Chapter Two

Severine cradled the baby to her chest and wrapped it tightly with the cloth, securing him to her so that she was able to carry him more easily. Behind her Rilex was finishing gathering all of their supplies. She knew that he had an element of excitement about going through the network of chambers and tunnels that were beneath the surface of Penthos, but she still felt a sense of nervousness. It had been so long since she had been in the tunnels and the memories of the times that she had spent there were still strong. Even though Ryan had proclaimed that these tunnels were meant to be their home and keep them safe when they weren’t in battle, they had never felt truly safe. They were only permitted to go into them after they had already gone through extensive training and drills, going until their bodies couldn’t handle it any longer and they began to collapse into the searing hot sand. She didn’t want to walk through them again. She didn’t want the chance of encountering the army. But she knew that this was the best way. Going back up to the surface would expose them and put them in more danger. This section of tunnels were rarely used and she knew that chances were, they weren’t going to encounter any of the hybrids as long as they moved quickly.

Ready, they started out of the chamber and down the tunnel that led them back in the direction of the ship. The further they went, the more reassured she was that they weren’t going to encounter any of the rest of the army. Around them the bunker looked old and abandoned. It was as if the last time that she had been down in them during her training was the last time that anyone had used them. It was a strange sensation walking through the tunnels that were once so tightly crowded and feeling that it was only her, Rilex, and the baby who were down there.

They had been traveling for several minutes when the tunnel branched off. Rilex slowed in front of her and looked both directions.

“Which way?” he asked.

Severine searched back in her memories, trying to remember the last time that she was in this area and where they should go that would bring them back in the right direction. It seemed that she had been here before, but that she didn’t remember the branching of the tunnels. She shook her head.

“I don’t know,” she admitted.

Rilex looked in both directions and pointed at one.

“This way,” he said.

“Why?” she asked.

He shrugged and shook his head.

“I don’t know,” he admitted. “I just feel like this is the way that we should go.”

She nodded. That was enough for her. They turned and started down the tunnel. They had only taken a few steps when they started to notice more signs that this area hadn’t been used in quite some time. Remnants of clothes and blankets had seemed to break down into the ground, and canisters of what looked like rations were so eroded that they could no longer read the labels. Rilex held his torch up higher as they walked and she knew that he was trying to shed as much light through the tunnel as possible so that they had as much awareness as they could about what lay ahead.

The light touched a curve in the tunnel and she could see that it opened into a small chamber that was similar to the storage rooms that they had used in the newer bunkers to hold their weapons and rations. As soon as they stepped inside, however, she could see that this room had not been used to store the items that she would have expected. Instead, a skeleton encased in tattered cloth lay in the middle of the floor.

Severine gasped and stepped backwards, trying to get away from the image of the body lying in the storage room. Rilex, on the other hand, strode forward directly toward it. He took the light of the torch with him and she felt the chill of the darkness settle around her. She stepped into the room with him, needing the light. Rilex was crouched down beside the skeleton, carefully touching the fabric that clung to it.

“These are old,” he said. “This body has been here for more than 100 years, at least.”

“Who is it?” Severine asked, knowing full well that there was no way that he would be able to identify the person, even if he had known it when it was alive. “Can you tell if it’s a man or a woman?”

Rilex moved a piece of the fabric aside and it fell from the ribcage. Severine could see that the person was lying on its stomach, its arms tucked under it and its face down. As the fabric fell away from its ribs, she could see that there was something under it. Rilex seemed to have seen it at the same time and gently moved the bones to reach for it. He pulled it out and turned toward her, a book in his hands.

“What is it?” she asked, her voice tremulous.

Rilex settled onto his heels and gingerly lifted open the cover. Dust rose from the pages as if they were disintegrating right into the air with his touch. Rilex stared at the pages and the words that it contained with such intensity that Severine felt like he was no longer in the room with her, but somewhere else with only the book. He turned the pages slowly at first, and then faster, moving through them like he was desperate to find out what was on the next page and the next. Ignoring the discomfort that came from the skeleton, Severine stepped closer to him and crouched down, touching her hand to the baby’s back to hold him close.

“What is it?” she asked.

She reached out to rest her hand on Rilex’s arm and felt him jump beside her as if she had struck him. He looked at her for a few seconds and then back at the book. His hand touched it almost reverently before his eyes slid back up to her and met hers. Deep in their recesses she could see the streaks of the shooting stars and noticed them flash brighter.

“This is something from long ago,” he said. “Something that I would never have thought that I would find. Not here.”

“What does it mean?” Severine asked.

Rilex let out a long breath and glanced at the skeleton.

“You said that you wanted to know my origin,” he said. “The origin of my kind.”

“Yes,” Severine said. “Is that what that book is about?”

Rilex nodded.

“It is linked to it,” he said, “but from long before me. This happened in a different time and a different stream than my life, but it is as inextricably connected to it as you are. “

“I want to know,” Severine said. “Tell me.”

Rilex shook his head and closed the book, tucking it close to his chest.

“Not now,” he said. “It’s a long story and one that I won’t be able to tell you now. We need to keep going and get back to the others.”

“The others,” Severine murmured.

Those words had hit her suddenly and unexpectedly, carrying with them more meaning than she would have expected them to. She felt a hint of a smile come to her lips.

“What?” Rilex asked.

She looked up at him, realizing that he had heard what she said even though she thought that she had barely uttered the sounds.

“You said something.”

“The others,” she said.

Rilex nodded.

“We need to get back to them,” he said. “They might still be waiting at the ship for us, but they might also have started toward Maxim and the rest of the crew that remained here.”

“No,” Severine said. “I know that. It’s just the words…the others.”

“What about them?” Rilex asked.

Severine ran her hand along the newborn’s back as he cuddled against her chest. She could feel his sweet, peaceful breaths as he slept comfortably with the sound of her heartbeat keeping him comfortable and relaxed.

“You said that I should be proud of where I came from and the heritage that I have, whatever that is. “

“You should. However you came to be, that is what made you and what brought you here to save the lives of countless others and to be the mother of this child…and the partner for me.”

“There’s that word again,” Severine said. “Other. I feel like that’s us.”

“What do you mean?”

“You know who you are. You are sure of yourself and your heritage. You share the culture and the history of that species. Even Eden and Pyra’s son will know his heritage clearly. He will know that his mother was human before he was born and that his father is Denynso. I know that they will make sure that he knows about both sides of his culture and what created him. Even if he lives out his entire life on Uoria and only interacts with the humans who live there with the warriors, he will still know that he has part human blood and what that means. That gives him a sense of connection and acceptance with both kinds. It isn’t the fact that he has both species in him. That isn’t what matters. What matters is that he knows about those cultures and is taught about them by people who willfully and purposefully gave him life. When he is asked who or what he is, Lysander will have a strong sense of identity. That isn’t the way it is for me or the rest of the hybrids that Ryan created.”

“Your identity is each of the species that create you,” Rilex said. “You are each of them. All of you are. You are Mikana, and Denynso, Eteri and Irisa. You are everything that went into creating each of you, so you belong to each of those species.”

“But we don’t,” Severine said. She could see the desperate look on Rilex’s face, as if he was grasping for anything that would reassure her and make her feel stronger and more connected to something. She shook her head, smiling in a way that felt more genuine than she remembered in any other situation than when she first heard Rilex confess his love for her. “We don’t belong with any of them. And that’s alright. I’m not saying that as a bad thing or that there is something wrong with it. I’ve just realized that. You helped me to realize it.

We are different. But that doesn’t mean that we need to try to assimilate ourselves into a world that we don’t know, no matter what that world is. As much as each of the species that were used to make us shouldn’t have to feel as though they are forced to claim us or accept that we are a part of them just because there is some of their DNA in us, none of us should feel as though we are forced to accept that any one species is what we are, or that we are a pieced-together conglomerate of multiple species. We have identities, and those identities come from what we are. Not the pieces of us. Not the histories of the people who are those species. Not the hope that one day we will fit in with someone or somewhere. We have identities because we are individuals, and those identities are separate from anything else. We aren’t Denynso. We aren’t Mikana. We aren’t Eteri. We aren’t Irisa. We are the Others.”

The expression on Rilex’s face softened and she thought that she saw the sparkle of tears in his eyes. He nodded.

“You’re right,” he said. “You are individuals and you should be respected for that. I think that the Others is the perfect way to describe you.”

Severine leaned forward to kiss Rilex, capturing his mouth and feeling the smile against her lips. For the first time, she wasn’t ashamed that when he looked at her he saw that she wasn’t like everyone else. She knew that he thought that she was beautiful, but she hadn’t felt that way. She had only thought of what each of her characteristics represented. Now she felt proud not just of the way that she looked, but also what that meant. It no longer mattered to her that Ryan had created her for such a cruel purpose. He didn’t have claim on her any longer, and the greatest revenge that she could have over him would be to appreciate who she was, devote herself to enjoying the life that she had in front of her now, and reclaim others from his grasp.