Elunitra stepped forward, taking Aly’s hands and pulling her to her feet. “We have much to discuss, Alyniqual Jushintorg.” Around them, the other gods were doing similar things with their followers, all speaking their native languages.
Allan sat quietly as Elunitra and Aly fell into speaking Quilnarish. He thought of the different things that had happened since he had met Aly. He let the women have their time with their respective deities. He rose to leave, deep in thought, and Aly turned to follow him, as did Jalla and Tillia, and all three were stopped by their gods.
Allan walked around the ship that had become his home and smiled. He had long dreamed of adventure, and the endless possibilities that he had been presented with, and supposedly would still be presented with, had fulfilled that dream spectacularly.
Back in the workshop, Allan heard Aly yell. “WHAT?!” and chuckled. He hoped she would not be too hard on her goddess. Allan walked to the dome on the top of the ship and spoke. “Wel'Xinas.”
The walls of the dome-shaped room sunk into the ground, letting Allan see all around them. They were in between star systems now, so there wasn’t much to see, but it was glorious to Allan. He sat down on one of the benches that rose out of the floor to wait for Aly.
[A Few minutes earlier]
The gods all smiled at the women who worshiped them. Now that they had gotten over the initial reaction of shock, they were talking happily. Suddenly Aly was shouting.
“WHAT?!” Aly yelled, anger and pain in her voice. She continued in a more normal tone. “You want to do what to Allan?”
Jalla and Tillia moved to stand behind Aly and listen to Elunitra speak. “Allan has agreed to this, and you will have him back, but he does need to die.”
The argument that ensued and the volume at which Aly, Jalla, and Tillia berated the Gods brought Allan back to the room. As he walked in, he caught the end of Aly’s apparent rant. “...And I wish I had never found faith in you!”
Allan saw how much that hurt Elunitra, and from how Jalla and Tillia were glaring at their God, he could guess that they felt similarly. “So, how's it going?” He asked the room in general.
“You!” Aly exclaimed, storming over to him. “You intend to go along with this…this…this sham?! You would let them kill you? I thought you would fight! I… I… I…”
Allan pulled her close as tears began to fall freely from Aly’s eyes. “I do intend to go along with what they are saying. Tell me, did you let them finish their explanation, or did you begin berating as soon as you heard that I would die?”
“I…” She paused, “I did not let them finish.”
“Why don’t we all listen, and then afterward, if you want to continue shaming your gods, then I will simply sit back and watch.” Allan asked, and silently Aly, Jalla, and Tillia nodded. “Very well,” Allan said, “Please continue, Elunitra.”
The goddess smiled and nodded to Allan slightly. “Very well, as I was saying…” her voice seemed to fade to the back as Allan looked from Aly to Jalla and Tillia, then back to Aly.
When Elunitra finished, this time with no interruptions or beratement, the room was silent. In the back, Kallanna and her sisters stood close to their god. While it was clear this was shocking to the sisters, it was only Kallanna that seemed to be upset about Allan’s death.
“Well, at least not everyone will be sad.” Allan thought to himself and then turned to the gods. “Please feel free to stay as long as you want, and talk with me or any of the ladies if they want to. I will be wandering around the ship.”
Allan turned to Aly and gave her a gentle kiss, then departed from the room. The gods of the Gish and the Galgax followed him. “So how goes the scale rot issues?” Allan asked.
“The disease is almost completely gone, eradicated it would seem.” The god of the Gish said. “Thank you for that.”
“Well, you should thank your own people, as it was Doc and the other medic on the Bastion of Law who found it and synthesized it. I just donated some blood.” Allan said, and glanced back at the God of the Galgax, he seemed frustrated. “What is it scale, boy?”
Anger flashed across the face of the god. “You know that you are downright annoying, don’t you?”
“Oh, yes.” Allan said with a chuckle, “but that is only because you are a god. You should ask Elunitra about the ass chewing that I gave her about my thoughts on gods and goddesses.”
“Ohh, we have all heard. She uses it as the point and case argument for anything that involves us getting involved.” The god of the Galgax said.
“Well, I’m glad to hear that you all are not just having your egos stroked, floating around in wherever you live.” Allan said.
The Gish god shook his head. “What do you think we do all day? Regardless, Grish’Na and I will be departing. Thank you for agreeing, we will see you in two weeks' time.”
In a blink of light, the two gods vanished, leaving Allan to walk the ship's halls toward the cargo hold.
[Aly]
As Allan and two of the gods left to walk the ship. Aly’s hearts felt as if they were going to explode in her chest. Without a word, she grabbed Elunitra’s hand and led her goddess through the ship and into her garden.
Without saying anything else, Aly picked up a watering jug and began watering her plants. After a moment, she looked to her goddess, with tears streaming down her face. “Why does it have to be him? Why is he so important?”
Elunitra stepped forward and pulled Aly into an embrace. Aly had never known her mother, and her relationship with her father had not been supportive as of late, or ever really. But the wave of love and support that she felt in that embrace could only come from someone motherly. Aly broke down and cried.
“I do not have a good answer for why it has to be him.” Elunitra said, using one hand to gently stroke Aly’s hair. “As to why he is so important, there are many reasons for that, but it mostly boils down to the way he sees things, and the way that he interacts with everything around him.”
Aly continued crying, trying to turn this information over in her head. “But…But, he is mine.” she sobbed.
“I know. And if I could do anything about this, I would break the laws and intervene right now to prevent you from more suffering.” Elunitra said, pain in her voice as she tried to console Aly. “I can promise you one thing though, you will not have to suffer for one moment longer than is necessary. Death and I will see to that.”
“He is really coming back, right?” Aly asked in between some deep, calming breaths.
“Yes, even if I have to take his place in death.” Elunitra said, gently wiping tears from her face. “Now, while you're calming down, why don’t you show me some of these lovely plants.”
Aly smiled and nodded.
[Allan]
Allan was surprisingly calm as he worked on opening the crates from the strange massive ship they had visited. The two boxes he was working on were the two Xulgra, and Elunitra had told him to get open as soon as possible.
He snapped out of his deep thought when the top of the first box popped open. His eyes widened at the egg that was contained inside the box. Whatever technology was being used, was suspending the egg in stasis. It was infinitely more advanced than anything he had ever seen.
He popped the second box open and shouted. “Aly, Come here.” He paused a moment and then yelled again. “Xulgra! Elunitra! Get over here as well.”
Moments later, he and Aly stood staring into the box. “What the fuck?” Allan said, staring at the contents of the box with wide eyes. The gods he had called for stepped in and stopped as well. Allan turned to them, “What the hell is this supposed to be?”
“I can’t say that I know.” Elunitra said, examining what appeared to be a mass of shredded flesh.
Xulgra, God of Death, on the other hand had gone pale. “It can’t be.” his voice was barely a whisper. Xulgra looked up to Allan, “It is yours, so you must awaken it. Place your hand on it.”
Allan stepped forward and placed his hand on the tendrils of loose meat that appeared to be crammed into the crate. As soon as his hand made first contact with the strangely cold flesh, it sprang to life, wrapping the tendrils around Allan’s arm up to his elbow. It made a sound then, in a language that made Elunitra inhale sharply.
After it felt as if the strange flesh had taken something from his arm, it recoiled and spoke again. “J’Jek Kin’Nye Poth ot’um Katvan?”
“It…It's asking what the desired form of flesh is.” Elunitra said.
Before anyone could speak, Xulgra stepped forward and spoke rapidly in that strange language of the gods.
The mass of flesh rippled and then spoke again, this time —miraculously — in English. “What shape of flesh does my master desire?” The language was stiff and robotic.
“Am I the master?” Allan asked.
Xulgra and the blob of flesh spoke simultaneously, “Yes.”
“And what is meant by ‘shape of flesh?’”
“It wants to know what you want it to look like,” Elunitra said, apparently having realized what it was. She turned to look at Allan. “This is a Het’Norj, a guardian. It is from our old reality. This is biomechanical technology that won't appear in this reality for thousands of more years.”
“Okay, and what the fuck is it?” Allan asked, still very confused as to what was going on.
Xulgra spoke quickly, explaining. “This is a lost shard of technology called a guardian. It was developed by us, the gods, or at least our people, several eons before we came to this reality. Once you establish yourself as its master, it will do as you wish no matter what you wish. It is capable of taking any form you can imagine. So please select a form and it will comply.”
Allan’s eyebrows raised and he locked eyes with Aly. “Any suggestions my love?”
Aly thought for a moment before replying. “Why not have it become another quillinar, if you are going to be gone…” her voice broke a little at that before she got it under control. “If you are going to be gone, having something familiar will probably be easiest for me.”
Allan nodded and then turned back to the strangely undulating mass of flesh. “Please take the form of the Quillinar people, like my wife here.”
The flesh seemed to shiver, and then shaped itself into a strange simulacrum of a Quillinar woman, twelve feet tall. It then seemed to compress in on itself, its body shape becoming more defined as it shrunk. The coloring shifted from the pale peach and red tones it had started as, into a dull bronze color with dull red highlights.
As this finished, Xulgra stepped up and spoke once more. “It will learn as it interacts with you. It will gain sentience over time, but it will always obey you. So treat it how you want it to learn.”
Allan cocked his head at that, wandering what possessed the gods to make something like this. “Welp, for now, I guess that I want to make sure that it will listen to Aly.”
Before anyone could speak, the Guardian spoke, its voice somewhat robotic but already sounded more fluid. “The Quillinar woman called ‘Aly’ has already been added as one of my masters.”
They spent a while speaking with the gods about the Guardian, and eventually, Jalla and Tillia, and their god Gultinth walked in, followed shortly by the princesses and their god. The gods decided to withdraw and promised that they would check in every couple of days until it was time.
The crew of the Solstice was silent as Allan took Aly’s hand and led the way to the mess hall. The others quietly filed in after they were sitting and eating. The Guardian sat with them, staring ahead. After finishing his meal, Allan got up, putting his dishes away and walked to the Del’Morth, walking inside and beginning to work on the casket that the princesses had commissioned.
As he worked, his hands running on autopilot, Allan’s brain ran at a million miles per hour, going over everything he needed to do before… before his end. As he went over this, he felt tears flow down his face, and then moments later two hands wrapped around him.
“Oh, honey, I didn’t hear you come in.” Allan said, reaching up to wipe the tears away from his eyes.
“I was watching you work,” Aly said. “You have been in here for two hours.”
“Oh, sorry.” Allan said, turning to wrap his arms around her. “I’m just thinking about what needs to be done before I go. I just…”
Aly interrupted what Allan was saying with a deep kiss. When she pulled away, she looked up at him. “You don’t need to say anything, tomorrow we will figure things out, but tonight…” She let her fingernails run down his back, sending a shiver down his spine, and she pressed her body to his. “Tonight, I will have my husband.”
Allan wiped the tears from his eyes, smiling, unable to resist this beautiful woman. “As you wish, my love.” He said, reaching down to remove his clothing as her lips pressed to his once more.
