y feminine. The figure wore no clothing, but her entire form was concealed in fur.

"Miaari?" Jason blurted in surprise.

"Yes, I am Miaari," she said, starting to walk around him again. He felt fur slither against his leg, and he realized she was pushing her tail up against him. Jason was amazed that she could get that close to him without him sensing it. He was usually much more alert than that. He turned to keep looking at her, but she moved faster than he could keep up, so he turned to look at Meya while the Kimdori circled him. "I paid her the money to get the IDs, because I wanted to meet you. Meya brought me."

"I never saw you get out of the plane," he blurted nervously.

She gave a tittering giggle. "Silly human, if you had, I wouldn't be very good, would I?" she told him. He felt her press a soft hand up against the side of his neck. That touch sent shivers through his spine, much like the ones he'd felt the day he'd first seen her. "Strong."

"Mistress Miaari?" Meya asked curiously.

"Nothing, nothing," she said lightly. She came back into his view, sliding her hand along his neck, which caused his skin to tingle. She then circled away, trailing her hand against his neck and her luxuriously thick-furred tail against his legs. "I see what they see in you. All the traits that a Faey woman admires, even those they don't admit to admiring, they lurk within you. But they lack your spirit. Faey have no faith, Jason Fox, and it is their weakness. Your faith is strong, and it gives your spirit strength. They chose well."

"Chose? What do you mean?" he asked as she came back into view, looking into his eyes, and he found her stare slightly disconcerting. Her yellow eyes were penetrating, and he felt as if they were looking into his soul.

"Those who made the choice," she said cryptically, trailing out of view again. "Events whirl and revolve as plans upset plans, Jason Fox, and you stand in the middle of it. If you walk the path you have set for yourself, you must be strong of spirit. Faith is a weapon, human, one of the most powerful there is. It is not something you can measure, it is not something you can capture, but it _is_ something that you can give."

"I don't understand."

"Understand?" she asked as she came back into view, putting her other hand on the other side of his neck, then sliding them down to his shoulders. He found himself staring into a pair of lucid amber eyes. "You think too much with your mind and not enough with your heart, human. You understand. You just won't open your eyes."

He stared at her in confusion, still feeling that strange tingle, that strange sensation. "You know!" he said without thinking.

She gave him a toothy grin.

"Uh," he said uncertainly, but she put a hand over his mouth.

"What Kimdori know stay with Kimdori. We are a race of secrets," she told him.

"B-But..." he stammered, looking at Meya.

"We are a race of secrets," she repeated. "Meya also knows. She has known a while."

"Know what? That he has talent? Of course I know," she snorted. "No mind that can do what his does can do it without talent."

"Meya will do nothing," the Kimdori told him. "She will do nothing because I tell her to do nothing."

"Uh," he stammered, his mind swimming.

"You have what the Faey lack, Jason Fox," she said in a whisper, leaning in and breathing into his ear. "But their gifts are yours. Have you ever wondered _why_?"

"Of... of course I have," he told her, his voice confused.

"No, you haven't," she breathed in his ear. "Always for you, it is the _what_, the _how_. The _why_ is what matters here, Jason Fox. _Why_ do you have the gifts of the Faey? The Faey have made the same mistake. They have answered the how, but they do not understand the _why_."

"I don't understand. Why do you talk in riddles, Miaari?"

"She _always_ talks like that," Meya snorted. "They all do. Damn Kimdori."

"Y... You mean that they Faey have figured out why humans have talent?"

"It's genetic," Meya told him. "But anyone could have told you that."

"Genetic," Jason hummed. "We figured the same thing."

"Near as what anyone's been able to figure, it's just evolution," Meya told him. "A handful of humans have evolved with the genetic footprint that allows talent. All the geneticists have to do is isolate the parts of human DNA that handle that, and they can test all the humans to find those with the genetic disposition for talent."

"But what is the _why_, Jason Fox? That is the question that matters," Miaari whispered in his ear.

"You know, but you won't tell me," Jason said, pushing her back far enough to look into her eyes.

She just looked into his eyes with a lilting smile.

"She never tells anyone," Meya said sourly. "Sometimes I think Kimdori keep secrets just for the sake of keeping secrets."

"Or they're trying to tell us something when they're not supposed to," Jason said impulsively. "Miaari knows something that someone told her, but she can't just _say_ it. Kimdori are a race of secrets," he said, looking into her eyes.

She smiled knowingly. "I know many things, Jason Fox. Kumi would kill you."

He gave her a sudden stare.

"And what you believe is both right and wrong. You set a dangerous path, but it's a path others are helping to carve from the wilderness. You'll find your sister behind you, wielding your sword, helping you find your way."

"What? I don't understand."

"You understand, Jason Fox," she said with sudden seriousness. "You seek a Kimdori. I will send you one. I think my sister Kiaari would enjoy the task you have in mind. She always did like to play the game with me."

He felt that strange shiver in his spine, that strange electric feeling on the skin under her hands, and he gaped at her. "You..."

She came close again, bringing her maw inches from his ear. "What you know, I know," she whispered in his ear, lower than Meya could hear. "I'm not what you think. When we touch, we share. What is yours and mine become ours, but I'm practiced enough to hide what I bring to the joining, so all you see is your own offering. Don't you feel the tingles?" she asked.

He nodded.

"Few can sense my gift, and it is that aspect of you that will lead you to your sister. Don't mistake the sword in her hands as being held against you. She will not strike you down with it."

He felt a sudden surge of fear. If what she said was right, then the instant she touched him, she gained complete access to his mind, in a way that made it impossible for talent to prevent. It was a merging from _within_, not an invasion from _without_... her touch must have created some kind of juncture between them which allowed her to access his thoughts and memories at a direct level, maybe through his own nervous system. That meant that she knew _everything_.

"We are a race of secrets, Jason Fox," she told him with sober eyes, but a disarming smile.

"I, I understand," he said weakly. She wouldn't reveal what she knew about what he had planned... at least not _directly_. But it was still frightening to think that Miaari knew his every thought, memory, flaw, and desire, just in the lightest touch.

Good lord, what power. No wonder the Kimdori had the reputation for being who they were. They could, with a touch, find out _anything_. Add that to the fact that they were natural shapeshifters, and they were the most effective spies that God could have ever designed.

"And now you will be a keeper of secrets, Jason Fox," Miaari told him lightly, but there was a _very_ serious look in her eyes. And Jason got the distinct feeling that his life would hinge on his answer to that. What he had learned, he could never reveal. To _anyone_. _Ever_.

"I already am," he told her.

She nodded to him, sliding her hands up his neck and against his cheeks. Those hands were warm and dry, felt like they had pads on them, and they were _strong_. "Meya?"

"Yes, Miaari?"

"Do you like Jason Fox?"

"Very much so," she answered immediately.

"I'm glad to hear that. Give him your armor."

"What?"

"You heard me. Give him your armor. He will need it."

"It doesn't fit him!" she protested. "It won't fit anyone but me!"

"Trust me. He needs it more than you. Give it to him."

"Miaari! This is my favorite armor!"

"It's something you can easily replace," she said dismissively. "I'll pay for your new armor. I'll even let you get all the toys for it that will make Myra scream out of jealousy."

"I... hey, now that I can live with. Deal," she said quickly.

"Why do I need Meya's armor?" he whispered. "It won't fit anyone but her."

"Because you're going to give it to someone that can make it fit," she winked.

"Kiaari?"

She nodded. "She can be of great use to you, Jason Fox. I will send her here tomorrow to interview you. But that's merely a formality. She will come because I tell her to come, and she will help because I tell her to help. I am older than her. Among my people, age is authority."

"I, I thought you just meant she was going to... you know."

"She can do that. But she can do much more, and her use to you as a friend and ally will be invaluable."

"You're sending her here to _stay_?" he asked in surprise.

"Would you deny her help?"

"Hell no!" he said quickly. "But, but _why_? You know what's probably going to happen."

"There's more going on here than you can see, Jason Fox, and the Kimdori have a vested interest in that outcome," she said with complete honesty.

"I don't understand."

"You will," she promised. "Kiaari will be here tomorrow. You will like her, she's... energetic," she told him. "Meya?"

"I'm working on it," she called. "I'm not going to like flying home naked. You know how cold the seat gets?"

"Well, I'm sure that Jason could give you his own in exchange," she said, giving him a look. "I think your armor for his pants and shirt is a fair exchange."

"You're cruel, Miaari," Jason complained. "It's cold out here."

"And it's not for Meya?" she said with a wicked smile.

"She's not riding an airbike home," he said. "But she shouldn't go home naked. Hold on, Meya," he called, as she removed her second vambrace, and prepared to work on separating her breastplate. "I'll go home and get you some clothes, and bring them to you. That way you don't have to fly home naked."

"Fine with me, Jason," she answered.

"I will go with you," Miaari stated. "I want to see something in your town."

"Umm... fine," he said. It wasn't that it would matter, since she already knew _everything_. "You don't mind riding with me? It might get cold."

"I have this fur for more than beauty," she chuckled. "Besides, if it bothered me, I could make myself much smaller. I'd ride in your lap, out of the wind."

"Won't you be heavy?" he asked impulsively as she removed her hands from his face.

"No, I'll weigh as little as you please."

"You can change _mass_?" he said in surprise.

"Easily. I won't explain how we do it, it's complicated. Here, let me show you."

It may be complicated to explain, but it wasn't exactly pleasant to watch. Jason got his first view of a Kimdori changing shape... and it wasn't nice. He'd expected something, well... quick. Miaari's transformation was not quick. It wasn't silent, either. Bones cracked audibly as her body compressed, as her form dwindled, as her features changed, as she changed into a vulpar. The process took her about a minute, during which Jason watched with a morbid fascination. There was a strange, heavy smell about her as she underwent the process, smelling like wet dog fur. At one point, all of her fur was gone, as was much of her skin, showing an exposed musculature in flux, as a two-legged form became a four-legged form. It seemed that for her to shed mass, she literally had to expunge parts of her body, which left the remainder of that body visible to the naked eye. It was almost like looking at a cadaver with its skin and some musculature surgically removed... and it wasn't pleasant. The worst part had to be the line of pinkish ribs exposed to his eyes. But that grisly sight lasted only a few seconds, as gray fur vanished and was replaced with dark reddish fur, and her tail split into two and poofed out with new fur. After it was over, a medium-sized vulpar stood where Miaari had been just a moment before.

"Wow," Jason said in a low tone.

"Ugly, ain't it?" Meya said. "But it works."

"No, that wasn't very pretty," he agreed. "It's a good thing I have a strong stomach."

"Where is your airbike?" Miaari asked in a voice that sounded much different, and was much higher pitched.

He gaped at her. "You can talk like that?" he asked breathlessly.

"Speech is a function of vocal chords and mouth shape," she said absently. "I control those. I only _look_ like a vulpar, Jason Fox. I am _not_ a vulpar."

"You certainly do look like a vulpar," he agreed. "May I pick you up? If that doesn't offend you."

"You may," she answered with a nod. "Weighing me?" she asked with mischievous eyes.

"Yeah," he admitted, reaching down and picking her up, making sure to be both careful and gentle. She only weighed about fifteen pounds. "How do you _do_ that?" he asked in amazement.

"What did you smell, when I changed form?"

"You expelled mass through the air!" he exclaimed. "And you take it in when you want to increase mass you just reverse the process?"

She nodded in his arms. "We can metabolize ambient organic matter and convert it into flesh and blood. In effect, I suck up all organic matter around me and use it to build a body. As you can imagine, gaining mass can take longer than shedding mass. It depends on how rich my surroundings are with organic matter."

"That's not complicated," he accused.

"It is when I explain the exact dynamics of the process. Would you like to know?"

He shuddered. "I think that would make my brain explode. I'll pass."

She gave a barking sound that had to be laughter. "It could take me a _long_ time to metabolize enough mass to regain my natural form, depending on where I am. I'll have to absorb sixty _kram_ of matter to regain my original mass. If this was a poor environment, it could take me hours, but lucky for me this is a rich environment. I can just absorb part of a tree to recover my mass in a matter of minutes. In effect, eat the tree for its mass," she told him. "Because of the problems with changing mass, most Kimdori prefer to simply change form without changing mass. It's much easier."

"Interesting," Jason said sincerely.

"I'm going to change back now. If it bothers you, you may turn away, it doesn't offend me."

"No, now I'm curious," he said.

Her transformation back wasn't any prettier, but it was more interesting. For one, every plant within ten yards of her when she began her began to _vanish_. They didn't die, they didn't burn up, they didn't wilt away, they simply... _melted_. She consumed all organic matter around her while she transformed back into her prior form. He didn't see how she consumed it, but he suspected she had probably drawn it up through the ground. Her change back into that gray-furred, vaguely wolf-like form wasn't any prettier, but it seemed slower. At least there wasn't the sound of breaking bones when she changed back. The melting away of the plants around her seemed to pace her change back

She held her arms out and turned in place for him, letting him look at her. "And here I am," she told him.

"Wow," he breathed in amazement.

"Thank you," she said demurely. "Shall we go?"

He brought her to his airbike, and with practiced ease, got it started and ready to go as she mounted the bike and put her arms around his waist. "We shouldn't be long," he called to Meya. "Just wait here. And don't wander."

"Why not?"

"It wouldn't be wise," he told her, giving her a steady look. "And put your vambraces back on."

"You been having trouble, Jason?" she asked.

"No, but you might," he told her. "Just do it."

"Do as he says. He knows of this area better than you," Miaari ordered.

"Yes, Miaari," she said obediently.

Jason lifted the airbike off the ground and flew at over the hills and valleys to the north, over skeletal trees awaiting the warmth of spring before bursting forth with new leaves. He'd hoped to have been here to watch that rite of spring, but now he knew he would be somewhere else. He didn't know where, but he knew it would be far from here. "Are you sure Meya won't say anything?" he asked her as he adjusted his course to fly over route 152.

"She will obey me," Miaari answered, putting her muzzle over his shoulder and leaning against him. "I would be doing nothing more than asking her to keep a secret she wishes to keep, Jason Fox. Meya likes you, and she will not cause you trouble."

"Well, that's good to hear. What did you want to talk to me about? Away from Meya, I mean."

"Nothing. There is nothing more I need to say to you, Jason Fox. I have told you everything that I can. I just wish to see your town, and nothing more."

"Oh. Well, you won't see much of it, Miaari. Right now my community is upset, as I'm sure you know. Most of them won't even talk to me now, because they know."

"Symone was foolish to reveal that," she said professionally.

"Symone sometimes acts foolishly, but we love her anyway," he answered.

"Loyalty is a trait we much admire, Jason Fox," she told him. "I won't need to walk around. To see it as we pass over should be enough. I want to make sure you've taken all the necessary precautions, that's all."

"Oh. Fine."

He did just that for her, did a wide circle of Chesapeake so she could look down, then he descended and parked the airbike in the garage. She got off first, then followed him into the house. Mary and Symone gaped when she came in behind him, watching as she strolled with him as he went up the stairs and to his room. She sat on the bed calmly as he went to his closet and started rooting through it, bouncing on it slightly with her furry hands on the mattress to each side of her hips. "Meya's about my size, so she'll fit in my clothes. She might need a belt though," he reasoned aloud.

"Jason! Jason, you brought a _Kimdori_ home with you?" Symone gasped from the doorway, with Mary hiding behind her, looking past Symone's side to stare at Miaari in astonishment.

Miaari fixed Symone with a steady look. "I am Miaari," she said in a stately tone, but it was heavy with thinly veiled threat. "And you are Symone."

"I meant no insult, Miaari, I'm just questioning Jason's sanity," she answered immediately. "Bringing you here was very dangerous, both for you and for us."

"I wished to see your town. Its defenses need work," she said professionally.

"We never really intend to fight if it comes to that," Jason reminded her from the closet. "Everything I have set up just delays an assault, it doesn't stop it. That gives the people time to run." He held up a pair of torn jeans, and an old tee shirt. "These should do," he said. "She won't be winning any fashion contests, but these are clothes I can afford to lose. We'll get some rope she can use for a belt."

"What do you need clothes for?"

"I brought Jason a gift. Unfortunately, Meya is wearing it. Jason was kind enough to come here to get her clothes to wear on the way home."

"Meya's giving me her armor," Jason explained. "I need it. I don't want her to have to go home naked, so I'm giving her these."

"What use is her armor gonna be?" Symone asked. "Unless you think you can resize it?"

Jason looked at Miaari, who shook her head imperceptibly. She probably didn't want to reveal that Kiaari was coming to interview him in front of the others. "I'll explain later. Well, we'd better get back to Meya, before she gets in trouble," Jason said, looking at Miaari.

"Yes, that would be best," she said, standing up.

_Jason, you have _got_ to tell me what in Trelle's garland is going on,_ Symone sent tightly. Even at that range, Symone was being cautious of sending with Meya not far away... which was a wise precaution. No doubt Symone had ordered Tim and Temika to cut their sending chatter as long as Meya was near.

_Later. After I get Miaari here back to Meya and safely on her way home._

Jason escorted Miaari out of his room, but the Kimdori stopped when Symone moved to let her go by, looking at Symone and Mary. She gave Symone a long, curious look, then reached out her furry gray hand towards the woman. Symone turned her head meaningfully and exposed the side of her neck, and allowed her to trace her fingertips along the graceful line of Symone's blue-skinned neck.

"You know our customs, Faey," Miaari said with surprise that Jason knew had to be feigned. She'd touched him, so she knew everything that Jason knew about Symone, including the fact that she knew a Kimdori.

"I went to school with a Kimdori," she answered modestly.

"Did you like him?"

"Yes, he was smart and very funny," she answered. "He was one of my friends. I still keep in touch with him."

"Who?"

"Thraama of Rixke," she answered.

"Rixke? A fine clan," Miaari said with a nod. "Oh, _Thraama_? I know him!" she said with a laugh. "He works for a consulate in Dracora! I live there! I will tell him I have met you, and that you are well."

"I'd be grateful if you did," she said. "I haven't talked to Thraama since I came out here. He probably thinks I forgot about him by now."

"I will tell him that you still think of him," she said with a nod.

"I'd appreciate that."

Miaari nodded and removed her hand from Symone's neck, then followed Jason back down to the garage. After pausing to get a length of rope for Meya to use as a belt, they were back on the airbike and riding towards the lake. "Your walls need reinforcing in the northeast, and you need to move your tactical command out of your house. An attacker could destroy your entire chain of command with one strike. That's not good."

"We won't be here long, Miaari."

"You will be there long enough," she retorted. "You have made enemies within Trillane, Jason. If they find out where you are, they _will_ try to kill you. Others are trying to stop them from finding you, but they might get lucky. So be wise and prepare your people for an attack. Use that infamous clever bent to come up with something that could repel an assault. You plan to go to war, Jason Fox. Start preparing for it."

"Part of what you told me about earlier?"

"Yes," she said, shifting her grip around his waist and putting her muzzle closer to his ear. "I told you, there's much going on that you can't see."

"I don't see why they can't find me," he said, thinking a moment. "Just about everyone in the preserve knows about me, and where I live."

"Yes, you _would_ be very easy to find... if there weren't people interfering," she said pointedly.

"I guess I wasn't as clever as I thought," he grunted. "I thought they couldn't find me because of the things I've done to hide us."

"No, Jason Fox, those _did_ help, _immensely_," she told him. "Your tricks prevent them from finding you with their technology. They must rely on _intelligence_, and so long as they must rely on intelligence, they will find their efforts thwarted."

"Because the Kimdori have a vested interest in me," he reasoned, paraphrasing her earlier words.

"For that very reason," she stated. "Continue as you have done, Jason Fox. Continue to prepare your people to move, but make sure that your new home is as protected from sensors as this one. But also prepare for disaster. Should one of your enemies get lucky and find out where you are, they _will_ attack your community."

"Do you have any suggestions, Miaari? I've never done anything, well, _military_."

"Move your tactical command post in with the exomech," she said immediately. "That is a hardened facility, capable of withstanding attack. Scatter caches of food and weapons throughout the area, away from your town, so your people have access to the supplies they would need to survive the winter if Trillane attacks your town before you're ready to move. Continue to keep yourself hidden during the daylight hours, because now there are cameras searching the preserve for you. If you do go out, _please_, alter your appearance. Wear a hat and sunglasses, start wearing a windbreaker, anything that changes that signature blond hair and blue overshirt. I suggest a fedora or cowboy hat, a hat with a wide brim that goes all the way around. That will do much to hide you from space-based video systems."

"What about the airbikes? They'd see them on those systems and immediately connect them with me."

"Not entirely," she chuckled. "There are quite a few airbikes roaming around the preserve, Jason Fox. A cargo dropship containing a shipment of airbikes suffered a pod locking failure and lost its cargo pod. That pod crashed in what you would call southeastern Pennsylvania about two of your weeks ago. A group of squatters found it, salvaged many of the bikes, and have been trading them. Trillane plans an expedition early next month to round up all the salvaged airbikes, but until then, they will see your airbikes and think that they come from the lost shipment."

Jason laughed. "I take it that wasn't an accident?"

"Silly boy," she chided. "So long as you make no mistakes, you should be able to move your people. But once they move, ensure that they do _not_ give away their position. The Imperium knows about your community, that it is unusual in that it has some technical skill given you've restored power, but they don't know that you lead it, because certain people don't want that information to be public. There has been active misdirection in the office of Imperial Intelligence. That's why Trillane hasn't found you, because much of their own intelligence is based on their spies in Imperial Intelligence."

"My God," he breathed. "Just _who_ is trying to keep me a secret, who can monkey with Imperial Intelligence?"

"You would be surprised," she hummed in his ear.

"Lorna? Is it Lorna?"

"She has a hand in it, yes," she told him. "The power of a Marine General is far-reaching. You would be surprised how much influence she has within the Imperium. Jyslin is family, and Faey are firmly grounded in the tenets of family. She'll do what she can to help her niece." She hugged him firmly. "You should think about Jyslin, Jason Fox."

"I do, all the time."

"No, you should _think_ about her. She loves you. And I know you love her."

"I know... but it's hard, with me out here and her where she is. It's going to be a long time before we can see each other... if we ever _do_ get to see each other again. And after that, I don't know. If things were different, if we'd met in some other time, in some other place, I think I could spend the rest of my life with her. We're a good match."

"Then you should tell her."

"And make it harder than it already is, Miaari?" he said, a bit spitefully. "She's part of a government I object to. To marry her and live with her in the Faey system violates everything I hold dear. No amount of happiness I'd have being married to Jyslin could ever cover over the hate I'd carry against myself for betraying my beliefs and betraying the memory of what I once was. _You_ should know that."

He felt her put her hand against his neck, and again there was that strange, chilling tingle that ran up and down his spine. "You don't fear me," she purred in his ear. "You trust me, and have faith in my word. You are uncomfortable with the knowledge that I know all of you, but you trust that what I know will never leave me. That touches me, Jason Fox," she said to him fondly. "But don't fret... when we touch, we share. But we can't remember _all_ of you in that touch. We only remember what we need to remember. To try to remember all of you is quite beyond us. But we digress. Yes, we can see it. The very qualities which attract her to us also drive us apart."

"Us?"

"Are we not sharing? What is yours is ours, just as what is mine is ours. When we share, there is no you or me, there is only _we_."

"I don't feel any _we_."

"I'm not free to give to you in return," she said with sincere regret, removing her hand from his neck. "We are a race of secrets, Jason Fox. I can't give away those secrets. Not here, not now. Maybe in time, but not now. But you should know that I would not hesitate to share with you."

"I appreciate that, Miaari."

"I'm glad that you do."

They landed beside the fighter, where Meya was leaning her back against the landing gear, playing with a stick she'd picked up off the ground. She tossed it aside as Miaari dismounted, and Jason tossed her the clothes from where he sat. "They're not the perfect fit, and they're torn up, but they'll get you home," he told her.

"That's all that matters," Meya told him.

Jason stayed on the airbike as Meya began removing her armor again, looking at Miaari. She had said so much... it would take him a while to sort it all out. It was times like that he wished he carried a tape recorder with him. From the sound of things, she knew something about his talent, but she couldn't tell him, because it was a secret. So she hinted that he needed to do some research, find out _why_ he had talent. Not find out _how_ he had talent, but _why_. That didn't make much sense to him, but there was something important there, so he had to think about it.

He also knew that there was something going on, something that reached all the way into the upper levels of the Imperial government, and it somehow involved _him_. He'd always wondered why they hadn't found him, given how sloppy he'd been, how amateurish... well, now he knew. He was still on the loose because there were people in Imperial Intelligence actively preventing him from being found. They were probably falsifying documents, altering recordings, and misdirecting agents to keep them from stumbling across him. But, he also knew that his counter-surveillance systems _did_ work, because they were preventing them from finding him using sensors. Someone with _major_ clout was pushing Imperial Intelligence to keep him concealed, and Miaari hinted that Lorna was only _one_ of them.

His first impulse to say it was the Bureau of Science. They'd given him that broken exomech, after all, so they probably wanted to keep him free, give him time to warm to the idea of working for the Imperium. They wanted to treat him with kid gloves. It fit that they would be in the b