Adobe .pdf - Notes from An Alien

are only made by the Worlds' Council of Justice.
WNM: What do you make of the recent slaying of one of the members of your Faith?
D. C.: It happened much more in the past and it will happen much more as our numbers grow
and our influence in communities' social and economic activities increases.
WNM: How do you know there will be more killings?
D.C.: The relative peace the Worlds now enjoy is not the Worlds' Peace that Akla promised.
That can only happen when the majority of people truly believe in the principle of the Oneness of
all Angians. There are still many pockets of political and general dissent. There is still much
prejudice and prejudice is the mother of hate. The hate will continue until its stream of blood
becomes a witness to the necessity for justice in our everyday dealings with each other. The death
of a martyr is a powerful spiritual statement. Killing someone for the promptings of their
conscience is a potent means of furthering the very activity for which they were killed.
~~~
Mura made a declaration on her fifteenth birthday. Delva and Verluin knew it would come
someday. Verluin met it with an internal prayer. Delva greeted it with joyous laughter. Mura had
said:
"I know you both want the best for me and I just don't feel like it's here, in this house, with two
people who may love me but don't understand me at all. I want my own life and, if you don't
voluntarily accept my decision to move out, I'll still do it. I don't want to hurt your feelings but I
can't take it anymore. You're famous. You're respected by everyone. You talk to that life-form. You
try to relate to me but all it feels like is you're being condescending. You always talk about how the
truth and justice are so necessary. Well, I'm telling you my truth."
Verluin had had his eyes closed through the whole speech. Delva had been looking straight into
Mura's eyes. Delva laughed like she did when someone finally understood what she was saying,
like she laughed when Angi broke above the horizon in the morning, like she did when Anglana
sang in her mind and heart. She wasn't happy about what Mura had just said but she was
overjoyed that this was happening when she was fifteen and not in her twenties or thirties. She
said:
"Mura, you do whatever you want. Your father and I will be here to pick up the pieces."
Mura stared at her mother with thinly-veiled respect. She covered that with her final words
before she picked up her traveling bag and left.
"I knew you wouldn't understand."
~~~
Months passed and Mura didn't return home or communicate with her parents. Haalii had been
keeping tabs on Mura. Haalii was known in many circles and had many informants. They didn't
know they were informants. They thought they were just the lucky people who got to meet Haalii
and talk to her at one social event or another.
Haalii was very patient. She had cultivated relationships with sixty-four people who considered
her their best friend. She considered them to be her tools. Every undertaking needed the right
tools and Haalii's next-to-final task, before she finally communicated with Chirzt and Laiy and the
others of the movement, was to befriend Mura. After crafting Mura into her perfect tool, Haalii's
final task was to re-establish ties with Verluin and Delva.
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