FULL NOVELXO Chapter UNREALITY (PART 6)
I can feel Zarasena considering her words carefully. I’m hating the strong divisions between men and women in this society. I’m still confused as to how this is so far off the impressions that Arlyss and Cindlyss first gave me. It’s most mystifying and it leaves me bewildered, to say the least. I do vaguely remember he saying they had gaps in their knowledge of Aynsefian. This is a fairly major gap.
“Thank you, Tu’aan. May I ask where we are?”
“You are in our Central city. Next question.” Her tone is polite, but formal. My hopes fade that we’ll get anything useful out of this woman. I am working extremely hard to not let my emotions show. Staring at the floor helps.
“Are we the talk of the town, so to speak?” Zarasena has done well to ask this question. It helps her understand how important this court hearing will be.
Tu’aan appears bound to reply. “Yes. Quite. We have not had any outsiders into our midst in centuries. Your appearance is so unexpected as to almost appear magical. Many are afraid. I am not. There are many questions I would like to ask of you but I must do my duty and nothing else. I may have already overstepped my bounds. It is an honour to counsel you. I wish you the best of luck. Now I must leave.”
Tu’aan gets up and leaves in an awful hurry.
So there it is. Most are afraid that we’re here. I now believe that they will dispose of us. They will throw us away. It’s disappointing in the extreme. There is so much fear in this place. My former wonder with respect to Aynsefian is shattered. We must survive this, and by some miracle, get back to the Purlinians and have a deep and meaningful discussion about what we’ve seen and experienced here. I’ll need Zarasena to translate, of course. They will be shocked, I’m sure.
The room is largely quiet for a few minutes. I dare not talk to Zarasena. I would love to, but I can’t.
Soon enough the main double door opens. Through it comes three women. Their sashes are a deep blue. They radiate importance. The attention of the men in the room are all drawn to them, away from us.
The woman in the middle starts speaking in a measured tone, devoid of warmth.
“You will both stand and follow us into court.” She turns and goes back through the door. The other two women stay on this side of it.
So we are going to a trial of sorts. Hopefully we will have a chance to explain ourselves. Well, Zarasena will. I expect that if I utter a word I will be killed on the spot. Maybe not, but I wouldn’t put it past these people.
We get up and the other two women turn and go through the door. We follow them. Two large men meet us on the other side.
“Follow me, and say nothing,” one large man sneers at me. I have absolutely no intention of speaking at all. The other man says similar to Zarasena, but with politeness instead of disdain.
The court room is bigger than I expected. There is a high platform in the centre at the front of it. Seated behind it are five women and a man. I’m surprised to see the man. I presume that he has some sort of functional role, rather than being of any importance.
The central woman, like the one back there in the village, has tremendous presence. She has dark, wavy hair, flecked with grey, and a calm serenity about her. This must be the Most High person that Tu’ann mentioned. I’ve forgotten her name already. Not that I care.
The Most High radiates intense intelligence through greenish-blue eyes. I must look away. I feel as if I looked any longer than a microsecond I would draw unwanted attention to myself.
I focus on the alabaster floor, and the footsteps of the large male Aynsefian in front of me, as I walk.
We reach our seats. I am allowed to sit next to Zarasena, which surprises me. I plan to let her do all of the talking, and only speak if I’m spoken to. Then only with great deference and humility.
I take a quick glance around. The walls in this court room are darker, almost black, as is the roof. I think the walls may be bluestone, as was the auditorium of the central building back in the abandoned version of Aynsefian. There are about one hundred people in the audience, both male and female or of undetermined gender, across multiple races, all mixed together. I’m unsure of the significance of this.
I reason that it took some time for this court to be assembled, and therefore we must have been sedated for perhaps even a few days. My mind goes back to what Anathusa said about how long we had before the MGC noticed that IR84U was not moving and sent a ship after them.
One week. If it’s been a few days here already, we’re rapidly chewing up time. My friends Arlyss and Cindlyss are in increasing danger, as are Salvation and Nikse. Not mention Zarasena’s crew.
Despite the sizeable audience in this courtroom, silence prevails.
Then the Most High speaks. I can’t help but notice her dark, flecked hair and her deep, intelligent green eyes.
“Visitors to Aynsefian. Your arrival in our society is unexpected. Please explain yourself.”
Now it’s confirmed. We’re really here. We time travelled. I’m shocked at the confirmation.
The Most High appears like she’s not going to say anything else. To her right, a woman with short, straight dark hair quickly speaks to us.
“When addressing her eminence,” she says, “you will include ‘your eminence’ in each response. When addressing the rest of us, except for Roggen on the end” – by this she waves dismissively at the lone man at the end of the bench – “you will include ‘your grace’ in your response.”
The woman stops speaking. I don’t even look at Zarasena. I know she’ll respond.
“Yes, your grace,” she says, politely. She pauses. The silence in the room is imposing. I sense she is waiting for a response from one of the front bench. There is none, so she must address the central lady’s question.
“Your eminence, it was most unexpected.” What’s unexpected is Zarasena’s formality and beautifully clipped tones. I’m impressed, despite the circumstances. She really knows how to play whatever game is in front of her.
“We are explorers from a future time, your eminence, and we stumbled –“
“Stop there, visitor!” says her eminence.
Zarasena stops. Maybe she could say “yes your eminence”, but that to me feels rude, and Zarasena appears to be of the same mind.
Her eminence turns to a woman on the other side of her from her grace and confers quietly for a moment.
“Please explain what you mean by, a future time.” Her eminence likes to use the word ‘please’. That’s a hopeful thing.
Zarasena continues. I can feel her delight in rising to this challenge, performing as she is in front of a hundred or so high-ranking strangers in a foreign society. My admiration for her increases. I feel as if they don’t know who they’ve got here, and she’ll outsmart all of them, given the chance. She’s a captain in the MGC, and that doesn’t just happen to anyone. Say what you like about the MGC as an organisation, it’s still an exclusive position that she’s attained.
“Your eminence, we have seen your society long into the future. It is abandoned, although all of the buildings are intact, except for most of the crystal. My brother here and I and some colleagues found a device left behind, which we assembled. When we put it together, we experienced some strange phenomena, and then we found ourselves outside your beautiful village near the base of the cliff. I’m sure you know where we were found, your eminence.”
Through my peripheral vision, I can see Zarasena respectfully making eye contact with the all the members of the bench, except for poor old Roggen on the end.
“Go on,” says her eminence.
“I am sorry for my brother’s lack of respect when we first met your people, your eminence. I was quite disillusioned when I arrived. The procedure of getting here twisted my mind, and I imagine it must have done for him too. I quickly put him in his place and it will not happen again.”
“Nonetheless it did,” replies the woman on the opposite end to Roggen. “We do not know from whence you came, but you will soon learn our ways if you haven’t already. Ill-discipline is a most grave offence.”
Wow. We haven’t really had time to ‘learn their ways’. I’m astounded. I’m struggling to keep that expression off my face. I’m not sure if Zarasena has managed it either.
It doesn’t matter whether she did or she didn’t. As before, they are only watching me. The rogue. The miscreant. A micro-expression of mine has doomed us.
“Your brother’s lack of discipline is clearly evident, still,” says the Most High, with contempt. I don’t look up. I know I’m being spoken to. Her eminence was watching me the whole time. I am looking at the floor still, but it’s too late. The situation has become unrecoverable. I can hear it in her voice.
She delivers our fate to us coldly.
“You are to be banished, lest you contaminate our society any further. Roggen, your men will take them away now.”