3.47 Out Of The Blue

The aribu from the Grand Courtyard were safe and sound, but the Panthers were still missing. Neter was asking every Dogon as they arrived from Kergal if they had heard any news of their arrival. Dena noticed his heightened concern, why he was asking these feather dressed savages who were obviously travelers from afar?

         "Who are those weird-looking Lunies?"

         "They're from Kergal" Zara explained. "They're the real Dogons!"

         "Ha-ha" Dena chuckled, relieved to learn Zara had a sense of humor after all.

         "I'm serious"  she assured, understanding of her disbelief. "They are. They're the REAL Dogons! Ask them!"

         "It's true" Nepheus assured, helping any way he could. "The Dogons live in Kergal."

         Dena scrunched her face, feeling outvoted by a Golden and Lunie wasn't a comfortable feeling. "What on earth are you talking about?"

         Zara briefed her on the lie, the truth about the dark skinned Origians, the children of Baalas, the dogon stories were twisted lies.

         "Baalas?" Dena detected a lie, she had never heard of any Baalas. "It can't be true, besides, I would know. I saw the REAL dogons with my own eyes" she argued, standing her ground, voice escalating. "Everyone did! Everyone saw the REAL dogons! So did he!" She pointed to Nepheus. "They almost savaged Mel right in front of our eyes!"

         "They almost savaged Mel?" Zara gasped. "How? What happened?"

         "Oh... My... God…" Dena squealed, blinking hard as the memories returned. "Oh. My. God." She began fanning her face, flushing rapidly. "Atalon, like, sacrificed her to them!"

         "What?" Zara couldn't believe what she was hearing, Dena actually looked like she had a dam about to burst as she told of the terrifying event.

         "Those weren't Dogons” Nepheus corrected her gently. "Those were Malodon's experimental dogs, they were nothing but spliced body parts from the Lab on Gorias. Neter saw them there."

         "What? What on earth is wrong with you?" Dena stared at him wide eyed, horrified by the suggestion. "Why would Malodon breed those things? Atalon can't stand them, why do you think he's waging an entire war against them?"

         "I said they were spliced, not bred."

         Dena stopped fanning her face and frowned as she realized he was right, that was in fact, exactly what she saw. "Spliced body parts?"

         "Have you tried the Wine Balls?" Nel joined them at the table with a plate of sweets. Zara took one and introduced Dena to her old friend from Culloom. "Nel's a real Panther! She used to do my Conditioning Forecasts!"

         "GET OUT!" Dena's eyes bulged wide again. "Really?"

         Nel noticed Dena's more subtle reaction, obviously she knew what they were all about.

         "What are Conditioning Forecasts?" She asked, finally in an environment safe to do so.

         Dena’s thoughts suddenly froze, she had never been confronted by that question before, it wasn't supposed to ever happen... What would she say? All she could think about was The Oath. The Oath. The Oath. Sworn to secrecy she would absolutely face a Dishonorable Death if she ever broke her Oath. Like an invisible serpent around her neck she felt her throat seize up, her lips moved, but she was unable to utter a word.

         "Spit it out!" Nell barked, revealing her true fire inside, she had suspected shenanigans with the goddess culture years ago.

         "How can you be a real Panther if you don't even know what Conditioning Forecasts are?" Dena snapped back.

         "We never needed to know" Nel reminded. "Remember that?" The tone of sarcasm in her voice was barbed. Partitioned information was the way the Firmary ran, everyone knew what they had to do but no one knew why or more than they had to.

         Dena glanced at Zara, wondering now, what would happen if she broke her Oath? Why should The Oath matter here? There was no Medel to condemn her to a Dishonorable Death here, was there?

         "They're...  Astrological charts that tell us the most effective times to condition the Goldens...  Amongst other things."

         "Condition the Goldens? What on earth are you talking about?"

         "What do you mean by condition?" Zara felt the blood draining from her face, she didn’t like the sound of this at all. "What's so special about the Goldens?"

         Dena scanned her audience, searching for the right words.

         "I dunno… Remember the wardrobe swap?"

         "The wardrobe swap?" Zara echoed, shocked to have the old humiliation brought up in front of her new friends, so completely out of the blue. "Yeah, so what? Why are you bringing that up now? What's that got to do with anything?"

         "Didn’t you think it was odd that my clothes fit you?" She pushed her chest out to animate her point.

         Zara felt her pulse speed up, the lump in her throat coming back.

         "Yes… And?"

         "They were tailored to fit you."

         "What? Why?"

         "Conditioning."

         "Wha-a-a-at?" Zara was lost, now she suspected a lousy joke. "Conditioned for what?"

         "What the fuck are you talking about?" Nel suspected this shenanigan business was real, now.

         "I set you up" Dena finally confessed. "It was organized. It was a Psychological Operation."

         "WHAT?" The image of the dyed clothing in the tub lunged back from the past. "What are you talking about?"

         Dena smiled, lifting up her lengthy string of gold beads wrapped around her neck. "I earned one gold bead for my role."

         "YOU SET ME UP?"

         Dena smiled and raised her goblet.

         Zara felt her heart pound so hard it nearly knocked the wind right out of her lungs, she could barely breathe.

         "What are you talking about?" Nepheus pried for more.

         "You got paid to do WHAT?" Nel was trying to comprehend such a thing.

         "YOU... YOU SET ME UP WITH THE LASHING?" Zara shouted now, rising from her chair, fists clenched, losing control.

         "And the blind date with Bell" Dena chuckled, stoking the flames, amused by Zara's feisty reaction. "I slipped you the drugs!"

         Like an enraged bull, Zara lunged forward and punched Dena's jaw so hard it knocked her and her goblet of wine to the floor with a loud crash. Nel jumped up and caught Zara's arm just as she was about to strike again and pulled her back, sitting her down, hard.

         "RELAX Zara! You have to let her explain if we want to find out the truth!"

         Trembling and shocked by what she had done, Zara crossed her arms in an attempt to constrain any further outbursts. Dena had opened the lid to years of anguish, the memories of pain and torment that she had internalized blazed through her veins so painfully all she could think about was smashing the living shit out of her old university roommate.

         "Are you okay?" Neter reached out a hand to help Dena up, he had noticed the commotion from the kitchen and took the cue to offer some mediation. Nel explained the situation and filled him in on the truth unfolding.

         "Conditioning Forecasts?" He was definitely interested. "Tell us more" he urged, he too had wondered what the Panthers had really been up to these days. Dena brushed herself off, straightened out her hair and continued to explain, seemingly unaffected by the assault.

         "The Goldens are utility Gens with high serpent DNA. Goddesses are trained to work them, set up and condition their lives for different projects and assignments."

         "That wasn't conditioning, that was CRUELTY!" Zara fought hard to contain herself as the memories of her tortured past returned to haunt her mind.

         "What Goddesses?"

         "How do you mean?" It was merely confirmation to Nel, she could see the dots connecting in nefarious ways now, the disclosure begged an explanation. "We produced thousands of those things, there's thousands of Goldens, we did all their forecasts so they could be played by Goddesses?"

         "Yep" Dena confessed, apparently proud of her job. "It has something to do with their blood, I don't know any more than that and no one needed to know, but I'm pretty sure that's what it's about. There's nothing wrong with it, I mean, they were bred for it."

         "If there was nothing wrong with it then why was it a big secret?" Neter pitched.

         "Because if they knew, it wouldn't have worked" Dena explained.

         Zara felt her head throbbing, agonized by the fresh wounds of truth, searching for ways to disbelieve or un-hear Dena's words. Was she actually saying that all that bad luck had been staged?