"Valeria Marakesh. Good to see you again."
"It is my pleasure to see you again, Your Royal Highness." She smiled.
Dante looked at her with sympathetic eyes. She looked much more weary and worn than when they had first seen her standing on the dais at the very start, tall and proud, and filled with hope and confidence.
The Avgo events had finished over two weeks ago, but it seemed as if it was a long long time ago, in a distant time and space.
Now, it also seemed as if there were far more important things to think about than a beauty pageant that cause so much grief to all who became contestants.
No one had come out of that pageant unchanged, including his wife, the undisputed winner.
"I see you and my brother are doing well on the cruise line."
"Yes. Byron is a perfect gentleman and we are getting along very well." She smiled.
Dante nodded. "Valeria, we are going to need you to stand alongside my brother Byron as Ambassador of Goodwill and convince everyone that he will have Avian's best interests at heart, since he is half-Avian."
"I understand, Your Royal Majesty." She nodded.
"Please. Just call me Dante. Byron and I hold the same position of Crown Prince and you call him Byron."
"That's because…" she looked at Byron, blushing.
Byron gazed steadily at Dante with a VERY slight shake of the head. Dante nodded at Byron.
"I'm glad you and Byron have a good working relationship. Much will occur in the next few days and weeks so we will need everyone's continued good will."
A small signal on one side of Dante's screen showed Slate making the sign that the first of his ships had approached the skirmish zone.
At the same time, Poppy reappeared and gave him thumbs up for the launching of the pirate ships flying the Emporia flag.
"Leo." Dante turned to his fourth brother. "Now!"
Leonardo gave a gesture and his screen went dark. There was only Byron and Valeria left in front of him.
"Stand by Byron." Dante said. "Plan B is currently in action."
=================
Süren stood staring out into the darkness of deep space, his normally expressive dark almond eyes narrowed in thought.
There were two women on his mind and both of them were his fiancées.
There was the one that his father had arranged for him. She was a childhood friend, someone he knew quite well. She was a beautiful dragon girl, and one that came from a good family.
One that his family approved of.
And then there was the one that he had fallen flat on his face for in a faraway world. She was also a beautiful girl, and from a family that could not possibly be any higher.
An Imperial Princess, no less.
Of course, in his Crown Prince position, he could have more than one wife and would in fact be encouraged to have more than one wife. That was not the issue. The issue was that neither of these women would be happy knowing that the other existed.
There was the issue of ranking.
While Sharina was socially lower than Lyra, she had been engaged to him for over two years. This would make her the First Wife, which meant a Princess of Erenveil would be the Second Wife.
But what Imperial Princess would be happy being a second wife to a woman lower in ranking than she was? More importantly, her family would never approve of that arrangement, and he would not blame them.
Lyra was second to no one.
And then there was the issue of emotional attachment.
If it were up to Süren, he would not hesitate to break off the engagement with Sharina and marry Lyra as soon as she came of age.
As pretty as Sharina was, he had never been attracted to her and probably never will. No matter how many times they had met in the past, he had never felt anything but the barest of civility towards her.
It was not this crazy amazing burst of emotional high that he'd experienced the moment he saw Lyra. Everything she did and everything she said was nothing short of amazing. If he never saw her again, he would never be able to feel this way again.
Life would be dull and grey, and plodding and dreary.
Unfortunately, as a Crown Prince, he could no more break off the engagement with Sharina than he could refuse to be Crown Prince.
Unless he ran away with Lyra…
Süren bit his lip and tapped on the communication panel in front of him, linking up to his father.
"So you are finally heading home, are you?" King Batsaikhan raised his eyebrows. "Got all the wild oats out of your pants?"
"Father. I am bringing home someone for you to meet."
"Oh? You found a new pet? Or a new attendant that you have acquired?"
"No Father. I am bringing home my new fiancée."
King Batsaikhan sputtered for a few moments.
"Son." He finally managed to say. "Did you get some girl pregnant?"
Süren shook his head. What in the world was his father thinking?
"Of course not! I have the Princess of Erenveil, Lyra onboard my ship, along with her mother, the Royal Consort Gwendolyn."
"You what???" King Batsaikhan's eyes widened in shock. "Please tell me you did not kidnap the Princess and her mother from Erenveil. That is an intergalactic incident we cannot resolve!"
"Oh no!" He waved his hand in protest. "Prince Dante knows. He asked me to take his sister and the Consort to our world for a short time until they can clear up the fighting that's raging around Erenveil."
The King nodded and heaved a huge sigh of relief.
"I've heard that the Avians are staging a takeover of Erenveil. More fool them." He spat. "The bats are not just militarily powerful, they are also an economical powerhouse."
His eyes sparkled. "The fact that you have brought back a bat princess actually makes me happy that you know how to secure the bat graces for our kingdom."
"Father. I did not ask for her hand in marriage to secure political ties." Süren frowned. "I honestly love her."
"Pshah. You barely met her. It's all hormones going to your head right now. Love takes a very long time to develop Son. You have known Sharina all your life. That's love."
"Father. I feel absolutely nothing for Sharina. If that's love, then my life feels so empty and dreary and dull."
"Nonsense. You will begin to feel love for her once you and she start living together as man and wife."
"But Lyra—"
"She is a Princess of Erenveil. You cannot take her as a second wife. Your brother, however, does not yet have a fiancée. We can introduce them."
"No!" Süren shouted. "Lyra is my fiancée. I will not let Altan have her!"
"Son. Altan is your brother. He is also twenty, so he is closer in age to the Princess Lyra. You are twenty-five. You cannot wait three more years for Princess Lyra to come of age to begin a family."
"Father. If you do this, you will kill everything within me that is joy and happiness." Süren's eyes were tragic.
"Son." King Batsaikhan sighed. "Feelings are transitory. You will recover from it. I promise you. It will not be easy, but you will eventually move onward from this point."
"I'm not letting her go." He turned stricken eyes at his father.
"You have no choice.." His father replied.
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