He needed to reach out to the Elders again to move the project forward – and to check on his petition about Mia’s parents.
* * *
“You have a visitor, Mia.”
Startled by the unfamiliar female voice, Mia looked up from her reading material. Through the transparent wall, she could see a young human woman standing outside. Blowing out a relieved breath, Mia realized that the voice she’d just heard had to be Korum’s intelligent house letting her know about the guest.
“Of course,” Mia said, as though she talked to alien technology all the time. “Can you please let her inside?”
“Yes, Mia.” And the wall in front of the visitor dissolved, creating an entrance.
Getting up from the floating plank, Mia smiled at the dark-haired girl who gracefully stepped through the opening.
“Hi,” Mia said, knowing she was probably greeting someone she’d already met before.
“Hello, Mia,” the girl said, giving her a gentle smile. “I know you don’t remember me, but I’m Delia. We’ve met a couple of times before. I’m also a charl here in Lenkarda.”
“It’s nice to meet you again, Delia.” Mia was glad that her guest seemed to know about her condition. “I apologize in advance about my lack of recognition –”
“It’s not your fault,” Delia interrupted, her large brown eyes soft with concern. “How can you even apologize for something like that? I came by to see if you were all right after what happened. It must be so devastating, to wake up not knowing where you are or how you got there . . .”
Mia studied the girl, noting her quiet, yet luminous beauty and the maturity that belied her apparent youth. “Thanks, Delia,” she said. “I’m actually surprisingly okay. I don’t know why, but I seem to be dealing with everything quite well.”
“And Korum?”
Mia gave her a questioning look. “What about Korum?”
“Is he –” Delia hesitated a little. “Is he being kind to you?”
“Of course.” Mia frowned. “Why wouldn’t he be? He’s my . . . cheren, right?”
Delia gave her a radiant smile. “Of course. I was just heading to the waterfalls, where you and I first met. Would you be interested in coming with me? It’s a really beautiful spot. I don’t know if Korum showed it to you yet –”
“He hasn’t,” Mia admitted. “And I would love to join you.” She was curious about this girl – this other charl – and she was hoping to find out more about Lenkarda and her former life there.
“Great,” Delia said, still smiling. “Then let’s go.”
The walk to the waterfalls took a little over twenty minutes. As they made their way through the forest, Mia asked Delia about her story, wanting to find out how she’d become a charl. Then she listened in shock and fascination as the Greek girl told her about meeting Arus on the shores of the Mediterranean almost twenty-three centuries ago and how her life had unfolded since.
“When I first arrived on Krina, humans were treated very differently than they are today,” Delia explained. “Two thousand years ago, many Krinar thought we were little better than primates, with our lack of technology and primitive social mores. A few, like Arus, recognized that we were not all that different from them, but most refused to think of us as an equally intelligent species. That attitude still persists today to a certain extent, although the rapid pace of progress here in the past couple of centuries has impressed many on Krina.”
“They thought we were like monkeys?” Mia frowned, not liking that at all.
Delia nodded. “Something like that. I can’t really blame them; after all, they were the ones to create us and make us into what we are today.”
“How did they do that?” Mia asked, having wondered about that for a while. “I mean, a Krinar can almost pass for a human, and vice versa. Appearance-wise, it’s like they’re a different human race, rather than a separate species. I know they guided our evolution, but it’s still kind of crazy . . .”
“It’s actually not all that crazy,” Delia said. “They tinkered with our genes for millions of years, suppressing those traits that would’ve made us look different from them. They allowed certain subtle variations – like eye, skin, and hair color – but they ensured we would be very similar to them otherwise. It was something their Elders wanted, I believe.”
Mia looked away, pondering that for a while as they continued walking through the forest. “So what do you think they want with us now?” she asked once they reached their destination.
“The Krinar?” Delia sat down on a grassy patch near the water and turned toward Mia.
“Their Elders,” Mia clarified, sitting down next to her.
“Who knows?” Delia shrugged. “Even the Council doesn’t fully know the motivations of the Elders. They’re something like gods to them, although the Krinar don’t have religion in the traditional sense.”
“I see.” Mia considered everything she’d learned so far. “So how do the Krinar think of us now? Korum sa