Ercy's story opens the moment she lays eyes on Halimer Grant. 

.....

The moment she laid eyes on the man, the future changed.  

As long as she could remember, she had accepted that she would die in changeover.  But now, with every step closer he came, first the hope and then the irrational conviction came over her -- I'm going to live.  

Chapter 2

..... Leaning against the wall, soaking in the late-afternoon sun, she closed her eyes, wondering how it would feel to be grown up and able to zlin, to see by selyn refraction, not by light.  

"Hi, Ercy!"

She came to with a start.  "Oh, Im'ran!" 

The slender, gaunt-faced Gen coming toward her was as much her father as Digen was.  He was married to her mother and served her father as a permanent Donor because of the locked transfer dependency, the orhuen, that they shared.  

"Where's Digen?" asked the Gen.  

....... Her father took a deep breath and beckoned to Im'ran.

"We haven't talked much about this," said her father, "not for years.  but it's always been assumed in this family that Im'ran would provide your First Transfer.  That poses certain problems."

She looked at Im'ran and saw not a second father but a Gen -- a professional Donor of the highest order, almost an alien being.

"... an orhuen of twenty years' standing such as Im' and I have," her father was saying, "is not an easy kind of dependency to break into.  If the break is not done right, it could be fatal."  

"Is it really worth it, Dad?"

The two men traded dark glances, and as one, answered, "Yes."  "Yes, it's worth it."