After the awkward conversation, Adon fluttered past Rosslyn and into the palace.

She walked off in the direction of the room where she and Adon had trained, and Adon had to decide what to do next.

He could go back to Goldie and Samson—and probably dodge questions about his chat with Rosslyn for the next ten minutes. Or he could find a way to occupy himself for a while, until the spiders had embroiled themselves in some activity of their own.

Adon decided to pay the Dessian brothers a visit. Maybe it was Rosslyn’s slight paranoia about the foreigners and their intentions from dinner rubbing off on him, or maybe he was holding the visitors the King had invited to a high standard in his own mind. Perhaps it was the sketchy subtext to the conversation they had started when they spoke to him and the others earlier in the evening.

But he found that he wanted to know things that they would not have revealed at the dinner.

He figured they would probably be getting back from their conversation with the King around then. After all, Adon knew that Alistair only really wanted to lay down ground rules for them for courting his daughter. The brothers probably would not want to hang around with the older man for longer than they had to after that conversation.

Adon flew to the wing of the palace that had been allotted to them for the duration of their stay and found them in William’s room, engaged in conversation already. He could hear the dull sound of the brothers’ voices through the closed door, but not specific words. The walls were clearly built to be thick enough to deter would-be eavesdroppers—even though being able to eavesdrop on guests would be an advantage for the Royal Family.

But of course, Adon was not reliant on the sense of hearing to know what people were thinking. When people spoke words out loud, they also thought them, either at the same time or slightly before they spoke them. He simply fluttered up to the exterior wall of their space and activated Telepathy again.

She really did grow to be beautiful, thought William. Adon heard the muffled sound of the words coming out of the lord’s mouth as he spoke.

So, he is into the Princess, Adon confirmed. Well, the butterfly had already observed that at dinner.

You do like them fierce, thought Frederick. There is little softness about her. Hardly a woman at all.

Adon continued to have ambivalent feelings about Frederick. He had been critical of both Goldie and Rosslyn in his thoughts, but he also seemed to hold a genuine fondness for the Princess mixed with that critical side. Adon had not taken nearly the full measure of his character.

As if you would ever be the one to complain about that, William thought. But Adon noticed that he didn’t hear a voice accompanying the thought through the wall. So, maybe that was just an internal impression rather than something William said aloud.

She is a tigress! This was William’s inner voice again, but with sound this time. Every woman does not have to be as soft as our mother… Are you really telling me that you would not be interested in a dalliance with her, at least? Her features are a little sharp, but her form has filled out well enough. And you know I like an athletic girl. She is far from the least attractive woman our father has tried to match me with. Likely the highest status match I could hope for, unless I am willing to wait the better part of a decade for Princess Saskia to come of age…

Adon felt a complicated cocktail of feelings as he overheard William talking about Rosslyn that way. He supposed he was glad for Rosslyn that her suitor wasn’t dismissing her—though Adon was conflicted about that—but the things that William liked about her seemed quite shallow. He thought she would be fun in bed and would increase the lord’s status.

I guess this is how people think in this period, Adon tried to tell himself.

There was silence for a moment from the younger brother.

A dalliance, Frederick thought finally, with accompanying sound. You know she is not my type.

All too well, came from William in both thought and sound. Silently, he added, You prefer feminine men over women. And aloud again, You know our father does not understand that, though. I can only make so many excuses for you and your lifestyle. Eventually, you will have to marry—a woman.

Wait, is he gay? Adon wondered. Some of the little thoughts from Frederick began to make more sense.

Ugh, thought and said Frederick. I would rather bugger the butterfly.

You would, eh? William thought and spoke the words, and he punctuated them with a laugh.

He had a pleasant, rich voice—though it is strange to think of copulating with a creature.

Adon heard the distinct note of disgust in both Frederick's thoughts and verbal speech. It was hard for him to be too offended by Frederick’s objection to human-mystic-beast liaisons, though. The idea still seemed a little strange to him.

This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

I don’t want to sleep with you either, Frederick, Adon thought quietly.

I should remind you that if the stories about their powers of transformation are true, mystic beasts can be whatever form they want to be, William responded. At least for some period. I would expect there are some limitations. But imagine that. The spider female might be a female in the technical sense, and she possesses all the biological functions of a female—she is of proven fertility, for instance—but behind closed doors, when the two of you are alone, she could indulge your most debauched fantasies with a body that would reshape itself to her partner’s wishes. It is the best opportunity you could hope for in a marriage.

You think me quite depraved, but you seem to have thought about this particular fantasy a lot, Frederick thought and said. Does our father know he raised two perverts?

William laughed again, then spoke and thought, For someone who expects so much understanding from others, you are quite prejudiced, you know? I am just keeping myself open to the possibilities that nature offers—and speaking frankly to my brother, who I dearly love and whose happiness is my foremost wish.

You pretend to be so open-minded, so cosmopolitan, thought and said Frederick. Someone who has seen it all and is unfazed. But does it truly not bother you that your Princess is missing an eye? Or that she likes to spend all her days training monsters?

Adon found that he disliked the way Frederick used the phrase “your Princess” to describe Rosslyn. William had not won her yet. Adon was bothered about the comment on Rosslyn’s eye, too, but he understood it. Frederick wasn’t interested in her, so he was dissecting every little thing he didn’t like.

I do not think our friend, Sir Butterfly, would appreciate that, William thought and said. His tone started out humorous, Adon noticed, but became more serious as he spoke. He has been the very soul of chivalry since we have met him. Calling him a monster compares him with all those random creatures we have killed over the years for attacking innocent people. He seems as if he would not hurt a fly.

Well, that’s nice of him to say, Adon thought. Between the two of them, Frederick seemed to be the only one who might have a real problem with mystic beasts. I would definitely hurt a fly, though. Or a wasp, or a crow, or a bat… In fairness, I was a very hungry caterpillar.

Then Lord William continued, and he absorbed all of Adon’s attention as he shifted to a different topic. As for the Princess, it is a shame. She would look better with a matching set of eyes. But maybe losing one was a good experience for her. I like her fierce, but only indoors, preferably only in one room. If she is to be Queen, it is high time she quit playing at war and settled herself to the business of making babies. When she and I are wed, the serious matters of war and peace will be my job.

Adon found his body shaking with rage as he listened to what William really thought of Rosslyn.

He deactivated Telepathy so that his increasingly loud, angry thoughts would not leak out and reveal his presence.

Maybe it’s good that she lost an eye?! Fuck you, William. Fuck you! He only seems to mind the fact that she would be prettier if she had both. Not how it’s changed her life. And he thinks he’s going to take over running everything when the Kingdom is all she cares about? Fat chance she’d let that happen… He just wants to turn her into a baby machine…

If Adon had been a human, his breathing would have grown heavy as he listened to the infuriating words. Even as a butterfly, though, his emotions drove his body in ways he did not fully understand or control.

Before he knew it, Adon’s wings were moving on their own, flying him away, getting distance, moving anywhere, as long as the path took him farther from the lords’ space. He was quite sick of them. He had heard more than enough. If he stayed any longer, he might reveal his presence.

His wings took him down the halls, through a maze of passages that his eyes barely saw, so infuriated was the butterfly.

He didn’t know what he was looking for until finally, he ducked out through a slightly open window and found himself face to face with this world’s moon.

The moon was bright and full that night, and a semblance of calm settled over Adon as he gazed up at it.

His body settled itself. The wrathful emotions that had stirred him into action minutes earlier had begun to wind down. He still wanted to take his anger out on something. But in the light of the full moon, he was reminded of how small he was—how the universe was much larger than him and much larger than this country.

His feelings were also small next to the universe. They were even small next to the country.

He was reminded also that this particular life was small next to the vastness of his experience in other, distant realities—other incarnations.

There is nothing for me to be angry about, he told himself. What I witnessed was probably not unreasonable for this world. Remember how different social traditions are in different times and places. This world already has many customs I don’t understand—even the idea of monarchy and nobility seems quaint and funny from the standpoint of certain worlds I’ve lived in, right?

That was all probably true.

It still didn’t sit well with him.

Adon knew Rosslyn well enough to know that she would not want to be second-highest authority in her own country—right? He thought he did, at least. Sure, she cared about the alliance with Dessia, and it might be important to Claustria’s security…

But she had spent a lot of time and effort becoming a worthy leader to her people. She trained her body constantly and kept her magic skills honed to a fine point. That effort would all be wasted if she was expected to step aside in favor of whoever her husband happened to be, stop being a fighter, and just churn out baby after baby to secure William’s lineage. Yet it wouldn’t make sense for William to expect her to do those things unless that was the social norm here.

So maybe she was all right with that. Perhaps she had reconciled herself to it long ago.

It was hard to believe—and hard to know what to do next.

One thing was clear: he could not go and talk to Rosslyn about it tonight. He would not be able to control how he expressed himself. He might say things that were completely unhelpful to either him or Rosslyn. It wasn’t as if his social skills were particularly refined at the best of times.

As Adon forced himself to think through everything he had heard once more, he felt boiling hot emotions threatening to drive his body into wild action again. This time, he was outside in the open air. He decided to look for something wild to kill. Preferably something much larger than himself.

Maybe that would calm him down.