Blooming Stars

Chapter 14

As soon as my family arrived home, I instantly dove into my notes. But after a month, I reached a dead end with no answers. I was at a loss about what to do next. Without access to the imperial library, my resources were extremely limited. There were other libraries I could try, but none as expansive as the imperial library, and the topic of Ghost Stars was a narrow one.

Thus, my research languished. It threw me into a somber mood for a long time. I wondered about the prince and if he had made any progress. I trusted that he had. With that thought, I felt a little better. I knew the future of our empire was in good hands with someone like him.

Someone like him...

I kept thinking about the crown prince and the encounters we had at the palace. It all seemed so strange to me, like more than coincidence, but I knew it was all random chance. Still... I couldn't stop thinking about how he gave me Ghost Stars and had allowed me into the restricted library. What was all that about, anyway? No, I was reading too much into it. Maybe he just found me peculiar or entertaining.

Even though a month had passed, and I couldn't put him out of my mind. Did he have that effect on all the ladies? The woman he chooses as his bride will be very lucky, or maybe very unlucky since she will have to also become empress. I wouldn't envy her.

As for the Ghost Stars he had given me, I dried some of them, and managed to revive the others using my healing magic, although a few of them still died. I kept them on my windowsill so they could get enough light. They were so beautiful to look at, with their crystalline, transparent leaves that refracted the sunlight to create tiny rainbows. 'Just looking at them made me think of the crown prince. I felt a blush when I remembered how he gave these precious plants to me. Although I had tried to play it off as nothing, something grew in my heart that I couldn't ignore.

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One evening, I sat with my father in his personal study to keep him company as he worked late. I was reading a book on magic and practicing my own. Meanwhile, we chatted about this and that before he began concentrating on some documents. I closed the book I was reading and went to his personal library on the wall. Scanning the selection, my eyes fell on one book.

"I don't think I've seen this one before," I said. I pulled the book off the shelf and flipped through its pages.

"Oh, that's an old one," he said. "I've had it since I was a boy. Back then, I dreamed of becoming an explorer just like Dante Beauregard." He laughed dryly. "That was before I met your mother, however."

That name sounded familiar to me. "Who was he?"

Father set down his pen and stared off into the room, his gaze deepening with memory, perhaps remembering the boyish passion he once had. "Dante Beauregard was the king of explorers, going places no one else dared to, not even the emperor himself. He had gone all over the known world and even went to uninhabited places. He wrote a lot of books about his travels. I used to stay up reading them well into the night. My nanny had to pry them out of my hands just to get me to go to sleep."

I glanced at the first pages of the book. This chronicle of exploration was set almost a hundred years ago.

"Don't tell me my littlest is planning to leave her poor mother and father and go off adventuring?" Father said.

I giggled. Father could be dramatic sometimes. "Of course not! I was just curious. Besides, I think I saw this man's name in another book recently."

Father's eyes sparkled. "Oh? Which one? I have almost all his books except for the rarest!"

"It was in a book about Ghost Stars."

His face fell. "Hmm. Ghost Stars... I've heard of them, but I don't know much about them."

I brought the book back to my seat and paged through it. "They used to have a wider range in the empire, but over time, people began to change the landscape by farming and building towns and cities, and soon most of them disappeared." I went on to explain their magical and medicinal qualities. "But now they only grow at the imperial palace."

Father nodded. "I see. I'm sure it's because the air there is light and pure, blessed by God himself."

"Maybe Mr. Beauregard saw Ghost Stars in the wild during his travels," I said. "Did you say you had all his books?" I looked expectantly to the bookcases.

"All but one. I never had the chance to find one of them because, well..." He scratched at his cheek. "I had you girls and my hands became full."

Father showed me that there were six large volumes on his shelf. He boasted how there were only a limited number of copies of each. But the missing volume was the fourth book in the series. For some reason, that one had become difficult to find in the book market.

"I'm sure I could find it if I tried," he said. "But I've been too busy with work these many years, and your mother used to roll her eyes at me every time I mentioned Beauregard."

"May I borrow them? I'll take good care of them."

Father smiled broadly. "Of course!"