by Enid Titan
It wouldn’t be a funny little planet for long if the destruction and natural disasters continued. Poppy tried to act normal. Jocasta didn’t need to worry about what she’d seen.
“Yeah.”
“Is everything alright? You seem troubled.”
“I’m fine. Visions can be a bit… intense.”
“I know. Good luck. The final test to see who makes it to next semester comes soon.”
“The ring again.”
“It’s too bad you didn’t get a chance to do it when you broke in,” Jocasta continued, “At least you’d know where you stood.”
“I’ll have to take my chances with everyone else.”
“You’ll do swimmingly.”
“Thanks for visiting. You really helped.”
“My pleasure.”
Jocasta smiled. Poppy felt sick to her stomach suddenly. She walked Jocasta out of sickbay and the sickness only intensified. When Jocasta left, Poppy’s stomach settled.
It must all be the after-effects of the vision. At least she knew where to go from here. Poppy sent a message to Uncle Monty on her pad and got an auto-response: He’d left Vortha for the week since Pallas got time off from his last mission quelling a rebellion. Damn. She’d have to wait to get her answers from him.
43
Awareness
Poppy went to bed with her mother’s letter and the telepathic paper nestled under her pillow, hoping that she’d dream of something that would finish the vision. She couldn’t run out to see the boys and she preferred to confer her information to them in person.
Her dreams were neither pleasant nor informative. Penelope floated on an iceberg in the center of a grey sea as waves washed over her and lapped at her body leaving her cold and abandoned. When she was about to freeze to death, a chilling voice whispered her name, “Penelope Darden… oursssssssssssss”.
She woke up covered in sweat. Sweating was an unusual occurrence on Devor, usually saved for the hockey rink. She went to classes, but restriction and pending exams meant she and the boys hardly got to see each other. Jason got Poppy’s attention during P.E.
«This weekend we’ll be at my parents’ apartment. Come down.»
That was it. He tried not to communicate with her in public; Poppy didn’t know why. Perhaps it was their reputation but more likely, it was hers. Other first-years appeared to have a healthy disdain for Devoran men. There was only one other girl who mated — a pretty dark blue girl with almond-shaped topaz eyes named Charis and a sophomore boy named Helios.
They were from the same sector of Vortha and had known each other for years. Hecate was still playing the field as were most girls.
“We have a lifetime of hundreds of years,” Hecate shrugged, “Why settle down too early?”
Poppy couldn’t argue with that. On the ice, she paid attention to the three boys. Did they want to settle down with her? Jason had made plain his feelings about her being an outsider. When they saw her in public they were cold and aloof. Maybe Jocasta was right not to trust them. Poppy wasn’t as confident as Hecate when it came to boys and dating. How could Poppy make the right choice?
After P.E., Hecate had dinner with Poppy.
“Is there a reason you’re so glum?”
“I got a letter from my mother.”
“Oh. Bad news?”
“Weird news.”
“Oh. Well if you need anything let me know.”
“Are you sure I won’t be interrupting another hot date?”
“You might be… but I don’t mind.”
“Hecate?”
“Hm?”
“How do boys act when they like someone?”
Hecate’s lips curled into her mouth as she physically bit back a laugh.
“It isn’t funny!”
“Sorry!” Hecate unleashed, “What a strange question!”
“It’s not! I have no idea how Devoran males act.”
“Do you have a crush?”
“No! You know what… nevermind.”
“Sorry! I didn’t mean to make fun of you.”
Poppy stared at her kelp soup.
“Chin up, earth girl.”
“Whatever.”
“You like someone, don’t you?”
“Let’s say I do… hypothetically.”
“Is it Jason?”
Poppy’s cheeks went red. Great. That would surely give her away. It might have at least if Hecate were human. She didn’t seem to notice.
“Men are strange! I mean here on the planet we don’t display our love publicly. It’s private — completely private. We are open once we are alone together but love is not a public affair on Devor. I find the question… funny.”
“I thought your people were… you know… open.”
“Yes but sex and mating are different.”
Poppy groaned. How could she ever keep this straight?
Hecate was luckily patient with Poppy’s ignorance. After hockey, she kept trying to tease out Poppy’s crush to no avail. After practice, Jocasta skated up to them and sat on the bench to remove her skates.
“What are you two talking about?” she asked.
Hecate snickered, “Penelope has a crush…”
Jocasta’s eyes glowed for a moment and then dulled.
“On who?”
“She won’t tell me. Has she told you?”
Jocasta shrugged. Hecate rose and swung her skates over her stick.
“Good luck prying it out of her. She’s learned well to keep quiet about her personal life.”
Poppy grimaced. Not quiet enough. She’d had an entirely too personal bizarre psychic vision right in front of Jocasta. Once they’d both slipped into their boots, Jocasta asked Poppy if she had plans for the weekend.
“Yeah. I’m meeting up with someone in Vortha…”
“Oh, I’d love to go to the capital!”
“Um, sorry,” Poppy mumbled, “It’s my uncle.”
She’d done a bad job at concealing her lie and Jocasta noticed. She shrugged it off.
“It’s fine if you don’t want to invite me.”
“It’s not that,” Poppy answered weakly.
Jocasta shrugged it off.
“Dinner?”
After dinner with Jocasta, Poppy walked through the snow to the library for a long study session alone. She was doing well in math. Her telepathic studies were improving too but she was still solidly middle of the pack. She excelled at P.E. but Devoran literature was a complete nightmare. She was far behind and her professor was losing patience with her quickly.
All Poppy had to look forward to that weekend was spending time with her three boys. They’d been less edgy since her vision and they knew she had something big to tell them, they just didn’t know what. Poppy was too swamped with assignments to consider what her mother’s letter revealed.
Alien. She was an alien. Well, 1/4 alien. What did it matter to be 1/4 of anything? She’d never met those aliens and she couldn’t be certain that her psychic vision was real, or accurate.
Since the vision, Poppy’s heightened awareness had been both a blessing and a curse. Everything about Devoran food repulsed her, but she was more in tune with the people around her. Devorans no longer seemed so… icy and aloof. The richness of their emotions and they communicated with her danced along her skin. Her mind twisted and danced with a dull but constant pleasure all day. Telepathy expanded her and indulged her perpetual curiosity that surely was more human than alien.
On Friday night, the older students at the Academy had huge parties in their dorms and sometimes their off-campus apartments, but freshmen were never invited to those unless they had any connections. Fellow first-years had grown accustomed to an alien in their midst, but older students still balked at the notion of allowing a jazad into their social spheres.
Everyone was out partying while Poppy nestled into bed alone. For her first time since getting “grounded”, she missed having roommates or at least visitors. She even missed the boys. She properly missed them
. Poppy had never missed anyone like this before — not her mother, not her father, not Uncle Monty. The missing yanked at her heartstrings and she cried herself to sleep, never having been that emotional before.
44
Reality
As Poppy slept with sadness overwhelming her, the boys came to her in her dreams. They kissed her and held her. She lay on the grass, grass that she hadn’t seen since arriving on this planet, and rested her head in Castor’s lap. Ajax sat next to him and twirled her raven hair around his fingers. Jason sat across from her, squinting into her eyes and examining her tear-stained face.
The dream was so real that Poppy didn’t want to wake up from it. She felt the bones in Castor’s legs and the muscles that flexed as he sat with legs crossed.
«I don’t want to wake up,» Poppy complained.
«You have to, jazad,» Jason insisted, «You’re behind in Devoran literature and you’re going to fail out if you don’t pass.»
«I want to fail out,» Poppy mumbled, «I’m only here to help save Earth. Once I move the rings, I don’t care.»
Her eyelids weighed shut. All she wanted to do was sleep, not have this conversation with the dream people occupying her head.
«You don’t mean that,» Castor replied.
His voice was unsteady, lacking its typical confidence.
«She doesn’t,» Jason answered, «She’s just a lazybones who won’t get up.»
«Don’t be so harsh, Jason. I’m enjoying this.»
«I’d enjoy it more if we had Penelope naked,» Castor murmured.
He leaned over and kissed her cheek. White hair fell over her face and Poppy swatted him away even if she enjoyed the kiss. His lips were so real and so warm. She nuzzled deeper into his lap.
«Stop…» Penelope mumbled as Castor attempted to strip her pajamas off.
He stopped and resumed stroking and occasionally kissing her forehead.
«She won’t leave, will she?» Ajax asked, peering over her shoulder to observe Penelope’s sleeping face.
«She won’t,» Jason replied, «I’ll make her stay if I have to.»
«Okay, creep,» Poppy complained.
«You don’t want to leave anyway. That’s why you need to wake up,» Jason insisted.
«Ugh. I don’t want to face the real world.»
Castor challenged her.
«What makes you think this isn’t the real world, Penelope?»
«I’m dreaming, obviously,» Poppy mumbled, nuzzling contentedly in the crook of Castor’s leg.
She wouldn’t allow herself to be so free with them if she weren’t dreaming. She wouldn’t allow herself to admit that the deeper she’d fallen into their twisted love-quadrant, the harder it was becoming to pull herself away from her feelings. And when she had to go back to earth, she’d miss them. Perhaps what she’d feel would be worse than missing them, since Friday night alone had ripped her open.
«Dreaming doesn’t mean this isn’t real,» Ajax said.
He kissed her shoulder. Poppy shrugged him off.
«Shut up,» she mumbled, «Let me rest.»
«She doesn’t believe you,» Jason whispered to him.
«I can hear you,» Poppy complained.
«Prove it to her, then,» Castor said.
Ajax smirked and leaned over, biting Poppy’s shoulder. She squealed and sat up quickly — completely awake and alone in her sickbay quarters. She pressed her hand to her shoulder and recoiled. He fucking bit her! Poppy gasped and wrapped her blankets around herself.
This was impossible. That had only been a dream. A dream. Nothing real about it. She reached under her pillow for the letter and the diagram she’d drawn. Those two items had been somehow responsible for her dream, she was sure of it. If CJ had been there, he would have told her to burn sage and cleanse her room with holy water. Poppy never believed in superstitious stuff like curses before.
Then again, she’d never believed in telepathy either. Her mother had answered her — almost. There were still questions foaming at the back of her mind, confusing her. Uncle Monty was still out of town so she’d get no answers from him. The bite hurt again and Poppy grumbled to herself about the smack she’d plant on Ajax’s face the next time she saw him.
Ugh. The dream had somehow been real. Great. It was bad enough that the boys could crawl inside her head and somehow seemed to know all her feelings, now they could see her dreams too. Poppy was dying to talk to them about it, even if it meant maybe admitting to them that she liked them back a bit. Ok, maybe it was a lot. And maybe they were okay with it, if the dream was real and all three of them were willing to share her, to stroke her hair, and to protect her.
She climbed out of bed and reluctantly cracked open her latest assignment in Devoran literature. A collection of short stories by a writer on Devor II.
Poppy sat up in her chair reading for a while but quickly got bored by the meandering tale of the white-haired princess who played by the river. Who knew a river needed that many words to be described. Wasn’t it just wet and rushing, and maybe a bit cold? Poppy’s eyes fluttered shut again and she dreamed. This time, she dreamed alone.
45
Blood Rituals
Saturday was busy in downtown Vortha. Of course, they had their names for the days of the week, but Saturday seems to capture the essence of it in both languages. Daphne slunk out of the room she now shared only with Hecate before Hecate could return from a night of wild partying.
Daphne might have preferred sharing a room with only another Devoran girl except for the fact that Hecate hated her guts. The tall, athletic girl didn’t trust Daphne one bit and despite her smiles and gregarious nature, Daphne sensed it. Usually, hiding feelings from other Devorans was easier, but Hecate had stopped trying to hide her disdain.
She blames me, Daphne thought, for that jazad getting kicked out of our room. Even Jason was no good lately. He’d forgotten what they’d been taught by their families, forgotten what it meant to be a Devoran of high class and good breeding. He’d forgotten all of it since that filthy pink human had stumbled onto their planet with all the confusion of a newborn vamphare.
Daphne had plans to end her brother’s obsession with the alien — and everyone else’s too. Her first attempt to expose the inherent disrespect of allowing an outsider on the planet had failed. Some still believed the old ways but after what happened in the city, everyone agreed that Daphne had gone too far. Daphne understood what frustration the woman must have felt when the Empress, the first breeder in hundreds of years, had set foot on the planet.
Yes, her mother did have to mate for Daphne to be born, but the pain of mating and the severance of the psychic bond as Daphne and Jason both crested into adulthood had been too much for their mother. She shared the fate of most breeders, cursed to inhabit their father’s shadow, cursed to give up her career and cursed to have her mind fettered by incurable neuroses. Even if the aliens didn’t experience such a fate, they had no right to impose their culture on her or to trick the naive males of Devor, led only by their cocks, into their snares.
Her brother grew up watching how motherhood tormented their mother, yet he’d lost his mind the moment a throbbing pink cunt crossed his path. After watching what happened to their mother, their father joined The Order and his children had joined too. Daphne underwent the genetic change and maintained her faith in the beliefs of old Devorans.
The last bastion of hope for old Devor met Daphne in the basement of a small bookstore owned by a member of The Order. Daphne sensed her prey-like terror as she descended the stairs and then pulled the cloak off her head.
“Finally. I was wondering when you’d meet me face to face.”
Jocasta lowered her eyes. Daphne intimidated her. And she was late, which meant Daphne was already angry.
“I brought what you asked for,” Jocasta stammered.
“Hairs?”
“Three silver hairs from her bed. I looked at the texture of all of them. This one is curly, so it must belong t
o Ajax. The other two are straight. One is much longer than the others.”
“Castor and Jason. Perfect.”
“You aren’t going to hurt her again, are you?”
Daphne rolled her eyes and snatched the glass tubes from Jocasta’s hand.
“I don’t think you need to worry about that.”
“I’m serious, Daphne. I’m not the only one who thinks you went too far.”
“You didn’t think I went too far when you faked a letter from Hecate,” Daphne snapped.
“I made a mistake. You know, she’s not so bad once you get to know her.”
Daphne’s eyes glowed.
“The jazad has taken what is rightfully yours. Isn’t that why you came to me for help?”
“Not…exactly.”
“Don’t be an idiot, Jocasta.”
“I… I only wanted advice on how to get Jason to like me!”
“Play innocent now,” Daphne sneered, “You wanted to hurt her because she got the attention of a boy you liked. You hated her for stealing him from you. I’m not like her, Jocasta. I know what’s going on in your head.”
“I was mad at first but… if Jason likes her back, I can’t change that.”
Daphne smirked.
“We can. That’s what the hairs are for.”
“Okay…”
Daphne scoffed.
“I wouldn’t expect you to understand. I know your family’s from a more primitive lot. Old Devorans have mastered a deeper telepathy. We learned about it in The Order.”
“It’s best if I don’t know,” Jocasta whispered.
“Stop having second thoughts,” Daphne growled, “If you know what’s good for you, you’ll get out of here and keep your mouth shut.”
“Promise you won’t hurt her,” Jocasta pleaded.
“Not this time,” Daphne muttered.
“You promise me, Jason’s going to like me?”
“I’ll do you better than that. Now, scram!”
The timid pale girl pulled her cloak over her head and disappeared. Good, Daphne preferred to work alone. She opened the door behind her where The Order priestess waited.
