Chosen Bride of the Seven Dark Princes

He reached out to the command console and called up Leonardo.

"How is she?" Slate asked without preamble.

Leonardo sighed.

"Tell me. Don't leave anything out." Slate pressed.

"Her left cheek is completely destroyed. When I was able to get her to the hospital, the strands of her skin had fallen off, exposing all her teeth and gums. Almost half her face is gone."

"What about her eyes?"

"Thankfully, his claw missed her eyes so she can still see out of her left eye, but he sliced off part of her ear. She only has half of her left ear intact."

"Is it possible to reconstruct her face?"

Leonardo nodded. "It will be a long road to full recovery. I can only heal if there is something to heal. She's missing so much of her facial skin that the best thing to do for her is a skin graft which will take several weeks to heal."

"Even with your energy healing?"

"I can't use it that much. This is her face we're talking about. If I go too fast, there will be too much scarring which would be disfiguring. Furthermore, she won't be able to control her facial nerves which take even more time to grow and heal properly."

"The wedding…" Slate hissed sharply.

"We could postpone the wedding—" Leonardo muttered, but even as he said the words, he knew it was impossible.

"We can't, Leo. It's timed to coincide with a multitude of things which must happen at the right time. This is not just our wedding, it's also a political situation. Invitations have been sent out."

Slate scratched his head. "You're going to be there, right?"

Leonardo gave him a disgusted look. "No matter what happens, I cannot miss my own wedding. My wife will kill me!"

Slate grinned. His wife would kill him too, if he missed his own wedding, but then he sobered up when he realized something important.

"Mother Fatima is not going to be able to make it to her sons' wedding."

"No, she's not." Leonardo confirmed.

"Neither will Father." Slate grimaced.

"What's going to happen to him, Slate?"

"What do you think will happen to him?"

Leonardo shrugged. "He's a monarch. Isn't he absolved from criminal charges that have nothing to do with governance while he is still an Emperor?"

Slate sighed. "Normally yes. While assaulting Mother Fatima is a terrible crime, it is not a crime against Erenveil's world or the galaxy in general."

"So what will you do?" Leonardo gave him a pitying glance.

"I cannot charge him with personal crimes, but I can hold him without charges onboard the Raptor 600, at least until after the wedding."

Leonardo looked dubious. "This is an official event. Will keeping Father from attending be a good idea?"

=============

"That's a terrible idea." Dante threw out, interrupting Slate.

All the brothers were in Candace's suite of rooms, seated around her lounge area, sharing a large pitcher of sangria.

"Dante, I cannot simply allow Father to attend the wedding, knowing that he has destroyed Mother Fatima's face to that degree." Slate insisted.

"I was there, Slate. I saw what he did." Dante's look was dark and thunderous. "But we have hundreds and hundreds of kings from across the galaxy coming from all the major worlds."

"And?" Slate threw back.

"Think about it Slate." Dante sighed harshly. "Without Father there, they will think something is horribly wrong, or we are staging an uprising, or he's secretly been kidnapped. They may think that it's a great time to start a revolt if the Erenveil Empire just lost its Emperor."

"We don't want him at our wedding." Jason spat. "He has shown how he feels about our mother and sister."

Byron shook his head. "This is an intergalactic affair. He simply cannot be absent. It would cause a huge ruckus and we would not be able to explain his disappearance to anyone's satisfaction."

"But because of him, my mother cannot even attend my wedding! She is right now, in great physical pain and distress!" Jared hissed with fury.

"Okay, all of you please calm down." Leonardo threw up a hand. "Take a deep breath and drink up your monthly dose of blood wine Sangria."

He gave a lopsided grin.

"I don't want any of you to get too hungry and begin draining my wife. She's borderline anemic AND she's going to be pregnant very soon."

He threw a glance at Candace, who was at the moment sleeping on the bed in the far corner, having run herself ragged all day trying to organize the wedding's myriad of details.

The brothers all sighed and drank down their allotted blood that had been mixed in with the sangria.

Lucas cleared his throat. "What if we let him attend, but only for a very short amount of time, like a quick 'hi folks, I'm here!' And then we yank him back into isolation again."

"That would work." Dante rubbed his face. "Even if it was only for about half an hour, it would mollify all the heads of states who will be there."

"No. Absolutely no." Jason shook his head.

"Do we need to vote on this?" Leonardo put down his crystal glass and looked around.

He sighed. "All in favor of allowing Father to attend the wedding for half an hour, raise your hand."

Immediate, Dante, Byron, and Lucas raised their hands. That left Slate, Jared, and Jason opposed to the idea.

Damn it. Leonardo scowled. He was the tie breaker yet again.

"Look, guys." Leonardo picked up the pitcher and poured another glass of sangria. "I have been working on healing Mother Fatima for the last twenty-four hours. I, more than any of you, know the extent of the damage that's been done to her face."

He took a gulp of the sangria. "However, I am also one of the ones out on the front lines every day, healing the wounded from wars and conflicts."

Leo sighed, staring into his red blood wine sangria. "I know how trigger-happy some of these kings are. It wouldn't take much for them to attempt a conflict to enlarge their space holdings."

He looked up at the twins. "I know you're going to hate me, Jason, Jared…but I have to vote for the thirty-minute Emperor Pop-Up scheme."

"Leo!" Jared slammed his rocks glass onto the table, startling Candace, who woke up with a gasp.

Jason slapped the back of Jared's head with annoyance and ran to Candace's side.

"Sorry Babe…go back to sleep." He soothed her. "We're just being a little bit noisy."

Candace turned a sleepy face at the men and sank back down into the pillows. Within minutes, she was again fast asleep.

Slate turned back to the men and nodded.

"I understand. We've voted. Let's just move forward with this, and after the wedding, we can all simply take over Father's position as Co-Emperors.. Thereafter, we won't need to consider his presence during meetings of Heads of States."

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