The air was warm and muggy on a summer afternoon in the city of Calisaro. A brilliant sun shone down from a cloudless sky, glinting off the solar panels that adorned the dome-like roofs of a hundred small houses.
Children were playing on this quiet, residential street, running from yard to yard, giggling and shouting with excitement. One boy had discovered that his oversized, neon-green water g*n was the perfect way to make his sister squeal.
It was in this picturesque setting that Anna found her mother. Sierin was down on her knees and digging in her garden with a small shovel, a straw hat shielding her face from the sun.
Standing on the sidewalk, Anna shoved her hands into the pockets of her denim shorts and tried to work up the courage to speak. She had dyed her hair back to its natu
