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“Like I said, he has a huge ego and thinks too highly of himself,” she replied before tapping on the interface of her bracer.

“What are you doing?” I asked.

“I’m launching the scan so that we can have comparative data between the healthy areas and the zones where the soil is depleted,” she said absent-mindedly as she finished activating her device.

“Very well,” I said carefully. “It will not harm the land, correct?”

She looked at me over her shoulder and smiled. “No. This technology is basically just like eyes that can look deep, even through physical objects. But it doesn’t affect anything.”

I pursed my lips as I studied her face, a million thoughts firing off in my mind.

“Do you love this technology?” I asked, trying to keep my voice neutral.

“Yes. It’s very useful.”

“Could you live without it?” I insisted.

This time, her body slightly stiffened against me. It was her turn to examine my features as if looking for the answer to the question that had popped into her own head.

“On the day-to-day, yes, I could live without it. But sometimes, I would want to have access to it,” she replied, her eyes flicking between mine to assess my reaction to her words.

“Like for what?” I challenged.

“For situations like this one,” she said, waving at the land. “And in my case more specifically, for medicine should I ever get hurt or fall sick.”

“We have medicine,” I countered.

She gave me an indulgent smile. “You have Syllen medicine, not human. I’m not sure that your healers would be able to mend me if something serious happened to me. I cannot expect them to be knowledgeable in human anatomy, just like our own healers would probably need to spend some time learning your people’s anatomy in order to heal you if needed.”

“Hmmm… It is a valid point,” I said reluctantly.

“Do Syllens not pursue technology?” Mirella asked with genuine curiosity.

I shook my head. “Very little. We have certain devices that help make life easier. But we mostly avoid it because technology is too often harmful to the world.”

“Not if the technology is optimized and designed in a way specifically to prevent that,” she argued.

“Yes,” I conceded. “But how much damage does it do before it is optimized? How long before you discover the full breadth of the side effects of that technology? And how swiftly can that damage be undone, if at all?”

“Fair point,” Mirella said, echoing my previous response to her.

“In order for you to understand my people, you have to understand the world we live in,” I said in a gentle tone. “Every living creature on Mazeria is a guest. The only reason we’re guests instead of parasites that thrive and live off her resources is because we actively work towards healing and protecting her wherever needed. The land allows us to stay so long as we follow her rules, like the Long Sleep.”

“What do you mean?” Mirella asked, taken aback.

“The land needed us to retreat so that it could perform its own internal cleansing and healing. During the Long Sleep, the land morphs and evolves the way it needs to. As you probably know, our soil contains heavy concentrations of iron. The Syllens and the Kalrins neutralize it so that we can thrive. The land allows it for a few generations, and then it asks us to step back while it purges the excess that lurks deeper than what we can handle.”

“The red waters!” Mirella exclaimed with sudden understanding.

“The red waters that came out of the eyes of Etreya’s statues indicated the ongoing purge from the land. It is the time when Mazeria cleanses and resettles itself. In many ways, our presence acts like a dam for iron,” I explained. “But other species need higher levels of it. So we take turns sharing this world. While we sleep, they thrive. And when we rise, they go back to sleep.”

“Wow! I didn’t realize there were other sentient species on Mazeria!” my mate said, eyes wide.

I chuckled. “They’re not like you and me. At least not those in this region of Mazeria. Legend has it that there are advanced species on the other side, in lands out of our reach. But around here, every other being would qualify more as animals. And this is their home, too. Their sentience level doesn’t diminish their claim to equal time enjoying this world. They don’t understand this cycle but simply follow their instinct to hibernate when the time comes. Some will share the world with us until their population shrinks to those who sleep.”

“And how often does this happen?” she asked with an air of wonder.

“About every five hundred years. So we will be around for many generations before the next Long Sleep,” I said with a smile.