The morning passed quickly. I dozed and read. Finn paced a little, and then paced some more. I was neck deep in the history of the Imani when I heard a knock on the door. The guard, the big one, Giggy, opened the door and stepped inside with a tray. Looked like oatmeal, tasted like mud. My tummy rumbled anyway.

Finn talked to the guard a moment then left without a word. Ute wandered inside. His eyes were swollen and red. “Did you hear?”

“Yes. I was with Finn. It wasn’t me.”

He nodded, the motion jerky. “I know. Marin called an emergency meeting. He said he checked, and your alibi is rock solid. Finn and Hana, as well as your guards, stand as witnesses. We know it was not you. But people are still upset. You should stay inside.”

More warnings. I pulled Ute into a hug. There was another knock at the door. Hana and a girl I didn’t recognize walked inside. Petite and sensual, she gave definition to the term hourglass shape. I’d seen her someplace before. Wait. Zanth’s girl. She had a sharp face, creamy skin, and melting brown eyes. Her hair was long and raven black with dark blue highlights. It fell in a wave down her back to her bottom. The tips were streaked the colors of the rainbow. Her leather was supple and dark green, her movements graceful. In comparison, I felt like a cow. She smiled, and it took me a second to realize she was holding clothing out for me. While she’d looked relaxed and well satisfied earlier, now I saw lines of strain on her face.

I took the clothing from her.

“My name is Lara. Marin sent me to make sure you were comfortable. He said we are about the same size. So I brought you some of my clothes. You are to have anything you want.” Her smile spread unpleasantly at that, such a pretty voice with such a vicious edge.

“I don’t have any idea what I’d need.”

Hana finished hugging Ute and waved her hand at me. “That is all right, we will improvise.”

Hana sat down at the table, Lara next to her. Lara looked at Ute then jerked her head to the door. He jolted and headed out, looking lost. She hadn’t greeted him at all.

“So let me look at you,” Lara said.

I held my hands out to my sides. Okay.

“Take off your clothes.”

I’d missed something vitally important in this conversation.

“I have to measure you for your own clothes. You can just take off the top if you want.” She rolled her eyes at my shyness.

I reluctantly lifted the top up and off, and shucked my pants. My arms crossed, I shifted from one foot to the other in front of them. The room was quite drafty, and I stood naked in it, again.

Hana was glancing through a book on the table with a slight smile, trying not to look.

Lara gasped. “You are getting jatua! I have never seen the like.”

I had forgotten about those. All three of us stared down at my breasts. Where before there had been smudges and shadows under my skin, now I could discern actual designs. On my right shoulder, leaves like those from Earth started at the top of my shoulder and wound down. The artwork was delicate in shades of dark green and brown. There were several branches shooting off, with small frilly red, orange, and yellow blooms that resembled lilies, but those flowers didn’t have teeth. The tattoos were faint, but there.

Lara rubbed her hand along the marks, trailing her fingers down my arm. “You have a large family.”

“How can you tell?”

“The marks show me. Each branch represents family. You must have had a healthy home. There are many branches,” Lara said. I nodded. Three sisters and a brother was a large family, even for Earth. Not that I knew my brother and sisters. They were from my dad’s second marriage.

On my opposite shoulder, waves of golden hair spiraled down to my elbow. A faint impression of a feather or another flower, maybe, peeked out among the strands.

There were wide rings around both my wrists and ankles and a diamond shape formed around my belly button.

Lara paced behind me. Hana joined her. I felt like a prize heifer at an agricultural fair. Lara touched the base of my spine, and I jumped.

Nice, I had a tramp stamp; I’d always wanted one of those. I craned to get a look. I had a real life tattoo on my hip. When I was sixteen, I conned my mom into it. Carpe Diem, seize the day. Not that I’d done much seizing in my life so far. It was one of my father’s favorite expressions. I got it the year he died. We never resolved our issues, but I wanted to do something to remind me of him. Stupid, I know.

That was when I realized my real life tattoo was gone. Just like the scar on my cheek. Gone. Grief rocked me. I rubbed my hip and dragged in a deep breath.

Control.

Lara’s hand slowly trailed down to my ass then moved upwards. She lifted my hair off my neck.

I heard another strangled gasp, and I gripped my neck. “What? What is it?”

“Sorry. You are getting your personal jatua. Has anyone told you about them?” Hana asked with a frown as she looked at me.

Lara kept running her hands up and down my back; I was getting decidedly homoerotic vibes from this. Not that there was anything wrong with that, but not my thing and these weren’t the cool kind. These set my teeth on edge, like chewing Reynolds Wrap. Lara’s nails scraped along my spine. Something about her irritated me; I couldn’t put my finger on it.

“No. Tell me, please.” My skin crawled. I moved forward, away from Lara’s questing hands.

Hana touched my right shoulder. “Well, here, this is your family—mother, father, brothers, and sisters—the family you were born into. This does not change until you have siblings or children. As Lara said, we can see you have a large family. That is practically unheard of here.”

Her lips turned down.

“This”—Hana touched my left shoulder this time—“is who you choose as family, friends, and lovers; people who are or will be important to you. You have already become quite close to a few people, but I cannot distinguish their marks. This represents the bond you feel. Here,” her hand stroked the back of my neck, “here is your personal mark. It is always somewhere on your head or neck. Finn, as you saw, has his going up his neck onto his cheek. Marin’s is behind his ear. Mine is on my neck. Yours is on the back of your neck. I cannot quite make it out yet. Soon, I am sure.”

“It looks like tears to me,” Lara murmured. She continued to run her hands down my back, rubbing harder and harder. She licked her finger and scrubbed it over the marks.

“These.” Hana clasped my wrists. “These represent the elements. You are much favored by the elements. We have not seen marks like this for a long time. Our power is pretty much gone.” She hesitated. “Can you do anything?”

Lara moved in front of me with Hana now, and both regarded me.

Uh. “Not that I’m aware of.”

Hana nodded and spun behind me while Lara regarded me, finger tapping her lip.

“These,” Hana said as she trailed her hands along my spine to the dimples above my buttocks.” I do not know what these mean.” She returned to the front of me. There were faint lines along my belly and down my legs. Again, Hana hesitated. “Too early to tell if those are jatua.”

Lara snapped her measuring tape. “Anyway, time to measure.”

Without much ado, she got my size and told me I’d get my own custom clothing soon; until then, I could borrow hers. Lara bolted soon after, to make my clothes, I guessed. I wouldn’t miss her. Hana stayed behind.

“So what are jatua?” I asked while I slipped one of Lara’s dresses over my head.

“What do you mean? We all have jatua.”

“The Fost do. As far as I’m aware, my people don’t. Sometimes, to mark ourselves, we get something called a tattoo. They put ink under our skin; they look kind of like these. But I know I didn’t get any tattoos while I was here. What are these?” I ran my hands down my arms.

“Well, the Fost all have these marks. We are born with them. They show our history, our journey, and our trials. You can tell a lot about a person by studying their jatua. They are not inked onto us by other people; they are gifted to us by the land, like our magic. As we age, they change. The family we are born into can change, by who you let affect your life or as your power grows. It is an ever-changing canvas. I think it is beautiful.”

I nodded and rubbed my arms as I sat down.

I studied Hana’s jatua and recalled all that I’d seen. If what she said was correct, I’d soon be sporting my own sleeve or two.

How…cool.

My mom would have gone ape-shit. We argued forever over getting the one tattoo. A wistful smile tugged at my lips. I could just see her now.

“Finn tells me you are not from here. Not even close.”

“No, I’m from Earth.”

“What is Earth like?”

“Like here, in a way. We’re a more advanced race, but nothing like the Imani, I don’t think. It’s pretty there, different growing things. I miss it…”

Hana cocked her head sideways. “What are the men like?” She grinned and waggled her eyebrows.

“Men are the same everywhere.” We both laughed, sharing a sisterly eye roll. “More fighters here; we didn’t carry weapons. The Fost here seem more aggressive, overall.”

She peered at me from the corner of her eye. “You seem close to Finn.”

My heart thumped; now I knew why she stayed behind.

“He has helped me quite a bit since I got here.”

She smiled. “He is like my big brother. I care about him. Not that at one point we did not…” Hana cleared her throat. “But it would never have worked out. I would hate for him to be hurt.”

Brother? She turned after she said this and sat down at the table. I couldn’t help the relief that spread through me, and wasn’t that aggravating? Maybe we could be friends. I never had many girlfriends at home. Just Sarah. I never related well. I didn’t get into the fashion and styles most girls my age liked. I once had a friend spend two hours examining a single magazine that took me five minutes to flip through. She dissected styles and trends, talked purses and accessories. I was bored to tears. We ended up drifting apart. I couldn’t hide my indifference.

“I have no intention of hurting anyone,” I replied.

“Do not let yourself be hurt as well.”

Now that was interesting. Before I could find out what she meant by that, she asked me another question.

We talked for a long time about Earth. She wanted every detail. How we ate, what we ate, what we wore, and how we went about our day. Her curiosity was endless, especially about makeup, jewelry, and music. Definitely a girl. Their society’s development mirrored Earth’s, up to the discovery of electricity. They didn’t feel nature or the land should be channeled in such a way. They shunned the trappings of it. Their society chose to hold onto its roots. Words flowed as we bonded. Ute, while pleasant, would rather read or lecture than talk, most of the time. Plus, he sported this worshipful look now that freaked me right out.

After Hana left, I had trouble settling. I shook out the rest of the clothes Lara had brought: several dresses that resembled a slip and a few cotton shirts and pants. No leather; I guessed those were Finn’s clothes. The fact that I fit in Finn’s leather depressed me on principle. The dresses were in the requisite brown, blue, gray, green, and black colors. I put them on the nightstand and tidied up as best I could. There was no way I was tackling all those books.

I fidgeted and paced once I finished. I didn’t know what to do with myself. Where the hell was Finn? I needed news. I picked up books at random again. One caught my eyes with its designs. The title read Jatua. I opened the book and saw various tattoos, or marks, rather. There was an index of symbols and meanings, which I’d have to get back to later. The marks fascinated me, but the longer I sat without information, the more nervous I got. I hated this. I threw the book against the wall. Then I felt bad. I went and picked it up and dusted it off, placing it on the table.

I went to the door. The guards, Jack and Giggy, lounged outside. “Hey, Giggy.”

Both guards looked at me blankly. They would learn their nicknames.

“Are you talking to us?”

“No, the guys over there.”

They both looked left. I hadn’t even indicated a direction. “I was, in fact, talking to you. If I wanted to get a message to Marin, how would I go about doing that?”

“We could relay it for you after our shift is through. They want you under tight guard.”

Aww, I felt so loved. “How long are your shifts?”

“We are your day guards.”

“So you don’t go off shift for a while?”

“No.”

“Can I write a note?” I pantomimed writing. “You know, to send a message to Marin.”

They blinked at me. And the light dawned. “Yes.”

A few beats. Come on now. “Can I have paper to write a note?”

“Yes.” Now they were just being dense.

“Oh, did you want that now?”

“Yes, please.”

“Give us a little bit, and we will get the materials.”

I nodded and went back inside. I tried to memorize some of the marks, but my mind wandered. I considered a book on the history of the Fost. There were several other histories there as well. Not just two races on this planet after all, but the two I knew were the Fost and the Imani, so I’d start with them. Before I could start, the wonder twins returned. They handed me some paper.

I stared at the paper then cleared my throat. I pantomimed writing again.

“Oh, you need ink.” They headed out.

They caught on quick. The lack of news was making me bitchy.

The paper was thick as linen. They soon returned, and I penned a quick note to Marin.

Marin,

As you are aware, I have been cleared of any involvement in what happened this morning. I wish to help. Please let me help. Would I be able to see the body? Maybe I could see something. Please.

Beta

To be honest, I didn’t know if he could read my writing. I could read theirs, but that could be a one-off. I gave the note to the guards to relay and lay down to read. From descriptions, the Imani were humanoid in shape, with slit eyes like the Fost, indicating their genetic similarity. I couldn’t find any descriptions more detailed than that.

They’d had an industrial revolution like ours. Technological advances, one after another: strides in biologic research, advances in medicine, and forays into genetic engineering. The Fost described huge weapons that massacred large amounts of people, diseases that spread within days and killed indiscriminately. Huge ships they said could travel to the stars. That last was definitely true. All advances we’d made on Earth. The parallels gave me chills. One line stood out.

They are driven to create without consciousness. They do not fathom the consequences of their actions on themselves or others; that willful ignorance will destroy them in the end.

I stared unseeing at the page until Jack and Giggy returned with Marin’s response.

Elizabeth,

Any help is appreciated, but let me come get you. Do not leave with anyone else.

Marin

My finger ran along the note, along the Marin. He was going to let me help. My knees went weak. Thank God.