It was the morning after the dragons had had their fun. Malec had asked Dinah, Marc, and Kalket to join him for an outing beginning fairly early. Most of the household, and all the rest of the guests were still abed.

The four, plus a radiant Fianna, who despite her complaints about waddling, seemed to find pregnancy little trouble, were at breakfast. They were joined, just as they'd reached the last of the food and were enjoying an alien but interesting version of coffee, by a young woman they hadn't seen before. She smiled warmly at the guests and kissed both Fianna and Malec on the cheek.

"I've been looking forward to meeting you," she said. "I'm Kessa, youngest sister to Malec and Malachi. I'm sorry I wasn't here to greet you."

"Kessa was off-world," Fianna explained. "And she'd like to help you, Dinah, to understand what we're about, since Malec is rather stingy with words."

Malec grunted, which made Fianna laugh aloud. "You see?" she said, putting a fond hand on her husband's arm.

"I'm delighted to meet you Kessa," Marc said, holding out his hand for hers. "I hope you won't mind me asking many questions."

Kessa smiled and replied, "I will do my best to answer what you ask. You as well, Kalket. I understand besides warrior, you are a healer. An odd combination."

Kalket gave that some thought before saying, "Most of our fighting was based on religious grounds. We were never star wanderers who wished to subdue other planets or systems. So in that sense, where the religion is based on ritual fighting and killing, perhaps it makes some sense, since those wounded want to be cured well and quickly in order to fight in the next Grand Combat. I will admit, however, that most of the pacifists in my society did come from  Redactor House, although it was always the smallest of the Guilds. My mother was one of them. I'm afraid she despaired of me," he added with a grin.  It was clear he didn't find that too troubling.

Kessa's eyes twinkled.  "Political dissident at dinner, huh?  We have a few of those here, and mostly women."

"Well, there were many great male healers who became pacifists as well, including the former head of Redactor House. but honestly I think it was more because they were too conservative for the changes that had gone on in the Games," Kalket laughed.  If my people were anything, they were hide-bound conservatives. Granted they were driven away from their home world for exactly those reasons, so perhaps it made sense."

"So," Marc asked, "Fianna, are you a political dissident too?"

Malec opened his mouth, glanced at Fianna, and thought better of saying anything.

Fianna met Kessa's eyes over her coffee cup.  Setting it down she affirmed her position.  "Yes, now.  Perhaps it's hormones, but I think there has to a better way.  And the only way to find it is to just not fight anymore.  After twelve years without battles...it gets habit forming."

"When the truce ends," Dinah asked, "Will the fighting resume again immediately?  Pitched battles and skirmishes?  Harassment along your fronts?"

"And elsewhere," Malec replied, not looking entirely happy about it himself. "But we have to protect our status and our position. We have little choice. Lady," Malec said, looking at Dinah, but his voice died away.

"Yes?" she asked.

"I've said no," Malec, Fianna replied quietly, but there was steel under that soft voice.

"What?" Dinah asked, bewildered.

Fianna, meeting her husband's eyes, replied, "Malec wanted to ask you to take me with you if the fighting begins again. I've refused to go."

"Well, should the two of you decide otherwise, I'm sure we can work something out," Dinah said carefully.  "Does this mean the fighting will come here?"

"Yes, and no doubt to Caer Trinion as well. Most of it will be fought interdimensionally, but it always bleeds over," Kessa said expressionlessly.

Morrigan, joining them then, agreed.  "The Ministry tries to prevent it, and there are sanctions, but lately I've come to think that at this point the ministry is making things worse, not better by keeping the battles civilized.  I sometimes think that if we must fight wars then fight them for real and be done with them, rather than all this ritualized nonsense aimed at containment.  Fight to win, fight to end it now or stop fighting and find another way."

"How is it ritualized," Kalket asked. "Limited time on skirmishes? Only selected combatants? In my world there were heavy sanctions on any action outside the month of the Grand Combat. That did not stop my father's people from gorilla actions, but at least people could live normal lives, and the battles were amongst the fighters only. Those who chose not to participate were unaffected for the most part. And certainly, those like yourself, Fianna, were protected. Neither side wished to harm those giving life, as children were highly prized."

"Highly prized?  As future warriors?"  Kessa asked.

Morrigan cut her off.  "It's easy to think that the non combatants are unaffected, since the battle's not in their cabbage field nor are they shelling the backyard.  It isn't true, however, because the cost in lives, emotionally and otherwise, as well as the ripples economically are enormous."

Kessa nodded vigorously.  "The Ministry was set up to prevent the spread of these things to other houses, other systems.  But what has resulted is that war is now almost a sport, fought in stadiums composed of the other dimensions.  I understand what Morrigan's saying.  I've thought it myself.  The way it is now, war is seen as normal, in a way, a part of daily living because it's horrors are off somewhere else except for the spill over.  Only war isn't normal, it's abnormal and setting things up so it seems otherwise negates one of the most powerful motivators for ending war I can think of...and that's everyone actually dealing with it's reality, on the ground."

"The ministry," Fianna said, "keeps it at a remove, or even two.  That's what the last twelve years has made plain.  To me at least.  I think Morrigan's right.  Fight it for real, fight it to win and get it done or stop fighting all together."

Malec was keeping himself securely in check, it was clear. But finally he put down his coffee cup with a bit more force than was necessary. "Lady, Marc, Kalket, shall we?  Kessa, is everything ready."

Kessa looked unbowed. "Yes, brother. We are ready."

"Good. Then shall we?"  He more or less scooted the guests off before him.

"So," Dinah asked, dragging her feet to slow his forward momentum and her own feeling of being swept along by it, "where are we going?"

"I thought you might enjoy an out-world trip. We are seeding a planet, terraforming it really. It's a long process, but we are at an interesting point in that process. You can get a feel for what our world is about. It is more than just fighting."

Kessa, knowing Malec thought he'd answered the question grinned.  "The way it works is when we find planets, worlds, that could sustain life but don't we go in and establish an ecosystem or modify the one that's there.  We do it genetically, changing what's there, or adapting building blocks that are missing using our gene banks."

"You do this often? Who populates such worlds?" Marc asked.

"We're currently working with four worlds.  We hold the licence on many others...or rather we have some and Dinah the others." Malec said, watching Piran swoop down for a landing.

"After we're done, sometimes they're settled by us or one of the other Houses under licence to us.  Others we leave, for those able to trigger the genetic seeds we've left, to bring them together and start the process that leads to new forms of sentient life."  Kessa amplified.

Other dragons were in the air now, and spiraling downward toward them. Piran called to them as he landed.

"Who is that?" Malec asked Piran.

"Ione," Piran replied. "For Lord Kalket."

Malec frowned. "She's too small still, and far to young to.."

"She's chosen," Piran answered in a voice and no doubt in Malec's mind, in a way that made it quite plain there was no argument.

Malec rolled his eyes. "Dragons..."

Then the rest of the dragons were landing. Quinn and Cola were eyeing one another happily.  Kessa's dragon, Locia, arrived with them.

Dinah mounted Quinn, whispering hello to him as she stroked his neck, producing the dragon equivalent of a purr.  She grinned and rubbed harder, feeling him quiver in delight.

Kessa, watched them as she mounted Locia, said, "Don't worry.  The dragons know what to do and Malec and Piran will handle the portals.  But basically Malec shows Piran where he wants to go and that's where Piran takes him.  The other dragons will follow Piran, using the same picture.  We'll be traveling inter-dimensionally since it's faster to fold the space-time planes than to traverse them.  It'll be a bit strange at first but you'll get used to it."

Kalket was eying Ione rather worriedly. "You are very small. Are you certain I will not hurt you?"

Ione replied, "I will grow. I'm just young. And I'm stronger than I look!"

Piran added, "She is young to bond, but she has chosen. You will not harm her, although she should wait until she is larger before attempting battle."

"I'll grow fast," Ione promised Kalket.

Kalket was frowning over the word bonding, but then they were leaping into the sky, him securely on Ione back, and he had no time for silly semantic worries. He was grinning and leaning forward to stroke her neck and ask her questions as they flew.

The five dragons fell into a vee shaped pattern, Piran in the lead, Ione as smallest and weakest right in his draft. The five spiralled upward and upward, well past the snow covered peaks of the Kenno and into the clear bright sky, above the clouds and toward the point where the humans began to feel light-headed for lack of oxygen. Then suddenly a portal opened before them.  Inside it was black, unlike the portal they'd used with Malec and Malachi. This one also felt different as the dragons swept through it, their wing tips brushing its edges.

Once all of them were inside, the portal disappeared behind them. Marc, watching, saw it as it happened. When he turned around to look forward again, he saw star tracks and clusters of light and the eerie silent emptiness of space. He'd fought his way though the interstices of time and space, and been caught in them and nearly died. So he was not overwhelmed by the sight, but it was dazzling the others.

"You create an atmosphere for us to breathe?" he asked Cola. She turned her head round to regard him. "Of course. We need it too."

"Is it longer, the flight, based on how far from your home world we are heading?" he asked.

"No, not the way you are thinking. We are folding space, not travelling through it. Watch," she advised.

The lights that had seemed to speed past them in straight ribbons of brilliant colors against the blackness now began to curve and and then began to spiral. The colors swirled and began to come together in a confusing and eye-popping whirlpool of brilliance in color, and yet it was all eerily silent except for the creak of harness and the flick of wings. Marc looked over at Dinah and saw her grinning wildly. Kalket to was fascinated with the passage. Malec kept scanning all of them, as if to act as a sort of guardian so that none of them would come to harm.

Then, with a noise that seemed loud enough to break eardrums, after the silence, a portal opened and they were winging through it. They were again above a mountain range and a planet of browns and greys lay below them.

As the dragons began descending the colors resolved into shapes and the shapes into crag and rock and soil, with deep canyons to match the peaks of the range.  As they cleared the range the plains below showed green tinges.  It was  Marc realized, a planet being manipulated atmospherically using widespread rain forest growth, a supposition supported by the massive cloud cover ahead and the suddenly oppressive humidity.

They flew straight into the low hanging clouds and began slowing their descent, finally setting down in a cleared area within the midst of young trees that ended at the shores of a tidal basin if the algae lines on the beach were any clue.  And it was silent.

There was no sound of bird or insect to break the stillness, only the sounds that they made as they dismounted and the dragons took off to explore while their humans worked.

"So, uhm, where are we?" Dinah asked as she looked around.

"Right now it's called Sere'Ster one forty three.  It won't be named until we decide whether to keep the licence, or leave it fallow for the next phase of seeding.  Unofficially we call it O-17-6 because when we started that was the percentage of oxygen in the atmosphere.  We're up to about nineteen using the rain forest and some other things and are shooting for about 20 to 21 percent.  The bulk of the rest is nitrogen, about 78 percent.  Once the oxygen is balanced we'll start playing with the trace gases by manipulating the other plants we introduce and the inorganic ratios in the sea water." Malec explained.

Marc sank down to his haunches, feeling the soil. It was dead yet, no life in it as in most planets, at least the habitable ones. "The flora and fauna you introduce.. from your world, or a combination of worlds?" Marc asked.

Kessa replied, "We try to select a variety of the hardiest of species that will fit the altered atmosphere and the conditions we can't alter too much, like seasonal length and how close the planet is to its star. We won't begin deciding for some time yet, until we alter the natural water and see how well that goes. As you can imagine there are thousands of variables to account for, and we are always surprised, sometimes dismayed as we discover limitations.  Sometimes though things work out in wondrous ways."

"And do you alter the gene sequences of the humans who will come to live here?" Marc asked. "As a way of helping them become more attuned to the planet?"

"Sometimes.  That's one of the factors that we use to decide whether to leave it fallow or populate it."  Kessa explained.

Marc nodded, his mind clearly working overtime. He glanced over at Dinah, who was standing there frowning, in her own world of deep thought.

Kalket commented, "The temp and humidity makes me homesick."

"How do you acquire the licenses?" Dinah asked.

"If we discover the planet then we have right of first refusal.  Others we buy or trade for."  Malec told her.

"You said I have some?"

Kessa started to answer and then stopped at a look from Malec.  "Yes.  The box, those are the licenses.  They're yours.  Mach, the Mael'com, obtained them in a variety of ways...single combat or was willed them, for example."

"You fight for uninhabited worlds?" Kalket asked, looking very surprised.

"No, not in the sense that you mean.  In an adjudicated vendetta, the winner takes everything.  Named heirs become null."  Malec said.

"So if you were to lose to Kenget'Sere you lose everything. And if you decide to stop fighting, as Fianna wants you to?" Marc asked.

"A whole house conflict is different from single combat, but there are parallels."  Malec said shortly.

"And why is it you are so reluctant to tell us what those differences and parallels are?"  Marc's voice had gotten a bit wintry.

"Because it's complicated.  It depends on who's still living and who isn't, who declared, why the thing started and the protocols agreed to at the time of adjudication."  Malec ground out.  "In this case, if we just stopped fighting we could do it one of two ways...either involving the ministry or not.  In either case the outcome depends on where the lines are at the time plus negotiation."

Marc just looked at him. Then, after a moment, shook his head, and walked away.

"So," Kalket said, trying to change the subject. "What do you plan to do here today?"

"We want to start shifting the rainforest more towards a pampas ecosystem spreading out from here.  Meaning we want to start introducing some savannah type conditions that later produce a tidal delta subsystem so that we can, ultimately, have greater control over the aquatic systems.  In other words we're here to introduce some genetic changes that will give us more grass and fewer trees."

Then, clearly concentrating, he focused on the scrub at the waters edge and from it a variety of helixes rose in the air.    Malec held out his palm and the sigil glowed and a series of gene strands appeared, hovering in the air.  Malec began manipulating each set of strands until he achieved a one to one pairing, then he began splicing the pairs.  Satisfied, or at least apparently satisfied, he sent the newly engineered gene strands back into the scrub.

"We've people who will, once we're sure what we got in the lab is what we'll get here, cover the entire shore line for miles in each direction, doing the same at intervals.  Eventually, a long time from now, the modification will be present in every plant and there will be grass as far as the eye can see.  When it reaches that point, we do a little engineering of a different sort and modify the tidal basin....creating salt marshes.  At the same time we'll push the forest away from the equator and it will transition to different types of flora, with a little help from us." Kessa explained. Pretty soon we'll start to introduce the bugs...simpler celled organisms and amoeba.

"Ah," Kalket commented. Although it wasn't clear he personally found the process all that interesting. Marc was listening closely however, and his pique of earlier was gone as he watched Malec manipulate the helix.

"Labs," he said to Kessa. "May I.. we, see them?"

"Sure." Kessa said. "There's one here that we're using to test the crosses on, when we aren't positive what the engineering will produce.  The main lab is back at Caer Kista."

"I'd love to visit the one at Caer Kista." Marc was staring at Malec as he said it. Malec nodded with every evidence of agreeability.

They were there for several similar iterations of genetic manipulation and then Malec called the dragons back.

The trip home was similar to the outward bound one, but this time, as it wasn't quite so unexpected, all of them were able to pay a bit more attention to what it looked like and what it felt like as the dragons manipulated and folded space.

Then, with the same sharp crack as before, a portal opened and this one lead them to the skies above Caer Kista. They were met by a cloud of dragons and escorted home.

Dinah dismounted and spent a few minutes communing with Quinn before turning her attention to her host.  "Ah, Malec, would you, uhm, mind...if you've got a few minutes, if we could talk?  I've a few questions I'm hoping you can help me with."

"But of course, Lady. Let's go out to the patio. I'm sure Fianna has refreshments for us there."

And sure enough, Fianna met them and gave Malec a tray of drinks and sandwiches to carry out with him. The patio was empty though, giving them privacy.  Marc, uninvited but joining them anyway, took a drink a sandwich and a chair.

The two men shared a look that clearly said they were both stubborn mules and would keep after something until they had to give it up - possibly only because they were threatened with no sex if they didn't drop it.

Dinah munched for a moment.  When she was suitably fortified she shared her best smile with Malec.  "You know, I know it's not your fault at all, but I've been feeling remarkably manipulated by events.  And the trouble with that is it tends to make me angry."  She took a sip.  "I personally don't have any heartburn about being angry, mind you," she went on, her tone conversational.  "But somehow I feel sure that isn't going to work to your benefit in the long run and so, wanting to be fair, I thought maybe I should explain to you that when I add feeling stonewalled to manipulated and angry, well...things just go from bad to worse...if you follow me?"  She smiled at him again and took a another bite of her sandwich, the picture of friendliness.

"Lady, I assure you, I have been doing my best to explain things to you and show you what Mach left you. We have opened our House to you, and have answered all your questions as best we can." Malec was doing his best to look sincere.

Marc sat back to enjoy the show.

"I agree.  You couldn't possibly have been more hospitable without giving me the deed to the property.  Which is why I thought maybe we could talk, just us, and then I'd feel better, since I'm sure it's just me, and not that you're really trying to...oh...well let me put it this way...paint a rosy picture.  So, uhm, how about we rewind the conversation from this morning and pick it up for another run through, starting with where I ask you where Mac got the licenses.  Does that sound like a plan?"

"As you wish, Lady. Although I'm unclear on how I can make you happier..  The licenses were acquired in the usual methods all Houses use."

"Well, see, that where I start to get confused."  Dinah said, wiping her hands on a napkin.  "Why were they his?  Why don't they belong to the House?  I mean if Mac was...er...creative in his approach to economic growth, well it's a little late for me or anyone else to start worrying about it."

"They belonged to the House but were part of his own legacy, and therefore are now yours. Had he left them to me, it would have been different. As it is, unless you wish to become the Mael'com they are yours alone."

"I see."  She sat back in her chair, studying him.  "Off the top of my head, not knowing what that would mean or how that would happen, among a lot of other variables, I'll pass on it for now.  So, uhm, then what you're saying is, if I follow you...and correct me if I get it wrong...it that there is an overlap between what was his and what belonged to the House?"

"Yes. A Mael'com, or indeed, any head of a House, has several options as to his or her legacy. Our hopes can be placed in our children, as I have done, or in a designated Heir, such as you. As we had no idea who you were, I was then named Maelcom. Should you challenge my office based on you having Mach's Legacy, I would then step aside."

"I think you would be safe assuming that isn't going to happen, at least not from where I sit now.  It would be irresponsible in the extreme for me to so something like that."  She shifted a bit, getting more comfortable, perhaps expecting to there a while.  "So, that brings me to my next question.  Short of a genocidal act that levels Kenget'Ster or this House, what would it take to end this war?"

"I am sworn to defend my House, Lady. I did not start this war, and I understand that many wish it to end, among them myself. But given that Sere'Ster would lose everything, I am disinclined to surrender.  Were it an option, I would offer my life to end this, but according to the rules and laws set down by the Ministry, that is not a choice open to me."

"That is precisely my next point of confusion.  Why would a negotiated settlement, an option as you have already said, be such a catastrophe?" she asked.

"Because, even were we to be left with something, we would be weak and open to exploitation by other Houses. Kenget'Ster and Sere'Ster are the only Houses with the abilities you saw today. Other Houses have wanted those abilities for centuries. As it is, we are too strong for them to attack."

"And how, precisely, do I help?  What makes me an assest, other than the fact of having the heir?"

Malec shrugged his shoulders. "I have not been able to see that far. Perhaps Mach thought that a fresh perspective would help us. Or perhaps he though me incapable of leading the House. He did not share his reasoning with me."

"I'm relieved to know he was as forthcoming with you as he was with me," she shared, the merest hint of sarcasm in her tone.  "Well, when I have the data to form a fresh perspective I'll be happy to share it.  Perhaps, while I'm working on that you could give me a sketch of the ritual and what will expected of me?  And will I need a new dress?  I don't think I can go back without being able to describe the shopping."

Malec's lip curved into a half smile. "Kessa will assist you with attire. You will be given the jewels and embroidered vest to wear, as that represents the House. As for describing the ritual I assumed Minister C'Tal told you of that."

"No, Kevin and I spoke exclusively of Mac.  I hadn't realized he and Mac were such close friends."  Dinah smiled brightly. "There was so much Mac never told me.  It was wonderful talking with him."

"I.. Ah. Well, I suggest you discuss the rituals with Minister C'Tal at your convenience. I'm sure we can arrange a meeting with him for you."

'I'd hate to bother him, but if you feel that's best then I'd appreciate it.  And thank you for taking the time to reassure me.  I'm grateful, it was remarkably helpful."

Malec stood and bowed to her. Then turned on his heel and left.

After the 'conversation' with Malec, Marc had some sympathy with people who expected him to discuss things he couldn't, or wouldn't.  He and Dinah walked in the gardens for a while, then retreated to their bedroom, hoping for something more than just conversation.

They showered then lay on the bed beside one another, each pondering the events of the last few days.

"What are we going to do with dragons," Marc groaned.

"I like Quinn. He's adorable."

"Of course he is," Marc agreed. "He acted like a lost puppy and you gave your heart to him immediately."  He was smiling as he said it.

"Don't you like Cola?" she asked, looking at him wide eyed, thinking of a look the dragon had given Marc when he wasn't looking. "You'll break her heart if you don't take her."

He sighed. "I've never been a pet kinda guy."

"You'll learn," she replied complacently. "Besides, love me, love my dragon."

"Hmmm."  He was too busy with his tongue to manage much more in the way of a conversation.  She ran her fingers through his hair absently, enjoying that she could just lay there and get that sort of attention.  Well, until he got to a certain point and then she couldn't exactly just lay there.

"What do you think of Malec?"

He stopped what he was doing and looked up at her. "I've obviously lost my touch."

"Well, you and he didn't seem to be getting along," she pointed out, while pointing to what she wanted him to resume.

"Dinah, I can't do that and talk at the same time."

"Sure you can; talk in my head."

"I beg your pardon, but my mind goes all squiffy when I'm concentrating on you."

"Okay," she said, "Squiff away, we'll talk later."

Much later, snuggled against him and counting his chest hairs, she picked up the thread of the conversation.  "I'm thinking we ask Stephen  to house them at the Refuge.  What do you think?"

"Who?" Marc asked, suddenly picturing all of Sere'Ster moving in, with a shitload of dragons and their baggage.

"Quinn and Cola, of course."

"Oh." It was such a relief to him that she wasn't taking in the entire House Sere he nodded. "Fine. Good idea."

"So, she said, having lost count and starting over, "Malec, what do you think?"

"I don't much like looking in a mirror," he admitted. "Don't trust him. You should ask your drinking and dancing pal Kevin if you want to know anything.  Is he a good dancer?"

"As good, maybe better than Carmine.  Why?"  She gave up counting with her fingers and tried with her tongue.  He had a lot of chest hair.  It would probably take a while, but she was determined.

"I can't think straight with you doing that."

"Something else seems to be getting quite straight," she replied eying the member referred to.  Damn, he'd made her lose count again!

"It's got a mind of its own," he replied.

"Maybe I should try for a meeting of minds with it then?"

"With who?"

She pointed, with her tongue.  "I could try communing, mind to mind, so to speak."

"Oh, please do. By all means."

Some time later they tried it again, well, an actual thinking conversation.

"So, you think Kevin will actually talk to you rationally and completely? Does he at least speak in complete sentences?"

Dinah gave it some attention.  "He mght, he might not.  He's in a hell of a position.  Why'd you ask about his dancing, you gonna take lessons?"  She had no hope of a yes but was willing to give it a shot.

"I just might if you keep going off dancing with handsome men.  So, why don't you threaten to walk out unless Kevy fesses up?"

"Don't think it would work and if he called my bluff where would we be?  Besides, I'm thinking we should ask the dragons."

Marc gave that some thought. "You think they'd tell us things that the head of house won't?"

"I'm thinking Kalie was Mac's and she showed me some memories when she snatched me up yesterday.  Plus they're like children, of course they'll tell us things.  The problem would be keeping them quiet about it after, plus keeping them on point, as it were."

Marc frowned, thinking it over. "Well, they were pretty much all business today. Although if the bonding thing is true, then perhaps they'd be more likely to tell us. Sure, let's give it a shot."

"Sure," she said, absently, having recalled an unfinished task.  "But I gotta finish this first.  You interrupted me."  Maybe if she used her fingers and her tongue together...

It was some time and a shower later when they were dressed and standing out in the meadow behind the main house. "See if you can call Quinn," Marc suggested.

She gave it a shot and sure enough Quinn came racing down from the slopes.  He landed and turned his violet jeweled eyes on her, obviously delighted.  Surely she wanted to play.

She stroked his nose.  "Try Cola," she told Marc, "we can go flying."

Marc reached out with his mind and wasn't very surprised to see a ribbon of consciousness burning into a permanent link with Cola. "Ah," he said.

"Got her?" Dinah asked.

"Indeed. I'll explain it a bit later."

Cola, flame color sparkling in the sunshine flew down to join them. Dinah hopped onto Quinn and Marc let Cola help him up and the four flew off toward the mountains. The dragons dive-bombed one another and showed Marc and Dinah their favorite meadows and finally dropped to the ground at their most favorite stream, that had a waterfall and a pool big enough for the dragons to bathe in.

When they looked ready to rest, or at least play quietly, Dinah tried a small probe into Quinn's mind.  She had his immediate attention.  "You guys were great today," she told him, expanding the probe.  "It was amazing how you folded space like that."

He grinned, basking in the praise and, sure enough, into his mind came pictures of what he'd done to do it.   He wasn't a big talker, but he could image fine.

"You do that when you fight, too?" she asked him.

"Sure, and other stuff, too, like take care of you," Quinn told her, rolling over on his back in the water.

"So," Marc said to Quinn. "Your primary thing is to take care of Dinah?"

Quinn agreed, as he scratched his back against a rock. - er a boulder.

"So, if she were going to do something that would put her into danger, you'd let her know?"  Marc was trying to sound casual about it all.

"Of course." Quinn said, puzzled it was even a question.

Dinah grinned at him.  "Will the dragons be at the ritual?  I mean you guys get to come too, right?"

"Yeah, and have dragon games after."  Quinn said, shaking water off like a dog and spraying them.  After that they had to wait until he stopped laughing.

Cola came over to lie down near Marc, a contented sigh escaping her as her head hit the ground.  Marc regarded her for a moment, then said, as if to Dinah, "I'd be really furious if they hurt you at the ritual."

Cola's head came up and she blinked her large green eyes at him thoughtfully. "Quinn and I will not let anything happen to her."

Dinah laughed.  "What, is this ritual some sort of contest?"

Quinn and Cola both giggled. "Naw, it's boring mostly.  You stand around a lot.  Then people give you things.  That's the best part, all the prezzies."

Cola agreed.  "That and the games."

"What kind of things will she get?" Marc asked.

"All kinds, jewelry and stuff.  Swords.  Depends." Quinn said, snuffling Dinah's hair.  He liked her cologne a lot.

"How about things the House values. Does she get any worlds like the one we visited?" Cola had scooted over close enough so that Marc could lean up against her chest. She looked like she was in 7th heaven.

"She already got those, in the box Mach kept 'em in.  Kalie told us about 'em."  Quinn said moving his nose closer so Dinah'd rub it for him.

"Those are hers?  Not the House's?"

Cola nodded, careful not to disturb him.  "Yep."

"Kalie said Mach didn't want the House to have them."  Quinn confirmed.

Marc and Dinah looked at each other, and felt a whole new level of uncertainty open up.

"Kalie say why?" Dinah finally asked.

"Yeah but it didn't make sense she said.  She said it was cause Mach said it was time for a third.  That it was the only way."  Quinn explained.

"A third what?" Marc asked.

"House," Cola replied.