((Editor's note: This is the second half of an extremely long article Marge compiled from a file of correspondence between JL and Jean Lorrah from the time they were working on First Channel, along with some excerpts from an early draft of that novel. Part I ended with an excerpt dealing with Rimon and Kadi's first transfer. We now return to the discussion between JL and Jean.)

Double parentheses indicate added comments. Initials are as follows: MR -- Marge Robbins, Jean -- Jean Lorrah, and JL -- Jacqueline Lichtenberg.

*

Jean to JL 5/9/77

It's only later, when Kadi is pregnant that Rimon has to teach himself how to take from many Gens without killing and shunt into his primary system -- 8 months of rising intil unsatisfied. (He can do it -- Klairon does subsist on canned transfer for 8 months, though that is a limit.)

Rimon might have to go through disjunction twice -- primary and secondary -- depending on which system was functioning when he kills the first pen Gen.

Yes, when he takes a Gen while Kadi is pregnant and the Gen dies in transfer shock, Rimon would find it painful but the pain itself would be a pleasure to a junct, or ex-junct. That's why Digen will never be allowed to work dispensary again. It's an infectious pleasure. Once an addict of Gen pain, always susceptible. Alcoholics Anonymous.

But Rimon is determined not to kill, and with his second attempt at a Gen from the pens, he finds the vriamic function he's lost since the first time he pulled out of a transfer with Kadi. Remember, after he chases her and catches her, he attacks and pulls out, falling down in convulsions. But he's been thinking about this sensation, and the things he does with his innards that leave him hung-over, and he's wondering -- and he figures he'll try it out on a Gen. What's to lose?

So if he can not-kill the second Gen, he can drain both the second and third the following month when Kadi can supply him even less selyn, and the month after that he can drain the second, third, and fourth Gens. Superficial draining doesn't seem to harm them. It's only when he tries to drain the TN-3 level of a Gen who is fit only for GN level transfer that they die in shock. And he can superficial drain -- unlike other Simes. He must be trying to teach this technique to other Simes. ("Oh, it's so simple! Look, like this!").

So as Kadi diverts more and more of her output to the fetus, Rimon comes to rely more and more on a collection of Gens, using Kadi to shunt. Of course, he doesn't realize Kadi is shunting for him when he goes to her for sex. It's only when she can't endure sex anymore that he works out a method of shunting without sex.

*

Jean to JL 5/14/77

((MR: This is in response to JL's letters of 5/8 and 5/9))

Yes, Rimon and Kadi go from deepest depression to ecstatic transfer to lortuen to blissful sex, to sex, to sex, to "Good grief, Rimon, will you let me get some sleep?!" There can be tension built as the book progresses, for the first couple of months with Kadi, Rimon would have that perfect transfer followed by that pon farr reaction. Then, with Kadi's pregnancy, he has to turn to imperfect transfers, which would drop his sex drive to zilch again. After the baby is born, something has gone wrong with that perfect transfer -- yet it should still be good enough to waken his sex drive again, if not to previous proportions. This needs hashing out; we'll get it.

There is one problem with Rimon's trying to teach renSimes to take transfer without killing. 90% of Simes are lowest-potential renSimes and 90% of Gens are GN-3. Take a Gen Rimon has taught not to be afraid, match him with a low-potential renSime (I don't believe you've ever rated renSimes as you have GN donors.), and you'll get a Distect style transfer. It will work. After all, the Distect works. If I remember my mathematics correctly, purely by chance, there is an 80% probability that Rimon would match up a Sime with a Gen who could serve him without dying.

If I'm right about the above, one basic Tigue belief is that the function of channels ought to be to give First Transfer and to match up Simes with Gen donors of the proper level. They would channel only to fill in when there were not enough donors, or in cases of physical or psychological disturbance which made particular Simes unsafe for direct transfer. A Tigue channel believes that her ideal state (as a channel) is unemployment.

Anyway, if Rimon is going to fail at teaching other Simes, he somehow has to miss the fact that fear is the key to Gen death in transfer. Only he can manage not to kill a frightened Gen straight from the Pens. If he tries to teach someone else early, when he has only one or two Gens living with him, and they witness the failure of the other Sime, they would conclude that only Rimon has some kind of magical power. He might get one of his own Gens killed that way, figuring that if he first works with the Gen, the Gen learns to cooperate -- yes, he might very well consider cooperation the key. He's not going to let anyone experiment on Kadi, and the other Gens are only a few months out of the pens, still extremely reliant on Rimon and probably superstitious too. Hand one over to someone else, he panics and dies. Probably Rimon would have to give up at that point because he can't afford to have lives lost experimenting -- but he would keep searching for an answer in his head, and asking Kadi to repeat those stories of other Gens surviving transfer, which implies other Simes that at least sometimes didn't kill, searching and searching for the missing factor.

*

JL to Jean 5/19/77

((MR: this strictly speaking doesn't belong in the Roots article, but I found it too interesting to skip))

I think we have a terminology problem. No GN class donor can survive any non-channel transfer. The fact that you can survive a renSime's killmode attack is what Qualifies you TN-3. All Distect Gens are at least TN-3 and most in-T Gens are TN-3 within a year or two of establishment. TN-3's are cheap. They are the normal run of humanity. The only thing keeping out-T Gens from Qualifying TN-3 is psychology, culture and fear. It's really very simple. All you have to do is be totally self-possessed, sensitive, generous, self-confident, and fearless. Just a normal human. Someone who wouldn't take advantage of a man when he's down. Someone who can be trusted. Someone who takes other people's needs seriously. (Haven't you ever seen one kid snatch something of sentimental value away from another kid, and a bunch of them gang up on the person who's thing was snatched? That kind of person would die quickly in a kill society, a junct society. A person who would use a weakness against someone is a person whose whole psychology is based on fear -- and who would make a prime victim, and be doomed to a life as a GN.

No, the Distect doesn't work very well. If they lose their Gens, they kill without a qualm. And their transfers are always junct transfers -- it's just that no Gens get hurt because they protect themselves, and deliberately give the junct transfer, not the "artificial" Tecton transfer where the Sime controls.

((MR: two paragraphs skipped concerning Zeth and the end of the book))

It's not just a question of matching renSime with GN class donor. You have to match psychologies too. With fear -- tension pulling the nerves taut, the transfer or selyn movement sensation, slil, becomes the most horrifying thing you've ever felt. In total relaxation, nonresistance, it becomes the greatest pleasure, life itself. It depends first on attitude, then on capacity. And you can make up in attitude a lot of what you don't have in capacity. (Note the Im'ran transfer -- Im is 2% low, but Digen is thrown into post anyhow.)

Yes, Rimon would try to teach other Simes not to kill only after he had managed to take selyn from a Gen who is scared to death, and had the Gen survive it. He would figure if he could do it, so could anybody. The Farrises have that peculiar kind of humility. Being so "frail", they get used to thinking of themselves as "disabled" compared to most people, and would think, "If I can do it, anybody can."

Egobliss or killbliss (same thing). (Well, if there are differences, they'll be devilish to define.)

((MR: remember this was ten years ago. These terms do have different meanings today. See Azevedo's explanation to Laneff in RenSime.))

Well, yes, of course the disjunct channel's transfer is better. That's why it's hated -- it is more satisfying awakening the lust for the kill. It's deeply disturbing to the subconscious, causing the equivalent of a "straight" "macho" type man having homosexual dreams. Scare him witless.

In the post-Union Tecton period, the kill impulse is repressed. (That's the unhealthy kind of repression that causes neurosis). It is labeled perverse and unnatural. Complete about-face in the value system from HoZ where the Tecton was perverted and unnatural.

I can't see how the Tecton could have grown without using disjunct channels. There wouldn't be enough homegrown ones. But I do think you have a point. They would assign disjunct channels only to disjunct renSimes.

Or -- humm -- you could use a disjunct channel to collect selyn, transfer it to another channel via Sime/Sime transfer, and the other channel would dispense it to the Gens. There would probably be some wastage, and a danger that the nonjunct channel would "catch it" from the disjunct channel. But with precautions -- high-field Companion monitoring, for example -- I suspect some Houses would make it work. Provided they had enough channels with the right skills.

Even so, at Union, they would be forced by the sheer size of the job (all those in-T juncts to be served) to use disjuncted QN-3's in dispensary.

Also, they did go through a period where those too old to disjunct lived on one or two kills a year and channels' transfer the rest of the time. Hence the nasty rumors persisting to Digen's day of the Pens kept where nominally disjunct Simes would go for a secret kill. This secret was kept from the out-T Gens for maybe 20 or 30 years -- but by Digen's time, there are no such Pens. You can see why it took 100 years from Klyd to Digen for the trust of out-t Gens in Simes to develop to where they would allow Simes in retainers out-T. Progress is held up another 100 years basically by those rumors, which are denied categorically, but which were also denied when they were true.

I hope you follow my Simelan. This is really fun. There was a time when I was the only one in the world who could speak Simelan.

Yes, of course, even under the Tecton, the Houses were autonomous to a large degree. Some Houses would try a no-disjunct-channels rule, others would lag. They would compare notes -- that's more what the Tecton is for, comparing notes, than for governing. But there would come a time when they might all adopt a no-disjunct rule. I think you've got a point, a Sime used to disjunct channels' transfer would go through a disturbance similar to disjunction when the disjunct channel's transfer is withdrawn. At least most would. There are always exceptions.

((MR: Next we have part of Chapter 8, FCh, second draft. Kadi and Rimon met a Rathor channel named Lemarcos while on the road shortly after their First Transfer. It is followed by chapter 27 which is 7 weeks after Zeth's birth, when Kadi and Carlana are waiting for the return of their husbands, who had taken some horses to an auction. I included them because I wanted you to meet the Rathorite. Part of this excerpt was originally printed in Zeor Forum #4 as "The Starred Cross" by Jean Lorrah. Back issues of ZF may still be available from Katie Filipowicz, (street address removed), Spring Valley, NY 10977))

*

"We are peculiar!" he replied. "We're going to have to get used to that."

"I know. But ... maybe it will be easier to start with people we know."

"That's what I'd like to do, but you can't go two days without eating. It'll take that long to get home from here."

"I -- "

"What is it?"

"Oh ... I don't know, Rimon. Maybe we can find some more berries, and there are greens, this time of year ..."

"You should have solid food, Kadi. Cereal, at least. I'd like to get you some cheese or milk. Besides, there's a storm brewing, so it would be nice to have a roof over our heads for the night."

"All right, Rimon," said Kadi firmly, as if she had just decided something very important. "I know where we can have both a meal and a place to stay."

"You know?"

"Don't be surprised. I can still follow directions ... even if I can't do it any better than I could before."

"You know I didn't mean that. But I've been along this road before, and you haven't. Do you know someone who lives around here?"

"No, but I know where there's a shrine of the starred-cross."

She led him a few miles further down the road to where an immense boulder was split neatly in half from top to bottom. There she turned left, and followed the pathless terrain through a brushy area. Dead ahead was a butte. Kadi said, "See the notch in the top?"

"Erosion," said Rimon.

"It's meant to look that way. Notches like that lead all the way to the border."

They rode out to the butte, and Kadi pointed further out, to a hill which seemed just naturally to have a dip in one side, near the top. "You just follow the marks. When you get into the mountains, you know that the other side is Gen Territory."

"And Simes have never even noticed the markers! But Kadi, we don't want to go back to the border.

"No, we're going in here."

In where? Rimon wondered as he followed Kadi around the base of the butte. There was a small blind canyon on one side, and once they had turned into it, Kadi easily found what appeared to be a cave opening. Inside, it turned left, then right -- and opened into a rectangular room, man-made and comfortably outfitted.

Dim daylight filtered down through a rock chimney that must have gone clear to the top of the butte. Beneath that was a small grate with kindling laid for a fire, so that at night the opening would be a smoke-hole.

Solid rock on every side meant that the shrine was completely selyn-insulated. A fleeing Gen, exhausted, could rest here as long as he required, gaining strength for the last difficult trek to the border.

"What is this place?" Rimon asked in amazement.

Kadi turned to face him in the dimness, suddenly unsure again. You can never trust a Sime, not even me. Rimon hod sold it. And yet ... "Rimon -- I gave my word to keep this secret, especially from Simes. You have to give me your word -- and more -- you have to promise that no matter what you'd never -- never -- oh, I know you won't, not now, but never to -- hunt -- along the roads or in the shrines. Rimon?"

Rimon looked about with new eyes, realizing that this was what Kadi had once started to share with him and he had refused the pledge she had asked. But he would never hunt -- never kill -- never again, because what he had now was so much better he knew he could never be tempted with less. "I would die of attrition before I would betray this place, Kadi."

Arms around each others' waists, they explored a little deeper. "They call it a shrine of the starred-cross. I learned about it in Reloc. There ought to be food here ... Yes, here it is." There was a bin of cereal, a small pile of apples, a chunk of cheese wrapped in oiled paper, and a container of tea.

Rimon went out to tether the horses where they could graze on the sparse grass in the blind canyon. He found a tiny spring, mostly mud, and dug until he had a small pool of muddy water. If the approaching storm broke, they would have clear, fresh rainwater, but if it passed them by, the muddy water should clear enough by morning that they could easily fill their canteens.

When he went back inside, Rimon found Kadi had the fire going, and a pot of water heating. She made them tea and cereal, which they sweetened with the last of the honey Rimon had packed. Then she unwrapped the cheese, and reached casually for Rimon's knife.

He started, then froze before he tried to stop her ... but she had noticed.

"I'm not going to use it on you, Rimon," she said softly.

"Of course not," he replied, thankful that she understood. "It may take me a while to get over automatic reflexes."

A sharp instrument in the hands of a Gen was something every Sime feared. To take it away, a Sime had to expose his forearms -- and all the Gen had to do was get in one lucky cut for the Sime to die in agony.

Suddenly Rimon realized, "Kadi! There's no reason for Gens to be afraid of Simes!"

She looked up. "Reason or not, they are."

"But they don't have to be! Let me show you!"

He held out his hands, and she put the knife down and let him wrap his handling tentacles around her forearms, aligning them as if for a kill. Often, they had assumed this position to aid Rimon through the aftereffects of a kill. Now he said, "Kadi, look where your hands are."

Her fingers moved gently, feeling delicately through his skin. Despite her gentleness, he could not suppress a gasp as they slid over the now-shrunken ronaplin glands and met the lateral sheaths. Eyes wide, Kadi said, "I could injure your laterals! But I wouldn't, Rimon; you know that."

"What's important is that you know, Kadi. You've grown up with Simes -- and still it never occurred to you, or to any Gen I've ever heard of. Shidoni! It's been so all along, and none of us ever knew it!"

Kadi sat staring at their united arms for a moment. Then she whispered, "The danger is mutual! When a Sime is drawing selyn, the Gen literally holds his life in his hands. One squeeze -- " she shuddered.

"Yes," said Rimon, "when the laterals are extended, the transport nerves are completely exposed. The Gen is in a perfect position to kill his attacker with one squeeze, if he were to grip instead of trying to pull away."

But Kadi was trying to pull away. "Rimon, don't even think that!"

He held her effortlessly. "Don't you see, Kadi? A Gen who knows that has no reason to be afraid. You'll know it, next time -- "

"And I'll be terrified that I'll hurt you! Think, Rimon! If you told that to the Gens on the farm, how many dead Simes would you see in the next month?"

She was right. How could Gens who had always been treated as animals be expected to do anything but take revenge if given the chance? "You're right. We won't tell it, except to people we know and trust ..."

All this time they had remained in transfer position. Now Rimon leaned forward and pressed his lips to Kadi's. He didn't require any of the emotional balancing she had so often done for him, so he allowed the touch to become a kiss, then disentangled his grip so he could put his arms around her.

They came very near to forgetting about finishing their supper. Wolf, however, had been waiting patiently for some cheese ever since Kadi had unwrapped it. Seeing the two humans becoming involved in one another, forgetting him, he let out a mournful yip.

They ignored him.

He tried a yodel.

Rimon broke off from kissing Kadi. "I think your dog is jealous."

"No, he's just hungry," she replied. "Anyway, he's right that now is not the time."

"Any time is the right time for love."

"Not when we haven't finished supper, or cleaned our utensils, or set something out to catch the water if it rains or -- "

"Slave driver," he said affectionately. "Feed your dog. I'll wash the dishes."

Kadi gave Wolf the cereal remaining in Rimon's bowl, and only then a few scraps of hard, dry crust she had cut off the cheese. Rimon understood her reluctance to give her pet food that could mean life or death to a fleeing Gen.

"There's still enough for several meals," he pointed out, "even if we take enough to feed you till we get home."

"Oh, no, we can't take any food with us!"

"Yes, we can, Kadi, because as soon as I can, I'll come back and restock everything."

As he took their cooking pot and bowls outside to scour them with sand. Rimon wondered who saw to it that the shrine we supplied. It had to be Simes, this far in-Territory. Perhaps someone whose child had established and fled? Undoubtedly there were other Simes sympathetic to fleeing in-Territory Gens ... otherwise, there would be no route and no shrines.

The wind whistled into the small canyon, and Rimon moved the horses into a more sheltered spot. Thunder rumbled. He put the bowls and pot out to catch the rain, and rejoined Kadi in the shrine.

As the wind blew over the top of the butte, creating a draft up the smoke-hole, the fire blazed up. The leaping flames twinkled on something shining on the wall. Rimon walked over to have a look, and Kadi joined him.

An emblem hung from a peg driven into the wall. Beneath it was carved in neat lettering, "Have faith in the starred-cross, and do not fear the Sime in need."

Rimon took down the emblem and examined it. The design was simple: a five pointed star superimposed on an even-armed cross.

"That's the starred-cross," said Kadi. "It's the sign they showed me in Reloc."

The same symbol we carved in the stone beneath the peg, but the metal pendant on its leather thong was clearly meant to be worn. Rimon slipped it over Kadi's head. "There," he said, "that will protect you!"

"I don't require protection, Rimon. I have you."

"I don't run the world, Kadi. I ... shen, I don't believe in good luck charms or any such nonsense, but there's something about this place, this pendant. Wear it, Kadi. Have faith in the starred-cross, and do not fear the Sime in need."

"I have faith in you, Rimon," she replied solemnly.

Later that night, Rimon lay awake long after Kadi slept, wondering why he sensed some power in that talisman, even though he could clearly see the ambiguity in the statement carved on the wall. Juxtaposing the two thoughts implied that the Gen who had faith had no reason to fear. But it actually was made up of two commandments. The first, "Have faith in the starred-cross," Rimon could not fully comprehend, but he felt intuitively that it had a meaning. The second, "Do not fear the Sime in need," was only too clear: the Gen who did not fear did not die. But how did one teach Gens not to fear?

They were still on the winding secondary rood at noon, however, when they met another traveler coming toward them. His colorful outfit proclaimed him a Gypsy at first sight, of a tribe often seen in this Territory. When they approached one another on the narrow road, he greeted them cheerfully.

"Good day to you, young folk."

Rimon glanced at Kadi, who was as surprised as he that she was included in the greeting. "Good day, sir," he replied politely.

The Gypsy was looking them over. "You are headed ... in-Territory?"

"Yes, sir. We're going ... I'm taking K -- this woman, uh, Gen, home with me."

The Gypsy's eyes were the clearest deep green Rimon had ever seen, almost glowing against his swarthy skin. Under their gaze, Rimon found it impossible to think straight. The green eyes unfocused, as the Gypsy zlinned them, then snapped back to observe them both sharply.

In return, Rimon zlinned the Gypsy, and discovered that he was controlling a strange elation. Clearly, he was not offended as the other Simes who had zlinned them had been. But who ever knew how Gypsies would react to anything? His father had taught Rimon to respect these mysterious people, but could satisfy little of the boy's curiosity concerning them.

The Gypsy said, "Have you been on the road since dawn? I have, and have been hoping for some company to share a pot of tea."

"Uh--" said Rimon, knowing that Gypsies, even traveling alone, rarely sought or even accepted the company of non-Gypsies. "Well," he temporized, "I was thinking the same. Why make two fires when one will suffice?" Only after he had spoken, Rimon realized that he'd meant to say he was in a hurry, so they could escape that clear green gaze that seemed to pierce his soul.

"And the young lady?" The Gypsy looked now at Kadi.

Her reserve melted into a smile. "Oh, yes," she said. "I'd love some tea."

As they dismounted and built a fire, Rimon observed the Gypsy carefully. He was tall -- at least as tall as Syrus Farris -- and had that same sturdy build that Rimon and other Simes who followed his father's regimen had. He had curly black hair, cut short, so that it lay close to his well-shaped head, and an expressive face to which a smile came easily. Yet in repose, Rimon noted, there was a stern dignity about his features, almost as if the easy smiles and laughter were part of a well-rehearsed act.

Perhaps the most peculiar thing about him, though, was the absence of over-curiosity. Although Rimon could zlin that the Gypsy was longing to know how this peculiar couple came to be traveling contentedly together, he did not ask.

As he passed out tea, however, he did say, "My name is Lemarcos. May I know yours, young sir?"

"Rimon Farris."

"Farris. Yes, I thought you looked familiar. You are the son of Syrus Farris?"

"That's right."

"I have met him -- a most honorable man, and one who respects the customs of the Gypsies."

"Yes," said Rimon. "My father often hires your people for difficult jobs." Farris's only complaint was that he could never keep them for long.

Lemarcos fixed his eyes on Kadi. "May I ask your name, young lady?"

"Kadi Morcot."

"Kadi Farris!" said Rimon, without thinking.

The green eyes looked into his soul again. "Ho ... so that's how it is. You have a difficult road to travel, young folk. I do not envy you."

He got up and went to his heavily-laden pack horse, dipping into one of the saddlebags and returning with something Rimon could not see at first. He settled down with them again before he opened his hand to show a starred-cross pendant. "Do you know this sign?"

"Yes," murmured Kadi, pulling her pendant from beneath her tunic as Rimon nodded. "But," added Kadi, "I thought that no Sime did."

Lemarcos met Rimon's eyes with a twinkle. "I've pledged to honor this sign, as I'll wager you have, to the death."

Rimon glanced at Kadi. "She made me pledge my word."

"That may be a pledge harder to keep than you ever believed," answered Lemarcos. When Rimon made to deny that, the Gypsy went on. "There are those of my tribe who have found it so. Young sir, if you plan to unite your life with this lady's -- you, too, will require the protection of the starred-cross. There is no place for the two of you, together, on either side of the border."

"We'll make a place," said Rimon. "We'll teach others what we know, Lemarcos -- we have learned that Simes do not have to kill. We'll teach everybody. We could teach you!"

"No," said the Gypsy, his eyes clouding, "you cannot teach me that, young sir. Nor will you find many willing to learn, nor many among those who would. Be wise and proceed slowly. The way of the world is not changed in a day." He placed the pendant around Rimon's neck. "Wear that, but do not show it. It ever I can be of service to you, seek out the nearest of my people and say only that you seek Lemarcos. Every tribe this side of the river knows Lemarcos, the lone rider. I will receive the message and come to you! If I cannot I will send someone, and you shall know him by this sign."

Later, as they rode in the bright afternoon sunlight, Rimon had to feel for the pendant beneath his shirt to be sure the encounter had ever happened. The mysterious Gypsy with his knowing air, his strange vocabulary and even stranger nager, his politeness to Kadi, seemed a figure from a dream. He realized, as he thought it over, that Lemarcos seemed to know everything about Rimon and Kadi, but they had come away knowing nothing about Lemarcos.

Soon they turned onto the ancient highway. From here on the way was easy. Tomorrow ... tomorrow they would be home!

It was a day of rest. Carlana and her children were staying with Kadi while Del and Rimon drove a herd of horses to Ardo Pass, where the largest horse auction of the year was being held. They'd been gone for five days, and Kadi, Carlana, and Willa had spent the time canning vegetables for the winter, while Jon chopped wood and carried water, insisting that was "man's work," although it would have been much easier to leave the heavy work to Carlana'a Sime strength.

Carlana, Kadi had noticed, would unquestioningly lend her strength to Kadi or Willa, but it never seemed to occur to her that Jon could have used her help sometimes. When she'd pointed this out to Carlana, she had been testily rebuffed with, "Jon's a man, not a boy!" Since this made no sense whatever, Kadi had put it down to the stress Carlana was under these days. Since her miscarriage, she had resumed trying to make transfers without killing, and living with Del's repeated failures and attacks of remorse was also taking a toll so that Carlana had been behaving as if she were in hard need although she was a full week shy of it.

The only thing that seemed to relieve Carlana's tension was physical labor, and Jon, no matter how exhausted he was, continually took that away from her while she yielded it willingly to him. As each day passed, and Kadi felt better, she found herself more and more sensitive to the undercurrents in their group until she was yearning almost moment by moment for Rimon's return.

And he's due back today, thought Kadi that morning as they found all their work done and decided to declare a holiday. They had spent the morning playing with the children, and now Carlana and Willa were preparing a lunch to bring up to the top of the hill. From where she sat, Kadi could see Owen and Jana before the cabin, building an earthen pen for a lizard they had caught. She knew they hadn't hurt it, and that it would escape the moment they turned their backs, so she let them play without interference.

From her vantage point, she could see not only their own crops, but a good portion of the trail toward town, and in the opposite direction the trail Rimon and Del would ride on their way home. They'd be home by late afternoon or early evening. Rimon was three days from transfer; he wouldn't stay away any longer than he had to.

It would be their first transfer since her pregnancy had forced them to stop, and Kadi was beginning to think she needed it as much as Rimon did. She had wanted to do it last month, but he had insisted her field was not back to normal. As it hadn't been four weeks since Zeth's birth, she had reluctantly watched him take transfer from Willa once more, his distaste for it as evident as her own. But afterward, he had turned to her to balance his fields, and she still remembered the delicious joy as he had relaxed under her touch.

Then he had kissed her and said, "No more of this kind of transfer, Kadi. Next month you and I will do it right!"

Now she was more than ready for him, a sweet yearning singing through her veins every time she thought of it -- and she thought of it often, despite the looks this drew from Carlana. She scanned the road again, hoping to catch a glimpse of the dust raised by their wagon and the unsold horses. But there was nothing but the shimmer of heat rising from the dusty trail.

Voices and laughter brought her attention back to this side of the hill as Jon and Willa climbed up with the food, and Carlana gathered her children to follow. Carlana was now odd-man-out, the only one without the hearty appetite of a child or a Gen. She sat back, nibbling on half a sandwich while the others dug in. "This reminds me of picnics when I was a child," she said. "Everybody eating because they wanted to instead of because they're supposed to."

One thing Kadi had noticed about all their friends at Fort Freedom recently was a new willingness to talk about the past, about life on the other side of the border. "At a gathering like this," said Kadi, "I can start to imagine Gens living together in families, just like we do. Uh, you do."

"What did you think they did?"

"Ran around like wild animals. That's what I was taught as a child, Carlana," said Kadi, thinking of the time she had been captured by Gens and Rimon had risked his life to save her. On impulse, Kadi told them the story ending with, "So until I met you, I had no reason to doubt that idea of Gens."

Carlana shook herself as if feeling ants crawling up her sheaths, and then Kadi heard Willa crying softly. "Oh, it wasn't really so bad," said Kadi hastily. "It was over very quickly and it all ended happily, because here we are!" She stroked Zeth's fuzzy head and adjusted the blanket to shade his face from the late summer sun.

Carlana brought forth a tentative smile. "And I thought Sime Territory was a vision of hell, monsters lurking, savage beasts ... but I was lucky to find Fort Freedom right away. Oh, Kadi, you can't imagine what it was like when Mr. Verritt prayed with me, explained to me that I could still live as a human being, still find salvation ..."

Willa had shifted her place until she was setting beside Kadi, as far from Jon as she could, and Kadi heard her whisper as she struggled to control her tears, "I hate Gens."

Oh, dear, thought Kadi, as she said to Carlana, "Abel has indeed done a lot of good.

"When Dan Whelan and the others turned against him--!" Carlana's sudden anger brought forth her laterals in uncontrollable reflex. Kadi saw Jon startle, and then flinch before he could control himself, and she reached over to Carlana, suddenly aware of the woman's instability as a true pain within herself. All the intense sympathy bottled up so long in Kadi seemed to flood forth without any conscious intent.

Before she knew what was happening, Kadi found herself drawn into Carlana's grip, her knees scraping across the pebbles painfully -- that sensation itself feeding Carlana's reaction lashing her tentacles tighter about Kadi's arms and forcing lip contact.

It's only a reflex -- just intil, that's all. But Kadi was so startled, it took her several precious seconds to focus her awareness, and in the meantime, she felt the longed-for sensation of selyn flow deep within her. She wanted to give, wanted to help, but it was only intil, and Carlana -- Carlana just didn't feel like Rimon. This wasn't what she wanted. All her old skills came back at once, and almost immediately, Kadi was master of the situation.

Carlana's grip loosened and their lips parted, then gradually Carlana relaxed. Kadi held still very carefully as the Sime sheathed her laterals, and then quickly retracted her handling tentacles, staring in shock at her hands.

Then, both women at once blurted, "I'm sorry, it was my -- "

" -- fault," finished Kadi. "No, it was my fault. I triggered your reflexes, that's all -- it was a perfectly normal reaction."

"To kill is not normal! You've shown us that if nothing else!" And the Sime burst into dry sobs so heartrending, Kadi looked to Willa and Jon. The boy was tense, drawn back away from Carlana but rooted to the spot. Willa had broken into tears again, and Kadi couldn't tell if it was for sympathy with Carlana's pain or from fear of Kadi's own life. Carlana was too wrapped up in inner grief to react to either of the other Gens, but Kadi said, "Will you two go see if you can bring some of that cold water up from the deep cellar? Go on, now, Carlana's all right. I didn't hurt her, she just has sad memories."

The last was to reassure Willa. Kadi thought Jon knew more of what happened than was really good for him. They left, Willa saying as she scrambled down the path, "Make Carlana happy again, Kadi, please."

Kadi moved to put her arm around Carlana, focusing her attention deep into the woman's body as she sometimes did for Rimon when he was in hysterics. In moments the Sime quieted, unable to sustain any strong emotions so close to real need. Kadi worried a moment that after her kill, Carlana would experience all of this again in the upwelling surge of post-syndrome that got worse and worse as they tried not to kill.

"Oh, Kadi, I pray for them, but it's hard. God forgive me, but I have great difficulty not hating them. How can they be so blind? They say they won't return until you and Rimon are forbidden to enter Fort Freedom. They want to drive away our only hope of salvation!"

"Carlana ... we have never promised salvation. I don't really understand what you mean by it. What we have promised is to try our best to teach you all not to kill ... and the fact is, we haven't made much progress."

"No?" Carlana turned to eye Kadi, taking the Gen hands in her own again, this time without the whipcord strength of the attacking Sime. "Kadi -- don't you even know what you just did? I wanted -- I would have killed you -- if I could have! But you wouldn't let me. Nobody can kill you. And next week, Willa is going to teach Jord to do what Rimon does. I think she's already just like you. Jon -- oh, God how I pray for Jon. Kadi, he was so frightened -- and it felt so good! And your knees -- "

A tentacle brushed the rough gravel away, revealing a flush of blood under the dirt. "It's nothing," said Kadi. "This is the first summer I can remember not having both knees skinned all the time -- and that only because I couldn't get down on my knees most of the time!"

But Carlana didn't hear. She was wrapped in the memory of that uncontrollable urge to kill, her face a savage mask such as Kadi had not seen on any of those from Fort Freedom. Then, with a sound of total self-loathing, she began to cry again. Desperate, Kadi picked Zeth up, and forcing the Sime woman's arms open she put the tiny bundle into Carlana's hands. Tiny fingers plucked at Carlana's tentacle sheaths, tickling her until the woman's tears became tender and slowly ceased. She's a born mother, thought Kadi. If anything should happen to me, at least Zeth will be we' cared for.

The Sime looked up. "What are you thinking?"

"We live in a time of miracles," answered Kadi in hesitant English, a sentence she had heard often at Fort Freedom. She added, "We grew up on opposite sides of the border, and here we are best of friends -- and little Zeth, born of a Sime and Gen without a single death to his birth. Could either of us have imagined such a moment?"

Silently, Carlana shook her head. Zeth had fallen asleep in her arms. Off down the hill, there was a commotion as Jon and Willa wrangled over who would carry the bucket of water as they raced each other back up the hill. Then half way up, they broke into shouts and ran full tilt for the summit. Anxiously Kadi watched Carlana, but she showed no signs of her earlier distress. A good cry always helps, thought Kadi. That was something her mother had always said, but she hadn't really understood until she'd grown up.

The two Gens reached the top of the trail, jumping and pointing off into the distance. Kadi and Carlana followed their gestures and saw a cloud of dust rising just at the crest of the first hill -- at least two horses. "Carlana -- can you zlin that? Is it them?"

But Carlana shook her head. "I don't -- it can't be more than one rider -- Sime -- fairly low in selyn field, but excited."

Minutes later, the two horses came into view. They were trotting briskly, raising enough dust to account for a wagon. As they waited for the rider to near, Owen and Jana came back up the trail licking their fingers and got the expected scolding for getting into the sweets before finishing their sandwiches.

While Kadi washed her knees with a little water from the bucket, Carlana made the children finish their food.

Shortly, they could see there was one rider leading a pack horse, and as he neared, they made out his colorful clothing. Carlana started to sweep the picnic together hastily. "It's a Gypsy! Children, come! We'd better hide till he goes past."

But now Kadi had recognized the man. "No, it's all right," she said. "It's only Lemarcos!" Disregarding the horrified stares from Carlana and Jon, Kadi jumped up and waved. "We're up here!" she shouted, her spirits wholly restored by this unexpected visit. To Jon and Willa, she said, "He hasn't come by since you came to live with us. Wash your faces -- it's about time he met you -- without grime. Oh, I hope Rimon and Del get here in time!"

Lemarcos was drawing slowly up before the cabin now, tethering his horses. She shouted, "Come up to the top of the hill!"

She wasn't sure he heard her, but he zlinned her, for he waved back and began to climb.

Carlana watched in growing horror, finally said, "Kadi! A Gypsy? And even if you met him when you were a child, now you mustn't -- "

"Carlana, Lemarcos was the very first person to accept Rimon and me as ... as both being people, after our first transfer. He won't hurt you. I've known Gypsies all my life; they go their own ways, without bothering anyone. Lemarcos is the only one I know who's friendly to non-Gypsies."

Carlana put one arm, around each of her children. "They steal babies!"

Kadi giggled. "I'd like to see Lemarcos try to get away with those two!" Then she said seriously, "We had Gypsies in and out of the Genfarm all the time, and they never stole anything. Carlana, I promise you, there's nothing to be afraid of. Lemarcos even--"

No, she couldn't tell Carlana that the Gypsy was pledged to honor the starred-cross, for despite a temptation to tell their friends at Fort Freedom of that symbol, Rimon and Kadi had never done so. With the split between factions, they were glad they hadn't revealed it. "Lemarcos even came up here when we were first getting started, and warned us of the problems we might have. He travels through all this area. Of course, I wish he had come out and said this section floods every spring, instead of just advising us to build our house sturdily and our lives carefully!"

"He prophesied?"

"No, that's just it, Carlana. I think the Gypsies want to remain mysterious, so they put their so-called prophecies into vague terms that will apply to whatever happens. But anyway, he gave us good advice."

"Rimon never said Lemarcos was a Gypsy," said Jon.

"What's a Gypsy?" asked Willa.

"Bad people," said Owen.

And a deeper voice answered from the edge of the trail, "I rather doubt there is any such thing as 'bad people', Owen, just individuals who aren't following their better natures at the moment." He kept talking as he approached. "You can't say that all the people in Fort Freedom are good, or all bad -- any more than you can say all little boys are bad." He went to one knee before the child and offered a small round metal box. "I think this might be just the guide you've been wanting."

Owen shrank back reflexively, but his childish curiosity made him crane his neck to see into the little box. "What is it?" asked Kadi, delighted at the unexpected antics of their guest.

But Carlana whispered, "A compass ..."

"What does it do, Ma?" asked Jana, peering at the thing.

"It shows direction," said Carlana, looking warily at the Gypsy. "I've never seen one on this side of the border."

As Owen hesitantly claimed the gift proffered to him, Lemarcos rose to stand before Carlana. "This beautiful woman could only be Mrs. Erick."

Carlana gasped, and blushed crimson, drawing her children even closer. Lemarcos knelt before Jana, producing a doll and offering it. "Jana? This could only have been made especially for you! Take it, take it, lovely lady, for it could not possibly belong to anyone else!"

Her little hands closed over the bright doll, but her round eyes stayed with the Gypsy as he rose to confront Willa. "This charming young lady is Willa, is it not? Perhaps you would like a bit of ribbon for your hair?" He drew a length of plaid ribbon from his pocket -- just what she had been asking Rimon to bring her. Totally captivated, Willa smiled up at him and accepted the gift, remembering to say, "Thank you."

"And this would be Jon," Lemarcos continued, his smile dissolving as the boy drew back. The Gypsy threw a puzzled glance at Kadi, and then said, "You have nothing to fear of me, young sir. You should learn that lesson well: only your own fear can harm you. I have brought you something to help you see further than a Sime. Perhaps that will give you more confidence?"

He held out to Jon a small telescope. The only one Kadi had ever seen before belonged to Syrus Farris. But Jon seemed to know what it was, staring at the gift with desire, then back at Lemarcos with apprehension. "How do you know my name?" he asked defensively.

It was like a signal, releasing the amazed paralysis of the whole group, and Carlana said, backing away with her children, "Kadi, you were wrong. Where could he have gotten such knowledge except by evil powers -- and he comes with gifts, tempting us! We take no gifts from the devil's companion!"

Sobering, Lemarcos said, "But will you not accept a gift from your husband, Mrs. Erick?" He produced a soft scarf in Carlana's favorite shades of blue and yellow.

She stared at it, half repelled, half fascinated. "Del?"

"I left him and Rimon but yesterday noon at Ardo Pass. He sent you this, as I could travel faster than the laden wagon."

"Laden wagon?" asked Kadi, relieved to have the mystery solved. "Then they sold all the horses?"

"Indeed they did, and at a nice profit, too, they said." To Carlana, he said seriously, "Forgive me if I frightened you. I know nothing of you but what Rimon and Del have told me and what I can not help reading in your nager."

Beginning to believe him, Carlana took the scarf. "That was a terrible thing to do! No wonder Gypsies have such a bad name!"

Contritely, Lemarcos said, "I meant only to entertain the children."

Before his remorse, Carlana melted. "It's ... it's all right. Children, thank Mr. Lemarcos for your presents."

As the tension evaporated, Kadi noticed how neatly Lemarcos had sidetracked Carlana's fear of Gypsies by making himself appear a harmless trickster. And that in itself was a trick, she thought.

Lemarcos, meantime, had turned to the sleeping baby. He knelt on the blanket beside Zeth, zlinned the child, then raised his eyes to Kadi's. She saw awe in those deceptively clear green eyes as he said, "You have borne a son ... to Rimon ..." as if that were an unbelievable event. Perhaps Rimon had mentioned how difficult it had been.

"Yes," she replied. "Now our life is complete. We've had the problems you warned us of, and I suppose we'll have more, but we've come through. The worst is over."

The green eyes clouded again. "May that be true," he replied. "Whatever happens, you and Rimon have gained great strength to help you in the future."

All afternoon, as Lemarcos entertained the children with stories of far-away places and strange customs, with tricks and games, Kadi felt a constraint in him. It was as if he knew what had happened with Carlana before he arrived. He was closer to need than she had ever seen him before, yet he seemed at ease with Willa -- though he was cautious with Jon, who was staying near Kadi more than he usually did.

Several times she caught the Gypsy watching her as she held Zeth, but something closed her out the moment she glanced his way. Did he know of some new difficulty she and Rimon would face? No -- he had always given clear warnings against overconfidence before.

What she sensed in him now, she decided at last was something new -- a great triumphant joy being held under tight control. Had he known how difficult Zeth's birth would be? Had he feared that it would kill her -- and send Rimon back to killing? If that was it, why did Lemarcos care? Each time Rimon suggested that they might teach him not to kill, he always repeated what he had told the first time: "No, you can't teach me that."

Suddenly, an incredible, heretical thought crossed her mind. Maybe he already lives without killing!

He was pledged to honor the starred-cross.

He took an inordinate interest -- for a Gypsy -- in what Rimon and Kadi were doing.

And now ... meeting him for the third time she recognized about him that calm, confident ... lack, she realized. It was the absence of a certain anxiety that all Simes had at all times critical when they were in need, but never completely absent even immediately after a kill. Lemarcos lacked that tension, and now, except for a few days before transfer, so did Rimon!

Suddenly Kadi was certain it would disappear entirely from Rimon once he returned to transfer with her. But Lemarcos remained a mystery. No Gen traveled with him. How could he not kill?

She wanted to ask him, but could not before the whole group -- and he deftly avoided being alone with her. In the late afternoon, Rimon and Del arrived, causing even more excitement and less chance of confronting Lemarcos.

The two young men were triumphant with success -- they had sold every horse, at prices among the highest at the auction. The wagon was loaded with the rope Del had wanted, and kegs of nails -- some on consignment for Fort Freedom -- a saddle for Owen, and three huge bales of wire Del had to have for his fences, an incredible extravagance but his stock had to be protected.

Enthusiastic, Rimon said, "Already same people knew Del's name from last winter. By next year's auction, everyone will be bidding on Erick stock!"

Jean to JL 9/16/77

Just a quick note about part two, from something you commented in ch.6. If Kadi can suffer a touch of underdraw before she has ever given transfer, then I have been right in my assumption that a Gen's abilities depend to a large degree on his potential PR, whether or not he ever achieves his potential.

Kadi with her high empathy rating, her pre-establishment training with Rimon, and then the fact that she is in close proximity with him while he is in need when she is still in the process of establishing, is a potential 4+, although she'll never get there, because there is no such thing as a 4+ channel in her age.

Or is there? Here is something that occurs to me. Kadi and Rimon achieve lortuen, and everything is beautiful until Zeth's birth. The terrible strain of bearing a channel draws from Kadi taking her to a higher level than Rimon, just enough higher to strain their lortuen without destroying it. As Rimon is still not realizing his potential as a channel, and by then it's already five years since he changed over, he's never going any higher -- and he cannot satisfy her. Of course, they don't know what's wrong, but Kadi isn't satisfied and Rimon can sense her frustration and things are hell.

Years later after Zeth's changeover, you remember we introduce Avra ((MR: she got cut from the final version)) a female Farris channel. Now, if she's a Farris, and if she begins channeling immediately upon changeover, she has a higher potential than Rimon. And she's a typical Farris too -- probably having all sorts of problems that Rimon might diagnose as being caused by the fact that she never gets a completely adequate personal transfer. Obviously, Kadi and Rimon have had to break-step before, when Kadi was pregnant and Rimon had to have transfer from someone else (I imagine they're slightly off-true in the same way that Risa and Sergi are, only Rimon has the "perfect pitch" to sense and be bothered by it that Risa hasn't). Suppose Rimon decides that three or four months after Avra's changeover, what might set her up once and for all would be transfer with the best Gen they've got, Kadi.

Well, you know what would happen. Not orhuen but nonetheless Avra would get more satisfaction from Kadi than from anyone else she's had, while Kadi would get to use her potential -- and thereafter would want to provide transfer for Avra though she wouldn't want to admit that to Rimon. At that point the homestead has three First-Order channels, Rimon, Zeth, and Avra and only two First Order Donors Kadi and Rimon. Problems, problems, problems.

*

JL to Jean 9/19/77

The "Gandalf" type from Rathor would be working much as Sylvia Engdahl's agents do, keeping the Prime Directive to death. At this point in history, the Schools are admitting nobody. The Schools which have admitted outsiders have all perished mysteriously and no remaining School is willing to take the chance. So you're born to it and that's that. Of course, there is some gene-mixing from School to School -- or maybe sometimes they'll pick up somebody cleared by a medical group in hiding, (they are all male) -- or maybe the Rathor women doing field work might fall in love and bear a child to an outsider -- but she would do it at her School and the child would be raised in the School. (Many stories there of men chasing after their lost women!)

But at this time in history, the barriers are absolute. I know why, but it would take a monstrous novel to fill in all I know about Rathor and similar organizations at this point. ((MR: Write it, please!!!!)) In these current novels, let them be just mysterious background -- even in Trinrose, Rathor will not emerge in detail. But one day, probably a descendant of Halimer Grant will come back to Rathor and the readers will learn a lot.

Oh Rathor would take an inordinate interest in Rimon and Kadi -- considering them the most important thing going at that time. But they wouldn't dare interfere in any direct way. Either the two are capable of pulling this off or they should perish. Survival of the fittest -- it's brutal, but it's the only way. And if you really believe in the justice of karma you can live with it, because no such death is permanent. They would be willing for Rimon and Kadi to die because they would believe that in dying, they would learn a lesson, and when they reincarnated again a hundred or a thousand years later, they would do it right. Whereas if their way is cleared for them, they will have learned nothing. So, Rathor is holding its collective breath, but doing very little other than praying hard (which activity can be remarkably potent if you know how to go about it the way they do).

Possibly, and here's an idea I just thought of -- possibly our Rathor Agent "goes soft" and does help Rimon and Kadi too much, which action would be responsible for the next 3 thousand years of human misery because Rimon and Kadi both should have died and tried again wiser, but they didn't. As we are writing this book, knowing the horrors of the Tecton to come, we can see all Rimon's mistakes, and his innate weaknesses, and Kadi's too. Possibly, one of the higher ups in Rathor has seen this and forbids our Agent to interfere, hoping the two will die the wiser, but our Agent can't do it, and helps -- so a crippled society is born, and Rathor accepts this also as a necessary decree of the Lords of Karma. Humankind isn't ready for perfection, so we'll have to make do with the best we've got. Actually, that's the story of the human race, isn't it?

*

JL to Jean 9/20/77

Kadi could suffer a touch of underdraw -- but that has little to do with her potential PR. It has to do with her Order (i.e. First, suitable Companion to a Farris); and it has to do with her own physiology and health. Underdraw is the result of a failure of the feedback mechanism (the governors) which limits and/or stops selyn production at saturation. The result of this failure, is an "overcharge" or "underdraw" depending on your point of view.

The empathy rating has little or nothing to do with underdraw. Is a person of high empathy rating more prone to diabetes because of it? No. But a person who is a sugar fiend may ruin his sugar metabolism governors. Thus, Kadi's close association with Rimon (who is in virtually constant need of one kind or another) may act to weaken her feedback mechanisms.

In fact, this is the effect which "inducement" depends on. Didn't I ever tell you about inducement? I think I must have since this theory depends on it.

I don't think 4+ is defined in Rimon's time. "First" is hardly defined. "Channel" is about all you could expect to define. To distinguish between channels at this time would be just plain silly. Despite being a Farris, I doubt Rimon can be anything more than a Third Order channel -- but not the kind of Third that later becomes known by that label. He'd be a high capacity Farris Third -- a beast that Digen's society wouldn't be able to classify at all. His recovery time would probably be around mid-range Second Order; his capacity would be low-First Order; his sensitivity would be high-first; but his draw characteristics would be Third Order.

This mixed up profile is what causes most of his health problems and probably would have caused an early death under other circumstances.

However, his disjunction problems far overshadow any of these profile problems, so for dramatic purposes they can be ignored.

If Zeth is a very large baby and exceptionally vigorous (which seems logical given that Kadi is a Companion and Rimon's genes are breeding true), it would be reasonable to expect Kadi's capacity to be altered by the pre-natal draw. It would be a second Induction for her. (As in lactation, the quantity produced depends on the demand.)

Yes, it is entirely logical for Avra to be a more satisfying transfer for Kadi. But Kadi would never be able to label the source of her satisfaction or lack of it. She would simply be less irritable and belligerent, touchy or emotional during the weeks after a full draw. The transfer experience itself wouldn't hold that much textural difference, and all in all, she probably would still crave Rimon because going from transfer directly to sex adds a tremendous punch to the experience. She would prefer that experience, but it would leave residual static in her system. At least that's what I think now -- let's write it and ask Kadi what it feels like.

A House with three Firsts or three Sectuib candidates can't survive without splitting -- like a beehive with three queens -- two will swarm. So there would be enormous tensions between supporters of Avra, Zeth, and Rimon and the initial characteristics of the daughter Houses of Rimon will begin to emerge.

I know where Zeor comes from:

After Rimon's death, House of Rimon goes on for a while until eventually it splits among the Sectuib candidates and they scatter to form their own houses. (Perhaps social pressure, but perhaps they just decide that they have a greater chance to survive if they split and scatter.)

Several of the Houses fail to make a go of it after a couple of years, and their survivors band together again. At first they call the combined House Rimon, but then that doesn't seem right because some of the daughter Houses are surviving nicely, so they search for a common factor among the traits that distinguished their various Houses.

We see the beginnings of that distinction -- the innate personality reflected in a House from the Sectuib himself. How a Sectuib of a particular persuasion tends to gather about himself/herself people of like values, forming a band of people who share some dominant traits; this is both psychological and physiological in origin, and it is a phenomenon not seen among Ancients in quite such a definite form -- though the primary traces of it are obvious in the way Ancients form religious movements or political organizations.

Well, the one trait these House fragments have in common is Excellence, and so Zeor is born of the failed remnants of several of Rimon's daughter Houses.

Thus Zeor is not a daughter House of Rimon nor a granddaughter House of Rimon -- it is somewhere in between -- and in a peculiar way, it is Rimon itself.

The esoteric reasoning behind this choice for Zeor's origin is that Zeor turns out to be the longest surviving House and commands a respect and charisma that no other House has -- and this "glamour" which surrounds Zeor can't be explained by anything Zeor has done. Other Houses have made contributions just as significant. The difference in Zeor's life is that it is a recombined House, a House of survivors, a house of the best of the first best.

It is also the House which gains and maintains closest contact with Rathor, having Rathor members.

Zeor stands at a focus of spiritual energies as no other House. This gives rise to the myth of the Farris Syndrome (that every Farris will, at some time in his life, make headlines. Usually more than once for a Sectuib or a member of Zeor). The Farris Syndrome includes the phenomenon of having one's personal life of momentous import to "all humanity" -- no matter how corny you may think that sounds before it happens to you.

((MR: I've left out a letter discussing among other things Kadi's PR and underdraw problem.))

*

Jean to JL 9/24/77

((MR: this refers to JL's letter of 9/20/77))

Now, to your cover letter. Yes, I meant that Kadi is induced by proximity to Rimon -- I just couldn't remember the term you used for it. However, somewhere in the thick stack of letters from you I also have your statement that any Gen is a potential 4+ as long as he's a normal good-natured human being. At least at one time you were under the impression that any Gen not traumatized against Simes could become a First-Order Donor under the best of circumstances, and certainly a Third even with no exposure to higher-Order channels or prior training.

Once again we're back to defining that elusive essence of the Sime and Gen fields which makes certain people matchmates. It's not PR; it has something to do with frequency and/or amplitude. Take two people with an identical PR to the 27th decimal, and they're pretty sure to form a dependency, but unless the other element is in tune, they'll never have a LOT relationship. PR is physiological; the LOT element is karmic.

Now, my reference to Kadi's empathy was as one factor in her high PR. In UNTO, you either flatly state or strongly imply that only 4+'s suffer underdraw. The quantum jumps in my logical progression are as follows: Kadi has strong empathy; this makes her susceptible to Inducement; this makes her susceptible to underdraw.

And no, I didn't mean that anyone gave ratings to channels or Donors in Rimon's day; I was using your terminology as shorthand so that we know that we're talking about the same thing. Sometimes we find ourselves using different terms for the same thing, and sometimes we find that we use the same words and mean two different things.

To go back to your letter of 9/19. No, I didn't mean to bring Rathor in as an important element in FCh. You never either agreed or disagreed with my idea that the Gypsies are sometimes part of Rathor, and that they are the ones who keep the shrines stocked. As I'm now working on chapter eight, and with any luck will have it in the mail to you before I can receive an answer, I'm going ahead with that idea. Along the road, Rimon and Kadi get strange looks from other passers-by. However, one person they meet is a Gypsy, with whom they stop and chat for a while -- the only Sime they've met who hasn't been at least faintly disapproving upon zlinning them, or simply noticing their attitude toward one another. Later, that same Gypsy will be a frequent visitor at the homestead, obviously interested, but always evasive when Rimon suggests -- especially in Part Three, that he might wish to join them.

Oh yes, our Gypsy friend would undoubtedly become very close to Zeth, weaving tales for children that one day he will discover have significance. Hmm. As to his going soft and violating the Prime Directive -- I should think that would happen after Kadi's death, when Avra is trying to save Rimon, but of course no one has ever had the experience of trying to save someone dying of a broken lortuen before (at least to anyone's knowledge.) Our Gypsy would be a channel, of course (something Rimon has always suspected from his nager, but couldn't really believe -- well, you know), and do something to save Rimon's life, saving him for that ill-fated premature attempt to go to his father's Genfarm and try to convert the world.

*

JL to Jean 9/30/77

((MR: This concerns JL's rewrite of Jean's chapter 8. The Starred Cross stuff you read earlier.))

First I felt that Kadi had to make Rimon pledge to "Honor" the starred-cross. But I also felt her taking Rimon for granted was somehow right, so I let her lead him to the shrine first, then exact her pledge. Rimon, not having the foggiest notion of what he's doing, pledges without a second thought. As far as he's concerned, he's totally disjunct. Little does he know ...

Second -- I had a problem with the permanent notches marking the routes. Wouldn't kids who were told and then went Sime know to hunt Gens along the routes? By Klyd's day, the raiders hunt the shrines. I had assumed that the underground would put out the word every six months or so that this or that route was safe or wasn't safe. I figure there are additional markers Kadi knew about and didn't tell Rimon -- markers which indicate that the road is open and safe.

Another possibility -- they might have 2 "routes" -- one told only to Gens such as the one Kadi was told by the Gens. And a second route revealed to kids who might go Gen. That route would always be doubtful and not really secure, but worth a try.

I didn't do anything about that problem since I let Kadi keep her secret from Rimon about the "open" markers.

But I had to meddle with the ending. I thought I answered Jean's comment about the Gypsies. As soon as I started working on Gypsies at all, I knew they would be involved with the roads, and when we started working on the Rathor background and linked them with the starred-cross and its roads, and then when Jean came up with the idea of using the Gypsies for "cover" I immediately knew everything there is to know about the Gypsy culture, background, etc. -- and even a few of those Rathor members who travel as Gypsies from time to time. I even know some real Gypsies who are Rathor members. And then today I met a couple who are "in the know" and sympathize without being Rathor members. And there's a whole bunch who have heard rumors -- but you know Gypsies, they don't talk to outsiders and are even close-mouthed about their rumors, so not a breath of a word of any secret let loose inside a Gypsy camp ever gets to "outsiders". However, anything one Gypsy knows is common knowledge the next day among Gypsies, unless you have a bond of secrecy on him -- and then it may take a week, because he'd only tell his closest relatives!

So the way I see it, there really are genuine Gypsies (not related to the European/Egyptian-descended kind, but itinerant tribes filling an ecological niche in the Sime/Gen culture). That's what makes them useful as cover identities for Rathor fieldmen/women. I toyed with the idea of a whole tribe which is all Rathor -- but that would be too conspicuous. I now think that Gypsy tribes exist across territory borders -- that is, there are Gen bands and Sime bands, and you can claim a home and safety with any band of your own tribe, Sime or Gen. (But it's risky anyhow.)

I'm not entirely sure which group Lemarcos belongs to -- a genuine Rathor member or merely a sympathizer or what.

I left it open for later development and merely took out the references to being able to show the starred cross to any Gypsy -- but left the communication line in by telling Rimon to ask for Lemarcos, the lone rider of the such and so tribe (which Rimon presumably recognizes from his dress style, which we didn't describe, but will later, no doubt).

Gypsies usually only travel in family groups. Think of a small Italian family circus operating through the northern Italy area.

Lemarcos probably tells a heartrending tale of a lost wife and children and his pledge to never remarry for his one love must remain inviolate. (Balderdash, he has a wife and kids back at Rathor, no doubt, but he tells a wow of a story and makes you believe it. Gypsy culture includes a flare for the dramatic and a weakness for the romantic and idealistic. ((MR: Shen, I'm sorry this got left out of FCh.))

This "Gypsy" culture is more like the original, real, Gypsy culture than like the modern American caricature of "Gypsy" as synonymous with itinerant thief. The real Gypsy culture is intensely mystical and laced with very strictly adhered to rituals (which is what has brought them to be associated with the "lost Tribe"). They are a cross between Rosicrucians and Orthodox Jews with a few different kinds of rituals substituted here and there, but rituals which perform the same mystical quasi-religious functions. This is the backbone of what has given them cultural integrity wherever they have traveled.

Well, the Sime/Gen "Gypsy" culture has a lot of these elements -- a very structured society with mystical practices galore which really work. A lot of that culture has been deliberately built or fostered by the Schools, no doubt. In fact, some of the early generations of the Schools may well have designed and built the Gypsy tribes deliberately to be "cover" identities for the Rathor fieldmen. But they were also designed to begin to put civilization back together again in the field. Trade, commerce in all forms, technical expertise (i.e. pot mending of Ancient Gypsies), news dissemination, many, many functions necessary to a reforming civilization can be handled only by the itinerant tribe structure. There is a niche in the culture of the Territories which would either give rise spontaneously to such a bunch of tribes or would be filled on purpose.

It's possible it was a little of both. When the Schools found the niche being filled, they simply nudged a bit here and there and designed a better Gypsy to fill the niche. They designed a self-sustaining culture which will probably still exist in identifiable form in Klairon Farris's day.

*

Jean to JL 1/1/78

Enclosed is chapter 13 -- and a whole new set of characters! Chapter 14 will bring some factions from the other town closer to Fort Freedom because of Kadi -- but at the same time, it should be clear that the plot is thickening for further conflict. I think you can tell already that Jord Veritt is going to be trouble for Rimon.

Somewhere along the line Abel Veritt's story will be told. Just across the border where Rimon and Kadi have settled there is a large group of Church of the Purity members -- adherents of the most radical form of that religion. Veritt escaped across the border at his changeover, and in despair, believing himself to be a demon, or possessed by one, fell in with Freeband Raiders. He was just about wrecked, physically and mentally, until, when it became impossible at one time for the band to acquire in-T Gens from traders or out-T Gens because of heavy border patrols, they raided a government Pen. That was when Veritt had his "revelation" that he didn't have to kill "real people" to live. At first he didn't know what it meant that he felt such a difference between the self-aware Gens he had been killing and the pen Gens. He left the Raiders, and was taken in by a Sime woman who lived a normal sensible life. I should think there would be some kind of withdrawal symptoms associated with the change from killing intelligent Gens to killing only the government-raised variety. For Veritt, the suffering became a kind of purification process. Just as he was beginning to think there might be something in life for him, though, his health returned to the point at which for the very first time he reacted normally to a kill, and exploded into what he perceived as uncontrolled lust. Never mind that the woman he was living with was only too willing -- in fact seduced him. Veritt felt that he had committed an unforgivable sin. The result, as you've already guessed was Jord. Before his son was born, however, Veritt had his "revelation": that the soul could be detected in the nager of Sime or Gen.

Veritt's first wife died in childbirth. Jord is probably a junct channel. Veritt saw God's judgement upon him, and bowed to it. He took his infant son and returned to the border, where he started gathering out-T Simes who had felt the same despair he had felt, and creating a new religion spontaneously as he went along. New Simes found an answer to the Church they had lost with changeover; nobody questioned very hard anything Veritt taught. They didn't want to question it. Fort Freedom has been in existence less than twenty years; there are those in the second generation who are starting to ask questions. Jord is among them -- and no wonder.

Soon after founding Fort Freedom, Abel Veritt remarried. He and his second wife, the meek creature of ch. 13 had three children. The first died in changeover -- but never killed. The other two Established, and were joyfully escorted to the border. Veritt feels that the fact that two of his children are Gen proves that God has forgiven him. But you can imagine how Jord feels. He envies his father's position of leadership, and feels that he ought to be taking over some of the responsibilities -- but Veritt finds it very difficult to love his son, and of course Jord has found it difficult to do anything right in his father's eyes. Now along comes Rimon -- a Sime who doesn't kill. Veritt becomes more and more taken with him, and Jord becomes more and more jealous. Like most doubters, he has more faith in the negative than the positive side of his religion; he really does fear witchcraft, demons, etc. His father, on the other hand, tends to doubt that aspect more, having proved, he thinks, that Simes are not evil spirits, as he had been taught -- and so, perhaps the other stories are just superstition.

*

JL to Jean 1/16/78

((MR: This letter starts with another discussion of the transfer/lortuen consummation scene.))

You've got something in your Tigue sex-linked mutation, I think. There is a naturalness to the Sime being female and the Gen being male. Rimon, as a Sime, has certain feminine characteristics -- or characteristics the Ancients always thought were feminine but aren't really. But he also is very, very male in the dominance thing. The way I wrote it, he was using her (for the first, maybe the last time) for an ego trip, and it had elements of the cruelty of the kill in it that he can't face consciously. That, too, is an area that was stirred deeply by her slow transfer (a slow burn in hell for him). He is verging on disjunction crisis (doesn't even know what that is) and takes a tremendous (relieving) satisfaction in this sexual torture of a Gen; an exquisite torture which is pleasure to them both. It's very twisted, psychologically -- I hope you can grasp what I'm driving at here.

This slow, unsatisfying transfer (which is a weird forerunner of the Tecton's therapeutic transfers where the Gen controls which are not unsatisfying) will also serve to throw him into crisis. He's under a deprivation he doesn't recognize as a deprivation. His turnover is going to be sheer hell.

If he were a Tecton channel, he'd be locked in the deferment suite for the duration whether he wanted it or not. You've left him in a very dangerous state. And plunging him into that battle in Chapter 15 was about the cruellest thing I could think of to do to the poor boy.

Give what you've had Kadi do to him, I just don't see how he's going to be able to resist a kill on the battlefield. He hasn't had enough warning that he's going to be tempted. He hasn't gone though a time of summoning the will and determination to block his impulse to the kill.

I wouldn't be surprised if he doesn't attack a Gen and actually draw to the point where he's burning the Gen badly. He might well strip the Gen to within a dynopter of death by depletion before his self-induced abort conditioning flings him into a shen like he's never experienced before. This would give him extra selyn to restore what the battle took -- and it would give him a renewed acquaintance with the kill and his own appetites. It would also give him a new recruit, because the Gen would be left for dead -- but wouldn't be dead. He could easily lay claim to the Gen and take him/her home.

It would also open his secondary system like never before because the draw from the hapless Wild Gen would have been shunted (before abort) into his secondary system which gave him the control to abort.

Possibly, with this new guest at their place, Del foresees disaster. He can see the changes in Rimon as Kadi can't. She lives with him every day, and even she can't zlin his bifurcate nager, and his erratic control of that nager. She doesn't see clearly the change in his whole personality since they left the Genfarm.

Del, being particularly disturbed, would try to talk to Kadi about it, and might well tangle a little with the Wild Gen. Such an interaction would lead quite naturally to Kadi trying to help Del through his kill-traumas the way she had always helped Rimon. The presence of the Wild Gen, every time he comes to visit, would be making Del's kills worse and worse. He can only eat around Kadi when she's hungry -- and with that Gen there, it's bad to worse to worse. Kadi, as Rimon, feels responsible for Del's problems, and gets a little too close one time when Del is in need. (He never comes before a kill, but this time he does -- maybe when Carlana brings Kadi strawberries? Or to bring them because Carlana won't come near the Wild Gen at all?)

Anyway, I think Del is the natural one for Kadi to shen since you've given him something of Rimon's basic problem. Del might well draw her GN-3 level (the most superficial) before she can stop it, spoiling Rimon's next transfer by just a hair. (She'd recover rapidly on exposure to Rimon -- and if he had the patience and reserves to wait another day or two, they'd be even again, but he doesn't, certainly not pre-disjunction or just post disjunction.)

If you wanted to, you could use Carlana for the Sime who gets shenned. She too, has a trauma that Kadi feels for.

I can't imagine what Rimon could do to repair a shen trauma in a Sime. One would normally turn to a therapist, a Gen, for help with that. Rimon could, or a channel could, diagnose the problem and suggest methods, but usually a Gen is the one who would do the work.

In a junct Sime, shen would bring on the berserker rage, the hunting mode, the ferocious need to kill. Of course, with Kadi's field, the shen could be so strong it completely immobilizes and disorganizes, the way she did at the Choice Auction. Or since she's in sympathy with this Sime, as I said, she might permit a stripping of her GN-3 level and then gently terminate the draw shy of satisfaction for the Sime.

Or she might allow the renSime to take satisfaction. The renSime draw would seem the barest trickle, not a serious attempt to draw selyn. She might not be aware that she was losing significant amounts of selyn, depending on the renSime's state of need and her field strength. (She is, after all, an untutored novice.)

But considering the lortuen, if she is as tied into it as Rimon is, the touch of another Sime would be repellent, something she'd have to fight herself to permit. The actual drawing of selyn by anyone else would trigger a reflex shen of the Sime. (Probably not unlike what Callista did to Andrew in Forbidden Tower when they tried sex too soon.) It would depend on the exact state of affairs between her and Rimon at the time.

(A renSime's satisfaction would only require the GN-3, GN-2 & GN-1 levels to be stripped. A QN-3 would tap into the TN-3 level, and so forth).

*

JL to Jean 1/23/78

About the kids of Fort Freedom. Here's a vignette that might do it. Since Rimon and Kadi appeared among them, the kids of course would be gossiping among themselves about those weird grown-ups. Now, suppose there were a couple of kids from different families in FF who were in love, the way Rimon and Kadi were -- and the romanticism of their life really grabbed the kids.

Suppose one of them then went through changeover. And later the other Established. Meanwhile the Sime has been on the kill without trauma as Rimon had -- and the Sime is renSime, not channel. But they're in love -- and they have the role model of Rimon and Kadi. A "behind the barn" transfer turns into a kill and is discovered.

From that moment on, Veritt would forbid any experimentation. Though he wouldn't really have to forbid it -- the kids have learned their lesson -- no grown-up experiments. Probably the Sime who killed his girlfriend suicided right afterwards in front of everybody. What does Veritt's God say about suicide?

I don't think this would force Veritt to expel Rimon and Kadi. It's more a case of childish disobedience to the already existing practice of escorting established Gens to the border. But while Rimon and Kadi personally would be kosher, their practices would most emphatically not be.

This would also serve to illustrate the incredible chance that brought Rimon and Kadi together. It hadn't happened before -- or if it did, the couples died -- because it was a real freakish set of circumstances with a very low probability of all lining up. Readers may have been asking themselves why Rimon and Kadi are the first, since places like Fort Freedom exist and this would answer that.

How does a renSime perceive a working channel? The renSime zlins only the "showfield" which is the function of the secondary system. Rimon, during the healing of Risko, to the renSimes present seemed like a golden ball of fire. He seemed to become absorbed into Kadi's nager and disappear into it, though they could see him sitting there. They could perceive movement (Rimon is clumsy with his secondary system yet) and shifts. They probably all had their hair stand on end when he was struggling to shift to his secondary system. Now, Rimon wasn't doing that very well. He was relying more on Kadi's field. In fact, Kadi did more than Rimon actually knows. The Gypsy channel mentioned was better trained and able to work without direct Gen assistance on such a simple functional.

When Rimon finally masters the technique and tries to show anyone, all they'll zlin is his showfield. They'll think they're zlinning what he's doing, but actually it's only the effect of what he's doing. A channel -- well, think of it in terms of binocular vision. With one eye (one system) you see but not in depth -- with two eyes (systems) you get depth or third dimension perception. So a channel's dual system (if it is functional) will let him zlin behind the show field of a lesser channel.

The only way he could get through the showfield of a better channel would be if the better channel deliberately allowed him to (which also has to be learned).

Think also in terms of that funny way you let your eyes go out of focus if you want to see somebody's aura. There's no way to teach that -- like there's no way to teach someone to wiggle their ears or raise one eyebrow or wink or whistle. Most kids, though, don't learn to see the aura. (I haven't yet, at least that I'm sure of, but I expect one day I'll get it.)

Rimon's mistake the first couple of times he tried to heal Risko was that he was using his primary system and so felt the other's need. When he shifted to secondary, he was able to do it without undue stress.

Oh, you had him feel tired too long after the functional was over. Despite everything, he's a Farris -- which means quick recovery times. So he felt terribly exhausted like never before in his life -- but it passed quickly. Yet, he's human. So the strain of the sudden battle, resisting the kill, then learning to heal, left his mind swimming and he had no ambition or strength left to argue. Two hours of sleep should more than cure that. He has to assimilate what he's learned, and since he's not in First Year, it may take him a few days, even a few weeks, to completely assimilate all that's happened in this one day. But they live a quiet life out there on the farm -- he probably won't have too much trouble.

Okay, in principle, a Gen heals a Sime and a Sime heals a Gen. However, a channel is capable of appearing as Sime or Gen. So to Kadi, Rimon summoned need and drew her tissues into function. To Risko he became Gen and did what Digen would call applying a backfield. If Rimon had realized he was taking his life in his hands with that, he probably wouldn't have tried it. Ignorance is such bliss.

At any rate if ever any other couple got as far as Rimon and Kadi, they probably lost when the Sime tried some such trick as this and got himself killed.