Imperial Orders

♕The Town (Village?)♕

"Snurff!" Tuofah woke up with a powerful snort to the unpleasant feeling of something in her nasal passages that wasn't supposed to be there. Looking up at the shabby, bamboo ceiling above her, she recognized the source of her discomfort: it was leaking, and the water droplets had been falling straight into her nose while she had been asleep. 

Asleep. No, passed out. 

The sleep was shaken from her body as the events preceding her collapse came back to her. She jumped to her feet, tossing the coarse cotton sheets back onto the thin cot she'd been laying on and stepping through the thick mosquito netting that had been hanging around her. Surprisingly, she felt no traces of the sickness that had overwhelmed her save a certain heaviness between her eyes. Whoever the current inhabitants of Earth were, they certainly knew a little something about medicine. 

"Hugo?" Tuofah called, her voice cracking embarrassingly. She wondered how long it had been since she'd last spoken...how long she'd been laying on a cot on a deserted planet with stale rainwater dripping into her nose.

Looking down at her feet, she understood why the heat no longer felt as oppressive. She was wearing a loose, white shirt and khakis, both made of the finely punctured, moisture-wicking material that the Ikmanonites seemed to love. To her delight, they had also provided her with a new pair of combat boots much nicer than her own. 

"Hugo? Where are you?" Having gained more confidence that the natives were not, in fact, out to kill her, she exited the small room she'd been sleeping in to find that it wasn't a room at all. In fact, it was a hut. Yes, a hut- bamboo walls, thatched roof, the whole deal. And standing on the doorstep of that hut, she was surprised to behold an entire valley dotted with similar structures, all leading up to a magnificent marble staircase that snaked up the mountainside, terminating in the only stone building in sight. The Temple of Ikmanon. That was where her Armlets were! But she hadn't counted on them being surrounded by an entire town (village?) of people who would consider their theft heretical. 

The pang of fear in her chest was momentarily lifted when she spotted Hugo in the middle of an open courtyard, surrounded by about a dozen young natives. Even from a reasonable distance, his pale countenance was quite easy to spot from among the relatively dark-skinned Ikmanonites. 

"...so yeah, we thought we were gonna die, but it turns out that my girlfriend has these really convenient superpowers that got us out of the tornado without her even knowing it!" Hugo explained with animated gestures as Tuofah approached him, crossing her arms over her chest leaning against a tree, and listening to his highly romanticized retelling of their adventures as she waited for him to notice her. 

Needless to say, it didn't take him long. 

"Tuo! You're alive!" He stood up from his seat on the dusty ground in a flash and rushed over to where she stood, pulling her into a bear hug before she registered what was going on. His skin felt warm and sticky against hers, but she wasn't going to complain: he was okay. She was okay. They were going to be okay. 

"They told me they'd be able to cure you- that the disease you had was super common down here- but I was starting to doubt it after the third week-" 

"Wait. The third week?" Tuofah stepped away in disbelief. No wonder Hugo seemed to know the natives so well. 

"Yeah..." his expression darkened. "You were asleep for a month. You missed a lot." He turned his head, discreetly making sure that the natives were busy talking amongst themselves. "Look, the Ikmanonites may look happy and free, but they've got a total, ruthless theocracy going here- like, Inquisition level stuff. They've got a 'Council,' but High Priestess Idala has them wrapped around her little finger. Sometimes- it happened twice while I was here- the Acolytes ring a bell and everyone leaves to go to the Temple. They're there for a couple of hours and then they all come out looking terrified. Well, not all of them come out...both times, one less person came back down the hill than went up. Don't ask me what they do in there- I hope I never have to find out. This place gives me really bad vibes- we're gonna get the Armlets and get out of here ASAP."

"Right," Tuofah gulped. She spotted the Peenutz merrily chasing each other around a tree along with several Ikmanonite children. The pastorally beautiful setting made it quite difficult for her to believe Hugo's story. This place and its people looked like they came straight out of a storybook- clearly, they had only attacked the Peenutz because they thought they were hostile. 

Almost immediately, reality jabbed her in the back in the form of the butt of a spear. 

"Ah, Tuofah Lynnstrijker." Tuofah whipped around to see the same man she had thrown against a tree just as he lowered his weapon. "What power flows through your hands..." he mused as he rubbed a fading red bump on his forehead that Tuofah had probably caused. Something in his words was ominous, greedy. 

"Now that you are finally healed, it is my pleasure to inform you that High Priestess Idala has deigned to offer you a personal invitation to the Holy Temple of Ikmanon." Noticing the confusion on Tuofah's face, he clarified, "you will come with me. Now. You too," he cut his eyes over at Hugo. 

"Hey, uh, Goulder..." Hugo smiled sheepishly, his fingers flitting nervously at the seams of his pants. "We appreciate the honor, but I'm sure the High Priestess is very busy. Surely she has more important things to deal with than us." 

"It was her request," the man- Goulder- replied, his voice darkening, "that I bring you to the Temple. She wishes to see you. Therefore, she will see you. Come." 

Even Hugo seemed to sense that there was no arguing with him now. Squaring his shoulders, he made his way to Tuofah's side, firmly taking her hand. "We understand." 

As Goulder turned around and began to lead them out of the courtyard, Tuofah returned her gaze to the Temple. For so long, this had been her destination. Now, she was so close, yet so far away...