Perhaps these worldtree fragments could become something more.

Take my hand again, Jora'h.' Not long ago, the touch of any man would have made her shudder with revulsion. But not his touch… not Jora'h. 'Maybe we can awaken another one.'

'We will try, if you wish. We did it before,' he said. Neither of them was sure how the strange confluence of her telink and Jora'h's own , along with a surge of awakening in the worldforest itself, like the closing of a circuit, had generated the spark that caused the tiny worldtree frond to be reborn. That treeling had changed everything.

Jora'h held her hand above the remaining hunks of scorched wood - memorials to singed Ildiran honour and to his evil father's obscuring of the truth. He seemed as heartbroken as she was.

Nira squeezed her eyes shut, pressed her other palm against the sooty surface. She could feel Jora'h trying to open his mind to her, and she longed for the heartfelt bond any Ildiran woman could have had with the Mage-Imperator. Though he strained, and Nira reciprocated, the two of them could not connect. Something was missing.  and telink might be similar, might be parallel, but they did not overlap. It would take something more.

Nira finally surrendered, to her dismay, and Jora'h held her, saying nothing. She felt incredibly weary, as if the effort had drained her heart's last energy.

'We still have one worldtree,' Jora'h said. 'And when I make things right between our two peoples, we will visit Theroc and bring more treelings here. I promise.'

* * * * *

Nira squeezed her daughter's soft hands and stared into Osira'h's agate eyes, as the two of them sat cross-legged on the floor. With Nira's mind open, and Osira'h using her own special telepathic powers, thoughts flowed between mother and daughter.

Nira had shared this way with her once before, out of desperation, in the Dobro camps. That moment of contact, that flood of memories, had changed the little girl's life, exposing the brainwashing that Designate Udru'h had forced upon Osira'h's young mind.

Normally when a green priest exchanged information through telink, it was like a courier delivering a report. With Osira'h's sensitivity to lldiran , however, the connection she and her mother shared was much more vivid. The two were united in a unique way. Through her daughter's eyes, Nira felt as if she actually relived years of mental training Osira'h and her siblings had undergone while in Udru'h's care.

After mother and daughter had shared everything, Nira opened her eyes and looked into the little girl's face. She saw the beauty there in the features that reminded her of Jora'h's and her own, felt unquenchable love for her daughter. And also understood the dull pain in Osira'h's heart.

'I'm only eight years old, Mother, and I've already fulfilled my destiny.'