Lirenna was attending to the dwelling tree when her unexpected visitors arrived.

     The grubs that burrowed into the living wood and caused it to swell into a canker large enough to live in could not be allowed to roam at random. Left to themselves, they would cause the tree to balloon out in any old fashion, creating an effect like a sock stuffed with walnuts. Branches would grow straight and slender for a few feet before bulging out into growths several feet across, separated by narrow waists where the wood was thinner and liable to break in heavy weather. To create a useful tree that could be lived in, the grubs had to be farmed. Moved from where they were clustered densely and replaced where the parent wasps had overlooked an area. When the grubs were spread evenly across every part of the tree the wood swelled smoothly and evenly, creating a shape that was pleasing to the eye and allowed the maximum volume to be hollowed out inside.

     The day before, she had climbed up to one of the tree's lower branches and carefully tied slices of dreela fruit to the smooth bark with lengths of twine. Now she was revisiting the site, balancing like a cat, and carefully removing one slice at a time to see how many of the tiny white grubs had been lured out of the wood by the sweet juice. These, she carefully deposited in a plain wooden bowl balanced on her lap. Later, she would go to another branch, pierce the bark with a thick needle and deposit the grubs beside the hole. The grub would find the hole and squeeze down it to the sapwood below. The final stage of the operation was to bind the tiny wound with frogmoss, which would encourage the bark to heal over without a scar to show that it had ever been pierced.

     It was a never ending job, and most humans would have been quickly driven crazy by the tedium of it, but Lirenna, like all the shae folk, derived a tremendous sense of satisfaction and fulfilment from it. She had never in her life had such a feeling of contentment and wellbeing. She had never in her life felt more like a real shae. She'd been happy in Haven, of course. Both in the days of her childhood and even more so since returning there with her brand new husband, but it had gradually dawned on her that, like all the northern shae folk, she had been living as the humans did, in buildings of brick and dead wood. They had their rich shayen heritage, of course, and shayen buildings could not be compared in their beauty and elegance with the ugly, clumsy buildings of humans, but more and more she was coming to think that the northern shae folk had lost something of paramount importance. Something that was now preserved only by their southern cousins. But what else could they have done? The trees grew in the northern latitudes, but the wasps could not survive in the colder climate. They'd had no choice but to build their homes out of whatever materials came to hand, just as the humans did.

     She thought of their little cottage in the valley of Haven. She loved that cottage. She loved the life that she and Thomas had made there and part of her yearned for the day when they'd be able to return. She ached inside as she thought of Mistress Gammon letting herself in once a week, or perhaps one of her daughters. Going around the house with a duster, watering the plants, feeding the animals. Doing all the little jobs that she ought to be doing herself. Though she loved and trusted Mistress Gammon completely, it still felt like a violation to have a neighbour coming and going from her house at will. She needed to be back there. She needed to be home. But she also needed to stay here, looking after this wonderful tree. If only she could take the tree home with her, or if only the wasps could live in the Copper Mountains...

     A thought came to her then. A thought that came suddenly and left her momentarily stunned with its audaciousness. But why not? she thought in mounting excitement. After all, other wizards had once used magic spells to alter animals and plants, to adapt them to new environments and for new uses. And she was a pretty good wizard. Everybody said so. If they'd been able to do it, all those centuries ago...

     Before the thought could form itself completely in her mind, though, she became aware that a small group of people was approaching her tree. She lifted her elegant chin to see over a nearby clump of leaves and nearly fell from her perch when she saw that it was none other than Athelasta, the Ta-La-Lendron. One of the shae folk who had Returned. Two younger shae folk walked beside and a pace behind him, golden haired and glorious, keeping their wary eyes open for anyone or anything that might threaten their venerated elder, but it was Athelasta upon whom the demi shae's eyes fixed in stunned surprise.

     The wise one! The great one! The precious one! Surely he couldn't be coming to see her! There had to be some mistake! Maybe he was just passing by on his way somewhere else (Where? There was nothing beyond but the open grassland of the University campus, and the shae folk would never risk letting the humans know that there was a Ta-La-Lendron here), but no. He was too obviously heading directly in her direction. It seemed that she was to be honoured by an audience with one of the wise ones themselves!

     She shifted her weight on the branch so that she began to slide off it, twisting around as she did so to grasp a small side branch to slow her descent. For a moment her full weight hung from one pale, slender hand, and then she let go, dropping gracefully to the ground, bending her knees to absorb the impact like a world class gymnast. She sprang back to her full height, taking a moment to make minute adjustments to the pleats and folds of her dress; short by shayen standards and showing rather a lot of leg but ideal for climbing trees.

     She glanced quickly at her hands to see how badly stained they were by moss and dreela juice. They'll have to do, she thought. She wasn't happy with the green and yellow stains on her palms and fingers but she didn't have time to do anything about it there and then. If he wanted me at my best he should have told me he was coming, she told herself. She ran her fingers through her hair, to smooth down the worst of her fine, flyaway strands, then hurried off to greet her visitors before they could arrive at the door of her house.

     As soon as she was within sight of the three newcomers she dropped to her knees and bowed her head, allowing her silky dark hair to flow around her face, partially hiding her downcast eyes. "Tal Aran al falharra mya arbhona lir," she recited, praying to all the Gods she knew that she'd gotten the pronunciation right. Nobrani, the language spoken by most of the southern shae folk, was slightly different from the language spoken in the north, and although she'd made an effort to learn it since arriving in the valley she hadn't had much chance to speak it in actual conversation yet. "Noro rhan hir veccha nor falalandrae chir." I greet and welcome you to my poor home. You honour me with your visit. Her heart pounded in her throat as she lifted her eyes a little to see how Athelasta was reacting to her words.

     The ancient shae continued to advance, stopping only when he was standing directly before the demi shae. Then he reached forward to touch her shoulders, gently urging her back to her feet. Lirenna, short and slight by human standards, towered head and shoulders above the noble shae, and he had to tilt his head back to look up at her.

     "Mine is the honour," he said in the same language. There were the beginnings of lines around his eyes, Lirenna noticed. He was approaching the age at which his shayen grace and beauty would begin to fade. What would he do when he began to really look old? Would he return to Ta-La-Lorna? Would he go to the nearest Turna Sat? The Community of the Old? She couldn't imagine that happening to someone so honoured and revered, but then she knew almost nothing of the ways of the southern she folk. She decided to simply avoid the subject. She would make no mention of anything that betrayed his great age.

     "Long since I should have visited you, to welcome you,” the noble shae continued. “Too long it is since I have spoken with any of our northern kin."

     "Too seldom it is that we come south, to visit the homeland of our race," replied Lirenna, hoping she'd translated the ancient shae's words correctly. "We would profit greatly from greater contact with those who remember what we have forgotten."

     What was it that the southern shae folk remember? she wondered. Was there, in fact, anything at all? Perhaps the southern shae folk had forgotten it as well during the centuries since the humans had come, colonising the centre of the continent and separating the two primary races of shae folk from each other like a metal wedge splitting a block of wood. Maybe it was just something that people said and which had long since ceased to have any real meaning.

     Athelasta smiled pleasantly, though, inclining his head as he accepted the comment, and it occurred to Lirenna suddenly that he might have been in Ta-La-Lorna for centuries, maybe for thousands of years. Time had no meaning there, after all, and those who went to the land of unchanging bliss never grew any older. Never changed in any way. It was not even possible to learn new things, to grow in knowledge, and it was likewise impossible to forget anything. If there was something that the rest of us have forgotten, she thought, Athelasta is the person most likely to remember it.

     "The tree exults in your care and attention," the ancient shae said, looking up at the dwelling tree, still visible through the normal trees between it and them. "For one who has had so little time to learn, you show a skill that many of our own kin would envy."

     The compliment left Lirenna stunned with surprise and glowing with pleasure. A human might have suspected him of flattering her, of saying something he didn't really think in order to get her on his side, but that idea never occurred to Lirenna. Southern shae folk rarely used flattery. Flattery was a form of lying, after all, and while, contrary to popular belief, shae folk were capable of lying when the occasion demanded it, they didn't like it and avoided it whenever possible. Neither did they use sarcasm, irony or any other of the countless ways humans have of twisting language to a variety of purposes. The different structure and greater complexity of the shayen language made these things much more difficult, so that few shae folk had any great skill at them. When a shae said something to you, therefore, you could be almost completely sure that that was what he really thought.

     The mention of the tree put Lirenna in an awkward spot, though. Should she take it as a hint that the ancient shae wanted to be invited in straight away? Or should she continue the exchange of pleasantries and formalities for a few minutes longer? She knew that, when one southern shae approached another with whom he was not on intimate terms (and the definition of what constituted 'intimate terms' was so complicated as to be almost incomprehensible to an outsider), they often spent up to an hour asking after one another's families and discussing the weather or the scent of a particular flower before finally getting on with what they really wanted to talk about.

     For her to invite Athelasta inside so soon might be seen as offensively hasty, therefore, but then she was neither pureblooded nor a southern shae. Maybe the ancient shae wouldn't insist upon all the formalities with her. Maybe he didn't consider her to be truly 'one of them'. The possibility made her angry and scared. She so wanted to be accepted as one of them! She wanted it so badly!

     Worse, if she insisted upon behaving like a southern shae, her three visitors might be outraged that this northern half breed considered herself their equal. They wouldn't show it, of course. They would be unfailingly polite at all times, but they would be thinking it and it might affect how they behaved towards her in the future. That decided it for her. Let them think what they want, she seethed, while the smile continued to sit pleasantly on her face. I am as good as them, and Derry as well. I'll keep them talking here until sundown if necessary. Let him get to the reason for his visit first, and then I'll invite him inside. Not one moment sooner.

     The four of them continued to stand there in the forest, therefore, talking about trees and birds and Derrin's progress in the pre-apprentice classes and the various problems of the world, and all the time Athelasta's two bodyguards (that's what they were, of course, although no shae would ever have delivered such a serious insult as to state that he needed a bodyguard in your presence) stood calmly and patiently a couple of paces behind him, giving the impression that they were prepared to stand there forever, if need be.

     None of Lirenna's three visitors gave any sign that they either approved of or were offended by the demi shae's manner, and she found herself growing more and more tempted to use the ring of ESP. She didn't, of course. She'd used it without hesitation when they'd first come to the shaewoods, to look into a shae's mind to find an argument for staying in a dwelling tree, but if she were caught looking into the mind of a Ta-La-Lendron, she knew that nothing in the world would save her and her family from being ostracised from shayen society forever. She couldn't do that to herself, and she would never do anything to risk Derry's birthright. She put the ring firmly out of her mind, therefore, and concentrated on what the ancient shae was saying about the shortcomings of human harpists.

     Finally, though, the conversation came to a natural break where the current talking point had been exhausted and the possibility came for either of them to introduce any new subject they chose. Instead of talking, though, Athelasta simply stared at her, and Lirenna knew that the time had come. She sensed that the ancient shae was now waiting to be invited inside, where he would come to the point of his visit. With butterflies fluttering in her stomach, therefore, she did so. Leading the way, as custom demanded; her guests following a few steps behind.

     Reaching the tree, Lirenna found herself subject to a whole new set of shayen customs and protocols, those relating to the relationship between a host and her guests. Although no dire consequences would result if she got them wrong, she was desperately eager to make a good impression and so wracked her brain to remember everything she could. Standing aside at the door to let her guests enter first. Inviting them to sit (she had to bring the kitchen chair into the living room and then sit in the doorway because there wasn't quite enough room for it). Offering them food and drink and then taking the first bite herself so that her guests wouldn't feel embarrassed about eating. They said nothing while they ate, but the token meal lasted only a couple of minutes and then Athelasta was complimenting her on the quality of her cooking as he carefully placed the exquisitely carved wooden plate back on the table.