The Sinners of Erspia

So had Klystar included a rural idyll among his worlds? A peaceful culture without perils or problems?

Perhaps as a control culture with which to compare the others...

But then there was the business of the moon...

In a few minutes they had entered the village, which was arranged around a lush central green shaded by fruit trees. Laedo noted rough dirt roads, scratched out of the landscape by use alone, vanishing into the countryside, presumably leading to other villages.

The atmosphere was tranquil. The timber-framed houses, with their glassless shutter windows, were interspersed with workshops. They passed a cobbler tapping at a nearly-finished boot, his wares laid out under an awning. Nearby was the promised smith, hammering red-hot metal on an anvil. Laedo guessed that the local economy used some form of barter, or even a system of mutual obligations. A number of women were about, accompanied by their children, the girls dressed the same as their mothers in long drab skirts and shapeless blouses, with no attempt at beautification. This was a society where appearances did not matter very much.

Histrina, in a comparatively skimpy shift borrowed from the projector station's supplies, fetched startled glances, even more so than Laedo in his form-fitting duty suit. Her gaze roved over the bodies of the men present, but half-heartedly. They were an unexciting bunch at that, Laedo thought, both men and women.

Still, they were friendly and welcoming. The field labourers’ spokesman turned his affable, ingenuous face to Laedo. “My name is Brio Fong. My wife Nellie will have food for us shortly."

Then he made a loud announcement to all within hearing.

“We have visitors from far away! Meet our guests!"

Knowing how suspicious of strangers rural communities could be, Laedo was reassured to see men, women and children wave and smile, the children following their progress with open curiosity. At the end of the village's single street yet more children spilled from the open door of a cottage, running to and fro between the interior and the dusty thoroughfare. “Behave now, children!” Brio Fong cried jovially.

“Remember your manners in front of guests!"

And indeed the children did fall quiet, lining up and watching in fascination as Laedo and Histrina were ushered into the cottage. In a cosy but disordered room, a thin woman with a drawn face was stirring a large pot hung over an open fire. From it came an appetising smell of stew.

“Put food on the table, Nellie!” Brio ordered with gusto. “Our friends have come a long way! They are hungry!"

Nellie Fong regarded the newcomers with interest. “Then you are not from Crosshatch, or Bubblespring, or any village nearby? Indeed I don't think I've seen you before."

Brio laughed chidingly. “Why no, woman! They are not from a village at all! They come from the sky and floated down on Butterly Meadow! In a sort of, er, flying house, I suppose you could call it."

Awe and fright came to Nellie's bony face. The wooden spoon almost dropped from her fingers. “From the sky! You're not from the Heavenly Mansion?"

Again Brio chortled. “No, no, no, woman! Nobody ever comes from there! Our guests hail from even further off! From the other worlds! The worlds in the sky! You know about those, surely?"

“Worlds in the sky?” echoed Nellie.

“Of course! What a patch of befuddlement you are, girl!"

Nellie stared blankly, then appeared to dismiss the matter. Her face cleared. “Well, as long as you love and serve our Lord Voluptus, I suppose that's all right."

With that, she returned to the stewpot.

“Who is this ‘Voluptus'?” Laedo enquired politely. “That's the second time I have heard the name today."

Brio, Nellie and their several children gasped and seemed astounded by his words. Nellie was the first to recover herself. “You mean you don't worship the Lord Voluptus?"

“I'm afraid not,” said Laedo, slightly taken aback. “We have never heard of him."

Nellie laid down her spoon, straightened herself and faced them with hands on hips. “Then what a mercy it is that you have come to us, poor heathen savages that you are—shoo, children, shoo! Out and play!"

Arms windmilling, she drove the young ones from the house and slammed the door behind them. “Not heard of Voluptus? How could one imagine such a thing! Though there is the tale of the village of Molem in olden times, all of whose people turned their backs on Voluptus. Well! It is up to us to put you right!"

Nellie was clearly in the grip of religious zeal. “The Lord Voluptus is the source of all our blessings. He makes the crops to grow, and the beasts of the field to bear their young. Yes, and the people, too! There would be no one left in the world if he did not bestow children on us. Now anyone may easily see for themselves that Voluptus is real, for you can see his Heavenly Mansion floating up in the sky.” With a frown she added, “I suppose you can see it from your world, too?"