Eva

Prologue: Return
April 472


The sun rose golden over the city-strewn horizon, making Zathaliad’s sky-scraping palace glow red. The rest of the capital city of Lialiped lay in shadow while the sun was still low. The city, like all cities in Selenia, had been planned for this; as the sun rose, the royal complex shone brightly before the rest of the city, until the sunrise was over and the day had begun. At the very outskirts of the city, far to the south of the palace, a lone figure walked in near darkness. She chanted as she walked, indistinguishable sounds creating a constant, soothing rhythm, but that couldn’t be heard more than a few feet away from her. As she walked, she kept shifting eyes on all the alleyways extending from the small road she traveled. Occasionally, some morning stranger could be seen ambling off in other directions, away from her into the heart of the city.
The system of government of the land of Selenia was well established, and well liked, but the royal family ruled with cruel intolerance to dissension. All were made to work long days in order to keep the land’s massive industry alive. It was indeed a land of industry. Giant cities sprawled tens of thousands of square miles, and little space was left between them. But, for as populous and industrialized as the land was, it was not entirely unfriendly to its environment. The residents knew full well that without some natural environment they could not survive. And so, when space had started running out, and the air had become hard to breath, the citizens of Selenia had begun to build great expanses of forest and grassland, lakes and streams. Build them, beneath the surface of their cities, and genetically engineer the plants to be the most pleasing to the eye while accomplishing their purpose most effectively. These false natural areas could be found in nearly every city, extending below most of the city’s grid, and even out into the suburbs beyond.
The government of Selenia had made sure that every inch of this false natural area was under constant surveillance at the inception of the plan. In the vast, high ceilings of the caves enumerable cameras kept a vigilant eye on all who came to enjoy the so-called Groves. But over the years, some of this security had degraded and been forgotten, especially at the edges of the cities.
As the golden sun was just beginning to shed light over the entire city, the nervous girl ducked into the entrance of a Grove: a door marked with a carving of a large, deciduous tree. She pushed the door open, and a tunnel of large trees just like the one on the door greeted her. Their massive leaves, about four feet long and two wide, grew along the curved branches that met the trees from the other side ten feet up. Very little light filtered through the overlapping leaves, giving any visitor the immediate feeling of being in the middle of a dense forest. The light that did shine through came from huge collections of photoluminescent algae held up at the top of the high ceiling. The girl walked with a familiar step down the corridor, which slopped downward as far as the eye could see, then seemingly at random turned into the trees and forced her way through the thick undergrowth. She walked a short distance, and then made another turn, angling off almost back toward the entrance. She knew very well that she wasn’t being followed, but it was habit. She made her final turn, again going roughly the same direction as the corridor, but a few hundred feet off to the side. The corridor would wind on for about another three-quarters of a mile if she had followed, and there it would open up to a beautiful landscape not dissimilar from what would have been seen naturally hundreds of years ago. Instead, she kept her course for just another quarter-mile, underneath fairly thick trees, until it opened up to a much smaller clearing. The clearing had obviously been made recently. Still-fresh trees lay discarded around the rim of the clearing, making the boundary completely impassable except where she had entered, and another small entrance directly across from her. Tree stumps were still rooted to the ground, scattered at random throughout the small clearing. She took a deep breath of the fresh air, relaxed now that she had reached her destination in safety.
“Eva.” The girl let her breath out quickly in surprise. Eva was not a hard person to recognize, even from the back. She was very short, skinny, and had brownish red hair that extended past her waste. She was young, too, just recently twenty, obvious in her posture.
“Oh, it’s you, Lira … sala … tienpe,” Eva said as she recomposed herself. Eva did not have to turn around; she knew Lira’s voice well. She continued to stare at the trees in front of her, wondering at how lucky she was to have this place to herself and her friends. If nothing else, it was a wonderful place to escape the trials of the modern world she hated so much. Lira decided not to disturb her reverie, and walked up besides Eva to admire the Grove with her. They stayed like that a long while, a strange pair. Lira was quite tall and lanky, had shoulder-length brown hair, and was at least thirty, overall a stark contrast to Eva. But their purpose and beliefs bound them far closer than any worldly appearances ever could.
Eventually, Eva finished taking in the nature around her. She could have spent all day admiring the amazing green of the trees and grass alongside the deep brown of the trunks, the soft birdcalls in the distance, the falsely warm light of the algae overhead seeping into her skin. But she had to talk to Lira, and so she brought herself back around to the real world, to the world overhead where vehicles sped along electric tracks at blinding speeds, and the pace of life was even faster. She sighed, and began her well-planned speech.
“As you know, Lira, I’ve been gone for several months now. You know very well that it was my duty to get within the palace compound as a servant to the Queen. I did this, it was not hard. The Queen is always eager to take on more willing hands. But you also know that I should have been there much longer than I was, you were not expecting the message of my return so early. Things did not go at all how we had planned. You see, I very quickly worked my way to the station of a servant with the pleasure of working right alongside the Queen. I could not deny the promotions that brought me there for fear of my life, although I knew it would not help fulfill my purpose there at all. I cannot begin to guess at why, but the Queen took to me and I soon became her right-hand servant. She let me know everything that she doesn’t tell the general public, gave me the fullest of confidence … or so I thought.
“About one month ago, we took a trip to the nearby city of Snerliped, where I made my escape. The purpose of this trip was one of pure business, a matter of discussing trade agreements with the mayor there. Again, or so I thought. Before I left completely, I gave into the desire to see how the Queen acted without my presence. As it turns out, she didn’t even notice my absence until the next day, for she had sent me to bring our belongings into the local palace, with the intention of attending to some other business in the meantime. This other business is the reason I did not return even earlier. It is of the most terrible nature, happenings so horrible it brings sweat to my face just thinking about it. But I will wait until Anlial arrives to discuss that. Let us hope that she knows what to do, or may we die swiftly, before another fate that is not ours reaches us. Ani neses ni.”
Eva felt better now, having begun the telling, but Lira was not one that could do anything about it. Eventually, with Anlial’s arrival, the whole truth would have to be faced. Eva did not look forward to that moment, and Lira, sensing her distress, could not help but worry herself. Eva let herself slip into dark thoughts, slip into the recent past and remind herself of all that she had seen in the last few months so that in telling she would be complete; and how it all had changed everything she had known for the last few years.






















Science was the cause of the rise of man.
Religion was why it took so long
for science to get us where we are.

1st apothegm of Selenia







Chapter One: Eva
January 465


Eva woke with a start. She had been dreaming, but she couldn’t really remember what about. Whatever it was, it had faded into the sound of her alarm clock. She had built the thing herself, but it still didn’t work quite right. She would have to fix it some day, but today she had to go to school. Her brother, Nathalie, was just beginning to stir next door. They would eat breakfast, get all their school things together and be out the door by 7:00. Eva let out a groan at the thought of yet another day of Geography, her least favorite class. She would give anything to miss just one day, but that wasn’t possible. If she missed a day and didn’t go to the infirmary, she’d have to put up with a formal hearing and probably be forced to go to a boarding school for a year or two, and she definitely didn’t want that. With a sigh she picked herself up off her bed and got dressed, then went down the stairs to their kitchen.
Nathalie came down seconds after and grunted a hello, then went to the pastry and pulled out some breakfast. He stuck it in the microwave and pulled the eggs and bacon out a few seconds later, handed one of the plates to Eva and sat down. “Eva?” Nathalie asked.
“Yeah,” Eva replied emptily.
“Why the devil do we have to go to school every day?”
“Do we really have to discuss this so often? The more education we get as early as possible, the sooner we get to start working for Zathaliad in the metal factory.”
“But why do we have to work so much right after we go to school so much?”
“Because if we don’t, then Selenia will stop working … and our promise to work is the only reason we have food every morning and a roof over our heads.” They ate breakfast in silence, then Eva stood up and went to get her laptop from the living room, then went back up to her room to get the cell phone she’d forgotten there. When she came back down, Nathalie was ready and waiting at the door. They walked out, went a little ways to the end of the wireline and waited for the bus, which came zipping along a few minutes later. There was no morning goodbye for them, both of their parents had died working in the city, and they had been made to raise themselves. It wasn’t too much of a problem, with the government giving them money every month, and the only requirement that they take over their parents’ position in the city when they were older.
Most families were not at all like theirs. Plenty of parents had good jobs in the city. They came home to their family every day earlier in the evening and were there in the morning when their kids woke up. Eva and Nathalie were just unlucky.
Within five minutes the bus came to an easy stop in front of the school, and they all climbed out, most of the kids in an excited hurry, ready for an easy day with lots of time to spend with friends. Most everybody ignored or else constantly harassed Eva and Nathalie; they were part of the small lower class, and even lower after their parents’ death. They had plenty to live on, that wasn’t a problem for anyone in Selenia and especially not here in Lialiped. The lower class was simply set apart by work positions and ideology. Their parents had been low in both. They worked in a metal factory, smelting scrap metal for reuse. But much more degrading, they had been accused of practicing religion. That wasn’t true at all – Eva would have been happy for their deaths if it had been, someone had set them up in order to get their position in a high technology company, but the law hardly cared. They were instantly shoved to the side and their name cursed forever. Eva did have one friend, the only other girl her age that was part of the lower class at their school, but one friend amongst a swarm of people that hated her was hardly enough to get her excited for school. So, she slumped head-down in the direction of her first class, Geography, and fell down into the seat next to her friend Mariana.
The hour-long class felt like it lasted for a week, and by halfway through it she had given up listening entirely and was talking quietly with Mariana. Like they often did, Eva and Mariana were discussing Selenia’s pseudo class system. They were never taught anything from before the founding of Selenia, 468 years ago, so they didn’t know the system to be unusual, but they knew they hated it.
“It just doesn’t make sense to me,” Eva said for what must have been the hundredth time in conversations like this, “why it is that any one job should be more important than another.”
“I know. Think about it. If anything … and I’m not saying it should be this way or anything like that … but the harder jobs should be more valued. If any one job isn’t done, then things stop working; and people in harder jobs sacrifice a bunch more in the name of that success.”
“Yeah, you’re right about things not working if any job wasn’t done, and that’s why they should all be seen as equal. The thing about ‘harder jobs’ is that some are harder physically, while some are harder mentally – they require more training and all that. So I really think that they’re all equal.”
Mariana hesitated a few seconds before she replied. “What about jobs where you put your life at risk in the name of success?”
Eva didn’t really like talking about her parents’ death at all, and Mariana knew that, so the point was driven home. She would normally have cried at the thought of her parents, but she had learned over time to control herself in public. “I don’t know. But, even then it just seems like every job should be valued the same.”
Mariana nodded, amazed at Eva’s ability to talk about it so logically and coolly. “I suppose you’re right. I dunno, I guess we’ll just have to think about it some more. We’ll figure it all out sometime.”
“Yeah, I hope so. There’s too much I don’t understand in this world.”
“Come on, let’s have some fun. I’ll play ‘ya in tic-tac-toe.”
“But you can’t win that game. As long as both players know what they’re doing, and we do since we seem to play it every day, then it always ends up in a tie.”
“Yeah, I know, that’s half the fun.” Eva gave her a quizzical look and she grinned. “Then it’s just a matter of if I can distract you enough to get you to make a mistake.” Eva was already plenty distracted, though, so Mariana didn’t have to try too hard before she started winning every game and Eva gave up. They sat in silence the rest of the class, Mariana knowing well enough not to disturb Eva, and they both got up slowly at the end of the class feeling worse than they had coming in.


The end of the school day came very slowly. Eva and Mariana had some more classes together, and they had some classes alone. They met up just outside the school as always after their last class. Mariana was surprisingly cheerful, and she smiled and giggled as she ran up to Eva. “Come on!” she said with so much enthusiasm that Eva backed up and gave her a strange look, “Let’s go get some ice-cream!”
“No, I’m not really in the mood.”
“Oh, come on, it’ll be fun!” Eva was being difficult just because she wasn’t in a good mood, and Mariana knew it. “I’ll even pay for you.”
“Oh, fine. But don’t worry, I’ll cover it.”
“We’ll each pay for our own, then.”
“Fine.” Mariana couldn’t help but smile. Exactly how she’d planned it. Mariana had reason to be in a good mood. She had some other friends, though Eva didn’t know it, and she had finally arranged for an encounter. She launched herself at Eva and Eva screamed, wondering what could possibly have gotten into Mariana. They walked away toward the ice cream shop with arms linked, Mariana occasionally giving a little skip, and Eva occasionally giving a little wince.
Just as the ice cream shop came into view, a strange looking woman stepped out onto the street. She didn’t wear the normal two-piece garb of Selenia, but instead wore a long, intricately decorated dress. Before Eva had the time to notice her, she gave a quick wink, apparently too someone off in the distance. Mariana gave a start and Eva followed suit. The woman stepped directly in front of the two of them, as if intent on not letting them pass. Mariana squeaked a sound of distress as the woman reached forward and grabbed a hold of Eva’s arm, who let out a great scream. The scream died quickly, though, as Eva felt a sudden sense of comfort overcome her. The woman pulled Eva’s face up to her own, and stared intently into Eva’s eyes. Eva felt a sense of worry returning, but it was slow in coming back, and she did nothing but attempt to look away.
“I see into your eyes …” the woman said in a semi-mystical tone, “just like an open door, a window into your soul. And I wonder, what is this fear? A girl like you has no fear. You walk from day to day, people hating you on all sides. Someone might lash out at you at any moment. No … you have lived with this fear long enough to build up a resistance. You should not fear anymore. And, me? A simple, weak woman, yet you are afraid of what I might do to you? No … this fear extends much, much deeper. Yes, I see. You know exactly who I am, don’t you? Not consciously, of course. Just like you don’t know that you will some day be where I stand, only much greater, over all of us, you will carry the burden of thousands and thousands of people for you will be their only hope. And you fear this future; you do not know if you are the right person to do it, in fact you are quite sure that you are not. But you will have no choice; you will be the only one. You know all of this, but you hide it from yourself. I can say know more, for these things are a long time to come.”
Just as abruptly as she had come, the woman turned and walked away, down an alley. Mariana stood with a confused look on her face for a few moments, then sighed and turned to Eva. “Ummm … that was weird” she said, “who was that?”
“I don’t know, but I didn’t like her.”
“That was kinda cool though, what she did to you. Why did you stop screaming? You should have just shoved her away or something.”
“I don’t know,” Eva said, and that worried her, but she pushed it to the back of her mind, determined to forget the strange encounter, “come on, let’s go in.” Eva walked into the ice cream shop and held the door for Mariana.
“Thanks.” Mariana looked around and found what she was looking for, they were already here. “Um, I should tell you something Eva. There’re some people I want you to meet.” Eva looked confused, but Mariana pressed on, “come on, you’ll like them. I’m sorry I didn’t tell you before. They’re just a couple of other low-classers like us, only they live just outside the city in Fakiniped and Naliped and so they don’t go to our school. They’ve already got their ice cream, let’s get our and join them, ok?”
Eva tried hard to put it all together, figure out what was going on. Mariana was her only friend, and she had always thought that she was Mariana’s only friend. She didn’t mind Mariana having other friends; in fact she thought it was great; it was just a huge surprise for her. “Yeah, ok,” she finally replied. They got their ice cream and Mariana led the way over to a table with three girls sitting at it, who were huddled together in whispered conversation. Eva assumed they were talking about guys, and already thought she wouldn’t like these girls.
Mariana pulled up a chair and the scraping sound of the chair’s metal legs against the floor drew the girls’ attention. “Oh, hey Mariana! What took you so long?”
“It took me a while to get her to come along,” Mariana said, pointing her thumb at Eva.
“Um, is that Eva, Mariana?” The girl asked, without even looking at Eva. Eva could feel her dislike for these girls growing by the second.
“Yes! This is Eva, my good friend.”
“Hey Eva!” the three girls all chimed in turn.
“Eva, I’d like you to meet Brianna, Treanne, and Lana. Brianna, Treanne, Lana, this is Eva. She is, unfortunately, right down there with us. But I guess that means we should all get along OK.” Eva wasn’t sure she agreed with Mariana, but some of her anger ebbed as the girls smiled at her.


The girls stayed at the ice cream shop until the sky started to darken and the manager ushered them out the door. They walked together until one by one they went different directions to get home. By the end of the evening, Eva had made three new friends, and she was feeling happier then she had felt in years. Mariana was the last to make a turn and leave Eva alone for the rest of the walk home.
“Mariana,” Eva said with hesitation but with unmistakable undertones of joy in her voice.
“Yeah?”
“Thank you so much for that. I can’t tell you how much it means to me. I haven’t been this happy in a long time. But I can’t help but wonder … why haven’t you introduced me to them before?”
“I wanted to surprise you. I’ve been trying to surprise you for a very long time now, but it was hard to get all of you together at once, since they kinda live all over the place. I’m just really glad it all finally worked.”
“Me too,” Eva said and smiled as Mariana waved goodbye and walked down the street to her home. Five minutes later, Eva held her keycard up to the pad on her front door, and pushed it open slowly with a happy sigh. She walked inside and upstairs, fell onto her bed and was in a deep, peaceful sleep in no time.


Brianna started to run as soon as Mariana, Treanne, Lana, Eva were out of sight. Mariana had signaled something unbelievable when she came into the ice-ream shop. Their sign language was simplistic, but it was good enough that Mariana had been able to say “new leader foretold” while Eva had been looking away, and then a hurried “Grove” sign – the same sign the strange woman had signaled to her before leaving.
After a few minutes, she met up with Treanne and Lana, who were also running to the Grove. Brianna sowed a bit and caught her breath, then spoke to the other two, “what do you think she meant by ‘new leader foretold’?”
“Oh, that’s what she said! All I caught was the urgent ‘Grove’! You don’t think we’re going to lose Anlial, do you?” Lana blurted out in a jumble.
“We’ll know what it all means soon enough,” Treanne said.
Just then, Mariana came panting up to them as they arrived at the entrance to the Grove. Mariana motioned silence, and they all went through the door, walked down the path quietly, then angled left into the forest for a few minutes until they came to a small clearing.
Anlial, the woman from the ice-cream shop, was there, as were some others, including one young man – their usual local gathering, 12 in total. Everyone formed a circle around the edge of the clearing, and Anlial stood in the middle, turning to look at them all.
“There will be no need of that tonight. Please, seat yourselves so that I can look at you all as I speak.” Everyone obeyed quickly, and they were soon all comfortably seated on the soft carpet of grass that was the floor of the clearing.
“Welcome, welcome, Nalanites of Southern Lialiped and nearby. I am sure rumor is flying already, so I mean to make everything clear now … to the extent that it is clear to me.” Several of the girls gasped at this, surprised to see that their leader didn’t understand something. “Today, I met briefly with Mariana’s good friend, our prospective, Eva. The meeting was intentional; the results were not. I meant only to discover if working with her would be worth our efforts, to see if she would join. What I received, however, was much, much more.
“I am afraid we are in great danger, I know only that it comes, and quite quickly. Whatever the cause, we will be forced to reveal ourselves to all. Many will join us. Many more will rise against us. It is the Great War that has been read in prophecy for so long. Somewhere in this course of events, the young Eva will become the leader of us all, in this city and all of Selenia. Times will be hard, and she will be our only salvation. It is therefore extremely important that we convert her to our cause as quickly as possible. Each of you will have a part in this, some of you hidden. Mariana, Brianna, Treanne, Lana – it is your responsibility to remain her friend at all cost and to sway her philosophy towards our beliefs, as quickly as possible, but carefully. Ari – your assignment is not an easy one. I ask you to also befriend Eva … and then attract her attention to yourself. She is a lovely, sweet girl, and in need of love – you may even find yourself genuinely stricken with her, but you must act it if not, and gain her utter devotion to you. The rest of you are to work with these in devising ways to sway Eva. You are to occasionally encounter her and strike her as good people, so that once we introduce her to ourselves as what we truly are she will more easily accept us. These tasks are not easy, nor can they be taken lightly. I wish you all luck. I must now leave to begin spreading the word of the troubles ahead to other cities. I will return as quickly as possible. Ani neses ni.”
Anlial’s sudden announcement of departure left the girls and Ari, the young man, in stunned silence, which only made it worse since in their pause Anlial took the chance to leave without another word. The silence broke then in a jumble of worse – questions and doubts and worries flooding the clearing in a tidal-wave of sound.
“Reveal ourselves? We can’t reveal ourselves! We’ll all be killed!”
“There’s going to be a war! You heard her … ‘times will be hard, and she will be our only salvation’ – we’re going to have to fight to survive!”
“The Great War! It’s finally here!”
Mariana stood silently through it all, staring at the group with a blank look on her face, unable to move. But her mind was racing, trying to understand what was happening, what it all meant – and how Evan could possibly be the center of it all; Eva, the simple, sad but hopeful friend of many years. A part of her was excited for what was coming – from what Anlial had said, she assumed they would survive, and if they world knew about them and they still survived, that meant that more would come, and they wouldn’t have to be secretive any more. But mostly she was worried. Worried for her friends here in the clearing – how many would die? Worried for her own safety. Worried for Eva. Slowly, people started to leave the clearing, until only Treanne remained with Mariana.
“Come on, Mariana. It’s late, you should go home.” Mariana gave a small start, then nodded and trod slowly after Treanne out of the clearing and into the night.


Eva had a grin on her face when she met up with Mariana before her Geography class. She had slept better than she had for a long time the night before. The smile slid to a concerned frown when she saw that Mariana looked tired, as if she had been up all night. But Eva’s smile was contagious, and a grin crept up on Mariana’s face and the two giggled for a few seconds before either spoke.
“Thanks for yesterday, Mariana!”
“Oh, no problem … if you’re hiding any friends from me, don’t hold out like I did with you, OK? I’m sorry.
“Hey, don’t worry about it. I’ve met them now, and I’m happy, and that’s all that matters. Besides, you made me realize something – the whole reason why Selenia’s working system doesn’t work is friends! That’s why harder jobs are lower class – they work too long and don’t have enough time for friends, as much, so they’re not happy, so nobody likes them, so they stay ‘low class’!”
“Well, maybe … I wonder if we could be arrested for all our talk about how bad Selenia is run. Queen Zathaliad might even have us killed.”
“Don’t be silly, Mariana! We’re not going to be arrested for heaven’s sake! Besides, how is anything ever going to get better if everyone just ignores the problems?”
“Yeah, you’re right of course. Ah well, time for Geography anyway!” Mariana said, sarcasm thick in her voice.
The class went as slowly as ever, though their conversation was more cheerful than normal. They talked of technology, and sports, and some more philosophy. They had a minor disagreement about how ‘everything’ began – whether it could possibly have just ‘banged’ into existence or just always existed. Eventually, Mariana convinced Eva that it would make sense if matter and space had always existed, but had been random and disorganized until a certain point, which science called ‘the Big Bang’. This made sense to Eva, more than simply always there or suddenly appearing, but she wondered at how everything just happened to organize itself into atoms, and planets, and solar systems … and life. But, with the argument settled, they quickly moved on to a new topic.
After school was finally out, Eva and Mariana met up with Treanne, Brianna, and Lana and went to a dance club. They all danced and laughed together, sharing stories of when they learned to dance, and who their first ‘slow dance’ had been with, which led to a discussion of ‘cute’ guys they knew, who they liked, if they had had boyfriends, and so on. Eva tried to keep quiet on the subject, but they eventually drew out of her that she had never even danced with a boy before.
Having danced for several hours, and being worn to exhaustion, they left the club and went to the same ice-cream shop where they had all met. They spent another hour there, discussion whatever came to mind, and finally decided it was time to go home. Eva went home unbearably happy for the second night in a row – and then settled down at the desk in her room for a tiring night of homework that had been left undone from that day and the night before.








































The World is a fearful place,
But one emotion fills fear’s space;
There is no fear in love,
Let love descend on all, as if a dove.

32nd Psalm of the Nalanites

























Chapter 2: Ari
March 468


Eva stretched and yawned, then lay in bed thinking before finally getting up. She had had an excellent dream, one with family and friends all having a good time. Two months ago, that would have been a miracle. That was what she was thinking about lying there - that her life the last two months had been a miracle, ever since Mariana had introduced her to her new friends Treanne, Brianna, and Lana. Having more friends – and so many of them! – had completely changed her life. She was now a more easy-going person, less fearful, and simply happier. She had even been able to meet other people, to have conversations with them and be friendly – if not to make more friends. Some people, she had kept up an association with, able to talk to them during classes when she didn’t have Marianna there. One in particular actually seemed to enjoy the conversations. Eva couldn’t help smiling at the thought.
He was the first boy, besides her father and brother, that she had ever talked to. And, most incredibly, he was upper-class, and didn’t mind where she was on the social ladder. Eva still had trouble with that – she was used to hating the upper class, and them her. He was different though – sure, he had his upper-class walk and way of speech, but his philosophy was more towards what she considered lower-class philosophy. It was more towards Mariana’s line of thought than that of the traditional snobbish superior attitude of the upper class. And he seemed interested in what she had to say. Eva let out a deep sigh and started getting ready for school – choosing her outfit carefully, brushing her hair ten times more than it needed it, and even putting on a little of the makeup Treanne had given her.
Nathalie started banging on the bathroom door impatiently. “Come on, sis! It’s almost time to go, and I still have to brush my teeth!”
Eva heaved another sigh, finished brushing her own teeth, then went to her room to get everything she needed for school. When she walked into her room, however, she let out and ugly sound between a scream and a growl. In the bathroom, Nathalie flinched, and made to brace for impact.
“Nathalie Rank Nalan Penn! Get in here!” Eva picked up her journal, which had been laying strewn across her bed. “You’ve been reading my journal again! You promised!” Nathalie came stumbling into the room, looking as if she had already beaten him. “Explain yourself!”
“I … I … uh …”
“Well?”
Nathalie’s face lit up with an idea, “don’t yell at me, or I’ll make your decision of whether or not to tell Mariana about Ari a whole lot easier.” With that he paraded out of the room triumphantly. Eva stood stunned – she was furious at Nathalie, but he had also made her realize how foolish she had been not to tell Mariana. She shook herself and walked downstairs, ready for school now. She found Nathalie waiting for her, looking sober. “I’m sorry, Eva,” he blurted out quickly, then hurried out the door towards the Wireline bus. Eva whispered a quick, “it’s OK,” – far too quiet and late for Nathalie to hear – and hurried after him.


Eva was once more sitting in Geography class, next to Mariana, talking to her in a low voice. Mariana was listening intently, interestedly.
“Mariana, you remember when you introduced me to Lana, Brianna, and Treanne – how you’d known them for a long time but never introduced them to me?”
“Yeah – sorry about that.”
“Well, we’re even. I’ve been getting to know someone quite well …. I might even call him my friend, if I knew better where he stood on the matter.”
Mariana perked up and said jovially, “him?”
“Yes, him. His name is Ari. I met him in Chemistry class.”
“I thought there was something about you. Your hair looks much nicer than it used to, and your face is … prettier somehow. You like him, don’t you?”
“Well … yes, I do. But he’s upper-class, Mariana! I feel horrible for him, just making him talk to me! I’ve got no right to fall for him!”
“Eva, you’re speaking nonsense! Besides, I think he likes you, too. He still talks to you, doesn’t he? Even after you started doing your hair nice and all. It’s obvious you like him – yes, I’m sure he noticed – and since he still talks to you, I think that he likes you, too.”
Eva couldn’t help but blush at that, but she smiled, “do you really think so?”
“Well, I’d have to meet the guy to be sure, but yeah, I think so.” Inside, Mariana groaned for the lies she was telling.
Eva’s smile turned to an all-out grin that consumer her face. “Well, then, I guess I’ll have to introduce you to him … somehow.”
“Do what I did when I wanted you to meet my friend – invite him somewhere, then have me show up.”
“Invite him somewhere … but wouldn’t that be kind of like a date? What if he doesn’t like me?”
“Eva, stop worrying! I’m sure he’ll come.”
Eva sighed, and shrugged. “You’re probably right, I might as well try.”
“He’ll come.”


Later that day, Eva found herself standing at the door to the Chemistry room, looking in carefully at Ari, breathing quickly. Finally, she got up the courage and walked in, making a bee-line for Ari.
“I was just wondering if maybe you could come to eat dinner with me and maybe go and eat dinner with me and maybe got and eat ice-cream after and maybe meet my friend Marianna there … maybe?” she blurted out with no preface.
Ari laughed for a while, and when he finally got control of himself he smiled and replied simply, “of course. Today?”
Eva looked crestfallen as Ari laughed, but perked up again at his response. “Uh … yeah, ok.”
“Where did you want to eat?”
Eva started to speak, then her face fell as she realized the problem, “I uh … well, you know my parents died and … well, the government gives us money – on condition we’ll work our parents’ job when we’re old enough – and, well, they just give us a little more than we need to get by.”
Ari gave her a sympathetic look and hugged her briefly from the side. “Look, I know a place we can go. It’s a quiet little place but it’s not fancy, it’s a casual place. I’d be happy to take you and your friend there.”
Eva stood silently for a minute, trying to understand how Ari could be so kind and caring. She smiled and whispered a “thank you.” He in turn smiled and patted her on the shoulder, then suggested they get to their Chemistry experiment.


Mariana was walking between her Physics and Math classes when she saw Ari walking down the hall. She motioned him over to her and they stepped into an empty classroom.
“So … Eva told me today that she likes you. Why haven’t you mentioned before that you’ve made so much progress with her? Do you know how happy she is? She’s scared, but she’s so happy!”
Ari smiled a smile that split his face in two, and said quietly, “so am I.” Mariana gasped in surprise, forced a smile, and walked out the door.


Eva walked into her last class of the day, deep in conversation with Mariana. They walked to their desks and sat down, and then Eva practically jumped back out of her seat. There was an envelope sitting on her desk. It was not an ordinary envelope, it was easy to see at first glance that it was expensive – the paper looked almost like cloth, and there was a thin silver border on all edges. It was sealed with a blob of wax which was pressed with an intricate design. Eva opened it cautiously, and pulled out a single piece of fine parchment, and read to herself its contents:

My princess from the lower class,
Who rules above my pomp and crass:
I cordially accept your dinner invite,
But in one thing I forgot to be polite:
Though we scheduled date and dine,
We neglected to set a time:
Six-o-clock would suit me well,
Meet me near the city’s hourly bell.

She smiled, then read the not aloud to Mariana, who turned to Eva and looked down at her with an accusing look, “you see, Eva, I told you he would come.”
“Yeah, you were right. He’s going to take me somewhere – apparently we’re going to meet by the clock tower tonight. I can’t wait for you to meet him!”
“I feel like I already have.” With that, their teacher began talking, which they listened to for a few minutes, then began discussion Eva’s conversation with Ari.


When school finally let out, Eva began to get very nervous.
“What’s up?” Mariana asked her.
“Oh … I’m so nervous, I feel sick! What am I going to wear? What if I make a fool of myself? What if he decides he doesn’t like me?”
“Eva, seriously … everything will be fine. Trust me – you have nothing to worry about.”
After a few moments of silence, they went their separate ways. Walking to the edge of town to the Grove, Mariana felt horrible. Keeping such big secrets from her best friend was killing her. She couldn’t wait for it all to finally play out, but even that thought wasn’t very encouraging – she still had her doubts everything would work out with Eva.
Eventually, she made it to the Grove door, walked in, meandered her way to the clearing, and, finding herself alone, sat to think for a couple hours before meeting up with Ari and Eva. After much thought, she finally decided she’d be late and give them a few minutes by themselves.


As soon as Mariana was out of sight, Eva sprinted the rest of the way home – Mariana’s words were nice, but they didn’t change how nervous she felt. When she got to her home she flung the door open, ignored the probing questions of her brother who had followed her home, and went straight to the bathroom to shower quickly, and then to her room. She had very few outfits, but began testing them all in every combination in a whirlwind of clothes. Eventually, she settled on an outfit – it was nothing fancy, she had nothing of that sort, but it was, to her thinking, attractive. An ankle-length, powder-blue skirt with faint pink flowers on it, and a white, slightly v-necked t-shirt, with a pink ribbon to hold her hair up. She then spent an hour fixing her hair into hundreds of different styles, finally settling on slight curls hanging down the front, with a loose bun in back. Overall, it created a nice subtle-beauty look, aided by her height and long, softly red hair.
Finally ready, she brushed her teeth, sprayed perfume, gave herself one last look in the mirror, and walked out the door by 5:30 toward the clock tower – a walk which, in high-heels, she estimated would take about twenty minutes.


Ari arrived early at the clock tower, anxiously awaiting Eva’s arrival. Before heading to the tower, he had talked with some of his Nalanite friends – they had tried to talk him into not going any further with Eva, keeping it at a ‘just friends’ level. But he knew their motive – he knew that Mariana liked him and was privately bitter about his assignment – but he didn’t care – he loved Mariana as a friend, but this had long since stopped being merely an assignment. He had begun to be genuinely attracted to Eva. So he sat nervously, waiting for her to show up, worried about the outcome of the evening.
When Eva finally arrived, Ari could hardly believe his eyes. She was stunning! And the way she walked hesitantly with a nervous look on her face put him a bit at ease.
“Se sa amaha,” he said under his breath.
“What?”
“Hey, how are you?”
“Oh … I’m fine … how are you?”
“I’m doing wonderfully, thank you. You look absolutely astounding, Eva.”
“You … you look spectacular yourself, Ari. You’re early.”
“Well, what a coincidence – so are you!” he said with a smile. She blushed in return, and their conversation continued on with other small talk until a little after six-o-clock.
“Hmmm … Mariana isn’t here yet. I wonder what’s keeping her.”
“Who can tell – I hope she shows up. Hey! Do you know how to dance?”
“Um … not really – not very much.”
“The waltz?”
“Never heard of it.”
“Well, you hear the clock ticking? We’ll use that for a beat. The waltz has three beats, so imagine every third tick is heavy …” Ari continued to explain, and then show Eva the dance until finally she had it down and they were floating around the clock tower, as if at an old ball, music playing in their heads. When they tired of the dance and sat back down, their lead hands remained clasped; and though both were sweaty for nervousness, neither made any motion to separate, nor said a word. They were still there, sitting on a bench under the tower when Mariana finally arrived.
As Mariana walked slowly up the street to the clock tower she thought she could see two people walking around and around it slowly As she got closer, she noticed they were dancing, and then noticed it was Eva and Ari. She hid in some shadows, then, to watch for a while. She saw them dance for a few minutes, then sit down together under the tower, holding hands. Tears slowly began welling up in her eyes, but she wiped them away, reminded herself of the importance that this night went well, and of the comments Ari had made a bout Eva to her, and got up to walk over to them
Eva and Ari jumped up and nervously let go of each other’s hands when they saw Mariana approach out of the shadows.
“Sorry I’m late. How are you both?”
“Fine”
“Fine … Mariana; I’d like you to meet Ari, my friend.”
“Nice to meet you,” Ari said, extending his hand with a smile.
“And you. Well, shall we go? Sorry I held you guys up – are there reservations?” Mariana said, shaking his hand.
“Oh no, no need to worry – it’s nowhere fancy.”
“Well, all right then – lead the way!”
They all left the tower, following Ari’s lead down unfamiliar roads somewhere in the middle of the city, until finally he stopped in front of a small, old looking building, with an electric sign that no longer worked advertising, “Aunt D’s Sandwiches”.
“Well, this is it!” Ari proclaimed enthusiastically, “shall we go in?” He took Eva’s arm to escort her in, and Mariana followed behind. An old, grandmotherly lady greeted them at the door.
“How many?”
“Just the three of us, thank you.”
“Right this way,” and they were led to the back corner to a small table with three chairs around it. They all took their seats, graciously accepted their menus, and began perusing the pages for what they wanted, remaining silent for a few minutes. Their waitress cam back around just as they were all setting their menus down.
“Well, have we all decided then?” they all nodded, “what’ll it be?”
“I’ll take a roasted turkey sandwich with a Caesar salad and lemonade to drink,” Eva said hesitantly, looking at Ari to make sure it was OK she ordered so much. He smiled and gave a nod of encouragement, then ordered the same thing with a plate of fruit instead of a salad. Mariana ordered a roasted chicken sandwich on sourdough, with no side and water to drink, silently expressing her mood, though she thought and hoped neither of the others realized it.
Waiting for their food to come, the three sat in awkward silence, each exchanging glances with the others until finally Ari spoke up. “So – what do you two do for fun together?”
Both started to answer at the same time, but Mariana let Eva take over. “Well, we normally just talk, really,” she said, her nerves still present in her voice.
“Good, good – what about?”
“I don’t know … philosophy, mostly, I guess – science, nature … society.”
“Oh, really … what’s the most recent topic?”
Mariana winced but Eva opened up without hesitation. “Well, today we were discussing intelligence, how it possibly came to be, and why humans are the only truly intelligent species.”
“Ah – what do you think?”
“Well, the process of evolution makes a lot of sense to me, in terms of life forms gradually becoming more complicated, but I’m confused about a couple things.”
“What’s that?”
“First, how did random, disorganized matter first organize into atoms and molecules; and second, it seems to me that intelligence is a very unique thing, very distinct, and I think it’d have to have a definite beginning – some type of mutation in the evolution process that gradually became dominant, but such a mutation seems so … random.”
“Yeah, I can see where you’re coming from. The first part isn’t too bad – sub-atomic particles gradually find their ways to each other by gravity and random motion, and then bond with the nuclear forces, then, the atoms find their way to each other and bond by electromagnetic forces. After that, the question of how life came about is more difficult – evolution doesn’t really do a thorough job of explaining the beginnings, but that’s a whole different conversation.”
“All right, I can live with that … what about the intelligence, though?”
“That’s definitely more complicated. I’m not really sure if anyone has all the answers about that; I think you had some very good points, though. There is certainly some defining factor to intelligence, some key … thing … that makes us different from everything else. Even with our modern technology, we really can’t identify what it is. It doesn’t appear to be in our DNA. That leaves only one physical possibility, and that’s the brain. Of course, we don’t fully understand the brain, but research shows it to be remarkably similar to other animals’ brains – in fact, we really can’t find anything of possibly significant difference. So where does that put us?”
“I don’t know … I’m not sure I like that – are you sure there’s nothing different with our brains?”
“Well, like I said, we don’t fully understand them … but I think there’s something more to it.”
Eva sighed, “I just don’t know – I’ll have to think about it some more, do some research myself.”
“You have a remarkably open mind, Eva,” Ari said with a smile.
“And you’re remarkably intelligent, Ari,” Eva said, returning the smile. Mariana covered her frown by holding her glass up to her face, and then took a slow drink....