This time the running stopped after only a couple of hours. Kaia and Vozem reared the horses to a stop all of a sudden, they had come out of the woods and a huge field lay ahead of them, on the horizon, a small mountain range could be seen, Kaia explained to them that that was where they were heading. It seemed an awfully long distance, especially if they were going to have to ride and share horses all the way. Kaia laughed once again.

"You worry too much Jack, in a few more hours, you will be used to the horse. This is our people´s land, there are no enemies here, it will be an easy ride."

O´Neill waited until he was off the horse to answer, "Ok, what the hell is going on here? I mean, we never introduced ourselves properly and as you quite clearly pointed out to your ah....." He pointed Vozem´s way, "well you know.....I am mostly confused."

"Very well, we may stop for a while. What do you wish to know?"

"Let´s start with the basics, who are you?"

"I am Kaia, of the Padeos I am Steward-"

"Yeah I know that part! Ok, what is it that you do, exactly?"

"Oh.....well in your words I am a warrior. I fight against the Sailen people, to protect humans."

"Why?"

"Why protect humans? Because they are the only creatures in all of the universe who can truly achieve balance between good and evil, they are the only ones who can truly be free, they-"

"I mean, why do you fight these Sailen? What did they ever do to you?"

"They are of the Dark we of the Light, we have no choice, we must always struggle against each other. It is the only way to achieve balance."

"So this war.....there´s no reason for it?"

"Yes well, reasons there are. Many. Among them, they invade our lands, kill humans, enslave them and they would take over the Stardoors only to use them to their advantage, only to feed their hunger for conquest and control."

"All right. Now, about the Stargate, you mentioned there were four of them here."

"Yes. Three of them are now gone. Only Nok remains."

"Right.....why were there so many to begin with?"

"We are not sure." She sat down on the grass. O´Neill and the rest of his team joined her. All the rest stayed put next to their own horses, "Legend says that we were brought here by the masters of our masters. We came from a place far away, we came from a place we call the "Slave Planet". In our legend, we were originally from this place, this is where our masters lived and so did humans but, one day, something happened. For many, many years we did not know. All we knew was that there was danger and that our masters could not defend us all so they choose among the people of the planet and we were all brought here, so that we would continue. All we have to do is live our lives the way we were taught and one day, the masters of our masters will come back through the Stardoors and then all will be made clear, but in the mean time, we are forbidden to use them."

"Ok so you were brought here by these "masters", what were they like?"

"We have no knowledge of them, except that our masters respect them, love them even. They brought us here to be saved."

"From what?"

"As I said, for many, many years we did not know. Then," She took a deep breath. Daniel moved in closer, he couldn´t get enough of this, "the Goa´uld came. They came through the Stardoor, they claimed to be our gods.....they killed our people they took us, wanted to make us hosts."

This was a shock. Not just a shock, a BIG shock. SG-1´s collective mouth hung open in surprise. The first one to be able to make a noise was Daniel but he was quickly cut off by Kaia.

"There was war. At first, they wanted hosts, then they wanted to destroy us. We defeat them. They came back, in great ships. Our masters fought with us, they were beaten back. Ever since then we have guarded the Stardoors more carefully, we did not understand their power." Kaia silenced Daniel once more, "Wait. During the war, the Sailen began to negociate with the Goa´uld, they traded technology for human slaves and hosts. Even after the Goa´uld left, the Sailen kept the weapons they had gained. Recently, they have managed to, almost, make copies. You were shot with these weapons. We have no such thing. They also have other.....things.....they can torture you, inflict great pain. That is why we had to save you, that is why we can not allow you to be found. You would be tortured, knowledge taken and your planet would be destroyed. Also, our world is divided, not just in the Dark and the Light, the humans we protect are starting to believe we are their servants, some have even begun to speak of treason on our part. The Padeos and the Niseos are dying, our masters will no longer come into the villages of men. The Gyffins and the Sabaki are beginning to fall back into the Nok. If the Sailen or the humans find out about you, it will be the end of it all, our people will die."

Daniel´s head was trying to wrap itself around the fact that these people were, apparently, transporter out of (he assumed) Earth before the Goa´uld were ever there. Teal´c was cursing his former masters (once again). Sam was suddenly feeling very sorry for Kaia and the others (even Iablaka) and O´Neill had one question he had to ask before he could wallow in his confusion (like the rest of his team). It was out of his mouth before he even realized it.

"How did you defeat the Goa´uld?"

Vozem was the one to answer that, "We are not sure. If you mean in war: the Padeos, as you have already noticed, posses the ability to look into other´s minds and the Goa´uld were to proud, it was easy enough to anticipate their attacks and their tactics. If you mean the hosts: we cannot be taken. The Goa´uld tried, several times, but they never survived long."

"You´re talking about an immune system agains the Goa´uld? How?"

"As I said Daniel, we do not know. The Goa´uld are nothing more than parasites and they would be nothing more than a short story if the trading between them and the Sailen had not occurred."

"What about the host? Did they die?"

"No. The parasite was rejected, it could not survive in our bodies, nor take control of our minds. Our masters have never explained it to us, they merely call it the Gift of the Light."

"The Gift of Light.....is that a device or some sort off-"

"It is something we carry in our soul, Daniel. The Gift of Light does not only refer to the Goa´uld, it refers to all that we gain when we become Niseos or Padeos or are born Gyffin or Sabaki."

Kaia stood up and looked down at the four strangers, "Is there anything else you wish to know?"

"Uh.....yeah sure, uhm.....who are they?" Daniel pointed at the old man, two girls and young man.

"They are our vrigda. Stari is the eldest, Padeos, a Steward like myself only of not such a high house. Malinki, the young boy, one day he may be Niseos, if he learns that life cannot be lived solely by the rules. The girls, Alma and Koshka, they are Gyffin and Sabaki, under our care, for they were not born within their people."

"And what exactly do you do, your ah.....vrigda....."

"We are a small group, we function that way. We are in charge of protecting the Stardoors and our masters, we guard the borders of the Nok. Whenever there is a battle and our help is needed, we join it. There are ten vrigda in our world, and all of us answer to our own high leaders or masters and one human."

"And this human, he´s.....?"

"A nuisance, but, he commands the armies of men. We must explain our actions to him, although we must follow no order from him. We do not serve him."

It was at this moment that they noticed how it was there, subtle, but there. Resentment. Kaia was right: their world was in trouble. SG-1 didn´t understand at the time, but they had stepped into a world that was about to collapse on itself. The war between the Light and the Dark would never stop, but the Light now had another problem: men were growing restless in the shadow of their protection and they were beginning to want more. More lands, more people, more servants. Not all men were like this, unfortunately, the most powerful ruler of men was and that was enough to upset the balance, which had been threatening to fall for many centuries.