Venus began to cry. Big hot tears tumbled down her cheeks and plopped onto the silken cushions, and her heart felt as though an iron hand was squeezing it. There was no getting away from it any longer. These people weren’t going to let her go home till she’d carried out some ridiculous mission. Which from what she’d seen, spelt almost certain death. She would not survive it. The thought of never seeing her parents again was suddenly unbearable. And were they her real parents anyway, or just cosmic babysitters? Who was she? It seemed as though her whole existence had been split into atoms.
‘But this is all so unfair!’ she burst out, wiping her nose on her sleeve. ‘Why me? Why couldn’t it have happened to Amy? Or Tiffany?’
‘Who is Tiffany?’ said Ganeshon. ‘Is she a fellow deity? Or a high priestess?’
‘Don’t be daft!’ stormed Venus. ‘She’s just another ordinary school girl, same age as me, only you’d think she was God’s gift the way she carries on.’
‘And Amy?’ enquired Hanatsha.
More hot tears were stinging behind her eyelids again. ‘Oh she’s – well she was - my best friend. Except she well, she doesn’t seem to want to know me any more….in fact she’s been really mean to me lately..’
It occurred to these gentle Venturian folk that their re-incarnated deity might be feeling a little upset and maybe a tad disorientated. Andromeda rose and drifted across the room. She knelt down and stroked Venus’s cheek with warm frondy fingers.
‘There there my dear…’ she murmured. ‘Whatever has happened with these earthlings, Amy and – er Tiffany, is of very little importance. You are amongst friends now. We are your loyal and devoted followers.’
Venus sighed. They didn’t give up these people. She looked at the row of assorted faces, all gazing at her in expectant adoration. They may be a bunch of weirdoes, who were expecting her to carry out some epic and impossible task, but at least it was better than being scorned by Amy and her friends. ‘Okay, if I’m supposed to be Sunev’s reincarnation, the least you can do is tell me what he looked like. I mean, how many limbs did he have for example? And was it just the one head?’
The sarcasm was lost on them.
‘Do not concern yourself with the past, Serenity, and how you may have looked in your previous life,’ said Andromeda gently. ‘What is important is not who you were in a past life but who you are about to become in this one..’
‘But it is important!’ protested Venus. ‘You’ve dragged me all the way here through black holes and galaxies and stuff and now you want to send me on some crazy suicide mission, so I think I’m entitled to a bit of information! Do you have any pictures of him?’
‘There are many images of Sunev all over the planet, on buildings, in small shrines and frescoes in old temples, depicting great chapters in his - your life, explained Pluto. ‘Or there were. Most have been ransacked.’
Venus grabbed at one last remaining straw like a drowning person. ‘Maybe Sunev didn’t really exist? Maybe it’s just a myth, a legend, like the Greek myths, or the King Arthur legends? I mean it was all centuries ago and none of you can have been alive then. ’
Pluto’s chest swelled with effrontery. ‘I assure you I was there Serenity! I was your constant companion throughout your previous life on this planet. I was your High Priest!’
‘How come? Are you immortal or something?’ said Venus sceptically.
‘Amongst my many talents I have powers of near immortality. Nine Lives to be precise. I used up my sixth life when I travelled with you to earth and transformed myself. I now have only three left.’
