Free Sentience 1: Storm Clouds Gathering by Gibson Michaels

singular stones worn by the Dolrak. Varq also wore a black silk blouse, with black leggings — a uniform unlike any Drik had ever seen on a male, for those were the colors specifically reserved for Dolrak females.
    Dol… Varq really is an OverMaster. They’re not just legends to frighten cubs with. They’re real, and one of them raised me from a newborn! Drik shuddered at the thought.
    Xior had summoned Drik once again to his private chambers, as he’d been wont to do for several turns now. Strangely, the supreme-master routinely questioned Drik pertaining to even the most mundane particulars of Drik’s life — delving into virtually every aspect of it, as though he was truly interested in every insignificant detail. Drik wondered if somehow Xior might have selected him as a representative of the average Raknii, and might be trying to get better acquainted with them through becoming familiar with Drik’s background. Growing up in a region-master’s household, he didn’t see how he could be considered “average.” Confusing.
    “Ah, I see that your restoration is completed, Varq,” said Xior. “Join us, please.”
    Varq entered and bowed to Xior, and then the dour OverMaster turned to Drik and winked at him. Drik’s eyes bulged. He was as startled and shocked as he’d ever been in his entire life. Varq never winked… never. He had no sense of humor, whatsoever. At least, the surly old Rak he’d grown up with had never shown any hint of one.
    “Well, how does it feel, to no longer be stoneless, old friend?” asked the supreme-master.
    “It feels a bit odd to be invisible again,” said Varq. “But not extremely. The stoneless are almost as invisible within Rak society.”
    Invisible? The legends tell that OverMasters are invisible, but then I was always told that they didn’t really exist, too. How is it then, that I can see him? Drik was always pragmatic.
    Drik must have had a puzzled expression on his face, for Xior turned to him and said, “Are you ready for your ascension, Drik?”
    “Ascension, Master?” asked Drik. “I have been told nothing of my being selected for promotion, so I have not performed the ritual purification necessary for receiving the hypnotics of ascension.”
    “I think that Varq can see to that little detail.” Xior nodded to Varq.
    Varq reached into a hidden pocket and brought out a small vial, which he handed to Drik. “Drink and then recline. Quiet yourself and enter into Dol trance, as I have taught you.”
    Taught strict obedience to Varq’s commands from a tiny cub, Drik didn’t hesitate to do exactly as instructed. Soon, Drik lay virtually unconscious.

    “That’s not the standard sedative, is it?” inquired Xior.
    “No, this is the one I used when his fur required coloring.”
    “He never suspected?”
    “Not for a moment. He was raised to be very devout to Dol and the ancient ways, but he also displayed a natural affinity towards the old truths. He accepted all, as necessary parts of his devotions. Had he not been the one, I would have recommended him to join the ranks of my brethren.”
    “That unto itself is the absolute highest compliment that you could have ever possibly given him, Varq. It tells me much of his nature and wisdom and convinces me that he is, indeed, ‘the one,’ and that I am doing the right thing.”
    “He is. You are. There is no doubt.”
    “What of the decadent miscreants?”
    Varq thought it odd, that Xior could appear so cold towards his own get, but then Xior always had seen more clearly than most. Yes, he’d been lax in regards to the degeneration of Rak society, but that hardly mattered, for there was really little that he could have done to have stopped it anyway. Xior was not “the one.”
    Only Dol’s chastisement… the aliens , could humble the Rak people enough that they might see past their own arrogance, far enough to comprehend and follow the message of “the one.” At least Xior saw clearly enough to