The sounds of the traffic overhead played as a steady drum of white noise that unfortunately failed to drown out the spinning wheel of thoughts that played over and over inside Daz’s head.

She was sitting at an outside table at what had once been one of her favorite cafés in the government district of Tuaut. The small glass of mulled mossaberry wine sat untouched in front of her, along with the plate of kroaught pastries.

She was growing impatient. She’d received a message that morning from someone who had asked to meet her there. Daz had sooner just gone back home, but the message had come from someone that Daz felt in her best interest to talk to.

“Hello Daz.”

Daz blinked and looked up, not realizing that someone had approached. The woman before her was only a few years older than herself. She was Vasha’s age in fact. She was also perhaps the one person who could understand completely what Daz was going through.

“Pryvani.” Daz greeted. “Please have a seat.”

“Thank you, dear.” While Pryvani settled herself into the chair across from her, Daz was casting a wary eye into the crowd around them.

“If you’re looking for the photographers darling, there’s one right behind my left shoulder, about six units back, wearing the garish yellow jacket.”

“How can you stand it?” Daz muttered, sinking in to herself. “They mostly ignore me, thankfully, but even the little amount of harassment I get is bad enough.”

Pryvani shrugged and toyed with the napkin in front of her. “After a while I decided it really didn’t matter what sort of pictures they took. Take this for example. All I’m doing is sitting at a café. What exactly is scandalous about that? As long as it’s just me, I don’t care. It’s when they start messing with people I care about that I start to have a problem.”

Daz sighed. “That makes sense, I guess.”

“Just a glass of vitosala, please.” Pryvani said to the waiter who had stepped up to their table. “Now, Daz, I wanted to talk to you about what your plans are, now that you find yourself in charge of your family finances.”

Daz shifted uncomfortably in her chair and toyed with the stem of her glass. “To be honest… I hadn’t really thought about it. Too many other things were taking priority.”

Pryvani smiled mysteriously. “Like perhaps your princess friend, and the human boy?”

Daz blinked. “How did you…?”

“Tylum to Zara to me.” Pryvani answered simply, her grin widening. “Unfortunately dear, I can’t really help you on that matter. Only you can really decide what to do there. But, in the meantime, perhaps I can give you some advice on your financial windfalls.”

“Part of me just wants to sell the whole thing off and be done with it. It makes me feel…” Daz shuddered, leaving the feeling unspoken.

“I understand completely what you mean, dear.” Pryvani sighed. “But let me tell you something my father’s advisors told me when I took back my family fortune from my mother. They told me that money is nothing more than a resource. By itself it is neither good nor evil; what you do with it is what matters. With that in mind, I would suggest you hang on to the hotels and the rest of it. I’m certain there will come a time when you have a need for those resources. If you like I can put you in touch with some people that can help you out. There’s a firm I’m having manage my sister’s money for the time being, I can give you their contact information.”

“Please.” Daz said simply. “That sounds like a good idea.”

“I’ll do that then.” Pryvani said, taking a sip of her drink and making a note for herself on her data pad. “Now, there was one other thing I wanted to talk to you about: your senatorial seat.”

“My what?”

Pryvani chuckled. “I see they haven’t sent you the confirmation letter yet. Your cousin Allerias was recently found to be in the thick of your sister’s schemes, so he’s been arrested along with the rest of them. As such, he’s forfeited his seat in the senate which, along with your sister’s primacy, has passed to you.”

“Oh no…” Daz moaned. “No, no, I don’t want any of that. I didn’t want the money and I certainly don’t want to be a Guardian of the Empire or a Senator.”

Pryvani shook her head. “My dear, I know it seems like a lot, but being a senator is really rather painless. No one really expects Senators to show up to every vote like they do for representatives. You don’t have to worry about elections. But, Daz, I would ask you… as a personal favor… to hold on to your seat in the Senate.”

Daz’s brow crinkled in confusion. “Why?”

Pryvani sighed. “There are difficult times ahead of us, Daz. Times are changing and the Empire’s feelings about humans are changing along with them. You can see it, can’t you?”

“I can.” Daz nodded. “Even my own eyes were opened.”

“Exactly.” Pryvani ran a hand absentmindedly through her blue and green hair. “And despite that, those of us who care about humans have a tough task ahead of us. I’m going to need every ally I can get in both houses. I need you in that seat.”

Daz bit her lip and shrunk into herself again.

“Please Daz.” Pryvani pleaded. “For Pierce.”

Daz sighed and nodded. “You’re right. I owe it to him to do what I can. And if that means I dip my toe into…” Daz shuddered. “…politics… than that is the least I can do.”

Pryvani chuckled and shook her head. “My dear, you’re going to be marrying a Princess. You’re involved in politics whether you want to be or not.”

Daz didn’t respond, but she knew Pryvani had a point.

Pryvani tipped back her glass and finished the last of her drink. “Well my dear, I’m afraid I must be going. Thank you so much for meeting with me.”

Daz smiled and rose to her feet as Pryvani gathered her things. “No, really I should be thanking you. You’ve given me a lot of good advice today.”

Pryvani nodded a small smile on her face. “I’m glad you think so. And if you need any more advice… about anything… don’t think twice about giving me a call.”

*.*.*

The project seemed to be one step forward and two steps back for Myona and Shaar. Every time they thought they’d made even a tiny breakthrough in their new projector, three other problems cropped up.

Shaar was getting frustrated by the whole ordeal. If she was honest with herself, Myona was too but she knew she had to keep it together for the sake of her friend.

“Maybe we are wrong.” Shaar muttered, staring at the pile of components in front of her. “Maybe it’s not possible.”

“No, it is.” Myona said leaning down and peering over Shaar’s shoulder. “I know it doesn’t seem that way, but we are making progress. And if we can just figure this out…”

Myona’s train of thought was interrupted by her pad beeping urgently. Her brow knit in confusion as she dug it out of her bag. She wasn’t expecting any calls.

However, a smile lit up her face as she looked at the incoming call number. She quickly pressed the ‘answer’ button and the smiling face of Pryvani Tarsuss filled her screen.

“Lady T- Uh, Pryvani!” Myona greeted cheerfully. “How nice to hear from you!”

“I’m sorry I wasn’t able to contact you sooner, Myona.” Pryvani said. “I’ve only just now had the time to call and thank you for the wonderful job you and Shaar did in Alex’s bar.”

“Oh no problem, we had fun with it, and Alex was really nice.” Myona chirped. “I’m glad we were able to help him.”

“As am I, dear.” Pryvani peered closer. “Myona, I was wondering… In the very near future, I’d like to work on expanding the holographic capabilities in Atlantis. At the moment there are now two buildings where holoprojectors are installed, but there are many more where such systems would be invaluable. I’d like for you and Shaar to lead that initiative.”

“Us?” Myona blinked. “Well, I can’t speak for Shaar Pryvani, but I’m certainly flattered. I’d have to talk it over with her, of course, but I think we’d both be interested in that!”

“Great! I-”

“Except… well, I’d like to be able to at least finish the degree I’ve started.” Myona continued quickly. “That shouldn’t stop Shaar from helping you though.”

“Not without you!” Shaar called from over by their project, where she had her head buried in the side of a large machine.

Pryvani smiled. “I think I’d tend to agree with Shaar. I daresay the two of you work much better as a package. However, I think there may be a compromise. Perhaps your school would be amenable to some sort of internship with the Tarsuss Corporation? We’d compensate you both, of course.”

Myona’s gaze slid over to Shaar. “Well, I think we’d need to talk it over…”

“Of course.” Pryvani smiled and held up her hand. “It’s just that after I bought the rights to hard-light technology, I then acquired a holographics company. I think the two of you and they could have a mutually beneficial relationship.”

“That does sound tempting.” Myona chuckled.

“My dear, if you don’t mind me asking, just what is Shaar working on over there?”

“Oh…” Myona smiled. “Now that you mention it that is something we wanted to talk to you about…”

*.*.*

Later that day, Daz found herself staring out the window of the palace suite she’d spent the night in. She supposed the fact the Emperor and Empress had asked her to stay in the palace was a good sign that she wasn’t going to be arrested any time soon. Vasha’s accommodations weren’t nearly as nice.

There was a knock at the door that startled Daz out of her thoughts. She quickly crossed the room and opened the door, expecting to see one of the green-and-black clade palace servants ready to take her bags down to the shuttle waiting for her.

Instead, she found Rhionne on the other side of the door, with Pierce sitting comfortably on the Princess’ shoulder.

“Hi.” Daz said, for want of anything else to say.

“Hi.” Rhionne responded. “Can we come in?”

Daz nodded mutely and stepped aside so Rhionne could enter, before closing the door behind her.

The three of them stared awkwardly at each other.

“So…” Rhionne began. “I guess you didn’t get arrested.”

“Nope.” Daz replied. “Your parents were very gracious about the whole thing.”

Daz sighed and rubbed her face with her hand wearily. “Look, I realized something while talking with the Imperators. I… I haven’t been entirely fair to you, Rhionne. The truth is while I didn’t know about some of the things my sister was doing, there were others things I was aware of… and some of them were just as bad.”

“Daz…” Pierce began, but fell silent when Daz raised her hand.

“No, Pierce, just let me finish.” She said before taking a deep breath. “Vasha was conducting illegal genetic research on humans. She was… I don’t know, searching for something for Syon Fand. I’m not sure what; I didn’t want to know, so I never asked. But she was searching for the strongest humans she could find. I don’t know if it was a new breeding program or… or what, but it was incredibly unethical. And I knew about it and did nothing.”

Daz cleared her throat and swallowed nervously. “So… so there it is.”

There was a long stretch of silence where nobody said anything, and Daz desperately wished the floor would open up and she’d fall into the center of the planet. Anything to break the silence.

She thought the heard Pierce mutter something to Rhionne, but before she could make out what it was, the Princess had suddenly surged forward and wrapped her in a tight embrace.

“I’m sorry…” Daz mumbled.

“Don’t beat yourself up.” Daz’s eyes opened as she heard Pierce’s voice by her ear. “You made a mistake, but you’ve done your best to make it right.”

“And you were right about one thing.” Rhionne murmured into her other ear. “I never gave you a chance to explain your side. And I’m sorry for that.”

With a sigh, Daz pulled away from Rhionne and was surprised to find that Pierce was now on her shoulder.

“So I suppose I’m not a very attractive marriage prospect anymore.” She muttered wryly.

Rhionne chuckled. “Are you kidding? You’re the head of your family, a senator, and a wealthy hotel heiress. If anything, you’ve moved up in the world. I’m still game if you are.”

“I uh, I think I am.” Daz swallowed and nodded. Her gaze slid to the human on her shoulder. “What about you, Pierce? You in?”

“I think you’ll have to buy me from Tylum.” Pierce noted wryly. “And are you sure the royal family is ready for a human as a son-in-law?”

Rhionne’s eyes narrowed. “Yeah… about that…”

*.*.*

“Mother, Father; Daz and I have decided not to cancel our betrothal. We feel that this relationship is still in our own best interests, and those of the Empire as a whole; and that Daz’s reputation should not be tarnished by the actions of those related to her.”

Rhionne reached out and took Daz’s hand in her own and squeezed it reassuringly.

Emperor Tiernan nodded. “If that is your wish, then we shall abide by it. Had you wished to annul the betrothal, we would have supported you as well.”

“I’m glad you feel that way Father.” Rhionne’s lip twitched. “Because there is another matter that needs to be discussed.”

Daz’s hand squeezed hers a little tighter.

The Princess lowered her hand into her bag and waited as Pierce climbed into her palm. She carefully pulled Pierce free of the bag and presented him to her parents.

“Daz and I… we… we love Pierce, and if we are to be together, then he is going to be a part of that. Not as our pet, but as a full partner to the both of us.”

Rhionne swallowed her nerves and continued. “I am not asking for permission on this matter.”

The silence hung heavy in the Imperial office as the Royal parents exchanged looks. Pierce was feeling especially nervous under the gaze of beings so much larger than he was. He caught the Empress’s eye and, much to his shock, she winked at him.

“Rhionne…” Tiernan’s low rumble broke the silence. “I will admit that I have found myself troubled by your newfound attitude towards humans. Not because I think you are wrong, but because I think you are right. The best way to atone for a mistake is to stop making it. I can’t guarantee the rest of the Empire will be quick to change, in fact I daresay they won’t be; but your mother and I support you all in this matter.”

Rhionne let out a breath she didn’t realize she’d been holding. “Thank you. Both of you.”

“You should be aware, Rhionne.” Empress Rajenlif spoke up. “This road you have chosen will not be easy. For his own safety, it may be prudent for us all to keep your relationship to Pierce secret, at least for the time being. There are those who would threaten his safety, and your own.”

Rhionne and Daz glanced at each other, then down at the human in her hand. Pierce didn’t look happy about that, but he nodded. “I understand.”

“This may make it hard for you to succeed your father to the throne as well.” Rajenlif continued. “I don’t know if our empire would be ready for a human on the throne. Even with two Titans beside him.”

Rhionne shrugged. “Antero is the likely heir anyway; and if need be, Vallero would probably be a better candidate to be Empress than I am anyway.”

“Then…” Tiernan smiled. “Allow me to be the first to officially welcome both of you to the family.”