The Fire and The Storm - The Nexus of Kellaran #2
Chapter 203

Part 28

"We will not fail their trust." Karzog quietly declared. "I love you, you are my destined love, and no amount of social pressure could make me renounce you. If everyone else in the entire universe condemns me for it and strives to prevent it, still I will be with you, and love you with all that I am."

There seemed to be a long moment of serenity after their declarations, then Fire resumed her place on the lawn beside Balen with Karz still in her arms.

Soon everyone who'd risen to support them resumed their places, except Val. She floated three meters in the air, relaxed with her eyes closed and her hands clasped behind her, and remained silent until she knew that her solitary intransigence had drawn everyone else's attention. Still she waited as the sense of expectation built around her, until she knew that several who watched her were about to inquire about her intentions.

"I feel the same as Fire." she quietly stated. She paused again for a few more seconds, then threw her head back and held her fists high and shouted it out to the world. "I FEEL THE SAME AS FIRE!!!" "Say it, Sister!" Fire called in encouragement as she shook her fist overhead in solidarity.

But Val wasn't ready to just blurt it out yet.

"When I was still an unborn baby floating in my mother's womb, I was all alone, but I didn't care because I didn't realize it. I still only had about as much mind as a mouse then.

"Then another mind touched mine, literally, psionicly, and he loved me so much it just filled me completely. And in that moment, when his mind first met mine, he had a prophesy that I was his destined love, and he was mine, and we were destined to be married someday. Of course I couldn't understand language yet so I didn't know about the prophesy, and no one told me until a few weeks ago. But deep down inside, I've always known.

"Then another mind joined us, and it was Fire. A little while after that there was another mind with us, and it was Mother. And their love was so wonderful.

"I soon forgot about sharing minds with Fire and Mother, and I don't really remember anything else that happened up until I was almost seven months old. But I never forgot that very first moment when another mind first joined mine, and the wonderful love he felt for me.

"Since then our love has only grown, in so many ways, and I really hate having to keep it secret when we haven't done anything wrong. Just having to keep it secret all the time sometimes makes me feel like I have done something wrong, even though I know I haven't.

"No one can judge us about this, because we're not like anyone else who's ever lived. No one ever fell in love with anyone else the way I fell in love with him.

"So today I'm telling the secret. But I'm not worried that anyone is going to bother us about it, because I'll be monitoring everyone, and if anyone is bothered or upset in any way by our love, I'm going to make them forget about it. And that'll be it for that. I can do it too. I can make everyone forget they ever knew about it, except the gods and maybe the top twenty psionicists outside my family. And if any of them are bothered by it, they better not bother us about it, or I swear I will make them pay for it!

"Our love was against some old laws of some races, because of possible problems with the children we might have. But our love isn't against the new laws, the just laws, that have been emplaced since The Just Alliance was formed, and there's absolutely zero chance that there'll be any problems with our children if we even decide to have any, because we know, actually we are, some of the best Healers who have ever lived."

She paused, a bit embarrassed by her own long-windedness about it, and said; "Any way..." She shrugged and smiled, and turned to him as she held her hand out to him. He was in her arms and hugging her tightly in a blink. "I love you Six. I love you every way there is, and someday I'll be your wife." she proudly declared.

"As I love you." he returned with deep sincerity.

"And we support their love in any way they want it to be." Mark declared as he appeared with them and hugged them both.

Everyone gave them a cheer, though it wasn't as enthusiastic as the one that Fire and Karz had gotten, until Fire psionicly growled to everyone there; "You'd better cheer as loud for them as you did for us, or you'll get a punch in the face." Their enthusiasm immediately improved, and there was laughter mixed with it.

Val and Six couldn't help but laugh themselves, and then Fire and Karz and all of their parents were hugging them and each other as well.

They finished eating and enjoyed the celebration there for another two hours, then all of Mark's family went with him back to The Hall of The Just Alliance to enjoy the party there for a while. They spent the rest of the day touring the world, enjoying the huge parties that were happening everywhere in honor of the new Governor, simply because he'd suggested it.

In three weeks another set of time-bubbles began running all over Kellaran, including under the seas in the territories of the aquatic peoples. There were thousands of them this time, all bigger than the first ones, and they held many more people. Almost all the gods helped in casting them, including the new gods.

Mark and his family remained outside these time-bubbles, along with half of Kellaran.

The main reasons for casting them were to accelerate the training of many of the new wizards, and to raise many of the new children. Due to Zarkog's breeding programs there were still huge numbers of very young Sylvan and dragons in Serminal, and there had been a

recent baby boom among ever net

in the world. It was decided that the portion of the population who were young children was much higher than was optimal during a major war, and this situation was

corrected in the time-bubbles while they ran. Bubbles containing dragons ran for eighty-one internal years, to allow for baby dragons to finish growing up completely, while the rest ran for twenty-four internal years. The ones with dragons ran at a higher rate of time compression, and they all opened a month after they were cast in real time. Content

A great deal of power and attention was saved in casting them because they weren't hidden this time, so there were colossal and impenetrable black domes scattered all over Kellaran for a month.

No more time-bubbles were cast after that second set finished running. Much of the population had been segregated in the bubbles, and entire societies had grown apart from each other.

It seemed that the entire world was already almost as prepared to fight the demons as they could get, so they avoided the use of any more time-bubbles to allow all the populace to grow back together again, and the training schedule was gradually reduced to a part-time activity for everyone who didn't choose a military career.

All of the improvements that had

been discovered in Warding and Shielding were applied to every

settlement on Kellaran. Mark and his family and the gods and the other senior magic users had all spent

1200

great deal of time finding th

unknown and hidden talents, revealing those talents, and training those who had them. Advanced

training in combat and magic beyond the Journeyman Battle Wizard level were offered to everyone who had the capacity to take advantage of it, and much of that training was done psionicly or in small Reverse-Stasis fields, or both, and was accomplished quickly.

Emergency-response spells were crafted and emplaced around most population centers that would cast a time-bubble around the whole place in case of absolutely overwhelming attack. The defensive time-bubbles would only change the passage of time inside them by a slight amount, but that was still enough to make them indestructible to any outside force, and they automatically ceased when the danger had passed.

It soon seemed that absolutely everything that could be done to prepare for war had been done. Life went on as the world waited in increasing anticipation.☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐☐

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