When I first met him that fateful day, I didn't realize exactly how my life would change.

While I had not yet physically broken that Founding Law, it was shattered into pieces in my traitorous heart.  I felt like I had been holding my breath for my whole life, and the moment that our eyes bridged the chasm between us, oxygen came rushing in to bring my heart to life.

Luke, Luke, Luke.  He was the older of the two children in his family, his younger sister Meara being my age and training to serve in Enforcement.

He was twenty, one of the most promising engineers in Cineres at the time, though most thought his creations were considered useless, bordering on frivolous at times.

It didn't matter to me at the time.  All I wanted to know was who he was and where he had come from.

I got my answer fairly quickly after our gazes had connected, and mine skipped away, resting on the floor instead of the person in front of me.

Hoping that he would pay no heed to the apprentice Archivist and her mentor, I fixed my eyes onto a piece of loose stone, ordering them to remain there.

"Uncle Luther," I heard him say as the footsteps came closer, " I didn't expect to see you here today!"

My heart pounded in my chest, reminding me so much of the drums that I had only heard when the music was checked for quality in the Archives.  Luther was still standing next to me; I could feel the heat of his body.

"The visit was a bit unexpected," my mentor answered, taking a step forward to leave me standing alone.  "My student's birthday is today, and I figured that deserved a special celebration."

I watched my hands tremble, and self-consciously, I forced them behind my back, where I could still feel them quivering.  My ears didn't seem to be working right, only picking up every breath that he took, every word that he spoke.

"Ilania," Luther said, breaking through my panic, "come here.  I'd like you to meet my nephew, Luke.  Luke, this is Ilania, a future Archivist."

Licking my lips nervously, I lifted my suddenly heavy head and managed to look him in the eyes once again.  "It's a pleasure to meet you, Luke."

He smiled, revealing a dimple in his right cheek.  "It's a pleasure to meet you as well, Ilania.  May I ask how old you are today?"

"Fifteen," my voice replied, much stronger than I expected to hear it.  "I'm fifteen."

"Fifteen's an important age," Luke said without the slightest hint of sarcasm.  "You start to realize where you're going in life as you hang suspended between child and adult."

I returned his grin shyly, butterflies fluttering in my stomach as I managed to keep my calm in the gaze of those keen cyan eyes.

"Now, Luke," Luther broke the silence with two small words, "I was hoping that you could show us around.  It's been a while since I've been here, and Ilania has never been here."

He glanced at his table before chuckling.  "I guess I have plenty of time before my next project comes, so I'd be willing to give you that tour especially since one of you is getting older."

It was an interesting tour, I'm sure, but I couldn't tell you much about what our guide talked about.  I was more focused on him as his face filled with passion, talking about the career and machines he loved.

As I observed him, I came to the conclusion that this place was his entire life, and I, even if it were legal, would never have a place in it.

I was wrong though.

When I returned home that night to an empty house and a lonely dinner, I started to understand that my father was unwilling to watch me grow up because he didn't wish to see the last person in his life that he loved potentially die too.

Did that make anything easier?

It didn't, and I retreated to my bedroom for the night, curled up with Alice in Wonderland, a book that Luther had allowed me to smuggle out of the Archives for my birthday.

I had just reached the tea party with the Mad Hatter when I heard a strange buzzing noise outside my window.

Curious, I set the book down carefully on the bed once noting my place and opened the window to find a tiny bug with a piece of paper tied to its back on the sill.

My hands trembling, I drew the little mechanical piece into my bedroom, closing the window and curtains.  I untied the string securing the note to the messenger and unrolled it.

I.,
Consider this your birthday present.  To send notes, set it on your window and whisper my name.  It will find me.
L.

Alice's adventures forgotten in the light of the one I now had in my bedroom, I examined the bug closer.

It was a beautiful piece, a dragonfly with delicate but sturdy wings attached to its back with just enough space for a rolled scrap of paper.

I had no idea how the mechanics worked, but I instantly loved it.  That tiny creation of metal and wire held so much possibility for me.

Perhaps Luke and I would never be a family; however, this gesture showed that we could be friends, a sympathetic voice for one another.

Hope shining its light into my heart, I tucked the note and dragonfly carefully into a drawer of my desk, rolled in a sock.

Then I flopped back onto the bed and tried to continue to read about Wonderland, but for the second night in a row, my mind was preoccupied.

It was stuffed full with images of a young man with curly locks, cyan eyes filled with wisdom, and calloused, gifted hands.  It was overflowing with a person named Luke, the second person to acknowledge my existence since my mother's death.

For the first time in years, I had found a new family to be a part of, and Luther had been responsible for all of it.