Page 52 of The Alien Warlord's Fated Mate

“Yes.”

“Can I learn?”

“If you so desire, then I shall happily become yourkii-ba’il.”

Mia blinked at the untranslated Xeruvian word. “My what?”

“Your teacher. The person who guides you through the soul dance to help you master the forms and discipline as well as the underlying philosophy.”

“Oh! My sensei.”

Zoran stared into space for a moment, clearly pondering the word. “Yes, I believe so.”

She beamed at him. “So, this philosopher chief, the one who united the proto-Xeruvians and founded the clan system. Was his name passed down through time, or is that an etiological myth?”

The look he gave her held enough pride and arrogance to float a navy. “His name was Kerus. He became the first warlord.”

Oh, she thought. That explained so much. “So the town where you live—”

“Arkkukari,” he said, rather pointedly. “Wherewelive.”

Mia only just refrained from sticking her tongue out at him. “Yes, Arkkukari. Is it built on the site of the town Warlord Kerus built?”

“No. That place was a fortified area only, never a true town as we think of them now. Once the Var’Kol had been driven back—”

“Wait, your whole clan system, your whole culture, came about because of the Var’Kol?”

At his stiff nod, her shoulders slumped. How ironic was it that the Xeruvians’ leapt forward, culturally and technologically, because of their enemy? Just like on Earth. War always fueled change, good, bad, or ugly.

“We really need a learning module on Xeruvian culture,” Mia murmured. “So, once the Var’Kol were driven back?”

“Kerus allowed the people he and his warriors protected to expand their dwellings beyond the fortified walls. Under Kerus’s peaceful reign, and with the help of the other clans, Xeruvian technology soon advanced to the point where the old forts became outdated. Rather than rebuilding them, they left the walls standing as a monument to their unification. If you can abandon your love of Xeruvian flora long enough, we have time to visit the ruins.”

She did stick out her tongue then, drawing a smirk from him. “I’d love to. But I’m a little puzzled by something. When they first came here, the Var’Kol had to have been technologically superior. How did Kerus and the other chieftains manage to fight them off?”

“Their flight capabilities were greater. Their weapons were not much more advanced, and we had the advantage of being a warrior society defending our home territory.”

“Your military strategy was better.”

“And our training. The deciding advantage, however, was our familiarity with the terrain and our ability to use it to our advantage.”

“Guerilla warfare?”

After a moment, Zoran nodded. “Did not such wars resolve in this same manner among humans?”

Mia frowned down at her waterglass for a long moment, gathering her thoughts. “Sometimes, yes. Many of our cultures were warlike. Are warlike. We fight among ourselves all the time and have since our earliest civilizations. The Mongols overran southeast Asia in their day. I think the military technologies were similar between them and the peoples they conquered, though the Mongols had better strategies, obviously. There are a lot of examples like that, and also examples of less-developed cultures pushing back against more developed cultures. The Celts and the Romans, for instance. Or was it the Picts?” She wrinkled her nose as she prodded her memory, then shook her head. “Anyway, Rome built a wall to keep out the barbarous, less technologically advanced northern tribes and eventually gave up the British Isles because of the resistance there. And, of course, there are plenty of examples of people with advanced technologies wiping out less-advanced cultures. Sorry. I’m not much of a history buff.”

“Yet do you possess a broad understanding of such history.” He nodded approvingly. “I should like to study these histories myself, particularly the military aspects.”

“Human men like military history, too.”

“We are not so different, are we?”

“Sometimes we’re not,” she admitted. “And sometimes I wonder if our differences will always drive a wedge between us.”

“Not between you and I,” he said firmly. “Eat now, littleklika. The distance between here and the old fort is great.”

Mia dug into her food, more to give herself time to think than out of obedience. Maybe Xeruvians had more to give humanity than technology. Maybe humans could learn something from the peace Zoran’s people had forged when faced with a common enemy.

---