When Asanka was ten years old Cassia gave birth to a black colt sired by Paramal. The two horses who had accompanied Orietta to the Station of Seers were still young as their kind measured the generations, for selective breeding and advanced genetic manipulation from long before the Great Forgetting had extended their lifetimes far beyond the span of their ancient ancestors at a rate natural selection could not have achieved unaided. Then too they were more sensitive to their Riders; more intelligent and more intensely loyal. With these attributes, though, came reduced fertility, albeit extended over many more years and it was too seldom that they gave birth to offspring. Orietta was delighted, for she had longed for a horse to which her son could be life partnered according to the traditions of the Rider foal bonding ceremony but had begun to doubt if Cassia and Paramal would provide one. Asanka too, was very happy with the new responsibilities his mother gave him for caring for the colt. It was a badge of maturity and he was proud of the energetic young foal which promised to be as fast as Cassia and as strong as Paramal. He christened the foal Lyr, named after the adventurous younger brother of one of the original Rider clan leaders whose traditional stories his mother had been telling him recently. Even before the bonding ceremony, Lyr and Asanka were inseparable.