The woman who had been known to the crew of the Hummingbird as Connie Laz stood stiffly alert in the throne room of the Gem Lords, nervously awaiting their reaction to her report.

The seven thrones formed the arc of a circle at one end of the vast echoing chamber, each one separated by a great enough distance from its neighbour to allow the small crowds of courtiers, attendants and supplicants that, in ages past, had gathered like termites around their queen. At the other end of the chamber, on the other side of the decoratively tiled audience plaza, was space for thousands upon thousands of commoners and minor nobles, all of whom had been forced to stand throughout the interminable ceremonies that had often lasted all day and long into the night.

Things had changed a lot since those days. The Gem Lords now each had a realm of their own, rather than having to share the one. They were also centuries older, perhaps a little wiser, and for the most part could no longer be bothered by all the old pomp and tradition. Receiving the adoration of the masses and ruling over them like gods no longer held the same attraction for them, although some of the younger lordlets still went in for it to a lesser extent, to the amusement of the remaining members of the original seven.

The last time the communal throne room had been used had been five hundred years before, when Lady Jet and Lord Opal had been wedded with all the old splendour, re-creating the days of glory a thousand years gone, but even then there had been something forced about it. The sense that they were just going through the motions, that it had all been carefully managed and orchestrated rather than just happening spontaneously, as they liked to think it had been in the past. That sense of falseness had haunted all the participants, and had perhaps contributed to the acrimonious break up a mere hundred years later. No-one had wanted to repeat the experience, and so the vast, splendid chamber had lain unused ever since until Lord Ruby, mightiest of the remaining Gem Lords, had insisted that they hold their meeting there 'to add a sense of occasion to what we say and do, so that we understand the importance of the decision we must make.'

Of the original Gem Lords, only two were present and accounted for. One, Lord Sapphire, was dead, only a few scraps of his soul having been salvaged from what remained of his soul gem. Another, Lord Emerald, had disappeared, probably exploring some far distant corner of his realm and leaving behind all means to contact him so as not to be disturbed. Three others had gone mad, driven insane by the incredible length of their lives and the ever growing sense of pointlessness to their existence. They had taken to extremes of sensory experience in a futile attempt to recapture the joy of life, of which only a mocking memory remained, and when that had failed they had taken to excesses of cruelty and malice, turning their realms into hells.

For a while the other Gem Lords had tried to help them, but it had soon became evident that the only cure for their condition was an end to their existence. Lord Opal and Ladies Diamond and Pearl had closed the entrances to their realms, therefore, and now devoted every waking moment to an unending search for a way to destroy themselves, possibly by duplicating Lord Sapphire's accident, the details of which remained not fully understood.

Lord Ruby gazed down at the attractive blue eyed woman standing on the audience plaza a dozen yards away from him, an equal distance from all seven thrones. She had the appearance of a golden haired woman in her early twenties, although she was, in fact, three thousand years older than that. She was dressed in a blue, one piece garment that hugged her body, accentuating every curve, and a cape of slightly darker blue hung down her back to her calves. On her left wrist, a large blue gem pulsed with an inner light, held in place by a seamless strap of silvery metal that complemented her golden suntan beautifully.

The two Gem Lords were dressed in a similar fashion, although each in the colour of their gems. Lord Ruby was awesome and magnificent in red, while Lady Jet, her skin as perfectly black as the starless depths of space, gave the illusion of being a hole cut out of the room. An absence more than a presence. Only the whites of her eyes and her shining teeth when she smiled gave her away as a creature of flesh and blood. Beside their thrones stood a number of other figures, similar in nature to the Gem Lords but lesser in power. Lord Ruby's two assistants, Jasper and Garnet, stood beside their master, while Coal, Jade and Topaz stood beside Lady Jet.

The woman who had recently called herself Connie Laz waited patiently, allowing no trace of the nervousness she felt to show in her face or body as the Gem Lords paused, collecting their thoughts. She'd been less afraid on the Southern Continent where, bereft of all the powers she'd now regained, she had carefully orchestrated the scene with the duhraks to make it appear that she was trying to escape from them just as the Hummingbird had been passing overhead. The memory of their brutish hands on her almost naked body as they'd caught her and tied her hands still made her shudder, particularly when she considered how easily she might have had to spend the rest of her life as their captive, unable to send her soul back to the safety of the Realms in case its passage was detected by the monstrous Lords of the Southern Continent, to their complete ruin.

Her story about having been a slave for three years had been a lie, but if the crew of the Hummingbird hadn't seen her and rescued her it could very well have become true. As it was, it had taken her the best part of a year to make her way back to the Realms. The crew of the Hummingbird had dropped her off in a small independent city on one of the tributaries of the river Tew, with a small supply of gold to help her rebuild her life, and the nearest umbilicus had been the Sapphire Mansion in the foothills of the Blue Mountains, nearly two thousand miles away.

She'd had to travel most of the way on foot, during which she'd had to face all the dangers of a beautiful, almost penniless woman travelling alone, but it would have been worth the risk if it engendered a sense of gratitude and obligation in the host when he became aware of what she'd done for him. She was a long time mistress of using other people's senses of duty and obligation to get what she wanted. Her necessary ordeal was now over, though, and now she would learn how well she'd done, unless they intended to just sit there and stare at her until the end of time.

Finally, though, Lord Ruby spoke, and there was a faint expression of approval and gratitude on his handsome face. "My apologies for keeping you waiting," he said in his deep, cultured voice. "I was considering something. We have discussed your report. Have you anything to add before we comment on it?"

"No, Lord," replied the blue eyed woman, trying to conceal a sigh of relief. "I have nothing to add."

"Very well," said Lord Ruby. "We are pleased and relieved to hear that Thomas Gown has been having dreams and flashes of memory. Clearly the seed has successfully attached itself to his soul and integration has begun."

"Are we sure that the dreams and memories come from the seed?" asked Lady Jet, however. "We must consider the possibility that the theory proposed by the wizard Saturn Vasil Mon-Morchov is correct. The memories may come from a friend or colleague at Lexandria University, the transfer triggered by over exposure to mind reading spells. We cannot reach any conclusions until we have eliminated this possibility."

"I think we can safely eliminate the possibility," said Lord Ruby, however. "Most of the memories he described to Saturn, his master, and Matthew Winterwell, his friend, can be matched very closely to incidents in the life of Tak Eweela, particularly the sister he remembers wandering naked around the house." He smiled. "I remember Tak describing it to me himself shortly after I first met him. Those memories that do not correspond to anything we know of in his life can, I think, be dismissed as ordinary dreams. He's bound to have them now and then, even with the seed in his body."

"And, of course," added Topaz, "his dreams of the Star Dragons in their gestation tanks cannot be taken as anything but conclusive."

"Quite so," agreed Lord Ruby, and a moment later Lady Jet nodded as well. "We are agreed then," he added. "The seed has successfully attached itself to him and is beginning to integrate. The question, then, becomes, do we proceed to the next phase and commit ourselves to this man, or do we remove the seed and seek a more suitable host?"

"How can we even consider removing the seed?" demanded Topaz in outrage, his voice echoing about the vast, empty chamber. "In the centuries since we began the search, he is the first host not to reject the seed. The Emerald Oracle has failed to find any other potential hosts, even borderlines, and with the little time remaining no more may be found until it's too late. We have no choice but to proceed."

"He's right," agreed Lady Jet. "We must proceed."

Lord Ruby nodded, but he frowned as he glanced at his one equal and his six subordinates. "You have considered the fact that, once we commit to him, his life is our life? If he dies after integration is complete, the seed dies with him, along with all our hopes of avoiding destruction."

"We're going to have to commit to someone sooner or later," pointed out Lady Jet. "It might as well be him, if we are one hundred percent sure that the seed has, indeed, bonded successfully."

"To completely eliminate all doubt, the agent sent to quicken him can carry out a quick scan," suggested Topaz. "Or, even better, perhaps we could engineer his return to the Ruby Keep, where we have all the facilities already in place."

"I don't see how that could be accomplished without completely taking over control of his life," said Lord Ruby, though. "No, the agent will have to take a small hand scanner. It should be quite capable of giving us all the confirmation we need. The only thing we need to decide, therefore, is which agent to send. My personal choice would be Jasper, who is experienced in all..."

"Please, Master!" cried the blue eyed girl, running forward to kneel by his feet. "Let me be the one! I know as much as Jasper about how to begin the quickening, and he can show me how to use the hand scanner. Please, Master!" She gazed beseechingly up at him, taking one of the Gem Lord's hands in hers and pressing it to her soft cheek.

Lord Ruby smiled benevolently down at her, but there was concern in his eyes. "You did a first class job in the Southern Continent, keeping him from the attention of the Agii," he said. "You showed great courage, risking a lifetime of slavery, but I'm concerned about your motives. You do understand, don't you, that the man you loved is dead and that he won't be coming back."

"I understand," replied the woman softly, and the Gem Lord felt her cheek become damp with tears.

"Thomas Gown will inherit some of the memories, skills and abilities of Tak Eweela. Enough, we hope, to allow him to complete the task Tak started, but we were unable to salvage any of his personality, his sense of self. What we normally mean when we talk about a soul. The qualities that made him the man he was. That man is dead, forever."

"I know that," said the woman, now sobbing with grief.

"Thomas Gown has a wife, a son. He will one day know who you are, but he will never love you the way Tak did. I want to make very sure that you understand this."

"I understand." She clung to Lord Ruby as if to a life raft. "But all that's left of my beloved is now in his body. I just want to be close to him, talk to him. I won't interfere in his life, I promise! Please, Master! Please!"

"No, I'm sorry," said the Gem Lord, however. "You evidently don't truly believe that Tak is dead. Not deep down where it matters. I now see that it was a mistake to send you to the Southern Continent. You will not see him again until his transformation is complete."

"Master! I beg of you!"

"No," said the Gem Lord with flat finality. "Jasper will go. You will remain here in the Realms."

He pushed the woman away, gently but firmly, and then the two Gem Lords stood. They walked towards the exit with stately dignity, as the glorious history of this room demanded, followed by their subordinates, leaving the woman crumpled at the foot of the throne, sobbing piteously.

She remained like that until the magnificent, crystalline doors had closed behind them, leaving her all alone in the vast chamber, and then she looked up. Her face was streaked with tears, but her eyes burned bright with purpose and determination.

"You will be mine again, my beloved," she whispered fiercely. "You will be mine, I swear it. Nothing in the Universe will come between us."