The cognate Empress

Chapter 3. Emergence

On board of Orion

"My prince, in 15 minutes we will enter Terra's atmosphere." The designated captain of Orion respectfully informed the prince, who was sitting on the highest seat of the central deck.

"Mhhh." The prince nodded and murmured in acknowledgement.

Dressed in a tunic collared overcoat which reached his knees, tight fitting pants, and ankle length boots, all of them with an overall white appearance, and slightly glittering to an almost metallic hue, the prince had a noble presence. His whole appearance had an aura that demanded respect, and his current status as the mate of the cognate empress empowered this image in front of the crew even more.

Finishing informing Aleph, the captain bowed humbly and once more turned his eyes towards the large screen filled with data, not waiting for the prince to speak more. He had noticed that his highness did not wish to be disturbed, other than occasionally being informed of their location.

Well, it was understandable. The prince was surely nervous to meet his future wife for the first time. It was not every day that a royal had the chance to have the cognate empress as their mate. Normally, just one in every four or five generation had that honor. And now it had even been longer than usual, as there hadn't been a cognate empress for eight generations already.

This matter had made the public restless, and the low ranking nobles even more so. But luckily, the time had finally come for the royal bloodline to be renewed anew. Everyone on the ship could not be happier, knowing they had the privilege of escorting her. For this reason he could relate to the restlessness of the prince. The entire crew were immensely happy because of the honor they had been given.

The captain's information clearance was not high enough to know just when a cognate empress would be born, naturally as a consequence he also was not aware of the circumstances of the premature birth. Her emergence's date was a top classified information only known by the Council made of the highest ranking nobles and the regent rulers. For safety reasons, others would be informed of her birth only when she stepped her foot on the motherland.

As such, he would not be able to tell, that the prince was actually the only one who was not thrilled at all of her arrival, and was currently thinking of other things.

As Aleph had only ever thought he would marry Primrose, he was not groomed from childhood to become the spouse of the cognate empress like those before him, and thus he was feeling shaken by the whole situation. He was too perturbed to keep his head steady and focus on what he was about to do, or better said who he was about to receive.

Before leaving, he had still tried to talk to his mother and work out another solution, but it was already futile. He was the only heir of an appropriate age to be the mate of the cognate empress. His younger brother was only 10 years old, and his sister, well she was excluded by gender, as she could not produce an heir with the cognate empress.

Not to mention, that his actions were the ones which provoked this entire situation. He knew that he should not have touched Primrose, even without Kieran constantly reminding him of this, but he was in love with her. Even if Primrose abstained herself and did not touch him, perhaps he would have dared to touch her himself then.

How could they be only platonic lovers until the marriage, how could they not share even a kiss? It hurt his heart to see the petite woman, who loved to be close to him, and not return her affections.

And now his heart hurt even more, because he was about to break his promise to her completely. The mate of the cognate empress would become her fiancé, and husband. Primrose now would never be able to become his wife because of their rash actions. Only now was he beginning to realize just what he had done by not abstaining himself from touching Primrose. If he had just waited until the wedding, then his mother would have not committed this taboo.