Chapter 188
Part 26
“I should’ve known.” Fire chuckled, and considered the herd of young unicorns who were joyously
running past. “Come on, let’s go fly with Fran and his friends! No flying higher than a unicorn’s head,
and if you get stuck by a horn you’re a loser!”
The Governors with Karz in elf-guise and all of The Forty-Four were soon ying a very fast and wide-
ranging game of tag with the young unicorns, and their Flying needed to be skillful indeed to match the
supernatural running abilities of their new equine friends.
They were having so much fun that the adults all joined them a few minutester, and they all yed
for almost three hours.
They paused for a meal as the sun set, and when they were all finished eating Alilia invited everyone to
her invitation, so she had to limit their flight to one of the most sparsely-popted areas of her nation,
well away from the congestion of Heartwood and the other cities. The forest she chose was just as
beautiful as Heartwood, and the trunks and branches of the gigantic trees there were just as amusing
as an obstacle course. A few of the younger unicorn colts needed their parents’ help with their Flight
spells, but they were soon gaily galloping on invisible ground high up in the branches with all the rest,
as unicorns do when in flight.
Alilia’s precautions to prevent congestion were partially thwarted, for as soon as word spread that there
were unicorns flying with their Princess’s family in their northern forests, a great many of the forest
elves of The People of Life joined them.
When there were so many flying madly about that it was looking increasingly dangerous, Alilia cast an
automated self-replicating spell that gave every flyer there the deep and soft Shielding that they’d used
thest time they flew together, but remained dormant until it detected an imminent collision.
“Hah!” Aliliaughed as she confirmed that theplex spell was working as intended. “I’ve learned a
few things from our children, that’s certain. I’ll call that Alilia’s Safety Shielding.”
“You’re it!” Fire crowed as she flew past and gave Alilia a sharp p on her rump, and the chase was
on again.
Later on, on a whim, Kragorram and Povon followed Karz’ example and assumed humanoid
Simcrums for the first time. Kragorram appeared as an elf as tall as Mark, with long and flowing
crimson-red hair and a goatee. Povon appeared as an elf two meters tall with silver hair and blue eyes,
with facial features that looked a lot like Alilia’s.
Mark, Talia, and Alilia, amused by the transformation in their dragon friends’ appearances, reciprocated
by assuming Simcrums of dragons for the first time. They each took the color of their hair; Mark was
ck, Alilia was silvery-white, and Talia was light blond. They kept their normal sizes though, so as to
not further congest the airspace.
There wasn’t a single flyer enjoying the air there that failed to sleep the satisfying sleep of the happily
exhausted when next they retired.
The next day they all returned to training. The Governors delegated all of their activities and duties in
Serminak, and concentrated exclusively on training The Forty-Four. Three dayster they moved to
family training that included all forty-nine children including Karz and Fran, and all ny-one of their
parents.
For a week after the opening of the time-bubbles, there were norge-scale exercises held. The many
advances and breakthroughs discovered by researchers in the time-bubbles were examined by all the
others, and the effort to integrate all of the new knowledge was begun.
On the seventh day after the time-bubbles opened a meeting of The Assembly of The Just Alliance was
held. It had been officially announced the day before.
When Mark and his entire immediate family arrived at The Hall, they found that it was bigger than it had
ever been, and was already half full. With his wives, co-husbands, and children, and their beloved
dragons and unicorns and their children, they numbered one hundred and forty. A ce had been
reserved for them right beside the low central stage,plete with ornate chairs and small side tables.
“You’ll notice that every one of Keran’s gods are personally in attendance,” Alilia quietly noted, “As
well as a sizable contingent of The Triax’ gods.”
“Yah, well, we know what this is all about, don’t we?” Mark mused. “So their attendance isn’t all that
surprising.”
“Are you ready, my love?” Talia asked him with a look of quiet concern.
“Surprisingly, I am.” Mark nodded with a warm smile. “Are you?”
“I am. I lead where you follow.” she confidently assured him.
“As do I.” Alilia added as she caressed his shoulder.
He picked them both up and ced them in hisp and hugged them, disregarding decorum.
As the gigantic room slowly filled, the rest of their extended family arrived, including Caria and all their
kin from Hiliani. Those hadn’t been seated so close to the center, but they made their way over and
exchanged warm and loving greetings.
The parents and siblings of Equemev, Sran, Povon, and Kragorram all came by to do the same.
None of them except Tithian had ever met any of Mark’s family before, so there were many
introductions to be made.
The rulers they knew or were acquainted with came by, sometimes by themselves, sometimes in
groups, sometimes with a few of their staff. All gave warm and very respectful greetings.
Finally the room was almostpletely full, including the window holding back the aquatic section, and
everyone quietly took their ces in anticipation of the meeting soon being called to order.
“This is strange.” Mark quietlymented. “It’s almost like I’m at my own funeral or something.”
“Everyone here knows that they probably just had theirst chance to speak to us as mortals.” Alilia
nodded. “It’s a strange situation, all right.”
“Maybe it wasn’t.” Mark said with a sly little smile. “Theirst chance to speak to us as mortals, that is.”
“How do you mean?” Povon asked.
“You’ll see soon.” Mark smiled as Somonik appeared on the stage, standing over the Truthstone of
Falgaroth.
“Let it be known; the time-bubbles are ended, and all is well on Keran!” the ancient white dragon
pronounced, and the huge assemge gave him a good-natured cheer in response.
“Those in the time-bubbles produced and raised almost a million more children than they would have in
real time, and they produced many new works of creativity and brilliance.” he continued.
“The application of Hilsith’s Transformation to the rest of the less-magical races, including its use by the
Kwetkerthok, has already been announced by Hilsith and her team. Though the gargoyles were already
a highly magical race with several innate magical abilities, they were unable to use spells of any sort
and were still vulnerable to aging. No more.
“Further exciting discoveries were made in every time-bubble that was cast.
“To present the discoveries made in the Seblik time-bubble in Kletiuk, I am proud to introduce Master
Spell-Monger Benchakup…”
For more than two hours the researchers of the time-bubbles presented brief summaries of their
discoveries, then Somonik called for a twenty-minute recess.
“There were a lot on interesting things in all of that, but nothing that’s really decisive right now.” Fire
mused privately to her family. “The findings in basic research will eventually bring big changes and new
techniques, but most of them won’t produce any practical applications for years yet. And the new
practical applications they came up with give us many new techniques for doing things we already
N?velDrama.Org holds this content.
knew how to do, basically, but I don’t think any of it really gives us any major new advantages over the
demons.”
“The time-bubbles were a gamble for Keran that cost us little and paid off handsomely.” Kragorram
opined. “Each of those things they just announced may not be much on their own, but they add up to a
great deal. When you add in the discoveries that were made by ourselves and others in the Hiliani
bubble, it was a decisive and profitable stratagem indeed.
“Not to mention that almost all of the extra children who were raised to adulthood in the bubbles were
born to parents who were among the most outstanding members of their races, and so they give us a
greater advantage than their numbers alone might suggest. You and your siblings are prime examples
of that.”
“True.” Val privately giggled. “But I can still think of several more amusing uses for thest two hours of
my life.”
“You showed admirable patience, my young love.” Alilia told her with a smile. “You didn’t even
fidget.”