The warrior smirked confidently, as he circled Zeralin Lah with the air of a man blessed with obvious surperiority over his opponent. He was a whelp of a machine, Tren Illic, a shame on the Illic domain, and a blight upon the Yuuzhan Vong. The tizowyrm in his ear shuddered, vibrating the air in a way which mimicked a Yuuzhan Vong's mutter.

'Let the fool live. We have gathered enough intelligence for today.'

Zeralin Lah's eyes slid around to point towards the side of his head, as if to glare at the tizowyrm. His mumbled reply was rife with menace.

"I take no orders from the Shaper Caste."

Tren Illic took the momentary unattention and quietly uttered words to be a sign of weakness, or distraction. Or both; they were, essentially, the same thing. The idiotic young warrior capitalized on it, or attempted to, as he leapt forward at Zeralin Lah, his amphistaff gone limp so as to effectively work as a whip. The living weapon swung in, aimed at Lah's neck. The more experienced warrior's eyes narrowed at the young Yuuzhan Vong, as he brought up his own amphistaff, ordering it to elongate and harden with a caress As flat as a board and as sharp as a knife, Zeralin Lah brought it up and easily blocked the attack, shunting it aside. Zeralin Lah held his enemy's amphistaff off to the side, and swung his foot up to kick Tren's elbow. A crack echoed as the younger Vong's arm broke. The wide blunt end of the amphistaff wielded by Zeralin Lah swung in, cracking loudly on the back of Tren's head. The young Yuuzhan Vong slipped into unconsciousness as he fell to the ground.

Zeralin turned his back on the his fallen enemy, heading for the closest opening in the crowd which had encircled the vicious fight. He strode calmly away from them, leaving many mouths open wide at the near-dead warrior still lying there. Lah made his way across the ground, which was covered in a hard, living bone which replaced what infidels would call, "duracrete", to the large hut made of a living creature. All Yuuzhan Vong technology was living; they had a great distain for non-living gadgetry that the infidel caste seemed to love so much. Entering the doorway, a semipermeable membrane which allowed only certain biological signatures through, he pulled the tizowyrm from his ear and approached the waiting shaper. The attractive, slender young female nodded at him.

'I told you to leave him be.'

"You told me not to kill him, Shaper. I did not; I punished him. Why is it we indulged Yun-Harla in these deceptions?"

'Because that which we study also changes. The more inconspicuous we can make our evaluations of our warriors, the less they will change their performance to appease us. We want to see them in their typical form, the form they would use in battle.'

"It sickens me. Your caste may have been founded by the Godess of Deception, but mine was not. And you have no place in the affairs of warriors, Niat Shai."

'And you have no place in the affairs of the Decieving Godess, Zeralin Lah; sacrifices must be made for the greater good, and the will of Yun-Yuuzhan.'

"Speak not that name... you are unworthy of it."

That quip left Niat Shai staring coldly at him, as a snake evaluating a kill. Then, surprising, her eyes narrowed and a confident smirk crossed her face. She slid over to him, thin body moving sleekly, and ran a finger down Zeralin Lah's muscled chest.

'You fought so well... I was most... impressed.'

Lah tilted his head, for a moment considering indulging in the pleasures Niat's manner suggested. Then he pushed her hand away; there was an attraction between them, yes, but...

"Warriors and Shapers do not mingle in such ways, Niat," He mocked her, using only her first name. She reciprocated.

'Do you always do what you are told, Zeralin?'

Zeralin grimaced. He disliked falling into the Yuuzhan Vong stereotype of blindly-obeying pawns, moved about like pieces in a childs game on a galactic board.

"Only when it suits me. Master Ter has requested my presence; I cannot dally with physiological indulgances."

'As you wish, Zeralin Lah. You will be back, even if you don't know it, yet.'

Zeralin Lah left that living structure, an uncomfortable feeling in him; his faith and beliefs were disagreeing strongly with what he felt to be logic. His recent behavior had reflected similar conflict- for one, his participation in Niat Shai's scheme to select surperior warriors for analysis and training. Perhaps he had unconsciously been displaying other blasphemous desires, and that was the root Master Ter's request for his audience.

Perhaps.

But he obeyed, begrudgingly, heading for the primary structure in the Yuuzhan Vong settlement.

'A command... yes, a command. One like no other.'

"A command, Master? I am afraid I do not understand. I had assumed that you, in asking me here, had some sort of quarry; a concern with me, perhaps."

Zeralin Lah stood rigidly straight, his back as flat and long as an extended amphistaff. The Vonduun crab armor he wore was accented flourishingly at the shoulders, the point of each shoulderblade curling off into a sharp point which faced towards the sky. A good portion of the skin which was visible to the common eye upon him was mottled with dark scars. An odd mutation in his Yuuzhan Vong blood caused his scars to heal into dark, hard scar tissue--something which had originally made certain elders consider sending him to the Shamed caste as a young child.

But Zeralin had risen above that challenge, proving so fast, strong, and quick-witted for his age that his warrior teacher had outright refused to relingquish the young Yuuzhan Vong. That teacher had been the legenary Czulkang Lah, his grandfather; the warrior's muscled legs and back were pocked deeply with the four Czulkang Pits he'd recieved during that training. The pits were a punishment, one which, at one time or another, even the greatest warrior training under Czulkang recieved; a few were a badge of honor, while too many marked you as a fool.

Zeralin had recieved only those four in years of training. The young Yuuzhan Vong's eyes followed Kevvek Ter as he circled around him, as if appraising the younger one. Those eyes were accented by his most major scarring; the four flowing scars which ran from the inner corner of both his eyes up, into his forhead. Two above, two below, the lines were dark and hard.

'For the Czulkang Project? No, I have no objection to it; no more than is natural. I realize that only the best students can train under the mighty Czulkang Lah, and I wish for that--all students of Czulkang Lah have served the Yuuzhan Vong well.'

"I have no fondness for it, either."

Kevvek glanced slowly at Zeralin. The warrior Master was far more scarred than Lah; a sign of his age and advancement. 'I did not say I disapproved of it.'

"You did so in more words. I am not so fool as you may think."

Kevvek Ter struck him then, hard, across the face. The welt stung, a soothing pain rushing up Zeralin Lah's cheeck and into his eye. He did not turn his head with the blow, or flinch; he embraced the pain evenly. Kevvek Ter seemed impressed by this, and nodded. 'You are right, of course; I simply felt as if I should strike you for your impudence. I find indulgences to Yun-Harla distasteful.'

"Yes, sir."

'You are familiar with the annihilation of Ithor?'

"Of course. One of our first conquests; we defeated the Jeedai Corran Horn at that world, and released a living agent which enthralled and annihilated the ample life on that planet."

Kevvek Ter shook his head. 'Incorrect. What you say is what was written; in truth, the Jeedai defeated Shedao Shai, taking his life and exploiting the allergy of earlier breeds of Vonduun crab armor to pollen, of all things.'

"I see." Zeralin Lah nodded slowly, taking in the revelation of Kevvek Ter's words. It was written in Yuuzhan Vong chronicles of that first invasion that Shedao Shai defeated the Jeedai, remaining on Ithor though, giving his life in glorious service to Yun-Yuuzhan, defeating thousands of enemy soldiers. A lie. "I thought you disliked indulgences to Yun-Harla? Why purpetrate this lie?"

Kevvek Ter's eyes flamed. 'I should kill you for that. Were you not as gifted as you are, I suspect many would have done so already, Czulkang Lah included. You should reign in that, impudence, Zeralin, lest I reign it in for you.' Kevvek Ter slighted Zeralin Lah by only speaking his first name.

"Of course."

Kevvek Ter paced over to a lightbug board, covered in tiny, crawling glow worms and bugs which emitted the faintest of colored glows. Circles of them represented ships, red lines of them represented borders of Praetorite Vong territory. 'Ithor was destroyed by the Yuuzhan Vong. While we, the Praetorite Vong and the Worthy Heirs of the Yuuzhan Vong, now claim the Yuuzhan Vong history as our own, little is known of the particular creature which was unleashed upon Ithor. While the soldiers which joined the Praetorite Vong leadership after the fall of the First Invasion shared with us many details of the other various engagements, so many of the Domain Shai detachment given to the Infidel fool of a machine, Shedao Shai, were killed, that few know it's origins. We have but one, long-dead sample, which our shapers tell us is utterly useless.'

"And now we wish Ithor back, but our own defences may kill us?"

'Essentially, yes. The world was crafted so perfectly to our needs; the new climate of Ithor is ideal for Yuuzhan Vong life, as well as the growth of coralskippers. We must prosper upon this world; it has been permeated by living tissue crafted by the Yuuzhan Vong. It is truly destined for us.'

Kevvek Ter reached out, tapping the small green dot which was Ithor, many glowbugs joining that circle to accent it in a white glow. "How do I enter into this?"

'I will dispatch to you four groups of coralskippers, a full division of troops, and ten shapers. Reign in the creature of Ithor, but keep it under our control. Do not destroy it, and you will live; failure will mean death I needn't even inflict upon you.'

Zeralin Lah looked puzzled. "Why me? Why not one more worthy?"

Kevvek shrugged. 'Czulkang Lah reccomended you to us to lead this expedition. The prized student of the former Warmaster should not be kept to work with fool shapers.'