Figuring out her starting point, Leeza said something that Vinsra couldn't readily translate. As the two ladies chatted amongst themselves, figuring out what to say, Nathaniel stabbed another slab of meat and began cutting it up, his hunger great from the heavy labor.

"She want to know if you are Lyskaha," Vinsra said after a while.

"And a Lyskaha is what?" Nathaniel asked.

Vinsra chatted back at Leeza a little more, debating how to explain it. Ganz grumbled a bit, but didn't add anything to the conversation, attending to his appetite with large mouthfuls of food.

"A Lyskaha lives above the sky, a worker of the one," Vinsra explained.

"The one?" Nathaniel asked with a mouthful of meat.

"The one who made all," Vinsra clarified.

"God? You want to know if I've been sent by God?"

Vinsra nodded and translated for Leeza who repeated her question.

"Oh, no, I am not an Angel," Nathaniel said. "I'm just a man from another world like yours, only far, far away."

Vinsra turned to Leeza and spoke in her own language, "I told you he was a star being."

"There are those that would see you stripped of your teaching credentials for speaking such heresy. You're fortunate I’m not one of them," Leeza said.

"Then you deny that Nathaniel is from a world beyond the stars? Another planet?" Vinsra asked fervently.

"I don't know what I believe yet," Leeza said, staring at her meat.

"Believe your eyes and ears. Believe in physical facts. I do not see that the truth is heresy against God. There is nothing in the divine scriptures that discount the existence of other worlds, or other creatures."

"But there is," Ganz broke in suddenly. "It is clearly stated in the book of Optimum that God created us in his image, to rule his land. Does not the presence of this being oppose that belief?"

"My dear husband, it does nothing of the sort. Could God not have made other intelligent beings in a different image than his own, or could not God have many forms? We are not entirely different from Nathaniel. We each have two arms and legs, two eyes, two ears, one mouth, a skull, bones, flesh..."

"It has an extra finger per hand," Ganz grumbled.

"And he has thin strands of yarn growing out of his skin," Leeza mentioned.

"He excretes fluid all over, and smells odd," Ganz mumbled.

"Stop it, both of you," Vinsra shouted, slapping the table with her palms.

"I will not be told what to say at my own dinner table!" Ganz shouted back, standing up. "If you'll excuse me."

Ganz took his plate and went into the kitchen.

"Ganz has fat head sometimes," Vinsra said in English. "He still does not know what to think of you."

"For the record, I wasn't trying to be contrary," Leeza said. "I like his yarn. It must come in handy on cold nights."

"Thanks, I suppose it does," Nathaniel replied following Vinsra's translation.

"So, how did you pick up this signal you were following?" Leeza asked, moving back into civil conversation.

"I have a device that receives the transmission. It's a little technical to explain," Nathaniel said.

"Can you show us the device?" Leeza asked.

"That all depends," Nathaniel replied, glaring at Vinsra. "Can I have my pack back, yet?"

Vinsra stood up and walked over to a locked bureau set in a gloomy corner of the room. Pulling a claw-shaped key out of her blouse pocket, she unlocked the drawer that held his personal possessions.

"I trust you," Vinsra said, setting the pack down beside Nathaniel.

Turning from his empty plate, Nathaniel tugged at the straps and opened the pack, digging through the tools and equipment for a small, hand-held computer. Flipping the screen up, he set it on the table for everyone to see. Tapping a few buttons, he brought the tracking system online, and explained the readouts.

"These are numbers, which denote the bearing of the signal, and the slidewave frequency bandwidth that the transmitter utilizes. Of course, slidewaves are a few centuries beyond you. Do you have radio yet? Signals that travel through the air?"

"I know of such things," Vinsra mentioned. "It is a new science."

"Okay, then you know the basics, though slidewaves work on a different plane of physics altogether."

"I recognize this location," Leeza mentioned, looking at the topographical map displayed on the small screen. "That is a few miles outside Laushek City."

"That place has many people," Vinsra explained to Nathaniel. "What could a human be doing there?"

"I expect they're anthropologists, studying your people covertly, in disguise. My people generally don't expose less advanced cultures to our technology or existence. It's all part of a non-interference doctrine which greater minds than mine swear to uphold."

"And you still want to reach this signal?" Leeza asked.

"I do," Nathaniel confirmed.

"Then I will take you," Leeza said boldly. "I would like to meet more of your people, learn about you."

"We would both take you," Vinsra added. "It is a long trip, will take all day by cart to reach Laushek."

"You're serious?" Nathaniel said, it seeming almost too good to be true.

"Of course," Vinsra said. "It will be fun."

"Just so long as Ganz will let you out of his clutches for a couple of days," Leeza mentioned to Vinsra.

"He puts on a good show, but isn't half the brute he pretends to be," Vinsra said, standing up. She headed for the kitchen, to find her husband and explain their latest plans.