A single knock on the door takes Elder Aaij’s attention off the chess board once more. With a heavy sigh he stands, takes the few steps towards the door and opens it.
There is nobody there. Except—
Elder Aaij frowns and leans down to pick up a bowl filled with nut cookies. “Who…?” he mutters, before noticing a small piece of paper with curvy feminine script. Eat me before 2400 or endure a hundred years of bad luck! A set of small exes sign the note, and then two large Ms.
Elder Aaij smiles, takes a cookie and nibbles. “Mmm!” he says and gobbles it whole before shutting the door.
“So sexy!” Edda says, and high-fives the laughing Aline. As Edda then turns to high-five Rew, the alien just stares back at her with her usual empty glance. “Don’t leave me hanging, Elder Rew!” The alien slowly raises her arm until her three appendages touch Edda’s palm. “Yes!” Edda says, satisfied. “So there we have it. Finally, a plan that works.”
“Okay, hold on,” Aline says, and draws a deep breath. “Let me recap, okay? Just to make sure that what we’re simulating here will work hundred percent in real life next Friday.”
“Sure, recap away, sister. And we can practice all you want. We are playing with fire here, literally,” Edda giggles, “and we don’t want any accidents or last-minute surprises.”
Aline raises a thumb, “First, we prepare cookies. That is my part.”
“Elder Rew,” Edda turns her face to the alien, “are you really sure that the cookies that Aline willed into the dream will be identical in taste and texture to those she bakes in real life? Elder Aaij’s got to like them if he’s going to eat them, yeah?”
“They shall be identical, if woman Speese does indeed possess a deep understanding of the ingredients and the chemistry involved in the transformation. A permascape does emulate the wake with high fidelity in the hands of a master of both the dream and the wake.”
“Here,” Aline raises her fingers at Edda, and a cookie materializes between them, “try it.”
Edda does. “Goah’s Mercy!” she says, covering her half-full mouth with a hand. “You’re good, sister.”
Aline shrugs. “Old family recipe and tradition. We always bake a ton of them, all together on aws Gift’s Eve. Only for the family. They never last long,” she chuckles. “This year we didn’t though.” Her expression darkens. She blinks and looks away.
Edda puts a hand on her cheek. “I’m so sorry, Aline. On the bright side, I have no doubt in my heart that Elder Aaij will devour the whole lot in the blink of an eye.”
“Okay, then.” Aline sighs, and raises a thumb and index finger. “Second, we inject the cookies with some sort of sleeping drug. That is your part.”
“No problem. I’ll get the herbs.”
“Your dowry sister-to-be, I guess?” Aline squints at Edda.
“Yeah. I’ll ask her as a personal favor.”
“And she will just take the herbs from her pharmacy and give them to you, no questions asked?” Aline sounds skeptical.
“And she will prepare the infusion too, no worries, girl. That’s what family is for. I will of course say it’s for me, to fight insomnia; caused by er… inner demons or what not. I’ll make up something plausible. I’ll ask for enough to last several weeks, and then we inject the whole of it in your cookies.” She claps loudly. “Done!”
“Hmm, I don’t want to bet the entire plan on the moods of your future dowry sister. I don’t know her. What if she refuses to help? Or she asks too many questions? Or tells your father or brother and they take the herbs away from you? So many things can go wrong.”
“Oh, come on. You leave that to me, okay?”
“Hmm, I don’t know. What about if we go to Elder Zeger’s dream next—”
“Woman Zeger,” Edda corrects.
“—and simulate you asking for the herbs. I want to see her true reaction.”
“Sure.” Edda smiles and shrugs. “Good call. Should we go now? Elder Rew,” she turns to the alien, standing next to them in her usual stoic silence, “could you—?”
“Wait, we are not done yet here.” Aline raises three fingers in the air. “Third, we drag Elder Aaij’s sleeping body out to the fields—at least fifty yards away to be safe.”
“Yeah, of course. Let’s go to Isabella’s then and—”
“Wait, have you seen the size of Elder Aaij? I’m not sure we can drag him out on our own.”
“Come on, between both of us we can. Let’s try.” Edda waves a hand and a dream copy of Elder Aaij materializes on the grass-covered ground, seemingly unconscious. “You take that arm and I take, er, from here.”
Ximena—and many of the students in the auditorium—laugh at their pathetic attempts. No matter how hard they pull—or push, they try everything—the body barely budges.
“Pure sin!” Edda says between her teeth as she drops the massive arm of Elder Aaij’s body in defeat. She meets Aline’s gaze. “If we can’t move him, we have to think of another plan where he moves by himself. But what, Goah’s Mercy? No matter what we throw at him, he refuses to leave his post. We are back to square one, sister.”
“No, we stick to the sleeping plan,” Aline says, still panting from the effort. She turns a studious gaze at the guard’s simulated body. “In essence, it’s an engineering problem like any other. We just need to find the right tool for the job. Hmm…” Her half-open lips curve slowly into a smile. “I know what,” she says with a giggle. “We call the cavalry!”
Pieter gives Elder Aaij’s simulated body a glance and says, “I thought I was disqualified from participating in the trial?”
“You are not a candidate, Elder Ledeboer,” Rew says. “You are a tool.”
“Hey!” Pieter scowls at the alien.
“Not any tool,” Aline hurries to say. She embraces his muscular arm.
