The Empty Ones (Fantasy Romance)

55. Thick honey on journal pages

"You assumed I was an airhead?"

"No. Not at all. I just assumed you didn't receive the same education I did, because even if you are highborn, highborn girls tend to get a different curriculum."

"More focused on breeding?" I am low-key annoyed. Not with him per se, but he is the one in front of me right now saying that.

"Hmm, is there any education you get in this country focused on reproduction?" he asks, surprisingly genuine and serious.

I didn't expect him to take this question seriously, and it takes me so off guard.

"What do you mean?" I stammer.

"What I said. In Tajir, the religious leaders are saying that scientific education in this matter is an affront to God. So when I proposed it in the Gathering of the Four, after a long fight with my father on the matter, I was outvoted three to one. And that was the end of it." He sighs and shrugs. "A very frustrating end on my account. So, is it different here?"

"I, uh, no..." I stammer and blush.

"So you are taught nothing?"

"I am not sure. Sometimes mothers do, but mine died in childbirth, so I couldn't tell."

"So you kind of stumbled into stuff?" he asks, looking a bit horrified. "God, that sounds horrific."

"I thought I was going to die," I confess in a sudden moment of candour, and at the same time, I feel the blood rushing to my head.

"I am... so terribly sorry," he says and looks at me, his eyes bright and open as I had never seen them before, his lips slightly ajar, no mischief, not snarkiness, nothing. "We can stop talking about this. I didn't mean to make you uncomfortable; it just escalated."

"Yeah, please," I say, not able to lift my gaze from the floor.

"All right, Zara. Let's relax first. Shall we? I will ring for a tea for you. Sit down."

I take a seat on a chair, trying to keep my hands from shaking.

"What are you drinking?"

"Coffee," he states simply.

"Do I get some?"

"If you want, but coffee doesn't relax." He smiles, fills me a cup and pushes it to me over the table.

I take careful sips.

"What do I need Quizeh for?"

"To read part of my research. So I don't have to explain stuff." He pushes over a leather-bound book. It's thick and rather heavy. By opening it, I notice that it's only three-quarters full and handwritten by... Him?

"You wrote all this?"

"Yes. For me and posterity."

"Are you not afraid that..." I stop just in time before saying something stupid.

A knowing smile stretches over his face.

"That people who don't particularly like me might get rid of me and continue the research with someone else?"

I nod. So he is very aware, but did it anyway. Would my husband do that? Most likely. If it wouldn't stir political turmoil, he would enforce his opinions differently.

"Well... Yes."

"No. Read it and you will notice why. If I find, however, what I am searching for, it will become a possibility, depending on the form the solution would take."

I raise an eyebrow.

"So my first assignment is to read this?"

He nods.