Excerpts from the Okal Rel Universe...

copyright Lynda Williams

VRELLISH POLITICS (From novel Far Arena by LW and AS)

"You trust this Lor'Vrel," Bryllit diagnosed Horth's problem. "This Erien."

Horth answered with a steady silence.

She had known him since boyhood. Seen in him the depth which his father overlooked, and given him Dorn as Freedom Price when such a gesture from her did him honor. When he gifted children to her daughters and granddaughters it was the other way around. She was proud of Horth Nersal. But she still felt a granite conviction that the space fouling Reetions should be vented out an air lock, and their Lor'Vrellish defender with them.

Such mistakes were hard to compensate for after the fact.

But for this man, this liege, protégé and mekan'st, she would take that chance.

Once.

"You do not know Lorels, Horth," she warned, thinking about Dorn's helpless condition. It sent a cold shiver through her. "They seem to help. They talk. But even where they love, they break us. At heart they despise what they can't control. They would rob us of belief, of our kin-bonds, of life's rel. Manipulate us. Is that not what this Lor'Vrel has done? Would you have stopped me now without his interference? No. You would be helping me teach Okal Rel to these Reetions. Wouldn't you?"

"I cannot know."

"Hah!" She exclaimed. "That's my Horth. Literal as a stone." She immediately frowned. "I do not want to have to face you on a challenge floor."

"If it comes to that no quarter will be given and none asked."

"Mmm," she grunted, satisfied with that. No matter how complex the world, some things stayed simple if you were kinf'stan. Die or triumph, when they clashed it could be honorably settled. If it came to that. At the moment she felt fatalistic. But she'd hear him out.

"We will keep the station," said Horth.

Bryllit scowled. That much was obvious! Was that supposed to be enough?

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