Page 56 of Guardian's Soul

I pointed at some of the images. "This… this is what I saw in the simurunner."

"What do you mean?"

I hadn't exactly told him what had happened to me in the simurunner. It hadn't seemed important until now. "When I was in the simurunner, I chose an alien world I had never seen before, but somehow I knew what was waiting for me on the other side, around a bend… I knew there would be a lake, a waterfall."

He tilted his head and looked at me. "You recognized Darlam?"

I nodded numbly. "What does that mean?"

He shook his head. "I have no idea, Hannah, but I swear to you that we will find out."

I leaned against him, feeding off his strength as my confused mind tried to make sense of any of this. It took me a few minutes to pull myself back together and return my attention to the screen. "All right, let's keep going."

"Are you sure?" He looked so concerned I leaned up and kissed him.

"Positive."

Inside the small town or city, the Darlams were easy to spot with their silvery skin, and to the untrained eye, they all looked a lot like each other. Not like humans, who had different sizes and skin colors. Different colored hair and eyes. A few were taller, some shorter, but only by a couple of inches. Every single one was well over six feet, so one might have been six-four and the other six-two. Aside from that, each one looked firm and fit, well-muscled—even the women, whose chests were as flat as that of a man's.

Involuntarily, I crossed my arms over my chest. I had done this thousands of times, but this time it felt different. Like there was an obstacle in the way as if I had crossed my arms before over a flat chest and suddenly found breasts in the way. I shook my head to rid it of this weird sensation while a shudder moved over and through me as if something inside me wanted to get out. No, not something, me. Like I wanted to get out of my own skin.

The sensation was so weird and terrifying I swallowed, trying hard to appear normal to Thrax, not wanting to burden him with… whatever weirdness I was going through.

I cleared my throat and forced my voice to sound normal. "What happened?"

"The Ohrurs discovered what they were looking for, the Archegene, inside the Darlams."

Judging by his expression, this must have been when things went south. I repeated my earlier question, "What happened?"

"They fought with themselves."

I didn't expect that.

"Okay…"

"Let me explain this first. As you know, the Ohrurs had been looking for some kind of super bodyguard they could hire toprotect them, but the Darlams weren't very happy with the idea. From what I gathered, and this resonated with me, the Darlams had a strong sense of wrong and right. A deep, ingrained sense that kept each individual on the right path. It wasn't in their nature to play bodyguard for a species or accept credits in return. The entire Darlam culture was based on each individual bringing what they could to their towns. Trade was their only means of purchase. They didn't know about credits, nor did they care about them."

I stared at the village still pulled up on the cube and tried to imagine this peaceful life.Strong sense of wrong and right. I tried to imagine a world where people didn't try to kill each other over land or resources and where they lived peacefully with one another. What would that be like? Paradise? A place where you didn't crave the latest phone or computer and where there was no need for money. Goose bumps spread over my flesh at imagining myself living in a world like that. Paradise indeed. Humans would never fit into a world like that. They would try to take over. Just like the Ohrurs. Or would they?

I had to give that some more thought because I was sure I could live like that, and I was a human, so there would have to be others who would find peace in such a world.

"How did the Ohrurs react to being denied?"

"Not well." Thrax rubbed his forehead as if he was getting one of his headaches. I scooted around him so I could massage his tight shoulders. "The Ohrurs actually split into two fractions. One wanted to extract the Archegene and experiment with enhancing the Ohrur species, and the other was taken by the Darlams' way of life. So much so that they even advocated for leaving the planet altogether."

Slowly, I found one knot after another in Thrax's shoulders and massaged it out, giving him time to search for his next words. "The fractions divided so much so that they ended up in a civil war, killing almost half of the Ohrur population."

I stopped and stared at him.

I wasn't a gene expert by any stretch of the imagination, but that seemed overdramatic. "Couldn't they have just… extracted some genes and moved on?"

"I was asking myself the same question," Thrax agreed. "And dug deeper. Back then, the Ohrurs weren't as scrupulous as they are now. During the civil war, all Ohrurs who weren't on board with exploiting the Darlams died. The war wasn't just about the Darlams. It had been brewing for a long time before that."

"Oh." I wasn't sure what to say to that. But it made sense. If a war extinguished every life that wasgood, all that would be left was evil.

"So what happened to… your people?" I wanted to include Thrax. So far, he had talked like he wasn't a Darlam.

He brushed a hand through his hair. "I don't know yet, other than that they were all killed."

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