Very quickly, being left alone with my thoughts felt like a punishment.
I was so confused and so very, very lost. I cried for a while, screaming into my hands, paced until I got nauseous.
I thought about what I had been told - about whether or not that made sense, and what that meant for me, and for Joy. I knew that Novus peacekeepers sometimes stole young, unmarried women, and took them from the colonies, which is why eligible young women were never to go out alone. My sisters could be trusted to stay together so I never had to escort them as other brothers did, but still, my parents liked to make sure either Dad, Roy, or myself were in the area, just in case.
But there wasn’t really much you could do once a girl was stolen other than tell your Mayor and hope they made the right calls to try and get those in charge of the Novus to force them to release her. We never knew what they did with the girls, but I’m assuming, given what I had been told, they must have been marrying them.
It would have been much easier for their family to accept that than the unknown.
My family would forever be in the unknown about me now as well.
And I’d be with Joy, married – mated! - to a Novus male.
What would that look like?
They weren’t like...people.
They were closer to monsters than men, even if their faces looked like ours.
Or maybe that was just wanted they wanted us to think, to keep themselves in power. Maybe they just had stronger teeth and...were much stronger...and faster – but they couldn’t go out in the sunlight, so…
Did that make it even, then?
How else could they be different?
The female that had told me Joy was alive seemed similar to normal girls. A little bit more forward than I was used to, but beyond that, they could be very normal. The girls, anyway, which meant Joy could be normal. She could be just like my sisters and mother and aunts, or maybe like Mabel. They were all great women, kind and intelligent. I could raise Joy to be like that too.
Alone.
Having your family with you was very important to raising healthy, happy children because, well, most parents were still children themselves in a lot of ways when they had children of their own. New parents needed their family so they could get their sleep, and so they could go out and decompress and meet with friends or go to work. Or if new parents wanted to be around their baby all the time as Roy and Mabel were with Little Lawrence, then the family could pick up their work or chores so they could have that special time.
Having your family was very important.
But I would be alone.
And that was okay, because I was alone, but I was alone with Joy.
Oh, and my…
Novus…
Mate.
I groaned and rubbed my face, screwing my eyes closed as I thought about all the things babies needed. How were Novus babies different than Sapien babies? They couldn’t be exposed to sunlight, that much I knew, so there would be a lot of night walks, I supposed. But what else?
How much different were Novus, really?
There was a sharp knock on the door and I whipped around and watched as the door was opened, revealing another Novus female, this one with green, yellow eyes that were in cat-like slits. When she saw me, they slowly expanded and she gave me a little smile. She was dressed in a uniform with distinctly stiff shoulders with gold tassels on both of the shoulders as well as three badges, a cap on her head as well.
“Lawrence?” She asked lightly.
I nodded a little, smoothing back my hair.
She smiled, her burgundy painted lips together. “I’m here to bring you to Liliport.” She said in a calm, pleasant tone, reaching out a hand with very sharp nails that were painted blue. “It’s not that far from here, we just got to drive through Claymoore and then we’ll be at your new home. We’ll try and get you there fast so you can finally get some rest, hm?”
I nodded and walked toward her, my escort placed a hand on my lower back and walked beside me as we went through the packed train.
It was the dead of night when we came off the train, the moon hanging above us as people hurried around. This station was so much busier than the one at the colony, louder and so much less organized. I looked around at all the people, but didn’t get to linger long as the hand on my back moved me forward into the station.
The station was larger and looked so much older than the one at the colonies, and to my amazement, as we walked through it, I saw that there was no roof. It looked like someone had blown a hole into it the upper side of the building, the night sky and its stars watching as people rushed in and out of the station.
When we came out, many horseless transports were moving around on the streets, but one in particular was parked just out front where a young girl about Milla’s age – fifteen - was standing in a uniform identical to my escorts, just without all the frills, her eyes that bright blue of the other female Novus and her hair a short bob around her chin. She quickly opened the back door as we approached before she side stepped and clasped her hands behind her back, my escort standing by the vehicle as I got in.
“You guys have seat belts back in the colony?” My escort drawled as she nodded to the young girl, who walked quickly around the back to get into the vehicle and sit on the other side of the backseat. I shook my head, looking at the other woman my
“You guys don’t have this kind of ride in the colony, right?” she asked, and I shook my head. “Well don’t worry – this is a car, it’s very safe, but you have to wear seat belts because it goes very fast.” She motioned for me to look at the young girl and I saw her pulling belts from the seat around her chest to clip them over her heart, then stretching them down to clip them at one side of her hip so the three belts were clipped into the seat. I blinked and looked around before my escort did it for me, patting my chest before she pulled back and closed the door.
The female Novus in one of the two front seats was watching me with a little smile, and when the other Novus got into the other front seat, they exchanged amused looked before they both twisted in their seats to look at me.
“Oh, I’m so rude - I’m Ophelia,” My escort said, looking to the other female in the front, “This is my sister Tessa, and back there is my whelp- Carla.” She looked at the young girl next to me. “Today is her first day on the job!”
I glanced at the girl sitting in the back with me and she wiggled her fingers at me, smiling. I saw her teeth were covered in metal wires and I was caught off guard. My surprise must have shown on my face because her smile immediately fell and she pulled up a cloth that hung around her neck to cover her mouth, her gaze darting around nervously before she looked back to Ophelia like she was very interested in what she was saying.
I looked back to Ophelia as well. “So...Tessa and I are going to be escorting you to Liliport, where our clan – your clan – is centered. Currently, we are in Claymoore, which is the second-largest clan in our country.”
“We aren’t friends,” Tessa said as she moved the wheel she was seated behind, the vehicle pulling away from the curb.
“Just don’t let anyone try to take you out of Liliport and toward Claymoore until you have a mate. You never know.” She rolled her eyes and popped a piece of chewing gum in her mouth, and after offering one to me, she handed one to Tessa, the two of them chewing in silence as we quickly left the station. I looked out the window as we stopped at a stoplight, so much more complicated than the one we had at the center of town that only had two colors, this one having six. There were tall buildings – some as tall as eight stories! - and all sorts of businesses. I had never been to the city in the colony, but I imagined it had to of looked something like this, full of life and movement, much more so than our sleepy little town and the ones around us.
“So...um, which colony are you from again?” Tessa asked, and when I looked at her I saw she was staring out the front window, watching the road. We were going much faster than the horses went, at least three times as fast, and seeing the other vehicles speed by made me a little nervous.
“River colony.” I supplied with a little nod, reaching up to hold onto my belt as I leaned back into the stiff seat, my eyes trained on the road ahead as well now.
“That’s the big one,” I heard Ophelia mumbled, Tessa nodding a little, my escort saying a little louder “Did you enjoy it there?”
“Yes,” I said with a tired smile, “It was a wonderful place. I had a very happy life there with my family and friends.”
“That’s good! Too bad you had to be pulled – we wouldn’t unless we had to.” Ophelia said, and though I recognized she might be trying to comfort me, it did the opposite. I was reminded of how small I was, and how little control I had over the situation. “Are there any questions you have?”
I hesitated to answer that before I asked “Are we allowed to...look at you?”
“Uh, sure!” Ophelia said, turning in her seat a little to smile at me, meeting my gaze. It made me nervous to hold it, but I did when she gave me a little smile. “Eye contact really varies depending on where you are, but here in Victoria we don’t care-”
“The females, anyway,” Her sister added.
“-yeah, the males can be a bit more prickly, but if their eyes don’t widen comically and they bare their teeth at you or start frothing at the mouth, you’re fine!” she said, both sisters laughing a little at that. I didn’t know if they were being serious or not, but I figured that I’d play it safe with the male and avoid eye contact if possible. “But sapiens are very well protected in Victoria. We really, like,” Her eyes narrowed a fraction, “Value you.”
“Oh, thank you,” I said with a little smile I felt a twitch on my face.
She nodded at me before she faced forward, snapping her gum. “But seriously, if anyone tried to get you to leave Liliport before you are mated, you need to flag down a peacekeeper. Not many people know you are from the colony, but our Matriarch was forced to inform the Claymoore Matriarch to get you a temporary passport, and we can’t trust that bitch-”
“Absolutely NOT,” Tessa said, Ophelia nodding slowly as they both exchanged annoyed looks.
“Nope,” Ophelia said, snapping her gum. “She’s got her own agenda and we can’t count on her keeping your situation to herself.”
I nodded, “If I may ask, what happens to the others that...leave the colony?” I asked hesitantly.
Ophelia made a noise, “Well, there aren’t many-”
“Like ten a year,” Tess interjected.
“Yeah, ten a year.” Ophelia agreed, “Ten a year from each colony that are considered unsuitable for residence...you know, like you are, or infertile.” She sighed. “And then you get the stolen girls that are illegally taken out by the Novus, and that’s probably twenty a year-”
“Yeah, twenty a year. But that’s something else entirely.” Tessa said with a nod.
I chewed on the inside of my cheek. “Are they punished? The Novus that take the girls?”
“Oh yeah,” Ophelia said easily, “They get a black mark on their taxes, which I know doesn’t sound like much but it’s something the Matriarch factors it into future big purchases like houses or whatever or transfers. In East Campora, the Matriarch will chop off your hand if you steal a resident from the colony, and that’s if she likes you. I heard she chopped off both this one man’s feet a couple years back in the newest colony.” she said in an almost amused tone.
I thought on that for a beat. “What’s a Matriarch? Does the eldest female in the family have the power here?”
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