The Fire and The Storm - The Nexus of Kellaran #2 novel Chapter 119

Part 18

Mark reappeared on the dais, grinning at them with pride across the thirty-two meters that separated them.

“Our kids. The Governors of Hiliani. Aren’t they something?” he casually asked the immense room, and the vast crowd gave a huge cheer.

His demeanor became more serious. “All right, I’m casting the spell to detect those with divine potential. Mind you, I don’t know if I’ll find the same people that the gods would call Candidates for Divinity, I’m just finding people who have the potential for my process to work for them. Okay, here goes.”

He cast with a slight motion of his hand, which was the only detectable sign of it. Then he took a deep breath, let it out, and gave a rueful smile. “Thank you. We…”

He was interrupted by the appearance of Quewanak.

“Mark, please wait here with me until your spell has finished making its selections.”

“Ah, all right.” Mark responded in surprise with a raised eyebrow.

Almost immediately a voice cried out from the crowd in Elvish; “I’ve been selected!” and a giant jumped up with his arms raised and declared in Common; “I was chosen!”

“As I suspected.” Quewanak nodded. “Your spell propagates outward from you. You learn of the closest chosen first, and in three minutes you’ll know those on the far side of the world.”

“Two and a half, now.” Mark nodded.

“Yes. Please inform me when the process is finished.”

Mark nodded, and they waited. A buzz of conversation arose in the room as people filled the time with talk.

The rest of Mark’s party sensed that Quewanak meant to do something important, and almost all of them knew they’d been chosen by the spell. They patiently waited in silence.

Then Mark nodded to Quewanak, and told him; “Okay, I know them all, and they know they’ve been selected.”

“Excellent. Now, if you’d be so kind, please take a quick Reading of them to answer these questions; How many of them want to wait another seven weeks to achieve divinity? How many of them want it right now, how many of them want it eagerly, how many of them want it desperately?”

Mark gave a rueful chuckle and a shake of his head before he answered. “A lot of them are pretty eager to have it done. As I’m sure you knew.”

“I did.” Quewanak nodded. “And I want you to know something.

“In my last moments of mortality, after I was fully Healed by Amirgath and just before I became Draconian God of Dreaming and the one hundred sixty-fourth god of my race, I was the most advanced Candidate there had ever been. I had already lived far longer than most of the gods, and was the eldest mortal who had ever lived, of any race. My forty million year slumber forced me to concentrate on and develop my mental abilities to a greater extent than any mortal had ever done. And my newly restored physical health and vitality only increased my abilities.”

A bit of a buzz rose among the gathering as the public at large learned that he was now a god, but he ignored them and continued speaking with Mark with a friendly intensity.

“Yet despite all that, and despite having had more than seven years of subjective time to get used to being a god, I have still only begun to explore my new capabilities. Most new gods don’t feel fully comfortable with their new state of being and their new abilities for two thousand years or more.

“The Nexus and the war with the demons will be upon us in less than two years. Every single second that these new gods have to train and learn and explore their new capabilities could be crucial.

“I know that you fear the loss of your humanity, but you must trust me on this; the Ascension is a wonderful thing, and if you do it now, you’ll be glad you did. If you wait the seven weeks, you’ll regret the lost time and the joy you denied yourself, and either way, you’ll laugh at your childish fears.