Date point: 1y 6m 3w BV
Eallva
Catching her foot in a small rut in the tunnel, Eallva stumbled. She hardly noticed, even though to any outside observer she appeared slightly inebriated, and indeed, her mind barely registered the fact that she was taking the long way home. She was in shock. Had she hit her head on something, hallucinating the entire thing? Her head didn’t hurt though, and at no point did she remember waking up.
Face it Eallva, it happened. Stop trying to rationalize it away.
In her mind she reviewed what she had heard once more, fervently hoping to find anything hinting towards delusion.
Selvim stood in the doorway, staring at her. Unthinkingly she peered back, transfixed by the sight. She had never before seen him from so near. At this distance his alien qualities were even more pronounced. His face was flat, lacking any snout whatsoever, and only a slight protrusion for his nose. A large quantity of hair sat upon the top of his head like some limp plant, and another smattering of bristle hugged his chin like mold. Everything about him seemed odd, his shoulders too broad, his thighs freakishly underdeveloped, and his arms long and ungainly. Despite all this, as he stepped into the room, he moved with a fluid grace, deadly and controlled.
She suddenly remembered the cup in her hand and why she had come. She also remembered how she was supposed to have completed her task before Selvim had arrived. What did she do now? Did she apologize? Was she even allowed to speak to him? He only spoke to the Excelsum, so maybe the Excelsum was the only one allowed to speak back. But Eallva couldn’t just hop out of the room like he wasn’t there, that’d be even worse. Did she bow her way out? Curse her new commander and his aversion to explaining the rules!
Going with the “Bow-my-way-out” plan she started edging towards the door, keeping her head pointed towards him as he stood in the middle of the room, accidentally bumping into several pieces of furniture as her orientation took her eyes from her path. Just before she deemed herself close enough to the door to turn and beat a hasty retreat, he spoke.
“Wait.”
Eallva froze, terrified. Had he actually just said something? In her hearing? It was impossible, it couldn’t be real. Deciding that she really must have imagined it, she continued on her slow way out the door, creeping slowly forward, as if the lack of speed would somehow make her invisible.
“Please wait.”
Okay she definitely hadn’t imagined it this time. Slowly turning, she looked into Selvim’s small white eyes. She’d never realized how small his pupils were. Besides the small, dark irises in the center, the rest of his eyes were pale. She was avoiding the problem, trying to think of anything else. He had spoken to her! Still, she had to be sure.
“Me?” was that small squeak her? It didn’t sound like it. Maybe there was someone else in the room. No, shit, it had been her. She had spoken to Selvim! Hesitantly she looked back at him, searching for any sign of anger, but his face was too strange, too unfamiliar. He could have been seething with rage or impassioned by the need to dance for all she knew. The former was significantly more likely, but one never knew. What if it was the latter? She didn’t know how to dance with someone his height!
She was mind babbling and she knew it, but it was the only thing allowing her to keep her semblance of calm. That calm threatened to break yet again as he spoke once more.
“Please don’t be frightened, I just want to talk to you. I just want to talk.” And he did. In some small, secluded corner of her mind – the part that wasn’t completely shocked into numbness by his words – she thought he sounded relived, as though he’d wanted to say these things for a long time. At first his words were hesitant, halting, as though he wasn’t sure he should be saying them at all. But as he continued his words gained momentum, hesitance replaced by confidence. His speech had the opposite effect upon her. She hadn’t had much confidence at the onset, but what little she’d had drained out of her as she listened.
Even if she couldn’t read his body language, it seemed he did not have the same problem when it came to understanding hers. Just as she was becoming sure that she was caught in an extremely vivid and disturbing fever dream, his words stopped, cut short mid-sentence as he looked at her.
“I’ve said a lot. I know this must come as a shock to you, and I’m so, so sorry. I should probably stop here, let you think about what I’ve said. When you’re done, please come back to talk to me again, if you’re willing. There’s so much more I want – need – to tell you. Don’t worry about finishing your shift – I’ll tell the captain to let you leave. I’ll just tell him I startled you, you won’t be in trouble. Once again I’m . . . I’m sorry.”
With that he quickly left the room, leaving her standing, dazed and confused in the darkness.
Her mind was still there, numb with shock, even as her body carried her home. Had that really just happened? Maybe the bright light and the shock of the new position had given her delusions. Maybe she had fallen asleep at her post, and even now she was caught in a disturbingly vivid dream. Frightened by the prospect of negligence at her post she kicked a wall harder than was prudent. The instant pangs of protest and betrayal registered by her stubbed toes dispelled her of any delusions as to whether she was dreaming or not. The implications of that fact were so unpleasant she almost wished she was sleeping at her post. Almost. She wasn’t completely bereft of sense.
Someone spoke nearby, a tail flicking her ear. She came back, dragging her attention away from the tumult in her mind to find herself standing in the middle of her family’s burrow, Fratep staring worriedly at her side.
“What?” she sounded far away, even to herself. How is that even possible?
“Why are you home so early? Is something wrong? Hey!” her eyes snapped back to him, attention once again refocusing. Why was it so hard to concentrate?
“Oh . . . uh, sorry. I’m . . . tired . . . let me off early. Bed.” The sheer lack of articulation disgusted her, but it was the most she could manage.
“Okay,” Fratep replied, giving her a quizzical look, “Hope you feel better”. Relieved that he hadn’t continued his questioning, Eallva retreated to her room. All outward sensations ceased as she settled into her nest, leaving her to confront her swirling thoughts.
Dear Journal,
I’m going to stage a coup
Because, you know, why not?
The moment I left my bedroom – guard standing like a statue within – the gravity of what I’d just done hit me. I’d just told some random guard that their great leader wasn’t a god, the Excellsum was a lying bitch, and everything they believed was a lie, all because I’d had a feeling that this guard was different from the countless others around me. Sometimes I amaze even myself with my exceptional examples of foreplaning and caution. Although to be fair, I really had devoted an unusual amount of time thinking about how I was going to kill Vancil. Well, more thought that I usually do to my actions, which in retrospect isn’t saying much. Still, I had thought about this, and every time I went over the ideas in my head the more certain I was that I needed outside help.
At first I’d thought I should just up and off Vancil the next time she came to my room or she summoned me. That idea lasted all of four seconds before I realized just how bad it was. Just remove probably the most powerful political entity in, as far as I knew, the continent, and just let whatever happens happen? And after I killed her, what was I gonna do? Just polka my way out the door and back into space? I’d like to say that those thoughts appeared in that order, and not one almost immediately and the other after three or four days. I didn’t even have a way off this planet. I knew the pod I’d crashed in had an even smaller ejection capsule, presumably strong enough to get me back to the orbiting moon, but I didn’t know where it was. My first memories on this planet were my waking up with Vancil creepily breathing over me. I’d never before asked her where I’d crashed because I’d never cared, and she’d get suspicious if I suddenly started asking.
I left worrying about how to actually leave this planet for later. I’d decided to kill Vancil as a way to fix – if not atone – for what I’d done to these creatures. Killing her without any structure in place to fill the power vacuum would do more harm than anything I’d done to date. I needed someone from outside to tell me what was happening, educate me on the political structure or succession processes – execute actions that I couldn’t in my current position. What I was going to do with all that information if I got it I hadn’t the fuzziest, since – you know – I’ve not exactly done this kind of thing before, but at least I was aware that I needed it.
All this meant was that I couldn’t do anything until the guard decided to come back. If she decided to come back. She’d looked well beyond shocked when she’d left, so I thought that even if she was returning, it wouldn’t be for at least a few days. Hence I was surprised when she returned the very next night. My surprise at her quick return was heightened to shock when upon her entrance she leaped at me, kicking me in straight in the gut. Let me be the first to inform you that these creatures kick hard. My breath exploded from my lungs as I was lifted from my feet and tossed a short distance across the room. She stuck her landing somewhat better than I did – although to be fair, she was able to breathe when she did it.
She jumped the distance to where I lay crumpled on the floor, red-faced from lack of oxygen, and started shrieking something at me. I was having a lot of difficulty breathing, and not much able to pay attention, but I did have the thought that maybe I should start letting the commander of my guards actually post people at my doors like he kept suggesting. As a matter of fact, I should probably be treating my guards more like guards than like personal attendants. Well, loud as she was, no one would be hearing her in here. I doubted I’d be able to be heard by anyone if I shouted my loudest. Maybe if someone had their ear pressed to the wall, but I’d specifically asked the commander to keep guards far from my room.
Her shrieks had stopped suddenly, replaced with worried questions. I, however, was still having trouble on the breathing front.
Eallva
“ . . . and you lied about it! What kind of sand-crawling, good-for-nothing, ankle-biting . . .” she lost her momentum as relevant insults became scarce, so moved to less-fitting options, “stinking, grub-livered –” She paused once again to breathe, and looked to see what her kick had wrought. Selvim lay on the floor in a heap of limbs that was anything but graceful. Even though his features were alien, there was no mistaking the glazed look to his eyes. He seemed to be struggling with . . . something, and as she continued to watch his face slowly began to turned red, his mouth agape. Her anger quickly faded into panic. What if she had hit some unforeseen weakness? She didn’t know how he was built, what if he died while she was in his rooms and she was found here? Granted he probably deserved it but that hadn’t been her plan upon entering, she had just needed to vent some anger before she burst.
As her panic peaked Selvim inhaled explosively, his body visibly sagging with relief. Her relief was short-lived, though, as anger returned in force. She kept her peace, waiting for Selvim to speak, since it seemed apparent he didn’t intend to fight. After several long seconds of breathing, he opened his mouth.
“I’m gonna be honest, I missed most of that, but I think I got the gist. I know you’re angry, and you have every right to be, and when this is all over I promise to take what I deserve, but for now just listen to me. I asked you to come back because I’d only finished telling you what was important, but I didn’t tell you the why. I know what I did was wrong, and I want to fix it. I want to overthrow Vancil – or I guess you’re used to calling her the Excellsum – and give control back to the council, or whatever the people would want. Fuck, I’m getting ahead of myself. Okay, just throwing it out there, I want to kill Vancil, and tell the people the truth, but I can’t do that alone. I don’t know what she’s been lying to me about. I don’t know what she’s told the people, or if it’s even remotely close to what she’s told me, although I’m guessing it’s not. I don’t know the political setup, and I don’t know what could or could not happen once I do my thing. It comes down to ‘I don’t know anything’, and if I’m going to do this without hurting everyone more than I already have then I’m going to need someone who can answer my questions.”
His words, halting at first but ending in a babbling torrent, temporarily numbed Eallva. Yet aside from numbed, she realized that she also felt – tired. Her world had been turned upside down so many times in the past week that despite the shocking nature of Selvim’s words, her reaction was merely one of grim acceptance. Sure, Selvim, who wasn’t a god, just a fraud, despite everything she’d believed her whole life, suddenly had a conscience that she’d never known he lacked, and wanted to dethrone the most esteemed religious figure of her culture – who Eallva hadn’t known had needed dethroning or that she’d even had a throne – by killing her off but needed Eallva’s help in order to accomplish it. Oh, and her brother was part of a resistance that wanted to kill both Selvim and the Excellsum, just in case the first statement wasn’t ridiculous enough.
With a silent groaning, her mind slowly began adjusting to the new information. After several more seconds she started asking her questions in a tone far calmer than she felt.
“Why should I believe you?”
“Why shouldn’t you?” He replied, “Given my position and everything that you used to assume as true, what point would there be in my lying to you about anything I’ve said? What could I possibly gain?”
She conceded the point, as it was essentially the same explanation that had prevented her from providing any alternative justification to last night’s conversation.
“Alright, then why me?”
He paused a moment before answering. “Because you were there. I needed the help, I was desperate, and you were the closest when I just gave up and decided to ask a random somebody.” She felt, rather than thought, there was more, but she let the matter lie so as to ask her next question.
“And why shouldn’t I just kill you right now?” she asked quietly, “You’ve admitted you’re not a god and that you’d deserve whatever was coming. I’m holding a weapon and have you against a wall. Why shouldn’t I deliver justice here and now?”
“Because,” he spoke carefully, “I’m not the only one deserving of that justice. Vancil deserves everything I do, but if you kill me now, she’ll be nearly impossible to get at. If you agree to help me, there’s not much you can do without me. If you won’t help me then – well – I’m surprised you haven’t killed me already.”
“I haven’t yet ruled out the possibility,” she growled through gritted teeth. His face contorted into an expression she couldn’t decipher.
His tone was dry, “That’s cool, just as long as you aren’t kicking me while you make up your mind – was like taking a heavy pulse round to the gut, and I prefer to do my dying with as little pre-bruising as possible.”
His words and tone – given the situation – were absurd to the point that the tip of her spear, previously pointed at his chest, dropped slightly. “Are you serious? You’re okay with dying so long as I’m not . . .”
“Nervous habit,” he interrupted, “What’s your decision?”
She breathed, “I don’t know. I need more time to think.”
“And if you decide I should die, you think I’ll let you just come back and off me? Sure, leave, take your time, but if you’re going to stab me with that then I prefer you do it now or just accept that you’re going to help me.”
He was right and she hated that. As she thought though she realized that she didn’t need more time. She trusted him, oddly enough, and though she could feel her anger boiling just under the surface of her forced calm, she found that she didn’t want him dead – yet. Maybe later. That she could think on. Presently, however, she lowered her spear.
Taking her actions as the answer they were, he relaxed muscles she hadn’t noticed were tensed. It made her wonder whether killing him would have been as easy as she had thought. He broke the silence, “I understand you may need more time to get used to this. I’m surprised you came back as quickly as you did. Try not to take too long however. Planning’s not my forte, but I’m pretty sure there’ll be plenty to do once we start thinking about it. Until then . . .”
He cut off abruptly as she kicked him again, taking pains to hit the same spot she had previously, before hopping out the door to finish her shift. If nothing else it made her feel marginally better.
Date point: 1y 6m 2w BV
Eallva
“So have you thought about what I said?”
Eallva glanced up from her morning meal, home after another shift of avoiding Selvim as much as duty permitted. Fratep stood at the room’s entrance. Their mother had yet to return, Eallva assumed, considering her brother’s question.
She took as long as she could before swallowing and answering. Although he wasn’t aware, she had made up her mind about more than just his words. “Yes. I want in.”
Fratep’s mouth stretched into a broad smile. “Excellent! There’s a meeting tonight. Go to bed as usual and I’ll wake you when it’s time.” Nodding her understanding Eallva bent back to finish her food.
Several hours later she was trailing Fratep as he lead her down a nondescript alley. The sun had been high when he’d awoken her, and as they ghosted through the deserted side-streets, Eallva conceded that if they did run into anyone, they would likely wish to avoid notice as well. Fratep stopped abruptly, Eallva nearly running into him. Motioning for her to remain where she was, he entered a building through a side door. Patiently she waited for what seemed like minutes, nervously glancing at either end of the alley. When Fratep returned she gratefully entered the building into an overly-dark hallway. Leading her through it she found herself in a larger room that looked like it could be the basement of an inn. A handful of cloaked figures stood in a semi-circle facing the door through which she had entered.
Though lighting was scarce, she thought she could have made out the faces of those in attendance had not every member save herself and Fratep had their face obscured by a hood that allowed only the end of a snout and whiskers to show.
“I’m sorry,” she spoke to the quiet room, “I hadn’t realized hoods were required.”
“Normally they’re not,” Fratep spoke from her shoulder, “But whenever we get a new member, everyone except the person who brought the newcomer wears a hood until they trust them. For safety reasons.” Eallva nodded, it made sense.
“Welcome, Eallva,” one of the hooded figures spoke. She admitted the hoods were effective. Aside from a notion of age and being male, she could distinguish nothing about the one who addressed her. “We’re always pleased when one joins our cause.” With those words the speaker turned and completely ignored her. The meeting, or progress report she soon realized, began and continued around her. She thought that she should have felt at least a little put out, but instead was pleased to be able to listen and gauge what exactly these people did. It soon became apparent that the answer to that was ‘not much’. Small acts of petty sabotage, economic triflings which couldn’t have cost the temple any appreciable amount, and minor public comments termed rather grandly as ‘spreading unrest’. These useless acts, combined by their relatively small number, quickly deflated any of her hopes that she might have been able to use these people.
After allowing the proceedings to drag on for what she believed was quite long enough to be polite, she interrupted a particularly irrelevant report about decreased felem seed sales, “What are you doing?”
The speaker whom she interrupted choked on what he’d been about to say as all eyes turned to Eallva. “Me? I’m detailing how the decrease in sales of felem seeds of a particular merchant has undermined –”
“Not you,” she cut him off again, “All of you. What are you doing? I’d been lead to believe that this group was interested in a change of government, not helping a merchant sell seeds that nobody wants.”
“We do want a change in government,” spoke the figure who had given the perfunctory welcome in what seemed to have been several hours ago, “But you cannot believe that such a thing could be accomplished overnight. Thus we work to use small, unobtrusive actions to slowly create a climate that is favorable to the changes –”
“And what if you did?” she interjected, “What if you managed to dethrone the Excellsum and Selvim, what would you do then?”
Even though she could only see his whiskers, she could have sworn they were quivering with annoyance at having been interrupted in what was clearly a rehearsed answer. “Assuming care had been taken in the process, we would establish an oligarchy similar to council that had existed between the coalition of city states as they were before Selvim bound them to this city and himself.”
Their answer satisfied her, although it lacked in details. She had other, more pressing questions, though, so she let the matter rest. “How would you keep those city states together? With Selvim gone they’d have no reason to remain under any new government’s control.”
“That’s not precisely true,” Fratep now spoke, “Selvim has forced enough cooperation between the cities and built enough co-dependent bonds between each that it would hurt them more at this point were they to split apart into their original independent states. So long as there isn’t a civil war we believe it wouldn’t be hard to keep the cities in line.”
Satisfied again, Eallva moved to her reason for speaking. “And what if I had resources that would allow you to begin planning for this peaceful takeover right now?” With her words she saw Fratep’s eyes narrow in confusion.
“We would ask why we should trust in the validity of you and your ‘resources’,” said the silhouette she chose to assume was the leader in this meeting.
“I would answer that were I an informant, suggesting such a radical course of action during my first meeting would be very unwise since you will now be using whatever resources you have to watch me, and for a similar reason my resources are valid as you will soon, no doubt, discover of your own accord through your own avenues. Of course my resources will be of little use if this is all of you, however. Are there more like-minded individuals or is it just everyone in this room?”
A rustling of shifting cloaks and hooded faces turning to one another was all the answered she recieved, until finally the maybe-leader answered. “We are not the only such group.”
“Splendid,” she said, smiling, “Now let’s say for the sake of argument that I had a discrete way into the temple.”
Date point: 1y 6m 1w BV
Eallva
The door to Selvim’s room closed behind her. “It’s about time,” he snapped the moment the bar was down. “I said take your time, not watch me die of natural causes. Are you ready?”
The familiar feelings of anger at seeing him threatened to boil over as she set the cup she was carrying – the justification for her visit – aside. She suspected Selvim had somehow procured the Chamber Guard’s silence or at least unwitting cooperation, as she couldn’t see her absences having gone unnoticed. As for her anger, she exerted control over it in a fraction of the time that she would have barely a week ago. The daily planning sessions with Fratep’s group had honed that skill in record time. They fought her every step of the way, which, she supposed, was understandable considering her relative newness. She guessed she was happy that they seemed to be listening to her at all. Of course, she still hadn’t told them who her resource was, yet. One hop at a time. Currently that hop was bringing Selvim into the loop.
“Actually,” she began in an overly calm voice, “I’ve already started planning –”
“Really? That’s fine, but we may need to change some of what you’ve decided if –”
“With a group whose objectives are identical to your own and resources far outnumber what you can provide.”
The incredulity upon his face was so clear even she could read it. “Uh huh. You found a group that wants to kill Vancil, reconcile themselves to the people they’ve harmed here – hopefully without having an execution involved – then find the remnants of a crashed escape pod, use the wreckage to assemble some form of beacon or, if I’m fortunate, use the return pod to get back into orbit and hopefully find a ship, blast back into known space and away from this forsaken planet to right the various wrongs I have wrought against various and sundry other groups and individuals?”
She paused before answering, “You lost me after the execution, but fine, their objectives aren’t identical to yours but they’re close enough for our purposes. We need them because they’ve wanted a peaceful takeover for a lot longer than you, and they know the politics and forces better than you as well. All I need from you is to get us into the temple from here without raising an alarm, and then make a speech at some yet to be determined location telling everyone exactly what you told me about the lies.”
By the end of her words his face had become unreadable again, but the admiration in his voice was unmistakable. “I’ll admit, I’m impressed. Especially considering how indecisive you were last time we talked. What changed?”
“I guess I do my best work when I want to see people dead,” she said with sickly sweet voice and a smile. Her comment, combined with the tone and expression, earned what she hoped was a worried glance from Selvim. She could have left there and then; after all she’d said what she needed and told him the bare minimum that was necessary. Instead she found herself asking another question she’d had for some time.
“What are you?”
He clearly hadn’t been expecting that question. “Whoa. Wasn’t expecting that question,” see? “But I guess it’s easy enough to answer. My people are called human.”
His answer meant nothing to her, so she decided to rephrase. “Where are you from, then? You’re not a god, and I’ve never heard of anything like you, especially something that is an actual thinking being.”
“Oh boy,” he sighed, “You sure you want the answer to this?” She nodded. “I’m not even sure I can explain it to you, but I guess I could try.” He took another deep breath.
I wasn’t going to say this was impossible, but this was impossible. Seriously, how do you explain to someone from a culture that looks like they’d be at home in the Roman empire that you’re from a different planet that’s not only in a different solar system, but in a different galactic arm than theirs. Sure, I guess I wouldn’t need to explain the whole galactic arm part, but I feel the distance was at least worth mentioning.
Well, it’s not like this has been the hardest thing you’ve ever done.
Thanks disembodied voice. You’re a real pal.
“Alright alright alright,” I finally spoke, “Imagine that . . . or no, wait. Okay, I like this better. Is there something you can do today, some development or new invention or something, that allows you to do something or complete something in a way that would have been unimaginable for your ancestors centuries ago?”
She hardly paused before speaking, “Iron. Our ancestors would have never have believed that we would eventually be able to get a forge hot enough to actually melt iron. I don’t know if they even knew what iron was. I’ve heard that smiths are finding ways to make iron even harder,” she spoke that last bit with an edge of disbelief. I couldn’t help but agree. Harder than iron?! How absurd.
“Right, so if someone had told your ancestors that they would eventually be able to create tools of iron, they wouldn’t have believed you, right?’
After a brief pause she nodded, “I suppose not, but how does this –”
“I’m getting there,” sheesh, she asks for the sky and gets impatient waiting for it, “So do you think that in several more centuries your people will have innovations and capabilities that – were someone to tell you of them now – you would hardly believe them.”
This pause was a little longer than the last, but she still nodded, “I suppose it might happen, but –”
“And do you think that in several more centuries your people will have developed even further to the point that they will have inventions beyond the scope of that first group of future ancestors whose technologies you could not imagine.”
Her eyes had glazed over half way through, “Okay you lost me – or no – wait. Um, maybe? I mean, there’s got to be a point, right? A point where we can’t find anything new? We’ve found it all?”
“If that point exists I don’t think anyone’s found it yet. But back to the subject, if every century your people have developments unimaginable to those of the previous century, do you think that over millennia your people could achieve things that, were you told of them now, would seem to be the ravings of a madman?”
The skepticism on her face was clear, “I guess that would depend on whether the one raving at me had been a madman before he’d started telling me of my people several millennia from now. I still don’t see what this has to do –”
“Again, I’m getting there, calm down. Now, let’s say that one of these purely unthinkable developments your people created millennia from now was a machine that could fly.”
Her face darkened to a shade similar to the one she’d had last time she kicked me, “If you don’t want to tell me where you’re from that’s fine, but please don’t insult me with something like that.”
Dang it, I’d hoped my initial explanation would have been enough to avoid this. “Just humor me, please,” I pleaded, “For fun, let’s say they could fly.”
She sighed, “Sure, fine, why not, they can fly. I assume that means they’ve sprouted wings?”
“No, we went over this, they use machines.”
“Oh, how silly of me, how could I ever have thought something so absurd. They fly on machines.”
I’ll give her this, she knew how to put a bite in her voice. “I forgive you. Now, given a few more centuries to develop, those machines would have become much more powerful.”
“I don’t see why not.” Boredom now dominated her expression.
I thought a moment before proceeding to my next point. They thought the planets of their system were the gods, right? I thought I remembered Vancil saying something like that. Screw it.
“So powerful, in fact, that it could fly high enough to reach the gods.”
If nothing else the sentence itself made sense to her. “Naturally,” there was that bite again.
Go big or go home, “But let’s say, hypothetically, that on their way to the gods they found another world. Another world that was so far from you down here that you never even knew it existed.”
Yeah, I know it was technically wrong, but come on, I needed something to give my explanation a fighting chance. Even with my allowances I could tell I was losing her. Confusion and incredulity now ruled supreme over her expressions. If I hadn’t had a clear grasp of their body language before this conversation started, then I sure would have by the end of it.
“Another . . . what?! Another world? How . . . why . . . where do you get this stuff?”
“Hypothetically.”
“Like that makes it any bett –”
“Please.” She didn’t answer, instead falling into a frustrated silence. I took it. “Now let’s say, hypothetically, that the people of this other world were not like you. Not only were they not like you, they were completely different: different history, different developments, different appearance.” The frustration was turning into something I could only describe as ‘quizzical’. I took that as encouraging. “These people were so different, in fact, that they were just discovering how to use iron. When these people see you, they have no idea how to deal with you. Being the reasonable creatures that they are, however, they ask who you are and where you came from. How do you explain it to them?”
Halfway through my final point the last vestiges of frustration had left her, leaving only pensive silence. That silence stretched for nearly a minute before she broke it.
“So you’d have me believe that you’re from another world. One so advanced that your people have machines that can fly high enough to reach the gods.” At this point I didn’t care if she believed me, the fact that I’d managed to get that much of the point across was impressive enough in my book.
“Yes. You were the one that asked, and I told you the explanation wouldn’t be easy.”
“I guess,” she admitted, pausing once again. “Prove it.”
You know, I can’t think of a single instance where I’ve been pleased to hear those two words.
“I don’t exactly have the time nor the resources to do that. How about we go back to the matter at hand,” she looked confused, “the coup?” her face lit up, first with realization, then embarrassment.
“Right, the thing. I told you everything you need to know. We’ve barely started on the details. I’ll give you more information when it’s needed.”
“Works. Until next time, then.”
“Right.” She paused at the door, opened her mouth, closed it, opened it again, then just left. Hey, I hadn’t gotten kicked this time. Solid day’s work right there.
Vancil
A knock at her door abruptly ended what had been a perfectly pleasant nap. Granted she had affairs that had demeaned her attention – which explained why she was starting awake at her desk rather than her bed – but what was the point of being the effectual ruler or a nation if you didn’t get to do as you wished from time to time.
One of her personal body guards spoke through the door. “Captain Sicari is here. Says it’s urgent.”
“Admit him.” She sat up a little straighter. A report from Sicari was exactly what she needed. It beat official business any day. Another motivated more by money than any allegiance, he was useful in the same way Crubec was: as an agent she could use to keep tabs on Selvim without getting caught up in the fact that he wasn’t actually a god. In many ways, Sicari – along with a few select others – kept a more careful watch on Selvim than Crubec did. He was usually closer, at least.
The thin Captain entered with his usual easy, loose hops. “She talked to him again.”
“Took her long enough,” Vancil growled, “Any encouraging developments?”
Sicari smiled, “She mentioned something about finding a group that also wants you dead. Sounds like they’ve been in operation for quite some time.”
“Excellent. Any word on how they intend to use Selvim?”
“Not exactly. All she said was that Selvim just had to get the group into the temple from his chambers without raising the alarm. That and he had to give some speech or another about how you’re a fraud.”
Such a comment would have earned any other Captain severe retribution, but Sicari was an exception and he knew it. Instead, she let the comment slide, remaining silent for him to finish.
“The conversation got pretty boring from there, but she ended it with saying more detailed plans were to follow.”
Vancil sighed, though this was progress. “Then we continue to wait until our little Chamber Guard decides to visit him once again. Thank you, you are dismissed.”
Rather than bow respectfully and leave, the Captain took a hop closer to where she sat. “You know,” he began, “It’s pretty uncomfortable lying there with my ear to that slit in the floor, and the others agree. A mat or some padding would be greatly appreciated.”
“I’m sure,” Vancil frowned, “Even more so as it would make falling asleep all the more expedient. You’ve asked before and the answer is the same now as it was before. Dismissed.” Thankfully he left this time, although he missed the respectful bow; intentionally she was sure.