As it turned out, Northeast Meysifruit Living Quarters in the Keyic domain was, in fact, a whole lot better than Unit 119 in the Limbot domain, even though Yonen was pretty sure that the Keyic jungle was the muggiest place in the world. True, the only other place he had ever been was the Limbot domain, but Yonen was confident.
It was approaching midday, so work had paused, and everyone was either indoors or, like Yonen and Elli, underneath a large canvas screen, attached to the building on one side, and the forest on the other, to provide a clear field as shaded as the dense forest. If Yonen had his pick, he would be inside, but Kovi and his new friends wanted to play outside, for reasons that made sense only to children, so here they were.
Here they were, in a place where work was paused, for family time, because working near noon would make people suffer, and it was important for people to have family time.
Yonen's whole family sent prayers of gratitude to the Goddesses every night, and didn't even look over their shoulders while praying. It was so obviously safe to pray to the Goddesses in this place, home to those who served Them, that they didn't feel the need to check with anyone to make sure.
They had never heard from the Red Goddess again, but it was no wonder why. Many people needed Her help, needed it badly, and Yonen's family didn't. Not anymore. Yonen believed that She still heard their thanks, even if She did not have time to reply.
The adults gathered here were vigilant, but they weren't watching for two-legged threats.
On their first day, their new neighbors had been mostly concerned with telling them which plants and animals they needed to watch out for. Yonen had paid close attention--it was a scary list.
----
"No no, these frogs are fine, it's those that'll kill ya," Dree corrected.
Yonen and Elli looked back and forth between the frog the elder was holding in one hand, and the one that he was pointing at from a respectful distance. They were both purple splotched with magenta, both with the same pattern, both the size of Yonen's fist, both gulping air the same way. He could not see a difference. Not only did they look like the same kind of frog, they looked like the same frog. The only way to tell them apart was that Dree was holding one without concern, but eyeing the other carefully from five paces away.
"This one wants you to think he can hurt ya, but they move different," Dree explained, grinning. "This one kinda hips, and that one, he kinda hops, ya see? You want the hippers, like this guy. They're good to eat. If ya eat the other one, ya best hope he tastes good, 'cause he's the last thing you'll eat! Heheh! No one alive knows how he tastes, that's for damn sure! Hahaha! Not how he feels, neither! Hahaha!"
Yonen and Elli looked at each other, then back at the frogs, then back at each other. Was this for teasing newcomers, or...?
"Hrm." Dree was frustrated, after reading their faces. "Guhhh. Just...Just stay on the paths and call someone if you don't recognize something. Especially if it's colorful. And the more legs, the worse." He looked up and stared off, thoughtfully. "Mmm, no, that's not right. No legs at all is the worst. Except sometimes it's fine..." He grimaced at the frog of death, shook his head, and sighed again. "Just stay on the paths. And don't touch anything."
----
Yonen had still never left the paths, and never touched anything but the meysifruit in the orchard. The fruit was safe. He knew how to pick fruit that didn't want to kill him. Meysifruit even tasted good. It had better, given how big its orchard was.
As important as these warnings were, and as thankful as Yonen was for the help, they were not the sort that he would have felt most important to share with someone new to Unit 119. He had needed to ask about those things, directly. Except, he hadn't really needed to.
----
"Is there anything we should know, about the supervisors?"
"Nah," Dree answered. "It's not like that here, hasn't been for a long time. The security folks mostly worry about outsiders. You only call 'em if there's a real troublemaker. Or an outsider who shouldn't be here, but none of those would ever survive the critters. Haha!"
...People here call 'security'?! On purpose?! Was this what it was like, to live in the Goddesses' Garden?
"What about inspection? Is it random? Are there things they always look for?" Elli followed up.
Dree frowned.
"Ya mean like when the crews come by to check the roof and windows and stuff? Mmm...There's not really a schedule, but it's not random, neither. You'll see 'em more before bad storms, to make sure the building's ready, and after, to look for wind damage that needs fixin'. We get some real bad storms some years, and I don't mean the daily rains. Real howlers. Trees block the worst of it for us, though."
Yonen and Elli looked at each other again.
The building gets repaired?! By someone else? And no one is punished for damage?
Yonen and his wife turned as one toward their new home, with its intact windows and sturdy walls and undamaged roof and enchanted cooling unit, and stared silently.
Dree followed their gaze, then looked back at them, always with one eye on the frog of death.
"They said you're from Limbot, was it?" he asked. "It's real bad there?"
Yonen and Elli nodded.
"They tried to steal our son," Elli explained, a simple statement of fact. There was more to say, much more, but what was the point? If the Goddesses kept a list of the damned, the Patriarch and all of his kin and supervisors and inspectors and clerics and all the rest surely had spots on it, near the top.
Dree looked off into his thoughts.
"Things are better now, than when I was a boy," he told them, "especially since Miss Suri has been around--she's the next Matriarch. My grandpa said it was worse when he was a boy, too, than when he was old. The stories say it used to be real bad. We hear from the attendants that it's still like the stories, outside, but...that's really somethin' to hear." He shook his head again. "I can promise ya, the Keyics leave us be. Nothing like that happens here, not in my life or my grandpa's."
The Messenger wouldn't have led them here, if that weren't true.
"Hearin' that sort of thing, it makes me glad that the security folks spend so much time worrying about outsiders," Dree added.
Yonen, too. Only one more question.
"How does worship work, here?" he asked. The Keyics were a lot better than the Limbots, that was clear, but it was best to avoid any mistakes. After all, he'd almost lost Kovi and Elli at worship gone wrong.
"Oh, right! If you run into outsiders, ya gotta get on your knees and put your forehead on the back of your hands like this, see?"
Dree got on his knees, placed his hands on the ground in front of him, and pressed his forehead into the back of his hands, then rose, with Yonen's help.
"Think worshipful thoughts to be safe, and don't look at 'em. If you don't do all that, outsiders don't like it. Well, ya know that even better than me, don't ya?" It was not really a question. "The Keyics tell outsiders to leave us to them, and throw a fit when they...what do they say?"
Dree frowned at the ground. Yonen kept an eye on the frog of death while he was distracted.
"Um...It's like...'Do not presume to...' Bah." He swung his free hand above his head in frustration. "I can't remember how it goes. It doesn't matter. They say somethin' fancy to tell outsiders off if they hurt us or try to order us around, but it won't do ya any good if you've already been shot or somethin'. Anyway, it's not too important, since outsiders stick to the Blue House, 'cause it's so sweaty outdoors and they're all so scared of the critters." He pointed over his shoulder at the deadly frog with his thumb. "There's more where that came from. The attendants say the Keyics show off some of the critters to guests, and tell stories about the jungle, make out like it wants to kill everything alive. I mean, it does, but they really put the fear of it in 'em, you know? Keeps 'em from wanderin' where they aren't wanted. Boy, I wish I could see their faces!"
He looked at the setting Sun.
"Ah, come to think, we'd best get inside before the real nasties come out. I never understood why something that flies and sees ya with its ears needs fangs and poison, too. It's not fair, I say."
He chuckled for a while as they walked, then remembered what he'd originally been talking about.
"Right. So, outsiders want to stay inside, and who wants to talk to us anyway, eh? Ha! So, just avoid the Blue House when anyone's there. When outsiders are there, I mean. Attendants come by and let everybody know, when some are comin'. Last time was when Miss Suri got married, a few weeks back. I hear her husband is just like her, 'cept red, thank the Goddess. A miracle like that must be Her work."
----
It would all have seemed too good to be true, if not for the fact that the Goddesses' Messenger had sent them here. And the jungle wanting to kill everything alive.
Yonen and Elli were standing with other parents, on their break, watching Kovi play with other children, while trying not to worry about how idle they would look if any supervisors spotted them. There were no supervisors, not here, only security. Yonen knew this, he repeated it to himself, but it was hard to break a lifetime habit.
"Hello!" a voice called.
He spun around immediately, but not from terror. Yonen would remember the people who had saved his family forever, and this voice belonged to one of them.
"Sieniel!" he greeted in return, then a throng of children, including Kovi, ran past him. Kovi had learned within weeks, by watching the other children, that fancy blue uniforms didn't mean 'avoid me' like fancy black uniforms did.
As Sieniel entertained the children, Elli asked Yonen a question with a look.
Every single person who had brought them here was a servant of the Goddesses, working in secrecy. The Messenger herself had said so. Yonen and his wife had the good sense not to speak about such important secrets aloud.
Like the cooling unit. They had spent a long time staring in disbelief, after being told what it was and who had put it here and kept it charged. Yonen had a hunch that this 'Miss Suri' was the Messenger. The coincidence was too strong, and where else could she be hiding? He would take his suspicions to the grave, in any case. If Elli had the same hunch, she seemed to have the same plan.
"Yes," Yonen answered Elli's unspoken question, quietly. "She said she is one of the Matriarch's 'secretaries.' It seemed like a high rank."
Elli nodded. She, too, knew what Sieniel's presence on that trip meant: This attendant was as trustworthy as it was possible to be.
After the children released her, Sieniel came directly to Yonen and Elli, wearing a friendly smile.
"Settling in well?" she asked. "I am glad to see that Kovi is fitting in."
"Yes, and thank you," Elli answered. "We did not know that a place like this existed."
Sieniel was clearly very proud of her home, and Elli's opinion of it. Yonen had gotten a sense that while his neighbors were broadly aware of the outside world, and how much better things were here, almost nobody had personal experience. They didn't really know; they'd heard stories. Attendants, including Sieniel, had seen the outside, personally, or at least had personal experience with visitors. They knew what they had here, how different it was. How much better it was. How sacred it was. The security people must know, too, for all the same reasons.
"Everyone will be glad to hear that!" she said. Yonen knew it was true.
Sieniel turned toward him.
"The Matriarch sent me to request a meeting with you, Yonen, in the Blue House. Before I say anything else: I know that where you come from, this 'request' would be, in truth, an order. That is not how things work here. A request is a request. The Matriarch would like to hear whatever you have to say about the Limbot domain. If you are willing to share, great! Come with me. If not, if you would rather stay here with your family and live your lives without ever thinking about the past again, then we will leave you be."
Sieniel wouldn't invite him to something dangerous, but maybe she was trying to hint that he should refuse?
"Is the Matriarch like Immur?" Yonen felt like it was a good idea to be cautious.
She smiled again.
"Out of all the people in the world, she chose him. I have had the honor of serving as the Matriarch's secretary since she was a girl. I was there, when she asked him to marry her, because she had finally found someone she could trust."
That was all Yonen needed to hear. He hated the Patriarch more than everything else in the world combined. He had some things to say. He really hoped that the Goddesses kept a list of the damned.
"Would I come now? Just like this?"
"If you want to come, they're waiting for you," Sieniel replied. "Don't worry about looking presentable. Everyone knows what it's like around here." She pulled at her collar, apologetically. Her uniform had a snug fit, and left only her head and hands exposed, as seemed to be the rule for formal Keyic fashion. "We'll get cleaned up when we arrive."
Yonen looked at Elli and Kovi. Elli stared straight back.
"Make sure you tell them exactly how I got my burns," she growled, then knelt to explain things to Kovi. "Daddy needs to tell the blue people about where we used to live. He'll be back soon."
"Probably tomorrow," Sieniel clarified.
Huh? Tomorrow?
"Would we be coming back overnight?" Yonen was worried.
Sieniel frowned. "No? That would be much too dangerous, with all the--Oh!" Her smile returned, but more gentle than beaming this time. "You'll stay with us, in the Blue House, if it gets too late. They're not going to kick you out!"
Yonen's jaw dropped. The Goddesses' touch truly was all over this place. Would he be able to meet Miss Suri, at the Blue House? It seemed almost impossible at this point that she wasn't the Goddesses' Messenger, or someone like her.
