Page 49 of The Alien I Fell in Love with on Walpurgis Night

“By the light of the gods, Madame Georgiana Smith from Earth, you have been invited to the Imperial Palace by the Empress.”

“Wait,” Lia says. “She has the right to formally decline.”

“Are you going to formally decline on her behalf as the Head of House Zu, Representative Lia?” the head guard asks.

This must be serious because Lia says nothing.

The officers are forcing me out of the house. It seems as if all of House Zu is there to witness this. I’m trying not to let my emotions take over, but I’m scared. What’s going to happen to me?

“What have I done? The High Priestess said we were free to leave the temple.”

“This is not about what happened at the Grand City Temple,” Axl’s mother tells me, while she’s trying to convince the officers to leave me with her. I look at the grey faces of the House Zu inhabitants and they all look shocked. Am I going to die?

Once inside the transport I’m strapped in by my waist, wrists, and ankles like a criminal. “If this is an invitation, why am I being treated like a prisoner?” I ask, but I’m ignored. I wonder if I have any rights on this alien planet. Lia said something about my right to decline, but apparently that wasn’t particularly useful. I wonder if the Empress rules by divine rights? I try to remember everything that was said about the Lost People at the temple earlier. Perhaps their religion will be the key to my freedom.

It’s not a long ride to the Imperial Palace, which under different circumstances, I might have even described the palace as majestic. But as I’m roughly escorted inside, all I can think about is how high these stone walls are and how I’ll never be able to escape. I’ll have to be set free.

As I’m hauled into an amazing, but completely alien throne room, I’m sure I don’t have the creativity to make this kind of science fiction fantasy up so there is no way this is a nightmare. There are banners hanging from the walls with the imperial symbol on them and a large statue of the same goddess I had seen that morning in the Grand City Temple. Her shoulder-length hair framing a perfect face a green jeweled eyes. I look up at her as I’m pulled towards the feet of the statue and the throne. Then I’m forced to the ground.

“The god’s shine their light on you Madame Georgiana Smith from Earth. Thank you for accepting my invitation and coming to the palace on such short notice.”

“My pleasure,” I say looking at the floor’s stone tiles next to my face and the officers’ boots. “What can I do for you, Empress?” I assume I’m talking to the Empress and if she has this much control to simple pluck me from Axl’s home, then she probably has the control to kill me without any consequences.

“I would like you to be our guest here at the palace until you return to Earth.”

“I’m not worthy,” I say. I try not to smile when I think about the movie I just quoted, but quickly rein myself in. It’s not the same. I really don’t want to be here.

“Oh, but of course you are worthy. You are one of the Lost People and you have no one in the Empire except for me.”

“I have Axl.”

I hear a sharp intake of breath from those standing near me and I realize I should not have said that.

“You dare use his name so intimately? Take her to her quarters,” the Empress orders and the guards roughly escort me out of the throne room. I only catch a glimpse of the Empress who is dressed regally in a long black dress and covered in silver jewels including silver trinkets in her long black hair as I’m roughly taken away.

I’m brought to a stone room with no windows, just a small bed and a tiny bathroom. It doesn’t necessarily feel like a prison, but it doesn’t feel like one of the palace’s finest guest rooms either. I call out for a room’s computer like on the Hio or in House Zu, but my requests are met only by silence.

I sit on the small bed and try to go over everything that happened. There are so many things that I don’t understand. I could have done any number of things wrong.

There is no window here, so I only know that it’s the evening because food is brought to me by a guard. He watches me eat it. I’m hungry so eat quickly. Then he takes the tray from me.

I sleep in my clothing hoping that I’ll be woken up and told this was all a mistake. That I’ll be returned to House Zu.

But I wake to the same guard bringing me breakfast. I try to ask him, “Will I be able to leave soon?”

He doesn’t answer me.

“May I see Imperial Fleet Reserve Commander Axl of House Zu.”

No answer.

“May I see Representative Lia of House Zu.”

This request gives me a fleeting look of a different kind. But, still the guard doesn’t say anything and leaves as usual.

At the midday meal a different guard brings me my lunch. He also watches me eat and doesn’t answer any of my questions, but I ask to see Lia again. She may despise humans or not like me because I came here with her brother, but one thing I do know about her is that if she were to come here, she would tell me directly what is happening.

When yet another guard comes for the evening meal, I continue to ask to see Lia. I don’t ask for Axl or to return to Earth.

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