Chapter 189
Part 26
“Neither did any of The Forty-Four.” Six noted, with a proud grin and a quick fist-clench to the pack of
twelve-year-old siblings under hismand. “You showed some fine discipline there, brothers and
sisters.”
“Yah, at this rate we’ll make diplomats and academics of you yet!” Firemented with a quietugh.
“You’ll be able to withstand a veritable infinity of boring speeches!”
Meec, the smallest of The Forty-Four, appeared standing directly in front of Fire, and snapped an
exaggerated salute along with a click of her boot-heels before standing rigidly to attention. “Yes Sir
Commander Fire Princess Helemia Ma’am!” the tiny warlock yelled in a piping voice that sounded three
years old, saluted again with an even-more ostentatious motion, and disappeared back to her seat
amidst theughter of her toon-mates.
“And don’t you forget it!” Fire yelled back with a yful grin.
“You know, I’m almost entirely sure that she was being sarcastic that time.” Six stated with apletely
straight face, which drew another round ofughs.
“True, but as long as she’s disciplined and respectful, I’ll let it pass.” Fire returned.
“Besides, Meec is far too cute to get mad at anyway!” Val giggled.
“You take that back!” Meec yelled in mock-anger from her seat near the back of their section.
“I won’t and you can’t make me!” Valughed back.
“No?!” Meec demanded, appearing before the Governors again with her tiny fists on her hips. “Well
if you don’t, I’ll put a million copies of this all over Keran!” she stated as she cast a quick Illusion of a
formally executed and framed painting. It showed Val with one finger in her mouth and a bashful,
infantile expression on her face, her hair in dozens of braids each secured with a big pink bow of
ribbon, wearing a toddler’s-style fuzzy pink dress ented with dozens more big pink bows, sitting
cross-legged on a huge pile of fluffy pink stuffed animals. It was a parody of the cliché style of formal
portraits that many human parents had painted of their babies, and it was the most magnificently tacky
and tasteless overdose of cuteness that anyone there had ever seen.
“No! I give up, take it away!” Valughed as she turned her head and raised her hands in mock-horror.
“I take it back, you’re not cute at all!!”
“And don’t you forget it!” Meec triumphantly crowed, and went back to her seat as the Illusion
vanished.
As the chuckles continued, Talia mused; “You know, there are very few artists who could produce such
a detailed and original picture from their own imagination in such a short time. That was actually very
impressive.”
“Thank you Mother Talia!” Meec called from her seat.
“And she’s quite attentive!” Talia added with a smile as she stood.
“Use the privacies if you have to.” she advised the children. “I’ll be right back with some snacks and
drinks.”
“We’ll help you carry them Mother Talia!” several of The Forty-Four called out, so she took them with
her.
All too soon as far as Mark was concerned, the recess was over and the meeting resumed. As he
suspected would be the case, it was the gods rather than Somonik who appeared on the stage to
resume the proceedings. Falgaroth, Visinniria, Ne, and Amirgath waited a moment to be sure they
had everyone’s attention, then Falgaroth Spoke.
“Markhan Reginus Longstrider the Fifth, Prince of Hilia, Lord of Serminak, key to the imminent nexus of
Keran, Key to The Just Alliance, the time hase for you to take your ce among our pantheon.
“It will be the very first time that the timing of the Ascension of any god was known in advance, it will be
the first time that an Ascension can be directly witnessed by any other god or living mortal, and we ask
that all of the Keran-Triax Alliance be allowed to observe and to share in this miraculous process.
“Are you ready?” the big blue unicorn god concluded.
“I’m not and I am.” Mark responded with a grin as he stood at his seat.
“I see.” Falgarothmented with a snicker and a yful toss of his voluminous mane. “Would you
care to exin that?”
Mark cast Multiple Simultaneous Manifestations, and a copy of himself appeared on stage among the
gods.
“I’m not.” The copy that was still with his family stated as he resumed his seat.
“And I am.” the copy on stage grinned.
He paused, and his grin faded as his mood became more serious. The gods left the stage to him as he
spent a moment in gazing at all his friends and everyone in all the generations of his extended family,
and basking in theirplete confidence in him.
Then he spoke in a quieter tone. “All this time I’ve been afraid of bing a god, afraid of losing my
mortality, or so I thought. Really, I’ve been afraid of losing my individuality, afraid of losing my
personality and not being me anymore, and being someonepletely different.
“So as you can see, I’ve cast the Multiple Simultaneous Manifestations spell that was invented by The
Governors, and this one of me will try to be a god. Hopefully I won’t mess it up and kill myself in
front of absolutely everyone, or worse.
“If it works I’ll evaluate whether I’m still the same person in the fundamental ways that are important to
me. If I am, I may try to reintegrate with my still-mortal self over there, if it’s still even possible to do so.
“If it’s not, or if we decide that it’s not advisable for some other reason, we’ll remain two separate
individuals; one mortal and one god, and the god will take a new name and an appearance different
enough to prevent confusion as to who’s who. Our lives will separate to some extent, and we’d be
two different people.
“This will allow me to keep mymitment to the gods, while still keeping my present identity and
fulfilling my responsibilities as a parent. I have a lot of children right now, and for various reasons they
asked to be released from the time-bubble early, so they’re still dependent children to one extent or
another. They deserve my parenting for as long as they want it. But the gods have said that they’ve lost
the urge to have and raise children, and I can’t risk losing my ability to raise children while I still need it.
“Hence this somewhat unusual solution. If it all works, I’ll offer it to every one of my Candidates who
have the ability to cast the Multiple Simultaneous Manifestations spell while they’re still mortal. But not
all of them can do that. Most will have to choose between mortality and divinity.
“To be honest, while I recognize that bing a god will change my fundamental nature in some way,
I don’t want it to change my personality in any way, and I don’t want to have to be twopletely
separate people in order to fulfill my obligations. When I designed my Ascension process, I did my best
to make sure that I’ll still be me when it’s finished, and I hope that when I’m done I do find that I’m still
me, and that the mortal me and the god me can reintegrate back into one person.
“Right now we’re Linked at every level, and he’ll record the entire experience. He’ll share some of it
with all of you, but will probably share all of it with none of you. This is dangerous knowledge whether it
works or not, and who gets how much of it will be decided after. All of you will be able to see it, and to
experience it with every sense and passive scan you have. But only he will be Linked with me while it
happens, and I’ll make sure that none of the rest of you can Read me psionicly while it happens. These
are also safety precautions in case it all goes wrong somehow. I won’t be casting any Shielding around
me so as to not impede the observations of the researchers and gods among you, but I ask that both
pantheons be prepared to Shield me or Translocate me with the shortest possible notice, in case I
explode or something.”
He held his hand palm up and the Truthstone containing the God-Spell appeared in it with a blue sh.
He looked at it a moment, looked out at his family again for almost ten seconds, then shrugged and
said; “Okay; here it goes.”Original content from N?velDrama.Org.