> I had known from my talks with Endymion that the Lion Maiden was popular, but I had never imagined to what extent. Seeing her then, standing among the people and receiving their greetings, I finally understood. Even Arthur, a titan of presence and psionic charisma, seemed more like a passenger held aloft by her grace. I knew, in that moment, that we were seeing something profound—and that the two of them, together, would change the fate of our world. I simply never could have predicted how much.

Pallikári was, in a word, ambitious.

The immense town that surrounded the Leos Palace and spanned the entirety of their island home wasn’t classified as a city solely due to the definition of the word no longer holding the same meaning. Had they been on Terra prior to the stellar age, Arthur knew, then the ‘town’ of Pallikári would have numbered among some of the greatest cities of mankind.

Over ten million people lived, worked, and went about their lives within the expansive island metropolis.

When they drove down from the palace toward the city, Arthur noticed through the holographic displays layered over the solid steel of the doors they were approaching what appeared to be a suburban area of very expensive houses.

“The wealthier residents of the town prefer to live near the palace.” Circe explained before Arthur could ask.

He turned to her when she spoke, and saw her casually leaning against the right side door while she looked out of the false window.

“And where are we going?” Arthur asked while observing her.

“We’ll go a little of everywhere,” Circe answered with a smile, “but we’ll end up at my favorite restaurant. It’s built on the beachfront, at the southern peninsula of the island.”

“It’ll be dark in a few hours, won’t it?”

“The sun sets at around forty-six hundred hours LST.” Circe confirmed with a nod.

“LST?” Arthur asked automatically while thinking it over. “Laconian Standard Time?”

“Laconian Southern.” Circe said with a wry smile. “Sorry, I forgot you didn’t know.”

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“You clarified it.” Arthur said with a smiling shrug. “So we’ll be in town until sunset?”

“Yep.” Circe confirmed with a nod. “We’ll spend about four or five hours showing you the town, and then we’ll finish at the beachfront for an early dinner.”

“Toured, Wined, and Dined. What a lucky man I am.” Arthur said with a chuckle.

“And don’t you forget it!” Circe said with a pointed finger and a laugh.

From there, the day proceeded precisely as Circe had dictated, to no surprise of Arthur’s. She first took him to the bustling metropolitan heart of the town, where painstaking effort had been made to ensure that anything a consumer of any wealth bracket could desire—within the limits of mid-Rim technology—was available. Everything from basic toiletries to interstellar starships and more besides. Swords, guns of ballistic, plasma, and beam varieties, air cars, personal shuttles, and even things as mundane as hydroponic vegetables.

The first thing Arthur noticed was how easily Circe was recognized. Even among the crowd she stood a head above most of the people in the streets and within the shops, and in the rare instances she didn’t, it was usually either off-worlders or the rare native with clear gene enhancement at play.

The second thing he noticed was the keen interest people paid to him. At multiple points during their outing, the heiress quite literally dragged him around to look at things, or playfully shoved him into shops or entertainment venues with the comfort of two people that had known each other for years.

It did not go unnoticed by passersby, all of whom seemed to recognize the tall, strong, and beautiful Leos Heiress on sight. The looks he received were equal parts curious, suspicious, scandalized, envious, and even jealous at some points. Men and women, young, adult, or elderly, and even some AI—none of them were exceptions. They looked at him, the tall blond stranger with the gene-enhanced features and martial bearing, and they wondered.

He only held their attention for so long, however.

It was nothing compared to how they reacted to Circe.

She was, in Arthur’s assessment, utterly beloved.

More than one person every so often stopped to request a photo with her, or to shake her hand, or simply offer her good fortune and the gods’ blessings. Some pleaded with her to bless their children, or offer up a small prayer for an unwell loved one, or simply look at some manner of tribute they’d made for House Leos or her specifically.

And yet through it all, nobody ever violated her space. Nobody ever acted entitled to her time, or her attention, or her presence. They treated her with respect, with adoration, with reverence. There was an almost sacrosanct manner to how the people of Pallikári, in their many and myriad forms, reacted to the presence of their heiress—their princess among them.

Beloved, Arthur considered in the midst of it all, didn’t do the people’s ardor credit.

From his observation, they seemed to worship her as a goddess made flesh.