A lengthy Bagaran dusk had smeared the sky for three full hours when Fei came to stand in the doorway of Kuja’s hut. She glanced down at herself, wondering if she looked ridiculous in the dress that Lilliean had lent her for the evening. Though they were a similar height, Fei’s figure was much fuller and so the tan, suede item clung to her hips and every other curve she usually tried to obscure with looser clothes.
Fei’s feet were bare tonight. She had been hesitant to shed her shoes at first, but now she enjoyed the mud squelching beneath her, massaging each individual toe. It was raining again, not too heavily, just enough to sprinkle droplets over her untamed hair like tiny pieces of glinting glass. She would have spent an extra hour smoothing out the strands with chemicals, so that her look would last the night, but she had felt the need to show Kuja who she was without all that effort — and what she’d look like in the morning if he woke beside her.
Kuja was in the same clothes he always wore, but at least he’d actually cleaned them for once. He’d also taken the time to slick his hair back with water, though Fei wasn’t sure how long that would last. She had to admit that she hadn’t been terribly specific when she’d asked him to dress up for her.
‘That’s what you’re wearing?’ she asked, her lips twitching.
Uncertainty crept into Kuja’s expression. ‘Should I be wearing anything else?’
The smile finally escaped. ‘No. You look like you and I like that. Don’t change.’
Taking his hand, she led him towards the square in the centre of the village. A wooden stage had been erected there, containing not only the statue that Bagara would be speaking through, but an array of buffet food ranging from fruit to smoked rice, freely available to the villagers and their god, should he choose to partake. Fei stifled a laugh when she saw that a couple of her misshapen baskets had made it into the display.
The space directly in front of the stage was filled with dancers moving to the beat of nearby drums. A pan flute provided a melody to go along with the rhythm, played by a man who was actually known galaxywide for the music he traded in return for any parts or supplies that Bagath needed. Fei eyed the patch of moist earth that served as the dance floor. She felt certain Kuja would oblige her, but she wasn’t sure she wanted to make herself so obvious a target for everyone’s eyes and attention.
Instead she chose to stay in Kuja’s shadow as people came up to talk to him. When the villagers sensed her reluctance to be drawn into conversation, they would focus on him, allowing her to drift and enjoy the atmosphere.
‘You look happy,’ Kuja told her when they were alone at last.
Fei beamed at him. ‘I am. I guess it’s because I realised I don’t have to force myself to be someone I’m not, just to impress some invisible deity. It’s…it’s liberating.’
‘Bagara is pleased to hear this,’ he said softly.
Fei blinked at him but didn’t have time to muster a vocal response, because moments later the TerraCorp scientists arrived in one tightly-knit cluster. Fei supposed she should help ease their arrival and walked over, intending to greet them. She had made it halfway across the square before she realised what she was doing.
I must be getting better at this talking-to-people thing, she thought with delight as she grasped Gerns’ proffered tentacle.
• • •
‘Do you need company?’ a feminine voice asked.
Kuja only turned away from speaking to Inesh when the other man made a low whistle. Half-lying against the stage to better accentuate the curves of her body, Lorena offered a smile while her scanty clothing offered a lot more. Kuja raised his eyebrows. He knew exactly what she looked like beneath the two-piece outfit, but his body gave no reaction to those memories or at the sight of her now. He glanced past her to the buffet tables, where Fei was talking to Gerns and animatedly gesturing at the baskets she’d made, and felt a persistent tug somewhere beneath his navel.
‘I already have a companion for this evening,’ Kuja told Lorena, lifting the drink in his hand and tipping it towards Fei.
But Lorena thought he meant Bagara’s statue. Her top lip folded up towards her nostrils. ‘You don’t really believe he’ll speak to you, do you? Even if this god does exist, he’s not likely to bother with ordinary people. Not even my Creator God does that — and with good reason. We cannot distract the gods from their higher duties.’
Inesh chortled and said aside to Kuja, ‘Listen to this woman! And you want me to let them trample all over Bagara’s land?’ Inesh jerked his chin at Lorena. ‘You, Dr Hackett, do you realise that what your company struggles to make in years Bagara can do in one day? He can raise rainforests from the soil beneath any man’s feet!’
‘Then why doesn’t he?’ Lorena challenged.
While Inesh launched into one of his usual tirades, Kuja let his gaze wander back over to Fei. He wasn’t sure where she’d managed to find the dress but it looked good on her and he liked that she’d chosen to do nothing with her hair. It showed how relaxed she was on Bagaran. Her bare ankles carried the proud marks of someone who had been trundling around the nearby paths in search of scenery, often with him, sometimes without. He joined her whenever he could — it wasn’t as though the plants on his many worlds couldn’t contact him if someone needed Bagara’s immediate assistance.
But if I mean to expand my influence tonight, I will need to see less of her, he thought. Regardless, I will enjoy her remaining weeks here. And I will also enjoy giving her the pleasure she is so intent on finding in my bed when I am not there to see it…
The grin came unbidden but Kuja did nothing to banish it. The vines in his hut had been more than happy to share those arousing images of Fei. He had no problem with her passing the time in that way while she waited for him, even though it sorely tempted him to abandon his duties so that he could take human form and run his hands over her. She was a distraction, but not one he couldn’t ignore if he had to…
Inesh’s words were steadily growing more heated. Kuja dismissed them at first, but then Lorena’s piercing retort coasted across the square, drawing all eyes and ears towards her. ‘You think new rainforests just pop out of the ground, do you? Terraforming is hard work! And whatever your god creates, he can’t do it without science. You can’t make a tree grow if you don’t give it the right soil — even a fool like you should see that!’
‘Bagara knows all these things,’ Inesh said stiffly. ‘And if you were not so set in your own ways, Chipper-lover, then you would know that a tree flourishes best when it is loved by the hands that buried its seed.’
‘You assume your god knows everything but he is only a handful of decades old,’ Lorena pointed out, teeth peeking through the small, terse gap created by her lips. ‘Tell me, has he learned the composition of all the different soils on all the rainforest worlds in the galaxy by now?’
No, I haven’t, Kuja realised, then ducked his head to hide his blush. He would be lying if he said he’d never tried to grow a rainforest from nothing on an arid world, only to fail when his thoughts took him elsewhere.
Fei really must do something special with those simulations, he thought.
Kuja stepped forward, putting himself between his friend and the scientist. ‘Bagara is younger than many other sub-level gods, it’s true. He has time to learn, though. He is a god.’
‘If he really was a god he’d know it all by now,’ Lorena said with a biting laugh. ‘The Creator God knows everything since he made everything. He’s the one you should be worshipping!’
Inesh simmered. ‘A god who never loves or tends to his people will lose them.’
‘Lose them to what — your sad way of life?’ Lorena gestured wildly at the nearby huts. Her hand froze into an awkward claw, fingers bent towards the sky, when she realised just how many people were closing in on her. Her voice took on a much sweeter quality. ‘I suppose it’s not for everyone, though it seems to work well for…some people.’
‘Since when were you so devout, Lorena?’ Gerns asked, her body swinging from side to side as she marched over, her tentacles wound around her midsection. ‘Not you, no, I seen it myself. You can’t expect our hosts to ditch their god just because you don’t like him. It’s pointless. And kind of rude, given that we’re getting free booze — now me, I see that as a definite plus in this Bagara’s favour.’
‘If I’d known that alcohol would sway your opinion,’ Inesh said seriously, ‘then I’d’ve just got you all drunk instead of blowing up the hoverpad in that lab of yours.’
Kuja opened his mouth, but it was too late.
The uproar had begun.