AUTHOR'S NOTES: A little shorter of a chapter this time. I hit what seemed to be like a good ending point. I know I haven't done much in the way of action lately, but that'll be changing soon, I promise.

This chapter is also sort-of rated NC-17. The way Vornzel and Senefa originally met was too forced. This seems to be a little better…sexier, anyway. There's nothing explicit, other than two Clanfolk in bed discussing Clan philosophy while without apparel.

The reference to muga, by the way, as part of MechWarrior training was first put forward in Wolves on the Border; Minobu Tetsuhara made several references to it. I'm also indebted to Fred Perry's Gold Digger for the inspiration for the Sheila vs. Senefa fight scene.

REVIEWER'S CORNER: 4477 Thire: Glad you like a change from the "spit and polish." There's nothing wrong with Justin Allard! (His son is a bit munchy, though.)

Mosin: Good to see you back. Yeah, Maysa having an attack of hormones pretty much gave it away that Watanabe was the spy. Still, I hope it makes sense that he would be trying to make time with his target's daughter to get closer to her. Now poor Maysa's brokenhearted. We'll have to find her a guy. (I think Rouge is single…)

Katrina Steiner Memorial Hospital

Tharkad, Donegal March, Federated Commonwealth

25 July 3051

"Senefa, I don't know why we're doing this." Sheila tested the weight of the quarterstaff. It seemed good enough, though not as heavy as the Tall Trees hardwood version she had used on Planting. With relief, she noticed that Senefa too was using a wooden staff, instead of the steel one she usually preferred. She also wasn't wearing padding, which Sheila was. When Dr. Allard had heard that Senefa and Sheila intended to spar, she had threatened to lock Sheila in her own room if there weren't some protective measures taken. Apparently Allard had no problem with it if Sheila put Senefa into intensive care. Both were wearing loose-fitting robes that doubled as karate gi, and both were barefoot.

"I should think it was obvious. You have been doing exercises to learn how to use that new arm, but none of them involve combat." Senefa twirled the staff experimentally. "Are you familiar with the Japanese term muga?"

"Sure. It means 'movement without thought.'" When Sheila had been studying the fighting style preferred by the Sentinels Light Infantry, her mother had emphasized that most decisions in tactical combat happened beneath the level of conscious thought.

"You do not have that yet. Without it, you will die the first time you are in 'Mech combat." Senefa let the staff thump onto the thin mat in the hospital gymnasium. "According to Dr. Allard, they will release you from the hospital and allow a return to light duties in three weeks, quia—ah, yes?" Sheila had noted that Senefa had consciously been avoiding the use of Clan colloquialisms, though she still refused to use contractions. At Sheila's nod, Senefa returned the motion. "Then you and I will spar, twice a week, until then."

"All right." Sheila had actually been wanting to get back into doing something a little more martial. Allard had neither encouraged nor discouraged her from getting back in the cockpit, and though she checked on Sheila once a day, she rarely mentioned anything about being a MechWarrior. Dr. Johnson, on the other hand, seemed to never let more than a few hours pass before he reminded her of her pledge to get back into a 'Mech in three months. He drove her hard, but the toughest taskmaster proved to be her own husband. Max pushed Sheila beyond what she had thought to be her limit. While Johnson was mainly concerned with Sheila learning how to use her artificial arm, Max had her doing leg lifts, situps, and running. At the rate she was going, Sheila would be in better shape than she had been before she had been captured. When Sheila was nearly on the verge of tears from the pain in her abused muscles and arm, Max kept her going with encouragement—never threats; apparently Max had not decided on Marion Rhialla as a role model. Though she was now able to eat and bathe without help (though shaving her legs was still a problem; for the first time since she was fifteen, Sheila cursed her height), Max still insisted on helping her. Well, I guess we're saving water, she thought with a silent giggle. At the end of the day, when they returned to their bed, Sheila sometimes so exhausted she could barely keep her eyes open, Max would hold her until she fell asleep.

Sheila returned her attention to the matter at hand. "All right," she repeated, "but let's have a side bet."

"What would that be?"

"If I beat you in half the sparring sessions, you'll join the Snowbirds."

That brought Senefa up short. "I do not gamble, Sheila," she said at length.

"Too bad. I do." Sheila raised the quarterstaff and pointed it at her. "En garde."

Senefa gave her the ghost of a smile, and aped her motion. Well, Sheila thought, as they began to circle each other on the mat, at least she'll go easy on me. She knows the docs aren't too thrilled with me doing this yet. I could really get hurt, even with the padding, and…Sheila caught the look in Senefa's eyes: they were pitiless, like a falcon. Oh shit. She's not going to go easy on me at all.

Then there was no time to think, because Senefa, silently, suddenly ran straight at her. Her hands moved smoothly to grip the staff, and then she swung it like a baseball bat—right at Sheila's head, with enough force to break her jaw. Sheila reacted instinctively, raising her left hand to block—and did it. The staff still drove her arm back with a thump into the foam padding she wore around her head, which would've hurt had she not been wearing it, but the fact was that she had blocked the strike, even if her hand still refused her mental order to grab Senefa's staff. She grinned nonetheless. "I did it—"

Then she realized Senefa was still moving. Her right hand still gripped the staff, but her left shot out, grabbed Sheila's right wrist, and jerked it towards her, turning slightly so Sheila's staff would have no leverage. Sheila, off-balance from having blocked the staff strike and the weight of her arm, was pulled straight into Senefa's upraised knee. It knocked the air from Sheila's lungs and nearly her breakfast from her stomach. Senefa followed it up with a vicious haymaker that sent her flying down the mat.

"Good God, Senefa!" Sheila exclaimed, once she got her breath back. "I'm trying to get out of the hospital, not to stay in it longer!"

"Then defend yourself," Senefa said coolly, and to Sheila's disgust, she was not even sweating. "Or attack. Do not stand there! You should realize by now that I am not attacking your wounded arm, but your entire body!"

"Hai, sensei," Sheila said, dripping with sarcasm. She got to her feet, the nerves in her left shoulder screaming with pain. She took a deep breath, readied her staff, and gave Senefa a "get over here" gesture. Senefa scowled, shook her head, and once more just ran straight at her. Sheila dropped down, both hands on her staff, to present as small a target as possible. Let's see…she's going to try to swing under my staff and disarm me, just like I did to her on Planting—

Sheila was wrong. Instead, Senefa, when she was less than five steps away, dived to the mat, using her staff to plant her hands, then brought her legs down where Sheila was. Sheila hastily jumped out of the way, but Senefa merely somersaulted, came back on her feet—and then swung under Sheila's staff. Sheila spun out of the way and blocked Senefa's next two strikes. She tried a thrust, missed, then had to duck to avoid Senefa's attack, only to find that had been a setup as well: now Senefa had her staff trapped, and Sheila was once more offbalance.

Suddenly, she had an idea. As Senefa snapped her staff to the right to disarm her, Sheila let her. The lack of resistance surprised Senefa for a half-second, and Sheila saw her chance. She grabbed Senefa with both hands and used a simple judo throw to pitch her face-first onto the mat. Before Senefa could squirm free, Sheila gripped her arm even tighter, putting the weight of her body into the hold and planting her right elbow into Senefa's back. Held down in such an awkward position, Senefa could not use her staff very well. "Got you," Sheila puffed out. "Give up?"

Senefa only smiled over her shoulder. She paused, took a deep breath, then jerked her body to the right. With an audible crunch, she dislocated her own shoulder. Senefa let loose a guttural scream of pain that turned into a war cry, and Sheila instinctively let go. Twisting around, Senefa stabbed her staff into Sheila's face—and stopped a millimeter from her nose. "Yield?" she asked. Sheila could only dumbly nod. Senefa sighed, slowly got to her feet, then slammed her dislocated shoulder against the nearest wall. "Freebirth!" she shouted. "Ah, that hurts!"

"Then why did you do it, you crazy bitch?" Sheila yelled at her. "Go get a doctor to look at that!"

"It is fine. I have done that before, when I was still in the sibko—it was how I killed my falconer." She massaged the shoulder, wincing. "Well done, Sheila."

"For what?" Sheila stood up. "You beat me."

"Yes, that is true. I also had to use a desperation tactic to do so. You did not think I would damage myself to win the fight. That is a lesson I was reminded of when you beat me—I was too ready to believe I had beaten you, since you were barely resisting my blows. Then when I attempted to finish you, you ambushed me."

"You did the same to me on Vantaa."

"Again, yes. And that is a lesson you must learn, Sheila. If you are to beat the Clans, you must never stop. You must kill. Destroy your enemy. Do not leave him behind you to grow stronger and ambush you again. Do not assume that because he seems weak he is not strong."

"Any other pearls of wisdom?" Sheila asked sarcastically.

Senefa chose to ignore it. "Not at the moment. Shall we practice again tomorrow?"

Sheila rubbed her own shoulder. "Let's wait until the day after tomorrow. Dr. Johnson's going to have a fit when he finds out what I did—not to mention what you did."

"What I did is irrevalent to Dr. Johnson. What you did today was to use that arm instinctively and without thought. Muga, in other words." Senefa smiled again and bowed to Sheila. "Day after tomorrow then. Fair weather to you, Sheila."

Sheila returned the bow. When she straightened up, Senefa was gone.

An hour later, Senefa was in bed back at her hotel, sore, tired, and strangely at peace. Nor was she alone. She looked over at the giant man in bed next to her. "Well…that was a most pleasant surprise, Elemental Star Commander Vornzel."

Vornzel, his bulk taking up over half the bed, smiled. Senefa was half an inch below six feet, and Vornzel was seven inches taller and twice as broad. Like most Elementals, he had muscles like a bodybuilder. "I have never coupled with a MechWarrior before. I always thought you were too delicate."

"And I have never coupled with an Elemental. I always thought you were too slow and bulky." Senefa felt her skin tingle at the memory. Vornzel had been sent by the commandant of the POW camp to contact Senefa, which was all that she had gotten out of him. He had surprised Senefa coming out of the shower wearing a very flimsy towel. They had stared at each other for a long moment after Vornzel stammered out his mission…and here they were, naked and still breathing heavily. Senefa decided that if the room was bugged, they had certainly just given Lohengrin quite the show.

"I hope I have dispelled that stereotype, quiaff?"

"Aff. Most definitely—along with the one that Elementals are not inventive when it comes to tactics." Senefa briefly played with his dreadlocks.

"Why did we do that? It was not what I came here for, Star Colonel Senefa Malthus."

The use of her old Clan rank effectively killed the mood. "Please, Vornzel. I am merely Senefa. As for why we did that...blood calls to blood, I suppose. You and I have little interest in Inner Spherians, and I doubt you have much opportunity to couple at the POW camp. Biological and social needs did the rest." Senefa drew her knees up to her chin. "Did you come here to kill me?"

Vornzel leaned back, crossing his arms behind his head. "If I did, I have done a rather poor job. No, Star Col—Senefa. I was sent here by the camp commandant to ask if you would be joining us there."

"Why would I do that?"

Vornzel looked puzzled. "You would be the senior officer of the camp. As such, you would be in command, and he is interested in coordinating with you regarding the organization and care of the prisoners."

Senefa laughed, bitterly, a jarring contrast to her exclaimations of passion just a few minutes previously. "And I would be killed, Vornzel! There is a price on my head. I am worth a Bloodname slot, dead."

"Not if you come back." Vornzel, with more tenderness than she had thought possible in an Elemental, reached out and caressed her back. It was a move that surprised himself as much as her. They did not know each other other than in chance meetings if Senefa had business with Khan Elias Crichell or saKhan Cavell Malthus. He was older than her, and they had never served together in the field. They were merely two people suddenly cast adrift, Senefa thought, in a world they did not understand, which explained a lot as to why they had ended up in bed. "You could come back," he repeated. "Tell the Spheroids you were not in your right mind. Tell them you were wrong to leave the Clan. Listen," he said, dropping his voice, "I have heard that we will be exchanged at some point, possibly for Spheroid prisoners."

"That is not the Clan way."

"We are not fighting another Clan," Vornzel countered. "It is not likely that this Federated Commonwealth will adopt us into their 'clan.'"

"No…not likely." Senefa found herself wanting to tell him of Sheila's offer, but hesitated.

"Then we will likely be returned to our Clan. It is not unprecedented among us—the Remembrance mentions that Nicholas Kerensky agreed to prisoner exchanges on occasion. In any case, Senefa, if we are exchanged, you can prove your innocence in a Circle of Equals. No one will dispute you."

"I will still be stripped of rank, Vornzel. Even if I was not, I would be put in command of dezgra units, or garrison Clusters."

"At least you would be part of the Clan again."

She looked at him. "And all I need do is admit I was duped by the Federated Commonwealth into making the wrong choice." Vornzel nodded. Senefa fought down an urge to snap his neck. "But I was not wrong, Vornzel!"

He no longer looked puzzled. Now he looked shocked. "About what, Senefa? Front Royal? Athena Henderson? That was tragic and worse, stupid—but it is not worth throwing away your career, your place in the Clan, everything you have!"

"I have nothing!" Senefa erupted. "I have nothing in the Clan!" She flung off the covers and stood, suddenly unable to even be close to him, and what he represented. "Athena murders dozens of people, and nothing is done. The saKhan even said it served as an example! Then he puts her in charge of torturing a woman who was more innocent than she was. Sheila opposed us as a warrior of honor, not as a murderer!"

Vornzel sat up. "He did it because of your obsession with this Sheila Arla-Vlata," he replied, keeping his voice even. "What is this spell she has over you?"

"She has none. Sheila abruptly reminded me that I have a conscience, that is all." She rammed her hands on her hips, spearing him with a glance that she wished would set Vornzel afire. "I wonder where yours is, Star Commander—or if you merely were not issued one."

She half expected him to attack her. Instead, Vornzel met her gaze for a moment, then turned away, folding his hands over his muscled stomach. "I have a conscience, Senefa. I volunteered to help with that avalanche a few days ago, because it was the right thing to do. And I was told by some of my comrades in the camp—good men and women—that I would be doing the Clan a service by killing you." He looked at his huge hands. "It would not be an easy thing, and of course the guard outside would kill me if you did not…but even you must admit that it would be better for the Jade Falcons. However," he said with emphasis, "I am not a murderer. If you are to die, Senefa, it will be in battle." He sighed heavily, then got up. "Where will your conscience take you now, Senefa?"

That brought her up short. Her anger evaporated. "I do not know…but I cannot serve the Jade Falcons again, Vornzel. What Elias Crichell, Vandervahn Chistu, and yes, even Cavell Malthus have done, is perverted what the Clans stood for. We are not fighting with honor. We are not liberators. We are conquerors, taking what we will from the Inner Sphere. Maybe it was the great Kerenskys dream to return here and reestablish the Star League…but not like this. Not like this. Not at this price."

"You sound like part of the Warden faction."

Senefa considered that. The Wardens always said that the Clans were created to protect the Inner Sphere from vague outer threats, or such terrible internal strife that the Clans would have to step in to prevent genocide. As Senefa had learned from her books, the Clans were a few hundred years too late for that. At least one planetary genocide had already taken place on Kentares IV only a few decades after Kerensky had left. But that had been centuries ago, and if the Inner Sphere was no closer to civilization than it had been in 2786, it was certainly not to the point that it needed the Clans to restore order. In fact, with the rise of the Federated Commonwealth, it was probably closer to the Star League than the Clans were. Senefa wondered if that had been the real reason for the invasion: that the Crusader faction in the Clans feared the Inner Sphere would become the very thing the Clans supposedly were meant to protect, without the Clans' "help." It meant the Crusaders would rather strangle a new Star League in the cradle rather than let it grow to maturity. That is not what the Kerenskys wanted, Senefa thought, and if it was, they were wrong. "I suppose perhaps I am," she finally told the Elemental, "but I have no wish to join the Wolves or the Snow Ravens."

Vornzel chuckled. "It is good to see you have not lost all sense, then."

"Sheila Arla-Vlata has offered a place in her unit to me—to 'adopt' me, as we know the term."

Vornzel raised an eyebrow. "Will you take her up on it?" he asked, to Senefa's surprise, very calmly.

"I…do not know."

"You should." He slipped on his briefs, then began to pull on his shirt. He noticed her utterly shocked look. "Senefa, you are a warrior. You will always be that. We were meant to fight. It is our existence. Without it, we would have no purpose." He shrugged. "If Sheila Arla-Vlata were to make the same offer to me, I would at the very least think about it. After all, how many abtakha are in our Clan? I know a few. We do not look down upon them. Even the accursed Athena Henderson is one. There is no dishonor in it—in fact, there is dishonor if you do not accept. A Steel Viper commander offering to adopt me would risk the disapproval of his peers, even his own career. I suspect Arla-Vlata does the same."

"I would be fighting against the Clan."

"As you would if Arla-Vlata was a Steel Viper or Wolf. There is no difference."

"Arla-Vlata is not Clan—"

"It makes no difference."

Senefa shook her head. "This makes no sense. Why are you telling me this, Vornzel?"

"Because I am Clan, Senefa. I think what you did was wrong, but since you will not come back to our Clan—and I admit you do make a compelling case, for change if nothing else—this is the path you must follow. There is none other for our kind. Nor should we wish there to be."

Senefa looked at her feet and smiled. "I did not know there were philosopher genes among the Elementals."

"Philosopher?" Vornzel snorted derisively. "Neg. I am only telling the truth."

Senefa strode forward, gripped a surprised Vornzel by his dreadlocks, and pulled him down to her lips. When they parted, she nodded. "You are indeed. It may mean that we next meet as enemies on the field."

"So be it. Better a warrior's death than wasting away in a camp—or this hotel." He said the word as if it was poisonous. "I hope that does not occur. The only battlefield I wish to meet you on is this one." He pointed to the bed.

"Ah. Well, perhaps we can arrange a Trial of Positions at some point." They both laughed at her pun, then he surprised her by kissing her passionately. "I shall inform the commandant that you have decided to join the Snowbirds. I shall tell the others that you were adopted." He straightened his shirt. The seams were no longer razor-sharp, but it would pass inspection. He nodded. "Goodbye, Senefa Malthus."

She wanted to correct him on the Bloodname, but decided not to. Why should she? That was hers. She had earned it. "Goodbye, Vornzel." He left, making sure his bulk blocked any view of the room—or Senefa, who was still nude. Once the door was closed, Senefa dressed, and looked outside. The sun was struggling to break out of the clouds, and she felt entirely at peace. She knew that if she explained why she did to Sheila Arla-Vlata, the other woman would not understand. Only Clanfolk would—that a woman cut off from her Clan could still find peace within its way.

The Crusaders are wrong, she thought as she smiled, feeling the sun on her face. I must stop them. If that means fighting them from without than within, then so be it, as Vornzel said. Once I have won, then perhaps I will rejoin the Jade Falcons, because then they will no longer be misguided.

Senefa thought long about it. It would take years, she knew. Perhaps it would never come to fruition at all, but she had to try. That she would emerge victorious she did not doubt. Because she was Clan.