Marin MacEwan had been born in 1091, but no one would have guessed it by looking at her. She looked every inch the modern woman as she marched through the halls at the University of Ratharkin in sturdy heels and a sharp skirt suit. Her white-blond hair was plaited and pinned up circling her head. Beyond her appearance, Marin held two PhDs and was a beloved professor of medieval history at the university. She had also raised two children on her own and mastered the powers available to her by her deryni heritage, though the latter was, by necessity, a secret.

In her youth, Marin had witnessed the medieval persecution of the deryni and, though what she saw had been blunted by the highlanders' inclination against the fanaticism that took hold in the lowlands, she could imagine what it was like elsewhere in Gwynedd and yet none of that was quite like the terror possible when the powers of a fully modern society turned itself to the task of eliminating an undesired portion of the population. Only the protestation of the citizenry in defense of their own skins, fearing the skeletons that could be well buried in their families' pasts, for it had long since been proven that one could be deryni without knowing it, had prevented a mass DNA testing which would have settled the matter entirely within a year. The potential for such large scale death was a sickening reality, as previous generations had attempted it—though to ultimate failure because their methods of deryni detection had proven inadequate to the task.

That Marin had been able to master the deryni arts or, indeed, that there had been anyone to teach them to her was nothing short of a miracle. She had debated fiercely with herself whether she should pass the knowledge, and thus the danger, on to the children in her care. Deeply religious, even in an age inundated in the ideals of secularism and the push towards atheism, many a tearful prayer had entreated God for the strength to make the right decision. Ultimately, however, the decision and been out of her hands as the children were not hers and, heirs to an ancient royal line, they were destined for something greater than she had the authority to control. The children had been trained and, now grown, they were formidable in their own rights.

Zachary was how she called the elder child. It was the name that had been favored by his mother, Marin's now deceased best friend. His real name, Michael Cluim Ifor Gwydion Haldane, was too dangerous to use. He was fair like his mother had been but his grey eyes were supposedly the remnants of the Haldane legacy. Whether that was true or not, it gave rise to the irrational belief among the rebels that this was proof of Zachary's claim to the throne.

Rhiain was, at nineteen, four years younger than her brother. Her royal name, Esmeline Louise Sivorn Rosane Haldane, was favorably shed for a modern feminization of the name Rhys. That she was named for the ancient deryni healer and son-in-law of the largely forgotten deryni saint, Camber, had apparently escaped the notice of the officials in charge of hunting down deryni for, if it had not, she would have spent her life under a level of scrutiny that she could not have survived for long. Thankfully, she had been born during a time of patriotic feelings that led to a slew of old Gwyneddan names coming back into favor and the fact that many of the historical figures who had borne them were deryni had been blurred by time. She shared her brother's eye color but she bore her father's raven locks in silky curls. She had grown into a beautiful young woman but her delicate features disguised the passions the boiled inside her.

Both Zachary and Rhiain lived in Rhemuth now and attended the university there due to its connection to medieval Gwynedd, the Haldane line, and the deryni. Marin's position kept her in the west and she missed the both of them dearly. They both kept in somewhat frequent contact—Zachary, as busy and preoccupied as he was between school, work, his poor heath, and the expectations of him as the Haldane heir could be rather sporadic in his contact but Rhiain called her daily regardless of what was going on in her life. It was about that time of day again and Marin was heading to her office to receive the call.
The phone was still ringing when she opened the door. She quickly set her tablet down on the desk and sat in her chair, swiping the holo-screen that was projected before her to answer the call as she did so. Rhiain's face appeared on the screen, pale and a little drawn, dark spots under her eyes indicating a lack of sleep. Her hair, usually meticulously groomed, had been thrown into a sloppy ponytail. Still, the young woman smiled brightly, almost as though she thought Marin would not notice.

"Hi, Mum," she said. Zachary, who was old enough to remember his parents, even if vaguely, called Marin "Aunt Marin" or, more recently, just "Marin" but Rhiain had always called her "Mum". It had been a point of tension between the siblings, one of the only ones between children who rarely fought, but they had eventually agreed to disagree rather than let it ruin their relationship.

"What's the matter?" Marin asked immediately.

"Nothing," Rhiain replied, smiling a little bigger, as if that would convince Marin.

Marin stared at the younger woman in silence for a few moments, pale eyebrow raised and lips pursed. "What's the matter?" she asked again.

"Fine," Rhiain replied, letting out a sigh of defeat. She looked down then back up at Marin. "It's Zack. He's not listening to reason. You know he just got out of the hospital, right?"

Marin nodded. Zachary had called her two days before when he got home.

"Well, it was really bad this time. Worse than before."

Marin nodded again, she had heard that as well, from the older rebels who had entreated once more her to help convince Zachary to get married.

"And now he's got this idea in his head that he's going to Aelia to meet with protestors over there..." Rhiain paused, then huffed, "Over my dead body."

"Rhi... Your brother is a grown man. He can make his own decisions. I'm not saying they are good decisions, but you cannot make them for him."

"Like hell I can't!" Rhiain exclaimed, banging her hands on the table. She immediately flinched at Marin's glare. "Sorry," she said.

"That sort of language is beneath you, Rhiain."

"I know, I know," Rhiain said. "But it's so frustrating. It's like he doesn't even see the danger at all. Before, we had the excuse that it was all theoretical but...after Justin..." She trailed off and looked down.

Justin Baker was not yet a year dead. He had been arrested along with a group of protesters and a routine DNA test had revealed him as a deryni. The other protesters were released shortly thereafter. Justin had been executed.

The protest was not unlike the events Zachary was known to frequent. Rhiain was convinced that, in watching Justin's public death, she had seen her brother's future. Zack scoffed at the idea, believing his condition would kill him long before the Empire could and, if by some chance the Aelians got him, he would not be losing much off his lifespan anyway.

"You can't stop living just because of what might happen," Marin said. "If you try to live like that, you'll never do anything."

"But you don't have to take unreasonable risks either," Rhiain said.

"Are you going to quit the rebels, then?"

"That's different," Rhiain answered indignantly.

"It's riskier than what Zachary is doing," Marin said. "If you continue doing what you're doing and you get caught... They'd kill you even if you were human. Look at what happened to your parents. They were never tested." The pain of their deaths had faded but it had never really left Marin in a way Rhiain, who did not remember her parents, could not understand.

"But I have to do this. The Aelians need to be... Something has to change here and it's not going to happen because someone holds up a sign," Rhiain said.

"And your brother believes it can be done without violence," Marin pointed out. "Don't you want to give him the chance to try?"

"You believe that I want violence?" Rhiain asked. "Nothing could be further from the truth. I don't want to hurt people or kill them and I certainly don't want to be hurt or killed. If there was a way to end this peacefully, I'd jump on it in a second, but look at our situation. Look at what the Aelians do to us, what they have been doing to us for five hundred years. They're not going to change because we ask nicely. No, they're going to come out with guns and blow us all away. The only way we're going to even be able to start talking equality is to restore a free Gwynnedd and abolish the anti-deryni laws. The only way we're going to get that is if we can unify the pro-deryni people and the anti-Aelian people under one leader. Zack is supposed to be that leader but he's too busy trying to organize peaceful protests to think about being a proper king."

"He doesn't want to be king."

"I know he doesn't want to be king and that's the problem. If I could step in and take that duty over for him, I would because I see how much it pains him, but I can't because the misogynistic old men who ran this show while we were kids, who are still running the show because Zack won't take the reins, have decided that I'm the wrong gender."

"The Haldane Legacy runs strictly through the male line," Marin reminded her. "They've proven that."

"But how important is that Legacy anyway? Zack's one of the best trained deryni I know. The Legacy isn't doing him any good."

"But can you ensure that for future generations? Can you promise that all future generations will be as well-trained? We took a risk having the two of you trained. There is nothing to say future generations will be willing to do the same."

"If we succeed here, there won't be any need for it to be a risk."

"And if you don't? The Legacy is lost for future generations who may need it."

"The Legacy is still lost if Zack doesn't have children."

"We still have Keegan."

Rhiain snorted. "Keegan, who is most likely a fraud. That's why he won't let us test his DNA. I wouldn't even believe he's deryni if I hadn't seen for myself."

For safety purposes, all deryni were required to reveal themselves and every member of the rebels was required to submit themselves to having blocks put up to prevent them from talking about the rebellion and, specifically about the deryni in the group, with anyone who was not already privy to that information.

"I believe that Keegan is who he says he is," Marin said.

"Why, because he looks Haldane? That's completely irrational. There are thousands of people with that same hair and eye color combination who have no relation to the Haldanes whatsoever."

"No, I trust him because I Truth Read him."

"So did I and I'm telling you there's something strange going on there. He's keeping secrets."

"We all keep secrets, Rhi."

"I mean big, bad, ugly secrets. The kind that could ruin everything we've been working for."

"If he's keeping those kind of secrets, we'll find out."

"Before it's too late?"

"So, what else is going on in Rhemuth?" Marin asked, abruptly changing the subject.

"Tom's back from spending the holidays in Culdi," Rhiain said, going with the flow and abandoning her last line of thought. "Aunt Hannah sent us our Christmas gifts and food, lots of food. Uncle Carson sent orders, as usual."

Hannah Ioanna's late sister, Evelyn, was Rhiain and Zachary's mother. Her husband, Carson had been good friends with Christopher, Evelyn's husband who had adopted a Haldane name in the last years of his life, though he still answered to "Christopher" in private.

After the death of the couple, Hannah and Carson had both changed. Hannah had retreated into a fantasy of domesticity. She ignored the rebellion which had cost her a sister and focused on raising her son, Tomas. Carson had done the opposite, throwing himself into the cause to the point of ignoring his family and declaring himself regent, a decision that went uncontested in the chaos that followed Christopher's death. Neither had made any effort to get close to the orphans, whom they left in Marin's care. Over the years, Hannah had made token efforts with gifts and Carson had constantly sent orders on how the children were to be raised out of fear that they would not grow into the soldiers the cause required. In Zachary, at least, Carson's worst fears had been realized and, without Zack, Rhiain was all but useless to Carson because he was one of the "misogynistic old men" that Rhiain had mentioned.

"How is Tomas?" Marin asked, side-stepping the issue of his parents.

"Tom's well enough, I suppose," Rhiain replied with a shrug. She liked her cousin but they were not particularly close. Despite their shared cause and shared heritage as deryni, Rhiain could not make herself be Tomas's friend.

"And the others in Rhemuth?" Marin asked, continuing to push the conversation away from delicate topics.

"Well, everything's been about normal. Well, no, actually, Luke left a few days ago for Aelia. His cousin's over there or something and needed the help. I kind of wish he hadn't needed to go, though. I miss him."

Luke MacKenzie was a borderer by name but little else in appearance or temperament. He was well liked by everyone, especially Rhiain who felt a close, daughterly bond with him, though she had never ventured into calling him "Dad" the way she called Marin "Mum". Marin was, oddly enough, the only one who could not stand the man. He had given her no reason to dislike him, had never been anything but kind and polite to her but his very presence made her skin crawl. She swore there was something off about him, but no one else noticed.

"I'm sorry to hear that," Marin said, not really able to put much weight behind her words and glad that her feelings could not be read over such a distance.

"But Alec's still here, so that's a plus," Rhiain added, referring to Luke's son. Marin had none of the same problems with the son which she had with the father, in fact she quite liked the boy. Noticing the blush that rose to Rhiain's cheeks when she mentioned Alec, reminded Marin that she could not afford to praise him too much because she was afraid Rhiain was well on her way to falling in love and Marin had it on good authority that Alec was happily married to a woman who worked in Aelia.

"Your uncle thinks he's reckless."

"That's because Uncle Carson sits on his...butt in Culdi and doesn't have a clue what's going on here in Rhemuth. If we listened to everything Uncle Carson says, we wouldn't do anything."

"Your uncle isn't as young as he used to be. He's getting older and it's harder to keep up."

"Old schmold," Rhiain replied. "Luke's no younger than Uncle Carson and he's right on the front lines with the rest of us in Rhemuth and in Aelia. Caleb's even older yet. I don't know how much, though."

"Caleb is Luke's cousin?"

"Mmhm," Rhiain replied. "I haven't met him in person, though he's made calls like this," she swept her arm to indicate the mode of communication she and Marin were using, "to us in Rhemuth. I think he's a good leader too, but not the type Uncle Carson would approve of. You should see his wife, too, she's gorgeous. It's unfair. She's got to be about forty and she still looks better than most twenty-year-olds."

"What's her name?"

"Stasia, I think," Rhiain said. "It's short for something. Maybe Anastasia. I don't know where she's from originally."

"Hm, never heard of her, or her husband. They live in Aelia?"

"Yeah, that's what I heard at least. They supposedly report back on the situation in the capital of our overlords' great empire. They are also in contact with some anti-Imperial groups in other provinces. I guess the thought is that if we all revolt at the same time, the Empire will just collapse."

Marin sniffed. "They've got their work cut out for them. It can't be easy to coordinate a plan on such a large scale, even if everyone's working for the same thing. Sometimes I think…" Marin realized that she was about to say something unwise and stopped talking, automatically shuttering down her Shields, even though Rhiain was too far away to send a probe.

"You think what?"

"It's nothing, Rhi," she said. "Nothing important."

"You don't think we're all working for the same goal?"

"It's not that," Marin said. "Not exactly, at least. Never mind. How's your friend, Katie…Kathy?" She sighed as Rhiain made a face, indicating that she was not getting any closer to the correct name. "You know, the energetic one, your roommate?"

"Katherine?"

"Yes, dear Katherine."

"Kat's good. I keep waiting for her to get sick of us, you know? It can't be easy for her to be one of the few rebels in Rhemuth who's human. Well, not for long anymore, though. Did I tell you about her boyfriend?"

"No, I don't think so."

"His name is Pip, I mean, Philippe."

"An Aelian name."

"Yeah, and he's about as human as they come but he's sympathetic to the cause. I think he feels closer to us than he does to the other Aelians. He's against imperialism in general so that drew him towards Kat and she's convinced him that deryni aren't evil monsters. I don't think he's entirely comfortable with us though. I'll be interested to see how he reacts when he finds out exactly how many of us there are."

"What do you mean?"

"Kat asked for permission to induct him into our ranks and Zack gave it, with Alec's consent, of course. That's just about necessary these days since Zack keeps himself out of the loop on what we're doing. It's like it's on purpose."

"I'm sure it's not."

"It doesn't really matter if it is or not," Rhiain sighed. "The result's the same."

In the background, Marin could hear Rhiain's roommate, Natania Kamil, calling that dinner was ready.

"Well, I'd better go," Rhiain said. "Tania's making supper…Should be good." She grinned briefly.

"I'll talk to you tomorrow?"

"Yeah."

"All right. Have a good supper. I love you."

"Love you, too. Bye."

"Good bye."

The screen went dark as Rhiain signed off. She sighed and leaned back in her chair. She had relied on Marin so much in the past, they had been so close, but, since she had moved to Rhemuth, she felt like her conversations with Marin were growing more and more strained. Back home, she had always been able to feel Marin's love and support even when they disagreed but without that security in their long distance communication, Rhiain found herself doubting every word that left her godmother's mouth, every expression on her face. How could humans be so trusting when they were so lacking in senses?

"Are you coming to the table or not?" Like there. Even before Rhiain could register that Katherine had been sent to goad her to the table or the meaning of the words or even the tone in her friend's voice, she could sense the emotions pouring out. There was irritation there, more than was usual for Katherine even on a bad day. Something must have just happened to upset her. She did not want to talk about it right now but she might in a little while. Rhiain hoped to Heaven that it did not have anything to do with Philippe.

"Yes, I'm coming," she answered, pulling herself up. Katherine was already out of sight, walking towards the kitchen.

The others were already at the table when Rhiain arrived in the kitchen and slid herself into her usual seat. They were almost like a family, a family of four women in their twenties. Natania led them in their pre-dinner prayer and then promptly began dishing out the food.

"Wow, it smells amazing," Rhiain said, in hopes that complimenting the chef would lead to a larger portion. She swore to herself that it would all be worked off during her planned trip to the gym after buying her school books tomorrow.

"It's just lasagna," Katherine pointed out sourly.

"But it's Tania's lasagna, which makes all the difference."

"Flattery will get you nowhere," Natania warned. Rhiain made a sheepish grin, having been found out, and accepted her plate back from Natania with no more or less on it than the others had received.

They fell into silence once the plates were passed out and all began to eat.

"So, uh, were you still planning on coming with me to get our books tomorrow?" Rhiain asked Katherine once she had slowed eating.

"Oh, yeah," Katherine answered unenthusiastically.

"I'm going to meet Zack afterward for lunch. You're invited, if you want to come."

"Zack's such a nice guy," Katherine observed listlessly.

"Yeah, he's a real sweetheart," Rhiain said with an uncomfortable laugh. She looked to the others for help. Do either of you know what this is about?

She was like this when she returned home this afternoon, Natania supplied in answer to the telepathic question.

Do you suppose it's about Philippe? Brielle mused.

I hope not, Rhiain answered. She'll be inconsolable if they break up. And after all the trouble she went through to get him invited into the group, too. It would be a major security breach.

And that's what Rhiain's really worried about, Brielle noted, looking into her lasagna with a small smile.

I can't be worried about both Kat and the revolution? There are lives at stake here.

"This is what I hate about deryni," Katherine ground out, looking down at her plate. "Normal people would at least have the decency to wait until I was out of the room to talk behind my back!" She got up and stormed off to her room, leaving her food completely untouched and the three deryni staring after her, dumbstruck.

Rhiain sighed and pushed her seat back from the table. "I'll go talk to her," she said. The other two sent her thoughts of affirmation and encouragement. They knew that Rhiain had the best chance of getting through to their human companion and that allowing her to handle Katherine on her own was the best course of action. Rhiain was, after all, the one who had drawn Katherine into their world of magic and intrigue and she was still the only deryni that Katherine truly trusted.

"Kat, I'm sorry," she said, knocking on the door to Katherine's room. "I didn't mean, we didn't mean to seem like we were talking behind your back. There wasn't anything that we said that we would be ashamed to say to your face. But it did seem like we were talking behind your back, and we're sorry. I'm sorry."

Katherine opened the door a crack and peeked out with her tear-stained face. "You mean you guys really were talking behind my back?" she asked.

"Well, yeah," Rhiain said, caught off guard by the accuracy of Katherine's blind guess. "But!" she added as Katherine began to slam her door closed again, "But we really didn't say anything that we couldn't have said out loud. We just forgot whether we were really saying it out loud or if it was just mindspeak. You know how we can get. Here, I'll tell you what we said. We said we were worried about you because you seem unhappy and I am concerned that it might have something to do with Philippe."

Katherine caught the door before it closed and considered what Rhiain had to say, then opened the door just wide enough for her friend to enter.

"I'm sorry," she said, closing the door behind Rhiain. "I must be acting like such a child."

"It's fine," Rhiain answered. "It's just that we deryni are so sensitive to what those around us are feeling, especially those close to us. It's even harder since you're human, so you can't shield us from it, if you wanted to."

"I'm sorry," Katherine repeated.

"It's fine," Rhiain said again. "It's normal to have feelings. If anything, we're the weird ones for being so sensitive. Now, is there anything I can do to help?"

"I doubt it," Katherine answered. "I broke up with Pip today."

"Oh, Kat," was all Rhiain could think to say with her mind whirling over all the implications for the future. She recovered herself quickly and asked, "Do you want to talk about it?"

"Not really," Katherine replied. "It doesn't matter, anyway."

"Of course it does!" Rhiain insisted.

"It doesn't have anything to do with how trustworthy he is," Katherine said. "And I want you to know that I still think he should be allowed to join the group. If anything, it was his trustworthiness that made me decide to break up with him."

"I don't quite follow."

"I mean, he's trustworthy and loyal…to the group, not to our relationship. I just decided that, if being in a relationship with him made me jealous of our cause, maybe I shouldn't be in a relationship with him. Of course, it was that stupid, bratty Aelian prince I felt the most jealous of, since he'll be monopolizing Pip's time for the foreseeable future."

"Prince Joseph?"

"Yeah, the idiot one."

"I wasn't aware that Philippe was so close to the prince."

"It's the governor's idea, not Pip's. He wants to win royal favor by engineering a friendship between Pip and His Royal Idiocy. Like they were in kindergarten or something. Pip said he should stay away from us so long as he's designated the prince's playmate. And he's right, it's probably better for us if he stays away but then I got all mad and I said that it would be better if he stayed away for good and that I was breaking up with him, which wasn't what I wanted to say at all but…you know me…" Katherine laughed bitterly. "After thinking about it, I decided that breaking up really is the right thing to do but I didn't do it right at all. I should sit down and talk it all over with him, not that I'll get a chance now that the prince is here. Then again, I don't really want to talk to him. I don't even want to see him right now."

Katherine stopped talking and looked intently at Rhiain, who had been silently listening to her talk for too long.

"What?" Rhiain asked as it became clear that Katherine would not continue.

"You're not doing any of that deryni mood changing stuff, are you?" Katherine asked. "I mean, it's cool that I'm feeling more level-headed about all of this now but you know I don't like it when you deryni go messing around in my head."

"I didn't do anything, honest," Rhiain replied. "I keep telling you that, since you're human, I have to touch you in order to use any of my skills on you." That might not have been exactly true but Rhiain was determined to keep it true from Katherine's perspective.

"I know but I'll probably never understand all of this deryni stuff and, when it seems like you're coming up with some new power every two days, I sometimes get, I don't know, worried that you're just telling me what I want to hear because you don't think I'll understand or you think that you'll scare me away."

Rhiain forced a smile to deflect from how close her human friend had come to the truth—Katherine's intuition was on a roll—and said, "This was all good, old-fashioned, human getting it off your chest. You don't need to be talking to a deryni to feel better after letting out whatever's been eating you. If you did, deryni would be much more popular, dontcha think?" She laughed and Katherine quickly joined in.

"You should go back to supper," Katherine said as the laughing died down. "You don't want to miss out on Natania's lasagna, do you?"

"You're not coming?"

"No, I'm not really hungry right now."

"Are you sure?" Rhiain asked.

"I'm fine," Katherine answered and Rhiain wished that she had Truth Read her friend's answer. She knew that it was intrusive and pointless—Katherine knew better than to purposefully lie to a deryni—but she could not repress her craving for just a little more reassurance, a little more proof that she could trust the people around her.

"All right," she said, reluctantly casting her regret down to the dungeons of her mind to be forgotten, and placed her hand on the door handle. "I'm sure Tania will save you some in case you change your mind later. Just don't be like Brielle and stomp around the apartment like an elephant at three in the morning." She grinned again to lighten the mood.

"I always thought that was you," Katherine teased back.

Rhiain placed a hand on her chest in mock offense. "I am a bona fide delicate and graceful princess; I do not stomp. Just ask my mum about the pea incident." She opened the door.

"Rhiain?" Katherine asked. "Everything's going to be all right, isn't it?"

"Of course it is," Rhiain answered. She turned to meet Katherine square in the eye and then closed the door to Katherine's room behind her.