"So the Christmas Star was what led the Wise Men straight to Bethlehem. It told them the rumors were true – well, it didn't tell them – it never spoke – but, poetically speaking…"
Dr. Drakken trails off, suspecting he is mangling the story. Lapis's bunched eyebrows cement that theory.
He lets himself sag in the middle for a nanosecond and then restarts. "So, the Wise Men – I think you'd like these guys – they'd built their whole lives around studying stars. They were very smart and very rich and very…"
"Elite?" Lapis supplies. Her knees are in their familiar peak, her pixie chin resting atop them, and she seems to sparkle with fairy dust.
"Yes!" Drakken snaps his fingers gratefully. "Anyway, there had been rumors around the world for a while now that a great King was going to be born – and he would be greater than any ruler who had ever lived…or ever would live."
Drakken hears his voice hedge. It was an opening that he once thought he should be the one to fill, and to prod at it still feels a little raw.
"Some of the rumors said," Drakken says, after a moment to collect himself, "that there would be a sign in the heavens when that King was born. The Wise Men were waiting for it – and then one night, this enormous star showed up in the sky – out of nowhere! – and they knew that now was the time." He rubs his hands together, because he has not had the honor of telling this story to someone who's never heard it before. "They hopped on their camels – you know what camels are, right?"
A nod.
"Splendid! They followed the Star…it was kind of like those little dots on the map at the mall telling you where you need to be."
"I know how star-maps work, Drakken." Lapis giggles slightly, reminding him of the shake of sleigh bells. "My people invented them."
Drakken makes a face, but he can't help chuckling a little, too. It is hard not to amidst the twinkle lights spiraling around the ceiling fan (one of his taller henchmen helped with that) and, of course, his present company.
"All right, then, Miss Smarty Boots," Drakken says, "the Three Wise Men brought gifts to Jesus. Gold, frankincense, and…uhh….figgy pudding. No – wait – that's not right."
He presses his fingertips to his temples and commands the thoughts to circle in the center of his brain. They swirl with every Christmas carol he knows, most unhelpfully. It is as if he has to chisel the answer out of a cavern wall . . . it starts with an M, doesn't it? And is relatively short? It isn't mold…
"Myrrh!" Drakken finally crows. "Gold, frankincense, and myrrh!"
"Oh." Lapis rests her head against the arm of his Thinking Chair and rolls her irises up to him. "Weird gifts for a baby."
"I know, right? But they were great honors for a king." Drakken irons out his posture, muscles straightening; for all his lofty goals, he never quite perfected a regal posture. "And it's very important to know that the Wise Men weren't the only people God invited. They weren't even the first. First were a group of shepherds. And maybe that doesn't seem like a big deal, but –"
"Are you kidding?" Lapis bursts out – well, a burst by Lapis's standards, which is still quiet for anyone else. "Shepherds were the lowest of the low. There wasn't any pride in being a shepherd."
"Oh. Right." Drakken forgets sometimes that she was here on Earth, so many thousands of years ago, and in this respect she probably understands better than he does.
"So…he invited the Elite and the Pearls?" Lapis asks.
Drakken can almost see an incandescent bulb lighting over her head, and he nods. "And he didn't just send a secondhand star to the shepherds, either. They got a full-fledged angel straight from heaven! And once they'd calmed down enough to listen, the angel told them he had great news for them – the Savior had been born! They would find him in Bethlehem, wrapped in cloth and lying in a bed of hay."
Lapis shivers at those last six words, but her regard doesn't waver.
"It was a miracle that Jesus was even born in the first place," Drakken says, and halfway through the sentence he feels his cheeks heat and wonders how, exactly, he is to explain this to a Gem. "Because his mother was…an uncolonized planet."
Lapis's eyes flicker understanding, and Drakken wipes a gallon of sweat from his brow.
"And then – you know what, I'm just going to read this part to you; it's so fantastic!" Drakken retrieves his well-worn Bible from a TV tray and thumbs through its dog-eared pages. "And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host, singing, 'Glory to God in the highest, and on Earth, peace, goodwill towards men.'"
Lapis shuts her eyes and wisps the smile that warms him more efficiently than hot cocoa.
