Chapter 156
Part 23
“Listen.” Talia said as she went to one knee before her children and put her hands on Fire and Six’s
shoulders. “Just before the time-bubble is cast, we’ll cast our copies on Hilia. And I know that we’ll be
with you while the time-bubble runs. But the us that’ll be in the time-bubble won’t be able to see you for
years, and I know that’s going to be really hard on us. Only the knowledge that it’ll only be a short time
for you and that we’ll regain the memories of that time after the bubble ends gives me the courage to
do this.
“So give me a big hug, and I’ll take a really good Reading of you to remember while I’m away from
you.”
She hugged them with desperate affection while she Read them, and Mark and Alilia did the same, and
they continued until all three of them had hugged and Read all four children and Povon and Kragorram
as well.
“We’ll miss you. And you won’t miss us.” Aliliaughed with a tear in her eye as she hugged and Read
Povon.
“True, but I’m sure you won’t miss us much, what with all the little ones keeping you busy.” Povon
teased as she released Alilia.
As those who would stay and those who would leave separated into two groups Mark asked Visinniria;
“Let us know when there’s five seconds to go?” and she nodded.
When she gave that warning, Mark, Talia, and Alilia cast the Multiple Simultaneous Manifestations spell
to create their copies on Hilia, and called; “It worked, we’re on Hilia, we love you, take care!”
Amirgath Translocated everyone who was leaving to their preferred destinations just a fraction of a
second before the bubble was cast.
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PART 24
“That was different.” Valmented, even as she and her siblings rushed to their parents on the patio
of their cottage on Hilia and hugged them. “When Amirgath jumped us here, there was no perceptible
time of transition, and no quick sh of cold. We were just suddenly here.”
“Yah, but that’s not as weird as hugging our parents while feeling like we just left them for a long time.”
Firemented with a tear in her eye.
“You’re sure right Mother.” Six told her. “The exceptional really have unique problems. I’m sure no one
ever felt quite like this before.”
They all had to chuckle a little at that.
“Does it bother you, knowing that you’re a copy?” Kragorram asked Mark.
“I don’t think of it that way.” Mark shrugged. “I know this body is a copy, but it doesn’t bother me
because there’s only one me, one mind with one soul. I just have two bodies right now, and I don’t
know what I’m doing in my other body because we’re separated by the time-bubble.
“Most of the time when you use the Manifestations spell you’ll be able to know what you’re doing in
your other body any time you wanted, which would reduce the tendency to think of it as two separate
selves. This is just a unique circumstance, and I don’t feel any less me than I ever have, even knowing
this body is the copy.”
“I feel exactly the same.” Talia said, as she and Alilia nodded.
“You know something?” Six quietly asked. “You’re right. We can take care of ourselves, but we’re still
only seven. We should have just gone back in the time-bubble with you, it wouldn’t have been that bad,
and it would have saved you a lot of trouble. But we really don’t have the discipline yet to make that
kind of a self-sacrifice. Now that I’ve be psionicly aware of the full world around me, I’d risk my life
in battle before I’d go into istion like that again.
“If we really were capable of acting as adults, we would have insisted that you just go in the time-
bubble without us. It would only have been six weeks without you. Lots of children go on vacations that
long without their parents, to visit their grandparents or whatever, and they deal with it. We’d have had
Povon and Kragorram and Sheramiv and all The Atoned and lots of people to keep uspany, and
we have lots to do. Real adults could do it easy.
“But I couldn’t even bring myself to suggest it. The thought of spending six weeks without you was
simply unbearable.”
“I’m d.” Mark chuckled as he hugged the boy. “I’m d you’re not done with being our children that
way, because we’re sure not done with being your parents that way. As wonderful as it’s been, I still
want the full eighteen years of raising you. I’d want the fulfillment of it, even if you didn’t need it.”
“Eighteen?!” Alilia eximed with mock-rm. “I’d feel cheated with only eighteen years! I don’t care
how fast you develop, I’m still an elf, and I need the full thirty-two years of raising my children that every
elven parent deserves!”
“Yes Mother!” Val, Fire, and Six all dutifully responded, then giggled together.
“I imagine you’ll need the full eighty years of raising me that all dragon parents deserve?” Karz asked
his parents with a grin.
“We’re not sure.” Povon told him with a smile and an affectionate grip on his shoulder. “Ask us again
when you’re seventy-nine.”
Everyoneughed at that a bit before there was a moment of silence, then Fire dered; “In the
meantime, I think we should go over the ns for the big joint exercise with The Triax. I mean for our
militaries to be as proficient as any force in it, and I’m sure you all feel the same. We should make sure
we have the npletely memorized and that we’repletely prepared for it, then make sure that
the rest of our forces can say the same, starting with the generals and ending with the privates and
support corps.
“I agree.” Mark stated enthusiastically as he retrieved the n’s charts and Revealings that they’d been
given. “We have less than a week, and I’m sure we’ll find a use for every minute of it.
“Sheramiv?”
She appeared and immediately asked; “Yes, my Prince?”
“Please prepare a status report on the Hilian military’s state of readiness to participate in the Triax Joint
Exercise.”
“Yes, My Prince. I’ll consult with ourmanders and have it for you in about eight minutes.”
He nodded as she disappeared. “Povon, Kragorram, Fire, Alilia, please obtain status reports on your
people’s readiness for the exercise. Then we’ll work on improving it by having a full-scale exercise of
our own, or maybe more than one. We have a week to get ready, after all.”
They simply nodded as they contacted subordinates, and Mark spread the first chart on the paving and
held the corners down with Force.
“Now, like the gods have been doing with their training exercises, this one will be held in the void on the
opposite side of the sun from where the demons are, to hide what we’re doing from them. Every nation
will deploy one quarter of their forces…”
“You guys go ahead with that.” Val said as she closed her eyes in concentration. “I’m going to work on
automating Hilsith’s Transformation spell and Yzell’s fertility spell. They’re wasting too much time
casting them on everyone. And I think I can add another level of automation to the ship-building in
Serminak.”
“I’ll help you with that, then you can help me review the war preparations of The People of Life.” Alilia
suggested.
“Sure.” Val smiled.
And they all settled down to work.
In two days they held a training exercise on the moon Deh and in the void close to it, involving all the
forces of Hilia, The People of Life, and the Sylvan and dragons of Serminak. Mark had overall
Kragorram who led their dragons, and their children who led the Sylvan.
The enemy were some six billion simted greater and lesser demons and a few dozen DemonLords,
all run by four gods and seventeen mortal senior strategists andmanders.
The exercise was held on the side of the moon opposite the distant but quickly approaching demons, to
hide it from their detection.
In the exercise’s scenario the enemy was already well dug into the surface of the moon by the time
they were discovered, and had excavated an extensive maze of deep bunkers, tunnels, and surface
attack ports. The goals of the exercise were to re-capture the moon and exterminate the enemy, with
the exception of ten to twenty-five prisoners who were to be captured for the purpose of interrogation,
all within six hours.