Have you ever spared a human? Left one behind, or… let one go, on purpose?

"Have you ever spared a human? Left one behind, or… let one go, on purpose? Just because you thought it was the right thing to do? Because it felt right?"

His question sideswiped Lilly. She quickly snapped, without thinking. "No, absolutely not, never. Why would you ask? Why would I? My whole purpose is to dispose of them. Can you imagine our solar system without the Mother? Without earth?" She shut up promptly. She realized she was derailing the conversation and he needed get this off his chest.

He had not been expecting her fierce reaction. Would she tell the council? Would this confession compromise his new found strength within their family? She saw his hesitation and started speaking to him, a little softer now.

"Sorry. I didn't mean to jump all over you. It’s just such an odd question for you to ask. You’re getting ready to become a warrior for your clan. I don't understand.”

He forged on. "Almost ten years ago, we were just starting on the North Carolina coastline, remember? We started with the residential neighborhoods closest to the beaches. There were a few Tork wanted us to experiment with." His pause told her he wanted an answer.

"Yes, yes, a learning process for all of us." She remembered thinking that fire was such an elementary way to wipe out populations.

"Do you remember the neighborhood you wanted to hit first?” he asked. “We went into a house and you started the fire upstairs, in the hallway, right outside the parents’ door first, and in the child's next. It was a huge fire, separating them from each other. I stayed in the hallway to make sure they would burn, just as you had instructed, while you moved on to the next block. I watched the glass frames rupture and pictures of the family melt onto the walls. I heard the parents screaming in their bedroom for their child to wake up and run. They could not escape. You had doused the perimeter of both rooms earlier with lighter fluid, so the windows were not an option." He stopped for a few seconds, trying to gauge Lilly's reaction to his story.

She sat, unmoving.

"In their last moments, these people chose to yell, as loud as they could, for their child to wake up. They banged on the walls, raising as much hell as possible, screaming instructions to her about how to get out of the house. They went on like that for as long as they could, until their screams turned to agony. I was curious about this child, whose name was ‘sweetheart’ or ‘baby’. I went into the other room. There was a little girl, maybe six or seven, just standing there, squeezing her teddy bear. She seemed to be looking up at me, although I knew she wasn't. She yelled for her parents in vain. I got the idea she knew they were dead and she stopped yelling. I wish you could've seen this girl's eyes, Lilly. They were huge and luminous, honest and heartbreaking. I suddenly knew that this little human would never do anything to hurt us, or the earth. I watched her curl up into a little ball on the floor. I could tell this was her way of giving up the fight. I had no choice but to sweep down, grab her in my arms, and –"

"Wait! Stop!" Lilly demanded. "Don't tell me anymore, Onyx. Please, don't. If you don't tell me, I won't know, and your secret will stay with me. If you do tell me, and Tork, or the Mother, wants to search my mind, they will. You will be banished."

"But –" he began to object.

 "No!" she insisted, "I will not be responsible for your demise at the hands of our own family. I will not carry that on my shoulders."

He understood now. He could see the fear in her eyes, and decided she was right. She did not want to endanger him by knowing his sin. He only asked her one last thing.

"But, do you understand? Is this normal?" His entire demeanor pleaded for her approval, but she could not give it to him.

"I don't understand what I do not know. Speak no more of this. It's time to go back to the cave." With that, she fled their private setting for the safety of a place where nothing spoken was secret. He did not follow her right away. He would love to know what was wrong with him, and why he had this relentless pity for the human race.