Slavemakers (27 page)

That wasn't so long ago, but it feels like an age. An epoch.

The invasion, the final destruction of the thieves, learning that we were not the only humans left on earth, the arrival of the Newcomers . . . it's a different world, and we're a different colony today. Different forever.

So many changes, but sometimes I think that the biggest one is that we took Refugia's walls down. Yes, we needed the wood for new housing and shipbuilding, but it was more than that.

I think it showed that we'd finally accepted our place in the world. Not the Next World, just the world. The real earth, as Aisha Rose calls it.

You take walls down when you understand both life and death—even extinction—and face them all with open eyes.

When you know where you stand on the totem pole . . . and embrace
it.

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