Chapter Fifteen- Belief and Truth Psalm 51:6- "Surely you desire truth."

Darkness. Light. Bright light. It hurt her eyes.

Blinking hurt her eyes. Everything hurt. Couldn't move. It hurt.

A voice? Speaking.to her? She tried to focus, tried to listen.

Eventually the room came into focus, and she saw Chayden. Chayden.she fought against the feeling of warmth that suddenly grew inside her heart. *Chayden's not a believer,* she sternly reminded herself, forming her first coherent thought, *I can't fall in love with him.*

But it was too late, she realized as she looked into his ocean-blue eyes. "You're awake!" He exclaimed, smiling in wonder.

"Yes." Tielle murmured softly, trying to remember what had happened. She had been interrogated, and had fainted, obviously, but why hadn't the interrogation sphere revived her? "What happened?"

Chayden's handsome face darkened. "Hristen injected too much poison into your system, electrocuted you too many times, just generally gave you too much pain. Your system couldn't handle it and it shut down."

"Then how long was I unconscious?"

"Three days."

Tielle turned away from Chayden's intense gaze. It was overwhelming her.

His voice was no less intense when he spoke again. "The medics didn't think you'd make it," he confided softly. "And I was losing hope too. And Tielle- " here he gently pulled her towards him so that she was facing him, "-I was going insane. I stayed by your bed day and night, wanting to be there when you woke up or when you left. Tielle, I, I was-" he broke off, not sure of what to say.

"Chayden, stop," Tielle firmly commanded, not wanting to hear anymore. It was making her pulse quicken, her breathing deepen, her desire growing.

She forced her thoughts away from where they were heading. He wasn't a believer! She had to remember that! He was not a believer! Her feelings for him were wrong, and she was pledged to Kall.

"Why?" He challenged her. "Why should I stop?"

Tielle swallowed. Hard. "Because you don't believe in my God."

He smiled. "Is that why?"

She nodded.

"Well let me tell you something. I prayed and prayed to my gods that you would heal." Tielle listened with a sinking heart. Was he going to say that her recovery was because of his gods? "But nothing happened. In fact, you just got worse. So I got worried and in my despair tried everything that I could. Including praying to your god." Chayden smiled, and in that instant he looked more handsome than he ever had before. "He answered my prayer, Tielle. You were right; your god is the only god."

Tielle stared at him, shocked. Could this be a ploy to get her affection?

No. Chayden was not deceitful or misleading. He would never use such a scheme to get her love.

"You, you believe?" Tielle managed to spit out.

"Yes," Chayden replied, his eyes glowing a brilliant blue. "Yes, I believe. And you know what else?" He leaned in close. "I love you."

Tielle didn't respond; his lips had suddenly met hers and there was no opportunity to.

***

"We are terribly concerned about your Crown Princess," King Hael of Shansire told Klane. "The interrogation was a brutal one, and the way it ended was most distressing indeed." The king shook his head in dismay as Klane cynically thought, *You're just worried that if Tielle is dead your son won't be able to marry into the Hidonian Royal Family. But don't worry; there's still a chance to get her younger sister, Arilana. *

"Right now my concern is more with the blockade," Klane stated, "and I am glad that you have sent your warships to deal with the threat they pose. And now I think that I must leave for Ziex to convince them of the need for support also."

"Certainly, certainly," Hael agreed heartily. "You may leave at your convenience."

*I was going to anyway.* Klane thought contemptuously.

***

On Hidon, Klane would have been delighted to know that his older brother and all of Hidon's officials were panicking. Their planet was being blockaded, their princesses were being held hostage on Fareari, one of which having been tortured and possibly killed, and their supposed allies Ziex and Shansire had still not arrived to provide any help.

Things were looking dire indeed, and there did not seem to be any immediate possibility of improvement.

***

Two days after Tielle awoke, King Faihn contacted Chayden.

"How is the princess? Recovering well?"

"Yes Father. She is weak and sore, but for her to even be alive is a miracle."

"And I'm sure she'll be quick to point to her god as the creator of that miracle," Faihn snorted disdainfully.

Chayden refrained from comment.

"Well, Partini is being as stubborn as usual," Faihn continued conversationally. "And I grow tired of waiting, so we're going to invade before either meddling Shansire or Ziex arrives with warships. But first," he grinned a grin eerily similar to Hristen's, "we're going to execute the princess."

***

Tielle floated in a dreamy state as the medics checked over her, taking her vitals and fussing over everything. Chayden loved her! And he was now a believer too!

How much better could things get? She asked herself, then was disheartened when reality flooded back in. *Well, Arilana could be alive, Fareari could not blockade Hidon, and I could be free in Hidon, not having to worry about another interrogation.*

She pushed her thoughts away from bad side of things and winced as them a doctor stabbed a needle into her sore flesh. Why was it that to heal you always had to feel pain first?

The doctor finished his task and set the needle down, stopping to face the princess. "It is nothing less than a miracle that you are alive," he stated somberly, "and I will be frank with you- it would have been better if you had died."

Tielle stared in aghast at his cruel words, then felt ashamed as she realized that not long ago, she would have had that same attitude about a Farearian prisoner on Hidon.

The doctor wasn't done yet, however. "You know you will never return home, and will just be interrogated here before His Majesty King Faihn gets bored waiting for Hidon to surrender, and you'll be executed."

Tielle saw the truth in his words, even if they were laced with resentment.

And she knew that her father would never surrender, even if it meant her death.