“Heavier? Really? There’s a lot of sacrifice in doing that,” I said in warning, studying the template. “It’ll cut the number of live births down by at least two over the female lifetime if I increase the average per elf even two grams per side. It’s a massive sliding scale of proportions. It’s not a viable option, but, if they can learn to use breathing techniques to harden the pockets around their lungs, that would provide extra protection for the heart.”
“You seem to have thought of everything,” Dad commented, watching Ellorn wearily.
“You’re kidding, right?” I said, turning to him. “Actually, let’s talk about this a little later tonight.” He had other things on his mind that followed a similar vein.
“Are they immortal?” Peter asked.
“Just long-lived, like the other elves,” I said, shaking my head negatively.
“I don’t see any internal changes,” Kieran said. “Mostly because I’m not entirely certain what the changes that are already there will do. How is the ferrous content of the blood handled?”
“It’s ignored. Apparently, neither Gilán nor Daybreak are bothered by iron,” I said, shrugging.
“That is truly interesting for faery magic,” Kieran said. Dad took a real interest in it as well.
“It could be because of the nature of Gilán,” I said, drawing a circle in the air. “You can’t have one of these without a whole slew of elements, iron among them.”
“You mean your elves will be free of the Iron-Death?” Dad asked loudly, almost angrily.
“They already are,” I said, waving a hand back at the men of the Garrison. “Can we get back to Ellorn, please?”
“I dunno, Seth. He looks pretty damn good to me,” Jimmy said, circling around him and smacking him on the ass as he went. “Might want to work on those glutes, though.” Ellorn jumped, literally, three inches off the floor at the swat in shock.
“Yes, First! Immediately, First!” he cried out sharply, anxiously. “What’s a ‘glute,’ First?” My brothers, as tactful as ever, broke into gales of laughter, as did the Garrison, but the Palace was still blocking them.
“Your ass,” Jimmy answered between bursts of snickering. Ethan and Peter were barely holding him up, or barely trying, I couldn’t quite tell. All three of them were falling all over each other laughing.
“Relax, Ellorn. First was just being… himself, something you missed out on at two feet tall,” I said, squeezing his shoulders again. “Now you’ve seen close to four hundred men. Is there anything you’d like to change about yourself while we’re here? We don’t have much time left.”
“Shouldn’t I be taller?” he asked looking up at me. “The shortest adult elf I’ve seen is over eighty inches tall.”
“I can make you taller, Ellorn, over eighty inches, if you’d like, but there isn’t any ‘should’ to it,” I said. “Look at Ethan. He can whoop both Peter’s and my asses, and he’s four inches shorter than me. You’re in charge of the Palace. If you want to be more intimidating, that’s fine. I think you should just look in the mirror and say ‘How do I look? What would I like to change?’ and forget about what anyone else in the universe thinks.”
Ellorn chuckled and turned to the mirror. It saddened me greatly right then that I’d never hear his nerve-wracking squeals or high-pitched giggles again. He attacked the mirror’s image with a thousand minor changes a second, morphing himself at an amazing rate through hundreds of different forms. When he hit on one that made him look like a Faery elf, he stopped and held the image. Looking left and right at his soon-to-be brethren, he asked with a smile, “Haven’t they always seemed a bit creepy looking to y’all?” The Palace amplified his question for the whole room. He got a resounding “Yes” in return, in unison from everyone, followed by crash of laughs that turned into carousing on an epic scale on the faery side. The Palace tempered the noise on the dais but didn’t cut it off, so we weren’t deafened.
Ellorn kept going while the brownies played in the background of his mirror.
Peter looked down Ellorn’s body and asked, “What about simple cosmetic changes? Your beard?”
Ellorn made a very subtle nod to the mirror, so Peter turned sharply around him, sliding his left hand around Ellorn’s head and forcing Ellorn to take him by the hips and under the blanket. His reflection had a blue beard with mustache with a month’s growth. There had to be fifteen shades of blue in there. “Good, and a treasure trail?” he asked as he drew his hand seductively down Ellorn’s naked chest, rubbing where it should be thickest, I think. My little man was getting felt up and I was letting it happen—what kind of father was I? The image changed: the pectorals were back with some chest hair filled in.
“Here, give it a little muscle tone,” I said, putting about fifty pounds on him on the mirror, spreading it out too ideally, I’m sure.
“Little more, Ellorn, most people like enough to run their fingers through but not get caught on it,” Peter cooed on his right. “And I think your legs will be fine just as they are. All three of them.” And Peter pulled away smiling. “You look very good, Ellorn, and you will age well. I’m taking both you and Seth bar-hopping just to get the throw-backs!”
Another chorus of laughter from my brothers and the Garrison—the faery just didn’t understand the concept, but they were still carousing and that just fueled the fire. “Lord Daybreak,” Ellorn said, turning up at me slightly. “I think I like myself just as I am.”
I smiled at him and said, “You know that’s what I’m showing you, right?”
“Even the body hair?” he asked.
“Yep. You’ll change as you mature.”
“I like it. Thank you, Lord Daybreak, Master Peter!”
Then suddenly, for the second time in as many months, I had another naked man hugging me and I was hugging back without reservation. It was a short hug and when we broke apart Ellorn beamed up at me in much the same way he once did. I had another brief second of sadness that I’d never see my able, little brownie’s face again, but it passed more quickly as I felt the same Ellorn through the communion bond.
“One final concern to take care of, Ellorn,” I said, turning and gesturing at the blue power form still standing motionless behind us, smiling hugely. Ellorn stepped over and curled his hand over its smiling cheek. The ectomorph smiled more broadly—how did it achieve that?—and melted across his arm, just like in the movies. The blue Ellorn-like face and smile were the last thing to disappear before the bright burst of light from Ellorn signaled the completion of the transfer of the Palace Authority to him. I closed the geas template and sealed Ellorn solidly within the hierarchy.
Ellorn glowed with a Gilán blue aura that matched First’s as he smiled over the Throne room’s population as they cheered him and cavorted in normal brownie and fairy fashions. The Garrison hooted and hollered in their own ways. It was then that I noticed the unusual bass notes to either side of the Throne and looked to see the segregated brownies Changed. They were stopped at roughly the same stage that Ellorn had stopped at before I expanded his consciousness, all thirteen hundred of them—men, women and children, though the children stayed as children, thankfully.
I stepped up beside him with Jimmy on my right. The instant silence was almost deafening. Opening a full communion with everyone, which let them see Daybreak atop his Throne, I said softly, “My people, may I present the first of the Giláni elves, Ellorn, sidhe of the Palace Daybreak.” Ellorn controlled the volume on the dais this time as the crowd roared and squealed for him. I waved a group of men from the Garrison over while my brothers hugged and congratulated him. Mike and the guys joined in the celebrations of hugs, along with Ted and Ric and eight more men from the Garrison.
While everyone was doing this, I fell to the rear and cornered Kieran and Ethan. “Kieran, I know Pete hinted that you had a target in mind and not to tell Bishop, but could we talk about it in the morning? I’m wiped and I still have to get this lot to bed yet.”
“You’ve worn me
out just watching it, little brother,” Kieran said with a small smile. “Too bad it wasn’t like this with the other Faery elves, though.”
“Try not to get trampled!” Mike yelled as Ellorn was thrown through the air past him en route to the brownies on the floor, followed by a huge, whooping laugh from the Garrison.
“He’s gonna get hurt!” Peter muttered, grinning as the brownies pounced on the naked elf as he fought to keep his blanket and modesty, still laughing.
“He can’t get hurt here! He’s the damn Palace,” Ethan said, dryly. “He’ll be as hard to prank here as Seth.”
“Maybe,” Peter said, smiling slyly.
“Stay as long as you like, guys, but I’m starting to shut the party down,” I said. “G’night.” Back pats and “Good Nights” followed me as I looked around the room deciding where best to start. The elves probably needed rest the most. The question was where?
“Commanders, Lt. Brinks, front and center, please.” They gathered quickly, having already moved to the dais.
“Reporting as ordered, Lord Daybreak,” Byrnes barked cheerfully, standing at attention with Velasquez, Mankiewicz, and Brinks.
“At ease, guys, at ease,” I mumbled, waving the formality off.
“That was fucking amazing, Seth,” Byrnes said quietly, leaning over closely. “And you couldn’t have picked a better man!”
Smiling weakly, I said, “Thanks, Ted, but the credit’s not all mine. I’ve been expecting something like this to happen, just not all at once. Unfortunately, it presents a problem for us, or rather, it puts us in a situation where I don’t know what is going to happen. And it affects the Guard directly.” The volume of the room quickly lessened and I realized then that I would likely recognize Jimmy’s absence more than his presence nowadays, like earlier this evening when he was still in London. The Throne Room phased slightly out of sync around the five of us under Jimmy’s influence.
“This is going to get complicated,” I said and began explaining in kindergarten terms how and where their magic came from. The problem started at the beginning because there aren’t, to my knowledge, any kindergarten terms for it. Like understanding most big concepts, like language for instance, it took a leap of faith to understand it. Somehow, I’d taken quite a few leaps without realizing it and here I was. They were still jumping the canyon while attached to bungy cords. They did have a somewhat distorted idea that functioned, so I used it. I explained that their magic was a reflection of the elf’s definition and that was about to change. Their magic shouldn’t change drastically and their bodies wouldn’t change in the same ways—a relief to them, interestingly enough—but magic was a subtle beast and I wasn’t certain what its effects would be.
“The short story is it’s your turn to help them a little,” I said. “Like you and your first days here, they really won’t need that much tonight and tomorrow. Just be there for them to help with the rough edges. I want everybody working together as one. Okay?”
“Yes, sir. Not a problem. Most of them are already our friends, anyway,” Byrnes said congenially.
“Good to hear, Ted,” I said with a smile. “You’ll all, and I mean all, be sleeping in my room tonight. I’m opening the doors now. Down the hall on the left, there’s a storage room with enough blankets, pillows, and cushions for the night. Spread them out throughout the room. And trash containers, put trash containers everywhere. I’d like to be able to live in my room, afterwards.”
“Yes, sir, right away, sir,” Byrnes said, turning to start his orders.
“Slow down, Ted, there’s a little more,” I said. Brinks phased into focus then, rather conveniently. “I’m going to send them out into the back garden to gather what food they can, but it won’t be enough. Lt. Brinks, this is going to create some problems for you. First, we need anything ready to eat brought with you to my room, especially those things high in complete proteins and calcium, including whatever eggs and cheeses you’ve got. Second, you’re probably going to lose any lead-in time for breakfast and you’re losing your staples. And third, this will seriously cut into your pantries since they’ll have to eat with y’all for a few days until they get settled in and we figure out what the hell we’re gonna do…”
“Shouldn’t be too much problem, Lord,” Brinks said, cheerfully. “We should have enough raw ingredients and cold meats to feed two thousand for, at least, three days. What’s the final count including Ellorn?”
Jimmy barked out a laugh. “I like a confident man. One thousand, two hundred and ninety-eight new elves were born tonight. They look like a bunch of twelve-year-olds to me. Growing buncha kids. I’d bet on that lasting a day.” I shrugged, nodding in agreement.
“Gentlemen, you’ve got a half hour. Anything else can wait till morning,” I declared, leaving Brinks to his bewilderment. The four of them moved off the dais as a unit, stopping for a moment to orchestrate quick plans. “Mitch,” I called, looking over at the nervous soldier sitting among the Changed with his children. “You can put the kids in my office on the couch and sleep close to the door.”
Next, I guess should be the elves, shifting my attention again.
“Ellorn,” I called quietly. I couldn’t see where he was in the wriggling, giggling mass of brownie flesh, but he stood up immediately dragging a train of sprites off the floor with him. He must have been drawing strength from the Palace because those hanging sprites weighed thirty pounds each and there were easily eighteen on him. He shook like a dog, flinging them in every direction and creating shrieks and howls of glee as the sprites flew through the air landing in laughing heaps, mostly caught by their fellows. Then he whipped his blanket from the floor, toppling another dozen from their feet, and shifted to my side.
“Yes, Lord?” he said, out of breath and still laughing as he wrapped himself toga-like.
“You and your clansmen need sleep, Ellorn,” I said, grinning. “Since you won’t fit in your homes, I’m going to open my room. Y’all probably need the proximity and the Worldgem can help, too, I think. The Guard is dispensing blankets, pillows, and cushions. You know where everything else is. Take everyone out to the back garden to gather some of whatever nuts, legumes, and fruit you can to supplement my garden. Make sure everyone steers clear of the Esteleum unless they actually need it and try to think in terms of a balanced diet—proteins and calcium, especially. I’ll have the Guard bring what they can from the Garrison when they come in. Okay?”
“We’re sleeping in your room, sir?” Ellorn asked in surprise.
“Just for tonight,” I emphasized. “Make sure everybody knows where the bathrooms are. Mine is off-limits.” I had to have some privacy.
“Yes, Lord Daybreak,” Ellorn said, smiling broadly as he turned to begin his first job as an elf.
“Oh, and you’ve got about a half hour. I’d like to go to bed soon, myself,” I said tiredly, turning to the next group. Jimmy and I caused a minor traffic jam as we crossed to join the rest of the Palace Faery and everyone stopped to get out of my way as they moved either to my room or the back gardens. We created stillness as we moved into the mass of brownies and sprites just by being close to them, especially with the communion bond open. It continued to sweep over them as my gaze swept around them, but their laughter and giggles still echoed down the long halls and the far reaches of the Throne Room.
“It’s been quite an auspicious night, hasn’t it?” I asked quietly, making sure I could be heard throughout the room. A very loud, very high, and indecipherable roar of agreement answered me. “The spontaneous Changes and creations between the faery and Gilán are absolutely astonishing and wondrous! But none of them have been this disruptive, abrupt, or to such a degree. Tonight, we created, for lack of a better word, elves.” There was a distant tremor of contempt within the geas. “I understand, even though I haven’t had much experience with them myself. Perhaps we should come up with another name for them, instead. I doubt very much that they will be like those elves, but let’s come to an understanding that
you should pass to the general public of Gilán. I will not have any one group or race of my people mistreating another. Talk to First, Ellorn, my brothers, me… whoever you feel comfortable with. This is Gilán; we work together, not against. Got it?”
I got another shrill agreement, full of confusingly big eyes on tiny, Disney-esque faces full of solemnity. If I weren’t so tired, I would have laughed my ass off.
“Okay, now the most obvious problem is we’ve got to get some sleep. Most of you probably need bed yourselves. Our first problem in the morning, though, is close to thirteen hundred elves are going to wake up naked and hungry with over four hundred of the Guard with them. After that, we have to figure out what we know and go from there. I guess I’m asking you to help make this transition tomorrow as easy as possible.”
This time I was a little overwhelmed by the roar of the cheers and agreement rushing through the bond. Twenty-four hundred faery under three feet tall made a roiling mass on the floor was they started for the exits quickly and happily, chattering and chittering as they went to whatever purposes they devised. I was running out of adjectives for how amazingly fast they moved, even in groups. Ellorn only got tossed off the dais about twelve minutes ago.
“Awright,” Jimmy said, sighing. “That’s enough for one day. It’s late; time for bed, boss.” He slid his arm over my shoulders and started leading me to the front to the Road, then realized my father was still sitting on the steps of the dais. Jimmy stepped over the Road and, squeezing my shoulders, mumbled, “Make it quick. You don’t want to start a fight with your dad.”
No, I didn’t. Especially considering I didn’t even know what the problem was and I could, so easily, just reee-achhh in and take what I need to know. He would be none the wiser.
“All right, Dad,” I said gently, sitting down beside him on the steps. “What have I done to upset you so badly?” Jimmy sat down at the farthest point on the dais and waited.
“You aren’t upsetting me, Seth,” Dad said, softly but gruffly. “You’re scaring the hell out of me. You’re just too damn powerful and getting more so. I’m almost afraid to touch you sometimes. Then I’m afraid somebody’s going to come after you because you’re so powerful.”
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