Aleph gaped at the structure that was to be their ‘housing’ for the duration of their stay.
Apparently Pylo’s business in this port and the unloading and loading of goods was going to take a good long while.
And it was refreshing (no offence towards pylo) to get out and away from the sameness of that perfect blue sky and white clouds of their rooms.
But wasn't this a bit much?
One of the Fro- One of The People was there with them. The last one to be selected for their Inner Court? Support Team? Bodyguards? Entertainers? She honestly was not entirely certain exactly what the arrangement was, if there even was a comparable one from Terra.
High society stuff like this had not exactly been a priority when Omega had been prepping her for the journey and eventual colony effort all the way back on Terra.
And there had not been really all that much call for it since, not even in any of Elsie’s lessons either.
Huh where was Elsie?
Omega was off with Quarti to try and interrogate that Shaman-keeper. Squidgie was apparently working with the rest of the ‘staff’.
But that did not seem to offend anyone.
It was so weird to have ‘staff’.
Oh well, Aleph was going to try and view this as something like her original arrangement with Squidgie...
Actually She hoped they had not just adopted for life all of the ‘staff’ assigned to them.
That felt like it would be monumentally awkward.
Although she admitted it would be kind of cool when they showed up at Promissum with a whole parade of aliens to join the colony.
When she was nearing her forties...
Okay thinking of something else. Anything else!
“This is all for us?”
The attendant who was there with her dips their- no his! Dipped his head to her in an overly smooth nod and then gaped more traditionally.
“Yes Guest Aleph, the wisdom of four least masters was called upon in its preparation for your stay.”
It was a very clumsy sort of way they talked even if Omega assured her it was Aorian, just a bit archaic.
Aleph hummed and looked around, she was only just starting to get an idea of what that meant among The People. It was strange, they mixed up something almost like a professor, a teacher and politician into all of one single idea. Then ranked everyone through it.
Not only that she had discovered that for the most part the people barely had an idea about money or things costing something.
Well they knew how rare things were, how hard they were to make, the idea of services. They even had ideas of exchanging things between but they did not seem to bother with trying to make things fungible or liquid.
Even Redweed had an idea about money!
“It’s pretty, it looks way better than I could make it.”
The guide, who she was not sure of the name of, Doro something? Gaped again and spoke in that rich deep timbre most of The People’s aorian had.
“It’s never been my place to be in any master’s personal chambers. Or even witness close to one, not even the least.”
It was not precisely said with embarrassment like Aleph would have expected in a Terran, more of a smooth flat tone and a few cues she had started to pick up as being something like pride among the people.
“But to have the honor of four of the least master’s hands upon it let alone directing its craft is something I must thank you for the chance to witness. They are not of the Righteous Gallants but we have good alliances with these Weavers. Of the others I have never heard of before now.”
There was an amused roll of blinking eyes there. Followed by a slight rhythmic trill that was if she was honest a bit too regular and even to pass for a laugh. But she appreciated the effort anyway.
“Well Let’s go take a look inside then I guess, You sure no one will be offended if we don’t all go in together?”
Doro, or doodro or dodo or whatever his name was, gave her a face that she was not sure what it meant, although the way he adjusted his tone suggested confusion.
“Why would anyone take... offense? That is a strange word, it seems to mean things differently then I feel it should. There is no dishonoring or slighting for you to review private quarters for yourself.”
There seemed to be a lot of that, every one of The people who worked with them had spoken clear aorian, grammar was correct and right. But there were always little words the people would pause on and muse about. Ill fitting to what they wanted to say and for some even distressing.
It had not let up yet. It was kind of fascinating to be so much closer to translation then that smoothed over subtly inherent comprehension that came along with Pylo’s presence. Speaking of.
“Where has Pylo gone off too anyway? We know she had business and stuff with ports but this is only the second we’ve visited with her beyond our homes. And it’s only us here. It’s already so different from Redweed.”
That seemed to catch Dudoro by surprise.
“As she always has and always will The ... Ship Mistress Pylo is upon her pilgrimage to the great forbiddence. Nestled within the branches of -” There was a deep hum that rose to a sharp pitch in one smooth call.
It was a name Aleph knew, mostly from earlier. An unmistakable sound that had drifted around in the feast and even during the parade of lyrical ‘battles’ Pylo and Quarti had taken up when they arrived. That had been embarrassing to realize.
Of course the tree would have a name, It was bigger from The People’s home then any single coherent structure visible in Terra’s Skies and apparently was also a sort of kind of alien herself?
“The Tree?”
They moved up to the entrance of the layered almost ethereal envelopes and folds of what Aleph could not decide more resembled a kind of palatial hammock, tent or perhaps some kind of sculptural twisty garment?
“Indeed, it is said she makes the pilgrimage every time she has come. But I don’t know much more than that. It is the way of other people.”
There was a place it nestled around itself almost like a flower, blades or folds of fabric? It was strange, it was not like cloth, it more resembled leaves, or leather. But she could not even see any seams or stitching the way she had grown used to with most of the textile works of the people.
It gave the impression that this feature was a natural shape, or had somehow been folded in place to the exact intricate detail of spiraled whorls around her.
It was like a sculpture and it looked utterly solid.
But at the slightest brushing of a hand moving out from the center it parted around them with room for three of the people’s usual size to float without touching.
To Aleph it seemed a bit ostentatiously large; Even with Dod here. The way that light bled through the almost translucent ‘fabric’
They entered into the fluttering chamber, coming to a stop in a place where six lines of dark twisted ‘rope’ crossed almost touching each other within it.
“If you would please arrest your movement here”
Aleph grabbed at the rope to stop herself, feeling a tension in the line and seeing the walls of folded paneled leather shining with warm light through it.
“Good, if you would pull a bit at two of the lines in opposite directions, miss.”
Dod demonstrated and she saw everything shift and roil a bit further around them.
Then let go and watched her.
She tried with two of them but felt a harsh tension and nothing moved much.
“Apologies, You need to grab alternating ones.”
Aleph laughed then tried again.
She pulled on the ropes in the requested pattern.
It hummed in her grip and flowed smoothly. Each sliding easily as she pulled them in opposite directions.
The bands of curtains flowed around them. Furling like the petals of a flower. Folding and unfolding at once. Roiling around her in a kaleidoscopic tessellation. And she could feel it in her hands, She could feel the humming friction of pulling a curtain, there was no intermediate motor, it was smooth, it was moving with her muscles.
The whole thing flowed as she moved hand over hand. Like magic at her touch.
A soft fluttering of the air billowed her hair, and then grew to a harder rush before stilling. Then with an audible popping in her ears she felt the air pressure shifting.
"Where's the extra air coming from?"
Dod chirp-croaked in that bone rattling way he could before speaking ‘softly’.
You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.
“It’s compressed in the reserve bladders, we filter them of course and have a store procured of our finest nitrogen from the fermenting fields. By the hands of the Alchemists of the Inner-Rot Spiral.”
Aleph huffed heavily, it was not really hard work, not even as much effort as simply walking under Tunie’s acceleration around the living chamber. But it was enough to bring a dampness of sweat to her skin.
And then finally the passage finished churning and unfurled in front of her, opening into the interior of the tent.
https%3A%2F%2Fi.imgur.com%2Fgwo7MYm.jpg [https://i.imgur.com/gwo7MYm.jpg]
It was dizzying at first, a spiral of cables twisting around each other going down a ribbed almost organic shape. It seemed like there was a scattered randomness of texture to it that faintly shined translucently with the light outside, or perhaps from some unseen light sources within the folded forms of fabric, leather and weave.
But then she saw the pattern, how the whole thing was a breathtaking work of art. It emerged out of the confusion of seeming chaos into a shocking realization.
It reminded her of tree branches, of leaves, of staring up through a canopy back home. But with a faintly trembling almost buzzing hum to the edges of every pattern.
It was a painting, one you didn't even notice until you relaxed your eyes and looked.
But it was also a weaving, a matching of patterned solid shapes and textured interlacing.
It was both abstract and representational. She could trace infinite curls and whorls that changed with her angle. And yet also see things almost like figures of the people and architectural sculpture if she relaxed and let her eye wander and focus fade.
Shading blurred into patterned dithers that also could be smoke.
And with a blink you could lose the entire impression into a chaotic scrawl that left you doubting you’d seen it at all.
It was a piece of art that covered every single surface in a continuous mural over every surface of the interior.
Dod was watching her with an appraising eye, then he gaped in an agreeing ascent and nodded in that too fluid weaving bop that almost looked like he was swallowing up a snack tossed at him.
“The weaver’s guild will be pleased that their fine works are appreciated.”
Aleph could only manage a nod and a bit of a dry throated squeak before she found her voice.
“It’s... beautiful. You made this for us? Just since we arrived?”
Her guide hummed and blinked each eye around before he shook his head and did a kind of mouth puckering, withdrawing motion while bleping with his tongue.
It looked like he had tasted something bad. That was The people’s form of a negating head shake.
“No, it’s a...” he faltered for the words, apparently trying to resolve some kind of discontinuity in meaning. Since pylo left there had been a lot of those.
It was interesting, and Aleph could sympathise from her own experience with Tunie’s ‘language’.
”Your word collage seems to fit? It was the work of other weavers long past. Not meant strictly for you, to make such a craft was beyond the means of even our best masters. There are things that must be done with time. There is no way to rush such arts, or so I was made to understand.”
Aleph nodded and smiled anyway, she could not do the cross eye blink that would be a comforting sort of expression but she trusted they could get what she meant anyway.
“Well it’s lovely. Um, I guess I’m honored by it all?”
Aleph rubbed at the back of her head, there was just so much pressure and weight to everything with these guys.
Dod gaped and nodded smoothly but then turned attention with a gesture and his own gaze.
“Over here we have attempted to prepare your chambers for hygiene and relaxation, but I fear we could only do what our inexperience could manage, if there is any difficulties we will call upon masters to correct it.”
Aleph blinked at the thing they had set aside, it was... she was not entirely sure, it was a patch of the canvas walls that had been done over in dark and pale paneling and little bits of ivory looking stuff.
"Very fancy."
He gaped and swoop-nodded to her before trying to smile. Smiling was one of those things almost none of The People seemed to be able to get to work. They kept trying but the corners of their lips and their eyes just would not quite move in the right sequence.
Without Pylo there it was really obvious.
“Yes, we actually practice something much like your own sauna, it’s for proper aerating, cleansing and disinfection of the fur. But the Apeshearers have long practiced a variant of the art for their own unfurred bodies and their Master was very wise in the way of your kind’s preferences of certain oils, waters and the like.”
Dod braked against the wall of the ‘sauna’s’ interlocking paneling before drifting back away to rest against the fabric paneling of the main walls of the canopy. It was pale tiles alternating with dark red ones. Aleph’s fingers and toes reminded her of pottery and metal as they touched against them.
“With the Ship Mistress Pylo’s further assistance we are confident it should be quite correctly accommodating but again, if there is anything wrong at all let me or another of the inner circle know. We will make it right.”
“You close it by pulling here”
He demonstrated where the mosaic was actually a handle, which with a light tug pulled a feint membrane closed over the entire space. Buzzing and clicking as it furled around her. Closing almost like lips or teeth, buzzing together with a bit of a high tone. A zipping sound.
His hand blocked it from closing until he pulled it free to no sign of injury.
Aleph watched the way it sealed together, blocking off anything but a vague silhouette of dod outside the ‘spa tent’.
Aleph was going to call this a Zipper.
Even when he had left it alone and had blocked it the whole thing finished sealing things off on its own.
His words rumbled through the membrane with a muffled sound.
“It is both air and water tight, further it is properly parched skin, it will draw the moisture clear of the air and prevent rotting and mildew, furthermore it will purify and conserve the waters for further use if it is needed.”
Aleph looked around the space, now that the zipper was closed other sections were gently unfurling. Coming unfastened from the tiles, like a puzzle coming undone.
There was a billowing sheet of steam from one crevice and the burbling oozing sound of water being pressed free from another.
And even more passages and crevices parting almost like crags or vents in a spiral all around the space.
The scent of the air was filled with floral hints and sharp tangs of cleaning items, earthy smells of mud. She knew those smells, they had them in the fancy ‘tourist’ spots that her mother had worked at before she died. The slight tang in the air of water brought to near boil by how it moved up from terra’s own flesh.
“This is like... you made a fully featured *spa*?! In a TENT?!”
Dod’s voice came through the translucent curtain.
“The white stones are for scrubbing and will lather with water but please only use a small portion at first... The Ape Shearer mentioned that some skins can be temperamental to those.”
She reached out to pull one of the stones free from a wall, it had stuck to the tile although she was not sure how.
Squeezing the almost brittle feeling substance a bit. Honestly it just felt like a very light, porous rock.
Aleph hummed and breathed the moist hot air then gently reached a hand toward the open crevice tentatively.
It was hot, but not scalding. Water pulsing in the crevice, lines of it sticking to her fingers as she pulled it out. Warm enough to sooth.
Globs sprayed out from her hand as she shook it out and hit the curtain surrounding her. Aleph considered and watched it darken with moisture before the shadow of the droplets ran like streaking rain and flashes of shadow lightning to the tiled walls.
Brushing her wet fingers against the curtain she could feel the water wicking off from her, drying them better than any towel she ever had.
“Are you alright in there miss Aleph? Nothing wrong?”
She dipped her hand into the other crevice and her hair stood on end at the chill coolness.
Experimentally she brushed her wet hand over the stone and shivered as the water immediately foamed up and fizzed. It was gritty and tingly and suddenly sharply sweet and minty smelling.
Just the bit of wetness to her fingers was soon foamed up into a glob that spilled out from around her fingers.
Well, that was interesting. She shook her hand free of the fluffy bubbly fizzing cloud and watched it splatter over the tiles and run along the seams between the tiles, seeping away between them leaving only a few bubbles in the air and some suds on her palm and fingers.
She rubbed the suds off onto her shirt with one hand then yelped as it fizzled harder, eating wide gaping holes in the bit of cloth she had wetted with it.
“GYah! It's Eating my shirt! YeoW!”
The sound of the Zipper coming undone was a roar and as it pulled open all the tiles pulled back into the walls and snapped closed. Dod’s sinewy fingers were around her chest before she even realized what was going on and he was gently rubbing down her shirt and clothes with some of that weird grey puddy while she was still blinking in realization of what was going on.
“Apologies Miss Aleph, An alchemist least master will surely contemplate this immediately. Are you otherwise unharmed?”
She glanced down, her shirt was eaten out as if she had worn holes in the fabric. Her festival smock looked almost burned around the edges that had been touched by the suds. He had expertly dabbed it down. Soft as can be.
It had touched her skin and tingled where it was eating through the cloth but nothing had hurt besides the slight heat from the cloth itself dissolving.
“Uh... I’m fine I think, but why did it BURN my clothes?”
Dod made an expression she was not sure of but his tone spoke of contrition and yet also relief.
“I do not know, but it’s good we have had our misfortune, it’s not good to have every action play out so well for so long.”
Aleph blinked at that. She was slowly starting to notice the feeling of his bristly rough fingers wrapped around her torso through the fabric of her gown.
“Huh?”
Dod gaped and nod swooped again.
“Yes, I must admit that all of this was piling victory upon victory... it was making me uneasy, for what the failure was going to be. It is good to finally have some of them out of the way.”
Aleph tilted her head to the side. The way the pads of his fingers felt against her skin was distracting in a way that was starting to make her flushed.
“You expected something was going to go wrong? But didn't all of you try so hard to make sure it all went right?”
He gape nodded at her, finally releasing her from that gentle grip now that she seemed to be unharmed. He had to shake his hand a little to get the clingy hairs of his fingertips to come undone from her gown.
“Of course, but there will always be the due defeat and disaster for every success.”
Aleph was not sure if it was a translation issue or not, that almost made a kind of sense but seemed like there was something subtly wrong there. Also she was getting a few feelings she would prefer to ignore.
One alien was enough.
She shook herself and looked back at the now hidden away crevices and passages that had opened before.
It looked mostly just like a patch of tiling again. Except for where she could grip and pull at a few things to draw the zipper closed again.
“Right, uh can you show me what the rest of these are? I could recognize the Hot and Cold water fine but uh, the rest?”
Dod nodded and gently tugged on the grip sealing the Sauna tent closed around them with a buzzing of the zipper.