Read Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6, Part 7, Part 8, Part 9
”No”, Nora-Ceph said, turned around and headed for the front door. She had almost reached it before hurried steps followed her and the man who had brought her here caught up with her. He grabbed her arm.
”Wait, please”, he pleaded. ”Let us explain.” She brushed off his hand and then looked him in his clear blue eyes. Human eyes, definitely.
”Why are you hosting a Ceph?”, Nora-Ceph asked. ”Why is he living with you? Getting fat in the home of a human while his brothers and sisters die on the street? Painting absurd art, that’s displayed for snobbish humans to look and comment at? And no Ceph has ever heard of him!”
”I think you’re misinterpreting the situation”, the man said. ”Pekok is …”
”A traitor!” The force of her outcry made the man take a step back, which caused him to bump into Pekok, who had just emerged from the room to join them in the hallway. He was now light-blue, which showed Nora-Ceph how anxious the situation made him.
She didn’t exactly feel bad about it.
”Please, stay”, he said and extended an arm towards her. ”It’s been so long since I’ve met one of my kind …”
”You’d just need to leave this comfortable house once in a while.” She spat out the words, full of disgust.
”I can’t. They would kill me, the moment anyone finds out who I am.”
”Right. Sure. Whatever. I don’t want to know.” She really didn’t. The situation was already too absurd, she didn’t need to hear the attempts of this Ceph to justify anything. He was probably delusional too.
”I’m very sure you do want to know”, the man chimed in. ”Pekok is not just any Ceph. And he’s certainly not a traitor.”
”And I should believe a human because … ?”
”Oh, don’t believe the human”, Pekok said. ”Believe me. Believe in this.” He lifted one of his arms to reveal … a tattoo. A tattoo of a stylized Ceph. Nora-Ceph sharply inhaled through her teeth. It could be a fake, but …
The tattoo lit up in a green glow. It was not fake. This kind of ink was so incredibly rare that it was technically non-existent. And it was more than unlikely that this human and Ceph somehow managed to get access to it.
”You’re royalty”, Nora-Ceph whispered.
”The last one. The only one who survived the killing.”
Like most emerging cultures, one of the first political systems the Cephs had created had been a monarchy. That monarchy contained the most evolved, smartest Cephs. The true elite. Even after they finally had left the waters to join the human world, their royals had kept immense importance. Not as rulers, but as a council.
The humans hadn’t liked that and demanded that all Ceph royalty left earth and the human colonies, to live on one of the more hostile planets. The Cephs had accepted, to keep their leaders safe. And safe they had been, for a while.
Until the humans had decided, that they were too much of a threat and incinerated the whole planet.
”But all that happened a good three hundred years ago! No Ceph lives that long!” It couldn’t be the truth. Maybe somehow, they had acquired enough ink for the tattoo and found someone skilled enough to tattoo a Ceph. Maybe …
”Do they not tell our stories anymore?” Pekok asked, with a bit of pain in his voice, to which his color adapted. ”How we were the ones on top of the evolutionary ladder? How our DNA was so stable, even after all the changes that had happened to it, that we were almost immortal? Have all these tales been lost?”
”They’re fairytales”, Nora-Ceph said. ”Something you tell little children to make them feel better about their situation. You can’t seriously think that I believe that you’re three hundred years old.”
”I’m actually 521 years old”, Pekok said.
”Of course you are.”
The man chuckled.
”She won’t believe you, Pekok. Even with the tattoo as proof. She’s too skeptical.”
”Maybe, Felix. Maybe.” So Felix was the man’s name. Not like it changed anything about what was happening.
”Okay, let’s assume I believe your absurd story about you being royalty”, Nora-Ceph said. ”Why are you hiding here? Why have you abandoned your people for three hundred years? How did it happen that you’re painting this stuff”, she nudged the painting that was leaning against the wall next to her, with her foot, ”and living with a human? Instead of helping us?”
”How am I supposed to help?” Pekok asked. ”I tried, in the beginning. I really did. But I’m just a single Ceph, and there are so many humans. They tried to kill me, several times in fact. I barely survived the last time. I wouldn’t have if it hadn’t been for one of Felix’ ancestors. She saved me, nursed me back to health and hid me. And when she died, her children took on that responsibility. One generation to the next, until Felix here.”
”But why do you reach out now? Why did you bring me here?”
”I’ve noticed changes. Felix is my eyes and ears in the outside world. He noticed that people were vanishing and then turning up again exactly three days later. And then, they behaved slightly … off. It took us a while to figure out what you’ve been doing. Honestly, it’s brilliant. I’m so proud of the Cephs on Luna 3.”
”So, this is your way of initiating contact with your people again? By abducting me?”
”Felix, did you abduct her?”
”I mean … kind of?”
”I’m sorry about that”, Pekok said, directed at Nora-Ceph. ”I didn’t plan on you feeling like you’re forced to be here. You can leave any time you want. Just please, think about telling the others about me. I want to help.”
Nora-Ceph held out her hand towards Felix.
”Keys”, she said.
”What?”
”The keys, to your car. I want to leave, but I don’t want you to drive me. That means I need your keys.”
”But …”
”Just give them to her”, Pekok said and Felix gave in.
Nora-Ceph headed back home, leaving the Ceph royal and his human caretaker behind.
and 
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