"It's quite all right," Windfra said.

"I'm sorry," I said. I'd said it several times already, standing in front of her throne in the main hallway. "I've failed at my mission."

"You didn't fail," she said. "I should have given you more warning. He's a sneaky devil sometimes. Officer Davis will find him, I promise you."

"What if someone else finds him first?"

"I can't think that way," she said. "I learned, with Beau, that he's going to do what he's going to do. You just need to find the counter move. Preferably ahead of time."

"So you knew this would happen."

She nodded. "I told you it might happen, but in reality, I was sure it would. You might say it was something of a test. You weren't too proud to tell me you lost him. That demonstrates your honesty. And, truthfully, I didn't expect you to stay on him as long as you did."

I wasn't sure if I should thank her for that, so I just said nothing.

"I do have something I need to discuss with you, though. Come with me."

She stood up and walked out the room. She didn't look behind her to see if I was following, she just expected me to.

"Your methods may have worked elsewhere," she said. "But they are not appropriate for Aldonia."

"How do you mean?" I asked.

She led me down a hall and stopped in front of one of the doors.

"You owe someone an apology."

She opened the door and the bouncer from Twice Shy sat in the room with a bandage on his nose. He stood up, arms at his side and stared at me. He took a step forward, putting his face up against mine. This was not the kind of guy you back down from. I'd met people like him in the service, show a hint of weakness and they'll stretch it as far as it'll go.

"You really hurt me," he said and wrapped his arms around me in a bear hug. Tears started coming from his eyes. "Why did you do that? What did I do to you?"

"I needed to get in there," I said. "I needed to look after the Prince."

He nodded. "It really hurt."

Windfra coughed at me. She wanted me to apologize.

"I'm sorry."

The bouncer looked up at me and smiled, wiping a tear from his eye. "Apology accepted," he shook my hand. "You're welcome back at Twice Shy any time you'd like."

"Mr. Thomas is from America," Windfra said.

"Do people really do that there?" he asked.

"Do what?" I asked.

"Hit each other. It seems so rude."

"If we have to."

He shook his head. "I've been a bouncer for twenty-five years. I've had rowdy people at clubs. Drunk people. Not once have I ever had to hit anybody."

This guy clearly didn't live in reality.

Windfra chimed in. "It's an Aldonian principle. If you have to resort to violence, then you've already lost."

"How do you want me to protect your son against violent terrorists if I can't use violence?" I asked.

"We treat everybody with love, especially those we're fighting with," Windfra said. She turned towards the bouncer. "Thank you for stopping by, Bruce. I'm sorry it had to be under these circumstances."

"It's fine. Nice meeting you, Mr. Thomas. I must say, you've got a heck of a right hook."

"Thanks," I said.

Windfra led me out of the room. "Do you have a few moments?" she asked.

"I suppose so."

"Let me show you something."

She walked me through the hallway, down a staircase into the basement.

"This is where we keep some of our most prized artifacts. Take a look around."

I saw steel bowls and wooden utensils. There were brushes on one wall with paint dried on their tips. Paintings, somewhat abstract, covered the walls.

"You'll notice," she said. "That there aren't any military weapons. We haven't needed weapons for over five-hundred years."

"Since the civil war?"

"Yes," she said. "You read about that?"

"A little bit."

"Revolutionary military strategy."

"Weaponized orgies," I said. "I don't think that would work anywhere else."

"I don't believe it's been tried anywhere else."

She pointed to a picture on the wall. It was painted with acrylics, a beautiful field covered in nude men and women, interlocked with each other.

"This is one artist's rendition," she said.

"What would have happened if the soldiers weren't gay?" I asked.

She turned her head. "I suppose that's something from your culture I’ve never understood. Gay, straight, bi. It seems so arbitrary to me. So limiting. There's so much more to a person than just their gender or sexual orientation. True love and compatibility are so difficult to find. Why create another obstacle?"

"Well, that's not quite how it works. I happen to be attracted to women and I'm not attracted to men. So I'm straight."

"You've never thought a man was attractive?"

"It's not something that's ever crossed my mind."

"How sad," she said.

"I don't think it's sad at all."

"It's as if you're looking at a rainbow and only seeing one color. You're not fully experiencing what life has to offer."

I had no idea what she was talking about. I was straight. That's who I was. I'd only been with women and I only intended on being with women in the future. Sure, I knew an attractive man when I saw one. Beau, for instance, was a very attractive man, but that didn't mean I wanted to go to bed with him.

An image of Beau and me in a naked embrace shot through my head. It was brief, but it left an afterimage, like a flash from a camera. I wasn't even sure how to feel about it. It was surprising, but it wasn't a bad feeling. My curiosity piqued, and I wanted to recreate the scene in my mind, but all I could muster up was a vague cartoon version of it.

"I find myself attracted to everyone," Windfra said. "So long as they're kind. Everybody has something beautiful about them because everybody is unique. Sometimes two people look similar, but never exactly the same. And that's beautiful to me. Even in time, we change. The person I am today is not the person you'd see a few years from now. I exist right here, right now and nobody else does. And everybody else is the same way. An encounter I have with someone is a one-time event. It can never be recreated. No matter how much I think of that, it's always magical to me."

"I don't understand. Don't you have types or preferences?"

"Sure," she said. "But I don't allow them to limit me," she looked at me. "I generally prefer taller men, muscular men, men with scars," she looked at me. "However, I've still been quite happy when I've found myself with the exact opposite of that."

A young man came down into the room.

"Mom?" he said.

"Oh, Frederick, have you met Kurt yet?"

He looked at me. "Nice to meet you," then back to his mother. "They found Beau."

The composed woman I’d been speaking with left and she let out a sigh of relief. "Thank Goodness!" she said. "Is he okay?"

"He's alive," Frederick said. "But he was attacked."

"Oh, dear."

"Where is he?" I asked.

"He's safe, Officer Nancy's handling it."

"Where is he?" I repeated.

"He's out in the downtown district."

"Get me there," I said.

Windfra looked back at her son. "You heard the man," she said. "Go get him a driver."