Dedication
"…in order thoroughly to understand the nature of the populace one must be a prince, and in order thoroughly to understand the nature of a prince, one must be of the people."
Earth's moon, Roshaun had to admit, was a wonderful sight. He was almost glad that he had allowed Dairine to take him there—almost. She was obviously stressed about this wizardry they were working, and about the sudden absence of the higher-ups in Earth's wizardly hierarchy. He thought that she probably needed the restorative sight more than he did. After all, the spell they would be enacting later on was simple stellar manipulation.
"It's not that simple," Dairine said, standing next to him and looking down at Earth.
Was I thinking that loudly? Roshaun thought, surprised. He was always so good at controlling things like that. What was different? He concluded that it must be the view. From this distance, Earth looked almost…beautiful. It was an odd thought.
"I've drawn up harder spells," he replied offhandedly to Dairine.
She merely snorted in derision, as if to say, Yeah right!
"It's true!" Roshaun protested, wondering why he felt the need to justify himself in front of Dairine. Technically, it was true: he had practiced diagramming interventions much more complex than this. But those had been just for practice, and he had never implemented any of them. He had never had the need to.
Dairine decided not to reply to this last comment, preferring silence, Roshaun supposed, to an argument. In fact, she stayed so silent that he almost forgot she was there, until a while later when she spoke.
"You're afraid."
This simple accusation startled him. He had not been prepared for such, and the best he could reply with was, "So are you."
"Yes, I'm afraid," she said steadily. "But not so much for me. This is my sun we're talking about. If something goes wrong…" She didn't need to finish.
Roshaun felt unsettled by this uncharacteristic declaration. Dairine did not seem like the sort of being to admit such a thing, especially around a being she respected as much as Roshaun, which was not at all. "You need to do it, though," he said tentatively, trying to sound comforting. "You've had experience with stellar dynamics before. And like you said, it's your sun we're talking about. That could make a difference." He left unsaid that he had had far more experience than her with spells of this type, and that if her being from the Solar system made a difference at all, it wouldn't be a large one. Dairine knew that anyway; it wouldn't do her any good to hear it again.
A pause. "So you do know how to be tactful," Dairine said sarcastically.
Regaining his composure, Roshaun said, "Yes, I do believe the palace tutor tried to teach me something about it. He had a terribly monotone voice, though, and did not appreciate me informing him of it."
She looked at him, one eyebrow raised. "Did I just see you try to be funny?"
"A prince does not try," he replied. "A prince does."
"Someone's been getting instruction from Yoda," Dairine commented, quite incomprehensibly. "Now if only he could teach you humility." She lapsed again into thought.
They stood there for a while, both looking down at Earth. Roshaun wondered idly what his subjects would have thought had they seen him standing here with this…with Dairine. He even would have been interested by his parents' thoughts.
Finally, Dairine looked down at her wristwatch and said, "We'd better get going."
Roshaun nodded, pulling from a pocket of his robes the tangle of brightness Dairine called his manual but was referred to on his world as simply "the Light." He quickly reconstructed the spell that would take them back to the Callahan backyard, still thinking. Dairine had not pressed him to admit his fear. He was glad; it would have been difficult for him to do so, even though as a wizard he could not lie and could only dance around a subject for so long. Eventually, he would have had to admit his fear, something he didn't want to do in front of her. Not just because she was right, but because he, too, was not afraid as much for himself as he was for others. A certain other, in particular.
He pushed those thoughts aside, certainly not wanting them to be overheard, and glanced back down at Earth. Then he looked to Dairine and, against all odds, smiled. "Let's go save the world."