y. I don't matter in the big picture, your Majesty. The only thing that matters is the welfare and fair treatment of my people. That's what I'm here fighting for."

She was silent for a very long moment, looking at the ring in her hands. Then she stood up. "I will see the Highborn house leaders in my study," she announced. "And _you_," she added, pointing at Jason. "Lead him there," she said to one of the guards at the foot of the dais. That guard bowed to her.

He was led from the audience chamber and down a side passage, with eleven women filing along behind. He could hear the _swish swish_ of their robes as they walked in silence, but he doubted they were anything but silent. There was probably a sendstorm going on between them, as they tried to fathom what Empress Dahnai had to say in private she couldn't say in public. Jason himself was feeling just a tad optimistic. Dahnai hadn't laughed him out of the palace yet, and he wasn't being led off to the gallows. She seemed to actually be giving him the benefit of the doubt, but he guess he'd have to wait to see what she had to say outside of the ears of the rest of the _Siann_.

The room to which he was taken was a surprisingly small, cozy little affair, and it was clearly very much the study that Dahnai had named it. A large black desk stood on the far wall, and there was a very large vidlink panel screen hanging on the far wall behind it. Two cozy chairs flanked a small endtable between them on the right side of the study and a couch with a coffee table was against the wall to the left, which was carpeted with an almost mesmerizing geometric patterned rug. There was a door on the wall left of the desk, and by that door was a peg on the wall holding a sword in a scabbard. There were three guards in the room, wearing that white armor, each standing in a corner, but none of them appeared to be overtly armed. Jason was led into that room, and the guard gave him a flat look. "Stand here and touch nothing," she ordered, then bowed as the other eleven women entered. Jason put his back to the wall and gave them all a cold, dangerous look as they sneered in his direction, but they all turned towards that door on the far side of the room when it opened. Empress Dahnai Merrane stepped in, her hands on the glittering sash around her waist.

"Now then," she grunted as they all bowed to her. She pulled the crown off her head, and to Jason's surprise, tossed it absently onto one of the chairs all the way across the room. Seeing her up close was much different, and he had to admire her. Dahnai Merrane was _tall_, taller than any other Faey he'd seen, probably eye to eye with him, and her hair was glossy and silky, a beautiful bronze, where she had gold colored hairs and copper colored hairs mixed together. She stepped over in front of the desk and looked at them, then reached into the pocket of the shimmering robe and pulled out the ring he'd given her.

"Now, let's get down to tokens," she said bluntly, looking at them all. "The Terran has made at least a decent claim, if you take all his circumstances and look at them as one big picture."

"Your Majesty!" the gray-haired woman objected.

"Push off, Maeri," Dahnai snapped at her. "But that's all it all is, _circumstantial_. We can prove it one way or another, right here, right now. I remember my history, Terran. Every member of the Karinne ruling family was a telekinetic. It was a well-documented family trait. Isn't that so?"

"I do remember something like that," one of the women behind him said.

"Thank you. Now, if you're descended from them, then so are you. So. Here's your challenge." She opened her hand and showed him the ring. "Take this ring out of my hand from where you stand, and I'll recognize you as the Grand Duke Karinne. If you can't do it, you leave this room and go straight to the gallows." She looked at the other women. "This is something that none of us can deny, Terran," she told him. "If you _are_ a Karinne, you can take this ring, and there's nothing any of them can really say about it. That's proof that makes your circumstantial _subi_ dance you just pulled off in the audience chamber rock solid. Not even Grand Duchess Maeri Trillane can refute that," she said, glancing at the gray-haired woman who had spoken up. "I brought you in here because I don't think you could have managed it in the audience chamber. You're hiding it well, but you're so nervous that I think you'd hit the ceiling if someone goosed you right now. I brought you here so you'd have a fair chance. I've seen some telekinetics, and what they do takes a lot of concentration and a lot of effort. At least here, with only twelve witnesses, it's not as nerve-wracking as trying to perform in front of the entire _Siann_."

Jason could only look at her. "Telekinetic? I didn'tI've never tried. I didn't even know. There was nothing about it in thestuff I researched about it."

"Well, then we know this is all a flimsy stunt, then," Maeri Trillane said smugly. "I hope you'll let us watch him hang, your Majesty."

"He's not swinging yet, Maeri," Dahnai Merrane told her, somewhat coldly, then she looked at Jason, her green eyes locking on his. "You can walk out that door now, but you'll be walking to your execution," she told him. "You can always _try_. You never know, there just might be something hiding in that pretty little head of yours."

Jason was completely at a loss, but he nodded and blew out his breath. He did read that telekinetic ability was known to run through the Karinnes, but nothing in depth was really said about it. If the Karinnes _were_ telekinetic, and he seemed to have the same DNA as a Generation, well, then he could have telekinetic ability as well. He'd never used it before... hell, he'd never even _thought_ of trying something like that in his life.

But he had no choice. He had to find that power inside him, if it was there, and find it _fast_. If he couldn't do it, he wouldn't live to see Jyslin again.

"Go ahead," she told him, holding her hand out to him with the ring. "Take your time, but do get on with it. At least _look_ like you're trying."

He closed his eyes and put his hands before him, right fist clasped in the palm of his left hand, centering himself, breathing deeply. She was right, he was nervous, he had to calm down. He entered a meditative lull, concentrating only on the moment, focusing on the task at hand. The ring. An image of it appeared in his mind, and his entire existence focused down to that one point, focused on that one objective. _I must move the ring,_ he thought to himself over and over, using it as a mantra to calm his thoughts, cause his fears and worries and doubts to melt away, leaving nothing behind but his determination to accomplish this task.

His breathing changed. It slowed, became rhythmic, calm, as his mind shed all its fears and worries and cares and became one with his task. If it was impossible, that did not matter. There was nothing but the task, and it had to be accomplished.

He opened his eyes. He was in a room that did not exist as anything but a scenic backdrop for the only object in the universe that truly existed outside of himself. It was a heavy golden ring sitting in a phantasmic palm that had no substance to him, an object that, his mind knew, had to be moved without touching it. He focused on that ring, his eyes boring into it, as he gathered up all his strength, all his determination, all his desire and willpower, pooling it behind his mind, behind his eyes. He had no idea how to do this, but he knew that much as in sending, it was a matter of reaching _outside_ his mind with his own mind. But here, instead of touching the mind of another, he would instead touch that ring, and then use the force of his mind to pull it towards him.

There was no need for more preparation. He was ready.

And so he began. He focused his mind on that ring, his will, his very soul, reaching outside of himself and trying to make a connection to it, the only other object in the universe. He felt a tenuous touch, where he became _aware_ of the ring, but it was weak and imprecise. He narrowed his eyes and raised his closed fist and hand higher, trying to fully feel that connection form, trying to wrap his mind completely around the ring that rested some distance before him.

He felt... something. He wasn't sure what. He took that as a sign that he must have managed something, so he exerted every ounce of will he could muster to force the universe to bend to his will, to defy gravity and pull the ring up from that spectral hand.

Behind his mind, he felt something _push_, gathering up his will and scooping it up with it as it went, then it projected outside of himself like a palpable wave of force.

The ring shuddered. Then it skittered slightly, and then, it lifted up from where it had been. It seemed to shudder in the air, unsure of itself, and then Jason _yanked_ with all the force he could exert.

The ring shuddered, and then zipped across the empty space towards him. He let go of his fist and raised his hand, and caught it before it hit him in the nose.

He was dizzy. He wobbled on his feet, then dropped down to one knee, panting heavily. God, that was like, like trying to move a train by pushing it with his head! For a moment, he had no idea what had happened, until he realized that he was holding something in his left hand. He opened it and looked, and saw that he was holding the ducal ring of the house of Karinne.

He did it! He really _was_ telekinetic!

"Well. Well, well, well, well, well," Dahnai Merrane murmured, leaning back and half-sitting on the edge of her desk as she gave Jason a curious look, crossing her arms under her breasts. The look the women behind him gave him was like he was a rampaging rhino about to charge through the room at any moment. "I'd have to say congratulations, _Grand Duke Karinne_," she said grandly, then she reached behind her and pressed a button on the face of her desk.

"Your Majesty, I must protest this!" Maeri Trillane said shrilly. "Just because he's telekinetic doesn't prove he's really a Karinne! How can he be, for Trelle's sake, he's a _Terran_!"

"Terrans and Faey can breed, Maeri," Dahnai said dismissively. "I find his claim has merit. He's proved it to my satisfaction. Hell, I actually _believe_ it."

"This is ludicrous!" Maeri Trillane snapped.

"He _did_ move the ring," one of the others said, with a bit of surprise in her voice. "That was no trick. He's telekinetic. I think I'd have to agree with her Majesty on this one. That circumstantial evidence backed up with a documented Karinne ability does give him a solid claim. I think he really is a son of Karinne."

"Push off, Semoya!" Maeri snapped. "This is ridiculous! Handing this, _creature_ a noble charter just because he's telekinetic!"

"Excuse me?" the Empress said archly.

"With all due respect, your Majesty, but I must protest! There are no more Karinnes! The line is dead!"

"They never found all the Karinnes, Maeri. That's why the banner is still up. Until we can prove that the entire Karinne family has been destroyed, there is _still_ a house of Karinne. You think this Terran just dug up some history and used it to pull a crazy stunt, but I disagree. He has a Karinne ship. He has the ring. He's a fucking _telekinetic_. He really is a Karinne. He was just smart enough to piece it all together."

"But your Majesty, if you follow through with this insanity, it's going to cost us _billions_! And it's going to disrupt food supplies for years! He can't possibly meet the conditions of the contract!"

"Oh, I think you've made up those billions elsewhere, Maeri," Dahnai said caustically, reaching behind herself, to her desk, and picking up a handpanel. "You know, after the first claims the Terran made about slaving went pubic, I sat down and looked through your records. I find it strange that you keep drafting thousands and thousands of Terrans to work on the farms, yet by my math, you've already overstaffed every farm on Terra by at least double. You can't have a thousand people working on every farm on the planet, Maeri, hell, they'd trample all the crops just trying to work the fields. So, I'm starting to wonder where you're putting them all. I think I might need to go have a look and see if you're stapling them to the ceilings of their dorms on the farms or something."

Maeri Trillane got very, very quiet, then she coughed. "We've been opening new farms, and they have to be manned," she finally answered.

"Right. Well, then, there's also all these strange visits I'm seeing in the control logs by non-Faey freighters. I seem to recall a provision of your contract stating that all food had to be brought through _Draconis_. If you're not putting food on those cargo ships, just _what_ are you loading on them? Or, perhaps, I should ask, what are you taking _off_ of them?"

"It's a private house matter, your Majesty," she said delicately.

"I'm so sure," she said acidly. "Then maybe you'd like to explain why the last high-detail scan of Terra shows that it's lost .00354% of its total mass? I checked the tonnage of total food shipped against supply invoices, and from what I've worked out, the mass variance should be .0000117% _heavier_. I don't think that mass vanished into hyperspace. Care to explain why the planet seems to have gotten a bit _lighter_ since Trillane took over the planet, seeing as how you've brought a hell of a lot more mass onto the planet with your supplies and equipment than you've taken off with food?"

"Perhaps your ships haven't calibrated their sensors lately?"

"I should order a diagnostic," she said with amazing dark humor. "And there's this one other little matter I'm sure you'd like to explain, since you're here and you suddenly seem so concerned about Terra, since you're one declaration away from losing it. There's been a strange loss of records concerning several thousand Terrans. My auditors can't quite explain where those records are going. Seems they're right there in the Imperial Bureau of Taxation one moment, then poof, they vanish like smoke. Well, they started trying to cross-check those records with Terran records, and well, what do you know, _those_ records vanished too! It seems awfully strange to me that all Imperial records of quite a few Terrans just seem to be getting up and walking out of their computer storage space. And then there's these records here," she said, touching the handpanel. "In one day, 18,394 Terrans all died of, and let me quote, 'natural causes due to advanced age.' That's certainly believable, until you look closer and see that every one of them wasn't over the age of 25. I had no idea that Terrans had such a short life span. Demir's sword, Grand Duke Karinne, you're practically an old man by Trillane reckoning. Well, Grand Duchess Trillane, since you're here, perhaps you'd like to explain these little irregularities in your records?"

"I cannot be expected to be aware of every little nuance of Trillane records, your Majesty, any more than you should be expected to be aware of every nuance of Merrane records," she explained loftily.

Dahnai Merrane clapped her hands. "Well, then! Seems like I just cleared my schedule, so why don't you trot those nobles that _do_ have that nuanced memory of your records over here and let's have a little sit-down with my auditors from the Bureau," she said. "There seems to be some issues of unpaid taxes here, and you _know_ how much the Bureau hates to see a single Imperial credit slip through their fingers."

"I would have to recall them from Terra, your Majesty," she said quickly.

"Ah, yes, that's true. And I'm sure they'll all die tragically in a terrible shuttle explosion en route," she said with a flat, cold look at the older woman. "So, I think I'll send a unit of auditors to Terra and have them start digging."

"That would disrupt our farming effort, your Majesty!" Maeri protested.

"Riiiight," she drawled. "Wanna know a secret, Maeri? I was willing to look the other way and let you play your little profit margin games over there with the illegal mining, native species poaching, and the water smuggling, but you crossed the line when you started selling off Terrans to the slave markets of Chezaa. The Imperium will not tolerate a house engaged in _slavery_."

"That's a slanderous lie!" she snapped.

"Yes, and you'll stick with that line, won't you?" Dahnai noted. "You did a good job of making sure I couldn't find any evidence to present to the _Siann_ that would make you waddle on back to Arctus to fetch your charter. You may be getting on in years, but you're still a sly and slick old vulpar. So, since I can't _officially_ punish you, I think I'll take a big bite out of your ass _unofficially_. As soon as a certain someone says something to me," she said, looking directly at Jason.

If it wouldn't get him killed, he would have run over there and kissed that woman solidly on the mouth. She _knew_! She knew it all, and _she was taking his side_! He couldn't have dreamed for a better outcome than this! "Your Majesty, I claim first rights to Terra," he declared. "The Karinnes have been living on the planet for over a thousand years. We discovered it first. We have the right to the contract."

"And so you do," she said with a graceful nod. "We recognize your claim. The contract with Trillane is immediately withdrawn, and awarded instead to the House Karinne."

"This is an outrage!" Maeri Trillane shouted.

"You'd better put your temper back in its cage, _Maeri_," Dahnai said hotly, standing up as her eyes blazed, "or I'll send _you_ to the gallows right here and now!"

Maeri Merrane looked about ready to lay an egg, but then she took a cleansing breath and put her hand back in her sleeves. "I meant no offense, your Majesty," she said with barely contained insincerity.

In that moment, a truth opened itself to Jason's eyes. The Imperium was not anywhere near as stable as he once believed. Seeing the open hostility between Maeri Trillane and Empress Dahnai showed him that the Imperium was little more than a powder keg waiting for a match.

"Sure you didn't," she said with vast sarcasm. "Now that I have your narrow little ass right where I want it, I want you to know that I know _everything_. I'd be happy to give you a detailed list of all the illegal activities your house has been up to over there on Terra, and you're not gonna just waltz off the planet, breaking anything and everything on your way to the door, and expect to walk away with nothing but a revoked contract and a bank account on Moridon stuffed to the ceiling with credits. You're going to _pay back_ every credit, and I mean _every_ credit, of the value of everything your house stripped off Terra. If you don't, I'll yank your charter so fast you won't know who fucked you, because I have plenty of _unofficial_ evidence of what you've been up to, and I'm sure that maybe Semoya or Stera might be interested in some of the deals you've been making to hamstring _them_ on your way to sticking your bony ass in _my_ chair. They're not going to side with you against me over this, not with the dirt I have on you. You won't just gang up on me like usual and deny it this time, playing the wall of silence game. All I have to do is walk back down to court and start putting some data sticks up on the big board, then I'll pull out my pointer and start explaining how House Trillane would have done House Trefani proud with some of the scams they were running on Terra. Then I'll just order the Imperial Navy to start opening fire on anything and everything that doesn't have an Imperial crest painted on it.

"I've been waiting for this moment, bitch. I've been waiting a _long_ time for it, cause you're not squirming out of the snare this time. There's five _squadrons_ of Imperial Naval vessels en route to Terra right now, and they're packed tits to backbones with three _battalions _of Marines, and those Marines will have orders to watch everything Trillane does like a hawk while you pick up what's left of your operation and limp back to Arctus. At least what that spunky little commoner woman left you, anyway, after she chewed you up and spit you out. We're gonna be so far up your ass while you withdraw from Terra that we'll see every speck of food on your forks while you're eating. If we see so much as a dinner plate out of place in the poorest shack in the most remote corner of Terra, I'm gonna take your charter and ram it down your throat. Do you understand?"

Maeri Trillane gave Dahnai a cold look.

"I'd better hear that squeaky little voice of yours saying four words before I can raise my hand and snap my fingers, Maeri," she warned in a cold, ominous voice.

The three guards in the room raised their right hands in unison, and forearm-mounted autocannons extended out of the vambraces of them. All three of them pointed those weapons at Maeri Merrane.

"I understand, your Majesty," Maeri said in a low, ugly tone, almost a whisper.

"Good. Now, when you get back to your mansion, expect to find a _very_ stiff bill sitting on your desk, straight from my desk. And you will pay it. _All_ of it. You will pay it by close of business tomorrow afternoon, and you will pay it in _one lump sum_. If you don't, I'll revoke your charter and declare Trillane a renegade house, and the other Highborns are _not_ going to bail you out this time by blocking me. If they try to turn the other way after what I show the Minor Houses, they'd probably lynch you right in the audience chamber. You're going to quietly slink away without objecting to the loss of the contract, and you're gonna do everything I tell you to do, or I'll turn Arctus into another Karis, and believe me, bitch, I'll push the button _personally_ and laugh while the bombs fall. I'm sure the Jakkans would be interested in buying Arctus after we turn it into radioactive slag. May as well make some profit out of it, you know. After all, that's all you seem to be interested in."

Jason was a bit lost here, but he realized that Empress Dahnai had been ready for this. She'd been _waiting_ for it. She'd known everything that was going on back on Earth, and clearly, she'd been waiting to intervene so she could inflict maximum damage on the Trillanes by doing so. She was going to recognize him as a Karinne no matter what, so she could put this Trillane woman in a political headlock! Holy God above, the Empress had this all _planned_! Had she talked to Zaa? Did the Kimdori warn her what he was going to do, and let her use it for her own goals? It was possible. There was a Kimdori ambassador to the Imperium here in the palace, and Zaa could communicate with that ambassador in real time.

Maeri Trillane glared at Empress Dahnai, but she didn't say anything or send anything.

"Now get out of my house, Maeri. You are officially banished from the palace. Show up at my gate again, and I'll have my guards skin you, and I'll use your scabby hide as a new rug for my bedroom. I don't want to see you again. _Ever_."

"Maeri Trillane," Jason said in a calm voice, turning around to regard eleven rather startled and nervous Faey nobles. He singled out Maeri with his eyes, stepped up to her, reared back, balled his fist, and punched Maeri Trillane dead in the jaw. She made no move to defend herself, and after his fist cracked quite satisfactorily against her cheek, she crumpled like a rag doll, splaying to the floor. She lay there for a moment as the other ten members of the highborn houses looked on in shock and amazement, then blinked and looked up from the floor as blood oozed from her mouth, putting a hand to her broken cheekbone delicately. "That's a little goodbye present from my people, you bitch!"

"You... _hit_ me!" she gasped, then her eyes flared in fury. "How _dare_ you touch a Highborn, you filthy _mongrel_!" She struck back at him, not with her hands or her feet, but with her talent. The full force of her mind crashed into him like an avalanche, showing that Maeri Trillane was no slouch, was quite a strong telepath, but he found he could stand against the storm she raged against him without faltering. Her attack hammered against his mental defenses for a long moment as the mind reckoned time in the telepathic realm, reaching out and around, trying to find a weakness in his defense, but it could find nothing. Jason felt the gestalt push behind his own mind, adding to his strength and giving him more than enough power to stand unmoved by the force of her mind.

"I hope you have more than that," Jason told her with narrow, dangerous eyes. "If you don't, you just put yourself in a _world_ of shit."

"That's enough of that," Dahnai called. Jason had to actively stop himself from killing the whore, clenching a shaking fist and looking like he was about to disobey a direct order from the Empress, but then he took a step back. "Well, Maeri, think he's lying when he says he's a Karinne _now_? You just got your ass kicked by a _boy_. He brushed you off like a bug. Do you really want it known you were bitchslapped by a commoner Terran, or you were bitchslapped by the Grand Duke Karinne?"

Jason had to admire Dahnai's ability to kick someone when they were down. To an arrogant snobby bitch like this woman, that was so many insults on so many levels that Jason lost count. "Get her out of here, and get out," Dahnai said to the other ten, who had stood utterly silent through the entire affair, but Jason had no doubt they were sending privately to each other. "Not you, Terran. Stay," she said as Jason turned to bow. "We have a couple of matters to discuss before I take you back to audience and have you swear fealty."

He nodded and stood there as the others filed out, not looking back. That left him alone with the Empress of the Imperium, Dahnai Merrane, and her three guards, who had retracted their weapons and returned to their silent vigil over their ruler. "Well, that was fun," she giggled, looking to one of her guards. The guard nodded and turned her head towards the door through which Dahnai had entered. "I'm sure you're both a little nervous and very relieved right now. After all, I just did your dirty work and kicked Trillane off Terra. Well, I should be the one thanking _you_, really. I've been looking forward to doing that for _years_, and thanks to you, I just hung Maeri Trillane's narrow ass out to dry."

"I'm a little confused, your Majesty," he said honestly. "You knew all along?"

"Of course I did, but there wasn't much I could do about it," she told him. "And please, call me Dahnai. I hate being called _your majesty_ when it's unofficial, like now." She walked past him to the chairs, then flopped down in one of them in a rather un-ladylike fashion, raising her feet and putting them up on the coffee table. "Have a seat, Jason. Oh, toss that thing over on the couch," she added, pointing at the crown.

He picked up her crown, and instead of throwing it, he rather carefully set it on the coffee table, which made her laugh. "You won't break it, it's made of vanidrium," she told him. "Sit, sit!"

He wasn't sure what to make of her. She was being very, well, _nice_, and he had no idea why.

"Relax, I'm not going to bite you," she told him, leaning over onto one of the arms of the chair and looking over at him. "I'm not what you expected, am I? You had this idea of what was going to happen and had this idea of me all built up in your mind, and now you're finding out that reality isn't quite what you imagined, is it?"

He shook his head mutely.

"Well, you could say _thank you_, you know," she said coquettishly.

"ThThank you, Empress Dahnai," he said sincerely. "You saved my people."

"Bull_shit_ I saved them," she said with a sigh. "I shoulda stepped on Maeri before we even knew Terra was there, but she's a damned crafty old bitch. She's always been just out of my reach, keeping out of my hands by hiding behind the robes of the other members of the Highborn Council. She always had just enough support to slip out of any punishment. Until _today_, that is."

"May I ask a question, your Majesty?"

"Sure, go ahead."

"You knew about all of this, didn't you? All of what Trillane did, and you knew I was coming here, didn't you?"

"Sure did," she said with a nod. "The Kimdori have been keeping me up to speed. They brought most of the information I'm using to blackmail Maeri to me. I'm not sure why, though, it's not like them to get involved in the affairs of others without being paid. I'll have to look into that, I suppose," she said, tousling her bronze hair absently.

"What did you have on them?"

"Theft, and a hell of a lot of it. They were stealing Terra blind. They were also setting up, using Terra as an out-of-sight staging ground to build up their military and get it ready. Mainly, they were channeling weapons and military hardware through Terra, taking delivery and then shipping it elsewhere, but the main thing I have them on is stealing."

"Stealing? Didn't they have ownership?"

"They had a _contract_," she said distinctly. "The planet belongs to the _Imperium_, Jason, not Trillane. What they were doing was basically stripping the planet of anything valuable they thought they could get away with stealing. I was keeping track of everything they took and I was gonna nail them with a fine at the end of the fiscal cycle, but when they started slaving and kidnapping Terrans, that was it. That was when I sent in the Kimdori, to find out what the hell was going on over there, find out _everything_ in the way only a Kimdori can. What they dug up for me almost made me throw up. I had to get rid of them, but it's not _easy_ to get rid of Maeri Trillane."

"Why were they building up?"

"To try to take my throne, that's why," she said bluntly. "Right now, babes, the four biggest Highborn houses all have plots underway to hamstring the other three houses and take the throne from Merrane. They were in the first stages of _executing _that plan. The others talk about it, plan for it, but Trillane was about to _do_ it. They were raping Terra to raise the cash they needed to arm without it appearing on the books anywhere, doing it under the table. But the biggest issue, babes, was that they were kidnapping Terrans of suitable age and conscripting them. That's where a _hell _of a lot of your people went, babes. _Millions_ of them. They're on Uruma, now loyal little lapdogs to T