The voice of The'Galin pounded in me, a steady rhythm. At first, it was just words that I heard, but as time passed the words gave way to a sense that I was being read like a tablet, that The'Galin knew me in my soul. I felt a sense of burning in my soul, burning but not pain, and when I placed one hand on my fur-lined scales I felt an intense warmth born of no fire. "No...!" I cried. "What you seek, you will not find in me. I will not betray my people..." "What a shame," The'Galin said, and his voice seemed genuinely sad.... "It is a pity they won't treat you with the same courtesy."