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until it was at her feet. Behind it, a trail of small beasts followed.
    She couldn’t resist. She leaned down and extended her hand; it moved toward her, and the softest thing she had ever felt was rubbing against her hand.
    The long, graceful ears quivered as she stroked them, and soon, a wall of warm, fluffy beasts who wanted her to touch them surrounded her. They tumbled and she laughed. She shared her joy with them, and Kiot began to glow.
    “You can stop looking so smug, Kiot. I could no more send these creatures away than I could disappoint a child.”
    “I am not smug. I am enjoying the link I feel with you.”
    She jerked her head up and noted the sincerity in his gaze. “So, when you pulled Ulises’s hand away...”
    He blushed. “I am unsure as to what I am feeling. He says I am jealous, but how can I be when I am not even of your species?”
    Enher raised her brows and kept cuddling the little ones until she shivered with the chill in the air. “Okay, back to the skimmer.”
    He blinked. “I wish you to stay here.”
    “Tough. I am going back to the skimmer. It is cool here, and I am not dressed for it.”
    She stomped around the fluffy creatures that looked at her with huge, dark eyes. They were now glowing with her energy, and she knew why she was getting so cold. The more she gave, the less she had to run her own body. Hopefully, they would get through the next few sites without anything wanting her attention.
    Enher-Dahl knew that she just wasn’t that lucky.
     
    He held her in his arms, and a cool compress was being stroked across her forehead.
    “Enher, what is wrong? You are so pale.”
    She struggled to sit up, but it was more of a feeble flopping. “I need a good meal and a good night’s sleep for a few days. You have drained me, Kiot.”
    “It isn’t Kiot.” He chuckled and shifted her higher in his lap. “He disappeared the moment that you fainted. What happened?”
    “Kiot is consuming me, via my joy, my affection and my pleasure. The more fun I have, the more he takes.” She was babbling, but she had to make him understand. “That is why he needs complete souls and not just psychic energy. He needs their joy to sustain him.”
    “Well, your illness has frightened him. On the plus side, all off-worlder souls that were held by him have now been released. He does not need them for cohesion anymore.”
    She slumped against his shoulder and sighed. “That is something at least.”
    “That is amazing. You have done something that no one has been able to figure out for the last five centuries.” He chuckled. “What do you do for the Citadel?”
    She yawned. “Recruitment. I can see energy patterns and judge control and strength. I know what they need to become exceptional, and I tell the Citadel so that they can be placed in the right training or teaching centre.”
    “Well, you have been able to determine the situation here.”
    “When will Kiot let you go?” She rubbed her eyes.
    “He won’t. I have agreed to be his permanent Avatar. He needs a voice and a means to interact with the world around him, and I can do that.” Ulises was practical.
    “What about your other life?”
    “I can be a Guardian here as well as anywhere else in the Imperium. The question is what will you do?”
    “What do you mean?”
    “If you have given everything to Kiot, what is left?”
    She stared into his eyes, and there was a lavender swirl where amber had been. She scowled and leaned away. “I will recover. And now, I think I had better sit in my own seat.”
    Enher heaved herself into the seat next to Kiot’s and buckled in, though it took all of her energy. “Please tell me we are heading back to the city.”
    “I am taking you to the hospital for an examination. You were unconscious for twenty minutes.”
    She hissed. “I was asleep. It was natural. I was exhausted.”
    “You are in my care, and I will make sure that you are fine.”
    “You may as well change course. They won’t be