Chapter 19

Draven passed three closed doors before he opened one and gestured her inside. The room was a warm, buttery yellow with thick rugs that twisted red and black fibers into delicate patterns. The first area was a sitting room. Heavy furniture with comfortable looking cushions sat on opposite sides of a pale ivory table. A tea cup had been left sitting out. The room was large, almost the size of the sitting room at the front of the house. Draven gestured her deeper, and she noticed the open archway where a door might have been. He strode to it and she nearly went in too, unquestioning.

That was, until she saw the bed. A large monstrosity that took up most of the far wall, With white pillowy blankets piled on top of what must have been several feet of mattress. Art hung along the walls, tastefully drawing the eye to different focus points in the room. To the right, a row of windows let in the afternoon light, soft gauzy curtains fluttered in the breeze.

“Uh...”

He waited a moment, and when she still hadn't moved, he entered instead, striding to the wall and pressing the hidden trigger there to open a drawer. The black material was familiar.

“Put that on,” he tossed the armor to the bed and then backed toward the door.

Mia held up a finger, “I think I'm missing something.”

He paused and tilted his head. “We are going into the city for supplies. Kenahi said that the reward you desire is to come along.”

Excitement and a little dread filled her as she took in the armor on the bed.

“I thought it wasn't dangerous.”

“More than likely it won't be, but we will be taking no chances. Not with you.”

Mia frowned at him and pointed to the armor. “Is it yours?”

He tilted his head in acknowledgment.

“Then shouldn't you wear it? I'm not going to fight anything…anyway, it will be too big.”

“I've conceded to take you out into the city, but I will not do so unless you are as protected as I can get you. The armor will fit to you as well as it can.”

Draven turned and left the room, snicking the door shut as he went. Mia stared at the armor. It didn't really look any different from a set of Earth clothes, but she knew different, she had seen what it could do. What if it misread her signals and spiked her from the inside?

Well, she either grew a backbone or went back to the dorm and learned knitting. Unsurprisingly, the armor won out and she slipped off her brown pants, pulling the black armor on in their place. There was a tense minute where the material loosened and then tightened against her skin and she worried it might not bother with spikes and just crush her legs and be done with her. Then it loosened again and hardened into the strange material she had seen on the men. The vest worked much the same, and when she was done, she couldn't help but feel as though she was a tad more protected. She walked to the door and opened it.

Draven had been waiting across the hall, leaning against the wall. He stood when she exited and stared. She couldn't read his expression and it made her a little insecure. Had she put it on wrong? She glanced down ensuring all her important bits were covered.

“Good,” he said at last. “Come, we are going to the orchard today.” He turned down the hall, back toward the sitting room.

“There's an orchard?”

“Where do you think the fruit comes from?”

Mia blushed. “I guess I wasn't really thinking. I knew your people went to gather supplies. I hadn't really processed where.”

Once out of the building they walked together down the street. They were headed north through the compound and past the dorms.

Mia flinched when she recognized the group sitting on the dorm steps. This time, Ashley joined them, and they all scowled as she passed, Leanne's lips lifting into a sneer. Great. Well, she wasn't making friends, that was for sure.

The guards on their side of the street nodded to the team as they passed but said nothing. They didn't seem particularly happy, though, and Mia wondered whether the women had been ranting against the Livarians once more.

A group of five more men waited at the end of the street.

She recognized Gorth and Kenahi as they turned to her, and another man, too.

“Lady Mia,” the man nodded to her. She nodded back.

“These three volunteered for duty as your protectors on this trip,” Draven told her.

Mia felt her brows raise.

“Because they think I'm trouble?”

Kenahi chuckled. “Well, you did manage to convince the prime to break his own rules, and deign to join us in foraging.”

Draven made a sour face, but didn't correct him.

“Alright,” Kenahi announced, “If we don't leave now, chef will have our balls. He's out of the Zaraza fruit, and he's certain it’s the only reason the women are tolerating us at all.”

It was a bit of pragmatic humor and Mia squirmed a little being grouped with the women who wouldn't tolerate the aliens.

It took several minutes for each of the men to program their light tool. Mia hadn't missed that she had not been allowed one.

“How will I leave without one of those?” Mia thought…she had learned that the light tool was required to pass through the energy field.

“Come here,” Draven waved her over. When she was near enough, he slid an arm around her waist and pulled her against him. She discovered that the armor worked two ways: it allowed for protection against potential dangers and wounds, but as Draven's warm hand slid against her side, she realized that it also enhanced her sense of touch. Even with the other men surrounding them, it very much felt like an intimate caress. It shot her heart rate up and she struggled to breathe, trying to force her poor libido to calm down. Then he was pulling her through the barrier; a slight tingle was all she felt and she was on the other side. Draven released her immediately…she was too flustered to know if she was relieved or disappointed.

The rest of the team was through right after and they left at a brisk pace to the north.

Layers of city passed and Mia turned her head curiously left and right. As she suspected, the compound existed in a sort of residential area. It was nearly half an hour before they reached a road where the buildings seemed to expand in size and the spaces around them were designed more for privacy and less for stark utility.

The houses towered above the roads, each with a design that seemed to outdo the last, and yet they all belonged together cohesively. It reminded her a little of the large mansions of the south, except with a more modern flair. Large gardens surrounded each home with what might have been manicured trees and shrubs, but were now wild, disorganized growth.

“This was once the district of the elite. To live here, you had to serve the city in some fashion or made a contribution to the city that would benefit the population. The closer to the palace your unit, the greater the honor bestowed upon you,” Draven explained. “The royal family favored ambitious architects; being allowed to design one of the houses was also an honor.”

“Kenahi's family lived one block to the east, and Brine's father owned that house,” he pointed to a darker brown house across from the white one she had been studying. “Both families have a long history of military service, but many who used to live here were born in the commons. On Callaphria it is our actions that decide our place in society, not our family ties, as it is on Earth.”

“Even being born in the royal family did not save you from that fate. If you did not prove you were worth the position, you would be banished to the real world like the rest of us.”

Draven sent Kenahi a warning glance.

“Yet, family was obviously important to you, or you wouldn't be mentioning them.”

Draven turned back to her and nodded. “We honor the ones who served before us, especially if they were family. Being raised in the elite district has its advantages, and those advantages often allowed for one to do greater service than someone born from a common line. However, the majority of the elite district can trace their ancestry back to some common form within two to three generations.”

“It works the same in the compound? Those who have distinguished themselves live in the building where you are?”

“It is the most effective method for teamwork and advancement. No one gains any position for free, and everyone is offered the opportunity to contribute and make a difference that might lead to honor. It isn't perfect, but it is a far juster system than that of your world.”

Mia could see several flaws in the logic. What about those who could not contribute, those with disabilities or mental illness that limited their contributions? And who decided which contributions were more beneficial? Not to mention that they still had a royal family, not a royal 'person who did a great deed'.

Still, God knew Earth's system of wealth distribution was far from perfect.

“And your family?” she asked.

“Lived elsewhere.”

He said no more, and Mia wondered if she had touched on a taboo subject. She didn't know him well enough to push the matter. Besides, they were coming to a curve in the street that led to a high wall. From what Mia could see, the wall led for some distance to the east and west before it was swallowed by the city. As they neared, a gate became visible and she guessed that this was the orchard.

The men spread out as they neared, Kenahi and Brine going through the gate first. Mia paused when Draven did, and waited. After several long moments, a signal bleeped on his light tool.

“No sign of predators this morning,” he told her, and guided her in.