But he was also still of Ch'kara. After a long moment, he said, "Okay, I've changed, but that's enough. We're still n'ruhar."
They straightened, still radiating awe. Tarlac could sense the clan both as an empathic entity and as the individuals composing it: Ka'ruchaya Yarra's joy that one of her n'ruesten had been chosen to complete the Circle, Daria's exultation and love for him and their daughter, Hovan's deep pride that it was he who had adopted and then sponsored the Ranger … even unformed pleasure from the youngling in Daria's body, already a part of the clan's emotional life. Finally he knew exactly what a Traiti clan really was, and how privileged he'd been to be adopted by this one.
It was time now to give them their full heritage, with safeguards he hadn't expected to have when he first made the Decision his Ordeal had demanded. He sensed the other Lords' invisible presence as they prepared to watch over the enormous number of individuals that, despite the war's heavy casualties, still made up the Traiti race. They'd help ease the shock of his revelation, and even though Tarlac would be spread thin imaging himself in so many places, he'd reinforce Ch'kara himself.
He let his love enfold them as theirs had him, before he began to speak to the Traiti race. "You all know of me, and you know I was a Ranger of the Terran Empire. Your Speakers and Ship-Captains have told you why I took the Ordeal and what I've become."
He paused, smiling. "What they didn't tell you, because they didn't know, is what you are. That's a duty I'm glad to perform. The Lords welcomed me to my heritage; let me welcome you to yours."
He paused again, extending his arms as if to embrace them all, and, as Kranath had shown it to him, showed them their true homeworld. He explained their origins and their rescue from Terra. "So," he finished, "you are our relatives, by ancestry as Terran as I am. The Empire has known as little of this as you have, but it will; and by its laws, you're already Imperial citizens."
He felt their consternation at that, their unwillingness to believe they could be part of what they'd fought for so long. Then some began to realize the changes this revelation should bring, and he sensed their first stirrings of real hope. Satisfied with that beginning, he let his image and presence fade from all but two gathering halls, his own and D'gameh's. At D'gameh, he addressed one of the males. "Arjen?"
The Fleet-Captain, wearing brilliant blue-and-gold robes in-clan, bowed deeply. To be name-called by such a one—! "Yes, Lord. How may I serve you?"
Lord. Tarlac shrugged inwardly; it was his title now. "You did a pretty nasty job for the Circle when you picked me up the way you did, and I know how badly it upset you. We appreciate it, and I'd like to ask something else of you that may make up for it, a little. May I?"
"Of course, Lord." This time it was Arjen who didn't know what was going on but couldn't refuse.