The cell block was quiet. No one talked or made any form of noise. Mainly because there was no one here.

Two and a half cycles. That was the amount of time that had passed since the Star Palace's completion. Two and a half cycles since Her Highness had made it the new center of Hohmiy's foreign politics. Two and a half cycles, during which these cells had never seen a single prisoner. And, why would they? Ordinary criminals would go to the city's prison. One would need to commit a crime of the highest order and within the palace walls to land here.

A crime like, for example, trying to assassinate the princess and a foreign diplomat.

Githaiy would've never thought that she would be the first one to be locked in one of these cells. Honestly, she didn't even remember her way down here. She was able to recall seeing her license number on the bill for the ethanol, and the next thing she realized was her sitting behind a breakout-proof wall of glass.

I wonder how "breakout proof" it would be for Nadine, she couldn't help but muse.

Nadine...

Githaiy lost track of how much time she had spent here so far. She just woke up from sleep but considering how messed-up her sleep schedule had been for the last couple of days that could mean basically anything and nothing. But it was definitely more than enough time for anything to go wrong with either of her two patients. Even under the emergency protocol, they had to have called in a new doctor by now. One who had no idea that the species Human even existed, let alone how to help one. The princess was likely fine, she had been on her way to recovery anyway, but Nadine?

Then again, was she any better? Oh, sure, Githaiy spent almost every day since meeting the small alien gathering as much information about her kind as she could, but when she needed medical help, she could do nothing. No idea what could help her recover, no clue what her body needed to somehow make the best out of an absolutely catastrophic situation.

How could this even have happened? How much influence did the culprit have in order to pull something like this off? And most importantly: who did this? Even if Nadine was right and the Tystrie had their hands in this, they couldn't have possibly done this alone!

Githaiy's head hurt. If only Her Highness were awake, surely she would know how to do.

"Finally got some sleep, Doc?"

She immediately shot up from her bed. Had her food been poisoned as well? Was now she the one hallucinating? Because what she was seeing on the other side of the glass simply could not be true.

"Um, someone home?"

Nadine's face was perfectly neutral, and her voice didn't betray any emotion. Her posture was like always. There was no way. It simply wasn't possible that this was the real Nadine.

"What is the name of your grandmother from your father's side?" Githaiy finally asked.

Now, the small alien's face did show an emotion: confusion.

"Rosl," she answered. "Which, now that I think about it, was probably a nickname. Everyone always called her that, I never put much thought into it. Why are you asking that?"

It was an answer Githaiy didn't know. It was also a long and clear answer. This was proof she wasn't hallucinating. But the alternative was equally impossible.

"...you're real."

"Wha..? Of course I am! Is everything alright with you?"

"With me?" Githaiy finally snapped out of her stupor and stepped to the glass. "What about you?! Why are you up?! You need to stay in bed, we need to assess your condition before you can get up! If you walk around, you're begging your affliction to get worse!"

"Doc, I am fine-"

"FINE?!" Nadine's retort made her snap. "You ingested ethanol! Just a minuscule amount of that is already guaranteed to do lasting damage to you!"

"There is no-"

"We don't even know the extent of the damage you suffered yet! You are insanely lucky that you are even conscious! Someone tried to kill you, for First Ones' sake! How can you stand there and claim you are fine?!"

"That's what I'm trying to explain, you're not letting me," Nadine deadpanned. The bluntness of the answer knocked the doctor out of her loquacity and she sunk back down onto the bed.

"Alright," she said, unable to contain her sarcasm. "Then please enlighten me on how you are fine after getting poisoned with one of the most dangerous neurotoxins known."

"You say that as if alcohol is on the same level as botulinum" - as what? - "but anyway..."

She tapped the side of her torso.

"...humans have an organ called the "liver". Its job is basically to detox our body from all sorts of things, alcohol being one of them."

Githaiy needed a moment to process what she had just heard. Had Nadine seriously just said that she had an organ capable of cleansing poisons on par with ethanol?

"So...so...toxins are..."

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There was way too much going on in her head for Githaiy to even attempt trying to form a cohesive sentence.

"I'm not immune to poisons if that's what you're trying to say," Nadine corrected as she caught on to her train of thought. "I mean, I guess I'm immune to many things you would consider poison, but still. I kinda blacked out, so I'm not sure what exactly went on, but I probably acted drunk before I passed out. So as you see, I'm not simply immune. If I didn't throw up things probably weren't too bad ye, but alcohol can very much kill me in higher doses, just like a lot of other things can. Also, I'm still a kid and on top of that not used to alcohol, so by human standards, it doesn't take much to knock me out."

Once more, Githaiy left a pause before answering. A pause in which she went through each of the small alien's sentences once more to make sure she had actually understood the absurdity she was right now being faced with. Even among the absurdity of the rest of her statement, there was one thing that still managed to stand out to her.

"What do you mean, you aren't "used to alcohol"?"

That triggered a new facial expression Nadine hadn't shown before. The lower half of her face looked like one of her grins, while the upper half looked... dismissive?

"Well, um, that may sound crazy..."

As if the rest of the conversation so far had been any different.

"...but humans often consume alcohol for fun. Ethanol at least, the others are actually quite dangerous."

"..."

"..."

"I see."

A heavy silence followed in which neither of the two did anything besides looking at the other. In the end, it was Nadine who spoke again.

"That's... it? No offense, but I thought you had more to say about it than just that."

"I have", the doctor retorted. "But I feel like my head will explode if I spend a single other thought on this."

"Ah."

Nadine sat down on the floor, dropping the topic.

"Hey, uh, Doc?"

"Yes?"

"I'm sorry."

"For what?"

"For only coming now," the small alien sighed. "I should've come to you as soon as my hangover was gone, but... I was so... angry. I almost couldn't think straight. I couldn't even write my turmoil down, because when I tried, I crushed the pen."

Githaiy froze, well aware of how deadly Nadine's anger could be.

"Y-you have to believe me, I-"

"Duh, of course you didn't do it."

The immediate dismissal came as a surprise.

"Captain Kessga seems to disagree."

"He acted rashly. But to be fair, he didn't have all the info, and if there are hints in your direction, he can't exactly afford to let you near us. Still, I mean, just now you didn't think about pleading innocent until you were absolutely sure I was fine. That would convince anyone if the matter wasn't close to being resolved anyway."

"Huh? Wait, what do you mean "resolved"?"

She smiled.

"It means you'll get out soon."

"That's great, but that's not what I meant. How is the matter already resolved? Just like that?"

The smile disappeared again and the gaze of the small alien dropped to the floor.

"Well, remember how I said I was so angry I could barely think straight? I... did something I'm not exactly proud of.

----------------------------------------

The day before...

The night was surprisingly clear. This had to be one of the announced last days before the rain wouldn't stop anymore. Kykla wouldn't complain about not getting wet, the day had been bad enough. She really had better things to do than fly to the other side of the planet and back. After going out of her way to get the green light from the hospital to visit Prince Kiyrtin she had arrived in Viyrminar, only to then learn that His Highness didn't want to meet her. And since the cottage in Calhanar was the only place currently equipped to house her species, she begrudgingly made her way back.

Well, getting friendly with the prince was only plan B to begin with, and it's not like I had something else to do. As soon as Lady Nadine's death becomes public, we should leave anyway.

"Took you long enough."

Half out of her shuttle, Kykla was startled at the unexpected voice, and Qeylo immediately drew his weapon. From the shadows, a small figure emerged. A figure Kykla was very familiar with.

Why is she still alive?! Am I surrounded by nothing but incompetence?!

"[Look if she has any guards with her]" she ordered Qeylo in their language, before turning on her translator.

"Lady Nadine," she greeted, putting up her act. "To what do I-"

"Cut the crap!" the human barked, much to Kykla's surprise. Normally, even if someone was angry, she could still see that person's mannerisms within the anger. But with her? Nothing. And not just because she now lacked any hint of noble etiquette, though that was certainly part of it. But more than that, it was as if the person she had met a few days earlier no longer existed. But there, once again, was this nudging instinct inside of her that she couldn't really identify.

"We both know what's going on, so stop this charade already!"

"I am afraid I don't quite know..."

"Oh, shove it! I know what you did, I bugged your room!"

"I don't know that term." Kykla's last sentence was not an act.

"It means I left a listening device there. I heard every word."

"WHAT? How dare... how can you call yourself a noble and be so shameless?!"

"Oh please", Lady Nadine spat. "Which one of us tried to kill their host?! And me, for that matter. With alcohol, of all things. Honestly, I would laugh if I weren't so pissed."

"I did what was necessary!" Kykla retorted. "I did what I had to for the sake of my people!"

"Milady," Qeylo tried to cut in, but she didn't let him speak.

"The princess had it coming when she was dead-set on plunging us into ruin! And so had you when you threatened us!"

"Milady!" Qeylo tried again.

"WHAT?!"

"We talked without translators back then."

Kykla froze. He was right. The translators available on Hohmiy were set on Vanaery, they couldn't translate from another language from a recording. There was no way Lady Nadine could've understood them.

She had tricked her. Tricked her into confessing her crimes.

"Guards?" she carefully asked her handyman.

"None."

Kykla grinned. That meant the situation was salvageable. They just needed to kill Lady Nadine, then place her corpse somewhere in the city, and her people would be none the wiser. It would still look as if her death was on the Vanaery. Then, she could try building a relationship between the Humans and the Tystrie, just as planned.

"Alright, you got me", Kykla admitted to her adversary. "But aren't you forgetting something? You are alone! Do you think I am scared of some unarmed pipsqueak?"

The human didn't answer. Instead, she put her hand on the scabbard on her back and drew... a stick?

Kykla couldn't contain her laughter. Instead of engaging her any further, she simply made a gesture to Qeylo.

"Just kill her already."

And then, things happened fast. Almost faster than she could see. Before Qeylo could even aim his weapon, Lady Nadine threw the strange stick. It spun so fast it looked like a disk, bridged the distance between them in an instant, and crashed into Qeylo with a force rivaling a kinetic gun. With a sickening crunch, her handyman was flung backward, leaving a trail of blood as he hit the ground. The stick clattered next to him on the pathway.

There was no point in checking. The caved-in torso made it very clear he was dead. Had it not been for the security vest, he might've even gotten torn in two.

Kykla was petrified, unable to do anything other than stare at his corpse before her gaze snapped back to the human. In a way that looked almost demonstrably slow, Lady Nadine pulled another of these weird sticks from her scabbard. Her eyes were as blue as the ice of the northern wasteland and felt just as cold when her gaze pierced Kykla. She then tilted her head in an almost mocking fashion.

"Scared now?"