billion book
Chapter 73
Chapter 73
Part 13
Helemia had been psionicly scanning the working Sylvan in the construction crews as he spoke, found
one who had viewed the orientation presentation from an ideal vantage, and had taken a Reading from
him. She and Reggie converted in into a Revealing, cast it above the slumbering prisoners, then cast
twenty-four more copies of it over the many Sylvan on the beach so that they’d all be able to see one of
them without having to turn their heads too far. The twenty-five Revealings floated above the beach
showing identical frozen views of Karzog at the beginning of his speech to the Sylvan in Backyard
Valley the previous day.
They awoke the sleeping prisoners but left them immobilized, unable to move anything but their eyes
and their heads. After a few seconds to make sure they were all completely awake, Reggie announced;
“Watch this Revealing carefully. It’s the orientation experienced by the Sylvan we captured yesterday.”
Then they started the Revealing playing.
“You have been detained by The Governors of Hiliani…” the recorded Karzog proclaimed, and they
turned most of their attention away from it and began casting the automated food-gathering spells.
Over the next hour and a half much was accomplished; The new Sylvan finished watching the
presentation, were organized into teams, and set to building fifteen duplicates of the existing settlement
up and down the coast from it. Reggie and Helemia finished gathering food and helped with the
organization, including setting almost five hundred Sylvan to food preparation and cooking duties. And
Valentia returned five times with unconscious prisoners, seventy-eight of them in total.
“They’re getting harder to find, that’s for sure.” she stated as she prepared to go out again. “There can’t
be many more of them left. Unfortunately it’s almost impossible to know when we’ve got the last one.
Beyond the Stealth they got from their god and their own talent at it, there’s a few who’re really gifted
and creative at hiding from us.”
Just then fourteen Sylvan appeared before them. They were the first Sylvan that the four young
governors had seen or even heard of that looked old, with wrinkled faces, gaunt hands, and gray hair
mixed in with the black hair that all Sylvan had.
“Greetings.” one old female said in Blezogeth. “We are the Elders of the Sylvan on these islands that
you call Hiliani. We demand to know what you plan to do with those of our people you’ve captured, and
we demand to know what your intentions are regarding the rest of us.”
“They’re not really here.” Karzog stated.
“No, but they’re very well-done Projections.” Helemia said, then addressed the Projected newcomers.
“Appearing here in astral rather than corporal form does protect you from physical attack here. But you
should know that we can follow the psionic trace of your Projection right back to where you are, like
this.”
She, Reggie and Valentia Translocated to a clearing in a forest of gigantic old-growth fir trees. They
were only there for a fraction of a second before returning, but that was long enough to see the surprise
on the faces of the fourteen old Sylvan they faced in the flesh there, and to register that a few hundred
other adult Sylvan were also gathered around, and that all of the trees in sight had well-camouflaged
homes built into them, and to cast the same Revealing of the orientation that they’d recently shown
their new prisoners.
“That Revealing will answer most of your questions.” Reggie stated. “Please contact us again after
you’ve viewed it.”
With that, the three children psionicly blocked the fourteen old Sylvan from the vicinity, effectively
ending the Projections.
“Not that smart of them to send their Projections from what appeared to be the town square of their
community.” Valentia giggled. “Now we know where it is, and they can’t abandon that location without
abandoning their homes. They should’ve gone somewhere remote before they sent that.”
“Damn, you are amazing!” Karzog marveled at the three of them.
“What, and you’re not?” Helemia laughed. “Right now you’re actively supervising almost thirteen
thousand young Sylvan! I’d say that’s pretty amazing. That’s already more than we thought there were
in total, by a lot.”
“You’re right, I’m amazing too.” Karzog grinned. “But then I’m a dragon, and it’s expected of us. On the
other hand, you could do what I’m doing, and I couldn’t do what you just did. That was well done, and
the look on their faces was priceless!”
“It was pretty good.” Helemia admitted. “And I’d have to use a lot more automation than you’re using to
do what you’re doing. For that matter, none of us could have done that alone, it took all three of us to
do it that good, and if you’d have been one of the three it would have worked just as good.”
“Are we quite finished kissing each other?” Reggie asked with a grin. “We’d better plan for a few
different eventualities before they finish watching that. I can’t guess how they’ll react, but there’s a few
possibilities that we really should prepare for.”
“Good point.” Valentia nodded, and they deepened their Link and started planning.
A few minutes later Helemia raised her head and closed her eyes for a second. “They want our
attention. They’re trying to cast the Projections again.”
They ended the blocking they were holding against psionic penetration of their Wards, and the fourteen
Projected elders appeared again.
“How will you hold these young ones captive without making them insane? How will you deal with their
violent urges and tendencies?” the old woman who’d spoken before asked without preamble.
“We’ll keep them very, very busy with work and with fun, and we’ll let them fight against each other in a
supervised arena every night, if they want to.” Reggie told her.
“Huh. And how will we know we can trust you to keep your word about your people not retaining control
over mine, beyond the training against the demons and keeping our young from killing each other?”
“Have you heard of The Truthstone of Falgaroth?” Reggie asked as he shucked his pack and dug into
a side pocket of it.
“Yes, I’ve heard of it. It’s famous for being the largest spelled item on Kellaran.”
“Yes, and only truth can be spoken while in contact with it, only just vows can be sworn on it, and any
vows sworn on it are unbreakable.” Reggie nodded, then showed them what he had. “This is an
extension of The Truthstone of Falgaroth. Touching this smaller stone is functionally the same as
touching the great Truthstone itself.
“We’ll swear on this stone to use the least cruel methods possible to prevent your young from killing
each other, and to care for them as well as we’re able while they’re in our care. We’ll swear to train all
of the Sylvan on Hiliani with every method and technique we have for destroying the demons, and all of
you will swear to teach us any physical, magical, or psionic warfare and combat techniques that you
know and we don’t.
“Everyone of both of our peoples will swear to co-operate and coordinate in defending Hiliani from the
demons, and to not act against members of the other community or their interests in any way.
“Both of our communities will grow in population as fast as possible until we’ve fully dealt with the
demons, but your population is already much larger than ours, and now that your young aren’t killing
each other, your population will also grow much faster than ours. We will therefore reserve for our use
the island where Homestead; our community, is located, and the three islands directly west of there,
from Homestead to the west coast. The other twenty-three islands of Hiliani will be reserved for Sylvan
expansion. In the future we might each choose to let some from the other community live in our areas,
if everyone involved agrees to that.
“We’ll teach you how to cultivate and intensify the life on the land and in the waters of Hiliani,
increasing the number and size of every plant and animal evenly, to increase the number of people
who can live on Hiliani’s bounty without degrading the forest or the waters. We’ll supplement this with a
few small areas for gardens and some domestic animals. If we reach the maximum population that our
islands can support, we’ll stop breeding until we can find a way to support more people with our
resources, and we’ll all swear to that.