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| After she said that, I removed my medscanner from my pocket. Before I joined her, I had set it to continuously scan her. Now I viewed the readings, which indicated that she was telling the truth. It indicated one other interesting piece of information; a small amount of her DNA was not human, and it was from a race that I did not recognize. This was unusual, since I had studied every well-known race. Then I told her, �Knight is only a title. You still have your skills, and nobody can take that away. I am an Imperial agent, and you would be a tremendous asset to our group.� She exclaimed, �It is not the same. You have your skills, equipment, and psychic abilities. I was not permitted to squire, so my training will never be complete, and I will never get to earn my Sword of Honor.� I replied, �I am not what you think I am. I am a doctor, who had some unusual experiences. When I graduated from Newtonian Medical School as a surgeon at age 16, I had planned to spend my life working as a surgeon in a hospital or clinic. I was one of the best, and graduated two years earlier than most other Newtonian Doctors, and ten or more years earlier than most non-Newtonian doctors. I became successful very quickly, and by age 18 I already owned my own clinic. I never expected my life to change, other than by becoming better, richer and more famous, but it did change while I was still only 18. The Emperor�s Temporal Council sent me on a mission to the past, to stop an assassin. I did not think that I could do it, since I was a doctor, not a time cop, and was not even close to being a physical match for him, but I used guile as a weapon, and was able to defeat him.� She retorted, "You still had the advantage. You had your psychic abilities help you to know your enemy. You probably knew what he was doing before he did it. I do not have that ability. I have had some training in the use of psychic awareness, but I do not seem to be able to use them accurately. My sensory abilities are giving me false information about you, and my psi-shields have not stopped your telepathic abilities. I wish I could help, but I would only be a hindrance to you. I leaned towards her ear, and whispered, "Let me tell you a secret. I am not really psychic. I used the art of illusion to fool everybody into thinking that. Do not be ashamed. You are not the first. I have fooled many, including an alien race that wanted to invade human space." A look of shock and surprise appeared in her eyes, as I continued, "Join my group, and you will help many. You will not need a sword, you will only need cunning and guile. Now that you know my story, why don't you tell me yours?" She replied, "My name is Heather McPherson. My mother never talked much about her past, and I never met my father. I was born on Tarton, near the training caves. My mother applied for my page training, but they turned me down because I was a girl. They wanted me to learn their womanly arts, such as cooking, cleaning, sewing, and other things like that. Unfortunately for them, I was not a diligent learner. My mother was a very beautiful woman, and she was able to persuade the page trainers to secretly train me. Each trained me a little bit, and none knew that others were training me as well. Many proposed marriage to her, but she turned them all down." "On my 16th birthday, I applied for squirehood. They turned me down, but after each page trainer insisted (one at a time, of course), the Master Council decided to give me the three tests that other squire candidates had to take. First was the hunting test. I had to hunt a wild animal. This was not an easy task for me, since I am opposed to killing animals, and am a vegetarian for that reason. I did not know how I would accomplish this task, but as I wandered around the mountains, a jeves, a fairly large and vicious clawed beast, about four feet tall when standing on its hind legs, approached me. This was not the first time that an animal approached me, but most of my previous encounters have been with docile herbivores. This was my first encounter with an aggressive carnivore, and it approached me in a peaceful manner. I grabbed a nearby vine, and tied one end around the jeves' neck as I led it to the cave. I told the council that I had completed the hunt, but they disagreed, since the beast was still alive. I argued, saying that a capture was as great a show of skill as a kill, and they finally agreed, a day later, that I passed the test. I think my mother may have influenced their decision. The second test was combat awareness. I had to fight one of the instructors, while the other instructors threw knives at me. I have seen many other candidates take this test, but it seemed that my test lasted longer than theirs, and more knives were thrown. I think that they were trying to make it harder for me to succeed. After an enduring period of blocking and parrying sword slashes while dodging countless knives, I finally heard Grandmaster Yanrei reluctantly declare "point" as the other masters finally ran out of knives. Next came the third and final test; the test of survival. I was given a brew of nadoiu root, in order to put me to sleep. When I woke up, I was deep in the woods, with nothing except for my clothes, and a large knife. I had to survive, and find my own way back to the caves. Survival was easy. There were plenty of plants to eat, and animals to keep me company. I was never alone while I was there. After a day, I began to consider remaining in this place of peace and tranquility, rather than returning to a place of chauvinism and rejection. As I was contemplating this, a renaux, a giant bird about ten feet tall, landed on the ground nearby. I have been told about them, but I never thought that I would see one. They are well known to be carnivorous, but somehow I knew that it would not attack me. I had an idea, as I climbed onto its back, and flew up in the air. As we rose higher, I saw the Tartonian caves in the distance. They were much farther away than I had thought, and I might never have reached them, if I had traveled on foot. The Master's Council appeared to be doing everything they could to get rid of me. The renaux seemed to know where I needed to go, and arrived with minimal direction from me. After I dismounted, the bird flew away. Then the council arrived, and discussed my tests. They told me that I failed. They said that I had not demonstrated any skill in offensive combat, or used my psychic instincts to find my way home. I argued that I had demonstrated a very practical use in my abilities, which were different from theirs, but they refused to listen. My mother spoke with several of the instructors, but they were unable to influence the final decision. It appears that they had planned for my failure from the beginning." I began to comfort her, as she sat, brooding in her depression. She agreed to come with us and join our group. If nothing else, the travel would help her to retain her anonymity. Her skills and talents will be rough at first, since she was only a page, but they will improve with practice and experience. After all, I learned a whole new world of skills in the past year. |
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