Part 8
This time the applause and amazed cries swept the room without interruption, and the twins bowed in the air with huge grins, then floated over to the badra wall and stopped in mid-air beside their parents.
Eventually the applause faded as Nek handed Reggie the paper with the tournament results, which he held up over his head.
“Okay, we have two people who scored fifteen, and they’ll play another turn to determine first and second place.” he announced. “We have six people who scored fourteen, and they’ll each play a turn to determine third, fourth, and fifth. And just so they know what they’re playing for, Helemia will now reveal the prizes.”
“We’re giving away these five diamonds, with the biggest for first place and the smallest for fifth.” Helemia announced as she held up the five glittering stones on the palm of her hand. Mark cast a Revealing to focus closely on them and display them to the room, and the crowd murmured in appreciation of the value of the prizes. The largest was almost a centimeter and a half wide, the smallest a third that size. “We’ve found a place where there’s a lot of these, and after we’ve picked up all the easy ones we’ll tell everyone where it is, in case they want to dig a mine or something. We’re using some of the small ones to pay for the feast tonight. And we’d like to thank Kragorram for helping us with cutting and polishing these.
“Now, could we have the eight finalists step to the wall please?”
Everyone watched the playoffs, aided by a Revealing of the badra wall that Mark cast at three times life-size above the playing area. The crowd cheered the high rolls and the good shots, groaned at the low rolls and the missed shots, and enjoyed the tension and excitement.
Reggie and Helemia had hugs to give with the prizes, and once all the winners had been congratulated and the losers consoled, they addressed the room one last time.
“We’d like to thank you all for coming today.” Reggie began. “It’s been a lot of fun, and we hope to do it again next year!”
They paused for a short round of applause.
to act more normal lately, but we know it
likes because they’re nice, and they do a lot to help others. I think our
he took over the narrative. “We’re already qualified to help other people with their psionics, especially Shielding and Illusions, so if anyone wants some help
gotta go get ready for bed now. Goodnight
in waving, grinning, and calling goodnight, then they floated down to
minutes, in case anyone still wants to party!” Reen called to the room, and most of the young adults seemed to think that was a good
the twins and their family took their leave, the hall
left to do in the hall by
sworn elves to do it before they go to the pub. They still spend half their time trying to think of ways to serve him without being a bother about it. But it’s nice of them to help with the hall; I’m glad we won’t have to do it.” She tilted her head to the side a bit and considered her psionic awareness. “Besides, they’re doing it with full-out magic, so it’ll only take them a couple of minutes
and gave the girl
We
he gave Reggie a cuddle. “Your behavior today was very special. Your maturity and abilities would still be incredible if you were sixteen years old. To be as special as you are at your ages seems nothing less than a
Father. We just seem normal to
aren’t really trying as hard as they could be. Considering what we’re all facing, they could all work on their training more than they do. We did get lucky to have our abilities, but most of our fast improvement is ‘cause we
not true. I love my life, and getting better at doing things all the time is one of the best parts of it. But beyond that, so what if working hard is less fun? If we can’t fight good enough to win when the demons get here, it’s not gonna matter much whether we had less fun now. And even if the demons weren’t coming, everybody’s memory shows that there’s always gonna be big problems; storms and earthquakes and volcanoes and droughts and floods and wars and new diseases. The longer it’s been since the problem happened last, the less ready for it everyone gets. And when it does happen, the best survive, especially the best
though I’m