The Mere Tide P69

Barely functioning jitney pulled up before the gate of the Aiegietti, the aienee embassy. Its doors opened and Dachni watched the pilot emerge like an enormous robed spider and she followed like another. The pilot was reaching for her wallet but the shalkii garrisoning the guardshack one produced his own card and another ran ahead to announce his dagestai’s arrival. They passed through niello gates inscribed with the genesis of the species. Walked the gravel circle. The garden in its eye, a fountain amidst the flowers. The mansion doors opened before their approach and a formationed host bowed in greeting.

Inquiries were made. Did the dagestai wish a change of clothes? to rest? to bathe? to convene with her staff? a briefing?

Yea to all and all to me, she said declining a drink outheld on a silver platter.

Yagt vi coei?

The pilot nodded that the child would indeed accompany her.

They gathered, those shostii of sufficient rank, in the lavish pophiagata of the study, that painstaking style in which every surface is relieved of scenes of history, that they might be tramped upon, and the ends of their talons nick away the faces and the deeds in mimic of time. Of the officers some sat in chairs or on the floor, for they made no distinction, and their attentions were towards the pilot where at study’s front she cupped the head of her uneasy honoree.

This, she began in a rap of talons, is Dachni’isigiat Alessa Gillespie Hasti. Ignore the name, but know it, and afford her the privileges and deference you would me for she descends of gravest lineage and a birth preceded by signs. You will not find her in the histories but the proof that she came of them is this royal frame which presents itself thus to thine eyes. Disregard the facade that would mark her an ignote nor weigh too much youth’s features for in them experience oppugns years. Give credit to her notions, they are more sapient then the rude colloquialisms of her mountain domain in which they are delivered. That it is unright that any of noble birth should not have some aspect of their history known be it declared that the seat of her birth overlooked the staid range called the Urals where through many hardships she pertinaciously clung to life and when unseated and in the plains fought and in the towns fought and saved my life. So let her be she and I bined in your thoughts of service. Then that this our residence should be kept merry and to honor its second master our most august early queen I proclaim feasting and other revelries as may be made to follow. To you Gacci’vikios I charge you epulary master and manage the mansion’s feed by the nineteenth hour.

Ssivka, dagestai, said Gacci’vikios.

To it then.

Gacci’vikios, the stocky factotum, bowed and left the room.

To the rest open your closets that you may flourish yourselves in most excellent garbs and if you should warrant that outfit unworthy take leave of your duties, some monies out the general trust, visit a boutique, peruse the latest fashions, be riven by a clerk’s fad and disdaining a second trite skin return, dress as you can and be merry.

Dachni dreamed no dreams through the daylight in a gazebo of a bed in the master bedchamber. Anaya woke her late to prepare for the evening festivities. She freshened in the shower, feeling a twinge of satisfaction from knowing how to operate this invention without guidance. She came out wrapped in a towel leaving a moky wet trail on the rug. Anaya saw and smiled.

Hi.

Hello heartbeat.

Yer sunshine.

Ok.

For her consideration the pilot had laid out a number of dresses on an ironing board but the child touched the stitched flume of her surgery and said it hurt.

Ive remedy for that. Surprised you didnt ask for it earlier. She started towards the bathroom. Said from it: Do you like the dresses though?

Theyrred ald prettied pretties.

The pilot came out with a plastic tube she pointed at the bed. Sit down for me?

Dachni shuffled over and sat.

Hows my brave girl?

Saided hurt.

Are you ready for tonight? she said unscrewing the tube cap. She squeezed out a glowing sea blue gel. Alien falltrank smelled of a crisp minty sea salt.

Smells nice.

Towel off.

Dachni shrugged off the towel and the pilot massaged the gel into her breast. It grew in viscosity, became almost crystalline, and dimmed.

Is cold. No is hot!

Feels better?

Dachni wiggled cautiously to detect any tremors of agony but it was narrowing to veins. Dissolving as though expelled in the breath. Does is does.

Do you know what this is?

Nuh uh. She took a deep breath, deep as she could, and it was without discomfort. Oh that feels better. What is it?

Sly smile spread on the pilot’s face. Pus.

A crease formed in Dachni’s brow. She knew the word but thought there must be a second definition or else japery. Whats et mean?

Pus.

Ye mean sicky pus?

Aye.

Dachni paled paler than her almost ghostliness near translucent so that the organs that sustained her could be seen in their soundless workings. She began to cast about as though in search, her hands by her side shaking in agitation as though the ingested prions of children past had willed her to a stroke. Ewwwwwwwww, tasssss grooooos!

The pilot doubled in laughter. Oh forlorn urchin. But is the pain faded?

Nooooo, she whined in despair.

The pilot lolled her head with tongue out. Youre fine.

Defiled she felt and slandered by circumstance beyond the limits of medicine.

Very well its not pus. A topical analgesic.

This assurance restored a measure of her composure. Really?

Sure.

Yer lie sayin. Whats et really?

Its processed pus.

Her face scrunched anew but before her long mewl of dismay could escape Anaya pressed her crossed arms on her lap and stopped her mouth with a kiss. A few seconds later she broke the kiss the few millimeters needed to say: Youll catch no illness.

Whats it why?

The process is this. A hxaose, a tree dwelling leaf grazer, which weve cloned, is given a lung infection. The immunoresponse is to swell nodes in the airway to the point that they emulsify into a pussy bacteriophage that agitates the nasal pituitaries, which stretches very far back to the cranium, inducing a prodigious production of mucous that flushes everything out. And in a happy coincidence for mankind this discharge turns out to be a very effective painkiller. So its not just pus but mucous too.

Aets eewen gwosser!

To compound the humor.

Dachni sulked in boiling fury but Anaya’s eyes was asquint and her tongue in her fangs and she began to chuckle. A gargled howl of outrage rose in the child’s throat but before it could rip past her teeth it suddenly failed and the tussive indignation hacked out into a warbling laugh and soon they were cackling together.

Ets stell gose.

And still funny.

Dachni, sides tight, wiped away a solitary tear. Aesent too funny.