Chapter 106
Part 17
“I cane up with a quick spell to convert their numbers to ours and back.” Six mused. “After we’ve
reviewed the officers’ report, we’ll know what mathematics we have to review or learn.”
“Agreed.” Kragorram nodded again.
There was silence for a moment, then Fire spoke.
“May I ask how you became a goddess?”
Ne chuckled. “Ah. You must understand that our race developed quite quickly for a naturally
developed animal, in what was a very isted ce. The world was very empty then, and most of it
was uninhabited by thinking beings. All of it was hunted by dragons, of course, but the hunting territory
of a dragon is often many hundreds or thousands of square kilometers, and they already knew how to
Translocate by then, so many didn’t have a den in the territory they hunted. Sond that was included
in such a territory was not always inhabited.
“So, we had almost forty thousand years of istion, and we learned that the secret to co-existing with
dragons was to make sure that there was always something easier for them to hunt than us. So we
made sure that there was always an abundance of undefended domesticated animals near us, and we
defended ourselves vigorously. Under those conditions, few dragons would bother with us.
“But eventually, they spoke of us to the unicorns, who eventually investigated us, then made contact.
Through The People of Morning, we learned of the other older intelligent races, and we learned that
those races all had gods. And we didn’t. What we wanted most of all was a god to protect us from the
dragons. They usually took our animals rather than us, but dragon attacks were still the recurring and
ongoing nightmare of our existence.
“We also learned of magic from the unicorns, but we werepletely incapable of learning or using
their magics. None-the-less, based on their example, within a few decades one of us stumbled upon
human magic powered by the heat of the stone rather than the light of the Source, as you say, and he
became the first mage. His name was Beenbi, and I was his student and protégé. I became the first
mage to extend my lifespan, but Beenbi died from sudden bleeding in the brain when he was only forty-
seven.
“It was then thought by the unicorns and the other races that their magic came from their gods, and
their gods were content to leave them with the facy. So when we discovered magic, we took it as
certain evidence that a god of humans had ascended from some other, unknown tribe of humans
elsewhere in the world. We rejoiced in knowing we were not alone, that there were others of us out
there somewhere, and that we had our own deity, but it was all a facy. He or she was known to us
then as the unknown god, and though we didn’t know who we were praying to, we prayed anyway.
“I became the wisewoman and priestess of my tribe, which by then numbered over thirty thousand and
had separated into sub-tribes, but we were still all in regr contact with each other. We supposed that
our deity was testing us, and that he or she would be revealed to us when we were judged worthy. So I
struggled mightily for more than two thousand years to increase my wisdom, my power, the prosperity
of my people, and the devoutness of my faith in my goddess, for I was secretly convinced that she was
female, though I had no evidence that it was so.
“There came a day when I was meditating in a ce that felt holy to me, I was holding all my power,
and striving for perfection. I had been meditating there without moving for twenty-three days. And it
just… happened. I knew that I had changed fundamentally, and been improved dramatically, though I
still didn’t realize what had happened to me. So I called out to my goddess in a great wordless shout of
joy and pleasure and fulfillment.
“I was answered by a goddess, but not the one I had expected. Instead there appeared before me
Minatif, Second Goddess of The People of Morning, a very pretty chestnut unicorn with an obvious
aura of divinity. She was there to trante for Glup of The Zurb, who had also appeared, and who
promptly dered me the first goddess of humans, and disappeared. Luckily for me, Minatif stayed and
exined the truth of things to me, and often helped me as I re-established myself over the next couple
of millennia.
“I wish I could exin the process of achieving divinity more exactly, but for me, it was an entirely
subconscious process that happened while I was trying to empty my mind of all thought.”
“Ah. Thank you.” Fire responded.
“You’re most wee, and Val, yes you can all have a hug.”
Valughed at her unspoken question being so easily perceived, then they shared the second
goddess’s embrace that day.
After hugging the three children, Ne shared embraces with their parents, then gave each of the
dragons a quick caress on whatever part of them was easiest to reach, with a warm smile. They all
enjoyed the experience with equal and profound pleasure. Then she was gone.
These was a moment of silence before Povon spoke.
“I’m calling Zwak Deathbringer.” she stated, and a momentter Zwak appeared.
“You’ve requested my attention, Lord Regent?” he asked with a sardonic half smile.
“Yes. I would rate your program for training the youth of the Sylvan between fourteen and twenty-four
years of age as effective but not outstanding at preparing them for life and for war. I would rank it as far
less than satisfactory when based on the trainees’ opinions of the experience.
“Would you agree with that assessment?”
“Yes.” Zwak nodded. “They’re being trained, they’re working within the system without causing
disruptions or dissention, and none of them have lost their minds from repeated beatings since we
instituted the program. In those respects I’ve fulfilled my responsibility to our Lord here, and improved
drastically on Zarkog’s system.
“It’s true that the youth don’t like it very much, but then, that’s nothing new. Throughout our history, our
N?velDrama.Org is the owner.
parents have simply thrown their children out when they became too dangerous, usually with no more
than they could carry, to face the dangers of Serminak on their own. Most of those newly-independent
youths killed each other, and many more were killed by dragons and adult Sylvan. The time of life that
our trainees are going through has always been difficult for Sylvan.
“Other than the loss of their independence, there’s no doubt that their quality of life and their life-
expectancy were drastically improved under Zarkog’s system, and improved again under mine. But
they still don’t like it much, so they’re right on the edge of insubordination all the time, which is why their
performance is less than that of the older Sylvan who’ve gained some focus and some pragmatism with
their maturity. Until they gain that maturity, their sense of justice is often somewhat self-centered and
skewed, which makes their vows to justice less effective.
“The system only works because we have only three trainees assigned to each supervisor in squads of
four, and the supervision is constant and close. We don’t have to beat them to keep them in line like
Zarkog did, simply because we watch them so closely that they can’t possibly get away with anything. If
they openly rebel they get solitary confinement with no food or water until they decide to rejoin the
program with a more co-operative attitude, which never takes very long.”
“How much of your military force ismitted to supervising youths at the present time?” Kragorram
inquired.
“More than a quarter.” Zwak reported with a shrug. “Thanks to Zarkog’s breeding program, there’s as
many youths as adults, and even more children than that.
“I’m certain you know all this, Lord Regent. Little has changed in our youth training program while you
were in the time-bubble.”
“True, but I wanted these others to hear it, including our Lord.” Povon responded. “Allow me to
introduce The Governors of Hiliani; who will be assuming responsibility for the Sylvan youth training
program under contract to our Lord…”
After formal introductions were made she continued. “They will first present a Revealing to the trainees
showing the benefits of their new systems, which they developed on Hiliani, and the trainees who wish
to join the new system can do so. We expect full voluntarypliance, based on their results on
Hiliani, and rapid expansion into the adult Sylvan poption shortly thereafter.