The High Humans (3/3)
They walk for another 20 minutes, and the golden-haired alien suddenly stops again. She turns to Lyr, and she says calmly, "I've seen you staring at me for a while now. If you have something to say, just say it."
Lyr coughs nervously at suddenly being called out. Frankly, he has a million things he'd like to say. He could ask about her name, remark about her beauty… or, he could satisfy his curiosity.
'Yeah,' he thinks, 'Let's keep professional. Best to keep the questions impersonal.'
So, he confidently starts to say, "Yes. I do have a question – several, in fact. First, this place seems to be laid out like a traditional Brancotte museum. Is this place a fortress or a museum?"
Lyr was acting cowardly before – not daring to speak out of line. Yet… why is it that as soon as they met these aliens, that he suddenly grew the courage to ignore her?
Indeed, Lyr ignores her. He's far too curious to stop talking to these aliens, and he has far too little to live for to bother worrying about 'merely staying alive'.
Plus, when the pointy-eared people respond amiably to him and answer his questions without scruple, he enthusiastically keeps talking to them.
"Oh, this place?" one of the strange creatures says with a wistful expression. "It was a palace. Then it was a fortress. With the gate being closed for so long, we started treating this place like a museum instead. Some of the Rehkin youngsters sometimes like to come by and visit this historic sights and hear our stories."
"So… what are you, exactly?" one of the creatures asks Lyr.
"…I'm a human."
This sends the creatures into hysterical fits of laughter. "HAHAHA!" the nearest one bellows as he slaps Lyr on the shoulder. The alien is over 6 feet tall, and his arms are thick with muscle… so that slap actually sends Lyr stumbling forward.
"I meant," the tall creature laughs, "what's your profession? Rather, what's all of your professions? I thought your people would've sent soldiers through the gate first – not a bunch of civilians."
"I'm a historian," Lyr says while putting a hand over his heart. He then points to the Lareen soldiers behind him. "They're all soldiers."
"Soldiers?" the tall alien frowns, then giggles derisively. "They don't feel like soldiers. I can tell just by looking at their spirits. They've never seen blood before."
Lyr coughs uncomfortably. How is he supposed to explain this without embarrassing his people?
In the end, as a historian, his first instinct is to just… explain away. He knows very well that people of the past (or, for that matter, alien creatures) looked upon bloodshed differently than people in his generation.
So, Lyr looks down at the swords on the pointy-eared people's hips, and he says, "Well, we mostly use war golems in our wars. Here, it went like this..."
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Lyr goes on to explain some of the histories in his world to these strangers. He explains that thousands of years ago, war golem technology became so advanced that they became cheaper to maintain than soldiers, as well as more powerful in combat.
Over time, actual fighting became completely overtaken by golems, and wars became contests over who can burn more money and technological knowledge, rather than contests of skill, strength, and the size of your country.
Nowadays, there are VERY few soldiers in Lareen. Even these soldiers aren't there for frontline fighting. Rather, they're all just scouting units.
Even then, these human scouting units are hardly used. There are golems that do their job better than they can. Live human scouts are only ever used when they need to blend into a population.
Plus, the only reason why human scouts came across the portal (instead of just sending golems) is because golems can't be remotely controlled from across the World Gate. They HAD to send in live scouts.
(A/N: Of course, Lyr's explanation is a lot more long-winded than this. The above explanation is just a summary.)
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After Lyr finishes talking, the alien soldier next to him puts a finger on his chin thoughtfully and mumbles, "Ah… Makes sense. Well, I guess I should congratulate you guys on not having to send your young men to die anymore."
"I don't know if that's a good thing though," the pointy-eared woman adds while shrugging her thin shoulders. Lyr momentarily gets distracted by her bobbing golden hair.
"I mean," the enchanting woman says, "people who live without ever having to fear for their lives… don't they just grow up to be weak? They'll mess a lot of things up because of their incompetence, then their children will have to fix everything for them."
"Sure," the first alien shrugs, "them having their little machines take care of everything will make them soft and squishy, but what's the point of working hard and sharpening your soul if your children can't have an easy life?"
"Eh," the woman nods, "I suppose there isn't a perfect answer to everything. Agree to disagree."
'Oh,' Lyr thinks with fright, 'I forgot they were right behind us. I guess I got too excited.'
"Um… sir… and ma'am…," Lyr starts to ask the pointy-ears around him, "How do you know the Brancotte tongue? Did the humans ever set up colonies on this side of the World Gate?"
(A/N: I mean, thank the old British Empire for English being so common around the world.)
"Set up colonies?" the golden-haired alien asks – puzzled. "I mean, they set up a fortress at the World Gate, but that's mostly because they were terrified of the Rehkin Clans."
"Yeah," the taller, more muscular alien says, "most of the Rehkin clans had Drakin protectors, so outright attacking them would've been suicide."
"Why do you guys know a human's language then?" Lyr asks. "Bigger empires subjugating smaller countries IS usually the reason why many different cultures share a language. If old Brancotte hadn't conquered land in this world, then it makes no sense for you guys to speak their tongue."
"Haha!" the golden-haired woman laughs. Lyr stumbles forward as she pats him hard on the back. "We're Brancotte citizens. We're human."
"High humans," the buff alien corrects her. He then turns to Lyr. "Listen, here's how it is…"
"No!" the female 'high human' interrupts him. "We don't know if their country is hostile to us or not."
"What does it matter?" the male High Human growls. "It's not like EVERYONE in this world doesn't already know what we are?" He points at the humans following behind them, "All they'd have to do is ask the first Rehkin they see, and they'd get all their answers."
"No. I told you, Tal. These humans need to go back to where they belong," the beautiful high human growls back. "If the humans don't get to explore our world, then they won't get to ask anyone about us."
"Hmm…," Tal hums, "Let's not get ahead of ourselves. We'll have to let the General make that decision."
As if on cue, they suddenly enter a huge, open-air garden. Off in the distance, several thousand feet away, is a large wall that's even fancier than the front gate.
Maybe it's because the aliens know that they're traveling with a historian, but the male one points forward and says, "That's where the inner palace was. I mean, that's where the Brancotte emperor used to live before we stole the palace. Anyway, that's where the general's waiting at."
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(A/N: Lareen tongue is in " ". Brancotte is in < >.)
While Lyr is happily chatting away with their two captors, Lena and Yesee are looking around – hoping to at least get a bearing of where they are - just in case they need to escape.
Lena is currently decked out in countless enchanted artifacts – all mostly having to do with recording information and enhancing her senses.
Thus, she's well aware that there's a subtle Death Aura coating the entire palace. Frankly, she doesn't know if this Aura was artificially put here to enhance the palace defenses, or if the Aura is here simply because a ton of people recently died here.
Other than that, Lena is also vigilantly searching for other signs of life. Oddly enough, her senses aren't picking up anything – just the two aliens in front of them.
'There's no way that this entire castle is empty…,' Lena thinks with dread. 'That means that these people are able to hide themselves from our senses!'
Funnily enough, Lena is actually wrong about this. No, the aliens aren't hiding from her senses. Yes, this palace really is (mostly) empty.
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While the scout captain is fretting over how empty the palace is, Yesee is doing her own thinking. Mostly, she's paying attention to the defensive enchantments all around the castle, and she's wondering how this place would defend against attackers.
'First off,' she notices, 'the hallways are heavily enchanted with space magic. The Spatial bending techniques are pretty antique, but they're solid enough. At most, their enchantments are far less efficient on mana.'
Next, Yesee starts to notice that the hallways are lined with traps – lots of traps. There's practically not a single square inch of the place that won't try to kill you.
Lastly, Yesee notices that despite Lyr mentioning that this place is a palace, these halls are remarkably bare. There are hardly any side rooms for people to live in.
'Probably,' she surmises, 'this part of the castle is entirely designed for defense – not for living.'
At this point, they all entire a wide, open garden. Yesee's thoughts are interrupted when Lyr suddenly says to her, "You see that gate off in the distance? Our hosts said that that's where their general lives. They said it used to be the inner palace."
'I knew it,' Yesee thinks. 'The outer palace is for defending. The inner palace is for living.'
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They spend several minutes walking through the garden, and the humans all feel… oddly peaceful in this place. It's not just the gorgeous decorative flowers and trees, nor the perfect arrangements of plants and colors.
No… it feels as if the baleful, black Aura doesn't exist here. Mage Yesee is the only human here who realizes that this courtyard is the first place in this castle that's free of Death Aura.
Once they reach the other side of the courtyard, the aliens take a few minutes to undo the seals on the gate.
While Yesee and Captain Lena are both wondering, 'Why is the inner palace sealed so tightly?', Lyr is looking up and carefully reading the large inscription carved above the door.
"Friends Welcome," it reads in large, bold letters.