LITMIR.BIZ

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of having to share any part of Asia with anyone else.

      Julian tried to dismiss the possessive impulse. He focused on the Ampliphi who had spoken while pushing aside the telltale emotions spinning through him that he knew they could easily identify in his aura.

      “Ampliphi Kloe.” He greeted his sponsor first, as respect and tradition demanded. Then he turned his attention to the leader of the Ampliphi. “Ampliphi Christophe,” he greeted with equal respect and a grave nod of his head. “I have conducted this woman across against her will.”

      His announcement was greeted with one or two bright flashes of irritation. He had expected they wouldn’t be happy, but there was nothing he could do about that now.

      “You have been compromised,” Ampliphi Rennin noted, disapproval sharp in his tone.

      “To what extent, I do not yet know,” he acknowledged. “But I suspect it to be only a minimal exposure of attention. She did not know I was not human. Cleaners will need to be sent behind me. Blood was shed.”

      “We can see that,” Ampliphi Christophe noted, drawing Julian’s attention to the blood dripping heavily onto the floor beneath his leg. “This is very disappointing, Gatherer. Only seven months? You have never been discovered so quickly before. This is a setback we as a species cannot afford.”

      “I am aware of that, Ampliphi. I beg your forgiveness. However, my circuit as Gatherer would have ended anyway. This woman is kindra to me.”

      He felt the surprise that rippled through the august body of beings. He hardly faulted them for it. He was in just as much shock as they were over the development.

      “Impossible!” Ampliphi Kloe swirled in angry violet. “Kindra,” she scoffed. “More likely you make excuses to drop your responsibilities.”

      Julian bristled at the accusation. He was used to Kloe’s bitter ways, but she was calling him a liar and it would not be tolerated. He didn’t care who she was.

      “How can you be certain?” Ampliphi Sydelle spoke up. There was movement to her right and Julian became aware of Gatherer Kine’s presence over her shoulder. He wondered why the Gatherer was home instead of in the field.

      “This cannot be explained. It cannot be quantified,” Julian said carefully. “I know many believe the kind to be a myth, but anything written about so much cannot be make-believe.”

      “She is human,” Sydelle countered dismissively, ever the arguer. But she did not argue to undermine so much as to test his faith in his position.

      “Are humans not our salvation in every other way?” Julian demanded. “We are doomed to die without them. They were chosen because of how close they are to us in makeup, minds, and emotion. Why not a human? We rely on their spirits for everything else, why can there not be kind among them?”

      Julian’s heart raced with fear as the Ampliphi exchanged lightning-sharp bolts of energy between them, debating back and forth in silence with each other. Then, with a bright emanation, Christophe ended the speculation.

      “This you speak may be all true, but if she came over unwillingly I am going to guess she has not acknowledged this connection between you. We will let you acclimate her and guide her. We will let you woo her as you will. However, if she rejects you, then we know she is not kindra to you and she will go the way of the others who have come before her. Do you accept?”

      “Yes,” Julian answered with quick and sure eagerness. Whatever doubts they might have, he knew the truth.

      “Well, this is disappointing,” Ampliphi Kloe said with a frustrated emanation. “You are our best Gatherer, Julian. Also, this woman has enough energy to feed thousands of us.”

      Julian was on his feet in an instant, his hands curling into fists as he stood over Asia, his feet braced on either side of her as she lay in an exhausted slump on the floor between them. His sudden aggression lashed out at the council of Ampliphi in streams of indigo, whipping energy he could not manage. He was so thoroughly juiced with Asia’s psychic plentitude that he was having trouble controlling the abundance of emotion it created.

      “You’ll not deprive me of her,” he said soft and low, the furious threat behind the calm words quite evident on the basis of his energy alone. “Not even you can do that if she is truly kindra!”

      “Easy, Gatherer.” Christophe tried to soothe him, tendrils of gentle pink power extending to touch Julian with a sense of fairness and compassionate understanding. “We have already given you our terms and we will hold up our end. If you are kind to one another, the residual of what will come between you as you live your daily lives will be enough to energize your entire colony. Believe us when we say we hope you are not wrong in your supposition. I think Kloe is merely disappointed that our best Gatherer is seemingly now defunct. She is rather proud of her most accomplished student, you know.”

      Julian did know, and he felt quite foolish for reacting in such an openly hostile manner, but Kloe had a way of bringing that out in others. He understood it was also Asia’s influence that made it so, but that didn’t make him feel any better for treating a mentor in such a distrusting manner.

      “I did not want this,” he said, meaning to speak to himself but finding the thought out in the open. He realized it was fear of the unknown and overwhelming future that prompted his impulse to reject. But even as he spoke, he knelt down beside the woman who had rent his life into shreds within the space of a human hour. She had sought him out for all the wrong reasons, believed all the worst of him, and would wake to a very different world than she had known. Julian supposed it was only fair that both their lives had to be destroyed in order to place them on an equal plane where they could rebuild something together. “She will not be easy. She did not volunteer in any fashion.”

      “Just the act of bringing her around will feed thousands,” Kine mused wryly.

      “You had best get on with it, then. It wouldn’t do for this to begin among us,” Ampliphi Greison said sagely. “In one cycle she will return to this chamber where I will make final judgment as to whether she is fit to stay among us or not. This lies on your shoulders, Gatherer. She must freely give what we need or she will be wiped and returned to her home.”

      “You would destroy her entire mind,” Julian protested.

      “Just her memories of who and what she is. Her memories of this place and of you. She will be a danger to us all if I did not. So I suggest you not fail in your endeavors to win her over.”

      “No. Of course not.” Julian wasn’t certain if he felt sincerity or sarcasm behind Greison’s suggestion. He rarely found himself in agreement with Greison, but the Ampliphi was right: Asia had to come around or they would rob her of everything she was.

      But he would be damned before he would tell her as much. If she came around it would be because she wanted to, not because she was being blackmailed into it.

      Julian moved in an attempt to gather her up, but suddenly the displacement of energies he’d ridden overwhelmed him and sent him tottering off balance. It was all he could do to brace himself with both hands against the floor. The weakness and disorientation annoyed him, but it would pass. The true irritant lay in showing the flaw to the noble gathering behind him. Of course, he highly doubted any of them had experienced the differences between life on Earth and life here Beneath. The flux of power alone was as nauseating a ride as a gravity-defying, record-breaking roller coaster. The analogy amused him for a moment when he realized it was Shade’s fascination with the human inventions that had brought the example to mind. His coworker was obsessed with the damn things, and it had clearly rubbed off.

      “Gatherer, you are weakened,” Greison noted with rankling dispassion. “I shall contact your Companion to come and assist you with your burden.”

      “No!” Julian was up and whirling on the Ampliphi in a heartbeat, the action only worsening his fluctuating equilibrium. Still, he held himself strong and steady. “Do not.”

      “Nonsense. You require assistance. There is no

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