Introduction: this takes place sometime shortly after chapter 40, and is set in Iacon.

"Orion."

Orion looked up from his desk. "Yes?"

Alpha Trion waved at him to come over. "I told you we were having a visitor this orn, didn't I? Someone I wanted you to meet."

Orion nodded, saved his work, and then got up. "Yes, I remember. I'm nearly finished re-checking the index numbers on the Pre-Quintesson history sector."

"Anything out of place?"

"A few," Orion said.

"Well, good job. Now, come along. I should have known our guest would be early."

The annoyance in his voice made Orion smile a little. "Alpha Trion, didn't you say he's an old friend?"

"An old ally," Alpha Trion said. "Always on the same side, never quite seeing optic to optic. But he's a good mech, he's just… well, let's go."

Orion followed his wise old mentor. He'd initially been frightened by Alpha Trion, but that had faded quickly. Most thought of him as intimidating, cold, and a little crazy, and maybe he was sometimes, but Orion knew him well enough to know that was mostly a front. And, as demanding as he was, he was also very understanding and thoughtful.

Orion didn't think anyone else knew just how much this mech did—running the Hall of Records, and acting as a member of the High Council. And every orn—though Alpha Trion had never said it outright—Orion was more convinced that this was the real, actual, historical Alpha Trion, not just a mech designated after him.

"Is this…" Orion dared to ask as they went down the stairs toward the main lobby of the archives. "Is this someone like you and Maccadam?"

"Hmm? Oh, I see what you mean. No, he isn't. Old, yes, but not that old."

Orion nodded to himself, trying to hide his excitement. That had been as close as he'd ever gotten to getting a confession. He'd asked outright once, whether Alpha Trion was one of the original thirteen, but the old mech had just said something indecipherably cryptic and then slipped away before Orion could ask for clarification.

He followed Alpha Trion to a small reading room, where a mech sat, reading a datapad with a raised optic ridge. He looked up and set the datapad aside as they came in.

"Good orn," the mech stood.

"Orion, this is Master Yoketron. Yoketron, this is my assistant, Orion Pax."

"It is good to meet you," Yoketron said, peering into Orion's optics as if searching for something in them.

"Please sit down," Alpha Trion said.

"I think I've read a little about you," Orion said as he settled into a chair. "Are you the same Yoketron who developed a way to fight the Quintesson reprogramming?"

"Hmm…" Yoketron smiled slightly, sitting as well. "I wouldn't quite say 'developed.' My role has been somewhat exaggerated by the history books. But I did fight in the wars, yes. You're well-versed in ancient history I see."

Orion shrugged. "I enjoy reading."

"Well, I would hope so, seeing as you're a librarian," Yoketron said. "How long have you been working here?"

Orion and Master Yoketron talked—with Alpha Trion mostly observing. Orion felt like there was something going on beyond what they were discussing, though. The conversation was friendly, and drifted from history—which they all knew a lot about—to Orion's hobbies, to how the Hall of Records was organized, to the current political scene.

As time went on, though, Orion caught the other two glancing at each other more and more often as if they were having a private conversation as well.

"Orion," Alpha Trion said, during a lull in the conversation. "Why don't you show Yoketron the project you were working on last orn? Go and fetch it, would you?"

Orion got up. He had the distinct feeling that he was being intentionally sent away. "Of course, Alpha Trion," he said, and left the room. He'd take his time—give them time to talk about whatever they didn't want to say in his hearing. If they'd wanted to talk privately, they hadn't needed to invite him in the first place. Maybe he'd ask Alpha Trion to explain what it was about later. He doubted he'd get a straight answer, but it didn't hurt to try.

"You haven't told him yet," Yoketron accused.

"Well, I was going to," Alpha Trion said. "But there hasn't been a good opportunity. He needs a little longer. He's not ready for that, but he does need to start training."

"You want me to train him before he knows who he is?"

"Well…"

"Alpha Trion, you're wasting all of our time. If this is really so urgent, then there are important things to discuss—things he needs to be thinking about already."

"I haven't been able to adequately prepare him," Alpha Trion said. "And I have other things to worry about as well. I've started pushing for the Council to consider another Prime, but they're going to put it off as long as they can…"

"The Council's blessing isn't the only method of appointing a Prime," Yoketron said.

"But they have the key to Vector Sigma, and I'd rather not have to steal it. Besides… Primus has been unusually distant these past few decavorns. In any case, Orion doesn't absolutely need to know until the Council is ready to appoint him, but that might not be until the beginning of the war."

"That's cutting it a little too close, don't you think?"

"And that's where you come in. You can prepare him, maybe even start him on the Trials."

"What!" Yoketron hissed. "The Trials?"

"Though… if he did those before he was appointed, I don't know if they would do any good…"

"I am supposed to train him to fight. There was nothing in my promise about the Trials. That falls to you."

"You know enough about the process," Alpha Trion said. "I can send you some more information, and everything else you need. And believe me when I say I'm far too busy..."

"I can't do that," Yoketron said.

"I'd have to tell him before the Trials anyway, so you don't have to worry about it yet."

Yoketron had a hard time keeping the frustration out of his voice. It was as if Alpha Trion just presumed Yoketron would do whatever he said without questioning it.

"For now, we'll come up with an excuse for him to learn to—"

"No."

Their optics met.

"I can't train him—I won't train him—until he knows who he is. Before that…"

"Don't forget, you vowed to do this."

"I promised to train the Last Prime to fight," Yoketron said. "I don't like to conceal things so significant from my students. That makes it difficult for them to trust me. You tell him, and then I'll start training him, and I will not administer the Primal Trials to him. You know full well how I feel about them."

"Those trials are necessary, and you should be grateful for them. Without them, the cycle of Primes would already have collapsed."

Yoketron looked down.

"I know you understood full well what was asked of you when Primus gave you this task," Alpha Trion said. "Have you forgotten? It seems your vorns teaching secondary school have made you soft."

"Maybe," Yoketron said. "Or maybe your vorns on the council have made you callous."

Alpha Trion stared at him.

"Or maybe you're afraid to admit to him that you've been keeping things from him. You're afraid he'll stop trusting you."

"That has nothing to do with it," Alpha Trion said calmly, quietly.

Yoketron met his gaze.

"I am afraid, Yoketron. I'm afraid he would outright reject the idea. He won't even let me promote him within the structure of the Hall of Records. He'd be running the place if he'd let me appoint him as head archivist… but he won't. If I try to tell him he's destined to lead our entire race, he would fight it. I think he knows, deep down, and that's why he's so stubbornly humble. I need to prove it to him somehow—he needs to come into power on his own. He needs to know that it's Primus choosing him. If he rejects his calling, then we are all doomed."

Yoketron sighed.

"If you refuse to train him…"

"When you tell him," Yoketron said. He was not going to budge on this point. "Then I will train him."

Silence stretched out for several astroseconds.

"I'm sorry, but I will not lie to him," Yoketron said. "However… I apologize for accusing you of selfishness. I will trust you to know when he's ready, but if he isn't ready to know, he isn't ready for my instruction. And I don't think I'm ready either, especially if you want me to administer the Trials."

Alpha Trion looked as if he'd like to keep arguing, but at that moment, the door opened and Orion came in. Yoketron listened politely as he explained the project he'd brought to show them, and then waited for the conversation to die down before excusing himself.

Yes, Alpha Trion needed to tell Orion before Yoketron trained him, but that wasn't the only reason Yoketron didn't want to start now.

He needed to go back to Simfur for a while. He had thought he'd understood his task but now he wasn't certain. He didn't feel right about teaching this mechling to fight and he didn't want to believe that war was inevitable. He needed some time to strengthen his resolve. It would not be easy to turn this peaceful, content data clerk into a warrior. It could be done—of that he had no doubt. But it would require much change and much sacrifice, and Orion Pax, the honorable librarian, would be lost to the void of the past.