Decision

Everyone is so shocked that nobody knows what to say and the room grows silent for a few suffocating moments. I expect Liana to burst out first, but it’s Erik who doesn’t manage to hold his anger.

“You can’t be serious!” he hits the table in front of him and stands up. “What gives you the right to even propose something ridiculous like that? Assert a claim? How dare you!”

“Erik!” I hiss and pull my beloved back in the chair because I’m too afraid of offending the Divementis if we don’t behave diplomatically. “I’m sure they didn’t mean that…”

“I meant every word, but it seems there’s a misunderstanding,” my father says calmly. “As the Royal Consort pointed out, we wouldn’t dare to take the embodiment of magic away from his people. We do respect that Aefener is the Celestial Emperor, but it’s undisputable that he’s also the Divementis Crown Prince. He’s just as Celestial as he is Divementis.”

“W-what do you propose then?” Liana finally catches her breath.

“We want to show His Majesty his Divementis heritage and give him proper telepathic training,” Nyx explains.

I chew my lip and my wings shiver. As much as I feel Celestial to the core, I would be lying if I said that I’m not curious about the Divementis culture.

“Does that mean His Majesty would have to come to your premises?” Liana purses her lips.

“Yes,” my father answers openly. “Naturally, we’re more than willing to accommodate whoever comes as his entourage.”

“Even if it’s the entire Imperial Guard?” Liana gives an impossible demand on purpose to see their reaction.

“Well, let’s be reasonable here,” my father sighs. “We can comfortably accommodate around forty people. Any more would come at the expense of your comfort and practicality.”

“Are you saying that His Majesty can take thirty-nine subjects with him and you will be okay with it?” Liana doesn’t believe her ears.

“Yes,” he confirms.

Love, are you getting anything? Do they really mean it? Can we trust these aliens? Gotrid nudges me under the table.

They can hear you, I remind him, nudging him back.

“There seems to be another misunderstanding,” my father raises his eyebrows. “We indeed come from a different dimension which makes us aliens compared to humans, but we’re Draconians, just as you are.”

“You’re Draconians?!” Liana opens her mouth wide and she’s not the only one.

“It seems an explanation is in order, at least in a nutshell for now,” he admits. “We created Draconia Online to simulate our home dimension and that included the four extinct races we hoped to bring back to life: Celestials, the Earthborn, Clawfangs and the Dragonkin.”

“Therefore, we’re all Draconians here,” Nyx says and adds quickly: “I mean, except for the Royal Consort.”

Erik frowns and I feel a slight change in his emotional state. It’s subtle so he probably isn’t even aware of it, but he feels a bit embarrassed. Does he feel threatened perhaps? Does he regret that he’s not one of us?! But he was always so proud of being who he is! I don’t want him to start feeling bad about it now.

I try sending him a ton of love, assuring him that he’s perfect, but it doesn’t have the effect I hope it would. Nyx made him painstakingly aware that he is the only human among us.

“Son,” my father coughs to get my attention. “Whatever you’re doing with your Consort, I’m sure you can do later.”

“Right, you can’t feel it,” I realise and look back at him. “You’re not empaths.”

I see the Divementis getting anxious and eager at the same time. They are born telepaths, but empathy is something they can’t do. I bet they must be super curious to find out how it works for me. I’ve just discovered that they do have emotions just as strong as anyone else, but they can’t project them, nor can they feel them from each other. Their telepathy is only sensory and auditory.

“What do you mean extinct?” Liana demands more answers.

The Divementis look at each other with saddened expressions. It seems to be a sore topic for them.

“Other sentient Draconian races were completely wiped out by the Enemy,” my father says and I notice uneasiness in his voice. “I’m afraid it was because we couldn’t unite in time. If only we found a way to cooperate and were able to put our differences aside earlier… Anyway, we couldn’t afford to make the same mistake twice so we made sure resurrected races were more than eager to cooperate this time.”

“Why? How? Who’s the Enemy? How could some VR game change us in the first place?” Gotrid gets impatient.

“I promise to answer all your questions,” my father swears. “Only we would prefer to tell you everything safely at our premises where we can’t be overheard and we can show you.”

“How convenient for you!” Erik speaks up again, still angry. “If Ryuuto wasn’t such a strong telepath, you wouldn’t hesitate to kill him, labelling him as an abomination. However, since Ryuuto can wield telepathy, empathy and magic on top, you’re suddenly very interested in making him your Crown Prince. You just want to use him!”

“Aefener,” my father insists on using my Celestial name, “can indeed potentially make a huge difference. We have no intention of hiding that. He could help us win the war.”

“The war which you brought here!” Erik accuses him.

“WE DID NO SUCH THING!” my father raises his voice and I don’t need my empathy to see that he’s deeply offended. “If it wasn’t for our intervention in suppressing the rifts for almost two hundred years, this planet would be overrun with monsters already. The Enemy conquered the Draconian dimension and now they want to conquer this one.”

“Erik, I can’t read him because his mental defences are too strong, but I don’t think he’s lying,” I try to calm my partner down.

Erik is always really collected during diplomatic meetings, a perfect representative, but he’s extremely anxious now and not only because we’re dealing with the Divementis for the very first time. He’s upset that he’s the only human in the room. He’s afraid that his opinion won’t be taken seriously because of that. He’s feeling insecure so he’s lashing out.

“You want to make him your Crown Prince, but what does that even mean?” he refuses to calm down. “Can’t you see that he has a throne of his own already?”

“Royal Consort,” Nyx tries to sound amicable, “His Majesty is still in his prime so the Crown Prince won’t be expected to overtake the reign anytime soon anyway. For now, all we ask is that he learns about his heritage, receives proper telepathic training and helps us form an alliance with other Draconian races.”

“If I come with you, will you tell us absolutely everything?” I make sure. “No more secrets?”

“No more secrets,” my father nods. “You can even share what you learn with other race rulers.”

His offer makes sense and he’s more than generous about the terms. I certainly didn’t expect that.

“Where is it? Your main base, I mean,” I ask.

“In Tokyo. Our base is Nebula itself, the place your mother worked at,” he reveals. “We wouldn’t be forcing you to use our ship if that’s your wish. We’re willing to accept your conditions in almost every respect.”

“That’s five hundred kilometres away from Osaka,” Gavreel quickly informs me. “We can make it, but… well… it is quite far, we would have to take a lot of stuff with us and Lord Erik can’t…”

“We need time to discuss it,” I decide so that we don’t say anything we might regret later.

“Of course, but I’m afraid that I can’t give you all the time in the world to think it through, son,” my father says grimly. “The rifts are getting more and more frequent; we can’t suppress them anymore.”

“Eight hours then,” I concede.

“Reasonable,” he nods and stands up. “When you’re ready, just say so.”

We accompany the Divementis delegation back to their shuttle and everyone catches a breath only when they take off and I put up the shield up again.

“Your Majesty, are you really considering it?” Liana asks anxiously.

“Can I talk about it with my partners first?” I request.

I see disapproval on my Viceroy’s face, but there’s nothing she can do about it. I take Erik’s and Gotrid’s hands and lead them to our suite, demanding privacy. We hide in our bedroom because it’s the only place where I can be without the guards who have to stay outside.

“It’s too dangerous,” Erik starts lamenting the moment the door closes behind us. “I know that you’re curious about your heritage, but you can’t trust that alien.”

“That alien is my father which makes me half-alien,” I point out, hurt a tiny bit.

“I didn’t mean it like that,” he caresses a few of my feathers to comfort me. “What if he’s not telling the truth? What if he snatches you the first opportunity he gets?”

“And antagonises the entire Celestial race? I don’t think so,” Gotrid shakes his head. “I know it’s a huge disadvantage that our beloved can’t check their intentions, but they are a few thousand at best while we’re millions.”

“I agree with Gotrid, they wouldn’t risk it,” I nod. “Still, I won’t put you in danger.”

“What do you mean?” Erik frowns.

“Both you and Gotrid are staying here,” I say resolutely.

They are staring at me for a very long moment, unable to speak. Erik collects himself first.

“Then I absolutely won’t approve,” he clicks his tongue, his eyebrows forming a huge frown. “You want to leave us behind? For real? Do you seriously consider us your weakness?”

“W-what? I don’t mean it like that,” I shake my head violently.

“Yes, you do,” Gotrid supports Erik. “Lately, you don’t fear anything. Not anymore. Your only fear is that somebody would try to hurt us.”

Now it’s me who is taken aback. I don’t fear anything anymore? Surely, that’s not true! I’ve always had so many fears, I’m a naturally anxious type. I’d always feared that people would find out about my telepathy, I’d feared being judged because of my androgynous appearance, I’d feared that I was too weird to find true love, I’d feared…

I try to recollect that feeling of dread that’s been with me my entire life, but I get nothing. It all seems like a distant memory. I accepted my telepathy and embraced it. I have two amazing husbands. I even came to terms with my looks because Erik and Gotrid love it. I don’t fear politicians anymore and Draconians are growing stronger with each passing day.

Yet, when I look at my partners, I feel uneasy. My strongest fear now is losing them. I can’t bear to see them hurt because of me. They are in danger simply because they married the Celestial Emperor. If anyone wanted to attack me indirectly, they would go after them.

“Ryuuto,” Erik uses my human name on purpose, “let’s make two things clear once and for all. Firstly, both me and Gotrid knew well what we were getting ourselves into by becoming the Celestial Emperor’s Consorts. Secondly, we’re your partners, not your subjects. You have no right to command us.”

“Oh… I…,” I’m taken aback again.

I shiver when the revelation finally gets under my feathers. Of course, I have never considered Erik and Gotrid to be my subjects, but I guess that I tend to decide things for them when I worry about their safety. And I worry about their safety a lot.

“Sorry,” I lower my head in an apology. “Would you please think about it at least? You would be safe here and you could rule in my stead.”

“We’re not your weakness, Aefener,” Gotrid berates me harshly which is the first. “Honestly, it offends us that you think of us that way. You’re upset with your subjects when they are trying to protect you too anxiously, but you’re doing exactly the same thing to us, don’t you understand?”

I stare at him with my mouth open wide. How come I have never noticed that my partners are gradually growing frustrated with me? Is my love towards them turning obsessive?

“Stop overthinking it,” Erik rolls his eyes and pulls a few of my feathers which makes me flinch. “Yes, we are frustrated, but there’s no need for any catastrophic scenarios that are going through your head right now. You lost most of your fears, but you’re still an overthinker.”

“It’s true that we have to make lots of compromises daily,” Gotrid admits. “We have to respect that you don’t belong only to us which is the hardest part. We have almost no privacy or free time. We chose that, though. We don’t regret anything in that regard. Still, do you know what bothers us the most?”

I shake my head. I might be the most clueless telepath ever.

“That you wouldn’t hesitate to wage war for us,” Erik explains, pursing his lips. “Yes, I fainted and that ideally shouldn’t have happened, but Gotrid told me that you lost it. You were in full panic mode and your mana was leaking dangerously.”

“W-what? It didn’t!” I oppose feebly. “Nobody said anything and…”

“Only because my fainting episode shocked everyone and you got it under control quickly when Noage assured you that I’m going to be okay,” Erik sighs.

“And then I asked you what you would do if somebody seriously tried to hurt us,” Gotrid adds.

“Ehm… when?” I’m unsure.

“You were falling asleep so I guess I caught you off-guard,” Gotrid says. “You scared me shitless when I learnt what you would do. I told Erik about it afterwards.”

That haze memory finally comes to me. Sure, I was only half-conscious at that time, but I did claim, and so casually on top, that I would wage war against anyone who would dare hurt them. It wasn’t a figure of speech. I meant it. I felt it. I feel it even now.

Suddenly, I get really scared. This emotion and thought process aren’t Celestial. Celestial wrath is highly logical and cold. This is anything but that. This is… a Divementis emotion. My whole body starts trembling when I allow myself to feel it consciously.

It turns out that my telepathy and facial features weren’t the only things I inherited from my father’s side. I was suppressing it all this time, but there’s no doubt about it anymore—I do think and feel like a Divementis in certain aspects. I indeed am half-alien.

“Why do I feel this way? I don’t want to,” my eyes get wet. “I understand what you’re saying, but I can’t help myself. I would wage war for you without hesitation.”

“Would you kill innocent people?” Erik tries me.

“What? N-no, never!” I shake my head, “but I would kill those who wronged you without mercy.”

“Well, that’s the better alternative at least,” he says, relieved a bit. “Still, we don’t want you to kill anyone. Do you seriously think either of us fancies a good old-fashioned revenge?”

“I… guess not,” I’m half-crying at this point. “What’s wrong with me?!”

“Love, you’re both the Celestial Emperor and the Divementis Crown Prince,” Gotrid hugs me with his wings and lets Erik join. “I’m afraid that comes with some fucked-up baggage by default as well as an insane amount of pressure. Before, your only priority was to make sure that Celestials prosper. Now, you might have another race to handle. That’s way too much for one person.”

“Besides,” Erik dries my tears into his sleeve, “how could we leave you alone even for one night? Who knows what you might do if a telepathic craving overcomes you? Your father could try to force a handsome young Divementis man on you.”

“What?” I stop crying and frown. “I would never!”

“Hon, while we don’t doubt that you love us deeply to the point of obsession, we’re also well aware of your polyamorous tendencies,” Erik pokes me. “Who knows what a few days of telepathic craving and sexual abstinence might do to you? You might suddenly find Divementis men attractive and decide to take another Consort in the spur of the moment.”

“I can go celibate for a few weeks,” I puff, unsure if they are making fun of me or if they are serious.

“No, you can’t,” Gotrid answers with a raised eyebrow. “You can barely go two nights without making love to us and that’s only when you’re extremely tired or hurt. It’s not that we’re complaining, far from it, but you can’t be left spending nights alone.”

My feathers puff up with irritation, but now that I think about it… was there ever a time after the Great Evolution when I went more than two or three days without having sex with Erik and later on also Gotrid?

“There, you have your answer,” Gotrid pets my feathers to flatten them. “There’s no scenario in which we wouldn’t accompany you.”

“I’m still hesitating whether to go at all,” I admit. “I might be able to persuade my father to train me here.”

“I was upset because I didn’t want you to trust your father too easily, but I didn’t expect to talk you out of it,” Erik kisses my right cheek. “If the Divementis speak the truth and your contribution could stop the rifts from opening, how could I stop you?”

“Besides, risks naturally come with the job description, silly,” Gotrid kisses me from the other side, “it’s not like presidents, ministers and monarchs don’t take spouses just because someone could potentially target their beloved. Also, aren’t we safest by your side?”

“You just want to keep an eye on me,” I accuse them jokingly now that the tension is over.

“We’re not hiding that,” Erik chuckles. “So… should we start packing?”

“I guess,” I agree. “We still have to decide how to get there, though.”

“Cars are out of the question,” Gotrid says. “There’s no way we could handle it for three or more hours and it’s not safe either.”

“Our private jet is still available,” Erik reminds me.

“Nah, it can’t land like the Divementis shuttle so we would have to deal with a complicated transport from the Tokyo airport,” I reject that idea.

“That leaves us with the Divementis offer, though,” Erik clicks his tongue. “Not that I’m not curious what an alien spaceship looks like from the inside, but we’ll be at their mercy.”

“They wouldn’t risk anything in the air,” I Gotrid hopes. “We could easily crack their ship open the moment they try anything funny and easily escape while they would crash. Their telepathy might be amazing, but they don’t have magic and wings.”

I know that we still haven’t seen everything that the Divementis can do, but I have confidence in our abilities. Celestials aren’t any worse than them, I’m sure of it.

*****

“Start packing, we’re going,” I announce when we finally emerge from our bedroom and find our maids and guards nervously stepping in front of the door, anxiously waiting for our decision.

“Today?!” the maids get startled by the sudden urgency.

“Would tomorrow be any better?” I shrug. “Besides, the Divementis are hovering above the mansion already and don’t seem to have any intention of leaving. We’d just be unnecessarily prolonging the inevitable and if what my father said is true, we should hurry.”

“We still have to decide who comes with us,” Gotrid reminds me.

“Riiight,” I chew my lip. This will undoubtedly make some Celestials unhappy if they aren’t picked, but my father said that forty is the limit. Wait, what?! I have to facepalm myself in my mind. When did I start thinking that forty is too few when it comes to my entourage?

“Your Majesty, the Celestial Council is waiting for your decision,” Vermiel comes to pick me up and he’s extremely tense.

“Okay, let’s…,” I don’t get to finish that sentence, though, Ayala interrupts me.

“His Majesty will come in half an hour,” she says uncompromisingly.

“Eh? Why? It’s not like I have to change my clothes,” I tilt my head.

“Maybe because it’s three o’clock already and you still haven’t had lunch?” Ayala raises her eyebrows.

“We have more important things to attend to,” I take a step towards Vermiel, but both Gotrid and Erik grab my sleeves and stop me.

“Love, don’t forget that the Emperor’s health is the Celestial priority,” Gotrid has to be strict with me. “You have to eat properly no matter the circumstances.”

“I’m not… hungry,” I murmur. Why is it that every time I get stressed over something, my appetite disappears? Is it a Divementis thing? I’ll have to ask my father about it when I have a chance.

“Honestly? We don’t care,” Erik pushes me down on a pillow in our living room and the maids quickly serve us a Japanese full-course.

“We saw the Divementis today and while they were all super slim, you were the thinnest among them,” Gotrid laments. “We can’t have you skipping meals.”

“Okay, okay,” I take a bowl of rice with vegetable curry and start gobbling it quickly.

It’s obvious that my caretakers aren’t happy about my speed, but at least I’m eating without protests. I know that they are right; my eating habits are horrible. It got significantly better over the last few months, but it’s still far from ideal. I might sometimes act annoyed, but I’m actually grateful that they are watching over my diet and nagging me about it.

After the late lunch, we get to the throne room which is packed with high-ranking seraphs. Evidently, they worry that if I don’t see them in person, I will forget to include them.

“I started with the pre-selection process already, my Emperor,” Liana informs me. “This is the list of candidates I recommend to take with us.”

“You didn’t wait for me to announce if we’re going?” I’m surprised.

“Nah, there was no doubt,” she waves her hand. “Sure, we’re scared whether we will be able to protect our embodiment of magic, but there’s a fucking spaceship hovering above us, aliens claiming that they are barely suppressing the rifts and calling you their Crown Prince. I don’t see in which alternative universe we could stop you.”

“I also decided that, for the sake of convenience, we will accept the Divementis offer and use their spaceship,” I add slowly.

“Figured as much,” Liana nods without any complaints. “Please, choose your entourage.”

I sit on the throne to preside over a room full of anxious and zealous Celestials. Everyone wants to join my entourage and when I go through the list name by name, they step forward and argue why I should choose them over others.

It’s a tiring and lengthy process. I’d prefer to leave the governmental representatives here to rule in my stead and take just the Imperial Guards, but they oppose that they do their jobs remotely anyway and I need skilled diplomats to negotiate with the Divementis.

In the end, I decided to take eight officials which sounds reasonable enough, five maids (three for me, two for Liana), Noage as my private physician, my partners are coming as well, of course, and then I have to also count me and my Viceroy. That means I still have room to bring twenty-two battle mages as our protection.

That’s when the selection process gets especially heated. Naturally, every Imperial Guards demands to go so that they can fulfil their duty—everybody wants to be there to protect their Emperor. I leave it to my Viceroy for a moment and sip a cup of exquisite green tea Dalia just brought me.

Father, do you hear me? I try sending out a telepathic message even though I can’t focus properly. Still, I think that I’ve already established a link between us.

Of course, son, he answers immediately.

I decided to go with you, I inform him, trying to sound confident. I’m bringing thirty-nine subjects with me as my entourage and protection.

Sure, as was our limit, he confirms. I promise not to harm you or your subjects in any way. On the contrary, the Divementis will do anything in their power to protect their Crown Prince.

That sounds funny considering that the Divementis were prepared to kill me if I didn’t meet your crazy telepathic standards, I retort. So excuse me for being overly cautious.

Your thinking is too Celestial; you don’t understand our point of view, he sighs. I hope to show you new perspectives.

My thinking is too Celestial? If that was meant to be a subtle insult, I’m happy to hear it. I desperately want to be more Celestial than Divementis; waging war for my partners isn’t a rational Celestial way of doing things.

Can you cloak us as well? It would look suspicious if we suddenly disappeared into thin air when entering your vessel. There could be drones from the press lurking, I ask.

That can be done easily, he agrees. When you take off, we’ll cloak you immediately and render our ship visible to the Celestial eyes so that your subjects know where to enter. Are you packing already? If possible, we’d prefer to depart today.

“Love, are you…?” Gotrid suddenly puts a hand on my wing and interrupts our telepathic link.

I notice that the throne room grew quiet. I thought that I had a few moments over the tea because several battle mages who weren’t chosen started arguing with Liana, but, as always, I’m under constant scrutiny.

“Yes, I was talking to my father,” I nod. “They are ready to receive us, ideally by the end of the day. Start packing, I’ll hear no more protests.”

And that takes care of that and nobody tries to argue anymore. Those chosen run off to pack and I ask those who weren’t to stay in the throne room for a little longer. I want them to know that I didn’t choose them because they aren’t good enough, but simply because there’s a limit to my entourage and their skills are better used elsewhere. They feel much better after my reassurance.

“Wait, what is all that?” I frown when we return to our suite and find our three maids waiting on the porch with a ton of baggage.

“Mostly your clothes, Your Majesty,” Cien shrugs nonchalantly. “We don’t know how many days we will spend there so we packed for two weeks.”

“We can’t know how big our guest room is going to be, you have to minimise,” I oppose.

“We did, this is the minimal viable option,” the maid purses her lips.

I sigh resignedly. There’s no arguing with the maids about my clothes, it’s a losing battle.

I’m afraid you will have to send a shuttle for our baggage, I quickly send my father another telepathic message. It feels so easy now. Natural even.

No problem, give us an opening, he answers readily.

I focus on the crystals all over the mansion and deactivate the shield. The shuttle slips through and I close it again. Four Divementis appear and start bringing our baggage inside without uttering a single word. They don’t even frown at the amount of stuff we want to bring. Fortunately, the shuttle is big enough to take everyone’s baggage so we can fly light. Are they really able to accommodate so many of us comfortably? I don’t want my guards to sleep in bad conditions.

“I don’t know how I feel about flying in that thing,” Erik hesitates when everyone is ready to take off. Only Noage is forced to take the shuttle and doesn’t look thrilled about it.

“You’re going with me,” I smirk and hug him. “You’re not getting out of it this time, let’s finally try that levitation platform.”

“Pff, special treatment,” Gotrid picks on Erik jokingly because I’m not offering the same service to him.

“Whaaat?” Erik panics. “W-wait, I’m not ready!”

“Trust me,” I kiss him and envelop him in my wings while I conjure a levitation platform under our feet.

Erik cries out and wobbles when we go up a few centimetres, but I’m holding him tightly. As a pilot, he isn’t afraid of heights, but he isn’t a Celestial either. Humans don’t feel comfortable when hanging on seemingly nothing.

“Love, open your eyes,” I encourage him. “There’s no scenario in which you would fall when I’m with you.”

“I-I know, b-but…,” he slowly opens one eye and then another. “Oh my god, we’re that high up already?” he gulps when he sees that we’re above the roofs.

I continue ascending slowly so that he can get used to it. I’m using my wings to cushion him and give him a sense of stability. It seems to work because he gradually calms down.

“Hmm, it’s not as scary as I expected,” Erik admits when we’re fairly high in the air and his nausea mitigates. “Now I regret we didn’t try it sooner.”

“Maybe you’re comfortable with it because you experienced a few of my flying dreams,” I speculate and I’m proud of him. “Still, this isn’t our preferred way of transport. Maintaining a levitation platform is quite taxing on mana consumption and flying on it is extremely slow when compared to our wings.”

“We can try it occasionally,” he suggests, eager now. “This is the only thing I can’t share with you and even though I try to look like it doesn’t bother me… well… it does.”

“Erik…,” I whisper his name and my heart sinks.

I want to ask him if he regrets that he didn’t transform, but I don’t dare to open that complicated and possibly sore topic now. Our levitation platform might be slow, but we’re almost at the spaceship. I quickly close the shield so that the Celestials who stayed in the mansion are safe and come inside through an opening the Divementis prepared for us.

I dissolve the levitation platform and we smoothly land on a metal floor. It seems this is a docking station of sorts. The shuttle is here already and the hall is full of Celestials who stand in sharp contrast with the Divementis who are here to receive us. I release my feathery embrace and I look around. A real alien spaceship, no kidding.

I study a random Divementis in the crowd of onlookers. I get a feeling that it’s a woman. Afraid that I’d hurt her like those diplomats before, I don’t dare to dig, but I still touch her mind—slightly, really gently. I’m just curious, that’s all. The Divementis woman gives me a panicked look, fortifies her mind and bows to me deeply.

“The Crown Prince… he really has the Royal bloodline!” the crowd roars excitedly.

It’s like an avalanche. Suddenly, every Divementis in the hangar kneels in unison. I clutch Erik’s hand and shiver. At that moment, the gravity of being the Divementis prince finally sinks in.