The presentation of the pictorial of their future leaders demise as prophesized by the earth tribe's Shaman falls on deaf ear as his father and most of the elders regard "Prophesies" as fairy tales told to amuse small children.

Gray's account of how Aisling foretold the very battle that he has just engaged in does little to convince his father and the others of their future fate.

On the other hand, and to Gray's surprise his wife tells of a similar prophecy told to her by her brother, a spiritual leader, when she was a little girl. Together they start to make plans to secure a future for their offspring.

Scientists are recruited to develop a way to combine their essence with that of humans and to find a way to awaken vocal cords long dormant in their race so that visitors from their planet to earth can blend more easily when shape-shifting into human form.

Gray's best friend and brother-in-law volunteers to reside on earth and prepare the way for their future leader with the help of the already established alliance formed with the earth tribe of the Chaco Canyons.

In the mean time Gray's father's admiration of the earnest and resourceful human, William the Conqueror sends a team of advisers to earth for an accounting of how William's rule has affected the English people.

They report that William's most radical change was the introduction of military feudalism.

In this system, the king would usually offer to his warriors a plot of land called a fief, in exchange for their loyalty. This loyalty is often what holds the kingdom together. In William's case, he took the traditional Anglo-Saxon land and gave it to his Norman followers.

While tenure of land in return for services had existed before the Conquest, William's establishment of a system that would provide him with upward of 4,000 knights for his feudal host revolutionized the upper ranks of society. England was parceled out among about 180 Norman tenants in chief and innumerable mesne tenants, all holding their fiefs by knight service.

The result was almost total replacement of an English with a Norman aristocracy and was paralleled by a similar change of personnel among the upper clergy and administrative officers.

In the king's court, the common law of England continued to be administered.

Innovations included the new but restricted body of "forest law" and the introduction in criminal cases the Norman trial by combat alongside the Old Saxon ordeals. Increasing use was made of the inquest procedure-the sworn testimony of neighbors, both for administrative purposes and in judicial cases.

Gray is still desperately trying to get his father to see reason when the elder royal implements a form of feudalism mirroring William of Normandy. He takes land from those rebellious to sovereign rule and gives it to those who have pledged their loyalty.

William's tactics has brought a lot of headaches and minor battles and unrest in England, although the Norman Lords in the Welsh borders choice to wisely marry into the Welsh culture, which proved a much better move and peaceful transition.