Luke stared after the woman, completely nonplussed. He wasn’t sure what could possibly have set her off, and he was too confused to react.

As for that woman – Quendra reached the threshold of the door, fists clenched, and paused. Patience. Wolan had told her she would have to have patience. She took a deep breath, and let it out.

“If you’re going to lie to me, have the decency to at least not be profane,” she said, trying to keep her voice level.

“I…I’m sorry?” Luke said.

“Tell me you’re an enchanted Titan, shrunk to our size. Tell me you were formed out of clay. Tell me that you were born to an old Titan couple who wished for a child. But don’t take the name of Earth in vain!”

It took Luke a moment to process what she was saying.

“I…I am not lying…Earth is a….”

“Earth is a myth,” Quendra said. “And no, I don’t believe it – I’m not a fool. It’s a story told to children to make them behave. But just because I can see the world as it is, that doesn’t mean that I will ignore your casual blasphemy.”

Luke opened his mouth, and closed it. It was starting to make a bit of sense. He supposed it must seem he was claiming to be from Mt. Olympus, to have been fashioned by the Gods Themselves.

“I…I’m sorry,” Luke said. “I’m not familiar with the myth of Earth. Where I come from…I have not heard it.”

Quendra sighed. Patience. He was a stranger. He did not know their ways. “I am sorry. I did not mean to lash out,” she said. “It is strange you would call your home Earth, though.”

Luke nodded. Despite everything, his curiosity was getting the better of him. “On…where I come from,” Luke said, “I studied stories. Myths. I’d like to hear this story of Earth.”

Quendra smiled tightly. “I told you, it’s not true. It’s a story.”

“I know,” Luke said. “Still…I’d like to hear it.”

Quendra sighed. “The story is simple. Long ago, our people lived in a world of our own. We lived and learned together, built cities and towns, shared stories around the fires at night. We beat back the shaars and kips of that world, and thought ourselves the mightiest of all the creatures in the universe.

“But humans had grown proud. And the Gods came from the skies to punish us for our arrogance. The worst of us, they took to their world, so that they could watch over us and keep us from mischief. It is said that if we are to rebuild our culture, we will be found worthy of returning home someday.

“But this is a lie, of course. First, there is no Earth. And the ‘Gods’ are monsters who care nothing for us.”

Luke nodded. “Thank you,” he said. “It’s funny. It’s not much different from a story I was told as a child – that the first humans had been kicked out of paradise – the story called it Eden – because they sought out knowledge they shouldn’t have sought. I think if someone showed up saying they were from Eden, I’d find that rather hard to believe.”

“So where are you from, really?”

“I am from Earth,” Luke said. “But not a mythical Earth. It’s just a world, like this one,” he said, as Quendra facepalmed.

Quendra counted to ten before she responded, and even then, she couldn’t keep the edge out of her voice. “And I suppose you’d have me believe that there were no giants on the planet, that it was a world run by humans.”

“Yes,” Luke said. “Yes. Billions and billions of us. It isn’t perfect, but….”

“Billions?” Quendra threw her hands up in disgust. “Now you aren’t even pretending. I don’t know why you feel the need to lie and insult me….”

“Look, I know this must seem weird to you, but it’s true. Look…Colorado is in the mountains,” Luke said, as Quendra looked on with narrowed eyes. “It’s a part of a country called the United States, in North America. We’re one of the bigger countries on Earth, but there are other big ones – China, India, Russia, Japan, Canada, Germany, Brazil…many different countries, and languages, and cultures. We’re the third planet from our sun, we have a big moon, almost as big as the one here, but it’s gray – It’s beautiful. And I know, to you it probably sounds crazy, but I swear to you – it’s true. I was born there.”

Quendra looked at him carefully. What he was telling her was completely impossible. And yet…he seemed quite sure of himself. Quendra could usually spot a lie, but he showed no sign of deception. Even if he wasn’t from Earth, he believed he was.

She decided to put this discussion aside; there would be time to unravel that mystery. On to another.

“So you were kidnapped. What happened?”

“I woke up on Titan Station, in a shop where they were selling other humans. I escaped, tried to hide.” Luke sighed. “All I wanted to do was get home. Back to my family. Eventually, Aisell – Icy Eyes, or whatever you call her – found me. I asked her to help me get home, and instead she brought me here, because she didn’t think there was any way I could get back to Earth. And she didn’t see any way for me to stay safe on the station.”

Quendra nodded. “So she took you prisoner, then?”

“Like I said, I wasn’t her prisoner.”

Quendra scoffed. “I suppose she thought of you as a friend.”

“As a matter of fact, she did.”

“But I thought you asked her to take you home? To…where you’re from?”

“She couldn’t. There’s a blockade…basically, there’s no legal way to get there. If anyone – Titan or Human – tries to go through, they kill you. She didn’t see a way around it.”

“So when you found that out, you gave up, and agreed she should bring you here?”

“No,” Luke said, ruefully. “No, I wanted to stay on Titan, try to figure it out. It’s in the same solar system as Earth, it’s a lot closer than Archavia is. I kept thinking that there had to be some way back.”

Quendra winced when he said Earth, but she fought through it. Wherever he’d started out, she was starting to see how he’d come to be here. “So, all right, you wanted to stay, but you didn’t stay.”

“No.”

“Instead, Eyes Like Ice brought you here. Did you change your mind?”

“No, it was her idea, but….”

“Ah, her idea,” Quendra muttered, with prosecutorial zeal. “So she persuaded you? Talked you into coming here? Convinced you that she was right?”

“No…no, she…she brought me along. I was going to stay behind, keep looking for ways…but I woke up on a ship bound for Archavia.”

“Hm. She just brought you along? Without asking?”

“Yeah, well…not much I could do about it. I was asleep. And she’s a bit bigger than I am.”

“You must have been furious,” Quendra said with a smirk.

Luke shook his head.

“But you were able to at least walk around freely on the ship, right?”

“She had me in a…a glass container. A….”

“A cage. Your friend put you in a cage.”

Luke sighed. “Yeah. But….”

“Well, at least she let you roam free right away once you got here, right?”

Luke frowned. “I know what you’re trying to do. But…she wasn’t like that. Don’t get me wrong, I’m still not happy with her, but…she didn’t mean it that way. She meant well. She was trying her best to deal with a bad situation.”

“Oh, she meant well! Well, that’s much different from her kidnapping you in anger, right? Taking you prisoner in a rage? I mean, she took away your freedom, but she meant well.”

Luke rubbed his eyes. “Look, I was furious with her. She was wrong. But I’ve forgiven her for it. In fact, I was going to tell her just that.”

“Why were you willing to forgive someone who kidnapped you?”

Luke laughed out loud, a bitter, sardonic laugh. “It’s kind of rich, you asking that.”

“I’m sorry?”

“I mean, you’re attacking Aisell for kidnapping me…while you’re kidnapping me.”

Quendra laughed. “We freed you!”

“Did you ask me if I wanted to be freed?”

Quendra looked at him evenly. “You would have said no. As the Healer said….”

“I heard what he said,” Luke replied. “And you don’t know. You didn’t ask. Just as Aisell didn’t ask. She figured I’d say no too.”

“If you heard what he said, you know that it’s easy to cling to the monsters when you know no better.”

“I do know better. I wasn’t raised a pet, or a captive. I was raised free. I don’t care if you believe it, but until I woke up on Titan Station I had no idea the Titans even existed. I lived my whole life a free person, and I know exactly what that means.

“And another thing – they aren’t monsters. They’re people. Big people. Not perfect. But not evil. They screw things up, sure. They make mistakes, definitely. But so do we. I’m not thrilled with Aisell for bringing me here, and especially not for lying to me. But then, I’m not thrilled with you guys for ‘freeing’ me without checking first if I wanted to be freed.”

Quendra smiled tightly. “You don’t know what you’re saying.”

“Yes, I do,” Luke said, leaning back in his chair and staring at the ceiling. He wiped tears from his eyes. “Huntress, Quendra, whatever I’m supposed to call you – I’m just tired. Tired of people deciding for me what I’m supposed to want. Tired of people kidnapping me and telling me it was for the best. That I don’t know better, or that I would have said no. It wasn’t your decision to make.”

Quendra had been trying to maintain an even keel, but that was the end. “We risked our lives to free you!” she barked. “If we’d been caught….”

“…Lezah would have clucked over having all those wild humans in the house, and she would’ve shooed you out, after calling you all adorable,” Luke said. “And that would have been the end of it. Hell, she’d probably have left some pie out for you guys as a peace offering. Invited you around for supper some time.”

“You truly were confused by them, I see,” Quendra said.

Luke laughed, bitterly. “Yes. You’re right. Sure, I lived hidden among them for a damn year, and lived with Aisell and Lezah out in the open, and yet I’m the one who’s confused.”

Quendra threw her hands up. “We saved you.”

“You kidnapped me!” Luke bellowed, standing up and kicking his chair backward. “You took me from the only people on this world I knew. The only friends in the universe that I could actually talk to. Didn’t ask. Just took me. Like Aisell took me from Titan Station. Like whatever took me from Earth took me from Earth. Over and over, same god damn story. Damn it, why do I have to keep explaining that kidnapping is bad?”

Luke turned his back on Quendra. He walked over to the wall, and let out a scream of righteous fury. For just a moment, he felt the same urge to throw himself against it that he had in the cage on the ship, but he held back. It would be no more productive. And he was out of energy to fight it, anyhow. Instead, he wearily leaned against the wall, and cried.

Quendra stared after him, thoroughly disconcerted. She didn’t really know how to react. She wanted to lash out angrily, demand he thank her for risking her life and the lives of others for him, the ungrateful bastard.

Instead, she forced herself to be patient. Calm. “I’m sorry. This must be…confusing,” she said, at long last.

Luke laughed through his tears. “Well, then that makes it all better. If I ever get home, I’ll explain to my family that everyone who kidnapped me, took me further from them – they felt bad about it.”

Quendra stood up. “I’ll go,” she said, quietly.

She left him there, leaning against the wall and weeping. She really didn’t know what else to do.

—

Aisell lay in her bed, staring at the ceiling.

She knew that she had to sleep. Knew that if she didn’t, she would be a wreck when it became light out. Knew that if she hoped to find Luke in the morning, she would have to be alert.

But her mind kept spinning out more elaborate and intricate plans, ways to cover ground that would allow them to maximize their efforts, ways to search that they hadn’t considered. Some of them were useful, but most were pure desperation, throwing out all your attackers in a Tol-Bot round to try to break through your opponent’s line…because simply holding yours had become impossible.

She was trying to plan out a miracle, and absent a time machine, she wasn’t sure how she could make one manifest itself.

Aisell rolled over onto her side. She closed her eyes. Perhaps if she acted as if she was asleep, her mind would join her. Perhaps she would get some rest. Perhaps, if she and Aezhay went into the fields from opposite sides, and began walking a zig-zag pattern….

—

Fifteen minutes later, Quendra had climbed the stairs, up past the apartments, past the gate leading to the outside, up as far in the tree as it was possible to go, until she reached a small door. She sighed; she really didn’t want to talk to this person. But there was something she needed to discuss.

She rapped on the door three times, and waited; part of her wanted to turn immediately, but she heard the footsteps from its inhabitant.

The door swung open slowly, and a man peered out in surprise.

“Hi, Uncle Oreus,” she said to the thin man, who looked her over, eyes wide.

“Quendra,” he said, after a moment. “To what do I owe this surprise?”

“I…I have a question. Of you. In your capacity as Seer.” The words took some forcing; she knew what was coming next.

“Have you finally meditated on what I asked of you? To consider the reality of the Great Spirit, the necessity of paying respect to it?”

“Not…exactly, Uncle,” Quendra said. “It’s about the captive that we recovered.”

Oreus the Seer raised an eyebrow, but said nothing; the Great Spirit had brought his niece to his door, he would not question, he would obey. “Come in, then. Care for a cup of brewleaf?”

“Thank you,” Quendra said, entering her uncle’s living room and office.

She took a seat opposite the seer’s chair; she had been here often in her life, especially when her mother was still alive – but far less in the last fifty Archavian days and nights since she had passed. It wasn’t that she disliked Oreus – quite the opposite, really – but after her mother, his sister had died…well, Quendra didn’t much believe in the Great Spirit to begin with, and she certainly didn’t believe in the myths that went along with it.

Oh, she still was publically obedient – when at work, she wore the mask of Neth, one of the three Goddesses of the Hunt, and kept it in fine condition. She led her hunters and huntresses in a prayer to Her each time before they departed, (or, if Kumn was there, she prayed to Ardamis just as reverently). On her return, she thanked the Great Spirit fulsomely whether the hunt was successful or not. Nobody could question her faith in the Great Spirit.

But she had been honest with Oreus. She had told him that she questioned. And Oreus had dealt with Quendra in quite the opposite of a productive manner; he had lectured her, righteously.

Quendra had never done well with lectures.

She mused on this as he brought over two warm cups of brewleaf, and set one in front of her. Sitting across from her, he said, calmly, “So what question do you have, my child?”

Quendra sighed. He was in seer mode, all right. She rather missed when he used to tousle her hair and call her Quen.

But she would follow his lead. “Seer, I spoke with the captive a few minutes ago, just after he awoke to this night. He said something that…confused me.”

“How so?”

“He said he was from Earth.”

Oreus crossed his arms over his chest and looked to the sky, eyes closed. “Great Spirit, to there may we return, so be it,” he murmured. He then uncrossed his arms, and looked back at his niece. “Why did he blaspheme?” he asked.

“I don’t think he did, not intentionally,” Quendra said. “I think he really believes he is from there.”

“Strange,” Oreus said, running a hand through his cinnamon-sugar beard. “Strange indeed. I can see why you felt the need to discuss it with me. Tell me, what did he say it was like?”

Quendra sighed. “I…I don’t know if he’s telling the truth.”

“It’s not important – what did he say it was like?” Oreus said, sitting forward in his chair.

“He…he said it was a land with no monsters, no giants – that it was run entirely by humans. Billions of us, he said. He mentioned different tribes, he said he was from one of the larger ones. He talked of it having a gray moon – he seemed very sure of himself.”

Oren crossed his arms over his chest once more, and looked to the sky, beaming. “Thank you, Great Spirit,” he said.

“Uncle,” Quendra said, quietly, “I hesitate to even ask this, but…could it be true?”

Oreus chuckled as he looked back at her. “Could it be that the Great Spirit has sent a messenger from Earth to here? Of course it could be true.”

“He didn’t seem very like a messenger. He…he was emotional. Angry. He said he’d been kidnapped, twice – actually, he said we had kidnapped him, too, but…well, point is, it’s not like he just showed up here, magically, spreading the story of the Great Spirit’s love for us all.”

Oreus sighed. “Quendra…that’s not how the Great Spirit works. It isn’t something separate from humans and nature. It embraces us all – and includes us all. Even the monsters are part of the Great Spirit.”

“I’ve heard that sermon a hundred times, Uncle.”

“Yes, yes, but – my point is, the Great Spirit doesn’t magically make a person pop from one place to another. It doesn’t bathe its messengers in beautiful light and make every one of their words a bit of song. It does not force, it only guides.”

Oreus could see his niece was confused, so he dried a different approach. “Think of it this way. If Earth exists – and the legends all say that it does – then it stands to reason that there would be people there even still, yes?”

“Yes, that’s true,” Quendra said.

“And you know the legends say the monsters can fly through the sky, to the very stars, yes?”

“Yeah…I don’t think it’s a legend, really.”

“Neither do I,” Oreus said. “So if the Great Spirit wanted to connect us with Earth, it would find a way for one of its people to find his way to us. It would not be magic, but maculate means. It would guide him to us.”

Quendra frowned. “Uncle…you know that I am not faithful.”

“It doesn’t matter if you are, you are a part of the Great Spirit. You disbelieve in yourself, and I wish you did not, for you would be far more tranquil if you did.”

“I…appreciate your concern, Uncle. I should….”

“Quendra,” Oreus said, “I know, you hold to the maculate world. That which you can see and touch. That is all right – that is part of the Great Spirit too. So let me put this into maculate terms. The myth of Earth has lasted through generation upon generation. It is a story that has always been told with reverence. I find it quite possible that this story tells of a real world that we once lived on. And I find it quite possible that a son of that world has reached our doorstep. You need not believe in the Great Spirit to see that it could be.”

Quendra looked thoughtful. “And what if he is from Earth?”

“We should listen to him,” Oreus said. “Even if you do not believe he was sent by the Great Spirit, he is a visitor to our tribe from a land we have dreamt of for as long as our species has memory.”

“You say that like you believe him.”

Oreus smiled inscrutably. “Quendra…I believe you believe him, much as you don’t want to. At the least, I believe you do not disbelieve. And my niece, my child, whatever differences we have had…I have always known that you can spot a liar.”

Quendra smiled, an sad and honest smile. “Uncle Oreus…Seer…I appreciate your words and your time. And…I have always known you can spot a liar, too; that’s why I have never lied to you about my faith.”

“Quendra….” Oreus said, before taking a deep breath. “Quen…I fear that my grief at losing my sister was not helpful to my ministering to you. Or my being there for you, for that matter I…I do not want you to worship only as I direct you to, not if it does not feel right. There is more than one path to the Truth. I just…I want you to be true to yourself – for if we are all a part of the Great Spirit, being true to yourself is being true to it.”

Oreus smiled sadly. “I want to see my wife again, and my infant daughter, and my sister, and my mother, and father, and my brother-in-law. When you questioned, and at the time you questioned…I felt an attack on my faith. I know that you did not mean that.”

Quendra looked shocked. “Uncle…I just….”

“I know. Quen, you and I are all that are left of Saram’s line. I do not want to spend the rest of my life a stranger to you.”

Quendra couldn’t stop herself, she actually leapt up and hugged Oreus. “I’m sorry,” she said, finally. “I didn’t…I didn’t mean to….”

“Your hurt was more acute than mine, and you are younger. You did nothing wrong. Nothing,” Oren said, and chuckled. “And because I love you, I will not even mention what I am thinking.”

“That the Great Spirit bringing Luke here helped to bring me back to you?” Quendra said with a laugh. “Uncle…I would love to believe that is true. I just can’t.”

“Whatever did, it’s no matter. The important thing is that you are here. Now,” he said, with a smile, “I know you have a night hunt to prepare for, and I will not keep you longer. But I would hope that one night this week, you might find time to dine with me, as we used to when your mother was here with us.”

“I would like that,” Quendra said. “Very, very much.”

“Good,” Oreus said. “I would too. Well. Go in peace, Quendra the Huntress, daughter of Hisia the Cook and Ricer the Hunter.”

“And you, Oren the Seer, husband of Ersa, father of Anylet,” she said, giving him one more hug.

She was more than halfway down the stairs before she realized she hadn’t touched a drop of her brewleaf.

—

Luke had cried until no more tears would come; in an odd sort of way, he appreciated the opportunity to do so. Quendra hadn’t tried to comfort him or make his pain not exist; she had simply left him be.

It wasn’t that Aisell hadn’t left him be – indeed, she’d left him in the cage far too much. But she and Lezah had always been a presence, even clear across the house. By their very nature, they were omnipresent. He could count on one hand the number of times he’d truly felt alone since coming to Archavia.

Luke washed his face, and taking a deep breath, decided to see just how far out of his cell he could get before the rest of the tribe came and tackled him.

He walked through the doorway, and realized immediately that he wasn’t at where he expected to be. It wasn’t a jail or a brig. There was a small central room, with a desk and some stores of herbs and such; arrayed around it were several more rooms, most empty, but a couple contained other people – one an old woman who was coughing, one a young child whose parents looked on with concern.

“Ah! Luke. Good to see you up and about.”

Luke turned to see Wolan the Healer, who was leaving the room with the child. “Yeah…kind of getting tired of being in there.”

“Understandable. I’ve met very few people who enjoy spending time in a healer’s room. Go ahead and take a walk – it will be good for you. We’ll have lunch for you in a few hours.”

“Great. Out of curiosity, which way is out?”

“Up the stairs, but I don’t advise it at this time of night. Shaars are out in force. If you want to see outside, better to do so when the sun rises.”

“Ah. Okay,” Luke said. Well, they weren’t stupid. And neither was he – wandering about outside after dark in a rural area was not a good idea if you were rodent-sized.

Still, he took the opportunity to leave the healer’s rooms, and came soon to the spiral staircase that connected the rooms in the tree. Deciding that up seemed like more work than we wanted to undertake, he headed down the stairs, curious to see what he’d find.

He took a wide loop, down, about a story or so, and came to a door that was cracked open just a bit. Intrigued, he reached up to knock, just as the door swung inward.

“I…uh…Luke-Palmer? Have I wronged you?” the man said, staring directly into Luke’s fist.

“What? No, I…I was going to knock on the door. Don’t know if you do that.”

“Ah!” Thurfrit laughed. “All right, just bad timing then. Yes, we do, Luke-Palmer. Were you coming down to see the library?”

“I…I was wandering, to be honest. You have a library?”

Thurfrit stood straight, and beamed with pride. “We have a most excellent library. Come, Luke-Palmer, do see!”

Thurfrit opened the door wider and gestured for Luke to come in; not wanting to appear rude, he entered, and gasped in surprise.

He had already determined that the people here were quite bright, but the library shocked him just the same. There were scrolls and bound volumes all around the outside of the room, and a few tables in the middle; Luke could see a door opening into another room, an office, perhaps.

“So what is all this? Legends? Religious works?”

“Yes, those, and stories that have been told for generations – and a few new ones, if a chronicler feels the desire to add them. Plus the chronicles of our Tribe – the story of our time here in the Great Tree.”

Luke looked at a parchment spread out on the table, and turned his head quizzically. “Are these written in the language you speak?”

“Yes,” Thurfrit said. “Why do you ask?”

Luke looked at the scroll. The Tribe’s writing was a mishmash of Archavian characters, characters that looked to be runic in nature, and some characters that they appeared to have invented. “It’s just…I can read the Archavian alphabet. This looks different.”

“We created it on our own. My grandmother told me it works like the monsters’ alphabet, just we have our own way of writing things down.”

Luke nodded, and smiled. If it was a phonetic alphabet it wouldn’t be too hard to learn. It would give him something to do until they set him free, at least.

“Luke-Palmer….”

“Please, just call me Luke, Thurfrit.”

“Luke…I was going down to the Great Hall for a while – I’ve been working on the story of your rescue for a good long while, and I’m starting to tire, I must confess. Would you care to join me? I’ve heard the cooks have rolled out the glowberry wine.”

“That sounds great,” Luke said. He wasn’t sure if it sounded great or not, but he wasn’t going to get the lay of the land staring at scrolls – at least, not until he learned how to read them. Instead, he followed Thurfrit out the door and down the stairs, past the armory and the kitchens, to the two open doors.

Luke stepped inside of the Great Hall, and stopped dead in his tracks.

It wasn’t the scope of the hall, carved into the tree, nor the décor, nor even the currently-empty throne that froze him in place.

No, it was simply the people.

There was a family – a man, a woman, two children, eating breakfast at one of the tables. Three burly men playing some sort of card game, laughing and trash-talking. A sewing circle in a far corner, working on a quilt. A man holding a length of pipe up, and chatting animatedly with another man, who was inspecting it carefully.

Humans. Humans going about their business. A small group, just a part of the Tribe. And yet Luke was stunned by the mass of humans in one place, living out their lives. Not pets, nor curiosities, nor even dependent on their Titan friends.

Humans who were making it on their own. Humans who were free. Something he had not seen for a very long time.

He had to admit, it was beautiful.