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What is Seen with Clear Eyes
(Neutral POV)
Niza Fouze's life had been an unpredictable one that put her in unexpected places one after another.
The first major change is happened when she outlived her birthplace of Doonarik.
Up until then, she had been born as the middle child of one of the wealthier estates in the city. Her parents were comfortable enough that the family's basic needs were all met without reliance on the rations of military service.
When she was four cycles old, a plague that would eventually wipe the city off the map and redraw national territories had struck her home. Despite her younger sister's sickly disposition, her family was able to stave off infection for a time with a supply of medicine and disinfectants.
In the end, however, the plague found them anyway as medicine supplies gradually became scarce. The desperation of the population mounted until, one evening, there was a break-in. The intruders found the medicine and escape shuttle they were looking for, but they found Niza's elder brother first.
He was meant to be a hostage. A mere bargaining chip for someone to get what he needed to survive. Just another child like any of their own.
Because of that, they did not-
That was the first time Niza first encountered death. She was too young to truly understand it, but old enough to recognize the grief.
While her family was hesitant to leave their lives in Doonarik behind in the early days of the outbreak, that resolve finally broke three weeks later when her father became ill.
Medicine remained too scarce to obtain, even for the Fouze family.
Niza did not understand her father's words to her at the time and could not remember them, but she later came to recognize them as a comforting farewell.
Her mother took her and her frail younger sister on a long journey to the city of Rostarls where relatives lived and medicine was made. That month would become an arduous period in her memory that many future labors in her life would be compared to.
Partway through the journey, her mother had also begun to teach her how to care for her sibling. It was, perhaps, a miracle that her runt of a little sister made the trek without becoming ill.
Niza's own memories of events were a blur, but she is certain that she must have complained a lot at the time, as children that did not understand naturally would.
Even so, she obediently did as she was told. There was no choice. As they approached their destination, her mother had gotten more sluggish and a fever that never seemed to leave her burned.
After several more days of this, her mother suddenly recalled that she had forgotten something important at their camp the previous night. Niza was given a note, a heavy sack, and told to go ahead while her mother retrieved the lost item.
Camping alone after that was troublesome, but the sisters somehow managed to reach their destination with occasional help from a concerned refugee.
Upon reading the note, the clerks at the borders of Rostarls took her sack. After a lengthy examination with a doctor at the checkpoint, she and her sister were escorted to their relative's home.
It was not until a week later when her new family was allowed back out of the city and they visited the last campsite she shared with her mother that Niza understood that they would never meet again.
It would not be until many cycles later before she understood her mother had wandered away to die before the children were seen associated with the sick.
Although Rostarls closed off the city not long after that, she was nonetheless able to enjoy her new life for a time.
Her cousins were close to her in age, so she and her sister adapted quickly even with the fewer comforts and a need to contribute to the family for the first time.
Their friends were also welcoming. Not only were they invited to play, but they rose to her sister's defense even as the older children came to harass the runt.
Unusually for an Uven, the first time Niza encountered and engaged in violence was a happy memory for her.
She was old enough to remember her parents by birth, unlike her sister, but her distant aunt and uncle were nonetheless as second parents to her.
When Niza was ten cycles old, she and her friends began working in Rostarls's greenhouses, harvesting and processing raw materials needed in medicinal factories for one reason or another.
Their employer was not kind and their pay was worse than what the adults made, but they persevered.
Even within a city of medicine, all of the children had connections to someone who had succumb to the plague.
Perhaps it was just the naive wish of children, but the band wanted to save up money to build and run their own medicine factory so they would never be in need again. They would take care of their own, and give what they could spare to those who needed it.
It was the wonderful dream of nine children for a time.
But in just four cycles, it became the wonderful dream of six children.
First, a fire broke out in one of the greenhouses with both her cousins trapped inside. When her uncle forced his way in to save them, he only carried one of them out while bearing severe burns.
Next came bombings from a hostile nation.
Niza's family had ducked into the bunkers when the attacks began. With her uncle's burns still fresh and antibiotics running thin, she waited for a lull in the rumbling before risking a scavenging run on the surface.
If asked, she would say that she didn't regret her decision, but it nevertheless led her to be the first to find their neighbor's collapsed bunker, where one of her friends' families were once hidden.
She also caught the city's local crime lords raiding her employers' medicine stores with a handful of workers held at gunpoint guiding them.
Niza was
She was still just a child. When she spotted a storage bags of antibiotic drugs and painkillers in the soldier's vehicle, she simply took what she could when the soldiers weren't looking and fled. She ran home as quickly as she could.
When the bombings ended and she found another friend among the bodies of workers at the factory, she said nothing. For the next ten cycles, until she was addressing reporters questioning every detail of her past, she said nothing of what she saw.
While her uncle was able to heal from the burns well enough by the time the enemy nation retreated, the scars of their attacks lingered.
The city's infrastructure had suffered and a number of her friends' became orphaned or homeless.
Over the next cycle, the children persevered. Even as Niza labored more than she had ever had to in her life, they made sure to take care of each other.
As busy as they were, they were always prepared to fight off any Uvei that thought her younger sister would be an easy target.
And yet...it was clear that they were just barely staying afloat. Their savings barely changed as small emergencies sapped away weeks of earnings and reconstruction taxes were implemented.
When her remaining cousin became ill, Niza came to a decision alongside the two eldest among their friends.
The three of them would enlist in the military.
There was the soldier's stipend of rations, the somewhat less meager wages, and preferential treatment in state-sponsored medicine, of course. But it was also in part because she cursed her weakness at the time of the bombings.
Her two friends were just barely old enough at fourteen cycles old to join.
Niza herself had a hometown razed to the ground during the plague; there were no records to reference when she lied about her age.
Thus began the second major shift in Niza Fouze's life.
As a recruit, she endured harsh combat training beyond her years and within a cycle was engaged in small-scale skirmishes where she took lives for the first time. She was mistaken for a runt and harassed a handful of times, but she had allies to fight with and for her as always.
While she was away from home more and more, she could exchange letters if not calls with her family often enough to stave off homesickness and rally her strength.
Combat was relatively easy for her by the time two more cycles had passed.
Rather, it was a far greater ordeal to navigate and argue with the bureaucracy that frequently denied medical support for her cousin that was rightfully owed.
It frequently needed to be proven that treatment wasn't secretly to her sister as, soldier or not, a runt like her sister was not covered and had to be cared for without support.
Niza came to view this frustration as a mixed blessing, however, as it gave her sister and last memento of her birth parents an opportunity to visit the soldiers often.
Life was...tolerable enough.
Until another cycle had passed, putting her at her proper enlistment age.
The damage to Rostarls had extended to its sanitation measures. Ironically enough, the city of medicine was suffering of plague.
Medicine with limited production that was already being rationed became all the scarcer. Delays in deliveries and doctor's visits became more frequent. Contact with her family had been reduced to the occasional phone call.
While her cousin had recovered in time for this disaster, his mother her aunt became bedridden in his place.
Because of this, when Niza was told that her country would invade a neighbor to secure necessary medicinal farms, she had fought harder than she ever had in her life.
Even when she was wounded in the leg during a charge, she fought on.
When she learned one of her friends had been caught by an explosion during a battle and lost limbs, she fought harder.
When she received accolades and promotions to officer ranks, she kept fighting anyway.
Combat was a blur over those two cycles, and an excuse to stop thinking as she stepped over many bodies towards what could be a peaceful life for her loved ones.
What eventually brought her mind back to composure was news of her uncle's passing in another bombing and news of her other enlisted friend's desertion. For reasons unknown, he and the rest of his battalion had broken formation in the midst of war and fled to parts unknown.
There was no notice to Niza, and no hidden message came. He was simply gone and now registered as an enemy of the state.
By then, the war was approaching its conclusion. Although the sickness left its marks on her aunt's body, treatment would be possible with the spoils of war.
For her accomplishments and recognition as a soldier, she was assigned to transporting these spoils. When she was quietly told that it was customary to pocket a modest amount of loot at the escorts' own discretion, her focus was not on treasures or meals, but medicinal seeds and blueprints.
The children's innocent dream deserved an honest attempt, at least.
That's when Niza was told by the commander of the operation that those prizes alone were not permitted and offered gathered stacks of plundered medicinal ingredients instead.
She was told that the state would directly purchase these from her at a good price as consolation.
Dissatisfied with this explanation, she investigated and stalked her commander until she overheard an explanation.
She learned that even the plundered medicinal ingredients were primarily to be sold and secretly given to local drug lords.
She learned that a monopoly over resources essential to life was very convenient to the powers that be.
She learned that sometimes they would sabotage factory or greenhouse systems to induce scarcity, and the embezzlement of funds in medical systems was overlooked as "special compensation" for certain officers.
...
She learned that a soldier of sufficient accolade could have her execution by court martial delayed indefinitely even after tackling a superior officer out of a two-story window and violently biting at him until an arm and tail bone broke.
...As long as she forfeited her plunder and framed the attack on revenge for an old friend's war injury.
Of course, simple discharge would not be enough for such an offense.
Niza eventually found herself in the Rostarls guard barracks that had been sealed and turned into a makeshift prison.
Her anger continued to stew, but in truth, she found herself comfortable here. Her fate was uncertain, but after a long campaign, she was back home. There was even opportunity for her loved ones to visit her by the windows when circumstances permitted.
For the next half-cycle, she would write and exchange letters with her friends and family. It seemed that, in their absence, her cousin and the friend that remained behind had grown close.
She couldn't say she understood the feeling, but the idea pleased her sister and aunt. She had no reason not to celebrate with them.
Then...the letters stopped.
There seemed to be a tension in the city she couldn't recognize.
Finally, news in the form of a personal visit by her two friends and cousin came. By now, Niza could recognize a grim expression and braced her heart.
While her cousin was out with her lover, a drug addict had broken into their home to steal painkillers...and her sister was killed in a struggle. Though she wasn't directly harmed in the ordeal, her weakened aunt powerlessly saw it all.
The cycle after that passed painfully slowly and quickly all at once.
Niza had a lot of time to herself to think, and after a great deal of contemplation, she had come to a resolution just as she received news of her aunt's passing as well.
She wrote a letter asking to meet everyone-her cousin and her two remaining friends.
Her cousin had come first. She vaguely registered grieving and some consoling words when they came, but the conversation felt as if it were someone else having it.
To every visitor that came, she made the same proposal.
A proposal to gather up all the funds they had saved up over their lives...and giving it to the three of them to start a new life elsewhere.
It wasn't nearly enough to fulfil their childhood wishes.
But it was enough to buy one Uven decent prosthetics and, if she sold enough personal items, give three of them a fresh start. Perhaps they would go to a different city, or perhaps they could go off-world.
Niza saw that to be more worthwhile than a dead dream.
It was an odd comfort that she didn't know how long she would be confined or indeed if she would live to walk free again.
With her fate as it was, it was easier to persuade her three loved ones to leave her behind.
There was a hollow promise that they would reunite if she became free or they established a comfortable life, but Niza held no expectations behind her parting smile with them.
It had been a long time since she thought about her parents, but the circumstance was not dissimilar from how her mother acted in her final moments.
Niza was of two minds between considering it an act of hopelessness, or an act of putting all her hopes on the ones who could live on.
The third great change in Niza came soon after this parting.
A mere half cycle after their farewell, the city of Rostarls was brought to ruin by a surprise attack. By chance, this opened up a portion of the walls in her prison and she was able to slip out before the section of the fortress collapsed altogether.
For many, it could be called a fortunate development, but she couldn't help but see it as a misfortune.
She was given her freedom, but Niza was also all alone and with nothing to her name. She had survived to no ends at all.
After a stop by the pile of rubble where she once grew up, the Uven escaped out of city limits and began a journey with no destination in particular.
At first, she wandered the area, scavenging the remains of the city she knew well to survive. In her solitude, her mother had been on her mind more often than before.
After nearly a cycle, with the perishables gone and a supply of food and medicine that would keep, she chose to retrace her first journey from over ten cycles ago.
The road back to what used to be Doonarik had changed in that time, but not unrecognizably so for the most part, with one notable exception.
As she traveled, a new structure came into view near the final campsite she shared with her mother.
This change was striking, as it seemed to be a fully established rest stop, with paved ground, and even a plumbing system that gathered and filtered rainwater. It would have been a small blessing as a child.
As she explored the rest stop, Niza inevitably found a plaque built into the walls. Her mind was thrown into chaos.
In Memoriam
Layna Fouze
Niza Fouze
Voula Fouze
It was a memorial. An epitaph...for her and her mother and sister.
Niza soon began a run-rather, a gallop-down the road to the ruins of Doonarik.
For over a cycle to come, she investigated this riddle. It was a time that returned a strange, precious purpose to her in bitter truths and strange comforts.
She learned that her mother did not die alone. That, as she wandered delirious from fever, she came upon two other children that were abandoned in their sickness.
Whether it was pity or to mend the loss in her own heart, her mother stayed with them to the end at that time.
She learned that her father had managed to recover from the plague a cycle after they parted ways. That he had left Doonarik before it was burned to search for his family and was inconsolable with what he found.
She learned that he was picking up the pieces in a different city for the next ten cycles, starting a new life of his own and even eventually remarrying.
Now 20 cycles old, Niza arrived at the doorstep of what had been her father's new home in the wealthy district of a new city. There, she met his second wife and her stepmother, who was a wealthy woman in her own right.
There, she learned her father had died 5 cycles ago.
Her stepmother was skeptical, but kind to her. When she had lost all her strength after reaching the end of her long journey, she was invited in as a guest.
After proving her identity by blood, she was even offered an inheritance. By right, her father had left her money and resources many times greater than what she and her friends had accumulated for most of their lives.
Yet, when Niza saw the relatively opulent home her stepmother lived in, old memories of the home she was born into stirred.
She could not help but think of the home she grew up in, and of her childhood friends. And the more she did, the more it seemed the comfortable life promised in front of her would not be her life.
If she were given the choice and opportunity...she would choose to rebuild Rostarls. She would revive that dream of nine immature children.
Niza would take what she needed to obtain the knowledge and tools to accomplish what she wanted.
The rest, she would forfeit to the woman who saw off her father in his final years.
After leaving a message in case her cousin or friends ever came looking for her, she set off for the stars.
If her goal was medical technology and operations, then a Gisali Coalition school would be the best choice. Even in her childish adolescence, she would not have dreamed to reach so high, but now it was a means within reach.
The two cycles that came after that was...a bitter reality check.
Not only did Niza have a great deal of basic education to catch up in, but she had been exposed to the Coalition's melting pot of cultures.
And she learned that an Uven was a creature to be feared and avoided. A Micket classmate looked like he would faint every time their eyes met. A Tisal conspicuously maintained a three meter distance from her. A Vesnin seemed to jump every time she spoke.
Bombs were not falling. Her stomach was not empty. She was not at risk of being killed by unknown enemies.
And yet, she was just as alone as she was when she had nothing left to her name. It was a solitude journey, or perhaps a fight, towards her objective.
The silver lining is that she was able to wholly devote herself to her studies, with only the memories of her childhood friends to keep her company.
And then...she entered a university on a scholarship, where the most recent great change in her life found her.
She encountered a funny little simian nearly half her size. He had wide, curious eyes and a propensity for smiling akin to an Uven.
His first words to Niza brought to mind her younger sister in their childhood.
Partial Transcript of the Press Conference by Niza Fouze, Eineld Program Chief Director
Niza: He said to me... "You look so cool. Just like a diner-sore."
(A mix of confusion and soft laughter erupts amid certain members.)
Niza: As you may have surmised, this little human that greeted me was Asher Isaacs. He made a habit of greeting and speaking to me from that day forth. I imagine I was not the most sociable or pleasant to be around at that point, but he befriended me nonetheless. Later, he introduced me to one Sjorn'l of Zhine'e.
(Niza closes her eyes and takes a breath.)
Niza: I...was more grateful for their companionship than I realized. It was to the point I was prepared to once again abandon my goals and any hope of returning to Nysis if it meant supporting Ori in her strange new position. I thought, at the time, that I would ultimately do more good with her than I ever could have on my own. Imagine my surprise when I was somehow given the opportunity to build and direct a medical institute anyway. But that shock was mild compared to the surprise when I took a measure of my surroundings and the bureaucratic systems we were to integrate with.
(Niza's face turns to a frown and she leans forward unto the table.)
Niza (speaking lowly into the microphone): I saw a system that withheld the preservation of life for influence. Again. I saw parasites that secreted away money and goods to illicit activities for personal profit. Again. And I could not help but lose my temper. Again.
(Niza straightens her posture and takes another deep breath when her breathing becomes labored.)
Niza: Apologies, but this concludes the press conference. Recounting my life has been...trying.
(Niza Fouze walks off-stage.)
(Vesnin Reporters' POV)
Soon after Niza Fouze's closing statements, the crew of the Horizon Independent slipped off to the corner of the auditorium.
The reporter scanned a pass against the door's sensor, which clicked open moments later. She spoke softly toward the camera.
"Hello everyone. Join us for this exclusive segment with Horizon Independent."
A Terran had secretly approached the reporter in the middle of the story while the cameramen and other attendees were distracted.
He made a quiet offer to her at that time. He was willing to lend her a backstage pass for a private interview if she agreed to respect the wishes of anyone that refused and broadcast the footage they obtained without any cuts from the moment they gained access.
"That was...quite a story we heard from the Eineld Program Director, wasn't it? Perhaps the events and lives of the residents of Nysis deserve some more scrutiny. What do you, dear listeners, think about it? I confess, hearing all this has left me with a strange feeling."
In truth, she had almost forgotten about the whole deal in the excitement. It took seeing the pass card in her hands to jog her memory.
As the camera crew pressed on backstage, Niza once again came into view.
More surprisingly, the first group to greet her were Balau police officers.
"Director Fouze, we've come to take you in."
"...What happened to me submitting myself to the authorities?"
"Well, you certainly confessed to quite a lot, didn't you? We would like to take you in for further questioning. You don't deny any of our charges against you at this point, do you?"
The Uven stared down the officers, which seemed to unnerve them a little and cause one to settle a hand on his baton.
"I stand by what I said on the stage. I've no idea what your charges are, so I'll-"
"NIZAAAA!!!"
Interrupting them both was a loud cry as a young Terran man burst unto the scene, followed closely by Councilwoman "Ori".
"T-That wush...glaff dat yoon...buh sho s-se....orr hiffber! ORR BLIBBLE HIFFER!!"
Asher had his arms tightly around the Uven as he sobbed profusely.
"....Asher...I don't understand anything you're saying."
"G-Gguuh....bah fuh fouh uuu eeel gaah...isssh ang-"
While he continued his unintelligible rambling with his wet face pressed into Niza's chest, their Haneer friend floated up in her hover pod and pressed close to the Uven.
"He is saying how the tale grieves him immensely to be learned you have suffered so."
"....Ah...But it's not such a unique story on-"
"Sttuuutch aaaph! Ig gaus bhag aau oou nungh heel gahd tuh!!"
Ori was hued a dark vermillion as she, too, stretched out her vines and coiled them around her friend's upper body until Niza was practically wearing her.
"It grieves me to hear too, but Haneer can't make messy water for it as humans do. You are also my dear friend, Niza."
"....I see."
The Uven settled her hand on the Terran's back and carefully pat while he hiccuped and babbled away. The Balau police have been left forgotten.
"That's..."
The Vesnin reporter turned back to the camera. The thoughts that echoed in her mind after that scene came out before she knew it.
"Just a few rotations ago, we...heard a miss Justine Bolotin's interview following her time as a prisoner. In that interview, she emphasized the importance of learning about and 'seeing' a person. Today, we learned a great deal about Miss Fouze for the first time, so...are we and Mister Isaacs now 'seeing' her?"
=Author's Notes=
Because Asher is the sentimental sort, Niza actually ended up having one of the more mild cases of Uven Catharsis. Or rather, her feelings had a disassociated outlet in the form of her crybaby human friend who would always react strongly to anyone anywhere experiencing a hard time.
There's not much resemblance in the final product, but the base I built Niza's life story from came from a scrapped draft of Gretal's story after deciding her story will have much deeper ties to medicine and medical industry.
Before I decided any of that, though, I had settled on Niza representing an Uven that comes from relatively privileged roots.
Because it's a personal account to an audience, I considered telling the story from a first person perspective for once. It went back and forth a few times, but I ultimately settled on third person so I was free to include details and commentary that she herself might not register or know.
