It wasn’t often one was able to ride the wave of a Titan.
What would normally be multiple days of travel was condensed into a single day with the push of the Titan’s purpose and will.
With the daughter of the Titan next to him, Warmind NerKeraTor had acquired far more attention and much less rest than he could have reasonably expected. Rainbow Rippling Sheen stood next to the commander’s dais, wearing a form identical to a female KoTry but for the colouring. No KoTry had pale white scales that shimmered subtly with the colours of the rainbow.
He didn’t even have the luxury of bringing his keystone ship.
Instead, NerKeraTor commanded the throne ship VaTrec KanTern, with the third prince of the KoTryan Platinum Empire himself riding along for the show. Only the force of the Titan driving them through high space overshadowed the Prince, and that was only temporary.
The downside of the ride was the sheer noise the psychic turbulence created. There was no way to exert so much force without a reaction of equal intensity. Nor was the cost of the ride a small matter. The iridescent egg leading the way through subspace would crumble to nothing upon arrival, having spent all that it was to get them to their location.
NerKeraTor’s fingers idly tapped on the armrest of his commander’s throne, red-scaled fingers so dark they were nearly black beating a regular pattern on the stone.
He glanced at the Uuahooem, the shard of the Titan next to him. For a moment he almost felt as if he could see her true form, but the overwhelming mimicry of her imprint obscured the momentary sense of gentle swaying motions.
The primary Sensor twitched and related his awareness to NerKeraTor’s Minder and second in charge.
[Arrival is imminent.]
[Has ParsTinKut responded to our communications?] NerKeraTor asked.
The Minder shook his head, his hood shrinking slightly. [No, but we have received a response. It seems ParsTinKut is currently indisposed by the unexpected opening of a Highspace portal. Her fleet Minder will meet us upon arrival to brief us on the situation.]
Rainbow Rippling Sheen turned her head, the motion slightly wrong for a KoTry. [Yes, that portal is what my Mother felt,] She replied to his unasked question. [Something unique has appeared.]
NerKeraTor couldn’t have asked for worse news. The last time something the Titan described as “unique” had appeared, it introduced itself by killing millions.
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> Chapter 12
>
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In terms of hiding a whole planet, it was hard to deny the utility of nearly all of its inhabitants possessing a combination mind and presence block.
But in the greater universe, a mindblock was as often a detriment as it was a help when it came to hiding. A void was all too easy to spot when placed in the middle of comparatively riotous emotion. And so the normal rules of nature and evolution selected against natural mind blocks.
Like countless other tiny animals, the colloquially known coonoodles developed other habits of avoiding predation. They became good escapees for instance. Despite the apparent size of their fuzzy bodies, a coonoodle could squeeze through some incredibly tight spaces. But for the most part, they made friends. It became their habit to hide amongst bigger larger creatures that didn't want a snack. The more social the bigger creature they could find, the happier they were.
That way they could hide physically and hide mentally, masked by the presence of larger, non-threatening minds. In return, they soothed their chosen protectors with sound and cleaned the larger companions of pests. Coonoodles weren’t known for their intelligence, but by their own merits, they spread far and wide.
And they were always looking for new hiding spots…
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> Operator of the S.U. Enterprise. Oria Thompson.
>
> ----------------------------------------
There was no way she could sleep like this. Oria grumbled as she felt the weasel things bunching up around her again. The cooing reached a crescendo. At least she had managed to sleep long enough this time for light to start streaming in through the window.
"Argh!" She yelled, launching off her bed and scattering the little pests. A horde of fuzzy scarves leapt to life, their cooing turned to terrified peeping as the furry noodles escaped in every direction. White, brown, black, grey and many other natural shades streaked about the room to hide or escape out the various nooks and crannies the Sheosayl provided.
It should have been adorable, but Oria could only glare at them with baleful eyes as the little buggers ran for the hills.
The first night had been very cute.
The first night.
Oria sighed and climbed the rest of the way out of the bed. Frantic peeping sounded from under the bed as her feet hit the floor. She sighed again, then slipped her feet into the jumpsuit, starting the process of getting dressed.
Sure, they acted all terrified now, but give them five minutes and the things would be all over her again.
Hopefully today, she thought to herself. Brutus was tracking Seth's mental and physical state. The AI expected Seth to wake up soon, if not today. She couldn't wait. Not having him around was making things difficult.
She slid the suit up to her shoulders and pushed her arms to the ends of the sleeves and flexed her finger to sit the gloves comfortably.
They had a change of suits, fortunately. The damage done by their captors had disabled all the communication functions loaded into the gear the crew had been wearing originally. But as long as it was working, the suit didn't even have to be on, it just had to be close.
"Anyone else up Brutus?" Oria asked as she finished zipping up the suit, then pressed the connector at her neck to activate the autoseal. The suit sealed up, hiding the zipper and closing the garment up to her neck.
"Declan is eating in the common room, he seems to be in no rush."
"Okay, thanks, Brutus."
"My pleasure."
Oria sighed again and left the room, stepping through the heavy curtain covering the door. One of the concessions made for Oria and Declan. All the doors here functioned on the alien's psionics. Through some mental function, the doors latched invisibly. Once unlatched they could be rolled sideways into the wall, then would automatically roll back out on their own weight. Wonderfully engineered, terribly annoying for Humans.
As Oria stepped out, one of the weasels climbed up the back of her leg. As she turned the corner, it scaled her back. As Oria was fully on her way, the bright orange noodle draped itself around her neck like a scarf.
One she didn't mind. A single one of the elongated puffballs was comfortable, cute and made adorable noises. It was the fuzzy late-night pile that drove her nuts. And apparently, her shoulders belonged to this one in particular. She had taken to calling it Sunny.
And the fuzzy weasel things were the only creatures actually friendly around here. The Sheosayl who lived in this tower always subtly edged away from her or Declan. It was as if they stank, but then, maybe they did? Even the servant Sheosayl were reluctant to get close.
A tall, lithe Sheosayl with orange colouring stepped away from her as she passed, practically pressing itself into the wall.
Again she sighed. The fur noodle churred happily as she gave it an idle neck scritch, her sigh turning to a quiet laugh as it pressed itself into her hand.
She continued through the hall, around a ramp that led downwards, and further down another hall. This hall had a gentle curve to it, heading slightly down and around. The moth people had put them some distance away from what Oria assumed to be the common quarters. It meant some peace and quiet for herself, Declan and Seth, but made for a long walk.
The material of the walls was a warm terra-cotta colour and seemed to be made of plaster. Some Sheosayl blended well into the walls with similar colouring.
She could hear it long before she arrived, the sound of many bodies moving about. It sounded odd to her every time she came down this long hallway. Gather that many Humans together and you get a cacophony of voices competing to be heard. But the Sheosayl didn't speak. Not like that.
Here, it mostly sounded like the awkward shuffling of a great assembly forced to wait in silence.
Finally, she reached a wide doorway set into the hallway wall. Turning the corner, Oria arrived at what she and Declan had taken to just calling the common area.
It opened up into a huge room, a great space covering multiple levels and filled with countless interacting Sheosayl. The level she had come out on was near the top, and as she walked in Oria quickly found herself at a walkway looking out upon the whole thing. Like a massive mall, she looked down to see multiple floors around the periphery of the room leading to other entrances or to a multitude of rooms full of activity.
Oria had done her walkarounds just to alleviate her boredom and those rooms were full of Sheosayl crafters and workers, making all the things that supported the life they lead. She had never gone in to watch though. Whether they were making the small bits of clothes or jewelry she'd actually seen them wear, or building furniture for use elsewhere, or just cultivating what might be food, the Sheosayl always paused. The moths would never work if Declan or Oria were nearby.
In the center of the great hall hung a multi-tier platform, connected across multiple levels by platforms leading back and forth. Some platforms were vertical walls that would let Sheosayls in a rush quickly scale to access the higher levels, unfolding their second set of arms for easy climbing. Oria supposed elevators wouldn't be a thing of one could simply levitate themselves with telekinesis.
Not that they did that here. For whatever reason, perhaps just courtesy, or maybe by some unseen pecking order, no one floated conveniently from spot to spot.
Some of the Sheosayl did fly though. A subsection of Sheosayl with brighter orange, red or yellow colouring all had shimmering insectoid wings. Those Sheosayl would fly between levels and Oria enjoyed seeing the glimmer of multi-hued light. The wings didn't seem quite large enough to fly with, but telekinesis was probably the answer again.
And again, they didn't like to fly near Oria and Declan.
Oria sighed and turned away from the waist-high wall separating her from the walkway and open air. She walked while sliding her hand across the top of the barrier. The railing was solid and curved at the base where it joined to the floor. A common feature of Sheosayl construction laid out or even grown organically. Eventually, she might even be able to ask how they did it.
Absent-mindedly, Oria reached up to give Sunny a head scratch, earning another churring purr from the arm length puffball hanging off her neck. She turned and moved to a seating area clearly made for resting and eating, heading directly for where Declan sat, concentrating on his sketchpad.
Declan looked up as Oria made herself comfortable. “You look like you’ve had better nights. The weasels got you too?”
"They sure did,” Oria grunted "I don’t know how long I can— oh, thank you!"
Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.
A shorter Sheosayl, it's colour a deep earth brown, had brought out some food so quickly, they must have started gathering it the moment they noticed Oria. It was the same Sheosayl who’d been keeping them company since they’d arrived, often bringing food and accompanying the female servants. At least, Oria assumed the others were female since they had what looked like breasts.
Declan has a suspiciously hard time looking at them. Very out of character, or suspiciously in character. Another time, she would have pressed him for answers.
Neither Oria or Declan could determine with confidence the servant Sheosayl's gender though. If it had one at all? Oria felt he was male, but Declan assumed the smaller Sheosayl was female because of how timid he acted. He was getting better around them though. As if to support that thought, the Sheosayl moved to pet Sunny's back before stepping away. The little puffball churred its approval.
For lack of a better name, Oria and Declan had taken to calling this one Brownie.
Emulating an action it had copied from Oria and Declan, Brownie nodded to the two Humans before returning to their counter to obtain a smaller share of food for himself, eventually settling down at a table nearby.
"It's a girl, I know it." Declan declared.
"I really don't know…" Oria replied.
Oria was honestly just happy that any of the Sheosayl would be willing to approach them at all.
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Zeek Seer
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Zeek thanked Verzin as he accepted his rations, then moved to sit near the two Humans.
It was only the third day since arriving at Wellbeck, and therefore the third day of trying to acclimate himself to the mind block, but it was getting better. Zeek had found a strategy, or at least a mindset, that helped him with the process.
The empty fog the Humans carried around was unsettling, there was no arguing that. It made them and everything that they owned empty of warmth or emotion. Like they were nothing more than purpose-grown sleepers with a few extra functions placed. Or worse, sleepers wiped of any imprint at all, just waiting to be made into something else.
A fate every Sheosayl had on their mind as the KoTry advanced. That had compounded with the initial impression of the active side of the Humans as being creatures of chaotic happenstance.
KoTry sleepers were terrifying to him, and most any individual he’d ever met. Individuals taken and wiped of all memory, repurposed so that all their mind held was the purpose that would consume their remaining lifespan. And those were just the new sleepers. They had plenty more that were born into the purpose, left on a sort of autopilot in their biological youth until they were old enough to stabilize into sleeper crystals. Zeek much preferred the Sheosayl regulators. At least when the Matrons triggered their eggs into becoming psionic beacons, there was never a possibility that the eggs had ever had a life and a history of their own.
But if they adopted the regulators, the KoTry wouldn’t be able to benefit from Sheosayl precognition, as rare as it was.
The dark emptiness that surrounded the Humans had started to lose the aura of wrongness though. Mostly because Zeek had seen the true nature of the Humans peeking through the darkness.
A difference of night and day. The mind and presence block was the deepest darkness of night, hiding everything from sight. But if Seth was anything to go by, the active heart of the Humans burned in their cores. They’d never had to control their inner feelings to prevent them from leaking out. So when the mindblock waved in key moments and those emotions showed themselves, just what was it Zeek would see?
And so his mindset had shifted. From being fearful and disturbed, now Zeek was intensely curious. The mindblock still caused him to instinctively shy away. It had never occurred to him that anything would be so off putting as nothing, but his instincts complained with great distress whenever he found himself immersed in the fog. Even so, he wanted to see more of the Humans, see what was really hiding in that fog. Could he find what Eless had found?
Could he find his own light?
He wanted to know.
Zeek lifted his head to observe.
Any fellow Sheosayl would echo their actions, psionically bleeding motions and feelings into the air and the objects around them. A particularly sensitive individual such as himself could read for some time after the departure of his kind just what they had spent the last slice of their time doing.
Not so with the Humans. With no imprint and no echo, he had to watch close. He had to watch, and there was no benefit of their emotions and intentions bleeding into the air around them to signify why they did the things they did.
The male continued to manipulate his marking stick, duplicating the physical image of a Sheosayl nurse onto the medium of his white leaves.
Zeek was waiting for something else though. He was watching the female as she ate, then as she started spoiling her coonoodle. The bright orange coonoodle had descended from her shoulder and now sat on its haunches, leaking desire into the air around it.
The coonoodles were an interesting case. They couldn't sense the emotions of the Humans, but the little animals trusted anyways. The pets were filled with feelings of a warm, protective darkness and wonderful grooming techniques. Zeek expected the Humans had companions of their own, which spoke very well for them.
It took a great deal of empathy to raise a creature to live beside you. The Sheosayl were unique in their domesticating of the world around them. If the Humans did much the same, and without direct empathy to guide their actions, it only reinforced their potential as a friend of the Sheosayl.
And then it happened. The sound.
The female Human emitted a soft and pleasing sound even with closed lips.
It did not drone, or buzz, or scrape. It sort of bounced or waved. That wasn't right either. Finally, Zeek found a description he liked for the sound she created.
It… danced.
And then it finally clicked. Zeek recognized the form of this sound that seemed so strange and so familiar and drew him in with its mystery.
It was much like the mental hum of the communal Sheosayl mind, but manifested in the physical world. As the Sheosayl hummed together in their Unity, the Human hummed her emotion to the world as a way to share her mental state despite her inherent limitation.
Zeek hadn’t realized a sound could carry emotion without an imprint. To create a sense of feeling without that feeling bleeding into the air. It moved and bounced with a pattern that drew in his mind and lulled him into a state of relaxed concentration that seemed contradictory, but compelled Zeek to immerse himself. Like the comforting feeling of a nurses steady double heartbeats, the sound existed as a living testament to its owner.
And then the moment ended.
The meal ended and she ran out of food with which to spoil the coonoodle. Her time in the dining area done, the female stood, stretching and groaning. She scooped up the happy coonoodle, spoke softly to her companion and left.
For a moment, Zeek had thought he’d seen through her mindblock.
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> Seth Reimers
>
> ----------------------------------------
It was a sound halfway between a purr and a coo. That was the first thing Seth consciously recognized. The source of the sound was bundled up in the crook of his neck, making those odd little sounds just below his left ear.
From further away, he could hear the odd chortling of something in the distance.
The next thing he realized was the feeling of gravity. He was laying in a bed, properly tucked in and resting with his own bodyweight drawing him down. And there was light. Soft, diffuse, warm in colour and on his skin.
Seth cracked open an eye while letting out a sound halfway between a groan and a sigh. It was an unfamiliar room, lightly furnished, all of it in earth tones.
He felt terrible, like he was suffering a hangover after a continuous week-long party.
And then he remembered why.
A momentary surge of panic fueled adrenaline brought his torso upright, the fuzzy thing at his shoulder peeping in fear and scurrying under the bed. Seth immediately fell back into that bed, overcome with vertigo and fatigue.
[It is okay,] the voice sent to him. The most important voice he had ever heard.
[Eless?] He sent back. Roughly, awkwardly, Seth responded over the tenuous link he and his Soulmate had maintained. [Where?] Seth then asked, not seeing Eless in the room.
[Here,] she replied, [I am… hidden.] She sounded as tired as he felt.
This time he took it slowly. Leaning sideways and pushing off the bed with one arm, he sat up. Wavering, but upright, Seth waited for his head to stop spinning. When it settled enough to act, Seth dragged one leg off the bed, then, the other. The stone under his feet was cool, but not unwelcome. He hesitated there. The bed was more of a bowl, stacked up with cushions and blankets for his comfort. The concave surface was comfortable but made it difficult to climb out.
[Slowly,] Eless comforted, [I am here.]
Seth sat and dwelled on that for the first time. How they spoke. His body really didn't want to move for the moment, and he could feel the completeness of having Eless close at hand. If it wasn't for that unmistakable presence in his mind, Seth knew he'd be beside himself with the urge to see her. A ripple of mirth crossed their connection as Eless received the silly mental image of Seth's thoughts. Which only reinforced his musings on how they spoke. A fragment of emotion followed back, Eless enjoying the mental image of Seth being beside himself and giving her twice as much Seth to appreciate.
There were no words, as he knew them. In Eless's speech that is. Rather, she sent… imprints, or concepts, packaged in a way similar to words. It was his own mind that filled the gap. It was also much cleaner than Seth's thought process.
[True,] Eless noted as she followed the churning of his thoughts with interest. She was bored, Seth suddenly realized. He wondered where was she that he couldn't see her.
A small pulse drew his attention. [Here]. He looked across the room, only to see an alcove. He could only see it from the side, not into the alcove. He realized with no small amount of regret that he was just going to have to get up.
Another ripple of mirth travelled through the link.
Well, he was sitting after all. He was already halfway up. Her amusement mounted. Seth groaned, accepted his fate, and slowly stood. He had to wait a moment to recover again.
"Glad I didn't skimp on the exercise," Seth mused as he stopped to just experience the pull of true gravity holding him to the ground. A small note of curiosity accompanied that thought. It seemed there was too much to that topic to easily absorb or share so readily.
But Eless had something else on her mind. [Please come closer? You are so far away.]
Seth crossed over to lean on the wall with one hand, taking slow steps to where he knew Eless to be. It wasn't far, but he was exhausted.
Seth arrived at the alcove to look in, only to see a giant silken cocoon suspended in the room. The room itself was purpose-made, the floor, walls and ceiling were rough-hewn stone, the rough surface giving more purchase for the strands of silk connecting the cocoon to the floor and ceiling. It was made for the sphere in which Eless hung.
[Are you… well?] Seth asked.
[So many thoughts in one…] Eless replied.
And it was true. Was she safe? Healthy? Happy? … Sane? All of these things he wanted to ask. And more.
[Yes, I am well,] Eless replied, [I am in my final maturity cycle. When I hatch I will be a full adult.]
Seth took a careful step into the alcove and put a hand on the cocoon. Soft, fluffy and warm.
Still, that question lingered at the back of his conscious mind.
Eless didn't miss it, but her answer didn't start quite how Seth expected it.
[Under the bed hides the Coonoodle. She is still alarmed that her warm hiding spot got up and moved. She has greatly enjoyed hiding in your shadow.] An image of a fuzzy creature like a cross between a weasel and a chinchilla hiding under the bed entered his mind.
Seth leaned back to glance around the corner and under the bed and saw a tiny, fluffy tail twitching with agitation. He snorted, and that tail suddenly disappeared as the coonoodle realized she wasn't fully hidden.
Next, he felt Eless draw his attention to that far chortling Seth had heard earlier. [Loftwings. I cannot reach so far in my state, but I know them well. They call to each other with sound and mind, reforming the flock so that they may sleep together safely tonight. If one knows how to ask, a flock may visit a place of your choosing. Flock minders will be calling to them so that we can collect the soft down that they shed. The flocks are greatly reduced now that only the space within the barrier is safe to occupy.]
[Your people communicate with all the animals around you?] Seth asked in surprise.
[Yes!] Eless's response was tinged with pleasure and pride. [And some creatures even harder to converse with. In the walls of this building, we have a hive of craft beetles that maintain the building and can be imprinted with plans to expand. As long as we keep them fed, they build our cities for us.]
Eless didn't miss the little spike of curiosity that had risen in Seth's mind as she spoke. She wrapped herself tightly into his presence, surrounding his mind with impressions of downy fuzz, soft, supple and warm leather, and the warmth of community. All impressions of Eless's body.
[It is our specialty, the Sheosayl,] Eless explained. [Already possessing a natural talent for mental bonding and union with each other, we spend our youth learning to talk with everything else around us. We have encountered other races that exist as a single mental whole no matter the number of bodies, and races not entirely like yourselves, each individual an island of self. We Sheosayl are a rare in between. The mind, it has something like…] Eless paused and Seth realized she was picking a deeper concept from his head to help her explanation.
[Well, I guess it is electricity, but most animal creatures have developed similar mind systems… You call them nerves? We have learned markers that indicate the same things across species, when those systems are present.]
She shared some of those impressions. Neatly packaged imprints for hunger, fear, aggression and more flitted across his mind. It was rather bewildering to him.
[When we were placed next to each other…] Eless let the feeling of embarrassment seep through the connection, [I was so desperate for contact that I was able to pick up… pick up on your fear and panic until I was able to peek on your dreams through the cracks in your mindblock. Something I could never have managed if I wasn't trapped in your space for days… and if you too weren't so very desperate.]
Seth's hands drifted across the white cocoon, wishing he could hold her directly. The memory of imprisonment accompanied a feeling of frantic hopelessness, and it was partly his fault. He wanted to hug her tight, to comfort her amidst the rising memory.
Instead, Eless sent a request on a level deeper than conversation. A desire for Seth to open up further. He… didn't really know how, but was more than willing to try. And that was all it took. The moment Seth accepted that he wanted to try, it was like Eless poured herself into his mind.
In this mental connection deeper than Seth thought possible, his mind filled in simple metaphors for what she did.
Like an adult taking a child's hand, Eless drew his waking mind closer to hers. His body sat down in the bowl, awkwardly leaning against thick supporting strands of silk. But where his body rested was practically an afterthought.
Eless, her form strangely indistinct, pulled him into a tight mental hug. Still 'physically' smaller than him, even in this mental space, Seth held her in his lap and wrapped himself around her. She seemed to hum, a soothing melody that warmed him and signalled the depth of her happiness. A sound that carefully wound its way into the depths of his soul. This close, he knew, Sheosayl only hummed like this in times of extreme emotion. In his arms, even metaphorically, Eless felt safe, warm, and loved.
And very, very tired.
Then again, so was he.
Neither of them would remember falling asleep like this.
When Seth was still and gone to the world, the little coonoodle wiggled across the floor to curl up in his lap. Soon more would join to form a cooing pile, until Zeonova arrived to return Seth to the bed and shooed off the little creatures.
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> End Chapter
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