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“Welcome to the beginning of my collection,” they said softly. “Please come with me and allow me to show you the artwork of planet Alusian Ultra.”
19
LILI
The rest of the day was a blur of amazing, impressive, and sometimes completely incomprehensible art, Lili thought.
On one floor she saw a sculpture made entirely of multicolored leaves. It showed a landscape when viewed from one direction and an insectile, alien face when viewed from another vantage.
“The Slovians of Frattal Four are a race of sentient insects,” f’loon explained in their soft, androgynous voice. “They carefully grow and curate the leaves of the tookbas bush. Then they cut tiny notches in them with their mandibles and fit them together to form two artworks in one.”
On another floor everything was tiny. Each miniscule work of art was no bigger than the size of a grain of rice and all of them were on pedestals with a magnifier and a screen which projected what they looked like.
“The Whobubs of Chin’tura Velora are so small that one of their cities would fit in the palm of your hand,” f’loon told them. “Their works of art are actually communal efforts—each of these that you see here is as large to them as The Golden Tower we stand in is to us.”
They made their way down to another floor and Lili saw that the entire round viewing area was taken up with a single, central artwork. The work was made of many millions of colored dots of light, which all came together to form a beautiful alien face. It appeared to be female to her—at least, all three of its eyes had long lashes and both mouths had red lips—but of course it was hard to be for certain. A glittering crown sat atop the jeweled hair.
“This is Queen Loolah of Tragi’lad Vrex,” f’loon explained. “It took over a standard year to transport and reconfigure this portrait of her which is rendered by well over ten million tiny light projectors.”
On and on they went and it seemed to Lili that the art got more interesting as they slowly descended the tower. She wished with all her heart that she might be allowed to record or take pictures of some of the art, but f’loon had strictly forbidden it. They had promised, however, to send her a summary of everything she had viewed along with a picture, a short explanation, and the origin of each artwork. So she had to be content just to drink it all in.
Around midday they took a break for a quick meal which f’loon graciously provided. It wasn’t very good, unfortunately—or at least, it wasn’t much to Lili’s taste, though she tried to eat it to be polite.
What it seemed to be was a kind of sandwich, only the bread was two thick pieces of rubbery purple kelp. The filling was a filet of extremely chewy meat that leaked black ink when she bit into it. The ink had a bitter, unpleasant flavor and the rest of the sandwich had a distinctly fishy taste and smell. Luckily, there was a delicious, sweet nectar to wash the taste out of her mouth.
After a few nibbles, Lili passed the rest of her kelp and ink-meat sandwich covertly to Dark. He didn’t seem to mind the flavor and ate it in a few bites.
“Better than garn,” he remarked, when Lili raised her eyebrows at his appetite.
“Garn is a flavorless, colorless substance we eat on the Dark Kindred home world,” Light explained for him. “It’s a form of complete nutrition and can be eaten as a solid or drunk as a liquid.”
“But no matter what it looks like, it doesn’t taste like anything,” Dark added. “Which never bothered me before I got emotions. But now—I like flavor!”
Lili grinned at him. She couldn’t help loving the Dark Twin’s unbridled enthusiasm for life. He might be blunt at times, but it was fun to watch him trying out his new emotions.
Light, on the other hand, was more subtle but also extremely thoughtful and sweet. And both of them were so protective, which was nice.
It occurred to her that even though they had known each other such a short time, she was getting really attached to them. It was a shame that they were going to have to go their separate ways once they all got back to the Mother Ship. If only they could join together to bond with her!
Wait a minute—are you seriously considering a life-long commitment when you haven’t even known them a week? whispered a little voice in her head. Don’t be crazy, Lili! What happened to Single for Life? I thought you were happy on your own.
Yes, she was happy enough and she’d been content to stay single when all the men she met were just like Mitch, her ex, Lili thought. But Dark and Light were so completely different from what she was used to. They were a breath of fresh air and the idea of never seeing them again after this trip was over filled her with a deep sadness.
After their meal break, the tour went on. They viewed art from so many different cultures and planets that Lili’s head was spinning.
She saw paintings done in purple and blue blood and an entire house that was woven out of hair. There was even a two-story tower made of living bizla beetles from Orbarth Nine. It was enclosed in a vast, clear plasti-pyramid and the shiny pink, gold, and orange beetles trundled tirelessly over each others’ backs, making endless shifting patterns that were mesmerizing to look at.
Lili could have stayed on some floors for days, but f’loon had a strict schedule and would only allow them a certain length of time at each exhibit. They also assured Lili that what was on display was only a fraction of their collection. According to them, there were many more art works stored in several vast, underground caverns which had been dug out under The Golden Tower.
“Oh, I wish I could see them all!” Lili said wistfully.
“Alas, a thousand lifetimes would not be enough to appreciate our entire collection,” f’loon murmured. “We are constantly adding to it and changing the exhibits. By next solar month this time, everything in The Golden Tower will be completely different.”
“That’s amazing!” Lili exclaimed. “I just can’t thank you enough for allowing me to come visit and see all the beautiful art you’ve collected.”
“Of course we allowed it—we are happy to make this bargain with you,” f’loon murmured.
Lili wasn’t sure what they meant by “bargain” but she only nodded and smiled and thanked their host again.
