The Kindly Ones Author:Melissa Scott Even after years on Orestes, Trey Maturin could not overcome her dislike of the Orestean social code. All the more so because as sworn medium for the great house of Hallex, she frequently found herself partner to the code's often cruel injunctions. For 1500 years the Orstean code had held together society carved out of a cold material poor moo... more »n of the planet Agamemnon dividing its territories among five great families. The code demanded the utmost loyalty to the one's family. To break it meant death-a legal declaration that banished the offender into a sharply defined social limbo. He or she became a ghost. Unseen by the living. One could communicate with the dead only with a medium, such as Trey, to do otherwise meant suffering social death itself.« less