The Fire and The Storm - The Nexus of Kellaran #2 novel Chapter 105

Part 17

Neela considered her. “I don’t know you well enough to feel comfortable with telling you that yet. And while I’ve no wish to hurt your feelings, I’ll be honest in telling you that I share such things with very few people. They must have certain characteristics that touch my heart, and from what I know of you, you don’t have those characteristics. You’re a good person, Helemia Longstrider, and admirable in every way. But Mark and Talia have a pure goodness of heart and a kind of simple brilliance that I find very attractive, whereas your mind has Sylvan and Draconian characteristics that give you a dark side that is… not as cute as the rest of you, shall we say.”

“That’s understandable.” Fire grinned. “I imagine that you didn’t share their bed while the curse was upon them. Their dark side is somewhat distinct and artificial, whereas mine is a cherished part of my core. From the way your aura felt, you’re a sweetie, and a softie, but neither of us are the type that would choose the other as a lover, or even as a personal deity. I’m more attracted to Visinniria, Elven Goddess of War. On the other hand, I haven’t met the human god of war yet, or the Sylvan or Draconian ones, so I’m not choosing yet.”

Neela gave a delighted laugh. “You’re adorable, Princess Fire. But I’m grateful that you’re bound to justice on Falgaroth’s stone. You might really be a problem, otherwise.”

“Why thank you Neela, I’ll take that as a compliment.” Fire grinned.

“Good.” Neela glanced around the group with a smile. “I just wanted you all to know that we of the gods are very proud of you for your accomplishments in the time-bubble. And, we’ve all heard what was said at the meeting at Zarkog’s observatory today, and of course we’re aware of your fine efforts to correct injustices this morning. Valentia’s breakthroughs in automated spell casting are absolutely breathtaking, and I’m sure they’ll be fully as significant as Prince The Sixth here predicts.

“Creativity is the most crucial resource we have, and we of the gods have no more of it than mortals. Intellect, power, awareness, knowledge, ability, these we have in abundance, but without additional creativity, it’s no easier for the gods to create new solutions and decide to implement them than it is for mortals. And as Mark so effectively pointed out once, being immortal is no guarantee of wisdom. Though having thousands or millions of years of experience can help with that, it can also produce stagnant and inflexible thought patterns.

“It takes millions of creative minds to build a new society for a population as large as Kellaran’s, and we gods are still very few. It also takes a few geniuses with new creativity and new wisdom. In those respects, you are all among the best we have, and we cherish you.

“Therefore, many of us stand ready to provide you with further assistance, all of you, within reasonable limits. For assistance beyond reasonable limits, you’ll need a consensus in The Assembly of The Just Alliance.”

“Wow.” Six marveled. “We realize the full value of your offer, and we thank you and every other who offers us their assistance.”

“Well said, my son.” Mark nodded. “You speak for all of us in that.”

“I for one ask for knowledge;” Six stated with a formal bow. “And an intercession with the Triax; their gods and their people. I wish to know all that is known about travel, navigation, and warfare in the void. I don’t want to start working on it for another eight days, but at that point I’ll want to learn it as quickly as possible.”

“I share his request, and have no wish to delay starting work on it beyond tomorrow.” Kragorram stated. “I am particularly interested in the Triax’s knowledge of the construction and propulsion of void-craft. I’m glad we had the chance to design our craft in isolation, as we may have come up with different solutions, but now that I have access to it, I want their knowledge and the benefit of their experience.”

“I wish to learn from the gods and mortals who are most skilled at Shape-Shifting.” Fire stated.

“I wish to know, in full, the Prerequisites for Divinity.” Mark stated. “All the gods are different, it seems, but there must be a set of standards that you use to decide who’s Ascended and who hasn’t.”

A moment passed, but there were no more requests.

Povon gave the dragon equivalent of a shrug. “I think we can do everything else we want to do without the help of the gods. Maybe you could help us get it done a little quicker, but we’re already worried about achieving things faster than we can properly manage the change, so we might as well pass on that.”

“Most excellent.” Neela stated with a smile. “As you know, we still encourage mortals as a whole to be as self-sufficient as possible. Your requests are reasonable, easy to fulfill, and could only be granted by the gods, for the most part.”

She addressed Fire and produced a small flat oval silver plate with several lines of text engraved on it. “There’s an abundance of knowledge about Shape-Shifting available from mortals. I offer you the names and addresses of the most skilled twelve. If they cannot or will not give you the knowledge or techniques you need to fulfill your goal, whatever it may be, then call upon me again and I’ll see what we can do.”

“Thank you.” Fire said with a military bow, then accepted the plate.

“The Prerequisites for Divinity, as they’re commonly known.” Neela said as she handed another engraved silver plate to Mark. “But the term is inaccurate. Only some of the gods have every single one of the Prerequisites, and almost all of them have other, individual abilities that are certainly divine in magnitude, yet are not considered Prerequisites. Often there’s been debate among the pantheon as to whether a Candidate has achieved divinity, and Glup of the Zurb is the final arbiter. Sometimes he’ll decide when the question has barely been raised, and at other times he lets the rest reach consensus, and sometimes he lets the debate rage on until it’s obvious that no consensus will be reached before he decides.”

“Then I’d like to talk to him, if I can.” Mark said as he read the plate. “I understand that I’ll need another god to translate for him, as well.”

“I’ll pass on your request, though no one can say whether Glup will decide to accede to it. He wasn’t one of the gods who offered to help you.” Neela told him, then turned to Kragorram and included Six with a look.

“I’ll arrange for the gathering of the little knowledge we Kellarani have of void warfare, and arrange for a liaison with one or more of the Triax to give you what they know of it. You’ll be contacted to arrange a time and place to meet once they’ve decided who they’ll send.

“You should understand that the techniques that the gods and the mortals of the Triax use for warfare in the void are usually very different. We anticipate that this will be true of the Kellarani as well, so some of our gods have been learning from theirs the techniques that our mortals couldn’t use.

“Also, Commander Yazadril had already arranged for a few of his bright young officers to learn mortal void warfare from the Triax some weeks before he entered the time-bubble, and he’s actually receiving their report as we speak.

“However, many of us feel that the sessions with Yazadril’s officers didn’t go as well as we’d hoped, so we certainly do encourage you to make the attempt again.

“The Triax think very strangely, and while Yazadril’s officers were bright, it’s difficult to pick students who are talented in a field that’s new to our world. The mathematical requirement was especially troublesome, and unexpected. Not only did we learn that navigation in the void requires a surprisingly difficult level of mathematics in branches of the study that we haven’t yet developed on Kellaran, but the numerical system of the Triax is based on the number three, rather than ten. Compared to our number system, when a Triax counts, it counts one, two, ten, eleven, twelve, twenty, twenty-one, twenty-two, one hundred, you understand? You may want to take a while to prepare yourselves for this before you meet them, and review the report of Yazadril’s officers, in order to maximize the usefulness of the time you spend with the Triax.”

“Agreed, and thank you.” Kragorram nodded.