Evening was soon followed by nighttime. Much of the colony was giving up their clothes and retreating to bed, Aten seeing the smallest members to their respective beds. She did so individually, but in a different order every night, which the tiny drones appeared to appreciate. Even with their youthful restlessness they would soon enough be asleep just as well.

After ensuring everyone was where they needed to be, checking on supplies for the next day, and taking care of anything which looked out-of-place, she came to retrieve me from the dining benches. The both of us walked in silence until we reached her room.

<"Please wait here for just a moment.">

I did so, staying at the doorway while she went inside. She picked up a small box, took something from inside, and scratched it across the top. They were matches, I would later find out. With it she tended an array of candles, illuminating the room with a warm orange glow. With her foot she gently scooted her bed just a bit closer to the candles, then turned around to face me again.

<"That was all I needed. You may enter.">

I cocked my head slightly to the side before entering, looking around me to the rest of the room. Just a change in lighting can make the same place look so different. When I looked back, Aten had situated herself atop the bed, but had allowed me plenty of space. I carefully stepped over to the bed and sat on the edge. Though this was something I requested, I did not really know how to begin. Even with my awkward silence, she simply waited.

<"Aten, sorry, I...I am not sure how to start.">

<"I do not need apologies. If something is difficult for you, please take the time you need. I am not going anywhere.">

A minute passed, though it felt like an hour. I took a deep breath and searched for the words I needed.

<"...I-I come from a place...far north of here.">

Aten stayed silent, waiting for me to continue.

<"There is...a colony around there. The north. Northeast? I...">

She remained silent, but curled her tail around the base of the bed, just a short distance from my toes, rest it on the floor. Perhaps her way of letting me know she is still listening.

I sighed and leaned forward, resting my elbows on my knees and raising my hands to my face and just stared at the floor. I pulled back my fingers, raking my claws through my fur, tugging my ears before continuing to my upper neck and finishing the motion.

<"We were just numbers.">

Aten's shadow upon the floor shifted slightly to look more directly toward me. Still she was silent.

<"All of us, just numbers. Order of birth...I assume, anyway. Sometimes drones just kept nicknames for themselves or others, but...not always.">

Her tail drew barely closer, resting at my toes.

<"We were to work, and only work. We had to find our own food, but keep it away from others if we wanted to keep it, or be clever enough to find ways to hide it. Many of us turned to little more than bone and resorted to stealing from those who could better hunt or had more luck. While that fed you, it also turned those against you, so fighting was...rampant. ...Even then, much of the food we gathered had to be given up to our leader, along with anything else of value we might find. The most you were allowed to keep was a square of cloth to keep you from freezing at night.">

I took another deep breath. I could feel my eyes welling up from just my own words.

<"We were only allowed the most basic literacy. We were not allowed to learn, not allowed to think about life elsewhere. Any talk of leaving, should the enforcers catch wind...you were lucky if they just dealt with you themselves-- you would hurt a lot, you might bleed, but you would be alive at the end of it... There were certainly worse fates.">

A silence befell the room as I just sat there holding my head.

<"I am still listening,"> Aten said quietly.

<"...I wanted to learn.">

I raised my head to look up at the ceiling, to look at how the warm orange played with the cool dark blue of night upon the wood stone.

<"I had always been trouble, at least according to them, and try as they might even they could not always watch me. One afternoon I...I managed to elude their attention to talk with a passing merchant group and quickly trade away everything I had with me-- food scraps, some useful plants, some pressed paper and bits of glass, everything but the blanket I kept...for a small book. I used the blanket to conceal it and run back up into the trees. I am not even sure it was a fair trade, or if they just entertained it out of pity. Though it was hard and very slow, I managed to figure out the alphabet and their sounds, eventually making letters into words with meanings from the little helpful images. The words were small and basic, but I was still learning...at least in secret.">

<"I am still here.">

<"...The depictions of seas, of forests, rivers, and flowers...they made me wonder about life outside. Fish, bugs, birds, little mammals and lizards, a world so separate from mine only because of laws. Everything I had come to know was hot, dull, dry...oppressive. But I could not let on to anything I was learning, anything I had done over those few months. I had to plan something, anything to get out of there and the more I learned, the more I longed for anything but home.">

<"'Home?'">

<"...I guess it was not really a home, was it? I found that more and more true each passing day. Eventually I just...I just could not take being there anymore. Something had to change. I needed to go, but also needed to avoid the watchful eyes of our leader's enforcers. They were, um, very good at their jobs, or else they, too, had to live like us numbers.">

<"They lived differently?">

<"Y-Yes... They were given food rations, better care in general...even real names. There was always competition to become part of their ranks, since then you were...validated...you were a person instead of a peon. It was ironic that, in order to become a person, you had to shed your humanity.">

I let out a little chuckle.

<"I got caught.">

I laughed again.

<"I was beaten by enforcers and dragged to the central tree to face our leader, but by some kind of dumb luck, one of the enforcers stumbled just before the end of the bridge and his grip loosened. I spun as hard as I could, barely freeing myself from their grasp, and ran like I never knew I could. Before I reached the other end of the bridge I turned my head around only for a split second to catch the unmistakable gaze of our leader from the dark central hollow. Something about those eyes...were not normal.">

From the look of her shadow, her ears seemed to perk from the last detail.

<"Knowing there would just be more enforcers coming for me from the endpoint tree, I leapt onto the tree itself, finding any grip I could to scramble down to the surface world...though when I did finally meet ground I was jumped by three other enforcers I had not accounted for. They pinned me to the ground, facing me upwards as our leader slowly walked to the middle of the bridge just above, staring daggers at me I could still feel from afar. The only gesture I could make out from that far was a nod, after which the third enforcer grabbed my tail, drew their dull blade, and smashed the end of my stinger.">

<"You were a traitor,"> she put bluntly.

<"I guess I was. While that branding did not hurt, it still brought with it a pain no gash or bruise could compete: Instead of just doing away with me there as I was, they wanted me to suffer, knowing both that I was not yet mature enough to produce the venom needed to make the stinger truly useful and that no other colony would accept me...thinking that I would succumb to the elements, perhaps even to corruptions, long before the damage could heal. They also made off with the book I treasured above even food...I think I heard them say they were going to burn it before one of them physically kicked me away from the base of the tree. Even with that possibility looming over me, I fled south, fled to the book's promises, as fast as I could.">

<"Did you find them?">

<"Yes, I did, after a couple days. The sky seemed so much bluer, the grass was greener, and I saw all the spoils previously locked so tightly away. I saw the blue sea, the murky lakes, the little leafy bushes and the taller, leafier trees. I saw the great stone cliffs, the tiny colorful flowers, and all kinds of fauna I had never seen before...or if I had seen them, not in the same way. The farther south I went, the more there was to find. ...The farther south I went, the more conscious I became of my being out alone, the more I worried that running away was a poor choice. While my surroundings were now so amazing, if I was to succumb to them in only a few weeks, would it have really been worth all the pain and trouble to get there?">

<"Did you find your answer?">

I looked around the room once more, then to my tail, the stinger still wrapped in purple cloth.

<"...I think I did.">

A few moments of silence allowed us both a short time to reflect.

<"What was the book?"> Aten asked. <"I am quite curious to know what would provoke that kind of response.">

I clenched my fingers and toes, bracing myself for the worst.

<"It was a primer...for learning faraden.">

<"Faraden?">

<"...Yes."> I uttered, my ears flattening.

<"You can understand faraden?">

<"Well...not completely. It was just a primer, so mostly pictures and solitary words, syllables, and some simple sentences. I can still remember most of them."

<"Can you teach me?">

My eyes shot wide and I quickly turned my head toward her in baffled confusion.

<"Can you teach me what you remember?">

<"I...I could do that, but--">

<"Sagis.">

<"Ahhyes?">

Aten stood up, stretched and walked around to the front of the bed, gently pulling and leaning me into the fur on the side of her leg, slowly stroking my face and chin with her big hands.

<"You were a traitor to oppression, not to those worth the respect they dared to demand.">

With that she left briefly to gather some supplies from a cabinet at the far wall-- some paper, a reed pen, and a small bottle of ink. She handed me these things when she returned to the bed, but I was still taken aback by the request.

<"Please come up by me and show me what you remember,"> she insisted.

I took up the supplies and did so, drawing letters, writing words, and making the sounds to accompany them and what they meant. She listened intently, learning what I learned, and it made me happy. It was a happiness in a way that was like eating a favorite food or hearing a favorite tune, yet so unlike it. Fullfilment, maybe?

An hour passed, but so quickly unlike the moments leading up to then. Both of us were quite tired and ready to turn in for the night, so I hopped off the bed and placed the writings and tools on a small table before making my way to the door.

<"Sagis?"> Aten called.

<"Yes?"> I answered, stopping just before the doorway.

<"What was the name of your colony 'leader?'">

I turned my head to see her still atop the bed, waiting.

<"Kyrbri.">

Aten's eyes widened slightly upon hearing the name, then closed with a furrowed brow and a frustrated-sounding exhale.

<"Thank you, Sagis. Sleep well.">

---

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