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She exhaled in exhaustion and wagged her finger at him. "Enough of that," she mumbled, toothless. She Wafted behind him and sent her claws speeding toward the back of his head.

Dav Wafted, appearing to her right, and socked her square in the jaw, knocking her down.

Davage Wafted again, this time appearing behind her. He put his arm around her throat.

"I am still awaiting the removal of your mask, ma'am," he said.

She struggled for a moment and giggled breathlessly. "Oh, sir, I am enjoying this. You fight well." With a gloved fingertip, she traced little designs on his arm. "How shall I do it? How shall I kill you? The choices are endless."

Davage suddenly grabbed her by the nose and ripped her sash off, exposing her face. He hoped that her little nose will come off with it.

There again was the red hair, the pale skin, the green eyes, the strange mark around her right eye, and a red, throbbing nose. It was Captain Hathaline, her face with a bleeding mouth.

She puckered in rage. In a cascade of Shadow tech, she blasted him off of her. He landed a few feet away, the touch of the Shadow tech galling and unbearable.

She stood, her mouth pulled back in a scowl. Her teeth were a broken and jagged patchwork.

Davage sensed that he was in extreme danger. He Sighted, looking up into the blasted sky.

Sten … she was creating a Sten field over his head. The Sten was an illegal Black Hat specialty. It was an invisible force field; Black Hats used it to protect themselves from most incoming projectiles and energies. To touch a Sten was a shocking, deadly experience. To touch it for a moment unloaded a massive shock into the person. To touch it for more than a moment or two was utterly deadly. The major drawback of the Sten was that it was very draining to use and somewhat slow to create. Adept Black Hats could create a Sten far away from their bodies. They could move and shape it, turn it into a killing field.

This Black Hat, this Sygillis of Metatron, appeared to be very adept. He could see the Sten field beginning to form overhead in his Sight.

Moving with the speed of a championship athlete, he rolled away, just clearing the edge of the Sten, and it sparked into the ground.

She looked at him quizzically. "Can you see my Sten? How is that possible?"

"Sight," Davage said, wondering if she was now going to take his Sight away from him too. He should have said nothing.

"The Sight does not exist. The Black Hats have proved it does not exist."

Wickedly grinning, she created a small Sten maze and set it over him.

"You are encased in a Sten. I have boxed you in. There is death all around you. Let's see how well you can see it."

"I'll just Waft away."

She smiled. Hathaline's face, alight in evil. "If you do, I'll blow myself up, again taking most of the ship with me. Run my maze, Captain, and your crew will be safe."

"I think you are lying," he said.

"You are probably correct."

His CARG appeared in the center of the maze. "I will even give you your silly weapon back, should you survive to reach it."

The maze was shifting, moving. She created paths and then closed them just as fast. He took a step in the wrong direction intentionally. He wanted to see if she changed the maze, to prolong the torment.

She did. She moved the wall, allowing him to enter. With the way open to his left, he stumbled in that direction. She apparently was enjoying this sad game.

Outside, she was delighted. "I once killed a whole squadron of League Marines with the Sten, one just like this one. I simply swept it across the field and they died, screaming. You should have heard them scream."

Davage tired of this game. He looked at the CARG. It actually wasn't there—just a simple TK paint. His Sight gave it away. He made to reach for it and then Wafted. He Wafted right into her and planted her in the chin with his fist, sending her flying. She hit the ground and, grimacing, fired a sinewy, intestine-like rope of Shadow tech at him.

It wrapped around his throat, its brackish, clammy, stinking substance sticking to his skin like glue. It felt like it was alive, full of crawling, biting, stinging insects. His skin recoiled with discomfort.

Spinning him around, she wrapped him up like a spider packaging its prey for later consumption and then plopped him down.

He couldn't move a muscle.

He tried to Waft, and she laughed. "You cannot Waft through Shadow tech. I am sorry."

She slowly approached and knelt down. "You have fought well, truly. I have fought Xaphan warlords, Marines, League Fleet ships, even the Sisters. You have lasted longer than any of them. You have pained me. You should be proud."

"You cheated. You took my weapons from me just as you were about to perish several times."

She leaned forward and licked him with her bloody tongue on the nose. "And so?" She stopped and regarded him. "Hmmm, how should I do this?" she said. "A pity. If I was capable of feeling such things, I might actually like you."

"You're going to kill me now?"

"Of course I am, and I'll not think twice about it. Perhaps fighting you for eternity in hell, as we soon will be doing, won't be such an unpleasant thing."

She smiled and raised her hand. "Have you ever witnessed a person die by the Point?"

"I've been briefed on its effects."

She shrugged. "You really must see it to truly appreciate it. Usually, people simply explode from the inside out. The Giftless, the Browns, die instantly, but Gifted Blues take a bit longer. Many times Blues explode too, just like Browns, but occasionally powerful Blues, like you, do random sorts of things. I've seen people turn inside out. I've seen bones crack and entrails turn to dust."

She lifted her finger. "I wonder what you will do."

She reached out to Point.

There was a flutter of movement from a distance. She hesitated.

Davage looked at the Black Hat. For the briefest possible moment, there appeared to be two of her standing there, facing each other.

Having no other weapons available to him, he lit his Sight and blasted her. His Sight, aside from being blindingly bright at full, tended to have a calming effect on those looking at it. Maybe it will calm her enough to relax her coils.

She looked at his eyes, mouth agape. She stared, her green eyes glowing like emeralds in his light.

"What is this?" she cried. "
What is this?"

She smoked in his Sight, plumes of black soot belching away from her as if she were on fire in a stiff breeze.

Her Shadow tech cocoon crumbled, and he was free. He wasn't sure what was going on, but his Sight clearly appeared to be having an effect on her. He approached and continued, hitting her with it as hard as he could. She stood there in the spotlight of his fully lit Sight, smoking.

She fell to her knees, her eyes locked in place.

There was an audible blast, and a cloud of darkness appeared to part from around her.

She sighed and slowly reached out for him. "Lord Blanchefort?" she said in a small, probing voice. "Lord Blanchefort … I …"

The floor to the dreamscape fell away, and she dropped, hanging onto the edge, her broken arm dangling.

Down below a vast, fiery mouth appeared. It opened in a smiling bellows, exhaling fire.

"DDDDDDIIIIIIEEEEEEEEE!"
it rumbled.

"It's her!" she cried. "It's her!"

She hung on to the edge in the onslaught. "Lord Blanchefort," she said. "Help me, please!"

A long tongue of fire and evil lapped up, tormenting her. "Please!" she shrieked.

Davage crawled forward and pulled her up by the wrist. Standing, he bore her away from the edge, the rumbling and fire passing into the distance. When he thought it safe, he stopped and put her down. Things became indistinct. The dream began to fade.

She stood there looking at him with new eyes.

She faded away, and his dream became his own again, the battle fought and apparently won to some extent.

He rustled in his bed and then continued sleeping.

In the morning he only remembered having a strange dream, a dark dream having something to do with Sygillis of Metatron, the Black Hat. The most vivid thing he could remember was a flash of light and green eyes.

6

"RED"

"Lord Blanchefort, you are an exasperating man!" the robed, headdressed Sister said as she sat in Davage's office.

It was the morning following Davage's bizarre trek into the brig. He'd had that strange dream and been badly sick that morning—either it was nerves or his body reacting to the Black Hat's power. After a few hours of throwing up in the bathroom, he finally felt like himself again, though his skin crawled for some time to come. And he noticed he had several odd, painful welts on his back and chest.

Davage took a drink of coffee. "Sister, either your spoken language skills are getting better or I am becoming more telepathic. I cannot determine which from which."

The Sister turned to Kilos and silently spoke to her.

"Dav, she says she's been practicing up for that remark. And I must say that I agree with her. I cannot, and she cannot, fathom why you are returning to the brig again. Tempting fate again."

Davage put his coffee down and picked up a report. "As I have said, I have not yet had my questions answered. I don't see what all the fuss is about. I was not killed yesterday."

The Sister again filled Kilos's head with thoughts. "The Sister says your implacable cheek probably had the Black Hat discombobulated yesterday. Today she will be more ready to do you in."

Davage considered that for a moment. She was probably correct. He looked at Ki in her Marine uniform. Her long red coat reminded him of a side of beef.

"She could do me in from here if she so chose. Wouldn't that be a spectacle, to make my head explode in my very office?"

"Be serious, Dav."

"I am deadly serious. Sister, may I offer you some coffee?"

The Sister looked at Davage and after a moment, nodded, the wings of her headdress bobbing slightly. Davage got up and poured her a cup of steaming coffee. "How do you like it, ma'am?"

"Black …" she said herself in her strange accent.

Davage finished pouring and offered her the cup. She took a few drinks.

"Good …" she said.

"Dav," Kilos said, "the Black Hat needs to be killed. The Sister says she will kill the Black Hat today."

The Sister appeared sad.

"The Sister says she is sorry. The Sister says she does not wish to disappoint you, but the Black Hat will die today. She must."

"The fact that this Xaphan looks exactly like Captain Hathaline gives you no pause, Ki?"

"No, it doesn't."

"Really? Ki, when I say that she looks like Captain Hathaline, I don't mean she bears a vague similarity to her. I don't mean she
sort-of
looks like Hath or that she
kind of
reminds me of Hath. She looks exactly like her, for Creation's sake!"

"Maybe it's a Cloak." A gold thread stuck out of her stiff black and gold collar, catching the light.

"If it was a Cloak then I'd know that, wouldn't I? There has been no Cloak devised that I cannot Sight through. She is Hath's double—her twin, and I want to know why. I must know why. I'll not see Hath die again." He smiled. "By the way, Ki, you've got a thread, just there."

"She's not Captain Hathaline, Dav!" Ki said, whirling around, trying to get at the thread. Ki was very particular about her uniform. It had to be perfect, or she'd go mad.

The Sister, looking anguished, spoke to Kilos again. "Dav, the Sister implores your forgiveness. She wants to know if you will find it in your heart to forgive her when the Black Hat is dead." Kilos got the thread and shook her head. "Boy, Dav—I've never seen a Sister this concerned about how a Fleet captain feels."

"Sister, you need not fear, for I love you like no other. But again, I will be in the Black Hat's presence again today, and I will die right next to her if need be."

The Sister closed her eyes and winced.

"Dav, are you insane?"

"Ki, we are the League. We are the children of the Elders, nurtured with their teachings, bathed in their light. We are supposed to be the good guys."

"We are the good guys."

"Are we? You and the Sister here are spoiling for her blood, without cause, without trial or referendum. Is she, the Black Hat, something to be killed, nothing more? Is that something the Elders teach?"

"Black Hat," the Sister said holding her cup. "Sygillis of Metatron … murderer …"

"All I saw was a frightened, starving woman, sitting alone, surrounded by enemies."

"Black Hats don't feel fear, Dav. You're assigning her attributes she doesn't have," Kilos said.

"Black Hats … evil. Black Hats must die."

"The institution certainly, is evil, I acknowledge that. But the people, the Xaphans … they are us! They must be capable of redemption."

Davage stood, his blood rising. "Sister, we made a promise to the Elders. We promised to stay in this sector and defend life, defend all we could from the Xaphans. Well, there it is. There is the life to be defended sitting in my brig. In this case, the life needing defending happens to be a Xaphan. Xaphan or not, Black Hat or not, her life is worth defending too."

A tear came to Davage's eye. "Sister, Kilos, are we so familiar in our war with the Xaphans, are we so comfortable in our hatreds, that we can forget the very basic nature of our charge, our ongoing mission? It could very well be that my father was right, after all—that there is hope for our two factions. And … and should you be correct and she chooses to snuff the life out of me—to kill me, to murder me in cold blood—then I will go to my death doing what I thought was right!"

Davage leaned against the wall and wiped the tear from his face.

A soft hand touched his back. Davage turned. He thought it was Kilos.

It was the Sister, still holding her coffee cup. A tear rolled down her cheek too.

"You … a good Elder, Captain," she said. "A … great loss … you die."

Davage laid his hands on her slender shoulders. "I've no intention of dying, Sister. I am certain I can do this. I am certain I can get through to her. I am certain I can awaken the Elder within."