Alien communication

His power was already producing dividends.

I'd been brute forcing the language of the parasites, but now those communications were so much clearer. I had enough of me monitoring what they were saying to each other that I was now starting to see patterns in their communications. I could probably imitate one for purposes of communication fairly easily.

More importantly for the moment, it meant that I would finally be able to capture Fae and rip their minds open for as much information as I could. I didn't want to just get some of their worlds; I wanted to find all of them. I wanted to find out if they had political divisions like we did; was it possible to exploit those to turn them against each other? I wanted to find out where all of their worlds, where all of their cities were. If I was careful, I might be able to wipe all of them from the face of all the Earths.

***

Several of my bodies appeared on the roofs of Fae houses, and I simply opened my mind and listened to what the minds around me were saying. Their thought processes were alien, but I could get the general gist anyway.

They didn't see immigrants from other worlds as being actual people. At best, they saw them as pets, although whatever emotions of affection they might have had were a lot more muted than a human pet owner might experience. There were two kind of dog owners people who kept their dogs inside the house, and those who kept them in the yard. Inside dogs were members of the family, generally lavished with at least a modicum of affection if not actually allowed to sleep in the owners bed. Outside dogs on the other hand tended to be tools, creatures used for work, or protection. The Fae tended to be outside pet owners emotionally, even if they sometimes allowed them inside.

Even the most liberal of them were more than happy to eat people, though. Younger flesh was preferred, but was more expensive in whatever economic system they used. It wasn't money; it seemed to be more of a system of favors owed and gifts given in return for labor.

This wasn't a big sample. I was reading only a couple of hundred minds, but it was giving me a clear idea of what to expect.

***

Ripping through his mind, I erased his memory of what had happened, and then I moved on to the Fae his mind had suggested. Their minds were fundamentally alien; they didn't see the world even remotely like a human would have seen it. But once I figured out where the information was accessed, it was easier and easier to access. There were good odds that their minds were alien enough that the memory loss wouldn't be permanent; hopefully by the time they regained their memories it would be far, far too late.

***

Grim