Tieria had no idea of how long he slept but it felt like a long time. Regene was gone as he woke up and immediately winced in pain. He hurt all over. Sitting up was out of the question, in fact moving at all caused his very bones to ache. Tieria rolled in bed and was rather surprised at finding Mileina holding a tray and smiling. At least she would know by now how he was not the epitome of purity but the exact opposite. It was a relief. He had gone past shame a long time ago, after all.
It took Tieria some time to realize that he was in another of his many bedrooms. Which explained the fresh clean sheets. As Mileina presented the tray and lifted a metal lid to reveal food Tieria became aware that he was quite hungry.
"Good morning, master Tieria. Here is Your food."
Tieria fluffed some soft pillows to cushion himself. He had a nasty headache, probably a side effect of the aphrodisiac. Tieria spotted a folded piece of paper next to a plate and read a short message written in Regene's very legible handwriting: Get some rest today and make sure to eat everything. There's some medicine next to the dessert, take it to quell your headache. I will come see you in the afternoon. Love, Your Honorable Brother, Regene Regetta.
Tieria shook his head as he followed Regene's advice and swallowed a pill. The signature was yet another proof of Regene's twisted sense of humor. He felt much better as the dull throbbing pain in his head faded and now took a bite of lobster. With the Innovators, Tieria's diet always included expensive delicacies. This time he had to admit that he enjoyed the pampering and the more he ate the more aware he became of his hunger. The previous night had drained him so much that it was understandable that he felt as weak as he did.
Mileina watched him intently. Tieria wondered very briefly how she felt about what had happened. Only now did he truly realize that she had been under the bed the whole time.
"So…you should know by now that I'm not at all pure."
"I do not understand, Master Tieria."
Tieria figured that it was best to just let it go. He carried on eating, moving to a fresh salad. Mileine kept staring at him with that intense way of hers.
"Never mind. By the way, what do you eat around here?"
"Innovators give me three warm meals per day. I am very grateful."
Here was the core of humanity acceptance of Innovators as undisputed leaders. Ribbons's final war had essentially put an end to civilization and resulted in mass casualties, wide-spread famine with hordes of refugees desperately making their way through a ravaged world. A policy of scorched earth had done away with urban centers apart from the Innovator sponsored mega cities and pushed humanity to the level of subsistence.
It had indeed been the war to end all wars. So much so that after so much destruction the remnants of the human race had willingly accepted Ribbons's offer of peace and assistance. Colonies might occasionally be wiped out of existence simply because Ribbons felt like it but people were well fed and able to enjoy a lasting peace.
Ironically enough Ribbons had accomplished Aeolia's long time plan of bringing absolute peace. That this peace should culminate in extermination did not strike Tieria as a contradiction but as a logical conclusion of everything Ribbons and the others stood for. If anything Tieria did not understand why they had done it a long time ago. Surely there was no point in dragging on this charade for such a long time but then again it could be they got tired of humans in the same way a kid eventually grew out of a once interesting ant-farm.
"Do want to try some of my lobster?"
Mileina gasped in shock.
"I could never do such a thing as share Master Tieria's food."
Tieria glanced at his lavish meal.
"It's alright, we eat the same food as humans."
Tieria ordered another plate and cutlery for Mileina and watched bemusedly as she bit into a juicy piece of lobster.
"Tasty!"
"We consume human food and in some very basic ways function as biological creatures. See, we bleed, too."
Tieria sliced his thumb with a knife, the merest of cuts. He meant to show a point and was completely unprepared for Mileina's shriek of horror. Tieria started in dismay. Already she was tearing at her clothes for a makeshift bandage.
"Master Tieria, are you hurt?! Please, take this- does it hurt?"
Tears glimmered in her eyes, very big, very wounded eyes. Tieria could not speak. Silently he accented her torn garment.
"I am fine, it will heal in no time. We heal very quickly. I didn't mean to distress you."
Tieria sketched a gesture to pat her head and retrieved his hand at the very last moment. Tears were rolling down her cheeks now. Tieria's long dormant guilt suddenly kicked in. How unworthy he was of tears.
"Master Tieria, last night- was Master Regene hurting you?"
Tieria sighed. It made perfect sense that to a young child a wild night of sex should come across as painful. And despite the depth of experience Tieria had in all things sexual he had none in explaining such things to children. After some thought he reached for Regene's letter.
"No, not at all. Regene always watched out for me and cares deeply for me. See?"
Mileina stared uncomprehendingly at the letter.
"I don't know letters,"
Despite everything Tieria was still taken aback. He knew that the level of literacy had dropped considerably and that younger human generations were mostly brought up in dreary ignorance but it was still difficult to come to terms with it.
"I see."
"We learn all scripture by heart."
Horribly archaic but she seemed at least to have regained some of her spirits. Tieria showed her his by now healed cut.
Mileina lit up.
"It's healed already! I am so happy!"
Tieria hardly knew what he wanted to say until he was already saying it:
"Would you like me to teach you how to read?"
Another shocked gasp.
"But Master Tieria, I'm just a lowly human."
"You do realize that 'lowly humans' came up with written systems to start with? It's part of your heritage."
Mileina shook her head almost violently.
"It's my duty to serve Master Tieria, to have You teach me, it can't be."
For the first time in untold ages Tieria had found something he truly wanted to do, of his own volition, that did not concern his being essentially a slave. He sat up straight and put some authority into his voice when he next addressed her.
"Mileina, I am your master and you will do as I say. We start tomorrow."
Tieria watched the newly inaugurated absurdly giant bronze statue from the round veranda. Few times have he seen something as dissonant and in plain bad taste.
"Bad taste, isn't it?"
It was not uncommon for Regene to pick thoughts straight from his mind, it could both be highly comforting and absolutely terrifying. Presently it was simply amusing.
"It's Ribbons's sense of style, I suppose. But why a statue of Alejandro Corner, of all people?"
Regene shrugged.
"Who knows. It's odd but I believe Ribbons took something of a shine to him."
Tieria turned to the statue again. It had been modelled after classic heroic statuary so that the impressive figure was arrested mid-gesture, pointing toward the horizon with blank eyes and a firm expression.
"Imagine if he hadn't."
Regene laughed.
"It's a monument to humanity. Would you rather choose another representative of the species?"
It was Tieria's turn to shrug.
"What's the point of that? Why make statues at all."
"Speaking of which, I believe you've yet to visit any of your temples. They all have some very lovely Tieria Erde statues."
Tieria smiled wanly and resumed his seat on a suspended chair. Today he wore a very light white gown that pooled around his legs. Regene matched the outfit.
"I leave that up to you. I hardly see why there's a need for a religion dedicated to me but it seems to have flourished without my even knowing about its existence so it hardly needs me now."
"You've been accessing the scriptures lately, though."
Tieria sampled the rosy tea, a taste of the Earth.
"A bundle of extremely obscure texts with disjointed syntax, difficult to apprehend meaning, overall confusing and occasionally contradictory."
Regene giggled and drank from his own delicate china teacup.
"That's the essence of religion, Tieria! I thought you knew that already?"
"Who wrote them, exactly? And why is every 'holy text' in a made up language?"
"Technically speaking all languages are made up. As to who wrote them, I did."
"Still. 'Innovate' is a language that no one ever spoke and it's only represented in scripture. It seems like a great waste of time and energy."
"It is believed that Sanskrit was never spoken either and it survives only through texts believed to be scared."
"Like the Vedas, yes. But why go out of your way to make the religious texts as incomprehensible as possible?"
"I figured you'd understand given your experience with humans. Religious knowledge, which is to say interpretation, must be the monopoly of some dominating elite. In the days of old the clergy filled that role. If anyone could understand the text in its plainest meaning then there would be no mystery or sense of reverence. A great portion of what makes a religion appealing is precisely the way it affects the subject's emotional state."
Tieria had looked into the matter because of Mileina. It was depressing to see how pseudo arcane lore took hold of people's mind, their ability to possibly break the spell being mined by their means to expand their intellectual horizons.
"If you meant to make to obfuscate then you succeeded."
"How are you liking your new toy?"
Tieria had expected this question. He knew that showing too great an interest in Mileina could very well result in untold pain for her. Tieria suspected that the timing was deliberate, that they had presented her at this point in time precisely to see how much he would suffer when the final annihilation of humanity came to be. On the other hand if he did seem interested enough Regene would probably dispose of her.
"She is satisfactory."
"How wonderful, do tell me if she gets too bothersome."
Tieria took some time sipping the still warm and fragrant tea. There was another angle to this, a less obvious one. Regene was not immune to jealousy. Even if Tieria was seen as common Innovator property, it was only so because Regene gave his unvoiced but very much real permission.
It was a very strange notion and one that had taken a lot of time to finally sink in but Tieria now knew that the main reason why Regene had seen fit to eliminate Celestial Being was because the organization claimed too much of Tieria's heart. In fact, it might have been why Regene had joined forces with Ribbons at all.
Looking back, as Tieria could not help doing now, that had been the event that sealed the demise of humanity. Ribbons on his own could have been stopped and Regene's schemes for all their scope could have been curbed in the early days. If at any point before the Innovators gained absolute domination a schism had occurred then Celestial Being would have stood more than a fighting chance, it would probably have won.
That a dispute would happen between Ribbons and Regene had been Tieria's last hope. After all, Ribbons's status as a living god could not possibly gain any traction with Regene. And Ribbons was at heart a megalomaniac who had no issues getting rid of once useful partners as the unfortunate Alejandro Corner, now immortalized in bronze, could attest to. Once the Ribbons/Regene partnership ran its course it was to be expected that they would end up turning against each other.
Tieria was not precisely sure why this had not happened. He suspected it had something to do with Regene being content in lording over from the shadows so that Ribbons was free to take the front of power while Ribbons enjoyed the snarky banter that could only be enjoyed with Regene. Either way the relationship proved too profitable for both parties in the long run to be discarded.
"I will."
"Would you like to visit one of your temples?"
Tieria blinked.
"On the Earth?"
"If you so choose. But there is a new one at a nearby colony."
The mere thought of visiting Earth made him literally ill.
"I don't know,"
Regene bridged the distance between them and cast a chaste kiss on Tieria's forehead.
"It's alright, Tieria."
It crossed Tieria's mind that perhaps the Innovator religion provided something akin to this, a soothing feeling that bypassed all thought.
