Radiance: Part One

V3: Royal Panic

"You owe me nothing-" Vyrik started to say, as his screen went dark. 'Oh well' he thought.

He pressed a call button nearby, summoning one of his many staff to his aid.

"You called, prince?" His most trusted assistant, Hettie, popped up on an air screen just inside of his range of vision.

"Hettie, I can't seem to reach General Wei, can you check on him, for me, and let him know I need to see him?" Vyrik so hated troubling her, regardless of her job title. She was always busy, no matter what time of day or weather, she was always busy.

"Of course, sir." She gave him an unburdened smile.

Three quarters of an hour passed before there was a notice in Vyrik's peripheral vision that someone was requesting to enter his study. He blinked the notification away and welcomed the general into his study.

"Come in, please and have a seat." He ushered towards the chairs on the other side of the room- two comfortable, modern armchairs- and joined him. When they were both seated, he brought up what he'd just discussed with Captain Lydaleigh.

"We must move the landing date forward, sir. It is imperative." General Wei's normally stalwart features had been clouded by stress. "How can we be sure that she was the only treasonist?"

"My sentiments precisely, Wei. I have already arranged to send three of my personal healers and three of our best scientists to help them. I'll tell her we need to move the date forward a month at least. She has a lot to do today, I'll call her tomorrow after things have hopefully settled down." Wei nodded. "And as for moles, we will have to investigate further, but it will certainly help to have our own on board."

"You seem quite besotted with the Captain, sir, if you don't mind my saying. Not that you aren't already...helpful. This just seems different." He prodded, smiling. They had been friends for years, there were no unspeakable subjects between them- it was how they preferred it. True friends were honest with you all of the time.

"I am not besotted, I'm simply intrigued- It has been a single day, Ormyn. I'd never met a human before, now I've met seven of them. Nothing more than that. I've got too much to do to focus on...fancy- we may soon be at war. I never thought I'd be a leader amidst a war..." He put his head in his hands and sighed. Things would only get more difficult from there. He was one of the youngest to ever lead the T'sari and now he might be leading them to war...

The humans sought asylum from a dead world. They would have nothing to go back to if they couldn't come here. He would be sentencing over 300 to death if he turned his back now.

He'd been ignorant to schedule a meeting with the humans on the same day as an important press conference to discuss the growing tensions between the kingdoms of Gray and Gold. It could not be rescheduled. The media waited in the ballroom on bated breath, to hear what Grand Prince Vyrik of House Cresthold had to say about The Gray. He could hear the cacophony of voices before he reached the double doors.

He walked out onto the raised dias and took a seat on his throne. Well. It would be his throne when his father passed on to elderhood- just a few moons, now. The reporter's cameras hovered, at least twenty floating spheres circling just a few feet from him. They needed good shots, money shots. Some would paint him negatively, but if he did this right, the majority would still side with him.

General Wei had accompanied him to the dais, standing just to the side, hand propped gingerly on the hilt of his weapon. He raised his other hand in the air, signaling silence.