"My son."

"Yes, my father."

"You know what you have been accused of."

"I do, my father."

"Then I have but one question for you."

A long silence. Then...

"No, my father."

Another long silence. Longer.

"I knew as much, my son."

"I know, my father."

"Then why do you not deny the accusation to all" Surely you know what this will mean if you are found guilty."

"I know, my father."

"Then why?"

"Because, my father. Now, but for my words, the tribe is united. Whole. Strong. Were I to speak the truth, the tribe would be divided. Weakened."

"But you are my son. Surely people will see the truth..."

"No, my father. Were I to tell the truth of what happened, I will seem a liar, desperate to save my own skin. I have no doubt that he will one day - perhaps soon - be seen for what he is. But until then, for the good of the tribe, I must make a sacrifice."

Another long silence. The longest of them all.

"You are indeed a great man, my son. Songs shall be sung of your bravery one day. Forgive me what I must do, but remember that you will always be my son."

"There is nothing to forgive, my father."

"There is much, my son...as you will perhaps see one day. Look for the morning sun, Sefu...she will be out there waiting for you."

It had seemed such an odd choice of parting words his father had chosen for that night, before the trial. Before his banishment, before the wandering of the desert.

Before waking up not in the heat of the day, but the cool shadow of the wood.

Before Lasair.

He has never heard this name, does not know its meaning. The heat he felt in her presence, though, a fire that does not die, only dims to a single flame when she is not close by, raging to inferno in her presence. As though her absence were the night, the first sight of her the morning sun heralding the start of a new day.

The strange music of her voice, the fire burning in her eyes. And despite the knowledge that they are not familiar, he feels he knows her nonetheless, somehow.

The morning sun, indeed. Had his father been prophet as well as chieftain?