"Singsong," Ere buzzed in Kiv's hindmost ear. "The speech patterns are wrong. That one has memorized this speech. They are trying to relax our spines with this."

Kiv winked one eye briefly to indicate he had heard. In his mind, he had his own suspicions. You would bribe my entire people? For possession of one parent?

"And if I do not give my agreement?" Kiv asked.

"Then we will take our leave and thank you for your honesty and no Shessel shall again be troubled by a Vitae request," said Ordeth.

Kiv did not even need Ere's anxious buzzing to recognize the threat. He retracted his neck and secondary arms, sinking below the Vitae's eye level. It was a stance that never failed to make Perivar uneasy. There was no reaction from the Vitae.

"Because you are bringing the welfare of all the Shessel into this," Kiv said, "you force me to consult the Emissary Voices before I take what you offer."

Whatever Ordeth said to Paral, it didn't translate. All Kiv heard was "Navin uary ketket ti." Whatever that meant. Paral replied "Iveth mikhain." The children stood like dolls and said nothing at all.

Ordeth faced Kiv again. "Please consult the Voice then. We can wait a short time only."

Kiv had been dismissed by humans before, but seldom so abruptly. Why would they bribe an entire people? he thought as he turned on his own length and left the room. Because they can.

"It's a charade," said Ere eagerly. "Father Kiv, it IS a game. Those children were props and…"

"Yes, Ere, yes." Kiv stroked his daughter's feet with his secondary hands. "Now we have to hope the Voice will let us make a worthy countermove."

The Emissary Voice waited in the audience chamber. Ere shifted her grip on Kiv so that she hung on with only her legs and could fold her arms in respectful greeting. Kiv did the same even as a spasm of uneasiness ran through him. The Voice was composed of strangers. Shim carried Kiv's skin tones because he was a cousin, but only the Sky Fathers knew where his enclave was. Ji was a loose-skinned northerner with great gaps artificially carved in his scales. Gov smelled familiar, but the familiarity was not an easy one.

Kiv accepted the need of union. With the skies crowded with humans, the Shessel could not be divided. There could be no room left in the Voice, or in the offworld residents for the makings of feuds. It was right that if the Voice had no siblings, no close cousins on this world, that he should not either.

It was right, but it was not easy. Kiv drew a great deal of calm from the fact that Ere saw them only as Shessel. Which is what they were. Only Shessel, like he was.

The Voice had, of course, already heard what had passed between Kiv and the Vitae. It was too important a conversation to have gone unmonitored.

Gov extended himself fully. "You will give them your promise to deal with their property as they require."

Kiv knelt, lowering his torso defiantly to the floor. "There is more here than is immediately obvious, Emissary. What they call an artifact…"

"Is also a parent with living children." Ere leaned herself over the top of Kiv's head. "Four of them."

"To which the Vitae have laid claim," said Gov. "If they own the children, they own the parent."

Which answered the question about where Gov came from. The Si-Tuk peninsula had practiced slavery right up to the tune the Unity Laws had been laid down. Right up to the time Kiv's parent had dropped her eggs.

"But how have they laid claim?" asked Kiv. "All they say is that their ancestors came from this place. Well, my ancestors came from the Si-Tuk province." He stretched all his eyes directly toward Gov. "Yet for three-quarters of a century, the Si-Tuk vigorously contested our enclave's right to return there, and enslaved those who disagreed with them."

Gov hissed and Ji retracted himself. "Kivere, now is a very bad time to bring up old wars." He peeled open three eyes. "The Vitae have always been very precise in their dealings with us. If their representatives say that we will have no more dealings with them, we must accept that at face value. Remember, the humans can afford not to care about us, but we must care about them. There are too many of them. They are everywhere."

"How much of what you say is influenced by your partnership with Yul Gan Perivar?" asked Shim abruptly.

Ere hissed. Shocked, Kiv squeezed her mouth closed. What's she thinking? Sneering at the Emissary Voice because of a remark about a human…

No, she is sneering at three strangers because of a remark about Perivar. The realization hit Kiv hard. He was not the only one who knew Perivar better than a cousin.

"A fair question," he said, more to Ere than to the Voice. "I would say a great deal is influenced by it. I thought that was the point of the Voice and the Enclave licensing my partnership, so that I and my children could be influenced by humans.

"It is worth remembering, Emissary Voice, that humans are not all Vitae," said Kiv. "Many of them do not even like the Vitae."

"And many of them do not even like us," Shim reminded him. "The Vitae, unlike the Unifiers, are at least indifferent to our biology." He raised himself up until he was the tallest in the room.

Before any of the Voice could speak, Kiv extended his neck. Ere laid all her hands on the top of his head and extended herself as well to add weight to what he said. "Yes, sirs, I agree, we must be careful of the Unifiers. But there are more than those two choices for us. As you said, the humans are everywhere…"

"But not everywhere do they agree, or even speak with each other," finished Ere.

Ji retracted even farther. "I do not clearly hear what you are saying, Kivere."

"The Vitae are retreating. We see this everywhere. Even if it is only a partial retreat, a temporary retreat, a weakness will be created when they leave. The humans will be scrambling to rebalance themselves." He felt Ere's feet shift and knew she was extending herself to her absolute limits.

"Why should the Shessel not be part of the new balance?" Ere whistled triumphantly. "We have resources, we need business. If we become a prop to the humans, they will fear to lose us as they fear to lose the Vitae."

Shim retracted his snout thoughtfully several times. The others remained ominously still.

"What is the sudden eloquence that has come upon you, Kivere?" asked Gov.

Kiv extended his arms and Ere swarmed down them so that she was presented to the Voice. "I have staked the lives of all my children on the idea that we will be able to find some way to coexist with the humans that does not compromise the Shessels' future."

It was totally unfair and he knew it. Only business operators were allowed to hatch their children offworld. Emissaries had to drop their eggs unfertilized or leave them in stasis. It was as unfair as the Vitae bringing their own offspring into the visitor's chamber.

Gov retracted his secondary arms. "However intriguing this possibility is, it would call for a change in official policy. Therefore, we cannot act on it."

"We could if the Emissary's council changed the policy," suggested Ji, and Kiv wondered how united the Voice really was.

"We must not overreach ourselves," said Shim reluctantly. "We are emissaries to the Kethran Diet, not the Vitae."

"We need to know if the Emissary's Council has been approached by the Vitae and what their decision is before we do anything in this matter," agreed Ji.

Gov pressed his primary arms against his sides. "The Vitae have already made their policy clear. Even should there be merit in Kivere's proposed risk, we do not have the time to dither about."

"The Vitae cannot deny our need to consult with the Emissary's Council," said Ji. "They are a highly organized political body, they understand the concept of service and supervisors."