False kings and jealous gods

Chapter 2

I see you gently swaying in a sea of seesaws

Slumming in the shack Tony built last year

I know you'll be holding court with jackdaws

Crying when nobody ever sees your tears

When no one sees your tears

(Poets of the fall - Once Upon A Playground Rainy)

...Once again Sybil dreamed the same pestered but such a fascinating and mysterious dream. However, the dream wasn't the only one, there were many, and in each of them Sybil was in a young woman's body and everyone worshipped her. Sometimes she walked among the people, who supposed her a goddess; they looked with adoration and she could read anybody's mind. Sometimes she sat on a stone throne with a fixed look and there on her finger was a ring with a giant jewel and it was the symbol of her power. And there were dreams where she lay on an altar and large scorpions were crawling to her from different sides, - this was the most unpleasant variant of this dream. And although the one, in whose body Sybil existed, wasn't afraid of these big monsters, everything inside the girl squeezed, when she imagined them to get to her... Also she saw the big planet's downfall, its subsoil opened and swallowed up everything that was still alive. What could these dreams mean? Sybil had wanted to find it out very much, and she even found something, but that was not enough for understanding.

Due to her living in an old museum complex, that was located at the lowest Narama's level, she had an access to books. It was an old way of saving the information - to print it on a paper. Yakko, a guy ten years older, who was like a father and a brother to Sybil, taught her to read. From the very young age he looked after the girl and cared about her. She still couldn't imagine, how he was able to raise her and, what was more important, why he did it, because it was too difficult.

Almost all the children of Maalakh were orphans, because eighteen years ago rhatians, who had captured the planet, killed all the adults. Sybil, unlike some others, didn't remember her mother and father, because she was very small. Yakko was older and must have remembered his parents, but she never asked him about it.

He was serious and very clever. He was mysterious. He was kind. He knew a lot of interesting stories. He could answer many questions. And besides, Yakko was a very attractive man. He had bright blue eyes and dark curls shoulders length and many girls lost their minds because of him, but he preferred to live with Sybil, until she grew up enough to wish her own home. And even after that he didn't have a constant girl-friend. Actually Sybil had known this guy for all her life, but he still remained a mystery for her. Sometimes she asked, why did he took her to live with him, but Yakko laughed off that he felt lonely.

- And what is more you were such a pretty baby, - he liked to add. - Just a little angel, unlike now!

He was joking for sure, because Sybil turned out to be a real beauty. She had big eyes the color of Maalakh ocean (where she had never been, but Yakko said so), long fair hair and pretty face, that was sweet to look at. If it wasn't for a protection of a tall and muscular older brother, Sybil would long had been kidnapped and sold to some bordel. Many times Yakko had to beat the girl off scoundrels, who encroached her chastity, until everyone around figured out, that Sybil was untouchable.

When she was a small girl, Yakko even took her to school. Firstly, it was a tradition. And secondly, although rhatians were teachers there, they still gave some main knowledge, that might be useful in life. But to tell the truth, they mostly put into children's heads total lies and a disappointed girl soon stopped going there. How could she believe, that the "great emperor" Rhatie the Eighth had saved Maalakh, "sunk in darkness and ignorance", from degeneration? Sybil already knew from the books she had read, that it was exactly the cruel Rhatie, who during the planet invasion had given an order to kill all the adults and let the kids live to use them later as slaves. Those, who had betrayed the Maalakh's king and swore fealty to a rhatian leader, also stayed alive. This leader thought big and after all the war acts were finished, he proclaimed himself an Emperor of the planet he had occupied.