by Alma Nilsson
“Yes, they do, but there is a protocol for it.”
“Of course, there is because you couldn’t just do something illegal without guidelines. Welcome to the Alliance, where even being a criminal has protocol.”
Mir smiled, “It does, and I don’t appreciate your lack of enthusiasm.”
“Can you blame me? You just walked up to me and kissed the life right out of me like Orpheus, and then you asked me to secretly marry you, and now you are telling me we have to get permission from a priest. You must admit, it’s odd.”
Mir didn’t know who Orpheus was. His translator beeped, indicating it was a proper name, “Was Orpheus a past boyfriend of yours?”
“No, he is one of our heroes in an ancient love story. He and his wife loved each other so much, but after they were married, she died.”
“Why would you compare me to him?” Mir was horrified.
“Because their love was so great. He went to where all the dead people were to go get her back.”
“Oh, so it’s a happy story.”
“No, he failed.”
“Gods, Babette,” Mir shook his head. “What’s the matter with you? I love you,” he said, and then some passersby gave him a look, and he said it softly, “I love you. We are blessed by the gods.” He took her hand that still held the necklace and his silver ring, “You were given my room to find me a ring to bring you to me. I knew from the moment I saw you; we were meant to be together, and I know you felt the same way too. The gods want us to do this, and they would not go through all this trouble to do it and have us die if that’s what you are getting at. We didn’t come this far to be made an example of.”
“I never thought about that before, but now that you mention it, maybe they do want to make an example out of us? Maybe I am going to die a horrible death, and that is why you reminded Orpheus. I haven’t even thought about that story since I was in school. Maybe it’s a sign? Why didn’t I think of Cinderella and the prince or the Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy?” Then Babette answered her own question, “Well, they never kiss, but gods Mir. What if they want us to do this to punish us?”
“Babette, look at me,” he said gently and took the necklace from her hand. He put it back on her and said, “I promise you; we are destiny and not to prove any point except that you are the Lost People and that true love can exist between us.” He left out, and the gods want Alliance people to practice monogamy. This was a belief he still held from the slave class. He thought the people of maximum class who didn’t practice monogamy, which was almost all of them, were sinners in the eyes of the gods and that was why they were being punished.
Babette looked into his eyes and nodded.
He met her gaze and knew all was as it should be. “Now,” he stood up. “You’ve got to go to work.”
“That’s the last place I want to go now,” Babette said quietly. “I wish I could stay with you all day. Will you meet me after work?”
He stood up, and she followed, “I’ll walk with you now. I must prepare a lot of things for tomorrow. And you must figure out a plan so that you can spend the night away without suspicion.”
“Fine.”
“You say that, but I know you mean, ‘no,’” he smiled, thinking she was trying to lie.
“Does your translator tell you that?”
“It says, ‘fine,’ followed by a beep to tell me that it means the opposite.”
“How come my translator never does that? I feel like Alliance people are lying to me all of the time?”
Mir shrugged, “We created the translators, so I guess we already recognize the lie. We never had other species in mind when we created them, and even now, I wouldn’t say it’s our main concern to make sure that the aliens who have our translators have explicit access to our culture.”
“Welcoming as always.”
“We are what we are. You are one of us now.”
“I feel like I only have one ear and one eye most of the time,” she said somewhat dejectedly, thinking about how she had wasted so much of her time last night. Today fretting about him breaking off their relationship all because she misunderstood what he had said.
“I don’t know if this will make you feel better or worse, but I think we all feel that way, especially in the Capital City.”
“No, don’t ever say that again.”
“But,” he stopped walking, and they did the same, “You are my other half. That is why I need you, and you need me.”
“Kiss me,” she said. When he didn’t, she put her hands on either side of his cool grey cheeks and led his lips down to hers, “I don’t care about the fines, that’s the most romantic thing I know you people can say.”
Mir kissed her and didn’t think about their fines or punishment or any other worries. He reminded himself, it didn’t matter if they were found out they would be dead in two days.
A Secret Marriage
Babette got out of the shower and looked at herself in the mirror. She smiled and thought, I’m marrying my Mir today. Then she took extra care getting ready and making sure she looked as good as she could. She wore her navy-blue Alliance dress as it brought out the color in her eyes and the little jewelry she had and of course, the slave necklace Mir had given her. When she was ready, she walked through the drawing-room, as was her custom to say, ‘see you later,’ to anyone there and then go out the door.
In the drawing-room were a few women she was only acquaintances with. As she passed, she said, “See you later.” No one usually said anything more than ‘bye.’
“Wait, Babette,” one of them called surprisingly.
Babette stopped, her heart already pounding, anxious if someone knew something already.
“Where are you going at this strange hour? Do you have a date? Are you courting someone?”
“No, I’m going to Doctor James’s home.”
“Oh, the witch,” another woman said, and they all laughed.
Then they didn’t even bother to say ‘goodbye,’ so Babette turned to leave muttering under her breathe, “You’re the witches.”
Babette walked out into the early evening. The sky was blood red as it set, and the two nearby planets became illuminated in the sky. This was the night sky she had already become so accustomed to seeing, and she reveled in the twilight. She thought it accurately represented her life at the moment, the sun was setting on her days of being a single woman, and she was looking forward to what the night would bring. It was a mystery to her, marriage. What would it feel like to be connected to someone forever?
Babette followed Mir’s instructions and met him in the corner of a garden she had never been to before. It was dark. She wanted to run into his arms, but he held her at a distance.
“My dear Babette, there are eyes everywhere, even in this garden, this must be a secret.”
“I don’t care,” she said, unable to keep the excitement and happiness from her face and voice. “Kiss me.”
“Well,” he said with a smile, overwhelmed with her strong emotions for him, “I’m glad that I can be sensible for us both then. Remember that we can be punished, even put to death for this.”
“That won’t happen. We love each other, and the Empire needs children and…”
He put a finger on her warm lips so she wouldn’t continue with what she was going to say.
“Kiss me,” she said when he removed his finger. “You’re tormenting me.”
Mir looked at Babette’s beautiful face. She had just recently showered, and her hair and skin smelled of cleanliness. She had put some colors on her face to enhance her natural colors, and he found that just as exotic and erotic as the hair on different areas of her body, “Soon enough and in private. Come,” he released her and then led her down a dark street. They got into a transport from the Fira and flew to another destination outside the Capital City in the mountains.
“Won’t they track the transport?”
“I’m an officer, and I applied to use in on the planet. Why would anyone track
me for wanting to sit in the mountains at sunset and think?” he smiled.
“Is that why you’re not wearing your dress uniform, either?”
“No,” he said casually. “I’m not wearing it because we will all be required to change our clothes for the ceremony anyway.”
“Oh,” said Babette embarrassed that she had wasted so much time thinking about what she was going to wear today and then thought, Well, at least I didn’t go out of my way to buy something new.
“I should have told you,” Mir touched her shoulder, “You do look beautiful, and as you might have guessed, we are doing this in a very unique way, there is no way you, as an alien, could have known.”
Babette didn’t like being referred to as ‘an alien’, but she said nothing.
Mir led her through a little mountain pass that was dark to a ruined ancient stone temple. It was falling apart and was lit by just one candle.
“Is this where we are getting married?” Babette asked, surprised at the dark and desolate temple.
“No, this is just the meeting place. It would look suspicious if I was meeting two human women in the city. I gave your friend Jade this address. My friend Ko will meet us at the entrance to the Underworld.”
“This place has an address?”
“Every place in the Alliance has an address, even the Underworld.”
“Okay, and what’s this about the Underworld? That doesn’t sound good at all to my human ears.”
“Don’t worry, it’s a place where class no longer matters, and everything that happens there is blessed by the god of darkness. He looked into her eyes and saw that she still didn’t fully understand, “It’s blind to class.”
“But the god of darkness doesn’t necessarily sound like the kind of god that I want blessing my marriage,” Babette said, getting cold feet for the first time. “We don’t have to die to get married, or anything do we?”
Mir shook his head, “Trust me, this will all be perfect. I think the name comes off badly in your human language. The god of darkness is the most fair and trustworthy of gods because he is blind. That’s why it is he who must bless our union, he must only feel our love, not see our assigned class. We’re not the first to seek the god of darkness’s blessing for our union, nor will we be the last.”
Babette was about to ask Mir another question when Jade appeared slightly out of breath, “I’m so sorry I’m late. I got a little lost. I’ve never been outside the Capital City before, and uncle Frank’s transport is well, not an Alliance transport, but I’m here.” She gave Babette a hug, “You look so beautiful.” Then she pulled out a silver hair clip and put it in Babette’s blonde hair, “Something borrowed.”
Babette gave her a quizzical look.
“It’s from Captain Kara’s annotations on Madame Bai’s book. She has made notes of marriage customs from Earth to bring some humanity to things. Apparently, some humans used to say it was good luck to give the bride something borrowed. So, there you go. Borrowed.”
Babette instinctually touched the hair clip and smiled, “Thank you, Jade, I’ll be sure to return it to you afterward.”
Jade just smiled at her friend and then looked at Mir.
Babette realized that they had never actually met, “This is Mir whom you’ve heard so much about.”
“Mir, what a pleasure.”
“Likewise, I’ve heard many good things about you, and I look forward to visiting your restaurant soon.” Then he looked at both women seriously and said, “And thank you for coming to witness our marriage ceremony.”
“Of course,” Jade said, taken a little off guard by his sudden seriousness.
“Now we should go,” Mir began walking, and the two women followed closely behind him. After a few minutes of walking through rough terrain, they were on a cobblestone path with tall stone trees on either side of them. The path to the Underworld.
Babette stopped to touch one of the stone pillars that looked like a tree, but when she did, she jumped as it lit up and stayed lit up, “Oh, hush tree, go dark again.” She looked at Mir, “Sorry, it looked like a tree, and I wanted to touch it.”
“These are the beacons of light that we will need to find our way out after,” he explained, and then seeing the looks of horror on the women’s faces, he added, “It’s only ceremonial.”
The women nodded and then continued following him.
“How do you know the way?” Babette asked. “Have you been here before?”
Mir didn’t stop walking, “In a sense, yes.”
“I don’t understand,” Babette admitted.
“As if in a dream,” Mir said as if it was the most natural thing in the world. He turned to look at Babette and saw her confusion, “You’ll understand everything soon.” He hoped to comfort her with that phrase, but instead, he made her nervousness worse and decided to stay quiet for a while. He was nervous himself.
They walked until they reached the mouth of a large cave. On either side of the dark cave entrance were intimidating beast like statues hovering over the path to enter. Babette wondered if these had been real beasts that had walked the Capital Planet or mythological ones, but before she could ask, Mir’s friend Ko stepped out of the shadows as they approached.
Jade jumped at the sight of him.
Ko was huge, even for an Alliance man. His job was to train the Imperial Guards, but he was a slave, as was evident by his handsome green uniform and slave ranking jewelry.
Mir introduced the women, and Ko surprised Jade by only offering the polite religious greeting but then taking her small hand in his. Like so many things in Alliance culture, this was a contrary behavior of saying one thing and then doing another.
When she looked up and gave him a surprised look, he said, “We are the witnesses at this dark wedding we must enter together to support our friends. If we do not, none will be allowed to enter.”
Jade nodded and allowed Ko to escort her in. Thinking all the while, Dark wedding? What does that mean?
Mir took Babette’s hand and then said to them all, “Now we enter the Underworld. May the god of darkness grant us what we seek. May the goddess of light be always oblivious to our actions.”
Then a flash of lightning lit the sky and made Babette and Jade jump. It was as if the gods had actually heard Mir’s words.
Ko was not startled by the lightening, “The god of darkness will grant your desires as I know you are both pure of heart and are each other’s other half.” Ko waited for Jade to repeat what he had said, but when she didn’t, he squeezed her hand and whispered, “You must say it too.”
Jade looked at Mir and Babette and then said, “I’m sure the god of darkness will see your love is true and bless your marriage.” She felt like it was the most ridiculous thing to say and hoped that she didn’t sound too insincere. She looked up to the sky as she finished, but there was no lightning, and she hoped that was not a bad thing.
Mir looked at Babette. He purposely had left out a lot of the details of this ceremony. He didn’t want her to reject him because of the primitiveness of a marriage ceremony in the Underworld.
Babette knew she needed to say something on the spot, “Please god of darkness allow us entry into your cave and grant us our wish to be married.” At the last minute, she added, “And keep us safe in this endeavor. I don’t want to die.”
Jade surprised them all by speaking before Ko this time and replied, “Yes, please god of darkness. I definitely don’t want my friend to die over her love for this man.”
“May the god of darkness keep us all safe in his inky veil, I don’t want to die either.”
It was only then that Jade realized that it would not only be Mir and Babette put to death for this, but Ko and herself as well. However, before she could clarify this, they began walking down into the darkness. Down into the cave which Mir indicated was the Underworld, and Jade started to become worried she may never see the light of day again. She was grateful then to be holding onto Ko’s steady hand. She said out
into the vast cold darkness, “Please don’t let go.”
Ko answered her, “I promise Madame Jade, I wouldn’t do any such thing.” He wanted to add, I am just as scared as you are, but he had heard that human women were uncomfortable when men expressed their fears, so he kept this to himself.
Babette held on to Mir’s hand tightly. She stumbled a few times on her dress on the uneven cobblestones.
“Is it difficult for you to see?” Mir asked.
“I can’t see anything. Humans can’t see in the dark,” Babette explained. “I hope there will be some light somewhere, or else all I’ll remember of my marriage ceremony is darkness.”
Jade laughed because she was nervous and replied, “Well, at least it won’t be difficult to reminisce your wedding night, just turn out the lights.”
Then both women laughed.
“Yes, there will be some candles when we reach the temple at the bottom of the cave,” Mir said. “I forgot that humans have poor night vision. Don’t worry, it's only about a twenty-minute walk down, and you have my hand.”
“Twenty minutes!” Jade exclaimed. “Babette, you better eat at my restaurant every day. Tell all your friends. The things you do for friends.”
Babette laughed, “I will, I promise. Thank you for doing this.” Babette was grateful for Jade’s banter as if they were all just silent and serious she might turn back. In the darkness, she could see nothing. All she could feel was the cave beneath her feet and Mir’s cool hand holding hers.
Mir and Ko listened to the women, but didn’t understand why the humans were afraid of the dark. As they had never been in the dark, they had no idea what it felt like to be blind or the helplessness that came along with it.
After what seemed like an eternity of walking in the pitch black, Babette recognized the goddess of home’s statue with a small, single candle in front of it, “Are we getting close?”
“Yes, we are now entering the Underworld,” he said in a whisper. “We’ll have to pass through the gates soon.”
They walked, and there were more statues of the gods and goddesses, some Babette recognized and others she did not. All of them had single candles in front of them. Then they reached a black iron gate, and two disciples were there in black. To Babette’s surprise, they were men. She thought all disciples and priests were women in the Alliance.
