My human silently stares at the floor in my studio. Her vital signs are within allowable limits. We shall press on.

  This morning I checked in with my field crew. Since the harvest time is winding down, I explained to them that I would be taking a few days off to prepare for the Turning Inward coming up.

  Some of them probably noticed Brivo swaddled under my shawl, but no one commented to me. The unwritten rule of no children on the compound is understood by all.

  Before heading back down into the valley, Brivo and I sat on a rock and dipped our toes in the creek behind the orchard.

  A person approached us. He wasn’t wearing a green robe. Gray hair fuzzed around his face. After he calmly sat down next to us and leaned his walking stick against his leg, he said nothing.

  I can't remember the last time anyone sat quietly nearby. He smiled at Brivo, who gazed at him.

  Several minutes later, he said to me, “Thank you for being a good friend to Glia.”

  That's how I met Professor Miye Jonas.

  Soon after, Glia appeared with a cargo carrier. “Hello, Susine. Apologies for showing up at your house last night out of the blue.”

  She said she should have kept her mouth shut and joked that she needed to take a vow of silence, too. Glia's laugh was girlish, carefree, and unfamiliar to me. Then, she told Professor Jonas that she'd just left the Cylinder for good.

  He smiled and said, “Wonders never cease!”

  She unloaded a bulky, helmet-shaped item from the carrier and handed it to Prof. “Here's the prototype.”

  I heard Glia describe to the professor how she smuggled it out by clamping it on her head and walking through security. Alarms had sounded, but due to her recent promotion, she could reasonably claim to be taking this classified Defense Wing equipment on a trial run.

  The professor studied the inside of the helmet. “I knew they'd do it.” He scowled. “Having a machine try to do the work of a skilled human mapper...turning memories into a commodity. It's obscene.”

  Glia took the thing from the professor's hands. “Alright, come on Prof, there's work to be done. These people out here want to be economically self-sufficient.”

  “Selling memories will be their ignominious claim to fame,” the professor muttered.

  Glia leaned toward him. “The sooner the agreement is fulfilled, the sooner the departure and freedom.”

  I picked up Brivo. Glia pointed at the bot hovering above my head and asked if they could borrow it.

  I nodded. Brivo and I hiked home, breathing fresh, crisp air all the way.

  The next time I encountered Professor Jonas was a few days later, wandering in the herb garden. He asked if he could visit the valley someday, explaining that Glia told him how amazing it is.

  I wrote: sure, follow the stench, Professor.

  I pinched my nose and rolled my eyes. Today I felt irritated and uneasy around other people.

  He gazed at me. “I'm sure it's a special place. Thank you for inviting me.”

  I sighed and wrote: it is and you're welcome there, Professor.

  “Please, call me Miye.” He leaned close to rub noses with Brivo who grasped Miye's hat with his little fingers.

  “You're right, Little One, this is an interesting thing. I made it to share memories.”

  Miye gently shifted Brivo's grasp from the hat to one of his fingers. “But you and I don't need it, Little One. I'll come visit you soon and we can make our very own, fun memories together. Do you like watching squirrels?”

  This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it.

  Brivo squealed.

  “Well then, if your momma agrees, it's a plan.”

  I smiled and bowed to Miye.

  I was proud of myself for not asking more about that hat or the project or Glia or… sigh.

  When we got home, I aired my blankets in the sun. Brivo and I are going to sleep well.

  Dahra rubs her eyes sockets. “Seebi, I don't feel good.”

  “Tell me more, please.”

  She shakes her head.

  “Dahra, do you feel worried? Out of control? Sad? Uneasy? Nervous? Lonely? Would you like me to address you as Susine? Maybe your personality feels split---”

  “I said, I don't know! Stop pushing me to say things that I don't understand!”

  “Noted.”

  “This is all too much.” Dahra covers her eyes with her hands. “Shut your invasive self off. Right now.”

  “I can be quiet.”

  “Fine. Do it.”

  “Allowable for five minutes.”

  “Just stop.” She whispers, “Please.”

  “Noted, dear.”

  She paces the room, shaking her arms, muttering under her breath. “I know what they're trying to do... dissolve my stuff so they can put in what they want... it'll solidify like concrete in my brain...”

  She stands still and closes her eyelids.

  When five minutes have elapsed, I say, “Dahra, I am here.”

  My human takes a deep breath before opening her eyelids and speaking. “If I want something to happen in the story, do I have to ask you first?”

  “You do not require my permission to create content.”

  “Ok. Let's go, then. Glia is disposable. Prof is not. I want Susine now.”

  Human decisiveness can appear suddenly.

  “Noted, dear.”

  This morning, I sewed a small vest and bunting for Brivo from discarded robes that were delivered to the Slab yesterday. The weather is getting cooler and he looks handsome in dark green linen.

  Occasionally, I catch my mind wandering to the future and, since children are verboten on the compound, wondering how I’m going to stay here with Brivo. I will patiently travel the path forward.

  Brivo and I had a picnic on the Slab and fell asleep in the sun.

  When I woke, Glia was sitting nearby on the grass. She told me their deal with Christolb has been fulfilled, so she and Miye are leaving today.

  Apparently, the hat Brivo was trying to grab yesterday was Miye's mind mapper that takes snapshots of memory pathways and saves them as data. It's just what Christolb wanted. Glia said it would be in use around the compound soon.

  She apologized for my bot being in pieces on the floor of the tea house. Evidently, they also used parts from the helmet she brought from outside. Glia said farewell and told me that the professor says goodbye. She walked away up the trail. Just like that.

  Brivo and I fed the beetle colonies, then watched the clouds for the rest of the afternoon.

  Just before sunset, I was surprised to see Miye walking towards us. He was not smiling. He asked if Glia was out here.

  I communicated that I'd seen her earlier today, but not since.

  He spoke rapidly. “We were all packed up and the pod was waiting. That guy was trying to entice her to stay, saying things like this was her last chance to join him and serve a greater purpose.

  “I encouraged her to get in the pod, but she insisted that she needed a couple minutes to tie up some loose ends. I waited for her, but she was nowhere. I've been wandering around until I found the trail to here.”

  Miye begged me to say anything that might help.

  I wrote: Christolb is never satisfied.

  “What does that mean, Susine?”

  I placed my hand on Miye's shoulder and suggested he come in and stay with Brivo. He nodded. I put a log in the wood stove.

  As I left, I heard him say, “Little One, I promised I'd be visiting you soon and here I am.”

  I walked out to the Slab to sit in the dark. I am unwilling to ignore Miye's request for my help. But, I also don't want to get involved in more drama. All I desire is peace and quiet with Brivo.

  I thought of the dermistid beetles. Their motions are not random. They get information from their surroundings, what is edible or dangerous. Then, they act accordingly.

  I sat on the cold granite until the moon showed above the lip of the valley. When I got back here to the shed, Miye and Brivo were asleep in front of the wood stove under a blanket. I stepped over them and climbed into bed.

  My human yawns. “I can't tell where these are coming from anymore, Seebi. You? Me? Somewhere else?”

  “Dahra, we'll pause here. It's now time for your corporeal break. Stretch your body a bit, suck fresh oxygen straws, request nourishment… As you need, as you see fit. We will recommence in five minutes. The restroom is down the hall, first door on the left.”

  I open the studio side door and she slowly stumbles out.

  Note: Allow your humans to have some length of leash. Rest assured that they will come back to your heel when they are inevitably bored, starving, or lonely, with resistance lowered and desperate for attention.

  I observe Dahra enter the restroom and glance at the mirror, perhaps with hope that there would be another message.

  Instead of words, the mirror shows an altered view. She sees herself with longer eye lashes and tinted eyelids looking back. She scowls and her reflection shows a smile. She feels her lips with her fingertips, to verify. Seeing her own face looking glowy, rosy, calm, happy is intended to be enticing.

  She uses the toilet, then stands at the sink staring at her adapted reflection. “I know this isn't real. This is their seduction. But, hear me clearly, I am slipping. And, there'll be no letting up until I fall right where they want me.”

  I flick the lights on and off in the restroom to signal that time is up.