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In just five hundred years, their state had deteriorated significantly.

We didn’t believe our ears. The New Kaltons had become mere animals, shadows of their former self. Births in New Kaltos were becoming rarer, and multiple births of three and four were unheard of. The diet that they ate was poor, and they only grew a few grains and very few vegetables. What flourished in Har’chen should have thrived there, but they had never bothered.

Many people died of poisoning as they tried to eat inedible food instead of just testing it. New Kaltos seemed to have lost heart, as well as knowledge and motivation.

Har’chen and Vam’pirs wondered if we should go over to help them but decided against it. We had been sending over help for five hundred years, and it was obviously not wanted. Food that we had sent was left to rot outside the settlements. New Kaltons thought that by taking it from our mouths, they were somehow starving us.

Anybody who touched it was severely punished.

Disease was rife among the population, and so was starvation. The first settlers of New Kaltos had all but died out, and it was their descendants who carried on their bitterness. The remaining elders were the ones who had been killed off one by one.

We didn’t understand their mentality. What was wrong with them?

As for Luce, he was just bloody grateful for the food we gave him, and he kept asking us for things to do.

It dawned slowly that he thought we would make him work for his meals when he fretted himself into hysteria. In New Kaltos, you had to work for each meal you had a day, and often you only received one. We had been giving three a day, and no doubt Luce assumed that we intended to enslave him.

It took us weeks before we could convince Luce he wasn’t going to be a slave. Instead he would be healed and then trained in a job that he chose.

Luce was sceptical at first, and we would find him scrubbing floors and polishing stuff furiously.

Finally, Anton shouted at him and took Luce out and about in Har’ches. Anton made Luce see for himself the life we lived and offered to allow him to see everything.

Luce took everything at face value and often missed the meaning of jokes or teasing remarks.

Luce was only fifty, and it was terrible to see him thus. He possessed the innocence of a child yet the hardness of a rock. Luce yearned to be loved and accepted, and we sometimes found him playing with the children. At first, he thought we had come to kill him because only certain special people back on New Kaltos could play with youngsters. Luce insisted that he had just watched, until they asked him to play.

We soothed him, saying it was all right. Everyone in Har’chen played with the children.

“Luce, were children off limits?” I remember asking him.

“Yes, most certainly, infants are a precious commodity. From the moment they are born, the Leaders decide their fate,” Luce had replied to my horror.

Can you imagine having a child and stupid men taking your parental rights away and deciding everything for that babe?

Screw that.

Anton took Luce to be properly clothed, as all he wore were rags that were filthy, dirty and ill-fitting. They were old and obviously someone else’s hand-me-downs. Initially, we lived like that, but we moved past it and now had an abundance of riches.

Anton had been horrified when he had seen the scars running down Luce’s back and had them regenerated at once.

Luce explained that if something wasn’t done on time, then you were beaten. We were furious with the New Kaltons but refused to interfere in case they attacked us. If they realised what we had compared to them, then we would be a target for attack.

Our hearts broke for the existence the children would live, but we couldn’t get involved. We had too much to lose ourselves—and the New Kaltons had made their choice.

Luce took time to heal mentally as well as physically. The poor man cried tears when he was shown his own room with a bed and a cupboard, in which to store his clothes.

Luce crawled to Anton on his knees (Anton had taken him in and under his wing) when he tore his new shirt.

Anton instructed him to stand up, go, and get a new one.

Anton’s defining quality was his patience. He brought Luce out of his shell and managed to make a life for him. The poor sod needed one.

Nonetheless, it took him years to settle down properly. It was always possible to reverse the damage done, but it would take time.

Luce became a much-loved figure in society, and many people went out of their way to help him and spend time with him. An action not even offered by his own parents.

Luce was illiterate and simple concerning numbers, but Mihal taught him how to read and spell, and Luce become fiercely protective of Mihal and his family.