Whatever she said to the other royals or to the space newspapers, Seraphi Abrasax had showed favouritism towards her children.

And there was a reason why Kalique was not the favourite.

All of her children were designed to be the perfect heirs, strong ,powerful and loyal. But even with highly developed genetic engineering, creating the perfect human was impossible.

Kalique had a happy childhood. She loved simple things like the flowers and dragonflies. She didn't know about the harvests until a certain age. From her past experiences, Seraphi knew that showing children a harvest of a planet was not a good idea. So for some time Kalique's life was full of beautiful flowers, colourful dragonflies and nice meals. She grew up without knowing a thing about where RegeneX came from, she didn't even asked about it because deep down she knew something was very wrong with it.

The flowers she loved didn't impressed her mother, and her brother was slowly losing himself in his work, talking less, feeling less but working more. The meals that took place in big dining rooms with long tables that Kalique enjoyed very much nearly always passed in silence and she wondered why her mother and brother were working but not eating.

After she was hundred years old everything changed. Her mother and brother were not as close as they used to be, there was only silence when they were in the same room, not even conversations (arguments) about things that Kalique didn't understand. For some reason, Seraphi was disappointed.

It was her turn now.

She started to have lessons about their family business and planets that lasted for hours. She still didn't know about harvests or where the RegeneX came from. Her lessons started to last longer every day and she was not allowed to play in the gardens as she used to anymore. Someone else decided what she was going to wear and eat even if she hated the colour of the dress or the taste of the food. She felt her happy childhood slowly slipping away from her.

Once she was a little older than five hundred,Seraphi decided that she was old enough to see a harvest.

She was excited about the trip even if her brother was not. He thought that she was not ready for it and behind half closed doors, Kalique could hear her brother arguing with her mother about how she was still too young to see a harvest.

Seraphi Abrasax never lost a single argument in her life.

Her mother told her lots of different things about the planet they were going to. She talked about how other people lived in this planet, in their small houses, without knowing a single thing about the technology used by the ones who live in the space. Balem was silent, listening but never making a comment, which was strange because Kalique knew her brother likes to talk about his own opinion and why it is the best one for hours.

Kalique was happy that her mother was trusting her and she decided that she was never going to make her mother disappointed. The planet was a big one, and she was not expecting it to be so full of life. They looked exactly like her and she didn't understand why they were different. She didn't know what was going to happen even if she had used RegeneX multiple times before but without knowing what it is made from.

Her mother explained everything to her before showing her a real harvest.

"It comes from humans? Like us?"

"No, not like us. These humans don't matter. There are different kinds of humans, Kalique. You should know that some lives matter more than others."

"What is going to happen now?"

Seraphi looked at her and smiled.

"Now this, is a harvest."

And then everything went silent before the screams started, people trying to run away, blood, lots of blood, and lifeless bodies piling up before taken by the big spaceships. Kalique was stunned and she couldn't look anywhere else from the huge glass window, even when she felt her mother's gaze on her. She heard her brother saying something about how they don't feel pain. Her mother was watching her carefully, to see her reaction. Kalique didn't do anything. But then, suddenly she fell backwards and last thing she saw was her brother rushing towards her and her mother watching the harvest.

She was a disappointment.

Then everything went black.

"Zalintyre, I think." Titus was watching her. "Have you ever seen a harvest before?"

"Oh no. Never. But I've heard they feel no pain. It's all quite humane, from what I have been
told."

"We bury things so deep we no longer remember there was anything to bury. Our bodies remember. Our neurotic states remember. But we don't."
-Jeanette Winterson