Sentience 1: Storm Clouds Gathering by Gibson Michaels Read Free Book Online

part of a pride. I was around Glan’s pride, but never really of it. I envied Glan’s entire household, in their having an inherent place within it. Perhaps by not possessing pride membership myself, I came to comprehend how precious such belonging truly is — perhaps more so than they were able to appreciate it themselves. Not being of the pride, technically I had no true peers, as such. I was always an outsider, and therefore always different… a bit below them. But I did possess one thing that they lacked. I always had Varq.”
    “I can imagine that your servant virtually became your pride during those cycles,” mused Raan.
    “Yes, Master. Varq was sire, dam, littermate, teacher and friend to a small, frightened cub having no roots of his own. He shaped my development completely, much more so than the ‘education’ I received alongside Glan’s get. From Varq’s tales, I often felt as though I was living on Raku in the ancient days, every bit as much as I was ‘living’ in Glan’s household. He often told me that respect for the old ways was dying, but that I would play a role in its restoration. I always thought he exaggerated to keep me focused on his lessons and motivate me towards actually learning the old ways, when those around me only gave lip service to them.”
    “Was he prone to deception, if it was in a good cause, then?”
    “No, quite the opposite actually,” said Drik. “Varq was unmercifully truthful, even when it hurt me to hear it. He always said that he would never dare utter anything less than the full truth, lest I hesitate to believe him when it truly mattered. Only once did he speak such an obvious absurdity, I knew it false immediately.”
    “Really? What was that about?”
    “I was only a small cub at the time, and I had not yet learned that some questions are forbidden. I foolishly asked him about his life prior to his assignment to me — what his former rank-stone looked like and what position he had forsaken to raise me. His answer was so blatantly ridiculous that I understood at once that I had erred badly in asking such a personal question.”
    “Really? What did he say, that was so absurd?” asked Quadrant-Master Raan.
    “He told me that his rank stone had been black and that he’d been an OverMaster.”
    Raan’s blood froze. An OverMaster is a mythological creature of ancient legend that Raknii dams frightened cubs with, to get them to behave themselves. Black onyx rank-stones were reserved for the Dolrak priestesses of the Raknii god Dol, who were all females.
    The legends barely mentioned OverMasters, but what little there was attributed many incredible powers to them. OverMasters were said to be mysterious male Dolrak, who wore a High-Rak diamond sunburst around an onyx stone… but then, no one could possibly know that, as legend also said that the OverMasters were special servants of Dol and the Supreme-Master. Supposedly any Raknii who actually saw one was hypnotically programmed to immediately forget having seen him, which, in effect, made them virtually invisible… a hole within memory. Dams frightened cubs with stories of the Supreme-Master or even Dol himself, dispatching OverMasters to steal bad little cubs away to an unpleasant place where no one would ever see them again… so they’d better behave themselves or the OverMasters would get them.
    Suddenly, Raan wasn’t quite so sure that some of those legends didn’t have some basis in fact. Changing the subject, Raan said, “I take it he never gave you the slightest hint as to your birth heritage, then?”
    “Never.”
    “The most disturbing part of the prophecy is the lack of anything that might be done to avert it… mass deaths or total extinction seem to be the only options. I find both equally distressing.”
    “Master, Varq did mention a third possibility… the one that depended upon our people discovering this new form of wisdom he called morality ,” said Drik.
    “Morality is an ancient