Novel Update
Chapter 104
Chapter 104
Part 17
“Now, I assume that you mean to recruit trainees with public Revealings. Those should be done in
three stages. The first would announce that you’ll be initiating the new system and show the benefits
and attractions of your program, to build interest without announcing when your opening day will be.
That should be the first thing you work on. Once your planning is advanced enough that you can say
with confidence when you can start operations and how many recruits you can take in the initial
opening, you can say so with your second stage of Revealings. After you’ve begun operations you
release your third stage Revealings to recruit for your expansion.”
After a moment, Fire laughed, then spoke. “And of course, the sentence you were too polite to add is;
‘And while you’re at it, you might want to reconsider whether you really are experienced and mature
enough to rule Kellaran’!”
“Just so.” Alilia nodded with a smile.
“I understand your concern.” Six smiled. “We should have clarified what we have planned already. I
admit that we’ve been keeping things to ourselves a lot lately, and maybe we’ve been overdoing it. But
we knew that when we left the time-bubble, we’d suddenly be psionicly aware of a lot more, maybe
even everything in the world, like Quewanak could do even when he was still a mortal. And we knew
that unless we were very disciplined, a great many powerful psionicists in the world would suddenly
become aware of us. To young psionicists like ourselves, who grew up in psionic isolation, both those
thoughts were somewhat intimidating. And both those things have happened. We’re not aware of
everything in the world yet, but we keep seeing and feeling and hearing things from all over the world,
and we’ve been probed several hundred times already. That we’re aware of. We’ve blocked all the
probes, as far as we know, but the experience has perhaps left us a bit paranoid. So maybe we’ve
overdone it on keeping things private.
“Anyway, our obvious first step as far as we can see is to convert Zwak’s existing training programs for
unruly young Sylvan over to our system, and that’s all that we planned to accomplish today. As for the
rest; as I’ve said, we knew we’d need Zwak and Povon’s help with all the logistics. I’ll admit that if you’d
not spoken we’d probably have found those logistics to be a more complex problem than we expected,
but I think we know when to seek the assistance of others and when to delegate, as well as when to act
ourselves. Perhaps we’re not ready to rule the world, but we still think we are, and we’ll know one way
or another after the tournament.
“Good point by the way on getting Val’s Healing spells finalized before we begin operations. If we’re
going to use them, and we are, we should use them from the beginning. We had planned to use other
methods that would have worked, at least for the systems we’re putting in place today, but you’re right;
it’s a smarter order of operations to go with our best methods initially when it’s practical to do so, rather
than following through on an existing plan and then altering it after with new and improved methods.”
“Well spoken.” Alilia laughed. “You’ve obviously thought this through a bit more thoroughly than you
made it seem before. Still, I think the advice of the point I was trying to make is still valid; Don’t be in
too much of a hurry. You’re capable of accomplishing things much faster than most anyone else, I grant
you that, but don’t overdo it to the point where you’re creating problems for yourselves.”
“It’s good advice, and I thank you, Heart-Mother.” Six said with a bit of a bow. “We’ll try to heed it, and
hope that any problems we create by working so fast are more than balanced by the benefits of doing
so, which will be many and obvious.”
He turned to his father. “To be honest, I’m glad we won’t be running the world over the next six weeks.
Because we’re obviously going to upset a great deal of The Just Alliance’s recently-established social
order. Other than the obvious changes we plan to make in Serminak; it’s obvious to me that in two
weeks, Val here will be the most influential person in the world, as far as initiating rapid change goes.
Her talent with automated spells is really taking off, and she’ll change everything with them. With the
spell-set she conceived of just now, along with the solution to the longevity and wizardry problems that
Hilsith and all of us came up with on Hiliani, most of the Healers in the world will soon be out of work.
“Do you think she’s paying any attention to this conversation right now? She’s not, or not very much.
Ever since Alilia said she doubted that we could run the continent’s food production systems with
automated spells, Val’s taken it as a challenge. Her awareness is out there right now, compiling a list of
every task performed in agriculture here, along with the procedures used. If she concentrates on it, I’d
guess it will take her less than six hours to have the basics of the spell design finished. Then she’ll
need our help to build up all the complexities of the actual casting without taking a year at it, but she
could do it all herself if she took the time, and we couldn’t.
“I’d guess that in six weeks, by the time we take part in the tournament, she might be able to do all the
work that gets done by everyone in every society on Kellaran with automated spells. If she decides to
profit from her work, which is her right, she could own a significant portion of everything by the time the
entire economic system collapses. And it won’t matter when it does. With her work, we’ll be able to put
every living able-bodied person on the fighting line against the demons if we have to. And after we beat
the demons, the entire world will enter a new age of leisure, completely free of any unpleasant work.
Thanks to Val.”
“I won’t need help with it anymore.” Val stated absent-mindedly as she stared off into space. “I just
came up with an automated spell to help me deal with the complexity of compiling automated spells.
And now that I think about it, I should be able to replace the entire military with an army of automated
spells. I just need Father to teach me that thing he did to Zarkog with the energy collecting fields so I
can power it all.”
Everyone except her took a moment to consider the implications of that. She just kept working.
“Sweet Mother of All.” Mark muttered under his breath.
Neela appeared before him, her gleaming black hair flowing over a white gown. “I keep telling you,
that’s an inaccurate term for me.” she giggled.
“And I keep telling you, I’m still not used to there being real gods in the world, let alone having them
appear when they’re mentioned.” Mark chuckled. “But it’s good to see you, Neela.
“I’m pleased for you to meet my children, and Povon and Kragorram’s son.”
Val turned her back to the goddess, and the distraction of her presence. “Sorry, I’ve gotta concentrate
on this right now.” she muttered.
“Quite understandable; it’s complex and important work.” Neela nodded, and contained her aura out of
consideration.
“May I ask how you know that it’s complex and important work?” Fire inquired.
“The second time I was Mark and Talia’s lover, I shared all with them, and since then they have held no
Shields against me, so I know what was just said here.” Neela explained.
“You shared all?” Fire marveled, then cocked an eyebrow at her mother. “That must have been a lot to
absorb.”
“Well of course we don’t remember all of it.” Talia responded. “But I retain her entire life as a mortal
pretty well, and her last few years up to when she shared with us, and the important events in between. Contentt bel0ngs to N0ve/lDrâ/ma.O(r)g!
I’d have had to cast a serious memory spell to retain it all, and with the skill I had then it would have
taken an hour, and we were rather occupied at the time. But yes, she shared all; I have no doubt of it.
She’s a good and loving person, and either very cautious or very indecisive, depending on your
viewpoint on the matter.”
Neela smiled and shrugged. “I made a mistake when I was young as a goddess, and my people
suffered for it for millennia, perhaps for eons indirectly, and I had to watch it all. There’s no escaping
your mistakes once you leave mortality behind.”
“What was the mistake?” Fire asked.