Draconia Offline vol. 2

94.3. The Enemy Unveiled - Part 3

We demand to eat in private and the Divementis allow it. They just bring food to our apartment and leave us. Liana, Soren, Gavreel and other Celestial political representatives we took with us squeeze into our small lounge because we need to discuss how to approach our cooperation with the Divementis.

I'd prefer to start right away, but everyone is too hungry for that. For several minutes, there's only a sound of cutlery hitting plates. I don't have any appetite after seeing the Enemy, but I eat without protest so that my father can't accuse my subjects again for not feeding me properly. I make sure that Erik eats a lot as well so that he doesn't faint again. The same goes for Gotrid, of course.

"Your Majesty, are we going to cooperate with the Divementis?" Gavreel asks openly after we've eaten.

"Do we have any other option?" I sigh.

"If you refuse, I think other race rulers will follow your lead," Liana says.

"If we don't cooperate, we might end up as our predecessors," I remark darkly. "I'm not saying that I trust the Divementis just because I'm one of them, but I'm willing to give them a chance to prove their genuine intentions. I don't think that they are lying to us."

"Are you able to tell for sure, Your Majesty?" Soren doubts.

"I can't read my father unless he lets me," I admit. "However, I can detect emotions from the people around him. They might look alien to you, but believe me, they are scared shitless just as we are. Their feelings aren't any different from ours. Besides, there's no reason to keep calling them aliens—they are fellow Draconians."

"Right," Liana chews her lip.

I notice that Erik gets stiff when he hears that. Shit, it slipped my mind—they are still aliens to him because he's human. I take his right hand and kiss it, trying to reassure him that it's going to be fine. He usually smiles when I do that, but, this time, he gives me a painful look.

At first, I think that it's because he's still shaken about the Enemy and he is, but it's not only that. More than ever before, Erik is painfully aware that he's the only human among us.

"Not now, Ryuu," he shakes me off when I want to connect to him. "I'm fine."

Except he's not 'fine,' I can feel it.

You're my absolute priority, I send him a tender thought. That will never change.

"My Emperor," Gavreel calls out to get my attention. "How do we proceed?"

"We get our research team here ASAP," I decide. "Let's contact Rina, Nestelle and the others and tell them everything. I guess the Divementis could send their cruiser to pick them up."

*****

Since our research team knew nothing about my involvement with the Divementis in Japan, they are astonished when I tell them to pack their stuff and equipment and wait for an alien spaceship to pick them up above the Draconian embassy.

"Is it safe, Your Majesty?" Rina is extremely nervous about the endeavour and she's not the only one. "Weren't the Divementis our enemies until now or have I missed something?"

"It turns out they were never our enemies to begin with," I explain. "I'm sure they won't hurt you nor they will invade your minds during the journey or they would antagonise me and they can't afford that."

"Are you really their prince, my liege?" Nestelle squeezes into the camera's scope.

"I'm afraid I am," I say with a heavy heart because Celestials don't like hearing that. They want me for themselves which is understandable—the Emperor's attention shouldn't be divided. Also, they might be worried about a potential conflict of interest in future.

"Let's start packing then," Rina says enthusiastically to the rest of the team. "If our Emperor says it's safe, it's safe. Guys, we have a rare chance to see alien tech!"

I smile faintly. Rina sure knows how to motivate her fellow scientists.

Father? I send a telepathic message, wondering if he's tuned to me all the time.

Yes, son? he answers without any delay.

My research team agreed to come, I tell him. Can you send the cruiser to the Draconian embassy to pick them up?

I will send a smaller vessel if that is alright with you. It's very taxing to shield a ship this big outside our premises.

Okay, no problem. Just keep in mind that my whole research team is coming, Celestials take much more space than the Divementis and they are bringing scientific equipment, I remind him in case he wanted to send just a small transporter like the one they used to transport Noage and our luggage from the mansion to their flagship.

Noted. If you're finished consulting with your people, we would like you to join us again, he says. We still have a lot of explaining to do.

"Ryuu," Erik shakes me all of a sudden and looks bewildered. "Who are you talking to?"

"My father?" I say as if it wasn't obvious. Who else besides them is there?

"Is it that effortless for you now?" he narrows his eyes. "I thought it's just us, your husbands."

"You... and my father," I say guiltily and look at Gotrid. He doesn't look happy about it either. "Sorry, I keep forgetting that I'm spacing out when I do that."

"We never minded before because it was with us," Gotrid says. "Now we see it from the other perspective. No wonder it's making the Viceroy crazy."

After the strategic meeting, we reunite with my father and Nyx and go back to the laboratories. It's a nice change to be walking outside after a year of being confined in a skyscraper if only there weren't so many Divementis all around staring at me.

Is it just my feeling or have they been waiting for you to show up? Erik complains in his mind.

Our beloved is their newly found Prince, Gotrid comments. The Divementis seem to revere their rulers almost with the same intensity as Celestials.

"They are just curious, Your Majesty," Nyx turns to us, overhearing our telepathic conversation.

I frown for two reasons. First, Nyx is supposed to be my aunt and she's using honorifics with me. Second, how the hell do I shield against being overheard? I can hide my private thoughts, but every time I reach out to my partners, we're hopelessly exposed.

The session continues and chancellors present their battle plans to us. The strategy looks promising, the Divementis weren't wasting those two hundred years since they came to Earth. Still, all those clever plans count on peerless cooperation between all Draconian races and human governments backing us up with funding and material support.

Can we make it work somehow? It's hard to make humans cooperate and we're supposed to establish cooperation between six very distinct races which is something our predecessors tragically failed to do.

"Let's finish here for today," my father says when the afternoon progresses and it's almost half past six.

I expect us to go back to our apartment, have a meal there and go to sleep, but my father stops me from leaving just yet.

"Aefener, I wanted to ask you and your Consorts to have dinner with us," he invites us.

"With the Divementis?" I wrinkle my nose. "I'm not in the mood for a reception, Father. I might be the Crown Prince, but I won't let you parade me and..."

"No, I mean...," he bites his lip and it's the first time I see him flustered. "I meant with your family. Just me, Nyx and your cousins."

I freeze. Wait, I have cousins?!