"Impact of radiation..." Ramies commented coldly. "But don't worry, you will survive the mutation that caused such sickness..."
"You'll get younger and become even more beautiful, prisoner," the blue-eyed one teased.
Then, from the painful shock, I experienced a loss of memory and I only woke up in the bed of some darkened room, having lain for a long time from weakness that had shackled my whole body. However, soon I felt better and I went to wander around the huge tower, visiting Jamien and other colleagues who were settling into their new place. It turned out that everyone was quite happy with their new life, nestled into separate spacious bedrooms. The only thing that bothered everyone was the unknown of what would happen next.
With excitement, I expected any action from their leader, who told me strange things telepathically, that he would supposedly take care of me, but it was as if he was not going to visit me, while I had changed a lot in appearance... more precisely, my youth had really returned to me just days after arriving on an exoplanet they call Xantary.
Wrinkles on the face and gray hair disappeared, and the body acquired the lightness of youth. I haven't felt this healthy for a long time. I completely forgot about the taste of food and the need to eat! My bodily needs subsided... but I slept a lot, more than usual. Obviously I was turning into another life form...
Incredible! How did they do this to my body? How can you eat nothing at all and remain alert?
One evening, a striking red-haired woman in a white dress appeared in my bedroom and began a conversation with me in her own way:
"So this is what you are, the new prince of Illuria! You are cute…"
Her mischievous grin and sparkling emerald eyes confused me. Quite an ordinary woman, like from my planet. And she didn't have wings!
"Who you are?"
"Avilena! I have only recently been converted into a syrinx... I am tasked with personally overseeing your assimilation."
"Was it ordered by your Master?"
"Right! You are the Overlord's personal treasure and you need special care..."
"What? I am not someone's property!" indignation poured out of me.
"Hmm... Everything is not quite as you think. This means that you are dear to Him in some way... I have no idea what! There is a different mentality here... special needs! You have to get used to other concepts. Therefore, I am here to explain the structure of our society clearly and... without hurting your pride."
"I had no intention of assimilating at all! We were taken captive under general hypnosis... I was as if in a dream and understood little..."
"But all you arrived here... to stay, right? What other options?"
"For example, they would allow us to live separately. We are peaceful people and could not harm the locals in any way."
"But they can harm you! Do you think you could live peacefully separately? Hardly!"
... Strange arguments came out of her mouth. What did she mean?
"And why are Syrinxes dangerous for us?"
"They have magic, no matter how strange it sounds to you... which means they are stronger not only physically... they know how to subjugate to their whim..."
"Oh, I understand what you mean... Damn! We're trapped!"
"You've always been in it, Denris, in trap… as far as I understand..."
"Does something connect me with this world? Can you explain it to me?"
"I don't know," Avilena answered, shaking her beautiful head. "This is the first time I'm meeting you as a person, and I don't know your past. If you became friends with Ramies, he might dig into your ancient heritage..."
"I suppose I would have to pay for this information with deeper relationships..."
"No doubt..." Avilena laughed. "My husband is very dissolute... to put it mildly, he does not limit himself in anything."
"Is Ramies your husband?" I snorted contemptuously. "And why do you need him like that?"
"It just so happened, I'm not offended... and as a person he's very interesting."
"What immoral is your society!
"You see... you need assimilation to our standards... You will get used to our morals..."
She continued to explain something for a long time, but I almost didn't listen to her, absorbed in thinking about the riddles that had arisen. She knew nothing about Yarison... Or perhaps she was forbidden to talk about him. Devoted servant of her Master!
We spent about a week like this in the company of eight chosen ones, looking at the views of the city and the fluttering syrinxes through the tinted windows, toiling with boredom... feeling like prisoners, since we were not even allowed to take a walk outside.
The handsome tall teachers made us learn several hundred words of their simple melodic language for verbal communication. And we were also forced to become yogis... to sit in the lotus position for meditation and receive energy from space... I had never done this before and I was broken from the unwillingness to obey new habits.
Then Adivaris announced our coronation and we were escorted to the huge royal tower, where beautiful winged princesses were waiting for us on the top floor in a spacious hall.
There were about twenty of them, and not only our male part of the team stared with admiration at the short, graceful young blondes in lush ball gowns. Are they immortal too? Most likely…