by Alma Nilsson
“Love at first sight,” Jane mocked her. “You met him in the High Priestess’s punishment room, and you thought he was a good man? A great man, as you secretly married him. How’s that even possible?”
“He organized it,” Babette said plainly, and before she could explain, Jane began raising her voice again.
“Of course, he organized it. A man like that would know where to do these things,” Jane said bitterly.
Babette looked down at the table.
“And what can we do now?” Jane asked Dru and Madame Bai. “How do we annul this?”
“Why would we want to?” Madame Bai asked. “Unfortunately, they married early, but this isn’t such a terrible situation.”
Jane was thunderstruck, “Am I the only one who sees how terrible this is for House Human? A woman married to a man with no House and pregnant. Now she is Houseless.”
Madame Bai answered her, “You need to speak to the maximum family of House Rog. They may invite him back in. Maybe if Babette were to come with you…” she trailed off.
Jane looked at Babette, and they both said, “No,” at the same time.
Dru chimed in then, “Jane, you can petition the High Council for Babette to remain in House Human. Take the blame for her being so taken in with her love for Mir. Don’t say that explicitly, of course, but you know what to say to convey that. I think they would grant this small thing to Babette and to you.”
“I think the High Council would think they would be setting a precedent for this kind of behavior,” she sighed. “Babbs, do you and Mir have any plans? Have you spoken to him?”
Madame Bai answered before Babette could, “What can he do? We must resolve this here and now. He is a man. He will do what we decide.”
All the human women looked at Madame Bai with a bit of disgust. This was the kind of inequality that made them all uncomfortable.
“He’s the father of these children and an Alliance man,” explained Dru. “He probably has some kind of plan and we must take that into account.”
“I’ve sent him a message, but the Fira is across the galaxy. I’ve not heard back.” Sometimes the gravitational wave technology could be delayed. It was rare but did happen.
“Yes, I’ve not heard from Kara, either,” Jane said.
“Why did you tell her?” Madame Bai asked sharply.
“Because she’s human and would want to know. She has a vested interest in House Human.”
“She is not of House Human,” Dru said.
“Neither are you,” Jane pointed out.
“At least I was until very recently. And I’ve been on planet more days than you and know what is going on here a lot better than you. That is why you invited me to sit at this table now.”
“Fine,” said Jane. “Look, James, I’m sorry. I’m just so frustrated. All these archaic laws. And a completely unsuitable young man for Babette. I just can’t believe it.”
“He’s not unsuitable,” Babette said emotionally standing up trying to leave. “And I wish you would all stop talking about him like it’s the worst thing ever. We love each other,” she saw Madame Bai cringing. “Love is not a dirty word. Humans can say it all the time. And listen, I will repeat it, I love him. And he loves me. And you know what’s even more, he just asked me to marry him, and I did it without any agreements. No contracts, no nothing. I just followed my heart.”
“Sit down,” Jane said, her head in her hands. “Don’t tell anyone that you married that way.”
Dru couldn't help but smile at her friend and mouth the words, ‘Good job.’
Madame Bai said brightly to Babette, “You will go to House Rog and say he used magic to seduce you into acting so irrationally and beg to be allowed into their House.”
“Magic?” Jane asked.
And the whole table was quiet looking at her.
Babette didn’t want to say anything. She could still hardly say or believe what Mir claimed to be. Still saying the word ‘husband’ was strange, let alone the reincarnate god of peace. It was all so bizarre. And every time she said it, she felt peculiar.
Dru knew Jane already suspected many things of her that her little ordinary mind didn’t like, so she was not going to add this one to the list, to be remembered as the one who used her unworldly sense to know what Mir was.
“What’s going on?” Jane asked again. “Is he a magician or something?”
“He is the god of peace,” Madame Bai stated as plainly as saying, ‘the sky is blue’.
“Excuse me?” Jane laughed.
“He’s the reincarnate god of peace. He has married his other half, Babette, but just too soon. She should have resisted.” Madame Bai looked at Babette and said sternly, “I expected you to have resisted.”
Babette shrugged, “I love him.”
Madame Bai shook her head, “I hope he tames this savageness in you.” She left off saying, ‘And that you aren’t killed by the other gods for not being his true chosen wife.’ Madame Bai wanted to believe the god of peace would not make a mistake in this, but witchcraft in the past, interference from mortals and other gods had led him astray before and if that was the case now, it was going to be a rough century. As the god of peace’s children would either bring peace or damnation to the Empire.
Jane held up both of her hands, “What are you talking about? There is no such thing as reincarnation.”
“Yes, there is. Check the records. He’s the same again, and again and again, for millions of years, thousands of them are documented. He even looks the same,” explained Madame Bai as if she was teaching one of her classes.
“Even if this is true, how can Babette be his true other half? She is human.”
“You are the Lost People. Obviously,” Madame Bai said as if Jane was a fool.
“Obviously,” Jane repeated back sarcastically. Then she looked at Babette, “Did you know this, or did he tell you this to seduce you?”
“He didn’t seduce me. I wanted to marry him from the moment I met him.”
“In the punishment rooms?”
“It doesn’t matter where we met. It could have been anywhere,” Babette said, exasperated.
“And it really was, anywhere,” replied Dru with a smile.
“So, let me get this straight, he is a god reincarnate but finds himself in this low position without a House and met Babette in the punishment rooms for the same transgressions. How can a god be so reckless with his morals and why wouldn’t all the Houses be lining up to invite him in?”
“No one is allowed to give him any special privileges. He must live a mortal life.” Madame Bai explained, “And as for his morals, he is mortal and suspectable to the flesh as any young man is.”
Jane shook her head trying to understand all of this, “But does he possess some magic then, like a god?” Jane was going into unknown territory now; she rarely read the myths and knew very little about what the gods were supposed to be capable of.
“He is rumored to have all the powers of a god, yes. But rarely does he use them. In the thousands of years, he has been documented, it’s less than ten times he has used his godlike power. He is here to be mortal to help us.”
Jane just looked at Madame Bai in disbelief, “I’m sorry, this is very difficult for me to believe. Babette is he the god of … I’m sorry, what?”
“The god of peace,” Babette said and felt a shiver go up her spine.
“And you’ve seen this?”
“Yes,” Babette replied.
“Before or after you married him?”
“Right before. He had to reveal himself to me or the disciples in the Underworld wouldn’t let us in to marry.”
“And you didn’t think at that time that maybe you shouldn’t marry him?” Jane was looking directly into her young and innocent blue eyes. “You didn’t think, ‘Wait, maybe this is all too much to get involved with a man you met in the High Priestess’s punishment rooms? Who claims to be an important god in this society’s extremely religious culture and on
top of it, has no House and your marriage would be a sin and leave you in a lowly human without a place too? Did you consider any of that as you stood at the gates to the Underworld?” Jane had a moment to reflect, Add that to the list of things I never thought I would have to say in my life.
“No, why? It’s still Mir. I love him.”
“Really? Bear with me because I’m just looking at this from an outsider’s point of view and this is what I see, an extremely racist and restricted population on the verge of a civil war due to many issues but at the forefront is the introduction of human women to their society. This problem was further aggravated by Kara marrying Admiral Tir and then next by Kara, murdering one of their own.”
“It wasn’t murder, it was a legal duel,” Dru interrupted.
Babette frowned.
Jane continued, “And now, not only have you sneaked off to marry a man who you shouldn’t have, but he is one of their beloved gods reincarnate. How do you think this looks to those people who want to see all of us returned to Earth or just plain dead? You have certainly added more wood to an already burning fire.”
“Maybe it’s the god’s will to bring peace through this marriage to prove that humans are the Lost People?” Madame Bai suggested. She was not going to let Jane know there was a further possibility of witchcraft that the humans would be blamed for if Babette was truly not his other half.
“And monogamy,” Dru added.
Madame Bai gave her a disdainful look, “No, you are the one misguided there James.”
Dru asked Babette, “What did Mir say about your marriage? Your obligations?”
“I told you we didn’t ask any questions; we didn’t make a contract. We just love each other. It was all so natural. I didn’t even think about a contract nor did we talk about the future.”
“Well, that is completely obvious,” Jane said exasperated.
“He must have hinted though,” Dru pushed gently.
Babette looked at her blankly, “Do you mean whether or not I would be faithful to him?” She remembered then his words on the Promenade when he had given her the necklace, “Yes, he said he wouldn’t share as he was of the slave class, so I didn’t need to worry about that.”
“See?” Dru said accusatively to Madame Bai. “He intends to bring monogamy back as the true way.”
“He’s doing no such thing. The god of peace always practices monogamy. He is always born of the slave class.” Madame Bai shot back. “They all wear binding necklaces to keep it so. But they all live on the planet together, so it makes sense they have no need of slave artists.”
Jane looked at Madame Bai in disbelief, “Even though, slave artists, as the name suggests come from the slave class? And you don’t feel that this infringes on the purity of the slave class?”
“Or the maximum class or middling class?” Dru asked.
Madame Bai frowned, “You ladies still have so much to learn. I know there hasn’t been much time but just remember this for now, as I think it might bring some clarity to the situation. Those of the maximum class are seen as the weakest, that is why they are given the least amount of tasks.”
“To rule?” Jane asked and couldn’t keep the humor out of her voice, it sounded so absurd.
“Yes, they rule us. But it’s not as if they make crazy laws that we all don’t agree with. And the slave class is our foundation. Our secure connection to the gods, they watch over us all. They are purity. And the slave artists bring that to the ships and maximum class on the planet.”
“I disagree,” Dru interjected. “It is blasphemy that the High Council made slave artists lawful, but just because it is a law does not mean that is the will of the gods or moral.”
“Wait,” Jane raised her hand not wanting to listen to James and Madame Bai argue.
Madame Bai was pleased Jane was stopping this. She didn’t want to have to explain anything about middling class and confuse them further.
“Let’s get back to the matter at hand, which is Babette marrying Mir and what consequences that has for all of us. Now Babette, what do you have to say?” Jane asked.
But James answered, “Mir is not a slave anymore. He’s of maximum class. He has married a woman of maximum class to prove a point.”
Jane clapped her hands like she did when her children were young and arguing, “Stop. Now listen. I will go and speak to the maximum family of House Rog. If that fails, I will address the High Council, and if that fails, I will figure out where people without any House go and how they survive. We won’t abandon you, Babbs. Oh, stop crying.”
“I’m not crying,” Babette said as she was wiping tears from her eyes.
“This will turn out,” said Madame Bai. “I only wish you would have waited.”
Dru said impatiently to Babette, “Give me your hand.”
“Why?” Babette asked recoiling away from the table at the suggestion.
“I’m just going to calm you.”
“I don’t want you reading my mind again.”
Jane looked at Dru, “James, why were you reading her mind?”
Dru looked at Jane, “Is there a secret you are keeping from me, Jane?”
Jane looked at Babette, trying to discern if she remembered the time, almost half a year, that the human women were ‘ill’ on Space Port One Hospital. She saw nothing in Babette’s face that would suggest she remembered anything, but she didn’t know how well Alliance mind replacing or erasing worked or if James would be able to find those memories. However, if she resisted James now, she would know for sure that she was hiding something. The last thing Jane wanted was James snooping around what she sanctioned Doctor Anu to do. “Babbs, give James your hand, she will make you feel better, nothing more.” Jane looked at James, “Right?”
James nodded.
Babette hesitantly extended her hand, and from the moment Dru’s touched hers, she felt calm and relaxed. It was amazing. Until a shocking headache came through like a thunderstorm, “Stop, it worked but now, my head hurts.” She took her hand away, “Don’t touch me like that again.”
Dru looked at Babette and was surprised by her reaction. No one had ever reacted to her that way. She looked at Babette and tried to work this out, but she couldn’t think of anything she had done that would give Babette a headache except her own mind, “Don’t get yourself so worked up. You’ve no control over this. It is your destiny. Don’t let Jane or Madame Bai fool you. You couldn’t’ have resisted. Any more than you can resist now. Go and rest, Babette, that is a doctor’s order.”
Babette nodded and gratefully left the room. She didn’t feel that any of them understood and she couldn’t explain it or rather she didn’t feel the need to explain it to them. She loved Mir and that was all.
Jane and Madame Bai got up to leave too.
Dru said, “Jane wait, we must talk privately.”
“Unfortunately, I have a lot to do, as you know. Let’s talk later,” she lied as she walked out with Madame Bai. Jane did not want to be alone with James again. She suspected that James knew about what had happened to Babette and the rest of the 1,000 women now, and she didn’t want to have to explain it. Especially not to James. She had become increasingly devout to the Alliance religion since she married Ket and everyone, meaning all the other human women, except for Babette and Kara, were becoming frightened of her for it.
Dru watched Jane go and replied, “We will find a time soon.”
Jane arranged to meet with the maximum family of House Rog. They were very polite to her and very fond of Mir but would not invite him and Babette into their House. When Jane had asked why they had told her straightforwardly that Rez, the woman who had been killed by Kara in the women’s duel had been a distant relation, and if they accepted a human into their House, there would be turmoil. They assured Jane that Mir knew this before he married. Jane had not been too shocked by the blatant racism. She replied by saying that she hoped their House could survive without the help of the Lost People and then left.
&nb
sp; Next, she went to the High Council, which was much more forgiving of the situation. Jane chided herself for not taking James’s advice first, then she would not have wasted her time at House Rog. The High Council deliberated Jane’s request to allow Babette to remain in House Human for only an hour. However, their conditions were not favorable. Mir must find a House to accept them both within the month, or they would both be forever Houseless and their children without a class.
Jane had no choice but to take the offer. She knew that she could not publically ask for more. She was just about ready to VM Kes of House Zu and ask her which Houses were most likely to receive Mir and Babette when she received a message from Kara.
Jane was surprised as the fleet had been out of touch for days. She quickly messaged Kara back, explaining the whole situation hoping she would have a solution.
Jane left House Human and then the guards took her to Jei’s Capital City residence. As they set down, she noticed that just like the imperial homes, it was in a compound. She asked Gio, “I thought House Rega was on Alliance Planet Two?”
“It is, but we also have a pied-a-terre here.”
Jane followed Gio’s lead towards the largest house in the compound, that was at least 20,000 square meters of geometric windows and yellow stone and commented, “This is what you call a pied-a-terre?”
“Planet Two is less densely populated and would have been the Capital Planet had we only been just a little stronger in the Battle for Dominance.” Gio left out saying, ‘House Rega is the Imperial House of the Second Alliance Planet, hence the purple. And probably most importantly the House had almost fallen into ruin until Admiral Jei gained it all back, so the Admiral is not only respected for his position in the Alliance Fleet but also for what he has personally done for his home planet and House.’
When they entered the large house all the slaves were standing to attention. They also all had purple somewhere on their green uniforms. Jane greeted them and they began to ask her questions about being a human, many of them rude. And they were upset that human food had been delivered to them. They didn’t want to touch it, but they would do it minimally for her. They also wanted her to eat quickly so that none of them would miss their mealtimes. After Jane had agreed to all of this, she was shown through the large house ending in the master bedroom.