While it was possible to recognise another T’En by his or her gift, there was too little residue left on these plaits to identify anything but the genders. Imoshen wanted to get through the formalities and make her point about the consequences of burning the banners, but there was still a pile of plaits dating from the war three hundred years ago. She watched with growing frustration and astonishment as the leaders of the T’Enatuath voted to build a memorial to those who had fallen in the previous war. Then All-father Saskeyne’s voice-of-reason sprang to his feet and claimed stature for their brotherhood. And, to Imoshen’s amazement, the others acknowledged it. Her gift surged and she read them as a group; they were so intent on their own little world and so used to dismissing Mieren as beneath them that they did not grasp the larger implications. She was causare, their nominated leader, but she led only by consensus. If she destroyed Saskeyne’s stature, he would retaliate with aggression.
