Close Remembrance (The Krinar Chronicles 3)

The mind expert lifted his broad shoulders in a shrug. “I don’t know,” he said, giving Korum a puzzled look. “Her brain is healthy, but it does show signs of recent memory erasure. There’s also something else, something that I’ve never seen before.”

“The softening procedure,” Korum said. “Do you think it could be that?” He had told Haron about Saret’s claims, and the mind expert had been very intrigued.

“It could be,” Haron said. “I honestly haven’t come across anything like this before. If Saret says he invented the procedure, then that would make sense.” He sounded admiring, making Korum want to do something violent to him again.

“Can you fix it?” Korum already knew the answer but he had to ask.

Haron shook his head. “I don’t think so, not without chancing some real damage to her brain in the process. Whenever we come up with something new here, we do extensive testing in a simulated environment first, before experimenting with live subjects. I could try, of course, if you want –”

“No.” Korum could never take that kind of risk with Mia. “Forget it.”

As their ship headed back to Lenkarda, Korum held Mia on his lap. She was awake but a little groggy, and she seemed content to just sit there, with her head resting on his shoulder. He stroked her hair, enjoying the feel of soft curls under his fingers.

Their conversation yesterday had gone very differently than he’d feared. Mia had been shocked and disbelieving at what Saret had done, but what had upset her the most was the idea of leaving him. And Korum had been glad. He had been so fucking glad and relieved that she wanted to stay. He honestly didn’t know what he would’ve done if she’d said she wanted to go home. He wanted to think that he would’ve let her . . . but, deep inside, he knew otherwise. He couldn’t bear the thought of being apart from her for a day; how would he have survived a lifetime without her?

He wouldn’t have. It was that simple. He would’ve tried if that had been what she wanted, but the odds of failure would’ve been high. Korum had no illusions about himself. Altruism was not in his nature. He would’ve suffered for a while – out of guilt for letting her get hurt, out of desire to make up for past wrongs – but he would’ve eventually come for her.

She stirred in his arms, interrupting his musings. Raising her head, she gave him a sleepy smile. “Where are we going now?”

“Home, my darling,” Korum answered, the remainder of his black mood fading as he gazed upon her beautiful face. As much as he wanted to reverse Saret’s procedure and undo any damage done to this exquisite creature, he was happy to have her no matter what. Even if she didn’t truly love him now, he hoped she would develop genuine feelings for him over time.

And Korum would make sure her love didn’t turn to hate when she learned the truth about his plans.

Chapter 19

The next month flew by. Korum found himself busier than usual, with his designers finalizing the new shields for the Centers and the Council trying to decide Saret’s fate.

After several meetings, it was determined that a trial like that of the Keiths would not work in this instance. With Saret having been a long-term member of the Council, nobody was completely impartial and emotions were running high. Korum wasn’t the only one who had considered Saret a friend. The mind expert had been generally liked, with his seemingly laid-back personality and friendly manner. The magnitude of his attempted crime was beyond belief, and even complete rehabilitation seemed too mild of a punishment for what he had intended. Finally, the Council reached out to the Elders for guidance – an initiative on which Korum took the lead, since he had other things to discuss with the Elders as well.

Between that and his regular work, Korum barely found time to sleep – because he also wanted to spend as much time with his charl as possible. Mia’s attachment to him seemed to be growing every day, and Korum no longer doubted the strength of her feelings. As she’d said, whatever Saret had done to her, that was the way she was now – and they both had to accept it.

On the plus side, Korum kept getting surprised by how well Mia was adjusting to everything . . . and how independent she was becoming.

Prior to her memory loss, she had been hesitant to wander around Lenkarda on her own, wary of his people and intimidated by some of their technology. Other than going to the lab and to a few scenic places he’d shown her, Mia had usually stayed home with him. Her free time had also been more limited, given the rigid schedule Saret had set for his apprentices. Now, however, since she and Adam were largely learning on their own, Korum discovered that his charl appeared to have a thirst for adventure – and indulged it at every opportunity.

One day she went swimming in the ocean near the estuary, on a day when the current was relatively weak. Nonetheless, Korum – who had gotten into the habit of checking on her location every hour – felt his blood freeze in his veins when he saw that she was a good quarter-mile away from shore. He’d immediately gone straight there, only to find her swimming leisurely, clearly enjoying herself. By the time she came out of the water, he’d managed to calm himself enough to have a rational discussion about the dangers of this particular spot, and she had agreed to be more careful going forward – but Korum still felt shaken by the incident for several days after that.

Her other excursions were less dangerous. She developed a fondness for hiking and recording images of the local wildlife with her wristwatch-bracelet device. Howler monkeys, iguanas, even some large insects – she would record them all and send the images as photographs and videos to her family, to share more with them about her new home.

She also grew closer to Delia, frequently meeting her for morning walks on the beach. Korum encouraged the friendship, glad that Mia was building other relationships in Lenkarda. Maria came by sometimes as well, and Korum had made it a point to invite her and Arman to dinner a couple of times.

Their main disagreement revolved around Mia’s status as a charl. “Don’t you understand how that makes me feel, knowing that legally I belong to you just because I’m human and you said so?” she told him once. “Don’t you see how barbaric that is?”

Korum didn’t view it that way at all. Yes, she was his – his to protect, his to love and cherish. Taking a charl was a serious lifelong commitment. Under Krinar law, Korum was responsible for Mia’s actions. If she ever broke the mandate, for instance, he would be the one to answer for it to the Elders. Mia would never again be a regular human, not with the nanocytes in her system; even if she left him, Korum would always have to watch over her, to make sure she didn’t reveal any non-public information about the Krinar. A charl was neither a slave nor a pet, and most cheren thought of them as their human mates – something that Mia couldn’t seem to grasp.

“How could I be your mate when I don’t have any rights here?” she said, and her stubbornness made Korum want to bend her over his knee and spank her pretty little behind. “I never agreed to be your mate – or your charl – in the first place, did I? And besides, we can’t even have children together . . .”

Korum couldn’t argue with that last point, and the charl issue remained unresolved, hanging over their heads and occasionally popping up during some more heated conversations – although those were becoming increasingly rare as their relationship evolved.

Seeing that Mia was becoming comfortable with Krinar technology, Korum gave her a fabricator of her own – a more advanced version of what he had made for Maria’s birthday. It was powerful enough to create anything Mia needed in the course of the day, including a transport pod.

Her happiness at this gift had been off the charts.

“Thank you! Oh my God, Korum, thank you so much! This is awesome!” She almost smothered him with kisses, her eyes shining and her entire body vibrating with excitement. For the next several hours, she played with the fabricator nonstop, creating and un-creati

ng one thing after another, while Korum basked in her joy.

Shortly after that, Mia decided to go to New York – in an aircraft she created herself. Korum gave her the design for that; it was a more complicated machine than the transport pod that was used around the Center. She made the ship while he watched with a smile, proud of how much she had learned already.