The Fire and The Storm - The Nexus of Kellaran #2

Chapter 130



Chapter 130

Part 19

“I’m sure your better magic users are capable of Translocation, Linking, Pull and Draw spells,

Movement, Flight, and Shielding, as well as some kinds of purely magical attack. They may need to

learn some of the spells, but I’m sure they’re inherently capable of casting them. That gets them up to

where we were in the last war.

“As to what we’re capable of now, we won’t really know that until the time-bubbles open. Most of our

world’s best researchers and engineers are in them. The newer techniques that we here use, being

more advanced psionics, automated spells, and more intense and advanced training techniques, we

developed most of that in the time-bubble. Including ending death by aging and giving magic use to all

our citizens. Then, when we left the time-bubble and gained access to all the minds and resources out

in the world, and began integrating what we’d developed with the outer world, we experienced another

sudden and drastic burst of discovery and achievement. We expect a similar pattern of advancement

when all the other time-bubbles open, and of far greater magnitude.

“I’m sure you know that my father has discovered how to become a god, and that he’ll do so after the

bubbles open, and give the gift of divinity to many others as well. And I’m sure you know that we four © 2024 Nôv/el/Dram/a.Org.

have gained almost all the abilities of gods, while remaining mortal. Our new Healing techniques and

Work spells are already making a huge difference in our world. We’re not sure we can teach you these

newer techniques, but we’re ready to share them with your leaders, and we hope you’ll be able to

utilize them.

“Right now, the three tasks of preparing our world for the war, and of making tactical and strategic plans

for it, and of coordinating our plans with you of The Triax, are all vastly complicated by the fact that

everything on Kellaran and everything about the Kellarani are all changing faster than ever in our

history, and the pace of change is still accelerating. Our world is only recently united for the first time,

it’s being rebuilt as a fortress, and vastly improved new techniques for doing almost everything are

being introduced every day. It’s difficult to make plans when we have almost no idea what we’ll be

capable of even two months from now.

“Still, we must begin with a complete exchange of information, reflecting our respective capabilities as

they stand now. We need to know each other’s military structures completely, how many personnel

they have, what equipment and capabilities they have, how they’re organized and commanded. We

need to supply each other with every spell and engineering technique that we have. We’ll have to free

up a lot of researchers to go through it all and decide on what each of us can use of the other’s

techniques, then we’ll have to integrate it all.

“The area of expertise that your people have that we lack is obviously tactics and strategy in void

warfare. As I’ve said, things will be different in this war because of the new techniques that we’re

introducing, so a lot of what you’ve learned of void strategy and tactics might not apply, but the rest of it

will be crucial, we’re certain of that. We know that no new techniques can completely replace the

fundamentals of warfare in the void that your people have developed over your millennia of fighting in

it. You’ve shown us what your generals know so well from hard experience that they take it for granted,

and it’s very important, but so is what your sergeants know, so to speak. And since it’s impossible to

predict which of the hard-won lessons you’ve learned will be crucial and which will be irrelevant, we

recognize the necessity of learning your entire body of knowledge in the subject.

“Our gods have already exchanged much of what they know with yours. Now it is time for our mortals

to do the same.

“This is so much work that we strongly suggest that the majority of it be done in a new round of time-

bubbles, beginning a few weeks after the present ones open.

“At the same time, we have to work with what we have now, and what we know now. Properly

preparing our militaries to work together should take a lot longer than we have available to do it, so we

have to get started on it now, and modify things as we go along when we introduce new methods that

we’ve developed or learned from each other. Not only are we pressed for time to get as much done as

possible before our planned date for attacking the demons, I also think it’s irresponsible to completely

disregard the possibility that the demons will find a way to attack us before then.

“This immediate work of exchanging information and beginning military integration will be done

tomorrow, at the meeting of The Assembly of The Just Alliance, between your leaders and ours.

“I think we’ve accomplished much of value here today. Before we bring this meeting to an end, we

propose that we try to Link with you. Our researches show that psionics are fundamentally the same

among all races that use them, no matter the source of their power. After all, we first became aware of

you when Zarkog found you far out in the void with the Psionic Distant Listener. If we can Link with you,

we should be able to teach you a great deal of what we know about magic, and learn a great deal of

what you know, in a reasonably short time.”

“Among us, only The Transformed, whom you would call gods, use what you would refer to as Linking.”

First Mauve interjected. “Our mortals do use a technique that is functionally similar to your Speaking

spell. It is useful for communication in the void, but of little use for the direct transfer of knowledge and

skills that you are suggesting.

“I suggest that you Link with me. I will teach what I learn to my people.”

“We have found that direct contact between the minds of gods and mortals is almost always harmful to

the mortals involved.” Falgaroth pointed out. “From that, it is reasonable to assume that psionic Linking

between these mortal minds and yours may also be harmful to them. The possibility that they will be

overwhelmed seems particularly likely considering that you are Triax Goddess of Knowledge, and the

third-eldest among your pantheon.”

“Perhaps that is so.” First Mauve agreed. “But we of the Transformed often share thoughts quite deeply

with our mortal kin, without causing them harm, and I will endeavor to ensure that no harm comes to

these Kellarani.”

“I’d still like to try Linking with a mortal Triax first.” Six stated. “It does seem a safer start, and if we’re

successful in teaching mortal Triax to Link, we’ll increase your people’s capability a lot more than by

just Linking and sharing with you.”

“Whether or not we’re successful at Linking with your mortals, I want to try Linking with you after that.”

Fire suddenly stated to First Mauve.

“That seems sensible.” she agreed.

Second Brighter Orange moved back, and another Triax took the pre-eminent position in the habitat

sphere.

She gave a ripple, and spoke. “I greet you. I am Fifth Aquamarine. Of us here in this globe, I am most

skilled at what you term ‘psionics’, and third most skilled at the manipulation of magic energy. I choose

to attempt to engage in mind communication with you.”

“Excellent.” Six nodded. “Only I will attempt to communicate with you. My family are Linked with me,

but not with you, so you won’t perceive them, and they won’t perceive you, except that they’ll perceive

me as I perceive you. Hopefully. I hope that’s not confusing.”

“It is not.” Fifth Aquamarine responded. “I will similarly be in contact with First Mauve during this

experiment, and you will not perceive her. You should begin.”

“All right.” Six nodded again. “Here goes. Hmm. It’s easy to sense your psionic emanations. But so far

it’s like hearing a meaningless noise. I’ll need a minute to try to make sense of it.”

Everyone waited patiently for fourteen minutes. By that time Six was grimacing in concentration, eyes

tightly closed, sweat beading on his brow as he paced up and down on the beach to relieve his tense

irritation.

Finally Fire gave him a playful punch on the shoulder as he went by. “Hey. We might as well admit it.

We can’t do this. Their senses, their perception of reality, their thinking, it’s all too different. Too… alien.

Reading Glup was a lot easier than this, and even he seems almost normal by comparison. This is just

noise.”


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