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Twenty n'liu from the clanhome, slightly over fifty kilometers, Hovan set the null-grav car down in a clearing, reached into a storage compartment in the control panel, and handed Steve the locator beacon. Tarlac clipped it to the waistband of his shorts. "Twenty days, right?" he said as he climbed out of the car. "Five or ten," Hovan said with a smile. "May Lord Sepol guard and guide you, ruhar."
He was in a Traiti body that fit him perfectly well, though he'd prefer the familiarity of his human form. He felt the sensation of change again, and the glade's Traiti and human Lords returned to the bodies they'd first had. "One's original form is usually best," Kranath agreed calmly. "You have accepted that we exist," Sepol Lord of the Ordeal put in.
Tarlac started to contradict him, then he realized Sepol was right. He did accept what he was and what he was to become. He still wished they'd explain a few things, though. Why they'd taught him Language, why he'd really had to take the Ordeal, why he'd been rushed through it, and most importantly, why he had been called to the Circle.
"I'll give them the information they need to choose intelligently, but I won't tell them what to do." Tarlac sensed approval, and this time knew where it came from; he smiled. "Thanks." "None necessary, Ruhar," Sepol said. "We are merely pleased that you grasp the necessities, even before your full maturity. Go on."
The Ordeal has done that for many millennia, though it changed when Lord Sepol was called to the Circle. "If the war is to be ended with honor, it must be done by someone who has high status on both sides. As a Ranger, you already have that in the Empire; once you pass the Ordeal, you will also be able to negotiate a peace agreement as a Cor'naya." Tarlac frowned.
"To complete it," Kranath said, sitting beside him and materializing a mug of chovas. "I ended the clan wars, to begin the current cycle of history; a human must end this war, with our help, to begin the next." The rest of the Lords, except for Sepol and Carle, vanished. "It all ties together, Steve," Carle said.
Since mind is the architect of reality, we construct what pleases us." "Mind is the architect of reality." Tarlac took another sip of his julep, then thought about it becoming a mug of coffee. It responded to his will, and he drank; it was the best coffee he'd ever tasted. "You see?" Sepol said gently. "You are one of us, Lord Esteban, and that fact no longer disturbs you."
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