Part 22
Prince Jaromer of Thon and Princess Pimall of The Warm People came by for a few moments, during which Jaromer proposed a toast; “To a long lifetime of love and happiness, and to having the biggest marker on the gameboard!”
This brought a hearty laugh to most at the table, but the children had to access Talia’s memory of her first wedding here before they got the reference.
Osbald, Emeroth, and Senchak came to offer their well-wishes, then they took Yazadril aside for a private ten-minute consultation.
There was music and dancing and displays of artistic magic, but most of the rulers spent their time in conversation, and they began saying their farewells only an hour after dinner.
By the time another ninety minutes had passed, only the closer of the friends and family remained, along with the wedding party, some one hundred in all. The atmosphere of the gathering relaxed somewhat, and everyone who remained brought their chairs over to the head table, some sitting inside the ring, some outside the original circle of chairs.
“Did you know,” Dilimon asked as he waved a tankard of mead, “I’ve had reports that The Healing of Valentia prevents extreme drunkenness, hangovers, and alcoholism. But it doesn’t prevent moderate to almost-extreme drunkenness, and I can testify to that right now!”
As a laugh went around at that, Six poked Karzog in the shoulder with a friendly bit of Force and said; “Let’s fight.”
“What, now?” Karz laughed.
“Sure, up above the flowers.” Six grinned.
“Well I’m sure not going to fight you in this elf Simulacrum; I haven’t even practiced in it.” Karz declared with a grin of his own. His teeth looked startlingly white against the otherwise unrelieved blackness of his confident face. “But I’ll go for swords and magic if you want.”
“Done!” Six called as he cast a glowing transparent yellow Challenge Sphere from eighteen to two hundred meters above the ground, filling much of the volume of the great clearing in the redwoods.
“Don’t you think that cape will get in the way?” Karz teased as they Translocated to the center of the Sphere, he assumed his true form, and they Retrieved their sheathed swords.
them about with a few warm-up swings. “This is a Battle Wizard’s outfit, after all. They must
dark places!” Alilia called up with
as he flew
having an aerial sword fight? Six against Karzog?” Sana asked with a worried look as she noted Karzog warming up
weapons, no armor.” Fire explained. “Unlimited magic and
good enough to counter
since they can both use Shielding to block swords as well as spells, and they can use magic to cast as attacks or to augment their sword strikes. And Karz is no slouch at the magic. It’s not gonna be even though, it’s gonna be chaotic. Either one could win or lose in a blink from a lucky
his sword to bear as he flew slowly around just inside the
cast
followed a quick chase and counter-chase sequence of short and violent flight maneuvers full of sword-strikes and spell-casting interspersed
in every direction, but were contained by the Challenge Sphere, which also contained the combatants on one occasion when they collided with the
mid-thigh. He immediately let his sword fall to the bottom of the sphere, snatched Six
of magic around Six’s leg as The Healing of
breath and rubbed his leg with both hands while Karzog Retrieved his sword
a winner!” the young black dragon
your psionics to detect where I was going to emerge, that’s cheating.” Six
first place, and that’s not what I did anyway.” Karz stated with a grin as Six dismissed the Sphere and they flew down to the table. “Read me if you want. You let a pattern develop in your jumps.
a friendly slap on the
called as she clapped and stood, and many
him with one arm while rubbing his leg and casting Diagnostics on it
Mother.” he assured her with
I wanted to