Francesca awakes in a dusty tent. She is lying on a metal bench, and at one end of the bench is a woman. It only takes one second, and Francesca registers, it's a scavenger. She withdraws in fear.

  Her head hurts her so much, and even forming thoughts seems to hurt, even more trying to remember anything.

  The blonde scavenger woman gets up and yells out the tent door, "Kragon, Kragon, come quick".

  A Scavenger man comes in, "Thanks, JaLena," he says, before taking out a needle and injecting it in Francesca's neck.

  Her vision starts to get blurry, and her thoughts become even more confused. Her last thoughts before passing out are how funny scavengers look, their thick eyebrows, rough skin, almost neanderthal like.

  "Are you sure about this, Kragon? She looks just like our friend, your girlfriend. We grew up with JaKaelath, it almost feels like we're doing this to her."

  "You have to look at the big picture, the end goal. She is an enemy Ponu. We sacrifice her to Kallian, and he calls off his dogs searching for JaKaelath, thinking he's already caught and executed her. In his drunken state, he won't even know the difference. I mean, admit it, you thought she was JaKaelath at first also, right? I woke up to her for years, and it even took me moments to realize this was not her."

  Joric walks in. "By the Providers, you were right, Kragon, it looks just like her." He moves closer.

  His face is right in front of the sleeping Francesca. "Amazing," he admits. "How is this even possible?"

  "That's not a concern for now, Joric," Kragon says, "We only need to be concerned with making sure she can help us help our friend".

  Joric's eyebrows raise, "Kallian would never believe this. After a few seconds, he'll figure out something is wrong. Then what, he kills us for treason?"

  Kragon looks at him. "Kallian doesn't know his knee from his elbow right now. He wants this. It's the only thing he's got going. If we give this to him, he will want to believe it."

  JaLena pipes in, "What about Dukota? There are other people around Kallian."

  "Yes," Kragon admits, "That's a chance, but Dukota and the others are not as familiar with JaKaelath as Kallian. As long as this Ponu doesn't speak, the others might be fooled.

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  Kragon puts his hand on Joric's shoulder. "You have to be the one, it's like I mentioned, you had the fight with JaKaelath, you're the only one of us he'd believe would turn her in. Plus, if he finds out it's not her, you're the only one of us he might believe honestly presented him with a fake, thinking it was the real thing.

  Joric hesitantly agrees. He and JaLena look at each other, both unable to shake the wrongness of this.

  "Tomorrow morning, you go to his camp. Tell him what he wants to hear: say you finally caught the bitch. She'll be knocked out for a long while.

  If she comes through, give her an injection from one of the needles I'll give you. Make sure you give her a shot right before you hand her over to Kallian. She's got that head injury, so he'll believe she's out cold from that.

  Once he executes her, our friend is safe."

  "Listen, Kragon, I was pissed at her. I still am pissed at her, I feel betrayed.

  She humiliated me in the arena, she sabotaged our mission to capture the Ponu, I've got reason to hate her, but this... this feels almost like I am killing her, it's a line too far for me."

  "You don't understand Joric. It's the exact opposite; you are not killing her, you are keeping her from being killed. Please, JaLena, help him understand."

  "He's right," she says cautiously, unconvincingly, "it's what we must do. It's a choice between this enemy and saving the life of our friend."

  Kragon looks on, smiling.

  Outside, Joric pulls JaLena aside, "How do we know that's not the real JaKaelath?"

  "She's not," she says with her head down. I was watching her for almost an hour as she slept. Kragon was right when he said there's a softness about her that is missing from JaKaelath."

  "So Kallian was right after all?" Joric replies, "There's no way she could have a twin like that unless there was some type of relation or connection. She was a Ponu, alright".

  "Does that really make a difference, Joric? She was our friend. She was your friend even though you sometimes acted like she had some fatal disease you could catch."

  Joric walks off, looking back, he says, "I was her friend too, but she lied, JaLena, she lied to us all."

  Not letting him get away, JaLena responds, "Did it ever occur to you that she lied because she was scared? You know what would happen to her. Are you that caught up in your pride, your honor, that you can't forgive a scared person telling a fib to stay alive?"

  Joric only looks back at her, then turns, looking down as he walks away.

  Back in the tent, Francesca dreams away; she is back at the Vari village, dancing with the bold Vari. The music is playing, the stars fill the sky, it is only her and him dancing away, when suddenly, the village melts, the other Vari melt, leaving the two of them dancing, surrounded by trees and wolves watching them hungrily.