” Alilia smiled.
“Thanks,” Helemia giggled, “But it has less to do with generosity than with knowing how much of a
temper tantrum she’ll have if she doesn’t get to y, when we can. And I can’t really me her. But
she’sing along pretty fast, especially since you grownups started Linking her without us, so it won’t
be long. She’s not near as far ahead as me and Reggie, but she’s still way ahead of any other kids her
age, and we’re helping her as much as we can.”
“And she loves you dearly for it.” Alilia told them. “As do I.”
“As we love you all.” Reggie returned with a smile. “And we’re sorry that you don’t get to, well, to parent
us very muchpared to other kids. You don’t have to teach us as much as normal kids, or care for
us as much as normal kids, and on top of that we know we like to spend a lot more time on our own
working on stuff than other kids. And sometimes we can tell that you really miss it. Like today, with the
you’ve learned, and we just wanted to get it all done right away.”
“Ah. Well I’m sorry we were that obvious about it.” Mark chuckled.
“Almost every advantage has its price.” Talia smiled. “The benefits of your amazing abilities far
outweigh their meager drawbacks. And you were right, we had far more fun today than we would’ve if
we’d spent the time teaching you the basics of swordy without any magical or psionic teaching
methods.”
“As to the joy of parenting you, we also have the advantages of our abilities.” Mark told them. “We’re
always psionicly aware of you, at least subconsciously, even when you’re off on your own. We always
know you’re safe, and we share every moment of your lives to one extent or another. The only
exceptions were when we were in abat exercise, at which time we used to have Quewanak
monitor you for us so we could free up our concentration. But since your little adventure with the
Sylvan, we keep some of our awareness on you even when we’re fighting a battle exercise. So in many
ways, we get a lot more wonderful parenting experiences than normal parents get with normal
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children.”
“We’ll never lose you.” Alilia told them with love that was almost fierce. “As Mark saved Dalia and
Bezedil from death itself, so we will save you or Valentia, should you ever need it. We make sure that
all three of us have sufficient psionic awareness of all three of you at all times to make the Resurrection
work, we keep a reserve of power avable for it at all times, and Mark has pre-cast the spell for each
of us and stored them in indestructible objects.
“Even if something were to kill all three of you children and two of us, our family will be restored. If we
can find a way to fully automate the spell, it’ll save us even if all six of us are suddenly killed. And that’s
as safe as we can be, until Mark figures out how to make gods of us all. Our love for you will not be
denied, not by anyone or anything!”
“Wow! That’s good to know!” Helemia marveled.
“And besides all that,” Talia pointed out with a smile, “If we want more of the joy of parenting after
you’re grown, we’ll just have more children. Won’t we Alilia?”
Alilia looked at her with wide eyes. “You’re offering to make our rtionship permanent?” she asked in
surprise.
“As long as our lovests.” Talia returned with a smile. “Shall we say indefinitely, rather than
permanently. I still think the great love of your life may be out there somewhere, and once Yzell solves
the fertility problem, every male elf alive bes a candidate.”
Alilia actually chuckled bashfully. “I hope she does solve the fertility problem, so that you can see that
you’re wrong. The fact that Mark was my only hope to have a child was a very lucky ident for me,
because he truly is the great love of my life, I’m sure of it. If I’d only been able to have a child with some
other man, I probably would have done it, but it would have broken my heart when it took me farther
from Mark. I love you more than I could ever love any other woman, and the biggest reason for that is
that you are so much a part of him. Part of it is that you’repletely adorable, and a fine person in
every way. The rest of the reason being that this family that we’ve created has brought us together far
more than Gorsh and I were by raising Bezedil, since we’re far better and more caring parents than
Gorsh and I were then. And my improvement in that regard is due to the beneficial effect that knowing
you and Mark and our experiences together have had on my character.
“We still have twenty-two years of glorious freedom here before we have to go back to the world and all
its demands. Twenty-two years for our love to grow, and for our rtionship to prove its strength.
“Then, if all has gone as well as I’m sure it will, I will ask you both to marry me; to stand with me in
Las chapel and proudly dere our love and our union for all time, as all of civilization bears
witness.
“I see I’ve surprised you, and it’s not yet time to ask that of you anyway. As I’ve said, if all goes this
beautifully for twenty-two more years, then I’ll ask you, and I won’t ept an answer until then.
“For now, it’s time our little warriors were asleep. Goodnight, my loves.” she said, and leaned over to
kiss all three children in turn.
Mark and Talia did the same, then Mark picked up his wives and carried them to bed.
The next morning, Alilia took Valentia for a visit to Yzell and Theramin’s home for an examination by
Yzell and some y time with their children.
While they were gone, the twins tried to awaken their magic abilities for a few minutes, then prepared
to go out.
“What are your ns for today, loves?” Talia asked as they put on their outdoor clothing.
“We’ll ask for private lessons.” Helemia replied. “There’s much we still want to learn from you and
Father and Aunt Alilia, and we n to continue our lessons with you on magic, general knowledge,
“We’ll follow Quewanak’s advice.” Reggie continued. “I’ll ask to study the rules of reality with
Grandfather Yazadril, fabrication with Kragorram, and manufacturing with Uncle Wittan and
Grandfather Mark. It seems much of the problem of fighting in the void involves theck of wizard’s
rock in the void, and the resultingck of the ability to use wizardry,bined with the lesser energy
avable from the sun at extreme distances. I propose to create a void-craft such as the Triax use,
recing much of the spells required to live and operate in the void with physical properties and
processes. And we can make some of the void-craft out of wizard’s rock, so we can use wizardry in it.
It’ll get plenty of sun in the void to charge the rock.”