Khui

An alien symbiont required to live on Not-Hoth. The humans of Not-Hoth have nicknamed it the Cootie.

While often called a parasite by the human characters, it is not a parasite, as it causes no harm to its host making it a symbiote.

## Description

A glowing worm that lives inside of the hearts of all life native to Not-Hoth. They are often described as a glowing strand of spaghetti. The relationship between the khui and its host is symbiotic as the khui provides a number of benefits for its host.

## Effects

Non-native species must implant the khui within themselves in order to survive the temperature and atmosphere of the planet. Without the khui, an organism will sicken and die within eight days. If a non native individual breeds with a not-hoth native, their child will be born without a khui.

Taking a khui affects the individual on a physiological level, in much the same way they affect the native species. There are two main survival features it provides its host. First, it causes its host to have a higher temperature in order to survive the extreme cold of Not-Hoth. Second, it alters the host to be able to filter out a toxic gas present in the atmosphere.

There are other effects as well. They cause their host to have longer lives, living well into their late 100s, as well as healing faster. The most visual change is to the host's eyes. The khui causes them to glow completely blue, with a darker shade for their pupils. It does, however, dull the host's sense of taste and smell.

Its last biggest function is its desire to ensure the survival of not just its individual host but the host species. This results in an event called resonance, which increases the fertility and libido of its host while choosing a viable partner. Resonance causes the chest of its host to vibrate, making a kind of song. Two resonating khuis vibrate in response to each other and cause their hosts to feel sexual arousal and causes rapid and continuous ovulation in the female. Resonance continues until a child is conceived. Once the child is born, the khuis of two mated partners will still sing, meaning a lighter vibration, in response to each other or the thoughts of host.

## Special Abilities

Some khui give their host special abilities. There are two known types.

### Healing

Healing khuis are capable of encouraging healing abilities within other khui. This allows a healer to use a 'lay on hands' style of healing, where the healing khui communicates to the khui of the sick or injured party. Healing also causes the khui to vibrate, but at a different rate than during resonance, and the eyes of the healer to glow more intensely during the process. It is possible for a healer to kill themselves while trying to heal others if they overtax themselves. It is likely that in larger animals with multiple khuis, these khuis coordinate the others in healing the main host. The two current healers are Maylak and Veronica. A previous healer was Nashak.

### ESP

This is also called the Knowing. Two ways of knowing have been seen in the series. The first is an intuitively feeling of rightness or wrongness. Rokan has this type of knowing. Another type is knowledge through dreams. Analay displays this type of Knowing, however, he often doesn't remember the information long after waking. In animals with multiple khuis, this a Knowing khui may play at part in some type of direction of the other khuis.