Dr. Schugel was of no help answering Tanya's questions after the rather ungainly "goddess" experiment, insisting that he was not authorized to give her answers. Finally, in exasperation, he said, "Colonel Degurechaff! You do not have a high enough security classification to tell you anything else. You will have to find answers on your own!"

It took a lot of inquiries before the inquiries themselves began to undermine the security of the affair, so Tanya was told to report to a place called the Office of Scientific Intelligence, which was within the Naval office of Research and Development. When she arrived she was sent into a vault within a vault, She saw several heavy locked filing cabinets, and not a scrap of paper on any desk. They didn't speak, only handed her a business card for a physician practicing in the south, a Dr. Siegfried Dreuf, with the date and time of an appointment written on the back. And in someone else's handwriting a note to wear civilian clothes.

Instead of using a vehicle and driver from the General Staff pool, she cautiously arranged to have a late model luxury car, and a driver from her legion, an infantry NCO known for his mastery of close combat. While she could have enjoyed the scenery en route, she had a briefcase of paperwork that needed attending to. She was only halfway through when they arrived in the city of Fiena, where the office was located in his private residence.

A young woman that Tanya guessed was his housekeeper answered the door, then glared at Tanya as she presented the business card. She directed Tanya to an empty waiting room. Eventually, an older man she took to be Dr. Dreuf, asked her in to his office. It was unlike any doctor's office she had seen before, looking far more like a lounge or smoking room, with rather loud decor. Instead of having a chair for patient use, he had a chez lounge. Then the light dawned that he was a psychiatric analyst, which made no sense at all, until he asked her, was she "number five or number six?"

It took her a few moments before she remembered what Dr. Schugel had said, then said, "I gather that I am number 11." His eyes grew wide, and he pulled the cigar from his bearded mouth, before saying, "You mean, the number 11?" He seemed staggered by the information, but then loudly barked out, "Marta! You need to see this! Marta!"

The door opened and in walked the woman who had answered the door. "Marta!," he said with excitement, "I think this is number 11!" "The eleventh goddess?", asked the woman. The old man just nodded his head in the affirmative.

"Pardon me," said Tanya. "I am unfamiliar with your terms. I was told that I could find out about the goddess program here." The woman then apologized, and said "I am Dr. Marta Dreuf, the daughter of Dr. Siegfried Dreuf, this gentleman here. We are both 'Mananalysists', which is a Portmanteau of 'Mana' and 'Analyst'. We work with Dr. Schugel, mostly with mana theory, and he creates the mechanisms that control and direct mana based on those theories.

"So you're not psychiatrists or psychoanalysts?", asked Tanya, to rather puzzled looks from the two. "Er, no. What are those?", asked Marta. "Never mind," said Tanya.

Marta excused herself briefly to get a couple of chairs for herself and their guest, then once seated, she offered to explain, as she said her father tends to go into lots of details, so is much better for technical explanations, but she is much better explaining summaries. However, this rises to the level of a state secret, so we ask you not to casually divulge or discuss any of it with others.

To start with, your variety of mana makes you particularly gifted with creating extremely powerful point weapons, along with other forms of energy useful to combat mages. Dr. Schugel could not speak highly enough of your amazing powers. However, goddess number 10 is just about as powerful as you, but in a completely different way. Her mana expresses itself over a very wide area and it is particularly good at healing.

We theorized that your forms of mana could be combined to produce an effect completely different from either of you. Typically a mage stores their mana in themselves either like a battery or a condensator, which means the amount they can store is limited to their physical body. But number 10 is able to store her mana in a field outside of her body. Yet when your mana and her mana are combined in another mage, along with a large boost of mana, your mana acts as a template for that boost, and an immense mana field forms around them, like they were an inductor.

Each of the other nine goddesses were wearing a super charged operational orb called a number one, and with the energetic template from you, number 11, and number 10, each of them drained their orb when your mana blend was introduced into them. This was their priming charge to create their extensive field, that with exposure to another number one level of mana exposure will allow them to each store a vast amount of mana in something like an immense but almost invisible Leyden jar.

Tanya was speechless. She had seen the incredible power of a number one operational orb when she had used it to obliterate a gigantic weapons manufacturing site in the Unified States. It seemed impossible that a human being could control that insane amount of energy without being vaporized, much less twice that amount.

Marta continued. This is why those operational orbs were called one, two and three. Any goddess could control the energy contained in a number one in a field. Two goddesses could control the energy in a number two, and three goddesses could do so with a number three.

But why?, Tanya wondered out loud. Simple, said Marta. When Dr. Schugel created number one, a brilliant and innovative idea at the time, and you used it, that it could exist became known to the world. And in truth, the technology involved is not that hard. So what can we do to defend against these weapons, so that those with the most unstable orbs won't automatically win? And this resulted in the creation of the goddess project.

Any massive release of mana near a goddess and she will almost instantly absorb and convert it to a mana field. As needed, she can ground that field as well, using your ability, number 11, fertilizing, as it were, a large area of the ground with mana.

"But when I discharge a great deal of mana, it results in an explosion around the projectile, either in the air or on the ground," said Tanya. "In a way, it is like the discharge of electrical energy in lightning," said Dr. Marta, "though the analogy is imperfect. If the lightning hits an object or the ground, it can cause an explosion. But if it hits a lightning rod, it is peacefully grounded."

"The purpose of the computational jewel worn by goddesses one through nine is twofold. First it gives warning if they absorb too much energy, and second, it facilitates the grounding of their field. They do not act like your combat jewel or number ten's healing jewel. The goddesses are defensive weapons."

"I have become concerned about my Type-95 computational jewel, as it tends to cause blackouts in memory during its use, and I fear it may be causing some brain damage." At that point, Marta looked concerned, then said, "I will need to defer to my father about this, as this is beyond my expertise."

Dr. Siegfried Dreuf, who had been quietly taking this all in, suddenly spoke and said that to understand this problem, it would be necessary to first conduct a diagnosis of Tanya's mind. "To do so will require hypnosis, are you familiar with it at all?" Tanya said yes. "Then to get to the more hidden aspects of your mind, I will need you to first take some otherwise harmless drugs that promote mental relaxation."

"In doing so, we will discover whether your memories are actually gone, or if they have just been locked away in another part of your mind. Ordinarily I would use the first drug, called Erythroxylon, which is good to delve into the light subconscious mind and helps with the recall of dreams. But a colleague of mine, Dr. Albert Hoffnung, in the Waldstatte Confederacy, has developed a new drug which can unveil the deep subconscious. It is called Delysid. It takes around an hour to take effect, and in that time I can put you into a deep hypnotic trance. To reassure you, everything you say will be between us, as I have a very high security clearance, and will not even share this information with your military command. With your permission, I will ask Marta for assistance, and would like to tell Dr. Hoffnung if his drug was helpful, without naming names. And finally, again with your permission, for future development of computational jewels, I would like to share my results with Dr. Schugel."

Tanya agreed to the conditions. Then Dr. Dreuf added two more notes, that for a normal person a dose of 25 units of Delysid is sufficient, which over a long time can increase to as much as 200 units. However, because of Tanya's high level of mana, he thought it was best to begin with 200 units, two ampules. And, he added, that wrist and ankle restraints would probably be a good idea, as some higher mana patients tend to thrash about or instinctively try to fly. The drug will keep its effect for about three to five hours.

"If you are agreeable to this, then I suggest you get a good night's sleep in the area, then come to the office in the morning."

The next day, they had her remove her clothes, other than socks, and don a hospital gown. They also gave her a "grounding" computational jewel, in case her mana got out of control. Marta kept notes, using Imperial Shorthand, while Dr. Siegfried restrained her ankles on a strong padded medical looking table brought in to his office. Then he gave her the ampules to drink, one after the other, then restrained her wrists, before beginning his hypnosis.

Tanya's memories of the next several hours were very fragmented. She remembered going to the place outside of space and time where Being X existed, but Being X now looked like Dr. Dreuf, then Dr. Schugel, but didn't speak with her, and Marta was there and looked like Visha. Then she remembered Japan and the employee who pushed her looked like Being X. And then the nine goddesses were standing around her in a circle, chanting something at her before turning into pure white marble statues. Tanya realized that together they represented the classical nine muses.

Then Tasya appeared, as the Titanide Mnemosyne, the goddess of memory and the mother of the muses, and Tanya herself was Zeus, the father of the muses. With her right hand, Tasya pointed to the waters of Ameles Potamos, the river of unmindfulness, which flowed through the realm of Being X, and with her left hand, offered to Tanya, the waters of the Mnemosyne, the pool of memory, which would cause remembrance, and thus stop the transmigration of the soul.

As Zeus, Tanya drank from her left hand, and suddenly all the lost memories were restored. Not in her memory, but in her subconscious. Yet they were again hers, not lost forever, just hard to reach. But it was all confused. Why would she not want to be reincarnated?

And things were not improved as Tanya started to recover her senses. First she noticed that she was still restrained. But the rest of the office had been somewhat trashed. Dr. Dreuf was sitting back in his chair, exhausted, a half dozen burned cigars in the ash tray in front of him. Marta had a large stack of hastily written shorthand notes in front of her, and she was still frantically writing, pausing every now and then to shake her cramping writing hand.

Tanya tried to speak to them, but found her throat to be very sore, so it took a while for Dr. Dreuf to sit up and look at her. "Ah, are you in your normal state of mind?", he asked. While things around her looked more colorful than usual, and she had to struggle a bit to keep her attention from fixating on things, for the most part she felt normal, other than having a headache.

"So, what happened?", she asked, mostly about the messy state of the office. "A great example of 'manakinesis', a number of mostly small objects flying about the room. In retrospect, perhaps I should have fewer such objects in here. As well as some better way of grounding acute mana releases." Only then did Tanya notice that the expensive rug beneath her looked burned as if by a blowtorch. Tanya apologized, before he stopped her by saying that "We have learned more here today than we have in the last thirty years. Invaluable and totally, absolutely classified information that we can never publish. We can replace a rug."

"But first things first. We truly want to hear all about your home world, what Being X is like, and especially what you know about "psychiatry" and "psychoanalysis". Tanya could tell it was going to be a long few days. But after a bath and an invitation to one of the finest restaurants in Fiena, known throughout the empire for its cuisine, she felt a lot better. It didn't do Dr. Marta Dreuf any good, because she couldn't even pick up a fork in her crippled writing hand.

The next several days were spent in a lot of consultation, after Tanya had asked her driver to pick up Tasya, the 10th goddess, and bring her to meet the two doctors. Though Tasya had no memory of any past lives, there was a possibility that her mana abilities were induced in their mother's womb at the same time as Tanya's. That, and she had so many potential connections with the nine goddesses that it was vital that she experience something like what Tanya had experienced.

Strangely enough, the two doctors were the most apprehensive, having no idea, but afraid that it might be as destructive as Tanya's experience. And Marta's hand and wrist were still smarting. Siegfried said it best, "We haven't even replaced the rug yet."

But circumstances intervened, at almost the same time as Tasya arrived in Fiena, Tanya received a message that she had to return to Berun with all speed, so after a warm greeting to Tasya, and explanations from her and the doctors, the doctors offered to comfortably host her for several days, explain what was going on, experiment so far as she was willing, then to drive her home. To make it worth her while, and because she was her sister and living in relative poverty, Tanya wrote her a substantial cheque to buy food and supplies for the orphanages in her area, which Tasya had made her hobby.

After stopping off to change into her uniform, Tanya arrived at the general staff headquarters to find a major meeting in progress. The level of intensity was high, but different from the wartime meetings she had attended before. Colonel von Rerugen seemed to be directing a group of other officers and several civilians, each of whom were addressing a slew of crises that were erupting all over the world.

Now having become a hegemon, the Empire was forced to turn its gaze outward, against the chaos inflicting itself on much of the world. For example, their ally, the Akitsushima Dominion was having to face off against numerous regional fights caused by often very old arguments arising from the collapse of the colonies of the Francois Republic and the Commonwealth in their region, which was also causing enormous problems in Afria outside of the Empire's East Afria colony. Magna Rumeli was undergoing extensive growth problems under its new generation government, and the independent Turkman Principalities were increasingly confused and violent, sometimes against the new colonies of the Kingdom of Ildoa, but more often than not with internecine brawls. There seemed to be revolutions everywhere, something not seen since the year of revolutions in 1848.

The Unified States were contributing to the mess with enormous exports of cheap food, leading them and just three other nations to dominate most world food production and export. While at the same time, Afria was undergoing an unending famine, destabilizing the continent with starvation and demographic wars.

During a pause during the briefings, the question was raised of a definition of "demographic wars". Colonel von Rerugen explained that when a nation, or nations, have too many people to support, or in particular, too many men, in comparison to women, war is almost inevitable, as a means to reduce their numbers, though such wars have at least a thin veneer of some other cause, as no government dared to admit that they were involved in a war just to kill excess people.

Colonel von Rerugen slightly paled when Colonel von Degurechaff held up a hand to ask a question. "What nations are at risk for belligerence due to overpopulation?", she asked.

"Over-population", he slightly stammered at the new term, before thinking to himself how typical, that she so easily envisions people, military and civilians, as mere numbers. "Our foreign office has identified at least half a dozen modern nations nearing that point, and around a dozen, though less predictable, less advanced nations. The Russy Federation, for one, is trying to move in the opposite direction, and has been engaged with some success in forcing population growth, by using some scientific process to impregnate fertile women against their will. And while this will take years to build their numbers, they will eventually achieve enough 'over-population' to engage in aggressive war again."

At that point, a scientist, judging from his garb, offered his opinion that the Russy minister of science, Mudak Lysenko, is horribly corrupting science to evil ends, forcing it to conform with communist doctrines. Under him, the best scientists in the Federation must advance "scientific communism" as they call it, no matter how wrong it is, if they want to not be starved, not get shot, and not be made a slave in a gulag. Lysenko has already killed thousands of them for stating scientific facts that he had decided to change, but told no one yet. But he is a favorite of Chairman Josef for his doctrinal purity.

After the briefing, Tanya decided that she had to visit Dr. Schugel, now that she had the full complement of classified information that he hadn't been able to discuss with her before. Her questions for him were building up, and she suspected that all too soon she would be much too busy with conflicts to talk with him.

First she asked a series of questions about the goddesses, mostly about how they would ground their mana fields. He replied that using their computational jewels was a rapid discharge, like a lightning strike on a grounding rod. At first I was concerned if there were problems to them from a slow discharge, but then made an extraordinary discovery. It would be best if you saw it yourself. I have some basic flight gear here, and will give you a '97' jewel. I want you to fly a few miles east, over to a section of forest over there and land in the clearing in the middle, next to a small cabin.

It was not hard at all to spot that forest. The trees were enormous, very tall and with unnaturally thick trunks, and as she descended, she found that all the plants there, insect life and animals were also giants. The cabin was unoccupied, but had a bed and a desk, and she noted, there was no dust or mess, so it was recently used.

Later, speaking with Dr. Schugel, he explained that until a short time ago, that was a normal section of forest, and one of the goddesses consumed a second number one, then lived there for a few days, slowly discharging her mana field as a test. Truthfully, she was there for safety reasons in case she exploded. Not only did fresh water springs appear in the area, but everything started to grow with a rapid pace. Softwood and hardwood trees, grey rabbits that weigh as much as you do, it resembles a mythical primeval forest. Unfortunately there were no large animals or humans there at the time, though some entered later. Some of the technicians later harvested fruits and nuts, and some wild grain. I forbade them from eating them until they could give them raw and cooked to test animals. But those animals showed no ill effects. They even felled a cherry tree to inspect its wood and it was of premium quality and color. The water from the new springs was pure, and the soil was much improved, the mana turning it into very rich loam.

"If you had seed planted in a desert area and did this," asked Tanya, "could you turn that desert into a high production agricultural area?" "I would think so, assuming you had planted seeds beforehand," said Dr. Schugel. Thus began Tanya's plan to turn the Empire's East Afria colony into the "breadbasket of Afria". But first she had to locate some of the goddesses, convince them to travel with her to the colony, with number one or number two operational orbs, and use her combat engineers to prepare the desert for agriculture.

No easy task, but if successful it could both go a long way to stabilizing Afria, as well as enrich the colony to the point where a lot of wealth would flow back to the Empire.

To start the project, she would need the support of the Office of Scientific Intelligence. To convince them, she would first need supporting data from the economics ministry. Since she couldn't share even a little bit of the classified information with them, she would need to phrase things as totally hypothetical, then rely on their cultish admiration of her for them to back the project.

Things were not going to be that easy, for as much as the economists admired her, they couldn't support her hypotheticals on a "major agricultural project" until they had the support of the Agricultural ministry. Tanya had never been to that ministry, and had very little knowledge of how it worked, other than by supporting farmers.

Supporting farmers was a very small part of what they did. As farmers themselves, they tended to be very rational and realistic people, outside of church. They see what they do as a continual struggle, against the weather, against market forces, and even against other farmers, not just in a nation, but around the world. A moderate harvest means the best return, worse is a bad year, but worst of all is a very good year. The latter can cause prices to collapse and put farmers out of business. The best thing that can happen for a farmer is to have a bumper crop when all his neighbors have been wiped out.

Taken at the grand scale, agriculture looks insane, its individual parts reasonable and rational, but put all together and it is a monster. When Tanya first mentioned a "classified project", the senior bureaucrat she was talking to held up his hand for her to stop, then asked her to join him in the security vault. A vault in the Agricultural ministry?, thought a puzzled Tanya. What surprised her even more is that their vault had security that would make most of the War ministry envious. It even had a special room just for dialogues like this, kept apart from where the classified documents were kept.

The bureaucrat then gave the rather rote expression used in the ministry. "That while diplomacy is war by other means, that agriculture is war when you really mean it." Then he continued on by asking Tanya if she was aware that the Empire was currently embroiled in an "agricultural war" with the Unified States? She knew that whether she answered yes or no, she would get a lecture, so she asked him to discuss it later, as her pressing business might be of considerable interest to the Agricultural ministry.

She explained, that while carrying out some research and development, a weapons system had unexpectedly produced a profound change in the flora and fauna in a large area. Describing it would be impossible due to the nature of the weapons system, so it would be better if she could show the area to ministry scientists and experts and let them reach their own conclusions. They should bring their test equipment and it was likely they would need to collect many samples.

"My purpose in doing this is to get Agricultural ministry approval of a much larger scale test in an area outside of the Empire that at least initially would not draw scrutiny from foreign powers."

The senior bureaucrat was efficient, and quickly assembled a team of scientists, using their own parlance to describe their task. They were very disciplined and assembled their gear rapidly. Tanya then arranged a military flight to the research facility, then called ahead so that a truck would be waiting to take them to the forest. Tanya congratulated herself on cutting through the bureaucratic equivalent of the Gordian Knot even faster than had Alexander.

She told the pilot to do an overflight of the forest, so that the scientists could see it from a distance. She noted that the trees were even larger than they had been, and assuming that would also apply to the insects and fauna, she was sure to bring her sidearm and extra ammo, though mostly just normal bullets, but some short range magical ones as well.

In the back of the truck, the scientists seemed very animated and excited. After arrival at the forest, Tanya curled her lip slightly with the realization that they had all donned tall rubber boots and she didn't have any. After all that time on the Rhine front, and I'm still annoyed with the prospect of getting muddy. Ah, such is life.

The scientists practically bounded into the woods, as anything and everything was just amazing to them. But when one of them saw a grasshopper larger than his hand, Tanya ordered them to stay close, a wise precaution, and they drew even closer when they saw a grey rabbit that must have weighed 100 kilograms. What truly frightened them was seeing a giant boar being attacked by an almost as large giant badger. Tanya dispatched them both with a single magic bullet.

They were ready to leave hurriedly by then, but then they located the small cabin. Grasses and moss had overtaken the nearby ground, but the concrete slab and the cabin were still in reasonably good condition. The scientists were visibly relieved to be able to go inside and see something normal.

This was a great opportunity for Tanya to lobby them for their support in carrying out an experiment like this in an arid desert, designed with ordinary agriculture in mind, converting many miles of barren terrain into very fertile farmland. Of course their biggest concern was water, until she assured them that part of the process brought forth an abundance of fresh water for the plants. One of them said that he had never seen a forest with such rich soil before, soil that typically only happened in river deltas prone to flooding. Then another remarked that a place like this probably had not existed since the age of ancient reptiles.

After the rest, the scientists busied themselves with collecting samples until their kits were very heavy, then the group hiked back to the truck. They were impressed enough to even collect their muddy boots to have extra soil to analyze. The team leader assured Tanya of a glowing report to the economics ministry, and again emphasized that everything said and done was very secret. Though he then admitted that depending on their results, the entire forest might have to be incinerated, either to protect the Empire's agriculture, or to prevent foreign powers from investigating there.

After the agricultural ministry's glowing but otherwise opaque report to the economics ministry, Tanya finally had a ticket to speak to the Office of Scientific Intelligence. She presented them with her scheme as a formal proposal, and after examining her timetable, agreed to provide her with the use of three of the goddesses for a week. They warned her that the Empire would be somewhat vulnerable to enemy attack in their absence.

Tanya had already selected about a 500 square mile stretch of empty desert in East Afria. Her intent was that two goddesses would consume a number two, then slowly discharge. Once the springs had erupted, they would know where to plant. Because this had never been done before with number twos, for safeties sake their discharge cabin would be built on several large pontoons, in case a spring erupted under them.

After they were done, they would leave the area and another goddess would enter, consume a number one and discharge in those areas outside of the first area, to make them fertile as well. Tanya made sure to position some observational mages carefully outside of the mana area, to record the event on their operational orbs. Since the assumption was that the spring water would be pure, trucks were nearby to dump loads of plant waste into the water, to introduce healthy bacteria and nutrients. Then giant freshwater crayfish would be added. They would eat the plant waste but are also very sensitive to chemical contamination, so if they died, there was likely something wrong with the water.

No one suspected that beneath that desert was a very old, very large fault line full of stored energy, and a large aquifer. The two goddesses consumed the number two, dividing up its energy between their mana fields, then layed down on their beds in the cabin to begin their slow discharge. Soon springs began pouring water as much as two or three miles away from them. The trucks moved in and dumped their waste and crayfish, then drove away as fast as they could.

Then it was observed that some of the springs kept enlarging, with more and more water coming out. And then the earthquake hit, and with it the water turned into a flood. The two goddesses were very lucky that their cabin had pontoons, as the rock ceiling underneath them collapsed as the contents of the aquifer was pushed to the surface, leaving a very deep lake below. Yet by this time the flow through of mana had put them both in a very deep sleep. They were still asleep when rescued.

The lake kept growing, and then as more of the rock ceiling and walls above the aquifer collapsed, it became somewhat shallower but spread out more on the surface. Being the only large animal to get such a huge dose of mana, the giant crayfish became enormous. As long as a man is tall, and weighing about as much. Thousands of them, reproducing quickly.

A mage who later admitted it, thought the crayfish needed food, so went to a river some miles away and scooped up some fish which he dumped in the lake. The small fish he picked up included several Nile perch, which may naturally grow to 200 kilograms, but in this case grew to 500 to 800 kilograms. And they found the giant crayfish tasty. But while the initial idea of creating farmland didn't work, soon the tables of the Empire soon had an abundance of delicious perch and crayfish, "from lake Tatiana, which was formed by an earthquake," said the official press release. And once sauciers from Parisii made their way down to the colony to get fresh fish bones and fat, they made some superb sauces Veloute, Tartar, and Tomate that were then frozen and shipped to the Empire with loads of ice packed fish steaks and crayfish meat. They were the feature of the new Fischmarkt Fests, with more local freshwater fish and seafood, that soon rivaled the popular fall harvest fests.

Some of Tanya's engineers, a bit disappointed at the project's failure to make farmland, put in extra effort to build protected side pools for other kinds of fish, and to turn the banks of the lake into an attractive recreational area, planting trees, shrubs and grasses, so that when the third goddess was taken on a perimeter tour, slowly grounding her mana, a healthy forest was created, whose fruits and nuts, if not eaten by visitors, and foliage, would tend to fall into the water to become food for the crayfish.

While they were engaged in this, the Ildoan Kingdom, on friendly terms with the Empire and having recently crowned their new king, was asked by the Emperor if they would like the much larger shared great lake in the northwest of the colony to be renamed after him, since the lake was divided by the Empire in the south and the Kingdom's colony in the north. But he demurred as he already had an Afrian lake in his name, but then made an agreeable suggestion he said came from his staff, that the lake be renamed after a citizen of the Empire that they deeply admired, named Major Viktoriya Ivanovna Serebryakov. The Emperor was agreeable, so the lake was renamed Lake Serebryakov.

The northern side of that lake soon became a favorite tourist destination for those from the Ildoan Kingdom and the Empire, offering beautiful scenery with plentiful wildlife, and a luxury hotel called "The Argent", featuring excellent Ildoan cuisine. When her legion had been particularly good, Tanya would invite the officers for a week of dual holiday and staff meetings in a reserved room there. Since there would have to be a toast at some point in the evening, carafes of wine would be on the table, and Major Serebryakov would excuse herself to get Tanya a fine Ildoan coffee in the kitchen, which was where she spent much idle time, complementing the staff on the Ildoan food they lavished her with.

The male officers spent hours discussing the merits of the Ildoan rifles being sold there and bought more than a few to take home, but none of them had any interest in joining a hunting safari, instead wanting to join motor tours and take photographs.

On the first night, passing by the bar, Visha saw a handsome young man there, wearing the Imperial uniform of a Captain of the Guards Cavalry Division. Introducing herself as an Imperial mage stationed in the East Afrian colony, he said he had been brought as an aide for his superior officer there on business, but had been dismissed earlier in that day so his superior could enjoy the night life. Then he said from her accent he guessed that she was a Russy emigre, and that his family were also from Russy.

She wanted to talk further, but had to excuse herself as she was getting coffee for her boss. He acted casually about it but then expressed an interest in maybe talking some more later, that he would likely be there for the rest of the week. He introduced himself as "Bravo" Fedorov.

Neither of them noticed the two older men on the other side of the bar glaring at them from a booth.

The next morning, while helping Tanya get ready for the day, Visha mentioned the handsome Guards Captain. Tanya replied that it was good that she socialize, but to remember that many men can be predatory. "They can look young and handsome, and still be as dangerous as the men in the legion. Who I'm surprised that haven't tried to seduce you," and then she paused before saying, "yet."

"I think that's because they are terrified of you, Colonel!", Visha blurted out.

"Enough!", said Tanya. "I have had enough of these unfounded fears in the people around me. So, while I won't order you to do it, let me strongly suggest that you go on a social event, a date, with this young man. And when you do, if even for a moment, let at least some of the male officers see you with him. This will convince not just you, but them, that they can normally associate with you without my killing them!"

"Yes, ma'am! Uh, Colonel!", replied Visha, interpreting it as an order.

The next day, Visha was rather nervous and tense, for several reasons. Tanya, however, was feeling a mixture of guilt for browbeating Visha, and the strong belief that she was telling the truth, making her increasingly nervous that this new male wolf would treat Visha like a rabbit caught unawares. So for this reason, Tanya issued Visha a concealed dagger just in case things went terribly wrong, and insisted she take it with her on her date. And so she could wear a formal dress, Visha was excused from attending the staff meeting and wearing her uniform. Great timing as well, because the hotel was holding a formal ball that evening, very popular with guests.

Her plan was good, except that the rest of the staff officers would be in the meeting, so wouldn't see Visha dancing with a handsome young man. So at a given time, Tanya planned to ask her senior officers to step outside the private room to see something "interesting".

When the time came, all of them, Tanya included, were surprised to see Visha ballroom dancing like a pro, in the arms of a handsome young officer, the young couple looking glamorous. By all appearances Visha was having a great time. And then, "Bravo" Fedorov saw Tanya. Speaking to Visha, he asked her if Tanya was her commander. When she said "Yes", he abruptly asked her to introduce him to her. Visha was halfway through a reply that "The Colonel is working, so we shouldn't...", before he spun her around and put a sharp knife to her throat. "I really must insist," he said before pushing her in Tanya's direction.

They advanced towards Tanya and both Visha and Tanya saw that he had a pistol in his other hand. Just then, the two older men, guns drawn, came up behind Fedorov and yelled "Halt!" He quickly spun around and fired on both of them, wounding each. Then turned back towards Tanya while yelling "I have a message from the Politburo for you!"

In the next moment, he fired his gun at Tanya, but missed, a bullet grazing Major Koenig's cheek, as Visha plunged her dagger into his chest, and a half second later Tanya used her sidearm to shoot him in the face, a disfiguring, but not fatal injury.

Somewhat the worse for wear, but not in danger, the two older men identified themselves to Tanya as Imperial counterintelligence officers. And even with bullet holes in them, they searched the wounded man and after examining the contents of his pockets announced that there was likely a bomb in the area, so everyone should evacuate immediately. All the Legion officers and guests had left the building before someone noted a briefcase underneath the table in their conference room that nobody had claimed. Right next to where Tanya had been sitting.

There was nobody around competent to disarm it, so it was allowed to blow up.

One of the Legion officers in attendance was a medical mage, Lieutenant Colonel Dr. Karl Molodoy, and he both tended to the counterintelligence officers and worked on stabilizing the wounded assassin. Tanya was extremely angry at Visha being held hostage, when she asked the two men to explain the situation. They replied that they had been tailing one of the Russy Federation's assassins, with no idea as to their appearance, gender or even target. He was remarkably arrogant, using the name "Bravo" which is a synonym for assassin. What does his last name mean?, asked Tanya.

"Fedorov", one of them paused for a moment. "It means 'gift from God'," which made Tanya grit her teeth and snarl under her breath. "Gift of God Assassin", she said to herself.

When the assassin was stabilized, three very hard looking men showed up in a large car. They claimed jurisdiction over the assassin in the name of the government of Ildoa. One of the counterintelligence officers assured Tanya that where they were going to take him was worse than anything the Empire would do. "He will not be seen again," they said to her. "Some of their noble families still have dungeons in their castles, and bloody minded attitudes towards assassins."

Then Tanya noticed that Visha was off by herself, sitting down in her blood splattered ballroom gown, looking despondent, rocking forward and back, sobbing and crying.

"How is she doing, Dr. Molodoy?", she asked. "Well, given the Major's history, I'm surprised that she hasn't experienced 'shell shock', from all the combat she has experienced. People vary considerably in their ability to cope with such trauma, which is very widespread in the Imperial army right now. The Medical Corps and contracted private physicians and specialists in the mind have been very busy. I often collaborate with them. Mental analysis was my field of practice in the Russy Federation prior to the communist takeover, and my imprisonment for being a mage."

"Do you think Major Serebryakov would benefit from therapy?", asked Tanya. "Almost certainly," he replied. "There is even a some physicians that specialize in the mental health of mages. Every few years, combat mages need mental evaluation to insure they do not have 'shell shock' or other issues that limit their ability to carry out their duty. Their lives depend on it, but they try to tough it out. However the demands of war caused the study to be combined with their physical health and mana strength until recently, when it was integrated with mana study and became a new specialty apart from physical care."

"So, are they mananalysists?", asked Tanya. Dr. Molodoy looked startled. "I'm surprised you have heard of them. It wasn't long ago that the Medical Corps assigned them that clumsy title. Have you visited one?" "That would be classified," Tanya replied coldly.

"Oh, I understand, my apologies. But it would do much to support the Legion's mages and to establish the mananalysist group as legitimate, if you would support a long term program of cycling the mages through based on their combat experience. Dr. Arthur Adler and Dr. Otis Rank are two of the more practiced ones, and for the senior officers there is Dr. Siegfried Dreuf, who is kind of the leader of our group."

Tanya was not the least bit surprised at the mention of Dr. Dreuf, though agreeable to the idea. So she asked him first, about which of the doctors would be best for Visha. "My first choice would be Dr. Adler, as he has the most experience with non-mage 'shell shock', having worked with hundreds of soldiers, as well as female mages. He has a large staff of gifted specialist healing mages for physical as well as mental healing, and some of his female patients have spoken highly of them, for their ability to heal cosmetic injuries and scars as well, even joking that they might accidentally make a woman a virgin again."

"But," he concluded, "I wouldn't hesitate to send any of our mages to any of the doctors."

Tanya realized she had no idea of having such an asset in the Legion. "So, Dr. Molodoy, what is your background as a doctor in the Russy Federation?" He then explained that his family were originally from the Waldstatte Confederacy, but traveled to Russy for his father to work as a bureaucrat and for him to attend medical school at the renowned Imperial Moskva University. "Several of my patients were military mages, who suggested that I was strongly gifted as a healing mage."

"My family first tried to avoid the chaos of the communist revolution and even changed our family name to make it sound more Rus. But right after we had decided to leave the country, I was arrested for being a mage, and my parents were murdered in front of me, which was the policy of the communists. Then in my despair I was sent to the gulag to die, like millions of others."

"Your rescued of us from that horrible place, right when we had been concentrated there to be wiped out, abandoned by God, convinced many of us that you were our benevolent goddess, and we are your servants, though some of us still cling to the old God. We are people of science and reason, and much prefer a goddess we can see, over a God that ignores us and lets us suffer and die."

At that point, Tanya had to get all the officers back to Imperial territory, and had to run a gauntlet of humiliated and apologetic hotel managers and staff, and even some Ildoan nobles vacationing at the resort, while holding the still traumatized and sobbing Visha to help her walk. As soon as they got back, and Tanya helped her shower, Dr. Molodoy gave her a Luminal tablet to help her sleep.

Tanya checked in on Visha at the hotel where the officers were staying in the colonies capital, while arranging a medical appointment for her back in the Empire. When Visha awoke two days later, she was very confused at being totally surrounded by large bouquets of flowers and get well cards sent by the Ildoans as well as the Legion officers. Then Tanya entered and Visha exclaimed, "Colonel! Look at all these beautiful flowers! Why are...", and then she remembered, and began to sob and cry again, as Tanya walked over and gave her a long, caring hug. She just couldn't stop sobbing, though. And after a time, Tanya noticed that she was weeping as well.

The medical leave for Visha, accompanied by Tanya, was easy to arrange and was seen by all as an expression of care for her subordinate. But in truth, ever since Visha's breakdown, more and more Tanya was feeling the years of stress well up inside her as well. After a brief diagnosis, Dr. Arthur Adler said that tentatively, therapy for Visha should take a minimum of two weeks under care at his facility. But this did not sit well with Tanya, as while waiting she became restless and found it hard to sleep, so had taken to making back alley strolls at night.

After some days of this, the manager of her hotel warned her that Berun was under watch because a prolific child killer was active on the streets, and he showed her that days' newspaper. She assured him there was nothing to worry about, as she was a soldier, though didn't mention her concealed sidearm nor her 'Nahkampfmesser' (close combat knife). But he still fretted in her absence.

One evening, cold and rainy, Tanya was so lost in thought that she caught herself and wondered if she was walking around in circles. On this particular muddy street, she was almost certain that she had walked under this small, old stone bridge before. Next to the bridge was an old door, with a dimly lit sign above it saying "Magisches Theater", and because of its poor condition she figured that it was the back door to some entertainment establishment. Just then the sign flickered out, so she figured that maybe it was closing time. Of small moment, she then decided that she wanted to return to her hotel with the idea of forcing herself to sleep, so she would be presentable to Visha who was expected to be released the next day. She slept, but her dreams were restless shadowy nightmares of carnage, battle, explosions, fire, drowning and death, all advancing on her, but just out of reach. She woke up with a start, feeling frightened and even more tired than the night before.

Signing her release at the front desk of the facility, Visha was all smiles, and as Tanya was about to ask her how she was feeling, she walked over and gave Tanya a big hug. She was surprised but even more so when Visha pulled back, then kissed her passionately on the lips. When she broke the strong embrace, Visha once again pulled back, and in a loud voice said, "I love you, Colonel", before kissing her again. Tanya was speechless. But then something very dark, very contained broke free in Tanya's mind. Her tears started flowing freely, painful tears, tears of agony, suffering and despair, and she couldn't make them stop, She started sobbing, and Visha stopped and looked at her face with shock, and then with a strong spasm in her body, blood rushed to Tanya's head as she fainted in Visha's arms.