I want to keep the armour on, but Liana worries that it might look aggressive so I decide to change my clothes and put on my most expensive royal attire. The maids are so nervous that Cien messes up the binding which has never happened before.
"I'm sorry, Your Majesty," the poor maid is on the verge of a panic attack. "L-let me redo it..."
"Cien," I stop her for a while and take her shaking hands. "I promise to protect you all should anything go wrong."
"It's us who should protect you, my Emperor," Cien insists, "but the Divementis..."
"We're not any worse than them," I assure her. "We just need to find a way to defend ourselves against their telepathy."
"Is that even possible?" Erik ponders and lets Ayala adjust his necktie so that his visage is perfect for the historic meeting.
"I don't know yet, but I'm willing to put everything into researching that possibility," I promise.
"Are you ready?" Liana returns, changed already, and raises her eyebrows because I'm still holding Cien's hands and my robe is loose.
"Almost," Cien quickly resumes work. Seriously, is she more afraid of Liana than me?
Erik and Gotrid are done much faster than me so Dalia and Ayala help Cien with dressing me up. We must impress the Divementis so I can't afford to look shabby next to my father. Just this once, I don't complain that the upper robe my maids decided to go for has a long train and that the hairpin looks like a small crown.
"Okay, we're ready," Cien finally announces.
"Luviael just sent me a message that the meeting room is also ready," Liana nods.
I give myself one last check when I'm passing the mirror. I want to look as Celestial as possible to proudly represent my race, but I can't do anything about my Divementis features. I do have a pair of huge wings and golden eyes, but my face is hopelessly Divementis. Ever since I've seen my father's real body, I can't unsee it now. I hope my subjects will take it well when they see the Divementis.
I take Erik's and Gotrid's hands and I step outside. The inner courtyard is the largest open space the mansion has available so I guess the Divementis will literally land in our garden.
"Everyone, to the sides!" I order. "Retreat to patios or patrol above the roof, but don't get close to the middle."
They retreat immediately as nobody wants to be hit by an invisible spaceship.
"Liana, Luviael, Gavreel, Vermiel, Soren, Miruel a Sareash," I address seven of my subjects specifically, going after the best casters. "No matter how stupid it might look, I want you to be touching my wings all the time. Just a finger on my feathers should be enough. This way I can provide you with the same mental protection I have. Should the Divementis try anything funny, don't hold back."
They gulp, but their resolve is overflowing. I spread my wings so that they don't have to squeeze and there's no need to mention Erik and Gotrid because that goes without saying—I'm never letting go of their hands. Then I take a deep breath and send my father a simple message:
We're ready, I'm opening the shield.
I don't think that I'm doing anything miraculous when I send my mana to the crystals strategically positioned around the mansion and deactivate them temporarily so it surprises me when Gavreel gasps for breath.
"Wait, it's that easy to turn them off?" he refuses to believe it even though the shield is dissolving in front of his very eyes.
"Only for our embodiment of magic," Liana calms him down. "While the rest of us, including me, can at least feel their location because such powerful mana sources are impossible to hide from our senses, turning them off remotely is beyond anything we can ever dream of. You can rest assured that we're perfectly safe."
I bite my lip. Once again, I failed to grasp what's considered normal by the Celestial standards. I no longer deny that I'm the embodiment of magic, but I still have no idea what actually makes me the embodiment of magic. Is it my half-Divementis brain? Or the fact that I played Draconia Online when I was a child so my brain could adapt better? Or both of these factors combined?
I look up and see what nobody else can. The Divementis spaceship opens up and releases a smaller vessel. It's not making any sound or gusts of wind. I don't see any propellers either. It just flies on its own, defying gravity. It slowly descends, taking almost all of the courtyard upon landing. I hope it won't damage the garden too much.
I show the image to everyone who's touching me because it doesn't seem like the Divementis have any intention of uncloaking their shuttle. They are probably afraid of being observed by spy drones or detected by orbital satellites. Everybody twitches when ten figures appear seemingly out of nowhere, getting out of their invisible shuttle.
The Divementis are humanoid and, unlike Draconians, they have only two hands and two legs—certainly no tails, horns or wings—but calling them similar to humans would be totally wrong. It's exactly that tendency of the brain to find similarities that makes the whole process eerie. The Divementis are as different from humans as Draconians are.
Their bodies are very thin, but they are surprisingly tall which is something I failed to notice during the dream encounters. I inherited an average human height from my mother, but the Divementis seem to attack 190 centimetres easily.
Their skin is very smooth without any flaws and their features are androgynous. Even now I don't see any gender distinctions, certainly nothing that would resemble breasts. They all have long black hair, pitch-black eyes and are wearing multi-layered robes which is the only thing in which they are similar to Celestials.
I spot my father in the middle and there's no doubt that he's the boss of them. It's not only about his rich robe and an intricate tiara in his hair—his whole demeanour and telepathic presence are regal.
"They look like our Emperor!" I hear someone whispering anxiously.
I clutch Erik's and Gotrid's hands. I know it's super obvious, but it still hurts my Celestial pride to have it pointed out so mercilessly.
Don't let it get to you, hon, Gotrid comforts me in his thoughts.
You're perfect just as you are, Erik supports him.
The envoy slowly walks towards us, stopping two metres away from the guards who are bravely guarding the front. My father doesn't open his mouth, but I can tell that he's saying something to his guards telepathically. They let their sovereign step forward and with that I'm finally properly facing my father in the real world. His expression is hard to read and his pitch-black eyes are studying me carefully.
My Mom fell in love with this alien. She wasn't afraid of him so she must have seen something in him. I can't say that I'm scared of him, but I'm certainly wary. I need to be constantly reminding myself that despite his seemingly humanoid features, he's not human at all. I can't assume that we share the same values.
"My son," he opens his mouth to speak aloud, "with respect to your people, we will conduct this diplomatic visit orally in English even though it's limiting to us."
"I appreciate it," I say a bit stiffly, not used to his real voice. "We have the meeting room ready. Please, follow me."
We walk extremely slowly, inspecting each other's movements every second. I keep checking that the Divementis are not trying to influence the minds of my subjects, but it seems they are using telepathy only among themselves.
The meeting room is nothing fancy, just the second biggest room in the mansion that Gavreel transformed into our operation centre. However, receiving the Divementis in the throne room is out of the question since my father is also royalty and I can't have them sitting on pillows on the ground.
There are only ten seats in the meeting room. First, me and my father sit down, facing each other across the table. Liana then sits automatically to my right and I push Erik to my left because he's the most vulnerable person in the room whether he likes it or not. Gotrid sits next to him without any complaints. The seat next to Liana is taken by Gavreel who's our chief Japanese representative.
My father's envoy takes the remaining four chairs, the rest have to keep standing by the wall and outside. I spread my wings to hug those sitting while Luviael, Vermiel, Soren and Miruel approach me from behind, not letting go of my wings even for a second.
"No need to be so wary, you have my regal word that we won't try anything," my father says. "I assure you that we came in peace."
I don't answer anything to that, pondering whether my father could intercept if I spoke to my subjects telepathically. I certainly can't hear them, I just sense that there is some telepathic communication going on between them. In the end, I decide to close my mind completely and don't dare to share my thoughts with my Consorts and subjects.
"I'll start then," my father decides assertively. "It's really nice to finally meet you in the real world, son."
I narrow my eyes, trying to analyse his feelings as I always do with humans and Draconians. Just a second later I realise that I could never feel his emotions before so I want to stop my futile attempt, but then I notice that I can feel something.
It's not my father, though—his mind is like a fortress—it's his companions. The emphatic imprint is faint so I decide to push harder. With humans and Draconians, who don't guard their minds in any way, it's super easy because their emotions are leaking out all the time. With the Divementis, I have to dig and really go for it.
Only a moment later from their startled expressions do I realise that, unlike humans and Draconians, they can detect when someone is telepathically analysing them. They try to fortify their mental defences, but just a second of their panicked hesitation is enough for me to get in.
I've always thought that the Divementis are cold by nature and their emotional responses are weak, but nothing could be further from the truth. They hide their emotions, but they are just as strong as any human or Draconian would have.
That discovery relaxes me a bit. I'm not facing psychopaths after all; they have a conscience so they can be reasoned with, hopefully. However, what disturbs me is how anxious they feel right now. From the outside, they look unreadable, confident and so unnervingly alien. From the inside, they are scared. Is that even possible? Are all my assumptions about them wrong?
"Aefener," my father hisses, snapping me out of my frantic thinking. "We promised not to hurt you in any way in good faith that you will abide by the same rule."
I blink, confused for a moment. What is he talking about? Only then I notice that several Divementis started to bleed from their noses and their facial expressions changed from unreadable to obviously panicked.