"Her brother died on Trellwan and I didn't. I was ordered off even though I didn't want to go. Galen slugged me and put me on a DropShip."

"That could be the core of her resentment, all right. I think it runs deeper, though."

Victor came over and sat down beside him. "What?"

"I am probably mistaken, and you might not want to hear it."

"Tell me."

"Are you sure?" Victor nodded silently.

Phelan took a deep breath, then started. "You and I have never really seen eye to eye. I've always resented authority figures who assumed they knew best because of their rank. You know I had a friend at the Nagelring who died when she got her commission because some moron Kommandant had her lance working by the book. Free Worlds League troops killed her, but that Kommandant escaped. I hope one of the Jade Falcons got him.

"Tor Miraborg, on Gunzburg, is another case of someone who had authority because of what he had once been. When I met him, he was just a bitter old man intent on breaking me. In me he saw something to hate, and that was fine because I hated him right back. That hatred cost us both a lot—me my life as a member of the Inner Sphere and him his daughter."

Phelan leaned forward, resting his elbows on his knees. "You were like my nemesis. You had authority purely because of an accident of birth. At the Nagelring I stayed away from you because I didn't want courtiers kissing my butt just to get close to you. I took great pains to antagonize those who thought they could use me to get to you. There were times I hated you so much I could have wrung your little neck."

Victor smiled. "The feelings were mutual, Phelan. I saw everything you did as a personal affront to me and my family and the memory of our kin. Part of me thought you were pushing things just to see how far I would go to protect you. I was also disgusted to see you wasting your potential, which was so much greater than what others had, precisely because of your position of birth. I was glad you got bounced when I was at NAMA for that year because I didn't want to have to put up with you begging me to let you remain at the Nagelring."

"Figures you were conceited enough to think I'd come asking you for anything."

Victor picked up a handful of the stones lining the garden walkways and started pitching one after the other out into the darkness. "You're projecting your own worst fears onto me. You would have hated to beg, so you figure I wanted you to. You don't understand something really basic here, Phelan."

"And that is?"

"And it is that I hatebeing accorded privileges and rights that I've not earned. I hate being bound by who I was born to be, not what I have made myself." One stone arced far into the darkness. "If I was just a soldier in the AFFC, I wouldn't be sitting here on a cold bench talking to you. I'd be somewhere very warm and cozy with someone I love."

"Maybe so, but it wouldn't be her. "Phelan picked up his own little handful of stones and also began tossing them into the shadows. "And I do know you hate the honors and rigors of being the Prince, the heir. Because I know that—or knew it deep down back at the Nagelring—I didn't strangle you. I saw how you tested everyone to see if they were seeking an advantage. I guess I kept distant because I didn't want to see you look at me as though I wasjust another sycophant using my tie to you. Truth be told, that is."

"Honesty. That's different." Victor clapped his hands together to get rid of the pale dust on them. "Outside of Omi, Galen, and Kai, I don't see much of that."

Phelan smiled. "I have a little larger circle of critics, but that's because I work differently than you do. See, for you, the fact that both you and Omi are royalty sort of cancels out and you can be yourselves. I don't know what Kai or Galen have going for them, but I'll take it as given that each is special in his own way."

"They are. When I first met Kai he was so down on himself that I felt compelled to help build him up. He wouldn't have dreamed of asking for a favor or any other thing because he was so sure he wasn't worthy of it." Victor moved his jaw back and forth and laughed. "Galen, well, I got saddled with him so I couldn't accidently kill the Twelfth Donegal Guards. I managed to do it anyway, but he stuck with me."

"My people are like that, too. Each of them saw me and my worth when I was just a bondsman. Evantha . . ."

"The Elemental?"

"Right. She saved my life even though I had stunned her with a punch in front of the Clan Khan and some other Elementals. That punch mortified her, but she decided a warrior like me shouldn't be wasted. If not for her training, I'd have died long ago."

"Phelan, how can you survive in a culture that is hyper-authoritarian when you hate authority?"

Good question, that.Phelan shrugged, giving himself time to think. "I guess it is because Clan society so clearly distills conflict that I always have a very direct route toward resolving a problem. For example, if your mother thought a new tax should be raised throughout the Commonwealth, she would have to get the legislatures to agree to it. That means power chits would be exchanged and deals would be cut. Everything would have to balance and someone who disagreed would do his best to destroy that balance."

"That balanceis politics, cousin. You can't tell me the Clans are without politics."

"Not at all, but the Clans have a swift court of final arbitration. If someone disagreed with something I had done, I would be challenged to settle the dispute in a Circle of Equals. There, fighting according to odds determined by the Khan or a vote by the Clan Council, we would have it out. Often even the hint of a good battle or two being put up to defend an issue will forestall a fight."

The Prince laughed aloud. "So, if you don't like something, you get to hit someone!"

Phelan shifted uncomfortably on the bench. "Crudely put, but accurate."

"Had we a Circle of Equals at the Nagelring, you'd never have been tossed out." Victor scratched at the back of his neck. "Still, you must agree that politics is a necessary evil."

"Stress on evil. "

"Stress on necessary.As satisfying and cathartic as the Clan way might be, it doesn't work outside the military." Victor looked over at Phelan. "What does your scientist class do to settle disputes—draw a circle, then challenge one another to prove theorems?"

The Clan Khan shook his head. "Their disputes can be solved through repeating an experiment. I agree that compromise is part of life, and our bidding process does that nicely, but being able to put your life on the line for what you believe is a good way to cut through a lot of hot air and posturing for position."

"And what is decided in a Circle or Equals is final?"

"Final. What goes into the Circle stays in the Circle." Phelan smiled. "It's almost as good as confession for relieving guilt."

"Guilt I don't mind, it's the feeling that others see me as guilty that bothers me." Victor shook his head. "And yes, I know that sounds like the beginnings of clinical paranoia, but it isn't. I understand why Captain Moran doesn't like me and I accept it. But it's the others seeming to chime in with her so fast that has me a bit worried."

We come full circle."That is what I came to talk to you about, Victor. Because you're always judging people, evaluating them to determine what they want, you put up a wall between you and them. Sure, there are going to be people who want to get to know you because, to them, you're a larger-than-life figure. You are a symbol to them, a bona fide hero. All the public images of you make you seem vibrant, alive, carefree, and very attractive."