"I have told you everything I know about Natalie, and about the world I come from, and I have answered all your questions," Jake declared. "So I would say that it is only fair for you to answer a few of my own questions now."

My friends and I exchanged a brief look. Natty raised her eyebrows and shrugged.

She was right, of course. Ultimately it was for me, and only for me to decide how little or how much we ought to disclose.

"Go ahead, then," I told him. "Ask away."

"To begin with, I would like to know a bit more about your background and your agenda here, Cathy. You're working for Kaleigh's department, right?"

When there came no immediate answer from me, he frowned.

"Granted, I would be the first to admit that on the face of it this appears somewhat unlikely," he mused. "Kaleigh would never send off an untrained cadet such as yourself. So it has to be Antai and his people you are working for, right?"

Somewhat bewildered, I shook my head.

"Well you are not with my own people, or with the underground. I'd know about you if that were the case. So the only possible answer is that you were sent by yet another faction in the Advisers' Council. Marley, perhaps, or even Caryd?"

I held up my right hand. "Slow down, please. I don't know any of those people."

"But how could that be?" Jake's frown deepened. "Are you from our future, then?"

"No, I do not come from your people's future either, Jake." I sighed. "How do I explain this? Let me try a different approach. What, if anything, do you know about The Alliance?"

"The Alliance?" He smiled. "The Alliance does not relate to any real place or time, Cathy. It is part of the world of myths and legends, not unlike the legend of Atlantis, here in the 20th century. You have heard about that, haven't you?"

I nodded.

"Well, it is similar with The Alliance. A fictitious high technology civilization that supposedly existed in the aftermath of the Age of Burning. There are all sorts of myths and stories about it. Legend has it that The Alliance was originally founded as a federation of largely independent city states. A republic, a place of utmost liberty and diversity, of freedom and solidarity, of peace and prosperity. You get the idea."

He smiled indulgently. "People will take their dreams about the ideal human community and project them onto a place and time in the past by creating myths and legends about some marvelous lost civilization. Legends about The Golden Age."

"Bertrand wrote a long epic poem about The Alliance. They made us memorize the abominable thing at school. Let me see if I recall some of it."

Jake looked out of the restaurant's windows. Outside it had gotten dark already and the streetlights were on. "Ah, yes. Here goes." He raised his voice to recite:

"Like Phoenix from the ashes they arose,
Survivors of the fearful conflagration,
The City States, no more than two score and a half.

Joining together of their own free will,
Preservers of the arts and crafts and science,
Defenders of the Light against the Darkness,

A people bold and strong and free and fearless,
Conquered the moon, and conquered all the planets,
And in the end, they conquered Time itself."

Jake smiled dismissively. "I do not remember the rest of it. But you do get the general idea, don't you?"

As you can imagine, I was pretty shaken up, at that point.

"We did all that, though," I angrily told him. "We really did. Except that I would never use the word 'conquer' in this context."

That wiped the smile right off his face. He stared at me, hard.

"Are you trying to tell me what I think you are trying to tell me here?"

I returned his stare, almost defiantly. "I don't know what you may think that I am trying to tell you. But yes, I am a citizen of The Alliance."

Judging from the expressions that flickered across his face, Jake was fighting a multitude of competing emotions. For a moment there he was actually clenching his teeth in an effort to regain control of himself.

"I think that you are lying," he then told me flatly. "I do not believe a word of what you have said."

Somehow, that did it. It was the final straw.

"Do you think I bloody care if you believe me or not?" I yelled at him. "The way I figure it, the less you and your stupid Autarch know about me and my people, the better."

People sitting at the other tables in the restaurant were staring at us.

"Hush, Cathy," Nancy whispered.

"Are you okay?" Natty asked me.

I took a deep breath.

"I am fine," I muttered, feeling my face grow warm.

Not exactly the truth, but close enough.

"It is true, then." Jake's voice sounded odd.

For some unfathomable reason he appeared to have decided to believe me.

I shrugged. "Does it make any difference to you?"

He looked at me incredulously. "To me and my friends, this makes a lot of difference. It makes all the difference in the world."

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A / N : I admit that I loved writing that 'epic poem' about The Alliance.  Goes to show that I have read one too many fantasy novels :-)

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