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discussed it all again and voted unanimously to work. Jindigar sent word to
Threntisn that he wouldn't be searching the Archive and took his Oliat into
the Temple where he presented them with Trinarvil's estimates of their
individual need for pensone according to then- blood hormone
levels notoriously unreliable in early onset because the glands produced
surges of hormone at irregular intervals. It was just such a surge that had
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conquered Darllanyu in the Holot cave.
Darllanyu looked at the slip with her results on it, then folded it. "I told
you before. I won't go into the field without pensone. I almost killed us all
last time."
Jindigar sagged. People who had used pensone usually gave up engendering their
own children. And he'd so wanted Darllanyu's children. A barren first mating
such as they had shared in their First Renewals often left that nagging,
unfulfilled feeling they had both endured for more than five thousand years.
On the other hand, their lives depended on each others' stability. And they
would have to deal with the Cassrian reproductive process this time.
The morning sun beaming through the skylight illuminated the far end of the
Temple where the Hand of Fire stood a carving made of Phanphihy wood. It was a
Dushau hand, where each of the seven digits began as a bolt of lightning
striking out of thin air, converging to form the palm of the hand in which
nestled a bowl of water with a live fish swimming in it. On the table beside
it was a small plate of Phanphihy glass with the tiny pensone capsules arrayed
on it. Next to that was a stack of empty glass plates, none any bigger than
the palm of a hand.
"I think," said Jindigar, "that we should test ourselves for dosage. Anyone
who merits a two-capsule dose both by kinesiology and blood test will take it.
Reasonable?"
No one objected. Jindigar went first, taking an empty plate and putting one
capsule on it. He took it to the worldcircle under the skylight.
The white gravel of the wedding circle had been cleared away, revealing the
large wood carving of the Oliat symbol inlaid into the floor, an X balanced on
the point of an arrow. When the officers took their places on the symbol, they
stood within the worldcircle.
His Oliat's first official function had been the opening of the worldcircle,
thus consecrating the Temple. Jindigar remembered how they had arranged
themselves on the symbol that day. All Aliom practitioners qualified to help
had surrounded the circle. Unsure how Krinata would affect the process, he had
focused the Aliom community into one single mind-entity and sealed the
world-energy leakage oozing up through the Temple floor in a foglike haze.
Then, with the Temple floor sealed away from the world, Jindigar had made
himself a gateway for the world's energy, letting it erupt upward through him
and sending it on up through the skylight and up into the life sphere of the
planet. Much to his surprise, when they stepped out of the new worldcircle, it
continued to spume energies skyward, and the rest of the floor remained clean
of any static.
His gaze rested on Krinata now. Either Krinata is Takora, and Dushau do
sometimes reincarnate, or a worldcircle does not always dissipate when stepped
on by someone not trained in Aliom. He wasn't prepared to choose between these
basic tenets right now. Perhaps he should ignite a testing circle to see if
other humans could walk on it.
He stepped into his place on the center of the Aliom symbol, feeling the
tingle all over his skin nap, like bathing in an electric field. Only it had a
deeper, healing effect very disturbing on the threshold of Renewal.
Jindigar held the dish cupped in the palm of his hand, cradled against his
waist, and held his other arm straight out in front of him, palm down. "Ready,
Zannesu."
Zannesu touched Jindigar's outstretched hand and applied a measured force.
Slowly Jindigar's arm sank toward the floor. By sheer willpower he was able to
stop it at about a forty-five-degree angle. Adding a second capsule made
Jindigar's arm collapse instantly. Two capsules would be a poisonous dose for
him right now.
Jindigar tested Zannesu, then Zannesu and Llistyien tested everyone
else except Krinata. Darllanyu's arm was strengthened to rock steadiness by
three capsules and collapsed by four the only one of them to exceed Jindigar's
standard.
"Before you take it," said Venlagar, "let's test the Oliat with it."
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"But that puts Krinata in it," objected Zannesu. "Of course, it's poison to
her. We'll have no strength."
"It'll test our collective balance," said Jindigar, though such principles
didn't always transpose neatly to other species.
The Oliat joined in a line, arms circling one another's waists, Dar at one end
and Krinata at the other, Jindigar in the middle. Dar put the pensone down
while Jindigar coached Krinata to heft a fire shovel, holding it at arm's
length.
The shovel barely cleared the floor. "I can't lift it!"
"Good," replied Jindigar, and let up on the adjournment seals as he suggested,
"Now, see if you can lift it."
She strained, and the shovel wobbled up waist-high. They were not in good
balance. //Dar? You can go ahead.//
She held the pensone to her, and Jindigar signaled Krinata, who raised the
shovel again, exclaiming, //My God!// Her arm rose to shoulder height,
supporting the shovel easily.
Zannesu observed, //Maybe we can do this after all.//
As Darllanyu took the drug and waited for it to take effect, it Jindigar
busied himself with Zannesu and Krinata, setting the foundation linkages.
//Now, Krinata, I'm going to set the choke-link to you, so you won't have to
carry the brunt of this. You'll be Outreach, completing the Oliat balance and
allowing us to function, but you won't be able to speak for us, and you'll
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