Chapter 95
Part 15
“Love and trust and familiarity have much to do with it.” Karzog smiled. “The rest is due to equality.
These three developed so quickly that they soon were as above me in intellect and psionics and power
as I was above them in strength, until they improved me. I spend my life pushing myself to keep up with
them, and I love it. The other human and elven children of Hiliani weren’t capable of having such a
friendship of equals with me, and so I was never really that close with any of them. And I don’t think
any young unicorn will ever be capable of being friends with any dragon until they’re at least forty years
old.
“Another important factor was the quality of my parents. Mother and Father are both young adults with
close rtionships with smaller folk, and they’re a lot more open-minded than most dragons. And as
first-time parents, they were willing to do things differently and to put in a lot more effort than most
draconian parents. I know most dragons simply don’t let their young meet any small folk that need to
remain uneaten, until their young are about eighty years old. Mother and Father let me get to know
these small folk and their young when I was still very young and impressionable, and they were willing
to monitor my thoughts and behavior constantly, so that they knew I was never that tempted to eat
someone. When I first met them I was often mildly tempted to eat one of them, but I was never really
that hungry since it was ensured that I’d always eaten recently, and I knew Mother was always
monitoring me anyway. Being a single child probably helped a great deal as well. I’m sure things would
have been much different if Mother and Father had a brood of thirty young to care for.”
“My son, you don’t realize how exceptional you are.” Kragorram told him. “Asking that we raise only you
was one of the wisest things that the Ny-Nine ever did. If you had been hatched and weaned with a
clutch of other young dragons, you’d most likely have killed and eaten the rest long before you were
even capable of thinking. That’s what usually happens when one hatchling is much more capable than
the rest.”
“He’s right.” Povon smiled. “Furthermore, while you have been improved by these magnificent but
impetuous brats, you were already the most exceptional young dragon the world had ever seen. You
didn’t need these three for that, and I don’t think they’ve improved your potential any. You’d have still
developed the same abilities, though I admit that without their interference, you wouldn’t have
developed as quickly. For now, you follow their lead, but most of their development will be finished in
half a century, when you’ll still only be halfway through your childhood.”
“Thank you Mother, but your pride in me is making you foolish.” Karz snickered. “It bothers you that I’m
not the leader of my quartet, but it doesn’t bother you at all that you’re not the leader of The Six of Hilia.
Not only do you follow Mark without question, though he’s not even fully mature yet and you are, you
generally defer to Father as well, simply because you prefer thefort of his leadership.”
“Ah. Well those are two very good points.” Povon smiled as she gave Kragorram a scratch on the
inside of his left arm. “I’ll admit that my maternal pride isn’t alwayspletely rational. Nor is
leadership my strength.
“I’m themander of all in Serminak, but I’m not their leader, and I very much prefer it that way.
Kragorram is the leader of Serminaki Draconia, and as Mark predicted, they give him their fervent
loyalty for the shining nobility of his character alone. And some of them give their loyalty to Mark
directly.
“Sylvan aren’t really capable of giving loyalty to any leader, so they don’t have any leaders, just
“If you want amander that can crack the whip and get things done, I’m a good choice. But if you
want a leader to inspire loyalty and greatness in his followers, Mark is unbeatable. And your Father is
deal as a leader.”
“Since I learn leadership from Mark, I am indeed improving at it.” Kragorram admitted with a proud
smile. “And you’re right about another thing, son. For there to be a close friendship, it helps if there’s a
feeling of equality. We have very close rtionships with small folk, but that’s only possible because
they’re so exceptional. I never once worried that I would identally move the wrong way and crush
Mark or Talia or Sran, since they’re more than capable of preventing themselves from being injured
that way, unlike most of the small folk.”
“It’s a humbling thought to be reminded that the dragons consider all the rest of us to be ‘the small
folk’.” Mark chuckled. “And it always seemed that your awareness of your own body’s position and of
everything else around you prevented those kinds of idents.”
“Generally yes, but the movements of small folk are quick and sudden, so there’s always a danger of
crushing one when they’re around.” Kragorram admitted as he scratched his chin. “Believe me, before I
was a thousand years old, I would never have allowed any humans to be within arm’s length of me, let
alone let their children climb on me like I did at Homestead. I’d have been too terrified of squashing
one. At least with elves you know they’ll probably live if you don’t break their heads.”
That got a goodugh from Mark.
“And now, thanks to our work with Hilsith, humans will be just as hard to kill as elves.” Fireughed.
“Friendly dragons everywhere will be a lot less nervous.”
“That work should apply just as well to dwarves, giants, gnomes, selkies, and some of the hidden
races.” Alilia pointed out with a smile. “Truly, it’s our most magnificent achievement.”
“So far.” Six nodded with a grin. “And I think giving magic use to every member of all those races
counts as much as making them hard to kill.”
“Sweet missing gods!” Sheramiv eximed. “If you’ve aplished all that, your names will be
praised forever!”
“It was mostly Hilsith and Yzell’s work, though we all helped with it.” Talia insisted. “But yes, they do
deserve to have their names praised forever for their achievement.”
“That one’s mostly Hilsith’s actually, I think.” Fire mused. “Yzell will get more credit if they solve the
fertility problem though; that one’s her special project.”
“True.” Talia nodded as she started sending empty dishes away. “And now that we’ve all finished lunch,
we might as well start work.”
“We already started.” Val giggled.
“The former members of The Anti-conspiracy Brigade report that most of them are presently avable.”
Sheramiv informed Povon. “They have rmendations for other investigators you may wish to recruit
as well, should their muster prove insufficient for the task.”
“Excellent.” Povon nodded as she turned to Somonik and Gran. “Could you have them report to my
Administration Center in Serminak in fifteen minutes?
“Meanwhile let’s all Link, and I’ll show you how I listen for rule breakers.”
They all closed their eyes in concentration, and silence fell among them.
Fifteen minutester all but the four youngsters Translocated to Serminak. There they liased with their
vast team of investigators, Linked with them, and went over all the reports of the incidents they wished
to investigate. An hourter thousands more psionicists and investigators had been recruited and
integrated into the effort, and an hour after that they had all been divided into teams with assigned
cases, and sent out to work in a two-pronged attack. Each team had both investigators and psionicists,
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all of whom were sworn to justice, and since they were dealing with registered yers and had no need
to deal with legal procedure beyond satisfying themselves as to the facts of the case and the identities
of the guilty, many of the cases were solved within minutes. Most of the convicted were remanded to
Serminak for suitable punishment.
The lead investigative team,posed of Povon and the others who had been at Hilia, along with
Zone Inspector Rayn from Belinhome Finitra and several of his subordinates, cast Trantion for Kleti
in preparation, then arrived in Kletiuk to deal with their first case. That being the case of Goodwife
Nepetin Gob, who had started the petition against The Game.