Part Two- Love

Chapter Nine- Change of Heart

Proverbs 28:14- "Blessed is the man who always fears the Lord, but he who hardens his heart falls into trouble."

After Tielle had cried until she could cry no more, and her throat was raw and her eyes were burning, she pulled away from Chayden, embarrassed. She looked down at the floor and meekly asked, "Can I go to my room?"

"Certainly not," Hristen brusquely said. Tielle sighed and wondered why Hristen had to have seen her crying her heart out in his younger brother's arms. "Someone knows that that is your room, and so it would be very foolish to put you back there." He paused. "Unless you're in a hurry to join your sister."

Tears welled up in Tielle's eyes and Chayden sternly said, "Hristen!"

Tielle didn't look up, but she could see Hristen's smirk as he replied, "Ah, come on, Chayden, I'm just having some fun with her. She's just a Hidionian prisoner. She doesn't matter."

His cruel words pierced Tielle, and she thought, *That's the same attitude I had towards Farearians. How conceited and wicked I was! Some witness to God. I don't deserve to be His child, or even Hidon's Queen one day. I am so evil.*

Chayden lightly tapped Tielle's arm, and she snapped back to the present. "Come with me," he said, and Tielle wearily obliged as he led her to her new room. She went inside and collapsed on the bed, weeping bitterly.

Once things were under control, Hristen went into the communications room and contacted his father in Citaege. As the frequencies connected, Hristen nervously fiddled with his fingers on the machinery. His father was not going to be pleased with this turn of events.

"King Faihn is occupied at this time. Please leave a message." A computerized voice said, and Hristen snorted. His father would only be busy sleeping.

"Direct voice override authorized by Prince Hristen P'ashara," Hristen intoned, "code A7H3XAI2O."

"Code accepted. Voice override match confirmed. Please hold for King Faihn." The voice replied, and minutes later a noticeably irritated King Faihn appeared in the viewscreen. "By the gods, what are you contacting me for, Hristen? You had better have a good reason!"

"Princess Arilana was assassinated half a Standard hour ago," Hristen replied. "Is that a good enough reason to contact you?"

"Watch your mouth, son. Sarcasm is not usually an acceptable trait when addressing a king," Faihn retorted automatically, deep in thought. "What about Tielle? Was she killed too?"

"No. Her guard managed to thwart the would-be assassin."

"And were all of the assassins caught?"

"They were all killed. Unfortunately, none could be captured to interrogate. There is no way of knowing who was behind the assassinations."

Faihn swore. "Oh, I know who was behind the assassinations alright. The question is, how did he know where they were?" The king paused for a moment, then swore again. "When he told us of the princesses' trip to Fareari! He probably traced the frequency and listened in on us when I gave the order to put the princesses at the Retreat!" Faihn swore again.

"Who, Father? Who traced the frequency?"

"Hm? Oh, never mind that. Just get the princess away from the Retreat."

"Where should we move her to?"

"Perhaps the island prison. We probably should have had her there to begin; it is harder to infiltrate without being noticed. Ah, well, it's too late now. I'll contact the prison and tomorrow you can move the princess there."

"As you wish," Hristen bowed slightly, "and shall Chayden and I accompany her there?"

"Yes, I think so. I'll create some lie about your whereabouts, so don't worry about that."

"Very well." Hristen smiled as inspiration struck him. "Father, when you do reveal to Hidon that you have the princess, you can pretend that you have both of them, you know. Because-"

"All of the assassins were killed! Brilliant, Hristen!"

Hristen glowed with pride. Compliments from Faihn were few and far between.

"Excellent. That's what I'll do, then. And I think I will do so a couple days after you have settled in on the island."

"What will you do if Partini refuses to turn Hidon over to you in exchange for the princess."

The wicked pleasure in Faihn's smile was also in his voice. "Then they will give Hidon to us out of mercy when the princess undergoes torture."

***

The day after Arilana's death, Tielle went outside one last time. She breathed deep the scent of the woods and dipped her fingertips into the water that she and her sister had prayed beside the day before.

Chayden watched her from a distance, seemingly to give her room to grieve. But instead of crying any more tears, Tielle took her Holy Books. She randomly flipped through one and stopped when a highlighted verse caught her eye. " 'For I desire mercy, not sacrifice'," Tielle whispered to herself. "Mercy." Mercy, which ultimately led to forgiveness. Tielle glanced at Chayden. He was kind to her, and easy to forgive, but Hristen? And King Faihn? Her sister's assassin?

Again Tielle randomly flipped through her book and found another highlighted verse: "Hatred stirs up dissension, but love covers over all wrongs."

Love. Could Tielle ever learn to love those who hated her? Could she ever learn not to hate?

She could try.

Tielle thought of Arilana. She had never shown hatred towards anyone, not even the Farearians. Fear, yes, but never hatred. She had not drowned in pride the way that Tielle had. In many, many ways she had had more understanding of God's ways than Tielle did.

Arilana. Tielle felt her eyes grow damp once again, but she blinked back the tears and bowed her head.

*God, I have been proud, arrogant, hateful, sinful, and not at all what You want me to be. I am sorry. I am sorry. Have I ever said those words to anyone, ever? How proud I am, indeed.

Please help me. I am weak and cannot be loving, humble and contrite on my own. I need You. Somewhere along the way I forgot that. I thought that I could do everything on my own.

Maybe that's part of the reason You took Arilana. To wake me up and to show me that I was far too proud before. If that was the reason for Arilana's death, then I cannot let her die in vain. I have to try to be better. I have to try to show mercy and love. Please help me with that, God.*

Tielle raised her head and smiled. It was a weak smile, to be sure, but it was a smile nonetheless.

***

Chayden watched the princess take in her surroundings and see everything with new eyes. She knew that she was going to be leaving this place tomorrow and probably wanted to savor the place where she had been with her deceased sister in Arilana's last days in the galaxy.

Tielle flipped though her one of her Holy Books and read a verse. She paused to think about it, thoughtfulness momentarily stronger than grief in her emotions. She bowed her head and prayed, and when she looked up again, she was smiling and she radiated of sad hope and mournful serenity instead of deep grief and intense despair.

What comfort her religion seemed to be to her in her time of sorrow! It made Chayden wonder if perhaps there was more to her one god than there was to his dozens. At least this one god seemed to give Tielle more solace than Chayden's gods had ever given him.

Chayden decided to ask her about that. He went over to her and sat down by her side. She closed her books and turned to him. "Yes?"

He gestured to her books. "What were you reading? I sensed peacefulness in your emotions when you were reading."

He noted with interest that she didn't recoil in disgust when he referred to his gene-altering as she had before. What had caused that change? Tielle reopened her books. "Here, this verse: 'Hatred stirs up dissension, but love covers all wrongs.' I was wondering if it was possible for me to ever forgive Arilana's assassin out of love. Love," she murmured, looking out into Fareari's forests. "It is the hardest lesson to learn, and the way I learned it was truly horrible…"

Chayden could think of nothing to say, so he remained silent until the princess snapped out of her thoughts and turned to him. "When am I to be moved?"

"No one said you were going to be moved."

She gave him a withering stare. "Don't insult my intelligence. If someone knows that I'm here, I need to be moved."

Chayden gave in. "Alright, I'll tell you, even though Hristen would have my head if he knew. You're being moved tomorrow."

"Tomorrow?" Tielle mulled that over. "Oh, don't worry about Hristen. I'm not in the habit of confiding anything in him."

Chayden chuckled weakly. He knew what question was coming next. Sure enough:

"Where am I going?"

Chayden swallowed. Hard. "You're being relocated to *K'ya se tino*, on an island in the middle of one of Farerari's many oceans."

"And what does *K'ya se tino* mean in Standard?"

"Hidden Fortress."

"Hidden Fortress?" Tielle gaped at him, then stated flatly, "It's a prison, isn't it?"

Reluctantly nodding, Chayden met her fearful gaze. "Yes, it is."

"And what- what kind of criminals are there?" She asked, her voice catching.

"The dangerous ones," Chayden looked away. "The serial killers, terrorists, and others awaiting the death penalty."

"The, the death penalty." Tielle's sense radiated of denial and extreme fear… but underlying confidence was also there. "Are you coming too?"

Chayden nodded. "I will not leave you there alone with Hristen." *Especially when they begin the interrogation.*