Chapter 7
The next time Tira awoke, she discovered that there were fewer wires attached to her body. She also noted that there was a stack of paper and writing implements on a table next to her bed, and also a strange metal device. It looked like a computer, but it was very thin, and clearly meant to be held in the hand.
Tira picked up the device curiously, her fingers brushing over its screen. To her surprise, the device immediately lit up. There were symbols on it that looked like writing, but she didn't recognize the letters. She stared curiously at it for a moment, reaching out to trace the shape of the symbols with her finger.
The screen changed again, and Tira saw a picture of an adult female, with more of the strange symbols underneath. When she touched the symbols, the device emitted an unfamiliar sound.
Startled, Tira dropped the device into her lap, but she quickly picked it up again. That had sounded like…
Curiously, she tried again. She realized that it sounded like one of the words of the Gods. She tested the word, trying the peculiar sounds and syllables out on her tongue.
"W… wo… wo…man…" she stumbled. "Wo… man. Woman!"
The device beeped appreciatively, and another picture appeared of an adult male. Tira pressed the symbols underneath this new image, and another word came out of the device. This word was similar to the previous word.
"Man." Tira said.
The device beeped again, and now there was a picture of a young female. After hearing the device, Tira did her best to copy it.
"G…gu…girl."
Tira grinned as the device beeped once more. She was learning the words of the Gods! They wanted her to learn how to communicate with them! And if she could communicate with them, she could tell them what was happening on Piiri, and they would be able to help her. She returned to the exercise with renewed vigor. Very quickly, she learned more words. She learned that a young male was a 'boy' and an infant was a 'baby'. There were two unfamiliar animals that were apparently called 'dog' and 'cat', but she recognized the animals known as 'bird' and 'fish'. Then the device began to teach her plurals for these nouns, and then compared different pictures to illustrate adjectives such as 'old, 'young', 'thin', 'fat', 'tall', 'short', and more.
When a machine came with food for her, Tira found that she was ravenous. She had no idea how long she had been working with the device, but she felt that it must have been at least two turns of the glass. She ate voraciously, and then returned to her studies.
For her next two rest cycles (she didn't know if they were orbits or not, as she didn't have a window to show her the light and dark of the Suns) she spent all of her waking moments with the device, doing her best to learn as many words of the Gods as possible.
After her third rest cycle, she awoke to discover that she only had one tube attached to her arm and only one wire attached to her head. She smiled. She was getting better! The machine that usually brought her food entered, but this time it was carrying a drying cloth and a bottle containing an unknown liquid. The machine pressed a button on the wall, and a small chamber opened up. Water began to flow from a nozzle close to the ceiling. Tira smiled with delight. She didn't know how long it had been since she had bathed herself, but this appealed to her greatly.
The machine disconnected the remaining tube and wire, and escorted Tira to the chamber. She was a little shy, but the warmth of the steaming spray encouraged her. She was undressed and in the chamber within a few moments. The bottle appeared to contain some kind of cleanser, and she washed her body and her hair with it.
She didn't hear the machine depart, but when she finished bathing, she noticed that fresh clothing and a comb had been laid out for her. Her bed had been folded into the wall, and the newly-created space had been filled with a table and three chairs.
Three chairs! The implications of that made Tira's head spin. She had been hoping that Keyop might visit her again, but three chairs implied that she was going to receive two visitors!
Tira dressed in the unfamiliar garments that had been laid out for her and combed her hair after drying it with the cloth. She was about to sit down in one of the chairs when a sudden impulse overtook her. She went to the panel that Keyop had used the other day, and pressed the same button he had. Sure enough, the box popped out of the wall. Looking inside the container of her personal possessions, Tira pulled out her mother's silver pendant. She placed it around her neck, latching it into place. Somehow, it made her feel better, as if part of her family was there with her.
Tira fingered the pendant thoughtfully, but without triggering the image of her mother and her Aunt Jani. There was something too painful about that, and so she avoided the memory altogether.
After she had been sitting for only a few moments, the door opened, and two males entered. One was a boy, about her age, with a mop of messy brown hair sticking straight out all over the place. He wore a yellow shirt with a strange symbol on it, and pants with vertical blue and white stripes. There was something familiar about him… Tira couldn't put her finger on it, but when he approached she felt the familiar pictures pushing at her mind. She concentrated, and suddenly knew where she had seen him before.
"Keyop!" she exclaimed, and he smiled wide enough to crack his face in two. He held out his arms and she ran into them, accepting her God's blessing of his warm embrace. After a moment he pulled back, his cheeks stained pink.
Tira did not have time to wonder at this turn of events, as Keyop quickly turned her toward the man accompanying him. He was tall, with stone-grey hair and a pleasant smile. He bent over politely, offering her his hand as Keyop had done when he had first met Tira. Normally Tira was terrified to meet new people… especially adults, and especially males. But she innately trusted Keyop. He was a God, wasn't he? So she swallowed her fear, returned the smile and accepted his hand cautiously.
"Tira." she said, hesitantly patting her chest. Keyop smiled and nodded, and suddenly she felt emboldened. She desperately wanted to please her new friend. Nervously, she pointed at her new visitor, in an attempt to show off what she had learned. "Tall man!"
The man beamed, and patted his own chest.
"Professor Huffton." he said. Tira furrowed her brow, doing her best to commit the man's name to memory. He repeated it a few times, and then she was able to repeat it back to him.
Keyop gestured to the three chairs, and Tira sat down curiously. Professor Huffton pulled out a device similar to the one Tira had been studying. She nodded, then retrieved her own device from the table next to her bed.
But Professor Huffton indicated with gestures that he did not want her to turn it on. Instead, he turned on his own device, and showed a picture to Tira. This time, there were no symbols underneath the picture. But Tira understood. She told him what she saw.
"Fat dog!" she exclaimed.
Professor Huffton smiled and Keyop spoke excitedly. She saw a brief image in her mind of a different animal, but she was quite sure that it was also a dog. It appeared to be somewhat rotund.
Tira looked sharply at Keyop. Had the picture come from him? Was he making fun of her?
But it seemed that he wasn't. Professor Huffton showed her the same pictures she had seen since she had begun studying the device. She demonstrated that she knew everything from 'man' and 'woman' to 'The tall man eats.' and 'The thin woman drinks.' And every time she answered, an image would appear in her head of the same thing she had just described, but slightly different from the manner in which it was depicted in the picture.
After that the Professor began to show Tira pictures she didn't recognize, and she quickly understood that they related to a series of lessons she had not yet attempted. She shook her head regretfully. Professor Huffton patted her hand reassuringly, and then tapped the image displayed. He said a word slowly and clearly.
Tira instantly brightened. Professor Huffton was here to teach her! She instantly put her mind to the task, finding that she was able to learn twice as fast with someone there to correct her speech. Whenever she spoke, an image would appear in her head, guiding her to understanding. Every so often she looked over at Keyop, who simply grinned at her.
The lessons did not stop, even for Tira's meal. Machines (Tira had just learned that these kinds of machines were called 'robots') brought in food on trays, and as they ate, Professor Huffton named all of the eating implements, foods, and serving dishes for her. She had a little difficulty with the concepts that related to how the food tasted: 'delicious', 'awful', 'salty', 'sweet', and so on, but the images in her mind helped her, leading her to the correct meanings more quickly than she ever could have imagined. Every time she uncovered the puzzle behind the meaning of one word she delighted in it, and then worked twice as hard to uncover the meaning behind the next one. And through it all, Keyop smiled at her, speaking his musical words and encouraging her as much as he could.
By the time the lesson was over, Tira was exhausted, but exhilarated. Professor Huffton left, but Keyop remained, sharing another meal and using a combination of words and images to communicate with her. Without the presence of the Professor, their interaction became more casual and relaxed. Tira found herself laughing and giggling as Keyop presented amusing pictures in her head. She almost forgot that she was in the presence of a God.
But when Keyop stood to depart, it all came flooding back to her, and Tira was overcome with shame at her forwardness. She threw herself down at his feet, begging for forgiveness.
"I'm sorry…" she whispered, using words she had learned just that day. "Keyop is… important… a God…"
"No." Keyop shook his head firmly, lifting her up to stand next to him. "I am not a God. I am a boy."
Tira shook her head, refusing to listen. She wouldn't let Keyop debase himself for her. When he insisted, she moved over to her stack of paper and writing implements. There was a box with different colors of inks, and she used them to sketch out the Sign of the Gods. In her excitement, she forgot to use her new words (not that she would have been able to describe what she wanted anyway, with her limited knowledge) and spoke in her natural Piiri tongue.
"I see the purity of the White." she recited, her old lesson coming back to her. "I see her Mate above her, and her Son below." Tira pointed to the colored marks on her page when she spoke of each one. When she came to the Son, she shyly pointed at Keyop.
"Her Mate is as white as she, while her Son is black, signifying his trials to come." Tira continued. "To her right stands the Guard, and to her left, the Guide. They stand as earth and sky, showing the boundaries of our world. The White is in the center. She is the core. All others circle around her, for she is the nurturer, and the bringer of life."
Tira finally dared to look into Keyop's eyes, and she bit her lip with worry at his troubled expression. He gently tugged at the paper in her hands, and she let him have her drawing, bowing her head.
"Goodbye, Tira." he said, his sad, musical tone echoing in her mind as he left.
It had all gone wrong. Keyop had shed his black wings, and she had carelessly forgotten who he truly was.
She only hoped that she hadn't ruined everything.
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But apparently she hadn't. After her rest cycle, Professor Huffton and Keyop appeared again. And they did after the following rest cycle as well. It wasn't until this third lesson that Tira realized that Keyop's speech was significantly different from that of the Professor. His musical tones were unique to him, and she desperately wished that she could imitate them as well. Occasionally, when she was supposed to be sleeping, she would recall his tones, and hum them to herself. They were beautiful, and worthy of remembering.
After perhaps seven lessons, Tira had gotten used to her schedule and was eagerly awaiting the arrival of Keyop and Professor Huffton for her eighth. But only Keyop appeared. He was grinning widely, and he held out his hand to her.
"Come with me, Tira." he said, amongst his musical notes.
"Where…" Tira struggled to recall the right words to use. "Where go we?"
"We are going to your room." Keyop said excitedly, leading her down a long corridor made entirely of metal. The doors lining the corridor were all completely flat, with buttons in the wall next to them, to allow access.
"My room?" Tira repeated, as understanding came to her. "I not… stay… in hospital?"
"No." Keyop laughed. "You have a room, now."
He pressed a button on the wall, and the door slid open, revealing a small chamber beyond. There was a bed with a pretty pink cover, and a cabinet to hold personal belongings. Keyop opened the cabinet to show her that her few possessions had already been placed there.
But what fascinated Tira most was the window.
"Fish!" she cried, running over to the glass, running her hands along it in wonder. "Fish are… outside…"
Even more, she could see sunlight coming through the water. She would be able to tell whether it was day or night! She was so happy that she hugged Keyop in joy, her enthusiasm washing over him.
"We will have our lesson here, today." Keyop said, pointing at a table and three chairs. Tira nodded happily.
When it came time to eat lunch, the Professor and Keyop led Tira down the corridors, telling her that this place was called 'Center Neptune'. They arrived at a large room, which Keyop called a 'cafeteria'. There was a large selection of unfamiliar foods available for her to choose from… so much so that Tira simply did not know what to say. Keyop understandingly selected a few things for her, helping her with her tray.
Keyop and the Professor led her to a table, where the lesson continued. For the most part, the many others in the room ignored them, but Tira noticed a table with four other people: three males and one female, who seemed to be paying special attention to her. The four people wore shirts with symbols similar to Keyop's, and the female wore pants that were similar, except her stripes were red, instead of Keyop's blue. Tira wanted to ask who they were, but she was supposed to be paying attention to her lesson, and so she did her best to ignore their silent scrutiny.
In the following days (as Keyop called one orbit around the Suns) Tira learned more and more of the language of the Gods. As she learned she was exposed to new ideas and concepts, some of which she had never imagined, but her eager mind soaked everything up, aided by Keyop's assistance with the images in her mind. She found that the pictures didn't overwhelm her nearly as much as they had at first, and they no longer pained her as they once had done. Each day she spoke with Keyop, telling him what little she could about her home, and about the Followers of Pector who had unexpectedly appeared, and who now seemed as if they would never leave. As her vocabulary expanded, she was able to describe more, but it seemed as if there were some concepts she simply could not adequately express. For one, Keyop simply could not understand that he was a God, although Tira was certain of this fact. And while Tira asked many times to see the White One, or her Mate, Keyop did not appear to understand her request.
It didn't take many more lessons for Tira to realize that the manner in which Keyop spoke was not simply different, but far beyond the way in which others talked. His musical sounds didn't have any overt meaning to her, but if she listened carefully to him (and she was always listening carefully, in her attempt to learn the words of the Gods) she was able to discern emotional nuances from his verbal music. Like analyzing his body language, careful consideration of his musical noises added more depth and meaning to his words, in a way that others seemed to lack. Tira supposed that this talent came from his being a God.
Sometimes, more often than Tira liked, Keyop would not come at all, and Tira would have lessons with only Professor Huffton for company. While she tried her best, she knew her enthusiasm was lacking when Keyop was not present. Her desire was to communicate with the Gods, and while she appreciated the Professor's assistance, her motivation was lessened at these times. She would use her halting words to ask where Keyop was, but would never receive an answer that she could understand.
Still, her ability to speak the words of the Gods was improving every day, and each day brought new hope that she could finally make her appeal to the White One.
