Chapter 40: 039 Gods

"With that finished, I believe it is time for lunch." The Scholar moved to offer Diana help out of her chair, which she accepted.

This wasn't flirtatious, neither was it necessary, and it definitely wasn't theater (as much as Diana wanted to call it that). This was how a distinguished lady was expected to be treated, part of her training.

So long as she was the highest ranking female guest present, she could expect to be helped out of her seat by the host or otherwise highest ranking gentleman in the absence of her partner, who would almost exclusively be Donovan. She didn't like it, she didn't want to do it, and it was taking some effort to get used to, but it was a diplomatic necessity. It would not do to hurt someone's honor and reputation because it would be more efficient to get up herself.

"Do you have any questions Lady Diana?" Despite the differences in their facial structure, the expressions of all humanoids seemed to be roughly the same. slightly raised eyebrows and eye contact indicated attention and sincere intent.

"I was wondering if you had found a rough equivalency to the names of the ranks of the social ranking system your society uses. I believe we touched on the subject two days ago?" This was a pressing subject for her, the sooner she learned etiquette regarding this, the earlier she could stat hammering it into Don's brain.

"I am afraid there isn't really any form of equivalent between the two. If you don't mind, could we talk about it along the way? I am feeling quite peckish." He gestured toward the open doorway, not that there were any actual doors on this ship.

"I have no qualms." She exited first, proper procedure.

"Excellent. Now if you have no objections, I would like to start from the most prominent positions. Is that alright with you?"

"It is indeed." Diana let him pass ahead of her. In a situation like this the host or host's servant should lead, even if the guest knew the way.

"The highest levels of power beyond the Sanctum possess hundreds, sometimes thousands, of habitable planets within their realm of authority. You might be inclined to call them emperors owing to the sheer quantity of territory, but considering the fact that there are many other powers only in the low hundreds of planets that boast similar levels of military and economic prowess, it would probably just be better to refer to them by whatever title they choose.

Another issue I see is that these independent rulers extend all the way down to those who only possess a few systems, even those who only possess a fraction of a planet. There simply do not seem to be sufficient titles to label each individually, a numbering system may prove to be better."

As much as Diana wanted to record an audio log of that, she knew it wouldn't help. She tried it before, but all that played back was gibberish. She had to commit it to memory or write it all down.

Fortunately, tablets could be used while walking, and she could type fast.

"So is there much of a difference between those independent rulers in a social setting?" He was a little vague on the subject.

"It is hard to say. That area of status seems to be a little murky, so it might be better if you just thought of all of them as a single rank and just observed their status in relation to each other." The Scholar could only shrug at this fact. There were going to be societal differences, all they could do was cope with them. "As for the sanctum, I think the closest equivalent would be a Papal State."

"A religious entity?" If the Great Csillacra were as big a spiritual symbol as people claimed that would make sense.

"Something approaching that. None ever had the chance to manifest themselves in your world, but gods are among our number. I think our definitions of divinity might differ, and they don't have religions attached to them, but that title fits them perfectly. They really aren't so much paragons of certain categories as they are long lived individuals of supreme talent."

Then how were they the same as gods? The gods Diana knew of (with the exception of the capital g God of the Adamic faiths) were pretty much universally defined as conditionally immortal with complete control of their 'element'. They tended to be worshipped as well.

"What is the difference?"

"I was planning to explain it over lunch to both you and Donovan. I would like to avoid any misunderstandings in your understanding of them, so I will explain their existence then." The Scholar let her pass in front of him into the cafeteria. "The Captain thinks it is about time for Don to be included in our afternoon lectures. Apparently he is getting to the point where we can afford to relax a bit on the technique in order to teach him what he needs to know."

"Is that so? Can I expect to be reviewing some of the material we covered earlier?"

"Some of it, yes. I take it you have been relaying the most important information to him?"

"I have, though I don't know if he remembers all of it. He was always exhausted when I reviewed what I learned before bed."

"No matter, there is still plenty of time. here they are now."

- - - - -

"Before we get started I wanted to ask if this place is always so empty. It's been on my mind for a while, but shouldn't people be here to eat?"

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Upon sitting down, Don spat out the question that had been gnawing at him. Despite how much space there was to eat, he never really saw anybody else.

"Does everybody eat elsewhere?"

"It is empty on my orders. I have informed them of the times we are to eat and requested that they be absent. They eat here, there is no other cafeteria, but they are not here at the moment in the interests of your privacy." The Captain cut off a slice of a vegetable before dipping it in a sauce. Despite its close appearance to celery, it was not nearly as fibrous.

"Is that necessary?" Don followed suit, keeping an eye on his form to avoid admonishment. "They can't understand us can they?"

"They can't understand YOU. They can hear what we say perfectly fine." The Captain put the food into his mouth, chewed to completion, and swallowed before continuing. "I can guarantee that my established crewmembers will uphold the desired level of secrecy, but I cannot say the same of the cadets. Many of them belong to the families of mid to high ranking nobles with strong ties to the Sanctum, but are ultimately a part of an external nation."

"Gotcha." Don put the crudely cut veggie in his mouth. As this was a new taste to him, he let it sit for a little longer than the Captain before swallowing. "So anyway, back to that whole thing about gods and whatnot . . . hold on a moment."

There was a sensation growing in his mouth down the back of his throat, a hot one.

"cough cough Hooooooly shit that's spicy." Don started beating his sternum in a coughing fit. "What was that thing called?"

The Scholar gave an immediate answer. "I think they are called Fire Stalks."

"Remind me to never eat one of those again." He started stuffing bread into his mouth and drinking the provided beverage. It might not have been the hottest food he had ever eaten, but he didn't consider his capsaicin tolerance as high in the first place.

"I think you would have been fine if you swallowed it immediately after chewing Don." Diana barely experienced any burning at all. If anything, the slight sensation enhanced the flavor of the sauce that much more.

"Maybe. cough Maybe. Could we get back on topic?" Donovan would follow her advice and not let it saturate his mouth in the future.

"Right, Gods." The Scholar had focused on eating early on so that he would be able to give the long and short uninterrupted. "The first thing I feel you should know is that my knowledge about them is incomplete, everyone's is for that matter. Beyond their physical capabilities, appearances, and personalities they are complete enigmas, but what I know should be enough to satiate your curiosity.

The second thing you should know is that they are not monolithic, in any way. Be it politically, economically, militarily, culturally, or territorially, there are always a few at each others' throats, others cooperate, the majority keep out of each other's business. This lack of uniformity also extends to their natures, characters, and powers. What appeals to one may anger another, so try to research what the individual is like beforehand should you ever have the knowledge that you will indeed be meeting one."

"I would like to build off of that and say that a respectful air will pretty much always avoid drawing their ire." The Captain wanted to guarantee they knew how to act around gods. "The vast majority consider themselves above a minor inconvenience or two, what with their longevity. It's no excuse to wantonly anger them of course, but so long as your offenses aren't too egregious chances are they will just blow them off as a misunderstandings. Understand that there are exceptions to this as well, as the Scholar said they are about as differed as they come."

The Scholar nodded. "The only thing they have in common is the fact they are all powerful, especially when it comes to using split. As I mentioned to Diana earlier, they are also long lived, but the degree of longevity seems to vary drastically. Despite this, nobody really understands how they come about, not even the gods themselves."

Diana recoiled from that information. "What do you mean they don't know how they came to be?"

"Exactly as I said, they have no idea how it happens. Some claim they had previous lives as regular people, and godhood just kind of happened. Others appeared with absolutely no clue how, and with no memories of such. A few were born from regular people as gods, some born from other gods as gods, but the offspring of two gods is not necessarily guaranteed to be a god."

The Scholar could only shrug at this intellectual deficiency. As much as he wanted to be the reservoir of knowledge the two of them needed, some subjects were beyond him. Gods in particular were a subject beyond everyone.

"How they came about isn't important. What is absolutely vital to understand is their position in society. I discussed this with Diana earlier, but there are a slew of noble ranks and Gods are third from the top at minimum. If I had to give it the feudal rank that Diana requested, I would say Ducal."

"Ducal?"

"One of the feudal ranks. Second level of authority from the throne at maximum. I'll get you up to speed on those soon, but for now we need to prepare you for your meeting with one of these gods."

"The Arboreal Maiden has contacted us and expressed her intent to meet you two. For a god she is uncharacteristically reserved, so you would probably be fine if you didn't learn the customs governing greeting her, but that would reflect poorly on our capabilities and duties as diplomat." The Captain gave them the name of the god they would have the pleasure of meeting. "We also need to start teaching you the proper ceremonies for an audience with the Great Csillacra, they are very different from those needed for people."

The Captain returned to eating his meal after that statement, finishing off the fire stalks before moving on to a crispy meat. This external charring appeared to have been an intentional act, the blackened bits softening greatly when dipped into a separate soup-like liquid. Don wondered if the taste was more a function of the steak or the soup.

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