of it. You didn't hear
about the big scandal, on the newscast, then?"

"We didn't have it on. What scandal?"

Sarnax laughed. "Oh, the very father and family-head of all scandals!
You ought to know about it, because you started it; that's why Prince
Jirzyn wants you out of the body--You devised a process by which
people could give themselves memory-recalls of previous
reincarnations, didn't you? And distributed apparatus to do it with?
And gave one set to young Tarnov, the son of Lord Tirzov of Fastor?"

Dalla nodded. Sarnax continued:

"Well, last evening, Tarnox of Fastor used his recall outfit, and what
do you think? It seems that thirty years ago, in his last
reincarnation, he was Jirzid of Starpha, Jirzyn's older brother.
Jirzid was betrothed to the Lady Annitra of Zabna. Well, his younger
brother was carrying on a clandestine affair with the Lady Annitra,
and he also wanted the title of Prince and family-head of Starpha. So
he bribed this fellow Tarnod, whom I had the pleasure of discarnating,
and who was an underservant here at the hunting lodge. Between them,
they shot Jirzid during a boar hunt. An accident, of course. So Jirzyn
married the Lady Annitra, and when old Prince Jarnid, his father,
discarnated a year later, he succeeded to the title. And immediately,
Tarnod was made head gamekeeper here."

"What did I tell you, Lord Virzal? I knew that son of a _zortan_ had
something on Jirzyn of Starpha!" Dirzed exclaimed. "A nice family,
this of Starpha!"

"Well, that's not the end of it," Sarnax continued. "This morning,
Tarnov of Fastor, late Jirzid of Starpha, went before the High Court
of Estates and entered suit to change his name to Jirzid of Starpha
and laid claim to the title of Starpha family-head. The case has just
been entered, so there's been no hearing, but there's the blazes of an
argument among all the nobles about it--some are claiming that the
individuality doesn't change from one reincarnation to the next, and
others claiming that property and titles should pass along the line of
physical descent, no matter what individuality has reincarnated into
what body. They're the ones who want the Lady Dallona discarnated and
her discoveries suppressed. And there's talk about revising the entire
system of estate-ownership and estate-inheritance. Oh, it's an utter
obscenity of a business!"

"This," Verkan Vall told Dalla, "is something we will not emphasize
when we get home." That was as close as h