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"Some of us feed only on the evildoer," said Gabrielle.

"Will you stop it, please?" I whispered to her. "You are exasperating."

Marius motioned to me to quiet down.

"Derek," said Marius. "We can flourish without gratuitous cruelty," he said. "There have always been ways."

"Yes, gratuitous cruelty," said Derek, his eyes watering. "Make a rule against it in your new government. Make a rule for the whole world against gratuitous cruelty. Amel knows. Amel knows what gratuitous cruelty is. And Amel knew a world where such a thing was condemned, Amel knows right and wrong, Amel knew a world of right and wrong. And there can be such a world again."

I saw Arion lean forward and reach for Derek, but he was too far away across the table from him just as I was. And so Arion laid his open hand on the table in the gesture of reaching.

"We all condemn what happened," said Arion. "Even I, who took from you what I had no right to take."

Derek nodded and even smiled as he looked at Arion. It was as if he trusted Arion and no one else here. I knew that Arion had showed Derek kindness and mercy, and it was Arion who had prompted Allesandra to abandon Rhoshamandes and come to us.

Dertu leaned down and kissed Derek on the cheek as lovingly as any mortal might have done it.

"It's over, Father," said Dertu. "It will never happen again."

"This is true," said Kapetria. "This will never happen again." She looked at me and then to Marius, and at Arion. "We all value one another too much for this to ever happen again."

"Yes," said Marius.

"I assure you of this, too," I said.

Once more there were murmurs of agreement--even from Gremt, who had a haunted, harrowed look in his eyes.

"We will bring this Roland of Hungary to justice," said Marius. "We are forming our means of government now. And I assure you, he will be brought to justice for what he did, and for what he withheld, and what he promoted."

"It was more than cruelty," said Derek in a raw excited voice. He was battling full-scale tears. "It was a missed opportunity, for we could have come together before, and helped one another."

"Yes," said Marius. "We do completely understand that. That is one of the worst aspects of evil, that it always involves the death of possible good, always proceeds from the destruction of something that might have been so much better."

"We need one another," I said.

"Yes, we do," said Kapetria. "Listen, we came to Earth as 'the People of the Purpose' and we abandoned that purpose for a finer one, and we are driven now by that finer purpose, and it is never, never to harm life. And you are alive just as we are alive, and we are all part of life."

"Well, I have the answer I wanted," Gabrielle said, as if absolutely nothing less mattered. "So proceed."

"Why don't you begin?" said Marius to Kapetria.

Kapetria nodded to Marius but she fastened her eyes again on Fareed. "Let me offer you one last observation on the matter of severing the individuals from the root. Remember that the nano-thermoplastic of the web of connections is the only part of you not directly feeding on the folic acid in blood."

What that could possibly mean to Fareed and Seth I hadn't the slightest idea.

"Tell the tale," said Marius. "This is the moment to tell the tale."

Kapetria clasped her hands together on the table. "I will pour this out as it comes to me."

Part II

BORN

FOR

ATLANTIS

19