The Fire and The Storm - The Nexus of Kellaran #2 novel Chapter 80

Part 13

“I mean, no offence, but we didn’t choose to be stuck in here, unlike the rest of you. It’s been wonderful, but I’m sure that if we have to stay in here for another eighteen years without even word of what’s happening out there, I’m sure I’m going to lose my mental stability.”

“Well you’re not missing much, you’ve only missed two weeks out in the real world so far!” Wittan pointed out.

“True, but still, not knowing is really bothersome.” Helemia declared. “To us at least. I had a nightmare once where the demons came early while we were still stuck in here, and when the time-bubble finally ended there was nothing left alive outside it but billions and billions of demons. Unlikely I admit, but we don’t know. That could’ve really happened already, and we’d never know.

“And as far as our military ability goes, we’ve gotten about as good as we can get with the techniques we have here, and our improvement is really slowing. We’re not inventing as many new techniques as we were before either. We’re stagnating. I want to go out and learn from new people, and learn new spells and techniques.”

“And improve them.” Valentia giggled. “Quewanak, do you think my plan would work? Could we get the gods’ attention and get them to let us out?”

“I think we could, though I’m not positive, and there’s no way of knowing without trying it.” the green dragon opined.

“Well. I didn’t know this was bothering you kids this much.” Mark said with a bit of surprise in his tone.

“It wasn’t really, until Nek asked us yesterday what we were going to do to top this.” Reggie said as he indicated the Sylvan settlement around them with a wave. “This has all gone so much easier than we thought. Everything here is too easy.”

“Wanting out of the time-bubble didn’t get to be a strong feeling until just now, actually.” Helemia revealed. “It came with realizing that this is pretty much finished already. If we had to, we could have these fourteen ready to assume command here in a week, then we could take a Reading of all the spells and military lore we want to teach them and put it in a diamond and give it to them. They’d be able to teach it as fast as they and the rest here could absorb it. And that’s it, done, we could just walk away and it wouldn’t really matter. With another eighteen years to get ready for the demons, they won’t need us.”

“Now that the subject has been raised,” Equemev interjected from a three hundred meters down the beach, where she and her family were running through the surf, “I would like to say that we, the unicorns of Homestead, share the children’s feelings. We find that being confined to an area the size of Hiliani feels very restricting, far more than we expected it to. Unicorns are a nomadic and migratory race, and it seems that traveling is a greater part of our inherent needs than we anticipated. I myself have run the beaches all the way around the perimeter of Hiliani over six hundred times, until I am bored of it, and I’ve run the interior routes almost as much. All of us have. We yearn for the great plains of Xervia, and for the company of our kin.

“Which is another issue. If I had it all to do again, I would make sure that we either brought far more of my people here, or none. Even with our new children, the fourteen of us are not near enough to fully fulfill our herd instinct. We increasingly feel our isolation and separation from our people.”

“I see.” Mark nodded, seemingly mildly troubled. “Then it seems we should follow the kids’ advice, and try to get the gods to temporarily open the time-bubble so that those who want to leave can do so. And if any out in the world would like to come here to replace those who leave, we can do that too.”

“If you who want to leave can bear it, I would appreciate it immensely if you delayed your departure for at least two or three years.” Hilsith requested. “The assistance of the unicorns has been very valuable in my research, and I had expected that the assistance of you children would soon be quite central to my work as well.”

The three children and Karzog considered the question over their Link for a moment.