Chapter 11

“Um, no…Actually, we’re just having our morning constitutional. Mentor, this is Arabel. Arabel, my childhood mentor.”

“Charmed.” The diploid woman began to scent randomly, first joy, then calm, then a brief release of alarm, followed by more joy and calm.

Lina feared that the random scenting was the first sign of dementia. Lina didn’t see her mentor that often now that she was grown up, but she hated to see the evidence of her senility making itself more prominent. “Mentor, are you alright?”

“Yes, dear. Just out getting my morning exercise. How else can one expect to live to be my age, eh? Certainly not by staying out all night partying. Morning stroll indeed, dressed as you are.”

Lina detected a bit of the alpha pheromone with that last statement. “Perhaps I should come by sometime,” she said. “Just to see how you’re getting on.”

“You think I’m getting old and senile, don’t you?”

Lina dropped her gaze, as her cheeks flushed.