Free The Melier (Women of Dor Nye Book 1) by Poppy Rhys

was time to tell him. “I don’t believe in slavery. I should’ve said something sooner, but…” Soren was silent and Lu figured he was thinking about the places he wanted to go or things he might want to do. “Will you go back to Melierun?”
    “I do not remember it,” he stated. “I am curious if I had good parents or what my siblings are like, or if I have siblings.”
    At that moment, Lu despised slavery more than she ever had before. Here Soren was, not even sure if he wanted to go home because he couldn’t remember anything about his life outside of servitude.
    “What is Dor Nye like?”
    Lucia leaned back in her chair and acted like she was taking a moment to figure out how to describe her planet. In actuality, she was trying to calm her nerves. She wondered what the original Soren had been like, or what his real name even was. Was he aggressive, kind, funny, or did he already have a mate or possibly younglings of his own? How permanent was mind wiping? Did it wear off after a certain amount of time, or was it permanent? She needed answers.
    “Dor Nye is a very lively planet,” she began. “There are many territories and each one has different traditions, cultures and species. It’s mainly human, but since it’s one of the five main trade planets, there’s never a shortage of variety.”
    Lucia proceeded to tell him how four hundred years ago, in 2113, humans were relocated to Dor Nye with help efforts from the Intergalactic Coalition. Humans had ruined the Earth and it was no longer liveable. When humans were relocated, I.C. began conservation efforts and the Milky Way was declared a private galaxy. Earth was healed and other planets atmospheres were altered to support life of endangered species and plants from around the universe. Two hundred years later, the Milky Way was made public again, but still a protected galaxy; a sort of wildlife reserve.
    The Coalition’s help came with conditions. Humans had to stop their use of manmade chemicals and consumption of fossil fuels. Natural sources of power were to be used, such as solar, water and wind. With such drastic changes, life expectancy of humans went well over one hundred years of age. They shared advanced technology and worked with humans to make Dor Nye into the trade planet it now was.
    “Humans aren’t required to stay or live on Dor Nye. They’re all over many galaxies. People venture out on their own, find mates or hop around. I live in the Curra territory with my family, where my father originates from. It’s very warm year round, very humid and full of exotic plant and animal species. My mother is from a northern territory called Quar Loy. She’s always complaining about the heat in Curra,” Lucia smiled and Soren’s lips twitched.
    “There are so many differences for each territory, I wouldn’t know where to begin,” she mused.
    “Why do you live with your family? Is this natural?”
    Lucia nodded. “On Dor Nye, families have holdings, and they all live together. Families expand and shrink all the time, with deaths or partnership or younglings. When two people enter a partnership, they choose whose family they will be joining; the males or the females. Whichever they choose, they adopt that family name.”
    “I do not understand,” Soren confessed.
    “For example,” she extended her fingers into the air, unable to talk without waving them around. “If I partnered with someone in the future and we decided to live with my family instead of his … he would take my family name. Which is Herana, by the way,” Lu added offhandedly. “And we would move into my wing of the Herana residence. We would build onto the home if need be.”
    Soren was nodding slowly, like maybe he was getting it.
    “It’s very rare a couple goes off to start their own residence. Though some do prefer the nomadic life of living on various planets or wherever their craft or trade takes them. Make sense?”
    “Yes,” he replied. “I think I would