Uh…
Ahm. The thought process clears its throat within Sophia’s head. The central committee of faculties for Sophia Elise has brought before the consciousness a message of grave import. From the parietal cortex to the consciousness: you have been staring at a Prince Zai for five entire minutes in utter silence! The committee demands that you speak or make motions to end this incredible situation, as this silence has become so awkward and creepy that the medulla of the brainstem has unionized with the stomach to regurgitate your recently eaten lunch within the next seventy two seconds. This is the central committee’s final message before we take action!
Oh yes she was, in theory, supposed to initiate somehow. She was the host in this situation. Inviting a prince under certain pretenses into her own realm, to serve him tea and conversation. And now, just doing one in utter silence was, to put it extraordinarily gently, an atrocity in royal manners.
Ah yes, let us see what wondrous conversation openings we can use to rectify this situation.
There’s an even longer silence this time around.
Central committee, report from the hippocampus! All we could dredge up were pieces of penny smut novel plots and lists of her favorite foods: egg custard tarts and ‘My Awful Husband Lost his Memories and is Kind Now!’ are at the forefront of her consciousness!
The entire committee growls and curses at the news: Anything for the Prince at least?!
I’m sorry, but all topics were on the forbidden list!
Surely, after such intensive study, Sophia was at least some kind of basic level orientalist on Tianci; but what would she, the shut in, the utter rot of the family, talk about with the prince?
Her siblings, through their arduous hard work and struggles this past half week, had run with a fundamentally flawed plan of action. Like sending a historian to fistfight a soldier, they assumed that the outcome of this encounter would be decided on bridging cultural gaps and social cues; not something as simple as…
They forgot to coach her on how to actually talk to someone of the opposite sex in a context such as this.
Sophia Elise feels bile in her throat, her body just about to puke; her expression pulling into a cold scowl as she instinctively reaches for her own cup of tea.
At least the chamomile smelled delicious.
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As host to a formal tea party, one should always let the guest drink first. Her manners lecturer, her uncle by her paternal aunt's marriage in fact, reminds her as he gently snatches the play-set cup out of her tiny hands. Remember, as a good host it's important to make a good first impression. That moment is what defines the rest of your relationship with that person; so take great care to not mess it up Sophia!
Oh she was messing it up now, quite so. Neurons were firing like civilian fireworks on Imperium Day, so she does the one thing she knows how to do in an inescapable social event going completely sideways.
Sophia pulls a dead, cold smile on her face. Like a beautiful corpse stitched into a grotesque pose, the gaze leveled at the Prince of Tianci is held like a sharpened ceramic blade to his throat.
STOP, WHAT ARE YOU DOING?! GET THEM OFF THE CONTROLS! SOMEONE SHORE UP THE ESOPHAGUS, WE’RE LOSING COHESION!!!
Sophia Elise wasn’t quite as religious as her father, or her mother for that matter (despite her being the current divine head of the Ensolian Imperial Church). Though in a situation of this level of awkwardness and of national importance? She might as well have been one of the five bearers of the martyred Goddess herself. Goddess above, please save me! I’ll do anything! Whatever cost it’ll bring upon me, I’ll pay it!
… anything?
She didn’t like the feeling she got from that plea, but continued anyway. Anything to save me from this utter embarrassment. Wipe all of his memory of this and just let me go somehow! Reset this entire record and play it back!
Prayers to gods, especially in the Tiancin Faiths, were always fickle in the way they answered them: But trust in the ones that brought humanity to this world, and you’ll receive more than your hearts desire.
He stands suddenly, a violent movement almost making Sophia jump in surprise. A gaze fixated, those eyes looking out towards the greater Capital. Searching for something, a source of… noise?
Sophia hears it too. Like a long, wailing cry rising… rising steadily in pitch and volume to a point where the windows of the sunroom almost start shaking. A sudden sharp snap, the scream crashing into an oscillating pattern; a relentless cycle of surging and falling tones echoing through the Capital City.
She was only six when she first heard it. The wailing sound embedded in her memory like a constantly itching scar, a remembrance of a time of soldiers, propaganda, and grieving. A single command by the Imperium to prepare for violence, for a battle on fast approach: prepare for war.
For the first time he speaks, a careful tone measured towards his captor. “What is…?”
The guardians almost break down the door in tandem, the singular Tianci Royal Guard and an entire fireteam of Imperacutta Legionaries rushing into the tiny sunroom.
Each takes their own charge, the woman grabbing the Prince by the arm while one of the Legionaries simply scoops up the Fourth Princess like a sack of sugar.
For just one single moment the two lock eyes.
And in that moment, nothing was the same ever again.