Chapter 11 – Aftermath

After her unexpected fiasco, Starlight went to the only place she could think of – Sal-Lee's room.

Sal-Lee opened the door and raised her eyebrows. "Didn't think you even remembered me."

"What? Why?" Starlight recoiled in surprise. This was something very similar to what her dad had said.

"Dining with a prince and his parents, dancing with a king." Sal-Lee twitched her shoulder.

Starlight realized she and Sal-Lee hadn't exchanged a dozen phrases last night, because they had been sitting so far away from each other, and because the dance was so formal. Frankly, Starlight had been so careful not to betray her emotions that she had evaded all company last night.

"I'm sorry, Sal-Lee," she said, her shoulders sagging.

Sal-Lee's expression softened a bit. She eyed Starlight's hoverboard. "Anyway. Wanna go hoverboarding together?"

"Not really… I came, well…" She hugged herself with her free hand and looked away. "I don't know what to do."

Sal-Lee stepped aside, her eyes alight with concern. "Hey. Come in and tell me everything."

Sal-Lee's room was an exact copy of Starlight's. All guest rooms looked the same. With a few exceptions, perhaps.

"You can't imagine what's just happened to me," said Starlight mournfully when they sat on the sofa.

"You still have your arms and legs about you, so I suppose a hoverboarding accident is not the case," teased Sal-Lee. "Come on, it can't be that bad."

"I've just met queen Leora. That woman gives me creeps! She asked me to marry Leo! Can you imagine that?"

The news had surprisingly little effect on Sal-Lee. If anything, her sympathy evaporated.

"Wow. The progress you made. Now she actually likes you enough to be her daughter-in-law."

Starlight almost lost her temper. "No, she doesn't! She only wants me to talk Leo out of becoming a full-time pilot! It's so... foul! How can you be so calm about it?"

"She does want you to marry her son," Sal-Lee shrugged. "Isn't that good enough for you? You can't expect more from her."

"But that's not the point! I don't want to marry Leo, I'm not even in love with him!"

Now Sal-Lee was stunned. She blinked quickly as if there was a speck of dust stuck in her lashes.

"You aren't? How's that possible?"

Starlight jerked her head a bit. Something very weird was going on.

"We're good friends, true. But we are not in love!"

"But you told me… Back on Lower Van-Tu…" Sal-Lee furrowed her brow. Starlight could positively imagine cogs and gears spinning in her mind. "Leo seemed to be the only option."

Oh no. No, no, no, Starlight thought. I wasn't planning to tell her this!

But slowly Sal-Lee was going through all the options, which were very few. Sooner or later she was bound to arrive at a conclusion. "You aren't into us girls, are you?" she said finally, suppressing a smile.

"Er, no."

"But who then?" wondered Sal-Lee, her brows drawn together again.

Unbelievably, her friend couldn't see the obvious. Starlight wished she could just laugh and get away with it. But she couldn't.

"It's… Constantine," she said, her voice barely more than a breath.

Sal-Lee could keep her face concerned and straight for just one second. The next she burst into gales of laughter, and it took her a long while to stop.

"You can't be serious!" she said, trying not to giggle. "The last time I heard you speak his name you told me he hated you! And I kinda assumed it was mutual. Care to update me?"

"He apologized," said Starlight plainly.

Sal-Lee stared at her. "And that's it?"

"He really meant it. And he… kissed me."

Sal-Lee covered her mouth to keep her laughter inside. Starlight wished to become invisible.

"I can't believe it!" Sal-Lee cried. "I thought he was more into robots than girls."

"Sal-Lee, you monster!" Starlight burst out laughing, too.

When they both finally sobered, Starlight continued, "But you don't know the worst part yet! When queen Leora was telling me how keen she was on me marrying Leo, he overheard her! And now he thinks I'm going to marry Leo! No, no, don't you laugh again, Sal-Lee!"

"Can't do!" smirked Sal-Lee. "Too many surprises!"

"But what am I going to do?"

"Depends on what you want to do, right?"

Starlight studied her knees thoroughly before answering.

"I'm not sure… I want to tell him the truth, but I don't know what the truth is."

"Ah, you are still not sure if it's love or what?"

Starlight desperately tried to focus and weave some logic out of her confused feelings. "I may be in love, but what good will it do? Even if he loves me too, – and I'm not sure about that either! – I'm not someone a king is supposed to be in love with. I'm nothing like this place, I don't think I can stay here for long. I need plants and animals, I need life!"

Sal-Lee was still listening, silent.

"And yet, I can't leave either." Starlight sighed.

"Take it easy," Sal-Lee finally said, serious. "Take one step at a time. First thing to decide: do you want to talk to him or not? Just to tell him you're not marrying Leo. He will find out sooner or later anyway."

Starlight shuddered. "You're right, Sal-Lee, I must talk to him. I can't let him believe that I kissed him back being engaged to someone else."

"So you did kiss him back!" Sal-Lee's violet eyes twinkled mischievously.

They laughed and giggled for a while, until they remembered it was high time they'd had breakfast. So they left the room to join the twins and Leo, who was totally oblivious of all the fuss he'd caused.

"There is a proposition to install a new telespire on top of the Trading Center building. It will enhance the Center's teleporting capacity by about a third."

The small councilor was pointing at the diagram with his stubby finger. Constantine studied the image, eyelids half-closed.

"Sounds splendid indeed," he drawled gravely, resisting the urge to prop his chin in his palm and sigh.

The councilor swallowed, mistaking the king's indifference for impending ire.

"Yes, your majesty. There is this… detail. As I'm sure you have already calculated, it will make the Center stand taller than the tallest tower of the Royal Palace. But only by twenty irrials."

Constantine waved a hand as if shooing away a fly. "Fine. What else?"

The councilor was taken aback. "Else? That was the final item in the agenda. You mean to say, you agree we should install the spire, sire?" He looked bewildered.

"Yes. Now if you are finished, the meeting is finished as well."

With some hesitation the councilor turned off the hologram. He had twelve more graphs, diagrams and charts prepared – he had estimated it would take at least half an hour to convince the sovereign. The outcome was most extraordinary and very puzzling. But neither he, nor Constantine himself could recognize the symptoms of a broken heart.

When all members of the council had filed out of the ballroom, Constantine stayed still and stiff for a moment, then sagged in his throne.

Princess Starlight was getting married. He should have seen all the signs! She had always been so friendly with that Kumaian prince, from the very beginning. Constantine recalled the first day of their training and the warm-up match between the two. At that time Constantine had been so annoyed with the girl that he willingly, if discretely, tried to trip her up. Now he wished he had let her beat the prince to a pulp instead. Doubtless, she and the prince had had plenty of time to become even more friendly in the year since.

He stood up abruptly, his lips a hard line. What a fool he had made of himself! Kissing her, dancing with her! She had been probably laughing up her sleeve at him all the way! Constantine sighed. He knew she wouldn't. But he cringed nevertheless.

What was he to do now? Avoid the invitation to their wedding at all costs, was his brain's prompt response. He would surely be expected to attend the event, two of his celebrated volunteers getting married. He could pretend to be sick. Or busy. Anything to evade the humiliation.

"Artemis!" he called.

"Sire?"

"Make sure no one disturbs me for the rest of the day. I wish to speak to no one, tell them I am busy. No requests, no messages, unless the place is on fire. Is that clear?"

"Yes, sire."

Author's note:

So we have what we have here.:D Starlight is determined to talk to Constantine, and he's as determined to avoid it.:D

That's the end of the second part (yess, this time I enjoy making a pause at a sad point in the story). I will definitely need about a week to edit the last 6 chapters. As always, when you say in reviews that you are waiting for the rest of the story, it makes me drag my lazy feet to my PC and edit faster.:D