Draconia Offline vol. 2

92.3. Arrival - Part 3

Nyx is waiting for us patiently in the hall and I see that she's trying to have a conversation with Liana who finished her morning preparation faster than us. The emphasis is on the word 'trying' because Liana is nervous around her.

"My Prince," Nyx bows to me. "I mean—Your Majesty," she corrects herself. "I'm sorry, it's hard to address you when you're both."

"I prefer my Celestial title," I set the record straight. "I'm here to learn about my Divementis heritage, but I consider myself first and foremost a Celestial."

"Of course, as you wish, Your Celestial Majesty," Nyx nods. "Please, follow me."

The guards join us and they are as restless as Liana. It looks like most of them didn't get enough rest because they were too anxious to fall asleep last night. I'm also uneasy about our stay here, but my brain is always so exhausted that I never have any difficulties sleeping no matter what's going on. Erik and Gotrid would most probably be prone to sleepless nights as well, but my sleepy mind seems to work as the most effective lullaby.

We leave the floors that were assigned to us and soon we are surrounded by the Divementis from all sides. I try to look confident, but I feel anything but that. They allowed me to take thirty-nine subjects with me which seemed a lot yesterday, but it certainly doesn't feel that many now. We're hopelessly overnumbered.

"Son, why do you startle our people the first thing in the morning?" my father accuses me the moment we show up in the dining hall.

"I don't know what you're talking about," I'm confused. "I just woke up and got dressed."

"Do you deny scanning the building with your mind then?" he raises his eyebrows. "The Royal bloodline has a unique sensation to the Divementis, there's no such thing as the Crown Prince sending his mind out anonymously."

"I always check our surroundings each morning, making sure we're safe," I purse my lips. "Is it considered rude among your people?"

"Our people," he corrects me sharply. "No, it's not rude. On the contrary, that kind of behaviour is expected of someone with the Royal bloodline. It's literally in our genes to be always concerned about the safety of our race. Our subjects were startled because they didn't expect it from you."

I don't know how to respond to that. I thought that I was doing something that would meet with their disapproval, but my father is telling me that I behave as a Divementis prince should. Are these really my inborn instincts? Am I even more Divementis than I'm aware of?

"Your Majesties, breakfast is ready," Nyx coughs to dispel the tension and shows us to our seats. Everybody gets a pre-designated chair and there are fifteen seats for my entourage and fifteen for the Divementis. Since most of my entourage are the guards who are on duty and must have eaten earlier, we fit without problems.

We sit around a huge table and it's the strangest experience. We're dining with aliens, literally. I'm seated opposite my father and see him putting a huge heap of rice into his bowl. In fact, all the Divementis that were chosen to eat with us are putting a ton of food on their plates.

"Do the Divementis also have fast metabolisms?" Noage speaks up and the tone of his voice is unnaturally high. He's scared.

The doctor was seated at the very end of the table and he's been quiet until now, but, as an Earthborn, he can't resist a scientific question. He twitches when the Divementis stare at him as if they haven't acknowledged his presence until now.

"Yes," Nyx answers readily and gives Noage a warm look. "Moreover, human brains take up to 20% of total energy consumed while ours take 50%."

"50?!" Noage is taken aback. "It was estimated that Celestial brains take up to 40% and that's when they aren't actively casting spells. No wonder His Majesty can't put on any weight no matter what kind of diet we try to force on him. The calorie intake of his Celestial-Divementis brain must be insane."

Gotrid's hand freezes over the pancakes he's neatly arranging on my plate and, after hearing that, he puts three more on top.

I can't possibly eat all that! I send him a desperate thought and kick him under the table. Don't forget that my stomach gets upset easily.

"It does?" my father overhears us. "We suspected there might be some drawbacks to Divementis hybrids. Is your digestive system perhaps extremely delicate, Aefener?"

I purse my lips. It upsets me that he's able to pronounce my name with such familiarity and simplicity. Celestials rarely use my name when addressing me and, if they do, it's always with a proper honorific. Erik still prefers my human name and Gotrid either calls me 'my Emperor' or comes up with romantic nicknames. My father is, therefore, the only person who uses my name so directly.

"It is," I admit because there's no point in lying about it.

"Divementis stomachs aren't that big, we need to eat more frequently than humans. Your people have to make sure that you're having snacks between meals," he says and looks at Noage who, as he assesses, must be the one making dietary recommendations to me.

"Your Celestial Majesty, this is just a suggestion because we know that we can't force you, but we could examine your body and possibly find out how to alleviate your difficulties," Nyx proposes extremely carefully. "Our medical technology is very advanced."

I get goosebumps under my feathers like I do every time someone mentions a medical examination in front of me. Mom conditioned me against it a bit too well. However, there's something else as well. Frustration. Strong feelings of injustice. Anger even.

"Then why didn't you use it to cure my Mom?" I snap.

That sentence came out of me so suddenly that I didn't have a chance to think it through. As an overthinker, I rarely speak spontaneously so it surprises me twice as much. Have I always wanted to accuse someone of my mother's death that I still haven't fully come to terms with after all these years?

The dining room grows absolutely quiet. That wasn't very diplomatic, I know that. I take my father's intense gaze head on and, when our eyes meet, I get hit by a telepathic wave. He's not attacking me, though. I get hit unintentionally by deep sadness coming from him. He still has his defences up, but it seems the emotion is too strong for him to contain fully.

"Son, finish your breakfast, you need all the calories you can get," he says quietly. "When you're done, I'll take you to our research centre and tell you everything—about Draconia Online, about the Great Evolution, about our home world... and about Amelia."

I keep staring into those pitch-black eyes and I have to cling to Erik and Gotrid's minds or I would drown in his pain.