Arrival

I have no idea what to do. Should I tell them that it’s okay to stand up? What if there’s some alien custom I’m unaware of and I end up offending them? Do the Divementis greet each other telepathically or verbally? Fortunately, I’m saved by my father showing up. He sends them some kind of telepathic signal and they slowly stand up again.

“My son, welcome to Aurora,” he greets me. “The journey will take only thirty minutes so we didn’t prepare a cabin for you. Instead, I’d like to show you around to pass the time.”

“Thank you, I won’t say no to that,” I appreciate, super curious about the Divementis spaceship. “I won’t be separated from my people, though. Can we all go?”

“I didn’t think you would and the halls should be spacious enough for your entourage to follow,” he permits.

His expression is unreadable and his mind is as impenetrable as ever. He raises his eyebrow because he can tell that I’m checking his defences, but he doesn’t say anything. Chancellor Nyx is standing closely by his side which makes me wonder again whether they are a couple.

I try to read her emotions, but I encounter a barrier stronger than before. It seems she fortified herself since our last encounter. She also notices that I’m checking her defences but, unlike my cold father, she smiles at me. I don’t know why, but I suddenly feel a strange familiarity. There’s something about Nyx I can’t quite describe that makes me feel comfortable in her presence.

I step forward and my entourage quickly makes a neat formation with Liana and Soren walking behind my back and touching my wings to get my telepathic protection. However, my entourage soon forgets about guarding their every move—they are overwhelmed by the Divementis ship which doesn’t fail to impress.

“If you have ships like these, why didn’t you evacuate your world?” I ask directly. “You could have relocated to a different planet instead of another dimension.”

“Son, it seems to me you’ve read too much science fiction,” my father sighs. “Do you have any idea how many resources and work it takes to build just one spaceship like this one? How huge distances in the galaxy are? Unfortunately, Aurora can’t travel faster than light which means that it would take several generations to reach the nearest hospitable planet.”

“Do you mean to tell me that travelling through dimensions is easier than surpassing the speed of light?” I frown.

“We didn’t invent the travel through dimensions, the Enemy did,” my father reveals. “We just slipped through when we had the last chance to save the remains of our civilisation.”

“Your Celestial Majesty, can we leave this complicated and painful topic for tomorrow?” Nyx implores me. “We want to explain everything properly.”

“Okay then,” I agree and only now do I notice that one of the Divementis in the front is opening a door that looks like a damn elevator. If there’s something I wasn’t missing in the Osaka mansion, it was the complete absence of those wretched things.

Bear with it, Your Majesty, don’t show any weakness, Liana begs me in her thoughts.

“I know that Celestials hate confined spaces, but our elevators are spacious,” my father says, noticing my distress. “If your protectors feel nervous about dividing the group, I can ride with you without any entourage of my own.”

“They would let you do that?” I don’t believe it.

“Only when they are convinced it’s safe,” she shrugs. “I don’t see how riding an elevator with my son could be dangerous.”

I frown. Is he that confident about his abilities or does he mean to demonstrate that he trusts me? We still barely know each other; this is only our second meeting in the real world. He steps inside confidently so I do the same even though I feel uneasy. His black eyes are studying me intently, but before I manage to ask another question, the elevator stops.

“Come, I’d like to show you the bridge,” he invites me. “This is our main command centre when we are on the move. Normally, it’s not so crowded, but our people are eager to see their Prince in person.”

I slowly step outside and cautiously look around, trying not to look so blown away. If this isn’t straight out of Star Trek, I don’t know what is! How come the Divementis weren’t able to stop the Enemy with this level of technology? And what about other Draconian races? Were they also this advanced?

“Son, could you sit over here?” my father asks me. He phrases it as a polite question, but the urgency in his voice tells me that he wants me to obey.

“Isn’t the journey going to take only half an hour? I’m not tired,” I frown and inspect the chair he’s pointing at. This is obviously no ordinary chair for guests to rest. Being right in the middle of the bridge with control panels all around, it must be the commander’s chair.

“Your Majesty, just for a little while, please?” Nyx pleads.

“Is this supposed to be some kind of test?” Liana steps bravely in front of me. “Isn’t this your chair, Your Divementis Majesty?”

“It indeed is,” my father doesn’t hide it. “My people would like to see how it fits their Crown Prince. We might need to make some adjustments for his wings later on.”

I frown again. Adjustments my ass, this IS some sort of test!

“Son, please,” my father looks straight into my eyes. I assure you that it’s safe, we just need to confirm something, he adds telepathically.

A test it is, then. On the other hand, what’s the worst-case scenario if I fail? I don’t care about disappointing the Divementis, I care only about Celestials. Maybe they won’t put any responsibility on me if I don’t meet their expectations.

“Okay,” I hiss indifferently and let go of Erik and Gotrid’s hands and I tell them to keep touching my wings instead.

The chair looks comfortable enough, but it wasn’t made for Celestials. I have to stretch my wings to the sides to somehow fit around all these control panels.

“Satisfied? Should I take a selfie or something?” I say mockingly on purpose.

Suddenly, the control panels come to life and the seat starts to warm up which is actually quite nice. I gasp for breath when my mind gets overwhelmed by the ship’s interface magically popping into my brain.

“Welcome Your Imperial Majesty, all systems online, awaiting your orders,” the computer announces solemnly for everybody to hear.

I get up quickly because my head spins from the information overload. The chair deactivates as soon I leave it.

“Thank you, that’s all we needed to hear,” my father smirks, content, and he’s not the only one. All the Divementis on the bridge are smiling and look relieved.

“What was that supposed to mean? I mean really?” I purse my lips. “I thought that you’ve already confirmed that I have the Royal bloodline.”

“When it comes to the strength of your telepathy, we did,” my father nods. “The only thing we still needed to check was that your Divementis genes are dominant enough to operate our tech. Other races can’t activate our technology, Aefener. Moreover, this chair responds only to the Royal genes.”

I ostentatiously move back to my Celestial entourage. I feel that my people are growing anxious, afraid that the Divementis might start usurping me. I project my love to them to assure them that I won’t let it happen. I might be half-Divementis, but Celestials will always be my absolute priority.

“Your ability to project emotions and make others feel them is unprecedented,” my father comments, visibly impressed. “It goes beyond mere empathy.”

“Did you feel it?” I tilt my head.

“We felt… something,” he answers uncertainly. “You didn’t target us, but we could tell that you’re using your emphatic abilities on others.”

I open my mouth to ask about that, but I’m interrupted by Nyx.

“Your Majesties, we’re here,” she announces. “We’re going to land in a minute.”

“We will have more time to show you the ship later,” my father concludes. “Now, let’s go accommodate you.”

*****

Everything proceeds a bit too fast for me to analyse properly. In just a few minutes, we leave the ship and we find ourselves on a runway, surrounded by buildings from all sides. Nebula’s premises would be a typical complex of administrative buildings and small factories if it weren’t for all those small details that make the place look alien.

I notice something that looks like a levitation platform transporting huge containers, almost everything is in the Divementis writing and, most importantly, the workers here are Divementis. I’m surprised to see quite a few human faces in the crowd of onlookers, but then I remember that my Mom also used to work here. I guess even the mighty Divementis need help from the locals to survive.

My father tells us to follow him. We navigate the complex and enter one of the super modern administrative buildings. All the buildings here have human architecture, most probably so that the Divementis don’t attract unwanted attention from the orbit.

“Knowing that Celestials love heights, we reserved the top three floors just for Your Majesty and your entourage,” Nyx explains. “I’m afraid your companions will have to share rooms, but everybody should fit comfortably. We didn’t have much time to prepare, but we managed to adjust some furniture to your specific needs.”

“That’s… more generous than we expected,” I admit hesitantly. “Are we given autonomy here?”

“Yes,” Nyx nods. “Normally, we would assign guards to protect our Crown Prince, but your battle mages should be more than enough.”

“We are,” Soren speaks up and orders his subordinates to start checking all rooms immediately and take positions.

“Still,” Nyx coughs, “we will be sending our people here to clean the rooms and deliver you food. We kindly ask for your cooperation.”

I assure her that we will cooperate and then she shows us our apartment. The guards check it thoroughly before they let us come in. I’m pleasantly surprised that we have three rooms at our disposal. The apartment might not be as big as our entire floor in the Draconian skyscraper, but it isn’t shabby either. The living area is spacious enough for holding meetings and there’s a smaller study.

“Have a good rest, son, we will start in the morning,” my father tells me and simply leaves, just like that.

“That went surprisingly smoothly,” Liana comments when the last Divementis disappears. “They’re trying hard to build mutual trust by giving us some freedom here.”

“Your Majesty, Your Excellency, we checked all three floors and didn’t find anything suspicious,” Soren comes with a report. “We’re getting settled and I stationed the first guard shift.”

“Are we really safe here?” Liana asks anxiously, still gently touching my feathers to benefit from my telepathic protection.

“I think so,” I nod. “Go rest, Li. Who knows what awaits us tomorrow.”

“Okay, my apartment is just next door,” she reminds me and leaves to settle as well.

“My Emperor, Cien is unpacking and Dalia is preparing a bath for you and your Consorts,” Ayala informs us. “You will have to squeeze a bit, but the bath should be large enough.”

“Let’s check the bedroom,” Erik pushes me for a little tour.

“Right, I worry about the bed size,” Gotrid chews his lip.

We find Cien already there and stuffing our clothes into the wardrobes. The Divementis obviously didn’t have time to custom-made a bed that would fit two Celestials and one human, but they did their best and put two double beds together. There’s not much space left in the room as a result, but it should be reasonably comfortable like that.

“It doesn’t feel like a secret alien base,” Gotrid comments, “more like a hotel.”

“Don’t let your guard down, we’re still surrounded by telepathic aliens,” Erik sighs worriedly and pets my wings. “How does it feel, love?”

“Quieter,” I say. “Unlike humans and other Draconians, the Divementis don’t leak their thoughts and feelings.”

“Is it less strenuous for your brain?” he wonders.

“You could say so,” I shrug. “Celestial minds don’t bother me, though. To be honest, I don’t think I would be able to withstand telepathic silence.”

“We thought that you wish for it?” Gotrid is surprised. “We saw you overwhelmed and with a headache so many times.”

“I did experience telepathic silence in the States,” I remind them. “When I flew away, I was alone for several hours.”

“And? How did it feel?” Erik is curious.

“It was stifling and unnerving,” I admit. “I hate being surrounded by too many minds that are too different from mine, but I love the company of Celestials.”

“What about me? I’m human,” Erik traps me in his arms and pulls me closer.

“That goes without saying, silly,” I kiss him and taste both his lips and his mind.

Erik might be human, but his mind has always been like a safe harbour for me. I wonder if it’s the same for the Divementis. Do they also become telepathically addicted to their partners? Is Nyx my father’s new lover because he can’t stand being alone? I have so many questions about everything.

Dalia calls that the bath is ready so we go wash after a very long and tiring day. When we return, dinner is waiting for us in the living room. Gotrid jokingly remarks that it could be poisoned, but we’re too tired to even consider it and just accept the Divementis hospitality. Falling asleep in an unknown environment feels weird, but tiredness wins.

*****

It takes me a moment to realise where I am when I wake up. I’m still resting in Erik and Gotrid’s minds as well as their warm embrace, but it’s my automatic morning routine to telepathically reach out and make sure that we’re safe.

I feel that Liana is up already and she’s discussing something with Luviael. I reach further and feel the presence of Soren, Gavreel and the others. Everybody seems okay which calms me down. I spread my consciousness and I’m amazed at how quiet the building feels.

I focus and finally trace the presence of the Divementis. They are shielding their minds but, at least, I can tell where they are—I count more than two hundred Divementis in the vicinity. Suddenly, those minds try to fortify their defences as if they were panicking. Did they find out that I was scanning the building? I’m not used to others being aware of my telepathic exploration.

“Love, what are you doing?” Erik startles me by speaking up out of the blue.

“N-nothing,” I mumble and open my eyes. “When did you wake up?”

“Just now,” he kisses my shoulder.

“It didn’t look like nothing,” Gotrid is also awake and caresses my right wing that’s covering him instead of a blanket.

“What I always do—checking our surroundings,” I admit.

“Why do you start working from the moment you wake up?” Gotrid gently taps my forehead and then kisses me as his good morning greeting. Erik doesn’t stay behind.

I stretch my wings and yawn. I hope there will be a chance for us to fly in the afternoon and I wonder what kind of programme the Divementis prepared for us. We get up, Erik goes immediately to the bathroom while the maids assist me and Gotrid with dressing up.

“The Divementis fashion is quite similar to ours,” Ayala remarks. “Their style is different, but they also like long robes with rich layers.”

I don’t protest even though the robe they chose for me today is quite heavy. I guess they don’t want me to look shabby next to my father. With him being the Divementis Emperor and me being the Celestial Emperor, the maids probably consider it a fashion competition of sorts.

“Your Majesty, Chancellor Nyx is here,” Dalia comes with an announcement. “She kindly asks you, Her Excellency and your Consorts to have breakfast with them on the tenth floor.”

“We pretty much anticipated that,” Erik returns from the bathroom, smoothly shaved.

“Ten minutes,” Ayala says, combing my hair.

Dalia nods and comes to relay the message. I can feel that she’s nervous about dealing with the Divementis even though Nyx seems amicable. I want to speed up the process, but Ayala insists on creating an intricate hairstyle into which she carefully weaves a heavy hairpin.

“What’s that?” I frown and touch it.

“A new headwear,” Ayala giggles mysteriously. “Her Excellency had it custom-made recently. You were supposed to wear it for the first time when you show up in public again, but we guessed that there’s no better time than now. We need to impress the Divementis after all.”

“Oh!” Gotrid exclaims excitedly. “Love, it’s a replica of your crown from the game!”

Ayala finally puts a mirror in front of me and I touch the hairpin again, refusing to believe it. It does look like a replica of my ceremonial crown.

“I hope Liana didn’t spend a fortune on it,” I chew my lip because it looks real. “I wouldn’t like us wasting money on jewellery.”

“It has gold-plating, but the base is titanium,” Cien assures me. “As for the stones, they are only semi-precious. It was the best the jewellers could do given the budget and deadline. We hope to give Your Majesty a real crown in future. For now, this has to do.”

“I don’t need a real crown,” I roll my eyes. “I bet this one cost a lot already.”

“It looks marvellous, love,” Erik flatters me and inspects the crown up close. “It can’t accidentally fall off, can it? Cien weaved it into your hair.”

“It should hold without problems, but that’s not the issue here. It’s heavy!” I complain.

“It’s so pretty, love,” Gotrid gently pokes the crown to test its firmness.

“It never ceases to amaze me that creatures with wings who are supposed to fly more than walk are so fond of highly impractical robes and jewellery,” Erik chuckles, takes my hand and kisses it. “My princess, let me be your modern prince.”

“Y-you!” I nudge him and stand up. “Let’s go, we shouldn’t keep the Divementis waiting.”

*****

Nyx is waiting for us patiently in the hall and I see that she’s trying to have a conversation with Liana who finished her morning preparation faster than us. The emphasis is on the word ‘trying’ because Liana is nervous around her.

“My Prince,” Nyx bows to me. “I mean—Your Majesty,” she corrects herself. “I’m sorry, it’s hard to address you when you’re both.”

“I prefer my Celestial title,” I set the record straight. “I’m here to learn about my Divementis heritage, but I consider myself first and foremost a Celestial.”

“Of course, as you wish, Your Celestial Majesty,” Nyx nods. “Please, follow me.”

The guards join us and they are as restless as Liana. It looks like most of them didn’t get enough rest because they were too anxious to fall asleep last night. I’m also uneasy about our stay here, but my brain is always so exhausted that I never have any difficulties sleeping no matter what’s going on. Erik and Gotrid would most probably be prone to sleepless nights as well, but my sleepy mind seems to work as the most effective lullaby.

We leave the floors that were assigned to us and soon we are surrounded by the Divementis from all sides. I try to look confident, but I feel anything but that. They allowed me to take thirty-nine subjects with me which seemed a lot yesterday, but it certainly doesn’t feel that many now. We’re hopelessly overnumbered.

“Son, why do you startle our people the first thing in the morning?” my father accuses me the moment we show up in the dining hall.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” I’m confused. “I just woke up and got dressed.”

“Do you deny scanning the building with your mind then?” he raises his eyebrows. “The Royal bloodline has a unique sensation to the Divementis, there’s no such thing as the Crown Prince sending his mind out anonymously.”

“I always check our surroundings each morning, making sure we’re safe,” I purse my lips. “Is it considered rude among your people?”

“Our people,” he corrects me sharply. “No, it’s not rude. On the contrary, that kind of behaviour is expected of someone with the Royal bloodline. It’s literally in our genes to be always concerned about the safety of our race. Our subjects were startled because they didn’t expect it from you.”

I don’t know how to respond to that. I thought that I was doing something that would meet with their disapproval, but my father is telling me that I behave as a Divementis prince should. Are these really my inborn instincts? Am I even more Divementis than I’m aware of?

“Your Majesties, breakfast is ready,” Nyx coughs to dispel the tension and shows us to our seats. Everybody gets a pre-designated chair and there are fifteen seats for my entourage and fifteen for the Divementis. Since most of my entourage are the guards who are on duty and must have eaten earlier, we fit without problems.

We sit around a huge table and it’s the strangest experience. We’re dining with aliens, literally. I’m seated opposite my father and see him putting a huge heap of rice into his bowl. In fact, all the Divementis that were chosen to eat with us are putting a ton of food on their plates.

“Do the Divementis also have fast metabolisms?” Noage speaks up and the tone of his voice is unnaturally high. He’s scared.

The doctor was seated at the very end of the table and he’s been quiet until now, but, as an Earthborn, he can’t resist a scientific question. He twitches when the Divementis stare at him as if they haven’t acknowledged his presence until now.

“Yes,” Nyx answers readily and gives Noage a warm look. “Moreover, human brains take up to 20% of total energy consumed while ours take 50%.”

“50?!” Noage is taken aback. “It was estimated that Celestial brains take up to 40% and that’s when they aren’t actively casting spells. No wonder His Majesty can’t put on any weight no matter what kind of diet we try to force on him. The calorie intake of his Celestial-Divementis brain must be insane.”

Gotrid’s hand freezes over the pancakes he’s neatly arranging on my plate and, after hearing that, he puts three more on top.

I can’t possibly eat all that! I send him a desperate thought and kick him under the table. Don’t forget that my stomach gets upset easily.

“It does?” my father overhears us. “We suspected there might be some drawbacks to Divementis hybrids. Is your digestive system perhaps extremely delicate, Aefener?”

I purse my lips. It upsets me that he’s able to pronounce my name with such familiarity and simplicity. Celestials rarely use my name when addressing me and, if they do, it’s always with a proper honorific. Erik still prefers my human name and Gotrid either calls me ‘my Emperor’ or comes up with romantic nicknames. My father is, therefore, the only person who uses my name so directly.

“It is,” I admit because there’s no point in lying about it.

“Divementis stomachs aren’t that big, we need to eat more frequently than humans. Your people have to make sure that you’re having snacks between meals,” he says and looks at Noage who, as he assesses, must be the one making dietary recommendations to me.

“Your Celestial Majesty, this is just a suggestion because we know that we can’t force you, but we could examine your body and possibly find out how to alleviate your difficulties,” Nyx proposes extremely carefully. “Our medical technology is very advanced.”

I get goosebumps under my feathers like I do every time someone mentions a medical examination in front of me. Mom conditioned me against it a bit too well. However, there’s something else as well. Frustration. Strong feelings of injustice. Anger even.

“Then why didn’t you use it to cure my Mom?” I snap.

That sentence came out of me so suddenly that I didn’t have a chance to think it through. As an overthinker, I rarely speak spontaneously so it surprises me twice as much. Have I always wanted to accuse someone of my mother’s death that I still haven’t fully come to terms with after all these years?

The dining room grows absolutely quiet. That wasn’t very diplomatic, I know that. I take my father’s intense gaze head on and, when our eyes meet, I get hit by a telepathic wave. He’s not attacking me, though. I get hit unintentionally by deep sadness coming from him. He still has his defences up, but it seems the emotion is too strong for him to contain fully.

“Son, finish your breakfast, you need all the calories you can get,” he says quietly. “When you’re done, I’ll take you to our research centre and tell you everything—about Draconia Online, about the Great Evolution, about our home world… and about Amelia.”

I keep staring into those pitch-black eyes and I have to cling to Erik and Gotrid’s minds or I would drown in his pain.