Serpents and Emotions

Gernet felt the aura take effect as soon as he saw the angel. He did not like the idea that his emotions were being manipulated, but whatever this strange feeling was - he didn't want it to stop either. He'd never had an ally much less a friend before, and certainly never trusted anyone. But this kid, whose name he still couldn't be bothered to remember, had called him one.

He slithered over to the beanbag and half coiled around it, not particularly smiling, but definitely wanting to be close. Of all the puzzles on this island - the angel and his aura was probably the biggest. "Hello. Yes, I am waiting for the Christmas to stop so I can go back to classes." He still practiced what he could, but without being able to read he couldn't learn much. And actually trusting the teachers had been hard enough - he'd agreed because the school seemed like an important place everyone went to, he wasn't going to admit this weakness to anyone.

In fact, around Hadrian he was a lot less suspicious than usual, and was still kind of surprised that the angel hadn't tried to use him somehow. Sometimes he wondered if there was still a ladder here and he was just really close to the bottom so no one cared.

"You will go to the school too? When it is over?"

Gernet wasn't exactly dishonest to begin with. Sure he was sneaky and treacherous, definitely not open, but that was a matter of survival. He infiltrated and killed, but it was what any other naga would do, if they could. Although his methods tended to be a lot more indirect than most - perhaps he liked being a distraction.

The naga was intelligent, self-controlled, why use brute force when a little charm would work? So - he hid. Because pretending to be weak and actually showing weaknesses were two different things.

Yet even if he didn't recognize the emotion, something in him wanted to trust the angel. "Why do you take other courses? What use are they? Wouldn't magic give you the most power?" Gernet already tended to be blunt, so the aura's effect might not be obvious at once, but really he was already starting to reveal more than he usually would have. "Yes. It is different. I ... don't know what to think. I can learn here. I want to learn. But there's no direction anymore. I can't... my god isn't here on this planet."

Morgul wasn't what Gernet was talking about when he said he lacked direction. Although the god had been perhaps more hands-on than gods of Earth tended to be, he didn't direct the naga's life in a personal way. He'd appear in the clouds, make a big show, promise and threaten and lead, but there weren't many requirements. Keep up the sacrifices, destroy their enemies, and eventually they'd be able to take the light side from the thieving lamia and their bitch goddess.

But Gernet did worship his god, fervently and desperately, loyal in a way he wasn't to anyone else. The scars that marked his body were something that was done as a show of power over victims - not something that a naga would generally do to themselves. "My god may not be on this planet, but I know he's still there." Perhaps he wasn't able to sacrifice in the proper manner, but he still retained some of his original magic and that had been a gift from Morgul. About any king or emperor, Gernet would have agreed with the angel, but in his heart the naga didn't just follow Morgul because he was the most powerful. He wasn't quite aware of this, wouldn't be able to say why he did follow, but his devotion remained steady.

"I meant. I don't know who's at the top. I can't find my place." For over two hundred years the snake had been climbing a ladder. The most powerful would be at the top - you'd watch your back or die. It was a vicious, cruel world, and all he'd ever known. And now he was lost and adrift. "How do you find a direction when you don't even know where you stand?" In his distress, Gernet was forgetting that he was talking to someone not much more than a child. But it probably wouldn't have mattered much - talking to anyone so freely was strange.

Gernet was an adult and old. His species was long-lived, or at least they had the potential to be so if they weren't killed off, but he was not a child even by that standard. Except in his world, you survived by being the most violent. Gain power, climbing the ladder was more than just ambition, it was a matter of survival. Of course, the higher up you were, the more people you had targetting you. People underneath who were also clawing their way up or people with power who knew they might be your next target.

He'd never had an ally, much less a friend. But until he'd come to this planet he had never felt he'd needed one. Gernet was feeling lost because he was far from home, but he'd always been lonely. Envy his main motivation. Scrabbling for the top because people in power got the best of things. Hating the lamia because they had all the advantages of living in the light and blessings from their goddess and alliances.

Even on this planet, he envied them - they had family and mates and were adjusting so much better. He'd only just stopped hiding because there was no point once they found out about his glamour. He still wanted to hurt them, but there was less point here. It wouldn't get him what he wanted.

He liked the feeling of belonging. But it was just an aura and he wanted to go home. "I... will find a way back. If the lamia bitches are stuck here that just means we'll be able to leave the darkness. Things will be better at home. ... Why can't you go back? What happened?" He couldn't quite admit to himself yet that maybe Mesangia was not the best place to be. The downside of being an adult was that he was perhaps more emotionally stunted than a child would be. He wasn't sympathetic with his questions either - still not used to anything resembling companionship. He just wanted to know more about this strange angel.