Exile's Honor

clear that he had experienced, and quite directly, everything appropriate to that young child in that situation.

The Healer was grinning with great satisfaction, so Alberich had to suppose that what he had planned had worked. But he put one finger to his lips, and motioned to Alberich that he should leave the room for the moment.

Alberich felt a little unsteady, but did as he was 'told.' The other three were waiting outside, sitting on a long bench, and looked up at him expectantly when he emerged.

'The Healer, pleased is,' he said laconically, and left it at that. It was not very much later that Orven left, looking quite composed for a man who'd been dissolved in tears only a short time ago, and the Healer called in Alberich and the young man, Herald Wethes.

The next three sessions were similar, with Alberich serving more as observer than participant, but each setting being appropriate to the persona being created for the people involved, and rich with vivid detail. Wethes had another mountain village, but his mother was from a forester clan, for instance, and for the old woman, the village was down in the plain.

Even the identity of the Sunpriest changed, and Alberich had the notion that here, too, the image was coming from the other Heralds, each of them contributing the face and figure of some authority in their childhood, trusted and wise.

He was thoroughly exhausted before the sessions were over, but to his surprise, very little actual time had been spent in the enterprise, no more than a mark or two. But if he was tired, the others were completely drained by what was, for them, a highly emotionally-charged experience.

And it was just beginning; he wondered if they were already starting to regret volunteering for this.

But although it was as physically wearing as a good, long practice session, this first set was not as emotionally difficult as Alberich had feared. Well, truth be told, although he had known that the only way to make these fellow Heralds into what he wanted to be was to give them bits of his own life, that was entirely what he had feared as well. He hadn't wanted to expose himself and his life to others so nakedly.

But it appeared that, somehow, he wasn't going to. The others had no idea how much of what they were going through was really part of his life, and the emotions they were feeling were theirs, not his.

Perhaps that was what had bothered him the most of all about this whole project; he had not wanted his feelings to be so exposed. If this was the Healer's doing, then he owed the man thanks. More than thanks.

He lingered while the last of his four volunteers collected herself and tottered off, looking dazed. Healer Crathach gave him a knowing look when he didn't leave, and leaned back in his chair, arms crossed.

'I'll save you trying to wade backward through our language, and tell you straight up the answer to what you're going to ask me,' the MindHealer said with a grin that had just a touch of smugness about it. 'Yes, I planned this whole business of only using what you know to build seminal Karsite experiences for our four victims, rather than taking your memories entire. It's all been very deliberate. I've got a lot of reasons for doing it that way, as much for their sake as yours. You wanted them made Karsite, not made into duplicate versions of you. And I didn't want them subsumed into your rather formidable personality, Herald Alberich. But most of all, I did not want you to have to expose yourself in a way that would have been difficult for you to come to terms with.'

Alberich let out the breath he'd been holding in. 'You knew—' he said, with just a touch of hesitation.

'That you didn't want everybody and his Companion knowing every sordid detail about your past?' Crathach looked sardonic as well as smug, an odd combination. 'I'd be a pretty poor MindHealer if I hadn't been able to pick that up, now, wouldn't I?'

Alberich just shrugged; it was only the truth.

'At any rate, things will diverge more from here, in the little life stories we're concocting,' the MindHealer continued, and scratched his head with a slight frown. 'How to put this? The powerful incident that formed you into what you are now will remain the same, and all of your background, but the way our agents will react to it, and the details of the incident will be driven by their own personalities. Am I making sense to you?'

'I—' Alberich hesitated.

'Well, never mind, you'll see it as we go along. The point is, the more we do, the less it will be anything like your own experience.' The MindHealer shrugged, stretched, and got to his feet, then he paused, giving Alberich a long, measuring gaze. 'Go, do something,' he said. 'Something purely physical. There's such a thing as thinking too much, especially for you.'

Since thinking was all that Alberich had been doing for the past several marks, the advice seemed good to him, and he nodded. 'My thanks,' he replied, and went off to follow his Healer's orders.

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Sendar coughed unexpectedly. Selenay pressed down too hard on the goose quill, and it leaked, leaving a trail