I stepped into the living area of my new suite of rooms two mornings after I’d awaken to find Pledge Haxley’s throat slashed. It had been a droll two days being stuck inside the chalet with nothing better to do than to go over my lessons with Dur-rele and the quite bland files of the nine––or eight now––Pledges that Vang had chosen for me.

The lessons were at least informative and had been cut into two distinct areas. The first half of our time together Dur-rele would focus on all the Ethian things most Ethians took for granted like how to use the unity rings to send and receive messages and the proper way to hook and wear a long coat, because, apparently, I had been doing it wrong.

The other set of lessons had to do with all the princely things I should have learned as I grew up in the White Place, but didn’t, including the proper protocols of how others should treat me and how I should act in the presence of different individuals, which I found to be confusing and more than a little frustrated about.

As for Vang’s files, I felt like I knew the Pledges quite well now, at least based on their College profiles. I had pretty much memorized most to the information, especially of the Pledges that stood out to me. I had even taken the liberty of marking two of them off and was ready to let Master Kiev know so he could tell me the appropriate way to inform Captain Dexter.

I had to stop in my tracks as I stepped into the living area as I noticed that one of those I had marked off my Pledge list was standing in a watchful stance our near the balcony. That made me pause and blink. My heart started to race. But he wasn’t the only one in the room. There was another Pledge from my list standing in the opposite corner of the room in a similar stance to Gunther’s.

I turned and looked around to make sure I was seeing right. The four men from the assault team who had been guarding me (and who rotated out with the other four partway through each day) were gone. Only the two Pledges stood guard now. When had that switch taken place? And why hadn’t I been informed of it?

One of the Pledges was Gunther who just so happened to be one that I had marked off my list. Sasseni being the other one. I figured I was going to be bonded and trusting the person I chose as my Protector with my life. If there were any hard feelings or misgivings from any of those on my list, then I shouldn’t hesitate to mark them off. There were definitely plenty of other candidates to choose from, though it seemed my list of nine had been whittled down to six already.

As I resumed my walk across the room, Gunther proved my decision to mark him off the list a correct one. I could feel his hard gaze on my back as I moved toward the area I had designated the kitchen of the residence. I did my best to ignore the hostility I felt coming off him, but my palms were starting to sweat.

I glanced to Pledge Vasti for reassurance. The tall blond man stood as if he was ready for anything. His feet spread hip width apart. Arms ready and loose beside him. His eyes actively scanning the room around me. He did stop long enough to give me a slight nod as I approached, and then went right back to letting his raptor gaze scour the room for danger. That made me give a small sigh of relief.

But I didn’t let my guard down as I began to fix breakfast. I might have liked Vasti as a possible pick, but I did not know where his true loyalties lay. I was planning on talking with Master Kiev more about him and the other five Pledges to see what his thoughts on them might be. At this point, I trusted his judgment better than mine, only because he knew these men and even taught them. I hoped I didn’t look too suspicious as I turned my body to the side so my back wasn’t fully to Gunther or Vasti either as I worked.

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The area I had dubbed the kitchen wasn’t much like a kitchen on Earth. There was no refrigerator or stove or anything of the like. There was simply a bank of shelves where one could find a few stacks of thin white squares that acted as plates and tall white cylinders as cups. There were also utensils to eat with what resembled a knife and something that looked a lot like a spork. And then there were the scores of packaged “pellets” as the pack labeled them, which seemed a good descriptive term for the small white beads inside the sealed white pouches.

Each packet had an assortment of foods and whole meals labeled across the front. A person simply chose one that looked interesting, opened it, and poured the tiny white pellets onto an empty white plate. Then it was just a matter of placing it in a microwave looking device called a synthesizer. Once the door was closed, the synthesizer lit up and hummed for a few moments. After the light shut off, it was safe to open the device and steaming hot food sat on the plate were once the pellets had been. It was all quite genius and I had had a lot of fun trying out the different labels to see what each held.

For this morning’s meal, I decided to try one that claimed it was roasted homix with diced freezas and chopped gloru. I knew what freezas and gloru were like. I had both already, and I was a big fan of gloru. It reminded me a lot of steak.

I pulled my piping hot plate from the synthesizer and took a seat at the large dining table in the middle of the room trying my best to ignore the man standing near the balcony. But my body tensed even more at the waves of aggression I felt radiating from Gunther.

What the hell was his problem anyways? I sat there for a long moment, pausing over my meal with eyes closed as I tried to digest the emotion I was receiving from the hostile Pledge. It felt heavy like a weighted blanket that might smother the breath right out of me. It was also thick like trying to walk through molasses. And there also seemed to be a sharpness to it like… like a knife cutting through a heart, and I got a sudden sense that his aggression toward me was personal.

I opened my eyes and blinked at that last thought. Had I just imagined that last part? Surely I had. Why would his aggression towards me be personal? I had never met this man in my life.

There at the corner of my eye I noticed the data pad I had discarded on the dining table last night. I had to stand up partway to reach for it. Once I had it in my grasp, I sat back down and immediately opened the document with Vang’s file of Pledges and scrolled through Gunther’s profile looking for any clues as to what might explain the man’s hostility.

While I went through the man’s information, I took a bite of what must have been the roasted homix. It was a light colored meat brushed with some sort of seasoning. I paused as I enjoyed the explosion of taste. I sat there for a moment trying to find a comparison to something I had on Earth, but nothing was coming to mind. It was a delicate meat like tilapia, but full of a robust taste that made me dig in for another bite.

“Oh my god, this is so good. I’m definitely putting this on my favorite list.” I said out loud to no one in particular as I dug in for a third, and then fourth bite, making sure to add some of the freezas and gloru, which only seemed to make the meal even better!

I had devoured the majority of the food on my plate before I remembered what I was doing. I almost laughed. It was truly a great thing to find food that made you forget your troubles at least for a few minutes. So far Ethia had given me several of those moments. It made me realize that maybe while there were some hard things to accept about this Empire, there were some really great things about this place too.

After my moment of bliss, I plunged back into Gunther’s file determined to solve the perplexing mystery of this Pledge. I was half through the file when I heard the transporter activate, and shortly after, a familiar greeting made me smile and relax considerably.