Realm of the Sun

Chapter 26

The Bensons.

Yue knew just enough about the family to pass her history courses in school, but not much else. They were the enemy, but mildly useful in times of distress. It seemed almost every other nation in the world hated Arden almost as much as Liyuan hated Sötèt. The only difference was that Arden was a thriving nation that everyone depended on for trade in the global market, and Sötèt was an empty barren wasteland inhabited only by monsters. It was hard to call it a nation, considering the citizens were technically not people, and up until then the only monsters that held some sort of sentience close to human sentience was the de facto rulers of Sötèt, but because the borders between the holy land blessed by the sun were marked so clearly by Orianna's descendants in the early days of the night curse, everyone had gone along with it and hadn't bat an eye at the odd squiggly lines they now called borders.

It was currently after curfew, which meant Yue really should've been sleeping to prepare for the arrival of the Bensons the next morning, but after an hour of endless tossing and turning, she was fed up and took herself out of bed to the kitchen. After all, to do the same something a million times and expect a different result was insanity- or something like that. She hadn't really paid attention to her philosophy classes.

She was in the kitchen, making choux pastry like how her old Ardish tutor had taught her too. There was a period of time in her life when she didn't understand why the Ardish invasion had been so bad. They had been sent to help, according to the history books and the two months of lessons she spent in Arden, but when she returned to Liyuan, she realized that only winners told the story of history.

Nadine Treville, her parents told her, was a very distant relative of hers, going back centuries. She had been just twelve years old, and Nadine had been fifteen. Nadine needed money, and Yue needed extra help in her studies. It worked out quite nicely. Most days, Nadine helped with the more literature-centred subjects, but once in a while, she'd take Yue out to the bakery where her mother worked and teach her how to bake. She learned to make many tasty Ardish desserts and baked goods.

"Is anyone down here?"

The voice immediately snapped her out of her reverie, dragging her back to reality. She weighed her options; stay quiet, or announce her presence. At that moment, she chose the latter.

"Just me!" she called back.

She finally saw who else it was in the kitchen. "Prince Nicholas," she sputtered. "I didn't expect to see you here."

"Prince?" He commented. "I thought we were past formalities."

"Right, of course," she replied. "Sorry. My mind is in shambles right now."
Nicholas strolled towards the counter. "No need to apologize. I am curious, though, what are you doing?"

"Baking," Yue felt pink flush her cheeks in embarrassment. "My old tutor taught me how to. I know I'm not supposed to mess with the kitchen staff's supplies, but I couldn't sleep." she turned to face him. "You?"

He chuckled. "Much the same, actually. Sometimes I sneak down here to run little experiments, but unfortunately they usually don't turn out too well. I never had the opportunity to learn." he gestured to the pastry sheet she had rolled out. "And this is..?"

"Choux pastry," she explained. "I'm making eclairs." Yue looked at his expression, and smiled. "Would you like to help?"

The prince frowned. "I don't know how to bake."

"Here, I'll show you." She opened one of the furnaces, and took out another pan while sliding the unbaked one in its place. "These ones are already done." She also grabbed a piping bag already full of pastry cream. "This is pastry cream, but sometimes I'll make coffee cream and toffee." Gently placing the bag in his hand, she held it as she showed him how to pipe it in the hole she had made in the pastry earlier. "Just squeeze a little, you don't need that much force. Hopefully, it'll fill all the way through."

Nicholas figured out the ropes quickly, and soon the second pan of pastry was done baking. They filled the eclairs in silence. Yue hadn't noticed earlier, but Nicholas had changed the lighting of the dim pendant light from a warm amber to a pale, alabaster-like delicate blue that mimicked the appearance of natural moonlight. She noticed now that even though he had used his powers earlier, his eyes were devoid of any golden glow.

"Yue, could you do me a favour?"

She turned her head towards him. "Am I allowed to say no to his royal highness?"

Nicholas smiled weakly, shrugging his shoulders. "In this case, yes. It's about the Bensons' arrival tomorrow morning." he hesitated, and Yue could tell that it wasn't going to be an easy favour. "I really don't want to talk to Princess Bernadette Benson."

"That doesn't seem so hard." Yue stifled a laugh. Was Nicholas, prince of Liyuan, only heir to the Yan dynasty, really so afraid of a foreign princess?

"I should probably clarify," he added. "I don't want to talk to Princess Bernadette because her parents are actively trying to marry her off to me."

"Oh."

"And," he sighed. "The only way to prevent that is to tell the Queen that I have other commitments."

Yue blinked, running his words through her head twice to make sure she was understanding correctly. "You want to pull a Sylas and Solarie and get politically engaged? What about the wait until you're twenty-three law thing?"

Nicholas set down his piping bag. "Unlike their engagement, ours will last for one week and isn't technically real. I just tell the Queen that I'm unavailable, and she will hopefully leave me alone. She doesn't know about that old law, and my parents could care less about whether or not I was falsely engaged for a week."

"Eighteen seems a bit young to be engaged," Yue said.

"In old Liyuan, the average age of marriage for girls was fourteen, boys sixteen. Eighteen years of age is plenty in the eyes of ancient Liyuanese emperors." Nicholas responded easily.

Yue finished piping her last eclair, and was moving on to drizzling chocolate onto the surface of the pastry. "Alright then," she lifted her first finished eclair into the air. "To being falsely engaged for a week."

"Interesting thing to toast to, but sure," he lifted his own half-finished eclair. "To being falsely engaged."

Yue tore her pastry open in half, while Nicholas continued to top off his batch. She stuck one half of it in her mouth. It tasted much sweeter than most Liyuanese desserts; actually, too sweet. But food was food regardless of its taste, and the baking process had done its work to distract her from her rough night. She offered the other half to Nicholas.

"What? Did you want me to bite it?" she teased when she saw Nicholas' confused expression.

"The amount of sugar in that looks like it could give me a stroke."

She rolled her eyes. "If you want, I'll put peanuts in it next time. Balanced like all things should be."

"Taoism? Yin and Yang?" he arched his brow.

"Whatever you want," she grinned. "I'll be here to bake as many Ardish desserts as you want if it pleases you." She picked up one of Nicholas' eclairs, inspecting his handiwork. "You didn't do so bad. I'll invite you formally next time."

He paused. "Am I supposed to... hug you now?" His smile faded. "I'm not really great with social cues. I didn't really grow up with many genuine friends."

"Take it from one person who has endured too many social suicides," she said warmly. "I have no idea either."

They stood there awkwardly for a moment, before nodding in unison. They both gave a nod of respect, before carting off each of their own trays of eclairs back to their rooms.

The unspoken agreement left two trays missing from the kitchen in the morning, but everything was probably going to be fine.

Probably.

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