So yeah, reading. Aldaris apparently doesn't know how to read english that well, so I've been going up there every so often to help him. That might sound complicated, but it's really not. Since he's a telepath, he can get the general idea from just reading my mind as I read the book. It seems like that would go too quickly, especially considering my reading speed, but Aldaris says that that's a good way to train. I kinda disagree, but I'm not the psychic, so whatever. English is one of those languages that's better to learn through practice.
As normal, Aldaris teleported me to the observatory. He can't access teleporter controls from the observatory, apparently, so I had a few seconds to stand there and wait. Which was fine. My bookmark fell out, but I'm pretty sure I remember where we were in that book. I also brought along a child's book of fairy tales, just like Terry suggested. The edition I got was for children, so the print was larger. The illustrations were also pretty dorky. I do wish I could have gotten one with the grim, creepy illustrations, but those ones all had smaller print. Oh well. The fairy tale book I was willing to leave with the Protoss for his own study, but the Complete Works of O'Henry is mine - he can't have it. That, added with Heinlein's Farmer in the Sky (I absolutely love that book), there's bound to be something he can handle. I'm a little concerned that this stuff is what I'll like rather than what he'll like, but I've got to figure out his taste in books at some point.
I went to the table and spread out my offerings. As I did, this slow sensation of something creepy built up. There was something wrong with the room. What was it? It was empty as usual, with just the table and three chairs, then a large, empty floor until you got to the massive window at the side. Aldaris doesn't keep stuff in here, not with us humans potentially around.
Hm, I just noticed this now, but whenever Charlie comes in this room, he always sits in exactly one chair - the one with its back to the wall, and that wall's the one with the door in it. Since this chair is too far to the left, no one standing at the door can immediately see him. From there he commands a nice view of whatever's out the window. Or is he being less tactical with where he sits than I think he is?
Well, it's not his chair that's giving me trouble. To its left is a series of cabinets along the next wall. I never much looked at those before, but I'm pretty sure they weren't half blocked by crates before. Do Protoss have wooden crates? Is that a thing? I mean, why not have wood-based boxes if you live on a jungle world, but all the other crates I'd seen were in different boxes, made of some kind of metal.
Yeah, boxes, exciting, right? Apparently yes. As I looked at them, something seemed wrong. I felt dizzy, and the smell of deep, rich incense filled my nose. I've counted incense for inventory before, but this was not the cheap stuff you buy for a quarter a stick. It was the smell of rich spices, a concoction without a name but ancient. My head started fuzzing out, and I backed away from the boxes. I fanned my nose with my hand, but it made no difference at all. The fragrance, that sickly sweetness, just wouldn't let me go.
The door! I can't open it on my own, but Aldaris was coming in. Without thinking at all, I waited apprehensively until he opened it and charged out the door. Ah, good, the smell didn't follow after me. But as soon as I zoomed out the door, Charlie gave me such a glare that I stopped in my tracks.
"What are you doing? Go back inside!" Aldaris grabbed my arm.
I immediately snatched it away, shaking my head like a fan. "No! I can't!"
"Why not?"
"Because..." I paused, suddenly realizing that I had no idea how to explain. "Because...I don't know, I just can't! Huh-uh, no way."
"Have you lost what remains of your mind?!"
"Dunno. Whatever's in that room is a no." I crossed my arms in front of me. "Big no!"
Aldaris looked inside, only peeking in a bit so that he could keep an eye on me. His expression changed - from that of annoyance, to wide-eyed realization, to suspicion.
"Did you touch anything?"
"Absolutely not! Nope." I shuddered.
That didn't make him happy. Instead, his eyes narrowed, and he said nothing for a minute. Did he think I was lying? I swear, I didn't do anything!
"Come with me."
Unhappy and out of sorts, I followed him. It was a completely silent and awkward walk, all the way back to the bridge. That was when I remembered I left all those books I brought back in the lounge. Great. So we went in the bridge, and I figured he would make me sit in the back, like the last time I had been in there. But no, he pointed me to a side chair at the front console, and he took the main chair himself.
"Bethany, do you know what those boxes contain?"
I shook my head.
"They are the icons of my gods. I had them moved temporarily for organizational purposes."
All the blood fell from my face, and to try and get it back, my head collapsed into my hands. I am the Crown Princess of Awkwardness (I met the Queen, once. She cartwheeled into a birthday cake). I stayed down in that position while trying to think quick, to try and explain with words what happened. There was that smell, wasn't there? Uh, does that make sense? It's bad enough to do something ridiculous, but even worse when you don't have words for it.
"Well, then..." Oh good, the blood came back to my head. I needed that to blush. "So um, it's like...okay, so I have hypersensitivity, and I can like, sense things...it, uh, happens sometimes. And when I was in the lounge - I swear I didn't touch anything - there was this strange smell coming from the boxes-"
"The icons have no scent," Aldaris replied sharply. "Had this been so, there is little potential for any smell to be detected outside of its packaging."
Blush harder! It makes the blood reach my head faster! I lost my words for just a second more, but then took a deep breath.
"Well, I also have synaesthesia," I explained. "That means I record information with one sense, and it's translated as another - like being in a certain place can have a flavor, for example. Normally it just means that letters have specific colors, but weirder stuff happens at times too. The smell was probably simply my brain's way of translating information."
"And what information is this?"
"Information of a, ah, spiritual sort. Like, this sort of ancientness, like an old power. Unfriendly, also. I couldn't breathe." It didn't occur to me until I said it that that was a weird thing to say. Since the smell wasn't a literal smell, it shouldn't have interfered. But it's too late to worry about looking like a weirdo. Soldier on. "Near as I can figure, either your gods don't like me, or my God doesn't want me around them. More than that, I don't know."
I threw my hands up in surrender, and shrank into the chair, waiting some inevitable lecture or scornful comment. My only hope was that Charlie by now was so used to my general buffoonery that he'd let it slide. Then again, I'd just insinuated that his gods were messed up. So I tensed up and wait for all hell to break loose.
Arrrnngh...why do I make everything so awkward?!
But it didn't, or at least not by much. When I, trembling, lifted my eyes from their embarrassed focus on my shoes, Aldaris wasn't mad at all...I think. He was amused, with a side of disdainful, and his yellow eyes stared haughtily down at me. It looked like he might laugh, for a minute. Yet something in his face...was that...understanding? Curiosity? Maybe in my horrified state I was imagining optimistic outcomes.
"Perhaps," he said. "Perhaps Aiur's gods have legitimate reasons to find you distasteful. Religious discussion is not the purpose of your presence here. Another time, perhaps. Have you brought books, as you have promised?"
"Yeah...but they're all back there. And uh, if I can say so without offending you, I'd really like to not go back to that room again."
That didn't bother him, from what I could tell. Charlie just turned his chair to his left, reaching under the console. There was a drawer there, and he opened it and removed something. It was very small, and I couldn't quite tell what it was until he handed it over. Aha! It was an old copy of A Horse and His Boy. It was the one with the great, awkward cover, too, with Aslan's face in the sky and trees that look like sci-fi rock candy on a stick.
"Ooh, I love this book," I said. "And it's even the copy with the really awkward fantasy cover. Awkward fantasy covers are the best. My brother had this whole set."
"You have no objection to reading it, then?"
"Oh no, it's a really great story." I blinked for a second. "But uh, it's written by a Christian author, so if you were hoping to avoid religious discussion..."
Aldaris threw his hands in the air. "By the gods above! Bethany, you shall return and retrieve your books, and we shall continue with Watership Down. Do not object to this, and make no more comment on your insensible feelings."
"Ehhhh..."
Seriously, what did Aldaris have to gain by moving those things into the observatory? Whatever. I still don't know how big his ship is at this point, so maybe it's necessary. Also, Watership Down has bunny religion in it, but I guess that doesn't count. 'Cause it's bunnies.
/
Author's Notes:
- Before you get on this chapter for being unrealistic, this has actually happened to me. I was looking at a picture on the wall once, and I viscerally didn't like a certain part of it, and didn't know why. That part, as it so happened, turned out to be a symbol of another religion (I can't remember which at the moment, but I had never seen the particular symbol before). There's also elements of other weird events mixed in there (scent thing also happened), so Aldaris is pretty much the only fictitious thing about it.
- Also, sorry about this not being so long. I do have more to write, but the real world is a thing. On the other hand, I'm not that late posting this, so yay.
Author's Notes New:
- Lol, I was late this go-round. I was considering excising or rewriting this chapter, but I want to move things along, and honestly I'm building towards stuff with the religious thing. The value of a character like Aldaris is that his perspective is very different from our own, so it'll be fun to write him reacting to stuff.
