billion book
Chapter 46
Chapter 46
Part 8
“Brilliant!” Mark marveled as they passed Dalia and Bezedil’s place. “You know, in many ways, you
really are the smart one in our marriage.”
“I’m pleased you think so!” Talia laughed. “I’m the quick one too! Race you there!” she added as she
took off running, with him laughing in pursuit.
They soon settled into the new routine, and theirs became a much more closely-scheduled household,
as they all arranged and attended appointments to learn, teach, and work with others in the community.
Their evenings were usually reserved for family warfare training, which was the emotional highlight of
their day. They worked as a team of six against whatever simulated demons Ria conjured for them that
day, and they consistently found it to be an incredibly fun and deeply bonding experience. All the
magic, light, and sound of their battles were cast as private Illusions which were sometimes augmented
with a bit of Force or Heat, so as to not disturb the neighbors. However, they soon realized that they
sometimes looked quite silly running and flying around making inexplicable motions, so Ria devised a
nice spell that allowed anyone observing them to see and hear their battles if they chose to, complete
with hundreds of demon enemies, barrages of spells, full use of weapons, and listening-only access to
their family Command Link.
Soon after that, spectating their family warfare training became a common pastime for the rest of the
community.
Valentia often made a pest of herself by trying to share in all of the twins’ activities, and they responded
by spending about four hours every day playing with her. Without specifically saying they were doing
so, they spent that time deeply Linked with her, trying to hurry her development as much as they could.
Their efforts, combined with the lessons and training that their parents were giving her, soon began to
produce results. Valentia’s speech lost most of its childish quality within weeks, and her behavior and
abilities improved so rapidly that within a year she seemed as mature as Reggie and Helemia. She still
had a fiery temperament, but she was in control of it, and she became as dedicated to self-
improvement as her siblings.
PART 9
The day before Valentia’s first birthday she initiated conversation as the family was sitting down for
supper.
“Tomorrow’s my birthday, and there’s some presents I want to ask for.
“I think you can trust me not to make silly mistakes anymore. I promise to keep getting lots of exercise,
and to not sleep with Levitation.
“I want full control of my magic, and I want The Skills of Visinniria spell done on me. I promise not to
hurt anyone, and not to wreck anything.
“But I really want to do what I can do! I want to see how much I can lift, I want to see how big a Fireball
I can cast, I want to see how big an explosion I can make! I mean, playing with the Illusions is fun, but I
really want to use all my abilities, and I really want to fight! I mean, some really serious sparring at
least, both with magic and without! I want to shoot real arrows, and I want to use a real sword, and I
want to learn all the forest ranger stuff Father knows!”
“That all seems pretty reasonable.” Mark agreed. “And I think we’re all ready for some real weapons
training.”
“There’s a small island at the southern edge of the archipelago that we could use for a weapons
range.” Alilia told them. “It’s not much more than a big flat-topped rock at one end of a big sandbar, and
there’s only about half a dozen trees on it because it gets blasted by the hurricanes every year. It’s
about the only place in Hiliani where there’s not much to destroy, and it’s as far as we can get from
here, and from the Sylvan.”
“All right, we’ll all go there after supper and get some real exercise.” Talia told Valentia with a big smile
and a caress of her head. “We’ll start off by lifting sand with Movement. I’m quite curious to see how
strong you are, Love.”
“And yes, you can have full control of your magic now.” Mark told her with a proud grin. “We’ll give you
The Skills of Visinniria when we get there.”
“Ooooh, thank you thank you thank you!” Valentia cried as she clapped and bounced in her seat. “This
is gonna be so fun!”
“I’m sure we could fill the whole evening just playing with magic,” Reggie mused, “So there’s no use
bringing our armor. I think I’ll bring my war darts though, I could do with more practice with those.”
“Ya, me too.” Helemia nodded around a mouthful of baked fish.
After supper they dressed for a warm spring evening, and loaded their packs with water bottles and war
darts.
“I’ll Translocate us there.” Alilia said as she buttoned her tunic. “You children have never Translocated
before, and it’s about the most useful spell there is, so you’ll want to pay attention. It’s a complex
multiple spell with a very high power requirement, and lives are on the line every time you cast it on
someone or on yourself. You must always work with an experienced caster, first as you observe, then
as you cast it under their guidance, until you are absolutely certain of it. Only then can you cast it
independently, and only then if you are absolutely sure of every component of the spell at that moment.
“Valentia, though you and I do most magic intuitively, we still need to have a solid intellectual grasp of
every step of this spell. Nothing in life is more horrible than a badly bungled Translocation. It can scar
your soul just to see it.”
She let them consider that as she established a teaching Link among herself and the three children.
“First, take a measurement of the weight of everything you’re going to move. You’ll eventually get good
enough to make an estimate of sufficient accuracy for most people and commonly moved items, but for
now you should cast the Measurement discreetly, so that your result is accurate. So, the weight of the
six of us and our items is three hundred ninety-nine kilos, seven hundred and ninety-six grams, and
that’s accurate enough. Keep that number in mind.
“Second, you need a Translocation reference. The easiest way to get one is to physically travel
between the two places while carefully measuring your movement. You can get a memory of such
travel from another psionicly and use that as your reference. You can project your consciousness along
your route and measure the distance and direction as you do so. And, if you have an intellect like
Yazadril’s, you can use mathematics to extrapolate a reference between two places from two other
references that link those places to a third place. And if you’re as smart as Somonik or Tithian, you can
construct a reference with pure mathematics if you know the exact locations and elevations of both
places.
“If the target is more than a couple of kilometers away, you must correct for orientation. Remember that
the world is round, and when you’re standing your feet always point toward the center of the world. If
you Translocate a quarter of the way around the world without correcting your orientation, you’ll come
out laying on your side, and if you Translocate to the other side of the world without correcting for it
you’ll come out upside down.”
She waited a moment while the children got a giggle at that thought.
“Until you’re very experienced with casting Translocations you should always come in high, by casting
Levitate upon everything you’re Translocating and targeting a destination point that’s high above the
ground or anything else you could intersect.
“Having established exactly where you’re going, you project your consciousness there and check to be
sure the space is clear, and that no-one could move into it.
“Then you must prepare for displacement. You will always measure the volumes and shapes of
everything you’re Translocating. The air occupying the space the Translocated people or items will take
up at the destination is Translocated back to fill the space they left at their departure point.