Little Cherine Book 06 - BPost006

arthur-grafo8 (60)in #sfandf-fiction • 4 years ago

“Daniel, I found something on board which may cause you pain, but I think you would want to have it anyway. Forgive me my friend if I make you suffer.” He handed over the picture.

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Grief and joy vied with each other over his face. The picture trembled in his hand and he placed it on the bench, first making certain it was clean and dry. He stared at the picture for a time while Allan waited anxiously.

“You called me friend and you were right, bringing me this required the courage of a true friend. Thank you Allan.”

They finished their ale and Daniel asked to be shown the ship.

“No, it is not for me to do so, Jessie found it, she should show you.” He called for her and she came, holding the hand of a pretty redhead. He explained to her.

“Would you show our friend Daniel the ship? It used to be his you know, but he lost it. He is very grateful to you for finding his lost ship.”

“Can my friend come with? Her name is Drevina.”

They jumped to the beach and then the three of them let Daniel be on his own. He sat on the sand and stared at it for a long time. He stood up, dusted the sand off his buttocks and turned away from the ship.

“We better return. I’ll come here with others who may know more about this. That is Lady Melina, but we would not have presumed…I do not understand.”

“Perhaps she altered the mermaid to make it look like her as her way of telling you she is offering this back to you as a gift?”

They were not able to leave as Jessie wanted to play with Drevina and she demanded from Allan a coconut for her friend. Smiling he brought four of them and the adults sat drinking while the girls ran around.

“She seems happier than the last time I saw her.”

He did not answer immediately, concentrating on scraping off the inside some of the soft almost gelatinous meat of the green fruit.

“Are you planning on taking her to the void and linking her to Cherine?”

“Not yet. I want her to have some time as a child.”

Daniel looked astonished. “You think the others are not children?”

“Only in some ways Daniel.” Daniel saw some vague pain in his eyes. “I no longer know what is right.”

“Do you know what is wrong?”

Allan smiled, knowing Daniel had not meant the double meaning. “Only some of it Daniel. When I do not know if what I think is right is right, how can I say I know what is wrong?”

“You don’t always have to know Allan, you should listen to your feelings.”

Allan stretched and placing his arms on the sand behind him looked up with a smile. “How can I? To presume anything I see as right as being wrong, I would be criticising those I love more than myself.”

“Perhaps what you feel is wrong for Jessica is right for them?”

“I’m just being a coward Daniel, don’t mind me.”

Daniel was silent for a time. “You are like me, you carry your past with you. We both need to learn to accept it and place those memories away so that we can carry on with our lives. We are both very lucky in that we are loved - what else could we ask of fate…or Lady Melina?”

When the girls flopped by them, tired, Daniel took Drevina home.

“Would you mind sitting here while it gets dark? Jessie, you do know that this world is inside that pretty head of Meli? So are the stars. Maybe the stars are what we see of her mind, bright, sparkling and there to guide us when we are lost in the dark. I’d love to see them.”

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“How can all this be inside her head!! I’m too big to fit in there.”

He looked at her with a smile, thinking, she is winning my heart just by being a child, am I winning hers though?

“You are getting rather big! Soon you’ll be too big for me to hold you in my lap and I’ll never know how lovely it is to hold you.”

She frowned, but did not make any hurtful comment.

“Are you still afraid of me Jessie?”

“No. Eleni would be very cross with you if you…if you hurt me.”

“I have not talked about it before love, because I felt you had to get to know me first. If you get to know that I love you and am too soft to hurt you, I thought maybe then you can also listen to the words that are in my heart and somehow, if the time is magical, even believe me. As the stars appear I feel it is a magical time and I’d like to tell you how I feel.

I know you don’t like to, but that you do still remember the day we found you. We were very lucky on that day Jessie. If Robert had not jumped to us and stopped me, I would have killed your father. I was so angry it felt as if my blood was going to pop out of my eyes.”

“Like tears?”

“No. Like tiny fountains, squirt, squirt all over the place.” He knew that kids love gory images and he was right, it amused her to imagine blood spurting out.

“Where is my daddy and mummy?”

“Robert took them to another world where there are no children so that they can never hurt a child again.”

“Do they have a doggie with them?”

“No.”

“Mummy will be sad then.”

Eleni moaned in our minds and we all tensed up. Even Robbie was glad not to be in Allan’s shoes right now. None of us would blame him if he avoided answering.

“Maybe. Jessie, has anyone told you that your mummy was sick?”

“No.”

“She was darling. What she liked doing with your dog, it was wrong. Dogs should only do that kind of thing with girl dogs, not with people. What she did also made your dog sick. Animals are not very clever and they trust us. Your mother made your dog think it is supposed to do what it did to her instead of to pretty girl dogs. That is why I had to kill your dog.”

Jessie jumped up and took a step away from him in horror. “You killed him!”

“I had to love. I knew we were taking your parents and you away and with what your mummy taught him he would have tried to do it to some other little girls and hurt them. He is a strong dog - you would not want him to hurt another little girl would you?”

“He was a good dog!”

“He was also a sick dog. If the other dogs knew what he was doing they would have been disgusted. Dogs only put their weenies in girl dogs. That is how they make puppies.”

“He wanted me to make puppies?”

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“Your mother taught him that, it is not his fault love. Just as what was about to happen to you was not your fault. Your parents were to blame. I’ll tell you honestly, even if it makes you cross with me. They were both sick and very bad people. Sometimes when I remember what they were trying to do to you I still want to go to the place Robert took them to and hurt them very bad. I love you and cannot understand how any adult could do that to a child, never mind their own child.”

“But…but…you want to do it also!”

“You are talking about what I do with Eleni? It is not the same Jessica, what Eleni and I do is because we love each other and a human man and human girl are supposed to do that with each other if they love each other. Do you know what it is like for me making love to Eleni? To me it is as if she is a goddess and I am worshipping her when I kiss and hold her. Making love is beautiful for both when it is done with so much love.”

“You killed my doggie because it was sick, not because you thought it was bad?”

“That’s right.”

“Okay.”

“Okay?”

“We had another dog, he was really old and mum took him to the vet and they put him to sleep because he was sick. Mummy said we had to do it because we love him.”

Allan got to his knees. “Jessie, please stand in front of me.” Reluctantly she did so. He took her hand and spoke with his eyes staring into hers. “Jessica, I swear I will always love you and do everything I can to protect you. To me, in my heart, you are the dream girl I always wanted as a daughter. I swear I will be a good daddy if you allow me to be your new father.” He brought her hand to his lips and kissed it. She saw tears in his eyes and when the first one rolled down his cheek she looked elsewhere as if he embarrassed her.

“Okay.”

“Thank you my little angel.”

“I think Meli has thought of another story.”

Disorientated he stared at her. She pointed at the sky and he saw a bright star twinkling at them. “That is her story.”

“Would you like to go back to Eleni so that you can tell her our news? I know it will make her very happy.”

“Can we come back for me to play with my friend?”

“Of course.”

At last someone had brought the subject out in the open, enabling Jessie to talk about it. The same evening she discussed the dog issue with Eleni and when she fell asleep she was a little girl free of some of the weight that had been crushing her. Slowly, slowly she will now heal.

Although we were all emoting our admiration, Allan felt he had handled it badly, so Robbie joined him as he stood at the edge of the water.

“You showed a lot of courage twice within one day.”

“I should have found the words to help Jessie. I was completely at sea, I didn’t know what else to do.”

“You know what the problem is? You are playing back your words and the more often you listen to them the less you will find commendable. We all think of things we should have said afterwards. Instead of listening to your words Allan, listen to her heart. Feel how you helped her. After all, that is what this was all about wasn’t it?”

Moodily he stared off into the darkness. “I’m tired, I better go home.” He put his hand on Robbie’s shoulder. “Sometimes I like having you as a friend.” Before Robbie could work that one out, Allan had jumped home. He returned to us with a grin.

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“What does he mean by ‘sometimes’?” He should have known none of us were likely to answer the question. He grinned at Meli. “Whenever we start to take your worlds for granted, forgetting how impossible they are, you introduce a new element to make them even more of an enigma. A ship Meli! Why not a spaceship?”

“How would I know?”

“Oh, come on! You even changed their mermaid to look like you.”

“I didn’t.”

“As Allan was wondering, would you like to look like that, without a little flower to tease me with?’

“You don’t know much about mermaids do you? How do you think baby mermaids are made?’

“Perhaps you’ll have to teach me about the mermaid facts of life.” He grabbed her and she squirmed, giggling, feeling him. “How about a different kind of lesson tonight?” He buried his face in her long dark hair.

Chapter One Hundred and Sixty Six

The document was agreed and Robbie wanted to call everyone to sign.

Meli asked, “Robert, I have a problem. What date do I put on the Deed?”

I have to deal with that problem all the time in the diary (my personal one) and had been curious as to how they would resolve it. Some argued the date should be the date of the last Earth we were on, the date of the wedding. Others argued it would not be right since we had returned to the past, before our alliance began.

“I sense you laughing at us Sam, what is so funny?”

“All of you. There is no date in Freddie. There is a way we could solve the problem though. We could create a dating system for Freddie. But that time would only describe how much time has passed in here without being relevant to the void or normal space.”

“It does make sense, Roberto.” Alki said.

I added. “Yesterday is still yesterday for us here, even if we’ve travelled a million years through time outside.”

Robbie did not like it. “The time here would have to be relevant to time outside in some way. Say we decide something here on year five in Freddie time, when on Earth or elsewhere we are asked, did the decision supersede the date we made our decision, how do we reply? We could be creating legal problems for the future. If we sign this document and then someone from the future goes back in time to just before our first visit to the lace world and they declare the system as belonging to them, who has prior rights?”

“That should be easy Robert. If they knew we had already given it to the machine people they would be in the wrong.”

“You would have to prove they knew of it. We may know they knew, but be unable to prove it in court.” Perikli said.

Eddie suggested, “We should make one planet the centre of government for all Cherinians. Dating would then depend on the time and date anything is filed there. To do so, it would mean that world has to have a set time - you should not be able to arrive there at your time of choosing. Can that be done?”

“Your idea makes sense Eddie, if we could enforce the time of arrival. I do not know how we could do so though. Think of any rule or way of doing so and I’m certain I’ll find a way around it. If I can, then so will others.”

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Everyone sort of deflated after that and no other ideas were flung around. I waited until they had all given up before saying, “Actually there is one such world. You could say there is more than one, but one is enough. On that world everything has to happen in sequence, you cannot choose the time you arrive.”

“Stop teasing Sam and just tell us.”

“Freddie of course. Can you jump to Freddie of yesterday Robert? When we go elsewhere and want to return here we can decide to arrive here within an hour of having left, but we cannot go back in time.”

“What makes you think so?”

“Can I jump into your mind, your conscious mind, in your past? I could as an observer maybe, but to communicate with you?”

“You would be changing my past so you would only create another reality, you could not affect this reality - ours I mean. Sam, you may have just solved the problem. Freddie is just as invulnerable to tampering in the past as I am.”

“Oh, I solved the problem for now.”

He groaned. “For now?”

“Yes. What if we, the family, do disappear for a long time, how would any further decisions be logged or old ones accessed?” Allan laughed out loud and called to me, “Sam baby, I love you.” Robbie did not find his reaction amusing (he did later), but he had to agree, we only have a temporary solution. Cheekily I added, “So, we are back to the beginning of this discussion; how do we set a relevant time in a way that lasts forever?”

Nicko laughed. “She is taking us around in circles on purpose.”

Robbie looked at me suspiciously. “Are you doing this deliberately?”

“The answer sits before you Robert, why do you ask me?”

“Huh? Before me? Now you’ve lost me baby. Spell it out.”

“Spoilsport. You are supposed to struggle on your own first.” I stood up and walked over to Merlin and Shiyra. “In the story of Merlin it is said, in some versions, that Merlin lived backwards in time. He began his existence on Earth as a very old man and as time passed he grew younger. He was your clue Robert. Our Merlin, where he came from, they experience all of time. When you change their future they are aware of it. Why don’t we make them our time cops? Whatever is decided here, we report it to them and they note at which point in time we advised them, with an additional note, marking the time we came from. Anybody trying to go to them prior to the report will be seen by them as having done so.”

“Nobody would be able to ‘plant’ information for their information to have precedence? I like that. Merlin, Shiyra, would your Ii agree to this? I did say I would give your people bodies and planets to return to. Are they all likely to want to return at the same time? Will the Ii continue to exist?”

“We did not leave our planets within one generation Robert. For all to return at the same time would severely overcrowd our worlds. We would have to take turns so it means the Ii will continue to exist.”

“Will the Ii be willing to act as an impartial policeman?”

“It would be pleased to have a purpose. As to being impartial, Robert, the Ii is not the same as the individual souls that form it. It has no weaknesses like greed, hate or love. It’s main purpose is to grow, learn and reach ultimate refinement. It cannot do so if it acts unethically. Perhaps souls of other species could join us so that the Ii represents all life?”

Since she was offering he did not answer her question, feeling that he has already made clear to them that he is against any souls joining their Ii.

“Freddie, you are aware of the time period since you took over? Please give your date to Meli so that she can enter it in the Deed. All of you know that Freddie is actually part of myself, my soul, so I hope you will understand if we arbitrarily choose to use the time intervals of our own planet?”

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Empathia went to collect Aven. She had practised a signature and duly signed after Meli read out the document in full to her. She had taken the hint and we found her scent pleasant at last. She did seem more alive to everything and used this opportunity to study our faces.

“Are you ready for the next lesson?”

“What is left?”

“Tactile. The sense of touch.”

“I know how to feel what I touch.”

“If you say so.”

Aven looked at her suspiciously. “Alright,” she nastily conceded, “I might as well do it, even if it is nonsense.”

Empathia could not help smiling. “Have you noticed I find everything interesting, while you find everything nonsense?”

“That is not true, only what you say I find nonsense.” Empathia pretended to be hurt. “You are a baby! Okay, not everything you say is nonsense, sometimes you are interesting.” Even though she was not speaking in a pleasant tone, just her willingness to sort of apologise or consider the feelings of Empathia showed what remarkable success our baby girl has already achieved.

Allan got roped in so it was five of them who left us. Chantel kept on looking at Allan and it was obvious she felt nervous. She has shared our beds for some time now and knows what a male is for, but she also knows it is not right for another male to touch Empathia and her. She had asked to join our family, not his.

They sat on the opposite side of the hill, halfway up to the church ruins, so that we cannot see them, though I imagine it was more to give the two girls privacy. Empathia flopped down with a grin.

“This lesson could have been over within ten minutes if the two of you were loved. We’ll have to take the slow way.” She reached for a soft blanket at our house and spread it on the ground. “I hope both of you are wearing panties. Please take off all your clothes except for the panties.” They did so without it worrying them, since modesty of their Terran bodies did not interfere. She had them stand for a while.

“Feel the slight breeze on your skin. Feel how it moves the tiny hairs on your arms, the way it softly teases your skin. Allan, you are allowed to look, Eleni agreed. She said you are also allowed to get an erection, but she insisted you keep it for her only.” She laughed at his embarrassment. Her laughter was so childish and sweet that it did not anger him and actually helped him relax. He wagged a finger at her in admonishment and sat on a rock.

“We don’t have a sun, but you should be able to feel the warmth on your skin. Lie down and concentrate on that.”

She had them feel the softness and texture of the blanket against their backs, made them sit on some uncomfortable rocks and on the grass. She pulled out a few blades and tickled their arms, legs and backs. She jumped to the kitchen and returned with a couple of ice cubes which startled them at first. She made them concentrate on the cold and the wetness it left behind. She then collected two mugs of boiling water and had them press the sides against their skin. She always insisted they feel everything at different parts of their bodies and asked them to try and feel what the differences are. She tried a number of other things and ideas and then taking them by the hand jumped - landing in shallow water. She had them touch slimy things and rub the slime between their fingers, coarse sand, talcum, the list seemed to go on and on.

She took the girls out into a field and asked them to take off their panties and then Sharipya and Asimi took them for a ride. From their exhilaration as they galloped with their hair streaming behind them, this must have been their highlight of the day. They put on their panties and returned to Allan.

“Allan, I can’t do the next bit, can you do it for me?” He waited for her to explain, amused at her embarrassment. “I need you to pinch and hit them over different parts of their bodies. You must hurt them Allan.” No longer amused he nodded, understanding her inability to cause pain.

While he did as she asked, she collected a fork and steak knife. We now watched her with our hearts in our mouths, worried about just how far she was prepared to go.

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“Aven, when you jumped off the cliff and were attacked by the dog you felt what pain is like, Chantel has never felt pain. Please take the fork and…” She stood helplessly, unable to say the words, already sickened by the pain she was empathising to.

“No Empathia, I’ll do it.” Allan took the fork. “Is your healer ready to repair them or should I send mine?” She nodded and without hesitating he jammed the fork into Chantel’s thigh. She screamed and already trembling and sickened, Allan swiftly jammed it into Aven’s thigh.

“God, I hope you know what you are doing.”

She stared at his sweat covered face. “I’m sorry Allan.” She turned to the two girls. “Do not use any healing powers you may have. Concentrate on the pain, feel it. Feel it!”

She gave them time to do so. “That was not pleasant was it? Now you know how it feels when someone else is hurt.” She sent her healer to them and soon both of them felt no pain and the punctures closed. With a trembling hand she picked up the knife. “Being cut is a different pain.” She put the knife to the arm of Aven, but she could not cut. Suddenly she pulled the knife away and slashed her own arm. Allan cried out and Robbie looked sick, ready to jump to her and stop the lesson. Cherine stopped him.

“I’m sorry, I can’t cut you and it would not be fair to ask Allan. I don’t know what else to do.”

“Give me the knife.” Aven took it, acting as if she were about to cut herself. Her hand flashed out and cut Chantel and almost in the same motion the knife sliced at her own arm. She dropped the knife, her lips white as she compressed them to stop herself from crying out. Sickly, tears running, Empathia reminded them, “Feel it.”

Allan picked up Empathia, holding her trembling body tightly against him. “Shh, it’s done my love, you did well, very well.” He continued like that until she pulled her head back and gave him a wan smile. “Thank you Allan.”

“I’ve kept the best for last, if Allan is up to it. Chantel, can you lie on your tummy please?”

Allan jumped to the kitchen, returning with a bottle of olive oil.

“There are special aromatic oils for doing this, but we don’t have any on Freddie, so forgive the smell and concentrate on the sensations.” First he gently massaged her back, arms and legs. Then he revisited the same areas with firmer fingers, digging in and breaking any knots he found in her back. Expertly his fingers brought that deep sense of relaxation a good massage creates. When she turned over for him she had a sleepy look on her face. He massaged her front while Empathia reminded her to feel it, sense how different parts of her body respond to his fingers. Aven looked on with eyes that spoke of her dislike of having this done to her.

“How do you feel Chantel?”

“I feel so relaxed, but at the same time my body feels so alive!”

They gave her a few minutes to enjoy it and then Aven was told to lie down. It took longer for Allan to break through, but when his fingers dug in and hurt her she relaxed, finding that acceptable. The pleasure caught her by surprise. Empathia sent to Cherine that Aven might be enjoying it now, but that she will be very angry afterwards. It amused her and Cherine laughed, more at the childish sense of humour of her daughter than anything else.

“Allan, please take off your shirt and lie down.”

Aven spoke quickly, revulsion written clearly all over her face. “I’m not touching him!”

Empathia was taking off her clothes. “You must touch me and then him, feel the difference.”

The two of them did it at the same time. It was interesting to see how Chantel kept on moving her hands, alternating between the two, while Aven only quickly touched Allan’s back and then mostly kept her hands over Empathia. In the end they settled, Chantel massaging Allan while Aven did the same for Empathia.

“It feels different! Am I supposed to enjoy the one of you more than the other?”

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“I don’t know. What do you think? Maybe if you loved the one more than the other, you would.”

Chantel managed to get Aven to try massaging Allan, telling her to feel how his flesh is hard, more muscle under the skin. Self-consciously Allan chuckled.

“Even as a baby I’m certain she has more muscle than me.”

“Don’t be silly Allan, you are a Cherinian, exercise doesn’t count.”

As an aside; why is it the girls only call Robbie and Allan silly? I can’t imagine any of us speaking that way to Alki. The usual answers are wrong. We respect all of them and familiarity is no excuse for in many ways we are closer to Alki. I think we act according to what we sense would be acceptable to them. I hope so.

Daringly, Empathia tried to finish off the lesson with an exercise that had to include, tactile sensations, smell and taste. She told the girls to kiss her cheek while doing all three and then told them to repeat it on Allan’s cheek.

“We have a couple of silk blouses I’ll lend you. Feel how your clothes affect your skin and then try spending a day with the silk one on. Touch yourselves, running your fingers as lightly as you can up and down your arms, legs, your tummy and your chest. Try using other things also, always concentrating on how your skin really feels and reacts to the sensations. We’ll meet again in two days.”

“The lessons are finished?” Aven stated more than asked.

“Nearly. Do what I told you, practice all the lessons by yourselves, stay aware of your bodies all the time. How do you feel when you are hungry? When you have eaten too much? Feel how it is to be tired and how wonderful it is then, for your body, to lie down on a comfortable bed. Your bodies are sending you thousands of messages a day, but you have not been listening up to now. Learn to listen.”

Robbie is in awe of Empathia. When Cherine asked him if he can take their daughter to see the fairies, hoping their beauty will captivate her again and help her to forget, or rather, to deal with what she has done against her own instincts, Robbie hardly glanced at Sol before agreeing. He was slightly miffed when Empathia showed her delight and asked whether she could take her two students.

“Take Jessie with, she also needs a bit of magic again.”

“Only if Allan agrees to come with. Everything she enjoys must be done with him dad.”

Soon as Aven agreed to come with, the boat came puffing in and they left.

“It will take them forever to get there Robert, why didn’t you jump them there?”

“Oh dear, I didn’t think of that. What should we do now?”

“The journey takes as long as they want it to?”

“Not in the gorge Sammy.”

An hour later we all giggled. Empathia had convinced the two girls to join her in assuming adult bodies. The two were quite upset at having the changes to deal with. Empathia of course only added wood to the fire by asking, “Isn’t it interesting?” I think that if she uses that word one more time, Aven will strangle her.

Lynda was asked to jump to them to apply makeup. Chantel found the experience interesting, but Aven became silent, lost in her thoughts as she sat staring into the mirror.

“Am I supposed to be attractive?” All of them assured her she is beautiful.

“Those green eyes of yours, they are like diamonds.” She knew diamonds are considered one of our most highly valued gemstones and was pleased, not realising Allan was up to his tricks again, using a compliment to mask his real meaning. I could almost follow Robbie’s thought processes, cold as ice, ice is also slang for diamonds. Eyes like diamonds.

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They caught us off-guard when they did not leave the boat after the gorge. Allan said they are charting virgin territory and enjoying it. Eleni said he was enjoying having Jessie to himself, that he does not even notice the scenery. She was right but also wrong, since he was careful to show everything of interest to Jessie.

Solomon and Ordinx, Sharipya-Asimi joined us with a number of scientists at their side. After the pleasantries Solomon cut to the chase.

“Cherine, we see a change in Empathia. She is different from the other children. Gina is perhaps closest to the way she is. What about young Richard, that sweetness of his? We have come to the conclusion that children conceived or who spent most of their time in the womb on Freddie are altered. Do either of you have a reason for it?”

“Now that you mention it, it does seem obvious. I’m not certain what the reason could be. What do you think Dommi?”

“I don’t know, all I can say is it is true. Roberto, you are forgetting Diana and Jade, they too have the same sweetness, even if Jade tries to hide it behind her fiery nature. I’m certain we will find out one day. Roberto, could it be one of the energies from the void? If it is, could you send concentrations of it to Earth?” Her eyes were dark pools as she imagined children in the millions being born similar to these three in their sensitivity.

“I’m sorry to have to disillusion you Dominique.” Solomon said. “We have been discussing it between ourselves and have come to a different conclusion. If we are right it could lead to great changes in your future. What is the most striking difference for a foetus conceived here, compared to your home world?” He waited, but we preferred to let him tell us their thoughts. “On Earth the foetus is bombarded by minds that feel hate, anger, pain, greed, jealousy; all the dark emotions. Here and in the void they do not experience it until after they are born and return to Earth.”

Robbie asked. “There have been Inguel born here, have they experienced the same result?”

“Inguel and Anadir Robert. Exactly the same results for them.”

Robbie frowned, so none of us yelled or cheered as we’d wanted to. Thinking about it I saw what his problem was.

“My loves, including those born as Normals, which one of you could have made the decision to stab someone with a fork and then have them slice their arms with a knife? Since Cherine touched us with her empathy, I think none of us can, and yet, Empathia, a child of this world did. What gave her the steel in her character? I think we have Aven to thank for that. Gina, could you have decided to do the same to anyone?”

“Not even to an animal Robbie.”

“I thought so. I would prefer to think further on it before coming to any conclusions or decisions. There is however one more point that worries me. My family are first of all Cherinians and then family. To be family as we are, that has to be true. That means we are and must remain equal and treated equally to any other Cherinian. If we are to decide your theories are correct and we decide these changes are to the benefit of the children, then we have a moral and ethical matter to consider. What about all other Cherinian children, should they not also have the right to be carried to term here? Does this mean we must travel here on a regular basis, bringing women as soon as they conceive? The wider the pool of such families is, surely the stronger Cherinians become? Alki, I am not talking of our race only.”

“You cannot bring them all here Robert, not even if Freddie were ten times as big. You have to accept that the growth of Cherinians will be unequal. It is not necessarily a bad thing to have such a diversity of powers and characteristics. Perhaps Cherinians also need to have a bit of steel as you called it.”

“Roberto, we had already decided all the Cherinian born girls have to spend some time as Normals. It will not only increase their ability to feel empathy for Normals, it will also strengthen them.” Dommi said.

“Then we have to be careful their experiences do not weaken them, you must not allow them to suffer too much.” Luigi said with concern. Robbie nodded in agreement.

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You know the rule Arthur; only Sam has the right to delete anything - I’ve already copied and pasted so don’t try to force your will on us in this. I’ll be back soon.