“Harm by perception! You’ll have to explain that a bit further!”
“All right. I might pass a law preventing people from fornicating in the deep forest, but not in their front yards in a just and secure community. In the forest around Shinosa there are wild cats, nothing so huge as Stripe here, but still big enough to kill and eat a person if they get a chance. They don’t do it very often, but they instinctively know when you’re most vulnerable. Most everyone they do kill is either fornicating or leaving a crap at the time, because that’s when you’re most vulnerable to attack from a wild cat. Pardon me for saying, but there it is, and every Ranger in Finitra knows it. Such things have been happening to people during such vulnerable moments for as long as we’ve been around, and that’s why most people will always feel a need to seek a private and safe place, out of view, for such activities. Such practical avoidance of risk is at the core of your abhorrence for public fornication, but if there’s no real risk of harm, your abhorrence is misplaced.
“Now let’s say that tomorrow you pick up a rose and prick your finger on a thorn, and your finger gets infected and swells up, and eventually turns black and falls off. It’s very rare, but it has happened. By the old thinking, rather than making a rational evaluation of the risk of roses, you might simply outlaw them from your empire in an attempt to eliminate the risk completely. But many people like roses, and would still grow them and buy them if they thought they could get away with it. When selling roses is illegal, if a rose seller if robbed, he can’t go to the city guard about it, so he has to hire a bone-breaker to get his money back. Soon the illegal market for roses is staffed by violent criminals. Every copper piece spent on roses escapes the tax collector, and instead goes to providing further power for criminals. Honest citizens begin to think; ‘Well no wonder they made roses illegal; everyone who has anything to do with them is an evil ruffian! Roses are obviously vile things!’
“Then a young man buys a rose for his sweetheart, emboldened by the romantic yet forbidden nature of the act. They get caught with it. They are disgraced, they go to prison, their lives are ruined. Because he gave her a rose, an act which any reasonable risk evaluation would rate as almost completely harmless. Yet the harm they suffer is real, and they suffer it because the act was perceived to be more harmful than it was. Thus; harm by perception, or more accurately, harm by false perception, since it’s the mistaken evaluation of risk that leads to the harm.
“This injustice happens to people every day, for such things as homosexuality and chewing bhalma stems. And yes, for being caught fornicating under the bushes in public parks.
“I bet you have a law in your country against going about in public naked, even though it presents no risk of harm, am I right?”
“You are.” Kevim nodded.
“If Somonik visits your country, are you going to arrest him for not wearing pants?”
Almost everyone there couldn’t help but look at Somonik, then mentally picture the ancient white dragon wearing trousers.
Mark let a wave of quiet laughter pass around the room before he continued.
“The law has to be equal for all. If you admit that there’s no harm in Somonik not wearing pants in Sming, there’s no harm for anyone else to do it either. Sometimes we just have to put up with the ways of others that we don’t like, unless we can prove harm or excessive risk, and that’s all there is to it. Sorry, but there it is.
“You’ve sworn to justice on the Truthstone. Can you truly deny the rightness of what I’m saying?”
Kevim’s brows furrowed for a moment, then smoothed, and suddenly he was laughing quietly to himself. “No. I truly wish I could deny it, young fellow, but I can’t refute your arguments. Well spoken.”
“Yes!” Talia exclaimed as she clenched a fist, then blushed bright red at her outburst.
“Yes indeed!” Wosea exclaimed in glee, clapping his tiny hands rapidly together, and many there joined him in applauding. It was obvious that Mark had supported his position in the debate, and he was delighted. “You recorded all of that?” he asked of Pishtu, who vigorously nodded.
Mark blushed and gulped his apple juice, as Talia hugged him warmly.
“Prince Mark, I must ask you, how did you think of all of that?” Kevim asked with a smile.
“Well it all started when I was walking through the forest one day, not long after I’d left home. As I often did then, I was weeping for the recent deaths of my family, and thinking about how unfair the whole world was.
“And I kind of asked myself; ‘Well, what would you have it be? What should be done to fix the world?’
“I walked alone for another five and a half months after that, so I had a lot of time to think about it, and a lot of it is based on things I’ve learned from the elves over the last three days. It never really came together like that before just now, as a complete policy I mean. Till now it was mostly just a bunch of separate conversations I had with myself to keep from losing my mind to monotony.”
“Six months, trekking through unsurveyed mountains alone, without equipment.” Kevim marveled. “What an ordeal that must have been, but it forged you from unfinished ore to a fine blade. I imagine the conspiracy expected that any survivors would flee to the east, toward the closest settlements, and Finitra proper.”
“No, I’d never been out of the mountains, they’re home to me. I know their dangers and how to fight in them. I’d never run to the lowlands if I feared attack. I went south, the better to escape the magic blizzard.”
“That likely saved your life, and I’m most glad it did.”
“Thank you.” Mark nodded, and heaved a huge sigh. “Well, I’d like to thank you all for your courtesy, and for listening to me. But I must admit that the tension of all that public speaking has taken it out of me, and Talia feels much the same. Besides that, we were married just yesterday, and should be on our honeymoon right now. So, I think we’ll bid you all good night.”
He turned to his draconian and equine companions. “Feel free to stay and mingle if you want, or you’re welcome to come back with us and continue visiting.”
“I’d rather we went with you.” Povon told him. “I’m really enjoying this feeling of friendship and camaraderie, almost as much as Kragorram’s love. I’ve never felt anything like either one.”
“Yez, we’ll come with you.” Kragorram nodded.
“We came as a company, we should depart as one.” Silaran declared.
“All right then, Silaran, if you’ll bring us home?”
“I’m afraid I cannot, for I don’t know where we are. Only the makers of this hall and Somonik know where it is, though I can tell we’re deep underground. And only Somonik can send us home from here. Security precautions, you understand.”
“I’m ready to Translocate you.” Somonik told them psionicly.
“I see.” Mark nodded. “Well goodnight everyone. I hope we’ll see you all again soon.”
“Go ahead Somonik, and thank you.” Talia called, and suddenly they were in the back yard of The Living Palace.
“Allow me.” Povon said as she cast a sphere of light over the porch that lent a warm glow to the scene.
“Ahh, is it ever good to be home.” Mark grinned as he stretched, and Stripe and Scout made for their food and water supplies in the stable. “It feels like we were gone for a year! First thing is getting this armor off!”
“I could put it away for you, if you wish.” Povon giggled.
“Sure!” Mark laughed, and suddenly all of their armor and Kragorram’s sword disappeared, leaving him to fall two centimeters to his bare feet with a bit of a jolt. “Thanks!” he laughed as he scratched an itch on his chest. He realized he was clad in only his underwear, the tine band on his forehead, and his sheathed sword, but he found that he didn’t mind that. Talia was the only other humanoid there, and the other four habitually went about completely unclothed, as was the manner of their races. Besides, it was a beautiful summer night.
“I’ll get us something to eat.” Talia smiled as she kissed his cheek.
“Where will we get food? I don’t even know if there’s a market near here!” Mark laughed as they climbed the eight broad, semicircular stairs at the back doors of The Living Palace.
“There’s a market on the lakeshore, but it’s not open now. It is after midnight.” Talia giggled. “But we have plenty of food, and barrels of drink! The larder’s full, the pantry’s full, and the entire kitchen is piled high with it! I won’t have to cook for years!
“Here, you just sit down and enjoy. I’ll have it ready in a moment.” Talia smiled, and with a whistled trill, she summoned a small, high table and a chair sized for Mark, with a matching chair sized for her with legs long enough to match the height of the table. She arranged them to one side of the doors on the broad semicircular porch at the top of the back stairs.
Then she turned to her visitors. “Can I get you four anything?”
“No thank you.” Povon declined. “We stuffed ourselves with succulent tidbits last night, and we quite literally won’t need to eat for a month! Unless you could brew up a hogshead of rose hip tea?”
“I can do that!” Talia laughed. “The kitchen has facilities to cook for a thousand humans or elves! The biggest kettle is as high as my head!
“And Kragorram, we have a cask of nice high proof rum if you’d like it?”
“Thank you Talia, I would.”
“We’ll just partake of some of this absolutely succulent turf you have here!” Equemev enthused as she and Silaran began to graze on the lawn. “It grows fast enough to need a trim already, and it’s delicious stuff! My compliments to your horticulturist! We’ll wash it down with some of the cool spring water in the trough in the stable. I’m getting the impression from Stripe right now that it’s most refreshing!”
“That ale we had at the meeting was almost too good!” Silaran chuckled as he chewed. “I was starting to get tipsy from it!”
“I’m not surprised! You drank over twenty litres of it!” Mark laughed.
“You don’t mind that we talk while we eat, do you?” Equemev inquired, without looking up from the grass she was cropping. “Our people generally do, due to our use of psionic Speaking for almost all of our communications.”
“Please, make yourselves at home!” Mark laughed. “Your ways certainly make you easy to host!”
Talia had plucked dishes, glasses and silverware out of the air and set the table for herself and Mark. Now she began producing covered crocks and kettles of various sizes. When she removed their lids the contents were steaming hot, and in two cases still settling from a boil.
“Wow! Where’d all this come from?” Mark asked.
“From the various feasts at our wedding last night. Many of the nations brought ridiculous amounts, just in case any significant portion of the three and a half million in attendance had decided to eat at their pavilions. There was enough food there last night to feed four times that many, and hundreds of crocks and kettles of freshly cooked food weren’t even opened. Not to mention wheels of cheese, racks of loaves of bread, bushels of fruit and salads, foodstuffs of every kind, and many of them were never touched. And while most of it was sealed and preserved and taken back by those who’d brought it, Mileemi of Thon made sure we got as much of it as we had room to store!”
“This really smells great! And you just have to re-heat it?”
“No, it’s preserved exactly as it was the moment it was sealed! If it was boiling then, it’ll still be boiling when you open it, even it it’s ten years later! It’s like an ongoing Restore spell!” Talia laughed as she sat and began serving herself. “Welcome to the world of modern convenience, my previously-rural love! Without such spells, I doubt even the nations of the elves could lay out such feasts as they presented yesterday on such short notice!
“For that matter, you really must take a moment soon to look at your own kitchen! It’s a wonder of mechanical and magical automation! And with the skills I have as a wizard to help me use it remotely, I don’t even need to be there to make Povon’s tea! A service cart will bring it out here in... about sixteen minutes, Povon. Sorry for the wait, but those who designed my kitchen never imagined me needing to boil four hundred litres of water on a few moment’s notice.”
“That’s fine. In the meantime, let me show you something, little sister.” Povon mused. “Mark, you might as well learn this as well, so Link with Talia as fully as you can. You’ve got it?”
Mark nodded, still eating without slowing, though Talia had stopped to concentrate on what the silver dragon was showing.
“Now Talia, gather as much of your power to you as you can hold. No no, don’t do anything with it yet! You start casting in subtle ways as soon as you’re holding it, out of habit alone! That’s right, just hold it, be at peace with it, be comfortable with it, let it really start to sink into the material of your body. That’s right.
“Now, you’re not that skilled at this yet, so you can’t hold more than a quarter of your power like this, though you have learned to let it all flow through you when you cast it with all your strength. Try to learn to hold a little tiny bit more of it all the time, as you get used to it.
“Now I’m going to have to Link with you rather closely to really show you anything interesting. You have to decide right here and now how much you’re going to trust me, because I’ll know you completely after that. Not with the detail that the Eldest or Somonik would get, of course, but still, I’ll know all your secrets.”
“We have to all trust each other with our lives, to be comrades in arms.” Mark said after a hurried swallow. “If I’m going to trust you with my life, I might as well trust you with my secrets.
“Of course, such trust must be returned. Will you show me all your secrets, Povon?” Mark chuckled, then continued without waiting for an answer.
“I’ve learned much of such techniques from the Link Talia and I have built. We started off Linked so thoroughly that for a moment we were one mind. The elven power reinforcing our wedding vows intervened, and limited how l closely we can Link, so we wouldn’t accidentally harm each other. And we’re still pretty closely Linked. If I think about it, I can tap into Talia’s senses and sensations, feel what she’s feeling. If I concentrate hard on it, and she allows it, I can move her body as if it were my own. The spell of our vows keeps us out of each other’s memories, but I can be completely aware of every level and detail of her present thoughts, if I want to.
“And I really get this stuff right away. I mean, most of us kids used to think that Dob Jorman’s mill was magic, and some still did after they’d seen how it worked on the inside. But I got it right away, I could follow the force that started as the flow of the river through the mill wheel and into the main shaft, or from the wind to the windmill to the secondary shaft, how the movable belts and cogs directed the force to the grindstone or the saw blade or the bellows. I get this stuff just as easy.
“I remember exactly what the vow spell did to block Talia’s memories from me, and I’m starting to understand it. I realized later that I’d been doing the same thing when Silaran and others had Spoken to me psionicly. The Eldest swallowed my whole mind in a gulp when I gave him my language, but I picked up a few things from him when he was Speaking to us later, especially when he pointed out my own mental shields to me. That was the first time I was ever aware of them, and of what I was doing to hold them in place without even realizing it. But no one is like the Eldest. I even blocked Somonik from everything but my surface thoughts, and I’m blocking you right now, as you’ll notice if you test my psionic shields.”
“Remarkable!” Povon breathed. “Do you mind if I push on them a bit? I’m curious as to your strength with them.”
“All right, but do it slowly please.” Mark nodded.
Povon closed her eyes, and now he had to set down his fork and concentrate on what he was doing. After about ten seconds he shivered a bit, then clenched his jaws in determination, but a few moments after that he threw up a hand and cried; “Enough!”
“Most impressive.” Povon chuckled. “I could break them, but it would be a bit of work. I couldn’t do anything else while I was doing it.”
“That iz high praize, Mark!” Kragorram congratulated. “Only half my people could rezizt Povon’z probe for even a zecond!”
“Yes, he has better mental shields than half the dragons, unfortunately including you, my love.” Povon teased.
“Az the Eldezt pointed out.” Kragorram nodded.
“There might be a dozen non-Draconians with such strength that way.” Povon mused, then her expression changed to one of surprise. “On the other hand, he is holding no power!”
“What’s that got to do with it?” Mark asked.
“When you hold your power, that is to say, when you gather as much power from the magic field around you and from your personal reserves as you can hold without using it, it makes your nerves work a little bit better, and a little bit faster. To a lesser extent, it makes every part of your body work a bit better, but the increase in nerve function is compounding, particularly in the brain. Holding your power increases the quickness of your physical and mental responses and reflexes, thoughts come faster and clearer, and your total awareness increases. You can hold more complex processes in mind, and cast the power more quickly and more effectively, but the best part is the effect it has on your psionics. All forms of telepathy, mental shielding, and psionic attack improve dramatically.
“And just as your nerves improve with normal use, becoming better conductors of the lightning, so they become better conductors of magic power with repetition. Your arms learn to swing a sword better with repetition, your mind learns to remember a symphony better with repeated listening. In the same way, if you can learn to hold all of your power to you, and become so used to doing so that you do it at all times without even thinking about it, even when you’re sleeping, then it will truly become part of your mind and body. When it truly becomes part of you, and not just a tool that you pick up and put down, it adds to your mental shields and other psionics, your thinking, even your physical speed, strength, and co-ordination, tapping your power to augment those functions without consciously casting spells to do so.
“Becoming one with your power in this way is one of the essential differences between mages and wizards.
“Now Talia has been holding a significant portion of her power without casting any of it, for the first time in her life, and she’s been doing so for a few minutes continuously. Notice the difference in her already.”
“This is really great!” Talia enthused, smiling with her eyes closed.
“I see!” Mark nodded, his eyes also closed so he could concentrate on what Talia was feeling.
“Most wizards of your peoples can’t do this, they lack the mental capacity; the breadth of concentration. Human wizards particularly can often cast a powerful spell, as long as it’s a fairly simple one, but they usually lack the mental capacity for more complex work, nor can they maintain two or three different spells simultaneously. The more you use your power, the stronger and more sure it becomes. But the mental capacity to deal with complexity is more innate, and is difficult to increase without millennia of intense work. This is true of both conscious retention of complexity, of which Yazadril is such a master, and more instinctive and subconscious awareness of complexity, such as we Draconians employ.”
“Anyway, you can shield your mind well, so I can show you things without learning your secrets or knowing you too deeply, if you wish. But you should know that Talia holds almost no shielding against me. She welcomes me into her mind, and so I already know the most important of your secrets; your transparency to wizardry, the tine band, the magnitude of the third power.”
“And have you returned her trust, Povon?” Mark gently asked. “Have you lowered your shields to Talia, welcomed her into your mind with equal openness, with equal trust to that which she has shown you?”
He waited a moment while she registered surprise at the question, then he looked to the rest of them.
“Silaran, you have also mentioned how open Talia is to you. Do you show her the same openness and trust?
“Equemev? I imagine you have been allowed into Talia’s mind with equal openness, have you returned it?
“I judge from your sheepish silences that you have not.
“You must do so now. You are all three bound to justice. Now that you realize that you have taken advantage of Talia’s trusting nature and weak shielding, you must return what you have been given.”
“It iz likely that I would have taken zimilar unthinking advantage, if I had the ability to do so.” Kragorram admitted. “But I do not, and zo my communication iz no deeper than Zpeaking.”
“Ahh! Just a moment, you’re confusing me!” Talia yelped. “That’s too much to take in at once while holding the power at the same time! One at a time, please! Silaran, no offense, but I think you’ll be easier than the Ladies, so you first, then Equemev, then Povon.”
“Hold a bit less of the power when you need to free some of your attention span, until you become more accustomed to holding it to you.” Povon advised, sounding very emotional.
“Oh Silaran, you are beautiful!” Talia shivered, her eyes closed. “Hold up a bit, you’re overcompensating! That’s far more than I ever let you in, and frankly, those things you should keep private. There. That’s about as much as I gave you. I’ll withdraw. And thank you, thank you so very much.
“Now you, Equemev. Oooooh! You’re so... So delightfully you! Thank you! It’s truly heavenly to know you!
“Povon?”
“I’ll need a moment.” Povon murmured hesitantly. “You’ll learn something if you pay attention to this. You all can, so you should all pay attention, especially you four since this is your assignment for the Eldest anyway. You know you develop layers of shields, to protect layers of your mind. But watch this.”
She brought them all into Linkage with her, deep enough to feel what she was doing.
“Wow! How many of them are there?” Mark breathed a moment later. “You’ve lowered, what, seven separate layers of psionic shields so far? And I see that they’re all a bit unique in some way.”
“I keep sixteen layers of shields around even my surface thoughts. To reach even the most superficial parts of my mind, an enemy must breach them all, one by one. Then like most people with good psionic shields, I have a separate shield around my general memory and one around my knowledge, a deeper shield around my private thoughts, and another around my deepest emotions. But as only a battle sorcerer has, I reserve my hardest shields for the critical parts of my brain functions; my pain and pleasure processes, and my automatic functions like breathing and heartbeat and so on. I keep a total of forty-one layers of shields around every part of my mind whose protection from psionic attack is crucial in battle. The hardest five layers contain traps; previously cast and charged psionic counter-attack spells, the nastiest ones I could devise or learn from others.
“Now, I remove the last surface shield, and you are in my surface thoughts, and each of our Links is secured in two directions. I am Linked to you, and now that you are behind my surface shields, you are Linked to me. You see how that was done? I’ll do it in reverse. I raise a shield. Then, see, I shift the frequency of the note or color I’m thinking of a little, and raise another shield over the first.”
Her companions nodded agreement without speaking; concentrating with fascination on what she was showing.
“It takes practice to raise as many as I do and be able to maintain them without thinking about it.
“I... I don’t suppose I can procrastinate this anymore. This will be hard for me. I’ve only lowered my shields to two people since my first century, and I’d have never done it for the Eldest, except I was so afraid that even if I didn’t he’d just brush my shields aside and Read me like a page anyway. Having your shields torn away is a decidedly unpleasant experience.
“Mark, I’m now glad that I’ve never been privy to more than your surface thoughts. Because I haven’t, I don’t have to lower my shields to you to satisfy my vow of justice.”
“I feel the same way, Povon.” Mark said as he withdrew from the Link completely and continued his meal. “Except for Talia, I don’t really want to be in anyone else’s mind any more than I want them in my own, beyond what we need to do for our training and work as a strike force.”
“Thank you.” Povon nodded. “You four, I’ve Read you fairly deeply. It’s only fair that I show you as much of me as I’ve seen of you. Please... Don’t judge me too harshly.”
She had been lounging on her belly, her chin in her hands and resting on her elbows, partly curled around Kragorram who sat up like a dog. Now she lay down fully, and Kragorram cuddled her lovingly. The two unicorns came over and nuzzled her muzzle with gentle affection, and Talia’s face clouded until she was almost crying.
Then the tiny elf Translocated over to the silver dragon beside Equemev, threw her arms wide, and hugged the tip of Povon’s nose. Povon ever-so-carefully stroked Talia’s back in return with an index finger.
“Forgiveness is a wonderful thing, Povon.” Equemev told her. “And self-forgiveness is the most important kind. You’re still torturing yourself for things you were driven to do, that happened so long ago that they’re ancient history to all of the rest of us, even Kragorram. Let it all go, Povon. You’re a good person, and you have a completely new life now.”
Kragorram murmured something to her as well, too low in both volume and pitch for Mark to make out.
Povon moaned, a very low sound, and her eyes clenched as her breathing became jerky.
Mark realized that the dragon was weeping, a thought that touched off strange emotions in him as he politely ignored the scene.
A few minutes later Povon calmed, then chuckled. “You are beautiful, and I thank you. The tea is ready.” she quietly announced.
“Oh! So it is!” Talia noticed as she directed her attention to her kitchen.
“And your dinner is getting cold.” Povon added. “And by the way, did you notice how effortless your Translocate was, while holding your power?”
“It was easy! I never even thought about it, really!”
“That is one of the advantages of the old ways. You are a wizard, and if you can keep the two sets of methods discrete in your mind, you will always be one. But now you are also becoming a mage. You can do more things with wizardry, and do them with less talent and intelligence. But the things that can be done with magecraft can be done better that way.”
Talia had turned to face the doors, and now one opened to allow the passage of a cart with a wooden hogshead full of almost-boiling tea, then a smaller cart with the cask of rum.
“Ahh, that will be good rum!” Kragorram commented. “From the Ztone Islandz, I can zmell the rezidue of their mollazez from here!”
The two unicorns returned to their grazing as the two dragons retrieved their drinks from the carts, then re-arranged themselves on the lawn.
“By the way, it was a courteous touch to serve the tea in the wooden barrel, but you could have left the it in the kettle.” Povon said as she blew a small fireball into her hand and snuffed it by closing her fist. “I would not have burned myself on it, you see.”
“I didn’t think you would, but I thought the tea would stay hot longer in the hogshead.” Talia smiled as she lightly ran up the stairs to Mark with a grin.
She gave him a quick kiss on the cheek, resumed her place at her meal, then quickly cast upon it to heat it back up to the proper temperature. This made her smile in chagrin. “Of course, now that I think about it, I’m sure you can always heat your own tea, Povon.”
“Of course. And thank you, this is very good.”
“You said something I’d like to ask you about, Povon.” Mark said as he sat back, having finished eating, and idly swirled a mug half full of hot cider. “Something about how our bodies run by lightning?”
“Actually, the non-magical aspects of our bodies work by a kind of very slow fire, thus we need to fuel ourselves, we give off heat, we breathe in fresh air, and breathe out stale air, just as fire does. But our nerve