The Fire and The Storm - The Nexus of Kellaran #2 novel Chapter 123

Part 18

“Ah.” Val noted. “I’d planned on using our Void Survival spell, since it maintains normal pressure and breathable air. But I hadn’t considered the extreme pressure at this depth, and it’s meant to protect from the lack of pressure, so we’ll just have to use a good Force Shield as well.

“I imagine you could just become energy if you wanted, that would work too.”

“I suppose I could.” Visinniria smiled. “Being a goddess is pretty handy. But it’s easier to just decide that I won’t be affected by the pressure and that I don’t have to breathe.”

“Ah. You know, we’re on Father’s list, and he could make us gods. And I’m kind of tempted. But I feel the same way he does, and more so. We’ve developed really quickly, but I’m still only seven, and I’m just not done with being a mortal yet. Besides, like Fire said, if we can do almost everything that gods can do, I don’t see that it’s really necessary.”

“I’ve checked the conditions and done the math.” Six announced. “The pressure right on the other side of the wall right here is seventeen point six two five four times air pressure at sea level. I could just Translocate to the other side of the wall right now, except I’d have to achieve displacement, which would Translocate the high pressure water in the shape of me to this side of the wall, which would probably soak all of you.”

“The portal’s almost finished cycling anyway.” Visinniria pointed out, and a moment later the four Selkies emerged from the blue dome by walking through the side of it. They bowed to Mark’s party and moved off.

Suddenly Val Translocated through the wall and appeared in the water on the other side with a bubble of air around her head and a very thin layer of air held against her body by her form-fitting Shielding. She rose a few centimeters, then stabilized.

“I just did a double displacement.” she announced both verbally and psionicly, though they couldn’t hear her voice through the water and the barrier that contained it. “I sent the water from my displacement to Hiliani, just off the coast, and sent the displacement air from there back to where I just was. You have to compensate for buoyancy too. Pretty neat, huh?”

“Yah!” Fire agreed as she, Six and Karz duplicated her trick, followed by the rest of their party an instant later.

“This void spell, how does it maintain breathable air here?” Nemia asked. Now that they were all in the water together it was easy to hear her, though it sounded a bit strange.

“It’s a constant Translocation.” Kragorram explained. “As you breathe out, that amount of air is Translocated out of the head bubble from just in front of your mouth and nose to a location over Hiliani, and when you breath in, the reverse occurs. We have to remember to change the location of the Translocation point before the Hiliani time-bubble is resumed.”

A Selkie and a Mer swam up to them and began to converse using a very clever translation spell that read their sign languages of gestures and body movements and sent out a short-range Speaking in Trade Common.

“Greetings, honored citizens.” the Selkie announced. “I am Prime Wisdom Gloz of the Banodez River, and this is Guide Leader Bubniiiilduptiii of The Mer of The North Xervian Ocean. We know of your desire to meet citizens of the aquatic races. As most of the land dwellers have done out there, the aquatic people here are largely gathered with others of their own race. We would be happy to introduce you around.”

“You’re very welcome to do so, and we welcome you to Hilia, and to The Just Alliance!” Mark replied in surprise. “The Selkies of Hilia can introduce your people to First Minister Sheramiv, who’s in charge of such things.”

“Thank you.” the being acknowledged as it turned bright pink. “That is all the communication we have prepared for today.”

“Ah. Well it’s been a pleasure meeting you all. You’re beautiful and fascinating.” Mark stated with a bow and a smile.

Bubniiiilduptiii and Gloz led them away, and they had similarly brief but interesting encounters with two other new races as they swam a seemingly-random route that led them gradually toward the surface.

They met a race who were obviously distantly related to the Mogitar, since they appeared very similar to them, with the exceptions that they lacked the spiral shells of the Mogitar, and that they were much larger. They formed their bodies into long and slim shapes up to six and a half meters long with their bunched tentacles forming a tapering tail when they swam with a rippling sinuous motion, and seemed capable of contorting themselves into almost any conceivable shape. They had never been encountered by any other race before their gods bade them to join The Just Alliance, since they lived near the south pole in the Great Southern Ocean; one of the most inhospitable regions on the planet due to its isolation, extreme weather, and violent sea conditions. Since there had never been a word for them in any other race’s language, they had chosen to be called simply The Southernmost.

The Kag were great sleek fish up to five meters in length with shimmering coppery scales and hundreds of twenty-five centimeter long tentacles around their mouths, which were filled with hundreds of jagged teeth. They were well-known to every sea-faring race, since they roamed the oceans of the world in great hunting packs hundreds strong, and any vessel that foundered when they were in the vicinity was sure to have few survivors. They were known to sink smaller vessels in rough seas and consume everyone and everything edible aboard in minutes. What hadn’t been known about them was their great intelligence and their thriving civilization on a vast underwater plateau beneath the tropical waters of The North Kletiuk Ocean.