Kris:

  She almost stepped in when she saw things escalating during lunch. Only almost.

  Mari had been mildly upset with her for stepping in on her behalf that morning, claiming she wanted to solve some of her own problems. Furthermore, her intervention had only sparked additional issues, which she would’ve normally predicted and navigated around. It implied a particular issue with her emotions.

  She was so enraptured by her adoration for Mari that it overcame her rationality. She loved how deeply she felt for a person who could be so selfless, but if doing so ended up hurting Mari? The very thought twisted her stomach into knots.

  And then Mari had gotten assaulted by a classmate.

  Damn her traitorous mind, but when Kris saw Mari catch Cynthia’s face before it could hit the table? Stars, it was so damn attractive. Mari didn’t need her help at all. She managed to prevent herself from being hurt and, selfless gem she was, Mari had prevented her attacker from being badly injured in the process.

  Kris knew she was down bad, but seeing that? Everything she loved about that raven-haired beauty was on full display.

  It hurt, keeping her distance, but it was worth not making any rumors any worse in the process.

  And then that man had shown up. Barclay, if she remembered it right. Kris watched as Barclay, Anise, and Mari all finally got food and sat together, some imperious pressure preventing the other students from getting close to them the whole time.

  There was a clear sign in their mannerisms, too. Barclay was playing up being subordinate to Mari, and Anise was being as flippant as possible about everything. The message was clear—Mari is someone important.

  There was no telling if anyone would pick up on that message quite so clearly, but with the friendly banter going between the three of them, the rumor mill would be churning to find out what made her so important to have an adult being subservient towards her. Some would see it as proof positive that Mari had been some sort of high ranking enslaver, and that would undoubtedly become the primary narrative within the hour.

  Lunch finished before she could be done gathering her thoughts, and Mari rushed off to her assessments right away. The worst part was the sting Kris felt when she realized they hadn’t met one another’s eyes a single time from start to finish. She’d really have to get over her intense feelings, but until then, she had afternoon lessons to sit through.

  Anise and Barclay, though…

  Kris was surprised to find herself following them as she departed for the main assembly area in the center of the school grounds. The area was planted with a wide array of trees and trimmed with vibrant gardens of flowers, all cut into the outer perimeter of the pentagonal space. Tiered seating was already arranged around a central podium that had been moved to make room for some sort of artwork drawn onto the presenter’s dais.

  There, on his hands and knees, holding a brush and a plate of viscous black liquid, was another familiar face. Andrew Brooks.

  “Hey, Anise. Welcome back. How does it look?” The man barely glanced aside as Barclay and the young-looking cultivator approached.

  At his words, Anise began to step around the ten-sided diagram slowly, eyes intent on each detail. “The array is close. Very close, in fact. Thank you. Being honest with ya, I was worried your experience drawing up schematics as an engineer wouldn’t translate well. Happy to be proven wrong, art-guy.”

  Kris almost stumbled at the silly nickname as she found a place to sit among the growing crowd of students. She noted that most of those arriving looked to be the human population of the city. The other clones like Mari. By a quick estimate, it seemed like it was all of them.

  Separated by a wide gulf was a fair number of other students, none of whom seemed inclined to interact with the humans, let alone sit next to them.

  Brooks stood and brushed invisible dust from his knees, stretching and cracking his back audibly. “Any mistakes to fix? I could’ve sworn I got everythin’, but one can never be totally certain.”

  “There should be a contact rune here. I made up names for all of them at one point, not that they matter.” She held her hand up, and the inky black liquid drifted over and she gently slid her finger through the ink to trace the pattern onto the ground.

  All around her, the other students sitting nearby began muttering about magic, all of them with their eyes fixed on the dais with wonder in their eyes.

  This story has been unlawfully obtained without the author's consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.

  Anise then checked her nonexistent wristwatch, then shaded her eyes up at the sun, stuck a finger in her mouth, then up in the air, and nodded. Kris felt the beginnings of a headache coming on, faced with the girl’s theatrics.

  “Let’s begin!” The girl spoke, and the voice was loud and clear, even without the podium and speakers. “Welcome, class.”

  “Wait, the kid is a teacher? Is that a joke?” The person sitting beside her asked. And Anise glared at them directly. When Kris turned to look, she realized it was another Kilthien. Jiraed, a younger person from another clan who sported a youthful indecision of gender, appearing entirely androgynous.

  Kris placed a finger over her lips in a shush gesture, which Jiraed stiffened and nodded to.

  “My name is Anise Locke-Smith.” That brought a few chuckles as she translated the last name into the equivalent words of their language. “I’m here to teach directly about the culture and differences between Sylpharia and another world entirely. A world named Earth.” The last word sounded foreign, given that it wasn’t in their language that time.

  “For clarity, allow me to ramble a little first.” Anise snapped her fingers, and the black liquid, which didn’t seem to be drying or running at all, began to glow. An image appeared in the air above the diagram, showing Mari’s form and another woman’s—a woman with a familiar set of green eyes, wearing a white lab coat over a sweater and jeans.

  “I’m the daughter of two people from planet Earth. These are my parents. Marielle Smith and Sylvia Locke. I imagine there is some confusion, given you all are familiar with one of these faces. The answer to your unasked question is yes. Every single one of the humans who were found alongside Mari are all similarly cloned from humans from planet Earth.”

  The image shifted, and suddenly displayed a green and blue sphere, which anyone could recognize as a planet viewed from space. As they stared at the projection, it turned and slowly shifted into night, the lights of a hundred cities sparkling across the surface.

  “Despite what you all had assumed for a long time, these humans went out into space to find a new home to settle, and instead they found a certain bio-weapon. For those who need things pointed out to you, the clones you may have been derisive towards are the empire’s backups made to replace their infected bodies.

  “The point of this course is to introduce another culture to all of you, and for those who’ve been mandated to be here, I am supposed to give you a choice, and an education to make that choice. If you learn of Earth and decide you want your old lives back, it can be done. I’m no medical expert, but there are obviously risks to your health. Ask an expert for those later.”

  Kris took a moment to observe her fellow native students, watching their reactions to the news with a keen eye. There wasn’t a visible shift that she might’ve hoped for, but there was a sort of skepticism in a few glances thrown towards the humans that were kept at arms length. If she hadn’t seen years of bullying directed at Mari, or read the accounts of history spanning thousands of years, Kris might’ve even hoped the news would change things.

  People didn’t change so easily, though. The oppressors didn’t always become the next to be oppressed, but the downtrodden always seemed to have an itch to bury someone else when they were offered a little freedom. And it wasn’t quite universal. Anvien just didn’t have hatred or cruelty in them anymore. Ravien and Kilthien, though… Anise’s revelations wouldn’t be fixing any opinions quite yet.

  As she ruminated, the image shifted to display to Elitheen as seen from above, despite how several voices had risen with questions and shouts of disbelief. Every student who tried to stand up was immediately pushed back into their seat by an invisible force, and Anise moved on without responding to any of their words.

  “Here we have your beloved capital city. Pretty, isn’t it? All the perfectly grid-shaped streets and buildings. All the perfectly organized districts, too. Mister Brooks, can you explain to the class what is so bizarre about that design?”

  The man frowned, seeming surprised. “Oh? Well…” he scratched his stubble idly, then continued, “everythin’ looks like it was scripted out before it was built. As if the city was constructed before anyone lived in it. Earth cities start off as a village, and then they grow with the population. New families and businesses, which grow little by little over time until more governing facilities are needed to meet a growing demand from the population.”

  “Exactly. Kris, would you like to explain your thoughts about why Sylpharia’s cities have this prefab design style to them?”

  Kris cleared her throat and stood, considering the image before them before finally offering her answer.

  “Thousands of years ago, our world hit a critical realization. Our strategy for building things on the surface was dooming us all. Wood was a limited resource we had outpaced the growth of, and our energy options were causing further problems. At the critical point, cities covered forty percent of all landmass on the planet.

  “Due to several factors, including the rampant spread of the bio weapon here, the population shrank rapidly, and cities were reclaimed by nature. Now, cities occupy only about half a percent of all landmass in the world. Most of our structures are subterranean, and the vast amount of landmass across the world are wildlife preserves or automated farmland. Elitheen being the only city on our continent, as an example.”

  “Excellent.” Anise waved her hand emphatically, and a new city appeared on the display, slowly rotating before them with a beautiful skyline overlooking the peaks of towering buildings that reached for the clouds overhead. “This is a city on Earth.”

  Murmurs filled the air as the projection shifted to an overhead view, and dots started to appear in different places, showing various factories and housing areas. It was, in Kris’ mind, a complete mess.

  “It’s a disaster, right? How does anyone know where to go to find anything, right? But, culturally, this is how most civilizations develop naturally. It’s what steady progress looks like. Why do I point this out, right? That’s obvious. I’m trying to explain the utter lack of comparable features there are between the two worlds. Strap in, kids. There’s a lot to learn.”

  Kris smirked, already preparing to dissect every scrap of information she was given. After all, Earth was where Mari had originally come from.

  Patreon!

  discord server is the best place to get in touch with me!