Maybe Colene would be able to help, by putting some other thought into Tom's mind. It was all Nona could think of at the moment. She sank into sleep.
In the morning Tom was up before her, and foraging for food. He brought her a pear-apple. "This isn't the best," he said apologetically. "But I would not go far from you, after what happened last night."
"Because I would get into mischief," she said wanly.
"That, too," he agreed, with a rueful smile.
She roused herself with difficulty. "How are you feeling?"
"Rather weak and disoriented. But I will manage."
"I drew your life force from you, to make the illusion. Then I returned some of mine, so that you would not die. But this has left both of us weak."
"I understand. It was kind of you to help me."
"Tom, I want you to understand that I did not comprehend what I was doing to you. First I almost killed you. I am so sorry."
"For you I would gladly die. Take anything you want from me."
"I fear that is part of it. When we exchanged life force, in effect, I may have made you love me. That was most unfair."
He shook his head. "I understand that you did what you had to, to save us both from the flytrap when my ability was not enough. Then you did what you did not have to, to help me. You have been most generous, and never unfair."
"But—" She was unable to find words.
"I understand that you are the mistress, and I the null. My feelings have no relevance."
"Yes they do! I never meant to hurt you this way. I would reverse it if I could."
"I am glad that you can't."
She looked at him, trying to mask the horror she felt. He regarded himself as a servant. Now he was a love slave. He refused to blame; her. "I think we must get back to the Feline village," she said after a moment.
"Of course."
She ate the fruit, and then they set off. It was apparent that Tom was not strong, though he tried to conceal his weakness from her. If any danger threatened, they would be in real trouble.
But it was day, and nothing interfered. They managed to maintain a fair walking pace, despite unrelenting weakness, and finally stumbled into the village, where Darius and Colene met them.
"What happened to you?" Colene cried. "You both look awful."
And their minds were surely too confused for the girl to read with any precision. "We encountered a flytrap," Tom said. "Nona enabled us to escape, but we are—are—" He pitched forward, fainting.
"Very tired," Nona finished for him, and collapsed beside him. She was not unconscious, but she was too weak to get up again. They had both hung on until the reached the safety of the village, then relaxed and discovered how little strength remained.
"Darius, I think we need some joy," Colene said.
"We have no donor," he said. "You can't do it."
"I will do it," Pussy said.
Nona tried to protest, lest Pussy suffer as Tom did, but was unable to speak. She saw Darius embrace the female Feline.
Then suddenly Nona's mind cleared, and her body recovered much of its strength. Beside her, Tom was rising. They had done it.
"But Pussy," Nona asked. "What of you?"
Pussy looked stunned, but smiled. "I—will be—better in a moment," she gasped. "I—did not expect such a draining."
"Yes," Darius said. "I was able to multiply and broadcast, at least to the four of you. Pussy's level now matches yours, only slightly depleted. She will hardly be aware of the difference."
"This is magic," Tom said, awed. "We rehearsed for magic, but did not really believe it."
"I'm glad it worked," Colene said. "Because we expect the ship to arrive at any time."
Both Nona and Tom were blank. "Ship?"
"The one bringing the four human nulls—and taking us back to the anchor world."
"How do you know it will come here?" Nona asked.
"Cat signaled it when Darius took the chain. Also, while you were gone, Goat and Buck arrived, and Goat received a signal too. The Caprines and human nulls will take our places here on Chains, and continue the good work."
Now Nona saw the others: the two remaining Caprines, standing with Doe. "Hello," she said.
"Hello, Nona," Goat said. "We are glad to meet you. Doe has spoken well of you."
Nona had hardly interacted with Doe, but let it pass.
Buck looked a lot like Tom, being large and muscular, but had a beard and hoofs. Goat reminded her eerily of Cat, until she realized why: both were neuters, and the intelligent leaders of their trios. "I'm sure we'll get along."
Tom and Nona had had their life forces restored, but were tired apart from that. "We must rest," Nona said. "Come with me, Tom." She wanted him with her because she was afraid he would otherwise be put to work and not get needed rest.
They lay on her bed. "Now we can complete the rest we did not fully achieve last night," she told him.
"I thank you, Nona, for helping me hide my weakness."
She wasn't sure what kind he meant, and didn't inquire. She held his hand and closed her eyes, and soon felt him relaxing into sleep. He was indeed tired, and had been hiding it. Then she allowed herself to sleep also.
The afternoon passed. Nona felt much improved when she got up, and Tom looked better too.
Then it was time for dinner. Tom rejoined his trio, and Nona sat beside Colene. "This is weird," Colene murmured when the attention of the others was elsewhere. "You have more dolor than I do, right now."
Suddenly Nona felt the weight of her situation. She had made Tom love her! But maybe Darius' superior power of emotional transfer could change that.
"No," Colene said. "He can draw and give back joy, but love is something else. That's part of why he's stuck with me. But you're right: Tom loves you. He is barred from loving me, the way Pussy is barred from loving Darius. But that didn't apply to others. The officials of DoOon just didn't think there would be another young woman with our party, or that we'd ask to have the Caprines here. So now Doe loves Darius, and Tom loves you. We'll be leaving soon, so neither Doe nor Buck will be a problem, but the Felines will be going with us. Maybe when you get your full magic back you can change his feeling."
"No. The making or dissolution of love is not within my power either."
"Maybe something will work out."
That was all she could hope for.
The meal dissolved into another dance, for the Felines were still exhilarated by their newfound freedom from fear of the dragon. Indeed, the dragon came, and immediately several villagers joined it, assisting in routing out rats, and talking to it. It seemed the dragon understood their speech, and could respond with twitches of its tail; dialogue was feasible and expanding. This was the course other villages would be following as they gained confidence in the new order.
Tom and Cat came to dance with Nona as a trio, and she could not refuse them. But she felt continuing guilt for what she had inadvertently done. They might be nulls, committed to lifetime service to human beings, but it simply wasn't right to inflict such a burden on them. She suspected that this would interfere with the internal rapport of the trio.
After the dance they retired to their chambers. But Nona couldn't settle down and sleep. She needed a better answer than she had. It had never been her way to torment others. She left her room and walked outside.
There she met Doe, who was also alone. She still wore the chain of paper clips Darius had fashioned for her. "Buck said you might wish to talk to me," Doe said.
So Doe's presence was no coincidence. "Yes! I need to know what happens when a null loves a person."
"Nothing. Nulls have no rights with respect to Humans. In fact, some masters and mistresses prefer to have their nulls love them. It makes for more passion, and better sexual experience."
"But that's cruel! What about when the Humans move on to other nulls?"
"Nulls are constantly reassigned. Our feelings are not relevant."
"Yes they are!"
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Doe shook her head sadly. "You sound much like Darius."
"I may marry Darius." That gave her an internal shock. She had meant to sort out her feelings with respect to that, and had not yet done so. Darius was a fine man, but that arrangement lacked most of what she desired in a relationship.
"When neither loves the other," Doe agreed. "So both of you would be like masters, without passion."
They were walking past the dying bonfire, away from the village. Nona found the darkness oddly reassuring. "What does love mean to you? Within the trio."
"We understand each other. Our passions, like our bodies, are entirely at the disposal of our masters."
"I think Tom was saying something similar to me. In fact he said that he would not want to have his love for me abolished if it were possible to do so."
"It is true. My love for Darius gives my life a meaning it never had before. I live to be used by him, in any way that he might wish."
"But true love is not a matter of using! It is shared passion."
"Not for nulls. We may love, but can not expect to be loved, other than within our trio."
"Soon Darius will go from this world, this Mode, and leave you behind. What then, for you?"
"Oh, I wish I could serve him longer!" Then Doe recovered control. "I apologize for being emotional. Buck and Goat will support me, and in time my passion will fade. This is the way of it, with nulls. I am glad to have had even this brief association with Darius. He is such a fine man."
"You have no grief, no anger about the situation?"
"Grief, yes."
"And you never had sex with him."
"He bade me not to. Colene would not have appreciated it."
"But if the choice had been yours?"
"The choice could never be mine. I would have been glad to indulge his passion. As it happened, I was glad to refuse, because that was his choice."
The nulls really were different. They seemed to have no proprietary feelings with respect to humans, only the desire to serve. Nona realized that many humans would find that quite compatible. She did not. "What of Tom? He will be with me until the mission is done, then will no longer be with me. How will that affect him?"
"He will be your most loyal supporter and defender throughout. When you are done with him, he will make no objection."
"That's a significant part of what bothers me. I don't want to do any of that to him. I'm sure Darius doesn't want to do it to you, either."
"You are both very kind to be concerned for us."
There seemed to be no satisfactory answers here. "Thank you, Doe. You have helped me understand."
"I am glad."
They turned around to walk back toward the village. The light of the bonfire caught Doe's face, and Nona saw that it was glistening wet. Oh, yes, this Caprine woman had feelings, though she would not let them interfere with her duty.
Nona returned to her chamber, and was able to sleep, though her dreams were troubled. She still had no answer she could abide.
In the morning she discovered she had overslept. She had indeed been tired, and the prior afternoon's nap had not been enough. She had missed breakfast. She hastily got herself ready and stepped outside.
Tom was there. "I have fruit for you, Nona," he said.
"Why, thank you, Tom. That was very thoughtful."
"Cat suggested it."
Cat had suggested a way for Tom to better serve Nona, and Tom was not taking credit. But what use to argue? "Join me in some fruit," she said. "What else have I missed?"
He joined her, obeying her whim without question. "The ship arrived before dawn. The others are there now."
"The ship! I should have been there."
"Colene said to let you be. You will not be left behind."
"No, only Doe will suffer that."
He did not reply, probably because he did not understand. That meant in turn that Doe must not have spoken to others of their dialogue in the evening. The nulls were discreet about the concerns of humans.
They walked out toward the ship, eating the fruit. Nona soon saw it, a huge vessel lying on the sward not far beyond where she and Doe had walked. There was a crowd around it, and she realized that the villagers probably seldom saw such a ship, and never before right at their village.
Cat and Pussy came from the throng to meet them, followed closely by Darius and Colene. "The human nulls are here," Pussy said brightly.
Nona saw the Caprines and two sets of other people who looked astonishingly like Darius and Colene. "Perhaps we should be introduced," she said. Her strength had returned, but so much had changed that she remained somewhat disoriented.
Darius and Colene exchanged a smile, and Nona realized how seldom she saw Colene smile. She was in a temporary state of joy, thanks to Pussy's donation. It would of course soon wear off, but was surely nice for a while.
In a moment there were six people standing before them, three men and three women. Then they clustered together, did a little dance with swinging and exchanging, and separated into three couples. "Can you tell us apart?" one Colene asked. "Which couple is original, and which two are nulls?"
They had arranged to wear similar clothing, so that there was nothing to set any couple apart from the others. Nona could not tell them apart. Except—
Except that their expressions differed, subtly but definitely. One man and one woman were, well, dominant. The others were submissive. But the two dominants were not together.
Nona marched up and took one Darius by the hand, pulling him out of the line. "Hello, Darius," she said. Then she fetched a different woman. "And hello, Colene."
They laughed. "How did you guess?" Colene demanded. "We thought sure we'd fool you by mixing up the couples. Did you use magic?"
Nona explained about the expressions. "But you would have fooled me, if you had had more time to prepare. You look identical."
"We're supposed to. The human nulls were made to emulate us as exactly as possible, and they were updated when the real ones appeared." She paused, eyeing the emulations. "You know, I sort of like my look. But that's probably because the joy I got from Pussy yesterday hasn't worn off yet. But when we get to Darius' Mode his magic will keep me mostly happy, and that will help."
"But meanwhile we need instruction," one of the other Colenes said, sounding just like her. "What are we supposed to do on this backwoods planet?" Evidently the Human nulls had not been raised on Chains. They were probably a special issue, with no neuter component.
"You're supposed to help the Caprines manage a revolution," the real Colene said. She launched into the explanation, forgetting Nona.
"You have given us positions of real responsibility," Doe said to Nona. "We certainly appreciate it."
Nona looked at her—and suddenly found herself in tears. Doe, responsive to implied as well as direct wishes, embraced her comfortingly. And of course that was backwards. It was Doe who loved Darius, and would soon see him leave forever. While it was Nona who would go with him and in due course marry him—when she didn't love him.
And that was it. Darius was a wonderful man, one well worth loving, but it was not her place to love him, and she was not going to. She would never do that to Colene. That being the case, she didn't want to marry him. Which meant that she didn't want to follow this course. Yet she seemed to be locked into it. What was she to do?
"Oh, Doe," she whispered. "I wish you could go in my stead."
"I wish so too. But that is not possible. I could never leave my trio for such a selfish reason, and you would not like it here without your magic." Doe toyed absently with her chain.
How true. Darius' Mode might not be the place for her, but neither was the DoOon Mode.
By the day's end things had been organized and they were ready for the change of guard. The Caprines and Human nulls would continue the conversion of dragon relations, and be allowed any social relations they wished. That would be a good situation for them all. Except for Doe, who would be left wit
hout the man she loved, only the paper clips to remember him by. There was no help for it.
They did not spend the night. They bid parting to the villagers, and Doe hugged Darius with momentary abandon, then turned away, not letting him see her tears, not making a scene. Nona couldn't help herself; she pursued the Caprine female and hugged her too. No more needed to be said.
The seven of them entered the ship. There was no sensation of motion, but Nona knew they were gone; Planet Chains was light-years away. She judged that the trip out had taken about two hours, and the velocity was about a thousand light-years per hour, so even one minute was something like sixteen light-years. From the Feline villagers, from the Caprine and human nulls. From Doe's futile love.
They went to their cabins, the same as before, then had dinner, as before. There was dialogue, but Nona did not retain it. She was suffering pangs of separation from Chains, though it was hardly a planet she liked. She was also in continuing dismay about her own situation with Darius. Increasingly her position was coming clear: she did not want to marry him. But neither did she want to spoil his chance for happiness with Colene. The two women were ironically linked.
She saw Colene looking at her across the table, and hastily changed her thought. The girl would know soon enough, but Nona was not eager to share her misgivings yet.
The ship arrived at the capital planet as motionlessly as it had departed Chains. They walked into the elegant palace with its omnipresent translator balls and were conducted to Emperor Ddwng.
Then man wasted no time on amenities. "You have taken the chain," he said to Darius.
Darius showed the fine metal chain he now wore around his neck. "Yes. I will deliver the Chip."
Ddwng nodded. "With you there is no question of evasion or trickery. You will do your best to complete that mission."
Darius looked at him with something akin to contempt. "There is however a question with you. A condition of delivery is that Planet Chains be left to complete its social revolution. The three Caprines and four Human nulls with whom we interacted will be left there without interference. Should this not be the case when the Chip is delivered, the Chip will be destroyed."