“Are you sure?” she asked, eyes narrowing slightly. “All things considered, your brother seems to be running the show here, and he hasn’t exactly been Mister Welcome with me. At dinner, he ignored me and didn’t introduce me to his other guests or them to me, which in my world is the height of rudeness. Nor has he explained anything to me or asked me why I even came here in the first place. Nor do I get the feeling that I am free to come and go as I please.”
Now Diaprepes looked uncomfortable. He fidgeted with his hands and his gaze kept flitting from her eyes to the ceiling. Then he squared his shoulders to speak: “My brother has a lot on his mind right now, with you being here and his Epoptic visions. He must be very cautious, with his own people and with you, likewise.” Diaprepes smiled lamely and his shoulders drooped. “You are right. You are not free to come and go as you please. But that is for your own protection, until my brother deems it is safe for us all. Think of yourself as a foreign object that came to us from outer space for the first time in centuries. You are both cherished and feared by us all. All the people you met at dinner were members of the
Sthanu
Circle. He had good reason, I’m sure, for behaving as he did. I’m equally sure it was not intended as an insult…”
No?
she thought petulantly.
An insult for an insult?
“As our primary
Sthanu
, our future
kushu
, and your rescuer, the role of being your custodian fell naturally to my brother.” His eyes grew suddenly wide and a smile flickered on his lips as he focused down her body.
Alerted by his sudden interest, Genevieve glanced down and noticed that her robe had fallen open, revealing everything of her from breasts to genitals. These damn things had no fasteners! She briskly wrapped her robe more securely around her, face flushing.
She sat in one of the organic chairs to help keep her robe closed and motioned for Diaprepes to take the one across from her. As he hesitated, she asked, “You mentioned your brother’s Epoptic visions. What are they?”
“Oh, I can not describe them to you!” Diaprepes said nervously. “They are sacred and only he can explain them.”
“Okay. I don’t mean his actual visions, but what an Epoptic vision is… generally, I mean.”
“Ah,” Diaprepes relaxed with a sigh. “They are visions or dreams induced by the soporific nature of the
vishna
flower,” he said, sliding into the seat across from her and spreading his legs distractedly apart. His penis hung in full view over his great balls. “My brother is a
soul-drifter
, like I said before, one of the rare few in the
Sthanu
Circle who is sufficiently close genetically to the Epoptes to possess this ability. Legend says that
soul-drifters
are destined to join with the Epoptes.” He waved a dismissive hand, indicating his own skepticism in this. “To aid in
soul-drifting,
the drifter makes a potent mash of the flowers that have dropped to the ground, distils it with other ingredients and imbibes it. This allows him to achieve an intellectual link with the Epoptes, not to be mistaken with a true joining, which involves…” he hesitated and Genevieve noticed the colour of his face deepen. Was he blushing? “Eh, involves having intercourse with an Epoptes, something unheard of in present times. They have not shown themselves, except in Epoptic visions to a
soul-drifter
, since they first came down to us in our homeland thousands of years ago.” Diaprepes’s face deepened in colour as he grew excited. “Some of us believe that the Epoptes will descend again and return to us, joining with all Eosians, and signaling the beginning of a new age of divine living…”
Genevieve thought how the scriptures of the Holy Bible mirrored events in the Eosian pilgrimage and what Diaprepes said of a new coming, “
And I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth passed away… Behold, the tabernacle of God is among men, and He shall dwell among them, and they shall be His people, and God Himself shall be among them, and He shall wipe away every tear from their eyes, and there shall no longer be any death, there shall no longer be any mourning, or crying, or pain
…”
“But many of our philosophers believe that the Epoptes will never return,” Diaprepes continued. “They contend that the Epoptes refuse to make the same mistake twice, having learned that they must not copulate with non-Epoptes
—
that this will inevitably lead to arrogant hubris and debauchery.”
Despite her fascination with the subject he’d brought up, Genevieve decided to help him out, concluding from his shallow hiking breaths that this topic made him uncomfortable. “So, this infusion made of
vishna
and other things produces an Epoptic vision?”
“Yes,” he responded enthusiastically. “The
soul-drifter
uses it to guide him in his role as
kushu
.”
She nodded, curbing a wry smile. Yeah, like a hallucinogen. Interesting premise, she thought cynically, letting a hallucinogen dictate government decisions. These Epoptes must be their gods, she concluded. And
soul-drifting
, whatever it was, must be one incredible drug-induced voyage reserved for a privileged cadre, she decided wryly. “So, your brother is my reluctant keeper?” She let out in an exhale. And, if she got the drift of what Diaprepes said, Azaes also had the hubristic pretensions of being a god himself. “Great.”
“What is wrong?” Diaprepes frowned and leaned forward in the chair. “My brother thinks highly of you.”
“Sure,” she muttered. “As a curiosity. Like a weird thing to be studied.”
“He says you are the most sensitive human he has encountered, and the most troubled.”
Azaes had said that? How would he know? Then she recalled the way he’d touched her
—
he’d been so tender and so raptly attentive. And yet whenever he wasn’t touching her, he scowled at her with contempt and spoke to her with apparent anger and loathing. Was it just her rude seduction attempt or was there another reason for his gruff behavior?
She looked at Diaprepes sadly. “Why is he so angry with me?” He’d saved her only to treat her with disdain. Was she so reprehensible to him? Or had she transgressed some major taboo with her foolish sexual act? It was one thing for him to touch her, obviously, but perhaps she’d transgressed by touching him back? How was she supposed to know he was betrothed? “Did I…insult him?”
Diaprepes bowed his head and didn’t answer. He knew something, she decided.
Genevieve summoned the correct pronunciation before asking: “What does
su
neehat mo legglis
mean?”
Diaprepes jerked his head up and stared at her. “You speak our language well.”
Not to be distracted or deterred, she raised a brow slightly and kept her eyes fixed on his. He gave in, “It means
you should not have come
.” Diaprepes looked apologetic. “He said that you violated our covenant with the Epoptes.”
“What do you mean? How?” By coming on to him or by simply being here?
“Since we have come, no other beings have been permitted on Eos. It is considered a sanctuary for our people.” He paused thoughtfully, leaning back, magnificent penis in view again. “That may sound rather hubristic and selfish, but I don’t mean it that way. My brother explains that the Epoptes only mean to protect us from being tainted…until we are ready.”
Azaes seemed to use variations of that phrase a lot, Genevieve contemplated, recalling his controversial speech to humanity in his introductory vid. “Ready for what?”
He shrugged again and shook his head. “I don’t know.”
“Okay, then…” She paused to collect her thoughts about her own situation. “Why did Azaes rescue me at my ship? Why didn’t he just leave me there to die?”
“The others did think you should be left there to die,” Diaprepes agreed.
Like those people who’d stared at her in the dining room?
“But Azaes argued that the Epoptes let you pass for a reason. The
vishna
, too, were kind to you. They kept you from falling straight to your death when you fell out of your vessel, even after you destroyed so many of their kin.”
God! She didn’t like the sound of that. She decided to start with the Epoptes. “Epoptes? What are they?”
“They are the entities that guard Eos. According to legend, after creating us, they brought us here millions of beld-cycles, eh, thousands of your years ago. It is our belief that they are an ancient species entrusted with guarding the best interests of our universe. No one has ever seen them.”
Definitely their gods, she concluded. “Then how do you know they exist?”
He gave her a puzzled look, as though it was obvious and he wondered why she didn’t grasp it. Then he waved a hand. “Because of the Epoptic visions.”
Sure, she thought, biting back a frown of scepticism.
That
was certainly proof, a drug-induced hallucination.
“And also because of their actions,” Diaprepes added. “They protect us. They keep all off-worlders from reaching Eos.”
They certainly did that, she thought ruefully, thinking of Dan. She wondered if that also meant keeping the Eosians from leaving.
“They haven’t let any other off-worlders in…except you.”
Genevieve thought of Dan’s ship and the others they’d sent here. “We sent other ships, before mine. Did the Epoptes
—
” she cut herself off to swallow convulsively, surprised at the emotion swelling up her throat.
“Yes, they intercepted and destroyed all incoming craft as intruders. That is why we have never invited anyone here. We don’t, can’t, control the Epoptes.”
“Why did my ship get through, then?”
He had no answer to that and heaved his muscular shoulders in a shrug. That seemed a universal gesture, she thought. Was it because Zac was different? Because he was a
living ship?
“So, Azaes deferred to the judgment of the Epoptes,” she suggested. “Is that why I’m here? Because he thinks the Epoptes have something in mind for me?” She abruptly thought of sacrifices to the gods and swallowed down the panic surging up her throat. No, surely these people were beyond that. Their bio-technology appeared far more advanced than Earth’s and their integrated culture seemed light years in advance of hers.
Diaprepes smiled with raised brows. “I do not know why,” he said a little too cheerfully for her taste and waved a hand. “I think he sees it as a sign.”
“A sign of what?”
“Of change. You have come to change us.”
She felt her heart flip. Wasn’t that counter to what he’d accused her of having done, of violating the covenant of their sanctuary? And yet, the way Azaes had looked at her when he didn’t know she saw him looking, with a mixture of reverence and curiosity. It sent a shiver through her. Was he secretly a heretic? She recalled another foreign term Diaprepes had used, “You spoke of
vishna
being kind to me even after I destroyed so many of their kin…who are they?”
His words stumbled as he tried to summon the correct word. “They are large trees,” he offered.
“Trees?” she repeated. Trees that were kind? She smiled sideways. “You mean those forty metre high purple-leaved trees?” As in, they had
minds
?
“Yes,” he said, nodding cheerfully. She blinked in astonishment, heart suddenly racing as she recalled her magical dream of these trees.
So, that huge tree, whose twenty-meter crown she’d sheered off with her ship, had still helped her? At the time, it had felt like the opposite, as though the tree was trying to skewer her. After a large swallow, Genevieve decided to change the subject: “You spoke of coming here from your previous homeland thousands of years ago…”
“Yes, twelve thousand of your years,” he said, nodding and stretched out his long legs. She watched, without watching, as his penis stirred with his shifting legs. It coiled and uncoiled like a snake awakening.
She blinked several times to refocus. “What happened? Why did you leave?”
“Most of us didn’t,” he replied sadly. “Most were killed in the cataclysm. But a few were selected for the seed ships and escaped.”
“Selected? By who?”
“The Epoptes, of course!”
Of course. Their gods. “What happened?”
“Our history is steeped in legend passed down by our
soul-drifters
, like Azaes, through direct contact with the Epoptes.”
“Right.” They’d covered that already. Care of that lovely hallucinogenic flower.
“What I know is limited,” continued Diaprepes, stroking his face thoughtfully. “But the legend goes this way. When some of the Epoptes descended upon our homeland, a bountiful planet surrounded by a spectacular asteroid ring, they encountered a beautiful but primitive bipedal species, who were naïve but industrious. The Epoptes intended only to enlighten these natives and elevate them in moral and technological teachings. To this end the Epoptes instructed the women in magic, and conjuring and the men in arts and science. But the Epoptes lusted for the beautiful females and had intercourse with them.”