With the male on her right and the female on her left, they put their arms around Raphael and walked away. Moments later, she was shocked to learn that these two were the initiators of Raphael’s current mission to Eden.
During her private meetings with the two Artisans, Raphael realized why she was unable to perceive their presences. They were Magdalene and Joshua’s elder brother and sister, King Ayasia and Queen Ariea of Ninveth. They had disguised themselves as simple, non-descript Artisans so they could work with Dorothy in constructing the niceties for the wedding without attracting attention.
Not long after they entered a private room, Ariea stood. She and Raphael hugged, kissed, and said their goodbyes. With just her and Ayasia in the room, the conversation turned serious.
In the past, Raphael had seen Michael Sons angry. But that anger was merely an irritation in comparison to Ayasia’s fury — a fury that was now encapsulated within the strange creature that became known as Uncle Karl — the creature that was now sleeping in her backpack — concealed within a Nakshatric Blanket on special delivery to the Overlords of Satania — a creature just waiting for Rahu to become Eden’s returning Planetary Prince, Ishmael.
Chapter 52
Love, Treachery, Consequences
It’s perfectly fine to piss-off the Gods of your enemy. It is not fine to piss-off your own. This is especially true if your God is The God of Light.
—Guru Patanjali
Elysium
Castor, Smigyl, Indra, Kuko, and Salecia walked solemnly toward Kuko’s room. Smigyl and Indra still retained their disguises as Ramm and Hister. This procession was already attracting more attention then they wanted. It would have been worse had they dropped their cover.
The order of their procession followed traditional Dek protocol. Castor, as the protective brother, led the way. Smigyl, representing the assailant, came next, followed by Indra, who represented the master of the house in which the crime had taken place. Such events usually did not pass without conflict, so the master of the house was placed behind the representative of the assailant simply to keep an eye on him.
Then came the victim who was protected from the front and back — by the master of the house at the front and by a personal advocate at the rear — the advocate usually being a grandmother or an aunt or an older sister. Mothers were not allowed anywhere near these events, since a good mother would typically explode into an uncontrollable rage. In this case, the closest thing Kuko had to a sister was Salecia, who just happened to be her protective bodyguard.
Their clothing was equally symbolic and traditional. Castor wore an ancient warrior battle uniform replete with swords and weapons. Kuko wore her simple, customary, modern, black Nazz uniform. Salecia wore her Nazz battle uniform — helmet, full body armor, and high-powered weapons. Indra was still acting as Hister, a Dek dignitary, so he wore the same clothes he had been wearing the previous day.
Smigyl’s selection of attire was more complicated. He had assumed that the information told to him was truthful; therefore, he wore no defensive weapons, nor did he in any way appear aggressive or militaristic. Had he been challenging this information, he would have dressed in the same manner as Salecia. He also did not want to convey that he was in a state of authority, power, or morality, superior to those around him. Nor did he want to appear casual or apathetic. He chose a simple, elegant suit that a visitor would wear to an important event.
They reached Kuko’s bedroom door where Castor paused the appropriate seventeen seconds so all those in the procession could come to a complete stop. He gave the door two militaristic raps, then stepped back two paces. A moment later, General Archarzel Flosade opened the door. Castor waited a few seconds before he spoke so she could process this unusual sight. He looked straight forward, speaking forcefully to the room, not to her.
“The offense of Guru Patanjali against our sister has reached the ears of Eden’s highest leaders. An emissary of representatives wishes to observe with their own eyes. There will be three males within this group. All of you who are sensitive to these matters can now either change into appropriate attire or, if you prefer, you may leave.”
Flosade closed the door. Five minutes later, no women had left Kuko’s room.
Castor again stepped forward and gave another two curt knocks. This time he did not await an answer, rather he opened the door and marched straight toward the balcony. The remainder of the party filed in behind him. Castor turned sideways, but he did not look at Smigyl, nor did he bow. It was impossible for him to bow because the proper angle of the bow was yet indeterminate. So far, Smigyl had said all the right things, but as the Dek traditionalists knew, actions spoke louder than words.
“Shri Ramm, for your examinations,” Castor said to Smigyl and then stepped back two paces, continuing to look straight ahead.
Smigyl came forward, turned ever so slightly toward Castor, and bowed at an exacting angle. He crossed his arms across his chest and studied the phallus.
With no warning, Smigyl spun on his heels, briskly walked to the wall where Kuko’s ceremonial sword hung, and grabbed it. He tossed the sheath on the bed and came back to the balcony. Then he swung.
As soon as Castor saw him walking toward the sword, he placed himself between Smigyl and Kuko. Castor firmly wrapped his hand around the hilt of his own sword but did not draw it. He locked his eyes on Smigyl as the women in the room created a wall around Kuko. It would have been doubtful if this representative with dull yellow skin could have made it past Castor in a sword fight. It would have been impossible for him to make it past a dozen Nazz women who would have died for their beloved General.
However, something stopped Smigyl. He held the sword’s blade a millimeter above the phallus. Rage seeped from his skin, which began to change color. A moment later, the silver skinned Lord Smigyl stood there with pure white light pulsing out of his body. The dull yellow-skinned Ramm had evaporated and no longer existed.
Unexpectedly, he lowered the sword, flipped it in his hand such that he was holding the blade, and offered the hilt to Castor Mayhew. “Too fast. Too easy,” Smigyl said. Then Smigyl locked eyes with Kuko. “Too merciful.”
The room relaxed. Lord Smigyl said nothing else as he moved toward the balcony.
“May I ask, how long this has been going on?” Smigyl crossed his arms across his chest and walked along the brutalized appendage. He noticed it had been pulled into the room and then woven back and forth along two walls. There it hung, supported by hooks imbedded in the walls.
Castor performed a quick calculation. “Two months and almost eight days.”
“Oh, yes?” Smigyl replied calmly, looking at the black and blue bruises and large patches of raw, bleeding flesh.
Smigyl looked up and glanced around. This was the first time he had seen Kuko’s private bedroom. In comparison to the expansive and lavish rooms in other Overlord heavens, Lakshmi’s being the most luxurious, Kuko’s room was simply decorated, almost austere. The influence of her Dek background was obvious, with the most prominent features her two ceremonial swords, one taken by Smigyl, which by now Castor had placed in Kuko’s hand.
There were three attached rooms. One held a desk, two comfortable chairs, and a large window, with all other wall space covered floor to ceiling by bookcases stuffed full of books. One of the rooms was a small kitchen, and the other room was a dressing room. Smigyl was not so rude as to stare into a lady’s dressing room, but his eyes were quick enough to absorb most of the details.
In Kuko’s dressing room, Smigyl noticed a tall, wide cabinet embedded into one of the walls. The cabinet’s door was open, behind which were Kuko’s many pieces of jewelry as well as her medals and ribbons.
He recognized one particular medal. It pleased him that it had been so prominently displayed. This award of highest courage had been pinned on her chest by his own hands after Kuko and her troops had risked all and rescued him and his senior staff after the Valkyrie had launched a major offensive to take back pl
anet Panoptia.
“Noble women of the Nazz, please forgive my intrusion. However, it was necessary for me to personally witness these proceedings.” He slowly turned and bowed to each as he individually met every set of eyes. “We are upon tricky political ground. The charge of attempted rape is, indeed, the most serious of charges, so I am sure you can understand my need to see this…”
He gestured along the phallus. “…thing. As insufficient as they are, may I attempt to offer my initial apologies to all of you who have been offended by Guru Patanjali’s…” He gestured but again refused to say the word.
A smirk spread across his face. “May I also personally congratulate you on your many creative methods of retribution.”
Smigyl turned and faced Kuko, tears dripping from her eyes. A path opened as he walked over and delicately guided her face to his shoulder. “Madame Kuko, I am so sorry for this violation. I knew that Patanjali had a problem, but I never imagined that even he could do such a thing. I was stupid enough to think he was having an orgy and that’s why the guards wouldn’t let me in.”
“An orgy of pain, my dear Lord Smigyl,” Castor Mayhew said, deeply bowing.
“Oh, no, my friends. Not yet.” Smigyl stood back. He looked from Castor, to Indra, to Salecia, and then to Kuko as she raised her head and dabbed her eyes with her sleeve. “Only two months and seven days? So what we have here is no more than a pretty good start.”
He glanced at Kuko’s reading room. “May I?” he asked. She nodded. He briskly walked into the room, looking for a sheet of paper.
A small altar caught his eye. He assumed it was for worshipping her God, Indra, but strangely, it was just a simple china cup, which had been meticulously glued back together. A golden placard read, ‘The Broken Cup Between Enemies’.
Above the cup was a small mural of what looked like a traditional Nazz Tea Ceremony. Kuko was kneeling in front of a small table, her head down. Salecia was standing back two paces, shock on her face. Leaning against the back wall was what looked like a bodyguard, four sparkling swords emerging from her shoulders. She was casually chewing on a fingernail. A small surge of energy ran through Smigyl when he saw the fourth individual. The mural captured Josephine Doulmahel, tea on the floor at her feet and the china cup in mid-flight to the floor.
I’ll have to asked Kuko about this later. Smigyl quickly found a piece of paper, and began to write. Seconds later, he returned to the main room.
“May I ask if you will put together this formula?” Smigyl said to Salecia. “It’s a poultice that will add several decibels of pain. That will be a good attention step. As for the rest of us,” he nodded to Kuko, Indra, and Castor. “I would personally like to be in his room when the effect arrives.”
Celestial Waters of the Mamsa
Just offshore of the Isle of Belize
General David Pesagniya stood at the command ship’s main periscope. He could hear the desperation in Josie’s voice and see the sad expression on her face.
Dustin and Yaniel Owen were sitting in front of a large campfire, their arms around each other, roasting some marshmallows and feeding them to each other. There was no question about that relationship. Divine Twins are soul mates, designed for perfect love and compatibility. Like every pair of Divine Twins, they had always been in love with each other, and they would always be in love with each other.
He also located Pegasus and Parvarti, high up in the branches. It would have been impossible to miss the heat radiating from the observation post.
His concern returned to Josie. He had no idea how long she and Collin had been sitting there talking. Since the periscope optics allowed him to see many details of chakaric function, he could tell this conversation had been going on for some time. He knew his goddaughter well. He also knew life well. It was not all about war. It was not all about peace. It was not all about any one thing. Life, whether in the Material realm or the Celestial realm was complicated.
Relationships between men and women were complicated.
Josephine’s qualifications and commitment to her duties were never in question. She sacrificed everything to her duties. She was in this mess with Collin because she had not figured out how to integrate the needs of her heart with the needs of her office. Pesagniya knew she was lonely. Anyone in her position would be.
Okay, Sophi. Here it is. Just as we predicted. Look at our dear girl. Why oh why didn’t she listen to me and work through this millions of years ago?
Davie, of all in the heavens, you know the answer to that better than any.
This is killing me, Sophi. Just look at her. Sitting there. Feeling alone. Begging Collin to love her. Begging him to help her fill her heart. Make her feel special. Make her feel loved.
To the ancient General, she looked like a sad little girl who was too afraid and insecure to ask a boy she liked for a kiss. And there was Collin. Too thick, or possibly too intimidated, to see or act on it.
Josie, with that big hole in your heart, you’re not going to do any of us any good in planning these next phases of Eden’s operations. A broken heart equals a divided mind. I especially right now, need every drop of focus that brilliant mind of yours can generate.
He flipped the switch to retract the periscope, drumming his fingers on the handrail.
What to do? What to do?
Elysium
The two guards outside Patanjali’s door did not recognize Indra as Hister; however, they tensed when they saw the tall, silver-skinned Smigyl.
“May I offer my congratulations, Lord Indra,” Smigyl whispered. “Your guards behaved quite admirably — very brave. I actually got rather pissy with them, but still they refused to allow me entry. Then the door flew open. I couldn’t believe what I saw. There were twenty…” he looked at the ceiling, remembering individual faces, “…there were twenty-three Nazz women in the sitting room. Most of them were wearing skimpy lingerie, so I initially thought,” he looked at Indra. “I guess because I couldn’t imagine anything else, that this was consensual.
“But that didn’t make any sense either. The women didn’t look like they were enjoying themselves. Some of them were sitting, crying with friends, and comforting each other. Others were staring out the window with a blank expression.”
Kuko entered the room and quietly explained what was happening, allowing the women who felt modest or uncomfortable, time to cover themselves before Lord Smigyl, Castor, and Indra entered. She further explained that Hister was, in fact, their own Lord Indra in disguise.
Kuko waited until the women who desired to cover themselves had done so and the woman doing her routine for Patanjali had finished. Kuko opened the door, and the three men entered.
“I suspect that Salecia will be arriving soon with my poultice. I would like to stage my own little play with Patanjali. And…” He looked at Castor and Indra. “…I would like you two to bear witness.”
He glanced around the room. “I need a volunteer. Someone who would feel perfectly comfortable performing…”
Isle of Belize
“Ah, Josie. Such beauty,” Collin said as he sighed, absorbed in Josephine’s lovely face as they lay on their sides facing each other. “That was you on Panoptia, wasn’t it?”
Josephine smiled at hearing she was still beautiful to him. Maybe all is not lost. “Yes it was. But I was a lot happier then. Much more naïve. Nowhere near as tired. I’m feeling old these days, Collin. Can’t you tell?”
He shook his head no.
“When we met on Oceania, I assumed you already knew who I was. So, I was glad this time, you didn’t look away. You even pursued me.”
“Nope, didn’t have a clue who you were,” Collin confessed.
“Wait a second, Collin. How is that possible? Skillit was already on Oceania when you arrived, right? Didn’t she give you an orientation? So how…”
“Skillit gives orientations?”
He collapsed backward on the sand, staring into space. “Oh no. I know exactly how,” he said.
<
br /> Collin continued, talking to the stars and counting the litany of recent misunderstandings. “Skillit wasn’t actually on Oceania when I arrived. Did she tell you about our ‘misunderstanding’ while traveling on the ship from Carolina to Oceania?”
He sat up and straightened his back, ready to confess to his commander.
Josephine sat up with him, shaking her head no.
“I was in a rotten mood. We were all traveling in our civvies. Skillit later told me she thought I was SAS. She just wouldn’t stop ribbing me. Relentless. Giving me a really hard time about being a pretty boy. It’s the same way she gives a hard time to someone like Aniel. I finally unloaded on her. Said some really mean, shitty sexist things about her tiny-tits and the general undesirability of her face and body. I could tell I hurt her feelings, which is why Princess Jenifer almost killed me a couple days later. Did you hear about that?”
“Well, I happened to overhear something about Jenifer kicking somebody’s ass. Not terribly unusual for that hot temper. But, I didn’t know it was you. Nor did I hear anything about you insulting Skillit. We usually don’t get into each other’s personal business.”
Collin collapsed back on the sand again, blankly staring at the stars in the night sky. “So, Skillit’s job is to wait tables and give orientations — like that makes any sense. I bet she made sure I missed the orientation. As nice as she is, she just didn’t want to make me face her and feel worse. She wrongly assumed I already knew who you were, probably because she knew I was arriving from Panoptia.”
Which means Collin doesn’t know who Skillit really is either, Josephine thought to herself. Wow. I wonder how he’s gonna react when he discovers he started his tour of duty by insulting Norlatiadek’s senior commander for The Sisters of Mercy?
Lilith: Eden's Planetary Princess (The Michael Archives Book 1) Page 41