Chương 64: 042 – Our Thanks

Nightmare," Tiikasia said slowly, speaking slowly to try and pronounce it with as few superfluous sounds as possible, and to try and steal himself time to think.

"Is that correct?"" It strikes near the mark, and while the eye has not been blinded, the head was still struck,"Water From The Sky said." We know his heart, and surely they would not take offense, for his were a hearts of kindness and understanding." Ah. So while the name of this hero was in human speech, they probably weren't human themselves. That sort of behavior seemed to be completely antithetical to the sensibilities of every human Tiikasia had ever met. He almost believed that rationalization.

He didn't, but it was certainly convincing. … and unfortunately, it was probably time to start checking for demons. Metaphorically of course, the Tsokeri no longer allowed themselves to be so easy to find. More accurately, it was time to check for humans. Of course, they didn't want to offend their guest if they weren't human, and didn't want their guest to know Tiikasia had seen through their ruse if they were human. This would need to be conducted subtly." May we ask of you in turn, our own curiosity to satisfy?"

Water From The Sky asked.

"What answer do you seek? This one cannot answer all things, but if it is within my power to enlighten you, then I shall attempt to." It was only fair, after all. The blank, reflective gold of Water From The Sky's visor leans forward slightly." Are the Free Peoples Hegemony here to invade and conquer?" … W-what? No, perhaps he hadn't heard that correctly, or Water From The Sky was using the wrong words again.

"My apologies, I do not believe I understood the question properly. Could you please repeat it?" Tiikasia said." It is no burden. Are the Free Peoples Hegemony here to invade and conquer?"

"… Are you certain you mean to say 'invade' and not 'paint'?"" Umm… which one is 'to dye with color'?"

"Paint."" Then this one speaks truly, the word desired to speech was 'invade'." …

"You believe that we are here to invade you?" Tiikasia said, keeping his muscles from tensing and barring his teeth." We know not the truth," Water From the Sky said.

"Therefore, we ask." … That was… very straightforward of them.

"We are not here to invade and conquer you," Tiikasia said slowly, making each word distinct. He did not wish for there to be any misunderstandings. If this turned out badly, then at least his hearts would be clear.

"Peace is our intention, and we have no desire to bring harm to your world, or want to plunder its riches."" Speak you truly?" Water From The Sky said.

"Yes. I vow that my words are true. We are not here to invade."" Speak you truly?" If this was some sort of ceremonial repetition, Tiikasia told himself he'd allow for three more repetitions after this.

"Yes." The alien's head moved forward and back, and he felt his body try to molt out of his current shell at the human-like gesture." Then all is right." Three. So there either had been a ceremonial component to this exchange or that was the minimum number of repetition's their culture believed where necessary.

"Do you not need proofs that what I say is true?"" To what point and purpose? Proofs can be false as easily as words can be untruths." Water From The Sky said.

"Then how is all right?" he asked. At least he hadn't needed to be the one to raise the possibility that he had been lying." Should your words be untrue, then the Free Peoples mean to invade," the alien replied." However, if sincerity is in your hearts, then to disbelieve you would be by an injustice you did not deserve. And are we not friends? What friendship is there without trust for the honor of one's friends?"

"… We just met a few paizes ago," Tiikasia couldn't help but try to point out." I fail to understand the importance of this thing?" Water From The Sky said.

"You should not trust so strong in those met so recently," Tiikasia said." But if trust is not bestowed, how will it grow?"

"…That is… true," he said.

"However, what would you do if I were being untruthful and we do intend to invade you?"" Then trust would have been broken, and all the fire of our world will be turned upon you with justice." … Well, he supposed a civilization that's clearly space-faring and had a means of getting someone onto the hull of the Dhekhajhyde undetected until they were actual on the hull would feel reasonably confident repulsing a possible invasion force that they had such a stealth advantage against.

And as a cause for declaring war on someone, 'because they lied about not intending to invade our planet' was far more understandable, as opposed to 'because their right to conduct business was interfered with' when that business consisted of exploitive contracts and forced relocation… This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it"You will have no need to turn all the fire of your world upon us," Tiikasia said as he stepped on those memories."

Then all is well and may all lived happily ever after."

"That is all one can wish for," Tiikasia said.

"And the word you want is 'live'.

'Lived' means it already happened."" Our thanks!"

"It is of no import. However with all this talk of invasion, our own concerns have been brought to mind, which I hope you will assuage." The alien's head tilted to one side." You wish me to dance?"

"…No, not 'dance', 'assuage'." He had to make so of the low-pitched parts of the word a little higher to emphasize them." Oh! Our thanks. What do you need… dancuaged?" Well, close enough.

"Water From The Sky, since you appeared as if from nothing on the hull of the Dhekhajhyde, there have been signs that had given us cause for concern." The alien's head titled the other way, then they reached behind then and drew out the board attached to their back." My sign is concerning you?" they said, what was probably confusion evident in their voice. Tiikasia managed to hold in his laugh. That was sometimes misinterpreted as a threat display too.

"I mean that you have been doing things that have given us cause for concern."" This one… apologies? This one did not mean to?" The possibility this tone was 'confusion' grew stronger.

"It is nothing that requires apology. Merely things we have seen you do and say that have made us grow concerned. Likely it is merely coincidence, for in this great universe of ours, nothing is so original that it cannot have evolved only once." Which was true. Despite their size differences, human, rakido, and tsokoiy physiology had evolved very similar configurations. Kivhar physiology was similar, but because of the touched of the accursed Tsokeri…

well, they couldn't be said to have been naturally evolved anymore. Even humans had jokes about unrelated sea-like on their planet all evolving to become something called 'crabs', or so Rirris had told him." Of what things do you speak… of?" Water From The Sky said.

"Your physiology, certain gestures you have made such as moving your head like this—" Tiikasia did his best to emulate a human 'nod', "—and your name for your own world… taken together, it is all indicative, and we would like to settle the matter now so that our minds can be put at ease."" If you say so? This one is still unsure as to what the matter may be."

"Then I will speak of the matter plainly, so that there is no unsureness: Water From The Sky, are you a human?" He said that last word in human speech, because he doubted that humans would appreciate being called 'insane softshells'." No, I am a Kaedekin—" Well, that was straightforward and direct. Tiikasia's muscles were about to relax when—" —it is simply that we look human." …

"Could you please repeat that?" he said, even as he raised one hand and gestured at the warriors around them to lower their weapons again." No, I am a Kaedekin— —it is simply that that we look human." Tiikasia considered that answer.

"You have met humans before."" Yes! A very friendly people are they, though a little strange." He wasn't able to keep some of the muscles on his face from tensing, and some of his teeth were bared before he could stop it.

"Were they the ones who named your world?" It would completely in keeping with the malicious humor humans practiced to trick them into naming their beautiful world 'Nightmare'… but wait, the Kaydekeen clearly knew what it meant, they had translated it as 'Dreams Distressing And Frightening' …" They were not, for our peoples named Nightmare long before the humans contact first." They turned toward the container that they'd set down next to their seat." To follow a trail in relation to that, we have another hat—gift!

Gift to offer.

"Opening the container, they pulled out a scroll with large and easily gripped knobs—oh! The scroll rods extended out by pulling the knobs, making them easier to grip. How thoughtful." Contained within are charts that name our worlds, and their locations in place at this time. These honored names are translations, as we know not how to best scribe them in freespeech. Let this gift—Hat! Oh, linger… it was gift after all. Let this gift be guide for you as to way-find on your journey on the road of life."

Water From The Sky held out the scroll. It was cased in metal, the design different from what he was used to. It wasn't really alien so much as bare and simple, albeit very well made.

When he took it in his hands—pointedly ignoring the look Ahgido was giving him that said the man wanted to check the scroll for poisons and explosives, he could do it later—the metal felt substantial, as if it could actually take a little rough treatment, like falling off a table, getting stepped on, or being used as an impromptu projectile to keep someone from stealing your food, that was clearly marked as his fruit bowl…

His time at the School Of Free Arts had clearly traumatized him more than he'd realized if holding a well-made scroll case was giving him flashbacks. Detaching the outer scroll rod, he partially unfurled it, and found vivid pictures of the other worlds of this system. He recognized the outermost planet, a frozen ball of ice and solidified gasses, encircled by faint rings of debris vacuum debris, at the time known as Ricurap-7.

Apparently the name for it was complicated, as it had been labeled [She Who Dwells In Darkness]… and beneath were symbols of recognizable human script, spelling out ' Xynodob'. It wasn't a word he recognized, but perhaps Rirris would be familiar with it. The cause for concern becomes greater. Despite that, he couldn't help unrolling the scroll further, rolling up the excess around the other rod with practiced movements.

The names were interesting, specially now that Tiikasia knew they were translations, and not exactly directly literal ones. Ricurap-4 for example, the other world they had appeared near to calibrate their short-ranged jumps, was translated as [Heroine Surrounded By Lightning]. It's original name was apparently ' Corona'.

"We give thanks to you for this—" Don't say hat, don't say hat, don't say hat…

"—gift. Though I discern that the names of these worlds are also in human script. Why is this?"" There is no deeper meaning. The names are written in 'human script' because that is what we spokening."

"…Those are three different forms of the same word somehow being used at once.

"" Our thanks!" Even as he spoke, he tried to align what little evidence he had together. The Kaydekeen said they looked human… but claimed they weren't, and described humans as 'a friendly people', implying further separation. More pressingly, they were more than seventy dhivedpresta from the nest world of the humans. Yet they moved like humans, and spoke the language of humans, or at least they had at one point…

When the humans had declared war upon the Free Peoples, there had been many who had thought them the latest slave race of the demons, mostly because of the humans' absurd reason for their aggression. Yet no matter how deeply they had infiltrated the humans in search of them, no trace of the accursed could be found. The only ones secretly controlling human society from obscurity… were other humans. And yet…

Taking a large sample of humans for breeding stock and transferring them to a distant world to use as raw materials to make a new slave race would also be in keeping with the behavior of the shinkamrai's hated creators. And if that was so… Then the Tsokeri probably knew that their vengeful creations had found them, and the ship had fallen into trap. …

Well, either that or somehow humans managed to colonize this world, while simultaneously losing all contact with their nestworld and yet still retained the technology or magic to decipher transmissions. Which… was absurd, but not that absurd. Improbable, but not impossible.

"Water From the Sky…" he said slowly, "could you tell me how your people can look human, write in human script, speak in human speech, and yet not be human?"" A lengthy tale to tell, what is asked for," Water From The Sky said. Tiikasia glanced at the utility tool still in his hand. It was still recording.

"Start at the beginning," he said, "and let us see how closely we may reach the end."