The Twisted Vine

by Alyce Caswell

  ‘Oh, I don’t actually…I…I have help.’ Kuja blushed. He wasn’t about to tell her that an intricate network of vines did most of the work for him, including selecting the fruit and arranging it. The tea was the one thing he did make, because he’d often prepared it for his mother when she’d still been alive.

  ‘You shouldn’t admit that,’ Fei told him, smirking.

  His hand still in hers, Kuja led her down the path towards the new lab, doing his best to ignore Lorena’s parting words as they were shouted at his back. The scientist was particularly mean about Fei, which Kuja thought unfair because he had been the one to reject Lorena.

  Can I, Master? Please? begged the old decrepit tree.

  Oh alright, Kuja allowed.

  He managed not to chuckle when Lorena tripped again.

  Gerns, who had just exited the plastic tube that formed the laboratory’s exit, was not so immune.

  CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

  Fei leaned over the edge of the bed, searching for her techpad which had dropped onto the ground at some point the night before — she’d happily been too busy to retrieve it then. She slowly exaggerated the curve of her backside as she reached for the device, acutely aware of Kuja watching her; he seemed to enjoy the view, judging by the low sound he made in his throat. Looking back over her shoulder, Fei saw the interested bulge in his pants and decided there was no point in retrieving the techpad. Its screen was dark anyway, which meant she had forgotten to place it near the charge emitter.

  Fei swallowed, moistening her mouth, gathering her courage. ‘You want to take those pants off, Kuja?’

  ‘Fei…’ he began.

  ‘Before you say anything,’ she charged on, ‘I’m not doing this because I feel like I owe you — it’s because I want to. Get it? I want to.’

  ‘And does it matter what I want?’ he asked, still lounging against the bed.

  Fei glared at him as his grin continued to stretch, dimpling his cheeks. ‘Of course it does, but I…I know you want to try, to see if it’ll work with me. Don’t ask me how, I just know. And I’m not above spanking you and I know you’d enjoy that. Probably. Maybe.’

  ‘Definitely,’ Kuja agreed in a husky voice.

  ‘Or I could surrender to you again,’ Fei mused. ‘I’m feeling a bit greedy this morning and I doubt you’ll mind indulging me…’

  Kuja’s hands, which had been lying flat on his stomach, began to creep lower, toward his belt. Tsking in disapproval, Fei rolled over and pincered his wrists, pinning them at his sides. She lowered her mouth to his, withholding the kiss his lips were already preparing for, and whispered, ‘Now I will have to spank you.’

  He opened his mouth to respond, then abruptly jerked upright, trying to wriggle out of her grasp. He only managed it just as Gerns’ large bulk barrelled through the door. The Jezlo woman had wasted no time in shedding TerraCorp’s sterile white uniform and had replaced it with a brightly coloured sarong woven from seaweed fibres harvested on her homeworld. It was a startling but flattering look for Gerns.

  Fei glanced back at Kuja who was now sitting up, one knee raised above the other, skilfully hiding his desire.

  How does he always know when there’s someone around? she wondered.

  Gerns looked grim as she held out a techpad. Hers wasn’t dark; it glowed ominously, filling the hut with intrusive light. ‘Your techpad and communicator both off, Fei? TerraCorp just contacted me in order to reach you.’

  ‘But you resigned,’ Fei said, leaving the bed to intercept the device from Gerns’ tentacle.

  ‘They know I’m still here. They also told me that I shouldn’t even try to talk to my former colleagues — nice, aren’t they?’ Gerns’ tentacles trembled with agitation. ‘Now to me, that’s no surprise, but what is surprising is that them down at the lab seem to be packing up. They can’t be anywhere near done.’

  ‘What does TerraCorp want from Fei?’ Kuja asked. He moved forward to stand beside Fei, a warm hand wrapped around her waist.

  The techpad, balanced in Fei’s unsteady palm, began to wobble as she read through the text on the screen. Even though Moz’s voice was not attached to the words, she could still hear him, still see him looming over her in the darkness of the basement.

  Feiscina,

  I realise I am cutting your holiday short, but an urgent matter has arisen. Our ‘friends’ have requested that we change the parameters in your most recent simulation and transform Yalsa 5 into an exclusively water-based world. As this must be done on short notice, we need you to return to work immediately. A starship will be waiting for you at the spaceport within a day.

  Please note that TerraCorp will no longer be offering rainforest climes to our clients.

  Mozel Zan

  ‘Don’t you have more than one programmer working at TerraCorp?’ Gerns asked.

  ‘Yes, yes, we do have more,’ Fei murmured, re-reading Moz’s message. ‘But they’re not as good as me. I think. Or maybe some of them actually have a way of saying no to Moz. I seem to be the only one incapable of turning down overtime.’

  Kuja pressed his lips to Fei’s temple. ‘It’s alright, Fei. You can say no. I will help you write a response.’

  ‘Writing I don’t have a problem with,’ Fei said, lowering the techpad. It was shaking so badly she could no longer focus on the words. ‘It’s talking I can’t do! And I can never stand up for myself when I really need to. Oh God, this isn’t right — none of it’s right!’

  ‘Those friends would be them GLEA agents, yes?’ Gerns clarified.

  ‘Can’t you send a message to the people on Yalsa 5 and warn them?’ Kuja added.

  Fei felt something hot hook her insides and twist. ‘But would Yalsa 5’s governor believe me? Some disembodied person throwing text at him? No, I’d have to…have to talk to him…oh God.’ She shook her head frantically. ‘But why a whole water world? Can’t GLEA make up their mind about how they want to ruin Yalsa 5? The planet is a sandy wasteland, with nothing substantial between surface and bedrock — throwing an ocean on that would take away any topography, not to mention drown Atsa City because it’s in a basin!’

  ‘You told me that GLEA is concerned about the powers the Desine’s followers wield and how they can make the Agency look bad,’ Kuja reminded her. ‘That explains their aversion to deserts. Could there be a similar reason for refusing to offer rainforests to their future clients?’

  ‘Well, it’s just something a mediaist said but he…’ Fei trailed off. ‘Oh. Bagara’s message. It went viral. With my help. And oh my God, it’s all my fault. GLEA now sees Bagara as a threat, because they know they could lose followers to him. The governor deserves to hear this from me. But how do I tell him? How!?’

  Gerns trundled over and retrieved the techpad before it fell out of Fei’s hands. Wrapping the object safely inside a tentacle, the Jezlo said, ‘Open your mouth. Talk. The governor’s got to listen, given it’ll destroy his city, not to mention the whole starking planet.’

  ‘I always sound so stupid when I try to say things,’ Fei argued, her shoulders sagging. She felt like a plant that had been uprooted and thrown onto soil that could not possibly support it.

  ‘Are you sure?’ Kuja asked her. ‘Or did your boss and other people in your life make you feel that way because they didn’t listen when they should have?’

  ‘That’s not…’ Fei said weakly.

  Gerns slanted a look between the pair of them. ‘Kuja, go with her. Fei’s bound to end up out of a job the way she’s going and that’s no bad thing, but you seem to have a way of helping her out. Like you did at the festival.’

  Fei bowed her head. ‘Kuja. You’re my voice. Please. Please come with me.’

  She couldn’t bear to look at his face, in case she saw something different to what she was so sure she was reading straight from his heart.

  • • •

  Watching both of them with his human eyes, Kuja sank his awareness into countless rainforests, checking in on those calling out for
him and assisting them. He knew this must have given him that distant expression Fei liked to make fun of, but it had to be done; he could not abandon his duties. And while he would obviously love to spend more time in Fei’s company…

  If Fayay sees us together, he will get the wrong idea and assume there is a danger of her distracting me, Kuja agonised. I can’t protect her against one sibling, let alone all of them.

  But though Yalsa 5 was now much less dangerous than it had been before its current reigning gang had taken power, Kuja could not bear the thought of losing Fei the same way he had lost his mother — the same way he had nearly lost Sandsa when his brother had lived as a mortal in Atsa City.

  There was no stopping Fei. She badly wanted to go; it was flowing off her in waves.

  This made it easy, far too easy, to justify it to himself. If Yalsa 5 really intends on gaining rainforests through terraforming, they will become one of my worlds. I can’t wait for that to happen. They need my protection now. And Fei needs my help, especially if we have to convince a ship’s captain to go somewhere other than Enoc.

  ‘It seems we will be taking a hopper out to the spaceport tomorrow,’ Kuja said, but that was as far as he got before Fei seized him in a brief, searing kiss. When she drew back, he turned to Gerns. ‘Fei won’t always need me to help her find her voice. She has important work to do for Bagara and this is just the start of it.’

  ‘A few days ago, now me, I would have disagreed with all of this,’ Gerns remarked. ‘But I said this to myself, I said, “Gerns, you can’t call them crazy when you’ve also signed your sorry self up to help this Bagara”. Now I just gotta wait and see how.’

  Fei veered away from them and began throwing her things into the small bag she had brought with her to Bagaran. ‘We need to do more than react, Gerns! Bagara said he’d be there for the casualties, but that’s not preventative! If I do this, I can help people before they need saving.’

  ‘Good luck shutting her up now,’ Gerns advised Kuja and left the hut, clucking to herself.

  Kuja felt a smile tweak his lips as he thought about all the ways he had managed to silence Fei so far.

  Fei froze suddenly, looking stricken. ‘Kuja, what if GLEA doesn’t stop with Yalsa 5? What if they want to destroy all the deserts and rainforests in the galaxy because they feel threatened by the sub-level gods? What if they come here next?’

  Kuja knew his expression must have darkened into something terrifying because she backed away a pace, staring at him.

  ‘Bagara won’t let that happen,’ Kuja said roughly.

  ‘Do you think Bagara can fight them, though?’ Fei’s lips trembled. ‘The Creator God is behind GLEA! And he’s so much older than Bagara.’

  Kuja clenched his fists. ‘Older or not, the Creator God lost his right to interfere with mortals’ lives when he stopped caring for them. And now it’s time someone did it in his place.’

  CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

  Fei paced inside the antechamber of the governor’s office on Yalsa 5, wringing her hands in such a familiar way that Kuja glanced down at his own. He clenched his fingers in his lap, stilling them.

  The walls were coated in yellows, creams and golds and filled with artworks, though Kuja wasn’t sure if they were expensive or important — the imposing frames made of precious metals suggested that they were. This was a room belonging to a wealthy and powerful man, one who had been elected to two separate positions of leadership by the factions living inside his city. To the gangs who had once torn Atsa City apart, he was their Clan Leader. To everyone else, he had a more respectable title.

  ‘What’s the governor’s name?’ Kuja asked, belatedly realising he should have learned this earlier.

  ‘Bock Atsason,’ Fei answered, then launched into a breathy recitation of the greeting she had prepared for the governor.

  Kuja’s blood crystallised inside his veins, as though Fayay had flooded him with water only for Rasson, the Iceine, to freeze every drop of it. But it was too late to do anything, because the hut-sized door slid open, admitting a suit-clad secretary wearing more lasguns than Kuja could count in one glance.

  ‘The governor will see you now,’ the secretary said, more a command than a statement of fact.

  Kuja remained seated. ‘I’ll wait for you here, Fei.’

  She spun toward him, her chocolate brown eyes wide. ‘Please. I can’t. You’re my voice.’

  ‘And what do I know about terraforming?’ Kuja demanded, a little more brusquely than he intended. He softened his features with a self-deprecatory smile.

  ‘I need you,’ Fei pleaded. ‘I’ve only made it this far because of you.’

  The secretary’s lips thinned and her eyes flicked back to the door, showing her impatience.

  Kuja rose to his feet and brushed his palm over the side of Fei’s face. ‘I will be right behind you. But you don’t need me or Bagara to do this. I believe in you.’

  The secretary made a disgusted noise in her throat and headed for the door. Kuja and Fei duly followed and allowed themselves to be deposited inside an office larger than some villages in Kuja’s domain. The ceiling swooped up and out of sight, accentuated by an arching window that made Kuja feel as though he had just stepped into an endless expanse; the window’s plexiglass was so clean that there was no apparent barrier between the room and the night.

  Standing in front of the light-studded backdrop of Atsa City, hands linked over his abdomen, was Governor Bock Atsason. He wasn’t the man who had ended the fighting and brought peace to this world — that had been all due to Sandsa, when Kuja’s brother had lived here as a mortal. But, unlike the Desine, Bock had stayed behind to rule Yalsa 5 and look after its people.

  Kuja sucked in a breath, hoping Bock wouldn’t recognise him. He’d only met Bock once, at Sandsa and Callista’s wedding, and the governor had been a teenager then. Bock’s dark hair was now streaked with silver, even though he was barely halfway into his twenties, and the sleeves of his white suit were just short enough to reveal the tattoos swarming over his skin.

  He wasn’t alone. Lounging in the chair behind the centred desk was a woman — dark-skinned, bald and striking. One of her eyes was artificial, its red sensor aimed directly at the pair of intruders. Whereas she looked imminently dangerous, her cheekbones sharp enough to cut flesh, Bock exuded a subtler, quiet menace.

  ‘I suppose you can tell me why TerraCorp’s sittin’ on their arses and playin’ with my coin-chips,’ Bock began, his voice an ominous rumble, ‘instead of bringing their shiny machines over here to get the job done.’

  When Fei didn’t respond, Kuja moved forward and took her hand in his, slowly entwining their fingers. Fei drew a shuddering breath, then forced her chin up from her chest. ‘I’m a programmer at TerraCorp. I’m not meant to be here. I should just do what they tell me to do. But I can’t. It’s wrong.’

  ‘You’d go against the people payin’ you?’ Bock’s companion queried, her mechanical eye zeroing in on Fei. ‘Why?’

  ‘Well, um, when I was working on a simulation, my boss…’ Fei trailed off, biting her lip.

  Kuja squeezed her hand. ‘You can do this.’

  Fei straightened and met the governor’s fierce gaze with her own. ‘GLEA is funded by TerraCorp. I found this out when two agents told me I was to ignore your instructions and make a simulation that would terraform your entire planet into one giant rainforest. And now my boss is telling me to turn Yalsa 5 into an ocean world, which would destroy Atsa City. I’m not sure they were even going to warn anyone.’

  ‘Knew those douchenozzles were up to something,’ Bock said, seemingly unsurprised. Then his frown fell on Kuja. ‘Have we met?’

  ‘Um, I don’t think so,’ Fei said.

  ‘I was talkin’ to your man.’

  There was no point in lying. Bock’s mind was sharp; he had already figured it out.

  Kuja grimaced. ‘Yes. At my…at my brother’s wedding.’

  ‘Well, I’ll just shoot meself,’ the govern
or said, eyes narrowed. ‘Or I could ask you to get the fuck out of here before I shoot you.’

  ‘Bock?’ the woman at the desk prompted. ‘We need to do something about GLEA. We can’t let them drown the whole starking city.’

  ‘Ala, get this piece of shit out of my office!’ Bock exploded. He marched forward, clearing the desk, and rounded on Fei, the long scar on the side of his face stretching with his scowl. ‘Did you bring him here just to mess with us?’

  Kuja grabbed Fei, whose lips who were flapping open and shut as the situation disintegrated, and placed her behind him, bodily shielding her from the wrath of a man who was not only in charge of an entire city, but its gangs as well. ‘No! Fei has nothing to do with what happened. Your problem is with me. And not even me — my brother!’

  ‘You know what Sandsa did to Callista? He destroyed her!’ Bock jerked a hand at the woman in the chair — Ala was her name, Kuja recalled — then back at Kuja. ‘Sandsa’s brother!’

  Bock was now holding a lasgun on his visitors, but the governor didn’t need it. His eyes alone could have burned holes right through Kuja. The rainforest god curled his fingers towards his palms, tempted to unleash his powers, but he couldn’t — not with Fei right there. She was saying something, trying to get his attention, but he blocked her out, unable to face the questions she must have for him.

  ‘Enough!’ said Ala, rising to her feet. ‘You’re wasting time fightin’ about something that don’t concern either of you.’

  Bock opened his mouth.

  Ala glowered at him. ‘Sit down, husband. I’m not here just ’cause of this pretty face.’

  The governor retreated to the chair Ala had vacated and suddenly looked like a small boy, engulfed as he was by the oversized leather furniture. Kuja released his grip on Fei and she swung around to face him, her confusion evident in her thoughts and features.

  ‘I’m so sorry, Fei,’ he said. It had been hard enough for her to divert TerraCorp’s chartered starship to Yalsa 5 — and he had just made things worse by leading her into a feud when she was trying to save an entire planet. ‘I didn’t know how to say it.’