Aleph buzzed with anticipation.

They were finally here, it had taken Six hundred and Nine-teen hours to finish slowing to a stop in the thicket of the tree branches.

She had been pouring over every detail of the procession every moment she had free.

Which was surprisingly little between sleeping, working, eating, formatting questions for tunie, maintenance and of course listening to Pylo sing her ‘translation’ of the musical chorus that surrounded them.

She was familiar with the awkward wording that happened with trying to turn a childhood chant in Aorian to one of the dominant trade languages like Kopek or Ulsav.

It was such that most people did not bother and just nodded along to whatever language was native to a song.

Well besides some of the ones for children but even she could kind of tell when something was off.

And of course almost everything was in either Kopek or Ulsav.

Mostly Kopek.

Ugh.

She had traveled through three star systems to get here and she was still annoyed that her mother tongue was barely spoken outside of the hills, cliffs and valleys of her home.

Still Aleph had talked with Quarti about it too and the accomplishment that Pylo was doing apparently nearly simultaneously in real time was really driving home just how impressive Sirens really were.

The music was good, it was not only good the plots were concise and clear, the repetition was minimal except for a few of the recurring statements and oftentimes even those would be subtly developed and change from one chorus to the next.

And this was from literal aliens, not just aliens but alien frogs!

Oh yes, that was the other thing she had been completely surprised by.

Thanks to the window it had not taken long to get a clear close up of one of the people chanting at them for literally thousands of kilometers.

And she understood that they were definitely aliens and totally different from anything and probably descended from something she never even heard of.

Maybe they were even spiders.

But honestly Aleph could not help thinking they were what they looked like.

Which was frogs.

Weird frogs with things she could not decide looked more like scales, dreadlocks or woven braids.

Wielding strange metal spear things and flags and other pole-shaped oddities.

Which had been perched for hours and hours on end singing to the point of exhaustion.

Aleph tried to get her mind into what this all was like for them. The visitors to Terra had been a constant occurrence every few years since before she was born. There had been stories from before. Things that hinted at strange beings coming to Terra which only recently she had gotten any kind of corroboration of via Quarti’s own memory.

But Tunie and Pylo had been known to these people for generations, had been a story and a legend and a myth repeated like bedtime stories.

The chants as translated by Pylo were old, deep stories. The kind that told you how to behave.

Silly sometimes, confusing others.

Foreign and alien in places but also incredibly familiar in others.

Take care of your family, look out for strangers, don’t wander alone. Betrayers will be punished, the good will be protected and succeed.

Sometimes arbitrary and terrible things would happen.

Sometimes you would be foolish.

Forgive, remember, move on.

Stories for life and living.

They had a shape to them she knew from her own homeland and their own stories she grew up hearing from her mother and later Omega.

The sorts of things that delight as a child but you could reflect on later as an adult and find some suddenly obvious meaning that had been missed in the wonder or humor of it all.

It gave her a sudden and surprising heart ache to hear those kinds of stories again even after the years living aboard tunie traveling between stars and the training with Omega before that.

She was feeling a bitter homesickness from a song performed by alien frogs conveyed in the voice of an alien.

Frogs with matted braids and short little knotty gnobs of bristly fur.

It was so bizzare a coincidence she had to double check with Elsie after staring for a while.

And it turned out they were actually Frogs.

As distantly related to such as the pink fluffy giant thing had been to a Human. But likewise close enough to not matter.

A distant branch with the same root as the same frogs she was familiar with from Aoria’s seasonal pools.

And now they were going to get to meet them face to face.

Omega was attentive, ready with a notebook and a pencil.

Quarti was poised with muscles tense at the helm of the pink cradle of cushioning.

Squidgie had even decided to join them in the bubble of the walker even though she apparently could survive for quite a while in a vacuum this would be more sustainable.

Beyond the slight rainbow film of the bubble was Elsie, clambering in a more symmetrical arrangement then Aleph had ever seen them in before.

All of them were gathered together with Pylo at one of Tunie’s hatches.

In fact if Aleph had her markers right this was one of the ones she used to take when she wanted to be alone and appreciate the expanse of the reef alone with Tunie.

“So this is like a super official diplomatic delegation thing to escort us to the ancient leaders right?”

Omega’s tone was casual but she had some tension in her neck. A clenching in her wrist and fingers. She was bracingin a way Aleph had seen her before when they were going to talk down the village elders back home.

Pylo’s voice was soft and there was a hint of brittleness that Aleph always found strange. It was the expression of nervousness. As much as the fidgeting and other little nuances.

“It’s going to be a delegate of the least of masters of the most prominent and integral orders, guilds, clans and dynastic nations. They will travel with us for a time and to handle the first initial greetings. You really did not need to dress up like that they would not be able to tell the difference.”

But Pylo could literally sound like or posture however she wanted.

Yes she chose to do what from what Aleph could determine was practically shouting her discomfort.

Omega laughed and glanced at Aleph.

If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

“Eh, it’s a big fancy parade, it can be fun to dress up and what better excuse is there then this?”

Pylo sighed and shrugged.

Aleph was a bit torn on it, she had sort of started knitting her own ‘gown’ for this idly as something to do but then Quarti had noticed and realized what she was making and now all of them were wrapped in what was kind of a tasteless stereotype of three entirely incongruent Terran cultures.

Aleph’s was an Aorian Weather praising Shawl.

Omega had gone for something she guessed was from the academy all tight clean slacks, it looked like a joke of a middlelander.

And Quarti...

Aleph was pretty sure that was just a thermal blanket but she had folded it around and over herself with some spare piping for rope that made the whole thing just work.

It made her look regal and imperious despite the way they all were floating.

Honestly she was a bit embarrassed by the ensemble of them but at the same time it’s not like there had been much of an allotment for costumes or finery.

The Siren continued in that same feintly uncomfortable tone.

“Well fine, but yes to reiterate first will be the least masters then they will announce and present us to the the lesser masters. They will in turn take us a way and then present to the least minor masters, and then the lesser minor, the minor, the least medial, the lesser medial, etc, etc, etc, It’s going to take forever.”

Quarti huffed.

“What with all this drug-scruggle-butt scraping flak catching?”

Aleph had gone over the list with Squidgie but it did seem like an enormous number of officials were being involved. Pylo had just said it was important that every one of them get a chance to attempt to leave a good impression for Pylo and every one of their superiors to show them up and prove a failure.

"Wait hold up wouldn't the dress and manners and everything matter after all, because of it being translated? I've gotten enough implication and example to know at least that about sirens."

Pylo looked over at Aleph and sighed heavily and bit her lip before turning back towards the closed off passage that would open when they were ready to depart.

“The fact you are coming with me overshadows literally anything you could possibly do. They would feed you their own babies if you asked and cheer you on while the children screamed.”

Omega got that look on her face where she lost track of whatever soul juggling she had taken up and had to give herself a shake, voice incredulous.

"... literally or figuratively?"

Pylo turned back to scowl at them her voice sounding deeply ashamed.

“Absolutely literally. Do not even jokingly ask for that.”

Aleph honestly did not even know where to begin with that.

The Siren continued with a more sombre tone.

“Finally after the thousand and thirteen shells of mastery have had their chance to politik around us and put themselves in the records of ancestors for future generations we will finally get to be received by the Honorable and Grandest Deep knowers of the Eldest Council.”

She huffed again.

“At that point I’ll be able to make the official opening of negotiations. We will pretend to engage one another for the populace in the current flavor of discourse. It sounds like it will mostly be a show of word play this time.”

Aleph shook her head at the thought of accidentally becoming this world’s version of a horrible baby eating alien monster from beyond the stars.

“Wait, what do you mean pretend?”

Pylo huffed a bit and looked up.

“Almost no one but the highest of masters have ever even seen the Honorable and Grandest Deep knowers of the Eldest Council. They are as much a piece of legend and myth as I am. So this is a chance for them to safely show off how amazing they are to absolutely everyone of importance.”

Aleph blinked.

“So it’s a lie?”

Pylo laughed.

“Ah... no, It’s a prearranged exercise for each of us meant to be as impressive as possible to whatever the customs of the time are. One time it was a game of riddles, a few times it was a ‘trial of combat’ This time... ah pretty much It's a Rap Battle.”

Quarti laughed then immediately was pressed flat against the inside of the bubble smearing saliva along it with her tongue before she asked in a jovial tone.

"Can I mayhap be throwing a bar or five wit ya miss pylo? Izamuch be finely thrown as can be promise!"

Pylo eyed Quarti in a way that Aleph had never seen the siren take before. It actually was the closest to how her and Omega looked at the Mad Prophet in a regular basis. But actually seeing that even Pylo and whatever deep understanding she gleaned from the tangle of multilayered panlingual puns that Quarti threshed her speech through could still be suspicious and befuddled warmed her heart a bit.

Finally she huffed and turned to the passage with a flippant tone.

“You can try it out with the least masters and work your way up. If you can’t keep up that will keep you from embarrassing yourself”

"Right so slick slide me with a cheating cheatery for much profit?"

Aleph scowled a bit but when she glanced at Squidgie all she got was a delighted and excited smile and Omega had a weak smirk and a helpless shrug.

Fine she guessed that Quarti was going to introduce these people to humanity as a liar and a chea-

“No cheating. Would insult them but here is the digest I’m going to be using.”

And then Quarti had a feverish seizure and made several noises that Aleph wished she didn't have to hear again.

Omega shrieked and shoved off to the opposite side of the bubble from quarti but thankfully it had not been necessary this time.

“HEY! Pylo! You promised you would not do that again with her in the same airspace as us! She pissed herself last time!”

Pylo huffed and Tunie finally parted herself, the slabs of meat pulling apart to reveal the riot of colors beyond.

"I held it in for her this time. Totally different thing."

And with that they were gently pulled along by the Siren to go out and meet their first set of escorts.

Aleph honestly thought it all had sort of spoiled the mood.

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