Chapter Four
Now, the people of The Oneness were not content with the lands they
held. Shortly after their victories over their enemies they began to do
a very strange thing. They sent agents to all the neighboring lands,
and bought thousands of girl slaves, ranging from very young ones, to
maidens not yet suitable for brides.
2 Their neighbors thought them foolish. "Why waste their money," they
said, "on girls?" Though they were cheaper, they could do little work,
and were not worth their price.
3 The older girls were sent to Soldier, here they were married to sons
of The Oneness of lower rank. The younger ones were scattered through
the cities. Eleven seasons later, when the first sons of these slave
girls poured across their borders, and conquered their cities, the
neighbors of The Oneness did not think they had made such good bargains after all.
4 Te fell, Mi fell, Mr fell, and the rest of that country's people,
too, would have been taken, but the two cities that were left offered
themselves to Se, their ancient enemy, if they would come and protect
them. The Seans were fierce fighters, and drove The Oneness back to the
boundaries of the cities they had already taken.
5 The Oneness slaughtered the men of the cities they had taken, but
their wives, daughters, and sons they spared. They gave them silver
symbols of their faith and put the mark of their Lord upon their
foreheads.
6 "You may marry," they commanded, "any of our people that wear a
golden symbol, but your children must wear silver ones. For ten
generations
they may marry only gold, in the eleventh generation