Chapter 10

They were awakened late the next morning by a Speaking from Nemia. “Good morning! Rise and shine, sleepy head! Oh! Make that sleepy heads! I didn’t think I’d be able to contact you with a Speaking, Mark!”

“My psionics are fully awakened now, even if I’m not.” Mark playfully grumbled as he cracked his eyelids, then shaded his eyes against the sunlight streaming in the windows. “Weren’t those closed last night?” he asked Talia.

“I was hot in the night, and opened them.” she told him. “Good morning Mother.”

“Would you care to join us for brunch?” Nemia asked.

“Sure, and thanks.” Mark replied. “We’ll see you in half an hour.”

“We’ll be on the balcony.” Nemia said, and ended the Speaking.

Mark rolled over to Talia, took her in his arms, and smiled into her eyes from a distance of half a foot. “I love you.” he told her with deep sincerity.

“As I love you.” she replied.

They shared a long, deep kiss, and then she giggled. “You know, we can spare twenty minutes, and still be there in half an hour.” she told him.

“That’s what I thought.”

As it turned out, it was almost forty minutes later when Talia Translocated them to her parents’ central room.

“Good morning!” Mark called as he removed the tine band and slid it onto his bicep.

“Good morning to you!” Yazadril returned as they emerged onto the balcony, to find him seated with Nemia, Hilsith, and to their surprise, Tithian, who reclined on the floor next to the table and munched on a huge bowl of greens and sprouts.

“Why good morning Tithian!” Talia smiled with a respectful bow. “I didn’t expect to find you here!”

“I’ve been filling Yazadril in on the theoretical information we have that you elves have lacked. And enjoying a delicious supper, I might add, for it’s late evening in Xerv right now.” Tithian told them.

“Well it’s a pleasure seeing you again.” Mark smiled as he sat, then picked Talia up and set her in his lap. She began filling their dishes.

“And I you. I sense a great difference in you this morning.”

“Oh. Well, almost without even realizing it, I’ve learned to do Speakings and maintain various kinds of mental Links with my own power. Also, after the meeting last night, we had quite a learning session with our companions and Ria, the spirit of Talia’s sword.

“Here, if you’ll all allow me to open a short Link with you, I’ll show you how it went.”

Without waiting for an assent, he opened the four Links simultaneously and passed his surface memory of the event to Tithian and the three elves.

Nemia gasped, Hilsith dropped her spoon, and Yazadril exclaimed; “Great Source above!”

“That would explain the difference in you, all right.” Tithian chuckled. “I can’t help but agree with Ria’s assessment of the arts, as I’m primarily a magician myself. For those who are fully capable of using them, the old ways are best. For most humans with the talent to use the power, wizardry is a much more productive study, but for you, magecraft is the obvious choice. I was a bit disappointed with my daughter when she chose sorcery over magicianship. Of course she doesn’t know that, and that minor disappointment in no way diminishes my great pride and love for Equemev. It’s only my own pride in my art anyway, since her qualities make either choice about equally appropriate for her. And there are more instructors available for her in sorcery.”

“Of course, I can’t help but disagree.” Yazadril chuckled. “It’s true that it takes more practice to have the same degree of control over your spells with wizardry than with magecraft. But the lesser effort required to initiate wizard’s spells can be important, and so can the ability to cast without having to achieve a specific emotional position. Most importantly, you can simply do a great many more things with wizardry. Over a third of wizard’s spells have no counterpart in magecraft at all, and the disparity increases daily. I can’t but think that overall, wizardry and sorcery are superior to magecraft and magicianship. Though as you say, Tithian, the choice depends on each individual’s qualities, and much of my surety in my opinion must be due to my own pride in my art.”

“I don’t plan on making the choice, myself.” Mark said between bites. “I managed to pick up all of Ria’s magecraft spells in about ten minutes, so I don’t see why I can’t do the same with the other arts of power. I don’t plan on learning the rest quite as fast as that, as it was extremely intense, but I think I could learn all there is to know about magic within the next month.”

“You are so incredible.” Nemia told him reverently. “Do you even realize how much of what you did last night has never been done before?”

“Oh? How so, other than what was pointed out last night?”

“May I answer that?” Tithian asked, and continued at Nemia’s nod. “Yours was the first simultaneous casting of two different arts, and so also the first simultaneous casting of three and of four of them. You are the first person to have cast any spells with three different arts at all; no-one has been able to use more than two before, and you have used five. Even Povon, who knows a few sorcery and magecraft spells as information, could not cast them. You are the first of another race to have drawn power from one of my people, the first magic user to have drawn power from any race but their own, actually, and so the first to have drawn power from two people who are of two different races from your own, let alone simultaneously. You are the first non-draconian to have cast with their method, and the first non-draconian to combine the heat of the stone with the light of the source. Actually, the first non-draconian to have used both kinds of power at all, and the dragons have no choice about using both, they cannot separate the two. No novice caster has ever received even a single spell psionicly and been able to cast it immediately, and the very few who can required centuries of training. The amount of spells Ria passed you in such a short time is frightening. If you could cast them already, you would indeed be one of the premier magic users alive, after less than an hour of training.”

“Well, a lot of them are still all jumbled together in my head, which I guess is why she told me to not do any casting for a couple of days.” Mark mused. “But a couple of hundred of them have sorted themselves out already, and I could cast them right now. I could have cast a few dozen of the easier ones last night, a few minutes after she gave them to me.”

“As Nemia said, you are incredible.”

“And he did it all without needing to hum a note, without needing any gestures or audible frequency cues at all!” Talia proudly stated.

“Well, be that as it may, I’ll try not to get a swelled head about it.” Mark chuckled, and continued his brunch.

“Wise of you.” Yazadril allowed. “On another subject, we’ll all be making public appearances together as you suggested, starting six days from now. We’ll spend six hours a day at it for nine days, spending two days touring each of the four continents of The Just Alliance, and one day touring The Association of Oceania with a stop in the capitol of The Stone Islands.”

“That doesn’t seem like a lot of time to spend if we want the majority of people to see us all together with their own eyes, as proof of the reality and solidarity of The Just Alliance.” Talia pointed out.

“We’re only going to appear in the capitols and major cities.” Yazadril informed her. “People will gather in the largest arenas, stadiums, coliseums, open parks and public squares. In the center of each gathering place there will be a cleared space as wide as a street and about fifty paces long, with a Translocation Plate at either end. We’ll meet in The Hall of The Just Alliance, and file through a Translocation Plate, emerging in the cleared space at the center of the first gathering place. We’ll traverse it, and the Plate at the other end will take us to the next gathering place, and so on. In this way we’ll be able to appear before the maximum number of people in the minimum amount of time. To further speed things along, our procession will include only the leaders and rulers of nations, but none of their staff, and so will be very much smaller than the assembly at the meeting yesterday.

“Enough people will be able to see the procession with their own eyes that the rest will not be able to deny the truth of the event. Dwarven wizards will broadcast Illusions of our procession to thousands of locations in each nation, which is a common practice in Kletiuk, and so almost everyone will have a chance to see it.

“And every community, whether it is a major one where we will appear in person, or an outlying one that will see the closest live appearance via Revealing, will have a day-long celebration to mark the founding of The Just Alliance. After feasting and games and dancing, there will be speeches by the spokespersons for local government making the formal announcement, and our somewhat brief appearance will be the culmination of each local event. Of course, some Revealings will follow us along our entire route, and we will pause at the end of each day in the largest city on each day’s route, to make a few speeches ourselves.”

“Wow! That’s really good thinking!” Mark enthused.

“It is. You’ll also be pleased to know that the rest of the plans that were made yesterday are also being implemented, and as we speak, the world is changing at a staggering pace.

“The militaries of The Just Alliance are melding and redeploying throughout the alliance, civil defense and emergency response corps are forming everywhere, programs for the assistance of the poor and needy are suddenly so over-financed that they’re having to hire extra accountants just to keep track of it all, thousands are swearing binding oaths to justice with every second that passes, laws are being re-written by every government, prisoners are being sworn and prisons closed or renovated for other purposes, Wards are being altered to allow the passage of any who bear the mark of The Just Alliance, and travel between continents is widespread and increasing with every moment.

“And of course, Readings, Revealings, recorded Illusions, and written transcripts of yesterday’s meeting, and of your words on just laws after the meeting, are being copied by the millions, yet still the supply of them falls short of the demand.

“We are all suddenly world-famous among the citizens of every nation in the alliance, you two more so than the rest of us, and you, Mark, most of all.”

“Ah. Well I’ll try not to think about that too much, as well.” Mark responded a moment later, after finishing his meal. “At least until the public appearances.

“My compliments on the meal, Nemia. It was delicious, especially that duck pie with the melon sauce.”

“Ah, Hilsith and I bought it all from the market earlier, already prepared.” Nemia shrugged with a smile. “But thanks anyway.

“We didn’t cook because we slept in rather late this morning, since Hilsith, Yazadril and I spent most of the night making love on the center of the podium of the Laylas Valley wedding chapel. We’ve no wish to make a public declaration about it or anything, but we’re very proud to have our family and friends know that the three of us are now a bonded trio.”

“Well congratulations!” Mark laughed, giving Yazadril a friendly pat on the back. “I guess you’ve still got it in you, eh you old rascal?”

“These two lovelies seem to think so, which is good enough for me!” Yazadril chuckled.

Talia had come around the table to hug Nemia and Hilsith. “I’m so happy for you!” she giggled.

“So are we!” Hilsith laughed as she enjoyed the embrace.

“At any rate, I’m wondering what your plans for the day are?” Yazadril asked.

“Visiting our holdings, arranging our possessions, talking to those who’ve sworn to us, training, and doing our financial planning.” Mark told him. “And I wanted to ask you about a few things.”

“Oh! And we have to talk to Grakonexikaldoron!” Talia added.

“That’s right, I’d let that slip my mind for a while.” Mark nodded. “Too much to think about lately, I guess.”

“What did you want to talk to me about?”

Mark considered what he wanted to say for a moment before answering. “Remember when we first met? At that time, you thought that understanding my magic properties was the most important thing in the world.”

“It was, at that time!” Yazadril chuckled. “Who could have known then what was to come?”

“Not me, that’s for sure.” Mark nodded thoughtfully. “At any rate, we swore binding oaths that I would remain here for your study for five years, that you would build me a home, and so on.”

“Ah. And circumstances have changed, so you’re wondering whether those oaths still apply.” Yazadril nodded. “Let me assure you my boy, those who have sworn such oaths to each other can always release each other from the terms by mutual consent, even in the case of the binding vow of an elf.

“Thanks to Tithian here, and the rest of the theoreticians of Xervia, I now understand much about your unique properties. Furthermore, with what I’ve learned in the last few days, I have enough research on my ‘to be done’ list to keep me occupied for three centuries, even if the other recent occurrences weren’t occupying most of my time. I would still like to conduct research with you, once you have a firm grip on your power, but that can certainly wait a few years.

“Most of our agreement has already been fulfilled in other ways. I have some understanding of your power, you have a home here, you have a horse ranch, and you have instruction in magic. We can therefore mutually disregard that contract.”

“Agreed. Another thing I wanted to ask you about is this; Since I’m now Prince of Hilia and all that, I’m unsure of the necessity and the wisdom of our agreement that I would become a citizen and a Knight of The High People, in order to make it politically palatable that elves from every elven nation have sworn to me.

“Ah. Well as Theramin pointed out after you left the meeting yesterday, your marriage to Talia automatically grants you citizenship here, so that’s already settled. King Dren of Finitra then pointed out that his people still proudly consider you to be one of their own, and that he considers your Finitran citizenship to be in no way revoked. Overlord Senchak advanced the view that since you are Prince of Hilia, your Hilian citizenship must be considered your primary citizenship, and that our nations had no right to claim you for ourselves. Empress Emeroth then insisted that since you are the somewhat informal leader of The Just Alliance, you must be considered a citizen of The Just Alliance itself, and to hold equal citizenship in each of its constituent nations. In order to diffuse the argument, which was becoming somewhat heated, we all agreed with her position.

“We’re very proud of you both, you know. Your conduct yesterday was exemplary, and your words were brilliant.

“As well, The High People and all elves everywhere are quite proud of the fact that you are already listed as a Knight of The High People, indefinitely detached to the service of The Just Alliance.

“In any case, no one will consider it out of order that a few hundred elves have sworn to you. At this point, no one would question anything you might do, unless it was absolutely outrageous!”

Mark laughed. “My whole life has been absolutely outrageous lately! I tell you, there’s a big part of me that’s still sure that at any moment I’m going to wake up to find that it’s all just a fantastic dream!”

“That is good to know, fine youth.” Tithian mused. “So long as you keep your humility and don’t take all of this too seriously, everyone will stand behind you, and you will remain the uncrowned leader of most of the world. Paradoxically, if you try to insist on command, you will likely lose it.”

“No chance of that! I tell you, me being leader of The Just Alliance is ludicrous!

“Tell me, when you made that comment about us having attained a position of leadership of sorts, after we spoke at the meeting the first time, did you actually mean to nominate us to a real position of leadership?!”

“That had not been my thought before I spoke the words, yet as soon as they were spoken, I knew they would be taken that way. And I approved whole heartedly.”

“Huh. Well, we’ve got quite a few things to do today. I suppose we’d best get to doing them. I’m sure looking forward to seeing all our new places!”

“By the way, Father, could you recommend a wizard who is also a specialist in optics?” Talia asked as she and Mark stood. “As Ria pointed out, Mark’s extreme visual sensitivity to spell casting could get him killed in battle if he gets blinded by a flash at the wrong moment.”

“Not offhand, but I’ll ask around for you.”

“Since you’re going to be talking to Grakonexikaldoron today, you should ask her about it.” Tithian suggested. “She is one of Xervia’s most prominent astronomers, and as such knows a thing or two about the spectra of light, and its manipulation by magical means.”

“Thanks, we’ll do that.” Mark smiled as he slipped the tine band onto his forehead. “If we don’t speak before then, we’ll talk to you tomorrow morning.

“Except for you of course, Tithian, unless you should happen to be here again tomorrow. It’s been a pleasure seeing you again, and we are always available to you.”

“Bye for now.” Talia smiled as she took Mark’s hand, and Translocated them to the living room of their suite in the Living Palace.

“Now, I’m to Speak to those who’ve sworn to you, and explain our thoughts on their training and service.” she said as she retrieved their wedding album. “But really, we should both speak to them together. I think it’s far too early for me to be exerting any authority on your behalf, if you want to be a leader and not a lord. They are sworn to you, not to me, and that’s a different thing from having truly earned their loyalty. You must do that first, and then I should do so on my own merit after that.

“I would feel more comfortable issuing instructions to our four companions at arms, since they are equally sworn to us both. But that’s not the case with the elves, and that’s why you should be the one to ask them whether they wish to aid us in acts of war on behalf of The Just Alliance, should the need arise.”

“Yeah, you’re right. Now I know how Alilia must have felt, when her people chose her as their Princess. But I have to face my responsibilities, and fulfill them. And I have to have a healthy attitude about it to avoid her mistake, and not let it embitter me.

“So, how do we go about contacting them?”

“Now that’s actually a good question. I can contact every one of The High People who’ve sworn to you, as I know them all to one degree or the other, and a few of the ones from other nations who had my attention for more than a few moments. But I didn’t get a chance to really get a feel for the rest of them. It helps a bit that we have their names in the wedding album, but not enough, and I couldn’t contact more than six at a time anyway. I could cast a Reading on myself and replay the swearing; paying enough attention to each of them to be able to contact them, but it would still take me a while to contact them all. Perhaps you could contact more of them, but you told Ria that you wouldn’t cast any spells for two days.”

“Hmm. Let me think for a moment. There’s a military command spell for contacting your subordinates that Ria gave me, but it’s not really sorted out in my mind yet. Why don’t you bring her out and we’ll ask her about it?”

Talia put her hand on her hilt, and Ria appeared.

“Good day Ria. How are you?” Mark smiled.

Ria stared inscrutably at him for a moment. “Why, I am fine, Mark, and thank you for asking. Good day to you both.

“As Talia now realizes, the spell you are thinking of is Brigade Command, and it is one of the fifty-two spells that are embedded in my steel, so Talia can cast it by merely invoking it. Now, since these elves are sworn to you, and you are the Prince of Hilia, and Talia is your Princess, she is rightfully in your chain of command as it affects the spell. Thus, she can use it to contact them on your behalf.

“Talia, brigade commanders seldom have the opportunity to know every one of their subordinates, and the spell is designed to allow for that. If you read the list of their names, and review a Reading of their swearing enough to take a good look at each of their faces, you will be able to contact them.

“The ones you know well enough to match their names with their faces can be contacted singly or in selected groups. As far as the spell is concerned, they are your officers, and the spell initiates a shielded two-way Speaking with them, so that they can pass you information as well as receive your orders. The rest, those you do not know well enough as individuals to know both their names and faces, can only be contacted together, all at once. The spell considers them low ranking soldiers, and so it only initiates one-way communication with them. It allows you to speak to them, so that they can be given their orders directly, but they cannot speak to you in return. The designers of the spell expected that anything they had to say to you would be passed up the chain of command through their officers. An elven brigade in Visinniria’s time was ten thousand, counting both soldiers and support staff, and that is the most you can contact with the Brigade Command spell. And since the spell was designed during The War of The Segregation, it can only be used to contact elves. This makes it very difficult for psionicists who are not elves to intercept it.

“I’m rather disappointed that you haven’t yet taken the time to review the spells I contain as a sword. As your assignment today, you will review them, as well as the rest of your magic items of special significance, and the properties of the wizard’s tools and the magically enhanced weapons and armor you were given as wedding presents. All the power of the many magic items you own does you no good if you are unfamiliar with them and their use. This knowledge will affect a greater immediate increase in your practical abilities than spending your time learning from me, so we’ll defer my lessons for a day or two.

“Mark, you will also review the magical properties of all the weapons and armor you were both given, and you will inspect their physical quality and craftsmanship as well, considering only their battle worthiness, ignoring their decorative aspects.

“Each of you will spend two hours on those tasks, plus the four hours you will spend on physical combat skills. Other than that, enjoy your honeymoon. Your workload will increase drastically the day after tomorrow.”

“We should also review our entire inventory with an eye to each item’s usefulness on campaign.” Mark mused. “The tools, particularly the smith’s tools, the climbing gear, many of the pots and pans and dishes, and a great deal more of it would all be useful to an armed force. Then there’s the issue of transportation for all of that. Perhaps I’ll have some of the elves help with that. While we’re at it, we should consider the qualities of each of our properties as military assets. Their defensibility, as well as the tactical and strategic aspects of their locations.

“I’d also like to talk to Foreman Joseth Narr about the possibility of training some of the horses at Winghoof Estates to be war-horses.”

“Now you’re thinking!” Ria chuckled. “Now you’re starting to become an officer! I’ll leave you to it then, but before I go, let me check your mind.”

Mark let her initiate the Link to him through Talia.

“Excellent. Your comprehension of the spells you’ve been given is proceeding nicely, better than I expected, even after working with you yesterday. By the day after tomorrow at the latest, you will be ready to begin casting them. Have you realized how many there are yet?”

“Nine hundred and fourteen, plus variations on some of the main spells.”

“Very good. Speak to me again tomorrow morning for your next assignments. Till then, be well.”

She faded away.

“It’s nice that our assignments fit with what we were already planning for today.” Mark mused.

“True.” Talia nodded. “I’ll cast the Reading and review the faces of the sworn, then review the list of their names in the album. What should I say to them when I’m ready?”

“Invite them to come here for a visit and a discussion of their service, if they can conveniently come here during the next two hours. Ask if any of them need assistance with traveling here. If any of them do, we’ll have to figure out a way to get them here.”

“I can bring some here, and those who are sufficiently skilled at Translocation can help bring the rest.” Talia nodded. “Let’s go downstairs before I get started on the Reading and the list. It’ll take me about forty minutes to be ready to contact them all, and you can start your review of our weapons and armor while I prepare.”

“All right.” he said as he offered her his hand with a smile.

“Be ready, I’m going to Translocate us.” she giggled. “We were told that our power improves with exercise, so I’ve decided to exercise mine at every opportunity.”

“Go ahead.” he grinned, since he was already wearing the tine band.

She concentrated for a moment, and brought them with a slight pop to just inside the doorway in the ballroom.

“Hah! I did it without whistling!” she stated with a proud smile. “Though my displacement could have been better. Ria says that it’s a weakness to have to make an audible sound in order to focus your mind on the frequencies of a spell, so I’m going to try to stop doing so.”

“Seems wise to me, my pretty wife.” he smiled as he swept her up in a hug. “And I think that your review of the names and faces of those who’ve sworn to me is valuable extra effort, beyond what Ria assigned us. Moreso if you won’t have to do it again to contact them next time, as I surmise.”

“You surmise correctly.” she giggled, and kissed his nose.

“Therefore, I’ll spend that time doing extra things as well, and then we can start our two-hour assignments together, starting with the magic properties of our weapons and armor.”

“All right, let’s take a moment to plan our day in greater detail. It’s almost noon. They’ll start arriving in forty-five minutes. All who are coming will be here in two hours, and we’ll allow for half an hour to discuss their service and another half hour to establish an organization among them. After that, I’m hoping that some of them would like to stay and help us transport many of these possessions to our other properties, and get everything put away. We’ll spend three hours at that and break for supper between the sixth and seventh hour. We’ll feed them a nice banquet, hopefully here in our newly-cleared ballroom, then politely bring the gathering to an end at the eighth hour or so. That would be a good time to talk to our gold draconian neighbor. Then we’ll spend two hours here working on our assignments, with a short break at nine to talk to our four companions. We’ll do the four hours of physical combat training while enjoying the evening at one of our other properties. We’ll return here about ninety minutes after midnight, spend an hour or three on intimacy, and get to sleep around the same time we did last night.

“How does that strike you, my handsome husband?”

“As good planning, my dear.” he chuckled.

“And what will you be doing while I’m mentally compiling your followers?”

“Well, I was going to review the geography and location of our holdings from the cards that came with them, and plot them on the globe so I really know where they are, and if I had time, I was going to research Visinniria in the books we were given. I’m really curious about what she did both before and after she made Ria, and how she became a goddess. But now that I think about it, I should spend the time with you reviewing the faces and names of the elves. I’ll be able to cast the Brigade Command spell myself in a couple of days, and then I’ll be able to contact them myself if need be.”

“And I’d love to have you share the experience with me, my love, but it’s not really the most practical use of your time. You’ll meet many of them today anyway, and once I’ve done the compilation, I can pass you the faces and names of those who don’t come today through our Link, in much less time than it would take you to review them yourself. The quality and completeness of our communication through our Link is a very rare and special thing, my love, and we might as well take advantage of it.”

“Well in that case, only one of us really needs to study the magic properties of the weapons and armor, and then we can pass that knowledge through the Link as well!” he enthusiastically realized. “For that matter, I bet you already have a pretty accurate idea of the locations of our properties, and know much of the history of Visinniria, so you could pass me that too!”