Nikhil(70)

"Then you should be required to do more," she fired back quietly, still holding Paul's hand. "How would you feel if it were Maysa and she didn't know that you were alive?"

Luol suddenly felt a kinship with Blag and it shamed him to realize he'd never considered it before. If it were his Maysa that needed to be contacted, he would be tearing down the walls until he was able to reassure her.

"I will see what I can do."

Mac nodded then turned her attention back to Paul. He was lying there so still that it worried her. Had she been that still when she'd worn the educator?

"Yes," Luol replied, and she realized she had spoken out loud, "and Nikhil was just as worried then as you are now."

"He was?"

"You doubt this?" Luol frowned at her. "You doubt your True Mate's commitment to you?"

"I... if it weren't for this," she touched the bead in her hair, "would we even be having this conversation? I've only known Nikhil two days, Luol. Love doesn't happen in two days!"

"It does if it is true," Luol told her. "Is yours?"

"How am I supposed to know that? After everything that's happened, how am I expected to trust that what I'm feeling is real? For either of us? Nikhil is relying on this bead. How can he know it's not a mistake? That it's not just because you've never met a human before?"

"Mackenzie. The Goddess gifted the Kaliszians with the True Mate bead to end the conflicts that arose between males over who their True Mate was."

"What?"

"Was this not in the educator?" Luol frowned.

"No."

"I'm sorry, Mackenzie. I did not realize our ancient tales were not included in the educator." Luol took a deep breath then began.

"Kaliszians are a warrior race. It is our nature to fight for what we want and to defend what we have. Our mates were what we would fight the most violently for. It became a problem when more than one male laid claim to the same female."

"But wouldn't the female just choose then?"

"You do not know our males," Luol told her with a wry grin. "One would never just accept that the female he desired had chosen another. Not without proof."

"But the Dasho bead..."

"Can be offered to any male and as long as the male accepts and wears it, he is her Dasho."

"For as long as..."

"Yes, the Dasho and Ashe beads are the only ones that a Kaliszian can remove."

"They're like wedding rings," she whispered.

"Wedding rings?"

"It's a tradition on Earth that many follow where a male and female will exchange rings. They are worn around a specific finger." Mac touched her left ring finger. "It symbolizes they are committed to one another."

"An unbreakable commitment?"

"No. It can be broken if one or both decides to."

"It is the same way with the Ashe and Dasho beads which is what caused so many deaths and so much pain and suffering. The Goddess finally took pity on us and gifted us with the True Mate bead. An outward and irrefutable sign of who’s one True Mate is. It stopped the conflicts, at least until the Great Infection struck."

"That's when you stopped finding your True Mates," she whispered.

"Yes, and we did not even realize it at first as our attention was on trying to save our dwindling food supply and feed our people."

"You didn't notice?"

"No, not until many years later," Luol's eyes glowed slightly brighter as he looked at the bead she wore. "It is why seeing you wear Nikhil's True Mate bead is so important. It gives us all hope that we might finally find ours."

"I... but Maysa..."

"I believe... No I know Maysa is my True Mate, yet my bead won't accept her." Luol touched the bead he still wore, his eyes full of hope. "Perhaps now it will."

Paul's slight movement had them both looking at him.

"The educator has finished." Luol reached down and removed the device. "He will wake momentarily."

Mac squeezed Paul's hand as his eyes slowly opened and he looked at her. "Hi," she whispered in Kaliszian.

"Hi," he replied in Kaliszian. "That didn't take long."

"I thought the same thing, but it's been two hours, Paul."

"Really?" Paul looked to Luol for confirmation.

"Yes," Luol responded, also in Kaliszian. "Can you answer a few questions for me?"

"I can try," Paul told him.

"Do you know where Crurn is?"

"You mean the planet where the Emperor of the Kaliszian Empire resides?"

"Yes."

"It’s three days from here," Paul answered.

Luol smiled at Mac then looked back to Paul, "That is correct. You have absorbed the educator's information. How are you feeling?" Luol asked as he helped him sit up.