Falik poked his head around a doorway that opened out on to a small secluded rose garden in one of the more hidden courtyards of the older part of the palace. It was early evening and he had about an hour to go until it was time to commune with The Voice of the Tribes.

Recently he had been getting disturbed in his room when it was time for The Voice and he had missed the last few nights. It left an ache in his heart to be cut off from the rest of the Bazhir.

Falik had brought an old book and a parchment to prepare a report for the mornings lessons in the time that remained. He stretched out on the grass and closed his eyes momentarily, turning his face up to the gentle warmth of the late sun.

"Ah." He said to no-one in particular. "Peace at last, if anyone finds me here I'll eat my burnoose!"

Livia was about to enter the garden, a place she had found yesterday, to read her book and practice on using her Gift, when she heard a young man muttering about eating his burnoose. "Well, we wouldn't want that now, would we?" she giggled to herself quietly.

She guessed from the voice that it was Falik Al Basiri, the page from the Bazhir. Perhaps he was meditating or something. He was here first. I'll let him be, Livia thought fairly. Still, she watched him doing whatever he was doing, partially concealed in the shadows.

Falik had already begun the deep breathing that would take him down in to the trance like state that brought him in contact with The Voice and touch that pure white blaze that was the magic of the Bazhir and of the land. He was vaguely aware of someone coming in to the courtyard, and the sneaky, still concious part of his mind said, "Well you're going to look like a fool now."

Falik hoped that whoever it was wouldn't be troubled by what he was doing, some of the gifted in the palace found the time of The Voice quite eerie to watch.

He felt himself slipping in to the blaze of white and joining with the Bazhir and The Voice's calm reassuring words in his head.