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Bria gazed into Vykk’s eyes and had a queasy feeling that he was telling the truth. Her fingers tightened over the small black cylinder of glitterstim. Here lay her answer. With this, she could find out the truth …

She turned and began walking away, leaving him there on the beach. Bria heard Vykk call out to her, but she waved him away and kept moving. She didn’t have much time if she was going to make it to the devotion on schedule.

Half an hour later she stood amid the hordes of pilgrims, watching the sun set in bloody splendor behind the Altar of Promises. It was almost time for the Exultation. She glanced around her, thinking that if she was going to do this, it had better be soon. Surreptitiously her fingers withdrew the black cylinder from the pocket of her robe. Light … she needed light to activate the glitterstim. And yet … she couldn’t do it while anyone would see …

Finally, the moment came that she was waiting for—the signal to the faithful that the Exultation was about to begin.

Bria had stationed herself in the crowd so that she had a clear view of the High Priest and the Sacredots as they led the pilgrims in the devotion. But she was far back in the crowd, far enough back that she ought to be able to shield the glitterstim with her wide sleeve, so its activation wouldn’t be noticed by the t’landa Til. And the other pilgrims would be so busy with the Exultation that they’d probably barely notice a blaster bolt.

All around her, pilgrims were falling to their knees. Bria let herself follow them, and as she did so, she flipped open the top of the vial of glitterstim. Under the cover of her body as she bent forward from the waist, she pulled free the fibrous dose of the drug—and wondered, for an insane second, whether this was a dose she herself had prepared.

As the pilgrims prostrated themselves, the priests’ throat pouches began to distend. As the beginnings of the vibrating hum resounded through the air, Bria held the glitterstim before her, full in the last rays of the setting sun.

Within seconds it activated, sparking blue, but none of the pilgrims noticed, and the effect was hidden from the High Priest. Even though she’d never taken glitterstim before, Bria knew exactly how many seconds to wait. A moment later she shoved it into her mouth and allowed her saliva to quench the sparking substance.

As she mouthed the drug, then swallowed it, the Exultation began.

Bria shuddered as though she’d been blaster-shot. The effects of the glitterstim were immediate. Blood rushed through her body like a ship going into hyperspace. Her head pounded.

But the physical effects were as nothing to the mental ones. Her mind opened in a way she’d never afterward be able to describe. As the waves of the Exultation took her, she experienced the pleasure of all the other pilgrims in the crowd.

The sensation was so overwhelming that she almost passed out. Only the anger that had been simmering inside her ever since Vykk had played that recording kept her sane—and focused.

Got to … open … my eyes … she thought. Focus …

Gagging, gasping, Bria opened her eyes, shuddering as the waves of pleasure wracked her with such intensity they were nearly transformed into pain. She stared at Teroenza, forcing herself not to look away, to narrow her mind to only encompass his.

Images, alien images, flooded Bria’s mind, stamping themselves indelibly into her consciousness. No matter how much she wished to forget, she knew she never, ever would. Teroenza’s mind, like that of every sentient, was full of surface trivia—wondering what he’d have for dinner, boredom with the ceremony, thoughts of the new security measures the Hutts had ordered him to implement, a minor gastrointestinal churn in his middle …

There was not a hint of divinity in the High Priest’s mind. He did not believe in the One or the All. As a matter of fact, Teroenza was proud of himself for inventing the One and the All, so these credulous pilgrims could have something to believe in.

Bria gagged, her mouth filled with the bitter aftertaste of the glitterstim.