The Fire and The Storm - The Nexus of Kellaran #2 novel Chapter 37

Part 8

First they ran to Sana’s Kitchen to help with initial food preparation for a feast for the entire community, then they met Mark, Talia, and Alilia at the gathering hall where they helped put up ribbons, bouquets of flowers, and other physical decorations, then they all went back to the restaurant for lunch and to help with the cooking for another two hours. Then Reggie and Helemia spent an hour psionicly calling small birds from all over the islands, then back to Sana’s to help with getting all the food into Preserving serving dishes, Moving it all over to the hall, arranging tables and chairs, and finalizing the meal’s presentation. Finally, the twins cast the decorations that were Illusions, by themselves. These included three brilliant rainbows just beneath the dome of the hall that met in the center, and an amazing fountain consisting of an ornately carved white marble bowl three meters wide and a meter deep with three marble dolphins in the middle spouting streams into the air from their mouths, but the fluid they spouted in artistic and complex patterns up to three meters high wasn’t water, it was liquid fire.

“That is just beautiful.” Alilia marveled.

“It is.” Mark agreed with a grin. “I don’t know if I’m more impressed by your ability to maintain such complex Illusions without even keeping your attention on them, or by the breath-taking artistry of it all.”

“Thank you Father.” the twins chorused together with proud smiles.

“And that’s the last of it.” Talia nodded with satisfaction. “We’re a few minutes early, but we might as well open the doors, and you can start welcoming your guests.”

“Okay.” Helemia agreed as she Levitated two meters and took one last long look around the great room. Everything seemed in order, so they went to the main entrance and swung the doors open wide with Movement.

Reggie and Helemia took their places just to one side of the doors, and the adults let the twins greet their guests. After all, the entire event had been the twins’ idea, and it was definitely their production. The adults knew that it was the twins’ coming-out party, and their birthday was only a handy excuse for their social debut.

There were already about thirty people visiting and chatting outside the hall as they waited for the doors to open, and the first to enter and be greeted were Dalia and Bezedil, who had been babysitting Valentia.

Within twenty minutes everyone had arrived and been greeted and seated. The dragons and unicorns lounged on the floor, as did many of the children and younger adults of the humans and elves, using the available cushions for comfort and leaving some of the chairs empty.

Reggie and Helemia Levitated three meters so everyone could see them. “Hello, and welcome to our party!” Reggie called as they smiled and waved. It sounded a bit strange to hear Trade Common spoken so well in his baby’s voice, and he augmented his volume with a simple spell, but there were many there who were glad he hadn’t communicated with psionics.

“First, we’d like to say that we did as much of the work for this party as we could ourselves, but we couldn’t have done it without a lot of help. We’d like to thank Great-Grandmother Sana and everyone at Sana’s Kitchen for all their help with the wonderful feast we’ll all be enjoying in a little while!”

They led a round of applause for those worthy cooks, who smiled and waved in acknowledgement.