The Fire and The Storm - The Nexus of Kellaran #2 novel Chapter 95

Part 15

“Love and trust and familiarity have much to do with it.” Karzog smiled. “The rest is due to equality. These three developed so quickly that they soon were as above me in intellect and psionics and power as I was above them in strength, until they improved me. I spend my life pushing myself to keep up with them, and I love it. The other human and elven children of Hiliani weren’t capable of having such a friendship of equals with me, and so I was never really that close with any of them. And I don’t think any young unicorn will ever be capable of being friends with any dragon until they’re at least forty years old.

“Another important factor was the quality of my parents. Mother and Father are both young adults with close relationships with smaller folk, and they’re a lot more open-minded than most dragons. And as first-time parents, they were willing to do things differently and to put in a lot more effort than most draconian parents. I know most dragons simply don’t let their young meet any small folk that need to remain uneaten, until their young are about eighty years old. Mother and Father let me get to know these small folk and their young when I was still very young and impressionable, and they were willing to monitor my thoughts and behavior constantly, so that they knew I was never that tempted to eat someone. When I first met them I was often mildly tempted to eat one of them, but I was never really that hungry since it was ensured that I’d always eaten recently, and I knew Mother was always monitoring me anyway. Being a single child probably helped a great deal as well. I’m sure things would have been much different if Mother and Father had a brood of thirty young to care for.”

“My son, you don’t realize how exceptional you are.” Kragorram told him. “Asking that we raise only you was one of the wisest things that the Ninety-Nine ever did. If you had been hatched and weaned with a clutch of other young dragons, you’d most likely have killed and eaten the rest long before you were even capable of thinking. That’s what usually happens when one hatchling is much more capable than the rest.”

“He’s right.” Povon smiled. “Furthermore, while you have been improved by these magnificent but impetuous brats, you were already the most exceptional young dragon the world had ever seen. You didn’t need these three for that, and I don’t think they’ve improved your potential any. You’d have still developed the same abilities, though I admit that without their interference, you wouldn’t have developed as quickly. For now, you follow their lead, but most of their development will be finished in half a century, when you’ll still only be halfway through your childhood.”

“Thank you Mother, but your pride in me is making you foolish.” Karz snickered. “It bothers you that I’m not the leader of my quartet, but it doesn’t bother you at all that you’re not the leader of The Six of Hilia. Not only do you follow Mark without question, though he’s not even fully mature yet and you are, you generally defer to Father as well, simply because you prefer the comfort of his leadership.”

“Ah. Well those are two very good points.” Povon smiled as she gave Kragorram a scratch on the inside of his left arm. “I’ll admit that my maternal pride isn’t always completely rational. Nor is leadership my strength.

“I’m the commander of all in Serminak, but I’m not their leader, and I very much prefer it that way. Kragorram is the leader of Serminaki Draconia, and as Mark predicted, they give him their fervent loyalty for the shining nobility of his character alone. And some of them give their loyalty to Mark directly.

“Sylvan aren’t really capable of giving loyalty to any leader, so they don’t have any leaders, just commanders and senior members of temporary coalitions.

“If you want a commander that can crack the whip and get things done, I’m a good choice. But if you want a leader to inspire loyalty and greatness in his followers, Mark is unbeatable. And your Father is coming into his own that way as well. And I think that being your father has helped him grow a great deal as a leader.”

“Since I learn leadership from Mark, I am indeed improving at it.” Kragorram admitted with a proud smile. “And you’re right about another thing, son. For there to be a close friendship, it helps if there’s a feeling of equality. We have very close relationships with small folk, but that’s only possible because they’re so exceptional. I never once worried that I would accidentally move the wrong way and crush Mark or Talia or Silaran, since they’re more than capable of preventing themselves from being injured that way, unlike most of the small folk.”

“It’s a humbling thought to be reminded that the dragons consider all the rest of us to be ‘the small folk’.” Mark chuckled. “And it always seemed that your awareness of your own body’s position and of everything else around you prevented those kinds of accidents.”

“Generally yes, but the movements of small folk are quick and sudden, so there’s always a danger of crushing one when they’re around.” Kragorram admitted as he scratched his chin. “Believe me, before I was a thousand years old, I would never have allowed any humans to be within arm’s length of me, let alone let their children climb on me like I did at Homestead. I’d have been too terrified of squashing one. At least with elves you know they’ll probably live if you don’t break their heads.”

That got a good laugh from Mark.

“And now, thanks to our work with Hilsith, humans will be just as hard to kill as elves.” Fire laughed. “Friendly dragons everywhere will be a lot less nervous.”

“That work should apply just as well to dwarves, giants, gnomes, selkies, and some of the hidden races.” Alilia pointed out with a smile. “Truly, it’s our most magnificent achievement.”

“So far.” Six nodded with a grin. “And I think giving magic use to every member of all those races counts as much as making them hard to kill.”

“Sweet missing gods!” Sheramiv exclaimed. “If you’ve accomplished all that, your names will be praised forever!”

“It was mostly Hilsith and Yzell’s work, though we all helped with it.” Talia insisted. “But yes, they do deserve to have their names praised forever for their achievement.”

“That one’s mostly Hilsith’s actually, I think.” Fire mused. “Yzell will get more credit if they solve the fertility problem though; that one’s her special project.”

“True.” Talia nodded as she started sending empty dishes away. “And now that we’ve all finished lunch, we might as well start work.”

“We already started.” Val giggled.

“The former members of The Anti-conspiracy Brigade report that most of them are presently available.” Sheramiv informed Povon. “They have recommendations for other investigators you may wish to recruit as well, should their muster prove insufficient for the task.”

“Excellent.” Povon nodded as she turned to Somonik and Gran. “Could you have them report to my Administration Center in Serminak in fifteen minutes?

“Meanwhile let’s all Link, and I’ll show you how I listen for rule breakers.”

They all closed their eyes in concentration, and silence fell among them.

Fifteen minutes later all but the four youngsters Translocated to Serminak. There they liased with their vast team of investigators, Linked with them, and went over all the reports of the incidents they wished to investigate. An hour later thousands more psionicists and investigators had been recruited and integrated into the effort, and an hour after that they had all been divided into teams with assigned cases, and sent out to work in a two-pronged attack. Each team had both investigators and psionicists, all of whom were sworn to justice, and since they were dealing with registered players and had no need to deal with legal procedure beyond satisfying themselves as to the facts of the case and the identities of the guilty, many of the cases were solved within minutes. Most of the convicted were remanded to Serminak for suitable punishment.

The lead investigative team, composed of Povon and the others who had been at Hilia, along with Zone Inspector Rayn from Belinhome Finitra and several of his subordinates, cast Translation for Kleti in preparation, then arrived in Kletiuk to deal with their first case. That being the case of Goodwife Nepetin Goslab, who had started the petition against The Game.