Part 5
“And they’re damned hard to kill. If you cut off one of their limbs, or even two or three, it won’t kill them, and they’ll probably be back in the battle in two or three days. Assuming that one of their own doesn’t take advantage of their weakness to kill them and eat them. You pretty much have to destroy their heads, or more than half of their torsos, in order to kill them. They breed like flies, and they give birth by vomiting up a few hundred tiny demons about five centimeters tall, all of whom are battle-ready a moment after birth. They double in size every three months when well fed, and they can change the shape and configuration of their bodies as they’re growing. They can add extra limbs, tails, wings, spikes, horns, whatever they want.
“I mean, I knew a lot of this already, from what Somonik said at the beginning of the War of The Founding. And we just read about it a couple of months ago. But knowing it is a lot different from seeing it, hearing it, feeling it like you were there. I don’t know how our babies haven’t been completely traumatized by this. It just amazes me. Fifty-four years of the demon war, every experience of it, taken in a blink.
“I’m so worried about them now, but I don’t know what to do about it, or even if we should do anything about it.
“And beyond that, I’m worried for us all. I think we’re not taking the threat of the demons seriously enough. But I’m not sure if there’s anything we can do about it. I don’t know that it’ll really help things if everyone knows in advance how horrible the demons really are. Many are having a hard enough time dealing with their fear as it is.”
“No doubt that was Quewanak’s thinking.” Talia mused. “And Povon and Kragorram’s as well, since they have the memory too. Quewanak’s training pushes us pretty hard. He could make it harder, and we could improve faster, but then it would start to detract from people’s ability to enjoy their lives between training. That in turn might slow our progress.
“We have the time to train in the healthiest manner possible. It would be different if we had less time. If we had to fight the demons in six months it would be worth it to hurry and intensify the training. But we can’t sustain that level of intensity for twenty four-years.
“On the other hand, the simulations of demons that we face in the training should be just as dangerous as real demons. If we have to face less of them in the exercises in order for any of us to survive the battle, then we’ll just have to do that. They just don’t have to be as horrible as real demons, not yet anyway.
when we faced the demons in Quewanak’s training dream, do you think they were the same as in
since before you got pregnant. It’s like a dream that keeps fading with time. We didn’t face demons until the last part of the training, and by then I was pretty emotionally numb from it all, and they were just distractions from the task of beating Zarkog anyway. But yah, now that I think about it, they were pretty much
enough recently to compare
that the exercises are… Well not fun, as I was going to say. But with the joy and triumph and celebration that comes from the occasional victory, I think it’s an
still worried that we may be forming bad habits that will lead us
this?” she asked of the thin air, knowing the dragon god’s vast awareness would insure she
“And you’re correct in thinking that this training program has been designed to advance steadily in difficulty over the full twenty-four year span of our
habits that lead you
thinking, so long as the time-bubble isn’t ended early for some
people receive accelerated training in the main time stream, assuming that the time-bubble cannot be resumed for some reason. If we have some warning that the time-bubble will end early, the training
as planned, in twenty-four years these people will be as fully prepared and trained to wage war
“Thank you.” Talia nodded.
any thoughts on the twins’ mental health?” Mark asked.
doing fine. Don’t worry so much. The twins have a good grasp of their own abilities and limitations. When they’re ready, they’ll ask to join the community training program, and shortly after that their worth will be known. Then everyone will want