"Dirdra," said Zanos, "no one here wants to hurt you.  We seek information, that's all."
"It was my fault," said Astra in halting Maduran, and Torio realized that she had stopped Reading.  "My Reading powers are difficult to control - on the wave of your emotion, I could not help Reading your memory, and that broadcast it to everyone else.  Dirdra - please forgive me."

The green eyes studied her warily.  "Why should I trust you?"

"You have no reason to," Astra replied truthfully.

"But I'm Maduran, like you," said Zanos.

"So is Maldek!" Dirdra spat.

"Bu[sic] I'd never heard of him before today.  I was stolen away from my home when I was much younger than you."

"Then you were fortunate," Dirdra said flatly.  "Those who rule now would kill you - they will have no rivals in the powers of sorcery!"

"Like Drakonius," Torio put in.  "But Dirdra, not all Adepts are like Maldek. How long have you been here in the Savage Empire?"  His command of the savage language was excellent by now, but he would always speak it with an Aventine accent.

Dirdra answered in the same language with a Maduran accent, but it was not linguistic differences which confused her.  "What is the Savage Empire?"

"These lands," Torio replied.  "The lands which once belonged to Drakonius, Nerius, and Lilith - and the Aventine Empire, which is no more.  It is now joined into one unit - and how could you not know that?"

"I know you defeated Drakonius," Dirdra re-plied.  "That story I heard everywhere in my travels - and how there was a prophecy about peace in the lands of the white wolf and the red dragon.  That is why I tried to get to Zendi... but as I got closer, I heard new stories - how you made earthquakes, not caring who they killed.  That's how you took the Aventine Empire, isn't it?  You destroyed the capital city - the Emperor and his whole family - leaving no one but you to rule."  Her green eyes dared them to deny it... but of course they could not.

"I know you will not believe it, Dirdra," Melissa said at last, "but we were trying to prevent the earthquake.  We learned that what has been foretold cannot be stopped."