Princess Seria of House Nightclaw

War Star Shakai of House Stargazer, Tigrantine Empire

The children slept, but I couldn’t.

Red and I were still trying to convince the children they wouldn’t be eaten. Although we had made some progress, they wouldn’t stay in human form unless we were with them. The tigers had ended up giving us a suite of two rooms on the War Star. Red and I were theoretically supposed to sleep in the outer room, and the children in the interior. However, they had really taken to Red who was sound asleep on one of the bunks in the children’s room.

I went into the other room.

Floor to ceiling windows took up the expanse of two walls. Stars twinkled and a red moon hovered in the distance.

The room was sparsely furnished. There was a cushioned seating area in the corner that turned into a bed. Over by the window there was a small round table. I walked toward it and saw the pieces of a Zhangqi set laid out, ready for a game.

Chills pricked my skin. It was a game of Zhangqi that had changed my fate so long ago. Without Zhangqi, I wouldn’t be alive today. I picked up a worn stone disk. I rubbed my thumb over the smooth, ancient engraved characters. For some reason, I heard Kai’s words in my head.

You are important.

I set down the pawn.

You are not alone.

I picked up a cannon on the opposing side.

This is real.

It had all been lies. Lies of omission, perhaps, but the result was all the same. He had loved me, lied to me, and left me.

Kanona’s voice startled me. “Do you play?”

She stood beside the opened door, unarmored now but still in military uniform. She carried herself with efficiency and command.

I set the piece down. “Not for awhile.”

Kanona strode towards me, and took a seat at the table. “One doesn’t forget the lessons of zhangqi.” She pushed a soldier forward in challenge. “Let’s play.”

We played in silence. She was good. She executed the appropriate strategies flawlessly. But I always played to survive.

When I ended the game by taking her general, I looked up to see Kanona studying me with an evaluating gaze.

“Thank you,” I said.

“For the game? Or for coming for you?”

“Both.”

Kanona stood up. “We sent people to release you and your brother from the Teeth, but you were already gone by the time they arrived.”

I hated that I had given in and asked Kai of all people for help.

Tears threatened to spill from my eyes. I wouldn’t, couldn’t let her see that weakness. Time to change the subject. Another game, and this time I would let her win. I began resetting the Zhangqi board. “I am sorry for your mother’s passing.”

Kanona went still as if I had hit her.

“Thank you,” she said slowly. “Her time was too short.”

“And now Kai is Lord Stargazer?” I asked. I knew but I wanted her affirmation to drive another blade into any future I thought we once had. It would be simpler that way.

“And now Kai is Lord Stargazer,” she confirmed.

Kai wasn’t just any tiger Lord, but now a ruler in his own right. House Stargazer was one of the Twelve Noble Families who alternated in ruling the Protectorate.

Kanona picked up a pawn. “He will be the head of House Stargazer until his death or until he disqualifies himself from the position.”

There was something almost too controlled about her tone.

Kanona set down the pawn and picked up the Zhangqi cannon. It flipped between her fingers. “House Stargazer has had a longstanding betrothal agreement with House Moonglaw, to be honored within a year upon Kai’s elevation to Lordship. Should he renege on the agreement, he would be forced to renounce his position as Lord.”

I had always known it would be a possibility ever since I had discovered who he truly was. And yet it didn’t stop my heart becoming a cold lump in my chest.

I hated this feeling. I hated that despite the fact that he had proven I couldn’t trust him, I still had hopes. Hopes that should be, needed to be crushed into crumbling ancient dust.

I knew this by Kai’s actions and Kanona had confirmed it with his obligations.

He was never mine to have in the first place.

I took my hands off the Zhangqi pieces, folded them into my lap, my fingernails digging tight into my palm. “I understand.”

Kanona watched me with that calculating gaze. “Do you?” She leaned forward. “There’s something else. Kai doesn’t know you’re coming. I was the one who received your messages. And I made the decision to come for you. I wanted to meet the woman my brother spoke of to our dying mother in her final moments.”

I had no words.

Kanona stood up, keeping me in her line of sight as she faced the window. “I want you to understand. I love my older brother. He was the heir and I was the spare. Throughout my childhood, I looked up to him. I wanted to be just like him. So we were assigned the same lessons, given the same assignments. The philosophy, languages, the art of war and peace, logistics, management, resource allocation every thing the proper leader of a House should know. And Kai…” She laughed. “Kai would avoid his lessons like a strain of Ubnian plague. He’d rather be climbing to the top of the castle, hunting marbits in the forest, or swimming in a nearby creek. I, on the other hand, studied during all my waking hours and received full marks across the board.”

She looked at me again. I had the feeling that if she could scan me with her vision she would. “Do you care for him?”

I couldn’t lie to her. But I wasn’t ready to truly feel, let alone say my thoughts on the matter. If I were honest with myself, I wasn’t really sure what they were. So I said the most accurate thing I could.

“I thought I did. But many things have changed since I last saw Kai.”

She turned back toward me, her arms clasped behind her back in thought. “That is truth enough for now. My brother always means well. But despite his great vision, despite his gifts, he is often blind to the obvious. He was on Harmony tracking down another dead end on mythical Dragonlords wasn’t he?

“I thought his family supported his search.”

“I believed in my brother, and honestly I still do. Even now, he continues his search. But things have changed and so must our priorities. We have lands under siege. We have people dying. We have people to save.” Kanona tapped her vambrace. “Bring them in.”

The doors opened and three came in, garbed in the retainer livery of Stargazer. Two men pushed forward a floating cart laden with bolt after bolt of the most decadent shimmering fabrics. A small petite woman came forward wearing a vivid blue head covering.

“This is Rayana, my personal coutourier. She will take your measurements and begin making arrangements for what you will need.”

I couldn’t help but finger one silken white fabric, sparkling like stars, as light as air, and almost as sheer. “I appreciate your efforts. But I must decline. I’m a Librarian, and disowned from Nightclaw, or so I’ve heard. What would I ever need with clothing like this?”

The tailor pulled the fabric from my hand. “Angel-made,” she said as she deployed tiny drones that hovered around me, pulsing flashes of measuring lights. “It’s also blade, claw, and laser-proof. Excellent choice.”

“No, wait –“

Kanona made a dismissive sound. “I will not let it be said that our House failed to treat you as befitting your blood. We wouldn’t want you be dressed in anything less than the very best at Kai’s wedding now, would we?”

The reality of it slammed into me like a hammer.

She was bringing me to Kai’s wedding, to show me how impossible it all had been. She wanted to make sure I knew that Kai could never be anything to me.

I couldn’t breathe. For a moment I felt as if I were on the other side of the window in the sub-zero temperatures of space. I was going to crumble into dust and blow away into nothing.

“Kai’s wedding.” I repeated, my mouth as parched as a desiccated ancient book. He was getting married.

I almost laughed. Actually, this would be precisely what I needed to make sure I would never think of him in that way again.

I squared my shoulders. I had faced my father and rejected him. I wouldn’t be rattled by this woman. I wouldn’t give her that satisfaction. I forced a smile on to my face that was so sweet my teeth should have fallen out. “Who is Kai marrying?

She gave me a smile, the kind a cat might have before pouncing on unsuspecting prey. “Why, you, of course.”