Chapter 44: 043 The Arboreal Maiden

"Why. Won't. You. Just. Stay. Down!"

Diana was furiously alternating between licking her hand and brushing down the cowlick while slinging curses at the back of Donovan's bowed head. It had been four months since he had last gotten a haircut, so his hair was longer than usual, but it was still manageable.

At least he thought it was manageable.

Clearly Diana did not agree with that assessment.

Her fury attracted some attention from passerby on distant branches, but they were far enough away that they couldn't make out any details, only the strange gibberish that carried over on the wind.

"I think that's good enough Diana. My scalp can't take much more of this." Don felt the embarrassment from being watched was burning more than the aggressive brush strokes though.

"haaaa~ Fine. I'll admit defeat for now. If anything we can just pass it off as a cultural fashion something or other. You are otherwise lacking in that field." She directed the brush back at her own hair, setting the unruly bits straight before relinquishing it to the Skwiven who had brought it to them in the first place.

They were standing in front of a pair of massive arch doors, at least twenty times taller than Donovan and fifty times wider. The Gondola like ferry had dropped them off here before leaving, where to exactly a mystery.

"Are you ready?" The Captain stood nervously to the side. It had been at least ten minutes since the struggle had begun.

"Yes." They both responded in the affirmative, prompting him to turn to the Skwiven.

"Please have the doors opened."

It scampered up the wall, entering an obscure hole.

With a groan, the doors slowly swung open.

Really slowly.

REALLY slow.

It took a whole two minutes for an opening barely wide enough for Diana to squeeze through to manifest itself.

Four for a hole Donovan could enter without brushing his shoulders.

It stopped at the seventh minute, now wide enough for them to enter side by side with some space between them, but definitely not open all the way.

"From here on out, you are on your own. I plan on seeing you later, but I cannot give my guarantee." He took the time to shake both of their hands. "For all I know, I might not be alive in a few hours time."

"Don't say that. I'm sure you'll be fine." Donovan tried lifting his spirits.

"I appreciate the optimism, but I don't think you truly understand the gravity of the situation. Now go." He watched them enter before turning to leave, a Skwiven, the Courier, in tow.

- - - - -

"Spoopy." Donovan omitted the ancient bastardization of spooky at the sight of their current environment.

Green.

Green(s).

A host of luminescent mosses and foliage covered the inside of the hall they walked down. It was not at all scary, but slightly unnerving. When you couldn't tell a difference in shade from shadow, you started to question your footing.

"Try to keep it formal Donovan." Diana agreed with his outburst, spoopy fit the locale.

"I would prefer it if you didn't." A third voice entered the fray. It was soft, completely lacking in energy despite its apparent youth.

As they rounded the final corner, they laid their eyes on the source.

Maiden was definitely something Donovan would call her. Diana might even refer to her as a princess owing to her similarity to some fairy tale damsels.

Her dress, if it could be called that, covered her entire body with the exception of her extremities. It went so far as to have a collar similar to a turtleneck covering everything below her jaw. On top of this light green and brown fabric was an off white vest of sorts embroidered with golden thread, a frankly moderate amount in comparison to some of the other clothing they had borne witness too.

Her shoes, clogs, looked to be made entirely of wood without so much as an engraving to add detail. A pair of black pants below her dress covered what little skin existed between the shoes and the hem. Her hands were expertly manicured, though lacking in the rings and other regalia they were so accustomed to aboard the Oberlux.

In fact, the only thing ornamental about her kit was whatever was holding up the cascade of chestnut hair descending from her head, a generously bejeweled set of hairclips.

Don estimated her hair to be at least twenty meters long based on the fold lengths and quantity, though he understood that his sense of scale was off from his time aboard cramped ships.

"Before you even think of greeting me, I owe you an apology." She bowed as she turned to face them, her bushel of hair merely flowing out to either side instead of over her head. "I fear the blame for your people's demise must fall squarely on my shoulders."

As she righted herself, the Arboreal Maiden reveal a somewhat shocking sight to the pair. Covering her face from the bridge of her nose to the top of her forehead was a sash in the same off white coloration as her vest.

There could be no doubt that was a blindfold.

"You two seem surprised. Does my apology come as that much of a shock to you?"

"Can you see us?" Don couldn't keep his hand from waving. Diana just about elbowed him in the ribs.

They had not been told that she would be wearing a sash.

"If you are asking if I am blind, then no. I can see perfectly fine. However I have elected to obstruct my sight voluntarily. Once you have lived an aeon or two, you find you've seen everything. This way at least my encounters are entertaining. You can stop that motion with your hand now."

"How did you know-"

"'A magician never reveals her secrets' is how the saying goes if I remember properly. You are not yet equipped to understand even if I were to explain it to you, for now at least. Now about the apology."

"Please don't worry about it." Diana was trying to wrest control of the conversation away from Donovan, he had demonstrated he couldn't use such luxuries properly. "We have already come to terms with our current reality, even if we find it unpleasant."

"Is that so..." The Arboreal Maiden stood there, analyzing them. "It certainly doesn't seem that way."

"What?"

"You may understand that what has been done is done, I don't believe you have isolated yourselves from your previous attachments completely. In your case," She pointed a finger at Donovan, "it seems like you never had any attachments to begin with. Though I suppose that isn't as surprising given your origins."

"My origins? Are you referring to project Eternum?"

"In part. Altering the seams of life is a risky ordeal that can have many unintended consequences. I was suggesting that your upbringing might have left you without any attachments. Tell me, is there anyone aside from your mentor that you feel remorse over losing?"

Don was stunned, paralyzed at how much this person knew about them without even having been in the same universe.

"Um, Captain Thompson? Admiral Adirondack? Maybe a few more. I think?"

"And did you mourn them? Did you mourn Draco Helmsguard?"

. . .

. . .

"I didn't."

The Maiden offered a bitter smile. "Of the billions of people who lived around you, you only formed an emotional attachment to three of them, save Diana and that ARC who is a part of your ship. If you didn't, couldn't, feel sorrow at their passing, I would be remiss to label those meaningful attachments. Would you say the same?"

Donovan nodded his head, slumping his shoulders.

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"How do you know all of this?" Diana was quick to jump on the discontinuity. This was their first time meeting. Forget Project Eternum, how could she possibly know how they were raised.

"I have been watching, of course."

"Watching what? Us? For how long?" Diana had abandoned courtesy in a panic. If she knew about Project Eternum, what else did she know? Had she deciphered their secrets? Uncovered their history? There were a host of things that could put them on the back end of the negotiation table.

The Maiden made for a table in the corner of the room, gesturing them to follow with a slow beckon.

"How long I wonder... 'The beginning' is what I suppose would be the answer best suited for your question."

"That's awfully vague. Could you elaborate?"

"I have been watching ever since the first glimmer of life appeared on that otherwise barren rock you once called home, though the scales of time were completely different. Two years to watch those specks grow into fantastic scaled beasts, five before they all fell, and one year before your ancestors first found fire.

From that point until now, two hundred years? Maybe less, probably more. Centuries are easier for me to keep track of a this point than individual years, though I will admit I remember more about your race growing to the point you are at than I do any other.

I remember your greatest triumphs, biggest failures. I know of your virtues, your efforts, your desires," Her voice lost its neutral tone, "and I have borne witness to your atrocities."

'Shit' was the word that went through both of their minds simultaneously. There were a plethora of events she could be referring to, none of them they could consider high points of human history.

The events of the 1900's probably took a few of the top spots in that regard.

"Worry not. It is not my prerogative to blame you for crimes that you did not commit, nor would I have the authority or right to intervene should you perform a similar act in the future. My purpose seems to be something like the final arbiter of neutrality. So long as you leave the Great Csillacra and the residents of the Sanctum out of it, then there is nothing I can do to intervene."

"We would never do such a thing." Donovan, absolutely certain she was referring to genocide, had to retort to that attack on their character.

"I would not be so certain." The Arboreal Maiden cut him off at the pass. "In fact, it would not surprise me if you succumbed to some superiority bias upon interaction with the denizens of this reality. They are not without their vices, excessive bloodshed and cruelty among them, but I have never once heard of an incident where a people was systematically slaughtered because of something so inane as believing in a different deity."

She lit up a fire underneath a kettle using some of that Split magic that had been displayed for them aboard the Oberlux.

"I will be honest with you. We, that being the Great Csillacra and I, made the conscious and purposeful decision to reduce your species in size. We had our reasons, as I will soon explain, but we had no intention of letting your numbers dwindle so low as two. For that I apologize immensely."

Her head was practically touching the table in a bow.

"You . . . killed of our people on purpose?" Diana was baffled at the straightforwardness displayed by this woman. Normally this would be the type of thing that would be kept secret. "Why?" She wanted an apology less than she wanted an explanation.

"Because this universe, plane of reality, galaxy, whatever you may call it, is unprepared for you. Likewise, your people were ill-prepared to deal with an existence beyond the bounds of their own solar system. You needed a clean slate, or at least something close to it, to both buy you time to build up for proper interstellar interaction and give the rest of our universe the time needed to shore up their defense and not be completely blindsided by your industrial might."

"And you thought killing us off was the best way to go about this? Tell me, how our atrocities worse than your own at this point." Forget a genocide in the millions, the blood of billions, literally all but two, was on her hands.

"Because our intention was to only really paralyze your industrial and political systems. A mere fraction of your population would have perished, perhaps not even a full ten percent, but it would have been enough to shake your people up enough to leave them open for change and integration into the greater community. Even the two of you alone still represent a colossal danger to every sovereign nation that exists."

"How are we a threat?" Donovan saw them as nothing but vulnerable at the moment.

"How could you not be? Individually you are vastly more educated than all but three people I can think of, myself among that number. The ideas that you consider to be primitive, standardized writing and math beyond multiplication and division, are concepts that escape the grasp of even the most advanced researchers of this era.

I myself had not understood calculus until your people started finding links. Your ability to find patterns is unparalleled. This speaks nothing of your more advanced and immaterial concepts, basic democratic philosophy would cripple the clan-like feudal system that dominates at present. What would fascism do? Socialism? Republicanism? What of theocracies?

Speaking of, I tremble at the thought of what your religions might bring to the table. Perhaps they might bring a new moral paradigm, but they may also serve as cassus belli for one of their never ending wars."

She looked like she wanted to continue, but she saw they understood the point.

"In the future, be mindful of what information you give up, no matter how insignificant you feel it may be. In the academy especially you should be mindful to only regurgitate the information you are given. That goes double for you, Donovan. Do not try to impress others with your knowledge of military tactics, that area has not progressed for at least ten millennia."

Diana gave him an 'I told you so' look. She would be cracking down on his breeches of secrecy with much greater vigor in the future.

"Any other questions?"

"You said you only intended for maybe a percent of our population to die. Why did that not happen?" Diana called back to her previous statements.

"While the fault ultimately lies with me, not the Captain, the reason lies in your many and varied treks into the great beyond. Specifically the Voyager series of probes. While assisting in the adjustment of the veil's parameters, I failed to take into account the locations of the first and second probes.

They breached the perimeter set to denote the veil's completion without my knowledge, precipitating the Captain's horrendously late start. The Great Csillacra and I had planned to give your kind at least an extra century to figure out some of split's intricacies."

"Did the Great Csillacra not notice? Wouldn't it be at fault as well?"

"No. My lack of ability caused it. While the Great Csillacra knows everything there is to know inside of the veil and with the range of it's limbs, it is blind to the situation outside of its bounds. Conversely, I understand the world beyond more than any other, but I lack the proficiency to shape the Veil in the same way. I ask you not hold my faults against the Great Csillacra." Now she was in a dogeza position to the side of the table. The two of them were terribly uncomfortable at this, one of the most powerful people alive was presenting a submissive pose towards them.

"Please get up. We don't like such pleasantries."

"Nor do I, but I must demonstrate my apologies in the sincerest way possible." She returned to her seat. "Shall we discuss what you will be doing for the next few hours? Where is your dog?"

"We tied Mercedes to a trunk outside because we thought she might cause trouble, why?"

"Bring her here. She must undergo the same procedure as you if she is to be rendered immune to split decay at ambient concentrations."

"What kind of procedure?" Diana didn't fancy needles and knives. She would prefer to forgo any invasive surgery if possible.

"Nothing like what you are thinking. It might be a better idea to call it a ritual if that eases your nerves. It will enable you to sense, store, and use split."

"I'll go get her then." Donovan volunteered, Diana would be slower and already didn't want to walk more than she had to.

- - - - -

"Will everything be alright between the two of you?" As soon as Don was out of earshot, the Arboreal Maiden started a more private conversation with Diana. "I understand you wish to continue your race's existence, but there are other ways to go about it."

"Do you mean romantically?"

"Romantically, sexually, whatever your relationship evolves into. I feel obliged to warn you that Donovan's mental condition is extremely unstable."

"Really? He doesn't seem that way to me. In fact, he seemed to take the loss of Earth better than I could have hoped for."

"A result of your grandfather's extensive preparation. What I mean to say is that there is some vital balancing factor missing in him. One wrong move could very well send him on a tear, though I know not what that move would be or what the ramifications would entail."

Was this the problem her grandfather mentioned? "I will be careful."

"Hm."

- - - - -

Mercedes' entrance into the room immediately signaled that their fears were well placed. She was behaved well enough on the walk down the hall, but she could no longer contain her curiosity and excitement when she was let off the leash.

This release was of course at the Arboreal Maiden's insistence, otherwise Donovan would have practically strangled Mercedes to calm her down.

Running and sniffing around the wooded room, this was her first real experience of 'nature'. Aside from her brief walks on the polished deck of the Oberlux, she had only been exposed to synthetic sights and smells. Here there were flowers, mosses, herbs, all sorts of natural smells overloading her little brain.

"Quite interesting creatures these dogs are." The Arboreal Maiden was almost perfectly motionless in her chair, but they could tell she was intently focused on Mercedes' movements. "Many others have domesticated animals, either for food, labor, or war, but the process by which you tamed them was quite interesting. They could serve to provide food, labor, and combat prowess depending on their breed and training, but the concept of 'pet', an animal kept for the express purpose of being pampered, is fairly rare. For your species to partake in that practice so commonly and with such a variety of animals is an extreme oddity, one of many unique to you."

"If she's bothering you I can make her stop." Mercedes was sniffing at her leg, curious at the stranger in the room.

"It's no issue." She held out her hand for the dog to sniff. "Would it be fine if I pet her?"

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