The Fire and The Storm - The Nexus of Kellaran #2 novel Chapter 150

Part 22

Prince Jaromer of Thon and Princess Pimall of The Warm People came by for a few moments, during which Jaromer proposed a toast; “To a long lifetime of love and happiness, and to having the biggest marker on the gameboard!”

This brought a hearty laugh to most at the table, but the children had to access Talia’s memory of her first wedding here before they got the reference.

Osbald, Emeroth, and Senchak came to offer their well-wishes, then they took Yazadril aside for a private ten-minute consultation.

There was music and dancing and displays of artistic magic, but most of the rulers spent their time in conversation, and they began saying their farewells only an hour after dinner.

By the time another ninety minutes had passed, only the closer of the friends and family remained, along with the wedding party, some one hundred in all. The atmosphere of the gathering relaxed somewhat, and everyone who remained brought their chairs over to the head table, some sitting inside the ring, some outside the original circle of chairs.

“Did you know,” Dilimon asked as he waved a tankard of mead, “I’ve had reports that The Healing of Valentia prevents extreme drunkenness, hangovers, and alcoholism. But it doesn’t prevent moderate to almost-extreme drunkenness, and I can testify to that right now!”

As a laugh went around at that, Six poked Karzog in the shoulder with a friendly bit of Force and said; “Let’s fight.”

“What, now?” Karz laughed.

“Sure, up above the flowers.” Six grinned.

“Well I’m sure not going to fight you in this elf Simulacrum; I haven’t even practiced in it.” Karz declared with a grin of his own. His teeth looked startlingly white against the otherwise unrelieved blackness of his confident face. “But I’ll go for swords and magic if you want.”

“Done!” Six called as he cast a glowing transparent yellow Challenge Sphere from eighteen to two hundred meters above the ground, filling much of the volume of the great clearing in the redwoods.

“Don’t you think that cape will get in the way?” Karz teased as they Translocated to the center of the Sphere, he assumed his true form, and they Retrieved their sheathed swords.

“Naw.” Six chuckled as he drew both his sabres and swept them about with a few warm-up swings. “This is a Battle Wizard’s outfit, after all. They must have techniques to deal with it, so I can too.”

“The cape is there to help you blend into dark places!” Alilia called up with a laugh. “We generally take them off when we’re dueling!”

“Well I think it makes me look dashing, so I’m keeping it!” Six laughed as he flew around the sphere a bit, noting its angle of trail behind him.

“They’re having an aerial sword fight? Six against Karzog?” Sana asked with a worried look as she noted Karzog warming up with a four meter short sword.

“Their regular swords, no other weapons, no armor.” Fire explained. “Unlimited magic and Karz’ fire are in, but no psionics.”

“So we can assume that Six’s magic is good enough to counter Karzog’s physical ability and fire?” Tithian asked.

“Sort of.” Val laughed. “Using magic makes the physical battle a lot more even, since they can both use Shielding to block swords as well as spells, and they can use magic to cast as attacks or to augment their sword strikes. And Karz is no slouch at the magic. It’s not gonna be even though, it’s gonna be chaotic. Either one could win or lose in a blink from a lucky or unexpected move.”

“Ready?” Karz asked as he finished his warm-up and brought his sword to bear as he flew slowly around just inside the perimeter of the sphere.

“Go!” Six called, then cast an attack as he Translocated.

There followed a quick chase and counter-chase sequence of short and violent flight maneuvers full of sword-strikes and spell-casting interspersed with many sudden Translocations.

Blazing spells were discharged in every direction, but were contained by the Challenge Sphere, which also contained the combatants on one occasion when they collided with the inside surface at a glancing angle.