Chapter 26
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
The compound wasn’t exactly bustling with activity, but there were a good many priests walking the corridors and grounds compared to the quiet hour at which Ella and Draikis had retired the prior night.
Fortunately, the human woman wasn’t nearly the novelty she had been early on, and while she did still cause annoyance in many, the days of outright staring seemed to have passed.
Which was good, given her slightly disheveled walk, not of shame, but of quiet pride.
There was no shame in this, no remorse or regret, but she did refrain from flaunting the afterglow of her magnificent railing, opting to walk quietly and quickly to her own quarters to properly clean up and swap out for a fresh change of clothes before heading out to visit the archives.
“That’s better,” she noted, looking at her reflection in the digital mirror built into the bathing area’s wall.
It provided a non-reversed image, allowing her to truly see herself as others did rather than flipping her likeness.
She paused a moment, replaying Draikis bending her over in front of his own mirror.
“Holy hell, that was hot. And you look good. Damn good, if I do say so myself. And I just did.”
She chuckled to herself, refreshed and with her spirits high, and calmly exited her quarters and headed to her daily session in the archive.
She strolled at a leisurely pace, enjoying the happy feeling of contentedness that was overflowing from within her.
Ella walked on happy feet, almost on Cloud Nine as she rounded the corner, lost in her thoughts and planning on taking the most direct route possible, when she ran into the dour face of one of the priests who she’d noted previously.
One who was particularly unhappy with her presence.
A look of sour dislike puckered his face at the sight of her, as it always seemed to do.
“Oh, sorry.”
“A sentiment you should express every moment you remain within our walls.”
She hesitated, not sure if she should let this interaction derail her fantastic mood or if she would be best served just ignoring him.
As luck would have it, the rude alien priest apparently was in no mood for a lengthy berating today, opting instead to simply walk away, leaving his cold comment floating where he dropped it upon her.
Ella felt a flare of anger in her gut, a sensation she quickly tamped out.
“No sense getting all worked up about it,” she reminded herself. “Asshole’s gonna asshole.”
She took a deep breath, held it for a five count, then let it slowly out, repeating the process two more times.
The guy was a jerk, but those were a dime a dozen back home.
At least he wasn’t as bad as Totaxxis. That one was a real menace.
More than that, he was prying into her origin.
Her homeworld. And that could prove problematic if he learned she had lied about being part of the Dotharian Conglomerate.
Their rules were strange, and the penalties harsh. There was no telling what they might do to her if they found out she was not who she said she was.
She was about to continue her walk when a small detail of the incredibly detailed ancient tapestry on the wall where she’d happened to stop caught her eye.
There was a vast amount of artwork lining the walls, accumulated over the millennia the sect had been in existence, and this was a particularly old one.
“Hang on,” she murmured, leaning closer. “That’s not right.”
The scene was benign, at least at first glance.
A large group of priests carrying some sort of holy relic or high-tech totem, she couldn’t be sure exactly what it was.
It was a procession through what appeared to be a somewhat primitive village, the locals comprised of several alien races, all of them watching the men in their midst with expressions of awe and wonder clear on their faces.
This was likely a first-contact experience, the ways of the Dotharians, and the Norvalian Sect by extension, presented as a new world was welcomed into the fold.
But something was off.
It was a tiny detail, hidden in the stitched depths of the tapestry. So minor compared to all the other exciting and colorful things happening in the rest of the image. But there it was, tucked away yet clear to see.
The priests were walking in ranks, uniform in their appearance and holy attire. All men, or so it seemed. Yet there was one irregularity woven into the design. A different figure walking hand-in-hand with a priest tucked way in the back of the group. One with longer hair and a curvier figure.
There was a woman in the ranks. And she appeared to be more than just a random person walking with the man. And they were holding hands.
Ella looked at the small projected placard hovering below the artwork. Provenance and date of creation were present, yet the creator was unknown. The artwork, however, was old. Thousands of years, in fact.
“What does this mean?” she wondered, her mind already noting the vastly distant time period in which it had been made. A very early era of the Norvalians, and one she would most definitely be shifting her studies to, for her own edification if nothing else.
But maybe there was something there. Something interesting. It was going to be a fun sort of treasure hunt at the least and enlightening at the most. Lost in thought, she continued on her way, rounding the corner to the final corridor that would lead her outside.
“Watch where you walk, female!” Totaxxis’s gruff voice startled her, his imposing presence all but running her over when she bumped right into him, bouncing off his solid mass.
“Sorry. I didn’t see you.”
“Obviously.”
She moved past him, leaving the conversation at that. The sooner he was shrinking in her proverbial rear-view mirror the better.
“Your world. Earth, you called it. What system is it located in?” he called after her.
Shit. She stopped and turned back.
“Uh, I don’t know what you’d call it. Like I said before, we’re really new to the conglomerate, and I’m sure our name for it doesn’t translate. Even if it did, who knows what your name for it is?”
He stared, coldly assessing her, the muscle in his jaw flexing slightly.
“Hmm. Perhaps. But I must wonder if some other parties survived the Raxxian vessel’s crash. One with more knowledge than your feeble human mind can retain.”
“Hey—”
“And if so, they might be better able to answer my questions.”
Ella had a lot of things she wanted to say, and none of them polite. The guy was pushing her buttons. She saw the little glimmer of malicious intent in his eyes and bit her tongue.
You’re not getting shit out of me, buddy. It’s not going to be that easy.
She smiled bright and put on her best go-fuck-yourself customer service voice.
“I wish you the best of luck with that. I’m sure scouring the planet will be a rewarding outing for you.
And who knows? You might be successful before the year is out.
Now, if you’ll excuse me, I do need to be getting on my way. ”
Totaxxis looked as if he was about to say something more but held his tongue. Ella had no intention of waiting for him to change his mind. She hustled off and was outside in a flash, making a beeline to the archives.
Nilkis was at his usual spot, restoring an old text. He didn’t even look up as she approached, though his hearing was quite acute.
“Those are for you,” he said, his head slightly tilting toward a pair of fairly old books at the far end of his workstation.
“Actually, I was wondering if you could maybe help me find something a bit older.”
“Older?”
“Yeah. I was just looking at some of the artwork in the Norvalian collection and came across a particularly lovely tapestry depicting some interesting goings on. I thought it would be a great opportunity to put images created by one artist with the words written by another.”
Nilkis looked up from his task, a curious, happily pleased expression slightly creasing the corners of his eyes. “It is unusual, the interest you show in our history.”
“I like to learn.”
“Clearly. But you do more than merely study the most popular texts. Your curiosity is admirable, especially for one with no reason to care. And a woman, no less.” He hesitated a moment. “No offense.”
“None taken,” she replied, a bit floored that he had apologized to her.
It was a marked shift from what she’d experienced since she began moving about the grounds on her own.
No one, other than Draikis, seemed to want her here.
But Nilkis, though not buddy-buddy by any means, was clearly warming to her.
“Your order took me in, and I know I’m kind of a burden just being here.
The more I can learn, the better I can fit in.
At least, as much as someone like me can, I mean. ”
Nilkis nodded, always a man of few words, but his appreciation of her sentiment was clearly not lost on him. He slid from his chair, stretching his back after what must have been hours hard at work. He rolled his shoulders and turned to his visitor.
“Shall we?”
“Uh…”
“To the deep archives. You said you wanted to see some of the truly old texts. So, tell me, exactly how far back do you want to go?”
In short order Ella was comfortably tucked away in her study area, far from the eyes of any other brothers who might visit the archives. Finding a female there would only agitate them further, but truth be told, she rather preferred it this way, regardless.
Ella had been surprised she’d been granted access to such ancient texts. More than that, she hadn’t been required to wear any special gloves or use protective implements of any kind.
“It’s better this way,” Nilkis had explained.
“The natural oils of your hands are actually better for the parchment than gloves, which pull moisture. Of course, there are sealants and stasis fields for storage, but we feel these are living texts, and as such they should be experienced in their original, natural state. And given how rarely they are taken from storage, any degradation they might experience is minuscule.”
And so it was that Ella was carefully handling some of the most ancient works housed in the Norvalian archives.
She took her time, attentive in her reading, still amazed how a translation rune could afford her the ability to read this absolutely alien text.
But these powered runes were the real deal, that was for sure.
A hot flash of tingles flooded her body as the memory of another kind of rune and its reaction ran through her.
She’d been good about staying focused. About not letting her mind and other bits drift to her time with Draikis.
Of course, the sensation of the aftermath of their hours upon hours of passionate lovemaking was readily present every time she shifted in her seat, but the things she was learning as she read and translated page after page were actually so interesting they kept her mind occupied.
She had fresh eyes today. High energy. Renewed focus.
“Yeah, a good fucking will do that,” she chuckled to herself, reveling in the sensations as well as the ridiculously hot memory.
She scanned the texts, moving through them at a slow but efficient pace.
It actually wasn’t that much, truth be told.
Once you went far enough back, the quantity of texts diminished greatly.
These were the core tenets of the Order.
Their origins. Essentially, their equivalent of the Old Testament, though a very alien version, and this had historical events interwoven with the rules and laws upon which they based their entire belief system.
Ella froze, doing a double take.
“That’s not right,” she muttered, re-reading a section three times to confirm what she’d just read was correct. “No way.”
She activated the reading device at her table, providing her a holographic projection of any newer text she wished.
Ella called up the corresponding version of the Norvalian laws, her eyes flicking back and forth between the modern document and the original upon which it was built.
A different sort of sensation filled her belly.
Adrenaline, and not in a bad way. Not at all.
“Holy crap,” she gasped, re-checking her work yet again. “How can this be possible? I mean, no one else noticed this?”
She read the two texts over and over, comparing the newer language, which was a lot easier to translate, to the old.
It was unmistakable. There was a difference.
Somewhere in the course of transcribing and updating, some small changes had been made.
And over time the divergences from the original had only increased.
A little feeling of regret dampened her high.
“It’s not my place. An outsider pointing out mistakes? Yeah, that won’t go over well. Not at all. Keep it to yourself, El, don’t go stirring up a hornets’ nest.”
It was the logical thing to do. Or rather not to do.
She’d continue her studies, making notes and learning all she could in the process, but that was all it would be.
All it could be. She was a guest here, and that was all there was to it.
If she went riling up the others she would likely be forced to leave.
And with what was brewing with Draikis, that was the last thing she wanted.
Her Infala twinged, growing heated at the mere thought of him. But this felt stronger. Like it was calling out to her in the most visceral way.
Fascinating as her studies were, Ella had something more pressing on her mind.
She set aside the texts, her place marked and the protective covers put in place, then headed out.
She’d been so caught up in her work that it was hours later than she’d expected when she stepped outside.
Still early in the day, but she’d been lost in a trance of discovery.
She started walking, a plan in mind, as well as a certain someone.
“Back home, then I’m going to go find him.”