They did not speak. They did not know what to say which would not make my discomfiture worse. I had surprised them. For a moment their faces were blank with it. I held my position stiffly as though meeting some challenge they thrust at me.          Gallett began, in order to break us free of that. She did not touch the core either deciding to leave it as settled or weigh it in minor. "It was your progenitor you heard in the tunnel."          "Yes. In my mind."          "She is strong enough for that?" But Gallett did not doubt it.          "She is."          Silence.          Finally Pennbaston said, "What did she say to you?"          "That she would see me. Now."          "Is that where you were going when you left them on the mountain?" Vettra made it sound like an accusation.          "No! I was going to carry my passengers to Septa."          "Suddenly now," Vettra's voice was unusually flat. She did not doubt my word but she wanted to know why.          As Gallett said, "Ignoring a Progenitor's request holds risk."          "More than that," Vettra weighted it.          "I was not going to go," I said. "I have nothing to do with her nor she with me."          "Yet now she must have need of you," Pennbaston offered.          "If she needs a rider there are others. If she wants a free rider she will not find 1 in me."          "You are bitter, mage," Pennbaston replied.