The Princess and the Human

Both Qeylo - who was currently once again posing as her guard - and the borrowed maid Kaiyla turned their heads in surprise as Kykla exited the conference room much sooner than expected. She ignored them, making a beeline towards the entrance hall and then her shuttle. Since she didn't know for how long she would still be able to keep her emotions in check, she didn't want to spend any more time than necessary in the palace for now.

Overcoming their initial surprise, her two servants hurried after her.

"Is there something wrong, Milady?" her handyman asked once he had caught up. Kykla realized how stiff her steps were right now, but that couldn't be helped. One couldn't exactly hurry leisurely. Especially not while being extremely agitated, trying to downplay said fact as far as possible, and also maintaining a dignified posture.

"Her Highness doesn't feel well at the moment," she answered after a short pause. She had tried to sound as calm as possible, but despite her best efforts, there was still a small shaking left in her voice that she didn't manage to suppress. Which agitated her even further. By the Goddess, talking really wasn't a good idea right now.

"Do you want me to claim delay, Milady?" Kaiyla immediately chimed in. She sounded almost eager. While it normally would've been nice to see another confirmation of how the borrowed maid was completely on her side now, right now she couldn't have it.

"Not for a mere half a day." And now SHUT UP until we are back at the cottage!

Leaving the palace in a way that she could only hope didn't look like her angrily stomping out of the door - she was past the point where she could've evaluated that herself - she walked through the rain she couldn't care less about and entered the shuttle. Still not wanting to risk anything, she tried to keep up a calm demeanor during the flight. It was a bit easier now since she didn't have to move, Qeylo had taken a hint, and Kaiyla was in the cockpit, so no one talked to her.

Thankfully, the flight was short. Holding her facade just a little bit longer, the matriarch entered the building, ignored the three bowing servants, and rushed toward her office.

"That will be all for now," she said to Kaiyla, who left with a quick bow. After the door closed, Kykla waited a bit longer before taking off her translator and placing it on her desk.

One deep breath and...

"DAMN IT!" she screamed, finally allowing herself to vent her anger.

"So something did happen," Qeylo inferred, taking off his translator as well.

"REALLY?! WHAT GAVE YOU THE IMPRESSION?!"

"Did our plan not work-"

"NO, IT DID! THAT'S EXACTLY THE PROBLEM!"

She was still fuming, but now that she had been able to vent a little, she managed to calm down a bit. The plan had been simple: use Kaiyla to repeatedly dilute the princess's drink with unpurified water to give her a slight calcium poisoning. Not enough to cause any real harm, but giving her headaches to disrupt her concentration so she would slip up and say something she could capitalize on. No one would see the symptoms as an attack, even if the calcium would be discovered. Due to the low amount, they would just think something went wrong in the purification process. And surely, after a few days, the princess had indeed slipped up. Just as planned.

There was just one little caveat she hadn't planned for: the gravity of the slip-up was far greater than she had predicted.

"How did I not see the signs?! She had been subtle about it but in hindsight, there had been hints I should've picked up sooner!"

"So, what exactly is the problem?" her handyman asked after giving her a short pause. Kykla took a seat.

"She's trying to find out why we stopped exporting our metal."

"... isn't that the same for all of the-"

"NO! You don't get it! It's fake! It's all fake! She has no plan of forming any agreements with us! It's all just a farce! By the Goddess, how did I not notice it?! She doesn't simply "want to know" like the rest, she is dead-set on finding out! If she won't get it out of me, she'll try something else!"

Drained, the Tystrie Matriarch leaned back.

"As long as she lives, that is."

"So we are really doing it?"

She nodded.

"We have no choice. I hoped it wouldn't get to that point, but if she finds out the truth, our people are done for. I told her that as a sign of my goodwill, I would cancel our talks for tomorrow so she could rest. Tell Kaiyla to use that window of opportunity to finish it."

"Do you think she is at that point already? She agreed so far, but there is a difference between causing someone headaches and regicide."

"Then convince her," Kykla grunted. "Make her believe that there is no risk for her because the calcium will make it look like an accident! If that's still not enough, coerce her! We can prove that she poisoned the princess, while she has nothing to prove our involvement! We could simply claim that we got wary after the princess got worse and investigated ourselves! She's just a commoner, her word is worth nothing! I don't care what it takes, just make her do it and then tie up loose ends!"

"As you wish, Milady."

Twentieth day after my arrival

Dear Diary,

it's been a while since my last entry. The last few days were hard difficult. It's my fault what happened to Kiyrtin, even if everyone tells me otherwise. I knew this would I should have been aware this could happen. I have to be careful if I don't want to be like an elephant in a porcelain store. It's all Why was I so careless?

And yet, they all seem to forgive me. I don't know what I did to deserve these people. Even Kiyrtin. Why doesn't he hate He has every reason to be angry at me. I robbed him of years of his childhood. They said it might take him up to six cycles to fully recover, so more than three years. That is a lot for a child! Yet he is hell-bent on getting me back on track. I don't know what I would do without all of them.

But this time, I will be more careful.

Okay, maybe the glass plate was a bit much. I might not even need any of the protective gear I ordered. But I'm scared. What if I become careless again? What if next time, it'll be too late?

A knock on her door pulled Silgvani out of her stupor. She was currently sitting on the couch in her room, her face covered by her hands. Her head felt like it was about to split apart, her arms were shaking whenever they weren't resting on something, and since today, she had even started to have occasional muscle spasms. What was worse, the medicine the doctor had given her didn't seem to help at all. Or, if it did, she didn't want to know how bad it would be without it.

"Come in!"

The door opened and Mhita entered.

"I'm sorry to disturb your day off," the head maid apologized, "but something came... Your Highness, you were supposed to rest!"

She seemingly had seen the datapad lying on the short table in front of her.

"I did," Silgvani defended. "...mostly."

"Is your headache better?"

"No, it's worse than ever."

"Then why. Don't. You. Rest?! It has reached a point where even the ambassador is concerned for your health!"

She stepped closer and grabbed the datapad.

"You are free to punish me for insubordination later, but for now, I'll be taking this."

Silgvani was too drained to argue with her.

"Fine," she grumbled. "But didn't you come in for something else?"

"Ah, right. Earlier today, I encountered Kaiyla. You know, the maid you called in from the Sun Palace to give to Lady Kykla. She claimed that the ambassador sent her on an errand. But just now, the Lady called to complain that Kaiyla has been missing the entire day. When asked, she didn't know anything about an errant."

"Huh, that is indeed strange. Then I'll..."

She tried to stand up, but another surge of pain made her fall back into her seat.

"Okay, not I," she groaned. "But have someone look into this. Since she apparently left her post, you are allowed to restrain her if necessary."

"I will, Your Highness. Do you need anything else?"

Silgvani thought for a moment.

"Actually, yes. Call Nadine. I could use the distraction, and talking to her always calms me down."

"Very well. This is not just a plot to get your datapad back, right?"

She shook her head.

"Nothing like that. It's been four days since she started to get better again, I'd like to try to get her out of her room."

"I... don't know if she will be fine with it, but I'll try."

"Do that. Oh, and one more thing."

She pointed to her cupboard.

"Some water please."

Just sitting there without doing anything robbed her of her feeling of time, and the pain in her head didn't help with that. But finally, she heard a knock.

"Your Highness?" a soft voice asked.

"Nadine! You came!" Despite her pain, Silgvani could hear the happiness in her own voice. The relief she felt even seemed to numb the ache for a moment. "How... how do you feel? I'm sorry if I made you uncomfortable."

"Don't be," the small alien insisted, taking a seat across from her. The shaking of both her voice and her hands showed that she was still nervous about having contact with others again. "I know you are doing this for me. Mhita cleared the way so I didn't encounter anyone. And once the dressmaker finishes my suit, I'll probably have fewer inhibitions. Honestly, I'm aware that even this is more me coping than an actual necessity, but... I just don't want to hurt anyone by accident anymore."

"You have been through much, so I understand. And yet, you still followed my selfish request to meet you so late at night, so I thank you for that."

Nadine landed back in her seat. Which looked pretty adorable considering her feet didn't touch the ground.

"I should be the one saying that. I... can't stress enough how thankful I am for everything. I don't know how long it'll take until I really overcome my trauma - if that'll ever happen at all, that is. I still have the occasional nightmare, but I don't want to imagine how much worse off I would be without you. Honestly, I'd hug you if that wouldn't kill you. If... if I may be direct..."

"It's just the two of us, be as direct as you wish."

"It is as if you have become my big sister."

Silgvani chuckled, only for another surge of pain to interrupt her. Still... no, she had the right to hear it.

"A "big" sister, hm? Tell me, how old do you think I am?"

"Huh? I-I don't know, early to mid-twenties? Ah sorry, that's uh... around forty cycles?"

A moment of silence followed before Silgvani burst into laughter. It hurt her head to laugh, but she still kept laughing, she simply couldn't help it.

"Forty cycles! Ah, guess that's what it looks like to a human!"

"W-was I off? I'm sorry, I just thought..."

"No need to apologize. But... yes, you were off."

She took a deep breath.

"As of now, I am eleven cycles old."

Nadine blinked a couple of times before answering.

"You... you are younger than me? Wait, eleven cycles... YOU ARE SEVEN?!"

"In absolute numbers, yes. But make no mistake, I am an adult in every sense of the word. What you just said, forty cycles... no Venaery ever got that old."

The small alien just stared at her in disbelief.

"That means..."

Silgvani nodded.

"You will outlive me. And not just barely, but by many generations. You will likely still be in your prime by the time my great-grandchildren are born."

After that, there was a long pause. Well, it was a lot to take in, so Silgvani couldn't fault her for-

"AHHH!" This time, the pain was so unbearable that she even lost control over her voice like when she got angry.

"Y-Your Highness, are you alright?!"

"No... headaaaaches... I..."

She tried to hold herself on the armrest, but another muscle spasm made her slip. And that wasn't all, she started to have trouble breathing, and something in her chest started to hurt as well.

"Your Highness, this isn't just stress anymore! You need to see the doctor, now!"

"You... you're right."

Silgvani stood up, but even standing straight caused trouble for her. In the end, she managed to wobble towards the wall and used it as a crutch to slowly go forward, until she finally reached the door.

It was locked.

Why was it locked? There was no key in the lock. Was it locked from the outside?

Before she could ponder the question any further, the handle escaped her grasp. The sight of the floor coming closer was the last thing she saw before her vision went black.