Disclaimer 1: This is fanfic. That means I do not own any of it. I just borrow it to play with for a little while and let people see the pathetic results if they really want to.

Disclaimer 2: I'm not making any money from it. It's just for fun.

Disclaimer 3: What isn't borrowed is all made up. None of this is real or most likely at all realistic. Please don't trust any of the information in here. Most likely you know more about whatever I'm writing about than I do.

Disclaimer 4: Attitudes, views and opinions expressed by the characters or in the story are not necessarily those of the author. Even when writing Science Fiction or Fantasy I do not tend to attempt to create perfect/better worlds in which everybody gets a happy end ... or whatever is best for them. Please accept that some characters will have a bad ending or be unhappy.

Disclaimer 5: I intend no insult to anyone. If I offend anyone I'm very sorry. Please understand that it was an accident as I tend to be very clumsy in these things.

Chapter 11: Gods, Gods, Gods

-You know what?- Cirke declared once again appearing unexpectedly. -You can take me to town. I'll show you Cir.-

-Oh, I can?- Jesse said hopping out of the Badlander and giving it a quick glance to make sure he'd landed it straight. -How gracious.-

-Oh, come on. I know you want to see it. I heard that you asked Commander Razzle.-

-And he answered me. What is it to you?-

-Well, I'm going to Cirsz temple to ask for good weather for the goluth harvest. I need someone to take me there and with the occupation and checkpoints and rebels in the forests Aunty said I'd better ask you to let me ride in one of your planes. It'll be faster and safer, she said.-

-True.- Jesse agreed.

-And you've never been to a temple of Cir, right?-

-Yes, so?-

-So you can fly me there yourself and I'll show you the temple.-

Jesse laughed. -Very well, but not today. After lunch tomorrow.-

Cirke beamed at him. -That's fine.-

-And you've got to explain some things to me. Razzle told me the names of the gods, but who does what?-

Cirke frowned. -There's lots of them. I don't know them all.-

-There are 25.- Jesse informed her. -And it's enough if you tell me about the ones I've heard people talk about.-

Cirke shrugged, produced two shoteze from behind her back, held one out to Jesse and bit into the other. -Okay, you name 'em. I tell you what they are if I know.-

Jesse accepted the fruit. It was a big one and freshly plucked, probably as a bribe in case he refused to fly her into town. He could have picked his own, of course. Nobody here would have dared to stop him for the sake of a single fruit. But the locals had a lot more experience choosing the best and Cirke was a nimble climber and went much further up the trees in her quest for them than Jesse would have bothered to.

He made himself comfortable under a wing and indicated for her to join him.

-Right then: Who's Sze?-

-Forgiveness.- Cirke said promptly. -She's a nice one, but not very powerful. 'Cept she's real popular in the army and in school. You pray to her if you expect to be punished for something ... or if you've got a long punishment and want it to end early.-

Jesse laughed. Yes, that was probably unofficially the most worshipped god in the Outrider army, especially among those who had to deal with Nemesis directly.

-Itz?- He inquired.

-War.- Cirke replied. -He's really powerful, but awfully nasty. We have to go and sacrifice to him whenever there's a new war, or a big battle coming. And sometimes when we want Gattler to have lots of luck with some operation. I don't like his temple, though. It's all dark and stinky and has really ugly statues. You have to sacrifice meat to him. Aunty says that's why it stinks so much. But his cats are cool. He's got a pair of cat statues flanking his altar, you see. They're this high.- She held up her hand. -And have hugely long fangs.-

-Cats of War.- Jesse recognised. -Like on house Elhessarsz banner.-

-Yes, those. They're scary, but cool scary.-

Jesse nodded in agreement. They were magnificent beasts. -Kith?-

Cirke shrugged. -Dunno. Well, he's survival, but that's all I remember. I've never been to his temple. It must be a special kind of survival, I guess.-

-Fair enough. It's more than I knew before. Zzr?- Jesse asked casually taking another bite of his shotez.

Cirke started, stopped eating and looked at him shaking, her eyes wide and frightened.

-Death.- She whispered. -He's the master of all the gods. The lord of the diamonds. His temple's all glittering and pretty inside with real bright lights reflecting off his diamonds, you know, but you don't want to go there. You only go when somebody's died.-

Death and diamonds? What a strange combination.

-No skulls?- He asked Cirke.

-Skulls? What skulls? Why would there be skulls?-

-They symbolise death among Fleshlings.-

-Weird.- Cirke said. -Who's next? Make it somebody nice.-

Ha, if only he knew who was nice ad who wasn't! He stuck with the order in which he remembered them being mentioned last night instead.

-Mol? Razzle said he's popular around here.-

-Mol's great.- Cirke confirmed. -He's healing. You go to him when you're sick. Got to anyway, because all hospitals are his temples. Mol's Zzrsz natural enemy, but he can't really defeat him, you know. Zzr is the strongest of all. Mol can bargain with him, though and if Zzr isn't that eager to have you, he'll let you live if Mol asks him.-

-Nice.- Jesse commented. -How very hopeful.-

Cirke looked up at him uncomprehendingly, shrugged and returned her attention to her fruit.

-How about Par?- Jesse asked. -He's supposed to be popular on the Warworld.-

-Par?- Cirke scrunched up her nose. -I don't know that name. Auntie Ulnatz ought to know. I'm sure she knows all the gods, but I don't remember everything she's told me about them. Auntie can go on about nothing for hours.-

A pity, Jesse thought remembering Razzle's prediction the night before ... to which Lutaz had reacted by bringing up another god that nobody had explained or mentioned again.

-Aaz?- He prompted Cirke.

-Prophecy. The fickle lady of the candle. She's just a character in made up tales, though. Something people worshipped back before they discovered science.- Ah, just a joke then, and Lutaz had mentioned that Razzle really worshipped ... Hold on!

-What's this thing about people worshipping or not worshipping particular gods? Do you pick and choose which ones you believe in and disbelieve the rest?-

-What? No! Of course I believe in all of them!- Cirke exclaimed. -But there are some you need more than others and everybody has a favourite. Those are the ones whose temples you go to and who you pray to.-

-And your favourite is Cir.-

-Yes, I'm named for him, so I have his particular blessing. So how could I not favour him?-

That reminded Jesse of something else. -Jatt said Razzle's named for Raz, but Razzle said that he does not favour him and that it's only verbal not literal. What does that mean?-

-That his name is spelled r, a, z not Raz. The god Raz is spelled Raz. So it sounds like the god, but isn't spelled like him. You do that if you want one child blessed by the god, but don't want to be forced to give that same blessing to all your children. It makes a lot of sense with Raz because he's a soldier's strength and you might want your sons to become strong soldiers, but prefer your daughters to be something else. So you use r, a, z for the boys and can use any r name for the girls.-

A soldier's strength. Did she mean brute physical strength?

-The sort of strength Commander Mohawk has?- He inquired hoping that she knew Mohawk since he was from the same planet.

She nodded. -Yes, exactly that. He's really cool, isn't he? But you don't want to be that heavy when you're picking fruits. You've got to climb for the best fruits and the tree might break under you.-

-Yes, and I can see why Razzle doesn't favour Raz. He doesn't think much of Mohawk as a Commander.- Neither did Jesse to be honest. -A Commander needs to be smart more than strong.-

-How so? He's a soldier. He's got to fight and in a fight the stronger one wins.-

-I can see you've never had any battle training.- Jesse laughed. -I'm stronger than you. Should we go and test your theory in a sword fight?-

-I thought you don't know how to fight.-

-Yes, that's my point. You'd win, because you're more skilled. My strength wouldn't help me much. And when you're a Commander you have soldiers to fight for you. You've got to be smart and know where and how the soldiers should fight, though. Your own strength won't make much of a difference if you put your soldiers in the wrong place and they lose. Razzle's an old hand at that. I suppose Mohawk could beat him in a fistfight, but never army against army.-

Come to think of it, he'd seen the way Razzle dealt with Grammis on a training mat and from what little he'd seen of Mohawk, Grammis might not be the brightest tool in Nemesis' arsenal, but he could still think rings around Mohawk. Besides, Mohawk probably hadn't seen much more of Razzle's fighting style than Jesse had of Mohawk's. If Grammis still fell for Razzle's traps after all these years, did Mohawk stand a chance just because he was heavier than Grammis?

-Most likely he'd just fall even harder.-

-Huh?-

-Nothing, just trying to imagine Razzle and Mohawk sparring. I'm not so sure who'd win on second thought. Razzle's got a lot of skill.-

Cirke nodded wisely. -He is a Commander, too. But what god does he like then? I don't know one for fighting skill.-

-He said his favourite ... Well, that wasn't really clear. He spoke quite highly of several ones. I think the first one was Ler?-

Cirke snorted. -Ler's technology. She's no soldier's god. No way!-

-That makes sense. He's a tech officer. Says it's very useful because they're rare. Then Lutaz suggested Kie and he seemed to agree with that, too.-

This amused Cirke even more.

-Kie's for artists!- She giggled. -Art and wisdom. Can you see Razzle sculpting?-

-No.- Jesse returned unamused. -But he is wise. I can see him worshipping a god of wisdom.-

-Goddess.- Cirke corrected. -Kie's definitely female.-

-But what he said in the end didn't sound like he really favours Kie or Ler. At least from what the Fleshlings taught me of psychology he ... seemed to think he has a mission from a god called Ark?-

Cirke blinked. -A priest's duty? Or a vassal's mission? Or a prophet's vision?-

Jesse shrugged. -How should I tell? What he said was that somebody had to carry Arksz lantern. Does that mean anything to you?-

Cirke shrugged. -The lantern's just Arksz symbol. She's another goddess. Of knowledge. And that's all I know about her. I bet she's for scientists, not soldiers or accountants.-

Knowledge? What the? ... But wasn't that just like Razzle? Ever throwing you another curve-ball, never quite fitting any mould. And when you thought about it ...

-Technology is a field of science, isn't it? Our civilian techs come from the science academy in any case. Maybe he just adopted Ark along with Ler.-

She certainly ought to go well with Kie's wisdom aspect, Jesse thought.

-Still odd for a soldier.-

Yes, but Razzle hadn't called them soldiers' gods, had he? In fact hadn't he told Jatt of another three that supposedly made a lot of sense for soldiers? Raz, strength, Kie, probably once again in the aspect of wisdom and not art and ...

-Nez?-

-Loyalty.- Said Cirke. -Not one you hear of much either. Though everybody's been talking about him lately. Him and Tar. I don't like them. They're ... enemies somehow, but I don't think either of them is a nice god. I don't want to know them.-

-Just tell me what Tar stands for and we're done.- Jesse promised.

But Cirke shook her head looking distressed and confused.

-I don't know. It's really strange. I know he's somehow terribly bad, but they also say he's the great protector and the god of the ancestors and that we have his blessing. Afrar said he was calling to Gattler, that he always had been or why else would people call him the Wolf. Gattler didn't like it at all when he said that. He flew off and was really odd afterwards. And then he told Afrar he'd follow the call for Nezsz sake, but never Tarsz. And I think he cried after he said that.-

Jesse stared at her. This clearly was a case for Razzle. Not just because of the god Cirke could not explain, but even more because of Gattler's odd behaviour. If anybody would be able to interpret that it was Razzle.

Jesse found Razzle bent over the map of the planet on which they had marked all enemy sightings. It wasn't surprising. Jesse himself had spent quite some time here this very morning trying to make out the pattern.

-Find anything, yet?-

-I think there must be something in this area. Some structure that isn't on the map.-

-Something Gattler told you about?- Jesse suggested.

Razzle shook his head. -No, but there's no reason he would have. It's on Goura territory after all. If he knew of it before this, then only in passing. They are using the place now, though. Maybe it's their headquarters, or a vehicle base, or maybe ammunition store. They'll hardly be hoarding food when they can just pluck it off the trees almost everywhere they go. If only we knew the exact location it would be an excellent place to strike at them.-

-Perhaps the locals can tell us?- Jesse suggested. -Cirke wants me to fly her to Cirsz temple tomorrow. She was quite happy to answer my questions about the gods in exchange.-

-So you don't need me to explain then?- It was said lightly, even though he had seemed almost eager the day before.

Did it matter to him? -Nez and Tar?- Jesse prompted. -What is the latter and are they somehow connected? Cirke says people have been talking about them a lot lately and that Nez is loyalty, but all she can tell about Tar is that he's somehow bad or maybe not. I can't really make anything of that information.-

Razzle laughed.

-Somehow bad, but maybe not. Funnily enough that's not so far off at all as baby vocabulary goes.-

-So ... he's something like Janus?- The Outriders had to be familiar with that old Fleshling god somehow since they had nicknamed Jean Claude that.

-No.- Razzle said. -It is a matter of perspectives rather than a characteristic of the god himself. Tar ... started out as a god of justice a very long time ago.-

-Justice?- Jesse asked. -Loyalty and justice? That doesn't make sense. Do you mean revenge?-

-No, I said justice and I meant justice, but I also said a very long time ago. He was a kind and helpful god and after a while he became the protector of the weakest members of society: The sick, the cripples, the poor, the serfs ... and the outcasts. That caused him to drift from a god of criminal justice to one of social justice. In times of oppression or economic trouble the poor would call on him and if their poverty or the oppression grew too unbearable they would revolt. And thus Tar became what he is today: The god of rebels, criminals and traitors. But he also still remains the god of the serfs and poor.-

-Serfs? What are serfs? And what could this have to do with Gattler?-

-Slow down. I can only answer one question at a time. As for Nez and Tar I think you can see how they indeed are a pair now: Loyalty and treason. But they are also very relevant in our current political situation as the gods of loyalty, both to Nemesis and our Afrare, and rebellion. In fact they might have more to do with civil wars than Itz does.-

-So Nez ... What's his stand on what I've done, choosing to follow Nemesis over my clan?-

Razzle smiled bitterly. -He doesn't give an answer to that. You have honoured him by remaining loyal to Nemesis, of course, and dishonoured both him and yourself by disobeying Afrar Hiretz. You ought to have been loyal to both and the fact that that is impossible ... well, that's your problem. There are scores of ancient ballads on the topic, though. Usually they end tragically.-

-Just wonderful.- Jesse said rolling his eyes.

Razzle shrugged. -Pick a different god. With your history Nez doesn't suit you anyway.-

-You think Tar does?-

Another shrug. -I used to feel sure of it. That's one of the reasons I called you Puppy.-

-Excuse me. What?-

-The wolf is the symbol of Tar.- Razzle grinned. -And you might have noticed by now that we do not keep canines as pets. A puppy is the young of a wolf or wild dog.-

Jesse blinked trying to assimilate that. So all the time Razzle had been ridiculing and annoying him he'd still been calling him a ... What exactly was a wolf in the Outriders' eyes?

-You call Gattler the Old Wolf.- He prompted.

-Yes, and there's a connection between him and Tar right there. The wolf is a warrior for his pack and protects his fellows. Moreover the Uthene rose from serfs to nobles not so long ago. Tar is the god of their ancestors and he has done well by them. I thought it a fitting name then before I ever dreamed of a rebellion like this. I never meant to call Gattler treacherous.-

Serfs again. -So what are serfs then and how do you go from serf to noble?-

Razzle regarded him thoughtfully for a moment. -How well do you understand the structure of our society?-

Jesse shrugged. -There are nobles and commoners. Some clans have both, some only commoners.-

-Cute.- Razzle commented.

So it probably was very basic. Oh well.

-So tell me.-

-Mostly the noble clans own the land. There are exceptions like you saw on Ishara, but we can ignore those right now. There aren't any on this world. Arthame has only two continents. One belongs entirely to Uthen, the other to Goura. Both are noble clans. They, as you observed, have nobles and commoners. Belonging to a noble clan gives a commoner a much higher status than the other kinds of commoners, even though he is merely a servant in his own clan. Then you have other clans that live on a noble clan's land without being part of it.-

-I saw those when we went shopping on Varen.- Jesse agreed. -They run shops.-

-Those were probably vassal clans.- Razzle said. -That's the most common thing now. Vassal clans have some kind of contract with the clan that owns the land they live and work on. Usually they owe a fixed rent or a percentage of their earnings and some services or goods. Sometimes only services, but that is rare. As long as they fulfil the contract they are free to do whatever they want ... within the bounds of the law, of course.-

Jesse nodded. -The ones on Varen probably owed a percentage. At least, we paid for their goods and didn't just take what we wanted.-

-Probably.- Razzle agreed. -It is more common to demand goods in the agricultural area, but not here on Arthame. There are few vassal clans here, though the people in town might be. I expect you have noticed the harvest workers in the orchards?-

-Of course.- Very small and sickly looking men and children mostly. They hardly ever looked up from their work.

-They are serfs. They live on the noble clan's land and pay for that by their work. All their work. They are not allowed to do anything without the noble clan's direct permission. The noble clan of course has an interest in keeping them alive, so they keep them fed, clothed and housed, but they aren't even obliged to do that.-

Jesse stared at Razzle. -Why do they put up with that?-

-They don't have a choice.- Razzle replied calmly.

-No choice? Why not?-

-They need to eat and they don't have any money to buy food.-

-So why don't they get jobs to earn money?-

-Because they have to work for free while they live on the noble clan's land unless they get permission to work for money. Of course that is against the noble clan's interest so the permission is not likely to be given. And they cannot move off the noble clan's land without permission either.-

Jesse opened his mouth to reply, then closed it again. "Slaves."

-No, slaves can be sold, serfs can not. If you have more than you can afford or want you give the surplus permission to leave, or even to take up paid work during times you don't need them. Of course once they have some money they start going on strike for proper wages and that's how the social order of serfs has gradually disappeared on most worlds. With the infant mortality being what it is here, though and the climate allowing fruit harvesting all though the year ...-

-There are slaves in Outrider society as well, though?-

-Yes, there are some, but they too are very rare. Usually they are prisoners of war, not actual Outriders.-

Jesse nodded only slightly reassured. -The serfs are Outriders, though.-

-Yes, but they only exist on a few worlds anymore and on most of those they are considered quite unusual as well, a hangover from a different age.-

-But very common on Arhame.- Jesse stated. -Why?-

Razzle sighed, walked over to the window and stared outside at the beautiful tropical garden.

-As colonies go Arthame is rather young, but it pre-dates the destruction of the home-world. It was settled during the last big expansion wave when those wanting to settle had a lot of options. Arthame is a beautiful world of course and it was immediately obvious that there was a lot of money to be made out of the fertile ground. The orchards are work intensive, though and then there was a lot of construction to be done in the initial phase and it soon became apparent that it is an unhealthy world. Many of the initial settlers died and the two noble clans that survived and established themselves as the sole landowners of the colony were unable to replace them with a sufficient number of new settlers.-

-Uthen and Goura.- Jesse stated.

-Scema and Goura.- Razzle corrected with a smirk. -Uthen hadn't even arrived yet.-

-So what became of Scema? I've never heard of them before.-

-They died out. Just like ... But I am getting ahead of myself. Arthame needed settlers and there weren't any coming voluntarily, so they turned it into a prison colony. Prisoners that would normally have been sentenced to death ... yes, we still had a lot of death sentences back then ... were given the option to settle here as serfs. They were mostly pirates whose only homes had been their ships, so for some of them it may even have meant improved living conditions. It certainly was an improvement over certain death and back then serfs weren't that unusual. It was seen as quite a kindness, even though it cost them and all their descendants their freedom.-

-And so they are still getting punished for the crimes of their distant ancestors with no way out ever.-

Razzle hesitated. -The sentence should have ensured no way out ever, yes, but times change. I doubt there will still be serfs in a thousand years. ... But of course it is also possible that most of the population will be serfs by then. The distant future is a hard thing to predict. Right now there are still laws to prevent the serfs of Arthame to rise from their lowly status, but they haven't been enforced in a long time.-

-But the serfs are still required and there are too few of them.-

-Unless something else is still more urgently required.- Razzle grinned. -When the Scemae got so few they could no longer control their land and business they raised some of the serfs to overseeing and management duties. The fewer the Scemae became the higher the most favoured serfs rose and eventually the most favoured clan inherited the land and eventually gained noble status.-

-Hold on. The Uthene ...-

-Rose from serfs to nobles. Everybody knows that they are descendants of pirates of course and you will probably notice some slurs based on that, but they are well established enough to be accepted.-

-Their money doesn't hurt that, does it?- Jesse snorted.

Razzle didn't seem to think that required a reply.

Cirke was quite excited about the ride in the Badlander once they had taken off, climbing all over the cockpit and staring out at the landscape below.

-Haven't you ever flown before?- Jesse asked her not quite sure whether he was more annoyed or amused by her behaviour.

-Never this fast.-

-This fast?- Amused, he decided, very amused. -This isn't fast. This is barely moving.-

-Go faster then.- She demanded. -Show me the fastest you can go.-

-I can't.- Jesse told her with a smirk. -You're not dressed for it. You can only do that when everybody on-board is wearing proper armour, helmet and all.-

Cirke had put on shoes and a tunic for the occasion, but as far as Jesse was concerned she still looked half-naked and her clothes certainly wouldn't offer any protection against the g-forces she'd be exposed to if he accelerated the Badlander up to escape velocity.

-Don't you have a spare you could lend me?- She wheedled.

-No, but it would be safe to go a little faster, if you were to sit down and make use of the seat-belt.-

Cirke eyed the second seat with distaste.

-It doesn't offer much of a view.-

-It's not meant to. It's really only there for emergencies. The Badlander was never intended to carry passengers.-

The seat was small and very boxed in, an afterthought of the designers, but Cirke was small enough that that shouldn't bother her. An adult Outrider would have found it very uncomfortable, though.

-It's safe, though.- He told her. -If I went faster than this you'd be thrown into the walls whenever I break or turn. The seat belt is there to prevent that.-

-Being thrown into walls sounds like fun.- She declared.

-Only if you think broken bones are funny. This isn't a padded playroom.- He'd watched his younger siblings bounce around in one of those during his last visit on Varen. -This is ...- He cast about for an analogy she'd understand. -Like falling out of a tree.- She must have done that a time or two considering how often she climbed after fruits. -And landing on a rock. So if you really want to visit Cirsz temple and not Molsz ...-

-Actually we've got to go to the hospital first anyway.- Cirke said.

-Whatever for? Are you sick?- She looked perfectly fine.

-Of course not. I'm strong. We're going to the hospital to get stomach medicine for Cir.-

What the?

-Why does Cir need stomach medicine?-

-Why, so we don't get a thunderstorm during the harvest. Don't you know that thunder is Cirsz upset stomach rumbling?-

Jesse had to circle in the air until his laughing fit was over. He couldn't possibly have landed safely in this state.

The hospital was the biggest building in the pathetic little village that claimed to be a town. Nonetheless it appeared to be overrun with patients and under-staffed. It stank of sickness and rang with moans and screams. Jesse considered turning on his heel and waiting for Cirke outside. There was a bar down the mud-path they called a main street.

A drink would have been just what he needed.

A drink was the one thing he was absolutely not allowed to get. A drink was also supposed to make the medicine knock him out, though that still needed testing. Testing it right now would be a bad idea, though, because if the medicine really worked, Cirke would be left to fend for herself until he woke up and he had no idea how long that was supposed to take. Not to mention that it might land him in this hospital and he much preferred the med bay on the Warworld.

He could of course visit the local occupation troops instead. They were Razzle's men, dropped here with a huge tank that dominated the market place, but they'd probably answer politely enough as long as he didn't bark any orders at them that contradicted their own Commander's.

At least he thought they would. He didn't know them after all. They might be every bit as prickly and unobliging to strangers as Razzle himself.

Who had it been that had compared Razzle to a hedgehog once? It was a surprisingly apt comparison. Touch it and it's all sharp, prickly spines. Leave it be and all of a sudden it will poke out a tender little nose and might even come over to sniff you curiously. Hedgehog would make a much better nickname for Razzle than Bastard or even One Eye. At least Jesse didn't think he'd take offence.

But that wouldn't help Jesse make friends with Razzle's soldiers and if the attempt went badly and Jesse had to establish his authority by force Razzle just might take offence.

Besides he was here with a little girl. He couldn't leave Cirke to face this horrible hospital by herself.

Cirke however seemed remarkably undaunted by the horrors of the place. She strode in as if she knew exactly where she was going. Apparently she'd been here before.

Jesse followed her lead. There were beds set up in almost every corridor. Mostly for patients just here to get infusions it seemed.

Hold on! He was looking at things from his Fleshling background again. They weren't here just to get infusions. Outriders hardly ever used infusions. They preferred dispenser bracelets, like the one Jesse himself was wearing, if they couldn't just swallow their medicine. The only Outrider he'd ever seen get an infusion before had been Gattler when he'd had another bout of whatever his chronic illness actually was. Moku had once told him that they were strong antibiotics that had to be given at a dose that a bracelet simply couldn't hold.

Moku had also insisted on giving Jesse the vaccine for that very disease before he came here. Could it be that all these patients were suffering from the very same thing Gattler had? And if so were they deliberately treated outside the actual rooms or were there more of them inside? How prevailing was that thing?

-What are you doing in here? Do you want to catch something?- A nurse snapped at Cirke.

-I need stomach medicine for Cir!- Cirke demanded unimpressed. -I won't catch anything. I'm strong.-

The nurse snorted, but took them to a storage room and sold them the medicine. He never said anything directly to Jesse, just kept shooting nervous glances at him. Jesse in turn didn't bother to explain his presence. Let him think what he would.

Jean Claude had once told him of a disease that matched what little they knew about Gattler's condition. Apparently it was both highly contagious to babies and hereditary as far as Jesse had been able to figure it out. Neither of them knew much of medicine so most likely Jean Claude hadn't fully understood it entirely in the first place, but Jesse still tried to recall the information as well as he could and match it to what he had seen here.

The illness affected babies and children in any case and most of them died. Most of the patients here were adults, though. Surely there couldn't be that many adults being treated for something that killed most of those affected as children?

You also wouldn't want sick adults to reproduce, because not only would most of their babies die, they'd also infect the other babies of the clan. Whole clans had died out that way Jean Claude had said.

The Uthene seemed very eager for Gattler to reproduce, though. The Uthene seemed very eager for everybody to reproduce, and all their women were pregnant, yet there were very few children in the clan, not nearly as many as the Arteze had had when Jesse had visited Varen - or even the Elhessare despite the reproductive restrictions the old blood had been under on the Warworld.

And all of Gattler's children so far had died.

Perhaps they were treating the adults in the corridors because the proper sickrooms were full of dying children?

Jesse sped up his steps -Come on. let's get to the temple. There's nothing interesting to see here.-

The temple was a strange cage-like dome with a huge hole in its centre which confused Jesse at first glance. Then he remembered that Cir was a weather god after all and probably required sun and rain to fall on his altar and the wind to blow through his walls, though ...

-Why does he have a temple at all? Wouldn't a weather god be happier right outside in the weather?- he asked Cirke.

The girl stopped and frowned at him.

-I don't know.- She admitted finally. -He just has a temple so I suppose he must want it. Our ancestors wouldn't have built one if he didn't, would they?-

Jesse shrugged. -How should I know what your ancestors would do or not?-

-They were not my ancestors.- She snapped. -Not Uthene at all. The temple is much older than our house.-

-You're not related to your predecessor house then?- Jesse asked. This was getting really interesting. -Via marrying one of their daughters perhaps?-

-No, I doubt they would have. We ... were not noble then after all.-

-So how come you inherited their land? Shouldn't it have gone to a related house instead?-

Cirke shrugged. -I don't know. Why should it? We got it in any case and it's ancient history.-

Right, more questions to ask Razzle. At least he knew someone who knew his 'ancient history'. In fact, maybe he ought to ask Razzle what actually qualified as ancient as well. He had a feeling Razzle knew the official definition of the word while Cirke probably had no idea.

-Lead on then.- He invited the girl.

The temple didn't seem to have a proper door or main entrance. Cirke just slipped through the first opening they reached and Jesse followed her and was surprised. While the cage itself was simple undecorated black stone the floor was quite colourful, made up of irregularly shaped stones of various colours that were interlaced in a complicated pattern so that there were no sharp edges, corners or straight lines. It looked like a wall of clouds of different colours bunched together, some the normal fluffy white seen in good weather, some the grey that promised an approaching storm, some the reds and pinks seen only at sunset or sunrise and some a bright yellow or sky blue that was ... well, certainly not of this world or any other Jesse had ever seen, but perhaps they had occurred on the long gone home-world or belonged to some far distant colony. There were so many worlds he had never visited.

-Now we must make sure to step on yellow clouds as much as possible and not at all on grey ones, because we want good weather for the harvest. If we had a drought and wanted rain, we'd have to walk on grey and white clouds and avoid the yellow and blue ones.- Cirke explained and led him to the centre on a very circuitous route that required several more or less wide jumps.

-No mission for the elderly or crippled, I see.- Jesse commented, though he could have proposed several much easier alternative routes.

-I like it.- Said Cirke. -It's fun.-

In the centre was a cloud-shaped basin in which dirty rain-water collected in and outside of various jars some of which resembled the one Cirke was carrying while others were of very different makes and shapes. Cirke ignored them.

-This is the altar.- She said with no hint of reverence in her tone.

Neither did she bow or kneel, but simply took a bottle of disinfectant and a piece of cloth out of the little bag she was carrying and started to rub disinfectant onto one of the metal spikes that rose from the ground around the rim of the filthy basin at intervals of about one ota.

Jesse watched this ritual observance with some confusion.

-Why are you doing that?-

-Why because one can catch all sorts of diseases from somebody else's blood. Don't you know that?-

-I do, but what does that have to do with the weather?-

-Nothing.- Said Cirke, thrust cloth and bottle into his hands and then matter of factly drew her palm over the sharp tip of the spike pressing down hard enough to cut it. Then she held it over the jar of medicine and let a single drop of blood fall in before balling the hand up to a fist and looking at Jesse expectantly. -Your turn.-

Jesse looked at the spike with some disgust. Damn Razzle. He could have warned him. Well, at least Cirke had thought to provide him with disinfectant.

-Are you sure we should put blood in Cirsz medicine, though?- He ventured while he cleaned Cirke's blood off the spike. -Considering how he could catch something from us?-

-He's a god.- Cirke pointed out. -He doesn't get sick.-

-Except to the stomach?-

Cutting his palm hurt and probably would continue to do so whenever he moved his hand for the next few days. What a stupid practise!

Cirke held out the jar to him and he obediently added his drop of blood to it.

She nodded with satisfaction, sat the jar down into the filthy water and then started rummaging in her bag again until she found two bandages that were already conveniently shaped like fingerless gloves. She handed Jesse the bigger one, but then had to readjust it.

-Why didn't you use your left hand?- She asked. -Razzle said you like the right one much better, so I thought you'd want to save it.-

Had that been a faux pas? He hadn't wanted her to see the glyph and ask about it.

-I didn't want to bother with taking off the glove.- He improvised. -It would have been a little awkward with this stuff in my hands.-

Cirke promptly reclaimed the bottle of disinfectant and cloth and stuffed them back into her bag.

-Right. Why do you wear a single glove anyway?-

He shrugged. -I like the way it looks.- He lied. -And it can be useful with some kinds of equipment. Are we done here, then?-

-Almost. We just have to remember to walk on yellow clouds on the way out again.- Cirke declared and made a long leap to the next one.

They strolled through the village, Cirke quite excited to see the goods on display in the few little shop windows and Jesse secretly amused to see just how pathetic the place really was. What a change it must have been for Gattler when he'd first arrived on the Warworld with its endless sea of tall, spire-like metal houses, cooler artificial climate and meals made of preserved fruits.

Even here there were fruit trees at almost every corner. The serfs might be poor and unable to change their lot, but they certainly didn't have to fear ever having to go hungry.

The tank crew at the end of the main street saluted Jesse and waved them past so he decided to take a look inside the building Razzle had requisitioned as the local military base. It seemed always to have served some kind of administrative function, judging by its location and construction probably registration of fruit deliveries and their direction to the appropriate warehouses. Now it monitored traffic in and out of the capital though nothing much was really happening as the officer on duty at the front desk informed Jesse unasked.

-Peasants come in in the morning delivering fruits in large carts, we search them, but it's always just fruits. Shortly before midday everything falls dead silent and nobody shows up in the streets for the next hour or two, then they all come out. The adults gather under the fruit trees behind the bar and start drinking and talking and the kids go down to the creek to splash about and climb trees.- She reported. -At some point a huge truck or two arrive and everybody runs to the warehouses to fill them with fruits and then they roll off to the spaceport and the adults go back to drinking and the kids to splashing. Once it gets a bit cooler again they disappear into their houses again and then we get some smaller carts or people on foot coming in to see the doctors at the hospital. Oh, and sometimes there's cured patients going out to return to their clans. We send people to the bar to listen to the talk, but it's all about the weather and the harvest and the fruits and who's having whose baby and who's going to marry whom. Nobody seems to know a thing about the rebels, nor do they appear to care.-

-Are they all serfs?- Jesse asked her. -Do you know?-

-Mostly, I think.- She replied. -The ones delivering the fruits and working in the warehouses definitely are. I think the doctors are a vassal clan and most of the priests belong to it as well. Don't know about the merchants. They seem to belong to several different clans, though a lot of them live together. Might be that their actual clanhouses are on Gouraland and these shops are just branches. There aren't any children living in that house in any case, nor have I seen a pregnant shopkeeper yet.-

The last was more significant than it might have sounded to a stranger to Arthame since here, too, pretty much every woman they met appeared to be pregnant.

-How's the prison camp coming along?- Jesse asked.

-Could use some more prisoners.- The woman commented. -Watching the prisoners is certainly the most interesting duty we have here, but they are a rather pathetic lot.-

Jesse went to take a look and found the five farm children from Gouraland locked in a walled backyard of the building that had been enforced with barbed wire and some guard posts. The place certainly wasn't too comfortable since it lacked even trees. The kids were accordingly sitting in the shade of the wall entertaining themselves by scratching about in the dust.

Cirke watched the game with a mildly interested expression, but only shrugged when Jesse asked her what it was.

-Maybe just drawing patterns.- She decided. -Or maybe something they play on Gouraland. I've never seen it before. Don't you think we should fly home now before it gets too dark? I don't want to miss dinner.-

-The Badlander has radar and lights for night flights.- Jesse informed her. -And I expect we can get something to eat at the bar or here at the base. The soldiers and prisoners need to eat, too. So if there's anything more you want to see or show me ...-

-No.- Cirke said much to his surprise. -I'm tired.-

She'd seemed so energetic and eager all afternoon that Jesse decided that the sight of imprisoned children must be more frightening to her than she dared to admit and remembering once again that the bar was probably not a safe place for him to go he agreed to take her back to the Uthene complex.