Callum stood in the elevator that went to Bel's apartment feeling very nervous. He'd tried to dress nicely, once Shargi convinced him that it was inappropriate to wear the same outfit he'd worn yesterday. So he and Shargi had picked out something different; a pair of tight, blue-green pants that seemed to gleam, a loose, billowy shirt of dark yellow with a very deep neckline and a pair of calf-high, bronze-colored boots. Callum had no idea how he looked but Shargi seemed to like it very much. He wished the pants weren't quite so tight. They weren't stretchy at all and dug into places he'd rather they didn't.
Shargi had come with him since he would have gotten hopelessly lost without her. She had changed as well, into a pale yellow dress that wasn't quite so form-fitting and covered slightly more of her skin. It was still backless, shoulderless and had an extremely short skirt but when she'd brought some of her clothing into her apartment, he saw that she didn't have much that wasn't. She also wasn't wearing any shoes and he'd seen none in what she'd brought with her. Was that a personal choice or had her original 'master' forbidden shoes? Callum didn't have the heart to ask.
"Will Sir hit the button?" Shargi asked, glancing at him with her mismatched eyes. He tried not to stare into them lest she cast her eyes down. She was just asking, he knew, but it felt like an admonishment since he had rushed her getting here and then stood in the elevator staring at the button without hitting it.
Even with Shargi leading, they'd gotten turned around more than once. Bel lived in a part of the ship that Shargi hadn't been to before. The fie woman lived on the top floor of the building they were in now and unless Callum misunderstood, she had the entire floor to herself. That's why he was in an elevator, hesitating to push the button to the top floor. Apparently the elevator exited directly into the apartment. 'Why am I so nervous? She invited me.' He hoped she didn't mind him bringing Shargi along. Callum stabbed the button.
There was nothing for a moment and then Bel's familiar voice flowed into the elevator. "Who is it?" she asked with more than a bit of underlying mirth.
"Um, i-it's Callum." Callum glanced around, not sure where he should be addressing.
"I know," Bel said, laughter in her voice. "And is that Shargi with you? Hello, Shargi."
Shargi snapped straight, causing her breasts to bounce. Callum watched them for a second until he realized that Bel must be able to see them. 'Is she wearing nothing under her dress again?' "Shargi has been assigned Callum's aide, Mistress Belmavidelko." She said that in the fie tongue and even Callum could tell it was much more heavily accented than her carcha.
"I'm glad. I'm sure you will do an excellent job, Shargi." Shargi beamed. "I'm letting the elevator up now." Even as she spoke, the elevator jerked and then started moving smoothly. It reached the top with a light chime and the doors slid open.
Bel waited on the other side, somehow even more beautiful than he remembered. Her pink hair was pulled back into a short ponytail and she was wearing a thick woven top of light blue with long sleeves. The hem stopped at her upper-thigh but Callum couldn't tell if she was wearing any bottoms. She did have on a pair of blue and yellow checked socks that stopped just above her knee. Callum thought she looked very comfortable. It made him want to cuddle with her. 'Keep it together, fool.' It might have been a very good thing he brought Shargi along.
Then he caught sight of a child beside Bel and a jolt ran through him. She was fie, with the same pale blue skin and pale pink hair as Bel. Callum guessed she was about seven or eight. Her dress was sleeveless and orange, with a picture of some kind of green animal on the front of it. She was the spitting image of Bel. The only difference was her eyes, which were pink and bright blue instead of pink and violet. 'Her daughter? Is Bel married?' It felt like he had been punched in the heart. 'Maybe it is just her younger sister?' he thought without conviction.
As if she heard his thoughts, Bel laid a hand on top of the child's head and said, "Callum, Shargi, this is my daughter Jellacedelko. Jella, these are mommy's friends Callum," she said, pointing to Callum, "and Shargi. Say hello."
Jella peered up at him and asked, with concern, "Are you sick?"
"Jella!" Bel said admonishingly but Callum could see her hide a smile.
"He's so pale, Mama. Is he alright?"
"He's a human. Do you remember what I said about other species? His skin is perfectly normal for a human."
Jella nodded doubtfully and turned her gaze to Shargi. She stared at her hard for a moment and then waved for Shargi to come down to her level. Shargi squatted down and Jella leaned forward and brushed Shargi's forelock away to expose both her eyes. Shargi tried to lean away but Jella caught her face and held it between her two small hands. "Your eyes are so pretty!"
Bel sighed and put a hand over her own eyes. "I'm sorry, Shargi. Jella, you are being very rude right now!" she said sharply.
Jella let Shargi's face go and Shargi quickly stood. Jella turned to her mother with a pensive frown and said, "But, Mama…"
"No, Jella. We'll talk about this later." Jella scowled sulkily. "For now, come in, you two. Have a seat at that table," she said, gesturing at a low table. "Help me with the snacks, Jella." She turned and walked away with her daughter in tow. Callum watched her walk away, watching her hips move under her top for a few moments before he managed to tear his eyes away.
The table she'd gestured to was close to the center of the room and Callum admired the apartment as he walked to it. It was similar to his own but probably about quadruple the size. The low table was surrounded on three sides by couches and plush chairs. The other side had a screen that was taller than he was. The kitchen that Bel and Jella had gone to was semi-open to the rest of the apartment but much bigger than his own and to the side of it there was a large oval table with ten chairs tucked into it. Hallways disappeared to either side of the large living area. Everything but the kitchen and dining area was carpeted in extremely soft, thick dark red. Paintings were hung around the apartment and Callum particularly liked the one that seemed to be a stylized portrait of Bel holding an infant Jella. He didn't see any male fie among the pictures that might be Jella's father.
Callum and Shargi sat themselves at the table, which was black and polished to a shine. Shargi sat to Callum's left but close, almost at the corner of the table. She seemed nervous. Bel and Jella came to the table, Bel holding a tray with a steaming pitcher and four cups and Jella with a tray of sweets. They set them down and sat themselves, Bel across from Callum and Jella across from Shargi. Jella put a small plate in front of each of them while Bel poured four cups of some milky brown liquid into the four cups and passed them out. It smelled kind of spicy to Callum. He took a sip. It burned his tongue but he didn't cry out. The sparkle in Bel's eyes suggested she knew, though.
"Alright," Bel said. "So, you wanted me to help you learn to speak fie, Callum, but I actually think there are actually a lot of things I can help you with. Forgive me if I am wrong but I assume you don't have much of an idea about the current state and history of the galaxy?" Callum shook his head. "Or any kind of basic education at all?" This time Callum blushed as he confirmed her supposition. "Don't be embarrassed. It is the carchas' fault. They use ignorance as a weapon to keep other species down." She got a faraway look in her eyes and her face hardened for just a moment into a mask of anger that was quite different from any expression she'd ever seen on her. It was kind of frightening.
"Mama?" Jella squeaked.
Instantly, the anger was gone and she smiled gently at her daughter. "Anyway, on any night I can, I tutor my daughter. I thought this would be a good chance to help you with your own education, Callum." She glanced at Shargi and reached out to cover one of the hato's hands with her own. "You, too, Shargi. I'm afraid we did you a disservice by putting you to work without giving you a proper education. I should've thought of this earlier. I beg your forgiveness."
Shargi jerked and seemed like she wanted to pull her hand free. Callum assumed the only reason she didn't is that it might be perceived as rude. "No, Mistress. The fie have been too kind to Shargi! Too kind! Shargi is good for work. She does not need the education. Shargi is very stupid, Mistress. Everyone tells her this."
Everyone looked at her and Shargi's face went very dark and she looked down at her lap. Callum had a sick feeling in his belly. It was a good thing the carcha that had kidnapped Shargi and enslaved her was already dead or Callum might have felt compelled to find him and kill him himself.
"I don't want to hear that kind of talk from you," Bel said, gently but firmly. "You are not stupid, Shargi." Shargi started to shake her head but froze. She was probably afraid to disagree with Bel. "Why don't you just join us tonight and see how it goes? Then you can come back with Callum whenever you want." Shargi hesitated but nodded her head after a moment. "Good!" She turned to her daughter and said, "Jella, do you remember what we went over last week? Why don't you give Callum and Shargi a lesson on the current empires of the galaxy." 'Empires, plural?' Callum had thought there was only the one.
"Yes, Mama!" Jella said, surging to her feet and seeming very determined. She opened the virtual display from her implanted chip and began manipulating it in an easy way that made Callum a little jealous. The screen behind her lit up into a picture of a large bright spot with spirals of white emanating out of it on a black backdrop. Jella walked to it and held a hand up to it. "This is our galaxy," she said in the voice of a child trying to sound grown-up. "The Yolikosyk Galaxy." She pronounced the words very carefully. Callum's translator turned into a word Callum had never heard.
"I think humans call it the...Milky Circle?" Bel said. "Something like that."
'Milky Circle?' Callum had never heard that either. "Okay," he said.
"Um, the carcha…" Jella frowned at her display and then suddenly smiled as a rough oval of blood red covered a small part of one of the swirls. "The, um, Xenacanthida Empire…" She looked to her mother for confirmation and Bel nodded. "They hold this part of the galaxy. Um, this is Sarlla, our homeworld." A tiny gold dot on the edge of the blood-red lit up. "And this is Earth." Another dot, much deeper in the red blinked on. Callum studied it. It was securely in the carcha territory but in a way it was more surprising that the carcha even had territory. He thought they ruled the entire universe. "The, um, Deschia Allied Empire controls this here," Jella continued. An overlay of blue appeared next to the red, taking up a slightly smaller portion of the swirl.
Callum looked from Jella to Bel. "Who are the Deschia Allied Empire?" he asked.
Bel looked to Jella with an encouraging smile. "They are another empire of Carcha, only they are ruled by a Supreme Council instead of an Emperor like the carcha in the Xenacanthida Empire," Jella answered slowly. "Um, they don't like each other."
"They are fierce rivals," Bel said. "For close to a century we fie were able to play them off each other to maintain our independence." Callum saw that Fie was close to the border of the two territories. "But the Xenacanthida gained the upper hand recently and…" Bel held up her hands helplessly.
"I had no idea the carcha had two different groups," Callum said, shaking his head. "I thought they were just one big empire that dominated everything."
"They probably would dominate everything if they were one big empire," Bel said. "They fight each other almost as much as they fight everyone else. There are far more than two groups, as well." She grinned at Jella. "Keep going, sugarsweet. You are doing wonderfully."
Jella smiled and continued her lecture. There were two more large carcha empires and a number of smaller ones. All told they controlled roughly a third of the circular galaxy. Callum's head was already spinning when Jella lit up a wedge in white and said, "This is the Seras Collective, ruled by the seras." The wedge was significantly larger than any single carcha territory but somewhat less than all the carcha territory put together.
"Who are the seras?" Callum asked.
Jella looked at her mother for help and Bel said, "It's alright, Jella." She turned to Callum. "It's not a high priority for us because they are so far away but the seras are the only species with an empire to really rival the carcha. We think they used to control a larger portion of the universe, in fact, but they have been losing ground to the carcha for centuries." Callum stared at the white wedge in wonder. A species that had an empire to rival the carchas. And even they were being pushed back. Were the carcha unbeatable? "Go on, Jella. You're doing great," Bel said.
Jella nodded uncertainly and a small strip of orange appeared. It was bordered by the Xenacanthida Empire on one side and the Xheler Empire–of a size with the Xencanthida–on the other. "This is the Riben System. Nobody knows much about them but they have resisted the carcha so far and remain independent despite being exceptionally close to the carcha homeword, here." A dot of gold lit up in the heart of the Xheler Empire. Callum raised an eyebrow at that. They really were close. Much closer than Earth was. How had they resisted? It gave him a little hope back.
Then Jella hit a button and most of the rest of the galaxy, roughly a third, was covered in a sickly yellow. "This is called the Great Anarchy," she said. "Ruled by the Rukh." A moment later, several smaller pockets of yellow appeared throughout the galaxy, filling in gaps between carcha territory and even appearing in the midst of some territories. Some were tiny dots and some were as large as a small carcha empire. "These are Lesser Anarchy or Little Anarchies," she said. "All ruled by the Rukh."
"The...Rukh?" Callum asked.
Bel leaned forward. "Callum, how much do you know about ether?"
"Ether?" Callum had heard the word before. Russell had referred to the cannons on Angra Mainyu as ether beam cannons.
"I believe that is what the carcha call the power that lets you run your mechs."
Callum nodded. "Okay."
"Do you know where that power comes from?"
"Venus. For humans at least. She told me it was somebody else for carcha."
Bel's eyes popped and she looked off-balance for the first time Callum could remember. "You...you talked to one of the Sovereigns?" Callum nodded. "Do you know how rare it is to actually be able to meet them?" Bel breathed. He noticed that Shargi was gaping at him as well.
"Yeah...she told me that, too. She said I was the first human in a long time with enough inborn power to speak to her. Mikan can now, too, though."
"Mikan, too?!" Bel took a long drink and visibly took hold of herself. "That's incredible. I had no idea you two were so powerful. This…" she closed her eyes. "I need to think about this."
"Can't anybody among the fie talk to one of the...the Sovereigns?"
"Only Tsyirinsaku. She is...singular in many ways," Bel said. Callum was surprised. Yemoramato seemed like she would have been powerful enough. "How do you humans grow your power?" Bel asked.
Callum flushed slightly. It was an embarrassing thing to talk about. He wasn't sure he wanted to tell Bel but he certainly didn't want to talk about it in front of a child. "Uh, ask me again later," he said with a meaningful glance at Jella.
"What?" Jella screeched. "I wanna know!" She took a step forward. Callum supposed he should have been more subtle.
"Jella," Bel said warningly. Her daughter subsided with a sulky frown. "Alright, we'll leave that aside for now," Bel said, turning back to Callum. she brushed a strand of hair away from her face. "Different species in the galaxy gain power from different Sovereigns, though one Sovereign can have multiple species within their domain. We have no idea why a species gets attached to a certain Sovereign. There are lots of different theories but no one knows for sure. At least no fie does. We know of five Sovereigns, though we know almost nothing of your...Venus, did you call her?...and little about the Sovereign of the seras. Pain seems to be involved somehow but that's about all we know."
"Pain?"
Bel nodded. "Or injury or...we're not completely sure. A lot of it is just rumor and supposition." Callum shivered. He sometimes wished there were a different way to gain power under Venus but at least he didn't have to hurt himself. "I assume you know the way the carcha gain power?" Callum nodded. Death. The carcha accumulated power by killing those who had it and stealing a portion of it. "The way we fie gain power," Bel continued, "is through pride."
"Pride?" Callum repeated, confused. "How does that work?"
"Self-confidence increases whatever power we have inborn. The more confidence, the more power is gained."
Callum leaned forward. "That's awesome. The more you believe in yourself, the more power you gain? I'm surprised you're having so much trouble with the carcha."
Bel shook her head. "It's not as easy as you think. Most people have self-doubts. Even if they're only subconscious, they seem to affect ether levels. A single defeat can completely cripple a pilot. It also makes the best fie pilots completely willful and convinced they are right all the time. Discipline among the elite can be difficult to maintain but is absolutely critical because chaos and confusion saps confidence. Retreats inevitably become routs because pilots start losing the ability to even power their mechs." She shook her head bitterly and then smiled ruefully. "Sorry. It's kind of a touchy subject. Back to your original question. The Rukh. The Rukh aren't a species, they're more like a mongrel conglomerate of species all under the same Sovereign. We don't know what the Rukh call this Sovereign but we call it The Abhorrence."
"That seems bad."
Bel grinned but there was little mirth in it. "You have no idea. The Great Anarchy and the smaller areas they rule...though ruling isn't even the word for it. The areas they dominate are lawless, mad and horrifying. We have no idea what goes on in the Great Anarchy. There might be pockets of order, the way there are pockets of anarchy but very few that go into that area of space survive." She didn't look at her daughter but she might as well have when she said, "Let's leave it there for now, though."
"Mama! You can tell me. I can know!"
Bel flashed her a smile but only said, "You're almost finished with your lecture. Go on."
Jella sulkily tapped her display. The center of the galaxy, the last area not filled in, turned a dark violet. "This is the center. It's called Wild Space or Black Space because nobody controls it."
"How come?" Callum asked.
"Because it is impossible to safely navigate," Bel answered. "I've heard that pirates and other outlaws sometimes lair there but again, we don't know much for sure." Callum nodded in understanding. There were two decent-sized carcha empires between the Xenacanthida and Wild Space. "So that is a broad explanation of the powers in the galaxy," Bel continued. "Anything you want to ask?"
Callum was already having enough trouble trying to cope with his universe completely changing. The empire he thought dominated was really just one large state in an entire mélange. He glanced at Shargi, who hadn't made a noise the entire time. "What about where Shargi came from? You showed Earth and the fie homeworld."
"Oh. Forgive me, Shargi. I should have thought of that." Bel opened her display and hit a few buttons. "The hato's planet isn't in the Xenacanthida Empire like our planets. Here it is...Zalcoa." A bright spot lit up on the galaxy map and Callum gasped when he saw that it was within one of the 'little anarchies,' which in itself was in the Deschia Allied Empire.
"Your planet was taken by the Rukh?"
Shargi stared at the bright spot. "Shargi does not know." After a moment, she added in a quieter voice. "Perhaps this is why Shargi's family was fleeing."
"That would make sense," Bel said grimly. "The Lesser Anarchies tend to flare up and get stomped out by the carcha and flare up somewhere else. We don't have the most up to date databases so it is possible that the carcha have reasserted control there already. But if the Rukh controlled it for any amount of time, it makes sense that your family would want to run." Shargi nodded glumly. Callum felt bad. He'd wanted Shargi to see where her home planet was but he'd just revealed that it was potentially under control of something even worse than the carcha. Worse than the carcha! Who would have thought such a thing could exist?
"Well, that's enough of that!" Bel said brightly. "I do want to continue educating on our galaxy but we can do that on another day. After all, you came to learn to speak fie, right? I think I should also begin lessons in how to read and right, if you are interested?" Callum nodded. She glanced at Shargi. "What about you, Shargi? Considering how we've failed you so far, I'm not sure what we might have taught you."
"The fie have not failed Shargi!" Shargi said hurriedly. "Shargi can speak the fie!" she said in her halting fie. "Shargi cannot read or write but Shargi doesn't need to."
"Nonsense. You will join Callum's lessons then." She had Jella close down the galaxy map and together the two of them began to teach Callum and Shargi. Most of the first lesson ended up being how to navigate and use the virtual display so Callum could use it to learn. But he did at least learn a few words and to recognize the characters that were used to read and write the fie language. Jella also turned out to be integral for getting Shargi to do anything. No matter how gentle Bel tried to be, Shargi jumped half out of her skin whenever she talked to her. She seemed more at ease when Jella explained the same things.
They stopped when Jella began to nod off. Bel glanced at the time on Callum's display and sucked in a breath between her teeth. "I can't believe how badly I lost track of time. It is time for bed, young lady," she said to Jella, who snapped awake and jerked up, eyes wide as if to show she wasn't really tired. Callum had to smile.
"We should probably be leaving, then," Callum said. "Thank you so much for this."
Bel was shaking her head before he even stopped speaking. "Don't be ridiculous. It is far too late for you to go anywhere tonight. We have plenty of room." A jolt of excitement ran through Callum. Staying here? With her? Before he could argue though, Bel had bustled Jella and Shargi to the bathroom to wash up for bed. Shargi didn't make a peep of protest, of course.