Daz stepped out of the shuttle and onto the pavement of the Palace courtyard. She stumbled, just for a moment, because of the unfamiliar sensation of walking on heels. Her cloud-like dress, which felt alien as well, swished around her ankles before coming to a rest just shy of dragging on the ground. She glanced over at her sister, who was dressed in an enviously practical skirt and shoes. They were still fashionable, of course. Vasha was Vasha, after all… but Daz was aware that her own outfit was meant to keep her as wrong footed as possible. Just another move in her sister’s game.

The young woman felt a sense of numbness grow with her as she drew closer to the massive double doors of the Palace. One foot was placed in front of the other as an automatic reaction as she followed her sister up the walkway. As they drew closer the doors slowly opened, like a yawning cavern that Daz was about to become lost in.

The young Titan clenched her fingers to stop her hands from trembling as she crossed the threshold into the Palace. Flanking the walls on either side stood an honor guard of stoic looking men and women in military uniforms.

Directly in front of them, however, was a familiar face. Reevah Tam, dressed in her own court uniform, was standing at ready-attention while she waited for the two sisters to draw near.

If the young Hoplite felt any surprise at Daz’s appearance, she hid it completely. Reevha’s eyes flicked over toDaz for only a moment, before turning to Vasha.

“Welcome, Lady Zakrov.” She said to the elder sister. “Their Majesties are waiting to greet you properly in the antechamber. If you will both please follow me.”

“Of course, Centurium.” Vasha murmured. “Please lead the way.”

Reevah nodded and turned smartly to lead them down the corridor. For several paces, they travelled towards the main throne room, but after some time Reevah turned and led them down a side corridor. The young officer steered them towards a much smaller, but still sufficiently ornate wooden door.

Centurium Tam stopped before the door and rapped smartly on it with her leather-gloved fist. A moment later, the door opened. Reevah stepped to the side and gestured for the two sisters to enter.

Vasha, naturally, took the lead entering the room. Once Daz stepped over the threshold of the doorway, Reevah silently closed it behind them but did not enter herself.

In front of them was a large wooden desk, behind which sat Emperor Tiernan. Standing behind him on either side were Empress Rajenlif and Rhionne.

“Your Majesties.” Vasha murmured, dropping into a brief bow, which Daz hastened to copy. When she again raised her head, she saw that Rhionne looked distinctly uncomfortable with the protocol.

Daz thought, cynically, that she should join the club.

“Lady Zakrov.” Tiernan inclined his head briefly. “I trust your journey was smooth?”

“Very much so.” Vasha responded, smiling radiantly. “The landscape of the area never fails to impress.”

“Hm.” Tiernan smiled, briefly. “I tend to agree. Now, I trust that you have had a chance to review the nuptial agreement?”

“I have.” Vasha responded. “And while most of the terms were quite generous, and my sister found nothing objectionable in them, I’m afraid I myself had some concerns.”

Daz felt her stomach roil. This was the first she’d heard of any agreement, and she’d certainly never signed off on any terms. For that matter, she definitely found something objectionable about the situation. She wanted, desperately, to give voice to her emotions. Unfortunately, her throat closed and she couldn’t seem to find her voice. Instead, Daz focused herself on breathing.

Tiernan leaned back in his chair. “Such as…?”

Daz stopped listening at that point. No doubt her sister would be negotiating for whatever deal she felt best for her, not Daz. As always Daz was merely a token to be bargained with, and Vasha would use her to take as much as she felt she could get away with.

Instead, Daz focused on Rhionne. The princess looked up after a moment, as if sensing Daz’s gaze, and her green eyes looked into Daz’s red ones. Daz wanted desperately to be mad at Rhionne. She wanted to be furious that the other woman had never said anything, in all the weeks they’d been living together, not a word had been spoken.

But after locking eyes with the princess, Daz found her anger lessened considerably. Rhionne wasn’t the adversary here. Rhionne was being dragged into this as much as Daz was. And it occurred to her then that it was likely the Princess had been just as in the dark about the situation.

And then Rhionne blinked and looked away. Daz felt a momentary wave of guilt for her feelings, but then Vasha stepped forward and clasped wrists with the Emperor, and the rising, boiling anger returned.

“It is decided, then.” Vasha Zakrov murmured. “I am glad we have been able to reach an accord so quickly, you Majesty.”

“As am I.” Tiernan agreed, as he lowered himself back into his seat. “Now then, I’m sure you and your sister would like to refresh yourselves after the journey. Centurium Tam will show you to your guest suites.”

Vasha bowed again, and Daz awkwardly copied her a half-second later. “Of course, your majesty. My sister and I thank you for your hospitality.”

As soon as they were clear of the room, Daz turned to her sister. “So I’m sure you traded me for a proper amount of livestock, yeah?”

“Grow up, Daz.” Vasha sighed, rolling her eyes. “This is a good thing for both of us, and when you stop acting like a child, perhaps you’ll finally realize that.”

“Bite me.” Daz snapped.

“What?”

“Never mind.” Daz growled.

“Here is your room, Lady Zakrov.” Reevah said, pointing to a white wooden door. “Please don’t hesitate to inform the staff if there is anything you require.”

“Thank you, Centurium.” Vasha breezed into the room. “I shall.”

The door closed behind her and Reevah Tam resumed walking, with Daz struggling to catch up in her uncomfortable and unfamiliar shoes.

“She didn’t know.” Reevah said after a minute of walking in silence.

“What?”

“Rhionne.” Reevah explained. “She knew she was betrothed to someone, but she didn’t know it was going to be you. She only found that out after returning home.”

“I figured.” Daz sighed. “I was angry at her, but after seeing her in the Emperor’s office… I knew she’d had no more idea about this than I did.”

Reevah nodded. “I just didn’t want you to be upset with her.”

“I’m plenty upset as it is.”

“Here’s your room, Daz.” Reevah opened an identical door to the one on Vasha’s room.

“Thanks.” Daz muttered, steeping past the Hoplite woman.

“There… are worse things, you know.” Reevah said quietly.

“Yeah.” Daz shook her head. “People keep telling me that.”

*.*.*.*

Pierce stared up at the movie theater sized screen of Tylum’s data pad. On it, a slideshow of the pictures he’d had on his cell phone when he had been taken from Earth. It was funny, on some of the pictures taken from further away, the images of his family were almost proportionate to real life. Of course, some of the close-up pictures were disturbingly large as well.

Still, Pierce watched the ghosts of his past fade in and out on the screen and felt a little melancholy. He’d almost gotten to the point where he could accept his predicament. But, then, talking with the Empress about Earth had dredged up a slew of buried emotions.

He tried not to think about what his family had gone through, might still be going through, after his disappearance. He hoped they’d managed to move on by now, that they weren’t still hoping he’d come home.

His thoughts were mercifully interrupted as Tylum entered the room. Pierce hastily smashed the close button on Tylum’s pad and the images of his family disappeared from the screen.

“Hi Pierce.” The Titan girl said softly as she crossed the room. “Daz and her sister just arrived.”

Pierce felt his stomach twist. Daz was here. At the palace.

“I was wondering if you wanted to go and talk to her.” Tylum kneeled down until she was eye-to-eye with Pierce.

He didn’t. He didn’t want to have the conversation he knew he was going to have to have with Daz. He wanted desperately to stick his head in the sand and pretend that everything was as it had been before they’d arrived at the Palace. He wanted to tell Tylum to go away, to leave him alone.

“Yeah.” He said instead. “I think it’s probably for the best.”

Tylum nodded and rose back to her feet. Wordlessly, she lowered a palm down to Pierce and he climbed into the center of her hand.

He watched the corridors of the Palace whiz by as Tylum walked. He wished he could make her just keep walking, to take the longest route possible, in order to prolong the inevitable.

But, again, this wasn’t to be. Before long, they were standing outside a large wooden door and Tylum was knocking.

A moment later, the door opened.

*.*.*.*

It had been many years since Tiernan had visited the Palace archives. He deeply regretted that fact. As he passed by the rows of databanks and records in every medium imaginable, Tiernan was flooded with memories of himself as a boy, pouring over the histories of his family and his nation.

Today, the Emperor traveled further into the archive, towards areas that had seldom seen use in decades, perhaps in centuries. Dust lay thick on the shelves and the ground, and Tiernan was forced to pull a cloth over his face to keep from choking. Here, the records were almost all from centuries ago, before the ColVanos dynasty, perhaps even as far back as the Kraon dynasty. It took nearly as hour of searching before Tiernan finally found what he’d been looking for.

He reached up onto the shelf that was just above his head and carefully extracted a very heavy looking file. He turned and set it on a nearby table and wiped the dust from the cover. On said cover, written in the Turgan script, was but a single word: Kumari.

*.*.*.*

“So… you and Rhionne, huh?” Pierce shook his head as he watched Daz try and remove the uncomfortable looking court shoes that her sister had forced her to wear.

“Don’t start.” Daz growled, irritated. “It sure wasn’t my idea.” She finally managed to kick off one of her shoes, which thunked against the far wall before landing on the floor.

“I’m not starting anything.” Pierce responded, throwing his hands up defensively. “You… you look nice, by the way.”

Daz turned her head towards him. “What did you say?”

“I said… you know… you look nice.” Pierce repeated.

Daz’s eyes narrowed for a moment until she concluded he wasn’t being sarcastic. Sighing she turned towards the mirror and examined her own reflection. Her hair was done up in complicated swirls that had taken far too long to accomplish, and several locks had been dyed blue and green in Aementi fashion. Her dress was poofy and gauzy, her shoes were uncomfortable and the makeup on her face made Daz look like someone else entirely.

She hated it.

“Thank you.” She finally mumbled. After all, it wasn’t Pierce’s fault she’d been made up that way. Nor that she’d found herself in this mess. “But it’s not really me.”

“No. I suppose it isn’t.”

A silence stretched between them for several minutes, during which Pierce awkwardly groped for something to say. Finally, Daz let out another groan and flopped onto her bed, where she began tugging at her other shoe again for want of something to do.

“So… what are you going to do?” Pierce finally asked, desperate enough to break the silence that he was willing to risk Daz’s irritation.

“About what?” The Titan woman growled, tugging on a particularly stubborn lace.

“About your physics exam.” Pierce rolled his eyes. “You know what I’m talking about.”

“I don’t know yet.” Daz admitted, finally removing her shoe and chucking it across the room where it landed next to its mate. “I’ll find a way out of this, somehow.”

“…Maybe you shouldn’t.”

Daz blinked, and then looked over at Pierce in alarm. “What do you mean?”

Pierce looked down at his shoes and idly kicked at the wood of the table top. “I mean, you know, maybe it’s not such a bad thing. Being married to Rhionne… she’s nice… you could be a pilot, I’m sure she wouldn’t stop you… and, you know…”

Daz’s eyes narrowed and she leaned forward. “What?”

“Well… I just mean… you know… you’d be royalty.”

Daz snorted. “I don’t care about that.”

“Maybe not.” Pierce shrugged. “But just think what that could do for you!”

Daz bit her lip… there was something else going on… she just couldn’t figure it out.

“And what about us?” She finally asked, with her voice barely above a whisper.

Pierce sighed. “What ‘us’ is there Daz, really? Don’t get me wrong, I care a lot about you, a great deal in fact, and I suspect you feel similar… underneath it all… but the truth of the matter is, there really can’t be an ‘us’.”

Daz stood up, suddenly feeling her stomach clench. “What are you saying?”

Pierce paced nervously on the tabletop, trying not to wither under her gaze. “I’m saying with Rhionne you can have literally anything you want. You want your own ship? It’s yours. You want to soar between the stars? You can, and not even your sister can stop you.”

Pierce’s shoulders slumped. “And then there’s me. What are you with me? You’re a pariah. An outcast. I can’t help you to fly, and I don’t want to be the anchor that pulls you down. I care about you enough to see that I’m not the best for you.”

Daz’s hands balled into fist at her sides. “And what about what I want?” She snapped, angrily. “Does that factor into your little equation at all? Does anybody give a damn what I want to do with my life?”

“Of course I do!” Pierce responded, shaking his head. “And you’re too stubborn to see that this… what we have… won’t work. It can’t work! I’m an animal as far as your people are concerned.”

“Not to me!” Daz snapped. “Damn it Pierce, not to me! Can’t you see that? I don’t care what ‘my people’ think. I don’t care!”

Pierce didn’t respond, at first. He turned and jumped down to the floor, trudging towards the open door of the room.

“Pierce?” Daz’s voice was quiet. “Pierce, where are you going?” She watched in stunned silence as he made his way across the relatively short distance towards the door.

“I’m sorry Daz. I really am. I wish it could be that easy.” And then he slipped through the door and was gone.

As Pierce crossed the threshold into the hallway, Daz felt her anger rise up again.

“Fine!” She yelled. “Just go then! I don’t need your noble sacrifice or your stupid martyrdom. You’re just like the rest of them. You’re treating me like a child!”

Daz stared at the crack of the open doorway in silence. She felt hollow. Numb. The anger had drained away and had left her empty. A moment later she collapsed onto the bed. Hot, angry tears rolled down her cheeks and she bit her lip to keep from screaming.