Becky's Gift

Galarsmen's Secret Weapon

But, one day, Mican came into his chamber. Galarsmen tried not to show his terror. "There is something familiar about you. You weren't wearing this the last time I came, were you?" He yanked a Tessite symbol off Galarsmen's white robes.

"Wasa Mai chose one of us from each of the five worlds, to go to Ishah for training."

Mican threw the Tessite symbol onto the floor with a musical clang! "Pah! Zheien are superstitious fools, to waste Tessite on healer's robes! But, you had such a robe on Zhea~. Esta, I saw you—"

"Perhaps you saw my fae of generations past. My fae told me I resembled him, whose name I bear."

"You have quite a collection of herbs." Mican walked down the shelves of his herbs, and he sweated. Such effort, to hide those 3 from Mican's telepathy. His is abnormally strong. He felt telepathy such as his, but from a Kajarian soldier.

"Where did you get this one from?" He jerked a vial out, and several others fell on the floor. A strip of cloth fell also, and covered them. Good.

"I found a trader with herbs of old Elshar. He did not know the plant, or its use, so I merely saved—"

Mican pounced and threw Galarsmen to the floor! He barely kept his head from hitting it, but pretended injury, as Mican intended.

Next he knew, Konomai held him. "What did he? Many of your herbs are missing, Master! I find umar seg with you. Rest."

After his sleep, he rose quietly. Konomai slept on his bed. Vials still lay under that piece of cloth, an Elshar cloth with a purpose. He waved a containment to lift it back under the vials. And, with relief, he counted the 3 vials and put them back in their places.

Made the hand motions and sniffed at the leaf he did not dare to put on a shelf. Because of this leaf, he lived 5 times a normal lifespan. Because of mine poisons, the only thing that kept this colony alive was umar seg to remove some, and certain herbs he gathered from Ahstam's garden. In tiny amounts, added to the umar seg, they kept people alive, but they forgot things. He did also. But, all of his healers forgot that he had been there 175 years. Most people in Esta Faho did not live past 50. A very few, who smelled this leaf at times, lived to their 90th year or maybe, 100. Why, of all the people he let smell his leaf, that only he lived this long?

And, all of them followed Wasa Mai without questioning his age. For, he was also over 200, not because of his leaf, but because he recloned himself. And, only I knew of that.

Why didn't Mican simply kill me? Or take all of my herbs?

But, the herb in that cloth nae affects an Elshar. It gives a Kajarian a severe headache. After his sleep, certain memories are erased. Memories during an act of violence. An herb the Jain used against Eriganh himself to try to preserve their kind. Only to die because they turned their weapons against their own ethnic groups until the last two destroyed each other.

That cloth is the only barrier between our secrets and Mican. And I must forget about it.

Galarsmen used his vial of umar seg. Konomai held him when he woke.

"Oh, that's clever—"

"We must not speak of this!" Pirad paced. "What can we do?"

Pinda walked with him. "Do we need to do anything? They moved, and Mican can't come here, because of your protections."

"Do you know what is happening on Earth, right now? There are Earthans with Gifts, in their January 19 selves, helping Ry'nao fight. Mican surely knows about it and is helping the others. Our other selves will have to help them, soon. Azure cannot do this alone."