Settling In For A Story

Posted on Tue May 2nd, 2023 @ 2:37am by Tessa di'Orion

Mission: Trade And Tribulations
Location: Tessa's Quarters

It had been a good twenty minutes for Tessa to remove her armor and change into something far less formal and constrictive. Hers and Cass's baggage had been brought up from the shuttle and her few possessions were laid out on her bed before she'd even begun to strip out of the protective equipment. Now, she looked far more normal, having removed the eyeshadow and re-dressed into a white and silver short-sleeved tunic of luxurious fabric and a pleated skirt of the same fabric. She came out of the bedchambers barefoot, relishing the softness of the carpet between her toes as she found a spot on the couch, tucking her feet up under her.

Amelie and Louis entered the guest quarters in much more comfortable attire than the church clothes they had worn for Tessa'e'Sera and Cass'e'Indira's arrival in the Main Shuttlebay. Amelie was now wearing a cream color blouse and skirt with sensible shoes and knee high bobby socks. Louis was in a short sleeve t-shirt with a print logo for his favorite band, blue jeans and comfortable running shoes. Both of them smiled as they entered to find Tessa in much more comfortable and distinctly less formal attire as well.

"Thank you for coming." Tessa had bounced up out of the couch to greet the two and her voice was as if greeting new friends, a level of excitement that was still genuine, "By the way, don't feel you need to go out of your way for Cass and myself, I know your Captain wants you to be at our beck and call, basically, but... We're quite independent, I guarantee it!" She gave Amelie a friendly hug, a hug and a brief kiss on Louis's cheek, "I never did say thank you for trying to help me, so... Thank you."

Amelie returned the hug with one of her own, like she was greeting an old friend she had not seen in ages. "Thanks for inviting us over. I am excited to learn more about you and where you come from."

Louis was surprised by the kiss on his cheek. He couldn't stop the blush of his cheek any more than the tingling he felt in Tessa's presence. "Um, your welcome. I am sorry I couldn't win the tournament, but I suppose it wasn't necessary with what the Captain did for you and Cass'e'Indira."

“Cass’e’Indira would have eventually gotten me out of there as well, but certainly your Captain sped up the process.” Tessa blushed slightly herself, “I’ve never before needed assistance in getting out of much trouble and for anything I can’t handle in combat…” She gestured at the corner where Cass was basically blending into the shadows in a chair. She sat back down at one end of the couch, tucking her bare feet under her again.

Amelie immediately jumped to the chair and plopped down. She smiled mischievously at Louis who would have to sit on the couch with Tessa. She was immensely curious as to how close her brother would sit to the young woman who had obviously captured his heart. "Yes Louis, have a seat, make yourself comfortable."

Louis glared at Amelie for a moment before sitting on one end of the couch. He leaned on the arm of the couch in an effort to appear relaxed. His hands fidgeted slightly. He turned to Tessa. "You said you had a story to tell us?"

Tessa looked back and forth between Amelie and Louis. "As I had said before, Light's End has fifteen thousand of the more than twenty thousand years of Tial's recorded history intact, but while we have remained unconquered over that time, the official history is written by the victors of the wars. That means that the 'official' history of Tial was put into stone and records eighty-four hundred years ago, sixteen centuries after the Unification War that was the rise of our gods, our legends that became gods that is. So, let me provide some history that actually makes sense."

The young blonde closed her eyes, "Originally, there were three genotypes of Tialans, golden haired, the Korashe, dark haired, the Sentar, and flame haired, the Argelli, with about 4 in 10 of each gold and dark, and 2 in 10 of flame. While current histories dictate that Bey'e'Dande," She pronounced it carefully, "Was blonde, that is not accurate. She was a Sentar and the best warrior that Tial had ever produced, Mistress of all six of the sword forms of the time, but that's not important right now. Before the Unification War, Tial was full of tiny kingdoms that constantly warred on each other, which has always been Tialan tradition."

"Bey'e'Dande was the Lady of Broken Mountain in what is now the Eastern Watch, subject of Thry'e'Geth, King of one of the largest kingdoms on Tial. They and a bunch of others banded together to liberate other kingdoms, to create a single, central government to administer everything fairly. Long story short on that, they did, they won, they became legends. Then they broke Tial into eleven 'districts' call them. A 'Reach' and a 'Watch' for each of the North, South, East, West and Central, plus another tiny administrative 'district' just called 'Center', where all of the administrators from the regions met."

Tessa exhaled deeply, "And for sixteen hundred years, it appeared to work. Low-level warfare, skirmishes mostly, between the regions kept major wars from happening. The legends died, were immortalized and elevated into godhood about 700 AU, After Unification. For some reason, all of the Argelli remained in the Central Reach. It's always been where they'd been from the beginning, but they became more and more reclusive. In Fifteen Ninety-Six AU, it finally happened. The Argelli had been tinkering with genetics, which was one of their specialties, but no one had an inkling that they were creating weapons."

"They started with the Central Watch, but released a virus in all of the districts that was tailored to attack the Korashe. Meanwhile, they'd been antagonizing the Sentar against the Korashe as well, then actually attacked their neighboring regions. The population of Tial at this point, according to the census of 1595 had been just over 139 million all told. Their first targets had been Center, where the Council of Lights was meeting in emergency session after the virus, killing the top ranked priests and priestesses and throwing the regions into chaos. The genetic virus killed over fifty million Korashe, the war killed another thirty million Tialans." Tessa shook her head, "It had taken all nine districts fighting together to finally defeat the Argelli, and it was genocide. Scientists had finally gotten a good look at the virus, which affected only the Korashe, killing most, but also altering our genetic code ever so slightly."

Her gaze fell to the floor, "And so a holy war had been declared against the Argelli, no flame-hair would ever be trusted again and very few surrendered in any case. The rulers at the time made the decision to kill them all. Everyone with red hair, from that time on. The laws are still active, although there have been none found with red hair in many hundreds of years. Infants born with red hair? Killed shortly after birth so that it can never happen again."

She glanced between Louis and Amelie again, "They were nearly wiped out of the history books, but after the genocide, Sentar outnumbered Korashe by over nine to one. The Korashe fertility was reduced and within another several hundred years, it was ninety-five to one. And so began another dark time, when the Korashe used their scarcity as a way to control the masses. Gradually in many cases, faster in others, the priesthood became nearly exclusively Korashe. Nowadays, there are a handful of lower-classed Sentar priests of Bey'a'Dande, but they are more common in lower classes of priest for the other gods."

Amelie looked at Louis and his dirty blonde hair color, a trait passed down from their mother. She took a handful of her own long reddish hair and after a quick glance dropped it. "I guess I won't be going on any away teams to Tial any time soon. Here I was so hoping to get to collect a souvenir or some sort of curio from a trip to a mall or market place."

Louis turned to Tessa. "Earth has had its own times of conflict. Wars raged across Europe for the better part of fifteen centuries, mostly due to religious intolerance. There were even two world wars fought just prior to the development of early atomic weapons. The latter half of our 20th century was marked by arms races between several coalitions and we came dangerously close to annihilating ourselves. Then the Eugene Wars in and finally there was a limited nuclear conflict about midway through the 21st century. It wasn’t until after first contact with the Vulcans that humanity truly started working together."

"Nuclear weapons and power is the only thing that got us out of our atmosphere." Tessa smiled slightly, "They were impractical for warfare, but chaining the explosions together allowed us to loft ourselves into orbit a few hundred years ago, which was when our own real technological advancement actually began. But Tial is unified, there is no question about that. Yes, there is low-level skirmishing that gives our militaries experience, but should something threaten Tial as a whole? That stops."

Tessa shuddered at the thought of an invasion that would actually assault her homeworld, "Of course, Tial only is home to 116 million-odd Tialans. About three thousand years ago, there was a major asteroid impact that closed the skies for several years. That set us back another several generations in population. But we can certainly bring you something from the market, Amelie, in fact, I'm sure my mother will want to give you something personally once she finds out that we are friends."

Amelie gave a small smile to Tessa. She gave a shake of her head. "That isn't necessary Tessa'e'Sera. I am just glad to have the chance to become friends with you." A thought came to mind and she picked up a PADD from the coffee table. "Could you write down your alphabet on this device? Understanding your language would be extraordinarily helpful prior to arriving at Tial."

"Tessa, please." The blonde reassured her, "Most of us go by just the first part of the name unless we're going to be all formal. 'Tessa'e'Sera' means Tessa, daughter of Sera. If I were male, it would be 'son of'. Orion is the family name, the 'di' in front of it indicates that my family is part of the aristocracy, but if I were a Light, it would be 'ti'Orion'." Tessa shook her head slightly, "So my father is Vitoi'e'Beless ti'Veder, Light of the Eastern Watch, the highest ranking War Priest of the district."

Amelie stared at Tessa in awe. She had thought the girl was some one of some importance, but an honest to God princess was a bit startling. She glanced at Louis who seemed equally as stunned by the revelation.

Louis felt many different things at once regarding the news Tessa was royalty. He felt foolish for failing to win the tournament. He also felt unworthy to even be in the same room with Tessa. "Your Highness, please forgive me for my behavior down on the planet. Had I known...."

Cass'e'Indira did something that she did ever so rarely: She snickered in amusement, "I've never heard that one before, 'Your Highness'!"

With a scowl at her bodyguard, Tessa waved her hands frantically in front of them, "Please, by the gods, don't call me that! It's... Complicated, because of politics and.. um... I don't know the right words." She gave a frustrated sound, "Am I the granddaughter and daughter of the Lights of the Eastern Watch? Yes, but my grandmother and my father weren't related, at least not for about ten generations back.

"You still are important, Tessa." Cass reminded her, "You'll be Baroness one day and in the wrong hands would be leverage against both your Lady Mother and the Light himself."

"Not that it would matter with him." Tessa sighed, but looked back and forth between Louis and Amelie, "But for one, Louis, you didn't know who I was and it wouldn't have mattered. It doesn't matter even now, if I'm being honest, because... I'm not in any real royal line of succession, the kings and queens of old are dead."

Cass interjected again, "But you're as close to an actual princess as Tial gets in this age, Your Grace, on both sides of your family. In the old days, the Light would have been the King and you would have been a true princess. Of course, in the old days, people couldn't Challenge a King for his position, so it is different."

Tessa nodded at that, "You're right as always, Cass." She turned her attention back to the two other teenagers, "I've been treated like one most of my life, except for by Mother and Cass, but I don't enjoy it, I don't like it. I'm me and while I can't change what I am." Her eyes were pleading now, "I'm just Tessa. Not 'Tessa'e'Sera', not 'Your Highness', not 'Your Grace'," That last included a slight glare at Cass, "If you feel you must be formal, you can call me Priestess, or even 'Your Grace', but... I'm Tessa."

Amelie just smiled and nodded. "Tessa it is then."

Louis nodded. "Thank you Tessa." He gestured to Amelie and himself. "Please just call us Amelie and Louis then." He cast a furtive glance at Cass. "Erm, you as well Lady Cass'e'Indira. We are little more than civilian dependents living aboard."

From the corner, Cass'e'Indira smirked, "Not likely, but now I know I can call you two 'You' and 'Hey You'."

"Cass!" Tessa sounded scandalized momentarily, then demurred at the chuckled that escaped the other Tialan, then rolled her eyes, "Just ignore her, she's Bey'a'Dandian and like all military types, loves the formality." She gave Cass a glare to dare her to object, "But I'll happily call you two Louis and Amelie. But ugh, don't call me by my first name? Formality is one thing, but outside of that, it's used more when I'm in trouble.. I'm not sure if there's the same custom on your world, but whenever Mother was angry with me it was always 'Tessa'e'Sera Orion, get over here!'" She giggled.

Both Amelie and Louis exchanged knowing looks and nodded in unison. Throughout the years and with three older siblings there was hardly a day that went by when one of the Rouen children were not being called by their first, middle and last name to account for some mishap in the house. Amelie sighed. "I think, no matter what planet one comes from, it's a universal constant."

A sudden pang hit Tessa as she remembered other moments from home, more... Meaningful and soft, laughter with her mother; the joy of discovering new things, new ways to heal people and her face just fell. "It will be good to get home, when we get there. I don't suppose that I'll be able to wander around the ship tomorrow? I do want to meet more people of the Federation, probably meet your medical professional so I can offer my services, and of course spend more time with the two of you, so long as you don't mind?"

Louis nodded. "Captain Skyie assigned me the duties to act as liaison with you. She..., well all of us suppose, would like to more about both of you and where you come from. I am also to do my best to answer any questions you have about, well, anything."

"In that case, Louis, I would be honored to have you along with me for tomorrow's explorations." Tessa smiled at him broadly, "And perhaps you and I can get to know each other better? And of course I'll want to spend some time with you too, Amelie, but... Just you and me? I've got some questions I'd really like to ask you.. In private, but they can wait until tomorrow."

Louis nodded. He glanced at Amelie before returning his gaze to Tessa. "How about after lunch? I believe my sister is taking you both to ship's stores to expand your wardrobe in the morning.

Amelie just smiled. It wasn't going to be a trio to the shopping mall for back to school clothes, but it would be fun helping Cass and Tessa pick outfits.

The twins got to their feet and Tessa followed suit, smoothing her skirt down as she did, "That sounds like a good plan! Amelie, I'll see you tomorrow morning!"

It was only a few more moments before the twins left and the door slid closed behind them and a hand came down gently on her shoulder, "All right, My Lady, let's sit down and have a bit of a chat, you know what about and why."

"I know, Cass.." Tessa sighed, "I know."