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By Root 622 0

for an explanation? Won’t you go back to Bilik and tell him that you no longer object, that he shouldathat he must do what I’ve asked him?” Ma’adrys’s face turned stony. A second time she cast off his touch. “Your explanation is next to none,” she told him. “Perhaps you do not know how great a thing it is that you have asked Bilik to do for you, for your… plan. Once and only once in a lifetime, each oberyin of Iskir may appear before the Na’amOberyin and ask that they—the nine most powerful oberyin of Iskir—grant a request, with no questions asked and no explanation given.” “I know,” Geordi said. “I know because you told me all about it. Why do you imagine I thought to ask it of Bilik?” “But what have you asked of him? What exactly?” Ma’adrys insisted. “Is it worth squandering the one unconditional request he can ever make of them?” “I think it is.” “And that must be enough for me as well, eh?” For the first time since Geordi had known her, Ma’adrys spoke to him harshly, her sweet face twisted into a sneer. “Very well. I will give you what you ask of me, starlord. How can a simple savage of Iskir ever hope to fathom wisdom such as yours? I will urge Bilik to follow your commands and never ask why.” “Ma’adrys, you’re overreact—” It was no good trying to make her see reason; she did not stay to hear.

She was gone, vanished back around the house to where the others waited. By the time Geordi caught up to her, she was telling Bilik in no uncertain terms that he must follow the starlord’s instructions to the letter.

Bilik did not look ready to comply, despite the new awe he felt in Ma’adrys’s presence. He looked from Ma’adrys, whose bared teeth looked a little too fierce to be called a smile, to Geordi, and there were a hundred unspoken doubts in that single look. “Do you know what you ask of me, starlord?” he said slowly. “The Na’amOberyin possess such powers that when they unite their minds they can compel whole cities to march into the sea! The a’dyem—the boon we lesser oberyin may have from our supreme council only once while we live—was set in place to be an everlasting reminder to them that they are still the servants of the people, for all their power.” “Fascinating,” Data remarked. “If the Na’amOberyin are masters of so much mental power, why do they submit to the a’dyem at all?” Bilik stared at Data as though the android had begun to bark like a dog. “They do so because they must.” He reached into his robes and pulled out a small gray medallion on a length of braided leather.

“At the testing that takes place whenever one of the Na’amOberyin dies and a new one must be chosen, the winner of the competition fills a token like this with a measure of his own power. On his ascension, the disc is then melded to his brow, to be a sign of his perpetual service to the people. All oberyin carry one until the day we seek the a’dyem, but for the Na’amOberyin this token becomes part of them until the day they die.” “May IT’ Counsellor Troi extended a hand for the medallion. Bilik passed it to her with some misgiving.

She studied it for a time, then returned it to him and said, “Interesting. It feels almost like a kind of. storage battery. The Na’amOberyin answer to each lesser oberyin because they must, and they must because they placed some of their own superior power of compulsion in these tokens.” “I think I understand,” Geordi said. “If the Na’amOberyin combine their powers, they’re too strong for anyone but themselves to control, but to be allowed to be a part of that united power they first have to surrender a little of that selfcontrol to the other oberyin. Checks and balances.” Bilik frowned. “I do not know what you are saying, lord, but if you mock us—” “Not at all,” Geordi reassured him. “We respect you, Bilik oberyin, and we want to understand your ways.” “Then do you understand what it is you ask of me?” he countered. “To call upon my a’dyem!” “Maybe the Na’amOberyin won’t see it that way,” Geordi said. “All I want is for you to take my comrade here”—he indicated Mr. Dataw”to the Na’amOberyin and have them grant him