Date: Fri, 4 Mar 2011 20:29:33 +0000
From: mandijerri@gmail.com
Subject: The Gift of the Second Prime Chapter 5: The Gift and Sadath

Hey, thanks for all the emails! You have no idea how much I enjoy reading
what you say. I love the fact that you have bought into this world as much
as me. That you have made it so much more than I imagined. Thanks as always
to James and SapiensBear for your input into the development of this
story. I have never been edited before, so I apologise if I don't always
respond to what you guys tell me!

So, we have moved away from the creation of the three Gifts and the
creation of the Second Prime. Chapter 5 is all about the Gift of the Lost
Clan and Sadath. Subsequent chapters will deal with the other two Gifts and
their warriors with the Gift of the Lost Boy and Selah forming chapter 6. I
hope you like this chapter, of all of them this has been the hardest to
write. Exploring the Gift/Warrior relationship and moving the story forward
is always a problem. I hope you approve of what I have written for you.

As always, let me know! Characters still working? Settings still working? I
know some of you don't like the cannabilism and, hey, nor do I, but it is
integral to the story. This society is depraved, that is important. The
Second Prime will save it. Or at least that's the plan.

What do you want to see happening next? (My, but Taeda is going to regret
raping Janah!)

Thanks as always,

Mandijerri


The Gift of the Second Prime Chapter 5: The Gift and the Warrior Sadath

"You are sure you can cope with this?" Sadath asked.

He had his arms wrapped around the Gift of the Lost Clan. They were
standing on a balcony in the Palace of the Green Forest looking out across
the gardens to the lake and the brooding Forest.

"You are with me, the Second Prime is with me." Lost Clan smiled, nuzzling
the Warrior's neck. "I can cope."

"The Warrior Graescin told me he is worried about facing you."

"Me?" Lost Clan laughed. "Why would he be afraid of me?"

"Because he feels guilty about what he made you witness."

"Not because he is guilty about the punishment he meted out on my Clan?"

"No. He says that he stands by that judgement. But what he made you do,
that he wishes he could change."

"It's funny, jen?" Lost Clan said. "I think of him as such a forceful,
frightening man. Yet he is worried about facing me! Am I to be feared?"

"You are the Gift of the Lost Clan." Sadath said, stroking the Gift's head
and kissing its forehead. "There is not a Warrior alive who does not know
who you are."

"But it's not just me! It's us, all of us. We are the Second Prime."

"No, you, the Lost Boy and the Lost Warrior are the second Prime. I am just
your Warrior."

"There is no 'just' about you!" Lost Clan laughed. "You are my Warrior and,
when all is said and done, I am your prize. Remember the Silver March?"

"I remember the week after the Silver March more clearly..."

"Hah! I bet you do! How are you holding up, need more nectar?"

"In a while." Sadath smiled. "You fed me this morning, I can probably
last."

"Probably?" Lost Clan asked raising an eye-brow.

"Probably." He laughed, pulling the Lost Clan into a kiss.

"Are you blushing?"

"Stop it!" The Warrior laughed. "You know how you make me feel!"

"It's not as if I can help it!"

"No, you can't. But you can be more... oh, I don't know, taciturn!"

"Taciturn! Where did that come from?"

"I've been reading some of your books, jen? Learning big words now!"

"I'm glad." The Gift of the Lost Clan laughed. "It would hardly do for me
to turn up at the Palace of Sunrises with a Warrior who has trouble with
words over three syllables!"

"When are we going to the Palace of Sunrises?"

"I was joking!" Lost Clan laughed.

"Jen. Warn me when you are making a joke next time so I can practice my
laughing!"

"Listen big man..."

"So you noticed."

"Hmm. Haven't quite broken you in yet, have I?"

"Want to try?"

"Got some time in your schedule then?"

"For you I could clear the rest of the day!"

"Good. I've got a bed with your name on it."

"Then I think you'd better show me."

The Gift smiled, then led the Warrior through the suite and into the
bedroom. It filled one side of the wing they were in. A large open and airy
room. The bed filled the centre of the room and a large fireplace filled
the wall opposite it. Two chairs stood against an open door that led onto a
small balcony. A writing desk was on the wall opposite the balcony.  "I
used to dream of brining a lover to my bed." The Gift whispered as it sat
on the desk and pulled the Warrior down onto it.

They twisted around on the end of the bed so they were facing each
other. The Warrior wrapped his arms around the Gift and pulled it closer,
resting his head on the delicate shoulders of the creature that had come to
mean more to him that even his own life.

The Gift smiled, then wrapped its tail around the Warrior's strong neck. In
its dreams as a boy, the object of desire brought to the bed was always a
girl or a woman. That it was now a Warrior did not change the desire. Made
it deeper in fact.

"I always dreamed of being Gifted." Sadath whispered as he kissed the
Gift's ear, hand running around to the back of the harness and releasing
the central strap that ran up the Gift's back. "But you are so much more
than anything I ever imagined!"

"As are you." The Gift smiled.

While the Warrior worked on removing its harness, he pulled wrist and arm
bands from the Warrior, finally releasing the belt that ran around the dark
brown leather trousers.  Sadath slipped the Gift's quill from the front of
the harness and delicately ran his hand along it, bending down to kiss the
tip as he released the Nectaria from the leather and silk purse that
protected them. He wrapped his hands around the globes that contained the
Nectaria. The Gift sighed as its Warrior prepared it for sex, then, when
the harness was removed, it pushed the Warrior so he was standing in front
of him.

The Warrior reached out and stroked the Gift's head as the Gift pulled the
belt away from the trousers, and opened the three buttons that kept the
Warrior's own Quill contained. In one move the Gift pulled the leather
trousers down and then helped the Warrior step out of them.

It took the Warrior's Quill and balls in hands then and gently massaged,
mouth leaning forward and taking the Quill into its own. It licked and
sucked, before falling back on the bed and pulling the Warrior down onto
it.

Sadath smiled and took the Gift's quill back into his mouth, then tongue
ran down the quill and mouth and tongue massaged the Nectaria. He pushed
the Gift up the bed and then slipped its legs onto his shoulders. His head
dipped down and he ran his tongue across both the Prostatae and
backside. Fingers gently probing both at the same time, before they slipped
into the Prostatae.

He slipped up onto the bed, running his spare hand up and down his own
Quill. It didn't need much more encouragement, but he liked the feeling of
his hands on his Quill when it was this large and hard. He leaned forward,
tongue now kissing along belly and outlining the quill on the Gift's body.

As he moved up to the Gift's nipples, his Quill began to push at the
entrance to the Prostatae and he slipped his fingers out. These now held
the head of his Quill. He pushed back and forwards gently, mouth kissing
nipples and then brushing over lips.

"Knock, knock." He smiled, pulling the Gift into a deep kiss. "Can I come
in?"

"The door is always open for you." Lost Clan smiled as the Warrior leant
forward and pushed his Quill into its body.

It gasped, as it always did. That this simple act could bring so much
pleasure, so much desire! Even though it knew its own release would not
come for another few hours, the fact that there was so much pleasure to be
had from this young Warrior amazed it.

"I love you so much!" Sadath whispered, putting his arms around the Gift's
head and arching his body over the Gift as he pushed and pulled his Quill
into and out of the Gift's Prostatae.

"Show me." The Gift said, its own tongue wrapping around ears, cheeks,
kissing mouth and nose.

The Warrior lay onto the Gift and pulled it into a hug and kiss, his body
still rocking into and out of the Gift.

"I am your prize." Lost Clan said.

"You are my life." Sadath answered.

He began to move faster and faster as he came close to his release. The
Gift reached down and wrapped hands around his buttocks, fingers playing at
the Warrior's hole, tail pushing into the man's body. The Warrior gasped as
the Gift entered him.

There was tox in the Gift's talon. Two types of tox. One was a drug that
lubricated and also brought the Warrior's own prostate to a state of
excitement. The other would knock a man out for up to an hour.

The Gift had explained to Sadath that there were two muscles that
controlled the tox. When the Warrior was inside the Gift one of them, the
one that administered poison, was disabled. When it was making love, it
could only inject its lover with pleasure, and it did this now.

Sadath drew in his breath as the drug danced through his body. He loved it
when the Gift entered him, and loved it even more when it released the
tox. Still too shy to admit this openly to the Lost Clan, he relaxed into
the feelings the drug aroused in his body. He knew it would extend his love
making, hold back his release for longer. He could bring more pleasure to
his Gift now, and this he did.

Now hands held the Gift's head while he pushed his tongue into the Gift's
mouth. Playing with the Gift's tongue, tasting its lips. The Gift's eyes
were large and beautiful. While they made love, it always pulled across the
second eye-lid. This was translucent and it made the Gift's eyes sparkle in
the low light of the bedroom.

He kissed them both now, hands running around the Gift's head, then down
across neck and shoulders, along chest and around nipples. Down under his
own body to the Gift's Quill. Despite not being ready to release yet, it
was already long and hard and grew even more as he ran his hands delicately
along its length, leaning under himself to kiss the tip and take it into
his mouth, tongue caressing the tip and tasting the precursor to the nectar
that would soon be his.

His body blazed as the pre-Nectar combined with the tox and brought him
right up to his own release. Since taking the Nectar, his own jizz
production had quadrupled and each time he released now there was
more. They joked that soon he would be giving the Gift as much of his jizz
as the Gift returned to him in Nectar.

He cried out as the exhilaration of the release overcame him. Back arched
as he thrust deeper and deeper into the Gift and behind him, the Gift
pushed deeper and deeper into the Warrior. Talon exciting pleasures in him
that he had never believed were possible before his Gifting.

As the last of him left his body, he collapsed and fell onto the Gift,
still deep inside his prize, his love, his life.

"Kiss me." The Gift smiled, stroking his face and wiping the sweat that had
formed there away.

Sadath leant in and kissed the Gift, feeling the beautiful creature slip
into its ecstasy as he did so. He lay there with it for a while, holding it
tight, mouth still pressed to its mouth, Quill still filling its Prostatae.

Gradually, though, the desire slipped back into his balls and brain and his
Quill slipped out of the Gift. He kissed his love one last time before
reaching over and tying first one wrist strap to the ornate leather belt at
its waist, and then the other. In the first week of their merging, he had
lain with the Gift for the whole of its ecstasy.

He would do that now as well, but the work of the Warrior called to him,
pulled him away from his desire. He and the Gift were leaving on a trip
that would take them to the borders of the rebel clans. Back to the place
where the Gift had once lived as a human. There was much to prepare for
that trip before he would feed on the Gift and take the nectar it was even
now producing for him.

He leant down and kissed the Gift once more, making sure it was comfortable
on the bed. Then he slipped off the end in search of trousers and belt.

****

The Gift of the Lost Clan wandered around the suite in the Green Palace,
touching different objects as it meandered through the room. There were
china pieces here, as well as some cruder clay ones. All were models of
human heads. They represented the heads of different 'wild' men that had
been felled by one owner of this palace or another through the
years. Trophy pieces no longer remembered, that were now assigned to this
guest suites.

The Warrior Graescin, current master of this palace, had the heads of those
he had felled displayed in the trophy room on the ground floor. Lost Clan
shuddered at the thought of that room. It had only been through it once, on
the last visit here before the Silver March. But it had been there long
enough to spot the head of its brother/father, fashioned from the finest
china and displayed on a mantle next to the large fireplace that dominated
the room. No doubt his uncle's head was similarly fashioned and displayed
in there as well.

It hadn't stopped to find out. The room filled it with dread, but also some
admiration. That the Warrior Graescin had ordered someone to mould the
heads. That he displayed them even now, two years after the event. It
showed that he accorded his brother and uncle some respect. Even if they
had just been sport and then meat to him in the end, at least it showed he
understood and respected their struggle.

At least that was what the Gift of the Sidian Deserts had said, and Lost
Clan was not up to arguing with it at the moment. The alternative did not
bear thinking about.  And now it was back at the Palace of the Green
Forest. And Sadath was here as its Warrior. He needed the strength that
Sadath gave, and gave freely. Everyone, Lost Boy, Lost Warrior, Troubled
Waters, Sidian Deserts... everyone was convinced that Lost Clan was the
pivot around which the rest of the Second Prime span.

It was a big role, and one it was not completely comfortable with. One
thing was sure, though, without the rest of the Second Prime and definitely
without Sadath, there would be no chance Lost Clan would even consider such
a role!

He was still a lost boy, still Traes!

But he was also so much more that that child.

It was a Gift now. A Gift that belonged to a Warrior. That concept had
caused the boy so much heartache, filled him with so much
misunderstanding. The reality was not one of ownership in the normal sense
at all. It belonged to Sadath, but Sadath belonged, equally, more so, if
the truth be known, to the Gift. That was a strength.

That made both of them strong.

It was also joined to two other Gifts, joined in a way that no other living
Gifts appeared to be. It was the Second Prime. The leader of the Second
Prime. And that brought with it not just strength, but also power and
authority. It may only be a young Gift, but it had a level of respect that
was normally accorded to Gifts twice its age.

That had to mean something.

The Gift of the Lost Clan smiled and looked out of the window its circuit
around the room had brought it to. It looked out over one of the courtyards
at the side of the palace, and it could see the organised chaos that was
surrounding the preparations for its real reason for being here.

It was going home, taking its Warrior back to the place where it had all
began. Back to what was left of the Clan settlement. Back to where it had
left Traes cowering behind the Gift of the Sidian Desert's cage.

This was where it had decided to carry out the first of the experiments
that would prove the power of the Second Prime in creating what the Gift of
the Troubled Waters was already calling the 'Gift in Concert'. A merging of
the minds of a group of Gifts that had more power, more reach, than the sum
of any of its individual members.

This first experiment would prove that the Second Prime itself had that
ability. Later they would add other minds to the melange, the Gift of the
Troubled Waters back in Troubian and the Gift of the Sidian Deserts here at
Midpoint. That would be later. First they had to prove the Professor's
theory and make it real.

The Gift of the Lost Warrior and the Gift of the Lost Boy were also in
remote locations, as far away from Troubian and this place as it was
possible to be on the planet. The Gift of the Lost Warrior and Chedda were
in the Jaskin Mountains, in the Delaware Province and the Gift of the Lost
Boy and Selah were in the Sidian Desert, in the Arnhem Province. Troubled
Waters and the Master Warrior, were in Troubian, in the Palace of Sunsets.

The Gift of the Sidian Deserts and the Warrior Graescin were also here in
Midpoint, at the Palace of the Green Forests. The final experiment,
assuming all the others were a success, would see the Concert reaching out
and touching the mind of the Warrior Graescin, attempting to pull him out
of one of his training sessions.

This was easier said than done.

The Warrior Graescin was a Master of all the archetypes. He could lose
himself, body and soul, in his exercises. If the concert could break
through that training, it would be able to reach any Warrior regardless of
the depths of the Fury that was on them.

And that was the crux of the whole thing. Warriors made decisions based on
the information they had to hand, and based on their emotions at the
time. While their Gifts could temper this, a Gift could not control a
Warrior in Fury. Could a concert allow the Warrior to make more rational
decisions?

It would not change the judgements meted out here on Lost Clan's own
people, but it might be able to stop such excess happening in the
future. And that was important to the future of the Second Realm. After the
destruction of Lost Clan's clan, fighting had intensified in this region,
not been calmed.

Subsequent attacks and the destruction of two other Clans (neither under
the orders of the Warrior Graescin) had also not seen peace come to this
Province. Now the local Prince was demanding results. Trade and crop yields
in this Province were down and the Prince was losing creds and face with
her creditors. Now the Prince of Princes had noticed Midpoint, and when she
asked for results, the Palace of Sunsets provided them. Hence the Lost Clan
being here now.

"We can do it from here as easily as from... there." Sadath said, coming
into the room and over to his Gift, wrapping his arm around it from behind.

He nuzzled its neck and the Gift wrapped its tail around his waist. He had
a scent this man, he smelt of his training, of his skin and of his sex, and
the Gift of the Lost Clan found strength in that smell.

"You are awake." It smiled. "You should have called me."

"And that would only delay us even more!" Sadath laughed, pulling the Gift
around so that it was facing him, wrapped up in his arms.

He was naked and the Gift pulled him body closer, revelling the warmth and
feel of his skin against its own. Its hands and tail caressing his delicate
soft skin, running over strong and supple muscles.

"And that's not helping either!" Sadath said, pulling the Gift into a
kiss. "Although I'm not going to stop you doing it, you understand."

"I understand." Lost Clan smiled.

He tasted of Nectar, and it loved that taste on him. Its gift to him
returned in part to the Gift through a kiss.

"So," Sadath smiled after a moment, resting his head on the Gift's
shoulder. "As I said, we can do this here. We don't have to leave the
palace."

No." It whispered into his ear. "I have to do it this way. It is the last
of my demons. If I can return to the settlement, I can cope. With this,
with you..." It smiled. "With everything."

"Jen." The Warrior smiled. "But if you need to get out, tell me and I will
carry you away if necessary. Being scared of your demons is not a bad
thing. Fear is strength, remember."

"No, fear makes you strong." The Gift corrected. "Fear is truth."

"Damn! I thought I had that one down as well!" Sadath laughed, spinning the
Gift around and holding it from behind once more.

His hands ran up and down the Gift's chest, then down along its Quill held
upright by the harness once again. He kissed the Gift on each of its
shoulders.

 "I need to get dressed, then go and make sure everything is stowed ready
for the trip. I will see you in a moment?"

"Yes." Lost Clan smiled. "I have to speak with the Sidian Deserts first
then I will be down as well."

"Very well." He pulled the Gift into a kiss. "I'll be waiting for you."

"I know." The Gift laughed, pushing him away with hands and patting his
backside with its tail. "We will return to this, you know." It smiled.

"Something I am sincerely looking forward to." Sadath laughed as he ducked
out of the room.

The Gift of the Lost Clan sighed and went off in search of the Gift of the
Sidian Deserts. He found the Gift in an office on the ground floor, not far
from the Trophy Room.

 "All set?" Sidian Deserts asked looking up from the screen it had been
studying.

"All set."

"Then all we can do is await your call."

"Easy for you to say. I have to make all this happen first!"

"But if you can make it work..."

"Then we have a start. The rebellion here has no clear leader. If the
concert can bring one forth then we can talk. Know the enemy, so to speak."

"Who said they were the enemy?" Sidian Deserts asked. "All we want to do is
negotiate."

"These are my people, jen?" Lost Clan replied. "I may have been a boy when
you had me gifted, but I understand the politics of this place, it is my
soul, jen? There will be no easy negotiations here."

"Then why are we doing this?"

"To flush them out. To create a local king, if we have to."

"The second Realm has no room for Kings!"

"Then maybe it should." Lost Clan said. "Let the locals deal with their
local problems and let the Prince of Princes deal with them all. Would make
for an easier system."

"But the Warrior Ghen..."

"Lived four hundred and thirty years ago." The Gift of the Lost Clan
interrupted. "I know my history. In his day the Second Realm was the
Isthmus and the East and West Marches. Seven more provinces have been added
since then. I think even he would have realised the importance of the local
ruler."

"Which is why you are here." Sidian Deserts said. "You see things
differently."

"And you don't agree with me?"

"With you? I thought you were three?"

"I speak for us all."

"Interesting." Sidian Deserts smiled. "The Second Prime reduced to a unit."

"I don't know what you are saying." The Gift of the Lost Clan said, sitting
in a chair on the other side of the desk. "You want me here or you do
not. What is it?"

"I believe in the Second Realm." Sidian Deserts said. "Remember that. I was
there when it was formed, I am here now. Gifts like me, we remember."

"You speak as if you fear me, us..."

"You will bring change. That is not always the best option."

"But change drives our passions!" The Gift of the Lost Clan said. "Without
change we will likely fall from the Wheel of Life as cling to it, remaining
the same forever."

"Do not quote the Warrior Ghen at me." Sidian Deserts said, leaning
forward. "I was there when he said that. Altering the context does not take
away my first point. Not all change brings forth good."

"But you pushed for the creation of the Second Prime! You found me, and I
am the catalyst for the three."

"And I can have doubts." Sidian Deserts said. "I am allowed that, no? The
status quo is a good thing, it will be the norm for centuries, do not
forget that! What I wanted from you, from the Second Prime, I am not sure I
want that now."

"Why? What is different?"

"You would not understand."

"I would try..."

"No, you would not. I have lived a life long, will live a life longer. You,
you are still young. You do not know everything yet."

"But I can find out!" The Gift of the Lost Clan said. "You offered to save
me once, and I accepted that. Do not cast me aside now, and not here, not
in the Green Forest!"

"You have no power base here!" Sidian Deserts laughed. "A Gift you may be,
but you are still a clansman at heart."

"I don't understand what you are trying to do!" Lost Clan said. "Do you
want me here or not?"

"Troubled Waters thinks you can make a difference. I bow to its better
knowledge."

"Oh, I understand." Lost Clan replied. "You and your Warrior have been here
for three years. You fear that we will come and steal your thunder, take
the credit for all the work you have done here."

"We have worked hard!"

"And that is clear." Lost Clan soothed. "We work under the guidance of your
Warrior. Anything we do is as a result of his work."

"But there are some who will see your hand in everything! You do not
understand this life! We Gifts have so little chance to shine, no-one will
know our greatness! To have my life's work taken from me, taken from my
Warrior..."

"So isn't it time we stepped forward?" Lost Clan asked. "We are part of our
Warriors. If the people can accept the man, then they will accept the
Gift."

"No. Gifts are beyond human!"

"That is not what the Professor says." Lost Clans said. "And he should
know, he designed us!"

"He is a lost man, trapped in his Tower. What does he know?"

"He is the key to everything."

"When, when did that happen?"

"He was there at the beginning, he is here now!"

"And so was I, so were twenty-two other Gifts."

"But he is original. He knows the Galaxy. All we can do is surmise. The
Great Allegiance does not know us, remember. As long as we trade they stay
away. The Professor, though, he knows the Allegiance. He can take us off
this planet!"

"No. He made us to be humanity's successor. He will be replaced as well."

"And you plan to do this when?" The Lost Clan smiled. "You want the Second
Prime to take the Warriors off this world. You need the Professor for
that."

"We are still the genetic successors to humanity."

"Then kill them all!"

The Gift of the Sidian Desert was silent.

"Well." The Lost Clan said. "Either we replace them or we do not."

"We need their labour."

"Interesting." The Gift of the Lost Clan said standing from its chair. "I
remember reading something in the Golden March. It is attributed to the
Warrior Scerael. He was your Warrior, I seem to remember. He said that all
societies move forward together or not at all. If one section moves faster
then it threatens the balance of the whole. The serf must move at the same
pace as the Lord. Whether you like it or not, we are a part of this
society. We will not move forward without everyone moving forward with us."

The Gift of the Lost Clan turned and left the room.

****

Back in another life, the east track had led out of the settlement, along
the borders of the fields for a while before it banked north and headed
into the Green Forest. He had used the track many times, both on foot and
by cart. The main water source for the settlement had been a small river
that ran through the forest about a kilometre up the track and he had been
the one landed with the job of fixing broken and leaking pipes.

There had also been a spring at the side of the barn, he had used it to
fetch water for the Gift of the Sidian Deserts. But that was really only
useable after rainfall in the hills. For most of the year the water in the
well was too deep to reach.

And its mind was rambling, jumping around but refusing to settle back on
the matter at hand. They were on the east track now, coming through the
forest. They had already forded the river and soon, soon the forest would
stop and the vista would open up to something it knew but didn't want to
remember.

Sadath was sat at the front of the cart with the driver. As was the norm
with these things, the front was open, but the back was enclosed. As this
was the cart of a Warrior, it was painted a deep red and the Gift sat in
the back, covered section, behind darkened windows.

This cart belonged to the Warrior Graescin, and the Gift of the Lost Clan
had already decided that, when it and Sadath could afford their own cart,
they would make sure the windows could be polarised either way. It was time
the Gifts stopped hiding. Time they stepped out from behind the shadow of
their Warriors.

So, Gifts like Sidian Desert were not comfortable with that, but it had to
happen, there was no other way. What had grown out of a need to own and to
protect the Gifts had turned into a need to keep them secret and this had
caused many Gifts to believe that they were special.

More than human.

Down that road lay many, many horrors and Lost Clan was determined that it
would not be stepping onto it anytime soon.

But, for the moment, it sat behind the darkened windows. An external feed
came into a small monitor inside the cabin, but the Gift preferred to look
through the windows. The stems of the tuyeau were getting shorter and drier
as they came to the edge of the forest, and the gaps between them were
growing larger. So much so that other shrubs and trees had managed to
colonise this part of the forest.

That was not what was drawing the Gift's attention, though. The lead cart
in the convoy had already cleared the forest and the Gift had watched
images on the monitor from this cart as it came out. Everything looked so
much the same, but also so much different!

And then it was their turn.

The Tuyeau stopped completely and the other trees became less and less tall
and more and more spaced until they were gone and the track turned
westwards along the edge of the fields and the scrubland that led back up
to the forest. The Gift slipped over to the other side of the cart and
opened the window.

The air smelt of ripe Hadge, the main crop grown in this area, and the
fields spread away to the south. When it had lived here, these fields had
been managed by the whole Clan from the settlement. When Graescin had
parcelled this land up and given it to his cronies, he had created a large
area of homesteads. There was no central settlement now. No town.

No Clan.

The whole convoy had gathered just down the path and they all waited there
while the rest of the party caught them up. The Gift stepped out of the
cart.

"How are you?" Sadath asked, leaping out of the front of the cart and
taking the Gift's head in his hands.

"Fine." The Gift replied. "I have so many memories of this place!"

"I know, you gave them all to me."

"So you know what worries me the most?"

"The settlement." Sadath whispered. "What is left, what has happened to
it?"

"In a way I hope it is all gone." Lost Clan sighed, stepping off the road
and into the field of Hadge. "At least then I can adjust and move on."

"But in another sense..."

"I want something to remain." Lost Clan said, turning back and looking over
to Sadath who had remained at the edge of the crop. "It would serve as a
memorial for me."

"For us." Sadath agreed. "I was there as well... now." He smiled, knowing
that what he was saying out loud did not necessarily make sense.

They both understood though.

In that merging back in the Palace of Sunsets, back when all three Gifts
and their Warriors had mated after the first Nectar feeding. Back then
minds as well as bodies had merged. Souls had linked and memories had flown
from one to the other like water falling from one glass into another and
back again.

The Gift of the Lost Clan had as many of Sadath's memories now as Sadath
had of the Gift's.

"Are you hungry?" Sadath asked as the Gift stepped out of the field,
pulling off a few of the heads of the Hadge plants as it passed.

It put these into its mouth and pulled off the seeds, rolling them across
its mouth, biting into them.

"Almost ready to harvest." It said. "Another week at the most."

It turned and looked at the sky.

"The rain around here tends to come in from the sea, that way." The Gift
added pointing south. "They sky is clear there, so harvest should be on
time."

Sadath laughed.

"You will not be bringing the harvest in, though."

"No." The Gift smiled, slipping an arm around his waist as they walked back
to the convoy. "But it is good that I remember this. Here." It added,
passing a stem of Hadge to Sadath. "You have the memories, what do you
think?"

Sadath pulled off some of the seeds and smiled.

"It tastes like straw and soap!" He laughed. "I might have the memories,
but I don't have the taste, or the smell!"

"No." The Gift sighed as it sat in the open door of the cart. "That you
have to learn."

It reached back and drank some water from a canteen.

"You want some?"

"Thanks." Sadath smiled as he took the canteen.

A soldier came over to them. He bowed to them both then turned to Sadath.

"We are ready, Pahtron."

"Then let's move." Sadath replied, passing the water back to his Gift and
closing the door on the cart.

A moment later and they moved out. They filled the road now. Sadath's cart
was at the lead, with two flanking it just behind. A line of soldiers
marched at the front of the cavalcade with others coming up along the
side. Ties brought up the rear, carrying everything that could not be put
into the carts and also herding about twenty beef-ties.

Not long now.

The Gift of the Lost Clan opened the skylight in the cart and stood on the
small stool. It looked forward now, along the line of the cart, up the
road...

The road bent south around a large old tree and the tree was coming towards
them now. From there it ran along a dry gully before fording this and
crossing into the settlement.

Past the tree. Along the gully.

The Gift pulled its head up and breathed deep of the air. The place smelt
the same. What was it the Warrior General had said?

"Sometimes you need to return to a place that hasn't changed to understand
how much you have changed."

There had been a lot of changes here, but not enough that the changes
wrought on the boy Traes were not even more evident. And, as the cart
turned to ford the dry gully where it flattened out and ran straight into
the flood plain the settlement had been built around, the Gift breathed in
deep.

Tears threatened to sting its eyes, but it held them back.

The settlement was gone.

A series of corrals and then a large orchard stretched along the high
ground on the right. One this had been a row of small houses and
corrals. It looked back along the line of the cortege. Even now the
beef-ties were being directed into one of these larger corrals. It was
lined with low sheds on the far side and the Toreau-ties were forcing the
larger beef-ties over towards these.

The track bent around a copse of trees that had been at the heart of the
settlement even when the Gift had lived here. The copse and the orchard hid
the rest of the settlement from view, but as the cart turned, so it came
into view. The Gift settled back into the cart and closed the roof. The
tears were flowing freely now and it was beyond anything it could do to
stop them.

The barn was still there.

Traes was still trapped inside, still hiding. Waiting for rescue.

The cart pulled up next to the open doors of the barn and it was like the
Gift could see multiple images from different times all stacked on top of
each other.

He was playing in front of these doors with the other children no more than
four or five, they were pretending to be mighty Warriors, fighting off
giants and dragons. Then he was joking with someone as they drove carts
through the open doors, laden with hay and Hadge ready for threshing.

This place had always been the centre of the harvest celebrations, it being
the largest building in the settlement, and they had danced and sung, eaten
food and taken too much ale here. Most of its life had been wrapped around
this building. And there, there were his uncle and brother sat at a large
table, playing cards, drinking and guarding the entrance to the barn,
waiting for the Warrior Graescin to come and parley with them.

Only it never happened the way his Uncle had planned. For the first time in
his life, his Uncle had called a wrong decision. The Clan had paid with its
life for that mistake.  Now the doors to the barn were closed and a house
had been built right up along one side. This was a homestead now. A
farm. The settlement was gone, lost. The Clan that had lived here was
gone. And the Gift was all that remained to show either of them had ever
existed at all.

It drew in a deep breath, wiped its eyes, opened the door to the cart and
stepped out into the warm sunshine.

This was not its home anymore.

****

"It's about three hours drive from here." Sadath said.

He was sitting in the Bayt he shared with the Gift. This large tent had
been erected at the back of the house up against the back of the barn. From
the Bayt the Gift had access to the rear of the barn and the raised wooden
area that had been a workshop before but was now a storeroom.

The room had been cleared by the owners of this land, a soldier that the
Gift knew or recognised, but not one to whom it had revealed itself. In
fact, since arriving the Gift had remained inside the Bayt or the
storeroom.

"And this, what did you call it?" The Gift asked.

"Sayons." Sadath answered. "It's what they call a meeting of the Clans."

"Jen. So this Sayons will allow you to do what?"

"Meet the locals?" Sadath suggested.

"The Warrior Graescin ensured there weren't that many of them left around
here!" The Gift laughed, although it was not a joke Sadath shared.

"We are not here to resolve that." He said. "I had thought you understood
this."

"Sorry." Lost Clan said, bowing its head. "Of course I understand. You will
go to the Sayons as Warrior?"

"Yes. It is tradition that a Warrior attends to resolve conflicts that have
arisen. The Soldier Damask has been elected as the de facto leader of the
homesteaders here, so he will introduce me to the group."

"Remember the people you meet." Lost Clan said to him, coming over and
putting his head in his hands. "And not the ones who appear to be in
charge. The true leaders of some of these Clans are as likely to remain
hidden among the clansmen as come forward and reveal themselves to a
Warrior."

"I understand the tactics." The Warrior smiled, running his hand along the
Gift's arm. "I taught them to you, remember?"

"I remember." The Gift laughed. "But I am also a student of the Warrior
Ghen. He talks about these types of meetings all through the Golden March!
Be careful, jen? Stay linked to me!"

"I will. Speaking of which, when are you planning to try your super-link
out?"

"Once you leave." The Gift said, looking over to a clock on the
mantelpiece. "I have to start the meditations in half an hour and then
attempt the connection in an hour."

"Then go get ready." Sadath said as he stood up.

He pulled the Gift closer and then into a kiss.

"I'll be back late tonight." He said. "Wait for me?"

"Of course I'll wait for you!" The Gift laughed. "You're my Warrior!"

"I am aren't I!" Sadath laughed.

He kissed the Gift again and made his way out of the small room they used
for an office in the Bayt.

"And you keep the link open as well!"

"I will." The Gift thought to him.

Sadath's head was full of sex, and the Gift blushed. It drained the glass
of water it had been drinking, breathed deep of the last of Sadath's scent,
then made its way out of the office and through the open door that led to
the storeroom.

The room was empty now. The walls that enclosed it made it appear somewhere
different to what the Gift remembered, but the smell, the scent of wet wood
and decay, that was still the same.

It needed a clear mind for the task to come. The Gift of the Lost Warrior
had developed an archetype that allowed a Gift to clear its mind, and the
gift of the Lost Clan stepped into this now.

It started with a Tuyeau. It balanced on its left leg, right foot pressed
flat to the calf of the left leg, toes pointing straight down and knee
pointing directly away from the body. Its right arm was raised straight up
with the fingers of the hand pointing directly up. The left arm was placed
vertically across the Gift's body, index finger and thumb pointing straight
out in the direction of the arm, but all other fingers clenched tightly
shut.

Once the position was assumed, the Gift concentrated and flowed into the
gombillay that would move it into Flaish, the arrow, then Cloetuzh and back
to Flaish, then back to Tuyeau. This cycle of moves was repeated three
times, and on the last Tuyeau the Gift carried on with another gombillay
that saw it settle onto the floor in the Evelsomai. The position of
meditation.

And it was ready.

All Gifts had a telepathic connection with their Warriors. Distance was no
boundary to these connections and Gifts could speak with their Warriors
wherever they were on the surface of the planet. The connection had even
been tested in near space and it worked.

Thought was a force outside conventional matter and energy. That it was the
result of interactions between different forms of dark energy that
converged on the spark, the soul, created by the life-force of a living
creature, had been recognised for almost a century now. Taming this energy
and using it as a form of instant communication anywhere in the galaxy,
that was the current gron iday of science.

The Second Prime had taken that process one stage further, according to the
Professor anyway. His calculations showed that the Second Prime should be
linked together in the same way as an individual Gift and Warrior. And that
all of the Warriors in the Second Prime were also linked to all of the
Gifts.

This is what the first experiment would prove. Could the Gifts of the
Second Prime link across the distances of Tare du Maretch and then link
into their Warriors also. Each Warrior, like Sadath, had been sent on a
mission away from his Gift for this experiment.

The Gift of the Lost Clan concentrated. There were many mantras it knew it
could chant to keep its mind focussed, but in the end it used its
body. Heart beat and breathing. Bringing the two together, slowing heart
and speeding up breathing. Slowly, slightly... there.

Synchronicity.

There were many minds here. The Gift of the Lost Clan touched on each of
them briefly.

A small child crawling under the floor of this room.

A woman, the child's mother, in the house next door.

Two, no three other siblings in the house.

Two more wandering across to the corrals to help with the slaughter of a
beef-tie for the meal tonight.

An older man, a relative of the children, walking with them.

Some soldiers, relaxing in the barn, which had been converted into a field
kitchen and mess for them.

Another man with the Beef-tie that had been chosen for slaughter. He was
preparing the creature, it's mind now so deadened by drugs, that it could
not be fairly called human anymore.

Other ties, and other soldiers...

Beyond this compound were other minds, they appeared like sparks in the
darkness and, as Lost Clan pulled its consciousness back away from its
body, it saw more and more of them. Tare du Maretch was alive with
thinking, and the Gift could see it all. What it needed to see, though, was
the thoughts of the other two Gifts in the Second Prime.

Just thinking about them and they were there. Brighter lights than the
others, the other side of the triangle to itself. It reached out and
stroked one of the sparks.

"Noted." The thought said, it was the Lost Boy, and it was deep in
concentration.

Lost Clan reached out for the other mind.

"I have you." Lost Warrior thought.

"Then begin." Lost Clan said.

This test had been designed by the professor. Each of the Gifts had a card
in front of them, one they had opened just now. On the card was a number
and what each had to do was work out the prime factors for that
number. They could then work this out and tell the others. Each would take
the numbers of the other two and radio through to the Professor later.  He
would confirm the success or failure of the experiment.

Lost Clan's number was 78.

It worked out the prime factor quickly, Two into 78 is 39. Three into 39 is
13. The prime factor of 78 is 2(3*13).

Clearly the other numbers were bigger. Lost Clan smiled as it felt Lost Boy
working this calculation through. It had heard of prime factors before, but
never learned how to calculate one until a week ago. Now it was terrified
it would get it wrong.

Lost Warrior had worked on these problems many times and was able to hold
larger numbers in its mind. It was working on the biggest problem.

"I have it." Lost Clan thought to them.

"And me." Lost Boy added, but not with as much confidence.

"And I also." Lost Warrior said.

"Mine is 2(3*13)." Lost Clan said.

"I have 23*233." Lost Boy told them.

"And I have 5*3(7*149)." The Lost Warrior said.

"Glad he gave you that one!" Lost Boy thought. "Jen, I have them all."

"And me." Lost Clan said.

"And me." Lost Warrior confirmed.

"Then we will talk to the Professor and see what we get, yes?"

"But you know baked!" Lost Boy smiled into their minds. "This is not a
figment of my imagination, I can feel you both as if you were in the room
with me!"

"But this will confirm it." Lost Warrior said.

"Yes." Lost Clan agreed. "And later we will bring our Warriors into the
link."

"Jen. Is that it for now?" Lost Boy asked.

"That is it." Lost Clan said, and back in the Bayt it opened its eyes and
wrote the calculations down.

"Hello." It said without looking up.

"Hello." A child said.

Lost Clan smiled, the child was still standing in the floor, arms resting
on the floorboards while it stood in the crawlspace below the floor. As
Traes had once done.  "You're funny." The child said as it climbed out of
the hole and put the broken floor board back.

"Am I, why?" The Gift of the Lost Clan asked standing up and coming over to
the child.

It squatted down in front of it.

"You got big eyes and a tail!"

"That's because I'm a Gift." Lost Clan said.

"What's a Gif?"

"I am the Gif." Lost Clan laughed. "Come on." It said standing up and
reaching down with an outstretched hand. "We should get you out of here."

"Mah's cooking cake!"

"You want some cake?"

"Uh-hah."

"Then let's go get some." Lost Clan laughed, leading the child through the
Bayt and back out to the yard.

****

"So it worked?" Sadath asked as he came into their room.

"It worked." Lost Clan smiled, handing him a glass and pouring some wine
for itself.

"And next?"

"Next we bring you Selah and Chedda into the mix."

"Tomorrow?"

"Tomorrow." Lost Clan smiled. "What's wrong with you, you look like you've
been crying."

The Gift walked over to the warrior and touched his face.

"Hah!" Sadath smiled. "Tears of laughter! One of Damask's children met you,
I assume?"

"Sweet little girl." Lost Clan smiled. "She climbed up into the barn
through the crawlspace under the floor, like I used to do."

"And now she's telling everyone about the monster she met, called Gif,
apparently!" Sadath laughed. "Big eyes, pointy ears, tail, pinky-white in
colour. The other kids don't believe her, but she's adamant!"

"We met." Lost Clan smiled. "I took her back into the house. Everyone was
out, so I left her in the kitchen."

"Now she's talking about the monster in the barn." Sadath smiled. "The
adults understand, they know you are with me, but the kids... you watch,
they'll be creeping into the Bayt now to find you!"

"Then I'd better show myself." Lost Clan smiled. "I keep saying we Gifts
need to step out from behind our Warriors. Maybe this is where it
starts. What do you think?"

"Perfect idea." Sadath replied, emptying the glass and pulling the Gift
into a hug. "You should come to the celebration tonight."

"What are we celebrating?"

"The first Sayons went well. The local homesteaders met the local
clansmen. The homesteaders have applied to become a clan of their own."

"I wondered when that would happen." Lost Clan said. "Graescin may have
taken out my Clan, but people fall naturally into these kinds of
groupings. We all need to belong. It would be good for another Clan to be
created here."

"I agree." Sadath said. "It would show that the Palaces are not out to
destroy the order of things, but to re-affirm them."

"I think you will need to do a little more to spread that message." The
Gift smiled, pouring some wine into his glass. "But a good first meeting is
a start."

"Thank you." Sadath smiled. "I thought you were going to dismiss everything
we achieved today!"

"No!" Lost Clan replied. "I'm sorry Sadath." It added, coming over and
pulling him back into a hug. "It is easy for me with my books and my
studies to put down the day-to-day work that you do. I do not mean it to be
like that. It's just that I tend to look at things in the longer term. One
meeting is good, but we are still several away from a treaty."

"A journey of a thousand miles..." Sadath began.

"Starts with the first step. Yes, I am sorry." Sadath replied. "It takes a
saying from the dark times of the One World to remind me."

"And your Warrior to say it."

"And my increasingly sanctimonious Warrior to say it." Lost Clan
smiled. "Don't push your luck, I have apologised!" It laughed.

"And I'm enjoying your apology." Sadath replied. "You are not often wrong."

"Right. So tonight, a celebration?"

"Yes. A successful Sayons, and a meal for our hosts. Damask has put us all
up on his property. We are eating into his family's resources. It is only
fair we thank him."

"No, you are right." Lost Clan said. "It is too easy for me, as a Gift, to
become isolated. I think that is the problem with my fellow Gifts. They are
divorced from the Life Human."

"The life of a man is a life lived." Sadath quoted. "I live. I am a
man. They used that line to open the Sayons." He told the Gift.

"I would have like to have been there." Lost Clan replied.

"They believe in the Second Realm." Sadath replied. "That is what is so
frustrating about all of this. Everyone, whether they are on the side of
the Palaces or the side of the Tivians, they are all fighting for the same
thing. They just disagree with what that looks like at the end."

"Tivians?" Lost Clan asked.

"It is a line from Human or Human Est." Sadath explained. "You know it?"

The Gift was silent as it ran through its readings.

"And we rise once again from the ashes of Tivia." The Gift said. "The First
Realm is gone but we are all now born into the Second Realm."

"Exactly." Sadath said. "Tivia was the First Realm name for Troubian."

"I didn't know that!" Lost Clan said. "How interesting. So these Tivians,
they just want a re-balancing?"

"Yes, at the heart of it. Pretty much what you are planning."

"Then we work together. We should let them know this."

"And I am trying to open a deeper dialogue. Perhaps at the Sayons
tomorrow?"

"Perhaps. I cannot be there tomorrow, but I will attend on the third, yes?"

"I didn't expect you to appear until then anyway."

"Why?" Lost Clan asked.

"Because it is the third meeting. The Second Prime..."

"Jen." Lost Clan smiled. "But don't read too much into these things." Lost
Clan smiled. "Some things are just coincidental. I will come to the third
meeting because I am busy on the other two..."

"Hah!" Sadath laughed. "Nothing is coincidental with you. Come on, this is
you..."

"Jen. Unmasked again!" Lost Clan laughed. "How long until this little party
of yours?"

"An hour."

"Shame. I was hoping for some time alone with you."

"You will have time later." Sadath smiled. "For someone with a sex hang up
you have become mighty demanding of late!"

"I never had a hang up!" The Lost Clan laughed. "Just hadn't ever done it,
that was the problem! Now I have. You should be happy, it means you are
quite good!"

"Quite does not come into it." Sadath laughed. "Extremely, is the word I
think you were looking for then."

"Was it?" Lost Clan asked finishing its wine. "It's been so long now, I've
forgotten!"

"Ha, ha." Sadath smiled. "Later, jen? Neither of us can afford to miss this
meeting tonight."

"Spoil sport."

"I'll make it up to you later."

"And don't forget it!"

****

Into the Tuyeau, then the Flaish, next Cloetuzh, Flaish and end on
Tuyeau. Repeat the cycle, then once more and finally, the last gombillay
from Tuyeau into Evelsomai.  The preparation was complete and the Gift of
the Lost Clan opened its mind to the wider planet. It linked into Lost
Warrior and Lost Boy almost at once.

"That was tricks." Lost Boy thought to them.

"As it should be." Lost Warrior said. "We know each other, we should be
able to join easily."

"And the professor ratified our experiment." Lost Clan told them. "So we do
have a connection and not a construct within each of our minds."

"Good." Lost Boy laughed. "Because I would hate to think that I was just
spinning you two from dust! I thought I would have better conversations!"

"If we were just figments of your imagination no doubt we would all be
talking about your lust for Selah." Lost Warrior smiled.

"And what else would there be to note?" Lost Boy asked. "Lost Clan is still
experimenting and you and Chedda are just too pure!"

"Enough!" Lost Clan laughed. "We need to merge into one. That is the point
of today. One mind, three bodies."

"And then we can go get Selah?"

"Then we can go get Selah." Lost Clan agreed.

"Galaxia help us." Lost Warrior sighed.

"So which mantra do you have for us?" Lost Warrior asked.

"Something simple. The Soldier's Rejoice."

"Then we begin." Lost Warrior said.

As one they began to recite, again and again, the words becoming a litany,
becoming a song, becoming a blur of sounds that pulled them all into one
collective consciousness.  "I am become strength, the master of self. I am
become calm, the master of sense. I am become steel, the master of death."

The three Warriors were waiting for them to call them. The professor had
given each of them a line from one of the great texts. They had opened it
as they left their Gifts this morning and memorised it. As they came into
the mix, so they would repeat their text. The Gifts in Concert would note
and remember the words and then connect with the Professor in the Palace of
Sunsets and give to him the three quotes.

The Lost Clan directed the Concert, first to Selah, waiting for them in an
oasis not far from the Palace of the Sands where he was staying with the
Gift of the Lost Boy. He had been practicing his archetypes and was now
seated in the centre of a small lake at the heart of the oasis.

"Selah?"

The thought stole into his head. He could taste the Lost Boy, but there was
something more than his own Gift here as well.

"And the Warrior will sit at the centre of the people. His deliberations
become the deliberations of them all." Selah thought, again and again.

He became a part of the Concert. Not a mind at the centre, but a mind that
could be controlled by the collective will of the Second Prime. The
Professor had chosen texts for the Warriors that would not be familiar to
the Gifts. Texts from works designed for and written by Warriors.

Selah quoted from 'The Boundaries of Law', but Chedda had a different text.

"And the third of the Five forces described in the Seven Laws of Mind
Control is: cultivate the right seeds, like those of the Jurra. This gives
us Hadge. Leave the bad seeds, like the seed of the Yamar, which brings
forth only stinging leaves and burning sap."

And the Gifts in Concert took the words of Chedda, written by the Master
Warrior Fedash, into their minds, and the Warrior into their concert. And
then it turned to the last of the three Warriors, Sadath. The Warrior of
the Gift of the Lost Clan.

To Sadath had been given a line from the "Book of Reasons", often called
the Warrior's handbook. Written by the Warrior Mencha, a generation after
the founding of the Second Realm, it teaches the new Warrior how to use his
authority effectively when he meets with the people.

"Every man and woman you meet, every tie and tenure, will have hopes and
dreams which are written into their souls. We must give to these hopes and
dreams the warmth of our understanding and the essence of our
encouragement."

The concert took Sadath and merged it into its heart, then turned its mind
towards the Palace of Sunsets. Now it would seek out the Professor and give
to him the three quotes. He would not be prepared for this. In fact it was
important that he didn't know when the concert would call him.

Lost Clan had only decided the time yesterday with the other two Gifts of
the Second Prime. Now they reached out to the Professor.

His was a strange mind, almost not the mind human, or at least not the mind
of a human born on Tare du Maretch. His mind had colours and a taste that
was different from any other in the Concert. Within it they detected echoes
of his birth, almost half a millennium ago on a world in the system of the
One World. Not on the One World, but a world close to it.

"Professor." The Concert called.

"I feel you." He said.

They could see his laboratory. The Gifting of one of the new Gifts was not
progressing well and he was battling to understand why. To understand what
was causing the new Gift's body to reject the changes being induced in its
structure. There was a tinge of sadness in his mind. He was not expecting
this Gift to survive the gifting process.

And then, a wrench.

A blaze of light.

A blast of heat.

Terror.

Fear.

Pain.

Excruciating pain.

Sadath!

An explosion!

A trap!

A bomb in the road!

Soldiers dead!

Cart thrown aside!

Blood!

Pain!

Lost Clan understood instantly what had happened. An attack on the
Warrior's convoy. A roadside bomb, undetectable from space and therefore
unreported. The soldiers in the front of the convoy had triggered the
device, but its blast had hit the cart at the front of the convoy as
well. The Warrior had been sitting, as always, at the front of the cart,
open to the elements and open to the blast.

The concert was beyond emotion, but it contained the emotion of the Gift of
the Lost Clan. The Professor instantly made available his satellite
network. Within the tower of Gifting he controlled a network of nodes that
could transport life from one place to another in a moment. Mostly this was
used within the Palace of Sunsets, but occasionally it was used beyond. Now
the satellites locked onto the convoy in Midpoint Province.

The entire convoy was collected and transported to the Garden of
Gifting. At the same time, the Gift of the Lost Clan collected the Concert
and brought them all straight to the Garden. They all arrived at the same
time and, as they appeared in the garden, the concert collapsed.

Chaos ensued.

"Sadath!" Lost Clan screamed and ran through the wreckage at the front of
the convoy.

It leapt across soldiers, span past ties as it ran to the cart lying on its
side at the edge of the garden. Resting now up against the north Cloister
wall.

In a moment the other Gifts arrived and the three of them pulled the cart
away from the wall and threw it to one side. The Gift of the Lost Clan
reached Sadath first, but the three of them surrounded him and, a moment
later, two more Warriors joined this group.

There was a twinkling in the air and they were gone.

The Professor understood at the same time as the rest of the Concert what
had happened. Understood at once what had to be done. And as soon as he
thought of the satellites, the concert took the knowledge of them from his
mind. took their control into itself. The entire convoy was transported
back to the Palace faster than the Professor could have done it
himself. The Master Warrior and the Gift of the Troubled Waters were made
aware of the situation as well.

And then the Second Prime and their Warriors appeared in the Garden. They
had not been with the convoy, how had they appeared here? And then, a
moment later they vanished as quickly as they appeared and then...

The Professor blinked. He had been in his lab, now he was standing in the
corridor with the tanks around him. Four of them contained Gifts, but two
were empty.

"What...?" He said.

"You must save him!" The Gift of the Lost Clan said.

In its arms it held the twisted and bloody body of its Warrior. The man was
still alive, but the life was weak, and fading. Only the concerted mind of
the Second Prime was keeping it alive and the Professor noted that the
other two Gifts and Warriors were all in the position known as
Evelsomai. They were all willing their lives into the fallen Warrior.

"I... I do not know..." The Professor said, stepping forward to the Gift
and the dying Warrior. "He is badly injured." He added more firmly."

"No!" The Gift of the Lost Clan screamed, and the sound and the thoughts
cut through the Professor's mind, forced him to look up away from the
Warrior into the eyes of the Gift.

"Save him." The Gift said.

"I... I cannot..." The Professor said.

"Look at me!" The Gift of the Lost Clan demanded.

The Professor looked.

"This is not a request." The Gift told him. "You will save my
Warrior. Now!"

The Professor fell back with the force of the thought. Stumbled and slipped
onto the ground under the pressure of the command. Around him the machines
that controlled the tanks swung into action. He had not given the command!
But they were not his to control anymore. He fell back again as the Gift of
the Lost Clan prised the knowledge of this place from his head.

It opened the distant tanks that prepared the amniotic fluid. Began the
insertion of hormones and enzymes. Coordinated the creation of the virus
strands that would carry the amendments that would repair and rebuild the
body of the Warrior.

"I... can.. do this.. faster!" The Professor whispered, and the Gift of the
Lost Clan released his mind.

"Help us!" It pleaded.

"I will help." the Professor said, and the mind of the Gift laid bare his
thoughts, revealed his plans.

Together they placed the fallen Warrior into the tank.

****

"Cough!" A voice commanded.

The Warrior coughed.

"Breathe." It said, and it was much gentler now.

"Love me!" It whispered, and the Warrior opened his eyes and looked into
the eyes of his Gift.

His love.

"Where am I?" He asked.

"You are alive." The Gift told him. "We saved you."

"I remember..." He said.

"There was a bomb." The Gift said. "You were injured. We were there, we
brought you here. Saved you."

"I..." The Warrior began as the images and words from the gift merged and
he saw what had happened. "Thank you." He said.

The Gift pulled him into a hug.

"How long?" Sadath asked.

"Three months." The Gift of the Lost Clan sighed. "I thought you were
dead!" It screamed, and the thoughts cut into the Warrior's head.

He saw the pain, the fear. Understood the panic, the control.

The total control.

"What have you done?" He asked.

"We had to take over." The Gift told him. "There was no other way."

"Where is the Professor?"

"He is with his Gift."

"And the Master Warrior?"

"Nothing has changed." The Gift told him, pulling him into a
hug. "Everything is different." It added.

"And the Second Prime?"

"They are waiting for us." The Gift told him. "Come on. I need to love
you."

And there was no denying the desire in that thought. The Warrior rose and
followed his Gift.

****