Fixed by Beth Goobie Page B

“They’ve got Pleasure Rooms in all the high schools now, but not everyone uses them, even after they turn sixteen and don’t need their mother’s permission. And the Outbacks don’t have them at all.”
    Nellie’s head snapped up, and she shot him a look halfway between curiosity and fear. Information about the Outbacks wasseverely limited, and anything not communicated directly by a superior forbidden. “How d’you know that?” she demanded.
    Phillip shrugged. “I was fooling around on the computer, and I found a file that had some information on the Outbacks and their social values. Really primitive — still into mom and dad, and monogamy and stuff like that.”
    “You mean marriage ?” Lierin was aghast. “They don’t plan their breedings according to the star charts?”
    “They don’t care about bloodlines out there,” said Phillip. “There’s no caste system. They mate for love and stay together and raise their kids. Weird, eh?”
    “That’s old ,” said Nellie, sagging back against the headboard. “Ancient. Prehistoric.”
    “Interior kids who aren’t cadets or temple initiates live with their moms,” shrugged Phillip.
    “Yeah,” retorted Nellie, “but they never meet their dad. All they know about him is his caste and his city of birth.”
    Lierin snorted. “Can you imagine being stuck with both your parents until you turned legal and could take off? A mom would be bad enough.”
    “Fuuuuuck,” Phillip agreed softly, speaking for all of them. On the monitoring screen a woman’s face appeared, watched for several seconds, and disappeared.
    “Okay,” said Nellie, ditching her horrified contemplation of Outbacks family life. “Let’s see.” The next part of the story was straightforward, and she quickly reeled off the facts. “The Goddess gives birth to twin sons, and they’re taken from Her because She’s a fallen woman. One son is shipped to Marnan to be raised by the priests at the Goddess’s Redemption Cathedral, and the other is adopted by a pedlar and his wife who are on their way to the Outbacks.”
    Phillip gave another impatient tap of his toes. “Next part of the saga,” he said, grinning. “The God decides to show up again,looking for His seed. Except this time He comes in a chariot with nine white horses, and everyone’s impressed.”
    A vague unease crept up Nellie’s spine, and she slitted her eyes at Phillip. What was with him today? He knew better than to talk about the Goddess like that. It could get you a session with the Black Box. “And He searches until He finds Ivana,” she said hastily, cutting him off. “When He hears Her story, He brings Her back to the Sarrendar temple and has Her reinstated as high priestess. Then They start searching for Their sons together.”
    “But They can’t find them,” said Phillip, ignoring her disapproving glance. “No one can track the pedlar, and the priests lie about the other twin so they don’t have to give him back. They train him as a warrior priest, and when the Outbacks rebel against a new temple tax, he leads the troops against the rebels. Except, unknown to him, his twin is fighting with the rebels.”
    “The Jinnet,” Lierin muttered with a hiss.
    Giving a sharp sniff of agreement, Nellie continued. “And the twin sons fight the Great War for three years, never even knowing about each other until a great bird of light appears to each of them separately and whispers the truth into their ears.”
    “Do you believe that bird of light stuff?” Phillip demanded, shutting his book with a snap. “I mean, how many times have you seen a twinkling birdie appear out of the sky? But of course the twins waste the next ten years in a great odyssey, searching for each other all across Windros, even traveling to Hell and Heaven, and fighting demons and angels and monsters on land and sea. And in the end, they’re both killed before they find each other.”
    “What is wrong with you today?” Lierin asked,