A loud knocking sounded on the door, and the lump of covers on the bed emitted a small whine in response. The knocking continued until the covers were peeled back to reveal a bleary-eyed Lilith who called out "Ok, ok, I'm coming! Give me a minute to get some clothes on!"

Lilith slowly leveraged herself out of bed, groaning to herself all the way. She stood up and stretched, then as a muffled voice ordered "hurry!" she decided to skip putting on the Peace Enforcer's uniform, and instead quickly slipped into the old adept robe and padded to the door barefoot to reveal Master Sechan. An extremely unhappy Master Sechan, at that.

"Adept Lilith! First you avoid me by various tricks and schemes, and now I have to practically haul you out of bed when it's ten in the morning! Just what is the explanation for this??"

Lilith blinked. "I'm sorry, sir, I didn't know I was avoiding you." She shook her head to clear it, hoping to understand the situation better. It didn't seem to help much.

"You are unaware, then, that all adepts stationed here must report to me for a training schedule?" You could have cut a steak with the Training Master's tone, but it settled for cutting into a fatigued Lilith instead.

"Actually, yeah, I was. I've been sort of busy the past little bit tending to my job, and--"

"And nothing, Adept. The guild station rules state that any adept living here must be on a training schedule! If your job does not require you to work regular hours, training comes first!"

It was definitely too soon to be hit with all of this. "Uhmmmm so what do we do now?"

"You've avoided this for long enough already. Come on!"

As they hurried down the corridor, Lilith said, "but why now? Why not wait--"

"Wait??" Sechan snarled, "I've waited long enough-- too long! You've been using that 'job' of yours as an excuse to run around town terrorizing furs and in general making situations with the locals worse-- if that's possible. It's time you did some honest work, and if I don't straighten you out, no one will. It's obvious you're finding ways to thwart the guildmaster in his duties."

They reached the training courtyard, and Lilith deliberately hyperventilated for a bit to give herself enough energy to concentrate on clearing her head of the deep sleep she'd been in only a minute ago. Three or four of the adepts were standing around, looking to Lilith's jaundiced eye like a junkyard of abandoned technology. She'd seen one once back east, and the sight had scared the little girl she'd been at the time. Too many dead metal skeletons--- her mental wanderings were cut short by Master Sechan's preemptory tone as he called to the two adepts who were preparing to start a training duel.

"Yars, Yiku, drop that and come on back. I'm taking the grounds for a while." He strode out and his hand gave Lilith a not too gentle shove towards the other side of the arena before he dropped her and continued towards his side.

Lilith avoided the speculative looks the two would-be combatants gave her. She noticed that both of them seemed to derive some sort of private amusement from the situation, and it didn't seem to be all pleasant, either.

As she stood and faced Sechan, Lilith's so far unused life senses finally decided to wake up as well. I wonder what got into him, anyway. What little I've seen didn't suggest he'd do this... oh well, forget that. I've got more important things to worry about. And indeed she did. Her lack of preparatory countermoves with the life threads in the arena meant a fireball was headed straight for her belly. She dissolved it, and caught the next one just behind it. The next couple of minutes were repeats of the same. Lilith was totally on the defensive, diverting and dissolving attacks that came fast and furious. She was always able to just handle the next outburst, but never got enough ahead to do anything of her own. That fact ground into her, and struck sparks on the iron will beneath. Her concentration and determination became total and she began to develop a tunnel vision, although not just before noticing Vika casually lounging on the wall above Sechan. Putting off any analysis of that interesting little fact, Lilith drove a wedge between a group of three fireballs so that they split on both sides and above her. Then out of the corner of her eye she saw the particular thread she had been hunting for, and it snapped into place as her attention flowed to it.

As the thread between her and Sechan rapidly thickened, the watching adepts gasped in recognition. Sechan managed to get out another shot of fire or two, but the warping of the life energy nets made them go totally haywire. Then both he and Lilith stood there almost motionless while a blazing path roared in the air between them, and they descended into the mindbridge.

Determination and knowledge are key. No conscious fighting is done, this is a connection that goes below that. You and your opponent are locked into one net and if that net shrinks, someone dies. Never engage in a mindbridge with an experienced opponent. If you are fortunate, they will let you out. If you are not, they can kill you. Remember: in this warfare, it is personality and emotions that are warring, it is an elemental struggle of identity. The opponent most sure in that identity has the advantage. These and other thoughts flitted through the unused consciousness of Lilith's mind, freed captives from the normal restraint of a line of thought. There was no outside world. There was no world inside, either, but only a locked struggle which consumed every fiber of her being. The fire of her passion burned hot, the cold hardness of her personality became a flaming edge driving her protest of this whole thing straight at Sechan. There was no doubt. There was no hesitation or second-guessing. She'd done with that a long time ago, in places that magicians could only guess at.

Vika frowned. He had been pleased when Sechan told him that he would attempt to bring Lilith to account on yet another of her deliquencies. That meeting in Sechan's office, part of what was often his normal routine, had yielded some unexpected fruit. After a while, he had come back to see how it was going. As he had expected, Lilith couldn't do a very good job-- even if she had been a good adept, he mused, no adept could hope to match a master, and Sechan was certainly adequate enough to qualify for his rank. Now he watched with some consternation as Lilith seemed to be trying some sort of fool trick- about like her, too. Her style seemed to be one trick after the other, leaving behind humiliation and ruin. He'd experienced the butt end of her shenanigans enough to know her style, and it was sneakier than a weasel. Vika reflected grimly that this one might be her death. Going into a mindbridge struggle was always a dangerous business, and with a Master it was sheer suicide. You were totally at their mercy. He sighed, partly in relief and partly in frustration, as the bridge narrowed on Sechan's side and he slipped out of it. Obviously, he'd decided to let her go, although it might have been nicer to show her how things actually were- a mindbridge was great for that sort of thing.

Sechan immediately followed his dropping of the mindbridge with a huge wall of fire that blasted across the arena. As the smoke cleared, Vika's eyes widened at the form of Lilith which emerged. She was still upright, although almost totally motionless- and her face and hand fur had been charred totally black. He saw the burns in her ears and almost winced in sympathy. Retraining his normally generous impulses, though, he turned away and left. On the whole, things seemed to have turned out for the best. She'd hurt for a while, but it would probably help take some of that cockiness out of her. Maybe now she'd be more willing to actually listen to some advice, rather than flaunting herself as she had been.

Sechan stared in something approaching shock. He had intended to teach this upstart adept a lesson, but to turn her into a cinder? He gulped queasily. The memory of the last couple of minutes was still searing through the background of his consciousness, and he had to admit that she was- had been?- a formidable adversary. The force coming at him through the mindbridge had been strong enough that he had actually been forced to seek escape. Why she had let him go, he had no idea- if indeed she had and it hadn't simply been his own expertise in forcing his way out without her permission. He'd followed it with a big wall of flame, true, but his impression had been that she could get out.. of... the...... way.

His nose finally registered its protest. He was confronting the ruin of a fur, and there was virtually no stink of burned fur, or flesh either. He glared at the motionless figure in front of him. As if that had been a cue, it faded away to nothing and Lilith became visible sitting on the ground about ten or twelve feet away. Sechan sighed in relief. Her ears were a bit redder than they should be, but that was basically it.

Sechan's voice seemed to echo in the grounds. "Adept Lilith, you have lost the training match. Come on back to my office. We need to talk."

"Yes, sir," she replied rather meekly. Lilith levered herself upright and decided that it was a rather hollow victory for Sechan. If it had been a real fight, he would have almost certainly been dead by now. He had simply stared at her illusion for about five or six seconds, plenty long enough to be killed several times over. Still, the aches in Lilith's own back and tail told her she hadn't escaped unscathed, as did the soreness in her ears. At least I won with the mindbridge... but I was so shocked when he started trying to wiggle out of it that I simply let him go. I wish I knew if that was good or bad.

She followed Sechan out of the arena, leaving several adepts looking rather stunned by the whole thing. She did notice a couple of glares from the two that had been displaced, though. A crawling sensation at the back of her mind decided that they were pure trouble. The fact that both of them had large parts of their faces replaced with metal simply made them look grotesque to her, although she had no doubt they considered themselves special.

Neither she nor Sechan said a word on their way to his office. After she walked in, he closed the door, and sat down behind his desk. Lilith looked around and decided it was definitely a cramped little hole in here. Like Vika's office, it too was lit with lanterns, but where he had made his lighting so indirect that it had seemed almost like daylight, this looked like a dark cave with shadows everywhere.

The shadows hid part of Sechan's face as he looked at her. Finally, he said, "adept, that is the first time since becoming a Master that I've engaged in a mindbridge with an adept. Did you know that?"

"No, sir."

Silence. "Is that all you're going to say?"

Lilith's tail twitched. "What did I miss, sir?"

"Come now! You aren't that ignorant. You know very well that I'm marveling at your audacity. Some might say foolishness, although I rather doubt that. You have a very high opinion of yourself- one might even say conceited- but that doesn't make you foolish."

"Thank you, sir."

Sechans sighed. "I see. You've gone into the 'very polite, very correct, won't risk a word, demure little adept' mode. Wise, in its own way, although not what I had in mind when I asked you in here."

"Sir?"

"Lilith, where did you learn the mindbridge?"

"From my dark-side Master-- Certes."

"Certes, hm? Yes, I think I've heard of him... competent, if what I remember is right, although no one remarked on any special skill along the lines you showed. That still leaves the question unanswered, doesn't it."

"If you say so, sir."

Sechan grimaced. "I do. I see now why you've been getting under Vika's fur. You're not impertinent in an open way, you just use and manipulate authorities to your own advantage rather than respecting their wishes."

"I'm sorry you feel that way."

"Yes, no doubt you are." Sechan drummed his fingers thoughtfully on his desk as he stared into space. Lilith didn't move any muscle she didn't have to while he did. Finally, he continued. "This meeting is going to be a disappointment for me, and a missed opportunity for you, if you won't climb out of that shell. So let's drop this master/adept business. We'll worry about any sort of training schedule later. Right now, I want to talk to you as one magician to another who has seen some very interesting things and would like to discuss them. What do you think, Lilith?"

"Missed opportunity?"

"Yes."

"Very well, Sechan, what did you want to discuss?"

Sechan restrained his urge to smile as he continued, "well, for starters, congratulations on forcing me out of that little mindbridge. I'm not used to losing those sorts of things. How did you do it?"

Lilith looked thoughtful. "Well, I'm not sure why you decided to leave. As to why I did as well as I did..." she shrugged. "I guess I just don't have any doubt as to what and who I am. And, too, there was the fact that I was getting very angry and frustrated with the whole situation. I could see no reason to getting dragged out of bed when I'd only had about two or three hours of sleep, and then nearly getting turned into a cinder. I'd simply had enough, and there was absolutely no doubt on any level that I was right."

"Hmmmmm..... yes, that sort of certainty would be a definite advantage. What I don't see is how you managed to accumulate battle scars without having them create doubts in your mind."

Lilith smiled rather bitterly. "You're right. I didn't, and they did. The hand is new- I guess you knew that. No? Well, it is, and I went through several days of wanting to die before I came to accept it. Then the bridge on my nose was even more traumatic. I was a light-side apprentice, but after getting this I became dark-side."

Sechan's eyebrow went up. "Doesn't sound like a history that would leave you with a real certainty of who and what you are. Changing sides, wanting to die... it all sounds like it would create a lot of insecurity."

"I guess it would for most furs. It's one of those things that will either break you or make you stronger. I guess what I'm saying is that it served as a furnace for purging weakness and foolishness."

"Where does the contempt for authority come in, though?"

Lilith blinked, and almost became guarded again. "I'm not sure that I do, sir, but I admit things haven't started off well here. Not well with the guildmaster, that is. I think that's where my problems come from."

"Why don't you respect him?"

"Because he doesn't respect me enough to think I have brains and perception enough to see that he's as crooked as a corkscrew. He's blind to anything but his own need to be right, I think, and I just can't respect that sort of thing. I've been hit with reality too many times to respect someone who avoids it instead of deals with it."

"An interesting analysis. I can see where you might reach that sort of conclusion- but why do you say he's crooked?"

"Well, the main thing was when he told me I was getting two bronze sovereigns a day. I know that he's getting more, and just isn't telling me- I can see a lie when someone tells it, you can too. Any adept or master can if they bother to look. I'm not sure if he does- or even if he can by now."

"Don't underestimate him, Lilith. Just when you think you've got him set down as the perfect villian, he'll do something totally out of the character you've made him out to be."

"Maybe so. So far, I haven't had a chance to see much."

Sechan nodded. "That's right, you haven't. I'm not sure how desirable it would be for you to see more, either. Oh well, be that as it may... go tend to your own business for today. Get me tomorrow morning and we'll look at that training schedule." Lilith didn't move. Sechan looked at her sharply. "Well?"

"Well, where's the rest of it?"

"Rest of what?"

"You said it would be a missed opportunity if we didn't talk. So I talked, but what sort of opportunity have I gotten in return?"

Sechan's mouth twisted, and he gave a rather bitter laugh. "You would think of that, wouldn't you."

"Yes, I suppose so. Actually, I'd just settle for knowing why you left the mindbridge. I may be good, but that good?"

"You mean you entered it expecting to be defeated?"

"I wasn't expecting anything. It was my way of expressing my complete and utter anger with the whole thing. Once I made my point, I wasn't even thinking about what happened next. But then you left it... why?"

"Because you let me."

"That was because I was too surprised to try to stop you in time. But why did you even want to? You had a good chance to teach me that lesson you seemed determined to shove down my throat."

Sechan winced and closed his eyes as if in pain. "You do know how to stab the heart of a matter. The truth, Lilith, is that I couldn't teach you that lesson. Now does that satisfy you?"

Lilith's jaw dropped. "Why on earth not??"

Sechan's nostrils flared as he gritted his teeth. "Because I wasn't as sure of myself as you were. I was definitely upset with what you had been doing, but well..."

"Not upset enough?"

"Partly. Also partly because I've not had that crystal clarity you so enjoy for some time now. Being in the situation I'm in requires one to admit that sometimes reality is a pile of refuse, and you just have to deal with it."

Lilith stared at him in silence for a while. Her soft voice finally asked, "how much of this morning's activities was prompted by Vika?" Sechan's face remained fairly impassive, but Lilith saw his life energies jump, and she nodded to herself. "I thought so. Yes, that would tear at you. Somehow, I think I may have it easier suffering his wrath than trying to live with him like you're doing. Good day, Master Sechan."

Lilith left without another word, and Sechan tried to feel angry with her for her presumption. But it collapsed as he had to admit that she'd put her finger on the heart of his problem. His perceptions of her had been colored by Vika's talk, and it had been that secondhand malice warring with the direct evidence of his eyes that had created the doubts which forced him out of their encounter. He tried to return to his work, but was haunted for some time by the remembered look in Lilith's eyes as she left. Why couldn't it have been something easy to discount, like triumph, or spite, or even just plain satisfaction? But it hadn't been. He had not been the target of her malice or bitterness, or even been a stepping stone for a personal triumph. He'd had her sympathy.