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"Are you all right, Syg?" Davage asked.

After a moment she smiled at Davage and spoke. "Well, that's where your stories have it wrong."

"All right, then," Kilos said, "let's hear it."

Sygillis still sat there. Davage moved next to her and took her hand.

"Give her a moment, Ki," he said.

Sygillis stared at the table.

"You don't have to answer if you don't want to."

She wiped a tear away and then took Davage's hand with her other one.

"No, no, I'm all right." She took a deep breath. "The Shadowmark on my face …"

"Your tattoo?" Davage asked.

"It's not a tattoo, Dav, and it's not painted on. It's a birthmark."

Davage leaned forward and examined the mark. Kilos did too. It was a long, curling, ink vine design, starting under her right eye, going up to the bridge of her nose, wrapping up and over the top of her eye just above her eyebrow and then trailing down the other side where in stopped just above her right cheekbone. It appeared to be a very complicated design—a twisting latticework of black intersecting lines.

"This is a birthmark?" Davage asked.

"Yes."

"May I Sight it, Syg?"

She smiled. "You may, Dav."

Davage Sighted the mark. It was a seemingly endless series of straight lines that intersected at various points forming an overall twisting ink vine pattern. He sighted farther and farther. He could see lines upon lines upon lines, down and down until it descended into a dark well that was alive with activity. The whole thing appeared to be alive.

"This can't be a birthmark, Syg," he said

Sygillis was staring at him wide-eyed, smiling brightly. "Your eyes—they were glowing, Dav," she said in wonderment. "Just like that night in my old quarters. So beautiful."

"Yes, the Sight appears to make them do that."

She touched his face. "What a wonderful Gift."

"I still can't believe you can't Sight, Syg."

"No, none of us can—it's the one gift we cannot perform. Some of us don't believe it exists. I didn't—remember?"

She composed herself. "To continue, the Shadowmark is the sign of the presence of Shadow tech. If you have the mark, you have Shadow tech within you."

Kilos shook her head. "No, no, Shadow tech is a product of focused ill thought. You have to be evil to create it."

"Syg is not evil, Ki," Davage said."

Sygillis looked at Davage, bright-eyed, full of love. She then continued.

"That, what you just said, Lt., is what the Sisters believe. Shadow tech is a function of the body, not the mind. The Vithian gifts are not just of the mind, they are of the body as well. The body can be focused and trained just like the mind. The Old Viths could create the
emplosser,
the 'living earth,' as they called it. That, in a very crude and unpolished form, was the beginnings of Shadow tech. But like the Blues, the ability to create it requires a very specific trait that, in our current state of evolution, is rare."

"So, you're saying you have to be born with the ability to create Shadow tech?"

"Yes. It comes in both males and females. However, only females can grow and cast it."

"How common is it?"

"Very uncommon. Only one girl child in a million is born with the mark. In men, it is more common, one in about one hundred thousand."

"But men cannot cast it?"

"No, but it is the men who pass it onto their female progeny. Females cannot pass the trait down."

"Are the men marked?"

"Yes, but it is small and very faint."

Sygillis took a drink of coffee. "The Black Hat Order was created, in most part, to study and pursue the development of Shadow tech. The Black Abbess and her followers performed bizarre and gruesome experiments in its use, in its growth and manipulation—thus the schism that formed with the rest of the Sisterhood."

Davage rustled uncomfortably. "Syg, I don't think I'm going to like this next part. So, a marked girl is extremely rare, yes … then what happens when one is born?"

"They're taken, Dav, immediately, to the Black Abbess's church. There, if the girl child survives, fifty years later she emerges a Black Hat, twisted and evil."

"You went through this 'church'?"

"Yes." Unable to contain herself anymore, Sygillis flew into Davage's arms and wept.

Kilos looked at Syg, and for the first time, her hard, skeptical expression vanished, replaced with a look of sympathy.

After a few minutes of hard crying, Sygillis composed herself and was ready to continue, though she sat right next to Davage and held his hand. "As I said, a girl child with the mark is instantly abducted and taken to the Black Abbess."

"Who abducts these children?" Kilos asked.

"The midwives. Female Hulgismen."

"Naked bestial women abduct newly born children?"

"Hulgismen can wear clothing. That's a silly belief you have—the no clothes thing. When assigned as a midwife to a suspected birth, the midwife is clothed and cloaked deep. Thus invisible, the midwife remains with the mother until the birth. If the midwife sees the mark, she'll abduct it at the first opportune moment."

"That is insidious," Kilos said. "Of course that happens only within Xaphan society, correct?"

"Incorrect. The Midwives often abduct League children too."

"How can this be?"

"Again, the birthings are extremely rare. One or two abductions within the course of a several years is a lot."

"How is it determined that a potential birth is about to take place?"

Sygillis wiped her face. "Invernans—the Shadow tech males. They are sent out into both Xaphan and League society and ordered to impregnate females deemed of suitable stock."

"That cannot be!" Kilos said.

"It is. They infiltrate the area, woo the targeted female, and impregnate her, either by charm or by deception."

"What do you mean by deception?"

"If an Invernan is unsuccessful in wooing the female, they come to them in the night, cloaked, and take them while they sleep. Have you never heard of girls suddenly becoming pregnant and they don't know how or by whom?"

Davage tried to stand up, but Sygillis, with her surprisingly strong arms, held him fast.

"Is the Sisterhood aware of this?"

"Yes, Dav, they are."

"That is not possible!"

"It's part of the rules they have in place between them. They promise not to interfere in the Black Abbess's programs, and the Black Abbess swears that none, other than the select abducted children, will be harmed. In many years, both sides have kept to their promise."

"It's a deal with the devil," Kilos said.

"I agree, it's not acceptable. Therefore, there are five hundred women, both League and Xaphan alike, who have been forcibly indoctrinated into a branch of study and are victims of an ancient struggle and promise."

"What can be done, Dav?"

"We can confront the Sisterhood, we can demand answers. And perhaps when the occasion allows, we can try to save as many as we can."

Sygillis's eyes lit up. "Do you mean it? We will try and save the sisters? Like you saved me?"

"Indeed. How can we allow this to continue?"

Sygillis embraced Davage and nearly knocked the wind out of him.

* * * * *

"You have your own temple, eh?"

Sygillis, holding a coffee cup, sat down next to Davage. "Yes, it was embarrassing to talk about it." She took a drink. "Mmmm. I've really come to like coffee. It's my favorite drink by far."

Davage looked around Syg's quarters. "You once had a temple, and all I have to offer you is this room."

She smiled and kissed him with her coffee-flavored lips. "These quarters are more than I've ever had and more than I ever thought I'd have. The temple was a black, Shadow tech manifestation. I sat in my throne high above the floor, staring blankly at the walls, the Hulgismen milling about mindlessly far below." She looked around. "I love my quarters. I love my quarters because you gave them to me. Because I love you."

Davage smiled. "I was very proud of you today. That must have been very difficult to discuss, and Kilos can be a handful."

"We'll probably end up fighting again. I'm sorry, I hope that doesn't disappoint you. I know she's your friend."

"Indeed she is, and in time, I'm certain you'll get past this rough point. Still, progress was made today, and I thought you did well."

She looked up at him and touched his face. "Your eyes today … your Sight, it was so warm."

"I still cannot believe you don't have the Sight. I thought Black Hats were masters of all the Gifts."

"All except that one. None of us can do it." She scooted next to him. "Sight me again."

"What?"

"Please, I want to feel it again. I want to see your eyes glow. Please do it for me."

Davage sat up, closed his eyes, and activated his Sight.

"Well," he said, gazing at her, "I can see all the teeth that Ennez replaced for you. Have they been hurting at all?"

"No, he did a good job."

"Good. I also can see your left wrist has been broken at some point. What happened there?"

"I … got into a fight long ago. I really don't want to say."

"Fine, fine, I see. There's your heart, beating nice and strong, lungs, kidneys."

He saw something that puzzled him. "Syg, what's this? There's something silvery flowing around inside you."

Sygillis exploded into a smile. "You can see that too, Dav?"

"The Sight comes in various forms—the ability to see through things, the ability to see things very far away, to see in the dark, to see things that are very small, to see things that are otherwise invisible, and to see things that are about to happen and things that already have happened. I am blessed with the Sight in all seven areas."

"Amazing. That last one … precognition?"

"No … well, of a kind. I can see things that will happen a few seconds into the future. Gives me a great advantage in battle."

He calmed his Sight, and Sygillis kissed him. She recalled the dream she'd often have—of a Light in the dark. She wanted to tell him but thought better of it.

"That was beautiful, Dav—beautiful. I wish I could do that."

"Now, what was that silvery material I saw, do you know?"

Sygillis got off the couch and sat on the floor. "Come down here, Dav. I want to show you something."

Davage got down on the floor with her.

She was beaming. "That silver material—what you could see flowing around inside of me—is Shadow tech."

"Doesn't look like Shadow tech."

"Watch."

She held her hand out, and her fingers began to glow.

Davage was alarmed. "Be careful, Syg. The Sisters …"

"It's all right. The Sisters aren't watching right now."

A small, droplet-size mass of dark silvery material formed on her fingertip.

"Hold your hand out, Dav."

Davage held his hand out, and she carefully placed the drop of silver into his hand. There, it flowed about lightly.

"That's Shadow tech?"

"Yes. See how it's acquired that glowing silver color, and see how it stays combined? Shadow tech usually tends to break up without a lot of concentration. How does it feel?"

"It feels warm, slightly effervescent. It feels nice. How have you done this, Syg?"

She looked at him and smiled. "It's love, Dav. It's everything, my new life, my new friends, and most importantly, my love for you. As I've grown to love you more and more, it's gotten more and more silvery."

"Is it less powerful than 'mad' black Shadow tech? This Silver tech?"

"Silver tech, that's a good name for it. And, no—actually, it's easier to control."

"Certainly the Black Abbess must know that Shadow tech will react this way. Why, then, I wonder, does she force the Black Hats to focus on the negative, the hate and the fear?"

"I don't know. Maybe she likes the control, the power she has over the Order. Mad Shadow tech tends to keep you confused, in a daze, in a perpetual nightmare. The Black Abbess, herself being an image straight out of a nightmare, might be able to completely control us in such a fashion."

Davage sat back down on the couch. "Which brings me to my next thought …"

Sygillis sat down next to him and snuggled into his arms, coffee cup in hand.

"What are we going to do about the Black Hats, Syg?" He thought a moment. Outside, the stars moved past the window. "How are we going to do this? Certainly, the Black Hats are the most fearsome opponents one could dare to face. Innocent or not, they're not going to come quietly."

"You turned me, Dav. And I was a pretty mean Black Hat."

"Yes, and how many days, honestly, was I in mortal peril in your presence?"

Syg thought a moment and took a drink of coffee. "Mortal peril?"

"Be honest, please."

"Maybe a couple of days there … maybe."

She kissed him again. "Heh … Who says you're not in mortal peril right now, Dav?"

"Be serious, Syg."

She smiled and kissed him some more. "I am being serious." She ran her hands up and down his chest. "Right now, you are in a great deal of peril. I'm having difficulties keeping my hands to myself this evening."

"Syg … you promised me."

"I don't care what I promised. I want to make love. I'm ready. I wasn't ready before, but I am now, and I want you to have me."

Davage tried to ignore her.

"I was wondering, Syg, when was it exactly when you stopped wanting to kill me?"

She closed her eyes and thought a moment. "I think it was … on the third or fourth day. I'm really not certain. I know that on the night when I was crazy with Shadow tech and you came to help me that I thought your eyes, glowing in the dark, were so beautiful. I realized that if I killed you, I'd regret it. I'd regret it very much. I realized that I loved you."

She smiled at him. "You're not going to side-track me, Dav—like you used to do to me all the time. We're going to make love tonight. You might as well get used to that fact."

Davage tossed her hair, still trying to ignore her. "Hmmm, well, when we start trying to rescue these Black Hats, looks like I'll be right back into peril again."