"I told you, there much touching is, in-clan." Hovan put an arm around the man's shoulders. "The closeness good is, not so?" "Yes . . ." Tarlac said slowly. "Yes, it is. It's strange--I shouldn't like it. A Ranger has to be self-sufficient, has to stay apart--has to be objective and impartial. I'm not, any longer." "What will that mean, when you to your Empire return?" Hovan had zeroed in on Tarlac's thought, though the Ranger didn't believe what he described would ever have a chance to happen. "I'll have to retake the psych tests, then it depends. Maybe I'll be disqualified from anything that involves Ch'kara or the Traiti, maybe I'll have to resign. The decision will be up to His Majesty." "He would you demote?" "Only if he doesn't have a choice; the Empire needs Rangers. And even if he does have to demote me, I won't be dishonored or anything. Something like this happened once before, about four hundred years ago, to a Ranger named Jeff Shining Arrow. He lost his detachment, too--got married, had kids--so Empress Lindner made him a Duke. Emperor Davis would probably commission me into the Fleet." "That no dishonor is, true. Do you think it will to you happen?" "Yes, if I've changed that much. It could be a lot worse, of course . . . but falling in love's no crime, it's just something the Empire can't afford in a Ranger." "That the real reason is, then, why you no family have." "Yeah. I didn't mean to evade the question then, I just wasn't sure I could explain it. I didn't know you very well." "I understand. You never anyone met, who more to you than the Empire meant." Hovan shook his head. "That a thing of much sadness is." Tarlac didn't answer. They were at the dining room by then, and food, not conversation, was in order. Not long after their meal, the two were being escorted through the halls of the single building atop a low hill called Godhome, located in the center of the Traiti capital. Tarlac, not wanting his skepticism to be too obvious, had cautiously asked why the gods needed a material home. They didn't now, Hovan had told him, and they hadn't since the Supreme Lord of the Circle, Kranath of St'nar, became the first of the new gods. The old gods, he explained, the ones the Traiti called "those who went before," had left Godhome as . . . something. Nobody except the Speakers had any real idea about its purpose, and they were saying nothing until the twelfth Lord completed the Circle. At any rate, it had seemed appropriate to join the centers of spiritual and temporal power.