Chapter 9

“Allow me.” Povon said as she cast a sphere of light over the porch that lent a warm glow to the scene.

“Ahh, is it ever good to be home.” Mark grinned as he stretched, and Stripe and Scout made for their food and water supplies in the stable. “It feels like we were gone for a year! First thing is getting this armor off!”

“I could put it away for you, if you wish.” Povon giggled.

“Sure!” Mark laughed, and suddenly all of their armor and Kragorram’s sword disappeared, leaving him to fall an inch to his bare feet with a bit of a jolt. “Thanks!” he laughed as he scratched an itch on his chest. He realized he was clad in only his underwear, the tine band on his forehead, and his sheathed sword, but he found that he didn’t mind that. Talia was the only other humanoid there, and the other four habitually went about completely unclothed, as was the manner of their races. Besides, it was a beautiful summer night.

“I’ll get us something to eat.” Talia smiled as she kissed his cheek.

“Where will we get food? I don’t even know if there’s a market near here!” Mark laughed as they climbed the eight broad, semicircular stairs at the back doors of The Living Palace.

“There’s a market on the lakeshore, but it’s not open now. It is after midnight.” Talia giggled. “But we have plenty of food, and barrels of drink! The larder’s full, the pantry’s full, and the entire kitchen is piled high with it! I won’t have to cook for years!

“Here, you just sit down and enjoy. I’ll have it ready in a moment.” Talia smiled, and with a whistled trill, she summoned a small, high table and a chair sized for Mark, with a matching chair sized for her with legs long enough to match the height of the table. She arranged them to one side of the doors on the broad semicircular porch at the top of the back stairs.

Then she turned to her visitors. “Can I get you four anything?”

“No thank you.” Povon declined. “We stuffed ourselves with succulent tidbits last night, and we quite literally won’t need to eat for a month! Unless you could brew up a hogshead of rose hip tea?”

“I can do that!” Talia laughed. “The kitchen has facilities to cook for a thousand humans or elves! The biggest kettle is as high as my head!

“And Kragorram, we have a cask of nice high proof rum if you’d like it?”

“Thank you Talia, I would.”

“We’ll just partake of some of this absolutely succulent turf you have here!” Equemev enthused as she and Silaran began to graze on the lawn. “It grows fast enough to need a trim already, and it’s delicious stuff! My compliments to your horticulturist! We’ll wash it down with some of the cool spring water in the trough in the stable. I’m getting the impression from Stripe right now that it’s most refreshing!”

“That ale we had at the meeting was almost too good!” Silaran chuckled as he chewed. “I was starting to get tipsy from it!”

“I’m not surprised! You drank over five gallons of it!” Mark laughed.

“You don’t mind that we talk while we eat, do you?” Equemev inquired, without looking up from the grass she was cropping. “Our people generally do, due to our use of psionic Speaking for almost all of our communications.”

“Please, make yourselves at home!” Mark laughed. “Your ways certainly make you easy to host!”

Talia had plucked dishes, glasses and silverware out of the air and set the table for herself and Mark. Now she began producing covered crocks and kettles of various sizes. When she removed their lids the contents were steaming hot, and in two cases still settling from a boil.

“Wow! Where’d all this come from?” Mark asked.

“From the various feasts at our wedding last night. Many of the nations brought ridiculous amounts, just in case any significant portion of the three and a half million in attendance had decided to eat at their pavilions. There was enough food there last night to feed four times that many, and hundreds of crocks and kettles of freshly cooked food weren’t even opened. Not to mention wheels of cheese, racks of loaves of bread, bushels of fruit and salads, foodstuffs of every kind, and many of them were never touched. And while most of it was sealed and preserved and taken back by those who’d brought it, Mileemi of Thon made sure we got as much of it as we had room to store!”

“This really smells great! And you just have to re-heat it?”

“No, it’s preserved exactly as it was the moment it was sealed! If it was boiling then, it’ll still be boiling when you open it, even if it’s ten years later! It’s like an ongoing Restore spell!” Talia laughed as she sat and began serving herself. “Welcome to the world of modern convenience, my previously-rural love! Without such spells, I doubt even the nations of the elves could lay out such feasts as they presented yesterday on such short notice!

“For that matter, you really must take a moment soon to look at your own kitchen! It’s a wonder of mechanical and magical automation! And with the skills I have as a wizard to help me use it remotely, I don’t even need to be there to make Povon’s tea! A service cart will bring it out here in ... about sixteen minutes, Povon. Sorry for the wait, but those who designed my kitchen never imagined me needing to boil a hundred gallons of water on a few moment’s notice.”

“That’s fine. In the meantime, let me show you something, little sister.” Povon mused. “Mark, you might as well learn this as well, so Link with Talia as fully as you can. You’ve got it?”

Mark nodded, still eating without slowing, though Talia had stopped to concentrate on what the silver dragon was showing.

“Now Talia, gather as much of your power to you as you can hold. No no, don’t do anything with it yet! You start casting in subtle ways as soon as you’re holding it, out of habit alone! That’s right, just hold it, be at peace with it, be comfortable with it, let it really start to sink into the material of your body. That’s right.

“Now, you’re not that skilled at this yet, so you can’t hold more than a quarter of your power like this, though you have learned to let it all flow through you when you cast it with all your strength. Try to learn to hold a little tiny bit more of it all the time, as you get used to it.

“Now I’m going to have to Link with you rather closely to really show you anything interesting. You have to decide right here and now how much you’re going to trust me, because I’ll know you completely after that. Not with the detail that the Eldest or Somonik would get, of course, but still, I’ll know all your secrets.”

“We have to all trust each other with our lives, to be comrades in arms.” Mark said after a hurried swallow. “If I’m going to trust you with my life, I might as well trust you with my secrets.

“Of course, such trust must be returned. Will you show me all your secrets, Povon?” Mark chuckled, then continued without waiting for an answer.

“I’ve learned much of such techniques from the Link Talia and I have built. We started off Linked so thoroughly that for a moment we were one mind. The elven power reinforcing our wedding vows intervened, and limited how closely we can Link, so we wouldn’t accidentally harm each other. And we’re still pretty closely Linked. If I think about it, I can tap into Talia’s senses and sensations, feel what she’s feeling. If I concentrate hard on it, and she allows it, I can move her body as if it were my own. The spell of our vows keeps us out of each other’s memories, but I can be completely aware of every level and detail of her present thoughts, if I want to.

“And I really get this stuff right away. I mean, most of us kids used to think that Dob Jorman’s mill was magic, and some still did after they’d seen how it worked on the inside. But I got it right away, I could follow the force that started as the flow of the river through the mill wheel and into the main shaft, or from the wind to the windmill to the secondary shaft, how the movable belts and cogs directed the force to the grindstone or the saw blade or the bellows. I get this stuff just as easy.

“I remember exactly what the vow spell did to block Talia’s memories from me, and I’m starting to understand it. I realized later that I’d been doing the same thing when Silaran and others had Spoken to me psionicly. The Eldest swallowed my whole mind in a gulp when I gave him my language, but I picked up a few things from him when he was Speaking to us later, especially when he pointed out my own mental shields to me. That was the first time I was ever aware of them, and of what I was doing to hold them in place without even realizing it. But no one is like the Eldest. I even blocked Somonik from everything but my surface thoughts, and I’m blocking you right now, as you’ll notice if you test my psionic shields.”

“Remarkable!” Povon breathed. “Do you mind if I push on them a bit? I’m curious as to your strength with them.”

“All right, but do it slowly please.” Mark nodded.

Povon closed her eyes, and now Mark had to set down his fork and concentrate on what he was doing. After about ten seconds he shivered a bit, then clenched his jaws in determination, but a few moments after that he threw up a hand and cried; “Enough!”

“Most impressive.” Povon chuckled. “I could break them, but it would be a bit of work. I couldn’t do anything else while I was doing it.”

“That iz high praize, Mark!” Kragorram congratulated. “Only half my people could rezizt Povon’z probe for even a zecond!”

“Yes, he has better mental shields than half the dragons, unfortunately including you, my love.” Povon teased.

“Az the Eldezt pointed out.” Kragorram nodded.

“There might be a dozen non-Draconians with such strength that way.” Povon mused, then her expression changed to one of surprise. “On the other hand, he is holding no power!”

“What’s that got to do with it?” Mark asked.

“When you hold your power, that is to say, when you gather as much power from the magic field around you and from your personal reserves as you can hold without using it, it makes your nerves work a little bit better, and a little bit faster. To a lesser extent, it makes every part of your body work a bit better, but the increase in nerve function is compounding, particularly in the brain. Holding your power increases the quickness of your physical and mental responses and reflexes, thoughts come faster and clearer, and your total awareness increases. You can hold more complex processes in mind, and cast the power more quickly and more effectively, but the best part is the effect it has on your psionics. All forms of telepathy, mental shielding, and psionic attack improve dramatically.

“And just as your nerves improve with normal use, becoming better conductors of the lightning, so they become better conductors of magic power with repetition. Your arms learn to swing a sword better with repetition, your mind learns to remember a symphony better with repeated listening. In the same way, if you can learn to hold all of your power to you, and become so used to doing so that you do it at all times without even thinking about it, even when you’re sleeping, then it will truly become part of your mind and body. When it truly becomes part of you, and not just a tool that you pick up and put down, it adds to your mental shields and other psionics, your thinking, even your physical speed, strength, and co-ordination, tapping your power to augment those functions without consciously casting spells to do so.

“Becoming one with your power in this way is one of the essential differences between mages and wizards.

“Now Talia has been holding a significant portion of her power without casting any of it, for the first time in her life, and she’s been doing so for a few minutes continuously. Notice the difference in her already.”

“This is really great!” Talia enthused, smiling with her eyes closed.

“I see!” Mark nodded, his eyes also closed so he could concentrate on what Talia was feeling.

“Most wizards of your peoples can’t do this, they lack the mental capacity; the breadth of concentration. Human wizards particularly can often cast a powerful spell, as long as it’s a fairly simple one, but they usually lack the mental capacity for more complex work, nor can they maintain two or three different spells simultaneously. The more you use your power, the stronger and more sure it becomes. But the mental capacity to deal with complexity is more innate, and is difficult to increase without millennia of intense work. This is true of both conscious retention of complexity, of which Yazadril is such a master, and more instinctive and subconscious awareness of complexity, such as we Draconians employ.”

“Anyway, you can shield your mind well, so I can show you things without learning your secrets or knowing you too deeply, if you wish. But you should know that Talia holds almost no shielding against me. She welcomes me into her mind, and so I already know the most important of your secrets; your transparency to wizardry, the tine band, the magnitude of the third power.”

“And have you returned her trust, Povon?” Mark gently asked. “Have you lowered your shields to Talia, welcomed her into your mind with equal openness, with equal trust to that which she has shown you?”

He waited a moment while she registered surprise at the question, then he looked to the rest of them.

“Silaran, you have also mentioned how open Talia is to you. Do you show her the same openness and trust?

“Equemev? I imagine you have been allowed into Talia’s mind with equal openness, have you returned it?

“I judge from your sheepish silences that you have not.

“You must do so now. You are all three bound to justice. Now that you realize that you have taken advantage of Talia’s trusting nature and weak shielding, you must return what you have been given.”

“It iz likely that I would have taken zimilar unthinking advantage, if I had the ability to do so.” Kragorram admitted. “But I do not, and zo my communication iz no deeper than Zpeaking.”

“Ahh! Just a moment, you’re confusing me!” Talia yelped. “That’s too much to take in at once while holding the power at the same time! One at a time, please! Silaran, no offense, but I think you’ll be easier than the Ladies, so you first, then Equemev, then Povon.”

“Hold a bit less of the power when you need to free some of your attention span, until you become more accustomed to holding it to you.” Povon advised, sounding very emotional.

“Oh Silaran, you are beautiful!” Talia shivered, her eyes closed. “Hold up a bit, you’re overcompensating! That’s far more than I ever let you in, and frankly, those things you should keep private. There. That’s about as much as I gave you. I’ll withdraw. And thank you, thank you so very much.

“Now you, Equemev. Oooooh! You’re so ... So delightfully you! Thank you! It’s truly heavenly to know you!

“Povon?”

“I’ll need a moment.” Povon murmured hesitantly. “You’ll learn something if you pay attention to this. You all can, so you should all pay attention, especially you four since this is your assignment for the Eldest anyway. You know you develop layers of shields, to protect layers of your mind. But watch this.”

She brought them all into Linkage with her, deep enough to feel what she was doing.

“Wow! How many of them are there?” Mark breathed a moment later. “You’ve lowered, what, seven separate layers of psionic shields so far? And I see that they’re all a bit unique in some way.”

“I keep sixteen layers of shields around even my surface thoughts. To reach even the most superficial parts of my mind, an enemy must breach them all, one by one. Then like most people with good psionic shields, I have a separate shield around my general memory and one around my knowledge, a deeper shield around my private thoughts, and another around my deepest emotions. But as only a battle sorcerer has, I reserve my hardest shields for the critical parts of my brain functions; my pain and pleasure processes, and my automatic functions like breathing and heartbeat and so on. I keep a total of forty-one layers of shields around every part of my mind whose protection from psionic attack is crucial in battle. The hardest five layers contain traps; previously cast and charged psionic counter-attack spells, the nastiest ones I could devise or learn from others.

“Now, I remove the last surface shield, and you are in my surface thoughts, and each of our Links is secured in two directions. I am Linked to you, and now that you are behind my surface shields, you are Linked to me. You see how that was done? I’ll do it in reverse. I raise a shield. Then, see, I shift the frequency of the note or color I’m thinking of a little, and raise another shield over the first.”

Her companions nodded agreement without speaking; concentrating with fascination on what she was showing.

“It takes practice to raise as many as I do and be able to maintain them without thinking about it.

“I ... I don’t suppose I can procrastinate this anymore. This will be hard for me. I’ve only lowered my shields to two people since my first century, and I’d have never done it for the Eldest, except I was so afraid that even if I didn’t he’d just brush my shields aside and Read me like a page anyway. Having your shields torn away is a decidedly unpleasant experience.

“Mark, I’m now glad that I’ve never been privy to more than your surface thoughts. Because I haven’t, I don’t have to lower my shields to you to satisfy my vow of justice.”

“I feel the same way, Povon.” Mark said as he withdrew from the Link completely and continued his meal. “Except for Talia, I don’t really want to be in anyone else’s mind any more than I want them in my own, beyond what we need to do for our training and work as a strike force.”

“Thank you.” Povon nodded. “You four, I’ve Read you fairly deeply. It’s only fair that I show you as much of me as I’ve seen of you. Please ... Don’t judge me too harshly.”

She had been lounging on her belly, her chin in her hands and resting on her elbows, partly curled around Kragorram who sat up like a dog. Now she lay down fully, and Kragorram cuddled her lovingly. The two unicorns came over and nuzzled her muzzle with gentle affection, and Talia’s face clouded until she was almost crying.

Then the tiny elf Translocated over to the silver dragon beside Equemev, threw her arms wide, and hugged the tip of Povon’s nose. Povon ever-so-carefully stroked Talia’s back in return with an index finger.

“Forgiveness is a wonderful thing, Povon.” Equemev told her. “And self-forgiveness is the most important kind. You’re still torturing yourself for things you were driven to do, that happened so long ago that they’re ancient history to all of the rest of us, even Kragorram. Let it all go, Povon. You’re a good person, and you have a completely new life now.”

Kragorram murmured something to her as well, too low in both volume and pitch for Mark to make out.

Povon moaned, a very low sound, and her eyes clenched as her breathing became jerky.

Mark realized that the dragon was weeping, a thought that touched off strange emotions in him as he politely ignored the scene.

A few minutes later Povon calmed, then chuckled. “You are beautiful, and I thank you. The tea is ready.” she quietly announced.

“Oh! So it is!” Talia noticed as she directed her attention to her kitchen.

“And your dinner is getting cold.” Povon added. “And by the way, did you notice how effortless your Translocate was, while holding your power?”

“It was easy! I never even thought about it, really!”

“That is one of the advantages of the old ways. You are a wizard, and if you can keep the two sets of methods discrete in your mind, you will always be one. But now you are also becoming a mage. You can do more things with wizardry, and do them with less talent and intelligence. But the things that can be done with magecraft can be done better that way.”

Talia had turned to face the doors, and now one opened to allow the passage of a cart with a wooden hogshead full of almost-boiling tea, then a smaller cart with the cask of rum.

“Ahh, that will be good rum!” Kragorram commented. “From the Ztone Islandz, I can zmell the rezidue of their mollazez from here!”

The two unicorns returned to their grazing as the two dragons retrieved their drinks from the carts, then re-arranged themselves on the lawn.

“By the way, it was a courteous touch to serve the tea in the wooden barrel, but you could have left it in the kettle.” Povon said as she blew a small fireball into her hand and snuffed it by closing her fist. “I would not have burned myself on it, you see.”

“I didn’t think you would, but I thought the tea would stay hot longer in the hogshead.” Talia smiled as she lightly ran up the stairs to Mark with a grin.

She gave him a quick kiss on the cheek, resumed her place at her meal, then quickly cast upon it to heat it back up to the proper temperature. This made her smile in chagrin. “Of course, now that I think about it, I’m sure you can always heat your own tea, Povon.”

“Of course. And thank you, this is very good.”

“You said something I’d like to ask you about, Povon.” Mark said as he sat back, having finished eating, and idly swirled a mug half full of hot cider. “Something about how our bodies run by lightning?”

“Actually, the non-magical aspects of our bodies work by a kind of very slow fire, thus we need to fuel ourselves, we give off heat, we breathe in fresh air, and breathe out stale air, just as fire does. But our nerves and brains send messages to each other with tiny sparks of lightning. The energy field they create in and around our bodies is what we use to shape the power of magic. Talia could explain this more exactly, due to her theoretical training, but that’s the gist of it.

“You have cast with Talia’s power?” she asked in a sudden change of subject.

“My first and only real spell so far. I cast a small Flame, just enough to light a candle.”

“How long did it take you to learn to do that?”

“It was almost instant, actually. We were Linked, and she just showed me how to do it. I got it right away.”

“And do you realize how remarkable that is, that you grasped your first spell so quickly?”

“I did kind of get that impression, yes.” Mark smiled.

“As I noted at the time, his mind is most remarkable.” Talia commented between bites. “I think he could absorb spells as fast as I can show them to him. I was going to show him a lot more, but then we got distracted from that when we awakened his power and killed ourselves. Here; here’s how it went.”

With that she reactivated her Link with the other four and showed them her memory of the event, then went back to finishing her meal.

“Incredible!” Povon smiled. “And do you realize that you are both still Linked, though I can tell that you are no longer wearing the tine band?”

“Hey! That’s right! I never thought about it! But Talia couldn’t Link with me before until I wore the band!”

“Just so. You must be maintaining the Link with your own power. Yazadril and the other theoreticians will be interested to know this, for it helps prove the conjecture that all psionics are fundamentally the same, whether powered by the light of the source or the heat of the stone, or even your third power.

“I’m really curious now. Mark, I’d very much like you to wear the tine band, and allow me a teaching Link with you and Talia. Deeper than a Speaking, but not as deep as your Link with her, while allowing me to share spells with you, and monitor your efforts at casting.”

“I think I can do that. I have to lower my next shield below the spoken word, so to speak. Um, I’m having a bit of trouble with it, actually.”

“Since you hold your shields instinctively, like a mage.” Povon nodded. “Here, I’ll show Talia how to do it. Now she can show you.”

“Ah, thank you both. To me, that’s like Speaking with concepts, and with your sense of magic, I’d suppose you’d say. I see what you mean about the shields now too.” Mark nodded.

“There, you have it. Just to keep things clear, I’ll keep my commentary audible, and show you techniques through the Link. I’ll monitor you through the Link as well.

“Now Talia, share some of your power with him. Mark, just hold it, as she’s doing. Excellent. Talia, slowly give him more, until he becomes uncomfortable with it.”

“That’s ... That’s just incredible!” Mark smiled joyously, his eyes closed as he enjoyed the sensation.

Half a minute later, he noticed the sensation wasn’t increasing anymore.

“This is going to be a most interesting session.” Povon stated thoughtfully.

“How much am I holding?” Mark asked.

“Uh, all of it. Everything I can gather!” Talia revealed with growing excitement. “And we’re almost in the center of First Valley! I’m stronger here than almost anywhere else! And you’re holding it all! Effortlessly!”

“It’s great! It feels wonderful!”

“Talia, if you’re finished eating, would you show him the second spell that is taught to students of elven wizardry?” Povon asked.

“Actually, he hasn’t learned the first yet, which is Movement.” Talia said as she slid her plate back and wiped her lips with a napkin. She floated over the table and settled in Mark’s lap. “We tried it first when we were trying to awaken his power, then Father began working through some of the basic categories, and we were at Flame when I linked with him, and you know how that went.

“Here love; basic Movement.”

“I see!” Mark nodded and grinned as he held his eyes closed in concentration.

“Remarkable.” Povon nodded. “Give him the next one. See how fast he can take them. Mark, call a halt if it becomes uncomfortable.”

“All right. Here’s multiple Movement in unison. Here’s independent multiple Movement. Here’s self Movement. Here’s Levitate. Here’s Flight, the combination of self Movement and Levitation. Just a moment. It’s wearing on me, just passing so much to you!”

“I start to empathize with Yazadril.” Povon stated in amazement. “You are a frightening being, Mark Longstrider.”

“Uh, how so this time?”

“Generally, only when two wizards are very experienced, powerful, intelligent, and talented, and have worked closely for centuries, is it possible to learn spells by such direct transfer of knowledge. You have learned in a few seconds what should have taken decades. I think you do have it, but test them now to make sure.”

Mark opened his eyes and Levitated himself off his chair, still gently holding Talia in his lap, and began slowly flying around the table, then raised his fork and his spoon by Movement, and set them to dancing with each other in mid-air.

“Sweet source above!” Talia softly breathed. “Can you add another fork?”

Mark added her fork to the dance, then her knife, then a serving spoon, then the saltcellar, then the pepper mill. “That’s about all I can whoop!” he said as his fork started to fall, and he halted the dance to catch it. “Just about overdid it there for a second.” he muttered as he replaced the utensils in their places and drifted back to his chair.

He took a deep breath, then suddenly jumped up with a grin, and began dancing Talia around the landing with great bouncing strides. “I did it! Did You see that?!! Was that ever great! I can do magic!”

“I’d never have believed it if I hadn’t seen it with my own eyes.” Povon stated.

“To think! He did that while casting Talia’s power!” Equemev marveled. “Generally, that would almost double the degree of difficulty! Eight independent spells, one of second level, plus the Link! I couldn’t hold that many spells at once, even casting them with my own power!”

“On hiz zecond cazting! Firzt, he lit a candle, and then that!” Kragorram enthused, almost bouncing in his excitement.

“Quite. Talia, take back as much of your power as you can hold.” Povon directed. “You need to marinate in it more than he does. You might as well let him hold the rest, since he barely notices it anyway.”

“May I give him one?” Kragorram eagerly asked.

“One step at a time, my love.” Povon cautioned. “We are truly breaking new ground here.

“Mark, see if you and Silaran can open a teaching Link with each other.”

“He has it already!” Silaran whooped.

“Calm yourself a bit, Silaran. Now, give him the Source-powered sorcerers’ version of basic Movement, as practiced by your people.”

“I have it!” Mark crowed. Then he sobered and concentrated for a moment. “Huh. I’m definitely no sorcerer, any more than I am a wizard, really. I have the spell, but I can’t cast it as he does. I just don’t have any of the kind of power Silaran has. Just like I don’t have any of what Talia has, and I couldn’t cast those wizard’s spells if I wasn’t just guiding her power to do it.

“It’s amazing that the two versions of Movement do almost exactly the same thing, yet they work completely differently! But now that I think about it, the difference is only one of mindset and technique, and not in the different nature of their power sources. Look.”