Magda felt an overwhelming sense of presumption; she had come to a Comyn lady to complain about one of the lady’s own caste’ She said hesitantly, “The Lady Alida is determined to have me tested for laran, and I am afraid that if she explores my mind that way it may cause trouble for all of us.”
Rohana looked grave. This is my fault; I should have sent the Terrans away. She said, “We were both surprised to find you in the rapport when we were working in the matrix. Have you been trained in these powers among your own people?”
Magda shook her head. “Among us, there are not too many who even believe that such powers exist, Lady. Those who believe in them, or claim to be able to use them, are thought ignorant, superstitious, credulous.”
“I had heard that.” Rohana knew that had been one of Lorill Hastur’s reasons for the ban on too much mingling with the Terrans. They do not believe in these powers; once convinced, they would be greedy to know all about them, and exploit them.
Rohana said, “Belief or not, you seem to have this kind of laran, child. How came you by it?”
“I do not know, Lady. All my life I have been able to use hunches, but I believed it was simply that I had a talent for adding up things which were subliminal- just a little below the conscious levels of perception. And there have been times when my dreams were not-not nonsense, but told me things I did not consciously know; so I have learned to take heed of them.”
Rohana leaned her chin thoughtfully on her hands. This meant they must reevaluate most of what they had learned about the Terrans. “Lorill is committed to a belief that Terrans and Darkovans are different races of beings, and that the Terrans are inferior; and he uses their lack of laran as proof.”
Magda said, “My Lady, I am not supposed to tell this outside the Terran Zone, either; but the Lord Hastur is mistaken. This is not a belief, but a fact that can be proved; Terran and Darkovan are one race. It is known to us beyond question that Darkover was settled by Terrans long ago by one of what we call the Lost Ships. In. an age before the faster-than-light ships that we have now, there were ships that were sent out from Terra-it was not an Empire then-and some of them were lost and never heard of again. There is evidence from your languages that it was settled by a ship whose very name I could give you, and the names of those aboard. It is most likely that this knowledge was lost to you centuries ago, Lady-probably to keep the survivors from pining too much for their lost homeland- but your people are truly Terrans.”
“Then psi gifts-you have them, too?”
“It is rumored that once they were more common than now; now they are very rare, and there was a time in our history when people used to pretend them, or feign them with clever devices and machinery, so they fell into disrepute and their use was considered charlatanry. But there seems evidence that once they were known.”
Rohana nodded. “There was a time in the history of the Comyn,” she said, “when we did selective breeding to fix these gifts in our racial heritage; it was a time of great tyranny, and not a time we are very proud to remember. It led to its own downfall, and we of the Comyn are still suffering the aftermath; not only in the distrust the common people have for us, but in that our fertility was lowered by inbreeding; and the gifts are linked to some dangerous recessive traits. But they are powerful, and when misused can be very dangerous. Which brings me to you, child. Normally, psi gifts waken in adolescence; when they waken later there are sometimes dangerous upsets and upheavals. Have you felt any strange sensations, any unexplained sickness without physical cause, any sense of being outside of your body and unable to get back, any wild emotional upheavals?”
“No, nothing like that,” Magda said. Then she remembered the moment of altered perspective during the healing, but that had passed off quickly and of itself.