She began a prayer for her mother’s spirit to be taken to Elhonna’s bosom swiftly, but was interrupted as Pattan dragged her by her new leash towa...rd a table two humans placed in front of the post where her mother was. The two men pulled her up and placed her head on the table as Pattan began speaking. Something about submission and the price of defiance. Ireth felt the searing pain in her ear again. She tried not to cry out but was unable to stifle the urge. Pattan pulled her up by her. “I see,” it repeated, raising the pipe to its lips and seeming to inhale after which it exhaled, blowing several nearly perfect smoke rings into the air all of which floated lazily towards Alice, settling around her. The smoke had a surprisingly pleasant aroma. It was almost sweet. It was also quite heady and Alice, after breathing some in felt like she was floating. Coughing softly, she waved her hands until she could see once more.“And why are you?”“Why am I?”“Precisely.”“Why, I’ve never. Wait until I return or call." He lifted himself easily back into the passage to begin the return trek.As soon as he was in the main passage he used his communicator to contact his troopers. "What has been happening, Montieri?" he asked."Nothing at all, sir," replied the trooper. "Dr. Toshimura is hurting pretty bad, and we're trying to make him as comfortable as we can. And Zo has contacted the Gardener and given them an update." The storm had little effect on the humans' much more. ”“That poor man. And he only has the one c***d and bless him, it’s a boy.”“What does that mean, mama,” chuckled Rochelle.“It’s just that daughters usually are the ones that take care of aging parents. So a lot is falling on her.”“Well, then he’s lucky. She’ll make sure every ‘I’ is dotted and ‘T’ crossed.“Randall called me Saturday too, but we didn’t talk about much. What’s going on with him?”“He seems to be doing better and doing what he needs to do. I don’t wanna go into too much detail, but.