The Fire and The Storm - The Nexus of Kellaran #2 novel Chapter 38

Part 8

“He’s taught us to hide our psionics a lot better too,” Reggie added, “So most people here think this is all being done with physical magic instead of psionics, and none of them know when we’re Reading them anymore. I think we could fool everyone here now except you, Quewanak, and Father.”

“Yah, thanks again, Quewanak!” Helemia told him with happy sincerity.

“You are most welcome.” Quewanak responded in a throbbing snarl as he delicately ripped a clawful of beef from the carcass. “Your psionic ability is unprecedented, especially at your ages, and your training with it may prove crucial to the war effort. And with the exception of your father, you’re easier to train in Draconian psionic techniques than any other non-Draconians I’ve perceived. Likely this is due to your early Linking with Kragorram.”

“Probably, that’s how we know how to speak Draconian, anyway.” Reggie agreed.

“I think the fact that they inherently use two kinds of power probably helps too.” Mark opined as he and Talia took their seats. “They and Valentia are the only non-dragons that do that, as far as I know, and we know that psionics uses magic from Yazadril and Alilia’s research.”

“True, though we now know that psionics is done in a different part of the brain from physical magic.” Yazadril contributed. “Tithian’s team figured that out. And we correlated her findings with a survey of when psionic development occurs. It’s almost always before or after the development of physical magical ability, they’re almost never simultaneous, regardless of race.”

“That’s obvious here.” Reggie laughed. “Me and Helemia don’t have magic yet, and Valentia doesn’t have psionics yet. She’s close though, she’ll get it pretty soon. I just hope we get magic soon too.”

“Ah, the impatience of youth.” Povon teased. “You’d best slow down some, or we’re likely to run out of things to teach you long before our time here is up!”

“That’s a chance we’re willing to take.” Helemia laughed. “In the meantime, pass that pickle sauce please!” she finished in spoken Trade Common.

They let their meal occupy most of their attention for a while.

When almost everyone was finished eating and the symphony they were listening to had reached its finale, the twins Levitated three meters to address the room again, and Helemia spoke.

“We’ll have dancing and music now, and we’ll also be having a one-turn badra tournament. Everyone who wants to play gets one turn to score for the tournament. You can keep playing after everyone’s played a turn, but only your first turn counts for the tournament, and Nek Sibook, who’s our local badra champion, will be our referee. We’ll have some nice prizes for the best five scores at the end of the party.

“After the dancing and the tournament, Reggie and I will perform a sequence of Illusions for your entertainment.

“We’ll give out the prizes and end the party at four hours to midnight, because by then it’ll almost be our bedtime! Have fun!”

After taking their turn at the badra wall, the twins spent an hour and a half circulating, saying hello to everyone, accepting their thanks for the party, and offering their own thanks when everyone wished them happy birthday.

Then they spent an hour playing darts, and showed that they were competitive with some of the best players there. Though they didn’t run up to the line for their throws, since that officially wasn’t allowed in the rules, their full-armed motion like throwing a spear was still very unique and surprising to see, given their sizes and that most humans didn’t take up the game until their teens.

Everyone made further inroads in the bounteous feast for their evening meal, then Reggie and Helemia rose to speak again.

“We’d now like to show you an entertainment, by casting an Illusion on that quarter of the wall on that side, so everyone close to there will want to move back a bit so they can see the whole thing.” Reggie instructed.

“What we’re gonna show you is known among the dragons as The Greatest Challenge Ever Fought. Way, way back about forty-five million years ago, when the only intelligent races were the dragons and the unicorns, the two races fought a war, and after the war, some of the dragons wanted to change the way their government worked, and make a permanent peace treaty with the unicorns. Some of the other dragons didn’t want that, and there were a lot of fights about it.

“Even back then Somonik, who is Most Noble, was already twenty-four million years old. He was already one of the most famous dragons, and he was one of the best fighters. He was in favor of the peace treaty, and he let everyone know he was ready to fight about it.

“Kergok was a brown dragon who was the toughest fighter that was against the treaty, and he accepted Somonik’s challenge. He was about the same size as Somonik, and was thought to be a little stronger with his fire, but a little weaker with his magic. He was thirty-one million years old, so he had the edge in experience, but he wasn’t as aggressive as Somonik was then. They were well-matched, and no one could say who would win.