The next few weeks were a slog for everyone involved. Cal, Nyla, Artie, and Pinetil, along with the new members of the clan, were fighting a verbal war of unification. The weaker clans who had been raided over and over and only had ten or fifteen members signed on immediately.
As everyone worked on unification, Pinetil and Nyla seemed to avoid Cal. When they spoke with him, they received the same level of interaction that they had always received from him. But neither of them felt satisfied. Pinetil was awash in a sea of emotion that she frankly had no way of reconciling, as she had never thought she would feel as she did about what her people would call a lesser species. Nyla, on the other hand, simply felt that she had fallen deeper into her feelings for Cal than she originally had. Both Nyla and Pinetil also felt a deep level of annoyance at the number of clans that offered up the women of the tribe in an effort to gain Cal's favor.
One day, as Pineitl and Nyla assisted Cal and Artie in creating some raised planter beds along the path that had begun to form from the clan hall down the mountain to the other clan halls, Artie froze, then spoke. "Ambassador Pinetil, I am currently receiving a request for communication from the Jix royal palace. It is coded as a missive from your mother. It is also flagged as being to both you and Cal."
"Let's go see what's up. Shall we?" Cal said, placing a rock into the latest structure he had been building. "Come along, Artie, Nyla."
The group began making their way back, nodding and saying hello to the members of the newly expanded clan as they did so. When they returned to the clan hall, Cal led them to the ship, where they made their way into a comfortable sitting area, and Artie acknowledged the hail. And a holographic display of the Divine Empress Axshram. Cal smiled. "Divine Empress Axshram, to what do we owe the pleasure?"
"Bearer of Sin, Daughter, oh, and the small blue woman as well. Good. It is good to see you all here. Unfortunately, today is not a social call but a call to inform you both of something. Ambassador Axshram, effective immediately, you are recalled to the palace. After the festival of Ix'Grom, the priests determined that our strength was greater than that of the humans. To the bearer of sin, I ask you to return my daughter. You will be granted amnesty of conflict for the duration of your trip to bring her here and then to leave." The Empress said, then paused in a motion that would have probably ended the call, before locking eyes with Nyla, "And to you, small blue woman, I would ask that you hold onto the gift I gave you last time so that it may be claimed from your corpse."
With that, the comms channel was shut down, and everyone in the room froze. Cal was deep in thought, Nyla felt deeply uncomfortable, and Pinetil worried that Cal would simply end her life then and there. Then Cal looked up and spoke orders to everyone. "Artie send a confirmation of receipt to the Empress, indicate that we are nearly done with a hardware scan so we will need to delay tewnty-four hours to depart. Then contact my sister and Mr. Grenn and let them know what just happened and aprise them of the need for a Black Sun operation. Also, have them reach out to the Shen and any others who are willing to take up the border guard while I deal with that."
Without skipping a beat, Cal turned to Nyla. "Nyla, first things first, I need you to go get the crystal that the Empress gave you, then I need you to go to the First Clan, get the clan leader, and then have him assemble the rest of the clan, tell him we will be coming to join in the meeting after diner. Then come right back."
As he turned to Pinetil, both Artie and Nyla rushed from the room to fulfill the orders they had been given. "Pinetil, I need you to tell me everything you can possibly tell me about what the Festival of Ix'Grom is and why the priests would be the ones deciding that the Jix are more powerful than humanity?"
"Well, that second question is quite simple. My people have a strong belief that the Empress serves at the behest of the priests and, via them, at the behest of the god. They are semi-right, which brings us to the Festival of Ix'Grom." Pinetil took a breath and calmed herself. "Ix'Grom is the flare entity who resides in our star. During the festival of Ix'Grom, we sacrifice thousands of slaves and the entirety of our criminal population. It is a festival that happens every twenty or so years. Generally, after this festival, my people experience a great deal of growth. Both economically and psionically."
The room grew cold as Cal stared at Pinetil. He took a deep breath and then sighed, long and hard. "So after sacrificing all those people to Ix'Grom, your priests decided, probably at Ix'Grom's behest, that your new Psionic abilities would be enough to overcome the technological difference?"
"Most likely." Pinetil agreed.
"Well, guess we will have to dissuade them of that notion," Cal said, turning to leave the room and joining Artie in the control room.
Pinetil stood stock still until he was gone. She wanted to pray but not to Ix'Grom. So she simply spoke to herself. "I don't know what kind of real gods exist or if you know what kind of monster Cal is, but I thank you for putting him on the path of myself and my people."
Then silently, Pinetil added another line as she left to follow Cal. "Please, Cal, if anyone can save my people, it is you."
