Daimones - Book 1 of the Daimones Trilogy. Booktrope Publishing Edition

Humans

Of Men and Gods

The Palladium beamed on its marble pedestal in the center of the square. The beam was visible from miles and miles away and seemed to pierce the sky, uninterrupted. From our hill, two more beams were also visible where other communities prospered and grew as ours did.

Mary was pregnant with our second child; my first of the new generation though I will outlive this baby, too. My dear wife was as beautiful as ever, even more than ever, if possible.

Laura gave birth to our lovely baby girl. We called her Hope. She was smart and extremely clever. At 12 months old, she was starting to walk almost without hesitation. I regretted that Hope had been conceived shortly before I received the Palladium but that made her ever more precious to my heart.

Algea was always present and helped us with everything in her power, which was a lot. Alaston made impromptu visits from time to time, always very welcomed. We discussed all possible subjects, present, past, and future. He revealed to me what existed out there; his civilization and others, too. A humbling experience.

Every Selected community was followed and helped, instructed closely by its own Moîrai. Little by little, we were just starting to have access to their technology. We were "given according to our means, and beyond our means at times, of our own accord" to rephrase what Mênis once told me. I wondered whether someday he would visit us, too. But I knew every Moîrai was quite busy with its obligations and would be for quite some time.

I still don't know if the Palladium had a role in changing our minds as, bar none, all Selected accepted to work with the Moîrai to rebuild the human race. In one year, more than eight hundred thousand children were born or were due to be and that was just counting the Selected women. No one stepped back from the role that had been planned for us by the Moîrai.

The pregnancies were, in themselves, a revelation. Selected women could feel their babies like no woman had ever been able to. They could also feel when the baby, still in the womb, gained self-consciousness. The regrowth numbers that Algea put in front of me only a year before didn't seem unreasonably optimistic anymore.

In the past year—with help from Algea and Alaston—others joined us and the spared ones were making our tasks more bearable. With...grace, should I say? I didn't know many details about the other communities but it seemed everyone got along as nicely as we did.

Jean Claude joined us a month after the Moîrai revealed their plan to me about the Selection process. He was now our Chief Agronomist and had one apprentice: Liliana, a girl from the Italian city of Aosta. Liliana and Jean Claude had a romance going on and, at the moment, they didn't much care that he wasn't going to be able to get her pregnant. They had discussions about Liliana having a baby 'otherwise' but it was entirely their decision. None of the Selected, nor the Moîrai, pushed spared women in that direction. For the moment, Jean Claude and Liliana were happy just getting to know each other.

Federico, too, was from Aosta. Together with Liliana, he was surviving in Aosta when we found them. Luckily for me and Mary, Federico was a truly nice guy. Luckily, because he had eyes for Annah. I wondered whether the spared ones had gone through a sort of selection of their own by the Moîrai. I supposed so. He was our handy man, able to fix and repair practically everything. He said he was our Utility Service Engineer and he knew what to do on every occasion. At seventeen years old, that was an accomplishment in our new world and he was instructed by both Algea and the Palladium. After all, the spared ones had an important role, too.

I didn't fully understand why everyone had not been allowed to receive the Palladium the way the Selected had. Algea was evasive on the subject and once replied that they, the Moîrai, actually felt they were very lucky to have been able to select so many of us anyway. And I wondered why they didn't select more than just two million? One day, I'll need to be told precisely the reasons. One day, we will be strong again and be answered to.